Artist, filmmaker, and writer Hito Steyerl is an acute observer and interpreter of globalized and digital cultures. This book examines three of Steyerl's large-scale works-Hell Yeah We Fuck Die (2016), ExtraSpaceCraft (2016), and Liquidity Inc. (2014)-as well as other iconic works from the last 15 years. These essayistic documentary films blend personal with political and satire with seriousness. Her artworks and writings are inspired by her investigations of the impact of the internet and new technologies on our lives and are critical of the various forms of control and surveillance, as well as militarisation and cultural globalisation.

How do "human" prejudices reemerge in algorithmic cultures allegedly devised to be blind to them? How do "human" prejudices reemerge in algorithmic cultures allegedly devised to be blind to them? To answer this question, this book investigates a fundamental axiom in computer science: pattern discrimination. By imposing identity on input data, in order to filter-that is, to discriminate-signals from noise, patterns become a highly political issue. Algorithmic identity politics reinstate old forms of social segregation, such as class, race, and gender, through defaults and paradigmatic assumptions about the homophilic nature of connection. Instead of providing a more "objective" basis of decision making, machine-learning algorithms deepen bias and further inscribe inequality into media. Yet pattern discrimination is an essential part of human-and nonhuman-cognition. Bringing together media thinkers and artists from the United States and Germany, this volume asks the urgent questions: How can we discriminate without being discriminatory? How can we filter information out of data without reinserting racist, sexist, and classist beliefs? How can we queer homophilic tendencies within digital cultures?

A multifaceted response to issues concerning personal privacy and government power by writers, artists, and others The filmmaker, artist, and journalist Laura Poitras has explored the themes of mass surveillance, "war on terror," drone program, Guantanamo, and torture in her work for more than ten years. In 2013, Poitras was contacted by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency subcontractor who leaked classified information about government-sponsored surveillance. Her resulting documentary, Citizenfour, which won an Academy Award for best documentary feature in 2015, is the third film in her post-9/11 film trilogy. For this volume, Poitras has invited authors ranging from artists and novelists to technologists and academics to respond to the modern-day state of mass surveillance. Among them are the acclaimed author Dave Eggers, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, the former Guantanamo Bay detainee Lakhdar Boumediene, the writer and researcher Kate Crawford, and Edward Snowden, to name but a few. Some contributors worked directly with Poitras and the archive of documents leaked by Snowden; others contributed fictional reinterpretations of spycraft. The result is a "how-to" guide for living in a society that collects extraordinary amounts of information on individuals. Questioning the role of surveillance and advocating for collective privacy are central tennets for Poitras, who has long engaged with and supported free-software technologists. Distributed for the Whitney Museum of American Art Exhibition Schedule: Whitney Museum of American Art (02/05/16-05/01/16)

Ultracold Neutrons is a guide to a fascinating topic. It describes how a simple new idea in experimental neutron physics has changed the landscape of what is often called 'fundamental physics.' Ultracold neutrons (UCNs) are neutrons moving at the low speed of a bicycle rider. They were produced for the first time 50 years ago (in 1968) and are distinguished from ordinary neutrons with much higher energies by their ability to be confined in 'neutron bottles' for durations up to several hundred seconds. This is possible since they are reflected back and forth from the container walls many thousands of times with very little loss. As a result of these long observation times, their properties and interactions with the environment can be studied with superb precision.Directed towards a general readership, this book is an excellent introduction to a field of research that is not highly specialized but touches on many aspects of our physical world, classical as well as quantum mechanical.

In Duty Free Art, filmmaker and writer Hito Steyerl wonders how we can appreciate, or even make art, in the present age. What can we do when arms manufacturers sponsor museums, and some of the world's most valuable artworks are used as a fictional currency in a global futures market that has nothing to do with the work itself? Can we distinguish between creativity and the digital white noise that bombards our everyday lives? Exploring artefacts as diverse as video games, Wikileaks files, the proliferation of spam, and political actions, she exposes the paradoxes within globalization, political economies, visual culture, and the status of art production.