Depth Effects: Dimensionality from Camera to Computation

Depth Effects by Brooke Belisle is a groundbreaking book that rewrites the history and theory of media aesthetics through the lens of dimensionality.

This thought-provoking work explores how AI-enabled techniques of computational imaging are connected to spatial strategies of early photography, and how everyday smartphone apps can be analyzed through almost-forgotten media forms.

Belisle draws on the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty to examine depth as both a problem of visual representation and a philosophical paradox, revealing how today's depth effects continue colonialist ambitions toward totalizing ways of seeing.

However, she also shows how artists can use dimensionality to articulate what remains invisible and irreducible.

This book is required reading for anyone interested in understanding the complex relationship between technology, aesthetics, and the human experience.