Brian Jacobson
@bleudeciel.bsky.social
The Cinema of Extractions (2025), Media Climates (2022), In the Studio (2020), Studios Before the System (2015)
Writing about Art, Media, Energy, Environment. Next book: oil, gas, and media culture in France+empire
Caltech Professor of Visual Culture
Writing about Art, Media, Energy, Environment. Next book: oil, gas, and media culture in France+empire
Caltech Professor of Visual Culture
November 19, 2025 at 1:09 AM
We are hiring in American History - TT open rank search
applications.caltech.edu/jobs/history
applications.caltech.edu/jobs/history
November 17, 2025 at 9:11 PM
We are hiring in American History - TT open rank search
applications.caltech.edu/jobs/history
applications.caltech.edu/jobs/history
November 15, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Imperfect, but I would take one Jia film for every ten of the films on The NY Times’s Jia-less list
July 5, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Imperfect, but I would take one Jia film for every ten of the films on The NY Times’s Jia-less list
LA-area folks, please join us next week, June 5-6, at Caltech, for a meeting of the Anthropocene Media Working Group with 2 days of talks and conversation. Details and registration here:
www.hss.caltech.edu/news-and-eve...
www.hss.caltech.edu/news-and-eve...
May 29, 2025 at 6:40 PM
LA-area folks, please join us next week, June 5-6, at Caltech, for a meeting of the Anthropocene Media Working Group with 2 days of talks and conversation. Details and registration here:
www.hss.caltech.edu/news-and-eve...
www.hss.caltech.edu/news-and-eve...
Coming up on May 29 at Caltech Visual Culture, I will be speaking with our current artist in residence, Jessica Segall about art, energy, and extraction
www.caltech.edu/campus-life-...
www.caltech.edu/campus-life-...
May 14, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Coming up on May 29 at Caltech Visual Culture, I will be speaking with our current artist in residence, Jessica Segall about art, energy, and extraction
www.caltech.edu/campus-life-...
www.caltech.edu/campus-life-...
The deadline for the special section of Leonardo about Art and Electric Light I am co-editing is coming up on June 2. Note that the submission word count is short: 2,500-5,000. Happy to answer questions.
leonardo.info/opportunity/...
leonardo.info/opportunity/...
April 28, 2025 at 9:23 PM
The deadline for the special section of Leonardo about Art and Electric Light I am co-editing is coming up on June 2. Note that the submission word count is short: 2,500-5,000. Happy to answer questions.
leonardo.info/opportunity/...
leonardo.info/opportunity/...
Very excited to host @emmywaldman.bsky.social at Caltech Visual Culture next week
April 23, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Very excited to host @emmywaldman.bsky.social at Caltech Visual Culture next week
April 18, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Next week at Caltech Visual Culture
April 3, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Next week at Caltech Visual Culture
June 5-6 at Caltech w/
James Cahill @jamesleocahill.bsky.social
Katerina Korola @katerinakorola.bsky.social
Debashree Mukherjee @debashree.bsky.social
Sasha Crawford-Holland @sashach.bsky.social
Jennifer Fay
Thomas Patrick Pringle
Carolina Sá Carvalho
Mehak Sawhney
Anna Stielau
Tinghao Zhou
James Cahill @jamesleocahill.bsky.social
Katerina Korola @katerinakorola.bsky.social
Debashree Mukherjee @debashree.bsky.social
Sasha Crawford-Holland @sashach.bsky.social
Jennifer Fay
Thomas Patrick Pringle
Carolina Sá Carvalho
Mehak Sawhney
Anna Stielau
Tinghao Zhou
March 18, 2025 at 9:25 PM
June 5-6 at Caltech w/
James Cahill @jamesleocahill.bsky.social
Katerina Korola @katerinakorola.bsky.social
Debashree Mukherjee @debashree.bsky.social
Sasha Crawford-Holland @sashach.bsky.social
Jennifer Fay
Thomas Patrick Pringle
Carolina Sá Carvalho
Mehak Sawhney
Anna Stielau
Tinghao Zhou
James Cahill @jamesleocahill.bsky.social
Katerina Korola @katerinakorola.bsky.social
Debashree Mukherjee @debashree.bsky.social
Sasha Crawford-Holland @sashach.bsky.social
Jennifer Fay
Thomas Patrick Pringle
Carolina Sá Carvalho
Mehak Sawhney
Anna Stielau
Tinghao Zhou
CFP for a special section of Leonardo I am editing with Maggie Bell about Art + Electric Light - deadline June 2, 2025 - please circulate
leonardo.info/opportunity/...
leonardo.info/opportunity/...
March 11, 2025 at 5:50 PM
CFP for a special section of Leonardo I am editing with Maggie Bell about Art + Electric Light - deadline June 2, 2025 - please circulate
leonardo.info/opportunity/...
leonardo.info/opportunity/...
Tonight 7:30pm at @lightindustry.bsky.social
March 11, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Tonight 7:30pm at @lightindustry.bsky.social
Coming up this Tuesday in Brooklyn, I’ll be talking about The Cinema of Extractions (@columbiaup.bsky.social) at @lightindustry.bsky.social
www.lightindustry.org/jacobson
www.lightindustry.org/jacobson
March 9, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Coming up this Tuesday in Brooklyn, I’ll be talking about The Cinema of Extractions (@columbiaup.bsky.social) at @lightindustry.bsky.social
www.lightindustry.org/jacobson
www.lightindustry.org/jacobson
I apply this approach to early films, transition-era films (D.W. Griffiths' The Lonedale Operator), early features (Lois Weber's Sunshine Molly), Hollywood features (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre), and industrial/sponsored films ...
February 4, 2025 at 1:13 PM
I apply this approach to early films, transition-era films (D.W. Griffiths' The Lonedale Operator), early features (Lois Weber's Sunshine Molly), Hollywood features (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre), and industrial/sponsored films ...
Extending the broad interest in materials that make culture (I call this "raw materialism"), I detail the oil and gas, wood and water, and minerals that make media, with particular emphasis on the carbon rods and tungsten filaments in lights, projectors, and vacuum tubes
February 4, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Extending the broad interest in materials that make culture (I call this "raw materialism"), I detail the oil and gas, wood and water, and minerals that make media, with particular emphasis on the carbon rods and tungsten filaments in lights, projectors, and vacuum tubes
It is publication day for THE CINEMA OF EXTRACTIONS (@columbiaup.bsky.social), a book about the materials that make movies possible and how to read between the raw materials and the screen worlds they create.
February 4, 2025 at 1:13 PM
It is publication day for THE CINEMA OF EXTRACTIONS (@columbiaup.bsky.social), a book about the materials that make movies possible and how to read between the raw materials and the screen worlds they create.
Next week at Dartmouth, a talk about The Cinema of Extractions (@columbiaup.bsky.social)
January 29, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Next week at Dartmouth, a talk about The Cinema of Extractions (@columbiaup.bsky.social)
I think I’ve come close enough this week already, merci
January 17, 2025 at 5:06 PM
I think I’ve come close enough this week already, merci
4 things I liked in 2024
- Claire Messud’s “This Strange Eventful History”
- Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
- “Lumen,” the Getty PST exhibition
- “Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence” at the V&A
- Claire Messud’s “This Strange Eventful History”
- Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
- “Lumen,” the Getty PST exhibition
- “Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence” at the V&A
January 1, 2025 at 12:06 AM
4 things I liked in 2024
- Claire Messud’s “This Strange Eventful History”
- Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
- “Lumen,” the Getty PST exhibition
- “Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence” at the V&A
- Claire Messud’s “This Strange Eventful History”
- Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
- “Lumen,” the Getty PST exhibition
- “Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence” at the V&A
The exhibition also includes great photos of early 20th-century Los Angeles oil fields, some with the derricks labeled by owner. Here we find #82, “Jos. B. Dabney 1,” one of many wells owned by Joseph Dabney, who as a Caltech trustee gave the money for the Dabney Hall of the Humanities
December 31, 2024 at 6:11 PM
The exhibition also includes great photos of early 20th-century Los Angeles oil fields, some with the derricks labeled by owner. Here we find #82, “Jos. B. Dabney 1,” one of many wells owned by Joseph Dabney, who as a Caltech trustee gave the money for the Dabney Hall of the Humanities
Some choice images from STORM CLOUD, the Huntington’s great PST exhibition, including Henry de la Beche’s wonderful images of prehistory and Walter Crane’s “The Capitalist,” along with a James Ward painting of Swansea, aka “Copperopolis”
December 31, 2024 at 6:04 PM
Some choice images from STORM CLOUD, the Huntington’s great PST exhibition, including Henry de la Beche’s wonderful images of prehistory and Walter Crane’s “The Capitalist,” along with a James Ward painting of Swansea, aka “Copperopolis”
“Today's business side does not have a necessary vested interest in "the business"
—in the health of what we think of as Hollywood, a place and system in which creativity is exchanged for capital.”
—in the health of what we think of as Hollywood, a place and system in which creativity is exchanged for capital.”
December 26, 2024 at 8:39 PM
“Today's business side does not have a necessary vested interest in "the business"
—in the health of what we think of as Hollywood, a place and system in which creativity is exchanged for capital.”
—in the health of what we think of as Hollywood, a place and system in which creativity is exchanged for capital.”
As a counterpoint to the AI + photography post, the last line of this interview with Fredric Jameson in the Paris Review: “reality itself is incomplete, and one should respect that”
December 24, 2024 at 8:16 PM
As a counterpoint to the AI + photography post, the last line of this interview with Fredric Jameson in the Paris Review: “reality itself is incomplete, and one should respect that”