SOC Professor and Internet Governance Lab Faculty Fellow Dr. Aram Sinnreich discusses his latest article titled, “The Carrier Wave Principle” (International Journal of Communication, forthcoming). As Sinnreich and co-author Jesse Gilbert of Dark Matter Media write:

In this article, we propose a new theoretical premise called the “carrier wave principle.” It holds that there is no fixed limit to the amount and variety of knowledge that may be produced from a given cultural artifact. This can be understood in relation to the exponential growth in the power and ubiquity of computational processing, which has reduced the procedural distance between cultural production, transmission, archiving, reception, and analysis. The resulting cascade of new interpretive epistemes has challenged the capacity of individuals, communities, and institutions to adapt, posing real-world challenges for privacy, identity, and subjectivity. We conclude that this principle will be integral to developing media, policies, and technologies that empower individuals and communities as computational processing continues to expand in adoption and scope.

Dr. Aram Sinnreich is an Associate Professor and chair of the Communication Studies division at American University’s School of Communication. Sinnreich’s work focuses on the intersection of culture, law and technology, with an emphasis on subjects such as emerging media and music. He is the author of three books: Mashed Up (2010), The Piracy Crusade (2013), and The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property (2019). He has also written for publications including The New York Times, Billboard, Wired, The Daily Beast, and The Conversation. Prior to coming to AU, Sinnreich served as Associate Professor at Rutgers University's School of Communication and Information, Director at media innovation lab OMD Ignition Factory, Managing Partner of media/tech consultancy Radar Research, Visiting Professor at NYU Steinhardt, and Senior Analyst at Jupiter Research. He is also a bassist and composer, and has played with groups and artists including progressive soul collective Brave New Girl, dub-and-bass band Dubistry, punk chanteuse Vivien Goldman, and Ari-Up, lead singer of the Slits. Along with co-authors Dunia Best and Todd Nocera, Sinnreich was a finalist in the 2014 John Lennon Songwriting Contest, in the jazz category.

Jesse Gilbert is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of visual art, sound and software design, creating flexible frameworks that are activated in live performance, via network interaction, or in installation settings. Since 2010 he has primarily developed and performed with his software SpectralGL, an interactive listening instrument that generates real-time visual landscapes in response to sound. Building on his work as a composer, sound designer and lifelong technologist, Gilbert’s creative output probes the phenomenological nature of listening itself through a practice centering on improvisation and collaborative dialogue. Gilbert co-founded Dark Matter Media LLC in 2007, through which he consults on a variety of projects in the art and entertainment industries. From 2011-2017 he was the founding Chair of the Media Technology department at Woodbury University, and has taught interactive software design at both CalArts and UC San Diego.

The Roundtable will take place on Friday, February 21, 2020 from 3-4:30pm in SIS Room 300.