Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Wells, Michael

Description

1. 124 pages; 21 cm

Summary

1. A cultural and philosophical history of neon, from Paris in the twentieth century to the perpetually switched-on present day. For most of us, the word neon conjures images of lights, colors, nightlife, and streets. It evokes the poetry of city nights. For Luis de Miranda, neon is a subject of philosophical curiosity. 'Being and Neonness' is a cultural and philosophical history of neon, from early twentieth-century Paris to the electric, perpetually switched-on present day Manhattan. It is an inspired journey through a century of night, deciphering the halos of the past and the reflections of the present to shed light on the future. Invented in Paris in 1912, neon first appeared on a modest but arresting sign outside a small barbershop; the sign lit up number 14, Boulevard Montmartre, attracting so many passersby that the barber's revenues soon doubled. A century later, neon is no longer just a sign; it is a mythic object-a metonymy of contemporary identity and a metaphor for the present, signifying the ubiquity of commerce and the tautology of hypermodernity. But perhaps the noble gas of neon whispers something more, something deeper? In ten short, poetic yet precise chapters, de Miranda explores the neon lights of the twentieth century. He considers, among other historical curiosities, the neon compulsions of the Italian Futurists; the Soviet program of "neonization"; the Nazi's deployment of neon for propaganda purposes; Baudelaire's "halo" and Benjamin's "aura"; neon as a gas and crystallized chaos; neon and power; neon and capitalism-all of this backlit by an original reading of Sartre's 'Being and Nothingness'. This English edition has been thoroughly revised and adapted from the French edition, 'L'etre et le neon'. Transl. by Michael Wells.

Uniform title

1. Être et le néon. English

Alternative title

1. Être et le néon.
2. Being and neonness

Subject

1. Neon lighting
2. History
3. Neon lighting > History
4. Existential phenomenology
5. Light > Symbolic aspects
6. Color (Philosophy)

Genre/Form

1. History.

Contents

1. The letter and the neon -- Augustus Rex -- Sublimism -- The incalculable -- The halo -- The new grail -- The mint and the muses -- Neon in space.

Call number

1. JFD 19-4433

Note

1. Translation of: L'être et le néon, (Max Milo, 2012).

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references.

Language (note)

1. Translated from the French.

Author

1. Miranda, Luis de, 1971- author.

Title

1. Being & neonness / Luis de Miranda ; translated by Michael Wells ; translation and content revised, augmented, and updated for this edition by Luis de Miranda.

Publisher

1. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2019]

Copyright date

1. ©2019

Type of content

1. text

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. volume

Bibliography

1. Includes bibliographical references.

Language

1. Translated from the French.

Added author

1. Wells, Michael, translator.
2. Miranda, Luis de, translator.

LCCN

1. 2018038345

Other standard identifier

1. 40029013217

ISBN

1. 9780262039888 hardcover alkaline paper
2. 0262039885 hardcover alkaline paper

Research call number

1. JFD 19-4433