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Perceiving the Arts: An Introduction to the Humanities (8th Edition)
Dennis J. Sporre Manufacturer: Prentice Hall ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0131931148 |
Book Description
KEY BENEFIT: Written for individuals who have little or no knowledge of the arts, Perceiving the Arts has a specific and limited purpose: to provide an introductory, technical, and respondent-related reference to the arts and literature. KEY TOPICS: Intended to give basic information about each of the arts disciplines–drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, architecture, music, theatre, dance, cinema, landscape architecture, and literature–the book seeks to give its readers touchstones concerning what to look and listen for in works of art and literature. MARKET: For arts and humanities instructors and enthusiasts.
Customer Reviews:
Great Replacement for our old book.......2007-01-17
Pretty good book.......2005-01-02
Informative.......2004-01-05
If it were possible...........2003-11-17
In other words - it can bore a student to death!
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Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature
Andy Goldsworthy Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items: ASIN: 0810933519 |
Amazon.com
Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy uses a seemingly infinite array of purely natural materials, from snow and ice to leaves, stone, and twigs in the creation of his one-of-a-kind sculptures. Unlike such artists as Christo and Michael Hiezer, whose works leave definite marks on the landscape, Goldsworthy's approach is to interrupt, shape, or in some other way temporarily alter or work with nature to produce his fragile, mutable pieces. To create "Broken Icicle," for example, Goldsworthy was only able to work on the sculpture in the early morning, when temperatures were below freezing. As with most of his works, ultimately, the materials used to create this piece returned to their natural state, leaving no trace of the artwork's existence save for the stunning photos in this book.Customer Reviews:
Awe inspiring photography from the master of nature........2007-09-17
Beautiful.......2007-07-30
Absolutely superb.......2007-07-12
When I had lost all hope ..........2007-05-12
So Beautiful it brings tears to your eyes.......2007-05-03
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The Architecture of Happiness
Alain De Botton Manufacturer: Pantheon ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0375424431 Release Date: 2006-10-03 |
Book Description
One of the great but often unmentioned causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kinds of walls, chairs, buildings and streets that surround us.Customer Reviews:
Thought provoking.......2007-09-09
Buildings and aesthetics.......2007-08-15
Beautiful Buildings .......2007-08-03
archi student.......2007-08-02
Architecture of Happiness.......2007-06-26
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Art of Technique, The: An Aesthetic Approach to Film and Video Production
John S. Douglass , and Glenn P. Harnden Manufacturer: Allyn & Bacon ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0205142486 |
Book Description
This book provides readers with a teaching tool not currently available. It fills a gap in the literature by going beyond simple discussions of hardware usage, basic technical knowledge, and descriptions of technique to in-depth discussions of how this knowledge can be applied in a coherent approach to production.Customer Reviews:
A first-rate primer for the aspiring filmmaker.......2002-01-21
"The Art of Technique" is divided into two main sections. After an introductory chapter on "Interpretation and Treatment," there are six chapters focusing on the various ways a film can tell a story, essentially pre-production considerations. There is a nice little section detailing the basic types of stories Hollywood tells over and over again ("Jack the Giant Killer," "Fish Out of Water," etc.). Clearly the emphasis here is more on production than criticism, which makes the orientation of this textbook more towards the filmmaker than the movie audience. This first section ends with a look at Mise en Scene and questions of design. In terms of concepts covered, separate from the issue of how those concepts are presented in the textbook, the authors provided a comprehensive, well-organized presentation.
The second half of the book covers "Techniques for Interpretation," which starts with a consideration of the trinity of how the camera, editing and lighting can be used for interpretation. Again, everything is here; I could not find a concept or technique that was an obviously glaring omission. The book concludes with a pair of chapters on Symbols and Significance, which get into the impact film can have on an audience. You might expect to find a glossary at the back of the book, but instead we have a pair of appendixes on Electricity and Measuring Light, which only serves to reaffirm that this book is geared towards the novice filmmaker. If you are looking for a textbook that because you are a budding film critic, then this is not going to be your first choice. I can even make the argument that by not saturating their textbook with frames from dozens of films, Douglass and Harden do their readers a favor, because instead of borrowing shots and techniques from the acknowledged masters of the art form, they are being asked to reinvent the wheel. Do not knock this, because that is basically how we think Orson Welles made "Citizen Kane."
An Excellent Overview.......2002-01-15
good intro for the novice filmmaker.......2000-04-21
Stick to "Film Art" by Bordwell/Thomspon.......2000-04-17
Best introduction to filmmaking I've found.......2000-02-16
There are also numerous references to excellent classic and modern films with quite specific suggestions for examining the techniques that make those films work so well. Perhaps most important of all, the authors never lose sight of the fact that filmmaking is about interpreting and creating a reality that evokes a meaningful and powerful experience for the audience.
So if you want a book listing all the oh-so-tacky transitions and effects that your new NLE will do, or a thousand-page treatise on the history of film, THIS AIN'T IT. But if you want a book that will help you quickly learn to put cameras, lighting, and editing in the service of your creativity--buy this one first.
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The Art of Aesthetic Surgery: Principles and Techniques
Manufacturer: Quality Medical Publishing, Inc. ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 1576261778 |
Product Description
The Art of Aesthetic Surgery: Principles and Techniques is a groundbreaking work in aesthetic surgery with comprehensive, clinical information on the full range of aesthetic treatments and operations. Tissue Fillers, Skin Care, Fat Grafting, Body Contouring after Massive Weight Loss Surgery (MWL), Blepharoplasty, Rhinoplasty, Liposuction, Abdominoplasty, Neck Lift, Gluteal Implants, Mastopexy, Reduction Mammaplasty, and Brow Lift are all covered in exquisite detail, as are numerous other topics. Eleven extraordinary chapters are included on rhytidectomy alone. To supplement these 3 comprehensive volumes, 5 DVDs are included. These contain 8 operative videos featuring key techniques discussed in this work. For the aesthetic surgeon interested in providing patients with the latest treatments and procedures, this book and DVD set is a must. It is paced with step-by-step surgical instruction, clinical caveats, and surgical pearls. Dr. Foad Nahai, a renowned leader in aesthetic surgery, has personally written one third of the chapters for this lavishly illustrated 3-volume semi-atlas work and carefully edited the rest. His contributors represent the who s who of aesthetic surgery. Of particular note are the Clinical Decision-Making Chapters authored by Dr. Nahai; these invaluable chapters provide the reader with a unique overview of the various options for each problem along with his preferred solutions. This problem-solving feature, complete with algorithms and case studies, offers readers the expert guidance necessary to sort through the options, understand their advantages and limitations, and select the best option for each patient.
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Relational Aesthetics
Nicolas Bourriaud Manufacturer: Les Presse Du Reel,France ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 2840660601 |
Customer Reviews:
Interesting Conceptually-Based Phenomenon.......2007-06-23
An exciting and thought provoking book.......2007-06-18
Good Topic with Poor Translation.......2006-02-24
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Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
Pierre Bourdieu Manufacturer: Harvard University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0674212770 |
Book Description
No judgement of taste is innocent. In a word, we are all snobs. Pierre Bourdieu brilliantly illuminates this situation of the middle class in the modern world. France's leading sociologist focusses here on the French bourgeoisie, its tastes and preferences. Distinction is at once a vast ethnography of contemporary France and a dissection of the bourgeois mind.
In the course of everyday life people constantly choose between what they find aesthetically pleasing and what they consider tacky, merely trendy, or ugly. Bourdicu bases his study on surveys that took into account the multitude of social factors that play a part in a Frenchperson's choice of clothing, furniture, leisure activities, dinner menus for guests, and many other matters of taste. What emerges from his analysis is that social snobbery is everywhere in the bourgeois world. The different aesthetic choices people make are all distinctions-that is, choices made in opposition to those made by other classes. Taste is not pure. Bourdieu finds a world of social meaning in the decision to order bouillabaisse, in our contemporary cult of thinness, in the "California sports" such as jogging and cross-country skiing. The social world, he argues, functions simultaneously as a system of power relations and as a symbolic system in which minute distinctions of taste become the basis for social judgement.
The topic of Bourdieu's book is a fascinating one: the strategies of social pretension are always curiously engaging. But the book is more than fascinating. It is a major contribution to current debates on the theory of culture and a challenge to the major theoretical schools in contemporary sociology.
Customer Reviews:
Bourdieu.......2007-02-18
A Must Read!.......2004-04-03
However, his basic differentiation between working class/petit bourgeois (small business owners, clerical workers and the like)/grand bourgeois (professionals, executives, and large industrialists) certainly carries over into American society. And most interesting is his claim that the higher up in the food chain one goes, the more one's taste in the "aesthetic" inclines towards Kant's idea of disinterested formalism, while the lower classes tend to want their art to be informed by ethics and morality.
Bourdieu sees these tendencies as "embodied" and largely unconsciously adopted through our upbringing. One only has to watch a television show like "The O.C." and how they cast Ryan's mother in comparison to the trophy wives of Orange County to see that even in America class and taste and body language are still encoded in our body language, choice of dress, manners, and conversational style. The economic reality of America is that a Wal-Mart worker or transcontinental trucker is NOT middle-class in the same way as a doctor, whether in terms of taste or salary. Anyone who thinks so is either deluding themselves or doesn't want to see the truth.
Bourdieu does not neglect to mention sex (although he doesn't have as much to say about race), and has sections on women's body image (the richer, the thinner) and how the different classes deal with food (high-fat, high-carb for lower classes, fresh veggies and lean meats for higher classes). In America, our current epidemic of obesity is not only the result of marketing campaigns, but also (perhaps largely) the result of poor quality food (e.g. fast food, prepared food) being made much more affordable than high quality food (fresh produce, fish, organic). If you can't afford to eat well in America, you probably won't.
Moreover, Bourdieu makes the observation, which holds true in America as much as anywhere else, that formal education (which reinforces "legitimate" taste) can change one's tastes and values, but that one's early social upbringing will lead to a quicker assimilation of "legitimate" culture. As someone who went to bourgeois schools without a bourgeois background, and who has subsequently taught at state universities in poor areas, this truism is so obvious as to hardly need explication. Much of the poor performance of underclass or non-bourgeois students is as much due to lack of early acculturation (by this I mean exposure to "culture" like non-Hollywood films, art museums, etc., but also the habits and customs associated with school learning and higher education) as it is to any basic intelligence.
Finally, it's true that Bourdieu's style is rather ponderous, repetitive, and academic, and the book is very long indeed. Nevertheless, I can't agree that it compares with the difficulty of Derrida, Jameson, Bhabha, or other high theorists. Bourdieu's sentences are sometimes long and have many subordinate clauses, but their basic subjects and verbs are easily identifiable! The Conclusion and Postscript do raise the level of difficulty, but the Introduction and body of the main text are accessible and basically say everything he has to say (many times). Anyone with a basic undergraduate education (one that has done its job properly) should be able to handle Bourdieu's style in this particular book.
read it for the diagrams.......2000-10-29
Word for word, Bourdieu's writing style is not economical, and he is almost as cumbersome as Derrida. He does not approach the overly-complex mode of Deleuze and Guattari. His concepts bear the most resemblance to those of an early Baudrillard or a late Gramsci in terms of their interpretation of the social world, although he will depart into some more Marxist modes of interpretation.
Bourdieu's _Distinction_ is most valuable for his diagrams, as they provide a clear graphic representation of what he is trying to say. If one wants the read Bourdieu for content and/or argument, she would be better directed to one of his other books named above, as his arguments are more on-point and rpecide.
In addition, _Distinction_ is careful to limit itself to a data set collected in the late 60s and early 70s. Although the theory seems to be a sound one, Bourdieu makes claims of greater applicability in his books about the Bayle: _Outline_ and _Logic_. For discussions of modern Europe, his newer _Weight of the World_ provides a better, and more recent, analysis of the same social trends as in _Distinction_.
A brilliant look at the social implications of taste.......2000-09-12
Distinction is a long and difficult book, but from start to finish it is full of fascinating and original insights. Bourdieu's language is loaded with big words and long sentences, but I find that after I get used to the kinds of words and structures he uses, his language actually becomes pretty clear and straight-forward. It's definitely worth the time and brain-power needed to read it.
Good French ethnography from brilliant intellect.......2000-09-12
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Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics
Herbert Zettl Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0534526772 |
Book Description
This book describes the major aesthetic image elementslight and color, space, time-motion, and soundand how they are used in television and film. Zettls comprehensive coverage of aesthetic theory and his inclusion of effective visuals and examples place this text in a class by itself.Customer Reviews:
5 stars.......2005-10-10
Best in field.......2004-12-28
motion graphics professor.......2002-06-04
I would disagree with the above review. Only by learning WHY first, can we learn HOW later. This book is more than a cookie cutter approach to film and video. If you want to "click and drag" your way through an editing program, then true, this book is not for you. Add this to your collection if you want a book that teaches how to see and create film. Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics has staying power.
Fundamental book on the theory of the moving image.......2001-05-20
While the biggest complaint I've heard about this book is it's over-reliance on theory, it still does a good job of contextualizing theory into practical application. Thus the title of the book: APPLIED Media Aesthetics. Although I haven't read any of Eisentien's theories behind filmmaking, I suspect that Zettl's treatment would compete rather well, and is probably more accessible for a modern reader.
This book covers all the bases from color and light, time and space and structuring audio to image. Zettl succintcly deconstructs the intelligent mind behind the images and sound of our cultures film and television productions.
Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics explains the WHY of film and video production. If you're looking for HOW then turn to another book.
The Filmmaker's Bible of Aesthetics or What Works and Why.......2000-11-04
Professor Herbert Zettl has written the most concise manual on why we has film viewers percieve things the way we do. He explains in detail (and layman's terms) how our aesthetics have been formed to interpret the dynamic medium of film and television.
How editing of action from shot to shot creates the illusion of continuous motion. How stagelines work so not to give the effect that your actor is jumping around from one side of the scene to the other. How to crop your shot BETWEEN the bodies natural cut-off points (i.e. neck, elbow, waist) to prevent the actor from looking like a disembodied head or torso.
This book is cover-to-cover insights into what we as viewers take for granted when we watch a good filmmaker's work, but may not consider when faced with the daunting task of mounting a film production and the on-set "reality" problems that dominate the filmmaker's mind when shooting a film.
I first read this book when I was in film school twenty years ago. Since then I have directed many professional film productions and I still review it before starting a new one to refresh myself.
Just as Syd Field's book "Screenplay" is the bible for screenwriting, "Sight Sound Motion" is the bible on understanding what works in film/video and why.
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Liposuction: Principles and Practice
Manufacturer: Springer ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 3540280421 |
Book Description
Liposuction began as a contouring procedure but has evolved into the treatment of obese patients, gynecomastia, ptosis, macromastia, and even patients who have complications from heart disease or diabetes. Other disorders such as axillary sweat hypersecretion, lipomas, and angiomas are also potential disorders that may be treated with liposuction.
Physicians performing liposuction must be adequately trained and experienced in the potential and actual complications before attempting to perform liposuction. Patient safety is the most important aspect of all surgeries, but especially of cosmetic surgery, which is an elective procedure.
New technology helps improve results but experience, care, and skill of the cosmetic surgeon is necessary to obtain optimal results that satisfy the patient.
The contributors to this book have spent time and effort presenting the cosmetic and plastic surgeon as much information as possible on the techniques and uses of liposuction for cosmetic and non-cosmetic surgery purposes.
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Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy of the Arts (2nd Edition)
David Goldblatt , and Lee B. Brown Manufacturer: Prentice Hall ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0131121448 |
Book Description
This collection of readings is designed to introduce the philosophical problems of aesthetics as they pertain to specific arts e.g., Painting, Photography, Music, Film and Video Art, etc. KEY TOPICS: The nearly 90 readings represent recent continental thinking about the arts e.g., Derrida, Foucault, Baudrillard, Lyotard, Heidegger, Benjamin, and Adorno. Also, represents the analytic imagination in philosophers such as Danto, Goodman, Levinson, Urmson, and Scruton.Books:
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