Thursday, July 22, 2010
My Bed /Tracey Emin
My Bed by Tracey Emin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracey_Emin
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/artpages/tracey_emin_my_bed.html
My Bed is a work by the British artist Tracey Emin. It was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1999 as one of the shortlisted works for the Turner Prize. It consisted of her bed with bedroom objects in an abject state, and gained much media attention. Although it did not win the prize, its notoriety has persisted.
The artwork generated considerable media furore[1], particularly over the fact that the bedsheets were stained with body secretions and the floor had items from the artist's room (such as condoms, a pair of knickers with menstrual period stains, other detritus, and functional, everyday objects, including a pair of slippers). The bed was presented as it had been when Emin had not got up from it for several days due to suicidal depression brought on by relationship difficulties.[2][3]
Two performance artists, Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi, jumped on the bed with bare torsos in order to "improve" the work, which they thought had not gone far enough. They called their performance Two Naked Men Jump Into Tracey's Bed. The men also had a pillow fight[4] on the bed for around fifteen minutes, to applause from the crowd, before being removed by security guards.[1] The artists were detained but no further action was taken.[1] Prior to its Tate Gallery showing, the work had appeared elsewhere, including Japan, where there were variant surroundings, including at one stage a "hangman's noose" hanging over the bed. This was not present when it was displayed at the Tate.[5]
My Bed was bought by Charles Saatchi for £150,000 and displayed as part of the first exhibition when the Saatchi Gallery opened its new premises at County Hall, London (which it has now vacated). Saatchi also installed the bed in a dedicated room in his own home.
Craig Brown wrote a satirical piece about My Bed for Private Eye entitled My Turd. Emin's former boyfriend, former Stuckist artist Billy Childish, stated that he also had an old bed of hers in the shed which he would make available for £20,000.
courtesy : Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracey_Emin
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/artpages/tracey_emin_my_bed.html
My Bed is a work by the British artist Tracey Emin. It was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1999 as one of the shortlisted works for the Turner Prize. It consisted of her bed with bedroom objects in an abject state, and gained much media attention. Although it did not win the prize, its notoriety has persisted.
The artwork generated considerable media furore[1], particularly over the fact that the bedsheets were stained with body secretions and the floor had items from the artist's room (such as condoms, a pair of knickers with menstrual period stains, other detritus, and functional, everyday objects, including a pair of slippers). The bed was presented as it had been when Emin had not got up from it for several days due to suicidal depression brought on by relationship difficulties.[2][3]
Two performance artists, Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi, jumped on the bed with bare torsos in order to "improve" the work, which they thought had not gone far enough. They called their performance Two Naked Men Jump Into Tracey's Bed. The men also had a pillow fight[4] on the bed for around fifteen minutes, to applause from the crowd, before being removed by security guards.[1] The artists were detained but no further action was taken.[1] Prior to its Tate Gallery showing, the work had appeared elsewhere, including Japan, where there were variant surroundings, including at one stage a "hangman's noose" hanging over the bed. This was not present when it was displayed at the Tate.[5]
My Bed was bought by Charles Saatchi for £150,000 and displayed as part of the first exhibition when the Saatchi Gallery opened its new premises at County Hall, London (which it has now vacated). Saatchi also installed the bed in a dedicated room in his own home.
Craig Brown wrote a satirical piece about My Bed for Private Eye entitled My Turd. Emin's former boyfriend, former Stuckist artist Billy Childish, stated that he also had an old bed of hers in the shed which he would make available for £20,000.
courtesy : Wikipedia
Suggested Readings for MA Previous/ Marcel Duchamp
For 'Fountain' by Marcel Duchamp;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), the painter and mixed media artist, was associated with Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism, though he avoided any alliances. Duchamp’s work is characterized by its humor, the variety and unconventionality of its media, and its incessant probing of the boundaries of art. His legacy includes the insight that art can be about ideas instead of worldly things, a revolutionary notion that would resonate with later generations of artists.
Duchamp’s most notorious readymade was a manufactured urinal entitled Fountain. Conceived for a show promoting avant-garde art, Fountain took advantage of the show’s lack of juried panels, which invariably excluded forward-looking artists.
Under a pseudonym, “R. Mutt,” Duchamp submitted Fountain. It was a prank, meant to taunt his avant-garde peers. For some of the show’s organizers this was too much — was the artist equating modern art with a toilet fixture? — and Fountain was “misplaced” for the duration of the exhibition. It disappeared soon thereafter.
As surely as it was a prank, Fountain was also, like the other readymades, a calculated attack on the most basic conventions of art. Duchamp defended the piece in an unsigned article in The Blind Man, a one-shot magazine published by his friend Beatrice Wood. To the charge that Fountain was mere plagiarism, “a plain piece of plumbing,” he replied “Whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view — created a new thought for that object.”
At the time, almost nobody understood what Duchamp was talking about. But fifty years later everyday objects would be commonplace in art.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), the painter and mixed media artist, was associated with Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism, though he avoided any alliances. Duchamp’s work is characterized by its humor, the variety and unconventionality of its media, and its incessant probing of the boundaries of art. His legacy includes the insight that art can be about ideas instead of worldly things, a revolutionary notion that would resonate with later generations of artists.
Duchamp’s most notorious readymade was a manufactured urinal entitled Fountain. Conceived for a show promoting avant-garde art, Fountain took advantage of the show’s lack of juried panels, which invariably excluded forward-looking artists.
Under a pseudonym, “R. Mutt,” Duchamp submitted Fountain. It was a prank, meant to taunt his avant-garde peers. For some of the show’s organizers this was too much — was the artist equating modern art with a toilet fixture? — and Fountain was “misplaced” for the duration of the exhibition. It disappeared soon thereafter.
As surely as it was a prank, Fountain was also, like the other readymades, a calculated attack on the most basic conventions of art. Duchamp defended the piece in an unsigned article in The Blind Man, a one-shot magazine published by his friend Beatrice Wood. To the charge that Fountain was mere plagiarism, “a plain piece of plumbing,” he replied “Whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view — created a new thought for that object.”
At the time, almost nobody understood what Duchamp was talking about. But fifty years later everyday objects would be commonplace in art.
Freudian analysis. MA Previous.
Class notes as on 8th July, 2010
Freud basically talked about the id, ego and the super ego. To get into some piece of detail let us look back to what Lacan who pointed out that since birth mankind is polymorphous and all that they desire is the pleasure principle.This desire is thereby sought through the mother. Can we then say that man by nature and conception is therefore incestuous?
According to Freud, both boys and girls realise at a young age that they cannot hold authority over their mother since she is legally, physically, emotionally possessed by the father who is all standing authority. In case of the boys this was referred to as the Oedipal complex which was followed by the castration complex. By this time, say, when the boy is approximately fourteen years of age he looks outside home for an alternative mother figure thereby becoming an exogamous heterosexual.
Similar is the case with young girls who cannot at their age differentiate between the clitoris and the penis. On realisation that they actually do not have one they become wary with their mothers for not having given them one. At this juncture quite like the boys, the girls too get attracted to their fathers. However, on coming to terms with the mother's authority and right over the father, the girl seeks a father figure outside home and hence, exogamous and heterosexual. The feminists however convert the lack (of a penis) to the advantage of possessing a womb. A feminist backlash to the core which places men (as in the gender) into the position of lacking something (the womb).
It is coming to terms which actually subordinates the pleasure principle to the reality principle.( If this is not done, one would actually be looking out for pleasures of the body and hence no work done.)
Freud says however that not everybody reaches this stage of proper subordination and therefore it is the repressed desire that form the unconcious.This also represents itself in the form of Freudian slips. The psychopathology of everyday life!
It is good to see that at no juncture is Freud critical of people.
Writing as per Freud is interestingly neurosis where the repressed desires are put down on paper.
For more on Freud, refer: a) Civilization and its Discontents b) Interpretation of Dreams and c)Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
Pinto, Anil. Class lecture.On Freud.Christ University. Bangalore, India. 8 July 2010. Lecture.
Freud basically talked about the id, ego and the super ego. To get into some piece of detail let us look back to what Lacan who pointed out that since birth mankind is polymorphous and all that they desire is the pleasure principle.This desire is thereby sought through the mother. Can we then say that man by nature and conception is therefore incestuous?
According to Freud, both boys and girls realise at a young age that they cannot hold authority over their mother since she is legally, physically, emotionally possessed by the father who is all standing authority. In case of the boys this was referred to as the Oedipal complex which was followed by the castration complex. By this time, say, when the boy is approximately fourteen years of age he looks outside home for an alternative mother figure thereby becoming an exogamous heterosexual.
Similar is the case with young girls who cannot at their age differentiate between the clitoris and the penis. On realisation that they actually do not have one they become wary with their mothers for not having given them one. At this juncture quite like the boys, the girls too get attracted to their fathers. However, on coming to terms with the mother's authority and right over the father, the girl seeks a father figure outside home and hence, exogamous and heterosexual. The feminists however convert the lack (of a penis) to the advantage of possessing a womb. A feminist backlash to the core which places men (as in the gender) into the position of lacking something (the womb).
It is coming to terms which actually subordinates the pleasure principle to the reality principle.( If this is not done, one would actually be looking out for pleasures of the body and hence no work done.)
Freud says however that not everybody reaches this stage of proper subordination and therefore it is the repressed desire that form the unconcious.This also represents itself in the form of Freudian slips. The psychopathology of everyday life!
It is good to see that at no juncture is Freud critical of people.
Writing as per Freud is interestingly neurosis where the repressed desires are put down on paper.
For more on Freud, refer: a) Civilization and its Discontents b) Interpretation of Dreams and c)Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
Pinto, Anil. Class lecture.On Freud.Christ University. Bangalore, India. 8 July 2010. Lecture.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Aesthetics and the Individual
7th July, 2010.
MA Previous
The concept of aesthetic was talked about because of the existence of the individual that is to say, one would talk of it only because there is an individual who has been sanctioned since everybody cannot do everything.Precisely,an individual can make, has genius, can create and simultaneously can plan his destiny as well as other's.In the meantime he gets what is basically identified as life source that is monetary gains.
The idea of the individual is only six hundred years old. For an understanding of the concepts refer:
Dogma of Christ by Erich Fromm.
Myth of the Individual by Ian Watt
Idea of the Individual as in the Norton Critical Edition of Robinson Crusoe.
However, it is very interesting to look at what Freud's stand is on this concept. Freud interestingly denied the entire idea of the individual and thought of them as subjects- acted upon and manipulated. Edmund Husserl's argument that we are all products of subjective apparatus was coupled by his coinage of the word 'inter subjective' in 1917.Meaning to say, whatever one feels- pain or pleasure (not just one's own but also of others that an individual is capable of evoking) becomes inter subjective.There is also this lack of choice and the choices we talk about are not really choices in the first place. For instance, you can only choose to be in the class or outside. There essentially is no third option which proves the fact that we are constantly being subjected with even temporal realities working on it all at the same time.
Also, not to forget is the idea of pleasure principle versus the reality principle.
In short all what we have discussed till now are:
a) Notion of the aesthetic and the idea of the individual.
b) Intellectual pre history of modern day notion of art and aesthetics.
c) Colonial legacy of geographical/cultural aesthetic categories.
Pinto, Anil. Class lecture.Aesthetic and the Individual.Christ University. Bangalore, India. 07 July 2010. Lecture.
MA Previous
The concept of aesthetic was talked about because of the existence of the individual that is to say, one would talk of it only because there is an individual who has been sanctioned since everybody cannot do everything.Precisely,an individual can make, has genius, can create and simultaneously can plan his destiny as well as other's.In the meantime he gets what is basically identified as life source that is monetary gains.
The idea of the individual is only six hundred years old. For an understanding of the concepts refer:
Dogma of Christ by Erich Fromm.
Myth of the Individual by Ian Watt
Idea of the Individual as in the Norton Critical Edition of Robinson Crusoe.
However, it is very interesting to look at what Freud's stand is on this concept. Freud interestingly denied the entire idea of the individual and thought of them as subjects- acted upon and manipulated. Edmund Husserl's argument that we are all products of subjective apparatus was coupled by his coinage of the word 'inter subjective' in 1917.Meaning to say, whatever one feels- pain or pleasure (not just one's own but also of others that an individual is capable of evoking) becomes inter subjective.There is also this lack of choice and the choices we talk about are not really choices in the first place. For instance, you can only choose to be in the class or outside. There essentially is no third option which proves the fact that we are constantly being subjected with even temporal realities working on it all at the same time.
Also, not to forget is the idea of pleasure principle versus the reality principle.
In short all what we have discussed till now are:
a) Notion of the aesthetic and the idea of the individual.
b) Intellectual pre history of modern day notion of art and aesthetics.
c) Colonial legacy of geographical/cultural aesthetic categories.
Pinto, Anil. Class lecture.Aesthetic and the Individual.Christ University. Bangalore, India. 07 July 2010. Lecture.
Visuals/ Hustle and Flow.
7th June 2010.
MA PREVIOUS
One man's struggle to rise above his circumstances prompts him to try a career in music in this acclaimed drama from writer and director Craig Brewer. Djay (Terrence Howard) is a low-level pimp and drug dealer who scraped together a living in the ghettos of Memphis, TN. Djay isn't happy with his life, and the realization that he's reached the same age when his father unexpectedly died has made him start thinking about changing his ways. Djay has always had a gift for spinning stories, and after picking up a cheap keyboard, he begins picking out beats to go along with his rhymes. After bumping into an old high-school buddy who works in gospel music, Key (Anthony Anderson), Djay decided to take the plunge and remake himself as a rapper. With the technical know-how of Key and the musical input of a local beat maker named Shelby (DJ Qualls), Djay begins turning his way with words and his first-hand knowledge of the street life into music, as his two live-in girlfriends, Lexus (Paula Jai Parker) and Shug (Taraji P.Henson), add their musical input and emotional support and Nola (Taryn Manning) continues to turn tricks to pay the bills. When local boy-turned-nationwide hip-hop star Skinny Black (Ludacris) comes to town to pay a visit to Arnel (Isaac Hayes), a club owner friendly with Djay, he sees an opportunity to put his demo in the hands of someone who can bring his music to the masses, though it turns out to be far more difficult than he expected.
Keep hustling..keep flowing...! and thats not all that keeps you glued. The cinema is in the real and as crude as it can get in an environment as is portrayed. Even the technicalities were marvellous with the focus on tighter, closer frames which makes it absolutely difficult and challenging for the actors because the expressions are under constant review where the scene is crammed.
Interestingly there is no background score either!Its either only the music that is composed then and there or the background in a bar which does not make it as superficial as other prime time cinemas can get to be.
From another perspective, it is about people. The age of innocence is over and the anti-social realm is held in close observation where everything flows in a vicious circle until the protagonist dares to break this circle of crude emotions.Skinny Black mutilates DJay's records but the chain breaks there when the latter agrees to listen to the records of the cops in the jail. The systems that fall into place with Nola who initially was a passive call girl takes charge and apparently brings about a notable movement in the movie and brings out DJay in the music market against all odds. It makes you think not only about costumes and appeal but cinematography, music, acting and thought.
As the man says : Everybody gotta have a dream!!
MA PREVIOUS
One man's struggle to rise above his circumstances prompts him to try a career in music in this acclaimed drama from writer and director Craig Brewer. Djay (Terrence Howard) is a low-level pimp and drug dealer who scraped together a living in the ghettos of Memphis, TN. Djay isn't happy with his life, and the realization that he's reached the same age when his father unexpectedly died has made him start thinking about changing his ways. Djay has always had a gift for spinning stories, and after picking up a cheap keyboard, he begins picking out beats to go along with his rhymes. After bumping into an old high-school buddy who works in gospel music, Key (Anthony Anderson), Djay decided to take the plunge and remake himself as a rapper. With the technical know-how of Key and the musical input of a local beat maker named Shelby (DJ Qualls), Djay begins turning his way with words and his first-hand knowledge of the street life into music, as his two live-in girlfriends, Lexus (Paula Jai Parker) and Shug (Taraji P.Henson), add their musical input and emotional support and Nola (Taryn Manning) continues to turn tricks to pay the bills. When local boy-turned-nationwide hip-hop star Skinny Black (Ludacris) comes to town to pay a visit to Arnel (Isaac Hayes), a club owner friendly with Djay, he sees an opportunity to put his demo in the hands of someone who can bring his music to the masses, though it turns out to be far more difficult than he expected.
Keep hustling..keep flowing...! and thats not all that keeps you glued. The cinema is in the real and as crude as it can get in an environment as is portrayed. Even the technicalities were marvellous with the focus on tighter, closer frames which makes it absolutely difficult and challenging for the actors because the expressions are under constant review where the scene is crammed.
Interestingly there is no background score either!Its either only the music that is composed then and there or the background in a bar which does not make it as superficial as other prime time cinemas can get to be.
From another perspective, it is about people. The age of innocence is over and the anti-social realm is held in close observation where everything flows in a vicious circle until the protagonist dares to break this circle of crude emotions.Skinny Black mutilates DJay's records but the chain breaks there when the latter agrees to listen to the records of the cops in the jail. The systems that fall into place with Nola who initially was a passive call girl takes charge and apparently brings about a notable movement in the movie and brings out DJay in the music market against all odds. It makes you think not only about costumes and appeal but cinematography, music, acting and thought.
As the man says : Everybody gotta have a dream!!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
V Semester Literary theory class notes 5: Syntagm and paradigm
28 June 2010
Starters
Syntagm and paradigm
Syn- in Greek means together
Syntagm is in any sign system (language), sign system can be language, cricket match,
All sign systems have their syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships.
Because in any language or sign system the key word is relationships and minus that there is no language. Each sign makes means something in relation with another sign in a system, outside which it makes no sense.
Syntagmatic relationships
· Are horizontal relationships
· Occur together
· Are irreducible
· Mutually exclusive
For example,
A dog ate a cat
You can mutually replace dog with cat. You cannot replace A with dog or vice versa, but they are put together.
Therefore they occur together but are irreducible. It will no more make sense. They are syntagmatic.
A dog ate a cat.
The dog ate a cat.
Some dog ate a cat.
Look at this relationship. A, The and some are replaceable, the sentence is still meaningful. They are mutually
inclusive. Remember the story of Oedipus Rex, the story can be read across or up-down.
Or take the example of stories ‘Snow White’ and ‘Cinderella’, there is a princess, stepmother, prince. And there can be
seen a syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationship among them.
This can be found in a lot of other places. For example go to a hotel and ask for the menu. It will be something like
this,
For example,
A dog ate a cat
You can mutually replace dog with cat. You cannot replace A with dog or vice versa, but they are put together.
Therefore they occur together but are irreducible. It will no more make sense. They are syntagmatic.
A dog ate a cat.
The dog ate a cat.
Some dog ate a cat.
Look at this relationship. A, The and some are replaceable, the sentence is still meaningful. They are mutually
inclusive. Remember the story of Oedipus Rex, the story can be read across or up-down.
Or take the example of stories ‘Snow White’ and ‘Cinderella’, there is a princess, stepmother, prince. And there can be
seen a syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationship among them.
This can be found in a lot of other places. For example go to a hotel and ask for the menu. It will be something like
this,
Starters
-
-
-
Main course
· Mutton
1. Mutton biryani
2. Mutton curry
· Chicken
-
-
-
· Bread
-
-
-
· Rice
-
-
Dessert
-
-
-
So now here we see that the order of starters main course and dessert is a syntagmatic relationship. You cannot replace one with the other. You do not have dessert first and then the main course, at least normally we don’t.
But among starters you can have anything in any order. This is known as the paradigmatic relationship.
Now the point here is that, this, what we have applied in food can be applied to anything.
This kind of paradigmatic structure, and syntagmatic structure can also be seen in different cultures, organizations, even in clothing patterns.
Pinto, Anil. Class lecture. Introduction to Literary Theory. Christ University. Bangalore, India. 28 June 2010. Lecture.
Pinto, Anil. Class lecture. Introduction to Literary Theory. Christ University. Bangalore, India. 28 June 2010. Lecture.
V Semester JPEng Help for Literary theory CIA- II
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2010/06/literary-theory-class-notes-1.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2010/06/11-june-2010-continuation.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2010/06/v-semester-literary-theory-class-notes.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2010/07/v-semester-literary-theory-class-notes.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2010/07/v-semester-literary-theory-class-notes_18.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2009/08/claude-levi-strauss-on-structuralist.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2009/08/literary-theory-and-criticism-links-to.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2009/08/claude-levi-strauss-on-structuralist.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2009/07/mapping-essay.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2008/07/claude-levi-strauss-on-structuralist.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2010/07/v-semester-literary-theory-class-notes_18.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2010/06/11-june-2010-continuation.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2010/06/v-semester-literary-theory-class-notes.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2010/07/v-semester-literary-theory-class-notes.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2010/07/v-semester-literary-theory-class-notes_18.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2009/08/claude-levi-strauss-on-structuralist.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2009/08/literary-theory-and-criticism-links-to.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2009/08/claude-levi-strauss-on-structuralist.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2009/07/mapping-essay.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2008/07/claude-levi-strauss-on-structuralist.html
http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2010/07/v-semester-literary-theory-class-notes_18.html
Friday, July 16, 2010
Mapping of the essay by Sebin Justine
Sebin Justine
1024102
CIA II
MEL 132
Western Aesthetics
July 15, 2010
Essay Mapping
Postmodernism and Politics of Style by Dick Hebdige
In this essay Dick Hebdige discusses on post modernism. He also discusses how it became useful to world. He begins the essay by giving an introduction to postmodernism
Definition and introduction of postmodernism is discussed in this paragraph.
Postmodernism is-space- condition-predicament-an aporia- unpassablepath-where competing intentions- definition- diverse- social-intellectual tendencies-lines of force coverage-clash.When-people-discribe-postmodern as- décor of room-design of building-diegesis of the film-construction of a record- television commercial - an arts documentary- layout of page in fashion magazine or critical journal- anti teleological tendency with epistemology- attack on metaphysical presence- general attenuation of feeling- collective chargin –group of rhetorical troupes – a proliferation of surfaces- new phase in commodity fetishism-facination for images-codes and style- process of cultural- political or existential fragmentation-decentring of subject—collapse of cultural hierarchies- decline of university-functioning of new miniaturized technologies-broad societal and economic shift into media- then –is clear –we- presence –of buzzword.
This paragraph discusses how peoples view on postmodernism
Viewed Benigly-degree – semantic complexity-surrounding-postmodernism-signal- that- number of people-with-interests-opinion –feel- that- something-important-stake –worth-struggling-arguing. Substantiative appeal of -debates – consist- degree-of contemporary crisis-directly-confronted-articulated-grappled with.Uneasiness- which – concern-rapidity and glee-which-intellectuals-intent-abandoning earlier positions-staked out-in- pre-post-erous ground- older-critical debates-predominates-uneasiness-which-underpinned-this case-by-squarer-puritival -aversion-decadence-fatalism.
The paragraph describes various definition of postmodernism
Postmodernism-resembles-modernism-that-it-need-to be thought-plural. Different –writers-define-differently-but- writer- can talk- different time-about-differnent post. Jean Francois Lyotard-used-term-to three sepratetendencies. 1) trend-within-architecture-away-from-Modern Movement’s project-of a last rebuilding- whole space-occupied-humanity. 2) decay-confidence- in –idea –of- progress and modernization. 3) recognition-no longer-employ-metaphor-of-avant-garde- as if- modern artist- soldiers- fighting-borders of knowledge. There is- postmodernism-as –descriptive category- liternature and visual arts-postmodernism- used-refer-a tendency- towards-stylistic pluralism, crisis- avant-garde-as idea and as institution- the blurring on-allegedly unparalleled scale-categories of high and low forms, idioms and contents. There-attempts-discribe-postmodern-emergent cultures and subcultures associated- the new userfriendly- communication technologies . There- much talk-bricolage, creative consumption, the decentring and de professionalization- knowledge- technical expertise, the production – meaning in use. There – talk too- general breakdown – social and cultural distinctions: an end- to- outmoded fantasy- the masses and- corollary in – market but also –historically grounded communities of – industrial period: end – existing subjectivities, existing collectivities. These fragmentations- sometimes linked- erosion – boundaries between – production and consumption, between different media and- incommensurable times and unsynchronized rhythms- different process, experiences, actions. Sometime- it – suggested- together- blurrings and mergers- led to collapse- hierarchies- kept apart the competing definition of culture- high culture, low culture, mass culture, popular culture, culture as- whole way of life- such a way- these categories- their contents- no longer-regarded –separate, distinct and vertically ranked.
Distinguishing between neo-consrvative-anti-modernist and critical post modernism is discussed.
Hal Foster- distinguishes between- neoconservative-antimodernist-critical postmodernism-and points out-some- critics – practioners seek- extend-revitalize-modernist project-others condemn-modernist objectives- and sets out-remedy- effects-of modernism-while- others-working in- spirit of ludic-critical pluralism – endeavor –open up- new spaces. In –latter-critical alternative-postmodernism-defined- positive critical advance-fractures through negotiation-1) petrifiedhegemony of- corpus of radical aesthetic stratergies – proscriptions and –pre-Freudian-subject-formed-hub of- progressive wheel of modernization-functioned in-modern period as-regulated focus for- range of- disciplinary scientific, literarary,legal and burocratic discourse. Critical postmodernist –to challenge-validity-unilinear version-artistic and economic –technological development- to concentrate instead on what gets left out-marginalized, repressed or buried underneath that term. Modernism –discarded by- postmodernist –a eurocentric and phallocentric category- involves- systematic preference for certain forms and voice of others. What is recommended- its place- inversion- modernist hierarchy- a hierarchy- since its inception- eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries- places- metropolitan center- over underdeveloped periphery. Western arts form- Third World – men’s art over womens art, in less anatomical terms – masculine or masculinist forms, institutions and practices over feminine, feminist of femineist ones. Here –word –postmodernist-used to cover-stratergies-setout –dismantle – power- the white.
Diagnoses of the post modernism is discussed in this paragraph
Diagnoses-postmodern condition cluster round- threat or promise- various kinds of merger. A number-immanent mergers –identified: coming together-different literary,televisual, musical style and genres, mergers of subjects and objects. This tendency –at one level- signaled-much vaunted contemporary preference - art, literature, film, television and popular music for parody, stimulation and allegory- the figures –risen like-ghosts from – grave of- fatally afflicated author. Shift towards- tropes- rooted-deconstructionism, in the abandonment-of pursuit – orgins- and –poststructuralist-attacks-metaphysics of presence.
Postmodernism in architecture
Postmodernism in architecture-identified with-end of European modernist hegemony-imposed with growing conviction- on global scale from 1920’s onwards- known- as international style. Reaction –against- International Style architecture-pioneered- in Britain- people like- Edward Lutyens- a whole generation- has been taken it. Modernism in architecture – identified with- more or less intentional destruction of – coordinates through- communities orient themselves-space and time : the destruction- of historyas- lived dimension- of neighbourhood as- socially inhabited space. Architecture is- independent and isolable field- but- less are-definite links-made with-postmodernism. It is – shrinkage in the aspiration of- intellectual practioner himself -links- architecture of post- to its artistic, critical and philosophical.
The given paragraph gives a greater view of postmodernism.
Word –postmodernism- announces- at very least- certain degree of skepticism- concerning-transformative and critical-power of art, aesthetics, knowledge. It announces- end- simple faith-what sometimes- called ‘grand metanarratives’-the great stories- for thousands of years- cultures of west- telling themselves-to keep-dread prospect of otherness at bay. Poststructuralism marks- decline- great stories of west- which has told itself- inorder to sustain itself- against rest, in order- place itself- Master and Hero – world. These stories- functioned in past- as forms of- reassurance- first stories- which John Berger talks about. Berger – imagines – first men- crouching round their fires- night telling stories. Each story- represents- ring of fire- light lit to pierce-darkness. To chase – darkness forever. And today we- crouching on our haunches- centered around-dying embers of many great stories- many heroic, epic master-narratives-stories which have lost- lusture and light, their power and plausibility- today we may- live without- solace and their comfort. If postmodernism means- end to belief- coherence and continuity as givens-end to- metaphysic of narrative closure, postmodernism mean- what Paul Virilio calls- the triumph of the art of the fragment: a loss- totality, necessary and therapeutic loss of wholeness. It may mean- substituting- history without guarantees for-older models- of mechanical and necessary progress. But if this –sounds –grandiouse and pretentious – and far too close- to modernist project- claim to displace- we – cut postmodernism down to size- reducing its terms of reference.
The given paragraph deals with the uses of postmodernism
Postmodernism –used loosely- to designate- range of symptoms which announce- break with- traditional cultural and aesthetic forms and experiences: break, for instance- traditional notions of authorship – originality. Postmodernism – used - shorthand term- reference certain qualities and tendencies- characterize- contemporary metropolitan milieu: growing- public familiarity with formal- representational codes- a profusion of consumption lifestyle, cultures, subcultures, a generalized sensitivity to style- and to difference: etnic, gender, regional and local difference. Some – artist and critics- denounces postmodernism- a flatulent retreat from- responsibility of – artist to bear- critical witness- times- which we live. Others stress- extend –which- sacerdotal postures and duties of- artist themselves- questioned and dismantled insofar- they serve to amplify- duplicate- voice of the father. There –many- good thing- found- ruins -in the collapse- older explanatory system.
Paragraph here deals with idle consumer.
The idle consumer- of- late 1980s – a bundle of contradictions: monstrous, brindled, hybrid. The idle consumer- deducted from – contemporary advertisement- not he or she – but it. The idle consumer- not- the idle productive worker-of an earlier epoch- a sexually repressed nobody, alienated from- sensual pleasure, subjected to- turgid life-denying disciplines of- working week and nuclear family. Instead idle consumer – it: enemy of personal pronouns- is a complete social and- psychological mess. Idle consumer- extrapolated from- barrage – contradictory interpellations- advertising billboards-magazine spreads- television commercial- is conflicting drives, desires, fantacies,appetites.
Conclusion
We – lost – Big Theories- Big Stories but post modernism- helped- rediscover- power- that resides- little things- disregarded detail- in aphorism- in metaphor- allusion- images and image stream.
Reference
Hebdige, Dick. Postmodernism and Politics of Style. Art in Modern Culture: An Anthology of
Critical Texts. Eds: Franscina, Francis and Jonathan Harris. London New York: Phaidon,
1992. Print.
1024102
CIA II
MEL 132
Western Aesthetics
July 15, 2010
Essay Mapping
Postmodernism and Politics of Style by Dick Hebdige
In this essay Dick Hebdige discusses on post modernism. He also discusses how it became useful to world. He begins the essay by giving an introduction to postmodernism
Definition and introduction of postmodernism is discussed in this paragraph.
Postmodernism is-space- condition-predicament-an aporia- unpassablepath-where competing intentions- definition- diverse- social-intellectual tendencies-lines of force coverage-clash.When-people-discribe-postmodern as- décor of room-design of building-diegesis of the film-construction of a record- television commercial - an arts documentary- layout of page in fashion magazine or critical journal- anti teleological tendency with epistemology- attack on metaphysical presence- general attenuation of feeling- collective chargin –group of rhetorical troupes – a proliferation of surfaces- new phase in commodity fetishism-facination for images-codes and style- process of cultural- political or existential fragmentation-decentring of subject—collapse of cultural hierarchies- decline of university-functioning of new miniaturized technologies-broad societal and economic shift into media- then –is clear –we- presence –of buzzword.
This paragraph discusses how peoples view on postmodernism
Viewed Benigly-degree – semantic complexity-surrounding-postmodernism-signal- that- number of people-with-interests-opinion –feel- that- something-important-stake –worth-struggling-arguing. Substantiative appeal of -debates – consist- degree-of contemporary crisis-directly-confronted-articulated-grappled with.Uneasiness- which – concern-rapidity and glee-which-intellectuals-intent-abandoning earlier positions-staked out-in- pre-post-erous ground- older-critical debates-predominates-uneasiness-which-underpinned-this case-by-squarer-puritival -aversion-decadence-fatalism.
The paragraph describes various definition of postmodernism
Postmodernism-resembles-modernism-that-it-need-to be thought-plural. Different –writers-define-differently-but- writer- can talk- different time-about-differnent post. Jean Francois Lyotard-used-term-to three sepratetendencies. 1) trend-within-architecture-away-from-Modern Movement’s project-of a last rebuilding- whole space-occupied-humanity. 2) decay-confidence- in –idea –of- progress and modernization. 3) recognition-no longer-employ-metaphor-of-avant-garde- as if- modern artist- soldiers- fighting-borders of knowledge. There is- postmodernism-as –descriptive category- liternature and visual arts-postmodernism- used-refer-a tendency- towards-stylistic pluralism, crisis- avant-garde-as idea and as institution- the blurring on-allegedly unparalleled scale-categories of high and low forms, idioms and contents. There-attempts-discribe-postmodern-emergent cultures and subcultures associated- the new userfriendly- communication technologies . There- much talk-bricolage, creative consumption, the decentring and de professionalization- knowledge- technical expertise, the production – meaning in use. There – talk too- general breakdown – social and cultural distinctions: an end- to- outmoded fantasy- the masses and- corollary in – market but also –historically grounded communities of – industrial period: end – existing subjectivities, existing collectivities. These fragmentations- sometimes linked- erosion – boundaries between – production and consumption, between different media and- incommensurable times and unsynchronized rhythms- different process, experiences, actions. Sometime- it – suggested- together- blurrings and mergers- led to collapse- hierarchies- kept apart the competing definition of culture- high culture, low culture, mass culture, popular culture, culture as- whole way of life- such a way- these categories- their contents- no longer-regarded –separate, distinct and vertically ranked.
Distinguishing between neo-consrvative-anti-modernist and critical post modernism is discussed.
Hal Foster- distinguishes between- neoconservative-antimodernist-critical postmodernism-and points out-some- critics – practioners seek- extend-revitalize-modernist project-others condemn-modernist objectives- and sets out-remedy- effects-of modernism-while- others-working in- spirit of ludic-critical pluralism – endeavor –open up- new spaces. In –latter-critical alternative-postmodernism-defined- positive critical advance-fractures through negotiation-1) petrifiedhegemony of- corpus of radical aesthetic stratergies – proscriptions and –pre-Freudian-subject-formed-hub of- progressive wheel of modernization-functioned in-modern period as-regulated focus for- range of- disciplinary scientific, literarary,legal and burocratic discourse. Critical postmodernist –to challenge-validity-unilinear version-artistic and economic –technological development- to concentrate instead on what gets left out-marginalized, repressed or buried underneath that term. Modernism –discarded by- postmodernist –a eurocentric and phallocentric category- involves- systematic preference for certain forms and voice of others. What is recommended- its place- inversion- modernist hierarchy- a hierarchy- since its inception- eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries- places- metropolitan center- over underdeveloped periphery. Western arts form- Third World – men’s art over womens art, in less anatomical terms – masculine or masculinist forms, institutions and practices over feminine, feminist of femineist ones. Here –word –postmodernist-used to cover-stratergies-setout –dismantle – power- the white.
Diagnoses of the post modernism is discussed in this paragraph
Diagnoses-postmodern condition cluster round- threat or promise- various kinds of merger. A number-immanent mergers –identified: coming together-different literary,televisual, musical style and genres, mergers of subjects and objects. This tendency –at one level- signaled-much vaunted contemporary preference - art, literature, film, television and popular music for parody, stimulation and allegory- the figures –risen like-ghosts from – grave of- fatally afflicated author. Shift towards- tropes- rooted-deconstructionism, in the abandonment-of pursuit – orgins- and –poststructuralist-attacks-metaphysics of presence.
Postmodernism in architecture
Postmodernism in architecture-identified with-end of European modernist hegemony-imposed with growing conviction- on global scale from 1920’s onwards- known- as international style. Reaction –against- International Style architecture-pioneered- in Britain- people like- Edward Lutyens- a whole generation- has been taken it. Modernism in architecture – identified with- more or less intentional destruction of – coordinates through- communities orient themselves-space and time : the destruction- of historyas- lived dimension- of neighbourhood as- socially inhabited space. Architecture is- independent and isolable field- but- less are-definite links-made with-postmodernism. It is – shrinkage in the aspiration of- intellectual practioner himself -links- architecture of post- to its artistic, critical and philosophical.
The given paragraph gives a greater view of postmodernism.
Word –postmodernism- announces- at very least- certain degree of skepticism- concerning-transformative and critical-power of art, aesthetics, knowledge. It announces- end- simple faith-what sometimes- called ‘grand metanarratives’-the great stories- for thousands of years- cultures of west- telling themselves-to keep-dread prospect of otherness at bay. Poststructuralism marks- decline- great stories of west- which has told itself- inorder to sustain itself- against rest, in order- place itself- Master and Hero – world. These stories- functioned in past- as forms of- reassurance- first stories- which John Berger talks about. Berger – imagines – first men- crouching round their fires- night telling stories. Each story- represents- ring of fire- light lit to pierce-darkness. To chase – darkness forever. And today we- crouching on our haunches- centered around-dying embers of many great stories- many heroic, epic master-narratives-stories which have lost- lusture and light, their power and plausibility- today we may- live without- solace and their comfort. If postmodernism means- end to belief- coherence and continuity as givens-end to- metaphysic of narrative closure, postmodernism mean- what Paul Virilio calls- the triumph of the art of the fragment: a loss- totality, necessary and therapeutic loss of wholeness. It may mean- substituting- history without guarantees for-older models- of mechanical and necessary progress. But if this –sounds –grandiouse and pretentious – and far too close- to modernist project- claim to displace- we – cut postmodernism down to size- reducing its terms of reference.
The given paragraph deals with the uses of postmodernism
Postmodernism –used loosely- to designate- range of symptoms which announce- break with- traditional cultural and aesthetic forms and experiences: break, for instance- traditional notions of authorship – originality. Postmodernism – used - shorthand term- reference certain qualities and tendencies- characterize- contemporary metropolitan milieu: growing- public familiarity with formal- representational codes- a profusion of consumption lifestyle, cultures, subcultures, a generalized sensitivity to style- and to difference: etnic, gender, regional and local difference. Some – artist and critics- denounces postmodernism- a flatulent retreat from- responsibility of – artist to bear- critical witness- times- which we live. Others stress- extend –which- sacerdotal postures and duties of- artist themselves- questioned and dismantled insofar- they serve to amplify- duplicate- voice of the father. There –many- good thing- found- ruins -in the collapse- older explanatory system.
Paragraph here deals with idle consumer.
The idle consumer- of- late 1980s – a bundle of contradictions: monstrous, brindled, hybrid. The idle consumer- deducted from – contemporary advertisement- not he or she – but it. The idle consumer- not- the idle productive worker-of an earlier epoch- a sexually repressed nobody, alienated from- sensual pleasure, subjected to- turgid life-denying disciplines of- working week and nuclear family. Instead idle consumer – it: enemy of personal pronouns- is a complete social and- psychological mess. Idle consumer- extrapolated from- barrage – contradictory interpellations- advertising billboards-magazine spreads- television commercial- is conflicting drives, desires, fantacies,appetites.
Conclusion
We – lost – Big Theories- Big Stories but post modernism- helped- rediscover- power- that resides- little things- disregarded detail- in aphorism- in metaphor- allusion- images and image stream.
Reference
Hebdige, Dick. Postmodernism and Politics of Style. Art in Modern Culture: An Anthology of
Critical Texts. Eds: Franscina, Francis and Jonathan Harris. London New York: Phaidon,
1992. Print.
Mapping of the essay by Basreena Basheer
BASREENA BASHEER
1024105
CIA II
MEL 132
WESTERN AESTHETICS
15th July, 2010.
Mapping of the essay-When was Modernism-Raymond Williams
1. Defining Modernism through Different Routes
1.1 Title-borrowed.
1.2 Historical questioning-problematic history.
1.3 Inquiry-historical questioning-different ways-misleading ideology.
1.4 Modern-term-synonymous-‘now’-late sixteenth century-mark-period-medieval-ancient times.
1.5 Jane Austen characteristically qualified inflection-state of alternation-eighteenth century contemporaries-indicate updating and improvement.
1.6 Nineteenth century-more favorable-progressive ring.
1.7 Modern shifted reference.
1.8 Modernism-cultural movement.
1.9 Modern-world between-century and half a century.
1.10 English-‘avant-garde’-Dadaism-recent fringe theatre.
2 Identifying The Moment Of Modernism
2.1 Determining the process-identifying the machinery of selective tradition.
2.2 Romantics’ victorious definition-arts as out-riders-extraordinary innovations-metaphoric control-refined-Gogol, Flaubert-precedence over-modernist names.
2.3 Earlier novelists-later work possible.
2.4 Excluding great realists-modernism-refuses-whole vocabulary, structure of figures of speech- grasps unprecedented social forms.
2.5 Impressionists-1860s-defined new technique-only Post-Impressionists-Cubists-situated in the tradition.
3 Who Wrongly Constituted Modernism
3.1 Symbolist poets-1880s-superannuated-by others-1910 onward.
3.2 Drama-Ibsen-Strindberg-left behind.
3.3 Late-born ideology-selects the later group.
3.4 Imputes-primacy of subconscious-both writing and painting-radical questioning-processes of representation.
3.5 Writers-applauded-denaturalizing-language.
3.6 Self-reflexive text-centre-public-aesthetic stage-repudiates fixed forms-settled cultural authority-market popularity.
4 Relearning Modernism
4.1 Selected version –offers-whole of modernity.
4.2 Names-real history-open ideologizing-permits-selection.
4.3 Series of breaks-in all arts-late nineteenth century-breaks with form-power.
5 Modernism And Popular Culture
5.1 Late nineteenth century-greatest changes-media of cultural production.
5.2 Photography-cinema-radio-television reproduction-decisive advances-period identified-modernist-in response-first instance-defensive cultural groupings-competitively self-promoting.
5.3 1890s-badge-self conscious-self advertising schools.
5.4 Futurist-imagists-surrealists-vorticists-arrival-vision of the new-became fissiparous.
6 Modernism And Writers In Exile
6.1 Movements-products-changes in public media.
6.2 Media-technological investment-mobilized-cultural forms-new metropolitan cities.
6.3 Paris-Vienna-Berlin-London-Newyork-new silhouette-city of strangers-locale for art-restlessly mobile émigré-internationally anti-bourgeois artist.
6.4 Writers-continously-moving-Paris-Vienna-meeting-exiles-bringing-manifestos-post-revolutionary formation.
7 Émigré Writing
7.1 Endless border crossing-worked-naturalize-non natural-status of language
7.2 Commotion-interpreted-ratified-city of émigrés-New York
8 Modernism-Anti-bourgeois phenomenon
8.1 Modernism-divides-politically-specific movements.
8.2 Anti-bourgeois-art-liberating vanguard-popular consciousness
8.3 Picasso-Brecht-direct-support-communism-Marinetti-Ezra Pound-fascism-Elliot-Yeats-Anglo Catholicism.
9 Modernism-a narrow perspective
9.1 Modernism-nothing else beyond it
9.2 Marginal artist-classics-organized teachings-great galleries-metropolitan cities
9.3 Modernism-highly selective field
10 Émigré Writers And Modernism
10.1 Ideological victory-artists-mobile émigrés
10.2 Émigré life-dominant-key groups
10.3 Self referentiality-propinquity-mutual isolation-works-radical estrangement
11 Modernism And Consumerism
11.1 Modernism-new international capitalism
11.2 Significant disconnection-relocated-technical modes-advertising-commercial cinema
11.3 Narrative discontinuities-iconography-commercials
12 Modernism-a non historical fixity.
12.1 Modernism-new-fixed form-present moment
12.2 Modernism-tradition-addressing itself.
Work cited
Williams, Raymond.”When was Modernism?” Art in Modern Culture: An Anthology of Critical Texts. Eds. Francis Franscina, and Jonathan Harris. London/New York: Phaidon, 1992.Print.
1024105
CIA II
MEL 132
WESTERN AESTHETICS
15th July, 2010.
Mapping of the essay-When was Modernism-Raymond Williams
1. Defining Modernism through Different Routes
1.1 Title-borrowed.
1.2 Historical questioning-problematic history.
1.3 Inquiry-historical questioning-different ways-misleading ideology.
1.4 Modern-term-synonymous-‘now’-late sixteenth century-mark-period-medieval-ancient times.
1.5 Jane Austen characteristically qualified inflection-state of alternation-eighteenth century contemporaries-indicate updating and improvement.
1.6 Nineteenth century-more favorable-progressive ring.
1.7 Modern shifted reference.
1.8 Modernism-cultural movement.
1.9 Modern-world between-century and half a century.
1.10 English-‘avant-garde’-Dadaism-recent fringe theatre.
2 Identifying The Moment Of Modernism
2.1 Determining the process-identifying the machinery of selective tradition.
2.2 Romantics’ victorious definition-arts as out-riders-extraordinary innovations-metaphoric control-refined-Gogol, Flaubert-precedence over-modernist names.
2.3 Earlier novelists-later work possible.
2.4 Excluding great realists-modernism-refuses-whole vocabulary, structure of figures of speech- grasps unprecedented social forms.
2.5 Impressionists-1860s-defined new technique-only Post-Impressionists-Cubists-situated in the tradition.
3 Who Wrongly Constituted Modernism
3.1 Symbolist poets-1880s-superannuated-by others-1910 onward.
3.2 Drama-Ibsen-Strindberg-left behind.
3.3 Late-born ideology-selects the later group.
3.4 Imputes-primacy of subconscious-both writing and painting-radical questioning-processes of representation.
3.5 Writers-applauded-denaturalizing-language.
3.6 Self-reflexive text-centre-public-aesthetic stage-repudiates fixed forms-settled cultural authority-market popularity.
4 Relearning Modernism
4.1 Selected version –offers-whole of modernity.
4.2 Names-real history-open ideologizing-permits-selection.
4.3 Series of breaks-in all arts-late nineteenth century-breaks with form-power.
5 Modernism And Popular Culture
5.1 Late nineteenth century-greatest changes-media of cultural production.
5.2 Photography-cinema-radio-television reproduction-decisive advances-period identified-modernist-in response-first instance-defensive cultural groupings-competitively self-promoting.
5.3 1890s-badge-self conscious-self advertising schools.
5.4 Futurist-imagists-surrealists-vorticists-arrival-vision of the new-became fissiparous.
6 Modernism And Writers In Exile
6.1 Movements-products-changes in public media.
6.2 Media-technological investment-mobilized-cultural forms-new metropolitan cities.
6.3 Paris-Vienna-Berlin-London-Newyork-new silhouette-city of strangers-locale for art-restlessly mobile émigré-internationally anti-bourgeois artist.
6.4 Writers-continously-moving-Paris-Vienna-meeting-exiles-bringing-manifestos-post-revolutionary formation.
7 Émigré Writing
7.1 Endless border crossing-worked-naturalize-non natural-status of language
7.2 Commotion-interpreted-ratified-city of émigrés-New York
8 Modernism-Anti-bourgeois phenomenon
8.1 Modernism-divides-politically-specific movements.
8.2 Anti-bourgeois-art-liberating vanguard-popular consciousness
8.3 Picasso-Brecht-direct-support-communism-Marinetti-Ezra Pound-fascism-Elliot-Yeats-Anglo Catholicism.
9 Modernism-a narrow perspective
9.1 Modernism-nothing else beyond it
9.2 Marginal artist-classics-organized teachings-great galleries-metropolitan cities
9.3 Modernism-highly selective field
10 Émigré Writers And Modernism
10.1 Ideological victory-artists-mobile émigrés
10.2 Émigré life-dominant-key groups
10.3 Self referentiality-propinquity-mutual isolation-works-radical estrangement
11 Modernism And Consumerism
11.1 Modernism-new international capitalism
11.2 Significant disconnection-relocated-technical modes-advertising-commercial cinema
11.3 Narrative discontinuities-iconography-commercials
12 Modernism-a non historical fixity.
12.1 Modernism-new-fixed form-present moment
12.2 Modernism-tradition-addressing itself.
Work cited
Williams, Raymond.”When was Modernism?” Art in Modern Culture: An Anthology of Critical Texts. Eds. Francis Franscina, and Jonathan Harris. London/New York: Phaidon, 1992.Print.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Mapping of the essay by Sana Shamim
Sana shamim
1024112
MEL 132 Western Aesthetics
July 15,2010
Modernist Painting by Clement Greenberg
Paragraph 1: Identification of Modernism
Modernism - art- literature- culture- historical novelty- self-critical tendency began with Kant- first real modernist
Paragraph 2: Criticizing the discipline in order to entrench it
Essence of Modernism- use of the characteristic methods of a discipline- criticize the discipline itself- entrench it- Kant used logic in order to establish limits of logic- make it more secure
Paragraph 3: Demands of self-criticism
Modernism- self-criticism- grows out of enlightenment which criticized from the outside- Kantian self-criticism first appeared in philosophy- it was called on to interpret areas far from philosophy
Paragraph 4: Assimilation of religion and art
Religion could not avail Kantian criticism- arts were denied serious tasks by the enlightenment- it was assimilated to entertainment- it had to prove that the experience provided was valuable in its own right
Paragraph 5: individual uniqueness
Each art exhibited effects which was unique and irreducible- exclusive to itself- it would narrow the area of competence but make its possession of the area more certain
Paragraph 6: self-criticism lead to self-definition
Competence of each art coincided with its medium- self-criticism eliminated any effect borrowed from or by the medium of any other art- art was rendered ‘pure’- guarantee of its standards of quality- leading to independence and self- criticism
Paragraph 7: medium of painting called attention to art in Modernism
Realistic, naturalistic art- dissembled the medium- medium of painting seen as negative factors by the Old Masters- Modernism regarded these as positive factors- Manet’s – first Modernist pictures- declared flat surfaces on which they were painted- Impressionist- abjured underpainting and glazes- brought attention to the colours used- made of paint from tubes or pots- Cézanne sacrificed correctness- fit his drawings and designs- to the rectangular shape of the canvas
Paragraph 8: Modernist painting oriented itself to flatness as it did to nothing else
Stressing of the ineluctable flatness of the surface- more fundamental- by which pictorial art criticized- defined itself under Modernism- enclosing shape of the picture – shared with theatre- colour shared with theatre and sculpture- flatness- condition painting shared with no other art- Modernist painting oriented itself to flatness
Paragraph 9: One sees Modernist picture as a picture first
The Old Masters sensed- necessity to preserve- integrity of the plane- endured presence of flatness underneath- above the most vivid illusion of three-dimensional space- Modernists reversed the terms- made aware of what the flatness contains- one sees a Modernist picture as a picture first- success of self-criticism
Paragraph 10: Modernist painting is abstract
Modernist painting- abandoned space that recognizable objects can inhabit- representation or illustration- does not attain uniqueness of pictorial art- all recognizable entities exist in three-dimensional space- barest suggestion- call up associations of that kind of space- by doing so alienated pictorial space from- literal two-dimensionality- guarantee of painting’s independence- three-dimensionality is the province of sculpture- achieve autonomy- divest itself of everything it might share with the sculpture- hence, painting made itself abstract
Paragraph 11: Modernist painting conforms to tradition by its anti-sculptural painting
Modernist painting- firmly attached to tradition- resistance to sculptural- greatest feats of the Western painting- rid itself of the sculptural- David- eighteenth century- tried to revive sculptural painting- to save pictorial art from the decorative flattening out- emphasis on colour seemed to induce- yet the strength of David’s own informal pictures is colour- by nineteenth century all ambitious painting converged in an anti-sculptural direction
Paragraph 12: optical experience
Manet and the Impressionists- question stopped being defined as- colour versus drawing- turned into optical experience against optical experience as revised by tactile associations- in the name of purely and literally optical- not colour- impressionists set themselves to undermining shading and modeling and everything else in painting that seemed to connote the sculptural- Cezanne and the cubists- reacted against impressionism- eventuated in a kind of painting flatterer than anything in western art- could hardly contain recognizable images
Paragraph 13: revision and re-revision of the norms of modernist paintings
Norm of the picture’s enclosing shape or frame loosened- tightened, isolated- by successive generations of modernist painters- norms of finish and paint texture- of value and colour contrast- revised and re-revised in order to exhibit them more clearly as norms- by being exhibited- tested for their indispensability- radical simplification to be seen in the latest abstract painting- radical complications also seen
Paragraph 14: The essential norms or conventions of painting are at the same time the limiting conditions with which a picture must comply in order to be experienced as a picture.
The more closely the norms of a discipline become defined- less freedom they permit in many directions- essential norms of painting are- limiting conditions with which a picture must comply in order to be experienced as a picture- the further back these limits are pushed- more explicitly they have to be observed- criss-cross black lines and coloured rectangles of a Mondrian painting- impose- a regulating norm with a new force and completeness by echoing that shape so closely- far from incurring the danger of arbitrariness Mondrian’s art proves- almost too disciplined- too tradition and convention bound in certain respects- more conservative in its colour- subservience to the frame- than the last paintings of Monet
Paragraph 15: Modernist painting must permit optical illusion
Modernist painting can never be an absolute flatness- picture plane- permit optical illusion- first mark made on canvas destroys its literal and utter flatness- artists like Mondrian suggest a kind of third dimension- Old Masters created an illusion of space- imagine oneself walking into- illusion created by the modernist painter can only be seen into- can be traveled through- literally or figuratively- only with the eye
Paragraph 16: Kantian self-criticism has found its fullest expression in science rather than in philosophy
Impressionists- neo-impressionists- were not altogether misguided when they flirted with science- Kantian self-criticism- found its fullest expression in science rather than philosophy- visual art should confine itself exclusively- to visual experience- make no reference to anything given in any other order of experience- justification lies in scientific consistency
Paragraph 17: The convergence of arts and science is a mere accident.
Science method asks- situation be resolved in – same terms- in which presented- this kind of consistency promises nothing in the was of aesthetic quality- best art of the last seventy or eighty years approaches closer to such consistency- art- its convergence with science happens to be a mere accident- neither art nor science assures the other of anything more than it ever did- convergence shows- degree to which Modernist art belongs to the same specific cultural tendency as modern science- highest significance as a historical fact
Paragraph 18: The immediate aim of a modernist is personal before anything else.
Modernist art- spontaneous and largely subliminal- question of practice- never a topic of theory- masters of modernism have no more fixed idea about art than Corot did- immediate aim of Modernists was and remains personal- truth and success of their work remains personal before anything else- decades of personal paintings reveal- general self-critical tendency of Modernist painting- no artist was or yet is, aware of it- nor could any artist work freely in awareness of it
Paragraph 19: The limiting conditions of art are altogether human conditions.
Modernism has never meant- a break with the past- may mean a devolution, an unraveling of tradition- also means its further evolution- Modernist art continues the past without a gap- making of pictures- controlled- Paleolithic painter- disregard norm of the frame- treat the surface in a literally sculptural way- limits and surface arbitrarily given by nature- the deliberate creating or choosing of a flat surface- deliberate circumscribing and limiting of it- Modernist painting harps on this deliberateness- that the limiting conditions of art are altogether human conditions
Paragraph 20: Modernist art puts theory into practice
Modernist art does not offer theoretical demonstrations- it happens to convert theoretical dimensions-it happens to convert theoretical possibilities into empirical ones- tests many theories about art for their relevance- certain factors assumed essential- Modernist painting has been able to dispense with- yet offers the experience of art in all its essentials- Modernism has shown- past did appreciate these masters justly- often gave wrong or irrelevant reasons for doing so
Paragraph 21: Art and Journalism
Most things written about Modernist art- belong to journalism- rather than to criticism or art history- each new modern art is expected to break away from the traditional- faces failure- Modernist art takes place in intelligible continuity of taste and tradition
Paragraph 22: Art is continuity
Art is continuity- lack of past would lead to lack of both substance and justification
1024112
MEL 132 Western Aesthetics
July 15,2010
Modernist Painting by Clement Greenberg
Paragraph 1: Identification of Modernism
Modernism - art- literature- culture- historical novelty- self-critical tendency began with Kant- first real modernist
Paragraph 2: Criticizing the discipline in order to entrench it
Essence of Modernism- use of the characteristic methods of a discipline- criticize the discipline itself- entrench it- Kant used logic in order to establish limits of logic- make it more secure
Paragraph 3: Demands of self-criticism
Modernism- self-criticism- grows out of enlightenment which criticized from the outside- Kantian self-criticism first appeared in philosophy- it was called on to interpret areas far from philosophy
Paragraph 4: Assimilation of religion and art
Religion could not avail Kantian criticism- arts were denied serious tasks by the enlightenment- it was assimilated to entertainment- it had to prove that the experience provided was valuable in its own right
Paragraph 5: individual uniqueness
Each art exhibited effects which was unique and irreducible- exclusive to itself- it would narrow the area of competence but make its possession of the area more certain
Paragraph 6: self-criticism lead to self-definition
Competence of each art coincided with its medium- self-criticism eliminated any effect borrowed from or by the medium of any other art- art was rendered ‘pure’- guarantee of its standards of quality- leading to independence and self- criticism
Paragraph 7: medium of painting called attention to art in Modernism
Realistic, naturalistic art- dissembled the medium- medium of painting seen as negative factors by the Old Masters- Modernism regarded these as positive factors- Manet’s – first Modernist pictures- declared flat surfaces on which they were painted- Impressionist- abjured underpainting and glazes- brought attention to the colours used- made of paint from tubes or pots- Cézanne sacrificed correctness- fit his drawings and designs- to the rectangular shape of the canvas
Paragraph 8: Modernist painting oriented itself to flatness as it did to nothing else
Stressing of the ineluctable flatness of the surface- more fundamental- by which pictorial art criticized- defined itself under Modernism- enclosing shape of the picture – shared with theatre- colour shared with theatre and sculpture- flatness- condition painting shared with no other art- Modernist painting oriented itself to flatness
Paragraph 9: One sees Modernist picture as a picture first
The Old Masters sensed- necessity to preserve- integrity of the plane- endured presence of flatness underneath- above the most vivid illusion of three-dimensional space- Modernists reversed the terms- made aware of what the flatness contains- one sees a Modernist picture as a picture first- success of self-criticism
Paragraph 10: Modernist painting is abstract
Modernist painting- abandoned space that recognizable objects can inhabit- representation or illustration- does not attain uniqueness of pictorial art- all recognizable entities exist in three-dimensional space- barest suggestion- call up associations of that kind of space- by doing so alienated pictorial space from- literal two-dimensionality- guarantee of painting’s independence- three-dimensionality is the province of sculpture- achieve autonomy- divest itself of everything it might share with the sculpture- hence, painting made itself abstract
Paragraph 11: Modernist painting conforms to tradition by its anti-sculptural painting
Modernist painting- firmly attached to tradition- resistance to sculptural- greatest feats of the Western painting- rid itself of the sculptural- David- eighteenth century- tried to revive sculptural painting- to save pictorial art from the decorative flattening out- emphasis on colour seemed to induce- yet the strength of David’s own informal pictures is colour- by nineteenth century all ambitious painting converged in an anti-sculptural direction
Paragraph 12: optical experience
Manet and the Impressionists- question stopped being defined as- colour versus drawing- turned into optical experience against optical experience as revised by tactile associations- in the name of purely and literally optical- not colour- impressionists set themselves to undermining shading and modeling and everything else in painting that seemed to connote the sculptural- Cezanne and the cubists- reacted against impressionism- eventuated in a kind of painting flatterer than anything in western art- could hardly contain recognizable images
Paragraph 13: revision and re-revision of the norms of modernist paintings
Norm of the picture’s enclosing shape or frame loosened- tightened, isolated- by successive generations of modernist painters- norms of finish and paint texture- of value and colour contrast- revised and re-revised in order to exhibit them more clearly as norms- by being exhibited- tested for their indispensability- radical simplification to be seen in the latest abstract painting- radical complications also seen
Paragraph 14: The essential norms or conventions of painting are at the same time the limiting conditions with which a picture must comply in order to be experienced as a picture.
The more closely the norms of a discipline become defined- less freedom they permit in many directions- essential norms of painting are- limiting conditions with which a picture must comply in order to be experienced as a picture- the further back these limits are pushed- more explicitly they have to be observed- criss-cross black lines and coloured rectangles of a Mondrian painting- impose- a regulating norm with a new force and completeness by echoing that shape so closely- far from incurring the danger of arbitrariness Mondrian’s art proves- almost too disciplined- too tradition and convention bound in certain respects- more conservative in its colour- subservience to the frame- than the last paintings of Monet
Paragraph 15: Modernist painting must permit optical illusion
Modernist painting can never be an absolute flatness- picture plane- permit optical illusion- first mark made on canvas destroys its literal and utter flatness- artists like Mondrian suggest a kind of third dimension- Old Masters created an illusion of space- imagine oneself walking into- illusion created by the modernist painter can only be seen into- can be traveled through- literally or figuratively- only with the eye
Paragraph 16: Kantian self-criticism has found its fullest expression in science rather than in philosophy
Impressionists- neo-impressionists- were not altogether misguided when they flirted with science- Kantian self-criticism- found its fullest expression in science rather than philosophy- visual art should confine itself exclusively- to visual experience- make no reference to anything given in any other order of experience- justification lies in scientific consistency
Paragraph 17: The convergence of arts and science is a mere accident.
Science method asks- situation be resolved in – same terms- in which presented- this kind of consistency promises nothing in the was of aesthetic quality- best art of the last seventy or eighty years approaches closer to such consistency- art- its convergence with science happens to be a mere accident- neither art nor science assures the other of anything more than it ever did- convergence shows- degree to which Modernist art belongs to the same specific cultural tendency as modern science- highest significance as a historical fact
Paragraph 18: The immediate aim of a modernist is personal before anything else.
Modernist art- spontaneous and largely subliminal- question of practice- never a topic of theory- masters of modernism have no more fixed idea about art than Corot did- immediate aim of Modernists was and remains personal- truth and success of their work remains personal before anything else- decades of personal paintings reveal- general self-critical tendency of Modernist painting- no artist was or yet is, aware of it- nor could any artist work freely in awareness of it
Paragraph 19: The limiting conditions of art are altogether human conditions.
Modernism has never meant- a break with the past- may mean a devolution, an unraveling of tradition- also means its further evolution- Modernist art continues the past without a gap- making of pictures- controlled- Paleolithic painter- disregard norm of the frame- treat the surface in a literally sculptural way- limits and surface arbitrarily given by nature- the deliberate creating or choosing of a flat surface- deliberate circumscribing and limiting of it- Modernist painting harps on this deliberateness- that the limiting conditions of art are altogether human conditions
Paragraph 20: Modernist art puts theory into practice
Modernist art does not offer theoretical demonstrations- it happens to convert theoretical dimensions-it happens to convert theoretical possibilities into empirical ones- tests many theories about art for their relevance- certain factors assumed essential- Modernist painting has been able to dispense with- yet offers the experience of art in all its essentials- Modernism has shown- past did appreciate these masters justly- often gave wrong or irrelevant reasons for doing so
Paragraph 21: Art and Journalism
Most things written about Modernist art- belong to journalism- rather than to criticism or art history- each new modern art is expected to break away from the traditional- faces failure- Modernist art takes place in intelligible continuity of taste and tradition
Paragraph 22: Art is continuity
Art is continuity- lack of past would lead to lack of both substance and justification
Mapping of the essay by Shilpi Rana
Shilpi Rana
1024115
CIA 2
MEL132 WESTERNAESTHETICS
15July,2010
Map of the essay “Mapping” by Lucy R. Lippard.
I.1) Multiculturalism
I.2) ‘Multiculturalism’ – East Indian scholars Kumkum Sangari observes – ‘ poised in a liminal space – having broken out of binary opposition between circular and linear – gives third space and time - to emerge’. The author here suggests as per white ethnographer James Clifford’s view – not to look on elements of foreign culture - only to make – her own culture – unexplained.
II.1) Racism enhances cultural difference.
II.2) The term race – commonly denotes culture – social phenomenon – historical background – harm to economic interest – expands ethnic difference.
III.1) Cultural biasness can be fruitful to the neglected races.
III.2) The contribution – underestimated races – not overlooked. In the Euro-American society – presence of the ideas of Africans, native Americans, Asians and Latino cultures can be felt. Rejections – ideas – subjugated races – resulted – development – prominent ideas, images and values – which otherwise have been lost.
IV.1) Changing facet of the United States.
IV .2) In the past few years – U.S.A trying to break – concept of monotonous “ white” – time for healthier social understanding.
V.1) Culture determines artist’s acknowledgement.
V.2) Demographics – argued change in society as per culture. Controllers of markets and institutions – appreciations of the artist’s.
VI. 1) Awareness is a slow process.
VI.2) Differences – not just ‘racial’ in nature – also other forms like gender, class, belief system religion, politics. Change not a sudden activity so the difference in the boundaries are segregated slowly.
VII.1) ‘Quality’ as a notion amongst the artist’s too.
VII.2) it is said that racism does not interfere with art. But the notion of good taste – social order- not possible. Art – controlled- specific group of people- artist’s work- according to – the buyers of their work. Many artist’s – unaware of the differene- choose a different path- follow self censorship.
VIII.1) Limits to the equality of the racist often caused by the political statements in art.
VIII.2) Good piece of art – by the pupil of colour- acknowledged by silence or with tears of pleasure- followed by dark truths of separations and competition.
IX.1) Artist’s work is also influenced by his community.
IX.2) Great challenge – artists – creates something – affects community. Often – silenced – by notion “ art speaks for itself” – forge responsibilities – stereotypes himself and his community.
X.1) Do we actually follow the theme of universality in art?
X.2) Advocates of cultural democracy – wide view of art – but regarded as the “lowest denominator of art” Art does not actually reach the lower strata of people – detached from their lives.
XI.1) Artists must acknowledge the source of there work of indigenous cultures.
XI.2) Modernism – made way – various cultural amalgamations. No proper responses – by the whites – should have humility for others.
XII.1) Art of the third world nations should focus on the modern day’s requirements to create bodings.
XII.2) Art according to different cultural backgrounds – view on the pros and cons – not on the new context – from which new understanding can evolve enhancing growth and mutual understanding. Dynamism is required.
XIII.1) Post modernism view.
XIII.2) post modern analysis – not to consider other cultures passive and western civilisation superior.
XIV .1) Rights of the women and the artist’s of the colour.
XIV.2) Constant struggle – perceive as “subject” rather than “ object” – independence of work and identity. 1960’s – feminist movement – recreation of identity – equality
with Euro Americans.
XV.1) Is subjectivity a problem?
XV.2) Appreciation of “nationalism” can also be a problem. Our politics is essentially becoming rebellious. Artist’s suddenly – creating – own perspectives – threat to society.
XVI.1) Personal subjectivity also alluding to the relationships between “ first” and “ third” world countries.
XVI.2) Threat – not only personal – also cause several tensions – conservative and radical discourses.
XVII.1) reconstruction leading to intectualization .
XVII.2) The author encourages destabilisation – helps to reconstruct – invention of identity – amalgamation of conscious past and budding new ideas.
XVIII.1) Unfamiliarity encourages creativity.
XVIII.2) There is a mission for art to. Culture includes entire fabric of life. Art, when view from different angles forms beautiful art objects with new definitions.
XIX.1) The artist’s approach.
XIX.2) Artist’s – belief, hope and heal. Have a common idea towards an ethnocentric culture.
XX.I) Differences in a process of resolving but the naming of categories remains the same.
XX.2) Frustration – opposition – contradiction involved – cross cultural system. Convenient places – women and pupil of colour – naming remains the same.
XXI.1) Artist’s of colour replace third world Artists.
XXI.2) Accepted in 1970’s – third world courtiers – people of colour born in – according to artist Paul Kagawa, artist’s create works- supporting values of ruling class – ruling class artist’s create no matter what colour an vice versa.
XXII.1) Does geography define third world and first world countries?
XXII.2) Question came up in 1988 – according to Korean American artist’s Yong Soon Mui – even within economically developed countries – third world – politically valid- indicates resistance to third world imperialism and had experienced of colonialism.
XXIII.1) “ Minority” artists – another used term.
XXIII.2) Among the artists – people of colour – minority – only in US and Canada - but not globally.
XXIV.1) Concept of mixed or cross- cultural.
XXIV.2) The author uses the terms mixed or cross cultural instead of using multi cultural or multi racial – because of working together – includes the whites too.
XXV.1) The term “ethnic”.
XXV.2) Ethnicism is also now an excluded phenomenon – posing problems between people.
XXVI.1) Author’s instance on the word “intercultural” .
XXVI.2) The author prefers “intercultural” to cross-cultural- term suggests broader meaning – up to the centre.
WORK CITED:
Lippard,Lucy R.”Mapping.”Art in Modern Culture:An Anthology of Critical Texts.
Eds. Francis Franscina, and Jonathan Harris . London / Newyork. Phaidon,
1992. Print.
1024115
CIA 2
MEL132 WESTERNAESTHETICS
15July,2010
Map of the essay “Mapping” by Lucy R. Lippard.
I.1) Multiculturalism
I.2) ‘Multiculturalism’ – East Indian scholars Kumkum Sangari observes – ‘ poised in a liminal space – having broken out of binary opposition between circular and linear – gives third space and time - to emerge’. The author here suggests as per white ethnographer James Clifford’s view – not to look on elements of foreign culture - only to make – her own culture – unexplained.
II.1) Racism enhances cultural difference.
II.2) The term race – commonly denotes culture – social phenomenon – historical background – harm to economic interest – expands ethnic difference.
III.1) Cultural biasness can be fruitful to the neglected races.
III.2) The contribution – underestimated races – not overlooked. In the Euro-American society – presence of the ideas of Africans, native Americans, Asians and Latino cultures can be felt. Rejections – ideas – subjugated races – resulted – development – prominent ideas, images and values – which otherwise have been lost.
IV.1) Changing facet of the United States.
IV .2) In the past few years – U.S.A trying to break – concept of monotonous “ white” – time for healthier social understanding.
V.1) Culture determines artist’s acknowledgement.
V.2) Demographics – argued change in society as per culture. Controllers of markets and institutions – appreciations of the artist’s.
VI. 1) Awareness is a slow process.
VI.2) Differences – not just ‘racial’ in nature – also other forms like gender, class, belief system religion, politics. Change not a sudden activity so the difference in the boundaries are segregated slowly.
VII.1) ‘Quality’ as a notion amongst the artist’s too.
VII.2) it is said that racism does not interfere with art. But the notion of good taste – social order- not possible. Art – controlled- specific group of people- artist’s work- according to – the buyers of their work. Many artist’s – unaware of the differene- choose a different path- follow self censorship.
VIII.1) Limits to the equality of the racist often caused by the political statements in art.
VIII.2) Good piece of art – by the pupil of colour- acknowledged by silence or with tears of pleasure- followed by dark truths of separations and competition.
IX.1) Artist’s work is also influenced by his community.
IX.2) Great challenge – artists – creates something – affects community. Often – silenced – by notion “ art speaks for itself” – forge responsibilities – stereotypes himself and his community.
X.1) Do we actually follow the theme of universality in art?
X.2) Advocates of cultural democracy – wide view of art – but regarded as the “lowest denominator of art” Art does not actually reach the lower strata of people – detached from their lives.
XI.1) Artists must acknowledge the source of there work of indigenous cultures.
XI.2) Modernism – made way – various cultural amalgamations. No proper responses – by the whites – should have humility for others.
XII.1) Art of the third world nations should focus on the modern day’s requirements to create bodings.
XII.2) Art according to different cultural backgrounds – view on the pros and cons – not on the new context – from which new understanding can evolve enhancing growth and mutual understanding. Dynamism is required.
XIII.1) Post modernism view.
XIII.2) post modern analysis – not to consider other cultures passive and western civilisation superior.
XIV .1) Rights of the women and the artist’s of the colour.
XIV.2) Constant struggle – perceive as “subject” rather than “ object” – independence of work and identity. 1960’s – feminist movement – recreation of identity – equality
with Euro Americans.
XV.1) Is subjectivity a problem?
XV.2) Appreciation of “nationalism” can also be a problem. Our politics is essentially becoming rebellious. Artist’s suddenly – creating – own perspectives – threat to society.
XVI.1) Personal subjectivity also alluding to the relationships between “ first” and “ third” world countries.
XVI.2) Threat – not only personal – also cause several tensions – conservative and radical discourses.
XVII.1) reconstruction leading to intectualization .
XVII.2) The author encourages destabilisation – helps to reconstruct – invention of identity – amalgamation of conscious past and budding new ideas.
XVIII.1) Unfamiliarity encourages creativity.
XVIII.2) There is a mission for art to. Culture includes entire fabric of life. Art, when view from different angles forms beautiful art objects with new definitions.
XIX.1) The artist’s approach.
XIX.2) Artist’s – belief, hope and heal. Have a common idea towards an ethnocentric culture.
XX.I) Differences in a process of resolving but the naming of categories remains the same.
XX.2) Frustration – opposition – contradiction involved – cross cultural system. Convenient places – women and pupil of colour – naming remains the same.
XXI.1) Artist’s of colour replace third world Artists.
XXI.2) Accepted in 1970’s – third world courtiers – people of colour born in – according to artist Paul Kagawa, artist’s create works- supporting values of ruling class – ruling class artist’s create no matter what colour an vice versa.
XXII.1) Does geography define third world and first world countries?
XXII.2) Question came up in 1988 – according to Korean American artist’s Yong Soon Mui – even within economically developed countries – third world – politically valid- indicates resistance to third world imperialism and had experienced of colonialism.
XXIII.1) “ Minority” artists – another used term.
XXIII.2) Among the artists – people of colour – minority – only in US and Canada - but not globally.
XXIV.1) Concept of mixed or cross- cultural.
XXIV.2) The author uses the terms mixed or cross cultural instead of using multi cultural or multi racial – because of working together – includes the whites too.
XXV.1) The term “ethnic”.
XXV.2) Ethnicism is also now an excluded phenomenon – posing problems between people.
XXVI.1) Author’s instance on the word “intercultural” .
XXVI.2) The author prefers “intercultural” to cross-cultural- term suggests broader meaning – up to the centre.
WORK CITED:
Lippard,Lucy R.”Mapping.”Art in Modern Culture:An Anthology of Critical Texts.
Eds. Francis Franscina, and Jonathan Harris . London / Newyork. Phaidon,
1992. Print.
Mapping of the essay by Geeta D. Lakkanvar
Geeta.D.Lakkanavar.
1024127,
M.A. 1st, English
CIA –II
MEL132
WESTERN AESTHETICS
Date 15/07/2010
A Map of Pollock Griselda’s
“Vision, Voice and Power – Feminist art history and Marxism”
1 paragraph= social art history, what it includes the various verities that lead to diversification and disintegration but that present essence is the opposite form of what is mentioned above.
Social art history – various verities like formalist, modernist, sub Freudian, filmic, radical etc.-diversification and disintegration – present form –includes –co-existence -a means to access the old debates .
2 paragraph = connection of art with Marxist cultural theory and historical practice and how interact with power structure on society and art was tied to specific classes . Society’s structural aspect of in equality at the point of material production between sexes.
Connection of art – Marxist cultural theory-historical practice – art interaction – with power structure – critical approach - Marxism – Marxist art history - art confining – to specific classes – societal structural relation - in equality – material production – feudal or capitalistic – patriarchal .
3 paragraph = emphasis on the domination and exploitation by sexes to more basic level of the conflict between classes. And feminist art movement which reference to specifically to the experience of women and exposure of feminism.
Domination ,exploitation – sex – focus of feminist- art history- any time, period , location – modern era- feminist art movement – experience of women- feminism exposure- towards – new areas- new forms- analysis- kinship – construction – sexuality- reproduction – labour – cultural – prime aim – signification – art form – out come – sense perception – art history - reflection – cultural history
4 paragraph = speaks about the development of various types of art history which are nothing but the reflection of cultural production based on imperatives of both Marxism and feminism.
Development - various types - art history – reflection - cultural production – basis – Marxism and feminism – mutual transformation – Marxism and feminism.
5 paragraph = art restriction towards areas.
Art – confined – universities – colleges- museum – art galleries – effective signification of art – art universal form.
6 paragraph = focus is on the precondition and concept of art with present reference . cultural ideas of individual are based on the creativity.
Precondition - concept of art – cultural ideas – individual – creativity – social obstacle – as out come of art – shaped - improvement of society – through TV channels - middle class people.
7 paragraph = connection between the creativity and the man
Connection – creativity - man – artist – man - creation of art – by man.
8 paragraph = explains the place of women and the research that has been done by different scholars
Gabhart and broun – expose – relationship between – language and ideology- question – no place for women in the languages – women – followed – contradiction paths.
9 paragraph = shows the stratification of the women occupation which determines the art and creativity among individual.
Stratification – women occupation- determines art creativity- mirror – between – ideology and economy art – self fulfilling – individual – creative activity – biological aspect – men’s in evitable greatness – women eternal second rates - cultural recognition.
10 paragraph= it makes the brief conclusion about women artist and their position, movement and the way it was followed.
Feminist – refused necessary – confrontation – mainstream – art historical ideologies – practices – feminist – in corporate of style and movement – liberal policies – within art – feminism – conference – diverting – sideline – space for – add articles – academic journals.
The summary of essay
Writer has stated that he is not interested in the social history of art which includes various verities like formalist, modernist, sub Freudian, filmic, feminist, radical etc . For diversifications and disintegration. the present essence is the opposite form of the what is mentioned above. It is not the concentration, the possibility of the argument instead of the this deadly co-existence , a means to access to the old debates . this is what the history of art has to offer.
These are the views that T.J clark mentions in his ‘on the conditions artistic creation’ The times literary supplement,24 may 1974,p562.
Writers views lies upon the connection of the art with Marxist cultural theory and historical practice. During the mid 20th century art historians embraced social history by using critical approaches. The goal is to show how art interact with power structure in society . one critical approach that art historians used was Marxism . Marxist art history attempted to show how art was tied to specific classes. How images can make status quo seem natural. Yet society is structured by relations of inequality at the point of material production and between sexes. The domination and exploitation by sex to more basic level of conflict between classes. As Griselda Pollock a prominent feminist art historian has rightly pointed out while feminist art history can focus on any time period and location, much attention has been given to the modern era.
Feminism has exposed new areas and new forms of analysis of kinship, construction of gender, and sexuality reproduction labour and of course culture. The development of various of types art history which are nothing but the reflection of cultural production based on imperatives of both Marxism and feminism. It also focuses why the art should restricted to confined areas like locked up universities or colleges and musty basement of museum. The art should universal.
The essay speaks about precondition and concept of the art with present reference. Cultural ideas of individual are based on the creativity and genius artist will always overcome social obstacles. There is a connection between creativity and man. The essay also emphasizes stratification of the women occupation which determines the art and creativity among individuals. It if of course the mirror image here between ideology and the economy. Art is presented to us as the idea of self fulfilling individual creative activity.
Works cited : Pollock Griselda “Vision, Voice and Power, Feminist art history and Marxism” : an anthology of critical texts.
Eds “ Franscina and Jonathan Harris. London New York : Phaidon, 1992.print.
1024127,
M.A. 1st, English
CIA –II
MEL132
WESTERN AESTHETICS
Date 15/07/2010
A Map of Pollock Griselda’s
“Vision, Voice and Power – Feminist art history and Marxism”
1 paragraph= social art history, what it includes the various verities that lead to diversification and disintegration but that present essence is the opposite form of what is mentioned above.
Social art history – various verities like formalist, modernist, sub Freudian, filmic, radical etc.-diversification and disintegration – present form –includes –co-existence -a means to access the old debates .
2 paragraph = connection of art with Marxist cultural theory and historical practice and how interact with power structure on society and art was tied to specific classes . Society’s structural aspect of in equality at the point of material production between sexes.
Connection of art – Marxist cultural theory-historical practice – art interaction – with power structure – critical approach - Marxism – Marxist art history - art confining – to specific classes – societal structural relation - in equality – material production – feudal or capitalistic – patriarchal .
3 paragraph = emphasis on the domination and exploitation by sexes to more basic level of the conflict between classes. And feminist art movement which reference to specifically to the experience of women and exposure of feminism.
Domination ,exploitation – sex – focus of feminist- art history- any time, period , location – modern era- feminist art movement – experience of women- feminism exposure- towards – new areas- new forms- analysis- kinship – construction – sexuality- reproduction – labour – cultural – prime aim – signification – art form – out come – sense perception – art history - reflection – cultural history
4 paragraph = speaks about the development of various types of art history which are nothing but the reflection of cultural production based on imperatives of both Marxism and feminism.
Development - various types - art history – reflection - cultural production – basis – Marxism and feminism – mutual transformation – Marxism and feminism.
5 paragraph = art restriction towards areas.
Art – confined – universities – colleges- museum – art galleries – effective signification of art – art universal form.
6 paragraph = focus is on the precondition and concept of art with present reference . cultural ideas of individual are based on the creativity.
Precondition - concept of art – cultural ideas – individual – creativity – social obstacle – as out come of art – shaped - improvement of society – through TV channels - middle class people.
7 paragraph = connection between the creativity and the man
Connection – creativity - man – artist – man - creation of art – by man.
8 paragraph = explains the place of women and the research that has been done by different scholars
Gabhart and broun – expose – relationship between – language and ideology- question – no place for women in the languages – women – followed – contradiction paths.
9 paragraph = shows the stratification of the women occupation which determines the art and creativity among individual.
Stratification – women occupation- determines art creativity- mirror – between – ideology and economy art – self fulfilling – individual – creative activity – biological aspect – men’s in evitable greatness – women eternal second rates - cultural recognition.
10 paragraph= it makes the brief conclusion about women artist and their position, movement and the way it was followed.
Feminist – refused necessary – confrontation – mainstream – art historical ideologies – practices – feminist – in corporate of style and movement – liberal policies – within art – feminism – conference – diverting – sideline – space for – add articles – academic journals.
The summary of essay
Writer has stated that he is not interested in the social history of art which includes various verities like formalist, modernist, sub Freudian, filmic, feminist, radical etc . For diversifications and disintegration. the present essence is the opposite form of the what is mentioned above. It is not the concentration, the possibility of the argument instead of the this deadly co-existence , a means to access to the old debates . this is what the history of art has to offer.
These are the views that T.J clark mentions in his ‘on the conditions artistic creation’ The times literary supplement,24 may 1974,p562.
Writers views lies upon the connection of the art with Marxist cultural theory and historical practice. During the mid 20th century art historians embraced social history by using critical approaches. The goal is to show how art interact with power structure in society . one critical approach that art historians used was Marxism . Marxist art history attempted to show how art was tied to specific classes. How images can make status quo seem natural. Yet society is structured by relations of inequality at the point of material production and between sexes. The domination and exploitation by sex to more basic level of conflict between classes. As Griselda Pollock a prominent feminist art historian has rightly pointed out while feminist art history can focus on any time period and location, much attention has been given to the modern era.
Feminism has exposed new areas and new forms of analysis of kinship, construction of gender, and sexuality reproduction labour and of course culture. The development of various of types art history which are nothing but the reflection of cultural production based on imperatives of both Marxism and feminism. It also focuses why the art should restricted to confined areas like locked up universities or colleges and musty basement of museum. The art should universal.
The essay speaks about precondition and concept of the art with present reference. Cultural ideas of individual are based on the creativity and genius artist will always overcome social obstacles. There is a connection between creativity and man. The essay also emphasizes stratification of the women occupation which determines the art and creativity among individuals. It if of course the mirror image here between ideology and the economy. Art is presented to us as the idea of self fulfilling individual creative activity.
Works cited : Pollock Griselda “Vision, Voice and Power, Feminist art history and Marxism” : an anthology of critical texts.
Eds “ Franscina and Jonathan Harris. London New York : Phaidon, 1992.print.
Mapping of the essay by Sneha Roy
SNEHA ROY
1024116
CIA 2
MEL 132
WESTERN AESTHETICS
JULY 15, 2010
Map of the Essay “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin.
Paragraph 1:
How has art changed over the years?
Marx undertook the critique of capitalism - power not to be restricted to bourgeois – proletariat to be given power – seize power through social revolution.
Transformation of superstructure - slower than that of substructure.
Theses about the art of proletariat after gaining power-or art of class society – less bearing when compared to developmental tendencies of art under present production conditions - Dialectic of theses noticeable in the superstructure and economy-theses push aside outmoded concepts-creativity, genius, mystery-concepts.
Paragraph 2:
What are the different forms of art that have evolved through ages?
Art has been reproducible – man made artifacts imitated by men - replicas were made by third parties for material gain - mechanical production of art - advanced intermittently and leaps inn long intervals - Greeks knew two procedures – founding, stamping - made only bronzes, terracotta and coins - others being unique could not be mechanically reproduced - introduction of woodcut - art became mechanically reproducible - script had not become reproducible by print - engraving and etching added during middle ages - lithography introduced in the nineteenth century.
New stage in reproduction with lithography - direct process - tracing the design on stone - no incision on a block of wood required - production possible on large scale - market friendly - everyday life portrayed - able to keep pace with printing.
Photography takes over lithography - freed the hands - depended on the eye and the lens - process was accelerated - eye could perceive faster than the hands – could keep pace with speech-lithography virtually implied newspaper – photography foreshadowed film.
1900 - technical production attains a standard-all transmitted work s of art reproducible - bring change in the impact on people’s mind-made a place among the artistic processes.
It is important to study the repercussions of the two different manifestations - the reproduction of works of art and the art of the film to have an idea of the influence they have had on art in its traditional form.
Paragraph 3:
Does reproduction make a work of art timeless?
Most perfect work of art in present time lacks its presence in time and space - work of art determines the history to which it belonged-and its survival through ages - includes changes in physical condition - changes in ownership and so on - traces of its time can be revealed by chemical or physical analysis - impossible on a work of reproduction - original work is required to test its authenticity - chemical production of patina of bronze could help establish its authenticity - likewise manuscripts from the fifteenth century would give the authentication of it being from the Middle ages.
Manual reproduction - branded as forgery - original maintained authority - but not so in technical reproduction-example photography - a technical reproduction-brings out those aspects of the original which are unattainable to the naked eye-accessible only through lens-adjustable - can be taken from different angles - can capture images which escape natural vision – technical reproduction - important form – can substitute the copy of the originals in situations where original is out of reach-enables original to meet the beholder halfway. In a given situation, the mechanical production may not touch upon the actual work of art - the quality depreciates - instance - a landscape which passes in review before the spectator in a movie. Talking about an object of art - the authenticity is interrupted by reproduction - but natural landscape is free from interruption in this context - reproduction of art object jeopardizes the authority of the object.
It is said, that which withers in the age of mechanical production is the aura of the work of art - indicative process. It can be said that technique of reproduction detaches the object reproduced from the domain of tradition-unique existence substituted by a plurality of copies - in permitting so, it reactivates the objects in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder in his own unique perception - these processes lead to two things - shattering of tradition - obverse of contemporary crisis - renewal of mankind - both process closely related to contemporary mass movement - most powerful agent being film - social significance in positive form can be brought to light only through its cathartic aspect which leads to liquidification of traditional value-phenomenon can be traced in historical films.
Paragraph 4:
What is Aura?
Aura of natural ones - unique phenomenon of a distance-instance, on a summer afternoon when our eyes follow a mountain range on the horizon or a branch which casts its shadow - we experience the aura of the mountains and of the branch - these make it easy for us to comprehend the social bases of decay of aura-rests on two circumstances - both related to increasing significance of masses in contemporary life - the desire of the mass to bring things closer - spatially and humanly - similar to their inclination towards overcoming the uniqueness of every object by accepting its reproduction - the urge to get hold of a reproduction of any object or truth keeps growing. Reproduction offered through various mediums differs from that seen through unarmed eye. Uniqueness and permanence related to the reality of objects – transitoriness and reproducibility related to the mechanical production of the replica of real objects.
Inquisitiveness about an object - destruction of its aura - sense of the universal equality of things - increased to a degree to such an extent that even the unique objects lose their aura through reproduction.
Paragraph 5:
Art and Tradition
Uniqueness of work of art - inseparable from tradition - tradition alive and mutable - Ancient statue of Venus - for Greeks, object of veneration - for clerics - ominous idol - carries different connotations in different ages - both confronted with uniqueness - the aura. Integration of art in tradition - found expression in cult - earliest art works in service of ritual - magical - religious. Aura of work of art-never separated from ritual function.
Ritualistic basis - despite being remote - recognizable as secularized ritual - even in profane forms of cult of beauty. Secular cult of beauty - emerged during renaissance - continued for three centuries - shows decline in ritualistic basis. Advent of revolutionary means - reproduction - photography - rise of socialism - art sensed the crisis. Art came up with a doctrine - gave rise to negative theology - in the context of the idea of pure-denied social function of art - denied any categorization based on subject matter - Mallarme - the first to take this position. Analysis of art in age of mechanical reproduction - gives us an insight into the world history - frees work of art from dependence on ritual. Work of art reproduced becomes work of art designed for reproducibility - number of prints made by one photographic negative - demanding authentic print - baseless. Paradoxically - authenticity of an artistic production is important - function of art may get reversed - lead to another practice - Politics.
Paragraph 6:
Art and Exhibition
Works of art valued on two planes - importance given to the cult value - exhibition of the work. Artistic production - ceremonial objects - destined to serve cult. Assumed - existence mattered - not the work of art being on view. Emancipation of art practices from ritual - exhibition opportunities increased - easier to exhibit a movable portrait when compared to that which has a static place in the temple - holds true for painting – mosaic fresco - static. Different methods of reproduction - exhibition possibilities increased - quantitative shift turned into qualitative transformation of its nature. Compared to art of prehistoric times - absolute importance on cult value - initially an instrument of magic - later recognized as work of art.
Today emphasis on exhibition values - acquires new dimension through different functions - photography - films - add an extra bit to the original.
Paragraph 7:
Influence of different forms of Art
Mechanical production - changes reaction of masses towards art - reactionary attitude towards Picasso’s paintings - changes to progressive reaction in a Chaplin movie - influenced by - direct, intimate fusion of visual and emotional enjoyment - social significance - sharper distinction between criticism and enjoyment. Conventional - uncritically enjoyed - new form - criticised with aversion. In films - critical and receptive attitude coincide - reason - individual reaction - predetermined by mass audience - most pronounced in films - once the response gets manifested they control each other. Comparison with painting - painting - viewed by one or few - contemplation by large public - nineteenth century - early symptom of crisis of painting - not due to photography - depended on the appeal of art to the masses.
Painting - unable to produce simultaneous collective experience - architecture, epic, poems, movies could do that - this should not lead to a conclusion about social role of painting - though constitutes a threat - when confronted directly by masses - Middle ages - no collective reception of painting-graduated and hierarchies mediation. Though, public exhibition of paintings - reception of masses not organized and controlled. Same public - progressive response to grotesque film - reactionary attitude to surrealism.
Paragraph 8:
Film
Characteristics of a film-manner of presentation of a man to the equipment - representation of his environment - occupational psychology illustrates testing capacity of equipment - psychoanalysis - different perspective. Film - enriched perception - methods by Freudian theory. Earlier slip of tongue - unnoticed - now - reveals the depths of conversation. Film behavior - lends readily to analysis - precise statements and situation - can be isolated more easily - juxtaposition of arts and science in cinema
Paragraph 9:
Dadaism
Foremost task of art - creation of a demand - fully satisfied later.
History of art form shows - art forms aspiring to have effects - attainable with changed technical standard - new art form. Crudities of art - evolve from decadent epochs-arise from nucleus of richest historical energies. Abundance of barbarism - found in Dadaism - impulse distinguishable - attempt to create effects - pictorial - literary - public seeks in films today.
Dadaism - sacrificed market value - characteristic feature of a film not an intentional effort - attached less importance to sales value. Poems – obscenities - waste product of language - true for paintings - achieved relentless destruction of aura of creations -already branded reproduction with production. Decline of middle class - contemplation -asocial behavior - countered by distraction. Dadaists - assured vehement distraction - made works of art - centre for scandal - public outrage.
Alluring appearance - instrument of ballistics - hit spectators like bullets - promoted demand for film - the distracting element - changes of place and focus - assail the spectator. Comparison - screen - film - unfolds - canvas of a painting. Painting -spectator’s contemplation - spectator can abandon associations before watching it - image on screen keeps shifting - scenes cannot be arrested - process of association with images - interrupted due to constant and sudden change - shock effect of the film - cushioned by the presence of mind.
Paragraph 10:
Transformation in Art
Mass is a matrix - traditional bahaviour towards art has new form - quantity transmuted into quality - increased mass participation - changed mode of participation. New mode of participation - initially disreputable - should not confuse spectator - yet spirited attacks against superficiality - Duhamel objects the kind of participation movie evokes - calls movies - pastime for helots - ancient lament - mass seeks distraction - art demands concentration - question remains - provision of platform for analysis of the film - distraction - concentration - polar opposites - man who concentrates before an art - absorbed by it - distracted person - ability to master tasks in distractions - solution becomes habit. Individuals avoid controlling tasks - art takes up important and difficult ones - mobilise the masses. Film - reception in distraction - cult value recedes in background - public as critic - though absent minded.
Paragraph 11:
Conclusion
Growing proleterianization - increasing formation of masses - aspects of the same process. Fascism - organizes newly created proletarian masses - no affect on property structure - introduction of aesthetics into political life. Efforts to render political aesthetics - leads to war - can set goal for mass movement - mobilizes all of technical resources. Futurists - war is beautiful - establishes man’s dominion over subjugated machinery - enriches flowering meadow with machine guns - creates new architecture -big tanks - geometrical formations.
Aesthetics of today’s war-naturalization of productive forces - increase in technical devices. Destructiveness of war shows - society not mature - not sufficiently developed.
Mankind - in Homer’s time - object of contemplation for Olympian gods - now - one for self - self alienation - reached to a destructive degree.
Work Cited:
Benjamin, Walter. “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Art in Modern Culture: An
Anthology of Critical Texts. Eds. Francis Franscina, and Jonathan Harris. London/New York:
Phaidon, 1992. Print.
1024116
CIA 2
MEL 132
WESTERN AESTHETICS
JULY 15, 2010
Map of the Essay “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin.
Paragraph 1:
How has art changed over the years?
Marx undertook the critique of capitalism - power not to be restricted to bourgeois – proletariat to be given power – seize power through social revolution.
Transformation of superstructure - slower than that of substructure.
Theses about the art of proletariat after gaining power-or art of class society – less bearing when compared to developmental tendencies of art under present production conditions - Dialectic of theses noticeable in the superstructure and economy-theses push aside outmoded concepts-creativity, genius, mystery-concepts.
Paragraph 2:
What are the different forms of art that have evolved through ages?
Art has been reproducible – man made artifacts imitated by men - replicas were made by third parties for material gain - mechanical production of art - advanced intermittently and leaps inn long intervals - Greeks knew two procedures – founding, stamping - made only bronzes, terracotta and coins - others being unique could not be mechanically reproduced - introduction of woodcut - art became mechanically reproducible - script had not become reproducible by print - engraving and etching added during middle ages - lithography introduced in the nineteenth century.
New stage in reproduction with lithography - direct process - tracing the design on stone - no incision on a block of wood required - production possible on large scale - market friendly - everyday life portrayed - able to keep pace with printing.
Photography takes over lithography - freed the hands - depended on the eye and the lens - process was accelerated - eye could perceive faster than the hands – could keep pace with speech-lithography virtually implied newspaper – photography foreshadowed film.
1900 - technical production attains a standard-all transmitted work s of art reproducible - bring change in the impact on people’s mind-made a place among the artistic processes.
It is important to study the repercussions of the two different manifestations - the reproduction of works of art and the art of the film to have an idea of the influence they have had on art in its traditional form.
Paragraph 3:
Does reproduction make a work of art timeless?
Most perfect work of art in present time lacks its presence in time and space - work of art determines the history to which it belonged-and its survival through ages - includes changes in physical condition - changes in ownership and so on - traces of its time can be revealed by chemical or physical analysis - impossible on a work of reproduction - original work is required to test its authenticity - chemical production of patina of bronze could help establish its authenticity - likewise manuscripts from the fifteenth century would give the authentication of it being from the Middle ages.
Manual reproduction - branded as forgery - original maintained authority - but not so in technical reproduction-example photography - a technical reproduction-brings out those aspects of the original which are unattainable to the naked eye-accessible only through lens-adjustable - can be taken from different angles - can capture images which escape natural vision – technical reproduction - important form – can substitute the copy of the originals in situations where original is out of reach-enables original to meet the beholder halfway. In a given situation, the mechanical production may not touch upon the actual work of art - the quality depreciates - instance - a landscape which passes in review before the spectator in a movie. Talking about an object of art - the authenticity is interrupted by reproduction - but natural landscape is free from interruption in this context - reproduction of art object jeopardizes the authority of the object.
It is said, that which withers in the age of mechanical production is the aura of the work of art - indicative process. It can be said that technique of reproduction detaches the object reproduced from the domain of tradition-unique existence substituted by a plurality of copies - in permitting so, it reactivates the objects in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder in his own unique perception - these processes lead to two things - shattering of tradition - obverse of contemporary crisis - renewal of mankind - both process closely related to contemporary mass movement - most powerful agent being film - social significance in positive form can be brought to light only through its cathartic aspect which leads to liquidification of traditional value-phenomenon can be traced in historical films.
Paragraph 4:
What is Aura?
Aura of natural ones - unique phenomenon of a distance-instance, on a summer afternoon when our eyes follow a mountain range on the horizon or a branch which casts its shadow - we experience the aura of the mountains and of the branch - these make it easy for us to comprehend the social bases of decay of aura-rests on two circumstances - both related to increasing significance of masses in contemporary life - the desire of the mass to bring things closer - spatially and humanly - similar to their inclination towards overcoming the uniqueness of every object by accepting its reproduction - the urge to get hold of a reproduction of any object or truth keeps growing. Reproduction offered through various mediums differs from that seen through unarmed eye. Uniqueness and permanence related to the reality of objects – transitoriness and reproducibility related to the mechanical production of the replica of real objects.
Inquisitiveness about an object - destruction of its aura - sense of the universal equality of things - increased to a degree to such an extent that even the unique objects lose their aura through reproduction.
Paragraph 5:
Art and Tradition
Uniqueness of work of art - inseparable from tradition - tradition alive and mutable - Ancient statue of Venus - for Greeks, object of veneration - for clerics - ominous idol - carries different connotations in different ages - both confronted with uniqueness - the aura. Integration of art in tradition - found expression in cult - earliest art works in service of ritual - magical - religious. Aura of work of art-never separated from ritual function.
Ritualistic basis - despite being remote - recognizable as secularized ritual - even in profane forms of cult of beauty. Secular cult of beauty - emerged during renaissance - continued for three centuries - shows decline in ritualistic basis. Advent of revolutionary means - reproduction - photography - rise of socialism - art sensed the crisis. Art came up with a doctrine - gave rise to negative theology - in the context of the idea of pure-denied social function of art - denied any categorization based on subject matter - Mallarme - the first to take this position. Analysis of art in age of mechanical reproduction - gives us an insight into the world history - frees work of art from dependence on ritual. Work of art reproduced becomes work of art designed for reproducibility - number of prints made by one photographic negative - demanding authentic print - baseless. Paradoxically - authenticity of an artistic production is important - function of art may get reversed - lead to another practice - Politics.
Paragraph 6:
Art and Exhibition
Works of art valued on two planes - importance given to the cult value - exhibition of the work. Artistic production - ceremonial objects - destined to serve cult. Assumed - existence mattered - not the work of art being on view. Emancipation of art practices from ritual - exhibition opportunities increased - easier to exhibit a movable portrait when compared to that which has a static place in the temple - holds true for painting – mosaic fresco - static. Different methods of reproduction - exhibition possibilities increased - quantitative shift turned into qualitative transformation of its nature. Compared to art of prehistoric times - absolute importance on cult value - initially an instrument of magic - later recognized as work of art.
Today emphasis on exhibition values - acquires new dimension through different functions - photography - films - add an extra bit to the original.
Paragraph 7:
Influence of different forms of Art
Mechanical production - changes reaction of masses towards art - reactionary attitude towards Picasso’s paintings - changes to progressive reaction in a Chaplin movie - influenced by - direct, intimate fusion of visual and emotional enjoyment - social significance - sharper distinction between criticism and enjoyment. Conventional - uncritically enjoyed - new form - criticised with aversion. In films - critical and receptive attitude coincide - reason - individual reaction - predetermined by mass audience - most pronounced in films - once the response gets manifested they control each other. Comparison with painting - painting - viewed by one or few - contemplation by large public - nineteenth century - early symptom of crisis of painting - not due to photography - depended on the appeal of art to the masses.
Painting - unable to produce simultaneous collective experience - architecture, epic, poems, movies could do that - this should not lead to a conclusion about social role of painting - though constitutes a threat - when confronted directly by masses - Middle ages - no collective reception of painting-graduated and hierarchies mediation. Though, public exhibition of paintings - reception of masses not organized and controlled. Same public - progressive response to grotesque film - reactionary attitude to surrealism.
Paragraph 8:
Film
Characteristics of a film-manner of presentation of a man to the equipment - representation of his environment - occupational psychology illustrates testing capacity of equipment - psychoanalysis - different perspective. Film - enriched perception - methods by Freudian theory. Earlier slip of tongue - unnoticed - now - reveals the depths of conversation. Film behavior - lends readily to analysis - precise statements and situation - can be isolated more easily - juxtaposition of arts and science in cinema
Paragraph 9:
Dadaism
Foremost task of art - creation of a demand - fully satisfied later.
History of art form shows - art forms aspiring to have effects - attainable with changed technical standard - new art form. Crudities of art - evolve from decadent epochs-arise from nucleus of richest historical energies. Abundance of barbarism - found in Dadaism - impulse distinguishable - attempt to create effects - pictorial - literary - public seeks in films today.
Dadaism - sacrificed market value - characteristic feature of a film not an intentional effort - attached less importance to sales value. Poems – obscenities - waste product of language - true for paintings - achieved relentless destruction of aura of creations -already branded reproduction with production. Decline of middle class - contemplation -asocial behavior - countered by distraction. Dadaists - assured vehement distraction - made works of art - centre for scandal - public outrage.
Alluring appearance - instrument of ballistics - hit spectators like bullets - promoted demand for film - the distracting element - changes of place and focus - assail the spectator. Comparison - screen - film - unfolds - canvas of a painting. Painting -spectator’s contemplation - spectator can abandon associations before watching it - image on screen keeps shifting - scenes cannot be arrested - process of association with images - interrupted due to constant and sudden change - shock effect of the film - cushioned by the presence of mind.
Paragraph 10:
Transformation in Art
Mass is a matrix - traditional bahaviour towards art has new form - quantity transmuted into quality - increased mass participation - changed mode of participation. New mode of participation - initially disreputable - should not confuse spectator - yet spirited attacks against superficiality - Duhamel objects the kind of participation movie evokes - calls movies - pastime for helots - ancient lament - mass seeks distraction - art demands concentration - question remains - provision of platform for analysis of the film - distraction - concentration - polar opposites - man who concentrates before an art - absorbed by it - distracted person - ability to master tasks in distractions - solution becomes habit. Individuals avoid controlling tasks - art takes up important and difficult ones - mobilise the masses. Film - reception in distraction - cult value recedes in background - public as critic - though absent minded.
Paragraph 11:
Conclusion
Growing proleterianization - increasing formation of masses - aspects of the same process. Fascism - organizes newly created proletarian masses - no affect on property structure - introduction of aesthetics into political life. Efforts to render political aesthetics - leads to war - can set goal for mass movement - mobilizes all of technical resources. Futurists - war is beautiful - establishes man’s dominion over subjugated machinery - enriches flowering meadow with machine guns - creates new architecture -big tanks - geometrical formations.
Aesthetics of today’s war-naturalization of productive forces - increase in technical devices. Destructiveness of war shows - society not mature - not sufficiently developed.
Mankind - in Homer’s time - object of contemplation for Olympian gods - now - one for self - self alienation - reached to a destructive degree.
Work Cited:
Benjamin, Walter. “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Art in Modern Culture: An
Anthology of Critical Texts. Eds. Francis Franscina, and Jonathan Harris. London/New York:
Phaidon, 1992. Print.
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