K. Malcolm Richards – författare

Are your students baffled by Baudrillard? Dazed by Deleuze? Confused by Kristeva? Other beginners' guides can feel as impenetrable as the original texts to students who 'think in images'. "Contemporary Thinkers Reframed" instead uses the language of the arts to explore the usefulness in practice of complex ideas. Short, contemporary and accessible, these lively books utilise actual examples of artworks, films, television shows, works of architecture, fashion and even computer games to explain and explore the work of the most commonly taught thinkers. Conceived specifically for the visually minded, the series will prove invaluable to students right across the visual arts.'Deconstruction' is touted in every visual area from architecture to fashion, yet few really understand what Derrida's notorious concept means, much less his elusive idea of 'differance'. In fact Derrida's work can seem almost impenetrable.This guide explains Derrida's key concepts through examples from across the whole spectrum of the arts, looking at the work of architects such as Bernard Tschumi and Daniel Libeskind, fashion designers such as Ann Demeulemeister and at the work of artists as varied as Kara Walker, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Rachel Whiteread and Jeff Wall. Showing what Derrida's work really 'means' in practice, this short guide makes this thinker's complex work accessible to a wider public.

Are your students baffled by Baudrillard? Dazed by Deleuze? Confused by Kristeva? Other beginners' guides can feel as impenetrable as the original texts to students who 'think in images'. "Contemporary Thinkers Reframed" instead uses the language of the arts to explore the usefulness in practice of complex ideas. Short, contemporary and accessible, these lively books utilise actual examples of artworks, films, television shows, works of architecture, fashion and even computer games to explain and explore the work of the most commonly taught thinkers. Conceived specifically for the visually minded, the series will prove invaluable to students right across the visual arts.'Deconstruction' is touted in every visual area from architecture to fashion, yet few really understand what Derrida's notorious concept means, much less his elusive idea of 'differance'. In fact Derrida's work can seem almost impenetrable.This guide explains Derrida's key concepts through examples from across the whole spectrum of the arts, looking at the work of architects such as Bernard Tschumi and Daniel Libeskind, fashion designers such as Ann Demeulemeister and at the work of artists as varied as Kara Walker, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Rachel Whiteread and Jeff Wall. Showing what Derrida's work really 'means' in practice, this short guide makes this thinker's complex work accessible to a wider public.

Proximate Difference in Aesthetics: Jacques Derrida and Institutional Critique examines interconnections between the texts of Jacques Derrida and works related to Institutional Critique in art. At a juncture between philosophy and art, texts by Derrida such as “Différance,” “Parergon,” “Economimesis,” and “Force of Law,” and works by Marcel Broodthaers, Michael Asher, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Fred Wilson, Louise Lawler, Andrea Fraser, Maria Eichhorn, and Cameron Rowland reveal shared investments in questions around the archive, the institutional frames for art, and the collision of aesthetics, economics, and the law. These juxtapositions lead to insights not only into the relevance of Derrida’s work to contemporary aesthetics, but also into how the approaches of Institutional Critique offer a way of thinking through issues raised by Derrida’s texts. In being against traditional aesthetics, Derrida and the artists under consideration brush up against the foundational premises of the institutions of philosophy, aesthetics, and art, creating productive frictions that expose not only the foundational fictions and premises of their respective fields, but also an alternative means of approaching philosophy, art, and aesthetics. The small differences that Derrida and these artists open up through their practice radically reframe ways of thinking about their respective institutions, fields, and traditions.