Bøker utgitt av Transcript Verlag

Fractals suggest recursivity, infinity and the repetition of a principle of order. They are digital pictures of the universe's continuous movement ignored by mankind during millennia.This book investigates the relationship existing between geometries and technology, and how it guided cognitive processes and thus the organization of narrative spaces. The author proposes a new approach for the study of media remarking that from Bacon's camera obscura to von Neumann's computers both geometries and technology strongly influenced the organization of narrative spaces, which acquired a fractal character.

Postnaturalism offers an original account of human-technological co-evolution and argues that film and media theory, in particular, needs to be re-evaluated from the perspective of our material interfaces with a constantly changing environment. Extrapolating from Frankenstein films and the resonances they establish between a hybrid monster and the spectator hooked into the machinery of the cinema, Shane Denson engages debates in science studies and philosophy of technology to rethink histories of cinema, media, technology, and ultimately of the affective channels of our own embodiment.With a foreword by media theorist Mark B. N. Hansen.

Racism has become difficult to name in Europe. Racial semantics are shifting, race is coded in multiple ways and the defense of naturalized privilege is today regularly argued so as to preempt accusations of racism. The possibility to address racism as a particular kind of power formation has become complicated. This volume examines how »race« relates to the operations of social power in particular contexts and what the critical purchase and effectiveness of analytical concepts of racism can be. It combines conceptual reflections with case studies exploring the diverse conjunctures of talking about racism in European countries today.

In the current environment of a growing Muslim presence in Europe, young Muslims have started to develop a subculture of their own. The manifestations reach from religious rap and street wear with Islamic slogans to morally impeccable comedy. This form of religiously permissible fun and of youth-compatible worship is actively engaged in shaping the future of Islam in Europe and of Muslim/non-Muslims relations.Based on a vast collection of youth cultural artefacts, participant observations and in-depth interviews in France, Britain and Germany, this book provides a vivid description of Islamic youth culture and explores the reasons why young people develop such a culture.

What is the current state of discussion in Cultural History? Which European institutions engage exclusively in Cultural History and which topics do they address? And how will Cultural History develop in the future?These and other questions are raised by European scholars in the discussion of Institutions, Themes and Perspectives of Cultural History in this volume. It provides a profound overview of contemporary developments in Scandinavia, Finland, Great Britain, Latvia, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Spain.

What is the cultural dimension of sustainability? This book offers a thought-provoking answer, with a theoretical synthesis on »cultures of sustainability«. Describing how modernity degenerated into a culture of unsustainability, to which the arts are contributing, Sacha Kagan engages us in a fundamental rethinking of our ways of knowing and seeing the world. We must learn not to be afraid of complexity, and to re-awaken a sensibility to patterns that connect. With an overview of ecological art over the past 40 years, and a discussion of art and social change, the book assesses the potential role of art in a much needed transformation process.

Supports and deepens the existing interfaces between art, science, and technology; and transgressing traditional principles and styles of research. This book suggests a transdisciplinary network that prefers to avoid traditional dualisms like nature and culture, subjects and objects as well as man and machine.

In contemporary global capitalist culture, time-consciousness becomes more important than self-consciousness. This book explores lived temporalities on markets, in buses and in traditional subsistence in Guatemala, and a theoretical exploration of these through the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and inter-relational approaches within psychoanalysis.

This essential introduction to American studies examines the core foundational myths upon which the nation is based and which still determine discussions of US-American identities today. These myths include the myth of »discovery,« the Pocahontas myth, the myth of the Promised Land, the myth of the Founding Fathers, the melting pot myth, the myth of the West, and the myth of the self-made man.The chapters provide extended analyses of each of these myths, using examples from popular culture, literature, memorial culture, school books, and every-day life. Including visual material as well as study questions, this book will be of interest to any student of American studies and will foster an understanding of the United States of America as an imagined community by analyzing the foundational role of myths in the process of nation building.

The emergence of global knowledge societies is recently questioning the meaning and relevance of local knowledge in the context of Southern countries. Women have proved to be the central actors in the multiple channels of local-global networking, using these new social ties for the negotiation of old and new elements of knowledge, scientific knowledge and development discourses. The inherent politicisation of knowledge and the direct objective of transforming societal institutions are not only signs of resistance against global hegemony, but serve for a new definition and for a defence of local culture and of local knowledge.

Dance is in motion all over the world, and with it the knowledge that it holds. But what does body knowledge in motion constitute, how is it produced, how can it be researched and conveyed? This title describes the unique potential of dance as an archive and medium as well as its significance at the interface between art and science.