Brian Jacobson
@bleudeciel.bsky.social
The Cinema of Extractions (2025), Media Climates (2022), In the Studio (2020), Studios Before the System (2015)
Writing about Art, Media, Energy, Environment. Next book: oil, gas, and media culture in France+empire
Caltech Professor of Visual Culture
Writing about Art, Media, Energy, Environment. Next book: oil, gas, and media culture in France+empire
Caltech Professor of Visual Culture
Pinned
It is publication day for THE CINEMA OF EXTRACTIONS (@columbiaup.bsky.social), a book about the materials that make movies possible and how to read between the raw materials and the screen worlds they create.
We are once again searching for a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in Visual Culture, focus on visual culture and the environment - deadline November 15 - details and application here: applications.caltech.edu/jobs/vcpd
September 24, 2026 at 2:26 AM
We are once again searching for a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in Visual Culture, focus on visual culture and the environment - deadline November 15 - details and application here: applications.caltech.edu/jobs/vcpd
Reposted by Brian Jacobson
We are pleased to share CFP for our annual Nontheatrical Student Essay Award. Due Feb 15 2027. Winner’s essay will appear in THE MOVING IMAGE journal. Please share widely!
amianet.org/wp-content/u...
@scmstudies.bsky.social @necsusjournal.bsky.social
@orphanfilm.bsky.social @amianet.bsky.social
amianet.org/wp-content/u...
@scmstudies.bsky.social @necsusjournal.bsky.social
@orphanfilm.bsky.social @amianet.bsky.social
![Call for Papers: Nontheatrical Student Essay Award 2027
In collaboration with AMIA (Association of Moving Image Archivists) and its journal, The Moving Image, the SCMS Nontheatrical Film and Media SIG is delighted to announce its fifth annual Nontheatrical Student Essay Award. Designed to recognize outstanding graduate student scholarship founded upon archival nontheatrical research,
this award underscores both organizations’ commitment to mentorship and professional development, connecting award-recipients with mentors to guide them through the process of crafting journal-ready manuscripts. The award-winning essay will also be published (subject to revisions) in The Moving Image.
Eligibility: Applicants must be enrolled in a recognized graduate program at the time of entry.
[Truncated for space]
Submissions will be due 15 February 2027 and can be sent to nontheatricalessayaward@gmail.com. The award winner will be contacted in March 2027, and announced at the 2027 SCMS Annual Conference.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qezqrhbp3a5ia4jdnp4j4jmd/bafkreigo23grvpplc43zv7vzi2sbzdjrxzzrvzl4f3nuc4ms3fpws6z7cu)
August 26, 2026 at 1:46 AM
We are pleased to share CFP for our annual Nontheatrical Student Essay Award. Due Feb 15 2027. Winner’s essay will appear in THE MOVING IMAGE journal. Please share widely!
amianet.org/wp-content/u...
@scmstudies.bsky.social @necsusjournal.bsky.social
@orphanfilm.bsky.social @amianet.bsky.social
amianet.org/wp-content/u...
@scmstudies.bsky.social @necsusjournal.bsky.social
@orphanfilm.bsky.social @amianet.bsky.social
People often ask me what I teach Caltech students in Visual Studies/Culture. This article describes a class about groundwater loss in California’s Central Valley and how we approach that issue from a variety of angles, including images and their history, and especially going to the valley to see it
Caltech Course Takes on Central Valley Water Issues — Caltech Magazine
This spring, students in the Visual Culture and the California Environment course took a field trip to immerse themselves in the landscapes they had been studying. By Katie Neith The Central Vall...
magazine.caltech.edu
August 2, 2026 at 8:12 PM
People often ask me what I teach Caltech students in Visual Studies/Culture. This article describes a class about groundwater loss in California’s Central Valley and how we approach that issue from a variety of angles, including images and their history, and especially going to the valley to see it
June 19, 2026 at 5:59 AM
The new issue of Leonardo is out with the special section I co-edited with Maggie Bell about Art + Electric Light, with essays about Charcot, Piotr Kowalski, contemporary photography in South Africa, Andean textiles, and conservation practices (with work by Rauschenberg, Flavin, Chryssa).
Volume 59 Issue 3 | Leonardo | MIT Press
direct.mit.edu
June 9, 2026 at 6:43 PM
The new issue of Leonardo is out with the special section I co-edited with Maggie Bell about Art + Electric Light, with essays about Charcot, Piotr Kowalski, contemporary photography in South Africa, Andean textiles, and conservation practices (with work by Rauschenberg, Flavin, Chryssa).
muse.jhu.edu/article/990451
First and last pages of @marthashearer.bsky.social's really sharp and generous review of The Cinema of Extractions (@columbiaup.bsky.social) in the latest JCMS issue @jcmsjournal.bsky.social
First and last pages of @marthashearer.bsky.social's really sharp and generous review of The Cinema of Extractions (@columbiaup.bsky.social) in the latest JCMS issue @jcmsjournal.bsky.social
May 26, 2026 at 11:35 PM
muse.jhu.edu/article/990451
First and last pages of @marthashearer.bsky.social's really sharp and generous review of The Cinema of Extractions (@columbiaup.bsky.social) in the latest JCMS issue @jcmsjournal.bsky.social
First and last pages of @marthashearer.bsky.social's really sharp and generous review of The Cinema of Extractions (@columbiaup.bsky.social) in the latest JCMS issue @jcmsjournal.bsky.social
Eli Boonin-Vail has published a detailed and insightful review of The Cinema of Extractions (@columbiaup.bsky.social) in Early Popular Visual Culture @epvcjournal.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The cinema of extractions: film materials and their forms
Published in Early Popular Visual Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
www.tandfonline.com
April 24, 2026 at 5:31 PM
Eli Boonin-Vail has published a detailed and insightful review of The Cinema of Extractions (@columbiaup.bsky.social) in Early Popular Visual Culture @epvcjournal.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
February 26, 2026 at 10:47 PM
Reposted by Brian Jacobson
Today! All old and new books in @columbiaup.bsky.social's Film & Culture series are 50% off, including NOMADIC CINEMA by Alison Griffiths; MAN OF TASTE, by Rob King; THE CINEMA OF EXTRACTIONS by @bleudeciel.bsky.social; and DEATH BY LAUGHTER, by @hennefem.bsky.social! bit.ly/4rupQx9 #CyberMonday
December 1, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Today! All old and new books in @columbiaup.bsky.social's Film & Culture series are 50% off, including NOMADIC CINEMA by Alison Griffiths; MAN OF TASTE, by Rob King; THE CINEMA OF EXTRACTIONS by @bleudeciel.bsky.social; and DEATH BY LAUGHTER, by @hennefem.bsky.social! bit.ly/4rupQx9 #CyberMonday
Two decades ago I started working on the architecture and infrastructure of moving images. Didn’t put “infrastructure” in the title so it seems to have gotten lost in the era of keyword-search scholarship, but this was the first big product of that project
cup.columbia.edu/book/studios...
cup.columbia.edu/book/studios...
November 27, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Two decades ago I started working on the architecture and infrastructure of moving images. Didn’t put “infrastructure” in the title so it seems to have gotten lost in the era of keyword-search scholarship, but this was the first big product of that project
cup.columbia.edu/book/studios...
cup.columbia.edu/book/studios...
Reposted by Brian Jacobson
November 19, 2025 at 1:09 AM
November 19, 2025 at 1:09 AM
We are hiring in American History - TT open rank search
applications.caltech.edu/jobs/history
applications.caltech.edu/jobs/history
November 17, 2025 at 9:11 PM
We are hiring in American History - TT open rank search
applications.caltech.edu/jobs/history
applications.caltech.edu/jobs/history
November 15, 2025 at 12:40 AM
call me humanist deadweight, but if you think it is an objectively logical and effective argument to equate how the humanities and sciences have, for centuries, shared a mission within the university with the 2000 AOL/Time Warner merger, you might need remedial humanities training, not "unyoking"
August 13, 2025 at 9:53 PM
call me humanist deadweight, but if you think it is an objectively logical and effective argument to equate how the humanities and sciences have, for centuries, shared a mission within the university with the 2000 AOL/Time Warner merger, you might need remedial humanities training, not "unyoking"
Reposted by Brian Jacobson
Discourse 46.3 is live! It features an absolutely essential piece reflecting on fascist times by Georges Didi-Huberman: "Why Obey?," skillfully translated by Heath Valentine from the short book Pour Quoi Obéir. Every piece in this issue is fantastic.
August 12, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Discourse 46.3 is live! It features an absolutely essential piece reflecting on fascist times by Georges Didi-Huberman: "Why Obey?," skillfully translated by Heath Valentine from the short book Pour Quoi Obéir. Every piece in this issue is fantastic.
shout out to The Cinema of Extractions in this review of work I wish I could get to Trondheim to see www.frieze.com/article/liv-...
Mythologies of a Green Petrostate: Liv Bugge’s ‘Umbilical Fire’
The artist’s show at Kunsthall Trondheim probes the stories we tell ourselves about oil – and proposes new ones
www.frieze.com
August 11, 2025 at 3:58 PM
shout out to The Cinema of Extractions in this review of work I wish I could get to Trondheim to see www.frieze.com/article/liv-...
Imperfect, but I would take one Jia film for every ten of the films on The NY Times’s Jia-less list
July 5, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Imperfect, but I would take one Jia film for every ten of the films on The NY Times’s Jia-less list
Have we also been trained—and trained our grads—that we only have time to read books’ introductions, which are often available online? Why buy the book if you only “need” to read the first 25 pgs? We need a culture of deeper reading practices, but that seems antithetical to the academic horse race
Here's a long thread on an issue dear to my heart. This Tuesday evening I’m doing an Intellectual Publics with Macarena Gomez-Barris on publishing. Like last year’s conversation with Denise Cruz, or the prior year’s with Racquel Gates, we will talk about how to find a publisher, turn a thesis... 1/
Remember to register!
Ken Wissoker in conversation with Macarena Gómez-Barris
Tues June 3rd at 6:30pm ET via Zoom
bit.ly/impossibleti...
Ken Wissoker in conversation with Macarena Gómez-Barris
Tues June 3rd at 6:30pm ET via Zoom
bit.ly/impossibleti...
June 2, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Have we also been trained—and trained our grads—that we only have time to read books’ introductions, which are often available online? Why buy the book if you only “need” to read the first 25 pgs? We need a culture of deeper reading practices, but that seems antithetical to the academic horse race
Reposted by Brian Jacobson
Okay LA... @bleudeciel.bsky.social is bringing the gang back together. Join us at Cal Tech on June 5-6 if you can, I'll be speaking on the 5th about Perut and Osnovikoff's Los Reyes, how to lie (down) like a dog, and the grundwerk of the great derangement of the senses.
LA-area folks, please join us next week, June 5-6, at Caltech, for a meeting of the Anthropocene Media Working Group with 2 days of talks and conversation. Details and registration here:
www.hss.caltech.edu/news-and-eve...
www.hss.caltech.edu/news-and-eve...
June 1, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Okay LA... @bleudeciel.bsky.social is bringing the gang back together. Join us at Cal Tech on June 5-6 if you can, I'll be speaking on the 5th about Perut and Osnovikoff's Los Reyes, how to lie (down) like a dog, and the grundwerk of the great derangement of the senses.
LA-area folks, please join us next week, June 5-6, at Caltech, for a meeting of the Anthropocene Media Working Group with 2 days of talks and conversation. Details and registration here:
www.hss.caltech.edu/news-and-eve...
www.hss.caltech.edu/news-and-eve...
May 29, 2025 at 6:40 PM
LA-area folks, please join us next week, June 5-6, at Caltech, for a meeting of the Anthropocene Media Working Group with 2 days of talks and conversation. Details and registration here:
www.hss.caltech.edu/news-and-eve...
www.hss.caltech.edu/news-and-eve...
One of our terrific undergrads turned Super Mario Brothers into a critique of American healthcare and published it in @invisibleculture.bsky.social
magazine.caltech.edu/post/the-pri...
magazine.caltech.edu/post/the-pri...
The Price to Live: A Video Game Takes on Healthcare — Caltech Magazine
By Cynthia Eller In the winter of 2024, Pranav Patil (BS ’24) had an epiphany. A Caltech computer science major from San Diego, Patil was considering which classes he should take in his final ...
magazine.caltech.edu
May 28, 2025 at 9:05 PM
One of our terrific undergrads turned Super Mario Brothers into a critique of American healthcare and published it in @invisibleculture.bsky.social
magazine.caltech.edu/post/the-pri...
magazine.caltech.edu/post/the-pri...