Perception and Interpretation
Experimentation and Construction
Thoughts and Actions
Memory and Transmission

Art process uses media to explore and compose.
Art product is statement or provocation

Observation and analysis of the natural world might be science
or art.
Observation and analysis of the social world might be sociology
or art.
Observation and analysis of consciousness might be psychology
or art.

Speculation and imaginings about metaphysics might be theology
or art.
Speculation and theories about knowledge might be philosophy
or art.
Speculation and production regarding mechanisms might be technology
or art.

Share/Save]]> http://www.wendyangel.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1053 0 http://www.wendyangel.com/blog/?p=1017 http://www.wendyangel.com/blog/?p=1017#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:03:14 +0000 Wendy Angel http://www.wendyangel.com/blog/?p=1017

Stamp Art : Damaged

Different media and genres can and do coexist. One does not need to out-do, or eradicate all others.

When the studio is dark and cold I work on projects less gooey than oil. One year it was Mattress Art. This year it is stamps.

Collage and doodles are scattered through my journal pages and correspondence. This is an extension of a tradition.

Mail Art, correspondence, collage, handmade books—  long before the web. And, I connect my webish interest and exploits with these trends and traditions.

When we scrutinize and dissect, sense begins to look a lot like nonsense. And as it does this it informs our ability to begin to decipher how nonsense is constructed, arranged and formulated to appear reasonable. In a world propelled by media this is an important place to begin any discussion.

The purpose of this digression is to mess with assumptions about what written information is. When we recognize that words are invented and constantly redefined it reveals the ambiguity of verbal communication. Concurrently, when we see the visual basis of written language we realize how it is all actually, not metaphorically a visual art form.

Paintings are one kind of picture. Writing is another form of picture making.

Pictures: intentional markings made by humans on apparently two-dimensional surfaces.

A game I like to play with definitions is to right click for synonyms and watch  suggested words reflect, entwine and spin off in disassociated trajectories. The game transforms words into pictures.

• PICTURE
  • Image
    • Picture
    • Representation
    • icon
      • • Image
        • Picture
        • symbol
        • sign
        • Representation
        • emblem
        • logo
        • idol
          • icon
          • statue
          • god
          • deity
          • hero
          • star
            • celebrity
            • luminary
            • idol
            • VIP
            • famous person
            • leading light
            • superstar
            • pin-up
            • personality
            • brilliant
          • pin-up
    • figure
    • likeness
    • illustration
    • reflection
    • copy
    • impression
    • Picture
  • Depiction
    • Representation
    • Portrayal
    • description
    • picture
    • illustration
    • interpretation
      • understanding
      • explanation
        • clarification
        • elucidation
        • enlightenment
        • details
        • account
        • reason
        • justification
        • rationalization
        • description
        • vindication
      • reading
      • elucidation
      • analysis
        • examination
        • study
        • investigation
        • scrutiny
        • breakdown
      • version
    • delineation
    • drawing
  • Portrait
    • Representation
    • description
    • visual rendering
    • likeness
    • Depiction
    • sketch
    • study
  • Representation
    • symbol
      • sign
      • Representation
      • character
      • figure
      • mark
        • blot
        • spot
        • blotch
        • scratch
        • smudge
        • smear
        • stain
      • icon
      • pictogram
      • emblem
      • Image
    • Image
    • Depiction
    • illustration
    • sign
    • account
    • version
    • Portrayal
    • description

Oil, 36" x 36" after graphic by Moses Cordovero, Pardes Rimmonim, 1592

The letters that make up a word are little pictures. We arrange them to form words that are composite pictures. Words themselves form pictures. Not only in the art of micrography and other ways text is made into image, but in the intentional and accidental layout of each page. We arrange the word to form sentences, paragraphs and pages. Sometimes we combine the word arrangements with illustrations or what we more commonly call pictures. We bundle the pages into objects that are books and collect these in the architectural environments of libraries.

Letters, pages and books are generally arranged in a sequence. But reading of text often skips around. We scan pages, read the last page first or flip between chapters.

Luminescent and scrollable electronic pages change how we bundle words and images. Pages are no longer bound in static physical dimensions. The page may appear differently relating to screen size and resolution as well as what browser is used to present the page. The pages are restricted by protocols and software. And Hypertext extends our option to flip around in a vast amount of pages.

New media simply enables new ways to formulate pictures. Text was a new media once. Some work in text, when it was a relatively new medium, considers the problems related to idolizing images. A story says, “Don’t worship statues.” This may be expanded to indicate don’t worship pictures or media in general, including text. It doesn’t say don’t indulge in using media as a human venture. It says don’t forget that media is a human construction. And, since media fixes ideas in the physical world we need reminding that we put it there so we don’t mistake it for something inherent, permanent or supreme.

Understanding pictures, the way they are constructed and consumed contributes to understanding metaphorical pictures. For example, we have devised a culture that rewards lying cheating and stealing while treasuring ideologies of truth, honor and giving. Clearly there is something wrong with this picture. If we can see how this picture is constructed we may be able to rearranging the elements into a different cultural image.

The first post on this blog has a similar word sketch.

˙ǝƃlnpuı ı sıɥʇ ɹoɟ ‘os ˙spɐǝɥ ɹno ɥɔʇɐɹɔs uǝʌǝ ǝqʎɐɯ puɐ ɥƃnɐl sn sǝʞɐɯ puɐ uoıʇuǝʇʇɐ ɹno sǝɥɔʇɐɔ ʇı ʇuǝɯoɯ ɐ ɹoɟ ʇnq ˙ʎlʞɔınb plo ʇǝƃ llıʍ ʇı ˙ʞɔıɹʇ ɐ sı ʇı ˙ƃuıʇıɹʍ uʍop ǝpısdn ǝɥʇ sı ʞǝǝʍ ǝɥʇ ɟo ʞɔıɹʇ ǝʇıɹoʌɐɟ ʎɯ puɐ ˙sǝʇou ǝɯos uǝʇʇıɹʍ ǝʌɐɥ ı ˙qɟ oʇ ƃolq sıɥʇ sʞuıl ʇɐɥʇ uoıʇɐɔılddɐ uɐ ʇno ƃuıʎɹʇ ɯɐ ı ˙ɟɟnʇs qǝʍ ʎɯ ɟo ǝɯos oʇ pǝpuǝʇʇɐ ǝʌɐɥ ı ʞǝǝʍ sıɥʇ

˙dn-ǝpıs-ʇɥƃıɹ sı ʇɐɥʍ ǝƃuɐɥɔ ı ‘pǝɥsıuıɟ ǝɹɐ ʎǝɥʇ ɹǝʇɟɐ ’sǝɯıʇǝɯos puɐ ˙ɯǝɥʇ uo ƃuıʞɹoʍ ǝlıɥʍ suoıʇɔǝɹıp llɐ uı sƃuıʇuıɐd dılɟ oʇ puǝʇ ı :sd

Hello. Today I looked at the website statistics for the past three months. 30,000 hits from bots. It is interesting in that there are so many system sifting systems. The data says humans are looking from about 80 countries. It measures “authenticated users” page visits, view time:
Visits duration July 2009
30s-2mn : 31
2mn-5mn : 15
5mn-15mn : 16
15mn-30mn : 13
30mn-1h : 10
1h+ : 11
Visits duration August 2009
30s-2mn : 42
2mn-5mn : 22
5mn-15mn : 15
15mn-30mn : 14
30mn-1h : 14
1h+ : 12
Visits duration September 2009
30s-2mn : 20
2mn-5mn : 10
5mn-15mn : 14
15mn-30mn : 6
30mn-1h : 6

you & your voice Thank you for visiting.

B is for B

1 and 2 is 1 and 2

“Thus, in the end, ‘Art’ is simply a different name for… life. —Art came first: Science is an evolution of Art. —a reason if humans engage in artistic activities. —Evolutionary Benefits: 1. you learn more about the environment, 2. you simulate a variety of strategies, 3. you are better prepared to cope with frequently changing conditions. —to deal with the unpredictable —Over the centuries this continuous training in creativity has led to the creation of entire civilizations, science, technology, engineering and the history of Art. —paradigms of thought. —The benefit for Science of an integration with the arts is that Art can help usher in a paradigm shift.” From Piero Scaruffi’s Essays, Analyses and Meditations

Paint as a medium has particular characteristics tied to the way it takes the physical into a complexity of image making that is both related to and in some ways different from other media.

When most people* think of visual art they are considering the output or art product so they imagine a painting or sculpture to be static. The action happens in the making process and in general the observer of a painted or sculpted object does not participate in activity of its making.

We do have categories of visual multiple media works that combine visual arts to three-dimensional motion. Kinetic art moves in space, performance arts engage an audience and interactive works include participants. But what about visual art that is still, presented as static product, a stable object

A good static piece is only motionless in its three-dimensional space. An artifact that is apparently sitting immobile in traditional three-dimensional space is engaged in other modes of motion. An object, a solid entity holds form through time and is thus able to directly interact in different temporal locations. So, an image object travels in time. It exists through changes of date and location, from the studio one year to a gallery another and so on.

A painting is a three-dimensional art object even if it portrays a fairly complex two-dimensional image. A painting object next to a reproduction of it exposes the apparent difference between the forms. A poster or jpeg reproduction may be a deformation of a painting yet reproductions are related distortions. With reproductive technology images achieve a whole new range of mobility.**

Anyway, both painted object and reproduction travel through space in time.

It may be that what is apparently sitting immobile in our traditional three-dimensional space is engaged in still more modes of motion. We use the word emotion. We say a work of art moves us. What is that about? It is worth considering the association of motion in relation to emotion. We use the term when our mind/body, our consciousness, is stirred or moved.

How is it that a painted object can act on our feelings? This is a root of why we consider art objects different from other objects.

In general it is the motion in consciousness that is motivated by experiencing the presence of the object that identifies a thing as art. In many cases the art object is constructed intentionally to influence human emotions. Yet, occasionally a thing becomes an art object accidentally. Often art objects reach straight for human emotions through senses. Some reach for the intellect first. Usually a combination of sensual material and intellectual symbol is employed.

Art activates a motion that happens in a place we call our mind. From mystics to physicists we have discussion relating the idea of a fifth dimension as zone humans experience in this place we call consciousness. We think and sense or feel in consciousness. Our thoughts and feelings travel in consciousness. Yet a continuing issue of consciousness is in understanding its empirical characteristics. With art we have a clear example of a physical tie to consciousness.

I suggest that the arts are historic traditions as well as contemporary explorations of what might be a fifth-dimension of space that we exist in and know with the part of our body/mind we currently refer to as consciousness.

It could be argued that the arts are transmitters or communication devices that broadcast nonlinear messages. A viewer who is moved by a work of art is receiving a transmission. Clearly both art makers and viewers have varying levels of skill in transmitting and receiving information. There is certainly a level of uncertainty as to the content of the transmission. This does not make the arts ineffective communication devices; on the contrary, the arts expose the very real confusion inherent in all communication systems.

This is an interesting area for collaborative inquiry for hard science and hard art. I use the word hard art as a parallel to hard science as a category of art that is interested in empirical research, practice and a real world. Hard art is related to theoretical art in a way that hard science is related to theoretical science. Practice and theory do not conflict they are integrated. Practice that ignores theory does not progress and theory that ignores practice remains imaginary.

Elsewhere, I have and will address very real ways the arts are used to manipulate minds and behaviors. The realness of what arts are and how they function is relevant to the real influence the arts have on the construction of civilization. It is no secret that voters vote and consumers buy with their emotions not their reason. It is a compelling challenge to consider the structure of why this is the case.

Notes

* I don’t really know most people, but I often hear of them.

**  Some images are made as prints or digital files so the print or digital file is not a reproduction

I consider this text to be theoretical fiction indicating that theory as a form of fiction writing. The equation is: fiction is a form of art and art is real therefore theory is real.

One flower

—was mauled by a banana slug

One flower withered and died

One flower became a weed

One flower survived