Abstracting Reality: Art, Communication, and Cognition in the Digital Age

by Mark J. P. Wolf Professor and Chair of th

Overview

Abstracting Reality considers the relationship between digital technology and culture and their mutual influences on each other. The book begins with an examination of how everyday life became quantized over time, setting the stage for digital technology, which developed out of communication, machine control, and calculating machines. From there the book explores how digital technology changed the nature of art, inherent culture biases in digitization, composite imagery, machine-mediated communication, the metaphor of cyberspace, virtual reality, and finally, the way in which digital technology and imaging changes the very nature of indexicality itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761816683
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	06/07/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Mark J.P. Wolf is Assistant Professor in the Communication Department of Concordia University Wisconsin, Mequon.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Acknowledgements Chapter 2 Preface Part 3 The Emergence of Digital Technology: Chapter 4 The Quantization of Everyday Life Chapter 5 Digital Technology Develops Part 6 Art: Chapter 7 The Work of Art in the Digital Art Chapter 8 Cultural Biases Inherent in Digitization Chapter 9 The Composite Image Part 10 Communication / Media: Chapter 11 Machine Mediation of Social Interaction Chapter 12 The Metaphor of Cyberspace Part 13 Perception / Representation / Cognition: Chapter 14 The Digital Environment Chapter 15 Virtual Reality and Other Substitutes Chapter 16 Indexicality Chapter 17 Epilogue