cover image Get Real: Real Time + Art + Theory + Practice + History [With DVD]

Get Real: Real Time + Art + Theory + Practice + History [With DVD]

. George Braziller, $49.95 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-8076-1564-5

Concerning itself with the interaction of time and art-sound, video and performance art-the central question this book attempts to answer is: What is the relation between art and reality? To fully answer that question, it would require a book much heftier than this slim volume, which weighs in at 200 pages. Editor Sondergaard attempts to expeditiously explain concepts that could fill books on their own. ""Before I continue with the discussion of real time as media art practice,"" he writes, ""I will take a brief look at the position of reality in western thinking, as exemplified by philosophers and artists."" While truly ambitious in its scope, this is too much exposition in too little space. Sometimes, the tone of this book is downright flip, like when Mogens Jacobsen, in the middle of an essay, declares: ""Modern computer games might offer a different and freer approach to responsive media. But my experiences in computer games are virtually nonexistent. And I have no children to show me how to use them."" The book, itself visually stunning, explores an interesting topic, but it's unlikely to find an audience outside techno-art circles. 15 color, 110 b/w illustrations, companion DVD.