Peter Lunenfeld (born 1962, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) is a

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

and

theorist A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...

digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

digital humanities Digital humanities (DH) is an area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or Information technology, digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities. It includes the systematic use of digital resources in the humanitie ...

, and urban humanities. He is a professor and the Vice Chair of the Design Media Arts department at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, director of the Institute for Technology and Aesthetics (ITA), and founder of ''mediawork'': The Southern California New Media Group. Lunenfeld is a leading figure in digital aesthetic theory, set on establishing philosophical quandaries regarding digital technology and its role in art, design and culture. Works like ''Snap to Grid'' and ''The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading'' incorporate traditional and continental theories of art to account for digital media. His work revolves around the discourses of technology,

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

, and cultural theory, establishing the complexity of digital aesthetics while simultaneously categorizing it. His books include ''City at the Edge of Forever'', ''Digital_Humanities'', ''USER'', ''Snap to Grid'', and ''The Digital Dialectic''. Lunenfeld is the editorial director of the highly designed Mediawork pamphlet series for the MIT Press. The series features commissioned writings that weave life stories into "theoretical and critical praxis." These award-winning "theoretical fetish objects" cover the intersections of art, design, technology, and market culture. Included in the series is ''Utopian Entrepreneur'' (2001) by

Brenda Laurel Brenda Laurel (born 1950) is an American interaction designer, video game designer, and researcher. She is an advocate for diversity and inclusiveness in video games, a "pioneer in developing virtual reality", a public speaker, and an academic. ...

, designed by Denise Gonzales Crisp; ''Writing Machines'' (2002) by

N. Katherine Hayles Nancy Katherine Hayles (born December 16, 1943) is an American postmodern literary critic, most notable for her contribution to the fields of literature and science, electronic literature, and American literature. She is the James B. Duke Di ...

, designed by Anne Burdick; ''Rhythm Science'' (2004) by Paul D. Miller aka

DJ Spooky Paul Dennis Miller (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is an American electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntabli ...

that Subliminal Kid, designed by COMA; and, ''Shaping Things'' (2005) by

Bruce Sterling Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the ''Mirrorshades'' anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre. Sterling's first ...

, designed by

Lorraine Wild Lorraine Wild (born 1953, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian-born American graphic designer, writer, art historian, and teacher. She is an AIGA Medalist and principal of Green Dragon Office, a design firm that focuses on collaborative work with ar ...

Lev Manovich Lev Manovich ( ) is an author of books on digital culture and new media, and professor of Computer Science at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Manovich's current research and teaching focuses on digital humanities, social computin ...

, the author of ''The Language of New Media'', lauded these 100 page "mind bombs" in the tradition of McLuhan and Fiore¹s ''The Medium is the Massage'' as a new operating system for the book. Lunenfeld has a B.A. in history from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, an MA in Media Studies from

SUNY Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

, and a Ph.D. from

in Film & Television. He worked as the Applications Coordinator at the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

winning hardware and software company Lyon Lamb. Honors and fellowships include a 2016 Internal Award for Art Criticism (from the IAAC), the Dorothy Lee Prize for Scholarship in 2013 (from the MEA), and fellowships at the Huntington Library (Dana and David Dornsife Fellow, 2015-16), USC Annenberg Center (Vectors, 2007), and the Columbia University Institute for Scholars at Reid Hall in Paris (2005). He lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California.

Related books

* Peter Lunenfeld: ''City at the Edge of Forever: Los Angeles Reimagined'', Viking, August 2020 * Peter Lunenfeld, Anne Burdick, Johanna Drucker, Todd Presner, Jeffrey Schnapp: ''Digital Humanities'', MIT Press, November 2012 * Peter Lunenfeld: ''The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading: Tales of the Computer as Culture Machine'', MIT Press, April 2011 * Peter Lunenfeld: ''USER:InfoTechnoDemo'', MIT Press (2005), visuals Mieke Gerritzen * Peter Lunenfeld: ''Snap to Grid: A User's Guide to Digital Arts, Media and Cultures'', MIT Press (2000) * Peter Lunenfeld, ed.: ''The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media'', MIT Press (1999)

References

External links

Official websiteUCLA Design Media Arts Department homepageMediawork Project homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lunenfeld, Peter 1962 births American mass media scholars Columbia College (New York) alumni Date of birth missing (living people) Digital media educators Living people Writers from New York City University at Buffalo alumni UCLA Film School alumni UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture faculty