sections X-XV summary (Due 2/9/9)

Walter Benjamin describes a screen actor as having to put his “whole self” before the camera. Actors whom portray themselves and their own work process obscure the transition in literature which took centuries to come about. While in comparison, people who are commonly readers become writers and reply to something in the daily press. Those that respond in “letters to the editor” share their comments and blur the line between author and public.

In shooting a film, it is possible to give a spectator a viewpoint discernable from the actual scene. The environment of the play would be hard to detect as an illusion. The camera equipment and lighting machinery becomes part of the immediate reality, same as a magician is compared to a surgeon. A cameraman follows procedure analogous to a magician. On the other hand, a painter must follow a natural distance from reality like that of a surgeon.

Individual reactions are predetermined by the response of a mass audience. This is the norm seen in films. However, paintings do not give such a collective experience. The paintings shown even in public exhibitions produce a unique reception to its viewer. As such, the public which view a film in a progressive manner will likely respond in a reactionary to surrealism.

The characteristics of film have developed into a means of analysis since the book Psychopathology of Everyday Life. The behavior items previously overlooked are now being further explored. By scrutinizing the close-ups of things, the focusing on hidden objects, the guidance of the film or camera we extend awareness to the necessities in our daily life. The camera gives rise to the unconscious optics as psychoanalysis does for our unconscious impulses.

A task for all art is to create a demand. Those of Dadaism did so by outraging the public and creating a moral shock effect. Film also creates a shock effect to an extent. Reception from film is continually being distracted and the shock effect is only met halfway. So, art is evolving but the public has become an absent-minded examiner.

ART4619C - Walter Benjamin

The comparison of a magician to a surgeon and painter to a cameraman was creative and somewhat unexpected.  It helps to reinforce Benjamin's argument about a painter and a cameraman.  Everyone follows a procedure, but a cameraman is able to create his art with a special procedure of similar shots, like a magician.  While the painter must follow a natural distance from reality analogous to the surgeon.

Also, the ancient statue of Venus, was used as an example for authentic yet changeable.  In describing the object gazed upon at different locations, Walter Benjamin says, "Both of them, however, were equally confronted with its uniqueness, that is, its aura."  The two places where the idol was viewed took on its own form in the mind of the viewer.  However, an actor in a film is known as a man that "has to operate with his whole living person, yet forgoing its aura.  For his aura is tied to his presence..." The man changes and reflects the actions of a man he is to portray, but loses the aura which envelops him.

How is it possible for him to lose the aura instead of it changing?  Is it because the actor is taking the role of another person that "the aura that envelops the actor vanishes, and with it the aura of the figure he portrays."?  How is this different than the man being at different locations (the actor's setting) and still being the same person (even though he is acting)?

Sixth Weekly Post (for 11/18/2008)

URL: http://www.boogaholler.com/webart/thegrid.html

Artist: Brian Judy

Title/Date: The Grid (2000)

Category: Abstraction

Function: The given description states: "High energy games and toys for the practicing art consumer." Without reading this I do not think I would have understood this as much. Since this is an abstraction, I see this as someone trying to create a game or toy for a child. This artwork depicts the process to create a new toy or game. When you start going somewhere, you think you have an idea of a sequence or order. However like this piece, at first you won't get to where you want. After you click on something you think you have it figured out but have to "go back to the drawing board" as an toy inventor would while creating a game.

Fifth Weekly Post (for 11/11/2008)

URL:  http://benfry.com/anemone/applet/

Artist:  Ben Fry

Title/Date:  2001

Category:  Animation

Function:  The artwork is an animation based on an algorithm that moves alone.  However, the viewer is able to interact and move the parts of the image.  In doing so, text appears or disappears above the selected section.

Also, this work is similar to the marine plant, this artwork seems to attack the little floating dots that get near it.  When you click to move a piece of the work, text appears on the screen.

Mandala Critique #2 (6th weekly)

URL:  Juleah Chandler

This particular Mandala reminds me of using a spirograph in elementary school.  The thin lines give it a unique quality that attracted my attention to this mandala.

However, the blue lines and the small circles give a feeling of outer space.  While the center moves somewhat slow, the outer circles seem to orbit around in a constant pattern.

When I tried to stop the circles, I noticed not everything on this mandala has a button.  Some movements can't be stopped which I think works well.

Fifth Weekly Post

URL: http://www.turbulence.org/Works/Distance/index.html

Artist: Tina LaPorta

Title/Date: Distance (1999)

Category: Video

Function: A sequence of images that tells a narrative about a person exploring life online. As our characters interact, they create distance or destroy it by how they use their technology.

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