Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Icons Recast as Emblematic Human Archetypes
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2024
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Jonathan Reeve Price's "Icons" takes a fascinating deep dive into the familiar symbols that populate our digital interfaces. With an insightful blend of personal reflection, cultural analysis, and poetic interpretation, Price examines the metaphorical underpinnings and deeper representational meanings imbued within these seemingly simple graphical elements.
Rather than mere instructional pictograms, Price reveals how icons carry embedded historical, psychological, and philosophical resonances - whether evoking ancient religious symbolism, giving visual form to existential queries, or hinting at the paradoxes of human behavior.
His accessible yet exploratory meditations transform the mundane computer icon into a prism reflecting the richness of human experience and our enduring desire to understand our place in the world.
"Icons" elevates user interface design from the purely functional into a symbolic art form worthy of contextual interpretation. Price's metaphorical excavations encourage us to look anew at the digital hieroglyphs we take for granted.
- John V. Wylie, MD
5.0 out of 5 stars I don't know anything quite like it.
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2024
This little gem brings together the savvy of a tech-maven with the imagination of. a poet, producing a small book dense with observation about those little things we take for granted on our screens: the icons. For those in the computer world, Price's sly comments on each icon will tease their minds, and for artists, visual and the literary, the poems will be seen to interact with the images in original and surprising ways. We all know someone who would find this book illuminating.
-Peter Pitzele
Readers' Favorite
Five Stars.
Icons is a collection of poetic works in the technology, philosophy, and cultural writing genres. Penned by author Jonathan Reeve Price, this interesting book presents a multidisciplinary exploration of computer icons, combining essays, imagery, and poetry. Price delves into the cultural, historical, and functional significance of one hundred different icons, revealing their deeper meanings and symbolic power. He blends personal reflection with cultural analysis, showing how these everyday digital symbols evoke ancient technology, memes, and mysteries, and how they serve as functional buttons within our systems. The book elevates the mundane icons we encounter daily into a form of symbolic art, encouraging readers to reconsider the rich implications behind these seemingly simple images.
Author Jonathan Reeve Price takes an unusual and highly original viewpoint to deliver a captivating journey through the often-overlooked world of computer icons. The book's exploration revealed that these small symbols are so much more than we give them credit for, becoming indicators of culture, history, and the modern codes we live by. As simple and effective artworks, each with its own title, the icons come loaded with implications and attitudes that Price deftly unpacks in wonderful lyricism and bright, enthusiastic, exploratory text. His background as a conceptual artist and concrete poet shines through, blending technical expertise with poetic imagination. This fusion makes each page a revelation, transforming everyday icons into rich symbols of human experience and cultural evolution. A few of my personal favorites included the hark-back to classical art in 'Palette', the meta-exploration of capturing imagery itself in 'Lens Blur', and the highly amusing, energetic feel of 'Gesture'. Overall, Icons is a must-read for anyone interested in poetry and the cultural impact of technology on our world, and I enjoyed it immensely.
--K.C. Finn, Reviewed on 06/02/2024
Paperbound Edition
126 pages
Publication: March 15, 2024
ISBN-10: 0-9719954-8-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-9719954-8-2
Dimensions: 8 x 8 inches
Price: $9.95
Amazon page: https://amzn.to/3Vgk9oj
Hardcover Edition
126 pages
ISBN-13 : 979-8990368293
Item Weight : 8.6 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 0.48 x 9 inches
$14.95
Amazon Page : https://amzn.to/44Yd6Uu
Kindle Edition:
$5.95
File size : 4426 KB
ASIN : B0CY95QNH2
Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Not Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
https://amzn.to/3VhSEtB