Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology, and Consciousness by Roy Ascott (Hardcover)

~ (Author), (Editor) "While the creative process demands acts of synthesis that defy verbal description and that only the work of art itself can define, there are some..." (more)
Key Phrases: planetary collegium, behaviourist art, telematic art, Ars Electronica, New York, Roy Ascott (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"At a time when libraries are stacked with mass-marketed books on the Internet, Telematic Embrace is a welcome contribution to both academic and general discourse."--San Francisco Chronicle -- Review

Product Description

Long before e-mail and the Internet permeated society, Roy Ascott, a pioneering British artist and theorist, coined the term "telematic art" to describe the use of online computer networks as an artistic medium. In Telematic Embrace Edward A. Shanken gathers, for the first time, an impressive compilation of more than three decades of Ascott's philosophies on aesthetics, interactivity, and the sense of self and community in the telematic world of cyberspace. This book explores Ascott's ideas on how networked communication has shaped behavior and consciousness within and beyond the realm of what is conventionally defined as art.

Telematics, a powerful marriage of computers and telecommunication, made technologies we now take for granted--such as e-mail and automated teller machines (ATMs)--part of our daily life, and made art a more interactive form of expression. Telematic art challenges traditional relationships between artist, artwork, and audience by allowing nonlocal audiences to influence the emergent qualities of the artwork, which consists of the ebb and flow of electronic information. These essays constitute a unique archaeology of ideas, tracing Ascott's meditations on the formation of consciousness through the intertwined cultural histories of art and technology from the 1960s to the present.

Shanken's introduction situates Ascott's work within a history of ideas in art, technology, and philosophy. Given the increasing role of the Internet and the World Wide Web in the creation of commerce and community at the dawn of this new millennium, scholars, students, laypeople, policymakers, and artists will find this collection informative and thought-provoking.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 439 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520218035
• ISBN-13: 978-0520218031
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,329,789 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Foresight on Art, Media and the Future, November 24, 2006

By	Natasha Vita-More - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Finding accurate accounts of historical turning points warrants careful scanning and careful elimination. There is much information to be read in articles, books and in the minds of academics who can give tid-bits of how we got to where we are today in a world of art and technology. But there are few people who can provide us with a rigorous account that actually has (1) depth and substance; and (2) an actual birthing of an era. This book provides us with both.

For the disciplined reader, Roy Ascott and Edward Shanken provide alluring, inventive and down right smart accounts of the time frame in which art evolved into a 21st century discipline; for the lazy reader, Roy Ascott's sentences are a crisp and inviting story of what it could behoove the artist to pay attention to.

Natasha Vita-More

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique and insightful, April 2, 2004

By A Customer

This collection offers a unique and valuable history of art and technology from the 1960s to the 2000s as chronicled through the brilliant writings of Roy Ascott. A pioneer of cybernetic and telematic art, Ascott is generally recognized as a leading figure in the field of new media. His theoretical writings are inventive, prescient, and provocative, and are required reading for students and professionals who are interested in learning about the ideas that shaped interactivity, media art, and net art.

Shanken's introduction offers an erudite but highly readable and insighful guide to Ascott's work as an artist, theorist, and teacher, placing his many contributions in a broad context of art history, the history of ideas, and the history of technology. At 94 pages, this essay offers one of the most extensive art historical treatments of art and technology currently in print and makes an invaluable addition to the literature.

The book may be a bit pricey, but it is well worth it and this is one volume you'll be glad to have in hard-cover.

3 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Skip this one, January 22, 2004

By	John Ruskin (New Haven) - See all my reviews

E. Shanken writes like a baton twirler with a Ph.D.