Contingent Agencies - Hatje Cantz

The cover of the book Contingent Agencies: Inquiring into the Emergence of Atmospheres, edited by Alex Arteaga and Nikolaus Gansterer. The cover features a minimalist design with black text over a hazy, grayscale photograph of a cloudy sky. The publisher, Hatje Cantz, is noted at the bottom. The book is placed vertically on a plain gray background.

A two-page spread in an open book, with a page of black text on the left and an abstract, gestural line drawing in black ink on the right, depicting a chaotic and energetic form.

An open book showing a two-page spread with a collage of photographs against a white background. The images depict people in various artistic and communal activities, both indoors and outdoors. Photos include a person on a laptop outside, a group workshop on a wooden floor, someone jumping on grass, a large group standing in a circle, and hands holding a paper with blue text.

An open book displays a two-page spread of abstract artwork titled Twilight. The illustrations consist of intricate, chaotic black line drawings with circular motifs, radiating lines, and illegible script, accented with sparse washes of red, blue, and yellow.

$An open book displays a two-page art spread. On the left, a grid of six close-up photographs captures iridescent, sparkling light refractions against a dark background. On the right, a colorful and energetic abstract drawing features scribbled lines in blue, orange, yellow, and white on a light brown page.$

An overhead shot of a two-page spread from a book with a minimalist design. The left page features a multi-person discussion format. The right page shows the beginning of an essay by Tim Ingold titled Landscape, Atmosphere, and Weather-World, which discusses ecological anthropology and the concept of atmosphere.

A clean, minimalist two-page spread of a book's table of contents against a soft gray background. The text is arranged in three columns, listing chapter titles, author names, and page numbers. Titles like Notations and Reflections and Landscape, Atmosphere, and Weather-World suggest themes of sensory perception and the environment.

An overhead view of a two-page magazine spread laid open on a gray surface. The pages feature a grid of twenty close-up photographs showing water lapping against submerged concrete steps and mossy brick walls of a canal. The images focus on the patterns of light, ripples, and distorted reflections on the water.

An overhead shot of an open book, displaying a two-page spread with black academic text on white paper. The left page has a single column of text, while the right page has a more complex layout with a main body of text and a narrower column of notes near the spine. Page numbers 72 and 73 are visible at the bottom.

$An open art book on a grey surface. The left page features a word cloud with terms like stormy, whirly, fractioned, and layered on a cream background. The right page displays an abstract drawing with energetic, scribbled lines in charcoal, blue, and yellow, illustrating the words on the left.$

Contingent Agencies

Inquiring Into the Emergence of Atmospheres

€ 44.00

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Edited by: Alex Arteaga, Nikolaus Gansterer , Universität für angewandte Kunst, Wien

April 2025, 440 Pages, 728 Photos

Paperback

226mm x 282mm

ISBN: 978-3-7757-5903-8

HATJE CANTZ VERLAG
Mommsenstr. 27
10629 Berlin
Germany
E-Mail: contact@hatjecantz.de

According to Article 9(7) of the GPSR Regulation, no additional security information is required for books without supplements or special functions.

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Contingent Agencies is an artistic research project initiated by Alex Arteaga and Nikolaus Gansterer. It is dedicated to the dynamic relationship between human and nonhuman forces as conditions for the emergence of atmospheres. The cross-disciplinary investigation utilizes practices of notating, reflecting, showing, and sharing that are employed in different media and within different theoretical contexts such as phenomenology, enactivism, and new materialism. This book, which is supplemented by an extensive online archive, contains numerous research artifacts such as texts, drawings, photo series, diagrams, sound recordings, and video stills and is intended as an invitation to a wider community to participate in this investigation.

Alex Arteaga (*1969, Barcelona) is an artist researcher who combines aesthetic, phenomenological, and enactivist research practices through an inquiry into embodiments, environments, and aesthetic thinking. He is currently pursuing his research at the University of the Arts Helsinki.

Nikolaus Gansterer (*1974, Vienna) is an artist who explores the interrelationships between drawing, thinking and acting in his work. He teaches at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and is internationally active with performances, exhibitions and lectures.