Aside from the occasional nod to epaulettes or use of camouflage, war and fashion seem to be strange partners. Not so, argue the contributors to this book, who connect military industrial practices as well as military dress to textile and clothing in new ways. For instance, the book includes a series of commentaries on the impact of military dress in the airline industry, in illustrated wartime comics and even considers today’s muscled soldier’s body as a new type of uniform. Elsewhere, the effects of conquest introduce a new set of postcolonial aesthetics as military and colonial regimes disrupt local textile production and garment making. In another chapter, it is argued that textiles and fashion are important because they reflect a core practice, one that bridges textile artists and designers in an expressive, creative and deeply physical way to matters of cultural significance. And the book concludes by calling the very mode of 'military chic' into ethical question.

The premier text to illustrate the impact of war on textiles, bodies, costume, art and design, Fashion & War in Popular Culture will be warmly welcomed by scholars of fashion design and theory, historians of fashion and those interested in theories of warfare and military science.

 

This book is framed by theories of globalization and delves into the development of a new global media culture. It also deals with theories of documentary genres and their social and cultural functions. Engaging with Reality contributes to a new and broader understanding of our changing, contemporary media culture and offers a comparative, transnational analysis of the forms and functions of documentary in a new global and digital media culture.

With the birth of film came the birth of a revolutionary visual language. This new, unique vocabulary - the cut, the fade, the dissolve, the pan and the new idea of movement - gave not only artists but also architects a completely new way to think about and describe the visual. The Architecture of the Screen examines the relationship between the visual language of film and the onscreen perception of space and architectural design, revealing how film’s visual vocabulary influenced architecture in the twentieth century and continues to influence it today. Graham Cairns draws on film reviews, architectural plans and theoretical texts to illustrate the unusual and fascinating relationship between the worlds of filmmaking and architecture.

 

The degree to which Cognitive Science can aspire to be the Science of the Mind is an ongoing debate. This highly influential book, published as a Second Edition, proposes a new approach to issues of the mind and of consciousness, drawing together themes from Philosophy right through to Artificial Intelligence.

Proposing an integrated approach to the science of mind, the book has been revised to meet the newest developments of its rapidly changing field. The author incorporates ideas from across the board into a new theory of consciousness, selfhood and cognitive development.

The first part presents clear introductions to the disciplines that are traditionally seen to constitute Cognitive Science - Philosophy, Psychology, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence and Ethnology. The second section focuses on the nature of symbol systems, detailing theories of consciousness and selfhood.

The two strands are woven together into a new theory of cognition and its development, and the author concludes that a science that fully attempts to treat cognition must remain au fait with the findings from all other approaches to the study of the mind, from the purely behaviourist to the purely experiential. As the Second Edition is published, The Search for Mind is unquestionably among the most acclaimed accounts of the area written by a single author. 

Since Marcel Duchamp created his 'readymades' a century ago – most famously christening a urinal as a fountain – the practice of incorporating commodity objects into art has become ever more pervasive. Uncommon Goods traces one particularly important aspect of that progression: the shift in artistic concern toward the hidden ethical dimensions of global commerce. Jaimey Hamilton Faris discusses the work of, among many others, Ai Weiwei, Cory Arcangel, Thomas Hirschhorn and Santiago Sierra, reading their artistic explorations as overlapping with debates about how common goods hold us and our world in common. The use of readymade now registers concerns about international migrant labor, outsourced manufacturing, access to natural resources, intellectual copyright, and the commoditization of virtual space. In each chapter, Hamilton Faris introduces artists who exemplify the focus of readymade aesthetics on aspects of global commodity culture, including consumption, marketing, bureaucracy, labour and community. She explores how materially intensive, 'uncommon' aesthetic situations can offer moments to meditate on the kinds of objects, experiences and values we ostensibly share in the age of globalization. The resulting volume will be an important contribution to scholarship on ready-made art as well as to the study of materiality, embodiment and globalization.

Manifesto Now! maps the current rebirth of the manifesto as it appears at the crossroads of philosophy, performance and politics. While the manifesto has been central to histories of modernity and modernism, the editors contend that its contemporary resurgence demands a renewed interrogation of its form, its content and its uses. Featuring contributions from trailblazing artists, scholars and activists currently working in the United States, the United Kingdom and Finland, this volume will be indispensable to scholars across the disciplines. Filled with examples of manifestos and critical thinking about manifestos, it contains a wide variety of critical methodologies that students can analyse, deconstruct and emulate.

 

Piercing Time examines the role of photography in documenting urban change by juxtaposing contemporary ‘rephotographs’ taken by the author with images of nineteenth-century Paris taken by Charles Marville, who worked under Georges Haussmann, and corresponding photographs by Eugène Atget taken in the early twentieth century. Revisiting the sites of Marville’s photographs with a black cloth, tripod and view camera, Peter Sramek creates here a visually stunning book that investigates how urban development, the use of photography as a documentary medium and the representation of urban space reflect attitudes towards the city. The essays that run alongside these fascinating images discuss subjects such as the aesthetics of ruins and the documentation of the demolitions that preceded Haussmannization, as well as the different approaches taken by Marville and Atget to their work. The book also includes contemporary interviews with local Parisians, extracts from Haussmann’s own writing and historical maps that allow for an intriguing look at the shifting city plan.

Sure to be of interest to lovers of the city, be they Parisians or visitors, Piercing Time provides a unique snapshot of historical changes of the past 150 years. But it will also be of enduring value to scholars. The accurate cataloguing and high quality reproductions of the images make it a resource for a significant portion of the Marville collection in the Musée Carnavalet, and it will aid further research in urban history and change in Paris over the past century and a half. Photographers will be drawn to the book for its new thinking in relation to documentary methodologies.

Sonic Multiplicities is a fascinating book, with essays rich in empirical detail and – captivatingly combining the personal and the theoretical – evocative of the complexities of experience, desire and politics in our perplexingly mobile and entangled world. The book focuses on Hong Kong pop music as part of a translocal, if not global network of flows, providing a starting point for the authors to unsettle received notions of Chineseness, place and identity, of particular importance in a time when we need to come to terms with and resist, the increasingly stifling discourse of 'the rise of China'.

Doctor Who is the longest running science fiction television series in the world and is regularly watched by millions of people across the globe. While its scores of fans adore the show with cult-like devotion, the fan-contributors to this book argue that there is an uncharted dimension to Doctor Who. Bringing together diverse perspectives on race and its representation in Doctor Who, this anthology offers new understandings of the cultural significance of race in the programme – how the show’s representations of racial diversity, colonialism, nationalism and racism affect our daily lives and change the way we relate to each other.

Since its premiere in November 1963, the classic British television programme Doctor Who has been a cornerstone of popular culture for half a century. From the earliest 'Exterminate!' to the recent 'Allons-y!', from the white-haired grandfather to the wide-grinned youth, the show has depicted the adventures of a time-travelling, dual-hearted, quick-witted and multi-faced hero as he battles Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans and all manner of nasties. And, like its main character, who can regenerate his body and change his appearance, Doctor Who fandom has developed and changed significantly in the 50 years since its inception.

In this engaging and insightful collection, fans and scholars from around the globe explore fan fiction, fan videos and fan knitting, as well as the creation of new languages. As multifaceted as the character himself, Doctor Who fans come in many forms, and this book investigates thoroughly the multitude of fandoms, fan works and fan discussions about this always-surprising and energetic programme.

Featuring full-colour images of fan work and discussions of both classic and New Who fandom, this book takes the reader on a journey of discovery into one of the largest worldwide fan audiences that has ever existed. Thoughtful, insightful and readable, this is one of only a few – and certainly one of the best – guides to Doctor Who fan culture. It is certain to appeal to the show’s many ardent fans across the globe.