The Human in Bits

“Kris Cohen tracks how contemporary Black artists disrupt the fantasy of the human as an autonomous observer, revealing instead how racial capitalism renders the human a byproduct of technology. This critique of Western transcendentalism refuses containment within the racial hierarchies that structure society. The Human in Bits remaps modernist art criticism through the lens of Black radical thought, showing how art and technology conspire in, but also unsettle, racial value. For those committed to opposing white supremacy, the task is clear: engage Black art not as a detached aesthetic pursuit, but as a call to dismantle the systems that commodify life itself.” - Tavia Nyong’o, author of Black Apocalypse: Afrofuturism at the End of the World

“Original in its conception, carefully argued, and beautifully written, The Human in Bits makes an important intervention in art historical and media studies discourses as well as cutting-edge discussions of black aesthetics, particularly in the ways it approaches themes of the nonrepresentational and nonrelational. Kris Cohen’s unique perspective on the artists he discusses offers a set of conceptual and methodological tools that will become valuable for future generations of scholars. This book taught me a lot.” - Shaka McGlotten, author of Dragging: Or, In the Drag of a Queer Life

"The Human in Bits is a formidable addition to studies on Black life’s intersection with data practices by McKittrick, Simone Browne, and Fred Moten with Stefano Harney. While Black life has historically been excluded by, and divested of, tech investment, Cohen finds other planes for the two to meet. He shows us what is possible when we frame computer design as the making of personhood and labor, and art as the same. Astutely observed, the book combines inspired aesthetic analysis and political commitment. . . ." - Tung Chau, The Brooklyn Rail