Please click the link below to browse curated selections of media contributed by various members of our community.
I. Philosophy and Critical Theory
1. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison – Michel Foucault
Examines the evolution of discipline, surveillance, and power in modern institutions.
2. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia – Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari
Critiques psychoanalysis and capitalism, proposing alternative flows of desire.
3. The Society of the Spectacle – Guy Debord
A critique of consumer society and the commodification of human interactions.
4. Technics and Time, 1 – Bernard Stiegler
Explores humanity’s relationship with technology and temporality.
5. A Thousand Plateaus – Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari
Explores networks, rhizomes, and multiplicities of systems.
6. Simulacra and Simulation – Jean Baudrillard
Explores the collapse of reality into representation.
7. The Gulf War Did Not Take Place – Jean Baudrillard
Explores hyperreality and media’s role in shaping perceptions of war.
8. Dialectic of Enlightenment – Max Horkheimer & Theodor Adorno
Critiques Enlightenment rationality as a form of domination.
9. Capitalist Realism – Mark Fisher
Explores how neoliberalism has become the “only viable” cultural framework.
10. The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty – Benjamin Bratton
Explores planetary-scale computation as a framework for politics and design.
11. God and Golem, Inc. – Norbert Wiener
Explores the ethical implications of artificial intelligence.
12. The Question Concerning Technology – Martin Heidegger
Examines how technology shapes human understanding and being.
13. Being and Time – Martin Heidegger
Investigates human existence, temporality, and being-in-the-world.
14. The Transparency of Evil – Jean Baudrillard
Analyzes cultural phenomena in a world dominated by simulations.
15. Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine – Norbert Wiener
A foundational text exploring feedback systems and human-machine relationships.
16. Difference and Repetition – Gilles Deleuze
Investigates the nature of difference, repetition, and becoming.
17. The Phenomenology of Spirit – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
A foundational text on consciousness, history, and dialectics.
18. Accelerationism – Nick Srnicek & Alex Williams
Advocates for harnessing technological progress to transform society.
19. In the Dust of This Planet – Eugene Thacker
Explores the intersection of horror and metaphysics in imagining the unthinkable.
20. Recursivity and Contingency – Yuk Hui
Examines how recursive processes shape technology and philosophy.
21. The Posthuman – Rosi Braidotti
Explores posthumanism as an alternative to anthropocentrism.
22. The Human Condition – Hannah Arendt
Explores labor, work, and action as fundamental aspects of human life.
23. Atlas of Novel Tectonics – Jesse Reiser & Nanako Umemoto
A speculative exploration of architectural theory and design.
24. The Weird and the Eerie – Mark Fisher
Investigates the aesthetic categories of the weird and eerie in culture.
25. Fragments – Heraclitus
Philosophical fragments exploring change, unity, and the nature of existence.
26. The Open Society and Its Enemies – Karl Popper
Explores the relationship between freedom, democracy, and knowledge.
27. The Great Transformation – Karl Polanyi
Critiques the market economy and its disruption of traditional societies.
28. Staying with the Trouble – Donna Haraway
Advocates for multispecies collaboration in an era of ecological crisis.
29. Machine and Sovereignty – Yuk Hui
Explores the philosophical implications of automation and sovereignty.
30. Nomadology: The War Machine – Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari
Explores nomadic thought as a counter to hierarchical systems.
31. Introduction to Civil War – Tiqqun
Explores the fragmentation of society into “civil war” zones of contestation.
32. Infinite Resignation – Eugene Thacker
A collection of aphorisms about pessimism and the existential void.
33. The Logic of Sense – Gilles Deleuze
A complex exploration of language, meaning, and paradox.
34. Technological Sublime – David Nye
Explores the awe and terror inspired by monumental technological achievements.
35. Fanged Noumena – Nick Land
A collection of essays exploring accelerationism and speculative realism.
36. The Coming Insurrection – The Invisible Committee
A radical critique of late capitalism and a call for resistance.
37. Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology – David Graeber
Explores alternatives to state-centric political systems.
38. The Undercommons – Fred Moten & Stefano Harney
A radical rethinking of collaboration and resistance in intellectual labor.
39. On Freedom – Maggie Nelson
Investigates freedom’s relationship to art, sex, drugs, and climate change.
40. Speculative Everything – Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby
Promotes critical design as a tool for imagining alternative futures.
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II. Art, Technology, and Design
41. Relational Aesthetics – Nicolas Bourriaud
Explores art as a medium for human interaction and shared experiences.
42. Post-Digital Aesthetics – Eds. David M. Berry & Michael Dieter
Explores how digital and post-digital cultures shape art and design.
43. Speculative Aesthetics – Eds. Robin Mackay & Armen Avanessian
Investigates speculative thought in contemporary artistic practices.
44. Digital Art – Christiane Paul
A comprehensive exploration of digital art’s evolution and impact.
45. Information Arts – Stephen Wilson
Examines the intersections between art, science, and technology.
46. Networks (Documents of Contemporary Art) – Ed. Lars Bang Larsen
A collection of essays on networks’ influence on contemporary art.
47. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction – Walter Benjamin
A classic text on how reproducibility changes art’s aura and significance.
48. Art as Experience – John Dewey
Links art to human experience, emphasizing its social and cultural context.
49. The Poetics of Space – Gaston Bachelard
A philosophical exploration of the intimate, imaginative experience of spaces.
50. The Gift – Lewis Hyde
Explores art as a gift economy, outside market forces.
51. The Future of the Image – Jacques Rancière
Examines the role of images in contemporary politics and aesthetics.
52. Eco-Visionaries – Pedro Gadanho (Editor)
Explores how art and architecture respond to ecological crises.
53. Shaping Things – Bruce Sterling
Speculative design perspectives on the future of objects and technologies.
54. Automatic Society, Volume 1 – Bernard Stiegler
Investigates how automation reshapes culture and creative production.
55. Wild Art – David Carrier & Joachim Pissarro
Celebrates unconventional and outsider art that challenges norms.
56. The Art of Assemblage – William C. Seitz
Explores collage and assemblage as transformative artistic practices.
57. Art Since 1900 – Hal Foster et al.
A critical survey of modern and postmodern art movements.
58. The Control Revolution – James Beniger
Traces the development of information systems and their effects on modern art and design.
59. Designing Media – Bill Moggridge
Examines how designers shape digital interfaces and narratives.
60. White Cube, Green Maze – Raymund Ryan
Explores intersections between art, architecture, and ecology in museum spaces.
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III. Ecology and Systems Thinking
61. Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
Blends Indigenous wisdom and ecological science in a poetic reflection on reciprocity.
62. Silent Spring – Rachel Carson
A groundbreaking text that catalyzed the modern environmental movement.
63. The Mushroom at the End of the World – Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Explores economic and ecological precarity through the matsutake mushroom.
64. The Entangled Life – Merlin Sheldrake
Explores the hidden, interconnected world of fungi.
65. Thinking in Systems – Donella H. Meadows
A primer on understanding complex systems and their
interdependencies.
66. The Cybernetic Brain – Andrew Pickering
Explores the history and implications of cybernetics in ecological systems.
67. Gaia – James Lovelock
Introduces the Gaia hypothesis, viewing Earth as a self-regulating system.
68. Wilding – Isabella Tree
A case study in rewilding and ecological restoration.
69. The World Without Us – Alan Weisman
Imagines Earth’s ecological recovery in the absence of humans.
70. The Overstory – Richard Powers
A novel exploring the interconnected lives of trees and people.
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IV. Speculative Thought and Fiction
91. Dune – Frank Herbert
A sci-fi epic examining ecology, politics, and power.
92. Neuromancer – William Gibson
A foundational cyberpunk novel exploring AI, cyberspace, and human-machine interaction.
93. Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
Blends virtual reality, ancient mythology, and speculative tech.
94. Hyperion – Dan Simmons
A complex sci-fi narrative exploring time, religion, and artificial intelligence.
95. The Machine Stops – E.M. Forster
A prescient novella about a society entirely dependent on technology.
96. House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski
A labyrinthine novel exploring space, perception, and the uncanny.
97. The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
Explores gender and cultural difference on a distant planet.
98. The Dispossessed – Ursula K. Le Guin
A utopian/dystopian exploration of anarchism and social structures.
99. At the Mountains of Madness – H.P. Lovecraft
Blends cosmic horror with speculative exploration of ancient civilizations.
100. The Parable of the Sower – Octavia Butler
A speculative story about survival and community in a climate-ravaged world.
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FILMS
I. Early Classics (1920–1950s)
1. Metropolis (1927) – Fritz Lang
A groundbreaking film about industrial labor, class struggle, and the dehumanizing effects of technology, featuring iconic imagery of robots and sprawling cities.
2. Things to Come (1936) – William Cameron Menzies
A sweeping exploration of technological progress, utopian ideals, and the dangers of authoritarianism in the future.
3. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) – Robert Wise
This Cold War-era story uses alien contact to question humanity’s capacity for peace and responsibility.
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) – Don Siegel
A chilling metaphor for societal conformity and paranoia during McCarthyism.
5. Forbidden Planet (1956) – Fred M. Wilcox
A sci-fi retelling of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” exploring human ambition and the unintended consequences of advanced technology.
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II. 1960s–1970s: Golden Age of Speculative Sci-Fi
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – Stanley Kubrick
A profound meditation on human evolution, artificial intelligence, and our place in the cosmos.
7. Solaris (1972) – Andrei Tarkovsky
A deeply philosophical exploration of memory, guilt, and the impossibility of truly understanding an alien intelligence.
8. THX 1138 (1971) – George Lucas
A dystopian vision of a depersonalized future controlled by surveillance and pharmaceutical compliance.
9. A Clockwork Orange (1971) – Stanley Kubrick
Explores the limits of free will and societal control through the lens of ultraviolence and rehabilitation.
10. Westworld (1973) – Michael Crichton
A precursor to modern discussions on AI ethics, set in a theme park where robots rebel against their creators.
11. The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) – Nicolas Roeg
An alien’s attempt to save his dying planet serves as a critique of human greed and environmental exploitation.
12. Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) – George Lucas
Combines myth-making and speculative technology in a space opera that redefined modern storytelling.
13. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) – Steven Spielberg
Blends personal and cosmic scales to explore humanity’s relationship with the unknown.
14. Alien (1979) – Ridley Scott
A survival horror film set in space, exploring corporate exploitation and the primal fear of the unknown.
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III. 1980s: Cybernetics and the Postmodern Turn
15. Blade Runner (1982) – Ridley Scott
A cyberpunk masterpiece that questions the nature of humanity, memory, and identity.
16. Tron (1982) – Steven Lisberger
A visual exploration of the digital world, personifying the relationship between users and programs.
17. The Thing (1982) – John Carpenter
A paranoia-filled story about an alien entity that reflects humanity’s deepest fears about trust and identity.
18. The Terminator (1984) – James Cameron
A gripping narrative about time travel, AI rebellion, and the consequences of technological autonomy.
19. Brazil (1985) – Terry Gilliam
A satirical dystopia that critiques bureaucracy, surveillance, and conformity.
20. Aliens (1986) – James Cameron
A thrilling expansion of the original “Alien,” adding commentary on militarization and motherhood.
21. RoboCop (1987) – Paul Verhoeven
A biting critique of corporate greed and the commodification of human bodies.
22. Akira (1988) – Katsuhiro Otomo
A cyberpunk anime masterpiece that explores power, rebellion, and the breakdown of systems.
23. They Live (1988) – John Carpenter
A subversive commentary on consumerism and hidden systems of societal control.
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IV. 1990s: Virtual Reality and Identity
24. Total Recall (1990) – Paul Verhoeven
A mind-bending story about memory, identity, and the unreliability of perception.
25. Ghost in the Shell (1995) – Mamoru Oshii
A philosophical anime that questions consciousness and the boundaries between humans and machines.
26. Twelve Monkeys (1995) – Terry Gilliam
A nonlinear exploration of time travel, environmental collapse, and the human psyche.
27. Gattaca (1997) – Andrew Niccol
A prescient story about genetic engineering and the ethics of human perfection.
28. The Matrix (1999) – The Wachowskis
Revolutionary in its depiction of simulated realities and philosophical rebellion.
29. eXistenZ (1999) – David Cronenberg
A surreal take on virtual reality, identity, and the fragility of perception.
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V. 2000s: Complexity and Interconnectivity
30. AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001) – Steven Spielberg
A haunting exploration of love, loss, and the ethical dilemmas surrounding AI.
31. Donnie Darko (2001) – Richard Kelly
A cult classic that combines time travel with themes of alienation and causality.
32. Minority Report (2002) – Steven Spielberg
Explores the ethics of predictive policing and free will in a surveillance state.
33. Children of Men (2006) – Alfonso Cuarón
A dystopian masterpiece about hope and resistance in a world of systemic collapse.
34. The Fountain (2006) – Darren Aronofsky
A poetic exploration of immortality, love, and interconnected timelines.
35. Sunshine (2007) – Danny Boyle
A visually stunning meditation on humanity’s struggle for survival in space.
36. WALL-E (2008) – Andrew Stanton
A poignant critique of environmental destruction and the hope for renewal.
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VI. 2010s–Present: Speculative Futures and Systems Thinking
37. Inception (2010) – Christopher Nolan
Dreams as layered systems, blending philosophical questions about agency and reality.
38. Her (2013) – Spike Jonze
A tender exploration of love, loneliness, and the evolving relationship with AI.
39. Snowpiercer (2013) – Bong Joon-ho
A stark metaphor for class conflict within a closed ecological system.
40. Interstellar (2014) – Christopher Nolan
A sweeping tale of survival, love, and the limits of human knowledge.
41. Ex Machina (2014) – Alex Garland
A tense, philosophical thriller on AI, manipulation, and the boundaries of consciousness.
42. Arrival (2016) – Denis Villeneuve
A linguistically rich story that reframes humanity’s relationship with time and the alien.
43. Blade Runner 2049 (2017) – Denis Villeneuve
A stunning continuation of the original’s themes of memory and identity.
44. Annihilation (2018) – Alex Garland
A haunting exploration of alien ecosystems and their transformative effects on humanity.
45. Ad Astra (2019) – James Gray
A personal odyssey through space, exploring isolation and existential purpose.
46. Dune (2021) – Denis Villeneuve
A visually breathtaking epic on power, ecology, and the interconnection of systems.
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VII. Additional Gems
47. Coherence (2013) – James Ward Byrkit
A low-budget gem that masterfully plays with parallel universes and human relationships.
48. Under the Skin (2013) – Jonathan Glazer
A minimalist, alien perspective on humanity and identity.
49. The Endless (2017) – Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead
A small-scale story exploring time loops, cults, and cosmic horror.
50. Nope (2022) – Jordan Peele
A reinvention of UFO mythology with sharp social commentary.