Media Theory Reading List -- Kristine Nielsen




Belting, Hans, Dietmar Kamper and Martin Schulz, eds. Quel Corps? Eine Frage
der Repräsentation.
Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2002. [‘What body? A Question of Representation.' Anthology of essays on the body and representation. In German]

Belting, Hans. Bild - Anthropologie. Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2001. [Belting explores the concept of the medium in relation to image and body, grounding art historical material in anthropological foundations. In German]

Bryson, Norman. Vision and Painting. The Logic of the Gaze. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983. [Bryson critiques the concepts of mimetic representation and perception, employing Lacan, Peirce, and Saussure to conceptualize painting, the Gaze, and the glance]

Spielmann, Yvonne and Gundolf Winter, eds. Bild–Medium–Kunst. Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1999. [Essays in German and English, some better than others, on “new media” and what they mean for the image and for art]

Mitchell, W.J.T. Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Mitchell, W.J.T. Picture Theory: Essays on Visual and Verbal Representation. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994.

Derrida, Jacques. Memoirs of the Blind: The Self-Portrait and Other Ruins. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1993. [Derrida investigates drawing as a ‘ruin' of an event]

Elkins, James. On Pictures and the Words that Fail Them. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. [Meditations on figure-ground relations in images and the inadequacy of semiotics for the analysis of paintings and drawings, among other things]

Elkins, James. The Domain of Images. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999. [Elkins looks at the overlooked visual images from science, technology, commerce, medicine, music, and archaeology so as to expand the field of image studies. Elkins show the shortfalls of a simple word/image binary in incorporating the nuances that exist]

Foster, Hal (ed). Vision & Visuality . DIA Art Found., Seattle: Bay Press, 1988. [Essays by various art historians on visuality]

Foucault, Michel. “Photogenic Painting.” Translated by Dafydd Roberts. In Gérard Fromager. London: Black Dog, 1999. Pp. 81-104. [Beautiful essay on the intermediality of photography and painting]

Latour, Bruno and Peter Weibel, eds. Iconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in
Science, Religion, and Art.
Karlsruhe: ZKM; Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002. [Essays on the various roles of the image in science, religion and contemporary art]

Nora, Pierre. ”Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire. Representations 26 (spring 1989): 7-25. [Part of a larger project by Nora about history and the storage of memory in material objects]

Yates, Francis. The Art of Memory. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966. [Exploration of the ancient technique of placing artificial memory in architectural settings]

Reck, Hans Ulrich. Kunst als Medientheorie. Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2003.

Art as media theory [in German. Have not read yet]