Books Received
Contributors:
Marti Rae Louw (M.R.L.) and Victor Margolin (V.M.).
Correll, Timothy Corrigan and Patrick Arthur Polk,
eds. The Cast-Off Recast; Recycling and the Creative
Transformation of Mass-Produced Objects. With
contributions by Mark Livengood and Maria Cecilia
Loschiavo dos Santos. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler
Museum of Cultural History, 1999. ISBN 0-930741-75-7
(pbk). 147 pages. Color and black and white illustra-
tions.
The catalogue of several exhibitions at the
Fowler Museum that dealt with the re-use of materials.
Topics include sculptures made from mufflers, toys
and other objects made of recycled materials in Dar es
Salaam, and shelters constructed by homeless people in
V.M.
Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Sao Paulo.
Lo, Alice, ed. Navigating Design: A Voyage of
Discovery. Hong Kong; Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, 2003. ISBN 988-97036-1-0. 492 pages with a
CD-Rom. Color illustrations.
A collection of short essays and projects on the
theme of design, most by faculty and students at the
Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Design.
The book’s experimental art direction reinforces ideas
of questioning and innovation that are addressed in the
V.M.
essays.
2G Waro Kishi: Recent Works. International Archi-
tecture Review No. 19. Barcelona, Spain: Collegi
d’Arquitectes de Catalunya. Color photographs; CD-
ROM included.
A quarterly Spanish publication featuring the
buildings of Japanese architect Waro Kishi. In between
the ads, this magazine presents the major works of
Kishi with bilingual Spanish/English text and glossy
photographs and computer graphics of fifteen different
M.R.L.
projects with commentary by the architect.
Greg Urban. Metaculture: How Culture Moves the
World. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota
Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8166-3841-1 (pbk); 315 pages; black
& white illustrations.
An exposition on the theory of metaculture.
Urban elucidates the dynamics of cultural production,
or culture about culture. Drawing on semiotics and
cultural theory, this book makes a case for the phenom-
enon of cultural motion to explain the dynamics of
contemporary society.
M.R.L.
Utility Reassessed: The Role of Ethics in the Practice
of Design. Edited by Judy Attfield. Manchester, UK:
Manchester University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-7190-5844-9
(pbk); black & white photographs.
An academic collection of essays tackling
notions of utility in design. This book explores the
often discredited design ideal of Utility that emerged
in Britain during WWII as part of austerity measures to
eliminate resource waste. The essays attempt to read-
dress the definition of Utility, its history and ethical
implications on product design. The authors assume
some familiarity with the subject matter.
M.R.L.
Gennifer S. Weisenfeld. Mavo: Japanese Artists and
the Avant-garde 1905–1931. Berkley, CA: University of
California Press, 2002. ISBN 0-520-22338 (hardcover);
379 pages; color and black & white illustrations.
An academic survey of avant-garde aesthet-
ics and the Mavo group of artists in Japan. The Mavo
movement roared onto the scene in 1920s Japan with
radical new works in performance art, painting,
book illustration and architecture. This book is one
of the first in-depth examinations of the Mavo art
group available in English and links the early modern
Japanese artistic community within the broader frame-
work of twentieth century international art. M.R.L.
David Whitbread. The Design Manual. Sidney
Australia: University of New South Wales, 2001. ISBN
0-86840-658-9 (pbk); 400 pages; color + black & white
illustrations.
A comprehensive reference guide for publish-
ing both print and digital media. This handy desktop
manual is filled with practical information and design
wisdom for guiding projects and production to success.
Subjects broached include project management to
typography, grids, file formats, printing and binding
processes and more. This book would be useful in
planning and managing a wide variety of design proj-
ects.
M.R.L.
Nigel Whiteley. Reyner Banham: Historian of the
Immediate Future. Cambridge, MA and London: MIT
Press, 2002. ISBN 0-262-23216-2 (hardcover). 494 pages;
black & white illustrations.
The definitive critical biography of this impor-
tant architectural design historian and critic. Whiteley
attends to the development of Banham’s thought as
well as the events of his life.
V.M.
84
Design Issues: Volume 20, Number 1 Winter 2004
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Rainer K. Wick. Teaching at the Bauhaus Ostfildern-
Ruit, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2000. ISBN 3-7757-
0801-4; 404 pages; black & white illustrations.
An analysis of the pedagogical approaches of
the Bauhaus faculty, who established innovative meth-
ods for teaching art and design, with a discussion of
the school’s historical context as well as the afterlife of
the teaching philosophies that were practiced there.
V. M.
Stephen Wilson. Information Arts: Intersections of
Art, Science and Technology. Cambridge, MA: The MIT
Press, 2002. ISBN 0-262-23209-X (hardcover); 945 pages;
black & white illustrations.
A compendium offering a broad survey of
international artists who integrate scientific concepts
and research in their work. Wilson covers a broad
spectrum of scientific fields ranging from physics,
cosmology, medicine, biology and math to computers,
telecommunications, and newly emerging technologies
and finds in each field artists who engage the subject
matter in fascinating and often unexpected ways.
Embedded pheromone-receptor fertility bras, Net-
controlled gardening robots, and email text DNA are
just a few of the projects highlighted.
M.R.L.
Wendy Siuyi Wong, Hong Kong Comics: A History
of Manhua. New York: Princeton Architectural Press,
2002. ISBN 1-56898-269-0; 188 pages, color illustrations.
And amply illustrated account of Hong Kong
comic books or manhua. Begins with early satirical
magazines in Hong Kong and mainland China and
continues to the present. Biographies of artists are also
V.M.
provided.
Steve Wright. Digital Compositing for Film and Video.
Woburn, MA: Focal Press, 2002. ISBN 0-240-80455-4
(pbk); 322 pages, color + black & white illustrations.
CD-ROM included.
A technical handbook for creating digital
effects in film and video or, as it is known in the indus-
try, how to “fix it in post.” Badly produced film and
video is often left by hopeful producers to fix in post-
production. This book provides editors and composi-
tors with practical methods for matted extraction,
despill procedures, composting operations and color
correction. If your blue screens shots just don’t look
right, this book is for you.
M.R.L.
Working With Type Exhibitions. Edited by Robert
Carter, John DeMao and Sandy Wheeler. Crans-Près-
Céligny, CH: RotoVision, 2001. ISBN 2-88046-437-4
(pbk); 160 pages; color + black & white photographs.
Examples of typographic approaches to
signage in exhibition design. The fundamentals of
typographic treatment as they apply to exhibit signage
such as legibility, line length, illumination, contrast
and font selections are addressed by chapter. If you are
concerned with making labels readable and appealing
in public spaces, this work offers sensible guidelines
and real world examples of award-winning exhibition
M.R.L.
projects.
John Zukowsky, ed. 2001: Building for Space Travel
New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001. ISBN 0-8109-4490-1;
0-86559-188-I (pbk); 192 pages; black & white + color
illustrations.
Exhibition catalog for the show organized by
the Art Institute of Chicago, with essays addressing
issues such as the conception of space, conflict and the
conquest of space, and exploring and inhabiting the
wilderness. Also includes a biographical glossary of
architects, aerospace engineers and designers, and a
guide to museums.
V. M.
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Design Issues: Volume 20, Number 1 Winter 2004