Dr. Tony D. Sampson is a London-based academic and writer. He has a background in music and computing. He received his PhD from the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex and has published internationally on a range of subjects relating to digital technology and culture. He is the co-editor (with Jussi Parikka) of Spam Book: On Viruses, Porn, and Other Anomalies From the Dark Side of Digital Culture (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2009). His latest book, Virality: Contagion Theory in the Age of Networks (University of Minnesota Press) was published in June 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8V06C5n5Z_g

Tony programme leads and teaches on the School's "new" media programmes (BSc (Hons) Multimedia Design Technology and BA (Hons) Interactive Media Design). His teaching focuses on developing student research projects.

Tony’s latest book on contagion theory uses the ideas of Gabriel Tarde, Gilles Deleuze and others to develop a contemporary alternative to the meme, encompassing digital, affective, financial, political and cultural contagions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8V06C5n5Z_g

His current teaching and research interests explore aspects (and critiques) of human computer interaction (HCI) and subsequent trends toward a third paradigm (or post-Taylorist mode) of HCI, including  user experience design, ubiquitous computing, and the testing of emotions, feelings and affect.

Tony is also interested in the creative aspects of technology design and production, and works with art and design, computing technology, cultural and social theory students at all levels to develop research projects.

Following a successful funding bid Tony is developing a lab based research project (emotionUXD) exploring user experiences from cognitive, emotional and affective perspectives.

He is currently researching his next book project (Putting the Neuron Doctrine to Work), which explores the interaction between brain function (as understood in the neurosciences), politics and culture.

Supervision of PhD students interested in a range of new technology/art/social and cultural studies related subjects. Specialising in contagion theory, network culture and assemblage theory.

MA Media Cultures

BSc (Hons) Multimedia Design Technology

BA (Hons) Interactive Media Design

BA (Hons) Computer Games Design

New Media Thesis/Project

New Media Portfolio

New Media Research Concepts and Methods

New Media Theory/Practice

Introduction to New Media

Monographs

Currently writing a new book exploring the rise of neuroculture

Tony D Sampson, Virality: Contagion Theory in the Age of Networks, University of Minnesota Press (June, 2012).

Link: http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/virality

Edited Collections

Tony D Sampson (with Jussi Parikka) (eds.) The Spam Book: On Viruses, Porn and Other Anomalies from the Dark Side of Digital Culture, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press; 2009

Link: http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/may2010/genosko_parikka.php

Book Chapters

Tony D Sampson,“Contagion Theory: Beyond the Microbe,” Critical Digital Studies: A Reader, Arthur and Marilouise Kroker (eds.),University of Toronto Press, 2013.

Tony D Sampson (with Parikka), “Learning from Network Dysfunctionality: Accidents, Enterprise and Small Worlds of Infection” The Blackwell Companion to New Media Dynamics, Hartley, Burgess and Bruns (eds.), Wiley-Blackwell, December 2012.

Tony D Sampson, “Error-Contagion: Network Hypnosis and Collective Culpability,” Error: Glitch, Noise, and Jam in New Media Cultures, Mark Nunes (ed.), Continuum, 2010 Link: http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=136643&SubjectId=1366&Subject2Id=1377

Tony D Sampson (with Lugo and Lossanda), "A Prospective Analysis of the Video Games Industry in Latin America: From Banana Republic to Donkey Kong," FILE: Electronic Language International Festival 10 Years Commemorative Book, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2010  Link: http://gamestudies.org/0202/

Tony D Sampson (with Parikka), "On Anomalous Objects: An Introduction," The Spam Book: On Viruses, Porn and Other Anomalies From the Dark Side of Digital Culture, Parikka and Sampson (eds.), Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, pp. 1-18; 2009  Link: http://www.hamptonpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=978-1-57273-916-1

Tony D Sampson, "How Networks Become Viral: Three Questions Concerning Universal Contagion," The Spam Book: On Viruses, Porn and Other Anomalies From the Dark Side of Digital Culture, Parikka and Sampson (eds.), Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, pp. 39-59; 2009

Online Publications

• Tony D Sampson, “Imitative Inventions”, an online review of Olga Goriunova’s Art Platforms and Cultural Production on the Internet, Mute Magazine, 2012. Link: http://www.metamute.org/community/reviews/imitative-invention
• Tony D Sampson, “Software de Arriba a Abajo”, Tin Tank: Conocimieto Inspiracion e Ideas ahora, 2010  Link: http://www.tintank.es/?p=196
• Tony D Sampson, “Turning Software Inside Out: A Review of FLOSS +Art and Software Studies”, Mute Magazine, 2009  Link: http://www.metamute.org/en/content/turning_software_inside_out

Refereed Journal Articles

• Tony D Sampson, "Tarde's Phantom Takes a Deadly Line of Flight," Special Issue, Operations of the Global - Explorations of Dis/Connectivity, Distinktion Journal, Dec 2012.
• Tony D Sampson, "Contagion Theory Beyond the Microbe," CTheory Journal of Theory, Technology and Culture, Special Issue: In the Name of Security, Jan, 2011.  Link: http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=675
• Tony D Sampson (with Lugo), "E-Informality in Venezuela: The Other Path to Technology," Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 102-118; 2008  Link http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1470-9856.2007.00259.x/full

Research Presentations and Conference Papers

Invited speaker at Brunel and Oxford Brookes University series on Networks and Society, Friday 24^th May 2013 at Brunel University

"Putting the Neuron Doctrine to Work," invited speaker at the Copenhagen Business School series on Crowds and the Brain (anticipated journal article, Distinktion), April 11^th 2013.

Collaboration with the artist Dean Todd for the Bookworks Exhibit at UEL in Feb 2013.

“Modafinil,” invited contributor to “Evil Media, Curiosity Cabinet” by the artist group YoHa exhibiting at the Berlin Transmediale Festival, January 2013.

Media Archeology and Virality, invited speaker at KingsCollege London seminar,12 Dec 2012.

Viral Utopias, performing at Mute Magazine launch event, LimehouseTown Hall, 16^th Nov 2012.

Computational Culture, Issue Two, Virality, Contagion Theory in the Age of Networks and Evil Media launch event, Goldsmiths, University of London, 22^nd Oct 2012.

Tarde's Phantom Takes a Deadly Line of Flight, invited speaker at The Operations of the Global – Explorations of Dis/Connectivity Conference, Warburg-Haus, University of Hamburg, 6th-8th October 2011.  Link: http://www.wiso.uni-hamburg.de/conferences/operations-of-the-global-explorations-of-disconnectivity

'Press Delete’ The Politics and Performance of Spamculture panel session, the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Dortmond, Germany, 23 to 27 August 2010.  Link: http://www.isea2010ruhr.org/conference/thursday-26-august-2010-dortmund/p38-press-delete-the-politics-and-performance-of-spamculture

Viral Love, research presentation for the Thinking Network Politics: Methods, Epistemology, Process Conference, ARU, Cambridge, UK - 25 & 26 March 2010.  Link: http://www.networkpolitics.org/request-for-comments/dr-thackers-position-paper#comment-4

New Media Hypnosis, research on relevance of Tardean sociology. Presentations for both Innovation Studies Research Seminar at UEL (Making Connexions: Access, Interaction and Innovation) and the Centre for Cultural Studies Research Seminar at UEL (Studies in Evil Media) Winter 2009.

Error-Contagion, research presentation for ATACD Changing Cultures: Cultures of Change, University of Barcelona December 10-12, 2009.  Link: http://www.atacd.net/images/stories/conf_papers/contagion_error.pdf

Rethinking Producer/Consumer Relations in the Age of Networks or the Politics of User Experience Design. Panel session at MeCCSA Conference at the National Media Museum, Bradford, Jan 2009.

Book Chapters

• Tony D Sampson (with Lugo and Lossada), "Novas indústrias culturais da América Latina aind ajogam velhos jogos Da República de Bananas a Donkey Kong," FILE: Festival Internacional de Linguagem Eletrônica, Barreto, Ricardo; Perissinoto, Paula (eds.) São Paulo: File, 2006, pp. 164- 179; 2006
• Tony D Sampson (with Lugo), “The Discourse of Convergence. A Neo-liberal Trojan Horse," Broadcasting and Convergence: New Articulations of the Public Remit, Lowe and Hujanen (eds.) Nordicom, pp. 83-92 ISBN: 91-8947-18-0; 2003

Refereed Journal Articles

• Tony D Sampson,” The Accidental Topology of Digital Culture: How the Network Becomes Viral," Transformations: online journal of region, culture and society, Accidental Environments, Issue 14 ISSN 1444-377; 2007
• Tony D Sampson, "Senders, Receivers and Deceivers: How Liar Codes Put Noise Back on the Diagram of Transmission," Media and Culture Journal, 'Transmit', Volume 9 Issue 1 ISSN 1441-2616; 2006
• Tony D Sampson, "Dr Aycock's Bad Idea: Is the Good Use of Computer Viruses Still a Bad Idea?" Media and Culture Journal, 'Bad', Volume 8 Issue 1 ISSN 1441-2616; 2005
• Tony D Sampson, "A Virus in Info-Space: the open network and its enemies" Media and Culture Journal 'Open' Volume 7 Issue 3 (2004) ISSN 1441-2616; 2004
• Tony D Sampson (with Lugo),"A Small Picture of Big Wars: Understanding the Changing Role of Television in Future Warfare," Bailrigg Paper 31 Future Conditional: War & Conflict After Next, Centre of Defence and International Security Studies, pp. 72- 86. ISSN: 0969-6032; 2002
• Tony D Sampson (with Lugo and Lossanda), "A Prospective Analysis of the Video Games Industry in Latin America: From Banana Republic to Donkey Kong," Games Studies: the international journal of computer game research, Volume 2 Issue 2; 2002

Research Presentations and Conference Papers

• Co-organizer and speaker on the Network Anomalies Panel at the New Network Theory International Conference in Amsterdam, 28-30 June 2007. Proceedings Published online in The New Network Theory Reader.
• "E-informality in Venezuela: The 'Other Path' of Technology", paper written with Lugo presented at the SLAS Annual Conference 2006: The University of Nottingham, 31 March-2 April 2006
• Viral Code as Rhizomatic Computing, paper presented at the School of Cultural and Innovation Research Symposium, UEL, 2004
• The Open Network and Its Enemies, paper presented at the School of Cultural and Innovation Convergence Emergence Divergence Seminars, UEL, 2004
• "Public Broadcasting in the Information Battlefield" at the RIPE Conference: Copenhagen and Aarhus Denmark, 2004
• Theorising the Computer Virus: Guest Speaker at Graduate Conference, University of Essex., 2003
• "Rethinking Hypernews Theory outside the Metaphors of New Media and the Classroom" with Lugo at ECCR Mass Media Communications in the e-Society of the 21st Century: Access and Participation Moscow State University, Russia, 2002
• "The Myth of the Post Capitalist Transition: Old concepts can still explain the 'new economy'" with Lugo at The Communication and Capitalism Conference, University of Westminster, London, 2002
• "Technological or Ideological Convergence? How the Concepts of Market and Technological Convergence are Displacing Public Service Commitment in the New Communications and Broadcast Public Policy of the UK" with Lugo at the http://www.yle.fi/ripe/2002/ Conference: Broadcasting and Convergence: Articulating a New Remit YLE in Helsinki & the University of Tampere, Finland, 2002
• Guest Speaker at John Moores University Liverpool: Digital Democracy Seminar, 2002
• "A Prospective Analysis of the Video Games Industry in Latin America: From Banana Republic to Donkey Kong" co-author with Lugo at the Game Cultures Conference University of the West of England, Bristol, 2001
• Presentation on New Media Education at the EEDA Celebration of Innovation Conference, 2001

To mark the release of Virality there will be a series of events in London.

The first,

Launch Event:

Computational Culture, Issue Two,

Virality, Contagion Theory in the Age of Networks, by Tony D. Sampson

Evil Media, by Matthew Fuller & Andrew Goffey

22nd October
6pm
Room RHB 342
Goldsmiths
New Cross
London, University of London
SE14 6NW

Free, all welcome

To celebrate these publications, informal presentations will be made by the
authors of Virality and Evil Media and contributors to Computational Culture.

'Computational Culture'  is an online open-access peer-reviewed journal of
inter-disciplinary enquiry into the nature of cultural computational objects,
practices, processes and structures.  The new issue presents articles by
Carlos Barreneche, Jennifer Gabrys, Robert W. Gehl & Sarah Bell, Shintaro
Miyazaki, Bernhard Rieder, Bernard Stiegler, Annette Vee and reviews by
Chiara Bernardi, Kevin Hamilton, Boris Ružiæ, Felix Stalder and an anonymous
contributor.

In 'Virality' Tony D. Sampson presents a contagion theory fit for the age of
networks. Unlike memes and microbial contagions, Virality does not restrict
itself to biological analogies and medical metaphors. It instead points
toward a theory of contagious assemblages, events, and affects. For Sampson,
contagion is not necessarily a positive or negative force of encounter; it is
how society comes together and relates.
[University of Minnesota Press]

'Evil Media' invites the reader to explore and understand the abstract
infrastructure of the present day. From search engines to flirting
strategies, from the value of institutional stupidity to the malicious
minutiae of databases, this book shows how the devil is in the details.  The
title takes the imperative “Don’t be evil” and asks, what would be done any
differently in contemporary computational and networked media were that maxim
reversed.
[The MIT Press]

In 'Sensing an Experimental Forest', her article for 'Computational Culture'
2, Jennifer Gabrys discusses fieldwork conducted at an environmental sensor
test site, the James Reserve in California.  The use of wireless sensor
networks to study environmental phenomena is an increasingly prevalent
practice, and ecological applications of sensors have been central to the
development of wireless sensor networks that now extend to numerous
‘participatory’ applications.

Virality
http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/virality

Evil Media
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12995

Computational Culture
http://www.computationalculture.net/

More events to be announced...

Tony D Sampson (with Jussi Parikka) (eds.) The Spam Book: On Viruses, Porn and Other Anomalies from the Dark Side of Digital Culture, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

For those of us increasingly reliant on email networks in our everyday social interactions, spam can be a pain; it can annoy; it can deceive; it can overload. Yet spam can also entertain and perplex us. This book is an aberration into the dark side of network culture. Instead of regurgitating stories of technological progress or over celebrating creative social media on the Internet, it filters contemporary culture through its anomalies. The book features theorists writing on spam, porn, censorship, and viruses. The evil side of media theory is exposed to theoretical interventions and innovative case studies that touch base with new media and Internet studies and the sociology of new network culture, as well as post-representational cultural theory.

Contents: Foreword, Sadie Plant. On Anomalous Objects of Digital Culture: An Introduction, Jussi Parikka and Tony D. Sampson. CONTAGIONS. Mutant and Viral: Artificial Evolution and Software Ecology, John Johnston. How Networks Become Viral: Three Questions Concerning Universal Contagion, Tony D. Sampson. Extensive Abstraction in Digital Architecture, Luciana Parisi. Unpredictable Legacies: Viral Games in the Networked World, Roberta Buiani. BAD OBJECTS. Archives of Software--Malicious Codes and the Aesthesis of Media Accidents, Jussi Parikka. Contagious Noise: From Digital Glitches to Audio Viruses, Steve Goodman. Toward an Evil Media Studies, Matthew Fuller and Andrew Goffey. PORNOGRAPHY. Irregular Fantasies, Anomalous Uses: Pornography Spam as Boundary Work, Susanna Paasonen. Make Porn, Not War: How to Wear the Network's Underpants, Katrien Jacobs. Can Desire Go On Without a Body?: Pornographic Exchange as Orbital Anomaly, Dougal Phillips. CENSORED. Robots.txt: The Politics of Search Engine Exclusion, Greg Elmer. The Internet Treats Censorship as a Malfunction and Routes Around It?: A New Media Approach to the Study of State Internet Censorship, Richard Rogers. On Narcolepsy, Alexander R. Galloway and Eugene Thacker. Notes. About the Authors. Author Index. Subject Index.

Reviews and Press for the Spam Book

"Tony Sampson tackles the problem of modeling contagions by folding system instability over stability therein bringing inside the hitherto externality of the parasite model. He rehabilitates the figure of the juvenile virus writer for technocultural theory and revalorizes a “constitutive anomaly” that makes instability a key factor of stability in a network not given in advance, that is, not frozen, but sensitive to growth, uncertainty, and vulnerability. This idea of the network “in passage” is rich and foregrounds the robustness of the fragile"
See Gary Genesko's review of The Spam Book Leonardo Reviews

"Parikka and Sampson present the latest insights from the humanities into software studies. This compendium is for all you digital Freudians. Electronic deviances no longer originate in Californian cyber fringes but are hardwired into planetary normalcy. Bugs breed inside our mobile devices. The virtual mainstream turns out to be rotten. The Spam book is for anyone interested in new media theory."
Geert Lovink, Dutch/Australian media theorist

"What if all those things we most hate about the Internet, the spam, the viruses, the phishing sites, the flame wars, the latency and lag and interruptions of service,and the glitches that crash our computerswhat if all these are not bugs, but features? What if they constitute, in fact, the way the system functions? The SpamBook explores this disquieting possibility."
Steven Shaviro, DeRoy Professor of English, Wayne State University

"The first section, on ‘Contagion', is strong on the question of the internal informational architecture of the web itself, analysing the particular topologies of networked spaces. It took me a while to grasp the logic behind this section, since the heading ‘Contagion' seemed a secondary concern for a chapter that ultimately focussed on the production of space. In fact, this counter-intuitive framing of the subject is particularly useful - the paradigm here is one of process ontology, whereby a network is not identified with its physical infrastructure, but shown to be continually produced and transformed through the making and breaking of links, in dynamic processes of interaction. The network, in this sense, does not carry contagion, but is constituted by the flows of contagion, ‘a heterogeneous compositional force endemic to the network'. This theme opens up questions as to which biological concepts are most helpful in mapping the internet - the polemical thrust of the book is to reject images of functional organic completeness in favour of viral proliferation and productive malfunction." Ben Pritchett's Review for Mute

"… a relatively unique approach to add to the discourse surrounding critical understanding of the Internet and its cultural impact. Indeed several articles openly wonder whether there is any longer a separation between the two where the networked societies are concerned. It’s most radical departure from the existing discourse is a readjustment of our understanding of the anomaly. Using the example of spam, Parikka and Sampson show that ‘anomalous’ is not a simple synonym for the rare. How could spam be an anomaly with such a definition, given that up to 40% of daily email traffic may be spam? Their response is an evolution of our understanding of anomalies, since “within the composite mixture of the everyday and the anomalous even the fixed notion that the normal is opposed to the abnormal is increasingly difficult to reconcile.” Instead they propose “a condition akin to a horro autotoxicus of the digital network, the capacity of the network to propagate its own imperfections, exceeds the metaphor with natural unity.”
John Haltiwanger, Masters of Media UoA

Link to the Virality research blog

Link to YouTube Video explaining Sampson's Virality thesis http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8V06C5n5Z_g