John Alderman
288 9th Street #8 • San Francisco, CA 94103
+1 (415) 290-6475 • john@supereverywhere.com
John Alderman has a long history covering culture, music, design, art and technology. His previous book, Sonic Boom (a New York Times Notable Book of 2002), chronicled the tumultuous rise of online musical distribution. Alderman felt that the human side of this shift was being ignored, and made efforts to draw out many diverse personal stories so that the cultural significance of the move online would be told alongside the legal and business history. He recently wrote Core Memory, a visual walk through computing history, for which he researched and distilled the histories of 35 important machines and their creators, tracing an arc of innovation with humans at the heart of it. Formerly culture editor for Wired News, Alderman is currently creative director at Razorfish, as well as a freelance writer. His recent writing focuses on artists and designers whose work does not fit into easy categories. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Praise for Sonic Boom:
“Smart and meticulous. Alderman’s book, sympathetic to the upstarts but not uncritically so, captures many of the ironies and absurdities of the digital music revolution.” – New York Times (Notable Book)
“A compelling blend of cultural criticism and business writing…and the first full-length look at the [on-line music] revolution…. Alderman’s detailed, unflaggingly entertaining book sets a dizzying standard.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An important book for anyone interested in where our culture is headed.” – The Independent on Sunday “A lucid, comprehensive dispatch from the cyber trenches, it’s required reading for music makers and fans alike.” – The Wire
“In the best tradition of the genre, John Alderman provides a well-paced narrative of the key events and insightful descriptions of its leading players.” – Salon
“A valuable instant history, teasing out the twists and turns of the struggle. There’s unlikely to be a better tool than this book for understanding what’s been going on.” – Evening Standard
Praise for Core Memory:
“This five-decade romp reads less like a history lesson and more like an ode to an old friend. Writer John Alderman captures the excitement of the book’s 35 computers.” – Wired
Freelance Writer 2001 - Present
Covers the intersections of art, music, culture, and design. Publications include Wired, The Guardian (UK), Surface, Salon, Details, Make, E?tapes (France), and I.D. Notable feature stories include lengthy profiles of Brazilian furniture designers the Campana brothers, and social architecture program The Rural Studio, and biological artist Philip Ross. Interviews include Brian Eno, the Talking Heads, Todd Rundgren, The Boredoms, Ice T, Steve Reich, and Nam Jun Paik.
Education
University of Houston, Honors College BA in English Literature and Art History
• Writing program, led by author Donald Barthelme
Universite de Toulouse, France French Language studies
Further:
Curated several exhibitions of digital and online media, including GenArt’s New Fangle, and Taos Talking Pixels. Released several CDs, and toured the USA, Canada, Scotland and Japan playing music.
