Leonardo Reviews Quarterly 2.01 | 2012

L|R|Q

Executive Editor: Roger Malina Editor-in-Chief: Michael Punt Associate Editor: Claudy Op den Kamp www.leonardo.info © ISAST L|R|Q

Leonardo Reviews Quarterly 2.01 | 2012

The Sublime in Art and Science Today

Executive Editor: Roger Malina Editor-in-Chief: Michael Punt Associate Editor: Claudy Op den Kamp www.leonardo.info © ISAST Leonardo Reviews

Leonardo Reviews Reviews Panel

Leonardo Reviews is the work of an international Allan Graubard, Amy Ione, Anastasia Filippoupoli- panel of scholars and professionals invited from ti, Annick Bureaud, Anna B. Creagh, Anthony a wide range of disciplines to review books, exhi- Enns, Aparna Sharma, Boris Jardine, Brian Reffin bitions, DVDs, CDs, websites, and conferences. Smith, Brigitta Zics, Catalin Brylla, Chris Cobb, Collectively they represent an intellectual commit- Chris Speed, Claudia Westermann, Claudy Op ment to engaging with the emergent debates and den Kamp, Craig Harris, Craig Hilton, Dene Gri- manifestations that are the consequences of the gar, David Bering-Porter, Dene Grigar, Eduardo convergence of the arts, science and technology. Miranda, Elizabeth McCardell, Ellen Pearlman, Enzo Ferrara, Eugene Thacker, Florence Martel- Leonardo Reviews publishes all reviews received lini, Franc Chamberlain, Fred Andersson, Frieder from the panel monthly at www.leonardo.info. In Nake, George Gessert, George K. Shortess, addition, four times a year a selection of reviews Giovanna Costantini, Hannah Drayson, Han- is printed in Leonardo and now Leonardo Reviews nah Rogers, Harriet Hawkins, Ian Verstegen, Quarterly will be publishing an even larger selec- Jac Saorsa, Jack Ox, Jacques Mandelbrojt, Jan tion as a PDF together with introductory material Baetens, Jennifer Ferng, John F. Barber, John and overview essays. Vines, Jon Bedworth, Jonathan Zilberg, Jung A Huh, Jussi Parikka, Katharina Blassnigg, Kath- Reviewers interested in being considered for the leen Quillian, Kieran Lyons, Lara Schrijver, Lisa panel and publishers and authors interested in M. Graham, Luis Girao, Martha Blassnigg, Mar- having their print or electronic publications con- tha Patricia Nino, Martyn Woodward, Maureen sidered for review by the panel should contact: A. Nappi, Michael Mosher, Michael Punt, Mike Leggett, Nameera Ahmed, Ornella Corazza, Michael Punt Paul Hertz, Pia Tikka, Rene van Peer, Richard Editor-In-Chief, Leonardo Reviews Kade, Rob Harle, Robert A Mitchell, Roger Ma- University of Plymouth lina, Roy Behrens, Sean Cubitt, Simone Osthoff, Portland Square, B312 Sonya Rapoport, Stefaan van Ryssen, Stephen Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK Petersen, Trace Reddell, Valérie Lamontagne, mpunt(at)easynet.co.uk Wilfred Arnold, Yvonne Spielmann, Zainub Verjee

iii Table of Contents

Editorials Michael Punt - Science, History and the Sublime �� viii Sundar Sarukkai - Science and the Sublime �� xi Roger F. Malina - A Role for the Sublime in ArtScience? �� xiv Martyn Woodward - A Reflection on the Sublime in Art and Science �� xix Review Article And Tell Tulip the Summer by Allan Graubard Reviewed by Valery Oisteanu �� 1 Reviews What is Science? by Sundar Sarukkai Reviewed by Roger F. Malina �� 1 Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History by David Christian, foreword by William H. McNeill Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara �� 3 The Terror of History: On the Uncertainties of Life in Western Civilization by Teofilo F. Ruiz Reviewed by Jan Baetens ��5 The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World by David Deutsch Reviewed by Richard Kade �� 6 The Fossil Chronicles: How Two Controversial Discoveries Changed Our View of Human Evolution by Dean Falk Reviewed by Rob Harle ��7 Secrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection by Katharine Park Reviewed by Jac Saorsa �� 8 Great Discoveries in Medicine by William Bynum and Helen Bynum (eds.) Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara �� 9 Darwin’s Camera: Art and Photography in the Theory of Evolution by Phillip Prodger Reviewed by Amy Ione ��11 Pharmakon Society for Literature, Science and the Arts Annual Conference & Media Art Show Kitchener, Ontario, September 22-25, 2011 Reviewed by Jennifer Gradecki, Dehlia Hannah and Hannah Star Rogers ��13 Art Biennale - Venice, Italy Illuminations: 54th International Art Exhibition June 4th - November 27th, 2011 Reviewed by Yvonne Spielmann ��14

iv Table of Contents

Television as Digital Media by James Bennett and Niki Strange (eds.) Reviewed by John F. Barber ��17 Facebook’s “Adorno Changed My Life” by Georg Boch Reviewed by Mike Mosher ��18 Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing by Paul Dourish and Genevieve Bell Reviewed by John Vines ��19 How to Do Things with Videogames by Ian Bogost Reviewed by John F. Barber ��22 Gaming Matters: Art, Science, Magic, and the Computer Game Medium by Judd Ethan Ruggill and Ken S. McAllister Reviewed by John F. Barber ��24 Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age by Douglas Rushkoff Reviewed by John F. Barber ��25 Players Unleashed! Modding The Sims and the Culture of Gaming by Tanja Sihvonen Reviewed by Hannah Drayson ��27 Switching Codes: Thinking Through Digital Technology in the Humanities and the Arts by T. Bartscherer & R. Coover (eds.) Reviewed by Rob Harle ��30 Performing Presence: Between the Live and the Simulated by Gabriella Giannachi and Nick Kaye Reviewed by Elizabeth McCardell ��31 Cinema and Experience: Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno by Miriam Bratu Hansen Reviewed by Jan Baetens ��32 Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects by Paola Antonelli Reviewed by John F. Barber ��34 Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life by Brandon LaBelle Reviewed by John F. Barber ��35 Art and the Senses by Francesca Bacci and David Melcher (eds.) Reviewed by Rob Harle ��36 Modernism After Wagner by Juliet Koss Reviewed by Martha Blassnigg ��37

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Magical Mathematics by Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham; foreword by Martin Gardner Reviewed by Phil Dyke ��39 Alfred Jarry: A Pataphysical Life by Alastair Brotchie Reviewed by Allan Graubard ��39 Helmholtz: From Enlightenment to Neuroscience by Michel Meulders Reviewed by Amy Ione ��40 Body Sweats: The Uncensored Writings of Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven by Irene Gammel and Suzanne Zelazo (eds.) Reviewed by Allan Graubard ��42 Duets: 1975-1976 by Jim Shaw and Mike Kelley Reviewed by Mike Mosher ��43 With Magnetic Fields Disrupted by Sproton Layer Reviewed by Mike Mosher ��45 The Color of Your Socks: A Year with Pipilotti Rist by Michael Hegglin Reviewed by Mike Leggett ��47 Through the Looking Glass by Francisco López Reviewed by Eugene Thacker ��48 A Little-Known Story about a Movement, a Magazine, and the Computer’s Arrival in Art: New Tendencies and Bit International, 1961 - 1973 by Margit Rosen (ed.) Reviewed by Brian Reffin Smith ��50 Contemporary Art in Asia - A Critical Reader by Melissa Chiu and Benjamin Genocchio (eds.) Reviewed by Ellen Pearlman ��51 Divine Machines: Leibniz and the Sciences of Life by Justin E.H. Smith Reviewed by Rob Harle ��53 The Techno-Human Condition by Braden R. Allenby and Daniel Sarewitz Reviewed by Rob Harle ��54 The Deaths of the Author: Reading and Writing in Time by Jane Gallop Reviewed by Jan Baetens ��55 A Field Guide to a New Meta-Field: Bridging the Humanities-Neuroscience Divide by Barbara Maria Stafford (ed.) Reviewed by Rob Harle ��56

vi Table of Contents

Transmission Arts: Artists and Airwaves by Galen Joseph-Hunter, Penny Duff and Maria Papadomanolaki (eds.) Reviewed by John F. Barber ��57 remixthebook by Mark Amerika Reviewed by Jan Baetens ��58 Modern Gestures: Abraham Walkowitz Draws Isadora Duncan Dancing by Ann Cooper Albright Reviewed by Giovanna L. Costantini ��59 Institutional Critique: An Anthology of Artists’ Writings by Alexander Alberro and Blake Stimson (eds.) Reviewed by Amy Ione ��59 Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo by Nicolas de Monchaux Reviewed by Valérie Lamontagne ��62 Cutting Across Media: Appropriation Art, Interventionist Collage, and Copyright Law by Kembrew McLeod & Rudolf Kuenzli (eds.) Reviewed by Rob Harle ��63 The Hierarchies of Cuckoldry and Bankruptcy by Charles Fourier Reviewed by Mike Mosher ��64 The End of Energy: The Unmaking of America’s Environment, Security, and Independence by Michael J. Graetz Reviewed by C.F. Black ��65 Better Off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human by Deborah Christie, Sarah Juliet Lauro (eds.) Reviewed by Brian Reffin Smith ��66

vii Editorial Michael Punt Editor-in-Chief, Leonardo Reviews

Science, History and the ence connects with Deep History in that it is imbricated in a story of the progressive depth Sublime of human consciousness.

Andrew Shryock and Daniel Lord Smail, in their The archaeology of modern science reveals it to recent collaboration on Deep History make the be certainly much younger than many of the arts rather startling observation that whilst the depth that were used to understand the world; music, painting, literature, theatre etc, and it is well docu- of history has extended in response to On the th th Origin of the Species (1859) and geological time mented that in the 17 and 18 centuries (what charts developed in the 19th century, and current we now call) scientists had to struggle against cosmological conceptions of deep time extend- resistance and scepticism to achieve their current standing. Such struggles were not convincingly ing back some 13.4 billion years, the discipline of th history has become increasingly restricted to the won even throughout the 19 century until, ac- recent past. Indeed as they point out judging by cording to Richard Luckhurst’s account of the university course offerings, professorial titles and separation of science from psychical research, publications, the extent of history today is gradu- the human origin of science was detached as a ally retracting into the near present. More or less legitimate area of concern and with it was swept coinciding with the date of its own foundation as away the enterprise of history. It is here that Deep a discrete university subject it appears as if his- History with its concern with the concept of ori- tory has become bounded by its own disciplinary gins may rescue science from its progressively origins. One cause of this, they point out, is that alien appearance (which, in my view, no amount the new discipline of history founded less than two of dating the arts will ever recover). centuries ago insisted that historical truth can only In the previous century science was not always be confirmed by documentary evidence, and this so detached from the philosophical conundrums has of course provided a methodological bound- of conscience. There was a time, not so long ago ary to its domain. One of the many consequences when it was thought by rational and informed of this (which may or may not be intentional) is scholars that the universe ‘started’ between 4,000 that History can conceal its own novelty as a and 6,000 yrs BC. This belief became increas- way of knowing the world, and “New Historians” ingly difficult to sustain if the scientific evidence such as Gallaher and Greenblatt challenged this of geology was taken as face value. (Edmund myopia with the understanding that any story of Goss and others, of course devised brilliantly the past is partial, provisional and a tale told from inventive explanations to counter the geological the present. The transformational resonance of record and maintain the short history of the world). “New History” is beginning to be felt on other Elsewhere, however, the geological evidence disciplines, so that, for example it no longer ap- revealed an infinitely deep history of activity and pears as if the hard sciences have been with us organisms; not least ‘pre-Edenic’ man. These for ‘ever’, and that the history of science - even scientific claims of a deep time before Adam, and when it is not articulated by scientists - impacts the wider acceptance of geological time - and its on their practice. However, undergraduate sci- integration with the human imaginary of kinship entists are encouraged to review the scientific for example - poses a key question that form the literature of the past but are not routinely taught cornerstone of Smail’s project: when does history the history of science, or that the history of sci- start? Is it exclusively a study of humans and if ence - how science was practised, how its claims so when do we start the story in time and where were received and how (and why) dominant as- do we start it in space? If we take the view that sumptions have been overturned - is important. history starts with Hominines who have agency In many ways a science, inextricably linked to the over contingency then we need also to consider technological promise of unrestrained progress where that agency lies and if it is historical then is none the worse for its healthy neglect of partial what is the history of consciousness? These are and provisional accounts of its past. The myth not purely historiographical questions. Speaking of technological autonomy that prevailed in the of the practice of history and its implications for th th 19 and 20 centuries has given way to a more its practitioners Shryock and Smail point out: pragmatic, semiotic and socially determined view of technology as an imaginary dimension located “The small community of inquiry created in in human desire and aspiration. This imaginary the Spring of 1859 was composed of materi- is frequently manifest in technological artefacts als, things, and flesh and blood people. It made and systems and in this way the history of sci- novel connections between places as varied as

viii Editorial Michael Punt Editor-in-Chief, Leonardo Reviews muddy gravel pits and the metropolitan meeting or that what religion talks about has some cor- rooms of learned societies. The biface [axe], and relation with modern science” (Sarukkai, 2012, the networks of relationships emanated from pp. 11-12). it, certainly affected the lives of its discover- In this progressive reversal there is also a de- ers and all those who have subsequently come tachment from one of the key drivers of human into contact with it. [...] Hominines have always intervention, at least as evidenced in the arts, been constituted by the agency of persons and which is a fascination with the infinite unknown, things. Our history is a material history, not just which finds its highest expression in the idea of a succession of thoughts and speech acts. If beauty - the sublime. At the mid-point in the time- deep time is to figure in our histories, then we line between European Enlightenment and the need narratives that can triangulate between present-day, the greatest and most fundamental agents and materials. This shift in focus brings and formative insights of physics emerged from into play a model of cognition that differs from a hybrid of validation between the rational and the one that underpinned the deep-time revolu- belief. Key figures in the chronology of science tion of 1859, [On the origin of Species] which such as Davy and Faraday, were committed stressed a rational appreciation of the evidence scientists who also had strong spiritual convic- rather than a relational understanding. A mind tions that have, by and large, been erased as distributed in social relationships and physical inconvenient distractions. But as Richard Luck- materials takes cognition outside of the head, hurst’s painstaking research has made clear, beyond the skin, and into the world. Such exter- the distinction between scientific and psychical nalism means that materials and artefacts are research – at least in Britain - was not especially always implicated in our cognitive architecture marked until the latter part of the 19th century. The rather than being simply outputs of our internal mutual interaction of the material (and rational) cognitive processes. Thinking through objects and the unknown and sublime was crucial to the rather than thinking about objects becomes the scientific imaginary and, despite the interdictions description of the cognitive processes” (Shryock of the establishment, persisted through figures and Smail, 2012, pp. 30-31). such as William Crookes and Oliver Lodge. I In short, Deep History suggests that in any cogni- have argued elsewhere, this occult dimension of tive enterprise in which we are thinking through enquiry precipitated a technological strand that objects, we are intimately connected with our- deployed science in the possibility of infinite con- selves as an intimate determinant of that object nection in time and space (largely through audio - irrespective of its place in time. This ‘bootstrap- visual media). The preoccupation of mainstream ping’ version of reality, which recognises the hu- scientists and technologists with the arts and man imaginary as mobile, provisional and contin- media might be viewed, in this context, more as gent, presents something of a paradigm conflict a latent desire to engage with that which it lost with those rationalist enquiries that are driven by (the sublime imaginary) rather than a patronising a positivist world-view and insist on maintaining attempt at public education. a verifiable distance between the observer and There is some indication that from within scien- the observed (subject and object). This tension tific practice there is a widening consideration lies at the heart of the definition of science that of the agenda that has, for the most part, been Sundar Sarukkai so ably unravels in his recent consigned to visionaries such as Feynman and book What is Science? To track the detachment media niches such as Leonardo. Hoffmann and of the term science from natural philosophy is Boyd Whyte have recently put the sublime into also to track the detachment of what it means the frame again as a reinstatement of belief, and to do science from what it means to believe. As done it in such a way so as to avoid the polemic he reminds us: that sprang from Darwin’s On the Origin of Spe- “Given that the title of science has value in the cies. Introducing their collection of essays they present times, it is only reasonable to expect argue for a symptomatic approach to the question spurious claims to science hood. Centuries ago, of belief and science. The breadth and indeter- in the beginning of modern science, it was religion minacy of the term [sublime] are central to this or philosophy that had this value and physicists project. Rather than address the sublime head and mathematicians often invoked the idea of on as a category seeking definition, this volume God or of Religion to validate their work. … Now uses it as a catalyst to provoke responses from the roles are reversed and religion often, tries to a group of distinguished scientists and cultural legitimize itself by saying its claims are scientific historians. … In this context, the sublime is not

ix Editorial Michael Punt Editor-in-Chief, Leonardo Reviews offered either as a veiled religiosity or as a man- Shryock, A. and Smail, D. (2011) Deep History: The Architecture of the Past and Present. Berkeley: date for nihilism. Rather, it is seen as a means University of California Press. of defying conceptual rules and, in the process Smail, D. (2010) On Deep History and the Brain. relating insights that were formerly unknown to Berkeley: University of California Press. each other (Hoffmann & Whyte, 2011, p. viii). Their approach is transdisciplinary in its broad aims and to be welcomed, but its flaws are in its (possibly well intentioned) multidisiciplinary method. Science and belief are aspects of human endeavour that are too important to be left to the dictatorial rehearsals of binary oppositions or a liberal consensus based on a democracy of opinion and views. And whilst it is important to contextualise any practice in a cultural history, as Shryock and Smail propose, it is through historiography (not history) that the sublime can emerge as a human symptom. As many of us have argued before, it is important that scientists engage with the history of science as an essential part of their training in order to situate their practice as also partial, provisional and a story told from the present. To understand that good science (and good scientists) should recognise the interdependence of the inextricable connection with ourselves as an intimate determinant of the object of knowledge. With the advantage of Shryock and Smail’s brilliantly accessible work, the consideration of deep time and Deep His- tory makes it clear that to do science and to do history is to think through objects rather than about objects. To factor this into the practice of science will lead to the recognition that the ‘self’ that undertakes scientific research cannot be fully defined in scientific ways. Such a modest world view opens up a meaningful transdisciplinary framework for the arts, humanities, science and technology to liberate shared human dimensions - such as the sublime - and return a real dividend on the intellectual generosity required for such collaboration.

References Burke, E. ([1756] 1999) The Sublime and the Beautiful. London: Penguin. Hoffmann, R. and Boyd Whyte, I. (eds.) (2011) Beyond the Finite: The Sublime in Art and Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Holmes, R. (2009) The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. London: Pantheon Books. Luckhurst, R. (2009) The Invention of Telepathy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sarukkai, S. (2012) What is Science? New Delhi: National Book Trust.

x Editorial Sundar Sarukkai Director of the Manipal Centre for Philosophy & Humanities, Manipal University

Science and the Sublime theoretical sophistication have now largely given way to the belief that it is impossible to get rid of this inherent property of the quantum world. Sublime is different from, and more than, the beautiful. Sublime best captures the sense of The idea of sublime is somewhat like this: its being overwhelmed, whether ‘positively’ or presence reflects neither an incapacity for ex- ‘negatively’. This leads to a feeling that there is pression nor a lack of proper concepts but only something more to an experience than what is something intrinsic to the nature of that experi- expressed or grasped at that point. There is a ence. So, in this sense the idea of the sublime simple idea, following Kant, that captures this is indeed close to those fundamental concepts essence of the sublime, namely, the inability to that underlie modern science. grasp a concept in all its fullness. The idea of the It is also useful to look at this formulation of the sublime captures the gap between conceptual- sublime in the context of science because there izing something and grasping that concept fully, is an underlying relation between sublime and that is, the unpresentability of that idea. Ideas morality. This is an important insight that arises of the unpresentable include those of absolute in philosophical discussions on the sublime. I be- measures, of absolute totality or even absolute lieve that this route to the ethical via the sublime freedom - these ideas create in us a particular makes it easier to introduce questions of ethics at experience which we are not be able to represent the foundation of scientific thinking itself. While in their whole. scientists tend to react to what they perceive But are these just some idle musing of philoso- as constraints imposed by ethics, they seem to phers? What about the scientists? Is there anymore easily accept the aesthetic and sublime thing that they think is - in principle - unpresent- dimension of science [1]. able? Something inherently incomplete? Does But what is the unpresentable for science and Cantor’s description of transfinite cardinals grasp how does science understand this unpresent- the idea of the infinite in its fullness? ability? Can the Cantorian paradise of transfinite One might think that the problem in this discus- cardinals lead to a sublime experience? Does it sion of the sublime lies perhaps in language; it arouse experiences of pleasure or horror? To an- is often said that language lacks the capacity to swer this, we first have to ask what scientists do express ideas. We invoke this sentiment when when they are not able to express the ungraspa- we say we are not able to say what we exactly ble. Do they let go of the capacity to describe it mean, or that words don’t capture what one feels or do they drastically modify their presupposi- and so on. But the sublime is not like that – it is tions in order to accommodate that imagination? not a reflection of an incapacity to articulate a There is an interesting paradox here: the way feeling nor is it a problem of linguistic compe- scientists and students of science respond to tence. There is something fundamental about these seemingly sublime ideas negates the very the impossibility of expressing the sublime in- definition of the sublime as unpresentable. The dependent of language competence. mathematics of infinity is prosaic and is reduced to everydayness through mathematical practice. There is a useful analogy with science here. One One invokes extremely obscure mathematics to of the interesting tensions within science lies in a describe string theory as an attempt to present set of concepts inherent to it but which challenge the unpresentable and not as an illustration of the ideal notions of science. Three examples of that which is not expressible. these concepts are indeterminacy, uncertainty and incompleteness. Given a committed belief So the fundamental question is about this un- in the determinism of science, it was indeed a presentability, this sense of being overwhelmed. difficult task to make sense of indeterminacies Scientists don’t seem to be overwhelmed about of various kinds, including probability in natural anything at all - they are ready to take on any phenomena. Einstein’s unease with the essen- problem! The real difficulty, the insurmountable tial probabilistic nature of the quantum world is task, is not in the challenge of conceiving or well-known. The claim that nature is essentially tackling the problem but the difficulties in solving indeterministic is a radical shift in the scientific it, either through appropriate modelling, solving understanding of nature. Attempts to argue that mathematical equations or doing simulations. the indeterminacy and uncertainty of quantum There is great difficulty in experimental work systems arise due to less information or lack of too but none of these difficulties match anything close to unpresentablity.

xi Editorial Sundar Sarukkai Director of the Manipal Centre for Philosophy & Humanities, Manipal University

One argument we can make is that this sense of symbols - as in string theory - is to hypostasize the sublime does not play a role in science for mathematical entities. To claim that it is the sub- the simple reason that idealizations and approxi- lime is to pretend as if the story they say about the mations lie at the heart of all scientific activity. universe is really true and it is that truth which is Every scientist should presumably know that the not graspable by us. If we read string theory, like idealizations that are used in models - such as other scientific theories, as narratives first and point mass objects, ideal frictionless gases - are foremost, then we will see why the notion of the not the ‘real’ but yet the strength of science lies sublime in such theories gets potentially negated. in continuing to deal with these ideal objects ‘as- The sublime for science is not really to be found if’ they were real. That is, in science, nobody is in its objects - whether natural or theoretical. It really concerned about the strict match between has to be found in concepts which are found in the object and its representation or between the ordinary science; we don’t need exotic science concept and its presentability! On the contrary, to discover the sublime. It lies in concepts such the scientific imagination begins with the first as incompleteness, uncertainty, unpredictability, axiom that you only present the real through complementarity and so on. It arises as horror these ideal modes. The question of the real is when science confronts the wall of inherent prob- displaced to that of the approximate - namely, ability and uncertainty, when at its foundations how close the ideal is to the real - and not a it finds incompleteness and when it confronts grasp of the real per se. indeterminacy. One can thus hopefully see why the sublime However, there is one specific concept that for in principle is problematical for science since me specifically seems to encapsulate the sublime there is firstly no immediate attempt to grasp the in science. A concept that even in its representa- sublimely real but only an ideal of it. And once tion resists the epistemological head-in-the-sand this is done, to proceed ‘as-if’ it is the real that attitude of modelling. This is the concept of the has been grasped. The fact that there is a gap imaginary number. ‘i’ cannot stand for the im- between the presentable and the concept is not aginary domain, for the domain of the imaginary a cause of any kind of special experience. The cannot - by any imagination - be presentable and ideal, the model, the approximate, the ‘as-if’, reduced to this number. The imaginary world of all of them succeed in allowing the sublime to mathematics always escapes the reduction to i manifest itself as such. but - really but - this representation is so powerful In invoking the sublime in science, some authors that one can only gaze at it with great wonder! have pointed to the mystery of the scientific im- Perhaps the imaginary number brings together agination present in physics, chemistry and other the two aspects of the Kantian sublime - the sciences. For example, string theory seems to mathematical and the dynamical. The ‘number’ i point to the lurking transcendent (the indescrib- is not a mathematical measure, a number which able transcendent) since physicists seem to be quantifies. It is not a real number, a real measure. able to describe it in all complexity but yet fail It cannot be the mathematical sublime. It is also to grasp it (see Beyond the Finite). But all this is not the dynamical sublime - there is nothing real to confuse the issue since the sublime seems about it, such as the reality of a powerful force of to then rest in mathematics and mathematical the dynamical sublime. It acts like a number and discourse. yet is not one. But when we try to describe it not Mathematics in itself may be seen to be a sublime in terms of number, it acts ‘as-if’ it is a number. art. I have often found mathematicians in the And most importantly, without i physics and sci- midst of their calculations so lost in what they are ence as we know it today, with their descriptions doing that they seem to be perceiving and react- of the real world, might not exist! ing to a world different from ours. Mathematicians i is literally the unreal but for scientific discourse are more susceptible to the experience of the it is the path through which a realist discourse sublime - reacting with pleasure, horror or even is possible - from the literal unreal it becomes the kind of intense absorption that the sublime the metaphorical real. It is also our response can catalyse. I have seen this even with school to this magical, imaginary number (as if other students working on a problem or when learning numbers are ‘real’!) that truly raises the sublime a new mathematical expression. experience for there is both pleasure and horror To claim that the sublime rests in the world when we reflect on it. Pleasure at its magic – the opened up by these mathematical models and pleasure when we realized that exp(ix) can be a

xii Editorial Sundar Sarukkai Director of the Manipal Centre for Philosophy & Humanities, Manipal University real number for some x and more pleasure when it magically unifies messy equations into ‘beautiful’ ones. Delight at its literal unreality when we learnt that the first lessons in quantum mechanics are claims that the wavefunction cannot be measured because it is not real. Why is it not real? Because it is a pure imaginary function, the lurking i making it so. Horror that this little number can be the ultimate judge on whether the electron wavefunction is real or not! There is also horror at the same time when we realize that we do not know why this number should matter at all, or even whether it is a number at all. Or a deeper horror that settles on us when we ask whether we are missing something fundamental in our understanding of the nature of i, missing the really important reason as to why this imaginary number should matter to a discourse on reality and by missing this, are we perhaps on the ‘wrong’ track? That vision is one which can be nightmarish - and sublime - not just for science but for all of modern societies which have invested so much in it.

References [1] For examples see the book discussed by Punt in this issue - Beyond the Finite: The Sublime in Art and Science by Hoffmann and Whyte, and The Elusive Synthesis: Aesthetics and Science, Ed. A. I. Tauber, Springer, 1997.

xiii Editorial Roger F. Malina Executive Editor, Leonardo Publications

A Role for the Sublime in ecstatic nature of the sublime confronted with a reality that cannot be grasped in its fullness that ArtScience? gives the thrill of discovery an emotional equivalent of the concept of the Sublime as it has fed Is the Sublime Important in the arts and the sciences; the Sublime can be a Science Today? deeply human way of confronting the question of the comprehensibility of the world. Sundar Sarukkai [1] in his accompanying LRQ Editorial states: “One can thus hopefully see why The Thrill of Discovery: Making the Un-Ob- the sublime in principle is problematical for sci- servable Observable ence since there is firstly no immediate attempt to During my scientific career I have been lucky to grasp the sublimely real but only an ideal of it.” He work on projects that have made scientific dis- refers to Kant’s notion of the Sublime as: “There coveries. This may seem usual for a scientist, is a simple idea, following Kant that captures this but in fact most scientific work does not result essence of the sublime, namely, the inability to in scientific discoveries of significance, and the grasp a concept in all its fullness.” Sarukkai goes emotional connection between personal invest- on to unpack how Science has dealt with parts ment and scientific discovery is often remote. of the world that are “un-presentable” through Today’s hunt at CERN for the Higg’s Boson is the the use of mathematics; these approaches have work of thousands of individuals over decades, allowed Science to deal with various types of many of whom will be dead before the discover- challenges to positivistic modeling of the world ies are confirmed. The thrill will be vicarious at such as notions of indeterminacy, unpredictability, best and often posthumous. complementarity, uncertainty and incompleteness. He notes: “The mathematics of infinity is The project that I worked on that I want to single prosaic and is reduced to everydayness through out is the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Satel- mathematical practice?“ lite project [3]. Conceived by my thesis advisor Stuart Bowyer, the purpose of the project was Michael Punt [2] in his introductory editorial, on to make the first astronomical map of the sky in the other hand, argues for the importance of the the extreme-ultraviolet band of the spectrum of Sublime in Science: “The mutual interaction of light. This light, between x-rays and the ultraviolet the material (and rational) and the unknown and is a daunting area of astronomy, technologically sublime was crucial to the scientific imaginary challenging and theoretically forbidding. Indeed and, despite the interdictions of the establish- th in some astronomy textbooks of the time this ment...”; he points out that in the 19 century for band was called the “un-observable ultraviolet” instance, there was a close coupling of science because the most common elements in the uni- and the occult. Elsewhere I have written how verse, hydrogen and helium, absorbs this kind Linda Henderson has charted the concepts of of light almost completely. Our colleagues, one the ether and higher dimensional reality as pow- of whom eventually won a Nobel Prize, argued erful cultural imaginaries that have crisscrossed that the project should be cancelled because it sciences and the arts. These concepts are re- was a waste of taxpayer’s money; there would appearing in recent decades in string theory, be nothing to see. The project was maintained dark energy and other appeals to deep unifying by NASA, and the instruments and satellite mis- factors in the structure and evolution of space, sion operations were carried out by a team at but also in the science fiction literature that has the University of California, Berkeley where I created the concepts of cyberspace, as we know led the instrument development and observa- them. The context is however different than it tory operation teams. The project involved hun- was in the nineteenth century, and today there dreds of people over 15 years. We attended the are few links between contemporary science and rocket launch at Cape Kennedy, returning to our the occult (though many scientists are religious). laboratory to start receiving the images once the What is certain is that some ‘travelling concepts’ satellite was in orbit. circulate between the fields of arts and sciences for centuries. I well remember the day that we were to give the first commands to turn on the cameras on It seems to be that if we expand Sarukkai’s argu- the telescopes. ment on the “un-presentable” to the un-observables and the un-knowables there is a role for the The team in Berkeley, perhaps 50 scientists, Sublime in today’s science. And within this is the engineers, administrative staff and students gath-

xiv Editorial Roger F. Malina Executive Editor, Leonardo Publications ered in the conference room to watch the turning the universe becomes ‘presentable’; but surely in on of the telescopes. We sat on the floor wait- that gap between the presentable and the world ing for the first images; perhaps the technology itself there remains a source for the Sublime. would fail; perhaps the unobservable ultraviolet Un-Presentables; Un-Knowables was indeed un-observable. As the data began to stream onto the screen we were momentar- Sarukkai defines the Sublime as “different from, ily silent, and then, as the first star appeared in and more than, the beautiful. Sublime best cap- the image there was a collective euphoria and tures the sense of being overwhelmed, whether for a moment I experienced a scientific sublime. ‘positively’ or ‘negatively’. This leads to a feeling The world was potentially knowable and through that there is something more to an experience our technology the un-observable had become than what is expressed or grasped at that point.” observable. Above I have argued that indeed the process Michael Punt in his Editorial points out in his dis- of making the un-observable observable is one cussion of deep history that “such externalism scientific strategy for the Sublime. I would like means that materials and artifacts are always to add two other concepts to the presentable implicated in our cognitive architecture rather (or ‘modelisable’). First is the idea of the ‘un- than being simply outputs of our internal cognitive knowable’ where un-observables are in principle processes. Thinking through objects rather than not observable. One area of the un-knowable thinking about objects becomes the description appears in quantum mechanics and as Sarukkai of the cognitive processes.” As a scientist we points out modern science has accommodated indeed think the world through objects; through itself to non-deterministic mechanics not only in our scientific instruments the un-observable quantum mechanics but also in the science of becomes observable. Sarukkai discusses the complexity. Scientific notions of causality have use of mathematics in science, and the concept been expanded with the fact of quantum entan- of imaginary numbers as one form of the sub- glement, but also of the way that initial conditions lime un-presentable in Science. Indeed Eugene play crucial roles in chaotic systems. Wigner [4] is often quoted for his remark on the “un-reasonable effectiveness of mathematics”. Scientists today have little problem dealing with It seems to me there is a double mystery. Ac- the un-knowables of quantum mechanics. Cer- companying the effectiveness of mathematics is tain separable ontological categories in our daily the un-reasonable effectiveness of instruments. life, such as position and velocity, become on- As I have argued elsewhere, the human body is tologically overlapping through the Heisenberg very badly designed to understand the universe Principle. It is just not possible to know to arbi- it lives in. Human cognition and human senses trary accuracy the simultaneous values of two have evolved as part of evolutionary selection, quantum-coupled quantities. Some un-knowables and these requirements are very different than still pose problems still. Arthur Miller for instance those needed to understand the key processes in points out that: “Actually, quantum mechanics the world around us. Yet in spite of this, through does have trouble with un-observables. Fey- the use of mathematics and instruments, contem- nman had a point when he wrote that we still porary science has developed a ‘robust’ system don’t understand something as ‘simple’ as the of explanations with prediction power that models double-slit diffraction experiment using light or many of aspects of the world. electrons.” (Arthur Miller, Private Communica- tion, 28 May 2012) As Sarukkai points out science does not seek to capture the real but rather to mimic the real: The discovery of the finite speed of light also “Every scientist should presumably know that the creates fundamental un-knowables. The ‘light idealizations that are used in models - such as cone’ defines the space-time envelope of caus- point mass objects, ideal frictionless gases - are ally related events. Even though we are in an not the ‘real’ but yet the strength of science lies infinite universe, the finite speed of light means in continuing to deal with these ideal objects ‘as- that what is happening in parts of the universe if’ they were real. That is, in science, nobody is that are further away than the light travel age really concerned about the strict match between of the universe, these events are unknowable. the object and its representation or between the Similarly, events that are occurring inside the concept and its presentability!” I cannot but agree, horizon of a black hole, these events are not particularly as an instrumentalist scientist rather only un-observable to outside observers but than a theorist that we can declare success when un-knowable to them.

xv Editorial Roger F. Malina Executive Editor, Leonardo Publications

It seems to me that these un-knowables in sci- experienced both awe and fear, not as a tech- ence become another reservoir for the scientific nological sublime, but an acute awareness of Sublime that can also be explored by artists. phenomena beyond my senses. Un-Presentables; Un-Translateables i) Multimodal Representation of a Hydrogen Atom Finally, it seems to me that a key issue in the un-presentables discussed by Sarukkai is the At the Allosphere at the University of California underlying epistemological reliance on human Santa Barbara, a team with physicist Luca Peliti, languages, written and visual and aural. I think artists JoAnn Kuchera-Morin and Lance Putnam that this goes beyond the inability to describe have created a visualization and sonification as certain ideas. Human cognitive systems develop a Multimodal Representation of the Quantum within maturing individuals in interaction with their Mechanics of the Hydrogen Atom: environment and with other humans. These lan- This work interactively visualizes and sonifies guages thus are derived to be able to describe the wave function of an electron of a single hy- objects and events that humans encounter as they drogen atom. The atomic orbitals are modeled mature and live. Human language co-evolved with as solutions to the time-dependent Schrödinger the human brain as it is confronted with experi- equation with a spherically symmetric potential ences, dangerous or wonderful; human language given by Coulomb’s law of electrostatic force. Dif- is finely tuned to certain parts of the world. ferent orbitals of the electron can be combined Science is dealing with a different world. Most in superposition to observe dynamic behaviors data we acquire on the world as scientists is not such as photon emission and absorption. The acquired directly through the human senses, but interactive component of the simulation allows mediated via vast panoplies of scientific instru- one to fly through the atom with a probe that emits ments. To know about the infinitely large, the “stream particles” that follow along the largest infinitively small, the intrinsically complex, the changes in the probability current and gradient human senses are badly adapted and therefore of the electron. The electron probability ampli- so is human language, and scientific language tude is sonified by scanning through groups of takes decades to stabilise. stream particles in the space. The pitch can be adjusted by the rate at which a particular set of In quantum mechanics we invent language, such stream particles is scanned across [5]. as ‘charm’, to describe observable properties of nature. In astrophysics we call matter that we de- This work is outside of the regime of scientific tect, but cannot see with light, ‘dark matter’ even illustration but clearly seeks to create an immer- though it is of an unknown nature. We observe sive experience that one can ‘fly’ through, that that the expansion of the universe is accelerat- has sensual and emotional power. ing, so we attribute this to a ‘dark energy’, also ii) Softday: Marbh Chrios of an unknown nature. It seems to me that an underlying problem of un-presentability is the ‘Marbh Chrios’ means Dead Zones. In 2008 un-translateability of a world observed with in- Robert Diaz showed that the number of ‘dead struments into a language derived from human zones’-areas of seafloor with too little oxygen for sensory experience. It is in this gap between the most marine life had increased by a third between world of science and the world of art that it seems 1995 and 2007. It is currently estimated that there to me the tools of the artist and writer may be are 20 such ‘dead zones’ in Ireland and two were able to create awareness of a larger connection. identified in the study at both Killybeg’s Harbour In those moments “[t]his leads to a feeling that and Donegal Bay. Geologic evidence shows that there is something more to an experience than dead zones are not a naturally recurring event what is expressed or grasped at that point”. These in marine ecosystems; dead zones were once thrills of connection to a larger reality, together rare, now they are commonplace and increasing, with the thrill of discovery, could be wellsprings which poses a serious threat to indigenous marine of the Sublime in ArtScience today. habitats and the human food chain. Some Examples The artists collective Softday [6], as part of the Leonardo Lovely Weather Project [7], examined In closing I would like to mention three works that the available data from the Irish dead zones and seem to tackle the problem of un-presentability work collaboratively with three distinct partners, and un-translatability. In both of these works I local traditional musicians from An Charraig/

xvi Editorial Roger F. Malina Executive Editor, Leonardo Publications

Amhainn a’Ghlinne (Cairdeas na bhFidiléirí) in and the ecologies and climate variability they are Donegal, Met Éireann (the Irish Meteorological embedded in and the traces they leave in soil. Service) and The Marine Institute of Ireland, to The Two Kingdoms address the relationship of climate and culture to sound. Softday translated scientific/environ- To pursue my translation analogy I would like mental data into abstract ‘live’ sonifications and to close with a quote from Kierkegaard, which it vocalisations. The computer generated music seems to me, gives an inkling of the problem of composition that the Donegal Youth Orchestra translation not between the world and scientific and the Softday Céilí Band performed, was based models, but also between the world known by the on eight years of related marine and meteoro- scientist and the world of the artist. Kierkegaard logical data. sets up that moment of “disclosure” that would be perhaps be a modest beginning for the Sublime iii) Scientific and Sonic Perceptions of the in ArtScience today: African Sahel “If I imagined two kingdoms bordering each other, Scientist Paul Adderley and Musician Michael one of which I know rather well and the other not Young have created sonifications of soil materials at all, and if however much I desired it I was not that were sampled from the West African Sahel allowed to enter the unknown kingdom, I would at a village called Tiwa located in the lacustrine still be able to form some idea of it. plain of Lake Chad in Northern Nigeria: I would go to the border of the kingdom known This region has experienced extremes of flooding to me and follow it all the way, and in doing so I and drought throughout history that may have would by my movements describe the outline of displaced the human population. The village has that unknown land and thus have a general idea dwellings constructed from mud-brick and thatch, of it, although I had never set foot in it. surrounded by fields. Samples were taken from a pit dug close to the village. This area is subject to And if this was a labor that occupied me very intense land management and receives cultural much, if I was unflaggingly scrupulous, it pre- debris washed-in by seasonal rains. The materi- sumably would sometimes happen that if I stood als were sampled intact with the spatial organi- with sadness at the border of my kingdom and sation of the soil maintained through processing gazed longingly into that unknown country that and examination in the laboratory. The soils were was so near and yet so far, I would be granted found to span a 10,000 year period that includes an occasional disclosure” [9]. the onset of human settlement in the Lake Chad It seems to me that the astronomer confronted plain c. 4000 years ago. with the mysteries of dark matter and dark en- By considering a landscape that is both extreme ergy and the artist trying to make sensible the and has long-standing cultural activity, a narrative very real but incommensurable phenomena of is developed. To borrow Barthes’s terminology, quantum mechanics find themselves in a con- the data from scientific analysis provide functions nected search for a Sublime, for those moments to the narrative; they are indices to the landscape of an inkling of a perhaps aweful larger context and to human conditions. These data also con- that we only glimpse partially. For the scientist note actions that may be anthropogenic or envi- the potential horror in the Sublime would be the ronmental (such as changes in land management, incomprehensibility, unpresentability, of the world; house building, flooding and desertification). A perhaps for the artist the reverse? narrative emerges from the exploration of these My colleague Wolf Rainer points out [10]: “Witt- data, in which a sequence of actions is deduced genstein in his Tractatus seems to echo Kierke- from functional descriptions of physical objects, gaard’s parable of the 2 kingdoms when he said which are in turn offered for evaluation and ex- that “to think the border or limit of something ploration in sonic and visual forms [8]. already implies a kind of knowledge of it, at least The resulting work aggregates scientific data into in your thoughts about it. For language expres- perceptually holistic musical scapes that give the sions implies the drawing of borders. He also held viewer a sense of human activity over a 10,000 that most of such philosophical questions are not year period, a piece of deep history that relies false, but merely nonsensical from a language not on documents or even human artifacts but philosopher’s view. It’s our incomprehension of rather the inter-connection of human communities the logic of language which produces nonsensical answers”.

xvii Editorial Roger F. Malina Executive Editor, Leonardo Publications

The Sublime is perhaps a deeply human way of dealing with the possible incomprehensibility of the world, of being in the world; and as Sarukkai states, there is an underlying relation between the Sublime and Morality. Here perhaps ArtScience practice (see for instance the “Trust me, I’m an artist: towards an ethics of art/science collaboration performances” [11]) provides one translation tool to introduce questions of ethics at the foundation of scientific thinking itself.

Acknowledgements I want to thank Arthur Miller and Wolf Rainer for comments.

References [1] Sarukkai, S. (2012) ‘Science and the Sublime’, Leonardo Reviews Quarterly, 2(01), pp. xi-xiii. [2] Punt, M. (2012) ‘Science, History and the Sublime’, Leonardo Reviews Quarterly, 2(01), pp. xiii-x. [3] http://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/euve/euve.html [4] Eugene Wigner, http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/ MathDrama/reading/Wigner.html [5] http://www.allosphere.ucsb.edu/research.php [6] http://www.softday.ie/ [7] http://www.olats.org/fcm/artclimat/donegal2010/ SoftdaySTaylorMFernstrom.php#EN [8] Adderley and Young: http://mutamorphosis. org/2007/category/eco-sonifications/page/2/ [9] S. Kierkeqaard: http://chandonnet.m.free. fr/DIMITRI/Kierkegaard%20-%20The%20 Essential%20Kierkegaard.pdf [10] Wolf Rainer, private communication, 29 May 2012: “Wittgenstein in his Tractatus seems to echo Kierkegaard’s parable of the 2 kingdoms when he said that “to think the border or limit of something already implies a kind of knowledge of it, at least in your thoughts about it. For language expressions implies the drawing of borders. He also held that most of such philosophical questions are not false, but merely nonsensical from a language philosopher’s view. It’s our incomprehension of the logic of language which produces nonsensical answers. Thus, once the scientist puts his operational thinking cap on and works through the methodological steps that can produce answers, he is on his way. If he can avoid being unduly fettered by the shackles which limit his cognition, language and overproductive imagination (Kant’s ‘produktive Einbildungskraft’), his search may actually give him a feeling of the ‘sublime’, and that word today may just be the sleeper of the once vigorous aesthetic discourse of the 18th century trying to distinguish between things in nature which produce feelings for which separate categories were deemed necessary.” [11] Anna Dumitriu and Bobbie Farsides: “Trust me, I’m an artist: towards an ethics of art/science collaboration”: http://www.artscienceethics.com/

xviii Editorial Martyn Woodward PhD Researcher, Transtechnology Research, Plymouth University

Artifacts, Entanglements & These (im)material form-giving processes of material engagement comprise, as the time geogra- Deep History: A Reflection pher Torsten Hagerstrand termed, the texture of on the Sublime in Art and the world, a “Tapestry of Nature which history is Science weaving” (1976, p. 332), in which every constituent of the environment – human, animal, plant, The emergence of deep history is shaping a con- stone, building - has (and is) a continuous tra- temporary concern with the origins of the human jectory (or thread) of becoming in counter-point and its artifacts, beyond a reliance upon the writ- to the rest of the tapestry. As the constituents ten word of the (more shallow) past, which has move through time they encounter one another, formed a somewhat materialist history constituted and the trajectories of these diverse constituents by persons and things. Instead of a reliance upon are bundled together in diverse combinations of documentary written evidence, a deep history at- entanglements or knots. The Human, for Hager- tempts to re-instate the ‘pre-history’ of the written strand, as well as the human artifact, is always a word – a genealogical and archeological history counterpoint to trajectories constantly becoming, - through the traces of human consciousness left and as such is constituted by these trajectories within human made artifacts, which themselves just as much as their own threads of life. The become containers for meanings and social re- origins that a deep history alert us to are, thus, lations (Shryock and Smail, 2011). Shryock and not be found through an analysis of the traces Smail insist that materials, just as the written left captured within the object themselves, but word, contain traces of human kinship relations through the tracing of the form-giving process and exchanges. Seen within fossils, tools, pic- and trajectories that leave the traces. tures, household items, ecological change and Such thinkers concerned with this ‘materiality’ of genetic variation, these traces thus ‘document’ form-giving maintain that the origins of human a deep history of the human mind, that extends made tools, pictures or artifacts, are not to be into the material world. Such a reading of a deep traced backwards - from the outcome through a history of the human through artifacts, may give sequence of antecedent conditions, to an idea evidence for an imaginary dimension of human in the mind of an agent, but forwards - in rec- desire (Punt, 2000), and by extension human ognising that the maker’s role is to bring forth perception, which opens up a deep history of the form through joining and following the forces human beyond that of an axiomatic materialism. and flows of materials themselves (Ingold, 2010). Such a deep history would comprise a symbiotic The ‘creative origin’ of an artefact lies, not in the treatment of material and immaterial - (im)mate- tracing backwards to a single idea down a net- rial - dimensions of human experience, engaging work of relations, but in the tracing of the forward within a world that itself is comprised of materi- movement, of the entanglements, following the als, forces and energies. Manuel DeLanda’s flows of materials that give rise to things - the non-linear geological history provides a useful trajectories of diverse constituents, a tapestry guide, documenting the deep geological time or a meshwork. and energy flows, which change speeds and An artifact is not, in this sense, an object (in dis- momentarily harden to form the very crusts and tinction from a subject), or a ‘thing’ (as distinct landmarks of the environment (2000). Makers, from, but impacting upon humans), but is brought such as designers and painters, have been sen- forth - is an entanglement of the joining and fol- sitive to such an (im)material symbiosis through lowing of forces and flows of materials (Ingold, their practices. The painter Paul Klee’s elemen- 2010). The origin of form is then not a single point tary theory of creativity recognised that form of origin, but an entanglement of lines of move- is always “set by the processes of giving form” ment in counter-point, the form-giving process (1964, p. 269), that energies and forces which itself. To trace a deep history of the distributed are external to the practitioner, the properties human through artifacts, then, is a question of of the materials used, beget movement and al- tracing not an origin, but the form-giving proc- low forms, such as painted lines and strokes, to esses - the trajectories of which the artifact is a emerge or grow. Such form-giving processes counterpoint - the meshwork behind materials of growth involve not merely a single ‘human’ such as tools and pictures. Such a move could agent’s intentions, but as contemporary stud- reveal a model of the human in which the (im)ma- ies in material culture have recognised, the very terial nature of the meshwork, with the properties material properties, tensions, and resistances of and energy flows of the material world, acts as matter itself (Ingold, 2010). xix Editorial Martyn Woodward PhD Researcher, Transtechnology Research, Plymouth University an extension of human agency. Human desire, as much as a desire of the materials themselves, play out through degrees of resistance, dependency and engagement. This (im)material meshwork of entanglements could constitute the very sublime experiences revealed by the preceding editorials, the “thrills of connection to a larger reality” (Malina) which come with the thrill of discovery, leading to a “feeling that there is something more to an experience than what is expressed or grasped at that point” (Sarukkai), a “fascination with the infinite unknown” (Punt). Such a feeling, however, could describe not an internal bodily affect, but could comprise a momentary reveal of the distributed entanglement of the human within a wider meshwork, which comprises the very fabric of the larger reality. Situated within this meshwork we could suggest that Science doesn’t necessarily deal with the altogether different world of instrumentation to that of the human senses that may be believed. Nor to that of the artist. Rather, Scientific instruments- just like fossils, tools and household items- could be seen themselves as a material trace of kinshipping, of desire, cognition and imagination (Drayson, 2011), entangled within the meshwork of the world. As the presence of the sublime within the disciplines of science and art could reveal the very connecting fabric of their interwoven nature, the sublime itself could be a key (or a thread pick) to unraveling this deep inter-woven tapestry of reality. A historiography of the human, and by counterpoint - of disciplines themselves, could be achieved through the very deep history of the artifacts, knots, entanglements and meshworks that give them form.

References Delanda, M. (2010) A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History. New York, Zone Books. Drayson, H (2011) Gestalt Biometrics and their Applications. PhD thesis. University of Plymouth. Hagerstrand, T. (1976) ‘Geography and the Study of Interaction Between Nature and Society’. Geoforum, 7, pp. 329-34. Ingold, T. (2010) The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill. London: Routledge. Klee, P. (1973) Notebooks Vol.2: The Nature of Nature. London: Lund Humphries Publishers. Punt, M. (2000) Early Cinema and the Technological Imaginary. PhD thesis. University of Amsterdam [Online]. Available at: http://dare.uva.nl (Accessed: 31 May 2012). Shryock, A. and Smail, D. (2011) Deep History: The Architecture of the Past and Present. Berkeley: University of California Press.

xx L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012

And Tell Tulip the an elfin hole of empire despair”; we have returned/ from each one can sing it as a blues. And angle/ in this rotating wind from Summer “Butch Morris” (pg. 69) is a po- nowhere.” (pg. 71) etical-musical composition “And Throughout the book, Grau- by Allan Graubard from the other side of silence …” Quattro Books, 2011, 106 pp. bard as poet-critic dedicates his Graubard is an inspired ob- modus vivendi to neo-surrealist ISBN 978-1926802640 server who uses a reflective causes, not only locally, but also Reviewed by Valery Oisteanu tone, organically grown from in Croatia, Romania, France, the a mix of American and Euro- U.K., Holland, Venezuela and [email protected] pean surrealist literature. His Canada (to name just a few). “No man understands a deep literary diagnosis is compulsive, Don’t fail to drink from this foun- book until he has seen and lived obsessive, and metaphorically tain of poems - and you shall at least part of its contents.” disordered, as in “our dreams return! -Ezra Pound dream us dreaming them/And we dance in a dreamless dream What is Science? Allan Graubard can be catego- of dreaming.” (pg.70) His writ- rized as an anti-memorialistic ing, full of raw emotion, visions by Sundar Sarukkai poet with a retro existential nar- of gargoyles, and sophisticated National Book Trust, India, rative. And Tell Tulip the Sum- language puns, showcases a 2012, 225 pp. mer begins dramatically in 2001 humoristic slant chock full of in Sarajevo, where Graubard erudite vocabulary. ISBN: 978-8123763675 returned after an initial visit Reviewed by Roger F. Malina two years earlier. “There is a fountain,” he writes and repeats [email protected] throughout the poem, followed In What is Science? Sundar by lines such as “masked by the Sarukkai provides a magiste- moon,” “scorched by the sun,” rial overview of science as a raced by the wind,” “trained human activity today, cover- by the stars,” “that whittles his ing definitions of science, the hands,” etc. Of course, “All those social organization of science, who drink from this fountain will philosophy of science, and ethi- return!” (pg. 11) cal issues arising in and from Graubard forges a personal scientific activity. He ends with voice while constructing sur- an impassioned plea for deep real metaphors and word com- engagement in new dialogue binations such as: “slumbering and negotiation by the scientific cities,” “cross eyed of dawn,” community with other segments “shadowy engines,” “forgotten of society. Through this process dreams,” “tortured fingers,” “rot- “Tulips sway like occult masks, he argues scientists will both ting handshakes,” “tumbling in- vanishing and reappearing….” enrich their creativity, develop fants,” “teething hairs,” “jagged The subject of vanishing and new forms of science, but also mirror stain,” “human ignition,” reappearing is one of his fa- become far more responsible “singing bloated corps”—all this vorite frequent motifs. Another citizens of the world. The book from the poem “Modette.” (pg. is dance: as he puts it, “dancing is written for a general, non- 31) His technique stimulates our sparks dance with life.” “Dance academic public and is acces- sound-sense; ”Because I Did of Death,” (pg. 25) after Strind- sible both to working scientists Not Live,” (pg. 53) for example, berg, is a Marquis de Sade-like and artists. requires reading aloud and then narrative, one of “golden myth Several particularly strong nar- creating “exquisite corpses” by sent back by morse crickets ratives stand out. proposing other ironic permu- come to evacuate the uncer- tations of the words “life” and tain sensibility of dead soli- In chapters on Science and “live.” “Bob Kaufmann,” (pg.75) tary dawn.” (pg. 67) The poet’s Logic, Science and Reality another one of the best in the conviction that something tran- and Science and Knowledge,he collection, declaims, “Kaufman scendent is haunting him is illus- outlines the history of concepts startled by a simple kindness/ in trated with a masterly hand: “For such as Time and Space within

1 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 different philosophical traditions Finally in a very rich and well was so characteristic of the im- and their connections to scien- argued section he further de- mediate post world war II era, tific periods. I was intrigued with velops his previous arguments symbolized by Vannevar Bush’s his discussion of the ontological on the ethics of curiosity, and its report on “Science, the Endless status of space, with some com- social evolution from a Christian Frontier.” Since that time the ments on the concept of aether sin to a scientific virtue, and the relationship between science in Indian traditions. It would be lack of corresponding discourse and government and science interesting to trace this issue in the Indian philosophies. and society more generally has of the aether, a topic that has become more complex, a topic I am particularly interested in come alive again with the mys- Sarukkai explores in depth in the his argument, argued at length tery of dark energy in cosmol- chapter “Science and the Hu- in the closing chapters of this ogy, but also certain concepts man Subject,” arguing that sci- book, that the scientific commu- of cyberspace. Linda Hender- ence more aggressively develop nity should and must engage in son, in her forthcoming Leon- internal controls on unbridled deep dialogue with other sectors ardo book on the 4th Dimension curiosity. The recent debate on of society. This line of reasoning and non-Euclidian Geometry in whether to permit open publi- connects to Helga Nowotny’s Modern Art, develops at length cations of the work on genetic call for a ‘socially robust sci- the way the concept of the ae- engineering modification of flu ence”; and the proposition that ther was dominant in much of viruses is indicative that this the art-science dialogue cur- 19C science and art work even deeper debate is perhaps be- rently burgeoning internationally until 1919 and the eclipse con- ing initiated within the scientific was one example of the begin- firmation of one of the predic- community. Even Alan Leshner, nings of a deep dialogue and tions of general relativity; the President of the American As- negotiation. concept of the aether continued sociation for the Advancement to have influence in the arts in A connected issue is the con- of Science, has advocated the the post war period and also in cern that after 45 years of exist- need for such deep dialogue, spiritual circles and is being re- ence the Indian subcontinent is noting that “the link between sci- injected into current art-science virtually invisible in the Leonardo ence and the rest of society is a discussions as documented by publishing program and net- little fragile these days.” Henderson. Concepts of space works. In the Chapter on “Doing The closing sections of the book in science continue to evolve Science” he explains some of are perhaps less convincing. with string theory. the perverse effects of scholar- In a section titled “Science and ly publishing, and mechanisms Sarukkai contextualizes the de- its Impact on the Self” Sarukkai with social consequences that velopment of scientific ideas and opens up an almost Jeremiad reinforce the hegemony of gov- methods and, more particularly, like complaint, reminiscent of ernment supported science in mathematics, within the multiple some of Virilio’s laments, about North America and Western Eu- influences and exchanges be- the pace of change and the de- rope, mechanisms among oth- tween the various Mediterrane- sire for speed. “In an age defined ers that contribute to the relative an and Asian civilizations, with a by speed, nothing is enough... invisibility of Indian science in strong rebuttal to the dominant there are important psychologi- the global scenario. European mythology of its pre- cal and social consequences of dominantly Greek roots (more He frames his book in the chap- living life in this manner..”. How- on this below). He develops at ter on “Defining Science” with ever I find myself in sympathy lengths the variety of ways that Article 51 A(h) in the Indian Con- with his conclusion that it is nec- mathematics is connected at stitution which states as a Fun- essary “to humanize science is the hip with modern science, damental Duty of the Citizens of to bring back the human subject arguing in part that this due to India, “To develop the scientific in its fullness within science and the fact that mathematics, as a temper, humanism and the spirit technology’’. Indeed over the language, is a proliferating com- of inquiry of reform,” the only past few years I have helped cre- binations of sub-mathematical world constitution that embeds ate the Mediterranean Institute languages adaptable to the evo- science so overtly. He goes on for Advanced Studies (IMERA: lution of scientific practice; here to explain how Nehru himself Chimera,fr ) with its aim of work- he offers a variety of responses misunderstood Indian intellec- ing on ‘the human dimension of to Eugene Wigner’s ill-posed tual history and allied himself the sciences” as one place per- question about the ‘mysterious with the ‘sciento-optimism’ that haps where the deep dialogue effectiveness of mathematics’.

2 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 that Sarukkai calls for is being Constitution is still alive an well society called for by Sarukkai initiated. Sarukkai’s arguments in governmental circles. really takes place allowing the join my own belief that we need emergence of a new ethical ba- Finally, I Iook forward to new systems of translation be- sis for the scientific community. Sarukkai’s future writing on tween Science and other sec- new narratives of the history I highly recommend this book to tors of society, and not just sci- and philosophy of science. In Leonardo readers. It is intended ence education. a number of sections he devel- for students, but also interested Sarukkai relates some examples ops elements of a new histo- scientists and researchers in the of the different ways that science ries of the multicultural origins arts and humanities. and religion interact in differ- of modern science. Drawing (For deontological reasons I ent cultures, citing the way that on recent scholarship of Arun need to mention that Sundar some scientists from the Indian Bala and others, one begins to Sarukkai is a professional col- Space Agency take models of see the outlines of new answers league as a member of the Leon- their satellites to a temple in Tiri- to Joseph Needham ‘s query ardo Editorial Board and section pati Temple before the launch of of why modern science first editor for the “Re-Imagining the the satellite. He explains how in developed in Europe and not Moon” editorial project of the the Hindu Festival Ayudha Pooja elsewhere; incidentally Need- Journal). has evolved to include prayers to ham was a founding Leonardo computers and scientific appa- editorial advisor, and author of ratus. The cultural and spiritual Science and Civilization in Chi- Maps of Time: An embedding of the scientific en- na. The developing answers to Introduction to Big terprise is rarely made explicit, Needham’s question include; it History as Sarukkai successfully does did; it isn’t always called science in his discussion of the ethics now though there are continu- by David Christian, foreword of curiosity. I remember at the ity of concepts and methods; by William H. McNeill International Astronautical Con- science and its methods are University of California Press, gress in Bangalore a few years not stable objects and are still 2011, 672 pp. ago, hearing the heads of space evolving; modern science is agencies each articulate in a few not organically rooted only in ISBN: 978-0-520235007 sentences their vision for the Greek thought; in a 3000 year Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara, contribution of their agency to history of science it would be INRIM and IRIS, Torino, Italy society. The head of NASA bra- apparent that the interchanges zenly spoke of exploring and ex- between Asia, the Middle East [email protected] ploiting the solar system, a direct and Europe were consequently The concept of historical con- extrapolation of the American that European scholarship has sciousness emerged in the first manifest destiny doctrine and ideological and political reasons th half of the 20 century indicat- the endless frontier mythology. for a particular reading of his- ing the collective capability to The head of the Indian Space tory of science; that the inven- understand and join the con- Agency, ISRO, talked of con- tion of the printing press in Eu- temporary reality, recognizing tributing to helping human civi- rope ensured disproportionate the major events and actors that lization “stay in balance with its documentation of euro-centric defined it, also advancing proper planet,” clearly responding to a historical sources. Finally it is questions about its chance of different cultural discourse; yet hard not to observe that the his- continued existence. Two chief it is not simple: One of ISRO’s tory of modern science may look quantities at all times concur proudest achievements is the very different 400 years from in determining historical con- launch of the Chandrayan mis- now (800 years after Galileo) sciousness: the limitation of the sions to the moon, symbols of when scientific productivity of physical space and the aware- technological prowess and to- the BRIC countries outpaces ness of the time scale people kens of military capabilities, and that of North America and West- live in. Different meanings of life China also has bought into the ern Europe and other cultural and humanity’s place in the uni- cold war era use of space as embedding of science bears its verse are deducible if duration of terrain for national competition. fruits. This will be particularly time closes over six thousands Nehru’s original reasoning for the case if the kind of deep dia- years, as stated by literal read- including the ‘duty to develop the logue and negotiation between ing of the sacred texts, or ex- scientific temper’ in the Indian science and other sectors of pands back to 13 billions years,

3 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 as dated by science; the same Before being registered in ency- to the idea of progress. Maps of applies if the perspective is lim- clopaedias, Big History formed Time closes with perspectives ited by the Pillars of Hercules or in minds and discourses blend- on the possible future examined able to appreciate even a faint ing human memories and scien- at different levels: the near fu- gleam sinking into the most re- tific evidences; it is the history ture (centuries), the intermedi- mote black hole. on the largest possible scale, ate future (millennia), and the from the beginning of the world remote future (billions of years). until its end. The maps of time Each chapter ends with a sum- provided by Christian’s title can, mary; most have a timeline as in principle, help to find a place a useful accompaniment. In a for everything but with large un- first appendix, a review of dat- certainty. This idea is captured ing techniques is provided along in the image created by environ- with A Chronology for the Whole mental historian Alfred Cosby of Time, an outline with estimat- –– found on the back cover of ed dates and brief descriptions the book –– and its caption “You of the fundamental transitions are here” placed above an ar- dealt with in the text. row pointing about halfway on a All of the depicted passages, poster of the Milky Way galaxy. from the origin of the universe The book includes cosmology, to the industrial revolution, are geology, archaeology, environ- reduced in a second appendix mental studies, and starts with to a succession of Chaos and what the author dubitatively puts Order, whose cooperative en- Actually, historical conscious- forward as A Modern Creation deavour, which we call complex- ness delineates the way we Myth: the scientific narration of ity, aims but “for the second law look at complex questions of the origins of galaxies, stars, of thermodynamics to work more life, nature and society, broad- and planets in the inanimate efficiently towards its bleak goal ening common understanding universe. The discourse moves of a universe without order” (p. of reality and striving hard to then on the appearance of life 509). The increase in the level unburden ourselves of the bag- and its expansion on Earth as of complexity from simpler engage of tradition and claims of biosphere. The ensuing steps tities over the course of time modernity. Time and space have tackle the birth of humankind is a consequence of natural so much been enlightened by and its expansion until the processes, Christian explains. science that no thresholds represent, thanks to the capabil- Such passages of Big History main to their conceptual exten- ity to take control over nature, as the formation of stars from sion. Wide awake to this con- delineating major socio-cultural cosmic dust, multi-celled organ- cept, David Christian, historian and political achievements (cit- isms from organic substances, at San Diego State University, ies, states, technology) in the and cities from sparkled groups was able to provide modern his- long era of agricultural civiliza- of settlers, have a number of torical consciousness with its tions. Later on – schematizing common features: All are “transi- own sense of meaning. With the as much as possible the centu- tions to greater complexity [that] help of colleagues who gave lec- ries – recurrent courses of inno- come about through the creation tures on geology, biology, and vation, commercialization, and of new forms of interdepend- anthropology, Christian con- globalization forged the world ence, as entities that once ex- structed what has been called approaching modernity, until the isted more or less independ- Big History: an issue embracing great technological accelera- ently are incorporated within all the cosmic, natural, and cul- tion of the XIX and XX centuries. new and larger structures” (p. tural passages that gave birth, Features of the contemporary 139). As preset by Nobel Prize eventually, to such a modern age are much condensed in the Phil Anderson [1], Christian too disenchanted idealism able to title accompanying its appear- remarks that “as new levels of embed even the ephemeral sto- ance on the book: One World complexity have appeared they ry of humankind into the notions – to be compared with the previ- seem to operate according to of infinity and eternity. His book ous Many Worlds (Early human new rules (emergent proper- was first published in 2005, with history), and Few Worlds (The ties, in the jargon of complex- a new preface in 2011. Holocene) – order, unity, and ality theory)” (p.140). liance are fundamental notions

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Complexity is suitable to em- This book by a scholar of Portu- have provided a good motto for body modern historical con- guese and Spanish cultural his- this book, whose ambition is to sciousness, and interdepend- tory is not a scholarly enterprise free the reader from the false ence is a further possibility for although it borrows many of its illusions of God, Love, and Art, evolution. Unfortunately, sci- examples from the author’s eru- in order to bring him to a Stoic ence makes clear that the total dite background, but rather it is a acceptation of life’s hardness. energy of the universe is con- personal, deeply subjective at- The tone of the book is mild. stant, but its amount usable to tempt to come to terms with the Ruiz is not attacking religion, create complex entities (free en- questions raised by the atroc- romance, and aesthetics as if it ergy) can only decrease, while ity of life. The opening pages were drugs (or examples of false unusable energy (entropy) can are on the Florentine Plague, consciousness, to reuse the only increase. Complexity is which killed half of the popula- Marxist terminology one might but a brief anomaly grown-up tion and during which some citi- have expected here). Instead, he in energy differentials, ending zens became flagellants, others often demonstrates more than in greater chaos. Successive turned to sex and alcohol, still just sympathy to these illusions, steps in complexity and inter- others turned their eyes to the and he shows a real understand- dependence have determined beauty of the surrounding scen- ing of what pushes people to the course of Big History until ery, while a last group buried embrace mysticism, corporeal humans emerged. The need to the dead and went to their work excesses, and a belief in beauty corroborate human skills with every morning as usual. As Ruiz as the true solution to all hu- universal coordinates is prob- underlines from the very begin- man and historical evil. Yet at ably the driving force also of ning, the problem is that there is the same time he also warns us Maps of Time––the only myth no answer to life’s atrocity: the against the deceptions of these coherently available for human best one can do, he argues, is to answers. beings educated in the bitter re- continue to do his job, against all gret of scientific traditions, and odds; all the rest is nothing but conscious that “from the stand- hiding away from the fundamen- point of an inconceivably distant tal meaninglessness of human future, when the universe con- life, human society, and human tains no more than a depress- culture. Of these false solutions, ingly thin sprinkling of photons Ruiz then discusses three: first, and subatomic particles, the 13 religion; second, materiality and billion years covered in this book the senses (mainly eating, drink- will seem like a brief, exuberant ing, and sexual intercourse); and springtime” (p. 491). third, aesthetics (and perhaps, References although the author is not very explicit on this point, knowledge, [1] Philip W. Anderson, More is Different, Science, Vol. 177, No. science, technology). 4047, Aug. 4, 1972, pp. 393-396. The author blends historical and personal examples, knitting to- The Terror of gether major case studies of his History: On the own research and individual ex- Ruiz does not claim his clas- Uncertainties of periences, and transforming the sification of defence strategies book into something that hovers Life in Western against history to be original. between the personal memoir Civilization His master is clearly Johan Hu- (the journey of a young man izinga, whose seminal work on having left Cuba and discov- by Teofilo F. Ruiz The Autumn of the Middle Ages ering a new life in the sixties, is quoted as a major source of Princeton University Press, eventually becoming a professor inspiration. But contrary to the 2011, 200 pp. at UCLA after an education in Dutch historian, Ruiz proposes ISBN: 978-0691124131 Princeton) and a meditation on an essay that foregrounds the the human attempt to blindfold Reviewed by Jan Baetens, interpersonal dialogue with the oneself to the horror of history. University of Leuven reader. The reader of this book Lovecraft’s famous saying: “In is less addressed as a scholar [email protected]. the beginning was Fear” could ac.be than as the freshman discussing

5 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 the Meaning of Life in Professor in the US, is rendered as a single Dummies” and a dollop of most Ruiz’s office at UCLA. It explains word “forever” but, in this US delightful discourse on, among the charms of this book, but also edition, seems always to be two other things, how highly hostile its limits, for The Terror of His- words “for ever”. The traditional to human life nature is and how tory is not a research-driven French spelling of “programme” only our ability to acquire and or oriented book, but a kind of has given way to the US version, pass along knowledge has ena- academic self-help publication “program”. How these and other bled us to survive and prosper. for upper middlebrow book- words are handled in other edi- The title, Beginning of Infinity, clubbers. tions I have no idea. Will per- comes from Isaac Asimov’s The turbed readers demand those End of Eternity and a beauti- responsible for lapses in local- The Beginning ful snippet from that serves as izing of UK-isms do time in “jail” of Infinity: epigraph for the final chapter (not “gaol”?) for driving them, titled “The Beginning”. The book Explanations that however briefly, to distraction? Transform the is replete with “beginning of in- World The seeming digression (of the finity” definitions as they relate previous paragraph) was merely to the subject matter of almost a mini-reply of sorts to a brief every chapter. by David Deutsch riff on meme evolution by the Penguin Group USA, 2011, author where differences in 496 pp. phrases between UK/US Eng- ISBN: 978-0140278163 lish are cited: (“in hospital” / “in the hospital”, “learning to play Reviewed by Richard Kade, the piano” / “learning to play pi- Ubiquitous Iconoclast ano” but never “learning to play [email protected] the baseball”!). In fairness to the author, pub- Now, at last, to the substance of lisher, and all collaborators in this book. Readers familiar with this ambitious undertaking, this Gödel, Escher Bach, Ton Beau review is of the US edition of the de Marot and I Am a Strange book. Whatever differences may Loop by Douglas Hofstadter, will exist between this version, the find much of the same material presumed original published in (even an update of sorts on the London and others published in Turing Test, Incompleteness Australia, New Zealand, Cana- Theorem, Achilles racing the da, South Africa and India are Tortoise, etc.) covered in this Probably the most wonderfully unknown to me as this review newest book by David Deutsch. enjoyable part of this book, es- is being written. Indeed, his bibliography lists pecially for those of us who have two of the three named works seen almost every page of Leon- The above disclaimer is made, above under the heading of fur- ardo since 1968 and think about in part, to provide context for a ther reading. the interfaces of art, science, minor personal complaint over and technology, is the chapter Where GEB may be best syn- the often-jarring hodgepodge titled “Why Are Flowers Beauti- opsized as a shrug-of-shoulders of seeming inconstancies ob- ful?”. There a quote from Rich- look at the question of what is served in the process of local- ard Dawkins’ Climbing Mount so special about human thought izing orthography. While the “Z”s Improbable is interwoven with and Ton Beau as a similar sur- have been put into the spelling of a strand from Peter Shaffer’s vey of what, exactly, is “spirit” or such words as “realize”, “theo- Amadeus and a reminder of the “soul”, The Beginning of Infinity rize”, “specialized”, “customizes” passage from John Archibald seems “merely” an astrophysi- and “categorize”, other words Wheeler, used at the start of the cist’s explanation, in “near-Hof- have not made the “trip across first chapter: the pond” such as “analysing”, stadterian” style, of “everything “realisation”, “analogue”, “de- new under [over, through, be- “Behind it all is surely an idea so fence”, “megatonnes”, “coulour”, yond, wa-a-a-a-y beyond, etc.] simple, so beautiful, that when “behaviour” and “favourite”. An- the sun” combined with a brief we grasp it - in a decade, a cen- other minor annoyance is what, course in “Quantum Physics for tury or millennium - we will all

6 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 say to each other, ‘How could explanations of what is going do not usually associate with it have been otherwise?” wrong with GPS, or with the way scientific inquiry. The Fossil that the experiment used it, etc. Chronicles reads like a thriller Another equally pleasurable bit, Those who wish to question the novel in many parts: Who would not too long after that metaphori- theory of relativity need to do think that discussion about the cal tapestry, is the juxtaposing exactly the same in regard to cranial capacity of a skull could of Beethoven’s seemingly slop- the structure of spacetime. As be such exciting reading? This is py cross-outs on manuscripts far as I know, there exist no good partly because Falk is an excel- with the remark by Feynman, explanations of the latter type at lent writer and partly because “the only equipment a theoreti- present. The closest I’ve seen the stakes of finding missing cal physicist needs is a stack are ideas about neutrinos taking links in human evolution are of paper, a pencil, and a waste shortcuts through higher dimen- extremely high. As he writes, basket.” Others are thrown into sional space, but those seem to “When it comes to the subject the mix including, Bronowski be refuted by observations of of human origins, scientists have and Keats’ assertion “Beauty supernova neutrinos, so they been every bit as passionate is truth, truth beauty” along with won’t work as explanations. about their convictions as reli- dissenting opinion by Thomas gious fundamentalists are” (p. Huxley. “The implications for science 194). broadly cannot be known until Throughout this book refer- we have an explanatory theory This book concentrates mainly ence is made to Einstein’s axi- that explains the results. If it on the discovery of two fossils: omatic impossibility of anything changes fundamental theories, Taung, discovered by Raymond exceeding the speed of light. the change may or may not be Dart in Africa, and The Hobbit In LIGHT of the hoopla over big.” [1] (aka. Flo) discovered by Michael CERN’s recent faster-than-light Morwood in Flores, Indonesia. neutrino announcement, Deut- No can-kickin’ down the quan- These two contentious fossils sch replied, when interviewed tum continuum for Deutsch! caused extreme controversy by Wired.co.uk: Notes because they were so unique “This question is being asked [1] http://www.wired.co.uk/ and because they challenged news/archive/2011-09/26/ existing concepts of human the wrong way ‘round, both by david-deutsch-qa . See also the press and, as far as I can Charles Krauthammer, “Gone in evolution and origins. “If read- tell, by many physicists. This 60 Nanoseconds”, Washington ers feel some of the excitement Post, Page A- Friday, October is not a matter of ‘likelihood’ or 7, 2011 [ www.washingtonpost. and drama of pursuing ques- any other subjective concept. com/opinions/gone-in-60- tions about what made us hu- nanoseconds/2011/10/06/ man and the thrill of refining Science is objective. And in my gIQAf1RERL_print.html ] view we cannot take any experi- the tentative answers in light of mental results seriously except The Fossil newly discovered fossils, I will in the light of good explanations have achieved my goal in this of them. So we need explana- Chronicles: How book.” (p. 2) tions first. Where we have good, Two Controversial The Fossil Chronicles has an testable explanations, they then Discoveries Introduction followed by nine have to be tested and we drop Changed Our chapters, together with exten- the ones that fail the tests. View of Human sive notes and an excellent Bib- “The neutrino results do make Evolution liography and Index. Extensive existing explanations unsat- black & white illustrations and isfactory, but that is not very by Dean Falk diagrams help explain the subtleties of paleoneurology. Much exciting in itself because that University of California Press, to my joy (and surprise) Falk includes all sorts of parochial 2011, 280 pp. explanations about things like provides a Glossary of Neuro- the properties of the outgoing ISBN: 978-0520266704 anatomical Terms that is very detectors, the accuracy of the Reviewed by Rob Harle helpful, considering some of the GPS, and thousands of other specialised scientific terminol- such things. So, those who wish [email protected] ogy used throughout the book. Even with the complex science to explain the results by ques- Intrigue, deceit, and fierce com- involved in the description and tioning the accuracy of GPS now petition are characteristics we need to produce good, testable discussion of cranial endocast

7 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 analyses the book is equally I bring this paleopolitics deceit bitter rivalry and advance the suitable and accessible to sci- to readers’ attention because, understanding of our origins. entists and the general reader. firstly, the general public is not fully aware of its existence and, Dean Falk is a Professor of Secrets of secondly, it occupies a large part Anthropology at Florida State Women: Gender, of Falk’s discussion. To give University and a Senior Scholar her credit though she always Generation, and at the School for Advanced Re- remains positive and tries to the Origins of search in Santa Fe. She brings give a balanced account of the Human Dissection her rather unique specialisation situation and the scientists she in human brain evolution to the discusses where possible. by Katharine Park analyses of these two above mentioned fossils and gives new Zone Books, 2010, 419 pp. evidence crucial to interpreting ISBN: 978-1890951672 both discoveries and proposes Reviewed by Jac Saorsa, surprising connections between Cardiff School of Art and this pair of extraordinary speci- Design mens. She has authored two previous books concerning our [email protected] origins and the nature of human brain evolution. Paleoneurology This is a review of the paper is a specialised discipline within edition of Secrets of Women: paleoanthropology that studies Gender, Generation, and the Or- brain development as revealed igins of Human Dissection. The by marks, size, and peculiarities Trade edition, published in 2006, present in cranial endocasts, won the 2007 Margaret W. Ros- both physical and virtual. siter Prize given by the History of Science Society (HSS), and As with most other organisa- the 2009 William Welch Medal tions, academic life has its petty What puzzles me is how profes- given by the American Associa- politics; however, paleopolitics sional academics can falsify raw tion for the History of Medicine. raises this pathetic situation to data and then deliberately bias a whole new level. “In addition Where the term prosection de- the analysis of this data to sup- to “age-old jealousies, ideology, fines the dissection of a cadaver port their own entrenched be- and the quest for personal pow- carried out by an experienced liefs and be allowed to continue er,” turf guarding often seemed anatomist as a demonstration of their work after they have been to motivate the negative recep- anatomic structure, in Secrets shown to be frauds? Even when tions to new hominin discover- of Women, award-winning his- they have published in Nature ies.” (p. 98) It is a shame that torian Katharine Park conducts or Science and subsequently the personal agendas and gi- a prosection of the history of been asked to “Please Explain” gantic egos of many scientists anatomy itself. With almost by these prestigious journals. actually hold scientific inquiry surgical precision she avoids Further, in many cases the back. The actions concerning a ‘universalising approach’ to funding, and consequently the new fossil discoveries by some the subject and carries out a scientist’s employment, comes of the scientists described in specific examination of the de- from public funds. To whom are this book are morally despica- velopment of dissection prac- these cheats morally responsible, and in the corporate world tices in Northern Italy during ble, it seems no one, not even th would be grounds for dismissal, the period between the 13 and themselves? th disgrace, and possibly criminal 16 centuries. The scope of the charges. Falk discusses the now The Fossil Chronicles is a fast book encompasses the breadth infamous Piltdown fossil hoax, paced, highly enjoyable read, of anatomical knowledge from not extensively, but enough to and apart from the knowledge devotion to Galen’s authoritative provide the facts behind this ab- that Falk brings to the non- an- anatomical text by earliest medi- surdity that has held back the thropological aware reader, cal masters of the University of advancement of human-origin the exposition of the workings Bologna, to the publication of scholarships in many subtle of academic, institutionalised De Humani Corporis Fabrica, ways. science may help reduce the the great anatomical treatise of

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Vesalius published in 1543, but concept of secrecy moved from Gender, Generation, and the Or- it is particular in its focus. the acknowledgement of wom- igins of Human Dissection is an en’s repertoire of therapeutic absorbing study and deserves Park eloquently opens up the remedies — here exemplified in the awards that the hardback very concept of “opening the Chapter 2 with an interesting ac- edition has already received. body” by addressing the reli- count of chicken husbandry — to This new softback edition will gious, linguistic, and cultural being associated with sexuality serve to restate its rightful place contexts of the time that gave and reproduction, or generation. within the field of historical anat- rise to the variants of the prac- As possessors of “hidden inte- omy. tice of human dissection that are riors” and a sexuality that could often ignored, or at least consid- not be as easily and obviously ered unimportant by more sci- Great Discoveries understood as that of their male entifically oriented studies. But in Medicine counterparts, women became, this is not all. Her scalpel slices without any will or provocation through the underbelly of the by William Bynum, Helen on their part, objects of knowl- male dominated scientific view Bynum (eds.) edge in the scientific context. of ‘anatomies’ (or dissection) The enigma of the female body Thames & Hudson, 2011, 304 by focusing, through individual was to be solved by men through pp. case studies, on the central role thorough and intimate investiga- ISBN: 978-0500251805304 played by women in the develop- tion, and the study of the deep- ment of early modern anatomy Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara, est secret, the uterus, became in patriarchal Italian society. She INRIM and IRIS, Torino, Italy a paradigm of dissection. argues that women’s’ bodies, [email protected] “real and imagined,” held the It should be clear that Secrets of “secrets” of gender and repro- Women is not the dry academic The Dutch historian Johan duction that “alternately alarmed fare that may be expected of Huizinga wrote in The Wan- inspired attracted repelled and an historical account of human ing of the Middle Ages (1919) fascinated” (p.38) men, and thus dissection. The book is, in fact, that one of the most significant it was through the opening up a very accessible and engag- cultural transitions of Western of women’s’ bodies that men ing work written with the energy civilization took place in the attempted to understand and and eloquence of an author who late medieval Europe (XIV-XV know their own. is clearly very much immersed century), when sight definitively in her subject. Lively narrative prevailed at a brainy level above “A nun with visions of Christ’s fleshes out the bones of erudite other senses, until thinking itself Passion. A blind, crippled, analysis, the two neatly sutured was conceived as a sequence homeless holy woman. Four together to create a meticulously of visual images. This passage Patrician wives and mothers. sourced and fully documented coincided with a breakthrough Two prophetesses, one of them work that benefits from exten- in the theoretical and practical a married, lactating virgin. An sive notes and bibliography. means – clocks, maps, weights, executed criminal. These very and pilot books developed to different women had one thing The fact that the notes and bib- quantify the observable physi- in common: their bodies were liography take up more than a cal reality. Even music started opened and their viscera exam- third of the book itself could to be ‘read’ on pentagrams by ined after their deaths” (p.13). seem at first a little daunting, chanters and musicians, to de- and the need to constantly re- The deliberate focus on women light ears. fer to the notes in order to fully here does not define a feminist appreciate the text can make In the Middle Ages sight and perspective. It rather highlights reading the book a cumber- quantifications became the what Park defines as the “gen- some and erratic experience. basic instruments of artists as dered lens” (p.80) through which Complex cross-referencing and well as of artisans, scholars, and the female body was seen at a some repetition within the text, merchants. It was the integration time when Italian learned dis- along with the apparently ill- of their separately refined skills course on anatomy and dis- considered placement of some that gave birth eventually to the section was male and public, of the illustrations, only add to first scientific developments: as opposed to secret forms of the problem. These issues how- perspective and optics attracted knowing that where considered ever should do not detract from painters; anatomy was interest- characteristically female. This the fact that Secrets of Women: ing for sculptors, statics for ar-

9 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 chitects. Quantification was the scientific discourses with rep- pragmatism of medical art; nev- springtime of Renaissance and, resentations intimately linked ertheless, our understanding of later on, of modern sciences, with religious and supernatural the workings of our bodies and which with the key contribute of interpretations of medicine. minds remains inextricably relat- mathematics were to blow up in ed to how we perceive ourselves Seventy contributions of distin- the following centuries. and the world we live in. It was guished experts from around only combining the invention of Evidence of surgery is reported the world forms the book that microscopy on one side, with in Egyptian papyri; the first Euro- is composed of seven parts statistics and epidemiology on pean school of medical philoso- dealing with such themes as the other, that the two emblem- phy was funded in the X century the discover of body functions, atic levels of medicine – micro- AD at Salerno (Southern Italy), a from ancient times (Egypt, In- scopic and macroscopic – were crossroad of Arab, Greek, Latin, dia, China, Greece, Islam) to reconciled. and Hebraic civilizations. But modern pathological anatomy; the apprenticeship of medicine the progressive understanding as a mature discipline took mil- of health and disease, from the lennia. Differently from other make out of blood circulation sciences, even after the Mid- to psychoanalysis; the succes- dle Ages, it remained more like sion of medical triumphs, from sorcery barely anchored to an anesthesia to neurosurgery. uncertain empiricism than an Concise descriptions of the ordered subject of study. analyzed issues complete the presentations that repeatedly The evolution of medicine as combine technical illustrations art and science can gladly be with allegoric, informative or appreciated through the pages even advertising images. of Great Discoveries in Medi- cine. This is a collection of 382 Other topics include the long sketches, stamps, photos, dig- revered concepts of humors and ital representations, and micros- pneumas – i.e. the ensemble copy images depicting from the of body fluids and air required The editors explain that actu- earliest descriptions of disease by various organs to function, ally people “live longer, suffer and healing in ancient Near according to ancient Greeks, less pain, and are healthier than Eastern cultures (Assyrian, Ba- related with cosmic energies, even their grandparents were bylonian, and Egyptian) until the the discovery of the pathogenic two generations ago” (p. 259). momentous hyper-technological role of parasites and vectors, the Yet, a major endangerment of approach of the late XX century, consequences of the genetic public health is the dehumani- including assisted reproduction, revolution, the introduction of zation of medicine, due to the cardiac surgery, key-hole treat- machines as defibrillators and ubiquitous use of pills, exam ments, and organ transplants. endoscopes, and the pharmaco- techniques, and instrumental logical cure of pandemic illness- William Bynum – professor therapies treating our bodies as es as tuberculosis, smallpox, emeritus at University College machines, with structural (mus- typhus and HIV. The Bedlam (London), author and editor of cles, bones, and skin), mechani- institute of London, the most numerous books on the his- cal (the heart, veins, and lungs famous mental hospital in the tory of medicine – and Helen imagined as pumps and tubes), English-speaking world, is also Bynum – who lectured in medi- and electrical (brain, nerves, briefly depicted cal history at the University of neurons) components, all of Liverpool, now a freelance writ- One point emerges in particular them changeable or reparable, er – already co-edited in 2007 as a landmark of medical devel- of course, like technical devices the five award-winning volumes opments: the inner features of to be refurbished. This is not the of the illustrated Dictionary of medicine are as hardly adapt- case of this collection, whose Medical Biography. In this new able to mathematics as their evi- convincing result is a restoration superb visual account of his- dences are suitable to be appre- of both the components of ra- torical theories and practices ciated by direct sight. Although tional medicine it deals with: art of healthcare, they have been scientific quantification took at and science. Through its pages, able to alternate technical and last advantage on the uncertain soul alternates feeling of pain

10 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 and hope. It is an exaltation of sion and this scientist’s overall book demonstrates that Darwin the human element too, remind- approach to the Expressions was looking for pictures at the ing us that “the reasons for a project, a component of theory threshold between what could healthier longevity are complex of evolution. As the book out- be seen with the unassisted eye and the real medical improve- lines the progression of Darwin’s and what could be seen only ments that have been made dur- thinking, the reader perceives photographically. While what he ing the past century are only a how this scientist played with wanted became routine a dec- part of the story” (p. 259). ideas, technologies and infor- ade later with the invention of mation to bootstrap the details speedy gelatin dry-plate chem- Darwin’s of his presentation and, in doing istry of the kind used by Ead- Camera: Art and so, made visual artifacts an ef- weard Muybridge (1830-1904) Photography in fective part of his toolbox. More and Étienne-Jules Marey (1830- broadly, Prodger shows that 1904) (to analyze the gaits of the Theory of when we sequence historical galloping horses and motion), Evolution exemplars associated with key it was more of an aspiration in moments we can visually weigh Darwin’s time. [Coincidentally, by Phillip Prodger how our understanding of the one of the photographers Dar- Oxford University Press, world changes from era to era. win worked closely with, Oscar 2009, 320 pp. He also explains that images Rejlander (1813-1875), experi- are a legitimate form of docu- ISBN: 978-0195150315 mented with sequential imagery mentation in analyzing the prob- for the Darwin project, but was Reviewed by Amy Ione, The lems thinkers faced, evaluating unable to produce sequential Diatrope Institute the evidence of how innovators pictures suitable for his pur- solve the technological limita- poses.] [email protected] tions at each stage and defining The idea that context is an im- the elusive process of creative While Darwin’s Camera does a portant component in both the accomplishment overall. splendid job in conveying how presentation and nature of em- the images Darwin used offered pirical studies became popu- insights on multiple levels, what lar at the end of the twentieth sets the book apart is that when century and is often consid- Prodger shows how Darwin ered an outgrowth of Kuhnian used photography scientifically paradigms. With the elevation in presenting his theory of ex- of paradigmatic perspectives, pression, he compels the reader however, came the quandaries to think about what we mean by of what contextual research evidence, illustration, and objec- “means” in practice. Precisely tivity in a larger sense. Taking how does the creative mind us through Darwin’s effort to find make the leaps that take us from suitable prints for the scientific one way of seeing (and “being study, Prodger reminds us that in”) the world to another? Case Expressions was produced at studies, such as Phillip Prodg- the cusp of a change in attitudes er’s recently released Darwin’s toward photography. One rea- Camera: Art and Photography son the time frame is important in the Theory of Evolution, of- More specifically, Darwin’s becomes clear at the end, when fer an opportunity to come to Camera proposes that Charles the author directly turns to ques- terms with this dilemma as we Darwin revolutionized the use of tions about “evidence” and “il- consider a creative mind at work photography in science with his lustration” in relation to Darwin’s and walk in the shoes of an in- publication of The Expression of work. Taking on some research- novator. Indeed, the importance the Emotions in Man and Ani- ers (e.g., MaryJo Marks, Carol of context is a defining theme mals in 1872, building on three Armstrong and Jennifer Green- of Prodger’s study, in which he separate but related traditions: Lewis) who have criticized Dar- examines Darwin’s strategies physiognomy treatises, pas- win for fabricating gestures and for illustrating his books, his in- sion manuals and anatomical scientific positivism, Prodger terest in art, his studies of book studies. Toward this end, the explains that these critics are illustrations related to expres- anachronistic because they ap-

11 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 ply current views of photograph- to record action, and provided that Rejlander’s tendency to em- ic objectivity to Darwin’s work, insight into the trajectory that bellish photographically is now rather than understanding the led to the invention of cinema. seen as controversial, it is also mind and technology of his age. Darwin’s Camera, in contrast, clear that his work for Darwin Darwin, of course, wanted his focuses in on how Darwin used included experimentation that readers to find his photographs photographs to tie his theory Darwin valued precisely for this convincing. Yet, as Prodger ar- of evolution with his theory of reason. Darwin did not see it as gues, the distinction between expression. With Darwin, Prodg- deceitful, but rather as an effort “evidence” and “illustration” is er is analyzing an aspiration to to push the technology beyond blurred in Expressions because combine motion and still pho- what it was capable of achieving there was no precedent for the tography that dealt with a dif- then, at least in a basic sense. use and acceptance of photog- ferent set of problems. Each One notion related to the Dar- raphy as scientific data. There perspective offers a viable ref- win/Rejlander relationship stood was no protocol for the use of erence point in the development out: Prodger’s suggestion that empirical photography, precisely of photography as a scientific Muybridge may have read a because photographers often tool and a means to consider publication of Rejlander’s out- found it necessary to manipulate how both photographers and lining his experiments to cap- their work to enhance not only scientists were wrestling with ture motion. If Muybridge in- the visual appeal but also to add their desire to portray that which corporated ideas published by clarity to their images. Indeed, is fleeting. The kernel of the ar- Rejlander when developing his this urge toward clarity and the gument in the Darwin study is own motion study techniques, perspective Darwin brought to that this thinker’s examination then he is directly linked to both his work may have derived from of how to portray humans and Darwin and Muybridge. Another the ethos of drawing for scientific notation that showed Prodger’s non-human animals expression illustration, since drawings have attention to detail was a refer- is an important part in the story an inevitable degree of inter- ence to Rejland’s self-portrait of how photography came to be pretation, however objective the Surprised Man, where the au- seen as “objective.” artist may attempt to be. thor points out that the photogra- Many of the book’s details add pher’s stained fingers show the One of the most potent aspects to its value. Comparative pho- effects of the silver nitrate used of the study is its sensitivity to tographs from the Darwin ar- in photographic processing. the artistry of scientists and chive are used to help us get the methodology of art in the Reflecting on the book when I inside Darwin’s mind and allow nineteenth century. Prodger finished it, I debated whether us to see what he did to empha- provides a particularly compel- more information about the size particular points Prodger ling window through which to broader history of photogra- wants reader to focus on when ponder cross-disciplinary prob- phy was necessary for some lem-solving and, in this respect, reading the text. Discussions readers. Will those who are un- Darwin’s Camera is remarkably throughout the book also help us acquainted with photographic unlike and yet curiously similar look at Darwin’s relationship to history conceptualize how im- to Prodger’s earlier Time Stands Charles Bell, the Scottish anato- portant Prodger’s insights are? Still: Muybridge and The Instan- mist, surgeon, physiologist and When we look at the photo- taneous Photography (see my artist. Darwin drew several of graph today it is easy to over- Leonardo Review at http://www. his anatomical examples from look the trajectory that has led leonardo.info/reviews/apr2003/ Bell’s work on expression and us here. One iconic image of Time_Ione.html). Similarities in- took a class from Bell when early photography that came clude the fact that both books he studied in Scotland. I was to mind was Louis Daguerre’s offer insight into photographic particularly taken with the dis- “Boulevard du Temple,” taken innovation, the creative imagi- cussions related to Darwin’s in late 1838 or early 1839. It is nation, and experimentation in rejection of Bell’s idea that ex- generally characterized as the the nineteenth-century. Time pressions were given by God, first photograph ever taken of a Stands Still captured the his- an idea quite popular among person and it shows the early tory of the quest to translate nineteenth century scientists. problems photographers faced action into still photography, Prodger also is well versed on in capturing movement. We are how it related to Muybridge’s Oscar Rejlander, a photogra- told that this lone figure on the innovations with sequential stills pher unknown to me before I deserted street is a deceiving read this book. While it is clear

12 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 image because what was nor- theless, Darwin’s contribution of Waterloo’s Critical Media Lab mally a busy street was “lost” to scientific photography was (CML), Pharmakon was curated due to the long exposure times revolutionary. Even if Expres- by Marcel O’Gorman, Director of early photography. In other sions did not have a transfor- of the CML and a Professor of words, in Daguerre’s image the mational impact comparable to English at Waterloo, as well as capture of a person was ser- a book like Vesalius’ De Humani an artist in his own right. The endipitous because everything Corporis Fabrica, which provid- exhibition included 10 contem- else was moving too fast to reg- ed a foundation for the modern porary artists working in a wide ister during the ten-minute ex- disciplines of human and com- variety of mediums, from paint- posure time needed to imprint parative anatomy and physiol- ing and sculpture to embroidery, the photograph. The reason the ogy, Expressions was still is a digital media, and interactive man in the bottom left corner of remarkable achievement, as this technologies. These artworks the plate registered is that he pioneering study demonstrates. formed part of an interdiscipli- was standing still, getting his Both Darwin’s Camera and the nary conversation that probed boots polished during the entire recent publication of an anno- the tensions and multiplicity of time the photograph was taken. tated edition of Darwin’s Expres- ancient and modern meanings This is perhaps the first example sions by Paul Ekman, (which in- embedded in the concept of of the “motion” problem. cludes contributions by Prodger pharmakon, or “that which can as well) attest to Expressions’ both kill and cure.” In investigat- In summary, Darwin’s Camera current relevance. All in all, Dar- ing this theme, artists engaged describes how he worked to cap- win’s Camera is well written and religion, philosophy, pharmacol- ture expressions that happen to nicely produced. Prodger ably ogy and scientific research as quickly for the eye to see and of- credits Darwin’s contributions domains in which the effects of fers a glimpse into how scientific to the history of scientific illus- substances and ideas are in- imagery and technological inno- tration and highlights this sci- determinate and unpredictable. vation developed hand-in-hand. entist’s creative mind from an What sets this volume apart is unusual perspective. He takes The windows of the storefront the discussion of why Darwin’s on a novel topic and ultimately gallery were strewn with giant attitude toward crafting images says as much about creative plaster pills labeled “Buspar,” to illustrate his scientific ideas thinking, experimental work, and the work of Colleen Wolsten- may seem suspect to us today. an imaginative mind as he does holme. A small flat case dis- If so, it is because we now as- about Darwin. plays metal charm bracelets and sume that the scientific method necklaces resembling casts of is about conclusions fitting the Pharmakon psychotropic medications, in- data, not about creating data cluding Prozac and Wellbutrine, to prove our hypotheses. [Still, Society for Literature, pieces from her “Charmed” se- even today, we find that scien- ries. Begun in the late 1990s, tists highlight areas of the data Science and the Arts Annual Conference & Media Art Show when the use of lifestyle drugs that support their work. The was increasingly a topic of so- false-colored images to which Kitchener, Ontario, September cial concern, the series offers a we have become accustomed 22-25, 2011 sculptural memoir to medication are designed precisely to high- Conference Website: http:// use and explores the conflicting light what the scientists want litsciarts.org/slsa11/blog/ promises and stigmas associat- us to see.] Without debating the ed therewith. As consumable as Reviewed by Jennifer pros and cons of this develop- the medications themselves, the Gradecki, Dehlia Hannah and ment, it is fascinating to think documentation of the pill charms Hannah Star Rogers about the introduction of photog- included cease and desist let- raphy in the nineteenth century [email protected], dh2058@ ters from drug manufacturers and how the efforts to capturing columbia.edu, hsr9@cornell. and enthusiastic coverage by fleeting expressions required edu news outlets and women’s some degree of contrivance. magazines, evoking the profit Pharmakon was the theme of the motive as a pharmakon among Prodger notes that Darwin’s annual meeting of the Society pharmaceuticals. Expressions quickly went out for Literature, Science and the of favor, possibly because the Arts and the title of an art exhibi- Nearby, a medicine cabinet fashions of the models made tion that coincided with the con- displayed Brad Necyk’s “My- the book look antiquated. None- ference. On view at University thologies” (2011), rows of or-

13 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 ange plastic pill bottles baring its own risks. The piece consists what science has already at- handwritten quotes from phi- of documentation of Gradecki’s tempted to represent. What losophers such as Nietzsche, attempts to file for institutional then has Whiteman managed Freud and Foucault; whose review board (IRB) approval and to reintroduce or add, that these writings destabilize the ideas a classic shock machine which specimens lacked, suspended of mental illness and reason users can choose to use, yet un- in formaldehyde in the scientific alike. Paul Roorda’s collection approved by the IRB, but availa- context? The specimens articu- of antique glass pill bottles filled ble for use by gallery-goers. The lated fingers and toes remind with capsules containing indi- IRB, created initially to protect the viewer of fetal representa- vidual pages of the New Testa- the rights of research subjects, tions and, therefore, of a flurry of ment added to the appearance may ironically be violating the concerns around the materiality, of the gallery as a well-stocked rights of researchers. Shock ma- care, and consequences of life. pharmacy. chines have been used for both Leaving the gallery one day, torture and for therapy, to dam- At the center of the gallery a row there was a moment that brought age and to stimulate. Gradecki of vintage glass syringes filled our discussion of pharmakon offers us access to the forbidden with red liquids were suspended and the rhetoric of pharmaceuti- or, at least, unapproved. The upright inside a wooden frame, cal marketing into sharp focus. artist as provocateur risks back- their long metal needles point- A man, appearing to have fallen lash while raising challenging ing downwards. Also by Roor- on hard times, wore an old t-shirt questions. This pharmakon can da, “Seven (Heavenly/Deadly)” emblazoned with his contribu- induce catharsis and generate (2007) powerfully evokes the tion to the conversation: “When reflection on the institutionaliza- fear that medicine can be as de- Life Just Blows: Fukitol!” tion of science as something that structive as it is curative. The does not always save science red liquid in Roorda’s syringes is from itself. Art Biennale - not blood but dye extracted from Venice, Italy Gideon Bibles, as though it were Kiki Benzon’s textile books Neu- possible to distill their redemp- ron (2010) and WHYFOR 1.0 Illuminations: 54th tive power into a more readily (2011) are hand embroidered International Art Exhibition deliverable form. Roorda’s fluid- science textbooks that illustrate filled vintage syringes take on basic concepts and processes. June 4th - November 27th, a heightened significance in The thick ivory wool pages of 2011 light of Jacques Pepin’s recently Neuron are bound inside a black Reviewed by Yvonne published book on the history of canvas cover embellished by a Spielmann, University of the AIDS, in which Pepin argues that single red neuron. A fine wool West of Scotland the HIV pandemic was caused fringe resembling a neural net by intravenous injections admin- flows from the pages, each de- [email protected] istered in the course of colonial picting different types of neurons Every two years the Art Bien- public health campaigns against and neurological processes de- nale Venice reinvents itself, new diseases such as sleeping sick- picted and carefully labeled. In title, new director, curators, new ness and syphilis: a shocking contrast to scientific illustrations locations and more novel coun- example of iatrogenic illness. that strive for the effect of trans- tries that participate first time. When, in another work, Roorda parency, these didactic images However, the event itself has embeds a snake-bite kit inside evoke the painstaking and time established a certain tradition a bible, it is ambiguous whether consuming process required to that goes on undisputed, namely science is meant as a cure for reproduce them, a process that the presentation of art rubriced religious enthusiasm, or whether mirrors in an alternative form the by national identity in separate what is needed is an antidote for tactile and material dimension of pavilions that each have their too much knowledge. scientific knowledge production. own, country-specific cura- Given these concerns, limita- “Taxnomia” (2011), by Maria tors. In addition, the Biennale tions on scientific research might Whiteman, is a series of pho- director-curatorship (Director: seem a welcome prophylactic. tographs of preserved animal Bice Curiger) sets the tone for Yet, as Jennifer Gradecki’s specimens found at the Uni- the range of diversity regard- IRB #G10-02-066-01 (2010- versity of Alberta’s Museum of ing the presentations in the 11) suggests, institutionalizing Zoology. These visualizations post-industrial spaces of the constraints on research carries of visualizations re-represent Arsenale. This flagship show

14 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 together with the exhibition conditions. The days of the Ar- highly provisional and instead of in the Giardini main pavilion, senale when it was bursting with the entrance sign reads black is surrounded and eventually video works with competitive letters: sold out. Inside, the outnumbered by a growing in- sound levels seem past. Today, space is empty, more precisely: crease of other national pavil- the interesting media arts are the floor is flooded with water, ions and extra events that do either concerned with processes a wooden runway above water not fit into the limited space/set- of self-reflexivity and/or politi- level leads across the space. tings of the Giardini where the cal-societal matters, the hype At the focal point opposite the national pavilions house “their” of technology is definitely over. entrance an opening in the wall own art shows. The extra events sheds bright light - another re- This year, the British pavilion are given the title “collateral minder of nothingness. There has undergone the most radi- events” which sounds promis- are clearly no signs of change cal transformation. Mike Nel- ing but by no means feeds any or progression, except our activ- son was allowed to remove the content-related expectation, it ity of moving across the space original roof and inside he built is rather another tag or selling which in its purity is aesthetically a completely new and different point attached to art works that appealing. wooden structure that is hid- are mostly presented in old pal- ing the existing walls. The new Another work with water is rep- azzis that sometimes are more structure disrupts the idea of resented by Italian artist Fab- worth seeing than the shows a pavilion and transforms the rizio Plessi in the Venice Pavil- presented therein. place in a Turkish building site ion which consists of over-live On the whole, this year’s Bien- with an open courtyard - all of size boat-like structures that are nale had no striking highlights, which reminds the me of the erected to upright sculptures. no interferences or political initial site in Istanbul where the Monitors that replace the ground statements that would disrupt artist did show his work at first level of the ships reveal streams the rubrics of nationality and in 2003 at the Istanbul Biennale. of flowing waters as if we could also the many countries that The “work” in Venice now tells a see through the bottom of the have their location outside the nomadic story of cultural trans- ship. This kind of imagination Giardini for the majority do not fer that has effect on the sites reminds of the early days of reflect the sites of Venezian pal- where the transfer takes place, media arts when such surprise aces or any cultural-historical here it results in the transforma- effects did catch attention but specificity of the site. This, to tion of a defined art space into in the context of the 2011 Bien- remind, has been quite different a labyrinth consisting of small nale the position has a historical in past years, when for example, rooms, dead-end corridors, filled tone, although Plessi’s work is the Spanish pavilion was only with tools referring to trading, of 2010. accessible with a valid Spanish craftsmanship, arts and house- More to the present state of passport. This year, the same hold tools. Walls are plastered media art, we are immersed pavilion shows an assemblage with photographs of the original into multi-dimensional effects of multi-media performance acts site of the exhibition. Clearly, of animation in the Japanese and related documentation, the this place stresses the contem- pavilion that is turned into a pavilion turns into an unstruc- poraneity and non-fixity and in- three-screen and multi-mirrored tured media theatre with no clear stability of territory. In another black-box environment wherein beginnings or endings, and it direction, the Greece pavilion everything, including our pres- has nothing new or challenging radicalises pressing matters of ence, is subject to reflection. We to offer hereby. In contrast, other identity in relation to place and are encompassed into the media individual national pavilions and space, but the stress is on the presentation of animation shorts individual artists reflect on urg- convergence of economy and that refer to aesthetics of Jap- ing matters such as the global politics. “Beyond Reforme”, the anese Manga and anime and war zones, networked, intercul- title chosen by artist Dohandi for develop imaginary creatures, tural communication and ethan empty Greece pavilion that features, flora and fauna against nic-cultural specificities. Also, represents the state of the art the backdrop of Tokyo-density a significant tendency to deal of Greece seen as “blank” and of cityscape. The animation is with religious matters cannot “sold out” in mental, political and fluidly developing and surround- be overlooked. The overall aim economic terms. The outside of ing us with a culturally specific is to focus on aesthetic-artistic the building is covered with a view on the convergence of na- matters, not so much on media wooden construction that looks ture and media in a dream-like

15 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 mode with lots of humour, en- made to connect the artist’s life but do not have any reflection joyable fictional creatures and and work to the historically pre- that points outside the closed surprise effects. There is also ceding art events of the Fluxus circles. Like Plessi’s works, another layer of experience, group, to which this work has these pieces are interesting in when we leave Tabaimo’s ani- no connection, whatsoever. For themselves but we have seen mation world and go below the what reason, the German pa- many alike in the emerging days building where the open round vilion receives the Golden Lion of media technology. that we saw in the middle of the for Best National Participation, One of the most surprising and animation screening room now needs further explanation and truly participatory and interac- reveals as another projection can only be justified by blunt tive installations was presented site. An additional cylindrical facts that dead artists are more by the Lithuanian Pavilion which projection of form and formless valuable in the art market. received a Special Mention. The bubbles, water and creatures is In contrast, to dead-end me- point is that artist Darius Miksys presented below the screening morials, we can enjoy 24 hour does not need any complex or room in the open space below cinematic pleasure with Chris- complicated media technol- the building (the basement level tian Marclay’s film screening ogy, on the contrary, his work of the Japanese pavilion is open around the clock, for which is grounded on the idea of an to enter - but has rarely been the audio-visual artist from US archive. Miksys’ “Behind the used by artists as an extra instal- won the Golden Lion at the “Il- White Curtain” stores all art lation space). Here, the anima- luminations” exhibitions in the works in actu that have been tion is everywhere, it shows the Arsenale. Marclay, a known selected and awarded by the state of the art or our present: artist of compilation films and state of Lithuania. What may it blurs inside-outside relations audio-works with samples, has sound like an odd idea of na- and has become an ubiquitous searched years through film tional representation, becomes component of our lives. materials to compose a film of a lively interface because the Next to the Japanese view of samples that gives the exact actual “exhibition” before the “Teleco-soup”, a ‘natural’ me- local time minute by minute. white curtain consists only of dia mix by young female artist Marclay has spliced together, the pieces that we, the audience, Tabaimo, who graduated from extensively sampled uncount- visitors, are selecting from the the prestigious Kyoto University able sequence, scenes, shots, catalogue of the complete works of Art and Design, we find the portions of shots where the ex- that were awarded in Lithuania. solid structure of the German act time of our viewing is given The works that are picked by us pavilion that has been convert- so that the given time in the will then be brought from the ed into a “church” dedicated to fictional context exactly equals storage and set up in front of Christoph Schlingensief, who the local screening time. Nota- us and remain there till future had passed away recently. The bly, at 3 pm we see a clock in visitors will change the settings. building and its interior exhibi- the film showing 3 pm, and this Without interaction and partici- tion support the setting of a me- proceeds minute by minute, 24 pation there would be nothing morial that transports a debat- hours long. It is amazing to think on show at all, and this gives able personal incorporation of of cinema in this way that seen an interesting comment to the the relationship between art and as whole contains all possible curatorial practices as they are religion. The interior church-like times. The setting of the film also underlying the machinery of the space is flashing with monitors, highlights self-reflexive modes concept of the Venice Biennnale films, videos, photographs and of the medium where fictional and also lead to categorisation overloaded with further over- time and timing of the fictional based on nationality. Another mediated samples, like films event, which is screened, are Special Mention was received and video documentation by and conflated. In this lucid represen- by another conceptual instal- with Schlingensief also in the tation of time measurement and lation work: a series of trash side-rooms. This creates highly measured time, the time of the cans presented by Swedish problematic personification of film and the filmed time are the artist Klara Lidén reveals at religion and in effect is only once same. a closer look that they come more stressing Schlingensief’s from different countries across The Silver Lion was awarded to unreflected megalomania. The Europe and in this respect we Haroon Mirza from UK for works setting provokes distance, in are made aware that our waste, that display technological cir- particular where the attempt is trash is also culturally specific cuits of light, tone and energy

16 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 and can be classified according poor brings the idea to visualise Duke University Press, 2011, to national origin. This work pro- the invisible, when he installs a 400 pp. vokes reflection also on the usu- cylindrical container at the inter- ISBN: 978-0822349105 al practices of some first world section between transept and nations to “sell” their waste to the nave of the church which Reviewed by John F. Barber, other countries. pours smoke into the open. Be- Washington State University cause of a huge ventilator ma- Vancouver Among other works outside the chine that is mounted below the Giardini and Arsenale, only a [email protected] cupola of the church right above few strike in terms of making the opening where the smoke Once upon a time television connection to the location. We comes out, the smoke moves was analog. We watched pro- may call the installation by UK up in direction of the ventilator gramming at prescribed times, artist Karla Black (represent- and forms a dust column that is en masse, tuning to defined, ing Scotland) site-specific in as more or less visible, depending commercially driven channels, much as her work in the rooms of on side winds. The ventilation seeking the packaged content, the Palazzo Pisani uses pastel machine on the top is supported created, we thought, by a tal- colours, light pink, yellow, green by four wind machines on the ented few. As a mass medium, and blue that coincide with the side that keep the smoke within television helped define and or- colour decoration of the ceiling the circle and allow us to view ganize everyday life into a social and walls of the rooms in the the interplay between visibility collective experience. Palazzo to form a spatial-archi- and invisibility. The work delib- tectural environment. Black’s erately refers back to the biblical work is highly ephemeral: she motif of “ascension”. Although employs powder, soil, paint this work might be perceived as and plaster, soap, dust, and a commentary on Christianity, it paper and cellophane to cre- also makes reference to the dual ate temporary structures within concept of media appearances existing building structures that with respect to visibility and in- refer to matters of compulsive visibility of its material base. beauty, on the one hand, and to artisanal-craftsmanship prac- The matter is further pushing tices of converting the material the boundaries when it comes world into something else, on the to the first time representation of other hand. Everything seems a Roma Pavilion that is hosted to be lasting herein only for the by the Unesco in Venice. The moment, the dust, the soil, the installation has video documen- paint would blow away if wind tation in interview-style where comes in. The artwork holds Roma people report on issues Now television is d-d-d-digital this balance between “work” and of housing, education, travel and content for the media stream, “non-work” and amuses us with income. In addition the installa- bits to be remixed at will . . . the choice of light colours that tion also finds a spatial expres- “just one moment please” … and support the lightweight of the sion for not being at home, be- whim by anyone channeling the installation. cause a wooden-metal structure Max Headroom métier across a is almost literally cutting across broad range of non-site-specific Anish Kapoor with his site- the building and indicates anoth- platforms: mobile telephones, specific installation “Ascension” er option for connecting spaces game consoles, iPods, iPads, in the Basilica di San Giorgia in a rather nomad-like structural and online video services like points one step further into im- network, internally and exter- YouTube and Hulu. As a hybrid materiality and manifests the nally. It will be interesting to fol- technological form, television convergence between seeing low, if and how this initiative will now invites participation any- and believing in almost literal develop in the future. time, anywhere, as producers terms. Kapoor has chosen the generate personal content, as Basilica which houses the fa- Television as individuals pursue special en- mous painting “Last Supper” by Digital Media tertainment/information inter- Tintoretto and also Tintoretto’s ests, or as communities share very last painting (in a side by James Bennett and Niki television moments, often live. chapel). Into this context, Ka- Strange (eds.)

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Television as Digital Media, a of user generated content as Minima Moralia, with the enthu- collection of essays edited by good, and its co-option by media siasm others may show for Di- James Bennett and Niki Strange, conglomerates as bad. Instead, anetics: the Modern Science of examines this evolving and shift- essays in this part speak to the Mental Health, or about novels ing digital landscape. Essays by complex and often contradic- The Fountainhead, The Turner television and new media schol- tory roles of producers and au- Diaries, the Twilight books, or ars from Australia, the United diences in the digital television religious texts. Director Georg Kingdom, and the United States, arena and how producing con- Boch solicited videos and Skype speak to a hybrid confluence of tent often produces audiences conversations from members of production practices, industry which, in turn, produce content, the group. In one case, a guy set strategies, aesthetic markers, which produces yet other, differ- up his camcorder outdoors on a audience practices, historical ent audiences, and so on. grim, wintry northern European antecedents, and resulting con- day. Two speakers are German, The essays collected in Televi- temporary digital culture. The one is Turkish, one (who we see sion as Digital Media speak to a end result is to help shape a at the beginning but never again) broad range of producer and au- new paradigm for connecting is Chinese. The most thoughtful dience interests: political econo- television and digital media by and articulate is located in Aus- my public service broadcasting, addressing the questions “what tin, Texas and talks as if he’s a iPlayer to YouTube, ideology to is television, and what is it for?” grad student or junior faculty at cultural practices, podcast to University of Texas; I’d have pre- digital short(s). Rather than a Television as Digital Media is ferred 20 minutes from this guy definitive definition of digital tel- arranged in four parts: history, to the film’s silly smorgasbord. production, aesthetics, and evision, these essays suggest audiences with essays in each the limits of digital television are I was hoping for some fresh part examining that particular increasingly unclear, being that insights on critical theory from focus. The first part examines they are always already evolving these contemporary readers, the switchover of television under a wide range of experi- global but conversing electroni- from analog to digital around ences and technologies. cally, but no such luck. Critical the world thus providing an theory sprung from the work of historical context for changes Facebook’s Adorno and others at the Insti- to the traditional producer-text- “Adorno Changed tute of Social Research, often audience relations. called the Frankfurt School, My Life” in 1930s Germany, and in the Essays in the second part of the countries the influential mem- by Georg Boch book examine economic and bers settled when the Nazis production strategies associ- Icarus Films, 2011, DVD, 28 closed it. Adorno was influenced ated with digital television, seek- mins. by his colleague Walter Ben- ing to close some of the gaps Distributor’s website: http:// jamin yet denied him funds at a between the way(s) producers www.icarusfilms.com critical time in his research. For and academics talk about and several years Adorno lived in ex- understand television. Reviewed by Mike Mosher, ile in Southern California where Saginaw Valley State In part three, the focus shifts to he wrote on music and its use in University the aesthetics of convergence in movies as well as other aspects digital television. By asking what [email protected] of popular culture about whose these aesthetics are, and how influence on contemporary so- “All that is solid melts into air.” we might approach them, the ciety he was pessimistic. After Theodor Adorno didn’t say that, essays in this section suggest WWII he returned to Germany Karl Marx did. But it came to directions for approaching the and a university teaching ca- mind as I watched this incon- aesthetics of digital television reer. Weeks before he died (of sequential, fluffy film. as a converging and fragment- a broken heart?), his classes were interrupted by both revo- ing media form. Several men - noticeably, no lutionary counter-lecturers and women - in the Facebook group The book’s final part provides bare-breasted female admirers. “Adorno Changed My Life” con- examples of user-generated Chill, Prof baby, it’s the Age of tribute their thoughts, insights, content and digital audience Aquarius! and gripes. The speakers are practices, attempting to move enthusiastic, especially about beyond the simple dichotomy

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None of this information is men- illegibly displayed upon fallen social aspects of technology tioned, nor does any overview snow. Why didn’t they switch use. It is now very typical to find of Adorno’s work and ideas ap- to black text there? academics from anthropological pear on this disc (it could have and social science backgrounds been a good extra, in some The film is slight, though still too working in teams with engineers, form, to accompany the short long by about 5 of its 28 min- scientists, and designers work- film). Teddy bear collector Den- utes, and its final speaker really ing within the major technology nis Redmond facilely compares doesn’t impart too much knowl- organisations and Universities. Adorno’s oeuvre to the digital edge or even information as the The co-authors of this book have commons without details. No- film fizzles out inconclusively. observed and experienced the body really has much to say on Still, parts of it might be a good bringing together of the social Adorno’s work, beyond a shrug, thing to show a university class and computer science research “Theodor Adorno is of no great before they embark on reading communities from both discipli- help when it comes to jobs or Theodor Adorno I order to stimu- nary perspectives. Dourish, cur- employment.” late discussion afterwards. In rently Professor of Informatics at fact, I think I’ll send my copy of UC Irvine, trained as a Compu- David Jenneman begins his Facebook’s “Adorno Changed ter Scientist and has been a part book on Adorno’s years in the My Life” by inter-campus mail of research groups at a number US with a quote from the phi- to a Philosophy Professor, for of the world’s leading centres losopher’s Minima Moralia, “To I’d get nothing out of watching for computing research. Bell is say ‘we’ and mean ‘I’ is one it again. a trained anthropologist who has of the most recondite insults.” worked at Intel for over a dec- Perhaps this offers insights Divining a Digital ade, studying the appropriation on Facebook groups and the of new technologies in different affect-less affirmation of its Future: Mess cultural contexts. Despite com- “Like” button. There probably and Mythology ing from rather different disci- is more about Facebook than in Ubiquitous plinary roots, both authors find Adorno here, and there could Computing themselves situated within the be a tantalyzing interrogation of same frame of argument - that both social media and the phi- by Paul Dourish and designers, engineers, and sci- losopher, but it never gels. In Genevieve Bell entists within computing-related Minima Moralia, Adorno writes, disciplines would do well to pay “In many people it is already an The MIT Press, 2011, 264 pp. more attention to the societal impertinence to say ‘I’”, so what ISBN: 978-0262015554 and cultural phenomena sur- of the virtual self? Art historian Reviewed by John Vines, rounding the use of technology. (the bear toy connoisseur) Travis Northumbria University English uploads his face into a In this book, Dourish and Bell Facebook app that searches its [email protected] bring their perspectives on HCI database for a doppelganger, or together on the specific sub- approximation. One supposes Designers are often preoccu- ject of Ubiquitous Computing. that this illustrates that point, pied with the idea that tech- For the uninitiated, Ubiquitous or another one somewhere, by nology can be designed to be- Computing – or ‘UbiComp’ as Adorno on media. If so, English come seamlessly incorporated it is often referred to by HCI ex- doesn’t share it, doesn’t make into everyday experience. At perts (and I’ll refer to it in this way the connection. one point, designers felt it was here) – is an area of research useful to start measuring the that, broadly speaking, develops Facebook’s “Adorno Changed physical dimensions of human and studies technologies that My Life” has been shown at the beings so that cars and office permeate beyond the traditional 2012 Leipzig Festival for Docu- chair were easier to use. Later confines of personal computers. mentary and Animated Films, on, especially when computers As a paradigm of research, the the 2011 Berlin International began populating workplaces, origins of Ubiquitous Computing Film Festival and the 2011 Za- some designers attempted to is typically associated with the grebdox International Documen- design based upon rather ba- work of Mark Weiser in the late tary Film Festival. It’s marred sic computational models of the 1980s, and in particular an arti- by the bad visual design of one mind. Over the last two decades, cle published in Scientific Ameri- long passage of white subtitles technology designers have be- can where Weiser described his beneath a German speaker are come more interested in the

19 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 vision for ‘the computer for the UbiComp. In chapter two they In chapters three and four, Dour- 21st century.’ [1] go on to argue this mythology is ish and Bell set out their particu- founded on the idea of a proxi- lar approach to understanding Weiser pictured a future where mal future where technology the messiness of UbiComp as computers were omnipresent will permeate everyday environ- it is practiced and experienced in peoples’ experiences but at ments and, as Weiser argued, within certain cultures and set- the same time disappeared into calmly enter the backdrop of our tings. Chapter three provides the background: “They weave experiences. It seems, within an introductory overview of themselves into the fabric of the very Anglo-American cen- anthropology and ethnography everyday life until they are in- tred world of UbiComp research and the distinctions between distinguishable from it.” In the at least, that Weiser’s vision is ‘the social’ and ‘the cultural’ as article, Weiser invoked that this still not quite being achieved - they are conceptualised in these would be an engineering chal- technologies do not integrate disciplines. In chapter four, they lenge, one that requires lengthy well with one another, computer discuss in more depth the rela- collaboration with other disci- systems require a lot of human tionship between ethnography, plines; social scientists, ecologi- effort to keep maintained, and its methods of study, and the cal psychologists, artists and technological breakdowns are study of computing technolo- designers were all referred to a frequent occurrence. Dour- gies. As I noted above, the use in his writing. Dourish and Bell ish and Bell find this assertion, of social science methods in start off their contextualisation which prevails in the UbiComp HCI is far from being unusual of UbiComp with Weiser’s arti- literature, flawed. Firstly, they (Dourish in particular being a cle, not necessarily as it is the highlight how in some regions, key early member of this part of first instantiation of the idea of such as the Republic of Korea the community) but, the authors computing ‘everywhere’ but and Singapore, the UbiComp argue, ethnography is typically due to its formidable impact on vision is already established used primarily as a feed for the computing research ever since. and part of everyday life (al- eventual outcome of HCI and In the years following Weiser’s though those experiencing it UbiComp research - the design article, research groups devel- would doubtfully recognise the of a new system. Whilst it is not oping ubiquitous technologies similarities between their own unusual for a systems design and pervasive computing sys- use of technology and those team to include an ethnogra- tems started to emerge in key predicted by Weiser in 1991). pher of some description, the (mostly American) Universities, Secondly, and more importantly outcome of any field study is and large conferences such as from the authors perspective, typically a list of guidelines or UbiComp and Pervasive [2] be- they argue that many cultures heuristics for engineers and came important venues to dis- experience UbiComp already—it designers (who are completely seminate the latest knowledge is just that this experience is dis- disconnected from the studied on the subject. The ubiquity of tinctly messy, effortful, and cha- context) to implement. The work Weiser’s article lives on in the otic—and against the imagined of ethnographers and anthro- vast corpus of peer-reviewed pa- future that Weiser presented. pologists working within HCI and pers archived from these confer- UbiComp, therefore, tends to be ences that directly cite his origi- very weakly translated to the sci- nal article. Similarly, key ideas entists and engineers working that Weiser introduced—small on the same team. This appears wearable tags, mobile pad-like to highlight the great problem of screen devices, and large tab- much technology research that letop and wall-based interactive claims to be interdisciplinary - screens - are still central focal that is, at the end of it, the ‘de- points of the UbiComp research signers’ (who typically tend to be community. engineers of some description) Dourish and Bell explain the are the gatekeepers at the end above context in chapters one of the project. and two as, from their perspec- It is clear that part of the prob- tive, it is the legacy of Weiser’s lem that Dourish and Bell have work and more specifically his with UbiComp research is that Scientific American article that although it makes use of social has supported the mythology of

20 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 scientific methods, often it is that whilst UbiComp research- stereotypes of domesticity in done with a complete lack of ers are continually striving for UbiComp research. sensitivity to the subjects of in- the seamless integration of tech- Whilst chapters 5 to 8 read terest for social scientists. They nology into being, people from smoothly, they do feel some- argue that: “First, it constructs diverse cultures are already en- what drawn out – particularly to ethnography as a point of media- acting technology into being in someone who is already familiar tion between, on the one hand, a ‘ubiquitous’ manner—it is just with the author’s past work – and a domain of everyday practice the process of enaction is messy each chapter really acts as a and, on the other, a domain of and in many case unremarkably reiteration of Bell and Dourish’s technological design. Second, it mundane. Ethnographic stud- claim that ethnography is at its implies that people will encoun- ies are useful here in theorising best at unravelling the messy ter technology as something just this mess, and by understanding and effortful use of technology as it was designed and, hence, technology use in highly diverse rather than food for designers to is appropriated or incorporated contexts, it is possible to find work with. These chapters are into practice” (p. 73). The way in patterns that allude to the ways primarily an extended lead-in to which social science is used in people make technology coher- the third part of the book, which technology design focuses on ent over time. contains just the one concluding studying ‘the field’, finding gaps Chapters five through eight chapter, where a ‘reimagining’ of to be filled by technology, and form the second part of the the next quarter of a century of then designing in response to book, where Dourish and Bell Ubiquitous Computing research the ethnographic account. Prob- deploy their ‘messy’ approach is outlined. They begin by reaf- lematically, the very principle by tackling influential concepts firming their argument that stud- of using social science in de- from within the Ubicomp re- ies of social and cultural mean- sign in this manner is paradoxi- search agenda. In these chap- ing making cannot be used to cal. “Seeking to close the gap ters Dourish and Bell continually directly inform design to close through the application of ethno- juxtapose seemingly disparate the gap between technology graphic methods is a contradic- ethnographic works with one an- and practice. By their argument, tion in terms; the gap is where other in order to bring out ten- design cannot act as anything all the interesting stuff happens, sions in the overriding themes— other than a consequence of as a natural consequence of hu- a process of ‘defamilairisation’. social action—new technologies man experience” (p. 73). The Chapter 5, ‘What lies beneath’, are shaped by the encompass- suggestion implicit here is that begins by unpacking the con- ing cultural milieu and therefore the subject of study for the social cept of space as it relates to Ubi- become incorporated into them, scientist is rather different to that Comp. Dourish and Bell exam- or appropriated in a manner so of the design team. Not only is ine space from the perspective that they do. As social scientists this a significant difference, but of ethnographic infrastructures working within an area that es- also the very idea of using social [3]. Infrastructure, here, does sentially designs new technolo- science contextual work in de- not refer to technical infrastruc- gies, however, Dourish and Bell sign to alter a culture is, in itself, tures but rather experience of a appear to be forced to relate the counter to the ethnographers multitude of space and how this ‘implications’ of their book back cause. Rather, Dourish and Bell is influenced by a number of in- towards design in one form or argue that ethnographic studies frastructures, such as “naming, another. Design, rather than re- should be used to generate ac- movement, interaction ... [that] sponding to studies of culture by counts of everyday uses of tech- emerge from and are sustained trying to smooth over cultural nologies but not directly influ- by the embodied practices of cracks, should instead act as ence the design of new systems. people who populate and in- embodiments of sociotechnical This is not to say, however, that habit the spaces in question” theories and arguments. By em- ethnographic enquiries are not (p. 108). These infrastructures, bodying these arguments, newly useful for designers; it’s that “the therefore, are both the shape of designed technologies can act most useful strategy when en- and shaped by these embodied, as theoretical lenses to uncover gaging with ethnographic work culturally-contextualised, expe- new aspects of the world that is to ‘read for theory’ as much as riences. Chapters 6 through 8 were previously hidden. This for empirical evidence, since in provide similar re-conceptuali- is not to argue that they sup- the end these may be where the sations of ‘Mobility and Urban- port technological determin- truly significant implications lie” ism’, ‘Privacy’ and the prevailing ism—far from it, by embodying (p. 75). Dourish and Bell argue

21 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 cultural conceptions of space, their argument to a close how- their actions. There is already a mobility, privacy and the home, ever. As social scientists, they community of researchers within designers might move beyond understand technology as a so- studies of human-computer in- the technical rationality of cur- cial construction. At the same teraction who are fully accept- rent systems. By understanding time, in forming their socio- ing of ethnographical studies of the relationship between social technical hybrid practice, they computer use and appropriation. science and design/computer argue that technologies reveal The case presented in the book, science in this manner, they pro- new dimensions of the world and therefore, would be preaching to claim the possibility of a future allow for the reimagining of how the already well doctrined. As I ‘socio-technical practice’. people can act in the world. By read the book, I felt as though their argument design is both a Dourish and Bell wanted to im- There is much to be taken from passive and active constituent pact beyond this well-trodden Dourish and Bell’s book. They of cultural meaning making—but area - to communicate their re- provide a wonderful summary of they offer little to understanding imagined future of ubiquitous the past 20 years of research on moments where it is one, the computing to a new generation the subject of UbiComp with a other, neither or both. There are of human-computer interaction distinctly ethnographic lens, and also a number of times when I scholars, computer scientists add considerably to scholarship found myself confused at sud- and engineers. Weiser’s articles on the fringes of the sciences den dichotomisation of the so- provided the conditions for my- and humanities that focuses cial or cultural with the physical thology by cutting across disci- attention on collective human or natural – dichotomies that are plinary boundaries—even if in a agency in the production and understandable when we stick rather uncritical and crude man- consumption of technologies. strictly to a particular disciplines ner - perhaps, in a way, Bell and For designers who want to be heritage (social science) but felt Dourish need to let go of theirs more critical of their practice, at odds with the idea of working just a little bit more. they emphasise the fallacy of in an inter- or trans-disciplinary Notes predicting how users will re- manner. act, appropriate and use new [1] Weiser, M. (1991) ‘The computer for the 21st century’, designs and technologies. For I feel there is a more basic issue Scientific American, pp. 94-104. those interested in disciplinary with the book, however - not to [2] www.ubicomp.org and www. intersections, they make us do with philosophical dichoto- pervasiveconference.org mies or self-contained contra- aware of the problems of ne- [3] Star, S. L. (1999) ‘The gotiating ontological and epis- diction. Rather, it is that I worry ethnography of infrastructure’, temological boundaries. They this will be another example of American Behavioral Scientist, 43(3), pp. 377-391. make us ask: How can knowl- literature from outside of the edge from one domain be both computer science and engineer- translated and applied in other ing literature that will have very How to Do Things disciplines without losing mean- little impact on the actual prac- with Videogames ing or, as Dourish and Bell ar- tices of technology designers. gue, contradict the basis of the As someone already familiar by Ian Bogost knowledge itself? They also with the authors’ work and the University of Minnesota Press, make researchers reflect on use of social science in design, 2011, 192 pp. there were very few moments the dominance and ‘myth’ as- ISBN: 978-0816676477 sociated with key texts, articles, where I paused for thought out and works, and they do so in of confusion. Those with little Reviewed by John F. Barber, a way that is at once in-praise to no prior understanding of the Washington State University and damning of Weiser’s origi- language of social work, how- Vancouver nal work. We should not burn ever, may find some sections [email protected] down the archive and forget it more inaccessible. Perhaps this ever existed, but we should not is not an issue - perhaps the fu- Like many digital technology be frightened of shaking at the ture of a socio-technical hybrid artifacts, videogames are sub- foundations of a disciplines re- design practice that Dourish and ject to far-reaching claims of search enterprise. Bell outline must by a necessity either ruining or rescuing so- only to be practiced by a small ciety. In How to Do Things with There is a strange circularity pocket of researchers who have Videogames, Ian Bogost posits and contradiction to the way in the space to critically reflect on “a less flashy answer”: Rather which Dourish and Bell bring

22 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 than ruin or rescue, technology ruin or rescue. Instead, Bogost, of the physical world), relaxa- influences and/or changes the again evoking McLuhan, sug- tion (de-emphasize and focus way we perceive of and interact gests an expansion of media the senses rather than escalate with our world. Evoking Marshall ecology, “a media-agnostic ap- and expand them), throwaways McLuhan and his argument that proach to understanding how a (emphasize the pleasures of any medium extends human ex- host of different technologies the fleeting, the transitory, the perience because it structures works individually and togeth- impermanent), titillation (defa- and informs our understanding er to create an environment for miliarized and uncomfortable and behavior, Bogost, a noted communication and percep- experience of the various log- games theorist, designer, and tion” (6). ics of perversion that stimulate builder, argues that we can un- other human beings), exercise derstand any medium by exam- (social rituals that make us want ining what it can do. The “things to be physically active), work a medium does to a culture,” he (understanding of mechanics says, “are more important than that change the world through the content it conveys” (4). Think the play actions themselves, McLuhan’s famous probe “the rather than future coercion or medium is the message.” reflection), habituation (culture familiarity by constructing ha- For example, the medium of bitual experiences players want photography can document the to experience repeatedly), disin- atrocities and celebrations of terest (foster disgust for sadistic, war––record-fleeting moments troublesome, and controversial in time––preserve the ordinary acts), and drill (trying in virtuality moments of family life, or cap- acts we may have to perform In ture the speeding car for ticket- the real world, before we have ing. The uses of photography to undertake them). can vary widely, and it is this breadth and depth that make it Throughout the rest of How to In conclusion, Bogost positions a mature medium. Do Things with Videogames, Bo- videogames as a medium that gost reveals “a small portion of pervades contemporary culture Like photography, says Bogost, the many uses” of videogames from art to tools and in between. videogames are a medium be- and how, combined, “they make Videogames aren’t just for ad- cause they have properties that the medium broader, richer, and olescents, he says. Instead, precede their content. Rather more relevant” (7). Chapters are once they are understood to than textual descriptions or devoted to how videogames are have value and valid applica- visual depictions, videogames currently, or may be, utilized to tions across a broad spectrum, are models of experiences the promote thinking about art (in- videogames will provide mean- operation of which require that trospection and creativity), em- ingful and engaging gaming op- our actions be constrained by pathy (understanding the plight portunities for the masses by, their rules. And, since videog- of others), reverence (a reprieve for example, documenting im- ames are computational, these for the weary and steadfastness portant historical and cultural model worlds and the rules they in the face of devastation), music events, providing educational embody can be quite complex. (focus on rhythmic and musical opportunities for both children Therefore, understanding the construction), travel (continu- and adults, promoting a better properties of videogames helps ous attention to the unfolding understanding of commercial us to understand their nature scene), branding (cultural and exchange and interaction, and and implications. social preconceptions and cir- serving as platforms for many Bogost begins by arguing that cumstances), electioneering (di- different and varied human en- videogames, like photography, rect participation in the effects deavors. writing, books, film, music, or of policy), promotion (how and Neither the stuff of ruin nor any other medium, should not be why companies seek to per- rescue, How to Do Things with reduced to overly-simplified or suade us to use their products), Videogames is, as Bogost emotional categories or uses— snapshots (appreciation for the promises, not very flashy. Still, highbrow or lowbrow, serious or craft of creation), texture (ap- this little book is compelling superficial, useful or useless, preciation for the vivid diversity and useful as an insightful and

23 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 thought-provoking discussion medium. Their approach makes both human players who play of how we might reconsider one sense for both those new to the them and the machines on of the more significant cultural study of computer games as which they are played in nest- phenomena of our time. well as those seeking a fresh ed and multifarious ways. The approach to old ideas. result is that computer games are idiosyncratic and difficult to Gaming Matters: Ruggill and McAllister establish apprehend through singular or Art, Science, a variable set of skills, habits, specific ways of seeing. Magic, and the techniques, codes, conventions, Computer Game and the constantly shifting ar- The “Irreconcilability” chap- Medium ticulations between them as the ter explores the complex and basis for a computer game me- often conflicting discourse(s) dium. Although games are rule surrounding the development, by Judd Ethan Ruggill and based, there are no inviolable, play, and analysis of computer Ken S. McAllister universal rules for designing games, arguing that this multi- University of Alabama Press, and building them. The me- plicity of attempts at explana- 2011, 155 pp. dium is plastic, limited only by tion by developers, players, and ISBN: 978-0817317379 taste, technology, and imagina- scholars to talk to one another is tion. The structure, meanings, often unsuccessful because the Reviewed by John F. Barber, and experiences of computer very terms used for such discus- Washington State University games are discrete and peculiar, sions, even those widely used Vancouver specific and ambiguous. “Quin- like “genre” and “style,” disinte- [email protected] tessentially transdisciplinary,” grate when examined closely. say Ruggill and McAllister, the The “Aimlessness” chapter As one of the most powerful cul- computer game medium “sits at argues that computer games tural forces in the United States the nexus of engineering, math- are essentially boring. Compu- since the mid-1970s, computer ematics, hermeneutics, logic, ter games and their develop- games have long been debated kinesthesia, narratology, per- ers must constantly provoke and theorized from a wide range formativity, art, and many other (“hail”) players into action. Thus, of rhetorical perspectives. Fur- ways of seeing, understanding, players not only play computer ther discussion on every front and interacting”. This multiplicity games, but also are played by quickly assumes an irreconcil- of perspectives makes compu- them in turn. This insistency is able quality similar to M.C. Es- ter games “synergistic artifacts what drives gameplay and what cher’s 1953 lithographic print whose nuance really only be- keeps players interested and “Relativity” with its series of as- gins to make sense when ap- immersed. This prompting is, cending and descending stairs proached in kind” (3). infinitely looping one into the on one hand, interesting and other. The result is a much bet- Ruggill and McAllister propose worthy as a quality of computer ter understanding of what such seven qualities—idiosyncrasy, games. On the other hand, it games are in their concrete, dis- irreconcilability, aimlessness, is not always precise, or suc- tilled sense as well as a vision of anachronism, duplicity, work, cessful. what they may be in their grand- and alchemy—as fundamental The “Anachronism” chapter ar- est, most abstract sense––but to the creation of a staggering gues that while there is a future little has worked in the past to array of computer games that and past to game development, link the two together. are at once diverse yet con- there is virtually no present. A sistent. Devoting a chapter to short shelf life and long develop- Judd Ethan Ruggill and Ken S. each quality, the authors probe ment cycles conspire to prevent McAllister seek to address this critical, cultural, technical, eco- games to be built using current gap in their book Gaming Mat- nomic, artistic, and scientific un- cultural trends or technology. ters: Art, Science, Magic, and derpinnings in order to capture Instead, developers strike a the Computer Game Medium the complexity and diversity that balance between the past and by arguing for a game medium facilitates the practice of each in future, relying on play objec- as the preferred focus of inquiry computer game culture. and, then, seeking to detail the tives that can be traced back specific features that give rise to In the first chapter, “Idiosyncra- to ancient games such as chess, computer games that are both sy,” they argue that computer hide-and-seek, and go and mas- similar and diverse within this games are complex, engaging sive promotional campaigns to

24 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 assure that such compromises ities of computer games they … that have the ability to think are well received by consumers. probe can be shared to some and operate other components degree by other media, but in the neural network - namely, In the chapter devoted to “Du- rather than a comparative study, us” (16). plicity,” Ruggill and McAllister they seek a concentrated one argue that computer games are We are, he writes, living in a and in this sense their book is “dependent on rhetorics of truth time where many are aware of both stimulating and informative, despite being determined by fic- problems engendered by digital contributing to ongoing discus- tions, fantasies, and lies” (6). For technologies, yet few of us have sions and debates about com- example, both game hardware any understanding of what is puter games, perhaps moving and software is purposefully de- happening and how to cope. The forward some that have stalled. signed to as to appear simple solution, says Rushkoff, is to and seamless, thus masking the understand how such “thinking” complexity that lies below the Program or Be devices and systems are pro- interface. Such duplicity, they Programmed: Ten grammed, even to have some argue, serves a controlling func- Commands for a input into how it is done, and tion as an element of computer Digital Age for what purposes (17). In short, game design with regard to the learn to program our digital tech- “technical design, industrial and by Douglas Rushkoff nology or be programmed by it. interface design, game design, OR Books, 2010, 152 pp. Sustained thought and discus- industry practices, and scholar- sion about the problem, and ship” (11). ISBN: 978-1935928157 its possible solutions needs to The “Work” chapter argues that Reviewed by John F. Barber, be started, says Rushkoff, and computer games are better un- Washington State University so, he endeavors to explain 10 derstood as work than play in Vancouver of what he considers the most that it is the work of developers, [email protected] significant biases of digital me- players, and scholars, as well dia technologies. Each bias, he as audiovisual and kinesthet- Douglas Rushkoff has, through says, stems from the tendency ic technologies that ultimately his books, columns, and com- of digital technology to promote constitute the computer game mentaries, established himself one set of behaviors over others. medium. as a leading expert extolling A chapter is devoted to each the virtues of digital media and bias, along with discussion of The final chapter, “Alchemy,” ar- society. In Program or Be Pro- how to turn these liabilities into gues that the computer game grammed: Ten Commands for a opportunities, suggesting how medium can only be understood Digital Age, however, Rushkoff to balance each bias with the momentarily, tangentially, be- takes a different tack, wonder- needs of real people using that cause of the speed and coming “if we adopted certain sys- technology to live and work in plexity with which it changes. tems too rapidly and unthink- both physical and virtual spaces, The medium is thus enigmatic, ingly” (18). sometimes simultaneously. unpredictable, and evanescent despite seeming mechanical, We have, he says, embraced For example, Chapter 1, “Time,” evident, and predictable. This digital technologies and litera- Rushkoff notes “because com- suggests a number of ways— cies “without learning how they puter code is biased away from technology, art, discourse, sci- work and work on us. And so, continuous time, so too are the ence, and magic—that computer we remain one step behind the programs built on it, and the hu- games can be studied. capability actually being offered man behaviors those programs us” (13). We tend to think less encourage” (25). The command: The overall approach of Gaming about how to “integrate new “ Do Not Be Always On.” En- Matters: Art, Science, Magic, tools in our lives than about gage with the digital network as and the Computer Game Me- how simply to keep up. …As a a choice rather than an expecta- dium is to promote a sustained result, instead of optimizing our tion. Where the computer lives and cohesive theoretical ex- machines for humanity … we are by its internal clock, humans amination of the constitutive optimizing humans for machin- live in the spaces between the elements and meaning making ery. … replicating the very func- clock’s ticking, where time actu- process in the computer game tion of cognition through exter- ally passes. “Do not surrender medium. Ruggill and McAllister nal, extra-human mechanisms time to a technology that knows are careful to note that the qual- and needs no such thing” (34).

25 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012

In Chapter 2, “Place,” Rushkoff (68). The command: “One Size rather, they are the connection says “digital media are biased Does Not Fit All.” Abstraction oc- that makes the network happen away from the local, and toward curs at one level removed from and should not be shared simply dislocation” (37). The command: reality, whether in the physical because the creators of social “Live in Person.” Exploit tech- or virtual world. Abstraction can networking software want to nology’s strength in delivering provide a way to undertake and harvest them for advertising or interactivity over distance, but succeed at various endeavors marketing purposes. preserve the ability to engage in either world. The danger is to The bias highlighted in Chapter without its interference when we live solely in the abstraction, the 8, “Fact,” is “our interactions in want to connect locally. Chose simulated. Instead, understand digital media shifts back toward when we wish to live and work and use the technologies that the nonfiction on which we all in real places, with one anoth- promote abstraction to write the depend to make sense of our er, and, unique to humans, in code from which such symbolic world, get the most done, and person. representations of reality are have the most fun. The more created. Chapter 3, “Choice,” focuses valuable, truthful, and real our on how “the digital realm is bi- Chapter 6, “Identity,” argues “the messages, the more they will ased toward choice, because less we take responsibility for spread and better we will do” everything must be expressed what we say and do online, the (106). The command: “Tell the in the terms of a discrete, yes- more likely we are to behave Truth.” A person’s value in the or-no, symbolic language. This, in ways that reflect our worst digital realm is dependent on in turn, often forces choices on natures—or even the worst na- the strength of their facts and humans operating within the tures of others. Because digital ideas, or the disinterest of oth- digital sphere” (49). The com- technology is biased toward de- ers to ascertain either [my addi- mand: “You May Always Choose personalization, we must make tion]. Those who communicate None of the Above.” Freedom to an effort not to operate anony- well in the digital realm are the withhold choice, to resist cat- mously, unless absolutely nec- ones who can quickly evaluate egorization, or even to choose essary. We must be ourselves” and pass along what matters to something not on the list, is al- (83). The command: “Be Your- others. They are the authorities, ways available. This freedom of self.” Maintain a strict sense of the ones who discover and in- choice distinguishes human life online identity. Realize that noth- novate, who find and do things from its digital imitations. ing online is off the record. Do worthy of attention, who create not say anything you would not more value for everyone. The The bias highlighted in Chap- be proud to see quoted, shared, way to flourish is to tell the truth, ter 4, “Complexity,” is that “dig- and linked to. Do not put words and to have a truth to tell (111). ital technology—and those of into the digital realm unless you us using it—is biased toward a Chapter 9, “Openness,” notes a are willing to own them (89). reduction of complexity” (56). bias in digital technology toward The command: “You Are Never Chapter 7, “Social,” notes “our openness. “The architecture of Completely Right.” Digital simu- digital networks are biased to- shared resources, as well as the lations are models, and models ward social connections—to- gift economy through which the are necessarily reductive. They ward contact. Any effort to rede- net was developed, has engen- are limited by design, like maps. fine or hijack those connections dered a bias toward openness. They can chart the territory, but for profit ends up compromising It’s as if our digital activity wants never replace the experience the integrity of the network it- to be shared with others. As a of knowing and understanding self and compromising the real culture and economy inexpe- that territory. promise of contact” (93-94). rienced in this sort of collabo- The command: “Do Not Sell ration, however, we have great Chapter 5, “Scale,” notes “on the Your Friends.” Digital interac- trouble distinguishing between net, everything is occurring on tive technologies promote net- sharing and stealing” (114-115). the same abstracted and uni- working on greater levels of The command: “Share, Don’t versal level. Survival in a pure- organization. Each new com- Steal.” To function, the digital ly digital realm—particularly in munication technology affords community must learn to abide business—means being able to new excuses/ways to connect by standards that will evolve scale, and winning means being and collaborate with one an- from programmers developing able to move up one level of ab- other. Your friends are not the software together and learning straction beyond everyone else” content of your social network; to capture some of the value

26 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 they create. Innovations oc- Players Unleashed! it, and modifying it––practices cur from someone building off that are not only carried out by another’s innovations. Such Modding The Sims a small subset of hardcore play- participation, however, is de- and the Culture of ers but also are a highly popular pendent upon knowing both the Gaming and common activity. programming skills necessary to improve a software program by Tanja Sihvonen and the social code necessary Amsterdam University Press, to respect the contributions of 2010, 224 pp. others. A real understanding of both forms of code “makes steal- ISBN: 978-9089642011 ing a nonstarter” (127). Reviewed by Hannah Chapter 10, “Purpose,” con- Drayson, Plymouth University cludes the book noting that dig- hannah.drayson@plymouth. ital technology is programmed ac.uk and is biased toward those with the capacity to write the code. Taking as its central exam- Not understanding the coding, ple the computer game, The or at least that there is code Sims (2000), Sihvonen’s book behind any interface, puts one analyses the practice of game at the mercy of those who do modification, or ‘modding’. the programming, those pay- Modding is the reconfiguration ing the programmers, even the and reworking of commercially In an introductory anecdote, technology itself. The bias, sim- released computer games by Sihvonen describes her early ply put, is “programming is the players through the production experiments with the game, sweet spot, the high leverage or alteration of game content, some of which involved kill- point in a digital society. If we characters, sounds, graph- ing her Sims; for example, by don’t learn to program, we risk ics, new maps and levels. The encouraging them to go swim- being programmed ourselves” game’s creator, Will Wright, is ming and, then, deleting the (133). The command: “Program well known for creating com- ladder that would allow them or Be Programmed” is also the puter games that offer players to climb out of the pool––the bottom line through Rushkoff’s ‘possibility spaces’ that make it result being that exhausted, self-described “poetics” (20). possible for players to build and they drowned. While Players “[Digital technologies] are not control a range of simulated sce- Unleashed is based on a broad just objects, but systems em- narios (Sim City, 1989; Spore, survey of player activities using bedded with purpose. They act 2008). In these games players The Sims and the communities with intention. If we don’t know are not required to complete a and platforms that support and how they work, we won’t even particular quest or arrive at a serve these modding practices, know what they want. The less pre-specified outcome, but in- this example is exemplary of the involved and aware we are of the stead, game-play is led by the way users of any technological way our technologies are pro- player’s own concerns. Because platform, including games, will grammed and program them- of this, The Sims makes a use- often seek to use that platform selves, the more narrow our ful example in a discussion of to achieve not only a range of choices will become; the less we modding because the game is forms of self-expression but also will be able to envision alterna- explicitly intended as a platform to test the limits of their own tives to the pathways described for user creativity; Sihvonen’s imagination and agency within by our programs; and the more book provides an exploration of the space of the technology. our lives and experiences will the way in which The Sims game Citing David Serlin, “modders be dictated by their biases. On enables player’s creativity. Sims do not play games, they play the other hand, the more hu- players are pre-eminent mod- with games,” (p.105), Sihvonen mans become involved in their ders and creative expression, sets out to explore the way in design, the more humanely in- and interventions of players are which The Sims game supports spired these tools will end up central to the game dynamic of this type of player intervention behaving” (142-143). The Sims game-play, which is and expression. The result is a centred on activities of interpret- close reading of The Sims that ing game content, configuring

27 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 draws together multiple threads as machinima and gamics (com- already been noted as active and ideas regarding the forms ics produced using screenshots (often unauthorised) authors in of player creativity it supports, from games). the story-worlds in which they and a number of insights into of have imaginary investments – What is particular of interest is game technology and comput- exemplified in Henry Jenkin’s the way in which modding ap- ing are focused on an analysis (2006) discussion of groups of pears to allow a space for users and assembly of approaches to fans writing alternative materials to reconfigure software prod- and discussion of this particular for story-worlds such as Harry ucts to their own uses. Player gaming environment. Thus, Sih- Potter, etc. A number of games instigated reinterpretation and vonen surveys a number of the developers have made tools that modification of game content of- key issues and literature that can fer examples that illustrate how enable different levels of mod- contribute to an understanding game software production fits ding and associated player prac- computer games from a play- into a wider framework of analy- tices, such as the production of centred, ludic perspective [1] as sis for the critical understanding ‘machinima’ (cinema produced materials that offer a canvas for of the interplay between media in games) part of their products performance, exploration, ap- technologies, industry and cul- since the early days of FPS (first propriation, creation and dé- ture. Arguably, the way in which person shooters). Companies tournement. a media technology and their like Id and Valve have included Sihvonen offers a framework for protocols emerge from patterns software tools that made it pos- talking about the various forms of use and adoption may be as sible for players to produce their of ‘modding’ activity (p.89-90): much influenced by the con- own levels, resulting in some interpretation; “semiotic inter- cerns of users of that technology cases, in the production of en- pretation of the game -what – in this case the players – as tirely new titles based on exit is for - how should we play, that intended originally intended isting game engines – such as what do the elements mean? by its designers or the mate- Valve’s Counter-Strike (1999), [including] glitches and bugs rial affordances of the existing produced by players as a modi- which might be exploited by us- technological platform. The fication of Half-Life (1998) and ers - design flaws which allow forces that shape technologi- then officially released in 2000. players to, for example build a cal and media products can, in It has been argued that the house on columns which are the case of modding communi- game industry is arguably in- then removed - leaving a floating ties, be seen to lay with the con- creasingly dependent upon a house” (p.92). Another category cerns of players, as expressed range of benefits that the mod- is that of configuration where through activities like modding. ding community bestows upon it elements of the game are ad- As Sihvonen tells us, modding (Kücklich, 2005). Whether or not justed to provide player config- practices and games that enable the economic dynamics of this ured aspects to the game such them allow players to access as personalised avatars. Re- “negotiations of technological relationship should be viewed working ‘the deconstruction and agency, identity and gender” with suspicion is open to debate. reassembly of game elements’ (p.186). Talking about modding Arguably the games industry (p.89) offers the most impor- reveals further aspects of the is increasingly dependent on a tant focus for discussion. Play- interactions between the de- player workforce, whose activ- ing with the game is the active signers or authors of computer ity is conceptualized by Julian intervention by players on the games and their public. Kücklich as a form of ‘playbour,’ materials (files and code - digital a form of productive play in Modder activities not only im- content and assets) on which which gamers produce their own pact upon the experience and the game is based. These are game content, train themselves agency of players themselves edited or replaced using other for work in the industry, do valu- but also the industrial produc- software tools either provided by able marketing work, and also tion of games. These modding the game designers or produced prolong the lifetime of games by practices have been part of the by the modding community. Fi- producing further content and game industry in one form or nally a further category, that of levels (in some cases whole new another and offer an unpredict- redirection (using the game to titles such as Counter-Strike) able, if sometimes extremely produce new media content) is for games that would otherwise valuable, outlet for player crea- discussed. This aspect of mod- have a far more limited shelf- tivity and production. As Sih- ding is present in activities such life. While, in some cases, we vonen notes, fan cultures have may consider the mobilisation

28 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 of modders as a workforce as roles and lifestyles. Far from un- by the developers themselves in an opportunistic and pragmatic derstanding modding as an ex- the instructions that accompany move for developers, designers ploitation of player’s free labour the game. An example is the like Wright appear to have been activity, or the commercializa- ‘Joy Booth’ that bypasses the acting upon another imperative: tion of play, Sihvonen presents expensive and time consuming exploring the possibilities of us with a landscape of different nature of Sim courtship – which what is afforded by computer acts undertaken by communi- in line with the capitalistic ideo- simulation and the possibility ties of players that question a logical framework of the game of producing games that offer range of political ideologies and relates success in love to ma- players the chance to engage use the platform to distribute terial gains – the game objects with materials in a similar way to a public the results of these that enable the more complex to which they may with more interventions. The interactions forms of romantic encounters traditional toys and construc- between official developers and are also the most expensive tion sets––hence, The Sims public can, therefore, be seen as (p.166). So while the game is being described as a ‘virtual far more uneasy than a simple structured around the acquisi- doll’s house’. With regards to this reading of capitalistic engineer- tion and use of objects by the question Sihvonen (p.45) ac- ing of servitude but instead an pursuit of increasingly better- knowledges and discusses this open engine of play. paid work, it provides a ground role of player interaction with the Many of the examples in the against which many players ex- industry in this way but points book show how the practices of plore non-traditional lifestyles. out that the domestication of this modding can be seen as a politi- It may, in fact, be the case that type of activity for use by the in- cised form of narrative construc- the developers intended the limi- dustry is problematic; modding tion offering players an outlet for tations of the Sims game and can, therefore, be conceptual- general cultural resistance. This the ‘object oriented’ dynamic of ized as an activity that inhabits kind of critique is particularly vis- play, a provocation to players to a contested ground between ible in The Sims because of the question the norms of the game authorised and unauthorised traditional suburban spaces that (p.168). This indicates a very dif- play, cultural production, and are the canvas for game-play ferent model of the discourses the modification of software as and the highly normalized body that might emerge between de- intellectual property. In this light, and lifestyle templates offered to velopers and players. the possibility that fans are be- players in order to create their ing exploited by developers is With reference to these discus- Sims. The setting and game- a simplistic view of the dynam- sions, at times the text feels as if play of The Sims has, as Sihvo- ics of the relationships between it is covering too much ground. nen points out, been criticized these parties. Some suggestions and obser- in the cultural studies literature vations would have supported Sihvonen’s cultural-studies-cen- for the way in which it ‘conveys tred reading of The Sims often the consumerist ideology as- a longer, deeper focus. For ex- returns to the particular ideologi- sociated with domesticity and ample the observation that the cal uses of the game by players the American suburban men- sexuality of the Sims is not dic- for activities, such as gender tal landscape’ (p.34). However, tated by their gender in the game play and the production of ‘devi- Sihvonen revisits this critique, but rather emerges from their ant characters often produced suggesting that the underlying behaviour. Perhaps an alterna- in particularly high relief upon intention of the designers seems tive reading of the conservative the backdrop of The Sims’ white to encourage modding and play- and consumerist ideology of the suburban, conformist landscape er performances that include the game is suggested by this – as that appear to lend themselves ‘subversive re-appropriation’ by Sihvonen points out: The game’s to the questioning through play. players and the ‘bending’ of the reality is one in which sex of a The ‘doll’s house’ becomes a ‘original inclinations of the game’ game character does not result space in which players can use (p.164). Many of the ideological in inbuilt, ‘natural’ behaviours, a variety of tactics to question biases that appear to be built inclinations or actions. This said, gender ideologies, resulting in into the game are quickly dealt in its breadth, while dictated by politicised play practices. Sih- with by cheats, mods, and fixes its focus on a particular game vonen’s analysis dwells upon that are both available through and set of player activities, the this use of the game platform player communities, and, as Sih- book draws together a lot of ma- as a text for rewriting alternative vonen points out, also described terial and ties together a great many threads as well as stimu-

29 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 lating a range of questions re- scissors! Less unusual possi- Time for the scissors! Interlude, garding game modification and bly is how the respondents to between parts two and three is a player communities in games the main essays chop-up, intel- game - Figment: The Switching outside of the FPS genre. lectually, the previous essays. If Codes Game by Eric Zimmer- References that’s not all, there are poetry, man. This is a bona fide card games, dialogue, scholarly es- game designed specifically for [1] The games studies literature distinguishes between a ludic says, and short fiction all thrown this book, and you, dear reader, understanding of game-play - in together. What is the world are invited to cut out the 200 where games are considered as materials for play activities coming to? Switching Codes cards, read the rules, and play and player performance - and goes a long way in helping us the game with friends. Scissors the understanding of games as understand this question by dis- are not provided with the book, narratives, which more like films, or novels, can be progressed cussing side-by-side — digital probably because of Custom’s through by players whose technology, the humanities and security regulations? If you do actions reveal the underlying story contained within the text, the arts. not want to cut-up the book but who, to an extent are led to (the historical use of this cut-up As the editors of this important conform with predicted aspects methodology is the basis of the of the storyline (Aarseth, 2001). and most enjoyable book state, In contrast to this, games like The game), you may photocopy the “The aim of this volume can be Sims in particular demand an pages or download them from analysis of the procedures and simply put: to bring together outcomes of game-play, which Zimmerman’s website. cannot be analysed or predicted scholars, scientists, and artists without attention to the actions of to reflect on the impact of digital All the essays are thought pro- the player within the game-space. technology on thought and prac- voking and add important under- Bibliography tice in the humanities and the standing to our world’s current Aarseth, E., Editorial; Computer arts”. There is an anti hero … or — technology < > humanities Game Studies, Year One, maybe hero, exposed in the Epi- divide. Two essays however re- Game Studies 0101. Available at: http://www.gamestudies. logue which is perhaps, “a foil ally stood out for me. org/0101/editorial.html [Accessed for you, dear reader” (p. 1). It is December 21, 2011]. difficult to generalise about the Jenkins, H., 2006. Convergence book’s readability as the con- culture: where old and new media collide, NYU Press. tributions are so varied in style: Some are complex and require Kücklich, J., Precarious Playbour: Modders and the Digital Games prior academic knowledge; oth- Industry. Fibre Culture Journal, ers are easily digested. Having 025. Available at: http://five. said this, I think the book will be fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-025- precarious-playbour-modders- accessible to most reasonably and-the-digital-games-industry/ well educated readers. [Accessed December 5, 2011]. Switching Codes has 10 main Switching Codes: essays, followed by critical es- Thinking Through says in response to these. They Digital Technology are arranged into four parts: in the Humanities Part 1 – Research, Sense, and the Arts Structure Part 2 – Ontology, Semantic Firstly, Scholarsource: A Digital by T. Bartscherer & R. Coover Web, Creativity Infrastructure for the Humanities (eds.) by Paolo D’Iorio and Michele Part 3 – Panorama, Interactivity, University of Chicago Press, Barbera, this is a “Skype Dia- Embodiment 2011, 448 pp. logue” between a fairly traditional English, Oxford Philosopher ISBN: 978-0226038315 Part 4 – Re/presentations: Lan- guage and Facsimile and a much younger, “Google Reviewed by Rob Harle Generation”, Computer Scien- Following the texts is a List of tist. The latter writes sentences [email protected] Contributors and an excellent like, “r u kidding i’ll multi-task Not many scholarly books I re- Index. There is a smattering of while u talk lol”. This essay review invite the reader to physi- black & white images to illustrate ally brings to the surface how cally chop-up parts of it with points made in the essays. difficult it is going to be to fully

30 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 integrate digital technologies Performing plores the edge of art, science, and the humanities into a new technology, and philosophy discipline, honouring both, but Presence: Between through case studies, specifi- existing in its own right. For- the Live and the cally the work of Lynn Hershman tunately these two disparate Simulated Leeson, Paul Sermon, Gary Hill, characters find some common and Tony Oursler, The Builders ground and show that the task by Gabriella Giannachi and Association and Blast Theory, is not impossible. Nick Kaye as well as through the analyses Manchester University Press, of related environments created The second essay, Rewiring 2011, 240 pp. for CAVE (an immersive virtual Culture, the Brain, and Digital reality environment). Clearly de- Media by Vibeke Sorensen ISBN: 978-0719080043 scribing each of these projects, sums up the global situation as Reviewed by Elizabeth the authors give the reader clear it actually is. It is easy to for- McCardell entré, through analysis and in- get amongst all the hype about terviews with practitioners, to how great the Internet is, and [email protected] understanding some of the most “always on, always available” Presence: gift, being here-now, exciting art and media projects will bring about a better world charged, fraught with tension, being produced today. politically, that the majority of is a concept rich with layers of Plato’s cave analogy is a very people on this planet are not meaning – yet somehow always useful place to start to think connected to the net. “But sta- elusive, especially when em- about the questions explored tistically, 75 to 90 percent of the bedded in simulated and live in this book. He wrote of Soc- world population remains not practices of multimedia theatre, rates’ description of prisoners connected” (p. 242). Sorensen video installation, mixed reality who have lived chained to the sees, correctly in my opinion, performance, and locative arts wall of a cave all of their lives, that the present growth of dig- as questions about its nature are facing a blank wall. They watch ital global networks is similar thrown into relief, like the shad- shadows projected on to the wall to that of twentieth century co- ows in Plato’s cave. Presence is by entities passing in front of a lonialism and imperialism. The not held static in a snapshot of fire behind them and understand bottom line is that while some present time being there, but is the images as reality. Philoso- things may be gained through embodied relationally in actual phers, Socrates claimed, are like colonialism, a great deal is lost active viewers, participants and these prisoners freed from their and this is usually irreplaceable. performers; it is thrown between cave. Now, instead of shadows, “The tendency to fragment and selves. As such it is a difficult they can perceive reality. Is vir- deconstruct cultures is still pro- concept to contemplate unless tual reality (the shadows on the gressing. It is also reinforced by we think in process terms as walls of a cave) really virtual, strong and persistent neocolo- this book attempts to do. The or does it augment real reality, nial tendencies” (p. 243). authors, in unrelenting examina- whatever that is? Is there actual tion, successfully, I believe, unreality or is all experience end- Understanding the impact of earths questions, murmurings, lessly mediated by simulacra rapidly changing information articulations and well described (words, included), as Baudril- technology on intellectual and philosophies (especially in cri- lard claimed in the days before cultural life is increasingly dif- tique of Husserl) that are useful computer generated environ- ficult. For me this book is a suc- in bringing understanding to this ments? Is reality a construct? cessful attempt to provide a ba- phenomenon. Plato thought there were perfect sic understanding of the issues Part of a major research project forms, in places beyond shad- involved and also give tentative led by Giannachi and Kaye and ows; we, of the modern era, have suggestions of ways to proceed funded by the UK Arts and Hu- a different stance: We play with into our uncertain future. “ Au- manities Research Council, this our thoughts as shadows on the tomated computation may in hardback book will be of par- wall, observing them dance in certain respects change “what ticular interest to students, re- difference and fusion. It is cer- it means to be human.” “This searchers, and practitioners of tainly interesting stuff, especial- possibility — both a promise theatre and performance, con- ly when the human element of and a threat — is clearly on the temporary art, media, the new presence (or telepresence) is minds of many of the contribu- media, and technology. It ex- added. tors to Switching Codes” (p.5).

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Virtual reality, as the authors of Cinema and naïve realism and uncritical ac- this book note (p. 119), are ‘tech- ceptation of film as expression of Experience: representational verisimilitude). nologies or environments that Siegfried Kracauer, provide realistic cues to some Benjamin’s texts on film, on the contrary, have benefited from or all the senses, sufficient to Walter Benjamin, the exceptional impact of his engender in the participant a and Theodor W. Adorno “Artwork” article (which does willing suspension of disbelief’. not represent however all of his We are used to thinking of virtual thinking on film, often simplis- by Miriam Bratu Hansen reality as computer generated tically reduced to the idea of – and this book reinforces that. University of California Press, film as aura destruction, more The authors note that virtual re- 2011, 408 pp. particularly in the third and last ality can be presented in three ISBN: 978-0520265608 version of this essay). Adorno’s ideas on film, finally, have rou- ways: immersive or inclusive, via Reviewed by Jan Baetens, tinely been discarded as elitist goggles, gloves or data suits; University of Leuven and aesthetically conservative a desktop virtual reality 3-D [email protected]. due to their foregrounding in his technology observed through ac.be famous 1947 book on the culture a window or screen; and ‘third industry. In Cinema and Experi- person VR’ where you steer and Cinema and Experience is, alas, ence, Hansen offers a very thor- view an image of yourself in- a posthumous publication, and ough and detailed description of teracting in a virtual world. The the exceptional qualities of the these three authors’ ideas on scholarship of a book like this, image has a prosthetic quality cinema, and in doing this, she by one of the leading voices in and leads to a sense of having follows more or less the chronol- contemporary film theory and ogy of their interventions. For a double existence where the history, are so rich throughout example, Kracauer occupies difference between presence that one feels ashamed to sim- the first and last chapter of the and absence doesn’t matter any ply review it in the absence of book, whose central parts are more. Any technology, however, its author (actually, each of its devoted to a large section on has this capacity to ‘provide re- pages would deserve a close- Benjamin, followed by a briefer alistic cues to some or all the reading and a meticulous and one on Adorno. But the aims senses, sufficient to engender careful discussion). One can of her study are, of course, only hope that the research of in the participant a willing sus- much more far-reaching than Miriam Hansen, whose work on pension of disbelief.’ The writ- the scrupulous reconstruction spectatorship has been crucial and explication of a corpus that ten word is a prime example. in the cultural turn of film stud- is read here for the very first We are trained to read shapes ies, will be continued in many time in all its diversity. Hansen on a page or screen and make ways by those who have found does not limit herself to revisit meaning through the lens of our in her writing and thinking good the notorious monuments, she social group, our history, and reasons to study film in new and delves also in numerous hardly our personal experiences. Thus, innovative ways. known texts, many of them never while the virtual technologies This book is clearly the result translated into English. What and the art forms that describe of a lifelong dialogue with the she actually is looking for is a and are generated from them three major German authors on twofold basic reinterpretation: On the one hand, she proposes have become very sophisti- film of the (post-)Weimar period: to demonstrate the similarities cated, the basic entwining and Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Ben- and continuities between the understanding of that chiasm jamin, and Theodor Adorno. The position of their work in current three authors under scrutiny; on remains somewhat mysterious. scholarship is however very dif- the other hand, she also aims What is presented here in this ferent. Kracauer’s reflection on at questioning the monolithic in- book, Performing presence: Be- film is often dismissed, partly terpretation of their film criticism tween the Live and Simulated is due to the misunderstandings and theory. Logically enough, a thought-provoking and pro- that have accompanied the re- both objectives are closely in- vocative account and analysis, ception of his 1960 Theory of tertwined. but the work, in my view, has Film: The Redemption of Physi- just begun. cal Reality (a study accused of

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Cinema and Experience, which the 1960 Theory of Film (directly scholarship (overobsessed, ac- is a book one can only close- written in English, a problem for cording to Hansen, by the mere read, has a very plain meth- some of its first readers such as idea of film as aura destruction). odology. Three basic stances Pauline Kael) is confronted with Cinema, on the other hand, is determine and underlie all of its the bilingual (German and Eng- not to be read here as “film,” but interpretations. lish) notes that the author had as the specific experience that been taking since his exile in was both creating modernity Marseille (where he had to wait and being shaped by it. Cine- for the authorization to legally ma provides the framework that immigrate to the US). For Ben- simultaneously reproduces and jamin’s “Artwork” essay, Hansen invents new ways of coping with uses each of its three versions: technology, community, rupture, the handwritten manuscript, the innovation, art, and most of the French translation by Pierre other notions and concepts that Klossowski as published in 1936 Hansen scrutinizes in her study. in the Zeitschrift für Sozialfor- Cinema and Experience is a schung, and the revised third difficult book. Not because its or “German” version, which is style is obscure or confused (on from 1939 but whose publica- the contrary), but because its tion will remain postponed till intellectual and philosophical the posthumous 1955 Illumi- ambitions are so high. Hansen nationen edition. In the case takes for granted that her reader of Adorno, Hansen completes is perfectly familiar with the ex- the 1947 version of the Dialektik First, historical contextualiza- isting scholarship and the many der Aufklärung (co-signed with tion. Hansen reconstructs the in- cultural and historical debates Max Horkheimer) with later or tellectual and conceptual back- on the reception of Kracauer, excluded material that did not ground of all the major concepts Benjamin, and Adorno, and necessarily represent the vision used by Kracauer, Benjamin, this is placing the stakes for the of Adorno’s co-author. and Adorno, and she achieves “ideal reader” very high. But all this goal by painstakingly un- Third: the exclusive focus on the those who accept to follow the earthing the permanent debate double concept of cinema and author on her passionate jour- between these three thinkers experience (for this is not a book ney will be richly rewarded. Our and the ongoing debates of their on film theory in general, and apparently too well known ideas times (the plural is crucial here, certainly not on the analysis of on film according to Kracauer, for none of these works can be particular movies). The notion Benjamin, and Adorno become pigeonholed to just one specific of experience (in the sense of at second sight a frightening lab- intellectual environment or con- “Erfahrung”, socially grounded yrinth with many dark meanders, text), as well as by detecting the in a whole context of living, and but eventually the strong hand sometimes dramatic changes not of “Erlebnis”, which refers to of Hansen leads us to unfore- undergone by some of these a more immediate yet also more seen yet always illuminating concepts during their internal isolated form of experience) is of insights, too various and too evolution. course a strategic concept. It is complex to be summarized by in itself a reply to Adorno (whose way of a review (in this regard Second: the palimpsestic char- insistence on the inherent quali- one may regret that the index, acter of the close-reading. ties –or if one prefers, lack of which contains mainly proper Hansen does not simply rereads quality– of film as culture indus- nouns, does not fully pay justice and reinterprets the texts and try tended to put between brack- to this wealth). And the style of the concepts in the edited ver- ets any form of concrete experi- the book is so compelling that sions that have become canoni- ence); it is also a way of saving no one will want not to follow the cal, she also discloses their pre- the heritage of Kracauer (who slightest of its threads. vious versions as well as their appears to have said much more marginalia and intellectual after- on the cinematographic experi- life (including in the discussions ence than his many detractors between the three authors them- have always suggested) and a selves). In the case of Kracauer, way of refocusing the Benjamin this means, for instance, that

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Talk to Me: mation systems from personal activating alerts, mapping emer- to global scale. gency areas, searching for sur- Design and the vivors. And, as we have seen Building on the shift in design Communication in world events, interfaces can from function to meaning, and between People bring government to the indi- with the overlay of twenty-first vidual or the individual to gov- and Objects century focus on social media ernment. Interfaces have been communication, Talk to Me pos- created for Catholic confession by Paola Antonelli its communication as the nexus and Taoist prayer. Wheat fields The Museum of Modern Art, of contemporary design, the provide QR-code salutations for New York, 2011, 208 pp. embodiment of the openness airline passengers flying above and flexibility necessary for em- ISBN: 978-0870707964 them. Many other examples are bracing diversity and the critical included in Talk to Me, each one Reviewed by John F. Barber, questioning and imagining pre- interesting, compelling, and in- Washington State University ferred as the method of inquiry. dicative of what lies ahead as Vancouver As Talk to Me demonstrates, de- design continues to explore how signers, beyond giving objects [email protected] our objects, with their built in form, function, and meaning, radical functionalism and their The purpose of design has shift- now write the initial scripts that abilities to inhabit different en- ed, over the last 100 years, from provide a new metaphysical and vironments and frames of mind utility, to function, to elegance, expressive layer of interaction simultaneously will become ever and now, in response to af- and communication between more central to our cultural de- fordances of digital technolo- people and objects. velopment. gies, to visualization, communi- Interfaces provide many of the cation, information, interaction, In addition to the lavish exhibi- objects included in Talk to Me future scenarios and projection photographs and curatorial with depth and dynamism, as tions, scientific inquiry, and in- notes, Talk to Me also includes well as the ability to commu- terfaces. Design has become four essays by the designers nicate in different ways. Some a way of constantly connecting noted above. Hunt’s essay, communicate in text, diagrams, the open source movement with “Nervous Systems and Anx- or other graphic interfaces. a creative network to promote ious Infrastructures” notes that Some seem empathetic, al- interdisciplinary collaboration. “we are drifting into a new align- most telepathic, keeping us The result is design’s new ter- ment, in both mind and body, company or storing our memo- rain: enhancing communicative with technology that is far more ries. Some provide sensory al- possibilities, embodying a new immersive, encompassing and lure, with warmth, scent, or tex- balance between technology confounding. Surrounded by ture. Such objects populate our and people, and bringing tech- synthetic voices that talk to homes, buildings, lives, beckon- nology to a comfortable, under- us, we are entering an age of ing with identities or characteris- standable human scale. uncanny technologies” (48). tics we find compelling, natural, Midal’s essay, “Design Won- Talk to Me: Design and the Com- and meaningful. They contain der Stories: When Speech Is munication between People and information beyond their imme- Golden,” speaks to the transdis- Objects, published in conjunc- diate use(s) or appearance(s), ciplinarity of modern design as tion with The Museum of Modern yet each one prompts the prom- it draws from the theoretical Art exhibition of the same name ise of communication. bases of anthropology and so- (24 July-7 November 2011) by ciology, as well as its future as exhibit curator Paola Antonelli, For example, interfaces (wrist- a discipline disengaged from with essays by Jamar Hunt, Al- bands and sensors) allow indi- functionalism, able to forge a exandra Midal, Kevin Slavin, viduals to monitor themselves new conception of design and and Khoi Vinh, celebrates this or be monitored by others at a design history. Vinh’s “Conver- diversity and open-endedness distance. Some websites are sations with the Network” notes of contemporary design by pro- interfaces for publicizing infor- that the contemporary digital viding snapshots of nearly 200 mation at different scales, from designer is “charged with en- projects, including interfaces, digital water coolers to WikiLe- gaging the user in conversation websites, video games, devices, aks. Any device that can send through the framework itself. De- tools, charts, furniture, and infor and receive text can be used for acts of civil responsibility: sign solutions can no longer be

34 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 concluded; they’re now works in provides a significant model for acoustic territories. To analyze progress, objects that continu- thinking about and experiencing such territories, LaBelle focuses ally evolve and are continually the contemporary condition. In on five everyday spaces: the ur- reinvented. A designer creates exploring this thesis, Brandon ban underground subway; home a framework for experience, LaBelle, an artist and writer interiors, suburbs, prisons, and the user conducts experienc- working with sound and loca- gated communities; urban side- es within that framework, and tional identities, notes at the walks and streets; shopping through feedback—both implicit outset, “the seemingly innocent malls and airports; and the sky, and implicit—the designer is ex- trajectory of sound as it moves filled with television and radio pected to progressively alter that from its source and toward a transmissions, both commercial experience to reflect the user’s listener, without forgetting all and pirate. In examining each usage patterns, frustrations, the surfaces, bodies, and other space, LaBelle foregrounds successes, and unexpected sounds it brushes against, is a sound as an anxious and rest- by-products. . . . When an in- story imparting a great deal of less transfiguration that “might veterate user of a digital product information fully charged with identify a means for occupying encounters a new change, she is geographic, social, psychologi- and exploring the multiple per- listening to the object talk to her” cal, and emotional energy. … My spectives of the present” (xxvi) (131). Slavin’s “Reality is Plenty, feeling is that an entire history For example, regarding the sky Thanks: Twelve Arguments for and culture can be found within a as an acoustic territory, LaBelle Keeping the Naked Eye Naked” single sound; from its source to sees transmission towers as argues for inventing new ways its destination remaining specifi- “giving material expression to to see rather than new things to cally tied to a given context, as the immaterial, emanating the look at, objects with which we a deeper expressive and pro- potentiality of medial reach” by can see the world “in ways that longed figure of culture” (xvi). displacing the corporeal on the we’ve never known” (173). imaginary plane of virtuality Talk to Me: Design and the Com- comprising the ether in which munication between People and wireless broadcasts occur (238). Objects, both The Museum of Similarly, they speak to control Modern Art exhibition and the over an organized electromag- its associated catalog, does just netic spectrum through which this, providing nearly 200 new are broadcast corporate or state and different ways of looking at propaganda. Such borders and the world through objects or our controls are resisted, if not com- creation and pursuing a conver- pletely ignored, by pirate broad- sation with those objects about casts, transmission arts projects what we see. incorporating the content sent via various frequencies of the Acoustic spectrum, and the use of mo- Territories: Sound bile telephones, making each user both a transmitter and a re- Culture and ceiver, charging the imagination Everyday Life Combining research on urban with potentiality of worldwide theory, popular culture, musi- connective presence. by Brandon LaBelle cology, anthropology, histories Such instances, says LaBelle, Continuum, 2010, 304 pp. of media and cultural practices, contribute to an aerial imagina- and auditory issues, Acoustic ISBN: 978-1441161369 tion made manifest by the pres- Territories seeks to examine the ence of alternative content and Reviewed by John F. Barber, exchanges between environ- the mapping of the borders of Washington State University ments and people registered aural sources with the terrestrial Vancouver through deep listening aural extension(s). “Transmission,” says perience. In particular, LaBelle [email protected] LaBelle, “is equally about power is interested in the ways in which and propaganda. …To transmit The central argument of Acous- sound disintegrates and recon- is to tap the political heart of so- tic Territories: Sound Culture figures space through a politi- cial connection” (220). and Everyday Life is that sound cal process, turning them into

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This same approach is perva- books I have reviewed have all educated general readers and sive in each chapter of Acoustic been concerned with fostering a cover a huge range of history. Territories. LaBelle follows the mutually advantageous relation- Some of the chapters are in- transmission of various sounds ship between science and the depth philosophical investiga- back to their sources, uncov- humanities. This book is exem- tions into aesthetics and the ering a culture of aerial imagi- plary in this regard, specifically senses; others take the form nation and the opportunity for exploring the scientific and com- of discussions between schol- personalized expression, just as mon sense understanding of the ars, and still others are more he follows those same sounds senses and their relationship accounts of practising artists outward from their sources to to the arts. Art is used in the who have a major concern their eventual receipt. Arguably, broadest manner and includes about their work and sensory at times this trajectory travels all modes of creative artistic response. The book has numer- too far, deteriorating into a series endeavour from basic crafts ous black and white photos and of echoes, beyond a useful arc, through to opera, fine art, cin- illustrations and a small number just as does sound as it ranges ema and classical music. of colour plates. outward from its source. In be- Two essays that particularly tween, however, by bumping Art and the Senses is no shrink- struck a chord with me were up against the material world, ing violet. Weighing in at just Aesthetic Touch by Rosalyn Dr- or constructs of virtual ones, under 650 pages, it covers a lot iscoll and Sculpture and Touch these arguments/sounds create of ground. The essays explore by Bacci. These authors discuss a sense of space contextualized many of the subjects discussed the underrated importance of by relations located within larger at the Art & Senses Workshop at touch, and how touch influences cultural histories and ideologies. Oxford, England in 2006. “The aim of this project, in addition to and modifies the other senses. In the end, the dynamic quality providing a unique multidiscipli- Driscoll creates sculptures spe- of auditory knowledge works to nary resource on the senses, is cifically to be felt and explored create shared spaces that be- to inspire future cross-boundary through touch. During the 80s long to no single public yet still interactions”. The book does and 90s I often had a sign dis- impart the feeling of intimacy, not claim or aspire to be the played on my own sculpture says LaBelle. Sound then is definitive work but rather to of- exhibits. “Please Touch Me”. a network that “teaches us to fer, “a collection of examples Given the general restriction of belong, to find place, as well on how scientists, artists, and touching a work of “Fine Art” as how not to belong, to drift. scholars in the humanities are this unnerved quite a few gal- …based on empathy and di- investigating and commenting lery goers! This was, of course, vergence, allowing for careful on the senses” (p. 2). The edi- my intention — what damage understanding and deep in- tors Francesca Bacci and David could someone running their volvement in the present while Melcher (both from the Univer- hands over a half tonne piece connecting to the dynamics of sity of Trento, Italy) have done of marble do? mediation, displacement, and an excellent job in achieving As these two authors point out virtuality” (xvii). this aim. specifically, and some of the oth- Art and the Senses Following the Foreword by Siân er contributors generally, deny- Ede, the List of Contributors, ing an observer the right to touch and the Editor’s Introduction, a sculpture, which more than by Francesca Bacci and David any other art form is created Melcher (eds.) there are 31 chapters with such enticing titles as: Hearing by direct hands-on touching, is Oxford University Press, 2011, Scents, Tasting Sights: Towards absurd. The result is an impov- 622 pp. a Cross-Cultural Multimodal erished, incomplete experience ISBN: 978-0199230600 Theory of Aesthetics; - Mirror of the artwork. This taboo of not Neurons and Art; - Visual Mu- touching is not only restricted to Reviewed by Rob Harle sic and Musical Paintings: The artwork, but rather it spills over [email protected] Quest for Synaesthesia in the into everyday life. In the village Arts, space does not permit list- where I live we have a saying, It seems cross-cultural, ing them all. There is literally “Three hugs a day keeps you transdisciplinary scholarship something for everyone; all the healthy,” but many adults never is increasing at an almost ex- essays are well written, acces- touch other human beings. The ponential rate. The last five sible to both academic and well further we move towards online,

36 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 mechanistic lifestyles, together In Modernism After Wagner Ju- their own and inmost essences, with the possibility of sexual har- liet Koss aims to recover Richard they long to do and be. Each, assment charges for touching Wagner’s seminal conception where her own capacity ends, a fellow worker on the arm in a of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total can be absorbed in the other, … complimentary way, the more work of art) to its original inter- proving her own purity, freedom, our quality of life as humans disciplinary idea as conceived and independence as that which becomes compromised. by Wagner in order to show how she is.” [1] its principles lie at the very heart This book has ramifications far Departing from Wagner’s focus of modernism. Contrary to the beyond the arts. Perhaps this in the arts in poetry (which he frequent retroactive assess- was not originally intended by conceived as foremost and the ments of Wagner’s work, Koss the editors, but it is an important art of the future) music, and situates it in the historical and bonus because as many of the dance, Koss draws out the his- political context of the period be- contributors show, we now know torical specificity of the wider tween the 1890s and the 1930s the senses do not exist in isola- implications of his conception of in Germany. In doing so, she tion or as separate entities. Each the Gesamtkunstwerk in art and proposes that the common op- sense modifies the experience especially architecture (as well position of the Gesamtkunst- of the others. As an example, to as some sidelines into the areas werk to the central themes of touch a fine crystal glass alters of theatre, music and film) with a modernism, such as autonomy, the actual visual experience of focus on the active co-creation medium specificity and artistic the glass! “The mainstream view of the artwork on behalf of the purity, does not hold once the in cognitive science was, and to spectator’s involvement. This concept is liberated from un- a certain extent even today is, chosen focus on the spectators’ critical associations with fascist that action, perception, and cog- involvement in the co-creation aesthetics and from mislead- nition are to be seen as separate of the artwork sets up a frame- ing interpretations of the spec- domains. The discovery of the work to address core questions tators as entirely passive and MNS [Mirror Neuron System] around politics and aesthetics engulfed in an overpowering challenges this view as it shows as well as the relationship be- force conveyed through a blur- that such domains are intimately tween form and content. This ring of creativity among a variety intertwined” (p. 456). focus is carried through the of artistic disciplines. The Ge- book, starting with chapter 1, Art and The Senses is a vitally samtkunstwerk, as conceived with the exploration of Wagn- important book and applies by Wagner, on the contrary, er’s original conception of the to so many different research retained the specificity of the Gesamtkunstwerk against the disciplines that I cannot begin single discipline but enforced backdrop of the failed revolution to suggest them all. One area, its strength through an interdis- in 1848-49 in the German Con- though, that I think will benefit ciplinary collaborative effort. As federation as a ‘radical means of immensely from the application quoted in Koss (p. xii), Wagner encouraging audiences’ active of the findings presented in this declared that art forms: engagement.’ Chapter 2 con- volume is the healing profes- textualises the exemplification sion, particularly psychotherapy of Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk and art therapy. in the establishment of the Bayreuth opera-house, which Modernism After is drawn into the wider theatri- Wagner cal arena in chapter 4 through critical reflections on the appli- by Juliet Koss cations of the idea of the total University of Minnesota Press, artwork among other in relation 2009, 416 pp. to Nietzsche’s conception of the festival in case-studies of the ISBN 978-0816651597 Darmstadt Artists’ Colony and Reviewed by Martha the Prinzregententheater in Mu- Blassnigg, Plymouth nich, as well as in chapter 5 the University Munich artist’s theatre. Chapter “[E]ach attain the capacity to be 3, most crucially for the perspec- martha.blassnigg@plymouth. and do the very thing which, of tive of the audience’s engage- ac.uk

37 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 ments, discusses some of the lence to reflect on the previous methods and strengths remain core investigations into the sub- aspects around the tensions be- distinct but are put into serv- ject of empathy and the sym- tween empathy and estrange- ice for a greater whole and in pathetic relationship between ment and Weimar models of this process are strengthened spectator and perceived (art) subjectivity and spectatorship by return. It can be concluded object in 19th century psycho- and concludes in chapter 8 with that only through a thorough physiognomic approaches in the critical reflections on the place- understanding of interdiscipli- sciences and aesthetic theory. ment of Wagner’s work in the narity (perhaps in a similar way This chapter provides the foil German history of nationalism in which Wagner conceived of for the apparent break between in particular the associations the Gesamtkunstwerk), drawing th the 19 century understanding with National Socialism. from Koss’ insightful treatment, of an active spectatorship (as Koss successfully restores the cross-disciplinary collaboration present in Wagner and for ex- original conception of Wagner’s can successfully lead to inves- ample in Robert Vischer’s work) ideas on the Gesamtkunstwerk tigations of a transdisciplinary and the 20th century concep- and shows their relevance for character aimed at the emer- tions of the passive spectator as the understanding of modern- gence and identification of new part of a mass audience. Whilst ism in its very own interdisci- topics and concerns that oth- Koss posits among others the plinary efforts in the develop- erwise remain uncovered. [3] technological media development of visual abstraction and Modernism After Wagner pro- ments as key context in the shift its rhetoric of purity. At the same vides a rich framework to in- from the individual artwork to a time, she calls for a reconsidera- vestigate more thoroughly into mass audience, particularly in tion of how modernism itself had some areas of the arts; aesthet- chapter 6 with a brief sidestep to to be understood more fully in ics, philosophy and psychology some discussion of the emerg- relation to the theoretical and of perception, and in this sense ing cinema, the controversies historical development of the provides a transdisciplinary foil of contradictory models of the Gesamtkunstwerk by which she for further research into the ac- empathetic engagement of the counters the body of literature tive participation of the specta- spectator in chapter 3 intrinsical- conceived by retroactive pre- tors in mass media - a significant ly reveal some of the prevailing scriptions of modernism from area to address in relation to paradigmatic shifts at the turn the perspective of mid and contemporary media environ- of the century that reshaped the late 20th century theory that ments (e.g. games and online understanding of subjectivity in excluded, as Koss argues, the technologies) in particular as most fundamental ways, which historical specificity and wider they reveal the complex rela- Koss further epitomises with re- context of interdisciplinary en- tionships between politics and gard to Hildebrand’s and Worrin- gagements. [2] aesthetics with regards to users’ ger’s conflicting approaches to engagements. theatre and empathy in chapter In doing so Koss convincingly 5. It is on this more philosophi- recovers the original intentions References cal level that Koss provides an of Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk [1] Translated by Koss from intriguing starting point to further from its historical oblivion, not Wagner, Richard. 1849. ‘Das explore some of these tensions least caused by Wagner’s own Kunstwerk der Zukunft’. In Samtliche Schriften und that have, in recent decades, attempts to obliterate any con- Dichtungen, 3: p. 156. been addressed among other nections with his involvements [2] We can here also see a through a resituating of the during the revolution. The par- connection with Aby Warburg’s historical roots and drivers of ticular relevance of Modernism attempts to innovate art-history the concepts of embodied vi- at the turn of the century through After Wagner lies in a recogni- interdisciplinary methods, by sion, enacted perception and tion of the significance of this which he conceived the very the dissatisfactions with design concept for today’s central col- foundation of interdisciplinarity in the disciplinary strength theory that resulted in equal- laborative method of interdisci- and integrity of the interacting ly unsatisfactory conceptions plinarity in many fields, not only frameworks. Koss mentions such as co- or experience de- Warburg only briefly in the in the academic arena. It contrib- introduction (p. xxi) in relation to sign. Koss, however, remains utes to the theoretical foundation recent art-historical approaches within the book’s argumentative to build sustainable and produc- to open the disciplines to other fields with Warburg as framework in her discussion in tive interdisciplinary collabora- paradigmatic forerunner for such chapter 7 of Bauhaus theatre tion and exchanges, whereby attempts that at the same time and dolls as object par excel- foreground the discipline’s central the specificity of the disciplinary preoccupations.

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[3] This particular approach to tions; at other times it is the more what sadly was the year of his transdisciplinarity has been developed by the International modern mathematics of coding death at the advanced age of Network of Transdiscipinary theory that is less than 70 years 95. I am one of thousands who Research, led by Michael Punt old. We learn about de Bruin se- was led into mathematics as a at Plymouth University, drawing in particular on Helga Novotny quences and about the Gilbreath schoolboy by Martin Gardner’s et.al.’s work, i.e. Nowotny, H., principle and how this is related wonderful books. Give this book Scott, P. and Gibbons, M. 2003. ‘‘Mode 2’ Revisited: The New to Mandlebrojt sets, the famous a try; you certainly will not be Production of Knowledge - gingerbread man on multiple disappointed. Introduction’, Minerva, 41(3), pp. 179–194. scales. The mathematics is well presented. If the reader has Alfred Jarry: A Magical only poorly remembered school Pataphysical Life Mathematics mathematics, then the whole book should still be accessible. by Alastair Brotchie The symbols are restricted to by Persi Diaconis and Ron the square root, powers, and The MIT Press, 2011, 424 pp. Graham; foreword by Martin indices. There are numbers, let- ISBN: 978-0262016193 Gardner ters to represent numbers, but Reviewed by Allan Graubard Princeton University Press, there is no algebra and certainly 2011, 258 pp. no calculus. Remarkably, the [email protected] ISBN: 978-0691151649 more sophisticated mathematical reader is also hooked; the Reviewed by Phil Dyke, authors manage the very difficult Plymouth University trick of avoiding condescension yet remaining accessible. An- [email protected] other feature is analyzing the shuffle in terms of graph theory; perfectly shuffle enough times, and the cards revert to the start position. This can be represented by a cycle in graph theory. Modulo arithmetic also comes to the rescue to explain some card tricks and also tricks involv- ing coins and predicting selec- tions. There are other chapters not about cards. There’s one on the I Ching and probability, and another particularly interesting Reading Alastair Brotchie’s one explaining juggling. Jug- new biography of Alfred Jarry is gling is analysed not in terms something other than “pataphys- of the mechanics of objects ical,” a term that Jarry coined but rather by using sequences early on to counterpose the pre- I must admit that before I opened and modulo arithmetic. It is this vailing scientism he faced with a this book, I was skeptical. Here’s that tells you when to throw and kind of wit, pastiche, and farce yet another book dressing up catch, though for potential jug- we would do well to take note a popular pastime (magic) in a glers the advice on how to throw of––this capacity for “imaginary mathematical cloak in some kind and what to concentrate on is solutions” to any number of is- of try at academic respectabil- invaluable and has little to do sues, from quotidian needs to ity. How wrong I was. This is a with mathematics. Near the end abstract speculation, that every splendid book with lots of won- of the book are biographical ac- now and then compels us to sit derful insights. Quite a lot of it counts of interesting people and up on the edges of our seats is about cards in one way or an- their particular claims to fame. and breathe deeply, no longer other. Many so-called tricks turn Personally I found this very in- encumbered by givens and the out to be the application of pre- teresting, particularly the piece traditions that claim them. cise mathematics. Sometimes it on Martin Gardner who contrib- So, no, I am not an objective is permutations and combina- uted the preface to this book in reference for Jarry. Ever since

39 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 encountering his plays, as foun- personal wealth and security he wrote and caroused, his dational to modern theater as fade in and out of the firing line works and how they played for Ibsen, Chekhov, and Strind- of daily struggles and corpo- their audience, successes and berg, and his novels, I have ever rate theft? More simply, where failures both (by whatever val- sought him out, among some would we be without our capac- ues you measure such things), very few others, when disentan- ity, schooled in part by Jarry, to and his errant slide into death, gling myself from set opinions eviscerate our misery, seem- age 34. Threaded throughout and easy solutions. ingly never to be done with it, but are wonderful archival photos certainly not to have it do us in? that capture a history in Paris Laughter enters here, as it and its environs that you can should, the kind that slaps us The book, thus, chronicles a gift- still find, here and there, if you in the face because it is just so ed writer whose extraordinary search for it. bracing. But then that is Jarry, entrance onto the cultural stage and why in his milieu in Paris at and whose terrible exit from me- And perhaps you will with this the far end of the 19th century ningeal tuberculosis seems of a echo in mind: “Merrrrrrdrrrrre…” he commanded such allegiance stamp –– as if the one parodied from poets, writers, and artists the other. The creator of Pere Helmholtz: From we esteem: Mallarmé, Remy de Ubu – a glutinous and grotesque Enlightenment to Gourmont, Oscar Wilde, Henri character, blind to the source of Rousseau, Lautrec, Bonnard, his power yet using it to crush Neuroscience to name a few. his enemies with his “debrain- by Michel Meulders ing” machine – is done in by a There is Jarry, all of 23, pre- disease that attacks the base edited and translated by miering his play, King Ubu, in of the brain. That none of his Laurence Garey 1896 at the 900-seat Nouveau doctors recognized or treated The MIT Press, 2010, 264 pp. Theatre, with its now mythic it, however clinically adept they scandal propelled by the open- ISBN: 978-0262014489 thought they were, a clandes- ing “Merrrrrrdrrrrre…” There is tine autopsy unmasking their Reviewed by Amy Ione, The Jarry, quickly using up his inher- ignorance is par for the course. Diatrope Institute itance to found a lavish avant- garde journal L’Ymagier, with Add Dr. Faustroll, and what the [email protected] its list of leading lights. There Faust-Troll dyad meant for Jarry, A recurring topic among those is Jarry, cyclist extraordinaire along with his other central char- interested in art, science, and when the technology, finally be- acters, and we have someone technology is the value of come affordable, was just gain- still vivant: the lascivious Mes- transdisciplinary approaches. ing in popularity. There is Jarry, salina in the novel of the same In my view, those who gravi- cultural journalist, librettist, poet, name; the four-man bicycle team tate to this area (or related ar- and ever the outsider at elite of le surmale, off on a 10,000 eas such as interdisciplinary, cultural gatherings, sweaty and mile race with its captivating multidisciplinary, and integrative mud soaked from his 20-mile experiment to determine en studies) see broad-based think- cycle into Paris from his shack route and on saddle the great- ing both as a creative tool and a on the Seine. est number of sexual climaxes means to innovatively address a man can have in 24 hours; There is Jarry, with just enough some of the complex issues of the ever curious Visits of Love, money from his writing for a bare our world today. Among these or his Days and Nights and, of existence, relying on his fishing people are some who value discourse, the Ubu plays: Ubu the for food, his charm for society, ciplinary boundaries and believe King, Ubu Cuckolded, and Ubu his drinking for continuity and that those who can operationally Enchained. his black humor, or umor, as he span their narrow parameters called it, to sustain him – the Of Alastair Brotchie, biographer, have the best foundation for con- latter enriching Dada and Sur- his tone is clear and informed, ceptualizing how to innovate and realist sensibilities a decade or rooted in a familiarity with Jarry see beyond known territory. The two later that used it if only to that has something quite per- tendency to cast Leonardo da keep the wolves at bay in their sonal about it, which is all for Vinci in the role of the “historical way, as Jarry did in his. the good. For now we know archetype” of this type of per- something more about Jarry, son, the “Renaissance Man,” And for us, has so much his friends, the period in which has perhaps allowed us to lose changed as our illusions about

40 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 sight of the many other original and philosophy. Although Her- Humboldt.” It is hard to say if this thinkers who exemplify what mann was strongly attracted to format was intentional or if the creative minds can accomplish the natural sciences, his father chapters began as stand alone when paired with a far-ranging, urged him toward medicine articles and were later pieced inventive imagination. because funding for medical together into this book. education was available. After Helmholtz: From Enlighten- The strongest chapters are the training in physiology, Helmholtz ment to Neuroscience by Michel two that cover Helmholtz’ work worked in many areas outside of Meulders offers a reminder that on hearing and acoustics and medicine over the years. Indeed, we can identify a number of the one chapter that summarizes a defining feature of Helmholtz’s figures in the past who worked Helmholtz’s theory of visual per- work was the way he branched across disciplines. The book ception. Helmholtz’s introduc- out in many fields as he sought introduces us to Hermann von tion in his Sensations of Tone to translate his biological in- Helmholtz (1821–1894), trained as a Physiological Basis for the sights through an empirical and by Johannes Müller, and one Theory of Music says that this mathematical framework. In this, of the most accomplished work aimed to bring together he was aided by his keen obser- physiologists of his time. A key work in physical and physi- vational abilities and his passion nineteenth century polymath, ological acoustics, music and for experimentation. Helmholtz used a versatile tool- aesthetics that had remained box for his co-discovery of the I began this book expecting a unreasonably far apart. The au- principle of the conservation of biography that would offer a thor explains that Helmholtz’s energy, his invention of several chronology of Helmholtz’ work, early musical education and instruments (e.g. the ophthal- along with contextual material to cultivation of musical activities moscope, the ophthalmometer help the reader place his work throughout his life provided a and the telestereoscope), and within the nineteenth century foundation as well as a moti- his many significant contribu- world. The author instead offers vation for the experiments with tions to physics, physiology, a quite variegated picture that sound. We also learn that this physical theory, philosophy of made it somewhat difficult for scientist invented the “Helm- science and mathematics, and me to see the man as a whole holtz resonator” to identify the aesthetic thought. as I read. The challenge in fer- various frequencies or “tones” reting out Helmholtz’ story was present in musical chords and due to the amount of material other sounds containing by mul- the author included that con- tiple tones. The bell was among textualizes Helmholtz in terms the instruments Helmholtz stud- of the people and ideas that in- ied. His attraction to this instru- fluenced him. For example, the ment says quite a bit about he chapter on “Goethe and His Vi- approached his work overall. sion of Nature” is 13 pages and Helmholtz was drawn to the bell does not mention Helmholtz. It because it is difficult to cast a seems its purpose is to provide a good bell, for one needs to ob- framework for where Helmholtz’ tain an equal thickness around views of color differ from those the whole circumference. If the of Goethe, which is discussed thickness is different at two dif- eight pages into the next chap- ferent places, there is a spot on ter. Long “asides” such as this the edge of the bell that vibrates are quite distracting and make it to give a certain tone, while the difficult to understand what the neighboring spot produces a dif- author wanted the reader to take ferent tone and the intermediate How Helmholtz brought his var- away from the book. What was zone between the two produced ied interests and education into clear is that the author has great both tones at the same time. his laboratory is one thread that enthusiasm for the accomplish- Helmholtz wanted to understand runs through the book. We learn ments of Helmholtz. In addition the unpleasant dissonance of that during his formative years to the Goethe chapter, there are this phenomenon. Ultimately, he was exposed to philosophy chapters on “Johannes Müller: he demonstrated that difference and strongly influenced by his “Man of Iron” and “Conclusion: and combination (or sum) tones father, a German teacher who The Wisdom of Alexander von existed objectively, outside the cultivated an interest in science

41 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 ear. (Although, ironically, bells physiological basis that would attempt to update the science are characterized by anhar- one day doubtless be discov- relating to Helmholtz’s work, and monic relationships among their ered.” (p. 215) the Königsberger book is out-of- tones, but they still sound good.) date scientifically. Some more Personally, I think adding more recent collections that I found Another disappointment with specifics to this comment would were are also useful in pulling the presentation was that the have offered the contemporary the threads together, particu- captions for a number of illustra- reader a better grasp of Helm- larly David Cahan’s Hermann tions were far too abbreviated. holtz’s accomplishments than von Helmholtz and the founda- Many basically said what the the chapter on Goethe. For ex- tions of nineteenth-century sci- image is and provided virtually ample, there is much one can ence [2]. no information about how the say about Helmholtz’s color depicted equipment (or what- theory. As Meulders points References ever) works. Because this was out, Helmholtz modified Tho- [1] Königsberger, Leo. 1906. Hermann von Helmholtz. not always the case, particularly mas Young’s trichromatic (three- Clarendon Press. Hermann von in the chapter on music where color) theory, which is based on Helmholtz by Leo Königsberger is the captions were full-bodied the idea that the eye responds available at http://books.google. com/books?id=JCNWAAAAMAAJ descriptions, the captions, too, to three primary colors. It is an &dq=helmholtz&pg=PP3#v=onep led me to wonder if the chapters additive color mixing theory and age&q&f=false. were originally written as stand- predicted the existence of three [2] Cahan, David, ed. 1993. alone articles. classes of color-sensitive cone Hermann von Helmholtz and the foundations of nineteenth-century receptors. What it does not ex- All in all, once I adjusted to science. University of California plain are afterimages. A con- Press. the book “as a collage” and temporary, Ewald Hering, who absorbed it on its own terms, was more of a phenomenologist, I found it an informative read. It Body Sweats: took issue with the trichromatic developed Helmholtz sufficient- The Uncensored theory based on the existence of ly to send me looking for more Writings of Elsa color afterimages. Hering pro- details. When I read further, I posed an opponent process von Freytag- realized that all the basics were theory of two pairs of opposites Loringhoven covered. It was only because across the color circle. He also the book covered the territory held that both theories could be by Irene Gammel and in an unusual fashion that it was equally valid. We now know that Suzanne Zelazo (eds.) harder for me to see the geog- Hering was correct in seeing raphy, so to speak. The MIT Press, 2011, 432 pp. compatibility between the two ISBN: 978-0262016223 Finally, based on the title of theories. What Meulders does the book, Helmholtz: From En- not really discuss is that science Reviewed by Allan Graubard lightenment to Neuroscience, I today allows that there are dif- [email protected] thought I would find many ref- ferent levels of visual process- erences to contemporary neu- ing, corresponding to the two In 1910 a 36 year-old woman roscience. This was not the theoretical approaches. Thus, promenades down Pittsburgh’s case. Basically, at the end the to some degree, both Helm- 5th Avenue in men’s clothing book acknowledges Helmholtz’s holtz and Hering were correct smoking a cigarette beside her contributions to contemporary in principle, although wrong as husband. So suspicious is their investigations, saying: to some of the details. appearance that they’re arrest- ed for being “suspicious.” The “Neuroscience and cognitive In closing, even though there next day, some 390 miles dis- science, as we call them to- was a lot to like about this book. tant, The New York Times runs day, owe numerous research Those seeking a biography of this headline concentrating on domains to [Helmholtz}, as well Helmholtz may want to start with the woman: “SHE WORE MEN’S as attitudes. No phenomenon of the excellent contemporary bi- CLOTHES.” nature, life, or environment left ography by Helmholtz’s friend his encyclopedic mind indiffer- and associate, the mathemati- Meet Elsie Greve, alias Fanny ent. He believed he could rec- cian Leo Königsberger (which Essler, by divorce and remar- oncile science and philosophy, is available in full on Google riage soon to become Baroness notably by thinking that Kant’s Books [1]). Unfortunately, as I Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, a priori had in the last resort a noted, Meulders’ book does not this former darling of Expres-

42 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 sionist Berlin thence to enter sound poems without words berg, Wallace Stevens, Ezra New York Dada stage center, a with her “strangely rough and Pound, Djuna Barnes (who later marvelous, subversive presence powerful voice,” replete with becomes her editor and part bi- in every sense available to us. stutters, guttural intonations, ographer), W. C. Williams, Man expostulations, ululations, and Ray, and others. Excessive in dress, provocative anything else she wished to add, by style, seductively passionate the body become so much more Her years in New York, when by need, antic, delirious and lu- than metaphor. she finally settles in Harlem in cid when it suited her, a major 1913, measure a decade. They poet and striking performer, liv- Even the titles to her poems are enough to establish her tal- ing what she wrote and writing and collections situate her in ents, which also include Dada what she lived, finally reappears this regard but now, of course, sculptor and manuscript art- within the pages of this book, her for us: “Coitus is Paramount,” ist during that rebellious time writings “uncensored,” as the “Subjoyride,” “Life = 1 Damn when modernism, as we know subtitle notes. But be warned: Thing After Another,” “Wheels it in retrospect, struggled to sur- the Baroness won’t be taken Are Growing on Rosebushes,” vive and flower. lightly, as you do coffee with “Proud Malignant Corpse,” sugar. When encountering her, “Crimsoncruising Yell,” “Man- In 1923, for reasons the book you do so on her terms from the quake,” “Cosmic Sense Sui- does not go into, she returns brilliance of her texts to the se- cide,” “We Are Fleas,” “Starry to Berlin, enduring extremes crets of her flesh, even as Man Grind,” “Ejaculation,” “A Doz- of poverty and breakdown. By Ray and Marcel Duchamp did, en Cocktails – Please”; or the 1926, finally in possession of a the latter her once lover - whom devastating poem-critique she travel visa, she moves to Paris. she dubbed “M’ars” (“my arse”) launched against her pet “W.C.” Unable to make a go of it, she -- in their first film together: “The (aka, William Carlos Williams) in swings back to Berlin. On De- Baroness Shaves Her Pubic “Thee I Call Hamlet of Wedding cember 14, 1927, by accident or Hair.” Ring…,” over some 21 pages at suicide, she dies of gas asphyxi- the far end of the book. ation: “A stupid joke that had not Framed by the editors with pre- even the decency of malicious- cise commentary for context, a As Kenneth Rexroth once put it: ness,” as Djuna Barnes writes. mix of history and interpretation, “Her verse represents a more the poems rush out with unnerv- radical revolt against reality than At least now perhaps, Elsa von ing vivacity, lust, heresy, humor, August Stramm and Kurt Schwit- Freytag-Loringhoven can be ap- and a musicality tuned pitch- ters or Tristan Tzara.” preciated for what she wrote, perfect to the chaos of a city in how she lived, and what she did. Why then her neglect, just re- capitalist rubato. Add in hefty cently confronted in this and strokes of wit, critique or wonder For readers compelled by po- other books and exhibitions? It is at the way things were, and the etic rebellion, flamboyance, and hard to say. Perhaps her shifting “Orgasmic Toast” she leaves us beauty, Body Sweats is for you. masks and personae eclipsed a with - is it only a poem? - is more more docile kind of subjectivity, than enough for lunch. Duets: 1975-1976 whose homogeneity more eas- Here is a woman who used to- ily enabled careers; perhaps it by Jim Shaw and Mike Kelley mato cans for a bra and long was because she was a woman ice-cream soda spoons for ear- too outlandish for her peers, let Compound Annex, 2011, CD rings, wore a birdcage for a hat, alone strangers; perhaps there Distributor’s website: http:// adorned her body with vegeta- is another reason. Suffice it to www.mikekelley.com/ bles, and shaved her head for say she was a leading voice, compound.html the pleasure it gave her, and along with Joyce, in The Little Reviewed by Mike Mosher, the pleasure she had when she Review, and appears in other Saginaw Valley State painted it vermillion red for the avant-garde journals of note University delectation of her public, known from The Liberator and Tran- and unknown, especially on the sition to Transatlantic Review. [email protected] street. And of her associates – there is Bernice Abbott, Picabia, Du- The picture on the back cov- Here is a woman who could champ, Hart Crane, Mina Loy, er of Duets: 1975-1976 has an focus the poetic act to single- Arthur Cravan, Walter Arsen- empty space where something word lines and who perfected or someone has been Pho-

43 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 toshopped out, between Jim “pathetic aesthetic” perform- The listener recalls how a dec- Shaw and Mike Kelley. I’ve seen ance works in California in the ade before these two were local the original 1976 photograph 1980s and later. The piece has students, Max Crook, creator taken by their Destroy All Mon- no rise and fall, only partial clo- of the memorable organ solo sters band mate Cary Loren, sure with an abject wind-down on Del Shannon’s “Runaway”, and in it, Ron Asheton stands then rise again amidst plucking played a “Musitron” in the Ann between the two University of of the guitar strings. Arbor supper-club duo Sounds Michigan art students. The vet- of Tomorrow. The most variant, On the second cut “Jim Jam eran Stooges guitarist Asheton this cut may be the most fun to Johnny A La Mode (Mocha is soon to join the band, for Shaw listen to. Mix)”, Kelley exclaims “Destroy and Kelley were packing their All Monsters, California!” at its The second “Untitled” cut re- bags to attend graduate school beginning, as if amazed at the minds the listener how there (California Institute of the Arts) fact these two Monsters are re- was an active gamelan troupe, and leaving home state Michi- ally there. There’s more squeal- open to public participation, at gan for the west coast. ing, yelping, or wimpy complain- the University of Michigan, and The original art gang-qua-noise ing, reminding us “The squeaky several of the townies who fre- rock band Destroy All Monsters wheel gets the grease.” Maracas quented Destroy All Monsters’ consisted of Kelly, Loren, Nia- suggest a Latin American in- parties and jams had played in gara, and Shaw. This two-disc fluence the mid-westerners it. There are a series of game- collection of Shaw and Kelley’s discovered in southern Califor- lan-like eighth notes played on duets probably contains ses- nia, as well as some Dick Dale a metal plate, a cymbal coun- sions recorded when Loren surf guitar licks and moments terpoint. Kelley’s percussion and his girlfriend Niagara were of Jefferson Airplane soaring. sounds vaguely Arabic, single off somewhere, making out or We’re at a primitive beach party drums and claves. Electroni- making movies, and the re- around a driftwood bonfire. A cized guitar slithers in, some maining two lads were back in thumping drum makes us sus- tremolo, twang and a distinctly the student house at the edge pect at least one of these guys Stooges-esque strum. Jim Shaw of campus they shared in this, had bought the Godz (on ESP- starts off excitedly, as if going their UM senior year. That’s the Disk) at University Cellar, the somewhere, then loses the house with a big sign on the front record shop in the basement thread, daydreams, the Atten- porch (purchased from a country of the Michigan Union. It isn’t tion Deficit Disorder axe man. church) proclaiming it “God’s as interesting, though, as what He constructs an interesting surf Oasis”. they did with their collabora- or secret agent riff, then quick- tions with Niagara and Loren ly subverts it. Once he almost On Disc I, the first “Untitled” as Destroy All Monsters, on their goes from the root chord to a cut wears its hip-kid’s-record- songs like “November 22, 1963” 4th, threatening a blues progres- collection influences proudly. about President Kennedy’s as- sion—Whew! Almost lost myself Parts sound like Edgar Varése, sassination. A cascade of big there. Must be the drugs. Kelley or Lou Reed’s 1975 “Metal Ma- rock drums, then kaleidoscoping taps along like a little brother, chine Music”, alternately sport- guitar noodling hoodlum’s notes, running to keep up with Shaw’s ing sirens, wolf howls, industrial wash in feedback till a fade out. fast bike. sounds, the dismal pessimism of Iggy Pop’s 1977 “Mass Produc- Destroy All Monsters used to “Tape Collage”, the third and tion”, or the cacophony of the clear parties with their assaultive final cut suggests Fluxus musi- Stooges’ “LA Blues” (Asheton volume. “Squeeze Toy Beat”, cians at the University of Michi- as the ghost in this machine). the first cut on disc II, features a gan Once Festival of Electronic It’s the sound of guys barely hav- squeeze toy like an irate monkey Music, in Ann Arbor a decade ing fun, a state Niagara was to or ferret hassling Kelley’s drums and a half before. Tape runs sing of in “Bored”, a 1977 song and Shaw’s guitar exploration. backward, a technique that by a later version of Destroy Shaw comes in with transfixed the region in 1969 All Monsters after Kelley and when the “Paul is Dead” rumor Vanilla Fudge-style organ play- Shaw’s departure to the Golden began over Ann Arbor, then De- ing on a small Orgatron, a fan- State. A moan and something troit, radio. Turn me on, dead powered keyboard with seem- evoking Devo’s “boojie boy”, man! I buried Paul! There fol- ingly as little gravitas as its boxy an irritating babyish sing-song lows the kind of electronic noise rival, the Magnus Chord Organ. vocal that Kelley put to use in that, since the 1950s, signified

44 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012

“space alien” when appearing Announcing Mike Kelley’s Harold Kirchen, son of an au- in movies or television drama. death February 2, 2012, NPR’s tomotive engineer. At the time, Netta Ulaby reported that Kel- Kirchen’s brother Bill was play- Beyond their 1970s youthful ley had played with Destroy All ing exemplary country/rockabilly emergence, all four original Monsters, and the sound bed guitar with Commander Cody Destroy All Monsters mem- beneath was a Ron Asheton and the Lost Planet Airmen, the bers continued creative visual solo. I hope Jim Shaw was lis- band formed and sometimes re- and performance work as in- tening. Kelley would have been siding in Ann Arbor. I believe I dividuals, to varying degrees amused. heard Sproton Layer, several of international success. Upon months after this recording at the 1994 occasion of his Whit- With Magnetic our shared high school’s spring- ney Museum retrospective, Mike Fields Disrupted time Creative Arts Festival. In- Kelley organized the first of sev- strumental skill, interesting time eral collaborative musical and signatures, and arresting stop- by Sproton Layer art-making reunions of the group time have always characterized over the next 17 years. Shaw World in Sound, 2011, CD all three Miller brothers’ work. married artist Marnie Weber yet Distributor’s website: http:// What strikes this listener 40 stayed in contact with his Los www.worldinsound.com. years later is how skillful this Angeles artist friend Kelley, who band was, assured, and confi- Reviewed by Mike Mosher, appeared in some of the dreams dent within its genre, time, and Saginaw Valley State Shaw carefully drew in his 1995 active rock musical scene. University book Dreams. [email protected] Produced by Mike Kelley for his Compound Annex record label, Most rock records from the this disc was available for pur- 1960s that were written and chase (along with an 8-disc performed by teenagers are box of Jim Shaw’s solo guitar achingly rooted in the heart from the same era that Kelley and loins, generating songs of produced) at the November, love and lust. This document 2011 Destroy All Monsters ex- of a teenaged band in a mid- hibition at the Prism Gallery in American university town is Los Angeles. That exhibition, cerebral, motivated by music, part of the multi-venue Pacific art, lore and existential ques- Standard Time series, featured tioning, not (at least primarily) The album’s opening track, “Gift”, is fey and childish, the mid-1970s artwork from all four by a craving for the affections singer demanding attention to Michigan Monsters Kelly, Loren, of girls. Or if their eyes were on a picture he made; “It’s red, Niagara and Shaw. Supposedly the girls, its musical messages and black, and blue, in pencil”. Jim Shaw had to urge Mike Kel- are veiled, literary and artsy, ad- Chords descend the scale like ley, despondent after an autumn dressed to the more refined and in Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Dom- breakup of a romantic relation- aesthetic young women of their ine,” and it has the doe-eyed ship, to even attend the open- university-town circle. childishness of that band’s co- ing of the exhibition he’d helped Sproton Layer’s singer and founder Syd Barrett, evincing to organize. Yet Kelley’s spirits bassist Roger Miller was 17 Barrett’s profound influence perked up in the course of the when With Magnetic Fields Dis- upon the conscious English dan- evening, and those in attend- rupted was recorded in the sum- dyism of Midwestern American ance recalled him laughing up- mer of 1970, and his younger psychedelic youth. Michigan roariously at Niagara’s quips at brothers on guitar and drums, boys generally don’t say (or the artists’ dinner afterwards. twins Ben and Larry, were 16. sing) things like “I really think She also urged him to revisit his The three were sons of an icthy- that it’s quite nice to look at” after hometown Detroit for a while, to ologist teaching at the Univer- about age 7. Kirchen trumpets chill out from his several years sity of Michigan and lived on with simple clarity, a medieval of exhausting productivity. The the northwest side of Ann Arbor herald announcing guests to the restful sojourn was not to be; within walking or biking distance castle. The song easily segues Kelley stayed in L.A., and six of the campus. The other mem- into “Pretty Pictures, Now”, its weeks later, he killed himself. ber of the band was trumpeter

45 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 head-nodding beat insistent as the MC5. Kirchen’s horn, how- attention, like the MC5’s “Star the “One of us! One of us!” ban- ever, suggests something from Ship,” which, in the latter case, quet chant in Todd Browning’s the Bonzo Dog Band’s “Urban usually resulted in audience “Freaks”. It has characteristics Spaceman” album. members leaving the ballroom of psychedelic rock from San for a while. Sproton Layer’s fi- “The Blessing of the Dawn Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury or nal track here, “The Wonderful “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”– Source” begins pompously, then Rise,” ends up with an oom-pah era Pink Floyd, from the bass sails instrumentally into a clutch waltz beat not inappropriate solo by Roger and his ensuing of lyrics rhyming “distance” and for Ann Arbor, much of whose interplay with Ben’s guitar, to “resistance”, “glimmer” and population descended from 19th Larry Miller’s drum rolls. “shimmer.” It then swings back century German settlers with and forth a bit monotonously, names like Miller and Kirchen, or “In the Sun” has the propulsion evoking Spinal Tap, until Kirch- Schlenker, Kemf, Allmendinger of Pink Floyd’s “Pow R. Toch”, en––an interesting foil for these and Fritz. Four years later the while Ben’s guitar alludes to an- consummate rockers––comes Miller twins’ high school class- other bravura Michigan guitarist in with regal horn fanfare at the mate Jim Rees and some fellow I never would have previously end. “Nocturnal Mission” is a residents of Joint House Co- noted as influencing these Mill- quirky two chord siren of spy- op (at one time, home of Sun ers, Ted Nugent. In the 1970s movie guitar and bass, beneath Microsystems co-founder Bill Nugent descended into macho somewhat sophomoric (hey, half Joy) obtained some brass instru- self-parody, where he remains of ‘em were sophomores!) ston- ments and antique horn charts further freighted with right wing er poetry, but that’s OK, for it to launch a German-style pa- political editorializing but was keeps up the momentum, with rade band. Eschewing his teen- a technically impressive player Larry’s furious drumming and age maturity and seriousness, with his 1960s Detroit band The crash cymbal, that Ann Arbor Sproton Layer’s cheery tootling Amboy Dukes. The structure boys had grown to expect from also prefigures some of Larry’s and lyrical melancholy of the older bands jamming at the free children’s music of the past dec- next two songs reminds one of Sunday afternoon rock concerts ade, performed––and frequent- the skillful Michigan band SRC, all summer long. ly uploaded to YouTube––under whose “Travelers Tale” album the name Mister Laurence. One One digs beneath the Sproton appeared about this time. “Sister wonders how the Teutonic turn Layer’s youthful flowering for Regis” features a notable trum- in “The Wonderful Rise” is per- seeds of these guys’ later work. pet solo by Harold Kirchen and ceived by the German CD label Tolkeinesque lyrics, and the The insistent, jagged edginess responsible for this reissue. moody “Bush” makes use of in this band certainly resurfaced Kirchen’s horn too, where there in Roger’s Mission of Burma, his The CD comes with a fun, il- is a sweet tone like Herb Alpert, solo piano album and subse- lustrated booklet, with much with occasional Tijuana Brass quent tenure in Birdsongs of the information on when and where mariachi flourishes. This review- Mesozoic. Ben has continued the lads wrote their songs and er remembers a party 40 years exploratory guitar projects in smoked their dope, assem- ago where Kirchen showed up in New York City, including a gui- bled by Stan Rebo in 1991, an over-the-head gorilla mask, tar orchestra and collaboration plus a memoir by the record- which he also wore in the Ozone with John Zorn. The very title of ing’s original producer Mark Parade, a goofy parody of the one song here, “Pount of View,” Brahce. It is illustrated with mi- University of Michigan’s annual exemplifies an obstinate pun- nuscule reprints of the Millers’ Homecoming Parade. ning, whimsical as Lewis Carroll hand-penned lyric sheets and or Edward Lear, in Larry’s mid- drawings on school notebook “Tidal Wave” begins with an ’70s EMPOOL zine, or his ‘90s paper. Not long after this record- atonal guitar crunch prefigur- band Larynx Zillions. ing, Gertrude Prokasch Kurath, ing Punk around 1980, the era a local folklorist and leader of Roger was having success with “New Air” (later the name of children’s folk dances, commis- his Boston-based band Mission Roger’s acoustic band with sioned publication of Roger’s of Burma. Larry’s drums are en- Leslie Orlin and Larry Wahl) is songbook and deposited a copy ergetic and precise. “Up” could one of those characteristically in the Ann Arbor Public Library. have been performed by the circa-1970 prog-rock pieces We are fortunate to have such White Panther Party-affiliated whose alternating slow and documentary magic mushrooms Ann Arbor band of that name, or rocking parts demand focused

46 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 of bohemian Michigan youth four woman “to attain” a doctorate in catalogue, no probing of the decades ago as Sproton Layer’s law at the end of the 19th centu- concepts behind the movement With Magnetic Fields Disrupted ry; a Liberty Statue for London, and color. “I wish for a more now available to us all. in Basle; the shooting of Rist’s colorful life,” says someone at first feature film,Pepperminta --- a preview of the film; it’s also The Color of Your “so many more people will see a about “overcoming barriers” and Socks: A Year with film than will see an installation,” providing “exercise for back and she observes. hips,” encourages the artist. Her Pipilotti Rist onscreen subjects demonstrate the precept as they entwine, en- by Michael Hegglin tangle and cavort through green Catpics Coproductions Ltd, fields, red apples, the “fires of Zurich, 2009, DVD, 53 min. hell” and super-green treetops; Distributor’s website: www. Caribbean seas too---“Maybe microcinemadvd.com too cute?” queries Pipilotti. Reviewed by Mike Leggett, Large-scale video installations University of Wollongong as semi-immersive, cinema-like environments have become de [email protected] rigueur on the international art The Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist circuit of biennales, exhibitions was honored with a commission and festivals. The affordances to re-open the Museum of Mod- of computer-based video and ern Art (MOMA) in New York City sound technology have made in 2004. This project, a large- this possible, not only in the scale video installation titled gathering and ordering of sound Pour Your Body Out, requires For the film and video shoots, and image but more essentially visitors to lie on specially pre- her crew uses the new technol- in their presentation across mul- pared carpets and gaze at the ogy of high-resolution micro- tiple screens and sound sourc- projections on the surrounding cameras mounted on the end es, maintaining perfect operatic walls and ceiling. “What should of boom poles. The camera op- synchronization for hours and we do if people don’t want to erator has power and screen weeks, sometimes months on take their shoes off?” asks one strapped to his body, leaving his end. Contemporary art on a of the museum docents. Use arms free to move the wide-an- grand scale requires a produc- some humor, suggests Rist; “Tell gle, deep-focus camera around, tion effort and organization akin them, I’d like to see the color of above, below and close into to that of the 19th-century monu- your socks.” Rist’s performers, both clothed mental sculptors, the Renais- and unclothed, ensembles and sance religious image industry Color and movement is the individuals. “Naked people?” and Hollywood itself. theme throughout this obser- asks the visiting Swiss MOMA At an early stage of this disap- vational video of the preparation curator. Could this be a chal- pointing DVD, we are reminded of the commissioned work. Rist lenge to New Yorkers, one won- of the vagaries of the fine art is the colorfully dressed CEO ders? Surely no …? Shoes off scene, populated as it is by of her art production company, in public? Now that could be an bright and optimistic people darting from one meeting to issue. the next with her collaborators, like Pipilotti. Rist inspects the sponsors, assistants and tech- There is little else left with which photograph of a work by the ce- nicians. Sketches, maquettes, to engage in this DVD. It is an lebrity queen of contemporary then scaled-up models move electronic catalogue entry, pro- art, Yoko Ono. It is an installation inexorably toward the day of the viding some background to the of a stepladder with a piece of opening (interrupted by other central character and her work. paper stuck on the ceiling above more minor projects), each “Am I an Artist, a Video Artist or it. Visitors climb the ladder with stage announced onscreen with a Fine Artist?” she discusses magnifying glass to read the tiny titles, the what and the wherefor with another assistant at one word “Yes.” “This work cost $32 of the contemporary art scene: point. “An Artist,” she decides. million, and $100 to produce,” a “chic” Monument to Emilie There is no interpretation of the she pauses to muse, before Kempin-Spyri, the first Swiss work as would occur in a print darting off to another meeting

47 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 about her installations and pro- working in that liminal space quality, placing us as listeners jections onto the walls and ceil- between the audible and the in a strange in-between place. ings of MOMA. inaudible, producing recorded From here López experiments works, installations and live per- with this relationship between formances. Recently, the Vien- Through the sound and effects. In La Selva na-based label Kairos released Looking Glass (1997) and Buildings (New York) Through the Looking Glass, a (2001), López presents us with beautifully produced CD box set by Francisco López sounds without effects. Both are of López’s work. While López’s straight field recordings but from Kairos, Vienna, Austria, 2009, output is voluminous, Through very different environments--- CD (box set containing five the Looking Glass offers an ex- in La Selva the recordings are CDs) cellent survey of one of the most drawn from several sites in the Distributor’s website: http:// important sound artists of our Costa Rican jungle, while Build- kairos-music.com time. The set ranges from field ings (New York) are drawn from recordings made in the early Reviewed by Eugene Thacker, different residential, industrial 1990s to more abstract ambi- The New School and office buildings in Manhat- ent works from the late 1990s tan. While there is no process- [email protected] to recent work that exists at the ing to the sounds, these are, limits of sonic experience. While strangely, the most surreal of the Some years ago I recall visiting a there are discernible continui- recordings, in part because we sound installation by Francisco ties in López’s work, in my view, as listeners do not know if one López. I cannot recall the name the pieces collected on Through location simply follows another of the piece, although I do recall the Looking Glass are of four in sequence or if different loca- the experience. In a quiet room types, each differing in the way tions are layered on top of each with speakers, I waited. Knowing they balance the sounds of the other, producing an “impossi- López’s work and seeing that the world and sound worlds. Qal’at ble” sonic reality. Both pieces room was almost totally empty, Abd’ai-Salam (1993) and O Par- are also characterized by an I expected nothing but sound. ladoiro Desamortuxado (1995) abstract texture---a swarming And this was, in a way, what both combine field recordings texture of insects and rain in the I got---though I never actually with various sound processing jungle, and the vacuous, ambi- heard anything. Standing in that effects. room, I couldn’t hear anything ent hum of empty buildings, gen- except for the subtle and gentle The sources of both pieces are erator rooms and abandoned rattling of the windows. Eventu- discernible - one hears birds, tunnels. These field recordings ally the whole room started to cicadas, the bustle of street are “fields” in the true sense, quake. And still nothing com- markets, the hum of the coun- in that they transform a physi- ing from the speakers (or so I tryside, resplendent forests, the cal location in the world into a thought). Then I realized that the echo of a distant temple. The location that, strangely, has no speakers were, in fact, playing sources retain their referential actual “place” (interestingly, the sounds, but they were outside of aspect (“bird,” “car,” “bell”), but sounds of human beings are ab- my hearing range. These non- the subtle effects and layering sent from both pieces). La Selva human sounds were only acces- gradually create a vibrant ca- is the dense, polyrhythmic so- sible to me indirectly via their cophony, a kind of shimmering norism of non-human life, while acoustic and physical effects on din that belongs neither to the Buildings (New York) is the cold, the space itself (the windows, external world nor to the world mechanical life of the city. the floor, my body). Eventually of purely synthetic or electron- The near inverse approach char- more audible, rumbling bass ic sounds. The titles of these acterizes Belle Confusion 969 sounds did make their appear- pieces hint at this cacophonic (1996), in which there seem to ance, but only after the sounds naturalism (“The Game of Mud,” be only effects, and no source had first manifest themselves as “A Time Spirit in the Body of a sounds. Distant overtones, the physical space itself. Plant”). In these pieces, sounds delicate trills and diffuse ech- taken from the world begin as oes are juxtaposed with non- This play between sound in referential sounds and gradu- directional washes, eventually space and sound as space is, ally become non-referential. condensing into a kind of thick, for me, indicative of much of At the same time, they never ambient noise. Over a period Francisco López’s work. For completely lose their referential over 30 years, López has been of 50 minutes, these “ambient”

48 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 sounds eventually become so high-pitched, aleatoric glitch- simple abstraction, where a dense that they start to occupy es, both faintly audible---and sound source is processed or and fill space itself, instead of without anything in the middle. manipulated so that it becomes ambient sounds carving out or These pieces are fascinating in unfamiliar. What López often hollowing out space. In Belle their austerity, in the way they aims for is a double failure---the Confusion we as listeners ex- empty out the sonic spectrum. failure of sounds to adequately perience an acoustic paradox: López subtracts almost the en- or faithfully represent the ex- diffuse sounds that hollow out a tire audible range, leaving only ternal world and the failure of space from without, and, at the the highest and the lowest, the sounds to achieve the perfec- same time, nearly subsonic rum- most distant and diffuse. Sound tion of purely synthetic, purely bles that fill a space from within. itself becomes enigmatic, at artificial entities. This is, per- Belle Confusion is indicative of once omnipresent and yet non- haps, what López means when many of López’s better-known directional. López’s approach he speaks of his experience with works, such as Untitled #74 or to sound art is made clear in field recordings: “I realized the his numerous sound installa- the accompanying booklet to dramatic difference between tions. In pieces like these, one the box set: listening as a semantic activ- rarely notices when the piece Typically, recorded sound is ity and as a phenomenological itself has begun. The sounds considered to be a representa- experience.” begin so faintly and emerge so tion of reality. Unbeknownst to gradually that one can easily Sound art is typically positioned the average person … a sound mistake them for the sounds of along two conceptual axes. recording can also be consid- one’s own environment. First One axis is that of music and ered an entity in itself … those there is silence; then before sound, where music ceases to extractions, in fact, are a differ- you know it, there is suddenly be the representation of a feel- ent “reality” in themselves. an amorphous, diffuse wash ing or emotion and becomes of sound---was it always there This switch, from sound as a the presentation of independ- or did it suddenly begin? This representation to sound as ent sounds without reference acoustic uncertainty is central presentation, is also a shift to feeling subjects or the objec- to Belle Confusion, a confusion from sound as referential to tive world. Much of the post-war between the sound recording sound as tautological. López avant-garde explores this ter- and the sounds of one’s environ- is, of course, aware of the use rain, although its beginnings ment (which in most cases are of found sounds in the history were already evident in the turn never totally separate). While of avant-garde music, from towards chromaticism and ato- works such as La Selva and the experiments of Luigi Rus- nality in the late 19th and early Buildings (New York) present us solo to l’objet sonore of Pierre 20th centuries. with sounds without effects, in Schaeffer to the elusive “acous- Belle Confusion we have effects matic” sound of Michel Chion. The other axis of sound art is without sounds---as if the sound However, López’s use of field that of sound and silence, where sources themselves have van- recordings also brings to mind the presence of sound as sound ished, leaving only sonic traces. the work of Luc Ferrari, whose gives way to autonomous sound Presque Rien series takes seri- objects, whether found sounds All of this is taken to another lev- ously the notion of autonomous or electronic sounds that ques- el in López’s more recent works, sound worlds existing apart from many of which bear the simple ti- tion and challenge the scope of their sources or their function tle of Untitled. Through the Look- what is listenable, of what can as representational sounds ing Glass contains three such possibly be included in the sonic “of” something. In many of the works, all produced in 2008. experience. Monotones, over- pieces collected in Through the These pieces are distinct in their tones, even microtones come Looking Glass, López adopts subtractive approach; they truly into play as types of barely au- a process whereby recorded exist at the limit of audibility. Oc- dible differences, but so also do sounds from the external world casionally one hears faint hints a whole range of found sounds are arranged in a non-represen- of found sounds, but more often and artificial tones, the sounds tational and non-musical way. than not the Untitled pieces op- around you right now and those The sounds move past their in- erate at the highest and lowest same sounds cut and spliced dexicality where sounds signify registers, the supersonic and many times over. But here even objects or events in the world. subsonic: sub-bass rumbles and silence is, as John Cage has These sounds also move past shown us, never just silence,

49 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 but simply a new context for old tive metaphysics that underlies on one’s chest. But every page sounds. our ideas of sound, as broadly is worth reading, and indeed I equivalent to presence, exist- wished for perhaps one more The sound art of Francisco ence, being---the “it is here” and than the 573 pages provided, López represents a third axis, “it is now” of sound. Of course, then another, to see at what one that has generally been this makes a certain sense, for point it might implode under its underexplored in the history of it would be absurd to inquire into own gravitational attraction. Western sound art, and that is sound as non-being, sound as the axis of sound and unsound. Editor Margit Rosen states in her nothingness, unsound. And yet The term “unsound” has several opening article (there are also I would argue that this is pre- meanings. On the one hand it useful “Editorials” from Jerko cisely what sound artists such denotes something incoherent, Denegri, Darko Fritz and Pe- as López invite us to do. unstable, something “structur- ter Weibel), “For the past fifty ally unsound,” like an argument A last word---my own “confu- years [the computer] has been that demonstrates a faulty use of sion” upon listening to one of the condemned to remain the new logic. That which is unsound is Untitled pieces occurred when medium.” Its use in art, indeed, unreliable, suspect, absurd. But I noticed a low, deep rumbling. lacked both history and a lan- the prefix in the term “unsound” Wow, I thought to myself, how guage of critical discourse. In also denotes a negation. An does he make these sounds? recent years this has begun unsound is not simply an “anti- And then a thought occurred to to change with respect to dis- sound” (in the way that silence me. I paused the recording, and course, but this itself has some- is the negation of sound). It de- the rumbling continued. It was times seemed to be abducted notes a negation that manifests the sound of the C train, many from what we see now, today, itself as a negation, as a reduc- floors below me, underground quite often from very specific tion, as a subtraction. An un- in a subway tunnel. I wonder if instances (which have some- sound is paradoxically present this is the point that López wants times been created as artworks in its absence. It is the sound of to evoke in the listener---when to embody the critical theory the windows rattling that is not they take off their headphones, therein to be discerned). The just the sound of the windows and listen. histories, until a few years ago, rattling. Unsound is distinct were often breathless, excitable from sound because it deals A Little-Known and sometimes meretricious at with sonic characteristics that Story about a the expense of rigor or even exist on the horizon of sound, basic art-historical methodolo- from spectral overtones to ambi- Movement, a gies (there were a few notable ent artifacts. Unsound is a field Magazine, and exceptions, but not many). In of sonic stillness, an acoustic the Computer’s the last few years, though, we deep time that moves in the “in- Arrival in Art: New have been treated to some ex- frasonic” (to use López’s term), Tendencies and Bit cellent slices of the history---or at the edges of the supersonic histories---of computer-based and subsonic. Unsound is also International, 1961 arts. But we still lacked, for this distinct from silence because it - 1973 area, someone to do what, for is not simply the absence of any example, the late Charles Har- sound (which is impossible) but by Margit Rosen (ed.) rison and Paul Wood did for art the ambiguous presence of all The MIT Press, 2011 in general when they published sound, whether or not it is audi- Art in Theory. ble. Unsound is an empty space Reviewed by Brian This book might herald the be- articulated through sound, or the Reffin Smith, Collège de ginning of the end of the lack of relativism between the absence Pataphysique an adequate history. It records, of sound and the total diffusion [email protected] in every respect one may hope of sound. Perhaps this third axis for, the development of a new of sound/unsound has been un- This book is so hefty that it art. The contributors relate how der-appreciated largely because arrived in its own Royal Mail ideas of “research” in (and even all sound art and all music de- sack, large enough for a per- as) art developed in the New mand---or really, assume---that son to climb into and have him- Tendencies movement based in sound is generally equivalent to or herself posted to Siggraph. Zagreb. Also discussed is how presence. Perhaps there is a fur- Reading it in bed is like having a medium-sized Labradoodle democratic ideas of participation

50 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 in programmed, open, demysti- U.S.S.R. was, quite simply, by- Contemporary Art fied art led to the adoption of the passed. Yet the air was redolent computer as a tool of artistic re- of the zeitgeist of ways of looking in Asia - A Critical search. Indeed, just about all the at the world that had their ori- Reader important material is included in gins in the 1960s rehabilitation the form of articles, manifestos, of cybernetics in Russia as a by Melissa Chiu and Benjamin catalogue essays and many ex- movement for radical reform of Genocchio (eds.) tracts from Bit International, to the Stalinist system of science. The MIT Press, 2011, 320 pp. which we’ll come back later. It Do not think, however, that this ISBN: 978-0262516235 covers much of Western com- book addresses only questions puter-based art, all of which is of history, or consists only of Reviewed by Ellen Pearlman, necessary for understanding timelines and anecdote. It is far University of Calgary how we got where we are today. more. If you want (and we do) [email protected] I was not present in the ex-Yugo- theory, opinion, analysis, ha- slavian city of Zagreb then (now rangue, cutting-edge discourse Melissa Chiu and Benjamin the capital of Croatia), but I did and innovative, critical insights Genocchio have edited a critical meet a number of artists who into, for example, art as politics, reader on Asian Art as a start- used early computers and ideas information as art, or correla- ing point for what one hopes will of computation in other Eastern tions between constructed, probe more books on the subject. European countries such as Po- grammed, systems, cybernetic, Chiu, Director of the Asia Soci- land. They were often innovating participative art and comput- ety Museum in New York, and art ideas using relatively simple ers, and what it means, in the Genocchio, Editor-in-Chief of the publication Art Info, are a technology. Yet originality, as it best sense, to make art and to powerhouse duo whose Pa- seems to me was also the case compute, then this is the book cific Rim perspectives propel in Zagreb, didn’t appear to be for you. the spur. It was mostly “playing,” Asian art studies up a notch in and none the worse for that. But In a tome so large, covering so a Western-centric art world. This what they played with were, on much of use to everyone from compilation of essays, about the various levels---some less than art student to critical theorist “changing nature and reception others and with varying degrees to art historian, there will inevi- of contemporary Asian Art in of danger---the building blocks tably be things with which one Asia and the West over the past of their own societies and po- disagrees. But apart from the two decades,” strives to be all- litical systems, or metaphors rather inadequate index, noth- inclusive. What they create is a for them. ing up to now (I cannot yet claim somewhat blotchy snapshot of the current state of affairs, as It should not be forgotten that to have finished reading it from some nations are still grappling applications of cybernetics cover to cover) caused me to with that old warhorse Marxism, and systems thinking to cul- splutter. It is to be hoped that although Chiu’s argument about tures of making and designing, someone is presently working transexperience is timely in light as well as of information con- along similarly massive lines to of the hemisphere’s rising eco- trol, were being generated in inform us of possibly neglected nomic power. There is an em- countries of the Eastern Bloc. histories of computer-based art phasis on rich cultural traditions What happened in Zagreb was associated with, for instance, not, I would argue, some sort Canada. The history in Margit that have their own biennials and of cultural accident or outlying Rosen’s excellent and well-il- triennials, museums and alter- anomaly. It was squarely of its lustrated book is fascinating and native spaces, with the underly- time. Bit International, a maga- useful. Every artist, computer ing message being that Asians are finally gaining control of their zine a group within New Ten- user or not, should read it. It will own cultural representation. dencies founded in 1968, might become a seminal work, I am be notable for the computing sure. It jumps out of what might “Open and Closed Discours- term in its title; but for this re- have been seen as its niche to es of Modernity in Asian Art” viewer the word “International” embrace all computer art and (1993), by John Clark, is the is more revealing. Works from beyond. And the questions and most pithy piece, mapping out the West were shown alongside thoughts the volume provokes Asia geographically as “The those from the Communist Bloc. make it worth its not inconsider- Sakhalin Peninsula . . . bound The cultural hegemony of the able weight in gold. by the Siberian Steppes to the

51 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 north and the Indian Ocean and nonetheless penetrated into all and now confronts the identity Straits of Timor to the south.” its major cities. Proffering an in- of the Muslim State, Wahabi Clark disparages those parts of valuable timeline in deconstruct- fundamentalism, dress codes, Asia that redefine themselves ing aesthetic styles since colo- social behavior, language moni- through contact with the other, nialism came to Asia, he says toring and the discouragement saying there is “often depreda- Picasso stole it from Africa. The of figurative art. Chiu’s essay, tion at the hands of an ‘other’ . . style showed up in Japan and “Theories of Being Outside: . privileging the Euro-American- China in the 1920s; Korea, India Diaspora and Chinese Artists” ization by denuding of value the and Sri Lanka in the 1930s; and (2007), sets up a new genre of Asian interface of modernity.” Southeast Asia in the 1940s and interpretation. The term transex- His meaning is that, when you 1950s. It spawned both urban perience was first formulated by take an art form such as English cosmopolitan and rural aspects Chiu to describe the Chinese oil painting and move it to 19th- that were further reified by ethnic diaspora of the 1980s, when art- century Japan, is that “appropri- and religious cultural fragmenta- ists from the banned Stars group ate contextualization”? tion and regionalism. fled to France, England, U.S.A., Japan, Switzerland and Aus- A salient and critical point he Many essayists take issue with tralia. By the end of 1980s and makes about modernity in terms the Western notion of “other” early 1990s, these same art- of the Asian cultures discourse or the “exotic.” In “The Politics ists were tackling what it meant is that their art cultures are often of Curating ‘Contemporary Ko- to be Chinese across borders, deprivileged by the fact they did rean Art’ For Audiences Abroad” an experience she refers to as not originate modernism and its (2002), Young Min Moon ques- “transexperience.” In transex- recent derivative, postmodern- tions how Korea is perceived by perience, homeland is still pri- ism. He defines modernism as a Westerners and asks if there is oritized with multiple rather than discourse that privileges a linked an essential quality in Korean dual experiences of diaspora. series of artistic developments Art. He argues that most West- Chiu argues that this characteri- for a group of Euro-American ern art institutions base them- zation summarizes the complex- cultures that have modernized selves on tenets of postmodern ity of leaving one’s native place according to primary political, nihilism and post-conceptual- and going elsewhere, adapting social or cultural criteria. He ism. Lots of “otherness” results to a new environment and re- adds that, when artistic tech- in loss of identity. In “Radical- lying on change instead of on niques jump across cultural izing Tradition” (2000), Salima a static cultural identity. One’s boundaries in ways that are Hashmi examines the tradition homeland is past and the host neither apparent nor relevant of miniature painting at National country is present, with no fixed to the discourse of interpretation College of Art in Lahore during moment of migration. She cites from the originating culture, this the 1980s. The school, set up the recovering of Chinese ico- discourse is often interpreted as by the British in India in 1875, nography as a way of juxtapos- “bad taste.” “Newness” can be always distinguished miniature ing memories of China with cur- thought of as “other.” “The is- practice from mainstream art. rent reality and the modification sue ultimately revolves around Students are still required to of Chinese signifiers (Chinese which and whose interpretative grind their own pigments. They characters) to make them ac- codes are to be sovereign.” Eu- also must take a single strand cessible to non-Chinese audi- ro-American codes favor rheto- of squirrel hairbrush, dip it in ences. China becomes a current ric that privileges interpretation lampblack and paint under the influence rather than frozen in a and are opposed to rhetorics tutelage of two Ustands, or mas- moment, and the artist, most of- that work against clarity. This ters. This practice contradict- ten not fully accepted by the host explanation goes a long way ed the hegemony of oil-based society, maintains a collective toward explaining the difficult paints brought by British colo- vision about his or her former attitude in the art world toward nizers and particularly encour- homeland. Transnationalism is less-developed countries’ arts a kind of third culture, not a third aged women to use water-based practices and is a refreshing space. Salman Rushdie uses painting and printmaking. After and necessary explanation of the metaphor of broken mirror the collapse of Mughal Empire, said attitudes. and scattered shards to show its miniature painting waned. Since, perspective is not a “tool of nos- In “Why Cubism” (2006), Take- as Hashmi says, “a visual prac- talgia” but an actual reworking hata Akira declares Cubism tice has to justify retaining its vo- of identity. What is most useful was never part of Asian art but cabulary,” it was reconstructed

52 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 about the term transexperience Economy to Subtle Anatomy, understand Leibniz through his is that parts of it can also be ap- is composed of Chapters 3 and biological investigations. This is plied to Western artists taking 4. Part Three, The Origins of at odds with the predominant the opposite tack, setting their Organic Form, includes Chap- view that Leibniz was mainly sails to Asia. ters 5 and 6. Part Four, Species, influenced by logic, language, is Chapter 7. These four parts mathematics and theology. Divine Machines: are followed by five Appendices, Herein lies the importance of Leibniz and the which are examples of Leibniz’s this book and what assures it a Sciences of Life own writings. Chapter notes, an place in the scholarly literature excellent bibliography and an in- concerning the greats of phi- dex then follow these fascinating losophy and modern thinking. by Justin E.H. Smith appendices. The information in Princeton University Press, the appendices includes: As an extra bonus, this book 2011, 392 pp. gives us an exciting glimpse Appendix 1: Directions Pertain- into the way of investigation ISBN: 978-0691141787 ing to the Institution of Medicine and thinking throughout the 17th Reviewed by Rob Harle (1671) century. This brought home to me, quite profoundly, just how Appendix 2: The Animal Ma- [email protected] little humans knew about the chine (1677) This book is an in-depth schol- fundamental workings of the arly exploration of the philo- Appendix 3: The Human Body, world in this era and how much sophical work of Gottfried Wil- Like That of Any Animal, Is a we have learnt since then. Two helm Leibniz. Justin Smith, by Sort of a Machine (1680--1686) examples: Our recent under- investigating Leibniz’s interest standing of DNA coding; sec- Appendix 4: On Writing the New in the life sciences, many of ondly, our current ability to do Elements of Medicine (1682-- which were only just emerging fMRI scans to see the human 1683) in the 17th century, sheds new brain actually working. But it also light on how these “sciences” Appendix 5: On Botanical Meth- brought about a sense of humil- influenced Leibniz’s overall od (1701) ity, in that in 400 years’ time, philosophical doctrines. Divine humans (if we are still here) will Machines is extremely well similarly marvel at how ignorant written and a pleasure to read; we early 21st-century scientists, however, it is not really a book scholars and philosophers were! suitable for general readership. Smith’s study gives an almost For philosophers, students and palpable sense of the struggle those interested in the history these early modern thinkers of ideas, the book will prove went through. Many other great most rewarding. Leibniz’s phi- thinkers---especially Aristotle, losophy, in general, is not easy Galen, Descartes and Hobbes-- to fully comprehend, but Smith -quite naturally influenced Leib- helps clarify some of the more niz. He always expressed his abstruse concepts through his debt to those who influenced detailed discussion of Leibniz’s his thinking, even when he was grounding in the empirical life at odds with them, especially sciences. Leibniz explored such Descartes. Commenting on diverse disciplines as medicine, Descartes’s account of human taxonomy, physiology, genera- The term “natural philosophy” embryogenesis, for example, tion theory (now genetics) and (philosophia naturalis) in the Leibniz derides “Monsieur des paleontology, which helped him 17th century was an umbrella formulate his major metaphysi- Cartes with his man, the gen- title used to cover all disciplines cal theory - Monadology. eration of whom costs so little, of what have now become sepa- but who so little resembles a This book is divided into four rate sciences. Smith uses the true man.” Yet at the same time, parts, which follow an excel- modern name biology for our Leibniz never denies the enor- lent Introduction. Part One, First clarity, as there was no such “sci- mous debt of his own philoso- Things, consists of Chapters 1 ence” in Leibniz’s time. Smith’s phy to Cartesian mechanism (p. and 2. Part Two, From Animal main concern is to show how to 10). This book is a scholarly tour

53 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 de force, it challenges the exist- ful link between action and con- Sarewitz argue, in fact it is their ing understanding of Leibniz’s sequence. Either we accept that main thesis, that most problems philosophy and opens up many we are brutes living way beyond arise when we confuse the dif- areas for further research. No our means … or we search for a ferent levels of technology, es- doubt it is essential reading for different set of links to connect pecially when we try to solve all those engaged in research our highest ideals to the reality a Level III problem at Level 1 into the history of early modern we keep constructing (p. 65). (which they insist, we do all the philosophy and science. time). The book is suited to all levels of readership and is a fast-paced I have one minor, though not The Techno- easy read. I couldn’t put it down. trivial criticism of Allenby and Human Condition It is the result of a grant from the Sarewitz’s approach. Even Templeton Foundation, an or- though they vigorously analyze by Braden R. Allenby and ganization that makes possible and attack the Enlightenment Daniel Sarewitz research of the kind undertaken way of understanding the world, The MIT Press, 2011, 192 pp. by these two authors. Without the same Enlightenment rea- ISBN: 978-0262015691 this foundation, and its charter soning methodology underpins to fund research into answering their approach. To be sure, they Reviewed by Rob Harle the big questions, much impor- discuss religions here and there, tant scholarship simply would but they do not acknowledge [email protected] not happen. the “way of knowing” we could This book is rather unusual in term spiritual. Many Eastern reli- There are extensive chapter that it clearly challenges the gions, Australian Aboriginal cos- notes (for reference and further very foundation of the way we mology and various other tribal research), a bibliography and an currently attempt to solve ma- systems have totally different index. Eight chapters and a fas- jor world problems. It explains ways of knowing the world than cinating epilogue precede these. why climate change fixes are the Western way and, conse- not working, why the war in Allenby and Sarewitz use the quently, different ways of solving Afghanistan is not being won phenomenon (or movement) the global conditions we children as originally expected and why known as Transhumanism as of the Enlightenment have cre- many other similarly perplexing a kind of datum to refer to in ated. These deserve serious problems remain unsolved. “We their widespread discussion consideration in any approach need to substitute ‘explore with of technology and the human that suggests ways to deal with humility’ for ‘attack with rigidity’” condition. Transhumanism ad- major Earth problems. I sense (p. 105). The book has a spe- vocates the augmentation, en- the authors perhaps have an cific emphasis on technology hancement and push towards empathy with such spiritual ap- and our human relationship to immortality of all humans. The proaches, but it is neither articu- all aspects of this technology. authors approach what they see lated nor acknowledged. After as the ignorance, naivety and all, John Templeton’s vision The Techno-Human Condition in some ways arrogance of the was “the possibility of acquir- will infuriate some, and be dis- transhumanists by separating ing ‘new spiritual information’ missed out of hand by a few, but technology/human interaction from his commitment to rigorous will unsettle almost all readers. into three levels. scientific research and related The reason is that while Allenby scholarship.” and Sarewitz’s analysis of cur- I found this classification sys- rent problem solving is a bitter tem most edifying. Level 1 is This is an important book (criti- pill to swallow, there is an un- the base technology (a jet air- cism aside), if for no other rea- derlying understanding that their craft for example). Level II is the son than that it confronts the approach is not only correct but infrastructure that attempts to reader in a way that demon- also essential to embrace. run the Level I technology (flight strates neutrality is not really schedules, air traffic controllers possible; one cannot sit on the The world we are making and so on). Level III is how the fence, for example, regarding through our own choices and two previous levels can react at the way to solve climate change inventions is a world that neutral- a global level (the rapid spread problems. We are forced into a izes and even mocks our exist- of disease, carried quickly to position of having to (re)think ing commitments to rationality, many distant countries almost the whole gamut of human-tech- comprehension, and a meaning- instantaneously). Allenby and nology interactions and either

54 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 agree with the author’s modus text that introduced it. The au- death of the author is just a step- operandi or come up with a bet- tomatic coupling of Barthes’s ping-stone in Barthes’s thinking ter approach. We are not left essay with the one by Foucault, on the position and role of the the myopic luxury of “business which despite its similar title author. Moreover, his thinking as usual.” presents a totally different dis- on this relationship did not end cussion, suggests already that in 1968---as we too easily ac- The Deaths of the there is a huge gap between the cept it did. Instead of reading Author: Reading deceivingly simple concept and Barthes’s essay in relationship and Writing in the abyss that its close reading with general theoretical and can reveal to us. Jane Gallop is ideological statements, Gallop Time a stubborn practitioner of close reconstructs the various links reading, even in times like ours, that help to discern the gradual by Jane Gallop in which there seems to be no shift to a different approach to Duke University Press, 2011, place left for this approach in the author, who becomes, ac- 184 pp. academy. Therefore, she de- cording to Barthes, the object ISBN: 978-0822350811 livers a twofold lesson in this of an erotic dream by his or her important book. The first one is reader. It is to the extent that we Reviewed by Jan Baetens, on the importance of close read- are aware of the author’s death University of Leuven ing---and here the influence of that it becomes possible to once Derrida, who transferred close [email protected]. again desire his or her presence reading from literature to phi- ac.be in the body of the text. Focus- losophy and whose prestige has ing on a very small set of well- “The Death of the Author” is the kept close reading present on chosen fragments in Barthes’s title of a brief 1968 essay by Ro- the intellectual stage, is dramati- work, fragments that are read land Barthes that has become cally visible. The second one is and reread from a wide range of one of the most popular and on the meaning of the death of perspectives (the rhythm of the often-quoted slogans of post- the author as a concept, but also sentences, the multilayeredness modernism in literary and cul- as a practice---and here Gallop of the metaphors, the concep- tural theory. Almost mantra-like, convincingly demonstrates that tual variations, the play with a this shortcut of postmodernist the significance of the concept permanently mobile intertext, dismissal of the author and sub- cannot be reduced to its first the blurring of the boundaries sequent foregrounding of text, reception in 1968. between the text and its publica- system, field and signifier has In order to revisit the notion of tion context, etc.), Gallop suc- been used over and over again the death of the author, Gallop ceeds in revealing new mean- as a way of continuing the May adopts a method that is both ings of an apparently worn-out 1968 revolt in France against extremely straightforward and concept, gradually opening the tradition. Its academic reception tremendously subtle. On the single death of the author, an has systematically linked this one hand, she looks at how event having occurred in 1968 text with Michel Foucault’s 1969 four key critics, first as read- and never really challenged over essay “What is an author.” It is ers and then as authors, have the years, to the steadily com- not an exaggeration to claim that actually used that very notion. plexifying plural of the deaths Barthes’s essay has achieved What did Barthes, for instance, of the author. the status of a truly classic work. write on the author after hav- The three other chapters that Yet, it is one thing is to recognize ing declared that the author is complete the new reading the value of a text and the con- dead? Did he delete the concept of Barthes, respectively on cept it has put to the fore, and from his theory? Did he enjoy or Jacques Derrida, Eve Kosofsky another thing is to really read it. lament it? Did he return to the Sedgwick and Gayatri Spivak, The starting point of Jane Gal- author? Did he contradict him- follow similar lines, as far as the lop’s book is that the easiness self? Did he react to the discus- close reading methodology is of the concept, which delivers a sions raised by the success of concerned. Yet they broaden the sexy and catchy meaning that his essay or did he ignore them? scope in two crucial respects. we think we understand imme- The answers that Jane Gallop diately, may have blocked our offers to these questions pain- First of all, it appears that the critical reflection on the notion fully disclose that readers are book is divided into two well- as well as our reading of the very often lazy. As it turns out, the balanced parts, which coincide with the division of reading and

55 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 writing. In the case of Barthes or Spivak’s attempts to maintain Dumpty back together again.” and Derrida, the death of the the continuously open and nev- The humanities and the neuro- author is seen primarily from the er-ending character of writing as sciences are two powerful “ways viewpoint of the reader: What a revolt against the deadening of knowing,” and as all contribu- does the notion of the death of effects of the publication of a tors to this volume agree, these the author mean when the au- book. In both cases, Gallop pro- two disciplines must start work- thor I am reading is a departed poses a very strong political ining cooperatively if we are to ad- author I knew? The example of terpretation of these queer tem- vance in unraveling the myster- Derrida, who introduced “in me- poralities, which she links with ies of existence and the part that moriam” as a real genre in re- the defense of queer sexuality our minds, brains and bodies cent philosophy, demonstrates (for Sedgwick) and the haunt- play in this existence. ing presence of Marx, whose the painful and ethically com- Stafford’s aim in creating this thinking seems condemned to plex questions that are raised book was not to provide defini- final oblivion after the fall of the by this situation: Does one have tive guidelines for bridging the Berlin Wall (for Spivak). the right to speak in memory of humanities-neuroscience divide a friend while at the same time It is a pleasure to end this review per se but to develop literally analyzing his or her work, and by stressing the immense sty- a field guide that would point how to do it even if one is not listic and demonstrative quali- the way for future research. She allowed to do so, to quote the ties of this book. Jane Gallop is uses the term “Meta-Field” to deceased friend, etc.? In the no doubt one of the best read- describe this new approach: “In case of Sedgwick and Spivak, ers of her generation, but with addition to being a field guide, the viewpoint is more that of the The Deaths of the Author she this book serves as a primer to reader as writer (even if Barthes proves that her writing is un- intellectual possibilities and best and Derrida do reflect on their precedented: sharp, brisk, with practices in a metadiscipline that authorship as well, of course): a great sense of rhythm, utterly does not yet exist” (p. ix). How does the death of a friend, sophisticated and yet perfectly A Field Guide to a New Meta- who is also an author, influence clear, from the very first till the Field is a scholarly collection of and change my own writing, for very last sentence. instance when I identify with my essays from leading thinkers in friend as a writer, even if I realize A Field Guide both the humanities and brain that I am already dead myself? sciences. As such it is not re- to a New Meta- ally suited to general, popular Second, and this is where Jane Field: Bridging readership. The essays presup- Gallop’s close reading becomes the Humanities- pose a broad knowledge of mod- intertwined with queer studies, Neuroscience ern critical/cultural theory and the reflection on the death of the at least a basic familiarity with author does not only link literary Divide neuroscience terms and prin- theory with issues of literary eth- ciples. The book is illustrated by Barbara Maria Stafford ics, it also forces us to recon- with numerous black-and-white (ed.) sider certain basic aspects of drawings, diagrams and photo- reading and writing itself. Most University of Chicago Press, graphs. There are nine wide- essential in this regard is the 2011, 368 pp. ranging chapters, preceded notion of “queer temporalities,” ISBN: 978-0226770550 by Stafford’s own introductory that is, the refusal of traditional essay, “Crystal and Smoke.” Reviewed by Rob Harle (linear and hierarchical) ways of One thing that stands out from thinking time and the praise of [email protected] the research that produced the “perverse” (i.e. non-canonical, essays in this book is that the non-systematic, non-quantifia- Any book that helps demolish brain, mind and embodiment are ble) approaches to time that tend the stubbornly ingrained gos- far more complex than most re- to blur past, present and future, pel of Cartesian bifurcation is, searches ever dared imagine. indeed, welcome. This book is continuous and non-continuous As Stafford mentions: a fairly major contribution to this time, slowness and speed, and deconstruction project, not only A major message of this book is eventually life and death. For exposing Cartesian fallacies but that one way of getting past what instance: Sedgwick reading an also suggesting positive, prac- Damasio saw as the “abyssal “in memoriam” for a friend dying tical ways of putting “Humpty [Cartesian] separation between of AIDS but not yet deceased,

56 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 body and mind” is for neurosci- stallation, networked art and touchstone for understanding entists not to limit their cultural acoustic ecology in a multiplic- and appreciating this new art considerations to the evidence ity of practices that engage aural genre. provided by grammatically com- and video broadcast media in plex symbolic languages. We an intermedia framework where Transmission Arts is arranged know that our gesturing and the relationship(s) between art- into four sections by mode of tool-making hominid ancestors ist and audience, transmitter presentation: performance and lacked such syntactical activity. and receiver can be redefined, composition; installation; broad- What they had, and we still have, along with the telecommunica- cast; and public works, networks are sophisticated compositional tions airwaves as the site for and tools. Biographical back- structures for mirroring complex this practice. grounds are provided for each mental and social situations by selected artist, as well as a dis- Transmission, the wireless performing them as intersubjec- cussion of each artist’s seminal sending and receiving of elec- tive events (p. 45). work(s). A chronology of works tric signals via electromagnetic and an extensive bibliography The new story beginning to un- waves, is central to transmis- are also provided. Several of fold, as encapsulated in Staf- sion arts, where artists and the artists represented in each ford’s new meta-field, is a Kuh- practitioners seek a more ex- section are well known: William nian paradigm-breaking work pansive and demystified site for Basinski, John Cage, Matthew in progress. The essays in this their creative practices derived Burtner, Negativland, Marshall book will challenge many hide- through do-it-yourself, hands-on McLuhan, Velimir Khlebnikov, bound academics’ stale and out- relationships with transmission Eduardo Kac, Tetsuo Kogawa, moded paradigms and certainly technology, content sources and Orson Welles, Nam June Paik make most readers sit up and public and artistic access to the and Pierre Schaeffer, for ex- think very seriously about the transmission spectrum. As an ample. Others are less known future direction of their research. art genre, transmission arts is grounded in the transmission- and therefore interesting and The essays … are proof that the based projects of Futurism, Hör- inspiring. neurosciences cannot dispense spiel and radio-theater, post- with the humanities in their anal- Together, these 150 transmis- war electronic music, Fluxus yses of the brain. Equally, the sion artists and their works and Happenings, early video humanities must reckon with sci- form the foundation for a larger collective projects and tele- entific findings. Desegregating Transmission Art Archive under communications arts. Current those who address the outer and development with the guidance communications technology, inner worlds gets rid of warring of free103point9, a nonprofit or- networking and activism drive over prestige and funds (p. 58). ganization focused on cultivat- contemporary development. ing and defining the transmis- Transmission With such a broad palette, ac- sion art genre. In addition to the Arts: Artists and quiring an overview of the per- more traditional linear works sons and practices associated made for radio dissemination, Airwaves with transmission arts can be 103point9 supports creative, difficult. To address this prob- multifaceted and interdiscipli- by Galen Joseph-Hunter, lem, Transmission Arts: Artists nary works across the full radio Penny Duff and Maria and Airwaves provides a gene- spectrum in its broadest defini- Papadomanolaki (eds.) alogy of 150 artists and their tion. The free103point9 Trans- PAJ Publications, 2011, 200 artworks. This survey ranges mission Art Archive is accessi- pp. from 1921 to the present, docu- ble at where sound, video and tivity of the artists, as well as image files for many of the art- Reviewed by John F. Barber, their discoveries in broadcast, ists can be enjoyed. From the Washington State University public works, performance com- earliest experiments with radio, Vancouver position, sound and text repre- to current-day web- or mobile- [email protected] senting alternate worlds on the based platforms, transmission electromagnetic spectrum. The art is enlivened by technology, Transmission arts encompasses artists and works included in this not beholden to it. The artists performance, video art, theater, volume are not exhaustive, but and their works featured in sound art, radio art, media in- rather provide an accessible Transmission Arts: Artists and

57 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012

Airwaves provide an excellent professor, theoretician, crea- or into question), and although and accessible introduction. tive writer, performing VJ), has its physical appearance is not gathered in this book a certain that of the average academic es- remixthebook number of “shows” that also ex- say, its form is easy to recognize ist as live performances and web and to identify: It is that of the by Mark Amerika creations (see his personal site: epic, narrative poem in good old free verse, and the basic rules University of Minnesota Press, ). of both free verse and ars po- 2011, 336 pp. One can read them as a blend- ing of autobiography, manifesto, etica are fully respected from the ISBN 978-0816676156 (critical) theory and creative out- very first till the very last line of Reviewed by Jan Baetens, put---in short, as a new variation the book (there is one idea per University of Leuven on the well-known genre of the line, with from time to time an ars poetica. It would be unfair, enjambment to spice up rhythm [email protected]. though, to straitjacket Amerika’s and style). The ideas of the book ac.be highly inventive and innovative are new, but its poetic form is classic (readers of remixthebook At a minimum, one can say that ad-libbing on/of remix culture unfamiliar with contemporary remixthebook is an unconven- into this worn-out terminology, poetry might have the decep- tional publication, at least ac- as it is also unfair to limit the tive impression that there’s no cording to current academic present review to the mere book reason to be “afraid” of it). And standards (after all, it is pub- form of this work, which also ex- to a certain extent, the novelty is lished with a very prestigious ists in digital form, more pre- less on the side of the ideas and academic press). Formally, the cisely in digitally remixed form. the theories themselves (logi- volume resembles any other On , the author has sampled, remixed and therefore terms of content, if not explosive. invited some 25 international not always very surprising) than At the same time, Mark Amerika artists, poets and theorists to on the side of their very reuse is doing exactly what we are all sample from remixthebook, ma- (which the book can only imitate doing and experiencing today: nipulating the source material in a rather pale fashion). One re- copying, transferring, reusing, according to their own insights ally needs to go to the website mixing, remixing, mashing-up in and preferences. In compari- in order to seize the possibilities a culture whose key words have son with the life performances or of the mashup. become detournement, collage/ the digital reappropriation of the montage, readymade, quota- work, the printed volume may tion. The avant-garde’s fasci- seem anachronistic, and this gut nation with the remix, in literary reaction of the reader familiar as well as in visual culture, has with Mark Amerika’s ground- now become totally mainstream: breaking work is confirmed by We write like Lautréamont (the the reading of the book itself. first to claim that “plagiarism is necessary”), we paint and Most striking in this regard is sculpt after Duchamp (whose the extraordinarily classic use Fountain is now the icon of the of the book format itself. remix- 20th Century), and no one who thebook never questions the writes can ignore Burroughs’s conventional print layout and cut-up technique (or one of its leaves the host-medium of the multiple variants). Mark Amerika book as it is. When entering the has been, and still is, one of the work, the reader expects a much pioneering authors of this remix more experimental experience culture in the digital age, which than what is finally being pro- Lev Manovich taught us to un- posed. Despite the innovative A most intriguing aspect of the derstand as an expansion of the content of Mark Amerika’s ap- remixing process that is hardly Soviet montage principles. proach, the text as well as the discussed or thematized by volume are perfectly traditional Mark Amerika is the fidelity is- Amerika, a recombination of objects: The whole book can be sue. Most of the time, the sam- many biographical and profes- read from A to Z (the linearity of ples are directly inserted into sional stances (teacher, critic, the text is never put into danger

58 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 the text, but from time to time, complementary effect. Sono- convey the vitality of the human the author states explicitly the rous and rhythmic, Stein’s prose figure as a vibrating force of hu- source of his material (name, reverberates hypnotically: man potential. Duncan, consid- title, etc.), as if he was suggest- ered by many to have originated This one is the one being dancing that there exists a difference modern dance, rejected tradi- ing. This one is the one thinking between “free” sampling (para- tional ballet in favor of improvi- in the believing in dancing hav- phrase?) and “faithful” sampling sation, emotion and expres- ing meaning. This one is one (quotation, with references). If it sionistic aestheticism. Her body believing in thinking. This one is occurs that sampling involves became the brush in Pollack-like one thinking in dancing having also changing the remixed origi- graphics drawn in space with meaning [1]. nal, and if it proves that such arabesque scarves and colored changes do matter, it would Walkowitz’s undulating line com- light. It was an age of wild inven- have been fascinating to learn pounds the rhythm through im- tion: Loïe Fuller, Gordon Craig, more about the author’s ideas on provisational images that slip Filippo Marinetti’s Ballet Méca- this issue. As it is now, one can like nymphs across the page nique, Émile Dalcroze and Hel- only infer that the differences unfettered. They herald that first lerau. Not until the 1920s would between ways of remixing (and Brancusian flight of the spirit, such physical forays be given the exactitude of quoting is just the gusts of liberation and aban- Freudian and Surrealist license one example of this phenom- donment that projected 20th- through automatism. But at the enon) are less important than century modernists like Isadora dawn of that new century, both the very process of remixing it- Duncan from fin de siècle can- Duncan and Walkowitz stood self, which I think is debatable. ons to unbridled creativity. poised to make their mark, seek- Any technique can be used in ing and finally discovering “the any possible way, and remix- Duncan met the painter Walkow- central spring of all movement, ing should not be an exception itz in Paris in 1906, in the studio the crater of motor power, the to this rule. In that regard, the of the rebel sculptor Auguste unity from which all diversities of case for mash-up culture that is Rodin. Returning to New York, movements are born, the mirror made in remixthebook misses Duncan saw Walkowitz’s im- of vision for the creation of the part of the complexity of its own pressions of her at Steiglitz’s dance” [2]. 291 in 1916. They never saw subject. References each other again, although he drew thousands of images of [1] Gertrude Stein, A Stein Reader. Modern Gestures: Ed. Ulla E. Dydo (Evanston: her ritualistically throughout his Northwestern University Press, Abraham life, as though his hand was an 1993) p. 129. Walkowitz Draws extension of her body, his ges- [2] Isadora Duncan, My Life (New Isadora Duncan ture her movement through York: W.W. Norton & Company, Dancing time. The synergy that Albright 1995) p. 58. creates between Stein’s liter- Institutional by Ann Cooper Albright ary cadence and the musical sensation of Walkowitz’s visual Critique: An Wesleyan University Press, forms conveys the motion of the 2010, 100 pp. Anthology of dance in a manner immediate Artists’ Writings ISBN: 978-0819570772 and sensate. “Seeing becomes hearing,” writes Albright, and Reviewed by Giovanna L. by Alexander Alberro and her selection of sounds, when Costantini Blake Stimson (eds.) read aloud, accompanies the costantini.giovanna.l@gmail. dancer’s movements in simu- The MIT Press, 2011, 440 pp. com lated performance. ISBN: 978-0262516648 Ann Cooper Albright’s Mod- Like other early modernists in- Reviewed by Amy Ione, The ern Gestures juxtaposes ink spired by musical abstraction, Diatrope Institute and watercolor drawings of the Walkowitz likened his expres- [email protected] dancer Isadora Duncan (1877- sion to harmonious sensation -1927) by the modernist Abra- alive with rhythm. His experi- Institutional Critique: An Anthol- ham Walkowitz (1878--1965) mentation with small format ogy of Artists’ Writings brings with excerpts from the writings drawings and watercolors ex- together key documents related of Gertrude Stein to startling, plored linear motion in ways that to institutional critique, a con-

59 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 ceptual art movement that has parts of its legacy” (p. 15). In ticles demonstrate that he has raised questions about the work- reading the book, I was struck by played a strong part in institu- ings of art institutions (muse- the fact that the majority of the tional critique. Yet, his work is ums, galleries) since the 1960s. writings appear in the first two not given in the context of his life. Alexander Alberro (one of the sections (314 pages), while the For example, one of the reasons editors of this volume) calls it last two sections seem more of he was able to continue to make a “gesture of negation” (p. 3) an afterthought. Among the art- political statements is that he that was adopted by art-world ists/authors included are Hans had an economic base. From figures as they began to criti- Haacke, Michael Asher, Robert 1967 to 2002 Haacke had stable cally engage with the order of Smithson, Marcel Broodthaers, employment as a professor at things within art venues. The Daniel Buren, Dan Graham, Mi- Cooper Union in New York City. anthology presents the move- erle Laderman Ukeles, Adrian This “larger context” invisibility ment in four sections (Framing, Piper, Martha Rosler, Louise problem struck me frequently. Institution of Art, Institutionaliz- Lawler, Fred Wilson and Mark Martha Rosler, for example, ing and Exit Strategies). While Dion. hardly seems like an “outsid- the volume gives the impression er.” She has taught at several To my surprise, I was quite taken that the critique is ongoing, the universities and (among other in by the book but quite exasper- Exit Strategies section suggests things) serves in an advisory ated at the same time. This is that the initial concerns have capacity to the departments of because it is an insiders’ book. morphed into something else. education at the Whitney Mu- The editors seem to assume seum of American Art and the The Framing section centers on that readers will know who all Museum of Modern Art and the how artists began to expose the the artists are and how their Center for Urban Pedagogy and politics of art institutions along writings “fit” together within the is a former board member of with various inconsistencies art world at large. Thus, there the Buell Center for the Study and contradictions in their op- are no short artist biographies, of American Architecture at Co- erations in the 1960s and 1970s. no summaries to contextual- lumbia University. Hans Haacke’s response to the ize the writings and no index to Guggenheim’s abrupt cancel- help the reader move around Andrea Fraser, another person lation of his scheduled show in expeditiously. The lack of sup- who critiques art institutions, is 1971, due to its political content, plementary material to enhance currently a member of the Art is included here. Overall, these the reader’s understanding of Department faculty at the Uni- early documents present gener- the writings presented makes versity of California, Los Ange- al challenges to the status quo. it useful documentation for a les. In her articles, she mentions Ultimately, there was a shift in classroom, where a teacher her discussions as a student in strategy that is covered in the can provide framing, but less New York City with many of the second section, the Institution useful in a general sense. For contributors to the book. While of Art. This second section cov- example, the Critical Art Ensem- her writings are included in the ers how the art world operates ble (CAE) article, titled “Tactical book, her well-known perform- and assumptions people bring Media,” was penned in 1996, ance pieces are largely invisible. to art. For example, the Guer- before Steve Kurtz became the For example, there is no mention rilla Girls, who first surfaced in target of an FBI investigation. of one of her most controversial New York City in 1985 to protest Gregg Bordowitz’s 2004 arti- pieces: the videotape she made gender and racial inequality in cle (“Tactics Inside and Out”) is of herself having sex with an art the art world, are included in the more useful for understanding collector. He paid $20,000 to second section as well as the the trajectory of CAE and their participate in this work of art. third, Institutionalizing, which projects. An index would help a After their “encounter” the video asks how artists can develop an reader who is interested in CAE was shown in a gallery in NYC. alternative sphere. The final sec- but not planning on reading the According to Fraser, her point in tion, Exit Strategies, “brings to- entire book easily discover ma- making this artwork was to com- gether art projects and writings terials about CAE outside of the ment on the reality that selling that stem from international col- article credited to CAE. art is comparable to prostitution. lectives whose radical agendas Moreover, although the authors Fraser herself, however, does and cultural politics resonate claim the volume is a self-con- acknowledge the contradiction with earlier forms of institution- tained work, this is not really the of participating in a critique that al critique but reject significant case. The five Hans Haacke ar- is a part of the museum/gallery

60 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 system. One chapter in the book During the past nineteen years, alienated and/or marginalized reprints a 2005 Artforum article the Guerrilla Girls’ work has dra- from the “high art” world critique where she wrote: matically affected curators, ad- that defines viability in the mar- ministrators, fellow critics, and ketplace. Nearly 40 years after their first artists. Prior to their poster cam- appearance, the practices now In 2004, as I watched the Gue- paigns in the streets of SoHo in associated with “institutional rilla Girls walk to the stage at the mid-1980s, the reality of art- critique” have for many come the CAA conference, wearing world exclusiveness---whether to seem, well, institutionalized the gorilla masks they use to overt or covert---with regard to . . . In the context of museum keep their anonymity, I remem- gender and race was almost en- exhibitions and art history sym- ber thinking of a statement Max tirely anecdotal. The Guerrilla posia . . . one increasingly finds Planck made in his autobiog- Girls’ statistics exposed imbal- institutional critique accorded raphy: ances in gallery and museum the unquestioning respect often representation, media coverage, [A] new scientific truth does not granted artistic phenomena that and other forms of institutional triumph by convincing its op- have achieved a certain histori- support for artists. . . . The Guer- ponents and making them see cal status (p. 408). rilla Girls’ posters now appear the light, but rather because its In this sense, our contemporary in art-history textbooks and are opponents eventually die, and institutional critique is a part of collected by museums across a new generation grows up that a long and fascinating history the country, and the group has is familiar with it” [3]. (although this history is not received awards from the Na- Institutional Critique brings this mentioned in the book). Other tional Organization for Women, to mind. Its subject has no doubt examples of critique from within the National Library Association, changed the art world, and for institutions are the Pre-Rapha- the Center for the Study of Po- the better in many cases. While elites in England and the Real- litical Graphics, and the Minis- I am not a fan of the “high art” ists in France (Gustave Courbet, try of Culture in Berlin, among critique, this volume neverthe- Jean-François Millet and Éd- others [1]. less is a contribution that will ouard Manet). Alternate exhi- Later, in 2009, the Guerilla aid the study of art. Still, all in bition venues by people such Girls added CAA’s inaugural all, the most striking thing about as the Impressionists have also Distinguished Feminist Award the book was how well it aligned challenged the status quo. While to their accolades. According with Haacke’s poll. Just as the this anthology does not look at to CAA, these activists “em- majority of the visitors to the historical precursors, the docu- body the very essence of the gallery were somehow in the ments do offer a record that is spirit of the feminist art world: art world already, the writings of value as this movement takes collaborative, proactive, and in this book are for those who its place in the chronology of persistent” [2]. In other words, are already participants in the art. Still, it is a shame that this the activities of this group, like art institutions. It is not an ef- volume does not acknowledge those of most (if not all) of the fort to reach the public at large. that, although this iteration takes sources in the book, are now so Yet, perhaps ironically, it ends place in the museums and gal- fully integrated into the institu- with some discussion on how leries, rather than outside the tions that the criticisms they are art projects are now expanding mainstream, there are histori- noted for seem almost incestu- into a larger arena. cal examples that show other ous. Several of the articles in routes. References Institutional Critique reference [1] www.collegeart.org/awards/ As I read, I kept thinking about Hans Haacke’s 1972 poll/piece mather2004 the 2004 College Art Associa- at the John Weber gallery that [2] www.collegeart.org/awards/ tion (CAA) Conference, where revealed, among other things, feminist2009 the Frank Jewett Mather Award that most visitors to the gallery [3] Quoted in Thomas Kuhn, The was given to the Guerrilla Girls. were related in some way to the Structure of Scientific Revolutions This CAA award recognizes professions of art, art teaching (Chicago: University of Chicago and museology. This book is Press, 1970 ed.) p. 150. From Max published art criticism that has Planck, Scientific Autobiography, appeared in whole or in part in directed at the same group. The and other papers; with a memorial language is specialist language address on Max Planck, by North American publications. Max von Laue. Tr. from German Their choice of the Guerilla Girls and does not lend itself to dia- by Frank Gaynor (New York, was explained in the following logue with those who may feel Philosophical Library, 1949). statement:

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Spacesuit: ization of the feminine silhou- research toward design artifacts ette---with its pinched waist and that can sustain man in an envi- Fashioning Apollo atypical postwar exuberance of ronment tailored as close to pos- material---later comes to con- sible to that of his usual habitat. by Nicolas de Monchaux, ceptualize reforms in the man- Highly engaging is Monchaux’s The MIT Press, Cambridge, agement of postwar defense revealing of the various actants 2011, 250 pp. as orchestrated by President that come together to constitute ISBN: 978-0262015202 Eisenhower. “Here the phrase the developments for a “human- ‘new look,’” notes the author, istic” design to sustain man in Reviewed by Valérie “came to stand not so much for space. These actants are col- Lamontagne, Concordia the shifting shapes of Dior’s lected from divergent disciplines University 1947 dresses, but for an archi- including academic research [email protected] tecture even more ephemeral, institutions, industry (tires, gir- that of postwar reality itself” (p. dles), engineering, politics and Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo 31). That a term coined in the popular media culture and often is a dissection of the influenc- annals of women’s wear comes overlap, complement as well as ing cultures, materials and sci- to propel industrial and military compete with one another in the entific practices that brought innovation is endemic of a con- process of producing the Apollo about the fabrication of the first tinued “feminization,” that is, A7L spacesuit. spacesuit worn on the moon. softening, of space exploration Throughout, Monchaux suc- Organized in 21 thematic chap- garment design. ters---echoing 21 unique and cessfully argues and gives ex- functionally adapted layers of amples of how within the various the suit---the structure permits iterations and prototypes of the the author to take necessary spacesuit, it is the designs that detours and sideways glances take into consideration the way at the factors responsible for the in which the body moves and final and unorthodox outcome “lives” in clothing that garner ap- of the girdle-making company peal and usability with the as- Playtex, who won the contract to tronauts. The more traditional, make the ubiquitous moonwalk custom-made, couture-crafted, suit. More than a historical over- one-of-a-kind, form-fitted space- view, Monchaux’s extensively suits win out over the engi- researched book recounts the neered, standardized “contain- battle of conflicting wills and vi- ers.” Comfort and mobility, by sions, which pits the fragility and way of textile innovations in rub- finitude of the body’s ability to ber and synthetics developed in adapt to inhospitable environ- consideration of the body wear- ments against the cybernetic ing the suit, ultimately speak for dream of total control and so- The same space age era sets the the success of Playtex---of bra matic transformation through stage for the emergence of the and girdle fame, deployed under technology. This dichotomy is intellectual and ideological ne- International Latex Corporation articulated---specifically in the ologism of “cybernetics.” Initially (ILC)---to prevail in the fashion- case of the construction of aero- pharmacologically based, cy- ing of the spacesuit. This tale of nautic protective clothing---as a bernetics propels the fantasy of collaborative design highlights war waged between a tacit, or a seamless technological man- the necessary administrative “soft,” knowledge of textile craft machine, or “cyborg.” Parallel accommodations between ILC versus an automated, or “hard,” evolutions in early aviation and and NASA in consolidating con- engineering assembly practice. its nefarious and often deadly flicting garment manufacturing effects on the body---such as processes, based on the one A key crossover concept pre- high speeds and altitude condi- hand on sewing patterns and sented early in the book by tions of extreme cold and lack on the other in engineering Monchaux is derived from the of oxygen---fail to deliver on the technical documentation. This unlikely ateliers of the Paris- actualization of the “cybernetic science-fashion hybrid-practice ian couture houses. The “New man.” Continued space-travel is exemplary for current cross- Look,” as launched by Dior, testing rather consistently points disciplinary research taking which stood for a re-structural-

62 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 place in the field of wearable I really enjoyed this inspirational “criminal” activities (sampling, technologies in fashion and en- book. If there was ever a book mash-ups, re-mixing) that the gineering alike. that exemplified the immortal copyright laws and ensuing en- words of Dylan Thomas, “Do not forcement of these laws were Monchaux resets a number of go gentle into that good night. ramped up. There are 24 con- assumptions constructed with- Rage, rage against the dying tributors, a smattering of black in the media image of space of the light”, this is it. The “dy- & white images, and a couple travel by bringing us closer to ing of the light” metaphorically of colour plates. These are fol- the “messy” practice of scien- is the stifling of creativity, the lowed by an excellent Bibliogra- tific developments, eschewing suppression of artistic produc- phy, profiles of contributors, and the manicured media visions of tion, and the control by fear of an exceptionally good Index. man on the moon. Questioned, many aspects of human creative for example, is the sustained As many of the essays in Cut- endeavour due to copyright law. media popularity of the “hard” ting Across Media: Appropria- These draconian copyright laws engineered suits---inspired by tion Art, Interventionist Collage, reached their zenith at the end Bauhaus’s Oskar Schlemmer’s and Copyright Law point out, of the 1980s––early 1990s in Triadic Ballet stage costumes- copyright litigation has nothing the land of omnipotent litigation, --that come to represent the to do with plagiarism or moral the USA. As the authors state: “atypical” spacesuit, as well as concerns, nor seldom with defa- being another instance of the mation issues, it is purely and fashion-engineering crossover. solely an exercise in greed and As Monchaux argues, these corporate control. The stakes in- “hard” shells function not so volved are in many cases huge. much as space armature but “Every license for Office plus rather as symbolic representa- Windows in Brazil – a country tion of man’s desired mastery in which 22 million people are over space. However, the truth starving – means we have to is that the human body has no export 60 sacks of soybeans” mastery in space during lunar (p. 139). It is interesting to note travel but rather must make that now, Open Office, an excel- do by keeping the elements at lent suite of office applications is bay. Above functional aesthet- entirely free, comes in numerous ics, above the dream of cyber- languages and is largely a result netic controls, what Monchaux of the Open Source movement does with Spacesuit: Fashion- that has minimum copyright pro- ing Apollo is to tell an enduring tection as proscribed under the modernist tale of embodiment “With the copying in Pop Art, we Creative Commons Attribution vs. engineering of design. saw the beginning of lawsuits (non-commercial) License. As based on the infringement of the is this book incidentally! private copyrights of commercial Cutting Copyright law ensures that the subjects that became the unwill- Across Media: creator of a whole (complete) ing content of new works. Even work gets paid fairly for their Appropriation Art, then, such constraints on artis- efforts. Very few (if any) of this Interventionist tic freedom were still generally book’s contributors, nor the Collage, and seen as absurd.” (p. 119) artists they discuss, disagree Copyright Law The book includes a variety of with this function of copyright contributions including scholar- law. Nor do they want the abo- by Kembrew McLeod & Rudolf ly-critical essays; interviews with lition of copyright law per se. Kuenzli (eds.) artists; letters from copyright at- Instead they argue for the cor- Duke University Press, 2011, torneys; and a number of his- rect interpretation of Fair Use 376 pp. torically interesting essays from (under the law), some argue for ISBN: 978-0822348221 Dada through to the present. the extension and expansion of The emphasis throughout the the Fair Use clause. Further they Reviewed by Rob Harle book is on musical artistic prac- point out that all art throughout [email protected] tice, perhaps a little too much, history, to greater or lesser de- though it is through musicians’ grees, appropriates “bits” from

63 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 past works. This is the most im- high to ignore the erosion of in Egypt of those seemingly self- portant argument throughout the artistic freedom brought about evident truths? book and has profound cultural, by ignorant and greed driven ap- Translated by Geoffrey Long- legal, and social implications. plication of copyright law. It is argued that most source necker, who provides a fine owners, and especially their The Hierarchies introduction, this little volume legal representatives have no of Cuckoldry and gives us an eccentric sample understanding of how modern of Fourier’s thought and style in art is created. These attorneys Bankruptcy two essays published together argue that there is no difference for the first time. These are not by Charles Fourier between counterfeiting entire varieties of romantic anguish but works and “fragmentary and translated and with an subtleties of shame, and their transformational appropriation introduction by Geoffrey juxtaposition proves the similari- within new works” (p. 122). Longnecker ties of a husband wronged by a Wakefield Press, 2011, 120 wife, and an investor wronged The editors of Cutting Across pp. by the vagaries of the economy. Media, Rudolf Kuenzli and Fourier detects the ways the ta- Kembrew McLeod organised a ISBN: 978-0984115556 bles can be turned, the situation conference at the University of Reviewed by Mike Mosher, managed. Iowa in 2005 entitled Collage Saginaw Valley State as Cultural Practice; many of Fourier asserts that cuckoldry University the chapters in this book are a must be handled deftly by the result of this conference. Col- [email protected] cuckold, to maintain his dig- lage is a kind of “catch all” term nity under the circumstances. Some of us first heard of Charles to describe any of the creative The implication is that before Fourier (1772-1837) in Ed- practices where “bits” are taken entering into an extramarital mund Wilson’s To the Finland from existing works and woven arrangement, the sagacious Station, where Wilson traced into an entirely new work with must consider all varieties cuck- 150 years of revolutionary fer- different meaning and intention oldry, whether classed among vor from French philosophies than the entire work from where the Common, Short-horned through Lenin and Trotsky. He the “bits” were appropriated. A or Long-horned. Swaggering, was a savant, social critic with simple example of this is the Wily, Jeering, Prescriptive, Re- a twinkle in his eye, and vision- use of “cut-ups” — headlines calcitrant or Irate; these are all ary socialist in that thoughtful from newspapers are placed in among the 75 varieties therein. and optimistic century of Wil- a new context, interwoven with Number 66, among the Com- liam Morris, Edward Bellamy, other headlines that result in an pound Orders, is the Judicious, Oscar Wilde...and, oh yes, Karl entirely new work. These have or Guaranteed, Proto-cuckold. Marx. Fourier arranged human been used by such luminaries, Fourier calls him “the flower of history into six societal stages as the Surrealists, Bob Dylan, cuckolds, the flower of the race,” of progress, from “Savagery” to Andy Warhol, and David Bow- for he’d married a rich woman to “Harmonism”, with the “Civiliza- ie. It is interesting to note that insure they both had liberty to do tion” of his time merely the third. Warhol gained copyright clear- their own things, with whomever. A feminist, Fourier felt that the ance for many of his works and charades of cuckoldry were a The results of this arrangement the companies were only too result of the absurd demands are “liberty, respect, protection happy to get free advertising? of monogamous marriage, and and reciprocal friendship.” The I believe this is an important would disappear as humankind author adds, “This is the species book, specifically because the grew in maturity and clarity. “So- of cuckoldry to which I would issues discussed affect much cial progress and changes of aspire if I ever married.” of our future artistic creations; period are brought about by vir- Fourier goes on to provide re- as mentioned this has profound tue of the progress of women lated taxonomies of attraction social and cultural ramifications. towards liberty, and social ret- (three), passions (three), and As such, this book should be rogression occurs as a result the Seven Objectives of Mar- at minimum included as a rec- of a diminution in the liberty of riage. He keeps up the same ommended text in a variety of women.” Hello! Can we now measured, logical tone as the applicable tertiary education convince radical Christianists subject turns to bankruptcy, courses. The stakes are too in the U.S. and similar Islamists broken into three Orders, nine

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Genres and 36 Species. Spe- Bankruptcy is Fourier’s term a new young lover, but by dig- cies 17, the Graded Bankruptcy, for a swindle on investors, like ital camera technology. Perhaps “is that of a speculator who, if he cuckolding a spouse, a breach this handsome little book could carries out the operation wisely of trust; think Bernie Madoff or offer its corporate officers some enough, can make a career out Charles Ponzi. Fourier’s Hierar- consolation, or at least under- of seven or eight consecutive chy of Bankruptcy sorts Crimes standing. One also imagines it bankruptcies.” Fourier then lists of Commerce into three Orders, protruding from the suit pockets the recommended percentages nine Genres and 36 Species. of politicians meeting to decide of funds looted to carry off the Least swashbuckling and cheer- the economic fate of Europe; or, operation credibly, so the busi- fully roguish are the three Spe- well thumbed, from Frau Mer- nessman can gain, not lose, cies of Agitators that “disregard kel’s purse. respect with every step. Gold- moral methods and jeopardize man Sachs, John Corzine, UBS, the august profession.” These The End of Energy: please note. include the Large-Scale Bank- The Unmaking ruptcy, who ruins “hundreds I like lists. Recall the marve- of landlords, members of the of America’s lous sequence in Peter Green- lower middle class, and other Environment, way’s 1991 movie “Prospero’s good people.” His description Security, and Books”, where the contents of sounds like a Wall Street trad- Prospero’s library are invento- Independence er’s memo, gazing upon Autumn ried in multi-layered sequence, 2011’s crowd of Occupy patriots, a savvy use of then-new digital by Michael J. Graetz as he notes how it “hurts non- film technologies. There are The MIT Press, 2011, 384 pp. merchants and greatly harms bestiaries and alphabets, both the profession by giving rise ISBN: 978-0262015677 forms explored in the fictions of to rather unflattering thoughts Jorge Luis Borges, whom no- Reviewed by C.F. Black, concerning the honest frater- body seems to read anymore but Griffith University nity of traders.” The Widespread was omnipresent in the 1970s. Bankruptcy “makes public opin- [email protected] Systematizing is like bird watch- ion rise up against the intrigues ing. Fourier’s categorizations After reading The End of Energy, of merchants and against the evoke Denis Diderot’s Diction- one gets an awful feeling that stupid laws that allow this dis- ary, or Gustave Flaubert’s En- one is reading the epitaph of the reputable gambler such utter cyclopedia of Received Ideas, Fall of the American Empire– freedom.” a collection whose cynicism is –a fall that can be diverted if like Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s These are good times to read lessons are learnt from history Dictionary. They certainly prefig- The Hierarchies of Cuckoldry and a history that is surprisingly ured Roland Barthes’ cool and and Bankruptcy. One possible recent. The author identified the thorough A Lover’s Discourse, U.S. Presidential candidate 1970’s as the defining decade and Barthes himself analyzed says, “Corporations are persons that changed and shaped poli- Fourier’s work in comparison too, my friend” (affirmed, alas, by cies and politics relating to en- to the Marquis de Sade and St. the US Supreme Court), and will ergy in the USA for the next 40 Ignatius of Loyola. The book is bet a rival $10,000 in a wink that years. Furthermore, it fostered so methodical that I sometimes he’s right. Another one preaches in the average American an had to put it down to remind my- the sanctity of marriage, after unrealistic attitude to the price self I was reading for pleasure. commencing an affair and di- of gasoline. Graetz offers a cri- Perhaps his taxonomies are vorcing his cancer-stricken first tique of the history of cheap oil most like eighteenth-century wife, to repeat the process upon and consequent mistakes that naturalist Linnaeus. Imagine a a healthy but unhappy second are leading to a future in which vaudeville skit or college mag- spouse with his religiously de- questions of energy security, azine parody: Carl Linnaeus, vout third wife. The news an- clean air, and a safer planet are enough with the fershlugginer nounced the bankruptcy of Ko- the legacies that Americans will classifications, already! Oh dak Corporation, the firm that offer future generations. Will the wait, that sounds like Jewish commercialized mass photog- next 40 years make up for the humor, an ethnic group whose raphy in the United States in the mistakes of the last 40 years businesspeople Fourier viewed nineteenth century, a bulwark of that has led America into what with disdain. industry made vulnerable not by President Obama describes as a ‘shock and trace’ response to

65 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 oil prices - in other words, an tics of energy in America. He ient loophole or drawback of addiction to cheap gas prices covers a vast range of topics legislation as a result of either that does not reflect reality including the debates, legisla- industry or constituents’ unwill- and, as one researcher has ture, and deregulation of vari- ingness to change. estimated, cost the economy ous energy industries, such as In conclusion, this book has between $700-$800 billion in coal, nuclear, and natural gas. much to offer, and many lessons 2008 alone? He also gives good coverage of can be learnt. I would suggest the Cap and Trade debates, as Chapter by chapter, Graetz dis- the lessons could apply to any well as discussing oil disasters mantles this mythology of easy First World Nation or Develop- such as the Gulf spill. oil and brings to the fore the ing Nation that does not want epitaph of the American Em- A constant theme throughout to go down the same path of pire, which is that it needs to the book is how dependency inadvertent dependency. change its attitude and face up on foreign oil has led to a com- to the fact that gasoline costs a promised foreign policy and Better Off Dead: lot more than people are willing has changed national security The Evolution of to pay. It is this very unrealistic practise. These compromises attitude that has led the govern- do not auger well for future the Zombie as ment to court the voting public generations. If anything, Gra- Post-Human through a series of subsides, etz argues it has made the U.S. legislation, and controls that, in a dangerous place for youth as by Deborah Christie, Sarah turn, are counteracted by acts of the dollars given over to Middle Juliet Lauro (eds.) decontrol and repeal. This back East nations for oil have em- Fordham University Press, and forth of legislation has been powered those nations and, in 2011, 304 pp. fostered by the abovementioned some cases, educated a radical ISBN: 978-0823234479 ‘shock and trace’ response to anti-American populous. oil prices. Reviewed by Brian He further argues that the big- Reffin Smith, Collège de gest problems come from Con- Pataphysique gressional priorities that favour geographic considerations [email protected] above technological and eco- There are a couple of things, nomic prospects. This problem arguably true, that we can say is exacerbated by an excessive about zombies. One is “The liv- optimism about technological ing, reeking dead are amongst developments, which in real- us now”. The other: “We are ity are not given sufficient time all zombies”. Clearly the latter nor funding for development, a would entail the former. Or would situation that, in turn, leads to it? If we are all zombies, what is a process of haste and waste. a zombie to us? Would we know Graetz offers solutions relating that we were zombies? Could to institutional changes and the we stand the smell? What is the notion of earmarking and ex- difference, if any, between hu- tending budgeting timelines. He mans and zombies? One might He opens the book by remind- is critical of Congressional com- also ask: “What is it like to be a ing the reader that the average mittee structures that he sug- Zombie?”. The standard philo- American verges on the belief gests would be better served sophical response is “There is that it is a basic right to have by independent analysts and nothing it is like to be a zombie”, gas on tap at a price he or she experts. which deserves to be set to a will accept. Graetz, then, sets tune from Monty Python’s Fly- out on the perilous and polluting The book is essential reading ing Circus. journey that oil takes from Gha- for young enthusiasts who be- war to one of America’s 100,000 lieve they have the solution for The zombie is a transgression. gas stations. future energy security. In the It is not really the living dead nor past many a worthy project has the dead resurrected, but rather Graetz diligently sets out the been put forward only to be later both: alive and dead, or if you problems, policies, and poli- savaged due to some conven- like, true and false, 1 and 0. If

66 L|R|Q 2.01 | 2012 things, à la Derrida, come with orous reader, I am; so I must And yet I walk, I talk… their opposites, then the Zombie declare an interest.) Back!” is even a transgression to that, But we had better examine what for there can be no opposite to (‘Scoop’, US radio drama, Dec. we mean by the term before we ‘both alive and dead’ unless it 8 1942) apply it to philosophical or neu- be ‘neither alive nor dead’, which rological states or problems, and makes my brain hurt. It must This is one side of the zombie ‘zombie’ has existed since at be stressed: The true zombie is phenomenon. The book wisely least 1819 in the English lan- both fully alive and fully dead, makes no attempt to address the guage and is related to nzambi pace Hollywood. It is both hu- philosophical aspects of zom- ––god, and zumbi––fetish, in man and… ‘nothing there’. bie per se for which the reader the West African language Kon- might delve into a tome such as The above, of course, is en- go. The book under review is a Zombies and Consciousness (R. tirely about the ‘philosophical splendid primer to the cultural Kirk, Oxford: Clarendon Press, zombie’, or p-zombie. This is a senses of zombie with exam- 2007). Together, the two texts construct, originally due to David ples of zombie intrusion into all would equip one at least to ap- Chalmers, which, in a vulgarly aspects of culture, media, and proach the rich area of zombie simplified form, asserts that if society. It covers the gamut of studies. A search for the pair you can imagine a being like zombie phenomena from radio ‘zombie + consciousness’ in us in every way, impossible to broadcasts to books, and early English over the last 80 years distinguish from us by any test film to recent TV in a number shows an almost exponential at all, yet it’s a Zombie…if you of individually written chapters rise. can imagine this, then you must dealing with Haitian Identity and perforce believe in something Zombification (how to make If Better Off Dead does not per- rather like a soul. This gets peo- your own zombie, don’t try this suade you to get hold of a few ple like Daniel Dennet hopping at home), Undead Radio, the DVDs of early zombie horror, mad, and I don’t blame him. Zombie as Other and zombies or a book on how to survive in performance art, postmod- the inevitable zombie invasion But the p-zombie is a rich source ern cinema, literature and so on, of your town or brain, then you of intrigue and speculation, and though oddly next to no mention have no inkling of the fact that goes (of course) to questions of the zombie in video games what started in Haiti, continued of consciousness, and I would and apps. There are nearly 40 in Hollywood, and finished as a argue artificial intelligence, too. pages of useful notes, a good philosophers’ nightmare is going I use it a lot in my performance index and a fine bibliography to get bigger and bigger, for we and art work. Who has not been as well as a filmography. are all post-human now. I mean, accused by a loved one of being just look at us. Or if you can’t a zombie? Who has not felt the In case this sounds a bit dry, bear that, then look at those lizard brain taking over after a it is saved from being too aca- identical to us in every possi- hard night’s mulled wine? What demic by lots of brain-watering ble respect…except that they if I don’t really feel emotions? I examples: are zombies, who only pretend mean, not REALLY? And is it to have emotions, to feel pain or “…your face! not plausibly argued that we are joy, to enjoy the colour and taste merely led to believe, by the ‘in- My coffin was a poor one. of a fine red wine, to make art or ner zombie’ in each of us, that Worms and maggots worked love. This is vital stuff: and as a we are in control, whereas it’s quickly… British football manager said in the thing inside, to which we another context, it isn’t a mat- No! are unconscious, that decides ter of life and death, it’s more to press the button or steal the The dead are dead they told important than that. █ book, informing us only a few me… milliseconds or even seconds later, so that we can pretend it Stay back! was our choice? Readiness po- The dead can’t walk they told me tentials can be reliably reserved in action before we know we No closer! want to do X. In other words, The dead can’t talk they told me what if, underneath it all, I am just a zombie? (And in fact, tim- Stay back!