Religion and Technology into the Future: From Adam to Tomorrow's Eve examines the broad significance of the current trends and accomplishments in technology (AI/robots) against the long history of the human imagination of making sentient beings. It seeks to enrich our understanding of the present as it is trending into the future against the richly relevant and surprisingly long past. Creatively considered in some depth are a wide range of specific examples drawn especially from contemporary film and television, as well as from cosmology, ancient mythology, biblical literature, classical literature, folklore, evolution, popular culture, technology, and futurist studies. This book is distinctive, in part, in drawing on a wide range of resources demonstrating the indispensable interrelationship among these disparate materials. Science, technology, economics, and philosophy are seamlessly interwoven with history, gender, culture, religion, literature, pop culture, art, and film. Written for general as well as academic readers, it offers fascinating and provocative insights into who we are and where we are going.

A survey of the key moments in dance performance in the USA. Aimed at undergraduate students on Dance BA and BFA degrees in the United States. Deliberately takes a diverse, inclusive perspective, covering previously marginalised or overlooked figures' roles in the development of US dance.

This book examines the performance of Bauls, 'folk' performers from Bengal, in the context of a rapidly globalizing Indian economy and against the backdrop of extreme nationalistic discourses. Recognizing their scope beyond the musical and cultural realm, Sukanya Chakrabarti engages in discussing the subversive and transformational potency of Bauls and their performances. In-Between Worlds argues that the Bauls through their musical, spiritual, and cultural performances offer 'joy' and 'spirituality,' thus making space for what Dr. Ambedkar in his famous 1942 speech had identified as 'reclamation of human personality'. Chakrabarti destabilizes the category of 'folk' as a fixed classification or an origin point, and fractures homogeneous historical representations of the Baul as a 'folk' performer and a wandering mendicant exposing the complex heterogeneity that characterizes this group. Establishing 'folk-ness' as a performance category, and 'folk festivals' as sites of performing 'folk-ness,' contributing to a heritage industry that thrives on imagined and recreated nostalgia, Chakrabarti examines different sites that produce varied performative identities of Bauls, probing the limits of such categories while simultaneously advocating for polyvocality and multifocality. While this project has grounded itself firmly in performance studies, it has borrowed extensively from fields of postcolonial studies and subaltern histories, literature, ethnography and ethnomusicology, and cosmopolitan studies.

Collaborations during the Great Depression between the Mexican artist and Communist activist Diego Rivera and institutions in the United States and Mexico were fraught with risk, as the artist occasionally deviated from course, serving and then subverting his patrons. Catha Paquette investigates controversies surrounding Rivera’s retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, his Rockefeller Center mural Man at the Crossroads, and the Mexican government’s commissioning of its reconstruction at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. She proposes that both the artist and his patrons were using art for extraordinary purposes, leveraging clarity and ambiguity to weigh in on debates concerning labor policies and speech rights; relations between the United States, Mexico, and the Soviet Union; and the viability of capitalism, communism, and socialism. Rivera and his patrons’ shared interest in images of labor—a targeted audience—made cooperative ventures possible. In recounting Rivera’s shifts in strategy from collaboration/exploitation to antagonism/conflict, Paquette highlights the extent to which the artist was responding to politico-economic developments and facilitating alignment/realignment among leftist groups for and against Stalin. Although the artwork that resulted from these instances of patronage had the potential to serve conflicting purposes, Rivera’s images and the protests that followed the destruction of the Rockefeller Center mural were integral to a surge in oppositional expression that effected significant policy changes in the United States and Mexico.

How do the temporal features of sacred music affect social life in South Asia? Due to new time constraints in commercial contexts, devotional musicians in Bengal have adapted longstanding features of musical time linked with religious practice to promote their own musical careers. The Politics of Musical Time traces a lineage of singers performing a Hindu devotional song known as kirtan in the Bengal region of India over the past century to demonstrate the shifting meanings and practices of devotional performance. Focusing on padabali kirtan, a type of devotional sung poetry that uses long-duration forms and combines song and storytelling, Eben Graves examines how expressions of religious affect and political belonging linked with the genre become strained in contemporary, shortened performance time frames. To illustrate the political economy of performance in South Asia, Graves also explores how religious performances and texts interact with issues of nationalism, gender, and economic exchange. Combining ethnography, history, and performance analysis, including videos from the author's fieldwork, The Politics of Musical Time reveals how ideas about the sacred and the modern have been expressed and contested through features of musical time found in devotional performance.

This book provides a conceptual and global overview of the field of Surrealist studies. Methodologically, the companion considers Surrealism's many achievements, but also its historical shortcomings, to illuminate its connections to the historical and cultural moment(s) from which it originated and to assess both the ways in which it still shapes our world in inspiring ways and the ways in which it might appear problematic as we look back at it from a twenty-first-century vantage point. Contributions from experienced scholars will enable professors to teach the subject more broadly, by opening their eyes to aspects of the field that are on the margins of their expertise, and it will enable scholars to identify new areas of study in their own work, by indicating lines of research at a tangent to their own. The companion will reflect the interdisciplinarity of Surrealism by incorporating discussions pertaining to the visual arts, as well as literature, film, and political and intellectual history.

This book brings together history and theory in art and media to examine the effects of artificial intelligence and machine learning in culture, and reflects on the implications of delegating parts of the creative process to AI. In order to understand the complexity of authorship and originality in relation to creativity in contemporary times, Navas combines historical and theoretical premises from different areas of research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences to provide a rich historical and theoretical context that critically reflects on and questions the implications of artificial intelligence and machine learning as an integral part of creative production. As part of this, the book considers how much of postproduction and remix aesthetics in art and media preceded the current rise of metacreativity in relation to artificial intelligence and machine learning, and explores contemporary questions on aesthetics. The book also provides a thorough evaluation of the creative application of systematic approaches to art and media production, and how this in effect percolates across disciplines including art, design, communication, as well as other fields in the humanities and social sciences. An essential read for students and scholars interested in understanding the increasing role of AI and machine learning in contemporary art and media, and their wider role in creative production across culture and society.

The livre d'artiste, or 'artist's book', is among the most prized in rare book collections. Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was one of the greatest artists to work in this genre, creating his most important books over a period of eighteen years from 1932 to 1950 - a time of personal upheaval and physical suffering, as well as conflict and occupation for France. Brimming with powerful themes and imagery, these works are crucial to an understanding of Matisse's oeuvre, yet much of their content has never been seen by a wider audience. In Matisse: The Books, Louise Rogers Lalaurie reintroduces us to Matisse by considering how in each of eight limited-edition volumes, the artist constructs an intriguing dialogue between word and image. She also highlights the books' profound significance for Matisse as the catalysts for the extraordinary 'second life' of his paper cut-outs. In concert with an eclectic selection of poetry, drama and, tantalizingly, Matisse's own words, the books' images offer an astonishing portrait of creative resistance and regeneration. Matisse's books contain some of the artist's best-known graphic works - the magnificent, belligerent swan from the Poesies de Stephane Mallarme, or the vigorous linocut profile from Pasiphae (1944), reversed in a single, rippling stroke out of a lake of velvety black. In Jazz, the cut-out silhouette of Icarus plummets through the azure, surrounded by yellow starbursts, his heart a mesmerizing dot of red. But while such individual images are well known, their place in an integrated sequence of pictures, decorations and words is not. With deftness and sensitivity, Lalaurie explores the page-by-page interplay of the books, translating key sequences and discussing their distinct themes and creative genesis. Together Matisse's artist books reveal his deep engagement with questions of beauty and truth; his faith; his perspectives on aging, loss, and inspiration; and his relationship to his critics, the French art establishment and the women in his life. In addition, Matisse: The Books illuminates the artist's often misunderstood political affinities - in particular, his decision to live in the collaborationist Vichy zone, throughout World War II. Matisse's wartime books are revealed as a body of work that stands as a deeply personal statement of resistance.

Expert colorist Teruko Sakurai takes you to the end of the rainbow--and beyond--in this inspiring color dictionary! Over 2,750 traditional Japanese color combinations are presented, organized into 100 different themes associated with the seasons, landscapes and artistic heritage of Japan. Whether it's a shower of pink cherry blossoms, the flutter of a carp flap or the austere and cool tones of Mt. Fuji, flipping the pages of this color dictionary is like taking a stroll through the sensual delights of Japanese culture in all its dazzling tones, hues and palettes. Each two-page section in this richly-illustrated book presents a different theme with the following information: An introduction to the color scheme and a description of how it can be used A number-coded nine-color palette board showing the range of shades and hues that complement and comprise the scheme CMYK, RGB and HEX (the color code used in Japan) references for all nine colors 26 examples including two- and three-color combinations with photos and illustrations This is an indispensable guide for graphic designers, illustrators, decorators, artists and publishing professionals. It will also be enjoyable and inspiring for readers planning their own home design or art projects.

What happened in 1920s Cologne 'after Dada'? Whilst most standard accounts of Cologne Dada simply stop with Max Ernst's departure from the city for a new life as a surrealist in Paris, this book reveals the untold stories of the Cologne avant-garde that prospered after Dada but whose legacies have been largely forgotten or neglected. It focuses on the little-known Magical Realist painter Marta Hegemann (1894-1970). By re-inserting her into the histories of avant-garde modernism, a fuller picture of the gendered networks of artistic and cultural exchange within Weimar Germany can be revealed. This book embeds her activities as an artist within a gendered network of artistic exchange and influence in which Ernst continues to play a vital role amongst many others including his first wife, art critic Lou Straus-Ernst; photographers August Sander and Hannes Flach; artists Angelika Fick, Heinrich Hoerle, Willy Fick and the Cologne Progressives and visitors such as Kurt Schwitters and Katherine Dreier. The book offers a significant addition to research on Weimar visual culture and will be invaluable to students and specialists in the field. -- .

A broad-ranging guide to the process, collaborations and lasting influences of one of Europe's leading Twentieth Century actor trainers. Written for students and scholars of Theatre Studies, particularly acting, directing, European theatre and 20th Century theatre. By far the most comprehensive and up to date setting out of Meyerhold's role in theatre.

This book examines how China’s new generation of avant-garde writers and artists are pushing the boundaries of vernacular culture, creatively appropriating artistic and literary languages from global cultures to reflect on reform-era China’s transformation and the Maoist heritage. It explores the vortex of cultural change from the launch of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in 1978 to Xi Jinping establishing his leadership for life in 2018. The book argues that China’s new avant-garde adopt transcultural forms of expression while challenging the official discourse of Xi Jinping’s regime, which promotes cultural nationalism and demands that cultural production in China embodies the essence of the "Chinese nation". The topics range from body art, women’s poetry and boys’ love literature to Tibetan fiction and ceramic art. The book shows how the avant-garde use the new digital media to bypass government censorship, transcending China’s virtual frontiers while breaking new ground for an emerging public sphere. Overall, the book provides a rich picture of the nature of China’s avant-garde art and literature and the challenges it poses for the Chinese government. The introduction and chapter 10 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book examines how contemporary Scottish writers and artists revisit and reclaim nature in the political and aesthetic context of devolved Scotland. Camille Manfredi investigates the interaction of landscape aesthetics and strategies of spatial representation in Scotland's twenty-first-century literature and arts, focusing on the apparatuses designed by nature writers, poets, performers, walking artists and visual artists to physically and intellectually engage with the land and re-present it to themselves and to the world. Through a comprehensive analysis of a variety of site-specific artistic practices, artworks and publications, this book investigates the works of Scotland-based artists including Linda Cracknell, Kathleen Jamie, Thomas A. Clark, Gerry Loose, John Burnside, Alec Finlay, Hamish Fulton, Hanna Tuulikki and Roseanne Watt, with a view to exploring the ongoing re-invention of a territory-bound identity that dwells on an inclusive sense of place, as well as on a complex renegotiation with the time and space of Scotland.

A survey of the key moments in dance performance in the USA. Aimed at undergraduate students on Dance BA and BFA degrees in the United States. Deliberately takes a diverse, inclusive perspective, covering previously marginalised or overlooked figures' roles in the development of US dance.

All societies are, by their very nature, dramatic. They present themselves, especially for those who want to look back in time, as a fascinating and confusing whole of theatrical events and constructions. Sometimes the theatre itself succeeds in capturing that fascination and confusion. This book describes the dramatic society in the form of case studies that link politics, history and culture. The Dramatic Society uses selected plays to examine specific moments in history. Its range of subjects are extremely diverse, including Medea as an icon of terrorism, a choreography based upon Shakespeare's As You Like It, horror movies about the German unification, a truth commission dealing with "human zoos", and the reconstruction of Ai Weiwei's troubles with the tax authorities. This collection of insightful essays deals with theatrical performances - including happenings, installations and movies - of the past fifty years, with every chapter attempting to link artistic events with politics and political theory, from Hannah Arendt to Slavoj Zizek. This is a revealing assessment of the ways in which drama and politics become intertwined, offering crucial insights for scholars and students of theatre studies, performance studies, contemporary politics and cultural studies.

All societies are, by their very nature, dramatic. They present themselves, especially for those who want to look back in time, as a fascinating and confusing whole of theatrical events and constructions. Sometimes the theatre itself succeeds in capturing that fascination and confusion. This book describes the dramatic society in the form of case studies that link politics, history and culture. The Dramatic Society uses selected plays to examine specific moments in history. Its range of subjects are extremely diverse, including Medea as an icon of terrorism, a choreography based upon Shakespeare's As You Like It, horror movies about the German unification, a truth commission dealing with "human zoos", and the reconstruction of Ai Weiwei's troubles with the tax authorities. This collection of insightful essays deals with theatrical performances - including happenings, installations and movies - of the past fifty years, with every chapter attempting to link artistic events with politics and political theory, from Hannah Arendt to Slavoj Zizek. This is a revealing assessment of the ways in which drama and politics become intertwined, offering crucial insights for scholars and students of theatre studies, performance studies, contemporary politics and cultural studies.

What is a television series? A widespread answer takes it to be a totality of episodes and seasons. Luca Bandirali and Enrico Terrone argue against this characterization. In Concept TV: An Aesthetics of Television Series, they contend that television series are concepts that manifest themselves through episodes and seasons, just as works of conceptual art can manifest themselves through installations or performances. In this sense, a television series is a conceptual narrative, a principle of construction of similar narratives. While the film viewer directly appreciates a narrative made of images and sounds, the TV viewer relies on images and sounds to grasp the conceptual narrative that they express. Here lies the key difference between television and film. Reflecting on this difference paves the way for an aesthetics of television series that makes room for their alleged prolixity, their tendency to repetition, and their lack of narrative closure. Bandirali and Terrone shed light on the specific ways in which television series are evaluated, arguing that some apparent flaws of them are, indeed, aesthetic merits when considered from a conceptual perspective. Hence, to maximize the aesthetic value of television series, one should not assess them in the same framework in which films are assessed but rather in this new conceptual framework.

A unique exploration of the culinary imagination and creativity of a stellar array of international contemporary artists - a host of intriguing personal recipes shown through the artists' own words and images Creativity doesn't stop at an artist's studio door - for many, it continues into the kitchen. For the first time, more than 70 artists, including Ghada Amer, Jimmie Durham, Studio Olafur Eliasson, Subodh Gupta, Nikolai Haas, Jeppe Hein, Carsten Hoeller, Dorothy Iannone, Ragnar Kjartansson, John Lyons, Philippe Parreno, Nicolas Party, Zina Saro-Wiwa, Tiffany Sia, and Rirkrit Tiravanija, and others, have been invited to share and illustrate a recipe of their own. These are either the best culinary concoctions they have ever invented, or an especially meaningful dish. The result is an exciting range of contributions spanning all manner of meals and drinks, both savory and sweet, from around the globe, brilliantly brought to life by a wealth of sketches, photographs, collages, paintings, and personal snaps. Many of the culinary creations included are achievable by adventurous home cooks, but the pages include an incredibly diverse array of dishes from the conceptual to the personal, the elaborate to the simple, the sweet to the savory, and from the serious to the funny to the downright bizarre. With an introduction by the globally celebrated chef and art enthusiast Massimo Bottura, this is an intriguing and entertaining gift for food lovers and contemporary art enthusiasts alike.

* The book demonstrates how a vernacular British performance form emerged as a hybrid of forms from Afro-American and minstrel, as well as French mime and Italian commedia dell'arte roots. * Theatre history is an essential part of theatre and drama courses across the UK and would be recommended reading. * There is no comparable book which makes critical analysis of British pierrot troupes and concert parties in existence - the only ones that do exist on the specific topic are written as reminiscence and anecdote.

This book is an investigation into church music through the lens of performance theory, both as a discipline and as a theoretical framework. Scholars who address religious music making in general, and Christian church music in particular, use "performance" in a variety of ways, creating confusion around the term. A systematized performance vocabulary for the study of church music can support interdisciplinary investigations of Christian congregational music making in today's complex, interconnected world. From the perspective of performance theory, all those involved in church musicking are performing, be it from platform or pew. The book employs a hybrid methodology that combines ethnographic research and theory from ritual studies, ethnomusicology, theology, and church music scholarship to establish performance studies as a possible "next step" in church music studies. It demonstrates the feasibility of studying church music as performance by analyzing ethnographic case studies using a developmental framework based on the concepts of ritual, embodiment, and play/change. This book offers a fresh perspective on Christian congregational music making. It will, therefore, be a key reference work for scholars working in Congregational Music Studies, Ethnomusicology, Ritual Studies and Performance Studies, as well as practitioners interested in examining their own church music practices.

An episodic account of the key trends, moments and emerging forms in the history of theatre by and about the Asian American population. Aimed at students on courses in Asian American theatre/performance on Theatre Studies and Performing Arts BA degrees. The only textbook on Asian American theatre, designed specifically for week-by-week classroom use.

An episodic account of the key trends, moments and emerging forms in the history of theatre by and about the Asian American population. Aimed at students on courses in Asian American theatre/performance on Theatre Studies and Performing Arts BA degrees. The only textbook on Asian American theatre, designed specifically for week-by-week classroom use.