John Geiger traces the history of how a visual phenomenon first described two hundred years ago by physiologist Jan Purkinje has become the basis of further scientific studies into how the visual brain works, and how its repercussions have spread widely into contemporary artistic and musical culture.
The study of stroboscopic light began as a purely scientific study. Geiger’s history begins at this point and goes on to study the transition to the art world that was pioneered by Brion Gysin, William S. Burroughs, Genesis P-Orridge and Allen Ginsberg. While the book is an examination of the intersection between art and science, it is also a study of major currents in Western culture by way of an investigation of an obscure phenomenon.
Not only was flicker central to the artistic explorations of the afore-mentioned by Geiger also finds intersections with the lives (and deaths) of people as various as Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain, Keith Haring, Ned Rorem, Paul McCartney, Derek Jarman, Paul Bowles, David Bowie.
- ISBN10 1932360018
- ISBN13 9781932360011
- Publish Date 17 December 2003
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Counterpoint
- Imprint Soft Skull Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 120
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781932360011