War Culture and the Contest of Images analyzes the relationships among contemporary war; documentary practices; and democratic ideals. Dora Apel examines a wide variety of images and cultural representations of war in the United States and the Middle East; including photography; performance art; video games; reenactment; and social media images. Simultaneously; she explores the merging of photojournalism and artistic practices; the effects of visual framing; and the construction of both sanctioned and counter-hegemonic narratives in a global contest of images.As a result of the global visual culture in which anyone may produce as well as consume public imagery; the wide variety of visual and documentary practices present realities that would otherwise be invisible or officially off-limits. In our digital era; the prohibition and control of images has become nearly impossible to maintain. Using carefully chosen case studiesmdash;such as Krzysztof Wodiczkorsquo;s video projections and public works in response to 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the performance works of Coco Fusco and Regina Galindo; and the practices of Israeli and Palestinian artistsmdash;Apel posits that contemporary war images serve as mediating agents in social relations and as a source of protection or refuge for those robbed of formal or state-sanctioned citizenship.While never suggesting that documentary practices are objective translations of reality; Apel shows that they are powerful polemical tools both for legitimizing war and for making its devastating effects visible. In modern warfare and in the accompanying culture of war that capitalism produces as a permanent feature of modern society; she asserts that the contest of images is as critical as the war on the ground.
#2735473 in eBooks 2012-10-19 2012-10-19File Name: B00A2MXM9W
Review
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful. A Charming Book on the Baroque SpiritBy A CustomerRobert Harbison is well-known for his architectural criticism and; in particular; for an excellent book he wrote several years ago titled ECCENTRIC SPACES. That book dealt in part with gardens and other spaces of the 17th century; and this volume happily picks up where that one left off. Harbison explores here both the whimsy and playfulness of the Baroque sensibility and its more sober grounding in the Counter-Reformation. He looks at how the Baroque spread beyond Europe to the Americas; to Asia; and to Africa over the course of several centuries; and he examines diverse subjects ranging from bizarre gardens that go nowhere to the novel designs of architects Borromini; Bernini; and Wren. A great pleasure to read.4 of 14 people found the following review helpful. So soBy B. NeumannThis book is marginal in its content (both photography and discourse). Simply put I have found better books on Baroque architecture.