Onto-Cartography: An Ontology of Machines and Media (Speculative Realism) - Tapa dura

"Bryant's ecological focus on the crucial interaction of the corporeal and incorporeal makes his contribution extremely important ... The sturdiest bridge yet built between post-structuralism and the vibrant new research being conducted under the auspices of a return to materialist thought."--Ian Lowrie, Rice University, Los Angeles Review of Books

Onto-Cartography gives an unapologetic defense of naturalism and materialism, transforming these familiar positions and showing how culture itself is formed by nature. Bryant endorses a pan-ecological theory of being, arguing that societies are ecosystems that can only be understood by considering nonhuman material agencies such as rivers and mountain ranges alongside signifying agencies such as discourses, narratives, and ideologies. In this way, Bryant lays the foundations for a new machine-oriented ontology. This theoretically omnivorous work draws on disciplines as diverse as deconstruction, psychoanalysis, Marxism, media studies, object-oriented ontology, the new materialist feminisms, actor-network theory, biology, and sociology. Through its fresh attention to nonhumans and material being, it also provides a framework for integrating the most valuable findings of critical theory and social constructivism.