Writer, filmmaker, instigator, and revolutionary, Guy Debord is probably best known for his involvement with the Situationist International (McKenzie Wark calls him their “secretary”) and their concepts of the dérive and détournement, the former of which is one of the core ideas of psychogeography, and the latter of which went on to define the culture jamming movement. Their slogans were the words on the walls during the May 1968 uprisings in France. They published the proto-Adbusters of the time, and their spirit hangs heavy over the work of Shepard Fairey, Banksy, Joey Skaggs, …

I finally have a new piece up on the ESPN BMX site. This one is about the generational differences between first and second generations of riders. Heraclitus once wrote that generations turn over every thirty years. Well, it’s about that time.

You’re right, Roy, you’re hopeless. Hopelessly obsessed with a time in your sport that died a long time ago… — McGoo

Here’s an excerpt:

The experience of a BMXer today is much more likely to be mediated by technology than it was in the ’80s. Given the proliferation of technology …

There have been plenty of people touted to carry the mantle left behind by Marshall McLuhan — Neil Postman, Douglas Rushkoff, Paul Levinson, even Jean Baudrillard, but no one has been working more behind the scenes and under the radar to keep his legacy alive than his own son and sometimes co-author Eric McLuhan.

Eric McLuhan has amassed a significant body of work in his own right, including Electric Language (St. Martin’s Griffin, 1998), The Role of Thunder in Finnegans Wake (University of Toronto Press, 1997), the forthcoming Theories of Communication (with Marshall), …

I’ve been thinking about all of the ways we change our world with our technology for years now, but more so lately as my book-in-progress, The Medium Picture, comes into better focus. This talk itself is brand new and not quite complete. Regardless, I decided to take my own advice and get it out there. I did this one for the first time at SXSW Interactive 2011. Judging by the post-talk discussion, these ideas are generative if not fully formed. In what follows, I expand my speaking notes, including bits …

So, Ogilvy Notes is going to do a graphic representation of my talk at SXSW Interactive, Disconnecting the Dots: How Our Devices are Divisive. Here’s the announcement I got today:
We are pleased to inform you that Ogilvy has selected your session, “Disconnecting the Dots: How Our Devices are Divisive”, as one they would like to graphically record at the event.
What does this mean exactly? This means an artist will visually document your SXSW panel session in real-time, and then share their interpretation via Ogilvy’s online channel and with limited-edition prints …

For Nora Ankrum’s recent roundup of SXSW Interactive panels and talks having to do with distance working, “The World is Your Cubicle,” she interviewed me about my SXSWi talk Disconnecting the Dots: How Our Devices are Divisive and my book-in-progress, The Medium Picture.

Here’s the excerpt that features me running my mouth:
“Having a beer with someone is still one of the most connecting things you can do,” agrees Roy Christopher, a communication studies doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin. Still, he says, “the nature of …

I mentioned earlier that it’s often difficult for adults to trust the youth, but that it’s imperative. Letting youthful vision lead is the only way into the future. Well, Tyler the Creator and his Odd Future crew aren’t waiting for permission, approval, or funding — much less trust — from anyone. They are doing it, and doing it big.

Everyone can stop mongering the minutia of Radiohead’s every move. Though they’ve done nothing but smart things since parting ways with the past, they were already famous in three solar systems when …

The good folks over at Yoxi decided to interview me live on Twitter today mostly about my upcoming SXSW Interactive talk. Below is a transcription of the chat. I’ve edited it for chronology, continuity, and obvious text limitations, but overall it’s just as it appeared live.
Yoxi: Excited to have you as our 4th guest for #yoxichat. We’re stoked about your #SXSW panel!
Roy Christopher: Thank you! Glad to be here. I’m stoked on the #SXSW talk, too. Should be a hoot.
Y: Definitely! Speaking of #SXSW, what inspired your panel, Disconnecting the …

After years of tweaking and shopping the proposal, Zero Books has acquiesced to publish my book The Medium Picture. The thing that sold me on them, other than their recent publishing of Steven Shaviro‘s brief-but-brilliant Post-Cinematic Affect, is their statement of purpose:
Contemporary culture has eliminated the concept and public figure of the intellectual. A cretinous anti-intellectualism presides, cheerled by hacks in the pay of multinational corporations who reassure their bored readers that there is no need to rouse themselves from their stupor. Zer0 Books knows that another kind of discourse …

If I had to pick a patron saint, a hero, or a single intellectual influence for my adult self, it would undoubtedly be Marshall McLuhan. If you’ve spent any time at all reading my work, you’ve seen his name and his ideas. Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work! (Atlas & Co., 2010) is the latest biography of the man and differs from previous versions in many ways, not the least of which is the author. Having struggled through several of Douglas Coupland’s novels, I had my reservations about …