Leonardo Reviews
Leonardo Reviews against the Commonwealth of Virginia the trial judge, wrote: “Almighty God Editor-in-Chief: Michael Punt by Richard and Mildred Loving]). The created the races white, black, yellow, Managing Editor: Bryony Dalefield Lovings, the key figures in this case, are Malay and red, and he placed them captured in The Loving Story, a film pro- on separate continents. And but for Associate Editors: Dene Grigar, duced by Nancy Buirski and Elisabeth the interference with his arrangement Martha Blassnigg, Hannah Drayson Haviland James and available through there would be no cause for such mar- A full selection of reviews is pub- Icarus Films. riages. The fact that he separated the lished monthly on the LR web site: Married in Washington, D.C., on 2 races shows that he did not intend for
© 2013 ISAST doi:10.1162/LEON_a_00654 LEONARDO, Vol. 46, No. 5, pp. 499–512, 2013 499
Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 explaining to someone in her living racial classifications must stand on their Rather, their sincerity and love drives room that she was not involved in the own justification, as measures designed their story. Civil Rights movement. Rather, she to maintain White Supremacy. The courage of the Lovings is relates, she decided to write to Robert Watching the legal challenges pre- matched by that of the same-sex cou- Kennedy simply because she and Rich- sented in the video and listening to the ples today who are seeking legitimacy ard wanted to go home to Virginia. sentiments of the people involved with for their relationships. In a concurring Initiating the kind of individual litiga- the case brought to mind recent chal- opinion to Loving, Associate Justice tion they needed to pursue was not a lenges to laws forbidding same-sex mar- Potter Stewart wrote: “It is simply not part of the Attorney General’s purview. riage in the United States, an issue set possible for a state law to be valid under Kennedy, however, directed her to the to go to the Supreme Court later this our Constitution which makes the crim- American Civil Liberties Union. year. Advocates of same-sex marriage inality of an act depend upon the race Growing up in the United States, I often offer the history of civil rights law of the actor.” Today, of course, “sex was educated to believe that our politi- as a touchstone and a rationale as they of the actor” would be the operative cal system, despite its faults, was the fight for equal rights in the courts. As phrase. Given the humanness of these best in the world. We learned that with the Lovings, those fighting today issues, it is not surprising that this film although change was sometimes slow, often capture the personal and human has won many awards. It is perfect for rightness or justice of some kind pre- qualities that drive the fight for mar- classrooms and for all interested in who vailed. I can remember learning about riage equality. people are and how they make things the landmark Brown v. Board of Educa- To my surprise, the connection happen. tion case even in grade school. This between race restrictions and gender- was the case in which the United States based restrictions is covered in an Supreme Court declared state laws exceptionally well-crafted teacher’s Periodical establishing separate public schools for guide that comes with the video. This black and white students unconstitu- guide is also available on the Icarus site tional, paving the way for integration. (see
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 www.europeana-libraries.eu). The Larousse dictionary as an example was editor-in-chief of the humoristic first book that Jeanneney showed in of the use of the word assiette
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 ential spokesman, found each other out the whole study), Woodson-Boul- in the widely shared conviction that ton’s book pursues three major goals. art had a specific role to play in an First, the author wants to disclose the industrial society. Its goal was to display great complexity and the countless con- beauty in order to heal the viewer suf- tradictions of the city museum move- fering from the ugliness and difficult ment. At the level of the artworks: The living and housing conditions of an application of Ruskin’s program to the industrial environment. This display of concrete setting of realist art for often beauty had to occur in a place meant uneducated spectators reveals an insur- to become the public equivalent of the mountable conflict between beauty private home (a place of peace, quiet, and truth, which tended to become warmth and regeneration) of which enemies in industrial Britain. At the most viewers were deprived. Art, in level of museum management: Very such a perspective, is then defined by soon the debates on opening hours, its subject: The beauty of art is less the free entrance policy, the need for the- beauty of the work’s materiality as such matic temporary exhibits or special than that of the subject it represents events with art for sale, and the offering (and this subject is always nature, more of other services and facilities disclose particularly nature seen as inherently the sometimes contradictory needs and beautiful, created by God). Art, in desires of various groups in a country other words, was seen as a window on that is still extremely class- and gender- the world, and this window could only divided. At the level of the social and be inviting and compelling if the sub- philosophical role of art: How does it and museum-goers. In this robustly ject on view did also tell a story (for it connect (or not) with religion, edu- scholarly and committed study, Amy was believed that only the story could cation, politics (here a key role is of Woodson-Bolton examines the role and help make sense of the representa- course played by the controversies that place of art museums and more gen- tion). This fundamental assumption accompany the public’s craving for erally the museum movement in the explains first of all what kind of art expanded opening hours, even on the three major “regional” centers of late was on display in these Victorian city “Sabbath”)? 19th-century industrial Britain: Bir- museums: realist art, contemporary Second, Woodson-Boulton rewrites mingham, Manchester and Liverpool. art, British art. There was no room for an important chapter of British cultural For good or for bad reasons, Victorian formal “thickness,” exotic (Catholic) history. On the one hand, 19th-century art itself and the Victorian approach to themes or motifs, and definitely not for city museums are still largely uncharted art as a kind of middle-class and prag- old masters, since works of that kind territory, and Transformative Beauty is a matist reinterpretation of the romantic were incapable of functioning as trans- great contribution to our knowledge on ideal of “beauty and truth” have been parent windows: What they showed this hidden part of the artistic past. On scornfully discarded as parochial and was less the world than themselves, in the other hand, existing scholarship moralizing kitsch by almost all mod- their opaque materiality, and moreover on the institutionalization of art in that ern and modernist movements during the public had forgotten most of the period has traditionally focused on the the 20th century (it has only been in stories behind them. Second, Victorian leading role of the royal family (as the a couple of decades that this kind of assumptions about art also explain how model collector), the London establish- art has gained new interest). However, these works were put on display in the ments (which did not face the problem Woodson-Boulton’s book demonstrates museal space: not as items belonging to of the industrialization of the muse- convincingly how the challenges faced an underlying grand narrative of “art um’s environment and whose audience by the newborn institutions (the three history,” but as a heterogeneous collec- was differently educated) and the con- museums were established between tion of items, some of them “artistic,” ceptualization of the museum as a tool 1867 and 1883), the paradoxes of their some of them “industrial,” some of for nation-building (which is certainly incredible public success (each of them them “arts and crafts” and all of them not the case here). Third, and this is attracted audiences comparable to the supposed to regenerate the body and perhaps its most crucial ambition, the crowds that visit today’s blockbuster mind of the spectator. Finally, such book rethinks art history’s own historic- shows) and the sharp debaters sur- an approach to art also explains why ity. It demonstrates the clash between rounding their fundamental choices museums were considered necessary the basic principles of a Victorian city and references can teach us a lot about and why city councils agreed to spend museum and the still-dominant axiom many contemporary ideas and discus- (much) money on them. Museums that structured the 20th-century mod- sions on art, museum management and addressed the victims of industrializa- ern, i.e. “white wall,” museum confront- education. tion and offered the public, often with ing individual visitors with objects that In the absence of any centralized art large grants from the industrialists are no longer windows on the world policy in 19th-century Britain, but also themselves, what it had been lacking but works of art for art’s sake. It also in the absence of any museal institu- for long: the beauty of nature, the soul shows how the pre-modern, Victorian tion as we understand it nowadays, of a home. approach to art and its emphasis on the almost simultaneous birth of art Besides the careful and always subject and narrative will be replaced museums in major industrial cities in thought-provoking description of this during and after the First World War by Britain was anything but a coincidence. program, which took very different a new, anti-realist, anti-narrative, anti- Social reformers and promoters of art, forms in the three cities (and this is a representative program that presents with John Ruskin as their most influ- source of permanent surprise through- the works as parts of a totally different
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 frame, that is, the historical transfor- on, but distinct from, modernism and instance through art, is inseparable mation of art as a play of autonomous postmodernism. Chilver argues that from the architecture. Her interesting forms. Art, in this modern program, contemporary painting paradoxically take on the critique of autonomous ceases to serve social reform and loses derives its pictoriality from the simul- form builds upon Gottfried Semper’s its references to ethics and theology, taneous disappearance of the painting- writing that prioritizes surface above since it rejects the traditional burden of as-object and the materialization of the structure. Catherine Ferguson comes representing the hidden or lost beauty space of display. His ability to ground close to answering this question in her of God’s creation. At the same time, this otherwise expansive topic is partly intriguing treatise on how painting is the shift from pre-modern to modern because of his incorporation of art- analyzed. She argues that rather than museum remains a good model to bet- ists’ intentions aside from his own asking what painting is within its own ter understand the changes that West- interpretation and the larger historical discourse, painting requires a different ern museums are undergoing these framework. In contradistinction, several kind of interpretation to bring out its days: What artists, museums directors, other chapters, such as Linda Khatir’s functional value. Through the concept policymakers and visitors are obsessed on framing painting, take a more of autopoiesis, and building upon with today is power and politics, and philosophical approach that requires Deleuze’s idea of “the representational to a certain extent the radical heter- solid background knowledge for a full image of thought,” she aims to estab- onomy of Victorian museums offers engagement with the text. The danger lish some methodological principles of an excellent key to a different read- with such impenetrable essays is that analysis that “proceed” with painting ing of today’s revolution in museum- the artist’s intentions are overridden by though logic rather than observation. land—which is more than a return to the abstract analysis of the work. This The application of this idea to her own the past, for in the meantime decisive approach fails to acknowledge that analysis of Scheibitz’s painting proves elements have been abandoned as well “painting” in the book’s title is an active more difficult, but nevertheless, the (contemporary Western art is no longer verb rather than a passive object. text is an original contribution to the determined by middle-class reformism Several chapters do not address current debate on painting. This may or post-romantic encounters of beauty painting at all, raising further questions be because of the underlying shift from and religion, for instance). Modernism as to how the discussion contributes to discussing architecture to the issue of may be rejected today, but it cannot be contemporary concerns within painting functionality in relation to painting. discarded as a simple intermezzo. practice. For example, Whittaker’s and In this regard, what is perhaps most Rajchman’s respective analyses of Law- functional in this book is the fold-out rence Weiner’s and Fred Sandbach’s insert of a painting specially designed Painting with works revoke exhausted discussions by the artist Brad Lochore. While lack- Architecture in Mind on conceptual art and objecthood. A ing the vibrancy of other illustrations, edited by Edward Whittaker and Alex much more unusual contribution is the architectural fold straight through Landrum. Wunderkammer Press, Bath, the in-depth discussion of Matisse’s the image continues to simultaneously U.K., 2012. 168 pp., illus. Paper. ISBN: mural by Eric Alliez and Jean-Claude disturb and intrigue. It evokes a curios- 978-0-9566462-1-7. Bonne, which proves that painting with ity as to the “framing” of this work in architecture in mind can be traced the way it occupies an asymmetric space Reviewed by Agnieszka Mlicka, Central back to early modernism. Their text on the double page. As noted by the Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, revisits the critical moment when editors, it becomes a standing object University of the Arts London. E-mail: painting moved outside itself, reject- that emerges out of another space,
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 Computers and Creativity room for flights of science fantasy and tional involvement with works of art. ill-founded speculation, which I have Others believe that we will create such edited by Jon McCormack and Mark found is almost endemic in the Extro- machines, although they may not be d’Inverno. Springer-Verlag, Berlin pian-style literature regarding human- exactly like us—that is, they may have Heidelberg, 2012. 430 pp., illus. Trade, machine integration. Considering the their own ways of creating art com- ebook. ISBN: 978-3-642-31726-2; ISBN: complexity of the subject matter and its pletely independent of their original 978-3-642-31727-9. theoretical underpinning, every chap- builder/programmer intentions. Will Reviewed by Rob Harle. E-mail:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 as data storage and routing machines of this new approach to human sexu- but in the early 1980s they were creative ality. The ambition of the book is to tools, whether for business, education highlight that the gap between nature or the arts. Timely because there will be and culture can only be explained if very few more histories of computing: one accepts to study it in historical Almost everyone thinks that comput- longue durée terms, which shed a very ing means the social uses of computa- different light on the past as well as the tion and would think the very word present and the future of heterosexual “computation” bizarre in the context cultural practices and the organization of Facebook. of Western societies around a mythical There are occasional errors and conception of heterosexual love. typos—a particularly comical one on Tin’s story begins in the 12th cen- page 4 where a “not” should surely be a tury, a period characterized by the “now”—but on the whole this is a useful emergence of what has become so little book, let down by a suicidally dour totally self-evident today that we tend design and an absence of that sine qua to consider it essential and transhis- non of computer texts, jokes. There is torical: heterosexuality as an ideal of little too about MIT: I remember Nich- interpersonal and social relationships. olas Negroponte coming to the Royal As convincingly demonstrated by Tin, College of Art in 1970s London with a this heterosexuality meant a revolution- huge Laserdisc under his arm, showing ary shift in a culture that until then interactive bicycle mending (of course was strongly dominated by paradigms roughly the last 70 years—a lifetime!— it was really militarily funded: missiles, of homosociality, in which issues of of computation. The title is “Comput- not bicycles)—there might have been heterosexuality and family were kept ing: A Concise History.” But on page room for the work of his Architecture at the margins of the strong bonds that xvi of the introduction, the book is Machine Group and later the Media defined relationships between men in a defined as “a summary of the develop- Lab at MIT. Joseph Weizenbaum too is chivalric or monastic environment. Tin ment of the digital information age.” Is absent. Still, at least Ted Nelson gets a admits that there is still no conclusive the history of computing the develop- line or two. explanation of why this homosocial ment of the digital information age, or Finally, it is rather ironic that MIT, structure was put into question, but vice versa? It’s not at all certain. One is whose Press is the publisher of this its historical reality can, of course, content, the other context. Technologi- book, is currently at the center of a not be denied. From that point on, cal determinism haunts such questions. row about a possible role in the suicide Tin proposes a real grand narrative The words we use in a history of of Aaron Swartz, who was investigated ranging the whole second millennium computing are a minefield of uncer- for allegedly trying to access academic A.D. and studying mainly the conflict tainty. The author asserts that the terms papers. The Internet, in its initial form between heterosexuality and the three “analog” (U.S. English) and “digital” as the Arpanet, as this book shows, was major forces that have attempted to were unknown before the late 1930s, never remotely intended to have any- counter or block it: the chivalric world- but the former word’s use, even only thing to do with freedom of informa- order, which saw heterosexuality as a in its American spelling, in the English tion. A history of computing is a history danger for its ideals of masculinity; the corpus from 1900 to 1910 was more of the embodiments of our dreams and religious world-order, which rejected frequent than at any point until nearly our limitations. 1945; the latter was in use to indicate a number under 10 by about 1450, and interestingly, as a noun, to refer The Invention of to discrete keys on a piano by 1878. Of Heterosexual Culture course the author means their use in the context of his subject, but a history, by Louis-Georges Tin. The MIT Press, even such a concise one, perhaps needs Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 2012. 208 pp. to be a little more open to what might Trade. ISBN: 978-0-262-01770-1. be important semantic underpinnings. Why would anyone want a history Reviewed by Jan Baetens, Belgium. E-mail: of computing? To what problem or
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 it as a danger for its ideals of spiritual Interacting: Art, audience,” “creative practitioners love; and the medical world-order, Research and the Creative from different disciplines” and “prac- which linked it with various kinds of Practitioner titioners and the norms of research” problematic, i.e. unhealthy, behavior is to develop a particular discourse, (in the beginning of the 20th century, edited by Linda Candy and Ernest the constituents of which are not only heterosexuality, the newer form of Edmonds. Libri Publishing, Oxford, conceptual and aesthetic but also col- lovesickness, was esteemed as danger- U.K., 2011. 360 pp., illus. Paper. laborative, reflective and networked. ous as homosexuality). Relying on a ISBN: 978-1-907471-48-3. Inevitably, this leads to apprehending corpus constituted by literary sources, how this discourse, however convoluted Reviewed by Flutur Troshani, University of Tin scrutinizes these resistances to het- its dispositions may be, is to be interro- Shkoder, Albania. erosexuality, often very long (as already gated and systematized. The challenge, said, these phenomena have to do with Were we seeking a term that conveys in other words, is to put practice-based longue durée historiography) but always, some of the significant transformations research into our conceptual mapping despite frequent moments of success, in contemporary art, research and and into the agendas of contemporary profoundly reactionary and rearguard. creative practice over the past decades, art projects. As their response, Candy A second layer in the book is the discus- “interacting” would be among the first and Edmonds have brought together sion of the notion of sexual and social to come to mind. Its appeal is easy to contributions that come from different normalcy, and the progressive criminal- understand given the increasing audi- disciplines, the collective voice of which ization of what is the flipside of the rise ence engagement with the artwork, its is generally well-orchestrated, although of heterosexuality: homosexuality. A undeniable malleability and the trans- occasionally, given their inter-, trans- third one has to do with the social and formation of the museum into “interac- and multidisciplinary and skewed ap- sexual treatment of women, which Tin tive space.” Candy and Edmonds, the proaches, it turns out to be dissonant clearly distinguishes from the changing editors of this study, acknowledge its and repetitive. views on heterosexuality. significance and indicate that practice- The structural designation of the Tin proposes an appealing interpre- based research in interactive art appro- essays falls into five distinct sections tation of heterosexuality in Western priates and transforms contemporary prefaced by brief introductions. culture, with a good mix of broad discourse, the unstable contours of These make sure that the essays do general tendencies and a fine sense of which suggest the critical depth of the not veer away, invested as they are in detail and close reading. The choice epistemic questions that can be raised idiosyncratic disruptions by their multi- to focus on literary sources, rather if creative practices and research meth- disciplinary drive. The methodical asso- than unpublished archival material or odologies are brought together. Deep ciation of art and research provided by legal documents as might have been down, the collective voice of these the first section, “Interactive Art and expected from an author who has read essays problematizes the demarcations Research,” brings into sharp focus the carefully the work by Foucault, has a between research methodologies and working concepts and, more notably, double advantage. First, it allows for a creative practices to the point that (re)configures them into ways that creative rereading of the French liter- they come to be entangled into and are crucial to maintain the theoretical ary canon, from the Chanson de Roland to reconfigure each other’s domains. coherence required to bring together to Paul Claudel over Montaigne, Cor- In doing so, step by step, these essays the voices of the contributors. This also neille and many others. This rereading trace a heuristic methodology, which ensures that the proceeding essays keep is refreshing. It shows, moreover, how lays claims upon how research can be abreast of the main argument and that the literary canon has been misread or brought into creative practice, what is the logical progression from one essay even misused in the past. Second, the transformed during that process and emphasis on literature helps bring into how the interactive art practitioner focus the importance of education and mediates and refracts relations both of the social framing of sexual matters. within and between them. As an aspect of culture, not of nature, These essays stretch back to the work heterosexuality is something that can- of art, intended here as a complex not be separated from education, and where creative and research practices Tin has many clever analyses of the conflate, but they also stretch forward way in which the literary and school to the contemporary context, the epis- system (for many centuries, both were temic and aesthetic protocols of which almost inseparable) promoted forms of insist that the inherent nature of the writing while manipulating, withdraw- artwork has been transformed both ing or censoring other ones in order in terms of “conceptual models” and to impose a certain idea of human “procedural tropes.” The point is that sexuality. Logically, the last chapter of interactive artworks have set before the the book is then an appeal toward the artists, researchers and academics a “end” of heterosexual culture (not of new model that moves beyond method- heterosexuality) and a plea for a new ologies and frameworks imported from revolution that replaces the age-old existing discourses and practices. From “natural” domination of heterosexual there, the value of interacting turns out behavior and practices by creating a to be central to practice-based research. more diverse sexual culture. To visit it within the tripartite relation- ships between/among “artworks and
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 to the next remains unaltered. First, draws from the epistemological struc- an American Jewish woman who lived Edmonds begins by locating retrospec- tures provided by creative practitioners (along with her husband) with Wright tively interactive art within the early who come from different disciplines. and his wife Oglivanna, their family and experimental practice of the 20th cen- Acknowledging this, the argument student apprentices for nearly a year at tury and pays special tribute to Du- goes, allows us to see how research Taliesin near Spring Green, Wisconsin. champ’s role in undergirding inter- can be brought into art practice and The diarist was Priscilla Henken, a New active art. Then follows Candy’s contri- vice versa. Gradually, a theoretical York–born high school English teacher, bution, which explains how “practice- cartography of working concepts in who traveled to Taliesin in October based research is explored through practice-based research emerges. Its 1942 with her husband, research engi- the prism of practitioner research in continual transformations enable the neer David Henken. Together, they interactive arts.” And, finally, Stephen resonance—at times even dissonance— “slaved” as apprentices in Wright’s Scrivener, a practitioner himself, in how we practice both art and Taliesin Fellowship until she left explains his personal “long-term experi- research today. There is a short biogra- (apparently rather abruptly) in August ence of involvement in practice-based phy of the contributors, bibliography 1943 to return to teaching in New York, research” (p. 17). and index at the end of this book. while her husband stayed on until later. In the second section, “Curatorial I have read dozens of published and Reflective Practice,” the central- diaries, from which I have concluded ity of interaction breaks with the Taliesin Diary: A Year with that not all diaries are worth read- underpinnings of curatorial work as Frank Lloyd Wright ing. But this one is fascinating, largely practiced in the setting of the tradi- because it is candid (albeit often pain- tional museum. It even pushes further by Priscilla J. Henken. W.W. Norton, fully so) and well written. It is especially the adoption of a more open-ended New York, 2012. 272 pp., illus. Trade. honest about the corrosive influence approach by means of which the stabil- ISBN: 978-0-393-73380-8. of Wright’s third wife Oglivanna (they ity of the interdisciplinary concepts had married in 1928), who, by more together with the fluidity of their associ- Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, Professor of than one account, was the Rasputin ated facts and practices are set afloat. Art and Distinguished Scholar, University of Taliesin. In page after page, do not By implication, here, the museum is of Northern Iowa, U.S.A. E-mail:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 ings, which had nothing to do with the and hopelessly henpecked. In Welsh, study of architecture, the student would “Taliesin” means “shining brow.” But, in be dismissed from the school.” In light reading this book, you are more likely of allegations that Hoover himself was to conclude that Frank Lloyd Wright’s a “cross-dresser” whose domestic soul brow, in later life, was not so much mate was (allegedly) another man, it shining as “beaten.” was especially annoying to find that Hoover reported “there were homo- sexuals attending the school.” Borges and Memory: This review is a small sampling of Encounters with the the rich and loony goings-on that took Human Brain place at Taliesin in the months while by Rodrigo Quian Quiroga. The MIT Priscilla Henken was there. Many other Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 2012. Wright apprentices and students have 224 pp., illus. Trade. ISBN: 978-0-262- written memoirs about working with 01821-0. him, some from the same time period. But this one is more explicit and, there- Reviewed by Jan Baetens, Belgium. E-mail: fore, more disturbing than the others.
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 Throughout the book the reader is ‘what could happen if the mixed media To Life!: Eco Art in invited to “play” with the author, who is nature of museums were to become a Pursuit of a Sustainable a master in combining verbal and visual paradigm of cultural practice’” (p. 63). Planet information and who helps the reader Anyone who has ever mounted an take a wonderful journey through the exhibit of virtual objects that visitors to by Linda Weintraub. University of Cali- human mind. the space can easily access themselves fornia Press, Berkeley, CA, 2012. 384 with their own computer or mobile pp. illus. Trade, paper. ISBN: 978-0-520- device knows instinctively that what 27361-0; ISBN: 978-0-520-27362-7. Virtuality and the museums (and I would include gal- Reviewed by Rob Harle, Australia. E-mail: Art of Exhibition: leries, as well) offer is an experience,
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 photos. There is an addendum in the show the attendance at art galleries is form of a personal survey, a section on increasing, both for those of the old suggestions for further research and a masters and especially those of contem- good Index. porary traditional style artwork such It is not necessary to read the book as portraiture. She writes: “The art from front to back in the normal way. world is a very prissy little thing over It may be consulted as a sort of static in the corner, while the major cultural hypertext document. The guideposts forces are being determined by techno for this approach are mapped out in science” (p. 211). The major forces the Schematics, Indexes and Glossaries affecting culture are the sales agendas at the beginning of the book. This is of national and multinational corpora- actually quite ingenious as the cross- tions using social media such as Reality referencing takes you to the best avail- Television, the Internet and Facebook! able example from the combination I believe this book will become an of inputs. These pages are followed by essential reference work for all those a number of explanatory essays that working as, or thinking of becoming, discuss what eco art is and is not. Eco eco artists. It will prove itself invaluable art themes, aesthetics and materials to teachers at most levels of education are also discussed. The essays are not from schools to universities. especially scientific or complex and are suitable for all levels of readership. diverse, in part because graphic design I can envision some wonderful projects Graphic Design Process: is no longer as tightly defined as it for even young schoolchildren to help From Problem was. Today, as the authors remind us, convey the importance of environmen- to Solution it “spans many media, offers exposure to endless subject material and reaches tal sustainability and give kids a real by Nancy Skolos and Thomas Wedell. into countless other disciplines for sense of the earth. One minor criticism Laurence King Publishing, London, inspiration.” Even more distinctions is the verbosity of some of the essays. U.K., 2012. 192 pp., illus. Paper. ISBN: arise because “there is no single way to The book describes eco art very well 978-1-85669-826-9. and locates it accurately within art conduct a design practice” and “every history, but lacks a deep theoretical Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, Professor of Art project demands its own way of work- critical approach—this is not a criti- and Distinguished Scholar. University of ing.” cism per se but more an observation to Northern Iowa, U.S.A. E-mail:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 problem-solving is about “finding out express this understanding using, so the nature of what exists,” whereas far as possible, non-specialist language problem-solving in design is about that’s comprehensible to gamers and “inventing things of value which do non-gamers alike” (p. 17). Sharpen- not yet exist. Science is analytic; design ing his point, Cutting says, “It’s not is constructive.” In another section, this underlying basis for play, but the there are inklings of the gap between particular forms taken by videogames design and artistic creativity. It is widely as we hitherto know them that limit assumed among artists that “mundane how gamers might currently imagine limitations such as time and budget . . life as playable” (p. 7). The forms Cut- . run counter to the act of creativity,” ting proposes are many, varied, and but when designers solve problems, “it thought provoking, beginning with a is these very restraints that stimulate tutorial devoted to demonstrating the inventive solutions.” three basic concepts of game design: Another thread that runs through- rules, systems and computations. Read- out is the belief that solutions can ers, gamers and “play thinkers” (p. 17) often result from cross-fertilization, learn to make some rules, think system- metaphorical thinking or sort crossing atically and perform as a human tic-tac- (implied by the earlier notion about toe machine. busy designers being more innovative Cutting builds on this tutorial by because they mix up this with that), as providing missions through which one occurs for example in visual puns. In behavior or commercial entertainment. can consider videogames as enquiry, as one case study, a breakthrough came Rarely are they championed as perhaps tools for exploring the glamorization out of a comment about the resem- the only solution to the world’s most of mythologies associated with objects blance between Arabic letters and a intractable problems. Following the within videogames (weapons, for plate of tagliatelle pasta. For another latter view, we note that videogames are example), as opportunities for scholarly designer, the solution to a poster prob- remarkably diverse, genuinely creative, gaming and as a new form of literacy. lem began when he saw the relation increasingly realistic and frequently Copious notes for further reading between EVIL and LIVE. In a third subversive, all allowing us to experi- resources are provided as well. At the problem, that of designing a gallery ment imaginatively with how, and with heart of these missions is Cutting’s con- where exhibition attendees could post what results, a gaming attitude might tention that videogames, by simulating their handwritten responses, the pro- be carried into aspects of daily life. A diverse environments with increasing vided COMMENT sheet was punched gaming attitude represents, fundamen- realism, enable players to experiment so that the O became a hole, the same tally, the desire for enjoyment and play- imaginatively, safely and hypothetically size as the provided pencil that also fulness in an alternative world whose with life-risking scenarios, to experi- functioned as a peg for posting the rules are less complicated than real life. ment with the potential results of carry- note. Lastly, a poster designer used Rarely is such an attitude considered ing a gaming attitude into every aspect interwoven paper strips to construct a as the underlying basis for play in all of our lives (p. 5). Individual results provocative portrait of a Nigerian writer aspects of human life. Andrew Cut- may vary, but the journey will be less from the Yoruba tribe (famous for their ting believes it can be and sets out to intellectual, spiritual, and moral, espe- arts and crafts, weaving among them). demonstrate how in his book, Missions cially if life players make or participate There is much, much more to har- for Thoughtful Gamers, a no-nonsense in no promises, vows, ceremonies, con- vest in this volume than those few sequence of 40 challenges (“missions”), ferences, and rituals. Such things, says aspects mentioned here. It has an thought experiments and creative exer- Cutting, help make us more human. engaging and well-written text, but, cises, each designed to involve game Without them, we miss ways to become like most books on graphic design, its players and other interested readers in and understand who we are (p. 8). Cut- exquisite visual examples provide us becoming more creatively curious and ting concludes that gaming can make with more than words alone can tell. self-aware. learning fun and more successful, in a As Cutting notes, “the overarching number of different forms—from a sim- mission of this book is to bridge the ple quiz to a learning quest structured Missions for apparent gulf between everyday enjoy- as a series of missions central to specific Thoughtful Gamers ment of gaming, so often explained training and educational strategies. away under the catch-all label of ‘fun,’ Missions for Thoughtful Gamers pro- by Andrew Cutting. ETC Press, Carn- and big philosophical questions such vides (pardon the pun) a game book egie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, as Who am I? What is it like to be me for those embarked on a quest for U.S.A., 2011. 204 pp. Trade, free down- in this world? What is real? What is understanding and meaning. This book load. ISBN-13: 978-1-257-97970-7. true? What makes life good?” (p. 8). is both inspiration for a new generation Accordingly, the missions presented by of game designers, critics and educa- Reviewed by John F. Barber. The Creative Cutting explore how videogames may tors, and a humane introduction for Media & Digital Culture Program. Wash- be utilized to address broader ques- play thinkers as to why videogames mat- ington State University Vancouver. E-mail: tions of general human concern. It is ter today and into the future.
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_00659 by guest on 02 October 2021 Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures by Leonard March 2013 Leonardo Reviews Barkan. Reviewed by Jan Baetens. Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Online Photoshop by Mia Fineman. Reviewed by Wartime Kiss: Visions of the Moment in the Roy R. Behrens. 1940s by Alexander Nemerov. Reviewed by Jan Baetens. May 2013 February 2013 Afterimage of Empire: Photography in Nine- What Was Contemporary Art? by Rich- teenth-Century India by Zahid R. Chaud- ard Meyer. Reviewed by Giovanna L. America’s Other Audubon by Joy M. Kiser. hary. Reviewed by Aparna Sharma. Costantini. Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens.
Art Beyond Art: Ecoaesthetics, a Manifesto Cameron Live! by Cameron Carpenter et for the 21st Century by Rasheed Araeen. al. Reviewed by Richard Kade. Reviewed by Rob Harle. April 2013 Agents of Uncertainty: Mysticism, Scepti- MP3: The Meaning of a Format by Jona- Dancing around the Bride: Cage, Cunning- cism, Buddhism, Art and Poetry by John than Sterne. Reviewed by Mike Mosher. ham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp. Danvers. Reviewed by Mike Leggett. Exhibition at Barbican, London; catalogue Music, Sound and Technology in America, edited by Carlos Basualdo and Erica Lesabéndio: An Asteroid Novel by Paul edited by Timothy D. Taylor, Mark Katz F. Battle, Editors. Reviewed by Edith Scheerbart. Reviewed by John F. Barber. and Tony Grajeda. Reviewed by Mike Doove. Mosher. Pataphysics: A Useless Guide by Andrew From the Enlightenment to Test Bed Hugill. Reviewed by Brian Reffin Smith. A Natural History of Laughter by Jacques for the Future: Edinburgh Interna- Mitsch. Reviewed by Edith Doove. tional Science Festival. Reviewed by Philosophical Essays: A Critical Edition– Elizabeth R. Straughan and Philip J. Fernando Pessoa, edited by Nuno Ri- Painting with Architecture in Mind, edited Nicholson. beiro. Reviewed by Allan Graubard. by Edward Whittaker and Alex Lan- drum. Reviewed by Agnieszka Mlicka. The Fairies Return: Or, New Tales for Old The Substance: One Drop Changes Every- by Peter Davies. Reviewed by John F. thing by Martin Witz. Reviewed by Rob Waves by Fredric Raichlen. Reviewed by Barber. Harle. John F. Barber.
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