Abstracting Craft: The Practiced Digital Hand

Book Description

The love of making things need not be confined to the physical world -- electronic form giving can also be a rewarding hands-on experience. In this investigation of the possibility of craft in the digital realm, Malcolm McCullough observes that the emergence of computation as a medium, rather than just a set of tools, suggests a growing correspondence between digital work and traditional craft.

Personal and conversational in tone, with examples and illustrations drawn from a variety of disciplines, Abstracting Craft shows that anyone who gives form with software, whether in architecture, painting, animating, modeling, simulating, or manufacturing, is practicing personal knowledge and producing visual artifacts that, although not material, are nevertheless products of the hands, eyes, and mind.

Chapter by chapter, McCullough builds a case for upholding humane traits and values during the formative stages of new practices in digital media. He covers the nature of hand-eye coordination; the working context of the image culture; aspects of tool usage and medium appreciation; uses and limitations of symbolic methods; issues in human-computer interaction; geometric constructions and abstract methods in design; the necessity of improvisation; and the personal worth of work.

For those new to computing, McCullough offers an inside view of what the technology is like, what the important technical issues are, and how creative computing fits within a larger intellectual history. Specialists in human-computer interaction will find an interesting case study of the anthropological and psychological issues that matter to designers. Artificial intelligence researchers will be reminded that much activity fails to fit articulable formalisms. Aesthetic theorists will find a curiously developed case of neostructuralism, and cultural critics will be asked to imagine a praxis in which technology no longer represents an authoritarian opposition. Finally, the unheralded legions of digital craftspersons will find a full-blown acknowledgment of their artistry and humanity.

Customer Reviews:

HCI meets craft.......2002-12-10

One fear of digitizing art concerns the loss of craft needed to produce objects in physical media. McCullough may not set this fear to rest, but he does present a persuasive case that craft as we know it remains present in new media. He is able to define tools, tool use and tool systems so as to convince one that the tools of program interfaces are as much tools as their physical kin. The distinction between a tool and a machine and how both are represented in a graphic program's interface is especially intriguing. This book would be of interest to the many sculptors who have adopted digital methods into their work, but it may be of most use for human-computer interaction professionals designing 3D interfaces.

Can real artists use technology?.......1999-07-01

A book which explores many issues around the role of the artist utilising new-media. This re-affirms the fact that in all art forms responsibility is upmost. Great read for artists considering using new technology, especially students.

Revising the identity of technology.......1999-06-30

A very thorough and easy read for beginners to start thinking what lies beyond the computing technology. This book may be similar with Gate's The Road Ahead, but does not intrigue much ecological vision into abstracting the craft.

Average customer rating:

Abstracting Reality
Mark J. P. Wolf
Manufacturer: University Press of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0761816674

Book Description

Abstracting Reality considers the relationship between digital technology and culture and their mutual influences on each other.

Customer Reviews:

Not fashion forward.......2006-10-20

This book was a disappointment. If you live in New York, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago or any other major city, you've already worn most of these styles. The book is a compilation of looks ranging from really bad early 80's wannabe goth, unattractive fetishists, a raver or 2, a couple of neo-hippies, a club kid, a design team who deconstructs then reconstructs garments and two japanese girls who change styles like most people change underwear. It doesn't try to even guess what might new and exciting.
The photographs are clear, the print quality is good. The content is a disappointment. Look over this book in a library or something, don't bother buying it.

style surfing gives me chills.......2002-01-04

this book rocks my socks. it's got great graphics, awesome photography, and a crapload of articles inside. if you like fashion and you're kind of freaky, this is the book for you. i saw this book on a bookstore shelf and snatched it right up. i could read this book a thousand times and flip through the pictures every single day.

Book Description

Now fully updated by Des Lyver to reflect the latest advances, the second edition of Basics of Video Lighting is a primer for anyone wishing to learn about lighting a video production. It describes the principles and processes involved in obtaining professional results in educational, training and corporate environments.

Assuming little prior knowledge, this book covers everything from the different types of lights and their control, to basic studio and location settings. It features:
· the latest technology, including the use of location and grip gear and changes in lamp and reflector technology
· coverage of studio and location work
· descriptions of the role of each crew member
· full explanations of technical terms
· health and safety precautions
· practical advice on the equipment available and how to use it

Basics of Video Lighting aims to provide the reader with a rapid understanding of what is actually a complex process, without getting too bogged down in technical terms. It is equipment non-specific and references to technical matters are only included where necessary to understanding, for example a short explanation of the simple electricity that is needed to understand the relationship between the camera and the lights.

· covers the latest technology
· features studio and location work
· describes the role of each crew member

Customer Reviews:

Basics of Video Lighting.......2000-06-17

Señores de Amazon: Este libro puede ayudar a todas las personas interesadas en conocer los aspectos basicos de la iluminacion en video, tales como: las diferencias y semejanzas de iluminar en cine o en video, los tipos de luces,el balance, los filtros, iluminar de dia de noche y sobretodo como aprender a iluminar en estudios de tv. Parece un libro para todo aquel quiere empezar desde cero. Gracias

Dear amazon: I think this book will help us to know about the concept of lighting,video and light, and all about filters, white balance, day and light, and set lighting on TV. This book will be necessary to people who need general and basics knolegement. Thank you Miguel

Basics of Video Lighting.......2000-06-17

I think this book will help us to know about the concept oflighting,video and light, and all about filters, white balance, dayand light, and set lighting. This book will be necessary to people who need general and basics knolegement. Thank you Miguel END

Basics of Video Production, Second Edition

Average customer rating:

A good textbook for novice videographers.

Basics of Video Production, Second Edition
Des Lyver , and GRAHAM SWAINSON
Manufacturer: Focal Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0240515609

Book Description

Now fully updated by Des Lyver to reflect the latest advances, the second edition of Basics of Video Production is a primer for anyone wishing to learn about video production. It describes the principles and processes involved in obtaining professional results in educational, training and corporate environments.

Assuming little prior knowledge, this book takes the reader on a guided tour around a studio or location production, examining the production process from conceptualisation to the final screening. It features:
· the latest advances in low cost non-linear editing and digital video
· coverage of studio and location work
· descriptions of the role of each crew member
· full explanations of technical terms
· health and safety precautions
· practical advice on the equipment available and how to use it

Basics of Video Production aims to provide the reader with a rapid understanding of what is actually a complex process, without getting too bogged down in technical terms. It is equipment non-specific and references to technical matters are only included where necessary to understanding. Much of what is contained in this book will be directly transferable to film and sound courses as the basics and principles are the same.

· covers the latest advances
· features studio and location work
· describes the role of each crew member

Customer Reviews:

A good textbook for novice videographers........1999-10-29

This book is a concise, well organized and inexpensive text for beginning level video production classes as well as a good reference for first time producers and directors. It gives a good overview of lighting, audio, crew positions and responsibilities, studio equipment, concept generation, wardrobe and more.

Book Description

Now fully updated to reflect the latest advances, the second edition of Basics of Video Sound is a primer for anyone wishing to learn about recording sound. It describes the principles and processes involved in obtaining professional results in educational, training and corporate environments.

Assuming little prior knowledge, this book covers everything from how to choose a microphone and obtain the best quality recordings, to editing the results for the final screening. It features:
· the latest advances in the use of disc and minidisc systems, computer based editing in audio post production
· coverage of studio and location work
· descriptions of the role of each crew member
· full explanations of technical terms
· health and safety precautions
· practical advice on the equipment available and how to use it

Basics of Video Sound aims to provide the reader with a rapid understanding of what is actually a complex process, without getting too bogged down in technical terms. It is equipment non-specific and references to technical matters are only included where necessary to understanding, for example a short explanation of the electricity and physics that is needed in order to become a good sound recordist.

A basic introduction for anyone approaching the subject for the first time.
All technical terms are explained in full.
Offers practical advice on health and safety precautions as well as equipment and its use

Customer Reviews:

Good for analogue basics, but..........1999-04-05

This book is geared towards the absolute beginner. It illustrates well the basics of analogue audio both for video and live production. However, although being a good 'hands on' book for the beginner, it does not treat any of the more important technical concepts in professional broadcast. Apart from the above, the book fails to deal with digital audio in video-production and so misses on an important milestone in the modern audio field.

Amazon.com

Opera has never been short on pain and suffering. The diseases that actually appear onstage, however, depend greatly on cultural context. In this provocative academic study, Linda Hutcheon and Michael Hutcheon ponder the significance behind the ailments that beset operatic characters. The authors' division of specialties--she is a literary critic, he is an MD--gives them a built-in perspective on their subject. The Hutcheons do not claim to be musical experts; they quote from scholars to bolster their arguments, which focus on librettos and source material.

Operatic diseases are largely those with overtones of moral, not just physical, infection. Tuberculosis was a 19th-century favorite, associated with feverish passion and the self-consuming flame of artistic creativity. The authors contrast tubercular heroines before and after the discovery of the illness's cause, which altered the perception of TB from a disease of temperament (La Traviata) to one of poverty and overcrowding (La Bohème). They also consider syphilis (The Rake's Progress, Lulu, and even Parsifal), cholera (Death in Venice), and another "pathology," smoking (Carmen). As the last example hints, the book's true theme is not disease, exactly. These conditions and habits--all linked in some way to emphatic sexuality--indicated a morally dubious life and marked a character for doom.

The authors' thesis encourages the reader to look behind the assumptions in these works. That is valuable, sometimes more than the arguments themselves, which can drift into repetitiveness and jargon (lots of references to "gendered coding" and "transgressiveness"). In an epilogue, the Hutcheons discuss plays--there are not yet any operas--dealing with AIDS. These works suggest a 21st-century model: affirmative, sometimes angry, refusing to exoticize or condemn their diseased heroes. --David Olivenbaum

Customer Reviews:

A wealth of dark detail on opera's unique social situations.......1999-05-17

Opera has become yet another popular sport today,and thank someone that a growing number of essayists and scholars have switched away from the cloistered rigours of musical academia, an academia that simply analyzes how the notes and tones move and come toward organization. This is valuable but explains nothing of the especially fascinating aspects of opera,its historical,social and political dimensions This book indeed has a focus drawing the darker sides of opera's implications. Desire for instance hits us right in the face as in Bizet's "Carmen". There a town in Seville was the site of a tobacco factory employed by only scantily clad women. It was hot in Seville and men(this is a true story) travelled from all over Europe just for a glimpse of the flesh of women rolling these penis-shaped objects. The Hutcheon's bring fascinating detail to their subjects. Michael Hutcheon is a doctor and analyzes the prevalence of consumption and tuberculosis in 19th Century Europe the backdrop of Verdi's "La Traviata". There is story of a consumptive kept woman devoted to the love and desire in all night parties in Paris.But there is a very human side to her as well not simply an avaricious opportunist. Disease was a bourgeois curse at that time that threatened to disrupt the middle-class family values as well as a disruption of profit-making. It was these classes who were in attendance at the opera,so these themes indeed stuck a social resonance. Someone like Violetta Valery, Verdi's anti-heroine, was the focus of this disruption(Violetta after "violare" in Italian to violate). We learn also of the presence of syphillis as an extension of these disruptive disease. The prostitutes in Lille infected the master race during the Second World War, as a means of guerilla warfare, which worked quite well. Speaking about opera in this way drawing all these details from opera's story-lines,plots and aesthetic strategies makes fascinating reading as well as enriching opera's scholarship beyond the four-corners of the music.

Opera: desire, disease, death.: An article from: Opera Canada

Average customer rating:

Opera: desire, disease, death.: An article from: Opera Canada

Manufacturer: Opera Canada Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00096QWC0
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Opera Canada, published by Opera Canada Publications on September 22, 1996. The length of the article is 444 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Opera: desire, disease, death.
Publication: Opera Canada (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 1996
Publisher: Opera Canada Publications
Volume: 37 Issue: 3 Page: 44

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Average customer rating:

Opera Desire Disease Death Texts &
Linda Hutcheon
Manufacturer: UNIV OF NE + PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SMY5W4

Average customer rating:

Opera: Desire, Disease, Death
Linda; Hutcheon, Michael Hutcheon
Manufacturer: Nebraska
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KHFET0

Book Description

Follow Dr. Quicksolve as he teaches his son Junior how to solve 50 baffling crimes. Investigate a murder where one suspect plays loud music--and the other's hearing-impaired. Pick out the right heir to a millionaire's estate. Read carefully--the clues are there, but they're always hidden!

Customer Reviews:

You are passing false information........1999-04-21

You quote The Horn Book as saying, "...the math volume's story problems are mired in a format that places all puzzles within a tedious magical kingdom named Pymm." This is not about my book. It does not include math problems. I have never heard of a magical kingdom called Pymm. You also advertise a Cool Chemistry book of some kind you say I have written. I know nothing about that, either. I can't wait to see it! The Author

Average customer rating:
The Manager's Pocket Guide to Effective Mentoring
Norman H. Cohen
Manufacturer: HRD Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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