[spectre] Daniels: Art as Trans-Mission. 2002 [+ website]

[Inke Arns]

[This book came out just a few days ago, for those who read German ... -
- with it comes a very intersting and rich website which could be 
interesting also for non German speakers .... ;))  Greetings, Inke]

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http://www.hgb-leipzig.de/daniels/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/daniels

Dieter Daniels :: Kunst als Sendung :: 2002 :: 315 Seiten :: 26 Abb. :: 
Klappenbroschur :: 28 =80 [D] :: sFr 47,10 :: 28,80 =80 [A] :: ISBN 3-406-=
 
49509-5


Dieter Daniels :: Art as Trans -Mission :: From telegraphy to the Internet

This book offers an historical overview of the intensive interactions 
between the parallel histories of art and the media, from the French 
Revolution to the present. Detailed analysis of several case studies 
substantiats the significance of artistic utopia and practice for the 
technological development of the media - from telegraphy and 
photography to radio, television and the Internet.

Facing the media globalization and the seemingly relentless momentum of 
the digitalization affecting all areas of our life, one could ask: Why art=
 in 
the age of the media? Isn't our aesthetic perception already totally forme=
d 
by the electronic mass media?

Such a dominance of technology is being advocated by those media 
theorists who claim that their field is determined by hard fact and theref=
ore 
leaves no space for questions about aesthetics. On the other hand, art 
historians feel unprepared for the invasion of the mass media, identifying=
 
them as the true heirs of the history of the arts but without understandin=
g 
their inner structure.

In contrast to these conflicting perspectives, the author shows that, in t=
he 
course of the past 200 years, the at the time most current media - from 
telegraphy to the internet - may have substituted various functions former=
ly 
exclusive to the arts. But he also illustrates, how art functioned as a 
stimulus for the progress of media technology, anticipating, in many cases=
, 
its impact. Modernity and the media often proofed to be the two sides of 
a medal.

With its interdisciplinary approach, this book reveals a surprising 
panorama of interferences for everyone who examines the histories of 
media and art with a critical curiosity: for the communications scientist =
as 
well as for the sociologist, for those who are interested in the technolog=
ical 
history as well as for the art historian and last but not least for the me=
dia 
artist.




Inke Arns
http://www.v2.nl/~arns