François Laplantine: The Life of the Senses: Introduction to a Modal Anthropology (2005/2015)

“Both a vital theoretical work and a fine illustration of the principles and practice of sensory ethnography, this much anticipated translation is destined to figure as a major catalyst in the expanding field of sensory studies.

Drawing on his own fieldwork in Brazil and Japan and a wide range of philosophical, literary and cinematic sources, the author outlines his vision for a ‘modal anthropology’. François Laplantine challenges the primacy accorded to ‘sign’ and ‘structure’ in conventional social science research, and redirects attention to the tonalities and rhythmic intensities of different ways of living. Arguing that meaning, sensation and sociality cannot be considered separately, he calls for a ‘politics of the sensible’ and a complete reorientation of our habitual ways of understanding reality.”

First published as Le social et le sensible: introduction à une anthropologie modale, Téraèdre, Paris, 2005.

Translated by Jamie Furniss
With an Introduction by David Howes
Publisher Bloomsbury, London, 2015
Sensory Studies series, 1
ISBN 1472534808, 9781472534804
xviii+152 pages

Reviews: Claude Rivière (Recherches sociologiques et anthropologiques, 2006, FR), Fabien Pernet (Anthropologie et sociétés, 2006, FR), Georges Bertin (Esprit critique, 2009, FR).

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (updated on 2016-8-20)

More on François Laplantine and sensory ethnography.

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.

L. Moholy-Nagy: Vision in Motion (1947)

“This book is written for the artist and the layman, for everyone interested in his relationship to our existing civilization. It is an extension of my previous book, The New Vision. But while The New Vision gave mainly particulars about the educational methods of the old Bauhaus, Vision in Motion concentrates on the work of the Institute of Design, Chicago, and presents a broader, more general view of the interrelatedness of art and life.” (from the author’s foreword)

Publisher Paul Theobald, Chicago, 1947
371 pages

WorldCat

PDF (114 MB, no OCR)

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