Compiled in 2013
Update Pending
Interest in surfaces is proliferating across a range of sites. Below we include an indicative bibliography of texts that approach different surfaces in a variety of ways; please contact us if you have further suggestions.
Two resources specifically addressing surfaces are:
Forsyth, Isla, Lorimer, Hayden, Merriman, Peter and Robinson, James (eds) (2013) 'What are surfaces?', Theme issue of Environment and Planning A, 45(5).
A series of articles on surfaces, coming from a broadly geographical perspective. The introduction includes a discussion of previous theories of surfaces, and articles cover camouflage, quarries, bodily interiors, landscape and logistical integration.
International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) World Congress 2013
5-10 August, Manchester, UK
Panel on Surfaces: Contesting Boundaries Between Materials, Mind and Body
Convened by Cristián Simonetti (Anthropology, University of Aberdeen) and Mike Anusas (Engineering, University of Strathclyde)
Indicative Bibliography
Adamson, Glenn and Victoria Kelley (eds) (2013) Surface Tensions: Surface, Finish and the Meaning of Objects, Manchester: Manchester University Press
A wide-ranging, transhistorical and interdisciplinary collection of sixteen essays.
Adkins, Lisa and Lury, Celia (2009) ‘What is the empirical?’, European Journal of Social Theory, 12(1): 5-20.
The introduction to a special issue, in which Adkins and Lury outline 'the turn to the surface' in sociology.
Ahmed, Sara and Stacey, Jackie (eds) (2001) Thinking Through the Skin London: Routledge.
A collection of thirteen essays which examine corporeal surfaces from predominantly feminist perspectives.
Amato, Joseph A. (2013) Surfaces: A History Berkeley: University of California Press.
As the title of the Introduction suggests, Amato's monograph is an interdisciplinary meditation on the ways in which 'The Surface Is Where The Action Is'.
Andrijasevic, Rutvica and Khalili, Laleh (eds) (2013) 'Water', special issue of Feminist Review, 103.
An interdisciplinary collection of essays on feminist cultural, philosophical and literary perspectives on water.
Benthien, Claudia (2004) Skin: On the Cultural Border Between Self and the World (trans. Thomas Dunlop) Columbia: Columbia University Press.
A key discussion of skin as surface.
Best, Stephen and Marcus, Sharon (2009) 'Surface Reading: An Introduction', Representations, 108: 1-21.
The editors' introduction to a special issue interested in analysing the surfaces of literary texts.
Bolter, Jay David and Gromala, Diane (2005) Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art and the Myth of Transparency Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
A book outlining how interaction design conceives screens as windows (transparent) and mirrors (reflective), which includes discussions on Daniel Rozin's interactive Wooden Mirror (1999).
Cahill, Patricia A. (2009) 'Take five: Renaissance literature and the study of the senses', Literature Compass, 65: 1014-1030.
An article developing sensory scholarship on Renaissance literature, including an analysis of representations of skin.
Cahill, Patricia A. (2012) 'The play of skin in The Changeling', Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies, 3(4): 391–406.
An analysis of the affective sense of touch in William Rowley's The Changeling (1622), focusing on the materiality of human skin.
Chatterjee, Anuradha (ed) (2014) Surface and Deep Histories: Critiques and Practices in Art, Architecture and Design Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.
A collection of essays examining the surface via a design-based approach.
Coleman, Rebecca (2012) Transforming Images: Screens, Affect, Futures London: Routledge.
A study of how screens co-ordinate the ways in which images are affectively experienced, with case studies on interactive mirrors, online dieting plans, makeover television and government health campaigns.
Coleman, Rebecca (2013) 'Sociology and the virtual: interactive mirrors, representational thinking and intensive power', The Sociological Review, 61(1): 1-20.
A journal article that analyses a number of different interactive mirrors, including Daniel Rozin's (1999) Wooden Mirror, Ming-Zher Poh's (2009) Medical Mirror and IDEO's (2001) Prada, Manhattan changing room mirror.
Connor, Steven (2003) The Book of Skin London: Reaktion.
A key discussion of skin as surface.
Friedberg, Anne (1994) Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
An argument that traces how nineteenth century viewing practices anticipate contemporary pleasures provided by cinema, video, shopping malls, and emerging "virtual reality" technologies.
Friedberg, Anne (2006) The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press.
This book examines the window as metaphor, architectural component, and an opening to the dematerialized reality we see on the screen.
Ingold, Tim (2007) Lines: A Brief History London: Routledge.
A book exploring the production and significance of lines such as drawing, writing, paths, trails and maps, including discussion of how lines make and dissolve surfaces.
Ingold, Tim (2010) 'Footprints through the weather-world: walking, breathing, knowing', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 16, Issue Supplement s1: s121-139.
An article reflecting on the surface of the ground, via a focus on walking and weather.
Ingold, Tim (2010) 'The textility of making', Cambridge Journal of Economics, 34: 91-102.
An article on art, technology, form and process, including references to the surfaces of materials.
Jones, Meredith (2008) ‘Media-bodies and screen-births: Cosmetic surgery reality television’, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 22(4): 515–524.
An analysis of the cinematography of cosmetic surgery makeover programmes, including discussions of mirrors and the television screen.
Kavka, Misha (2008) Reality Television, Affect and Intimacy: Reality Matters Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
This book analyses the ways in which the television screen mediates the relationships between content and audiences, focusing on affect and intimacy.
Keenan, Thomas (1993) ‘Windows: of Vulnerability’ in Robins, Bruce (ed) The Phantom Public Sphere London, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press: 121-141.
This chapter makes connections between visual practices, the architectural window and the television screen.
Lury, Celia, Parisi, Luciana and Terranova, Tiziana (eds) (2012) 'The becoming topological of culture', special issue of Theory, Culture and Society, 29(4-5).
A special issue on topology which includes discussions of framing, screens and surfaces.
Manovich, Lev (2002) The Language of New Media Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
An account of the historical development of media, tracing the reliance of new digital media on old media, including a genealogy of the screen and practices involving framing, the interface and the database.
Marks, Laura (2000) The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses Durham and London: Duke University Press.
A multi-sensory account of film, developing the concept of 'haptic visuality', where film functions via touch.
Melchoir-Bonnet, Sabine (2001) The Mirror: A History London: Routledge.
A cultural history of the evolution of the mirror from antiquity to the present day.
Roach, Joseph, It (2007): Ann Arbour, University of Michigan Press.
With chapters on 'accessories', 'clothes', 'hair', 'skin', 'flesh' and 'bone', It considers 'the elusive quality of charm, animal magnetism, or charisma possessed by extraordinarily interesting people through the ages'.
Sobchack, Vivian (1991) The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience Princeton: Princeton University Press.
This book develops a phenomenology of film experience, arguing that film is sensed and sensuous rather than simply an object of vision.
Sobchack, Vivian (2004) Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture Berkley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
Essays on the relationship between bodies and images in contemporary culture, analysing the multi-sensory processes of 'viewing' images.
Wood, Aylish (2007) Digital Encounters, London and New York: Routledge.
This book considers how viewers engage with the diverse interfaces of digital media, and argues that technologies alter human engagement, distributing our attention across a network of images and objects.
Update Pending
Interest in surfaces is proliferating across a range of sites. Below we include an indicative bibliography of texts that approach different surfaces in a variety of ways; please contact us if you have further suggestions.
Two resources specifically addressing surfaces are:
Forsyth, Isla, Lorimer, Hayden, Merriman, Peter and Robinson, James (eds) (2013) 'What are surfaces?', Theme issue of Environment and Planning A, 45(5).
A series of articles on surfaces, coming from a broadly geographical perspective. The introduction includes a discussion of previous theories of surfaces, and articles cover camouflage, quarries, bodily interiors, landscape and logistical integration.
International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) World Congress 2013
5-10 August, Manchester, UK
Panel on Surfaces: Contesting Boundaries Between Materials, Mind and Body
Convened by Cristián Simonetti (Anthropology, University of Aberdeen) and Mike Anusas (Engineering, University of Strathclyde)
Indicative Bibliography
Adamson, Glenn and Victoria Kelley (eds) (2013) Surface Tensions: Surface, Finish and the Meaning of Objects, Manchester: Manchester University Press
A wide-ranging, transhistorical and interdisciplinary collection of sixteen essays.
Adkins, Lisa and Lury, Celia (2009) ‘What is the empirical?’, European Journal of Social Theory, 12(1): 5-20.
The introduction to a special issue, in which Adkins and Lury outline 'the turn to the surface' in sociology.
Ahmed, Sara and Stacey, Jackie (eds) (2001) Thinking Through the Skin London: Routledge.
A collection of thirteen essays which examine corporeal surfaces from predominantly feminist perspectives.
Amato, Joseph A. (2013) Surfaces: A History Berkeley: University of California Press.
As the title of the Introduction suggests, Amato's monograph is an interdisciplinary meditation on the ways in which 'The Surface Is Where The Action Is'.
Andrijasevic, Rutvica and Khalili, Laleh (eds) (2013) 'Water', special issue of Feminist Review, 103.
An interdisciplinary collection of essays on feminist cultural, philosophical and literary perspectives on water.
Benthien, Claudia (2004) Skin: On the Cultural Border Between Self and the World (trans. Thomas Dunlop) Columbia: Columbia University Press.
A key discussion of skin as surface.
Best, Stephen and Marcus, Sharon (2009) 'Surface Reading: An Introduction', Representations, 108: 1-21.
The editors' introduction to a special issue interested in analysing the surfaces of literary texts.
Bolter, Jay David and Gromala, Diane (2005) Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art and the Myth of Transparency Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
A book outlining how interaction design conceives screens as windows (transparent) and mirrors (reflective), which includes discussions on Daniel Rozin's interactive Wooden Mirror (1999).
Cahill, Patricia A. (2009) 'Take five: Renaissance literature and the study of the senses', Literature Compass, 65: 1014-1030.
An article developing sensory scholarship on Renaissance literature, including an analysis of representations of skin.
Cahill, Patricia A. (2012) 'The play of skin in The Changeling', Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies, 3(4): 391–406.
An analysis of the affective sense of touch in William Rowley's The Changeling (1622), focusing on the materiality of human skin.
Chatterjee, Anuradha (ed) (2014) Surface and Deep Histories: Critiques and Practices in Art, Architecture and Design Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.
A collection of essays examining the surface via a design-based approach.
Coleman, Rebecca (2012) Transforming Images: Screens, Affect, Futures London: Routledge.
A study of how screens co-ordinate the ways in which images are affectively experienced, with case studies on interactive mirrors, online dieting plans, makeover television and government health campaigns.
Coleman, Rebecca (2013) 'Sociology and the virtual: interactive mirrors, representational thinking and intensive power', The Sociological Review, 61(1): 1-20.
A journal article that analyses a number of different interactive mirrors, including Daniel Rozin's (1999) Wooden Mirror, Ming-Zher Poh's (2009) Medical Mirror and IDEO's (2001) Prada, Manhattan changing room mirror.
Connor, Steven (2003) The Book of Skin London: Reaktion.
A key discussion of skin as surface.
Friedberg, Anne (1994) Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
An argument that traces how nineteenth century viewing practices anticipate contemporary pleasures provided by cinema, video, shopping malls, and emerging "virtual reality" technologies.
Friedberg, Anne (2006) The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press.
This book examines the window as metaphor, architectural component, and an opening to the dematerialized reality we see on the screen.
Ingold, Tim (2007) Lines: A Brief History London: Routledge.
A book exploring the production and significance of lines such as drawing, writing, paths, trails and maps, including discussion of how lines make and dissolve surfaces.
Ingold, Tim (2010) 'Footprints through the weather-world: walking, breathing, knowing', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 16, Issue Supplement s1: s121-139.
An article reflecting on the surface of the ground, via a focus on walking and weather.
Ingold, Tim (2010) 'The textility of making', Cambridge Journal of Economics, 34: 91-102.
An article on art, technology, form and process, including references to the surfaces of materials.
Jones, Meredith (2008) ‘Media-bodies and screen-births: Cosmetic surgery reality television’, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 22(4): 515–524.
An analysis of the cinematography of cosmetic surgery makeover programmes, including discussions of mirrors and the television screen.
Kavka, Misha (2008) Reality Television, Affect and Intimacy: Reality Matters Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
This book analyses the ways in which the television screen mediates the relationships between content and audiences, focusing on affect and intimacy.
Keenan, Thomas (1993) ‘Windows: of Vulnerability’ in Robins, Bruce (ed) The Phantom Public Sphere London, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press: 121-141.
This chapter makes connections between visual practices, the architectural window and the television screen.
Lury, Celia, Parisi, Luciana and Terranova, Tiziana (eds) (2012) 'The becoming topological of culture', special issue of Theory, Culture and Society, 29(4-5).
A special issue on topology which includes discussions of framing, screens and surfaces.
Manovich, Lev (2002) The Language of New Media Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
An account of the historical development of media, tracing the reliance of new digital media on old media, including a genealogy of the screen and practices involving framing, the interface and the database.
Marks, Laura (2000) The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses Durham and London: Duke University Press.
A multi-sensory account of film, developing the concept of 'haptic visuality', where film functions via touch.
Melchoir-Bonnet, Sabine (2001) The Mirror: A History London: Routledge.
A cultural history of the evolution of the mirror from antiquity to the present day.
Roach, Joseph, It (2007): Ann Arbour, University of Michigan Press.
With chapters on 'accessories', 'clothes', 'hair', 'skin', 'flesh' and 'bone', It considers 'the elusive quality of charm, animal magnetism, or charisma possessed by extraordinarily interesting people through the ages'.
Sobchack, Vivian (1991) The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience Princeton: Princeton University Press.
This book develops a phenomenology of film experience, arguing that film is sensed and sensuous rather than simply an object of vision.
Sobchack, Vivian (2004) Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture Berkley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
Essays on the relationship between bodies and images in contemporary culture, analysing the multi-sensory processes of 'viewing' images.
Wood, Aylish (2007) Digital Encounters, London and New York: Routledge.
This book considers how viewers engage with the diverse interfaces of digital media, and argues that technologies alter human engagement, distributing our attention across a network of images and objects.
