At the Edge of Art [Hardcover]

Joline Blais (Author), Jon Ippolito (Author), SMITH (Designer)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A dizzying array of artworks by over fifty creators, illustrated in a dynamic design that challenges conventional art publications.

Desktop computer technology and the Internet have opened up new possibilities for artistic creation, distribution, and appreciation. But in addition to projects that might conventionally be described as new-media art, there is now a wide spectrum of work—unclassified until this book—by practitioners not normally thought of as "artists." Engineers, software programmers, biologists, and architects, among others, are producing work on the Internet that can only be described as "art." Or can it?

As rapid technological and scientific advances raise new cultural, ethical, and moral issues, while the white walls of the conventional museum or gallery seem to be straitjacketing cultural development, Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito confront our definition of art. The book explores six strands of creation:

• Code as Muse: new artistic possibilities opened up by computer programming
• Deep Play: new narrative forms and aesthetics of computer games
• Autobotography: the rise of Webcam-based performance art
• Designing Politics: seemingly real Web sites, used to subvert commercial and political enterprise
• Preserving Artificial Life: a new biology established via human-engineered viruses and other digital life-forms
• Reweaving Community: the emergence of an online art world whose fugitive existence resists definition.

Over 350 color illustrations.

About the Author

Joline Blais teaches digital narrative and indigenous media at the University of Maine, where she co-directs the Still Water program with fellow New Media professor Jon Ippolito. Jon Ippolito is a former Associate Curator of Media Arts at the Guggenheim Museum, where he curated the first museum exhibition of virtual reality and founded the Variable Media Network for preserving digital culture.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (March 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500238227
• ISBN-13: 978-0500238226
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #382,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressif!, April 4, 2007

By	Cary Peppermint "Artist" (Cyberspace) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At the Edge of Art (Hardcover)

Worthy of its name, At The Edge of Art does its share of risk-taking. It is a serious offering that fills a void in the theory and contemporary history of digital, networked practices and approaches. Simply put, this book is intellectual. It is ethical in its approach, communicating an obvious care and concern about there being a space for vital cultural works and workers who "hack" at the accelerating technological spectacle. (I have ordered the book as the required text for my digital theory and practice classes.)