Media Art Histories, Edited by Oliver Grau

Nothing about this book looks like an art book. The somewhat colorless cover, the MIT imprint, the marked lack of giant, colorful images. At very first glance, you know that editor Oliver Grau, an Image Science professor and Cultural Studies dean, means business. Media Art Histories is a more academic look at a subject normally approached with thin, glossy coffee table books and broad, superficial language. Grau’s compilation offers takes from over a dozen professionals on the history and acceptance of digital media as an art form. The book is broken down into for major sections, each with a small handful of black and white images. The first section covers the origins of media art, which go much farther back than you might expect. Particularly interesting is Guanalan Nadarajan’s discussion of 13th century Islamic automation... [read full story]