Felicity Colman (ed.): Film, Theory, and Philosophy: The Key Thinkers (2009)

Thoroughly intertwined, film and philosophy have a complex relationship between thought and perception, time and memory, as well as social, political, and aesthetic experiences. Philosophy has underpinned the creation of cinema while cinema, in turn, has redefined philosophical categories, rethought sex, gender, time and space, and created new concepts that illuminate phenomenology, metaphysics, and epistemology.

An ideal introduction for students, Film, Theory and Philosophy brings together leading scholars to provide a clear, detailed overview of the key thinkers who have shaped the field of film philosophy. From continental philosophers to analytical philosophers, film-makers, film reviewers, sociologists, and cultural theorists, the essays reveal how philosophy can be applied to film analysis and how film can be used to illustrate philosophical problems. But most importantly, the essays explore how cinema has shaped contemporary philosophy and how philosophy has led to a reappraisal of film. This collection will prove an invaluable reference and guide to readers interested in a deeper understanding of the issues and insights presented by the philosophy of film.

Publisher McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2009
ISBN 0773537007, 9780773537002
Length 404 pages

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Fredric Jameson: The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings on the Postmodern, 1983-1998 (1998)

Fredric Jameson, a leading voice on the subject of postmodernism, assembles his most powerful writings on the culture of late capitalism in this essential volume. Classic insights on pastiche, nostalgia, and architecture stand alongside essays on the status of history, theory, Marxism, and the subject in an age propelled by finance capital and endless spectacle. Surveying the debates that blazed up around his earlier essays, Jameson responds to critics and maps out the theoretical positions of postmodernism’s prominent friends and foes.

Publisher Verso, 1998
ISBN 1859841821, 9781859841822
Length 206 pages

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Régis Debray: Media Manifestos: On the Technological Transmission of Cultural Forms (1996)

Media Manifestos sums up over a decade of Régis Debray’s research and writing on the evolution of systems of communication. Debray announces the battle-readiness of a new sub-discipline of the sciences humaines: “mediology.” Scion of that semiology of the sixties linked with the names of Roland Barthes and Umberto Eco — and trans-Atlantically affiliated to the semiotics of C.S. Peirce and the media analyses of Marshall McLuhan (“medium is message”) — “mediology” is yet in (dialectical) revolt against its parent thought-system. Determined not to lapse back into the empiricism and psychologism with which semiology broke, mediology is just as resolved to dispel the illusion of the signifier, slough off the scolasticism of the code, and recover the world — in all its mediatized materiality.

Written with Debray’s customary brio, Media Manifestos is no mere contribution to “media studies.” Steeped in the intellectual ethos of Althusser and Foucault, informed by the historical work of the Annales school, and yet plugged in to today’s audiovisual culture, Debray’s book turns a neologism (“mediology”) into a tool-kit with which to rethink the whole business of mediation.

Translated by Eric Rauth
Publisher Verso, 1996
ISBN 1859840876, 9781859840870
179 pages

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Kloaka 1-2 (2010) [Slovak]

Magazín experimentálnej a nekonvenčnej tvorby.

Editors: Michal Rehúš, Jakub Repický
Published by Literis, April 2010
Volume I
ISSN 1338-158X

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Nicolas Bourriaud: The Radicant (2009) [English/Spanish]

In his most recent essay, Nicolas Bourriaud claims that the time is ripe to reconstruct the modern for the specific context in which we are living. If modernism was a return to the origin of art or of society, to their purification with the aim of rediscovering their essence, then our own century’s modernity will be invented, precisely, in opposition to all radicalism, dismissing both the bad solution of re-enrooting in identities as well as the standardization of imaginations decreed by economic globalization.

To be radicant: it means setting one’s roots in motion, staging them in heterogeneous contexts and formats, denying them any value as origins, translating ideas, transcoding images, transplanting behaviors, exchanging rather than imposing. The author extends radicant thought to modes of cultural production, consumption and use. Looking at the world through the prism of art, he sketches a “world art criticism” in which works are in dialogue with the context in which they are produced.

Translated from the French by James Gussen and Lili Porten
Publisher: Sternberg Press, March 2009
ISBN 978-1-933128-42-9
192 pages

Traducción de Michele Guillemont
Buenos Aires: Adriana Hidalgo editora, 2009
Colección: “Los sentidos”
Subcolección: “Artes visuales”
ISBN: 978-987-1556-12-0
226 pags.

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Palo Fabuš: Laschova teorie narcistní kultury jako inspirace pro mediální studia (2009) [Czech]

Práce se pokouší představit teorii narcistní kultury amerického historika Christophera Lasche jakožto inspiraci pro mediální studia. Činí tak analýzou vybraných mediálních teorií autorů Jeana Baudrillarda, Joshuy Meyrowitze, Neila Postmana a dvojice Brian Longhurst a Nicholas Abercrombie. Malá pozornost, kterou tyto teorie venují roli mediálního publika je zde interpretována jako bílé místo, které by Laschova teorie mohla zaplnit modelem narcistní osobnostní struktury.

Lasch ve své historické studii kulturních proměn ve 20. století vychází z rozpadu rodiny způsobeného psychologizací společnosti, vlivem reklamy a nástupem byrokratického paternalismu, který nahradil původně rodičovské funkce. Rodí se tak narcistní osobnost vyznačující se vnitřním psychologickým motorem sebe-nenávist a nutkavou potrebou obklopovat se iluzemi všemohoucnosti, která se projevuje vyhledáváním spektáklu a stažením se do sebe. Inspirativnost této teorie pro mediální studia je tak představena v podobe užitečného modelu pro analýzu médií v paradigmatu aktivních publik.

Klíčová slova: narcismus, Lasch, postmodernita, média, komunikace, Já, survivalismus, psychoanalýza.

Diplomová práce
Masarykova Univerzita, Fakulta sociálních studií
Vedoucí práce: prof. PhDr. Jiří Pavelka, CSc.
Brno: FSS MU, 2009

Lasch’s narcissism culture theory as an inspiration for media studies
The thesis aims to introduce the narcissism culture theory of american historian Christopher Lasch as an inspiration for media studies. It does so by analysing selected media theories of Jean Baudrillard, Joshua Meyrowitz, Neil Postman and Brian Longhurst with Nicholas Abercrombie. Little attention these theories draw to the role of media audience is interpreted here as a gap, which could be potentially filled by Lasch’s theory with its model of narcissistic character.
In his historical study of culture changes in 20th century Lasch starts from the dissolution of family inflicted by psychologization of society, influence of advertising and emergence of bureaucratic paternalism substituting rearing function of parents. Through these processes comes birth of narcissistic personality, which can be distinguished by inner psychological drive of self-hate and compulsive need to surround him- or herself with illusion of omnipotence manifested through seeking out of spectacle and drawing within. The inspirative potential of the theory is thus introduced in a form of a useful model for a media analysis within the active audience paradigm.

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Robert Hassan, Julian Thomas (eds.): The New Media Theory Reader (2006)

The study of new media opens up some of the most fascinating issues in contemporary culture: questions of ownership and control over information and cultural goods; the changing experience of space and time; the political consequences of new communication technologies; and the power of users and consumers to disrupt established economic and business models. The New Media Theory Reader brings together key readings on new media ndash; what it is, where it came from, how it affects our lives, and how it is managed. Using work from media studies, cultural history and cultural studies, economics, law, and politics, the essays encourage readers to pay close attention to the ‘new’ in new media, as well as considering it as a historical phenomenon. The Reader features a general introduction as well as an editors’ introduction to each thematic section, and a useful summary of each reading. The New Media Theory Reader is an indispensable text for students on new media, technology, sociology and media studies courses. Essays by: Andrew Barry, Benjamin R Barber, James Boyle, James Carey, Benjamin Compaine, Noam Cook, Andrew Graham, Nicola Green, Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Ian Hunter, Kevin Kelly, Heejin Lee, Lawrence Lessig, Jonathan Liebenau, Jessica Litman, Lev Manovich, Michael Marien Robert W. McChesney David E. Nye, Bruce M Owen Lyman Ray Patterson, Kevin Robins, Ithiel de Sola Pool, David Saunders, Richard Stallman, Cass R. Sunstein, Jeremy Stein, McKenzie Wark, Frank Webster, Dugald Williamson.

Publisher    McGraw-Hill International, 2006
ISBN    0335217109, 9780335217106
Length    326 pages

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Culture Machine journal 1-11 (1999-2010)

Culture Machine is an international open-access journal of culture and theory, founded in 1999. Its aim is to be to cultural studies and cultural theory what ‘fundamental research’ is to the natural sciences: open-ended, non-goal orientated, exploratory and experimental. All contributions to the journal are peer-reviewed.

Vol 11 (2010): Creative Media
Vol 10 (2009): Pirate Philosophy
Vol 9 (2007): Recordings
Vol 8 (2006): Community
Vol 7 (2005): Biopolitics
Vol 6 (2004): Deconstruction is/in Cultural Studies
Vol 5 (2003): The E-Issue
Vol 4 (2002): The Ethico-Political Issue
Vol 3 (2001): Virologies: Culture and Contamination
Vol 2 (2000): The University Culture Machine
Vol 1 (1999): Taking Risks With The Future

Editors: Dave Boothroyd, Gary Hall, Joanna Zylinska
Part of Open Humanities Press
ISSN 1465-4121

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Noël Carroll (ed.): Theories of Art Today (2000)

What is art? The contributors to Theories of Art Today address the assertion that the term “art” no longer holds meaning. They explore a variety of issues including: aesthetic and institutional theories of art, feminist perspectives on the philosophy of art, the question of whether art is a cluster concept, and the relevance of tribal art to philosophical aesthetics. Contributors to this book include such distinguished philosophers and historians as Arthur Danto, Joseph Margolis, and George Dickie.

Publisher Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2000
ISBN 0299163547, 9780299163549
Length 268 pages

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Frank Webster: Theories of the Information Society, 3rd ed. (2006)

Coping in an era of information flows, of virtual relationships and breakneck change poses challenges to one and all.

In Theories of the Information Society Frank Webster makes sense of the information explosion, taking a sceptical look at what thinkers mean when they refer to the ‘Information Society’ and critically examines the major post-war theories and approaches to informational development. This third edition brings the book right up to date with both new theoretical work and, social and technological changes (such as the rapid growth of the Internet and accelerated globalization), reassessing the work of key theorists in light of these changes.

This book is essential reading for students of contemporary social theory and anybody interested in social and technological change in the post-war era. It addresses issues of central concern to students of sociology, politics, communications, information science, cultural studies, computing and librarianship.

Edition: 3
Published by: Routledge, 2006
ISBN: 978-0-415-40633-8
Pages: 312

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Chris Murray (ed.): Key Writers on Art: The Twentieth Century (2003)

Key Writers on Art: The Twentieth Century offers a unique and authoritative guide to modern responses to art. Featuring 48 essays on the most important twentieth century writers and thinkers and written by an international panel of expert contributors, it introduces readers to key approaches and analytical tools used in the study of contemporary art. It discusses writers such as Adorno, Barthes, Benjamin, Freud, Greenberg, Heuser, Kristeva, Merleau-Ponty, Pollock, Read and Sontag.

Publisher Routledge, 2003
ISBN 041522201X, 9780415222013
Length 314 pages

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Angharad N. Valdivia (ed.): A Companion to Media Studies (2005)

A Companion to Media Studies is a comprehensive collection that brings together new writings by some of the most respected canonical and contemporary media studies scholars to provide an overview of the theories and methodologies that have produced this most interdisciplinary of fields.

* Brings together new writings by some of the most respected canonical and contemporary media studies scholars in the most comprehensive collection on media studies to date.
* Tackles a variety of central concepts and controversies, organized into six areas of study: foundations, production, media content, media audiences, effects, and futures.
* Provides an accessible point of entry into this expansive and interdisciplinary field.
* Includes the writings of renowned media scholars, including McQuail, Schiller, Gallagher, Wartella, and Bryant.

Publisher Wiley-Blackwell, 2005
ISBN 1405141743, 9781405141741
Length 590 pages

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Gary Hall: Digitize This Book! The Politics of New Media, or Why We Need Open Access Now (2008)

In the sciences, the merits and ramifications of open access—the electronic publishing model that gives readers free, irrevocable, worldwide, and perpetual access to research—have been vigorously debated. Open access is now increasingly proposed as a valid means of both disseminating knowledge and career advancement. In Digitize This Book! Gary Hall presents a timely and ambitious polemic on the potential that open access publishing has to transform both “papercentric” humanities scholarship and the institution of the university itself.

Hall, a pioneer in open access publishing in the humanities, explores the new possibilities that digital media have for creatively and productively blurring the boundaries that separate not just disciplinary fields but also authors from readers. Hall focuses specifically on how open access publishing and archiving can revitalize the field of cultural studies by making it easier to rethink academia and its institutions. At the same time, by unsettling the processes and categories of scholarship, open access raises broader questions about the role of the university as a whole, forcefully challenging both its established identity as an elite ivory tower and its more recent reinvention under the tenets of neoliberalism as knowledge factory and profit center.

Rigorously interrogating the intellectual, political, and ethical implications of open access, Digitize This Book! is a radical call for democratizing access to knowledge and transforming the structures of academic and institutional authority and legitimacy.

Publisher U of Minnesota Press, 2008
ISBN 0816648719, 9780816648719
Length 301 pages

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Terry Harpold: Ex-foliations: Reading Machines and the Upgrade Path (2008)

“Every reading is, strictly speaking, unrepeatable; something in it, of it, will vary. Recollections of reading accumulate in relation to this iterable specificity; each takes its predecessors as its foundation, each inflects them with its backward-looking futurity.” In Ex-foliations, Terry Harpold investigates paradoxes of reading’s backward glances in the theory and literature of the digital field.

In original analyses of Vannevar Bush’s Memex and Ted Nelson’s Xanadu, and in innovative readings of early hypertext fictions by Michael Joyce and Shelley Jackson, Harpold asserts that we should return to these landmarks of new media scholarship with newly focused attention on questions of media obsolescence, changing user interface designs, and the mutability of reading.

In these reading machines, Harpold proposes, we may detect traits of an unreadable surface—the real limit of the machines’ operations and of the reader’s memories—on which text and image are projected in the late age of print.

Publisher U of Minnesota Press, 2008
ISBN 0816651027, 9780816651023
Length 368 pages

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Rasheed Araeen, Sean Cubitt, Ziauddin Sardar (eds.): Third Text Reader on Art, Culture and Theory (2002)

Third Text has been the world’s leading journal on art in the global context. Known for challenging received notions of art practice, art history, popular media and cultural theory, it has never accepted unquestioningly the claims of anti-racism, multiculturalism or postcolonialism. Similarly, Third Text has not only championed new artists from six continents, it has raised the critical temperature and the political stakes for art and cultural practice in the age of globalization. This Reader brings together classic essays by some of the best-known critics in global art and cultural studies, together with some of the most exciting new voices to emerge over the last decades. Divided into sections that cover history, representation, identity, film, “post” theory, globalization, the Reader will be invaluable to students and teachers of art, cultural studies, media studies, postcolonialism and globalization.
Selected contributors: Zygmunt Bauman, Rustom Bharucha, Zeynap ¦elik, James Clifford, Sean Cubitt, Jimmie Durham, Clifford Geertz, Stuart Hall, Kobener Mercer, Benita Parry, George Ritzer, Edward Said, Ziauddin Sardar, Julian Stallabrass, Slavoj Zizek

Publisher Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002
ISBN 0826458513, 9780826458513
Length 392 pages

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