Re-inventing the f word - it's feminism!

This article discusses approaches to feminist art practice by early career Australian women artists in the context of 'Contemporary Australia: Women', an exhibition held at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane in 2012.

What's in a name - Catherine or Kate?

This paper discusses the art practice of Australian artists Catherine Sagin and Kate Woodcroft, who have been working collaboratively under various monikers since 2008. The duo define their artworks in terms of winning and losing, and play out the division of labour in an artistic practice that employs video, performance, photography and sculpture. Catherine or Kate utilise combative and comparative processes, which challenge notions of artistic collaboration and highlight the inherent tensions and competitive nature of working together.

Tiedostumaton nykytaiteessa : Katse, ����ni ja aika vuosituhannen taitteen suomalaisessa nykytaiteessa

Leevi Haapala explores moving image works, sculptures and installations from a psychoanalytic perspective in his study The Unconscious in Contemporary Art. The Gaze, Voice and Time in Finnish Contemporary Art at the Turn of the Millennium . The artists included in the study are Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Hans-Christian Berg, Markus Copper, Liisa Lounila and Salla Tykk��. The theoretical framework includes different psychoanalytic readings of the concepts of the gaze, voice and temporality. The installations are based on spatiality and temporality, and their detailed reading emphasizes the medium-specific features of the works as well as their fragmentary nature, heterogeneity and affectivity. The study is cross-disciplinary in that it connects perspectives from the visual culture, new art history and theory to the interpretation of contemporary art. The most important concepts from psychoanalysis, affect theory and trauma discourse used in the study include affect, object a (objet petit a) as articulated by Jacques Lacan, Sigmund Freud s uncanny (das Unheimliche) and trauma. Das Unheimliche has been translated as uncanny in art history under the influence of Rosalind Krauss. The object of the study, the unconscious in contemporary art, is approached through these concepts. The study focuses on Lacan s additions to the list of partial drives: the gaze and voice as scopic and invocative drives and their interpretations in the studies of the moving image. The texts by the American film theorist and art historian Kaja Silverman are in crucial role. The study locates contemporary art as part of trauma culture, which has a tendency to define individual and historical experiences through trauma. Some of the art works point towards trauma, which may appear as a theoretic or fictitious construction. The study presents a comprehensive collection of different kinds of trauma discourse in the field of art research through the texts of Hal Foster, Cathy Caruth, Ruth Leys and Shoshana Felman. The study connects trauma theory with the theoretical analysis of the interference and discontinuity of the moving image in the readings by Susan Buck-Morss, Mary Ann Doane and Peter Osborn among others. The analysis emphasizes different ways of seeing and multisensoriality in the reception of contemporary art. With their reflections and inverse projections, the surprising mechanisms of Hans-Christian Berg s sculptures are connected with Lacan s views on the early mirroring and imitation attempts of the individual s body image. Salla Tykk�� s film trilogy Cave invites one to contemplate the Lacanian theory of the gaze in relation to the experiences of being seen. The three oceanic sculpture installations by Markus Copper are studied through the vocality they create, often through an aggressive way of acting, as well as from the point of view of the functioning of an invocative drive. The study compares the work of fiction and Freud s texts on paranoia and psychosis to Eija-Liisa Ahtila s manuscripts and moving image installations about the same topic. The cinematic time in Liisa Lounila s time-slice video installations is approached through the theoretical study of the unconscious temporal structure. The viewer of the moving image is inside the work in an in-between state: in a space produced by the contents of the work and its technology. The installations of the moving image enable us to inhabit different kinds of virtual bodies or spaces, which do not correspond with our everyday experiences. Nevertheless, the works of art often try to deconstruct the identification to what has been shown on screen. This way, the viewer s attention can be fixed on his own unconscious experiences in parallel with the work s deconstructed nature as representation. The study shows that contemporary art is a central cultural practice, which allows us to discuss the unconscious in a meaningful way. The study suggests that the agency that is discursively diffuse and consists of several different praxes should be called the unconscious. The emergence of the unconscious can happen in two areas: in contemporary art through different senses and discursive elements, and in the study of contemporary art, which, being a linguistic activity is sensitive to the movements of the unconscious. One of the missions of art research is to build different kinds of articulated constructs and to open an interpretative space for the nature of art as an event.

The art of human rights : enriching the life of the law school through drawings and other visual resource

In the life of the Law School, focus on the ���visual��� can operate at three different levels: learning, teaching, and examining (legal concepts). My main interest in this paper is to explore the latter level, ���examining���, broadly considered so as to encompass evaluation in general. Furthermore, that interest is pinned down here to the area of constitutional rights and human rights in general, even though the conclusions reached can (and should) likely be extrapolated to other areas of the law... In effect, the first logical step regarding the relevance of the visual approach has to do with using it yourself when you study ���assuming that you came to the conclusion that you are a ���visual learner���. As you know, VARK theorists propose a quadripartite classification of learners. The acronym VARK stands for Visual, Aural, Read/write, and Kinesthetic sensory modalities that are used for learning information. This model was designed in the late 80s by Neil Fleming and it has received some acceptance and a lot of attention...

Visual impact assessment of small dock & piers: Theory and practice

From a manager���s perspective, oftentimes the publicly held concerns related to small docks and piers are not really related to the environment. They may be more related to visual impacts and aesthetic concerns, a sense of over-development of the shore, or simply change. While individuals may hold personal aesthetic values related to small docks in general or an individual structure in particular, techniques have evolved that appear to provide reproducible, predictive assessments of the visual impacts and aesthetic values of an area and how those might change with development, including an increase in numbers of small docks. These assessments may be used to develop regulatory or non-regulatory methods for the management of small docks based on state or community standards. Visual impact assessments are increasingly used in the regulatory review of proposed development���although this process is still in its infancy as regards small docks and piers. Some political jurisdictions have established visual impact or aesthetic standards as relate to docks and others are in the process of investigating how to go about such an effort. (PDF contains 42 pages)

Curadoria, pedagogia e colabora����o social

Na virada para o s��culo XXI artistas e curadores em bienais e outras exposi����es internacionais est��o adotando formas colaborativas e educacionais de fazer arte e curadoria envolvendo artistas e n��o artistas, comunidades, escolas e outras inst��ncias sociais. Essas iniciativas criam encontros interdisciplinares onde imbrica����es entre arte e n��o-arte s��o colocadas em quest��o, considerando contextos sociopol��ticos mundiais, a globaliza����o e outros temas p��s-colonialistas. A disserta����o examina as aproxima����es e atravessamentos de culturas e identidades, quest��es de centro e periferia, local e global gerando entre-lugares e o interesse por propostas de site-oriented, geradoras de situa����es de conviv��ncia, compartilhamento de experi��ncias coletivas e pr��tica educativa. A pesquisa reflete sobre as inten����es dos artistas, curadores, a participa����o do p��blico e o di��logo entre diferentes discursos cr��ticos e campos do conhecimento em projetos com essas caracter��sticas. O estudo de caso �� o projeto Cadernos de Viagem, projeto de resid��ncia art��stica e exposi����o, realizado na 8 Bienal do Mercosul, em Porto Alegre, Brasil, 2011. Diversos te��ricos como Homi Bhabha, Jacques Ranci��re, Nicolas Bourriaud, Claire Bishop, Grant Kester, Miwon Kwon, Moacir dos Anjos e F��lix Guattari, s��o abordados, entre outros

Tr��nsitos po��ticos no ensino da arte: as visualidades, subjetividades e afetividades no cotidiano escolar

A pesquisa tem como foco a discuss��o das visualidades encontradas e, principalmente, produzidas no/do/com o cotidiano escolar, e suas rela����es com os curr��culos. O estudo se desenvolveu, tomando como base, o registro e recolhimento de dados a partir da nossa pr��tica docente no ensino de arte, numa escola municipal do Rio de Janeiro. A escolha da problem��tica deste estudo surgiu do desejo de discutirmos as experi��ncias vividas cotidianamente nos espa��ostempos da escola, e de refletirmos em torno dos posicionamentos dos sujeitos deste contexto, frente ��s fissuras epistemol��gicas e conceituais que a�� se apresentam. O debate em torno dos curr��culos vigentes e os praticados est��o inseridos nesta investiga����o, trazendo �� tona as imposi����es oficiais e as tessituras captadas nos entrelinhas dos cotidianos. As imagens que cercam este espa��o, tanto as criadas quanto as que invadem tal cen��rio, s��o discutidas aqui quanto ao seu potencial emancipat��rio. Abordamos os desafios encontrados no exerc��cio do ensinar/aprender na perspectiva contempor��nea, levando em considera����o as m��ltiplas identidades que transitam poeticamente na escola e as subjetividades que as caracterizam. Buscamos, ainda, incentivar as rela����es dial��gicas com os docentes e suas atua����es no campo escolar, acreditando que �� na pr��tica, e na reflex��o sobre ela, que nos formamos enquanto educadores

Erich Lessing: Arresting Time. Reportage Photography 1948-1973

Crawford, Alistair, Erich Lessing: Arresting Time. Reportage Photography 1948-1973 (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2005) RAE2008

O antropomorfizowaniu i potrzebie przedstawie�� figuralnych w sztuce greckiej

Estetyka w archeologii. Antropomorfizacje w pradziejach i staro��ytno��ci, eds. E. Bugaj, A. P. Kowalski, Pozna��: Wydawnictwo Pozna��skie.

The Performance Practice of Buddhist Baiqi in Contemporary Taiwan

The baiqi (Buddhist percussive instruments), also known as faqi (dharma instruments), are mentioned in the Chinese Buddhist scriptures under many different terms: jianzhi, jiandi, jianzhui, or jianchi. The original function of baiqi in earlier monastic life was to gather people or to call an assembly. With the completion of monasticism and monastic institutions, baiqi have become multifunctional in monasteries, and many baiqi instruments have been developed for different monastic applications. In contemporary Buddhist monasteries in Taiwan, baiqi are used, on the one hand, to mark the time throughout the day, signal the beginning and end of monastic daily activities, and regulate the monastic order; and on the other hand, baiqi are indispensable to the musical practices of all Buddhist rituals, where they are used to accompany fanbai (Buddhist liturgical chants) and to articulate the whole ritual process. This study investigates multiple facets of Buddhist baiqi in their performance practice, function, application, notation, and transmission, exploring the interaction between baiqi and fanbai, baiqi and the practitioner, baiqi and the monastic space, and baiqi and various Buddhist contexts. I draw upon ideas from performance theory as it concerns different disciplines, but I maintain a sharper focus on the musicological dimension of performance practice when analyzing, interpreting, and explaining the performance and music of baiqi in terms of the monastic lifestyle and its rituals. The study not only uncovers the musical system of baiqi, but also encapsulates various issues of performed identity, social interaction, performer/audience, associated behaviors, the musical construction of space, and transmission.

[Book review] Colour: Art and Science

Tony Mann provides a review of the book: Trevor Lamb & Janine Bourriau (Eds.) Colour: Art and Science, 1995. (Darwin College Lectures), Cambridge University Press, 237pp. ISBN: 0521-49645-4 (hbk.) 0521-49963-1 (pbk.)

Art as an educative and social tool

Since remote times, certain sectors of society have been exposed to inequality and vulnerability, where adequate intervention processes have become conspicuous because of their absence. Nowadays, current societies have the responsibility of contributing, based on their experience and knowledge, with more efficient policies and programs that improve the life quality of the most disadvantaged. It is here where art and its different tools play a very important role, not only on a physical level, but also as an education tool that allows the development of emotional, mental and communicative skills. The aim of this paper is to make clear the potential of art as an instrument of social and educational intervention. It starts by showing worldwide-collected experience related to education and arts, and then, it acquaints the reader with two parallel intervention projects that worked with youths under social vulnerability conditions. These interventions were developed based on a qualitative research (Grounded theory), using as methodology ���The Artistic Mediation��� with emphasis on body language. This methodology helped researchers to get close to the participants and to know their experiences and emotions. At the same time, it was possible to evidence the positive effects of educative interventions through art. These workshops were based on an artistic methodology especially focused on body language. Data in this work is qualitative, and as such, it permits a special approach to the personal and emotional experiences of the participants; clearly showing the positive effects of the referenced practice on them.

The "Art" of Criticism: Rub��n Dar��o and his Unknown Chronicles of the 1895 Salon for "La Prensa"

With the impetus that has led recent studies on Latin American Modernism to a reevaluation of the sense of cultural fluxes from the modernity capitals to its peripheries ���discarding categories such as ���influence���, ���exotism��� and ���ivory tower���, stereotypes that have clouded critical understanding of this aesthetics for decades- the present study intends to investigate a persistent practice of the main writers of the movement. This practice is modernist pictorial criticism, a genre that will be approached through the analysis of an unknown corpus: the seven chronicles Rub��n Dar��o published in the journal La Prensa on occasion of the third art exposition of the Ateneo de Buenos Aires. Our hypothesis is that the rare creators of images portrayed by Dar��o by the end of 1895 work as a visual counterpoint of the eccentric writers��� biographical sketches that a year later will be part of the fundamental volume Los raros (1896). In this early ���salon���, which we reproduce in its entirety, accompanied by explanatory notes, the leader of Modernism rehearses and consolidates his transcultural work with the universal tradition ���now applied to the Salons (1845-1860) by Charles Baudelaire and to the monumental project by John Ruskin in Modern painters (1843-1860)- to legitimate, from another subgenre of Modernist criticism, a new figure of the critic, in dissent with the Enlightenment model of the writer.

Approaches of the Action Art in early childhood Education. Some other ways of interrelation within the educational system

This Artistic research project was created in order to test how to put into practice approaches between Contemporary Art and University daily life. In this particular case, between Action Art and the students at the Early Childhood Education University in Alicante. The generalized lack of awareness about changes which took place in Art in the XX century, demonstrates the lack of interest on the part of students about Contemporary Art, and therefore, it is still remarkable, the distance between Art and life. Thus, as artists and teachers, the chance to carry out specific experiments is open within everyday educational life. Therefore, through Action Art a communicative interaction is possible to be achieved as an active learning process and, in such way, change the usual existing relationships in a predetermine context, creating this way, future Contemporary Art consumers and transmitters.