Play art' or interactive art is becoming a central concept in the contemporary art world, disrupting the traditional role of passive observance usually assumed by audiences, allowing them active participation.
In this groundbreaking book, Charissa Terranova unearths a forgotten narrative of modernism, which charts the influence that biology, General Systems Theory and cybernetics had on art in the twentieth century.
In 1945, French political prisoners returning from the concentration camps of Germany coined the phrase 'the concentrationary universe' to describe the camps as a terrible political experiment in the destruction of the human.
Legendary philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) developed concepts which are bywords within poststructuralist and new historicist literary criticism and philosophy yet have been under-utilised by artists, art historians and art critics.
In this innovative collection, a distinguished group of international authors dare to think psychoanalytically about the legacies of political violence and suffering in relation to post-traumatic cultures worldwide.
The view from above, or the 'bird's-eye' view, has become so ingrained in contemporary visual culture that it is now hard to imagine our world without it.
From the 'Monster of Ravenna' to the 'Elephant Man', Myra Hindley and Ted Bundy, the visualisation of 'real', human monsters has always played a part in how society sees itself.
In this innovative new book, Alison Bancroft re-examines significant moments in twentieth century fashion history through the focal lens of psychoanalytic theory.
Art today is an increasingly multifaceted phenomenon,encompassing transgressive works that intervene in war and ecological disasters, in inequalities and revolutionary changes in technology.
Trash, garbage, rubbish, dross, and detritus - in this enjoyably radical exploration of 'Junk', Gillian Whiteley rethinks art's historical and present appropriation of junk within our eco-conscious and globalised culture.
Often derided as unscientific and self-indulgent, psychoanalysis has been an invaluable resource for artists, art critics and historians throughout the twentieth century.
Practice-led research is a burgeoning area across the creative arts, with studio informed doctorates frequently favoured over traditional approaches to research.
The notion of a special intimacy between 'the feminine and the sacred' has received significant attention since the publication of Julia Kristeva and Cath rine Cl ment's famous ecumenical 'conversation' of the same name which focussed on the relationship between meaning and the body at whose interface the feminine is positioned.
Ideas of selfhood, from Descartes' theory of "e;I think therefore I am"e; to postmodern notions of the fragmented and de-centred self, have been crucial to the visual arts.
The 'theoretical turn' within the arts and humanities in the 1970s and 1980s has, for many, had its day, with work produced under its rubric all too often feeling tired or even downright lazy.
Both an exploration of the ways in which we fashion our public identity and a manual of modern sociability, this lively and readable book explores the techniques we use to present ourselves to the world: body language, tone of voice, manners, demeanour, 'personality' and personal style.
Accused by the tabloid press of setting out to 'shock', controversial artworks are vigorously defended by art critics, who frequently downplay their disturbing emotional impact.
Ein Kollektiv ist weder notwendig eine Gruppe, die der Vielzahl ihrer Mitglieder eine institutionelle Einheit überstülpt, noch braucht es intensive emotionale Bindungen oder eine starke Gemeinschaftsimagination.
In Deleuze and Art Anne Sauvagnargues, one of the world's most renowned Deleuze scholars, offers a unique insight into the constitutive role played by art in the formation of Deleuze's thought.
There is a common perception in the arts today that overtly activist art-often seen to sacrifice an aesthetic pleasure for a subversive one-is no longer in fashion.
Audacious and genre-defying, Black and Blue is steeped in melancholy, in the feeling of being blue, or, rather, black and blue, with all the literality of bruised flesh.
A major historical phenomenon of our century, exile has been a focal point for reflections about individual and cultural identity and problems of nationalism, racism, and war.
In One and Five Ideas eminent critic, historian, and former member of the Art & Language collective Terry Smith explores the artistic, philosophical, political, and geographical dimensions of Conceptual Art and conceptualism.
Disciples of Passion chronicles the civil war in Lebanon through the troubled and sometimes quasi-hallucinatory mind of a young man who has experienced kidnapping, hostage exchange, and hospital internment.
Since the 1960s, British multi-media artist Peter Greenaway has shocked and intrigued audiences with his avant-garde approach to filmmaking and other artistic ventures.
This book examines the art and writings of Wassily Kandinsky, who is widely regarded as one of the first artists to produce non-representational paintings.
This interdisciplinary collection of essays addresses idolatry, a contested issue that has given rise to both religious accusations and heated scholarly disputes.
The violent operations performed in the 1970s by West German urban guerrillas - such as the Red Army Faction (RAF) - were so vivid and incomprehensible that it seemed to be more urgent to produce spectacle than to be politically successful.
The violent operations performed in the 1970s by West German urban guerrillas - such as the Red Army Faction (RAF) - were so vivid and incomprehensible that it seemed to be more urgent to produce spectacle than to be politically successful.
