11/19/2014 - Notes on Mark Godfrey (2012), Designs for Life,
Theaster Gates
11/17/2014 - Notes on Ruben Gallo (2004) - Urbanism
11/16/2014 - Notes on Suzanne Lacy – Mapping the Terrain (1994), New Genre Public
Art
11/12/2014 - Notes on "The Tupamaros" by Luis Camnitzer (2007)
11/5/2014 - Essay on Labor
10/27/2014 - Notes on Tom Finkelpearl - Interview: Mierle Laderman Ukeles on Maintenance and Sanitation Art
10/27/2014 - Notes on "The artist as manager and worker: The artist creates and completes a task" by Helen Molesworth (2003)
The artist has little to no focus on the end project of their work, but on the activity of making it.
They documented this art by way of video, photographs, or sound recordings; it was a documentation of their labor.
The labor they enacted in their works became a performance
Process art mimics but also refutes "managerial and manual labor"
Reflection of the way that managers would record laborers work with charts and data
Reflected the repetitive physical acts of laborers
Bruce Nauman - video recording of bouncing balls to create a rhythm; this kind of piece is analyzed by the work in the process of making
Artists wanted to change the way in which value was placed on art; change the mindset from art as commodity to valuing the labor of the artist who created the art object
- Process Art
The artist has little to no focus on the end project of their work, but on the activity of making it.
They documented this art by way of video, photographs, or sound recordings; it was a documentation of their labor.
The labor they enacted in their works became a performance
Process art mimics but also refutes "managerial and manual labor"
Reflection of the way that managers would record laborers work with charts and data
Reflected the repetitive physical acts of laborers
Bruce Nauman - video recording of bouncing balls to create a rhythm; this kind of piece is analyzed by the work in the process of making
Artists wanted to change the way in which value was placed on art; change the mindset from art as commodity to valuing the labor of the artist who created the art object
10/22/2014 - Thoughts on Labor
As a student, I consider my primary job to be completing my school work and going to class; after all, the option of "student" always appears on the drop down list of employment options on forms. However, I have in the past decided to work in order to have extra money to spend in school. It is difficult to be both an employee and student because you must plan and organize your time very carefully. When I think about entering the workforce full time after I graduate, I am frightened by the idea of going into a field where I repeat the same tasks day after day. At school, I am exposed to a variety of careers by my teachers and by those who I see on campus. On campus, I used to work at the Spurlock Museum; even though I only worked 10 hours a week I felt that it cut into my school time too much. In the summer, however, I have been a camp counselor for the past four years and I enjoy that work,
As a student, I consider my primary job to be completing my school work and going to class; after all, the option of "student" always appears on the drop down list of employment options on forms. However, I have in the past decided to work in order to have extra money to spend in school. It is difficult to be both an employee and student because you must plan and organize your time very carefully. When I think about entering the workforce full time after I graduate, I am frightened by the idea of going into a field where I repeat the same tasks day after day. At school, I am exposed to a variety of careers by my teachers and by those who I see on campus. On campus, I used to work at the Spurlock Museum; even though I only worked 10 hours a week I felt that it cut into my school time too much. In the summer, however, I have been a camp counselor for the past four years and I enjoy that work,
10/15/2014 - Notes on "Art and Agency" - Alfred Gell (1998)
10/8/-2014 - Reflection on Brett Hanover & Documentary Making
Today in class Brett Hanover came to talk to us about documentary film styles and even show us some of his current work. I think he chose a great variety to show us so that we can expand our idea of what a documentary is. In "Four More Years," one of the films he showed us, the directors of the film were given behind the scenes access at the 1972 Republican convention, and they were considered very left leaning "hippies." It was great to see the reactions of those around them and see the realities behind documentary making, like when someone won't give you a comment or when your work is questioned. I really enjoyed viewing Brett's work because it exposed me to a culture that I know little about, and I feel that is the function of documentaries; they give you a glimpse into the life or culture of a specific group, person, or place. I also appreciated how he incorporated different styles into his documentary, such as interviews, re-enactments, and fiction. This combination blurs the line of reality and art in documentary making and it helped me expand my view on the genre. Brett was also very helpful in giving our group advice about our documentary; he told us we should film some real time footage as filler, and then capture staged moments to combine with these.
Today in class Brett Hanover came to talk to us about documentary film styles and even show us some of his current work. I think he chose a great variety to show us so that we can expand our idea of what a documentary is. In "Four More Years," one of the films he showed us, the directors of the film were given behind the scenes access at the 1972 Republican convention, and they were considered very left leaning "hippies." It was great to see the reactions of those around them and see the realities behind documentary making, like when someone won't give you a comment or when your work is questioned. I really enjoyed viewing Brett's work because it exposed me to a culture that I know little about, and I feel that is the function of documentaries; they give you a glimpse into the life or culture of a specific group, person, or place. I also appreciated how he incorporated different styles into his documentary, such as interviews, re-enactments, and fiction. This combination blurs the line of reality and art in documentary making and it helped me expand my view on the genre. Brett was also very helpful in giving our group advice about our documentary; he told us we should film some real time footage as filler, and then capture staged moments to combine with these.
10/6/2014 - Documentary Analysis
9/23/2014 - Notes on “Searching for Silence” by Alex Ross
9/13/2014 - Notes on Exchange rate: On obligation and reciprocity in some art of the 1960s and after by Miwon Kwon (2003)
· I found it interesting how Kwon uses the word “tamed” to describe how many arts considered bold in the 1960s have been categorized into their respective genres
· Art historian Lucy Lippard predicted the transition of art from merely being about the product to becoming more about the action or idea
o She also discusses how this shift in art helped evade the greedy sector that viewed art as a commodity, due to the lack of physical art objects
o However, today, art buyers and sellers have figured out a way to sell “art as idea”
§ How are things like goods and experiences quantified? How are they sold or bought?
· Kwon hypothesizes that the “art as idea” practices of the 1960s and 70s have changed the conventional methods of buying and selling art because they challenge and complicate the normal exchanging of art
o This kind of art pushes people and challenges them; it tests them
· Many of these art practices function as a gift, and make the audience feel obligated to form a “suitable response”
o There is no such thing as a “free gift” or one without calculation behind it, says French sociologist Marcel Mauss
o How do we reciprocate?
o Creates an inequality of status between artist and audience
§ Artist is in a superior position?
o Lygia Clark came to think of her audience as “patients,” and that her art was a psychotherapy that allowed her audience to reconnect in body and mind
o Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures provide directions for the participants to potentially become artists
o Orozco’s work allows the audience to deem the outcome of it’ they determine whether it is successful or not by their reactions
o What if the gift is denied or puts the artist in “debt” to the viewer?
§ Gonzalez-Torres’ candy and paper found rolled and scrunched up in the garbage cans outside of the museum
· I found it interesting how Kwon uses the word “tamed” to describe how many arts considered bold in the 1960s have been categorized into their respective genres
· Art historian Lucy Lippard predicted the transition of art from merely being about the product to becoming more about the action or idea
o She also discusses how this shift in art helped evade the greedy sector that viewed art as a commodity, due to the lack of physical art objects
o However, today, art buyers and sellers have figured out a way to sell “art as idea”
§ How are things like goods and experiences quantified? How are they sold or bought?
· Kwon hypothesizes that the “art as idea” practices of the 1960s and 70s have changed the conventional methods of buying and selling art because they challenge and complicate the normal exchanging of art
o This kind of art pushes people and challenges them; it tests them
· Many of these art practices function as a gift, and make the audience feel obligated to form a “suitable response”
o There is no such thing as a “free gift” or one without calculation behind it, says French sociologist Marcel Mauss
o How do we reciprocate?
o Creates an inequality of status between artist and audience
§ Artist is in a superior position?
o Lygia Clark came to think of her audience as “patients,” and that her art was a psychotherapy that allowed her audience to reconnect in body and mind
o Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures provide directions for the participants to potentially become artists
o Orozco’s work allows the audience to deem the outcome of it’ they determine whether it is successful or not by their reactions
o What if the gift is denied or puts the artist in “debt” to the viewer?
§ Gonzalez-Torres’ candy and paper found rolled and scrunched up in the garbage cans outside of the museum
9/8/2014 - Bruce Nauman Presentation Handout
8/27/2014 - Notes on Kathryn Weir's In This Together: The Aesthetics of Inclusion
Ideas
• Art today is becoming increasingly inclusive of all “media and geographies” – meaning that it draws from a variety of cultures, modernisms, and aesthetics.
• “Grays argues that contemporary art's autonomy lies in its insistence on inclusion” (page 24)
• Art is becoming more global and interlinked
• Theorists and artists alike are struggling with the idea of what exactly contemporary art is
• Art exploring the geography and culture of a space and inclusion of all that has been there or influenced the location
• Art forms may seem to reference one another, but the meaning of certain styles and images vary greatly depending on historical and geographical context
• Recent interest in the exploration of the relationship between humans, animals, and nature
• Increasing visibility of contemporary art to the public
• Wider variety and expansion of the community that now participates in contemporary art (either as a viewer or artist)
• Abundance of ideas of how people are making art now – are we in a period of contemporary art or postmodernism?
Names & Facts
• Boris Grays, theorist, author of essays of Art Power (2008)
• Terry Smith “underlines the fundamental need to connect or mediate between 'world picturing and placemaking, the two essential parameters of our being'” (page 26)
• Almagul Menlibayeva, Wrapping history, 2010
• Frederic Bruly Bouabre, senior artist from Cote d'Ivoire, drawing series 'Publicites' and 'Connaissance du Monde' ('Knowledge
of the World')
• Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, mirror mosaic Lightning for Neda 2009
o Made by craftsmen who have been reusing glass since the 17th century; they use pieces broken in transit between Europe and Persia
o Political implications (Neda Agha Soltan’s death in 2009)
Points of Interest
• Bouabre and Neuenschwander’s works display how interconnected the world and it’s images are
• Artists exploring the history of a place, such as Wrapping history
• “When Andrade Tudela re-presents these in a contemporary art context, the gesture is one of inclusion, expanding the recognition of aesthetic qualities to new locations and forms with different meanings and histories” (28)
Ideas
• Art today is becoming increasingly inclusive of all “media and geographies” – meaning that it draws from a variety of cultures, modernisms, and aesthetics.
• “Grays argues that contemporary art's autonomy lies in its insistence on inclusion” (page 24)
• Art is becoming more global and interlinked
• Theorists and artists alike are struggling with the idea of what exactly contemporary art is
• Art exploring the geography and culture of a space and inclusion of all that has been there or influenced the location
• Art forms may seem to reference one another, but the meaning of certain styles and images vary greatly depending on historical and geographical context
• Recent interest in the exploration of the relationship between humans, animals, and nature
• Increasing visibility of contemporary art to the public
• Wider variety and expansion of the community that now participates in contemporary art (either as a viewer or artist)
• Abundance of ideas of how people are making art now – are we in a period of contemporary art or postmodernism?
Names & Facts
• Boris Grays, theorist, author of essays of Art Power (2008)
• Terry Smith “underlines the fundamental need to connect or mediate between 'world picturing and placemaking, the two essential parameters of our being'” (page 26)
• Almagul Menlibayeva, Wrapping history, 2010
• Frederic Bruly Bouabre, senior artist from Cote d'Ivoire, drawing series 'Publicites' and 'Connaissance du Monde' ('Knowledge
of the World')
• Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, mirror mosaic Lightning for Neda 2009
o Made by craftsmen who have been reusing glass since the 17th century; they use pieces broken in transit between Europe and Persia
o Political implications (Neda Agha Soltan’s death in 2009)
Points of Interest
• Bouabre and Neuenschwander’s works display how interconnected the world and it’s images are
• Artists exploring the history of a place, such as Wrapping history
• “When Andrade Tudela re-presents these in a contemporary art context, the gesture is one of inclusion, expanding the recognition of aesthetic qualities to new locations and forms with different meanings and histories” (28)