ASAP/Journal

Uncanny Juxtapositions / Re-Shuffle: How Do We Do Contemporary Global Art, Theory, and Politics Today? - ASAP/Review I. Shuffle. In the history of music technology, this small button integrated into the Apple iPod in the early 2000s significantly changed the way we listen to music. Unbundled across artist, genre, re...

"In a foreseeable future of worldwide economic downturns, far-right growth, diminishing geo-social mobilities, and higher education crises, how do we sustain spaces of deep humanistic inquiry?" — Shiqi Lin, in our newest Uncanny Juxtapositions

asapjournal.com/review/uncan...

Marlene Dumas’ Cycladic Blues at the Cycladic Museum of Art, Athens - ASAP/Review A painting featuring a large green figure stands in profile, slightly hunched and rounded at the back, enveloped by a patchy black and off-white color background. In front of the painted figure, in a ...

In our newest review, Ella Gonzalez reads Marlene Dumas' exhibition, Cycladic Blues, which bridges the old & new: “...it is bodies that unite us as people and challenge us as viewers through our shared fleshiness and shared humanity—ancient and modern.”

asapjournal.com/review/marle...

Uncanny Juxtapositions / Over-Views of Black Migration in Shore|Lines and Clean Slate - ASAP/Review In the 2025 installation “Shore|Lines,” exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) in Chicago, Illinois, artist Regina Agu uses “the methodology of landscape panorama” to examine conne...

"The works look at the Great Migration and mirror the reverse-migration from North to South happening more frequently today. Taken together, they unexpectedly create a continuum exploring past and present Black movement across the US." — Ifeanyi Awachie

asapjournal.com/review/uncan...

Review of Surviving the Long Wars: Creative Rebellion at the Ends of Empire - ASAP/Review The past decade has seen a significant shift in the presentation of art that emerges as part of, rather than bearing witness to, social movements. Artists, activists, curators, scholars, and stakehold...

This month marks the one-year publication anniversary of SURVIVING THE LONG WARS. A labor of love in the commons. Grateful to see this 1st book review in @asapjournal.bsky.social; give it a read and buy a copy of the book for the holidays (linked in the comments): asapjournal.com/review/revie...

Review of Surviving the Long Wars: Creative Rebellion at the Ends of Empire - ASAP/Review The past decade has seen a significant shift in the presentation of art that emerges as part of, rather than bearing witness to, social movements. Artists, activists, curators, scholars, and stakehold...

In our newest review, Julian O'Brien looks at the exhibition and book project, *Surviving the Long Wars: Creative Rebellion at the Ends of Empire* and analyzes the interplay between social movements, art, witnessing, aesthetics, and the artworld proper:
asapjournal.com/review/revie...

The 7 Trillion Dollar Seance Şerife Wong The 7 Trillion Dollar Seance 2025 Original score by Jeromey Cooks (rikuwru) This video is part of Icarus Salon. It is intended to be viewed in…

New art video just dropped! The 7 Trillion Dollar Seance 🔮 This is meant to be performed live, recited in front of the video at conferences, museums, public events. It got a standing ovation at Tech Together in NYC. Your phone works but best on your largest screen.
vimeo.com/1116289621
🧵

The collection is awesome, algorithms are a lot like an occult practice. Hexing white supremacists, casting spells, tarot, astrology and more featuring @emmaquilty.bsky.social @aketchum22.bsky.social @xrw.bsky.social @drs.bsky.social @thechristinet.bsky.social @jessrauchberg.bsky.social

Séance and Technology Studies - ASAP/Review My friends who visit San Francisco always comment on how different our advertising is. Step off the plane at SFO and you’re immediately surrounded by billboards promising AI solutions. They say it fee...

Seance and Technology Studies is for real, read the intro published by @asapjournal.bsky.social as part of "Algorithms and the Occult, or Chatbots are the New Psychic Friends Network" edited by @tamigraph.bsky.social @briana-v.bsky.social @jeffreymoro.com 🔮
asapjournal.com/node/seance-...

I reviewed Ben Mangrum’s new book, on the surprising range of American comedies about computers, for ASAP:

Review of Ben Mangrum’s The Comedy of Computation, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence - ASAP/Review This spring, I tuned in to an episode of the New York Times podcast Hard Fork to hear an interview with Karen Hao, the author of Empire of AI (2025). Hao explains her choice of “Empire”…

Check out our newest review by sselisker.bsky.social on Ben Mangrum's newest book about comedy, GenAI, phenomenology, slop, and more: "The Comedy of Computation offers a toolkit for understanding a load-bearing portion of the discourse about new technologies."

asapjournal.com/review/revie...

No Rape Involved. Racial Fantasies and State Violence in One Battle After Another - ASAP/Review According to director Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another is not a political film. Like its inspiration, Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 Vineland, the film’s 2 hours and 40 minutes are packed with ac...

Out now on @asapjournal.bsky.social : “No Rape Involved. Racial Fantasies and State Violence in One Battle After Another.”
Many thanks, Michael and Tyler.

Version française (légèrement modifiée) à paraître prochainement sur Zone Critique.

asapjournal.com/review/no-ra...

Algorithms and the Occult - ASAP/Review

📄 New Institute publication:

Algorithms and the Occult
asapjournal.com/cluster/algo...

ASAP Review @asapjournal.bsky.social, cluster edited by @tamigraph.bsky.social @jeffreymoro.com @briana-v.bsky.social

feat. Sigil Séance Against Space Billionaires w/ @lucileolympe.bsky.social

Algorithms and the Occult - ASAP/Review

🔮Just in time for spooky season: A new cluster of essays in @asapjournal.bsky.social, edited by D&S’s @tamigraph.bsky.social and @briana-v.bsky.social, and @jeffreymoro.com, considers the relationships between algorithms and divination. 🔮
asapjournal.com/cluster/algo...

No Rape Involved. Racial Fantasies and State Violence in One Battle After Another - ASAP/Review According to director Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another is not a political film. Like its inspiration, Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 Vineland, the film’s 2 hours and 40 minutes are packed with ac...

What does it mean for a film to be flagged as non-political? What counts as politics, and what is determined to be something else? Our newest review by @faniamakaya.bsky.social explores the racial & sexual vocabulary of PT Anderson's film, One Battle After Another.

asapjournal.com/review/no-ra...

Thank you 🙏🏽 to @tamigraph.bsky.social, Jeffrey Moro, and Briana Vecchione for editing this cluster on Algorithms and the Occult for @asapjournal.bsky.social 🧙🏾

Always grateful to @xrw.bsky.social and AX Mina for, well, everything 🖤

Hexing the Patriarchy: The Feminist Politics of Everyday Resistance - ASAP/Review We are experiencing a witchy cultural renaissance. And no wonder: we are currently witnessing a violent global shift in conservative right-wing politics, the roll-back of reproductive rights, and over...

<<click!>>

Hexing the Patriarchy: The Feminist Politics of Everyday Resistance by @emmaquilty.bsky.social

@jeffreymoro.com and I started cooking up this special issue several years ago via DM, well before the death of academic Twitter. It was so fun to put this together and to bring my wonderful @datasociety.bsky.social colleague @briana-v.bsky.social into the fold

buffy image and screenshot of exhibition on green

asapjournal.com/node/cyber-s...

and of course there is a brief discussion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

and also the exhibition I curated “From Tech Wizard to Cyber Witch: Invocations of Computing Technologies as Magic, 40+ Years of Magic on the Web”

new article and image of cyber spell books

green background and image of the article

My article “Cyber Spell Books: From Techno Pagans to AI Grimoires” discusses AI grimoires within a larger historical context of digital technology, magic practitioners, and popular culture.
asapjournal.com/node/cyber-s...

@asapjournal.bsky.social @tamigraph.bsky.social @jeffreymoro.com

Algorithms and the Occult - ASAP/Review

Just in time for Halloween, our @asapjournal.bsky.social cluster on Algorithms and the Occult is out! 👻

Featuring @emmaquilty.bsky.social, @aketchum22.bsky.social, @xrw.bsky.social, @drs.bsky.social, @serife.bsky.social, @thechristinet.bsky.social, @jessrauchberg.bsky.social, and more!

Algorithms and the Occult - ASAP/Review

You should ALSO check out all the other essay in this glorious cluster from @tamigraph.bsky.social, @jeffreymoro.com & @briana-v.bsky.social in @asapjournal.bsky.social on Algorithms and the Occult 🎃🤖

asapjournal.com/cluster/algo...

enhance your Halloween season reading with this rich, textured, and magickal collection of essays on algorithms and the occult, edited by yours truly with @tamigraph.bsky.social and @briana-v.bsky.social !

my essay inquires after the history of astrological data and asks whether an LLM can meaningfully write your horoscope (and what it means for a horoscope to be "meaningful" in the first place)

I am happy to share that my article "Cyber Spell Books: From Techno Pagans to AI Grimoires" is now published in Algorithms +the Occult!

asapjournal.com/node/cyber-s...

@asapjournal.bsky.social

Thank you @tamigraph.bsky.social @jeffreymoro.com

@mcgillarts.bsky.social @mcgillumedia.bsky.social

Hope, Cope & Scroll: Sifting Down the Tea Leaves of Algorithmic Recommendation - ASAP/Review The Vibes Are Off . . . In the weeks following the 2024 U.S. presidential election, something was brewing on TikTok. 🤳 The short-form content creation and e-commerce platform is notorious for its for ...

for @asapjournal.bsky.social, @thechristinet.bsky.social and I think through algorithmic conspirituality, genAI, and hopecore as a response to platform polarization!

asapjournal.com/node/hope-co...

Spiritual Chatbots in Uncertain Times - ASAP/Review If chatbots can act as simulations of lovers or therapists, or mimic the communicative presence of a dead loved one, then who is to say that they can’t also act as spiritual guides? As practice-orient...

Co-editors tamigraph.bsky.social & briana-v.bsky.social discuss how chatbots challenge spiritual/scripted dualisms: “...we see a flourishing array of AI chatbots designed specifically for spiritual inquiry, aiming to create digital avenues for personalized guidance.”

asapjournal.com/node/spiritu...

As Above, So Below: Astrological Data in the Age of Co–Star - ASAP/Review I am a Cancer sun, Sagittarius moon, and Capricorn rising. My Mercury is in Cancer, which means my intellect is emotional and empathetic. I have Leo placements in Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, which indic...

Co-editor Jeffrey Moro writes on Co-Star, AI, surveillance, and media-as-environmental: “Co–Star invokes data to justify astrology as a science, rather than a purely occult practice.”

asapjournal.com/node/as-abov...

Séance and Technology Studies - ASAP/Review My friends who visit San Francisco always comment on how different our advertising is. Step off the plane at SFO and you’re immediately surrounded by billboards promising AI solutions. They say it fee...

"The séance metaphor examines how we're made vulnerable to false hope—promises of avoiding superintelligence risk, uploading our minds, or solving climate change," writes Şerife Wong, "while actual material violence goes unchecked."

asapjournal.com/node/seance-...

Cat Suit (Minor Arcana) - ASAP/Review In times of trouble, we turn to the cards. We parse the obscure images and occult placements, using divination as a practice of creative anxiety-management. The 78 cards of the Tarot offer a symbolic ...

"Tarot and cats go hand-in-paw. Exceedingly meme-able, cats, like Tarot cards, communicate what we project onto them," writes Alexandro Segade, sharing his cat-themed tarot suit and their capacious possible meanings with the world.

asapjournal.com/node/cat-sui...

Zener Cards - ASAP/Review In the 1930s, Duke University perceptual psychologist Dr. KE Zener created “Zener Cards” for experiments in exploring extrasensory perception with his colleague, JB Rhine. Over the course of one year,...

Don't like the cards you were dealt? You need a new deck. Xiaowei R. Wang, Dorothy R. Santos, and AX Mina have just what you need, writing: "The current turn towards generative AI is founded on this turn towards speculation and prediction, & extends it.”

asapjournal.com/node/zener-c...