
Surface
Matters of Aesthetics, Materiality, and Media
Giuliana Bruno(Author)
University of Chicago Press
Published on 9. June 2014
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-226-10494-2 (ISBN)
Description
What is the place of materiality - the expression or condition of a physical substance - in our visual age of rapidly changing materials and media? How is it fashioned in the arts or manifested in technology? In Surface, cultural critic and theorist Giuliana Bruno deftly explores these questions, seeking to understand materiality in the contemporary world. Arguing that materiality is not a question of the materials themselves but rather the substance of material relations, Bruno investigates the space of those relations, examining how they appear on the surface of different media - for example, on movie, television, or computer screens or on the skin of buildings and people. The object of visual studies, she insists, goes well beyond the image, and she contends that the contact between people and objects occurs on the surface. Through this tangible contact, we apprehend the art object and space of art. As such, Bruno threads through the surfaces of images, emphasizing the actual fabrics of the visual - the surface condition, the textural manifestation, the support of a work, and the way in which it is sited, whether on a canvas, a wall, or a screen.
In performing these critical operations on the surface, she articulates it as a site in which different forms of mediation and transformation can take place. Surveying object relations across art, architecture, fashion, design, film, and new media, Surface is a magisterial account of contemporary visual culture.
In performing these critical operations on the surface, she articulates it as a site in which different forms of mediation and transformation can take place. Surveying object relations across art, architecture, fashion, design, film, and new media, Surface is a magisterial account of contemporary visual culture.
Reviews / Votes
"One of those critical works packed with learning and insights that at the same time takes you on an exhilarating ride through its author's imagination." (Marina Warner, Guardian) "A hugely ambitious mapping of the complex intertwinings of film, architecture, and the body. This adventurous book will be of interest to anyone concerned with what we might call 'mobility studies': the attempt to understand cultural performances not as the manifestation of fixed structures but as the expression of restless energies." (Stephen Greenblatt)"More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 26 mm
Width: 23 mm
Thickness: 3 mm
Weight
1361 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-10494-2 (9780226104942)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
06/2014
1st Edition
University of Chicago Press
€36.00
Available for download
Person
Giuliana Bruno is professor of visual and environmental studies at Harvard University. Her books include Public Intimacy: Architecture and the Visual Arts and Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film.