Tag Archives: Media studies

Bicycles, beds, chairs, doors – the use of modern art

Posted on 21 June 2012 by Propagandum

‘Mr. Beckett’s patient concern with bicycles, amputees, battered hats, and the letter M’ starts Hugh Kenner’s still impressive Samuel Beckett: A Critical Study (New York: Grove Press, 1961, p. 1). My previous post tried to talk about the same things, respectively a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art criticism, Media analysis | Tagged Bibliochaise, Bicycles, Chair, Conceptual art, Duchamp, Hugh Kenner, Joseph Kosuth, Media studies, Modern art, Readymades, Samuel Beckett, Tracey Emin | 6 Comments

Gramophone, Film, Typewriter by Friedrich Kittler (book review)

Posted on 10 May 2012 by Propagandum

Friedrich Kittler’s spiky and complex masterpiece of multimodal media archaeology (published by Stanford University Press in 1986) was our first book for the Cambridge books-about-books group. Not an obvious choice: it’s not about books, but there again, books aren’t necessarily codexes any more. … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Media analysis, Writing | Tagged Communication, Kittler, Lacan, Media, Media studies, Psychoanalysis, Reading, Walter Isaacson | 1 Comment

A shout out for The Scream

Posted on 3 May 2012 by Propagandum

‘Why is The Scream so iconic?’ a BBC webpage asks about what, as of Tuesday 2 May, is the world’s most expensive picture. It continues: ‘Professor Martin Kemp, emeritus professor of the History of Art at Oxford University … said it is … Continue reading →

Posted in Media analysis | Tagged Art, Art history, Communication, Edvard Munch, Media studies, Modalities, The Artist (film) | Leave a comment

On being a bit deaf

Posted on 1 May 2012 by Propagandum

If you are not deaf, you might know someone who is. The admirable Gallaudet Research Institute gives some statistics: ‘if everyone who has any kind of “trouble” with their hearing is included then anywhere from 37 to 140 out of every 1,000 people … … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Medicine, Writing | Tagged Beethoven, Blindness, Bluetooth, Deafness, Derrida, Hearing aids, Media studies, Multimodality, Richard Dawkins, Writing | Leave a comment

What is the Apple success formula? Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (book review)

Posted on 23 April 2012 by Propagandum

As Steve Jobs was dying of cancer of the pancreas in 2011, it was ironic, Isaacson notes, that all the top-notch medical specialists gathered around him should have the same fenced-off departmental or ‘silo’ pathology Jobs fought all his life: … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Medicine, Publishing | Tagged Apple, apple design, Apple television, Business studies, Commercial, iPhone, iPod, Media studies, Pixar, Sony, Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson | Leave a comment

16 things about white space

Posted on 3 April 2012 by Propagandum

1. White space is the name typesetters, typographers and type designers – artists of the black – give to a presence where we might expect an absence. We can, if we choose, see a shape where the mark has not been … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Publishing, Words | Tagged Bridget Riley, Codex, Communication, Em space, En space, Kindle, Media studies, Pilcrow, Punctuation, Shannon, Typesetting, Typography, Whiteread | 8 Comments

Gaming, scrolling, icons, bloat, Wagner and the alphabet: directions in comparative media

Posted on 27 February 2012 by Propagandum

Gaming is probably the media industry currently most fully adapted to the digital world. Music and books are the most discussed examples of media change; by comparison the development of board games into the massive gaming industry now seems (retrospectively) the … Continue reading →

Posted in Business | Tagged C: prompt, E-books, Gaming, Immersive media, iPad 3, Media, Media studies, Multimodality, Wagner, Zhang Zeduan | Leave a comment

Film review: The Artist – back to the future

Posted on 2 February 2012 by Propagandum

I have just been to see The Artist – brilliant, thoroughly recommended. It connects strongly with a major theme of this blog: people adapting (or not) to media change. OK, it’s set in the period 1927 to 1932 in pre- … Continue reading →

Posted in Business | Tagged Codex, Film, Kindle, Media history, Media studies, Silent movies, The Artist (film) | 2 Comments