25 June 2015

American Neo-Noir

American Neo-Noir
American Neo-Noir: The Movie Never Ends, by Alain Silver and James Ursini, is a survey of the neo-noir sub-genre, from the 1960s onwards. The term 'neo-noir' was first coined by Todd Erickson; he is credited in the acknowledgements, though there are no footnotes or bibliography. Interestingly, although Silver and Ursini classify film noir as a style, they regard neo-noir as a genre: "film noir was never a genre but an American film movement that was defined by style as much as content... neo-noir is more genre than movement, a mimicking of the style and content of the classic period".

More than 500 films are discussed (listed in a comprehensive filmography), though the analysis of each film (even classics such as Chinatown) is limited to one or two paragraphs. Some very recent films are included (even some of this year's releases), and this immediacy may account for some of the typos and errors in the text. Co-writer Alain Silver also designed the book's layout, though he's a much better writer than a designer.

Silver and Ursini's Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference To The American Style included an extensive essay on neo-noir, and a truncated version appears in Film Noir: The Encyclopedia. Silver and Ursini have also co-authored Film Noir (edited by Paul Duncan), the Film Noir Reader series, and The Noir Style. They contributed to Film Noir: 100 All-Time Favorites, and recorded DVD commentaries for Call Northside 777, Boomerang!, and Panic In The Streets.

09 June 2015

Studies in the Horror Film
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, edited by Danel Olson, is the latest book in the Studies in the Horror Film series. Some chapters are reprints of previous articles (Kubrick interviewed by Michel Ciment, a 2009 Jack Nicholson interview from Empire magazine, and an extract from John Baxter's Kubrick biography), though there are also new interviews with members of the cast and crew.

The interviews were conducted by Olson, Justin Bozung, and Catriona McAvoy. The most revealing interviewees are those such as Joe Turkel and Emilio D'Alessandro, who have the longest associations with Kubrick. (In contrast, there are some superfluous interviews with extras.) McAvoy (who wrote an essay on The Shining in Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives) interviewed screenwriter Diane Johnson, and the chapter is illustrated with material from Johnson's archive.

The book includes several previously unpublished production photographs, supplied by Leon Vitali and Greg MacGillivray. Toy Story II co-director Lee Unkrich, one of The Shining's biggest fans, wrote the introduction. At 700 pages, it's certainly an extensive anthology of material on the making of the film. In fact, it's arguably a bit too long: a section reproducing fan-made posters is absolutely un-necessary, and should have been replaced with the alternative posters sketched by Saul Bass. There is no index.

Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives

Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives
Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives is an anthology of essays on Kubrick's films, edited by Peter Kramer (author of books on Dr Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey), Tatjana Ljujic, and Richard Daniels. Unlike previous Kubrick anthologies, such as Depth Of Field and Stanley Kubrick: Essays On His Films & Legacy, New Perspectives is illustrated with items from the Stanley Kubrick Archive.

There are individual chapters on all of Kubrick's films from Paths Of Glory to Eyes Wide Shut. Previous books (the Kubrick exhibition catalogue, The Stanley Kubrick Archives, Napoleon, The Making Of Stanley Kubrick's 2001, We'll Meet Again) have also included documents from the Kubrick Archive, though fortunately there is no duplication of this material in New Perspectives.

The book begins with essays on Kubrick's career as a photographer and director in New York. Philippe Mather (author of Stanley Kubrick At Look Magazine) discusses the stylistic influence of Kubrick's photography on his early films. Peter Kramer examines Kubrick's independent films and the Harris-Kubrick production partnership; his essay title quotes from Kubrick's 1964 contract stipulation: "I must have complete total final annihilating artistic control". An essay by Nathan Abrams on Kubrick's Jewish identity is less revealing, and it excludes Kubrick's proposed Holocaust film Aryan Papers.

The most successful chapters utilise script drafts and notes to construct production histories of the films in question. Fiona Radford shows that Kubrick's proposed revisions to Spartacus were not always to the film's advantage: "Although some might believe that Spartacus would have been a better film if Kubrick had been in charge, this is not necessarily the case." Karyn Stuckey reveals that Martin Russ contributed to the Lolita script, and that the film's prologue was written by Kubrick alone: "the entire sequence is written in Kubrick's hand". Catriona McAvoy's essay on The Shining benefits from her interviews with several of Kubrick's collaborators. Lucy Scholes and Richard Martin compare various drafts of the Eyes Wide Shut script.

There are also fascinating accounts of changes that Kubrick made after production was completed. Daniel Biltereyst analyses the censorship of Lolita, based on correspondence between Kubrick and John Trevelyan from the BBFC archive. Mick Broderick uses daily continuity reports from Dr Strangelove "to reconstitute filmed sequences that failed to make the final cut", providing a detailed guide to shots and dialogue from the cutting-room floor. (Broderick was one of the few researchers - the others being Jon Ronson and Bernd Eichhorn - to examine Kubrick's archives in situ at Childwickbury.)

Richard Daniels, who runs the Kubrick Archive, writes about the publicity campaign for Paths Of Glory, revealing that Kubrick was less involved than expected. He demonstrates that marketing decisions were made by James Harris rather than Kubrick, and that press releases did not highlight Kubrick's role in the film's production (in contrast to Kubrick's earlier films, which were largely self-promoted, as Peter Kramer notes in his first chapter).

Pratap Rughani discusses the ethics of war reportage with reference to Full Metal Jacket, noting Kubrick's concern that a Vietnamese perspective (however tokenistic) was missing from the film: "There should be a Vietnamese character to summarize the V. position. We totally lack a V. point of view." Karen A Ritzenhoff writes about the film's pre-production, reproducing a letter from Kubrick about Beckton Gas Works; Kubrick's annotations show his obsession with detail: "Indent 8 spaces... also the spaces between each line at present are not equal."

In other chapters, Robert Poole writes about the evolution of the 'Dawn of Man' sequence in 2001 (covered in more depth in Moonwatcher's Memoir by Dan Richter), Regina Peldszus discusses Kubrick's collaboration with NASA on 2001 (including his letter to Roger Caras), and Tatjana Ljujic examines the paintings that influenced Barry Lyndon. Peter Kramer writes a chapter on A Clockwork Orange (the subject of one of his previous books). Maria Pramaggiore's chapter on Barry Lyndon was adapted from her book Making Time In Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, though this is not indicated.

There are a couple of minor mistakes. A caption on page 115 refers to "Stanly Kubrick" [sic], and a line is missing from page 118. A letter is described on page 330 as "hand-written in ink", though it was clearly typed, as demonstrated by the illustration on the preceding page.

29 May 2015

“Police are investigating and preparing to take criminal action...”


Chosun Media

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be charged under the lèse-majesté law after he told a South Korean newspaper that privy councellors were behind the 2006 coup against him, and implied that they were also responsible for the 2014 coup against his sister, Yingluck. A short video clip from the interview was shared widely on social media this week. A lèse-majesté charge was filed against him today on behalf of army chief Udomdej Sitabutr, on the basis that privy councellors are advisors to the King, and that Thaksin was therefore implicating the monarch in politics.

Thaksin’s regular and diplomatic passports were both revoked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 27th May, in a preemptive decision pending a police investigation into lèse-majesté, defamation of the Privy Council, and violation of the Computer Crime Act. According to a statement from the ministry: “Police are investigating and preparing to take criminal action against him”. (Thaksin did not upload the video clip online himself, making a Computer Crime conviction unlikely.)

Thaksin’s comments to The Chosun Daily (조선일보) on 21st May were similar to previous interviews he has given. On 20th April 2009, he told the Financial Times that the Privy Council plotted the 2006 coup, and he said the same thing to Tom Plate in Conversations with Thaksin. He has also publicly accused Prem Tinsulanonda, Privy Council leader at the time, of being the mastermind behind the coup.

27 May 2015

Artforum

Artforum
The April issue of Artforum magazine includes The Innocence Of The Image, an article by Nasser Rabbat analysing historical depictions of Mohammed and the Islamic taboo against his representation. Several paintings of Mohammed are featured, in which his face is not veiled. "The most awe-inspiring image of an episode from the life of the Prophet", a manuscript illumination from 1436, is reproduced as a full-page image.

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20 May 2015

Googled

Googled
"The world has been Googled." Ken Auletta begins his analysis of Google and its influence with a long list of the company's operations: "Google's software initiatives encroach on every media industry, from telephone to television to advertising to newspapers to magazines to book publishers to Hollywood studios to digital companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, or eBay." Aueletta's book, Googled: The End Of The World As We Know It, was published in 2009, before other profiles of web companies such as The Everything Store (Amazon), The Facebook Effect, and Hatching Twitter. (The 2010 paperback edition includes a new afterword.)

Far more than a search engine, Google is arguably a more powerful software company than Microsoft. Auletta interviewed co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, though they took some persuading: "After months of my kicking at the door, they opened it." And Auletta remains ambivalent about the company's ultimate impact: "I came away from two and a half years of reporting on Google believing that its leaders genuinely want to make the world a better place. But they are in business to make money. Making money is not a dirty goal; nor is it a philanthropic activity. Any company with Google's power needs to be scrutinized."

The Search

The Search
The Search: How Google & Its Rivals Rewrote The Rules Of Business & Transformed Our Culture examines the search engines that were developed in the 1990s to navigate the world wide web, and how Google became effectively the last search engine standing. Author John Battelle, one of the co-founders of Wired magazine, interviewed Google's co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

The first big name in search was not Google, but AltaVista, which had the largest index of web pages at that time: "AltaVista was the Google of its era. In 1996, it was arguably the best and most-loved brand on the Web. It presaged many of the current innovations and opportunities in search, from automatic language translation to audio and video search".

The Search was published in 2005 (with an updated paperback edition in 2006), before YouTube, Android, or Chrome, though Battelle predicted Google's continued diversification: "Google as phone company? As cable provider? As university? As eBay, Amazon, Microsoft, Expedia, and Yahoo all rolled into one? It is conceivable; and that, in the end, is what makes the company - and search, the application that spawned it - so fascinating."

18 May 2015

Michelangelo: Complete Works

Michelangelo: Complete Works
Michelangelo: Complete Works
Michelangelo: Complete Works, written by Frank Zollner, Thomas Popper, and Christof Thoenes, is a catalogue raisonne of Michelangelo's paintings, sculptures, architecture, and drawings (including drawings whose attribution is unclear). Like Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings & Drawings, it was published by Taschen in an extra-large format, and has now been reprinted as a slightly smaller folio in a slipcase (which folds into a book stand.)

The new edition (translated from Michelangelo: Das Vollstandige Werk) has several revised prefaces, and its colour reproduction has been enhanced. Michelangelo's paintings look particularly stunning, and there are several fold-out pages of panels from the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The accompanying text is extremely thorough; there is a detailed bibliography, and "the full breadth of the extensive literature is referenced and analysed" in every chapter. As the book was reissued last year, it doesn't include the two bronze panther sculptures attributed to Michelangelo earlier this year. (The Torment of St Anthony, attributed to Michelangelo in 2009, is also missing.) "This is the definitive work about Michelangelo for generations to come", according to the blurb, and that claim is probably justified.

Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519:
The Complete Paintings & Drawings

Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings & Drawings
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519: The Complete Paintings & Drawings, written by Frank Zollner and Johannes Nathan, has been republished by Taschen in a single-volume folio edition with a slipcase (which folds into a book stand). It was originally published in a slightly larger format, and subsequently reissued in two smaller volumes (The Complete Paintings and The Graphic Work, the latter also available separately and with the alternate title Sketches & Drawings).

The book's title is misleading, as its collection of 663 Leonardo drawings is incomplete, though the selection is still impressive. (It was also released with the alternate title Paintings, Sketches, & Drawings.) Most of the drawings are from the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. The book (translated from Leonardo da Vinci: Samtliche, Gemalde, & Zeichnungen) also includes a catalogue raisonne of Leonardo's paintings and a new chapter on his codices.

14 May 2015

The 2nd Silent Film Festival In Thailand

The 2nd Silent Film Festival In Thailand
Blackmail
The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari
Man With A Movie Camera
After the successful inaugural Silent Film Festival last year, the 2nd Silent Film Festival In Thailand will take place next month. The Festival will open on 10th June in Bangkok, and will close on 17th June.

Last year's event included several films by Alfred Hitchcock, and his first sound film, Blackmail, will be screened this year (on 12th and 14th June). Blackmail was intended as a silent film, though during production Hitchcock was given the opportunity to add spoken dialogue. Because of actress Anny Ondra's Czech accent, her dialogue was spoken by Joan Barry while Ondra mouthed the words, a situation that was later parodied in Singin' In The Rain.

This year's Festival includes two of the greatest silent films ever made: The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (10th and 15th June) and Man With A Movie Camera (13th and 16th June). The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari is the Festival's opening film; it will be shown at Lido, as will Man With A Movie Camera, Blackmail, and six other films. The closing film will be screened at Scala. All screenings will include live piano accompaniment. All films will be screened as DCPs, except Man With A Movie Camera, which will be shown on blu-ray.

The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari, directed by Robert Weine, was the first German Expressionist film, and one of the earliest examples of avant-garde cinema. Caligari's painted scenery and stylised performances create a distorted and appropriately hallucinatory atmosphere. Dziga Vertov's equally experimental Man With A Movie Camera is a 'city symphony' documentary about everyday life in Moscow, using techniques such as split-screen, double-exposure, trick editing, stop-motion, and freeze-frames to constantly remind the audience of the camera's presence.

09 May 2015

Muhammad Cartoon Contest

Muhammad Cartoon Contest
Today's edition of the International New York Times features an editorial cartoon by Patrick Chappatte, commenting on the recent attack on the Muhammad Art Exhibit in Florida. The cartoon depicts sketches of Mohammed being judged by Pamela Geller and other members of the American Freedom Defense Initiative.

One of the sketches shows Mohammed as a stick figure, as in a 2010 episode of South Park. This is Chappatte's third Mohammed cartoon. He previously drew Mohammed in a 2006 cartoon, after the Jyllands-Posten controversy; and in a 2012 cartoon, he drew a miniature reproduction of Charlie Hebdo's Mohammed caricatures.

07 May 2015

ASTV Manager Daily

สุขุมพันธุ์ระดมสาวพรหมจรรย์ปักตะไคร้ไล่ฝน
สุขุมพันธุ์ระดมสาวพรหมจรรย์ปักตะไคร้ไล่ฝน
Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the Governor of Bangkok, has brought a libel action against the ASTV Manager Daily newspaper following an article it printed in yesterday's edition. One of Sukhumbhand's staff filed a complaint on his behalf at a police station in Bangkok today. The article in question is from Manager's satirical Pjkkuan section, which contains parodies and fictitious news stories.

Headlined สุขุมพันธุ์ระดมสาวพรหมจรรย์ปักตะไคร้ไล่ฝน, the article claimed that Sukhumbhand had instructed virgin Bangkok women to plant lemongrass herbs, as this could prevent rain according to a Thai superstition. (Sukhumbhand was criticised in 2011 after Bangkok was affected by severe floods, and earlier this year he joked that anyone who wanted to avoid further flooding should move to live on a mountain.)

Manager is owned by Sondhi Limthongkul, the leader of the PAD who organised street protests against Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006, intentionally provoking the military into staging a coup. Thaksin successfully sued Manager for libel in 2009, following its series of unsubstantiated articles about a 'Finland Plot', and Sondhi has been convicted of libelling Thaksin and his lawyer.

Sondhi has mysteriously avoided jail despite numerous prosecutions and convictions. He led illegal occupations of Government House and Suvarnabhumi airport in 2008, yet the case against him is still pending. In 2013, he was found guilty of lèse-majesté and sentenced to two years in prison; uniquely in a lèse-majesté case, he was granted bail and was not jailed despite the guilty verdict. In 2012, he was convicted after pleading guilty to a ฿1 billion bank fraud; he received a twenty-year sentence, though he served only eighteen days in jail before being released on bail.

06 May 2015

Vangardist


Vangardist

This month, two magazines, Audio Kultur and Vangardist, have both been printed with blood. Audio Kultur, a Lebanese music magazine, commemorated the centenary of the Medz Yeghern genocide in Armenia by infusing its red ink with the blood of five donors.

Vangardist’s third issue has been printed with red ink mixed with the blood of three HIV+ donors, in an effort to destigmatise the AIDS virus. (The ratio is one part blood to twenty-eight parts ink.) The magazine is available in a limited edition of 2,500 copies; each one is sealed in a Mylar wrapper (like Madonna’s Sex book), and the blood has been sterilised to prevent infection. The cover declares: “THIS MAGAZINE HAS BEEN PRINTED WITH THE BLOOD OF HIV+ PEOPLE”.

The art installation Happy Hour (1998) by Fernando Arias also used HIV+ blood to destigmatise AIDS; Arias placed the infected blood in a sealed cocktail glass. Also, Geoffrey Robertson wrote in his memoir The Justice Game (1998) that, as a director of the ICA, he cancelled an appearance by “an HIV-positive performance artist whose idea of attaining empathy with his audience was to splatter them with infected blood (his own).”

Audio Kultur

Audio Kultur
Audio Kultur
This month, two magazines have both been printed with blood. Lebanese music magazine Audio Kultur and Austrian gay magazine Vangardist used red ink infused with blood to print their current issues. The blood used to print Vangardist came from three HIV+ donors, in an attempt to destigmatise the AIDS virus.

Audio Kultur has used ink mixed with the blood of five donors to print its twelfth issue, commemorating the centenary of the Medz Yeghern genocide in Armenia. The back page lists those who "gave their blood for the printing of this magazine... literally." Fifty posters promoting an event marking the anniversary were also printed using the same mixture of ink and blood. (In 1972, Artist Carolee Schneemann's book Parts of a Body House included a piece of tissue paper stained with her menstural blood, titled Blood Work.)

04 May 2015

Muhammad Art Exhibit & Contest

Muhammad Art Exhibit & Contest
Two gunmen have been killed at an exhibition of Mohammed pictures in North Garland, Texas. The two men opened fire outside the Curtis Culwell Center, though they were both shot dead by police. The attack took place at the venue of the Muhammad Art Exhibit & Contest, an event organised by the anti-Islamic American Freedom Defense Initiative, which included a presentation by Fitna director Geert Wilders.

This is the third attack related to Mohammed images this year: there was a shooting at a cafe in Copenhagen in February, and a dozen people, including several Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, were killed in Paris in January. The Jyllands-Posten caricatures of Mohammed, and Charlie Hebdo's first Mohammed cover, were reprinted by the French magazine L'Obs on 16th April.

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01 May 2015

Peace TV

Peace Special
NBTC
NBTC
NBTC
Peace TV, a television station operated by the red-shirt UDD, had its broadcasting licence revoked by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission on Monday, after the NBTC accused it of broadcasting material likely to cause political conflict. Its signal was cut last night, and now only colour bars are being transmitted. Peace TV's licence had already been suspended for seven days on 10th April. The following day, another red-shirt station, TV24, also had its licence suspended for a week.

On Wednesday night, a group of soldiers and police officers raided Peace TV's offices, ordering it to stop transmitting the discussion programme Peace Special featuring former prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh. The authorities were seemingly unaware that Peace Special was a repeat, and that it had already been broadcast live that morning. (The programme's title originally appeared on screen as "Peace Spacial" [sic], though this was corrected after the first thirty minutes.)

24 April 2015

Bangsaen Rama

Bangsaen Rama
Boundary
A screening of Nontawat Numbenchapol's documentary Boundary has been cancelled after military intervention. Students at Burapha University in Chonburi had planned to show it today, as part of their Bangsaen Rama film festival, though they were contacted by the military and told to withdraw the film as it was considered too politically sensitive.

21 April 2015

The Worldwide History Of Dress

The Worldwide History Of Dress
There have been many histories of costume, though The Worldwide History Of Dress (published by Thames & Hudson) is the first truly comprehensive example ("destined to be the standard reference work on the subject", according to the blurb). Patricia Rieff Anawalt's book covers traditional clothing, jewellery, and other forms of adornment, across all geographical regions from pre-historic times onwards. There are 1,000 illustrations, almost all of which are in colour, plus an extensive bibliography.

Le Costume Historique (1876-1888), by Auguste Racinet, was the first attempt at a complete costume history, though its illustrations were all engravings. Millia Davenport's The Book Of Costume (two volumes; 1948) and Francois Boucher's 20,000 Years Of Fashion (updated in 1987) were the most extensive costume histories thus far, though (like most books on the subject) their coverage was restricted to Western dress. The three-volume Encyclopedia Of Clothing & Fashion (edited by Valerie Steele) is as comprehensive as Anawalt's book, arranged in an A-Z format.

The Facebook Effect

The Facebook Effect
The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story Of The Company That Is Connecting The World is an authorised account of the exponential growth of Facebook, the first social network with more than a billion users. Author David Kirkpatrick interviewed Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and the book is similar to other profiles of Silicon Valley companies: Googled, Hatching Twitter, Steve Jobs and Becoming Steve Jobs (Apple), and The Everything Store (Amazon).

Kirkpatrick describes Facebook's impact as "a set of phenomena I call the Facebook Effect. As a fundamentally new form of communication, Facebook leads to fundamentally new interpersonal and social effects. The Facebook Effect happens when the service puts people in touch with each other, often unexpectedly, about a common experience, interest problem, or cause."

Replay:
The History of Video Games


Replay

Replay, by Tristan Donovan, is more comprehensive than previous histories of video games (a catch-all term for arcade, console, and computer games). It received superlative reviews from computing magazines such as Wired and Edge when it was published in 2010.

The author begins by quoting one of his interviewees, who asks him why he is writing yet another book on the history of video games. Donovan’s answer is: “attempts at writing the history of video games to date have been US rather than global histories. In Replay: The History of Video Games, I hope to redress the balance, giving the US its due without neglecting the important influence of video games developed in Japan, Europe, and elsewhere.”

Replay does indeed have more international coverage than earlier books on the subject; it even includes an overview of South Korea’s online gaming industry. Also, this is a book about entertainment rather than technology: “I wanted to write a history of video games as an art form rather than as a business product.” A detailed ‘gameography’ provides a taxonomy and chronology of influential games such as Spacewar!, Pong, Space Invaders (“an iconic moment in video game history”), and Doom (“One of the most significant video games ever made”).

Leonard Herman’s Phoenix was the first book on the history of video games, published in 1994. Steven Poole (author of Unspeak) wrote the excellent Trigger Happy in 2000, analysing the aesthetics of video games. Also in 2000, Channel 4 broadcast the documentary Thumb Candy, presented by Iain Lee and directed by James Bobin.

20 April 2015

Penjing

Penjing
Penjing, a form of Chinese horticulture that dates from the Han dynasty, is "a living art form using miniature trees grown in containers (pots or trays), along with shaped rockeries and other materials, to create aesthetic representations of natural landscapes." Penjing: The Chinese Art Of Bonsai - A Pictorial Exploration Of Its History, Aesthetics, Styles, & Preservation is the most authoritative English-language guide to penjing.

Author Zhao Qingquan is also a penjing artist, and many of his own works are reproduced, though there's also a historical section illustrated with depictions of penjing from Chinese paintings. The book also includes a taxonomy of the three categories of penjing: 'shumu' (tree), 'shanshui' (landscape), and 'shuihan' (water and land).

Each of the three styles of penjing has an equivalent in Japan: the Japanese art of bonsai was influenced by shumu penjing, saikei resembles shuihan penjing, and bonkei is similar to shanshui penjing. Shuihan penjing also influenced Vietnamese hon non bo. (Another Chinese art form, the scholar's stones known as gongshi, inspired the similar Japanese suiseki and Korean suseok.)

10 April 2015

Design Of The 20th Century

Design Of The 20th Century
Design Of The 20th Century
Design Of The 20th Century, by Charlotte and Peter Fiell, was first published by Taschen in 1999. It was reprinted in 2005, and again in 2012, though the changes were minimal: dates were added for the designers who had died since the initial publication. The 2012 reprint has a particularly striking cover: the Eames LCW chair photographed against a plain blue background.

The book is a comprehensive guide to 20th century design, with alphabetical entries covering designers (including Dieter Rams and Charles and Ray Eames), companies (such as Braun and Sony), and design movements (Art Deco, Bauhaus, etc.). There are at least 1,000 illustrations, and all aspects of design are included: products, decorative arts, and graphics. The only drawback is that it hasn't been updated to cover designs of the last few years of the century, such as Jony Ive's Apple iMac.

Charlotte and Peter Fiell also wrote Industrial Design A-Z and The Story Of Design. The Design Encyclopedia, by Mel Byars, is the most comprehensive A-Z design guide, and The Penguin Dictionary of Design & Designers, by Simon Jervis, is also useful. History Of Design, by Pat Kirkham and Susan Weber, surveys the history of design since 1400. History Of Modern Design, by David Raizman, covers design since the Industrial Revolution. The Art Of Things, by Dominique Forest, is a history of product design since 1945. A History Of Industrial Design, by Edward Lucie Smith, is a slightly dated introduction to industrial design. Phaidon has published two visual histories of product design: the three-volume Phaidon Design Classics and the concise The Design Book.

Architecture In The 20th Century

Architecture In The 20th Century Architecture In The 20th Century
Architecture In The 20th Century
The second edition of Architecture In The 20th Century was published by Taschen in 2005, in two volumes with a slipcase. Written by Peter Gossel and Gabriele Leuthauser, it's more accessible than William JR Curtis's Modern Architecture Since 1900, though Curtis's book is more comprehensive.

The book is organised in broadly chronological order, and begins with 19th century iron structures such as the Eiffel Tower, followed by the skyscrapers of Chicago and New York. The century's greatest architects - Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - all receive extensive coverage. Some of the century's most iconic buildings (the Chrysler Building in Chicago, the Bauhaus Building in Dessau, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Congress Building in Brasilia) are included, though not the Sydney Opera House.

Some of the 'isms' of modern architecture are missing, notably Russian Constructivism (Vladimir Tatlin's proposed tower in St Petersberg) and Japanese Metabolism (Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo). An appendix features biographies of major architects, though it's a bit too selective. Oscar Niemeyer, for example, was one of the key Modernist architects, yet he has no biography here. Also, the book has no bibliography or references.

The second edition was reprinted, in a single volume, in 2012. There were no changes to the book's main chapters (which were updated in 2005), though the biographies were revised to indicate the deaths of architects such as Kenzo Tange. The reprint had a much improved cover: the bold, black text on the white spine resembles that of A World History Of Art, and the back cover features a stunning photograph of the Chrysler Building.

Taschen's Modern Architecture A-Z (also co-written by Peter Gossel) is a more comprehensive guide to modern architects and buildings. A World History Of Architecture, published by Laurence King, is a recent survey of architectural history, though Banister Fletcher's A History Of Architecture is the classic and definitive book on the subject.

09 April 2015

The Pot Book

The Pot Book
The Pot Book, published by Phaidon, features 300 large (almost full-page) colour photographs of various ceramic vessels dating from the past 5,000 years, arranged alphabetically by their potters. It largely follows the same format as Phaidon's The Art Book, The 20th Century Art Book, The Fashion Book, The Photography Book, and The Design Book, though it improves on them in two respects: its entries were selected by a single expert (Edmund de Waal, author of 20th Century Ceramics), and it includes entries for artistic styles in addition to individual artists.

The 300 objects are depicted in exceptional detail, though their locations are not identified and there is no bibliography. Phaidon claims that "The Pot Book is the first publication to document the extraordinary range and variety of ceramic vessels of all periods." However, several comprehensive histories of ceramics have been published previously. Edward Dillon's book Porcelain, from the excellent Connoisseur's Library series, appeared in 1904. The Book Of Pottery & Porcelain (1944), by Warren E Cox, is a two-volume history of pottery, though it also has no bibliography and its illustrations are all black-and-white. Emmanuel Cooper's 10,000 Years Of Pottery (1972) is the best modern history of ceramics. The Dictionary Of World Pottery & Porcelain, by Louise Ade Boger, is a comprehensive reference work.

The Art Book

The Art Book
The Art Book is "an A-Z guide to the greatest painters, photographers and sculptors from medieval times to the present day." It was first published by Phaidon in 1994, and was followed by The 21st Century Art Book, The Photography Book, The Design Book, The Fashion Book, and The Pot Book, also from Phaidon. A second edition of The Art Book was published in 2012.

The book features over 500 artists, each represented by a large illustration of a single work. Some of the world's most iconic artworks are included: the Mona Lisa (Leonardo), Las Meninas (Velazquez), The Treachery Of Images (Magritte), and Fountain (Duchamp). Surprisingly, though, there are some notable omissions: Michelangelo is represented by his Pieta rather than David, an alternate Hokusai woodcut of Mount Fuji is included instead of The Great Wave, and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is omitted in favour of his Weeping Woman. In the Chinese-language edition, Ai Weiwei has been replaced by Agostino di Duccio.

Phaidon's Art In Time and The Art Museum are also profusely illustrated art histories. The Story Of Art, by EH Gombrich, is the most influential history of art. A World History Of Art, by John Fleming and Hugh Honour, is the most comprehensive single-volume survey available.

The Photography Book

The Photography Book
The Photography Book, written by Ian Jeffrey, was first published in 1997, providing a collection of 500 significant photographs arranged alphabetically by photographer. It was the first such A-Z guide to photography, and it followed the same format as The Art Book and The 20th Century Art Book. The Design Book, The Fashion Book, and The Pot Book - also published Phaidon - have the same format.

A second edition of The Photography Book was published last year. Reproducing so many classic photographs in a single book remains a remarkable achievement, and The Photography Book is still the world's greatest photo album. Plenty of iconic images are included: the execution of a Vietcong prisoner (photographed by Eddie Adams), Buzz Aldrin on the moon (by Neil Armstrong), Dovima posing with two elephants (by Richard Avedon), the death of a Spanish Civil War soldier (by Robert Capa), a man leaping into a puddle (by Henri Cartier-Bresson), Milk Drop Coronet (by Harold Edgerton), and Vietnamese children after a napalm attack (by Nick Út).

The book also features a wide variety of photographic genres, including portraiture, photojournalism, fashion, war, wildlife, art, and photomontage. Practically every major photographer is included, and most are represented by their most celebrated photograph. There are some exceptions, however: Irving Penn, for example, is represented by a still life, rather than one of his classic Vogue covers. Similarly, some of Eadweard Muybridge's horse photographs are included, though not his most famous images of a horse galloping.

After The Photography Book was first published, it was followed (or imitated) by several other A-Z photography guides, including Photographers A-Z and Photography Visionaries. These two later books contain more biographical information about their featured photographers, and they reproduce several images per photographer, in contrast to The Photography Book's single photo for each entry. However, The Photography Book has a more comprehensive scope (with 500 entries) and larger (practically full-page) reproductions.

Beaumont Newhall wrote the first history of photography as an art form, The History Of Photography. Helmut Gernsheim's The History Of Photography discusses the early development of photography. Naomi Rosenblum's A World History Of Photography and Mary Warner Marien's Photography: A Cultural History are more recent surveys of photographic history. The Focal Encyclopedia Of Photography is a comprehensive reference.

06 April 2015

The Art Of Things

The Art Of ThingsThe Art Of Things
General Electric
The Art Of Things, edited by Dominique Forest, is the most comprehensive history of post-war product design, with almost 600 pages and more than 700 illustrations, including many full-page photographs. The original French edition had a better title (L'Art Du Design), though the English version has a brighter, more striking slipcase. The book focuses on American, European, and Japanese design, with chapters devoted to each country individually. It also has a useful chapter on the emergence of design, and an extensive bibliography.

Although subtitled Product Design Since 1945, The Art Of Things also covers design from the inter-war period: "the new products of the early twentieth century were still laden with antiquated motifs and ornamentation. Between 1925 and 1930, though, the art deco style was imported from Europe and established a firm hold on American design." The US chapter, for example, includes the Bell 302 telephone. The chapter on Italy begins with the Futurist manifesto, and the Belgium and the Netherlands chapter extends even further, to include the Nieuwe Kunst movement and Gerrit Rietveld's Red & Blue Chair.

The immediate post-war period saw significant changes in the middle-class American lifestyle: suburban living, television, home-improvement, teenage culture, the 'baby boom', more leisure time, and increased disposable income. This post-war American consumer culture transformed international product design: "A sophisticated consumer society emerged as a significant sector of the population sought modern homes, cars, and household goods with which to express its new affluence." (The consumer lifestyle is idealised in a vintage newspaper advertisement for a GE fridge.)

Fitted kitchens, white goods, and modern furniture became domestic status symbols in 1950s America: "The U.S. led the way in designing vehicles and kitchen appliances, and in making the "dream home" the key site of consumer aspiration and desire." Charles and Ray Eames remain the most celebrated designers of this Mid-Century Modern era: "Perhaps no single designed artifact expressed the idea of the modern lifestyle better than the Eamses' famous rosewood lounge chair". Car ownership also increased in the 1950s, and the Cadillac Eldorado was one of the most iconic automobile designs, "heavily influenced by jet fighters and space travel."

Technology is an essential aspect of product design, and the book highlights Japanese electronic innovation such as Sony's TX8-301 television: "a number of Japanese high-tech manufacturers began to develop sophisticated products characterized by their portability, flexibility, and miniature scale." It also includes examples of advanced German engineering such as the Leica IIIc camera and the Mercedes 300SL sports car.

Dieter Rams, head of design for Braun in the 1960s, is recognised as the most influential German designer: "Rams changed the international face and reputation of German industrial design more than any other designer during the second half of the twentieth century". Jony Ive, Apple's head of design, was inspired by Rams, and his work "resulted in the transformation of a series of electronic devices into lifestyle objects."

Eames, Rams, and Ive are among a handful of industrial designers who have become as famous as their products. The Art Of Things singles out Philippe Starck as the most notable of these design superstars, who "achieved an unprecedented degree of recognition, popularizing a discipline that was still little known among the general public." The book devotes six pages to Starck and "his most iconic objects" including the Juicy Salif lemon squeezer.

Like The Art Of Things, A History Of Industrial Design (Edward Lucie Smith), History of Modern Design (David Raizman), and The Story Of Design (Charlotte and Peter Fiell) also focus on European, American, and Japanese design, though History Of Design (Pat Kirkham and Susan Weber) has a wider scope. The Fiells also wrote two encyclopedic guides to modern design: Industrial Design A-Z and Design Of The 20th Century, though The Design Encyclopedia (Mel Byars) is a more comprehensive A-Z guide. Phaidon has published two visual histories of modern product design: the three-volume Phaidon Design Classics and the compact The Design Book.

Cinema Winehouse


Cinema Winehouse

Tonight, Cinema Winehouse in Bangkok will be screening Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece Raging Bull. Quentin Tarantino’s most recent film, Django Unchained, will be shown on 10th March. (Cinema Winehouse screened Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in February.)

Paradoxocracy

Paradoxocracy
Paradoxocracy
The book version of Paradoxocracy, the political documentary by Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Pasakorn Pramoolwong, contains transcripts of interviews with various political commentators. It includes additional material that was not featured in the film, though some of the quotes have been censored (obscured by a black line), as they were in the theatrical and DVD releases.

05 April 2015

Imply Reply

Imply Reply
Passage
Imply Reply, an exhibition of sculptures and installations by Huang Yong Ping and Sakarin Krue-On, opened at BACC on 11th February. Huang's installation Passage, positioned at the entrance and exit of the exhibition, consists of two cages containing lion feces and urine, and animal bones. Imply Reply runs until 26th April.