“Through a Bent Glass, Darkly”
A review of “This is Us” at Z33 (Belgium)
Hyperallergic, 13 February 2024
“Fight the Powerful Forces Stealing Our Attention”
An OpEd on human fracking (with Alyssa Loh and Peter Schmidt)
The New York Times, 27 November 2023.
“The Deck-Collage”
Pamphlet-essay accompanying a deconstructed collage project.
IHUM (Princeton) 1 November 2023.
“Fracking Eyeballs”
On the violence of extractive attention.
Asterisk 4 – On Measurement (October, 2023).
“Metafiction and the Study of History: Makerly Knowledge in the Archive”
With Jeff Dolven, Catherine Hansen, and Justin E. H. Smith
Rethinking History 28 (2023)
“Fine Lines: Simone Weil”
On a single sentence in Gravity and Grace.
Tank 95 “On Literature”: 179 (Summer, 2023)
“Historical Experiments”
With David Kishik; on “philosophy, fiction, and the secret friendship between scholarship and ecstasy.”
Lapham’s Quarterly “Roundtable,” 6 March 2023
“Things become more solid”
From the notebooks, in a series.
The Oxonian Review, 4 April 2022
“The Fuse; Its Refusal”
Notes on the Politics of Burnout.
October 176: 25-26 ; Spring 2021
“Truth in the Skin, and Beyond”
Galvanometers and the soul.
Cabinet Issue 66: 55-61; Spring 2020
“Confetti Uncut” (reprint)
On celebration and sacrifice.
Very, Vary, Veri 4: 19-24; 2020
“Flotsam”
A close look at the sands of time.
(In German and English)
Text zur Kunst 119: 106-113; June 2019
“The Beast in the Bestiary”
Sadism and satire in the tropics.
Cabinet, Issue 65: 85-86; Fall 2018
(Reprinted from the catalogue of the 55th Venice Biennale)
“Peripeteia in Tribeca”
The politics of brutality, now.
Apricota, Issue 1: 64-5; Spring 2018
“The Luminosity of the Nose”
Edward Lear and the disco ball.
Cabinet, Issue 64: 84-91; Summer 2017 [Feb, 2018]
“Reambiguation”
Neuroscience and Hollywood special effects – Greebles and greebling.
Cabinet, Issue 63: 19-25; Spring 2017
“Out From Behind This Mask”
Death masks and the historicity of a bristle
Public Domain Review, July 2017
“Spiders, Stars, and Death”
Rifles, telescopes, and the history of crosshairs
Cabinet, Issue 62: 34-36; Fall 2016-Winter 2017
“Vapor Trails”
The history of contrails: paranoia and the archive
Cabinet, Issue 61: 12-16; Spring-Summer 2016
“Federica M. Soletta’s Oculus”
Epistemology and the hole in the roof.
Climates: Architecture and the Planetary Imaginary
(Zurich: Lars Müller Publishers, 2016).
“On the New Materialisms”
A response to the October questionnaire.
October, 155: 18–20; Winter 2016.
“Notes Toward A History of Skywriting”
The grammatology of the dogfight
Cabinet, Issue 60: 96-101; Winter 2015-16.
“The Archive of Ice”
Tracing climate change at the National Ice Core Laboratory
Cabinet, Issue 59: 96-101; Fall 2015.
“Give and Take”
The contingencies of trust
Cabinet, Issue 58: 78-83; Summer 2015.
“The Bonds of Catastrophe”
Betting on disaster
Cabinet, Issue 57: 73-78; Spring 2015.
“On the Ball”
A global roundtable
Cabinet, Issue 56: 64-72; Winter 2014-5.
“Platter of Love” (with Yael Geller)
Fruit of the womb
Cabinet, Issue 55: 62-65; Fall 2014.
“Tombstones and Toys”
The artifact of the deal
Cabinet, Issue 54: 21-26; Summer 2014.
(see a related video interview here)
“The Nebulous and the Infinitesimal”
A Conversation Between D. Graham Burnett and David Gissen
The Appendix, Vol. 2 No. 3; July 2014.
Also published in Architecture Is All Over, edited by Esther Choi and Marrikka Trotter, Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2017.
“The Endoscopic Imagination”
The eye inside
Cabinet, Issue 53: 11-13; Spring 2014.
“What is Science For?” (with Mark Dion)
A collaborative visual essay on the purpose of the sciences.
The Point, Issue 8: 96-104; Spring 2014.
“Confetti Uncut”
A phyllobolia of trash
Cabinet, Issue 52: 68-73; Winter 2013/14.
“A Whaling in the Woods” / “Waljagd im Wald” (German)
An exercise in remote paracritical response — on Adrián Villar Rojas;
A collaboration with S. Nicht, Y. Flores, and E. zu Tage-Ravn
Parkett 93: 108-121; 2013.
“A Wheel in a Wheel”
Sprewells and the unleashing of blur
Cabinet, Issue 51: 77-82; Fall 2013.
“Relational Economics”
Tabua and the question of currency
Cabinet, Issue 50: 63-69; Summer 2013.
“The Metachrotic Swan Song”
An essay on a victorian death trope, featuring a skew exercise in the artistic sublime by Spenser Finch
Cabinet, Issue 49: 96-101; Spring 2013.
“Black Glass”
Eye, phone
Cabinet, Issue 48: 39–40; Winter 2012/13.
“Coming Full Circle”
The Traveling Salesman Problem and the dream of optimality
Cabinet, Issue 47: 73–77; Fall 2012.
“Hell Is a Funhouse Mirror”
Dante’s Inferno and Dante’s Inferno
Cabinet, Issue 46: 90–91; Summer 2012.
“The Games Game Theorists Play”
The unstable alliances of So Long, Sucker
Cabinet, Issue 45: 67–70; Spring 2012.
“November 10, 2011”
Contribution to the themed section on “24 Hours”
Cabinet, Issue 44: 60–61; Winter 2011/12.
“The Memory Hole Has Teeth”
Toward a field guide to shred
Cabinet, Issue 42: 70–77; Summer 2011.
“Holistic Browsing”
Review of David Senior’s Access to Tools: The Whole Earth Catalog, 1968–1974 (at MoMA in summer 2011)
Nature, Vol. 474(7353): 578; June 30, 2011.
“The Singing of the Grid”
Thoreau’s electro-Aeolian redeemer
Cabinet, Issue 41: 61–66; Spring 2011.
“Facing the Unknown”
Cesare Brandi and the question, How to recover what was lost?
Cabinet, Issue 40: 39–46; Winter 2010/11.
Reprinted in: Curiosity and Method: Ten Years of Cabinet Magazine (New York: Cabinet Books, 2012).
“Maps, Bodies, States”
An essay on cartography and national identity, commissioned in connection with the run of John Guare’s A Free Man of Color. (With art by Aleksandra Mir).
Lincoln Center Theater Review, Issue 54: 20–22; Winter 2010
“Outsider Science: Joseph J. Woodson’s Solitary Census of Marine Life”
Contribution to The New City Reader, a project that re-conceives the newspaper as a public space, part of “The Last Newspaper” exhibition at the New Museum
The New City Reader, December 24, 2010
“Learning Degree Zero”
On learning about learning, via Aplysia californica.
Cabinet, Issue 39: 59–62; Fall 2010.
“On the Monstrosity of Islands”
The island as a sea monster
Cabinet, Issue 38: 90–94; Summer 2010.
“The Objective Case: A Review Essay on Daston and Galison, Objectivity (Zone, 2007)”
October, 133: 133–144; Summer 2010.
“A Mind in the Water: The Dolphin as Our Beast of Burden”
On flotation tanks, Cold War brain science, LSD, and, yes, the dolphin
Orion, May–June 2010: 38–51.
In 2012, Kagaku republished “A Mind in the Water” in Japanese.
“Two Bubbles, and a Third”
An essay on the “Homo Bulla” trope
Cabinet, Issue 37: 93–98; Spring 2010.
“On the Misrecognition of Friends”
Contribution to a portfolio of essays and artists’ projects dealing with the failures of friendship
Cabinet, Issue 36: 100; Winter 2009/10.
“Savage Selection: Analogy and Elision in On the Origin of Species”
An article arguing that the argumentative structure of Darwin’s work has been misunderstood
Endeavour, Vol. 33 (4): 120–125; December 2009.
“Eloge: Michael S. Mahoney” (with Jed Buchwald)
Isis, Vol. 100 (3): 623–626; September 2009.
Reprinted in: Michael S. Mahoney, Histories of Computing (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011).
“A Little Travel Is a Dangerous Thing”
Lead essay on the history of exploration, empire, and knowledge
Lapham’s Quarterly, Vol. 2(3): 187–194; Summer 2009 (TRAVEL).
“Games of Chance”
Investigation of the mathematics of the normal
Cabinet, Issue 34: 59–65; Summer 2009.
In 2009, Ekspektatywa republished “Games of Chance” in Polish.
“The Ironic Cloud” (with Jeff Dolven)
Proposal for weaponization of irony (see here and here for discussions in the German press; also reprinted in the US)
Harper’s Magazine, July 2009: 13–15.
“Deception as a Way of Knowing” (with Anthony Grafton)
A conversation about plagiarism, forgery, and the history of learning
Cabinet, Issue 33: 69–76; Spring 2009.
And see further correspondence on this here.
Cabinet, Issue 34: 57; Summer 2009.
“The X Factor”
Edited republication of Max Joseph von Pettenkofer’s 1892 self-experimentation with cholera
Cabinet, Issue 33: 10–12; Spring 2009.
“The Great Whale Trial: Science and Society in the Early Republic,” and
“The Whale Trial on Trial: A Reply” [including the four commissioned essay-reviews]
The editors of HS commissioned four essay-reviews of Trying Leviathan (Thomas Bender, Joyce E. Chaplin, Benjamin Cohen, and Cyrus R.K. Patell).
Historically Speaking, Vol. X(1): 19–28; January 2009.
“A Juror’s Role”
An essay on the civic and political functions of juries in the American legal system; commissioned by the State Department
Anatomy of a Jury Trial, US Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs; 2009
“Fire and Truth”
An essay on spectroscopy, the trial by ordeal, and the idea of the “crucible”
Cabinet, Issue 32: 61–66; Winter 2008/09.
Reprinted in: Curiosity and Method: Ten Years of Cabinet Magazine (New York: Cabinet Books, 2012).
“Catch and Release”
An essay on the history of pedagogical practices in the classroom and the field
Lapham’s Quarterly, Vol. 1(4): 217-21; Fall, 2008 (EDUCATION)
“The Orienting Stone”
An essay on the neurophysiology of vertebrate spatial orientation
Cabinet, Issue 31: 6-10; Fall, 2008.
“Knowledge of Leviathan: Captain Charles W. Morgan Anatomizes His Whale” (with Dan Bouk)
Edited and annotated publication of an important historical document
Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 27:433-66; Fall, 2008.
“This is Your Captain Speaking”
Essay on mysticism and prophesy
Raritan, Vol. 28(2): 147-153; Fall, 2008
“Flat Earth and Amazons”
A review of Neil Safier’s Measuring the New World (Chicago, 2008)
Nature, Vol. 454(21): 942-48; August, 2008.
“Joy in Repetition”
An essay on poetry, prayer and the epistemological implications of refrains
The American Poetry Review, Vol. 37(4): 11-13; July/August, 2008.
“Funhouse Goddess”
Lead essay on Charles Fourier, Alain de Lille, and the sexual politics of natural law theories
Lapham’s Quarterly, Vol. 1(3): 182-89; Summer, 2008 (NATURE)
“Metaphysics, Money & the Messiah” (with Cornel West)
A conversation about Herman Melville’s The Confidence Man
Dædalus, Vol. 136 (4):101-114; Fall, 2007.
“FOCUS: Science and the Law”
A special section of four articles
Isis, Vol. 98 (2):310-350; June, 2007.
Review of Scientific Uncertainty and the Politics of Whaling, by Michael Heazle (University of Washington, 2006)
Isis, Vol. 98 (2): June, 2007.
“Cutting the World at Its Joints” (with Sina Najafi)
A conversation on taxonomy and comparative anatomy in 18th and 19th c.
Cabinet, Issue 28: 81-88; Winter 2007/2008.
“Blowing the Status Quo out of the Water” (with Anna Mundow)
An interview on Trying Leviathan
The Boston Globe, December 16, 2007
“Foreword” to special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of 12 Angry Men.
Chicago-Kent Law Review, Vol. 82(2): December, 2007.
Review of Rhumb Lines and Map Wars: A Social History of the Mercator Projection by M. Monmonier (Chicago, 2004)
London Review of Books, Vol. 27 (21): November 3, 2005.
Review of Prince Henry, ‘The Navigator’, by Peter Russell (Yale, 2000)
Isis, Vol. 96(1): March, 2005.
Review of Maps, Myths, and Men, by Kirsten A. Seaver (Stanford, 2004)
Isis, Vol. 96(1): March, 2005.
“The Founder of Empires”
Essay on a story preserved in Islamic texts about sea creatures and the founding of Alexandria
The American Scholar, Vol. 73(4): 65-68; Autumn, 2004
Review of Medical Geography in Historical Perspective, edited by Nicolaas A. Rupke
Journal of the History of Medicine, Vol. 59(1): January, 2004.
“Mapping Time: Chronometry on Top of the World”
Clocks and rocks and maps and memory
Dædalus, Vol. 132 (2):5–19; Spring, 2003.
“Einstein, Poincaré & Modernity” (with Peter Galison)
A discussion of timekeeping in the history of science
Dædalus, Vol. 132 (2):41-55; Spring, 2003.
“The Error of All Things”
Review essay on Ken Alder’s The Measure of All Things (Free Press, 2003).
American Scientist, Vol. 91: 166-169; March-April, 2003.
“Oil Paper, Ink, and Coming Home”
An introductory essay to a special volume on travel narratives
Princeton University Library Chronicle, Vol. LXIV(2): 249-251; Winter, 2003.
“Double Exposure” (with Maria Burnett-Gaudiani)
Joint diary entries from 9/11
The American Scholar, Vol. 71 (1): 29–37; Winter, 2002
“‘It is impossible to make a step…’ Nineteenth-Century Interior Exploration and the Amerindians of British Guiana”
Ethnohistory, Vol. 49 (1):2-40; Winter, 2002.
“The Mass in Spanish”
Essay-memoir on language, liturgy, and spiritual tradition
The American Scholar, Vol. 70 (3): 14-29; Summer, 2001
“Exploration, Performance, Alliance: Robert Schomburgk in British Guiana”
Journal of Caribbean Studies, Vol. 15(1&2): Fall, 2000.
“Writing the History of Time”
Essay review of The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come (at the British Museum) and
The Story of Time (at the National Maritime Museum)
The New Republic, September 11, 2000.
“Renaissance Hobbies”
Review of Lisa Jardine’s Ingenious Pursuits (Doubleday, 1999)
The New York Times (Book Review Section), February 6, 2000.
“A Fecund Conundrum”
Review (with A. Kelman) of Simpson’s Visions of Paradise (California, 1999), Henderson’s California and the Fictions of Capital (Oxford, 1999), and Wyckoff’s Creating Colorado (Yale, 1999)
Times Literary Supplement, January 21, 2000.
Essay review of Jeremy Black’s Maps and Politics (Chicago, 1997), J. Brotton’s Trading Territories(Cornell, 1998), and P.D. Burden’s The Mapping of North America (Raleigh, 1996)
Isis, Vol. 90(4): December, 1999.
“Robert Fludd: The Cosmogonic Experiments”
An essay on the history of experimentation, with annotated translation
Ambix, Vol. 46 (3): November, 1999.
“Life of the Mind Dept., ‘The Care and Feeding of Humanists’”
A short piece on the Center for Scholars and Writers, NYPL
The New Yorker, November 1, 1999
“What Time is it in the Transept?”
Review of J.L. Heilbron’s The Sun in the Church (Harvard, 1999)
The New York Times (Book Review Section), October 24, 1999.
“Science and History: Do the Claims of Science Transcend Time and Place?”
Essay on a problem in philosophy of science
21stCentury, Issue 4.2: Fall, 1999
Review of Victorian Science in Context, edited by Bernard Lightman (Chicago, 1997)
The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 71(3): September, 1999.
“A View from the Bridge: The Two Cultures Debate, Its Legacy, and the History of Science”
Abstracted in The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Wilson Quarterly
Dædalus, Vol. 128 (2):193-218; Spring, 1999.
Review of Adrian Johns’ The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making (Chicago, 1998)
The New Republic, May 10, 1999
Review of Peter Raby’s Bright Paradise: Victorian Scientific Travellers (Princeton, 1997)
The International History Review, Vol. XXI(1): March, 1999.
“Insular Visions: Cartographic Imagery and the Spanish-American War” (with R.B. Craib).
The Historian, Vol. 61: Fall, 1998.
“A Dream of Reason”
Review of E.O. Wilson’s Consilience (Knopf, 1998); reprinted by britannica.com
The American Scholar, Vol. 67(3): 143-148; Summer, 1998
“Paper Empires”
Review of Matthew Edney’s Mapping an Empire (Chicago, 1997)
Times Literary Supplement, February 20, 1998
“In That November off Tehuantepec”
Review (with R.B. Craib) of Barbara Mundy’s Mapping of New Spain (Chicago, 1996)
Cartographic Perspectives, Vol. 27: Spring 1997.
“The Dodo’s Legacy”
Review of Richard Grove’s Green Imperialism (Cambridge, 1995)
Times Literary Supplement, September 8, 1995
“Pity a Science that Needs Heroes”
Review of Gerald Geison’s The Private Science of Louis Pasteur (Princeton, 1995)
The Economist, July 1, 1995
“The Chances of a New Plague”
Review of L. Garrett’s The Coming Plague (FSG, 1994) and R. Preston’s The Hot
Zone (Random House, 1994)
The Economist, December 17, 1994