Barry Vacker

Barry Vacker is a writer and mixed-media artist. Barry teaches critical media studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he is an associate professor in the Klein College of Media and Communication. He received his PhD from The University of Texas at Austin in 1995. Two-time winner of the John Culkin Award, an international award for creative work from the Media Ecology Association. Vacker is an existentialist without the angst, just a stardust tumbleweed in a remote part of the Milky Way.

Barry's recent books include:

-- "Media Environments," 3rd Ed. (Cognella, 2019).

-- "Black Mirror and Critical Media Theory (Lexington 2018)

-- "Specter of the Monolith" (The Center for Media and Destiny, 2017).

-- "The End of the World Again: Why the Apocalypse Meme Replicates in Media, Science, and Culture" (The Center for Media and Destiny, 2012).

-- "Slugging Nothing: Fighting the Future in Fight Club" (Theory Vortex Books, 2009).

-- The text for Peter Granser's art-photography book, "Signs" (Hatje Cantz and the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Photography, 2008).

-- Many of Barry's recent articles can be found online (https://temple.academia.edu/BarryVacker)

When not in Philadelphia, Barry can often be found hanging out in Marfa, Texas, where he owns some desert land with stunning sunsets and enjoys having access to the region's art, nature, and science -- including the concrete sculptures of Donald Judd, the desert vistas of Big Bend National Park and Guadalupe Mountains National Park, the telescopes of the McDonald Observatory, and the future sites for the Clock of the Long Now.