<nettime-ann> New publication: Insect Media: An Archaeology of Animals a

Dear Nettimers

A short info blurb on my new book that might interest some of you

Uncovering the insect logic that informs contemporary media technologies and the network society

INSECT MEDIA: An Archaeology of Animals and Technology

By Jussi Parikka

University of Minnesota Press | 320 pages | 2010

ISBN 978-0-8166-6740-6 | paperback | $25.00

ISBN 978-0-8166-6739-0 | hardcover | $75.00

Posthumanities Series, volume 11

Insect Media analyzes how insect forms of social organization—swarms, hives, webs, and distributed intelligence—have been used to structure modern media technologies and the network society. Through close engagement with the pioneering work of insect ethologists, posthumanist philosophers, media theorists, and contemporary filmmakers and artists, Jussi Parikka provides a radical new perspective on the interconnection of biology and technology.

PRAISE FOR INSECT MEDIA:

"With Insect Media Jussi Parikka offers a theory of media that challenges our traditional views of the natural and the artificial. Parikka not only understands insects through the lens of media and mediation, he also unearths an insect logic at the heart of our contemporary fascination with networks, swarming, and intelligent agents. Such a project requires the ability to interweave cultural theory with a deep understanding of the sciences—something for which Parikka is well-suited. Most importantly, Insect Media reminds us of the non-human aspect of media, communication, intelligence. Insect Media is a book that is sure to create a buzz." —Eugene Thacker, author of After Life

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jussi Parikka is reader in media theory and history at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, and director of the Cultures of the Digital Economy (CODE) Institute. He is author of Digital Contagions: A Media Archaeology of Computer Viruses and coeditor of The Spam Book and Media Archaeologies.

For more information, including the table of contents, visit the book's webpage:

http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/P/parikka_insect.html

To learn more about the Posthumanities Series, visit their webpage:

http://www.upress.umn.edu/byseries/posthumanities.html

http://www.upress.umn.edu/mediaalert.html

(review copy requests to Heather Skinner, [email protected] )

Please email me if you have any questions.

Heather Skinner, Publicist

University of Minnesota Press

111 3rd Ave S, Ste. 290

Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520

[email protected]

v * 612-627-1932

f * 612-627-1980