InfoD: Bookwatch (34)

       * InfoDesign Bookwatch *   (34)


         In this message:
         1) Mapping tourism (S.P. Hanna & V.J. Del Casino Jr.)
         2) Looking into pictures
            (H. Hecht, R. Schwartz and M. Atherton)
         3) Lester Beall: Space, time & content
            (R. Roger Remington)
         4) World without words (Michael Evamy)
         5) Visual studies: A skeptical introduction
            (James Elkins)
         6) The language of comics (Mario Saraceni)

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1)     TITLE: Mapping Tourism

     EDITORS: Stephen P. Hanna and Vincent J. Del Casino Jr.

     SUMMARY: At first glance, the relationships among tourists,
              tourism maps, and the spaces of tourism seem
              straightforward enough: tourists use maps to find
              their way to and through the sites of history,
              culture, nature, or recreation represented there.
              Less apparent is how tourism maps and those using
              them construct such spaces and identities. The
              interactions of work with leisure, and the everyday
              with the exotic, make tourism maps ideal sites for
              exploring the contested construction of place and
              identity. The essays allow us to see tourist space
              as it truly is: contested, ever changing, and
              replete with issues of power.

CONTENTS:
- Introduction: Tourism spaces, mapped representations and
  practices of identity
  (Stephen P. Hanna & Vincent J. Del Casino Jr.)
1 Political tourism: mapping memory and the future at Quebec
  city (Rob Shields)
2 Memory on the margins: Alabama's civil rights journey as a
  memorial text (Owen J. Dwyer)
3 Construction sites and showcases: mapping 'the new Berlin'
  through tourism practices (Karen E. Till)
4 'A walk through old Bodie': presenting a ghost town in a
  tourism map (Dydia DeLyser)
5 Representing Culloden: Social memory, Battlefield heritage,
  and landscapes of regret (John R. Gold & Margaret M. Gold)
6 Dialogues of difference: contested mappings of tourism and
  environmental protection in Butte, Montana (Mary Curran)
7 Mapping identities, reading maps: the politics of
  representation in Bangkok's sex tourism industry
  (Vincent J. Del Casino Jr. & Stephen P. Hanna)
- Bibliography
- Contributors
- Index

Paperback, 256 pp
Price: USD 18.95 paperback / USD 52.95 cloth
Published: April 2003
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 0-8166-3956-6 paperback / 0-8166-3955-8 cloth

Webpages about this book:
http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/H/hanna_mapping.html
http://www.reconstruction.ws/BReviews/revMapping.htm
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2)     TITLE: Looking into pictures. An interdisciplinary
              approach to pictorial space

     EDITORS: Heiko Hecht, Robert Schwartz and Margaret Atherton

     SUMMARY: The last half of the twentieth century witnessed
              dramatic changes in the theory of vision.
              In particular, the "eye-as-camera" metaphor that
              had long dominated the field no longer seemed
              tenable. Somewhat surprisingly, however, the
              metaphor has maintained its appeal in the study of
              pictures. In 'Looking into Pictures', philosophers,
              psychologists, and art historians explore the
              implications of recent theories of vision for our
              understanding of the nature of pictorial
              representation and picture perception. They examine
              the dual nature of picture perception, the fact that
              viewers must separate the visual properties of the
              picture itself from those of what the picture
              represents. Discussing the status of perspective,
              they ask whether perspective renderings of space
              are special or more accurate than those found in
              other types of pictures, and if so why. Finally,
              they consider the possible need to reconceive
              pictorial space and the implications of such a
              reconception for the study of picture perception.

CONTENTS:
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction

Part I. The dual nature of picture perception
1  In defense of seeing-in (Richard Wollheim)
2  Conjoint representations and the mental capacity for multiple
   simultaneous perspectives (Rainer Mausfeld)
3  Relating direct and indirect perception of spatial layout
   (H.A. Sedgwick)
4  The dual nature of picture perception: A challenge to current
   general accounts of visual perception
   (Reinhard Niederee and Dieter Heyer)
5  Perceptual strategies and pictorial content
   (Mark Rollins)

Part II. The status of perspective
6  Optical laws or symbolic rules? The dual nature of pictorial
   systems (John Willats)
7  Perspective, convention, and compromise (Robert Hopkins)
8  Resemblance reconceived (Klaus Sachs-Hombach)
9  What you see is what you get: The problems of linear
   perspective (Klaus Rehk=E4mper)
10 Pictures of perspective: Theory or therapy?
    (Patrick Maynard)

Part III. The nature and structure of reconceived pictorial
11 Reconceiving perceptual space (James E. Cutting)
12 Pictorial space (Jan J. Koenderink and Andrea J. van Doorn)
13 Truth and meaning in pictorial space (Sheena Rogers)
14 Line and borders of surfaces: grouping and foreshortening
   (John M. Kennedy, Igor Juricevic and Juan Bai)
15 Irreconcilable views (Hermann Kalkofen)

-  References
-  Contributors
-  Index

Cloth, 432 pp
Price: USD 55.00 /GBP 36.95 (cloth)
Published: June 2003
Publisher: The MIT Press
ISBN: 0-262-08310-8

Webpages about this book:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/item.asp?ttype=3D2&tid=3D9243&mlid=3D118

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3)     TITLE: Lester Beall: Space, time & content;
              RIT Graphic Design Chapbook Series 1

      AUTHOR: R. Roger Remington

     SUMMARY: "Lester Beall: Space, Time & Content" explores the
              work of Lester Beall through reproductions of RIT's
              comprehensive holdings. Beall (1903-1969) gained
              prominence through his ads, posters and identity
              projects commissioned from such high-profile clients
              as the Chicago Tribune, Collier's and Time magazines,
              the Rural Electrification Administration and
              International Paper Company. Throughout his career,
              Beall's design and high principles made him a
              favored lecturer. He is now considered as one of
              the chief proponents of the American Modernist
              Design movement.

Laminated Paperback, 36 pp
Price: USD 15.99
Published: 2003
Publisher: RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press
ISBN: 0-9713459-8-8

Webpages about this book:
http://wally.rit.edu/cary/CP_pages/CPnewRelease.html

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4)     TITLE: World without words

      AUTHOR: Michael Evamy

     SUMMARY: World Without Words argues that we are strongly
              relying on images and graphic devices. It shows
              designers' attempts to condense words and data down
              to their simplest visual. The book illustrates the
              familiar, the peculiar and the confusing visual
              language that we are asked to interpret, mixed up with
              the more graphic examples of data storage and
              identification that is read not by humans but by
              machines (such as barcodes, magnetic strips,
              holograms). Featuring airport signs, road markings,
              pictograms, maps, diagrams, packaging, logos and
              symbols, 'World Without Words' shows not only the
              norms of wordless graphic communication but also how
              these vary around the world when interpreted by local
              individuals for different cultures.

CONTENTS:
- Introduction
1 Universal
2 Local
3 Critical

Paperback, 165 pp
Price: GBP 28.00
Published: 2003
Publisher: Laurence King Publishers
ISBN: 1-85669-319-8

Webpages about this book:
http://www.laurenceking.co.uk

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5)    TITLE: Visual studies: A skeptical introduction

     AUTHOR: James Elkins

    SUMMARY: Elkins offers a road map through the field of visual
             studies, describing its major concerns and its
             principal theoretical sources. Then, with the skill
             and insight characteristic of his previous work on
             art and visuality, Elkins takes us down a side road
             where visual studies can become a more interesting
             place. Why look only at the same handful of
             theorists? Why exclude from one's field of vision
             non-Western art or the wealth of scientific images?
             The centerpiece is Elkins's proposal for ten ways in
             which visual studies could be made more challenging -
             theoretically, practically and in terms of its
             interpretative and historical range.

CONTENTS:
Preface
List of plates
1  What is 'visual studies'?
2  The subjects of 'visual studies'
3  Ten ways to make 'visual studies' more difficult
4  What is 'visual literacy'?

224 pages
Hardback  GBP 55.00  ISBN: 0-415-96680-9
Paperback GBP 15.99  ISBN: 0-415-96681-7
Published: September 2003
Publisher: London: Routledge

Webpage:
http://www.routledge.com
http://www.jameselkins.com/html/books_academic.html
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6)    TITLE: The language of comics

     AUTHOR: Mario Saraceni

    SUMMARY: The language of comics:
           * includes a large number of real comics, from
             individual frames to full comic strips
           * sets the analysis of comics within their historical
             context
           * explores various aspects of comics relevant to other
             types of text: the interaction between the verbal and
             the visual, the cohesive structure of texts, the ways
             speech and thought are reported, and point-of-view
             shifts in narrative
           * makes the case for comics as multi-modal texts and
             considers future developments in the genre
           * is user-friendly and accessible, and provides a full
             glossary.

CONTENTS:
1  What are comics?
2  Words and pictures
3  Between the panels
4  The voices of comics
5  The eyes of comics
6  Comics and computers

128 pages
Hardback GBP 35.00  ISBN: 0-415-28670-0
Paperback  GBP 9.99  ISBN: 0-415-21422-X
Published: May 2003
Publisher: London: Routledge

Webpage:
http://www.routledge.com/rcenters/linguistics/series/intertext/comics.htm=
l

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InfoDesign Bookwatch is compiled and edited by Piet Westendorp
and Karel van der Waarde. Suggestions for titles are welcome,
and may be sent to: [email protected]
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