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I’m looking forward to checking out Pascal Grecos’s Photography, Video Game, Landscape, which RCS recently featured in its newsletter...I've also been enjoying Katy Hessel's The Story of Art Without Men. Please share any art book recommendations (on digital art or otherwise) you might have!
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Such a long list to catch up on now that the uni year is over. I am traveling so the stack isn’t in front of me but I know I need to look more carefully at Natasha Chuk’s Photo Obscura: The Photographic in Post-Photography; Paglen’s How to see like a machine; Roland Betancourt’s Disney and the Rise of Automation; Law, Ethics, and the Visual Arts, 6th edition...more to come ;)
I love this collection of work by Kali. Joan Archibald, who renamed herself Kali, walked out of her Long Island life in the 1960s and reinvented herself in California as a wildly experimental photographer. Working from a former Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee house in Palm Springs, she transformed her swimming pool into a massive finishing tank, experimtneting with prints through ink, dye, dirt, bugs, and chemicals until the images became something strange and alive. Long hidden away, her obsessive, visionary archive resurfaced after her death in 2019. It’s avalibe in a stunning edition from PowerHouse books called Kali LTD.
I would recommend Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (1686) by Fontenelle with its fascinating texts (and engravings) for the time. Also, History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides’, which to me remains so contemporary! Closer to us, I am reading again the The Blindfold by Siri Hustvedt, still quite enimatic to me.
And lastly, Kafka on the Shore by H. Murakami. Somehow I identify to all characters and I often heard this remark from people that read it.
A personal favorite, Die Kunst der Abstrakten Fotografie by Jager and lately loving to explore the historic comparisons within the art history focused David Hockney “Secret Knowledge”, the Tarot of Leonora Carrington, Luna Luna by Andre Heller, Buckminster Fuller pattern making, Hilma Af Klimt Paintings for the Future. A personal favorite, Die Kunst der Abstrakten Fotografie by Jager. I’ve been on an art book personal discovery kick the last year.
I’m really enjoying “A Companion to Digital Art”, Edited by Christiane Paul. It’s a compilation of texts with a lot of cool insights and history. There are also some really cool proposals. I would say one of my favorite parts would be “Aesthetics of the Digital”, by Sean Cubitt. Very interesting and rigorous reading!!
Ben Davis, Art in the after culture
Kyle Chaika, Filterworld
Sophie Gilbert, Girl on Girl ( less art , but pop culture in general )
YES!! I read this in college for a film studies class - that was, um, some years ago, so a re-read is due! For that same class I also remember we read The Magic Lantern by Ingmar Bergman, also an interesting one.
Amazing recs, thank you @kentc! I actually just picked up Trevor Paglen’s book the other day at the Mass MoCA bookstore. As a photographer and post-photographer, I definitely need to get my hands on Natasha Chuk’s book!
@culturehacker Wow, I had never heard of Kali and now that I’m digging into her I’m obsessed! What a story...She even photographed a young Cindy Sherman!
Her story and work is truly amazing. The edition from PowerHouse really is wonderful. I’ve often thought that her life story would make an incredible film. Speaking of stories another interesting artist with a crazy life story is Stéphane Mandelbaum. I tracked down a copy of his Une monographie from Martian de Halleux. It’s an incredible book. His life story involves organized crime, art theft, and tragically murder. https://martindehalleux.com/les-editions-martin-de-halleux-stephane-mandelbaum-une-monographie
Ah, what a great and varied list, thanks @aurecevettier! I’ve read a bunch of Murakami but not Kafka on the Shore - good shout!
Thank you @gisel4d, I’m adding all of these to my TO READ list. My brirhday is coming up and I might drop some hints (read: i’ll email links to my husband) about the Carrington, Fuller and Af Klint books...!
Thanks for these recommendations @ivonatau! The Gilbert book in particular looks right up my alley...
Not the typical art book, but Orhan Pamuk’s Memories of Distant Mountains is so captivating. It’s a collection of handwritten diaries with sketches and illustrations, and reading it feels less like flipping pages and more like looking over someone’s shoulder. Pamuk the novelist and Pamuk the visual artist in the same notebook.
This is a great suggestion, thank you @miromiro! Adding to my list...