ABSTRACT
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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter 1|12 pages
Prolegomena
Why Pictures Are Signs: The Semiotics of (Non)representational Pictures
part I|56 pages
History and Theory of Abstraction
chapter 4|14 pages
Anthropomorphism and Presence
(Non)referentiality in the Abstraction of Objecthood
part II|54 pages
Philosophy of Abstraction
part III|78 pages
Redefining Abstraction—Analog vs. Digital
chapter 10|17 pages
Visual Music and Abstraction
From Avant-Garde Synesthesia to Digital Technesthesia
chapter 12|17 pages
Digital Abstraction
Interface between Electronic Media Art and Data Visualization
part IV|50 pages
Abstraction in Science and Technology
