Cool down your cortex and fire up your imagination! That, in short, is what Pasi Väliaho suggests in this bracing analysis of how the neoliberal image economy has penetrated to humans' reptilian core, and how in turn our brains-almost independently of the thinking 'us'-might fight back, in collective acts of creative individuation. Väliaho impressively synthesizes recent research across neuroscience, philosophy, anthropology, and media art in this powerful and crisply written book.
Laura U. Marks, School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University; author of The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses; Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media; and Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art
In a concise, informed, and engagingly written way, Pasi Väliaho's Biopolitical Screens presents a critical account of how images curate our minds and have merged with the neural tissues of our brains. A powerful and timely analysis of the neoliberal and military logic that operates our media and influences our everyday life. Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in the politics (and counter-politics) of digital screen culture.
Patricia Pisters, Professor of Film and Media Studies, Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam; author of The Neuro-Image: A Deleuzian Film-Philosophy of Digital Screen Culture
Biopolitical Screens is among the most penetrating accounts of visual culture that I have read in recent years. Building upon the emergent theoretical model of images as life-forms rather than inert representations, it builds an encyclopedic picture of the way we live now. Neuroscience, video games, neoliberal economics, and contemporary resource wars are arrayed in a critical montage sustained by explorations of the work of emerging artists in a variety of media and political situations. An exciting and essential work for anyone who wants to see the present clearly, along with its usable pasts and probable futures.
W. J. T. Mitchell, author of Seeing Through Race
Biopolitical Screens is an important contribution to the study of visual culture, and a thought-provoking ride for those who want to understand how our screen-based lifestyles are affecting our society and our very brains, and how can we resist the most pernicious effects of this process.
Hans Rollman
PopMatters
Rooted in a view of images as animated and animistic life-forms (or viruses) in their own right, Valiaho has contributed one of the most trenchant and cohesive accounts available of our collective predicament. Biopolitical Screens has keyed in many of the most essential theoretical and historical vectors that still await their 'incredible mutation.'
Afterimage
Focusing on current issues and combining the most recent interdisciplinary tools to do so, this book is of the moment. It is required reading for anyone who wishes to understand the intersection of images, politics, and media in 21st-century culture.
Choice
Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2015
