Friday, October 30, 2015
Response to Websites - Homework 6
The artists featured in these websites (and articles) encompass the newer 21st century approach to art making and sculpture - through digital fabrication, 3D printing, and other digital mediums. For example, Barry X Ball, a sculpture artist, explains his digital processes when developing his series, "Portrait Sculptures". His statement tells us how after the plaster mold of the portrait is completed, it is digitized via laser scanning (which lets the model be manipulated or left alone), and then carved into stone using computer-controlled (CNC) milling machines. He then puts more work in after it is carved, but quite a bit of the work is completed digitally. Another artist, Nick Ervinck, uses digital media in his large installations, combining science with art, in order to compose work that was previously unthinkable. He says in his artistic statement, "I am particularly interested in the ways computers can be used in the realization of new, organic and experimental (negative) spaces and sculptures within sculptures and how the tension between blobs and boxes is articulated during the digital designing process." I found Lucas Maassen's "Brainwave Sofa" particularly interesting. He used a brainwave scan, measured by an EEG, to create the design for his sofa, and cut out the figure in soft foam using a CNC milling machine (similarly to Barry X Ball). Conceptually, Maassen's work is like Richard Dupont's, who uses digital technology to explore the themes of the human body, memory, perception, and social space. Bridget Millsaps article, "‘2015 Triennial: Surround Audience’ Exhibit Features Artists Not Afraid of 3D Printing & Contemporary Technology", describes a 2015 exhibit in the New Museum which focused primarily on digital sculpture. The article stresses how sculpture in the 21st century is being characterized by digital media and experimentation. With the rapid increase in technology, none of this is surprising. Our daily lives are impacted by technology. We are surrounded by it at al times. It only makes sense that it would begin to come out in art. It is seen throughout history that artists are revolutionaries - we do what no one has ever seen before. This is evident in the Renaissance, all aspects of Modernism (especially DaDa, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, and even Post/Impressionism). This generation is being defined by technology and technological advances. If artists were to not experiment with the newnesses of technology, and its relationship to sculpture and art, this generation of professional artists would be failing immensely, and not doing their part in paving the way for the next generation of professional artists.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Response to Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" - Homework 5
Walter Benjamin's essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" focuses on the effect mechanical reproduction has on art forms. Essentially, with the development of mechanical reproduction, the copies of the art began to matter more than the originals. Benjamin claims the power of traditional art was in its "aura" - its unique ability to be authentically in a single space. The art was selective. He continues to argue that because of mechanical reproduction, art was moving from the traditional into the political, liberating itself from aura. Because of the speed art was (and still is) being reproduced, it was able to be spread to a much wider audience. Therefore, people were gaining access to what they could not before. Just as importantly, the art was able to go wherever the viewer was, which not only meant that traditional viewing spaces of art (i.e. museums, rich people's homes, churches, etc.) were no longer relevant, but it leveled the "playing field" between the upper and lower classes. This is where propaganda comes in. Propaganda is biased or misleading information used to promote or publicize a particular point of view. Propaganda is generally thought of in the larger terms of World War II Nazi vs. American posters or political campaigning for example, but even simple advertisements are forms of propaganda. As said in "Art & Color", "Advertising almost always starts with something true". Meaning, it begins legitimate, but often ends draped in misleading/biased information used to promote a particular point of view (about a product). Classic Propaganda. What makes propaganda so successful is its ability to reach extremely wide audiences, which is almost entirely due to mechanical reproduction. As stated, because of the emergence of mechanical reproduction, art (which also includes advertisements of various sorts) was able to be placed almost anywhere and seen by any(every)one. This meant billboards, magazines, the internet (later on, obviously), etc. And because everyone had access to the art, they were able to be bombarded with the advertising (which has only gotten worse over the years). The widespread art advertising was able to influence people like it never had before. This was exemplified in fairly harmless ways, such as 1960s posters for Kellogg's corn flakes, or Campbell's tomato soup. But it was also shown to be extremely harmful, such as the strength of the Nazi Party after "Triumph of the Will" in 1935, which, essentially, led to the second World War. The advertising/propaganda rampage perfectly embodies the effect of mechanical reproduction on art.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Propaganda Project Quickly Explained
- These posters are aimed at College/University aged young adults (18 - 24). If they were real, they were probably made by a volunteer University "Pro-" or "Anti-" Cigarettes club (as opposed to a giant corporation), and hung on dorm walls, doors of bathroom stalls, etc.
- The "Pro-Smoking" advertisement was meant to tell someone, essentially, "Smoking will get you laid". The "Have your 'Ah' Moment" slogan can refer to both a deep breath while trying to calm oneself down, and, subliminally, a stereotypical orgasm. This is accentuated by the seductively posed nude woman.
Whereas, the "Anti-Smoking" advertisement was meant to tell someone "While you're outside having your cigarette break, your friends are inside making memories without you. And if you keep smoking, you will eventually lose your friends". The picture is of a lonely boy smoking outside in the (assumed) cold, while his warm and laughing friends can be vaguely seen inside without him. This is accentuate by the phrase "You are alone" in which the "you" is the smoker.
- From my point of view, most teenage/young adult students are going to be able to relate more to sex and feelings of loneliness, than they would to random health statistics and scare tactics.
- Primary usage of TRANSFER
Making an illogical association between one thing and something else that is generally viewed as positive or negative. In these cases, the illogical associations would be between cigarette smoking and sex/naked women (which is generally viewed as positive) or loneliness (which is generally viewed as negative).
Other techniques include the usage of Easily Recognizable Imagery ("Marlboro" and "Newport" cigarette packs), Beautiful people (nude woman in 1), "Plain Folk" (lonely teenager in 2), modified Classical Conditioning (similar to transfer, if object A (cigarettes) is always present when object B (nude woman) is present and object B causes a reaction or feeling (pleasure), then when presented with Object A when Object B is not present, the consumer may experience that same feeling).
- Color relationship: Red --> Erotic, Blue --> Loneliness/Sadness
- Photographs on drawn packs were meant to emulate the graphic photos found on real packs
- Even though the layout of the two advertisements are almost identical, they are able to convey completely different messages.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)