A D A M N O C E K

About

Adam Nocek works at the intersection of philosophy, design, media, and the biological sciences. In both theory and practice, Nocek seeks to expand what we mean by technology to reimagine how it designs and mediates life on earth. His most recent work focuses on the political, economic, and ecological exploitation of computational design at scale. This has propelled his work to engage a wide range of pressing topics in recent years, from algorithmic governance and the computational biosciences to tactical urbanism, the design of artificial ecosystems, and the loss of biodiversity through urban development.

Nocek is Associate Professor in the Philosophy of Technology and Science and Technology Studies in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering at Arizona State University. He is the Founding Director of ASU’s Center for Philosophical Technologies, and the editor of Techniques Journal. Nocek is also an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Creighton University School of Medicine and Faculty in Artes Liberales at the University of Warsaw, Poland.

Nocek recently published Molecular Capture: The Animation of Biology (Minnesota, 2021), and is completing his next monograph, Governmental Design: On Algorithmic Autonomy. Nocek is the co-editor of Design in Crisis: New Worlds, Philosophies and Practices, The Lure of Whitehead, along with several other collections and special issues, including a special issue of Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities titled, “Ontogenesis Beyond Complexity.”

In 2021, Nocek co-founded the School of Materialist Research, along with Katerina Kolozova (Director, Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, Skopje). Nocek was recently a faculty fellow at the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Study and held the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Visiting Professorship. And in 2023, Nocek is Visiting Professor in the Design Department at Politecnico di Milano, Italy.