Spuybroek explores nineteenth-century art critic John Ruskin’s universe and exhorts the reader to view his insights through new, modern eyes, looking past the contemporaneity of a thing to its
inherent, restless vitality which cannot be confined to any particular age: Voil! Gothic is already digital and a picturesque landscape is the “technological wild” of the future. His chapters
lead in many directions and connect to many disciplines. He cites that for Ruskin an artwork was as much an appearance as an act: it is what a thing does, how it leads its life and shares it;
every act is an encounter and therefore an act of sympathy--a core concept in Ruskin’s aesthetics. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
