leonardo reviews
editor-in-chief Michael Punt associate editors Martha Blassnigg, Hannah Drayson, Dene Grigar, John Vines A full selection of reviews is published monthly on the LR web site:
e x h i b i t i o n Asclepias, milkweed is an herbaceous f i l m flower named by Carl Linnaeus after Susan Goethel Campbell: Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, To Tell the Truth: Field Guide due to its efficacious medicinal pow- Working for Change: Oakland University Art Gallery, ers. Like the weather, the milkweed’s Documenting Hard Times Rochester, MI, U.S.A. 10 January–22 reflective silver filaments respond to (1929–1941) February 2015. shifting currents of air paired with directed by Calvin Skaggs, narrated by gently wafted treetops projected in Alex Baldwin. Icarus Films, Brooklyn, NY, Reviewed by Giovanna Costantini, the viewing room. Here pearls of light U.S.A., 2013. DVD, 56 min. Distributer’s Email:
©2015 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 48, No. 5, pp. 489–502, 2015 489
Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 (WFPL), which operated 1931–1934, some relief, came about when World is presented in the first sequence War I veterans, their families and through interviews with founders Leo affiliated groups went to Washington, Hurwitz, Leo Seltzer and commen- D.C. to seek help. Although the US tators. They explain that the social government had awarded them cash documentaries were seen as a means payment for their service in the form to show poverty, picket lines, unem- of certificates, they had structured ployment, evictions, bread lines and the payment so that awardees were the overall Depression malaise to the unable to redeem the certificates larger community. Their methodol- until 1945, more than a decade away! ogy consisted of recording events and Disheartened and out of work due improvising a “script” as the nature of to the Great Depression, they the event unfolded. Letting the people demanded the right to redeem their at the event provide the material service certificates earlier; they criti- allowed the filmmakers to capture the cally needed money to live on as they of the Great Depression. Footage is moods and feelings of a mass dem- weathered their prolonged unemploy- accompanied by interviews with a onstration against unemployment ment. As the film shows, rather than number of left-leaning filmmakers in New York City in 1930 (where the finding a compassionate response and people who study the field today. police beat and dragged demonstra- from the Hoover administration, The composite deftly allows us to see tors); the many Hoovervilles that the marchers were gassed and greeted how cinematographers in the United housed the unemployed; and the with gunfire. Those elected to govern States and Britain used interviews hunger marches in cities across the didn’t see them as struggling constitu- and film to raise social conscious- United States. ents but rather as dangerous radicals. ness in the last century. Then, as now, This section of the film stayed with They completely failed to conceptual- those who created the films were not me longest, possibly because it set ize the veterans’ distress, with some trying to provide an objective report. the stage for the later developments. even remarking that people shouldn’t Rather, much like Michael Moore’s In any case, the interviews here truly expect to simply get things from documentary productions today, convey the commitment of the film- Washington. While I would like to those involved wanted to present makers involved in this genre and say that it is extraordinary to think their point of view. These pioneers their struggles in getting the message that those elected to government saw film as a means to educate people out. The WFPL had few resources. positions responded so callously, about the pervasive human suffering Because their work received little play as I write, I know that a similar sort neglected by the entertainment films in theaters, here, too, they impro- of arrogance is alive and well even and newsreels of their time. While vised. The films were shown in union today. we can argue about the impetus to halls, fraternal organizations and any- With Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s use the camera to try to change the where else they could find a room. In New Deal, the compassion terrain world and whether a documentary one case, when they wanted to show changed. This period is covered in should include a bias, Working for their films to farmers in the Midwest, the second section of the film; here Change proved that films could help they strung a sheet on the trees. Simi- we meet Pare Lorentz, a progressive others. In this case, the message larly impressive were their efforts to New Deal filmmaker who persuaded broadcast the plight of many in the build channels for communication the Resettlement Administration to 20th century who were suffering with different populations across the finance films about the work of FDR unheard. Today, as labor is losing its United States. Early in the Depres- initiatives. Members of Congress who leverage in the United States, seeing sion, many people failed to concep- were opposed to “New Deal social the historical struggles reminds us of tualize how broadly the downturn welfare programs” were also against the importance of preserving worker would impact the population. Those spending taxpayer money for the rights. Change is not a one-and-done in the cities assumed the farmers had documentaries that showed what the type of undertaking. Rather, as people all the food they needed. The rural government programs were doing to lose their pensions and other benefits population, by contrast, concluded help people. For his first film, Lorentz today, a documentary like Working that those in the urban areas had all turned to Paul Strand, Ralph Steiner for Change reminds us that gaining the money. In actuality, neither rural and Leo Hurwitz. Despite the differ- worker rights was not a passive activ- nor urban populations were able to ing agendas of the filmmakers, The ity but a hard-won battle against the take care of their basic needs and the Plow That Broke the Plains was a hit dominant paradigm. documentaries were able to showcase at the box office. Praising American The first three sections of the film the broad fabric of suffering. ingenuity, the film reassured people deal with American projects. The Bonus March, filmed in 1932 before that the Roosevelt administration Workers Film and Photo League the New Deal found ways to extend would solve the Dust Bowl situation.
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 A second Lorentz film, The River, Also discussed is Frontier Films, have passed laws weakening unions, covered the causes of the floods in the created in 1936 by Leo Hurwitz and reducing pensions and/or putting Mississippi Valley. his colleagues. This was the first inde- two-tiered wage systems in place for British public agencies, by contrast, pendent, not-for-profit film company workers. With a two-tiered system, agreed to finance documentary films in the United States. Its mission was new workers are hired in at a lower in order to educate the public about to deal with the truth of the Ameri- wage while the old union workers social issues during the Great Depres- can experience in film. While Grier receive a higher wage (due to their sion. Persuaded to do so initially by son and his group in England had contracts). John Grierson, the man who coined a great deal of government money, Another topic might be whether the term “documentary,” these films as noted, the documentarians of the or not governments should fund captured the lives and dilemmas of New York School always operated on social documentaries. As noted working people. Grierson felt that a shoestring. Their effort to make a above, the British government readily creating sympathy for the plight of radical, bold step forward at the end made funds available to filmmakers, those suffering could avert a revolu- of the thirties led to films like Native whereas the United States Congress tion. Indeed, many suffering workers Land, which focused on the way the became upset about government found Communist interest in work- labor struggle in the United States funding of documentaries, and the ers attractive, and thus this fear was was attacked. It took them five years practice died out for a time. This real. Although Grierson’s only film to finish because they had no money. production on social documenta- was Drifters (1929), his impact was Unlike their earlier improvisations, ries—a social documentary in its own immense. He had a knack for funding they worked with actors to drama- right—was funded by government film projects using public money and tize real events. To raise funds, they agencies as well as private funds: the picking filmmakers (e.g. Pat Jackson showed the footage already produced National Endowment for the Arts and and Harry Watt) who could craft to prospective investors to complete the Nathan Cummings Foundation. It compelling cinema such as Coal Face the project; perhaps an early version was also a PBS program. Personally, and Night Mail. The first introduced of the kind of crowdfunding we now I found the message powerful and workers in the coal mining industry, find on sites like Kickstarter and worthwhile, so I was glad the project a backbone industry in Britain at that GoFundMe. Just as they were set to was funded. (Had the film advocated time. Night Mail, directed by Harry finally release the film, Pearl Harbor something like a “Corporations Are Watt, documented the importance of was bombed. Thus, although it was People” perspective, I would probably Royal Mail and the railways in unit- well received by those who saw it as it have felt less enthusiastic that some of ing the nation. developed, distribution became diffi- my tax dollars funded it!) Other British projects included cult. Once the war became a priority, All in all, I highly recommend Housing Problems, a film about liv- interest in labor’s struggles lagged. Working for Change. It not only ing conditions co-directed by John’s Documentaries are among the belongs in academic and public sister, Ruby Grierson, who often was hardest projects to review. On the one library collections but could also the one who got the people to talk. hand, they have a somewhat narrative provide an excellent resource in the We also meet Paul Rotha, who didn’t story line and seem to convey a true classroom, particularly in relation find Grierson’s films radical enough. story. Yet, simultaneously, despite to film history, social movements, Rotha’s Shipyard, which was commer- presenting nonfictional material government and mass communica- cially commissioned by a shipbuilder, projects, there is also a clearly evident tion. Anyone who is interested in this nonetheless turns out to be rather point of view. Deciphering the facts kind of film may also want to start muted politically. Despite Rotha’s and examining what impelled the with some of the film clips from this left-wing stance, the film does not filmmaker(s) to present the powerful period that are available on YouTube make an assertive statement. Rather message is why films like these are and the expanded history of these he beautifully introduces the lives perfect for classrooms and commu- films online [1]. While these supple- of the workers contemplatively, as nity events. In this case, the material mental resources offer a flavor for they wonder if those who board the of the film also offers a platform for the material discussed in Working vessel to visit distant places will ever thinking about the historical and for Change, the value of the award- reflect on the lives of the people who contemporary social climate. Per- winning Icarus film is that it combines made the ships. The cinematography haps the most obvious classroom the history and footage into a story. reminded me of the work of Lewis discussion topic would be a look at Hine (1874–1940), an American soci- the labor trajectory from the first Reference ologist and photographer, who used wave of films presented here through 1. One excellent resource is the website his camera as a tool for social reform. today. After struggling so hard to gain Nicole Huffman put together for the American Studies Program at the Uni- Hine’s photographs were instrumen- footing, the labor movement is once versity of Virginia. See:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 b o o k s he made the most far-reaching The drawings themselves are a discoveries, was that of human testament to Leonardo’s view that Leonardo da Vinci: anatomy (p. 7). visual information can convey more Anatomist than words. The book tells us that by Martin Clayton and Ron Philo. Leonardo’s anatomical drawings he dissected more than 30 human Royal Collection Trust, London, U.K., in the Royal Collection compose corpses as he explored every aspect 2011. 256 pp. Illus. Paper. £18.95,
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 book’s focus is on Leonardo’s work, eye it looks much like exploded brain Estienne’s prints include background it includes very few comparative images today and, like other of his imagery that makes them appear as images, but the authors still offer brain images, such as the depiction of much like an artistic narrative as an a sense of how Leonardo’s work fit nerve pathways to the brain, suggests anatomical presentation. I admire the within his historical time. This is the internal tension Leonardo faced purity of Leonardo’s sketches. I won- not really a criticism, but if I were to when he found that the theories of his der if he would have preserved this change anything, I would have added time did not match his observations. had they been published under his more images that placed Leonardo Many of the folios include several supervision. historically. drawings that seem to be in conversa- When I finished Leonardo da Vinci: Two of the most remarkable images tion with one another. These perhaps Anatomist, my first thought was that are on the front and back covers. The help us envision how Leonardo was this is an essential work of reference front cover is his 1489 drawing of a thinking about the dynamics of the for artists, medical professionals and sectioned skull. Leonardo sawed the body. One, the superficial anatomy Leonardo enthusiasts. My second skull in half and then juxtaposed the of the shoulder and neck, presents a thought was to wonder whether con- two halves so that a viewer can see sequence suggesting a body turning temporary artists appreciate anatomy the cavities of the skull in relation in space, no doubt a combination of in the way Leonardo did. Contem- to the surface features. The striking his dissection work and his experi- porary work often conveys more of a contrasts the image presents never ence in observing living forms. His superficial sense of figures, with more fail to amaze me. The back cover many detailed drawings of muscles stress on an emotional rendering depicts an opened uterus to show a not only are elegant but also display than naturalism and the way all the baby in the breech position and is one an intricate knowledge of the body. parts of the body function and work of the few drawings to include color. Even more noteworthy when look- together. Looking at this beautiful Surrounded by small sketches and ing at the sketches is how unique compilation of Leonardo’s studies, it accompanying notes, it offers a good they were in his time, particularly the is visually clear how different things metaphor for Leonardo’s drawings images related to the heart. As noted, are today than when he worked! Par- overall, since reproduction was one of researchers of his time did not have ticularly noteworthy is that this kind Leonardo’s anatomical concerns. This the insight to create comparable wax of naturalism was emerging while he drawing, like all his work, looks alive. molds to study the forms before they lived, and Leonardo was among those What I find most striking when look- began to decompose, and they were who embraced it with a passion. We ing at all the drawings is their ability largely unaware of Leonardo’s ana- see this passion enshrined due to his to capture so much, even when his tomical work. ability to combine artistry with the words feel strange. Notes that accom- Without a doubt, Leonardo, rather bodily form as he knew it from dis- pany the fetus, for example, explain: than Vesalius and his De Humani section. The works grasp a kind of “In this child the heart does not beat Corporis Fabrica, would now receive visual depth and emotional substance and it does not breathe because it credit for the anatomical revolution we can still admire, even if many rests continually in water, and if it in the 16th century, had Leonardo’s choose not to emulate it. breathed it would drown” (p. 206). work been studied. Comparing his His drawings of the brain, prob- works with those that were pub- Making Mind: Moral Sense ably a cow’s brain, are also included. lished, it is hard to miss how much and Consciousness in This was an extraordinary accom- Leonardo’s drawings differ from the Philosophy, Science, and plishment, because he made a wax publications so instrumental to the Literature mold to aid his studies, a technique anatomical revolution of the 16th cen- that yielded more information than tury. Leonardo’s notebooks are raw by Gregory F. Tague. Rodopi, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and New York, NY, known by his contemporaries. The and fresh, with small sketches mixed U.S.A., 2014. 319 pp. Paper. ISBN: 978-90- cow’s brain gives one pause in other with words and his mirror-written 420-3895-0. respects as well: Its brain is just about notes. Vesalius and others who pre- the same size as a human brain, yet sented anatomical studies around this Reviewed by Kathryn Francis, Cogni- cows are almost certainly less cogni- time generally placed their figures in tion Institute Plymouth University. tively capable than humans. They also a scene, with narrative components Email:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 tions each in turn discuss the adap- arose from new and complex social and their relation to narrative. The tive function of narrative with regard environments that demanded that we book successfully demonstrates how to moral sense and consciousness learn to manipulate thoughts in rela- social, cultural and individual moral in light of philosophy, science and tion to behaviors for conflict resolu- concerns span philosophy, science literature. Rather than presenting tion, among other things. Despite and literature in the context of nar- disjointed discussions, Tague writes his focus on evolutionary theory, rative genesis. As Tague puts it, “the in such a way so that each section Tague emphasizes the role of the moral ground has been scrutinized links with the previous one and flows individual; with no two brains being by the philosophers, examined by the into the next, resulting in a contex- alike, consciousness is not found scientists, but only put into real-life tually rich book bringing together in one brain area. These differences context by the authors of long nar- otherwise unfamiliar discussions of drive our desires to learn about the ratives” (p. 281). The book, aimed at morality. self and to test our moral sense. In a broad readership, provides a rich In the introduction, Tague defines psychology, the individual is not often moral discussion and illustrates how moral sense as “what is good and considered in this sense, but Tague’s literary criticism can contribute to bad,” arguing that it “pervades sto- message that “while there are brain the advancement of evolutionary and ries” (p. 18). He takes the perspective parts, each complete brain has its psychological moral theories. that this moral sense—and even more own particular neural glue that holds broadly, human behavior—is based in together a mind” (p. 150) sits well Resisting Abstraction: emotions. However, he balances this with his discussion and explains the Robert Delaunay and Vision perspective with his later comment birth of narrative in light of our sense in the Face of Modernism that rationality and sentimentality of self yearning to access the mind of by Gordon Hughes. University of Chicago go hand in hand, because “moral another. Press, Chicago, IL, U.S.A., 2014. 184 pp. sensations and consciousness work In his final section, Tague intro- illus. Trade. ISBN: 97802261559232. together in tension” (p. 70). duces the concept of literary char- Reviewed by Michael Punt, Transtech- In the philosophy section, Tague acter. He explores literary art as part nology Research. Email:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 proliferation of colored posters in inchoate images that acquire mean- Paris and (3) the obsession with ing through economically driven movement in philosophy, art and discourses of nostalgia and narcis- science at the turn of the century. sism. In this book he has deployed a Through this triangulation he offers a rhetorical style that will capture new particular reading of Delaunay’s 1913 audiences for an important discus- painting Premier Disque, a painting sion of what art and painting can that Hughes argues was important mean if they are given the time. There but misunderstood at the time and are, of course, dangers with such has continued to be something of broad sweeps, and it is possible that a an enigma for historians. That is, longer and more nuanced monograph until now. The book is divided into is called for. three substantive sections; the first, There are many strands of the argu- “Break (Windows),” outlines cogni- ment that are passed over hastily and tive aspects of visual perception as a leave the reader a little suspicious that temporal process, for which the expe- some rather important assumptions rience of the aerial view and the view are smuggled into the book that, if through a glazed window act as vivid made more explicit, may prove incon- reminders of (a) the work involved in venient. Most especially, considering the assumption that mechanical color seeing and (b) the repression of the the title Resisting Abstraction, there printing changed human perception memory of that work necessary for is something unresolved about why and, in this regard, he is in accord perception. This forms the bedrock Delaunay rejected the abstractions of with cognitive science. for his analysis of Delaunay’s paint- Neo-plasticism or Suprematism (for Wind does not include Robert ings as interventions in the various example) but seems perfectly com- Delaunay in his examples of artists strands of cubism in which the viewer fortable embracing the abstractions who responded to the influence of and the painting are implicated in the (and spiritual motivations and ideal- color print processes but could well same cognitive enterprise. ism) of cognitive science. A fuller have done so if one buys into the The second section, “Punch recognition of this paradox would argument of Gordon Hughes’s recent (Painting),” hinges on the perceptual have helped. monograph Resisting Abstraction. The impact of highly colored advertis- There are other missed opportu- publisher claims this to be the first ing posters affixed to public walls in nities, too, in the glossing over of English language study of Delaunay Paris during the first decades of the Munsterberg’s laboratory at Harvard, in more than 30 years, and some 20th century and the ways in which where he laid the foundations for explanation for this is offered early on these allowed color to transform the much contemporary thinking about with Alfred H. Barr’s famous diagram perception of architectural structure. the cognitive effects of the temporal from 1936, which shows, as Hughes Hughes argues that this is crucial image and where, among others, Ger- points out, that Orphism was the only to the understanding of Delaunay’s trude Stein studied. Most of all, there movement in the 20th century that, approach to color as a confrontation could be a fuller articulation of the according to Barr, seems to come with the very problem of modernism. debates concerning the relationship to a dead end. The project behind The third section, “Movement (Into between technology and perception Resisting Abstraction is to challenge Abstraction),” makes that problem that seems crucial to much of what is this idea by showing Delaunay as an more explicit in a discussion of move- presented. Here I think Wind might important intellectual behind mod- ment, and the dichotomy between have been helpful, since he is very ernism whose contribution may be instant and flow as the mirror image clear that technology does not change only just beginning to become clear of modernism’s struggle between perception so much as impact the as we begin to look at science and art tableau and morceaux: A struggle way we understand art, taste and style through the same lens. he sees as constitutive of modernist in ways that may introduce aesthetic Hughes’s approach is to spend little painting from its inception. changes. Such a nuanced approach time on biographical detail and to Resisting Abstraction is a richly would enrich and strengthen concentrate on looking at the paint- illustrated book with a short text that Hughes’s fascinating argument. An ings. He does this slowly in order weaves its story through unexpected interwoven biographical account of to see them better. In this mode he paths, all of which are fascinat- Delaunay that dealt with this would regards them in three perspectives: ing even if some feel rather forced. have made for a more difficult and (1) against the backdrop of some This approach may be necessary for demanding project, but without it, influential ideas in cognitive sci- Hughes to make his point, given the changing circumstances of his life ence concerning visual perception, that the vision of art today has been and times are a competitive narrative as well as in view of (2) the sudden transformed by the proliferation of that, for those who know it, threatens
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 to undo the progress of Hughes’s due largely to the global economic enous cultures and share a vision of argument. system. Its fundamental imperative decentralized power and sustainable This is a well-produced book with is economic growth, which requires energy. good-quality illustration of Delau- an expanding supply of energy. Only Can any grassroots movement that nay’s work that allows Hughes to fossil fuels are cheap and abundant challenges fossil fuel dependency make meaningful formal analysis of enough to meet the system’s needs. succeed against the massive power the paintings. He has constructed a Long-term consequences of fossil fuel and inertia of the global economic parallel visual essay that encourages use, including the most ruinous, are system? Unlikely things have hap- the reader to take the necessary time secondary to growth and immedi- pened before, so we shouldn’t dismiss to look at the images and offers a ate profits. As a result, we live in the the possibility out of hand. Blocka- great opportunity to a new generation midst of a massive slow-motion col- dia’s strength is that it brings together to revisit a period of astonishing cre- lision between corporate capitalism extremely diverse people and inter- ativity (and destruction) that is a little and the biosphere. ests—ranchers, indigenous peoples, too demanding to be fashionable. The consensus among policy students, urban professionals, the makers is that we must cap global rural poor and religious leaders, temperature rise at 2° Celsius above This Changes Everything: among others. They find common preindustrial conditions. Some scien- Capitalism vs. the Climate ground in shared needs, such as for tists think that the two-degree figure clean air and water, which tend to by Naomi Klein. Simon & Schuster, New is too high; however, beyond two suffer collateral damage in the vicini- York City, NY, U.S.A., 2014. 576 pp. Trade. degrees, feedback effects are likely to ties of fracking sites and oil pipelines. ISBN: 978-1-4516-9738-4. take things out of human hands and Klein envisions such efforts leading Reviewed by George Gessert. Email: put hundreds of millions, or even bil- toward a climate-focused “move-
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 bert, in a review that appeared in the do not have a Karl Marx or Martin New York Review of Books, accused Luther King of climate change, so we Klein of being naively optimistic. Kol- are left knowing only that we need a bert considers people, but especially new culture based on “reciprocity” Americans, too attached to the com- and “sustainability,” whatever forms forts of consumer culture to make they may take. We do not know how the “really significant—and politi- to create this culture beyond focus- cally unpopular—changes . . . that ing on small, local projects. Yet Klein meaningful climate action requires.” remains hopeful. In other words, corporate capitalism Her hope is not always convincing, is broadly popular because it delivers but she speaks to common experi- prosperity. To seriously rein in green- ence. My sense is that in the United house gas emissions, the vast majority States today a mix of denial, despair of Americans, and people in all of and absurd hope about climate is the world’s wealthier countries, must so widespread as to constitute the consume considerably less than they norm. We cannot know the future, do today. Long-term scarcity could so Klein is ethically and strategi- become a central fact of economic cally right to offer whatever hope life. Klein acknowledges such pros- she honestly can. However, I think were only possible to examine Spain’s pects, yet insists that poverty can be that her book, strong as it is, would roaring twenties through foreign- conquered in the process of dealing have been stronger still had she given ers’ eyes or via the life and works of with climate. fuller expression to despair. To voice Spanish artists living abroad. The Klein’s sympathies are with the it is not to embrace it or be defeated material itself studied by Juli Highfill left, which is shakily positioned to by it. Her vision implies that we live is extremely refreshing. True, most address climate change. The left, in a historical moment when genuine scholars and students interested which emerged in the 19th century, hope is alienating because it calls into in this period of Spain’s no longer when ecological consciousness was question everything we do. Despair recent history must know Francisco still in its early infancy, considers is much more comfortable. It does Ayala, Ramón Gómez de la Serna, the fundamental ethical issue facing not ask us to change, and we won’t Guillermo de Torre or Azorín, to humanity to be the just distribution be punished for our failure. Ruin is name just a few names that absolutely of wealth and power. Again and again somewhere else and in the future. We mattered in these years, but what Klein refers to this widely held belief. need to give climate despair its due do these names still refer to in the Its limitation is that it does not take because it will not go away. The only memory of today’s non-specialized nonhuman nature fully into account. thing worse than despair is despair readers? Highfill’s study, which offers Much of the left shares with corporate unexpressed. a good mix of general discussions and capitalism and the right the ancient close readings, helps make room for faith that humankind is separate from Modernism and Its a renewed and, let us hope, lasting nature or its rightful ruler. Whatever Merchandise: The Spanish interest for these authors and their else nonhuman nature may be— Avant-Garde and Material work that deserves much better than savage, female, restorative, cruel, Culture, 1920–1930 the oblivion or contempt that have material, sublime—it is fundamen- by Juli Highfill. Pennsylvania State become their burden. The lesser- tally a repository of resources to serve University Press, University Park, PA, known material foregrounded in the our needs. U.S.A., 2014. Refiguring Modernism book is systematically combined with By way of contrast, the indigenous Series. 288 pp., illus. Trade. ISBN: 978- a rereading of some major figures, cultures to which Klein often refers 0271063454. such as Ortega y Gasset, the influen- see humans as inseparable from Reviewed by Jan Baetens. Email:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 starting point, namely the hypothesis does not suffer from an overload that Spanish Modernism (the differ- of theoretical references, but the ence between Modernism and avant- author has a perfect knowledge of all garde does not seem to have the important “object theories,” such as same importance in Spain as in other the object-thing debates around Bill linguistic and cultural areas) is no less Brown and the articulation theory of fascinated by the new, streamlined, “system” thinkers like Bruno Latour. seducing, commoditized, mass-pro- Each time that the interpretation of duced objects than all other Western a given object or object-practice can countries of that period. To this it benefit from the reference to a theo- adds the hypothesis that is possible to retical concept or insight, one can be study the shifting and often blurred sure that Highfill will always find the relationship between object and sub- best way to introduce it with great ject as a key to a better understanding elegance and clarity. In that sense, of what modernity actually repre- the novelty of the book depends not root of two. There follows an account sented. Finally, the book provides us only on that of its objects (and once that includes the geometry of tessel- with a selective but highly representa- again, please allow me to stress the lations and the attempts to represent tive corpus of objects: glass (in mod- many discoveries that any reader will God and link this representation to ern still life paintings), the display of be able to make in it), but also on the infinite. His thesis also spills into goods in shop windows, electronic that of their readings (which always architecture, with discussions on the devices and technologies, fashion, add new perspectives to the already Alhambra Palace with its geometri- objects of decay (ranging from known, the best example being here cal designs, gothic fan vaulting in antique ruins to rotting corpses). This the rereading of the decay theme Wells Cathedral and the art of M.C. “object-centered” approach, made in relationship with both the rejec- Escher. It is at this point one begins even more concrete by the exemplary tion of the past and the critical atti- to ponder where the book is going. iconography of the book (a pleasure tude toward modernism’s “creative Is it actually going to talk about the for the eye as well as the mind), is destruction” in the two films by Dalí meaning of infinity or just tell tales? then broadened by a strategy that is and Buñuel). Finally, this book is We then land on firmer ground, with comparative on the one hand and also a marvelous thing to hold and to the Renaissance covering perspec- theoretical on the other hand. have: great design, great iconography, tive in art as well as the Scientific Spanish Modernism is systemati- great writing. Revolution. Copernicus, Galileo and cally compared to models, examples, Isaac Newton get a mention. The tendencies and evolutions in other Idolatry and Infinity: calculus is explained, rather naïvely, European traditions, not only in Of Art, Math, and God and Newton’s ideas on gravitation order to show the participation of are contrasted with Einstein’s 20th- Spain in Modernism in general but by David R. Topper. BrownWalker Press, century space-time notions of gravity. Boca Raton, FL, U.S.A., 2014. ISBN-10: also its specific and often highly This leads to a discussion of modern 1-62734-506-X. inventive contribution. The close astronomy and theories of how the reading of Ortega y Gasset’s discus- Reviewed by Phil Dyke, Plymouth universe began. The idea of an infinite sion of glass that emphasizes the University. Email:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 side the scope of the book (as Topper archaeological investigation is tar- academic and conceptual way in to confesses on page 106) but not to do geted at transversal slices through the a markedly different way of think- so makes the explanation incomplete layers of paint. At other times we are ing about art and its palimpsests. As and frustrates the reader—maybe I shown underpainting or other hidden I write this there is discussion in the should say, frustrates this reader. The details revealed by synchrotron X-ray press about the apparently inevitable book finishes with a short history analysis, infrared reflectance, spec- loss of digital data as it becomes of Cantor and his attempts to relate troscopy or fluorescence. Paintings unreadable. This too, and all the digi- transfinite numbers to the theories of are examined using the whole spec- tal art, videos, still images, interactive the “size” of the universe, to theology trum of visible and invisible electro- pieces or installations using it, will and to God. Finally the lack of trans- magnetic waves. Sometimes, as in the have to be restored in some sense, if finite numbers when describing the examination of Mondrian’s Victory it is not to disappear; that is to say, physical world, despite their use in Boogie Woogie in the Netherlands, the someone, somewhere, will actually the descriptions of computability, is work is done in full public view, albeit have to care about it. covered. Altogether it is a very wor- behind glass, almost as a perfor- thy, serious book, and a book that has mance. It feels as if those working on The Conscious Mind my admiration. the paintings are somehow contribut- by Zoltan Torey. The MIT Press, ing to the art-making process. Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., and London, There are questions about works of U.K., 2014. 208 pp. Trade. ISBN: Science and Art: art that can be asked and answered 9780262527101. The Painted Surface by specialists without recourse to Reviewed by Cecilia Wong, indepen- edited by Antonio Sgamellotti, Brunetto examination of the actual object. dent writer, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A. Giovanni Brunetti and Costanza But there are others that necessitate Web:
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 consciousness is no longer exclusive to hold on to our thoughts, effectively ‘What is consciousness?’ will fade to philosophy. The Conscious Mind is taking it “off-line” from the “on- away into irrelevancy and abstrac- an ambitious attempt to construct a line” animal awareness. Thus these tion,” because “consciousness is just a model of the mind and its evolution thoughts can only be communicated vague word for the mental experience and origin via the author’s wide read- with uttered words because they are of attending, which we are slowly ings in linguistics, neuroscience and composed of word and percept, not dissecting in terms of the electrical evolutionary biology. In this book, with “the modality percept of vision and chemical activity of individual Zoltan Torey (1929–2014) claims that or somatosensation that we experi- neurons.” I cannot imagine, however, a consciousness of the self (distinct ence.” He suggests that such oscil- that this will keep us humans from from animal awareness) is the result lation is between the neocortex and contemplating our own mind, which of language acquisition unique to the brainstem that controls automatic is so close and so dear to us that it can humans after a new neural subsys- functions via, I presume, that new never be seen as just some laboratory tem—the motor wiring of our speech neural subsystem. specimen. areas in the neocortex—occurred in The fact that bonobos (a close Homo sapiens. relative of chimpanzees) have been The Practice of Light: In 13 chapters, with titles such as trained to communicate thought and A Genealogy of Visual “A Device to Move Mountains: Dual understand language does not detract Technologies from Prints to Output,” “Single Focus,” and “Lan- from Torey’s model. It only means Pixels guage: The Trojan Horse of Negative that our close relatives also possess by Sean Cubitt. The MIT Press, Entropy,” Torey, in a rather evoca- this neural subsystem—reasonable in Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 2014. 368 pp. tive style, seeks to demonstrate that view of the continuity of evolution. Illus. Trade. ISBN: 978-0-262-02765-6. consciousness has a physical substrate Neither should the fact that syntax Reviewed by Rob Harle. Email: in the brain, a unique neural subsys- may not be (as Torey claims) univer-
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 ing, apparent versus virtual, and the at real-time television broadcast- struggle to control light’s chaotic ing; the “illusion” of time in cinema flow” (p. 16). The first chapter is and digital video are also discussed black, in every way you can imagine in considerable detail. Things start and more. After reading this chapter, getting complicated towards the end I realized I could never again use the of the chapter when Cubitt discusses phrase, “It’s as simple as black and new artists who work close to the white.” Nothing could be further code level of technical imaging. “We from the truth. Rembrandt’s work can sense emerging an alternative and methods are the main focus of aesthetic, here named the vector, with this chapter, which argues that the very different orientation to time, “pursuit of black as an effect as well one that draws on discarded elements as a material reveals a fundamental of tradition traced throughout this instability in the process of making book” (p. 19). Finally, in Chapter 6, visible” (p. 16). This instability is of reflection and the color (phenome- considerable ontological and phe- non) white are explored. Cubitt sug- tion. Cubitt introduces, explains and nomenological importance. gests the opposite of black may not be then explores highly complex theories Chapter 2 is slightly less revela- white but light. The way we perceive in a way that is easy to understand tory but just as important as the visual wavelength, prisms, color and will not cause a stress headache. first chapter. It discusses the “rise of and so on are discussed carefully It is highly readable. geometry as a governing principle and reflection in the natural world Trying to define the purpose of this in visual technology.” Cubitt argues explored in detail. Here Cubitt asks book for the prospective reader in a that there has been an “increasingly the rhetorical question: “Why has the few short sentences is no easy task. rationalist account of light as linear opposition of black and white been “Enquiring into the materiality of and instantaneous rather than perva- used so often and for so long to tell media, the minutiae of their opera- sive and flowing.” Durer, Rembrandt, light’s story?” (p. 266). This chapter tion, exposes the contingency of their Descartes, Hogarth and Disney are concludes with a fairly complex phil- existence and the role of probability discussed. osophical discussion deriving from in bringing this rather than that into Chapter 3 explores the phenom- Aristotle’s Nicomachaean Ethics. As dominant position” (p. 9). From this enon of surface, from the preparation I mentioned earlier, light will never inquiry it follows that “The major task of plates for printmaking through appear the same again after digesting of The Practice of Light is to explain to television screens including opto- Cubitt’s smorgasbord of tantalizing why we have the media we do” (p. 9). electronic chips. “The flux of light morsels from history, science, art, The book, a part of the MIT Press’s does not immediately lend itself to philosophy and technology. The Phi- Leonardo Book Series, which com- this arithmetic handling. It requires losophy of Light will appeal to a huge prises a numbers of scholarly works an intermediate step, traced in the spectrum (pun intended) of scholars on art and science, is nicely produced. way optoelectronic chips average and also to the educated general Unfortunately, the cover/jacket design the light they receive” (p. 17). Walter reader interested in the nature of light is very ordinary and the colors are Benjamin, van Eyck, John Gage (not and visual media as it has shaped our appalling. After the introduction Cage), Newton and other luminaries culture and existence. there are six chapters, followed by (pun intended) are discussed in detail extensive notes, references and an throughout this extensive chapter. index. There is a smattering of black- Chapter 4 shows how in digital l e o n a r d o r e v i e w s and-white photos and illustrations, imaging, volume and space can “exist o n l i n e and a small center section of color independently of the surfaces we plates. Chapter titles are: recognize on screens” (p. 18). From the casting of shadows, through to June 2015 1. Black Mercator’s projection, to the cubists’ Big Data, Little Data, No Data: Schol- 2. Line experiments, representation of space arship in the Networked World by 3. Surface and light is a very complex business. Christine L. Borgman. Reviewed by 4. Space “A genealogy of vector space since Ana Peraica. 5. Time experiments of the cubists and with 6. Reflection. the artifacts produced by the trans- The Emergence of Video Processing The chapters in turn “address the formation of continuous and mutable Tools, Vols. 1 and 2, edited by Kathy key themes of the book: invisibility space into raster displays” concludes High, Sherry Miller Hocking and and the nonidentical, geometry and this chapter. Mona Jimenez. Reviewed by Ellen the vector, enumeration and averag- Chapter 5 concerns time and looks Pearlman.
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_r_01129 by guest on 27 September 2021 Foucault contre lui-même (Foucault Formalism and Historicity: Models March 2015 against Himself), directed by François and Methods in Twentieth-Century The Cosmic Cocktail: Three Parts Dark Caillat. Reviewed by Richard Kade. Art by Benjamin H.D. Buchloh. Matter by Katherine Freese. Reviewed Reviewed by Ana Peraica. by Christopher B. Germann. Laruelle: Against the Digital by Alex- ander R. Galloway. Reviewed by The Practice of Light: A Genealogy Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? Gabriela Galati. of Visual Technologies from Prints to A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Pixels by Sean Cubitt. Reviewed by Brain by Timothy Verstynen and Peaceland: Conflict Resolution and Rob Harle. Bradley Voytek. Reviewed by Brian the Everyday Politics of International Reffin Smith. Intervention by Séverine Autesserre. Sampling Media, edited by David Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg. Laderman and Laurel Westrup. Reviewed by Mike Mosher. Geometric Design: An Artful Portfolio of Mathematical Graphics May 2015 Techné/Technology: Researching by Christopher Alan Arthur. How Reading Is Written: A Brief Index Cinema and Media Technologies, Reviewed by Phil Dyke. to Gertrude Stein by Astrid Lorange. their Development, Use and Impact, Reviewed by Edith Doove. Key Debates: Mutations and Appro- The Imaginary App, edited by Paul priations in European Film Studies, D. Miller and Svitlana Matviyenko. An Introduction to the Social and edited by Annie van den Oever. Reviewed by Mike Mosher. Political Philosophy of Bertolt Brecht: Reviewed by Jan Baetens. Revolution and Aesthetics by Anthony Science and Art: The Painted Sur- Squiers. Reviewed by Rob Harle. Topless Cellist: The Improbable Life of face, edited by Antonio Sgamellotti, Charlotte Moorman by Joan Rothfuss. Brunetto Giovanni Brunetti and After Phrenology: Neural Reuse and Introduction by Yoko Ono. Reviewed Costanza Miliani. Reviewed by the Interactive Brain by Michael L. by Elizabeth McCardell. Brian Reffin Smith. Anderson. Reviewed by Amy Ione. Tweeting Da Vinci by Ann C. Piz- The Unleashed Scandal: The End zorusso. Reviewed by Charles April 2015 of Control in the Digital Age by Merguerian. Bernhard Poerksen and Hanne Detel. Cine-Dispositives: Essays in Epis- Reviewed by Ana Peraica. temology across Media, edited by World War 3 Illustrated: 1979–2014, Francois Albera and Maria Tortajada. edited by Peter Kuper and Seth Tob- Reviewed by Michael Punt. ocman. Reviewed by Mike Mosher.
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