Leonardo Reviews
Leonardo Reviews Shannon, Jim Fisk, Melvin Kelly, Wil- Editor-in-Chief: Michael Punt liam Baker, John Pierce, William Shock- Managing Editor: Bryony Dalefield ley). Overall, The Idea Factory reads more like a narrative documenting Associate Editors: Dene Grigar, the rise and fall of Bell Labs, which I Martha Blassnigg, Hannah Drayson assume was the author’s intention, than A full selection of reviews is pub- a study of how the work at Bell Labs lished monthly on the LR web site: was a part of a larger revolution in the
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00508 by guest on 25 September 2021 For example, development of the was the early computer art exhibi- looked at the struggles of those who transistor is one achievement of Bell tion in New York City in 1965, called fought slavery and racism, labor unions, Labs that is detailed extensively. (It Computer-Generated Pictures, which and war makers, some critics pegged is clear that Gertner has read Crystal featured work by Julesz and Noll as the book as leftist, multicultural, anti- Fire: The Birth of the Information Age by mentioned above. In this case, the imperialist historiography. Although Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson name of the exposition did not include the omissions I noted in this book were [1].) Gertner explains that John Bar- the word art, because these “generated not political, they were nonetheless deen and Walter Brattain, who worked pictures” were not yet seen as such. apparent. in a Shockley-led research group, dem- Shortly before the book came out, Gertner notes that Arthur C. Clarke onstrated the “point-contact” transistor Christopher Tyler, who did his post- observed (in the late 1950s), on 23 December 1947. They built their doctorate work at Bell Labs under Julesz transistor with little help from him. and had an office next to Mathews At first sight, when one comes upon it in its surprisingly rural setting, the Bell Shockley, who throughout does not and across the corridor from Lillian Telephone Laboratories’ main New Jer- come off as a “team player,” then broke Schwartz, mentioned the excitement sey site looks like a large and up-to-date with the Labs’s collaboration policy by surrounding a visit to the Lab by Stevie factory, which in a sense it is. But it is a separately inventing a second, more Wonder to see the state-of-the art sound factory for ideas, and so its production lines are invisible (pp. 4–5). reliable, “junction” transistor in secret. studio developed by Mathews. Schwartz, This created some tensions, as Gert- who is often characterized as a creator The art, science and technology ner outlines. Finally, in 1954, Morris of 20th-century computer-developed community benefitted immensely Tanenbaum invented the third, “sili- art, wrote a book that includes a sam- from this “creative factory,” and, ironi- con” transistor (the previous designs pling of the work at Bell Labs. cally, this research arm of the AT&T were germanium) that is the basis for Another key figure of this time was monopoly funded the research that the vast majority of today’s transistors. Billy Klüver, the founder of Experi- helped develop a new set of tools for One point the book reiterates is that ments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), artists. This book does convey some Shockley left Bell Labs in 1955 and that who began his work in this area as an of the interdisciplinarity that thrived his Shockley Labs in Mountain View, electrical engineer at Bell Labs. His first at the Labs; thus, although not defini- California laid the foundation for what project, in the early 1960s, was collabo- tive, it is quite informative. Gertner’s would become Silicon Valley. In this ration with kinetic art sculptor Jean knack for telling stories makes the sense, the legacy of Bell remains evi- Tinguely on the latter’s Homage to New book easy to read. Some segments of dent in the technology environment of York (1960), a machine that destroyed the story come through well, such as today. itself and was presented in the MOMA why many people say Marvin Kelly, who On the other hand, it seems strange garden. Klüver also collaborated with was the head of Bell Labs when Brat- to me that, although Gertner inter- Jasper Johns, Yvonne Rainer, Robert tain, Bardeen and Shockley developed viewed A. Michael Noll and Max Rauschenberg, John Cage and Andy transistors, deserved to be the fourth Mathews, the book does not convey Warhol. recipient of their 1947 Nobel Prize in the convergence of art, science and One of Klüver’s best-known projects Physics (because of his way of bringing technology at the Lab. Some of what is (in 1966) was with Fred Waldhauer and talent together and encouraging missing is evident on Noll’s Bell Labs artists Robert Rauschenberg and Rob- creativity). page, where he notes: ert Whitman. They organized 9 Eve- There is some discussion of the nings: Theatre and Engineering, a series venture capital model and how it com- There were often interesting diversions of performances that united artists and from daily research. When the acoustic pares to the Bell Labs model, despite failings of Philharmonic Hall at Lin- engineers. Other key figures included the way the former requires an end coln Center were acknowledged, Bell Emmanuel Ghent (electronic music), product and the latter allows basic Telephone Laboratories was asked to Ken Knowlton (Beflix, or Bell Flicks research to thrive. In addition, figures investigate. My boss Manfred Schroder animation system, which was used to such as Claude Shannon are dealt with was a physicist with a strong knowledge produce dozens of animated films with of acoustics and headed our team. . . . deftly in various stages of their careers. There was a steady flow of interesting artists like Stan VanDerBeek), Laurie Still, as noted above, the reach of the visitors to the Labs. Roy Disney came by Spiegel (electronic music) and Jerry book is an evident limitation in the to see our early work in computer anima- Spivak (a pioneer in interactive graph- narrative. While The Idea Factory is defi- tion—but saw no relevance then to his ics) [3]. company! We invited Leopold Stokowski nitely worth reading, I would recom- to visit to hear our work in computer mu- Strangely, a book that frequently mend that readers recognize that the sic. Max Mathews had many composers came to mind as I read this one was volume omits key episodes of Bell Labs’ and musicians who visited to learn of A People’s History of the United States by legacy. his research into electronic music. Bela Howard Zinn [4], which has noth- Julesz and I exhibited our computer- ing to do with Bell Labs. Zinn’s book, generated patterns at the Howard Wise References Gallery in New York City in 1965—the published in 1980, sought to present first exhibit of digital art in the US [2]. American history through the eyes of 1. Michael Riordan, Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Infor- the common people rather than from mation Age (New York: Norton, 1997). I bought the book because I was hop- the view of political and economic 2. See
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00508 by guest on 25 September 2021 The Right to Look: three visual complexes that he distin- A Counterhistory of guishes. In all cases, the countervisual- Visuality ity addressed by Mirzoeff is linked with the Gramscian notion of the “south,” by Nicholas Mirzoeff. Duke University both as the locus and as the issue (and Press, Durham, NC, U.S.A., 2011. 408 to a certain extent also the metaphor) pp., illus. Hardcover, Paper. ISBN: 978- of counterhegemony. 0-8223-4895-5; ISBN: 978-0822349181. The results of this reorientation are extremely challenging, and it does not Reviewed by Jan Baetens, University of seem an exaggeration to claim that Leuven, Belgium. visual studies will no longer be the same after this book. It would be a mistake, Nicholas Mirzoeff’s new book is one of however, to conclude that visual studies the few to take to its most radical conse- should abandon the analysis and inter- quences the new approach of visual cul- pretation of material visual documents, ture defended by W.J.T. Mitchell and all for this is certainly not what Mirzoeff those who, to quote James Elkins, want is promoting. What changes are the to make visual studies “more difficult.” perspective and the specific material Visual culture is much more than just under scrutiny. From that point of view the study of images and their increas- as well, The Right to Look is highly inno- ing presence and influence in modern vative, as can be inferred immediately society. If it does not add new questions from the table of its figures and plates. and new perspectives to the disciplines Mirzoeff is interested in the battle that have been studying images until plan of Waterloo, PowerPoint illustra- now, visual culture is just an update tions used by the military to frame the of art history, and there will be a real “legitimacy” of their operations and the danger of missing what is really crucial (1860–1945), which is described as a schematic representation of sugarcane in today’s changes, namely the opening new system of governance of the over- production in handbooks on tropical toward the other (not as an object to be seas empire, mainly through the action agriculture (which one does not really studied, but as a subject that is looking of “great men.” (Mirzoeff focuses more expect in traditional visual culture stud- back) and to the political dimension of specifically on the role of missionar- ies) but also in Cézanne’s painting The the image (and for Mirzoeff the basic ies, but more generally he has in mind Negro Scipio, ballroom scenes by Camille political implication of visual culture is the impact of the notion of “hero” Pissarro and Degas’s Interior of a Cotton- precisely the issue of the right to look as theorized by Carlyle.) Third is the Broker’s Office in New Orleans, all works by back). Defined along these lines, visual military-industrial complex (1945– major artists that are often overlooked culture is no longer necessarily about present), which is reinterpreted in by specialists in their respective fields. images but about ways of world-making, terms of panoptic visuality (yet no Mirzoeff’s work does it all: offering new and it is this shift that occupies a key longer according to the Benthamian perspectives, blurring the boundaries position in Mirzoeff’s thinking, which version in which the guard wants to be between disciplines, disclosing what brilliantly continues and broadens the seen by all those already in prison and had been hidden and shooting trouble. author’s already major contributions to whom he does not necessarily observe the field. himself; rather he tries to see all pos- The redefinition of visuality inThe sible insurgents without being seen by Trade of the Tricks: Inside Right to Look offers a good example of them). Countervisuality, then, is not the Magician’s Craft this paradigm shift. For Mirzoeff, the just a different way of seeing or a dif- by Graham M. Jones. University of Cali- notion of visuality actually refers to a set ferent way of looking at images but the fornia Press, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A., 2011. of mechanisms that order and organize tactics to dismantle the visual strategies 308 pp. Hardcover, Paper. ISBN: 978-0- the world—and by doing so naturalize of the hegemonic system. It is, in other 5202-7046-6; ISBN: 978-0-5202-7047-3. the underlying power structures that words, “the attempt to reconfigure are replicated and implemented by visuality as a whole” (p. 24) and thus Reviewed by Brian Reffin Smith, U.K. these (violent) transformations of the “the right to look,” which goes even real (the author speaks illuminatingly further than just the right to look back, We are fooled no longer by magic, we of visuality in terms of the Derridean although looking back is the first step suppose. We know that it is applied supplement: it is what makes authority towards countervisuality. psychology. Unless we are extremely visible; visuality is the expression of the If, as Mirzoeff convincingly argues, innocent, we look left when the magi- self-authorizing tendencies of hege- the right to look is, finally, the right to cian would have us look right. We keep monic thinking). More specifically, he the real (for visuality is not only a point our eye on the ball even when appar- connects visuality with three complexes of view on reality but also a reshap- ently far more interesting action is that have, historically speaking, estab- ing of it), one can understand why his happening in the hat. We know that we lished the Western domination of the approach of countervisuality, although must, as quickly as we can during this word. First, he speaks about plantation deeply rooted in visual analysis and the performance, suspend, reverse, ques- slavery (1660–1860) as a way of reorder- political rereading of visual culture, tion and deconstruct our normal ways ing the postcolonial reality through is not about images in the first place of looking at the world, at least if we management techniques of “visualized but about political struggle against are to have a hope of working out how surveillance.” Second is imperialism hegemony as instrumentalized in the he or she does it. But we almost never
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00508 by guest on 25 September 2021 heaven and earth are no longer rent jewel-like inlay found in ceremonial asunder, that which was concealed is beakers, pectorals, Ushabti figures, made visible while that which was in scepters and crowns, glass in antiquity sight disappears and the rabbit was in was associated with royalty, sacred func- the hat all along, except, no, it couldn’t tions and burials. Paraded as booty in have been. Or, to return to a recurrent triumphal processions and collected theme of these reviews, perhaps not a among the Romans, glass was more rabbit in a hat but a cat in a box, you prized than precious metals and worked know which one I mean. in techniques that ranged from gilding The Trade of the Tricks, subtitled Inside and faceting to engraving and bevel- the Magician’s Craft, involved its author ing. It was valued extraordinarily high, living with the tribe, as some anthro- in part due to its delicacy and fragility. pologists insist one should. He appren- One legend has it that when a glass- ticed himself, met many magicians, did maker offered the Emperor Nero an shows and became a member of the object of unbreakable glass, Nero, who Fédération Française des Artistes Presti- considered the loss of glass’s fragility a digitateurs—for almost the entire story threat to the value of silver and gold, is set in France, one of the main centers had the craftsman exiled and his work- of old and “new” magic, with sometimes shop destroyed. firm support from the Ministère de la William Patriquin and Julie Sloan’s Culture. book The Berkshire Glass Works presents The book is full of delights of the a history of one of the dozens of Mas- tricks, in many senses, of the magic sachusetts glasshouses that sprang up artists. They cunningly steal, dissemble, during the course of the 19th century succeed. Even if we know for sure—we hide and flaunt their mysteries (how in America: the Berkshire Glass Works suppose—that at this moment, he is unlike other artists, not to mention (BGW) factory, located in Lanesbor- really doing that in the other hand, we scientists). They endlessly discuss ough, Massachusetts, a small town just still cannot see how it is done. Thus, magic, to the point of entirely ignor- north of Pittsfield in a section of the despite our cunning, despite many ing performances to sit at the back Housatonic valley that affords a pros- magicians even playing with this, giving manipulating coins or cards. One of the pect on the Berkshire hills. During the us meta-level or false distractions and “new” magicians (although one with a 1870s, this factory became the first to signs, clues that are not clues but then long working history) Jones discusses produce colored cathedral glass and again might be, even telling us not to be is Abdul Alafrez, whom I had the privi- was also one of the earliest in America distracted . . . despite all this, we end lege of inviting a couple of times to the to blow antique glass to be used in up where and what we were before, lost art school in which I taught in France, the creation of stained-glass windows. and suckered. where he stayed for hours helping stu- Reflecting a renewed appreciation of There are several books, and numer- dents in a makeshift but astoundingly window glass that originated earlier in ous articles in the scientific and popular effective magic workshop to partially the century in France and England, press, on how cognitive psychologists, disappear. He also uses computer pro- where windows were deemed to be an not to mention the intelligence ser- grams and advanced technology of all integral part of architecture, stained vices, are learning from and collaborat- kinds and has worked with musicians, glass was appreciated for its radiance ing with magicians, who have insights theaters, opera, scientists and artists. and spiritual significance. This led to into our ways of making sense of the This book not only fascinatingly lays Gothic revivals of medieval prototypes, world that conventional investigators bare the craft, mores, sociology, anthro- pictorial subjects and painterly styles might not. This book does not address pology and tendencies of magic, it also found among Romantic artists such as that issue directly but rather returns reminds us how magic, in numerous members of the Nazarene Movement. to the craft, illuminated by a psycho- ways, can inform the whole gamut of During the Gilded Age, at the height of logical and, especially, anthropological fields in whichLeonardo readers might American industrial expansion, numer- approach. And this is excellent, because be interested. It’s also quite funny. ous studios and workshops sprang up surely we are, in “reality,” in so many throughout New England, where larger areas of our lives, research and art, establishments employed as many as bouncing back and forth between The Berkshire Glass Works 300 glass workers at a time, each spe- the how and the what, the theory and by William J. Patriquin and Julie L. cializing in a particular process. Glass the practice, always knowing we need Sloan. The History Press, Charleston production as a decorative art peaked both, always able to focus only on the and London, 2011. 128 pp. Illus. 80 in the Aesthetic Movement during the one or the other, grooving round the b/w. ISBN: 978-1-60949-282-3. 1870s and 1880s, following trends that circle or, better, spiral of deduction had originated in Europe a decade ear- and induction, the old separation. The Reviewed by Giovanna L. Costantini. lier. By the turn of the century, colored magician . . . ah! The magician knows glass came also to be used by followers this! The magician can multi-task! She Referred to as lithos chyte or “cast stone” of William Morris and the Arts and has realized the alchemists’ dream, and by the Greeks, glass was from the first Crafts Movement, first in Britain and reunited opposites in a sparkling flash made in imitation of precious stones. then in America by such figures as John of gold, or at least iron pyrites—fool’s Known to date from at least the third La Farge and Louis Comfort Tiffany. gold. The inner becomes the outer, millennium BCE, when it was produced In its broadest contours, this book the male and female are (re-)united, in Egypt and Babylon as tiny pieces of presents the history of a significant
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00508 by guest on 25 September 2021 precision and measurement. One of the Walter Hunnewell house in Wellesley, more absorbing sections examines life MA, based on Japanese manga models; in Berkshire Village among groups of stained glass panels made by the Tif- workers and their families, immigrants, fany Studios for St. Stephen’s Episcopal journeymen and farmers based on Church in Lynn, MA, and Christ Epis- information culled from census reports. copal Church in Pomfret, Connecticut; This includes the racial composition of and Frederic Crowninshield’s Pericles the glassworks community in a state that & Leonardo in the Harvard University was home to abolitionism and the social Memorial Hall. life, religious practices and education of William J. Patriquin and Julie L. workers employed in the factory. Sloan are experts in the field of stained In certain respects this is a history glass and lifelong residents of Berkshire that traces the growth and expansion County. Patriquin, a former biomedical of a company and its constituent soci- technician, navy diver and chief petty ety from elemental foundations to a officer, has worked as a professional material and social fabric in an arching stained glass restorer since 1997. Julie movement from industrial fundaments L. Sloan is a Conservator and stained to postindustrialization. If the story glass consultant with an MS in Historic ended here, the Berkshire Glass Works Preservation from Columbia Univer- would be a tale of progress and even- sity. She is the author of Conservation of tual downturn characteristic of many Stained Glass in America, among many industries. But it does not. Through other publications on stained glass and admixtures of ambition and competi- its restoration. tion, personality and public values, Part As a technical and historical American glassworks establishment inte- I chronicles a modern saga of hardship, resource, this meticulously researched, gral to the production of stained glass struggle, flux, economic shifts, periodic straightforward text serves as a hand- in 19th-century America and the formi- renewal, and vigor sustained through a book of techniques and processes dable attributes of character, ingenuity, legacy of aesthetic value. involved in the production of stained or entrepreneurship and craftsmanship Part II is devoted to reflections on colored glass, an illustrated catalogue, that contributed to its rise. Part I opens the exquisite quality and variety of a bibliographic reference and a source- with a geological survey of the unique art glass produced at the BGW, with book for windows made with Berkshire natural resources of the area—the summaries of notable artists and their Glass, the buildings that contain them, white sand beds of Northern Berkshire careers and studios and brief histories Berkshire Village demographics from County, formed along the shores of the of many of America’s most treasured 1850 to 1900 and the structures, appli- Iapetus Ocean during the Cambrian landmarks and artifacts. This section ances and operations that may be Age, whose sands were of such incom- categorizes and defines each type of indicative of other glasswork factories of parable purity that “manufactories” as antique blown and cathedral (rolled) this period. Closely focused on a single far as Liverpool and Le Havre consid- glass made by the company, with glassworks factory, it would benefit from ered its “dazzling whiteness” the finest illustrations and explanations of each further contextual background on the ever used in the production of glass. specimen that permit matching and revival of colored glass and its com- The first half of the book describes identification by collectors and con- merce in America and Europe during the stages and operations of antique servators. Assortments include blown, the course of the 19th century, which glass production, which included the rolled, enameled, flashed, streaked, tex- might include a chronological table. melting of mineral batch to molten tured and crackled glass, in colors rang- Yet, crafted as carefully as the lancet glass (referred to as metal ) in furnaces ing from celadon green to “beefsteak” windows that it describes, with original within clay pots before it was gathered red, cobalt blue, opalescent “milky” full-color illustrations, many period into cylinders, blown, capped, and flat- white, brilliant turquoise and canary photographs, a purposeful index and tened, then rolled into panes of plate yellow. Mazarine blue, a color distinct abundant references, this small yet glass. It chronicles the passage of owner- to the BGW, was held to have curative artful publication contributes signifi- ship from the company’s co-founders properties; invalids were recommended cantly to our appreciation of a timeless through the partnerships of Page & to take an air bath in rooms having craft and cherished aspect of American Robbins (1858–1863) and Page & Hard- sunlight coming through this blue architectural heritage. It provides a ing (1863–1883) with detailed, often glass. Created through the introduc- luminous testimony to the enduring fascinating biographies of its principals tion of pot metals, shades such as these beauty of American colored glass. and affiliates. Drawing on transcripts, received awards in international exhibi- minutes, advertisements, reports, news- tions, leading to a skyrocketing demand paper articles, ledger extracts, jour- for windows in residential buildings Radio: Essays in nals and many other critical sources, throughout the Boston area during the Bad Reception the book describes the evolution of 1870s and 1880s. Surviving windows by John Mowitt. University of California technologies applied, modified and made with Berkshire glass during this Press, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A., 2011. 248 invented, including the composition of period include such works as Charity pp. Trade, paper. ISBN: 978-0-5202- compounds, firing temperatures, thick- and Devotion, paired lancet windows in 7049-7; ISBN: 978-05202-7050-3. nesses of glass, shipping weights, costs to St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Lowell, produce, wages, income, discounts, cur- MA, designed by Donald MacDonald Reviewed by John F. Barber, the Creative rencies and sales figures, with exacting (1841–1916); residential windows in the Media & Digital Culture Program, Wash-
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00508 by guest on 25 September 2021 ington State University, Vancouver, U.S.A. sophical/political thought. Specifically, tives. Mowitt tracks the relation of radio E-mail:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00508 by guest on 25 September 2021 which have a rare and disturbing deli- rooted in the artist’s biography, have cacy. Later he embraces collages, which blocked new developments in Arbus evolve from a surrealist axis to a more scholarship for several decades: her sui- personal and probing composite that cide at age 48, which transformed her refines external influence. into a kind of Sylvia Plath with a cam- Kevin Hatch concludes the study era, and the widely accepted thesis that by commenting on Conner’s search she somewhat exploitatively focused on for originality, his refusal to dance to one single subject, that of the modern the critical measure of his time, what freak (nudists, retarded, dwarfs, trans- that meant and how he did it. Inde- vestites, etc.). In this book, Frederick pendence, intimacy and revelation are Gross aims at dismantling this crippling values that Conner lived by and that typecasting, not by frontally rejecting infuse his works, ever vibrant, funny, it but by proposing a totally different erotic, caustic and elegant. If this study framework intended to supersede most facilitates our engagement with them existing understandings and misunder- and their creator, then they will abide standings of the work. within and between us just that much The major and dramatic innovation more—a measure of our rapport with of Gross’s approach is the proposal, the world we face and the world we well-documented and clearly argued, desire; a borderland that we cannot to study Diane Arbus in light of the entirely possess. tradition of the social panorama and turn to the 1960s. His circle is diverse the social portrait gallery. A continua- and prominent: poets Michael McClure tion of the sociological ambitions of all and Philip Lamantia, artists Jay DeFeo Diane Arbus’s 1960s: those who, like Nadar, Bradley, Sander, and George Herms and filmmaker Stan Auguries of Experience Evans, Frank and many others (yet Brakhage, to name a few. He is known by Frederick Gross. University of Min- none of them in the same vein or in the initially for his assemblages. Built up nesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2012, same spirit), considered photography a precisely from found materials—stock- U.S.A., 248 pp. Trade, paper. ISBN-13: means to offer the visual analogue of a ings, feathers, cardboard, bicycle 978-0-8166-7011-6; ISBN-13: 978-0-8166- certain society, the work of Diane Arbus wheels, wax, a distressed couch, what 7012-3. should be read as a postmodern version have you (prompted by his fascination of it. The word postmodern here does not with San Francisco junk dealers)—their Reviewed by Jan Baetens, University of imply that the photographer is no lon- effect is savage and magnetic. After a Leuven, Belgium. ger eager to give an encyclopedic sur- time, ill content to keep running in vey of the social types and roles of his or place, he sidesteps the critical attention That there is a serious problem with her social environment but refers to the he has gained by turning to film, as the Diane Arbus scholarship (to put it fact that this representation no longer underground movement is first finding more bluntly: that it tends to be slightly claims to follow preexisting or precon- its feet. repetitive, and stuck in a small number structed “objective” or “positivist” typol- His influence, again, is immediate. of well-marketed clichés) is not a secret. ogies and hierarchies. Arbus shares with He commonly, but not always, uses Nor is it a secret that, despite the efforts the tradition of the social panorama found footage. His first, discreetly titled of many, such as the editors and guest the craving for a visual disclosure of A Movie, reveals an amateur with the editors of journals such as History of Pho- the real, but this disclosure is no lon- eye of a master and a cutting technique tography, this problem has much to do ger illustrative (as in the 19th-century to match. Subversive visual rhythms with the overprotective attitude of the model, where photography is expected pitched to near hysteria infuse Break- Diane Arbus estate, which infamously to prove by showing what had already away, shot, as we are told, “in one long refuses to grant any authorization what- been told by others). Arbus’s pictures exhausting session” sans found footage. soever to illustrate academic research instead refuse the social (class), biologi- The ever-poignant Report captures the on this artist. It comes therefore not as cal (race) and cultural (ability) assump- Kennedy assassination. Marilyn Times a surprise that this new book on Arbus, tions that underlie the available models Five portrays erotic obsession—his and which proposes numerous new insights of explanation, as endlessly repeated by ours. There is the terrible beauty of on her work, contains no images at all middle-class publications such as Life Crossroads, an orchestration of a U.S. and also refrains from addressing the and Cold War events such as Steichen’s Navy sub-surface hydrogen bomb explo- personal life and biography of the pho- Family of Man. Frederick Gross has the sion, which fascinates each time I view tographer in detail. Triggered to a large great elegance, which is also a sign of it. Should I mention his collaboration extent by a new exhibition, the 2004– great intelligence, to avoid any political with David Byrne and Brian Eno, Amer- 2006 Revelations show that offered over-interpretation of Arbus’s stances, ica Is Waiting, an idiosyncratic forerun- not only unpublished pictures but also but his comparative close readings of ner of music videos—and there are more than a glimpse into Arbus’s note- the famous MOMA New Documents more? With Conner, however, “more” books and many of the books present in show, which revealed Arbus to the is not simply quantitative but entails her own library, this study by Frederick greater public, and the photojournal- variety and space; a sufficient space in Gross is a timely reminder of the impor- ism of the previous decade clearly dem- which to live on a page or canvas, for tance of Diane Arbus as well as a won- onstrates the critical attitude of Arbus’s one. Throughout his years, he com- derful attempt to interpret her work pictures (which the contemporary poses inkblot and intricately detailed against the grain. viewers did not interpret as freakish drawings: exhaustive efforts, the best of Two major stereotypes, both deeply in the very first place). A key issue in
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00508 by guest on 25 September 2021 and Gross is the first critic to underline in terms of contact and experience the effects of this often-unforeseen (but definitely not of confrontation montage. He is also absolutely right to or clash); second, the spread of con- remind of the importance of Marshall ceptual art, whose link with photogra- McLuhan’s first book,The Mechanical phy is well known but whose impact Bride, a pioneering essay against the on Arbus’s work has never been ana- deleterious effects of mass media con- lyzed in such a subtle way (an impor- sumption and advertisement (McLuhan tant aspect here is the preference given was not afraid of using the term “media to subject at the expense of form and fall out”). Yet the presence of Arbus’s what all this entails for the specifics pictures in glossies is not only to be of picture-making in the case of Arbus). read in terms of clash and opposition, Here as well, Gross proves to be a very for Gross also provides much evidence clever close reader, and his whole of positive interaction with other mate- book demonstrates that even an art- rial, such as the literature that the short ist such as Diane Arbus, whose work story sections of these magazines were and life are so well categorized that publishing and whose influence on there seems to be no need for further Arbus’s work became blatant (a good research, can be opened again for new example is the ongoing dialogue with readings. some short stories by Jorge Luis Borges, whose metafictional universe seems to have had a real influence on Arbus’s Remodeling Communication: way of thinking). Besides the strictly From WWII to the WWW literary intertext of Arbus’s images, by Gary Genosko. University of Toronto which Gross reads in much detail, Press, Toronto, Canada, 2012. 161 pp. there is also a strong photographical ISBN-13: 978-1-4426-4434-2. Gross’s reading is the notion of pas- environment, and here as well the close tiche, which he uses in the Jamesonian readings by Gross offer much food for Reviewed by Jussi Parikka, Winchester meaning of the term to point to a more a fresh interpretation of Arbus. Par- School of Art, U.K. E-mail:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00508 by guest on 25 September 2021 themselves one “condition” behind As Genosko elaborates, paying atten- notion of metamodeling. Here, the the introduction of models that try to tion to such features incorporated as productive aspect of models becomes pitch in other abstractive forms the part of the models is a way to account emphasized, with an eye toward the event of communication. Shannon and for all that happens at the fringes of links between models and what they Weaver’s mathematical theory of com- formal theories of communication—the represent. Metamodeling is explained munication, famous for its preference dimensions of “gender and hierarchy of as follows: for non-semantic signal before semantic power/knowledge” (p. 37)—and hence meanings, is in this sense emblematic to position such theories historically. Models imbued with the productive and projective force of diagrammatization of the translations across technics and In this case, a special reference point become metamodels in which functions diagrams. This assumption of the pri- becomes the telegraph system. multiply, semiological and a-signifying mary abstractness (even if completely A similar methodology of attention to signs cross it and connect directly with material) is not however entirely how the material details part of production strands on the technological phylum of Genosko sees the way models of com- of models and theory is evident in other communications consisting of interfaces of all sorts between subjectivity and tech- munication have worked since World case studies of Genosko’s book. A case nology, and social and historical forces War II. With a meticulous eye for in point is how he picks up the various (p. 125) details, he is able, using surprising reproductions of Stuart Hall’s “Encod- contexts from the seeming fringes of ing/Decoding.” What Genosko points What this amounts to, or promises, is these theories, to grasp something fresh out is that the most-often-referenced the possibility of media historical speci- about the role of theories. Placing more and -read versions of that paper are ficity in mapping the theoretical terrain emphasis on Weaver than Shannon the shortened reproductions in various of theories of communication. The is one such example, especially when cultural studies readers, which neglect subtitle of the book promises a time picking up on the notion of the “dis- a range of important links within that span of World War II to the World Wide creet girl” (the telegraph operator) at model. Such include for instance Web. Actually Genosko does not offer the center of an otherwise supposedly important references to Marx’s Grund- an archaeological analysis. He is a per- completely engineering-based model risse and Capital. ceptive theorist who is able to breathe of communications. The passage from Remodeling Communication works life into past communication models, Weaver that Genosko quotes is worth gradually through a discussion of the and theorizing the idea of “model” in reproducing here: phatic function of communication innovative ways. (Jakobson) to hammer home key An engineering communication theory points of transmission as change: airing of olarities is just like a very proper and discreet transmission is transformation and P P : girl accepting your telegram. She pays The Life and Art of no attention to the meaning, whether hence is best understood itself as trans- it is sad, or joyous, or embarrassing. ductive event. At least by this point Sonya Rapoport But she must be prepared to deal with Genosko’s Guattarian way of thinking edited by Terri Cohn. Heyday Books, all that come to her desk. This idea that about media and culture comes clear, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A., 2012. 160 pp, a communication system ought to try to deal with all possible messages, and when he starts to elaborate the multi- illus. Paper. ISBN-13: 978-1-5971-4187-1. that the intelligent way to do this is to ple materialities (mixed semiotics) base design on statistical character of of screen cultures: Reviewed by Amy Ione, Director, The the source, is surely not without signifi- Diatrope Institute, 2342 Shattuck Ave, cance for this communication in general A television broadcast is an extremely #527, Berkeley, CA 94704, U.S.A. (p. 37). complex and variable event; what’s on E-mail:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00508 by guest on 25 September 2021 present their individual views of Rapo- extensively throughout the Bay Area I have always admired the formal port’s work, I found little repetition. and internationally. Not only is she aspects of Rapoport’s work and her Instead, we get a real feeling for her one of the early innovators who helped drawings on computer printouts in par- diverse and systemic approach to art- establish the San Francisco Bay Area as ticular. Given that these are often long making, her symbolic inclinations, how an international locus for hybrid prac- and large, I would have liked a larger she has brought interactive elements tices; her work has extended far beyond book format. That said, the reproduc- into her works and the humor in her her base. She has been included in tions were nicely done, well placed and art. One element that stood out is her major art and technology exhibitions conveyed the size and details more talent in bringing topical concerns including Ars Electronica (Linz, Aus- effectively than is often the case in (gender, religion, politics, and the tria), and the 2009 Venice Biennale’s trade paperbacks. The integration of role of technology in contemporary Internet Pavilion. the images and text was also effective. life) into her practice. Terri Cohn’s Perhaps the “takeaway” of the book is For example, an essay by Rapoport’s introduction effectively places the art- the degree to which many of Rapoport’s daughter Hava conveys the integrative ist conceptually and in terms of history interactive installations and computer- quality of her art and how her artwork through outlining Rapoport’s artistic based works were ahead of their time. and life worked in tandem. A photo of genesis and shows how her original Not only was she talking about webs Hava and her husband, Elias Fereres ideas were also positioned within the before the World Wide Web was cre- Castiel, which is one of the artifacts in larger framework of contemporary art ated, she was also thinking systemically Objects on My Dresser, 1979–1984, rein- and other systemic artists (e.g. Hans and intent on including interactivity in forces this point. Haacke). Cohn writes: her work when static art was the norm. This ability to integrate while For example, today’s World Wide Web retaining her own voice is evident It is essential to recognize that Rapo- recalls NETWEB, which Rapoport cre- throughout her career. Indeed, many port’s shift from creating autonomous ated at 80 Langton Street in San Fran- of the writers mentioned the influence objects to interactive installation work in real time and space was a consequence cisco in 1980. As she explained (to Judy of her husband’s work as she began to of her immersion in the zeitgeist of the Malloy): pioneer her approach to the art|science 1970s. Her continued exploration of the interface. He was a professor of chem- world of digital media . . . underscores It was a geometric configuration of a istry at the University of California in Rapoport’s belief that themes, objects, spider web about 14 feet in diameter, Berkeley. Reading his scientific jour- and events is a continuum of intellec- reflected onto the floor from a slide tual and artistic exploration, one which projector attached to the ceiling. Six bi- nals in the mid-1960s inspired her as has led her from Abstract Expressionist secting axes, the tick marks on each axis she began to blaze her own path. Even- painting to interactive webworks. Her and the linear connections from tick tually she was appropriating computer unique attraction to pairing polarities is to tick were projected on a star-shaped printouts from his laboratory, bringing central to her remarkable, decades-long area of white contact paper. The im- the periodic table of elements into her artistic exploration and achievement age cards, now reminding me of today’s (p. 14). provocative home pages, were placed in work and expanding into projects that their positions on numbered ticks along intersect with science more generally. My favorite essay was “A Throw of the their selected theme axes: EYE, HAND, With the artist now in her 80s, it is Dice: Between Structure and Indeter- CHEST, MASKING, THREADING, and exciting to see Rapoport’s contributions MOVING. . . . Everything was intercon- minacy,” by Richard Cándida Smith. He nected by lines crossing the axes and receiving so much recognition. It will met Rapoport while helping to organize joining similar tick positions on other interest all who follow contemporary an oral history project with alumni of themes (p. 43). art and, in particular, those with an the Department of Art at the University interest in the art/science/technology of California, Berkeley. Because of the interface. nature of his project, his interview con- cerned her master’s program and what she learned from her teachers. One of Are You Experienced? How her professors was Erle Loran, a painter Psychedelic Consciousness and the author of Cézanne’s Composition: Transformed Modern Art Analysis of His Form and Diagrams and by Ken Johnson. Prestel, Munich, Photographs of his Motifs (1943). Since London, and New York, 2011. 232 pp., this is one of my favorite expositions, illus. ISBN: 978-3-7913-4498-0. I was interested to learn of the value she placed on the training even as she moved into building her own style and Reviewed by Nicolas Langlitz, The New approach to artmaking. Even more fas- School for Social Research. E-mail: cinating were the ways she incorporated
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00508 by guest on 25 September 2021 Most of the time it is not the artists They asked me, “What kind of psychedel- but the art critic who ties their work to ics do you take when you’re painting?” mind-altering substances—by describ- And I said, “I don’t take anything when I’m painting. When I take psychedelics ing a work of pop artist Ed Ruscha as I get very horny, and I start going out appearing “funny-strange the way it can to nightclubs and cruising.” (laughter) seem to stoned consciousness,” imag- So they said, “Well, we can’t put you in ining the paintings of Neo Rauch “as the book.” I freaked out, because I wasn’t in any book yet (laughter), and I said, hallucinations of a dour Communist-era “But I get my ideas when I’m high.” And East German apparatchik,” or speculat- they said, “Alright, we’ll put you in the ing about whether Takashi Murakami’s book.” Next they asked me for the names sculptures of Mr. DOB might have any- of other psychedelic painters, and I gave thing to do with Alexander Shulgin’s them a whole list. . . . I called them all up right away, and I told them, “Tell them synthetic drug of the same acronym that you’re taking psychedelics!” And (pp. 127, 146, 201). But, ultimately, they all got in the book [5]. whether it has doesn’t matter. Johnson argues that psychedelic experiences dif- But if the category of psychedelic art fused from those who really had them grew out of short-lived incentives of into those who did not: “You may never both the art and the book market of the have taken LSD, but America has” 1960s, it might not be the best road to (p. 11). uncovering a unified sensibility alleg- The problem haunting every page edly underlying modern art for the past drugs interesting enough to write a of Are You Experienced? is the fact that 50 years. book about their scientific investigation it puts so much weight on totalizing The contention of Johnson’s Are [1] but never acquired a taste for the concepts such as “America” or Thomas You Experienced? might be better sup- artistic tradition associated with them Kuhn’s notion of paradigms. Given that ported by his material had he argued since the 1960s, I have been looking the existence of such all-encompassing for a profound transformation (but no out for attempts to derive alternative and mutually incommensurable epis- “paradigm shift”) of modern art by the aesthetic forms from experimentation temic frameworks has been called into countercultural upheavals instead of with hallucinogenic substances. question in the history of science itself squeezing too many discrepant artistic To my great delight, art critic Ken [2], it might not be wise to now import positions into American psychedelia. Johnson’s new book Are You Experienced? this idea into art history—as if art were However, his pioneering effort to trace How Psychedelic Consciousness Transformed a more unified field than science. the impact of hallucinogenic substances Modern Art provides just that: A broad The book does not provide conclu- beyond album covers of the 1960s and range of artwork not usually considered sive evidence for its claim that psyche- Alex Grey’s contemporary rearticula- psychedelic is presented as a product delic consciousness transformed the tion of visionary art [6] opens up a of psychedelic consciousness. Johnson whole of modern art, because, apart whole new field of research that will, it tries to capture a sensibility underlying from Rauch, Murakami and a few oth- is hoped, be explored further by schol- contemporary art “in almost all of its ers, the large majority of the artists ars following in Johnson’s footsteps. various stylistic manifestations” (p. 10), discussed are American. In Europe, from minimalism to op art and from however, psychedelic drugs played a References feminist positions to Matthew Barney’s much smaller and also a different role Cremaster Cycle films. Drawing from per- during the 1960s. Embracing Marxist 1. N. Langlitz, Neuropsychedelia: The Revival of Halluci- nogen Research Since the Decade of the Brain (Berkeley: sonal acquaintance and interviews with materialism, many students rejected University of California Press, forthcoming). many of the discussed artists, he shows the mysticism of Aldous Huxley and 2. Peter Galison, “Trading Zone: Coordinating Ac- how hallucinogen experiences inspired Timothy Leary so popular among U.S. tion and Belief,” in M. Biagioli, ed., The Science Studies contemporary work in the tradition of hippies as yet another “opium of the Reader (New York: Routledge, 1999) pp. 137–160. abstract expressionism emphasizing the people” and used hallucinogenic drugs 3. G. Amendt, Die Legende vom LSD (Frankfurt/M.: materiality of paint over illusionistic for hedonistic rather than spiritual pur- Zweitausendeins, 2008). visual languages or how conceptual poses [3]. And Japan might be a more 4. Robert Masters and Jean Houston, Psychedelic Art artist Adrian Piper relates her work on different story yet. Moreover, America (New York: Grove Press, 1968). racism and xenophobia to her LSD- was divided, not just between the so- 5. M. Klarwein, “A Thousand Windows,” interview induced insights into “how much of called establishment and the counter- by David Jay Brown, 1992
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00508 by guest on 25 September 2021 their expectations of adventures to be space for mapping of the self to begin, had abroad, in the imagination and for understanding of the forces shaping as experience, on the real roads and the landscapes of history and the con- byways described in word and image. temporary world. As a source book for The bounds of the worldview began to constructing agendas it is admirable, spread with the continuing colonization although as there is not an image to be of the New World and, “in the singular- seen, it will appeal mainly to the already ization of experience that affects carto- committed and serious student. graphic writing,” in the island book, or That student could be further galva- isolario (described as the beginnings of nized by Conley’s paraphrasing of Lévi- ethnography by 20th-century scholar Strauss. Conley writes: Claude Lévi-Strauss). Andre Thevet’s La Cosmographie Universelle took a form We can only offer cosmetic reasons for granting humans the right of temporary that layered in all manner of fact “that residence in the nature of things. The refuses to concede to an atlas struc- gratuitousness of human presence in the ture,” the precursor of other written world could not have failed to vex carto- forms (from Swift to the present-day graphic writers of the early modern age as well (p. 302). television documentary or celebrity adventure?). The self-made-map approach to The shift from woodcut to copper- writing of the 16th century created for plate technology permitted advances the first time a spatiality of narrative, in the acuity of the reproduction of a form that was perfected not in the drawings, but the discipline of the 19th-century novel but through the atlas asserted itself in the work of Bou- development of narrative in 20th-cen- guereau, in a perspective form and tury cinema, a subject about which the viewpoint that would be recognized by from Colorado State University, who author is also a recognized contributor. users of current Internet map tools. provide accounts in The Face of the Earth, Conley’s book is an engrossing read The royal commissioning of this, like not only of the rural byways of medieval because, to this reader, so much was the corporate sponsorship of today’s France but also of the remote areas of new and expressed in such fulsome and manifestations, had a purpose beyond today’s planet. A series of edited expres- scholarly detail. Thus it was a “slow” the altruistic: the consolidation of sions of the culture that constructs read as, often using unfamiliar but spheres of influence and profit. The our sense of “the natural world” is resonant humanities-based terminology, Iberian destruction of the peoples of offered, as “intriguing and suggestive it required consulting so much back- the New World, motivated by plunder examples of the many ways that we and ground. At times the detail discussed and religion, was the turning point for our earthly surroundings are tied to in the illustrations and maps is beyond the emergence of the “international- each other.” “We,” it must be pointed visible comprehension on the (octavo) ist” essay writers, the three Frenchmen out, are concentrated primarily in the page, and this reader had to track down Montaigne, du Voisin and Descartes. United States, Great Britain and Aus- larger images on the Internet. (Perhaps The carefully analyzed differences in tralia. a simultaneously published website their cartographic writing enable Con- Four chapters, each with about a containing links to images could have ley to arrive at a sentence that carefully dozen sections, describe the dramatic benefitted both these publications?) locates the reader, the text and its zones of internal fire, volcanoes and Fortunately, as with the genre of books writer. geysers; climate and ice; wet and that have followed the pioneering early fluid; and desert places. “On the modern writers, the images available One can move into space by surveying Spot” accounts describe the experi- and arrogating it, and one can make it have proliferated. virtual, seemingly self-made, when a car- ence of being in such places and are tographic process is adjusted to the imag- interspersed with more objective ination of one’s origins, growth, works, descriptions using the interdisciplinary memory, and living itineraries (p. 301). languages of the sciences and humani- ties. A final chapter moves into the eonardo eviews Michel de Montaigne observed in L R complexities of humankind’s relation- his seminal Essais that “we need topog- On-Line ship with the physical world, steadfastly raphers to provide specific accounts of maintaining its neutrality, planted the places they have been.” This Conley in the domain of the empirical. The paraphrases as aiding in August 2012 contradictions of Heidegger’s dasein, Alien Phenomenology: Or, What It’s Like To the art of writing and composing a work “being-there,” and the clear need for that can extend itself in mental direc- affirmative remedial reconstruction of Be a Thing by Ian Bogost. Reviewed by tions that will move long enough and the human role within the biosphere Brian Reffin Smith. far enough to yield a verbal geography are left for the reader to imagine if not that can be experienced through both Beyond the Dream Syndicate: Tony Conrad intellectual and physical means (p. 249). desire. Clearly the book is intended to elevate the knowledge levels of and the Arts after Cage by Branden W. Responses to the call over the cen- city-bound high school students, to Joseph. Reviewed by Stephen Petersen. turies have been slight, from popular stimulate and encourage expeditions to windows on the world such as National sparsely populated places and experi- Computing: A Concise History by Paul E. Geographic to some 20 writers, several ence of wilderness areas, and to create Ceruzzi. Reviewed by John F. Barber.
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Open Access by Peter Suber. Reviewed by Freedom in Entangled Worlds: West Papua June 2012 Rob Harle. and the Architecture of Global Power by Brunelleschi’s Egg: Nature, Art, and Gender Eben Kirksey. Reviewed by C.F. Black. State of Mind: New California Art circa in Renaissance Italy by Mary D. Garrard. 1970 by Constance M. Lewallen and Reviewed by Amy Ione. The Future Was Here: The Commodore Karen Moss. Reviewed by Mike Mosher. Amiga by Jimmy Maher. Reviewed by On Time in Film / DVD; Performance / John F. Barber. Under Blue Cup by Rosalind E. Krauss. Myself (or Video Identity); and Air’s Rock Reviewed by Jan Baetens. by Takahiko iimura. Reviewed by Mike High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in His- Leggett. tory and Culture by Mike Jay. Reviewed July 2012 by Jan Baetens. Rethinking a Lot: The Design and Culture Coral: Rekindling Venus by Lynette of Parking by Eran Ben-Joseph. Reviewed Wallworth. Reviewed by Elizabeth by Jan Baetens. I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts: Drive- Straughan. By Essays on American Dread, American Dreams by Mark Dery. Foreword by The Exile of Britney Spears: A Tale of 21st Seducing Time: Selected Prize Winning Bruce Sterling. Reviewed by Mike Century Consumption by Christopher R. Videotapes by Lynn Hershman Leeson Mosher. Smit. Reviewed by Anthony Enns. 1984–2008. Reviewed by Mike Mosher.
forthcoming
Leonardo Music Journal 23 (2013) Sound Art
Art is getting noisier every day. Whether made by sculptors, video artists, composers, printmakers or installation artists, there’s no question but that “Sound Art” is a genre ascendant. The Turner Prize went to a Sound Artist last year, Phonography has revived an interest in R. Murray Schafer’s Soundscape theories, and critical writing is beginning to proliferate on the topic. It’s time for Leonardo Music Journal to give this field a closer look.
Volume 23 of LMJ (Nov. 2013) will feature articles and artist’s statements that address the role of sound in art that wouldn’t necessarily be called “music.”
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