Biography
Keywords
Media Philosophy, Art, Science, Marshall McLuhan
Barry Vacker is a media theorist and mixed-media artist whose books, articles, and artworks, span the intersection of art, film, media, science, technology, and philosophy. His creative works have received two international awards from the Media Ecology Association. He especially enjoys teaching large lecture courses with 150-200 students.
Vacker’s TV and radio interviews include talking with Anderson Cooper about The Matrix. Vacker was interviewed for the Studio 360/Public Radio International program about 2001: A Space Odyssey. Others in the 2-hour program included Christopher Nolan (director of Interstellar), Tom Hanks, poet laureate Tracy K. Smith, land artist James Turrell, Douglas Trumbull (who worked the special effects of 2001) and Keir Dullea (Dave from 2001).
Vacker has twice been quoted/cited in the New York Times.
Education
Degree | Field | School |
|---|---|---|
PhD | Communications | The University of Texas at Austin |
Courses Taught
Number | Name | Level |
|---|---|---|
KLN 3386 | Diamond Peer Teachers - Internship II | Undergraduate |
MSP 1021 | Introduction to Media Analysis | Undergraduate |
MSP 1021 | Media and Society | Undergraduate |
MSP 3421 | Technology and Culture | Undergraduate |
MSP 3445 | Media Images and Analysis | Undergraduate |
MSP 4153 | Media Criticism | Undergraduate |
MSP 5042 | Media Technology and Culture | Graduate |
Media Technology and Culture | Graduate | |
| Introduction to Media Analysis | Graduate | |
| Technology and Culture | Graduate | |
| Media Criticism | Graduate | |
| Media Images and Analysis | Graduate |
Education
Degree | Field | School |
|---|---|---|
PhD | Communication (minors in Philosophy and Law | The University of Texas at Austin |
Publications
Recent books
Media Environments (3rd Ed.), Cognella Academic Press 2019.
Black Mirror and Critical Media Theory, Co-edited with Angela Cirucci, Lexington Books 2018.
Recent articles
“Thus Spoke the Cool: Dark Skies, Earthworks, and a New Media Art (for Nietzsche’s Abyss),” Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of New Media Art, 2024.
Media Environments (4th ed.), Cognella Academic Publishing, 2023.
“Your Journey to Prada Marfa, McDonald Observatory, and Santa Elena Canyon: Probes for a Hot Planet, Dark Skies, and Cool Gaze,” Explorations in Media Ecology, Volume 3, 2023.
Black Mirror and Critical Media Theory, Lexington Books, 2018. Co-edited with Angela Cirucci.
Barry Vacker, “Naked into the Cosmos: Future Shock in Space,” After Shock: The World’s Foremost Futurists Reflect on 50 Years of Future Shock—And Look Ahead to the Next 50, John Shroeter ed. (Abundant World Institute 2020).
Barry Vacker and Erin Espelie, “Black Mirrors, Hot Media, and Spectral Existence,” Black Mirror and Critical Media Theory, Angela Cirucci and Barry Vacker, eds. (Lexington Books 2018).
Personal Website
https://temple.academia.edu/BarryVacker
Presentations
Featured Art Installation. “Media(S)cene.” Presented at the 2019 Media Ecology Annual Conference, The University of Toronto. Co-created with Julia Hildebrand.
Featured speaker. 2019 Festival Internacionale de Arte Contemporaneo in Leon, Mexico. Discussed and presented images of my art installation “Media(S)cene.”
“Spiral Vanishing Points: Art and Media at the Ends of the World,” talk given at the 2019 Festival Internacionale de Arte Contemporaneo in Leon, Mexico.
“2001: Its Philosophical Legacy 4 Million Years Later,” Lecture given at the University of Colorado-Boulder, February 8, 2018.
“Hot and Cool in the Media(s)cene.” 2018 Media Ecology Association Annual Convention, University of Maine.
Awards
The 2019 John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in the Field of Media Ecology. Award given by the Media Ecology Association. -- Award shared with Julia Hildebrand for the essay and art concept: “Hot and Cool in the Media(S)cene: A McLuhan-Style Art and Theory Project”
The 2010 John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in the Field of Media Ecology. Award given by the Media Ecology Association. -- Awarded for Space Times Square (24 minutes), the media theory film written and directed by Vacker. Film available in Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/33872812
Other Projects
Space Times Square video >> link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8koY3AJ3C8I