Reading Response: Art in the Age of Mechanical Production

For this week's reading assignment, we were asked to read Walter Benjamin's article, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Production.  The article is articulating a change in perspective about art-making in contemporary society, as a result of some technological innovations. The main vein of ideology that I can discern is how capitalistic production has altered the way that art is produced and distributed, and as a result, capitalistic production has subliminally altered the way we appreciate art.
In modern day society, the idea of capitalistic production has slowly incorporated itself into every facet of our lives. We are constantly looking for faster, easier ways to accomplish tasks and relay information. This can be seen plainly in the innovation of photography. Before the camera, a painting was the only way to capture a moment to preserve it through the ages. Once the camera was invented, the creative mind was free from time consuming production and set its sights on other creative processes.

The article describes some seemingly negative aspects of this change in production as it settles into more and more facets of our lives. One such negative aspect is described as the "decay of the aura." Because we can now access art so quickly and easily, the magic that surrounded the act of art-making is losing its power. For instance, because you can easily and quickly grab a picture of the mona lisa with a quick google search, people are much less inclined to go see the work in real life.  Hence, the aura, the magic of the physical object is appreciated less because people feel that they have already experienced the art. This can be a great thing for the "global village," because it is allowing people who have never had the chance, to experience art for the first time, but it is also leading to the degradation of the romance of art. The traditional idea of art is that it is special and personal and unique, that it is an instrument of magic. Only secondary, is the work's value as an exhibition. However, the speed of distribution in contemporary society is separating the audience from their personal relationship with the artist. In essence, the ritual of painting/drawing/producing art is no longer important, and, contemporary society, now flooded with imagery from all angles, no longer cares to distinguish one process from another. The audience now views all images in the same category and we categorize art as existing for the sake of itself.

One section that I found to be particularly informative is section VIII.  It uses the analogy of theatrical actor vs. film actor to describe this change in thought. It suggests that when a person goes to see a theatrical performance, he or she experiences not "just acting," but the aura of the actor themselves; that the visceral experience of seeing the performer is the creation of a personal relationship with the actor in their entirety. Whereas, with a film actor, the audience receives only the actors interpretation of their role. Therefore, the audience's experience of the acting is separated from the actor's total being and as a result, they sit comfortably in the position of critic. They are free to judge and analyze the actors performance as it relates to all of acting and as a result, the audience has no obligation to consider the processes the actor undertook to achieve a result.

Overall, the article can be a bit confusing to try and tie down to one concept. However, I agree with the author in their interpretation of the change in aesthetic value occurring in contemporary society. I definitely perceive a distinct difference in new vs. old aesthetics. As an artist, I have these ideas about where the honor of art lies, but it is my job as an artist to attempt to connect with an audience, and therefore, it is my responsibility to analyze the way art is perceived, as perceptions inevitably change. It is quite a guessing game in contemporary society to analyze what the word "art" means and anything that can shed light on this guessing game is worth considering.

NEW ART

Here are a couple sketches that I have been working with in the past few months. I have recently gone back to drawing as a means of generating new ideas. I have been working specifically on changing the way that I make marks with a hope that I can take my work in photoshop to the next level. I have been interested in scanning in my drawings and altering them in photoshop to create digital works that fit my style, because I haven't found that my photoshop/skills are sharp enough to start from scratch with the pen tool. Not sure how these works will translate in terms of functionality, but I have been exploring and learning through them, to find out what rings true for me in the grand scheme of things.

NEW STUFF!!!!

I am currently beginning a new semester and have decided to continue on my path through advanced digital media by repeating the course to further develop my ideas and technical skills.

We were asked for the first assignment to read and respond to the first chapter of "A New Culture of Learning" by Thomas Douglas and John Seely Brown.

In essence, the first chapter of "A New Culture of Learning" is describing some changes that are occurring in the infrastructure of contemporary society and how those changes are affecting/conflicting with tradition learning models of the 20th century. These changes involve the evolution of technology and media; specifically how their evolution has created new ways to exchange ideas, altering the traditional concepts of the public forum. The chapter articulates a change from a stable, controllable infrastructure to a more fluid one. It describes how the internet has created a world of learning that has infinite possibilities and how learning is no longer bound specifically by a classroom setting. This is allowing for learning at every stage of life as well as permitting the ability to constantly play with new ideas. The method of learning that the chapter suggests is the "Arc of Life" learning model where constant play, investigation, and imagination can occur. This is not to negate the value of traditional learning techniques but rather to augment our understanding of the new tools to which we have access.

The chapter tells the story of a young boy, Sam, who is learning how to use the internet. He begins to play with some new programs that are designed to not only teach children the fundamentals of web design and computer science, but to introduce the children to a community of like minded individuals who can play, critique, and modify the games that he designs. This could never occur before the evolution of the internet, and Sam is now able to learn things that would never have been permitted by a tradition education setting. His experience is expanding tenfold as a result of the addition of a public forum to the process of learning game design/ programming.

I find this to be true in contemporary society, the fact that we all have infinite resources at our finger tips as the result of increasing connectivity between like-minded individuals. Currently, we are all, consciously or unconsciously, receiving and responding to new ideas as well as contributing our own ideas to the public forum as a result of innovations in social media. I also agree that the internet has created a platform for endless play, investigation and imagination. This is expediting the evolution of ideas in many ways, but I often wonder if we benefit. History has proven that we often consider an infinitely expanding world and we often eat our own words when we take things to far, or find out the actual limits of what we can do. What I am saying here is, when moving forward with a new  concept/idea, is a sense of reservation necessary? Will we, in our excitement, make errors that cannot be undone in the future? Is it possible that these changes may not be what we think they are?

Artist Statement: Theme of the semester & Project 3 Conclusion

Over the course of the semester, I have been discussing elements of how we are affected by new media both negatively and positively. As a drawer, graffiti artist, painter and filmmaker/photographer, the new media and its evolving expressive forms serve as a great tool for new understanding, however I have also learned how its innate language has been manipulated in not so positive ways. Promotion and advertising have also had an important influence on my identity as an artist. Over the course of this semester, I have muddled with how to effectively express my ideas in this new media: to understand the fine line between eye candy that revels in pure gadgetry and conceptually fullfilling art that creatively utilizes this new tool that we have. Through the evolution of visual technology, we have created a new reality in a virtual world that is filled with new dilemmas involving honesty, privacy, control, and expression. This is a world where everyone wears a mask, and a “true artist” can no longer make choices without instantaneous critique and criticism. This project will aim to create an objective self portrait on the internet that stands as both a big brother surveillance tool to intimately study my whereabouts but also as a comment on the conceptual evolution of identity itself.

The terms of engagement:

I plan to use various text tools ( log book, map, notepad ) to document my life base on significant categories that I have defined. These include but are not limited to:

1. Interactions with People
2. Personal Thoughts
3. Owned Materials Used
4. Places I travel
5. Products that I Buy
6. Time I spend in each Location

I plan to use several video cameras, my laptop, an iphone, and a still digital camera to facilitate in accurate documentation of these categories of surveillance. The end date of the project is still unknown.

In order to view the website, you must have a specific password, which I must give to you. This key is an element that is unresolved.

I plan to attach this website to my other pages as well as link important elements of the documentation to Facebook pages when permission is granted.

Artist Research Project 3

Project 3 is an evolving video project that will address the way that new media is evolving to affect our understanding of work and the boundaries of distraction and reception.

The first artist I researched that is influencing the concepts behind my third project is Hasan Elahi.

Hasan Elahi is a professor at University of Maryland, where he is the director of Digital Cultures and Creativity in the Honors College. He has exhibited works in Centre Pompidou, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Tate Modern, and has appeared on the popular comedy central series, The Colbert Report. His works tackle simulated time, social implications of media and technology, borders, frontiers and transport systems.

Hasan Elahi was born in Bangladesh and raised in New York City and has U.S. citizenship. In June of 2002, Hasan was re-entrering the country through the Detroit airport when he was detained by the airport's Immigration and Naturalization Services. After waiting in a holding bay with other frightened detainees, Hasan was interrogated concerning his whereabouts on September 12, 2001, the day after the terrorist attack. They were also highly interested in a storage unit owned by Hasan in Florida, which was thought Hasan's cache of explosives.

An avid record keeper, Hasan pulled out his PDA and opened his calendar for September 12, and proceeded to describe where he was, what meetings he attended that day, etc. After cooperating Hasan was eventually released that day at the airport. However, a few weeks later, Hasan was again interrogated by an F.B.I. agent about his potential involvement with Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, etc. After he was told that he would have to check in periodically with the F.B.I. so they could keep him under close watch.

Hasan saw this as an opportunity to make a statement about the social implications of this type of surveillance. Hasan began recording all of his actions taking thousands of pictures, including the food he ate, places he walked, and even the bathrooms he has used. He has now taken the "pressure of surveillance" out of the hands of the F.B.I, and has begun to surveil himself. Now you can always find Hasan's G.P.S. location and his current whereabouts.

http://elahi.emd.edu/

http://trackingtransience.net/

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/167606/may-07-2008/hasan-elahi

Message about Project 1

This project deals with commodification, so I chose to include the jbs watermark as a frame. The project was not intended to be sold in any way, and the video will be made available without the watermark. This experimentation in new media was for educational purposes only.

Project 2 Research Artist 1: Eric Sokolofsky

For Project 2, we were asked to design a public projection art piece somewhere on campus. While browsing for ideas, I came across an artist named Eric Sokolofsky has experimented with many types of digital media, including projecting in a large space.

Eric's Home Page

Sokolofsky is currently a professor at NYU and Pratt Institute and has spent time developingeducational games for GameLab, a New York City based game design group. He attended an undergraduate program at Washington University in St. Louis and practiced architecture for several years. After studying architecture, he became interested in NYU's Interactive Telecommunication Graduate Program and was able to experiment with web and game design, as well as user interface design and programming. He also explored interactive generative screen based art and interactive spatial installation.

Sokolofsky has also contributed to the design of a social networking site called Wallop.

One work of Sokolofsky that has influenced the development of my project is a work called Aperture.

This work addresses how sound and light affect spatial perception. In the art piece, a projector is fixed above the ceiling of an installation space and is used to reverse project onto the ceiling. As the viewer moves through the space, arcs of light generate variations in intensity, color, and motion.

The audio/visual textures that appear alter the viewer perception of their movement inside the space and the artwork probes the viewer to think about how elements of composition affect a humans concept of space and motion which could stay with them as they move through other spaces in the outside world.

This piece makes me think about the affects that architecture on a person's freedom of expression. With the use of a public space in project 2, I intend to create a similar change in the viewer's concept of space and how it can be utilized. I hope to utilize graffiti as a means for expression on a new canvas.

From this project, I can deduct that the elements of interactivity on a audio and visual level have to be present in order to create a powerful project that deals with space. These elements both seem necessary in order to stimulate an awareness of the persons movement through the world. In project 2, I would hope to add the element of sound to the discussion of projection graffiti. It would nicely supplement the visual experience of graffiti as well as echo the ties that graffiti has had to music. I would like the expression to be as fluid and free as possible, to contrast the box-like moment that students are restricted to on their passage to class.

Sokolofsky has many artworks that relay the same messages of interactivity between light and sound. The projects advance the concepts of projection and the spatial relationships that we have to media. To me, Aperture appears in a formal art setting which may limit the idea of freedom and creativity. However, the projects all carry a huge element of experimentation and innovation.