The upcoming title ‘Iconomy: Towards a Political Economy of Images’ by Terry Smith
Book Summary: Exploring viral imagery of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Presidents Trump and Biden, Black Lives Matter, as well as the rise of a “black aesthetic” in white artworlds, this book shows that iconopolitics — especially constellations of visual images — has become pervasive within contemporary life. It questions the implications for critical thought and political action.
‘Iconomy: Towards a Political Economy of Images’ argues that imagery of all kinds has become a definitive force in the shaping of contemporary life. While immersed in public politics and private imaginaries, such imagery also operates according to its own logic, potentialities, and limitations. It questions whether an image economy, an iconomy, in these two senses can be identified. From Plato, through medieval iconoclasm, Marx, Benjamin, and Debord to recent critical theory, the question becomes more urgent. This book explores viral imagery—the iconopolitics—of the pandemic, U.S. Presidents Trump and Biden, Black Lives Matter, as well as the rise of a “black aesthetic” in the white artworlds. Having arrived at the term “iconomy” in the years just prior to 9/11, and tracking its growing relevance since then, Smith argues that its study does not require a discipline serving nation-state and globalizing capitalism but, instead, a deconstructive interdiscipline that contributes to the politics of planetary world-making.
More information about ‘Iconomy: Towards a Political Economy of Images’ can be found at the following webpage here.
Advance Praise: ‘Iconomy: Towards a Political Economy of Images’
“A well documented and welcome history of the genesis of a new concept: iconomy.” –Peter Szendy, David Herlihy University Professor of Comparative Literature and the Humanities, Brown University, and author of The Supermarket of Images.
“Charting the image economy’s historical and current coordinates with model perspicuity, Smith reveals timely political insights.” –T. J. Demos, Patricia and Rowland Rebele Endowed Chair in Art History, UC Santa Cruz, and author of Beyond the World’s End: Arts of Living at the Crossing.
“Unparalleled historian and theoretician of the visual articulations of contemporaneity, Terry Smith provides an erudite and highly useful conceptual framework and historical background for understanding and criticizing the economies that images inescapably form part of in today’s cultures. Iconomy is a must-read for anyone who wants to engage critically with contemporary regimes of imagery.” – Jacob Lund, Associate Professor, Aesthetics and Culture, Aarhus University, author of The Changing Constitution of the Present.
About the Author: Terry Smith is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, Professor in the Division of Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought at the European Graduate School, and Lecturer at Large in the Curatorial Program of the School of Visual Arts, New York.
About Anthem Press: Anthem Press is a leading independent publisher of innovative academic research, educational material, and reference works in established and emerging fields.
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