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Leonardo Reviews 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: <leonardo.info/reviews>. b o o k s of these regions as untouched by modernism) and “neoliberalism,” the certain excesses of urban and mod- former characterized by the disman- For Folk’s sake: art and ern civilization, but what do these tling of classic hierarchies, the latter economy in twentieth- superficial observations on the art by the increasing privatization of the century nova scotia production and allegedly authentic public domain. In light of this double by Erin Morton. McGill/Queen’s taste of the common people actu- theoretical framework, economical University Press, Montréal, Quebec, 2016. ally mean? The challenging study by on the one hand, historical on the 424 pp., illus. Trade; paper. ISBN: 978- Erin Morton, professor of history at other hand, Morton advances—and 0773548114; ISBN: 978-0773548121. the University of New Brunswick, brilliantly illustrates—her main thesis not only shows how deceiving these that the emergence of folk art in Nova Reviewed by Jan Baetens. Email: <jan. impressions are but also demonstrates Scotia, long a very rural province, [email protected]>. that a better understanding of what was not something that happened doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01621 really happens when folk art comes spontaneously but was the result of a so much to the fore has much to complex set of converging historical, tell about art, culture and politics in political and institutional changes general. Morton’s book is indeed a that reshaped art and culture in the meticulous examination of the larger decade 1967–1977. These changes had framework and network that helps to do with the growing entanglement elucidate the many hidden aspects of culture and tourism, the sudden of the emergence of certain forms public intervention in the field of art, of popular culture as folk art. The the rapid modernization and technol- theoretical basis of Morton’s book ogization of all aspects of life in Nova relies on two pillars. First of all, the Scotia, the unforeseen but highly author’s approach to art and culture is strongly determined by the idea of presentism, that is, the fact that Reviews Panel: Fred Andersson, Jan Baetens, John F. Barber, Roy Behrens, K. Blassnigg, present-day perspectives inform and Catalin Brylla, Annick Bureaud, Chris Cobb, thus change the representation and Giovanna Costantini, Edith Doove, Hannah the interpretation of the past; this is Drayson, Phil Dyke, Ernest Edmonds, Amanda a kind of bias that prevents us from Egbe, Anthony Enns, Enzo Ferrara, Kathryn seeing the past as something that is Francis, George Gessert, Allan Graubard, Dene Grigar, Rob Harle, Craig Harris, Craig J. Visitors to Nova Scotia and New- radically different from the present. Hilton, Jane Hutchinson, Amy Ione, Richard foundland are immediately and inevi- In this case, the contact with folk Kade, Valérie Lamontagne, Mike Leggett, tably struck by the combination of art in today’s culture becomes part Will Luers, Kieran Lyons, Roger Malina, two cultural facts: the apparent invis- of a larger phenomenon of cultural Jacques Mandelbrojt, Florence Martellini, ibility of contemporary art, whatever nostalgia and its projection of mod- Elizabeth McCardell, Eduardo Miranda, Robert A. Mitchell, Michael Mosher, Sana this term may mean, and the no-less ern longing and desires on cultural Murrani, Frieder Nake, Maureen A. Nappi, visible ubiquity of kitsch, mostly in artifacts and practices that are mis- Claudy Opdenkamp, Jack Ox, Luisa Paraguai, the form of Sunday painters and pho- read and misunderstood. Second, Jussi Parikka, Ellen Pearlman, Ana Peraica, tographers, landscape paintings and Morton’s interpretation of folk art is Stephen Petersen, Michael Punt, Hannah Rogers, Lara Schrijver, Aparna Sharma, pictures for sale in hotel lobbies and systematically put in relationship with George K. Shortess, Brian Reffin Smith, countless little galleries around the the history of capitalism, in this case Yvonne Spielmann, Eugenia Stamboliev, tourist venues. This colorful, naïve the two most recent phases in the Paul Sternberg, Malgorzata Sugiera, James and relatively affordable mass pro- transformation of capitalism, which Sweeting, Charissa N. Terranova, Yvan Tina, duction may be charming, at least in are “late capitalism” (well known in Flutur Troshani, Ian Verstegen, John Vines, Claudia Westermann, Cecilia Wong, Martyn foreigners’ eyes, and it undoubtedly cultural interpretations thanks to Woodward, Jonathan Zilberg reinforces the marketable perception Frederic Jameson’s work on post- ©2018 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 51, No. 3, pp. 313–324, 2018 313 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_r_01626 by guest on 03 October 2021 influential appearance of cultural impossibility to accept that art, be it entrepreneurs in the area, and finally the special type of art that is folk art, the crisis of modern art in the rest can exist just “for art’s sake”—all these of Canada and the Western world, questions are carefully discussed in which not only made room for folk this passionately committed book art as well as the production of “con- that deserves a wide readership. temporary” folk art, explicitly made to cater to new audiences belonging a mind at Play: how to completely different worlds, but claude shannon invented made the “folk art turn” almost a the inFormation age necessity, at least from a commercial by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman. Simon and economic point of view. The close & Schuster, New York, 2017. 384 pp., illus. reading of all these aspects offers a Trade. ISBN: 1476766681; 978-1476766683. complex yet always very cautious Reviewed by Amy Ione, and nuanced approach to the work the Diatrope Institute. of mainly woodcarvings and paint- Email: <[email protected]>. ings by well-known and obscure doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01622 self-taught makers. It displays a subtle understanding of how this “art” was As a fan of biographies, I was excited suddenly positioned and redefined as to learn about A Mind at Play: How “folk art.” On the one hand, Morton Claude Shannon Invented the Infor- (NSF), to help with his differential also gives an extremely well-thought mation Age. Not only is it a timely analyzer. This was a mechanical contextual analysis of the artists and biography, this well-researched and analog computer that depended on artifacts that she studies: The personal easy-to-read book also captures the combinations of equivalent equations, history of the people who suddenly imagination. Because Jimmy Soni and using a wheel-and-disc mechanism appear in the no-longer-anonymous Rob Goodman take care to situate for computation. A major problem field of folk art is scrupulously inter- Shannon’s contributions in their cul- was that the equations needed to be rogated by re-placing it in the larger tural context, the volume encourages reconstructed for every problem, in context of a wide range of institu- the reader to explore their broader effect annihilating the very efficiency tions, public as well as private, for implications. Claude Shannon’s legacy the machine was meant to add to profit as well as for nonprofit, local is no doubt of particular interest to problem-solving. The resounding as well as national and international, Leonardo readers due to the range of question was, how could it reas- cultural as well as economic. On his work. If Shannon’s training and semble itself on the fly? Shannon, the other hand, Morton’s book has a conception of Information Theory who was conversant with both sym- strong sense of the historical trans- brings the current elevation of STEM bolic logic and electrical circuitry, formations of works, practices and disciplines to mind, many of his produced a landmark master’s thesis discourses on folk art, and her study lesser known projects clearly align with an innovative solution, titled testifies to great archival research with projects associated with the “A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and qualities. Most artists, authors, critics, STE(A)M (with the inclusion of Art) Switching Circuits.” In it the young curators, politicians, journalists, buy- community, although the authors Shannon tied Boolean Logic and ers, collectors, institutions, museums, never speak of STEAM per se. These circuitry together, conceptualizing a schools, etc. mentioned in this book include the playful spirit evident in path where 1’s and 0’s could represent are probably totally unknown outside his ongoing tinkering with electronic logical operators of Boole’s (AND, the little or big world of folk art under toys, his multifaceted studies of jug- OR, NOT) system, with an on switch scrutiny in this book—and there may gling and his unicycle experiments. standing for “true” and an off switch be a good chance that this will always So who was Claude Shannon? Born for “false.” remain the case. But the mechanisms in 1916 in Michigan, by all accounts After a brief stint at the Institute that Morton studies have an almost Shannon had an ordinary childhood. for Advanced Study (Princeton, New universal value—including the rela- Noteworthy traits included a love of Jersey), Shannon joined Bell Labs to tionship between art and cultural math and science, a dislike of facts work on World War II projects. Here policies, the shifting transformations and mechanical inclinations. These he found an environment that fos- of the discourse and appreciation of proclivities led
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