Seeing Visions of Virtual Warfare
Meet comparative literature major Michael Malone.
Hometown: Boulder, Colorado
Thesis adviser: Professor Jake Fraser [German and humanities]
Thesis: “Visions of Virtual Warfare”
What it’s about: The effects of visual media on contemporary warfare.
What it’s really about: Drones.
In high school: I spent most of my time making art. I turned our garage in our house into a studio. I basically spent high school alone in the garage, painting—and making photographs.
Influential courses/professor: Whole Earths with Professor Benjamin Lazier [history and humanities] was probably the most impactful class that I took at Reed. He’s an intellectual historian, and the class is a survey of how people have conceptualized the Earth, the globe, the world. For him, one of the central arguments is that post-1968, when the first color photo of the Earth was taken from space—Earthrise—our view of the Earth was completely changed. For so much of human history, no one had seen it.
Outside the classroom: I did an internship at a press in Los Angeles called Semiotext(e), which was paid for by the Reed internship grant. I also worked at the Cooley Gallery as a steward and I was an organizer of Reed Arts Week.
Leadership on campus: During my freshman year, I started learning calligraphy from Gregory MacNaughton ’89. Both of us realized that we liked drinking Chinese tea, so we started drinking tea together and talking about poetry in the Reed canyon—and if people were passing by, we would offer them a cup of tea. Greg and I have both been allergic to the idea of calling it a club. It’s really about just getting together and sharing things: sharing tea, sharing food, sharing conversation. We’ve met for the past four years every week.
Influential book: War and Cinema: The Logistics of Perception by Paul Virilio.
What’s next? I plan to pursue a PhD in geography. Also, I’ve applied for a Fulbright to do research in Germany on aerial photography.
Tags: Academics, Students, Thesis, What is a Reedie?