Harald Szeemann, et al.: Documenta 5, catalogue (1972) [DE]

“Even decades later, Documenta 5, the exhibition that was criticized in 1972 as being “bizarre.. vulgar.. sadistic” by Hilton Kramer (NYT) and “monstrous.. overtly deranged” by Barbara Rose (NYM), resonates today as one of the most important exhibitions in history. Both hailed and derided by artists and critics, the exhibition was the largest, most expensive and most diverse of any exhibition anywhere, and foreshadowed all large-scale, collaboratively curated, comprehensive mega-shows to come.

Chiefly curated by the Swiss curator, Harald Szeemann, it was a pioneering, radically different presentation that was conceived as a 100-day event, with performances and happenings, outsider art, even non-art, as well as repeated Joseph Beuys lectures, and an installation of Claes Oldenburg’s Mouse Museum, among many other atypical inclusions. The show widely promoted awareness of a contract known as The Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement, which protects artists’ ongoing intellectual and financial rights with regard to their production.” (Source)

“Featuring the works of over 170 artists and an equally expansive variety of materials and subjects drawn from popular cultural materials such as science fiction publications, kitsch objects, exploitation films, as well as advertising imagery, in addition to the more anticipated painting and sculpture – Documenta 5 valiantly attempted to bridge the gap between art, culture, science and the broader society.

A lasting highlight of the exhibition was the graphic logo for the show designed by Edward Ruscha. Commissioned by Szeeman, Ruscha’s graphic image for the show featured ants arranged in the word ‘Docu / menta’ and the number ‘5.’ The emblem was used on the exhibition’s poster and catalogue cover.” (Source)

Contents of Part B:
1 Hans Heinz Holz: Kritische Theorie des ästhetischen Zeichens (catalogue foreword, 86 pp),
2 Bazon Brock & Karl Heinz Krings: Audiovisuelles Vorwort (audiovisual foreword, 19 pp),
3 Eberhard Roters: Trivialrealismus & Trivialemblematik (16 pp),
4 Ingolf Bauer: Bilderwelt und Froemmigkeit (10 pp),
5 Gesellschaftliche Ikonographie an zwei Beispielen (8 pp),
6 Charles Wilp, Hans Heinz Holz: Werbung (4 pp),
7 Reiner Diederich, Richard Grübling, Klaus Staeck: Politische Propaganda (14 pp),
8 Pierre Versins: Science Fiction/Heute von gestern gesehen (10 pp),
9 François Burkhardt: Utopie/Morgen von gestern gesehen (16 pp),
10 Ursula Barthelmess, Hans-Henning Borgelt, Linde Burkhardt, Wolfgang Hoebig: Spiel und Wirklichkeit (14 pp),
11 Theodor Spoerri: Bildnerei der Giesteskranken (18 pp),
12 Gerhard Buettenbender, Sigurd Hermes: Film (28 pp),
13 Museen von Künstlern (17 pp),
14 Sozialistischer Realismus (1 p),
15 Jean-Christophe Ammann: Realismus (58 pp),
16 Johannes Cladders, Harald Szeemann: Individuelle Mythologien – Selbstdarstellung: a) Performance, b) Film – Prozesse (220 pp),
17 Konrad Fischer, Klaus Honnef, Gisela Kaminski: Idee + Idee / Licht (92 pp),
18 Information + The Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement (44 pp),
19 Verzeichnis der ausgestellten Werke
20 Allgemeine Bibliographie
21 Waehrend: Ereigniskalender
22 Nachher 1: Text
23 Nachher 2: Bild
24 Nachher 3: Presse
25 Fotonachweis

documenta 5. Befragung der Realität – Bildwelten heute
Edited by Harald Szeemann, Marlis Grüterich, Katia von den Velden, Jennifer Gough-Cooper
Publisher documenta and Bertelsmann, Kassel, 1972
ISBN 3570028569, 9783570028568
64+80 & 740+ pages
via The DOR (at Archive.org)

Analyses and commentaries:
3sat TV documentary (video, 41 min, 1972, DE)
Der Spiegel (1972, DE)
Klaus Herding & Hans-Ernst Mittig on Holz’s foreword (Kritische Berichte, 1973, DE)
Documenta 5 in Art Since 1900 (2004, EN)
Dirk Schwarze (Documenta Archiv, 2014, DE)
Maria Bremer (Stedelijk Studies, 2015, EN)

documenta Archiv, (2)
Wikipedia (DE)
WorldCat

Part A (144 pp, PDF, 57 MB)
Part B (740+ pp, PDF, 287 MB, sections 19-24 missing; updated on 2023-3-28)

Elizabeth L. Eisenstein: The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early-Modern Europe (1979)

“A key text to understand the role of print on social change and the arts. Professor Eisenstein begins by examining the general implications of the shift from script to print, and goes on to examine its part in three of the major movements of early modern times – the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the rise of modern science. Her masterful and well researched text sets a standard for understanding the social impact of printing.”

Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1979
11th printing, 2005
ISBN 052129951, 9780521299558
794 pages
HT Didgebaba

Reviews: Carolyn Marvin (Technology and Culture, 1979), Anthony T. Grafton (Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 1980), Eric J. Freeman (Medical History, 1981), Eric J. Leed (American Journal of Sociology, 1982), Richard Teichgraeber (History of European Ideas, 1984).

Publisher
Wikipedia

PDF (2 vols., 16 MB, updated on 2022-1-30)
EPUB (2nd ed., 2012, added on 2022-1-30)

See also the collection Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein (2007).

Edward L. Bernays: Propaganda (1928)

A seminal and controversial figure in the history of political thought and public relations, Edward Bernays (1891–1995), pioneered the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion, which he famously dubbed “engineering of consent.” During World War I, he was an integral part of the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), a powerful propaganda apparatus that was mobilized to package, advertise and sell the war to the American people as one that would “Make the World Safe for Democracy.” The CPI would become the blueprint in which marketing strategies for future wars would be based upon.

Bernays applied the techniques he had learned in the CPI and, incorporating some of the ideas of Walter Lipmann, became an outspoken proponent of propaganda as a tool for democratic and corporate manipulation of the population. His 1928 bombshell Propaganda lays out his eerily prescient vision for using propaganda to regiment the collective mind in a variety of areas, including government, politics, art, science and education. To read this book today is to frightfully comprehend what our contemporary institutions of government and business have become in regards to organized manipulation of the masses.

Publisher Horace Liveright, New York, 1928
159 pages

The Century Of The Self: One: Happiness Machines (documentary film by Adam Curtis featuring Edward Bernays)

wikipedia
google books

PDF (no OCR)
View online (HTML)