Automotive Prosthetic: Technological Mediation and the Car in Conceptual Art - Softcover

Terranova, Charissa N.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1477302247 ISBN 13: 9781477302248

Publisher: University of Texas Press, 2014

Synopsis

In the twenty-first century, we are continually confronted with the existential side of technology—the relationships between identity and the mechanizations that have become extensions of the self. Focusing on one of humanity’s most ubiquitous machines, Automotive Prosthetic: Technological Mediation and the Car in Conceptual Art combines critical theory and new media theory to form the first philosophical analysis of the car within works of conceptual art. These works are broadly defined to encompass a wide range of creative expressions, particularly in car-based conceptual art by both older, established artists and younger, emerging artists, including Ed Ruscha, Martha Rosler, Richard Prince, Sylvie Fleury, Yael Bartana, Jeremy Deller, and Jonathan Schipper.

At its core, the book offers an alternative formation of conceptual art understood according to technology, the body moving through space, and what art historian, curator, and artist Jack Burnham calls “relations.” This thought-provoking study illuminates the ways in which the automobile becomes a naturalized extension of the human body, incarnating new forms of “car art” and spurring a technological reframing of conceptual art. Steeped in a sophisticated take on the image and semiotics of the car, the chapters probe the politics of materialism as well as high/low debates about taste, culture, and art. The result is a highly innovative approach to contemporary intersections of art and technology.

About this title

About the Author:

Charissa N. Terranova is Assistant Professor of Aesthetic Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is also a freelance curator and critic, writing at the interstices of aesthetics, space, and new media theory.

Review:

"Artists discussed include Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Martha Rosler, Richard Prince, and Sylvia Fleury." - Chronicle of Higher Education

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1477302247
• ISBN 13: 9781477302248
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 361