Monday, April 12, 2010

Task 6 - Exhibition Review


Write a critical review of one of the exhibitions in Leeds (500-1000 words).

Attempt to include information on-

Context- Gallery info & history, curatorial issues etc
A physical description of at least one work
Theoretical contextualization and analysis- linking to theoretical ideas and using quotes etc
Info about the artist(s) / designer(s)
A critique of the curatorial strengths and weaknesses of the show

Although self-proclaiming that it "...showcases the best in international sculpture", The Henry Moore Institutes' position as an exclusively sculpture orientated exhibition space is questionable. This is not because it lacks consistency in the work the curators choose to host, but rather the curators choose to regularly inspire debate over our interpretation of sculpture. Past guest artists’ like Thomas Schutte explored found objects as sculpture, and the space has been home to several exhibitions showcasing traditional wall-hung photography and paintings (‘Unfinished Business: Mark Wilsher’ and ‘Sculpture as Painting’), with sculpture acting as content. As much as this acts as a stimulant for debate, the more contemporary work is hosted with consideration of practicality within the limits of the space, and sculpture - perhaps more so than any other art form - requires a great deal of attention to the space it inhabits. In the current exhibition, Alan Johnston directly interprets the confines of the space, examining the beauty of its physical near-emptiness and the neutrality of modernist gallery spaces, and more widely modernist architecture as a whole. A collaborator with Johnston, Shinichi Ogawa spoke of their joint work - “Architecture must be freed from all styles or concepts and be neutral. Existing styles or concepts alone are not enough to produce architectural space. By reassembling architecture on an abstract level liberated from architectural concepts or vocabularies, space becomes all things yet nothing, thereby acquiring greater freedom.” (Ogawa, S. 1999). The suggestive forms that Johnston has penciled in the contours of the space lend their shape, size and impact to the structure of the Henry Moore Institute’s interior. As much as Johnston draws attention to his work, he draws attention to the lack of it – the exhibition space becomes an exhibit in itself.

In the exhibitions spaces smallest room, there is a greater presence of more physical artwork, in particular a two-piece set of scale models that look ready for minature modernist furniture, lighting and 1” tall residents. The models are raised on platforms, at just below eye level, the simplicity of the two architectural structures draw attention to modernist architectural philosophies – the utilization of space, the construct of buildings around the rigid framework of particular spaces and the neutrality of “Machines designed for living in”. These two works bring a greater sense of clarity to what Johnston’s work is about, although his wall-drawings are suggestive of neutrality and our relationship to a certain space, the scale models – lacking in any objects – force his audience to look past what the work lacks to the beauty of the architectural structural that surrounds the void. “My work explores spatial contexts and relations through drawing and architectural construction, reflecting on the spatial and tactual implications in architecture where perceptual notions are rendered as common factors in sight and touch.” (Johnston, A.)

Although the greatest reoccurrence within the exhibition is Johnston’s large-scale wall drawings, curators of such an exhibit must be aware of the subtlety of these works – and how easily attention is drawn away from them. Dotted amongst these works are smaller pieces, set in pairs, around A6 in size and form, and surrounded by transparent frames, protruding several centimetres from the wall. Their presence interrupts Johnston’s narrative between his work and the space, and our relationship with the architectural structure. The other aforementioned 3D works are separate from the larger pieces, existing in the smallest room within the space, and avoiding creating distraction from the more understated work. Awareness of the narrative of the work is evidenced in the curators’ choice not to include information panels with any of the works – creating a greater sense of neutrality through the lack of information and encouragement of our own interpretation.

Bibliography:

http://www.northernmirror.com/pdf/Johnston_Mies_Houston_Draw.pdf

http://www.rbge.org.uk/the-gardens/edinburgh/inverleith-house/archive-exhibitions/inverleith-house-archive-main-programme/alan-johnston-haus-wittgenstein-inverleith-house

http://www.eca.ac.uk/staff_profiles/view/prof-alan-johnston/

http://www.henry-moore.org/hmi/archive

http://www.henry-moore.org/hmi/research

Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Wire Season 5 and the hyperreal serial killer

Scene from the wire wherein Mayor of Baltimore Thomas Carcetti is made aware of the simulated deaths of a number of homeless men. Earlier in the series Detective McNulty tampers with several crime scenes to fabricate a hyperreal narrative to the deaths, most of which are unrelated and/or natural. The use of this simulation was what Baudrillard would call 'operational negativity' (the Police departments' budget had been recently cut by the mayor), using media tactics to create a series of deaths and draw attention to the necessity of well-funded policing. In this series a journalist for the Baltimore Sun, Scott Templeton, covers the homeless murders for the paper, wherein he manufactures a great deal of hyperreal stories to benefit himself as a journalist. My favourite, and most relevant line is Norman Wilson's (Mayor Carcetti's deputy campaign manager) "They manufactured an issue to get paid, we manufactured an issue to get you elected as governer. Everybody's getting what they need behind some.. make-believe."

Portfolio Task 4 - Annotation

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Charlie Brooker on Haiti



In the first part of this show, the Brooker looks at the medias' coverage of events in Haiti. What interested me the most, which is only a small segment of the report, is different governing bodies and medias use of the crisis for their benefit. Bill O'Reilly jumps at the chance to use other countries less generous economic benefits to Haiti as an opportunity to blow the American imperialist trumpet whilst Hugo Chavez is reported to have claimed the Haitian disaster was a result of an American "Earthquake inducing super-weapon".

This is incredibly relevant to the concept of hyperreal news reporting, wherein the narrative of a report is created in order to benefit a particular ideology.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Portfolio Task 3 (Essay Proposal Form)


Essay Title/Topic
  • Hyperreality, News Content and the Media.

Main issues addressed by argument

  • The impossibility of the apparent objectivity of news reporting
  • Affects of media ideology on the 'image' created by subjective news reporting
  • New media, and McLuhan's theory of the medium as the message, and how this has affected the 'image' created by news reporting
  • Media utilization of the 'value' of signs in the press and reporting

Visual Material


Theoretical Approach

  • Reality and Hyperreality

Specific Theorists and Writers

  • Jean Baudrillard
  • Roland Barthes
  • Marshall McLuhan
  • Ferdinand De Saussure
  • David Simon

Books/Articles already located

  • Baudrillard, J, (1983). Simulations. Translated From French by Paul Foss, Paul Patton and Philip Beckman. USA: Semiotext(e)
  • Baudrillard, J., (1991). The Gulf War Did Not Take Place. Translated from French by Paul Patton. Indiana University Press.
  • Barthes, R., (1977). Image Music Text. London: Fontana Press
  • Eldridge, J., (1995). Glasgow Media Group Reader, Volume 1: News Content, Language and Visuals. London: Routledge
  • McLuhan, M., (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
  • Alia, V., 2004. Media Ethics and Social Change. Edinburgh University Press.

Monday, December 14, 2009

On Popular Music (Task 2)

Theodor W. Adorno divides music into two seperate categories or 'spheres', the two forms he claims are standardized popular music and 'serious' music. The first part of his article focuses on the process of standardization and one of the characteristics of a consumer of popular culture in all forms - pseudo-individualization.
Standardization refers to the form and production of a song, wherein a sense of familiarity is constructed through pre-conceived reactions to popular music. The listener is expected to enjoy and consume certain songs with particular structures, and as a result the song is 'pre-digested' to suit this familiarity, "The composition hears for the listener."
The concept of pseudo-individualization is a product of Adorno's 'system of response mechanisms' which he claims are in stark contrast to the "...ideal of individuality in a free, liberal society." The consumer is part of a "collective experience" more than anything.
In the second part of the articles, Presentation of the Material, Adorno focuses branding, visual stimulus and plugging. Adorno uses the term plugging more broadly, in that he refers to the repetition of similar processes in production and song structures in pop music. He talks of the paradox in his theory of plugging; "To be plugged, a song hit must have at least one feature by which it can be distinguished from any other and yet possess the complete conventionality and triviality of all others." This, Adorno writes, can only be achieved by plugging outside the boundaries of the actual music, therefore an emphasis on the presentation of the music is required. The culture is therefore recognized by the listener as well as the conventional song structure, typical of any form of branding, a "...substitute for the lack of genuine individuality in the material."
This is part of overall consumption of popular culture, not just music. The theory of effortless entertainment inducing the consumer in a state of relaxation through reproduction of popular taste and opinion. Finally, Adorno claims that the forms in which popular culture could mainly be consumed at the time, movies and music, allure the consumer into a state of fantasy wherein they are made aware of the perfection of depicted individuals - forcing them to admit that they can never be what they consume; they "...have no part in happiness."



Skepta's 'Sunglasses at Night' is typical of the now heavily standardized song structure in which former grime artists have become accustomed to. The foundation of this trend was the level of popularity and consumption of Wiley's 'Wearing My Rolex', creating the formula for artists' to follow. Artists like the two mentioned, Lethal Bizzle, Tinchy Stryder and Chipmunk - when considered part of the sub-genre of grime - all typically worked with half-time 140bpm instrumentals of varying song structures. It's now an obvious convention to write songs that have a 4x4 kick drum, are around 130bpm and carry the structure of standardized pop music, pre-digested for the listeners consumption. This track, and in a wider sense the association of grime MC's with heavily standardized pop music, can also be attributed to pseudo-individualism - the consumer may buy into the association with grime as much as his/her response to the compositions.

Globalisation, Sustainability and The Media

- Hegemony of Western ideas
- Globalisation homogenous, unified culture.
- Capitalist definition of Globalisation: Free Market Economy
- Sovereignty of the nation-state, Accountability/control of forces and organizations, national Identity... suffer negative effects of globalisation
- Oligopolies dominate world media, ie. TimeWarner
- Cultural imperialism "if the 'global village' is run with a certain set of values then it would not be so much an integrated community as an assimilate one".
- Media power of the US - Americanized consumerism in societies that can ill afford it, drives consumer desires ie. 'Fair and Handsome' skin lightening cream
- Propaganda- Basic Filters; Ownership (ie. Rupert Murdoch owns much of Britains press and several broadcasting companies). Sourcing (ie. where news stories are chosen to be reported from). Funding (ie. advertising in press). Flak (ie. counter-campaigns, negative responses to news stories)
- Anti Ideologies domination of western ideas, demonising of non-western cultures. Mechanism- ideological overlay
- An Inconvenient Truth: Pseudo Science, manages to promote consumerism to help save the planet (ie. 'buy hybrid cars' and 'encourage everyone to watch this film')
- Competitive Enterprise Institute 'Flat earthers' claim global warming is a hoax
- Sustainability sustainable development; improving the quality of human life whilst living within the carrying capacity of the ecosystems.
- Greenwashing media ideology, to portray eco-friendly image / image of being sympathetic to environment. Ideology spinning.
- Victor Papanek 'Design for the Real World', Adbusters, OBEY.