Vertov, Snow, Farocki: Machine Vision and the Posthuman

Author:   David Tomas
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN:  

9781501307294


Pages:   304
Publication Date:   23 April 2015
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Vertov, Snow, Farocki: Machine Vision and the Posthuman


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Overview

Vertov, Snow, Farocki: Machine Vision and the Posthuman begins with a comprehensive and original anthropological analysis of Vertov's film The Man With a Movie Camera. Tomas then explores the film's various aspects and contributions to media history and practice through detailed discussions of selected case studies. The first concerns the way Snow's La Région Centrale and De La extend and/or develop important theoretical and technical aspects of Vertov's original film, in particular those aspects that have made the film so important in the history of cinema. The linkage between Vertov's film and the works discussed in the case studies also serve to illustrate the historical and theoretical significance of a comparative approach of this kind, and illustrate the pertinence of adopting a 'relational approach' to the history of media and its contemporary practice, an approach that is no longer focused exclusively on the technical question of the new in contemporary media practices but, in contrast, situates a work and measures its originality in historical, intermedia, and ultimately political terms.

Full Product Details

Author:   David Tomas
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic USA
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.408kg
ISBN:  

9781501307294


ISBN 10:   1501307290
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   23 April 2015
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction Part I: Threshold: When a Ritual Process Speaks of Machine Vision and Cyborg Prototypes: A Film Document, Circa 1929 Chapter 1. Manufacturing Vision and the Posthuman Circa 1929: Kino-eye, The Man with a Movie Camera, and the Perceptual Reconstruction of Social Identity Part II: Enigma of the Central Region: A Microhistory of Machine Vision and Posthuman Consciousness, Circa 1969-1972 Chapter 2. La Region Centrale: Basic Cultural, Technical and Formal Filiations Chapter 3. Toward a Cosmic Rite of Passage: External & Internal Locations and a Play of Authorship Chapter 4. La Region Centrale: Liminality, Knowledge Production, Pedagogy Chapter 5. La Region Centrale: From Cosmic to Posthuman Rite of Passage Chapter 6. De La (1969-71): Authorship, Automation and the Posthuman Chapter 7. A Comparative Schematic Analysis of the Automated Narrative and its Mechanical Logic in Vertov's The Man with a Movie Camera (1929) and Michael Snow's De La (1969-1972) Part III: The Public Deployment of Machine Vision and the Programmed Materialization of the Posthuman in Collective Social Space, Two Early Twenty-First Century Video Documents Chapter 8. A Posthuman Future in the Age of the Algorithm: Farock's Documentation of the Operational Image and its Culture of Surveillance Bibliography Index

Reviews

Tomas' ideas are fascinating ... [and his book] presents these ideas in a measured way, precisely and deliberately considering his key examples. The volume is a must for anyone interested in technology or cinema, or for the greater implications of a society who carries in their pocket the capacity to record and represent the world around them. -- Daniel Binns, University of West Sydney, Australia Cinema Journal Tomas, an artist and anthropologist at the Universit du Qu bec, Montr al, continues the work he undertook in Beyond the Image Machine: A History of Visual Technologies, exhorting readers to view visual technologies differently. In this volume, Tomas attempts to shift attention from aesthetic products to ritual practices. Specifically, he argues for understanding the mechanical process of filming as a rite of passage whereby the image is taken, processed, and reincorporated into the socio-symbolic order. This ritual structure becomes the basis for a comparative anthropological study of Dziga Vertov's The Man with a Movie Camera, Michael Snow's La R gion Centrale and De La, and Harun Farocki's trilogy Eye/Machine and Counter-Music. The experimental, posthuman processes involved in shooting these unique films is of primary interest, leading to detailed discussions of the filmmaker's intentions and abstract theorization of their specific execution. For this reason, Tomas's esoteric, though intriguing, revisioning of film's history and future is likely of most use to experts. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. -- T. J. Welsh, Loyola University New Orleans, USA CHOICE


Author Information

David Tomas is a Professor at the School of Visual Arts, University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada.

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