Now that we are on the threshold of the Anthropocene epoch, how should humans envision and understand their place in the world? Do humans possess the necessary cultural tools to imagine new possibilities and relationships with the natural environment at a time when our material surroundings (the very system that supports us physically and spiritually) is under siege? To answer questions like th…
What is‘artistic research’? I say‘artistic research’. I could have used a number ofalternative names:‘art as research’,‘arts-based research’,‘creative research’,‘fine artresearch’,‘practice-based research’,‘practice-led research’and‘visual arts research’.It is by no means clear whether they all refer to exactly the same thing. I don’tpropose to identify how…
A monument stands in front of the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls National Basketball Association team. A 2,000-pound bronze statue features Michael Jordan in full flight, ready to slam dunk the ball, to the chagrin of cowering defenders. The front panel capsulizes the phenomenal athlete: “The best there ever was. The best there ever will be.” Jordan needs no introduction. He is am…
With the end of the Second World War the contours and the weighting of the continents and regions of the world map of art shifted massively. The division of Europe, the rise of the USA as a super power, the beginning of the Cold War and the world-wide triumph of Western capitalism did not fail to have an effect on the sphere of art. The rapid and lasting erosion of French hegemony in the a…
We want to use this document to share our way of thinking and doing things. We want to present our way of working, our way of understanding the factual universe that goes into thinking up and producing exhibitions on science and technology through this lexicon. We want to contribute towards raising awareness about a way of operating and understanding the world of exhibitions. We are making an e…
There are as many ways of looking at art as there are viewers of art. That huge diversity is one indication that we humans are highly distinctive lot of creative people. It does not mean, however that there are no universal principles of perception and cognition that apply to all of us as we view and appreciate art. This tutorial on art is presented in the spirit of trying to find general princ…
The majority of authors of Tarot books are content to describe and analyze the cards one by one without imagining the entire deck as a whole. However, the true study of each Arcanum begins with the consistent order of the entire Tarot; every detail, tiny as it may be, begins from the links that connect all seventy-eight cards. To understand these myriad symbols, one needs to have seen the final…
The study of signs, portents observed in the physical and social worlds indicating the will of supernatural agents and the course of future events, was undoubtedly important in all ancient cultures. The first written evidence for a concept of sign, however, comes from cuneiform texts of ancient Mesopotamia.
The ancient and mystic pack of cards called the Tarot never fails to evoke the curiosity of the uninitiated. “What are the Tarot cards?” “What makes them so different from our own playing cards?” “Can they really foretell the future?” “Can anyone learn how to read them?” This book is devoted to answering these and many other questions and to give the reader a knowledge of the Ta…
As the dominant narrative forms in the age of media convergence, films and games call for a transmedial perspective in narratology. Games allow a participatory reception of the story, bringing the transgression of the ontological boundary between the narrated world and the world of the recipient into focus. These diverse transgressions - medial and ontological - are the subject of this transdis…