Pontus Hultén (ed.): The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age (1968)

Exhibition catalogue of one of the most important exhibitions of the 1960s dealing with art and technology. The show was held at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 25 November 1968 – 9 February 1969. Its curator K.G. Pontus Hultén described it as a “collection of comments on technology by artists of the Western world,” particularly in the modern age when “the mechanical machine – which can most easily be defined as an imitation of our muscles – is losing its dominating position among the tools of mankind; while electronic and chemical devices – which imitate the processes of the brain and the nervous system – are becoming increasingly important.”

The exhibition traveled to Rice Museum, Rice University, Houston, 25 March – 18 May 1969; San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, 23 June – 24 August 1969.

Publisher Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1968
218 pages
via MoMA

Review: William A. Camfield (Art Bulletin, 1971).
Exh.review: Time (1968).

Publisher

PDF (53 MB, updated on 2016-9-23: pagination corrected, bookmarks and metadata added, file optimized, page 59 still missing)

After Us: Art—Science—Politics, 1 (2015) [English/Spanish]

“Through essays, pictorials and fiction, After Us hopes to look beyond the horizon, exploring developments in science and technology, new forms and expressions in art, and alternative political thinking. In print and online.”

Contents: Essays by Nora N. Khan on artificial superintelligence, Liam Young on architecture for machines, Nick Srnicek on neoliberalism and aestheticism, Benedict Singleton on modern film archetypes. Interview with Walter Murch by Dave Tompkins. Fiction by Juan Mateos. Art by Timothy Saccenti & Sam Rolfes, Lawrence Lek. Illustrations by Stathis Tsemberlidis, Adam Ferriss, Alex Solman, Patrick Savile.

Publisher Optigram, London, Sep 2015
32 pages

HTML (English, use menu to browse contents)
PDF (English, 10 MB)
HTML (Spanish, expand menu item “translations” to browse contents)

See also Issue 2.

Herbert Read: Art and Industry: The Principles of Industrial Design (1934)

One of the most important texts promoting Modernism published in Britain. The layout was designed by former Bauhaus tutor Herbert Bayer. “In this text, the designer is portrayed as an abstract artist working in industry, reconciling elements of design such as materials, form, colour, and proportion with modern mass-production technology. Read felt that the designer should play a central role in modern manufacture, rather than the low-paid, subservient role that generally prevailed at the time.”

Publisher Faber and Faber, London, 1934
Reprint Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1935
143 pages
via Joseph Allen

Review: Listowel (Philosophy, 1934).
Commentary: Robin Kinross (Journal of Design History, 1988).

PDF (146 MB, no OCR)