Hal Foster (ed.): The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture (1983)

“A collection of late-twentieth-century cultural criticism, named a Best Book of the Year by the Village Voice. In The Anti-Aesthetic, critics such as Jean Baudrillard, Rosalind Krauss, Fredric Jameson, and Edward Said consider the full range of postmodern cultural production, from the writing of John Cage, to Cindy Sherman’s film stills, to Barbara Kruger’s collages. The book provides an introduction for newcomers and a point of reference for those already engaged in discussions of postmodern art, culture, and criticism.”

With essays by Jean Baudrillard, Douglas Crimp, Kenneth Frampton, Jurgen Habermas, Fredric Jameson, Rosalind Krauss, Craig Owens, Edward W. Said, and Gregory L. Ulmer.

Edited and with an Introduction by Hal Foster
Publisher Bay Press, Port Townsend, WA, 1983
ISBN 0941920011, 9780941920018
xvi+159 pages

Reviews: Dana Polan (New German Critique, 1984), Laura Kipnis (Minnesota Review, 1984).

PDF (15 MB, updated on 2015-5-5)

Vilém Flusser: Into the Universe of Technical Images (1985–) [DE, HU, CZ, EN]

Poised between hope and despair for a humanity facing an urgent communication crisis, this work by Vilém Flusser forecasts either the first truly human, infinitely creative society in history or a society of unbearable, oppressive sameness, locked in a pattern it cannot change. First published in German in 1985 and now available in English for the first time, Into the Universe of Technical Images outlines the history of communication technology as a process of increasing abstraction.

Flusser charts how communication evolved from direct interaction with the world to mediation through various technologies. The invention of writing marked one significant shift; the invention of photography marked another, heralding the current age of the technical image. The automation of the processing of technical images carries both promise and threat: the promise of freeing humans to play and invent and the threat for networks of automation to proceed independently of humans.

Originally published in German as Ins Universum der technischen Bilder, European Photography, 1985

Czech edition: Do universa technických obrazů
Translated by Jiří Fiala
Publisher OSVU, 2002
ISBN 8023875698
162 pages

English edition
Translated by Nancy Ann Roth
Introduction by Mark Poster
Publisher University of Minnesota Press, 2011
Volume 32 of Electronic Mediations
ISBN 0816670218, 9780816670215
224 pages

Review (Bob Hanke, International Journal of Communication)

Translator (EN)
Publisher (EN)

Ins Universum der technischen Bilder (German, 1985, added on 2016-8-4)
A technikai képek univerzuma felé (Hungarian, trans. József Maleczki, 2001; revised trans. Dalma Török, 2011; HTML, added on 2014-2-14)
Do universa technických obrazů (Czech, Jiří Fiala, 2002, no OCR, added on 2013-4-1)
Into the Universe of Technical Images (English, trans. Nancy Ann Roth, 2011, updated on 2012-7-17)

Félix Guattari: Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm (1992–) [PT, EN, ES, IT]

Guattari’s final book is a succinct summary of his socio-philosophical outlook. It includes critical reflections on Lacanian psychoanalysis, structuralism, information theory, postmodernism, and the thought of Heidegger, Bakhtin, Barthes, and others.

Originally published in French as Chaosmose, Editions Galilee, Paris, 1992.

English edition
Translated by Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis
Publisher Indiana University Press, 1995
ISBN 0253210046, 9780253210043
144 pages

publisher (EN)
google books (EN)

Caosmose (Portuguese, trans. Ana Lúcia de Oliveira and Lúcia Cláudia Leão, 1992, added on 2013-9-26)
Chaosmosis (English, trans. Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis, 1995, updated on 2015-3-26)
Caosmosis (Spanish, trans. Irene Agoff, 1996, added on 2013-1-5)
Caosmosi (Italian, trans. Massimiliano Guareschi, 1996, no OCR, added on 2013-1-5)