e-tivity 06 – Identity – Performativity and Daily Life

Revisitng my notes from the presentation given by Iceberg on the subject of Identity we raised the issue of how art can be used to disrupt people’s routines so that they think about the everyday differently, using art as a strategy to defamiliarise the mundane, the automatic response to daily stimuli . Thus inviting an audience to consider the extraordinary in the ordinary, to celebrate life and its wonders and realign themselves with what’s truly important about life. Often it is the great events in a life like birth, marriage, divorce, illness and death that cracks our everyday existence and is a potential catalyst for transformation, forcing us to re-evaluate our lives. I know for myself that when I am able to see things differently, I feel expanded, uplifted and empowered to live my values. Being creative through making art, dancing, making music, playing with friends, being part of rituals, witnessing other’s creativitiy are potential pattern interrupts for me. Experiencing the powerful forces of nature and tasting the daily labours and attitudes of societies that are different and less resourced than my own, interrupts my habitual view of the world that I inhabit. It is an amazing wonder that I have this medium called electricity that is conducted into my home so that I can use this computer. It is an absolute gift that I can eat delcious, healthy food without having to labour to plant, tender and harvest it.

So we examined the work of artists like Cindy Sherman who has played with her physical appearance to simulate various iconic images of women from the 50’s and 60’s and the use of dolls, puppets and sculpture to show woman as sex object and hag. Indeed artists like Orlan go one step further to use her own body and the procedures of plastic surgery to make “carnal art”, transforming her face with the aim of attaining unconventional beauty and questioning the role of the body in society and how we identify with our own bodies. More culturally familiar figures that are chameleons are music artists like Madonna and Kylie Monogue, who are constantly reinventing themselves and could be said to be nourishing the media’s lust for the surface and superficial of life, the ‘appearance’. In the past, artists such as Mary Cassatt unusually depicted the everyday world of 19th century women, mothers and children in intimate domestic portraits free from sentmentality and idealisation. Today, artists like Tracey Emin uses all aspects of her life in her work, suggesting intimate autobiographical accounts can be turned into broader statements about everyday life that have value in society.

Theodor Adorno argues that Capitalism and its emphasis on growth and consumption produces a culture where its members are both politically passified and satisfied and I would say, hypnotised into identifying with and justifying the meaning of life through the creation of false needs and its concurrent obsession with commodities (commodity fetishes) As Grayson Perry puts it ‘we are what we buy’ – the focus is on product rather than process. when surely the quality of our lives is about the excitement, gratitude and joy we feel in our daily lives – giving meaning to our daily work and how it shapes our being rather than the having that results from it. So how can we establish a healthy identity in society as we seek to fulfill our roles as siblings, parents, sons and daughters, friends, colleagues, neighbours, business owners, voters…?

Purpose: In the process of further exploring this topic I came across Theory.org.uk – an on-line resource created by our very own professor of media and communications here at westminster university, David Gauntlett. I invite you to study the site, the structure and the content with the aim of thinking about individual testimony and intimate experience ‘v’ the forces of society, history and memory.

Task: Select one of his Theory Trading Cards (official or unofficial) and further explore and present information on this topic in relation to identity, performativity and daily life. I would also like you to describe either a personal experience of performativity in relation to your art practise or briefly refer to an artist’s work you have seen in situ that resonates with this topic for you. Please enclose an image in your e-tivity and I hope you find it useful.
Respond: Come back to the tiip’s blog, read your classmates posts and leave a comment with your feedback.

Timeline:

Task: Friday, February 23rd
Respond: Tuesday, february 26th

Filed under: e-tivities, e-tivity06-0708, esther, tiip

Postcolonial Studies – e-tivity 05

The site created at Emory University for its students in postcolonial literature and theory is extensive. It is a great way to gather seeds of inspiration about this and related topics. The design though is very basic and quite old fashioned in web terms, however the sprinkling of images does help to break the text up and give more space to the theme. This is a site that has grown over the last 11 years with the vision of not merely being a resource for students at Emory but to aid the investigation of the theme for anyone interested. It clearly includes reference sources and likewise establishes strong boundaries about the use of content of its own pages. Personally, I am not keen on being given a Warning! and the amount of information elements to include in a reference (if given) seem over the top, especially with regard to date of access, network and length, but then I am a reference virgin. I do understand that it’s important to credit peoples’ ideas and writing so that students can delve deeper and follow a credible and progressive avenue of thought.

I think the grouping of authors/critics/terms and issues/journals is a good structure but I get a bit bored with the list approach. Especially for Issues perhaps there is a way to present the links in a mindmap formation which would give us a bit more information about the timings and connections of various subtopics. The biographies of the authors and critics were sufficient but not necessarily very inspiring. I personally think it always adds power to quote actual text to illustrate various ideas from the authors and critics referred to. I also feel that a consistent approach is important ie. to illustrate major works and themes for all persons mentioned – at times there were major disparities in the length and quality of information presented. Having said that the referencing and links was generally of a very high quality and would serve any potential postcolonial investigation.

I welcome this genre of collaborative writing that seems to have been catalysed by academia. As tutors have sought to create a shared resource for their students they have realised that the collating and sharing of that information can be beneficial to many others in their pursuit of knowledge. With the introduction of internet technology and blogging, in effect we are able to present one another and often total strangers with our ideas (?) about other people’s ideas and our own research and experience. This new platform of self expression then enables discourse and discussion. I personally welcome any medium that supports and encourages us to write both spontaneously and methodically about ideas and values we are being asked to examine or hold in the world. Writing is a great skill and I suspect the more we do it and relax and enjoy the process, the more fluid and eloquent it can become.

Certainly as an artist it appears that to compete in the ‘art world’ on any real level, it is imperative that one find one’s voice outside the art. These days it is an integral process in making and exhibiting art, to be able to articulate your ideas about it, framing and contextualising them. Artists have to be sophisticated beings groomed to appear on a world stage, touched by the scent of celebrity. Art has also had to compete for resources nationally and through business sponsorship or patronage. From my limited knowledge it appears that whilst the whole debate about what art actually is or could be, has opened up dramatically over the past half century, it has become an ever competitive, dynamic and potentially lucrative market. There is more at stake – greater press coverage, celeb status, more prestigious art prizes, sophisticated and entrepreunarial collectors and dealers to contend with. The pressure to appear professional and authoratitive, indeed ‘a specialist’ is ever present in a bid to stand out and be noticed.

In addition in this age of postmodernism where art is seen not to be original, instead a simulacram, a copy, a representation or combination of existent elements, it becomes a higher priority to explain the work, piercing its surface and apparent superficiality. So the practice of writing and articulating ideas becomes ever more important. The gleaning of the writing talents of others through internet sites and blogs, through e-publishing and forums as well as more traditional media acting as potential catalysts, references and authorities for our own ideas, perception and interpretation of so called ‘reality’. I am really appreciative of this vision of sharing, cooperation and potential collaboration. I also like the more open academic approach to licensing as seen on www.creativecommons.org whereby you can choose to waive some of your rights over the authorship or creation of work. It could be construed that such licensing which can give people permission to use work for academic or commercial activity promotes creativity and success breeds success philosophy. Yet I do have reservations about l businesses such as photographic, design and advertising agencies using work for commercial projects without due recompense.
We live in a world where science and technology are extremely dominant and sophisticated elements of our everyday lives. As our lives grow in complexity and the business of science competes with the arts for resources, it appears that art whether it chooses to reflect the state of culture in the present day or not, must at least contribute a coherent, analytical debate.

Blessings esther

Filed under: e-tivity 05, esther, tiip

Simulation and Simulacrum

I think this blog introduced by W.J.T. Mitchell on the course he instructs in Theories of Media at the University of Chicago, is excellent. The process of study is being structured and revealed in an engaging way for not only his media students but for all those who happily stumble across it on the web. The design of the pages are clear, consistent and interesting, framed and headed by the simple movement of relevant moving type creating a nice visual touch. The contributions by students are extremely erudite and impressive and there is a real sense of confidence and authority to their writing. Likewise I love their referencing system which is very useful and mirrors the nature of Wikipedia, the largest open content, free encyclopedia launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. The bibliography on the side bar named as ‘works cited’ is also a very significant element  for academic and professional purposes and even the ‘keywords cross references is a nice little flourish

The philosophy of offering content that can be extremely useful for academic, personal and business research for free is a very powerful one, alluding to the ethos of cooperation rather than dog eat dog competition. It encourages us all to embrace the spirit of win/win rather than win/lose and I personally echo that sentiment. Not only that but the idea of giving something of value away for free is a major component in the psychology of Influence.  Researched and addressed in Influence – The Psychology of  Persuasion by Robert  B. Caldini, this principle of reciprocation states that ‘we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.’ He refers to sociologists such as Alvin Gouldner who reports that there is no human society on this planet that doesn’t abide by this rule or principle.

Lest I digress I shall address the content of the keywords glossary, in particular my response to the definitions given to the words simulacra and simulation. In the first extract (1) Simulation defined variously as a process and technique of imitation or imitative behaviour with an intent to deceive. While simulacrum is described as a static entity which is a mere surface representation of the original with no actual possession of substance or proper quality of that original entity.  The article refers to the historical notion of these concepts and cites Plato’s analyis and criticism in The Republic using the example of the creation of a statue to typify and represent a likeness of its human subject. Camille writes of Plato’s concern that this reproduced  image is a deviation and perversion, a false likeness.

Likewise Jean Baudrillard was apprehensive and believed that the activity of simulation not only created a false reality but was at once even more devious because it destroyed the original by replacing it. He was deeply disturbed by the potential artifice and superficiality of the process of simulation and its resulting product or simulacrum, as if the very substance or truth of reality was removed. He appeared to be concerned  that with the production of an ever more simulated reality with the advent of technologies such as photography, tv and film, the people of a society would lose  a sense of reality and instead be wrapped and held rapt by the surface and superficial in life, mesmerised by the tokens of life. The philosopher and social critic Walter Benjamin termed the missing quality from the original as ‘the aura’ but congruent with his knowledge of Marxism’s materialistic conception of history, believed that the  disappearance of the aura was no bad thing if mass reproduction  of images, moving or still, promoted new modes of critical perception in its audience. In her book, ‘But is it art?’ Cynthia Freeland also presents Benjamin’s ideas that cinema for example created a distance between its narrative and its audience that the viewer recognised compared to  the dynamics and so called ‘reality’ of theatre which he believed was more engrossing. However  Benjamin died in 1940 before cinema photography, radio, tv and game programming had reached its technological and creative simulation heights, par excellence. These technologies are so powerful, so financially resourced and employ the greatest of talent to produce seductive and sophisticated representations of reality. They are deemed ‘hyperreal’ and as discussed in the resource article, are all embracing and pervasive. Information presented by these media are dispersed around us with a mixture of such subtlety and blatancy, that we are no longer able to distinguish the precise medium let alone the origins and integrity of the message. As the author says that life is now ‘spectralised…the event filtered by the medium – the dissolution of TV into life, the dissolution of life into TV? We only have to scan the dominant strain of ‘Reality TV programming’

The writing also very ably describes the concept of simulation in David Cronenbergy’s film eXistenZ which is now on my list of films to see. I think it’s a particularly relevant and current example with the description that the virtual reality videogames that are the the film’s focus, are raised to deific proportions. Working with secondary school pupils I am constantly amazed and disheartened that so many of them play video games on their Playstations for up to 12 hours at a time…and that’s without the tricks of virtual reality. It seems to me that more and more of our youth and adult population are being diverted  from making adventurous decisions about reality through the escape of simulated reality that appears so more fascinating and alluring.

In the second article (2) by Joanna Topor, which is also beautifully written, she concludes that the media itself is responsible for the breakdown of reality because it provides society with simulated events and the reproduction of signs that supposedly constitute reality. She refers to Baudrillard’s concept that the medium for presentation of a message/information is not in fact a mediator or bridge of communication but instead is the message itself and outlines Marashall McLuhan’s (1911-1980) belief that ‘the medium is the message’. It was his belief that the newer media could restore aspects of right-brain creative functioning suppressed by literacy in the sense that new media could promote connectedness and community, ‘the global village’. Older technologies such as ships, printing, railways, carriages, bicycles and cars all catalysed movements of people, their goods and their ideas and experience of reality. Today tv, radio, the telephone and the internet can do the same with no physical movement on our part at all. Of course there are profound advantages and disadvantages to such a development  but I am continually struck by the miracle of it all. I suppose the question for me is how we navigate and temper both the miraculous access to information and other’s experience  of reality with the distortion and intrusion into our own sense of reality. One thing I am sure about is that electronic means of communication stimulate visual and auditory senses but what remains out of the picture is the kinaesthetic awareness of reality. By being passive recipients of  ‘so called’ reality we are disconnecting from our bodies, stimulating the mind but not the body. By being passive recipients of a simulated ‘aspirational society’ we lock ourselves into the theatre of comparison. As differences or perceived differences are heightened we lose touch with our own values and sense of self at home in reality. So I am inclined to disagree with McLuhan that the media is the message in that it ignores content. My sense is that we must demand more inspirational, empowering content that breathes resourcefulness, inventiveness and the goodness of human nature.
Blessings esther

Filed under: e-tivity04-0708, esther, tiip

More Blogs Revealed

Our e-tivity 03 was a continuation of 02 and so once more I have endeavoured to find individual artist’s blogs that satisfy my artistic appetite. Sadly I seem to have failed on the individual blogs despite a number of different type of searches including installation artists, new artist, uk artists and individual artist blogs.

However I have found blogs that I thought were very stimulating and might provide sumptious seeds of regeneration for our tired brains. There are three I would like to mention, the first of which New Art – notes on installation art, performance, theatre, cinema, painting, sculpture, digital art and more…….

http://www.new-art.blogspot.com

This blog has a phenomenal mix of still imagery as in photography and video pieces and features work as diverse as Bruce Nauman’s illuminated Human/Need/Desire (at MOMA) through to Banksy. The critique of Banksy’s work in Art World says that the power of his work lies in the way it interacts with its environment and that obviously gets lost when you put it in any kind of gallery setting. Although I didn’t see the show referred to I am inclined to agree – it is his remarkable imagination and ascerbic subversive humour beautifully executed that make him one of my favourite living artists. Besides I get to see his work in archway and only just 2 weeks ago saw a new piece of his in bethnal green. I just loved the way he continued the double yellow line across the pavement to the blank wall to paint a huge flower. It really made me chuckle. Oh and I also was intrigued by the piece of video referring to visions of female beauty throughout the ages. It is a video montage of faces many of which are famous images from art history and are morphed into one another. In my opinion it really is a successful piece.

In the Digital art section there is a selection of animation from students and professionals alike and the fragile doll piece created by Andy Huang although not entirely original in conception is nevertheless delicate and rich. The blog also refers to software that is currently available and features posts from lesser known artists and illustrators as in the fairytale imagery. I really enjoyed the photograph of the tree wind turbine – isn’t it about time that wind turbines became functional sculpture ? As you may have surmised there is a lot of content with many exciting categories and blog entries for each, including responses

The second blog is http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com

Modern Art Notes – Tyler Green’s modern and contemporary art blog . Once again an interesting blog offered by one person, an art critic (?) It features a critique of Liegaste con la Bora 1.5 the venezuelan film director. Two robot arms dip into soapy water and emerge with huge bubbles, exquisitely fine surfaces onto which are projected babies, people and animals. I liked the contrast between mechanical and organic, strong and delicate and the type of projection. Also featured was the AR Magic System, an augmented reality system which allows the viewer to swap their heads with that of the person standing next to them in front of the screen. The heads are shown gesturing in real-time on top of another body and remind me of some of the wierdness of Consequences. As ever the blog is presented with a white background and plenty of space between entries. It uses a relaxing, legible font in different sizes and modes to give structure and order to the information displayed. The mix of media is of course very appealing to the likes of you and me as fine art mixed media students.

The third blog is http://www.frontier-cincinati.com/blogs/art

Sarah Pearce file notes, comments and observations on art and architecture. Yes yet again I apologise I didn’t seem very able in picking home grown talent. However I liked the unusual selection of items she chose to comment upon and feature. In particular I really enjoyed the variety of paper sculpture presented in the form of paper pop up books, ranging from the spectacular work of Ron Van Der Meer to that of pop up books designed for children by David A Carter. Another thought provoking blog.

Filed under: e-tivity02-0708, esther

e-tivity 02 – artist blogs

Well – finally I have managed to locate some artist blogs that I actually think show the spirit of blogging at its best. Those that I have selected so far offer not only an insight into the process of individual creation – its highs and lows with reference to the execution of the artists’s ideas, but as a resourceful reflection of where their process of life is directing them. Thus they share influences, tastes, seeds of other people’s creative experiences and expressions of life, inviting us on a journey of connection….The blog is the narrative – an interesting way of telling stories with pictures, words and moving images.

Jafabrit’s Art

http://jafabrit.blogspot.com

“Welcome to my blog, a cyber sketchbook and playground for the creative meanderings of an artist’s mind. “

This blog I think is a good combination of writing, image and musings. I like the mix of her paintings, photographs, spontaneous sculpture and book making. She is presenting a multi-media journey of a very personal nature.

Also included were fun things like ‘Blogs I Visit’, ‘Links’ and ‘Recent Reads with Photos’ and the whole layout of the blog was in my opinion really well balanced and was easy on the eye – there was a sense of order and space ~ ~ ~ ~ s o that I could receive the information. It reminds me that to present one’s own work on a small screen – a lightbox with sound and movement potential, I must consider design – giving space to my work – allowing it to breathe. And yet conveying enough interesting in – formation to keep a visitor on my screen to sample more reflections of life. There is an art to

Another Company – Joachim Baan

http://anothercompany.blogspot.com/

Notes on Art, Design, Fashion and Technology “The illusion that next time it might be perfect keeps us going.”

I know it’s strictly not an ‘artist’s blog ‘ because of the commercial art arrow to his bow but to my mind this blog is certainly full of artistry. It has a great collection of visuals of other artists’ work from photography to sculpture and Joachim shares video clips, interesting pieces of technology, musical offerings – a complete art and media multi-blend. I am beginning to get a really nourishing taste of how creative blogs can get and that they are a complete and utter art form in themselves. They could get very addictive like their social network cousins – a shower of seeds and potential voyaging ~ spending hours composing blogs, a tailing off and bringing it into balance until the next wave of expression ….

I also really enjoyed the random books I could select from the library feature on his page. Again I felt relaxed accessing the information on his site. His sense of spacious style and simple commentary was refreshing. I have to say I just loved seeing the advert for Guiness, ” ” Tipping Point ” ” What a phenomenal piece of creative expression and ingenuity – it was beautiful! !and I had never seen it before.

I look forward to finding some new blogs to post later.

Blessings esther

Filed under: e-tivity02-0708, esther, tiip

Art is Healing made Visible

Hi fellow artists

I have just discovered that my previous introduction doesn’t appear to have loaded. Sigh! and I think it was a lot simpler – sorry folks.

Art has been a powerful ally and tool for self reflection throughout much of my adult life. At times it has taken me into another space where I felt galvanised by life. The process of creation has appeared to me to have been truly magical and a blessing. I have been able to reach out and invite something new and wondrous into the piece – something bigger and more life affirming than me. The same with music – through singing or drumming with others I can access and receive life in exciting, beautiful formations. For me, making art must be about my own journey of healing – moving in a process of transformation from powerlessness and fear to love and wholeness. Moving away from ‘not being good enough’ to ‘being’ and accepting the grace of life as it is in this moment. Along that creative journey I hope to share with and inspire others to a more expansive, loving and potent vision of themselves.

Thus it is that I have chosen the theme of Mandala or sacred circles as my focus and catalyst for my art over the next two years. A Mandala is seen as a vehicle and map for the unification and healing of consciousness, used historically as a spiritual teaching tool for realising a sacred space and guiding meditation. I aim to explore some of the ways that the rhythmic and patterned use of colour, sound and form can have to transport us. Historically it has been used for thousands of years in many cultures across the world

To date I have created a number of mandalas using digital montage and painted two large mandalas with enamel paints on the bonnets of my two art cars. Creating them I experienced something intensely ancient and yet new – of this time with contemporary materials. This is why I am interested in experimenting with ways of bringing the sacred circle / mandala into a contemporary context. I plan to explore video, some form of digital animation and sound as additional methods in my practice. I am also interested in researching mechanical mechanisms and motors for the rotation of pieces and attempting some form of sculptural or installation work. I would also love to incorporate two further passions of mine – dancing and music making – particularly singing and drumming. At this point my head is bursting with ideas and I feel both very inspired and overwhelmed by my research on this theme so far. I had originally intended that my project use as a framework, the system of the chakras or energy centres of the body. This is a map of the movement of consciousness developed in India over two thousand years ago. I have been working with it, teaching Chakra Yoga and developing a new dance practise, Chakra Dance for the past seven years. So I would like to address some aspect relating to wealth, sexuality, power, love, creatvity, purpose and spirit.

I also work with NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and hypnotherapy and I have no doubt that these disciplines will influence my art. Guess what I am seeing mandalas and circles everywhere I look …….

Blessings esther

Filed under: e-tivity 01-07/08, esther