👁️
@nathanjurgenson.com
author, The Social Photo (Verso)
former: Real Life magazine, Theorizing the Web conference, Snap. currently: have no idea
los angeles
former: Real Life magazine, Theorizing the Web conference, Snap. currently: have no idea
los angeles
all i want to do is read old social theory and apply it to new stuff but i dont want to start a substack. help lol
December 20, 2025 at 6:52 PM
all i want to do is read old social theory and apply it to new stuff but i dont want to start a substack. help lol
best place to start for defining "slop" is Weberian theory. one key aspect there, and for slop, is understanding the link between rationalization and irrationality
ie
"slop" is often used to describe both that which is "fully optimized" *and* chaotic purposeless hallucinations
ie
"slop" is often used to describe both that which is "fully optimized" *and* chaotic purposeless hallucinations
December 20, 2025 at 6:21 PM
best place to start for defining "slop" is Weberian theory. one key aspect there, and for slop, is understanding the link between rationalization and irrationality
ie
"slop" is often used to describe both that which is "fully optimized" *and* chaotic purposeless hallucinations
ie
"slop" is often used to describe both that which is "fully optimized" *and* chaotic purposeless hallucinations
yes - better than trying to arbitrate what has "soul" or not is to critique that which is centrally conceived and controlled, made primarily to be efficient and profitable, AI or not
a thing that has been bothering me about the anti "ai" shit is people saying the "ai" art is missing something mystical and unknowable, and expect me to agree with this plainly religious belief
December 17, 2025 at 7:24 PM
yes - better than trying to arbitrate what has "soul" or not is to critique that which is centrally conceived and controlled, made primarily to be efficient and profitable, AI or not
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NOW ONLINE: The lastest special issue of Photography & Culture on «AI and Photography», guest-edited by Briankle Chang and Sarah M. Miller and featuring among others my essay «Images from Images: Generative AI and the Reconfiguration of the ‹Photographic›»
#OpenAccess
#OpenAccess
Photography and Culture
AI and Photography. Volume 18, Issue 3-4 of Photography and Culture
www.tandfonline.com
December 12, 2025 at 10:44 AM
NOW ONLINE: The lastest special issue of Photography & Culture on «AI and Photography», guest-edited by Briankle Chang and Sarah M. Miller and featuring among others my essay «Images from Images: Generative AI and the Reconfiguration of the ‹Photographic›»
#OpenAccess
#OpenAccess
Reposted by 👁️
My new article, Bio-AI: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Data Animism, is out from Culture Machine. Part of a special issue on The Aesthetics of Biomachines edited by Johan Lau Munkholm, Naja Grundtmann, Kristin Veel & Kathrin Maurer.
culturemachine.net/vol-24-aesth...
culturemachine.net/vol-24-aesth...
Bio-AI: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Data Animism
Vol 24 (2025) Aesthetics of Biomachines Bio-AI: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Data Animism Joanna Zylinska King’s College London, Department of Digital Humanities <a href=” target=…
culturemachine.net
December 12, 2025 at 10:26 AM
My new article, Bio-AI: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Data Animism, is out from Culture Machine. Part of a special issue on The Aesthetics of Biomachines edited by Johan Lau Munkholm, Naja Grundtmann, Kristin Veel & Kathrin Maurer.
culturemachine.net/vol-24-aesth...
culturemachine.net/vol-24-aesth...
Reposted by 👁️
i.e. chatbot use can restructure our means for self-knowledge, routing what was once "introspection" through a tech company's servers and its ideological modulations
December 3, 2025 at 10:17 PM
i.e. chatbot use can restructure our means for self-knowledge, routing what was once "introspection" through a tech company's servers and its ideological modulations
i mean, "a tradable asset out of any difference in opinion" is pretty much the underlying philosophy of metrics based gamified social media, from twitter to instagram to this place
The co-founder of Kalshi says: " The long-term vision is to financialize everything and create a tradable asset out of any difference in opinion."
December 4, 2025 at 5:42 PM
i mean, "a tradable asset out of any difference in opinion" is pretty much the underlying philosophy of metrics based gamified social media, from twitter to instagram to this place
feels like the right question! why should people think something that was previously inhuman slop now being slop thats even less human is especially noteworthy?
AI-generated music on the pop charts seems like a much bigger deal than the collective lack of reaction seems to suggest?
November 17, 2025 at 7:03 PM
feels like the right question! why should people think something that was previously inhuman slop now being slop thats even less human is especially noteworthy?
hate social media platforms pitching themselves as real an authentic more than any of the fakery happening elsewhere
October 30, 2025 at 6:21 PM
hate social media platforms pitching themselves as real an authentic more than any of the fakery happening elsewhere
"smart" podcasts as a form leverage the feeling of thought and sociality to get people to consume content that, if written, would seem remedial or downright dumb
thebaffler.com/outbursts/th...
thebaffler.com/outbursts/th...
October 30, 2025 at 6:06 PM
"smart" podcasts as a form leverage the feeling of thought and sociality to get people to consume content that, if written, would seem remedial or downright dumb
thebaffler.com/outbursts/th...
thebaffler.com/outbursts/th...
Reposted by 👁️
Read my new essay about the shriveled imagination of the life-extension guys!! On Bryan Johnson, communist cybernetics, and the Human Centipede.
And if you're in NY, head to the launch party in Brooklyn tonight for Empty Set mag (Dear Friends Books, 7pm🩸)
www.emptysetmag.com/articles/blo...
And if you're in NY, head to the launch party in Brooklyn tonight for Empty Set mag (Dear Friends Books, 7pm🩸)
www.emptysetmag.com/articles/blo...
October 28, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Read my new essay about the shriveled imagination of the life-extension guys!! On Bryan Johnson, communist cybernetics, and the Human Centipede.
And if you're in NY, head to the launch party in Brooklyn tonight for Empty Set mag (Dear Friends Books, 7pm🩸)
www.emptysetmag.com/articles/blo...
And if you're in NY, head to the launch party in Brooklyn tonight for Empty Set mag (Dear Friends Books, 7pm🩸)
www.emptysetmag.com/articles/blo...
"people no longer have a choice but to assume that everything is false"
they keep saying this but thats just obviously not what is happening. again, better Q: what accounts for the enduring truth-telling function of images?
(fromhttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/opinion/ai-sora-slop.html)
they keep saying this but thats just obviously not what is happening. again, better Q: what accounts for the enduring truth-telling function of images?
(fromhttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/opinion/ai-sora-slop.html)
October 22, 2025 at 9:16 PM
"people no longer have a choice but to assume that everything is false"
they keep saying this but thats just obviously not what is happening. again, better Q: what accounts for the enduring truth-telling function of images?
(fromhttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/opinion/ai-sora-slop.html)
they keep saying this but thats just obviously not what is happening. again, better Q: what accounts for the enduring truth-telling function of images?
(fromhttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/opinion/ai-sora-slop.html)
i dont think real vs fake is whats at stake here (the political valence of AI is). none of these examples are pitching the AI imagery as real.
"fake imagery" is a weird term for this slop bc wouldnt that also encompass most art and memes etc?
"fake imagery" is a weird term for this slop bc wouldnt that also encompass most art and memes etc?
October 22, 2025 at 8:56 PM
i dont think real vs fake is whats at stake here (the political valence of AI is). none of these examples are pitching the AI imagery as real.
"fake imagery" is a weird term for this slop bc wouldnt that also encompass most art and memes etc?
"fake imagery" is a weird term for this slop bc wouldnt that also encompass most art and memes etc?
October 16, 2025 at 1:30 PM
read this same take every month for years even though there's a constant stream of newsy widely-believed video happening all around us
the better question is: what accounts for the enduring truth-telling function of cameras in an age where believable fakes are easy to generate?
the better question is: what accounts for the enduring truth-telling function of cameras in an age where believable fakes are easy to generate?
October 10, 2025 at 8:32 PM
read this same take every month for years even though there's a constant stream of newsy widely-believed video happening all around us
the better question is: what accounts for the enduring truth-telling function of cameras in an age where believable fakes are easy to generate?
the better question is: what accounts for the enduring truth-telling function of cameras in an age where believable fakes are easy to generate?
October 9, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Reposted by 👁️
that users could prefer a generated simulation to actual old clips for nostalgia purposes clarifies how nostalgia is about consuming "decontextualization" in itself — nostalgia negates history under the auspices of longing for it
YouTube has a legit library of recordings from quotidian settings (which are interesting, mostly as historical markers) but instead of promoting that social media pushes soulless facsimiles solely meant to associate a feeling with a moment sans the immediate, substantive context
This is doing numbers on social media right now and it's so depressing how people truly yearn for this shit and want to preserve that feeling indefinitely like a mausoleum of false memories.
October 7, 2025 at 5:44 PM
that users could prefer a generated simulation to actual old clips for nostalgia purposes clarifies how nostalgia is about consuming "decontextualization" in itself — nostalgia negates history under the auspices of longing for it
telling that so many (good and correct) critiques of AI sound exactly like the main critiques of the media culture AI was born into
So-called #genAI means the abolition of the future through the proliferation of endless streams of stochastically rendered generic pasts. Having turned large parts of the cultural archive into training data, it now traps us in a foreverized pastness, a 24/7 nostalgia for a past that never existed
have just come across a YouTube account that has been using Sora to upload reels of fake, AI-generated “90s sitcoms” every few hours
October 7, 2025 at 4:57 PM
telling that so many (good and correct) critiques of AI sound exactly like the main critiques of the media culture AI was born into
telling that Meta didn't attempt to make compelling little AI clips for their ad. the commercial instead is just "this AI product will have AI," nothing more.
bc they dont need to convince *why* anyone needs AI products, they just need to demonstrate they are burning money in that field
bc they dont need to convince *why* anyone needs AI products, they just need to demonstrate they are burning money in that field
I think I'm a lot more agnostic re "AI" than many of you, but this Vibes thing by Meta... a feed of AI-generated videos you can scroll through? Why? What or who for? Struggling to imagine something more dystopian.
September 26, 2025 at 3:53 PM
telling that Meta didn't attempt to make compelling little AI clips for their ad. the commercial instead is just "this AI product will have AI," nothing more.
bc they dont need to convince *why* anyone needs AI products, they just need to demonstrate they are burning money in that field
bc they dont need to convince *why* anyone needs AI products, they just need to demonstrate they are burning money in that field
Reposted by 👁️
LLMs mean that no one has to write anything they don't care about, but they also mean that "writing anything" will get equated with "not caring" for most people. (If you really cared, you would video yourself talking about it on your phone.)
September 23, 2025 at 6:25 PM
LLMs mean that no one has to write anything they don't care about, but they also mean that "writing anything" will get equated with "not caring" for most people. (If you really cared, you would video yourself talking about it on your phone.)
"the end of social media" takes often need to make a too-clean distinction between public broadcast platforms and private group sharing. a lot of social-media-like energy exists in the gradients in-between
September 13, 2025 at 9:08 PM
"the end of social media" takes often need to make a too-clean distinction between public broadcast platforms and private group sharing. a lot of social-media-like energy exists in the gradients in-between
still think about this enduring truth-telling function of cameras with most every big news event
ive read so so much about how deepfake images will destroy reality and so little about what accounts for the enduring truth-telling function of cameras when fakery is so cheap and easy
why is the former frame more productive than the latter?
why is the former frame more productive than the latter?
September 11, 2025 at 4:04 PM
still think about this enduring truth-telling function of cameras with most every big news event
am also dying at the ad in this video for a scam news app that will give you a fake number for how true articles are lol
September 9, 2025 at 11:58 PM
am also dying at the ad in this video for a scam news app that will give you a fake number for how true articles are lol
Google has an AI "camera coach" in their camera app to help people forfeit their own eye and voice to make more productive images normalized by attention metrics (~2mins in)
I took 1,000 photos with the Pixel 10 Pro...
YouTube video by Becca Farsace
www.youtube.com
September 9, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Google has an AI "camera coach" in their camera app to help people forfeit their own eye and voice to make more productive images normalized by attention metrics (~2mins in)