1. On
Art and Cultural stereotypes:
·
Rethinking Visual Anthropology
Banks,
Marcus, and Howard Morphy. Rethinking visual anthropology. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1997. Print.
This book shows that
the scope of visual anthropology is far broader, encompassing the analysis of
still photography, television, electronic representation, art, ritual, and
material culture. Because anthropology involves the representation of one
culture or segment of society to another, say the authors, an understanding of
the nature of representational processes across cultures is essential.
This book brings
together essays by leading anthropologists that cover an entire range of visual
representation, from Balinese television to computer software manuals.
Contributors discuss the anthropology of art, the study of landscape, the
anthropology of ritual, the anthropology of media and communication, the
history of anthropology, and art practice and production. Also included are a
wide-ranging introduction and a concluding overview.
·
Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain
Ginsburg,
Faye D., Lila Lughod, and Brian Larkin. Media worlds: anthropology on new
terrain. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. Print.
This book showcases
the exciting work emerging from the ethnography of media, a burgeoning new area
in anthropology that expands both social theory and ethnographic fieldwork to
examine the way media--film, television, video--are used in societies around
the globe, often in places that have been off the map of conventional media
studies. The contributors, key figures in this new field, cover topics ranging
from indigenous media projects around the world to the unexpected effects of
state control of media to the local impact of film and television as they travel
transnationally. Their essays, mostly new work produced for this volume, bring
provocative new theoretical perspectives grounded in cross-cultural
ethnographic realities to the study of media.
·
Learning to Look: A Handbook for the
Visual Arts
Taylor, Joshua Charles. Learning to
look. A handbook for the visual arts. Prepared with the humanities staff of the
College at the University of Chicago. [With illustrations.]. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1982. Print.
Taylor's thoughtful discussion of pure forms and our responses to them gives
the reader a few useful starting points for looking at art that does not
reproduce nature and for understanding the distance between contemporary
figurative art and reality.
·
Visual Conflicts: On the Formation of
Political Memory in the History of Art and Visual Cultures
Fox, Paul. Visual conflicts: on the
formation of political memory in the history of art and visual cultures.
Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011.
This
collection of essays explores ways in which visual cultures have engaged with
armed conflict and politically-motivated acts of violence of all types. It
works out of analytical frameworks developed in the fields of Art History and
Visual Culture in order to address the politics of representing conflict within
and beyond these disciplines. The contributors seek to extend perceived
well-established academic approaches to thinking about visual production in the
context of war, conflict, and militarism through a study of various themes, including
historiography, subjectivity, biography, narrative construction, commemoration,
identity, and memory formation. Each author considers how visual
representations of conflict shape the meanings of politically significant
events, of specific social formations, of subject positions and enacted roles.
The volume investigates a set of representational regimes in visual media,
including print-making, painting, photography and digital imaging, and the use
to which they have been put to generate as well as mediate realities of
conflict.
·
Digital Visual Culture: Theory and
Practice
Kafel, Anna, Trish Cashen, and Hazel
Gardiner. Digital visual culture theory and practice. Bristol, U.K.: Intellect,
2009
Art practitioners and
scholars continue to explore what technology has to offer and practice-based
research is redefining their disciplines. What happens when an artist
experiments with bio-scientific data and discovers something the scientists
failed to notice? How do virtual telematic environments affect our relationship
with the object and our understanding of identity and presence? Interactive
engagement with the creative process takes precedence over the finite piece
thus affecting the roles of the artist and the viewer.
The experience of arts computing in the last decades provides a sound basis for
theorising this practice. Since its inception in 1985, CHArt – Computers and
the History of Art – has been at the forefront of international debate on digital
art practice, curation and scholarship. The ten papers included in this volume,
the third CHArt Yearbook published by Intellect, are drawn from recent CHArt
conferences. The authors seek to articulate methodological and theoretical
perspectives on digital media, including communication and preservation of
digital artworks. These issues are pertinent to contemporary visual culture and
may help deepen its understanding.
·
Art Practice in a Digital Culture (Digital
Research in the Arts and Humanities)
Gardiner, Hazel. Art practice in a
digital culture. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010.
Much as art history
is in the process of being transformed by new information communication
technologies, often in ways that are either disavowed or resisted, art practice
is also being changed by those same technologies. One of the most obvious
symptoms of this change is the increasing numbers of artists working in
universities, and having their work facilitated and supported by the funding
and infrastructural resources that such institutions offer. This new paradigm
of art as research is likely to have a profound effect on how we understand the
role of the artist and of art practice in society. In this unique book,
artists, art historians, art theorists and curators of new media reflect on the
idea of art as research and how it has changed practice. Intrinsic to the
volume is an investigation of the advances in creative practice made possible
via artists engaging directly with technology or via collaborative partnerships
between practitioners and technological experts, ranging through a broad
spectrum of advanced methods from robotics through rapid prototyping to the
biological sciences.
·
Practices of Looking: An Introduction to
Visual Culture
Sturken,
Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of looking: an introduction to visual
culture. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
The book explores the
ways we use and understand images. Truly interdisciplinary, this comprehensive
and engaging introduction can be used in courses across a range of disciplines
including media and film studies, communications, art history, and photography.
Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright examine the diverse range of recent
approaches to visual analysis and lead students through key theories on visual
culture, providing explanations of the fundamentals of these theories and
presenting visual examples of how they function. Using over 175 illustrations,
they examine how images--paintings, prints, photographs, film, television,
video, advertisements, news images, the Internet, digital images, and images
from science--gain meaning in different cultural arenas, from art and commerce
to science and the law. They also consider how these images travel globally and
in distinct cultures; how they are an integral and important aspect of our
lives. The images are analyzed in relation to a range of cultural and
representational issues (desire, power, the gaze, bodies, sexuality, ethnicity)
and methodologies (semiotics, marxism, psychoanalysis, feminism, postcolonial
theory). Central topics such as ideology, the concept of the spectator, the
role of reproduction in visual culture, the mass media and the public sphere,
consumer culture, and postmodernism are explained in depth.
·
Global Visual Cultures: An Anthology
Kocur, Zoya. Global visual cultures: an
anthology. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011
Provides a new and
groundbreaking perspective on the field, and addresses multiple interpretations
of the visual, from considerations of the "everyday" to global
political contexts.
- Expands the theoretical framework
for considering visual culture
- Brings together a rich selection
of readings relevant in a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary
settings, from critical theory, anthropology and history, to political
science, architecture, and ethnic, race and gender studies
- Analyzes cultural phenomena in
global and local contexts and across a broad geographical and geopolitical
terrain
- Address multiple interpretations
of the visual, from considerations of the "everyday" to global
political contexts
- Offers ample, useful pedagogy that
reveals the multi-faceted nature of visual culture
A
collection of works
on the current topics in the field of visual culture. Contributing to an
expanding theoretical framework for considering visual culture, the
volume brings together a selection of readings relevant to a variety of
disciplinary and interdisciplinary settings, from critical theory,
anthropology, and history, to political science, architecture, and ethnic,
race, and gender studies. Revealing the interplay between areas of study
in this diverse field, the texts analyze cultural phenomena in global
and local contexts and across a broad geographical and geopolitical terrain.
With topics ranging from Michael Jackson to 9/11, from
webcams and surveillance to Antarctica and gendered images, the essays selected
for inclusion in Global Visual Cultures address multiple interpretations
of the visual, from considerations of the "everyday" to global
political contexts. This definitive anthology provides a new and groundbreaking
perspective on visual culture on a global scale.
·
Diaspora and visual culture : representing
Africans and Jews
Mirzoeff, Nicholas.
Diaspora visual culture: representing Africans and Jews. London: Routledge,
2000.
This book examines the connections between
diaspora - the movement, whether forced or voluntary, of a nation or group of
people from one homeland to another - and its representations in visual
culture. Two foundational articles by Stuart Hall and the painter R.B. Kitaj provide
points of departure for an exploration of the meanings of diaspora for cultural
identity and artistic practice.
A distinguished group of contributors, who include Alan Sinfield, Irit Rogoff,
and Eunice Lipton, address the rich complexity of diasporic cultures and art,
but with a focus on the visual culture of the Jewish and African diasporas.
Individual articles address the Jewish diaspora and visual culture from the
19th century to the present, and work by African American and Afro-Brazilian
artists.
·
Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative
Research: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples, and Issues
Knowles,
J. Gary, and Ardra L. Cole. Handbook of the arts in qualitative research:
perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues. Los Angeles: Sage Publications,
2008.
This book Represents
an unfolding and expanding orientation to qualitative social science research
that draws inspiration, concepts, processes, and representational forms from
the arts. In this defining work, J. Gary Knowles and Ardra L. Cole bring
together the top scholars in qualitative methods to provide a comprehensive
overview of the past, present, and future of arts-based research. This book provides an
accessible and stimulating collection of theoretical arguments and illustrative
examples that delineate the role of the arts in qualitative social science
research.
·
Handbook of Visual Analysis
Leeuwen, Theo, and Carey Jewitt.
Handbook of visual analysis. London: SAGE, 2001
- Offers a
wide-range of methods for visual analysis: content analysis, historical
analysis, structuralist analysis, iconography, psychoanalysis, social
semiotic analysis, film analysis and ethnomethodology
- Shows how each
method can be applied for the purposes of specific research projects
- Exemplifies each
approach through detailed analyses of a variety of data, including,
newspaper images, family photos, drawings, art works and cartoons
·
Indigenous Aesthetics: Native Art, Media,
and Identity
Leuthold,
Steven. Indigenous aesthetics: native art, media, and identity. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1998
What happens when a Native or
indigenous person turns a video camera on his or her own culture? Are the
resulting images different from what a Westernized filmmaker would create, and,
if so, in what ways? How does the use of a non-Native art-making medium,
specifically video or film, affect the aesthetics of the Native culture?
These are some of the questions that
underlie this rich study of Native American aesthetics, art, media, and
identity. Steven Leuthold opens with a theoretically informed discussion of the
core concepts of aesthetics and indigenous culture and then turns to detailed
examination of the work of American Indian documentary filmmakers, including
George Burdeau and Victor Masayesva, Jr. He shows how Native filmmaking
incorporates traditional concepts such as the connection to place, to the
sacred, and to the cycles of nature. While these concepts now find expression
through Westernized media, they also maintain continuity with earlier aesthetic
productions. In this way, Native filmmaking serves to create and preserve a
sense of identity for indigenous people.
·
Orientalism
Said,
Edward William. Orientalism. Repr. with a new preface. ed. London [u.a.:
Penguin Books, 2003
"The
theme is the way in which intellectual traditions are created and
trans-mitted... Orientalism is the example Mr. Said uses, and by it he means
something precise. The scholar who studies the Orient (and specifically the
Muslim Orient), the imaginative writer who takes it as his subject, and the
institutions which have been concerned with teaching it, settling it, ruling
it, all have a certain representation or idea of the Orient defined as being
other than the Occident, mysterious, unchanging and ultimately inferior."
--Albert Hourani, New York Review of Books
·
Culture and Imperialism
Said,
Edward W.. Culture and imperialism. New York: Knopf :, 1993.
Edward
Said makes one of the strongest cases ever for the aphorism, "the pen is
mightier than the sword." This is a brilliant work of literary criticism
that essentially becomes political science. Culture and Imperialism
demonstrates that Western imperialism's most effective tools for dominating
other cultures have been literary in nature as much as political and economic.
He traces the themes of 19th- and 20th-century Western fiction and contemporary
mass media as weapons of conquest and also brilliantly analyzes the rise of
oppositional indigenous voices in the literatures of the "colonies."
Said would argue that it's no mere coincidence that it was a Victorian
Englishman, Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton, who coined the phrase "the pen is
mightier . . ." Very highly recommended for anyone who wants to understand
how cultures are dominated by words, as well as how cultures can be liberated
by resuscitating old voices or creating new voices for new times.
·
The Right to Look: A Counter history of
Visuality
Mirzoeff,
Nicholas. The right to look: a counterhistory of visuality. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 2011.
In
The Right to Look, Nicholas Mirzoeff develops a comparative de-colonial
framework for visual culture studies, a field that he has helped to create and
shape. Casting modernity as an ongoing contest between visuality and
counter-visuality, or "the right to look," he explains how visuality
sutures authority to power and renders the association natural. An
early-nineteenth-century concept, meaning the visualization of history,
visuality has been central to the legitimization of Western hegemony. Mirzoeff
identifies three "complexes of visuality," plantation slavery,
imperialism, and the present-day military-industrial complex. He describes how,
within each of these, power is made to seem self-evident through techniques of
classification, separation, and aestheticization. At the same time, he shows
how each complex of visuality has been counteredoby the enslaved, the
colonized, and opponents of war, all of whom assert autonomy from authority by
claiming the right to look. Encompassing the Caribbean plantation and the
Haitian revolution, anti-colonialism in the South Pacific, anti-fascism in
Italy and Algeria, and the contemporary global counterinsurgency, The Right to
Look is a work of astonishing geographic, temporal, and conceptual reach.
·
The Gender/Sexuality Reader: Culture,
History, Political Economy
The
Gender/Sexuality Reader is
a sophisticated survey which contextualizes gender and sexuality in a matrix of
varied racial formations, nationalisms, colonialisms, imperialisms and
movements for social change. Contributors include: Lila Abu-Lughod, Janice
Boddy, Susan Bordo, Judith Butler, Jane Collier, Jane L. Collins, Teresa de
Lauretis, Janadas Devan, Micaela di Leonardo, John D'Emilio, Ann
Fausto-Sterling, Susan Gal, David F. Greenberg, Matthew Gutman, Jacalyn D.
Harden, Lori L. Heise, Geraldine Heng, Darlene Clark Hine, Evelyn Fox Keller,
Roger Lancaster, Thomas Laqueur, Catherine A. Lutz, Emily Martin, Richard
Parker, Cindy Patton, Rosalind Petchesky, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Rayna Rapp, Michelle
Rosaldo, Ellen Ross, Lousia Schein, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Amartya Sen,
Elizabeth Sheehan, Siobhan Somerville, Susan Sperling, Judith Stacey, Arlene
Stein, Ann Stoler, Carole S. Vance, Sylvia Yanagisako, and Patricia Zavella.
·
Arab & Arab American feminisms:
gender, violence, & belonging
Abdulhadi, Rabab, Evelyn Alsultany,
and Nadine Christine Naber. Arab & Arab American feminisms: gender,
violence, & belonging. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2011.
Print.
this
is a collection of articles that reflects on the state of Arab American women.
it is so informative. it explains every aspect related to the lives of Arab American
women. it even connects the idea of their oppression and their struggle to the
struggle of African American women. it also explain the similarities and
differences between Arab feminism and Arab American feminisms. it is an
excellent, thorough reference that the writers took a lot of pain to write.
2. On
Art Direction and stereotypes:
·
Art Direction Explained, At Last!
Heller,
Steven, and Véronique Vienne. Art direction explained, at last!. London:
Laurence King, 2009.
This
book is a highly informative, highly entertaining introduction to what art
direction is and what art directors do. Written by two of the world's leading
experts on the subject, it covers the role of art director in numerous
environments, including magazines and newspapers, advertising, corporate
identity, museums, and publishing. It also provides an insight into what makes
a successful art director, what an art director actually does all day, what
makes things go right, and what makes things go wrong.
Alongside perspectives on typography, illustration, and photography, there are
case studies of successful art direction in different spheres, from McSweeney's to Vier5's
web design. The authors have also invited pre-eminent international art
directors to interpret their roles in special sections of the book that they
have art directed themselves. The result is an impressive, enlightening, and
often very funny diversity of perspectives and approaches.
·
The Art Direction Handbook for Film
Rizzo,
Michael. The art direction handbook for film. Amsterdam: Focal Press, 2005.
Whether
you'd like to be an art director or already are one, this book contains
valuable solutions that will help you get ahead. This comprehensive, thorough
professional manual details the set-up of the art department and the day-to-day
job duties: scouting for locations, research, executing the design concept,
constructing scenery, and surviving production. You will not only learn how to
do the job, but how to succeed and secure future jobs. Rounding out the text is
an extensive collection of useful forms and checklists, along with interviews
with prominent art directors, relevant real-life anecdotes, and blueprints,
sketches, photographs, and stills from Hollywood sets.
*Thorough, practical, on-the-job manual for art directors for film containing
anecdotes, interviews, and illustrations from actual sets
*Written by the art director of films such as Vanilla Sky, JFK, and My Cousin
Vinny
*Includes valuable career advice from an insider
·
What an Art Director Does: An Introduction
to Motion Picture Production Design
Preston,
Ward. What an art director does: an introduction to motion picture production
design. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press ;, 1994
this
book lays out the procedure and the challenges in becoming a motion
picture art director or a production designer. While
covering the "nuts and bolts" of the work, the messages are
often driven home by war stories from the author's own
experiences in the business.
·
The Education of an Art Director
Heller, Steven. The Education of an Art
Director. New York, USA: Allworth Press, 2006. Print.
This
book gives the history of the profession, how it has evolved and how it has
been practiced lately. There are interviews with various art directors who talk
about how they define the role and how they've come to be a success in it. I do
wish it was a little more up-to-date with the examples shown, and even more
images would really help further comprehension. But the thing is, there is no
easy answer to "how to be an art director" ... even so, this book
goes a long way to helping you understand what the role is capable of and what
it involves.
·
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
MacCloud, Scott. Understanding comics
[the invisible art. 1. Harper perennial ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1994.
Print.
McCloud
has a deep understanding of art and society and people, and a completely lucid
presentation.
There are useful new ways of thinking
about comics here (his comparisons of American and Japanese comics, his
theories of panel transitions and why comic characters are sometimes drawn more
simply than the backgrounds, his comments on the psychological impact of
color), and ways of thinking about art and design in general. And he makes
masterly use of the comic medium itself to present the material in a way that
never drags or confuses.
·
Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of
Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
McCloud,
Scott. Making comics: storytelling secrets of comics, manga and graphic novels.
New York [etc.: Harper, 2006. Print.
Scott
McCloud tore down the wall between high and low culture in 1993 with
Understanding Comics, a massive comic book about comics, linking the medium to
such diverse fields as media theory, movie criticism, and web design. In
Reinventing Comics, McCloud took this to the next level, charting twelve
different revolutions in how comics are generated, read, and perceived today.
Now, in Making Comics, McCloud focuses his analysis on the art form itself,
exploring the creation of comics, from the broadest principles to the sharpest
details (like how to accentuate a character's facial muscles in order to form
the emotion of disgust rather than the emotion of surprise.) And he does all of
it in his inimitable voice and through his cartoon stand–in narrator, mixing
dry humor and legitimate instruction. McCloud shows his reader how to master
the human condition through word and image in a brilliantly minimalistic way.
Comic book devotees as well as the most uninitiated will marvel at this journey
into a once–underappreciated art form.
·
Gender, Race, and Class in Media
Dines,
Gail, and Jean McMahon Humez. Gender, race, and class in media: a critical
reader. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications, 2011. Print.
Incisive
analyses of mass media – including such forms as talk shows, MTV, the Internet,
soap operas, television sitcoms, dramatic series, pornography, and
advertising-enable this provocative new edition of Gender, Race and Class in
Media to engage students in critical mass media scholarship. Issues of power
related to gender, race, and class are integrated into a wide range of articles
examining the economic and cultural implications of mass media as institutions,
including the political economy of media production, textual analysis, and
media consumption.
·
Creating Characters with Personality: For
Film, TV, Animation, Video Games, and Graphic Novels
Bancroft,
Tony. Creating characters with personality: for film, TV, animation, video
games, and graphic novels. New York: Watson-Guptill ;, 2006. Print.
From
Snow White to Shrek, from Fred Flintstone to SpongeBob SquarePants, the design
of a character conveys personality before a single word of dialogue is
spoken. Designing Characters with Personality shows artists how to
create a distinctive character, then place that character in context within a
script, establish hierarchy, and maximize the impact of pose and expression.
Practical exercises help readers put everything together to make their new
characters sparkle. Lessons from the author, who designed the dragon Mushu
(voiced by Eddie Murphy) in Disney's Mulan—plus big-name experts in film, TV,
video games, and graphic novels—make a complex subject accessible to every
artist.
3. On
Video Game Art and Education:
·
Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and
Video Games
Witheford, Nick, and Greig Peuter. Games of empire global
capitalism and video games. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
Print.
In the first decade of the twenty-first
century, video games are an integral part of global media culture, rivaling
Hollywood in revenue and influence. No longer confined to a subculture of
adolescent males, video games today are played by adults around the world. At
the same time, video games have become major sites of corporate exploitation
and military recruitment.
Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter
offer a radical political critique of such video games and virtual environments
as Second Life, World of Warcraft, and Grand Theft Auto, analyzing them as the
exemplary media of Empire, the twenty-first-century hypercapitalist complex
theorized by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. The authors trace the ascent of
virtual gaming, assess its impact on creators and players alike, and delineate
the relationships between games and reality, body and avatar, screen and
street.
It forcefully
connects video games to real-world concerns about globalization, militarism,
and exploitation, from the horrors of African mines and Indian e-waste sites
that underlie the entire industry, the role of labor in commercial game
development, and the synergy between military simulation software and the
battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan exemplified by Full Spectrum Warrior to
the substantial virtual economies surrounding World of Warcraft, the urban
neoliberalism made playable in Grand Theft Auto, and the emergence of an
alternative game culture through activist games and open-source game
development.
Rejecting both moral panic and glib
enthusiasm, Games of Empire demonstrates how virtual games crystallize
the cultural, political, and economic forces of global capital, while also providing
a means of resisting them.
·
Don't Bother Me Mom--I'm Learning!
Prensky,
Marc. "Don't bother me Mom, I'm learning!": how computer and video
games are preparing your kids for twenty-first century success and how you can
help!. 1. ed. St. Paul, Minn.: Paragon House, 2006. Print.
Prensky
debunks the accepted wisdom that video games are harmful to children. Instead,
he contends that games can teach a multitude of skills, including problem
solving, language and cognitive skills, strategic thinking, multitasking, and
parallel processing. He cites research showing the benefits of games in
teaching skills children will need in a twenty-first-century economy, pointing
to the military use of games to teach strategy, laproscopic surgeons who play
games as a "warm-up" before surgery, and entrepreneurs who played
games growing up. Better yet, Prensky details positive attributes of popular
games, including the controversial Grand Theft Auto, and addresses parent
concerns about children becoming addicted, socially isolated, or developing
aggression because of games. He offers recommendations for particularly
beneficial games as well as Web sites to advance parent learning, and provides
sound advice on bridging the gap between what he calls the young digital
natives and the older digital immigrants. Parents and teachers will
appreciate--and enjoy--this enlightening look at video and computer games.
Vanessa Bush.
·
Games: Purpose and Potential in Education
Miller,
Christopher. Games: Purpose and Potential in Education. Berlin: Springer, 2008.
Print.
The
field of Games is rapidly expanding, prompting institutions throughout the
world to create game development programs and courses focusing on educational
games. As a result, games have also become a hot topic in the area of
educational technology research. This increased interest is due to the
technological advancement of digital games and the fact that a new, digital
generation is emerging with a strong gaming background. Games: Purpose and
Potential in Education focuses on the issues of incorporating games into
education and instructional design. Ideas of identity development, gender
diversity, motivation, and integrating instructional design within game
development are addressed since each of these areas is important in the field
of instructional design and can have a significant impact on learning. This
volume brings together leading experts, researchers, and instructors in the
field of gaming and explores current topics in gaming and simulations,
available resources, and the future of the field.
·
What Video Games Have to Teach Us About
Learning and Literacy. Second Edition: Revised and Updated Edition
Gee,
James Paul. What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. Rev.
and updated ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
James
Paul Gee begins his classic book with "I want to talk about video
games--yes, even violent video games--and say some positive things about
them." With this simple but explosive statement, one of America's most
well-respected educators looks seriously at the good that can come from playing
video games. In this revised edition, new games like World of WarCraft and Half
Life 2 are evaluated and theories of cognitive development are expanded. Gee
looks at major cognitive activities including how individuals develop a sense
of identity, how we grasp meaning, how we evaluate and follow a command, pick a
role model, and perceive the world.
·
Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and
Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form
MacCloud,
Scott. Reinventing comics: how imagination and technology are revolutionizing
an art form. 4. Aufl. ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Print.
McCloud
uses his impressive insight and admirable clarity to map out "12
revolutions," which, he believes, need to take place for comics to survive
and finally be recognized as a legitimate art form. The topics progress from
the oldest of comic-related arguments (seeking respect) to the use of computer
technology to renew and expand its audience. These brilliantly presented
discussions concern comics as literature, comics as art, creators' rights,
industry innovation, and public perception, among other topics. McCloud's
arguments are strong, factual (he recaps the evolution of the comics industry
and the Internet to support his theories), and persuasive.
·
The Ethics of Emerging Media: Information,
Social Norms, and New Media Technology
Drushel,
Bruce E., and Kathleen German. Ethics of Emerging Media Information, Social
Norms, and New Media Technology.. London: Continuum International Pub. Group, 2011.
Print.
engages
with enduring ethical questions while addressing critical questions concerning
ethical boundaries at the forefront of new media development. This collection
provides a rare opportunity to ask how emerging media affect the ethical choices
in our lives and the lives of people across the globe.
Centering
on different new media forms from eBay to Wikipedia, each chapter raises
questions about how changing media formats affect current theoretical
understanding of ethics. By interrogating traditional ethical theory, we
can better understand the challenges to ethical decision making in an age of
rapidly evolving media. Each chapter focuses on a specific case within
the broader conceptual fabric of ethical theory. The case studies ground
the discussion of ethics in practical applications while, at the same time,
addressing moral dilemmas that have plagued us for generations. The
specific applications will undoubtedly continue to unfold, but the ethical
questions will endure.
·
Creating the Art of the Game
Omernick,
Matthew. Creating the art of the game. Indianapolis, Ind.: New Riders, 2004.
Print.
The
key word here is art: the dynamic 3D art that defines the world of computer
games. This book teaches you everything you need to know about the planning,
modeling, texturing, lighting, effects creation, and interface design that go
into creating today's most advanced and stunning video games. You'll be
learning from a master-veteran 3D artist and instructor Matthew Omernick-as you
progress through the carefully chosen, software-agnostic tutorials that make up
this beautiful, full-color volume. The end result will be skills you can apply
to whatever 3D tool you choose and whatever wildly imaginative game you can
think up. Through a unique combination of explanation, tutorials, and real
world documentation-including discussions of the creative process entailed in
some of today's most popular games augmented by screen captures and
descriptions--you'll quickly come to understand the workflow, tools, and
techniques required to be a successful game artist. In addition to learning the
ropes of game art, you'll also find in depth tutorials and techniques that
apply to all aspects of 3D graphics. Whether you are using Photoshop, 3ds max,
Maya, or any other computer graphics software, you'll find a wealth of
information that you can continue to come back to time and time again.
·
The Art of the Video Game
Jenisch,
Josh. The art of the video game. Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books ;, 2008. Print.
This
book celebrates the new visual medium—complete with stunning digital artwork
from the biggest design studios and game publishers in the business, including
Electronic Arts, Activision, Sega, Sony, Midway, Eidos, and Konami. Every page
features gorgeously rendered images (plus never-before-published sketches,
models, and works-in-progress) from dozens of beloved games—everything from old
school favorites like Tomb Raider and Sonic the Hedgehog to contemporary hits
like Beautiful Katamari, Call of Duty, Half-Life 2, Kane & Lynch, and more.
Along the way, readers will discover the history of video game art and an
exciting glimpse of its future. Full of exclusive interviews and
images, The Art of the Video Game is a must-have gift for gamers of
all ages.
