Sunday, September 30, 2012


After viewing Darren's recent work and listening to his comments (and others) about the work, I was reminded of a freelance journalists and photographer named Jake Warga. His latest body of work has him going to expos and conventions in the U.S. and taking portraits of the participants. While his images are shadowless and almost boring (with their white backgrounds and strobe lighting), they are revealing nonetheless, saying more about the subject than photographer. He takes an anthropological approach to the work and takes the convention-goer out of the convention environment to perform an isolated visual study of the subject. He has an interesting quote about his work, “It’s difficult to describe the outside of the house when you are inside of it,” says Warga, 40, who lives in Seattle. “The best way to understand Americans is through their hobbies.” Or possibly even through their politics.
I still think there is a strange and important aspect to the "no man's land" perimeter images that Darren shot. Definitely worth taking a second look at those images.


Light, Time, and Representation

Claire's video piece "Amazon Haiku" raised some interesting questions about representation in photo and video work. These questions are, I think, relational to just about any photo or video. Darren's photos from the DNC and RNC are, I think, questions of representation as well, or at least that is a way one might see his photos from these events in the in-progress state they are in.

Claire's video, taken as a simple yet expressive statement about animal behavior, without any biological or environmental "facts" purported, makes for a visually pleasing experience. I found myself wanting more details, facts - but the poetic narration (hard at times to hear clearly) kept it framed in this expressionistic format. I would have felt it more observational w/o the narration and music, but then what would we have?

Since we had no other source of information, I & many others in the class assumed that these were shot in the wild, in these animal's natural habitat. This is what occupied my mind while watching, and I became increasingly skeptical of what it was I was seeing. So rather than being absorbed into the work, I was caught in this internal debate about the location that these images were supposing to show.

I was convinced this was shot in captivity when I noticed that a log one of the otters swam around was clearly fabricated. I didn't come off the skepticism, though; I continued to evaluate every shot that came up and I would judge it as "real" or "fake". "That rain falling on those birds isn't real", I said to myself.

But the conversation & discussion during the critique changed. It wasn't so much about whether this footage was shot in these animal's natural habitat; it hinted at a fact much larger. Even if they were recorded in a game reserve, or even what could be considered a "natural" environment, how much of that is really their "natural" environment? How far do we want to dig in order to emerge with a satisfactory explanation?

I believe that we can also look at Darren's convention photos with this lens as well - one that calls not just the content into question but the representation of the subjects within those images.

Empty streets, barricades, sparse small crowds. A urban environment,  I would have never guessed these were from the last two presidential conventions if I didn't have prior knowledge. Is that important, Darren?

While their arrangement for Darren's crit seemed somewhat hap-hazard, I also will sometimes just throw images up on the wall and see if there's anything there. What I have found useful was to do this, then consider the images individually, closely and without the distraction of the other images. There is a major caveat tot this practice, though, which I will go into a bit later.

What strikes me about these photos is their lack of people. Interesting to me is the fact that the conventions are in progress but outside each one very little is going on. I can easily associate US presidential conventions with demonstrations, unrest, and violence. With all the important issues in our society today, why isn't there someone - anyone - trying to be heard?

Both of these projects could be used to understand a kind of visuality that results in what a photograph or video image explicitly says, or doesn't say. It is like a train arriving at a station: we've arrived at our destination/definition. We are satisfied with what we are seeing, and no more information is required to  make our own explanation.

How far do we go? If something is supposed to be "real", where is that reality lie? Are these images really happening/had really happened, or is this a theatrical construct? Or is it all a theatrical construct? If this is a kind of theater, can't I construct whatever I like? If I pay attention to detail and craft, do I end up with a Chekhovian drama?

If I take a picture and that subject is reflecting light towards the camera that was generated 13 billion years ago, what is it that I'm taking a picture of? It isn't the subject as they appear now, since the "now" of the picture and the "now" of the subject are two totally different times. What I'm seeing is what light has traveled the expanse of the universe to arrive at Earth for us to observe.

The light represented in my previous post is almost as old as the universe is thought to be. So while the photo(s) might have been "taken" in 2011, the subject - that which the photo presents - predates it by, well, whatever 13b years is to you.

How does this factor into the photo's authenticity? Its representation, or ability to represent? What is it that we're looking at?

I think we are looking at time, or maybe a capital-T "Time". In this case the whole of time, actually quite linear, reaching out from the origin of the universe and pointing directly at us through the lens of our camera. But then again that may all we see when we look at any photograph.


                  
This here is the American outlaw Jesse James (1847-1882). While this photo was taken sometime in his life (photographer and date unknown), we can assume that it is authentic. Right? We can, rightly, assume that it was not just made or was something that was taken at some other time other than what it purports to represent.

I wonder how skeptical we would need to be in order to verify the authenticity of this photo. But perhaps a larger question is why? Unless we are trying to establish identity, who really cares what Jesse James looked like (though quite a striking lad if I must say so myself). His celebrity may be motivation for us to learn more, or perhaps there is some financial gain was can make by proving this to be authentic.

But as Errol Morris (or "Tink" Johnson, more directly) points out in The Umbrella Man, there is a "cautionary tale" worth heeding: be careful or at least very mindful of how close you want to get. Things can become very strange and offset the reality that the photo supposedly represents. This will in turn change your reality. Just sayin'.



Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Accumulated Light - The Extra Deep Field


"The photo is a sequel to the original "Hubble Ultra Deep Field," a picture the Hubble Space Telescope took in 2003 and 2004 that collected light over many hours to reveal thousands of distant galaxies in what was the deepest view of the universe so far. The XDF goes even farther, peering back 13.2 billion years into the universe's past. The universe is thought to be about 13.7 billion years old." Full article.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Eugenia Maximova

I was fortunate enough to have a guest artist to speak with my Digital Photo 1 students tonight. 

She is a wonderful and warm person with an abundance of talent. She has an opening reception this Friday night at Maiden Alley Cinema in Paducah from 5pm-7pm if anyone is interested in seeing her work and meeting her.

Here is a link to her website to view her work.
Let me know if you are coming into town and if you need directions.


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Emergent Behavior

Thomas JacksonHis works are inspired by the “self-organizing, ‘emergent’ systems in nature such as termite mounds, swarming locusts, schooling fish and flocking birds.” Explaining some of his images eerie nature, he works at tapping into the fear and fascination that these natural phenomena evoke.


I thought of David's past work with lighting and natural spaces after I saw Jackson's work. It is a similar aesthetic approach to the subject, but he uses everyday household items; from plastic plates and cups, to Post-It Notes and even cheese puffs. This may be commentary on consumerism/commodification or industrialization since he uses these manufactured objects to invade both natural rural and urban spaces. 
I saw some common ground with David's work, so I thought I would share this with the group.

Edward Raymond Turner


Neglected and forgotten for the last 110 years, the world’s first color film has recently been discovered and restored by the UK’s National Media Museum.
 Created in 1902, only a few short years after the invention of the motion picture and far before color photography was common, the film and its discovery is a new landmark in the history of film.
Edward Raymond Turner

Monday, September 17, 2012

Father of Video Art

This man's legacy is part of why video is a common medium for fine art and personal expression today. The exhibit begins December 13, 2012 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Nam June Paik

David's piece

I have some comments about this piece.

First of all, I thought it is very entertained work since it's interactive piece.
Also it's got virtual reality/ video game flavor, too since you can move Polaroids wherever you want.

It remind me of detective genre video game I used play when I was young.
Player is a detective and try to find the truth of this murder case and then there are some photos as proof and player can move, rotate and zoom in/out.
So, I can say it also has some hard-boiled/ film noir essence.

The composition and camera angle remind me of Scopophilia feeling.
Dark tone, abundant house adds some taboo flavor on this piece.
Is there psychoanalytic message in this piece?

Jiaxi’s piece

When I see her piece, it reminds me of my family in Japan.  As an international student, I sometimes become homesick and think about family living other side of the world. 


Some suggestion about this piece...

- Opening scene
So, it starts with kinda sad/scary mood about this village and then it goes to her family.  So, I wondered how she want to do the theme of this piece.
More traditional documentary way or more experimental way.


- Title 
I noticed that she haven't decided the title yet and I think it is very important for this piece.  It gives audience different atmosphere depends on which name she decide.  Probably start thinking with what is the main theme of this piece.  House? Family? or Village itself? 

The Evolution of the Home and Different Approaches of Study

The idea of home is something that we all grapple with, it means something different to each of us, and most of us have had multiple homes in our life. I am particularly interested in the idea of the home you leave behind. Jiaxi’s documentary hints at this, when her uncle speaks of young folk leaving China, and the mere fact that her parents are moving into a new home that no longer contains the memories of childhood.

There is tension for me when I think of my childhood home. I often wish I never had to go back to that place but my parents still live there. For some, there is tension because they long to go back to their childhood home but they can’t because it either the structure doesn’t exist at all, or the inside has changed so much that it is barely recognizable. Later there is tension because the people who were part of your concept of home are no longer there.

There are a few documentary projects that come to mind. I have been researching interactive web documentaries and trying to figure out how the interactive qualities of the web can be best used in my own art practice. The National Film Board of Canada has a couple projects that relate to the idea of home. The first one Welcome to Pine Point, is about a small Canadian town that existed for only two decades before it was leveled and taken off the map. The documentary lingers way too long on characters who aren’t very interesting, or perhaps it fails to discover what is interesting about them, but the beginning and the end are worth navigating through, it gives an account of what it is like to no longer be able to go home, and hints at larger issues with industrialization.

The NFB web doc I recently watched Highrise: Out my Window, investigates, in a somewhat voyeuristic way, vertical living throughout the world. This is perhaps the opposite of what is going on in Jiaxi’s film. This project provides a look at the increasing amount of urban homes in the world. What I liked about this documentary is that it tells a bunch of non-linear stories based on what we are seeing and like Jiaxi’s piece focuses on the everyday objects within the house. The object in Out My Window is the catalyst for the brief vignettes that play when you click them. The stories all seem to connect to a larger meta-narrative about globalization, migration, poverty and the power of art and community. 

Update: However, I can't get past the voyeuristic nature of the project. It seems very ethnographic but within a broad scope. I wanted it to be more personal/auto-ethnographic, probably because of my view that by getting more personal/specific you are actually making something that is more universally relatable.

I think Jiaxi’s piece has the potential to engage people because of the personal auto-ethnographic approach, and the ability to capture the subjects in a more natural state of being. She, the filmmaker, feels more comfortable with their subjects, which allows her the opportunity to linger on more candid moments, because privacy isn’t as much of an issue. I think that strategy is really constructive when searching for meaning in the everyday, and that is usually how I work as well. I enjoy work that exposes something about the filmmaker. Understanding their position in the work helps me better understand the work itself. Pine Point, for example, included some narration by the filmmaker, which was really affective in engaging me emotionally to the story because the other characters weren't as engaging. That is the problem with a lot of interviews, including the ones in the Pine Point project, they feel too narrowly focused and the subjects are often distant emotionally if they don't know the interviewer. This can result in a lack of thoughtfulness, that is hard to relate to. In the end, I gleaned something from all the work but I am still not sure how the interactive qualities of the web docs were helpful in telling the stories. I have been trying to figure out how to use the web to tell stories and how you can use its unique features in ways that are useful for the audience. 

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Pondering Propaganda, maybe it's not so bad afterall

"There is no means of human communication which may not also be a means of deliberate propaganda, because propaganda is simply the establishing of reciprocal understanding between an individual and a group." - Mechanics of Propaganda, Edward Bernays 

This particular quote stands out to me specifically due to its apparent broadness.  Seemingly enveloping the entirety of the art world into propaganda machine.  As an artist, one is trying to convey a particular and specific message, emotion, or sensation with their works, and regardless of intent, it is a form of propaganda, under this interpretation given by Bernays.  I am reminded of a book by Terry Eagleton, that I read in part, recently where art was discussed as being part of the "superstructure of society"(pg.5) and continues on in Chapter 2 to state that, "art is like a magic lantern which projects our real selves onto the Universe and promises us that we, as we desire, can alter the Universe, alter it to the measure of our needs...." (pg.55).  (Marxism and Literary Criticism).  These two concepts collide rather strikingly and open up a way of viewing art, even my own.  At this point I have to step back and ask myself, "What was/has been my agenda all along, and was I even aware of the implications and changes I was making?"
Initially propaganda sounds like a "dirty" word, as something manipulative and used by right wingers to sway the public opinion towards unforeseen evil.  Historically there have been prime examples of this.  However, propaganda today is means of communicating ideas to the public.  In the massively expanding world of digital culture, propaganda is presented to us more and more, because regardless of how society resists, they will always have a demand for "food, crave entertainment, long for beauty and respond to leadership."(168, Bernays, Mechanics of Propaganda)  As long as people are surviving as a culture propaganda will be a part of our daily lives.  In fact, I found it rather interesting as I began to read Chapter 5, Art and Science, that propaganda services an important role in society, and ironically museums lack effective propaganda.  "Propaganda is accustoming the public to change and progress." (pg. 159) as Bernay's states.  This fact emphasizes the importance of propaganda for acclimating the public for new thoughts, ideas, and inventions.  If museums are missing out on the propaganda machine, then what room for progresse have they allowed themselves?  Although propaganda progresses the capitalistic structure of no return with which we have found ourselves engulfed in today, it services the community in ways that I had not considered before reading Bernay's book extracts.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Jim Campbell's memory works


Memory Works-- Here is some photographic work that is displayed in a digitally interactive interface. The apparati (chip and sensors) controlling the interactivity are in the box below.  I referred to this work a couple weeks ago in class. These are by Jim Cambell who lives in the SF Bay Area.

They look like two plates of glass sealed together with some gas in the middle (I think). They are super fascinating and beautiful. I saw the one above, which is from 1995, and is a portrait of his mother. When you try to get close to it, the image appears to blur (can't remember if it fogs up or what.

Jim Campbell has a website here with more information and images.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

The body and the screen(s)

A few of the images from Silvia Dadian's exploratory work from August 28 continued to brew in my memory. The most persistent was the shadow play of stacking blocks because of the way the  silhouette articulated in a puppet-like way, similar to the work here of a contemporary Indonesian puppeteer. But I also kept trying to make sense of what each of these images showed separately and together, and what they were pronouncing of the subject depicted, and of me the viewer.

In this project, three different projections portray a process involving the subject’s body. In the first, a woman is making herself up in a mirror. Because the projection is directly on the mirror, it made me aware of the projector relaying the image and diminished my awareness of the camera that first recorded the image. The makeup scene is done as if the camera/projector is the mirror itself, but the woman is looking at herself, not out at the camera. Her self-absorption reminds me of how actor performs in a narrative. The second image is the silhouetted form already discussed, a variant of the mirror image in the way it both, ambivalently- covers and performs. It is a more explicit about the sexuality of the figure; again a form of self-absorption but more directed to how she looks to an other (from whom she is also presumably trying to hide). The last image looks more like a narrative fragment than the others. A woman emerges from the water into the frame-- which is the most brilliant bit--she lies down for a minute on the deck and then gets up and leaves the frame. She is dressed- perhaps in the same skin-hugging outfit as the last shot which made me think of a scene from Jon-Luc Godard’s Le Mepris (Contempt)- a very subjective memory of a woman coming out the water at the top of a shot. I was reminded also of a movie by Harun Farocki where a woman is having makeup put on, and this chain of associations led me to a published conversation between Kaja Silverman and Farocki about Godard’s My Life to Live. 


Flixster - Share Movies

Structured in chapters like a book, My Life to Live explores the desired autonomy of a young woman who leaves her husband and child, finds herself penniless, becomes a prostitute and is murdered. Besides Nana, the lead, there is a small coterie of characters that includes Godard the director. The camera also plays a role in this film in articulating agency. In their analysis of this film, Silverman and Farocki draw the reader’s attention to how the camera swings between an enunciative and diegetic function, between documentary and narrative. According to the authors this oscillation is part of the film’s aim to make a distinction between the actress Anna Karina and Nana, the character she portrays. This play with the camera also calls attention to the relationship between the surface or mask of the performer (performing a role within the film) as well as the actress’ performance, and the interior- what they call in this movie, the soul. The switch between enunciative, or documentary/objective camera and the narrative camera that anticipates the next move– helps register volumes of information about power. Godard, addressing his strategy with this film:-- "how can one render the inside? precisely by staying prudently outside."

I began to think of these distinctions between inside and outside, mask, skin and interior as I meditated on Silvia Dadian's fragments- there is, in her rendering a multiplication of surfaces that we either look through or become aware of, including the mirror, the screen, the screen we watch on, the skin, and the surface of the deck, all of which the mark the appearance of the subject, but do not acknowledge anything about her.  In the dialectic between a declaring, enunciative position and a narrative one, Dadian's are the former. Although they do not exclude the possibility of narrativity- it seems like they have cut around those bits. I am left wondering about the silence of the woman in Dadian's pieces, and at my position as viewer, which felt voyeuristic in the first two at least.  I think the intention was to have the viewer appear also and be implicated, but I'm not sure how that will work. I am left though with a new thought, on watching the water dry-- which, although it was tedious to watch, got me thinking again about the soul and about the fragile marks made by a life. Some writers such as Franco Berardi, in trying to indicate toward our human corporeality and intimacy that is shrinking as a result of screen cultures, are using the word soul, in order to reach for an interior, and a desire that has been scrubbed out in the name of realism and cynicism. The other association I was led to was that of "a bare life," the starkest description of how external power determines the existence of the subject (that is you and me)- being allowed just to live, with no other attributable qualities or agency. This is the life in a refugee camp.


Thursday, September 6, 2012

Kodak's Chapter 11

More information about what David mentioned concerning Kodak's recent emergence from Chapter 11.       Kodak

Todd

From Claire Soares: "A picture's worth a 1000 words" /Re class last Tuesday (Sep 4)


Hi guys,

I have a blog with the actual spelling of my name that is dedicated to two other classes I am doing this term. To keep things separate, I created a google alias (cass ian happens to refer to a couple of good friends, so it's as good as any. Now to my topic.

I've called this "A picture's worth 100 words" but another equally good title might be "Be it ever so humble (there's no place like home)." At any rate, it's food for thought on days when you feel grumpy. If you're wondering why there's links in this article instead of  "the picture to match each link," it's because in some cases, the link leads to a series of pictures, or an article as well as pictures. You may prefer different pictures to the ones I picked. 

It was an interesting collection of abandoned houses that Mike K. showed, on Tuesday Sep 4.  Further to what I said about what looks like an abandoned shack to some may look like home sweet home to others, here's some thoughts.

Millions of poor Brazilians for instance live in shanty towns called favelas. The link below describes where they fit in Brazilian society (as the only houses of the poor masses):

By any name, these slums occur all over the world and remind me of "Mike's" abandoned houses, to a greater or lesser extent. Here is a look at the equivalent in South Africa.


https://www.google.com/search?q=slums+south+africa&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=w09LUOS7JK-B0QH_xIGwBw&ved=0CCAQsAQ&biw=1158&bih=851



As for abandoned houses in a war zone, these pictures could be any place any war, just the uniforms and weapons may differ. In the first picture, the house is empty because it's been demolished. In the second, the house is very much whole, but its original inhabitants decided they no longer wanted to be there. Clearly the soldiers are looking for someone though, but it's more likely to be someone on the run who thought he'd found a hiding place. In any case, the Iraqis are nowhere in sight




Wednesday, September 5, 2012

House Museums -- Web Proj



These are a few of the images available online that the Historic Columbia Foundation has on their information page for this house-museum.

Originally, I started looking at the museum system and how museums create displays and conveys information to their patrons.  Then when I started this scanner camera project, those were the thoughts that were driving the original intent of the piece.  Because those elements of the museum are not apparent in the image, or the iteration of the piece I currently am working on, the direction of the work may have changed.  I am not sure if that new direction is emphasizing the narrative that can be constructed using a space, especially a space that is categorized and referred to as "historically accurate," a "historical recreation/interpretation/study/illustration etc..."  All of these labels carry baggage and other ideas with them when describing that space and could be useful in formulating a different point of emphasis for the work.  

One idea that I had was to make evident in the fictional narrative that precedes the pages that have the arrangeable images a point of contradiction, a slip in the continuity, expectations of the viewer, credibility of the materials/presenter of images.

What if the fictional snippits that are associated with the images are the point of contradiction? Instead of these phrases be conveying historically pertinent information, would producing, sampling or otherwise creating anachronistic phrases that conflict with the age of the place photographed create an immediate sense of conflict between the information written and the image it's paired with?

Any other ideas?

Input?

Thanks everyone -- 



   

NOLS & Public Relations





I get a Facebook newsfeed update from NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School), with a blog entry where a former intern talks about his experiences in their Public Relations Internship program. This is pretty meta if you ask me: it's public relations citing public relations, all under the guise of public relations.

And of course me writing about it and directing traffic to the blog is public relations.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Cage Uncaged

A wonderful article about a wonderfully creative man.
John Cage

Toxic Sludge is Good for You

Democracy-- Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry The 2009 documentary Toxic Sludge is Good for You, is based on the book of the same name and is written by two former PR professionals, John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton from the video: "According to some estimates, more than 50% of what we think as news is instigated by the PR industry"