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MEDA 101 Assessment 3

The initial idea behind my video changed last minute due to me not being bale to film in the places originally intended. So i shifted my focus to all the strange and weird things around my area that make it home to me. The exploration from the bush to the tunnel to the ruined car are focal point in the film and are places that have a personal significance as i used to play around there as a kid. Layering of similar videos and the grainy VHS-like editing gives the project an eerie feel that encapsulate the bushland at night. Through these ideas i explored what ‘Where Im From’ means to me

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OH YER NOICE

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CAVA101/102 Artist Research

Robert Rauschenberg was a crucial figure in American and world art, as he helped transition art at the time from abstract expressionism to later modern movements. A prolific innovator of techniques and mediums, he used unconventional art materials and mediums ranging from dirt and house paint to umbrellas and car tires. Rauschenberg’s key ideas and motives which he wanted to show through his pieces were: questioning the definition of a work of art and the role of an artist, the merging of kitsch and fine arts into a brand new artistic practice, and the idea of leaving the interpretation to the audience creating a wave of artists making ambiguous pieces. He stated that "Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made” and so created works that move between these realms in constant dialogue with the viewers and the surrounding world. Rauschenberg’s works provided inspiration for up and coming modern artists and the modern art movement. Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein traced their inspiration for Pop art to Rauschenberg's collages of appropriated media images, and his experiments in silkscreen printing. Rauschenberg’s artistic practice relates to mine (Visual Arts) as he was a painter and that was his main media. His use of bright vibrant usually primary colours creates an environment that draws the audience in and simultaneously allows them to create their own meanings for the work.

 Roy Lichtenstein was an artist who along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and others became a leading figure in a new art movement focusing on moving away from Abstract Expressionism. His works often parodied or completely related to American pop culture while embracing ‘low’ art styles such as comic book and pop illustrations. Lichtenstein had a critical role in subverting and challenging the skeptical view of commercial styles and subjects that was the norm of Art styles at the time. His re-imagining of popular culture through the lens of traditional art history has remained his most considerable influence to later generations of artists. A reason that Lichtenstein moved away from Abstract Expressionism maybe have been due to the fact that he believe he didn't “have big anxieties. I wish i did. Id be much more interesting” as that art style tended to focus on the tragic feelings and souls of the artist. This is a complete contrast to Pop art which the styles, subject matter, and techniques of reproduction common in popular culture appeared to dominate the art entirely. Lichtenstein's emphasis on mechanical reproduction in the creation of his works, shown through his use of Ben-Day dots, highlighted that all forms of communication, all messages, are filtered through codes or languages. Roy Lichtenstein was one of the first American Pop artists to achieve widespread renown as he became a lightning rod for criticism of the movement and his high-impact, iconic images have since become synonymous with Pop art. While graphic design does not entirely relate to my field of art there are elements of it that do, for example, his colour composition is originally a visual artistic practice. 

 Jean-Michel Basquiat was a gritty street smart graffiti artist who became one of the few who successfully crossed over from his ‘rough’ upbringing and hometown into the international art circuit. Basquiat emerged from the "Punk" scene in New York and in a few fast-paced years, swiftly became one of the most celebrated, and possibly most commercially exploited American "naif" painters of the widely celebrated Neo-Expressionism art movement. His works are one of the few examples of how an early 1980s American Punk, or graffiti-based and counter-cultural practice could become a fully recognized, critically embraced and popularly celebrated artistic phenomenon. The rise of graffiti and street art also somewhat coincidentally coincided with the rise of American Hip Hop during the same era as the two became synonymous with each other in some cases.  Basquiat very skilfully and purposefully created his art with a host of disparate and cultural traditions, practices, and styles to create a highly unique artistic style, one deriving, in part, from his urban origins, and in another a more distant, African-Caribbean heritage. The juxtaposition and contrast between his heritage and his upbringing clearly showed in his works and provided them with another layer of complexity that was not seen at first glance at his pieces. Jean-Michel Basquiat came to play an important and historic role in the rise of Punk Art and Neo-Expressionism in the New York art scene.

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CAVA101/102 Process Journal

-Lesson 1 - an overview was provided of what the workshop included, for example, day trip to Wollongong CBD, and project creating on Illustrator and Photoshop. Examples of contemporary practitioners in the digital media branch of Visual Arts such as Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Hamilton and Robert Rauschenberg were shown to provide inspiration for our own works.

-Lesson 2 - Site Visit - Our class went to the Wollongong CBD where we were told to take pictures of shop front facades and historical buildings from the late 19th Century to mid 20th Century in central Wollongong. The pictures we took were then supposed to form the basis of illustrations.

-Lesson 3 - The pictures that i took during the site visit were put onto the computer and from them one was chosen to be the focus and turned into an illustration. Using Adobe Illustrator parts of the building facade were chosen and then drawn using various Illustrator tools to create a silhouette, which would be then printed and sections of it would be cut out.

-Lesson 4 - I continued to polish up my illustration for the first part of the lesson and then once it was finished i printed it off and began to practice cutting it out with the scalpel. I had two attempts at this and when i felt it was good enough i began to find information about my family history.

-Lesson 5 - A brief introduction to Adobe Photoshop was given, showing us different tools that could be used to create our family history images. Most of this lesson was dedicated to finding and piecing together pictures of my family history (mums side) to create my collage.

-Lesson 6 - I created my collage on Photoshop, exploring different compositions for the piece. I ended up splitting the image into 2 with my Grandmas history on one side and my Granddads on the other. The decision to use my Mums side of the family rather than my dads or both was due to the fact that little information on my Dads side was available to me. So since my Granddad on my Mums side was in a famous Scottish band i knew there would be info and pictures on him and my Grandma.

-Lesson 7 - I ended up getting the wrong thickness paper for my cut out so this lesson was spent trialling my design and then doing the research on three artists. When doing the trial for my cut out i realised some parts of my design were too thin and needed to be thickened, and that there was too much detail in other parts. So i simplified the piece and cut out some of the complicated linework

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MEDA101 SOUNDSCAPE

The soundscape i made is split into two parts, with the first half focusing on the bushland around my house and the second half being a more industrial or modernised soundscape. The industrial mechanical side of the work was mainly set inside a tunnel near by my house that i used to explore when i was little and so relates to ‘Where im from’, while the bushland was chosen as ive lived in or around the bush my whole life.

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MEDA101 REMOSCOPE

The remoscope i have created relates heavily to the idea of 'Where Im From' as all of the footage was taken in the bushland behind my house. As im from the Blue Mountians all of the vegetation and plant life is specific to where i live further connecting to where im from. Multiple parts of the video have connecting frames eg. the car/car door, with those being highly specific to things in my life. The opening and closing of the video is me returning to the mountains by train every Friday afternoon when i leave Wollongong, creating a bit of a narrative.

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References

Ashforth, B.E. and Mael, F., 1989. Social identity theory and the organization. Academy of management review, 14(1), pp.20-39.

Barker, C 2007, ‘Issues of subjectivity and identity’, in Cultural studies: theory and practice, 3rd edn, Sage Publications, London.

Bennet, A & Royle, N 2016, ‘Me’ in An introduction to literature, criticism and theory, 5th edn, Routledge, New York.

Gelman, SA, 2003, The Essential Child, Origins of Essentialism in Everyday Thought, Oxford University Press, New York, p 3-7

Hall, Stuart, (1992) "The Question of Cultural Identity" from Modernity and its futures, Cambridge, p.274-316

Honour, Hugh. & Fleming, John.  1991,  A world history of art / Hugh Honour & John Fleming  Laurence King London

Howes, David 2005, 'Skinscapes: embodiment, culture, and environment', in Classen, Constance The book of touch, Berg, Oxford, pp. 27-39

Mansfield, Nicholas 2000, Subjectivity: theories of the self from Freud to Haraway, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, N.S.W. p.29

Megan, Ghost Pottery Scene, online video Sep 21, 2009, Viewed 22nd of March 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXfxUVjHFl0

Pure Noise Records, The Story So Far "Phantom", online video May 11, 2015, Viewed 22nd of March 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZYkdr80SR0

Sutton, Asta, Art and the Unconscious, A Semiotic Case Study of the Painting Process, Lapland University Press, Finland, p.224-226

Tagg, Caroline and Seargeant, Philip (2015). Facebook and the discursive construction of the social network. The Routledge Handbook of Language and Digital Communication. Routledge, p. 339–353.

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Social Identity

Social Identity: Is the perception that others have of a person that stems from the categorisation of the individuals, prestige and distinctiveness of the group or social platform the person is being seen from (Ashforth and Mael, 1989, 20-39). This can be manipulated in order to gain admiration or followers and is often done by artists involved in music.

A Visual Artists social identity is important as it can be a hindering or promoting factor in the spread  and popularity of their work. For example, Banksy’s central appeal is his mainly blank profile, and some would suggest without it his works would be ignored entirely as graffiti.

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Fractured Identity

Fractured Identity: Is the idea that people have identities that operate as a new or differing version of themselves which persons bring out to put themselves in a more favourable position with others (Tagg & Seargeant,2016,p.343). These identities can often coincide and or contradict themselves. (Hall, 1992, p.227)

The Fractured Identity can both positively or negatively affect a visual artist, as some people might see the change in identity as a falsity and therefore associate the work as being untrue. While on the other hand it can allow for some artists to have multiple fingers in differing practices and create works around that

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Creative Identity

Creative Influence: Refers to the forces that affect a person and compel them to find and explore the ideas and themes that drive their works. It is both greatly influenced by the environment and context that an artist has been surrounded by in their life, and the people that they interact with (Barker, 2005, p.28)

A visual artist’s Creative Identity is important as it shapes the way that their work is made, the ideas within it, and how it is presented. Without a creative identity an artists work will usually just be replications or knock offs of other pieces, although this can lead to a creative identity e.g. portrait painters or satirical artists.

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Authenticity

Authenticity: Refers to realistic qualties that an artist puts forth that makes a piece ��real’ this causes confusion to some as works, especially performance pieces, portray a version of the artist as someone who they are not. We are limited at birth by our language and culture (Bennet & Royle 2016, p.155), however there is an unrivalled freedom in art making and the authenticity it has.

Authenticity is something most visual artists can associate themselves with, as artworks tend to be the most true reflections of one’s self. By portraying or pretending to be a person/artist you are not, your works can be seen by some people as false or not true works

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Creative Influence

Creative Influence: Can refer to the internal and external forces that drive an artist sense of direction with an artwork or become the basis for a project. Freud’s theory of unconsciousness (Bennet & Royle 2016, p. 153) demonstrates there are forces an individual may not be consciously aware of that influence their creative practice. This can go as far as not being able to recognise motifs or clear influences, until told by an observer or audience.

Creative Influence greatly affects visual artists as things such as personal traumas or issues can affect an artists creative design. For example the use of dark brooding colours when going through stages of mental or physical illness.

The vocalists repeated use of ‘dark blue’ is a sign of creative influence due to trauma https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZYkdr80SR0

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Sensory Knowledge

Sensory Knowledge: The knowledge/data that the body takes in via the senses, first dating back to the Cashinahua people of Peru. However it is not only just a collection of physiological data, but of moral and psychological knowledge as well (Howes, 2005, p27). It is the bodies innate ability to direct the body when the mind is not fully focused.

This is relevant to visual arts for disciplines such as sculpture or abstract painting/drawing where the artist may not be required to put as much thought into a piece and can rely on either muscle memory or their sensory knowledge to continue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXfxUVjHFl0

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Overdetermination

Overdetermination: The act of the unconscious taking trivial behaviours or ideas and making them the focus of a deep psychological complexity. Reading too much into an idea. Freudian theory often argues that all a persons psychological material is overdetermined (Mansfield, 2000, p.29)

Overdetermination fits into visual arts through its unavoidable nature. Visual artists often find themselves dwelling on idea or concepts about pieces for too long taking away from the actual work itself. However, while overdetermination can be the cause of an artist discontinuing a project, it can also be the driving force behind a concept.

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Unconscious

Unconscious: Relates to the movements, thoughts, and spoken words that stem from unknown places and come to life with no knowledge of the self producing them. These things often are seen in jokes, parapraxis, and dream, and are examples of the unconscious having an effect on the conscious train of thought.

The unconscious is important to visual arts as it can be a gateway for artists to express things that cannot be otherwise stated elsewhere. Art is also a gateway into unlocking more of the unconscious for some artists/practitioners through certain artistic techniques such as unconscious and or conscious verbalisation of processes as the happen.

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Essentialism

Essentialism: The view that sociocultural categories have an underlying or ‘true nature’ that characterise people, groups of people or objects, which cannot be seen but give them and identity. These are groupings can be both natural, found by human discovery, or created by social norms or cultural understandings (S.Gelman, The Essential Child, 2003)

Essentialism relates to visual arts in that it can be a stepping stone or origin for artist who choose to base their practice/art-making around societal ideas that are present at the time or previously have been. This is especially prevalent in contemporary artists who use their works to challenge or agree with certain social or political norms.

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Subjectivity

Subjectivity: The condition of being subject to forces and effects that emanate from both within itself and forces outside itself. These ideal relates and defines the person as a whole rather than as a me or an i, focusing on one who has conscious experiences. Subjectivity is important to visual arts as it allows artists to focus or objectify persons wholly as a subject, rather than subjectifying them as an object (G.Kahn, L’Evénément,1886). This can allow for artworks to be more natural and flowing in their creating depicting more human emotion and creating more opportunity for exploration in pieces.