Pamela M. Lee: Chronophobia: On Time in the Art of the 1960s (2004)

“In the 1960s art fell out of time; both artists and critics lost their temporal bearings in response to what E. M. Cioran called “not being entitled to time.” This anxiety and uneasiness about time, which Pamela Lee calls “chronophobia,” cut across movements, media, and genres, and was figured in works ranging from kinetic sculptures to Andy Warhol films. Despite its pervasiveness, the subject of time and 1960s art has gone largely unexamined in historical accounts of the period. Chronophobia is the first critical attempt to define this obsession and analyze it in relation to art and technology.

Lee discusses the chronophobia of art relative to the emergence of the Information Age in postwar culture. The accompanying rapid technological transformations, including the advent of computers and automation processes, produced for many an acute sense of historical unknowing; the seemingly accelerated pace of life began to outstrip any attempts to make sense of the present. Lee sees the attitude of 1960s art to time as a historical prelude to our current fixation on time and speed within digital culture. Reflecting upon the 1960s cultural anxiety about temporality, she argues, helps us historicize our current relation to technology and time.

After an introductory framing of terms, Lee discusses such topics as “presentness” with respect to the interest in systems theory in 1960s art; kinetic sculpture and new forms of global media; the temporality of the body and the spatialization of the visual image in the paintings of Bridget Riley and the performance art of Carolee Schneemann; Robert Smithson’s interest in seriality and futurity, considered in light of his reading of George Kubler’s important work The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things and Norbert Wiener’s discussion of cybernetics; and the endless belaboring of the present in sixties art, as seen in Warhol’s Empire and the work of On Kawara.”

Publisher MIT Press, 2004
ISBN 026212260X, 9780262122603
394 pages

Publisher

PDF, PDF (updated on 2019-5-27)

Carsten Nicolai: Anti-Reflex, catalogue (2005) [English/German]

“Carsten Nicolai is considered today to be one of the most important representatives of a generation of artists who focus on exploring the points of intersection between art, nature, and science. As a visual artist, researcher, producer, and organizer of concert events combined in one person, Nicolai seeks to overcome the division among the senses in human perception and to make it possible to experience natural phenomena like the frequencies of sound and light or electromagnetic fields with the eyes as well as by hearing and touch. His installations radiate a minimalist aesthetics that captivates the viewer with its elegance, simplicity, and emphasis on technology. Following his participation in important international exhibitions like the Kassel documenta and the Venice Biennial, the Schirn Kunsthalle presented the first major survey, for which the artist produced a series of new works.” (from curator)

With texts by Magnus Haglund and Yuko Hasegawa.

Curated, edited and with foreword by Max Hollein
Publisher Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, with Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Koenig, Cologne, 2005
ISBN 3883758914, 9783883758916
200 pages

exhibition & publisher
co-publisher
google books

PDF

Michel Henry: Barbarism (1987/2012)

Barbarism represents a critique, from the perspective of Michel Henry’s unique philosophy of life, of the increasing potential of science and technology to destroy the roots of culture and the value of the individual human being. For Henry, barbarism is the result of a devaluation of human life and culture that can be traced back to the spread of quantification, the scientific method and technology over all aspects of modern life. The book develops a compelling critique of capitalism, technology and education and provides a powerful insight into the political implications of Henry’s work. It also opens up a new dialogue with other influential cultural critics, such as Marx, Husserl, and Heidegger.

First published in French in 1987, Barbarism aroused great interest as well as virulent criticism. Today the book reveals what for Henry is a cruel reality: the tragic feeling of powerlessness experienced by the cultured person. Above all he argues for the importance of returning to philosophy in order to analyse the root causes of barbarism in our world.

Originally published in French as La Barbarie by Editions Grasset & Fasquelle, 1987
Translated by Scott Davidson
Publisher Continuum, London/New York, 2012
Volume 95 of Continuum Impacts
ISBN 1441132651, 9781441132659
168 pages

wikipedia
publisher
google books

PDF
PDF (Alt link, added on 2014-1-21)