There are now new experiences of space and time; new tensions between globalism and regionalism, socialism and consumerism, reality and spectacle; new instabilities of value, meaning and identity - a dialectic between past and future. How are we to understand these? Mapping the Futures is the first of a series which brings together cultural theorists from different disciplines to assess the implications of economic, political and social change for intellectual inquiry and cultural practice.

Block was a hugely influential journal in the developing fields of Visual and Cultural Studies. The journal's editors and contributors sought to further the critical tradition in art history, respond to the work of contemporary artists, and bring the concerns of new cultural and critical theory, particularly feminist and post-colonial theory, to the study of art and design history.
The Block Reader brings together classic writings by leading cultural theorists and artists which were first published in the journal, to provide an invaluable resource for the teaching and study of art and design history and theory and cultural studies.

Between 1979 and 1989, "BLOCK" initiated and responded to key debates in visual and cultural studies, publishing writings by artists, art and design historians and cultural theorists. The journal's editors and contributors furthered the critical tradition in art history, responded to the work of contemporary artists, and brought the concerns of new cultural and critical theory to the study of art and design history. The" BLOCK Reader in Visual Culture" brings together classic writings by leading cultural theorists and artists first published in this seminal journal and which are now unavailable, providing an invaluable resource for the teaching and study of art and design as well as theory and cultural studies.
Contributors: Jon Bird, Barry Curtis, Tamar Garb, Philippa Goodall, Nicholas Green, Frank Hannah, Dick Hebdige, Lucy Lippard, Frank Mort, Kathy Myers, Fred Orton, Claire Pajaczkowska, Griselda Pollock, Tim Putnam, Oliver Richon, Martha Rosler, Lisa Tickner, Necdet Teymur, Judith Williamson.

We are living in an age when 'nature' seems to be on the brink of extinction yet, at the same time, 'nature' is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and unstable as a category for representation and debate.
Futurenatural brings together leading theorists of culture and science to discuss the concept of 'nature' - its past, present and future. Contributors discuss the impact on our daily life of recent developments on biotechnologies, electronic media and ecological politics. Increasingly, scientific theories and models have been taken up as cultural metaphors that have material effects in transforming 'ways of seeing' and 'structures of feeling'.
The book addresses the issue of whether political and cultural debates about the body and environment can take place without reference to 'nature' or the 'natural'. This collection considers how we might 'think' a future developing from emergent scientific theories and discourses. What cultural forms may be produced when new knowledges challenge and undermine traditional ways of conceiving the 'natural'.

Series Information:
Futures: New Perspectives for Cultural Analysis

This text investigates the future for travelling in a world whose boundaries are shifting and dissolving. The contributors bring together popular and critical discourses of travel to explore questions of identity and politics; history and narration; collecting and representing other cultures; and tourism.

There are now new experiences of space and time; new tensions between globalism and regionalism, socialism and consumerism, reality and spectacle; new instabilities of value, meaning and identity - a dialectic between past and future. How are we to understand these?
Mapping the Futures is the first of a series which brings together cultural theorists from different disciplines to assess the implications of economic, political and social change for intellectual inquiry and cultural practice.

We are living in an age when 'nature' seems to be on the brink of extinction yet, at the same time, 'nature' is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and unstable as a category for representation and debate.
F uturenatural brings together leading theorists of culture and science to discuss the concept of 'nature' - its past, present and future. Contributors discuss the impact on our daily life of recent developments in biotechnologies, electronic media and ecological politics. Increasingly, scientific theories and models have been taken up as cultural metaphores that have material effects in transforming 'ways of seeing' and `structures of feeling'.
The book addresses the issue of whether political and cultural debates about the body and the environment can take place without reference to 'nature' or the `natural'. This collection considers how we might 'think' a future developing from emergent scientific theories and discourses. What cultural forms may be produced when new knowledges challenge and undermine traditional ways of conceiving the 'natural' ?

Horror films revel in taking viewers into shadowy places where the evil resides, whether it is a house, a graveyard or a dark forest. These mysterious spaces foment the terror at the heart of horror movies, empowering the ghastly creatures that emerge to kill and torment. With "Dark Places," Barry Curtis leads us deep inside these haunted spaces to explore them - and the monstrous antagonists who dwell there.
In this wide-ranging and compelling study, Curtis demonstrates how the claustrophobic interiors of haunted spaces in films connect to the 'dark places' of the human psyche. He examines diverse topics such as the special effects - ranging from crude to state-of-the-art - used in movies to evoke supernatural creatures; the structures, projections and architecture of horror movie sets; and ghosts as symbols of loss, amnesia, injustice and vengeance. "Dark Places" also examines the reconfiguration of the haunted house in film as a motel, an apartment, a road or a spaceship, and how these re-imagined spaces thematically connect to Gothic fictions.
Curtis draws his examples from numerous iconic films - including "Nosferatu," "Psycho," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Shining" - as well as lesser-known international works, which allow him to consider different cultural ideas of 'haunting'. Japanese horror films and their Hollywood remakes - such as "Ringu" and "The Ring," or "Juon" and "The Grudge" - come under particular scrutiny, as he explores Japanese cinema's preoccupation with malevolent forces from the past.
Whether you love the splatter of blood or prefer to hide under the couch, "Dark Places" cuts to the heart of why we are drawn to carnage.

The twentieth century offered up countless visions of domestic life, from the aspirational to the radical. Whether it was the dream of the fully mechanised home or the notion that technology might free us from home altogether, the domestic realm was a site of endless invention and speculation. But what happened to those visions? Are the smart homes of today the future that architects and designers once predicted, or has 'home' proved resistant to radical change? Home Futures: Living in Yesterday's Tomorrow -accompanying a major Design Museum exhibition of the same title-explores a number of different attitudes toward domestic life, tracing the social and technological developments that have driven change in the home. It proposes that we are already living in yesterday's tomorrow, just not in the way anyone predicted. This book begins with a lavishly illustrated catalogue portraying the 'home futures' of the twentieth century and beyond, from the work of Ettore Sottsass and Joe Colombo to Google's recent forays into the smart home. The catalogue is followed by a reader consisting of newly commissioned essays by writers such as Dan Hill and Justin McGuirk, which explore the changes in the domestic realm in relation to space, technology, society, economy and psychology.