Okay I've just finished reading the detournement article by Guy Debord and I don't really get what this guy is talking about...
What I understood was that detournement is a fresh and innovative way to create new works by combining different materials. He argues that no matter how contradicting the materials used are, the finished piece will always link the materials together to form a new meaning (the contradiction can be the meaning in itself.) Another pro of detournment is that it can be mass reproduced as there are limitless combinations of works.
Then he starts to relate detournment with metagraphics and writing, which starts to get a but confusing for me. First of all I don't know what metagraphics mean...so I plugged it in on the wiki and it gives me the definition, "merges poetry (text) with more visual (graphic) ways of communication such as painting, illustration or signs." I understood this to be some form of mixed media art, possibly closest to the ads we see everyday.
After he talks about how titles are strongly linked to detournement as well. I guess that the title usually uses quoted material (similar to what we did in phase 1) to form a new meaning with the visual that accompanies it.
Shortly after, he talks about the laws of detournement.
From what I understood from this article, detournement relates closely to art and advertising. I can't seem to find anything that doesn't fall in the category of detournement besides original literature (but then what is original.) Detournement is a useful tool because it gives us a deeper level of understanding by linking the material used to create it together. Usually humor is raised when someone links the materials together if they contradict. However a down side to this is that if things are increasingly detourned, then what is the base of all things? This raises the problem questioned by Baudrillard's simulacra.
source: www.wikipedia.org
Monday, November 3, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
No Lecture...
Today I came to school and was told that the lecture got canceled... I came to school for nothing!! This was my only class for today >_>
Okay anyways, I want to talk a little bit about Milkim's psychology experiment where he tests how far someone will go to push buttons. The subject was told that if the person being tested (which is actually an actor) answers the given questions wrong, then he would push a button giving the actor an electric shock. The subject was given a voice recording as feedback, which depicts the other in increasing levels of pain. Milkim wanted to see if the subject were to use his discretion and stop increasing the voltage of the shocks even if he was given orders by an authority figure. We didn't get a chance to finish the clip, but from what I saw, the subject did hesitate to increase the voltage, however he continued with the experiment when he was told to do so.
I think that in this can be related to internet usage as people push buttons all the time and is given a visual feedback from the screen of the result. There is a need to question the result because it can be fake. The user doesn't experience the result in the same space which he/she resides so the user will never know what truly happen when the button is pressed. Therefore if the user is given instructions to follow, then mostly likely he/she will obey disregarding the consequences. There is a disconnection between the physical world and the virtual world and I think that the ultimate goal for the internet artist to form a bridge between the two worlds.
Okay anyways, I want to talk a little bit about Milkim's psychology experiment where he tests how far someone will go to push buttons. The subject was told that if the person being tested (which is actually an actor) answers the given questions wrong, then he would push a button giving the actor an electric shock. The subject was given a voice recording as feedback, which depicts the other in increasing levels of pain. Milkim wanted to see if the subject were to use his discretion and stop increasing the voltage of the shocks even if he was given orders by an authority figure. We didn't get a chance to finish the clip, but from what I saw, the subject did hesitate to increase the voltage, however he continued with the experiment when he was told to do so.
I think that in this can be related to internet usage as people push buttons all the time and is given a visual feedback from the screen of the result. There is a need to question the result because it can be fake. The user doesn't experience the result in the same space which he/she resides so the user will never know what truly happen when the button is pressed. Therefore if the user is given instructions to follow, then mostly likely he/she will obey disregarding the consequences. There is a disconnection between the physical world and the virtual world and I think that the ultimate goal for the internet artist to form a bridge between the two worlds.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Phase 1 problems
I'm just trying to put phase 1 together today and I have encountered a few problems I don't know how to fix. I didn't want the frame boarders to show so I wrote framboarder="0" in my frame src, the frame boarder is gone...but is substituted by white lines.....I don't know how to get rid of these annoying white lines and it is very obvious against the black background I have put up. Another problem is that I don't know how to change the colour of the links separately and not as a whole. I have tried to put them in divs and change them separately on css but it doesn't work. I hope I will get these fixed in class on Wednesday.
I hope I am on the right track and I want to see what sort of things my classmates have done for their phase 1.
I hope I am on the right track and I want to see what sort of things my classmates have done for their phase 1.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Not Art Not Technology?
I just finished a reading from another class titled 'Sculpture in the Expanded Field' by Rosalind Krauss and I found it interesting how she defined the term sculpture by using two contradictory words, then expanded it in to a diagram: here
I thought this provided a deep understanding of the term sculpture and I thought that it would interesting to come up with a diagram of my own.
The 2 contradictory words I am using is art and technology, and the 2 that are opposite to those is not art and not technology. I would place 'interface' between art and technology because they require the interaction between the audience and the piece. The word 'thought' would lie between not art and not technology because it is a free flowing process that occurs in the head, it has no physical manifestation. Now...the word between art and not art would be 'ready-mades', these objects are made purely to function, but can seen as art through different contexts. Lastly the term between technology and not technology would be 'skeltons of nature' because it isn't man-made to help us extend the functions of our body, but simple thing like dry branches can be used as a pen to write in sand.
I thought this provided a deep understanding of the term sculpture and I thought that it would interesting to come up with a diagram of my own.
The 2 contradictory words I am using is art and technology, and the 2 that are opposite to those is not art and not technology. I would place 'interface' between art and technology because they require the interaction between the audience and the piece. The word 'thought' would lie between not art and not technology because it is a free flowing process that occurs in the head, it has no physical manifestation. Now...the word between art and not art would be 'ready-mades', these objects are made purely to function, but can seen as art through different contexts. Lastly the term between technology and not technology would be 'skeltons of nature' because it isn't man-made to help us extend the functions of our body, but simple thing like dry branches can be used as a pen to write in sand.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Fluxus Movement
I thought it would be nice to research a little bit about my presentation topic around this time. I picked the 'Fluxus Movement' because the name implies that it is something flowy and fluctuating. To my surprise, the meaning of the actual words comes from the latin word meaning 'to flow.'
Well...after that discovery I'm starting to get a headache because a lot of results just googling the word. There is a lot of diversity to this term and many different perspectives, but I finally found something on the wiki that can briefly sum up what this is about:
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxus#Artistic_philosophies
Well...after that discovery I'm starting to get a headache because a lot of results just googling the word. There is a lot of diversity to this term and many different perspectives, but I finally found something on the wiki that can briefly sum up what this is about:
- Fluxus is an attitude. It is not a movement or a style. (then why fluxus'movement'?)
- Fluxus is intermedia.Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect. They use found and everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts. (Ooo this sounds like a lot of what we are doing in class)
- Fluxus works are simple. The art is small, the texts are short, and the performances are brief. (I like minimalists :])
- Fluxus is fun. Humour has always been an important element in Fluxus. (yay)
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxus#Artistic_philosophies
Sunday, October 12, 2008
More Phase One Quotes
Today I was reading a few articles for my Urban Culture class and I came across a few more quotes that I thought would be a good addition to my phase one idea.
"the process of inclusion necessarily implicates the rules of exculsion"- Couze Venn
"the only secure thing about modernity is its insecurity, its penchant even, for totalizing chaos" - David Harvey
It think that I won't use any border or allow dragging for the frames because I want this to emphasize on the different combinations of quotes. Too many distractions will mute this point. As for the colours, I would use red, black, and white, playing on the appropriation of the posters and billboards by Barbara Kruger.
Yep...and HAPPY THANKSGIVING
"the process of inclusion necessarily implicates the rules of exculsion"- Couze Venn
"the only secure thing about modernity is its insecurity, its penchant even, for totalizing chaos" - David Harvey
It think that I won't use any border or allow dragging for the frames because I want this to emphasize on the different combinations of quotes. Too many distractions will mute this point. As for the colours, I would use red, black, and white, playing on the appropriation of the posters and billboards by Barbara Kruger.
Yep...and HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Boomerang
This Monday, Mark showed us a piece called "Boomerang" by Richard Serra. It was a short movie of a woman listening to her delayed voice on headphones. Her task was to describe her experience.
I found it quite amusing to listen to her speech because she would speak random nonsense as her voice was delayed. People constantly need feedback to confirm their actions, and with delay, the woman doesn't know how to respond or act. On the other hand, if she chooses to ignore the instant feedback as we are used to, her thoughts and speech would be cut off by her own words boomeranged back at her from a few seconds ago.
This relates to the concept of embodiment and disembodiment, the headphones have isolated the woman from herself by putting her in an alien situation. In a way, she was disembodied at the same moment words pour out of her mouth and was re-embodied when she hears her voice in delay. There is a pause in between as she doesn't speak.
This piece is a good example of how technology enhances art's intentions. It would be impossible to replicate this simple interface without the aid of technology. I think that in a way, art is art when someone believes it to be, it doesn't matter what medium it is in.
I found it quite amusing to listen to her speech because she would speak random nonsense as her voice was delayed. People constantly need feedback to confirm their actions, and with delay, the woman doesn't know how to respond or act. On the other hand, if she chooses to ignore the instant feedback as we are used to, her thoughts and speech would be cut off by her own words boomeranged back at her from a few seconds ago.
This relates to the concept of embodiment and disembodiment, the headphones have isolated the woman from herself by putting her in an alien situation. In a way, she was disembodied at the same moment words pour out of her mouth and was re-embodied when she hears her voice in delay. There is a pause in between as she doesn't speak.
This piece is a good example of how technology enhances art's intentions. It would be impossible to replicate this simple interface without the aid of technology. I think that in a way, art is art when someone believes it to be, it doesn't matter what medium it is in.
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