Leonardo Reviews
Leonardo Reviews Nuclear Comeback can be helpful, prob- try: “I am not entirely sure that it is Editor-in-Chief: Michael Punt ably not in giving conclusive answers appropriate to include nuclear power Managing Editor: Bryony Dalefield about nuclear power, but in correctly in the regular market economy,” marks presenting its current revival. This Lars-Olov Hoghrud, nuclear engineer Associate Editors: Dene Grigar, movie consists of seven sections deal- at the Swedish plant Forsmark. Martha Blassnigg, Hannah Drayson ing with all the contentious aspects Throughout the video, the scenery A full selection of reviews is pub- of nuclear energy: greenhouse gas portrays overcrowded urban traffic, lished monthly on the LR web site: reduction potential, economics, risks, night-time illumination in Western
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 demand is most dramatic in develop- like John Cage or, although in a slightly Thanks to this clever presentation, ing countries such as China, India and different manner, Chris Marker. the show has become something more North Korea, where energy consump- At first sight, the strategic choices than either a pale copy of new media tion is increasing steeply and most made by the curator and her team will works that one should read and evalu- nuclear plants are being projected. surprise the visitor. What one discovers ate in one’s own technological envi- Little is said about the scarcity of ura- in the show is exactly what one did not ronment or a banal illustration of the nium ore. Only Canada, Australia and expect to find. First, the show focuses intellectual fireworks that can be found Kazakhstan will account for further on the artist rather than on his network. in Ascott’s publications. Centered on mining. The three together provide (It could have been possible, for exam- works that are to be discovered as work- half the annual output of nuclear fuel ple, to organize a show on Ascott while ing spaces, this retrospective, which by worldwide, but production lags far gathering nothing other than works of the way also demonstrates how deeply below demand. Exploiting older stocks his students or admirers.) Second, it involved Roy Ascott was, and still is, in and converting military arsenals com- concentrates on the past rather than all the major evolutions of art since the pensates for this. on the future. (Ascott’s current work, 1960s, has become a statement on the In summary, The Nuclear Comeback which is taking place mostly on the exhibition as a work of art, not as the presents an informative vision recom- Internet, is just hinted at in the exhibi- reappropriation of an artistic career mended to science teachers and policy tion.) Third, the work is also presented through a curator’s perspective, but as a makers. It may make for scary viewing, in a very straightforward way; well docu- companion to the personal fulfillment but awareness is essential if a participa- mented and exemplarily offered not of the visitor. tory response is required to address this as theoretical statements but as artistic crucial question of our time. achievements. (Ascott’s most stunning and audacious speculations bear some resemblance—in form at least—to Jeff Books Wall--inspired light boxes.) Exhibition Yet the traditional appearance of the show proves extremely deceptive. For Memory against Culture those willing to take a closer look, it by Johannes Fabian. Duke University Roy Ascott: rapidly appears that the curators’ vision Press, Durham and London, U.S.A/ The Syncretic Sense actually redefines what this retrospec- U.K., 2007. 208 pp., illus. Hardcover; Curated by Paula Orrell. Plymouth Arts tive is: not the passive celebration of paperback. Centre, 4 April--24 May 2009. a great man but a hugely active user’s manual. First of all one notices that Reviewed by Martha Blassnigg, University of Reviewed by Jan Baetens (Belgium). E-mail: even if the show includes hardly any Plymouth, U.K. E-mail:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 critical reflection on his field-practice events. It is in this sense that Fabian and anthropological research by tracing understands the work of memory as movements of remembering and forget- acts of communication and as a cultural ting in the documentation, interpreta- practice (p. 82): in his view, it is not the tion and presentations of his findings. forgotten content in itself but forget- In this book, Fabian treats the act of ting as an act that should preoccupy memory as “culture-in-action” or “cul- us (p. 79). In this—it could be said tural praxis,” what he calls “the work of rather political—sense, ethnography memory” (p. 78) as a dialectical notion (and anthropology more generally) expressed in acts of communication functions as a critical intervention into (in the sense not of information trans- memory practices (p. 102) and ulti- fer but of shared experience). In this mately constitutes a politics of memory, context, Fabian reminds us that of one since, in his view, how we investigate, of anthropology’s core aims is to speak publish and exhibit may define and with others, not about others, and notes change collective memory (p. 96). his previous call for deconstructing the The sometimes provocative poten- devices of temporal distantiation in tial of Fabian’s thinking is stimulating, order to recognize presence as a fun- refreshing and timely in its relevance damental condition of the knowledge to current research into what could practice of shared experience, which be called an anthropology of mind. he called “coevalness” [2]. He proposes Although the concise format of the lec- a perspective on the theorizing of lan- tures/papers sometimes required a nec- guage in anthropology that includes essary reduction of materials and scope time and memory, which always implies from Fabian’s substantial fieldwork Reviewed by Luis Miguel Girão. E-mail: forgetting. He reminds us in particular and theoretical body of work, the book
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 arguments in favor of characterizing or accidents. This incorporation of creative practices, like computer games, mind-body as a single and indivisible new medical research challenges the will always exceed any attempted defi- entity, she does not dismiss any of the “survivalist hypothesis” that takes nitions of them, because no creative alternative perspectives on the prob- NDEs as a proof of the existence of practice occurs in a vacuum but is lem. The palette of authors analyzed is an afterlife. rather sullied by a constant exchange extremely rich and covers a wide spec- Ornella Corazza, in this book, of images, techniques and concepts trum of thought, ranging from theo- extends the teachings of Yasuo Yuasa between media and the human beings logical theories about NDE to biologists and Hiroshi Motoyama and tells us, in a who enact them. and psychoanalysts arguing the nature very well-documented manner, that we More specifically, Swalwell and Wil- of NDE as a defense mechanism of are embodied consciousness. The mind- son argue that “attempting to cut video the dying brain. The transdisciplinary body connection that is established games off from other media is counter- nature of what is known as “the hard brings science and art together, feeding productive in that it blinds us to rich problem” in consciousness studies is our imagination for the creation of new commonalities and continuities with well characterized and extends to the technologies. cinema, television, music, visual arts, mind-body problem. The fact is that and predigital games” (p. 4). There is subjects who reported on NDEs tended a need, they say, for scholarship that to describe these experiences in keep- The Pleasures of moves beyond the reduction and over- ing with their respective cultural cir- Computer Gaming: Essays simplification of earlier debates and cumstances. This presents a problem, on Cultural History, seeks complex answers to a wide range but one can argue that those subjects Theory and Aesthetics of questions associated with the digital employ a vocabulary available to them edited by Melanie Swalwell and Jason games phenomenon not confined to that is naturally conditioned by their Wilson. McFarland & Company, Jeffer- the games themselves. In short, the culture. son, NC, U.S.A., 2008. 197 pp., illus. authors seek “a focusing on what com- Corazza’s main contribution to the puter gaming is and what it produces, realm of art, science and technology Reviewed by John F. Barber, Digital rather than what others think it should is in her proposed rethinking of Technology and Culture, Washington or should not be or do” (emphasis in embodiment as a non-dualistic, non- State University Vancouver. E-mail: original). reductionist concept. The recon-
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 be regarded as the pinnacle of thought Brassier’s previous work as a translator). Nihil Unbound: itself, taken to its logical conclusion. Brassier is a very careful reader, focus- nlightenment E If nihilism, for both Nietzsche and ing on how each thinker addresses the and Extinction Sartre, was something to be overcome problem of nihilism through a rethink- by Ray Brassier. Palgrave, (either by a revaluation of all values or ing of the concept of negation. Nihil- New York, 2007. 275 pp. Hardcover. by a renewed theory of the subject), for ism poses a limit—a limit concerning ISBN 978-0-230-52204-6. Brassier nihilism in our contemporary the negation of meaning in and of the era is something different. What does world, the negation of a verifiable real- Reviewed by Eugene Thacker, School of nihilism mean today, in relation to ity, the negation of a verifiable subject Literature, Communication & Culture, groups like Anonymous, or Griefing, and the negation of being itself. How- Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, or to the Voluntary Human Extinction ever, this limit, beyond which there is GA 30332-0165, U.S.A. E-mail:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 diagnostician who tabulated different characterized the visual culture of the types of nihilism—passive nihilism, West from the Renaissance to our pres- active nihilism, perfect nihilism (if ent day. nothing is true, then “nothing is true” is One extraordinary contribution that also not true) and even a transcenden- I am still pondering is “The Theory tal nihilism (the repetition of perfect and Practice of Perspective in Vitruvius’ nihilism that produces a coincidence of De architectura,” by Pierre Gros, which contraries). Brassier reads Nietzsche’s opens the collection. This fascinat- dilemma of nihilism—and its itera- ing look at Vitruvius, a Roman writer, tions in Freud’s “death drive,” Levinas’s architect and engineer who lived in “impossibility of possibility” and the 1st century BC, emphasizes that in Lyotard’s “solar catastrophe”—not as an reading him today we must assess his injunction to form a new moral or ethi- actual practice without key visual mate- cal philosophy but as ideas that present rials, because none of the drawings in themselves as a kind of divestiture of the treatise have survived. (No doubt the human, the human as grounded in there were few illustrations to begin the interiority of thought, in the faith with, since there are few references to of the correlation between thought and them in the work.) Despite our lack of world, in the reliance on the meaning sketches by Vitruvius’s hand, Gros care- of the world as at once at-hand and on- fully argues that researchers today have hand for us as human beings. given the vanishing point too much Nihil Unbound is a book of philoso- importance when evaluating Vitruvius’ phy. It requires more than one reading. contributions. The interpretation of Vit- It is helpful if one has read Heidegger the 14 chapter essays, which are pre- ruvius’s idea of Taxis (or organization), or Badiou. But stating it like this can be sented in chronological order, examine which essentially deals with the ground- off-putting. Nihil Unbound is also a book various aspects of image-making tech- plan, elevation and perspective, is at that poses the question of what thought nologies, geometrical knowledge and issue. Vitruvius says that the groundplan is, for us, today—thought in the era of tools for architectural design, focusing is made by the proper successive use disaster movies and discourses on cli- in particular on two historical periods of compasses and a ruler, by which we mate change. If it requires more than (the Renaissance and the contempo- get outlines for the plane surfaces of one reading, it is because it is like any rary rise of digital technologies), both buildings. The elevation is a picture of good book. And if it makes reference of which are marked by comparable the front of a building, set upright and to Badiou or Heidegger, this is less to patterns of technological and cultural properly drawn in the proportions of canonize them and more to suggest the change. The range is impressive. Jeanne the contemplated work. The perspec- relevance of the contingencies of their Peiffer offers a compelling discussion tive is a depiction of the front with the own ideas. Perhaps, then, we can say on how 16th-century craftsmen in sides receding into the distance, the that for Brassier, nihilism is something Nuremberg, notably Hirshvogel and lines converging at the circular center. like the arch-villainy of thought: “Nihil- Lencker, claimed to draw inspiration Although some say that Vitruvius’s ism is not an existential quandary but a from Dürer and yet developed a radi- analysis expresses the concept of the speculative opportunity” (p. xi). cally different relationship to geom- unified vanishing point, and perhaps etry. Thierry Mandoul looks at how far more accurately than any writer of August Choisy’s axonometric drawings Perspective, Projections the Quattrocento, Gros holds that this generated images of global synthesis architect used the vanishing point to and esign echnologies D : T by combining the plan, elevation and draw a three-dimensional image of a of Architectural section of a building into a single view. building but not to unify the diversity of Representation Phillippe Potié’s article on Sebastiano depicted objects within a geometricized edited by Mario Carpo and Frédérique Serlio, which equates the shapes of the space, and that the common interpreta- Lemerle. Routledge, New York, NY, baroque with the generative power of tion reveals the anachronistic nature of U.S.A., 2007. 224 pp. Hardcover; paper- computer software, proposing that the any attempt to endow ancient theory or back. ISBN-10: 0-415-40204-2; ISBN-10: work of the 17th century will help us practice with a perspective system her- 0-415-40206-9. grasp the transformations now occur- alding the one employed by architects ring in contemporary architecture, is and humanists of the 15th century. An Reviewed by Amy Ione, director, The Diatrope complemented by an article on Serlio author can only cover a limited amount Institute, Berkeley, CA 94704, U.S.A. by Sabine Frommel and Pietro Roc- in an article and, in this chapter, I E-mail:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 must confess, I frequently found myself tions made by hand as compared to the Arnolfini Wedding (1434) and Robert wishing the footnotes offered a counter- crystallization brought about with the Campin’s St. John the Baptist and Heinrich point that elaborated a bit, rather than development of print technologies. A van Werl (1438), the authors examine only a citation. reconstruction of the map and drawing how computer vision allows us to set As with Vitruvius, we must decipher device described in Alberti’s Descriptio up models that assist in understanding Alberti’s ideas on perspective with- urbis Romae is among the examples processes of seeing in general and in out the benefit of illustrations. Mario introduced to show how Alberti con- art, and to potentially extract informa- Carpo’s chapter, “Alberti’s Media Lab,” ceived what we would call today a com- tion that lies beyond the power of the sheds light on this situation in a novel patible platform of digital technologies, human eye and perception. Camerota’s way. Having previously criticized the where images and 3D objects could be essay points out that the dissemination lack of illustration in Alberti’s writings, recorded, transmitted, manipulated of Galileo’s telescope should probably believing the verbal emphasis stifled and reproduced via their translation be credited with having favored the his ability to communicate with the into sequences of digits or numbers. acceptance of the concept of the reader, I found Carpo’s perceptive essay Carpo further states that the only sig- eye at infinity, a concept that, even illuminating and saw it as a cogent call nificant difference between Alberti’s for scientists, was still foreign to the to rethink my own views, particularly digital processes and our own is that the physical reality of perception of that his comment that Alberti was painfully huge amount of numerical data gener- time. aware of the mistakes copyists intro- ated by digitization is now automatically Specialists will no doubt be drawn duced into texts during reproduction processed by electric machines, whereas to this book’s depth, originality and and thus copied his own texts; he also Alberti’s hand-operated machines topical breadth. Generalists will find refrained from using visual illustra- would have been somewhat slower. the articles accessible and stimulating tions in his books so that the images he What is perhaps most impressive in a way that encourages further study, offered would not be compromised by is how Carpo’s argument contrasts particularly in regard to the tension the risks inherent in manuscript trans- with the commonly assumed view that between actual building and the needs mission at that time. The fascinating Alberti omitted illustrations because he of architectural design, a tension that hypothesis Carpo proposes is that, given was intent on celebrating the rhetori- seems to echo across the eras. As a gen- the problems of accurate reproduc- cal primacy of ekphrasis. The chapter eralist, I learned quite a bit about late- tion, Alberti replaced his drawings with also compels the reader to think about medieval Gothic builders in Northern a “grid” method and an early “digital Alberti’s place in time; he missed the and Central Europe, who frequently system” by translating the images into print revolution by only a few years, used orthogonal drawings in plan, numbers and digits that the reader although he missed it completely in elevation and section, and realized how could follow to render the image terms of his publications. (Actually, much debate accompanied the conflict he described. Capro also notes that although he lived for 20 years after between true measurements (obtained Alberti’s architectural rules were verbal printing was introduced into Italy, none through parallel projections) and per- and his architectural drawings were of his work was mechanically repro- spectival illusions (created by central one-offs, meant for point-to-point trans- duced and there is only one mention of projections). I am still digesting the mission and direct or personal use by the invention of printing in his entire many views on how the historical trajec- their maker or their intended recipient. corpus. We can only wonder how the tory combines with contemporary ideas According to Carpo, Alberti did not use of mechanical reproduction would about art, technology, architecture, want to disseminate his drawings pub- have impacted his presentation.) This illusion, experiment and rhetoric. That licly, although several sources, includ- chapter raised many questions as I said, the high quality of the writing ing Alberti himself, attest that many pondered it. One that I wished Carpo recommends the volume, as does the architectural drawings by Alberti’s hand had commented on, even if only in a sweep of its research. existed. (Unfortunately, all that has sentence or two, is how the work of the reached us is a single sketch of an archi- Italian painter Piero Della Francesca tectural detail in a letter from Alberti to (ca. 1420--1492), who was known as California Video: a master builder and the diagram of the a mathematician and geometer as Artists and Histories plan of a bath, only recently discovered well as an artist, fits within this digital edited by Glenn Phillips. Getty and attributed to Alberti.) hypothesis. Publications, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A., Overall, Carpo’s original and Two other original and far-reaching 2008. 312 pp., illus. Hardcover. thought-provoking argument makes essays worth singling out are “Com- ISBN-13: 978-0-892-36922-5. the claim that, as we are moving out of puter Vision and Painters: Visions in the world of mechanically reproduced Italian and Netherlandish Art of the Reviewed by Amy Ione, director, The Diatrope identical copies and into a new world Fifteenth Century,” by Martin Kemp Institute, Berkeley, CA 94704, U.S.A. of digitally produced variations, our and Antonio Criminisi, and “The Eye of E-mail:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 and creatively. Not only does this book ects conceived within this early frame- video and how the field has evolved present many prominent figures in work are evocative and quite creative, as and morphed with the growth of digital their early days, it also brings some are contemporary state-of-the-art works. technologies. artists who are not as well known Also addressed is how video joined with Probably everyone who watches the (many of whom deserve more recogni- conceptual art, performance art and clips will choose their own favorites. tion) to our attention. Serving as the time-based artistic productions as the I was quite taken with Joanne Kyger’s catalogue for a 2008 exhibition at the artists turned the technology into an 1968 Descartes. Kyger, a poet, collabo- Getty Center that presented 40 years of abstract electronic canvas, added poetry rated with the filmmaker Loren Sears groundbreaking work, California Video: or combined it with sculpture, perfor- on this work, which combines abstract, Artists and Histories is an impressive mance and politics. By the 1980s, video aesthetic and philosophical ideas. Des- contribution, documenting the 1960s was already an accepted form of gallery cartes was conceived while the artist was artists who participated in the isolated display, aided by the many innovations in residence at NCET in San Francisco. burst of experimentation in the San that had turned potentials into tools. Kyger, who felt that the medium of Francisco Bay Area, the explosion that Readers will appreciate the discussions television was an ideal form for resolv- followed throughout the state in the relating how the young art form ben- ing the problem of Descartes’s dualism, 1970s, and later work. Among the art- efited from color advancements, better makes particularly good use of video ists featured in the book are Eleanor editing equipment, basic special effects feedback in this visual illustration of her Antin, John Baldessari, Brian Bress, and much more sophisticated sound; prose poem Descartes and the Splendor Nancy Buchanan, Chris Burden, Jim all in all we are left with the impres- Of, a recasting of Descartes’s Discourse Campbell, Meg Cranston, Harry Dodge sion that it is probably most accurate on Method in personal terms. A small and Stanya Kahn, Allan Kaprow, Mike to say that these developments did not image of a woman’s face is situated in Kelley, Suzanne Lacy, Paul McCarthy, enhance creativity but rather opened the middle throughout the video and, Bruce Nauman, Tony Oursler, Martha up potentials. Later, the remarkable although it seems stationary, it also Rosler, Jennifer Steinkamp, T.R. Uthco new possibilities offered by digital video seems to go through metamorphoses and Ant Farm, Diana Thater, Bill Viola further expanded creative work, as did achieved through the use of distortion, and William Wegman. Seven commis- video projection, which has allowed art- feedback, tape loops and tape delay. sioned essays further enhance the inter- ists to create new forms of video instal- Although the video did not significantly views and still shots that comprise the lation, a type of video art that occupies add to my understanding of Descartes’s bulk of the volume. These include two space in a sculptural and architectural work, this piece is so artistically evoca- essays on the Long Beach Museum of way. tive that it stands on its own terms. (The Art (LBMA); Meg Cranston’s consider- Another valuable contribution of video is on-line. The poem and some ation of feminist video in the Women’s this book is its documentation of the still shots are included in the book.) Building collection; Robert R. Riley on importance of small institutions, par- I was also quite taken with Stephen concept, art and media in California ticularly the Long Beach Museum of Beck’s work, which sculpts light to video; Steve Seid on the early works of Art in Southern California, which is a create imagery. While at NCET, which Tony Labat; Bruce Yonemoto on L.A. featured venue in the volume because he described as a video “Bauhaus,” video; and Rita Gonzalez’s thoughts on much of the Getty Research Institute’s he developed the Beck Direct Video teaching video art, which she claims extraordinary collection of video art Synthesizer (in 1969) as a constructiv- is now actually teaching the history of was acquired from the Long Beach ist approach to generating real-time, video art, since we live in a “YouTubian” Museum of Art Video Archive in 2006. kinetic color video that is made using environment. This acquisition made the Getty’s video the basic visual elements of form, One aspect of the book that sets it collection one of the largest institu- shape, color, texture and motion. apart is its first-hand perspective on tional collections in the world. Other Two of his videos are available on-line: video’s history in relation to contempo- noted venues, such as CalArts, also in Ex (1972) and Video Weavings (1976). rary culture. Several of the essays and Southern California, and Northern Unlike many of the works in the book interviews draw connections between California centers such as the de Sais- that seem to highlight conceptual/ the experimental video of the late 20th set Gallery, Santa Clara University and intellectual ideas, Beck’s videos are century and those of our networked the National Center for Experiments more abstract and perceptually titillat- culture. With the pace of technological in Television (NCET) in San Francisco, ing. In Video Weavings, for example, change today, it is fascinating to think are well woven into the text. he creates patterns that resonate with that the early innovators of the late Although the book is a first step in the whole history and lineage of textile 1960s and 1970s, when video was a new documenting video projects, and its and fabric to come up with a meta- technology, have seen the medium depth and scope are most impressive, phor for how video works. Ex, which is evolve and are now a part of a totally it is the supplementary documentation silent, presents a visual music that plays new scene. Equally fascinating are the on-line, including clips from the inter- through the abstract configurations commonalities between the new and views and some of the work itself, that we see. the old. For example, in the 1970s, the makes the project come to life. (This All in all, it is hard to say what the weight and limitations of the Portapak archive is available at
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 the projects available to more of us. of the brain and thence to the olfactory age of perfume bottles, labels and even One thing that I felt was missing in the cortex. The brain interprets these sig- bottle makers (Chapter 8) is extensive catalogue was a comparative essay that nals via a code and pattern recognition enough to attract the aficionado. The would look at California video in rela- process. In 2004, Richard Axel and most charming aspect of the book is tion to, say, that of New York or perhaps Linda Buck shared a Nobel Prize for Chapter 6, “The Great Classics.” Herein Japan or Europe. Here and there, the contributions within these fields. we find an archive that makes connec- catalogue mentioned that California How humans, with about 400 specific tions among brand names, inventions, video was quite different in orientation odorant receptors, are able to distin- world events and famous people. The from video work from other places, guish thousands of different scents is consistently high quality of illustrations without offering an in-depth commen- still not completely explained. (Inci- is notable, and the overall visual presen- tary. This leaves me with some questions dentally, a mouse has three times as tation is attractive. This volume is acces- about cross-fertilization and geographic many different odorant receptors as sible to random and short-term perusal distinctions, because so many of the a man.) The 3D molecular structures and will more likely find its way to the artists worked in more than one locale. of odoriferous compounds and their coffee table than the library. Nam June Paik, for example, was quite complementary relationships with the Roja (born Roger) Dove was once a involved in California video. Yet it is receptors that they “tickle” are obvi- medical research student at Cambridge often said that video art began when he ously involved. However, the inability University, where he developed an used his new Sony Portapak to shoot to predict the properties of a particular interest in olfactory science. He had an footage of Pope Paul VI’s procession compound from its chemical structure apprenticeship at Belle Époque Guer- through New York City in the autumn remains a consuming problem for lain boutique, Paris, before developing of 1965. Other artists visited one coast scientists. Accordingly, the fragrance his Haute Parfumerie on the fifth floor while working mainly on the other. For industry is a precise but largely empiri- at Harrods Department Store, London. example, Stephen Beck mentions that cal endeavor. He calls himself “Professeur de Par- a stream of visiting artists came through Roja Dove has been steeped in the fums” and speaks of 30 years of research NCET over the years (e.g. Bill Etra), so business and culture of perfume for related to the current volume. The there was some real appreciation of the many decades, and his book is an book has a bibliography of some 130 value in having exchange with people anthology of memoir, history, illustra- items and a small index of about 185 working in other localities. I also found tion and opinion. However, it makes entries. The cover price of $70 is a bit that the book reminded me that life only preliminary attempts to address steep, although one notes that the Ama- itself is time-based. As I explored this the science. Thus Chapter 1, “The zon.com discounted price is already field’s history, it was stimulating to Sense of Smell,” starts with a full-page $47.60. Unfortunately, both pure and think about video in light of this docu- photograph labeled “Woman smell- applied science were given the back mentation, which shows video has been ing an orchard,” entails just two and a seat, thus limiting the potential audi- around long enough to have a “histori- half pages (with more white space than ence among readers of Leonardo. cal” feel to parts of it, particularly when text), launches into sociology and alerts juxtaposed with the experimental post- us to Dove’s penchant for jargon, for ings found on-line today. As a record example, “bespoke” instead of “custom- uffalo eads edia of video’s history and a reminder that made,” as in “bespoke fragrances.” Suc- B H : M its history is still evolving, this book ceeding chapters with engaging titles Study, Media Practice, belongs in the collection of anyone such as “The Birth of Modern Perfum- Media Pioneers, 1973–1990 interested in media art, particularly in ery,” “Methods of Extraction” and “Raw edited by Woody Vasulka and Peter light of the many “historical” figures Materials,” provide useful introductions Weibel. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, still crafting cutting-edge work today. but lack depth of content. The cover- U.S.A., 2008. 800 pp., illus. Paper. ISBN: 0-262-72050-7.
The Essence of Perfume Reviewed by Brigitta Zics. E-mail: by Roja Dove. Black Dog, London,
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 only dedicates itself to displaying their binary code of energy events in time, extensive practices in motion picture as they may be derived from light, the and related art projects, which alone molecular communication of sounds, could justify the size of the book, but from force field, gravity, or other physi- also provides a very detailed documen- cal initiation” (Vasulka, p. 420). These tation of their everyday life at Buffalo resulted in some beautiful studies, such and conveys its special atmosphere. as Image to Sound/Sound to Image—Evo- This documentation allows us to recog- lution (1971), Grazing (1976) and The nize the supremacy of collaborative col- Arithmetic Logic Unit (1978), which as an lective processes in works dealing with aesthetic statement followed Vasulka’s art and technology. Often, as at Buffalo, later works (also illustrated in the the importance of collaborative, collec- book) Landscapes in Fractal (1991) or tive processes is revealed in the produc- Displacements of Daniel Nagrin’s Portrait tion of the very first aesthetic models (1995). Steina Vasulka’s visual arts for one medium or another. clearly show familiarity with Woody’s Unique and historically important exploration of binary images, particu- contributions can be found in this larly in her recent piece Trevor (2000), collection of essays. Some are pub- which displays a sonically distorted face, lished here for the very first time. or the much earlier work Lilith (1987). The backbone of these contributions Even earlier, her remarkable piece the same significance as the Bauhaus or is O’Grady’s detailed overview of the Allvision (1976) inquired about human Vkhutemas. methodologies and creative strate- cognition and confronted its qualities With Buffalo Heads (running at some gies at Buffalo and, most importantly, with a camera lens that perceived space 900 illustrations and 800 pages), Peter the artistic brief that underpinned all optically, mechanically and through the Weibel and Woody Vasulka have again practices in the community: the shift human faculties. delivered something of great impact: from object production to “the mind Peter Weibel’s account is similarly a book of size and ambition that can creating” or, as the exhibition put it, rich, with a broad spectrum of media stand for itself independently as a “the framing mind.” Tony Conrad, film- artworks that include well-known socio- holistic volume. This book, which was maker and musician, is the last “Head” politically charged actions and investi- published after the large-scale and still active at the university, and his gations of the collective consciousness, remarkable retrospective exhibition famous piece The Flicker (1966) well dis- such as Valie Export’s Tap and Touch MindFrames: Media Study at Buffalo, at plays Buffalo’s ambition to explore the Cinema (1966) or From the Portfolio of ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karls- boundaries of human perception and Dogness (1968) or the “extended film” ruhe(16 December 2006--25 March probe the mind. In a similar manner applications such as the auto-generative 2007), is intended to fill a historical Paul Sharits’s work, which like Conrad’s sound screen The Magic Eye (1969) or gap. It embraces the continuum of explored the aesthetics of the “flicker” other technology-mediated works that media art practice that has greatly genre, is focused on the spectator’s explored a meta-concept of cognition impacted individual works, provided subjective perception. Sharits proposed within the notion of the self-awareness institutional models of media art world- exploration of “cinema as cognition,” of the observer through visual feedback wide and stimulated the rediscovery of in which process art becomes a tool loops (as for example in The Endless practices lost in the uneven diffusion for philosophical propositions, as for Sandwich [1969], Observing Observation: of ideas in the pre-Internet age. Buffalo example in his multi-projection instal- Uncertainty [1973] or Infinite Intuition Heads is clearly intended as a source- lations 3rd Degree (1973--1990) or Dream [1982]). Anticipating the later great dis- book and archive for future media Displacement (1975--1976). Similarly, course of human-machine interaction artists and researchers and, of course, remarkable projects such as James in media art, Weibel’s activity exempli- as a record of the exhibition itself. As Blue’s Invisible City, with its politically fies the strong intertwining of theory Minkowsky has explained (p. 19), it charged dialogue, anticipates the and practice evident at Buffalo and is an emerging curatorial model of medium of interactive television and foreshadows cross-media applications in understanding the moving image as an film as an “extended mind” of the artist, the experimental and critical practice architectural quality of information in giving the final decision as to its conclu- of technology and society, with a great the age of new technologies. sion to the spectator. Hollis Frampton, sensitivity for sciences and aesthetics. Buffalo Heads features structuralist the founder of Digital Arts Laboratory What this book tells contemporary avant-garde filmmakers such as Tony (DAL), has equally contributed to practitioners and theorists is that Conrad, Hollis Frampton and Paul expanded cinema application since his the aesthetic capacities of emerging Sharits; literature and media theorist experimental cinema pieces initially technology today have already been Gerald O’Grady; documentary film- developed the IMAGO software that investigated by previous avant-garde maker James Blue; video artists Steina allowed the manipulation of film and filmmakers, especially regarding the and Woody Vasulka; and media artist video animations. way that the “mind” might frame artis- Peter Weibel, who is currently chairman Other pioneering practices also dealt tic experiences through technology. and CEO of the ZKM. All are pioneers with digital manipulation of the image. Understanding these discourses, we of the media art of this particular age, These followed a visual tradition of arrive at the familiar dialogue of cogni- when the aesthetic boom of experimen- aesthetics and explored how this might tion and creativity that now determines tal film and especially video production impact human perception. Woody our understanding of contemporary provided stimulating outcomes for Vasulka’s experiments with electronic expanded cinema applications and/or emerging art practice. The book not images are transformations “into a interactive media art. As such, Buffalo
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 Heads provides a multidimensional improving understanding between dif- of some of the singers as well as clips of model; it is an educational model for ferent cultures. In hindsight, we can see World War I movies). In this way every art and a curatorial model for motion this spirit emerge through her engage- participant was able to follow the action images and its art forms as well as an ment with the organization of the at all times. aesthetic model of “mind creating.” festival Making Music Together, which To get a sense for the staging of an After this remarkable volume, we might was a cooperative project between the opera, Caldwell studied sketches of a hope for a similar book on the emerg- U.S. and the Soviet Union, divided in wide range of historical artifacts: from ing Heads of new media, which, instead two parts: performances by musicians, eating utensils and furnishings to the of an historicization of events, could dancers and composers from the Soviet whole way of life—such as clothes and provide an up-to-date “map” of inspir- Union in Boston, and performances by other relevant details of the periods. ing works that are more likely not only Americans in the Soviet Union. Again and again Caldwell went on to impact current practices but also to Matlock’s approach makes it clear research tours and visited the original disappear without institutionalization. that Sarah Caldwell did not intend to sites to obtain a sense for the histori- Buffalo Heads obliges us once again to write a typical autobiography; rather cal setting, which consequently would ask, What is the natural selective pro- she wanted to give a lively account of a inspire the staging of the opera. She cess for important art that has been life concerned with music and opera. tells us about her ambitious projects lost? Through her conversations with Mat- and realization of ideas and of her lock, Caldwell tells us of her memories, extraordinary experiences on these with an emphasis on unique moments tours. One example relates the record- in her experiences. Through her stories ing of the church bells of Castel Challenges: A Memoir the reader can recognize her attitude Sant’Angelo in Rome on an adventur- of My Life in Opera and her way of working, including her ous night climb. by Sarah Caldwell, with Rebecca Mat- tendency toward perfectionism, her Caldwell’s biography reveals how she lock. Wesleyan University Press, Middle- attention to detail and the techniques always studied the scores she was going town, CT, U.S.A., 2008. 256 pp., illus. she used to bring out her extraordinary to conduct particularly carefully and Hardcover. ISBN: 978-0-8195-6885-4. productions. Instead of a chronologi- tried in her interpretation to stay as cal structure, Caldwell subdivided the close as possible to the original inten- Reviewed by Katharina Blassnigg, Univer- timelines into a geographical place for tions of the composer (at the time it sity of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. each chapter (in Boston; beyond Bos- was instead common practice to change E-mail:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 direct the audience’s attention at any tendencies in audience research in film that the traditional union of cinema moment. She used natural elements, studies. After the structuralist period, in and modernity can no longer be main- such as loud noises, to direct observa- which film had been studied as “text” tained, not only because moviegoing tion to a certain place, or she had a and the spectator had been considered was not a predominantly urban practice performer look in a certain direction so a universal and disembodied figure (even from the beginning, people living that the audience might follow. Other (this was how the famous “apparatus in the country and in small towns had tactics included using changes of light, theory” built up an ahistorical and access to the new medium of film), sound effects, etc., to produce con- broadly generalizing reflection on the but also and most significantly because trolled reactions in the audiences. experience of moviegoing), film stud- cinema was not necessarily experienced In Caldwell’s view, what was seen on ies have been rediscovering the “real” as something that shattered tradition the stage needed to relate to what was spectator for more than two decades and fostered modernization and urban- expressed by the music. She believed now, and this shift has been as impor- ization of small-town life. Obviously, that the movement of the idea should tant as the rediscovery of the so-called modernization was an aspect of film emerge a fraction of a second before “early cinema” (also called the cinema exhibition and moviegoing, but all the the music, rather than allowing the of attractions). studies in Hollywood in the Neighborhood music to indicate changes. Further- Yet the historical approach to histori- prove that the relationship between the more, as stage director she always tried cal practices in movie exhibition and new medium and older forms of enter- to figure out a dramatic reason for each film viewing combines in a certain sense tainment were much more complex change in the music. In this respect she these two major methodological and than film theory and even film history emphasized that the balance of sound theoretical changes. It does much more have always led us to believe. usually differs all over the opera house than just linking the poetics of the early The cultural studies approach to and she saw it as one of the conductor’s cinema and the sociological approach moviegoing in this period has demon- jobs to achieve the greatest potential of of the audience. The focus put on strated since the 1990s that the notion dynamic values in terms of variations the way cinema has found its place in of a unified urban audience is a myth: from the softest to the loudest inten- “local” communities, that is, smaller gender, ethnic, racial and other differ- sity. For choral scenes, for example, non-urban communities, in the first ences played a crucial role in the recep- Caldwell tried different positions for decades of the cinema, challenges in a tion of cinema. What this collection different parts of the chorus (tenors very radical way all we thought we knew lays bare is that it is now high time to here, basses there) to achieve the best about moviegoing in that period. As a take into account the most forgotten sound for the particular music and the corollary, and most importantly, it also of all audiences: the public that was specific sets, which she then integrated shatters one of our deepest convictions drawn to the movies in traveling cinema in the mise-en-scene. on the cultural meaning of cinema, exhibitions, in small-town theaters, in Sarah Caldwell’s memoirs provide namely the fact that cinema is mainly church halls and so on. First, Hollywood the reader with invaluable insights into an expression of modernity; both as a in the Neighborhood shows that even in 20th-century music practice. The book consequence and as a trigger of mod- quantitative terms this public was not is written in the way Caldwell spoke, ernization. to be neglected. Second, it makes obvi- in accessible prose, and contains the There are of course many reasons ous that this small town public was no sort of anecdotes that define a good why one should stick to this “modernity less fond of the cinema than was the storyteller’s manner. In this way, the theory”: first, the practices of filmmak- urban one (an important insight, for book will appeal to both friends of ing itself, with Hollywood catering in many scholars tend to overstress the symphonic music and opera and to the first place to the urban audience resistance to cinema in non-urban those who are interested in the history that generated the most immediate communities, for instance for religious of music. profits (the first-run theaters were all reasons); third, it also and most con- located in the bigger cities, and it was vincingly argues that the big difference the box office of these theaters that between urban and non-urban film Hollywood in the made the success of a movie); second, culture was the community aspect: local eighborhood istorical N : H the influence of a number of film theo- exhibitors as well as local moviegoers Case Studies of Local reticians like Walter Benjamin, who considered the cinema as an element Moviegoing emphasized the role of cinema in mod- of community building, the first trying edited by Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley. ernization of urbanized modernity; and to offer a certain number of services University of California Press, Berkeley, third, but equally important, the rather held in great esteem by the local public, CA, U.S.A., 2008. 276 pp. Hardcover, deceptive way in which the U.S. census the latter assessing the films shown in paperback. ISBN: 978-0-520-23067-5; of the first decades of the 20th century the theaters or elsewhere in correspon- ISBN: 978-0-520-24973-8. made a distinction between rural and dence with their own values. urban communities (as soon as a com- If diversity is now a keyword of cul- Reviewed by Jan Baetens. University munity gathered more than 2,500 peo- tural studies—and the study of culture of Leuven. E-mail:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 continued in some areas till the 1940s lated the idea of conscious dreaming. resistance to reason itself. This may be or 1950s), Hollywood in the Neighborhood He studied Charcot’s use of hypnosis illustrated in Claude Lanzmann’s film makes a strong plea for another and in Paris, experimented with cocaine Shoah, where the supposedly dispassion- no-longer-dismissed form of diversity: and proposed it as a cure for diabetes, ate witnessing of historical testimony that of the filmgoers of the theaters on and conducted a busy self-analysis, all reveals the unconscious contradictions Main Street. of which led to the individuality of his of the interview form, where vision is own practice. Theweleit reminds us often redundant in the enveloping that in fall 1899 only 600 copies of The bath of words. Film theory after the he reams of T D Interpretation of Dreams were sold. The 1970s posited reality as something in Interpretation: A Century essayist cites contemporary psycho- opposition to the image and its central Down the Royal Road logical violent processes used to give place in the spectacle, voyeurism and edited by Catherine Liu, John Mowitt, dreams a “kick in guts.” Preceding it all, fetishism. To these theorists, a cin- Thomas Pepper and Jakki Spicer. Uni- however, he compares Freud’s encour- ematic representation could only be a versity of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, aging mother, primal site of any man’s misrepresentation of the world. Among MN, 2007. 344 pp. Paperback. ISBN: self-confidence, to the mothers of Elvis the pathologies hidden among words 978-0-8166-4800-9. Presley, Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol. is psychic racism—people seen and not In a memorable simile, Theweleit com- seen. Kahana cites the Algerian psy- Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher, pares the theatrical structure of psycho- chiatrist Franz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Saginaw Valley State University. E-mail: analysis to Jimi Hendrix’s song “Are You Masks (and Max Julien’s film interpre-
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 Animal Spirits: A Bestiary of the Commons Movement as Meaning in Experimental Film Baghdad Twist by Joe Balass, Director. by Matteo Pasquinell. Reviewed by Jussi by Daniel Barnett. Reviewed by Mike Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg. Parikka. Leggett. Bound by Law? Tales from the Public The Axe in the Attic by Ed Pincus and On Landscapes by Susan Herrington. Domain by Keith Aoki, James Boyle and Lucia Small. Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara. Reviewed by Mike Leggett. Jennifer Jenkins. Reviewed by John F. Barber. Between Madness and Art: The Prinzhorn Systematics as Cyberscience: Computers, Change, and Continuity in Science by Collection by Christian Beetz. Reviewed Coming to You Wherever You Are: Much- Christine Hine. Reviewed by Amy Ione. by Boris Jardine. Music, MTV and Youth Identities by Kip Pegley. Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg. Corpus Extremus (Life+), at Exit Art, Weather by the Numbers: The Genesis New York, NY, 28 February--18 April of Modern Meteorology by Kristine C. Dr. Strangelove Dr. Strangelove by Kristan 2009. Reviewed by Boryana Rossa. Harper. Reviewed by Jennifer Ferng. Horton. Reviewed by Martha Patricia Niño. Digital Baroque: New Media Art and March 2009 Cinematic Folds by Timothy Murray. The California Deserts: An Ecological Redis- Egypt: We Are Watching You by Leila Reviewed by Jan Baetens. covery by Bruce M. Pavlik. Reviewed by Menjo and Sherief Elkatsha, Directors. Aparna Sharma. Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher. New Media in the White Cube and Beyond by Christiane Paul. Reviewed by Helen Chaosophy, New Edition: Texts and Inter- Levin. The Essential Frank Lloyd Wright: Critical views 1972--1977, by Félix Guattari, Writings on Architecture by Frank Lloyd edited by Sylvere Lotringer. Reviewed by Wright, edited by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer. Recipes for Disaster by John Webster. Robert Jackson. Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara. Reviewed by Martha Patricia Niño. Conversations with the Mob by Megan Roy Ascott: The Syncretic Sense, Lewis. Reviewed by Martha Blassnigg. Global Soundtracks: Worlds of Film Music, Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth, U.K., edited by Mark Slobin. Reviewed by Jan 4 April--24 May 2009. Reviewed by Jan Fight Pictures: A History of Boxing and Baetens. Baetens. Early Cinema by Dan Streible. Reviewed by Jan Baetens. Graffiti Japan by Remo Camerota. TV by Design: Modern Art and the Rise Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher. of Network Television by Lynn Spigel. The Mechanical Voices by Brian Malone. Reviewed by Jan Baetens. Reviewed by Kathryn Adams. Hidden Gifts: The Mystery of Angus MacPhee by Nick Higgins. Reviewed by Umbrella by Du Haibin. Reviewed by The Nuclear Comeback by Justin Pember- Rob Harle. Enzo Ferrara. ton. Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara. In Search of Gandhi (Why Democracy? Platform for Art: Art on the Underground by Series) by Alex Gibney, Director. Alex Coles. Reviewed by Helen Levin. April 2009 Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg. Power Struggles: Scientific Authority and the The Allure of Machinic Life: Cybernetics, Creation of Practical Electricity before Edison Iron Ladies of Liberia by Siatta Scott Artificial Life, and the New AI by John by Michael Brian Schiffer. Reviewed by Johnson and Daniel Junge, Directors. Johnston. Reviewed by Jussi Parikka. Michael R. (Mike) Mosher. Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher. Brief Retrospective of Selma the The Primal Force in Symbol: Understand- Jesus Politics: The Bible and the Ballot by Sculptor: Hokusai’s Great Wave and Job. ing the Language of Higher Consciousness Ilan Ziv, Director. Reviewed by Jonathan Reviewed by Richard Kade. by Rene Alleau. Reviewed by Allan Zilberg. Graubard. The Fun Factory: The Keystone Film Com- pany and the Emergence of Mass Culture by Killer’s Paradise by Giselle Portenier, SymbioticA Biological Art Workshop, Director. Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg. Rob King. Reviewed by Jan Baetens. Bangalore. National Centre for Bio- logical Sciences, Bangalore, India. Memory against Culture: Arguments and I AM A MONUMENT: On Learning from Reviewed by Papiya Bhattacharya. Las Vegas by Aron Vinegar. Reviewed by Reminders by Johannes Fabian. Reviewed Chris Speed. True to Life: Twenty-Five Years of Conversa- by Martha Blassnigg. tions with David Hockney by Lawrence (In)Visible: Learning to Act in the Metaverse Weschler. Reviewed by Wilfred Niels Museums of the Mind: German Modernity by Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss. Reviewed by Arnold. and the Dynamics of Collecting by Peter M. Rob Harle. McIsaac. Reviewed by Martha Patricia Niño. Near-Death Experiences: Exploring the February 2009 Mind-Body Connection by Ornella All White in Barking by Marc Isaacs, Mustapha Kemal Atatürk: The Birth of a Corazza. Reviewed by Luis Miguel Director. Reviewed by Michael R. Republic by Séverine Labat, Director. Girão. (Mike) Mosher. Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher.
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.461 by guest on 24 September 2021 The Order of Myths by Margaret Brown, Strawberry Fields by Ayelet Heller, Direc- Technology and Society: Building Our Director. Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg. tor. Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg. Sociotechnical Future, edited by Deborah G. Johnson and Jameson M. Wetmore. Philosophy of New Music by Theodore Taxi to the Dark Side (Why Democracy? Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara. Adorno; translated, edited and with an Series) by Lalit Vachani, Director. Introduction by Robert Hullot-Kentor. Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg. Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg.
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