Entropy and Art: An Essay on Disorder and Order [Paperback]

Rudolf Arnheim (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rudolf Arnheim is Professor Emeritus of the Psychology of Art at Harvard University. For many years he was a member of the Psychology Faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, and he spent his last ten academic years at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he now lives.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (January 29, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520026179
• ISBN-13: 978-0520026179
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #620,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic from a Master, April 14, 2009

By 

Frederico F. P. Barreto "Frederico Flósculo" (Brasília, Brazil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Entropy and Art: An Essay on Disorder and Order (Paperback)

Rudolf Arnheim, from the strange and deep 1970's decade, wrote a seminal and almost unnoticed classic about the relation between Entropy and Art. The book has different properties, depending on who is the reader: an artist, a semiotician, an "architectural morphologist". Arnheim exposes the more embarrassing question to the design methodology: the bare principles of an information theory related to the most qualitative matter, Art. It is an amazingly inspiring booklet, who will find (much) more readers along the Century.

3.0 out of 5 stars Could you repeat that again?, July 8, 2011

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bronx book nerd (Bronx, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Entropy and Art: An Essay on Disorder and Order, 40th Anniversary Edition (Paperback)

I found this short book (or long essay) incredibly difficult to understand. Arnheim explores the relationship between entropy, or the tendency for things to deteriorate over time, and art. Exactly how he accomplishes this is beyond me, I'm embarrased to say. What I did get is that there is an irony, or inconsistency, at least, involving the fact that different camps swear by entropy, and others by it's opposite, i.e. the phenomena of things arranging themselves into order. So I think the fundamental questions are; is it one, or the other, or both? I leave it to sturdier minds to grapple with the contents of this book. Even the other reviewer's review is difficult to understand. I suppose I went in over my head. Good luck.