Collage Works

This is two collages that I made for my Master Project!

WOW it was been a great, tiresome, exhausted enlighten journey for completing the project.

Making these collages are actually helping so much with my project.

I wish I had started right at the beginning. 

Hope you enjoy these two collages that I made. 

Hybridity and Collage and Grotesque

The other day I attended a seminar organised by History of art department with Film studies department.  The seminar ‘The cinema experience today and the current prominence of the grotesque in
cinema and visual culture’ was held by Professor Annie van den Oever from University of Groningen.

The reason that I choose this seminar is because I think hybridity is quite related to my research project.
The professor started to introduce an exhibition of Tim Burton which she enjoys a lot in Paris.  It starts with how Tim burton and Fellini construct their storyline by drawing the characters on paper first.  These drawings provides material for chains of events happens in the story.

She starts with the idea of aesthetic has three major categories: Beauty, Sublime, Grotesque.
Within this genre, the grotesque figure usually has a distorted figure, such as bigger eyes, weird skin colour.  These figures also impossible to be categorised in the normal categories, they have a rather distinct biological, ontological categories.

Another example was mentioned is the figure Jester, a man dresses upside down.

These monstrous, double faced, lower bodily quality but entertain characters, when they appear in the cinema, they are rather artful, full of craft skill. They are a fusion, disproportion, formless gigantic.  The grotesque as an artistic technique, through defamiliarisation would force the audience to see a common thing in a unfamiliar and strange way.  The best example that she gave in the lecture was the artworks from Giuseppe Archimboldo, his works features a way of organising daily objects (ie. Vegetables)

She also mentioned the Uncanny Valley, that by smoothing the human skin could create another grotesque, hybrid figure even if it looks perfectly just like human.
Some other interesting examples that she mentioned in the lecture are

1: Grandma's reading glasses –as the first close-up shot 1900

2: Cindy Sherman
3: Marlene Dumas

and some other interesting essays that I wished I had this seminar earlier so that I ll know these books and read them for my master project.

• Wolfgang Kayser 
  An Attempt to Define the Nature of the Grotesque 
• the grotesque in Art and Literature.
• Frances S. Connelly  Modern art and the Grotesque
• Noel Caroll 

all the audience walked into cinema, and the experience is natural, confrontational and sensational.
Followed by some discussion but somehow became a Fellini film appreciation society.  Similar situation could also be found in an art discussion, somehow become a memory competition of who can remember the more works from the same artists, or the artists who can be categorised in such way.

Sometimes I found that a lot of people come to discuss with a bunch of quotations they learnt from books or articles on their shoulder.  As if the reason they ask questions is really about to show other people "yeah, i remember this metaphor." "AHHA! Look how smart I am to use this expression."
and I am just wondering what is the point of participating a discussion in person, when you always quote, or speak somebody elses' thoughts instead of developing your own voice?

They seems to me are a bunch of A students that is always afraid about failure.  However, I don't think the word failure was defined correctly in most people's heart. So do I, the old me I would say.

I think failure should be something ends different in the way you anticipated which makes you sad or disappointed.

Anyway I enjoyed this film seminar.  I just really don't like how the discussion went, it wasn't only a Fellini film appreciation society, but also a competition of movie titles.

Research Process

Just read something from Italo Calvino. (Reading Italo Calvino online free)

Just wondering if I should write about my breakfast this morning into the novella as well. 

Just in case Neil would like to know. 

Just thought the breakfast is also a very important part of my research. 

Just worried about if it's too late to approach post modern writing. 

Just wrote down a sentence 'I read Everything is illuminated' by Jonathan the Jew' on my blog. 

Just thought it is actually a truth but why it feels like a lie when I typed it out. 

Just decided that I should write about my breakfast also my weekend in my novella. 

Just confirmed with myself that my weekend is too interested to not write about it. 

Just grow another admiration for English.

Just almost teared a book of 'Billy childish' apart.

Just confirmed again that some of this artist's writing is unbearable boring. 

Just felt very regretted about taking the book 'Sex crime of the Futcher'
Just thought 'Ok, no the book is actually okay.'

Just tried to remember why I took this book.

Just realised that I took any book contains 'Sex' 'Rape' 'Erotic' 'Porn' 

Just thought about what would I do if I can choose my research project again. 

Just thought it's time to stop. 

The Shocking Value of Art

Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston by Daniel Edwards 

     Reread the introduction of Art and Outrage written by John Walker reminds me of the anger after attending several gallery exhibitions in Berlin during my visit there. 

I remember i wasn't very interested to go into any sort of gallery opening anymore, not only because they stop giving free booze (I don't think I will have to create any footnote for this) but because of the reason that after seeing so many penis in different gallery shows, I evolved a great confusion of art. 

although, it is nice to know that I am not alone.  John walker pointed out in his book that the combination of avant garde ideology + capitalist market in art = encouraged individualism and extremism. 

We went through the age of harmonious, organic compositions to now the value of beauty was replaced by cults of the primitive and the ugly. The change shows that artists' desire to shock and startle the bourgeois class, and their work refused to provide meaning and context because it meant to be experienced as a shock! by withdraw the meaning will direct the reader's attention to question about life and feel the need to change it. 

      However, what happens now when this kind of works have become the norm.  When avant garde became institutionalized, gallery visitor being 'trained' to prepare that being shock before they entre art galleries, maybe the shock value is no longer as significant as they were before. 


     It is certain to me that most of the human attention being attract to deformity, ugliness, sensational objects, which happens to be what mass media mostly interested in, which attracts the most publicity, however the combination of shocking art production and make profit out of shock lead to a recipe of disaster. Producing art that wishes to disgusted where no man has disgusted before is not artistic, but rather for startling people. 


    From another book 'Art and Fear', Paul Virilio was telling about how the contemporary artists live in the time which impacted by Nazi concentration camp and accepted the side-effect produces pitiless art, and how the technology development makes genetic become a culture thus artists started to abandon ethics. 


I have always interested in the ethics in art, and actually that is my original idea for my master project, which now develop into a form of Frankenstein.  I found it is very hard, such a challenge to present the ethical argument as Shelly did in the novel. 

Frankenstein Game Trial

Curator Jérôme Sans and others /during the opening of This is Fucking Awesome 

F E E D B A C K   A N D   C R I T I C

     This afternoon I gave a trial on my game intervention on the Mafia game, there are several suggestion from the players that I found very useful. 

also it was very fruitful that people who were playing with know each other to a certain degree, and willing to play, and actually put into the role. 

The moderator is a very key factor for whether or not the game would be successful or not, also as a moderator, I have to be careful that what I said and my behavior, body language might affect players judgement.  

• It might be good to walk around the room, so that people wouldn’t be able to guess who I am. 
• Try not to reveal any of the character during the night cycle. 
• Being able to impose strategic thoughts into the players mind. 
• Try to find out a way to manipulate the whole game as the moderator, because the moderator has the ultimate power (MEGA-CURATOR)
• Will the metaphor work?

I found it is very interesting if I keep reminding people that they have to base on their understanding towards each other, also making judgement based on previous events. 

The moderator can play with the memory, and I found it is good to suggest people that they should suspect people’s behavior. 

HOW THE IDEA CAME FROM

Basically the idea came from several texts that I have been given during the seminar discussion, it was involved with a lot of discussion on authorship and the shifted nature of contemporary art scene. It is important that I found the role of the curator requires the ability to not only be a observant also be a predator, Mafia and curator shared several common feature are 

• Dominate Character
• The possibility of collusion (Price fixing with the collectors and auction house) 

It is not to accuse people’s morality, but to think of what is the mean to get what you want. 

It is hard for artists to think they are the civilian, and this is not all true as well. But considering the possibility that after all, it is not everybody who will going to be a predator, so we need to know how to work and how to create the best scenario even if the role that you taken is not the dominate role.  I found the common feature between artists and civilians are 

• Working as a collective
• May or may not have sufficient power.
• The information they know, and the resources they can use, are often limited, and being filtered.
• Emerging artists might often work collectively
• The information of the economic value of their work, the placement of their works aren’t being controlled by the artists during the most cases.  

During the accusation period, is the only time that the artists may have certain power to eliminate the curators, but they have to be careful because the face that curators may affect the situation by accusing another person, or even the critics, and then the artists might ending up eliminate the role who helps them. 




Key to win the game: It is essencial to do during the accusation time (Day circle) for Curators (Mafia), Critic(Detective), Academic scholar(Doctor) to put your feet in other people's shoes, to estimate how they would think and act during the night time. 


It is also very important for artists to question, who is accusing and trying to guide people to support their own goal, rather than consider others benefit? ( Who said this is good art, and how to manipulate the auction price?) 


There will be more allegories for exhibition scenario and the role of academic scholar, Critic later on my blog.  So stay tune. 

On Monsters

Gothic Literature reading 1

     Due to my research project is highly engaging with Mary Shelly’s novel, Frankenstein, so I have decided to look at some of the genres it belongs to, and try to think about an appropriate account for my narrator of the story.  Frankenstein is my structure of the novella that I am about to write concerning the situation and dynamic within the art world, at the beginning I am trying to find out who is doctor Frankenstein in the art world, and who is the monster being create until I found out more analytic view regards to the Gothic genre. 

      From the book “Skin Show” that I am currently engaging with, I read about that there are actually more symbolic meaning within the monster, also people’s fascination towards monsters.  Monsters who are being create in the novel are usually symbolise a certain degree of foreignness, people portrait the unknown, uncanny, and unfamiliar to a monster, in 19th century, monster was seen as a form of various sexual and racial threat to the nation, the bourgeoise, the capitalism.  Also, the portrait of monster is also become a mean to realize racism such as Dracula, his/her figure is being portraits according to people s stereotype of Jews. 

     The power of literary horror, indeed, lies in its ability to transform political struggles into psychological conditions and then to blur the distinction between the two .... use language of race hatred to characterise monstrosity as a representation of psychological disorder. 

       Another interesting point is that the monster is a creature that lingers between good and evil, health and perversity, crime and punishment, truth and deception, inside and outside, dissolve and threaten the integrity of the narrative itself.  From my personal point of view, a narrator is usually a canonical account when they tell the story, they usually stands as a moral role to make readers to acknowledge their morality through their narration.  Somehow with the special feature of the monster challenged the position and authority in the novel.  

     So far it is very interesting for me how people to create an image in which they put in a story by using negative description can make then actually start to resent whoever fits into the description. Here I m trying to reason how does it work. I found out this blurring boundaries maybe an issue of why people can easily connect this negative image together.  The monster can not be create without Mankind, it is a in-between creature, this inbetweeness makes them easily being justified as anything, good/evil, homo/ straight, right/wrong, because there is no rules for this creature, at least not mankind can think of.  

     Here, I found monster is a symbol of something being create or exist before but have difficulty to fit in the norms.  one kind that has no rules to follow, hard to create an system to justify them, has different skin color in which I argued in the contemporary world, skin color has become less effective than it would before, language uses, behaviour. 

Donald Barthelme Snow White

The commitment from Snow White

"... and if you let me stay, I will keep house for you, I will wash, sew, sweep, cook!"

DOGTOOTH (1)

     

Dogtooth presents a world in which all the information was provided by the father, where the kids (one man, two sisters) were being kept away from rest of the world, and receiving filtered information from their parents.  Start from the use of language, different definition of words were being taught, they believe that the outer world is hostile and dangerous. The only way to go out is by their dad driving cars.  

This article is not about Yorgos' shooting style or how ground breaking the film is, although it is one of the films that I appreciates the most during these years. 

With the whole control of any sort of media, the father create a parallel universe from the outer world.  They have their own dynamic, ethic, relationship within the family.  They believed in whatever their father says because he was the only resource to new knowledge and the outside world. 

Media filter

when information is overloaded, people grow lazy and tiredness to select information, or through our search engine (ex: Google, Yahoo, MSN), all the information was being calculated, those who paid for ads or being paid much attention to will appears on the first line on search engine. Our information was carefully being manipulated under the circumstance that I thought we choose to know/ we search for the information by the fact that it is out of our free will to research it, and type in the information by our hand. 

In the film, there are different new words being brought up by the stranger/ sex need provider, Christina.  She as an intruder of the world somehow create an poignent for the environ.  Children enquire truth through asking their information resource - Father/ mother. But without the possibility of questioning the fact and accept it instantly.  The duplication effect by internet is tremendous, people who read about it might produced a certain knowledge through it, being presented in discussion, by talking and information spreading, blogging, Facebook status share, and then being recognised by mass media/ 3rd objective holder.  

Different opinions are more marginalise by the amount of information which constructed by search engine and internet sharing culture (By clicking sharing botton on social media, copy and paste motion). And people were being educated into a certain kind of group, as collecting stickers (Dogtooth)  pursing an eternal goal. 

Entertainment is all related to the need to be positive and creative thinking is in the contemporary art world. Only to entertain yourself when victories happen, mission completed, or being submissive. 

Punishment 

Being different and active is prohibited.  When authority facing challenge (ex: Questioning, React, Self-reflective, doubt), they tend to perform physical harm action, to make the subject fear, hurt, unsettle, thus to stop their action and become submissive.  Punishment can be seen not only physical abuse but also mentally torture. unacceptable, frustration, exclude become another way of punish, society form itself a wall of secure, of normality.  Oddity or Queerness being condemned by media, community safety become a shield that under the shield, all the actions could be tolerated, accepted, legitimised. By different packaging strategies we can see how Marylyn Manson being portraits as a dominent reason in Columbine massacre but Gun culture still being celebrated and well accepted in the US (not necessarily adapted all Michael Moore's point of view though).

The boy believe that cat is a predator comes from outer world. ©Dogtooth

When authority's voice empowered in such way, the absolute and non self reflexive reaction will be create. Such as cats in the film become a predator, vilified by the authority and incest become acceptable. The power of topdown educational system is enormous in this sense. And the spread, shared culture is actually not only effective our community but also powerful enough to put the mass into a single pipe so we all being directed to a communal direction which causing the blind faith and through this process, pervasive value being create.

Here an epistemological question appears : "How do we know what we know?"

Prize

Popular = prize.  the value of being accepted by majority was taught within our massive shared culture.
With tags such as "Most viewed" "Most emailed" "Most comment",  Ranking on IMDB, sale number which displayed in the shop...  We can also see in emerging numbers of talk show inviting kids whose video gots most viewing numbers to be on TV and were given prizes. (Such as Connie from Britain gots talent, Kassie on Ellen Degeneres, and recently Jake Booth on Jimmy Kimmel)

Why popularity become so important on media? is that how they shaping our value by enacting with them how they want?



Question
Is sharing culture = folk lore = story telling? 

DUCK HEAD, DUCK AND HEAD, THAT IS.

The duck that I made in casting room photo by Boco

I just had tutorial with Neil, and we had around like 45 mins or so to talk about my plan towards my thesis.

I started with the book that Neil suggested me last time "Folk devils and Moral Panics" by Stanley Cohen.   and also with my recent develop interest in the novel "Frankenstein."  My concept is to use Frankenstein as a structure for my thesis/ novel intervention.  

through the novel and the collaboration, I want to question/ examine how the contemporary art world being shaping and the moral ethic within it.  

Frankenstein was set up in industrialisation background, when people focus on Sciences and trying to mechanising everything and so Shelly create such allegory to warn that it might ending up generating a monster.  I though of what happened now with the booming senario of creative industry.  

Frankenstein as the original novel ---> by copy/ padary/ -----> duplicate 

• an assemblage/ collage of Flesh and different things that actually doesn't fit together. 
• A warning for people/ monstrous 

Neil also suggested me besides to read the novel, I can also start to read some of the summery from Yorknote so that can help me to be able to see more on the structure rather being caught up by the small/ trivial plots.

Rewriting/ Folk telling/ hear-say Process 

     A rewriting process is also one of my concern since I have no intention to just quote Shelly's story and then giving an example about what happened in the contemporary art world.  NO NO NO!

so this is what i'm gonna do and what neil suggested me.

• Donalf barthelme rewrite the folk tale "Snow White" which apparently a good writing of it. His writing has the self aware writing style thus makes you aware that you are reading it, you are being posed as an objected view.  And the speech style. 
• Vladimir Propp -  is an russian Formalist, " The Morphology of the folk tale" examine how folk tale being transformed over time and by different people who was telling it.   Because there must be something changed due to the person who was telling it are different, there might be something missing, something being mistranslated, something being added up to... or using different words.  Retelling ---> Same---> Script.

Frankenstein in Contemporary Art World

     Questioning what this idea of assemblage and collage of different in contemporary art world. 

• "Raising Frankenstein"was telling how curators combine different elements within CAT, and thus to generate the new meaning of it.
• The notion of "Frankenstein Courses"
• Working online (very common nowadays) the webpage itself is also has "frankenstein" element as there are different elements will appear on the same page as well. 

Folk Tale is also has the element of Frankenstein because it is like everyday resistance.

Most people think Frankenstein as a horrible figure/ and something horrible.

Propp---- > like everything we do (to be checked)

Methodology 

in terms of methodology, I can use retell/ examine the iconic figure as my method and to apply "folk devils and moral panics" and "Art & Fear" by Paul Vilrilio   

the spread of mouth/ hear-say.... 

• "Art and outrageous" --- John. A. Walker : folk devil within art world such as Damien Hirst the pissed christ.  

-------> as artist build up their fame by offending people 

• White elephant: nothing going on there.

• A folk devil example by Neil

Occupy London as an example to see the different picture and approach from the sun and the Guardian. 

Idea >> Creating a fake artist as a folk devil. 

• Art&Fear " by Paul Virilio: as an allegory which apply this idea of Frankenstein a lot. 
• we can examine artist who manipulate the body (the body as the site)

Turning harmless people to a harmful thing thus to create moral panic ----> being able to control people and manipulate people. 

In my opinion so far, I think the media is the scientist in Frankenstein who are shaping us into a monster they want and then accusing us that it is actually what we want, in doing this brain wash process, we are ending up generate different monsters and hybrid again and again. 

I also found out it is very interesting that it is always only by creating a fear/ or panic so that we will being able to act and gain public awareness. 

Neil brings up there is this notion within Nazi group the called has the notion of means of achieving happiness is to be physically fit and healthy.  This is also dealing with the notion of being pure and unpure. 

Similar example in Sweden would be Masculine christian, so most of them need to be very fit and pure. 

I also like to mention two films that I'm thinking of the engaging with 

• Dogtooth by Giorgos Lanthimos
• The Boss of it all by Lars Von Trier 
• Idiots by Lars Von Trier
• Baise Moi by  Virginie Despentes (not sure about it yet, but I m thinking this elements of experiencing twisting the whole conventional notion of female as a week role within the film. 

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Nov 8


My tutorial with Angela, 


Angela reminds me to be careful that to put all the blame on "media" and I should also try to see if other  factors is part of the reason to shape the contemporary art world as a monster which being created. 


In terms of methodology, my methodology also the literary references with in "folk devils and moral panics/ Frankenstein can be my resources.  


also take a look at why we have this idea of investing in stock market could be an risky investment however it is safe to invest on art works? and who is behind this? who is creating this ideology?


It might be helpful to create a visual outline map and to help me to linear my idea on pictures.