The newest development in alternative art: the use of salvaged and repurposed materials by contemporary artists. Tristan Manco reveals how artists of all kinds are bringing creativity to basic, often unglamorous materials—from broken bottles, old flip-flops, and skateboards to sustainable resources such as wood, straw, and paper. Through hundreds of illustrations, in-depth artist profiles, and detailed discussions of various materials, he showcases the work of more than thirty innovative and inspiring artists from around the world, from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile to the UK, Spain, France, and Italy. Some of the artists have invented new techniques—American artist Rosemarie Fiore uses fireworks to create paintings—while others have pushed the envelope in the presentation of their work by creating fresh, dynamic forms of display. Whether it is Chilean artist Carlos Zuniga’s creative use of text pages from found books and directories or Brazilian sculptor Henrique Oliveira’s ambitious organic forms in salvaged plywood, the book highlights how imaginative approaches to media and technique encourage us to look at the world in new ways.

Studies use of diary format by contemporary British novelists to challenge cultural value.

The journal Source: Music of the Avant-garde was and remains a seminal source for materials on the heyday of experimental music and arts. Conceived in 1966 and published to 1973, it included some of the most important composers and artists of the time: John Cage, Harry Partch, David Tudor, Morton Feldman, Robert Ashley, Pauline Oliveros, Dick Higgins, Nam June Paik, Steve Reich, and many others. A pathbreaking publication, Source documented crucial changes in performance practice and live electronics, computer music, notation and event scores, theater and installations, intermedia and technology, politics and the social roles of composers and performers, and innovations in the sound of music.

Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.

A comprehensive and concise study of contemporary Chinese law. Contents: The legal System of China, Constitutional Law and State Structure - China, Judicial Review in China, The General Priciples of Civil Law - China, CivilProcedure Law - China, Law of Contract - China, Law and Taxation - China, Banking Law - China, Company Law - China, Law of Family, Marriage and Succession - China, Employment Law - China, The Essential of Land Law in China, Lawof Intellectual Property - China, Law of Environmental Protection - China, Criminal Law - China, Criminal Procedure Law - China, Maritime Law - China, Conflicts of Law - China, Non-judicial Means of Dispuite Settlement - China