Benjamin H. Bratton

Wikipedia entry

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Born Los Angeles, CA. 1968 Fields Digital Media, Political Philosophy, Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture, Sociology, Critical Theory, Public Policy, Software Studies Website www.bratton.info

(summary) Benjamin H. Bratton is Associate Professor of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego and Director of The Center for Design and Geopolitics think-tank at Calit2, The California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology. He is an American sociologist, architectural and design theorist, known for an unusual mix of philosophical and aesthetic research, organizational planning and strategy, and for his writing on the cultural implications of computing and globalization.

Biography Bratton's writing blends philosophical issues, such as design aesthetics, formal sovereignty, political geography and complex systems theory, with a detailed treatment of contemporary technologies, such as cloud computing, ubiquitous computing, biotechnology, and interface design. His essays, often presented to audiences with a stream of both original and appropriated imagery, juxtapose familiar current events with unexpected philosophical framings, creating a densely-woven, science-fiction like prose.

The interdisciplinary nature of his work is mirrored by his biography. While his academic background is in sociological theory of technology and globalization, he has taught almost exclusively in fine arts, architecture and design programs, and directs a think-tank at an institute of telecommunications and information technology. Before devoted himself full-time to academia, he also worked for many years as a technology and design executive and consultant.

Among his most recent work, "On Geoscapes & Google Caliphate: Except #Mumbai" examines the correspondence of political theology and planetary computation as modes of political geography. (citation TCS) "Surviving the Interface: the Envelopes, Membranes and Borders of Deep Cosmopolitics" considers the emergence of new forms of sovereignty derived from shared digital and urban infrastructures, and the challenges they pose to conventional understandings of architectural partitions and national borders. (citation lecture video) In "iPhone City (v.2005)" Bratton was early to demonstrate the impact that cinematic user interfaces for mobile social media would have on urban design.(citation AD_

His current work develops a political theory of planetary-scale computation and draws from disparate sources, from Paul Virilio, Michel Serres, and Carl Schmitt, to Alan Turing, Google Earth, and IPv6.

Before moving to University of California, San Diego, Bratton taught at The Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles from 2001-10, where taught in the XLab program with digital architect, Hernan Diaz-Alonso. He taught in the Department of Design | Media Arts at UCLA from 2003-2008. (citation site)

He was Director of the Advanced Strategies Group at Yahoo!. He has also worked with Imaginary Forces, and Razorfish, among others. (citation site)

He holds a PhD. in the Sociology of Technology from the University of California, Santa Barbara

Personal Life

Bratton lives in La Jolla, CA and Los Angeles with his wife, Japanese-American poet, Bruna Mori, and their son, Lucien. (citation site)

he was adopted at a very young age and grew up in Los Angeles and Santa Paula, CA with his adopted family.

he is the half-brother of Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu. Their father, Michael Stewart, was in the 1960s folk group, The We-Five, and producer of Billy Joel's Piano Man.