FUTURE PROOFING: A take on consumer gadgetry and politico-environmental sustainability


Book Description

This book is a take on some of the negative aspects of the skyrocketing growth of consumer technology, which now almost fits the term 'universal'. Although we have taken for granted many controversial, to say the least, aspects of gadget designs and the software side of it, there are several important politico-environmental parameters that are getting more important each passing day. What are some of the most important aspects of it, and what should the stakeholders do about it? In this book, the readers can look forward to get an introductory glimpse of this very important, up-and-coming topic.




Selling James Bond


Book Description

The character of James Bond for many people is intrinsically linked in their minds with particular brands – Aston Martin, Bollinger, Omega, Smirnoff vodka, and so on. This direct association between character and brand highlights the intrinsic role of product placement in the film industry, and in the James Bond films in particular. Selling James Bond: Product Placement in the James Bond Films provides a comprehensive overview of the history of product placement in the James Bond series – charting the progression of the practice and drawing direct correlations to significant cultural and historical events that impacted upon the number and types of products incorporated into the series. While primarily a financial arrangement, it is also important that the practice of product placement be examined and understood in relation to these cultural contexts, an area of research so far largely ignored by academic study. Through extensive content analysis of the official James Bond film series, as well as utilising directors’ commentary and industry reports, this book illustrates the strong impact specific cultural and historical events have had on the practice of product placement in the series. In doing so, it provides an exciting and in-depth “behind the scenes” look at the James Bond film series, and its complicated and sometimes contentious history of product placement. In the process, it charts the gradual emergence of product placement from the more traditional background shot to becoming so embedded in the actual film narrative that they have become simply yet another method for filmmakers to produce cultural meaning.




Gadgetry


Book Description

The long-awaited ultimate illustration collection of Shirow Miwa, known as the author of manga DOGS, takes us deep into the core of his imagination! Characters from the game Fate / Grand Order, Saber/Sigurd and Lancer/Brynhild are now included in this updated English edition! Shirow Miwa, the Japanese manga artist and illustrator, is best known for the manga series DOGS and RWBY, but has also contributed to visual works such as the 7th Dragon 2020 and Fate / Grand Order games, and the animated films Kiznaiver and JOKER GAME. In his career as a manga artist and an illustrator, Miwa has drawn a range of edgy characters from ancient people with animal ears, summoned beasts and superhero-like aliens, to true bad boys wearing glasses, pretty girls riding robots, a mysterious priest, samurai in sailor uniforms, brutal twins, a macho butler, a hot final boss and many more... How were these distinctive characters created? Where does Miwa's imagination comefrom? What was he thinking while he was working on each of these stunning visual works? Delving into the core of Shirow Miwa's imagination, this book will fascinate those in the animation and gaming industries with its treasured rough sketches, character model sheets, and visual illustrations. Included at the end is Shirow Miwa's own commentary on each manga, game, and animations, which he wrote as part of each work's creative team. This additional material gives readers insight into his creative process and thinking and allows them to witness the moment of birth of each of his mysterious yet attractive characters. This book is an updated English edition of Gadgetry Shirow Miwa Design Achieves, which was originally published in Japan. The cover image has been redesigned to feature Saber/Sigurd and Lancer/Brynhild from the game Fate / Grand Order. This edition also showcases new character model sheets of Saber/Sigurd, which will surely satisfy the fans of Shirow Miwa hoping to collect all of his artworks.




Signals


Book Description




Reframing the Masters of Suspicion


Book Description

This book revisits Paul Ricoeur's classification of Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud as the “masters of suspicion”, and provides a thought-provoking critique for critical religious studies scholars, as well as anyone working in critical theory more broadly. Whereas Ricoeur saw suspicion as a mode of interpretation, Andrew Dole argues that the method common to his “masters” is better understood as a mode of explanation. Dole replaces Ricoeur's hermeneutics of suspicion with suspicious explanation, which claims the existence of hidden phenomena that are bad in some recognizable way. Each of the masters, Dole argues, offered a distinct kind of suspicious explanation. Reconstructing Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud in this way brings their work into conversation with conspiracy theories, which are themselves a type of suspicious explanation. Dole argues that conspiracy theories and other types of suspicious explanation are “cognitively ensnaring”, to borrow a term from Pascal Boyer. If they are true they are importantly true, but their truth or falsity can be very difficult to ascertain.




Newton's Sleep


Book Description

'Vast in its intellectual scope, it should induce not so much sleep as controversy, whether literary or scientific, philosophical or political. It skims the oceans of academe in a manner accessible to the educated public, informed and cogently argued, stylistically dense...' - Sandra Goldbeck-Wood, British Medical Journal `Tallis can, and frequently does, write extremely well. He also writes with considerable passion...Raymond Tallis, is perhaps best seen as an exceptionally interesting and broad-minded heir to Huxley, preaching the cause of the Church Scientific.' - Richard Webster, Times Literary Supplement Reviews of Not Saussure and The Explicit Animal: Not Saussure - 'I greatly enjoyed it...' - Bernard Bergonzi 'The Explicit Animal - '...his books are genuine contributions to professional debate...' - Stephen R.L. Clarke, Times Literary Supplement Newton's Sleep examines the complementary roles of science and art in human life. Science has been criticised for being at best useful but spiritually derelict, and art for attempting to answer the spiritual needs of humankind while ignoring the material needs of millions who live in want. Newton's Sleep deals with the charges that science is spiritually empty and that art fails in its civilising mission by relating these aspects of human culture to the physical and metaphysical hungers of an explicit animal who lives in both the Kingdom of Means and the Kingdom of Ends. 'Tallis can, and frequently does, write extremely well. He also writes with considerable passion...Tallis...is perhaps best seen as an exceptionally interesting and broad-minded heir to Huxley, preaching the cause of the Church Scientific...' Richard Webster




James Bond in World and Popular Culture


Book Description

James Bond in World and Popular Culture: The Films are Not Enough provides the most comprehensive study of the James Bond phenomena ever published. The 40 original essays provide new insights, scholarship, and understanding to the world of James Bond. Topics include the Bond girl, Bond related video games, Ian Fleming’s relationship with the notorious Aleister Crowley and CIA director Alan Dulles. Other articles include Fleming as a character in modern fiction, Bond Jr. comics, the post Fleming novels of John Gardner and Raymond Benson, Bond as an American Superhero, and studies on the music, dance, fashion, and architecture in Bond films. Woody Allen and Peter Sellers as James Bond are also considered, as are Japanese imitation films from the 1960s, the Britishness of Bond, comparisons of Bond to Christian ideals, movie posters and much more. Scholars from a wide variety of disciplines have contributed a unique collection of perspectives on the world of James Bond and its history. Despite the diversity of viewpoints, the unifying factor is the James Bond mythos. James Bond in World and Popular Culture: The Films are Not Enough is a much needed contribution to Bond studies and shows how this cultural icon has changed the world.




C.F.A. Study Guide


Book Description




Tensions and Convergences


Book Description

This book presents results of an international conference which addressed the interaction of aesthetical and technological dimensions within the formation of contemporary society. The contributions discuss the production of time and space, self and nature, individual and society in the image of technology. They focus on the productive tensions and convergences between aesthetic and technological concepts when implemented in everyday life. The volume contains - among others - texts about technologies of visualisation, the aesthetics of warfare and the design of technological lifeworlds.




Science Fiction Audiences


Book Description

Science Fiction Audiences examines the astounding popularity of two television "institutions" - the series Doctor Who and ^Star Trek. Both of these programmes have survived cancellation and acquired an following that continues to grow. The book is based on over ten years of research including interviews with fans and followers of the series. In that period, though the fans may have changed, and ways of studying them as "audiences" may have also changed, the programmes have endured intact, with Star Trek for example now in its fourth television incarnation. John Tulloch and Henry Jenkins dive into the rich fan culture surrounding the two series, exploring issues such as queer identity, fan meanings, teenage love of science fiction, and genre expectations. They encompass the perspectives of a vast population of fans and followers throughout Britain, Australia and the US, who will continue the debates contained in the book, along with those who will examine the historically changing range of audience theory it presents. and continue to attract a huge community of fans and followers. Doctor Who has appeared in nine different guises and Star Trek is now approaching its fourth television incarnation.Science Fiction Audiences examines the continuing popularity of two television 'institutions' of our time through their fans and followers. Through dialogue with fans and followers of Star Trek and Dr Who in the US, Britain and Australia, John Tulloch and Henry Jenkins ask what it is about the two series that elicits such strong and active responses from their audiences. Is it their particular intervention into the SF genre? Their expression of peculiarly 'American' and 'British' national cultures. Their ideologies and visions of the future, or their conceptions of science and technology? Science Fiction Audiences responds to a rich fan culture which encompasses debates about fan aesthetics, teenage attitudes to science fiction, queers and Star Trek, and ideology and pleasure in Doctor Who. It is a book written both for fans of the two series, who will be able to continue their debates in its pages, and for students of media and cultural studies, offering a historical overview of audience theory in a fascinating synthesis of text, context and audience study.