Category Archives: Art

Art

I hate art clubs – I’m anti-social

Creating artists networks can sometimes be a pointless exercise. In the social sciences a social group has been defined as two or more humans who interact with one another,  share similar characteristics and collectively have a sense of unity within their interests. Theorists are a wary of definitions which stress the importance of interdependence or objective similarity. Instead, for researchers in the social identity tradition “a group is defined in terms of those who identify themselves as members of the group”.  The idea of sharing experiences, gallery contacts and clients etc. sounds like a very good idea on the surface. The reality is actually rather disappointing.  Social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. For example, a society can be viewed as a large social group. Artists are no different from any other group of people and have an underlying self serving agenda,   they are simply out there to make a fast profit and steal contacts and ideas – well at least the majority are…

Here is an article stolen from Sitemaps-xml.com: New Art Groups Fail – #marketing – promote your art

Often artists’ groups have a core of members who initiate activities and support the rest of the group. Not only is it important to support new groups, it is important for these founding members to fully understand the structures and reasons for creating new groups. They must be asked ‘Why are you doing this?’ and ‘Are there other groups around that already fulfill your needs and aims?’ Creating new artist groups/collectives could be counterproductive and create an even more fragmented environment. It is important that a robust armature is created for a network to succeed. If this is achieved then it would be a formidable and powerful organisation.

A mentoring scheme which enables artists and crafts people to get access to strategies and processes needed to create successful art and business practice would be highly beneficial to individuals and groups. North Devon Web can help you with setting up an artist website and help you to promote your art.

Our skills are at the ‘start up’ phase of businesses and organizations, where the creativity of the entrepreneur or group is at its most inventive and vulnerable. We find the energy that is created very infectious but we also know that this enthusiasm gradually dies and needs ‘mothering’ to take it to the next growth phase. To achieve sustainability is key, and we have wide and varied experience of achieving this both in a traditional business environment and in pioneering innovations.

North Devon Web belongs to a network of websites that host in a green way. North Devon Web is helping to prevent the release of 2,660 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year by hosting on ‘Green Servers’ – as a result, the network’s energy efficiency is equal to planting about 2,390 acres of trees, not driving 6.1 million miles, or removing 510 cars from the road. We are here to help you stay in business.

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Wikio - Top Blogs - Online marketingBeing in the blog charts is a massive reward for everyone who has helped and contributed to this blog. We are still looking for writers to contribute to this growing blog. Contact us if you would like your work to be featured on sitemaps-xml.

Art

Creating a fake

Creating a real vintage looking image is better than creating a fake. This image was taken with a Pentax K1000 35mm camera in July 2012.

The Pentax K1000 is an almost all metal, mechanically (springs, gears, levers) controlled, manual-focus SLR with manual exposure control. It was completely operable without batteries. It only needed batteries (one A76 or S76, or LR44 or SR44) for the light metering information system. This consisted of a center-the-needle exposure control system using a galvanometer needle pointer moving between vertically arranged +/– over/underexposure markers at the right side of the viewfinder to indicate the readings of the built-in full-scene averaging, cadmium sulfide (CdS) light meter versus the actual camera settings. The meter did not have a true on/off switch and the lens cap needed to be kept on the lens to prevent draining the battery when the K1000 was not in use.

Pentax K1000. (2012, May 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:26, June 8, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pentax_K1000&oldid=495230110

The rise of Instagram,  a free photo sharing program that was launched in October 2010 is the best example of this ‘look back’ at analogue photography from the 20th century. This service allows users to take a photo and apply a digital retro filter to it and then share it on most social networking services. The distinctive retro feature of this app is that it converts photos, which in contemporary formats are rectangle, to a square shape, like Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images of the 70s. The most common aspect ratios used in still camera photography, are 4:3, 3:2 (more recently in consumer cameras 16:9 is being used). Other used aspect ratios include 5:3, 5:4, and 1:1 which produces the square format. Most mobile devices have a 4:3 aspect ratio.

The problems of fragmentation and confusion that exist within more traditional art practices, such as painting and sculpture (in the broadest possible milieu) are mirrored in new art practices. Within these technological and new media categories, diverse concepts and imagery has been lumped together to form a hodgepodge of non-related methodologies and artworks.

What is this direction?

The meshing together of processes, unrelated imagery and the breaking down of barriers cannot be seen as a shortcut to intellectual credibility. The dedicated thought process that goes with the creative procedure should be one of intense reasoning. It is therefore unrealistic to expect the uneducated masses to use the computers prescriptive decision making to create ‘real art’. The birth of Photoshop has enabled everybody to create ‘non-intellectual’ versions of Rauschenberg (and Warhol) – this is not ART.

Art

Proposal for large art works + the aesthetics of failure = Prediction

Organic & Synthetic (2002)

 

Link to final Proposal

Original Thoughts

Materials

Organic: Commercial oil based paints mixed with animal fat and traditional oil paints. Emulsion paints mixed with traditional acrylic/watercolor/gouache paints

Synthetic: Commercial and domestic self-adhesive vinyl tape, cut with a commercial computer based design/cutting program,  Signlab v.4.95 software package.

Prediction = the aesthetics of the system + the aesthetics of failure = Prediction

I would find it very easy not to produce any visual work. The aesthetics of painting, the total confusion that it is still in, has devalued this important medium. It is no longer acceptable to follow Duchampian traditions and say that context is a primary factor. To claim something is art is simply not good enough. Duchamp said that a painting/sculpture died after about 40 or 50 years. After that they become Art History. What will historians be saying in 40 or 50 years time?

Unfortunately the problems of fragmentation and confusion that exist within more traditional art practices, such as painting and sculpture (in the broadest possible milieu) are mirrored in new art practices. Within these technological and new media categories, diverse concepts and imagery has been lumped together to form a hodgepodge of non-related methodologies and artworks. What is this direction?

The Changing Language of Prediction and Explanation

There are artworks1, which as art could be mistaken as science/technology. Such works rely on networking, robotics and systems. (You could include Internet works in this category.2 )  When viewing/understanding Artworks that are based on networking, systems, and communities how do you subconsciously and verbally criticize the aesthetic or concept?

The true aesthetics of a system is not the peripheral. The aesthetics of the system is in the understanding of its detail. The true aesthetics of the system incorporates the aesthetics of failure, a system that is reliant on external forces or structure will always have an element of built in probable failure. (This is a prediction.) The only way to achieve total reliability is to have a closed system, this however discourages growth and system expansion and thus becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The element of failure is important to the success of a system. (A non-homogeneous system, whose terms and relationships are not constant, allows language to break up, to stumble over the rules of its grammar, by necessity it has to respond radically to other linguistic components, creating a new linguistic order and syntax.3 )

The aesthetics of failure, a crucial component of a system, is not Auto Destructivism; Auto Destructivism is a process where machines (or systems) are built to fail. The parameters of Auto Destructivism include various practices, including painting with acid and fire. The aesthetics of failure is not total destruction; it is the disappointment of failure.  The aesthetics of failure, although contained within the framework of prediction can either engender invention or depression. The disappointment felt by painters when the image in the mind is far greater than the image physically in front of them is in reality an exact position. To produce a painting that is better than the image of the mind is to give rise to a product of catastrophe. (To achieve exactness by design and skill is to reach a point of exhaustion and famine.) It is therefore acceptable to assume that an artist that is categorized as a genius has in fact failed more successfully than one who is mediocre.

The challenge that an apprentice required to become a Master is no longer necessary; it is possible to create visual and non-visual works of art without scholarly wisdom or practical experience. However without the foundation of knowledge and skill, the aesthetics of failure cannot be understood. New Media embraces, by its very nature, everything that is innovative. The skills that are required are in many cases prescriptive, an understanding of the aesthetic of the system is not necessary and therefore the ‘imagery’ being produced is becoming predictable, driven by the limitations of the system’s software and not the imagination of the Artist.

New materials and better manufacturing techniques have resulted in more intense colors. Commercial paint, even though Jackson Pollock used it (and I used it) in the last century, has developed into the preferred paint medium for some painters. Technology has also provided us with new exciting materials and different ways to use them.

I am using vinyl, a material I have used commercially, as my preferred medium. The “plasticness” of commercial vinyl tapes, their tactile and glossy qualities make them vibrant and alive; when juxtaposed against natural materials or organic shapes and colors they become a contradiction, a complement, more intense and more synthetic……which is similar to Frank Stella’s work during the 1980’s4 . I have carried out experiments with this vinyl material; I have cut and slashed it to destruction, to gain a better understanding of the inherent stability of this medium. I have rejected the possibilities of cutting out images and shapes by hand…..the aesthetics of the system is more important.

I have subcontracted out my creativity to a computer stencil cutter… this is what I did with machine lithography in 1978/79….I have given the computer cutter more responsibility. The lack of total control is maybe a step towards originality? The fine line that exists between the system successfully (in a commercial sense) succeeding to producing a perfect graphic that can be understood as signage and total failure…where the machine totally becomes auto destructive, is microscopic. By understanding the computer program’s limitations I can exploit its weaknesses. By working out paintings on the computer I can tease the system to fail, bringing into play the aesthetics of failure.

Basic Prediction

Horoscopes in newspapers are based on star signs and birth dates; these predict the day’s events. These predictions are based on the laws of probability and chance. You could read your daily horoscope and make the prediction into a self-fulfilling prophecy, you could go out and find that ‘Tall dark handsome man’ or go on ‘A long journey’. Alternatively you could read your horoscope late in the evening and interpret the day’s events and adapt them to the mystical words. “Yes I did meet someone important today”. The interesting thing about prediction is that you could meet a tall dark handsome man, go on a long journey and meet someone important and never read your horoscope. Does this mean the day’s events were not predicted? Similarly these rules can apply to system-based art and painting.

 

Title: ‘Self Portrait in Red’

The image above is a proposal for a painting whose width is 20 metres and is derived from the source material below. Costs to produce approximately £10,000 to £12,500.

Politics = the aesthetics of the system + the aesthetics of failure = Politics

The billboards around Cuba proclaim Revolution; the heroic gestures of Cuban heroes symbolize the power of Revolution.  Cuba is still in a politicized state of revolution, a religion of the state. Che looks like Christ.

 

Dr. Alisha Kaliciak who I met riding with vaqueros in Cuba took the photograph above. The text on the proposed painting has been written by her and scanned into my system. She is in many respects the creator of the image and her handwriting will sign it. My role is to program it into the system and to make the final formal choices.

 

The red background will be painted in red paint (see materials above) with techniques that are employed in traditional sign writing. (This is knowledge I gained from working for a sign writer in Exeter)

Prediction: the text will be difficult to read, through the system distorting the handwritten quote.
Prediction: the iconic image will be difficult understand, through the system distorting the small graphic.
Prediction: the finished image will not function as a billboard.

Notes: The image of Christ is in fact a metaphor, the finished image should be viewed as a self-portrait. This head of Christ is a design that I adapted for commercial use within the monumental memorial trade (it is based on an American design) and has been copied by system suppliers (for the stone industry) and used as a ‘stock design’ within their software packages. As an artist, who believes in open networks, I am proud of this little iconic image even though I cannot claim its originality. Likewise the use of handwriting is not a new idea for me; during the 1970’s I was fascinated by shorthand and the power secretaries had…understanding a simplified language. During the 1980’s I won a design award (The Crown Memorial Design Award) for the most original memorial design. The design was a simple block of black granite with the signature of the deceased on it.

Link to final Proposal

Disclaimer

This text is subject to prescriptive/predictive rules of a system aesthetic. This text has been written on four computers, two of which are on a network and two of which are stand-alone systems. Each computer is running a different version of a Windows operating systems, (Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows XP). The text is written in Microsoft Word, three are using version 2000 and one is version 97. Three versions are operating with an English dictionary and one (v.2000) is using an American/English dictionary. This text has been written in two locations, my homes in Bromsgrove and Woolacombe. This text has been subject to 100’s of system protocols, however the structure of the text is predictable; each computer has its own subtle nuances and offers syntax and grammatical recommendations. I am not completely responsible for this text, my systems are. My main contribution is editing and using the cut and paste facility. If I had attempted to write this in its finished running order, it would have taken me longer to write…my spelling is appalling and my grasp of grammar is minimal…the written word is not my preferred method of expression. This text would not exist without the existence of the system.

This page has been created in a non ‘web-prescriptive’ manor. The use of Times New Roman font is a positive reaction to the web’s political and aesthetic values. I do not wish to be cool and use prescriptive methods of page creation. I have written this in ‘Word’ (one of the most frowned upon web-prescriptive creative tools) and not Dreamweaver or any other trendy formulaic program…..I do not want to be a part of  the web’s system of aesthetics. (However if you look at the ‘source’ the urge to fiddle with the code was irresistible. This was done in notepad. I have made this page unstable.)

I do not encourage the use of pirated or hacked software.

Art exhibition

BA(hons) degree from Exeter College of Art and Design in #Printmaking

It was with a sense of great sadness that I walked around my old college’s studios and lecture hall as the final exhibition/installation took place.

‘abandoned along with the art education system that it served’

…to be redeveloped as executive housing (maybe).

Meeting old contemporaries there was a shock after thirty years. This is the place that enabled me to lead a varied life and as a result of my graduation show enabled me to eventually play at Hammersmith Odeon (now the Apollo), make page two of the Financial Times and has lead to my mental illness 🙂

20120331-234614.jpg

QUALIFICATIONS I GOT AS A RESULT OF BEING IN THE BUILDING:
Postgraduate Certificate from Wolverhampton University in Painting
BA(hons) degree from Exeter College of Art and Design in Printmaking

Peter Bright (aka This Window)

3D studioThis gallery contains 15 photos.

These are photos of the deserted building in Earl Richards Road North in Exeter the site of the former Exeter College of Art and Design. The building belongs to The University of Plymouth (which was originally a Polytechnic) with its … Continue reading →


Institutional Traits (Series 1)

Institutional Traits 2012This gallery contains 2 photos.

Sarah Bennett installation at Exeter Collage of Art and Design, March/April 2012 Click on images for my thoughts and reactions to this exhibition. Low quality images from employee photo identity cards have been scanned at a high resolution, enlarged and … Continue reading →


Old lecture theatre and painting studio – Exeter Art College

lecture_theatre_exeter_college_of_art_march2012This gallery contains 3 photos.

The derelict painting studios in Exeter College of Art looked smaller than I remember – these were the spaces where I learnt my painting skills and the place where I was told to forget my painting skills.

Sarah Bennett used the empty lecture hall to install ‘Institutional Traits (Series 2)’ which comprised of two large printed photographs of the empty lecture theatre. … Continue reading →

To produce a image that is better than the image of the mind is to give rise to a product of catastrophe. (To achieve exactness by design and skill is to reach a point of exhaustion and famine.) It is therefore acceptable to assume that an artist that is categorized as a genius has failed more successfully than one who is mediocre.

Insitutional Traits 2012

The aesthetics of failure is not total destruction; it is the enjoyment of failure. The degradation of an image is a metaphor for aging and decay – for something to be perfect requires a belief in romanticism. To expect perfection is to turn your back on realism.

Exeter Graveyard (1977)
Exeter Graveyard (1977) (Photo credit: This Window)