Doug Eacho
@dougeacho.bsky.social
performance historian, prof (U of T ➡️ NUS). writing a book about automating theatre (surrealism, cybernetics, backstage tech, ai) in which i discover to much astonishment that it was capital all along.
douglaseacho.com
douglaseacho.com
sorry i'm going to champion the tacky romance cover as so inappropriate it winds up as perfect:
November 12, 2025 at 1:26 AM
sorry i'm going to champion the tacky romance cover as so inappropriate it winds up as perfect:
i'm reading brandon sanderson's "The Way of Kings" rn and it's definitely a TV-like popcorn guilty pleasure, but it has a cover that *rips*. like if you are reading pop fantasy isn't this what you want your book to look like??
November 12, 2025 at 1:23 AM
i'm reading brandon sanderson's "The Way of Kings" rn and it's definitely a TV-like popcorn guilty pleasure, but it has a cover that *rips*. like if you are reading pop fantasy isn't this what you want your book to look like??
pynchon reminding us that flappers were the original uwu smol beans
October 8, 2025 at 11:16 AM
pynchon reminding us that flappers were the original uwu smol beans
will probably post the whole novel on this thread tbh
October 7, 2025 at 9:45 PM
will probably post the whole novel on this thread tbh
tommy's still got it
October 7, 2025 at 9:32 PM
tommy's still got it
clerk, immediately as I'm walking into the bookstore: "You look like you're here for Pynchon"
October 7, 2025 at 9:11 PM
clerk, immediately as I'm walking into the bookstore: "You look like you're here for Pynchon"
my toddler has reached the Gollum stage of speech development
September 11, 2025 at 12:43 PM
my toddler has reached the Gollum stage of speech development
Giving a public research talk at the University of Milan next month. it will be about why crude economist historicization is, in the case of postdramatic robot/AI/machine theatre, correct.
if any of you want to tell me what to do with free time in Milan please go ahead!
if any of you want to tell me what to do with free time in Milan please go ahead!
August 29, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Giving a public research talk at the University of Milan next month. it will be about why crude economist historicization is, in the case of postdramatic robot/AI/machine theatre, correct.
if any of you want to tell me what to do with free time in Milan please go ahead!
if any of you want to tell me what to do with free time in Milan please go ahead!
like how is this the first time i've encountered this point?? this makes so much sense!
August 8, 2025 at 3:34 PM
like how is this the first time i've encountered this point?? this makes so much sense!
this is an amazing article (from 2015). The core argument is recapitulated in detail in her recent book, but this essay sets it within a broad survey of ideology critiques and their opponents that's missing from the book. extremely clarifying.
August 8, 2025 at 3:30 PM
this is an amazing article (from 2015). The core argument is recapitulated in detail in her recent book, but this essay sets it within a broad survey of ideology critiques and their opponents that's missing from the book. extremely clarifying.
the whole comment section on the NYT wilson obit is worth a read. many specific, remarkable memories. love this one
August 1, 2025 at 12:12 AM
the whole comment section on the NYT wilson obit is worth a read. many specific, remarkable memories. love this one
Pleased to announce that the TDR special issue "Still Exhausted: Labor, Digital Technologies, and the Performing Arts," which I co-edited with Catie Cuan and Sydney Skybetter, has received the 2025 Edited Work Award from ATHE.
July 21, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Pleased to announce that the TDR special issue "Still Exhausted: Labor, Digital Technologies, and the Performing Arts," which I co-edited with Catie Cuan and Sydney Skybetter, has received the 2025 Edited Work Award from ATHE.
superb article with extended discussion on interrelation btw performance (via Marcuse), productivity, and fossil-fuel burning :
July 18, 2025 at 10:47 AM
superb article with extended discussion on interrelation btw performance (via Marcuse), productivity, and fossil-fuel burning :
finished @aptshadow.bsky.social 's wonderful children of memory, a bleak, earnest, disorienting star trek riff that forced me to invoke harold pinter's "Old Times" in explaining it to my wife
June 30, 2025 at 11:36 PM
finished @aptshadow.bsky.social 's wonderful children of memory, a bleak, earnest, disorienting star trek riff that forced me to invoke harold pinter's "Old Times" in explaining it to my wife
hello followers. I will be giving a talk about the history of theatre lighting, backstage labour, and how not to think about automation in Munich on June 5 at 11a -- open to the public. quite a lineup of scholars here!
May 13, 2025 at 1:29 PM
hello followers. I will be giving a talk about the history of theatre lighting, backstage labour, and how not to think about automation in Munich on June 5 at 11a -- open to the public. quite a lineup of scholars here!
I wrote a rather manic essay, "On Chance Performance and Indeterminate Value," for a package discussing Alisa Zhulina's "Theater of Capital in the new MLN. Privileged to be in conversation with Alisa, Leonardo Lisi, Rebecca Kastleman, Pannill Camp, and Sarah Townsend.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
May 5, 2025 at 2:15 PM
I wrote a rather manic essay, "On Chance Performance and Indeterminate Value," for a package discussing Alisa Zhulina's "Theater of Capital in the new MLN. Privileged to be in conversation with Alisa, Leonardo Lisi, Rebecca Kastleman, Pannill Camp, and Sarah Townsend.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
as asian markets collapse due to us late-imperial psychosis, a timely cover from 50s communist Burmese mag "The People"
c/o the National Gallery of Singapore
c/o the National Gallery of Singapore
April 7, 2025 at 8:38 AM
as asian markets collapse due to us late-imperial psychosis, a timely cover from 50s communist Burmese mag "The People"
c/o the National Gallery of Singapore
c/o the National Gallery of Singapore
working on slides, thinking as ever on raymond roussel as the first and not coincidentally the richest automation-obsessed artist
April 3, 2025 at 6:24 PM
working on slides, thinking as ever on raymond roussel as the first and not coincidentally the richest automation-obsessed artist
stumbling on old jesse green theatre reviews and shaking my head yet again that THIS guy got hired at the times
March 3, 2025 at 7:46 PM
stumbling on old jesse green theatre reviews and shaking my head yet again that THIS guy got hired at the times
Adorno covers this -- it's better if the leader is obviously performing, because then you identify with the process of performing rather than with the unattainable image-ideal. In this way Trump is a natural obverse of your inhuman, fantastical Marvel masculinity.
March 1, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Adorno covers this -- it's better if the leader is obviously performing, because then you identify with the process of performing rather than with the unattainable image-ideal. In this way Trump is a natural obverse of your inhuman, fantastical Marvel masculinity.
mishima yukio week in my fascist performance class. i remain convinced that grappling with mishima's theatre is necessary for understanding the whole range of late fascisms.
February 25, 2025 at 9:19 PM
mishima yukio week in my fascist performance class. i remain convinced that grappling with mishima's theatre is necessary for understanding the whole range of late fascisms.
i gave the first version of my 'butler's gender performativity for freshmen' lecture deep in lockdown and just can't bring myself to update my very Zoom School slides
February 24, 2025 at 7:49 PM
i gave the first version of my 'butler's gender performativity for freshmen' lecture deep in lockdown and just can't bring myself to update my very Zoom School slides
Just as we cannot understand or escape capitalism without acknowledging the mediated contradictions of 'market exchange,' we cannot understand performance without stressing it as a site of difference, opacity, loss, and material determination -- of mediation. 8/10
February 18, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Just as we cannot understand or escape capitalism without acknowledging the mediated contradictions of 'market exchange,' we cannot understand performance without stressing it as a site of difference, opacity, loss, and material determination -- of mediation. 8/10