Synopses & Reviews
Contemporary visual culture has been dominated by futuristic utopian and dystopian ideas that reflect a longing for a seamless interface between the virtual and real, as well as a desire for a release from the constraints of space and time. Constructed around both speculative predictions and creative scientific arguments, these ideas contribute to a pervasive visual rhetoric that influences our sense of things to come. and#160;
Delving into the importance of these perspectives and the art that both results from and shapes them, this volume is a spirited exploration of the interface between art and theory in the twenty-first century. The essays reflect collaborative work between the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam, De Appel arts centre, W139and#150;Space for Contemporary Art, and the art magazine Metropolis M. Discussing provocative themes like and#147;Future Historyand#8221; and and#147;Future Freedom,and#8221; Facing Forward is an energetic look at how our visions of the future affect how we depict the world around us now.
Synopsis
The term ‘temporality' often refers to the traditional mode of the way time is: a linear procession of past, present and future. As philosophers will note, this is not always the case. Christine Ross builds on current philosophical and theoretical examinations of time and applies them to the field of contemporary art: films, video installations, sculpture and performance works.
Ross first provides an interdisciplinary overview of contemporary studies on time, focusing on findings in philosophy, psychology, sociology, communications, history, postcolonial studies, and ecology. She then illustrates how contemporary artistic practices play around with what we consider linear time. Engaging the work of artists such as Guido van der Werve, Melik Ohanian, Harun Farocki, and Stan Douglas, allows investigation though the art, as opposed to having art taking an ancillary role. The Past is the Present; It's the Future Too forces the reader to understand the complexities of the significance of temporal development in new artistic practices.
Synopsis
Contemporary visual culture is inundated with a kaleidoscope of futuristic utopias and dystopias in which the longing for a seamless interface between the virtual and the real, as well as the desire for release from the constrictions of time and space, are recurrent themes. Based on speculative predictions and creative scientific arguments, a pervasive visual rhetoric of acceleration and progression, as well as damnation and destruction, shapes our sense of the future.
Contributors to this volume include participants in the Facing Forward Project of 2011-12, which started as a collaboration between the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam, De Appel arts centre, W139 and#150; Space for Contemporary Art, and the art magazine Metropolis M.
About the Author
Christine Ross is Professor and James McGill Chair in Contemporary Art History in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University, Canada.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Contemporaneity of Temporal Investigations
Chapter 2: Unproductive Time
Chapter 3: The Recent Past as a Quasi-Remnant
Chapter 4: The Age Value of the Work of Art
Chapter 5: Simultaneity I
Chapter 6: Simultaneity II
Chapter 7: The Historical Sublime, or
Longue durée RevisitedBibliography
Index