INTERVIEW | Camille Paglia

Camilla Paglia interviewed by Robert Birnbaum. Her most recent book is Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of the World’s Best Poems. In her 2002 lecture, ‘The Magic of Images', she set forth the theory that led to this book: ‘‘The only antidote to the magic of images is the magic of words.’’

"Now I’m a champion of the web—I began writing for Salon in 1995 from the first issue on. But the style of the web, not only the surfing skimming style that you learn—dash, dash—you absorb information not by reading whole sentences. It’s flash, flash, flash. Email, blog, everything is going fast, fast, fast. So the quality of language has obviously degenerated. It’s obvious." - Camille Paglia

Read the interview online at:
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/birnbaum_v/camille_paglia.php

BOOK | interzone

interzone: Media arts in Australia
a new book by Darren Tofts

Media arts have become the most public and accessible form of inquiry into the interface between society, culture and technology. The impact of digital technologies has been profound and new disciplines of inquiry have emerged over the last twenty years in response to the overall "computerisation" of society. Media artists are at the forefront of this inquiry in both their use of new media and their aesthetic exploration of its effects.

interzone presents the first comprehensive overview of the development of media arts culture in Australia. It critically discusses the work of established and emerging media artists and the contexts out of which their work has developed. interzone explores, through the work of more than 70 artists, the emergence of key concepts such as interactivity, interface and immersion. It is wide-ranging in its attention to aesthetic forms that have developed in relation to computer-based media, such as net art, virtual reality environments, digital video, multimedia installation and interactive fiction.

interzone will be published in November by Thames & Hudson Australia.

PUBLICATION | Artforum, September

In Artforum’s September 2005 issue: “Breadth in Venice: The 51st Venice Biennale.” Six distinguished contributors chart the highs and lows in the current installment of the grandest of all “grand exhibitions.” Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Alison M. Gingeras, and Elisabeth Sussman provide surveys of the sprawling exhibitions in the Arsenale and Giardini. For Buchloh, Ed Ruscha’s paintings in the United States pavilion--one of which graces Artforum’s September cover--mark Ruscha’s “definitive ascension to the status of one of the truly great artists of his generation.” Complementing these overviews, Daniel Birnbaum, Anne Pontégnie, and Scott Rothkopf report on three star attractions among this year’s record number of offsite projects: Olafur Eliasson’s sublime installation on the Island of San Lazarro; the first ever Central Asia pavilion; and Karen Kilimnik’s jewel box of an exhibition at the historic Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa.

Info:
http://www.artforum.com

NEW | Ripe off the Press

Ripe Off The Press is the proud publisher of unique books, publications and materials for and about Australia’s creative community. Our core purpose is to create books and publications that satisfy your visual, emotional and intellectual appetites, delivering inspiring, relevant, informative and illustrative material to Australia’s creative community and propelling and promoting our collective talents to the rest of the world.

Info:
http://www.ripeoffthepress.com