Art & Photography Books:

Strange Tools

Art and Human Nature
Click to share your rating 0 ratings (0.0/5.0 average) Thanks for your vote!

By:

Format:

Paperback / softback
$43.99 was $54.99
Available from supplier

The item is brand new and in-stock with one of our preferred suppliers. The item will ship from a Mighty Ape warehouse within the timeframe shown.

Usually ships in 2-3 weeks

Buy Now, Pay Later with:

Afterpay is available on orders $100 to $2000 Learn more

Availability

Delivering to:

Estimated arrival:

  • Around 8-20 May using International Courier

Description

A philosopher makes the case for thinking of works of art as tools for investigating ourselves In Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature, the philosopher and cognitive scientist Alva No� argues that our obsession with works of art has gotten in the way of understanding how art works on us. For No�, art isn't a phenomenon in need of an explanation but a mode of research, a method of investigating what makes us human--a strange tool. Art isn't just something to look at or listen to--it is a challenge, a dare to try to make sense of what it is all about. Art aims not for satisfaction but for confrontation, intervention, and subversion. Through diverse and provocative examples from the history of art-making, No� reveals the transformative power of artistic production. By staging a dance, choreographers cast light on the way bodily movement organizes us. Painting goes beyond depiction and representation to call into question the role of pictures in our lives. Accordingly, we cannot reduce art to some natural aesthetic sense or trigger; recent efforts to frame questions of art in terms of neurobiology and evolutionary theory alone are doomed to fail. By engaging with art, we are able to study ourselves in profoundly novel ways. In fact, art and philosophy have much more in common than we might think. Reframing the conversation around artists and their craft, Strange Tools is a daring and stimulating intervention in contemporary thought.

Author Biography:

Alva No� is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also serves as a member of the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences. A graduate of Columbia University, he holds a B.Phil. from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. No� is the recipient of a 2012 Guggenheim fellowship and is a weekly contributor to NPR's science blog 13.7: Cosmos & Culture.
Release date Australia
September 27th, 2016
Author
Audience
  • General (US: Trade)
Pages
304
Dimensions
152x229x17
ISBN-13
9780809089161
Product ID
24472142

Customer reviews

Nobody has reviewed this product yet. You could be the first!

Write a Review

Marketplace listings

There are no Marketplace listings available for this product currently.
Already own it? Create a free listing and pay just 9% commission when it sells!

Sell Yours Here

Help & options

Filed under...