Drawing on art, media, and phenomenological sources, Showing Off!: A Philosophy of Image challenges much recent thought by proposing a fundamentally positive relationship between visuality and the ethical. In philosophy, cultural studies and art, relationships between visuality and the ethical are usually theorized in negative terms, according to the dyadic logics of seeing on the one hand, and being seen, on the other. Here, agency and power are assumed to operate either on the side of those who see, or on the side of those who control the means by which people and things enter into visibility. To be seen, by contrast - when it occurs outside of those parameters of control- is to be at a disadvantage; hence, for instance, contemporary theorist Peggy Phelan's rejection of the idea, central to activist practices of the 1970's and 80's, that projects of political emancipation must be intertwined with, and are dependent on, processes of 'making oneself visible'. Acknowledgment of the vulnerability of visibility also underlies the realities of life lived within increasingly pervasive systems of imposed and self-imposed surveillance, and apparently confident public performances of visual self display. Showing Off!: A Philosophy of Image is written against the backdrop of these phenomena, positions and concerns, but asks what happens to our debates about visibility when a third term, that of 'self-showing', is brought into play. Indeed, it proposes a fundamentally positive relationship between visuality and the ethical, one primarily rooted not in acts of open and non-oppressive seeing or spectating, as might be expected, but rather in our capacity to inhabit both the risks and the possibilities of our own visible being. In other words, this book maintains that the proper site of generosity and agency within any visual encounter is located not on the side of sight, but on that of self-showing - or showing off!

This book is about faith, determination to succeed in an overland trip Journey from Rochdale through over 19 countries of the world. Prime purpose was to perform Hajj - Muslim Pilgrimage in Saudia Arabia. The overland journey lasted several months literally on the move in a Ford Cortina Mark 3 saloon car, in which the author and his parents slept in, eat their meals in and experienced by motor vehicle break downs. Their faith kept them going, and the car, which brought them back to Rochdale, after seeing different countries, customs, cultures, traditions, food dishes and languages. It was an experience never to be forgotten, but treasured, it was an experience that encouraged the family to do another overland trip in a different car, and see many more different countries in depth, and soak in their culture and language. An experience that is recommended to be taken up as a rewarding challenge, by anyone who dares to take risks, and the unexpected in a car journey miles away from home sweet home. Thank God (Shukkar Allah) This book was started in 1981 handwritten, completed in 1983 typed up. Search for a publisher failed. Now in 2008 some 25 years later with help of AuthorHouse done a self-publication of the book. Many changes have taken place since the journey was completed and the manuscript written.

International, iconoclastic, inventive, born out of the institutionalised madness of the First World War, Dada erupted in cities throughout Europe and the USA, creating shock waves that offended polite society and destabilised the cultural and political status quo. In spite of its sporadic and ephemeral character, its rich and diverse legacy is still powerfully felt nearly a century later. Following on from "Dada and Beyond Volume 1: Dada Discourses," the sixteen essays in this collection provide critical examinations of Dada, placing particular emphasis on the ongoing impact of its creative output. The chapters examine its pivotal figures as well as its more peripheral protagonists, their different geographic locations, and the extraordinary diversity of their practices that included poetry, painting, printmaking, dance, performance, theatre, textiles, readymades, photomontage and cinema. As the book's authors reveal, Dada not only anticipates Surrealism but also foreshadows an extraordinary array of more recent tendencies including action painting, conceptual art, outsider art, performance art, environmental and land art. In its privileging of chance and automatism, its rejection of formal artistic institutions, its subversive exploitation of mass media and its constant self-reconstitution and self-redefinition, Dada deserves to be seen as a cultural phenomenon that is still powerfully relevant in the twenty-first century.

The Book of the Courtier (Il Cortegiano), describing the behaviour of the ideal courtier (and court lady) was one of the most widely distributed books in the 16th century. It remains the definitive account of Renaissance court life. This edition, Thomas Hoby's 1561 English translation, greatly influenced the English ideal of the "gentleman." Baldesar Castiglione was a courtier at the court of Urbino, at that time the most refined and elegant of the Italian courts. Practising his principles, he counted many of the leading figures of his time as friends, and was employed on important diplomatic missions. He was a close personal friend of Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael, who painted the sensitive portrait of Castiglione on the cover of this edition.

Elegant, haunting and arresting, the film and video works of Jane and Louise Wilson have attracted increasing acclaim and attention, culminating in a nomination for the 1999 Turner Prize. The twins specialise in supremely vivid evocations or a particular spirit-of-place, drawing on cinematic conventions and allusions to conjure a heightened, often uncanny atmosphere. This monograph, which features a specially commissioned essay by Jeremy Millar covers their career to date, encompassing their various short tapes and films as well as the powerful, hypnotic projection installations that have made their names.

Originally published in 1901, this early works is a comprehensive and informative guide to Enamelling. Contents Include; I. Introduction, II. On the choice of a style in Enamelling, III. General principles of Enamelling upon metals, IV. The mode of Executing "Limoges Enamels," V. Cloisonne Enamels, Jewellery, and Imitation glass gems, VI. The manufacture of Enamel. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This book is an introduction to a new music theory based upon the perspectives of an artist which are supported by correspondences between sound and light and the philosophies gleaned from extensive research into the esoteric teachings of Christianity. This book clearly and concisely introduces the basic framework for a completely new, and fundamentally holistic approach to understanding, writing, and learning music. Rather than learning the countless specific rules (and exceptions) and hundreds of historical examples, this approach begins with a practical foundation in the general principles of music theory and encourages one to creatively discover original examples of how the different parts work together as a whole. Most importantly, this works aims to distill the most essential elements of music and to convey them in a simplified manner that grants potential artists a way to penetrate into the mysteries of music.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

"A History of Visual Culture" is a history of ideas. The recent explosion of interest in visual culture suggests the phenomenon is very recent. But visual culture has a history. Knowledge began to be systematically grounded in observation and display from the Enlightenment. Since them, from the age of industrialization and colonialism to today's globalized world, visual culture has continued to shape our ways of thinking and of interpreting the world. Carefully structured to cover a wide history and geography, "A History of Visual Culture" is divided into themed sections: Revolt and Revolution; Science and Empiricism; Gaze and Spectacle; Acquisition, Display, and Desire; Conquest, Colonialism, and Globalization; Image and Reality; Media and Visual Technologies. Each section presents a carefully selected range of case studies from across the last 250 years, designed to illustrate how all kinds of visual media have shaped our technology, aesthetics, politics and culture.

The end of the Soviet period, the vast expansion in the power and influence of capital, and recent developments in social and aesthetic theory, have made the work of Hungarian Marxist philosopher and social critic Georg Lukcs more vital than ever. The very innovations in literary method that, during the 80s and 90s, marginalized him in the West have now made possible new readings of Lukcs, less in thrall to the positions taken by Lukcs himself on political and aesthetic matters. What these developments amount to, this book argues, is an opportunity to liberate Lukcs's thought from its formal and historical limitations, a possibility that was always inherent in Lukcs's own thinking about the paradoxes of form. This collection brings together recent work on Lukcs from the fields of Philosophy, Social and Political Thought, Literary and Cultural Studies. Against the odds, Lukcs's thought has survived: as a critique of late capitalism, as a guide to the contradictions of modernity, and as a model for a temperament that refuses all accommodation with the way things are.

Written from the perspective of a practising artist, this book proposes that, against a groundswell of historians, museums and commentators claiming to speak on behalf of art, it is artists alone who may define what art really is. Jelinek contends that while there are objects called 'art' in museums from deep into human history and from around the globe - from Hans Sloane's collection, which became the foundation of the British Museum, to Alfred Barr's inclusion of 'primitive art' within the walls of MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art - only those that have been made with the knowledge and discipline of art should rightly be termed as such. Policing the definition of art in this way is not to entrench it as an elitist occupation, but in order to focus on its liberal democratic potential. Between Discipline and a Hard Place describes the value of art outside the current preoccupation with economic considerations yet without resorting to a range of stereotypical and ultimately instrumentalist political or social goods, such as social inclusion or education. A wider argument is also made for disciplinarity, as Jelinek discusses the great potential as well as the pitfalls of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary working, particularly with the so-called 'creative' arts. A passionate treatise arguing for a new way of understanding art that forefronts the role of the artist and the importance of inclusion within both the concept of art and the art world.