The art of mechanical reproduction : technology and aesthetics from Duchamp to the digital

__The Art of Mechanical Reproduction__ presents a striking new approach to how traditional art mediums—painting, sculpture, and drawing—changed in the twentieth century in response to photography, film, and other technologies. Countering the modernist view that the medium provides advanced art with “resistance” against technological pressures, Tamara Trodd argues that we should view art and its practices as imaginatively responding to the potential that artists glimpsed in mechanical reproduction, putting art into dialogue with the commercial cultures of its time. __The Art of Mechanical Reproduction__ weaves a rich history of the experimental networks in which artists as diverse as Paul Klee, Hans Bellmer, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Smithson, Gerhard Richter, Chris Marker, and Tacita Dean have worked, and it shows for the first time how extensively technological innovations of the moment have affected their work. Original and broad-ranging, __The Art of Mechanical Reproduction__ challenges some of the most respected and entrenched criticism of the past several decades—and allows us to think about these artists anew. The Art of Mechanical Reproduction presents a striking new approach to how traditional art mediums--painting, sculpture, and drawing--changed in the twentieth century in response to photography, film, and other technologies. Countering the modernist view that the medium provides advanced art with "resistance" against technological pressures, Tamara Trodd argues that we should view art and its practices as imaginatively responding to the potential that artists glimpsed in mechanical reproduction, putting art into dialogue with the commercial cultures of its time. The Art of Mechanical Reproduction weaves a rich history of the experimental networks in which artists as diverse as Paul Klee, Hans Bellmer, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Smithson, Gerhard Richter, Chris Marker, and Tacita Dean have worked, and it shows for the first time how extensively technological innovations of the moment have affected their work. Original and broad-ranging, The Art of Mechanical Reproduction challenges some of the most respected and entrenched criticism of the past several decades--and allows us to think about these artists anew.--Publisher website

The Art of Mechanical Reproduction presents a striking new approach to how traditional art mediums—painting, sculpture, and drawing—changed in the twentieth century in response to photography, film, and other technologies. Countering the modernist view that the medium provides advanced art with "resistance" against technological pressures, Tamara Trodd argues that we should view art and its practices as imaginatively responding to the potential that artists glimpsed in mechanical reproduction, putting art into dialogue with the commercial cultures of its time. The Art of Mechanical Reproduction weaves a rich history of the experimental networks in which artists as diverse as Paul Klee, Hans Bellmer, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Smithson, Gerhard Richter, Chris Marker, and Tacita Dean have worked, and it shows for the first time how extensively technological innovations of the moment have affected their work. Original and broad-ranging, The Art of Mechanical Reproduction challenges some of the most respected and entrenched criticism of the past several decades—and allows us to think about these artists anew.

"Presents a striking new approach to how traditional art mediums - painting, sculpture, and drawing - changed in the twentieth century in response to photography, film, and other technologies. Countering the modernist view that the medium provides advanced art with "resistance" against technological pressures, Tamara Trodd argues that we should view art and its practices as imaginatively responding to the potential that artists glimpsed in mechanical reproduction, putting art into dialogue with the commercial cultures of its time. The Art of Mechanical Reproduction weaves a rich history of the experimental networks in which artists as diverse as Paul Klee, Hans Bellmer, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Smithson, Gerhard Richter, Chris Marker, and Tacita Dean have worked, and it shows for the first time how extensively technological innovations of the moment have affected their work"--Publisher's description The purpose of this book is to explore the potential of new technological situations not only for attacking established aesthetical systems, but also for instituting new ones. This study shows how new artistic values may emerge directly from changing technological conditions, and how these new aesthetics may offer us insights into our current technological situation, as well as insights into a possible future. These issues are explored through an examination of the art of mechanical reproduction, meaning both the transformation of art-making and viewing by new technologies, and the liquidation of inherited cultural tradition brought about by the advent of technological production and technologically supported mass culture in the early twentieth century Introduction. The art of mechanical reproduction Mnemotechnics. Oil-transfer Investing in drawing Apparatus Camera-seeing Seeing machines. The panorama device Collage Large Glass/shop window Ball-joint, Rotoreliefs, Guitar Camera vision. Painting shadows Automatic drawing Screening the body Screen memories Xeroxing the medium. Working drawings Mapping "systems" Photo-plus-text The dialectical image Painting at a standstill. Don't look now The stilled and moving image Pathos formulae Farewell to the machine age? The film machine Mechanical ballets Dean's telescope Film machines after film. Presents a fresh approach to how traditional art mediums - painting, sculpture, and drawing - changed in the twentieth century as a result of photography, film, and other technologies. Thsi book challenges some of the most respected and entrenched criticism of the past several decades - and allows us to think about these artists anew.