Abstracting reality : art, communication, and cognition in the digital age / Mark J.P. Wolf.

Includes bibliographical references.

Acknowledgements -- Preface -- I. The Emergence of Digital Technology -- 1. The Quantization of Everyday Life -- Divide and Conquer -- Time -- Space -- Value -- Information -- Growing Number? Quantization and Thought -- 2. Digital Technology Develops -- Binary Numbering -- Early Digital Inventions -- Into the Computer Age -- II. Art -- 3. The Work of Art in the Digital Age -- Production -- Preservation, Restoration, and Exhibition -- The Return of Aura and Cult Value -- Links Back to the Physical -- Digital Models vs. Physical Models -- The Leveling of Dimensionality -- 4. Cultural Biases Inherent in Digitization -- The Economics of Representation -- Economical Representation -- Text Displays -- Digital Culture -- 5. The Composite Image -- In-camera Compositing -- Optical Compositing -- Digital Compositing -- Limitations and Spatiotemporal Defects -- Theoretical and Narrative Implications -- Hierarchies of Elements -- III. Communication / Media -- 6. Machine Mediation of Social Interaction -- Group Interaction vs. Groups of Interactions -- Layers of Mediation Between Individuals -- Interactivity -- 7. The Metaphor of Cyberspace -- Degrees of Disengagement -- Spatial Structures -- Social Structures -- IV. Perception / Representation / Cognition -- 8. The Digital Environment -- Dis-integration and Reintegration -- Approach and Engulfment -- Abstraction and Invisibility -- 9. Virtual Reality and Other Substitutes -- Reality vs. Virtual Reality -- Virtual Reality Fantasies -- Acceptable Substitutes? -- 10. Indexicality -- Senses and Signals -- A Grain of Truth? -- Subjunctive Documentary -- Spheres of Indexicality -- Epilogue.