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Contains 45,000 authoritative articles on all aspects of the visual arts: painting, sculpture, graphic arts, architecture, decorative arts and photography.
Steele, Robert. The Good-Bad and Bad-Good in Movies: Bonnie and Clyde and In Cold Blood. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Inc., 1973
Robert Steele’s essay in John G. Cawelti’s Focus on Bonnie and Clyde discusses two of the most important film critics’ opinions of the violence in the film regarding Bonnie and Clyde. A conversation between Richard Schickel, a critic for Time magazine, and Bosley Crowther, a former critic for The New York Times becomes the basis for the article regarding violence in cinema and the moral obligations of both the filmmakers and critics alike. Schickel adopts the opinion that it is a filmmaker’s responsibility to reflect the times, which would of course include portraying violence. Crowther, however, agrees with that statement, but believes that Bonnie & Clyde, “had gone beyond the bounds of good taste and judgment in the way it presented these killers” (115).
Steele’s follows the conversation with a critique of the two critics’ views by examining how and for what reason violence is used in the film. Steele’s main argument revolves around the difference between art and entertainment, “art is entertainment, and some entertainment may be art” (117). He believes that Schickel’s claim that films should represent society would be true should it apply to documentaries, but Arthur Penn’s film strives to be art, and not simply a truthful depiction.
Steele, while defending the use of violence to a certain extent, finds complaints with the film from an artistic viewpoint instead. Slow motion and fast paced editing in the final shootout separate the deaths of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow from every other death in the film elevating them to a heroic status, but for what purpose? He classifies the film as taking, “a tragic stance without giving us a tragedy” (119). Steele feels that Penn’s use of artistic editing and cinematic devices become “shenanigans” (120) because they are meant simply to disguise the underlying unpleasantness of a story where the two beautiful heroes die. In this sense, Penn’s stunning and artistic use of violence adds nothing to the film other than making it entertainment genius.
Steele’s follows the conversation with a critique of the two critics’ views by examining how and for what reason violence is used in the film. Steele’s main argument revolves around the difference between art and entertainment, “art is entertainment, and some entertainment may be art” (117). He believes that Schickel’s claim that films should represent society would be true should it apply to documentaries, but Arthur Penn’s film strives to be art, and not simply a truthful depiction.
Steele, while defending the use of violence to a certain extent, finds complaints with the film from an artistic viewpoint instead. Slow motion and fast paced editing in the final shootout separate the deaths of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow from every other death in the film elevating them to a heroic status, but for what purpose? He classifies the film as taking, “a tragic stance without giving us a tragedy” (119). Steele feels that Penn’s use of artistic editing and cinematic devices become “shenanigans” (120) because they are meant simply to disguise the underlying unpleasantness of a story where the two beautiful heroes die. In this sense, Penn’s stunning and artistic use of violence adds nothing to the film other than making it entertainment genius.
belongs to Bonnie & Clyde project
tagged 60s art critcs culture entertainment methods social_relevance style
by mrsilva
...and 1 other person
...on 10-APR-08
From the website:
"The unique approach of Market East is to feature rare and limited edition works by underground artists alongside pieces by more established artists. The result is an eclectic mix of slick, professional pieces with those that are more raw and handmade. We sell books, zines, screenprints, posters, t-shirts, postcards, and music.
It's more than just a store, though, it's also an online gallery. That's why things that sell out often remain on the site for a few months. This way visitors can still enjoy the images and be inspired by the piece. For many of the artists on the site, this is their only significant presence on the web."
GET LOST is a collective portrait of downtown New York. Twenty-one international artists were invited to create a personal view of the city and draw a map of downtown New York, uncovering a territory that is both real and imaginary.
GET LOST brings together fictional landscapes, utopian visions, private memories, and obsessive instructions to explore Manhattan, its past, present, and future.
An exercise in emotional geography, GET LOST sketches the coordinates for an endless drift across the streets and myths of downtown New York.
GET LOST is the city as seen through the eyes of: 16beaver group; Francis Alÿs; Cory Arcangel; Jennifer Bornstein; Beth Campbell; Marcel Dzama; Isa Genzken; Inaba and Associates; Dorothy Iannone; Chris Johanson; Christopher Knowles; Terence Koh; Julie Mehretu; Jonas Mekas; Aleksandra Mir; Thurston Moore; Dave Muller; William Pope.L; Lordy Rodriguez; Rirkrit Tiravanija; Lawrence Weiner.
GET LOST is a New Museum production, edited by Massimiliano Gioni.
Beginning Wednesday, June 6, 2007, free copies of GET LOST will be available to the public at the following markers of the downtown scene and cultural organizations around the city: Opening Ceremony (35 Howard Street), Babeland (43 Mercer Street), Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery), The Bowery Hotel (340 Bowery), Congee Village (100 Allen Street), Lost City Arts (18 Cooper Square), Freemans Restaurant (Freeman Alley at Rivington Street), Two Boots (155 East 3rd Street), Patricia Field (302 Bowery), Screaming Mimi's (382 Lafayette Street), Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street), Artist's Space (38 Greene Street, 3rd Floor), The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street), Sculpture Center (44-19 Purves Street, Long Island City), The Rotunda Gallery (33 Clinton Street, Brooklyn), Bronx Museum (1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street, Bronx), and the Bedford Cheese Shop (229 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn). GET LOST can also be found at the New Museum Store at 556 West 22nd Street and at the galleries of participating artists.
Creators Series Gallery -- A showcase for the innovative work being presented throughout the Creators Series weekend. Free, with no ticket required, the gallery exhibition will showcase art, media, designs, installations, and other relevant work from each of the Creators Series participants. A number of informal demonstrations and chats will also take place in the gallery throughout the weekend, free of charge. The gallery is designed as a casual social space, where creative thinkers can come together and exchange ideas. Come on by whenever we’re open!
New York Gallery Hours
June 9, 12 p.m. – 6 p.m.
June 10, 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.
The Altman Building, 135 West 18th Street
Los Angeles Gallery Hours
June 15, 12 p.m. – 7 p.m.
June 16, 12 p.m. – 8 p.m.
June 17, 12 p.m. – 7 p.m.
The Rec Center, 1161 Logan Street
Exhibition Includes:
- Jonathan Harris’ Web projects Universe, an interactive examination of modern mythology using constellations of words pulled from the Web, and We Feel Fine, a large-scale blog analysis of human emotions online
- A demonstration of Graffiti Research Lab’s L.A.S.E.R. Tag, a system for projecting tags onto tall buildings
- A special display of Le Perversionisme, the enigmatic art movement concocted by French-Colombian mystery man Nieto
- A demonstration of British artist Paul “Moose” Curtis’ one-of-a-kind “clean-tagging” technique
- Two interactive installations by Theo Watson, including Vinyl Workout and a brand-new version of Daisies
- Interactive video from Martin Percy, including a demonstration of The Digital Debate
- Selected video work from Chris Doyle’s multi-author video project, 50,000 Beds
- Collaborative screen work from Matt Hanson’s A Swarm of Angels
- ReacTable, an innovative new music-making device recently adopted by Björk (New York only)
- Never-before-seen video from fashion designer Gareth Pugh (New York only)
POSTOPOLIS!
An exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, NYC
May 29 2007 - Jun 2 2007
An exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, NYC
May 29 2007 - Jun 2 2007
Featuring
BLDGBLOG, City of Sound, Inhabitat, and Subtopia
Postopolis! is a five-day event of near-continuous conversation about architecture, urbanism, landscape, and design. Four bloggers, from four different cities, will host a series of live discussions, interviews, slideshows, panels, talks, and other presentations, and fuse the informal energy and interdisciplinary approach of the architectural blogosphere with the immediacy of face to face interaction.
BLDGBLOG (Los Angeles), City of Sound (London),Inhabitat (New York City), and Subtopia (San Francisco) will meet in person to orchestrate the event, inviting everyone from practicing architects, city planners, and urban theorists to military historians, game developers, and materials scientists to give their take on both the built and natural environments. For the past five years, blogging has helped to expand the bounds of architectural discussion; its influence now spreads far beyond the internet to affect museums, institutions, and even higher education. Postopolis! is an historic opportunity to look back at what architecture blogs have achieved - both to celebrate their strengths and to think about their future.
Chapter 11: Destructive Creativity: Arts in the Information Age
What is 'cool' now isn't just an isolated piece of culture, but rather the result of a history of 'cool'. The future of humanities must begin to converge with art in order to bridge the gap. In other words, to be 'cool', older art forms must merge with more contemporary art forms. Society is currently so visually overstimulated that something needs to change just to get an idea from on mind to another. Destructive Creativity refers to one approach, which is reassembling the past into the future. It refers to the present aesthetic, mutation and remix culture. Creative Destruction is a slightly different approach. Critiquing culture becomes an inherently edgy aesthetic. Tradition is linked to the avant-garde through the reappropriation of familiar things. Information is a new raw material, a form a currency. The chapter gives a history of destructive art, new art's need to reject or destroy the old to move forward. After pages and pages of examples of earlier works, the chapter gets to digital works. Jodi works with the aesthetics of the internet, using a web browser as a frame. Still, inside that frame, the text is made to look like an old DOS-based personal computer, acting as a reminder that contemporary art has at least some root in the past. The self-destructive, self-activated behavior of the art is the formula for twentieth-century art.
This chapter seemly chronicles every step on the path to current existence of edgy art, which was tiresome to wade through, but certainly not useless. For every part of the current state of 'cool' that Liu describes, he provides several examples of the predecessors. Knowing more about the current state of art than the past and reading the chapter put everything into a perspective that wasn't necessarily any different, but is perhaps now more informed. What was noticeably missing from the discussion was the influence of an artist's contemporaries. Having not read the entire book, it is quite possible that Liu talks about it elsewhere, but regardless, talking about art with respect only to the past is ignoring half of what influences it.
Liu, Alan, 1953- . Laws of cool : knowledge work and the culture of information / Alan Liu. [0226486982 (cloth : alk. paper) ] Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Call#: Van Pelt Library HM851 .L56 2004
Call#: Van Pelt Library HM851 .L56 2004
belongs to How Popular Culture Catches Internet Memes project
tagged aesthetics information_age internet_culture viral_meme popular_culture internet information art
by kmcknigh
...on 12-MAR-07
March 1, 2007
Defacer With Mystery Agenda Is Attacking Street Art
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
Defacer With Mystery Agenda Is Attacking Street Art
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
Someone out there has a problem with art. Or at least a certain kind of art and artist.
The evidence is the bright green and purple splashes of paint that began appearing on walls in Brooklyn and Manhattan more than a month ago. The carefully aimed blobs obscured or disfigured dozens of pieces of street art created by people who may not be household names, but who have achieved the esteem of peers and some recognition from the mainstream art world. The targets of the paint attacks have included posters, paper cutouts pasted on walls, and images stenciled on the sides of buildings.
Many of the paint splatters were accompanied by messages printed on plain white sheets of paper and pasted near the splatters. Those communiqués appeared to condemn the commodification of art, but it is difficult to be sure what the messages really mean. One reads, in part, "Destroy the museums, in the streets and everywhere." The author has kept his or her identity a secret.
Word of the covert actions spread quickly through the street art community. Web logs began documenting the splatters. Soon the unknown protagonist was named the Splasher.
Moves into lofts, studios and galleries for intimate scenes of artists at work in New York City. I. They discuss inspiration, aesthetic issues, the meaning of success, and how they overcame hardship to pursue a lifetime in art.
Index of Christian Art
USE INTERNET EXPLORER, OR NETSCAPE 4.x. ICA is not compatible with Netscape 7 at this time. Text-only database indexes thematic and iconographic content of early Christian and medieval art. The ICA locates an iconographic subject and provides extensive tabular description of the individual work including location, name, medium, object type, material, dimensions, content, style, school, artist, date, liturgic al reference and citation of published reproductions. Database provider plans to add images to the database.
USE INTERNET EXPLORER, OR NETSCAPE 4.x. ICA is not compatible with Netscape 7 at this time. Text-only database indexes thematic and iconographic content of early Christian and medieval art. The ICA locates an iconographic subject and provides extensive tabular description of the individual work including location, name, medium, object type, material, dimensions, content, style, school, artist, date, liturgic al reference and citation of published reproductions. Database provider plans to add images to the database.
photographs by mikhael subotzky of south africa. many of the photos are of/in/about prisons/prinsoners.
As I am getting older, my affinity for shoes and bags is growing with my years. It is not necessarily the name, but the style and the feel, the look of bags and shoes that draw me to spend more and more on fashion. I spend time flipping through catalogues and websites, walking through stores, just appreciating the things I will never own for the financial burden of a shoe and bag obsession has caused a dip in my credit at a young age. However, the abundance of knock-off's for name brands, being sold at much more affordable prices, pose an obvious threat to the fashion aesthete. Just because they look the same, are they same? Who would know? Is the quality the same? The color? Because one brand creates a cute patent leather pump with a rounded toe, and soon after another is selling a shockingly similar shoe, has there been an instance of fashion fraud? Where are the fashion police, the crusaders of all things good and just? Who says what can be determined as having artistic integrity and or intellectual creativity? The moment an idea comes to one's mind, should they file for some sort of protection? The thought process and intellectual property law forever obscure the lines for all concerned about legal protection. Regardless of the medium, intellectual property law is a dynamic field and asks its noble followers to help untangle the messy web of ambiguity. Where do our thoughts and individual creativity meet at the crossroads of copyright and protection? In the fashion industry, one of the world's fastest growing entities as well as large supplier of creative material, intellectual property law and copyright are a new development in the protection of designs and details, sweaters and stitching. Whether in sketch form or in skirt, from the drawing board to the boardroom, fashion copyright is complicated. Can it be protected? When does an instance of 'substantial similarity' become imitation or worse, chargeable theft? Can the line be drawn? If copyright law is extended to include protection for fashion design, will the world of fashion be forever affected? The blurriness in the fashion design industry resulting from the almost counterintuitive cycle of fashion profits spurred by piracy makes it incredibly difficult to decide. Ultimately, copyright protection for fashion design is necessary and without protection, piracy will continue to hinder the progress of creativity and production as well as cause a discontinuity in what can be considered organic artistic thought.
I am working on creating a short video piece using clips from a number of different DVDs. By using short segments (one word or less), I plan to have the characters in the films I borrow from speak out portions of the anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. In this way, I will be using appropriated (and, most likely, non-DMCA-compliant) video footage to comment on the questions raised by the conflict of the DMCA and appropriation art themselves.
McLaren, Carrie. "Illegal Art: Freedom of Expression in the Corporate Age." illegal-art.org :: A Project of Stay Free! magazine. 2002. Stay Free! magazine. 22 November 2006. .
This is the web site of the "Illegal Art" exhibition which has traveled the United States in the past year. The site contains a copy of curator Carrie McLaren's introduction to the show, in which she states, "The laws governing "intellectual property" have grown so expansive in recent years that artists need legal experts to sort them all out... If the current copyright laws had been in effect back in the day, whole genres such as collage, hiphop, and Pop Art might have never have existed... Should artists be allowed to use copyrighted materials? Where do the First Amendment and "intellectual property" law collide? What is art's future if the current laws are allowed to stand? Stay Free! [the magazine sponsoring the "Illegal Art" exhibition] considers these questions and others in our multimedia program." The site also includes a gallery of the various pieces included in the exhibit, which include a Mickey Mouse gas mask, photographs of Barbie dolls in kitchen appliances, a re-interpretation of the Starbucks logo as a "Consumer Whore", and various pieces including the "DeCSS" program. Many of the artists involved in the "Illegal Art" show were or are the targets of legal action by the holders of the copyrights to the works they appropriated.
The "Illegal Art" website is definitely a valuable resource in the creation of my project; through the gallery of the included works, I will be able to see how other creators used appropriated materials to comment directly on the nature of copyright issues. The artists involved in the exhibition used many different media to create their pieces, including a number of video pieces.
Cardamone, Richard J. Art Rogers v. Jeff Koons; Sonnabend Gallery, Inc. National Coalition Against Censorship. 28 November 2006. .
This case is an appeal of the earlier Rogers v. Koons decision. Art Rogers took a photo titled "Puppies", depicting a man and woman holding armfuls of puppies; the photograph became very popular on greeting cards. Later, Jeff Koons took a postcard with the photo on it, removed the copyright notice, and planned the creation of a sculpture titled "String of Puppies." He specified that the sculpture be as similar to the original photo as possible, due to its use in an exhibition titled "The Banality Show" featuring art based on pop culture and commonplace images. Although the photo was in black and white, the sculpture was in full color. Three "String of Puppies" sculptures were sold for $367,000 each. Rogers sued Koons for infringing on his copyright; Koons claimed his work was a parody of the original, and therefore a fair use. The court found that the two works were substantially similar, that Koons had access to the "Puppies" photograph (and, in fact, actively worked to create a piece very similar to the original). The court did not find an specific necessity for the use of the "Puppies" photo that was being commented upon explicitly by Koons' sculpture, and therefore did not uphold his claim of a parody.
This case is very significant for being one of the first instances in which appropriation art came to trial for a copyright violation. Significantly - and keeping with the trend in many later cases - art using appropriated content lost. Although this particular case had many of the hallmarks of a decision against fair use - willful, known copying, economic profit from the work, etc. - it still shows a tendency of the court to dismiss this kind of art as copyright infringement. As I will be working with appropriated content on my final project, it is useful to know how court cases involving other appropriated-content works have turned out.
belongs to Copyright and Culture final project project
tagged appropriation_art fair_use art copyright authorship
by michael7
...and 1 other person
...on 28-NOV-06
Fukumoto, Elton. "The Author Effect After the 'Death of the Author': Copyright in a Postmodern Age." Washinton Law Review 72.903(1997).
As this article states, French post-structuralism proclaimed the "death of the author"; this idea was taken up by many of the currently prevailing artistic trends (postmodernism, etc.). However, Fukumoto claims, copyright law is driven by an older conception of the author, one which originates from Romanticism; this "author effect" sees the author as an original, unique creator who deserves sole credit for his or her work. This view does not allow for techniques such as the use of appropriated content; in fact, Fukumoto argues, it gives the "author" of a work an inordinate amount of power and ownership over his or her work. He believes that appropriation and pastiche are valid forms of art, and that copyright law should make special provisions for these forms; he illustrates this point by many references to artistic and cultural theorists (Foucault, etc.) as well as court cases (Rogers v. Koons, etc.).
DMCA provisions notwithstanding, my final project will definitely be in a tenuous area of fair use. Fukumoto, however, would definitely agree that rearranging video clips into a new meaning would constitute an original work of art. In doing so, this uses the newer conception of the author that he cites, rather than the "author effect."
belongs to Copyright and Culture final project project
tagged art authorship fair_use copyright
by michael7
...on 27-NOV-06
Slater, Derek. "Take Another Little Piece of My Art." Illegal Art | Creative Commons. July 2003. Creative Commons. 28 November 2006. <http://creativecommons.org/image/illegalart>.
This article describes "Illegal Art", a traveling exhibition which was displayed at the SF MOMA Artist's Gallery in July 2003. The show contained pieces in a variety of media, with a full-length CD and several films and videos in addition to various two- and three-dimensional artworks. Carrie McLaren, curator of the exhibition, began working on an appropriation art exhibit in response to unsuccessful challenges to copyright term extensions; the goal of the exhibit was "to make copyright's problems as real to the average person as they are to [the] featured artists".
The article attempts to place the "Illegal Art" exhibition in the context of the larger legal debate surrounding appropriation art by comparing the pieces in the show to famous copyright cases, such as the 2 Live Crew case. The author also pays close attention to the economic constraints place on appopriation artists by licensing fees, cease-and-desist letters, and other tools of copyright permission holders. Overall, the article sides firmly with the validity of the art and the necessity for its legalization - no surprise, considering that the article is written for the Creative Commons. Succintly summarizing his point, Slater writes, "Had these legal limitations [on appropriation art] existed years ago, perhaps collage, rap, and Pop Art would have been sued to death before they ever had a chance to flourish. These days, the implication is that these appropriations are lower artforms, deserving legal treatment suited to petty thievery."
This article will definitely be very helpful for my project; it provides a general background on the use of appropriation art to comment driectly on copyright issues.
belongs to Copyright and Culture final project project
tagged appropriation_art fair_use video film copyright art authorship
by michael7
...and 2 other people
...on 27-NOV-06
Voegtli, Naomi A. "Rethinking Derivative Rights" Brooklyn Law Review 63. 1213 (1997).
Voegtli makes a very strong argument for a new interpretation of the right to create derivative works, basing her analysis of the problem not only on legal knowledge, but also on art criticism. She cites many important artworks that have used appropriated content - Warhol's Campbell's soup can and Brillo box, Duchamp's "readymades," and the writings of Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot; in the current climate of cease-and-desist letters, licensing fees, and multi-million dollar lawsuits, Voegtli claims, there is no room for this type of creation. She cites many reasons that broadly interpreted derivative rights are counterintuitive to the spirit of copyright; in her words, they "inhibit socially beneficial creative activities, result in a reward system in which the size of the reward has little to do with the amount of labor put in to create the work, grant protection of exploitive use even for works with little personality interest, ignore the true nature of authorship, limit democratic discourse, and frustrate people's reasonable expectations with respect to copyrighted works." She then moves on to discuss new standards that could be put into effect, allowing for a more logical take on the rights to derivative works.
Voegtli's article is very useful in the way that it carefully balances art history and criticism with copyright law; she carefully juggles information relating to Pop Art, semiotics, rap music, the 1976 Copyright Act, postmodernism and fair use standards, all in the same article. This is a very valuable perspective on copyright issues; by having a background knowledge in art as well as legal matters, she actually is trained to make the aesthetic judgements required by copyright law.
belongs to Copyright and Culture final project project
tagged DMCA art fair_use copyright appropriation_art DRM
by michael7
...and 1 other person
...on 26-NOV-06
MAIN SPACE ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN PROJECT SERIES:
H_edge
ARUP Advanced Geometry Unit
Design Team: Cecil Balmond, Daniel Bosia, Jenny E. Sabin,
Charles Walker, Francis Archer
Assembly Team: Jenny E. Sabin and PennDesign students
Curated by Christian Rattemeyer
H_edge
ARUP Advanced Geometry Unit
Design Team: Cecil Balmond, Daniel Bosia, Jenny E. Sabin,
Charles Walker, Francis Archer
Assembly Team: Jenny E. Sabin and PennDesign students
Curated by Christian Rattemeyer
Slides show, with music, showing various art works created with old catalog cards. From Columbus State University (Ga.)
June 30–September 3, 2006
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 5th Floor
An exhibition of twenty large-scale graffiti paintings from such influential artists as Michael Tracy ("Tracy 168"), Melvin Samuels, Jr. ("NOC 167"), Sandra Fabara ("Lady Pink"), Chris Ellis ("Daze"), and John Matos ("Crash"), Graffiti explores how a genre that began as a form of subversive public communication has become legitimate—moving away from the street and into private collections and galleries. Forms of graffiti have been discovered on ancient Roman and Mayan architecture and like today were both illegal and a form of communication. Modern graffiti, which is associated with hip-hop culture and spans all racial and economic groups, began in the mid- to late 1960s; it made its way to New York City and quickly became a phenomenon. Urban youth used the sides of subway trains and buildings as their canvases, reclaiming sections of their neighborhoods by "tagging" them with stylized renditions of their names or the names of the groups they formed. The self-taught graffiti artists turned the walls of public (and sometimes private) buildings into giant panoramas and subway cars into moving murals. Later, graffiti artists began to paint on canvas or large sheets of paper, attracting the attention of art dealers and collectors. One of the first dealers to collect graffiti was Sidney Janis. His heirs Carroll and Conrad Janis donated almost fifty works from his estate to the Brooklyn Museum in 1999. Graffiti is drawn primarily from this gift and supplemented by material the Museum's Libraries and Archives.
Devising digital techniques for graffiti artists |
By Geeta Dayal The New York Times Published: June 23, 2006 |
 |
| NEW YORK This city may have given birth to modern-day graffiti art, but how is it keeping up with the times? |
tagged IHT eyebeam international_herald_tribune graffiti_research_lab graffiti art newyork
by jn
...on 24-JUN-06
covering his head in tape.
Pyongyang; A Journey in North Korea
Guy Delisle
Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China
Guy Delisle
Brian Jungen
Cetology, 2002
plastic chairs
Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, purchased with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program and the Vancouver Art Gallery Acquisition Fund, 2003
Photo: Trevor Mills, Vancouver Art Galler
class at parsons for art students or computer scentists.
Loretta Lux
May 18–June 24, 2006
Reception for the artist
Saturday, May 20, 2006, 6:00–8:00 pm
May 18–June 24, 2006
Reception for the artist
Saturday, May 20, 2006, 6:00–8:00 pm
May 12th- June 5th, 2006
ICEBOX Project Space
Crane Arts Building
1400 North American Street
Philadelphia, PA 19112
215-898-8374
Opening Reception Friday, May 12th, 6-9 pm
HIROSHI SUGIMOTO (Japanese, b. Tokyo, 1948) show at the Hisrshhorn in DC.
Over 3000 bunkers, built between 1882 and 1995, are scattered around Swizerland. Over the course of four years, Leo Fabrizio has documented these military strongholds. Real fortresses camouflaged amidst the rocks, hidden behind greenery and beneath improbable decorations, the Swiss bunkers, through a series of unconventional images, bear witness to an "armed neutrality" and provide a useful instrument for analysing the relationship between landscape and architecture.
Art, Morality, and the Holocaust: The Aesthetic Riddle of Benigni's Life is Beautiful
Casey Haskins article, “Art, Morality, and the Holocaust: The Aesthetic Riddle of Benigni’s Life is Beautiful” analyzes the film’s impact on the philosophy of aesthetics as its controversial depiction of the Holocaust both in its humorous narrative style and its unrealistic representation of the concentration camp was the cause of much uproar. Haskin points to the controversy as proof that the film, whether praised or rejected, raises significant questions about the postmodern perception of the philosophy of aesthetic and urges its critics to revisit more traditional themes.
Haskin first highlights the film’s genre, what he deems “tragicomedy”, as a point of contention for critics. First, the film’s narrative style is that of a fictional fable, told in the adult voice of Giouse, Guido’s young and only son in the film. Critics believe that this approach to the narrative is irresponsible as the severity of the Holocaust warrants the moral reality that can only be elicited from sociohistorical fact. One critic Haskin highlights is David Denby of the New Yorker who criticizes the film’s misrepresentation of the Holocaust claiming Benigni wanted “authority not actuality” of the Holocaust and that the story is really “Holocaust-denial.” Haskin claims aesthetic as representations date back to Western Philosophers such as Plato whose cave allegory likened human experience to that of prisoners compelled to watch moving images on a wall and similarly, the film’s depiction of concentration camps isn’t supposed to be literal. Moreover, Haskin charges that there is no real criterion for measuring the realism of any depiction of the Holocaust.
Haskin further analyzes the film’s self-reflexive humor as an aesthetic that can represent the morality and give insight into the characters’ psychology. He categorizes two types of humor in the film: Italian social and political satire and Holocaust humor analyzing them according to various theories of humor.
Finally, Haskin shifts to an analysis of the self-reflexivity of art as an indifference to political and social rule or a negation of dominant rule. He points to the opposing philosophies of Adorno and Nietzsche on the purpose of art, “please or instruct”, “playful or profound” in order to suggest that while the critics of the film may lack a cohesive stance on the film and art in general, they do ignite a debate about the self-reflexivity of the film as art. In sum, when analyzed according to these models, Life is beautiful “has reference to the specific wishes fears and historical beliefs of a particular cultural moment.”
belongs to Life is Beautiful: Holocaust as Humor? project
tagged Aesthetic Art Life_is_Beautiful Roberto_Benigni Morality Holocaust
by aaxelrod
...on 05-APR-06
"map plots "the history of 20th century music on the London Underground map devised by Harry Beck in 1933." Lines are renamed for music genres such as soul, reggae, pop, rock, jazz, hip-hop, electronica, and classical. Includes an article explaining how the map was plotted and many reader comments. From the Guardian Unlimited, the online companion to the British newspaper The Guardian." (via LII)
"Video games shape our culture. It’s time we took them seriously." A really great essay by Henry Jenkins (Textual Poachers) about the future of interactive media. He states the video games are in fact art, and that is is up to fans and critics to shape the video game industry through cooperation and constructive critisim.
belongs to Machinima as Fan Culture -- Bibliography project
tagged Henry_Jenkins digitalization art video_games
by mhighlan
...on 13-DEC-05
A new book by Nic Kelman on the future of video games from an artistic standpoint.
belongs to My future of video games-- Bibliography project
tagged Nic_Kelman virtual_reality art video_games
by mhighlan
...on 13-DEC-05
An article about the changing landscape of video games, as they evolve from product into art.
belongs to Machinima as Fan Culture -- Bibliography project
tagged art new_media video_games computer_games
by mhighlan
...on 05-DEC-05
In this article Walter Evans argues that Stanley Kubrick’s thesis in A Clockwork Orange is the exact opposite of what moralist writers have said about it. He also discusses the film’s implications on free will while calling for reformation of society’s institutions. The writer makes a number of impressive points that help one understand the film better. First he quotes Pauline Kael, a writer for The New Yorker, who blames Kubrick and other moviemakers for creating a “new mood” for society. She states movies do not mirror reality as filmmakers claim. They desensitize us to violence and incorrectly shape our view of the world. However, the writer of the article impressively argues the opposite. Alex lives in a more violent future that Kubrick blames on failures of social institutions, not on movies shaping a “new mood.” He points out that movies are largely absent in the film. Family, school, the police, and the government are all weak in this film and can be attributed as the cause of a violent world. He points out each of these institutions failures while exonerating film. Then he goes even further by showing that film is indeed the savior of society through its use in the Ludovico technique whereby Alex is conditioned to avoid violent behavior through film and drugs. While moralists such as Kael claim that movies are negatively affecting our culture, Kubrick shows that only through extreme circumstances (forced, repeated viewing and drug effects) can movies affect our behavior. Even if normal viewing of films could modify our behavior, it would be wrong to censor it. That takes away our ability to choose. The writer also points out that art and religion would be pointless without violence and sex. The lessons of the Bible could not be taught without violence. To take away violence and sex from humans is dehumanizing.
The writer points out differences in the book and the movie. Burgess blames the scientific community for Alex’s transformation whereas Kubrick represents it as a political move. Kubrick also makes the prison Chaplain more pious, making the character more believable when he argues about an individual’s ability to choose good over evil.
Kael criticizes Kubrick for causing viewers to root for the brutal Alex. The writer, again, shows that things are not as they appear to be. We are not happy that Alex returns to violence in the end; we are pleased because he can choose evil or good.
belongs to A Clockwork orange / Warner Bros. ; produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick ; screenplay by Stanley Kubrick. project
tagged a_clockwork_orange art conditioning free_will kubrick moralists religion thesis violence
by tidwell
...and 1 other person
...on 01-DEC-05
In Loser Take All: The Comic Art of Woody Allen, Maurice Yacowar traces Woody Allen’s transformation from a “cult favorite into America’s foremost humorist” (1). The turning point of this transformation is generally attributed to the success of Annie Hall. Not only did Annie Hall do phenomenally well at the box office, but it was also nominated for five Oscars and won four, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Director, all which could be directly attributed to Woody Allen. Yacowar asserts that just because comedy is lighthearted in nature, there is an underlying seriousness and significance inherent in humor, especially in the case of Woody Allen, which makes it essential to critically study his films. While humor can initially seem dismissible due to its comedic and blithe nature, Woody Allen instills such meaning and honesty in his humor that it often holds more meaning than dramatic counterparts. This humor is apparent in every single one of Allen’s films, although some to a greater degree than others. Allen is able to consistently convey meaning about serious topics such as loneliness, anxiety, love, and existentialism through his humor. Allen also explores the relationship between life and art through this humor, and it is through such humor that the viewer is able to define the meaning and implications his work. Yacowar specifically addresses each of Allen’s individual films and demonstrates how they uniquely use humor to create and communicate deeper meaning. Due to the chronological structure of the book, Yacowar shows how each film influences and leads to the next film in Woody Allen’s repertoire. One major issue in Annie Hall is the blurring of reality and fantasy. Allen makes it difficult to discern to what degree the film is autobiographical and therefore a realistic portrayal of his life and thoughts. This ambiguity is further compounded by his direct addresses to the audience. This blurring of the line between reality and fantasy manifests itself multiple times throughout the film, thereby repeatedly challenging the viewer.
belongs to Annie Hall / United Artists ; written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman ; produced by Charles H. Joffe ; directed by Woody Allen. project
tagged annie_hall anxiety art comedy humor woody_allen
by aknopp
...and 1 other person
...on 29-NOV-05
Anderson and Richie separate the book into two parts; the first focusing on the “background” of Japanese Film, such as the development of editing techniques, camera angles and techniques, and sound. The latter part focuses on the “foreground,” which is made up of the directors, techniques and actors that gave Japanese Cinema its international (and national) identity. The book first mentions Ikiru, which it calls Living after its English translation, in the chapter on the development of atmosphere in Japanese cinema from 1949-1954 (Chapter 10) . The authors give a brief synopsis of the film and mentions that “the Quarterly of Film, Radio, and Television […] called [Ikiru] “one of the greatest films of our time.”” Ikiru is described as an example of Kurosawa’s humanist cinema, which is encapsulated by its mood and atmosphere. The authors actually do criticize the film, which the other authors I read did not do, saying, “The film’s fault is perhaps that Kurosawa’s genius flows unchecked and that sometimes he carries things too far.” This quote underlines the strategy taken by Anderson and Richie in their analysis of Kurosawa’s films (as well as the films of other Japanese directors). Instead of delving deeply into the meaning of various shots and sequences in films, the films are analyzed more in terms of the authors’ views. Films are listed in relation to the given topic of the chapter, but not much space is given to actually explaining, for example, what in the film creates the atmosphere. A few interesting facts about Ikiru, learned from the book, is that Watanabe was Takashi Shimura’s only lead role in a Kurosawa film and that the film was the first film that Kurosawa edited solely by himself.
While the book doesn’t have as much relevant information to Ikiru as other books I read, it does present some new information concerning the film in its own right, not on its aesthetic principles or themes. The book is able to ground the film in relation to other Japanese films of its time, which no other book does, which is valuable in a complete understanding of the film beyond its importance as an Akira Kurosawa film.
While the book doesn’t have as much relevant information to Ikiru as other books I read, it does present some new information concerning the film in its own right, not on its aesthetic principles or themes. The book is able to ground the film in relation to other Japanese films of its time, which no other book does, which is valuable in a complete understanding of the film beyond its importance as an Akira Kurosawa film.
belongs to Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru (To Live) project
tagged Akira_Kurosawa Ikiru Japan Takashi_Shimura art cinema editing_techniques japanese_film movies
by dhm
...on 29-NOV-05
This thesis argues that the value codings inaugurated by
retail exchange exert a powerful influence over the aesthetic reception of gaming as a
set of enjoyable, exchangeable and exhaustible encounters. At the same time, the
mere fact that gamers talk about and contest each others' valuations in online forums
shows that there is nothing natural about such a valuation, and that the boundaries of
value codings and the boundaries of what constitutes fun are tested, if not traversed.
retail exchange exert a powerful influence over the aesthetic reception of gaming as a
set of enjoyable, exchangeable and exhaustible encounters. At the same time, the
mere fact that gamers talk about and contest each others' valuations in online forums
shows that there is nothing natural about such a valuation, and that the boundaries of
value codings and the boundaries of what constitutes fun are tested, if not traversed.
belongs to Machinima as Fan Culture -- Bibliography project
tagged aesthetics art video_games
by mhighlan
...on 22-NOV-05
An exhibit that pioneers a new synthesis of photography and painting.
nonprofit motion picture archive, distributor and resource center housing the largest, most comprehensive collection of Jewish-theme film and video in the world. The ongoing mission of NCJF is to gather, preserve, catalogue, and exhibit films with artistic and educational value relevant to the Jewish experience, disseminating these materials to the widest possible audience. (out of Brandeis)
Contains 45,000 authoritative articles on all aspects of the visual arts. Articles contain bibliographies; links to associated images in the Bridgeman Art Library and in external websites.