Black Magic, White Noise [Paperback]

Robert Klanten (Editor), Hendrik Hellige (Editor), Sven Ehmann (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2007

Today's television is packed with programs featuring crime scene investigation and their ubiquitous scenes of autopsy and forensic medicine. Existential questions about life and death are no longer only addressed on the philosophical level of Hamlet's famous soliloquy, but in drastic images. Splatter, horror and the Gothic are not only making their comeback in TV or in movies, but are influencing the current style of editorial design, illustration and photography.

Against this background, Black Magic/White Noise presents an unsettlingly fascinating collection of visuals that deal the physical and the psychological as interpreted by contemporary designers from around the world. The book seduces its readers into a conflicted world filled with chillingly beautiful illustration, photography, graphic design, collage, painting and installation. The title's "black magic" is represented by images of darkness, mystery and horror. Its "white noise" describes the unexpected infiltration of the irrational into broad daylight that can be found in some of the included works and that we have come to know and love from films by Alfred Hitchcock or books by Haruki Murakami.

Not for the fainthearted, Black Magic/White Noise is a potent cocktail of the drastic themes and motifs that are being used and finding widespread acceptance in today's creative disciplines and design.

Product Details

• Paperback: 157 pages
• Publisher: Gestalten Verlag (May 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3899551877
• ISBN-13: 978-3899551877
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #728,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unusual beauty, December 22, 2008

By 

btb_anon (Silicon Valley, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Magic, White Noise (Paperback)

I doubt anyone will enjoy all the art presented in this book. But neither should you expect to only like a couple of the items. All the art has a dark component, some harking back to turn of the 20th century commercial art seen in "le Voyage dans la Lune", others highly influenced by René Magritte.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly as described, December 1, 2007

By 

J. Frantz (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Magic, White Noise (Paperback)

The editorial review of this book at the top of the page is accurate. The artwork is not for everyone, as it is quite bizarre. The publisher, Die Gestalten Verlag has sample images from the book online if you want to be sure the style is one you'll like.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dissapointing, October 22, 2007

By 

Potato - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Black Magic, White Noise (Paperback)

The cover was beautiful and I expected the interior art to be beautiful as well. The book has 5 pictures of worth and rest is just garbage. I am very disspointed with this purchase.