Transformations of the Human and LA Review of Books Partner to Investigate the Ramifications of Work From Home Conditions Brought About by COVID-19 on Culture Production

Remote Intervention: A Los Angeles Review of Books Symposium in Partnership with the Transformations of the Human Program at the Berggruen Institute

In “Remote Intervention,” the Transformations of the Human (ToftH) program partnered with the Los Angeles Review of Books to invite LA-based artists, curators, and cultural workers to reimagine the role of artists and cultural workers given the current conditions of remote life.

Over the long safer-at-home months of 2020, the world has been in suspense and its cultural touchpoints have been thrust into the digital domain. What could transpire and what could be lost when cultural production must construe a wholly digitized practice and how might the experience transform conceptions of the human when life is mediated on screen.

Co-edited and introduced by Berggruen Senior Researcher Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, the dossier includes essays from Hakopian (Updating the Human Algorithm), ToftH Artist Fellow Nancy Baker Cahill (Embracing the Radical Uncertainty of Part-Machines), ToftH Artist Fellow Rob Reynolds (Teaching Artists in a Pandemic), ToftH Director Tobias Rees (Life Lived On Screen: Philosophical, Poetic and Political Observations), and ToftH Associate Director Tui Shaub (Everyday Worlding).