Arterial

The Many Artworks for the Adoration of the Magi

2011-12-13T14:31:00.000-01:00

The biblical story of the Adoration of the Magi began about two thousand years ago when it was included in the Book of Mathew. It would be hard to name a story depicted in art more than this one. Hundreds of painters, sculptors and other artists have created their version of this iconic tableau. more....Published by Kosmo on Hubpages The Many Artworks for the Adoration of the Magi

Zotero v EndNote web

2011-11-07T22:31:00.001-01:00

At Uni today we had a a tutorial about using EndNote Web for organising and inserting citations in a dissertation or thesis. I have been using Zotero a freeware piece of software that performs a similar task. I have to say I was not exactly blown away by my first experience with EndNote Web. Compared with Zotero the interface is very clunky. I would make the point that the web version of Endnote is free but you have to subscribe to it from a Uni computer or when logged on at Uni, you can not subscribe from home. There is a standalone version of Endnote but this costs nearly £200.

I thought I would have a look on the net to check out the various opinions regarding Zotero v Endnotes. These postings at Ideophone and Speechless may be worth a look. I have to say both are very much pro Zotero.

An important difference between Zotero and Endnote Web is, Zotero allows you to annotate your citations with snapshots of web pages, notes, images, tags and related citations. Something you can not do in Endnote Web.

See my previous posts relating to Zotero, the original post and update.

Layers of History - Video

2011-10-07T18:42:00.000-01:00

During year 3 my enquiry was concerned with the aesthetic experience of urban decay. My work explores the layers of history as represented by torn posters or peeling paint and the notion of nostalgia. Torn and peeling posters present a challenge to visual perception, the video explores the complex perceptual relationship between a fixed and moving image.

Contemporary Art Blogs

2011-06-29T06:17:00.001-01:00

Alistair Parker Art at dot-art Liverpool

2011-06-28T10:17:00.003-01:00

I am delighted to announce that my work is now being represented by the Liverpool gallery dot-art.

dot-art was founded by Lucy Byrne in 2006, and is an art gallery and consultancy based in Liverpool city centre, specialising in affordable, high quality, locally sourced art, on a sale, commission and rental basis, as well as offering a range of complementary services including; art consultancy, exhibition planning and implementation, bespoke framing, art valuation and restoration and artist sourcing.

Harris Museum and folly: pioneering experiment in collecting digital art

2011-06-28T10:01:00.005-01:00

In late 2010 the Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston in partnership with folly, Lancaster have launched Current : An Experiment in Collecting Digital Art. The partnership invited applications from Artists working with technology to propose new or existing work for exhibition and acquisition. They requested proposals for work such as digital art, interactive art, net art, electronic art, multi-and time-based media.

The project was heralded as a unique case study in the collection of digital art. Conceived to encourage debate from visitors, artists and sector professionals about the process of integrating digital artworks into existing permanent collections.

UK-based artists working in digital media and new media technology were invited to propose work for an exhibition at the Harris Museum & Art Gallery which took place 25 March - 4 June 2011 .

Work was selected for inclusion by an expert panel (including Mike Stubbs CEO of FACT , Ruth Catlow, Co-founder and co-director of Furtherfield.org and HTTP Gallery London , and Beryl Graham, Professor of New Media Art at the University of Sunderland and co-editor of CRUMB).

The objectives of the project were:-

A public exhibition of new media artwork to be held at the Harris Museum & Art Gallery.
An acquisition of one artwork for the museum's permanent collections.
A public debate.
Evaluation of the project to inform future collecting of new media at the museum

The shortlist of artists selected:-

boredomresearch
Southampton based artists Vicky Isley and Paul Smith make artworks inspired by the diversity that exists in nature. boredomresearch use computational technology to explore this diversity often using techniques similar to those used by scientists.

www.boredomresearch.net

Michael Szpakowsk
Michael is an artist, composer, writer & educator. His music has been performed all over the UK, in Russia & the USA. His short films have been shown throughout the world. He is composer & video artist for Tell Tale Hearts Theatre Company & a joint editor of the online video resource DVblog.

www.somedancersandmusicians.com/

James Coupe
James is an artist who works with systems, autonomy and networks. His controversial recent work with surveillance systems, in installation projects such as (re)collector and Surveillance Suite, use computer vision software to extract demographic and behavioural information from live video footage.

http://jamescoupe.com

Harwood, Wright, Yokokoji
These artists have collaborated together from 2004 to 2009, firstly as part of ‘Mongrel' - an internationally recognised artists collective. Previous projects involving the group include the first online commission from the Tate Gallery, London , a BAFTA award nomination and work in the permanent collections of the Pompidou Centre Paris and the Centre for Media Arts in Karlsruhe (ZKM).

www.mediashed.org

Thomson & Craighead
Thomson and Craighead are fascinated how trends of globalisation and networked global communications have been re-shaping the way we all perceive and understand the world around us. They live and work in London and Kingussie in the highlands of Scotland making artworks for galleries, online and sometimes outdoors.

www.thomson-craighead.net/th/

The piece selected to become part of the Harris permanent collection was the Thomson & Craighead's piece 'The distance travelled through our solar system this year and all the barrels of oil remaining ' (2011).

The work was selected by an expert panel, including Paul Hobson, Director, Contemporary Arts Society; Sarah Fisher, Chair of Axis and Chair of FACT ; Gavin Delahunty, Head of Exhibitions and Displays, Tate Liverpool; Taylor Nuttall, Chief Executive, folly; and Alex Walker, Head of Arts & Heritage Preston City Council.

The work consists of two wall based gallery projections that dynamically display the number of remaining oil barrels left in the world alongside the distance the earth has travelled this year. By juxtaposing something global (the statistic streams) against something local (a visit to a gallery and contemplation of an artwork), the piece allows a poetic connection to be made between the individual and the world at large.

Alex Walker, Head of Arts & Heritage, Preston City Council said;

“We are delighted to acquire this piece by Thomson & Craighead. The work is a completely new departure for the Harris Museum & Art Gallery. It's very much of the 21st century and could only be produced now. It makes use of live stream from the internet, and also deals with the big issues of the environment which are of concern to everyone. It may not initially have obvious connections with the Harris' collections, however, artists have always been concerned with helping us to understand and relate to the world we live in. Through the Current selection process we have acquired a piece which is both experimental and innovative.”

To complete the project a public debate was held at UCLAN on 24th May 2011 to analyse the experiment and share findings and best practice on collecting digital art.

Comment
As an artist engaged with New and Multi-Media practice I had great expectations for the exhibition but was rather under whelmed by my visit. The artists brief for the exhibition was a little ambiguous. The general preamble spoke in terms of 'New Media' yet the artists were asked to submit proposals of work such as digital art, interactive art, net art, electronic art, multi-and time-based media. Whilst the broad term 'New Media' has a wide ranging definition one thing the term does generally imply is interactivity with the medium. With one exception the works in this exhibition were most definitely not interactive.

Maybe my disappointment with this exhibition was exacerbated by my recent visit to the wonderful "New Media" exhibition "Recorders" at the Manchester Art Gallery a major exhibition by Mexican-Canadian electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. This really was cutting edge interactive 'New Media' art.

I attended the debate at UCLAN on the 24th May. The debate did help to clarify some of my miss giving's about the exhibition. For starters, the selection of short listed exhibits can only be as good as the work submitted for selection. Having said that the highlight of the debate was the presentation by Alison Craighead 50% of the winning partnership, Thomson and Craighead. I wasn't familiar with the work of these London based visual artists. They have been working together with video, sound and the internet since 1993. Their work explores how technology changes the way we perceive the world around us. They use live data to make artworks, including template cinema online artworks and gallery installations, where networked movies are created in real time from online material such as remote-user security web cams, audio feeds, chat room text transcripts and social media output. The breadth and ingenuity of the work is impressive. In my opinion the work acquired by the Harris, whilst of the moment, given our preoccupation with dwindling natural resources, it is possibly one of their less inspiring pieces. It may have been more relevant to relate the consumption of oil with the rocketing price of say petrol! I am not sure the man on the Clapham omnibus has much concept of how far we travel through the Milky Way; he is aware of the cost of fuel!

Quoting from the Harris website, "the aim of the project was to raise the profile of this area of practice; to help digital artists to become integral to art's history; and for digital art to be seen as something to be collected in perpetuity, thereby reinforcing the public perception of it and its value". They also intended to address the challenges facing curators, in terms of integrating digital art into existing collections. One challenge being to display the work as it was originally intended. Another being the ability for digital media to reflect a continual state of evolution in its production and exhibition and in the case of the Thomson and Craighead installation the original data source.

The recently resurrected BBC Doomsday project highlights the problem of incorporating digital media into art collections. The rapid evolution of software, hardware, storage and presentation equipment in this sector presents numerous issues and potential problems. It was this aspect of the acquisition that engaged the speakers and audience alike, the reason why the public debate was such an important part of the project. All those concerned in the process confessed to a steep learning curve.

Professional Practice Opportunity

2011-03-21T16:24:00.002-01:00

The Poulton ArtSpOt is available to suitable students as a curatable exhibition space and potential working location.

To exhibit 2D work subject to the submission of a suitable proposal.
In return for a minimum of 8 hours supervision of the location per week and 15% commission on any sales made as a result of the exhibition as a contribution to costs.
Students would be required to have public liability insurance which could be acquired through membership of A-N.
Supervision and guidance is available as required.
The space would be available from beginning of April.
Work displayed must be suitable for family viewing.
Available for 4 week periods.

The space is a continuous run of 28 x 8 ft lined with white painted chipboard on one wall of a public passage way. The passageway is an unsupervised public area. Work should be fixed to the display surface. In the 3 years I have operated this space there has been no problem with security. The passage way receives direct south westerly light, artists should be aware that this may affect non-lightfast pigments or dyes. Selection of suitable candidate will be made subject to the submission by email, of a proposal.
To include:-

Artist statement
Description of work including size, number, media etc
Photographs of examples of work.
Will you be selling or not?
Risk assessment

Easy Citation with Zotero - Update

2011-03-16T22:12:00.006-01:00

This is an update of my post of 17 November 2010 find it here.

A requirement of the college I attend is we have to use Harvard style referencing but they want you to include the page number of the citation but the default option does not include page numbers.

They require the "in text" citation to look like this (Trigg, 2006, p.6) but the default in Zotero looks like this (Trigg, 2006).

There is a simple solution you can download from Zotero a vast number of citation styles that can be added to the default set that comes with the initial download.

Go to this page Zotero Styles and download the "Harvard - Adapted for Leeds Met" option, click the [install ] link. I could not fathom how it worked to start but the Zotero Forum proved very helpful. The new option comes up when you use the Word plug-in to add a citation. Make sure Word is closed when you download the new option. When you next use Word you will find at the bottom of the dialog box that opens when you choose to insert citation from the Zotero toolbar menu there will be a button at the bottom marked Page in the box next to it type the page number you want to add to the citation. Choose your citation in the normal way and Bingo the page number appears as above.

Click image to enlarge.

You Right Foot's Connected to Your Right Finger

2011-02-21T22:59:00.002-01:00

This is an experiment which demonstrates that despite what we may think we have little control over our brain. Your brain controls you. Click the image to enlarge and follow the instructions. Mmmmmm interesting eh.......

Printing a Secure PDF

2011-02-14T21:14:00.004-01:00

Occasionally you will download or be sent a secure PDF file that has the print option disabled. If there are no copyright restrictions the simple option is to use an on-line conversion option to create a printable file. One I have used, which works a treat, is Neevia free on-line PDF converter, available here. When the page opens in your browser use the default settings, browse to the file on your hard disc, choose the delivery method, either the file will be opened in your browser or sent by email. I generally choose the email delivery option. Your file can now be opened and printed.

What is the difference between a metaphor and an allegory?

2011-02-07T09:25:00.003-01:00

This is a distinction that constantly confuses, me included. I found this answer at e.notes.com which strikes me as fairly succinct. Hope you don't mind me passing your words of wisdom on!

Answer: A metaphor is typically a phrase that is used as a comparison to seemingly unrelated objects or actions. A metaphor is a rhetorical trope that represents the first subject as being similar or equal to a second object or subject in any way.

An allegory is also a representation of comparisons but on a much deeper note. An allegory typically consist of a longer passage of comparisons than just a phrase; it also includes more details than a metaphor. An allegory is usually symbolically substituted for something else. A meaningful historical/geopolitical event or a wider abstract concept is usually the goal of an allegory. Metaphors are mainly used in language, whereas allegories can be used in language, painting, sculpting, etc.

EXAMPLES OF KNOWN METAPHORS: All the World's a stage, Killing him with Kindness, Frozen with fear, My stomach was a bottomless pit.

EXAMPLES OF KNOWN ALLEGORIES:

Example #1: In the novel, Lord of the Flies it provides a compelling allegory of human nature, illustrating the three sides of the psyche through its sharply-defined main characters.

Example # 2: A symbolic representation: The blindfolded figure with scales is an allegory of justice.

Fragments of Memory

2011-01-24T19:51:00.006-01:00

It is the end of the penultimate semester and we have the first half of our Final Assessment so I have been burning the midnight oil finishing off my various projects and getting my sketchbook up-to-date.

Through both my dissertation and fine art practice work continues to explore the aesthetic aspects of decay, memory/remembering, nostalgia and melancholia. I am interested in exploring the ugly as compared to the beautiful using decay as the metaphor. I am endeavouring to explain my enquiry through the visualisation of the concept of perception and how this relates to memory and the emotions of nostalgia and melancholia.

I am considering the manner in which the eye converts visual information into memory, how the brain perceives this information and how this information is subsequently retrieved to form part of our emotional and aesthetic experience. My enquiry considers the modern science of neuro-physiology, neuro-aesthetics in the response to art and the aesthetic experience. The work employs a combination of video and still images arranged in multiple layers to create visual complexity challenging the perception of the viewer to recognise the familiar within the unfamiliar.

The following video is one of the 3 video works I have on display. The other 2 have to be viewed in-situ as they employ partly silvered mirror as the front element of the work, this makes videoing the work difficult.

Fragments of Memory

This video makes use of appropriated stills from Bill Morrison's film "Light is calling" and part of Michael Gordon's sound track. Morrison's film is based on "found footage" of decaying film. I have reworked the film incorporating into it my own images, mainly nostalgic family photographs. The video explores the notion of fragmented memory and the often confused narration associated with the effects of Alzheimers disease.

This work is for academic purposes only and recognises the original authors copyright no breach of which is intended.

WordWeb - English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows

2010-12-07T17:21:00.003-01:00

Another useful aid to dissertation writing WordWeb is a one-click English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows that can look up words in almost any program. It works off-line, but can also look up words in web references such as the Wikipedia encyclopedia. Features of the free version include:

Definitions and synonyms
Related words
5000 audio pronunciations
65 000 text pronunciations

150 000 root words
120 000 synonym sets
Look up words in almost any program

Go to the WordWeb site or download from here.

Easy Citation with Zotero

2010-11-17T09:03:00.005-01:00

For those of you who who are struggling with the citation part of your dissertation you need to discover Zotero.

Zotero is a piece of free software that can be used to collect your citation information from the internet or manually and insert it into your dissertation using Microsoft Word or Open Office. The software is easy to install and set up and there is loads of help on the website and through associated forums.

Zotero only works with the Firefox browser on both PC and Mac but not with Internet Explorer or Safari, don't ask why it's a long story.

Zotero comes in 2 parts, a Plug-in for Firefox and a plug-in for Microsoft Word or Open Office.

If you do not normally use Firefox it is an open source browser by Mozilla and has an excellent reputation, personally I would not use anything else. You can have both Firefox and IE on your computer at the same time. Download Mozilla Firefox here

How Not to Sell Your Art

2010-10-28T10:07:00.003-01:00

SCENE #1: PHONE RINGS Mr COLLECTOR - (phone ringing) "Hello. Is this Artist Brown? Hi there, I saw your painting at the Fathers With No Teeth auction last weekend. You know, the painting with the two donkeys? I love it! I want to buy it. How much are you asking?" ARTIST - "Oh yeah, great, yeah, fantastic... Two Donkeys.. Buy it? Yeah, sure it's for sale, I think. Uh, the price - well I - Uh - how about I get back to you on that? (goes to local pub and agonizes over the price...)"

SCENE #2: TWO MONTHS LATER, ARTIST - (making a call) "Hello, is Mr Collector there? This is Artist Brown following up with the price for my painting, "Two Donkeys". What? He's moved to Tahiti? Last week? Does he have a phone there?"

When it comes to pricing your work, the worst price is not the high one, and not the low one. It is "price undecided". Make a decision, and go with it. And remember that the buyer is more motivated to buy at the moment they call you than they will ever be. So be prepared to be flexible, right then, while they are on the phone.

Source: www.artslant.com

Walking on Eggshells: Borrowing Culture in the Remix Age

2010-10-10T17:20:00.002-01:00

"Walking on Eggshells" is a 24-minute documentary about appropriation, creative influence, re-use and intellectual property in the remix age. It is a conversation among various musicians, visual artists, writers and lawyers, all sharing their views on why and how we use and create culture, and how intellectual property law, originally designed to provide people with incentives to create, sometimes hinders creative production far more than it enhances it. There is more information available on the "Everything is a Remix" Blog

Walking on Eggshells: Borrowing Culture in the Remix Age from Brendan Schlagel on Vimeo.

On the same subject Aaron Dunn has created the non-profit organisation MusOpen where he aims to make available out of copyright classical music and sheet music.

Both of these items are discussed on the Radio 5 podcast "Outriders"

My Art in a Blackberry Commercial

2010-10-10T16:51:00.005-01:00

Recently Blackberry shot a commercial for the new Torch handset featuring Will Ramsay the owner of Wills Art Warehouse in Putney, where I sell my art. The commercial was shot during recent exhibition where my work was on display. As luck would have it they caught a quick glimpse of one of my works, "Blackpool Rocks" 15 secs into the clip. Don't blink or you will miss it. They obviously think it is recognisable as I had to sign a release agreement!

This is what you are looking out for!

The launch of the ad is intended to coincide with the Affordable Art Fair another of Will Ramsay's successful innovations. This years event runs from 21 - 24th October in Battersea Park, London.

Can poet George Szirtes save us from verbal bankruptcy? The Forum - BBC ...

2010-09-29T09:13:00.000-01:00

Exhibition "Beside the Sea" Wills Art Warehouse

2010-07-30T16:32:00.003-01:00

Starting Saturday 31st July at Wills Art Warehouse, Lower Richmond Rd, Putney, London SW15 1LY will be holding an exhibition of contemporary art, Beside the Sea.

The gallery will be full of artworks inspired by seaside summer days and exotic travels
Featuring gallery favourites: Emma Brownjohn, Susie Brooks, Colin Moore, Alistair Parker, Charlotte Evans and many more... Continues until end of August

AMALGAM - Art Exhibition at Village Walks Poulton le Fylde

2010-07-20T09:17:00.001-01:00

AMALGAM - An exhibition of contemporary art at Village Walks, Poulton le Fylde. A selection of work by the 2nd Year Fine Art degree students from Blackpool Art School, Palatine Road.

19th July to 28th August, Monday to Saturday 9.00 till 5.00 Free entry. Entrance next to Post Office.

View Larger Map

Print a Secured PDF File

2010-06-28T20:31:00.003-01:00

Ran into a problem today that I have never experienced before, I tried to print a PDF file that I had downloaded from the Internet but it would not print. I use Foxit Reader, a plug-in for Firefox to download and open PDF files and hitherto it has always worked perfectly but this time it came up with an error message telling me that the PDF document was secured and could not be printed.

After fiddling about for ages and getting nowhere I resorted to good old Google. After trying a couple of abortive suggestions from various sources I discovered PDF Escape . This is an online PDF editor. When you open the link there are a number of options, I chose the "Start Using (unregistered)" option. Just follow the on-sceen instructions, I browse to the file I needed to upload, it opens in an editor window. I chose the option to Print. My printer dialog duly opened and I printed off the 22 page document. Just for info I always use the fast option and print double sided to save both ink and paper. The document printed off perfectly.

The Aesthetic of Ageing and Urban Decay

2010-05-29T13:11:00.006-01:00

Well that is almost the end of the 2nd year of my BA (Hons) Fine Art and Professional Practice degree. Work is exhibited for final assessment and just one more tutorial to go.

My work continues to explore process and media with particular emphasis on photography and digital imaging. Drawing on the contextual reference which have informed my work so far, street art, urban decay, layers of history I have researched further into Décollage, Entrécissement and the work of the Letterists. Jonathan Millers book A Scavengers Hoard was particularly influential. His idea of viewing the world as a series of fragments mimicking the optical function of the eye was revealing.

I have continued with the theme of portrait and the concept of “noeme” (what has been). Drawing on the phenomena of Pareidolia – a type of apophenia involving the finding of images in random stimuli. Also the surrealist concept of the Paranoiac-critical method a technique developed by Salvador Dalí in the early 1930s. He employed it in the production of paintings and other artworks, especially those that involved optical illusions and other multiple images.

My work developed two themes, Décollage and Collage. The former took the form of Torn and Incised Poster in a shallow 3D assemblage using simulated posters created digitally and processed to simulate the Benday dot structure of large posters. This I feel was particularly successful. I shall be exploring this theme further. The contextual sources for this work included artists such as Leo Malet and Raymond Hindes.

An additional aspect to my work is a video installation piece. The work explores the duality of still and moving image. A ghostly moving image with a stilted amateurish home movie style provokes memory and nostalgia of a family event against the still ambiguity of an image of decay and the vestige of a ghostly portrait. The changing juxtaposition of the images provokes questions of perception and uncertainty bringing together fragments of memory and recollection. This concept was initially explored in an experimental mixed media collage where a subliminal stencil portrait of a child on translucent tulle material was displayed above a more complex torn poster background.

My work continues to be informed by the philosophy of Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, Jaques Derrida

Degree Shows

2010-05-27T08:02:00.003-01:00

Blackpool, Fine Art, 21st - 26th June Palatine Road, FY1 4DW

UCLAN Fine Art, Drawing and Image Making, 12th - 19th June Hanover Building, Preston, PR1 2HE

Lancaster, Fine Art, 16th - 23rd June, Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster Campus, LA1 4YW

Salford, Fine Art, 4th - 8th June Allerton Studios, Fredrick Rd Campus, M6 6PU

John Moores School of Art & Design Degree Show 28th May - 4th June, 10am - 4pm inc Bank Hol, Art and Design Academy, 2 Duckinfield Street, Liverpool L3 5RD

Hope University Liverpool Summer Arts Degree Show - Fine Art Applied Art and Design 22 - 28th May 10.00-17.00 The Cornerstone, Haigh Street, Liverpool L3 8QB

Manchester Metropolitan Degree Show 19th, 20th & 23rd June: 10am–4pm, 21st & 22nd June: 10am–6pm The Grosvenor Building, Cavendish Street, Manchester M15 6BR

Further info:
www.computerarts.co.uk
http://www.axisweb.org
www.a-n.co.uk/degrees_unedited

Check out my web locations:-
www.alistairparkerart.com
www.artspots.co.uk
arterials.blogspot.com
www.digiphotology.com
www.flickr.com

Create a Blog with Blogger

2010-03-29T10:24:00.004-01:00

Further to my talk today here are a few links to help you get started with creating a Blog in Google Blogger. There is also a link to a new on-line website creation outfit called Weebly. I have a had a go and it works really well, just needs a bit of planning before you take the plunge. If you want to register a domain name I use easily.co.uk, they are safe and good value.

http://www.blogger.com
Blogger Tutorial pdf
http://www.weebly.com
www.easily.co.uk

How to Write a Dissertation in less than a minute

2010-03-18T04:46:00.004-01:00

In the next few weeks I have to write a 1500 word proposal of next semesters 6000 - 10,000 word dissertation (they can't make up their minds how long).

Below is something I knocked up just for practice, contains 850 words. If you want to know how, nip to the end of the article!

Deconstructing Sontag: The postdialectic paradigm of context in the works of Spelling J. Jacques Reicher

1. Lacanist obscurity and Sartreist existentialism

“Society is impossible,” says Baudrillard; however, according to Sargeant[1] , it is not so much society that is impossible, but rather the genre of society. Thus, a number of discourses concerning neodialectic narrative may be found. The subject is contextualised into a postdialectic paradigm of context that includes truth as a whole.

Therefore, the main theme of the works of Rushdie is the difference between sexual identity and class. Many deconstructions concerning the role of the artist as poet exist.

However, Sontag promotes the use of the textual paradigm of narrative to deconstruct sexuality. Any number of discourses concerning the postdialectic paradigm of context may be discovered.

2. Rushdie and Lacanist obscurity

“Sexual identity is part of the meaninglessness of truth,” says Lyotard. Therefore, Bataille uses the term ‘post semantic de-sublimation’ to denote the collapse, and eventually the absurdity, of capitalist class. Several constructions concerning the common ground between language and sexual identity exist.

If one examines the post dialectic paradigm of context, one is faced with a choice: either reject Lacanist obscurity or conclude that the purpose of the reader is deconstruction, but only if consciousness is distinct from narrativity. But presemiotic narrative holds that reality is intrinsically dead. The characteristic theme of de Selby’s[2] model of Sartreist existentialism is the genre, and some would say the meaninglessness, of subcapitalist language.

“Society is part of the dialectic of reality,” says Sartre. It could be said that the opening/closing distinction depicted in Rushdie’s Satanic Verses is also evident in The Moor’s Last Sigh. The subject is interpolated into a dialectic Marxism that includes culture as a reality.

However, in The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Rushdie reiterates Lacanist obscurity; in Midnight’s Children he denies pre-cultural theory. An abundance of narratives concerning Sartreist existentialism may be revealed.

It could be said that if the post-dialectic paradigm of context holds, we have to choose between conceptualist socialism and the neodialectic paradigm of reality. A number of desublimations concerning the difference between consciousness and class exist.

In a sense, Abian[3] suggests that we have to choose between Sartreist existentialism and capitalist narrative. The main theme of the works of Eco is a mythopoetical totality.

But if Lacanist obscurity holds, we have to choose between Sartreist existentialism and the post cultural paradigm of context. Pickett[4] holds that the works of Eco are modernistic.

3. Realities of stasis

In the works of Eco, a predominant concept is the concept of neomaterialist culture. Therefore, if Lacanist obscurity holds, we have to choose between the postdialectic paradigm of context and dialectic pretextual theory. Sontag suggests the use of Lacanist obscurity to attack class divisions.

The primary theme of Parry’s[5] essay on Derridaist reading is the role of the participant as writer. It could be said that the subject is contextualised into a Lacanist obscurity that includes sexuality as a whole. The premise of capitalist discourse implies that sexual identity has significance, given that the post-dialectic paradigm of context is invalid.

If one examines Sartreist existentialism, one is faced with a choice: either accept the post-dialectic paradigm of narrative or conclude that the establishment is capable of significant form. But Pickett[6] suggests that we have to choose between Sartreist existentialism and cultural libertarianism. Debord promotes the use of Lacanist obscurity to read and analyse narrativity.

Therefore, in Heaven and Earth, Stone examines the post-dialectic paradigm of context; in Platoon, although, he deconstructs Sartreist existentialism. Sontag suggests the use of the post-dialectic paradigm of context to deconstruct elitist perceptions of sexual identity.

However, the example of Sartreist existentialism prevalent in Stone’s JFK emerges again in Platoon, although in a more self-sufficient sense. Sartre promotes the use of the postdialectic paradigm of context to modify society.

In a sense, the main theme of the works of Stone is a mythopoetical totality. If the sub-semanticist paradigm of expression holds, we have to choose between Lacanist obscurity and Marxist capitalism.

Therefore, the premise of the post-dialectic paradigm of context implies that language may be used to marginalize the underprivileged, but only if sexuality is equal to language; otherwise, Sartre’s model of Sartreist existentialism is one of “textual narrative”, and thus fundamentally unattainable. Bataille uses the term ‘precultural sublimation’ to denote the common ground between art and class.

1. Sargeant, H. ed. (1972) The post-dialectic paradigm of context, the modern paradigm of consensus and socialism. University of Michigan Press

2. de Selby, E. M. (1986) The Expression of Dialectic: Lacanist obscurity and the postdialectic paradigm of context. Loompanics

3. Abian, O. A. U. ed. (1998) The post-dialectic paradigm of context in the works of Eco. Yale University Press

4. Pickett, Y. (1987) Textual Discourses: The postdialectic paradigm of context and Lacanist obscurity. Loompanics

5. Parry, Z. D. G. ed. (1973) Lacanist obscurity and the postdialectic paradigm of context. Oxford University Press

6. Pickett, W. (1992) Reading Lacan: The post-dialectic paradigm of context in the works of Stone. Schlangekraft

The essay you have just seen is completely meaningless and was randomly generated by the Postmodernism Generator.

To generate another essay, follow this link.

The Postmodernism Generator was written by Andrew C. Bulhak using the Dada Engine, a system for generating random text from recursive grammars, and modified very slightly by Josh Larios

You can find further text generators here:-

Wasn't that a brilliant find, will save you hours of work and no one will ever know!

Ravages of Time

2010-02-14T15:34:00.002-01:00

An exhibition of some of the work from my semester 3 assignment are on show at Village Walks Art SpOts, Poulton le Fylde until 27th February. Further information on the Art SpOts website.

Ravages of Time at the Grundy Art Gallery

2010-01-26T17:02:00.005-01:00

A brief Exhibition ‘Work in Progress’ by 1st & 2nd Fine Art Students is currently showing at the Grundy Art Gallery Blackpool until 30th January. This show has been squeezed in between main exhibitions. An opportunity for students to create a gallery based installation.

My contribution is an adaptation of a piece of work I created for my last semester assignment. Based on a large poster approx 8 ft x 4 ft I have created a floor tile piece. Ravages of Time explores the metaphorical connection between urban decay as portrayed by fading and peeling signs, crumbling plaster, torn posters etc. Something so commonplace we fail to notice day today. And the way our elderly citizens become increasingly invisible to those around them.

The work is an enlargement of an A3 size piece which experimented with the combining of a photocopy of a photograph with a crackelure stressed effect created with PVA and acrylic ink. The images was enlarged x 25 from A3 using PosterRazor, freeware which enlarges the image and creates slices in this case each A3 in size in a PDF format. These are printed off and in this case fixed with adhesive to A3 size pieces of 4mm MDF and reassembled as a tiled image displayed on the floor.

Ravages of Time - Alistair Parker

The Ghost Village Project

2009-12-30T09:44:00.004-01:00

Check out this short film, a gaggle of graff and street artists who travelled to a Scottish village allegedly built for oil platform construction workers that has been abandoned by all humanity and turned it into an art gallery.

Relatively unknown until recently, when it featured in the media with news of its forthcoming demolition and residential redevelopment, the village of Polphail was created during the 1970s to serve as accommodation for workers employed ont a concrete oil platform construction project to be based at Portavadie.

Despite millions of pounds of government money being poured into the development, both its concept and product were deeply flawed, having been rushed in order to cash in on the oil boom of the the time. The construction yard was never completed and never came close to production. The accommodation was never occupied and never saw a single resident. It did leave behind a hole, which we have seen referred to as the “biggest man-made hole in Europe” (but we haven’t been able to verify this one). The site was abandoned and has lain derelict ever since, and became the subject of a public enquiry.

Portavadie currently serves as the terminal for a CalMac ferry connecting with Tarbert, across Loch Fyne, and has seen a fish farm developed in the multi-million pound hole that was created where the concrete platform legs were supposed to be constructed. A marina opened in the mid-2000s, and a brand new facilities building opened there in May 2009, containing toilets, showers, bar and restaurant. Although there have been a number of proposals to develop time-shares on the Polphail site, none of these ever materialised, but a few holiday cottages have been built nearby.

However, progress was made in 2009, when a plan to create up to 270 home on the site was announced by the owner, and demolition of the original Polphail accommodation was scheduled to begin in following December.

Thanks to media coverage of the development, the site came to the attention of a group of artist known as The Agents of Change. Although they are graffiti artists, this in not a group kids running around with cans of spray paint vandalising the streets and tagging any clean surface, but are well-established artist, and in their forties. Having seen the derelict village in the news, they got in touch with the owner requesting permission to carry out a project in the village, and were pleased to receive a positive response to their enquiry, provided they were prepared to pay homage at hallowed altars such as Elfin Safety.

The arrival of the six artists involved was generally well met an appreciated by most of those who live near the village, who said the artwork made a welcome change from their usual view of the drab grey concrete of the decaying ruins which they have had to look at for some forty years.

Art History Archive

2009-11-29T11:20:00.002-01:00

Came a cross this resource and thought you may be interested, Art History Archive. Lots of links to other archives.

Saatchi School of Art - What the Critic Thought

2009-11-29T08:55:00.002-01:00

You may not always agree with the Times TV critic A A Gill, after all he does think he is Jeremy Clarkson with brains! But on this occasion his I found his view of the Saatchi X factor wanabee programme quite amusing. His comments about Duchamps Urinal was particularly apposite. I make no apology for reproducing it in full.

A.A. Gill, Sunday Times 29th November 2009:-

Right, that’s it. I am unilaterally and with prejudice proclaiming an anathema on
R Mutt’s bloody urinal. It’s wheeled out for every feeble-brained, finger-snapping, zeitgeisty art programme as a sort of shibboleth, a totem. I’ve been shown it three times in two weeks, and it was predictably used to explain contemporary art in last week’s School of Saatchi show.
Let’s get something straight about Marcel Duchamp and his pissoir fountain, the Rosetta Stone of all modern art. It was a joke; it wasn’t even shown in a gallery. Duchamp liked puns, funny names and bawdy humour. He is famous for his ready-made found objects, which he placed incongruously — a bicycle wheel on a stool, or a commercial pot-holder. The simple point of the joke is that a urinal in a lavatory is there to be peed in, but a urinal in an art gallery is there to be talked about and genuflected over for a century.

Duchamp was a bit half-hearted about art; it was a hobby, really. He got fed up after a bit and devoted most of his life to playing chess. He even carved his own set, except for the knight, which he had to get a craftsman to do. He did take 20 years to create one last secret piece. It has to be viewed through a peephole. It’s a headless woman with the full Hollywood pudenda, holding an oil lamp in a landscape. You can see it in Philadelphia. Now, no art smarties ever hold this up as an explanation for all of contemporary art, although it is far more disturbing and difficult than the unplumbed bog. Duchamp was rediscovered in the 1960s, when his found objects offered some post-hoc heritage for a lot of artists who were bored with the mechanics of making stuff.

I’ve given you this patronising pocket lecture because I’ve just been patronised for an hour by the judges on Saatchi’s art series. Yes, the young wannabe artists are made to perform like contestants in The X Factor. (They are all Jedward.) This format has already been inflicted, disastrously, on design, with that old singing teapot, Philippe Starck. The obvious difference between performing and making is that one belongs on television as its natural habitat, and the other doesn’t. Art is mostly solitary and a rather mad occupation. There is also a sadder, uncomfortable truth about artists in this programme: they are mostly very, very dim. In fact, being dim may well be a prerequisite for the calling. I say this as someone who has practised as one for most of his life; and I’ve worked in a gallery as an art critic and catalogue scribe. There is something in purely visual creation that works best when disengaged from intellect. The less you think, the more you look, the better. For every polymath Leonardo, there are dozens of thuggish Caravaggios.

The judges in this heightened reality show constantly asked the proto-artists what they thought they were making, and to explain why what they did was art. None of them could form a rational or even coherent sentence. This doesn’t make it a bad programme. Indeed, it’s rather a fascinating one, but for reasons the producers probably didn’t envisage. It is actually a vivid evocation of the reality of contemporary art. It has become all about the polemic: an artist needs to be explained by someone else who speaks the fluent, florid art-speak that is the technical jargon of galleries. This is because the market trusts explanations when it doesn’t trust a brick. Words, you can understand; art could be a lavatory. The answer to “What is art?” has always been: “That which is made by an artist.” To further beg the question, the definition of an artist is: “Someone who makes art.” Those definitions no longer pertain. An artist is someone who is validated by one of the three Cs — a critic, a curator or a collector. Any one of these contestants could be a successful artist, but they would have to be defined by successful judges. So the interesting bit of this programme is the competition between the panel of experts for authority and memorably pithy jargon.

In fact, none of the contestants will become famous artists, because they are the found object. The art is the format; they are urinals. Charles Saatchi is a Duchamp of collectors, a creator who doesn’t create, a performer who never appears. He’s probably at home playing chess. Actually, he’s much more likely to be at home watching back-to-back reruns of CSI: Miami.

Interesting Illusion - "The Afgan Girl"

2009-11-28T19:46:00.002-01:00

Came across this on the website Mighty Optical Illusions, took my fancy.

Creating an Artists Statement

2009-11-25T23:16:00.002-01:00

As every artist knows or should know, you will not get any where in the art world without an Artist Statement. The problem for most artists is that the flowery, pretentious, obfuscated, prose demanded by the opinion makers in the world of art does not come naturally. Although clearly if my previous post is anything to go by some artists are truly gifted in this department.

Not to be out done I have sweated blood and shed many a tear to produce my own Artist Statement, read on:-

http://www.alistairparkerart.com

Work of Post-Art in the Age of Generative Reproduction

The mind creates, the body reproduces. In the material space, art objects are reproductions of the creations of the mind -- a mind that uses the body as a Zeitgeist to de-construct ideas, patterns, and emotions. With the evolution of the electronic environment, the mind is conceiving a point where it will be free from the body to share immersions into the parameters of the Delphic space. Work of Post-Art in the Age of Generative Reproduction contains 10 minimal quick-time engines (also refered to as "memes") that enable the user to make innovation audio/visual compositions.

measuring chains, constructing realities
putting into place forms
a matrix of illusion and disillusion
a strange attracting force
so that a seduced reality will be able to spontaneously feed on it

Alistair Parker's work investigates the nuances of modulations through the use of slow motion and close-ups which emphasize the Generative nature of digital media. The artist explores abstract and deteriorate scenery as motifs to describe the idea of imaginary space. Using layered loops, non-linear narratives, and allegorical images as patterns, Parker creates meditative environments which suggest the expansion of space...

You too can churn out such eloquent bilge courtesy of the The Market-O-Matic Crapometer to be found here.

Seriously if you need help in this department you may find some here, and here.

Where is Modern Art Now? - Blackpool Art Fair!

2009-11-22T22:21:00.004-01:00

This week has seen a veritable cornucopia of art programmes on TV. Art on Your Wall, BBC2 Mon; Where is Modern Art Now?, BBC4 Wed; Ugly Beauty, BBC2 Sat and on our own doorstep, The Blackpool Art Fair at the Grundy Art Gallery till January. It was after my visit to the Grundy that the question posed by the BBC2 programme, "Where is Modern Art Now", struck me. If I had thought the BBC programme clouded by obfuscation and pseudo-ism, it had not prepared me for the Blackpool Art Fair. We expect obfuscation and pseudo-ism from art experts such as Dr Augustus Casey-Hayford and Waldemar Januszcack but not from Stuart Tullock.

I arrived at the Grundy on Saturday morning as a privileged preview ticket holder, I had a piece in the exhibition. I was looking forward to an exhibition of the work of Blackpool's artistic best. My reaction, confused and rather disappointed. What did we have here. I walked in the first gallery space to find Blackpool Art Society exhibition sparsely spread over the relatively large wall area. But where was the open exhibition? In the large gallery maybe. No, this space was filled with a strange mishmash of installations based on Blackpool Model Train Society, Blackpool Model Boat Club, Cake Decorating, Knitting, Dog Decorating and a cutting edge avant-garde conceptual art installation by Supercollider (I will come back to that in a moment). Where the hell was the open exhibition? Ah, here they are stuffed into the two small side galleries!

Why? I had trouble finding my A1 size piece of work amongst the mishmash that confronted me. The hanging was 2 to 3 works high, titled with small postal labels typed in 12 point text. Just not good enough for a Gallery of the Grundy's stature. Half an hour later with a crick in my neck and rapidly deteriorating eye sight I still had not found two pieces of work I knew should be in there. As a contributing artist I feel affronted that my hard work should be crammed into a shoe box. Particularly when the rest of the gallery is given over to work which can hardly be considered suitable for an "Art Fair"! What was the rational behind extravagantly hanging the work of Blackpool Art Soc in a huge space at the expense of the Open exhibition?

Back to the beginning, had I missed the point? Was the "Blackpool Art Fair" really one big Post-Post-Modern conceptual nay, avant-garde "Modern" art installation? Was the analist art of the hobbyist (leisure) artist, the hobby sculptors (modellers) the conceptual "true" art (Supercollider Embassy) where modern art is now! Oh, and the work of those pretentious professional and unattached arty types will make up the numbers and help fill the rest of the space!

You have to question what sort of relationship the Grundy Art Gallery is trying to foster with the local art community and the public at large. Why have they chosen to place the polarised art of Blackpool Art Soc and Supercollider at the centre of miss titled "Art Fair". Is this an effort to be even handed? I don't think so, there has to be another agenda. Questions need to be answered! Maybe a clue to the answer lies in one of the handouts I picked up at the "Art Fair" (As I have no wish to embarrass the author)

------------------------------ ---------------------- committed to the dissemination of contemporary arts practice in the town by presenting a diverse and dynamic programme of temporary contemporary art projects. ----------------------------------------------------- is well positioned to provide the community with a forum for intellectual engagement, debate, participation and appreciation. ------------------------------------dedicated to delivering a programme of exhibitions and events which reflects the diverse and dynamic nature of contemporary arts practice, embracing artists at all stages of their careers working with a wide range of contemporary issues and concerns, ----------------------------------will also act as a point of exchange between the audience and contemporary arts practice, providing a dedicated forum for engagement. ---------------------------------- aims to develop reciprocal relationships with other institutions, groups and initiatives. --------------------------------------non-profit, artist led organisation, run by unpaid volunteers motivated by an intense passion for the arts and the cultural development and regeneration of Blackpool. Through the programme of exhibitions, projects and events ------------------------ aims to make an effective and meaningful contribution to the re-development and regeneration of culture of Blackpool.

Obfuscation or what? I clearly need to update my personal statement! Why was there was no reference to Post-Post-Modernism in the BBC2 programme "Where is Modern Art Now" is Blackpool ahead of the game?

Bombin 1987

2009-11-11T17:35:00.002-01:00

This documentary was created sometime around 1987 and aired on channel 4. It is a follow up of sorts to the 1984 BBC documentary 'Beat This' which served as an outsiders view of Hip Hop as a new New York sub-cultural phenomenon. Here Director Dick Fontaine returns to focus on the UK adoption of this Hip Hop culture and some of the conflicts created therein. To achieve this, the production chose to focus on Graffiti Art, no doubt because this element had the biggest conflict and issues to explore with its high presence, intrusion and illegality.

In those days Break dancing took centre stage in the UK but wouldn't have provided nearly as interesting debates to explore. After providing such a strong argumentative presence in 'Beat This', Brim Fuentes (TAT) is brought over to the UK as a sort of cultural ambassador of New York graffiti in a string of workshops and informal seminars. He is also put squarely in front of international main stream media's scrutiny. To which they responded in a manner of ways that at best was condescending and at worst was a down right personal attack for being a catalyst to the vandalising of Britain's culture and heritage. From here the documentary alludes to the social implications of ethnicity and poverty, and their relationship with the Hip Hop subculture.

This is where Goldie (of later Drum n Bass fame) as one of the UK premier graffiti artists makes a strong presence in his most notable early television appearance. It's his relationship and 'parallels' with Brim that really play out the rest of the documentary as the two exchange visits to each others home environments in Wolverhampton and the Bronx respectively. The film incidentally captures some of the earliest footage of significant UK protagonists such as Goldie and a pre Massive Attack 3D (not his finest hour here), as well as a noticeably limited Mode 2 and the Chrome Angels appearance at the Birmingham wall commission. However it is debatable that the producers pushed their own inclinations towards ethnicity and Graffiti here, with their focus on Goldie and Brim. It makes for interesting viewing but considering the well documented fact that the culture transcended ethnic barriers in New York and beyond, it can be held up as a particular flaw.

You decide.

Tips For Artists Who Want To Sell

2009-10-28T18:45:00.002-01:00

A quote from Time Out magazine 15th October......

Generally speaking paintings with light colours sell more quickly thay paintings with dark colours.
Subjects that sell well - Maddona and Child, Landscapes, Flower Paintings, Still Life (No morbid props like dead birds), Nudes, Marine scenes, abstract and Surrealism.
Subject matter is important, it has been said that paintings with cows and hens in them collect dust. ....While the same paintings with Bulls and Roosters sell.

Interestingly one of the most common motifs at the Affordable Art Fair was cows ........

Affordable Art Fair

2009-10-25T23:54:00.008-01:00

Suckers Tram

According to the Guardian the 2009 Affordable Art Fair proves to be a recession buster, sales exceed £100 million. Not sure how much of that is coming my way but Wills Art Warehouse managed to shift at least 4 of my pieces of work by mid-day Sunday, and the fair does not close till 6pm, so fingers crossed. The work proving most popuar was my Blackpool stuff, "Suckers Tram" was the first sale. You can see the work on sale at alistairparkerart.com.

Now it is off to Amsterdam for the next Affordable Art Fair, next week, more fingers crossed.

Frieze Art Fair 2009

2009-10-23T10:04:00.004-01:00

My first visit to the London Frieze Art Fair was interesting and inspiring. Here is a video clip courtesy of Art Review which shows a few of the bits you may have missed, well I did.

Find more videos like this on artreview.com

By the way you can subscribe to Art Review and read the whole magazine online saving you a small fortune in subscription costs.

BIG DRAW EVENT- Video

2009-10-07T22:17:00.000-01:00

BIG DRAW EVENT- Blackpool Art College

2009-10-06T15:35:00.004-01:00

INVITATION
To ALL FE and HE students in ALL Departments
You are invited to take part in the BIG DRAW - MAKE A MARK event

Starts 10am Wednesday 7th October and will continue untill 15th October
at
GALLERY SPACE
Palatine Road Building

Draw, Scribble, Write, Doodle - Make a Mark

Drawing areas will be divided in to Male and Female
Alistair Parker is organising this event as part of a Feminist Studies assignment
This is an equal opportunities event

See images from the Make A Mark mural on Flickr

Samsung NC10 Sound Problem

2009-08-14T15:51:00.005-01:00

I have a Samsung NC10 netbook and it is brilliant. The sound however has driven me mad. The speakers are tinny but worst of all the sound was horribly distorted even with earphones. After much fiddling I eventually found the solution. I opened the Realtek Sound Effect Manager in Control Panel. Under the Sound Effect tab there is a Karaoke icon, make sure that there is no X showing in the circle. If there is click to turn off. Make sure all the equalizer sliders are on Max and the environment is set to or Padded Cell. Success sound back to normal!

Photo Tampering Throughout History

2009-08-03T13:03:00.006-01:00

An interesting article for the photographers by Hany Farid, Professor of Computer Science at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA.

Photography lost its innocence many years ago. In as early as the 1860s, photographs were already being manipulated, only a few decades after Niepce created the first photograph in 1814. With the advent of high-resolution digital cameras, powerful personal computers and sophisticated photo-editing software, the manipulation of digital images is becoming more common. Here, I have collected some examples of tampering throughout history.

Just days after Sarah Palin’s selection last August as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, a photo of a bikini-clad, gun-toting Palin blitzed across the Internet. Almost as quickly, it was revealed as a hoax — a crude bit of Photoshop manipulation created by splicing an image of the Alaska governor’s head onto someone else’s body. From start to finish, the doctoring probably took no more than 15 minutes. We review the impact of digital photo manipulation, and recent advances in digital image forensics to detect such manipulations. more........

Bring Street Art to Blackpool

2009-07-29T14:36:00.004-01:00

As we are about to demolish most of Blackpool, in fact the demolition is well under way in the Northern Gateway area around Talbot Road bus station and the Station. May be we could take a leaf out of what has happened in other parts of the world and make use of some of the buildings before they bite the dust to host a major Urban Art Fest. I suggest Talbot Road Bus Terminus for a start, what do you think?

One particular example of such a Fest is at 11 Spring Street in New York, a building popular with Graffiti and Street artists was used to host a major event before it was renovated by the famous Wooster Collective.

Check out the video below and the Wooster Collection website here.

Vhills- Scratching the Surface Exhibition - Lazarides

2009-07-25T11:57:00.006-01:00

I visited Lazarides Gallery in Soho last week to see an exhibition by Street Artist Vhils - Portuguese-born Alexandre Farto, age 21.In the context of current offering from the art work this is some of the most exciting and stimulating work I have seen in the past few years of hammering around galleries of all sizes and persuasion. As a fine art student I find Vhils experimental use of materials and media very exciting.

Of late he’s taken to creating works purely from in situ materials. Advertising hoardings are torn to make fresh images, and plaster drilled and chiselled away until the remaining relief forms the work. He is experimenting with ink and household bleach, rusting steel, stencils and industrial resins. His use of found material like old painted doors is particularly interesting. A far cry from graffiti and mindless tagging.

This is just a small sample of the work on display and I am afraid the photography does no justice to the original works which are both large and tactile. You really need to visit the exhibition, 3rd July to 1st August, so get a wriggle on.

Find more work here, this is also one of the best Flicker sites for Street Art.

Scratching the Surface by Vhils - Video

2009-07-25T11:48:00.008-01:00

Even if you are not into the Street Art of Vhils this is a cracking example of the video makers art and well worth a watch.

Music - Gustavo Santaolalla Work by Vhils http://www.Vhils.com/

Books On-Line

2009-07-12T11:49:00.002-01:00

As a student books become a way of life as a result I have strained tendons in my left wrist from hauling weighty tomes around. So the idea of being able to access my books on line is a very attractive one. I have been researching possible sources. Here is a list of initial contenders which I have yet to research fully.

Books.google.com
This a site I have used and works well. Also known as Google Book Search, there is a wide range of free book and magazine content, much of it downloadable. Occasionally they allow partial download of copyright restricted books. I found it good for contextual studies literature.

DailyLit.com
Out-of-copyright classics, most are free.

FreeBookSpot.com
A source of downloadable textbooks, saved as PDFs, meaning that unlike most electronic book formats, the diagrams and illustrations are preserved. Most take less than 60 seconds to download over broadband.

Worldcat.org
Find items in libraries near you, lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world. Results link directly into citation software such as Zotero.

World Digital Library
Libraries and archives from around the world have come together in a project to share their collections of rare books, maps, films, manuscripts and recordings on-line for free.

Project Gutenberg
The first and largest single collection of free electronic books. From Karma Sutra to David Copperfield.

Eureka moment - Figure/Ground

2009-07-10T22:13:00.002-01:00

Interesting how Eureka moments pop up quite unexpectedly! I was browsing Robert Motherwells work "Premonition Open, with Flesh over Gray" in the Bernard Jacobsons Gallery, Cork Street, London the other day.

I am vaguly familiar with Motherwell from an essay I wrote about Pollock and Abstract Expressionism. I have to confess I had dismissed his work as boringly repetitive. When you have seen three black lines in a variety of configurations painted on a coloured background the tenth version becomes repetitive if not boring! However I had only ever seen his work in books and on the internet and a bit like recorded music it is no substitute for the live performance.

Casually if not disinterestedly perusing Motherwells large canvases on the walls of said gallery I was suddenly aware of the subtly of these black painted lines. I could hear the monaural Yorkshire tones of Norman Travis ringing in my ears, preaching the theory of the figure ground relationship. There it was in graphic reality, Motherwells subtle smudges of background colour across the ubiquitous black lines immediately presents the dilemma, which came first the blackline or the smudge of orange? Which was figure, which was ground?

Mall Galleries Exhibition - Update

2009-07-09T15:17:00.005-01:00

Visited the Private View at the Mall Galleries, London on Monday 6th July to receive presentation of my runner up prize in the Daler Rowney " Make Your Mark" art competition.

The works were hung in conjunction with the RBA 7th National Students Art Exhibition. An interesting feature of the exhibition is that the work was displayed alongside work by members of the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA). My work was hung alongside a Peter Blake! How cool is that.

Update: Robin Dukes was kind enough to give me a mention in his column in the Blackpool Evening Gazette this evening.

Fine Art Exhibition - 1st Year BA

2009-07-04T22:33:00.001-01:00

Fine Art Exhibition by the 1st Year BA students from Blackpool Art School. At the Village Walks Art Spot, entrance off Queensway or from the entrance alongside the Post Office at the rear of Teanlowe Centre, Poulton le Fylde. The exhibition will run from 29th June to 31st July, Monday to Saturday 9.00 am to 5.00 pm, entrance free.

A wide range of work from the end of year show. Artists exhibiting include Alistair Parker, Sue McAuley, Ann Charlesworth, Sue Godsiff, Claire Heaton, Anton Byrne-Carter and Rebecca Armitage.

Channel 4 Life Class: Today's Nude

2009-07-04T18:43:00.004-01:00

For centuries, artists have taken inspiration from the naked body. From Leonardo da Vinci to Lucian Freud, life drawing has always been a way to understand the human form and ourselves.

Bringing life drawing to the masses Channel 4 is running a series of 5 programmes "Life Class: Todays Nude" starting 12.30pm, 6th July and for the next 4 days.

This week-long series gives viewers an opportunity to learn to draw through five half-hour nude life drawing classes, one a day, with access to a renowned artist tutor in each, Maggi Hambling, Humphry Ocean, Garry Hume, Judy Purbreck and John Berger.

The audience is invited to pick up a pencil and use the class to develop their skill or interest in drawing at any level.

Drop-in life-drawing classes are being organised in London, Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester and Southampton...

Mall Gallery Exhibition

2009-07-02T22:12:00.003-01:00

I entered the Daler Rowney international art competition - Make Your Mark Competition way back in in October 08 and much to my amazement was placed as runner up! At long last I am about to receive the fruits of my endeavours. My work will be shown at The Mall Galleries, The Mall (You know where the Queen lives) London SW1 from Monday next 6th July till the 11th July and I am off the private view on Monday evening. My 1st Private view, so I am a little bit excited. You can find more information in the original post here.

The exhibition is being held in conjunction with the RBA 7th National Students Art Exhibition, so there should be some work woth a look.

David Hockney: A Bigger Picture

2009-06-30T11:48:00.003-01:00

The film is shot over a period of 3 years following him as he leaves California, his home for the last 25 years, to return to his native Yorkshire to paint a very English countryside.

The film captures an extraordinary moment in Hockney's life and work as he approaches the age of 70 and captures his transcendence from a period of anti-photography in his work to post-photographic where he rediscovers what photography can lend to his work. Using interviews with Hockney and his sister Margaret, the film explores the more personal motives for his return and his homecoming coincides with a desire to re-invent his whole approach to oil painting, after a six-year break. He paints en plein air for the first time, out in the landscape, through the seasons and in all weathers.

IMAGINE David Hockney: A Bigger Picture, is on BBC1 30 June 10.35PM, a Coluga Pictures production. For more information go to www.colugapictures.com and interesting video clips.

Daily Telegraph review.

Picasso Painting with Light

2009-06-27T17:04:00.000-01:00

Looks like Picasso did light painting experiments in photography. Here's a gallery over at Life.com of his various light painting pictures.

Blackpool Art School Exhibition

2009-06-15T19:20:00.004-01:00

'Variety'09', End of Year Exhibition at The Blackpool School of Art & Design, Palatine Road Campus Blackpool Lancashire FY1 4DW.

My work can be found in Year 1 Fine Art and Professional Practice Studio is on 1st Floor, top of stairs turn left. There will also be lots of really good stuff to see, Photography, Graphic Design etc etc. Foundation work can be seen at the Park Road site.

Private view 17th June 6-9pm General Public 10-4pm from the 18th-24th June

We hope to see you there!

Layers of History - Mixed Media

The Client From Hell

2009-05-31T13:14:00.002-01:00

If you are thinking of setting up your own business you should watch this first!

RSVP

Channel 4 programme - Faking It - Graffiti

2009-05-13T21:08:00.003-01:00

A nostalgia trip. Remember the Channel 4 programme, "Faking It". Below is one about the impossible task of converting a country "Toff" into a Hip Hoppy "Graffer"! An interesting insight into the "Graffers" world.

Link

Street Art Influences - Matt Small

2009-05-13T11:58:00.003-01:00

Artists draw their inspiration from a wide range of influences and sources. I am finding myself drawn more and more to the vibrant dynamic Street and Urban Art scene, not to be confused with Graffiti, although they share the same platform and there is considerable crossover of cultures.

Typically these influences include increasingly familiar names such as Dale Grimshaw, Guy Denning, Connor Harrington, artists whos' art now commands exciting prices.

In the course of one of my Street Art photographic forays, I came across Matt Small, he likes to call himself an artist and although he is unquestionably in the Urban/Street camp. For anyone who likes to experiment with their art, media and materials this guy is an exciting inspiration.

In the course of my researches about his work I cam across a an interesting Youtube interview which you can view below.

Photoshop - Warping Text on a Circle

2009-03-15T21:43:00.006-01:00

I am working on a digital imaging assignment at the moment which involves creating a design for a Windsock to be used as part of a public art installation on Blackpool south promenade.

One of the problems I have come across is creating text wrapped (warped) around a circle with a word at the top and another at the bottom of the circle. The word at the bottom the read left to right. I searched my Photoshop books and the Internet for a method, took me best part of a day. Part of the problem is the Warp Text tools in Photoshop don't quite do what you would expect them to do. I was about to give up when I came across a tutorial on YouTube by Chris Rose.

It is so easy when you know how and a picture (video) is worth a thousand words. Thanks Chris.

Saatchi On-Line Showdown Submission

2009-02-24T22:53:00.009-01:00

I have entered Red Umbrella in the Saatchi On-Line competition "Showdown". I need your help to vote for the work should you consider it worthy of your consideration. You can see the work and VOTE here. The work will be displayed between 9.3.09 and 16.3.09. Thanks in advance.

This is a piece from my Foundation panel. The work is created using a process I developed as part of my graduation project. Starting as a digitally manipulated photograph which is rendered as a series of inkjet prints which are tiled and transferred onto a gesso primed MDF board ground using an acrylic medium process. The process results in an individual image with a uniquely distressed appearance.

The Reality of Childhood

2009-02-23T17:40:00.004-01:00

Following from the CS lecture of 16th February 09 about Reality and Representation, I relate an incident which happened to me that brought home some aspects of that lecture.

On Saturday morning my 3 year old grandson he asked me if I knew where his “pooma” was. What is a “pooma” I asked, my wife informed me that is was a snorkel and an AA battery which when used as an offensive weapon was accompanied by the onamatapia “poom” when fired, hence a to Joe a snorkel and a battery represents a "pooma".

So what has this to do with CS? I felt this incident brought together the whole subject of visual communication as defined by Shannon and Weaver, Pierce, Saussure and Barthes.

Here we appear to have practical example of Semiotics and Linguistics at work . The information being received by me and my grandson about these objects is clearly quite different. From the visual information, he sees something that looks rather like a weapon based on signifiers picked up from watching Power Rangers and playing with his friends and cousins. I of course know this to be a snorkel and a battery.

But to Joe a tube with a "handle", signifies a weapon (gun) and a small cylindrical object that will fit down the tube, signifies a “bullet/missile”.

Is this in Pierces terms a convention? The conventional use of these items is one, to aid breathing under water, two, a source of power. But to Joe his connotation of a tube loaded with an AA battery is quite an effective weapon, a "pooma"!

In the words of Bathes, Joe’s connotation of these items is quite different to mine. Not only that but he has developed his own code, I had no idea what a "poom" or a "pooma" were but I am sure his friends and cousins do. And my wife of course who is an expert in juvenile linguistics!

POOM ...........................ya dead!!!!!!!!

Tags: Pooma, Cs, Shannon And Weaver, Saussure, Barthes, Pierce

Semiotics - Toilet Signage

2009-02-18T21:19:00.005-01:00

Whilst researching images for an article on the Semiotics of symbol based signs I was looking for an image of a toilet sign. Little did I know what a can of worms I was opening. As a compulsive photographer of just about anything and everything. I have an unhealthy collection of toilet signs of which this is just one, from Marks and Spencer, Manchester. I want to know why little boys seem to be excluded!

However my searches revealed that I am not the only sad soul in the world there are others much sadder than I. In the interest of researching the fascinating subject of Semiotics here is a selection of the toilet sign sites signs I found............

Gender signs
Semiotics-Toilet signs
Toilet signs
Coolest toilet signs around the world
Oltremara

If you know of any others leave me a comment

The Marxists Internet Archive

2009-02-17T18:48:00.005-01:00

From Barthes to Zola and much more the Marxists Internet Archive is a cornucopia of information on all Marx related subjects. A essential bookmark.

I discovered the site whilst searching for information about Roland Barthes, I found an interesting essay, "Elements of Semiology".

Daler Rowney - Make Your Mark Competition

2009-02-11T22:16:00.010-01:00

They say if you don't buy a ticket you can't win the raffle. In a moment of madness I entered the Daler Rowney - Make Your Mark Competition way back in in October 08, I received an email in January to say I had been short listed. I could not even remember entering, let alone what work I had entered! Apparently there were over 1400 entries.

Just discovered I was a runner up in the Education Section with a piece from my Foundation panel "The Three Faces of Blackpool".

The winner was a Turkish artist Engin Dogan with his painting "Mongol" (Obviously being PC isn't an issue in Turkey). My congratulations, it was a very accomplished portrait with a very distinctive contemporary style.

What did the winner get? Two nights in London and a day with acclaimed artist Annie Kevans. Plus a year's subscription of the Artist magazine. And work displayed in the Mall Gallery!

What did I win? Well I thought it was Zilch, but I have, since my initial posting, discovered that I will have my work displayed in the Mall Gallery in London, the home of the Federation of British Artists, for 7 days, from 5th to 11th July 2009. This will be accompanied by a national press launch, so I am well chuffed.

The Chairman of the judges was the internationally acclaimed artist Romeo di Girolamo, President Royal Society British Artists. The other three judges were Annie Kevans, Patrick Giraud CEO of Daler Rowney and Stephen Doherty, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of American Artist, Watercolor, Drawing, and Workshop magazines.

Romero di Girolamo said “This new competition demonstrates that art is thriving all over the world. The standard of entries was exceptionally high and to have entries from five continents means the competition is truly international. It was particularly pleasing to see so many entries from young people showing that art has a great future and is in safe hands. We hope the competition will inspire more people to paint and make their mark".

The Three Faces of Blackpool - Acrylic Transfer on Board

See www.alisterparkerart.com

I LEGO NY

2009-02-11T17:03:00.002-01:00

An article in Tuesdays Guardian (10.2.09) included, in the G2 supplement an item about the use of LEGO as a means of communication. In view of the CS lecture on Monday I thought this provides an interesting twist on the subject of "Symbol-based writing system".

The author, Christopher Niemann, an American born Illustrator and Photographer, currently based in Berlin, claims he came up with the idea for his LEGO symbols whilst trying to entertain his sons through the long winter evenings.

This is the link to the Guardian article and this is the link to Christopher Niemanns blog, Abstract City in the New York Times, the origin of the piece. This is just one of many LEGO symbols he has designed. There is now a huge following of fellow contributors to the symbol gallery.

Deconstructing and Advert

2009-02-11T17:01:00.001-01:00

This full page advert for Standard Life SIPP Pensions appeared in the Sunday Times 1st Feb 09.

The text in the advertisement reads

"PEOPLE DON'T GROW OLD LIKE THEY USED TO"
"why should your money"

"Whether you dedicate your life to adventure, or just pack as much as possible into every single day, ............."

I have to confess that although I assumed the person in the advert was probably famous I did not recognise them immediately. They are obviously an outdoor type, with lean rugged features, stubbly beard, light coloured piercing eyes, wearing an anorak, age, from the look of the eyebrows (grey and wiry), about 55 to 60, probably the age group of the target customer. I later realised the subject was Ranaulph Fiennes.

The advert is one of three in the campaign. This one appeared on successive right hand pages with an almost identical advert which included an image (which I again did not recognise immediately) of Mariella Fostrop. The only difference between the adverts was a variation in the wording of the first sentence in the boiler plate copy:-

"Whether you dedicate your life to art and culture, or just make the most of every waking moment, ............."

The third personality is Marco Pierre White.

Analysis

To me the message in this advert is confused. The strap line poses a statement which is ambiguous.

Will the message be diminished if you don't recognise the person in the advert? Will it be enhanced if you do?

Why don't they name the celebrity?

Is the male character intended to appeal to males or females and vica versa?

Will investing your money with Standard Life be an adventure? In the current economic climate, probably!

Why choose three celebrities? Why choose these particular celebrities?

The Standard Life website suggests the target audience is over 44! The age of the celebrities are; Fiennes 65, Foster 50. White 50!

Not sure why this image is duplicated!

Alter-Modernism

2009-02-11T16:59:00.001-01:00

Following on from my post of the 18/01/09 Post-Post-Modernism I was drawn to the title of the Tate Britain Triennial exhibition Alter-Modern which has just started. The exhibition claims Post-Modernism is dead! Does this mean we will not have to study it any more? Unfortunately they do not seem to be sure what has replaced it! The curator Nicholas Bourriard described as a French cultural theorist, coined the name "Alter-Modern" (see below) apparently it is written as Altermodern but I think it looks much more important with a hyphen! The curator an admirer of Baudrillard and Foucault defines the new "ism as follows:-

"Altermodernism can be defined as that moment when it became possible for us to produce something that made sense starting from an assumed heterochrony (Def: a developmental change in the timing of events), that is, from a vision of human history as constituted of multiple temporalities, disdaining the nostalgia for the avant-garde and indeed for any kind of era - a positive vision of chaos and complexity".

The exhibition includes work by 28 artists and is HUGE. Exhibits range from reading a copy of the Times at a desk to watching a Soft Porn video!

The Curator suggests that Post-Modernism endeavoured to answer the question "Where am I from?" "Altermodernism, thanks to the Internet, means we need no longer define ourselves within traditional boundaries. The artist is a wanderer, drifting about in space and time, drawing from a vast, fluid fund of collective ideas. And his or her work is far less about a single finished object than about continuing processes of development and connection in which one thing always seems to be leading to the next.

Nicholas Bourriard claims he invented the term Alter-Modern, I think not!
Alter-Modernism is a neologism (new word) attributed to Croatian writer Filip Erceg. It is apparently an analogy to the term Alterglobalism (a social movement that supports global cooperation and interaction) and is supposed to be an alternative to Post-Modernist nihilism (nothingness).

The critics appear to be unconvinced that this is the replacement for Post-Modernism. The Times are not even sure were the exhibition is being held, Tate Modern or Tate Britain, it is the later, from 3 Feb 09 to 26 April 09.

If the critics are not in favour that probably means it is worth seeing!

Semiotics !

2009-02-11T16:58:00.000-01:00

Semiotics - Seen in my hotel bathroom!

Academic Language #2 - Ownership

2009-02-11T16:57:00.000-01:00

In one of my earlier posts I remarked about my difficulty, as a member of the proletariat, coming to terms with academic language. Since then I have experienced significant exposure to this elitist form of communication during the researches for my essay.

One thing that now concerns me is, how do I know when this new found academic vocabulary becomes mine? I seem to recall someone in a CS lecture warning us not to use our own language in our essay. Because we did not know enough! I have to say I find myself constantly concerned that my writing simply paraphrases the words of others!

Critical Studies Essay December 08 - Reflections

2009-02-11T16:54:00.001-01:00

Critical Studies Essay December 08
A belated reflection on the essay. At the time of writing I have not had my marks for the essay. I will have to reflect further on this post when I have.

The essay proved to be a marathon. Mainly due to my lack of initial planning. I quickly realised that in my panic to grab as much reference material as possible I became overloaded with information. Much of which I did not reference sufficiently well that I could go back to the source. Result was I lost focus, could not see the wood for the trees. I pulled myself together by reaffirming that although this was a research based essay, it was essentially a technical exercise and it was probably more important at this stage to get the structure and presentation right as come up with an earth shattering academic work. I am sure that is what Steve said!

I made the notes that in future I should stay more focussed, produce my thesis statement at an early stage, make sure my notes were clear and well referenced, make sure reading is relevant. Avoid being side tracked. Start the bibliography and reference collection from day one. I discovered a brilliant Word plug-in for collating citations, called Zotero.

As for the essay, I think my technical structure is OK but I am not so sure about the actual essay structure. I feel my conclusion may prove to be a major weakness, too short! Time will tell.

Just need to wait and see if my thoughts prove to be correct. Grade ? C+?????

Jackson Pollock at work - the main focus of my essay

13 photographs that changed the world

2009-02-11T12:15:00.006-01:00

"Omaha Beach, Normandy, France" Robert Capa, 1944

This post may be a little late for some. I would assume that many of these images could have been the subject of the last essay assignment, for the photographers anyway.

The photographs are aggregated and commented on on Neatorama's blog.

Possibly the most interesting part of the post are the comments suggesting other images which could have been included.

How many more could you add to the list?

Stretcher Bars

2009-02-05T09:37:00.004-01:00

If you are going to be stretching your own canvases there are a number of options, from the local wood yard to the College MDF strtechers. Personally I find MDF too heavy for large canvases and not only that it is not as stable as you my think. MDF will bend if your canvas is a bit tight.

One of the cheapest places I have found for stretchers is www.stretcherbars-uk.com They have a wide range of sizes and qualities at very reasonable prices. Certainly cheaper than going to the local wood yard.

Sketchbooks Part 1

2009-02-03T21:49:00.007-01:00

This semester we are looking at sketchbook compilation and construction. In this Video Norman Travers explains to the group three different styles of exemplar sketchbooks from past foundation students. The emphasis here is on drawing.

Here are some shots of pages from the scrap books to give you an clearer idea of the content. Click on the image to enlarge.

In the two pages above, this idea of breaking an image down into small sections and then redrawing, painting, recreating them was used as one of the exercises in the 2nd Drawing assignment. In this sketchbook the author used the work of artist Marlene Dumas as inspiration.

I acknowledge the copyright of the authors of the work shown, Norman Long, Catherine Mortimer and Ian Rothwell.

How To Deconstruct Almost Anything

2009-02-03T05:27:00.003-01:00

I came across this article last year when searching for info on Post-Modernism. A rediscovered it yesterday when searching for stuff on "De-construction". It is such a great piece of writing that I make no apologies for ripping it in its entirety for this blog. Partly to ensure its posterity, the Internet being what it is, the original article has already disappeared into Cyberspace once apparently. With respect to Chip Morningstar (What a great name)!

How To Deconstruct Almost Anything

My Postmodern Adventure

by Chip Morningstar
June 1993

"Academics get paid for being clever, not for being right."
-- Donald Norman

This is the story of one computer professional's explorations in the world of postmodern literary criticism. I'm a working software engineer, not a student nor an academic nor a person with any real background in the humanities. Consequently, I've approached the whole subject with a somewhat different frame of mind than perhaps people in the field are accustomed to. Being a vulgar engineer I'm allowed to break a lot of the rules that people in the humanities usually have to play by, since nobody expects an engineer to be literate. Ha. Anyway, here is my tale.

It started when my colleague Randy Farmer and I presented a paper at the Second International Conference on Cyberspace, held in Santa Cruz, California in April, 1991. Like the first conference, at which we also presented a paper, it was an aggressively interdisciplinary gathering, drawing from fields as diverse as computer science, literary criticism, engineering, history, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and political science. About the only relevant field that seemed to lack strong representation was economics (an important gap but one which we don't have room to get into here). It was in turn stimulating, aggravating, fascinating and infuriating, a breathtaking intellectual roller coaster ride unlike anything else I've recently encountered in my professional life. My last serious brush with the humanities in an academic context had been in college, ten years earlier. The humanities appear to have experienced a considerable amount of evolution (or perhaps more accurately, genetic drift) since then.

Randy and I were scheduled to speak on the second day of the conference. This was fortunate because it gave us the opportunity to recalibrate our presentation based on the first day's proceedings, during which we discovered that we had grossly mischaracterized the audience by assuming that it would be like the crowd from the first conference. I spent most of that first day furiously scribbling notes. People kept saying the most remarkable things using the most remarkable language, which I found I needed to put down in writing because the words would disappear from my brain within seconds if I didn't. Are you familiar with the experience of having memories of your dreams fade within a few minutes of waking? It was like that, and I think for much the same reason. Dreams have a logic and structure all their own, falling apart into unmemorable pieces that make no sense when subjected to the scrutiny of the conscious mind. So it was with many of the academics who got up to speak. The things they said were largely incomprehensible. There was much talk about deconstruction and signifiers and arguments about whether cyberspace was or was not "narrative". There was much quotation from Baudrillard, Derrida, Lacan, Lyotard, Saussure, and the like, every single word of which was impenetrable. I'd never before had the experience of being quite this baffled by things other people were saying. I've attended lectures on quantum physics, group theory, cardiology, and contract law, all fields about which I know nothing and all of which have their own specialized jargon and notational conventions. None of those lectures were as opaque as anything these academics said. But I captured on my notepad an astonishing collection of phrases and a sense of the overall tone of the event.

We retreated back to Palo Alto that evening for a quick rewrite. The first order of business was to excise various little bits of phraseology that we now realized were likely to be perceived as Politically Incorrect. Mind you, the fundamental thesis of our presentation was Politically Incorrect, but we wanted people to get upset about the actual content rather than the form in which it was presented. Then we set about attempting to add something that would be an adequate response to the postmodern lit crit-speak we had been inundated with that day. Since we had no idea what any of it meant (or even if it actually meant anything at all), I simply cut-and-pasted from my notes. The next day I stood up in front of the room and opened our presentation with the following:

The essential paradigm of cyberspace is creating partially situated identities out of actual or potential social reality in terms of canonical forms of human contact, thus renormalizing the phenomenology of narrative space and requiring the naturalization of the intersubjective cognitive strategy, and thereby resolving the dialectics of metaphorical thoughts, each problematic to the other, collectively redefining and reifying the paradigm of the parable of the model of the metaphor.

This bit of nonsense was constructed entirely out of things people had actually said the day before, except for the last ten words or so which are a pastiche of Danny Kaye's "flagon with the dragon" bit from The Court Jester, contributed by our co-worker Gayle Pergamit, who took great glee in the entire enterprise. Observing the audience reaction was instructive. At first, various people started nodding their heads in nods of profound understanding, though you could see that their brain cells were beginning to strain a little. Then some of the techies in the back of the room began to giggle. By the time I finished, unable to get through the last line with a straight face, the entire room was on the floor in hysterics, as by then even the most obtuse English professor had caught on to the joke. With the postmodernist lit crit shit thus defused, we went on with our actual presentation.

Contrary to the report given in the "Hype List" column of issue #1 of Wired ("Po-Mo Gets Tek-No", page 87), we did not shout down the postmodernists. We made fun of them.

Afterward, however, I was left with a sense that I should try to actually understand what these people were saying, really. I figured that one of three cases must apply. It could be that there was truly some content there of value, once you learned the lingo. If this was the case, then I wanted to know what it was. On the other hand, perhaps there was actually content there but it was bogus (my working hypothesis), in which case I wanted to be able to respond to it credibly. On the third hand, maybe there was no content there after all, in which case I wanted to be able to write these clowns off without feeling guilty that I hadn't given them due consideration.

The subject that I kept hearing about over and over again at the conference was deconstruction. I figured I'd start there. I asked my friend Michael Benedikt for a pointer to some sources. I had gotten to know Michael when he organized the First International Conference on Cyberspace. I knew him to be a person with a foot in the lit crit camp but also a person of clear intellectual integrity who was not a fool. He suggested a book called On Deconstruction by Jonathan Culler. I got the book and read it. It was a stretch, but I found I could work my way through it, although I did end up with the most heavily marked up book in my library by the time I was done. The Culler book lead me to some other things, which I also read. And I started subscribing to alt.postmodern and now actually find it interesting, much of the time. I can't claim to be an expert, but I feel I've reached the level of a competent amateur. I think I can explain it. It turns out that there's nothing to be afraid of.

We engineers are frequently accused of speaking an alien language, of wrapping what we do in jargon and obscurity in order to preserve the technological priesthood. There is, I think, a grain of truth in this accusation. Defenders frequently counter with arguments about how what we do really is technical and really does require precise language in order to talk about it clearly. There is, I think, a substantial bit of truth in this as well, though it is hard to use these grounds to defend the use of the term "grep" to describe digging through a backpack to find a lost item, as a friend of mine sometimes does. However, I think it's human nature for members of any group to use the ideas they have in common as metaphors for everything else in life, so I'm willing to forgive him.

The really telling factor that neither side of the debate seems to cotton to, however, is this: technical people like me work in a commercial environment. Every day I have to explain what I do to people who are different from me -- marketing people, technical writers, my boss, my investors, my customers -- none of whom belong to my profession or share my technical background or knowledge. As a consequence, I'm constantly forced to describe what I know in terms that other people can at least begin to understand. My success in my job depends to a large degree on my success in so communicating. At the very least, in order to remain employed I have to convince somebody else that what I'm doing is worth having them pay for it.

Contrast this situation with that of academia. Professors of Literature or History or Cultural Studies in their professional life find themselves communicating principally with other professors of Literature or History or Cultural Studies. They also, of course, communicate with students, but students don't really count. Graduate students are studying to be professors themselves and so are already part of the in-crowd. Undergraduate students rarely get a chance to close the feedback loop, especially at the so called "better schools" (I once spoke with a Harvard professor who told me that it is quite easy to get a Harvard undergraduate degree without ever once encountering a tenured member of the faculty inside a classroom; I don't know if this is actually true but it's a delightful piece of slander regardless). They publish in peer reviewed journals, which are not only edited by their peers but published for and mainly read by their peers (if they are read at all). Decisions about their career advancement, tenure, promotion, and so on are made by committees of their fellows. They are supervised by deans and other academic officials who themselves used to be professors of Literature or History or Cultural Studies. They rarely have any reason to talk to anybody but themselves -- occasionally a Professor of Literature will collaborate with a Professor of History, but in academic circles this sort of interdisciplinary work is still considered sufficiently daring and risqué as to be newsworthy.

What you have is rather like birds on the Galapagos islands -- an isolated population with unique selective pressures resulting in evolutionary divergence from the mainland population. There's no reason you should be able to understand what these academics are saying because, for several generations, comprehensibility to outsiders has not been one of the selective criteria to which they've been subjected. What's more, it's not particularly important that they even be terribly comprehensible to each other, since the quality of academic work, particularly in the humanities, is judged primarily on the basis of politics and cleverness. In fact, one of the beliefs that seems to be characteristic of the postmodernist mind set is the idea that politics and cleverness are the basis for all judgments about quality or truth, regardless of the subject matter or who is making the judgment. A work need not be right, clear, original, or connected to anything outside the group. Indeed, it looks to me like the vast bulk of literary criticism that is published has other works of literary criticism as its principal subject, with the occasional reference to the odd work of actual literature tossed in for flavoring from time to time.

Thus it is not surprising that it takes a bit of detective work to puzzle out what is going on. But I've been on the case for a while now and I think I've identified most of the guilty suspects. I hope I can spare some of my own peers the inconvenience and wasted time of actually doing the legwork themselves (though if you have an inclination in that direction I recommend it as a mind stretching departure from debugging C code).

The basic enterprise of contemporary literary criticism is actually quite simple. It is based on the observation that with a sufficient amount of clever handwaving and artful verbiage, you can interpret any piece of writing as a statement about anything at all. The broader movement that goes under the label "postmodernism" generalizes this principle from writing to all forms of human activity, though you have to be careful about applying this label, since a standard postmodernist tactic for ducking criticism is to try to stir up metaphysical confusion by questioning the very idea of labels and categories. "Deconstruction" is based on a specialization of the principle, in which a work is interpreted as a statement about itself, using a literary version of the same cheap trick that Kurt Gödel used to try to frighten mathematicians back in the thirties.

Deconstruction, in particular, is a fairly formulaic process that hardly merits the commotion that it has generated. However, like hack writers or television producers, academics will use a formula if it does the job and they are not held to any higher standard (though perhaps Derrida can legitimately claim some credit for originality in inventing the formula in the first place). Just to clear up the mystery, here is the formula, step-by-step:

Step 1 -- Select a work to be deconstructed. This is called a "text" and is generally a piece of text, though it need not be. It is very much within the lit crit mainstream to take something which is not text and call it a text. In fact, this can be a very useful thing to do, since it leaves the critic with broad discretion to define what it means to "read" it and thus a great deal of flexibility in interpretation. It also allows the literary critic to extend his reach beyond mere literature. However, the choice of text is actually one of the less important decisions you will need to make, since points are awarded on the basis of style and wit rather than substance, although more challenging works are valued for their greater potential for exercising cleverness. Thus you want to pick your text with an eye to the opportunities it will give you to be clever and convoluted, rather than whether the text has anything important to say or there is anything important to say about it. Generally speaking, obscure works are better than well known ones, though an acceptable alternative is to choose a text from the popular mass media, such as a Madonna video or the latest Danielle Steele novel. The text can be of any length, from the complete works of Louis L'Amour to a single sentence. For example, let's deconstruct the phrase, "John F. Kennedy was not a homosexual."

Step 2 -- Decide what the text says. This can be whatever you want, although of course in the case of a text which actually consists of text it is easier if you pick something that it really does say. This is called "reading". I will read our example phrase as saying that John F. Kennedy was not a homosexual.

Step 3 -- Identify within the reading a distinction of some sort. This can be either something which is described or referred to by the text directly or it can be inferred from the presumed cultural context of a hypothetical reader. It is a convention of the genre to choose a duality, such as man/woman, good/evil, earth/sky, chocolate/vanilla, etc. In the case of our example, the obvious duality to pick is homosexual/heterosexual, though a really clever person might be able to find something else.

Step 4 -- Convert your chosen distinction into a "hierarchical opposition" by asserting that the text claims or presumes a particular primacy, superiority, privilege or importance to one side or the other of the distinction. Since it's pretty much arbitrary, you don't have to give a justification for this assertion unless you feel like it. Programmers and computer scientists may find the concept of a hierarchy consisting of only two elements to be a bit odd, but this appears to be an established tradition in literary criticism. Continuing our example, we can claim homophobia on the part of the society in which this sentence was uttered and therefor assert that it presumes superiority of heterosexuality over homosexuality.

Step 5 -- Derive another reading of the text, one in which it is interpreted as referring to itself. In particular, find a way to read it as a statement which contradicts or undermines either the original reading or the ordering of the hierarchical opposition (which amounts to the same thing). This is really the tricky part and is the key to the whole exercise. Pulling this off successfully may require a variety of techniques, though you get more style points for some techniques than for others. Fortunately, you have a wide range of intellectual tools at your disposal, which the rules allow you to use in literary criticism even though they would be frowned upon in engineering or the sciences. These include appeals to authority (you can even cite obscure authorities that nobody has heard of), reasoning from etymology, reasoning from puns, and a variety of other word games. You are allowed to use the word "problematic" as a noun. You are also allowed to pretend that the works of Freud present a correct model of human psychology and the works of Marx present a correct model of sociology and economics (it's not clear to me whether practitioners in the field actually believe Freud and Marx or if it's just a convention of the genre).

You get maximum style points for being French. Since most of us aren't French, we don't qualify for this one, but we can still score almost as much by writing in French or citing French sources. However, it is difficult for even the most intense and unprincipled American academician writing in French to match the zen obliqueness of a native French literary critic. Least credit is given for a clear, rational argument which makes its case directly, though of course that is what I will do with our example since, being gainfully employed, I don't have to worry about graduation or tenure. And besides, I'm actually trying to communicate here. Here is a possible argument to go with our example:

It is not generally claimed that John F. Kennedy was a homosexual. Since it is not an issue, why would anyone choose to explicitly declare that he was not a homosexual unless they wanted to make it an issue? Clearly, the reader is left with a question, a lingering doubt which had not previously been there. If the text had instead simply asked, "Was John F. Kennedy a homosexual?", the reader would simply answer, "No." and forget the matter. If it had simply declared, "John F. Kennedy was a homosexual.", it would have left the reader begging for further justification or argument to support the proposition. Phrasing it as a negative declaration, however, introduces the question in the reader's mind, exploiting society's homophobia to attack the reputation of the fallen President. What's more, the form makes it appear as if there is ongoing debate, further legitimizing the reader's entertainment of the question. Thus the text can be read as questioning the very assertion that it is making.

Of course, no real deconstruction would be like this. I only used a single paragraph and avoided literary jargon. All of the words will be found in a typical abridged dictionary and were used with their conventional meanings. I also wrote entirely in English and did not cite anyone. Thus in an English literature course I would probably get a D for this, but I already have my degree so I don't care.

Another minor point, by the way, is that we don't say that we deconstruct the text but that the text deconstructs itself. This way it looks less like we are making things up.

That's basically all there is to it, although there is an enormous variety of stylistic complication that is added in practice. This is mainly due to the genetic drift phenomenon I mentioned earlier, resulting in the intellectual equivalent of peacock feathers, although I suspect that the need for enough material to fill up a degree program plays a part as well. The best way to learn, of course, is to try to do it yourself. First you need to read some real lit crit to get a feel for the style and the jargon. One or two volumes is all it takes, since it's all pretty much the same (I advise starting with the Culler book the way I did). Here are some ideas for texts you might try to deconstruct, once you are ready to attempt it yourself, graded by approximate level of difficulty:

Beginner:

Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea
Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers
this article
James Cameron's The Terminator
issue #1 of Wired
anything by Marx

Intermediate:

Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn
the Book of Genesis
Francois Truffaut's Day For Night
The United States Constitution
Elvis Presley singing Jailhouse Rock
anything by Foucault

Advanced:

Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene
the Great Pyramid of Giza
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa
the Macintosh user interface
Tony Bennett singing I Left My Heart In San Francisco
anything by Derrida

Tour de Force:

James Joyce's Finnegans Wake
the San Jose, California telephone directory
IRS Form 1040
the Intel i486DX Programmer's Reference Manual
the Mississippi River
anything by Baudrillard

So, what are we to make of all this? I earlier stated that my quest was to learn if there was any content to this stuff and if it was or was not bogus. Well, my assessment is that there is indeed some content, much of it interesting. The question of bogosity, however, is a little more difficult. It is clear that the forms used by academicians writing in this area go right off the bogosity scale, pegging my bogometer until it breaks. The quality of the actual analysis of various literary works varies tremendously and must be judged on a case-by-case basis, but I find most of it highly questionable. Buried in the muck, however, are a set of important and interesting ideas: that in reading a work it is illuminating to consider the contrast between what is said and what is not said, between what is explicit and what is assumed, and that popular notions of truth and value depend to a disturbingly high degree on the reader's credulity and willingness to accept the text's own claims as to its validity.

Looking at the field of contemporary literary criticism as a whole also yields some valuable insights. It is a cautionary lesson about the consequences of allowing a branch of academia that has been entrusted with the study of important problems to become isolated and inbred. The Pseudo Politically Correct term that I would use to describe the mind set of postmodernism is "epistemologically challenged": a constitutional inability to adopt a reasonable way to tell the good stuff from the bad stuff. The language and idea space of the field have become so convoluted that they have confused even themselves. But the tangle offers a safe refuge for the academics. It erects a wall between them and the rest of the world. It immunizes them against having to confront their own failings, since any genuine criticism can simply be absorbed into the morass and made indistinguishable from all the other verbiage. Intellectual tools that might help prune the thicket are systematically ignored or discredited. This is why, for example, science, psychology and economics are represented in the literary world by theories that were abandoned by practicing scientists, psychologists and economists fifty or a hundred years ago. The field is absorbed in triviality. Deconstruction is an idea that would make a worthy topic for some bright graduate student's Ph.D. dissertation but has instead spawned an entire subfield. Ideas that would merit a good solid evening or afternoon of argument and debate and perhaps a paper or two instead become the focus of entire careers.

Engineering and the sciences have, to a greater degree, been spared this isolation and genetic drift because of crass commercial necessity. The constraints of the physical world and the actual needs and wants of the actual population have provided a grounding that is difficult to dodge. However, in academia the pressures for isolation are enormous. It is clear to me that the humanities are not going to emerge from the jungle on their own. I think that the task of outreach is left to those of us who retain some connection, however tenuous, to what we laughingly call reality. We have to go into the jungle after them and rescue what we can. Just remember to hang on to your sense of humor and don't let them intimidate you.

http://www.fudco.com/chip/deconstr.html

Fine Arts and Professional Practice - First Semester

2009-02-01T15:18:00.006-01:00

Having just completed my first semester on the Fine Arts and Professional Practice BA (Hons) degree course at Blackpool Art School I thought it may be helpful to those contemplating embarking on this course if I shared some of my thoughts and experiences from the first semester (15 weeks).

First thing I realised was the Art Foundation pre-degree course (FC), which I enjoyed imensly, in no way prepares you for what is involved in an academic degree course. Which is a pity really as with a bit of joined up thinking the value of the foundation course could be considerably enhanced. Considering that many of the Blackpool foundation students go on to the BA course at Blackpool there seems to be a large gap between the two courses.

Critical Studies
For example, although the FC includes Contextual Studies (history of Art) the way the subject is taught the subject does not prepare you for Critical Studies (CS) which is the degree course equivalent. CS is much more academic, in its approach, different vocabulary, embracing the philosophy of art and critical thinking. A prior knowledge of these concepts will be a definite asset in your first semester. They throw you in a the deep end and if you have no idea who Baudelaire is or the ranting of Marx, Engle's and the crackpot ideas of Jung and Freud you will be struggling. Particularly as within 10 minutes of the end of the first lecture the library will be stripped bare of any reference material. A criticism I have of the course at Blackpool is they do not provide a reading list prior to your arrival. This places great pressure on the library facilities. See my Amazon wish list in the right hand column for reading suggestions. No the list is not a hint to buy me anything.

Computer Skills
About 50% of the new students struggled with inadequate computer skills. Although help is available from student services, deficiency in this area will slow your progress at a time when you have many other things to cope with. If your computer skills are rusty or none existent. I would strongly advise that you spend your summer holidays getting to grips with basic word processing and the Internet. You will have to type up a weekly blog for CS from the fist week. And there is a 1500 word essay to write at the end of the first semester. This has to be presented in a very precise manner so you need fairly good word processing skills. You will also need to learn how to do searches on the Internet for contextual material both for all aspects of the course.

If you do not have a computer of your own I would strongly advise buying one. I am typing this on a Samsung NC10 Netbook which costs new (Christmas 2008) £225. You can buy laptops at computer fairs for under £100 or less. If funds are really tight try a request on BlackpoolFreeCycle (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blackpoolfreecycle/). If you are disabled or on benefits I believe there is a scheme through college for providing FREE computers.

Moodle
An important part of CS is the completion of a blog or as they now prefer to call it an eJournal on the College Intranet, familiarly known as Moodle. Moodle is like a mini part of the World Wide Web which is private to the college. Moodle is an important part of both your course and of college life. It is used by the college and tutors to communicate with you by posting notices, sending you emails, reporting results of assessments etc. There are a variety of discussion groups on which you can share thoughts and experiences of such things as gallery visits, social events, trips. Ask for help and advice, from house shares, requests for models to where to find a retro 70’s suitcase! And there is a fund of other information both about the college and your course.

eJournal
But the most important part of Moodle is your eJournal. This is the bit that most people struggle with and much to my surprise it was not the more mature students. The younger text messaging, Facebook, MySpace generation seemed to suffered most. If you have never kept a blog or online journal you should seriously find out how this bit of the Cyber World works. If you want to have a practice in advance I would suggest checking out Blogger on the internet. This is an easy to setup and use blog service operated by Google.

Although you are expected to file an eJournal entry at least once a week this is not a diary. It is an assessable part of your CS module and is supposed to take the form of a critical thinking review on an aspect of a CS lecture, seminar or may be a set piece. It can also include reflective thinking about other aspects of the course, particularly the relevance of the content to your professional discipline and/or practice (Oh yes I have not mentioned Professional Practice yet). It must not be a blow by blow of your daily life. Entries should be short and sweet. Ideally no more than a couple of paragraphs, on one subject. If you want to say more or cover more than one topic you should post separate entries. Posts should include references and key words and if relevant an image(s). They should not include slabs of cut and paste text! Neither should they turn into essays. Moodle contains detailed guidelines.

Professional Practice
The other modules on the course, Professional Practice, Drawing and Painting are slightly less demanding initially. Professional Practice covers aspects of becoming a professional artist in all its permutations, self employed own studio, to teaching. The module covers aspects of self employment, setting up a studio, looking for funding, self promotion, galleries, artist groups and networks etc etc. Useful things to check in advance are Lancashire Artists Network, the magazine AN, as many local galleries as you can find, the local art scene in general and within Blackpool in particular.

Drawing
Drawing is split in two. Main part is "Constructs in Drawing" which is mainly concerned with Life Drawing which will be familiar to those who have completed the Foundation Course. The approach is traditional with emphasis on mark making. You will use a variety of media from pencil to paint but mainly a mix of compressed and traditional charcoal. There is also a more experimental module which is concerned with technical methods and process. It is usually based on the work done in the previous drawing class. Historical and contextual referencing is an important component.

Painting
The module explores spatial awareness through a wide range of technical methods and process combining drawing and other processes such as collage. The subject matter may be directed by the assignment or may be optional. Most students chose to concentrate were allowed on their personal project. This proved to be a sensible choice as it was possible to compare the results of using a variety of techniques on the same subject material. I personally found the approach very enlightening.

The general advice in both drawing and painting is to think "wild" the emphasis is on exploration and discovering personal strengths and weaknesses. It is

Mixed media AJP

important to be self motivated. You need to be able to discuss your work and motivation, be aware of current art trends and their relevance to your work. Our personal work, self directed study, embraced the subjects of Space and Place.

Reflective Diary/Journal
There seemed to be some confusion between individual students as to how this should be approached. Personally I used an A5 spiral bound note book into which I endeavoured to reflect on each lesson. There was an element of diary but on each occasion I made a point of considering the good and bad points of each entry. I received no negative comments at my assessment.

General
I have to say I have found the first semester challenging but very enjoyable. We have a good spirit in the group. The tutors are generally quite human and extremely helpful. There is a tendency for the odd one to forget that not everyone is 18 years old!

Martin Parr - Photographer

2009-02-01T08:58:00.002-01:00

Since the 1970s, Martin Parr has photographed aspects of British life, documenting and dissecting the way we live with a witty, unblinking eye. On the eve of Tate Britains exhibition How We Are: Photographing Britain Parr met us at his London studio to talk about his work.

Video courtesy of shihlunchang

WAYS OF SEEING (final episode - advertising) 4/4

2009-02-01T08:32:00.001-01:00

This is the fourth of 4 posts showing the final episode of the BBC2 broadcast of John Bergers seminal work "Ways of Seeing" in 4 parts, this is 4/4.

Video is courtesy of manwithaplan999

WAYS OF SEEING (final episode - advertising) 3/4

2009-02-01T08:29:00.002-01:00

This is the third of 4 posts showing the final episode of the BBC2 broadcast of John Bergers seminal work "Ways of Seeing" in 4 parts, this is 3/4.

Video is courtesy of manwithaplan999

WAYS OF SEEING (final episode - advertising) 2/4

2009-02-01T08:26:00.003-01:00

This is the second of 4 posts showing the final episode of the BBC2 broadcast of John Bergers seminal work "Ways of Seeing" in 4 parts, this is 2/4.

Video is courtesy of manwithaplan999

WAYS OF SEEING (final episode - advertising) 1/4

2009-02-01T08:13:00.004-01:00

This is the first of 4 posts showing the final episode of the BBC2 broadcast of John Bergers seminal work "Ways of Seeing" in 4 parts, this is 1/4.

Video is courtesy of manwithaplan999

Transubstantiation - Mass Culture

2009-01-19T10:49:00.004-01:00

Re: Walker, J.A., 1996. Art in the Age of Mass Media

transubstantiation:-
noun

the changing of one substance into another.
Theology: the changing of the elements of the bread and wine, when they are consecrated in the Eucharist, into the body and blood of Christ (a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church).

http://dictionary.reference.com/

Not a word that one might expect to come across in a didactic treatise on Mass Culture. (Walker: 1996) In the context of the chapter "Art uses mass culture" I suspect Walker uses the word in its non-theological sense. As he is suggesting that Popular Culture was transformed (transubstantiated) from trash into expensive high art by attracting the approval of cultural bastions such as the Tate.

However, he could well have used the word in its theological sense given the God like standing of Warhol in the world of popular culture. And his ability to transform the exclusive into the commonplace whilst at the same time elevating the mundane to the iconic. Surely a miraculous process. Did Warhol look upon his art in religious terms?

Andy Warhol, The Last Supper (Dove), 1986

There is a consensus of opinion that given Warhol's religious beliefs (Roman Catholic) his work may have had a more religious context that generally realised. In an essay "Transubstantiating the culture: Andy Warhol's secret" James Romaine (an American art historian) (Romaine: 2003) discusses Warhol's secret religious obsessions and how this was revealed in his work. His iconic images of the pop saints Marylyn, Elvis and Jackie, were attributed to his interest in looking at painted icons in church as a boy. Significantly if not ironically he spent the last year of his life reproducing another childhood icon, one of Christianity's most famous and ubiquitous images, "The Last Supper" (Haden-Guest: 2000) a reproduction of which hung on the wall of his family's home and as a prayer card in his mothers missal. He produced at least 40 variations on the image. His memorial service was held at St. Patrick's cathedral in New York. (Christies: 2009) You could speculate that Considering that Warhol died from complications associated from a simple gall bladder operation did he have a premonition of his imminent demise.

I suppose it is possible to draw comparisons between the fanatic fervour and conformity of mass culture with that of religion.

Andy Warhol, Detail of the Last supper, ca 1986

References:-
Christies, 1997. Andy Warhol (1928-1987) | Last Supper | Post-War & Contemporary Art Auction | late 20th Century, Paintings | Christie's. Available at: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5074045 [Accessed January 19, 2009].

Haden-Guest, A., artnet.com Magazine Features - Warhol's Last Supper. http://www.artnet.com/. Available at: http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/features/haden-guest/haden-guest8-3-99.asp [Accessed January 19, 2009].

Romaine, J., 2003. Andy Warhol - Transubstantiating the Culture. Available at: http://oldarchive.godspy.com/culture/Andy-Warhol-Transubstantiating-the-Culture.cfm.html [Accessed January 19, 2009].

Walker, J.A., 1996. Art in the Age of Mass Media 3rd ed., Pluto Press.

Zotero - Citation Organisation

2008-12-07T07:59:00.007-01:00

Being of a lazy disposition I have been looking for ways to organise my growing list of references and bibliographies. I currently run Word XP, inevitably Microsoft do not have a means of organising citations in this ancient version. I believe there is an option in Word 2007, although it can not cope with Harvard (Author:Date) citations. I tried a third party option Documentit. Downloaded the Trial version and typed in some 20 bibliography citations. Only to discover that the trial version of Documentit will only allow you to download the first 3 citations in your list, bummer! Having just spent 30 mins typing all that in and not to be able to extract the info again is not amusing. Nowhere in the information regarding the trial version is this limitation mentioned. A cheap trick to make me cough up £14.99 for the full version, I think not, why can they not be upfront about the limitations?

Not to be thwarted, I discovered that I could auto transfer the first 3 citations in my the list into my Word document. Then deleted them from DocumentS*it and transferred again. Yes, it worked the next three citations were transferred and adinfinitum until I had copied over all my bibliography citations into a Word document for future use. Not a completely wasted effort but not quite what I was expecting.

What next, well another session with Google dug up an interesting extension for Firefox, Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] claims that it can "help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources" Zotero is an easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps to gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects), and lets you share the results of your research in a variety of ways. Interestingly Zotero seems to be in dispute with the owners of Endnote a proprietary citation manager.

The easiest way to collect your bibliography is to find the book in question in Amazon click the Zotera icon in the bottom right hand corner of your browser window and Bingo the full citation is added to your library. I have since found a more useful location for Zotero friendly citations at Worldcat an aggregation site for over 10,000 libraries worldwide. The beauty of this site is you can find the details of out of print books.

Zotero integrates with Microsoft Word or Open Office via a plugin. This places icons in the Word toolbar. To add a citation to a document or essay, place the cursor at the point in the document where you want to add the citation, click add citation icon in the toolbar, the first time you will be asked for the format, choose Harvard, select your citation from the list and click add. The citation will be added thus - (Anfam 1998). at the same time Zotero adds the full citation at the end of the document as an alphabetical list. It has worked for me and saved loads of tedious typing.

Digital Student

2008-12-03T08:15:00.002-01:00

Yesterdays Guardian (2nd Dec 08) included a supplement "Digital Student". It contained some useful and interesting stuff. One article that caught my eye about e-portfolio s. The article described the use of the webfolio software designed by Pebble Pad. This is a bit like Moodle but more interactive. They cited the work of a mature Fine Art student at University of Wolverhampton (sic) showing some interesting examples from Sally's e-Journal.

The Pebble Pad site contains some interesting stuff including a Power Point presentation about the logic behind their creation. There were also links to other useful sites and info. One being a book Art Spoke, and another being a site dedicated to learning on-line with useful info about essay writing etc . There was a very clear example of citing using the Harvard, Author Date, system.

Understanding the Canon in Art

2008-11-09T18:59:00.002-01:00

Critical Studies Lecture 6th October 2008 - Revisited

This lecture introduced the notion of the "canon" in art. At the time my only understanding of the word was as an instrument of war or the liturgy of the Catholic Mass. I had not come across the word in the context of art.
Since when of course I have bumped into the word a number of times, not usually in a context which sank in.

Today I was reading an interesting article in Art World [1] which referred to a new exhibition in the New York Guggenheim.[2] Described as ground breaking and titled "theanyspacewhatsoever", the exhibition involves 10 artists, Angela Bulloch, Maurizio Cattelan, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno and Rirkrit Tiravanija. They describe themselves as individuals but the art world describes them as part of a new "ism", "Relational Aesthetics", an association they have endeavoured to deny.

They are artist who have renounced the production of individual objects replacing these instead with the medium of the gallery or museum space. This they use individually or in loose collaboration to create "artwork" which creates a social environment in which people come together to participate in a shared activity".[3]

Critics, academics, curators and collectors have endeavoured to pigeon hole these artist alongside the YBA (Young British Artists) of the 1990's, considered to be the foundation of the "ism", "Relational Aesthetics",

Guggenheim curator Nancy Spector gleefully suggests the collaboration of these artists in this unique event justifies their addition to this canon!

I feel that reading this article has clarified my understanding of the notion of the term canon in the context of art.

Notes:-

Canon: a term used to mean work of value or a restrictive and limited code or disciplinary practice and theory.
Canon: a rule or especially body of rules or principles generally established as valid and fundamental in a field or art.
Canonical: According to acknowledged rules.

References:-

1. www.guggenheim.com/exhibitions/exhibition_pages/anyspace/index.html (accessed 90.11.08)
2. Spector N, "Grappling with theanyspacewhatsoever".Art World.7(October/November),2008,pp.24
3. wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_art (accessed 09.11.08)

Art in the Age of YouTube

2008-11-02T15:15:00.007-01:00

One of the growth areas of the Internet is streaming video not least in the art world. There are sites covering exhibitions, gallery shows, artist interviews, art world events, etc. The quality of the output can be a bit variable and maybe dependant on the quality and speed of your broadband connection. Top of the pile is probably BBC iPlayer with Google Video at the other end, there are many in-between.

There are also sites either specialising in art video output or who include a significant content on their sites. One of the more interesting dedicated sites is NewArtTV others include VernisageTV, LXTV. The art magazines ArtReview and ArtInfo both have significant video content on their websites. The current streaming video phenomenon of the Internet, YouTube includes a number of dedicated art channels one of which is operated by the controversial character James Kalm. An exciting find was a YouTube channel under the name of deepsofnight which contains lots of goodies including Robert Hughes's Shock of the New.

The association between art and streaming video is only scratching the surface of the mediums potential, we are watching this space with interest.

Gestalt

2008-10-29T14:13:00.005-01:00

Gestalt - A physical, psychological, or symbolic arrangement or pattern of parts so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts. May also refer to a school or theory in psychology known as Gestalt psychology.

Here is an animation of four pictures, each an arrangement of coloured squares of decreasing size, increasing number, and increasing complexity. As the animation progresses there is a moment at which the viewer identifies the image from which the images were derived. This experience might be described as achieving closure or making a new gestalt. This experience is also likely to arrive earlier in the sequence the more times one sees the animation. Even the final image is actually a greatly distorted reproduction of the original picture. See derived image, metamorphosis, and pixel.

Reference:-
www.artlex.com (Accessed 29.10.08)

Visual Arts Glossary

2008-10-29T13:49:00.001-01:00

Visual Art Glossary

After-image	Weak image of the complementary colour created by the brain as a reaction to prolonged looking at a colour. (After looking at red, the after-image is green).
Alternating rhythm	Repeating motifs but changing the position, content or spaces between them.
Analogous colour	Colours that are beside each other on the colour wheel.
Art criticism	The process and result of critical thinking about art. It usually involves the description, analysis and interpretation of art, as well as some kind of judgement.
Assemblage	Sculpture consisting of many objects and materials that have been put together.
Asymmetrical balance	Informal balance in which unlike objects have equal visual weight.
Background	Part of the picture plane that seems to be farthest from the viewer.
Balance	Principle of design that deals with arranging the visual elements in a work of art for harmony of design and proportion.
Bas-relief	Sculpture in which part of the surface projects from a flat plane.
Chiaroscuro	Using contrast of light and dark to create the illusion of three-dimensional form on a two-dimensional surface.
Clustering	In design, creating a focal point by grouping different objects or shapes together.
Colour wheel	A tool for organizing colour.
Complementary colour	Colours that are directly opposite each other on the colour wheel (for example, blue and orange).
Composition	Arrangements of elements in a work of art.
Continuation (continuity)	In design, arranging shapes so that the line or edge of one shape leads into another (technique for creating unity).
Contour lines	Contour lines define edges, ridges or the outline of a shape or form.
Contrast	A large difference between two things. It is a technique often used to create a focal point.
Crafts	Arts works that are both decorative and functional. (Weaving, fabric design, jewellery-making and pottery).
Crosshatch	Technique for shading using two or more crossed sets of parallel lines.
Culture	Behaviours, ideas, skills and customs of a group of people.
Distortion	Changing an object's usual shape to communicate ideas and feelings.
Dominant element	Element in a work of art that is noticed first (elements noticed later are subordinate).
Emphasis	Principle of design that stresses one element or area to attract the viewer's attention first.
Exaggeration	Increasing or enlarging an object or figure to communicate ideas or feelings.
Flowing rhythm	Visual rhythm that is created by repeating wavy lines.
Focal point	Area of an art work that attracts the viewer's attention first. Contrast, location, isolation, convergence and the unusual are used to create focal points.
Foreground	Part of a picture which appears closest to the viewer and often is at the bottom of the picture.
Foreshortening	A form of perspective where the nearest parts of an object or form are enlarged so that the rest of the form appears to go back in space.
Gesture drawing	A drawing done quickly to capture a movement.
Hue	Another word for colour (colour has three properties: hue, value and intensity).
Intensity	Brightness or dullness of a colour. Intensity can be reduced by adding the colour's complement.
Linear perspective	Technique of creating the illusion of depth on a flat surface. The lines of buildings and other objects converge to a vanishing point on a horizon line (viewer's eye level).
Logo	A visual symbol that identifies a business, club, individual or group.
Medium	Any material and technique used to produce a work of art (paint, glass, clay, fibre, etc.). It may also refer to the liquid with which powdered pigments are mixed to make paint.
Middleground	Area in a picture between the foreground and the background.
Mixed media	Any art work which uses more than one medium.
Monochromatic colour	Colour scheme which uses one hue and all its tints and shades for a unifying effect.
Motif	Repeated unit to create visual rhythm.
Negative space	Space around an object or form.
Neutral colours	Black, white and grey.
Opaque	Quality of a material that does not let any light pass through.
Organic form	Shapes or forms that are free-flowing and non-geometric.
Path of movement	The path along which the viewer's eye moves from one part of an art work to another.
Pattern	Lines, colours or shapes repeated in a planned way.
Perspective	Method used to create the illusion of space on a two-dimensional surface. Can be created by overlapping, placement, detail, colour, converging lines and size variations.
Picture plane	The surface of a drawing or painting.
Point of view	Angle from which the viewer sees the object.
Positive space	Shapes or forms on a two-dimensional surface.
Principles of design	Guidelines that artists use in composing designs and controlling how viewers are likely to react to the image. Balance, contrast, proportion, movement, emphasis, variety, unity and repetition are examples of the principles of design.
Proportion	Principle of design concerned with the relationship of one object to another with respect to size, amount, number and degree.
Radial balance	Kind of balance where the elements branch out from a central point.
Random rhythm	Visual rhythm in which a motif is repeated in no apparent order.
Regular rhythm	Visual rhythm created through repeating the same motif with the same distance between placements.
Repetition	Technique for creating unity and rhythm in which a single element or motif is used over and over again.
Reproduction	Copy of a work of art.
Rhythm	Principle of design that repeats elements to create the illusion of movement. There are five kinds of rhythm: random, regular, alternating, progressive and flowing.
Scale	The proportion between two sets of dimensions.
Shade	Dark value of a colour made by adding black.
Space	Space can be the area around, within or between images or elements. Space can be created on a two-dimensional surface by using such techniques as overlapping, object size, placement, colour intensity and value, detail and diagonal lines.
Split complementary	A colour scheme based on one hue and the hues on either side of its complement on the colour wheel.
Style	Style is the artist's ways of presenting things. Use of materials, methods of working, design qualities, choice of subject matter, etc. reflect the style of the individual, culture or time period.
Subject	A topic or idea represented in an art work.
Subordinate element	Element in an art work noticed after the dominant element.
Subtractive method	Sculpture that is made by cutting, carving or otherwise removing material.
Symbol	Visual image that represents something else.
Symmetrical balance	Formal balance where two sides of a design are identical.
Tint	Light value of a colour made by adding white.
Translucent	Quality of material which allows diffused light to pass through it.
Transparent	Quality of a material which allows light to pass through it.
Trompe-l'oeil	Means "fool the eye". Style of painting where the artist creates the illusion of three-dimensional objects.
Unity	Principle of design that gives the feeling that all parts are working together.
Value	The lightness or darkness of a colour.
Vanishing point	In perspective drawing, a point or points on the horizon where receding parallel lines seem to meet.
Variety	Principle of design concerned with difference or contrasts.
Visual weight	The interest or attraction that certain elements in an art work have upon the viewer.

Potted Art Course

2008-10-27T21:12:00.000-01:00

I came across this site today whist looking for something quite different, as one does. The link is to the course notes for a course in Art, Design and Visual Thinking at New York State College of Human Ecology. It is surprisingly comprehensive an includes numerous excellent images and references.

Link

Affordable Art Fair

2008-10-26T09:10:00.005-01:00

I have had a selection of my Flora Photographica series on sale at the Affordable Art Fair Battersea this weekend (22nd to 26th October) and I am delighted to say they sold out so I am just a bit chuffed. I was represented by Wills Art Warehouse. A great gallery in Putney and a must visit if you find yourself down that way.

I also had some of my art up for sale and that was not doing too bad either.

Modernism - Greenberg - Discuss

2008-10-21T05:08:00.002-01:00

The major obstacles to tackling this essay are the impenetrable prose and unnecessarily complex vocabulary. The armoury of the educated to defend their assumed intellectual superiority.

From my lowly standpoint it would appear to me that Greenberg is suggesting or rather stating that to legitimise or justify art we must criticise it but before we can do that we must understand what it is and what it is endeavouring to achieve.

He implies that the only medium capable of representing modernism is painting as painting is the only medium that can divorce itself from representation and what has gone before by virtue of its flatness; the essence of Modernism.

References:-
http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/modernism.html (Accessed 20.10.08)
http://homepage.newschool.edu/~quigleyt/vcs/mp_sum.html (Accessed 20.10.08)

Rothko at Tate Modern

2008-10-20T05:53:00.003-01:00

With great anticipation I visited the Rothko exhibition on Saturday (18th October). A painter who has held considerable fascination for me since I read his biography on holiday last year. At the time of my visit I have to confess I had forgotten the precise means of Rothko's demise. So what you may ask, you need to read on to find out!

Given the publicity that this new exhibition at Tate Modern has received there can be few people unaware of the idiosyncrasies of Rothko as an artist or the mysticism associated with his work. Or the fact that many are moved to tears by his work. Would I be?

Rothko painted in isolation and rarely explained or discussed his work, an isolation that added a mystery and an intrigue to his paintings. Something which taunted the art world long before his tragic death in 1970.

Possibly Rothko's most idiosyncratic stunt was to take on a commission to paint a series of gigantic works to decorate the imposing and expensive restaurant of New Yorks grand Seagram's building. But he never delivered, instead he donated the work to the Tate Gallery, the catalyst for this new exhibition. But why did he take on the Seagrams commission and why did he not complete it?

According to a journalist, John Fischer of Harpers Magazine, who bumped into Rothko in the bar of a transatlantic liner; Rothko's reasons for taking on the commission where subversive. He confessed that he wanted to upset, offend and torture the diners at the Four Seasons. "I hope to ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room," he gloated, "with paintings that will make those rich bastards feel that they are trapped in a room where all the doors and windows are bricked up"[1].

After 30 minutes in Gallery 4 of the Tate Modern, I felt trapped and overcome by the most overwhelming feeling of depression, to the point were under my breath I told myself that If I did not get out of the place, there and then, I might end up slashing my wrists.

Rothko killed himself by deeply slashing both arms at the elbow. I now know why!

[1] Feeding Fury, Jonathan Jones, Guardian 7 Dec 2002: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2002/dec/07/artsfeatures
Accessed 19.10.2002

Developing the Right Language

2008-10-12T22:32:00.001-01:00

One of my grandmothers homilies was that she did not know she was poor because no one had told her! Critical Thinking is a bit the same for me. As a practical scientist, I have spent most of my life Critical Thinking but I did not know that because we called it analysis!

As I search and develop the right side of my brain through the pursuit of art the exposure to abstruse aspects of the subject are quite enlightening. One of the pleasures and frustrations of the endeavour is the discovery of a new language and of course the words that go with it. My inadequacies in this area are evident as I struggle with the lexicon of the subject. This inadequacy was brought home to me as I listened to a commentary by Sasha Cradock on one of the works (Flowing 2 by Marta Marcé) at the current John Moores exhibition, but I shall leave Sasha to another occasion.

One of the first reoccurring words to catch my eye was "epistemology". At first glance I read it as "episiotomy", must be something to do with my daughter just having given birth. As you may imagine the sentence did not make much sense until I reread it and realised my mistake.

After a lifetime immersed in the scientific language of microbiology, biochemistry, haematology and a load more ologies getting to grips with the language of art is not far off learning Norwegian and I have been trying to do that for 14 years with little success. So you can see I may be struggling with Critical Studies!

Definitions:-
Epistemology (from Greek - episteme, "knowledge") or theory of knowledge is a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge. The term was introduced into English by the Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier (1808-1864).

Episiotomy is a surgical incision through the perineum made to enlarge the vagina and assist childbirth.

The Persiflage of Language

2008-10-12T17:53:00.002-01:00

I have tried to avoid involvement in the Damien Hirst controversy. Mainly because I could disgrace myself with an uncontrollable outflow of profanity and derision. I was however taken with Robert Hughes's outflow of derision in his Guardian article of 13 September 08 concerning Hirst's upcoming Sothebys auction.

As I read the article my eye was caught by the word "persiflage". Initially I was taken aback by the use of a word containing more than two syllables by an Australian. But what did he mean by the use of this interesting word, as there seems to be more than one interpretation?

Quote:

By now, with the enormous hype that has been spun around it, there probably isn't an earthworm between John O'Groats and Land's End that hasn't heard about the auction of Damien Hirst's work at Sotheby's on Monday and Tuesday - the special character of the event being that the artist is offering the work directly for sale, not through a dealer. This, of course, is persiflage. Christie's and Sotheby's are now scarcely distinguishable from private dealers anyway: they in effect manage and represent living artists, and the Hirst auction is merely another step in cutting gallery dealers out of the loop.

A quick Google produced a selection of definitions from reputable sources:-

1. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Persiflage

light, bantering talk or writing.
a frivolous or flippant style of treating a subject.

2. American Heritage Dictionary -
Per·si·flage

Light good-natured talk; banter.
Light or frivolous manner of discussing a subject.

3. Online Etymology Dictionary -
Persiflage

to banter
to whistle, hiss

4. WordNet -
Persiflage

light teasing

5. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary -
Persiflage

to quiz, to whistle, hiss,
Frivolous or bantering talk; a frivolous manner of treating any subject, whether serious or otherwise;
Light raillery

Ah but which definition did Hughes have in mind when chose such a mellifluous word? Was he referring to his writing as banter (good humoured, playful conversation, To speak to in a playful or teasing way) or did he mean frivolous (unworthy of serious attention; trivia).

It's OK these word mongers using words of more than one syllable but are they using the word to clarify a point or to show off? Like so much writing about art there is a tendency not to use one syllable where you can use two or more. I appreciate a long word used correctly may save the use of many more smaller words but....................what do you think?

Whatever his intention my contention would be that he intended the interpretation "frivolous", for me that would sum up Damian Hirst and his work perfectly - "persiflage"! Or as an Englishman may say; frivolous, unworthy of serious attention!

References

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/persiflage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/sep/13/damienhirst.art

The Power of the Mid Life Crisis

2008-10-05T11:32:00.008-01:00

How may of us harbour an unfulfilled desire to write a novel or direct a film, quite a few I suspect. How many of us actually do anything about fulfilling that dream, very few I am sure. Well my kid brother, Johnny Parker, driven by his mid life crisis has taken the first steps down the road to fulfilling both of these dreams. The novel is still in the incubator but the film has just hit a computer screen near you. Beauty and the Butcher a humorous tale of unrequited love was written and directed by Johnny.

The tale follows the theme "Beautiful Beautician loves Hunky Butcher but can she overcome her shyness, her loathing of meat, competition from the cocky Estate Agent and a mountain of cruel obstacles to get to the man she adores?" Does she, well you will have to watch this very accomplished first effort at creating a short film.

View the video below or follow the link for a Hi-Res version.

Art Links Galore

2008-09-14T19:29:00.006-01:00

I came across this site DARE (Digital Art Resource for Education) whilst researching Space & Place for my first semester assignment. I have not looked at them all yet but there are some very useful links.

Citing and Referencing

2008-09-03T05:05:00.006-01:00

An essential aspect of writing essays and dissertations is the referencing (or citing) of ALL source material. This includes the obvious references such as books, journals monographs, less obvious sources like maps, newspapers, theses, brochures, radio, TV etc and increasingly the Internet. There are two parts to a reference, the point in the text where the reference occurs and the actual reference itself, listed at the end of the document.

There are two main systems of citing references, the Harvard system (also known as the Author-date system) and the British Standard (or numeric system). Both are acceptable but in the Humanities which includes the arts the British Standard system is preferred as the in text reference style is less intrusive.

The main difference between the two systems is the way the reference is cited within the body of your text. There is very little difference in the way the reference is written

Harvard System - Jones (2008, p45) where you are using the name of the author in your text or (Jones, 2008, p45) where you are just referencing the author.

British Standard System - you would cite the reference by using a number in the form (5), [5], or superscript 5. The reference is then added to your work as a footnote or endnote

In the endnotes of bibliography the reference would be constructed as follows:-

Harvard System

For a book:-

Author(s)
Initials
Date
Title of book (in italic)
Publisher
Place of publication
Total number of pages

Eg. - Jones J.K. 2008. Art in 20th Century, London: Pergamon

For a Journal:-

Author(s)
Initials
Date in ( ) brackets
Title of article in "quotation marks"
Title of journal in italic
Volume (part number, month or season)
Page reference eg. pp. 250-300

Eg. - Parker A.J.(2008)"A Way of Seeing" Art Review. 25(June) pp.1-22

British Standard System

For a book:-

Author(s)
Initials
Title of book (in italic)
Place of publication:
Publisher
Date

Eg. - Jones J.K.Art in 20th Century.London:Pergamon, 2008

For a Journal:-

Author(s)
Initials
Title of article in "quotation marks"
Title of journal in italic
Volume (part number, month or season)
Date (Year)
Page reference eg. pp. 250-300

Eg - Parker A.J."A Way of Seeing" Art Review.1(June), 2008, pp.1-22

Referencing the Internet is a particularly complex area due to the wide variation of source material. To explain the process is too much for this brief introduction. I would advise that you consult the reference I have cited below.

You should find out which system your college or university would prefer you to use and then ensure you apply it consistently.

For full and frank explanation of how to reference any conceivable source I would recommend an excellent publication "Cite them right" the Essential guide to referencing and plagiarism. Oh yes plagiarism, now there is a "tin of worms". You would do to read learn and inwardly digest before you put pen to paper.

Students are advised to record their sources as they consult them rather than trying to remember the source after you have finished their piece of work. Keep a notebook handy.

The book can be obtained from Amazon for the princely sum of £5.49 although the Library copy I have, is priced at £4.99

"Cite them right The essential guide to referencing and plagiarism"
Richard Pears and Graham Shields
ISBN: 0-9551216-04
Stonebrook Print and Design Services Ltd
2005

REFERENCE
Pears R. & Shields G. "Cite them right. The Essential guide to referencing and plagiarism", Newcastle: Stonebrook Print and Design Services Ltd, 2005.

Bournmouth University

Keeping a Reflective Diary

2008-06-18T12:59:00.006-01:00

Daily Reflection: A Ten-Minute Exercise
This is a more demanding discipline than the Learning Diary, as it requires daily reflection on one's learning cf. at the end of each week. Its advantage is that through a regular commitment, one 'learns faster' i.e., you have the opportunity to live not only 'bumped around' on the surface of life, but with a deeper understanding and mastery of the opportunities of life.

Exercise

Choose a safe place (i.e., comfortable, peaceful environment where you are unlikely to be interrupted for 10 minutes), relax your body and become attentive but open.
Begin positively. Recall something in the day that was good. It may have been something that you really valued: a kind word, a good conversation, a beautiful rainbow or even a simple equation (that succinctly summed up so much!). Then re-live that experience, savor it for a minute and express gratitude for it.
Have a moment of silence, then let one thing surface in your mind. An indication of something to reflect on, may be a niggle, a mental preoccupation, a tension or a strong feeling.

Think around the situation: how it began, how it developed, why it bothered me so deeply etc.
Reflect on this. Can't I stand being criticised and always want to look as though I'm right? Am I intolerant? Do I not understand the subject area?
Recognise it - own it - this is me! It may be painful but I faced it! Talk over these feelings with yourself. You may begin here to realise that it is not so serious and begin to smile to yourself as you put it into perspective.
Realise that having come thus far (e.g., facing the pain), you have grown a little in self knowledge and awareness. Express gratitude at this point. Realise also that in growing you have also grown for others and in so doing (if done humbly i.e., not for selfish reasons) then you are also helping the development of humankind.

An example may be: a conversation that made me feel being got at, or a badly answered question in a tutorial that made me look stupid; so I'm hurt, angry, resentful, I want to retaliate; it has spoiled my day and I want to/have taken out my bitterness on others etc.
Now, may be the appropriate time to 'formally' finish the reflection in any manner that seems appropriate to you e.g., a good stretch, saying a meaningful verse of a poem or a simple prayer. Then have a cup of tea!
You may wish to work further with your insight, either now or later (make a note in your diary) i.e., how you can move on from here (to complete the Learning Cycle). Do not rush any insights. Let them have time (at least a few days) to mature, by keeping them gently in mind.

References
http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-reflect.htm

Keeping a Learning/Reflective Diary

2008-06-18T11:35:00.004-01:00

AIMS

To allow you to regularly reflect on significant experiences associated particularly with your (University) learning.
To help you become aware and acknowledge what you have learnt/how you have progressed.
To help identify issues/problem associated with your learning, and by so doing, enable you to consider options for their resolution etc.

APPROACH

Use a soft backed small exercise book (not loose paper) to record your thoughts.
Spend no more than five minutes every day, (rather than half an hour, once a week) to get started.
Review what you have written once a week (e.g. Sunday evening; when you might also be planning your coming week activity). Also, review what you have written more generally every month/two months to gain an overview/discover trends, etc.
If nothing "comes" - leave it to the following day (but write down some comment e.g. ‘nothing today’).

WHAT TO WRITE

"Activities"/situations/experiences that went well or were difficult
Unexpected problems or issues e.g. solving a particular maths problem (that you had revised carefully) or explaining an idea in a group project meeting.
Habits that you have notices in yourself or others (which have some relevance)
How you feel about the way you are doing things e.g. items of understanding, clarity of thought, strength of actions, awareness.
How effective you are e.g. using feedback from others, achieving goals (assignment deadlines, finding information in library, keeping a learning diary! etc.)
Anything else that feels of importance to you - even though you may not understand the significance of it.

WHY DO IT?

It helps you to learn from your successes, as well as your mistakes
It makes it more likely that you will use what you have learnt next time i.e. rather than ‘making the same mistakes’, "falling back on old habits’ etc.
It gives you an opportunity to plan concisely what you want to do, what you want to change, etc.
It may help you feel more in "control of your life", more positive, deepen your understanding, etc.

Art is Like Smoking

2008-06-18T10:11:00.001-01:00

Art is a bit like smoking. As a non-smoker you wonder what the other guys sees in it. Don't they realise they are shortening their lives! You so wish the penny would drop and they could begin to enjoy life without cigarettes. When the penny does drop and you discover you don't cough in the morning and you don't need a Vindaloo to be able to taste your food. You realise what you have been missing. Discovering Art is a similar mind expanding experience, you feel so sorry for those who have yet to see the light. Just as it is impossible to convince a smoker through rational debate that they should give up. So it is impossible to convince the unenlightened that they should try to understand Art.

I have been a photographer for best part of 50 years. I enjoy all aspects of the medium but my preferences are towards what is grudgingly described in photographic circles as “Fine Art Photographs”. It was only when I started on an Art Foundation course and began to study the “history of art” that I realised what it was that attracted me to this genera of photography. It also made me consider more openly the visual angst of modern or contemporary photography.

I am tempted to argue the case for contemporary photography further but I suspect that Mr Joe Soaps mind is not susceptible to change just yet. I would rather that he saw the light himself, put his prejudices to one side, opened his mind and discovered the enlightenment that awaits him. Just as the hardened smoker must.

I will offer an emolument to Mr Soap by saying that I find art speak, erudite, facile, pretentious and exasperating. But you should not allow the Brian Sewells of this world to close your mind. You need to see past the misconceptions of what Art is all about and be prepared to be uncomfortable whilst your mind opens and expands enough to start enjoying the challenge of appreciating Art. It probably will not help but it may be worth considering that many artists who broke the mould where ridiculed and misunderstood at the time. The Expressionists for example, people queue around the block to view their works today. In their day they were just looked upon as a bunch of sex crazed, boozed up, angst ridden weirdo's. (Why am I thinking Amy Winehouse)? Similarly Dorothea Lange’s work was looked upon with distain by the critics when first presented to the public. Today it is now appreciated for both its documentary and artistic qualities.

It is my impression over my 50 years as a photographer that most photographers have a very superficial view of both the history and the aesthetic of photography. And zero knowledge of the history of art and the influence the invention of photography had on the development of art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They are more concerned by the hardware and the technology. The image for many is almost a bi-product of the process.

What is Art? Well that's a subject for another day!

Painting: Vincent van Gogh’s Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette

Getting started on the art endevour

2004-10-01T17:21:00.003-01:00

I have been interested in photography since I was about 13 and have had a wider interest in all things creative. My mother’s father was a photographer and a tattooist around the turn of the century i.e. late 1800's. My mother also dabbled with a brush and pencil. So I suppose there is a genetic creative streak in me. Although I find traditional wet photography a fascinating and very creative medium I find digital photography much less satisfying. For the last couple of years, since I had to give up my darkroom when we moved house, I have been searching for another outlet for my creative frustrations. Retirement, 12 months ago seemed an appropriate point for a change in direction. It was time to put to good use the collection of how to paint and draw books and boxes of tubes and pans that family and friends had been buying as birthday and Christmas gifts over the past few years. It was time to dust them off and get my beret out!

But where does one start? As luck would have it the winter season of further education classes was about to start. In a very spooky coincidence the prospectus from Lancaster University dropped on the mat the following morning. A quick search revealed a daytime course which seemed to be just up my street, “An introduction to pen, ink and wash” one of my favourite art mediums. I rang up, enrolled, and waited with baited breath for the starting day to arrive.

The class was composed mainly of ladies of a certain age, the odd earnest gentleman and me, Mr Normal and well adjusted. The course was to last 10 weeks. The tutor, a knowledgeable lady who had come to teaching late in life showered us with enthusiasm. The objective of the course turned out to be the production of a portfolio which would be presented to the authorities (Lancaster University) as justification for keeping her in employment. This was what is described as a "Leisure Class" by those who take there art more seriously but we all have to start somewhere! As may be expected in a class of some 13 people there was a mix of talents and enthusiasm. Those who collected such classes like a train numbers and knew the ropes inside out. To the truly gifted person who should really have been enrolled in a proper Art School, no not me! A lively 70 year old who had brought up a large family and coped with a drunken abusive husband. Her greatest dream was to go to Glasgow Art School to fulfil her life long ambition to demonstrate her undoubted natural artistic skill. I stuck it out for 10 weeks, produced my portfolio, discovered I really could draw but this approach I found rather stifling. Did I really want to be an Artist?