1 comments about Particles + Waves With Plausibility.

1. The maverick visual philosopher, Dennis Balk has a produced a new body of work, unlike his earlier multi-disciplinary art, theater and cultural projects, it is self-contained as a book for mass consumption. On first glance, it appears to be a traditional "coffee table book", which usually functions as a passive sign within the reader's ambient of décor, delight and good taste. This book is anything but...Balk has subverted this conventional structure and demands that the reader takes a serious step outside. His current work/data asks us to presume a leap of faith in exploring uncharted aesthetic territory and actively engage in a multifarious visual narrative. One can scan the surface of this tome, but that would be a waste. This is not an easy exercise in image consumption; we must dig deeper. The demands will not go unrewarded.
   
   The trip that Dennis immerses us into is both hyper-rational and a spaced-out visionary quest. Attempting to make visible relationships between such disparate elements as art, science and daily life, Balk has graphically charted the behaviors, forms and transformations of his 3-d sub-atomic particle models (they are spectacular fictions) and slyly intimates that similar forms and behavior exist and/or contradict human life and the physical world. Traversing seamlessly between pictorial images of the ancient Giza plateau, scientific models of his virtual creations, daily life and popular culture on the back streets of Cairo as well as interspersed texts and snapshots of Balk's daily sci-fi reality, the reader is led to wonder whether the connections Balk describes are purely fictional or whether ancient and contemporary cultural codes are indeed intimate with the mysteries of contemporary science.
   
   Balk is a "big picture" man. A bulky question implied by his method of science fiction/cultural critique seems to be whether all of this "information" was codified by the "big bang" millions of years ago? And, are we just endlessly playing back the echoes of the cultural dawn?
   
   If Syd Mead, one of Balk's idols, has consistently provided us with mind-blowing illustrations as a "visual futurist" and P. K. Dick, another Balk anti-hero, has given us the sprawling narratives of the "future past", Dennis presents us with a much more intricate and highly nuanced picture of the stranger than sci-fi "future present".

4 comments about About Rothko.

1. The definitive book on Mark Rothko's work, by one of his closest friends. Ashton gets as close as she can to a very elusive, contradictory person. The book requires the same kind of sublime imagination that Rothko's paintings - his "children," as he often called them - require. Those without soul should pass this book by.



2. Seriously I did. The first time I saw a Rothko painting was at the SFMoMA. It covered an entire wall of the room and was the biggest thing on canvas I have ever seen. I was hoping that Dore Ashton's book would give me an insight into the meaning and style of Rothko, but rather, it seemed to be a biography of the man rather than a critism of the work. I suppose that's partially my fault since I'm sure there quite a bit of art critism books out there on Rothko...unfortunately, the historical presentation of the book isn't really all that interesting. I guess in the end, the big picture is that Rothko was deeply influenced by his Marxist experiences because that's what I got from Ashton's book. On a side note, Dore Ashton writes for Modern Painter magazine, which is actually a good magazine.



3. Out of two hundred plus pages here you will find a grand total of maybe two pages' worth of remarks that strike you by their precision, sensitivity, and depth of understanding of the work - that is until you realize that these are without exception quotes from the artist himself. Ashton herself seems to have nothing to say "about Rothko". Desperate to write a "big" and "important" book, she offers empty hyperbole in place of thoughtful analysis, coated in such convoluted, meaningless, and purely academic lingo that by page five reading the book becomes a painful chore not unlike having to clean the underside of a sanitation truck with a toothbrush. Frankly, I don't see how a manual on transmission repair could offer fewer insights into Rothko's painting.



4. I read the book in the eighties, when it was published-- I was attracted to the great photo of Rothko on the cover-- the book is a loving Rothko-like homage--cryptic, deep, serious-- the lack of irony is sometimes hard to take-- but adds a sense of the compelling-- I found myself reflecting upon it-- as one might reflect upon one of the paintings-- Ashton obviously loved her subject-- oh, she describes her meetings with Rothko-- in his later, financially secure period eating in an upper east side chinese restaurant-- a delight.

No comments about Print and Production Finishes for Promotional Items.

No comments about Guide to Art.

No comments about Codex Espangliensis: From Columbus to the Border Patrol.

2 comments about Active Sights: Art as Social Interaction.

1. I used this book as a text while I taught at Notre Dame. It is a very good book which clearly and simply provides ways to access understand and critique student own art or art that they see.It is well written and a good tool for anyone to gain understanding and meaning of the artist, the process of making art and its function in our society. I will be using it at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.
   Advanced High school / College / adult



2. I'd love to review this book, however, it was ordered through Amazon on Feb 13, 2006 and as of this date, March 16, 2006, I have yet to receive it. What's the problem Amazon?

No comments about Tacita Dean (Contemporary Artists).

3 comments about Game Art: The Graphic Art of Computer Games.

1. Game Art by Dave Morris and Leo Harris is one of the best ways I have found to learn about the history of video games. There are great drawings and pictures of many different games from Pong to Halo. This book has a lot of great information.
   There is a whole section about a game called Fable, which is the second most popular on X-Box. Fable allows the player to make choices and each choice leads to a different destiny. It's possible to take over the world and rule with an iron fist or you can save it. This is somewhat like the book, The Pearl, because the main character must choose between the pearl and his family. In this book, the pearl represents greed and evil, and the family is happiness.
   Overall, this is a nicely done book. I would recommend it to anyone that likes video games, or wants to know more about them. This is not just a book with a lot of pictures. It's like portal that shows you about lots and lots of video game and information for every one.



2. This is far more than a book of glossy game art pics, and certainly not a coffee table prop. Appropriately the book has a number of layers and themes which together provide an absorbing insight into the history of computer games. The text is free from the gushing sycophantic praise that blemishes many of the genre art books. Instead the authors produce a clear categorisation of games with illustrations in support. Comments from game designers are likewise intelligent, thoughtful and devoid of self agrandisement. What the reader gets is a book of useful illustrations, clear game categorisation by features, useful insights into game creation and an indication of where the genre is probably headed. Overall there is a subtle intellectual tone to the book which makes it both a pleasure to flick through but a much more profound pleasure to read.

   If the book as any underdeveloped theme it is arguably the absence of game postmortems. What went right? What went wrong? This would have rounded out the book very nicely. However, if you are interested in game design and the role of art in creating various immersive experiences, then this is a book to buy and revisit from time to time.




3. I've never been an avid computer games player (wrong generation, mostly), but their progressive development, and especially the continuing quest for verisimilitude, fascinate me. I remember when Asteroids and Pac-Man and Space Invaders first appeared (in the lobbies of movie theaters, when "arcade" still meant pinball), and how addicted my adolescent kids quickly became. But that level of 2-D was nothing, of course, compared to the MYST series and to god/simulations like SimCity 3 -- not to mention keyframe animation and real-time interaction and detailed storyboarding that wouldn't be out of place in Hollywood. This is the first book I've seen that really gets into all aspects of video game art and design (there wouldn't have been enough to say even a few years ago), and it succeeds nicely both in its glossy-paper graphics and in the discursive text, which includes numerous interviews with designers.

No comments about Tokujin Yoshioka Design.

No comments about American Indian Archery (Civilization of the American Indian Series).