Joachim Schmid's talk was fascinating to me. He explained that in the beginning of his artist book making, he did not know of them as artist books- as though it were a 'thing'. No one had introduced them to him in school.
He felt that they should be cheap and accessible- his books were made with simple means.
He had clippings from the daily paper. At that time, the paper was type set manually and it was interesting to him that a person could spot little mistakes- evidence of human error.
Schmid was not interested in his books being limited edition- the more his books could be seen or shared, the better.
Joachim: Low Budget Economy --> Independence
He collected pictures that he found in the street for over 30 years and compiled the photos into an artist book.
I found his presentation of the book very unusual. The pages were not bound but presented each page individually; no connection with one page to another page. His intention with this was to break up the linearity within the book form. The pages were housed in a box. Joachim did not want the organization of the pages to be duplicated. With each version of the book, the pages were in a different order.
Patrons at the museum, where the books were shown, could purchase pages, post card size, and create their own order of the pages- their very own book.
He noted his experience with museum curators and the process that is involved with documenting the condition of artwork upon it's arrival to the museum and before it is placed in an installation. This is for insurance purposes and policy, despite Joachim insisting they save their time with his materials (because they were found objects with plenty of distress and blemishes), the museum had to do so. Joachim noted that the scratches etc. added another layer of information to each photo. Also, he found the notations and evaluation of condition humorous and felt inclined to keep the report due to the amount of time that a person had spent on it.
Joachim shared that he believes Printed Matter (printedmatter.org) in NYC to be the best address for artist books. He talked about his experience with publishers and the speed bumps that one can encounter when looking to get published, get a project funded, or share their art.
The internet has been a game changer. This enables image or work sharing without cost of print and can reach a much wider audience.
There are tools and sites for book makers. An individual can have their own shop, share work easily, and distribution of materials is much different now than before the internet.
He mentioned ABC (Artist Book Cooperative), an informal organization that supports artists.
Also, that there are new avenues to printing that are not through a publisher. Self publishing can be through LuLu or Blurb.
Joachim walked us through his books--
Pictures Found in the Street
A conceptual issue, not print quality in Joachim's opinion.
He saved articles and clippings from the period of his photograph collections- creating an 'alternate history'.
Other People's Photograph's 2008-2011
A shift from found objects, literally from the street, to 'found' photographs and trends on internet photo storage websites. These are public and anyone can view the uploaded images.
By perusing online photo hosting sites, such as Flickr, he observed trends in photos that people were sharing. He began to catalog those trends and new patterns in image making that were occurring.
In my opinion, this is a fascinating catalog of human behavior.
Also, it is interesting, again, how the internet plays a large role. Schmid could see what individuals in Japan were having for lunch as he checked the sites in the morning- the time difference and relation to rate that you could instantly view these images as they were posted online.
Groupings/Book Themes:
Self: "selfies", self taken photos of oneself
Flashing: pictures with flashes in selfie- characteristically the same
Another Self: pictures of one's feet
Shadow: selfies of indivisual's own shadow
Buddies: selfies with another indivudal(s) included
Hotel rooms,
Airports,
You are Here: people have to assure themselves of where they are
Art: he observed and collected multiples of the same shot of the Mona Lisa. A trend in how individuals are documenting their experience- a "proving I was there" purpose. It was also noted, observation of individuals and their interaction with art. Silliness next to a sculpture or standing next to a famous artwork.
Schmid believed he discovered that photography culture has been redefined by siting these trends.
There were so many photographs shared of a cup of coffee. We all know what a cup of coffee is and what is the significance of sharing this? Letting everyone know that you are drinking coffee. It's this notion that humanity wants to share itself. People want a connection and to not feel alone.
The series of selfies and the popularity, raises a question: Are we living in Narcissism Culture?
In another series, "Black Books", Schmid included the captions as titles for photo collections.
"I was bored."- he noted the most popular shots with that caption was of shoes; converse sneakers being the most popular.
"I thought it looked cool."
"Awesome Errors, Dreadful Glitches": people upload errored photographs just the same.
"But is this Art?": people comparing their own photographs to the likes of Ansel Adams, for example.
"I don't know why I did this.": but the individual shared the photo anyway!
Schmid discussed people's relationship to their photographs and the documenting of EVERYTHING to their memory. He shared many postings of heart wrenching advertisements of lost cameras. Individuals confuse pictures with memories. There is a fear that if the photographs are lost, so too will be the memories of their experiences.
He also shared how the Flickr project was rather exhausting. Schmid spent 10+ hours a day looking through strangers' photographs.
In 20011/20112, he finished a collection, "Bilderbuch" (picture book). The first books we are given as children are picture books. Before learning to read text, we follow a story through imagery.
Photographs without a caption or text creates a different context- or lack of context, for the observer to formulate their own. Prompting the question, "What am I looking at?"
He showed an example of this: a snap shot of a barber's chair. The particular shot of the chair was not of an obvious context. The characteristics were dark and ominous. It looked as though it could have been an electric chair, based on the presentation. This prompts a different emotional response from the observer- to believe that this is an electric chair, carries different associations than a barber's chair.
Schmid discussed the presentation of his books, breaking the linear mold of traditional book structure. As I mentioned before, some books were contained in boxes and their pages kept loose. When his books were shown, Schmid did not want them displayed behind glass. They were to be touched, engaged in, and experienced in an interactive way. Soiling of pages etc. was par for the course. The various arrangement of photographs in his presentation allowed for the photos themselves to interact and talk to each other in a different way.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Paper Lamp
This past fall, I constructed a lamp out of paper only (aside from electrical materials).
contsruction
illuminated in low lighting
illuminated in complete darkness
Saturday, May 10, 2014
#dangerousdust
Two anonymous Design students entertain themselves creating illustrative quotations in chalk.
Fantastic work!!
http://www.ccad.edu/blog/2013/12/who-is-dangerdust-an-exclusive/
http://www.viralnova.com/weekly-chalkboard-art/?utm_content=buffer0a6cd&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer#XyAUToOopkj2aoog.01
Fantastic work!!
http://www.ccad.edu/blog/2013/12/who-is-dangerdust-an-exclusive/
http://www.viralnova.com/weekly-chalkboard-art/?utm_content=buffer0a6cd&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer#XyAUToOopkj2aoog.01
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Alphonse Mucha; Brief Introduction
Alphonse Mucha (July 24, 1860-July 14, 1939), a Czech Art Nouveau painter, illustrator, and designer was best known for his distinct style.
"Mucha produced a flurry of paintings, posters, advertisements, and book illustrations, as well as designs for jewelry, carpets, wallpaper, and theatre sets in what was termed initially The Mucha Style but became known as Art Nouveau (French for "new art"). Mucha's works frequently featured beautiful young women in flowing, vaguely Neoclassical-looking robes, often surrounded by lush flowers which sometimes formed halos behind their heads. In contrast with contemporary poster makers he used pale pastel colors.........
The Art Nouveau style however, was one that Mucha attempted to disassociate himself from throughout his life; he always insisted that rather than maintaining any fashionable stylistic form, his paintings were entirely a product of himself and Czech art. He declared that art existed only to communicate a spiritual message, and nothing more; hence his frustration at the fame he gained by his commercial art, when he most wanted to concentrate on more artistic projects."
http://www.muchafoundation.org/gallery/browse-works
"Mucha produced a flurry of paintings, posters, advertisements, and book illustrations, as well as designs for jewelry, carpets, wallpaper, and theatre sets in what was termed initially The Mucha Style but became known as Art Nouveau (French for "new art"). Mucha's works frequently featured beautiful young women in flowing, vaguely Neoclassical-looking robes, often surrounded by lush flowers which sometimes formed halos behind their heads. In contrast with contemporary poster makers he used pale pastel colors.........
The Art Nouveau style however, was one that Mucha attempted to disassociate himself from throughout his life; he always insisted that rather than maintaining any fashionable stylistic form, his paintings were entirely a product of himself and Czech art. He declared that art existed only to communicate a spiritual message, and nothing more; hence his frustration at the fame he gained by his commercial art, when he most wanted to concentrate on more artistic projects."
http://www.muchafoundation.org/gallery/browse-works
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Masters of Illusion; Video - notes
This video, narrated by James Burke, uses computer graphics to illustrate linear perspective and other practices used by master artists in the Renaissance period to create three-dimensional space. The Renaissance movement began in Italy and lasted from roughly 1400 to the mid-1500s.
Linear Perspective: Linear perspective is a way of creating a convincing, perfect illusion of space on a flat or two-dimensional surface.
One Point Perspective: Parallel lines appear to recede in the distance and converge at a single point, the vanishing point.
Linear perspective opened great potential for artists to create illusion and add depth to their works. This tool was not only used in drawings or paintings but sculpture in the period as well to convey a feeling of vast space.
Artists and their practices in this video include:
Filippo Brunelleschi's (re)discovery of linear perspective in about 1420.
This shifted focus to the individual, the viewer, and their observation of the artwork from a fixed viewpoint and differs greatly from the multiple viewpoints as seen in medieval art.
Masaccio was the first painter to incorporate Brunelleschi's discovery in his art; the Holy Trinity 1427, Fresco, Santa Maria Novella, Florence.
Piero della Francesaca, a mathematician and artist, introduced systematic perspective.
Albrecht Durer, a German artist, created one of the earliest known examples of multiple vanishing point perspective.
Leonardo DaVinci's fascination of how the eye perceives led him to a series of experiments with the goal to understand the physiology of the eye itself. He theorized that light enters the eye. In the Renaissance period, artists paid much attention to how light and shadow played a huge role in creating a sense of depth.
Raphael utilizes light and shadows in his paintings, with a more dramatic manner than Da Vinci's subtle style.
Da Vinci discovers the Perspective of Disappearance aka Atmospheric Perspective. Foreground colors are warmer tones while background colors are often grays, blues, or cooler tones and has less contrast as it recedes. This creates depth by emulating the 'fog' in the atmosphere.
Da Vinci drew first known anamorphic or stretched artwork.
Hans Holbein created works using this method.
Andrea Mantegna known for exploring perspective and a creative use of point of view. He considers the viewer and the angle at which the observer views the work.
In the High Renaissance, an explosion of creativity, Michelangelo and Raphael broke architectural boundaries with their large scale works.
Linear Perspective: Linear perspective is a way of creating a convincing, perfect illusion of space on a flat or two-dimensional surface.
One Point Perspective: Parallel lines appear to recede in the distance and converge at a single point, the vanishing point.
Linear perspective opened great potential for artists to create illusion and add depth to their works. This tool was not only used in drawings or paintings but sculpture in the period as well to convey a feeling of vast space.
Artists and their practices in this video include:
Filippo Brunelleschi's (re)discovery of linear perspective in about 1420.
This shifted focus to the individual, the viewer, and their observation of the artwork from a fixed viewpoint and differs greatly from the multiple viewpoints as seen in medieval art.
Masaccio was the first painter to incorporate Brunelleschi's discovery in his art; the Holy Trinity 1427, Fresco, Santa Maria Novella, Florence.
Piero della Francesaca, a mathematician and artist, introduced systematic perspective.
Albrecht Durer, a German artist, created one of the earliest known examples of multiple vanishing point perspective.
Leonardo DaVinci's fascination of how the eye perceives led him to a series of experiments with the goal to understand the physiology of the eye itself. He theorized that light enters the eye. In the Renaissance period, artists paid much attention to how light and shadow played a huge role in creating a sense of depth.
Raphael utilizes light and shadows in his paintings, with a more dramatic manner than Da Vinci's subtle style.
Da Vinci discovers the Perspective of Disappearance aka Atmospheric Perspective. Foreground colors are warmer tones while background colors are often grays, blues, or cooler tones and has less contrast as it recedes. This creates depth by emulating the 'fog' in the atmosphere.
Da Vinci drew first known anamorphic or stretched artwork.
Hans Holbein created works using this method.
Andrea Mantegna known for exploring perspective and a creative use of point of view. He considers the viewer and the angle at which the observer views the work.
In the High Renaissance, an explosion of creativity, Michelangelo and Raphael broke architectural boundaries with their large scale works.
Susan Sontag; On Photography- notes
Photographs are a reflection of humankind. Documents of history, emotion, memories, perspectives, objects, and environments.
They are used to communicate and acquire information. This enables one to gain knowledge and knowledge is power. However, it is complicated because photography can alter reality and photographs themselves can be altered.
Photographs are fragile. Images in photographs can be preserved by physical duplication of the photograph, placed/printed in books, digitally copied, etc.
They are used to communicate and acquire information. This enables one to gain knowledge and knowledge is power. However, it is complicated because photography can alter reality and photographs themselves can be altered.
Photographs are fragile. Images in photographs can be preserved by physical duplication of the photograph, placed/printed in books, digitally copied, etc.
Photography Changes Everything; Marvin Heiferman- notes
Marvin Heiferman discusses the evolution of photography and sheds light on the various avenues it is utilized in our lives. Photography is, indeed, an art medium but it is also a tool used in a broad variety of instances. With advances in technology, means of photographing and photographs/images have become very accessible. Taking photographs and sharing images have become an integral part of the human experience. Taking photos is a manner of documenting our experience, a personal memory, and also communicating those experiences, or moments, visually. The development of the digital camera, personal computer, and internet has greatly affected this practice. Nowadays, people have a camera in their phone, which is essentially on their person always. The cell or smartphone has radically altered the manner in which we take, alter, and transmit images. Heiferman states,"photographs are being made in record numbers; an estimated 1.3 billion new photographic images are made daily- close to half a trillion every year- and they can span the world in seconds." Additionally, "As photography is being transformed, so too is the implicit (but often unexamined) contract between images, reality, and it's viewers."
Photography, though it captures time, freezes a single moment/slows time to a stand still, it is also active. Photographs not only show us but they engage us- inform, evoke emotion, and stimulate us intellectually. Heiferman discusses a proposed project to advocate for a more accurate assessment of photography's utility and power. In this project, participants from various and different backgrounds were surveyed and asked how photography has transformed their personal life or field of professional interest. As they received stories or testimonies, a workable organizational structure came to be. Six categories emerged:
Photography Changes What We Want: Images confirm what we have attained and set up goal posts for what we hope to achieve
Photography Changes What We See: Photography shows us what the human eye cannot see- distance, phenomena, events that lie beyond our sight, change that is too fast or slow.
Photography Changes Who We Are: How we present ourselves, how others perceive us, how we are depicted in our own photographs or others' shapes our self-image and stereotypes.
Photography Changes What We Do: Photography does more than document what we have already done; it influences much of what we decide to do. Photo images shape how we communicate, learn, and interact.
Photography Changes Where We Go: Photographs show us worlds beyond our immediate environment. We can see places that are physically out of geographical or historical bounds.
Photography Changes What We Remember: Photography is a medium to keep track of what has happened to us. Photographs are not simply vessels of memory but have the capacity to create, interfere with, and trouble the memories we hold as individuals and as a culture.
Photography is an ever changing medium as technology advances. Photography's meaning and significance will continually change; evolving as we change because of it.
Photography, though it captures time, freezes a single moment/slows time to a stand still, it is also active. Photographs not only show us but they engage us- inform, evoke emotion, and stimulate us intellectually. Heiferman discusses a proposed project to advocate for a more accurate assessment of photography's utility and power. In this project, participants from various and different backgrounds were surveyed and asked how photography has transformed their personal life or field of professional interest. As they received stories or testimonies, a workable organizational structure came to be. Six categories emerged:
Photography Changes What We Want: Images confirm what we have attained and set up goal posts for what we hope to achieve
Photography Changes What We See: Photography shows us what the human eye cannot see- distance, phenomena, events that lie beyond our sight, change that is too fast or slow.
Photography Changes Who We Are: How we present ourselves, how others perceive us, how we are depicted in our own photographs or others' shapes our self-image and stereotypes.
Photography Changes What We Do: Photography does more than document what we have already done; it influences much of what we decide to do. Photo images shape how we communicate, learn, and interact.
Photography Changes Where We Go: Photographs show us worlds beyond our immediate environment. We can see places that are physically out of geographical or historical bounds.
Photography Changes What We Remember: Photography is a medium to keep track of what has happened to us. Photographs are not simply vessels of memory but have the capacity to create, interfere with, and trouble the memories we hold as individuals and as a culture.
Photography is an ever changing medium as technology advances. Photography's meaning and significance will continually change; evolving as we change because of it.
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