student evaluations open, check your email

class,

you should receive a link in your email to access the class evaluation forms; we will dedicate 15 minutes during next week's class for filling out evaluation forms online.

If a student cannot find the course evaluations email, follow these instructions: If students misplace or delete the email with evaluation links, please have them email evals_admin@saic.edu from their SAIC email account and include this message in the subject line, "Send course evaluations link." Have them put their ID number in the main body.

The digital course evaluations opened 8:00 a.m. today and close on December 19 at 11:59 p.m. 

reminders and the future

Next week, 12/5, will consist of one-on-one meetings discussing the evolution of your papers with me and each other.  Do not miss this class!

The readings for next week will not be discussed in class to allow additional final project paper/presentation prep and research time.
Please come ready with an outline of your paper that includes a thesis, major ideas and supporting ideas.  the generic version of a short paper is as follows:

-introduction that ends with thesis

-main point
    supporting point
    supporting point
    supporting point

-main point

    supporting point

    supporting point

    supporting point

-main point

    supporting point

    supporting point

    supporting point

-conclusion that includes a recap or re-energized version of thesis and final thoughts/questions

guidelines for Final - Theoretical Essay

Final Project – Theoretical Essay

Students will write a 4-5 page theoretical essay where they introduce a new paradigmatic idea on photography (defined loosely, derivations from this are ok upon instructor approval). 

It is encouraged for students to develop their own theoretical term(s) in their paper that are contributions to the ongoing discourse on photography.  Papers will be well-researched, high-level arguments/observations that are supported by evidence and images (students to create an appendix that contains footnotes and images, all papers must have a minimum of 4-5 pages of text regardless of their use of images).

Papers are due the last day of class.

Papers must have a clear thesis.

If used, original vocabulary terms must be clearly defined.

References must be cited on the bottom of each page according to current MLA standards.

Students must visit and utilize the SAIC library; the internet is not a ceiling for research…consult the librarian on relevant materials to consult.

For our final class, students will present via, PowerPoint, the main arguments and examples of their essays in a 10-12 minute timed lecture.  This presentation should bepracticed, clear, concise, and dynamic. 

Theoretical Essay Proposal

On Nov 7^th, bring a printed essay proposal of two pages, in the form of an outline, to class for review by peers and the instructor.  Add any images necessary to your proposal as additional printouts behind your proposal—staple everything together.  In addition, please post the same text and images on the class blog by the beginning of class.

Kate Bush: The Latest Picture

- the influence of conceptual and neo-conceptual photographers present in contemporary artists. 
- "photography became relevant because it evolved to record/describe rather than to express/aestheticize" (266). 
- asking "can photography show us something that art isn't?" rather than "is photography art?" (266). 

---

- camera as "pure instrument of reproduction, 'a dumb copying device'" (262). 
- "relieve artists from aesthetic decision-making and leave them free to concentrate on pure idea" (262).

thomas ruff: 
> "makes images of images, representations of representations" (262). 
> "to amplify the semantic limitations of the medium" (263). 
> "photography as nothing more than an apparatus for the production of images" (263). 


nudes, 2001

bruno seralongue:
> "develops methodologies to reduce his authorship decisions to minimum" (263).
> "demoting himself from 'artist' to pure 'operator'" (263).
>  "works to critique role of photojournalist as empowered/privilege witness to world events" (263). 


escalier central, 2000

shirana shahbazi:
> "practices an emphatically utilitarian documentary approach" (263).
> "individual images appear excruciatingly banal" (263).
> "yet her images accumulate into a set of 'micro-events' that collectively map her subject" (263). 



goftare nik, 2000-2001

---

- "fusion of reportage photography with pre-conceived performative acts" (264). 
- engagement of audience through aspects of the gaze/confrontation. 

boris mikhailov (focus on case history series):
> "pays these people to reveal their bodies and to perform intimate acts in which he examines forensically" (264).
> "we as spectator are the ones who are humiliated/degraded by the confrontation" (264).
> "casts his work as a theatrical representation of social reality" (264). 


case history series, 1998

shizuka yokomizo (focus on strangers series):
> sends letters to strangers, saying she ("the artist") will be outside their window at a certain time, and if they choose to participate, to draw their curtains and look out towards her, but they must never attempt to make contact with her again. 
> "both photographer and subject are looking and being looked at: both are active subjects of their own gaze, and, simultaneously, passive objects of the gaze of the Other" (265). 


stranger series, 1999

nikki lee: 
> she adapts and blends into a chosen community for a period of weeks/months and the product is recorded in "photographs that mimic the code of amateur photography" (265).
> "identity is understood as constantly fluctuating through a set of shifting relationships with other people" (265).
> "the self is defined in relation to what, and who, is around" (265). 


the hispanic project, 1998

---

- "'clip and montage artists' who raid pop culture for raw material" (265).
- "reality is represented as always constructed in representation" (265). 

amy adler: 
> "investigates the complex ways images can both encapsulate and catalyze desire" (265).
> "she develops the original photo, makes a pastel drawing, and then photographs her drawing" (266).
> "each of her cibachromes is only one in a series, thus could be said to be non-unique and interdependent" (266). 


amy adler photographs leonardo dicaprio, 2001

downloading problems

i just re-uploaded the articles, they should all work!
let me know if you have any downloading problems...

Link to Det Perfekte Menneske (The Perfect Human) by Jorgen Leth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R4E1nm6SYw

Holly Myrick-Final Theory Paper

I want to explore memory and the idea of a person. I saw someone on the elevator the other day that I had only seen before on Facebook. It was a very odd experience that really got me thinking about how we perceive people through a series of photographs and such before actually seeing them in person. What has culturally taught me to imagine a person in reality because of a split second frozen in time? These images feed our imaginations in ways that make up characters. We imagine how someone acts simply through a photograph. The photos seem extremely expressive because they were chosen to be on display for a reason. Why go to the trouble of wasting battery or film, looking through all of your photographs, having these specific images uploaded or printed, and have them sitting on the internet forever or framed and up for the world to see in a physical environment?

     This idea also made me ponder people we feel we no longer know. Photographs become obsessions because we have evidence of people we felt we knew at one point, and no longer feel that way. The obsession of memory and craving the idea of who someone was seems dangerous. It seems to be in the same sort of realm of categorizing people we’ve never met because of their photographs. Our minds make up personalities that more than likely won’t match up in the end. But why do we set ourselves up like that? These judgments seem dangerous and explore one of the more skeptical aspects of photography. Why can we not just see things as they truly exist? These photos may not prove a great deal of truth so why do we feel that photos are the best portrayal of others and ourselves? How much proof does a photo ID really show? We trust images so greatly these days; we rely on them to provide evidence for everything. I ate a cupcake today…don’t believe me? Go look on Instagram, it says I posted the photo three hours ago. But what if I took the photo three weeks ago and just want you to think I ate it today? Would you care that I lied about something so miniscule? The accessibility to photography and displaying them is insanely instantaneous, and our generation feels a desire to reveal every detail of our little lives through photographic means. My main goal is to explore how photography’s qualities of realism cause the mind to automatically assume characteristics because of their appearance in an image.

revised reading schedule

students: here is your revised reading schedule, which we will discuss in class after the Thanksgiving Holiday on 11/28. Please be ready to discuss these four articles (all on the portal). We will be skipping the Sontag and Batchen

Feedback request!

Hey guys! I'm reposting my proposal in the hopes that some of you might be able to give me some feedback. Unfortunately I was sick and couldn't make it to class last week, sorry about that! Hope your weeks are going well!

Final paper proposal

Thesis: The element of chance is inherent in photography. When this necessary component is eliminated, the product is no longer a photograph.

In photography, the camera serves as the extension of one’s body. But we can only guide the camera so far until it acquires a body and mind of its own. Because of this, it is clear from the point of a photograph’s creation that the concept of control does not fully belong to the photographer.

We can think of each photograph as an experiment in which independent variables such as the function of the camera, the action of what is in front of the frame, and the movement of light, help determine the outcome of a photograph. This applies to both analog and digital photography.

Chance conditions are rooted in the origins of the medium, as the chemical processes were anything but stable upon inception. With the normalization of a process, a new one sprouts, and this continues to occur today.

Photography is acknowledged for its gift of chance through the term “the decisive moment.” This is a contributing factor to allowing photographs to be historicized in an iconic manner. This alone separates photography from other media.

Certain artists have embraced chance in art and have engaged in chance operations, (the term coined by John Cage). This is true with artists working with materials including film and photographic paper such as Walead Beshty and with artists working with content such as Ray Metzker. On the other hand, photographers like Gregory Crewdson exercise the greatest amount of control one can achieve on set. However, as established previously, independent variables make it impossible to control the entirety of a photograph.

The second that chance conditions are completely lost, the product is no longer a photograph. We are now in an age where this is possible. For example, if one was to appropriate imagery and alter it through an interface such as Adobe Photoshop, this is no longer a photograph. This is not to say that appropriation is not photography (ie. Richard Prince, Cowboy, valid photograph). However, this is to say that with the use of the Internet, one can exercise full control over which image to choose, and further, one can appropriate it without distorting the original image. Historically, appropriation usually has a significant deal in altering an image. If this is done through a program such as Adobe Photoshop, each move can be decisively planned and executed. Although there is room for human error, there is a full power to eliminate it, unlike hand made changes to appropriated images.

    Can smartphones and tablets do to art, what radio did to music?

    Popular music exists. Popular culture exists. But there is not such thing as popular art. There was a movement called pop art, but I would argue that pop art was one of the key factors in the absence of popular art. It propelled the general idea that contemporary art is confusing and art is for artists, critics, curators and really rich people. Why is this so? Why is art hard for the general public? People create photographs far more often than they create music. More people have heard of Picasso than of Stravinsky. Yet for some reason, music is always around, and art is confusing.
    There was a time when music belonged to the aristocrats and the opera house, like art exists today in white cube galleries. It was the invention of radio and television, and many musicians working hard to create music that was enjoyable on radio and television. Now we have reality television shows such as American Idol, and people cheer for musicians and critique their vocal skills. There was a reality show on visual artists but it never reached the publicity of American Idol. The biggest problem is that their art was not enjoyable on television.

    Smartphones are helpful in art viewing. Many galleries and museums developed applications to update news on their upcoming exhibitions and events. However, it rarely does more than the e-mail subscription. Art Guide is a helpful app if you are in a foreign city over a weekend. But once again, these news update apps don’t do the same thing that the radio can do for music listeners. There isn’t enough of the individuality in taste to choose from, at least compared to radio stations.
    Adidas Urban Art is an interesting application, since it creates a new space in art viewing. Anyone can photograph a street art and post it with comments, and the app will map it within the city. Therefore, it turns the city into a gallery, and every user becomes the curator and the docent.
    Video artists are using iPhone as a recording tool more often, iPhone photography is an interesting genre, and David Hockney had a show called “iPhone Drawing” where he used iBrushes application to create a series. However, these smartphone art making focus more on the utility and portability of the device rather than the viewing experience. iPhone movies are still viewed in theatres, Hockney’s show was in a gallery in Paris.

    Musicians created music for radio. Then there was television channels such as MTV to promote popular music. Maybe smartphones and tablets can be the starting point for popular visual art, but it would require artists making art for portable viewing, and curators creating space for it.

At The Wake of My Namesake

It is my intention to explore the inner workings of a particular family photograph in relation to the past, present, and future, as elicited by a profound confrontation at the wake of my Grandfather.

            I plan to begin this essay with an anecdote that serves as a metaphor for a certain trauma that accompanies photographic realization and subsequent retrospection of one’s past in relation to their present and inevitable death. This anecdote will explore an event when I was young, riding on the back of a bicycle my cousin was piloting. We were riding in a parade fashion, about five or six bicycles long as I watched my older brother Ryan peel off into a ditch on the side of the road. I can remember smiling with the realization that such trauma would never affect me, sitting so firm on the newspaper rack of my elder cousin’s bicycle. Shortly after this realization one of my dangling legs found it’s way into the spokes of the rear bicycle wheel on top of which I was suspended.

            After this initial anecdote is explored in relation to the events prior, during, and after, I plan to discuss a particular family photograph that was made a year prior or before this traumatic event when the entirety of my family was together, perhaps for the first time, and captured by a photograph. This photograph pricks me one thousand times over. It is in reference to this photograph that I will dissect the punctums that are folding in on themselves. My intersection with the present and the past. This family photograph that was made so many years ago is on this day revisited. There we are, the assembled entirety of a family I am one with, at our shared place of retreat simultaneously staring at the same and different things. But now, on the occasion of my Grandfather’s wake, this most solemn day, does the photograph finally grab me by the throat. I am staring myself in the face. That self staring back, who sat front and center on that day we were all together. For the first time, in the wake of my namesake, we trade our gaze. My family surrounds me in our current configuration, aware of the dwindling entirety. The individuals react to their former selves. Their likenesses still, staring in preparation for this moment of confrontation. The countenance assumed (then) is the countenance received (now) by that same/different self during this future/present. Simultaneously they are staring at the same and different things.  That version of me, present then, staring at me now, will be staring still at me long after this particular event has passed. That version of me, my former/current self, will continue to pose as I did on that day staring at this moment and others in the future. That gaze is both ignorant and immortal. In this liminal cacophony of intersecting histories is a present. Stepped with an aura that considers every waking moment between that and this one.

            This wake, and subsequently the photograph I reference resonate much deeper in that my name is on the placard of the funeral home’s directory. I share the same name, right down the middle with my Grandfather.  He is my namesake. He gave life to my father who came to give me life—my own referenced by the representation of my Grandfather through the likeness of his name. I live this wake through the lens of my own death, through the lens of my own waking life.  

neoliberalism defined

i think this term is important to understand esp in light of the baudrillard reading...it's closely related to globalization.  read the article here:

http://www.globalexchange.org/resources/econ101/neoliberalismdefined

:)

On Individuality in Metaphysical Practices 

Artists who employ metaphysical tactics when making art work in a way similar to engineers. Figuring our problems related to the task at hand, their work. This practice is essentially problem solving. There is nothing new about this method, it has been used to start civilizations and through this it has shaped the way people live they way they do.  Although this way of working is logical in the way of solving formal problems pertaining to the form and content of a specific work it also has its limitations. What happens when an artists concern in their respective practice is only problem solving? A group of artists emerge with work that is essentially the same. A practice consisting of solving formal problems is half a practice. 

Content is equally as important as is logistical material partner, the medium. Metaphysically concerned artists have adapted a semi for filled Greenburgian conversation. Where a practice which is only concerned with medium specificity and the exploitation of the materials used. The scope of work being produced becomes exclusively concerned with that of the medium at hand. The personal touch is reconfigured to be thought that a hand made touch is sufficient enough to constituted as content. This dialogue becomes shared by many artists, over and over again, without gaining complexity. It shys for the complexity its striving for because this way of working is just that a way of working. It is only part of a practice, the second part is incorporating personal interests and hopefully linking various ideas together through a common thread of thought. 

Relaying this idea into a practice is as easy as picking a topic and choosing what materials to work with. Easy enough, but what differentiates one artist from another? The ability to construct a narrative through these various implementation is actually important, again! Having a narrative implies there is something to be laid out thus having room for criticism. Narratives come in all shapes and sizes particularly linear and un linear, oddly enough they basically get the same point across. That A. there is something specific about the narrative itself a artist wants to delve into or. B. there is something specific about the way in which a group of works are linked that a artist wants to open up for discussion. Practically the same use of the narrative format just with different focuses. 

Narration coupled with metaphysical implementation is art with weight to it. If metaphysical tricks at the root of the conversation the room for conversation becomes suffocated. Problem solving is interesting, humans are one of many beings that do it well, but is that really all we can congratulate each other on? How have people in the art world not become desensitized to this? It seems like a trivial fact of existence. Have a problem? Find a solution. Have a problem? Find a solution, etc... 

A “grander” scheme to a body of work almost seems required for this new Metaphysical ideology of art making. Gaining interests from a broad scope of other peoples influences works if done sparing (in my opinion). Finding one self through the constant production of ideas and work even if it takes a couple years for the creation of anything resembling the artist themselves to happen. Sincerity is what differentiates artists from one another. Sincerity in finding out oneself will be noticed by viewers, the work will come off as genuine because even if an artists interests are similar to another. The specific subject matter of specific works/bodies of work will be unique as no creators are the same.

IJBS

http://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol3_1/genosko.htm

great elaboration on baudrilllard/9-11 and his history of theorizing around the twin towers before 9/11

Stephs Final Theory Paper Idea

Steph Krim

Theory Paper Proposal

November 7th 2012

Idea: Street photography in the age of google street view.

Thesis: In a world where “the street” no longer exists exclusively in meatspace, street photography takes on new media and expands into the digital world (cyber space).

We no longer rely exclusively on the real word to interface and socialize. So much of our communication is mediated though technology. We lead increasingly fractured lives split between the meat and the cyber and our art mirrors that separation. Terms like new media and digital imaging attempt to bring clarity to the muddy line where digital and analog production meet.

Google street view has created an opportunity to expand street photography and allow it to evolve into the 21 century. With the world at our fingertips we have a new found freedom to explore the world we live in from the comfort of our homes.

If we define street photography as a type of photography that features candid subjects in public places then google street view is like one giant street photograph or a massive collection of them.

Then it becomes about the search. The collection. The edit. Its about looking and finding.

Google street view immediately places the viewer in an omnipresent position, to be anywhere at a moments notice.

Googles mission is “ to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” but what google street view is also doing in pursuing the fleeting moment.

Googles 9 lenses are creating as close to a neutral image ad possible. The truth though is true neutrality is impossible. The google camera has a strange effect on people, instead of being a panopticon like invasion of privacy people instead fall over the opportunity to perform for this camera. Though the camera itself is unspoiled by human agendas, the once candid and unaware subject becomes an actor on the sidewalks of the world.

People to think about

Classic street photographers:

Winograd, Friedlander, Frank

New street photographers:

Jon Rafman and the 9 eyes of google street view.

Doug Rickard and A new American picture

Mishka Henner and no mans land

The tool of google street view changes the capture. Instead of the camera being in the hand of the

Things to think about

Decisive moment

Performative action

There is action behind generating the image

Virtual world/ frozen in time

theory proposal...

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about nostalgia and memory and the photograph’s relation to the act of reminiscing. It is not revolutionary that we use photographs as a tool to remember. Memory is often a point of discussion in photography. It is an interesting material—it shifts and shapes through elements of perspective and wears thin with time. One could argue that memory is always tainted with subjectivity—that it cannot and will not ever be an objective source of information. The same could be said for photographs. Although the medium is often linked to portraying aspects of truth and reality, the fact remains that photography is polluted with subjectivity and distortion of reality.

That being said, Jonah Lehrer once wrote, “a memory is only as real as the last time you remembered it. The more you remember something, the less accurate the memory” (Lehrer). Interesting. As mentioned earlier, we generally hold onto photographs as a will to remember, but this statement makes me wonder about photographs as a will to forget. If the more you remember something, the less accurate the memory, then the more you remember something, the further you become from the actual event, resulting in you carrying out the act of forgetting. Applying this to photographs, the more you observe a photograph and the more you try to reminisce, the more you are allowing yourself to forget the photographed event. Your memory of the event now becomes untrustworthy and worn.

You become removed from a perceived reality into a realm of surrealism through the now tainted memory of said event. The photographed event is now increasingly idealized or heavily dishonored. The further back in time the photograph takes place, the less accurate your memory, the more surreal the event becomes. Thus, you are forgetting. Photographs are a will to forget. In this act of forgetting, we are transferred into a new layer of surrealism in interaction with photographs. That is, photographs themselves are already surreal objects, transferring a three dimensional reality into a two dimensional reality. Adding the obstruction of memory, we are taken to another layer of surrealism. At some point, we are no longer remembering, we are dreaming, we are making things up about the photographed event. We either highly idealize the event or we do the complete opposite. Regardless, that act of forgetting and that act of removal is worth exploring in understanding the relationships between nostalgia and photography.

Evidently, I need to flesh this idea out more, and I need to do further intensive research on memory, but hopefully this serves as a potential starting point…

please!

please bring in your final project proposals printed and stapled in addition to posting them to the blog for tomorrow's class.

thanks!

Final paper proposal

                                                                                 Condon, Katie

                                                                                                Junior Theory

                                                                                                Lazarus, Jason

                                                                                                November 7, 2012

Final paper proposal

Thesis: The element of chance is inherent in photography. When this necessary component is eliminated, the product is no longer a photograph.

In photography, the camera serves as the extension of one’s body. But we can only guide the camera so far until it acquires a body and mind of its own. Because of this, it is clear from the point of a photograph’s creation that the concept of control does not fully belong to the photographer.

We can think of each photograph as an experiment in which independent variables such as the function of the camera, the action of what is in front of the frame, and the movement of light, help determine the outcome of a photograph. This applies to both analog and digital photography.

Chance conditions are rooted in the origins of the medium, as the chemical processes were anything but stable upon inception. With the normalization of a process, a new one sprouts, and this continues to occur today.

Photography is acknowledged for its gift of chance through the term “the decisive moment.” This is a contributing factor to allowing photographs to be historicized in an iconic manner. This alone separates photography from other media.

Certain artists have embraced chance in art and have engaged in chance operations, (the term coined by John Cage). This is true with artists working with materials including film and photographic paper such as Walead Beshty and with artists working with content such as Ray Metzker. On the other hand, photographers like Gregory Crewdson exercise the greatest amount of control one can achieve on set. However, as established previously, independent variables make it impossible to control the entirety of a photograph.

The second that chance conditions are completely lost, the product is no longer a photograph. We are now in an age where this is possible. For example, if one was to appropriate imagery and alter it through an interface such as Adobe Photoshop, this is no longer a photograph. This is not to say that appropriation is not photography (ie. Richard Prince, Cowboy, valid photograph). However, this is to say that with the use of the Internet, one can exercise full control over which image to choose, and further, one can appropriate it without distorting the original image. Historically, appropriation usually has a significant deal in altering an image. If this is done through a program such as Adobe Photoshop, each move can be decisively planned and executed. Although there is room for human error, there is a full power to eliminate it, unlike hand made changes to appropriated images.

Final Paper Proposal

Photo Theory:

Sci-fi narration of what the world will be like in the future and how photo/surveillance will have completely changed the way we look at our past and attribute to it and also will change the way we interact with people and our surroundings.

Universe/Time Description:

Earth will be completely obliterated from pollution and waste from humans.  People will have to move alternative planets that are all connected with web that allows them to interact with each other through photos and text.  Everyone will be segregated into these bubbles in which they will live out there whole life.  (Panopticon)

Communication/Photo Theory

Within the web each person can construct their life using photos and text as they wish (Facebook). All of the photos will found photos, that were digitally logged, that were left after the destruction of earth.(digital space) This opens the door for anyone to create a narrative that would be completely fictional because there would no longer be a need to prove anything that you depicting seeing as the narrative you are creating about the present is completely routed in the past. 

Ideas will generate on how documentation now will be the only thing connecting mankind to each other the way we know it now and that everyone is consumed by creating this “life” that is a delusional makeup of what they want to project or what they want to be remembered by.

Discuss panopticon idea by referencing it to the way people display there life on this “web” and how the idea of maybe someone could be reading it and how that changes what they create when in fact they are unsure if anyone else is alive or able to see it. 

Also reference in George Orwell’s 1984 book, which takes about big brother and the idea of how the government will control everything, etc.  The web will be the new government, its how people act and communicate, it looks at you and logs what you are doing and how maybe it can use that as a tool to create a new earth.

How photos are complete representations of the past and that affects this new reality.  Think about Camera Lucida and how there are “just” photographs that can depict a person or even landscape and how that idea comes into play when you are creating this new identity. 

Include ideas of how surveillance is used now and how it is readying us for the future (data banking our lives) and also inventions like the Memento camera also aid in this preparation. 

The web will also be a controller of what images are shown maybe? This could affect the way we recall situations “an image comes first and then adds a frisson to reality” (L’Esprit Du Terrorisme by Baudrillard) Maybe earth isn’t destroyed at all but the illusion of it gone is a act of control so that we only can reference things to photos and how photos can be manipulated with text to convey something different,  Or Earth is completely intact its just interaction that people will lose because surveillance changed everything.  Government uses these bubbles as a way of the ultimate surveillance cupped with the notion that what’s linking humans together is this web that is created by the government, controlled by the government, for the government so that they can shape and control behavior. 

How does the relationship change to surveillance and being surveyed if a person knows that this will be the only way to communicate in the future, by past photos, and what people will do to shape what they look like and who they are to reflect a new person.