The Next Thing

The Next Thing: Art in the Twenty-first Century is a highly visual collection of essays about the future of art and the art of the future. This anthology brings together writings by world-renown theorists, artists, critics, novelists and philosophers, all of them engaged in current discussions about new and emerging artistic trends and sensibilities.
From "post-human" installations, to transgenic experimentations, from tele-presence performance, to nano design, digital-fiction, virtual urbanism or "guerilla art", new tendencies, are redefining both the boundaries of Meaning and what it means to be Human. The essays comprising The Next Thing identify the impact of these new trends and anticipate possible zeitgeists that will define our century.
This anthology counts with contributions by Stelarc, Liliana Porter, Ana Tiscornia, Mieke Bal, Polona Tratnik, Hagi Kenaan, Sue "Johnny" Golding, Pablo Baler, Mark Axelrod, Glenn Harper, Jan Garden Castro, Salima Hashmi, Rashid Rana, Huma Mulji, Ajesha Jatoi, Quddus Mirza, and Naazish Ata-Ullah. Like the artworks here discussed, the book itself is endowed with a transformative power and a subversive understanding of the limits of human identity. The Next Thing challenges perception, defies our imagination and pushes the boundaries of both ethics and aesthetics.
For more information on The Next Thing and Pablo Baler, please visit: http://www.pablobaler.com/.

Pablo Baler is associate professor of Latin-American Literature at California State University, Los Angeles.

Contents
Dedication Introduction Acknowledgments List of Images Chapter 1: Time Comes to Art from the Future by Hagi Kenaan Chapter 2: Manifesto for the Next Art by Polona Tratnik Chapter 3: After the Expanded Field: Sculpture in the 21st Century by Glenn Harper Chapter 4: Kindle, Kindle Burning Bright: Poetics of fiction on the 21st Century by Mark Axelrod Chapter 5: Art/Aesthetics in the next 100 years -A dialogue by Salima Hashmi, Rashid Rana, Huma Mulji, Quddus Mirza, Naazish Ataullah, and Ayesha Jatoi Chapter 6: Affect and the Space We Share: Three Forms of Installation Art (The Futurality of Affect) by Mieke Bal Chapter 7: Futurecast: Merging Subject with Object by Jan Garden Castro Chapter 8: Axonometry of the Future, or Prophecies for the 21st Century by Liliana Porter and Ana Tiscornia Chapter 9: Ana-Materialism and the Pineal Eye (Becoming Mouth-Breast) by Sue Golding Chapter 10: Interrupted Reading: The Aesthetics of Metastasis by Pablo Baler Chapter 11: Aliveness & Affect: Alternate Art & Anatomies by Stelarc Contributors Bios Index