No comments about The Art of Participation: 1950 to Now.

3 comments about A Short Course In Photography.

1. I didn't realize that it would take three weeks plus, so I didn't have it quick enough for my class, so order quick! Otherwise all is good.



2. I've been using SLR's & digital cameras since early high school, including use for some publication work. This book gives good, basic information, and would be good for a novice just learning to use a film-type camera. My copy is dated 1979, so it includes nothing about digital photography. The other reviewer referred to Chapter 9 as being nothing more than verse or poetry. That is somewhat puzzling as my copy only has 7 chapters. Also, unless there have been more current editions, this book is too dated to ever be used as a textbook for any current college course. However, if you are just looking for a basic reference on basic, film-type photography, or are a new hobbyist with a film camera, this book is certainly adequate, and one could do worse.



3. If you are talking a College level course that utilises this book as the main text, I truly pity you. You will learn more by simple self research via the internet and using your camera over the duration of the course than this book could ever teach you. By the final chapter you are left banging your head into your desk wondering why anyone would ever choose this offal as a required textbook. Don't believe me? Read Chapter 9 and notice that the vast majority of the text is simple poetic musings followed by references back to previous chapters, as the authors were too bloody lazy to expand upon their meager ideas. Pathetic.

5 comments about Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts.

1. Whereas our present technology upheaval is driven by the computer, about eighty years ago it was driven by audiophonic technologies: radio was new on the scene; film and animated cartoons were moving to sound; dramatic improvements were occurring in phonography, microphony, and other audiophonic technology; and the prospect of television was in the air. But artists were slow to take advantage of the possibilities opened by these new media; and radio art, audio art, asynchronous sound film, and soundscape experimentation based on recording technologies were postponed for decades. The discontinuity of these artistic traditions stands as a historical lesson that, even though the technological and conceptual requirements exist and have generated sporadic material realization, these requirements are still insufficient for maturation into an artistic practice.
   
   Music was especially successful in protecting its own domain from new media and consistently refused to incorporate the imitative sound associated with phonography. The line which separated music from noise, which took a new meaning when audio equipment began to chart sound curves and separate them from background noise, was well guarded and seldom crossed. Even the musical avant-garde, which emphatically crossed that line as symbolized by Pierre Schaeffer's musique concrete and John Cage's experimentation with silence, retained some of the conventions of high musical culture and silenced other sounds that also claimed for attention. Nevertheless, the mere existence of the phonograph, its ability to hold any one sound in time and keep all sounds in mind, produced a new status for hearing.
   
   Douglas Kahn, an art critic and academic, starts from the postulate that "none of the art is entirely mute, many are unusually soundful despite their apparent silence, and the traditionally auditive arts grow to sounds quite different when included in an array of auditive practices." The auditive practices that he explores, some soundful in themselves, others contingent on ideas of sound, are associated with the names of of persons or movements that have become largely recognized as precursors to a range of artistic activities: Luigi Russolo, the Dadaists, Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein, Antonin Artaud, John Cage, William Burrough and other Beats, the musique concrete composers, artists associated with Fluxus, and others. In sum, he offers an interdisciplinary history and theory of sound within the avant-garde and experimental arts from the early twentieth century to the 1960s.
   
   The story starts with Luigi Russolo's founding text, The Art of Noise, published in 1913 and already resonating with the sounds of war. As this Futurist manifesto proclaimed, "we find far more enjoyment in the combination of the noises of trams, backfiring motors, carriages and bawling crowds than in rehearsing, for example, the Eroica or the Pastoral." Although Marinetti's onomatopoeic reportage of the battle of Adrianople opened the way for soundful practices associated with the term bruitism, they also attracted savage criticism such as the following indictment by a Russian avant-garde artist: "the Italian 'amateurish' Futurists, with their endless ra ta ta ra ta ta, are like Maeterlinck's heroines who think that 'door' repeated a hundred times opens up to revelation."
   
   At about the same time, the Dadaist movement, endlessly debating the Cabaret Voltaire of Zurich, also left a legacy of artistic revolution which included sound practices: noise music, noise making, and even sound poetry and other forms of bruitism. On the other hand, the Surrealist movement that took on after World War I was singularly silent, and Andre Breton's antipathy toward music seems to have blocked other artists to explore sound other than through printed words and composed images: Man Ray's playful, punning image of a woman's nude torso with the twin sound holes of a cello painted on her back, or Bunuel's grand piano with dead donkeys draped across the strings in his film Un chien andalou,, were already testimonies that music could shout for attention while staying silent.
   
   John Cage appears throughout the book and is the subject of much attention and critique. As the author notes, many people have heard the world differently because of his efforts, yet they may not have heard all he had hoped to hear, for he wanted to hear all. With regard to the line separating sound and musical sound, Cage played a unique role in that he took the avant-garde strategy to its logical conclusion. 4'33'', his silence piece, extended the field of materiality to all the non-intentional sounds surrounding the performance, including the sound of the growing agitation of certain audience members. Yet Cage's silence, the author remarks, "was dependent from the very beginning on silencing", as it reproduced the mandate to be silent during a concert, when even a clearing of one's throat or murmuring is considered as a breach of decorum. For Douglas Kahn, Cage's silence constitutes a silencing of the social, the political and ecological, and these are the dimensions in sound and music that his text seeks to reinstate.
   
   What I particularly liked in the book are the vignettes into the life of the avant-garde, some of which contradict commonly held beliefs and images. For instance, Pierre Schaeffer, the founder in 1948 of musique concrete, confessed toward the end of his life that "it took me forty years to conclude that nothing is possible outside DoReMi... In other words, I wasted my life." Or Andy Warhol, showing to art dealer Ivan Karp his first paintings where pop icons and cartoon figures were covered by splashing and dripping, justified his gesture by saying: "You have to do that. You must drip! It means that you are an artist if you drip!" Eventually, the art dealer convinced him to renounce the dripping, to which Warhol responded: "That's just wonderful you should say that, because I don't think I wanna drip."



2. If at times overly academic, Douglas Kahn's seminal work "Noise, Water Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts" should be required reading for any course related to sound and such audio-visual domains as film and television.
   
   In his book Kahn adresses the historical changes (or, development?) in noise abatement, looking at noise as a cultural, musiological and essentially political phenomenon (with an apparent inspiration from Jacques Attali). Accompanying the different types of noise abatement in Western modernity (as voiced e.g. by Arthur Schopenhauer), are also - as Kahn illustrates - different experiments into the use of noise, whether defined as a strictly musical or cultural phenomenon. In music we thus find such experimental composers as John Cage and Pierre Schaeffer (exploring different types of musique concrète), in film we find early auteurs as Dziga Vertov, Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Alexandrov (through the use of natural sounds, asynchronism and different sonic counterpoints). Even in other - less obviously sonic - arts may we find otherwise elaborate experiments with sounds and noise(s). Take for example the vivid attempts at breaking the rigid rules of communication and narration through distinctly phonetical, verbo-literary experiments in the works of James Joyce and William Burroughs - or the creative disruption of the organic line in the paintings of say Gerhard Richter.
   
   Further examples could be found ad nauseum, and Douglas Kahn goes to great length in his interesting and well-documented explorations. Noise IS a part of the arts as much as our close environment, whether we register or hope to reject it.
   
   Kahn's pioneer-footsteps, thus, leave a vivid trail for others to follow, for in his book - if nothing else - he has shown how different sonic experiments (and, more specifically, different types of noise) are all around us. Instead of conservative strategies of silencing and abatement, we should listen!



3. The subject and content of this book is of great interest to me, and the book delivers quite well. The only fault I could find was in the use of a superfluously extensive vocabulary. I would compare it to listening to comedian Dennis Miller do stand up. It's often funny, but the guy is so knowledgeable as to leave me blank too often. It is such a good book that I'm discouraged by what I perceive as a limited audience potential.

   Still, I give 5 stars without hesitation, since the book is a great read that got my creative juices flowing and brought me up-to-date regarding the history of art forms in which I am deeply involved. Setting aside the excessively rigorous verbiage, it is very well written. I highly recommend it.




4. Kahn's text sprawls over 358 pages, and is filled with innovative insights into the auditory component of the 20th century avant-garde. I found the most brilliant section to be his critique of John Cage. Cage created music with the aim of "quieting the mind, to open it to divine influence." Kahn is the first to articulate what I have felt, that Cage, the zen anarchist, is just as manipulative with this goal as any tonal symphonic architect! As Kahn puts in,

   "...Cagean silence...has silenced other things, as it dwells at the problematic edge of audibility and attempts to hear the world of sound without hearing aspects of the world in a sound" (p. 4) Kahn turns on its head Cage's stated aim of "just letting sound be," speaking rather of "Cage's dominion of all sound and always sound," a project to turn all sound into music! (p. 197)

   Much of the rest of the book, the sections on "Water Flows and Flux" and "Meat Voices," is a wandering chronicle of various avant forms, and Kahn has fun with organic analogies. But it's a fascinating trip through little-known terrain, and Kahn is a fearless and creative guide!




5. This astonishing history of twentieth century art offers a deep and profound view of intermedia and multimedia through the aspect of sound. Kahn's narrative is beautifully written and well researched. He supports the text with a wealth of documentary sources that permit further research. This book is a seminal contribution to research in intermedia, multimedia, and media studies. KF

   Book review published in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 8, Aug 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

5 comments about Drawing Crime Noir: For Comics and Graphic Novels.

1. Excellent book that teach how to draw comic-strips
   and stories for Film-Noir style images. It succeeds
   in defining the Film-Noir basics, and has beautiful
   illustrations and is an entertaining book too. It
   has a tough attitude, like its subject. So cool!
   This is a great buy! I strongly recommend it, and I
   oughta know, because I am a cartoonist and I am fit
   to judge it. Don't let this instruction book escape
   you, you will regret not getting it. It belongs on
   every book shelf about cartooning in serious mood.
   I got it and am happy I did, it was the best buy ever!
   ----- Luisa Felix, FelixHoboken@aol.com



2. This book is written in a very entertaining matter. Normally I mostly go through art books reading sporadically but this book I actually read from cover to cover. Fortunately the images are no disappointment either. Best of all though is that the tips are actually helpful and honest. I certainly recommend this book for anyone getting in to the noir style.



3. Great tips for using expressions, postures and shadows. Package arrived in good conditions and on the expected time.



4. Great job of deveoping this genere. Hart, gets to the point-it is all about the mood and drama! His artistic ability to state the obvious shows that he dosen't mess around with the sissified PC crowd. Attitude with brooding emotion is what this life is all about and Hart is the master at pushing you in the right direction to capture this in your art.



5. I've purchased a number of Christopher Hart's books on drawing certain genres and facets of comic books; as a self-taught artist, I'm always looking out for the next book to help me out. Paging through "Drawing Crime Noir" I was initially impressed, and decided to pick it up.
   
   This book offers a number of interesting sections: discussions of character, clothing and accessories, drawing composition, and, of course, the all-important chiaroscuro shading. However, nice to look at as all of this is, little of it is really "teachable" - in other words, this book talks a good game, but frequently doesn't really "show" you, step-by-step, how to develop principles in creating your own scenes. Probably the most useful section is on drawing costumes for femme fatale characters - it will help a great deal those who are having difficulty drawing the more "cutting edge" fashions. Most disappointing is what one might think would be the most important section, the one on shading. It shows you some different shading options, but doesn't really delve helpfully in how to apply these principles across the board.
   
   Overall, this is a well illustrated book, but it lacks a really hands-on, helpful tutorial style. Definitely for artists of the intermediate skill level and above.

No comments about New Shoes: Contemporary Footwear Design: Contemporary Footwear Design.

No comments about Chagall and the Artists of the Russian Jewish Theater (Jewish Museum).

4 comments about The Way of the Brush: Painting Techniques of China and Japan.

1. This is the second copy of this book that I bought. I purchased second as a gift for artist friend after buying one for myself. We are both painters; but, this is the type of book anyone can enjoy reading for its philosophy and appreciation of Asian art. A visual artist can learn much from the techniques of brush painting used in China and Japan. It is both poetic and visual.



2. This is the best generally available book on Chinese and Japanese ink-painting in English of which I am aware. Why? Because it is not, primarily, a "how to" book. Yes, there are extensive examples of specific brushstrokes and characteristic forms and techniques, however they are by way of explanation and illustration, rather than instruction. There is much talk of history and aesthetics, but from a practical perspective; this is not, primarily, a book of art history or criticism. Rather, it looks at those things from the point of view of a painter, rather than an academic. While it's not an easy read, I would recommend this every bit as much for beginners as those with more experience.
   
   So, why would this be useful for the beginning painter? While some authors would have you believe that Asian ink work is rooted in a spontaneous expression of feeling, and/or that a meaningful piece of art can be created with just a few, easily mastered, brushstrokes, these are extreme oversimplifications of the actuality of Asian art. Tossing a bit of ink on some rice paper may be spontaneous, but it isn't the same as the Spontaneous school of Chinese painting. In reading this book, which is admittedly dense and occasionally dry, the reader can gain a strong background in the traditions and aesthetics of ink painting. While learning basic brush control from a teacher or how-to book, "The Way of the Brush" will give you not just context and history, but an understanding of how to compose and construct a work -- how to put those brushstrokes together.
   
   It could be said that this is not a book about how to paint in the Chinese and Japanese style, but how to look at a painting in the Chinese and Japanese style. In doing so, it also points the way towards seeing like a brush-painter. Unless you can see, not merely with your eyes, but with your mind, it is impossible to make the jump from brushwork to painting, from technique to art.



3. This is the book from which I learned sumi-e. It is well written, with wonderful examples. If one is seriously interested in the subject and in learning how to paint high quality works, it is the definitive work. The artist, P'u Ch'uan, who illustrates particular styles and strokes, is a master, providing some of the best examples one could hope for. The works of other artists in their instructional books pale by comparison; they fall into the "You too can paint a masterpiece in 60 minutes" sort of thing one sees on TV. Those are acceptable if you accept the limitations and set your sights accordingly. The standards set by this book are extremely high.

   The historical perspectives help a great deal in understanding not only the background of the art, but also in understanding the background of the strokes. These backgrounds are essential to more fully appreciating the work of others and in informing your own work. The great variety of styles and artists presented--contemparary and historical--help one to form one's own style.

   This book teaches both an appreciation of the art form and a sound basis for attempting it. I can't say I have mastered the form by any means, but working based on this book has been a rewarding experience.

   Highly recommended.




4. This is one of the best books about Chinese painting for those who want to understand not just Chinese painting techniques, but also something of the history and variety of traditional Chinese brush painting. The one drawback is the usage of the outdated Wade-Giles romanization (the book was first published in 1962), but that is merely a trivial annoyance compared to the wealth of information the author provides. Most instructional painting books are written by painters who focus on their own style, and give no credit to all the masters who have gone before them. This book shows many examples of paintings by master painters (ancient and modern), along with examples from the author's own teacher, master painter P'u Ch'uan. He thoroughly describes the different painting styles, with excellent examples, and many bibliographical references. I especially liked the fact that he gave 7 different versions of translations of "the Six Principles" of Hsieh Ho; by combining the common threads in all of them, their real meaning becomes clearer.

   Another subject he talks about, although briefly, is the importance of understanding brush strokes in order to be better prepared to deal with forgeries and copies. This subject is almost universally ignored in books on Chinese painting, and yet it is very important. I have seen a painting in a catalog from one of the big auction houses that on first glance looked like another one of Li Ke-ran's many water buffalo paintings, and was attributed to him by the (anonymous) seller. Upon closer scrutiny of the brush strokes used, it was obviously a fake. And I am by no means a true expert.

   If you are a beginner with no teacher to help you, then you will probably need other books, too. But for anyone who wants to learn about the history and traditions of Chinese painting, this is the ideal book.

1 comments about Art & Today.

1. Art is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide diversity of formats in which men and women work to create items of beauty that range from the simple to the complex and are in an continual state of evolving discovery as new techniques and mediums for artistic expression are developed with each new generation of artists. "Art & Today" is a massive, coffee-table compendium of contemporary artworks; the one common aspect of the 400 emerging artists surveyed is that they all engage in a postmodern willingness to transcend traditional boundaries. Full-color illustrations on almost every page introduce the reader to a vast variety of artistic creations, from painting to sculpture to photography and much more, while extensive essays offer insights into the backgrounds, themes, and messages of the individual artists. Organized around a set of sixteen themes ranging from "Art & Popular Culture" to "Art & Nature and Technology" to "Art & Globalism" and "Art & Politics", Art & Today lives up to its self-appointed Herculean labor of surveying what today's art as a whole has to say about humans and the world we live in. Highly recommended especially for public library and art book collections.

3 comments about The Tres Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry (leather-bound, slipcased).

1. Enter the magical medieval pages of the illuminated manuscripts of the gifted Limbourg brothers and discover a world long gone, but one which seems oddly familiar in a storybook sort of way. The colors (nicely reproduced in this hardback version of the book) will dazzle you - the skies were painted with an ultramarine made from costly lapis lazuli. The compositions, drawn in the pre-perspective days of the 15th century, will delight you. Many of the religious illuminations are moving - the Death of Christ captures the grim darkness into which the world has been cast in tones of grey and brown with only the shining gold halo of Christ piercing the gloom; God in his heavenly lunette above the picture looks sadly down on the scene, brilliant amidst reds, blues, and gold. But it is the pictures of the calendar - a wonderful record of daily life among the rich and the poor alike - that will charm you the most. The Duke feasts, the peasants warm themselves before fires, the plowman tills the soil, the farmers shear the sheep, and the pigs forage for acorns. And rising in the background of each of these magical scenes, in regulation storybook fashion, is a shining white castle. This hardcover version is a beautiful book that you will treasure for years.



2. Having read negative reviews of the cheap, paperback version of this book, I took a deep gulp and sprang for the expensive hardback. This is a case where spending more for the hardback version is more than worth it. The pictures are very large size format, with the gold intact (unlike the paperback version). The quality of the paintings is excellent. The book is beautiful to display, look at and/or study. I have been copying one of the illustrations, and having a great time.I love medieval illustrated books. I have not found another one in this large a format, with such detail. If you are into illuminated manuscripts, you must have this one, there can be no argument. (Hardback version)



3. The books begins with an introduction, then many images from the Tres Riches Heures, and at the end there is a commentary of the pictures.

   The big problem is that the pictures were made in the sixties, they are fuzzy, unsharp, the colors are not vivid and bright, such a very low quality of photocomposition is no more acceptable at the end of the 20th century. It is high time that a newer edition be made available in English, as is already the case in French.

2 comments about After 9/11: America's War on Terror (2001- ).

1. Jacobson and Colon's After 9/11 is supposed to be a continuation of their first graphic depiction of the 9/11 Report. These two works are not of the same genre. The 9/11 Report was indeed factual and told of the major aspects of the 9/11 Report written by that Committee.
   After 9/11, represents Jacobson and Colon telling us of life in the World after 9/11. This work, in which much of it I do agree with, is a look at the World with an editorial slant.
   The Authors bring up the valid points of no WMD and the fact of the Bush administration gathering false intelligence to substantiate the preemptive attack of Iraq. What was the purpose?
   Jacobson and Colon have correctly identified how America got into this mess and how we ostracized our Allies. Most of this adaptation is done very well.
   The only area in which I believe the Authors fall short in was their detailing of the successes of the Surge. After all fair is fair. Tell it like it is, leave your prejudice behind. Tell the entire story including the parts which don't support your thesis.
   Also some of the descriptive balloons were hard to read because the dark print blended into the dark background.
   In all, I found this graphic narrative worth the read. This is not a good as the 9/11 Report, but I do recommend this graphic narrative.



2. You should heed the warning written on the opening pages, "The authors were especially inspired by The New York Times,...Time, Newsweek, and the New Yorker". The Graphic adaptation of the 9/11 Report was far superior, but in that work, the authors were grounded by the logic and reality of a non-partisan project. If you see the US efforts in Iraq as nothing but calamity and blunder, then this is an excellent piece of unfettered propaganda for you.
   
   Consider that the chapter addressing the Surge (19 pages of 149 total) is nothing but a continuation of explosions, murder, chaos and horror. There is not a single positive image or statement describing the situation in post-Surge Iraq.
   
   It's not hard then, to recognize that the entire book is obviously themed to reenforce the same stale talking points of the anti-war left: There were no WMDs; Bush was hell-bent on war from the get-go; every aspect of the operation was mis-managed or corrupt; Iraq distracted the US from Afghanistan, and all developing problems in A-stan were caused by efforts in Iraq; war crimes, torture, rape, sleep-deprivation, etc.
   
   Accompanying the mediocre drawings of suicide bombings, IEDs, and dead soldiers, are depictions of the space shuttle Columbia burning up on re-entry, Hurricane Katrina, and the Virginia Tech shooting massacre. (I'm not kidding.) More apparent unintended consequences of liberating Iraq and ridding the world of one of the most evil despots that ever lived. But don't look in this book for Saddam to be described in such a way. This is a comic book indeed.