Douglas Rushkoff
Related: media theory - interactive
Biography
Douglas Rushkoff is a New York-based writer, columnist and lecturer on technology, media and popular culture.
Rushkoff graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University. He moved to Los Angeles and pursued an MFA in Directing from California Institute of the Arts.
Today, he teaches media theory at New York University's (NYU) Interactive Telecommunications Program. Rushkoff is known for being an active member of the cyberpunk movement and was the online associate of Timothy Leary. He has founded an online community for discussion of Judaism and related issues, called Open Source Judaism. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Rushkoff [Mar 2006]
His Site
http://www.rushkoff.com/Content as social currency
Social currency is like a good joke. When a bunch of friends sit around and tell jokes, what are they really doing? Entertaining one another? Sure, for a start. But they are also using content -- mostly unoriginal content that they've heard elsewhere -- in order to lubricate a social occasion. And what are most of us doing when we listen to a joke? Trying to memorize it so that we can bring it somewhere else. The joke itself is social currency. "Invite Harry. He tells good jokes. He's the life of the party." --http://www.rushkoff.com/cgi-bin/columns/display.cgi/socialcurrencyBooks
- Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace (1993) - Douglas Rushkoff [Amazon US]
This heady report takes readers on a dizzying and dangerous guided tour through "cyberspace," an unfolding terrain of digital information that, according to Rushkoff, is being tapped by a "cyberian counterculture" bent on redefining reality. In "Cyberia," artists, scientists and hackers explore virtual reality using prototype computers with 3-D goggles, headphones and a tracking ball to move through real or fictional space without commands, text or symbols; Silicon Valley engineers and mathematicians attempt to unlock creativity via psychedelic drugs or fractal graphics mirroring our irregular world; urban neopagans access information networks and use witchcraft to promote planetary survival. Computer bulletin boards, cyberpunk comic books, interactive videos, cyber-rock dance clubs and the acts of eco-terrorists and of employees who use computers to subvert the workplace are part of a cyberian universe whose gurus, interviewed here by Rushkoff, include Terence McKenna, Timothy Leary and R. U. Sirius, editor of Mondo 2000 magazine. Souped-up prose marks this exploration of cyberpunk culture. --Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. -
Media Virus!: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture () - Douglas Rushkoff
[Amazon.com]
Rushkoff skillfully dissects such 'memes' as the O.J. Simpson trial, the Rodney King beating tape, and the pervasive influence of MTV editing. He finds Queer sexuality in 'Ren & Stimpy', social agendas with John Morgenthaler's 'Smart Drugs' campaign, and closes the book with an insightful and rare interview with the influential musician, raver, and performance artist Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Pigface, Thee Majesty). [...] -- alex.burns@disinfo.net for amazon.com [only offers a US perspective]
- Painful but Fabulous: The Life and Art of Genesis P-Orridge - Genesis P-Orridge, Douglas Rushkoff [Amazon US]
English wunderkind Genesis P-Orridge, the artist who founded Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, is a musician, an occultist, and a postmodern religious leader living in exile. In Painful but Fabulous, P-Orridge explicates his multiple identities and incarnations — from performance artist and creator of cyberfuturistic artworks to industrial music maker and icon of the body modification movement. Color and black-and-white photos are included. --amazon.comyour Amazon recommendations
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