Sensing the future: Moholy-Nagy, media and the arts

Abstract

"Finding a way to deal with the flood of digital information and images, the changing relationship between people and technology, and the accompanying tendency toward progressive disembodiment are widely debated topics today. In his art and experimental usage of new media the avant-garde artist and Bauhaus professor Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) anticipated today’s debates. As early as the 1920s he was convinced that people needed assistance in managing an environment increasingly dominated by technology, overwhelming sensory stimuli, and--Moholy-Nagy’s foresight is nearly prophetic here--the advent of digital culture. In Sensing the Future: Moholy-Nagy, Media and the Arts author Oliver A. I. Botar examines the methods Moholy-Nagy explored in his work with technology, posing the question as to whether he might even be considered a pioneer of the digital. The book introduces younger readers to this groundbreaking figure, underscoring the relevance of Moholy-Nagy’s work for contemporary artists and art making."-- On back of cover.