Arlindo Machado’s book A ilusão especular[AB1] , was the thesis he wrote for the master’s degree in Communication and Semiotics he earned at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo. Published in 1984, it was hugely influential in photography and visual art circles. At the time, the author contributed a column to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, where he wrote about photography, film, and mass communication, becoming one of the leading theorists on photography in Brazil, along with Stefania Brill who wrote for the magazine Íris. The following year Vilém Flusser published Filosofia da Caixa Preta[AB2] , which was reviewed by Machado and Brill. Also in 1985, Machado and Julio Plaza co-curated the exhibition “Arte e tecnologia” at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo under the auspices of the dynamic Walter Zanini, the museum’s director. The event made Machado one of the most respected theorists on the subject in Brazil.
[As complementary reading see the ICAA digital archive for the following texts on art and technology by Walter Zanini: “Primeiros tempos da arte / tecnologia no Brasil” (doc. no. 1111029), and “Vídeo-arte: uma poética aberta” (doc. no. 1110892). Arlindo Machado also wrote extensively on this subject in texts such as “Hipermídia: o labirinto como metáfora” (doc. no. 1111111), “As formas migrantes de Diana Domingues” (doc. no. 1111229), “O mito da alta definição” (doc. no. 1111113), and “Perspectivas do vídeo no Brasil” (doc. no. 1111114)].