Video Spaces: Eight Installations

Book Description

Space, time, love, violence, and the human body: these are but some of the themes explored in this provocative book of state-of-the-art video installations. Each a separate and carefully delineated environment created through multimedia technologies, the eight installations described and illustrated here were produced by an accomplished international group of artists: Judith Barry and Brad Miskell, New York; Stan Douglas, Vancouver; Teiji Furuhashi, Kyoto; Gary Hill, Seattle; Chris Marker, Paris; Marcel Odenbach, Cologne; Tony Oursler, New York; and Bill Viola, Long Beach, California. In the related exhibition, which ran at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1995, the viewer entered the space and became part of what he or she observed. Vivid, complex, and endlessly inventive, these works demonstrate the range and sophistication of an art form born in the last decades of the 20th century.

Customer Reviews:

Buy This Book.......2000-10-12

First of all, "Chip" Delaney was not the author of this book, although he did write a nifty introduction relating science fiction to performance art. Barbara London's essay and chapters on the eight artists in the NYMOMA show are outstanding! Anyone curious about performance art AND any serious student of this vital topic would do well to consult this book. Each chapter focuses on an artist in this field, showing beautiful color and black & white photos of performance pieces; also included are extensive chronologies of their past shows and selective bibliographies about their work. This book is a "must" for any serious artist and art library.

Book Description

In compelling, often stunning black-and-white photographs, The Weather and a Place to Live portrays the manmade landscape of the western United States. Here we come face to face with the surreal intersection of the American appetite for suburban development and the resistant, rolling, arid country of the desert West. Steven B. Smith’s extraordinary photographs take us into the contemporary reality of sprawling suburbs reconfiguring what was once vast, unpopulated territory. With arresting concision and an unblinking eye, Smith shows how a new frontier is being won, and suggests too how it may be lost in its very emergence. Since the early 1990s Smith has been making large-format photographs in California, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. Based on this body of work, he was chosen as winner of the biennial Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography.

The power of these photographs lies in part in Smith’s unusual knowledge of the places he portrays. Raised in Utah, Smith has worked on construction crews, and he was a contractor in California after living on the East Coast for a few years. When he moved to Los Angeles in 1991, he writes, “I was so astounded by what I saw happening to the landscape as it was being developed that I started photographing it immediately. The landscapes I saw were scraped bare, re-sculpted, sealed, and then covered so as not to erode away before the building process could be completed.”

Smith’s photographs offer a disturbing vision of the future of our planet, where the desire for home ownership is pitted against the costs of development in epic proportions. These altered landscapes force us to consider the consequences of human design battling natural forces across great expanses, a fragile balancing act and a contorted equation in which nature becomes both inspiration and invisible adversary. Smith’s elegant photographs of this constructed universe confront us with the beauty of images as images, yet push us to reflect on the devastation possible in the simple act of choosing a place to live.

Customer Reviews:

Who left the words out?.......2006-07-23

A remarkable book of photos that only half works. I say this because I have just read a fascinating interview with Steven Smith by photographer Christopher Sims on the Duke/CDS Books website (I've no idea how long it will be available). Smith explains in careful detail his thoughts on the housing and commercial development in the western states and his working techniques. An edited version of this interview really should have been included to make this the almost perfect photobook.

The eighty-two photos, beautifully printed in an impressively fine screen, are quite technical, overviews of developments showing potential roads, house plots and the way contractors prepare the land, down to details of landscaping for individual homes. Having looked through these photos several times I find there is another editorial weakness to the book, the photos show things that make me ask: 'What's going on here?' For instance, page fifty-one shows lines of piping on a gravel roadway or wide path, the caption says 'Heating coils, Mapleton, Utah, 1999', I really want to know more but this is an 'art' book, so tough. This 'art' book status is also confirmed by having all the very short captions on a couple of pages in the back of the book. They of course should have been centered under each photo.

Steven Smith clearly has something to say with his excellent photographs but I was disappointed that the book's editorial format did not allow them to work as well as they should. A similar book about the hand of (commercial) man on the landscape that I have enjoyed is 'Consuming the American Landscape' (ISBN 1904587003) by photographer John Ganis. This book has a large landscape format that allows the color photos to work so well and a caption under each photo, too.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

The Lonesome Crowded West.......2006-01-07

I thought Steven Smith's photographs were revelatory in their understated, droll take on our new westward expansion. And I couldn't agree more with Robert Pinsky, now that he's pointed it out (see his recent comments on slate.com), that there is something South Parkian about it all: "Smith's black-and-white photographs share some visual qualities with the cartoon-colored townscape of the TV series: stark expanses where the monumental blankness of a Utah or Colorado sky meets the equally blank geometry of irrigation pipes or two-car garages. Between mountains and fences, between a tremendous rock face and giant stacks of plywood, Smith's images record not so much a contrast as two violent absences joining as a single force. Landfill, seedling, turnabout, heating coil collude with the sky and mountains in a triumph of disproportion: scale not so much confused or lost as irrelevant: a loss of footing that is a visual equivalent for the moral goofs and chasms of South Park. The deadpan, improvised juncture of immensity and triviality: that harsh, uninflected tone [is] shared by these amazing works." That about sums it up.

three thumbs up.......2005-11-13

This re-visitation of a new topographic concept allows reflection as well as momentary relief from the unending rough and tumble of our ever-expanding lives. It does this by offering amazing aesthetic consideration of a subject matter that often confounds by forcing the laugh most commonly associated with a dirty joke (we might not want others to hear us telling,) and by providing a visual anchor for which we may consider the consequences of an overwhelming capitalist expansion.

Book Description

This comic adaptation of the ZOIDS: New Century anime features Bit and his team of pilots and ZOIDS. In this volume, Bit and Team Blitz battle Team Backdraft — a team that will break every rule and try any dirty trick to win the league championship. ZOIDS, popular among young fans of Robotech, Transformers, and Medabots, is currently airing on the Cartoon Network.

Customer Reviews:

I love da zoids.......2005-12-07

Zoids r awesome cuz they r giant robot animals. I never read this book but im gonna buy it so,............... ya. Zoids is basically about a tournament with the zoids n u shoot them n stuff. Anyway buy this book cuz zoids is awesome. IF U DONT BUY IT I WILL FIND U N KILL U!!!!!!!!!!

mabye not the best but. . . . .........2002-12-31

it starts of very sudden and goes on. took me 20 minets to read. even if u dont know what zoids are u will enjoy this book. the pics are great and compeat with other anime comics. this book is somwhat fast to read, but it is definetly worth buying. i also like the zoids chaotic century comics. enjoy :)

A Bit of The New Century.......2002-11-28

Little is known about the strange metallic beasts from the Planet Zi, but every young ZOID pilot knows that they are the best companions to bring to any adventure! Fast, agile, loyal, and bristling with weapons, these are the companions you want by your side when the ZOID team competitions begin! So strap into the cockpit, and get ready for one of the most exciting tournaments that manga has ever seen!
Long years have past since the wars between the Empire and Republic have ravanged the land, people, and ZOIDS of Planet Zi. Since then, mankind has realized that war is the wrong way to go, and now ZOIDS are involved in competitions, staged battles where the winner gets one step closer to the massive prize money reserved for the best ZOIDSpilots ever! Bit Cloud and his unruly companion Liger Zero, along with their friends on Team Blitz, are ready to take on all comers! But are they really ready when a force for evil, the unscrupulous Team Backdraft, conspires to win by any dirty trick they can manage! Bit thought he had his hands full with Liger Zero, but now destiny awaits!

Customer Reviews:

Interesting book on Hollywood's Golden Era.......1999-06-16

"Hollywood Hoopla" is an interesting and informative book on the Hollywood publicity machine of yesteryear and filled with many unknown facts on the industry's behind the scenes. HOWEVER, at the end of each chapter, Mr. Sennett comments on today's Hollywood customs on a certain subject and never fails to compare it unfavorably with those of forty-to-sixty years ago. Why does he have to prove at the end of each chapter on how Hollywood has grown vulgar and inferior over the ages? Doesn't he realize that Hollywood has always been vulgar?

Book Description

Puccini's operas are among the most popular and widely performed in the world, yet few books have examined his body of work from an analytical perspective. This volume remedies that lack in lively prose accessible to scholars and opera enthusiasts alike.

Average customer rating:

Puccini : His International Art
Michele Girardi
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPF94I

Average customer rating:

Puccini: His International Art
translated by Laura Basini Michele Girardi
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPF8DU

Average customer rating:
THE RIGHT WAY TO PLAY CHESS
D BRINE PRITCHARD
Manufacturer: ELLIOT RIGHT WAY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000SENALO

Average customer rating:
THE RIGHT WAY TO PLAY CHESS
BRIND PRITCHARD
Manufacturer: PAPERFRONT
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000S2N75A

Average customer rating:

This Book Makes Novice Improve!!!

Good first book

A good, well-balanced beginning

Good Beginning

THE PLACE TO BEGIN

The Right Way to Play Chess
D. Brine Pritchard
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Chess | Board Games | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Beginning Chess: Over 300 Elementary Problems for Players New to the Game

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess, Third Edition

Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors [McKay Chess Library for Kids]

How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (Gambit Chess)

ASIN: 1585740462

Book Description

With remarkable ease and clarity, D. Brine Pritchard explains the modern and internationally approved method of chess to the beginning chess player. In this, the tenth revised edition of the standard work on the subject, Pritchard draws new inspiration from the latest developments in chess, taking the reader through detailed and illustrated explanations of the basic rules and general theories of chess, openings, middle games, end games, and much more. "The magic of chess," writes Pritchard in his introduction, "is that it can be learned by almost anyone, played almost anywhere and at almost any level with equal enjoyment."

Retaining its unique distinction and indispensable expertise, this fully updated edition takes the complete beginner on an effortless and inspirational journey toward the skill level expected of an intermediate player.

Customer Reviews:

This Book Makes Novice Improve!!!.......2006-12-12

I read few chess books but hardly to understand and comprehend so my games so terrible. I picked-up this book last month then i learn right material winning combinations which read some of this pages alas, it also improve my basic calculation. Great book for beginners to all ages!!

Good first book.......2004-10-10

This is a good first book for a kid to start with I enjoyed it. Sometimes it gets a little bit hard to follow becuase there are not enough illustratons. Otherwise a great book!

A good, well-balanced beginning.......2003-06-24

I had been playing chess very occassionally and with absolutely no instruction for some time, especially on Yahoo! Chess. Then, I saw Garry Kasparov vs. Deep Junior on ESPN2 (side note: I wish they'd show chess somewhat regularly), and I was immediately taken. I searched for a short while for a beginners chess book and found "The Right Way to Play Chess" by D. Brine Pritchard.

If you buy this book, it would be quite helpful to have a chess set or program. There are illustrations, but they usually come after ten or more moves in Pritchard's examples, and are difficult to follow without a visual aid. This is the only major downfall, and is why I did not give the book 5 stars.

Also, if you're not a buyer from the U.K., you might be slightly put off by Pritchard's diction (he's British), although I really saw no problem with it.

As any beginners book should, "The Right Way to Play Chess" starts off with the rules of the game. Even if you are familiar with the game, there is some information here you might be unfamiliar with, such as the "en passant" rule. If you already know what that is, then it's probably safe to skip the first chapter.

After that, everything is useful, even to those who have experience. Rudimentary theory covers positions and moves you will see time and again, such as the pin and the fork. After some helpful examples from play and basic coverage of the powers of the chessmen and strategies you should keep in mind for each, the book is basically divided into the opening, middlegame, and endgame, and is capped off with examples of master play.

The structure of the book is well-thought out and organized. Pritchard provides very useful examples in each section. After studying this book (and occassionally using it for reference), I have become a stronger player.

I would recommend this book to any beginner who is fairly serious about getting better.

Good Beginning.......2003-03-03

Anyone who is either thinking about getting into chess playing or is currently getting their behinds whipped by friends would do well to pick up this book. It is a fantastic start to a chess library, as it gives the novice player a solid background as well as a few nifty moves to make one a formidable player. This book teaches a player how to think two, three, or four moves ahead and accurately predict how your opponent will fall in line.

This should only be the first in a series of books any beginning player should read, but itis a highly recommended starting place.

THE PLACE TO BEGIN.......2002-11-23

I must admit that I am only on the 3rd chapter of this book. I began reading it 4 days ago. It has helped me tremendously. I had to give it a rating before I finished the book to let those who are in a similar position see how great this book is. I have been playing street chess for about 7 years. I must say that I was pretty good or at least thought I was. I had no formal training, I didn't even know what an 'opening' was. I could play but didn't have a solid foundation of strategy and tactics. For the past 3 months I have been searching for a book that would give me a good foundation. It was necessary for me to Reassess my chess from the ground up. Several books were over my head and I thought about the Idiot's Guide. Anyway, "The Right Way to Play.." has helped me to understand annotations and several other aspects of learning about the game from the first few chapters. If you are a somewhat good player w/out any formal training and do not know where to take your game from here, get this book to build a solid foundation and you will be sure to increase in knowledge and ability.
I will write again when I finish this book to give you a more serious and in depth rating of TRWTPC.

Average customer rating:

The Right Way to Play Chess
D. Brine Pritchard
Manufacturer: Elliot Right Way Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0716008238

Average customer rating:

THE RIGHT WAY TO PLAY CHESS
D BRINE PRITCHARD
Manufacturer: D BRINE PRITCHARD
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RYD0OW

Average customer rating:

The Right Way To Play Chess
D Brine Pritchard
Manufacturer: Paperfronts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MVZWS2

Average customer rating:

The Right Way to Play Chess
David Brine ; Konig, Imre Pritchard
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NVANCG

Average customer rating:

The Right Way to Play Chess
D.Brine Pritchard
Manufacturer: Jaico Publishing House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 8172244975

Average customer rating:

The Right Way to Play Chess
D. Brine Prtichard
Manufacturer: Paperfronts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KDPY2Q

Average customer rating:

The right way to play Chess
D. Brine Pritchard
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF35R6

Book Description

We have a diverse society and a diverse workforce. Have we done enough to reap the full benefits of this diversity? One of the world's most acclaimed experts says, "not yet"—and shows us how to move forward The "numbers" were achieved. The workshops attended. Most people in your organization have gotten their "isms" under control. But here you are again, recycling yet another round of costly diversity programs—and still unable to overcome the problems and reap the benefits of your diverse workforce. That's because most organizations, despite good intentions and hard work, are stuck in their diversity efforts, says R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., a leading diversity expert who has continually raised the bar on how we think and act on a complex array of diversity issues. In our communities as well as in our workplaces, a feeling of frustration has emerged as the promise of the Civil Rights Movement and affirmative action has become overly politicized and polarizing. But managing diversity is not a new issue. In fact, it is both a hallmark and core challenge that organizations and society have confronted since the founding of America, "an experiment in diversity." Building on the Promise of Diversity is Thomas's impassioned wake-up call to bring diversity management to a wholly new level—beyond finger-pointing and well-meaning "initiatives" and toward the shared goal of building robust organizations and thriving communities. This original, thoughtful, yet action-oriented book will help leaders in any setting—business, religious, educational, governmental, community groups, and more—break out of the status quo and reinvigorate the can-do spirit of making things better. The book includes a deeply felt analysis of the sometimes tangled intersections between diversity management and the Civil Rights Movement and affirmative action agendas . . . a personal narrative that charts Thomas's own evolution in diversity thinking . . . and a roadmap for mastering the powerful craft of Strategic Diversity Management™, a structured process that helps you: Realize why multiple activities and good intentions are not enough for achieving sustainable progress.

Recast the meaning of diversity as more than just race and gender, but as any set of differences, similarities, and tensions—such as workplace functions, product lines, acquisitions and mergers, customers and markets, blended families, community diversity, and more.

Accept that a realistic goal is not to eliminate diversity tension but to use it as a catalyst to address key issues.

Recognize diversity mixtures, analyze them accurately, and make quality decisions in the midst of differences, similarities, and tensions.

Build an essential set of diversity skills and develop your "diversity maturity"—the wisdom, judgment, and experience to use those skills effectively.

Reflect on the ways you might be "diversity challenged" yourself. Diversity is the reality of America today. Whether you let diversity be a drain on your organization or a dynamic contributor to your mission, vision, and strategy is both a choice and a challenge. Building on the Promise of Diversity gives you the insights and skills you need to navigate through simmering tensions—and find creative solutions for achieving cohesiveness, connectedness, and common goals.

Customer Reviews:

Searching for the next level of diversity.......2006-04-25

That Dr. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. is searching for the next level of diversity is not unusual considering his stature as a respected guru in the field. But when Dr. Thomas says diversity has become a politicized "code word for affirmative action," and we - meaning organizations and society - are going to have a hard time getting to any next level because we're stuck in muddle-headed thinking about diversity, well, that is unusual! (He defines affirmative action as "the recruitment, promotion and retention of members of 'protected classes'" in the United States.)

Thomas believes most organizational leaders, as well as society, have accepted the politicized definition of diversity, which positions it as a win/lose power struggle. We understand diversity through the lens of struggle because that's how we understand differences. The power struggle is a legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and of affirmative action, and we would argue it is also a legacy of other institutions which the United States has used to approach differences, such as Indian reservations, slavery, segregation and Jim Crow laws, Japanese internment, to name a few).

If you are looking for a book to clarify your thinking about diversity, the legacies of Civil Rights and affirmative action, and how to improve people's ability to manage diversity, this book is essential reading. If you are looking for a thorough description of what the next level of diversity is, you won't find it. If we understand Dr. Thomas correctly, we have to master the craft of diversity management in order to discover what the next level is. Care to join us?

By Kyla Meyers and Barbara Deane, editors at DiveristyCentral.com

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