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Fabian Offert

@zentralwerkstatt.org
3K followers 1.1K following 138 posts

Associate Professor UC Santa Barbara | I study how machine learning models represent culture and what is at stake – aesthetically and politically – when they do.

PostsRepliesMedia
Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 11h
.VSB?!?!?! This is early 2000s script kiddie erasure and I feel personally attacked.
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Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
CFP: Generative Digital Humanities, a volume on AI and DH in the long-running Minnesota Debates in DH book series. To be co-edited by @zentralwerkstatt.org, @laurenfklein.bsky.social, @lnakamura.bsky.social, and myself. Deadline Nov. 1. Please share widely! dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/page/cfp-gen...
dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu
CFP: Generative Digital Humanities | Debates in the Digital Humanities
Transforming scholarly publications into living digital works
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 29/09/2026
I'll be at the amazing U of T BMO lab at 4:30pm tomorrow to talk about Brecht, Wagner, and artificial intelligence, courtesy of @sbaycheng.bsky.social & David Rokeby. New research, so I'm especially excited. Stop by if you happen to be in Toronto!
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 24/09/2026
The program for our Critical AI Studies? conference, happening Oct. 9&10 at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social, is now online: huml.ucsb.edu/conference. Hope to see you there!
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 20/09/2026
You tell me!
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 19/09/2026
UK friends, next Tuesday we will Europe-launch our book at King's College: 9/2, 4L30pm, KCL Macadam Building MAC 106. Panel w/ @joannazylinska.bsky.social, @dchavezheras.bsky.social & @mrsbunz.bsky.social hosted by the Creative AI Lab. Register here: www.tickettailor.com/events/digit...
tickettailor.com
Select tickets – Creative AI presents: 'Vector Media' Book Launch 📚🌐 – Macadam, Surrey St - King's College London
Creative AI presents: 'Vector Media' Book Launch 📚🌐 – Macadam, Surrey St - King's College London, Tue 22 Sep 2026 - We would like to invite you to attend our book launch celebrating Vector Media with ...
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meson press @mesonpress.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
🚀 Digital version is out! 🚀 BUT we do think this one 📕 is so beautiful thanks to the 💨 cover pic by Trevor Paglen @paglen.studio -> everyone should get the real thing. 📚 @zentralwerkstatt.org @uminnpress.bsky.social also Leo Impett & Johanna Drucker meson.press/books/vector...
Three different books of Meson Press series "In Search Of Media". On top 'Vector Media', and in the background 'Digital Theory' and 'Neural Networks'.
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 16/09/2026
Soon!
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 09/09/2026
It might be entirely a my bubble thing but everybody I know hates their phone. The appeal of a phone that's actually two and a half phones to me is less than zero. Then again it's $2K so obviously not for me.
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maybe: leif weatherby @leifw.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
New German Critique has the Digital Theory Lab's Semiotic Machines special issue forthcoming, featuring a collection of essays by people at the cutting edge of AI and interpretation, politics, and culture ngc.arts.cornell.edu/forthcoming....
ngc.arts.cornell.edu
New German Critique: Forthcoming Issues
Widely considered the top journal in its field, New German Critique is an interdisciplinary journal that focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first-century German studies.
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 28/08/2026
Ja danke wie immer sehr hilfreich
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Hannes Bajohr @hannesbajohr.de · 26/08/2026
Etwas Neues von mir: Der Merkur bringt meinen Text »Probabilistische Intution. Über artifiziellen Text und seine Stile«. www.merkur-zeitschrift.de/artikel/prob...
Panel aus Ernie Bushmillers "Nancy": Sluggo, rechts, spricht zu Nancy, links, während er eine Dose Köder hochhält: "They pay me in woims!"
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 25/08/2026
Lässt sie sich nicht. Im Bild YOLO 8.
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 25/08/2026
Alle Jahre wieder. It. Does. Not. Work. Und übrigens auch 1:1 von Adam Harvey geklaut. (Das Argument, es ginge nur darum, auf die Überwachung aufmerksam zu machen, ist irrelevant wenn – wie in der taz hier – die Funktion als Fakt präsentiert wird. Im Bild: YOLO 8 one shot.)
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 20/08/2026
Na ja bis auf
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James E. Dobson @jeddobson.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
There has been little scholarly work on the media history of the GPU. This freshly published OA article is my attempt to show the lines of influence from learning machines in the 1950s through 1980s HPC and MPP systems to the TPUs and GPUs of the present. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
marketing image from Nvidia of the DGX Spark paired with a MacBook.
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Nina Lager Vestberg @lagernina.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Fancy an excuse to come to Stockholm in September? Open seminar on PICTURE CULTURES with various folks involved in the project Selling Pictures: Pictorial Economy and Commoditization 1820–2020 (IFFS/VR). Speaker list in the comments!
A poster of various AI-generated cats accompanied by the following invitation to an
OPEN SEMINAR
PICTURE CULTURES

17 Sept. 09.30–16.00

Klockan Konferens

Olof Palmes gata 29-31

Welcome to a seminar where researchers as well as the advisory board involved in the project Selling Pictures: Pictorial Economy and Commoditization 1820–2020 (IFFS/Vetenskapsrådet) will present recent and ongoing research on various of aspects of how mass-produced and mass-reproduced pictures can be interpreted, datafied and studied.

Speakers:

Realism revisited. The persistence of photography in the age of AI 
–Estelle Blaschke

What Did the Victorians See? Using Multimodal AI to Analyze 72,000 News Illustrations
–Thomas Smits

What Are Artificial Intelligence Models Models Of?
–Fabian Offert

Picturing Baskerville’s Punches
–Caroline Archer Parré

Proto-photographic Reproductive Phantasmagoria
–Wolfgang Brückle

Pictorial Economy and Commoditization 1820–2020
–Nina Lager Vestberg & Anna Näslund
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 18/08/2026
My take is that it's entirely cognitive dissonance (Gruber's similar piece also): if you were convinced, so far, that all your LLM does is help you write and not write for you, you now have a problem.
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Lauren Klein @laurenfklein.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Last day to submit! Deadline is today!
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Casey Newton @caseynewton.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Me: (being murdered by the AI paperclip maximizer) Bluesky: Actually it can't 'murder' you. Murder implies intent.
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 24/07/2026
One more week to submit! See you in Santa Barbara in October!
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journeyman folklorist @aniceburrito.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
You know that annoying asshole we all hate? Well I have resolved to put screenshots of his posts into your feed every day until the heat death of the universe. Enjoy
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 15/07/2026
Looks just like him amazing down to the low-cut grey dress he always liked to wear to the patent office
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 12/07/2026
Golden Gate Claude's lesser know cousin, Battery Gemini.
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Alan Liu @alanyliu.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
I posted on arXiv.org the preprint of my “AI Virtue: What Is ‘Good’ Knowledge in the Age of Artificial Intelligence?” arxiv.org/abs/2607.01776, which is forthcoming in a double special issue of “MFS Modern Fiction Studies on “Cultural AI” in 2027.
Screenshot of preprint abstract:

"In the age of AI, what will be good knowledge? This article, which is accepted and forthcoming in a special issue of Modern Fiction Studies on "Cultural AI" in 2027, applies digital humanities methods to map epistemic virtues (like "true," "accurate," "creative") used in a corpus of 553 journal articles on AI published in 2024. "Creativity" comes in for special attention as an example. Exploring this discourse of value, the article considers how a framework might be developed for evaluating the knowledge-worth of AI -- one less locked into values formed around pre-AI "knowledge work" agents or structures, and more open to the future values of "generativity." The essay is supported by an online digital kit for exploring data models of the corpus of articles on AI it studies."
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meson press @mesonpress.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
So glad to see the book "Vector Media", just co-published with @uminnpress.bsky.social, getting the attention it deserves! 👇Shout out to the authors @zentralwerkstatt.org Fabian Offert + Leo Impett for their excellent work!!!! ✊ + thx @mckenziewark.bsky.social + Lev Manovich for your interest.
Facebook post in which Lev Manovich says: 'This is the best theoretical book about generative AI video I have read so far' forwarded by McKenzie Wark writing 'this looks interesting'. Cover of the book 'Vector Media'.
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 03/07/2026
If you're wondering why the world is what it is you should read the Hacker News comments on this piece (news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4877...), where one half doesn't get the joke and the other is like "she does have some good points though." inpreparation.substack.com/p/opinion-i-...
inpreparation.substack.com
Opinion: I Was Not Allowed To Type Prompts Into ChatGPT During My Chalk Talk And This Is Discrimination
By Dr. Rachel Simmons, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 26/06/2026
Some good news (if you like me)
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 23/06/2026
Unfortunately it does...
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 23/06/2026
Excited to share that we are now inviting proposals for our upcoming Critical AI Studies? conference at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social on Oct. 9&10, 2026. Please see the full CfP here: huml.ucsb.edu/conference. Submissions are due July 31, 2026. For questions DM me or @owenleonard.bsky.social.
Poster for the conference "Critical Artificial Intelligence Studies?" at the University of California, Santa Barbara, October 9&10, 2026. The subtitle says "An interdisciplinary conference on a field in formation."
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 27/05/2026
Congratulations, Rachael!
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 13/05/2026
Honestly ODB2 to NLP box is a startup...
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 12/05/2026
This neat site assembles all kinds of ancient OSs (more like window managers) which reminded me of the hyper-obscure one that I learned Desktop computing on, called GeoWorks Ensemble. It pretends to be Windows but if you poke anything it crumbles back into DOS. Glorious. www.typewritten.org/Media/
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 07/05/2026
❤️
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Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Getting looped into convos about this book in its finishing stages expanded the scope of theory around neural networks in LLMs & Media — it opened up so many productive ways of thinking for me. Essential reading for anyone who’s been looking for a fresh theorization of critical AI.
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James E. Dobson @jeddobson.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Bound to be one of the most important critical and theoretical books on the meaning of neural networks (and not just for vision). Congratulations to Leonardo Impett and Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org! Freshly published from meson press and University of Minnesota Press. @uminnpress.bsky.social
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 02/05/2026
Thank you so much!
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Chuck Tingle @chucktingle.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY
cover of UNIONIZED IN THE BUTT AND NOW EVERYONE IS SAFER, HAPPIER, AND BETTER PAID featuring a shirtless buckaroo on the left and a handsome triceratops on the right they are in a factorycover of NOT POUNDED BY MY SOUL-CRUSHING JOB BECAUSE I QUIT featuring buckaroo on the left with a satisfied smirk thinkin 'dang i am so glad to leave this job' on the right is is swirling paperwork they are in an officecover of NOT POUNDED BY THE PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION OF MY OWN SCREENWRITING BECAUSE I'M ON STRIKE AND I DESERVE TO BE FAIRLY COMPENSATED FOR MY LABOR WHILE STUDIO CEOS TAKE RECORD SALARIES featuring ladybuck with a megaphone on the left and a screenplay on the right they are in front of a palm tree lined streetcover of BISEXUALLY SATISFIED BY MY HEALTHY WORK/LIFE BALANCE featuring a shirtless buckaroo in the middle on the left is a living seed growing and on the left is a sentient stapler
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 29/04/2026
Vector Media is out today!
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 07/04/2026
Perhaps one day we can even get computers to output numbers rather than long-winded prose!!! github.com/JuliusBrusse...
github.com
GitHub - JuliusBrussee/caveman: 🪨 why use many token when few token do trick — Claude Code skill that cuts 65% of tokens by talking like caveman
🪨 why use many token when few token do trick — Claude Code skill that cuts 65% of tokens by talking like caveman - JuliusBrussee/caveman
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 06/04/2026
GOFR, love it!
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 04/04/2026
Excuse me there is an OS in my PDF... github.com/ading2210/li...
github.com
GitHub - ading2210/linuxpdf: Linux running inside a PDF file via a RISC-V emulator
Linux running inside a PDF file via a RISC-V emulator - ading2210/linuxpdf
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 04/04/2026
Yes!
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 04/04/2026
It's Easter so I thought it would be appropriate to be back from the dead to announce that this is coming out at the end of this month: www.upress.umn.edu/978151792167...
upress.umn.edu
Vector Media
Dispelling the notion of “generative” AINeural networks are designed to dissolve all media into the vector space—a universal space of commensurability....
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AIMODELS @erc-aimodels.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
CHAT TOKEN VECTOR Questioning Models of Language and Neo-Structuralism in AI 11-13 June 2025, Venice Confirmed speakers: Lydia Liu, Hannes Bajohr, Gianni Gastaldi, Leonardo Impett, Fabian Offert a.o. Call for Papers: deadline April 1 unive.it/chat-token-vector
unive.it
Chat Token Vector: Home
Chat Token Vector - Home
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Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 13/03/2025
Today at Berkeley if you're around! events.berkeley.edu/German/event...
events.berkeley.edu
Inaugural Sunrise Lecture on Media and Technology: Fabian Offert on “Vector Media”
For the inaugural Sunrise Lecture on Media and Technology, hosted by the Department of German, we welcome Dr. Fabian Offert, Assistant Professor of...
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Jordan S. Carroll 🌹 @jordanscarroll.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
BlueSky's main fault is that many people on it seem to be constantly talking about politics but in a way that is often totally anti-political
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 05/03/2025
Nothing to see here, just Nature advocating LLM peer review. “Feed your dictated notes into an offline large language model (LLM) to clarify and organize your feedback. A simple prompt such as “Write a critical reviewer letter based on the following notes. Maintain a professional tone throughout”
nature.com
Three AI-powered steps to faster, smarter peer review
Tired of spending countless hours on peer reviews? An AI-assisted workflow could help.
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AusSTS @aussts.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
On Day 1 a keynote panel at the NCM on infrastructures of noise with Dang Nguyen (RMIT) @digitaldang.bsky.social, Ranjodh Dhaliwal (University of Basel) @ranjodhdhaliwal.com, Kate Mannell (Deakin) @katemannell.bsky.social and Fabian Offert (UC Santa Barbara) @zentralwerkstatt.org 2/
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AusSTS @aussts.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
The AusSTS 2025 cfp is closing soon - please get your ‘Signals and Noises’ in by Friday 14 March! It’s shaping up to be an amazing few days in Narrm across the National Communication Museum and Deakin Downtown, and we'll be welcoming some amazing keynote speakers and contributors, including... 1/
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