Contemporary Art Books

New and Published Books

1. Interrogating Trauma

   Collective Suffering in Global Arts and Media

   Edited by Mick Broderick, Antonio Traverso

   Throughout the past century, traumatic experiences have been re-enacted frequently by evolving media and art forms. Now there is a significant body of theory across academic disciplines focused on the representation of cataclysmic European and US historical events. However, less critical attention...

   Published February 14th 2013 by Routledge
2. Theorizing Visual Studies

   Writing Through the Discipline

   Edited by James Elkins, Kristi McGuire, Maureen Burns, Alicia Chester, Joel Kuennen

   This forward-thinking collection brings together over sixty essays that invoke images to summon, interpret, and argue with visual studies and its neighboring fields such as art history, media studies, visual anthropology, critical theory, cultural studies, and aesthetics. The product of a...

   Published December 12th 2012 by Routledge
3. Legislating Creativity

   The Intersections of Art and Politics

   By Dustin Kidd

   Series: Routledge Advances in Sociology

   How does political policy-making shape the creative activities of artists? Do the political interests of artists influence actual political practices in any way? Legislating Creativity examines the relationship between art and politics through an analysis of controversial art projects tied to the...

   Published July 26th 2012 by Routledge
4. Represent

   Art and Identity Among the Black Upper-Middle Class

   By Patricia A. Banks

   Series: Routledge Research in Race and Ethnicity

   Patricia A. Banks traverses the New York and Atlanta art worlds to uncover how black identities are cultivated through black art patronage. Drawing on over 100 in-depth interviews, observations at arts events, and photographs of art displayed in homes, Banks elaborates a racial identity theory of...

   Published July 10th 2012 by Routledge
5. Mobile Interface Theory

   Embodied Space and Locative Media

   By Jason Farman

   Mobile media – from mobile phones to smartphones to netbooks – are transforming our daily lives. We communicate, we locate, we network, we play, and much more using our mobile devices. In Mobile Interface Theory, Jason Farman demonstrates how the worldwide adoption of mobile technologies is...

   Published December 1st 2011 by Routledge
6. The Sound Handbook

   By Tim Crook

   Series: Media Practice

   'Tim Crook has written an important and much-needed book, and its arrival on our shelves has come at a highly appropriate time.' Professor Seán Street, Bournemouth University The Sound Handbook maps theoretical and practical connections between the creation and study of sound across the multi-media...

   Published November 20th 2011 by Routledge
7. Social Works

   Performing Art, Supporting Publics

   By Shannon Jackson

   ‘a game-changer, a must-read for scholars, students and artists alike’ – Tom Finkelpearl At a time when art world critics and curators heavily debate the social, and when community organizers and civic activists are reconsidering the role of aesthetics in social reform, this book makes explicit...

   Published February 20th 2011 by Routledge
8. Rethinking Contemporary Art and Multicultural Education

   2nd Edition

   By New Museum

   For over a decade, Contemporary Art and Multicultural Education has served as the guide to multicultural art education, connecting everyday experience, social critique, and creative expression with classroom learning. The much-anticipated Rethinking Contemporary Art and Multicultural Education...

   Published December 13th 2010 by Routledge
9. Contemporary British Art

   An Introduction

   By Grant Pooke

   The last few decades have been among the most dynamic within recent British cultural history. Artists across all genres and media have developed and re-fashioned their practice against a radically changing social and cultural landscape – both national and global. This book takes a fresh look at...

   Published September 23rd 2010 by Routledge
10. Contemporary Art and the Cosmopolitan Imagination

    By Marsha Meskimmon

    Contemporary Art and the Cosmopolitan Imagination explores the role of art in conceiving and reconfiguring the political, ethical and social landscape of our time. Understanding art as a vital form of articulation, Meskimmon argues that artworks do more than simply reflect and represent the...

    Published July 20th 2010 by Routledge