How Images Think [Paperback]

Ron Burnett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 2005

Digital images are an integral part of all media, including television, film, photography, animation, video games, data visualization, and the Internet. In the digital world, spectators become navigators wending their way through a variety of interactive experiences, and images become spaces of visualization with more and more intelligence programmed into the very fabric of communication processes. In How Images Think, Ron Burnett explores this new ecology, which has transformed the relationships humans have with the image-based technologies they have created. So much intelligence has been programmed into these image-dependent technologies that it often seems as if images are "thinking"; ascribing thought to machines redefines our relationship with them and enlarges our ideas about body and mind. Burnett argues that the development of this new, closely interdependent relationship marks a turning point in our understanding of the connections between humans and machines.After presenting an overview of visual perception, Burnett examines the interactive modes of new technologies -- including computer games, virtual reality, digital photography, and film -- and locates digital images in a historical context. He argues that virtual images occupy a "middle space," combining the virtual and the real into an environment of visualization that blurs the distinctions between subject and object -- part of a continuum of experiences generated by creative choices by viewers, the results of which cannot be attributed either to images or to participants.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I didn't expect this book to take me where it did, and when I came back to my everyday world it didn't feel the same any more. Eldon Garnet employs a deadpan narrative that heightens one's awareness of the possibility for evil on your own street. It's a terrific book."--Douglas Coupland

"An arresting document suffused with moments of intense and beautiful poetry, with a bold and expansive vision of culture."--Derrick de Kerckhove, Director, McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology, University of Toronto

" How Images Think maps afresh the territory of how we engage with new media. Burnett challenges us to rethink our interpretation of the changing mediascape in which images are used as the main form of interaction and communication. It is crucial reading for those interested in understanding the relationships we have with the images that surround us." Ilana Snyder, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Monash University

"This insightful investigation of how digital—and other—images modify, if not rule, the way we think is urgent reading for those among us who spend more than half their lives glued to one screen or another (TV, computer, PDA, cellphone, etc). That is, most of us." Derrick de Kerckhove, Director, McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology, University of Toronto

"*How Images Think* maps afresh the territory of how we engage with new media. Burnett challenges us to rethink our interpretation of the changing mediascape in which images are used as the main form of interaction and communication. It is crucial reading for those interested in understanding the relationships we have with the images that surround us."--Ilana Snyder, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Monash University

"This insightful investigation of how digital - and other - images modify, if not rule, the way we think is urgent reading for those among us who spend more than half their lives glued to one screen or another (TV, computer, PDA, cellphone, etc). That is, most of us."--Derrick de Kerckhove, Director, McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology, University of Toronto

From the Inside Flap

"This is a brilliant book that makes a much-needed contribution to new media research and cultural theory, written with great clarity and visionary purpose." --Janine Marchessault, Associate Professor of Film Studies, York University

"I tried to think of a witty play on 'Every picture tells a thousand words,' but then the whole word/picture thing collapsed on me. Burnett really marries the two together. This book is actually billions of pictures in disguise. Required reading in these accelerating times." --Douglas Coupland, novelist and visual artist

"*How Images Think* maps afresh the territory of how we engage with new media. Burnett challenges us to rethink our interpretation of the changing mediascape in which images are used as the main form of interaction and communication. It is crucial reading for those interested in understanding the relationships we have with the images that surround us." --Ilana Snyder, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Monash University

"This insightful investigation of how digital - and other - images modify, if not rule, the way we think is urgent reading for those among us who spend more than half their lives glued to one screen or another (TV, computer, PDA, cellphone, etc). That is, most of us." --Derrick de Kerckhove, Director, McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology, University of Toronto --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (February 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262524414
• ISBN-13: 978-0262524414
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #646,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Ron Burnett, RCA is the President and Vice-Chancellor of Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. He is the author of over of 150 essays and articles in books and journals around the world. He was the editor-in-chief and founder of Ciné-Tracts Magazine, a film and cultural studies journal that was among the first to appear in Canada. Burnett is also a photographer, videomaker and filmmaker. He developed one of the first academic web sites in Canada in the early 1990's, and continues to blog at http://www.ecuad.ca/~rburnett

In 2010, Ron Burnett received a knighthood from the French Government, Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres.

Prior to coming to Emily Carr, Burnett was the Director of the Graduate Program in Communications at McGill University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book -- a must-read, July 26, 2005

By 

Stephanie Thompson - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Images Think (Hardcover)

Ron Burnett's "How Images Think" is a major contribution to the current discussion surrounding images and the digital universe, and is essential reading for anyone interested in thinking about the implications of our relationship to analog and digital media. The book itself is gorgeously designed, with a luminous cover; each chapter is absorbing, and the reading experience is enhanced by the inclusion of additional sidebar comments/text, and interesting photographs. Most importantly, the text is full of intelligent and honest ideas about the contemporary process of interacting with images. It is academic and personal, complex and readable. The author's discussion of the internet as a "gateway" that transforms the computer from a device into a portal (ref. Chapter 6 "Humans--Machines"), is very astute, as are his thoughts on how current discussions of mind/consciousness often draw on metaphors used in computer science and engineering. A great book, overall, which I recommend to all.

11 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I have read in a while, June 17, 2004

By 

Sara Brougton (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Images Think (Hardcover)

What a wonderful experience! This books is both personal and critical. I was impressed with the author's range of knowledge and desire to bring new ideas to the reader. His range is wonderful!!

14 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars How Ron Burnett Thinks, July 25, 2005

By 

Daniel Schnaidt (Middletown, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How Images Think (Paperback)

How Images Think never quite lives up to its clever title or Douglas Coupland's glowing endorsement on the back cover. Ron Burnett's wide-ranging interests, as evident in his excellent bibliography, too often distract from his focus on the way images work in today's computer mediated world.

Burnett is constantly skidding off on some new tangent, (entire chapters go off track) seemingly compelled to tell the reader everything he knows, even as it muddles the difficult argument he is trying to make about the locus of meaning and intelligence in an increasingly hybridized and mediated world, an argument that never becomes entirely clear.

How Images Think is admirable in its ambition and presents many welcome invitations to investigate the artists and thinkers who intrigue Burnett. In the end, I was reminded of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which I read in high school with the similar anticipation and finally disappointment in its lack of rigor.