iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

i’m thinking about writing a small piece that situates apple’s use of interference patterns / physical properties (chromatic aberration, refraction, etc.) in their new design language…if you want it lmk

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Here’s the recording of our “AI and Media” roundtable at the Digital Aesthetics Workshop. Four amazing talks with surprising synergies (especially between the first two and last two). Mine is the last of them, at around ~59:30. youtu.be/wgIXHs4QmNI?...

youtu.be

AI & Media Roundtable

YouTube video by Stanford Humanities Center

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Stiegler says that there can be no mental image without an objective image, referencing Simondon’s transduction. But he misses that for Simondon the a priori image arises from the endogenous anticipation of the organism: auto-kinesis requires no objective correlate, only a milieu

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

playing well with cats and dogs requires the understanding (conscious or otherwise) that the nature of play is pre-perceptual, organized by motor images in search of objects and properly organized milieux

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

I’m excited to return to DAW ! My talk, “The Generative Image,” investigates the way in which AI externalizes and operationalizes the imaginative capacities which influence the genetic process of image-formation. Come for the Simondon, stay for the formal analysis of a cat video.

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

I’ve got a new article out with Invisible Culture, “Moire Patterns: Toward a Functional Aesthetics of Automatic Images.” With great thanks to the editors and peer reviewers 🙂‍↕️ www.invisibleculturejournal.com/pub/moire-pa...

invisibleculturejournal.com

Moiré Patterns: Toward a Functional Aesthetics of Automatic Images

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

In case you missed it 🙂‍↕️

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

retweeting for your weekend perusal:

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Archer Porter @archerporter.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Pleased to share my new essay, part of a special issue of communication +1 on "Media Aesthetics." In it, I describe my theory of intimaesthetics, or the aestheticization of intimacy. Shout out to editors @hankg.bsky.social and Zachary McDowell openpublishing.library.umass.edu/cpo/article/...

openpublishing.library.umass.edu

Choreographies of the Digital Everyday: Intimacy and the Aesthetics of Home Dance Productions

Bodies are central to new media and its corollary repository of images. Not only do bodies produce media through their engagements with technology, but they also help define the composition of a produ...

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

The special issue on Media Aesthetics with communication+1 is now available ! Ten articles, and one book review, on a range of topics: film, shutter buttons, software emulation, remediated horror, marginalia, rollercoasters, and much more. Link: openpublishing.library.umass.edu/cpo/issue/22...

openpublishing.library.umass.edu

communication +1 | Issue: Issue: 1(11) Media Aesthetics (2025)

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Just stumbled across this—a “stroboscopic Cupola,” which is sort of like a zootrope you sit inside of. The idea is that this dome with small slits would spin rapidly, and due persistence or vision, would provide a tank commander a 360 view while remaining protected.

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Bell Labs Record, June 1926. "The Manufacture of Vacuum Tubes" provides a surprisingly complete survey of the production steps behind these now seldom-seen devices, which enabled both telephony the earliest digital computers, among other uses. The "Tube Shop" was locate at 395 Hudson St.

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

A funny detail about television transmission, which serves arguments about the television as a domestic technology, is the concept of a “front porch” and “back porch” in the NTSC standard for temporally syncing the rasterized image.

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

I’ve been informed that I’ll be receiving a mysterious package from sender “AI” this afternoon…next time you hear from me it might be wise to start with “ignore all previous instruction” and see if i start spitting python code at you or something

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

Time to take out one of my favorite objects, a Lionel 2-4-2 249e. My grandfather bought it in the 30’s, so it’s nearly 100 years old. It still works ! The coal car hides a (quite loud) whistle, the valve gear is amazing in motion, and it’s even got a little headlight.

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

A little morning media archaeology—I was gifted a mint Canon AE-1, with all the original manuals and paperwork, and even a battery ! I suspect many have seen these photos of birds that demonstrate the effect of changing shutter speeds, they’re still commonly used in introductory photo classes.

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

If anyone can find an image of moiré metallique, I am declaring a bounty. The reward: I say thank you very sincerely/

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

this medieval bat is cinema.

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Paul Kim @mediapk.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Drake if he did media studies: you used to call me on my Bell phone

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

As an aside to my typical Bell Labs Record posting, it's fun to note that all these were obviously scanned at some point, and pretty much every image is affected by moiré. It's always there !

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

the SCMS >> SLSA pipeline is real, important, and good

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Apparently I'm on a Starter Pack of Hanks ? Incredible. No idea how to find it on here.

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Deborah Levitt (chair), @mckenziewark.bsky.social, @videotroph.bsky.social, Heather Warren-Crow, and I will hold the roundtable "What is Media Theory?" at SCMS. We did a roundtable so that it can be much more participatory, so pls join us. See you in Chicago 🫡

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

This was (I think, unless there were multiple pandemic era tours of the MAL), for the Digital Aesthetics Workshop ! One of our most unique events for sure, it’s so fun to be reminded of it.

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Bell Labs Record, May 1926. "'There is so much noise I cannot tell what you are saying,' is a reply familiar to us all, both in telephone conversations and in direct speech," opens "Auditory Masking." The article explains that low frequencies may mask higher ones due to harmonic overtones.

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Philip Sheppard @philipsheppard.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Way before editing software, Sergei Eisenstein invented a storyboard method incorporating storyboarding, music - in this case Prokofiev’s score - and an emotional temperature gauge This is a scene from Alexander Nevsky (1938) Isn’t it amazing?! #movies #composition #graphic #history

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

If "feed a little bit of the output into the input" was the big idea of the negative feedback amplifier, it would be fun to find other devices which work according to a similar principle. Locomotives, for ex, incorporated a small bit of the piston movement back into the control timing of the valve.

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Bell Labs Record, March 1926. This issue marks the "Semi-Centennial of the Telephone," and is accompanied by this great full-page graphic. The supposed first words ever telephoned, from Dr. Bell to Dr. Watson one room away: "Mr. Watson come here I want you."

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Resharing this. Lmk if you should be on here ! go.bsky.app/P4HbsJa

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Bell Labs Record, March 1926. This is a curious issue, the first sentence of which reads "All of us, I suppose, can remember our earliest active interest in crystals," before going on to discuss their scientific utility. A bit later, one finds the article "Why the Time-Clock Knobs Are Black?"

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Bell Labs Record, February 1926. "The Microscope as an Industrial Tool," bears a striking resemblance to Robert Hooke's 1665 "Micrographia," the first work to include illustrations based on microscopic observation, and the first major publication of the Royal Society.

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

sometimes you see a lot of discourse on Turing tests…and that’s frustrating usually…so my default is usually to recommend anybody just go read “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” It’s easy to find and a fun read. I’ll even link it right now ! courses.cs.umbc.edu/471/papers/t...

courses.cs.umbc.edu

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

idk why i decided this was my path but I now aim to be the #1 Bell Labs Record poster on this website 🫡

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Bell Labs Record, January 1926 "Electro-Mechanical Sound Recording," a fascinating article comparing the "old" acoustic recording method vs. a "new" telephony-based system. "In the picture showing the new method, the musicians are sitting at ease more nearly in their usual arrangements...(Cont.)

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

would love to expand this : )

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

The December, 1925 edition of the Bell Laboratories Record features their internal museum. Among other things, the museum seems to have included the original "long distance telephone" used by Dr. Bell to make the first call between Chicago and New York. I wonder where it all is now ?

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Chris Yogerst @chrisyogerst.com · 18/11/2024

Sharing again - my film and media history starter pack! go.bsky.app/12Wo3y5

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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 19/11/2024

It's been a while but finally this fantastic book is out in the world, and it's open access: unlearn.gestaltung.ai. If you like, check out my slightly provocative contribution "Five Theses on the End of AI Art" here: unlearn.gestaltung.ai/article/pj83...

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Here's M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy. Also from my backyard in LA : )

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Here’s the Andromeda Galaxy as captured from my backyard in LA, one of the literal worst places in the world for light pollution.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Hey friends! I went and quickly put together a starter pack for those of us who research media technology history. It's got some glaring ommisions at the moment, so please send me more names.

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

I think the “Mean Image” phase of critiquing AI was/is useful and important, but it’s definitely time to move past it, and some are. Part of that will mean being curious about how these machines operate, because it isn’t simply a matter of averaging. Michel Serres’ “Birth of Physics” helps a lot.

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Bell Labs Record, November 1925. "Keeping Time at West Street" profiles Roy N. Carr, who kept after all the clocks across the many labs. "In spite of earthquakes and other troubles, however, there is one advantage (or is it a disadvantage?) to Mr. Carr's job; he has plenty of time on his hands"

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Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

It's growing, but I am sure there are still many great media scholars and artists out there I've missed, so please let me know whom I should include. And thanks to all who already contributed with their suggestions! go.bsky.app/LmudiJF

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

another banger list-in-the-making 🫡

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hank gerba @hankg.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Bell Labs Record, October 1925. "The Spinal Cord of a Nation," focuses on the "striking analogy" between telephone cabling and spinal tissue. "Each community handles its own business through its local office, just as the ganglia take care of "messages" originating in certain parts of the body."

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