Leonardo Reviews
Leonardo Reviews includes his wife’s professional and pri- (including interviews with Flaherty him- Editor-in-Chief: Michael Punt vate role in his career and life. Opening self) and lets the short extracts from Managing Editor: Bryony Dalefield with shots from Man of Aran (1934), the Flaherty’s original film footage “speak film introduces Flaherty’s Irish origins, for themselves.” Some of these clips are Associate Editors: Dene Grigar, although he was born to a mining captured during screening to specialist Martha Blassnigg, Hannah Drayson engineer in Iron Mountain, Michigan. audiences as well as local communi- A full selection of reviews is pub- It shows how he gained a respectable ties, such as on the island of Savai’i lished monthly on the LR web site: reputation as a prospector, explorer on Samoa, where Moana (1926) was
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00583 by guest on 02 October 2021 closely affected by Flaherty’s films: a success similar to Nanook) he strug- sometimes cut short—clearly there was Newly filmed as well as archival inter- gled to conform to the constraints of more material and thoughtful reflec- views with some of the main characters production. In this, A Boatload of Wild tion than fitted into the final cut, and of Nanook of the North (1922), Moana Irishmen gives context to the struggles, inevitably curiosity is roused about the (1926) and Louisiana Story (1948) independent of the particular genre, lesser known productions—but even reveal a broad spectrum of reflection that every filmmaker will recognize. in the seeming brevity (an apparent on the personal impact of the filmmak- It also shows how some of the contro- “short” 84 minutes for a documentary ing process, ranging from tragedy to versies around the legacy of Flaherty film; a good sign for its pace and drive), celebration to indifference. Among the are already embedded in the tensions Winston and Ó Curraidbin succeed most revealing are those testimonies and complications of the filmmaking in offering a moderate and nuanced in connection with the role these films process: e.g. tensions between Fla- portrait of an influential figure in the play in the contemporary life of the herty’s driven imagination and story- history of film and cinema and, as the villages. Some spectators in a village telling capacity and the very realities voiceover states in the end, “his place in on Savai’i still have strong memories of he chose and selected to work with, cinema’s pantheon.” The documentary those depicted in Moana and consider and the pressures in working under concludes with an epic touch that reso- the film a crucial document of their his- commissions by a Hollywood studio or nates self-consciously with Flaherty’s tory; one elder strikingly suggests that the industry. He was not averse to the own poetic timbre: the film is owned by the village—a senti- world of commercial sponsorship, and ment that in the field of visual anthro- industry patronage runs throughout One thing is certain, all the strengths and weaknesses of the documentary; its pology is usually considered a positive Flaherty’s oeuvre; Nanook of the North ability to show us life, to preserve mem- impact of a film production typical for was supported by Revillon Frères, a ory, to thrill, absorb and entertain, as community-based projects. These testi- French fur-trade company; in 1933 he well as the dangers of it misrepresenting monies raise intriguing questions: What was assigned by John Grierson and the people, the hazards for those it focuses will happen to the reception of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit in on are being filmed, the manipulations needed to tell a story: all these are to be films in the original location in future London on the documentary Industrial found in the cinema of Robert Flaherty. generations when the generational Britain (1933); Louisiana Story (1948) He was among the first to celebrate all connection is further removed? Will was commissioned by the Standard Oil documentary strengths and demonstrate they become a touristic attraction and Company (the script was written by his documentary’s dangers. His is, for good or ill, a living legacy [sic]. feature of curiosity, as has already hap- wife Francis H. Flaherty and awarded pened with Man of Aran (1934), pro- with an Academy Award for Best Origi- The last word, however, should be jected six times a day for visitors, many nal Story). One of the most revealing given to those usually unheard voices of whom travel to the island because of testimonies, with particularly interest- of the audiences and co-constructing Flaherty’s film? ing technical details, is that by docu- participants essential to the co-creation Some attention is also given to the mentary filmmaker Richard Leacock, in of the films as they have been lived as filmmaker’s well-known struggle for an interview hosted by Brian Winston. experience and relived in recollected financing and also to some technologi- Leacock was hired as young cameraman memory: the true “living legacy” of any cal detail. Despite Flaherty’s financial for Louisiana Story (1948) and remem- film’s work and lasting testimony. security through marriage, he struggled bers details of the technicalities and to gain support for his particular vision Flaherty’s choices and working method; and approach; and if he received it the latter would always allow the pro- Hiroshi Sugimoto: (as with the Moana project through a duction to be distracted by aesthetic or Memories of Origin Paramount commission, which wanted narrative surprises arising during the filming process. It becomes clear in directed by Yuko Nakamura. 85 min. Leacock’s account that Flaherty in his In English and Japanese. Sales and dis- working method was perhaps more of tribution: WOWOW, Inc., Japan, 2012. an anthropologist than he is often given credit for, in that the duration of the Reviewed by Giovanna L. Costantini. filming process took its own momen- doi:10.1162/LEON_r_00582 tum—the downside of which was that on several occasions it led to unfinished Hiroshi Sugimoto: Memories of Origin, a film productions and exorbitant shoot- documentary produced by Japanese ing ratios. television network WOWOW, opens A Boatload of Wild Irishmen gives a with the artist immersed in a reflect- modest, well-researched and human ing pool behind a large format camera account of the power and persistent as he photographs Infinity (2006), an influence of Flaherty’s work; it reaches abstract aluminum sculpture commis- outside the untouchable niches of sioned for the Art Center at Château la experts, discourses and other institu- Coste, France. From a spherical base in tionalized authorities and offers an the water, it rises in perfect arcs to the image of Flaherty drawn largely from sky, where it dematerializes into space. personal reflections, experiences, Part of a body of work titled Mathemati- knowledge and recollections of selected cal Models, it represents a transforma- individuals who have/had a close rela- tion of mathematical and geometric tionship to his work or persona. As with principles into computer-generated all documentaries, the interviews are solids produced from Japan’s most
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00583 by guest on 02 October 2021 advanced machining tools. As with his living organisms. Luminous, the images special quality or force was felt.” In photographs of sculptural renderings seem to exert a strange magnetic power Appropriate Proportion (2002), he attrib- of trigonometric functions in the series over observers who are drawn to them uted the source of the shrine’s ineffable Conceptual Forms (2004–), Sugimoto’s as moths to a flame. In other studies, power to a giant rock. Since the shrine interest in pure, elegant lines, starkly he discharges the electrical current into was composed of three main parts—a controlled contrasts, integrated design Himalayan salt water to produce diaph- Worship Hall, a Main Sanctuary and and stable form reflects his desire anous, ethereal effects of watercolor. As a Rock Chamber reminiscent of a to create aesthetic models of reality, an experimental composer, he creates tumulus—he dug out the underground to concretize thought and to render other impressions by chance, through chamber by hand so as not to disturb visible “invisible facts,” as he calls tests with insulated instruments that the ancient spirits. Into the chamber he them, internal to the artist. “His work include a fine mesh grill used to roast then laid rough-hewn optical-glass steps expresses unseen objects, the world gingko nuts, a needle inserted through to create a “stairway of light.” Illumi- within the heart,” observes Tadeo Ando, the end of a wooden stick, and kitchen nated by the sunlight, the glass stairs architect of the Château La Coste Art implements such as wire whisks, egg shine as crystal. They join the celestial Center. beaters, measuring cups and slotted and terrestrial worlds in a stream of For over 200 days, the filmmakers spoons. “Ordinarily it would be a fail- luminosity. followed Sugimoto across the globe, ure, but it is interesting,” he observes, In 2011 Sugimoto served as producer, from the shores of his native Japan, pointing to an effect of winter static composer and art director of a revival where he first began to photograph in the corner of one of the works that of Sonezaki Shinju (The Love Suicides at the renowned Seascape Series, to his appears to form a constellation. Sonezaki), a play based on an original studio in Chelsea, New York, where In some works, Sugimoto confounds manuscript by the famous Japanese he is shown at work with his assistants. perception, as in his celebrated Diorama dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon Positioned between two worlds, one series. In these picture-box scenarios, (1653–1725). It was staged as a lost deeply inspired by tradition, the other reiterations of representational imag- Bunraku performance; this ancient form oriented toward the future, the film ery in art, dead animals are juxtaposed of puppet theater originated during the conveys the pristine beauty of Japan’s with specimens that appear to be alive, Edo era (1603–1868), a period in which natural landscape, with its rocky bluffs each frozen, taxidermied and confined neo-Confucianism, ethical humanism and mist-shrouded mountains, as well within the static displays of New York’s and rationalism flourished in Japan. It as the soaring skyline of the modern Natural History Museum. The series was also during this era that art rose to metropolis, the built environments of questions relationships between natural a high level of refinement through such New York and Paris driven by ambition, and artificial environments, the real and styles as the ukiyo (the floating world) progress and commerce. It is an inti- the imaginary, through graphic con- of Hokusai (1760–1849). Bunraku com- mate glimpse into the life of the artist, trasts that heighten tension between a bined chanters, shamisen players and one in which Sugimoto speaks openly sense of lifelessness and one of ferocity. large puppets whose complex, expres- about his work and contemporary art. His later work focuses increasingly sive heads and hands were carved from Interspersed with selections from his on the recovery of Japan’s collective wood and repainted before each presen- major photographic series, it re-creates memory. In an antique market in Japan, tation. Puppeteers operate in full view something of the artist’s inner jour- he holds a small handwritten text and of the audience, garbed in black robes, ney towards enlightenment—imbued ponders its scale. “If you read books, some with black hoods over their heads. with the past, inquiring of the present. you only acquire knowledge,” he says, One of the most compelling seg- “Thousands of years of human history turning its fragile pages. “But you can ments examines the artist’s installa- are within me,” Sugimoto reflects as he feel directly from the objects. Obtain- tion at the ruined Power House on climbs a ladder to a promontory where ing the old books can give you so many Cockatoo Island for the 17th Sydney, he stands overlooking the sea and the things. Just knowing about them and Australia Biennale. The site’s haunting horizon. actually feeling them are totally differ- atmosphere of deterioration, corrosion In the studio, Sugimoto prepares ent. You experience the proportion of and abandonment fascinated Sugimoto, films for his 2009 seriesLightning Fields, the objects, and it starts to sink in.” “It’s for it was once a vast industrial complex a dramatic body of monochromatic like human wisdom,” reflects Tadeo filled with mighty generators, steam photographs whose effects recall the Ando. “He is uncovering human wis- engines, smokestacks, switches and stunning calligraphic brushwork of dom from 30 or 40 centuries ago and it electrical controls. Now the plant and Song Dynasty (960–1279) ink paint- is his intellectual world. I think people its machinery lie buried under layers of ings. After years of painstaking trial and are strongly inspired by his intellectual dust as thick as volcanic ash. The sur- error with different metals and appara- world. He can see what we cannot see.” roundings provided an evocative set- tuses under varying atmospheric condi- Self-taught in architecture, he ting for Sugimoto’s sacred and profane tions, he employs a 400,000-volt Van de attempts to revive Japan’s lost architec- appositions, his inversions of energy Graaf generator to charge a metal ball tural concepts through the reconstruc- and inertia as positive and negative with static electricity. Polarized by metal tion of an ancient Shinto shrine. Asked electrical charges. Against the shadows plates onto which he positions large to rebuild the deteriorated Go-Oh of engine rooms filled with steel equip- sheets of photographic film, he etches shrine, whose origins date back to the ment, Sugimoto’s Lightning Fields flank electrical currents emitted from an Muromachi Period (1338–1573), he a quasi-ceremonial stairway constructed electrode directly onto a transparency. sought to re-create an “imaginary archi- in a series of stages with intervening The sparks create intricate abstractions tecture” in keeping with ancient Shinto platforms. The negative images of the that give the appearance of meteoric worship. “Animist worship,” Sugimoto Lightning Fields have been reversed to showers, treelike branches, silken ten- has written, “was thought to have positives, illuminated by glowing light drils and the delicate vascular tissue of focused on sites in nature where some boxes. At the pinnacle of the stairway, a
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00583 by guest on 02 October 2021 13th-century sculpture of Raijin, God of d’être, a commitment to a heightened to understand the mathematics. For Thunder, presides atop a high wooden consciousness that he identifies with the those in the mathematics business, it is column. He is fearsome, potent, ani- ocean as a site of origin within which always enjoyable to see this being done mated by the same hidden forces that life surges as creation itself. It is an well. surge in Sugimoto’s artworks as “sparks amorphous vision of elemental union The layout of the book is interesting; floating in water.” On close inspec- in which the sea swells and arches, sen- it is presented in four sections, with tion, one sees incandescent, microbial suous, beneath an ardent sky. each section containing self-contained images that the artist compares to chapters, 24 in all. The first section will sperm—recollections of beginning that be accessible to everyone, as it centers Sugimoto finds very beautiful. on ancient mathematical material, From a place on the coast overlook- Books numbers, Pythagoras’s Theorem and ing the sea, Sugimoto inspects a site simple geometry. The second section where he plans to build a Noh theater. goes from solving cubic equations He wants to leave this theater for the The Universe in Zero to calculus and Euler’s application next generation, so that persons may Words: The Story of of number theory. There is a brave see and feel what he has experienced Mathematics as Told attempt at detailed explanation, but during his lifetime. Noh is a highly through Equations there will be a thinning out of the symbolic dance drama, performed on readership here, like cyclists breaking an outdoor stage beneath a temple-like by Dana MacKenzie. Princeton Univer- away from the peloton. Section 3 tack- roof supported by pillars at the four sity Press, Princeton, NJ, U.S.A., 2012. les more advanced stuff; we have some corners. It is the oldest surviving form 224 pp., illus. ISBN: 978-0-6911-5282-0; of the works of Gauss, Hamilton and of Japanese theater, originating in the ISBN: 978-1-4008-4168-4. Galois. Strange geometries, solution 14th century, when it was presented of algebraic equations, Fermat’s Last by male priest-performers attached to Reviewed by Phil Dyke, Professor of Applied Theorem and the analysis of spectra Buddhist temples. Derived from a term Mathematics, University of Plymouth, U.K. are all here. This is full of difficult meaning “talent” or “skill,” Noh sur- Email:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00583 by guest on 02 October 2021 edge production, and the chapters they quality of the often previously unpub- collect for this book provide multiple lished images in this well-designed and contextualized insights into how, when, impressive volume is exemplary.) The and under what conditions listening title of Edwards’s study refers to an has contributed to knowledge dynamics eponymous publication of 1916 that beyond seeing. summarized both the aspirations and The chapters cover new and old the utopia of a particular grassroots sources of sound production, capture, photographic movement: amateur survey storage and consumption, as well as photography, a movement that emerged various ways of transforming or “trans- in 1885 and continued till 1918, when ducing” sound to another medium, the social and political context had allowing it to be more easily stored changed to such an extent that it and transported. With the digitization was no longer possible to stick to the of sound and novel technologies like ideas and the ideals of the desire to samplers and synthesizers, listening document the material and immate- becomes increasingly technologically rial remains of the past and to hand mediated, leading, on one hand, to them on to further generations before “technostalgia,” the desire to produce their feared imminent disappearance. and listen to sounds (especially music) (Reconstruction and modernization using vintage electronic instruments, had become the key words, and the and, on the other, the creation of nostalgic fascination with the old struc- new genres of music such as remixing tures of old English life—the parish, and mashups (p. 19). Chapters are the manor, the trees—were for some grouped to examine particular aspects time unfashionable.) of this approach: shop floors and test Edwards insists on the amateur char- sor of Science and Technology Stud- sites, the field, the lab, the clinic, the acter of this kind of photography from ies at Cornell University, and Karin design studio, the home and beyond, the very beginning of her study—an Bijsterveld, Professor of Science, Tech- and digital storage. Each chapter insistence contrary to officially commis- nology and Modern Culture at Maas- offers original research on the mate- sioned surveys, such as the ones made tricht University, and their collection rial and cultural practice of sound as during the famous U.S. geographical of international contributing authors experienced in science, technology, expeditions of the 1860s and 1870s examine the central position of sound medicine, art, commerce and politics. (analyzed by Robin Kelsey in his book in human experience, arguing that Chapters feature an impressive array Archive Style) or the even more famous sounds and music are embedded in of example practices, from classical Farm Security Administration/Office human life, art, commerce and politics antiquity to the current day, and out- of War Information collections of in ways that impact our perception line new types of listening practices. the 1930s (a lasting landmark for all of the world, often in ways that we do A companion website provides listen- research in the field), but also con- not notice. Through an extraordinary ing samples keyed to specific chapters. trary to artistically motivated private series of case studies—sounds of indus- In the end, The Oxford Handbook of collections such as the work by Atget trialization, the sounds of automobiles, Sound Studies discusses persuasively a or, more recently, the Bechers (today underwater music and nanotechnol- breadth of sounds—from birdsong to all thoroughly scrutinized in numer- ogy, for example—the authors explore underwater music to television advertis- ous studies). The photographic survey new forms of listening practices and ing—and current-day digital practices movement in England (other parts discuss public problems like noise for sound in videogames, movies, iPods of the United Kingdom seem to have pollution, hearing loss and new sound and computers and challenges readers been less involved) represents a kind and music-related technologies that (and researchers) to rethink the way of “archive” or “collection” whose exis- seem to foreshadow the demise of the they hear and understand the world. tence has been widely acknowledged amateur musician. but rarely studied in detail. The reasons In their introduction, Pinch and for this semi-absence are diverse: first Bijsterveld position sound studies as The Camera as Historian: of all is the reluctance to take amateur a flourishing endeavor, incorporat- Amateur Photographers photography seriously (the current ing several disciplines and a range of and Historical interest in vernacular photography methods including acoustic ecology, Imagination, 1885–1918 is a multifaceted story, which has not sound design, urban studies, cultural tended to disclose all aspects of non- geography, media and communication by Elizabeth Edwards. Duke University professional picture-making); second studies, cultural studies, the history and Press, Durham, NC, U.S.A., 2012. 344 the difficulty of unearthing the very anthropology of the senses, sociology pp., illus. Trade, paper. ISBN: 978-0- material in libraries and other collec- of music and literary studies. “One of 8223-5090-3; ISBN: 978-0-8223-5104-7. tions where these images have been the aims of our book,” they write, “is stored and often forgotten (and one to offer readers a better understand- Reviewed by Jan Baetens, Belgium. can only praise the author for the ing of this contested position of sonic doi:10.1162/LEON_r_00585 fabulous fieldwork that let her discover skills . . . in knowledge production” some 55,000 photographs by more than (p. 11). Listening modes are proving This is a great book on a great subject 1,000 photographers, most of them more and more valuable, Pinch and by a great author (and, yes, by a great totally unknown); and third but not Bijsterveld argue, across sites of knowl- publisher as well, for the amount and last, the great difficulties in reconstruct-
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00583 by guest on 02 October 2021 Pierre Nora (whom she confronts with The Color Revolution Duncan Bell’s notion of the mythscape, that spatial and discursive realm that by Regina Lee Blaszczyk. MIT Press, informs the production of historical Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 2012. 368 pp., knowledge). In addition, Christopher illus. ISBN: 978-0-2620-1777-0. Penney’s work on colonial photography is helpful in interpreting the mapping Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, Professor of of the local space in internal colonial Art and Distinguished Scholar, University terms, and Tony Bennett’s studies on of Northern Iowa, U.S.A. Email:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00583 by guest on 02 October 2021 wherewithal to conceal an object, he industrial uses of color, it would be a Munsell, Milton Bradley, Louis Prang, or she can also make that same object slanted, imbalanced review to dwell Arthur Allen, Matthew Luckiesh, Léon conspicuous, through reverse engineer- excessively on his significance or the Solon, Margaret Hayden Rorke, How- ing. As this book points out repeatedly, relatedness of his experience as a cam- ard Ketchum, Joseph Urban, Hazel the uses of color in product design were oufleur (although it should be men- Adler, Faber Birren, Bettina Bedwell, based on the inversion of camouflage tioned that other former camoufleurs Alon Bement and others. Bement, who techniques—in the words of American also played a postwar role in the indus- had served as a ship camoufleur dur- artist (and WWI camoufleur) H. Led- trial uses of color). That said, this book ing WWI, taught drawing at Columbia yard Towle, it was “reverse camouflage.” reports an incident that simply cannot University and is now mostly remem- Who was Harold Ledyard Towle? go untold: In 1927, while promoting bered because, according to the artist This book tells us quite a lot (he was a “the influence of color on beauty and Georgia O’Keeffe, he was an important central participant in the color revo- sales” to GM executives and manag- early influence on her. Surprisingly, lution), but another source is a brief ers, Towle prepared a demonstration not only does Bement appear in this news story that appeared in the same using three pairs of Chevrolets, each book (he wrote quite a bit about using year as the Fortune article, but months vehicle colored differently in “two-tone camouflage in women’s clothing before the market crashed. Originat- paint schemes that made some of them design) but so does O’Keeffe in a curi- ing from Detroit—where Towle was the look long, others high, and still others ous way. In 1926, by which time she was “color engineer” for General Motors, squat.” According to the author, it was already painting those quasi-abstract working beside Harley Earl—and based “an object lesson in ‘reverse camou- flower forms that are easily seen as on an interview with him, the article flage,’” by which the audience thought pudenda, she and Alfred Stieglitz reveals how Towle had migrated from they saw autos of varying sizes and were approached by none other than his former life as a portrait painter to a shapes, some looking more “stream- the infamous Edward Bernays (whose lucrative, far more rewarding career as lined” than others. story was told in 2002 in the British a “corporate colorist.” The author of this book, Regina Lee documentary called The Century of the According to Towle, it was the war Blaszczyk, is a cultural historian who Self ), Sigmund Freud’s nephew and a that reshaped his career. Like hundreds has written other books about industry, pioneering expert at subliminal per- of other Allied artists, designers and fashion and science. As cultural his- suasion. For a price, O’Keeffe agreed architects, he had served as a cam- tory, this book is a well-written, credible to produce for Bernays a series of five ouflage artist in France. Before that, view of the perpetually ongoing tango of her erotic artworks, in palettes that while still in New York, he had taught between color and commerce since the rhymed with the colors of scarves that a three-month course for the Women’s 19th century. Much of it will be famil- were premiered by Cheney Silks and Reserve Camouflage Corps. “I went iar territory to those who have some advertised for women. into the war,” he explained, “thinking knowledge about design history, color In the section that talks about Geor- art belonged to the chosen few. I came theory, emotive responses to color and gia O’Keeffe, there is a photograph of out knowing that it belonged to every the science of color vision. Throughout an advertising campaign invitation that urchin in the street. Working on war- its narrative, it maintains a lively bal- includes an O’Keeffe illustration and time camouflage problems taught one ance between long-view observations, another of a department store window how to use color with a purpose. I saw anecdotes and technical details. Among display, to show how her work was the futility of painting portraits to col- its most interesting moments are those presented. Indeed, one of the great lect dust in museums, and turned to the in which it momentarily moves in to virtues of this book is the fact that it camouflaging industry and its products look more closely at the lives of such is printed in color throughout (an of everyday life.” key contributors as Michel Eugene inevitability, so it would seem, given To be candid, judging from his paint- Chevreul, William Henry Perkin, Albert the subject) and that its reproductions ings (one of which is reproduced), are so wonderfully rich and intriguing. Towle was not an exceptional painter. There is, for example, a frontispiece Even if he had been, his career as ad from a 1929 issue of Ladies’ Home a self-employed artist, like those of Journal that is composed and colored other American Impressionists, would so smartly that it all but takes one’s not have survived the tsunami of the breath away. Equally delightful is a Armory Show and the ascendancy of preliminary colored sketch by Nor- Modernism. In the news article, he man Bel Geddes of his plan for an offers a far more ebullient spin: “The Art Deco radio called “The Patriot.” automobile manufacturers and plumb- There is also a wonderful photograph ing magnates are rivaling the Medici of of Hugo Münsterberg’s psychology lab old as patrons of art, and the resources at Harvard in 1893, with all kinds of of modern corporations are unlimited.” mysterious optical wheels and other Surely there is little doubt about his apparatus. By its own definition, this achievements as an industrial color account of the “color revolution” is consultant, given the contributions he mostly focused on events in the 1890s made at DuPont, General Motors and through the 1960s. “All cultural obses- Pittsburgh Paint and Glass. At the top sions have historical roots,” the author of his game, he may even have been (as concludes, as a result of which we the author concludes) “America’s top are immersed in a “chromo-utopia” automotive and paint colorist.” but are all but unmindful of how it Despite Towle’s leading role in the occurred.
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00583 by guest on 02 October 2021 The Alphabet and mechanical reproduction, “architecture the Algorithm ideally acquires a fully authorial, allo- graphic, notational status” (p. 23). No by Mario Carpo. MIT Press, Cambridge, doubt, Alberti’s model of authorship MA, U.S.A., 2011. 184 pp., illus. Paper. as exclusive property of the architect ISBN: 978-0-2625-1580-1. turns out to be a challenge for the notion of distributed authorship, which Reviewed by Flutur Troshani, University of comes along with what Carpo calls Shkoder, Albania. “the rise of digital technologies.” As doi:10.1162/LEON_r_00587 the prima facie evidence clearly shows, “All that is digital is variable.” For that This book enriches conversations about reason, the technical logic of the digital those aspects of modernity that have has brought “notational limitations,” marked the history of Western architec- “mechanical standardization,” and ture, the epistemic discourse of which “possibly . . . the Albertian authorial way is broadly reconfiguring itself apropos of building by design” to an end. This the now prevailing “digital turn.” To argument is central for Part III, where be sure, a sea of changes in how we Carpo brings together a compensatory design and build has been triggered by analysis of the possibilities that the the advancement of digital technology digital provides, including here the capable of enacting the fluidity of archi- newer and richer forms of participa- tectural paradigms, but only as long as tory authorship, interactivity and col- architects acknowledge their obliga- laboration among architects, designers tions to determine how digital forms and builders. If it is possible to bring evolve and how these may be both together the revolution in form, the technically and aesthetically relevant to tioning may be partly due to Alberti’s concept of non-standard seriality and their projects. approach of the meta-literature of participatory or split agency, Carpo In general, this study tends towards a architectural projects as a contrivance suggests, then historians of architecture modulated approach, with the premise for setting apart the original from its have come full circle and, from there, it that identicality should not be under- identical replica; what matters most is is only a small step to argue that a revo- stood as static, isolated sets of practices how the identical offers glimpses into lution has taken place. and uses, but rather as a dynamic those layers of technology and culture In conclusion, this book is valuable concept permeated by socioeconomic, that insist on the idea of the architect as for anyone interested in understand- historical and aesthetic factors. On the one and only author and therefore ing the still-emerging significance and that account, in the first part of his owner of the designs of his project. ramifications of “the digital turn” in study, “Variable, Identical, Differential,” In conjunction with Alberti’s posi- architecture. The relatively unstable Carpo begins with a rather generic tioning, the second factor that has distribution of authorship in digital formalization of terms, which not only encouraged the paradigmatic rise architecture, on the one hand, and its phenomenologizes identicality across of identicality, in Carpo’s view, is the still-nascent consecration, on the other the trajectories of hands-craftsmanship, Industrial Revolution, the onset of hand, cuts across architectural theory, mechanization/industrialization and which proved to be a momentous contemporary culture and digital digitalization but also recalibrates the shift in history for having made avail- technology. On page after page, Carpo focus of investigation to understand able among other things the technical engages a difficult set of issues, some of with more precision how architecture infrastructure necessary to arrive at the which strike chords that are still reson- has attuned itself to the technological massive industrial standardization for ating. Yet, throughout, his voice is developments and cultural rhetorics of producing identical copies, which, con- generally concise and to the point. the times. secutively, proved to be a master trope There is a useful index at the end of In the second part, entitled “The of the Mechanical/Industrial Age. the book. Rise,” Carpo foregrounds two impor- Indeed, to understand identicality as tant factors that have played a crucial the mechanized regimentation of prac- role in defining the paradigm of iden- tices and uses that have come together The Routledge Companion ticality with regard to architecture. The with “master models,” “matrixes,” to Literature and Science first dates back to the 15th century and “imprints” and “molds” is to propose is embedded in the influential work that the procedural protocols of edited by Bruce Clark and Manuela of the Italian humanist Leon Battista authorship as envisioned by Alberti Rossini. Routledge, New York, NY, Alberti, who suggested that architects, confirm the validity of his theoretical U.S.A., 2012.542 pp. Trade, paper. rather than making buildings, produce model. ISBN: 978-0-415-49525-7; ISBN: 978- de facto only designs, which are then Throughout Part II, Carpo has 0-415-50959-6. copied by builders. Any building, for adopted a relatively dynamic approach: Alberti, ought to be considered the In seeking to map out the paradigmatic Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg, Transtechnol- “identical replication of an author’s rise of identicality, he has not distanced ogy Research, University of Plymouth, U.K. intentions”; thus no one, including himself from the putative trajectories doi:10.1162/LEON_r_00588 builders themselves, is allowed to make of notation and standardization, thus any changes to the final version of the indicating that by setting apart the The publication of this important project’s designs. Here, Carpo’s posi- architect’s original designs from their collection of essays is presented as a
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It will Kingdom. right–-–Literature and Science–-–it is perform the same function that two Finally, these diverse interpretive essentially a postmodern text about other Routledge compendiums did for communities are committed to address- literary cross-disciplinary contact zones. cultural studies in the 1990s, namely ing and overcoming the problem Composed of 44 essays by leading fig- Cultural Studies (Grossberg, Nelson and of humanists’ fluencies in science. ures in their fascinating and mostly Treichler 1992) and The Cultural Studies Therein lies the transdisciplinary chal- recently emergent respective fields, Reader (During 1993). This lineage is lenge. Considering the nature of this and including two essays by practicing important to emphasize here because problem, and the unresolved issues scientists, Jay Labinger and Stephen of the obvious effect flagship authors relating to the Science Wars that will Norwick, it provides the most concise from cultural studies such as Donna surely dog this work, this companion is and advanced current reflection on Haraway have had on this new and rather more of a cross-disciplinary or the connections between literature and closely allied field. Accordingly, this inter-disciplinary contact zone than a science. All in all, this collection is an related companion will be particularly transdisciplinary bible. Any such poten- exciting introduction to the intellectual useful for classes in cultural studies and tial critiques from the scientific and work taking place at the cutting edge of the history of science and in honors positivist transdisciplinary community transdisciplinary research. Providing an college classes on each of the many aside, the companion is nevertheless authoritative documentary base on the subjects noted above. As important— an essential resource for academics subject for professional scholars, it will if not more so if it were to be used in interested in both literature and sci- be of immense value for cross-disciplin- undergraduate or graduate science ence—pointedly using the two terms ary and interdisciplinary teaching and classes—is the way the topics stimulate separately. It will be of great use to research. a profound appreciation of how science those teaching across the sciences, Divided into three parts, the discus- has informed literature and culture. humanities and social sciences and of sion ranges widely. Part 1 consists of 20 Thus, the book encourages a wider special use for those teaching or learn- essays on “co-evolutionary” conjunc- understanding of the enduring impor- ing about both relatively new and old tions in literature and science, namely: tance of literature and the humanities disciplines such as nanotechnology and artificial intelligence and life, alchemy, to science. While it will be inspirational cybernetics. It is endlessly fascinating to biology, chaos and complexity theory, for those working in the humanities contemplate the authors probing the chemistry, climate science, cognitive and social sciences on science-related tangled banks of these disciplinary con- science, cybernetics, ecology, evolution, subjects, whether it is truly transdisci- vergences, following the roots wherever genetics, geology, information theory, plinary or merely inter-disciplinary is they may lead, each essay so different mathematics, medicine, nanotechnol- open to serious debate. Transdiscipli- from each other and yet so dependent ogy, physics, psychoanalysis, systems narity would require that the study of on each other and in so complex a theory and thermodynamics. Part 2 “literature and science” advance theory manner. It is particularly fitting that consists of 14 essays on disciplinary and and practice in science. There appears the companion ends with a memorably theoretical approaches in the fields of to be little or no evidence of that poten- succinct discussion on postmodernism agricultural studies, animal studies, art tial here. emphasizing plurality. In the end there connections, cultural science studies, Throughout the companion, the is grandeur in this book. It is, however, deconstruction, e-literature, feminist authors and editors consistently refer more likely to prompt the reader to science studies, game studies, the his- to C.P. Snow’s notion of Two Cultures, reconsider Romanticism from new tory of science, media studies, the the notion of a complete separation of perspectives than to foster the requisite philosophy of science, posthumanism, 20th-century science and literature. In appreciation of what constitutes science science fiction and semiotics. Lastly, this the book attempts to definitively and why there are important irreconcil- Part 3 covers literature and science in address the Two Cultures legacy within able differences that matter. It is thus different periods and cultures, spe- each of the many disciplines consid- unlikely to be as useful to science (not cifically Greece and Rome, the Middle ered. It systematically addresses issues science studies) as it should be, and Ages and the early Renaissance. It associated with disciplinary boundaries thus its transdisciplinary nature and includes two essays on the Scientific and the languages that constitute these function is questionable. Revolution (from Copernicus to Boyle boundaries. Explicitly postmodern- Why emphasize this point? We learn and from Newton to Laplace) and ist, yet always articulated very clearly, here that it was in the Romantic period others on Romanticism, Industrialism, it aims to illustrate “counter-trends that the sciences and humanities were Modernism and Postmodernism. For toward transdisciplinary convergences profoundly inter-tangled, so much so the sake of geographic, historic and in differences.” The authors who do as to be inseparable from each other cultural range, the cases of Russia and directly address C.P. Snow’s notion and indispensable to each other. In Japan are considered as noted above, judge it “pat” and “naïve.” Yet they that period, as we also learn here, C.P. although future companions could simultaneously manage to maintain and Snow’s divide made no sense at all. That easily extend this to other cultures, advance the essential idea of separate aside, the Snow debate being clearly places and times. In short, The Routledge disciplinary spheres produced and ripe for a critical evaluation, through- Companion is an indispensable resource enclosed through language. The shared out the book the essays attempt to cre- for appreciating the range of theoreti- axiom of faith here is that literature ate a grey zone between fact and fiction cal and disciplinary approaches used and science are “no longer” seen as so that will and should bother scientists in this new discipline. Encyclopedic in starkly separate. Yet with the Yudkin no end. Over this divide, no matter nature, the essays are extremely inter- and Levis Cambridge debate in mind, the mutual fascination and theoretical
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00583 by guest on 02 October 2021 physics, forlorn we must stand apart— with Max Born (theoretical physics). promotion. Later, Sponer became laboratory and field science divorced Together with mathematician David James Franck’s second wife. Lemmerich from literature. Is not the transdisci- Hilbert, they were responsible for the typically leaves any judgmental analysis plinary function said to exist in this new development of a community of excel- to the reader. This is indeed a pleasant field and claimed as immanent in this lence at Göttingen that earned inter- contrast with the current penchant by study merely a matter of discourse, a fic- national recognition. Franck (1925) the commentariat to find “conflict” tion, a merely wishful discursive “fact”? and Born (1954) won Nobel prizes in wherever they look. There perhaps lies the most important physics. In addition, there were a strik- I suppose that “conscience” in the and consequential argument between ing number of visits to and from top book’s title refers mostly to Franck’s those in science and those in “literature laboratories in England, Denmark and organized opposition to the dropping and science” that could result from this the Netherlands. The list of major play- of atomic bombs on Japanese cities. collection. Such debate could clarify ers in this part of the book reads like He chaired deliberations of a com- the difference between science and a Who’s Who of atomic physics. Niels mittee that led to the “Franck Report” literature and thus provide a better Bohr, Albert Einstein and Max Planck (June 1945), which is reproduced in formulation of the conjunctions that are featured. An unusually large num- Appendix II. New readers of this docu- exist in “literature and science,” where ber of photographs (many from the ment will find portions of the summary the grey zone is the contact zone. archive of Franck’s daughter, Lisa) are especially engaging. For example, “[We included to show, among other things, feel that] much more favorable condi- the aging of key characters. tions for the eventual achievement Science and Conscience: The Nazi takeover, with its rules of such an agreement [international The Life of James Franck against those of Jewish extraction, control] could be created if nuclear caused Franck and his family to move bombs were first revealed to the world by Jost Lemmerich; Ann M. Hentschel, to the U.S. and, indirectly, to the Uni- by a demonstration in an appropriately translator. Stanford University Press, versity of Chicago. There, he partici- selected uninhabited area.” Franck also Stanford, CA, U.S.A., 2011. 392 pp., pated in the development of the atomic advocated excusing the German public illus. Trade, e-book. ISBN: 978-0-8047- bomb. Meanwhile, his basic interests at large for the outlandish behavior 6310-3; ISBN: 978-0-8047-7909-8. shifted to photochemical reactions of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi leaders. and the mechanisms of photosynthe- Albert Einstein, among others, was Reviewed by Wilfred Niels Arnold, sis, where he made several advances. opposed to any such easing of blame. Historian of Art and Science. Email: The author, Jost Lemmerich, gives In the event, neither the Franck report
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00583 by guest on 02 October 2021 contemporary culture (pp. 82–93). back to ancient knowledge of the the same post-war historical period, The final chapter, “Provocations,” asks Greeks and Romans, this new human- examining how a number of excep- the question many of us working with ism looks to the present and a future tional scientists or engineers with digital media may have pondered: What where digital technology has the power unusual promotion and marketing skills happens to the distinction between the to ask new questions and provide new managed to impose themselves on the digital and a field of study when “digital answers about what it means to be landscape of government, corporate tools become naturalized?” (p. 103) human. Do we nurture this potential and university research with blends of The authors respond that “[the] Digital transcendence so that academics help futuristic promise and popular appeal. Humanities is well-equipped to take to lead change, or do we squash it He begins by describing the work of on [the task of raising awareness of its before it takes hold in the academy Gerald O’Neill, advocate of orbiting potential] as it enters the mature phase and, so, risk becoming irrelevant and space colonies as the new frontier for of its existence. Understood as a criti- unnecessary? human colonization. Within his entou- cal experimental practice, carried out rage, the young engineer Eric Drexler in the public laboratory of a cultural Reference went on to promote a utopian vision commons that remains as much a work 1. See Leonardo Reviews, Leonardo 46, No. 2, 186– of nano-engineering and nanoscience in progress as a future promise and 187 (2013);
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00583 by guest on 02 October 2021 can be understood in reaction to the science is one where visioneers such as more sober promoters of “sustainable O’Neill and Drexler will surely be seen societies” that must live with limits and as the first of a new generation of sci- constraints. This is a deep debate that ence marketeers: those who realize that is embedded in the cultural imagi- science must be sold using all the tools nary, articulated in science fiction and of emerging media and popular culture popular culture. It is a debate that at and is not just promulgated through its base is rarely amenable to reasoned smoke-filled rooms of government sci- discourse. As the world community ence advisory boards. has become more connected, the dif- Perhaps one final comment: In his ferent “worldviews” have, in effect, Acknowledgments, McCray notes that become disconnected from each other; funding for his research came in part with the Internet billionaires funding from the University of California, Santa the visioneers, or even in the case of Barbara Center for Nanotechnology in space tourism becoming visioneers Society through a grant from the U.S. themselves, and the advocates of sus- National Science Foundation. The U.S. tainable development with their own National Nanotechnology Initiative has counter-visioneers like U2’s Bono or now spent over $350 million on the Bill Gates. As shown by Bruno Latour premise that and colleagues in the case of scientific how nanotechnology research and appli- controversies, the Web enhances the cations are introduced into society; how self-reinforcing nature of advocacy transparent decisions are; how sensitive groups. Space solar power and asteroid and responsive policies are to the needs mining are not even on the radar of and perceptions of the full range of stakeholders; and how ethical, legal, and the “limits to growth” advocates; one social issues are addressed will determine group’s pseudoscience and techno- public trust and the future of innovation catastrophism is the other’s holy grail. driven by nanotechnology. Soon, some of the visioneers were The Visioneers also captures the dra- In essence, McCray has been an accused of pseudoscience and of matic change in science policy manage- “embedded historian” working within developing what were essentially cults ment over the last 30 years. The time one of the institutions whose task is of true believers. McCray elaborates a when a Vannevar Bush and the inner to make real the promises made by more subtle argument that defines two circles of government could create a the “visioneers.” This makes him both emerging kinds of nanosciences, the roadmap for future government sci- an informed observer and inevitably one falling within a Popperian vision ence policy is long gone. It is no longer a participant (I first met McCray at of technoscience espoused by Drexler the time when a small group such as a workshop organized by the Cen- and a more Kuhnian normative sci- Walt Disney, Chesley Bonestell and ter for Nanotechnology in Society). ence rooted in chemistry and materials Werner Von Braun and a receptive This approach to “impact on society” science. Whereas Drexler felt that his president could capture the popular through government funding within computer modeling of nano systems imagination and launch a massive tech- the research and implementation pro- had the status of a theory that had to noscience program; these processes grams is perhaps one element of the be falsifiable, refuted or tested with are being replaced by massive social socially robust science that Nowotny technological experimentation, the network movements and emerging calls for; perhaps the impact is homeo- views espoused by researchers such as media companies as likely to promote pathic. I recommend McCray’s Visioneers Richard Smalley were more incremen- the end of the world as the cure for to all readers interested in the recent tal, relying on scientific understanding cancer. When Ray Kurzweil is appointed history of science in the making and, and extrapolation. Smalley, one of the Director of Engineering for Google, more generally, in the place of science co-discoverers of the Buckminsterfuller- the visioneers find themselves in a very in society. The marketing of science is ene, went on to develop a well-funded different place. When Edward Teller entering a new era, and many of the scientific empire whose goal was “the in 1983 convinced Reagan to launch visioneers described by McCray may be ability to arrange atoms into structures the Star Wars initiative, it was the end seen as the first wave of a new kind of engineered on a nanometer scale.” of an era. Today scientists no longer sit figure in the history of science, both Both types of nanoscience continue at the president’s table but jockey for techno-scientist and visionary promoter. to develop, although Drexler himself funding in line with other government became marginalized. priorities. Today the President of the A key backdrop to The Visioneers is the European Research Council, Helga parallel story of the “Spaceship Earth” Nowotny, calls for a more “socially Leonardo Reviews vision of a world constrained to limits of robust” science that engages large scale n ine resources and technological solutions. public participation in its priority set- O -L The Club of Rome’s “Limits to Growth” ting; the bruising policy battles over appeared in 1972 and provided a much genetically modified organisms and anuary more pessimistic argumentation, one climate change are evidence of a new J 2013 that has been re-occupied with the science environment that is very differ- doi:10.1162/LEON_r_00592 current debate about climate change. ent from those that were put in place O’Neill’s space colonies, Drexler’s immediately after the second world Artwork by Peter Campbell. Reviewed by nano-bots and Kurzweil’s “singularity” war. This new emerging landscape of Mike Mosher.
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00583 by guest on 02 October 2021 A Boatload of Wild Irishmen, directed by Rockwell Kent, directed by Frederick in the History of Physics by Clifford A. Mac Dara Ó Curraidbin. Reviewed by Lewis. Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens. Pickover. Reviewed by Wilfred Niels Martha Blassnigg. Arnold. December 2012 Dard Hunter: The Graphic Works by Law- The Poetry of the Possible: Spontaneity, Mod- rence Kreisman. Reviewed by Roy R. doi:10.1162/LEON_r_00593 ernism, and the Multitude by Joel Nickels. Behrens. Reviewed by Jan Baetens. Berenice Abbott: Documenting Science, Graphic Design before Graphic Designers: edited by Ron Kurtz. Reviewed by Han- To Life!: Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable The Printer as Designer and Craftsman nah Star Rogers. Planet by Linda Weintraub. Reviewed by 1700—1914 by David Jury. Reviewed by Rob Harle. Roy R. Behrens. Gerard Caris: Bes¸gencilik/Pentagonism, edited by Ays¸e Orhun Gültekin. The Islands of Benoît Mandelbrot: Fractals, Reviewed by Rob Harle. The Visual Language of Herbert Matter, Chaos, and the Materiality of Thinking, directed by Reto Caduff. Reviewed by Graphic Design Process: From Problem to edited by Nina Samuel. Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens. Solution by Nancy Skolos and Thomas Edith Doove. Wedell. Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens.
Missions for Thoughtful Gamers by Linotype: The Film, directed by Douglas November 2012 Andrew Cutting. Reviewed by John F. Wilson. Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens. Barber. doi:10.1162/LEON_r_00594 Nostalgia: The Russian Empire of Czar Into Eternity by Michael Madsen. Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music Nicholas II. The Russia of Czar Nicholas Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara. by Alvin Lucier. Reviewed by Richard II in Laboriously Restored Historical Color Kade. Photographs by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii-Gorskii. Reviewed Selected Writings: On Self-Organization, The Phantom Army of Alamein: How the by Roy R. Behrens. Philosophy, Bioethics, and Judaism edited Camouflage Unit and Operation Bertram by Henri Atlan, Stefanos Geroulanos Hoodwinked Rommel by Rick Stroud. The Physics Book: From the Big Bang to and Todd Meyers. Reviewed by Rob Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens. Quantum Resurrection, 250 Milestones Harle.
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00583 by guest on 02 October 2021 Call for Papers
ArtScience: The Essential Connection Guest Editor: Robert Root-Bernstein
What is the value of artistic practices, techniques, inventions, aesthetics and knowledge for the working scientist? What is the value of scientific practices, techniques, inventions, aesthetics and knowledge for the artist? When does art become science and science, art? Or are these categories useless at their boundaries and intersections? Can an individual excel at both science and art, or is even a passing familiarity with one sufficient to influ- ence the other significantly? Do the arts ever contribute significantly to scientific progress? Where will -cur rent scientific innovations lead the arts in the next few decades? Submissions exploring these questions can be from artistic scientists who find their art avocation valuable; from scientist-artist collaborators who can demonstrate a scientific or artistic innovation; from scientifically literate artists who draw problems, materials, techniques or processes from the sciences; or from historians of art or science looking at past examples of such interactions. Interested authors are invited to send proposals, queries and/or manuscripts to the Leonardo editorial office: Leonardo, 211 Sutter St., Suite 501, San Francisco, CA 94108, U.S.A. E-mail:
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