In this episode of Playopolis, we’ll hear a conversation with McKenzie Wark as she resituates the Situationist International, talks about living in New York in 2020, and speculates on how seeds for other ways of life may rise from modern ruin.

McKenzie Wark is known for her writings on media theory, critical theory, new media, and the Situationist International. Her recent books include Capital is Dead and Reverse Cowgirl.

Following that is the story of the rise and fall of Jafflechutes. In 2014, on the windiest Autumn day in twenty years, Jafflechutes launched itself into the world… and promptly got stuck in a tree. We talk to the co-founders of this world first ‘float-down pop up’ eatery about what works, and what really doesn’t, in the world of parachutable food.

Episode 1 show notes

• McKenzie Wark is an Australian-born writer and scholar and Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at The New School in New York

• Adam Grant is Creative Director at AKQA and co-founder of Jafflechutes

00:23 Welcome back
02:32 Interview with Mckenzie Wark
03:01 The Situationists
04:06 Capitalism is Dead
06:08 Hacker and Vectoralist class
07:51 Civil unrest in urban space
11:38 The Spectacle of disintegration
14:07 Gamer Theory
16:34 Building new societies through détournement

19:19 Interview with creative technologist, Michelle Woolahan

23:58 The rise and fall of Jafflechutes
25:15 What is it?
27:23 Obstacles when parachuting food
28:32 Gathering’s in Melbourne’s laneways
30:43 Jafflechutes goes to New York
33:38 Hiatus and reflections
36:31 Credits

Image: Detail of Constant Nieuwenhuys, New Babylon/Amsterdam, 1963.