Search results for ""intellect books""

Revolve:R was initiated in 2011 by Sam Treadaway and Ricarda Vidal as a multidisciplinary and international collaboration. The project explores the transmission of ideas through collaborative forms of communication ranging from the physical and tactile (such as the sharing of original artworks via the postal service) to the digital and intangible (which includes a parallel interplay online). Besides visual artworks, Revolve:R includes poetry, film, soundscapes and music. The complete work of each Revolve:R edition is presented as a limited-edition bookwork. Revolve:R: edition three is available through Intellect. Revolve:R: edition three is the result of a two-year-long collaboration, between 2016 and 2018, in which artists, poets, and musicians from around the UK, USA, Africa and Continental Europe created artworks in reply and response to one another. During this time many of the artworks featured have physically travelled many thousands of miles before coming together in this publication. Edition three is a continuation of editions one and two (Arrow Bookworks, 2013 and 2015) which explored concepts relating to chaos theory, chance and synchronicity. The first artwork-page of Revolve:R, edition three (page 217) references the final artwork sequence from Revolve:R, edition two (ending on page 216). Throughout the evolution of this third edition the editors have continued the development of the initial ideas and working processes that formed the basis and structure of the original Revolve:R project and have further reflected upon the nature of collaboration. In doing so their awareness and consideration of certain parallels and connections between the artworks has developed their insight into the act of co-creation and the phenomenon of collective consciousness. Each Revolve:R edition is formed of six rounds, or Revolves (effectively forming six chapters within the book), which follow the same pattern. A single 2D two-sided artwork of 21cm² is sent by post, to a number of invited artists with the request that they respond with an artwork of their own by a specific date. Thus the initial artwork sets in motion a multitude of alternative creative responses reflecting the recipients’ various ways of reading, interpreting and responding. Revolve:R: edition three (Arrow Bookworks and Intellect, 2019) follows Revolve:R, edition one (Arrow Bookworks, 2013) and Revolve:R, edition two (Arrow Bookworks, 2015). All three Revolve:R editions also function as catalogues, and artworks are available to purchase as high quality limited edition prints. Further information about the Revolve:R project, including how to purchase the prints, can be found here: www.revolve-r.com Revolve:R: edition three is a powerful and beautiful example of the power of collaborative practice, a vehicle for new artistic dialogue, and an artwork in its own right.

Read more less

Deeply influenced by studies of female iconology, the medieval, the subconscious and hybrid bodies, Faith Wilding's art is instantly recognisable. In keeping with Wilding's own artworks, this book is a bricolage: memoirs and watercolours sit alongside critical essays and family photographs to form an overall history of both Wilding's life and works as well as the wider feminist art movement of the 1970s and beyond. This collection spans fifty years of Wilding's artistic production, feminist art pedagogy and participation in, and organising of, feminist art collectives, such as the Feminist Art Program, Womanhouse, Womanspace Gallery and the Woman's Building. Featuring contributions from scholars and artists, including Amelia Jones, the book is the first of its kind to celebrate the career of an artist who helped shape the feminist art of today. Intimate, philosophical and insightful, Faith Wilding's Fearful Symmetries is a beautiful book intended for artists, scholars and a broader audience.

Read more less

Director Sam Peckinpah (1925–1984) never won an Oscar. His filmography is short and uneven, and his movies have never found a wide audience. Despite this, many filmmakers today – including Tarantino and Scorsese – count him as a major influence. Sam Peckinpah, edited by Fernando Ganzo, investigates how this unique filmmaker can have such an outsized legacy, exploring films as diverse as New Mexico and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, as well as Peckinpah’s television work. This lavishly illustrated volume will delight both scholars and fans—as well as bringing the underappreciated Peckinpah to new audiences in a new millennium.

Read more less

From the moment Stephenie Meyer published Twilight in 2005, the series has captivated readers. Through three subsequent novels and the blockbuster movie series, the Twilight Saga quickly became more than just a hit series – it’s now a cultural touchstone. This new entry in the Fan Phenomena series brings together scholars and fans to explore the vibrant fan culture and lasting legacy of the saga. Contributors address such topics as the role of mythology in the appeal of the series; the distinct fan groups drawn in by the books and films; the vast world of Twilight fan fiction (including a discussion of Fifty Shades of Grey, the blockbuster novel that began as Twilight fan fiction); the role of gender in Twilight’s global acceptance; and much more. As with all the books in the series, the essays included here are sophisticated and richly analytic, yet aimed as much at fans as at scholars. Whether you’re interested in analysing its initial popularity or its impact on society more than a decade later, there’s no question you’ll find plenty in Fan Phenomena: The Twilight Saga to sink your teeth into.

Read more less

Lois Weaver is one of the world's leading figures in feminist and lesbian performance, a true pioneer in the growing field. This book offers the first book-length assessment of her career and work, tracing its history, aesthetics, principles, inspirations, innovations and more. Contributors include Weaver's most important collaborators from throughout her career, as well as many of the leading feminist theorists, journalists, and performers of the past forty years. The book also includes interviews not just with Weaver, but also with her partner, in life and performance, Peggy Shaw, and groundbreaking theatre maker Muriel Miguel. The result is a book that is truly unprecedented, a lavishly illustrated and expertly curated celebration of an incredible career.

Read more less

When The Rocky Horror Picture Show was released in 1975, it initially received an indifferent reception in movie theatres, but it began to gain notoriety after it was embraced by audiences at midnight screenings in New York City and elsewhere. The movie tells of the misadventures of Brad and Janet, newly engaged, whose car breaks down in a rainstorm, forcing them to seek refuge in the castle of the bizarre and flamboyant Dr. Frank-N-Furter. An homage to campy B-movies, sci-fi, and horror films, the movie was — and still is — more than the sum of its parts. Participatory and party-like, midnight showings attract moviegoers who dress as film characters, sing along with the catchy show tunes and interact with the action on screen. In the four decades since its release, it has become a cultural phenomenon, not to mention one of the most commercially successful films of all time. In Fan Phenomena: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Marisa C. Hayes brings together a diverse group of writers who explore the film’s influence on the development of the pastiche tribute film, emerging queer activism of the 1970s, glam rock style and the creative use of audience dialogue in recreating and interacting with the spoken and sung language of the film. Spotlighting a cult phenomenon and its fans, many of who count the number of times they’ve seen the movie in the hundreds, this contribution to the Fan Phenomena series covers never-before-explored topics related to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. For anyone who has ever done the 'Time Warp', this will be essential reading.

Read more less

It was a scene that had many names: some original members referred to themselves as punks, others, new romantics, new wavers, the bats or the morbids. 'Goth' did not gain lexical currency until the late 1980s. But no matter what term was used, 'postpunk' encompasses all the incarnations of the 1980s alternative movement. Some Wear Leather, Some Wear Lace is a visual and oral history of the first decade of the scene. Featuring interviews with both the performers and the audience to capture the community on and off stage, the book places personal snapshots alongside professional photography to reveal a unique range of fashions, bands and scenes. A book about the music, the individual and the creativity of a worldwide community rather than theoretical definitions of a subculture, Some Wear Leather, Some Wear Lace considers a subject not often covered by academic books. Whether you were part of the scene or are just fascinated by different modes of expression, this book will transport you to another time and place.

Read more less

Piercing Time examines the role of photography in documenting urban change by juxtaposing contemporary ‘rephotographs’ taken by the author with images of nineteenth-century Paris taken by Charles Marville, who worked under Georges Haussmann, and corresponding photographs by Eugène Atget taken in the early twentieth century. Revisiting the sites of Marville’s photographs with a black cloth, tripod and view camera, Peter Sramek creates here a visually stunning book that investigates how urban development, the use of photography as a documentary medium and the representation of urban space reflect attitudes towards the city. The essays that run alongside these fascinating images discuss subjects such as the aesthetics of ruins and the documentation of the demolitions that preceded Haussmannization, as well as the different approaches taken by Marville and Atget to their work. The book also includes contemporary interviews with local Parisians, extracts from Haussmann’s own writing and historical maps that allow for an intriguing look at the shifting city plan. Sure to be of interest to lovers of the city, be they Parisians or visitors, Piercing Time provides a unique snapshot of historical changes of the past 150 years. But it will also be of enduring value to scholars. The accurate cataloguing and high quality reproductions of the images make it a resource for a significant portion of the Marville collection in the Musée Carnavalet, and it will aid further research in urban history and change in Paris over the past century and a half. Photographers will be drawn to the book for its new thinking in relation to documentary methodologies.

Read more less

Hawai’i is one of the most ethnically and racially diverse places in the world due to its central location in the Pacific. Situated at the crossroads of different cultures, Honolulu has a style all of its own. Honolulu Street Style captures this unique approach as it demonstrates how global trends are transformed by stylish Honolulu denizens to give them a unique, local look. Divided into chapters on hair, hats, accessories and beachwear, the book features the styles of people encountered on the street in many different neighbourhoods, with an essay on the history and clothing of Hawai’i as a whole. The neighbourhood fashion explored includes that of iconic Waikiki, which conjures images most people associate with Hawai’i, yet the mass-produced tourist clothing belies a deeper fashion culture hidden in local enclaves and local boutiques that foster an upscale, casual style. Chinatown is a neighbourhood of dramatic colour and exotic touches, and it hosts 'First Friday' events that transform the neighbourhood into a crowded hub of artistic, musical and retail activity. As the photos show, the Kaka’ako neighbourhood draws a crowd that is hip, travelled and not afraid to venture off the beaten path. In contrast, the Manoa valley, home to the flagship campus of the University of Hawai’i, presents itself as an eclectic mix of students and professionals dressed in everything from boho chic to surfer, skater, avant-garde and casual professional style. A highly visual book with full-colour street style photography, Honolulu Street Style will be a landmark publication in the study of place and style.

Read more less

Piercing Time examines the role of photography in documenting urban change by juxtaposing contemporary ‘rephotographs’ taken by the author with images of nineteenth-century Paris taken by Charles Marville, who worked under Georges Haussmann, and corresponding photographs by Eugène Atget taken in the early twentieth century. Revisiting the sites of Marville’s photographs with a black cloth, tripod and view camera, Peter Sramek creates here a visually stunning book that investigates how urban development, the use of photography as a documentary medium and the representation of urban space reflect attitudes towards the city. The essays that run alongside these fascinating images discuss subjects such as the aesthetics of ruins and the documentation of the demolitions that preceded Haussmannization, as well as the different approaches taken by Marville and Atget to their work. The book also includes contemporary interviews with local Parisians, extracts from Haussmann’s own writing and historical maps that allow for an intriguing look at the shifting city plan. Sure to be of interest to lovers of the city, be they Parisians or visitors, Piercing Time provides a unique snapshot of historical changes of the past 150 years. But it will also be of enduring value to scholars. The accurate cataloguing and high quality reproductions of the images make it a resource for a significant portion of the Marville collection in the Musée Carnavalet, and it will aid further research in urban history and change in Paris over the past century and a half. Photographers will be drawn to the book for its new thinking in relation to documentary methodologies.

Read more less

The basic questions addressed in this book are: what is the computational nature of cognition, and what role does it play in language and other mental processes?; What are the main characteristics of contemporary computational paradigms for describing cognition and how do they differ from each other?; What are the prospects for building cognition and how do they differ from each other?; and what are the prospects for building an artificial intelligence? The text features previously unpublished contributions from some of the leading researchers in cognitive science and artificial intelligence. It also addresses important issues about the nature of cognition and describes approaches to modelling cognition at a level that is accessible to introductory students.

Read more less

Tribal Streetwear is lifestyle streetwear brand that seeks to represent a variety of southern California sub-cultures that includes graffiti, street art, skateboarding, surfing, tattoos, hip hop, breakdancing, punk, lowriders, and custom culture. Based in San Diego, California, Tribal has strong Chicano roots in its aesthetic and spans the globe with retail stores on several continents. The text presents a series of articles,essays, and personal reflections thatexplore the various dimensions of TribalStreetwear, and howthe impactof their designs continues to balance theprecarious act of being relevant andresponsible with their resources. The book is divided into four sections. Section 1 features essays that set a context for the text. This includes a history of Tribal and where it fits within the history of streetwear, a personal narrative of the founding of Tribal, and lastly an essay on the uniqueness of southern California aesthetics and the fascination with this southern Cali

Read more less

Devising Theatre and Performance is a hands-on guide for artists, students and teachers of performance at any stage of their practice. It offers a wide range of creative prompts and pathways enriched with critical thinking tools and questions, a hybrid approach Hill and Paris call ‘Curious Methods’. This is a welcome addition to the field, created and curated by two experienced artists who have operated at the international interface of academia and professional practice for over three decades. The collection is packed with fun, creative, thoughtful exercises distilled from over twenty years of running interdisciplinary artist workshops and teaching both devising and performance making. As well providing numerous exercises and suggestions for devising, composing and editing original works, this book offers tools for giving and receiving feedback, critical reflection and framing artistic work within academic research contexts. Readers can choose to dip in and out, to follow the book as a course or to work section by section, focusing on organizing principles such as working from the body, working with site, working with objects or performance activism. The book includes a detailed production workbook and a practice-based research workbook you can tailor to your own projects. The 'Curious Methods' approach encourages users to take the time and space their practice deserves while offering tools, nourishment and encouragement and inviting them to take risks beyond their comfort zones. The exercises are carefully described so that they can easily be tested out by readers, and are well contextualized in relation to vivid examples from contemporary performance practice and relevant political contexts. This compelling approach goes beyond many other books on theatre devising, which merely provide performance recipes; they do so by repeatedly highlighting the vital cultural relevance and potential personal impact of the experiments that they invite us to undertake. The primary audience for this important new book will be academics, instructors and students in courses on devised theatre, improvisation, performance art, experimental performance and practice-based research. It will be essential for classroom use, for students of theatre and performance and live art – undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D., teachers and all those needing strategies for getting started. It will also appeal to readers from the broader arts, humanities and social sciences who are seeking resources for integrating creative methods into their research.

Read more less

This book looks at the representation of female characters in French comics from their first appearance in 1905. Organised into three sections, the book looks at the representation of women as main characters created by men, as secondary characters created by men, and as characters created by women. It focuses on female characters, both primary and secondary, in the francophone comic or bande dessinée, as well as the work of female bande dessinée creators more generally. Until now these characters and creators have received relatively little scholarly attention; this new book is set to change this status quo. Using feminist scholarship, especially from well-known film and literary theorists, the book asks what it means to draw women from within a phallocentric, male-dominated paradigm, as well as how the particular medium of bande dessinée, its form as well as its history, has shaped dominant representations of women. This is the first book to study the representation of women in the French-language drawn strip. There are no other works with this specific focus, either on women in Franco-Belgian comics, or on the drawn representation of women by men. This is a very useful addition to both general discussions of French-language comics, and to discussions of women’s comics, which are focused on comics by women only. As it is written in English, and due to the popularity of comic art in Britain and the United States, this book will primarily appeal to an Anglo-American market. However, the cultural and gender studies approach this text employs (theoretical frameworks still not widely seen in non-Anglophone studies of the bande dessinée) will ensure that the text is also of interest to a Franco-Belgian audience. With a focus on an art-form which also inspires a lot of public (non-academic) enthusiasm, it will also appeal to fans of the bande dessinée (or wider comic art medium) who are interested in the representation of women in comic art, and to comics scholars on a broad scale.

Read more less

Moving far beyond predominant views of Africa as a place to be 'saved', and even more recent celebratory formulations of it as 'rising', African Luxury: Aesthetics and Politics highlights and critically interrogates the visual and material cultures of lavish and luxurious consumption already present on the continent. Methodologically, conceptually and analytically, the collection dismantles taken-for-granted ideas that the West is the source and focus of high-end and hyper-desirable material cultures. It explores what the culture of consumption means in Africa in both historical and contemporary contexts, studying diverse luxury phenomena including fashion advertising, reality television, retail, gendered consumption and gardening to re-centre the discussion on existing contemporary luxury cultures across the continent.

Read more less

The punk movement of the 1970s to early 1980s is examined as an art movement through archive research, interviews, and art historical analysis. It is about pop, pain, poetry, presence, and about a ‘no future’ generation refusing to be the next artworld avant-garde, instead choosing to be the ‘rear-guard’. Skov draws on personal interviews with punk art protagonists from London, New York, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Berlin, among others the members Die Tödliche Doris (The Deadly Doris), members of Værkstedet Værst (The Workshop Called Worst), Nina Sten-Knudsen, Marc Miller, Diana Ozon, Hugo Kaagman, as well as email correspondence with Jon Savage, Anna Banana, and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. A large portion of the discussed materials stem from the protagonists' private archives, while some very public—scandalous and spectacular—events are discussed, too, such as the Prostitution exhibition at the ICA in London in 1976 and Die Große Untergangsshow (The Grand Downfall Show) in West-Berlin in 1981. The examined materials cover almost all media: paintings, drawings, bricolages, collages, booklets, posters, zines, installations, sculptures, Super 8 films, documentation of performances and happenings, body art, street art. What emerges is how crucial the concept of history was in punk at that point in time. The punk movement's rejection of the tale of progress and prosperity, as it was being propagated on both sides of the iron curtain, evidently manifested itself in punk visual art too. Central to the book is the thesis that punks placed themselves as the rear-guards, not the avant-gardes, a statement which was in made by Danish punks in 1981, when they called themselves “bagtropperne". Behind the rear-guard watchword was the rejection of the inherent notion of progress that the avant-garde name brings with it; how could a "no future" movement want to lead the way? Although aimed at students and scholars of art, design, music and performance history, the subject as well as the author’s accessible, occasionally playful style will no doubt draw readers with an interest in punk, music, and urban histories.

Read more less

Artist Scholar: Reflections on Writing and Research is part history, introduction and discussion for artists and designers entering, graduating and employed by the contemporary art academy in the United States. The evolution of art education in the university continues to expand in the twenty-first century as the variables of craft, skill, technique, theory, history and criticism shift and expand as the perspective of arts-based research is introduced into this professionalized environment. Given this context: what can MFA students do to improve their understanding of writing and research without sacrificing their commitment to their studio art process? Through a series of essays, the text argues for better writing at the MFA level with the purpose of becoming better artists. By contextualizing art practice in the university and providing a foundation for future artist scholarship, it serves as an invitation to artist scholars to push their work further and develop the confidence to situate their art in the university context.

Read more less

This volume contains a diverse selection of pieces that present views about men given by women. Some of the contributors write directly about men and how men see women, others prefer to view men at a distance, as a woman looking at men through the eyes of a female writer, or through the eyes of female characters in female writing. With British and European literatures, culture and film being discussed, the essays aim to provide a balance between approaches to male/female conflict, some with a defensive attitude to women, and others with a more detached view. The articles presented include: a sociologist offering her knowledge on divorce; a psychoanalyst discussing the problems of a female analyst faced with male patients; and an historian viewing aspects of 19th-century male attitudes in Britain from the French perspective.

Read more less

Myths is a visual and written exploration on the subject of myths. It contains contributions from writers, illustrators, designers, photographers and artists from around the world who have each responded to the theme in their own unique way. Myths is important as it approaches the theme in various ways but also includes interviews with artists who have been inspired by myths in some way – furthering our understanding and appreciation for myths within an artistic context. The book should appeal to an audience who value aesthetics both in design terms and creative content. The area of myths is one of interest to most people but the originality and wide investigation of the theme in this book should offer further insights to readers. The book also benefits from its eclectic international content and strong sense of creative community.

Read more less

Albertine Gaur shares with the reader her childhood memories of the period just before, and during, the Second World War in Austria, her homeland. She relives this time of great social and political upheaval, depicting it through the eyes of a childhood as she passes from infancy to adolescence. It is a unique story, full of naïve poignancy, told with a poetic simplicity which helps us have a better understanding of how 'events' were seen and interpreted by a young person, struggling with the many diverse problems of 'growing up'. Incidentally, the book gives us an insight into child psychology and how children came to terms with fear, horror and violence but were to bear the scars of the trauma throughout their lives. It is a moving narrative, individual but, at the same time, universal in its appeal. She relates a personal drama, often with tragic implications, in which the characters are 'ordinary people' but who, in their different ways, portray the very passions and emotions which motivate society. To read about it is an enriching experience.

Read more less

Shanghai Street Style marks the inaugural volume in an exciting new street style series from Intellect. With an array of up-and-coming young designers like Coko Wan, Nio and Helen Lee, Shanghai is swiftly cementing its status as a global fashion destination – its first fashion week was in 2011 – and this book brings together more than one hundred full-colour photographs showcasing the remarkable diversity of styles seen on its streets. Alongside the photographs are short pieces of critical commentary by Vicki Karaminas and Toni Johnson-Woods, shedding light on the city's changing culture and how this is expressed through the clothing choices of ordinary city-dwellers going about their daily routines. The result is a stunning street-level look at the trends shaping Shanghai's fascinating fashion scene, with interesting echoes of East meets West and old meets new.

Read more less

This book collects the latest research developments in the use of functional programming languages. The contents highlight major research goals and engineering concerns in the subject including: real-time and resource-bounded functional programming; connections between static analysis methods and functional programming; implementation of mobile code functional languages; automated testing of application programs and system models; These research contributions are drawn from the international symposium on Trends in Functional Programming. This meeting provides a vital forum for the dissemination of the latest technical advances in the field.

Read more less

The globalization of social, cultural and economic relations is facilitated, and at the same time conditioned by developments in the information and communications technologies (ICT) and infrastructure. Human knowledge brought mankind from an oral to a literate culture, thanks to the invention of print media. The development of the electronic media in the 20th century paved the way for the information age, in which spatial and temporal constraints are lifted. This work explores the consequences of this revolution in human communications, which are multidimensional in character, affecting economical, political and social life on national, international and local levels. The text is part of a series of volumes arising from the intellectual work of ECCR members.

Read more less

This text provides an introduction to the emerging field of Computer Supported Collaborative Design (CSCD), presenting a survey of experiments in computer-supported collaborative drawing and design activities, and assessing their implications.

Read more less

The degree to which Cognitive Science can aspire to be the Science of the Mind is an ongoing debate. This highly influential book, published as a Second Edition, proposes a new approach to issues of the mind and of consciousness, drawing together themes from Philosophy right through to Artificial Intelligence. Proposing an integrated approach to the science of mind, the book has been revised to meet the newest developments of its rapidly changing field. The author incorporates ideas from across the board into a new theory of consciousness, selfhood and cognitive development. The first part presents clear introductions to the disciplines that are traditionally seen to constitute Cognitive Science - Philosophy, Psychology, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence and Ethnology. The second section focuses on the nature of symbol systems, detailing theories of consciousness and selfhood. The two strands are woven together into a new theory of cognition and its development, and the author concludes that a science that fully attempts to treat cognition must remain au fait with the findings from all other approaches to the study of the mind, from the purely behaviourist to the purely experiential. As the Second Edition is published, The Search for Mind is unquestionably among the most acclaimed accounts of the area written by a single author.

Read more less

This original and unique new book takes an integrated approach to interrogating the experience and location of the self/s within the context of performance art practice. In its framing and execution of practical exercises and focused snapshots of internationally recognized performance practice, Bacon situates their argument within the boundaries of specialism in the critical curation of performance art praxis as well as contemporary phenomenological scholarship. Introducing the study and application of performance art through phenomenology for radical artists, educators and practitioner-researchers; this exciting new book invites readers to take part, explore contemporary performance art and activate their own practices. Applying a queer phenomenology to unpack the importance of a multiplicity of Self/s, the book guides readers to be academically rigorous when capturing embodied experiences, featuring exercises to activate their practices and clear introductory definitions to key phenomenological terms. Includes interviews and insights from some of the best examples of transgressive performance art practice of this century help to help unpack the application of phenomenology as Bacon calls for a queer reimagining of Heidegger’s ‘The Origin of the Work of Art.’ This is an important contribution to the field, and will be welcomed by performance artists and academics interested in performance. It may also appeal to those teaching concepts of phenomenology. It will be relevant to students of performance as well as to artists, audiences and museum goers. The approachable layout and clear authorial voice will add to the appeal for students, early career researchers and mean that it has strong potential for inclusion in undergraduate and postgraduate syllabi within the field.

Read more less

Based on over a decade of collective teaching, thisvolume explores the hybrid use of online and in-person collaboration as a means of offeringinternational experience to university-level artsstudents. Chapters articulate a collective learningbased on the experiences of the International ArtCollaborations Network (INTAC), Collective Bodygroup and related programs which the authors andcontributors have participated in as educators andstudents. Illustrated with photographs, screenshotsand student projects, the book inspires reflectionon teaching methodologies and student artmakingstrategies across cultures and languages.Pedagogical and methodological topics trace anevolution of curricular approaches and use ofevolving online platforms. Examples of themesand visual strategies demonstrate the power ofstudent-directed collaborative learning. Diversevoices have been gathered through researchconducted with educators and alumni connected toINTAC, providing perspectives on workingcollaborative

Read more less

From the perspective of art educators, museumeducation is shifting to a new paradigm, which thiscollection showcases and marks as thresholdmoments of change underway internationally. The goal in drawing together international perspectivesis to facilitate deeper thinking, making and doingpractices central to museum engagement acrossglobal, local and glocal contexts. Museums ascultural brokers facilitate public pedagogies, andthe dispositions and practices offered in 33chapters from 19 countries articulate how and whycollections enact responsibility in public exchange,leading cultural discourses of empowerment innew ways. Organized into five sections, a widerange of topics and arts-based modes of inquiryimagine new possibilities concerning theory-practice, sustainability of educational partnershipsand communities of practice with, in and throughartwork scholarship. Chapters diverse in issues,art forms and museum orientations are well-situated within museum studies, enlargingdiscussions

Read more less

The presence of the refugee in the contemporary metropolis is marked by precarity, a quality that has become a characteristic feature of the neoliberal urban milieu. Bringing together essays from diverse disciplines, from architectural history to cultural anthropology and urban planning, this collection sheds light on both the specificities of the contemporary urban condition that affects the refugees and the multi-dimensional impact that the refugees have on the city. The authors propose investigating this connection through three interlinked themes: identity (informality, imagination and belonging); place (transnational homemaking practices); and site (the navigation of urban space). In recent years, there has been a significant growth in scholarship on forced migration, particularly on the relationship between displacement and the built environment. Scholars have focused on spatial practices and forms that arise under conditions of displacement, with much attention given to refugee camps and the social and political aspects of temporariness. While these issues are important, the essays in this volume aim to contribute to a less explored aspect of displacement, namely the interaction between refugees and the cities they inhabit. In this respect, the volume underlines the specificity of the urban refugee as well as their spatial agency and investigates the irreversible effect they have on the contemporary urban condition. The authors argue that viewing urban refugees solely as dislocated individuals outside the camp-like spaces of containment fails to understand the agency of the urban refugee and the blurred boundaries of identity that result. The term "refugee crisis" objectifies and denies active agency to refugees, homogenizing dislocated individuals and groups. The neoliberalization of the past four decades has led to the precarization of labour and the displacement of refugees, who frequently blend into the urban environment as hidden populations. Refugees are subjected to constant surveillance and the state's attempts to control them. However, these attempts are not uncontested, and the involvement of activist interventions further politicizes the urban refugee.

Read more less

This collection explores critical and visual practices through the lens of interactions and intersections between pattern and chaos. The dynamic of the inter-relationship between pattern and chaos is such as to challenge disciplinary boundaries, critical frameworks and modes of understanding, perception and communication, often referencing the in-between territory of art and science through experimentation and visual scrutiny. A territory of 'pattern-chaos' or 'chaos-pattern' begins to unfold. Drawing upon fields such as visual culture, sociology, physics, neurobiology, linguistics or critical theory, for example, contributors have experimented with pattern and/or chaos-related forms, processes, materials, sounds and language or have reflected on the work of other artists, scientists and scholars. Diagrams, tessellations, dust, knots, mazes, folds, creases, flux, virus, fire and flow are indicative of processes through which pattern and chaos are addressed. The contributions are organized into clusters of subjects which reflect the interdisciplinary terrain through a robust, yet also experimental, arrangement. These are 'Pattern Dynamics', 'Morph Flux Mutate', 'Decompose Recompose', 'Virus; Social Imaginary' and 'Nothings in Particular'.

Read more less

If the Punisher became a valuable piece of intellectual property during the closing decades of the twentieth century, he has become a global icon in the twenty-first. In this pathbreaking study, Kent Worcester explores the sometimes ridiculous and often socially resonate storyverse of the most famous rageaholic in popular culture: Frank Castle, aka the Punisher. Worcester pays particular attention to nearly five decades' worth of punishment-themed comics and graphic novels published between the 1970s and the present day. These texts provide the material resources for a close reading of the Punisher's distinctive and extreme form of justice discourse. Punishment, after all, is a political and social construct. Violence does not imply or claim legitimacy. Punishment does. To talk about punishment is to ask who deserves to be punished, who decides who deserves to be punished, and what form the punishment should take. All costumed heroes have their political moments; the Punisher is political. Frank Castle inhabits the most politically engaged corner of the entire Marvel Universe. His adventures should attract our interest for precisely this reason.

Read more less

This collection seeks to explore alternative definitions of bounded identities, facilitating new approaches to spatial and architectural forms. Taking as its starting point the emergence of a new sense of ‘boundary’ emerged from the post-19th century dissolution of large, heterogeneous empires into a mosaic of nation-states in the Islamic world. This new sense of boundaries has not only determined the ways in which we imagine and construct the idea of modern citizenship, but also redefines relationships between the nation, citizenship, cities and architecture. It brings critical perspectives to our understanding of the interrelation between the accumulated flows and the evolving concepts of boundary in predominantly Muslim societies and within the global Muslim diaspora. Essays in this book seeks to investigate how architecture mediates the creation and deployment of boundaries and boundedness that have been devised to define, enable, obstruct, accumulate and/or control flows able to disrupt bounded territories or identities. More generally, the book explores how architecture might be considered as a means to understand the relationship between flows and boundaries and its implication of defining modern self. The essays in this volume collectively address how the construction of self is primarily a spatial event and operated within the crucial nexus of power-knowledge-space. Contributors investigate how architecture mediates the creation and deployment of boundaries and boundedness, how architecture might be considered as a means to understand the relationship between flows and boundaries and its implications for how we define the modern self. Part of the Critical Studies in Architecture of the Middle East series.

Read more less

Over 200 observational drawings created every day from the same window reveal life in an ordinary English street in extraordinary times. This visual record and accompanying prose is a unique meditation on place, nature, community, time and mental well-being. Through this qualitative work we gain insight into the individual and collective experience and place-specific impacts of the pandemic, as opposed to the quantitative statistics of mortality and infection rates that characterise daily media soundbites and scientific discourse surrounding lockdown. Five themes are central to the drawings, highlighting the environmental and social factors influencing daily life, and how these can be perceived and recorded via observational drawing: ‘framing space’ foregrounds the importance of widows as an interface between interior and exterior worlds; ‘observing nature and the built environment’ celebrates the street and garden as sites of human-nature relations that support well-being; ‘watching people’ focusses on the activities typify living under lockdown including isolation, socially distanced interactions and working from home; ‘drawing’ reflects on the multiple professional and personal benefits of drawing; and mindful awareness is discussed throughout, affirming the value of appreciating everyday life through drawing practice.

Read more less

Opens with several first-person anecdotes about the author’s life as a practicing artist and a discussion of the intellectual lineage of his vision-based pedagogy. Many more anecdotes from the author’s teaching appear in most chapters. The author discusses perception as it benefits the artist in the studio. Perceptual laws govern both our experience of seeing and the artist’s process of creating. The book presents a proven process developed by the author over many decades of teaching and studio practice that the artist can apply to their own painting/drawing and/or teaching. The painting and drawing principles in the book are essential and yet not generally taught or understood. They will benefit anyone learning how to draw/paint or advance their practice. The book will also help practitioners to make rapid progress and to avoid clichéd, overused solutions. It also offers insights and discussions of interest to art lovers and “Sunday painters.” It is for everyone who enjoys viewing and thinking about art. Integrated into the text are more than one hundred images—works of art by well-known historical and contemporary artists and students, photographs, and diagrams—to reinforce the concepts presented. A recap section ends each chapter, followed by an exercise, or group of related exercises, to encourage and guide the practitioner in immediate application of the concepts.

Read more less

Explores queer craft and the material cultures of LGBTQ+ activism in Britain since the 1980s. From handmade clothing and protest banners to radical self-published zines and manifestos, there is a long history of using craft and DIY processes to explore identities, bring communities together, and encourage social and political change. Yet, many of these histories remain undocumented and are insufficiently researched. This collection sheds light on these important histories and includes a range of contributions from academics, artists, activists, curators, and heritage professionals. Case studies discussed include Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, the Museum of Transology, Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners (LGSM), the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, Islington’s Pride, Queer Zine Library, Glasgow Women’s Library, Queer Journeys, and more. These critical essays and oral histories are complemented by short reflections from contemporary creative practitioners including Matt Smith, Tanoa Sasraku, Sarah-Joy Ford, Rachael House and Raisa Kabir. Taken together, this collection weaves together an important web between craft, queerness, and activism in Britain. As the first book of its kind, it will likely be of interest to a range of students and academics, as well as cultural producers and creatives more broadly.

Read more less

The book traces the story of how a song recorded in 1981 by a young punk rock band from a cultural backwater on the English-Welsh border, and released on a tiny independent record label, became famous in a Yugoslavia formed in the image of Marshall Tito? Why was it 30 years before the members of the band found out? How did this ‘socialist’ country have one of the most vibrant punk scenes in the world? Gloucester, England, 1981; multi-racial, teenage street-punk band, Demob, recorded and released what would become their best known and most enduring song, No Room For You. A rasping vocal told the story of the 1979 closure of a short-lived, punk rock venue at a disused motel on the edge of the provincial city. Depending on your mind-set, the lyrics were either a howl of rage at the injustice, a wail at the loss, or a love-song to an era. More than three decades later, the author – and Demob’s bass player in 1981 – set out to follow the song across a country that no longer exists. On the road he heard the life stories of the heroes of Yugoslavian punk and the punks themselves; from the Tito era, through the disintegration and wars, forced displacements and permanent exiles, to today’s turbulent ‘reconstruction. Who were ’Tito’s punks’ and who are they now? An unvarnished but also affectionate portrait of Yugoslavia in the years before its demise through to the present, seen through the unlikely lens of punk and punk rockers. Part travelogue, part history the book is both, and neither, of those things. Rather, it is a mural and soundtrack of a journey through a time and place which no longer exists. The latest addition to the Global Punk series from Intellect.

Read more less

The patchwork is an apt metaphor for the region not only because of its colourfulness and the making of something whole out of fragments but as an attempt to make coherence out of disorder. The seeking of coherence was the exact process of putting together this book and foregrounds the process of Caribbean societies forging identity and identities out of plural and at times conflicting and contested groups that came to call the region home. Within the metaphor of the patchwork however is the question, where are the vernacular needlework artists within the visual art tradition of the Caribbean? The introduction sets out to both clarify and rectify this situation, and several common themes flow through the following essays and interviews. Themes include that that the land and colonization remain baseline issues for several Caribbean artists who stage and restage the history of conquest and empire in varying ways. That artists in the region amalgamate as part of their practice and seem to prefer an open-endedness to art making as opposed to expressing fidelity to a particular medium. That artists and scholars alike are dismantling long-held perceptions of what Caribbean art is thought to be, and are challenging boundaries in Caribbean art. These are among the issues addressed in the book as it looks at ecological concerns and questions of sustainability, how the practices of the artists and their art defy the easy categorization of the region, and the placement of women in the visual art ecology of the Caribbean. The latter is one of the most contested areas of the book. Readers should come away with the sense that questions of race, colour, and class loom large within questions of gender in the Jamaican art scene and that the book, dedicated to Sane Mae Dunkley, aims to insert vernacular needleworkers into the visual art scene in both Jamaica and the larger Caribbean. Audience will include researchers and scholars of Caribbean and African diasporic art, college students, those interested in post-colonial studies, Caribbean artists, art professionals interested in a wider, globalized view of contemporary art; students curious to know about the many phases of art production throughout the Caribbean. General readers interested in the culture of the region.

Read more less

The idea of luxury has secured a place in contemporary western culture, and the term is now part of common parlance in both established and emerging economies. This book explores the many issues and debates surrounding the idea of luxury. This new research addresses contentious issues surrounding perceptions of luxury, its relationship to contemporary branding as created by the marketers, and the impact this has on the consumer and their purchasing habits. Crafting Luxury considers work within the field of luxury and luxury brands, encompassing established companies with a long heritage: from conglomerates and small independents to 'new' luxury and emerging models with innovative practices. It examines the industry structures with respect to production, as well as the hierarchies that exist, and the impact these have on both internal and external perceptions of luxury, from the makers to the sellers and consumers alike. Attention is also given to the working structures of the ateliers, production facilities, origin of materials, manufacture and the impact of technology on consumption, the retail environment and sales, all providing a true insider’s view of this complex world. The authors – a designer of product and jewellery, a brand strategist and a fashion designer, an architect, and a sociologist and specialist in business management – are practitioners and academics. Their approach to dissecting the complex world of luxury brings distinct viewpoints to the debate, offering different perspectives, thoughts and interpretations of luxury. Crafting Luxury will appeal to academics and educators, industry specialists and anyone interested in luxury as a concept. It will appeal to those in a variety of academic and industry disciplines: art history, history, social sciences and humanities with an interest in luxury, fashion studies, design, business, cultural studies and textiles. It will also be valuable to students and researchers in social sciences, humanities, business, design, branding, consumption, retail, architecture, cultural studies, fashion studies and textiles. May also appeal to industry practitioners in retail, design, technology, marketing, the supply chain and manufacture, as well as design professions including architecture, fashion and interior design.

Read more less

What does a hemispheric Americas look like when done through the lens of punk music, visuals and literature? That is the core premise of this book, presented through a collage of analytical, aesthetic and experiential takes on punk across the continent. This book challenges the dominant vision of punk – particularly its white masculine protagonists and deep Anglocentrism – by analysing punk as a critical lens into the disputed territories of 'America', a term that hides the heterogeneous struggles, global histories, hopes and despairs of late twentieth and early twenty-first century experience. Compiling academic essays and punk paraphernalia (interviews, zines, poetry and visual segments) into a single volume, the book seeks to explore punk life through its multiple registers, through vivid musical dialogues, excessive visual displays and underground literary expression. The kaleidoscopic accounts include everything from sustained academic inquiry and photo portraits to anarchist manifestos and interview excerpts with notable punk figures. The result is a radically heterogenous mixture that seeks to reposition punk and las Américas as intrinsically bound up in each other’s history: for better and for worse. Out of critical pasts, within an urgent present and toward many different possible futures. This volume critically refashions punk to suggest it emerges from within the long-term historical experience of las Américas in all their plurality and is useful as a mode of critique towards the hegemonic dimensions of America in its imperial singularity. The book is rooted in a theory of 'radical heterogeneity' and thus represents a collage-like juxtaposition of punk perspectives from across the entire hemisphere and via divergent contributions: academic, experiential and aesthetic. Readership for this collection will include both academic and general readers. Primary readership will be academic. It will appeal to researchers, scholars, educators and students in the following fields: American studies, Latin American studies, media and communication, cultural studies, sociology, history, music, ethnomusicology, anthropology, art, literature. General readership will be among those interested in the following areas - anarchism, music, subculture, literature, independent publishing, photography.

Read more less

KinoSputniks closely analyse some key films from the history of Russian and Soviet cinema. Written by international experts in the field, they are intended for film enthusiasts and students, combining scholarship with an accessible style of writing. Ira Österberg's KinoSputnik on Aleksei Balabanov's cult film Brother (1997) examines the production history, context and reception of the film, and offers a detailed reading of its key themes. Balabanov’s Brother made a mark on the new Russia’s film history as its hero Danila Bagrov quickly gained cult status and the nostalgic rock soundtrack hit the nerve of the young post-Soviet generation. This study unravels the film’s effective and ingenious mixture of genre elements, art narration and almost documentary-style realism, which would become trademarks for Balabanov’s oeuvre. Primary readership will be among film studies students and film enthusiasts, but will also be of interest to anyone researching or studying film soundtracking. A list of all books in the series is here on the Intellect website on the series page KinoSputnik

Read more less

An interdisciplinary collection with its origins in the 2018 National Conference on the Beginning Design Student, hosted by the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning at the University of Cincinnati, the overarching focus of which was on 'TIME'. The book includes contributions from some scholars who were not involved in the conference but whose voices are important to the conversation. T-Squared: Theories and Tactics in Architecture and Design has three primary aims. First, it reveals and illuminates the extensive and explicit relationship between the research that shapes art, architecture and design practices, and the studio prompts and assignments that are developed by faculty for students engaging the creative disciplines. Second, it demonstrates that pedagogical inquiry and invention can be a (radical) research endeavour that can also become an evolutionary agent for faculty, students, institutions and communities. Third, it makes available to a larger audience a set of innovative ideas and exercises that have until now been known to limited numbers of students and faculty, hidden behind the walls of studio courses and institutions. This book will appeal to anyone interested in design thinking and design process as well as to architects, architectural educators and architecture students who may particularly identify in it stirrings of a new world order and a call to arms. Each chapter of T-Squared is separated into two parts: THEORY (T1) and TACTICS (T2). In T1, the authors offer mini-manifestos about topics that relate to their professional interests and efforts. In T2, the authors delineate exercises that reflect the ideascapes and methodologies presented in T1. The exercises in T2 are adapted for the reader from assignments given to students enrolled in design studios at a variety of universities. In their current incarnation, they offer anyone with tenacity, imagination and an adventurous attitude towards architecture and design access to distinct sets of provocative questions, procedures and modes. The T2 offerings require the reader’s engagement and imagination and the rolling up of sleeves – while there may be steps to follow, many of the exercises read like Fluxus scores and require investment rather than obedience. A suspension of disbelief is required – but all seriously creative folk (like you, reader) understand that already. Primary readership will be among design educators and students looking for a window through which to view the ways design is being introduced, taught and positioned across disciplines and institutions, and to architects, architectural educators and architecture students.

Read more less

This new book is an edited volume of essays that examine the legacy of architecture in a number of African countries soon after independence. It has its origins in an exhibition and symposium that focused on architecture as an element in Nordic countries’ aid packages to newly independent states, but the expanded breadth of the essays includes work on other countries and architects. Drawing on ethnography, archival research and careful observations of buildings, remains and people, the case studies seek to connect the colonial and postcolonial origins of modernist architecture, the historical processes they underwent, and present use and habitation. It results from the 2015 seminar and exhibition Forms of Freedom at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, Norway. The exhibition showed how modern Scandinavian architecture became an essential component of foreign aid to East Africa in the period 1960–80, and how the ideals of the Nordic welfare system found expression in a number of construction projects. The seminar, which built upon the exhibition as well as on a previous collaboration on the legacies of modernism in Africa between the Department of Anthropology of the University of Oslo and the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning from Ghent University, broadened the geographic scope of the discussion beyond the Scandinavian context, and set the ground for bringing together the disciplines of architectural history and social anthropology. Primary readership will be among architects and architectural historians, and graduate level architecture and urban studies students, for whom it will be valuable course material, as well as those in fields such as African studies and anthropology. It may also be of interest to those working or researching in public policy and political history.

Read more less

Bombay Cinema's Islamicate Histories comprises fourteen essays on the history and influence of cultural Islam on Bombay cinema. These essays are written by major scholars of both South Asian cultural history and Indian cinema working across several continents. Following Marshal Hodgson, the term ‘Islamicate’ is used to describe Muslim cultures in order to distinguish the cultural forms associated with Islam from the religion itself. Such a distinction is especially important to observe in South Asia where, over a thousand-year history, Muslim cultures have commingled with other local religious and cultural traditions to form a rich vein of syncretic aesthetic expression. This volume argues that the influence of Muslim cultures on Bombay cinema can only be grasped against the backdrop of this long history, an argument that informs the shape of the whole. The book is divided into two sections. The first, ‘Islamicate Histories’, charts the historical roots of South Asian Muslim cultures and the precursors of Bombay cinema’s Islamicate idioms in the Urdu Parsi Theatre, the Courtesan cultures of Lucknow, the traditions of miniature painting, poetry, song and their performance, and the various modes of story-telling that derive from Perso-Arabic traditions. The second section, ‘Cinematic Forms’, discusses the way in which these Islamicate histories are partially constitutive of the traditions of representation, performance and story-telling that give Bombay cinema its distinctive character, traditions that have continued into Bollywood. It explores ‘Islamicate’ genres like the ‘Oriental’ film and the ‘Muslim Social’, as well as forms of poetry and performance like the ‘ghazal’ and ‘the qawwali’. Bombay Cinema’s Islamicate Histories is published at a time of acute crisis in the perception and understanding of Islam, where Islamophobia stereotypes Muslims as incipient fifth column and Hindu fundamentalism is ascendant. It demonstrates that Muslim and Hindu cultures in India are inextricably entwined and shows how the syncretic idioms of Islamicate cultural history inform the very identity of Bombay cinema, even as that cinema has also instrumentalized Islamicate idioms to stereotype and even demonise the Muslim, especially in contemporary Bollywood. This book argues that many of the idioms of Bombay cinema that we love are derived from the historical influence of Muslim cultures as they interacted with other traditions in the Indian subcontinent. It traces the emergence of cultures of poetry, dance, song, performance and story-telling out of the thousand-year history of Islam on Indian soil, and describes the ways in which they underlie and inform the expressive forms of Bombay cinema. It is timely to be reminded of the contribution of Muslim cultures to the distinctive and widely recognized popular cinema of India at a historical moment when the cultural influence of Islam on India is being denied by forces which seek to turn the country away from cultural pluralism towards Hindu fundamentalism. Bombay Cinema’s Islamicate Histories features contributions by major scholars of both South Asian cultural history and Indian cinema working across several continents. The audience for this book will be primarily graduate and advanced undergraduate students of film studies. The writing is accessible and lively and individual chapters will be suitable for classroom use. It will be of value in disciplines outside film studies, where the Islamicate tradition in general and its impact on film in particular is taught. It will find an audience in disciplines such as history, cultural studies, women's studies, visual studies and South Asian area studies. It will also be of interest to anyone who wants to know how cinema negotiates the parameters of Muslim identity in response to historical and contemporary events in India.

Read more less

Shiny Things combines an interest in visual art with a broad attention to popular culture – the wideness of its range is striking. It is more than just an expansion of subject matter, which many of today’s innovative books also have – it considers how a specific physical property manifests itself in both art and culture at large, and contributes to an analysis of and polemics about the world. It is accessibly written but with a careful application of contemporary theory. Interesting, informative, and entertaining, this will appeal to progressive thinkers looking for new ways of presenting ideas. This is scholarship that challenges stale thought and interacts with philosophical ideas in real time, with a versatility that can often be lacking in traditional academic scholarship. Using art, especially contemporary art, as its recurrent point of reference, the authors argue that shininess has moved from a time when rarity gave shiny things a direct meaning of power and transcendence. Shininess today is pervasive; its attraction is a foundation of consumer culture with its attendant effects on our architecture, our conceptions of the body, and our production of spectacle. Power and the sacred as readings of the shiny have given way to readings of superficiality, irony and anxiety, while somehow shininess has maintained its qualities of fascination, newness and cleanliness. Examines the meanings and functions of shininess in art and in culture more generally: its contradictions of both preciousness and superficiality, and its complexities of representation; the way shininess itself is physically and metaphorically present in the construction of major conceptual categories such as hygiene, utopias, the sublime and camp; and the way the affects of shininess, rooted in its inherent disorienting excess, produce irony, anxiety, pleasure, kitsch, and fetishism. All of these large ideas are embodied in the instantly noticeable, sometimes precious and sometimes cheap physical presence of shiny things, those things that catch our eye and divert our attention. Shininess, then, is a compelling subject that instantly attracts and fascinates people. The book engages primarily with visual art, although it makes frequent use of material culture, as well as advertising, film, literature, and other areas of popular and political culture. The art world, however, is a place where many of the affects of shininess come into clearest focus, where the polemical semiotics of shine are most evident and consciously explored. Artists as diverse as Anish Kapoor (whose popular Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago is a repeating example in the book), Olafur Eliasson, Jeff Koons, Carolee Schneemann, Audrey Flack, Fra Angelico and Gerard ter Borch centre the book in an art discourse that opens up to automobiles, Richard Nixon and Liberace. Will be relevant to academics, scholars and students with an interest in contemporary theory and material and popular cultures. Potential interest across the humanities: philosophy, gender studies, perhaps public relations, advertising and marketing. It will also appeal to more general readers with an interest in popular and material cultures, art and aesthetics. It is written in a genuinely accessible style, and its ideas and theory are embodied through examples and narratives. Will be of interest to readers of Oliver Sacks, James Gleick, George Lakoff, James Elkins or Rebecca Solnit.

Read more less

Perhaps no current filmmaker has made more provocative films about American history than Oliver Stone. In this book, Carl Freedman gives a detailed and nuanced account of the presidencies of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush as fictionalized in Stone’s biographical films JFK, Nixon and W. Offering detailed historical perspectives alongside careful aesthetic criticism, Freedman explores how Stone uses melodrama, tragedy and farce to transform politics into national mythology. Synthesizing film criticism with political and historical analysis, the book transcends the limitations of formalism and empiricism, reflecting on both Stone’s achievements as a filmmaker and American politics of the past sixty years. Oliver Stone’s importance among filmmakers as the major chronicler of recent US history is the starting point for the analysis of his three ‘presidential’ films: JFK, Nixon and W. While not claiming equal artistic merit for Stone’s films, Freedman makes some comparison with Shakespeare’s history plays and draws on T.S. Eliot’s notion of ‘essential history’ to transcend the barren dichotomy of formalism versus empiricism – that is treating historical fiction as either only pure fiction, with nothing to say about real history, or judging it as non-fiction by the extent to which it adheres to superficial historical detail. Instead the focus is on the capacity of Stone’s films to illuminate the structural workings of history, contemporary and general. Freedman is thoroughly familiar with his subject, and his meticulous attention to historical accuracy and critical attention to the films is impeccable. This book has a powerfully original focus and makes a significant contribution to the field through offering these detailed historical perspectives alongside much more careful aesthetic criticism of the films. It has the potential to become not only a great source on its subject, but a model of how to approach historical fiction in general. This is an academic study but is written in such an accessible style that it will have genuine appeal to the general reader – to anyone with an interest in cinema, politics and recent history. Wide-ranging, accessible and highly original, American Presidents combines erudition and complex analysis with jargon-free writing and is sure to engage anyone interested in the intersection of American politics and cinema. The academic readership will be among humanities scholars and students of film, popular culture, media, politics, political history and modern history. It will be highly relevant to undergraduate and postgraduate students studying film or modern American history and culture.

Read more less

Radical Mainstream examines independent film and video cultures in Britain from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s in the context of struggles against capitalism, patriarchy, racism, colonialism and homophobia, examining relations between counterpublics and social change. The book considers this period in order to examine the capacity for radical discourse to affect dominant cultural media forms, arguing that independent film- and video-makers helped transform television into a vital site of counterpublic discourse. The end of the twentieth century saw the development of new social models of film and video production and exhibition alongside the formation of new alliances to campaign for changes to social practice, policy and legislature. Radical Mainstream explores the interrelation between public debate, institutions and individuals, arguing that independent film and video in Britain at this time – including activist documentary, currents of counter-cinema, avant-garde film and video art – were largely concerned with creating and circulating counterpublic discourses. The book traces the diversity of the influences on independent film and video, from socialist and liberation movements to popular radical histories and psychoanalytic and Marxist film theory. The account provides a historic backdrop to contemporary documentary and moving image work, and illuminates the heritage of critical thinking within such practices.

Read more less

There is an urgent focus on education around the world, and this book is pushing directly into this territory. It will appeal to a wide range of readers – to anyone who is passionate about art and or education – and will have a strong international appeal as the contributors have international profiles and the book is poised to address global issues concerning contemporary art, education, and independent practice. In this collection of original essays, the writers engage with the work of the artists who took part in Art School. Each contribution provides a lens through which each writer can focus on specific moments within the evolution of Art School, working outwards to explore how these moments resonate with the wider fields of art-in-education and radical pedagogies. These texts respond to a widespread concern with art and its place in education, while retaining a committed and informed engagement with the phenomena they assess. Art School takes place as a series of independent projects, exhibitions, workshop and residency programmes, bringing active contemporary artists into educational systems to inspire and expand their teachings. Responding to a growing desire to rethink art education at all levels, it is for those committed to new forms of social imagination and social engagement in contemporary art. This book is for curators, schoolteachers and other educators, and also for artists and art students who wish to extend their practice beyond the gallery. Less a manifesto or a declaration of doctrine than an emergent set of experiments, Curriculum considers the school as a zone of artistic and curatorial practice, foregrounding the potential of contemporary art (understood in wide terms) to stimulate students’ creativity in original and open ways. Although the book focuses on a specific project in Ireland, that project exemplifies trends in art and education that are happening around the world and includes contributions from an international group of scholars all well-known in their field. Contributors: Clare Butcher, Gerard Byrne, Juan Canela, Helen Carey, Daniela Cascella, Fiona Gannon, Jennie Guy, Andrew Hunt, Hannah Jickling & Helen Reed, Alissa Kleist, Rowan Lear, Peter Maybury, Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Nathan O’Donnell, Sofia Olascoaga and Priscila Fernandes, Matt Packer and Sjoerd Westbroek. Artists: Sven Anderson, John Beattie, Clare Breen, Sarah Browne, Karl Burke, Rhona Byrne, Ella de Búrca, Vanessa Donoso Lopez, Priscila Fernandes, Hannah Fitz, Jane Fogarty, Kevin Gaffney, Adam Gibney, Fiona Hallinan, Elaine Leader, Maria McKinney, Maeve Mulrennan, Mark O’Kelly, Sarah Pierce, Naomi Sex and Orlaith Treacy. Primary interest will be among educators, artists, curators, academics and students, and others working or studying in a variety of settings including school, universities, museums, and other arts organisations. Of interest to these groups in the following ways: Artists: Learning about how other artists are working in sites of education. Curators: Reading about the curatorial mechanisms that support artists maintaining the ethics and integrity of their practice when working with younger audiences in schools. Gallerists: Extending the horizons of audience and public outreach. Museums: Considering new models of education, outreach, exhibition, and off-site events. Schools: Learning about new models of artist residencies and workshops. Students and Parents: Researching the potential of contemporary artists’ impact on education. Educators: Forming a critical perspective of how contemporary arts practice can be integrated in curricula. Local and National Arts Agencies: Learning about how independent curatorial and artistic practice can co-exist within sites of education. This publication was funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and the Arts Office of Wicklow County Council.

Read more less

Despite the contemporary trend of focusing on personal experience in art and writing, there is very little critical analysis of the concept of experience within fine art. The overarching conceptual aim of this book is to examine the concept of experience, as both content and as interpretative register in the context of fine art. It explores the reasons why experience, when compared to other modes of consciousness – such as understanding, knowing, perceiving or recognizing – is more aligned with the notion of actuality and thus more likely to be viewed as authentic. It then discusses the idea of writing about experience as a practice in fine art – the idea that writing can be understood as a practice like painting, sculpture, video, etc.– and explores a viable methodology for the art-writing practice. The book seeks to provide a more fluid interpretation of experience. In so doing, it explores the following questions: Why does the reading of experience as self-presence predominate? What is the status and value of experience as evidence? How is experience written and seen? In exploring these questions, Kate Love creates a workable strategy for writing about experience.

Read more less