The New Concrete

The New Concrete is a long-overdue survey of the rise of concrete poetry in the digital age. The accessibility of digital text and image manipulation, modern print techniques and the rise of self-publishing have invigorated a movement that first emerged in an explosion of literary creativity during the 1950s and 1960s. This new volume is a highly illustrated overview of contemporary artists and poets working at the intersection of visual art and literature, producing some of the most engaging and challenging work in either medium. Edited by poets Victoria Bean and Chris McCabe, with an introductory essay by renowned poet Kenneth Goldsmith, The New Concrete is an indispensable introduction to the breadth of concrete poetry being produced today. The New Concrete features new works by poets and artists including Vito Acconci, Augusto de Campos, Henri Chopin, Paula Claire, Bob Cobbing, Ian Hamilton Finlay, John Furnival, Ilse Garnier, Pierre Garnier, Eugen Gomringer, Hansjorg Mayer, Franz Mon, Edwin Morgan and Décio Pignatari, as well as new work by Jordan Abel, Fiona Banner, Michael Basinski, Erica Baum, Caroline Bergvall, Derek Beaulieu, Jaap Blonk, Christian Bök, Sean Bonney, Pavel Büchler, Simon Cutts, Alec Finlay, John Giorno, James Hoff, Jenny Holzer, Geof Huth, Leandro Katz, John Kinsella, Anatol Knotek, Christopher Knowles, Richard Kostelanetz, Liliane Lijn, Tony Lopez, Steve McCaffery, Donato Mancini, Stuart Mills, Gustave Morin, Tom Phillips, Jörg Piringer, Colin Sackett, Sue Tompkins, Andrew Topel, Cecil Touchon, Nick Thurston, Barrie Tullett, André Vallias, Nico Vassilakis, Emmanuelle Waecklerlé, Sam Winston and others.

Collins provides a thorough history of the new nineteenth century material and goes on to examine the theories on its architectural expression, focussing on determining role of the reinforced concrete frame. He argues that Perret provides the first rational and effective expression of classical principles in modern construction. Published in 1959 and out of print since 1975, this new edition of Concrete includes a foreword by Kenneth Frampton, a scholarly introduction by Réjean Legault, and several additional essays on Perret by Peter Collins. From the Foreword by Kenneth Frampton: "Concrete remains a valuable historical text that in many respects has never been given its due. It is an unmatched pioneering history of the development of reinforced concrete up to 1914. It records and analyses the densely articulated, if provincial, English debate with respect to the aesthetic challenge posed by the increasing popularity of concrete from around 1870 onwards. Finally, until very recently it was the only readily available monograph on Auguste Perret in English. In this regard it is particularly valuable as a thorough and perceptive assessment of Perret's life and career, one that still stands as a point of departure for all current attempts to situate this seminal architect within the wider trajectory of twentieth-century culture."

Who says words need to be concrete? This collection shapes poems in surprising and delightful ways. Concrete poetry is a perennially popular poetic form because they are fun to look at. But by using the arrangement of the words on the page to convey the meaning of the poem, concrete or shape poems are also easy to write! From the author of the incredibly inventive Lemonade: And Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word comes another clever collection that shows kids how to look at words and poetry in a whole new way.

Imagine what the world would be like without concrete: there'd be no high-rises, no grand irrigation projects, no lettuce from southern climes in the winter, no multi-lane highways crisscrossing continents, a shortage of electricity, more mud in some places, more solitude in others. But because of the fossil fuels and other resources required to make concrete, there also would be less CO2 in the atmosphere and less dramatic climate change. In Concrete: From Ancient Origins to a Problematic Future, Soderstrom tells the story of concrete's glorious past, extravagant present, and uncertain future with careful research, lively anecdotes, and thoughtful reflection. The framework for this exploration is one the Romans--famous for concrete structures that are still strong--would understand: the four elements of Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. "[For] those of us who are thinking about, and educating for, deep cultural change, . . . for those of us that care about what it means to be good, in the deepest sense; to participants in an earth-system that is failing at human hands, in the context of recognizing the repercussions of the Anthropocene." --Laura Sewall, author of Sight and Sensibility: The Ecopsychology of Perception

An interdisciplinary account of the environmental history and changing landscape of New York City. In this innovative account of the urbanization of nature in New York City, Matthew Gandy explores how the raw materials of nature have been reworked to produce a "metropolitan nature" distinct from the forms of nature experienced by early settlers. The book traces five broad developments: the expansion and redefinition of public space, the construction of landscaped highways, the creation of a modern water supply system, the radical environmental politics of the barrio in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the contemporary politics of the environmental justice movement. Drawing on political economy, environmental studies, social theory, cultural theory, and architecture, Gandy shows how New York's environmental history is bound up not only with the upstate landscapes that stretch beyond the city's political boundaries but also with more distant places that reflect the nation's colonial and imperial legacies. Using the shifting meaning of nature under urbanization as a framework, he looks at how modern nature has been produced through interrelated transformations ranging from new water technologies to changing fashions in landscape design. Throughout, he considers the economic and ideological forces that underlie phenomena as diverse as the location of parks and the social stigma of dirty neighborhoods.

In recent years knowledge of concrete and concrete structures has increased, as has its applications. New types of concrete challenged scientists and engineers, and ecological constraints encouraged the implementation of life cycle design of concrete structures, moving the focus more and more to maintenance and uprating of structures. And since bui