Synthesis: non-places/ Liminal spaces comparison

Stuck: I have a lot of theory on non-places after reading Auge/ the reviews but I find liminal spaces much more interesting !! I could also probably write a better essay on non-places/ I don't want to waist this content. Could I compare liminal spaces and non - places?? Both thresholds - places people pass through but the values of the two literally seem to be the opposite of one another??

Liminal - history, sense of what came before, freedom to wonder as you please, unordered, unclear ownership, what man has left behind/ nature has claimed, detritus, unsettling - unfamiliar - unsystematic life and death - 'threshold between life and death, past, present and future'. 'you might feel as though you are in the past and the future at the same time' (Kinloch 2013)

VS

Non - places - no history but the last 48hrs, continuous circuit of advertising place other non places - empty words - not engaged with suggest atmosphere of place, Lack of freedom - follow strict rules - importance of identity, state ownership, Any sign of nature covered, sense of familiarity in the new - all the same, ordered by man numbered, systematic - systematic life and death thresholds also (Auge, 1995)

Could do a comparison between a sort of abandoned overgrown area (like the horse place in article) and somewhere like a hospital

How do theories on thresholds influence ho you experience space 

- Go to the places - see how knowing the theories influence how I draw, respond to the spaces - Draw in response to the theories, contradict etc.

Research: Non-Places

Mark Auge (1995) Quotes:

'Not rational, historical or concerned with identity’ 

‘non-places whose definition is primarily economic’

Supermarkets, slot machines, cash machines, air/ rail/ motorway routes, airports, railway stations
HISTORY

‘No history other than the last forty-eight hours of news’

‘Frequentation of non-places today provides an experience - without real historical precedent'

ADVERTISING
 told what to look at, ‘secret beauties explicit’ some of the texts become obsolete - moving too fast - too much
 'strangely familiar' through advertising - ad loop
FARMILIARITY
‘in the world of super modernity people are always and never, at home'
IDENTITY CONTROL

When you give your identity - passport, credit card, ID
 ‘alone, but one of many’

* Really Interesting Rich Theory - Literally the opposite of Liminality !! So many points of comparison
*Thinking about space in this way is really unsettling - Could I communicate this in my work ??

**interested in how people experience space - could read articles, philosophies, go on my own adventures see if my experience corresponds? 

*What other academic theory is there on space?

Initial Research Links 2

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4502284.pdf
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2744566?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=non-places&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dnon-places&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3034109?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=non-places&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dnon-places&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4502284.pdf - print last two pages
Liminal SP Artist: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/09/liminal_spaces_photographs_of_areas_where_city_meets_nature.html

Key Words - Desire path, liminal spaces, Abandoned spaces, Desire paths, psychogeorgraphy

• Could just base my project on space - the recording/ reportage of space - is simple observation enough ? - Theory on psychogeography, liminality - What would my argument be??
•  Lucinda Rogers (simply records)
• Nigel Peake (translates - maps of allotted building spaces - gives value using mark, colour)
• David Lemm (abstract object maps - records space in less literal way - translation)
• Garry Winogard (photographed hip - like landscape - unease, unbalance, wonky)
• Translation of space/ Experience - relationship?

Initial Research Links 1

What am I interested in??
- Atmosphere, abandoned places, geographical status, psychogeography, student Gentrification, Subtle things that change a place, Transit spaces: Where does one thing end, another begin

Reading:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2vZWoyPOH1ZcGZWNVpKQnJjTkE/view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2vZWoyPOH1ZZFIwZGwycGxGQkU/view (read 154 - 162)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2vZWoyPOH1ZRnd1bzB0SVo3Zmc/view (read all)

Mark Auge - Non Places
Rachel Gannon - Varoom
Winogrand Photographer
Maps of expanding Cities
My Friend Red - Passing of time, human interaction

Collected theories 

Laura - psycho geography - wondering city on drugs

Jenny - withchcraft - how witches were perceived vs are now 

Ehrn - Reportage illustration - vs photography 

Study Task 1 - Idea Brainstorming

I initially started with the theme of Liminal spaces - looking a thresholds/ functionless spaces and their atmosphere/ eeriness - passers through, remnants left behind by people - their impression on the landscape/ a sense of what came before; the area between city/ countryside as a weird nothing space, passageways and underpasses - forgotten spaces 

However, through discussion this theme has massively expanded - I started to think about abandoned spaces and revival/ degeneration - the function of graffiti in this (commissioned vs raw graffiti); geographical hierarchy - moving through social constructs from centre to outskirts; degradation of landscapes and buildings, how this happens - failed constructs/ gentrification - students moving into poor areas and making them trendy; oppression of sub cultures through gentrification; how atmosphere determine geographical status - psychogeography and getting a feel for a place by walking through it - desire paths; nature and people vs design and angles - again going back to the area where city meets nature 

Right now I have a lot to work with and I’m not really sure where to start: I am most interested in abandoned spaces - their atmosphere and why people psychologically avoid them (pshychogeography - walking, getting a feel) /this idea of objects holding a history - presence in absence but it might be interesting to look at a broader social issue.

Self Evaluation

ISSU presentation

Powerpoint link:

https://1drv.ms/p/s!AiQXbyiG1n_DgRmWsavVFscDRstM

Issuu link:

https://issuu.com/indiapenny/docs/studio_brief_3

Ahhh I don't know what to do my presentation on - Studio Brief 3

Right now I have two vague ideas that I am interested in (which I have just drawn out of my research):

1. This idea of commercial art having a focus on aesthetic values is something which cropped up a lot in my essay. It was described as something which is numbing and reassuring thats main aim is to grab out attention. It was argued that that it exists simply to draw us in so that we can be sold something and told what we already know. (- Read and Swanger)

I am interested in weather or not this theory can still be applied to contemporary illustration // this idea of aesthetic values vs. conceptual ones. Which come first? - I am interested in weather there are illustrations with a primary focus is on aesthetic values and nothing more, if so how do they function / in contrast to illustrations with a focus on communicating a concept (where aesthetics just exist to aid this storytelling). It would also be interesting to explore weather or not one can exist without the other. Can illustration move in the direction of some fine art and become purely conceptual or does this totally defy what illustration is because it is no longer able to clearly visually communicate anything.

If I were to look into this I like the fact that there is such a strong focus on illustration and I wouldn't have the struggle of having to keep trying to link it back. It also feels very contemporary because it is comparing illustration at present to past views on 'commercial art' in general. I also find this idea of aesthetics really interesting and I could maybe even go into explore the psychology of it?
However, I am not sure how much I would be able to dig up on the relationship between aesthetics and conceptual values (particularly in the world of illustration) and I'm worried that I'll go off on a tangent and start looking at the psychology of colour in advertising or something.

2. The word 'taste' also cropped up a lot in my research, particularly in the discussion of the elite as the 'taste-makers' in an elitist society.

This idea of taste and style in art and why it changes is something that I find really interesting. I could look into what determines taste and why styles come and go - the psychology of it. It could be interesting to explore why we have moved away from intellectual standards - hierarchy, order, geometry towards work that is irrational and instead uses intuition. - why are things that are off balance now pleasing to us when they weren't in the past.  - what is taste and where does it come from?

I feel like maybe this second concept feels a bit thinner but I am not sure if it is just because I haven't thought about it as much.

-- I have just realised that these concepts are super linked, so I might even end up exploring both. (taste and aesthetics/ psychology)

Finished Essays - Studio Brief 1

Synthesis List - Study Task 8

 

I have completed my synthesis list for each step saying what I did, how/ why I did it and what I found as it said on the study task. From what I read on the study task it sounds like this should for the basis of my essay. However, on the powerpoint it says I need to look at two specific works of art that I produced and evaluate their success/ content/ how they relate to my theme, compare them to an image in essay 2 and use 4 quotes from 3 of my sources. This has baffled me and I now have no idea how to structure my essay. Is the whole essay just me talking about two specific images and how my research lead to me creating them instead of talking about my research in order of how I did it? Also It says not to speak in the first person. I'm not sure how to do this if I'm discussing work that I created. Do I just refer to me as they or if its an image analysis I guess I could be like this stemmed from this research (rather then I did this research).

I am going to post this query on the group chat.

***(forgot to put in) - RATIONALE. This helped me to re define what I was doing and helped to get my intensions straight in my head. Before writing it I was in a phase of just producing lots of work and not stopping to think and reflect upon what I was doing. I stuck perfectly to the intensions in my rational. I think that this was because I was very clear on what I wanted to achieve and I was already quite close to the end of my journal.

My two images for the analysis:

The first image would be interesting because it is was one of my initial drawings based on my essay themes which directly lead me to explore this idea of mass production and the one off. It also visually relates well to 'Campbell's Soup Cans'.

The second image would work well because it would allow me to this desire for authenticity and its value. As well as weather or not this can be technologically simulated. This would work well because it would allow me to easily link it back to my original concept of status and what is desirable.

I definitely want to discuss the third image because it is one of the final images of my book and it represents what all of my research lead to. It allow me to discuss my 30 page mountain series and my findings.

Cop Journal - Repeated mountain

WHOOP WHOPP MY JOURNAL IS OFFICIALLY FINISHEDD!!!

What ideas was I exploring?

• I am looking into what separates commercial art from fine art and I came up with mass production/focus on communication v.s. the one off/ artists touch; form for forms sake. I am continuing this exploration into how the different art forms are valued differently and the relationship between value and status. I am looking specifically into the role that authenticity plays in how art is valued and this idea of the one off. I used a photograph which I took of a mountain, which looks quite like clip art - a very reproducible image and looked at how far I had to push it to make it one off. 

What Works well?

• I thought that the images (second to last), where I allowed chance to make the marks are really interesting. Here, I printed the photograph onto newsprint, so that the ink wouldn't dry properly and left it in my bag for a couple days. This was interesting because although the images are now one offs, there is no sense of the hand of the maker - key to the valuation of art. 
• I also think that the mono prints are interesting because as much as I tried I could never get the same image twice, even though I was tracing the photograph. All of the results are truly one off. I love also the delicacy of the line in contrast to the fuzzy misprinted ink. I would love to work with it again. I think that with some practice I could create some really interesting results. I would also like to try working with the oil based inks in the print room (I had lots of problems with the dying time of water based ink).
• I am so glad that I didn't just stick to using mono print as I think that each of the different uses of media make you think about my concept in a slightly different way.
• I was very tempted to add text to some of my images but I am so glad that I didn't. I think that the images speak well on their own and my concept is communicated clearly. I also like the repetition of the layout across the many pages. Adding text would have disrupted this.

What doesn't work so well?

• I think that I could have chosen a better image to work from. I struggled to create depth within this image because of where lights and darks lay - I did not like the big white mountain at the front. I think that maybe if I had chosen a more simplistic image (maybe of a single mountain?) I could have been more experimental with what media I used. I wanted to play with leggo and food and other three dimensional media but there was just too much going on.
• I think that I could have done more mono printing (I wish that I had left more space). I really like how they look as a series and I think that there was a lot more room for experimentation with this media. I could have tried using different drawing tools, paper, line/tone etc. 

How am I going to move forward?

• Now that I have finally finished my book I need to start thinking about who all of my ideas link together and how this related back to my initial quote. Eesshh - maybe do some mind mapping?

Study Task 7 - Rationale

• What is your theme?
• How are you exploring it visually (methodology)?
• Why are you doing it this way?
• Materials?

I begun by looking into weather or not the artist has status and their place within society, which evolved into looking at weather fine art or commercial art has more status in society. I am currently visually exploring what separates the two art forms, causing them to be valued differently and the relationship between value and status. I am specifically looking into the transition between the mass produced and the one off by taking mass produced images and working into them, as well as redrawing them to make them one off. I am interested in weather authenticity is proportional to value as well as this concept of the artist's touch and its effect on value. I am currently using mainly collage and photoshop to visually translate my ideas but I would like to use a much wider range of media. I like the series drawings where I have taken a mass produced image and looked at how far I need to push it to make it one off. For the last 32 pages of my book I would like to push this exploration further by taking a single image and repeatedly retranslating it across many different media.

Visual Journal - Transcription Research

Goya's painting 'The Third of May' (1814) is an iconic war painting, originally created to represent slaughter and sacrifice of the Spanish for victory. It had been transcribed and reinterpreted by countless artists, who have in effect altered its meaning.

Here, Picasso reimagines the image - to represent the South Korean/ American aggressors killing the innocent in the Sinchon Massacre. He emphasises the aggressors' lack of emotion by making them look like machines or robots. - the image has been reimagined by lots of artist in history to represent different times of conflict.

 

 



The imagee also continues to be remade across lots of different media - in paint, leggo etc. In doing so, it has essentially lost its original meaning. It is essentially just its aesthetic qualities that have been transcribed.

 

I feel like the same sort of thing has happened with the photograph of Che Guevara but through mass production. It has been remade and remade as a print. You see it everywhere now and everyone would recognise it but not necessarily know who it is or that it that it is an image that represents revolution.

The image's aesthetic has also been adopted by pop stars in contemporary culture. This transcription has also lead to a loss of meaning.

Through transcribing these images, all of these artists have altered their meaning and therefore their status. Even though through transcribing my image (using lots of different media) I am doing something slightly different, I am still interested in how the transcription alters an image's function and therefore its status. 

Visual Journal - Tutorial Feedback

What feedback did I receive?

• my group really liked my series drawings and this turning of a gimmicky image into something one off and more personal. They thought that the evolution of a single image across a couple of pages worked well. 

• They agreed that the one off amongst a grid of mass produced images idea had been exhausted but they thought that I had found an interesting way of working that I should stick to. They suggested just taking one of my images and spending the last 30 pages of my sketchbook making as many versions of it as possible. They suggested using mono print because it is quick and impossible to get the same image twice. 

• They also suggested that I look into famous images, which have been transcribed. i.e. the Che Guvara image and the 'Third of May' painting

How am I going to move forward?

• I am going to start by researching the suggested images and looking into how they are transcribed. 

• I think that taking one image and exhaustively remaking it is a really interesting concept and I like the way in which it will allow me to utilise the space in my sketchbook. It will really emphasise this idea of the one off as well as allowing me to explore how far you need to push an image for it to be original and one off. However, I would like to use lots of media to do this rather than just mono print - to see how each of the different media have a different effect it and its status. 

Media to try:
- Digita manipulation - vecors, painting, pop art effect, oil paint filter
- Ripping up, collaging original image, drawing into photo
- Analogue media - resist, papercut, pastels, paint, pencil, charcoal, thinners
- 3D - food - sugar?, leggo, plasticine
- Monoprint - Line as well as shape and colour

Visual Journal - Where am I at

What ideas have I been exploring?

• I looked into the filters on photoshop (i.e. oil paint) that electronically simulate a hand made process. I was looking at weather using one of these truly makes an image one off as well as people's attempt to make mass produced products have a one off, authentic feel. Is this because one off things feel more valuable? I wanted to look at the images you see in places like Wilko where prints have a canvas texture printed onto them but I couldn't find any.

• I followed the advice from my last crit and started playing around with mass produced commercial images. I used my own images to keep this project personal but I chose the a couple that looked like they could be clip art. I.e. a posed one of my friends/ over photographed tourist destinations like Angkor Wot and The Camera in Oxford. I think that the mountains look particularly like clip art (colours etc.). I started playing around with cutting and ripping up the photos as well as drawing into them to make them one off then presenting them next to one another. In doing so I was continuing to look at this question of what separates fine art from commercial art - the one off and the mass produced/ the artist's touch. I was also looking at mass produced images as a pieces artwork that anyone can own and wether turning them into one offs somehow made them more authentic. In separating the two I was also trying to raise the question of which has more status.

• I also went on to create some series of images that showed a progression from a photograph to a one off drawing through manipulating the photograph then drawing from it (to reflect the same concept). 

• I also tried laying out the one off image amongst all the mass produced images in the same grid format that I used earlier in my journal to more clearly illustrate this idea of the one off amongst the mass produced. 

What works, doesn't work?

• I think that the photo to drawing series' definitely reflect my concept better than the ones where I have two images on each page because they show a progression. I also like the way in which they use the journal space - spreading across multiple pages rather than using them individually.

• I think that my way of representing the one off amongst the many mass produced works really well visually and I also like how it is spread across multiple pages. I like the sense of intense repetition that it gives my sketchbook (to represent mass production). However, I think that I have now fully exhausted this idea and I now need to move on to something else. 

• I know that it is all part of my concept but I hate working with such gimmicky gross images - it makes me feel like I'm producing bad work because it's not aesthetically pleasing. I need to remember that it's all about visually representing a concept in an interesting way, not creating pretty pictures. Although it may be interesting to turn these clip art images into something beautiful??

How am I going to move forward?

• I think that I am onto an interesting concept and I like how much It has been distilled since the beginning of my journal. However, I don't really know how to move forward because I have visually represent my idea as I wanted to and I now feel like I have slightly run out of ideas. Have I already exhausted my concept? - Book one on one tutorial Thursday 

• It may be interesting to add text to some of my pages - to more explicitly raise questions and highlight what I have discovered on each page. I could use letrasets for this?

Modernity and Modernism lecture 1

• John Ruskin (1890-1900)

- art historian wrote about weather the works of modernism was better than classical writings 

-anti modernist - thought modernism had lost something essential 

-to him modern meant of their time (isn't this what contemporary means??)

• Paris 1900s

-original centre of modernity (before it was replaced by NYC in the 50s)

-Cities starting to form at the time - everyone squashed together but none really knows each other - shift from village life (alienation) - urbanisation 

-Humans shifting rules of nature - high speed travel - electric lighting (can control dun rise and sun set) - more confusing and dizzying 

-Secularisation happening at the time (turning away from religion toward reason)

-Impulsive sweeping away the old and bringing the new - i.e. the eiffel tower (giant iron structure - rep industry)

-Cities becoming the epicentre go life!!

• Haussman 1850s

-Employed to redesign the streets of Paris - i.e. The Grand Boulevard 

-Moved 'dangerous' things to the outskirts so that the centre is gentrified causing a split between the classes - upper in centre

• Psychology coming in to being

-Starting to study the brain and the effect of the modern world on it

• This social alienation and trappings of modern life is represented in lots of paintings - i.e. by Seurat- people appear like faceless robots painted in a mechanical anti - expressive way (pointillism)

Modernism is an attempt to distill all of these ideas and rapid developments visually - not just describing it but describing the experience of it -A PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT (making things better) - modernism is a range of styles that sprang from modernity 

• The advent of photography threatens art

-starts to become more about psychology - slowly more abstract and about deconstruction - moves in a new direction 

Colour Theory (Part 2)

Subjective Colour

Spectral colour is not a physical thing. It is evoked by a single wavelength (when it is reflected off a surface).

Chromatic Value = hue + tone = saturation

Johannes Itten came up with a series of 7 contrasts (describe problems we can face when working with colour) (cumulative contrasts):

1. Contrast of Tone - Monochromatic - differentiation (the purest form of this is our rods working out if something is light or dark)
2. Contrast of Hue - Not just if it is light or dark but what colour it is - what colour you recognise a set of wavelengths as (cone cells) - some colours jump forward more than others because of their hue (i.e. yellow comes forward on black and goes back on white)
3. Contrast in Saturation - how much hue a colour has (how bright a colour is)
4. Contrast of Extension - the amount of a certain colour on a colour fiend and how that reacts with the rest of the colour.. ?? - optical balance (balancing colour and using it as a device to draw focus to certain elements of the image - i.e making focus light bright colour in a pool of dark colours so it comes forward
5. Contrast of Temperature - the psychologically warmer colours - reds, orange. cooler colours - blues and greens. (when you look at cold to warm swatches optical mixing happens. - gradients appear that don't exist
6. Complementary Contrast - formed by sitting complementaries next to each other - make each other appear brighter - becomes really difficult to look at because it is so bright
7. Simultaneous Contrast - when all of these things are happening - when one colour changes how another looks - huge contrast - both are impossible to look at. 

Before this lecture I thought that complementaries looked really good together and I have now learned that they are unharmonious and just difficult to look at together. The only way to use them harmoniously is if they are muted versions of the primaries or if one is just an accent colour.

Colour Theory (part 1) Lecture

• Colour is infinite and dependent on whats around it (effects how we see colour)

• Spectral colour is a single wavelength in the visible spectrum (we see some wavelengths as the same - same colour)

• All light is made up of all the colours vibrating at different wavelengths

• We see colour when white light reflects off a surface (separates into colours)

• A white surface reflects lights (takes on colour of light). A black surface absorbs light (doesn’t take on colour properties of light - remains black) - blue paper plus red light = purple

• The sky has no colour- perceive it as blue because of the reflection of white light off all the particle

• At the back of the retina in the eye = rods - pick up black and white info / cones pick up colour (different types pick up different colours)

• A combination of red orange and green wavelengths of light make us see yellow. Does yellow actually exist?

• The only colours that we actually see are red green and blue - others are combinations

• How do you know that what you perceive as red is the same as what the person next to you sees as red? 

• Josef Albes and Johannes Itten - wrote theories about colour - studied principles (thought it was key to being a practitioner) - maybe checkout their books - Colour and Colour Studies

• Red, blue, yellow - primaries. mix two to make secondaries (i.e. red plus yellow = orange)

• Complementaries - chromatic opposites (i.e. blue and orange, green and red, yellow and purple)

• Mix complementaries (all three primaries) and you get a neutral (brown or grey depending on levels of each colour) - add white to this and you get a grey (optically cancelling out each others wavelengths)

• So basically colour of light is different from colour of media..

• Light colour mode - red, green, blue (RGB mode on a screen) - additive (white on a screen is made by mixing all primaries) 

• Media colour mode - cyan, magenta, yellow, black (CMYK in physical pigment) - subtractive

• The primaries for one colour mode provide the secondaries for another - based on the same optical principles

• Chromatic value (colour) = hue + tone = saturation

• Tonal value is based on a colour's luminance (how much light it reflects) - as you mix more pigments into it it reflects less light 

• Tint = how much white you add to something (not becoming brighter but you are adding more light to it)

• Saturation - how pure a colour is - change its tint or tone to make it less saturated 

Overall, today's colour theory lecture was not particularly helpful to me because it was all stuff that I have already learnt in my History of Art, Biology and Painting alevels. However, it did bring things together nicely. One thing that I didn't already know was how the colours mixed in CMYK mode. This is something that I have always wondered. 

Finalised Essay Draft - Study Task 3

 

 

 

 

Went went well?

• I found giving each image a succinct, detailed description easy because I had to do it a lot in history of art at school. I think that this is rally important to just give a sense of each of the works before I went on to analyse them.
• I also think that I have used I good selection of images to analyse. I think that the Pop Art example works really well to both tie the other works together and challenge the opinions of the writers. 

What challenges did I face and what could I have done better?

• I struggled to tie my three image analyses together and ended up analysing them separately. This was because if I were to analyse them together I wasn't sure where to put the descriptions of each of the works. i couldn't put them all at the beginning. I was going to try to rearrange the essay but it just became to confusing with the references, so I have just left it and am going to wait for feedback.
• I was really unsure about in text citations and where they are necessary. I have put them in for all of the writers but I wan't sure if I needed them for factual information about the images. I am also going to wait for feedback on this because it is too late to ask. 
• Lastly, I think that I could have spoken about some of my writers, like Fearon and Read more. I think that I maybe put too much focus on Brody because his opinions allowed me to raise the most interesting points about my images. Maybe I could have found another writer?

Visual Journal and Powerpoint Feedback - Study Task 6

 

It's so annoying my ideas were all so clear in my head but the second that I walked into cop I got confused and couldn't express them clearly at all! Why does this always happen? It makes it really difficult to get good feedback.

What feedback am I going to use to push my ideas forward?

• It was suggested that I really look into what separates fine art from commercial art maybe play around with blurring the distinction between the two. Everyone thought that this was a more interesting route than the simple exploration of ways of representing status. 

• The images, where I looked at reproduction appealed to everyone in my group (the reproduced and the one off being something which quite distinctly separates the two areas).They suggested that I try taking a photograph (my own or commercial), rip it up, collage it, then try and redraw it to see what happens (moving from something commercial to something one off). They also suggested drawing into a piece of commercial art and to look at the reproduced pictures in Wilko, which have the texture of a canvas printed on them. Lastly they suggested looking at mass produced images and objects, which are expensive and collectable. 

I think that all of these are interesting ideas and they have really helped me get out of the rut that I was stuck in. I did really want to try to move away from collage and using appropriated imagery, to using more simplistic shapes of my own. However, at the moment I'm not sure where to take that, so I am going to complete my 30 pages following my feedback before reevaluating.

Powerpoint Presentation - Study Task 5

I actually found creating this power point really useful. It really helped me to draw all of my research together and to see how everything links. Before, everything was all quite bitty.

http://issuu.com/indiapenny/docs/indie_powerpoint_presentation

Image analysis - Study Task 3

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Eyes of Someone Living - Damien Hirst (1991)

• 13 ft tiger shark, suspended in formaldyhyde in steel glass vitrine - divided into three lengthways cubes
• Commissioned by Charles Saatchi for YBA1 exhibition
• Example of contemporary conceptual fine art
• Shark taken out of original setting - illusion of life (swimming through clear water)
• Initial shock factor - intended (like most YBA work) - 'real enough to frighten you' (Tate)
• Death slowly decaying in tank of formaldehyde
• Shark replaced in 1993 because it was decaying
• Looking at the theme of death and decay - its inevitability - mortality - we are subject to degeneration over time
• Not original artwork - constructed by Hirst's team (not himself) - concept is taking precedence over crafting - artist's tough
• Conceptual element, can't be understood easily by everyday viewer - Brody
• Does it lack intellectual esteem? Can anyone do it - Fearon - 'But you didn't' - wiki
• Bought by Steven A Chen for lots - 12 mil?? value = status? 

Barack Obama 'Hope' poster - Shepherd Fairey (2008)

• Stencil portrait of Obama - front on, head tilted up to left - we look up at him 
• Face = block colours - red, blues, beige
• Below is the word HOPE - bold blue capital lettering - stretches across whole image
• Created independently by Shepherd - distributed on street (290 printed copies, produced in a single day) - also digitally
• cheap cheap cheap - doesn't need a commission - anyone can create art like this - don't need to be hand picked - does this affect quality of dome art produced ? - Swagner / Langer
• Lost copyright court case in 2009 - lied about which photo he used - community service plus 25 grand
• Represents Obama's qualities - support for occupy movement - stand against imbalance in over and helping the average American - change/ a step in the right direction 
• approved by presidential campaign in 2008 - became widely recognised as symbol of Obama campaign - lots of imitations (some commissioned by campaign)
• Obama as hope for the future - a push in the right direction
• The message of this image is explicitly obvious at first glance - focus on visual communication -immediate
• High impact and spread far through mass production - widely understood 
• Does this obviousness make this image 2D? - Brody

Campbell's Soup Cans - Andy Warhol (1962)

• 32 separate canvases - 50x40 cm each. 
• Exhibit a can - floating in white space of canvas - focus on the label - silk screen print and hand painting (to individualise each can?) 
• Different flavours (32 on offer at time)
• Flat, graphic, lack of modelling (only small reflection on top) - like mechanically reproduced (also repression) - ref to world of industry and commerce
• Appropriated image - not Warhol's original artwork
• Want to 'be a machine' - lightly challenging world of commerce and mass production by drawing our attention to its characteristics - not offering comment - think for selves - act of control?? Glenn, wiki
• Obvious unlike most fine art - no deep meaning (Broudy) - understood by everyday viewer - status?? or two dimensionality 
• Pricing - jump from mass produced commodity to ££££ - through recontextualisation - what has changed? same aesthetic. Maybe aim of work? from something 2D to something that challenges the 2D thing - still 2D?
• Swanger - shift from non art to art
• Why does Warhol have more status than the creator of the original soup label? Simply copying? - Read