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Official (Melbourne) Book Launch: Michael Richardson Nonhuman Witnessing
26 November 2024 @ 5:00 pm - 5:45 pm AEDT
Join us to celebrate the launch of Associate Professor Michael Richardson’s new book Nonhuman Witnessing: War, Data, and Ecology after the End of the World with refreshments and words from Larissa Hjorth. Out now with Duke University Press, the book calls for the radical transformation of how we understand witnessing in an age of crises.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In Nonhuman Witnessing Michael Richardson argues that a radical rethinking of what counts as witnessing is central to building frameworks for justice in an era of endless war, ecological catastrophe, and technological capture. Dismantling the primacy and notion of traditional human-based forms of witnessing, Richardson shows how ecological, machinic, and algorithmic forms of witnessing can help us better understand contemporary crises. He examines the media-specificity of nonhuman witnessing across an array of sites, from nuclear testing on First Nations land and autonomous drone warfare to deepfakes, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic investigative tools. Throughout, he illuminates the ethical and political implications of witnessing in an age of profound instability. By challenging readers to rethink their understanding of witnessing, testimony, and trauma in the context of interconnected crises, Richardson reveals the complex entanglements between witnessing and violence and the human and the nonhuman.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Richardson is a writer, researcher, and teacher living and working on Gadigal and Bidjigal country. An Associate Professor in the School of the Arts & Media at UNSW Sydney and an Associate Investigator with ADM+S, his research examines how technology, power, and culture shape knowledge in war, security, and surveillance.