Silent film is more than just a series of firsts, greats, or classics. It is a cinema of experimentation, ambition, and connection. A Silent Film Companion is a guidebook to the many pleasures of sile...

ALT: Denson

A revealing and surprising origin story, showing how attempts to render human speech and language computable led from the era of big data to today’s AI. Since the advent of computers, society has fant...

As part of the AICA-USA's Art Critic Fellowship, Alex Feliciano Mejía wrote a fabulous essay about the EXTRA/PHENOMENALITIES show this past winter. The piece was published in the AICA-USA's Magazine and can be accessed here. Check it out!

Each year critics are asked to name their top choices for best video essay of the year, and the results are published by Sight & Sound magazine. I missed it when the results came out back in December, but among those named for 2025 was the interactive version of my latest book on James Whale's 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein…

The Digital Aesthetics Workshop is pleased to announce our next event, featuring presentations from Morehshin Allahyari and Miguel Novelo, on May 19 from 5-6:30PM PT in the Board Room at the Humanities Center. For those unable to join in person, we invite you to join on Zoom. Registration is at this link. Morehshin Allahyari | Re-figuring In this presentation, Morehshin Allahyari speaks to the significance of re-figuration in her work: the act of re-reading the past, in order to reimagine decolonial futures.

ALT: a black and white photo of a woman 's face with a surgical scar on her face .

We are pleased to announce our first event of spring quarter! Poyen Wang and Heesoo Kwon will join us for a joint talk on Tuesday, April 28, from 5-6:30pm PT. The event, titled, "Animating Sites of Becoming," will take place in the Stanford Humanities Center Board Room. Refreshments will be served. Zoom link for those unable to join in-person: tinyurl.com/mrx4ndz2…

On April 18, I'll be part of the 23rd annual "A Company of Authors" event at Stanford, where faculty present their new books. This will be my third time! Talking about my recent book on Bride of Frankenstein. More info about the event here:

Photo: Shaun Roberts EXTRA/PHENOMENALITIES came to a close this past week, following a very successful run at Stanford Art Gallery. Curated by the non/phenomenal collective (Brett Amory, Karin Denson, and Shane Denson), and featuring 20 artists and collaboratives, the exhibition opened on January 22 and closed on March 13. Photo: Shaun Roberts The show was extremely well attended throughout the 7+ week duration, with visitors spending a good deal of time in the gallery.

EXTRA/PHENOMENALITIES STANFORD ART GALLERY January 22 – March 13, 2026 What are the limits of experience? This exhibition explores forms of appearance that…

We're coming up on the final week of EXTRA/PHENOMENALITIES, with 20 amazing artists and collaboratives approaching the conditions of appearance and nonappearance from a wide variety of angles and mediums. The exhibition, curated by the non/phenomenal collective (Brett Amory, Karin Denson, and Shane Denson) is open Monday through Friday, 12-5pm, through March 13. The video above, featuring drone footage shot by Shaun Roberts and edited by Shane Denson, provides an overview (literally) of the show. Check it out before it closes!

Please join us in welcoming Katherine Behar, our next guest of the year, who will present “Isn’t Artisanal Intelligence K(NOT) AI?” on Wednesday, February 25, from 5-6:30PM PT. This event wil…

Join us on February 23, 2026 (5-7pm, McMurtry Building, Oshman Hall) for an artist panel featuring participants from EXTRA/PHENOMENALITIES, on view at Stanford Art Gallery from January 22-March 13,…

Join us on February 23, 2026 (5-7pm, McMurtry Building, Oshman Hall) for an artist panel featuring participants from EXTRA/PHENOMENALITIES, on view at Stanford Art Gallery from January 22-March 13, 2026. Bringing together artists whose work explores the limits of experience, this program offers a special opportunity to hear directly from those behind the exhibition. Each participating artist will give a brief talk reflecting on their work in the exhibition, followed by a moderated conversation led by Alexander Nemerov, Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Stanford, and audience Q&A.

Please join us in welcoming Katherine Behar, our next guest of the year, who will present “Isn't Artisanal Intelligence K(NOT) AI?” on Wednesday, February 25, from 5-6:30PM PT. This event will take place in the Board Room at the Humanities Center; refreshments will be served. We hope to see you there.  Zoom link for those unable to join in person: …

Join us for an artist panel featuring participants from EXTRA/PHENOMENALITIES, on view at Stanford Art Gallery from January 22-March 13, 2026. Bringing together artists whose work explores the limits of experience, this program offers a special opportunity to hear directly from those behind the exhibition. Each participating artist will give a brief talk reflecting on their work in the exhibition, followed by a moderated conversation and audience Q&A.

After a one-year hiatus, the Stanford-Leuphana Summer Academy on Humanities and Media is back! The theme for 2026 is Periodization, and we'll meet for the week of June 22-26 in Berlin. How, why, and with what epistemic implications is history divided into temporal segments? Periodizations—whether in the form of epochs, ages, turning points, or more heroic “eras”—belong to the most fundamental and at the same time most frequently contested historiographical operations in literary, art, and media studies.

Please join us in welcoming Patrick Keilty, our next guest of the year, who will present “Processing Pleasure” on Tuesday, February 3, from 5-6:30PM PT. This event will take place in the Board Room at the Humanities Center; refreshments will be served. Zoom link for those unable to join in person:  This talk examines the early history of electronic payment processing, as told by the engineers who developed the technology in the 1980s.

EXTRA/PHENOMENALITIES opened last Thursday, January 22, and will be up until March 13, 2026 at the Stanford Art Gallery. Here are some impressions, along with my remarks, from the opening (courtesy of Anja Ulfeldt).

"Race, Repetition, and Seriality in Games and Contemporary Media." Videogames and race have intermingled since the earliest days of the medium, yet game studies has yet to develop a sustained methodology to contend with the racial logics and aesthetic practices embedded within game texts. How do videogames function as racial projects? Does race function as a structuring force within game design?

On Feb 5, 2026 (5:00-6:30pm), I'll be participating in the InterPlay Salon alongside Michele Elam and Charlotte McCurdy at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford. We'll be presenting short PechaKucha-style talks. Mine will focus on my recent art and curatorial efforts with the non/phenomenal collective, including our current show EXTRA/PHENOMENALITES at the Stanford Art Gallery. More info and registration here.

EXTRA/PHENOMENALITIESJanuary 22–March 13, 2026Stanford Art Gallery OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, January 22, 5-7pm What are the limits of experience? This exhibition explores forms of appearance that press against the edges of perception—phenomena that are felt only indirectly, sensed as traces, intensities, or disturbances rather than as stable objects. “Extra/phenomenality” refers to this ambiguous zone of surplus and slippage: where aspects of the world exceed or elude our usual modes of noticing, while still shaping how we see, feel, and understand.

We are excited to announce our first event of 2026! Hannes Bajohr will present on "The Latent Space of Meaning and the Novel" on Tuesday, January 13, from 5-6:30pm PT. The event will take place in the Stanford Humanities Center Board Room. Refreshments will be served. Zoom link for those unable to join in-person: tinyurl.com/3xm7rdku We look forward to seeing you there!