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Archive: February 2012
John McHale and the Expendable Ikon
A new book collecting Independent Group member John McHale’s writings describes him as artist, graphic designer, information theorist, architectural critic, sociologist and futurist. This should immediately identify him as a forerunner of the kind of super-versatile, shape-shifting maker and thinker that many contemporary figures in art and design aspire to be. It’s time to reassess an innovator who deserves to be much better known.READ MORE | COMMENTS (7)
The Unspeakable Pleasure of Ruins
It’s extraordinary, to someone who doesn’t live in Detroit or elsewhere in America, how contentious the widely publicized pictures of urban devastation in the city have become. They are the prime, disreputable exhibits of so-called “ruin porn,” a term frequently used now in the US. Ruin porn is a corrosively repeatable meme that makes any photograph of ruins seem suspect. This reductive tag ignores the cultural history of the ruin.READ MORE | COMMENTS (16)
On My Shelf: A Classic by Berger and Mohr
For a book that can justly be called a masterpiece, John Berger and Jean Mohr’s A Fortunate Man, published in 1967, is not nearly as well known as it should be. A brilliantly imaginative and empathic fusion of words and photographs, it is a study of a doctor’s life in a small rural community that addresses fundamental questions about the doctor-patient relationship and what it means to assume and bear such responsibilities as a healer.READ MORE | COMMENTS (4)
Rick Poynor is a writer, critic, lecturer and curator, specialising in design, media and visual culture. He founded Eye, co-founded Design Observer, and contributes columns to Eye and Print. His latest book is Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design.Recent Book
Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design
Rick Poynor
Moravian Gallery, 2010
More books by Rick Poynor >>
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Sit Down Man, You’re a Bloody Tragedy (Owen Hatherley)
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21C The Future is Here
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RICK POYNOR: RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Shoot! Existential PhotographyClément Chéroux, editor
Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of ChangePhilip Brookman
What is Contemporary Art?e-flux Journal
Iaspis Forum on Design and Critical Practice: The ReaderMartin Frostner & Magnus Ericson et al., editors
Volume: Writings on Graphic Design, Music, Art, and CultureKenneth FitzGerald & Rudy VanderLans
Song and Circumstance: The Work of David Byrne from Talking Heads to the PresentSytze Steenstra
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?Mark Fisher
No Return: Journeys in the HolocaustRomek Marber
Turning Pages: Editorial Design for Print MediaRobert Klanten et al., editors
RemainderTom McCarthy
RICK POYNOR: OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS
Inside JobCharles Ferguson
Blow OutBrian De Palma
Songs from the Second FloorRoy Andersson
Red DesertMichelangelo Antonioni
MisinforMationCOI/Mordant Music
Ace in the HoleBilly Wilder
The Pervert’s Guide to CinemaSlavoj Žižek
