Case Study: Landscape as Genre

This case study tracks, in part, the development of landscape as a genre and how the change of times corresponds with the changing definition of the landscape. What I found particularly interesting was how the definition and subject matter of a genre can be developed to foster the societal needs of the time. European and American landscape photography had a number of uses at its inception, including topographical mapping and for the aristocracy, a means of documenting success and status based on ones landholdings. As time wore on it has been used to capture industrial accomplishments, the grandeur and mystique of the west, and to make pointed political statements about the environment. These variety of uses depend on the inclusion or exclusion of images and elements. No matter how time progresses a photographer can always manage to capture a pastoral or natural landscape, but with the conscious inclusion of specific elements they have the power to transform the definition of the genre. Due to the large number of photographers with the seemingly endless amount of subjects one could capture, the genre of landscape, as Wells asserts, becomes less about uniformity and more about diversity. The genre is looked at in terms of how photographers are interpreting and using the environment around them to convey their message, largely because there are so many messages that could be sent.

Rashaad Newsome Experience

Rashaad Newsome Experience:

Last week during Rashaad Newsome’s presentation, he displayed a wide range of his work.  The multimedia talent that was displayed was very impressive and engaging.  His different work includes video, music video, sculpture, sound, performance art, collage, and photography.  Growing up in the Lower ninth ward, Newsome went to a Tulane to study Art History.  He also studied Film at Film Video Arts NYC as well as music production and programming at Harvestworks NYC. 

The first video he presented was The Conductor that glitches the movements of hands in major hip hop/rap videos together.  I really enjoyed this video and the way that the camera angle would switch with every beat.  The synchronicity of video to sound was powerful.  The hand movements went along with the movement of the camera as well.  He talked about how this led to an instillation where he had projected moving hands on three screens with an accompanying performance.  The performance includes prewritten and freestyle rapping.

Newsome states that hip-hip is now a pop culture, which inspires his collage, work.  The body of work references heraldry as well as the recreation of medieval ornaments.  Reworking intricate, antique frames with his urban hip-hop style.  With imagery consisting of cars, planes, helicopters, boats, sexualized women, and an array of jewelry.  Newsome also displayed some gilding work creating dialogue to speak to old renaissance art history.  He would take his frames to luxury body shops for them to painted with pearlescent paints.  The imagery was asthetically appealing to my eye.

 Newsomes King of Arms body of work includes rims of luxury vehicles in the customized antique frames.  Something that I found interesting was his dedication to research before/ during creating bodies of work.  I think this also plays into why UConn invited him to give a presentation because we have such a proud researching university.  He conducted interviews and did a lot of research on the language of the Bourke as well as the history of heraldry.             

The artwork displayed next really spoke to me because of my interest in the subject matter.  Voguing.  Voguing is a performing identity dance that stemmed from Harlem New York.  It currently referenced under the name of Vogue Fem.  Newsome explained there are five basic guidelines to this dance, use of hands, the catwalk, the spin dips, flirt performance, and duck walking.  Newsome has used technology to create art further out of this hyper stylized dance genre.  Using a computer that Newsome helped develop, he traces the movements of dance in order to generate bright colored imagery.  For each dancer he uses a different color and he is currently working to create three-dimensional work with the results.  He also displayed a live drawing with a performance of Eastern instruments in Asia.  The saxophone was the only exception to the eastern musical instruments.  This is what being a multimedia artist is all about.  The ability to take one project and display it through so many mediums is powerful and creative.  This gives a diverse range of sensations while staying focused on one topic. 

I am really glad that I went to this talk with Rashaad Newsome because his work speaks to the urban artist in me in a way that I have not explored yet.  While displaying his work, he was very calm and collective especially for how loud his art is.  Loud in the sense that there is a strong presence and passion of energy in what he does.  I believe every artist has the ability to be multimedia and in this day and age it has only become easier to do so.  By being a multimedia artist, you allow different viewers to relate to the work you are creating, as well as giving different lenses to one individual viewer.

Illuminations: Nancy Newhall

Blog Post to Illuminations by Nancy Newhall

Ansel Adams: The Eloquent Light

Ansel Adams is most known for his work in the national parks taking extremely clear images of the beautiful landscape the United States has to offer.  I have known of Ansel Adams work for a long time, but never really had gone into much of why he took the photographs he did, or what he wanted to say with them.  I always thought focused more on the formal elements but chose beautiful subjects.  I had always thought that he just wanted to achieve clarity through these places that couldn’t be captured without photography.  Through Nancy Newhall’s writing I have been enlightened to a different view of Adams’ work.  Adam’s himself had studied to become a concert pianist and he made an interesting connection between music and photography that I think is relatable to all people who are both gifted in music and in art.  He stated, “The negative is the score; the print is the performance.”  I am not at all musically inclined, but the parallel he draws is intriguing.  A final point he makes which made me realize I was interpreting his work all wrong.  Adams says, 

“Some photographers take reality as the sculptors take wood or stone and upon it impose the dominations of their own thought and spirit.  Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation.  A true photograph need not be explained, nor can be contained in words…my photographs are presented here as ends in themselves, images of the endless moments of the world.”  

I had always thought that Ansel Adams’ work was strictly formal and although his pieces have a focus of formal elements he captures a moment to preserve and show the beauty in it.  He doesn’t have any deeper meaning to it, and he doesn’t impose his views upon his work.  He creates the work to share the moment and the beauty.  Adams, to me, seems to think his work is a higher form of art since it preserves a moment and elevates it through his photography.  I think that although his work is beautiful, other works that say something about reality or change a viewer’s perception of it is still an art form that can be elevated as high as his work.  Especially because I am an illustrator and a visual storyteller I enjoy pieces that make me think differently or take formal elements to tell a story. 

Case Study: Migrant Mother - Nick Saccary

Nick Saccary 

In 1936, Dorothea Lange was assigned as a documentary photographer for a project called the Farm Security Administration. During this project, she shot a few photos of a mother and children one night. One of these photos, titled Migrant Mother, just happened to become the most reproduced photograph in history. The photo has made several noteworthy appearances over the years.

But why did this one image make it so far when several other photos were taken? What made "Migrant Mother" stand out from the rest. When examining Migrant Mother, it is apparent that the focus of the picture is the mother and children. The shot is tightly framed and there is nothing other than the family to view. This really brings it in to a personal level where you can practically feel the mothers' love for her children as well as her struggle to make ends meet. The FSA Project was originally started to gather information of the rural poor in response to the economic crisis in 1929. The photographers where employed to capture the destitution and distress brought on by the poor economy. However, it was argued that Lange's photograph gave the notion that the individual was too blame for their unfortunate situation rather than the systematic failure. I would argue against this however. The photo gives off a very uneasy   where I am left feeling sympathetic for the mother. Her children cling on to her with love while her eyes make me believe that she is doing everything in her power to support her beloved children.

Lange’s “Immigrant Mother” has also been commented on being one of the first documentary photographs to be displayed as aesthetically pleasing artwork as well. This is significant because when the photograph is displayed in a magazine or in the context of social conditions, the photograph is commonly interpreted along with the content that it is displayed with. In contrast, when the photo is displayed as a standalone work of art in a museum, gallery, or what have you, the photo becomes open to interpretation. The meaning of the photograph expands beyond what is written alongside the photograph. 
I believe that the only truthful way to view this photograph is seeing it by itself without any context. When viewed as a standalone piece, the photograph portrays a mother who is willing to go "and has already been through" to unthinkable lengths for the sake of her children. The photo is a beacon of hope for anyone struggling to make ends meet. 

Corn, Corn and more Corn

Omnivores dilemma - Corn

After reading the first section of Omnivores dilemma all I can think about is corn.  Corn has been eaten on this continent (Mexico) since before the Europeans colonized America.  What is different about it now is the amount that we are producing has skyrocketed.  Due to the opportunities that science brings into food, food scientists can now take the molecules of corn and make tremendous amounts of byproducts.  There are simple products that are made clear to us that there is corn in them such as: cornmeal, popcorn, corn on the cob, corn oil, cornstarch, corn syrup, corn cobs, and corn chips.  These are all easily relatable and traceable to corn because the name implies the usage of corn.  There are also many ingredients on the labels of processed food that are modified chemicals of corn.  Here is the list that Michael Pollan gives as a reference: modified or unmodified starch, glucose syrup and maltodextrin, crystalline fructose and ascorbic acid, lecithin and dextrose, lactic acid and lysine, maltose and high fructose corn syrup, MSG and polyols, carmel coloring, and xanthan gum.  So basically, when you read the back of a processed food item it is saying CORN CORN CORN CORN CORN and MORE CORN.  Pollan also goes on to say that out of the forty-five thousand items that are in our grocery stores, more than a quarter of them contain corn.  This is including non-food items such as cleaners, cosmetics, batteries, toothpaste and even the shine of magazines at the check out station.  Pollan digs deeper with the claim that even the produce section on a day with no corn for sale there is still plenty to be found.  The pesticides used to help grow the vegetables contain corn as well as the waxy shine the cucumbers have is all thanks to corn.   

            What concerns me is that this is nothing new.  Since I have been alive on this planet, these byproducts of corn have been around.  In the Midwest, people are proud of their corn and its abilities to transform but it seems to vanish once it reaches to consumer.  Where is the education for what is in our food?  Why do schools not teach kids about the truth of food at a young age to help with obesity and eating disorders?  The reason I don’t trust what is in corn is because it is not advertised.  Why hide the facts if there is nothing wrong with them?  One discussion I had about this is that the reason why it is hidden is because people would be scared if they knew the truth.  In which my response is that people would not have to be scared if the facts were present.  Hiding the truth is what is scary.  Why hide something if it’s not bad?

Digital Exhibitionism: The Age of Exposure

In Munar's essay the point that stuck out the most to me was the duality of reality that exists in the social media community. The main disparity, being between the fabricated life online and the one lived in reality, gives way to a number of other differences between the real and the perceived which are then fostered by the nature of social media sites. As discussed in the essay, its no secret that social media users curate a version of themselves to put forth online. These users are given the illusion that they have control over how they are perceived, by sharing their personal information they exhibit their private lives and broadcast to all who are watching, reading, or listening but other forces are also at work. Other users and the social media sites themselves have a hand in producing online identities. Other users are able to post content on and about their peers thus contributing to an individuals virtual personality. Commands generated by social media sites also prompt users to share certain information and effect how people conduct themselves online. As Munar cites in her essay, sites such as Facebook and Twitter will ask questions such as "Whats happening?" or "Whats on your mind?"thus priming people to share and potentially overshare that information. Through the use of informal language users in a sense interact with the website in a way they would with their peers, the sites are asking simple questions formatted the way one would talk to a friend. The lack of control could be damaging to users mainly because they are under the assumption that they are the ones solely curating their online identity, giving them a false sense of security in their ability to put forth their desired self.

Rashaad Newsome Response

            Rashaad Newsome’s artist talk was a video and audio sensory experience. His videos, performance pieces, sculptures, and collages blend high and low art cultures, and the result is a unique and intriguing combination of classical and contemporary. His show Heraldry, originally inspired by wrought iron grills in Paris, features large collages in which he uses hip-hop culture icons to construct both copies of and original coats of arms. In his later work, Pursuivant, these collages sit on beautiful, intricate patterned backgrounds, and ornate frames border them. Newsome spent a lot of time researching coats of arms in order to create his own in this work, and even became a pursuivant of arms.

            Something I noticed about Rashaad Newsome is that he cares very much about the research behind his work. When he creates a piece, he is able to speak eloquently about it and the meaning behind the subject that inspired it. In his series of work about the style of dance known as vogueing, he explained the two types of vogueing and where the dance originated. In this work, he collaborates with dancers and musicians to create video art. He tracks the coordinates of the dancers’ movements on a computer, and then transcribes these movements into line drawings. He is currently working on a piece in which these coordinates are transcribed three-dimensionally.

            My personal favorite piece Rashaad Newsome exhibited in his talk was a video series called The Conductor. In these music videos, Newsome hip-hop remixed the famous cantata Carmina Burana and set each of the six movements to edited hip-hop music videos. He only played three through six, but I was totally mesmerized. The bass echoed throughout the auditorium and the beats were complex but listenable. It sounded like a contemporary hip-hop track with an edgy high art flavor. The images that accompanied the music were choppy, quickly moving cuts of similar themes in rap and hip-hop videos, like hand gestures, gyrating female dancers, mouths and teeth, and hair flipping. It was confusing but spellbinding – I couldn’t stop watching. I even tried to find it online when I got home to listen to it again. It was hard to find, but I did eventually. It didn’t have the same effect played through my tiny laptop speakers, though.

            Overall, I really enjoyed Rashaad Newsome’s work. I am always interested in the combination of high and low art. Bridging that gap distorts the definition of these labels: what is the difference between high and low art if the two can be combined and interchanged? I also love how his work exposes the viewer to contemporary hip-hop culture through a new lens.

Sweet it is to Scan, Wells

A sentence that struck me as interesting and got me thinking while reading pages 117-165 of Wells’ Photography A  Critical Introduction was a quote that said personal photography typically  recorded “happy memories, but not the messy reality”. It is ironic that this medium that was believed to portray nothing but absolute truth is often very deceptive in the way it depicts its subjects. Through posed photography we are able to create illusions of setting, time, and emotion that may very well be false. For instance, wedding pictures are often taken several days before the ceremony, people in poverty dress up and hide their social status, people experiencing abuse and violence perk up and smile for the camera and the list goes on. The consciousness of the presence of a camera seems to drive people to put on a front and hide their true self, as to preserve a happiness that may not have existed. 

 However, Wells also briefly discusses how having portable cameras on cellphones has opened up another realm of personal photography which is not staged and exposes more private moments that one would not want the public to see, such as drunken photos. It astounds me how the general public’s attitude toward photography has changed over time, evolving from formal serious images taken while sitting and dressed up, to snapping a picture of ones friend while they throw up at a party. Do these images still have the same value when much thought and effort is put into one and the other is so spontaneous? Which one holds more truth? These questions lead me to another question of what the role of photography is in our lives today as it becomes more and more accessible. This generation’s deceptive photos come more commonly in the form of selfies put on social media. Either way, whether posing for a professional or taking a picture of ones face on ones cell phone, we tend to lie with our pictures if we are our own audience. 

Response To Digital Exhibitionism

In her paper “Digital Exhibitionism: The Age of Exposure” Ana Maria Munar explores the cultural genesis, use, and effects of social media and Web 2.0. Her argument is that “Web 2.0 has expanded the possibilities of digital creative production by individuals and enabled the digitalization of private life experiences.”

While social media and Web 2.0 are without a doubt the largest parts of today’s World Wide Web, I am often led to wonder whether or not this is for the best. As someone who enjoys and benefits from the use of social media and various Web 2.0 I feel that I have experience on both sides of this issue. Munar brings up a quote by Andrew Keen who states that Web 2.0 has created an “endless digital forest of mediocrity”.  As much as I, like many others, support the democratization of information, I can’t help but agree with Keen. As a student, it is frustrating to do research when most of the top results from any remotely specific search are from Web 2.0 services like Yahoo Answers or WikiHow. Perhaps we, as a culture, overestimated how nice it might be to have a “human” presence on the web. Of course, there is always the counter-point that perhaps I am not looking the right places. While academic databases do exist, they are difficult to access, often requiring a university-approved login or paid subscription.

Wikipedia appears to be one of few successful attempts at this democratization of information. By holding its users to certain standards for their submissions, the website retains an overall academic tone which is easily understood and followed back to more scholarly sources through a system of hyperlinked citations. It is a true testament to Wikipedia’s quality and variety of information that it usually the top result for almost any search. As much of a success story as Wikipedia is, it would be probably be unrealistic to hold other websites up to it for comparison. For example, should all users who upload videos to Youtube be held to higher standards of video quality and editing? While it would certainly create a better viewing experience, it may alienate many of the sites contributors.

With all of this in mind, I am not entirely sure where I stand on this issue. In many ways the issue is so large that it becomes difficult to take a stance at all.

Digital Exhibitionism Response

            It’s weird to read an article in an upper level art history class where you understand completely what is being said, and you knew some of it before the author even told you. That is how familiar and knowledgeable our society is regarding social media and technology. I don’t even have a Facebook or Twitter and I still know all about social media, showing just how dominating of a force it is in society today. But just because I don’t have a Facebook does not mean I do not support social media—I think social media is an excellent way to keep connected and express yourself! I only don’t have one because I know I would fall mostly under that “voyeur” and “lurker” category Munar talks about. I have nothing I want to share, really, but I would still be fascinated in seeing what my friends and family are doing. And no one wants to be a lurker, right?

            The funny thing is, even though I do not have a Facebook, Twitter, etc, I still have a virtual identity. We all do. I’m sure you’ve all tried Googling your names. When I Googled mine, school awards, pictures of my mother, my friend’s GooglePlus pictures, and my grandfather’s obituary came up. Also, I exist in countless Facebook photos on the profiles of my family and friends. I can’t even tell you the number of times one of my friends has said, “Michelle! You and your sister looked so cute last night!” I would also be confused at first, until I figured out that my sister had most likely posted about it. Even without any input of my own, I have a virtual identity being crafted for me.

            One thing I was surprised about though was the fact that Munar did not mention fake online profiles more, or even at all. Yes, social media can connect you to others and provide an outlet for expression, but it also provides that distance and that anonymity to be someone else, as well. With the recent trend of “catfishing,” it is not uncommon for people all around the world to create fake profiles and build relationships with others based on this false identity. To me, this is a big pitfall of social media, as it can be hurtful to relationships and create obsessive tendencies in the catfisher (we’ve all seen the MTV show!) However, I did appreciate how Munar split up these websites in a way I had never thought of before—profile websites, microblogs, review sites, and wikis. These days, a website is not just a website. There are many tiny little branches stemming off from the term, and those branches are only growing.