Founded in 2005, Whitehot Magazine has become one of the leading channels for contemporary art criticism. Since its inception, Whitehot has published thousands of reviews covering art from the United States, East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America, with key pieces authored by critical luminaries, including Anthony Haden-Guest, Donald Kuspit, and Phoebe Hoban. The magazine is also uniquely independent in its editorial voice. Unlike other large art world publications, Whitehot is owned and managed by its founding editor rather than by a media holding company.
On the occasion of its upcoming 20th anniversary, founder Noah Becker and contributor Michael Maizels have compiled a critical anthology of the magazine’s writings. The selected articles not only encapsulate the storied history of Whitehot but also provide a significant window into the evolution of art practice and art criticism since the turn of the Millennium.

Specific objectives of the book include the discussion of the historical evolution of CBUM/Hip-Hop, and the development (and retention) of an informed perspective regarding legendary figures, bands, and genres in CBUM. The examination of the historical, social, and economic implications of CBUM that lead to the globalization of Hip-Hop, an understanding of how CBUM is perceived and measured in society, and the student’s ability to describe a range of effects fostered by the evolution of CBUM, all factor highly in this book.

Since the inception of cinema in the late nineteenth century, filmmakers have employed a wide array of precursory aesthetic strategies in the conception and creation of their disparate works. The existence of these traditional antecedents have afforded filmmakers a diverse range of technical and artistic applications towards the construction of their cinematic narratives. Furthermore, the socio-political and cultural contexts in which films are conceived often inform the manner in which particular aesthetic sensibilities are selected and deployed. Unfortunately, many creative artists – and audiences – remain unfamiliar with Aesthetics as a practical discipline and how it might apply to their own creative and/or interpretive pursuits.

‘Aesthetics and the Cinematic Narrative’ provides a concise historical survey of Aesthetics as a philosophical discipline and applies several of its underlying principles to the examination of filmic storytelling. The book’s four chapters codify working definitions of the relevant terms and concepts, employing specific case studies to illustrate how certain aesthetic stratagems govern a film’s structural design and execution. By drawing connections between the technical/creative decisions filmmakers must make and more time-honoured traditions regarding the nature of art, the structures of storytelling and the import of visual imagery, ‘Aesthetics and the Cinematic Narrative’ helps recontextualize film within a wider sphere of artistic/intellectual endeavour. The book is a useful and much-needed addition to the pre-existing canon for students of visual storytelling and for general readers.

The long-awaited convergence of climate, economic, political, intellectual, faith and social failures gives many reasons for despair. The authors of this volume have spent their lives around the trauma of race and poverty in South Africa and the United States working with Nobel prize winners and those in townships and tenements. We have learned that hope is not delusional and accountability not naïve. But one must think clearly and deeply, untethered from the inadequate simplicities and false choices. We must be here now, with eyes wide open for when systems break down, as so many are today, knowing that they also break open new space for creative action.
The authors lead the global web of thinker-doers through the Leading Causes of Life Initiative and national networks in Africa, Europe and the United States. They find coherence among profound thinking from fields never brought into alignment before drawn from by economists, mycelial researchers, anthropologists and health sciences working in the Artic to South Africa, and the tough neighbourhoods in between. This includes a consideration of the human capacities that allow us to act in and transform the world we inhabit, of the radical nature of joy in the face of despair, of the judgement of Nemesis on hubris and privilege, of the ‘value of everything’ contra price as definitive, of the idea of involution as distinguished from evolution, of the concept of ‘meshworks’ in our entanglement with others, and, finally, of the ‘theatre of the soul’ as the unity of the physical, the psychological, the political and the spiritual.
Sharply sensitive to the urgency of careful thought and wise action, the authors help us see that life does find a way towards deep accountability for the life of complex human ecosystems. They ask us to take responsibility for this as a key to human flourishing and well-being.

This book explores the interdisciplinary pathways that leading environmental psychologists have taken to become educators, researchers, consultants, and professionals in this highly applied and growing field. Environmental psychology examines the transactions between people and the built and natural settings in which they inhabit. Despite this broad scope, few direct avenues to careers in environmental psychology exist, and students must forge varied and individualized routes to becoming scholars and practitioners in this important area of study.
The aim of the book is to serve as an inspiring supplemental resource for students who wish to know more about how leading thinkers established themselves as environmental psychologists. In each chapter, the author describes their inspirations, decisions about undergraduate and graduate courses, particular schools, and professional connections that have made a difference to their careers in environmental psychology. Many undergraduate students are disappointed with the lack of a clear path to becoming an environmental psychologist. A strong need exists for a resource like this book for students (and for others who may be looking to add to their careers) to understand how to gain experience and credentials in the field in different ways. Readers may also be bolstered in their attitude about choosing a niche field like environmental psychology and decide to stick with it if they read the success stories published in this book by leading thinkers who have taken varied and atypical approaches to becoming a professional environmental psychologist.
The book’s chapters are organized in a manner that shows readers how one may come from many different backgrounds and integrate environmental psychology into their education or professional realm. Part I contains chapters in which authors write about how they approached environmental psychology from architecture, urban planning, and geography, while Part II includes chapters from authors who found environmental psychology via cognitive psychology, clinical practice, and neuroscience. Part III has chapters from authors writing from the health sciences and social ecology, while Part IV contains chapters by authors inspired to become environmental psychologists through a general appreciation of nature and eco-conscious living in a variety of settings. Those who find a way to make environmental psychology part of their career are often very passionate individuals who are keen to describe their pathway to doing what they love with the hope that others will follow. This book is likely to advance that outcome

Emerging from the fields of ecological restoration and economics, this interdisciplinary book delivers a clear path to restoring our economies in a way that speaks well to industry groups and business owners, students and the general public, and to policy makers. There are proven relationships between ecology and economics. Giordanengo employs those relationships in an intriguing way and integrates them with global case studies to argue that redesigning economic systems according to ecological principles is necessary to balancing critical social, environmental, and economic goals. For example, he reveals how more obscure ecological principles and theories—succession, evolution, diversity-productivity curves, and so on—can inform the restructuring of economic systems that are resilient, productive, and regenerative.

A variety of students and practitioners have read the first edition, or attended John’s seminars, only to remark “Why haven’t we learned this in our traditional coursework?” or “This book brings so much clarity to the fields of sustainability and environmental sciences.”

Traditional approaches to sustainability focus on the social, environmental, and economic pillars of an economy, while paying little attention to the foundation those pillars rest upon. A comprehensive focus on our economy’s foundational components has been ignored for good reason; we have lacked an understanding of what they are or how they interact with one another. Cross-cutting research between ecological and economic systems reveals three foundational components (i.e., drivers) common to both systems. The effective management of these components is perhaps the most important obstacle to resolving current tensions between society, nature and the global market economy.

The scale at which diversity, energy and trade must be managed is also justified by self-regulating ecosystems such as jungles, prairies, and pine forests. That scale is not global, nor is it hyper local. The economic and ecological rationale agree that the scale of a sustainable economy—the natural geography of humans— is regional. To the contrary, the attempt to manage our economy at a global scale has given rise to chronic social, environmental, and economic symptoms across earth. In highly developed countries such as the United States, these symptoms include flat real wages and productivity growth, a growing wealth gap, degraded environmental conditions, rising social unrest, and more.

The closing chapters outline a natural path for restoring our economies, illuminated by humanities shared experience in ecological restoration. The process of ecosystem recovery following disturbance (i.e., succession) is one such pathway. Unwittingly, developed nations such as the United States mange succession to concentrate wealth into fewer hands, while lowering the economy’s productive capacity, net productivity, and resistance to future disturbances. Economic policies can also move the succession dial toward the productive and diverse center, where wealth and resources are recirculated quickly, new business opportunities are created, and resilience and resistance are fortified—a stout shield in the face of global economic turmoil.

For policymakers, consumers, and industry groups, this book explores root causes of the challenges you face, so that you may take deep correct actions to yield lasting change.

Giordanengo provides critique, but goes further, with clear steps that individuals, businesses, communities, and policymakers can take to start restoring our economies now. From agricultural restoration to regional manufacturing and energy systems, he outlines practical strategies and policy mechanisms for building regenerative economies. Students will find not just theoretical and systems knowledge, but applied economics, ecology, and conservation centered around actionable pathways.

Economic restoration is not only possible—it is our humanitarian duty.