leonardo reviews
editor-in-chief Michael Punt associate editors Hannah Drayson, Dene Grigar, Jane Hutchinson A full selection of reviews is published monthly on the Leonardo website:
b o o k s no prizes for guessing why philoso- tigating the structures of existing spe- pher David Chalmers named the task cies and what we know of ancestral The Ancient Origins of of objectively explaining the highly species using morphological (current Consciousness: How the subjective nature of experience the and fossil), molecular and functional Brain Created Experience Hard Problem. This hard problem is of evidence. In this process, Feinberg by Todd E. Feinberg and Jon M. Mallatt. enormous interest to all who think, and Mallatt ask straightforward ques- The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., and its study has traditionally been tions. What are the basic features 2016. 392 pp., illus. Trade. ISBN: 978-0- the focus of philosophical investiga- that are needed for consciousness? 262-03433-3. tion. As a hard problem, Feinberg and When did these features first appear? Reviewed by Craig Hilton, Mallet argue, the study of conscious- Evidence strongly suggests that Unitec, New Zealand, Mt. Albert, ness requires a multidisciplinary consciousness first appeared during Auckland, New Zealand. approach. the Cambrian explosion, when ver- Email:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01561 by guest on 27 September 2021 and at least some sort of basic con- tive literature reading lists (particu- sciousness. larly his Film Language: A Semiotics of There it is. Consciousness predates the Cinema, 1974). Tied to semiotics us and not just us. Consciousness and psychoanalysis, interest in Metz’s predates primates and mammals and work passed with interest in those possibly arose separately on more subjects. Metz’s present book repre- than one occasion. This is strong sents a delayed continuation of his evidence that there exists a significant legacy in an English translation of his survival advantage for any organism last book (L’énonciation impersonnelle, that is consciously aware of the risks ou le site du film), first published in and rewards of the external environ- 1991. In the introduction, translator ment and of its own internal state Cormac Deane notes how dissimilar and has an experience of being, an the text is to Metz’s earlier ponder- awareness of self. Hence, it seems ous works and argues that Metz is that we share a planet with conscious not looking backward at his formed beings who experience what it is to system but rather is looking forward be and who understand themselves to new challenges that would preoc- Octopuses, despite their apparent as distinct from others. More study cupy film theorists. The result is a cleverness, are thought to fail crucial will no doubt shed more light on the wide-ranging pass through tens of consciousness criteria with their extent of consciousness’s reach, but examples of films of all kinds, only independent neurally controlled consciousness it seems is quite pos- bookended with the theoretical arma- arms. Countering this, The Ancient sibly significantly more common than ture of how Metz thinks enunciation Origins of Consciousness makes the we might have believed. works in films. case for mental unity in the octopus While The Ancient Origins of Con- The title, Impersonal Enunciation, brain and therefore the possibil- sciousness may require some com- suggests that the subjectivity of the ity of consciousness defined as an mitment from the reader to navigate film takes place outside of actual peo- experience of what it is to be. If this the multidisciplinary approach the ple (impersonal), while the “place” of is truly the case, it is possible that authors employ to address the com- film is asking where that nonperson consciousness emerged in cephalo- plexity of the hard problem, this well- might be. For Metz—long associated pods’ ancestors alongside their post- structured book is well worth the with linguistic reduction (the por- Cambrian evolution of good vision. effort required. As the authors state trayal of film on a linguistic model)— Unfortunately, these species are not in the preface, “We do not skimp,” true enunciation doesn’t actually take as well studied as vertebrates, and and they certainly did not—but they place in film. The theory is an appar- the authors remain cautious, judging have also designed this book thought- ent volte-face: Technical enunciation cephalopod molluscs and arthropods fully to ensure that nonexperts can as outlined for French semioticians to be “probably conscious.” If arthro- remain engaged and informed as by Benveniste is not a true pronomial pods and cephalopods do turn out to they encounter robust arguments and case in the example of film, the film’s possess consciousness, then without conclusions that are well supported “you” to our “I.” Rather, Metz argues, a doubt consciousness is considerably on all fronts. From this perspective, it contains merely a “source” and a more widespread than is currently no review can do justice to the work “target.” thought and has also emerged from behind The Ancient Origins of Con- The heart of the book is 11 short the evolution of quite different neural sciousness. chapters documenting various ways structures. Independent evolution in which film appeals to the viewer, would help explain emerging evi- Impersonal Enunciation, including the voice in the image, the dence that other invertebrates may or the Place of Film voice outside the image, text added possess consciousness. Honeybees, by Christian Metz; translated by Cormac to an image, the addition of second- for instance, have learning and mem- Deane. Columbia Univ. Press, New York, ary screens and mirrors, the display ory abilities that appear to be able to U.S.A., 2015. 280 pp. Trade; paper; eBook. of metatechnical elements to “expose comprehend certain abstract things. ISBN: 978-0-231-17366-7; ISBN: 978-0- the apparatus,” films within films and This seems incompatible with the size 231-17366-7; ISBN: 978-0-231-54064-3. so on. of their brains, which are very small. Reviewed by Ian Verstegen, Metz smirks at the imputation of However, their brains are rather University of Pennsylvania. linguistic reduction to him by Anglo- more dense than ours, and the insect Email:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01561 by guest on 27 September 2021 still demand the term “enunciation.” the book, on the infrastructures of library can be as a curatorial space: In other words, Metz regarded him- knowledge, on the political condi- problem-creating, methodologically self as merely using linguistic ideas tions of collections and many other active organization of possibilities productively, but from the English- topics that show the dynamics of the of research and creation. While such language perspective his thought was institution. Fantasies of the Library, themes are increasingly central for dripping with some pretty specific edited by Anna-Sophie Springer current debates through digital infra- (Saussurian-Hjemslevian) influ- and Etienne Turpin, works to high- structures, this book shows that there ences. In this book, Metz persistently light the centrality of the library as is a historical and an artistic side to contrasts his views with those of a historical and contemporary place these questions. Francesco Casetti, and in the context of imaginary practices while also Springer’s essay is an enjoyable of Metz’s rule-less system, Casetti’s discussing its institutional relations read, and the book is designed so espousal of a true system of enun- to related forms of knowledge such that the lead essay is juxtaposed on ciative positions—apparently more as the archive and curatorial prac- the other side of the page with the linguistically rigid—does not attain tices. The book itself is part of the other materials of the edited book. linguistic reduction so much as it intercalations: paginated exhibition This includes interviews with Erin places interpretation within bounds. series and is also published separately Kissane, Megan Prelinger with Rick A recent cognitive linguistic analy- by the MIT Press. Prelinger, and Hammad Nasar and sis of enunciation seems to partly A principal part of the book is Joanna Zylinska; contributions by support Metz in defining a subset of formed by Springer’s lead essay Andrew Norman Wilson (who impersonal discourse as “nobodied” on curatorial spaces of the library, images Google book scan glitches); (belonging to a subjectivity other or “Melancholies of the Paginated and Charles Stankievech’s text written than a person), which in film’s case is Mind.” The essay mobilizes a range in the context of the recent lawsuit “not attributable to a personal sub- of historical examples and theorists against arg.org. The layout works jectivity” and for which the camera as part of the various dialogues and more as a good idea than as part of “does not imply the presence of a relations of the short book. The insti- the experience of reading, but it does person doing the seeing” [1]. But it tutional practices of the library have force the reader to be more aware would take much more investigation organized not only collections but of how the flow of the text operates. to resolve the great debate between also their users. Springer’s discus- And in the midst of the back-and- Metz and Casetti. sion explores Michel Foucault’s and forth reading that jumps across more Gustave Flaubert’s thinking on the than two pages, the book succeeds in Reference historical situations of practices of staging some apt contexts for explor- 1 Line Brandt, The Communicative Mind: the imaginary as part of a key form ing the question of how the library A Linguistic Exploration of Conceptual of modern subjectivity: “In fact, situates itself somewhere between a Integration and Meaning Construction Foucault contends that it was Flau- structure and a place, an idea and an (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge bert who opened the way for a new organizational practice. Scholars Publishing, 2013) p. 71. form of subjectivity in the nineteenth century, one in which the imaginary Fantasies of the Library is experienced as arising less from the edited by Anna-Sophie Springer nature of nocturnal dreams and more and Etienne Turpin. The MIT Press, from the repositories of accumulated Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 2016. 160 pp., knowledge” (p. 33). In addition, Aby illus. Trade. ISBN: 978-0-262-03520-0. Warburg’s library as an alternative Reviewed by Jussi Parikka, form of assembly and organization Winchester School of Art, to a standard classification system is University of Southampton, U.K. introduced through its centrality as Email:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01561 by guest on 27 September 2021 The editors’ thinking about the comes out well in the visual essay express a marked and uneasy concern book as part of their curatorial prac- “Reading Rooms Reading Machines,” regarding disciplinarity, involving not tice is revealed through a question which moves from contemporary arts only the relevance of each contribu- that Zylinska, one of the interviewees, of the book and its forms of organiza- tor’s DH work to their own discipline asks: What does the project want? tion to the situations in which the but that to other disciplines as well. In Springer’s words: book is staged and visible, address- Thus this wide-ranging collection able and usable; from practices might be of particular interest to We are beginning with the tool as and technologies of reading to the those working in transdisciplinary a technology of the imagination imaginaries, the forms and materi- and interdisciplinary studies. For as a way to explore the library as als of organization knowledge that instance, in Ryan Cordell’s emblem- a curatorial project in relation to are the entry point to contemporary atic essay, “How Not to Teach Digi- concepts and intellection. We are discussions of data and organization. tal Humanities” (in Part V: Digital trying to avoid the gimmick, or of Indeed, as Springer puts it, this all Humanities and Its Critics), he writes tricking out the book as a gimmick reveals how the book is to be consid- that the power of DH will lie in trans- that would pretend to be a substi- ered “a situation and a practice,” just ferring information and lessons from tute for thought. We are pushing like the library itself. one discipline to another, that “DH the concept of the paginated mind will only be a revolutionary inter- as a means to reimagine the rela- Debates in the Digital disciplinary movement if its various tions between research, discipline, Humanities 2016 practitioners bring to it the meth- and creativity (p. 130). edited by Matthew K. Gold and Lauren F. ods of distinct disciplines and take Klein. University of Minnesota Press, insights from it back to those disci- This particular instance of the Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A., 2016. 600 pp., plines” (p. 463). As this is, however, project sets up many relevant connec- illus. Trade, paper. ISBN: 978-0-8166- the formal definition of transdiscipli- tions. It also sparks further thoughts 9953-7; ISBN: 978-0-8166-9954-4. narity—not interdisciplinarity—this in relation to other contemporary art Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg, volume might be of special interest to and curatorial projects that work in Contributing Researcher, Department the Leonardo community, especially and out of the library. For example, of Transtechnology Research, considering the shared topical con- the discussion of mobile libraries Plymouth University, U.K. Email: cerns. and the temporality of the library
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01561 by guest on 27 September 2021 and cultural convergence in “Where actually the bright side, Cordell, in place that will constitute the content is Cultural Criticism in the Digital hoping for a better engagement with and character of the next editions of Humanities?” (2012), from William the humanities, concludes that DH is Debates in the Digital Humanities, Pannapacker’s essay “Stop Calling simply “a useful banner for gathering one would hope that the editors will It Digital Humanities” (2013) to the a community of scholars doing weird do one thing: include that elemen- sheer scale of issues considered in humanities work with computers” tal predigital search function—an these chapters, this book indeed (p. 473). In that expanding context, index. In either event, the prepon- signals that DH has come of age [2]. Domenico Fiormonte, in “Towards a derance of the citation of digital Two essays, in particular, provide Cultural Critique of Digital Humani- sources in this book and those that critical self-reflexive insider accounts ties” (a republished version of the ear- will follow provides effective entry of DH history, namely Bethany lier “infamous” article given in 2012 points into the evolving networked Nowviskie’s “On the Origin of ‘Hack’ at the “Cologne Controversies around DH archive. and ‘Yack’” and the multiauthored the Digital Humanities” workshop, essay on hashtag activism, “Reflec- argues that DH practitioners should References and Notes tions on a Movement: #transformDH, abandon the obsession with archive 1 See Rosalind Krauss, “Sculpture in the Growing Up.” fever and large-scale digitalization Expanded Field,” October 8 (Spring In the opening essay, Steven Jones projects. 1979), 30–44. describes how between 2004 and To return to the issue of discipli- 2 See William Pannapacker, “Stop Calling 2008 the network was “everted” at narity, Ethan Watrall’s “Archaeol- It ‘Digital Humanities,’ ” Chronicle of the same time DH was achieving ogy, the Digital Humanities and the Higher Education, 18 February 2013, critical mass. What is this term “ever- ‘Big Tent’ ” is particularly telling.
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01561 by guest on 27 September 2021 turned toward the stuff of our is post-humanist because it looks for to seamlessly bring together major lives, and never outward. a new balance between the needs of insights from human geography and It all spills over us. We put it to human beings and those of nonhu- cultural heritage (Ingold and Lowen- order. man beings (plants, animals, build- thal are frequently quoted, along It falls apart. We order it again ings, environments), one that puts an with many others), personal research and fall apart ourselves. end to human exceptionalism. It is reports (the author has been doing also post-preservationist since it tries fieldwork in several American and This fragment (and it is important to make room for the creation of new British heritage locations, in very dif- that it is a fragment, not a complete relationships with the past through ferent archaeological and institutional poem) poignantly summarizes the the (curated) use of decay, that is, contexts), personal reflections and very failure of the preservationist and of vanishing and death, addressing testimonies (including the repeated humanist paradigm: the impossibil- things no longer just as “things,” capa- use of poetic fragments, brilliantly ity of giving a lasting form to what is ble of being kept outside the cycle of woven into the fabric of the text; going away as well as the refusal to life and death, but as “processes,” that DeSilvey’s sober but crucial contribu- accept the vanishing of “the stuff of is, as beings and structures having, tions of personal life-writing to the our lives.” DeSilvey’s starting point in just like human beings, their own life text are another powerful aspect of Curated Decay is the growing aware- and death. “Heritage beyond saving,” the text). ness of the limits—she does not say to quote the book’s subtitle, is then Central to this book are eight case failure, for the tone of the book is not the search for a new form of heritage studies, each devoted to a specific polemical at all—of the traditional that does not reject preservation but kind of endangered site (deserted humanist preservationist ideal still instead tries to broaden and deepen homesteads, abandoned industrial dominant in Euro-American heritage it, first by proposing forms of curat- plants, harbors imperiled by sea policy and, more generally, in the ing heritage that stop seeing integral storms and climate change, empty Western relationship with the past. material maintenance as an absolute Cold War nuclear test sites) and On the one hand, it becomes clear ideal; and second by stressing the each discussing specific aspects and that preservation is becoming more productive values of decay, which dimensions of experimental heritage and more difficult, from a material may prove much stronger instru- work. DeSilvey’s approach is always as well as a financial point of view: ments to give meaning and value to very cautious and extremely polite There are simply too many buildings the past than the classic preserva- to the point of view of traditional and built environments to be pro- tionist paradigm. In that regard, the preservationists, whose position tected, restored and managed (and positive reinterpretation of decay and and priorities are approached with their number is increasing daily), entropy—the two principal notions carefulness and understanding and and the costs of such operations are defining what the classic paradigm above all with a strong concern for so high that people inevitably have wants to fight at all cost—does not what underlies the desires and sensi- to make choices—painful choices, come as a surprise. In the experi- bilities of all those having to do with since in the humanist preservationist mental heritage policy defended by heritage: the idea and practice of care paradigm the loss of a thing—be it an DeSilvey, decay and entropy are not object or a building—is experienced synonymous with destruction and as the loss of one’s own identity. On loss; they instead open the possibility the other hand, preservation heritage of seeing loss and destruction as the clashes with other priorities, no less beginning of something new, not only valid—even from a classic human- in the material sense of the word but ist point of view—than that of the also in the cultural sense of the word, material maintenance of manmade provided people manage to develop things: wildlife, plants, animals and new ways of living the permanent biodiversity, for instance. Finally, it change of things in relation to their also appears that preservation does own transience and mortality. (Non- not necessarily produce or enhance Western cultures, which often have what is the essential motivation of a different approach to change and heritage, namely the establishment of impermanence, may provide useful a deep relationship with the past (or examples in this regard.) rather with time, for the perception DeSilvey does not make her claim of the past cannot be separated from via a theoretical discourse. Although an anticipated connection with the she smartly uses all relevant literature future). in her book, she does so in a practice- Curated Decay makes a plea for a based, hands-on and personal style different take on heritage. This take of writing, by which she manages
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01561 by guest on 27 September 2021 as well as the need to find an ethics municate with one another, but individual cells, Golgi argued for of heritage that emphasizes the con- not what they are communicating” reticular theory, a nineteenth-century nectedness of all things, human and (p. 205). scientific theory that surmised that nonhuman, living and no longer or The first section, on mapping the everything in the nervous system is a not yet living. brain, presents connectome projects. part of a single continuous network. Although the aim of the book is This idea (along with computation, Moreover, his Nobel speech argued, not to propose a new institutional the subject of the second section) is the nervous network concept he policy, it is impossible to think that the primary research paradigm pre- defended was needed: DeSilvey’s line of argumentation— sented in the book. Essays by Mike which is increasingly present in Hawrylycz, Misha Ahrens, Christof What I have just said of the net- heritage studies—will remain without Koch, Anthony Zador and George work, on its structure and, above impact on the political agenda. At the Church set the stage for this book’s all, on the fact that all the parts of same time, it should encourage those survey of current efforts to under- the central nervous system make up working in the field of immaterial stand brain connectivity through a part of it, proves the anatomical heritage to start asking similar ques- mapping and imaging neural activi- and functional continuity between tions, and in this sense a book like ties of mice, strategies for reverse nerve cells. And that is the reason Curated Decay is an essential con- engineering and so forth. The second why I have not been able to accept tribution to a debate that we can no section, on computation, includes the idea of this independence of longer avoid. essays by May-Britt and Edvard each nerve cell which is the essen- Moser, Krishna Shenoy, Olaf Sporns tial basis of the neuron theory. [1] Future of the Brain: and Jeremy Freeman. Together the Essays by the World’s two sections argue that the brain is an Whether the worm has turned is a Leading Neuroscientists organ of computation and that scien- question that is unfortunately outside edited by Gary Marcus and Jeremy tists need to figure out what the brain of this book’s scope. Instead, after Freeman. Princeton Univ. Press, is computing. establishing the value of studying Princeton, NJ, U.S.A., 2016. 304 pp., illus. The emphasis on connectivity connectivity and computation, Sean Paper. ISBN: 978-0-691-17331-3. within these two sections brought to Hill and Chris Eliasmith introduce Reviewed by Amy Ione, mind that one of the most extraor- brain simulation efforts in the third Director, The Diatrope Institute. dinary controversies in Nobel Prize section, while David Poeppel and
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01561 by guest on 27 September 2021 that historically trends have swung ing. Zador argues that a connectome back and forth. This pendulum may allow us to reverse-engineer the seems like an ill-conceived part of brain: “To reverse engineer biological scientific theorizing and is particu- intelligence we must understand how larly disheartening when looked at specific neural circuits solve well- comprehensively given that science defined problems” (p. 44). According provides only one avenue of inquiry to Eliasmith: in our world. In short, reverse engineering the Those seeking to learn more about brain will allow us to: (1) under- particular areas of current research stand the healthy and unhealthy may find the volume’s limited terrain brain and develop new medical in- helpful. It does cover some specific terventions, (2) develop new kinds projects, including new efforts to of algorithms to improve existing map the brain. The chapters’ authors machine intelligence, and (3) de- declare that better atlases will aid velop new technologies that exploit research, but, as several note, this can the physical principles exhibited by only really be the case if we ask the neural computation (p. 125). right questions. Many spoke of the rely on the diagnostic categories they need for and value of large observato- But, also, in the “Skeptics” section, hope to validate. ries like those that are used in physics we find two radically different posi- The book ends with a science (e.g. CERN) and research initiatives tions being aired about computational fiction–type story—an afterword—by (such as the Obama administration’s analogies. On the one hand, Matteo Christof Koch and Gary Marcus. On BRAIN Initiative and the European Carandin expresses some concerns the one hand, their fantasy is largely Union’s Human Brain Project). The about interpretations that draw unrelated to policy and humanistic papers that come closest to adding a conclusions using an intermediate- realities, so elements like funding social dimension are in the “Skeptics” level computer analogy. Marcus, by and ethical concerns are largely section, one by Leah Krubizer and contrast, claims that the field needs unaddressed even in terms of future the second co-authored by Arthur to break free from the idea that the prospects. On the other hand, the Caplan and Nathan Kunzler. Caplan brain is not a computer. historical notations they include and Kunzler raise several good points If these views offer a taste of the to buttress their narrative show an under the header “Are We There Yet? range at play in the book, the sum amazing unawareness of the history What Counts as Progress?” As they total reminded me that scientific of the neurosciences. point out, key considerations are conclusions are, at best, provisional, Taken as a whole, the presenta- often skirted in “progress” discus- because the methodology is also tions remind us of the importance sions, particularly now that genetic designed to probe limitations within of communicating about evidence analogies have entered the picture. current work. This probing mecha- (data) in scientific research, which The question of whose brain to map, nism is key despite the way scientists is unlike metaphysical argumenta- for example, is centrally important. often act as if there is a destination tion in which evidence takes second Will we include data from the men- we will reach, where we will get to place to ideas. Yet this collection also tally ill? Will those who have brain the “irreducible” essence of a form suffers from the lack of focus com- diseases be a part of what is brought or process. Unfortunately, this urge mon to all anthologies. In addition, forth as normal? Even if these were toward the irreducible seems, at least it fails to grapple with problems that answerable questions, additional to me, to assume more of a meta- many authors mention in passing. considerations include that we don’t physical completeness rather than an For example, an ever-increasing know how different the connectome evolutionary option, with concepts accumulation of data exists in paral- of each human brain is or what sort like “irreducible components” negat- lel to a reality in which we all inter- of variability to expect in a dynamic ing that the brain is a part of a living, pret the devilish details differently. brain image. Caplan and Kunzler also growing and mutating reality. “Con- Since figuring out what the data explain that “if the genome has taught nectivity” may add a theoretical sense implies is no easy task, I found the us anything, it’s that those working of a holistic process, but it is mostly lack of a humanistic dimension to to map out biology, be it genome or framed as if there is a final place we the publication a bit disheartening. brain, have a huge social responsibil- will reach or will define. For example, Restricting science to “just the facts, ity” (p. 204). according to Olaf Sporns, one of ma’am” is comparable to assum- Variability is also evident in how authors of the term connectome, ing studies on networking will now we interpret the details, particularly who also penned a chapter for this sufficiently address the limitations within popular approaches like book, “neuroscience will also need to within localization even knowing computation and reverse engineer- shift perspective toward embracing
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01561 by guest on 27 September 2021 a view that squarely acknowledges of locomotion, and our move- complement this volume with a title the brain as a complex networked ment away from traditional tool like Experience: Culture, Cognition, system, with many levels of organiza- use to automation and skills that and the Common Sense, a compila- tion, from cells to cognition, that are require more unique movements tion from a symposium that brought individually irreducible and mutually of our digits all of which may artists, musicians, philosophers, interconnected” (p. 90). I find this shape our future body, morphol- anthropologists, historians and neu- idea somewhat ambiguous in light ogy, physiology, and metabolism. roscientists together. The Experience of brain plasticity. It also raises the In short, you can’t predict future anthology has a wider sweep and has question of what he thinks is irreduc- brain organization in isolation, much to say about the interplay but must consider the multilay- ible; is he arguing that it is the levels of sensorial and cultural realms of ered context in which the brain of organization? experience [2]. develops (p. 192). On finishing the book I found myself trying to reconcile its omission In summary, although the essays References of culture and society. To be sure, one are well written and enjoyable, they 1 The full lecture is available at cannot deny that modern science and are rather limited in scope and may
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01561 by guest on 27 September 2021 as its premise the position that color cia and was reserved for the highest be inscribed as color—encompasses is a socially constructed concept, one imperial authority, as reflected in attitudes and values that may in many whose vocabulary, codes and values, the expression “to take the purple.” respects be relativistic to contempo- organization, and uses have been Purple was expressly proscribed for raneity. For this reason, Pastoureau’s determined by distinct and identifi- those of lesser status, and Suetonius more focused scrutiny of dye stuffs in able cultures. As such, Pastoureau’s recounts that the son of King Juba II antiquity approximates the broader narrative extends beyond color’s of Macedonia was put to death for medium-specific approach of studies physical properties as a component of being seen in Rome dressed entirely such as Elena Phipps’s Cochineal Red light or physiological and psychologi- in purple. Ancient writers also com- (2010) (which is based in textiles), for cal metrics to social customs, techni- mented on red’s usage in cosmetics, Pastoureau’s text extends the ethno- cal applications, religious and moral as in Ovid’s remark, “Your looks are graphic reach of color history to more codes, artistic creations, and symbolic aided by a dissembled art,” or in Mar- widely dispersed geographic regions and lexical expressions in areas that tial’s remark to Galla, “Your face does and trade networks active across the merge at times with chemistry, eco- not sleep with you.” globe. nomics, trade and technology. The Pastoureau devotes the core of his Like Pastoureau’s other volumes author is particularly qualified to book to the Middle Ages, spanning in the series (Blue, 2001; Black, 2009; offer such perspectives, having con- the 6th to the 14th centuries, wherein and Green, 2014), Red is addressed ducted seminars on the subject at the he traces red’s liturgical usage in to generalists for whom its anecdotal École des Hautes Études en Sciences Christianity, whose principal associa- history and sumptuous illustrations Sociales for over 30 years. tions with red were sacrifice, redemp- provide abundant reading pleasure. It Arranged chronologically, the text tive blood/wine and the militant offers an engaging panorama of red’s spans subjects from Paleolithic cave Church triumphant emblazoned as a cultural significance throughout the paintings to Chinese parade photos, red cross on the banners of Richard ages, one that aids the iconographic moving from the Hall of Bulls of the Lionhearted and other knights study and appreciation of art as social Spain’s Altamira caves, circa 15,000 of the Crusades. As the first color history, traced as handprints on a BCE, to Rothko’s twentieth-century of heraldry, red was incorporated cavern wall. abstractions. Pastoureau examines into coats of arms from the 12th to the composition of various pigments the 18th centuries in symbols of san- Reference from plants and minerals and other guine honor, vigor, justice, charity 1 Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the Mid- organisms, such as hematite used in and courage. In Arthurian legends dle Ages (1919; repr., New York: Anchor Pharaonic Egypt; the herb madder, and chivalric romances “the lover,” Books, 1956) p. 10. popular during the Roman Empire; according to the Dutch medievalist and kermes, a dye extracted from Johan Huizinga, “wore the colors of certain insects in the Mediterranean. his lady, companions the emblem l e o n a r d o This survey of red’s usage in antiquity of their confraternity, parties, and r e v i e w s includes descriptions of the technical servants the blazons of their lords. o n l i n e means used to transform elemental A medieval town,” he wrote in The ores and animal or vegetable mat- Waning of the Middle Ages, “did not August 2017 ter into pigments; dyeing processes; lose itself in suburbs and factories . . . and artisanal practices as well as girded by its walls, it stood forth as a A Mind at Play: How Claude Shan- symbolic functions associated with compact whole” [1]. non Invented the Information Age funerary customs (red ochre burials), Pastoureau’s survey—while it by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman. ritual observances (the rooster’s red extends through the modern era Reviewed by Amy Ione. comb used in divination) and myth from connotations of sin and luxury Body Modern: Fritz Kahn, Scientific (association with the vital powers of under the Protestant Reformation to Illustration, and the Homuncular Dionysus). According to Pliny’s Natu- the coloristic richness of Van Eyck, Subject by Michael Sappol. Reviewed ral History, red was reputed to come Uccello, Rubens and de la Tour; from by Jan Baetens. from the blood of dragons and ele- Rococo’s rosy complexions to the phants. Although the earliest history scientific discoveries of Robert Boyle Here / There: Telepresence, Touch, and of dyeing remains speculative, cloth and Isaac Newton; and from political Art at the Interface by Kris Paulsen. fragments recovered in tombs from associations of French Republican- Reviewed by Ana Peraica. the 3rd to the 1st millennium BCE ism to the Bolshevik Revolution and 23rd International Symposium provide evidence of materials such as Mao’s Little Red Book—explores red’s on Electronic Art (ISEA2017) and henna, murex and carthamus traded sociohistoric codings among predom- 16th International Image Festival. throughout the Mediterranean basin. inantly premodern Western societies. Reviewed by Tariq Emam. Roman Purple (purpura), a variation This emphasis on comparatively of red, was extracted from the glands homogeneous cultures—whose com- Remediating McLuhan by Richard of shellfish collected from Phoeni- mon perceptions and traditions can Cavell. Reviewed by Anthony Enns.
96 Leonardo Reviews
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