THOMAS LEVIN joined the faculty at Princeton in 1990 following graduate study in art history and philosophy at Yale University and after a year in Los Angeles as a fellow at the J. Paul Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities. His teaching and scholarship range from the history of aesthetic theory and Frankfurt School cultural theory to the history and theory of media (archaeologies of vision, Early German Cinema, Weimar Cinema, New German Cinema, rhetoric of new media). His work on questions of aesthetics, technology, and sound (which he has continued to explore in regular team-taught seminars) grew out of his research on metronomes, gramophones, and the prehistory of acoustic inscription, as well as his activities as associate editor of The Musical Quarterly (where he was for many years responsible for the section on institutions, industries, and technologies of music). A former fellow at the Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften (Vienna) and at the Institute for Advanced Study (Budapest), in 1999 Levin was chosen by the Dutch Ministry of Culture to be "artist-in-residence" at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, where he developed a project entitled "Celluloid Rembrandtiana" that investigated the dynamics of cultural nationalism and mass media through a program of over a dozen films on Rembrandt (1920 to 1999) which was subsequently shown at the Staedel Museum in Frankfurt/Main, at the Arsenal Kino in Berlin, and in 2005 at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. During the academic year 2000-01, which he spent in Germany as the academic director of the Berlin Consortium for German Studies at the FU-Berlin, Levin completed a study of the origins of synthetic sound in the late 1920s (click here to download as pdf), and an analysis of some theoretical issues posed by the advent of digital imaging. He also curated a major international exhibition entitled "CTRL [SPACE]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother" which was on view at the Zentrum f�r Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe through late February 2002.� Besides a number of further publication and curatorial projects related to his research on the aesthetic politics of surveillance --including "Anxious Omniscience" at the Princeton University Art Musuem and "9/11 + 1: The Perplexities of Security" at Brown University's Watson Center-- Levin is also working on two small books, one growing out of his Rembrandt Media project and the other on the film-theoretical cinema of Guy Debord and the Situationist International.� Levin spent the academic year 2004-2005 on sabbatical leave as a senior scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.� In November 2005 he organized a one-day conference at the Louvre� Museum in Paris entitled "Photographie, Prison, Pouvoir : Politiques de l'Image Carc�rale" which re-examined the history of what Levin calls the "carceral image" in the wake of Abou Ghraib.� Most recently, Levin curated a small show entitled "'The Arts of the Future will be radical transformations of situations, or they will be nothing': Guy Debord Cineaste" at the Slought Foundation in Philadelphia.� Drawn from Levin's collection of the work of the Situationist International, the exhibition was inaugurated with a screening and roundtable discussion with Tony Vidler (Cooper Union, NYC), Keith Sanborn (Princeton) and Jean-Michel Rabbatte (U-Penn/Princeton) entitled "Film as Critical Practice: The Cinema of Guy Debord and the Spectre of the Situationist International" which can be heard in its entirety on-line.

Publications�

BOOKS

Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media. Co-edited, with Michael W. Jennings and Brigid Doherty (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008)

Resistance to Cinema: Reading German Film Theory . (Princeton: Princeton University Press [forthcoming])

Edited, with Ursula Frohne and Peter Weibel, CTRL [Space]. Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002)

Siegfried Kracauer, The Mass Ornament. Weimar Essays. Translated, edited and with an introduction by Thomas Y.�Levin (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995)

� � “The Little Shopgirls Go to the Movies” rpt. in Richard W. McCormick & Alison Guenther-Pal, Eds., German Essays on Film (New York/London: Continuum, 2004): 99-111

Siegfried Kracauer. Neue Interpretationen . Michael Kessler and Thomas Y. Levin, Eds. (T�bingen: Stauffenburg Verlag, 1990)

Siegfried Kracauer: Eine Bibliographie seiner Schriften . Edited and with an intro�duction by Thomas Y. Levin (Marbach/N.: Deutsche Schiller�gesellschaft, 1989)

� � Introductory essay reprinted as “Der enth�llte Kracauer: Ein Forschungsbericht,” in: Siegfried Kracauer. Neue Interpretationen. Kessler and. Levin, Eds.: 229-247

ARTICLES

“Agencies of Vision: Remarks on Selected Works by Denis Beaubois,” in Russell Storer, Video Logic (Sidney: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2008)

“Five Tapes, Four Halls, Two Dreams: Vicissitudes of Surveillant Narration in Michael Hanecke’s Cach�,” in France Choini�re, Ed., Fonction/Fiction: Utilitarian Images Reconfigured (Montreal: Les �ditions Dazibao, Centre de Photographies Actuelles / Edipresse, 2008)

“Editor’s Introduction” (with Michael W. Jennings & Brigid Doherty) in: Jennings, Doherty & Levin, Eds., Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2008): 1-8

“Film” (=Introductory essay) in: Jennings, Doherty & Levin, Eds., Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, 315-322

“Publishing Industry and Radio” (=Introductory essay, with Michael W. Jennings) in: Jennings, Doherty & Levin, Eds., Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, 343-352

“Surveillant” in Caroline A. Jones, ed., Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art (Cambridge: List Visual Art Center and MIT Press, 2006): 212-215

“Film As Critical Practice: Thomas Y. Levin, Keith Sanborn and Anthony Vidler in Conversation with Jean-Michel Rabat�,” in: Gregg Lambert & Aaron Levy, Eds., Rrrevolutionnaire: Conversations in Theory, Vol. 1

(Philadelphia: Slought Books, 2006): 151-171

“David Claerbout: Untitled (Single Channel View), 1998-2000” in: LISBOA-PHOTO 2005 (Lisabon: LisboaPhoto2005/Divis�o de Galerias e Ateliers: 2005): 54-59 (English-Portuguese facing-pace translation)

“A Conversation with Christian Marclay, Thaddeus A. Squire and Ann Temkin” in: Christian Marclay, The Bell and the Glass (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art / Rel�che Inc, 2003): 44-53

“‘T�ne aus dem Nichts’: Rudolf Pfenninger und die Arch�ologie des synthetischen Tons,” in: Friedrich Kittler, Thomas Macho & Sigrid Weigel, Eds., Zwischen Rauschen und Offenbarung. Zur Kultur- und Mediengeschichte der Stimme (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2002): 313-355 �����������

� ������ In English as “Tones from out of Nowhere: Rudolf Pfenninger and the Archaeology of Synthetic Sound” in: Grey Room 12 (Fall 2003): 32-79

� �� English version reprinted in: Thomas Keenan and Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Eds., New Media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader (NY: Routledge, 2005): 45-81

� �� In French, in a somewhat edited version translated by Jean-Fran�ois Allain, as “‘Des sons venus de nulle part’: Rudolf Pfenninger et l’arch�ologie du son synth�tique” in: Sophie Duplaix & Marcella Lista, Eds, Sons & Lumieres, une histoire du son dans l’art du XXe si�cle (Paris: �ditions du Centre Pompidou, 2004): 51-60

“Rhetoric of the Temporal Index: Surveillant Space and the Cinema of ‘Real Time’,” Big Brother: Architecture and Surveillance (Athens: National Museum of Contemporary Art, 2002): 24-37

(in English and in a Greek translation by Titika-Maria Saratsi)

� � In Portuguese, translated by Raquel Mouta, as “Ret�rica do �ndex Temporal: Narra��o Vigilante e o Cinema do ‘Tempo Real’” in: Insi(s)tu: revista de Cultura Urbana (Porto) #5/6 (Summer 2003): 126-147

� � In German, translated by Michael Wedel, as “Die Rhetorik der Zeitanzeige: Erz�hlen und �ber-wachen im Kino der �Echtzeit�” in: Malte Hagener, Johann N. Schmidt & Michael Wedel, Eds., Die Spur durch den Spiegel: Der Film in der Kultur der Moderne (Berlin: Bertz Verlag, 2004): 349-366

� � In Swedish, translated by Astrid Trotzig, as “Retorik f�r temporala index: om �vervakningens ber�ttelse och filmens ‘realtid’” in Konst och Nya Media (Stockholm: Kungl. Konsth�gskolan, 2005): 86-102

� � In Brazilian Portuguese, in Katia Maciel, Ed., TransCinemas (Rio de Janeiro 2006)

� � In Hebrew, translated by Analu Verbin, as “Retorikat Ha'index Shel Hazman: Pikuakh Ve'hakolno'a Shel Zman Emet” in Block #02: Control (Tel Aviv, Summer 2005): 8-21

“‘Where my tape, man?’: Denis Beaubois and the Performative Politics of Panoptical D�tournement” and in a facing-page German translation by Nikolaus G. Schneider as “‘Where my tape, man?’: Denis Beaubois und die performative Politik des panoptischen D�tournement,” in: CTRL [SPACE]: Die wachsame Gesellschaft. Internationaler Medienkunstpreis 2001 (Karlsruhe: ZKM/SWR, 2001): 80-99

� � Reprinted as “Surveillance and the Ludic Reappropriation of Public Space” in: Open #6 “(in)security” issue (Amsterdam: NAI Publishers, 2004): 50-60

� � In Dutch, translated by Leo Reijnen as “Surveillance en de ludieke herovering van de openbare ruimte” in: Open #6 “(on) veiligheid” issue (Amsterdam: NAI Publishers, 2004): 61-71

� � Reprinted in English and in the Dutch translation by Leo Reijnen, in: Petran Kockelkoren, Ed. Mediated Vision (Arnhem and Rotterdam: ArtEZ Press and Veenman Publishers, 2007): 84-99

“‘You Never Know the Whole Story’: Ute Friederike J�r� und die �sthetik des heterochronen Bildes” / ‘You Never Know the Whole Story’: Ute Friederike J�r� and the Aesthetics of the Heterochronic Image,” [facing-page German/English] in: Ute Friederike J�r�: You Never Know the Whole Story (Stuttgart: Cantz Verlag, 2000): 54-87

� � Reprinted, in an updated and revised version, in Tanya Leighton, Ed., Art and the Moving Image: A Critical Reader (London: Tate Publishing in association with AFTERALL: 2008): 460-474

� � In French, translated by Jean-Francois Allain, as “‘Le Tremblement de la Repr�sentation’: Ute Friederike J�r� et l��sth�tique de l�image h�t�rochrone” in: Les Cahiers du Mus�e National d’Art Moderne #78 (Winter 2001-2002): 21-39

� � In Brazilian Portuguese, translated by Elisabety Lissovsky as “O Terremoto De Representa��o: Composi��o Digital e a Est�tica Tensa de Imagem Heterocr�nica,” in Fernanda Bruno & Antonio Fatorelli, Eds., Limiares Da Imagem: Tecnologia e Est�tica na Cultura Contempor�nea (Rio de Janeiro: Mauad Editora, 2006): 197-215

“Die Rhetorik der �berwachung: Angst vor Beobachtung in den zeitgen�ssischen Medien” in: 7 H�gel: Bilder und Zeichen des 21. Jahrhunderts. Band IV- Zivilisation: St�dte-B�rger-Cybercities. Die Zukunft unserer Lebenswelten (Berlin: Henschel, 2000): 49-63

� � Reprinted in GDI Impuls vol. 20 #2.02 (February, 2002): 47-53

� � Reprinted in vol 3 issue on “Video und �berwachung” of the Berlin cyber-journal Nach dem Film [http://www.nachdemfilm.de/no3/lev01dts.html]

“Constant’s New Babylon: New Babylon Today” [A Panel Discussion with Hilde Heynen, Fr�d�ric Migayrou and Mark Wigley] in: FROM #1 (September 1999; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam): 15-33

“Caputher Gespr�ch: �ber Formen der Wissensvermittlung”: [Edited transcript of a discussion with J�rgen Trabant (Berlin), Mosche Barasch (Jerusalem), Helga Nowotny (Vienna) and Kurt W. Forster (Zurich), broadcast live on Austrian television] in: Ulrich Raulff & Gary Smith, Eds., Wissensbilder: Strategien der �berlieferung (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1999): 341-362

“Indexicality Concr�te: The Aesthetic Politics of Christian Marclay’s Gramophonia,” Parkett 56 (1999): 162-169

� � In German, translated by Uta Goridis, as “Indexikalit�t Concr�te: �berlegungen zu Christian Marclays ‘Grammophonie’,” Parkett 56 (1999): 170-176

“Geopolitics of Hibernation: The Drift of Situationist Urbanism,” in Libero Andreotti and Xavier Costa, Eds., Situacionistas: arte, pol�tica, urbanismo / Situationists: art, politics, urbanism (Barcelona: Museu d’Art Contemporani, 1996): 111-146

� � In Spanish, as “Geopol�tica de la hibernaci�n: la deriva del urbanismo situacionista,” in Andreotti and Costa, Eds., Situacionistas: arte, pol�tica, urbanism: 111-146

� � In Catalan, as “Geopol�tica de la hibernaci�: la deriva de l’urbanisme situacionista,” in Andreotti and Costa, Eds., Situacionistes: arte, pol�tica, urbanisme: 111-146

� � In German, translated by Wolfgang Himmelberg, as “Geopolitik des Winterschlafs: Zum Urbanismus der Situationisten” in J�rg Huber/Martin Heller, Eds., Konturen des Unenstchiedenen [=Intervention-en 6] (Basel/Frankfurt/M.: Stroemfeld/Roter Stern & Museum f�r Gestaltung Z�rich, 1997): 257-286

� � German translation reprinted in the Positionen 2 (November 1997) issue of Wolkenkuckuksheim / Cloud-Cuckoo-Land – International Journal of Architectural Theory (TU-Cottbus) at http://www.tu-cottbus.de/BTU/Fak2/TheoArch/wolke/X-positionen/Levin/levin.html

� � German translation reprinted, with extensive illustrations, as “Der Urbanismus der Situationisten” in ARCH+ 139/140 (December ‘97/January ‘98): 70-82

� � German translation reprinted in Derive: Magazin der interdisziplin�ren Wochen an der Muthesius-Hochschule f�r Kunst und Gestaltung, Kiel (2001): 46-69

“Iconology at the Movies: Panofsky’s Film Theory,” in Irving Lavin, Ed., Meaning in the Visual Arts: Views from the Outside. A Centennial Commemoration of Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968) (Princeton: Institute for Advanced Study, 1995): 313-333

� � Revised and expanded version in The Yale Journal of Criticism 9:1 (1996): 27-55, available on-line at http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/yale_journal_of_criticism/9.1levin.html

� � Revised & expanded version reprinted in Angela Dalle Vacche, Ed, The Visual Turn: Classical Film Theory and Art History (New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2002): 85-114

� � In German, translated by J�rgen Blasius, as “Die Ikonologie geht ins Kino: Panofskys Filmtheorie” in: Texte zur Kunst 6:23 (August 1996): 120-141

� � Slightly shortened German version reprinted in Auf Der Suche Nach Dem Filmischen [Kinoschriften vol. 5] (Vienna: Synema-Publikationen, 2002): 99-122

� � In French, translated by Jean-Fran�ois Sen�, as “Un Iconologue au Cin�ma: La Th�orie cin�mato-graphique de Panofsky” in: Les Cahiers du Mus�e National d’Art Moderne 59 (Spring 1997): 34-73

“Before the Beep: A Short History of Voice Mail,” Technophonia: Essays in Sound 2 (Darlinghurst: Contem-porary Sound Arts, 1995): 59-67; http://www.sysx.org/soundsite/csa/eis2content/essays/p59_beep.html

� � Reprinted in Theo van Leeuwen, Ross Gibson & Norie Neumark, Eds., The Grain of the Voice in Digital Media and Media Art (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, forthcoming 2008)

� � In German, translated by Hans Harbort, as “Der Phonograph als Schreibmaschine: T�ne und Stimmen als Schrift - Kulturgeschichtliche Anmerkungen zur akustischen �berlieferung vom Grammophon bis zur ‘Voice Mail’,” Berliner Zeitung vol.53, no.282 (December 3, 1997), Sonderbeilage, III

� � Revised German translation, “Vor dem Piepton: Eine kleine Geschichte des Voice Mail,” in: Raulff & Smith, Eds., Wissensbilder: 279-318

“Elements of a Radio Theory: Adorno and the Princeton Radio Research Project,” Musical Quarterly 78:2 (Summer 1994): 316-324

“Integral Interpretation: Introductory Notes to Beethoven, Kolisch and the Metronome,” Musical Quarterly 77:1 (Spring 1993): 81-89

“Neue Kracauer-Texte: Eine bibliographische Meldung,” Jahrbuch der Deutschen Schiller-Gesellschaft 35 (1991): 460-462

“The English-Language Reception of Kracauer’s Work: A Bibliography,” New German Critique 54 (Fall 1991): 183-189

“For the Record: Adorno on Music in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility,” October 55 (Winter 1990): 23-47

“Vorwort” [with Michael Kessler] and “Arch�ologie des Exils: Siegfried Kracauers Briefe an Daniel Hal�vy,” [Edited, annotated and with an introduction] in: Siegfried Kracauer. Neue Interpretationen. Michael Kessler and Thomas Y. Levin, Eds. (T�bingen: Stauffenburg, 1990): VII-XIII and 345-417

“Dismantling the Spectacle: The Cinema of Guy Debord,” in: Elisabeth Sussman, Ed., On the Passage of a few people through a rather brief moment in time: The Situationist International 1957-1972 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 1989): 72-123

� � Reprinted in Tom McDonough, Ed., Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002): 321-453

� � In German, translated by K�the Trettin, as: “Aufl�sung des Spektakels: Das Kino von Guy Debord,” in: Yvonne Spielmann, Ed., Kunst und Politik der Avant-Garde (Frankfurt/M.: Mouson Verlag, 1989): 83-107

� � Revised German version, translated by Uli Nickel as “‘Cin� qua non’: Guy Debord und die filmische Praxis als Theorie,” in Gregor Stemmrich, Ed., Kunst/Kino-Jahresring 48: Jahrbuch f�r moderne Kunst (Cologne: Oktagon Verlag, 2001): 17-29

� � http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themen/kunst_und_kinematografie/debord/

� � In Serbian, translated by Ljiljana Filipovic, as “Ogoljenje Spektakla: Kinematografija Guya Deborda,” broadcast on “Treci Program Hrvatskog Radija” in Belgrade on December 16, 1996

“Walter Benjamin and the Theory of Art History: An Introduction to ‘Rigorous Study of Art’,” October 47 (Winter 1988): 77-83

� � In Spanish as “Walter Benjamin y la Teoria de la Historia del Arte” in: KALIAS. Revista d’Arte 2:3-4 (Valencia October 1990): 92-96

“Siegfried Kracauer in English: A Bibliography,” New German Critique 41 (Spring-Summer 87): 140-150

“From Dialectical To Normative Specificity: Reading Luk�cs on Film,” New German Critique 40 (Winter 1987): 35-61

� � In German, translated by Michael Omasta together with an interpolation of the two versions of the Luk�cs text, as: “Von der dialektischen zur normativen Eigenart: Luk�cs und das Kino,” in: Kino-Schriften 3. Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft f�r Filmtheorie (Vienna: Verlag der wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaften �sterreichs, 1992): 199-231

“Nationalities of Language:�Adorno’s Fremdw�rter. An Introduc�tion to Theodor W.�Adorno, “On the Question:�‘What Is German?’,” New German Critique 36 (Fall l985): 111‑119

� � Reprinted in: “Soziographie” Bl�tter des Forschungskomitees “Soziographie” der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft f�r Soziologie 7 (1993): 99-109

� � Reprinted in FROM (Rotterdam) #1 (September 1999): 112-117

� � Revised version in German as “Nationalit�ten der Sprache - Adornos Fremdw�rter: Multikulturalismus und bzw. als � bersetzung,” in: Michael Kessler, J�rgen Wertheimer, Eds., Multikulturalit�t: Tendenzen, Probleme, Perspektiven (T�bingen: Stauffenburg Verlag, 1995): 77-89

“The Acoustic Dimension:�Notes on Cinema Sound,” Screen (London) 25:3 (May‑June 1984): 55‑68 �