22.5 x 15.0cms 112pp b/w illusts very good+ paperback & dustwrapper The DVD has 5 miniature wooden theatres & projected movies. Each theatre presents an hysterical drama. Two of Pierre Janet's patients express their delusions in song and the other theatres present other doctors' films of actual hysterics (late 19th & early 20th century). The book has the essays and images that inspired the installation.

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Bibliographic Details

Title: The Somnambulists: A Compendium Of Source Material (with DVD data disk)
Publisher: Christine Burgin
Publication Date: 2008
Language: English
ISBN 10: 0615219152
ISBN 13: 9780615219158
Binding: Soft cover
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

The book is a collection of essays and images that inspired Zoe Beloffs video installation, The Somnambulists 2008. Comprised of five miniature wooden theaters into which moving images are projected, her work centers on the idea of staging the unconscious . Each theater presents a hysterical drama. These include History of a Fixed Idea and A Modern Case of Possession in which two patients of the famous French psycho-pathologist Pierre Janet, express their delusions in song. Other theaters present the ghostly specters of actual hysterics filmed by doctors a hundred years ago. The texts and images included in the book illuminate the complex interweaving of ideas from psychology, writing, performance, art, and moving-image technology at the end of the 19th century. It begins with an introduction to the Players; brief biographies of the scholars, artists, and performers who appear in this volume. The texts include Pierre Janets case study of the writer Raymond Roussel, the Surrealists celebration of hysteria as the greatest poetical invention of the 19th century in The Fiftieth Anniversary of Hysteria and the pioneering psychic researcher Frederic W.H. Myers commentary on Janets contribution to the discovery of the unconscious. Also included are rarely seen photographs by Albert von Schrenck Notzing of artistic production under the influence of hypnosis including images of the celebrated dream dancer Magdelaine G. Included with the book is a DVD-ROM in which Beloffs installation can be viewed as an interactive work for Mac and PC.

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We stock books about art, design, fashion, heritage/history and gender/sexuality, specialising in books about Australian, Asian & Pacific arts, crafts design and cultural history. Since we are committed to marginalised and innovative social and cultural practices, we are more likely to have books on women artists or dissident life than coffee-table books on iconic figures. This shop is in Sydney's legendary Kings Cross area, which has provided alternatives to this country's normalcy and suburbia for the last 80 years. Colloquially known as 'The Cross', this name signifies Antipodean bohemia, streetgangs and a world-famous red light district etc. THE CROSS Art + Books is a foundation member of The Bookdealers Guild (NSW).

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Oliver Stephen Pty Ltd
33 Roslyn Street, Kings CRoss, NSW, 2011, Australia

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