'Teaching Objects' is a journey through art and culture. Jeroen Lutters takes us to see a number of artworks that give new insights into the foundations of twenty-first century civilisation and humanity. In this highly personal ans passionate account, he discusses his individual choice of great works – works that not only reflect the history of Western culture, but also continue to be a source of inspiration and meaning.

What is computational art? How does it involve us in unprecedented aesthetic relationships, making us part of works and even transfor­ming them? This book looks at how computation causes an ontolo­gical shift that turns dynamics, causality, and cognition into central components of art, artistic practices, and aesthetics. Computational art is more conceptual than perceptual; it is performative, experien­tial, situated, experimental, creative, and intersubjective. Computa­tional art is unst...

This thorough study on the work of the German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin exposes - in Benjamin’s own metaphor - the ‘dwarf of theology’ hidden in the machinery of his work, his own form of ‘historical materialism’. In doing so it unearths and explains his language theory, his art theory, his most cryptic baroque book, his philosophy of history, and, last but not least, his famous labyrinthine unfinished opus magnum on Paris, The Arcades project (the first philosophical book ...

'On the Contrary: Rethinking Engaged Art in an Age of Social Unrest' is a collection of essays that re-evaluate key artistic concepts that influence the way in which engaged practices are conducted. Historically produced ideas about, for example, spectatorship, autonomy, what an artwork is, and the political role of the artist determine to a large degree how contemporary practices constitute themselves. Might these concepts be faulty when acted out in practices that occupy fundamentally diffe...

This edited volume offers an in-depth exploration of Dutch media art from 1985 onwards from many different perspectives. Through early access to the Internet, state subsidies and dedicated institutions and festivals, a vivid counter-cultural environment and a cosmopolitan artistic and intellectual scene the Netherlands hold a unique position in regards to the development of media art.

Introduced by four chapters that retrace the main events and actors (governmental institutions, festivals an...

Mix & Stir, this book’s aim is an endeavour to understand art as being a panhuman phenomenon of all times and cultures; to steer away from the persistent Eurocentric/Western-centric viewpoint towards a transcultural and transnational interconnected model of exchange and processes of interculturalization. Mix & Stir wants to expand this landscape by bringing to the fore new, recalcitrant, queer, idiosyncratic practices and discourses, theories and topics, methods and concerns that open up wa...

In 'The emancipated museum' the art historian and researcher Steven ten Thije engages in a personal inquiry into the importance of art museums in a society that is becoming ever more fragmented. In spite of the unprecedented success of museums in attracting masses of visitors, the future of the museum is uncertain. Museums may appear calm and self-assured to outsiders, but not even this noble showcase of art is immune to the cracks in society. The tensions between high and low, newcomer and n...

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Kort na de Eerste Wereldoorlog treden enkele jonge, getalenteerde kunstcritici op de voorgrond die een heel eigen geluid laten horen. In niet mis te verstane bewoordingen schrijven ze over tentoonstellingen van oude en moderne kunst. Kasper Niehaus, A.M. Hammacher, W. Jos. de Gruyter en Jan Engelman gelden in Nederland dan ook niet voor niets als gezaghebbende critici. Of ze zich nu uitlaten over de cryptisch aandoende beeldtaal van Hieronymus Bosch, het abstracte werk van Piet Mondriaan of d...