At the Cutting Edge. Interfaces Between Figure and Life

Smith, Bruce R., At the Cutting Edge. Interfaces Between Figure and Life, in , Shakespeare cut: rethinking cutwork in an age of distraction, Oxford University Press, Oxford ; New York, NY 2016, pp.

Abstract
The verses that Ben Jonson wrote to accompany the 1623 First Folio give us a cue for understanding cutwork as an interface between “figure” and “life.” Paper, wood, copper, photographic negative, wax cylinder, celluloid film, 1 | 0 electronic signals: each of these physical media presents different opportunities for cutting, requires different tools, and offers different interfaces between “figure” and “life.” Chapter 4 presents a chronological survey of tools and techniques for cutting and of the changing interfaces they facilitate, beginning with pen and ink and proceeding through print, woodcuts, engraving, photography, moving pictures, sound recording, and digital technology. A test case for observing the changing effects is provided by The Merchant of Venice. Emphasis is placed on how the cuts have refigured “life” and presented Shakespeare in new ways. The chapter ends by considering digital technology as only the latest in a four-hundred-year series of cutwork with Shakespeare. Keywords: Ben Jonson, cinema, digital technology, engraving, pen and ink, photography, printing, sound recording, technology, woodcuts

Other data

ISBN: 978-0-19-873552-6
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Language: EN
key: WSXF34X8