Speaking the Unspeakable

      I thought that this was a good article to comment on due to the fact it incorporates images to one of the most tragic events to ever happen in our nation. The comparison of images at the beginning of the article pertaining to Al Gore accepting Florida's votes and the sounds of 9/11 occurring on a black screen really describes how the mind works. I thought it was very intriguing to think about how we see something and automatically believe it, but when we are left to make the connection ourselves we find the real truth. The article goes on to mention how trauma is a delayed response. I can really relate to this in not only the 9/11 incident, but with things on a much smaller scale. Even pain work in a similar way. The shock your body experiences at the moment of extreme pain is nothing compared to the aftermath when your body realizes what has happened. One other thing that caught my attention in this article was the fact that many of movies today reference the 9/11 tragedy that I would have never guessed. Spider man, for example, is supposed to be closely related to the bravery of the people that were in the towers as well as the threat against New York City. This article for me was very interesting to read and very relatable all together.

Speaking the Unspeakable

I found the Randell reading to be incredibly well written and its approach well illustrated and interesting. In the beginning of the article, Randell discusses the “double start” used in the film “Fahrenheit 9/11,” and here she considers an interesting point: in this class we have mostly considered the meanings and reflections of photography and images, but here, we are led to think about how we respond not only to images, but to the absence of images. I feel that this is an interesting and important approach to consider in a study of photography. An example of the absence of images that was discussed in the article and in class is the reporting of the Gulf War.

In both the Randell and the Campany articles, it seems that the authors are writing about a shift in the role of photography from being representational, serving as a sort of direct connection to and image of an event, to now being a medium through which we are encouraged to create the story from our own memory. This shift is, I would argue, a part of the current state of “image overload.” With an event like 9/11 which has been and continues to be imaged over and over, an absence of images or the “late photograph” makes the event personal, involving the viewer, in a way implicating them, to really think about and remember the events.

Speaking the Unspeakable

 As others have suggested, the Randall essay “Speaking the Unspeakable,” is particularly poignant in the wake of recent acts of terror which have been far too close to home. Randall’s notion that these films of terroristic events help in solidifying a sort of engrained societal remembrance that works along with yet separately from Moore’s non-collective approach is evident in my own collections of thoughts about these events. I think Randall is right in saying that these forces work in tandem, and the fact that films of this nature are produced after the majority of the media’s response has sounded down reflects ‘our’ attempts to remember. I specifically remember asking my dad about his reaction to the Vietnam War, and he recalled being sick the week the U.S. pulled-out, as a 12 year old, he remembers laying on his couch and watching helicopters leave the jungle. Growing up, I watched many WWII and Vietnam War films with my dad, of the hundred Randall points out, yet I’m sure my remembrance and his are entirely different. It seems that my dad’s (or anyone of his generation) reflect on every film instance of the Vietnam War with the personal baggage, the stuff Moore was trying to pull-out, so that their perception is in some ways heightened by the personal attachment they have to the event. It seems then, that while films about terror and trauma have the effect of solidifying the remembrance socially and recalling personal connections, their ultimate goal is to attempt to make the personal experiences of those who experienced it in some way a part of our (someone who doesn’t have a previous personal experience with the event) personal experience, and thus part of the collective memory (the engrained social remembrance), but also part of our consciousness so that it becomes as much ours as theirs. I don’t know if this has effectively been done in every film, in reference to my own experiences, in part because as a child I was not viewing these movies from a critical standpoint, meaning that many of the negatively portrayed veterans Randall points out may have shaped my conscious thought, however, my exposure as a child to similar things that my dad would have seen at a similar age, I think, helped align my closeness with the event in some ways, so that, perhaps our remembrances aren’t so different after all. 

Speaking the Unspeakable

Karen Randall's piece in Speaking the Unspeakable made a lot of points that I connect with. As we discussed earlier in the semester, photography was first used to preserve memories of loved ones & memories in general. This piece discusses that photography is not always necessary for our memories, especially horrific ones. As the article states about the "excess" coverage of 9/11, I can never forget the images of the buildings falling one by one that played so many times on every news station for what seemed like an eternity. Now, I don't need those images from news stations to remember what it looked like & what it felt like. Randall compares our minds to a television set, tuning into the terrible memories when we chose to or are reminded of them. It is ironic that we read this piece for next class with the tragedy of the bombings at the Boston marathon. Within hours I found myself no longer needing the television or the internet to remind me of what it looked & sounded like. No future hollywood movie or television reenactment can replace the real images that live in our minds of these type of horrors.

CGI in Films

In the Wells readings on digital imaging, the relationships between photography and computer generated images (CGI) was discussed as being virtual or hybrid images. Using the Landrover online advertisement as an example of this relationship, Lister describes the process of developing these kinds of hybrid images, and how CGI images had to be ‘dirtied down’ to “achieve a photo-realism.”

With that, I was reminded of another phenomenon in the realm of CGI and its incorporation into films. One may notice that in the animated films being released, the CGI is either very realistic or clearly animation. The CGI used in “Tron Legacy” to create the character CLU, a young Jeff Bridges, was so seamlessly incorporated, so realistic, that I didn’t even realize it was computer generated. Other films, such as “Up,” use CGI and incorporate it in such a way that it is clearly animation. Looking at the (CGI) fabric and buttons of the characters’ clothes, they are strikingly realistic; while the textures and materiality is incredibly rendered, the actual physicality of the characters is wholly unrealistic, with large, disproportionate heads, hands, and caricatured facial features. Though these two versions have resulted in positive responses, the middle ground of CGI in films has not met with such success. In the film “The Polar Express,” CGI was used, but was not made to be exactly realistic nor clearly animation and the result arguably led to its lesser success. Because of its “liminal” quality, the CGI in “The Polar Express” was uncomfortable to view, and thus received less positive responses, especially compared to those for “Tron Legacy” and “Up.”

Speaking the Unspeakable: Invisibility and Trauma after 9/11

Speaking the Unspeakable discusses how movies and television is a huge factor in major cultural events like September 11th and the Vietnam War. Randell asks why is television the best medium for sensitive or traumatic events but not movies or movie theaters. She talks about how television is often documentary and serves information while movies are entertainment and people go pay to see movies to be entertained.  Films about tragedies or historic events also tend to be tributes to the event while television news is based on the facts. 

Reading this article the same time as I am watching the news for the Boston explosions was very eerie. It brought back a lot of memories for me, like Randell discusses in her article is an aspect that television news carries in events like this. With relation to 9/11 and what is going on just today, television is so crucial and vital for gaining information in times like this and it is not a time for entertainment or Hollywood drama, but facts and updates that is going on now. 

Speaking the Unspeakable

I found Karen Randell’s section in Art in the Age of Terrorism, “Speaking the Unspeakable” to be extremely thought provoking. September 11, 2001 is a date that stands out in all of our minds- no matter where were were or what we were doing when the tragedy occurred, we have a distinct memory of the first time we heard what was going on in New York City that day. 

In Fahrenheit 9/11, rather than showing the traumatic images of the World Trade Center crumbling to the ground that circulated the media, only the sounds of the chaos are presented. Because we are not given an image to focus on, we rely upon our own personal memories to fill the visual gap we are given. In this sense, absence is presence. It is a concept that we have visited a few times this semester- even though what we see is extremely important, what we don’t see is also something that should always be considered. In the case of this film, we are made to call upon our own memories because our own memories of this event are clearer than any image that can be presented to us. It is especially effective given the traumatic experience at hand; as mentioned in the article every person, no matter age or location, has a memory of 9/11/01.

Reading Racial Fetishism

I find it extremely interesting how Kobena Mercer had changing perspectives of on racial fetishism, and therefore felt compelled to write a second amendment to the first part of his article. One point that stood out to me in the second part of his article is that different readers make different readings. I think that this is a universal meaning that can be applied to photography of all genres, but is especially true when it comes to gender roles. In that section of his article he discussed Mapplethorpe's statement "the black man is beautiful," which as Mercer notes could not possibly mean the same thing if it was said by a white or black women or man, or by someone who is straight or gay. Each person would attach a different relationship to the phrase.

In the first part of the article I find that the obsession with the black body is interesting because it is described as a point of envy that his hated and admired all at the same time. One page 178, Mercer discusses how black men were seen to be all brawn and no brains. Which in the case of sports makes them extremely idolized. I think that the reason that this idolization forms a type of competition between both white and black males, is because white males didn't want to desire to the black male. They wanted to over assert themselves to be better than them. The article even mentions how Mapplethorpe affirms his own identity as "the sovereign I/eye empowered with mastery over the object thinghood of the Other" (177). Stereotypes were also used to assert control/dominance over 'The Other.'

Reading Racial Fetishism

Mercer’s “Reading Racial Fetishism; Mapplethorpe” seems to reflect Owen’s “The Discourses of Others,” in their topic of the Gramsci termed “War of Position.” Where Owens illuminates that there are opposing sides to particular works, Mercer gives us his own personal opposing opinions to many of his interpretations of Mapplethorpe’s work. Mercer also points out that the outcome of a reading or a chosen position is a ‘choice,’ and thus one can end up on either end of the spectrum. I like when he points out the war on position’s “outcome is never guaranteed in advance one way or another,” because it has become increasingly evident in the post-modern work we have analyzed in class, that the work as a whole is more about presenting different positions, and bringing to light certain societal themes/constructs/problem, etcetera, and allowing the viewer their choice on how to ‘take’ the work. Mercer makes it evident that the ‘choice’ is often dictated not only by the reader’s baggage, but by an overarching social theme that can dictate ‘who’ the reader is. Mapplethorpe’s images here do elicit many social issues among race and sexuality, including fetishism, eroticism, empowerment, disempowerment, and moreover, ‘postcolonial subjectivity.’ These themes reflected in Mapplethorpe’s work, which as Mercer points out, are routed in the democratic revolutions of the 1960’s, seem to say something about our societies advancement, for although many of the images can be read as ‘pornographic,’ or ‘pejorative,’ they stand in for our societies increased willingness to look at all sides of an issue. 

Reading Racial Fetischism

It would be an understatement to say that I am not a fan of Mapplethorpe's The Black Book. Since the days of slavery black men have been characterized as hyper sexual beings. Male slaves were often describe as well endowed, perpetrators who were prone to violence. Although The Black Book was supposed to portray black men as they were in present times, it really felt like less about the men in the photographs & more about what (white) society thinks of black. The subjects of the photographs were basically reduced to their penises, which is often the punching of stereotypical jokes about black men. "Each image thus nourishes the racialized and sexualized fantasy of appropriating the Other's body to be penetrated & possessed by an all powerful desire,"to probe & explore an alien body." This quote in particular captures the exact feeling I have about Mapplethorpe's intentions with these photographs. To put it frankly they're very "hey look! A black guy naked! Look at his genitals!!!" rather than a portrait about strength, or courage or anything positive about the Other. It's almost like some kind of educational program for white people on black male sexuality or what they perceive as black male sexuality. The photographs seem to be tryin to humanize people who are already human. As referenced in this passage, the black male is almost envied by only in body. Their physical strength, characteristics etc. are the object of envy for white males but that's is all. Black men have been reduced to the physical, like women in the staggering amount of nude photos taken of them for the male gaze. Mapplethorpe's photographs also have a scientific documentary feel in some of them, the way they seem to focus on the skull as if it were being measured. Doctors and scientists would use supposed science and psychology to prove that black people are physically and mentally inferior to white people. As noted in the passage, there is also a photograph, Roedel Middleton, that can be likened to a mugshot. Black men are often the victims of racial profiling and also receive harsher sentences compared to their white counterparts. Although Mapplethorpe's photographs of black men have been hailed as some as a representation of black males of the present time, I find it to be another white representation of black culture.

Richard Prince Article

I'm sorry, but that is just absolutely ridiculous.
The line that stands out to me the most is "I never associated advertisements with having an author."
Seriously?
I'm just angry after reading that article. I can't believe that someone would just assume that you could copy someones work, literally "grain for grain" and it would be okay and you could sell it for millions of dollars. That is so not okay.
How did this even happen?
This is the problem that I have with a lot of art though. A problem that music has completely solved and that writing is avoiding at all costs.
The idea of the original idea. Music knows that stuff is going to get stolen. Writing calls it plagarism, and clearly, art is just floating around waiting for this crap to happen.
If someone took a picture of my art and it was in a museum I would be absolutely livid. There is NO way I would allow that to happen. And it's not to be said that advertising isn't still art, because it is.
If nothing else, it's intellectual property, and the only evidence that you would need to prove it, is that you actually DID do it first, which is obvious based on the responses of the artists and the nature of Prince's project in general.
The only way I could think to make this okay, is that if the artist of the original image was referenced in each piece, and the concept of the work was displaying advertisements as fine art and the difference in reaction between seeing it in a magazine and seeing it in a gallery. THAT is interesting. However, the way that Prince literally steals the image, is just wrong.

Performance of Great Gatsby in conjunction with CAG Gatsby in the Age of the 1% NEXT MONDAY:

http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2013/04/contemporary-art-galleries-revisit-gatsby-with-age-of-the-one-percent-exhibit/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+uconn-today+%28UConn+Today%29

Nan Goldin: The Other Side

In her photographs of drag queens, Goldin is  both glamorizing the transgender community and illuminating their struggle to achieve a sense of coherent identity in a society which promotes a dichotomized view of gender. I felt like her work normalizes a fluid gender identity and and as such perpetuates the postmodern notions inherent in feminist discourse that rejects notions of singular, apriori identity. Postmodern discourse emphasizes identity as socially constructed, and Goldin's depiction of the beauty and vitality of the transgendered community illustrates the beauty and freedom inherent in an ambiguous gender identity. Many of her photos convey a sense of confrontation through her choice to photograph them face on, which emphasizes a shock factor that illuminates the way contemporary society finds comfort in defining themselves in opposition to an "other". In her use of the term "euphoria" to replace "dysphoria". She illustrates how the term has inherently negative connotations and perpetuates their status as inferior beings. Visually she disrupts the same connotations by illustrating how they are the same as all other people. This is not my first experience with Nan Goldin's work, but every time I encounter it impressed by what she manages to do with her photography. Her celebration of a traditionally marginalized group not on frees them but criticizes the many social structures that have sub alternated them.

"The Discourse of Others"

Craig Owens in “The Discourse of Others: Feminists and Postmodernism,” discusses postmodernism as a period, per say, that attempts to upset the reassuring stability of the past. He states that “Not only does the postmodernist [art] work claim no such authority, it also actively seeks to undermine all such claims; hence, it’s generally deconstructive thrust.” Owens discusses how the mechanisms of postmodernism work to expose “system(s) of power that authorize certain representations while blocking, prohibiting or invalidating others,” and we can see immediately, the accentuation of ‘equality’ displayed in the description of the nude couple on the side of a space craft. As Owens points out, the image which supposedly makes the man and woman equal (as a result of disrupting the reassurance of male domination in the past), also manages to reassure male hegemony through the phallic reference of his raised arm. This example suggests that “postmodern feminist practice may question theory and not only aesthetic theory,” thus the implicit history of Western mankind is as valid in analyzing ‘the nude couple’ as its visual presence.  Owens furthers the notions that views of femininity are so tied to the past when he says that issues of gender are often “skirted,” and many feminist works have become, or appear to still show signs of the ‘male pejorative,’ through the overall theme, that despite postmodernisms characterization as the ‘complete indifference,’ what may at first come across as something feminist, may to another be the opposite, and thus it is our choice to perceive it in one way or the other.  This theme is evident also in Lisa Moore’s Sperm Counts: Overcome by Man's Most Precious Fluid, in the chapter “The Money Shot in Pornography and Prostitution,” where she analyses a growing trend for “money shots” in pornography, which she too has linked to ‘our’ male dominated past. The discrepancy in these films is whether the ‘act’ is one of male domination, or female pleasure, which emphasizes Owens argument that postmodern trends can be perceived in both lights, particularly by way of being feminist or non-feminist. Moore does, in the end of the chapter state her belief that the ‘act’ seems routed in male hegemony, but that on multiple occasions women report “liking it”, and even in pornographic films, they appear not to be submissive, but rather equal partners in the act, thus, postmodernisms attempts at breaking ties with the ‘stability of the past,’ is so routed in the past, that any image, or ‘act’ is subject to interpretation by choice.

Mercer - “Reading Racial Fetishism: The Photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe”

In “Reading Racial Fetishism: The Photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe,” Kobena Mercer explores the work of Robert Mapplethorpe. Mercer describes Mapplethorpe’s subject matter “gay, S/M ritual, lady bodybuilders, black men,” as representative of a “reworking of the old modernist tactic of “shock the bourgeoisie.” This subject matter, with a “vaguely transgressive quality…is given heightened allure by his evident mastery of photographic technology.”

Mercer begins to focus on the “photographs primary [representation of] a ‘look’.” A photographs ability to produce a ‘look,’ Mercer believes, in the case of Mapplethorpe’s Black Males, does not represent “the individual behind the lens, but as a cultural artifact that says something about certain ways in which white people “look” at black people and how in this way of looking, black male sexuality is perceived as something different, excessive, Other.”

This idea of the perception, by white people of black people, references earlier art historical representation in art of the “Other” or the orient during the 19^th century. Also, interestingly, the general representation of the other in this manner was often portrayed in a heightened sexual manner.

During the 19^th century, it was often through the gaze of the male artist the orient way depicted through the female nude. This representation of the female other often, unfairly, fabricated the orient as weak, and vulnerable in comparison to the powerful, and dominating west.

This representation through the guise of the male artist recalls to me the notion of the photograph as representative of the ‘look’. Mapplethorpe’s photograph, according to Mercer, function as a representation of the way in which white people sees black people, not necessarily how they truly are.

Nan Goldin

I enjoyed this passage mostly because it explained her work to me. I enjoy how it is about sexuality and gender but at the same time, not really. By that I mean of course the people in the photos are transexual, drag queens, etc. but it shows them as they are, real people in real life. Not everything is about their sexuality. As it has been noted she was the first photography to really photograph this community. I admire her courage not to photograph them, but the fact that so many of the people she knew died & yet she still managed to go on taking photographs. Although this seems like a natural thing to do , I can't imagine focusing on this community & having the ones I love die around me. A good quote from this introduction is "The pictures in this book are not of people suffering genre dysphoria but rather experiencing gender euphoria." Although they were living a hard life I appreciate her focus on the positive. Although focus on homophobia, the AIDS epidemic,etc.are all extremely important, it's nice to see a positive portrayal of the LGBTQ community.

Richard Prince

"I never associated advertisements with having an author.'' After reading this quote by Richard Prince, although I don't necessarily agree with it, I think I now understand his work better. Although as pointed out in the article that often "there's not a pixel, there's not a grain that's different," it's less about the photograph itself & more about the concept behind it. The Marlboro man has always stood for the white American dream& that's what Marlboro has been using to sell its cigarettes. Artists like RichardPrince who "appropriate" the work of others focus on the concept rather than "making" a piece. I think its easy to dismiss this kind of work because we have been taught that originality is key but I think there is something original about artists taking another's work and making it their own. For me personally, I probably would not be happy if someone "appropriated" my work & made hundred of thousands of dollars off of it & I know many others who wouldn't be either. Like Mr. Kantz said, I think there should be some recognition to the original "author" (whether you believe them to be or not). But I don't think we should limit artists to those who "create" their own art meaning are the original authors of the piece.

Nan Goldin

The article written by Nan Golden was wonderful.  I love how she describes how she came upon taking pictures of Queens.  She just found these people walking on the street and filmed them because she was ‘infatuated’ with them.  I feel that this is how a photographer should make their work.  An artist must find things they are drawn to, and should make art based on those things.  Nan Golden does just that.  She continues to photograph Queens and her other transgendered friends for many years, even though the Queen lifestyle wasn’t accepted in the 70s. Nan breaks down the walls of sexuality and intimacy in her images just by showing The Ballad of Sexual Dependency.

Although she never says it, I feel that the AIDS pandemic drives her to capture these people on film forever.  She never knows when a person might die because of the disease and taking their picture memorializes them.  Many of her models did in fact die of AIDS.  The impact it had on the gay community was great.  Using drugs and being self destructive lead to many people in the gay community to contract AIDS.  Nan mentions that some of her friends are now in recovery from drugs and alcoholism because of their past and the AIDS pandemic.

Nan Goldin: The Other Side

     I really enjoyed reading this passage after going over some of Nan Goldin's most famous work in Digital Media. It was specifically interesting to me because Goldin talk about her work in photography so calmly. Several of her closest friends died at a young age from AIDS or drug overdoses yet she shows little emotion in this passage about it. Her work is extremely powerful because of the way she photographed the queens she lived with, but emotionally it must have been hard to see her friends come and go. It was obvious in this passage that Nan did not live a simple and typical lifestyle. The fact that The Ballad of Sexual Dependency documented the type of lifestyle that Nan lived, makes it so personal and enhances the work. Even though Nan did not follow typical sexual orientation,she became close with others that had much in common. Nan talks as if the lifestyle her and her queens lived was nothing out of the ordinary, but to social standards it would have been a wild and unusual way to live, at the least. After seeing The Ballad of Sexual Dependency and reading about the process I can understand why the emotion and rebellion that was apparent in her photography became so popular.

The Subject as an Object

This chapter discusses the human body as an object of photography. Surprise, surprise, women were found as sexualized towards heterosexual men even in the Victorian age. Unfortunately, women's bodies are well accustomed to objectification.

"objectification is a term usually for the criticised advertising and publicity images as well as erotica for eroticising the female body in a way which turned women into mere objects for the male gaze."

Not only in photography, but in paintings as well, the gaze of a viewer (male) and the gaze of the object (the woman) is very similar.  The surveyed female will either watch herself be viewed through a mirror, or return the gaze to the viewer.  Without clothing, the female knows she is naked and bare to the elements, however she excepts the viewers gaze.  The woman has thus become an object for our view and nothing more.

Paintings of Venus is a perfect example of the female gaze.  Venus at her Mirror sees the viewer looking at her naked body, and she in return, gazes back through her mirror. She not only adores herself but then acknowledges our presence as viewing her as an object.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Diego_Velaquez,_Venus_at_Her_Mirror_(The_Rokeby_Venus).jpg

No only is there use of objectification, but also the representation of erotic views.  In another Venus painting, we see a naked woman purely depicted for sexual viewing pleasure. In Olympia, by Edouardo Manet, Venus returns the viewer's gaze with a straight forward gaze.  She acknowledges the presence of the viewer.  Subtle hints also tell us she is an erotic figure.  By being adorned in jewelry and shoes, she is not fully exposed, and has chosen to represent herself this way.  Also, the little black kitten at the bottom of her feet represents sexual desire and femininity.

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255-s01/courtesans/olympia.jpg

 In the cases of photography it is not the male gaze that objectifying the object (a woman) but her gaze as well that is seen as "doubly objectifying".