[Commlist] New Book: Viral Behaviors. Viruses and viral phenomena across science, technology, and the arts

New Book:

Viral Behaviors. Viruses and viral phenomena across science, technology, 
and the arts
by Roberta Buiani
Bloomsbury Visual arts


Synopsis
Can science and technology tame the elusive nature and behavior of 
viruses? In this new era requiring novel ways to improve the 
comprehension of viruses and viral phenomena, Viral Behaviors asks 
whether embracing the complexity of viruses, rather than obsessively 
measuring, dissect ing, or precisely mapping their par ts and 
manifestations, can provide new methodological direct ions in the 
intersect ion of scientific thinking and artistic practice. Across a 
rich variety of case studies stemming from different areas of interest— 
covering literature, the graphic ar ts and scient ificvisualizat ion, as 
well as per formance, installat ion and bioar t—this book explores 
intense entanglements between culture and the viral through collaborat 
ive models. Combining perspect ives from art, philosophy, science and 
technology, it places biological and informational viruses alongside 
each other, revealing that , while the two types of agents af fect the 
world in very different ways, their histories and manifestat ions 
contain surprising similarities that speak to a cultural continuum.
Identifying numerous at tempts by artists, scientists and professionals 
to tackle, represent and appropriate viruses, the book brings a nuanced 
and sophisticated understanding of these substances and their related 
phenomena, and reveals the contribution of non-measurable or 
non-traditional practices in their construction and dissemination.

"An insightful, thoughtful, and complex engagement with the relations 
among people
and the entangled assemblages of contagious phenomena we call 
‘viruses’—charting
vital points of attachment from art, to science, to theory.”
Alexis Shotwell , Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, 
Carleton University, Canada

“Tracing viruses and virality through science, technology, medicine, and 
metaphor,
this book draws on the powerful illuminations of art to consider how 
viruses can
help us move beyond our dichotomies and productively contemplate the way we
individually and collectively choose to live in the world.”
Priscilla Wald, R. Florence Brinkley Distinguished Professor of English, 
Duke University, USA

https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/viral-behaviors-9781350419421/

ROBERTA BUIANI is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the NewONE, an 
interdisciplinary program at New College, University of Toronto, and 
Artistic Director of the ArtSci Salon at the Fields Institute for 
Research in Mathematical Sciences, Toronto, Canada.


Table of Contents
List of Illustrations

1. Introduction
2. Virological Ambiguities
3. Navigating the Unfamiliar: strategies of coping
4. Imagining Viruses
5. From a Distance
6. Situated Epidemiologies
7. Affective Epidemiologies
8. Breaking the Binaries, Embracing the Viral
9. Towards new viral methodologies

Bibliography
Index

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