Unit 10 - Situationists?

I've decided to look at the Situationists for my Unit 10 essay and artwork project. I've been interested in them for a number of years now, mainly as a the revolutionary group that they became rather than the radical pseudo-art group they originally started out as.

They tend to be slung about in certain circles as a kind of cool reference to spice up the post-modernist slant of a lot of artists. Those same artists don't really seem to understand their true significance or ideas beyond vague ideas about sloganeering.

I don't think they fit as artists - after all, they split with those intent on creating cultural works in the early 1960s - but cultural movement? Well, maybe.

But what work can I create in response to the essay? I fancy a Dérive, so I need to do a bit of research on that.

More inspiration

We looked at a few more inspirational things last week. The most hilarious was a couple of American videos introducing modern art - the pitch and the language were ridiculous, and the most telling bit for me was when the presenter (Denise) declared "you must understand...". I see, we MUST ...

We also watch some extracts from classic films which betray Surrealist influences. It's time I sorted out my DVD collection to include some old gems - Battleship Potemkin, Frankenstein and the fantastic Nosferatu. The latter has some classic scenes with the hideously made-up Max Schreck as Count Orlok (aka Dracula) with sinister shadows.



It gave me an idea for my Unit 17 shoot.

We also looked at some of the work of John Heartfield, an early proponent of Photomontage, and an anti-Nazi unafraid to wear his colours on his sleeve.



The text reads "The real meaning of the Hitler salute. The little man asks for big gifts. I've got millions standing behind me". Who supplied the millions? I saw Rob Newman last month, and one of the most interesting bits of his show is when he points out that US Corporations were some of the biggest investors in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1940. Some familiar names of today are amongst them too - Ford, Coca-Cola, ITT, IBM ...



I've seen this stuff before and love it. And later in the week, I'm in London and pay a visit to Tate Britain, where they have dedicated a room to his work.

Unit 25 ideas ...

My other idea. Like most of my ideas, it's been a line in my notebook since I originally saw something elsewhere that gave me the inspiration.

In this case, an article in the Guardian in June. Under the Freedom of Information Act, Nirex* had been forced to publish information about sites that had been considered in the 1980s for the disposal of Nuclear Waste. There were 500+ sites, scattered all over the UK in many different types of locations. What caught my eye were some specific locations: Chepstow College, the middle of Salford, the middle of Southend. As well as 45 sites in the Scottish Highlands.

So it occurred to me - what do these places look like? Innocuous? Boring? Picturesque? No doubt. The idea behind them may be stronger than the actual images themselves. The concept is the key.

This could a long term project - i.e. years long. And it may yet be that. So seeking out these places within 9 months in not viable. But no doubt the idea will change, which the Brief anticipates.

*Nirex is a government body set up by the Tories in 1982 to investigate the storage of Nuclear Waste

Unit 17 ideas ...

I have a notion for this project. Since the idea of simply re-creating something I'm not interested in bores me to death, I want to mess with this brief and insert something I am interested in.

So I've decided upon placing Black Metal in this context. Some of my influences can be seen on sites by the photographer Peter Beste and artist Lorenzo Mariani.

Black Metal has some visual stylistic cues in common with the music: extreme contrasts, grainy, lo-fi, distortion, shock etc, etc. I want to try to incorporate that.



But also the idea of all the absurd things about Fashion & Fashion Photography - you know, the poses, the looks, the context.

I don't know if this is viable, but it's worth a try.

Thomas Joshua Cooper - 'Point of No Return'

I visited this exhibition today at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. Thomas Joshua Cooper has travelled the length and breadth of the Atlantic Seaboard for this project, taking one shot only at particular landmarks (i.e., 'Furthest point West' etc). He uses a huge field camera, and the shots are all monochrome, printed up to a fairly large size in this exhibition.

The shots are invariably land and water, but the themes are broader. Cycles, permanence and time are suggested, beyond the ink of the print. This seems to be a travelling exhibition (as well as a book), and an ongoing project (he's now doing the Altantic coast from the Americas) so I look forward to seeing the theme developed. An interview with TJC is here.

Secret Knowledge

That's the title of a book and TV show by David Hockney in which he proposes that the so-called Old Masters used a Camera Obscura to do all their work.

But reading the wikipedia entry for Mr Hockney, it says that "almost all serious optical historians" reject his hypothesis. This is intriguing, since it's a very convincing hypothesis. There are some articles on the web about this, although I mistrust some of them who seem to want to take the opportunity to attack modernism, which they see being represented by Hockney. There are attacks on his 'technical skill' which is bollocks, but hardly surprising from people who put classical aesthetics above all other considerations. The human race has moved on guys...

The one thing that did occur to me at the time was that plenty of living artists manage to make very accurate life-like drawings without a Camera Obscura or similar object. So his theory falls downs there really. Plus, I'd also like to know more about the pressures on the old artists to produce their work as quickly and efficiently as possible for their patrons.

Gor-ge-ous

... is something Mario Testino says a lot. We watched a video this week of him and beautiful people, for Unit 17. Anyway, against my better judgement, I have decided to run the essay and presentation on him and his work. In my written work, I try to dissect the subject matter, and it's enough to say that in his case I will take a certain amount of pleasure in doing so.

Len Lye

We viewed some films by Len Lye this week. Quite amazing really - some of them were from the 1930s (used during cinema intervals to publicise the GPO, an equivalent would be like the Chapman Brothers doing ads for Premium Bonds or something), and looked forever like they belonged to the 1960s - pyschedelic colours and effects abound. An interesting artist. Another website about him is here.

Unit 20: Curating and Participating in Exhibitions

We have to collaborate to plan the exhibition for Unit 25. It involves everything you might expect - finding a venue, publicity etc, etc .

Unit 25: Specialist Practice in Photography

... is a blank piece of paper. It's for us to decide what we will do. I already have an idea, but more about that at a later date.

The one deadline is for a project proposal - in written form as well as a presentation before the end of the year.

Unit 17: Fashion Photography

This is self explanatory.

Fashion Shoot: 5 location images, and 2 studio images. Medium and/or Large Format. In the style of images found in certain magazines (Vogue, Marie Claire, Dazed and Confused, GQ etc ... Jesus). This'll call for some research because I don't ordinarily read anything like that.

Essay: research a Fashion Photographer.

Presentation: on the same Fashion Photographer.

Unit 10: Contextual Studies

...is about influences. Be it Television, Film, Music, Art. And these in turn will have been influenced by cultural developments (and the Marxist in me points out, social and economic factors will arguably be more important).

We have to complete an essay on an art/cultural movement. And also a piece of work in response to our research.

And we also have to give a presentation on our own work. At this point, I'm not sure I have a body of work, but I guess I'll find out.

What's in Store

We have to do 6 'Units' to obtain the HND. And we were given 2 last night - Fashion and Contextual Studies. There are 2 other distinct Units - Advertising and Photo Journalism. And the other 2 are linked to each other - we have the whole of the course to formulate our own individual piece of work which will be exhibited ('Final Major Project'), and the other unit is the planning and execution of that exhibition.

The idea of Fashion fills me with dread if I'm honest. But I have an idea.