Episode 26: Living in a Glass Age, with Michael Garfield

Episode 26: Living in a Glass Age, with Michael Garfield

Author: SpectreVision Radio September 19, 2018 Duration: 1:19:17
Stone, bronze, iron... glass? In his recent thought and writing, transdisciplinary artist and thinker Michael Garfield defines modernity as an age of glass, arguing that the entire ethos of our era inheres in the transformative enchantments of this amorphous solid. No one would deny that glass plays a central role in our lives, although glass does have a knack for disappearing into the background, at least until the beakers or screens crack and shatter. Glass is weird, and like a lot of weird things, it can serve as a lens (so to speak!) for observing our world from strange new angles. In this episode, Michael joins Phil and JF to talk through the origins, the significance, and the fate of the Glass Age. Michael Garfield is a musician, live painter, and futurist. He is the host of the brilliant Future Fossils Podcast. REFERENCES Michael Garfield's website + Patreon + Medium + Bandcamp Michael Garfield, "The Future is Indistinguishable from Magic" (This is the essay we discuss that was unpublished at the time of the recording) Michael Garfield, "The Future Acts Like You" Michael Garfield, "The Evolution of Surveillance Part 3: Living in the Belly of the Beast" Artist David Titterington's Patreon page Richard Doyle, On Beyond Living: Rhetorical Transformations of the Life Sciences Corning, "The Glass Age" (corporate video) Jean-Paul Sartre, Baudelaire John David Ebert, "On Hypermodernity" John C. Wright, The Golden Age J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings Timothy Morton, Hyperobjects Christopher Knight and Alan Butler, Who Built the Moon? Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage Spinoza, Ethics Charles Taylor, The Malaise of Modernity Martine Rothblatt, Virtually Human: The Promise and the Peril of Digital Immortality John Crowley, Little, Big Jose Arguelles, Dreamspell Calendar William Irwin Thompson, Lindisfarne Tapes Jonathan Sterne, The Audible Past Karl Schroeder, “Degrees of Freedom,” in Heiroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future Michael Garfield, “Being Every Drone” Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution Special Guest: Michael Garfield. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the heart of Weird Studies, a podcast from SpectreVision Radio, you’ll find long-form conversations between Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel. Their discussions aren’t simple reviews or straightforward analyses; instead, they wander through the tangled undergrowth where art and philosophy meet, giving generous time to concepts that resist easy understanding and to creative works that fracture our ordinary sense of the world. This podcast deliberately lingers in that ambiguous space, treating the “weird” not as a genre but as a particular mode of experience-one that reveals the cracks in what we comfortably assume is real. Each episode feels like joining a deep, meandering dialogue between two friends who are both deeply knowledgeable and endlessly curious, covering a vast terrain that includes literature, film, music, and esoteric thought. It’s a show for anyone who suspects that the most profound truths are often found in the shadows, the anomalies, and the strangely beautiful. As part of the SpectreVision Radio network, which specializes in content that explores the uncanny edges of creativity, Weird Studies builds a unique community of listeners who are eager to think differently. You won’t find pat answers here, but you will encounter compelling questions and a shared sense of exploration that makes each installment a distinctive journey.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 230

Weird Studies
Podcast Episodes
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