Elektronisches Gestalten in Kunst und Design: Richtungen, Institutionen, Bergriffe by Jürgen Claus (review)

of objectsproduced in the fine and applied arts. Needless to say, this categorization does not cover all essential traits of works of art.Just as each of the many hues of the color circle is modified not only by its brightness and saturation, art objectsare not only spatial.As modifiers of the spatial characteristics, Sowers singles out two “polarvariables,” the optical and physical size of things and the effect of illumination. This system of parameters is rich enough to let him discussa number of wellchosen examples;and far fromjust describing them, he shows how sensibilityto the distinctive qualities of the modalities pays and how violations lead to failure. Stainedglass,a medium in which Sowers has worked himself [11,cannot be treated-as, for example, Chagall often did-as though it were merely painting on glass.Windows enriched by the shapesand colorsof stained glass remain a building’sway of receivingand transmittingoutside light to the spaces of its interior. When this dealingwith physical light intermingleswith the pictorial representation of illumination on the window, an incurable confusion of two modalities results. Such confusionis avoided in the stained-glasswindows of the thirteenth centuryaswell as in certain works of our own time, among which Sowerssinglesout those done for German churches in the 1970s.In such works, “thestainedglasswindow is dynamicwhere painting is static and static where painting is dynamic”(p. 71). When Leonard0 daVinci tried to unite the spaceand lighting of his Last Supperwiththe architecturalproperties of the refectoryin SantaMaria delle Grazie, he caused a disturbingclash between pictorial and architectural space.B y contrast,Bernini in his chapel of The Vision o f St. Teresawas “concerned to avoid any appearance of conflict between levelsof reality” (p. 78). His marblegroup is highly pictorial, lit by diffuse light and shieldedfrom the architectural spaceby a frame of columns and the roof of the chapel.At the same time, however, the group is supported in its sculpturalvolume by the architectural three-dimensionalityof its setting.The three modalitiesblend in a work that respectstheir inherent requirements. he formulated his thoughts, interested me particularlybecause in an essayfirst published in 1981 [2] I had shown that the style categoriesof art must not be used as containersfor works grouped by Sowers,who often consulted me while the time of their origin but as expressive traitsinherent in their media and intermingling in the works of artistsand of periods. Therefore, Sowers’spioneering effort to define the traditional system of the media as categoriesof modal traits rather than as containers is a most useful complement of a broader undertaking. It tells us that our present complexityof the media has precedents throughout the historyof art, but that the inherent properties of each medium need to be respected if their interweavingis to be successful. References 1. Robert Sowers, The Language o f Stained Glass (Forest Grove, OR Timber Press, 1981.) 2. Rudolf Arnheim, “Styleasa Gestalt Problem,”in NewEssayson thePsychology o f A7t (Berkeleyand Los Angeles: Univ. of CaliforniaPress, 1986)pp. 261-273. ELEKTRONISCHES GESTALTEN IN KUNST UND DESIGN: RICHTUNGEN, INSTITUTIONEN, BERGB yJurgen Claus. RowohltTaschenbuch Verlag,Reinbek bei Hamburg, Germany, 1991. 190pp., illus. DM 16.80 ISBN: 3-499-181940. Reviewed by Frank Popper, 49, quai des Grands Augustins, 75006Pans, France Jurgen Claus’s book Ekktronisches Gestaltenin Kunst und Design (Electronic Form in Art and Design) showsan extremelywell-informedauthor-artist writing at the beginning of the 1990sfm the 1990s (andbeyond). In fact, it is the evident topicality of this pocket edition that is its most striking,globalfeature. The book consistsof a seriesof brilliant essays divided into (1) a state-of-the-art surveywith a number of historical references entitled “cosmosof the media” (whichtakes up more than half of the volume), (2) a description of European “technocultural”centers, and (3)a most useful glossary of current notions belonging to the interface of art/science /technology. The book has 44color illustrationsinserted between its first and second parts. Although the intention of the author in the first part of the book was to show the wider context of different electronic arts by alluding to their history, his demonstration is particularly rewarding when he refers to present-daydevelopments . This is by no means surprising since in Claus’sprevious publications, including ChippppKunst (1985)and Das elektronischeBauhaus (1987...