Walter Benjamin and the Virtual: Politics, Art, and Mediation in the Age of Global Culture

Author Biography

John Grech

John Grech is an artist, writer, and educator who has exhibited, published, and taught in Australia, Europe, the USA, and Canada. Recent projects include a web site called “Interempty Space” (2007), published by Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed forum for experimental new media projects, and a commentary on the work of Walter Benjamin called “Walter Benjamin in an age of global citizenship,” published in the International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics (vol. 3, no.2, 2007). In 2006, John gained his PhD, which drew extensively on the work of Benjamin, and is titled The Work of Art in the Age of Global Culture, from the University of Technology, Sydney, although John spent much of his time researching his thesis at the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis and the Film and Television Department at the University of Amsterdam. After returning to Australia to take up a post as Lecturer in Writing and Media Production at Macquarie University, John recently returned to live in Europe where he and his partner are expecting their second child.