Poetic Sadness

Digital Butterflies w/ M. Beatrice Fazi

In this episode, Asia Bazdyrieva meets philosopher of computation M. Beatrice Fazi to discuss the role and function of abstraction as a kind of activity that produces worlds. Referencing Fazi’s articles and books, including Contingent Computation: Abstraction, Experience, and Indeterminacy in Computational Aesthetics and Digital Theory, they talk about the politics and poetics of theorizing, the distinction between digital and analogue, computational aesthetics, synthesis, and digital butterflies. M. Beatrice Fazi is a Professor in Digital Humanities at the University of Sussex. She was a fellow at the Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures, where Asia Bazdyrieva is a scholar in media theory. The episode was recorded on December 17th, 2025 at ÆSR — Applied/Experimental Sound Research Lab at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Sound: Antuum. Art direction: Nella Rieken.