In The Psychologizing of Modernity, Mark Jarzombek examines the impact of psychology on twentieth-century aesthetics. Analyzing the interface among psychology, art history and avant-gardist practices, he also reflects on the longevity of the myth of aesthetic individuality as it infiltrated not only avant-garde art, but also history writing. The principle focus of this study is pre-World War II Germany, where theories of empathy and Entartung emerged; and postwar America, where artists, critics and historians gradually shifted from their reliance on psychology to philosophy, and most recently, to theory.

This book argues that long distance trade in luxury items – such as diamonds, gold, cinnamon, scented woods, ivory, and pearls, all of which require little overhead in their acquisition and were relatively easy to transport – played a foundational role in the creation of what we would call ‘global trade’ in the first millennium CE. The book coins the term ‘dark matter economy’ to better describe this complex – though mostly invisible – relationship to normative realities. The first full integration of ‘dark matter economy’ with the emerging global flows took place in south India and Sri Lanka at the beginning of the millennium. The book then moves to other places in the world – ‘sweet spots’ – where a particular type of affluence was generated through the trade in luxury goods. This affluence manifested itself in the creation of shrines, palaces, temples and engineering works that all thickened the landscape of memory, control and extraction and that also served as a defense mechanism against intrusions from afar. The book also explains the collapse of ‘dark matter economy’ as a result of the cumulative energies of colonialism, modernization and nationalism that make it hard for us today to come to terms with this history. The Long Millennium will appeal to students and scholars alike studying the trade networks and economics of the early Middle Ages, as well as anyone interested in the effect of trade on medieval society in the first millennium CE.

In The Psychologizing of Modernity Mark Jarzombek examines the impact of psychology on twentieth-century aesthetics. Analysing the interface between psychology, art history and avant-gardist practices, he also reflects on the longevity of the myth of aesthetic individuality as it infiltrated not only avant-garde art, but also history writing. The principal focus of this study is pre-World War II Germany, where theories of empathy and Entartung emerged; and post-war America, where artists, critics and historians gradually shifted from their reliance on psychology to philosophy and theory. Included are discussions of writers such as Heinrich Woelfflin, Ludwig Volkmann, John Dewey, Vincent Scully and Richard Arnheim, among others. The Psychologizing of Modernity is a broad and erudite study of the evolution of modern aesthetic thinking in the fields of art and architectural history.

Once, humans were what they believed. Now, the modern person is determined by data exhaust-an invisible anthropocentric ether of ones and zeros that is a product of our digitally monitored age. Author Mark Jarzombek argues that the world has become redesigned to fuse the algorithmic with the ontological, and the discussion of ontology must be updated to rethink the question of Being. In Digital Stockholm Syndrome in the Post-Ontological Age, Jarzombek provocatively studies the new interrelationship between human and algorithm. Forerunners is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital works. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.

Paper, cardboard, plywood, light—decidedly conceptual and materially ephemeral, Tobias Putrih’s projects draw on the visionary concepts of architecture and design and utopian ideas of the 20th century avant-gardes. This book traces Putrih’s investigations into the heritage of architectural experiments such as the works of Buckminster Fuller and Friedrich Kiesler. Perceptron is the first comprehensive survey of Putrih’s work that oscillates between architecture, sculpture, and science. Through an encyclopedic array of reference materials and critical texts, it examines Putrih’s practice in the context of architectural and design history as well as the history of cybernetics, and offers a richly illustrated study of Putrih’s modifications of public spaces, experiments with collective form, as well as his immersive temporary environments created out of everyday materials.