McKenzie Wark's 'Sensoria' Examines 21st-Century Thinkers on Technocapitalism and Consciousness

In 'Sensoria: Thinkers for the Twenty-First Century,' McKenzie Wark explores the influence of technocapitalism on human consciousness through the lens of 19 modern authors. Released by Verso for $24.95 or £16.99, the book is structured into three sections: aesthetics, ethnographics, and technics. The aesthetics section features Sianne Ngai's insights on online attention and Kodwo Eshun's concepts of Afrofuturism. Ethnographics includes discussions on Jackie Wang's 'Carceral Capitalism' (2018), Wang Hui's 'China's Twentieth Century' (2016), and Achille Mbembe's 'On the Postcolony' (2001). The technics section highlights works by Cory Doctorow, Lev Manovich, and Benjamin Bratton's 'The Stack' (2016). Wark challenges the role of scholarship, contemplating capitalism's possible decline, the process of dematerialization, and technology's influence on identity, while proposing a pre-modern blurring of human and nature boundaries.