Book Cover
Book
Author Kittler, Friedrich A.

Title Optical media : Berlin lectures 1999 / Friedrich Kittler ; translated by Anthony Enns ; [introduction by John Durham Peters]
Edition English edition
Published Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity Press, 2010

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Description vi, 250 pages ; 24 cm
Contents Machine generated contents note: Introduction.Friedrich Kittler's light shows / John Durham Peters -- 1.Theoretical presuppositions -- 2.Technologies of the fine arts -- 3.Optical media -- 4.Computers
Summary "This major new book provides a concise history of optical media from Renaissance linear perspective to late twentieth-century computer graphics. Kittler begins by looking at European painting since the Renaissance in order to discern the principles according to which modern optical perception was organized. He also discusses the development of various mechanical devices, such as the camera obscura and the laterna magica, which were closely connected to the printing press and which played a pivotal role in the media war between the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation." "After examining this history, Kittler then addresses the ways in which images were first stored and made to move, through the development of photography and film. He discusses the competitive relationship between photography and painting as well as between film and theater, as innovations like the Baroque proscenium or "picture-frame" stage evolved from elements that would later constitute cinema. The central --
question, however, is the impact of film on the ancient monopoly of writing, as it not only provoked new forms of competition for novelists but also fundamentally altered the status of books. In the final section, Kittler examines the development of electrical telecommunications and electronic image processing from television to computer simulations." "In short, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of image production that is indispensable for anyone wishing to understand the prevailing audiovisual conditions of contemporary culture." --Book Jacket
Notes Originally published: Berlin : Merve, 2002
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Originally published Berlin : Merve, 2002 under title Optische Medien
Translation of: Optische Medien
Subject Mass media -- Miscellanea.
Photography -- History.
Theater -- History.
Author Enns, Anthony.
LC no. 2010278659
ISBN 0745640907 (hbk.)
0745640915 (paperback)
9780745640907 (hbk.)
9780745640914 (paperback)
Other Titles Optische Medien: Berliner Vorlesung 1999. English
OTHER TI Optische Medien - Berliner Vorlesung 1999. engl