Intellect Books, IQ Magazine: Spring 2007 (Read in "Fullscreen")

IQ
Intellect Quarterly no. 5 / thinking in colour / spring 2007
In this issue:
media & democracy

COMPUTERS AND THE HISTORY OF ART
VIDEOGAME ART
josÉ marÍa rodrÍguez mÉndez
POST-SOVIET FILM
PLUS BOOK REVIEWS AND AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
www.intellectbooks.com
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IQ
contents spring 2007
Publisher/Editor
06 Videogame Art Masoud Yazdani

Associate Editor
May Yao
Challenging and Provocative Sub Editor

Samantha King
Art Director
Gabriel Solomons
10 José María Rodríguez Méndez Intellect Ltd.

PO Box 862
Bristol BS99 1DE
Troubling Postcards from the Past Tel: 0117 9589910
12 The Visual in Communication

IQ / intellect quarterly
ISSN 1478-7350
©2007 Intellect Ltd. No
Some Hidden Dimensions part of this publication

may be reproduced,
copied, transmitted in
any form or by any means
16 Television’s New Engine without permission of the

publisher. Intellect accept
no responsibility for views
The Principle of the TV Format expressed by contributors

to IQ; or for unsolicted
manuscripts, photographs or
illustrations; or for errors in
21 Indexed Lights
articles or advertisements.
Intellect publishes books
Computers and the History of Art

and journals by authors and
editors with original thinking
they strongly believe in. Our
intention is to produce books
25 Media and Democracy

and journals that have presence,
create impact and are affordable
for readers. We commission
regardless of whether there
A Strange Paradox is an established readership
for the ideas: we support our
authors comprehensively in
articulating their thoughts and
25 Pride and Panic then bring them to as wide

a readership as possible. We
choose authors and editors
Russian Imagination of the West in Post-Soviet Film who in backing their ideas,
are willing to be part of our
publishing process by investing
their energy and resources as
Q&A » 04 May Yao | 19 Graeme Harper | 26 Robert W. Lawler | 28 Book Reviews needed in co-operation with us.
Intellect Quarterly | 3
Q&A
iQuote » “Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Lewis Carroll
exemplify our mission as publish- on established topics along univer-

ers of original thinking. We like to sity departmental boundaries and
work with authors who can clearly textbooks for specific courses.
identify with their book and are Although we may give an author
motivated to support it through editorial guidance, we don’t com-
all its stages of development. We mission authors to write books for
have found that there is a real us. Overall, we have very little edi-
demand from authors and editorial intervention in comparison
tors to get their original material to other publishers. We represent
published and to get their ideas the author rather than the reader
heard. The focus of our publishing in the editorial process, which
programme covers topics related means that the author’s message is
to creative media: art, film, televi- authentically articulated. However,
sion, design and international because our books are not catered
culture. Books that are multidisci- to the reader, they probably will
plinary within our range of topics not be as widely read. Our role is to
are preferred. support the author by making each
Who are your intended authors book as strong and as professional
May Yao
and their readership? as possible, while staying true to
We publish for university and the author’s voice.
college academics and postgrads. What stages does a book go
However, an Intellect book goes through before it reaches the
An interview with Intellect’s book publisher beyond the specialist in a given readers?
field to appeal to others who have The main production stages are
Photo Gabriel Solomons a multi-disciplinary interest in the peer review, copyediting and type-
topic. Intellect does not publish setting. The cover design, images
textbooks aimed at undergradu- and index must also be negotiated
ates. Such books contain very little during the production process.
original thinking and are mostly As we are an academic publisher,
How did you come to choose What attracted you specifically tutorial and survey material. all our books are peer-reviewed.
publishing as a career? to join Intellect? Intellect books are not aimed at This process is intended to ensure
I’ve always been interested in the I liked the idea of publishing on the educated reader at large. One a level of academic quality as
process of communicating and the merit of ideas rather than sales, of our biggest editorial mistakes well as providing feedback to the
disseminating ideas. The publish- and being able to publish books in the past has been to attempt author on how the book might be
ing industry has a considerable that other publishers might not be to publish books simultaneously improved. We try to involve the
responsibility both to inform willing to take on due to the finan- aimed at the specialist academic, author in every stage of the pro-
and entertain, and I was drawn cial risk involved. I felt that Intel- the undergraduate and the general duction process, from copyediting
to the idea of having a career that lect was trying to do something reader. However, such books rarely through to cover design.
might be able to combine culture very different from other publish- succeed to satisfy any of these How do you market your books?
with commerce. Publishing is ers – campaigning for the author communities, as their needs are Intellect’s primary strategy is
a constantly evolving industry rather than producing a book or very different. relationship marketing, which is
– especially in the current climate journal to fill a gap in the market. How do you differ in your edito- focused and cost-effective. Leaflets
of increasingly rapid technological The tension between Intellect’s rial policy from other publishers? and catalogues are sent directly
innovation, and there are always mission and commercial pressures Our strategy is to publish authors to targeted potential readers who
exciting opportunities and new creates a great dichotomy which is who have new ideas, new ways of have an interest in our subject
developments which make it a Intellect’s greatest challenge, but expressing their ideas, or cover areas. In addition to direct mail,
great challenge! I love the variety also its greatest strength! new topics not established within we use our website, e-communi-
of work that publishing offers, as What kind of books do you academia. These ideas may not be ties, e-newsletters and e-flyers to
well as the satisfaction of seeing a publish at Intellect? appreciated by mainstream aca- reach potential readers, as well as
finished book. We aim to publish books which demic publishers whose focus is attending or getting involved in
4 | Intellect Quarterly
May Yao ��
“An artist’s career always begins tomorrow.” – J. Whistler

��
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‘The tension between Intellect’s ��
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mission and commercial pressures ��
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Intellect’s greatest challenge, but also
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relevant conferences and events. sure that our books are made avail-
We also regularly participate able through the latest electronic ��
in advertising campaigns in an distribution methods, as well as ��
attempt to widen our customer through the more conventional
base. In addition, we have found routes. We are working closely ��
that by introducing an author’s with several e-book distributors ��
ideas to potential readers through including NetLibrary, Ebrary and
the publication of related articles MyiLibrary, as well as Google Book
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in IQ magazine, our authors gain Search and Amazon. ��
increased exposure and publicity, How should authors prepare their ��
which in turn helps to increase proposals so they succeed?
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book sales. The best way to submit a proposal
Who are your partners and what to us is by completing our author ��
do they do for you? questionnaire as thoroughly as pos- ��
Our aim is always to support our sible. The questionnaire requests ��
authors by bringing their ideas to information about the content and
as wide a readership as possible, structure of the proposed book,
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and we continuously strive to find as well as marketing informa- ��
new and innovative ways of achiev- tion and biographic information
ing this. From 2007, we are pleased about the author. Potential authors ��
that our titles will be marketed and should bear in mind that we do ��
distributed by the University of not publish Ph.D. theses, although ��
Chicago Press in all regions of the such research can, of course, be an
world except for the UK, Europe, excellent starting point for a book. ��
Australia and New Zealand. We We publish original material, so ��
also have a similar arrangement surveys or collections of previ- ��
with the University of New South ously published material are not
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Wales Press in Australia and New for us. In essence, we are looking
Zealand. In Europe, we work with for authors presenting new ideas ��
Durnell Marketing, who represent that don’t yet have an established
us to booksellers in the region. We market or readership and are keen ��
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Art & Design
iQuote » “The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.” – Banksy
intellect Book Focus
Videogame Art
Challenging and Provocative
By Grethe Mitchell and Andy Clarke
A
lthough a comparatively new dering engine with equally realistic musical instruments (Julian Oliver’s Below
medium, videogames have 3-D surround sound and a powerful QTO); they have created virtual galler- Escape from Woomera
by Julian Oliver and others
rapidly emerged to become scripting language, and the applica- ies (Fuchs and Eckermann’s Virtual
Museum Meltdown
an established cultural form, taking tions used to modify the games are Knowledge Space) and recreated real by Tobias Bernstrup and Palle Torsson
their place alongside television and relatively easy to master. galleries (Bernstrup and Torsson’s Bottom
film. Yet while television and film Mod art has sometimes been Museum Meltdown series). Mario’s Furniture (2003)
by Hillary Mushkin and S. E. Barnet
are now, for the most part, accept- described, derogatively, as ‘para- But it is not just the diversity of
able to all, videogames retain an air sitical’ as it relies on commercial the works produced that makes
of danger and degeneracy and are videogames, but this description videogame art so interesting. Every
frequently vilified in public debates ignores both the practicalities and example of videogame art is a liminal
about the state of society. aesthetics of digital art in general. work as it lies – by definition – at the
Given this mix of popularity and It, too, is reliant upon proprietary border between the commercial vid-
controversy, it is inevitable that applications (such as Flash or Pho- eogame and the artistic world. This
artists have looked to videogames toshop) and likewise has elements introduces a creative and intellectual
as both their inspiration and their of appropriation (with or without tension within the works which is of-
source material. Using the iconogra- manipulation) which although they ten lacking in other forms of digital
phy of videogames in artworks is as have been around since Duchamp art production.
old as videogames themselves, but a – if not earlier – have come into their Videogame artists routinely use
growing number of artists are using own with digital technologies. Digi- their work to critique the games
the videogames themselves as their tal art presents inherent problems that they use both as medium and
artistic medium. if judged by traditional aesthetic raw material and to provocatively
Some do this through writing art criteria (particularly those which
videogames from scratch (such as emphasize ‘originality’, ‘uniqueness’
Thompson and Craighead’s Trigger and ‘the hand of the artist’). This
Happy); others hack videogame does not mean, however, that digital
hardware such as Game Boy consoles art is invalid; instead, it means that
(for example, Paul Catanese’s Super the criteria of assessment need to be
Ichthyologist Advance); yet others take re-thought when applied to digital
existing games – usually FPS (‘first- works (including videogame art).
person shooter’) games such as So rather than regard mod art as
Quake, Unreal or Half Life and modify ‘parasitical’, we feel it is more correct
these. This latter type of work, cre- to describe it as a virus that produces
ated by modifying existing games, is mutations in its host. Mod artists
usually referred to as ‘mod art’ and is have found ways to subvert and mod-
the most visible form of videogame ify every aspect of the game. They
art. The reasons for this are easy to have placed themselves in the game
understand: FPS games provide the (as in Feng Mengbo’s Q4U); they
artist with a formidable set of fea- have turned games into abstract pat-
tures including a real-time 3-D ren- terns (Jodi’s Untitled Game series) or
Videogame Art
iQuote » “Whoever is able to write a book and does not, it is as if they had lost a child.” – Rabbi Nachman
‘Videogame art is becoming more

FURTHER READING FURTHER READING
widely exhibited including in major Videogames and Art The Future of Art
public galleries with many of the artists Edited by Andy Clarke & Grethe Mitchell
£29.95 / $55 / ISBN 978-1-84150-142-0
in a Digital Age
By Mel Alexenberg
now having gallery representation £29.95 / $60 / ISBN 978-1-84150-136-9
and being collected both by major
institutions and by private collectors.’
question our relationship to these Iraq by Joseph Delappe and Waco
games. Often they will ‘play’ with Resurrection (by Eddo Stern, Brody
the viewer of the artwork – invit- Condon and others).
ing them to interact, but then Just as videogames have
frustrating their play or actively entered the cultural mainstream,
critiquing their reasons for playing so videogame art is becoming a Videogame art is a rapidly emerg-
or enjoying videogames in general. recognized part of the art world. ing genre of digital art and a This book develops the thesis that
Other strategies include producing Videogame art is becoming more flourishing area of both critical the transition from premodernism
video installations which highlight widely exhibited including in ma- attention and academic study. to postmodernism in art of the
A growing number of artists are digital age represents a paradigm
the repetitiveness or vacuity of jor public galleries – such as the
appropriating the technology shift from the Hellenistic to the
videogames (such as Brody Con- Whitney, the Stedelijk and the SF
and iconography of videogames Hebraic roots of Western culture.
don’s Suicide Solution or Stephen MOMA – and many of the artists
and their work is being shown Semiotic and morphological
Honegger’s Three Hour Donut). involved now have gallery repre-
in – and collected by – major analysis of art and visual culture
But videogame art is not only sentation and are being collected art institutions worldwide. demonstrate the contemporary
introspective and self-referential: both by major institutions and by This book features interviews confluence between the deep
a substantial number of artists private collectors. We anticipate with many leading videogame structure of Hebraic conscious-
have used games to comment on that this interest will grow and artists, as well as with emerging ness and new directions in art that
political and social issues, or on that videogame art will continue figures in the field. Others provide arise along the interface between
real-life events. Examples of this to evolve whilst remaining a chal- essays on areas such as games- scientific inquiry, digital technolo-
include Escape from Woomera (by lenging and provocative alterna- console hacking and politically- gies, and multicultural expres-
Julian Oliver and others), Dead in tive to commercial games. { oriented videogame art which sions. Complementing these two
draw on the insights and experi- analytic methodologies, alterna-
ence gained from their own artis- tive methodologies of kabbalah
tic practice. There are in-depth and halakhah provide postmodern
analyses of specialist areas such methods for extending into digital
as machinima and contextualizing age art forms. Exemplary artworks
essays which trace the history of are described in the text and will
videogame art or draw parallels be illustrated with photographs.
between the aesthetics of video-
‘Like the Torah itself that Alexen-
games and other forms of art.
berg refers to regularly, the book
Overall, this book provides a
is complex. He writes in a lively,
thorough, yet accessible, introduc-
engaging style... I found it infor-
tion to videogame art and will be
mative, optimistic, and spiritually
of interest to all of those inter-
refreshing.’ –ROB HARLE, LEONARDO
ested in the field of videogames.
ORDER THESE BOOK ON-LINE WWW.INTELLECTBOOKS.COM

Above acmipark by Julian Oliver and others
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Article from issue 25
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Theatre & Performance
iQuote » “I think theatre should always be somewhat suspect.” – Vaclav Havel
Troubling Postcards from the Past

The past may be a foreign country, as L. P. Hartley suggested in The Go-Between,
but it is never far from home. By Michael Thompson
S
paniards have been travelling to the past obsessively – and un- dríguez Méndez is a comprehensive study of his theatre from the 1950s
comfortably – in recent years in search of justice, reparation, rec- to the present, focusing particularly on his history plays and on his
onciliation and, above all, their own collective identity. The civil representations of cultural identity. He was one of the first dramatists
war of 1936 to 1939 resulted in a bloody annexation of national history to challenge the Franco regime’s dogmatic, chauvinistic definitions
and identity by the right-wing forces led by Francisco Franco, whose re- of national history and identity, proposing instead a dynamic view of
gime occupied the territory and strictly controlled access to it for almost collective identities emerging from the everyday social performances
40 years. The transition to democracy after 1975 was founded upon a of popular culture in resistance to official ideologies. In an essay on
series of difficult compromises made possible by a pacto del olvido – an traditional popular culture published in 1971, Rodríguez Méndez uses
agreement to forget not only the pain and the blame but also the fact the term machismo español to sum up this process of identity construc-
that there were precedents for the ‘new’ values of liberty and democracy tion in a surprising but ultimately productive way that acknowledges
in that region of the past which was the Spanish Republic. It is only the negative gender implications of the conventional meaning of ma-
recently that demands for the ‘recuperation of historical memory’ have chismo but absorbs them into a broader and more positive concept of
come to the forefront of political debate, public opinion and media at- collective creativity and rebellion. His plays show communities and in-
tention, fed by the identification of large numbers of collective graves dividuals (men and women, straight and gay, influential and margin-
of the victims of Francoist repression, legal claims for reparations and alized) at various moments in Spanish history acting out the spirit of
a stream of previously untold testimonies of suffering, injustice and machismo español as a marker of community identity, an enabler of indi-
heroism. A bill presented by the Government in 2006 incorporating vidual self-expression and a means of resistance to the ideological and
various measures intended to provide
recognition and reparation to victims
and redress the commemorative imbal- ‘José María
ance left over from Francoism has been Rodríguez
fiercely resisted by conservatives reluc-
tant to cast light on the skeletons litter- Méndez was
ing the landscape of the past, as well as one of the first
by those who feel that the proposed leg-
islation does not go far enough. dramatists to
Historians, creative writers and film- challenge the
makers, however, have for some time
been rediscovering and re-mapping Franco regime’s
Spain’s past, including the dark corners dogmatic,
of the civil war and the dictatorship.
José María Rodríguez Méndez (born in chauvinistic
1925) is a playwright, journalist, essayist definitions of
and novelist who has insistently made
Spanishness in the past and the present national history
the core of his work. My book Performing and identity...’
Spanishness: History, Cultural Identity and
Censorship in the Theatre of José María Ro-
Rodríguez Méndez in Barcelona / Photograph courtesy of J.M. Rodríguez Méndez
Performing Spanishness
iQuote » “Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre.” – Gail Godwin
Right
Los inocentes de la Moncloa, Teatro Cómico (Madrid),
January 1964 / Photograph by Manuel Martínez Muñoz
Far Right
La marca del fuego, Real Coliseo Carlos III (San Lorenzo
de El Escorial), November 1986 / Photograph by Chicho,
courtesy of Centro de Documentación Teatral, Madrid
Below
El pájaro solitario, CEU San Pablo (Valencia), 1998 /
Photograph courtesy of J.M. Rodríguez Méndez
cultural control exercised by the state and by dominant social groups. to be uncertain about how to evaluate them, perceiving something of
The other side of the coin is that Rodríguez Méndez offers a bleak pic- their profound cultural dissidence – often puzzlingly at odds with an
ture of contemporary society (since the civil war), in which the par- apparently innocuous tone or conventional form – but unable to agree
ticipative creativity enabled by traditional forms of popular culture has on exactly what made them dangerous. In a sense, Franco’s censors
been eroded by industrialization, political control and the spread of paid Rodríguez Méndez an unwelcome backhanded compliment, fear-
the mass media. This outlook becomes a cynical, sometimes simplis- ing his work to be more powerful and subversive than he could have
tic or reactionary, view of post-Franco Spain which has ensured that he hoped for. In the process, they repeatedly confirmed the political and
remains as difficult and unorthodox a figure in the liberal, democratic cultural importance of history and the unsettling power of theatre to
present as he was under the dictatorship. The past in his theatre is a make the past simultaneously more foreign and more immediate. {
foreign country that is, paradoxically, more Spanish; they do things
more colourfully and creatively there.
Despite the fact that Rodríguez Méndez’s work never explicitly FURTHER READING
expressed political opposition to Francoism, he was one of the play-
Performing Spanishness:
History, Cultural Identity and
wrights whose career was most severely damaged by the strict censor-
Censorship in the Theatre of
ship maintained throughout the life of the regime. His plays provide José María Rodríguez Méndez
fascinating case studies of the unpredictable nature and stifling effect of
By Michael Thompson | £19.95, $40
censorship on theatre in Spain in the 1960s and 70s. The censors tended
ISBN 978-1-84150-134-5
Performing Spanishness delves into the theatre
‘In a sense, Franco’s censors of Spanish dramatist José María Rodríguez
Méndez, one of the most significant Spanish
paid Rodríguez Méndez an playwrights of the twentieth century and an
acerbic cultural commentator.
unwelcome backhanded This book traces the development of
Rodríguez Méndez’s work from the hard
compliment, fearing his work times of the Franco dictatorship through the
uncertainties of the transition to democracy.
to be more powerful and Rodríguez Méndez’s theatre is saturated by
the socially explosive concept of Spanishness,
subversive than he could have dramatized as a dazzling range of popular
performances of cultural identity in various
hoped for. In the process, periods from the middle ages to the present.
The author locates this impression in Rodríguez
they repeatedly confirmed the Méndez’s interpretation of ‘machismo español’
as a volatile, universal articulation of Spanish
political and cultural importance identity charged with the dissident voice of
popular resistance to constraining political and
of history and the unsettling ideological structures.
The analysis of Rodríguez Méndez’s work
power of theatre to make the from the late 1950s to the mid-70s is enriched by
detailed evidence from censors’ reports, provid-
past simultaneously more ing fascinating case studies of the unpredictabil-
ity of censorship under a dictatorial regime.
foreign and more immediate.’
Art & Design
iQuote » “The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.” – Michelangelo
The Visual in Communication

Some Hidden Dimensions. By Harry Jamieson
T
he visual as an agent in the com-
munication process has grown
in importance as the means or
media through which it is transmitted has
expanded, but it is rarely explored with
the same rigour as that shown for the ver-
bal, as, for example, in linguistics. This
state of affairs could be accounted for by
its apparent surface level innocence, its
engagement with the senses and, thus,
it appears closer to the natural order of
things. In terms of measurement, its ex-
istence as analogue means that it is based
upon a continuous scale, upon degrees
of difference, rather than the discrete
steps accorded to the digital. Even in the
case of half-tones in print and electroni-
cally generated images, the digitalized
is perceived perceptually as analogue, as
continuous, not composed from separate
elements, such as dots and pixels. When
cast in the register of language, a province
of the digital, the visual undergoes loss, Near Capel Curig, North Wales by B.W. Leader, Walker Art Gallery
the loss, for example, of the subtle grada-
tions that the eye can detect in colour and
words cannot explain. Likewise, there beyond the obvious, beyond its place as and an awareness of the influence they
is an inability to give full expression in a medium given to sight. It calls upon a exert upon the observable surface of the
language to an aesthetic experience, for search for connections and influences visual in communication.
example, the feelings engendered when that play a part additional to that given While at the practical/physical level,
viewing mountain scenery. To these con- to the eye. Thus we are led into fields as visual media has undergone significant
ditions we can also add the insufficiency diverse as those of, for example, psychol- developments, from print to photogra-
of words to express adequately the nu- ogy, semiology, information theory and phy, including moving images and more
ances of visually perceived cues in social aesthetics. Here we may find a rich source recently to computer-generated images,
encounters, which are echoed in film and of established research and writing which and while its uses and abuses for political
television. Be that as it may, on closer can be drawn upon and used to uncover and other purposes are raised in media
inspection it will be seen that a proper the ‘hidden dimensions’ that lie behind courses, the factors at work within the
understanding of the implications of the the whole enterprise that we call visual individual viewer which coalesce to pro-
visual as a medium in the communication communication. At its base it is an intel- duce visual awareness and visual knowing
process calls for an awareness that goes lectual activity, a search for relationships are rarely brought to the fore. Generally
Visual Communication
iQuote » “The idea of a mass audience was really an invention of the Industrial Revolution.” – David Cronenberg
speaking, the medium itself becomes the in the case of aesthetics, the feeling or
‘The power of the visual focus of attention, the wizardry of techni- emotion. Film and television in their role
in communication relies cal innovations casts its spell, the visual as image generators are perfect examples
assumes its pre-eminence as a carrier of of this state of things, they are given on
upon its involvement illusions. screens; things, people and events are
with perception, the raw The power of the visual in communi- portrayed in spatial contexts. The contexts
cation relies upon its involvement with may change serially, over time, as in mov-
perception of being in the perception, the raw perception of being ing images, but there is always a given or
world of the senses, and, in the world of the senses, and, thus, it
may be said that it is closer to nature than
an implied relationship which the viewer
has to complete from his or her repertoire
thus, it may be said that it is other media which are not so clearly iden- of mental connections, it is a search of
closer to nature than other tified. This raises a paradox that while it
carries this potential, its engagement with
mind which may be conscious or sub-
conscious. Likewise, in abstract paint-
media which are not so media introduces an arbitrary element, ings the viewer is called upon to search
one that is shaped by social and cultural for relationships between parts which,
clearly identified.’ codes and conditioning. Taken to ex- when made, may evoke feelings without
tremes the medium itself can appear to be any necessary recourse to verbalization or
reality, if only momentarily, for example conceptualization; this we refer to as an
the illusion of reality that film and televi- aesthetic experience.
sion is able to generate, and, likewise, In all cases, when viewing images,
Highway, USA the illusion of reality that static images static or moving, the same principle ap-
known as trompe l’oeil can create. plies; the mind is called upon to perceive
Apart from the illusions which it can or search for relationships, to jump the
generate, visual perception is, by its gaps between parts, to join that which
nature, given to seeing things in contexts; is proximal. The outcome of the search
its engagement with the world is always depends not only upon the motivation to
with settings. This attribute, with its carry out the task but the ‘preparedness’
closeness to the natural state of things, of the mind that is carrying out the task.
provides a significant clue not only to The ‘in-forming’ – the form that the mind
the way in which inference or meaning is takes as a result of the search, and the
constructed, but also to the feeling engen- connections it makes, is to that person
dered by the form of the visual image, its the meaning – or, in the case of the aes-
aesthetic. In both cases it is the relation- thetic, the feeling. The maker of images,
ships between the parts, their spatial moving or static, provides a spatial con-
proximity, that provides the significant text in which he or she has placed (or has
clue to the way in which information is arranged to be placed) specific elements
inferred and aesthetic sensibility is felt. with the intention that, when fused, the
However, although the viewer of im- viewer will be informed (in-formed) in the
ages is presented with things in spatial way intended.
proximity, natural in direct perception To the importance of spatial proximity
and artefactual in indirect, mediated we must add another term that is relevant
perception, it is only an offering of parts; to the study of visual communication,
in both instances it calls upon the mind namely, the place of the icon. Here we
to fuse the parts. The media creator offers move into the shaded territory of the
parts in juxtaposition, the viewer is called verbal, and here the proximity factor
upon to integrate them. It is a dynamic that we saw as a spatial entity shifts to
act echoing visual perception itself, it is an ideational one. The ground is opened
individual. The fusion that takes place for symbolism, for the icon to be read
becomes the meaning to that person, or as metaphor. Thus the relationship that ¥
Art & Design
iQuote » “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” – Joseph Chilton Pearce
we discussed earlier, the one of spatial

proximity, is extended to incorporate a
further dimension which may be termed
ideational proximity. The physicality of
the spatial is replaced by ‘the space of the
mind’, a search for connections in an-
other mode, in another set, the icon acts
as metaphor, standing for something else
which has to be drawn from another pool
present only in the mind.
On the grounds put forward here, we
are now in a position to posit a connec- Above Print by Derrick Hawker, 1975
tion with linguistics. The spatial proxim- Right Sibylla Palmifera by D.G.
Rosetti, Lady Lever Art Gallery
ity factor and the relationships observed
in images is known in linguistics as
metonymy, whereas when the image is
employed as icon it takes on the mantle ‘...I think the whole
of metaphor. The importance of the visual
image in this scheme of things is that it
digital ‘revolution’
can take upon itself, in one image, each has fostered a
of these roles. For example, it can display tolerence for error.
features that, by their physical proxim- In turn this tolerance
ity within a frame, suggest a particular
is producing a
meaning; it can arouse feelings through
the arrangement of the form without generation of lazy
concern for meaning; and, it can, as button pushers.’
icon, represent an idea, bring to mind
something which is not observed but only
suggested. However, in all cases, there
Visual Communication:
Further reading
is a relationship issue. When employed

as metonymy, the clue is found in spatial More Than Meets the Eye
relationships, whereas when employed as
By Harry Jamieson | £14.95, $30 ISBN 978-1-84150-141-3
metaphor, as icon, the relationship is not
there before the eye but in the recesses
of the mind. In the first place, that of We exist in a visual culture. The im- employs information and language
metonymy, there is a physical presence, portance of reading and interpreting theory to support an enquiry into
in the second, that of metaphor, the pres- signs has become a rapidly increasing the connection between percep-
ence is one of thought. concern in recent years. This book tion and linguistics. In dealing with
In this article, some of the unobserv- offers an intricate theoretical per- ideas, rather than solutions, the book
spective regarding the study of visual resonates with a philosophical tenor.
able dimensions surrounding the visual
communication and expands the However, the author is effective in
in communication have been brought to academic arena for debate concern- providing a practical basis for many
light, it could be extended to include many ing the visual. of the issues discussed alongside
others; for example, the tacit dimension, Veering away from normative this theoretical stance. This book is
the covert visual cues which inform and approaches, the author advances targeted at a wide range of interdis-
govern so much of human intercourse and with original strides into new ways of ciplinary readers including media,
their employment in moving images. What understanding the visual experi- cultural and communication studies
becomes obvious is that the surface level ence. Departing from aesthetic and and particularly those with interests
of the visual hides much deeper strata. { graphic-based directions, the book in visual theory.
New for 2007/8
Intellect Journals
Publishers of original thinking / www.intellectbooks.com
Creative Industries content. Northern Lights was important in theatre as well

first published in 2002 and as in the film and other media
Journal acquired by Intellect in 2006 industries. Adaptation and the
3 Numbers/Volume 1 as an excellent companion to related areas of translation and
ISSN 1751-0694 their film studies titles. intertextuality continue to have
Available in Print & On-line a central place in our culture
The Creative Industries The Soundtrack with a profound resonance
Journal studies talent and the across our civilisation.
3 Numbers/Volume 1
potential for wealth creation ISSN 1751-4193
in advertising, architecture, Available in Print & On-line Journal of Arab and
the art & antiques market,
The Soundtrack focuses its
Muslim Research
crafts, design, fashion, film,
interactive leisure software, attention on the aural elements 3 Numbers/Volume 1
which combine with moving ISSN 1751-9411
music, the performing arts,
images. It regards the sounds Available in Print & On-line
publishing, television and
radio. The journal provides a which accompany the visuals
The Journal of Arab and Muslim
forum to challenge definitional not as a combination of dispa-
Media Research will review
assumptions, advance the rate disciplines, but as a unified
unprecedented developments
social, economic, cultural, and and coherent entity. In addition
in Arab and Muslim media
political understanding and to the scholarly contribution of
during the last ten years. The
engagement with the creative academics, the journal will give
emergence of satellite TV, the
industries at local, national and voice to the development of
internet and digital technology
transnational levels. professional practice.
have dramatically changed
the way audiences receive
Northern Lights Journal of Adaptation information and interact with
1 Number/Volume 6 in Film & Performance the media. The sudden success
ISSN 1601-829X 3 Numbers/Volume 1 of Al-Jazeera channel and other
Available in Print & On-line ISSN 1753-5190 Arab broadcasters have altered
Available in Print & On-line the way the Arab world narrates
Northern Lights: Film and itself and reports news from the
Media Studies Yearbook Adaptation in the form of the region to the rest of the world.
has an emphasis on film, conversion of oral, historical
television and new media. The or fictional narratives into
publication takes the form of stage drama has been common
a book-length anthology of
articles related to a specific
theme, incorporating some
practice for centuries. In our
own time the processes of NEW2008TITLES
cross-generic transformation WWW.INTELLECTBOOKS.COM
deviations to add diversity of continue to be extremely
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Media & Culture
iQuote » “Don’t hate the media, become the media.” – Jello Biafra
Television’s New Engine

The Principle of the TV Format. By Albert Moran
T
elevision is all shook up! franchise from MacDonald’s of-
In the post-broadcasting fers much more than tips on how
present of television, new to prepare hamburgers and fries.
structures, finances, technolo- Hence, a TV program format
gies and players dominate the franchise is a complex and com-
global mediaspace. One of the prehensive body of knowledge
most important of these new that not only offers a lot of advice
engines is the new worldwide on how to make a particular pro-
system for the distribution and gram but also carries significant
production of programming information and advice in such
based on the principle of the TV areas as financing, program-
format. All television programs ming, scheduling, promotion,
– like all other human arte- marketing and so on.
facts – can be variously copied, However, the full significance
imitated, cloned, adapted, of this extension to parts of the
counterfeited, parodied and so service industry of franchis-
on quite irrespective of what one ing cannot be confined to the Eddie McGuire in Australia’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire!
thinks of the results. The TV phenomenon of worldwide
format principle, then, simply
increases the adaptability of a
circulation of such formatted
programs as Big Brother, Pop Idol
‘...one homely conjunction with an experienced
visiting producer provided by
program from place to place and Changing Rooms. Instead, the way in which the the licensor, who actually brings
and from time to time. It does
this by systematically gathering
format principle has acted as
Trojan Horse to two highly sig-
international TV the German or the Australian
version of Dancing with the Stars
together into a total package the nificant developments in the area industry thinks into existence. Because much of
set of knowledges, skills, infor- of international programming the latter processes have been
mation and other data which distribution and production. about formats is templated, it is best to think
will make it easier to produce For franchising is, primarily, a as akin to cooking of this latter set of processes
another version of the program. means of distributing a service as manufacturing rather than
Hence, one homely way in which on a large, international scale recipes out of producing. Hence, a second
the international TV industry where the franchise becomes which attractive significant effect of the global
thinks about formats is as akin a means of drawing a series of TV format is to fracture program
to cooking recipes out of which small geographically dispersed and engaging production into creative work on
attractive and engaging concoc-
tions can be prepared. A much
companies in the areas of pro-
duction and transmission into
concoctions can the one hand and manufacture
work on the other and to also
more useful way of understand- relationship with a centralized be prepared.’ despatialize them in the process.
ing the TV format is in terms of body which is in the business Altogether, it is high time that
being a franchising service that of franchising out to nationally this new engine of international
producers prepare for licensees local companies. In turn, it is television was better understood
in other television territories. A with the latter, often working in and investigated. {
Television’s New Engine
iQuote » “The advertisements are the most truthful part of a newspaper.” – Thomas Jefferson
RTÉ and the Globalisation of Irish Television

MORE BOOKS By Farrel Corcoran / £14.95, $30 / ISBN 978-1-84150-090-4
OF INTEREST n For about 40 years, RTE’s radio and television channels have played an enormous
role in shaping Irish social and cultural life. As the national publicly owned and
funded broadcaster, RTE is the biggest cinema, school, sports stadium, market
square, performance stage, town crier and concert hall in Ireland. It sets the agen-
da for the national conversation that drives modern Ireland.
This work is a study of the structural transformations now taking place in Irish
broadcasting. The book will focus on the broadcasting section generally, but pri-
marily on RTE, as it adjusts to a number of radical changes in the field of forces
FURTHER READING whose impact began to accelerate in the mid-1990s. The book will take the form of
Understanding the a critical history of the present and an investigation of the future of broadcasting
Global TV Format in Ireland. Its analytical framework will be situated within the broader context of
By Albert Moran with Justin Malbon contemporary European media policy and trends in the global structure of the cul-
£19.95, $40 / ISBN 978-1-84150-132-1 tural industries as they adjust to the deployment of digital compression technol-
ogy, increasing conglomeration in the media industry worldwide and new regula-
tory regimes profoundly influenced by the ideology of market liberalism.
RTE’s work is frequently shrouded in secrecy and mystique, which means that
conspiracy theories abound about how it is governed and how it relates to various
power centres in Irish life. This book is firmly aimed at increasing the transparency
that should characterise public broadcasting and demystifying this national insti-
tution that plays such an enormous role in the cultural and political life of Ireland.
There is a huge appetite for such a book because of the general high level of curios-
ity about the institutional life of the national broadcaster and because no seriously
analytical book on RTE has appeared on the market for over twenty years.
In this concise and well-researched

study, the authors examine the global
television format as an entity in itself
Sensing the City through Television:
and monitor the developmental stages Urban identities in fictional drama
from conception to distribution. By Peter Billingham / £14.95, $30 / ISBN 978-1-84150-842-9
The book charters the exceptional
An investigation of the fictional representations of the city in contemporary British
success of such shows as Big Brother
and American television drama, assessing their political, sociological and cultural
and Who Wants to be a Millionaire and
implications. The book draws on the following five key case studies for specific and
in turn the powerful influence these
detailed analysis: • Queer as Folk • Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City • The Cops •
programmes have commanded in
Homicide - Life on the Street • Holding On.
shaping the global television industry.
Each is discussed in terms of structure, content, characterisation and narrative,
Focusing on the marketing of cultural
and placed within its specific ideological context. The case studies represent an
demand, the TV format is shown to
interesting range of British and American cities and city sub-cultures. The author
have evolved into a commodity blue-
extends his analysis to investigate the intrinsic issues related to the implications
print, which is then imitated, marketed
of popular and high drama and culture. Featuring excerpts of exclusive interviews
and sold for mass consumption.
with Tony Garnett and members of the production team of The Cops and Tony
Understanding the Global TV Format
Marchant and David Snodin of Holding On.
addresses the different stages and is-
As one of the first substantial investigations of the city in television drama, this
sues of the broadcasting business. The
book reflects a growing general interest in the politics of representation. It is also
book tracks the steps whereby formats
designed for accommodation into the very popular academic courses on drama
are devised, developed and distributed.
and in film and media studies: as a textbook and for supplementary reading.
Major companies are profiled, as are
the international markets and festivals
at which trade occurs. ••• TO ORDER THE BOOKS ABOVE, GO TO WWW.INTELLECTBOOKS.COM •••
intellect books| Film Studies / Theatre & Performance / Art & Design / Media & Culture
Spring
Books
Media & Culture Media & Culture Film Studies
One for the Girls: The Reclaiming the Media Film, Drama and the
Pleasures and Practices of Edited by Bart Cammaerts Break-Up of Britain
Reading Women’s Porn and Nico Carpentier By Steve Blandford
ByClarissa Smith
£29.95 / $55.00 £19.95 / $40.00 £19.95 / $40.00

ISBN 978-1-84150-164-2 ISBN 978-1-84150-163-5 ISBN 978-1-84150-150-5
Hardback, 230 x 174mm Paperback, 230 x 174mm Paperback, 230 x 174mm
Against the claims of the increasing It hardly goes uncontested anymore that This book engages with ideas that are
sexualization of culture, one truism is media organizations play an important highly topical and relevant: nationalism,
constantly rehearsed – that women have role in democracy. The main questions nationhood and national identity as well
little taste for pornography. In One for have now become whether the contem- as the relationship of these to post-co-
the Girls!, a new basis for understanding porary media conjuncture offers enough lonialism. However, it does so within
women’s pleasures in sexually explicit to our democracies, how their democratic the broad field of drama. Examining the
materials is offered, focusing on the investment can be deepened and how our debates around the relationship between
production and consumption of For communication rights can be expanded. culture and national identity, the book
This book looks at four thematic areas
Women magazine. This thought-provok- documents the contributions of actual
that structure the opportunities for
ing book argues that theories of harm and dramatists and film-makers to the chron-
democratizing (media) democracy.
women’s subordination have deflected icling of an important historical moment.
Section one is devoted to citizenship
attention away from the lived experi- Breaking down what have been tra-
and the public spheres, giving special
ences and practices of pornography. ditional barriers between theatre, film
attention to the general theme of com-
The book examines the ways in which and television studies, the text takes into
munication rights. Section two elaborates
pornography has become a favoured further on a notion central to communica- consideration the very broad range of
repository of social fears and debunks tion rights, namely that of participation. ways in which the creators of dramatic
the myth of the ‘evil pornographer’ Section three returns to the traditional fictions are telling us stories about our-
producing images of objectified women representational role in relation to de- selves at a time when the idea of being
for troubled male viewers. By focusing mocracy and citizenship, scrutinizing and ‘British’ is increasingly problematic. A
on an individual publication, this book il- criticizing the democratic efforts of con- very wide range of material is discussed
luminates the ways in which pornography temporary journalism. Section four moves in the book, ranging from box-office hits
is a social product and subject to a range outside of the (traditional) media system, such as The Full Monty to community-
of institutional practices which influence and deals with the diversity of media and based theatre in Scotland and Wales.
its styles and presentations. communication strategies of activists.
Order from www.intellectbooks.com

Q&A
iQuote » “There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.” – Buckminster Fuller
Practice-Led Research Practice-led research is getting a lot of attention

lately in the Arts, Film and Media around universities
in Britain? What does it mean?
Q&A with Graeme Harper, editor of
That’s the question on everyone’s lips! The Arts and Humanities Re-
The Journal of Creative Industries search Council (AHRC) is currently investigating what the various
subject communities mean by ‘practice-led research’. Subject associ-
ations from Architecture, Fine Art, Art and Design, Dance and Drama,
Music and Creative Writing, among others, are considering this, and
a national Steering Committee has been set up by the AHRC, and will
report back in early 2007. Without preempting what the AHRC Com-
mittee and Subject Associations might say my definition would be ‘re-
search undertaken through creative practice, most often resulting in
the production of an original piece of creative work’.
So practice-led research means creative practice?
To a large extent. However... ! Many practice-led research projects
also incorporate some record or element of critical analysis. I call this
a piece of ‘responsive critical understanding’. That is, something that
shows the creative practitioner understands their own practice and
the practice of others, within context, and is able to respond to this
and show that understanding. This is also important in a university
environment because universities need to show that, through teach-
ing and research, they have enhanced a body of knowledge, and the
practitioner’s critical response assists in articulating that knowledge
gain in such things, say, as postgraduate research degrees in film-
making or creative writing or digital media production or drama.
Doesn’t that make such postgraduate degrees almost two degrees?
That’s something that can happen, if the thing is done badly. It’s im-
portant to see the creative practice and
‘So we argue that the question the critical understanding as a complete
package, not as two separate things.
should no longer be ‘do the But don’t you think this kind of re-
media cause violence?’ but search can have a negative effect: that
it might make creative practice ‘aca-
‘what factors may be important demic’ rather than about the creating
in adding to the potential of the of something in its own right?
That’s an interesting angle to consider.
media to cause (harm/offence) Firstly, we have to remember that High-
er Education has always involved higher
among a range of factors?’ learning in creative practice. Always!
From Plato’s Academy onward and else-
where, beyond the western world, plac-
es of higher learning have been places
of advanced creative practice. Secondly,
we have to wonder why the explication
and examination of practice in the cre-
ative industries subjects still concerns
some people – it’s as if somehow Ro-
Video Conference Glass Cube, CAST (Bangor) / Photo: GH mantic ideas about creative genius pre- ¥
Media & Culture
iQuote » “Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.” – Erich Fromm
vail and are undermined by close consideration of creative practice. now. And make inroads into answering them!
They don’t and, anyway, they’re not! What does undermine creative What kind of questions?
practice, I believe, is a failure to give it university kudos; that is, a fail- Quite basic, but fundamental, ones. Such as: where is practice-led re-
ure to recognize its importance in and around universities. That lack search taking place? What activities does practice-led research cover?
of kudos we have to work on and counter by promoting universities as Who is doing practice-led research? Who financially supports prac-
places of creative teaching and creative practice research. tice-led research – currently at least? How is practice-led research
What kinds of things have you seen going on in practice-led research? acknowledged? Those kinds of things. Questions about the research
The list is not as endless as it might be! Certainly areas of thematic itself, but also about its cultural, economic and societal importance.
study: someone producing a film or a novel or a set of paintings based So – the future of practice-led research, then?
on a theme, and then investigating that theme as a cultural phenom- Is very exciting, for starters! It’s full of possibilities around the idea
enon. Areas also of structural and form-based research: practice-led of exploring ideas, subjects and themes through the production of
researchers attempting to evolve an established creative form and, original creative work. Fantastic possibilities! Once better acknowl-
then, investigating in their critical responses the historical context and edgement is given to this type of activity as a way of investigating, ex-
then contemporary difficulty of moving that particular form on. Also, amining and responding to questions then more opportunities arise
areas of research involving the links between self and society through to create collaborative work, to link up creative practitioners with criti-
creative works – whether new media, drama, film, music or otherwise. cal specialists in order to investigate modes of human understanding,
Sometimes the latter focuses on looking at other individual practitio- to support cutting-edge creative projects that might reveal more about
ners and their contributions, modes of working, or life histories and ourselves and our World, as well as enhance the dimensions of cul-
then producing original work that reflects on the links between that ture. Similarly, cross-cultural work, work between arts and sciences,
creative and working life and the practice-led researcher’s own cre- thoughts about technologies and their impact on creative practice.
ative work. At present what limits the range of practice-led research This is just a small cross section of the probable future. Much of this
going on is perhaps not so much a lack of ideas. If that were the case is happening already, but it is often poorly supported financially, and
we’d be in trouble! What limits the range is a lack of a set of practice- sometimes poorly supported politically, within universities. The future
led research definitions, theories and models in our fields and, thus, a is about recognizing the university as a creative place and a place of ex-
lack of confidence that such research will be supported by universities cellence in learning, and making more of the wonderful link between
and research councils. those two important things. {
So that is what the AHRC is currently considering?
Yes. The importance of current national discussions on practice-led
research cannot be overem-
phasized. Creative practice is ‘The range of prac-
a mode of engaging with the
World, and it is a mode of ex- tice-led research in
amining the things and ideas
in and around us, investigating
Britain is already
them, exchanging ideas about cutting edge in
them, advancing our engage-
ment with, and understanding
many ways, but as
of, them. The range of practice- yet it is not as well
led research in Britain is already
cutting edge in many ways, but
recognized and in-
as yet it is not as well recognized ternationally known
and internationally known as it
could be. The new Creative In- as it could be.’
dustries interest from govern-
ments worldwide has helped to
raise questions about practice-
led research that should have
Sculpture, Centre for Advanced Software Technology (CAST) / Photo: GH
been asked some time ago. But
that’s fine – we can ask them
Art & Design
iQuote » “The world is but a canvas to the imagination.” – Henry David Thoreau
Indexed Lights
Text by Pierre Auboiron ‘The artist is always engaged in writing a detailed history of the
future because he is the only person aware of the nature of the present’. – Wyndham Lewis
O
ne of the most vivid modern metaphors for light is its allegoric our streets safer, has swiftly become a powerful tool which rationalizes
embodiment of electricity. Although invisible, electricity is of- and signposts the City at nightfall. At night, a city is first announced from
ten represented by brightly coloured sparks and flashes. In the the distance to an approaching traveller by its diffused lights in the sky.
collective consciousness light is the true substance of electricity. On a However, owing to the development and democratization of new tech-
computer, small flickering lights indicate an active hard drive or network nologies, urban lighting schemes have entered a new age and, accom-
connection. Many people are familiar with the image of HAL, the computer panying this, an alternative and oneiric approach to light has emerged.
which played a leading role in Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001, A Space Odyssey. This has lead to a significant break with the traditional comprehension
HAL’s physical presence was manifested by a visual sensor: a simple lens of light in the City.
lit by an inner, reddish glow. Arthur C. Clark describes HAL as a simple Two artists in particular have embraced this new approach to urban
‘spherical lens’ in his epic. The red glow lighting: the French light designer Yann
was Kubrick’s addition; it allowed him The proper artistic response to Kersalé and the Japanese architect Toyo
to animate HAL with an inner fire giving Ito in collaboration with the engineer Ka-
HAL a disconcertingly human feel. This digital technology is to embrace oru Mende. Using very complex lighting
is directly linked with both metaphorical it as a new window on everything systems, made of sensors and computers,
and metaphysical aspects of light: since these artists can materialize and visual-
the origin of humankind, light has rep- that’s eternally human, and to ize environmental phenomena such as
resented and embodied what is invisible
and intangible, as well as what has disap-
use it with passion, wisdom, noises, draughts, the current of a river and
invisible human activity on the buildings
peared. fearlessness and joy. themselves. Thereby they intend to make
Visual culture is here and now and its he- buildings fit back into their historical and
gemony within our cities no longer needs – ralph lombreglia socio-geographical environment.
to be proved. Light, being the essence of This type of project is not exclusively
any visual communication, and new tech- Japanese or French. When Jonathan Speirs
nologies, as prevailing information vec- NEW INTELLECT TITLE FUTURES PAST: was asked in 1996 to design the lighting
tors, have both played a leading role in
the hegemonic expansion of visuality in
30 YEARS OF ARTS COMPUTING n of the technical tower of Bridgewater Hall
in Manchester, he decided to turn it into a
the City. The proliferation of neon signs, Tower of Time. There are three different light
plasma screens, and lighted shop windows are all symptomatic. The his- indexations: the interior lighting changes according to the zodiac cycle,
tory of urbanism tells us that the City has always been the birthplace of while light ‘on the exterior reflects the time of year, starting with green for
every paroxysm: technological, social, cultural, artistic and economic. spring, and running through yellow, red and blue, denoting each subse-
From this perspective, the City has, naturally, become the temple where quent season in a gradual wash of colour’. Last but not least, lines of light
all forms of visual media are not just celebrated but even over-consumed. tubing delineate the eight storeys of the building and indicate the day of
Cities have become the privileged scene of this complete and radical trans- the week. This complex abstract clock obviously echoes ancient observa-
formation of the rhythm of human society. A new architectural approach tories like Stonehenge and the ancient desire to adjust human activity to
to light has become widespread: in the course of the last few years the natural cycles.
novelty of new architecture lies more in the way that it is illuminated than In 1997, James Turrell was commissioned to light the office building
in its outer design. and computer centre for the natural gas industry, the Verbundnetz AG in
Architects and town planners have always obsessively sought to master Leipzig. The building is totally self-sufficient in terms of energy due to
light, but it has proved ever-elusive. The discovery of electricity and its both its own gas-fuelled power station and to a system adjusting the heat-
large-scale generation provided the first true opportunity to push back ing and air-circulating systems. The artist decided to index his lighting to
the night. From this perspective, light, which was initially used to make this autarchic technological world. The light colours vary according to the ¥
Indexed Lights
iQuote » “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once they grow up.” – P. Picasso
temperature that the energy supplier provides. According to Turrell, ‘Light

should be a material with which we build’. This suggestion echoes among
‘They teach us how gible. They teach us how to look
again at our direct environment
light designers throughout the last third of the twentieth century. to look again at our by looking beyond the static, aes-
Thanks to the sensitive application of new technologies, these artists
make concepts and aspects of our everyday life visible and more tangible.
direct environment thetic veneer which now covers
and conceals all aspects of society.
Thereby, they try to fight the decline in interpersonal communication in by looking beyond Kaoru Mende commented that ‘we
today’s urban life which is one of the results of increasing visuality. In are getting fewer opportunities to
this instance, computers, associated with light, act like prostheses and the static, aesthetic enjoy the sense of changing time.
compensate for our inability to comprehend our environment in its en- veneer which Part of the reason is that we have
tire complexity. They materialize phenomena we can no longer perceive become accustomed to lighting
because we have developed our visual sense to the detriment of our other now covers and environments which always stay
senses. Here the artist’s work does not deal with creating something new
but with making existing things visible. Ito, Turrell, or Kersalé, do not
conceals all aspects the same.’ Thanks to this visual
experience, people are becoming
claim to produce an aesthetic experience in their work. They do not use of society.’ visually aware of the complex and
light for its ability to mesmerize, but for its ability to embody the intan- highly interwoven societal system
in which we live. This concurs
with the desire of contemporary
architects to incorporate light as
a material in its own right as well
as providing nocturnal visibility,
when designing public buildings.
From this perspective, they offer a
more organic and intimate percep-
tion of their buildings by depriv-
ing them of any precise outlines
and invading them with light.
We may now moderate the
widespread notion that comput-
Left and Below Le théâtre-temps (1993–)
© Yann Kersalé – AIK ers are synonymous with a cold
Above La ville-fleuve (1991–1998) and sanitized individuality. For
© Yann Kersalé – AIK instance, when Yann Kersalé or
Toyo Ito tell the story of a particu-
lar building or district, they force
the viewer to gaze afresh at the world. The current association of light
and new technologies in large Light Festivals represents a new step in
today’s re-appropriation of our urban and technological environments.
The City has become much more than a simple artistic subject, it is now
a large-scale location for societal experimentation. It seems that the last
gaps in dreams must be sought in the eye of the visual whirlwind itself,
in other words, in the City itself. {
Pierre Auboiron is a Ph.D. student of Contemporary Art History at Pan-

théon-Sorbonne University in Paris. His research is concerned with light
as a material in current artistic practices, such as installations, videos,
projections, architecture and theatre. Drawing on his background in visual
electrophysiology and his interest in visual semiotics, he is currently writ-
ing a textbook of visual physiology for Art History students.
Art & Design
iQuote » “You come to nature with all her theories, and she knocks them all flat.” – Renoir
ESTABLISHED IN 1985, Computers and the History of Art (CHArt) is

an independent, international group of academics, students and
professionals. CHArt looks at the transformation that Arts and Art
History are undergoing through engagement with digital technology.
CHArt’s original, largely university-based, membership was FREEBIES
augmented over the years by members from museums and art
galleries, as well as individuals involved in the management of visual PREVIEWS
and textual archives and libraries. More recently CHArt has become a
DISCOUNTS
PRIZES
forum for the exchange of ideas concerned with all aspects of visual
culture. CHArt continues to promote this activity in a number of ways.
CHArt publications draw from the CHArt annual, two-day
conference, which focuses on topical issues and current developments
in the field. Papers and a newsletter are published online at www.chart.
ac.uk. Papers also appear in the CHArt Yearbook, which has been
published by Intellect Books since 2005.
FURTHER READING FURTHER READING

Digital Art History | Computers Futures Past: Thirty Years of
& the History of Art Series Vol. 1 Arts Computing | Computers &
Edited by Anna Bentkowska-Kafel, the History of Art Series Vol. 2
Trish Cashen and Hazel Gardiner Edited by Anna Bentkowska-Kafel,
£19.95, $40.00 / ISBN 978-1-84150-116-1 Trish Cashen and Hazel Gardiner
£19.95, $40.00 / ISBN 978-1-84150-168-0
This collection of papers represents the variety, innovation and richness
of significant presentations made at the CHArt Conferences of 2001 and Eleven contributors to this volume reflect upon the unprecedented ways in
2002. Some show new methods of teaching being employed, making which digital media have been transforming art practice, study and educa-
clear in particular the huge advantages that IT can provide for engaging tion. The authors – researchers, teachers, custodians of art collections
students in learning and interactive discussion. It also shows how much and picture libraries, and an artist – cover a wide range of issues, arguing
is to be gained from the flexibility of the digital image‚ or could be gained for a more profound understanding of digital culture. With the benefit of
if the road block of copyright is finally overcome. Some papers here show hindsight it is now possible to look at futures past and assess the dispari-
how it also offers the opportunity of exploring the structure of images and ties between earlier visions of the future and reality. Frank accounts are
dealing with the fascinating possibilities offered by digitisation for visual given of projects which had promised great advances but failed to deliver,
analysis, searching and reconstruction. Another challenging aspect cov- and others that have not only survived but continue to flourish. Another
ered here are the possibilities offered by digital media for new art forms. account demonstrates how an individual can make a difference to stu-
One point that emerges is that digital art is not some discreet practice, dents’ learning by applying new technologies in a very pragmatic way. One
separated from other art forms. It is rather an approach that can involve of the most exciting advancements hinted at in this volume are the ways
all manner of association with both other art practices and with other in which communities of interest are developing shared resources and cul-
forms of presentation and enquiry, demonstrating that we are witnessing tivating a richer use of common vocabulary and standards to transmit an
a revolution that affects all our activities and not one that simply leads to abundance of knowledge and experience. A look forward to the Semantic
the establishment of a new discipline to set alongside others. Web promises an even wider sharing of knowledge.
024 film»feature
Media & Culture
exclusive interview
iQuote » “All media exist living
to invest our lives with alone
artificial perceptions and arbitrary values.” – M. McLuhan
Media and Democracy – in all its variety of genres (news,

sports, movies, cartoons, events,
etc.) – is still the ‘golden content’
A Strange Paradox that all the platform operators

in all the countries are fighting
for. In short, television program-
ming is and will be – regardless
By Paolo Baldi and Uwe Hasebrink the platform that we will use or
the ‘screen’ we will watch – the
primary source of information
that people have at their disposal
for shaping their opinions and
FEW PEOPLE would disagree
with the idea that broadcasting is
‘From the Iraq conflict to the European for participating, therefore, in the
democratic process. {
one of the most important facilita- elections... from the reforms of
tors of the democratic process.
European citizens are constantly
educational or pension funding systems FURTHER READING
Broadcasters and
asked to express their views and to the debate on the climate or nutrition Citizens in Europe
opinions on increasingly complex
issues: consequently they have changes, European citizens need to be Edited by Paolo Baldi & Uwe Hasebrink
£29.95, $55 / ISBN 978-1-84150-160-4
developed legitimate expecta- appropriately involved by the media.’
tions regarding the broadcasting In this book, five authors present
output, notably to providing the the main results of an extensive
cultural resources required for a output we discover a real paradox: any other type of programming programme of research that was
full and modern citizenship. From a discrepancy between declared reaching viewers. Too many and financed by the European Com-
the Iraq conflict to the European political objectives and the avail- too important are the sectors of mission. The study was conducted
elections (including the vote on able television output. As a matter the society – health, employment, in 29 European countries and
the EU Constitution); from the of fact, broadcasters (including the environment, education, etc. each author analyses European
reforms of educational or pension public service broadcasters) are – that are damaged by poor pro- trends from different but com-
funding systems to the debate on probably the most reluctant insti- gramming. In short, beyond the plementary perspectives: from
the climate or nutrition changes, tutions – and here is the paradox moralistic attitude that demonizes the broadcasters’ side (media
European citizens need to be ap- – in accepting to be accountable to ‘trash’ or ‘cheap’ television, there accountability and responsibility,
propriately involved by the media. society. In other sectors of activity is a more simple and urgent issue including the key role of Public
They need extensive coverage, – like the financial one – social of knowledge availability. Service Broadcasting); from the
accurate treatment and editorial responsibility, corporate gover- The multiplication of the digital citizens’ side (viewers’ participa-
independence. Beyond news, citi- nance, accountability and trans- platforms (Internet, broadband, tion mechanisms) and from the
zens expect ‘knowledge oriented’ parency have recently acquired mobile phone, etc.) does not regulatory side (legal instruments
programming. The very concepts the status of ‘serious’ issues to be change the nature of the problem which protect viewers’ rights).
of democracy and welfare are urgently addressed: in all sectors and its political urgency. Televi-
based on such simple but vital except in what is unanimously sion is still playing a central
provision of civic services. called the ‘most important’ one: role in our lives as we are still
Everybody agrees on that. But the broadcasting sector. spending an important part of
if we look at the (recent) im- This situation has its social our time watching what few and
poverishment of the television costs. Inferior programming increasingly concentrated media
programming and – in parallel cannot be considered simply as corporations produce and dis-
– at the difficulties that national a ‘bad show’ that people are not seminate via the classic platforms
governments and media authori- obliged to watch. The growing (cable, satellite and terrestrial) or
ties encounter in regulating (that presence of poor programming in the new digital ones. As a matter
is, improving) the broadcasting the European schedules prevents of fact, the broadcasting output
Film Studies
iQuote » “Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don’t have film.” – Unknown
Pride and Panic Barber of Siberia and Sokurov’s Rus-

sian Ark turn the Russian viewers’
attention to Russia’s rich history of
Russian Imagination of the honor, dignity and loyalty to one’s

country, as well as world-class
culture, and, thus, its potential for
West in Post-Soviet Film a glorious future.
There are films that testify
By Yana Hashamova to a more diverse discourse of
anxieties and fantasies that not
only produce aggression but also
deflate it. Peculiarities of the National
PRIDE AND PANIC: Russian and permanent identity. Russian Hunt in Fall and Cuckoo encourage
Imagination of the West in Post-So- national identity adjusts to stagger- understanding and acceptance of
viet Film examines film images, ing political, social, economic and difference. Rogozhkin advocates
characters and themes in order to cultural transformations occurring agreement and friendship and re-
investigate how Russia has reacted in Russia and in the global world. sists hatred and violence. Of Freaks
and adjusted to the expansion In this adjustment, the Russian Storozheva’s The Frenchman and Men even suggests Russia’s
of western capital and culture in collective imagination reacts to the
Russia itself. My analysis fo-
cuses generally on Russian films
western presence in Russian society
and culture as it exhibits disparate
‘Russia has continually shocked the
produced after the collapse of the attitudes that take the form of world. It implemented Marxist theories
Soviet Union, paying special atten-
tion to those made during the last
superfluous and impatient relations
with the (western) other, aggressive
– the first in the world to do so – much
five to six years – a period in which and paranoid urges, complete rejec- to Marx’s own disbelief in that country’s
the Russian film industry began to tion of external (western) models,
revive and became more market- search for positive internal sources readiness for revolution.’
oriented, fully reflecting social (past and culture) for identification,
angst. In drawing on film imagery, and a more mature and reflective the West remained potent. In the own destructive attitudes and the
I address a number of compelling perception of self (Russia) and mid-1990s when the West became way it is capable of victimizing its
questions: How is the image of other (West) with their constructive a part of Russian life, the distance own ethnic others.
the other constructed in recent and destructive aspects. between the (Russian) subject and Russia’s entanglement with
Russian film? Is it possible to Attempting to establish links his/her fantasy collapsed and new the West also becomes apparent
embrace a foreign culture and be between political ideology, psy- fantasies emerged, namely ag- in films that portray romantic
simultaneously afraid of it? How choanalysis and cinema, I have gressive anti-western sentiments relationships between Russian and
does this fear affect the perception also traced the shifting dynamics as well as admiration for Russia’s western characters. Russian view-
of self and other in an ever-chang- of Russia’s fantasy of the West as moral superiority (evident in ers’ desire to find happiness in a
ing identity formation? What are it appears in post-Soviet cinema. Balabanov’s films). union that transgresses national
the fantasies and defenses that Thus, my cultural critique (literate To compensate for a global trau- borders is inscribed in films such
operate when national and cultural in fantasy) of early 1990s films matic experience, Russia’s search as On Deribasovskaia, Window to Par-
identity is in flux? reveals the apparently illusion- for a new national identity finds is, The Barber of Siberia, Gods’ Envy,
This book studies Russia’s ary nature of this fantasy as expressions in films that glorify and The Frenchman. Most of these
imagination of the West as it manifested in clichéd images and Russia’s uniqueness in history, films, however, deny the possibil-
developed at the turn of the millen- patriotic messages. The collapse art and religion. Mikhalkov’s The ity of such happiness, which in ¥
nium, an imagination which in its of the Berlin Wall tempted Russian
shifting sentiments, fantasies, fears viewers with unimagined oppor-
and anxieties resembles changes tunities, but, as it becomes clear NEW INTELLECT TITLE
similar to those the adolescent un- in the films, these opportunities FURTHER INFORMATION OVERLEAF n
dergoes in search of a more stable were deceptive and the fantasy of
Q&A
iQuote » “An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.” – Victor Hugo
turn speaks of political, social and

historical conditions hostile to
international relationships. The
desire to identify with one’s coun-
Loving Books and
try and its problems reigns over
the desire to be cosmopolitan.
Over the last two centuries,
the Life of the Mind
Russia has continually shocked
the world. It implemented Marx- Q&A with Robert W. Lawler
ist theories – the first in the world
to do so – much to Marx’s own
disbelief in that country’s readi- Why did you choose Intellect as around the use of case studies in to Robert White – and, of course,
ness for revolution. Ready or not, your publisher? exploring the nature of knowledge. the diverse polymaths I’ve enjoyed
the October Revolution shook the When I met Masoud Yazdani many My books are less like scholastic working with, as different as Papert
world with its attempt to liberate years ago at Le Centre Mondial argument than trips taken, observa- and Selfridge – as well as the poets
people from their idols (money, L’Informatique in Paris, I was tions made and conclusions drawn. who always whisper in my ear during
property and religion) and in its impressed both by his intellectual My companions on these trips are quiet times.
own way prepared the postmod- seriousness and geniality. He was diverse heroes I’ve known, rang- Clearly books are an important part
ern rearrangement of knowledge very helpful as a consulting editor ing from humanist savants such as of your life. How did that happen?
by questioning all traditions. This with Ablex before Intellect. I knew Susanne Langer and Piaget through Where I grew up, the local library
book uncovers Russia’s latent his values in regard to scholarship scientists from Pauling and Feynman was a nearby place I could explore
desires and fantasies in her rela- and supporting authors would be to Warren McCulloch and Minsky, on my own. I remember looking into
tions with the West, but in spite primary values of Intellect as well. and psychologists from Kurt Lewin Spinoza’s attempt to axiomatize
(or because) of them, Russia has This was an obvious choice for me.
always been a fascinating place, How many books have you ‘When I was young, libraries were a place
with its mixture of globe-shaking published with Intellect and why?
politics and world-class culture. The two pioneering volumes of I could explore on my own. Books became
The future – whatever it holds Artificial Intelligence and Education were places to seek answers to the deepest
– promises nothing less. { published by Ablex as was Case Study
and Computing, with Kathleen Carley, questions and, even more, places to
FURTHER READING
Professor of Sociology at Carnegie discover good questions to ask.’
Mellon. That book is both a defense
Pride and Panic: Russian of the Case Method in the social
Imagination of the West in
sciences and concrete examples of
Post-Soviet Film
such studies – that work contains
By Yana Hashamova | £29.95, $55
ideas for data organizations and
ISBN 978-1-84150-156-7
analysis that will be useful whether
Now available. Order from: access is local or through the
Internet. Learning and Computing was
my first book published by Intellect.
It is designed to be accessible to
non-specialist readers and to bring
together my papers in Computing,
Education, Psychology and Artificial
Intelligence.
What is the underlying argument
put forward in your books?
Professionally my life has revolved
MARVIN MINSKY (LEFT) WITH
ROBERT W. LAWLER IN 2005 AT MIT
Robert W. Lawler
iQuote » “Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.” – Virginia Woolf
ethics – and pursuing many other early creativity is most frequently Emotion Machine – it’s appreciation friends and the enduring affection
‘dead ends’ – but I also encountered found. of the power of negative thinking. you feel for other scholars. So we
there Peter Viereck’s book The Un- So, future students will be able to Every mathematician knows there is publishers have their lives in our
adjusted Man, focused on individual look here for research problems no argument so powerful as a coun- hands, not just their books.
freedom and the value of western and ideas. ter-example. Life provides counter- If digital libraries come to domi-
civilization in providing more and I would describe the two volumes of examples to our mis-conceptions. nate the future, as they are rapidly
various ‘burrows of freedom’ in The Society of Mind and The Emotion Minsky describes internal criticism doing, that is certainly true. It is an
which such independent people Machine as a conceptual armory for as a structural key to the adaptation awesome responsibility for men of
could exist. When I was young, attacking the kludge-like structure and learning in an evolved nervous scholarly sensibilities. But there is
libraries were one such place. Books and function of our evolved minds. system, which creates and explains even more. Inasmuch as the delight
became places to seek answers to the If this is more than merely a the very possibility of mind such as I have had in such friends and their
deepest questions and, even more, collection of popularized ideas, tell we embody. books gives rise to a deep sense of
places to discover good questions me why. How would you summarize your gratitude – even of an indebtedness
to ask. There, too, I found N. J. The deepest root here lies in the appreciation of this new book? that almost amounts to obligation
Berrill’s book Man’s Emerging Mind, a long division between psychology It is more than a book. I think here – this is also a ground of inspiration,
lodestone of my intellectual journey. and Artificial Intelligence. In The of a question the playwright DeVigny the source of goals and energy for
I’ve heard your colleague Minsky Emotion Machine, the three most asks, ‘What is a great life, if not a future work for me and for future
is publishing a new book. Is it an frequently referenced psychologists youthful idea made real with the generations as well. Also, on the
important one? are Freud (for his structural creativ- focus and perseverance of the mature grand scale, books are the communi-
When I mention other thinkers to ity), Williams James and Aristotle. mind?’ The Emotion Machine and cation lines for the whole world’s life
him, Minsky always asks, ‘What’s The Harvard psychologist Sheldon The Society of Mind together realize of the mind (what a grand business
really profound in the work of X?’ White suggested to me, after reading Minsky’s vision of a general theory Intellect is in) and your commitment
So it’s appropriate then to ask, an early draft of The Emotion Machine, of intelligence covering mind as em- to work at the frontier of these mod-
‘What’s really profound in the work that Minsky should look into the bodied in biological and electronic ern technologies is a great service
of Minsky?’ Many years ago, Marvin ways that his view of mind was simi- machines. Minsky’s life work is a you have committed to provide for
(Minsky, ed.) mentioned how hard it lar to that of William James. Marvin successful effort to re-conceive our that long conversation which is the
was to write academically respect- found his ideas very congenial. understanding of knowledge and heart and soul of human culture.
able articles about his view of mind. The prominence of Aristotle in The thinking through computation- We’ve gone on a long time, and we
I urged him then to write a sequel Emotion Machine is amusing to those based description of structures and haven’t even talked about your work.
to The Society of Mind, arguing for a of us who know of Marvin’s long functions necessary for the existence Let me say simply, then, that it is on-
future suite of web pages, with all engagement with science fiction. and behaviour of mind. His work is going and continues to be inspired,
the lexicographical simplicity of His friend Van (A. E. Van Vogt) wrote distinguished by a commitment to both technically and in terms of the
structured programs, reflecting in its the sci-fi masterpiece The World of mechanistic descriptions that cross goals I’ve set, by the ideas and values
variety the variety of aspects of mind. Null-A, which followed Korzybski’s from the common sense of everyday of these, my heroes, as I pursue the
The aim? To create a foundation for argument that contemporary science experience to more exotic sciences questions voiced by John Berrill:
a new generation of AI research, a shows we live in a non-Euclidean, derived from the deepest examina- Who am I? Where have I come from?
foundation permitting and support- non-Newtonian and non-Aristote- tion of reality. The Emotion Machine Where am I going? Why am I going
ing future research efforts branching lian universe (respectively in terms of will become the ground for a new there? I’ve made these questions my
off from the proposals and chal- both space-time and mentally coping generation of research. This book is own as well, still following Robert
lenges each page could suggest. with experience). This is appropriate the finest and most accessible single White’s case study method, believ-
This idea, which Marvin surely had to mention, because the dramatic work of cognitive science your audi- ing with Kurt Lewin that studies of
thought of himself too, may have had climax of The World of Null-A focuses ence members will encounter in their individuals not only exemplify laws
a special appeal to him because it di- on the slogan ‘the negative judgment lifetimes. of psychology but embody and reveal
rectly addressed a theme close to his is the peak of mentality’ (from A. I certainly have a feeling for how those laws. {
heart, the importance of engaging N. Whitehead, Process and Reality). important books have been in your
adolescent geniuses in a discipline But it is also deep, in pointing to life and how intertwined for you FIND BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR:
are scholarly works and the lives of
somewhat like mathematics, where a profound aspect of Minsky’s The
WWW.INTELLECTBOOKS.COM
Book Reviews
iQuote » “Writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted.” – Jules Renard
FILM STUDIES She met Makhmalbaf twice, first She also saw a very similar concern
Cinemas of the Other: during the Thessaloniki International among these film-makers from differ-
Film Festival in 1995 and then at the ent countries regarding culture and cin-
A Personal Journey Locarno International Film Festival in ema in a postmodern age: ‘Erden Kiral
with Film-makers 1996. She also met Dariush Mehrjui in and Ali Ozgenturk from Turkey, Dariush
France where both of them served on Mehrjui from Iran and Chingiz Aitmatov
from the Middle East the jury of the International Film Festi- (who is the only novelist and script-
and Central Asia val of Asian Cinema in 2005. In her in- writer among the interviewees) from
By Gonul Dönmez-Colin terview with Bayzaee, which took place Kyrgyzstan, lamented the loss of values
in Istanbul at the Istanbul Film Festival, in our consumer-oriented societies
Reviewed by Parviz Jahed Bayzaee, who is an outspoken figure in where intellectuals are either shunned
Iranian cinema, talks openly about his or pushed to the margins.’ (p.16)
A s an Iranian Ph.D. student

working on the origins of the
new wave in Iranian cinema, I have
The relative long introduction of
the book shows Dönmez-Colin as a
well-informed researcher familiar with
films and life without any fear of the
censorship or further consequences.
By putting together the views of
Despite the fact that her approach
is not academic, it at least has the po-
tential to provide some fresh material
faced an immense lack of knowledge the region and looking at the national film-makers from different genera- for the academicians and film students
about the historical aspects of Iranian cinema of the region with a particular tions and with a different background, who are working on national cinema.
cinema in English resources. Whereas approach. Dönmez-Colin gives her reader a Although some of her mistakes on
most of western film critics and film With a remarkable knowledge on chance to be familiar with some new Iranian cinema are hard to ignore, for
historians are focused on the recent the history of Iran and Iranian cinema, aspects of Turkish and Iranian cinema instance, she says:
flow of Iranian cinema and film-mak- ‘the revolutionary fervour set fire
ers like Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen ‘Instead of relying on the second-hand information to more than 180 movie houses killing
Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi and and resources in the West about the ‘Other hundreds of people’ (p.10), which, I
other newcomers, it seems that the believe, is not true because when the
forerunners of the modern Iranian Cinema’, Dönmez-Colin has tried to gather fresh revolutionaries wanted to burn down
cinema such as Ebrahim Golestan and information by contacting the film-makers directly.’ the cinemas they were evacuated
Farrokh Ghaffari, who had a great earlier. Except for one cinema, called
role on the formation of new Iranian Dönmez-Colin has succeeded in doing or other territories. cinema Rex, which was burnt down and
cinema, were totally ignored. In the some interesting and challenging Apparently there is nothing similar many of the people in it were killed, but
meanwhile, except for Kiarostami, interviews with Iranian film-mak- between Kiarostami’s documentary no evidence had been found proving
there are hardly even any talks ers. Despite several books which style and Bayzaee’s ritual, mythical who did this, whether it was the Shah’s
about the other film-makers of that were published recently on Iranian cinema or even Mehrjui’s philosophical security force or the revolutionaries.
generation, like Dariush Mehrjui and or Middle East cinema, it seems that and thoughtful films about the Iranian And the misspelling of the name
Bahram Bayzaee who formed the new these cinemas still remain unexplored middle-class modern life at all. But, ac- Varouj Karim Massihi, which in the
wave of Iranian cinema before the and need to be examined precisely; lets cording to Dönmez-Colin’s book, what interview with Bahram Bayzaee has
Islamic revolution. leave alone the Central Asian cinema relates these film-makers to each other, been written down as Baroush Karim
That is why I think Gonul Dönmez- which is suffering from a serious lack despite their different approaches Nasseki. (p. 36)
Colin’s book, which provides excellent of knowledge and investigations. towards cinema, is their ability to She has also described Bayzaee’s
interviews with the above three Instead of relying on the second- work under similarly hard conditions. The Death of Yazdgerd as a film about
Iranian film-makers of that genera- hand information and resources in In the current climate of Hollywood the history of Islam, where as it is
tion, is unique. the West about the ‘Other Cinema’, dominance, economical limitations and clearly about Iran during the verge of
Although the book is not limited to Dönmez-Colin has tried to gather fresh state censorship have jeopardized their the Arab’s invasion and is dealing with
Iranian cinema, the interviews with information by contacting the film- professional position. The film festivals the identity of Iranians rather than
Iranian film-makers construct the makers directly. and distribution systems of the West history of Islam.
main part of it. It seems that Iranian She has travelled from Middle East imposed their tastes and tendencies I recommend this book to people
cinema was so important for Dönmez- countries to Central Asia to conduct onto the national film-makers, which who are interested in cinema of
Colin when she refers to it as ‘the most the interviews, attending film festivals culminated in a fist of films that are not other cultures and of the East and
vibrant and challenging cinema of the and other film events where she had a interesting for the audience of their all students and writers to use for
Middle East’. chance to meet the film-makers. countries at all. reference. {
Book Reviews
iQuote » “ Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.” – Cyril Connolly
drawings have ‘fearless, searching ‘Only Fire Forges Iron: The Archi- validate new processes, it merely
energy’) diminishes not Picasso and tectural Drawings of Michelangelo’ makes intelligent debate impossible.
Matisse but the writer and, by exten- is an adept but tantalizingly short Emerging technologies can be best
sion, his argument, which is a shame discussion of the relation between understood by using new, discrete
because he has ideas worth consider- drawn conceptualizations of space, terms rather than by mangling
ing. Unfortunately, Ruskin, being a anatomical studies and an artist’s un- established definitions. Damaging
good judge of drawing, is not one of derstanding of light effects and how language diminishes us all and the
them. Ruskin’s dicta ‘The perfect way this may have influenced Michelange- urge to appropriate unsuitable exist-
of drawing is by shade without lines’ lo’s architecture. Will Lynch treat this ing classifications betrays a certain
and ‘No good drawing can consist area at greater length elsewhere? timidity. If science can manage this
ART & DESIGN throughout of pure outline’ rule out Russell Lowe’s informative paper area effectively, then why can’t the
Ingres to Shiele, Rembrandt to Pica- on 3-D printing is marred by an visual arts? (See this reviewer’s
Drawing – bia, and are pure gibberish. example of doublethink common article ‘Cause for Concern’, Printmak-
The Process Walker has a witty take on the pe- among proponents of digital tech- ing Today, vol. 13 no. 2 for discussion
By Alexander Adams culiarities of life-drawing conventions nologies. It runs along the following on this point.)
and he (rightly) identifies Lucian Freud lines: digital technologies are unfairly There is much more besides. Vet-
T his collection of papers, interviews

and reflections presented at the
January 2003 Drawing – The Process
as a mannerist rather than a realist.
Surely an article which follows
‘What we need is a substantial
excluded from the hierarchies of fine
art. Such conventions are hidebound
and archaic. Then the volte-face: this
eran illustrators George Hardie and
John Vernon Lord provide personal
accounts of their experiences and
conference at Kingston University Department of Drawing in a good area of digital technology should be approaches that are both illuminating
(and those developed from it) pro- and heartening. ‘In Discussion with
vides a useful resource for teachers, ‘Drawing – The Process is a useful, thought- Zandra Rhodes’ is a mixture of direct
students and practitioners. Covering questions and paraphrased answers
topics as diverse as Renaissance archi-
provoking sourcebook, proving by turns that might have been better recast as
tecture, illustration, fashion design, contentious and amusing.’ either a profile or a verbatim inter-
corporate communication graphics, view transcript, such as the revealing
animation and 3-D printing, as well college […]’ with ‘My own hope is that classed as part of that field of fine dialogue with animator Joanna Quinn
as personal testimonies, the book the craft-based divisions between art. One moment the advocate is included in this book.
touches on much of what we think of painting, drawing and printmaking denigrating conventional classifica- Drawing – The Process is a useful,
as drawing in addition to that which […] will continue to dissolve’ is undi- tion as iniquitous and declaring it ripe thought-provoking sourcebook,
we might not previously have consid- luted provocation? It is sure to cause for abolition, the next moment he is proving by turns contentious and
ered drawing. The sheer diversity of arguments among art students and is attempting to crowbar his specialty amusing. {
subjects and styles makes for engaging therefore recommended reading. into an inappropriate (and unwelcom-
reading and difficult reviewing. Less contentious is Kevin Flynn’s ing) class in order to benefit from a Alexander Adams is an artist based in New-
James Faure Walker’s contention engrossing (and judiciously illus- supposedly despised cachet. castle upon Tyne. His next solo exhibition
that Picasso and Matisse are overrated trated) discussion of medieval English To broaden definitions until they is at Oriel Ceri Richards Gallery, Swansea,
draughtsmen (and that Sigmar Polke’s drawing. Likewise, Patrick Flynn’s are virtually meaningless does not January-February 2008.
download our new

spring catalogue from:
Letters
iQuote » “There is more pleasure to building castles in the air than on the ground.” – Edward Gibbon
To the editors...
Your publications are very contemporary,
forward-thinking and inspiring. As a
young teacher in Canada I find many of the
publications available here to lack more
critical and open-minded perspectives.
– Michelle Simiana, Canada
...As a former Israeli academic, and a peace activist

who opposes the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian
territories, I was both shocked and disappointed to
see in IQ (under Art & Design) that Mel Alexenberg’s Intellect Chairman
book , The Future of Art in a Digital Age: From Hellenistic Masoud Yazdani (left)
to Hebraic Consciousness describes the author as an
A Good Investment
artist and “Professor of Art and Jewish Thought at the
University of Judea and Samaria in Ariel, Israel...” I
would like to bring to your attention the fact that Ariel
is an illegal settlement in the occupied Palestinian
territories outside the so called “green line,” the only
internationally recognized border of the state of Israel.
Intellect wins prestigious Investor in People Award
I would like also to add that not a single country in the
whole world (not even the USA, the strongest supporter In January 2006 Intellect was awarded culture” which is very productive in
of the state of Israel) recognizes the illegal settlements Investors in People recognition after an managing change. The company takes
as part of “Israel.” Furthermore, the terms “Judea assessment by the UK government on recent graduates and offers an
and Samaria” are used only by Jewish settlers as their sponsored Business Link organisation. excellent apprenticeship training
chosen name for the Palestinian occupied territories in The Investors in People standard was programme. More established staff are
order to deny the right of the Palestinians to this land. launched in 1992. It was developed to given free time for self-reflection and
By mistakenly (I hope) describing Ariel as part of Israel, encourage and reward good practice in research – reading etc. This results in
Intellect Press not only legitimises and normalises the the training and development of staff to staff feeling valued, with high levels of
continuing military occupation and colonization of achieve business goals. It is a standard commitment and loyalty to the business.
the Palestinian territories but also gives it a moral and applied to organisations of all sizes and The assessors report highlighted the
political support. I hope that the Press will take the in all sectors. company’s strengths and advised on how
necessary steps to remedy this grave mistake. In the case of Intellect, the assessors they could be improved. Intellect is
observed that although it is a small pleased with the outcome and is commit-
Yours sincerely, business, it has well-developed manage- ted to build on the quality of its staff.
Professor Yosefa Loshitzky ment systems and processes. The A recent “Impact Assessment”
assessors were impressed with the investigated 1,600 organisations divided
annual business planning cycle which equally between those recognised as
allowed all staff to have an input in the Investors in People and those not.
8 SEND US YOUR LETTERS

IQ@INTELLECTBOOKS.COM
future direction of the company, making
staff feel empowered and trusted. It was
noted that there is an inclusive approach
Organisational changes by Investors in
People organisations were twice as
profitable than those who were not. {
to staff development with a “no blame
intellectjournals
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Intellect Quarterly no. 5 / thinking in colour / spring 2007

media & democracy

intellect. Publishers of original thinking.

Next Issue Due out Autumn 2007 / www.intellectbooks.com

06 Videogame Art Masoud Yazdani

Challenging and Provocative Sub Editor

10 José María Rodríguez Méndez Intellect Ltd.

12 The Visual in Communication

Some Hidden Dimensions part of this publication

16 Television’s New Engine without permission of the

The Principle of the TV Format expressed by contributors

Intellect publishes books

Computers and the History of Art

25 Media and Democracy

25 Pride and Panic then bring them to as wide

exemplify our mission as publish- on established topics along univer-

“An artist’s career always begins tomorrow.” – J. Whistler

intellect Book Focus

‘Videogame art is becoming more

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Journal of contributors from around the histories and cultural

Article from issue 25

DIALOGUE FEATURES AROUND REVIEWS THE INTERVIEWS MOVING NEWS IMAGE

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intellect Book Focus

Troubling Postcards from the Past

intellect Book Focus

The Visual in Communication

intellect Book Focus

we discussed earlier, the one of spatial

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Television’s New Engine

RTÉ and the Globalisation of Irish Television

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Practice-Led Research Practice-led research is getting a lot of attention

temperature that the energy supplier provides. According to Turrell, ‘Light

Pierre Auboiron is a Ph.D. student of Contemporary Art History at Pan-

ESTABLISHED IN 1985, Computers and the History of Art (CHArt) is

FURTHER READING FURTHER READING

Media and Democracy – in all its variety of genres (news,

A Strange Paradox that all the platform operators

intellect Book Focus

Pride and Panic Barber of Siberia and Sokurov’s Rus-

Russian Imagination of the honor, dignity and loyalty to one’s

turn speaks of political, social and

A s an Iranian Ph.D. student

T his collection of papers, interviews

download our new

– Michelle Simiana, Canada

...As a former Israeli academic, and a peace activist

8 SEND US YOUR LETTERS

The International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies is devoted to the study

For more information on all our journals:

THEATRE & PERFORMANCE MEDIA & CULTURE

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Intellect Books, IQ Magazine: Spring 2007 (Read in "Fullscreen")

Intellect Books, IQ Magazine: Spring 2007 (Read in "Fullscreen")