Proposal Form, Notes from today

Research topic(s):

We were given another copy of the proposal form today (Study Task 2), and I found it difficult to be precise at this point. I ended up drawing a mind map to note down different threads of ideas. This is what it looked like:

Potential question?: The people's art and how it relates to visual art having a purpose

The meaning in visual art section is a new addition, after reading this article by Lawrence Zeegen. It was really interesting, and could link my work to contemporary practice seeing as the folk art I am interested in is historical.

I'll probably analyse the ideas in this article in more depth at a later date, but essentially Zeegen argues that the field of illustration has became surface-level, and self-indulgent ('More focused on the creation of artefacts...').

I think that folk art is the opposite of this. It's full of meanings and symbols and stories and messages, relating to its makers and the communities or regions it derives from. This could also lead me on to looking at communication (visually) through symbols and pictograms, and what they could represent.

Other things to maybe look at:

• selftaughtgenius.org (Tampa Museum of Art)

• Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean Dubuffet

• V&A

• Folk art / crafts in the British Isles? (Shetlands, Fair Isle...)

• Marie Lieb, Heinrich Anton Müller

Folk Art

"Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic." (Wikipedia)

"Artistic works, as paintings, sculpture, basketry, and utensils, produced typically in cultural isolation by untrained often anonymous artists or by artisans of varying degrees of skills and marked by such attributes as highly decorative design, bright bold colours, flattened perspective, strong forms in simple arrangements, and immediacy of meaning"

"The visual arts, music, drama, dance, or literature originating from, or traditional to, the common people of a country" (British Dictionary definition)

"Folk art is a result of ordinary people expressing themselves through their creation and construction of utilitarian objects that convey meaning and value to themselves or others within their culture...

...Typically the patterns, motifs, techniques and materials have special significance and can reveal a great deal about a cultural society"

Kate "Granny" Donaldson
Appliqued crochet quilts depicting pastoral/biblical images

• Naive style

• Traditional rules (proportion, perspective) aren't used

• Difficult to describe as it differs according to its culture, geographical location..

• Expresses cultural identity / communities and their values, aesthetics

• Not influenced by fine art / high art / academic definitions of art, however folk artists have been known to make a living.

• Terms that overlap: naive art, primitive art, outsider art, traditional art, tramp art, blue-collar art -> often used interchangeably with folk art

• Reflects diverse community groups: ethnic, tribal, religious, occupational, geographical, age, gender

Man with Facial Paralysis
Jose F. Dos Santos, Brazil | An ex-voto carved offering most likely made

for someone who survived a stroke

What else to look at:

- Crafts, Handicraft, Arts and crafts

- 'Rural crafts' traditional crafts production that is done for simple everyday practical use, argicultural, countryside... (Basket making, basket trap, spinning yarn, thatching..)

- Folk art/crafts of the British Isles? (Knitting? Pottery?)

- American Folk Art Museum / When the Curtain Never Comes Down exhibition

- Folk Art on Encyclopaedia Britannica

Research | Starting Points

Themes: Politics, Society, Culture, History, Technology, Aesthetics

Instead of wondering how I should start, I think I just need to begin recording ideas and bits of information that are relevant to me. I can change this at a later date if it's incorrect.

This research will inform both Studio Brief 1 (Theoretical) as well as Studio Brief 2 (Practical)

I made a big mind map of topics and subjects that are of personal interest to me, or that I looked at a bit last year (PPP, COP..) and I think a lot of them tie in with the six themes we were given as starting points.

For the time being I will just start to build up a body of research, see which subjects work best as questions or ideas, and then refine it down.

I found it difficult to propose a research question before I had even began to accumulate information. This way makes more sense to me.

Next: Gather images, find supporting books/texts/articles, explore each of the topics individually (though overlap will probably happen)

SB1 & SB2 Outlines

STUDIO BRIEF 1 "Critical Analysis"

Deliverables

• Context of Practice blog (discuss key texts, images, approaches, relevance of written work to your practice, other relevant info) lecture notes, responses to ideas & theories

• At least one VISUAL ANALYSIS exercise on blog (500 words)
• At least one REVIEW of a set academic text (500 words)

• 3000 word essay (4 x academic references, 10 x sources w/ harvard refs)

STUDIO BRIEF 2 "Theory into Practice"

Deliverables

• Full visual journal (A5 concertina) - drawing, image making, collected/recorded images, quotes and related contextual references

• Poster (summative, based on your research) and 10 word pitch

• Blog  - A body of practical, contextual and theoretical research
            - Evaluation of synthesis - PDF presentation of selected visual research
            - A written evaluation of work

The Visual Journal (A5 Concertina)

1. Research - Research subject and locate quotes, concepts, theories, and other practitioners that link. Initial ideas, responding to and experimenting with line, colour, shape, texture, collage

2. Feedback/Development - Extended initial ideas, identify successful practical research approaches and how they relate to theoretical research, selecting one formal element

3. Focus (concept/idea/theory/specific element) - Review successes of experimental work, consider synthesis between theorists, concepts, quotes > selecting only focused communication

4. Rationale - Use peer feedback and evaluation on practical ideas to develop understanding of emerging practice - producing a rationale for the work in progress

5. Positioning of Work - Developments - how the practical work has developed, where is it going? Contextualising and positioning work within contemporary illust practice, considering suggested formats, practices, purposes

6. Evaluation of Synthesis - Critically assess (crit) the outcomes, direction, positioning with the intention of understanding. Evaluate the project so far focusing on the synthesis. Plan further activities based around the rationale, position and synthesis together to meet the deadline.

Study Task 3 | Triangulation Exercise, pt. 2

All three writers discuss subjects relating to gender and its depiction in narrative cinema, citing Laura Mulvey's 1975 essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' as the main supporting evidence for their arguments.

In 'Stars' (1979), Dyer writes how narrative cinema and television are models for how we portray ourselves and our relationships, imitating those shown on-screen or by celebrities. Dyer's Star Theory suggests the idea that celebrities are constructed to represent real people experiencing real emotions. In the text, Dyer references Valerie Walkerdine's study of a London family viewing a video of Rocky III at home, linking 'the father's identification with Sylvester Stallone' to his 'role as a union representative at work' - aligning with how this father viewed himself as 'fighting for his family'.

The example of this study relates to John Storey's essay on 'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture', suggesting that the male spectator/member of the audience 'fixes his gaze on the hero' in order to 'satisfy (his) ego formation' - fulfilling his very own internal hero narrative. Storey also agrees with much of Mulvey's 'Visual Pleasure' essay, perpetuating her idea that the pleasure of looking is divided between the roles of an 'active male' and 'passive female' - in which the 'moments of narrative' in film are intended for the male viewer, and the 'moments of spectacle' (where the woman is typically the spectacle in question...) are also intended for the male viewer, but instead to satisfy his libido.

In her argument, Mulvey weaves in aspects of psychoanalysis and Freudian theory to demonstrate how 'the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured film form' - which the two other writers also discuss, especially how cinema and television are marketed specifically towards an audience of men ('the moviegoer is positioned according to the pleasures of male heterosexual desire', Dyer 1979).
Mulvey states that cinema panders to a 'primordial wish for pleasurable looking', referncing how children go through a 'mirror phase' to support this claim. Mulvey's intention for her essay is to bring about the 'destruction of pleasure' through picking apart all of these ideas, saying that 'analysing pleasure, or beauty, destroys it'.

Study Task 3 | Triangulation Exercise pt. 1

'Stars' Richard Dyer (1979)  |  Themes: Film theory, gender, film, marketing

Primary text - 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' - Laura Mulvey

• What is being discussed/argued? - The power of Hollywood

- Media and how it relates to social/cultural expectations

- Stars using their status to sell products in order for audiences to imitate them

- Richard Dyer's 'Star Theory' - the idea that icons and celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial gain. Stars are constructed to represent 'real people' experiencing real emotions

- Narrative cinema/television are models for how we should act and be: 'Jenkins argues that fans 'construct their cultural and social identity through borrowing and inflecting mass-culture images'

- The male gaze in cinema, how the media (in this example, movies) are marketed to a male, heterosexual audience: 'the moviegoer is positioned according to the pleasures of male heterosexual desire'        'Laura Mulvey's use of Freudian/Lacanian thinking leads her to conclude that the male gaze produces a sadistically voyeuristic pleasure'

- Father relates to male stereotype: 'In her study of a London family viewing a video of Rocky III in the home, Valerie Walkerdine linked the father's identification with Sylvester Stallone to his role as a union representative at work, and how he sees himself 'fighting' for his family'


• Criticisms? - Dated, consumers/audiences have became a little more self-aware

- Greater variation in role models - different types of femininity/masculinity, different types of relationships (platonic, same-sex)

- Unfocused argument, sweeps across many different points

---------------------------------------------------

'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture' John Storey

• What is being discussed/argued? 

- References Mulvey's essay

- Popular cinema is structured around two moments: 'moments of narrative and moments of spectacle. The first is associated with the active male, the second with the passive female...' 

'The male spectator fixes his gaze on the hero ('the bearer of the look') to satisfy ego formation, and through the hero to the heroine ('the erotic look'), to satisfy libido'

• Criticisms? - Not sure what Storey discusses himself, as the extract mainly references Mulvey's essay.

---------------------------------------------------

'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' (1975) Laura Mulvey

• What is being discussed/argued? 

- Audience relate to male character, male has power. 'pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female'

- Looking 'the cinema satisfies a primordial wish for pleasurable looking'

- Women are objects of male desire, and signifiers of the threat of castration

- Male viewer projects himself on to that male character, fulfilling his own internal hero-narrative

- Women/female characters portrayed as sexualised, objects of desire: 'traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story...and for the spectator within the auditorium'

- Uses psychoanalysis/Freudian theory to '(demonstrate) the way the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured film form'

Ideas & Themes

As a pre-cursor to Study Task 2: Establishing a Research Question.

When asked to gather interesting, important, and exciting themes that interest me as well as considering successful processes and research methods from last year. Here are my immediate thoughts:

These threads mainly came from things of personal interest which I had included a small amount in my PPP module last year. I will add to and change this list later on.

Themes:

• High and low art/culture (e.g. Fine Art vs. Popular culture - why? what? when?)

• Collage - historical origins, its impact, uses

• Folk art / Naive art / Outsider art / Art Brut
               -> "Crafts" and their origins, as women's artistic outlets, not considered as serious art. Quilts, patchwork, sewing, lace making. I would look at its historical origins, its importance, from a social aspect? Also the imagery and themes within. Maybe put a modern twist?

• Story telling through images / Narrative art
               -> Painting (Classical - myths, legends, religious stories)
               -> Comics - modern storytelling? (Early comics had political agendas)

Processes:• Interdisciplinary - Looking across many artistic fields outside of just illustration. I enjoyed this as part of my research last year on Postmodernism, but also I find this beneficial to my practice usually.

• Trialing, playing testing. Trying to keep an open mind with the visual research I conduct.

• Make now, analyse later. Do these two things separately so my visual research doesn't suffer at the time of making.

• Extracting information, influences and inspiration from my research in terms of theory and visually.

Study Task 1 | Illustration and Authorship

'Death of the Author' (1968) by Roland Barthes

*500 word summary including short analysis of illustrator and how their practice relates to themes of this text

Points:

• Pieces of work (literary, artistic, etc) always reflect their author or maker on some level. They shouldn't be taken as fact as they are more often than not a reflection of their lives, opinions, experiences, the context of their lives.

• When the author has been found, the text is 'explained'. Suggests that people believe true meaning is found when the authors true intentions are revealed. However people could take away something from a piece of work that is their own explanation, and gain just as much from that - or by transposing their own lives/self on to it.

• Things can assume new meanings every time someone different views/reads/engages with something. Individual interpretation.

Quotes:

"The image of literature to be found in ordinary culture is tyrannically centred on the author"

"...Van Gogh's his madness, Tchaikovsky's his vice"

"...he made of his very life a work for which his own book was the model"

Relation to Illustration / Visual Culture:• To create is to express some part of yourself, even on a subconscious level. For example the piece of work may not be about you directly, but is influenced by your tone of voice, your visual tastes, your likes and interests, your approaches and methods. Especially in illustration, where the 'hand of the maker' often shows.

• The act of putting work out into the world offers the chance for things to take on a completely new meaning from what you intended. This is due to (mis)interpretation from the audience, readers, viewers.