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Justin Pickard

6 Finians Field, Barns Green, Horsham, West Sussex, United Kingdom RH13 0PW
justin.pickard@gmail.com
@justinpickard
+44 (0) 7779 120323

• Technoculture, collapsonomics, and the weird contours of the twenty-first century.


• Bearded feminist. Grizzled optimist. Pirate.
• Deeply interdisciplinary academic background. Serious about science fiction.

Education

2009 – 2010 MA in Digital Media: Technology and Cultural Form


Goldsmiths College, University of London
Pass with Distinction
Modules in US literature, media theory, science & technology studies, sociology, anthropology
and visual culture. Final thesis on the feedback loops underpinning representations of new
media and technologies in contemporary fiction, post-2000.

2005 – 2008 BA in International Relations and Anthropology


University of Sussex, School of Social and Cultural Studies
First Class Honours
Extended final-year work on the global war on terror, real estate in post-colonial Mumbai, the
geopolitics of p2p file-sharing, and the impact of the 1997 Asian financial crisis on Thai popular
religion.

2003 – 2005 The College of Richard Collyer, Horsham


4 A-levels: Politics (A), Philosophy (A), Economics (B), History (B)
1 AS-level: Psychology (A)
Two years at sixth-form included travel to Russia, Germany, Poland, Ireland and Greece –
excursions with a strong emphasis on European history, political institutions and local culture.
Certificate in Text Processing (80wpm). Extended projects on the Spanish Civil War and the
political philosophy of social and economic progress.

Experience

Feb 2011 – Associate and Collaborator


Superflux Ltd.
Ah-hoc work, collaborating with this multidisciplinary design company on a variety of projects.
Futures studies, design fiction, writing, editing and social media.
May – June 2009 Community Coordinator
Hide & Seek
Part-time position managing the web content of Playmakers: a game design project bankrolled
by NESTA and social design agency thinkpublic. My responsibilities included maintaining a
consistent voice across social media platforms, coordinating the various parties, and – far less
successfully – marketing and promotions.

January 2009 Editorial Intern


Condé Nast Publications, Wired UK
Research, interviews and editorial dogsbodying for the UK version of Wired, ahead of the
magazine's launch in April 2009. Continued as a freelance researcher and contributor through
to October 2009.

Sept – Nov 2008 'Game Master' and Community Coordinator


Institute for the Future, Palo Alto, CA
Superstruct was the world's first 'massively multiplayer forecasting game', designed to engage
the public in imagining how we might overcome the threats and challenges of the 2010s.
Dialling in from the UK, my focus was on the structures emerging from the interaction of
technology, democracy and security – building community infrastructure and tying player-
created content into the game's broader themes. In April 2009, I travelled to San Francisco, to
help present our research findings to attendees of the IFTF's annual retreat.

July – Sept 2007 Junior Research Associate


University of Sussex, School of Social and Cultural Studies
Undergraduate research bursary, funding an 8-week research project on internet-mediated
activism in the global garment industry. Supervised by anthropologist Dr Geert de Neve, the
project included a review of existing literature on protest movements and global activism, the
social web (then 'Web 2.0'), and an analysis of the ways in which NGOs and their affiliates had
started, however hesitantly, to engage with social networking platforms.

Exhibitions

2011 Song of the Machine


'HUMAN+: The Future of Our Species', Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
A speculative film and series of images produced by Superflux in collaboration with Dr Patrick
Degenaar (Newcastle), 'Song of the Machine' explores the possibilities of the new, modified –
even enhanced – vision enabled by current research into optogenetic retinal prostheses.
Electromagnetic vistas, genetic viruses and the cyborg sensorium.

2010 TV Commons
'Heterotopia Provocation', Stamford Works, Dalston, London
Design and video installation exploring the Hertzian geographies and potential hobbyist
afterlife of analog television, in anticipation of the UK's digital switchover in 2012. Produced
over five months in collaboration with Stacey Pitsillides (systems designer) and Stephen Fortune
(new media artist). Duelling signals, church spires and moral panic, with a write-up for PSFK.

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