A D A M N O C E K

About

Adam Nocek works at the intersection of philosophy, design, media, and the biological sciences. In both theory and practice, he seeks to expand what we mean by technology in order to reimagine how it designs and mediates life on earth. His recent work investigates how computational design operates as a site of political, economic, and ecological struggle. From algorithmic governance and the computational biosciences to urban infrastructures and artificial ecosystems, he explores how design practices reshape the environments that sustain human and nonhuman life.

Nocek is Associate Professor in the Philosophy of Science and Technology in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering at Arizona State University. He is the Founding Director of ASU’s Center for Philosophical Technologies and the editor of Techniques Journal. Nocek has held distinguished visiting professorships and fellowships at the University of Amsterdam, University of Warsaw, Politecnico di Milano, and the University of Chicago. Currently, he is Chercheur Associé at the Centre Georg Simmel, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris. 

Nocek published Molecular Capture: The Animation of Biology (Minnesota, 2021), as well as the co-authored book (with Giuseppe Longo) The Organism is a Theory: Giuseppe Longo on Biology, Mathematics, and AI (Minnesota, 2026). His new book, Abstract Design: A Philosophy of Design Agency in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, is forthcoming from the University of Minnesota Press. Nocek is the co-editor of Design in Crisis: New Worlds, Philosophies and Practices, The Lure of Whitehead, along with several other collections and special issues, including a special issue of Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities titled, “Ontogenesis Beyond Complexity.”

In 2021, Nocek co-founded the School of Materialist Research, along with Katerina Kolozova (Director, Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, Skopje), where he directs the Summer Institute for Advanced Design Practices in Olympiada, Greece. Nocek maintains active collaborations with universities and researchers across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.