Season 2, Episode 4: Living with the Machine

What does a 19th-century camera obscura share with today's artificial intelligence? Experimental Humanities digs into questions like this, exploring how tools and media-from the ancient to the cutting-edge-shape our understanding of ourselves and our cultures. This isn't just a lecture series; it's a series of conversations and investigations that treat technology itself as a subject for humanistic inquiry. You'll hear discussions that bridge philosophy, art history, literature, and digital culture, all grounded in the innovative work of Bard College's EH program. Each episode approaches its topic with a spirit of open-ended exploration, examining how different methods of seeing, recording, and creating influence what we know and who we are. The podcast actively resists easy definitions, preferring to trace connections between a medieval manuscript and a modern algorithm, or between a scientific instrument and a social media platform. Tune in for thoughtful dialogue that challenges the boundaries between the analog and the digital, asking how our tools have always been part of the human story. It’s for anyone curious about the deep, often surprising, intersections of culture and technology.