2 comments about Islamic Tiles (Eastern Art).

1. It is very dissapointing to see an example of an Ýznik tile (Turkish) on the cover of a book under the name "Islamic Tiles". Anyone with the least respect to art, to the very origin of that art and to the country (TURKEY) where that art has flourished should be more selective in choosing a design such symbolic of our country. Either the title or the picture on the book should be changed. Our precious inheritance deserves to be named or used correctly. If knowledge isn't sufficient, please refer to books by dear Nurhan Atasoy or Azade Akar. ART certainly deserves respect and so does nations.



2. This is a good book if what you're looking for is the history and description of Islamic tile styles. I was, however, disappointed that all the illustrations/pictures were in black and white. Bummer. The best part of Islamic tiles, as far as I'm concerned, is the use of color! I was hoping for lots of color pictures of Islamic mosques, etc. Nope. Anyway, I guess it's good as an art history book.

No comments about Shahrzad: History.

1 comments about Jewish Art.

1. Ms. Grossman did an excellent job of introducing the reader to the religious side of Jewish culture. As a non-Jew who observes the Sabbath and Holy Days, I found the book to be of particular interest, since I belong to a very small church which has very little in the way of either Sabbath or Holy Day tradition. For this reason I refer to books such as "Jewish Art", since the Jews have such a rich religious heritage -- a heritage which I believe churches such as mine can draw upon for ideas and inspiration. I only wish the author devoted more material to the Sabbath -- i.e., more examples of items used at a Jewish home on this special Day. This is not so much a critism as a comment, since I understand that for most readers her coverage of Jewish art relating to the Sabbath is probably adequate. Overall, however, I would say that the author succeded in introducing the Sabbath, in all its richness and beauty, to the average non-Sabbatarian.

3 comments about The Decorative Art of Limoges Porcelain and Boxes.

1. I purchased this book based on these reviews and I was disappointed. I am interested in ANTIQUE Limoges vs newer pieces of Limoges and new boxes from retail shops. Love Schiffer books and I highly recommend Antique Limoges at Home.



2. This is the perfect book for the person wanting to know about Limoges porcelain. From Limoges Boxes to specific manufactures of all different types of pieces, it's all in here! The pictures are beautiful! The backmarks and values make it a great tool for anyone wanting to collect Limoges.



3. Waterbrook-Clyde have done a lot of research in compiling their list of backmarks for so many various Limoges companies. There are also many photos of beautiful and unusual pieces of Limoges porcelain. They have done a great job with a very difficult study.

3 comments about Landscape: A Comprehensive Guide to Drawing and Painting Nature.

1. I have painted "plein air" for a number of years, first in pastel and now moving into oils. I was very glad to find this book of Richard McDaniels, which I have been voraciously reading over the last couple of weeks. His palette and brush strokes really speak to me, and his colors SING with clarity and beauty. I appreciate the many samples of his work included in the book, which inspire me to delve deeper into my own compositions and experiment with varying colors. He writes with a knowledgeable, carefully-thought-out and well-articulated manner, and is often surprisingly humorous in his prose. I have learned much by coming across this book - for example, being reminded how to approach the laying out of values in beginning a painting. This is essential, and something many people do not grasp! His many samples showing the various stages of a painting are informational and helpful.
   I have read the important "Carlsen's Guide to Landscape Painting" and Richard's book is a modern version of a classic- destined to become the Bible of Landscape Painting. We pay a modest sum for what we would've paid several hundred dollars for in a workshop, just by purchasing and reading this book. It is a must for any painter's personal library. Painting is a lifelong learning , and this book is many breaths of fresh air to help us along our way.



2. The best things about this book are the cover and frontis images. It covers everything about the rules of making art, but doesn't really inspire. Nothing in the text sings "Nature" to me, instead I felt that it had all been said before.



3. There is no doubt about it. This book is definetely comprehensive. It is also extremely well-organized and quite readible. I like the fact that the book can be used equally by a complete beginner or by an advanced painter. There is material to help a novice get started, yet the author (McDaniel) provides insightful guidance that will even help the experts.

   The demonstrations of different techniques are direct and easily understood, with clear examples and superb artwork. It is enlightening to follow the process of creating paintings and seeing the artist use such a wide variety of materials and techniques.

   The sections on composition and color are particularly informative, as is the discussion and helpful hints for painting on location and in the studio. He showed me a new way to see all the variety of shapes and color to be found in nature. The book is fun to read and has an easy, conversational style of writing that is relaxed, funnny and quite informative.

   If you are interested in fine art in general, or landscape painting in particular, this book should be on your shelf.

No comments about Ceramic Painting (Artist's Library series #34).

2 comments about Decorative Mosaics.

1. This is a good book for beginning mosaicists. It follows the usual format - history, techniques & materials, gallery, projects.

   I recommend it because it covers all of these topics quite well, it's well laid out and it's more affordable than many similar books.

   However.

   I bought this book because I admire Elaine Goodwin's work, so I was disappointed that only about half of the projects feature her designs.

   I was annoyed to find that of the 4 pieces on the cover, only 2 are projects - the other 2 are from the gallery. That's a bit like false advertising IMO.

   Finally, the designs/templates used in the projects are not clear and easy to use - in some cases they're no more than fuzzy photographs of pencil sketches. Perhaps the author doesn't want us to slavishly follow her designs, but for someone who can't draw it's frustrating.

   Finally (and now I'm really splitting hairs) the list of requirements for each project is badly presented, squashed into a little box although there's plenty of space on the page. A case of design conquering usability I guess.




2. This is a very pretty and well laid out book that takes you through several types of mosaic projects. Nice how-to with very clear pictures.

5 comments about Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative (VOICES).

1. Pause & Effect is a beautiful book. Definitely the most visual work on the subject of interactive narrative I have ever encountered. From its almost baroque design it immediately becomes clear that Meadows has a multidisciplinary background that among other things has seen him working as a game-designer, photographer, portrait painter and writer. Clearly, this multifaceted approach is the book biggest asset, as Meadows, rightly so, positions interactive narrative on the intersection of literature, visual art and interaction design. In his view, a successful interactive narrative finds a way to transfer some of the traditional control of the author over the story to the reader who must be able to "affect, choose or change the plot". Control over the perspective and time are important to evolve normal stories with its fixed chains of cause and effect, to a new level. And with a new underlying temporal structure of 'pause and effect'.
   
   We should be patient, however, the new art-form of interactive narrative will not blossom over night. It took literature several millennia to evolve from its epic (with its base and violent interaction between characters) beginnings to the current intricate form, with all its depth and reflections. Most video games (the most popular example of interactive narratives) are still in the initial cycle of development, although some games hint at the next step in the is evolution after only thirty years of development.
   
   To me the best parts of the book are the first 'dimension' (or chapter) which explains Meadow's theory of interactive narrative and the interviews that conclude the second and third dimensions. Meadows interviews the creators of some very good and important examples of existing interactive narratives. These people have many profound things to say, and it becomes clear that they were a main source of inspiration to the general theoretical framework of Pause & Effect. But close inspection of these interviews also highlights what I think is a weakness in Meadow's work.
   
   The possible structures that interactive narratives can use play an important role in both the theory and the interviews. Meadows presents three basic structures (the nodal plot, the modular plot and the open plot) which can all be diagrammed as networks of nodes and connections. I understand that these nodes some how represent story-points, events or scenes and the connections possible routes or reader choices. This reduces interactive narrative to a rather discrete network of possibilities, whereas interviewees stress the fact interactive narrative should move beyond discrete plot trees and to more analogous story worlds or simulations. Such worlds cannot be expressed in these diagrams, rather these are expressed in rules of simulation and rules of interaction. This approach will more easily incorporate procedural or algorithmical production of interactive narrative. This is (and I am confindent that Meadows agrees on this point) where the future of interactive narrative lies.
   
   The second weakness in the book is related to its interdisciplinary quality. Though Meadow's study is informed, it is not always as clear as I would want it to be. The many images are exemplary in this respect. The link with the text is not always apparent. In sometimes they are just illustrations, at other times they could be more integral to the argument of the text. But without captions and direct textual references you can never be sure. Many technical terms that come different art genres are taken for granted, as if Meadow's assumes his reader is as well-versed as he is in the arts of painting, illustration, writing and cinema. Sometimes technical terms have very different meanings in these different areas and I am not always sure which particular connotation is the correct one. Worse, I doubt that technical terms can be as easily transferred between the different media as Meadows does. Especially his discussion of 3D perspective seems to suffer from this a little.
   
   Still, Pause & Effect is an important work. Its discussion on the use of time and perspective as important tools or structures for interactive narrative remain valid. Meadows multidisciplinary, eloquent and intelligent perspective is a valuable contribution to the emerging field of interactive narrative. I do not expect the "holy grail" of interactive narrative to be conquered anytime soon, and will not chastise every knight that does not return with the ultimate prize from his explorations. After all, as with any quest it is the journey that counts more than anything else, and as Meadows reminds us on the last page of his book "This is, as you can see, just the beginning". What fun would remain otherwise?



2. This is a beautiful book, more at place on a coffee table than a bookcase. It benefits not only from its many full-color photos, graphic reproductions, and illustrations, but also from the freedom Meadows had to lay out these images with the text on the page, creating effects more typically seen on complex web pages than in traditional print books. From the Use-Case Scenario flow charts to the flipbook narrative that appears in the upper corners of the book and the related comic cell narrative that runs five panels to a page along the bottom of the book, Meadows is both telling us how interactive narrative "combines traditional narrative with visual art and interactivity" and showing us how these insights can be implemented in print.
   
   Because Meadows believes that understanding the art of interactive narrative requires familiarity with a wide range of principles, he attempts to cover an ambitious amount of information in Pause & Effect. This would be challenging enough if Pause & Effect was exclusively an introductory "how-to" book for would-be interactive narrative designers, but the book, as Meadows says in his preface, "is designed for anyone interested in narrative art forms" (xiii). Therefore, Meadows is engaging a general audience, and does not assume any pre-existing knowledge in the field. While such a broad approach may be good for sales figures, it is not without its costs. His writing, while always refreshingly clear, is at times overly simplistic, leaving many of the good ideas he puts forth insufficiently fleshed out. Meadows attempts to compensate for this limitation by incorporating interviews and case studies that give the reader alternate viewpoints about the production of interactive narrative. The incorporation of complementary and sometimes conflicting viewpoints from important creators of interactive content adds depth to the work, making it more interesting to the general reader and more credible as a design "how-to" book.
   
   The basic claims of the book are easy to understand. The book assumes that an author can combine narrative and interactivity and claims that the development of imagery in the Western tradition gives us crucial insights into how this process should work. Meadows' approach is to bring together traditional concepts of narrative construction, two-dimensional and three-dimensional art creation, and interactive systems design in a way that defines the role of the author in the new art form of interactive narrative design.
   
   Meadows lays out his arguments very clearly, giving his readers useful background information and examples to illustrate his points. He also, in a style similar to a self-help guru, breaks down complicated concepts into easily remembered components or steps, such as his "Four Steps of Interaction": 1) Observe; 2) Explore; 3) Modify; and 4) Change, or his "Three Different Structures of Interactive Narrative": 1) Nodal Plot Structure; 2) Modulated Plot Structure; and 3) Open Plot Structure. Although this structure overly simplifies complicated processes at times, it is still admittedly useful for a book that is trying to be a practical guide as much as it is an academic exercise.
   
   Even keeping Meadows' aims in mind, however, Meadows warrants some criticism about just how broad and introductory he sometimes is in the text. While a general reader, new to concepts of narrative and interactivity, will appreciate Meadows' approach, those well versed in the debates surrounding the contentious and provocative term interactive narrative will be surprised and disappointed by the fact that Meadows does not address the term as problematic at all. Although, to be fair, a great deal of the debate that continues to rage about the term "interactive narrative" has taken place after Meadows wrote his book. Still, his bibliography is missing some key figures. Perhaps this omission is because Meadows does not want to get bogged down in academic debates over ontology and taxonomy, which he may deem worthless and unproductive. It is a forgivable move considering the breadth of his work and how much he must leave out as it is. Nonetheless, these omissions are frustrating to those of us who would very much like to know how Meadows would answer the criticism levied against the term interactive narrative and some of the practices Meadows preaches.



3. I've used this book to teach interative narrative to both media arts and computer science students. It clearly (and dynamically) covers issues such as narrative, point of view, interactivity, and design in a way that students find compelling. By threading these issues throughout the book, Meadows reinforces how all are intertwined and equally important. My students love it, I suspect, because of the high image to text ratio... but the style gets them to see and think differently. Students are inspired by both the book's layout and the interviews with media artists. This book pushes them both to understand the multiple variables that go into creating interactivity and to take creative risks. You couldn't find a better text.



4. The value of a book depends upon what the reader brings; as such, the author must write to the state of mind of the audience. The reader who is contextually sympatico with the author will derive greater benefits than the reader who is coming from another place.
   
   This book has strong context: readers who come from the media theory context will find powerful resonances with their existing intellectual framework. Other readers will scrape and scratch to find anything of merit.
   
   My context is interactive storytelling. Truth in advertising: I recently published a book on the subject, and so might be considered a competitor. I do not, however, consider this book to be competitive with mine, not in the sense that it is inferior, but rather in the sense that it is from another planet. From my planet, this book appears to have plenty of interesting things to say about iamge and narrative, but when it comes to interactivity, I maintain that this book has absolutely nothing useful to say.
   
   Consider the description of interactivity offered in these pages:
   
   "Interaction can be described as many things. Catchwords abound: 'Engaging', 'Immersive', 'Participatory', 'Responsive', and 'Reactive'.
   "Interactivity is a continuing increase in participation. It's a bidirectional communication conduit. It's a reponse to a response. It's 'full-duplex'. Interaction is a relationship. It's good sex. It's bad conversation. It's indeterminant behavior, and it's redundant result. It's many things, none of which can be done alone. Interaction is a process that dictates communication. It can also be a commication that dictates process. It provides options, necessitates a change in pace, and changes you as you change it."
   
   I consider this to be high-falutin' drivel. Poetic drivel, perhaps, but drivel in the sense that it simply doesn't say anything that you can put to use. Take these ideas and put them into your mental thought-grinder and nothing comes out. They're Madison Avenue fluff, nothingburger sentences, full of verbal flourishes and pirouettes and signifying nothing.
   
   The author is clearly a master of imagery, and has much that is useful to say about graphic design and the role of the image. If the author had the discipline to confine himself to those areas in which his expertise commands respect, he could have produced a fine book; indeed, when the book doesn't mention interactivity, it has much to offer. But the frequent poorly-considered discussions of interactivity ruin this book the way a burned sauce ruins an otherwise excellent entre.



5. There are no new concepts put forth in this book, and worse, it's filled with painful stabs at humor, practically worthless information (most of which seemingly to get the reader from one picture to the next). I just don't think many people realize that Meadows has rewritten existing ideas as little "revelations" he has had himself, and so, I advise any prospective shoppers to move on, look toward online journals or monthly magazines in this field (like Speculative Reviews of Narrative, etc). There's nothing to see here.

No comments about Calligraphy: The Treasury of Decorative Art.

No comments about Chihuly Persians.