Tamara Trodd – författare

The Art of Mechanical Reproduction presents a striking new approach to how traditional art mediums - painting, sculpture, and drawing - changed in the twentieth century as a result of photography, film, and other technologies. Explicitly countering the modernist view that advanced art is always medium-specific, Trodd argues instead that we should view art and its practices in relationship to the technologies of the time rather than through the master critical narrative of medium. Built as a series of interlocked case studies, The Art of Mechanical Reproduction opens with Paul Klee, then moves through Hans Bellmer, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Smithson, Gerhard Richter, Chris Marker, and Tacita Dean. Along the way, Trodd weaves a rich history of the experimental networks in which these artists worked, and shows for the first time how extensively technological innovations of the moment affected their work. Innovative and broad-ranging, The Art of Mechanical Reproduction challenges some of the most respected and entrenched criticism of the past several decades - and allows us to think about these artists anew.

Projected-image art occupies an increasingly important place in the contemporary art-world. But does the projected image have its own specificity, beyond the histories of experimental film and video on the one hand, and installation art on the other? What is a projected image, and what is the history of projected-image art? These questions and others are explored in this thoughtful collection of nine essays by leading international scholars of film and projected-image art. Clearly structured in three sections - ‘Histories’, ‘Screen’, ‘Space’ - the book argues for recognition of the projected image as a distinctive category in contemporary art, which demands new critical and theoretical approaches. The contributors explore a range of interpretive perspectives, offering new insights into the work of artists including Michael Snow, Carolee Schneemann, Pipilotti Rist, Stan Douglas, Gillian Wearing, Tacita Dean, Jane and Louise Wilson, amongst others. The Introduction supplies a concise summary of the history of projected-image art and its interpretation, and there is a focus throughout the book on detailed analysis of individual artworks.