Edited by Benjamin H. Bratton, Nicolay Boyadjiev and Nick Axel

The New Normal (2017-2019) was a post-graduate program and Speculative Urbanism think-tank within Moscow’s renowned Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture, and Design that conducted a collaborative research to investigate the impact of planetary-scale computation on the future of cities both in Russia and around the world.

The New Normal features twenty-two interlinked projects that were part of this research. Published alongside are seventeen lavishly illustrated contributions by international researchers and designers that outline the wider scope of The New Normal program’s output, held together by concise thematic texts contributed by Benjamin H. Bratton. Contributors include Yuk Hui, Liam Young, Anastassia Smirnova, Lydia Kallipoliti, Lev Manovich, Julieta Aranda, Trevor Paglen, Metahaven, Keller Easterling, Robert Gerard Pietrusko, Molly Wright Steenson, Ben Cerveny, Rival Strategy, Geoff Manaugh, Stephanie Sherman, and Patricia Reed. The fields of research include Speculative Megastructures, Human AI Interaction Design, Protocols and Programs, Synthetic Cinema, Alt-Geographies, Platform Econometrics, and Recursive Simulation.