Under the Skin investigates the role of cross-cultural body modification in seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century North America, revealing that the practices of tattooing and scalping were crucial to interactions between Natives and newcomers. These permanent and painful marks could act as signs of alliance or signs of conflict, producing a complex bodily archive of cross-cultural entanglement. Indigenous body modification practices were adopted and transformed by colonial powers, making tattooing and scalping key forms of cultural and political contestation in early America. Although these bodily practices were quite distinct-one a painful but generally voluntary sign of accomplishment and affiliation, the other a violent assault on life and identity-they were linked by growing colonial perceptions that both were crucial elements of "Nativeness." Tracing the transformation of concepts of bodily integrity, personal and collective identities, and the sources of human difference, Under the Skin investigates both the lived physical experience and the contested metaphorical power of early American bodies. Struggling for power on battlefields, in diplomatic gatherings, and in intellectual exchanges, Native Americans and Anglo-Americans found their physical appearances dramatically altered by their interactions with one another. Contested ideas about the nature of human and societal difference translated into altered appearances for many early Americans. In turn, scars and symbols on skin prompted an outpouring of stories as people debated the meaning of such marks. Perhaps paradoxically, individuals with culturally ambiguous or hybrid appearances prompted increasing efforts to insist on permanent bodily identity. By the late eighteenth century, ideas about the body, phenotype, and culture were increasingly articulated in concepts of race. Yet even as the interpretations assigned to inscribed flesh shifted, fascination with marked bodies remained.

One of the most hotly anticipated games from E3 2012, "Watch Dogs "received over 80 official nominations and awards including IGN's Best New Franchise Award, Gamespot's Editor's Choice Award and Eurogamer's Game of the Show Award.
"The Art of Watch Dogs" is an in-depth review of Ubisoft's amazing new game with extensive concept and development art and detailed creator commentary. The first of its kind for a franchise that is certain to be a future classic, the book will explore the technology-controlled world of "Watch Dogs," taking readers on a visual guide through Aiden Pearce's quest to turn Chicago's Central Operating System (CtOS) against its corrupt owners.

To feel the emotional force of music, we experience it aurally. But how can we convey musical understanding visually? Visualizing Music explores the art of communicating about music through images. Drawing on principles from the fields of vision science and information visualization, Eric Isaacson describes how graphical images can help us understand music. By explaining the history of music visualizations through the lens of human perception and cognition, Isaacson offers a guide to understanding what makes musical images effective or ineffective and provides readers with extensive principles and strategies to create excellent images of their own. Illustrated with over 300 diagrams from both historical and modern sources, including examples and theories from Western art music, world music, and jazz, folk, and popular music, Visualizing Music explores the decisions made around image creation. Together with an extensive online supplement and dozens of redrawings that show the impact of effective techniques, Visualizing Music is a captivating guide to thinking differently about design that will help music scholars better understand the power of musical images, thereby shifting the ephemeral to material.

The first complete survey of the work of the much-loved and collected contemporary Italian multimedia artist Paola Pivi - with more than 250 images, including previously unpublished work. Published in association with Anchorage Museum, Alaska; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach; [mac] musee d'art contemporain de Marseille; and MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome. Probably best known for her playful, complex installations of life-sized, brightly-hued, feathered polar bears, Paola Pivi has created work across a range of media - including sculpture, video, photography, performance, and installation - throughout her 27-year career. Often using recognisable objects that are modified to introduce new scale, material, or color, her work challenges viewers to rethink their position. This in-depth monograph, made with the close involvement of the artist, is her most substantial publication to date and features more than 250 images, including previously unpublished work, together with five newly commissioned essays giving insight and perspective on her incredibly diverse body of work.