A few months ago, after over 8 years of research and writing, I published my first academic book, The Cosmic Zoom. Writing this incredibly meaningful book changed my life, and it is my ardent hope that it will assist others as well. This post is an introduction and guide to the book. But first, my immense gratitude to my amazing editors at the University of Chicago Press.

This is a book about scale. About how one thing transforms into another, about how different subjects and objects encounter one another across scales, and about how we—as disciplined or creative thinkers—come to know (and unknow) the parts of the world that inhabit different scales than we can access with our senses. Such knowledge is the product of mediation, of conjoined processes of communication, sensory stimulation, and transformation. All media is trans-scalar, and everything we access that is trans-scalar is mediated.

The Cosmic Zoom develops a medial theory of scale that accounts for its disciplinary history, the scalar politics of today, and what I call the “scalar paradox of knowledge production”: the fact that scale seems to be arbitrary, a human convention, and yet investigation of both the material and social world reveals that scalar difference is a fundamental dynamic of the universe, and one that confounds disciplined knowledge production more than it bolsters it. How do we account for this paradox? Is the cosmos scaled, or do we impose scale upon it? Rather than collapse the paradox, this book argues that both are true, and the cyclical process, or circuit, of human stabilization of particular scales and the irruption of scalar difference beyond the human constitute the medial dynamic of scale.

The Cosmic Zoom considers the current moment in history as one of profoundly important scalar politics, which formulate or contest the constellation and characterization of particular scales, producing zooms that distribute and mediate affect, engendering particular scalar identities. Scalar politics determines human relationships to anthropogenic processes at planetary scales like climate change and big data, as well as human relationships with non-humans at all scales. To take the measure of our current, troubled epoch, I argue that we must come to a far better understanding of scalar mediation.

It is my hope that this work will provide a foundation for and help to catalyze the new interdisciplinary field of Scale Studies.

I thought it might be helpful to provide something of a guide to this sprawling book, so here goes…

First Chapter and Index

Here’s the first chapter of the book, plus the index.

Full Table of Contents

Here’s an unpublished, complete table of contents that includes all section titles in the book (the published version includes only the chapter titles). Along with the published index, this may help you hone in on the conceptual needle in the cosmic haystack!

Key Concepts

The book develops a number of key concepts, a few of which are listed here:

Scalar Difference: A fundamental difference of intensity between all assemblages that impels change. Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 5.

Scalar Spectrum: The range of possible scalar difference, without implied continuity between its ranges. Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3.

Scalar Collapse: The negation of difference between different ranges of the scalar spectrum through their superimposition in speculative media. Ch 1, Ch 4.

Resolving Cut: The relative stabilization of a scalar milieu produced by an observing entity. Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 4, Ch 5.

Resolution: The degree to which ecological detail can be differentiated within a scalar milieu, as outcome of the conceptual and technical stabilization of particular scales. Ch 2.

Pan-Scalar Humanism: An ideology that positions the human at the center of the constellation of scales. Ch 1, Ch 3 (“Toying With Ideas: The Scalar Analog”), Ch 4.

Analog Scale: Scalar difference represented visually as continuous space, optically and conceptually equidistant to the human subject. As distinct from analog media, which must occlude its own seams in order to produce analog scale. See also “Zoetrope Model of Scale” and “equidistant optics.” Ch 3, Ch 4.

Digital Scale: A representation of scale as a spectrum of discrete and discontinuous milieus. As distinct from digital media, which often produces analog scale, especially when non-recursive. Ch 4, Ch 6.

Trans-Scalar Ecology: Tracing the scalar relations, co-constitutive dynamics, and interdependencies of entities across scalar difference (scalar relationality as metadiscipline). Ch 5.

Drama of Resolution: A form of narrative that continually resolves new scales, re-articulating unresolved detail with newly resolved detail. See also “scalar memory.” Ch 2.

Trans-Scalar Encounter: The perspectival encounter between assemblages across discontinuous regions of the scalar spectrum, as resolving event. Ch 1, Ch 6.

Intensive Scale: Scale as primary differentiation, prior to particular knowledge formations (ontological). Ch 5.

Extensive Scale: Scale as secondary negotiation between stabilized surfaces (medial). Ch 5.

Recursive Database Subjectivity: The encounter of the self from different scalar perspectives afforded by database-driven media. Ch 6.

Disciplinary Resolution: The stabilization of particular scales for knowledge production through resolving cuts and the establishment of epistemic protocols. Ch 4, Ch 5 (“Disciplinary Scale”).

Trans-Scalar Constellation: The articulation of multiple stabilized scalar milieus into a world. See also “Zoom” and “Scalar Politics.” Ch 4.

Here’s a PDF version of this guide.

Disciplinary Guide

For those coming to the book from diverse vectors…


Media Studies: Entire book.

Visual Studies / Design (especially Ray and Charles Eames): Ch 3, Ch 4.

Literary Studies: Ch 1, Ch 2.

Science and Technology Studies: Ch 1, Ch 4, Ch 5.

Digital Humanities and Digital Cultural Studies: Ch 6.

Software Studies: Ch 5 (“Lost in Trans-Scalar Ecology: Powers of Ten Interactive”), Ch 6.

Environmental Studies / Ecology: Ch 1, Ch 5.

Philosophy / Critical Theory: Ch 1, Ch 5, Ch 6.

Cosmic Zoom History

Beyond its theoretical content, The Cosmic Zoom is also a history of the cosmic zoom form. I wrote a blog post for Chicago University Press with some cosmic zoom film recommendations here.

This book lays the theoretical groundwork for my future academic and creative work, and mode of living. I earnestly hope it assists you in your future endeavors, whatever form and scale they may take.