Product Description

Throughout the history of cinema, a radical avant-garde has existed on the fringes of the film industry. A great deal of research has focused on the pre- and early history of cinema, but there has been little speculation about a future cinema incorporating new electronic media. Electronic media have not only fundamentally transformed cinema but have altered its role as a witness to reality by rendering "realities" not necessarily linked to documentation, by engineering environments that incorporate audiences as participants, and by creating event-worlds that mix realities and narratives in forms not possible in traditional cinema. This hybrid cinema melds montage, traditional cinema, experimental literature, television, video, and the net. The new cinematic forms suggest that traditional cinema no longer has the capacity to represent events that are themselves complex configurations of experience, interpretation, and interaction. This book, which accompanies an exhibition organized by the ZKM Institute for Visual Media, explores the history and significance of pre-cinema and of early experimental cinema, as well as the development of the unique theaters in which "immersion" evolved. Drawing on a broad range of scholarship, it examines the shift from monolithic Hollywood spectacles to works probing the possibilities of interactive, performative, and net-based cinemas. The post-cinematic condition, the book shows, has long roots in artistic practice and influences every channel of communication.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1030425 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 640 pages

Review
"The editors offer a comprehensive look at the evolution of cinema." -- "The Futurist"

About the Author
Jeffrey Shaw is Director of the Institute for Visual Media at the ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe. Peter Weibel is CEO of the ZKM and the coauthor of net condition (MIT Press, 2001).

Customer Reviews

Not just an exhibition catalog by any means.
I never saw this exhibition at the ZKM but many of the pieces are in the permanent collection and I was there not long after so have seen several of the works. The publication is first rate as most of the ZKM / MIT Press collaborations are (another noteworthy one is the publication for CTRL[Space]) and as with many of these can not be seen as merely a catalogue of the exhibition. It is a reader for what could be loosely called cinematic arts where cinematic forms are pushed beyond limitations of screen (many of the works are installation works), beyond limitations of form (many are interactive, adaptive, generative etc.) and attempt to form ideas of where 'cinema' might be going.

Who is this for? Primarily anyone researching/working/practicing within the field of new media and has an interest in the moving image. If you know and like any of the following publications:

New Screen Media: Cinema / Art / Narrative
The Language of New Media (Leonardo)
Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database
Remediation: Understanding New Media

Then you'd definetly be interested in this. If your a straight film maker, it's probably not for you.

Sadly, sadly, sadly out of print and desperately needing a second edition, I have many students who refer to this publication and the works therein at undergraduate and postgraduate level and simply can not source second-hand copies at now £200 - come on MIT print another run!!!