Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy

Book Description

In this groundbreaking editorial and curatorial project, more than 100 writers, artists, and philosophers rethink what politics is about. In a time of political turmoil and anticlimax, this book redefines politics as operating in the realm of things. Politics is not just an arena, a profession, or a system, but a concern for things brought to the attention of the fluid and expansive constituency of the public. But how are things made public? What, we might ask, is a republic, a res publica, a public thing, if we do not know how to make things public? There are many other kinds of assemblies, which are not political in the usual sense, that gather a public around things -- scientific laboratories, supermarkets, churches, and disputes involving natural resources like rivers, landscapes, and air. The authors of Making Things Public -- and the ZKM show that the book accompanies -- ask what would happen if politics revolved around disputed things. Instead of looking for democracy only in the official sphere of professional politics, they examine the new atmospheric conditions -- technologies, interfaces, platforms, networks, and mediations that allow things to be made public. They show us that the old definition of politics is too narrow; there are many techniques of representation -- in politics, science, and art -- of which Parliaments and Congresses are only a part.

The authors include such prominent thinkers as Richard Rorty, Simon Schaffer, Peter Galison, Richard Powers, Lorraine Daston, Richard Aczel, and Donna Haraway; their writings are accompanied by excerpts from John Dewey, Shakespeare, Swift, La Fontaine, and Melville. More than 500 color images document the new idea of what Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel call an "object-oriented democracy."

Customer Reviews:

Original, provocative, thoughful.......2006-08-17

I think this is a brilliant book. A great selection of interesting and relevant ideas on art, politics and technology. Beautiful images too and well published.

Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy [A book review from: Journal of Historical Geography]

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Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy [A book review from: Journal of Historical Geography]
C. Barnett
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000PDYK8K

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Historical Geography, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Making Things Public - Atmospheres of Democracy

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Making Things Public - Atmospheres of Democracy
P Latour
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OR79M6

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful book for the open-minded investigator.......2007-02-26

Since one of my books is cited two or three times by Nickell, I may be considered biased. But "Camera Clues" is a good training ground for would-be investigators who want to learn how to study evidence before formulating hypothesis.

Nickell is rational, honest and uninterested in the sensational exploitation of celebrated crime photography. He also understands and delivers a fundamental truth: Every good photo analyst knows what he or she measures rather than what they see. In investigating the Kennedy assassination in particular, most so-called experts seem to have forgotten this sage truth.

Finally, it's a pleasure to have someone call my book "sensible." Hell hath no fury like conspiracy addicts scorned, and "sensible" is quite a change from some of the other names I've been called over the last decade and a half. Thanks, Joe.

Excellent summarization of gleening clues from photographs.......1998-01-27

_Camera Clues_ is an excellent reference for gleening clues from photographs and for serving as a basis for continued library-research into the multitude of topics covered. This book is an excellent launch pad from which to delve into the history of 19th century photography in general; some history of photographic equipment; some history of photographic technique; the interactions between general history/context and photography; as well as the more modern topics of trick photography, faked photographs, photographs used as legal evidence, and special effects. Even more important than the excellent summarization of information in this book is the extensive bibilography, as this book is written with full college-level expository-writing endnotes.

I have been restoring and copying my family's 19th-century photographs. Starting out from a basic exposure to 19th-century photographs on paper, glass plates, and metal plates, I learned much about the history of 19th-century photography from this book which is otherwise lost knowledge to the common person in this (almost-)21st-century world. I am actively using the bibliography for further investigations into focused topics.

If there were ever another edition, I would suggest more, more, more of the same, pulling in more history, more explanation of various discarded photographic technologies (e.g., carbrotypes, Lambertypes and the restrictive licensing of their patents), more context, more techniques of tracking down negatives from photography studios of old, etc. I find that there are 2 separate audiences for this book: 1) historical photograph detectives for geneological/etc work after the death of subjects in the photographs and 2) modern trick photography for establishing truthfulness, such as for a legal case. I think that both audiences hunger for greater treatment. I would request splitting this book into 2 volumes, where each volume is double or triple its current size, focusing in depth on the specific needs of those 2 disparate audiences.

Book Description

In Camera Clues, Joe Nickell shares his methods of identifying and dating old photos and demonstrates how to distinguish originals from copies and fakes. Particularly intriguing are his discussions of camera tricks, darkroom manipulations, retouching techniques, and uses of computer technology to deceive the eye. Camera Clues concludes with a look at allegedly "paranormal" photography, from nineteenth-century "spirit photographs" to UFO snapshots.

Book Description

:The Techno Priests Book 2 - Nohope Penitentiary School" is the 2nd book of the series.

Albino must undergo many trials before becoming the Supreme Techno Priest, master of games and virtual reality. From his birth on the Sacred Asteroid, to his violation of the highest cybernetic access levels, he recounts his rise to glory amid the din and clamor of a cosmic struggle. A tale of the power of dreams.

Customer Reviews:

Great Holiday book for all ages.--Very Funny.......2000-10-25

Looking for a gift for someone who has everything? Well this is the one. Fun little cartoons which sometimes are even like a riddle for you to figure out but once you do you'll be laughing eggnog out your nose. Phantom of the cookie jar, Migraine gingerbread and Ginger European woman (gingerbread woman with hairy legs) are some of my favorite. Also look for others in the series Like "Frosty Mugs"- Happy Hollidoodles

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Ginger Snaps - Fun Thoughts on Life
Dian; Compiled By Ritter
Manufacturer: The C.R. Gibson Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000ID5RJI

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Ginger Snaps: A Book of Business Helps
William Crosbie Hunter
Manufacturer: Hunter service
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0008757VW

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Ginger Snaps: Fun Thoughts on Life
Ritter
Manufacturer: C R Gibson Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0837817471

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Ginger-snaps
Fanny Fern
Manufacturer: S. Low
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Ginger-Snaps. By F. F.
Fanny, pseud. [i.e. Sarah Payson Willis, afterwards Eldredge, afterwards Parton] FERN
Manufacturer: Carleton, New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H4C8SG

Mildred Gould's Baby Daygowns: Book I (Ginger Snaps Designs)

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Mildred Gould's Baby Daygowns: Book I (Ginger Snaps Designs)

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000BPAPB8

Mildred Gould's Baby Daygowns Book II (Ginger Snaps Designs)

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Mildred Gould's Baby Daygowns Book II (Ginger Snaps Designs)

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000BPCYDU

Baby Daygowns Book III (Mildred Gould's Baby Daygowns, Book III)

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Baby Daygowns Book III (Mildred Gould's Baby Daygowns, Book III)

Manufacturer: Ginger Snaps Designs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000COAXZG

Book Description

The Ballad of Booth * The Ballad of Czolgosz * Unworthy of Your Love * The Ballad of Guiteau * Everybody's Got the Right.

Customer Reviews:

Full Vocal Score (which lacks instrumental cues).......2006-05-03

This is the full vocal score to Sondheim's controversial "Assassins." The inside cover notes that the score has been prepared from Sondheim's copies rather than Starobin's orchestrations, and this is obvious as there are no instrumental cues present (this is my only complaint about this score). A breakdown of the 8 person (plus optional bass) ensemble the show is orchestrated for is included.

Who but Sondheim???.......2001-11-23

Only Stephen Sondheim would dare to write a musical which took as its topic Presidential assassinations. What could have been depressing is, through the power of Sondheim's music and Weidman's book, transformed into an intriguing foray into the minds of the disturbed people who committed murder, and (this is the creepy part) committed it with a clear conscience. The music is phenomenal - an amalgam of John Philip Sousa, Stephen Foster, and Sondheim's unique brand of spiky, bittersweet harmonies. The book, by John Weidman, makes quite a few insightful observations on the twisted motivations of the Assassins. But it's Sondheim's hypnotic score that draws one back again and again.

What a score!.......2000-03-26

This is, in my opinion, Sondheim's greatest musical to date. The score, although shorter than most of his, contains some of his wittiest lyrics: 'Or we'd have been left / Bereft / Of F.D.R.!', and some of the greatest tunes ('The Gun Song' is a personal favourite). Sondheim cleverly uses the marches of John Philip Sousa to evoke the ironic feeling of patriotism in a tale about presidential assassins. He also pastiches the music of Aaron Copland in many numbers. The combination of these styles and composers provides a truly American atmosphere, which, when heard out of context make wonderful songs, but in context of the show carry a deeper underscore of menace. Whether you're intending to produce the show or you just want to own a piece of Sondheim history, this score is a must!

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Assassins: Libretto/vocal book
Stephen Sondheim
Manufacturer: Music Theatre International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

Record important details about friends and family in My Circle. An address book and memory album in one, its illustrated pages contain entries for names, numbers, and addresses, as well as space to write clothing sizes, gifts given and received, good times together, and more. Keep track of all the people in your circle with this charming little book.

My Circle: A Friends and Family Organizer

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My Circle: A Friends and Family Organizer
Chronicle Books LLC Staff
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H2M90A

Book Description

Life is a series of negotiations--from who will make the morning coffee to the landing of a multi-million-dollar contract. Each successful negotiation is a victory, but how is success measured? And after a negotiation is completed, what are the implications for the future? In The Savvy Negotiator, William Morrison addresses these questions in the context of two simple, but profound, ideas: (1) We negotiate to set the ground rules for a future relationship; (2) We negotiate to satisfy our needs. In other words, a negotiation is not simply a transaction, but an opportunity to develop a dynamic relationship; whatever the outcome, there will be future effects. If a negotiation is not designed to provide some benefit to the negotiator, there is no reason to engage. Morrison develops these themes against the backdrop of a general evolution in negotiation theory and practice--from an antagonistic WIN/LOSE approach to the more collaborative WIN/WIN approach. Through dozens of engaging examples, from business and other areas (such as home and car buying), he demonstrates the eight key concepts that underlie any negotiation, and offers many practical strategies for conducting successful and satisfying negotiations in virtually any situation. Along the way, he highlights such timely issues as the role of ethics in negotiation and the impact of the Internet on communication dynamics.

The Savvy Negotiator : Building Win/Win Relationships

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The Savvy Negotiator : Building Win/Win Relationships
William F. Morrison
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUD7YE

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THE SAVVY NEGOTIATOR: BUILDING WIN-WIN RELATIONSHIPS
William F. Morrison
Manufacturer: Praeger Westport, CT, and London
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IWS9GC

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The Savvy Negotiator: Building Win-Win Relationships
William F. (Author) Morrison
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORJ1RW

Book Description

While draught and desertification are intensifying around the world, corporations are aggressively converting free-flowing water into bottled profits. The water wars of the twenty-first century may match-or even surpass-the oil wars of the twentieth. In Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit, Vandana Shiva, "the world's most prominent radical scientist" (the Guardian), shines a light on activists who are fighting corporate maneuvers to convert this life-sustaining resource into more gold for the elites.

In Water Wars, Shiva uses her remarkable knowledge of science and society to outline the emergence of corporate culture and the historical erosion of communal water rights. Using the international water trade and industrial activities such as damming, mining, and aquafarming as her lens, Shiva exposes the destruction of the earth and the disenfranchisement of the world's poor as they are stripped of rights to a precious common good.

In her passionate, feminist style, Shiva celebrates the spiritual and traditional role water has played in communities throughout history, and warns that water privatization threatens cultures and livelihoods worldwide. Shiva calls for a movement to preserve water access for all, and offers a blueprint for global resistance based on examples of successful campaigns.

Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental leader and recipient of the 1993 Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award). She is author of several books, including Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply (South End Press, 2000); Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (South End Press, 1997); and Staying Alive (St. Martin's Press, 1989). Shiva is a leader, along with Ralph Nader and Jeremy Rifkin, in the International Forum on Globalization. Before becoming an activist, Shiva was one of India's leading physicists.

Customer Reviews:

The Single Most Important Book You Can Read Today.......2007-02-28

the global water crisis is the biggest issue we will face in our lifetimes and not much is being done. This book puts things in a human light and makes solutions seem possible.
Stop Bottled Water Industries
Protect Global Commons
[...]

Don't waste your money.......2007-01-07

Written by a so called academic, this is a series of essays which never should have been published. Over -priced and over reviewed, whoever approved of publishing this travesty should be fired.

Brutal. Brutal brutal brutal........2006-04-03

In contrast to what others have written, this book is brutal. It isn't that Ms. Shiva doesn't have passion, she does. It isn't that she cannot write, she can. The book is brutal because it is painfully one-sided, seemingly written for no other reason than to pander to those that think as she does.

While the book highlights examples of water mismanagement, Ms. Shiva's ideology is so apparent one has to wonder what she has left out. For example, she repeatedly mentions the use of a small, electric motor to pump enormous amounts of water far more efficiently that human beings can. Eventually said motor pumps more water than the system can replace and does damage. Fine. While Ms. Shiva notes that the motor does damage, she seems unwilling to address the obvious: the farmer who turned the motor on could just as easily have turned the motor off, thereby avoiding the damage. Instead of working for hours to get water, the farmers could have used the motor to pump only what they needed, saving time and labor for other tasks. While she may have a personal preference to use humans for manual labor, blaming the little motor (and by extension, the modernization involved) is intellectually dishonest.

As another example, she mentions how the evil United States would not approve the Kyoto Treaty. She is right the U.S. has not. Yet she never notes that many people consider Kyoto to be fatally flawed--it exempts China, India, and others from emissions limits. One does not need to accept or deny Kyoto as an example of an efficient or effective solution to global warming, but given the partisan ideology presented in Water Wars, one can never be sure Ms. Shiva presented any information fairly or accurately.

Furthermore, Ms. Shiva continues with such platitudes as, "The corporation's selfish desire for profit causes all the problems; the WTO, World Bank and U.S. are run by corporations; only real democratic community control will solve these problems." The quote is representative of many social critics: argument by cliche--the discourse ends as quickly as it begins. Ms. Shiva often closes her argument in her topic sentences, for example on page 87, "Not only has the World Bank played a major role in the creation of water scarcity and pollution, it is now transforming that scarcity into a market opportunity for water companies." Or comments such as this on page xiii, "This forced apportion of resources from people is a form of terrorism--corporate terrorism." Comments like this suggest Ms. Shiva is unable to persuasively write for change, that she has no real arguments, just partisan ideology. Unfortunately, environmental thinkers like Ms. Shiva may be right. But with writing like this, they will never be heard except by those who already agree.

Sadly, Ms. Shiva also seems focused on spiritual matters at the expense of making her case. For example, she includes a multi-page appendix of the ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT different names for the Ganges River. Frankly, who cares how many names there are? There could be 763 of them--not one of which would matter if the locals drain the river for crops or if Halliburton drains the river and sells it back to them.

As a former physicist, Ms. Shiva would have done her readers a favor and written a fascinating book if she had simply applied the intellectual rigor of her physics training to her thesis--whatever that was. For those that want their ideology reinforced, this book is wonderful. For those trying to learn about the problems concerning water and water usage, there are plenty of other sources that present information without overt ideology and bias. `Nuff said.

Right Versus Left.......2005-10-26

Vandana is an entertaining writer. She is passionate about injustice. Shiva is a welcome antidote to the rantings of right wing ratbags from noisy think-tanks.

A chapter of Shiva contrasted with a chapter of anyone from the Cato Institue, makes for an entertaining exercise in contrasting views of how our world should work.

One does not have to agree with all she believes to enjoy her writing or to learn from it.

Earthy Wisdom About Water.......2004-10-06

Water rights and access to water are a commons. They inherently belong to all people collectively, from which to benefit and to be responsible for as stewards. Including being a guide to participating in popular resistance, this is a history of how the principle of water as a commons has evolved as part and parcel of the evolutionary rise of the human species. Also catalogued is the very recent advent of the concept of water as a privatized commodity.

Although Shiva doesn't say it in so many words, the book often reads as a direct indictment of the United States because many of the problems she enumerates trace back directly to the fossil fuel economy. The US is the most egregious and careless contributor to the degradation of the environment. Although the US stands to experience a large part of the devastation global warming is already wreaking, perhaps the loss of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas to a potential 2 foot rise in sea levels, many poor and island nations will bear the disproportionate brunt of global warming's effects.

This book might easily be perceived as a treatise in Luddism. Shiva says almost every so-called advance in water management, as for example diverting and draining rivers, which is necessarily a move to centralize and privatize water management, results in catastrophic social and ecological consequences - especially natural disasters such as floods, supercyclones, and droughts. When water is managed locally and collectively by the indigenous as a commons, its use is equitable, ecologically sound, and sustainable - words of wisdom from mouth of justice. When water is treated as a commodity, and corporatized the unforeseen consequences, which are quite serious, include pollution and climate change.

Shiva documents many natural and man-made disasters that have resulted from this practical and ideological shift in water management. She draws a direct causal relationship between technological application in water management and ecological disruption and social conflict. The worst of these, a supercyclone that devastated the state of Orissa in India in 1999, "damaged 1.83 million houses and 1.8 million acres of paddy crops in 12 coastal districts. Eighty percent of the coconut trees were uprooted or broken in half, and all the banana and papaya plantations were wiped out. More than 300,000 cattle perished, more than 1,500 fisherman and fisherwomen lost their entire source of livelihood...local workers estimate the (human) toll to be about 20,000."

Shiva is well-studied in water management and its history. She draws from a rich array of sources, many obscure but important; a large number are cites of her own past voluminous work. Her arguments are intuitive more than deductive. Once you accept her premise of water resources as a commons, and she makes the argument gently, but unrelentingly, as if it is a self-evident truth, the rest of her conclusions unfold cogently, compellingly, and of their own accord.

The WTO and World Bank involvement in water management are ominous signs of water's commodification, self-destructive and suicidal, teaches Shiva. Small groups resisting these developments have won several victories. Arundhati Roy among other prominent Indians has enjoined the struggle against the Narmada Dam project, a mammoth project of corporatization in India.

Projects like Narmada, and there are many of them, are done under the rubric of capitalism and "free trade." These last two terms understood in practice, as should be obvious by now, as the socialization of risks and costs and the privatization of profits for the rich, and fiscal discipline and restraint for the poor. This corporate welfare takes the form of subsidies, give-aways, tax breaks, and displacement of the indigenous.

This is a very focused study of water rights, impressively researched and well-documented. Shiva presents the facts and lets you uncover the truth for yourself, like wiping a mirror clear of dust.

The historical shift of water as a commons to water as a commodity is almost the same as the history of colonialism. Shiva traces a richly researched history of British colonization of India synonymous there with this shift in water management. Her writing is sometimes dry but rich in fact and research. In wading deep into the minutiae of water management's history, and the consequences of its commodification, Shiva shows that much of the supposed progress in the administration and management of water rights have really been retrograde movements from policies and practicalities of fairness and equitability. She also warns ominously that the 21st Century will see wars and conflicts over this resource in much the same way the 20th did over oil.

The clash of water as a commons versus its degradation into a commodity was perhaps best illustrated in Cochambamba, Bolivia in 1999. In response to the sell off of a municipal resource to a foreign corporation, a coalition of militant peasant groups formed the Coalition in Defense of Water and Life. It organized to address skyrocketing water bills and poor service. Of all corporations, Bechtel, a huge military contractor to the Pentagon, "bought" water rights in Cochambamba. It wasn't without several serious skirmishes that the peasant groups prevailed and reasserted their sovereignty over water. Bechtel exited Bolivia, and the United States government took up its cause, suing Bolivia on behalf of Bechtel in the World Trade Court. That case is still pending.

Shiva makes an important contribution. As impressive as the book itself is the exposure to an activist with a wide knowledge and a rich oeuvre. She wraps up her study with a look at the sacredness of water in India. The Ganges River is traditionally one of the holiest sites in India. The multinational corporations would prefer to see this resource as an asset on their ledgers. Shiva never mentions specifically what she is doing activist-wise to join the struggle. But it's obvious from her energy and devotion to the issue that she is very actively involved. She makes it clear she is for justice for the great masses of people before the interests of those who would commodify water.

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Rattlesnakes and Scientists
D. C. Ipsen
Manufacturer: Beekman Books Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0846411792

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RATTLESNAKES AND SCIENTISTS
D.C. IPSEN
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OOHWPI

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