The use of ICT in the course “Photography” in university education. First results of a teaching innovation project at the University of Murcia

The new pedagogical framework arisen since the Bologna Declaration,the Prague Communiquéand the introduction of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), encourages, significantly, the use of new Communication and Information Technology to evolve teaching methodologies. The different ways teachers relate to learners have undergone a staggering change from which educational initiatives have emerged. Many of them are based on contents’ democratization through the use of ICT. The current article is intended to show the results obtained until the 2012/2013 academic course, since the implementation of the teaching innovation project entitled “The use of ICT for the students’ autonomous learning in the university education of the course Photography. Elaboration of a virtual classroom and results’ analysis related to the acquisition of skills and competencies” that has been developed in the course called Draw with light: Photography, belonging to the Fine Arts Degree at the University of Murcia.

"Cómo pintar el aire". Fundamentos científicos de la perspectiva atmosférica

La perspectiva aérea o atmosférica es juzgada por los pintores como parte esencial de la pintura, una vez establecidos los presupuestos geométricos de la representación naturalista mediante la perspectiva lineal. Leonardo da Vinci fue el primer autor en definir la perspectiva aérea o atmosférica, conocidos ya a través de L. B. Alberti los fundamentos geométricos de la perspectiva lineal en el tratado De Pictura (1435). Doscientos años después, tras la influyente publicación del Optics de Newton, contextualizadas bajo el espíritu racionalista del siglo XVIII, el artículo estudia las recomendaciones que desde la ciencia y los científicos (específicamente a través de tres figuras relevantes: Brook Taylor, J. H. Lambert y Gaspard Monge) se dan a los pintores con la pretensión de arbitrar una medición exacta del color, en confrontación con el tradicional empirismo del mundo artístico. Este tema puede considerarse un capítulo de gran interés en la larga historia de la pintura y la representación de los fenómenos atmosféricos, cuyos antecedentes teóricos tienen su inicio en el Débat sur le Coloris de la Académie Française del siglo XVII y sus resultados, conducirán hacia el nacimiento de la moderna Teoría del color, en respuesta a una cuestión tan compleja sobre cómo pintar el aire.

Ai Weiwei: La recepción de su producción artística

Actualmente Ai Weiwei es el creador con mayor proyección dentro y fuera de China, destacando especialmente por su prolífica, heterogénea, comprometida y polémica producción artística. Sus propuestas suscitan un gran interés y obtienen una destacada repercusión tanto en China como en un escenario internacional. Precisamente, es uno de los artistas contemporáneos chinos que ha logrado una mayor presencia en los medios de comunicación y en los espacios expositivos españoles, siendo un ejemplo de ello la organización de la primera exposición museística de su obra en el Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (2013) y el estreno de la película documental sobre su vida y su obra Never Sorry (2013), dirigida por Alison Klayman. Ai Weiwei es un autor mediático y su visibilidad deviene una plataforma desde donde articular proyectos artísticos que enfocan determinadas problemáticas sociales. A la vez, la crítica política de Ai Weiwei resulta especialmente atractiva en un contexto euroamericano que subraya su papel de disidente y agitador. Dentro de tales parámetros se ahondará en la recepción de la producción artística de Ai Weiwei en el marco internacional y en el contexto español, analizando la aproximación que la prensa esboza sobre dicho autor.

Creating replicas of scultural heritage through 3D reconstruction and low cost 3D printer in Education

The process of making replicas of heritage has traditionally been developed by public agencies, corporations and museums and is not commonly used in schools. Currently there are technologies that allow creating cheap replicas. The new 3D reconstruction software, based on photographs and low cost 3D printers allow to make replicas at a cost much lower than traditional. This article describes the process of creating replicas of the sculpture Goslar Warrior of artist Henry Moore, located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. To make this process, first, a digital model have been created using Autodesk Recap 360, Autodesk 123D Catch and Autodesk Meshmixer MarkerBot MakerWare applications. Physical replication, has been reproduced in polylactic acid (PLA) by MakerBot Replicator 2 3D printer. In addition, a cost analysis using, in one hand, the printer mentioned, and in the other hand, 3D printing services both online and local, is included. Finally, there has been a specific action with 141 students and 12 high school teachers, who filled a questionnary about the use of sculptural replicas in education.

The Architecture of Seduction: An Analysis on Digital Architectures within Consumer Society

Currently new digital tools used in architecture are often at the service of a conception of architecture as a consumer society’s cultural good. Within this neoliberal cultural frame, architects’ social function is no longer seen as the production of urban facts with sense of duty, but as a part within the symbolic logic that rules the social production of cultural values as it was defined by Veblen and developed by Baudrillard. As a result, the potential given by the new digital tools used in representation has shifted from an instrument used to verify a built project to two different main models: At the one hand the development of pure virtual architectures that are exclusively configured within their symbolic value as artistic “images” easily reproducible. On the other hand the development of all those projects which -even maintaining their attention to architecture as a built fact- base their symbolic value on the author’s image and on virtual aesthetics and logics that prevail over architecture’s materiality. Architects’ sense of duty has definitely reached a turning point.

Women artists of the international avant-garde: the case of "Abstraction-Création" (1931-1936)

Women’s contribution to abstract art in the interwar period is a subject that, to date, has received very little attention. In this article we deal with the untold story of the participation of women artists in Abstraction-Création, the foremost international group dedicated to abstract art in the 1930s. Founded in Paris in 1931, the group took on the work of two previous collectives to become a platform for the dissemination and promotion of abstract art and consisted of around a hundred members. Twelve of these were women, whose writings and works were published in the group’s annual magazine, abstraction creátion art non figuratif (1932-1936), and who participated in a number of the group’s exhibitions. Compared to what had occurred in previous groups, the participation of women, although reduced in number, was comparable to that of the male artists and being members of the group had a generally positive impact on the women’s careers. However, all this came at the expense of relinquishing any gender specificity in their work and the public presentation of it, and demonstrates that the normalization of women’s contributions to the avant-garde could only be brought about alongside a questioning of the more dogmatic views of modernity.

Kawamoto’s "Dojoji Temple": Puppetry, Gesture and Myth

Dojoji Temple ( Dōjōji, 1976) is a short puppet animation directed by Kihachirō Kawamoto. Influenced by Bunraku (Japanese puppet plays), emaki (painted scroll), Noh theatre and Japanese myth, Dojoji Temple tells of a woman’s unrequited love for a young priest. Heartbroken, she then transforms into a sea serpent and goes after the priest for revenge. While Kawamoto’s animation is rich with Japanese aesthetics and tragedy, his animation is peopled by puppets who do not speak. Limited and restrained though the puppets may be, their animated gestures speak volumes of powerful emotions. For our article, we will select several scenes from the animation, and interpret their actions so that we can further understand the mythical world of Dojoji Temple and the essential being of puppetry. Our gesture analysis will take into account cinematographic compositions, sound and bodily attires, among other elements.

The use of cues for attention in ancient Greek art: aspects that influence concentration in the work of art and its elements

The goal of this study is to identify cues for the cognitive process of attention in ancient Greek art, aiming to find confirmation of its possible use by ancient Greek audiences and artists. Evidence of cues that trigger attention’s psychological dispositions was searched through content analysis of image reproductions of ancient Greek sculpture and fine vase painting from the archaic to the Hellenistic period - ca. 7th -1st cent. BC. Through this analysis, it was possible to observe the presence of cues that trigger orientation to the work of art (i.e. amplification, contrast, emotional salience, simplification, symmetry), of a cue that triggers a disseminate attention to the parts of the work (i.e. distribution of elements) and of cues that activate selective attention to specific elements in the work of art (i.e. contrast of elements, salient color, central positioning of elements, composition regarding the flow of elements and significant objects). Results support the universality of those dispositions, probably connected with basic competencies that are hard-wired in the nervous system and in the cognitive processes.

The conflict between realism and abstraction in the field of spanish art as an iteration of la "Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes"

Based on the analysis model favored by the study of the conditions in which the seventeenth century Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes took place, we examine the case of confrontation between realism and abstraction, which occurred in the context of Spanish art in the nineties of the twentieth century. Connections are established with other aesthetic conflicts which are considered part of a genealogy whose most explicit antecedent could be placed in the before mentioned complaint, such as the confrontation between realism and abstraction in the American art scene, which occurred in the fifties of the last century, and the more recent controversy on pluralism and the end of art.

El diagnóstico de la crisis de la cultura en España: del recorte público a la crisis sistémica

Desde su invención en los años cincuenta, la política cultural ha sido objeto de análisis y reflexión por parte de las ciencias sociales. No obstante, en España presenta una serie de características diferenciadoras frente a las democracias occidentales europeas como consecuencia del periodo franquista. Con la recuperación de la democracia España adquiere el paradigma dominante de una política cultural democrática basada en la libertad, el pluralismo y el derecho a la cultura. Sin embargo, tras décadas de gobiernos democráticos el diagnóstico de la política cultural en España presenta rasgos de crisis sistémica, además de los efectos de la crisis global financiera de inicios del siglo XXI. En este contexto, los autores diagnostican, aplicando la metodología Delphi y recurriendo a fuentes secundarias, un conjunto de discursos sociales y narrativas que parecen funcionar como recursos cognitivos solucionistas en la esfera artística y cultural y que no están exentos de contradicciones y aporías, fruto de su contraste empírico.

Some thoughts on Juan Antonio Ramírez´s iconologic-paranoid method for the study of Dali´s works

In 1990, Juan Antonio Ramírez made known his iconological paranoiac method to the academic world. It is a system devised to study Dalí´s work, born of happy matrimony between the catalonian artist´s critical paranoiac method and the first iconographic school of Warburg and Panofsky. What, at first sight, seemed to be an extravagant methodology with little academic credibility, turned out to be, by going forward in time, an effective research method when analyzing Dali´s initial works. It is no wonder that, at the beginning of XXI century, this hybridization between Dalí´s and Panofsky’s methods, were regarded as a strange and nonsensical idea. Nevertheless, twenty years after, blatant examples have been noted, which endorse the advantages of this new system for “iconographic” study. As usual, this new contribution by Juan Antonio Ramirez to art history methodology is called upon to have a successful future survival, in forthcoming generations. This article, attempts to analyze this method, inquiring into the validity, effectiveness and practical utility.

El patrimonio a través de la educación artística en la etapa de primaria

El área de educación artística en el currículum de primaria ha estado ligada a la enseñanza del patrimonio en las tres últimas décadas y, seguida del área de Ciencias Sociales en sus diferentes denominaciones, ha sido la materia que más se ha ocupado del la enseñanza de nuestro legado cultural, desde la LOGSE, pasando por la LOE hasta la actual LOMCE. Sin embargo, con la última reforma educativa ha sufrido una pérdida de presencia que la sitúa como una materia prescindible, en tanto un alumno puede transitar por toda la etapa de Primaria sin recibir una sola hora de educación artística. En efecto, las CCAA y los centros, en el ejercicio de sus competencias (Artículo 3) pueden decidir no ofertarla o, aun ofertándola, puede no ser elegida de entre otras asignaturas específicas como Segunda Lengua Extranjera, Religión o Valores Sociales y Cívicos.Por todo ello, proponemos un análisis del contenido de las tres grandes leyes generales de educación de las tres últimas décadas -LOGSE, LOE y LOMCE- examinando la presencia del patrimonio en la educación artística, para detectar los enfoques y concepciones subyacentes en los diferentes desarrollos curriculares. Todo ello nos situará ante un escenario, el presente, en el que podremos demandar la recuperación de contenidos o competencias perdidas, pero también promover el máximo aprovechamiento de las que sí se han incluido en el currículum vigente. Por todo ello, proponemos un análisis del contenido de las tres grandes leyes generales de educación de las tres últimas décadas -LOGSE, LOE y LOMCE- examinando la presencia del patrimonio en la educación artística, para detectar los enfoques y concepciones subyacentes en los diferentes desarrollos curriculares. Todo ello nos situará ante un escenario, el presente, en el que podremos demandar la recuperación de contenidos o competencias perdidas, pero también promover el máximo aprovechamiento de las que sí se han incluido en el currículum vigente.

Artistic proposals of visual arts of Ecuador since the second half of the twentieth century to the present

This article is the result of a research that analyzes the most important artistic proposals of Visual Arts in Ecuador, since the second half of the twentieth century to the present. Through literature review and data collection held in the city of Guayaquil, we could determine their influence and impact on the circuit of contemporary art. The instruments used for data collection were depth interviews that were done to experts in the field. Like surveys of attendees at different artistic events (exhibitions, permanent exhibitions, seminars), allowed to establish the social interests of those proposals. The methodology was mixed approach, quantitative and qualitative data were used.

Vis-á-Vis-á-Vis. The Three-dimensional and artistic view of a problem

ANPO (A Non-predefined Outcome) is an an art-making methodology that employs structuralist theory of language (Saussure, Lacan, Foucault) combined with Hegel’s dialectic and the theory of creation of space by Lefebvre to generate spaces of dialogue and conversation between community members and different stakeholders. These theories of language are used to find artistic ways of representing a topic that community members have previously chosen. The topic is approached in a way that allows a visual, aural, performative and gustative form. To achieve this, the methodology is split in four main steps: step 1 ‘This is not a chair’, Step 2 ‘The topic’, Step 3 ‘ Vis-á-vis-á-vis’ and step 4. ‘Dialectical representation’ where the defined topic is used to generate artistic representations.The step 1 is a warm up exercise informed by the Rene Magritte painting ‘This is not a Pipe’. This exercise aims to help the participants to see an object as something else than an object but as a consequence of social implications. Step 2, participants choose a random topic and vote for it. The artist/facilitator does not predetermine the topic, participants are the one who propose it and choose it. Step 3, will be analysed in this publication and finally step 4, the broken down topic is taken to be represented and analysed in different ways. 

Patrimonio e Identidad en la Investigación Educativa Basada en las Artes desde un Enfoque Multimodal

Este artículo describe dos experiencias de investigación de nuestro grupo interconectadas, la primera desarrollada durante el año 2007 a través del proyecto internacional CALVINO del Programa Cultura 2000 de la Unión Europea, y la segunda implementada durante el año 2014 en el marco del Proyecto Investigación e Innovación en Secundaria en Andalucía (PIIISA). Ambos proyectos tienen en común el eje temático de la identidad a partir de una idea de patrimonio y el hecho de haber puesto en práctica metodologías de investigación basadas en las artes visuales con un enfoque multimodal. Desde estos dos puntos de anclaje relativos a la temática (qué) y a la metodología (cómo) analizamos lo acontecido para obtener conclusiones relevantes que, por una parte, pongan en valor estas prácticas significativas y, por otra, aporten nuestra experiencia para futuras propuestas de investigación en el ámbito temático y/o metodológico.