Discussions in Contemporary Culture

Since 1992, Dia has presented the Robert Lehman Lectures on Contemporary Art. The lectures series, an example of Dia's longstanding commitment to critical and intellectual discourse, was founded with a generous grant from the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc., and has showcased a distinguished array of scholars, critics, art and cultural historians, and artists.

Stars Don't Stand Still in the Sky: Music & Myth (Discussions in Contemporary Culture #12)
Edited by Karen Kelly and Evelyn McDonnell, this is the first multidisciplinary book to discuss both popular music and the process by which it has been mythologized by its audience, its chroniclers, and its analysts. It gathers together musicians, music critics, and scholars in the discussion of the mythology of one of our most popular, enduring, and universal cultural forms.
out of print
Karen Kelly, Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation
softcover
287 pages
1999

Constructing Masculinity (Discussions in Contemporary Culture #11)
Constructing Masculinities is organized into five discursive areas addressed by leading academics, social and applied scientists, legal scholars, poets, activists and cultural critics.
out of print
Berger, Wallis, etc.
Dia Art Foundation
softcover
342 pages
1995

Visual Display: Culture Beyond Appearances (Discussions in Contemporary Culture #10)
Edited by Lynne Cooke and Peter Wollen. This richly illustrated anthology presents essays by scholars, historians, cultural critics, and curators, who examine a broad range of subjects, such as sci-fi filmmaking, modern medical imaging, tourist art, politico-economic charting, eighteenth-century cabinets of curiosity, and museology, but they share a focus on cultural presentation as historical testimony. Includes essays by Stephen Bann, Scott Bukatman, Lisa Cartwright, Ludmilla Jordanova, Susan Buck-Morss, Ralph Rugoff, Susan Stewart, and others.
out of print
Cooke & Wollen (Editors)
Dia Art Foundation
Softcover
352 pages
1995

Culture on the Brink: Ideologies of Technology (Discussions in Contemporary Culture #9)
Not a handbook for technologists, this is an engaging examination of some of the most critical questions facing society's infrastructure and soul. These compelling essays by cultural critics, scientists, and artists reinforce how the effects of technoculture must be contended with if we are to understand and actively participate in the sweeping changes our society faces today. The issues covered, among them technology and the new world order, information, artificiality and science, and politics of the body and identity, are each directly relevant to the experience of modern culture.
out of print
Cooke, Kelly & Funcke
Dia Art Foundation
softcover
222 pages
2005

Black Popular Culture: A Project by Michele Wallace (Discussions in Contemporary Culture #8)
The eighth volume in the award-winning Discussions in Contemporary Culture series, Black Popular Culture examines the roles of artist and audience, producer and critic, and the synergistic relationship between black cultural expressions and their political, economic, and social contexts. An extraordinary array of critics, scholars, and cultural producers explore the multiple meanings of the cultural term "black" and, in so doing, propose an inclusive arena of expression and political possibility within the context of black popular culture.
out of print
Dent (Editor), Gina
Dia Art Foundation
softcover
illustrated
374 pages
1992

Critical Fictions: The Politics of Imaginative Writing (Discussions in Contemporary Culture #7)
This collection of forty-one stories and essays by writers from around the world reflects the politics of imagination by grappling with dilemmas of cultural identity, sexual politics, and systems of oppression.
out of print
Mariani, Philomena (Editor)
Dia Art Foundation
softcover
304 pages
1991

If You Lived Here . . . The City in Art, Theory, and Social Activism: A Project by Martha Rosler (Discussions in Contemporary Culture #6)
Edited by Brian Wallis. This book documents the present crisis in American urban housing politics and portrays how artists within neghborhood organizations have fought against shortsighted housing politics and real-estate speculation. Essays by Marshall Berman, Rosalyn Deutsche, Kai Erikson, Theresa Funiciello, Alexander Kluge, Peter Marcuse, and others.
out of print
Wallis (Editor), Brian
Dia Art Foundation
softcover
312 pages
1991

Democracy: A Project by Group Material (Discussions in Contemporary Culture #5)
Edited by Brian Wallis. Essays by Noam Chomsky, David Deitcher, Lisa Duggen, Stuart Ewen, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and others. This project by Group Material discusses the notion of democracy within the fields of cultural participation, politics and election, education, and AIDS.
out of print
Wallis (Editor), Brian
Dia Art Foundation
softcover
334 pages
1990

Remaking History (Discussions in Contemporary Culture #4)
Edited by Barbara Kruger and Phiomena Mariani. This book couments a series of lectures held at Dia, including several commisioned essays, all of which treat from various perspectives alternatives to the received standard of official hitories of different cultures, eras, and ideas. Essays by Edward W. Said, Paula A. Treichler, Cornel West, Michele Wallace, Homi K. Bhabha, and others.
out of print
Kruger & Mariani (Editors)
Dia Art Foundation
Softcover
308 pages
1989

The Work of Andy Warhol (Discussions in Contemporary Culture #3)
Edited by Gary Garrels. Documenting presentations of a symposium held at Dia on the work of Andy Warhol, these essays focus on the engagement of his personality and life with his artwork. Essays by Charles Stuckey, Nan Rosenthal, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Rainer Crone, Trevor Fairbrother, and Simon Watney.
out of print
Garrels (Editor), Gary
Dia Art Foundation
softcover
208 pages
1989

Vision and Visuality (Discussions in Contemporary Culture #2)
Edited by Hal Foster. Copublished by the New Press. Documenting a symposium held at Dia, these essays reflect various characteristics of different models of seeing that evolve historically, including the recent reaction to models specifically associated with the principles of modernism. Essays by Martin Jay, Jonathan Crary, Rosalind Krauss, Norman Bryson, and Jacqeline Rose.
out of print
Foster (Editor), Hal
Dia Art Foundation
softcover
136 pages
1988

Discussions in Contemporary Culture #1
Edited by Hal foster. Documenting a symposium held at Dia, these essays reflect on the cultural public sphere, the genealogies of art and theory, and the politics of representation. Essays by Thomas Crow, Douglas Crimp, Michael Fried, Dan Graham, James Clifford, Trinh T. Minh-ha, and others.
out of print
Foster (Editor), Hal
Dia Art Foundation
softcover
176 pages
1987