Robert Adrian X (2001) [German/English]
Filed under catalogue | Tags: · art, media art, network art, radio art
Robert Adrian X is an artist making installations, music and radio projects as well as works in public space since 1950s; since early 1980s he is the pioneer in the field of telecommunication.
A fragile sculpture made of cigar packages, painted in the style of De Stijl, a canvas that radiates in the subdued hues of Yves Klein’s “patented” blue, and a faded Amiga monitor with colourfully gleaming computer graphics, all lined up on a red shelf. Modern Art IV (1990), thus runs the title of this work, finds a common denominator for the art of the 20th Century, including that of the sampling brand.
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Robert Adrian X, Kunsthalle, Vienna, 7 Dec 2001 – 10 Feb 2002. With essays by Timothy Druckrey, Georg Schöllhammer and Reinhard Braun.
Edited by Kunsthalle Wien, Lucas Gehrmann, and Gerald Matt
Publisher Kunsthalle Wien, 2001
ISBN 3852470285
152 pages
via Kunsthalle Wien
PDF (updated on 2017-3-19)
Comments (2)John Maeda: The Laws of Simplicity (2006)
Filed under book | Tags: · design, graphic design, technology
Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We’re rebelling against technology that’s too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte “read me” manuals. The iPod’s clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the simplicity paradox: we want something that’s simple and easy to use, but also does all the complex things we might ever want it to do. In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda offers ten laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology, and design—guidelines for needing less and actually getting more.
Maeda—a professor in MIT’s Media Lab and a world-renowned graphic designer—explores the question of how we can redefine the notion of “improved” so that it doesn’t always mean something more, something added on.
Maeda’s first law of simplicity is “Reduce.” It’s not necessarily beneficial to add technology features just because we can. And the features that we do have must be organized (Law 2) in a sensible hierarchy so users aren’t distracted by features and functions they don’t need. But simplicity is not less just for the sake of less. Skip ahead to Law 9: “Failure: Accept the fact that some things can never be made simple.” Maeda’s concise guide to simplicity in the digital age shows us how this idea can be a cornerstone of organizations and their products—how it can drive both business and technology. We can learn to simplify without sacrificing comfort and meaning, and we can achieve the balance described in Law 10. This law, which Maeda calls “The One,” tells us: “Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.”
Publisher MIT Press, 2006
Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life series
ISBN 0262134721, 9780262134729
100 pages
PDF (updated on 2014-8-29)
Comment (0)Marquard Smith (ed.): Visual Culture Studies: Interviews With Key Thinkers (2008)
Filed under book | Tags: · interview, visual culture, visual studies
Visual Culture Studies presents 13 engaging and detailed interviews with some of the most influential intellectuals working today on the objects, subjects, media and environments of visual culture. Exploring historical and theoretical questions of vision, the visual and visuality, this collection reveals the provocative insights of these thinkers, as they have contributed in exhilarating ways to disturbing the parameters of more traditional areas of study across the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. In so doing they have key roles in establishing Visual Culture Studies as a significant field of inquiry. Each interview draws out the interests and commitments of the interviewee to critically interrogate the past, present and future possibilities of Visual Culture Studies and visual culture itself. The discussions concentrate on three broad areas of deliberation:
* the intellectual and institutional status of Visual Culture Studies.
* the histories, genealogies and archaeologies of visual culture and its study.
* the diverse ways in which the experiences of vision, and the visual, can be articulated and mobilized to political, aesthetic and ethical ends.
This book demonstrates the intellectual significance of Visual Culture Studies, and the ongoing importance of the study of the visual.
Publisher SAGE, 2008
ISBN 1412923697, 9781412923699
239 pages
PDF (updated on 2013-6-5)
Comment (1)