#avt 180

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Response to Oswald Andre’s Cannibalist Manifesto

Andre’s argues that Europe’s success is due to it’s appropriation of of Brazilian culture. He argues that all of the revolutions and ideological reformations that were occurring in Europe at the time were due to European imperialism and colonization. He is likening cannibalism to imperialism in that European society consumes all other societies and cultures, however, he argues that if we are to live in a cannibalistic society then it needs to be equal. He argues that if we are to live in a man eat man world then the colonial cultures should be able to benefit from European imperialist the same way the europeans were benefitting from the colonies. 

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Reader Response for Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin.

  What I found to be the most significant point in this article was the argument posed about the burden of originality in a piece of art work, and how because that burden has since shifted due to the advent of photography the context in which we’ve always placed art has also shifted. I agree that art should be less about the process and more about the social relationships between the piece and it’s audience, as well as about the social relations it depicts and what it has to say about society. 

Reading about the history of printing and the impact it has had on Art was also extremely interesting, as it highlighted how much the art world had already changed before the advent of digital technology. I’d never realized that Art actually has a history in technology, to my mind Art had stayed mostly non-tech form of creative expression until the advent of the digital age. I didn’t realize that when photography was first developed it entered through the art world, I thought artist didn’t start using photography till much recently. It was fascinating to read about how far back it really travels. 

It was also interesting that much of the tech-in-art conflict we’re dealing with in modern art spaces has been on going for at least the past two centuries, I hadn’t realized that the argument was so old. 

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Response to Defining New Media Art -Mark Tribe

          Specifically what stuck out to me about this piece was how surreal the descriptions for new media art felt. It was strange reading about modes and means that we just accept to be inherent to our existence today, in a way that presented them as the new innovations that they are. What really struck a chord with me, though, was when Tribe mentioned the fact that ‘94 was the year that the internet moved from being just a thing for “computer enthusiast” to being a household name. The reason this stood out to me was mostly the timing...I was born in ‘95. My entire life, the internet has been a household concept, so much so that his use of the phrase “computer enthusiast” actually made me laugh. It was even more amusing to read about New Media Artist exploring “identity” as what Tribe was describing was essentially a role-play blog. It was interesting to read about what I considered to be the norm in terms of the unfamiliar. Strange as it was to hear about a fandom-role-play blog referred to as a piece of New Media Art. Although I suppose essentially it fits the wide ever-changing definition of New Media Art. 

       The section on Hacking also stood out to me particularly the argument that “hackers were more like artist than criminals” which was a extremely interesting take that I had never heard before. The description of hackers and their own personal code of ethics brought to mind recollections of “Robin Hood” and his “Merry Men.” Which argument simultaneously presented the perspective of how far reaching and dispersed the Internet Community really is, and how it has become a separate world unto itself which has it’s own criminals, artists, vigilantes, heroes, villains...I don’t know maybe my mind travelled down a far more romantic notion of what the internet actually is, but there’s no doubt that it is a global presence. I really enjoyed reading about how it came to be that way and the emergence of Art in this New Medium. I loved that New Media Art came about very much the same that the internet did, as a cult subculture finding its basis in emails and transcending real world boundaries such as nationalities to create an international movement.  

[robynmeier180]

Week 11: Mariko Mori in the series Pureland or Burning Desire explores a Relationship with Japanese popular culture, Elaborate on the use of parody by the artist.

In the series Pureland and Burning Desire, we can see that it is based off of Japanese pop-culture.  However, there is a bit of a parody aspect to this work that can be seen by what I think looks that bad special effects.  These works look a little bit "cheesy" due to the use of added figures.  See below:

Burning Desire

Pureland

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Week 10: Based on Martina’s work, develop the use of memory and narrative in her work.

In these images, we can see that there are real photos pasted on top of backgrounds that appear to have been fabricated.  By using these real images, but not real backgrounds, it may be signifying that these memories are indeed real, however, they may be remembered slightly differently than someone else.  These variations are demonstrated by the background.

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Week 9: In the series Dystopia, what do you think are the main concepts, in relation to the digital effect and process?

In this series, Dystopia, by Aziz and Cucher,  I think that the main concept is the way that digital art is effecting the subjects.  In the following images, we see that they are missing key features of their faces.  This may be a way of saying how the use of digital manipulation is, in a way, stripping the subject of his or her identity.

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Week 6: Could describe how Teun Hocks makes his photos? How may this be linked to the history of his country Holland?

Although I am not entirely sure how he creates his photos, it looks to me, that he paints, or somehow otherwise creates the backgrounds of his image, and then overlays a photograph of himself on it.  Below are my favorite from his website: