leonardo reviews

editor-in-chief Michael Punt associate editors Hannah Drayson, Dene Grigar, Jane Hutchinson A full selection of reviews is published monthly on the Leonardo website: leonardo.info/reviews.

b o o k s Never Alone, Except For Now: Art, Networks, Populations The Beauty of Numbers by Kris Cohen. Duke University Press, in Nature: Mathematical Durham, NC, U.S.A., 2017. 208 pp., illus. Patterns and Principles Trade; paper. ISBN: 978-0822369257; from the Natural World ISBN: 978-0822369400. by Ian Stewart Reviewed by Jan Baetens. Ivy Press, Lewes, U.K., 2017. 224 pp. Paper. ISBN: 978-1782404712. doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01704 Reviewed by Phil Dyke. This is a very ambitious book, and Email: [email protected]. one that in many regards stands up to its theoretical and critical ambitions. doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01703 A reflection on the way in which the Ian Stewart has written many books, relationships between individual and so he has nothing to prove in terms group, selfhood and community, sub- of being a successful author who ject and environment are redefined by explains difficult topics in an acces- modern network technology, it also sible way. This book seems to be contains many fascinating analyses very close to another of his, first and hypotheses on the functions and published in 2001, called What Shape ducing three-dimensional patterns. functioning of art in contemporary Has a Snowflake? (Ivy Press). The This leads to the middle part of the society. These topics are of course present version, also with this pub- book, the largest, with over 100 far from new, but from the very lisher but with MIT Press as well, has pages (eight chapters) that go into improved new pictures as well as a more technical detail. Stewart some- Reviews Panel: Fred Andersson, Jan Baetens, better title, though the text is more how does this without the need to John F. Barber, Roy Behrens, K. Blassnigg, or less unchanged. The text does not understand any actual mathemati- Catalin Brylla, Annick Bureaud, Chris Cobb, need to change, although some on cal symbolism. It is a tribute to his Giovanna Costantini, Edith Doove, Hannah page 162 shows its age. Ian Stewart explanatory powers that he succeeds. Drayson, Phil Dyke, Ernest Edmonds, Amanda is the David Attenborough of the Here the section on animal stripes Egbe, Anthony Enns, Enzo Ferrara, Kathryn Francis, George Gessert, Allan Graubard, genre and his style is fluent, readable, stands out, as does that on animal Dene Grigar, Rob Harle, Craig Harris, Craig J. informative and confident. gait; these are research topics for Hilton, Jane Hutchinson, Amy Ione, Richard This is a splendid book. The excel- Stewart, but once more there’s no Kade, Valérie Lamontagne, Mike Leggett, lent prose is enhanced by spectacular mathematics here, just clear expo- Will Luers, Kieran Lyons, Roger Malina, pictures. It is breathtaking in its sition. There is much more, from Jacques Mandelbrojt, Florence Martellini, Elizabeth McCardell, Eduardo Miranda, scope, and the layout is refreshing. astronomy to architecture, patterns Robert A. Mitchell, Michael Mosher, Sana Each topic is confined largely to just in time, even packing fruit in a box. Murrani, Frieder Nake, Maureen A. Nappi, two sides—the open page. The book The final section, five chapters, goes Claudy Opdenkamp, Jack Ox, Luisa Paraguai, is so well written, with no wasted into complexity, fractals and chaos. Jussi Parikka, Ellen Pearlman, Ana Peraica, words, that this works. There are The book is philosophical, beauti- Stephen Petersen, Michael Punt, Hannah Rogers, Lara Schrijver, Aparna Sharma, three parts: Principles and Patterns, fully written, artistic and with a George K. Shortess, Brian Reffin Smith, The Mathematical World, and Sim- touch of humor (Stewart has coau- Yvonne Spielmann, Eugenia Stamboliev, plicity and Complexity—16 chapters thored with the late Terry Pratchett Paul Sternberg, Malgorzata Sugiera, James in all. The first three start with snow- and written science fantasy). Stewart Sweeting, Charissa N. Terranova, Yvan Tina, Flutur Troshani, Ian Verstegen, John Vines, flake hexagonal symme­try, honey- has authored many books, all worth Claudia Westermann, Cecilia Wong, Martyn combs, then other two-­dimensional reading. This just might be the best Woodward, Jonathan Zilberg curves from nature, finally intro- of them.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 ­beginning Cohen makes very clear while at the same time introducing from nonartistic artifacts, and one of that he will try to avoid any form new theoretical concepts that help in the great rhetorical and theoretical of technodeterminism—a problem understanding the fact that selves are strengths of the book is to systemati- he thinks is recurrent in the “visual now defined by networked relations, cally bring them together in a way studies” approach, too focused on which themselves are affected and he himself calls symmetrical (that medium affordances in his view—as changed by their actual uses. is, nonrepresentative, nonsymbolic, well as of representation—a typical Two concepts or rather two lines nondeterministic). Cohen brings priority of “cultural studies,” which of thinking come here to the fore. together the way in which recent likes to reframe hidden or explicit First of all that of “group form,” a activist forms of minimal and con- mediations in symbolic terms. very general and voluntarily neutral ceptual art tend to produce similar Although his starting point is clearly term that refers to the way in which “group form” effects as diacritic signs that of relationality in art and society, people relate thanks to all kinds of (such as LOLs or emoticons) in con- Cohen proposes to supersede any networks as well as to the way in temporary Internet communication. direct or reciprocal interpretation of which networks produce relation- This way of reading is extremely personal, social and political relation- ships between all kinds of people. productive. It is also very helpful ships through works of art as well What matters most in the concept in reducing the possible dangers of as nonartistic artifacts in order to of “group form” is that it avoids the discursive and political overinterpre- defend a framework based on what clash between the more traditional tation of works of art that may seem he calls symmetry, namely the his- concepts of the “public” (that is the deprived of any direct political or torical and contextual convergence group form created by individuals societal impact, be it lack of a sizable of different systems and protocols having some form of freedom and audience (as in the case of certain that clearly influence each other but agency, in the Habermasian tradi- forms of performance art) or a priori whose mutual definition can never tion) and of the “population” (that neutralized by its institutional setting be reduced in linear or hegemonic is of the group as produced by com- (as we know, galleries and museums ways (that is, this layer determining puter algorithms and big data, which are not necessarily the best possible the other layer, but not the other way no longer have to take into account places for political activism). The around). nonquantitative features). What symmetry Cohen displays between Given the key position of relation matters in the idea of group form is the often very sophisticated and thus and relationality, the major issue is the fact that it helps foreground new, not always immediately readable art- of course to understand how persons often improvised and ephemeral works and the sometimes extremely relate with each other in networked forms of relationality and social- ordinary and often overlooked forms environments. In this regard, Cohen ity, regardless of traditional ways of of communication and group form rejects both the optimistic neolib- describing or producing selves and work on the Internet help demon- eral stance toward digital networks populations (here the influence of strate both the social and political as the source of new opportunities, Michel Foucault’s work on sexuality relevance and the effective impact increased agency and theoretically is blatant). The apparently paradoxi- of artworks that work in symmetry unlimited freedom and the more cal title of the book, which strikingly with other, better known mecha- pessimistic reading of the power of combines “never” and “except,” may nisms and procedures. The analysis these networks as instruments of be a good illustration of these new of Thomson & Craighead’sBEACON , corporate control beyond any demo- forms of relationships that it is no a set of online and offline instal- cratic debate or negotiation (most longer possible to explain with the lations that question the multiple research based on Debord’s ideas of help of the antinomy self/network. meanings of the search engine in the the theory of the spectacle strongly At the same time, Cohen is also very multilayered and conflicting con- underwrite this way of thinking). In explicit in his efforts to dismantle the texts of the self, the public and the the same vein, he is not looking for a priori positive or negative readings population, but also the group form, a kind of middle ground or nuanced of either the concept of public or that is an excellent illustration of Cohen’s balance between these competing of population. basic claims on networked relation- interpretations, both very well repre- The second major theoretical con- ality which at the same time enrich sented in current scholarly and soci- tribution of the book has to do with political thinking on new forms of etal debates. Instead, he proposes to Cohen’s reading of artworks, which identities, connectivity and therefore elaborate a different way of thinking are no longer isolated from nonartis- action, and underline the possibility that radically undermines the pos- tic artifacts (quite a logical move, if of producing an art-critical discourse sibility to distinguish between both one follows the “group form” struc- that neither isolates nor prioritizes sides—that of the self, that of the net, ture he elaborates at the level of rela- the work of art. to largely simplify—as more or less tionality and connectivity). Works of autonomous structures or entities, art are no longer considered different

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 Zombie Theory: A Reader even greater than a common threat. edited by Sarah Juliet Lauro. University We return to a duality, be it both/and of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, or the pessimistic neither/nor. The U.S.A., 2017. 504 pp., illus. ISBN: 978- zombie represents our worst fears. 1517900915. The zombie is us. OR (living or dead) Reviewed by Brian Reffin Smith, Col- becomes AND. lège de ’Pataphysique, Paris, France. The zombie is not free but we, more or less, are. Sort of. That must surely doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01705 be an a priori: the c-zombies don’t I have always thought that thinking want to chase—rather sluggishly— about zombies in popular culture— humans in order to eat their flesh or the zombie movies and video games, brains, nor to shuffle off, brain dam- the meaning of the zombie narra- aged, to do slave work in the sugar tive—was a sideshow, the B-movie to cane fields. They could never catch the grown-up, art-house docudrama, free and running humans were it not the tractatus zombi-philosophicus for the doors and dead ends so vital of consciousness studies, quantum if the creatures are ever to have their physics and speculative cognition. dinner. C-zombie behavior could It was epistemology as existential mostly be modeled in a few lines of thriller and none the worse for that. code, human behavior not. c-zombies were truly as predictable But now, like a bulldozer in the night, But Slavoj Žižek has pointed out and modelable as I implied above, slamming sideways into the peaceful that the zombie is the most basic they wouldn’t be very frightening, study of the philosophical zombie, part of the human, before conscious- and there’d certainly be no films. They comes this book, a vast collection of ness and so on—the zero-level of only terrify insofar as they escape real interdisciplinary zombie scholarship humanity. It is what we fear we zombiedom and become, just a bit, covering just about everything on might actually or merely be, or be like us. That is where their study as a zombies in the arts, society, politics, reduced to. The c-zombie is never cultural phenomenon perhaps begins. philosophy, forms of alienation and original. It is never a construction Here we see a difference: The colonization, and every aspect of but a deconstruction, a ruined, philosophical, p-zombie is indis- the human condition. I now see that putrefying, reduced person. No tinguishable from us, could be us. I there is no way we can approach the one is born a zombie. There is a am a zombie: Prove I’m not (please; refined questions of consciousness, vast difference between a mindless since I certainly can’t). The c-zombie, artificial intelligence, free will or robot and a mindless zombie, even however, is a metaphor for a part indeed life, the universe and every- if their behaviors might be identical, of us, what we might be reduced thing proper to a well-found zombie- just for this reason: the robot, the or amputated to. The c-zombie is, theoretical ouvroir or workshop AI, might “become”; the zombie is perhaps paradoxically, an optimistic without considering what we bring to always a once-was, a has-been, and idea. We are not like that, hence alive! these inquiries from zombie culture. can only be itself, perhaps forever. It Bravo! But we might actually be the Like some echo from an alien past, can certainly never be one more than p-zombie, hence dead (even if simul- zombies seem to be in our DNA, and itself. There is no cure, no redemp- taneously alive). Boo! There are living we ignore their epigenetic influence tion because zombies are irredeem- dead and living dead, quite different. on our philosophical evolution at able, as true, dehumanized enemies C-zombies are monochrome, the grey our peril. The cultural zombie, what must always be—or what’s the point? of decaying flesh, thus creating the I’ll call the c-zombie, is at least as In movies, some zombies are mor- optimistic counter idea, what if they important as the p- or philosophical tal, able to be splattered, squished, were to be colored, like . . . oh, like zombie. The two may well share more squashed or otherwise slaughtered. us? The p-zombie can only lose color, space than we’d thought. Others just get up, keep calm insofar or let’s say: We are going to die. What As editor Sarah Juliet Lauro states as they are able, and carry on pursu- if we were to be grey, like . . . oh, like in her introduction, the zombie is ing brains to eat. Ola Sigurdson, in we will be? To be a p-zombie is to be never wholly terrifying but is also his article “Slavoj Žižek, the Death mortal, hence fearful, death-wishy or pitiable. It has always been a result of Drive and Zombies,” [1] points out at best death wishy-washy like many and symbol for oppression. Its his- that Žižek writes of our anxiety in the of us. To be a c-zombie is possibly tory stems from colonialism. Whilst it face of “an excess of undeadness,” a to be immortal, and to have no fear. might be a palimpsest revealing layers wonderful phrase. Zombies cannot Which would you prefer to be? Who of different kinds of alienation, there experience that anxiety, so perhaps has the freedom now? is a common thread that seems to be we envy them too. And of course if Zombic thinking forces us to

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 consider such matters. We should ers of the simultaneously dead and is a rewarding read. Sideris, a talented read and analyze those who write on alive, the waveform uncollapsed. The writer, introduces pointed questions p-zombies, and we should also watch, index, its end, is its beginning. How to guide her study. I was particularly listen to and read those who docu- people love things, especially zombie impressed with her nuanced evalu- ment the c-zombie. I say document: things, to come to an end. Commu- ation of the new cosmologies that Both kinds of zombie are fictional, yet nism, for example, those Soviet zom- claim to bring science and spiritual- they are fictions so useful that even bies, or the EU (for the end of the EU ity together. In addition, the author’s if the premises be false (and again as “other” against the solid Brit was erudite discussion stands out as a who is to tell) the conclusions are implicit in the appalling Brexit and refreshing example of why the kind real. I see all zombie movies and texts sometimes explicitly [death-?] wished of critical thinking encouraged by the as documentary. Their appearance, for). The North Korean people, often humanities has value. habits, ways of being neutralized, etc., characterized as zombies, teeter on Sideris, Professor of Religious Stud- are all necessarily fictional of course. our balance between pity and repul- ies at Indiana University, opens the We could not confront the horrifying sion, our end-time displaced to a volume by explaining that the lack truth (I mean the possibility, again, state 99% of people couldn’t locate of coherence between the religious that zombies are us, minus our death on a map. But as in some infinitely vision for nature of environmental wish, of which they have no need). extended and extensible video game, ethicists and the realities of Darwin- But the zombies themselves are we can target zombies from many ian science were subjects of her own real, flesh and blood. Would George perspectives, yet they don’t end. They earlier research, which includes a Romero lie? pop up, get up, emerge, transform, general indictment of anthropo- In this large book we have texts, come through walls, pepper con- centrism (the view that humankind some seminal, from all parts of zom- sciousness studies, computer science, is the most significant entity of the bie studies. Here are some entries philosophy and even theology with universe). She then adds that this from the index: zombie aesthetics, their reeking presence and in culture book is an extended meditation on agents, apocalypse, as animals, as remind us to reflect, above all, on wonder and that she uses wonder to anonymous, bank, bottle, boundary ourselves. They are the virus rewrit- express her concern that a growing figure, comedies or zomedies, com- ing us. AND becomes DNA in the constellation of movements within puters, corporations . . . zombie diet, zombie mirror. Zombies are us and in both religious and secular environ- ethics, festivals, literature, march, an excess of undeadness we can even mentalism take science rather too music, part-time zombies, philo- enjoy them. You should probably buy seriously. Essentially, her argument sophical zombies, zombie poetry, this book. is that, when properly oriented, won- preparedness, renaissance, runs, time, der can foster intellectual and moral walks and zombie-oriented ontology References and Notes habits that are also encouraged by (presumably a reference to OOO, what she calls the “ignorance-based object-oriented ontology). Let’s see 1 Ola Sigurdson, “Slavoj Žižek, the Death worldview” (p. 193) and its emphasis Drive, and Zombies: A Theological Ac- (this is truly a book to dip into). Ah! count,” Modern Theology 29, No. 3, 361– on sensory engagement with the Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, in his chapter, 380 (2013). world; however, as I discuss below, “Grey,” (pp. 381–394) writing indeed her examples of people who advocate of OOO: “Humans ought never to be for an ignorance-based worldview reduced to the bare life of an object. Consecrating Science: do not emphasize such sensory Yet our inclination to believe that Wonder, Knowledge, and engagement with the world. Her things have no agency, vitality, or the Natural World larger point is that, although a com- autonomy also deserves interroga- by Lisa H. Sideris. University of California mon story and unified global ethic tion. Thingly existence is very differ- Press, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A., 2017. 296 pp. may sound appealing, particularly ent from existence reduced to inert Paper. ISBN: 978-0520294998. in times of great environmental and thingness.” Here again: p- and Reviewed by Amy Ione, Director, the political upheaval, a global, science- c-zombies. Cohen speaks of a ZOO, Diatrope Institute, Berkeley, CA, 94704 based story cannot do justice to the or a ZOE, a zombie-oriented ecol- U.S.A. Email: [email protected]. enormous variety of places, people, ogy (the interplay, perhaps, between problems (and possible solutions) doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01706 sum and parts, each capable of being that are part of the richness and “more than.”) Obscure, worldly, chal- The title of Lisa Sideris’s book, Con- complexity of life on this planet. In lenging and embodied, the zombie’s secrating Science: Wonder, Knowledge, other words, universal narratives are grey, he says, “is also rather beautiful.” and the Natural World, made me inadequate, especially when we look This reader on zombie theory is wonder: Would this consecration at the particularities of environmental as rich and thought provoking as a expose me to something wondrous? injustice and disparities of wealth and Whole Earth Catalog for the makers, While I don’t think the word won- accountability. Moreover, no one per- creators, curators, thinkers and keep- drous quite fits my response, the book son, or even a community of people,

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 can provide a story for the rest of Wilson in particular, because several seemed truncated from the start. As humanity, nor should they try. of the new spiritually inclined cos- used in this book, the “narrative” The book’s strength is Sideris’s mologists take inspiration from their problem is accentuated rather than ability to deftly illustrate that many work. According to Sideris, Dawkins addressed, because Sideris largely of the new grand narratives and “endorses a kind of natural theology mischaracterizes science. Although cosmogenesis stories use scientific without either God or nature as the at the end it is clear that she has some framings in ways that distort our ultimate object” (p. 35). She argues understanding of science as a useful vision and/or experience of both that he conflates science with nature practice, in most of the book science nature and science. The critiqued and sees wonder in terms of puzzle is articulated more in terms of philos- and overlapping set of “stories” go by solving. What she finds particularly ophies of science (“scientism”) than names like the Epic of Evolution, the troubling is “Dawkins’s suspicion science per se. In addition, although Universe Story, the New Story, the of the natural world as a legitimate the author tells us her remarks are Great Story, Big History and so forth. source of wonder, or as worthy of aimed not at science but scientism, Advocates of these new cosmolo- rapt contemplation, in and of itself” the lack of evidentiary and empirical gies, some of whom have scientific (p. 37), as if science offers some- elements within the volume make her backgrounds, include Thomas Berry, thing superior to religion. In short, references to “science” suggest that Brian Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Dawkins, she argues, proclaims the science is just another story. John Grim, Loyal Rue, David Chris- superiority of science and too nar- Rachel Carson and Loren Eiseley tian, Eric Chaisson, Ursula Good- rowly defines wonder as curiosity. serve as her main counterpoints to enough, Connie Barlow and Michael Wilson’s advocacy for scientific the figures mentioned above. In them Dowd. Their narratives largely define materialism, by contrast, serves as the author sees examples of people humans as the part of nature that has an alternative mythology to religion who align themselves with the natural become conscious of itself and fre- because he proposes a grand narra- world and understand mystery as well quently integrate ideas from sociobi- tive. The controversial phase of his as the limitation of science. Sideris ology and evolutionary psychology. career began with his publication of noted at the start that she didn’t Sideris’s problems with such myths Sociobiology (1975), although he is intend to offer an alternative envi- (or stories) include their emphasis on probably best known for Consilience ronmental ethic through her disposi- the centrality of humans and human (1998). Wilson’s call for a unifica- tion on wonder. Therefore, these two consciousness, their interpretations tion of knowledge that will bridge all twentieth-century writers essentially of intentionality or directionality, disciplinary gaps—his consilience serve as the alternative vision of how how they combine scientific and project—includes nature, experien- science, nature, mystery and wonder religious traditions, and a proselytiz- tial and sensory elements. Strangely, optimally come together. Even so, and ing impulse most evident in how they many strains of evangelists are drawn even with her concluding valuation of position humans as cocreators of the to his advocacy for an evolutionary an ignorance-based approach toward universe within the “Good Anthro- epic despite his belief that the “great nature, the book seemed incomplete. pocene” narratives related to global religions . . . are sources of ceaseless Seeing wonder in terms of nature climate change. Cocreation within the and unnecessary suffering. They are and repeatedly relating it to the envi- spiritual cosmologies suggests that impediments to the grasp of reality ronment leaves our environmental the fate of the planet involves humans needed to solve most social problems crisis just hanging there. Although understanding our unique cosmic of the real world” (p. 54, quoting Sideris doesn’t explicitly speak about role in shaping the environment and Wilson). While Dawkins is clearly religious awe and God’s handiwork also includes a measure of spiritual a biological reductionist, aspects of in defining wonder, because the self-awareness. Sideris claims that Wilson’s writings have more reso- language often implies that this is sometimes their arguments seem nance with spiritual views of nature how the threads and mystery are hubristic and/or hierarchical. She and wonder, perhaps explaining his connected in her mind, the lack of also claims that at other times their appeal. an environmental alternative leaves visions of (or arguments about) the The array of ideas frame two foci of a Jobian feel as the book ends. This environment seem indistinguishable the volume. One is that science has a sense that the Book of Job may serve from the environmentally disastrous limited hegemony for defining what as her response to the environmen- and morally bankrupt voices of the “authentic” reality is because imagi- tal crisis of our time is particularly Anthropocene, the geological era nary realms are omitted. The second resonant with her interest in placing in which human activity began to concerns how narratives capture who wonder in relation to all creatures significantly impact climate and the we are and what kind of story our (rather than just humans) and her environment. narratives about nature reveal. To ethic of humility. A passage from this The book also critiques expres- one who has argued that narrative scripture reads: sions about wonder in the work of approaches obscure many other ways But ask the animals, and they will scientists, Richard Dawkins and E.O. of knowing [1], the narrative terrain teach you, or the birds in the sky,

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 and they will tell you; or speak to authoritative answering, and thus not use his theological and religious the earth, and it will teach you, or is an enterprise in which a humbler framing. It seems that Nicholas let the fish in the sea inform you. and more ethical form of wonder- espoused an ignorance-based phi- Which of all these does not know ing remains a vital possibility. Alan losophy that intersects with Sideris’s that the hand of the Lord has done Love says that the nature of scientific proposal, but she does not acknowl- this? In his hand is the life of ev- inquiry itself suggests that there can edge or critique this precursor. Given ery creature and the breath of all be no comprehensive story of the that Nicholas wrote on learned igno- mankind. universe. Julie Adeney Thomas argues rance, and saw ignorance as a form of —Job (12:7–10) that those who turn to science to craft humility in the face of the infinity of a coherent story about who we are God, it is a striking omission. Still, in my view, the study’s pri- or what it means to be human will, if Of course, there are many ways to mary problem is Sideris’s assess- they are truly paying attention, come frame wonder, nature, the exigencies ment of science. In her exposition, away perplexed. of modern science, the generational within science, wonder becomes a Given the religious underpinnings debates about what science and response to the end product of inquiry throughout the text, and that she knowledge are, and the interpreta- rather than a goad to inquiry. Or, works within the Religious Studies tions as to why science began its as she puts it, an explanation is not framework professionally, I won- ascendancy in the west. In terms of the experience of wonder. Rather dered why she also landed in limbo the current trend to blame the rise wonder is a phenomenon itself. It is on the religious front. As she notes, of modern science and technology the color, sound, or a combination in theological circles “wonder has for many of our ills, which seemed to of impressions that elicits wonder. I sometimes been highly regarded as echo at times in Consecrating Science, find this overly simplistic. How are a fitting response to the divine and perhaps it is useful to think about the phenomena and emotions deriving to the intricate marvels of the cre- terrain that led to the decline of the from phenomena connected? How do ated world” (pp. 20–21), and “the spiritual mythology of the Church. To lifelong developmental factors inform Augustinian association of curiosity, return to her statement that wonder our relationship to phenomena and vanity, and pride, on the one hand, is not always a positive or affirm- experience? Suffice it to say, she tells and wonder, humility, and ignorance, ing experience, it is clear that, for us that while wonder in the broadest on the other hand, has never faded example, glorifying God and rever- sense may be a response to living in a entirely from Christian thought” (p. ence for nature’s wonders proved inef- universe that exhibits an incommen- 22). These references are to Augustine fective in solving pressing problems surable play of scales and a perplex- of Hippo (354–430), who is frequently like the Black Plague at the end of ing array of possible meanings, she characterized as a figure who opened the Middle Ages, for example. When doesn’t move it beyond a kind of one- the era of Medieval philosophy. prayer, ecstatic mysticism, scapegoat- dimensional space. She does, how- Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) is said ing, medicine based on sympathetic ever, say that wonder is not always to mark its end point, more or less. magic and so forth all came up short, a positive or affirming experience; While Augustine tended to look is it surprising that people looked it may be deeply unsettling, again inward, Nicholas, a theologian, cos- outward, deciding we needed better bringing the Book of Job to mind. mologist and influential philosopher, methods for studying nature and the The most intriguing element of extended his vision outward and outside environment? Their revised the book is her advocacy for an directed it toward nature. Augustine orientation did not displace won- ignorance-based science at the end, wrote, “Understanding is the reward der, nor did the movement toward a particularly in light of the book’s of faith. Therefore, seek not to under- larger investigative toolbox mean that religious resonance. She cites several stand that thou mayest believe, but subsequent changes happened in a contemporary figures, not all scien- believe that thou mayest understand” linear fashion. Nor should we assume tists, to support her vision. Notably, (in Joannis Evangelium tractatus, that the changes suggest a progressive they do not appear to base their XXIX, 6); Nicholas, in his On Learned story, as ensuing generational debates ideas about ignorance on the kind Ignorance (De docta ignorantia, 1440), underscore. Rather, just as our delib- of contemplative mystery or sensory simply defines the learned man as one erations about nature and the envi- processes she has elevated in defin- who is aware of his own ignorance. ronment today come in many flavors, ing wonder. They do share her sense Sideris’s view seems to align with within each generational culture that narratives aiming to tie all the Augustine’s moral underpinnings we can identify all shades of values, pieces together are misplaced, and and meditative embrace of won- nuances and dispositions. Despite some echo her moral/ethical tenets. der. Nicholas is more in line with the increased interest in developing For example, Stuart Firestein has her ignorance-based advocacy as new tools, God continued to hold a noted that the scientific enterprise is expressed in the views of the con- transcendent position within scien- not a top-down model of education- temporary figures she introduces to tific studies well into the Darwinism as-imposition, because it is driven support her view, although they do paradigm, and even today some see by careful questioning rather than

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 God as the precursor to Big Bang cos- Seeing: How Light Tells Us extremely limited sensibility ampli- mologies. Needless to say, the range About the World fied—or not (depending on where of views on wonder and experience— by Tom Cornsweet. University of you stand in the objectivity debate)— both positive and negative—evinced California Press, Berkeley, California, by instruments. (and evince) many opinions. Indeed, U.S.A., 2017. 200 pp., illus. ISBN: 978- The book opens with some basic, perhaps our awareness of global 0520294639. and possibly familiar, explanations of warming is comparable to how the Reviewed by Michael Punt, Trans- light and a careful description of the plague moved the needle in some way technology Research, University of anatomy of the eye, but where the real we cannot yet cogently define? Plymouth. work begins is in Chapter 3, in which That said, I really found the book Cornsweet describes how photore- doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01707 a stimulating read. Also, I would be ceptors sense light. It is here that the remiss not to acknowledge that at Tom Cornsweet’s Seeing: How Light familiar classroom models of lenses, times Sideris seems to recognize that Tells Us About the World was pub- rods, cones and pinhole cameras, science is a valid way of knowing, lished in the year that he died, and linear perspective and so forth dis- even as she seems to denounce some it generously shares with us much solve as he turns our attention to “the of the philosophic rhetoric used to of what he devoted his professional visual phenomena . . . [that] depend, define it throughout the book. life to as a scientist concerned with initially, on the events and processes human vision. Although the book’s that occur when light interacts with Scientific investigation entails a title suggests that it is about seeing the light detectors in our eyes” (p. 17). heuristic narrowing of its subject, and light, in fact it also tells us some- In short: A few photons strike one of and this narrowing process en- thing about the world. For example, the billions of pigment molecules in tails that certain elements of the the book opens with a firmly natu- the retina and the additional energy problem be isolated or abstracted ralist assertion that “the earth was changes its shape (bleaching it) so from some larger context. The formed about four billion years that it disrupts the flow of electrical processes deployed in scientific ago” (p. 1), but almost as quickly the energy across the retina. The mol- investigation—isolating, abstract- human is decentered from this idea ecule remains in this “bleached” state ing, simplifying, objectifying—have of the earth as he affirms that “our for anything between one and seven a proper role to play and are not in senses provide us with an astonish- minutes. This happens on a very large themselves suspect or unethical. ingly small fraction of the informa- scale, and how particular molecules These terms signal practices of dis- tion that we are actually embedded are changed is a matter of chance, but ciplined engagement that enable in, and we have generated our con- probability theory provides reliable interrogation of some concrete, de- ception of the physical world on the certainty that when we move from a limited phenomenon. Only when basis of the extremely limited range gloomy space to a light one the image knowledge gained through such of things in the physical world that retains its contrast. Cornsweet pro- practices is invested with claims to can be detected by our physiology” poses in establishing this interaction ultimate meaning or superior and (p. 1). Rather like David Hume, he between the world and the eye at a totalizing reality does science over- suggests that most of what we claim molecular level to avoid devolving step its bounds (p. 172). to be truths about the world, for difficult questions about visual per- In summary, as much as I enjoyed example the idea of space as empty, ception to the black box of the brain having a dialogue with the book, I is simply a reflection of our inability and to account for them as a retinal did not think that Sideris’s medita- to sense very much, and, in the case function. For him much of what tion on wonder fit seamlessly with of the eyes, their limited response to happens is an aggregation of simple her promotion of an ignorance-based a very small band in the electromag- interactions between a vast number knowing. I do, however, fully support netic spectrum. of pigment molecules each changed her valuation of the humanities. I also To give some tangible scale to this by the impact of a very small number applaud her for writing a book that restriction, Cornsweet suggests that if of photons. Most significantly, it is attempts to grapple with difficult and the distance between AM radio and a process that is affected by energy challenging questions. Engaging with X-rays on the electromagnetic spec- sources in the external world as well her ideas is well worth the read, given trum was represented by the distance as independent events within the her talent for thinking about ideas in between New York and Los Angeles, retina so that we can “see” things that a complex way. then the human visible bandwidth are not “there.” would be less than an eighth of an The phenomena of vision without Reference inch. Once that is clear, the major- external stimuli is well recorded and ity of the book is concerned with discussed, as various philosophers 1 A. Ione, Innovation and Visualization: explaining with patience and care over the centuries have puzzled about Trajectories, Strategies, and Myths (Con- sciousness, Literature and the Arts 1) how the human eye works—at least what happens when we press on our (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005). as far as we understand it with our eyes or stare at bright lights and look

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 away, etc. Cornsweet also devotes style—his refusal to complicate and attention not only via its content a chapter to what happens when mystify, for example by using simple but also through its design. Where we shut our eyes. However, in his illustrative numbers—bear the mark Textures of the Anthropocene liter- approach, the visual noise, flashes and of a scholar at peace with the limita- ally played with textures through the stars, etc. that are caused by sponta- tions of what is known. Indeed at the choice of paper and font for each of neous bleaching of pigment mole- end of each chapter he invites the its four volumes, Arts of Living com- cules in his description of the process reader to think about some of the prises two parts within one volume are part of the function of the eye things he has just been explaining in that are printed in opposite direc- and are continuous with the world ways that inevitably expose the limits tions. One half is dedicated to the and as such indistinguishable from of his explanation. Cornsweet died in key theme Monsters and the other external visual stimuli. This approach November 2017, and in an obituary, to Ghosts but not necessarily in this to understanding vision as a molecu- someone remarked that sooner or order. Both halves are interchange- lar change subject to random events later, everyone who met him became able, entwined and entangled; they governed by probability provides an his student. This phrase describes refer to one another and thus one alternative account of how we see, exactly what the book does and how finds oneself regularly turning the while it simultaneously proposes it engages the reader as it deals with book upside down to switch between that there is a continuity between the the simple and the complex as contin- one or the other part, with page operations of perception and those gencies to be encountered. numbers starting either with M or G. of the external world that suggest our Each part has its own insightful intro- claims for naturalism must be both Arts of Living on a Damaged duction and coda, which, however, modest and contingent. Planet: Ghosts and Monsters refer to each other and thus form yet Cornsweet’s career as a scientist of the Anthropocene another form of entwinement. Arts of has been devoted to human vision edited by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Living is in this way able to engage the and developing instruments that Heather Anne Swanson, Elaine Gan and reader not only intellectually but also allowed him to understand part of Nils Bubandt. University of Minnesota physically and tacitly, making it clear its workings. His name is given to a Press, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A., 2017. 368 that intellect and body are equally particular optical illusion that reveals pp., illus. Paper. ISBN: 978-1517902377. entwined and entangled. some aspects of how we privilege Reviewed by Edith Doove, Trans- The editors Anna Tsing, Heather contrast over tone in visual percep- technology Research, University of Swanson, Elaine Gan and Nils tion independently of the data that Plymouth, U.K. Email: edith.doove@ Bubandt are all in one or another is presented. In the Cornsweet illu- plymouth.ac.uk. way connected to the Anthropology sion tonal differences are perceived department of Aarhus University, but doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01708 in a flat plane if a small darker band the contributions to their book come is placed across a field of uniform Where the twentieth century cre- from a wide range of exciting authors luminance. Many illusions with simi- ated and sustained the fiction of of various backgrounds, most com- lar effects are often used to show the individuality, the 21st century shows bining several fields of knowledge. superiority of science and reason and that a (renewed) awareness of the With essays by Ursula K. Le Guin, how the eyes are unreliable sensors entanglement between the human Karen Barad and Donna Haraway as that fool the brain into misunder- and nonhuman is unavoidable if we the more obvious highlights, those standing the truth of the world. This want to survive the damaging effects by the other, possibly lesser-known is not Cornsweet’s object; instead, of our self-inflicted Anthropocene. authors are certainly of equal interest. he is concerned with explaining the Individuality understood as consist- Arts of Living is an explicitly trans- or function of the eye that leads to this ing of single, independent entities, cross-disciplinary book, confirm- perception and, as such, for him it is whether human or nonhuman, might ing that we need the intertwining of not so much a question of the optical not have to be thrown completely disciplines to find solutions for the illusion fooling the brain as the way out of our frame of understanding rut we got ourselves into. As stated in which the world and the eye col- as long as it is understood that it can in the introduction of the Ghosts laborate to reconcile quite different only exist in relation to the other. Arts part, “to survive, we need to relearn versions of the external world that are of Living on a Damaged Planet, the multiple forms of curiosity. Curios- equally true. Seeing: How Light Tells fascinating outcome of the conference ity is an attunement to multispecies Us About the World is a paradigm of of the same name that took place at entanglement, complexity, and the late style that reflects on Cornsweet’s UC Santa Cruz in 2014, makes this shimmer all around us” (G11). For intellectual capital with a secure very clear. As a publication, it can the curious, there is plenty to learn— confidence offering a simplicity and be ranked alongside Textures of the from mysterious mud volcanoes to clarity that belies the complexity of Anthropocene—Grain Vapor Ray the entanglement of horseshoe crabs his insight. He does not say as much, (2015; see my review in Leonardo and red knots birds, lichens or new but the intellectual generosity of his Reviews [1]) in the way it raises our ways of evolutionary thinking, span-

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 ning from the tiny to the universal. middle of the book, where they state, the beginning of the Anthropocene Where the Ghosts part discusses “Arts of Living are necessary because not as the moment of the biologi- various specters from the past that of threats to our survival. On a Dam- cal supremacy of the human race haunt our present in unexpected aged Planet monsters and ghosts are on Earth, but rather of its fall in ways, the Monsters part illustrates figures hiding in plain sight.” initialization of contamination of its that any I is in fact a We, as all of life own environment, falling vaguely exists as interdependent entities. In References and Notes in the time of Industrial Revolution. his book Humankind: Solidarity with And that is precisely the time when Non-Human People (2017), Timothy 1 Edith Doove, Review of Textures of the An- photographic recording technology thropocene: Grain Vapor Ray (November Morton phrases how every human 2017): www.leonardo.info/review/2017/11/ was invented. Thus, this more precise being consists of a considerable non- review-of-textures-of-the-anthropocene definition of the Anthropocene inevi- human amount and is thus a collec- -grain-vapor-ray. Also in Leonardo 51, tably connects photography to ecol- No. 5, 535–536 (2018). tive in itself. Scott F. Gilbert, eminent ogy through theory of media defining in the field of developmental genetics 2 www.internationalgothic.group.shef the human action in environment by and embryology, uses the phrase .ac.uk/cfp-monsters-and-monstrosity-in a strict definition of nonhuman and -nineteenth-century-anglophone-litera holobiont in his contribution to Arts ture (2017). human-run environments/spaces, of Living to show how all creatures are as well as warning on the human/ 3 Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, Resi- symbioses of one sort or another. In dents: 2018: www.dorlandartscolony.com/ posthuman time conditions. Here the last essay of the Monsters section, residents–2018.html. Zylinska grounds her theories close professor of ecology and evolutionary to Durham Peters’s theory of Earth biology Ingrid M. Parker shows that as a medium, but also the ecological Nonhuman Photography it is urgent to deal with our amnesia media theories of Sean Cubitt. and blindness toward things hap- by Joanna Zylinska. The MIT Press, From these standpoints of ecol- pening in the far or nearer past. In Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 2017. 272 pp., ogy and posthumanism, both being that sense, it is interesting that the illus. Trade. ISBN: 978-0262037020. media theories, Zylinska redefines the concept of ghosts and monsters was Ana Peraica, independent scholar. medium of photography, expanding quite present in a not-too-distant Email: [email protected]. it to a nonhuman one. This photog- past that we seemingly have forgot- raphy is “not of, by, or for the human” doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01709 ten, namely the nineteenth century. (p. 51); it is that without humans, Where the “vampires, mummies, Although the title of the book Nonhu- before humans (in terms of deep doppelgangers, ghosts, and zombies man Photography suggests it could be time) but also that after humans. as well as Frankenstein’s monster, the yet another on the popular topic of The definition of photography is Jabberwock, Helen Vaughan, and the unmanned photography, this book by expanded as the photography preced- Invisible Man” [2] haunted literature Joanna Zylinska is quite a nice theo- ing or succeeding its inventor. It is as threatening aliens, the ghosts and retical surprise! also defined not as a mere utilitar- monsters of Arts of Living however Already at the beginning Zylin- ian tool but rather as a technical turn out to be very real and everyday ska sets the problem in terms of “a phenomenon that includes various threats. They occur mostly in what cultural condition in which visual phenomena of optical stabilization we overlook, as in a meadow for enhancement, algorithmic logic, and of images, as various types of light- Ingrid Parker, but also in the border- mediated perception enable different imprints, fossils, imprinted shadows, land between the U.S. and Mexico as modes of visuality and self-identi- photograms, besides commonly described by Lesley Stern, who writes fication,” (p. 5) defining the field of accepted mechanical and digital “in the interstices between cultural photography not as a priori cultural, records. studies, memoir, and environmental but rather a media one, thus includ- Redefining photography in terms history [3].” ing its technological aspect beside of the origin and process, Zylinska The ecosystem of our planet does terms of purposes of implementation. offers a wide-enough nonhuman defi- not particularly need us humans to Although it implements a terminol- nition of photography that records survive and would probably be bet- ogy of cultural logic, as a “cultural life (on the planet) rather than ter off without us. As shown in the condition” and “visuality,” this logic merely serving memories of humans. past, it will no doubt generate other is not defined in terms of orthodox Opposing the cultural definition life forms. If we want to stay part of styles and periods of art history, of photography defined via death the equation, we will have to come or epistemic episodes of cultural (Basin, Barthes, Sontag), Zy­linska down from our high horse and start studies. It presents a larger set of defines photography as rather a “life- paying attention to what we form time-definition in terms of pre- and making process” and “quintessential part of. Arts of Living gives an excel- post-Anthropocene. But in defining practice of life.” Stripped of its mere- lent indication of where to start. The Anthropocene, the cultural defini- purposiveness, in satisfying the need Ghosts and Monsters parts meet in the tion overlaps the media one, marking to visually externalize memory, a new

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 type of vision is absorbed in the defi- tence and elaboration of features that nition of the medium; a vision as a proved both highly attractive from a data assemblage, rather than a direct sexual point of view, that is in view of experience. Such vision, abandoning reproduction, and ruthlessly harmful the ideological (and thus contami- in terms of survival (the classic exam- nated) human employment of pho- ple being the peacock’s tail). New tographic medium, Zylinska sees as research in the discipline is no longer an option of the current posthuman satisfied with solving the apparent condition. paradox of this coexistence of incom- Along with interesting theories, the patible characteristics or explaining author successfully analyzes works by the underlying mechanisms of sexual contemporary media artists as Trevor attractiveness, which are now situ- Paglen, Tacita Dean, Jana Sterbak, ated in the brain, the most important et al. (supplemented with the web- of our sexual organs, since beauty site www.nonhuman.photography, and attractiveness—the necessary providing more colorful versions of conditions for successful mating and artworks), although more interesting reproduction—are not “essential” or elements of the book are Zylinska’s “inherent” properties of creatures but own photographs. Producing pho- properties acknowledged by specific tographs on a scientifically experi- and species-related brain functions mental level, rather than as a mere and constituents. Although all mys- illustration in humanist sciences, she teries concerning beauty recognition This simple idea contributed to poses an important question: “Is it are far from being deciphered, con- a paradigm shift in the study of possible to practice philosophy as a temporary research has witnessed a sexual selection, one in which the form of art, while also engaging in dramatic shift. Instead of only trying importance of the sexual brain as photography and image making as to see how sexual brains evolve in a driver of evolution finally was ways of philosophizing?” (p. 59) And order to become capable of notic- acknowledged (pp. 3–4). this question shows, in practice, the ing which kind of beauty properties Ryan’s book gives a lively and very whole theoretical standpoint consis- offers the best possible guarantee readable survey of this—his and tently and coherently; what indeed for numerous and healthy offspring, others’—ongoing research. Yet read- photography may serve today. recent investigations are also inter- ability and liveliness are not the only An interesting read, both theoreti- ested in studying how features recog- qualities of this work. First of all, cally and practically, this book would nized as beautiful evolve in order to Ryan is a very meticulous scientist, benefit photographers, photography better match the recognizing proper- who tries to divide each question into theorists, image scientists, media ties of the brain itself. as many subquestions as possible or theorists and media ecologists, but Ryan phrases it this way: necessary. For instance, when dis- cultural theorists would find their I have a unique perspective to offer cussing sexual attractiveness—for this own disciplinary standpoints the on these issues as I have spent the is how beauty must be encoded in the most challenged. past forty years studying the sexual larger context of reproduction and behavior of a tiny, bumpy frog in survival—he makes sharp distinc- A Taste for the Beautiful: Central America. This work has tions between: liking sex, wanting sex, The Evolution of Attraction opened my eyes and mind to both making love and actual reproduction, by Michael J. Ryan. Princeton Univ. Press, the diversity of sexual behavior in linking each type of sexual behavior Princeton, NJ, 2018. 208 pp., illus. Trade. the animal kingdom and a core with specific, sometimes contradic- ISBN: 978-0691167268. unifying theory that I have devel- tory types of beauty. Reviewed by Jan Baetens. oped called sensory exploitation. Second, Ryan is also a very The key idea is simple: features of nuanced and cautious researcher. The doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01710 the female’s brain that find certain perspective he adopts is always mul- A Taste for the Beautiful gives an notes of the males’ mating call at- tiple, and he is at great pains taking excellent overview of cutting-edge tractive existed long before those into account the conflicting outcomes research in the field of sexual selec- attractive notes evolved. Thus, of different types of beauty. To give tion, Darwin’s second great evolu- females are the biological pup- just one example: In certain species, tionary theory after that of natural peteers, making the males sing certain beauty features may attract selection. This field is an important exactly what their brains desire. the eye, ear or nose of the mate(s), correction of Darwin’s initial views, Beauty is indeed in the brain of but they may for exactly the same which were not immediately capable the beholder, and in most cases, reasons also attract possible preda- of answering questions on the exis- that means the female’s brain. . . . tors—and even sexually very success-

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 ful creatures that become food for Bioaesthetics: Making century, without, however, succumb- their enemies do not survive. Sense of Life in Science ing to the broad universalist claims Third, Ryan is not a determinist and the Arts that characterize today’s biologism thinker at all. Not only does he accept by Carsten Strathausen. University of and neo-Darwinian theory” (p. 24). the limits of the general rules he Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, The author also draws on Francisco establishes, always highlighting the U.S.A., 2017. 320 pp. Trade, paper. ISBN: Varela, Eleanor Rosch and Evan existence of exceptions and inconsis- 978-1517900748; ISBN: 978-1517900755. Thompson’s concept of “embodied tencies that he never reduces to just Reviewed by Gabriela Galati. Email: cognition” to consider a more com- exceptions or mere chance devia- [email protected]. plete approach to knowledge and how tions. He is also very keen in admit- every living being makes sense of the ting blank spaces and following a doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01711 world around it. trial-and-error method. The frequent Bioaesthetics is an ambitious work In the first chapter the book “sacrifice” of creatures whose brains that intends to be a critique of what analyzes extensively how nature is are sliced up in order to measure the the author calls “biologism,” namely, considered after Kant and the coin- neurological traces of certain events “the effort to understand all aspects of cidences and differences between or experiments is an almost ritual human culture, including art and pol- Kant’s concept of epigenesis, which step during any observation and itics, in biological terms as part of our uses intentionality to explain the hypothesis cycle. Ryan is also always evolutionary heritage” (pp. 1–2). As emergence of life (p. 43), and Varela extremely careful in crediting his the detailed and accurate critique of and Humberto Maturana’s autopoi- colleagues, collaborators and students all the approaches considered under etic theory. Although the author with their often-crucial contributions the biologism umbrella unfolds, claims that bioaesthetics doesn’t have to the development of his own work Strathausen also aims at defining a clear position regarding the emer- (normally this is formally done in a what bioaesthetics is and its position gence of life, it does adhere to Varela book’s acknowledgments; here, how- regarding other related theories. and Ma­turana’s autopoietic notion, ever, it is tightly woven into the very The book is clear and precise, according to which “all living organ- fabric of the scientific discourse). both in its analyses and in describ- isms are cognitive systems able to Inevitably, the most interesting ing its own position in the field that enact their unique environment by aspect of A Taste for the Beautiful it is delimiting. It exposes a sharp making simple choices” (p. 56). At for nonspecialized readers are the critique of sociobiology and the this point one of the main arguments systematic, yet never overempha- neo-­Darwinian theory that ground of the book is advanced: that recur- sized, references to human behavior. biologism. This critique is based sivity and nonlinear causality of all It would be incorrect to label these on the confusion between the dif- living matter are essential to art and references as comparisons with the ferent objects of study of the sci- aesthetics, as Kant demonstrated a human species, for this would sup- ences and the humanities, and on long time ago in theorization of aes- pose a separation between man and how the humanities give language thetic judgements, coincident as they animal that of course does not exist constructs and modifies its object in this regard. Ryan moves from of studies, whereas for the sciences animal to man and vice versa with a language is often transparent. One great sense of humor (one has often of the main flaws of biologism and the impression of the lecture of an neo-­Darwinism is the indistinct use enthusiastic professor) and a sound and application of concepts of the understanding of good old rhetoric. sciences to the humanities, that is to But the bigger picture, that is the say, the use of scientific language and brain and the sensory exploitation terminology taken completely out paradigm, is never out of sight, which of context. The second problem is leads the author to end his book the universalist pretension: Biology with very interesting remarks on and bioaesthetics are historical disci- pornography, which he thinks could plines, and the approaches labeled by change our actual ideas and practices the author as belonging to biologism of sexuality the “same” way (inverted do not consider this fact. commas more than simply intended) Instead, the book defines bio- certain animals he has studied have aesthetics as “an interdisciplinary also modified their features in order approach to the study of culture to better match what is considered that moves beyond the speculative attractive by possible mates. theory of art that has dominated the humanities since the early nineteenth

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 are with the contemporary notion approach considers that art chal- thinking about issues like art, media of the autopoietic nature of human lenges traditional or fixed cognitive and aesthetics, is something that cognition (p. 57). structures, creating new cognitive some of us are not yet ready to give After dedicating the second chapter patterns within the brain (p. 226). up; however, we can hope that this to the analysis of the dispute between Finally, in the Coda (p. 227), interdisciplinary approach will only Jacques Monod and Louis Althusser, the author explains the differ- add to these practices and theoriza- Strathausen deconstructs, if the term ence between bioaesthetics, Gilles tions. can be allowed here, sociobiology, Deleuze’s aesthetics of affect and evolutionary psychology and Richard a posthuman aesthetics: While List Cultures: Knowledge and Dawkins’s meme theory. In this last Deleuze’s aesthetics is based on one’s Poetics from Mesopotamia to case particularly, there seem to be at possibilities of “becoming other than BuzzFeed least three problems: First, memes, human” (p. 227), namely, the body by Liam Cole Young. Amsterdam unlike genes, do not necessarily without organs, and the consideration University Press, Amsterdam, NL, 2017. increase adaptive fitness or produce that affect can be detached from the Distributed by the University of Chicago some biological advantage; second, organism, and posthuman aesthetics Press. 196 pp., illus. Trade. ISBN: 978- cultural evolution is not necessar- considers, among other issues, the 9462981102. ily adaptive from the genetic point production of sense by the nonhu- Reviewed by Jan Baetens. of view; and, lastly, it is not yet clear man and advances a broader consid- what a meme is exactly (pp. 124–125). eration of subjectivities, Strathausen doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01712 In the following chapter, the book positions bioaesthetics as a philoso- Liam Cole Young is a contemporary addresses the approaches of evo- phy that fosters new kinds of subjec- representative of the Toronto “civili- lutionary aesthetics and cognitive tivity but is strongly grounded in “our zational” school of media studies (its studies. Whereas within the former, shared nature and history of being major historical figures are Harold especially among literary Darwinists, human” (p. 231). Precisely regarding Innis and Marshall McLuhan), which the tendency is to consider literature, this last statement, there can be found aims today at bridging the modern and by extension art in general, as an perhaps the only critique to be made gap between the often-conflicting adaptive feature that would facilitate of the book, which has to do with the approaches of cultural studies (with manipulation to obtain reproductive use of the prefix “bio” in bioaesthet- a strong focus on identity issues and advantages over others, cognitive ics: Even when the author claims that politics of media representation) and studies seems to be more focused on bioaesthetics considers “the living” political economy (with a strongly the art object. In particular, cogni- and “all living matter” in general, politicized reading of the produc- tive studies not only understands (“life makes sense only to the living” tion and organization of labor and art as an adaptive feature, or a fixed [p. 231]) it doesn’t; it actually consid- wealth). This book on the history and term to be defined, but points out ers only the human aspect within the the uses of lists is a brilliant example the cognitive function of art, which living, and with it, sense understood of this school, which does not simply is considered to be to pose questions, and produced by humans and for repeat the many broad and daring not to give answers, and to underline humans. Of course one cannot avoid insights of Innis as well as McLuhan. possible misalignments in the envi- being human when thinking or writ- In Young’s work, the expansion of ronment (p. 185)—in a certain sense, ing, or living in general, but bioaes- the Toronto civilizational approach this appears to be quite close to the thetics doesn’t seem to be a theory results from dialogue with two other McLuhanian consideration of the role that comprises and is equally inter- disciplines. First is hardcore German of the artist. ested in all the living. This is why the media theory and history à la Kittler, In the fifth and last chapter, neuro- prefix bio is misleading. It is also why with a “fearless” (I am quoting Young, aesthetics is analyzed, and the author it could be worth at least just asking who particularly likes this adjective) points out how, even if Semir Zeki whether or not this excessive focus use of interdisciplinary concerns and defines neuroaesthetics as “a theory of on the human has not already been ways of thinking. Contrary to Kit- aesthetics that is biologically based,” overcome in the humanities. tler, however, Young prefers to shy it would be more appropriate to say For the rest, the book is acute in away from sweeping overgeneraliza- that it seeks to develop an aesthetic its analysis, observation and even- tions and grand narratives, which theory that is actually based only on tual critiques of all the approaches it he replaces with a more modest but the brain (p. 194). Zeki’s approach is addresses. It is an excellent introduc- eventually no-less-eye-opening close largely analyzed, and in general con- tion to an aesthetics that intends to reading of media affordances and sidered pertinent, although Strathau- overcome speculative theories of art practices. Second is media archaeol- sen makes evident how he reduces and philosophy without disregarding ogy (the book is published in a series aesthetic judgements to cognitive context and history. That some space coedited by Jussi Parikka), more judgements, or to judgements of taste. for speculation is still desirable and specifically media materialism, with On the contrary, the bioaesthetics fruitful, and even important when strong influences of Latour’s actor

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 network theory and its fine-grained is not to study lists in themselves but how to continue, instead of debunk- observation of actual uses of techno- to approach them as tools or spring- ing or deconstructing, the quasi- logical items and mechanisms. boards for larger social, philosophical mythical study of lists by Jack Goody This global framework is applied and political analysis, in the already- (The Domestication of the Savage to the notion of “list.” For Young, lists mentioned spirit of the Toronto Mind), which it is now possible to are not a single universal and trans­ school and new German media reread afresh. historical phenomenon, in spite of the theory, which he firmly opposes to apparent simplicity and comparable current Anglo-Saxon media analysis: David Smith: Collected features of any list whatsoever. In this “We tend not to touch figures like Writings, Lectures, and book, the list is in the first place a Aristotle, Jesus, or Pythagoras (with Interviews technique, nothing more and nothing some notable exceptions), but the edited by Susan J. Cooke. University of less, that can be found in practically German tradition understands that California Press, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A, all human communities. Young is in these figures usually have as much or 2018. 312 pp. illus. Trade, paper. ISBN: search not of the underlying logic of more to say than Marconi, Edison, 978-0520291874; ISBN: 978-0520291881. all possible types of lists but of what Hearst, or Zuckerberg” (pp. 154–155). Reviewed by Rob Harle, Australia. distinguishes them from various In List Cultures, the list appears as points of view—historical, technical, the ideal instrument to get a better doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01713 cultural, political—and his most fun- grasp of the radical transformation It is both a treat and a privilege to be damental analytical resource is a mix of space and—increasingly—time able to share the details of an artist’s of contextualization and close read- as productive commodities in mod- life as revealed through the artist’s ing. He therefore departs from a set of ern or modernizing societies. In own words; this book affords us this four general arguments, which both this regard, Young’s emphasis on pleasure. guarantee the overall coherence of the compression, knowledge formation, Susan Cooke has done a marvel- approach and allow for a fine-grained control, transportation, exchange ous job of editing this comprehensive individualization of each list culture and the like brings him very close to volume of Collected Writings, Lec- under scrutiny: (1) What has a media Jonathan Crary’s work on “the end of tures and Interviews of the brilliant, materialist approach to offer us when sleep” (as addressed in his book 24/7), iconoclastic American sculptor David examining a specific list culture? but List Cultures is in the first place Smith. (2) What can lists as cultural tech- a book that attempts (and succeeds) I could not put this book down, niques, that is as material operations to sketch positive alternatives. Since partly because Smith “tells it like it that precede but also generate media Young rightly rejects any a priori is” and also because his commitment forms and structures teach us on the judgment of the meaning of the list as to materials, passion for creating ways in which knowledge is being cultural technique, List Cultures pays sculpture above all else and existential built and how it takes place within much attention to other forms and artistic authenticity so closely paral- certain material circumstances? uses of lists, either in poetry or phi- leled my own sculpture practice over (3) What are the actual functions of losophy, although in this powerfully the years to the extent that at times a given list culture—a functionalist interdisciplinary approach to human it hurt! caveat that helps avoid thinking activity, the frontier between poetry Smith spoke of the artist’s iden- of lists as either good or bad? and and philosophy becomes very thin, as tity. Smith defined identity as an (4) How can we display the inherent shown for instance in Young’s innova- inner confidence and certitude ambivalences of the list, which often tive reading of Markers’s La Jetée and strengthened by constant struggle articulate deeply contradictory feel- Sans Soleil, two list-based works of and a “defensive belligerence” to ings and aspirations? art. Young reads them in the back- all externally imposed rules. It Each of these questions informs, ground of recent theory of “database originated in the artist’s visual-­ from a civilizational point of view, narrative,” but manages to disclose perceptual responses to his [sic] the close reading of list cultures, that that database narrative should not immediate world and expressed it- is list techniques, in the next five only be about database but also about self through “eidetic” images (p. 9). chapters of the book (the concrete narrative. topics are, respectively, pop music List Cultures is an important book, Smith’s words throughout his lec- charts, double-entry bookkeeping, both from a scientific and a societal tures and personal musings show him the Nazi Census, BuzzFeed and a set point of view, which brilliantly illus- to be what most of us perceive as the of poetic lists such as those invented trates the role humanities can and archetypal traditional artist. It seems by Jorge Luis Borges in literature and must play in debates that may seem almost like there is a genetic predis- Chris Marker in cinema, but in fact, unhospitable to them, but that are position to live a life with so many the book enriches these key examples cruelly in need of the broader civili- difficulties: seldom enough money with a great number of supplemen- zational approach updated by Young. for materials or rent, never enough tary case studies). Young’s objective His book is the perfect example of hours in the day to fit everything in

Leonardo Reviews 99

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021 ers to have these, particularly in situ Aerial Aftermaths: Wartime from major works, at hand rather than Above by Caren Kaplan. Reviewed by have to search for them elsewhere. Mike Leggett. It will be of considerable interest to Art and the Brain: Plasticity, Embodi- Leonardo supporters and associates ment and the Unclosed Circle by Amy to know that David Smith was laud- Ione. Reviewed by George Shortess. ing the symbiotic relationship of art, science and technology way back in Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl the 1940s! In his own words, “Art can- LP in Midcentury America by Janet not be divorced from its time, place Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder. or science. It has never been depen- Reviewed by John F. Barber. dent on but has always been related The Man Who Walked in Color by to science. . . . In the creative sense art Georges Didi-Huberman; trans- has been related to science, but the lated by Drew S. Burk. Reviewed by inverse is likewise true” (p. 66). He ­Stephen Petersen. then goes on to give examples of this (including, at times, to eat), always relationship to support his statement. Passwords: Philology, Security, at odds with a conservative society David Smith was an eccentric, Authentication by Brian Lennon. that covertly, or at times, overtly, iconic figure in the art world of Reviewed by Jan Baetens. attempts to suppress or destroy the the early- to mid-1900s, possibly Poetic Conventions as Cognitive ­ artist. In the case of sculptors, the use never getting the full recognition he Fossils by Reuven Tsur. Reviewed of potentially dangerous materials, deserved, especially in his own life- by Rob Harle. chemicals and industrial working time, which incidentally ended tragi- processes makes the job even more cally in a car crash. This book will go The Voices of Mississippi: Artists and hazardous. As Smith says paradoxi- a long way in redressing this situa- Musicians Documented by William cally in one of his lectures regarding tion. I cannot recommend it highly Ferris, edited by William Ferris. the teaching of sculpture, enough to art students, researchers, Reviewed by Allan Graubard. art teachers and art historians. For There is a need for art. The artist the artist reader particularly, I will William Kentridge: Process as Meta- has a social obligation, as well as end this review with a poignant quote phor and Other Doubtful Enterprises his own ego satisfaction to pro- (from his Skidmore College lectures, by Leora Maltz-Leca. Reviewed by duce to the fullest extent of his 1947), which to me epitomizes Smith Amy Ione. ability. It is society’s duty to make the archetypal artist: the effort to understand before it July 2018 takes an active prejudice. . . . To So, you the artist—if you are an Perfection’s Therapy: An Essay on the majority there is no need for inspired mind, if you feel that you Albrecht Dürer’s Melencolia I by art on the basis that creative art is can express something that has Mitchell B. Merback. Reviewed by produced. We live in a hypocritical not been expressed before, if you Mike Mosher. world (p. 110). are willing to lay yourself open to opprobrium and tough sledding in Super Power, Spoony Bards, and The book has a most informative a wealthy country with a narrow Silverware by Dominic Arsenault. and useful Introduction written by culture—be the artist—have the Reviewed by James Sweeting. Cooke, then three major sections courage of conviction—for you of Smith’s own writings: Thirties & Traversals: The Use of Preservation will never be happy being anything for Early Electronic Writing by Stuart Forties, Fifties, and Sixties. These else (p. 67). are followed by a chronology and an Moulthrop and Dene Grigar; fore- excellent index, as would be expected word by Joseph Tabbi. Reviewed by in such a comprehensive research l e o n a r d o Jan Baetens. compendium as this. There is a smat- r e v i e w s tering of illustrations, both color and o n l i n e June 2018 black and white, consisting of scans Ornament and European Modern- from Smith’s notebooks and sketch- August 2018 ism: From Art Practice to Art History, books together with a few photo- 12th Conference of the European edited by Loretta Vandi. Reviewed by graphs of his finished sculptures. Society for Literature, Science and the Jan Baetens. My one minor criticism of this Arts: GREEN. Jens Hauser (Chair) & book is the dearth of photographs of Louise Whiteley & Adam Bencard Smith’s finished sculptures. It would (Co-chairs). Reviewed by Giovanna be helpful for readers and research- L. Costantini.

100 Leonardo Reviews

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01705 by guest on 29 September 2021