Christine Ross

Olivier Asselin

Johanne Lamoureux

Through the study of exemplary media works and practices - photography, film, video, performance, installations, web cams - scholars from various disciplines call attention to the unsettling of identification and the disablement of vision in contemporary aesthetics. To look at an image that prevents the stabilization of identification, identity and place; to perceive a representation that oscillates between visibility and invisibility; to relate to an image which entails a rebalancing of sight through the valorization of other senses; to be exposed, through surveillance devices, to the gaze of new figures of authority - the aesthetic experiences examined here concern a spectator whose perception lacks in certainty, identification, and opticality what it gains in fallibility, complexity, and interrelatedness. Precarious Visualities provides a new understanding of spectatorship as a relation that is at once corporeal and imaginary, and persistently prolific in its cultural, social, and political effects. Contributors include Raymond Bellour ( cole des hautes tudes en sciences sociales), Monika Kin Gagnon (Concordia University), Beate Ochsner (University of Mannheim -Universit t Mannheim), Claudette Lauzon (McGill University), David Tomas (Universit du Qu bec Montr al), Slavoj Zizek (Ljubljiana University and University of London), Marie Fraser (Universit du Qu bec Montr al), Alice Ming Wai Jim (Concordia University), Julie Lavigne (Universit du Qu bec Montr al), Amelia Jones (University of Manchester), Eric Michaud ( cole des hautes tudes en sciences sociales), H l ne Samson (McCord Museum), and Thierry Bardini (Universit de Montr al).

New Perspectives on Identification in Contemporary Art and Visual Culture

Precarious Visualities

Silvestra Mariniello

Andrea Oberhuber

La découverte scientifique et la maîtrise de l'électricité ont bouleversé notre société au même titre que l'invention de l'écriture alphabétique durant l'Antiquité et de l'imprimerie à caractères mobiles au XVe siècle. Il ne s'agit pas seulement d'un phénomène naturel mis au service de l'homme par la science, mais d'un élément central de l'épistémè moderne : l'électricité a inspiré des écrivains et des artistes, a servi de force d'impulsion au monde de l'industrie et de l'innovation et a redéfini les comportements sociaux. En explorant l'incidence de l'électricité sur le savoir, les pratiques sociales, les médias, la vie sociale et les expériences personnelles, cet ouvrage tente d'en saisir les aspects techniques et culturels dans toute leur complexité. -- The scientific discovery and mastery of electricity created as many important changes in modern society as did the invention of alphabetical writing in antiquity and movable type in the fifteenth century. It is more than a natural phenomenon that science has harnessed for human use; it is a central feature of the modern episteme. It has inspired writers and artists, propelled industry and innovation, and reshaped human social behaviour. Looking at a variety of topics including film, politics, and contemporary art, this volume explores the impact of electricity on knowledge, social practices, media, community life, and subjective experience.

Olivier Asselin

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