Assistant art professor Eduardo Navas releases new book

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Eduardo Navas, Penn State assistant professor of art, works with students in the School of Visual Arts' New Media and Interdisciplinary Digital Studio programs, teaching a range of digital art courses that draw on his expertise in cultural analytics and digital humanities. Navas is an artist, writer and media theorist who is interested in the potential of creative production and critical thinking in culture and media. He collaborates with artists and institutions in various countries to organize events and develop new forms of publication and creative production. His new text, "Spate: A Navigational Theory of Networks," is a critical and creative reflection on networked media composed with repurposed tweets. "Spate" is the first in the publication series "Deep Pockets," edited by the Institute of Network Cultures (INC). ''Deep Pockets' are just the right size to stick in your pocket and read on the subway, not much bigger than your smartphone, which carries the epub version of the work,' notes Editor Miriam Rasch. 'And yet, 'Deep Pockets' go, well, deep. They offer both the wealth of the rich and the cunning of thieves.' Navas' playful, yet critical, approach can be seen in the excerpt found on the back cover: "The relation of your handwriting and typing exposes the contention of efficiency in a world driven by the ever-increasing compression of all things. Fake wood is more natural than an honest answer: lying reaffirms the truth based on negation only to move into a grey area. You are not excited?