Saturday, January 28, 2012

Theo Jansen


Theo Jansen
Country: Scheveningen, Netherland
Birth: 1948
Official Site link

He grew up with a knack for both physics and art, and studied physics at the University of Delft. While at Delft, Jansen was involved in many projects that involved both art and technology, including a paint machine and a UFO. In 1990, he began what he is known for today: building large animals out of PVC that are able to live on their own. His animated works are a fusion of art and engineering; in a car company (BMW) television commercial Jansen says: "The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds." He strives to equip his creations with their own artificial intelligence so they can avoid obstacles by changing course when one is detected, such as the sea itself.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

UWE VC Lvl2 Introductory Lecture - Traversing a Postmodern Landscape


Traversing a Postmodern Landscape (there’s no going back)


Lecturer: Dr Sue Tate

Many commentators have observed a cultural shift occurring in the 20th century from Modernism (capital M) to ‘postmodernism’. This lecture attempts to map that journey and explore some key features of the postmodern terrain. Some argue that ‘postmodernism’ is already a thing of the past but this lecture will argue that there have been significant shifts in culture and the way ‘culture’ is understood, that indelibly mark the contemporary world and  provide the context for the strands that you will be studying this semester.

The first part of the lecture will identify some key aspects of Modernism and then plot the reaction to it in the emergence of ‘postmodernism’ as a practice and a concept. This shift is most clearly seen in architecture in the 1970s, but we will also look at Pop Art (sometime seen as the first postmodern movement), fashion, film, fine art and graphics

The term postmodernism is very fluid and contested but the lecture will attempt to identify key concepts, approaches and issues that shape the terrain and give context to both your practice and your lived experience. Through examples from all areas of visual culture, we will explore, among other things

  • a postmodern lexicon: appropriation, parody, pastiche, intertextuality, eclecticism, irony, simulacra, hyper-reality
  • issues of representation and identity (the de-centred subject).
  • The collapse of hi/low cultural boundaries
  • Media saturation, consumerism, a ‘society of signs’ and the knowing consumer
  • The end of metanarratives – considering both problems and potential
Finally the lecture will signpost the ways in which the issues and concerns that have been raised inform and provide the context for the ‘strands’ that we are offering for your study this semester (Image & Identity, Taste and Values, Things, and The Creative Workplace).



Digitised readings:

STRINATI, (1995 ) ‘Postmodernism’ from An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture  Routledge

WHEALE, NIGEL  (1995 ) ‘Postmodernism: from Elite to Mass Culture?’ in Nigel Wheale (ed) 1995 Postmodern arts: an introductory reader Routledge.

Suggested further reading:

BERTENS, Hans (1995)          The idea of the Postmodern : A History  Routledge

BROWN, Stephen (1995)         Postmodern Marketing  Routledge
See Chapter 3 ‘What have you got in there, King Kong’ p.64

BUTLER, Judith (1990)            Gender Trouble : Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge

CONNOR, Steven (1997)         Postmodernist Culture : An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary  (second edition) Blackwell

FEATHERSTONE M (1991)     Consumer Culture & Postmodernism, Sage

HARAWAY, Donna J.(1991)     Simians, Cyborgs, and Women : The Reinvention of Nature  Free Association Books

HUYSSEN, Andreas (1990)      ‘Mapping the Postmodern’  in Feminism/Postmodernism
             Linda NICHOLSON ed.  Routledge 1990
                                   
JAMESON, Frederick (1991)    Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Verso

JENCKS, Charles (1981)         The Language of Postmodern Architecture. Academy Editions

KLEIN, Naomi (2000)               No Logo  Flamingo

NAVA M. et al (eds) (1997)      Buy This Book : Studies in Advertising and Consumption  Routledge. see Part V ‘Readers as producers of meaning’ and Part VI ‘Consumption and Identity’

OWENS, Craig (1983)              ‘The Discourse of Others : Feminists and Postmodernism’ in Postmodern Culture ed Hal FOSTER      Pluto Press p.57

POLHEMUS, Ted (1994)         ‘The Supermarket of Style’ in Street Style  p. 130 Thames and  Hudson

POSTER, Mark (ed) (1988)      Jean Baudrillard : Selected Writings  Polity Press

VENTURI and
SCOTT-BROWN (1993)                       Learning from Las Vegas  MIT Press (revised edition)                                                  (original version 1972)

WILSON and ASH (1992)         ‘Fashion and the Postmodern Body’ in Chic Thrills, Pandora.
p.3

WHEALE, Nigel (1995)                        Postmodern Arts  Routledge



Friday, January 13, 2012

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Unaware Series

Latest Work 2011 - Unaware Series



Space, is an important element in my artworks. When I was creating this series of artwork, I was in a situation that filled me with fear and uncertainty, I do not know what is awaiting even in the near future, unfriendly information come to me furiously, they filled my conscious, let everything fall into uneasiness and darkness. Therefore I created a deep and murky space, where I was lost. In this modern world, we think that we are safe under the bright light, but we are actually in the dark, like how we may never know what truth is. Everything is out of control, but our fear, our uneasiness is kept deep within our conscious. Will the mild light bring us out from this darkness? or it is just a fading hope? Deep in this darkness, are we communicating to the unaware gloominess? If this fear came from our hearts, is this whoever that is talking to us, our real self that has been pressed away for a long time?


对现状的不安,对未知的恐惧,对未来的彷徨。

在 我的作品中,空间是一个很重要的元素。在创作这系列作品的时候,我对我的状态充满恐惧,无法预知的未来,铺天盖地的负面资讯,充斥着我的意识,这一切无法 预知的状态就放佛我身处在一片黑暗之中。在黑暗中,我们不知所措。在现在的时代,我们认为自己身在光明中,而我们其实处在黑暗。一切都变得无法掌握,我们 彷徨,我们恐惧,我们的内心觉得不安,它仿佛是一种欲呼而出的呐喊,但却被压抑在潜意识的最深处。而黑暗中的光明,是会带领我们走出这混沌的空间的向导? 又或者,它只是一个会随时消失的希望?深入这令人恐惧的黑暗之中,我们展开的是与未知的对话?如果这恐惧是来自我们的内心,那正与我们展开对话的,是那个 我们平时压抑的真实的自己?

















Anxiety
Charcoal on Paper
29.7 x 21cm
2011