Surveillance and Society

Surveillance and Society: A paper by Gary T. Marx

The image above (by Anthony Privitera) is linked to an audio version of the paper listed in the title.

Feb. 1: Surveilling the Still Life

We are going to begin an exploration of the assemblage constructed in the middle of our classroom. The drama will unfold as we go. Please read Surveillance and Society by Gary T. Marx.

Reflection: Non-mimetic Identity

Reflection: Non-objective abstraction investigation

I must share my pleasure with the way students handled the non-objective abstraction exploration. I know many of you entered this with trepidation. I shared this feeling as I observed your initial engagement. I had a completely different opinion on the concluding days when we critiqued and reflected in class. I credit two key things for your success. The first was your eventual ability to separate yourself from a desire for mimesis, and the second was your intuitive ability to use vocabulary of formalism (elements & principles of design) to defend your logic when you were asked to compose your class-mates works as triptychs.

There actually was a third indication and it occurred when your sketchbooks for the marking period were due. I observed many students further exploring non-mimetic art making, but more importantly, being willing and able to explain it.

For the good of the order, as the semester concludes, I offer the observation that perhaps most, if not all of you discovered your non-mimetic identity. You can add this to the facets of personal identity you explored during the fall, 2009 semester.

• Cultural
• Familial
• Stereotypical
• “Other”
• Heroic
• Gaming
• Non-mimetic

Salut!

Abstract Expressionism (Happy New Year!)

A completely unexpected outcome of our investigation of personal identity was an abundance of non-figurative imagery. Often this occurred on the “backs” of the miniature, playing card-size pieces you did. Observing this occurrence while you were responding to questions regarding aspects of your (cultural. familial, stereotypical, “other” and heroic) personal identity made this phenomenon all the more significant to me as your instructor. The fact that these images developed spontaneously without instructional prompts began to fascinate me and I imagined connections to the historical development of non-objective art in general. I have never formally pursued abstract expressionist oriented art making with high school students as an assignment before for a number of reasons, but I saw an opportunity to expand on something you were doing inherently and to, hopefully, provide you with some degree of historical relevance.

As I mentioned to you in class Abstract Expressionism as a label or movement is problematic in many ways as it is very broad and potentially misleading. I asked you to narrow your scope to two aspects of our non-figurative investigation: gesture & color-field. I shared work from your classmates’ websites to illustrate both themes. Your responses, in many ways, reflected those of the general public when confronted by art that is about something other than pictorial representation. Many of you were angry and resentful when I said we were going to pursue art making about the process of art making on a slightly larger scale (as opposed to pictorial or text-based). The irony wasn’t lost on the few who reminded me that there was a historical precedent, we were already doing it, and our course is, in fact an Art course. Those voices were of a minority who risked being “othered” by their fellow art students. This further contributed to the historical relevance of art and its’ relationship to individuals and societal groups.

Many of you began to have fun as you began to create art representative of process, form, color and gesture. Your discussions began to address what appeared to be “working” contextually (drips, intentional text and recognizable imagery were prohibited), formally (elements & principles of composition & design) and intuitively (“I don’t know why, but I like/dislike it).

I will expect 3 “successful” pieces to be critiqued (contextually, formally & intuitively) in class on Thursday, January 8, 2010.

At a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one American painter after another as an arena in which to act… what was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event. Harold Rosenberg

Remember that a picture – before being a battle horse or woman, or some other anecdote – is essentially a flat surface covered with colors in a certain order. Maurice Denis

Please take a moment to look at Franz Kline, Willem De Kooning, Lee Krasner and Joan Mitchell for examples of gesture. Look at Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler and Jules Olitski for examples of color-field. This is an extremely short list of examples.