1st Edition
The Iconology of Abstraction Non-figurative Images and the Modern World
This book uncovers how we make meaning of abstraction, both historically and in present times, and examines abstract images as a visual language.
The contributors demonstrate that abstraction is not primarily an artistic phenomenon, but rather arises from human beings’ desire to imagine, understand and communicate complex, ineffable concepts in fields ranging from fine art and philosophy to technologies of data visualization, from cartography and medicine to astronomy.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in image studies, visual studies, art history, philosophy and aesthetics.
Introduction
Should Abstract Images Have Their "own" Iconology?
Krešimir Purgar
Prolegomena
1. Why Pictures are Signs? The Semiotics of (Non)Representational Pictures
Winfried Noth
Part 1: History and Theory of Abstraction
2. The Founding of Abstraction: Wilhelm Worringer and the Avant-Garde
Anselm Treichler
3. The Iconology of Malevich’s Suprematist Crosses
Marie Gaspter-Hulvat
4. Literality and Non-Referentiality in the Abstraction of Objecthood
Blaženka Perica
5. Representational Abstract Pictures
Regina-Nino Mion
6. What is Abstraction in Photography?
Diarmuid Costello
PART 2: Philosophy of Abstraction
7. Abstraction and Transperceptual Space
Paul Crowther8. The Visualization of Temporality in the Abstract Paintings of Barnett Newman
Claude Cernuschi
9. Rethinking Abstraction Post-Phenomenologically: Michel Henry and Henri Maldiney
Bruno Lessard
PART 3: Redefining Abstraction—Analog vs. Digital
10. Visual Music and Abstraction: From Avant-Garde Synesthaesia to Digital Technestaesia
Michael Betancourt
11. Ecology and Climatology in Modern Abstract Art
Linn Burchert
12. Digital Abstraction: Interface between Electronic Media Art and Data Visualization
Birgit Mersmann
13. Towards a Transsensorial Technology of Abstraction (Ekstraction)
Clemens C. Finkelstein
14. Digital Landscapes of the Internet: Glitch Art, Vaporwave, Spectacular Cyberspace
Dario Vuger
PART 4: Abstraction in Science and Technology
15. The Material Site of Abstraction: Grid-based Data Visualisation in Brain Scans
Silvia Casini
16. Reference and Affect: Visual Abstraction in Computation and the Neurosciences
Michael Reinsborough
17. Reality Effect of (Abstract) Maps in Post-Digital Era
Ana Peraica
Coda
18. Visualizing the End of Visibility: M87* Event-Horizon Image
Yanai Toister
Biography
Krešimir Purgar is Associate Professor in the Academy of Arts and Culture at J. J. Strossmayer University, Osijek, Croatia.
