Brian Reffin Smith
Biographic Data
| ID | 5890570 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brian Reffin Smith |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brian Reffin |
| FAMILY NAME | Smith |
| SIGNATURE | SMITH B R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Collège de ’Pataphysique, Paris, France. |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Shamans and Robots
Out of curiosity I asked ChatGPT to write two reviews of this book, one positive, the other negative. Having read the book, I found both reviews more or less intellectually, if not really, textually, convincing. However, as the LLM admitted, it had enjoyed no access to the text. It had not “read” the book. All it could examine was the title and the couple of paragraphs of publisher’s blurb. When challenged about this (I suspect not isolated) betr…
Creative Simulations
Some books are simply amply informative about what it says on their cover; others are ostensibly about people, things, times, places, or events but actually use these to make far wider points or to promulgate theory and opinion. Rarely, you get both— a work whose parts are so rich and richly intertwined that new meanings and insights are generated for and by the reader. This book is one.Similarly, some texts having to do with the arts, design, cu…
The Weirdness of the World; The Science of Weird Shit
We might start from the presumption that “weird shit” is no longer an exception to how things can be, an outlier, perturbation, or aberration. We surely know by now that weird is wired, the new normal, in everything except perhaps dentistry, polyamory, and AI-mashed-up “art”: a comfort in the first two, and a tiresome burden in the third.This is a review of two books about weirdness. One shows that the “weird” of its title is scientifically expli…
Pataphysics Unrolled
That a congeries of mainly high-ranking academics having to do with Philadelphia donned, where needed, blindfolds, felt what bits of pata-physics they could reach from their chairs and pronounced it a kind of avant-garde duck, whose appearance, walk, and utterances they then fortuitously found in proximity to areas of research and creativity in which they were competent, is not necessarily a criticism of a book that sets itself an impossible task…
Coded
As if in homage to dot-matrix printers (younger readers, look it up) and to this excellent book, the FedEx delivery slip that came with my copy was in a familiar, slightly fuzzy, greyish typeface on lined paper with holes down the side. The book, too, has (printed) sprocket holes as an inside cover design motif.Ah, the joy of that old technology! Greys and pale greens—the colors of an ex-East German picnic set. Clacks and whirs. Misalignments. As…
Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art
If we imagine an extremely light artwork, in fact one with no mass, such as an electromagnetic wave traversing a gallery, whose presence can only be sensed via a suitable receiver (the spelling checker suggested “a suitable reviewer”) and juxtapose that to a lead metal sculpture, along what dimensions might we distinguish them? We know that even the densest matter in the universe is not really matter at all, that size doesn’t matter and that life…
Retracing Political Dimensions
Though some find solace in making pretty pictures, structures and interactive spaces, we must surely ask: If now is not the time to consider a political “new media art,” as well as a politics of it, well... then when? I’m not talking about propaganda and mere sloganizing, nor about empty identification with the oppressed. As Art & Language, I think, said long ago, to paint a picture of a miner is not to be working class. But deliberately to avert…
The Poetics of Noise from Dada to Punk
It’s hard to imagine what your fully paid-up Dadaist would be doing today, noise-wise. Anyone with a computer or iPad and a MIDI keyboard can access and change the parameters of millions of playable noises, melodic or not, from fingernails on a contrabass to underwater trumpets, from Bartók pizzicato to a burnt piano, from German swear words with variable attack and decay to an orchestra of railway station sounds, both ambient and provoked, playa…
Zombie Theory
February 01 2019 Zombie Theory: A Reader Zombie Theory: A Reader edited by Sarah JulietLauro. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A., 2017. 504 pp., illus. ISBN: 978-1517900915. Brian Reffin Smith Brian Reffin Smith Collège de ’Pataphysique, Paris, France. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Brian Reffin Smith Collège de ’Pataphysique, Paris, France. Online Issn: 1530-9…
Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Brain
April 01 2016 Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Brain Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Brain by TimothyVerstynen and BradleyVoytek. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2014. 272 pp. Trade. ISBN: 9780691157283. Brian Reffin Smith Brian Reffin Smith Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Brian Reffin Smith Onl…
Atlas of Knowledge
June 01 2016 Atlas of Knowledge: Anyone Can Map Atlas of Knowledge: Anyone Can Map by KatyBörner. MIT Press, Cambridge MA, U.S.A., 2015. 224 pp., illus. Trade, eBook. ISBN: 978-0-262-02881-3; ISBN: 978-0-262-32841-8. Brian Reffin Smith Brian Reffin Smith Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Brian Reffin Smith Online Issn: 1530-9282 Print Issn: 0024-094X ©2016 ISAST Leonardo (2016) 49 (3…
Simple Thoughts
October 01 2016 Simple Thoughts Simple Thoughts by PeterBeyls. MER Paper Kunsthalle, Ghent, Belgium, 2014. 240 pp. ISBN: 978-9-491-77560-4. Brian Reffin Smith Brian Reffin Smith Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Brian Reffin Smith Online Issn: 1530-9282 Print Issn: 0024-094X ©2016 ISAST Leonardo (2016) 49 (5): 464–466. https://doi.org/10.1162/LEON_r_01306 Cite Icon Cite Permissions S…
Science and Art
October 01 2015 Science and Art: The Painted Surface Science and Art: The Painted Surface edited by AntonioSgamellotti, Brunetto GiovanniBrunetti and CostanzaMiliani. Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge and London, U.K., 2014. 553 pp. ISBN 9781849738187. Brian Reffin Smith Brian Reffin Smith Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Brian Reffin Smith Online ISSN: 1530-9282 Print ISSN: 002…
Triple Entendre
February 01 2015 Triple Entendre: Furniture Music, Muzak, Muzak-Plus Triple Entendre: Furniture Music, Muzak, Muzak-Plus by HervéVanel, University of Illinois Press, Champaign, IL, U.S.A., 2013. 216 pp. Trade. ISBN: 978-0-2520-3799-3. Brian Reffin Smith Brian Reffin Smith Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Brian Reffin Smith Online Issn: 1530-9282 Print Issn: 0024-094X ©2015 ISAST2015…
It takes at least two to tango
No prominent works on this page.
It takes at least two to tango
Science and Art
October 01 2015 Science and Art: The Painted Surface Science and Art: The Painted Surface edited by AntonioSgamellotti, Brunetto GiovanniBrunetti and CostanzaMiliani. Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge and London, U.K., 2014. 553 pp. ISBN 9781849738187. Brian Reffin Smith Brian Reffin Smith Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Brian Reffin Smith Online ISSN: 1530-9282 Print ISSN: 002…
Triple Entendre
February 01 2015 Triple Entendre: Furniture Music, Muzak, Muzak-Plus Triple Entendre: Furniture Music, Muzak, Muzak-Plus by HervéVanel, University of Illinois Press, Champaign, IL, U.S.A., 2013. 216 pp. Trade. ISBN: 978-0-2520-3799-3. Brian Reffin Smith Brian Reffin Smith Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Brian Reffin Smith Online Issn: 1530-9282 Print Issn: 0024-094X ©2015 ISAST2015…
Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Brain
April 01 2016 Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Brain Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Brain by TimothyVerstynen and BradleyVoytek. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2014. 272 pp. Trade. ISBN: 9780691157283. Brian Reffin Smith Brian Reffin Smith Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Brian Reffin Smith Onl…
Atlas of Knowledge
June 01 2016 Atlas of Knowledge: Anyone Can Map Atlas of Knowledge: Anyone Can Map by KatyBörner. MIT Press, Cambridge MA, U.S.A., 2015. 224 pp., illus. Trade, eBook. ISBN: 978-0-262-02881-3; ISBN: 978-0-262-32841-8. Brian Reffin Smith Brian Reffin Smith Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Brian Reffin Smith Online Issn: 1530-9282 Print Issn: 0024-094X ©2016 ISAST Leonardo (2016) 49 (3…
Simple Thoughts
October 01 2016 Simple Thoughts Simple Thoughts by PeterBeyls. MER Paper Kunsthalle, Ghent, Belgium, 2014. 240 pp. ISBN: 978-9-491-77560-4. Brian Reffin Smith Brian Reffin Smith Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Brian Reffin Smith Online Issn: 1530-9282 Print Issn: 0024-094X ©2016 ISAST Leonardo (2016) 49 (5): 464–466. https://doi.org/10.1162/LEON_r_01306 Cite Icon Cite Permissions S…
Zombie Theory
February 01 2019 Zombie Theory: A Reader Zombie Theory: A Reader edited by Sarah JulietLauro. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A., 2017. 504 pp., illus. ISBN: 978-1517900915. Brian Reffin Smith Brian Reffin Smith Collège de ’Pataphysique, Paris, France. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Brian Reffin Smith Collège de ’Pataphysique, Paris, France. Online Issn: 1530-9…
Retracing Political Dimensions
Though some find solace in making pretty pictures, structures and interactive spaces, we must surely ask: If now is not the time to consider a political “new media art,” as well as a politics of it, well... then when? I’m not talking about propaganda and mere sloganizing, nor about empty identification with the oppressed. As Art & Language, I think, said long ago, to paint a picture of a miner is not to be working class. But deliberately to avert…
The Poetics of Noise from Dada to Punk
It’s hard to imagine what your fully paid-up Dadaist would be doing today, noise-wise. Anyone with a computer or iPad and a MIDI keyboard can access and change the parameters of millions of playable noises, melodic or not, from fingernails on a contrabass to underwater trumpets, from Bartók pizzicato to a burnt piano, from German swear words with variable attack and decay to an orchestra of railway station sounds, both ambient and provoked, playa…
Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art
If we imagine an extremely light artwork, in fact one with no mass, such as an electromagnetic wave traversing a gallery, whose presence can only be sensed via a suitable receiver (the spelling checker suggested “a suitable reviewer”) and juxtapose that to a lead metal sculpture, along what dimensions might we distinguish them? We know that even the densest matter in the universe is not really matter at all, that size doesn’t matter and that life…
Pataphysics Unrolled
That a congeries of mainly high-ranking academics having to do with Philadelphia donned, where needed, blindfolds, felt what bits of pata-physics they could reach from their chairs and pronounced it a kind of avant-garde duck, whose appearance, walk, and utterances they then fortuitously found in proximity to areas of research and creativity in which they were competent, is not necessarily a criticism of a book that sets itself an impossible task…
Coded
As if in homage to dot-matrix printers (younger readers, look it up) and to this excellent book, the FedEx delivery slip that came with my copy was in a familiar, slightly fuzzy, greyish typeface on lined paper with holes down the side. The book, too, has (printed) sprocket holes as an inside cover design motif.Ah, the joy of that old technology! Greys and pale greens—the colors of an ex-East German picnic set. Clacks and whirs. Misalignments. As…
Creative Simulations
Some books are simply amply informative about what it says on their cover; others are ostensibly about people, things, times, places, or events but actually use these to make far wider points or to promulgate theory and opinion. Rarely, you get both— a work whose parts are so rich and richly intertwined that new meanings and insights are generated for and by the reader. This book is one.Similarly, some texts having to do with the arts, design, cu…
The Weirdness of the World; The Science of Weird Shit
We might start from the presumption that “weird shit” is no longer an exception to how things can be, an outlier, perturbation, or aberration. We surely know by now that weird is wired, the new normal, in everything except perhaps dentistry, polyamory, and AI-mashed-up “art”: a comfort in the first two, and a tiresome burden in the third.This is a review of two books about weirdness. One shows that the “weird” of its title is scientifically expli…
Shamans and Robots
Out of curiosity I asked ChatGPT to write two reviews of this book, one positive, the other negative. Having read the book, I found both reviews more or less intellectually, if not really, textually, convincing. However, as the LLM admitted, it had enjoyed no access to the text. It had not “read” the book. All it could examine was the title and the couple of paragraphs of publisher’s blurb. When challenged about this (I suspect not isolated) betr…
Art (12 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Art history (7 works) · Citation (7 works) · Icon (7 works) · World Wide Web (7 works) · Download (6 works) · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis (5 works) · Information retrieval (5 works) · Table of contents (5 works)