Annotated Bibliography on the flow of information and the transformation of visual culture.
Anthony Vega
21st Century flow of information can be defined in a few words: immediate and seemingly infinite. This leads to a flow, consumption, use and access that has the possibility of generating transformation in society, culture and individuals. My primary interest is in the optimism a shift in relating to information can create for contemporary culture. The specific position I am taking within this research is that of a visual artist interested in the aesthetic experience in relation to the individual, identity, information and consumption of information.
The goal of this annotated bibliography is to scratch the surface and offer some starting points for this relationship to information. This is specifically taken through a historical and logical view of visual awareness and connection of images and objects. The resources vary greatly to show the breadth of impact immediate and infinite information can have on visual awareness in relation to aesthetic experience, identity, marketing, objects, the meaning of objects and possible transformation.
Bibliography
Abbott, Robert.The World as Information. Exeter: Intellect Books, 1999
Abbott looks at information and specifically the overload of information though the lack of balance of the vast amounts available and the quality, human need and pertinent consumption of information. The dialogue is, given the striving market for quicker larger amounts of information being made available as second nature, this information, as found in the internet, is dismissed or overly consumed to the point of no information being received. A possible positive benefit of the technology and amount of information is to create a culture that will allow individuals to purposefully mine the information for coherent knowledge that will give access to not only the world as information, but the world as something to participate with and experience.
Barthes, Roland. The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies. Richard Howard, trans. New York: Hill and Wang, 1979
My primarily interest is in the first chapter of this book dealing with the Eiffel Tower in France and it’s icon and scope as a mythic object filled with extraordinary meaning and facility while participating in simulacrum. It also sets up the object as a sign for the world and for Paris that can at once be unavoidable and transformative.
Baudrillard, Jean. Art and Artefact. Nicholas Zurbrugg, ed. London: SAGE Publications, 1997
Art and Artefact is a compilation of Jean Baudrillard’s writings and further inquiry into the impact of his thoughts around the object specific to art. The compilation aims to document the appeal of Baudrilard's work specifically through its critical evaluating and comparison to the conversation around art, artifact, culture, society and the impact of simulacra and simulation.
Baudrillard, Jean. The System of Objects. James Benedict trans. London, New York: Verso, 1996
Asks the questions of the impact of objects on the individual and social and cultural systems. How do people relate to objects and what systems are created for the experience of an object. This discourse is taken both in regard to the function of the object and the perceived importance of an object to possession and finally consumption. Objects themselves are not the items of consumption; the systems and meanings of the objects created are what is consumed. The object becomes a sign or indicator of individual participation in the system of objects. Objects create relationships not within themselves to the possessor, but relationships based solely on the system of meaning created through the perception of objects. Due to the fact that consumption is the acquisition of signs and perception of meaning or unreality, “there is no limit to consumption.” Consumption of signs is infinite and ties individuals and identities to the simulacra.
Bauman, Zygmunt. Identity, Conversations with Benedetto Vecchi. Cambridge: Polity, 2004
An interview conducted via e-mail with Zygmunt Bauman on Identity. The conversation of identity comes mostly from the impact from globalization and contemporary culture and the forced loss or ambiguity of identity. Identity is based on nationalism or citizenship in a poly cultural world, in short “identity is created not discovered”. The basic presupposition is that identities are defined by the communities they are a part. Additionally the problem of identity within a fate of “belonging” to a transient, globalized community is a fragmentation of identity. One of the many threads discussed through the conversation of identity is the participation of fundamentalist religion creating a haven for a more homogenous identity within a fragmented world. The author discusses the impact the use of e-mail had on the interview causing deviations in topic and the change of interview speed had on the dialogue. This becomes a reference to the customary dialogue between identities being forced, in some regard, to participate in a unique dialogue based on new technologies and the flow of information.
Boldrick, Stacy, and Richard Clay, eds. Iconoclasm, Contested Objects, Contested Concerns. Hampshire: Ashgate, 2007
This book aims to have discourse with icon of sculpture and visual culture from the 16th century to about 2001. It explores the relation to iconoclasm and culture, society, history, religion and meaning. One point of interest is the idea of the icon being deconstructed or taken from the original meaning once associated and then reassigned based on a new or varied meaning. This is particularly interesting within the loss of the icon and the recreation of the meaning of an object based on location or other social or cultural factors.
Cathcart, Linda L. Introduction Essay. The Americans: The Collage. Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum, 1982
This book is an abridged documentation of the visual record of collage in the American artist vocabulary. It is meant to show the impact and varied ways collage has redefined itself. The subtle commentary is on the use of material referencing the juxtaposition of “real” objects with the meaning of objects. This juxtaposition in collage allows the art object to participate in a “gluing together” of disparate things, calling into question ones relationship to the object seen and it’s meaning.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly and Rick E. Robinson. The Art of Seeing, An Interpretation of the Aesthetic Encounter. Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Center for the Education in the Arts, 1990
“The Art of Seeing” aims to qualify and quantify the reactions of aesthetic experience. The basic premise is that relationships to certain activities can create a removal from the self, loss of identity, connectedness to the world or transcendence, a “flow”. Can we study these causes in relation to how aesthetic experience can capture the attention of all individuals even those less adapt at enjoying the arts. Is it possible to understand aesthetic experience to enhance the possibility of its’ seemingly positive effects? Familiarity with certain criteria tends to be required for enhancing ones relation to aesthetic experience. Knowing the historical and other context of an art object greatly increases the possibility of an aesthetic experience. Given the criteria be met it is possible for these experiences to be a unifying activity and one of qualitative importance.
Graham, Gordon. The Internet, A Philosophical Inquiry. London and new York: Routledge, 1999
Gordon Graham takes a critical philosophical approach to the Internet, with the difficult questions that need to be asked of such a technology whose impact can have serious and long lasting ramifications to our social and economic fabric. The interest I have within this discourse is the role of the human and society in the Internet such as in the way a “virtual reality” creates new communities, interactions and connections.
Katagiri, Dainin. Each Moment is the Universe, Zen and the Way of Being Time. Boston and London: Shambhala, 2007
The author compiles Zen teachings of Katagiri Roshi around the concept of time and the individuals’ relationship or perceived relationship to time. Time is dynamic, yet comprised of moments that if experienced in a way of conscious awareness can give access to the interconnectedness of all things. This relationship to time allows for the religious experience of connectedness to individuals, identities, communities and the perception of objects. Objects become perceived through realizing that time is the tempo of the universe and our perception is ill equipped through lack of practice to experience the true connection of all objects. This connection transcends the real or hyper real into not simply visual experience but awareness and timelessness. It also speaks to the loss of the individual being something that generates the true self. The immediacy and quantity of information and objects available, at once make difficult the realization of the tempo of the universe and highly attainable the visualization of the connectedness of the world.
Kimmel, Allan J. ed. Marketing Communication, New Approaches, Technologies and Styles. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005
Marketing Communication discusses the challenges that face the promotion and advertisement of products (objects) in a fragmented contemporary global market place. It offers perspectives on the communication of product to vast audiences within a global and highly technological time.
Nehamas, Alexander. Only a Promise of Happiness, The Place of Beuty in a World of Art. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007
Nehamas discusses in this book the role of Beauty in art and the implications and varied reactions this role imparts on the individual, community and potential objectivity of viewing or experiencing beautiful things. One such argument of interest is the contradictions that exist within a judgment of an object, specifically an art object, and the description of an object. The implication is obviously that a description requires a universally agreed perception of the object. In art this does not generally happen.
Ramadan, Khaled D. ed. Peripheral Insider, Perspectives on Contemporary Internationalism in Visual Culture. Denmark: Narayana Press, 2007
Peripheral Insider is a compilation of essays around a post-colonial world in relation to visual arts and the imagery associated with certain, newly participating, areas and demographics of interest. The book aims to have at best a dialogue with the questions of the post-colonial and intellectual in the visual arts. Some of the questions explored are the effect of globalization on the presentation of art, the impact a globalized art world has on global artists and the future of the visual arts in relation to the changing and increasingly complex social and cultural landscape. All this is seen through the lens of cultural identity and the stereotypes and excess information that remains in the world.
Ranciere, Jaques.. The Future of the Image. London and New York: Verso, 2007
Jacques Ranciere participates in an intellectual discourse on the current arguments around the image. The book explores the impact and counter arguments around the image in relation to contemporary art and the notion of only the image being real or the image having lost all possibility of content.
Lama Yeshe. Introduction to Trantra, A Vision of Totality. Jonathan Landaw ed. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1987
This introduction to Tantric Buddhism was written with the basic goal: to show the west the possibility of enlightenment through recognition that all that is needed for enlightenment is in front of us. The tools needed for this feat are based on the recognition and transformation of our desires. Tantric uses the worlds’ infinite content and the energy of our desires to illuminate the unity of all things (the non-self). Identity and the world become an access point to the non-self.