The first initiative is a collaboration with the Centro Cultural Estación Indianilla and Tonaltepec Global S.C. in response to an invitation from The CODEX Foundation to co-ordinate CODEX MEXICO events at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) in late November 2011 and an Exhibition / with events (to be announced) at Centro Cultural Estacion Indianilla in February 2012. These two events will establish the CODEX Mexico Chapter as part of The CODEX International Network.

See: http://www.codexfoundation.org/mexico/index.html

Contributors must provide permissions for any illustrations they wish to use. MLA-style citation.
Manuscripts and editorial correspondence should be addressed to editor@evolutionaryreview.com
Deadline for Submissions: June 21st, 2012
http://evolutionaryreview.com/

The Franklin Institute also has an informative video on YouTube:

For more information visit the ICAF site at www.icaf.org

A recurring topic among those interested in art, science, and technology is the value of transdisciplinary approaches. In my view, those who gravitate to this area (or related areas such as interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and integrative studies) see broad-based thinking both as a creative tool and a means to innovatively address some of the complex issues of our world today. Among these people are some who value disciplinary boundaries and believe that those who can operationally span their narrow parameters have the best foundation for conceptualizing how to innovate and see beyond known territory. The tendency to cast Leonardo da Vinci in the role of the “historical archetype” of this type of person, the “Renaissance Man,” has perhaps allowed us to lose sight of the many other original thinkers who exemplify what creative minds can accomplish when paired with a far-ranging, inventive imagination.

Helmholtz: From Enlightenment to Neuroscience by Michel Meulders offers a reminder that we can identify a number of figures in the past who worked across disciplines. The book introduces us to Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894), trained by Johannes Müller, and one of the most accomplished physiologists of his time. A key nineteenth century polymath, Helmholtz used a versatile toolbox for his co-discovery of the principle of the conservation of energy, his invention of several instruments (e.g. the ophthalmoscope, the ophthalmometer and the telestereoscope), and his many significant contributions to physics, physiology, physical theory, philosophy of science and mathematics, and aesthetic thought.

How Helmholtz brought his varied interests and education into his laboratory is one thread that runs through the book. We learn that during his formative years he was exposed to philosophy and strongly influenced by his father, a German teacher who cultivated an interest in science and philosophy. Although Hermann was strongly attracted to the natural sciences, his father urged him toward medicine because funding for medical education was available. After training in physiology, Helmholtz worked in many areas outside of medicine over the years. Indeed, a defining feature of Helmholtz’s work was the way he branched out in many fields as he sought to translate his biological insights through an empirical and mathematical framework. In this, he was aided by his keen observational abilities and his passion for experimentation.

I began this book expecting a biography that would offer a chronology of Helmholtz’ work, along with contextual material to help the reader place his work within the nineteenth century world. The author instead offers a quite variegated picture that made it somewhat difficult for me to see the man as a whole as I read. The challenge in ferreting out Helmholtz’ story was due to the amount of material the author included that contextualizes Helmholtz in terms of the people and ideas that influenced him. For example, the chapter on “Goethe and His Vision of Nature” is 13 pages and does not mention Helmholtz. It seems its purpose is to provide a framework for where Helmholtz’ views of color differ from those of Goethe, which is discussed eight pages into the next chapter. Long “asides” such as this are quite distracting and make it difficult to understand what the author wanted the reader to take away from the book. What was clear is that the author has great enthusiasm for the accomplishments of Helmholtz. In addition to the Goethe chapter, there are chapters on “Johannes Müller: “Man of Iron” and “Conclusion: The Wisdom of Alexander von Humboldt.” It is hard to say if this format was intentional or if the chapters began as stand alone articles and were later pieced together into this book.

The strongest chapters are the two that cover Helmholtz’ work on hearing and acoustics and the one chapter that summarizes Helmholtz’s theory of visual perception. Helmholtz’s introduction in his Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music says that this work aimed to bring together work in physical and physiological acoustics, music and aesthetics that had remained unreasonably far apart. The author explains that Helmholtz’s early musical education and cultivation of musical activities throughout his life provided a foundation as well as a motivation for the experiments with sound. We also learn that this scientist invented the “Helmholtz resonator” to identify the various frequencies or “tones” present in musical chords and other sounds containing by multiple tones. The bell was among the instruments Helmholtz studied. His attraction to this instrument says quite a bit about he approached his work overall. Helmholtz was drawn to the bell because it is difficult to cast a good bell, for one needs to obtain an equal thickness around the whole circumference. If the thickness is different at two different places, there is a spot on the edge of the bell that vibrates to give a certain tone, while the neighboring spot produces a different tone and the intermediate zone between the two produced both tones at the same time. Helmholtz wanted to understand the unpleasant dissonance of this phenomenon. Ultimately, he demonstrated that difference and combination (or sum) tones existed objectively, outside the ear. (Although, ironically, bells are characterized by anharmonic relationships among their tones, but they still sound good.)

Another disappointment with the presentation was that the captions for a number of illustrations were far too abbreviated. Many basically said what the image is and provided virtually no information about how the depicted equipment (or whatever) works. Because this was not always the case, particularly in the chapter on music where the captions were full-bodied descriptions, the captions, too, led me to wonder if the chapters were originally written as stand-alone articles.

All in all, once I adjusted to the book “as a collage” and absorbed it on its own terms, I found it an informative read. It developed Helmholtz sufficiently to send me looking for more details. When I read further, I realized that all the basics were covered. It was only because the book covered the territory in an unusual fashion that it was harder for me to see the geography, so to speak.

Finally, based on the title of the book, Helmholtz: From Enlightenment to Neuroscience, I thought I would find many references to contemporary neuroscience. This was not the case. Basically, at the end the book acknowledges Helmholtz’s contributions to contemporary investigations, saying:

“Neuroscience and cognitive science, as we call them today, owe numerous research domains to [Helmholtz}, as well as attitudes. No phenomenon of nature, life, or environment left his encyclopedic mind indifferent. He believed he could reconcile science and philosophy, notably by thinking that Kant’s a priori had in the last resort a physiological basis that would one day doubtless be discovered.” (p. 215)

Art and the Limits of Neuroscience
By ALVA NOë
Why does art move us? Why does it matter? The answers are not likely to be found by studying the brain.

	The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World by David Deutsch Reviewed by Richard Kade
	Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing by Paul Dourish and Genevieve Bell Reviewed by John Vines
	Helmholtz: From Enlightenment to Neuroscience by Michel Meulders; edited and translated by Laurence Garey Reviewed by Amy Ione
	Switching Codes: Thinking Through Digital Technology in the Humanities and the Arts by T. Bartscherer & R. Coover, Editors Reviewed by Rob Harle
	Through The Looking Glass by Francisco López Reviewed by Eugene Thacker

Also:

L|R|Q – Leonardo Reviews Quarterly
The fourth issue of Leonardo Reviews Quarterly is available to download as a PDF.

Please click here to start the download.

Institutional Critique: An Anthology of Artists’ Writings brings together key documents related to institutional critique, a conceptual art movement that has raised questions about the workings of art institution (museums, galleries) since the 1960s.  Alexander Alberro (one of the editors of this volume) calls it a “gesture of negation” (p. 3) that was adopted by art world figures as they began to critically engage with the order of things within art venues.  The anthology presents the movement in four sections (Framing, Institution of Art, Institutionalizing, and Exit Strategies).  While the volume gives the impression that the critique is ongoing, the exit strategies section suggests that the initial concerns have morphed into something else.  Full Review

Institutional Critique: An Anthology of Artists’ Writings
by Alexander Alberro and Blake Stimson, Editors
The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2011
440 pp., illus. 60 b/w. Trade, $21.95
ISBN: 978-0-262-51664-8.

	Cutting Across Media: Appropriation Art, Interventionist Collage, and Copyright Law by Kembrew McLeod & Rudolf Kuenzli, Editors Reviewed by Rob Harle
	Destroy All Monsters Magazine 1976-1979 by Destroy All Monsters Reviewed by Mike Mosher
	A Field Guide to a New Meta-Field: Bridging the Humanities -Neuroscience Divide by Barbara Maria Stafford, Editor Reviewed by Rob Harle
	Green Light: Toward an Art of Evolution by George Gessert Reviewed by Craig Hilton
	Modern Gestures: Abraham Walkowitz Draws Isadora Duncan Dancing by Ann Cooper Albright Reviewed by Giovanna L. Costantini
	Remixthebook by Mark Amerika Reviewed by Jan Baetens

Transmission Arts: Artists & Airwaves
by Galen Joseph-Hunter, Penny Duff, and Maria Papadomanolaki, Editors
Reviewed by John F. Barber

Institutional Critique: An Anthology of Artists’ Writings
by Alexander Alberro and Blake Stimson, Editors
Reviewed by Amy Ione

Bach Jazz: Güher and Süher Pekinel Featuring the Jacques Loussier Trio by Barrie Gavin, Hanno Rinke, et al., Directors
Reviewed by Richard Kade