The year 2000 was once symbolic of the future -- the world of tomorrow filled with utopian possibilities for art, science, and technology. Entering the millennium, something is awry in the spirit of tomorrow for there exists a strange pattern of zeros in culture and technology, all related to the space-time coordinates of the future. There is ground zero, carbon zero, Coke Zero, and many others. What do these zeros suggest? Void or emptiness, end or beginning, the past or the future for utopia? It is ground zero for theory.
Zero Conditions is the first book in the THEORY ZERO series, published by Theory Vortex Experiments. Jean Baudrillard said that theory -- if it is to be salvaged after 9/11 and in the new millennium -- could be reconstructed on the 'theme of zero.' Drawing from art, media, science, and philosophy, this book series by Barry Vacker uses zero as countdown and blastoff for theorizing the existential conditions of postmillennial culture. And here is the key question -- are any models for a future utopia possible after the three zeros of 2000?