Grappling with the consequences of wiring our world, Program Earth examines how sensor technologies are programming our environments. Jennifer Gabrys suggests that the sensor-based monitoring of Earth offers the prospect of making new environments not simply as an extension of the human but rather as new “technogeographies” that connect technology, nature, and people.
Media history is millions, even billions, of years old. That is the premise of Jussi Parikka’s pioneering and provocative book, A Geology of Media, which argues that to adequately understand contemporary media culture we must set out from material realities that precede media themselves—Earth’s history, geological formations, minerals, and energy.
John Durham Peters’ The Marvelous Clouds redefines media as the fundamental infrastructures that shape human life, blending nature and culture. He argues that environments themselves function as media, enabling communication, survival, and meaning-making. From fire and calendars to religion and digital networks, Peters situates contemporary media within a deep historical continuum of human practices. Through examples spanning oceans, skies, farming, navigation, and meteorology, the book illustrates how media organize relations between people, society, and the natural world. Rather than novelty, digital media extend ancient practices, prompting reflection on ecological interdependence and the material conditions of existence.