Computer scientist and composer Holtzman offers a readable and winning introduction to the theoretical and aesthetic principles that will (he claims) inform artistic expression in new media such as virtual reality. Abstract art, contemporary linguistics, and 20th-century classical music are the art forms that, according to Holtzman, link up with these new media. In lucid (if slightly repetitive) chapters, he surveys Saussure's and Chomsky's structuralist approach to language, Kandinsky's evolution toward purely abstract painting, and the efforts of modern composers such as Schoenberg and Boulez to break away from traditional musical systems with 12- tone serial composition techniques. He argues that these disparate intellectual movements share a basis in abstraction: They all concentrate on developing formal ``grammars'' to describe the functioning of their ``languages,'' be they visual or musical or linguistic. Holtzman follows this with an acute sketch of the development of computers and the search for artificial intelligence, emphasizing the basic similarity between computational theory and the formal grammars of linguistics, art, and music. He's at his best discussing various ways in which artists and composers have tried to incorporate the computer into their creative processes and where such ``collaborative'' efforts may lead; unfortunately, his discussion of virtual reality and its possibilities is much shallower, frequently falling back on the tiresome hype of the hacker world. In his later chapters Holtzman argues for what he calls a ``digital aesthetic,'' but his ideas remain vague, as do the quasi-mystical links he tries to draw between structuralist theories and Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. Holtzman preaches the virtues of structuralist aesthetics and computerized art with the fervor—and occasionally the didacticism- -of a prophet; in the end, he provides one of the most insightful considerations of the aesthetics of digital culture to date.
Pub Date: June 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-262-08228-4
Page Count: 460
Publisher: MIT Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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