Visions of Modernity

Scott McQuire completed his PhD in the Politics Department at the University of Melbourne in 1995. He has a strong interest in interdisciplinary research and has lectured in disciplines including politics, sociology, cinema studies, art and architecture, and media and communication. Scott has held a number of research fellowships including a visiting fellowship at the Department of Film, Theatre and Television, UCLA (1998), an ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship (1999-2000), and a visiting fellowship at the Celeste Bartos International Film Study Center, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2000). He returned to the University of Melbourne to help establish the Media and Communication Programme in 2001. He is an active researcher who has been a Chief Investigator on six Australian Research Council funded projects. He has also received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts, and has undertaken research consultancies for the Communications Law Centre, the Australian Film Commission and the Australian Key Centre for Media and Cultural Policy.

• IntroductionThe Origin of the Image: The Image of the OriginPART ONE: THE RUINS OF REPRESENTATIONPhotomimesisThe Geometric UniverseWriting with LightThe Mechanical Eye of ReasonPromiscuous MeaningsThe Mobile FrameFlickering in EclipsesThe Ends of RepresentationPART TWO: PHOTOMNEMONICSThe Eye of the Camera Faces BackwardsThe Law of ProgressThe Crisis of MemoryAmnesic CulturesEternity′s HostageThe Camera and the ArchiveIntolerable MemoriesBiodegradable HistoriesPART THREE: THE NEW PLASTICITY OF SPACE AND TIMEPure SpeedFrom Transport to TeleportReconstructing `the World′The Myth of the CentreIn the Neon ForestInterzonesUnstable ArchitecturesTelepresence and the Government of Time

`McQuire has produced a comprehensive and lucidly written account of the camera-driven transformations across the period we may now retrospectively call "modernity"′ - Victor Burgin, Unviersity of California, Santa Cruz`Visions of Modernity offers an admirable overview of modern visual culture. But, more than this, it takes us through a wide range of debates in cultural theory. McQuire has produced an encompassing, and very impressive work of intellectual synthesis′ - Kevin Robins, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne