The End of Art Theory: Criticism and Postmodernity (Communications and Culture)

'Art theory', understood as those forms of aesthetics, art history and criticism which began in the Enlightenment and culminated in 'high modernism', is now at an end. These essays, examining the interdependencies of advertising, film, painting and photography, constitute a call for a 'new art theory' - a practice of writing whose end is to contribute to a general 'theory of representations': an understanding of the  modes and means of symbolic articulation of our forms of sociality and subjectivity.

Burgin, Victor

Arts & Photography

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

Art theory', understood as those forms of aesthetics, art history and criticism which began in the Enlightenment and culminated in 'high modernism', is now at an end. These essays, examining the interdependencies of advertising, film, painting and photography, constitute a call for a 'new art theory' - a practice of writing whose end is to contribute to a general 'theory of representations': an understanding of the modes and means of symbolic articulation of our forms of sociality and subjectivity.

The End of Art Theory (Communications and Culture, 12)

Reference

Red Globe Press

Art theory', understood as those forms of aesthetics, art history and criticism which began in the Enlightenment and culminated in 'high modernism', is now at an end. These essays, examining the interdependencies of advertising, film, painting and photography, constitute a call for a 'new art theory' - a practice of writing whose end is to contribute to a general 'theory of representations': an understanding of the modes and means of symbolic articulation of our forms of sociality and subjectivity.

Humanities Pr

The End of Art Theory

Prometheus+books

Do we live in the real world? Rather than dismissing fantasy as a mere supplement to reality, the authors stress the "physical reality" of fantasy in shaping our perceptions, beliefs and behaviour.

Formations of Fantasy

DONALD, JAMES

Literature & Fiction

Routledge

In/Different Spaces: Place and Memory in Visual Culture

Recent discussions about the culture of images have focused on issues of identity—sexual, racial, national—and the boundaries that define subjectivity. In this context Victor Burgin adopts an original critical strategy. He understands images less in traditional terms of the specific institutions that produce them, such as cinema, photography, advertising, and television, and more as hybrid mental constructs composed of fragments derived from the heterogeneous sources that together constitute the "media." Through deft analyses of a photograph by Helmut Newton, Parisian cityscapes, the space of the department store, a film by Ousmane Sembéne, and the writings of Henri Lefebvre, Andrè Breton, and Roland Barthes, Burgin develops an incisive theory of our culture of images and spectacle. In/Different Spaces explores the construction of identities in the psychical space between perception and consciousness, drawing upon psychoanalytic theories to describe the constitution and maintenance of "self" and "us"—in imaginary spatial and temporal relations to "other" and "them"—through the all-important relay of images. For Burgin, the image is never a transparent representation of the world but rather a principal player on the stage of history.

History & Criticism

University of California Press

Recent discussions about the culture of images have focused on issues of identity―sexual, racial, national―and the boundaries that define subjectivity. In this context Victor Burgin adopts an original critical strategy. He understands images less in traditional terms of the specific institutions that produce them, such as cinema, photography, advertising, and television, and more as hybrid mental constructs composed of fragments derived from the heterogeneous sources that together constitute the "media." Through deft analyses of a photograph by Helmut Newton, Parisian cityscapes, the space of the department store, a film by Ousmane Sembéne, and the writings of Henri Lefebvre, Andrè Breton, and Roland Barthes, Burgin develops an incisive theory of our culture of images and spectacle. In/Different Spaces explores the construction of identities in the psychical space between perception and consciousness, drawing upon psychoanalytic theories to describe the constitution and maintenance of "self" and "us"―in imaginary spatial and temporal relations to "other" and "them"―through the all-important relay of images. For Burgin, the image is never a transparent representation of the world but rather a principal player on the stage of history.

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

At once poetic and provocative, Victor Burgin's Some Cities deftly juxtaposes photographs and texts in a manner that invites comparisons to the urban essays of filmmaker Chris Marker and cultural critic Walter Benjamin. Best known for his artistic exploration of the divergent realities of images and words, Burgin is a gifted practitioner of montage with an acute sensitivity to all that is vibrant, uncanny, and appealing in the contemporary metropolis. Some Cities collects thoughts, places, and photographs along a life route that has taken the author from the North of England to his present home in northern California. From the cherry blossoms in a Tokyo park, to the skyscrapers of Singapore, it presents a series of stunning close-ups of the multicultural character of the late twentieth-century metropole. The itinerary of his book includes stops in Berlin, Warsaw, Woomera, New York, and the islands of Stromboli and Tobago. A prime example of the "spatial turn" associated with contemporary cultural studies and postmodern theories of subjectivity, Some Cities is a tour-de-force of subtle wit and imagination that employs Burgin's visual and verbal skills in the project of creating a suitable artistic language for representing the complex and shifting realities of the metropolis. "Unlike the promises we make to each other," Burgin writes, "the promise of the city can never be broken."

Some Cities

Photography & Video

Surreal photographs accompany selections from the author's interviews, talks, and letters about art, criticism, and communication

Between

Blackwell Pub.

"Our relations with cities are like our relations with people. We love them, hate them, or are indifferent toward them. On our first day in a city that is new to us, we go looking for the city. We go down this street, around that corner. We are aware of the faces of passers-by. But the city eludes us, and we become uncertain whether we are looking for a city, or for a person."Victor Burgin recalls some of the cities he has known in a way familiar to all who have traveled, by showing photographs and telling anecdotes. Some Cities gathers places and moments along a life route that the author has taken from the north of England to his present home in northern California. Stops on the way include such disparate sites as London, Berlin and Warsaw; Singapore, Woomera and Tokyo; New York and San Francisco; and the islands of Stromboli and Tobago. Some Cities is unlike anything Burgin has ever done before, although it explores characteristic themes of his earlier theoretical and visual works, such as the dimensions of politics and sexuality in everyday life."Burgin traces his life's route from the north of England through such metropolises as London, Berlin, Singapore, Tokyo, New York and San Francisco in brilliant black and white photographs and in anecdotes presented in immaculate prose."—The Guardian"a witty, poignant and evocative personal travelogue"—The Independent on Sunday

Some Cities (Topographics)

Reaktion Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Burgin, Victor. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Burgin, Victor

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Burgin, Victor. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The End of Art Theory: Criticism and Postmodernity (Communications and Culture)

The End of Art Theory (Communications and Culture, 12)

The End of Art Theory: Criticism and Postmodernity (Communications and Culture)

The End of Art Theory

Formations of Fantasy

In/Different Spaces: Place and Memory in Visual Culture

In/Different Spaces: Place and Memory in Visual Culture

Some Cities

Between

Some Cities (Topographics)