In the Realm of the Circuit: Computers, Art, and Culture

Author: Charles H. Traub, Jonathan Lipkin
List Price: $72.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 013093674X
Publisher: Prentice Hall (12 March, 2003)
Edition: Hardcover
Sales Rank: 1,338,022
Average Customer Rating: 5 out of 5

Buy now directly from Amazon.com - Purchase this book, safely and securely from the largest book dealer on the Internet, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

Rating: 5 out of 5
Not since Marshall McLuhan
Not since Marshall McLuhan has so excellent a discussion of how the medium becomes the message appeared! It starts with a timeline of discoveries and key or symptomatic events: for example, 7000-3000 BCE, the beginning of civilization; 1661, the establishment of a postal service in the American colonies; 1790, the adoption by the British navy of Admiral Sir Home Rigg's secret flag code; 1863, sending a fax message from London to Liverpool; 1947, the replacement of vacuum tubes by transistors, with much in between.

Then gesture, sound, image and word is explored in a moderate postmodern manner, concentrating on the distinction between analog and digital. The authors next post a challenging quote: "The computer is the single most important invention since fire," and then seriously evaluate how true it is by discussing the invention's interaction with reality, art, space and time.

The book ends with a list of key people and important places and things. For flavor, the list begins with Akbar, the great Mughal emperor, and ends with the urban designer, Lily Yeh.

"In the Realm of the Circuit" is full of fresh, new images that appropriately illustrate the text. It can be read for pleasure as well as serve as a textbook for an undergraduate course.

James H. Schwartz
Professor

Similar Products

· How Computers Work (6th Edition)
· The New Media Reader
· Digital Art (World of Art)
· Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative

Return To Main Computer Book IndexSearch Our Entire Computer Book Catalog