[2] The Age of Earthquakes is directly inspired by Quentin Fiore's experimental style he made famous in The Medium is the Massage.

For The Age of Earthquakes, graphic designer Wayne Daly took familiar visual cues from contemporary apps and other screen based matter, and translated them onto the printed page, in stark black and white.

They are Farah Al Qasimi, Ed Atkins, Gabriele Basilico, Alessandro Bava, Josh Bitelli, James Bridle, Cao Fei, Alex Mackin Dolan, Thomas Dozol, Constant Dullaart, Cécile B. Evans, Rami Farook, Hans-Peter Feldmann, GCC, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Eloise Hawser, Camille Henrot, Hu Fang, K-Hole, Koo Jeong-A, Katja Novitskova, Lara Ogel, Trevor Paglen, Yuri Pattison, Jon Rafman, Bunny Rogers, Bogosi Sekhukhuni, Taryn Simon, Hito Steyerl, Michael Stipe, Rosemarie Trockel, Amalia Ulman, David Weir and Trevor Yeung.

Pacific Standard magazine described it as "a kind of philosophical Anarchist Cookbook for the online era";[5] Jon Snow on Channel 4 News called it "absolutely amazing";[6] Vice.com characterised it as "a new philosophy-cum-modern-self-help book";[1] and Dazed said it was a "guidebook, map for today and mediation on the madness of our media, it's an awesome, dizzying read.

"[7] However, The Los Angeles Times accused it of being, "a project that looks backward, rather than ahead,";[8] and Kirkus Reviews said, "its hipper-than-thou self-satisfaction runs close to the surface of a superficial book."