Books by Michael Betancourt

This book develops a critical and theoretical approach to the semiotics of motion pictures as they are applied to a broader range of constructions than traditional commercial narrative productions.

A NEW KINETIC ART: This book presents a new approach to the conceptual basis of all visual art, and while it is about making movies -- the catch-all for video, film, computer graphics and anything else that may appear to move -- the thrust of this book is a radical redefinition of all visual media, including traditional standards like painting. The framework these notes propose is a way of thinking about visual art that eliminates all former media in favor of a division based on our ability to see movement or change in a work of art. While most movies change and move rapidly, this understanding is equally concerned with the very slow, or apparently immobile. (Revised and Expanded Second Edition.)

Visual Music Instrument Patents Volume One is a collection of primary source documents for visual music instruments, often called "color organs," gleaned from the United States Patent Office. Information about these devices is often only available through the inventor's patent applications, but these applications are not currently available except through the time-consuming process of searching Patent Office databases. This volume is an informational resource for those instruments that are already known and studied (Bishop, Rimington, Wilfred, Fischinger), and includes a number of patents for other instruments that have not been examined as thoroughly (Munsell, Hallock-Greenwalt, others). Volume One also includes a few patents that are related to visual music instruments such as systems of notation for writing visual music and devices for determining "color harmony" through a relationship to musical form.

Artemis A Tragedy of Collage is a fantasy of mythological proportions where the story we see is the fantasy of the title character whose journey causes her to lose sight of reality. Filled with fantastical beasts and evocative imagery, Michael Betancourt's second collage novel is both epic in scale and powerful in impact.

A book of theory and critical writing on art in Miami, Florida, including Charles Recher, Roxy Paine, Jens Diercks, Frederico Uribe, Normal Leibman, Salvador Dali, Guy Richards Smit, Diego Machado, and many more -- plus the city of Miami itself!

A collage novel following in tradition started by surreal artist Max Ernst. It follows the story of two sisters and a mysterious creature called The Nightengale, chronicling their journeys. A fun and fabulous exploration of myth and metaphor.

A NEW KINETIC ART: This book presents a new approach to the conceptual basis of all visual art, and while it is about making movies -- the catch-all for video, film, computer graphics and anything else that may appear to move -- the thrust of this book is a radical redefinition of all visual media, including traditional standards like painting. The framework these notes propose is a way of thinking about visual art that eliminates all former media in favor of a division based on our ability to see movement or change in a work of art. While most movies change and move rapidly, this understanding is equally concerned with the very slow, or apparently immobile.