Robert Rosen: Essays on Life Itself (1999)

“In this collection of twenty-two essays, Rosen takes to task the central objective of the natural sciences, calling into question the attempt to create objectivity in a subjective world. The book opens with an exploration of the interaction between biology and physics, unpacking Schrödinger´s famous text What Is Life? and revealing the shortcomings of the notion that artificial intelligence can truly replicate life.

He also refutes the thesis that mathematical models of reality can be reflected entirely in algorithms, that is, are of a purely syntactical character. He argues that it is the noncomputable, nonformalizable nature of biology that makes organisms complex, and that these systems are generic, whereas those systems described by reductionistic reasoning are simple and rare.

An intriguing enigma links all of the essays: ‘How can science explain the unpredictable?'”

Publisher Columbia University Press, 1999
Complexity in Ecological Systems series
ISBN 023110510X, 9780231105101
x+360 pages

Reviews: Bruce J. West (Quarterly Review of Biology, 2001), Donald C. Mikulecky (c1999).

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (removed on 2019-10-30 upon request from Judith Rosen)

Kenneth Goldsmith: Theory (2015) [EN, FR]

“Theory offers an unprecedented reading of the contemporary world: 500 texts – from poems and musings to short stories – printed on 500 pages assembled in the form of a ream of paper. Curated by the author-poet, this collection maps out the various issues and trends in contemporary literature in a world currently being shaken up by everything online and digital, and calls for the reinvention of creative forms.”

Edition directed by Mathieu Cénac and David Desrimais
Publisher Jean Boîte, Paris, May 2015
ISBN 9782365680103 (EN)
500 pages

Publisher (EN)
Publisher (FR)

Theory (English, cover, inner side of wrapper, label)
Théorie (French, trans. Léa Faust, cover, label)

Raúl Ruiz: Poetics of Cinema (1995–) [EN, ES]

“Chilean filmmaker Raoul Ruiz is the author of some 100 feature-length films, along with numerous plays and multi-media installations. In Poetics of Cinema, Ruiz takes a fresh approach to the major themes haunting our audio-visual civilization: the filmic unconscious, questions of utopia, the inter-contamination of images, the art of the copy, the relations between artistic practices and institutions. Based on a series of lectures given at Duke University in North Carolina, Poetics of Cinema develops an acerbically witty critique of the reigning codes of cinematographic narration, principally derived from the dramatic theories set forth by Aristotle’s Poetics and characterized by Ruiz as the “central-conflict theory.” Ruiz’s knowledge of theology, philosophy, literature and the visual arts never outstrips his imagination. Poetics of Cinema not only offers a singularly pertinent analysis of the seventh art, but also shows us an entirely new way of writing and thinking about images.” (Source)

Translated by Brian Holmes (I) and Carlos Morreo (II)
Publisher Dis Voir, Paris, 1995 & 2007
ISBN 2906571385, 9782906571389 (I), & 2914563256, 9782914563253 (II)
124 & 111 pages
via depositio

Reviews: Michael Goddard (Senses of Cinema, 2004), Acquarello (2007).

Publisher (I), (II)
WorldCat (I), (II)

Poetics of Cinema, 1: Miscellanies (English, 1995; removed on 2015-7-15 upon request of the publisher)
Poetics of Cinema, 2 (English, 2007; removed on 2015-7-12 upon request of the publisher)
Poética del cine (Spanish, trans. Waldo Rojas, 2000, 9 MB)

For more by and about Ruiz see Film Studies For Free.