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{{Short description|American author and historian}}
{{linkrot|date=November 2016}}

{{Infobox artist
{{Infobox artist
| bgcolour = #6495ED
| name = Norman M. Klein
| name = Norman M. Klein
| image =
| image =
| birth_name =
| birth_name =
| birth_date =
| birth_date = 1945
| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York
| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York
| death_date =
| death_date =
| death_place =
| death_place =
| nationality = [[United States|American]]
| field = Media Historian, [[Social Critic]], [[Novelist]], [[Educator]]
| field = Media Historian, [[Social Critic]], [[Novelist]], [[Educator]]
| training = [[University of Southern California]]; [[University of Illinois]]; [[University of Minnesota]]; [[Brooklyn College]] Cinema, Professional Writing, and History
| training = [[University of Southern California]]; [[University of Illinois]]; [[University of Minnesota]]; [[Brooklyn College]] Cinema, Professional Writing, and History
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| patrons =
| patrons =
| influenced by =
| influenced by =
| influenced =[[Lev Manovich]]
| awards = Graham Foundation, Art Center Faculty Enrichment Grant, California Council for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation Creative Leave
| awards = Graham Foundation, Art Center Faculty Enrichment Grant, California Council for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation Creative Leave
}}
}}


'''Norman M Klein''' is a Los-Angeles based urban and media historian whose fictional works “interweave fiction with social criticism, reportage and confessional memoire…fiction of a loose and absurdist sort, separated from fact by the blurriest of boundaries.”<ref name="auto">Ben Ehrenreich. “Old Haunts Revisited.”''The Los Angeles Times''. July 2, 2006.</ref> In 2011, [[the Los Angeles Times]] put Klein’s 1997 book ''The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory'' on its “Best L.A. Books” list.<ref>Christopher Reynolds. “The Best L.A. Books? Let’s Make a List (Part 2, nonfiction).”''The Los Angeles Times''. October 4, 2011.</ref>
'''Norman M. Klein''' (born 1945)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.literaturfestival.com/autoren-en/autoren-2005-en/norman-m.-klein|title=Norman M. Klein — internationales literaturfestival berlin|access-date=2021-02-06|archive-date=2021-09-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918065346/https://www.literaturfestival.com/autoren-en/autoren-2005-en/norman-m.-klein|url-status=live}}</ref> is an American urban and media historian, as well as an author of fictional works.<ref name="auto">Ben Ehrenreich. "Old Haunts Revisited."''The Los Angeles Times''. July 2, 2006.</ref> In 2011, the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' put Klein's 1997 book ''The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory'' on its "Best L.A. Books" list.<ref>Christopher Reynolds. "The Best L.A. Books? Let's Make a List (Part 2, nonfiction)."''The Los Angeles Times''. October 4, 2011.</ref>


Since 1974, Klein has been Professor in the School of Critical Studies at [[California Institute of the Arts]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://directory.calarts.edu/directory/norman-klein|title=Norman Klein - Faculty/Staff Directory|website=Directory.calarts.edu}}</ref> where he is on the faculty of both the Master's Program in Aesthetics and Politics and the Center for Integrated Media. As layered systems that resemble certain genres of games and other media narrative formats, Klein's novels primarily offer literary alternatives. Having coined the term “scripted space” in 1998, Klein (with Margo Bistis) coined “''wunder roman''” in 2012 to characterize a particular kind of picaresque novel whose component parts function like a narrative engine.
Since 1974, Klein has been a professor in the School of Critical Studies at the [[California Institute of the Arts]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://directory.calarts.edu/directory/norman-klein|title=Norman Klein - Faculty/Staff Directory|website=Directory.calarts.edu|access-date=2016-07-17|archive-date=2015-09-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910161456/https://directory.calarts.edu/directory/norman-klein|url-status=live}}</ref> where he is on the faculty of both the Master's Program in Aesthetics and Politics and the Center for Integrated Media.


As layered systems that resemble certain genres of games and other media narrative formats, Klein's novels primarily offer literary alternatives. Having coined the term "scripted space" in 1998, Klein (with Margo Bistis) coined "''Wunder roman''" in 2012 to characterize a particular kind of picaresque novel whose parts function as a narrative engine.
"Klein's findings will be useful for the shaping of the rising new narrative and expressive forms, in the same way findings of Griffith, Eisenstein or Melies helped to set what we know today as the film form."-Caitlin Fisher, founder Future Cinema Lab, [[York University]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yorku.ca/caitlin/futurecinemas/?p=1415|title=The difficult birth of transmedia storytelling - Future Cinema|website=Yorku.ca|accessdate=2016-11-23}}</ref>


In 2004, the Beall Center for Art and Technology organized a retrospective of Klein's work.<ref>[http://beallcenter.uci.exhibitions/mapping-unfindable] {{dead link|date=November 2016}}</ref>
In 2004, the Beall Center for Art and Technology organized a retrospective of Klein's work.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mapping the Unfindable {{!}} Beall Center for Art + Technology |url=https://beallcenter.uci.edu/exhibitions/mapping-unfindable |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=beallcenter.uci.edu |archive-date=2023-12-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231201133911/https://beallcenter.uci.edu/exhibitions/mapping-unfindable |url-status=live }}</ref>


==Early life and career==
==Early life and career==
Born in Brooklyn, Klein grew up in an immigrant neighborhood where he regularly heard people tell stories that were partly true and partly not, which informed his view of people's personal histories.<ref>''Interview with Hans-Ulrich Obrist.'' 2015.</ref> In 1966, he earned a B.A. in History at [[Brooklyn College]] and then went on to the [[University of Minnesota]], where he earned an M.A. in French Intellectual History in 1968. Soon after, he moved to Los Angeles, where he began teaching at [[California Institute of the Arts]] before earning his M. F. A. in Cinema and Professional Writing from the [[University of Southern California]].{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}


Klein has been a professor in the School of Critical Studies at California Institute of the Arts for over four decades.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}
Born in Brooklyn, Norman Klein grew up in an immigrant neighborhood where he regularly heard people tell stories that were half-true and half not, which informed his view of people’s personal histories.<ref>''Interview with Hans-Ulrich Obrist.'' 2015.</ref> In 1966, he earned a B.A. in History at [[Brooklyn College]] and then went on to the [[University of Minnesota]], where he earned an M.A. in French Intellectual History in 1968. Soon after, he moved to Los Angeles, where he began teaching at [[California Institute of the Arts]] prior to earning his M. F. A. in Cinema and Professional Writing from the [[University of Southern California]].


==Works (books and multimedia projects)==
==Teaching==
* ''Tales of the Floating Class, Writings 1982-2017: Essays and Fictions on Globalization and Neo-Feudalism''. Los Angeles. Golden Spike Press (2018)<ref>Michael Ned Holte. "Urban Legends: Michael Ned Holte on Norman M. Klein's ''Tales of the Floating Class''". ''Artforum''. May 2019. p 55</ref>
In addition to having taught at Cal Arts for over four decades, Klein has taught adjunct at [[Art Center College of Design]] (1982-2016), [[University of Southern California]] (1994-2000 and 2013), [[Woodbury University]] (2012-2013), [[University of California San Diego]] (1998), [[University of California Los Angeles]] (1999-2000), and [[Southern California Institute of Architecture]] (1997-2008). Since 2014, he has led media workshops at [[The New School]], [[USC Interactive Media Division]], [[University of California Irvine]], [[Karlsruhe University of Art and Design]].
* ''[[The Imaginary 20th Century]]'' co-authored with Margo Bistis- a book (2016) and media narrative (2014)<ref>''The Imaginary 20th Century''. Karlsruhe. KZM Center for Art & Media. 2016.</ref>
Between 1998 and 2014, he led media workshops at universities, art schools, and corporate offices in [[Amsterdam]], [[Baltimore]], [[Berlin]], [[Brussels]], [[London]], [[Mexico City]], [[Milwaukee]], [[Oslo]], [[Palo Alto]], [[Portland, Oregon|Portland]], and [[Vienna]].
* ''Freud in Coney Island and Other Tales'' (2006)<ref>''Freud in Coney Island and Other Tales''. Los Angeles. Otis Books/Seismicity Editions. 2006.</ref>
* ''The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects'' (2004)<ref>''The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects ''. New York. New Press. 2004.</ref>
* ''Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles, 1920-1986'' (novella and DVD) (2003)<ref>''Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles, 1920-1986''. Karlsruhe. Annenberg Center for Communication; Los Angeles. and KZM Center for Art and Media. 2003.</ref> ''Bleeding Through'' won a Special Award for New Media at the 2004 Split Film Festival.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.splitfilmfestival.hr/2004-2/ |title=2004 - SPLIT FILM FESTIVAL - MFNF |website=Splitfilmfestival.hr |date= |accessdate=2016-11-23 |archive-date=2016-11-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161113101317/http://www.splitfilmfestival.hr/2004-2/ |url-status=live }}</ref> One of three nominations for the "Image Award" at transmediale.04, ''Bleeding Through'' won second prize.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mailman.transmediale.in-berlin.de/pipermail/newsletter-transmediale.de/2003/000063.html |title=[transmediale&#93; transmediale.04 award nominations |website=Mailman.transmediale.in-berlin.de |date= |accessdate=2016-11-23 |archive-date=2016-08-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160807052455/http://mailman.transmediale.in-berlin.de/pipermail/newsletter-transmediale.de/2003/000063.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
* ''The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory'' (1997/2008)<ref>''The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory''. London. Verso. 1997. Revised edition 2008</ref>
* ''7 Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon'' (1993)<ref>''7 Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon''. London. Verso. 1993.</ref>
* ''Twentieth-Century Art Theory'' (1990)<ref>''Twentieth-Century Art Theory''. Co-edited with Richard Hertz. Upper Saddle River. Prentice-Hall. 1990.</ref>
* ''Twentieth Century Los Angeles: Power, Promotion, and Social Conflict'' (1990)<ref>''Twentieth Century Los Angeles: Power, Promotion, and Social Conflict ''. Co-edited with Martin Schiesl. New York. Regina. 1990.</ref>


==Museum catalog essays==
==Works (Books and Multi-media Projects)==
Klein has written catalog essays for [[Doug Aitken]],<ref>"A Granular History of Space: Doug Aitken."''Doug Aitken: Electric Earth''. Los Angeles. Museum of Contemporary Art. 2016.</ref> [[Chip Lord]],<ref>"A Revised History of the Screen in Three Stages." ''Chip Lord''. College Park. The University of Maryland. 2015.</ref> "The Whole Earth: California and the Disappearance of the Outside,"<ref>"Whole Earths, 1968-1980." '' The Whole Earth: California and the Disappearance of the Outside ''. Berlin. Haus der Kulturen der Welt. 2013.</ref>
"More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness,"<ref>"The Charm of the Lie." ''More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness''. Minneapolis. Minneapolis Institute of Art. 2012.</ref> "Exchange and Evolution: Worldwide Video Long Beach 1974-1999,"<ref>"The Ironies of Global Video, 1973-2000." ''Exchange and Evolution: Worldwide Video Long Beach 1974-1999''. Long Beach. Long Beach Museum of Art. 2012.</ref> [[Simon Denny (artist)|Simon Denny]],<ref>"Suburban Ruin: Notes on the Dismantling of the American Psyche." ''Cruise Line''. Aachen. Neuer Aachener Kunstverein. 2011</ref> [[Kutluğ Ataman]],<ref>"Paradises." ''Kutluğ Ataman: Paradise''. Newport Harbor. Orange County Museum of Art. 2007.</ref> Karina Nimmerfall,<ref>"Cinematic Photography and the Misremembering of the City." ''Karina Nimmerfall: Cinematic Maps, 2004-2006''. Graz. Camera Austria. 2007.</ref> Rossen Crow,<ref>"Historical Paintings of the Global Present."''Night of the Palomino''. Los Angeles. Honor Fraser Inc. 2007.</ref> Peter Friedl,<ref>"Grounding Play: Imaginary Children in An Era of Global Paranoia." ''Peter Friedl: Theory of Justice 1964-2006''. Barcelona. MACBA. 2006.</ref> [[Christian Jankowski]],<ref>"A Spot in Time: Christian Jankowski's Startling Special Effect." ''Everything Fell Together''. Des Moines. Des Moines Art Center. 2006.</ref> Bjørn Melhus,<ref>"How to Irrigate Your Personality: The Hollowing Out of America." ''Bjørn Melhus: Auto Center Drive''. Stuttgart. Hatje Cantz. 2005.</ref> George Stone,<ref>"Fault Lines: The Machines of George Stone." ''George Stone: Probabilities''. Los Angeles. Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. 2003.</ref> "Las Vegas Aesthetics,"<ref>"Vegaesthetics." ''The Magic Hour: The Convergence of Art and Las Vegas''. Graz. Neue Galerie. 2001.</ref> "Animations,"<ref>"Animations: Painting with a Machine Gun." ''Animations''. Long Island City. MoMA/PS1. 2001.</ref> "Au-Delà du Spectacle,"<ref>"Architainment, The Industrialization of Desire, 1955-2010." ''Au-Delà du Spectacle''. Paris. Centre Pompidou. 2000.</ref> "Reading California,"<ref>"Gold Fevers: Global California and the Social Imaginary." ''Reading California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000''. Los Angeles. Los Angeles County Art Museum. 2000.</ref> [[Martin Kippenberger]],<ref>"Kippenberger's Folies." ''Martin Kippenberger: The Last Stop West''. Stuttgart. Hatje Cantz. 1999.</ref> and [[Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s|Helter Skelter]].<ref>"Consumer-Built City: Sixty Years of Apocalyptic Imagery." ''Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s''. Los Angeles. Museum of Contemporary Art. 1992.</ref>


==Digital media theory==
=== [[The Imaginary 20th Century]] co-authored with Margo Bistis- a book (2016) and narrative media archive (2014)<ref>''The Imaginary 20th Century''. Karlsruhe. KZM Center for Art & Media. 2016.</ref> ===
Klein's most cited publications on digital media include "After the Crash: Imagining New Paradigms for the Study of Collective Memory,"<ref>'' Erasure: The Spectre of Memory''. John Conomos (ed.). London. Libri. 2015.</ref> "Labor, Architecture and the New Feudalism: Urban Space as Experience,"<ref>'' Architecture and the Worker''. Peggy Deamer (ed.). London. Bloomsbury. 2015.</ref> "Spaces Between Traveling Through Bleeds, Apertures, and Wormholes inside the Database Novel,"<ref>'' Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives''. Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin (eds.). Cambridge. MIT Press. 2009.</ref> and "Media as an Instrument of Power."<ref>''Iconoclash''. Bruno Latour (ed.).Cambridge. MIT Press. 2002.</ref>

[[File:The Imaginary 20th Century book cover First Ed. 2016.jpg|thumb|left|[[The Imaginary 20th Century]]. [[Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe]]. 2016]]
''The Imaginary 20th Century'' "not only negotiates the question of where the line should be drawn between fact and memory, but the book doubles as a puzzle. [Its] central sentence reads: 'The future can only be told in reverse'. This aphorism is as paradoxical as it is true. Because after all, it is --among other things --about four visions of the future, but a future that lies in the past; getting reconstructed from the fragments of the archive."-[[Hans Ulrich Obrist]]<ref>Hans Ulrich Obrist. “Review: ''The Imaginary 20th Century''.”''Das Magazin''.Nadja Diedrich (translator)</ref>

"''The Imaginary 20th Century'' is in the very first place a springboard in the history of the combination of print and online storytelling. It brings together some major achievements of what is possible online, and only online, while not being afraid of leaping into the history of the novel in order to revisit the heritage of the picaresque novel."-Jans Baetens<ref>Jans Baetens. “Norman M. Klein & Margo Bistis, ''The Imaginary 20th Century''.” ''Image [&] Narrative''. 17:3 (2016).pp. 117-118.</ref>

=== Freud in Coney Island and Other Tales (2006)<ref>''Freud in Coney Island and Other Tales''. Los Angeles. Otis Books/Seismicity Editions. 2006.</ref> ===

“Sigmund Freud did visit Coney Island in 1909. That much is true, but we know next to nothing about his day at the beach, so Klein takes the opportunity to fill in the blanks. Klein’s conceit is that Freud’s memory of Coney Island came to haunt him. [Freud realized] that the individual unconscious might be ‘colonized’ ‘by a globalized Coney Island, by machines that harvest and industrialize collective desire’, [leaving us] ‘hollowed out’ with nothing but ‘a looming sadness, a void’.” -[[Ben Ehrenreich]]<ref name="auto"/>

=== The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects (2004)<ref>''The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects ''. New York. New Press. 2004.</ref> ===

“''The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects '' is one of the most astounding, exciting, infuriating, murder-making books I have ever read. Klein sees Hollywood and its special-effects artistry as providing an organic connection between the popular culture’s architectural and theatrical forms and a kind of virtual space common today.”- [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]]<ref>David Thomson. “He Reads the Script.”''The Los Angeles Times''. March 21, 2014.</ref>

=== Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles, 1920-1986 (novella and DVD)(2003)<ref>''Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles, 1920-1986''. Karlsruhe. Annenberg Center for Communication; Los Angeles. and KZM Center for Art and Media. 2003.</ref> ===
“Framed as an interactive mystery in which an elderly Angelino Heights resident named Molly may or may not have killed her second husband, Walt, it is more a ‘bildungsroman in which no one learns enough about anything’, a crime fiction in which ‘[t]he journey through the evidence is more exciting than the crime itself’. Part of Klein’s intention is to expose the artifice of storytelling by uncovering the background, what Don DeLillo calls the ‘underhistory’ –the invisible material that readers never see. At the same time, Klein is after something more expansive, a form in which resolution is less important than possibility.”-[[Los Angeles Times]] Books Editor David L. Ulin.<ref name="auto1">David L. Ulin. “Los Angeles: The Parable.”''The Los Angeles Times''. January 18, 2004.</ref>

''Bleeding Through'' won a Special Award for New Media at the 2004 Split Film Festival.<ref>http://www.splitfilmfestival.hr/2004-2/</ref>

One of three nominations for the "Image Award" at transmediale.04, ''Bleeding Through'' won second prize.<ref>http://mailman.transmediale.in-berlin.de/pipermail/newsletter-transmediale.de/2003/000063.html</ref>

=== The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory (1997/2008)<ref>''The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory''. London. Verso. 1997. Revised edition 2008</ref> ===

“Norman M. Klein has made a career out of mining the impressionistic territory of memory from a cultural and an individual point of view.…[H]e sees L.A. as a landscape of amnesia, in which the past is either a burden or nostalgic, depending on how one puts it to use. This is especially true of the city center, where Klein has focused many of his investigations, deconstructing neighborhoods like Bunker Hill or Angelino Heights.”-David L. Ulin.<ref name="auto1"/>

=== 7 Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon (1993)<ref>''7 Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon''. London. Verso. 1993.</ref> ===

"Norman Klein in his remarkable ''7 Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon'' has accomplished
what is by no means a minor miracle...the work is erudite, witty, comprehensive, and just plain fun.-[[Chuck Jones]]

"This book is an important contribution to the history of American popular culture and a gold mine of suggestive insights into the inner workings of the cartoon business.-Karal Ann Marling<ref>Karal Ann Marling.''Journal of American History''.100:1 (March 1995).</ref>

=== Twentieth-Century Art Theory (1990)<ref>''Twentieth-Century Art Theory''. Co-edited with Richard Hertz. Upper Saddle River. Prentice-Hall. 1990.</ref> ===

=== Twentieth Century Los Angeles: Power, Promotion, and Social Conflict (1990)<ref>''Twentieth Century Los Angeles: Power, Promotion, and Social Conflict ''. Co-edited with Martin Schiesl. New York. Regina. 1990.</ref> ===

"Klein's purpose is to dig through the layers of promotional rhetoric laying atop critical Los Angeles themes: weather, transportation, ethnic diversity. His tools are the methodologies of social history and art historical reception aesthetics." -[[William Deverell (historian)|William Deverell]], Huntington-[[University of Southern California|USC]] Institute on California and the West<ref>William Deverell. "Book Review: Twentieth Century Los Angeles: Power, Promotion, and Social Conflict." ''Southern California Quarterly''. 74:1 (Spring 1992). pp. 117-120.</ref>

==Museum Catalog Essays==
Klein has written catalog essays for [[Doug Aitken]],<ref>“A Granular History of Space: Doug Aitken.”''Doug Aitken: Electric Earth''. Los Angeles. Museum of Contemporary Art. 2016.</ref> [[Chip Lord]],<ref>“A Revised History of the Screen in Three Stages.” ''Chip Lord''. College Park. University of Maryland. 2015.</ref> “The Whole Earth: California and the Disappearance of the Outside,”<ref>“Whole Earths, 1968-1980.” '' The Whole Earth: California and the Disappearance of the Outside ''. Berlin. Haus der Kulturen der Welt. 2013.</ref>
“More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness,”<ref>“The Charm of the Lie.” ''More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness''. Minneapolis. Minneapolis Institute of Art. 2012.</ref> “Exchange and Evolution: Worldwide Video Long Beach 1974-1999,”<ref>“The Ironies of Global Video, 1973-2000.” ''Exchange and Evolution: Worldwide Video Long Beach 1974-1999''. Long Beach. Long Beach Museum of Art. 2012.</ref> [[Simon Denny (artist)|Simon Denny]],<ref>“Suburban Ruin: Notes on the Dismantling of the American Psyche.” ''Cruise Line''. Aachen. Neuer Aachener Kunstverein. 2011</ref> [[Kutluğ Ataman]],<ref>“Paradises.” ''Kutluğ Ataman: Paradise''. Newport Harbor. Orange County Museum of Art. 2007.</ref> Karina Nimmerfall,<ref>“Cinematic Photography and the Misremembering of the City.” ''Karina Nimmerfall: Cinematic Maps, 2004-2006''. Graz. Camera Austria. 2007.</ref> Rossen Crow,<ref>"Historical Paintings of the Global Present."''Night of the Palomino''. Los Angeles. Honor Fraser Inc. 2007.</ref> Peter Friedl,<ref>“Grounding Play: Imaginary Children in An Era of Global Paranoia.” ''Peter Friedl:Theory of Justice 1964-2006''. Barcelona. MACBA. 2006.</ref> [[Christian Jankowski]],<ref>“A Spot in Time: Christian Jankowski’s Startling Special Effect.” ''Everything Fell Together''. Des Moines. Des Moines Art Center. 2006.</ref> Bjørn Melhus,<ref>“How to Irrigate Your Personality: The Hollowing Out of America.” ''Bjørn Melhus: Auto Center Drive''. Stuttgart. Hatje Cantz. 2005.</ref> George Stone,<ref>“Fault Lines: The Machines of George Stone.” ''George Stone: Probabilities''. Los Angeles. Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. 2003.</ref> "Las Vegas Aesthetics,"<ref>“Vegaesthetics.” ''The Magic Hour: The Convergene of Art and Las Vegas''. Graz. Neue Galerie. 2001.</ref> "Animations,"<ref>“Animations: Painting with a Machine Gun.” ''Animations''. Long Island City. MoMA/PS1. 2001.</ref> “Au-Delà du Spectacle,”<ref>“Architainment, The Industrialization of Desire, 1955-2010.” ''Au-Delà du Spectacle''. Paris. Centre Pompidou. 2000.</ref> “Reading California,”<ref>“Gold Fevers: Global California and the Social Imaginary.” ''Reading California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000''. Los Angeles. Los Angeles County Art Museum. 2000.</ref> [[Martin Kippenberger]],<ref>“Kippenberger’s Folies.” ''Martin Kippenberger: The Last Stop West''. Stuttgart. Hatje Cantz. 1999.</ref> and [[Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s|Helter Skelter]].<ref>“The Consumer-Built City: Sixty Years of Apocalyptic Imagery.” ''Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s''. Los Angeles. Museum of Contemporary Art. 1992.</ref>

==Digital Media Theory==

Klein's most cited publications on digital media include "After the Crash: Imagining New Paradigms for the Study of Collective Memory,"<ref>''Erasure: The Spectre of Memory''. John Conomos (ed.). London. Libri. 2015.</ref> "Labor, Architecture and the New Feudalism: Urban Space as Experience,"<ref>''Architecture and the Worker''. Peggy Deamer (ed.). London. Bloomsbury. 2015.</ref> "Spaces Between: Traveling Through Bleeds, Apertures, and Wormholes inside the Database Novel,"<ref>''Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives''. Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardip-Fruin (eds.). Cambridge. MIT Press. 2009.</ref>
and "Media as an Instrument of Power."<ref>''Iconoclash''. Bruno Latour (ed.).Cambridge. MIT Press. 2002.</ref>

==Conferences and Key Notes==

Conferences organized around Klein’s work have occurred at Martos Gallery, Culver City, US; Centro College of Art and Design, Mexico City, MX; [[Victoria and Albert Museum]], FACT ([[Liverpool]]), Western Literature Association, [[Wellesley College]], [[Pasadena City College]], [[Goethe Institute]] and [[University of California Los Angeles]] Department of Architecture, [[Stuttgart]]/[[Ludwigsburg]] and [[Art Center College of Design]].

Klein has delivered keynote addresses at conferences organized by ZKM/[[Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe]], [[He Xiangning Art Museum]], [[Coney Island USA|Coney Island Museum]], [[Las Vegas]] Book Festival, Consortium of Southern California Art Schools, [[University of California Irvine]], [[Southern California Institute of Architecture]] and [[Walker Art Center]].


==References==
==References==
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==External links==
==External links==
*<ref>http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/page.php?NumPage=385</ref>
*{{cite web|url=http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/page.php?NumPage=385 |title=Norman M. Klein: Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles |website=Fondation-langlois.org |date= |accessdate=2016-11-23}}
*<ref>http://www.grahamfoundation.org/grantees/3732-the-imaginary-20th-century</ref>
*{{cite web|url=http://www.grahamfoundation.org/grantees/3732-the-imaginary-20th-century |title= Grantees : Norman M. Klein |publisher=Graham Foundation |date= |accessdate=2016-11-23}}
*<ref>http://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/city-of-ruins-how-norman-klein-has-emerged-as-l-a-s-most-innovative-social-critic</ref>
*{{cite news|author=David L. Ulin |url=http://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/city-of-ruins-how-norman-klein-has-emerged-as-l-a-s-most-innovative-social-critic |title=City of Ruins: How Norman Klein Has Emerged As L.A.'s Most Innovative Social Critic - Los Angeles Magazine |newspaper=Lamag - Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles |date=2004-12-01 |accessdate=2016-11-23}}
*<ref>http://entropymag.org/the-imaginary-20th-century/</ref>
*{{cite web|url=http://entropymag.org/the-imaginary-20th-century/ |title=THE IMAGINARY 20TH CENTURY &#124; ENTROPY |website=Entropymag.org |date= |accessdate=2016-11-23}}
*{{cite web|url=https://vimeo.com/9903751 |title=The Long Weekend Installations and Performances organized by Nancy Buchanan &Joseph Santarromana on Vimeo |website=Vimeo.com |date=2010-03-04 |accessdate=2016-11-23}}
*<ref>https://vimeo.com/9903751</ref>
*{{cite web|author= |url=https://vimeo.com/109082263 |title=Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles, 1920-1986 (2002) on Vimeo |website=Vimeo.com |date=2014-10-15 |accessdate=2016-11-23}}
*<ref>https://vimeo.com/109082263</ref>
*{{cite web|author= |url=https://vimeo.com/17008887 |title=A New Stage: Norman Klein on the Future of Scripted Spaces on Vimeo |website=Vimeo.com |date=2010-11-19 |accessdate=2016-11-23}}
*<ref>https://vimeo.com/17008887</ref>
*{{cite web|author= |url=https://vimeo.com/35947317 |title=Collapse: Norman Klein's Lecture on Vimeo |website=Vimeo.com |date=2012-01-31 |accessdate=2016-11-23}}
*<ref>https://vimeo.com/35947317</ref>
*{{cite web|author= |url=https://vimeo.com/61097605 |title=Norman Klein on Vimeo |website=Vimeo.com |date=2013-03-05 |accessdate=2016-11-23}}
*<ref>https://vimeo.com/61097605</ref>

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[[Category:American electronic literature writers]]
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[[Category:University of Minnesota alumni]]
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Latest revision as of 10:39, 8 April 2024

Norman M. Klein
Born1945
Brooklyn, New York
EducationUniversity of Southern California; University of Illinois; University of Minnesota; Brooklyn College Cinema, Professional Writing, and History
Known forMedia Historian, Social Critic, Novelist, Educator
AwardsGraham Foundation, Art Center Faculty Enrichment Grant, California Council for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation Creative Leave

Norman M. Klein (born 1945)[1] is an American urban and media historian, as well as an author of fictional works.[2] In 2011, the Los Angeles Times put Klein's 1997 book The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory on its "Best L.A. Books" list.[3]

Since 1974, Klein has been a professor in the School of Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts,[4] where he is on the faculty of both the Master's Program in Aesthetics and Politics and the Center for Integrated Media.

As layered systems that resemble certain genres of games and other media narrative formats, Klein's novels primarily offer literary alternatives. Having coined the term "scripted space" in 1998, Klein (with Margo Bistis) coined "Wunder roman" in 2012 to characterize a particular kind of picaresque novel whose parts function as a narrative engine.

In 2004, the Beall Center for Art and Technology organized a retrospective of Klein's work.[5]

Early life and career[edit]

Born in Brooklyn, Klein grew up in an immigrant neighborhood where he regularly heard people tell stories that were partly true and partly not, which informed his view of people's personal histories.[6] In 1966, he earned a B.A. in History at Brooklyn College and then went on to the University of Minnesota, where he earned an M.A. in French Intellectual History in 1968. Soon after, he moved to Los Angeles, where he began teaching at California Institute of the Arts before earning his M. F. A. in Cinema and Professional Writing from the University of Southern California.[citation needed]

Klein has been a professor in the School of Critical Studies at California Institute of the Arts for over four decades.[citation needed]

Works (books and multimedia projects)[edit]

  • Tales of the Floating Class, Writings 1982-2017: Essays and Fictions on Globalization and Neo-Feudalism. Los Angeles. Golden Spike Press (2018)[7]
  • The Imaginary 20th Century co-authored with Margo Bistis- a book (2016) and media narrative (2014)[8]
  • Freud in Coney Island and Other Tales (2006)[9]
  • The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects (2004)[10]
  • Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles, 1920-1986 (novella and DVD) (2003)[11] Bleeding Through won a Special Award for New Media at the 2004 Split Film Festival.[12] One of three nominations for the "Image Award" at transmediale.04, Bleeding Through won second prize.[13]
  • The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory (1997/2008)[14]
  • 7 Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon (1993)[15]
  • Twentieth-Century Art Theory (1990)[16]
  • Twentieth Century Los Angeles: Power, Promotion, and Social Conflict (1990)[17]

Museum catalog essays[edit]

Klein has written catalog essays for Doug Aitken,[18] Chip Lord,[19] "The Whole Earth: California and the Disappearance of the Outside,"[20] "More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness,"[21] "Exchange and Evolution: Worldwide Video Long Beach 1974-1999,"[22] Simon Denny,[23] Kutluğ Ataman,[24] Karina Nimmerfall,[25] Rossen Crow,[26] Peter Friedl,[27] Christian Jankowski,[28] Bjørn Melhus,[29] George Stone,[30] "Las Vegas Aesthetics,"[31] "Animations,"[32] "Au-Delà du Spectacle,"[33] "Reading California,"[34] Martin Kippenberger,[35] and Helter Skelter.[36]

Digital media theory[edit]

Klein's most cited publications on digital media include "After the Crash: Imagining New Paradigms for the Study of Collective Memory,"[37] "Labor, Architecture and the New Feudalism: Urban Space as Experience,"[38] "Spaces Between Traveling Through Bleeds, Apertures, and Wormholes inside the Database Novel,"[39] and "Media as an Instrument of Power."[40]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Norman M. Klein — internationales literaturfestival berlin". Archived from the original on 2021-09-18. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
  2. ^ Ben Ehrenreich. "Old Haunts Revisited."The Los Angeles Times. July 2, 2006.
  3. ^ Christopher Reynolds. "The Best L.A. Books? Let's Make a List (Part 2, nonfiction)."The Los Angeles Times. October 4, 2011.
  4. ^ "Norman Klein - Faculty/Staff Directory". Directory.calarts.edu. Archived from the original on 2015-09-10. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  5. ^ "Mapping the Unfindable | Beall Center for Art + Technology". beallcenter.uci.edu. Archived from the original on 2023-12-01. Retrieved 2024-02-22.
  6. ^ Interview with Hans-Ulrich Obrist. 2015.
  7. ^ Michael Ned Holte. "Urban Legends: Michael Ned Holte on Norman M. Klein's Tales of the Floating Class". Artforum. May 2019. p 55
  8. ^ The Imaginary 20th Century. Karlsruhe. KZM Center for Art & Media. 2016.
  9. ^ Freud in Coney Island and Other Tales. Los Angeles. Otis Books/Seismicity Editions. 2006.
  10. ^ The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects . New York. New Press. 2004.
  11. ^ Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles, 1920-1986. Karlsruhe. Annenberg Center for Communication; Los Angeles. and KZM Center for Art and Media. 2003.
  12. ^ "2004 - SPLIT FILM FESTIVAL - MFNF". Splitfilmfestival.hr. Archived from the original on 2016-11-13. Retrieved 2016-11-23.
  13. ^ "[transmediale] transmediale.04 award nominations". Mailman.transmediale.in-berlin.de. Archived from the original on 2016-08-07. Retrieved 2016-11-23.
  14. ^ The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory. London. Verso. 1997. Revised edition 2008
  15. ^ 7 Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon. London. Verso. 1993.
  16. ^ Twentieth-Century Art Theory. Co-edited with Richard Hertz. Upper Saddle River. Prentice-Hall. 1990.
  17. ^ Twentieth Century Los Angeles: Power, Promotion, and Social Conflict . Co-edited with Martin Schiesl. New York. Regina. 1990.
  18. ^ "A Granular History of Space: Doug Aitken."Doug Aitken: Electric Earth. Los Angeles. Museum of Contemporary Art. 2016.
  19. ^ "A Revised History of the Screen in Three Stages." Chip Lord. College Park. The University of Maryland. 2015.
  20. ^ "Whole Earths, 1968-1980." The Whole Earth: California and the Disappearance of the Outside . Berlin. Haus der Kulturen der Welt. 2013.
  21. ^ "The Charm of the Lie." More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness. Minneapolis. Minneapolis Institute of Art. 2012.
  22. ^ "The Ironies of Global Video, 1973-2000." Exchange and Evolution: Worldwide Video Long Beach 1974-1999. Long Beach. Long Beach Museum of Art. 2012.
  23. ^ "Suburban Ruin: Notes on the Dismantling of the American Psyche." Cruise Line. Aachen. Neuer Aachener Kunstverein. 2011
  24. ^ "Paradises." Kutluğ Ataman: Paradise. Newport Harbor. Orange County Museum of Art. 2007.
  25. ^ "Cinematic Photography and the Misremembering of the City." Karina Nimmerfall: Cinematic Maps, 2004-2006. Graz. Camera Austria. 2007.
  26. ^ "Historical Paintings of the Global Present."Night of the Palomino. Los Angeles. Honor Fraser Inc. 2007.
  27. ^ "Grounding Play: Imaginary Children in An Era of Global Paranoia." Peter Friedl: Theory of Justice 1964-2006. Barcelona. MACBA. 2006.
  28. ^ "A Spot in Time: Christian Jankowski's Startling Special Effect." Everything Fell Together. Des Moines. Des Moines Art Center. 2006.
  29. ^ "How to Irrigate Your Personality: The Hollowing Out of America." Bjørn Melhus: Auto Center Drive. Stuttgart. Hatje Cantz. 2005.
  30. ^ "Fault Lines: The Machines of George Stone." George Stone: Probabilities. Los Angeles. Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. 2003.
  31. ^ "Vegaesthetics." The Magic Hour: The Convergence of Art and Las Vegas. Graz. Neue Galerie. 2001.
  32. ^ "Animations: Painting with a Machine Gun." Animations. Long Island City. MoMA/PS1. 2001.
  33. ^ "Architainment, The Industrialization of Desire, 1955-2010." Au-Delà du Spectacle. Paris. Centre Pompidou. 2000.
  34. ^ "Gold Fevers: Global California and the Social Imaginary." Reading California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000. Los Angeles. Los Angeles County Art Museum. 2000.
  35. ^ "Kippenberger's Folies." Martin Kippenberger: The Last Stop West. Stuttgart. Hatje Cantz. 1999.
  36. ^ "Consumer-Built City: Sixty Years of Apocalyptic Imagery." Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s. Los Angeles. Museum of Contemporary Art. 1992.
  37. ^ Erasure: The Spectre of Memory. John Conomos (ed.). London. Libri. 2015.
  38. ^ Architecture and the Worker. Peggy Deamer (ed.). London. Bloomsbury. 2015.
  39. ^ Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives. Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin (eds.). Cambridge. MIT Press. 2009.
  40. ^ Iconoclash. Bruno Latour (ed.).Cambridge. MIT Press. 2002.

External links[edit]

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