Ecologies of talent. Pure scenius. Eno on the ball about emergent creativity and emphasising the collective or cultural conditions for fertile art:
"[When] I was an art student . . . I was encouraged to believe that there were a few great figures like Picasso and Kandinsky . . . who sort-of appeared out of nowhere and produced artistic revolution. As I looked at art more and more, I discovered that that wasn't really a true picture.
What really happened was that there [were] sometimes very fertile scenes involving . . . all sorts of people who created a kind of ecology of talent. . .So I came up with this word "scenius." . . . And I think that's a more useful way to think about culture. . . . Let's forget the idea of "genius" for a little while. Let's think about the whole ecology of ideas that give rise to good new thoughts and good new work."
Brian Eno
I'm thinking that Eno is the patron saint of Interactive Arts.
Wednesday 1 December 2010
Thursday 18 November 2010
Thursday 4 November 2010
Francesca Woodman: Photographer
The artist began taking photographs at the age of thirteen, and though she was only twenty two when she took her own life, she left behind a substantial body of work. Francesca Woodmans photographs explore issues of gender and self, looking at the representation of the body in relation to its surroundings.
She puts herself in the frame most often, although these are not conventional self-portraits as she is either partially hidden, or concealed by slow exposures that blur her moving figure into a ghostly presence. This underlying vulnerability is further emphasised by the small and intimate format of the photographs. We often see her in otherwise deserted interior spaces, where her body seems to merge with its surroundings, covered by sections of peeling wallpaper, half hidden behind the flat plane of a door, or crouching over a mirror. Found objects and suggestive props are carefully placed to create unsettling, surreal or claustrophobic scenarios.
Her photographs are produced in thematic series, relating to specific props, places or situations. Woodman was exposed to the symbolic work of Max Klinger whilst studying in Rome from 1977-78 and his influence can clearly be seen in many photographic series, such as Eel Series, Roma and Angel Series, Roma.
In combining performance, play and self-exposure, Woodmans photographs create extreme and often disturbing psychological states. In concealing or encrypting her subjects she reminds the viewer that photographs flatten and distort, never offering the whole truth about a subject.
She puts herself in the frame most often, although these are not conventional self-portraits as she is either partially hidden, or concealed by slow exposures that blur her moving figure into a ghostly presence. This underlying vulnerability is further emphasised by the small and intimate format of the photographs. We often see her in otherwise deserted interior spaces, where her body seems to merge with its surroundings, covered by sections of peeling wallpaper, half hidden behind the flat plane of a door, or crouching over a mirror. Found objects and suggestive props are carefully placed to create unsettling, surreal or claustrophobic scenarios.
Her photographs are produced in thematic series, relating to specific props, places or situations. Woodman was exposed to the symbolic work of Max Klinger whilst studying in Rome from 1977-78 and his influence can clearly be seen in many photographic series, such as Eel Series, Roma and Angel Series, Roma.
In combining performance, play and self-exposure, Woodmans photographs create extreme and often disturbing psychological states. In concealing or encrypting her subjects she reminds the viewer that photographs flatten and distort, never offering the whole truth about a subject.
Duane Michals
I have recently discovered the work of Duane Michals. I love his intelligent and reflective approach to photography.
Trust that little voice in your head that says "Wouldn't it be interesting if..."; And then do it.
How foolish of me to believe that it would be that easy. I had confused the appearance of trees and automobiles, and people with a reality itself, and believed that a photograph of these appearances to be a photograph of it. It is a melancholy truth that I will never be able to photograph it and can only fail. I am a reflection photographing other reflections within a reflection. To photograph reality is to photograph nothing.
The best part of us is not what we see, it's what we feel. We are what we feel. We are not what we look at . . .. We're not our eyeballs, we're our mind. People believe their eyeballs and they're totally wrong . . .. That's why I consider most photographs extremely boring--just like Muzak, inoffensive, charming, another waterfall, another sunset. This time, colors have been added to protect the innocent. It's just boring. But that whole arena of one's experience--grief, loneliness--how do you photograph lust? I mean, how do you deal with these things? This is what you are, not what you see. It's all sitting up here. I could do all my work sitting in my room. I don't have to go anywhere.
And in not learning the rules, I was free. I always say, you're either defined by the medium or you redefine the medium in terms of your needs.
The only thing we know for sure is what we experience. If you look at a photograph of somebody crying, you register grief. But in fact, you don't know what people are experiencing at all. You're always protecting your version of what that emotion is. What is known is only what I know. The only truth I know is my own experience. I don't know what it means to be black. I don't know what it means to be a woman. I don't know what it means to be Cartier-Bresson. So I have to define my work in terms of my own truth. That's what the journey is all about, if you are to use your own instincts. The great wonder is that we each have our own validity, our own mysteries. It's the sharing of those gifts that makes artists artists.
Interview with Robert Farber
Quotes by Duane Michals:
I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.
I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways.
I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.
I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways.
Trust that little voice in your head that says "Wouldn't it be interesting if..."; And then do it.
How foolish of me to believe that it would be that easy. I had confused the appearance of trees and automobiles, and people with a reality itself, and believed that a photograph of these appearances to be a photograph of it. It is a melancholy truth that I will never be able to photograph it and can only fail. I am a reflection photographing other reflections within a reflection. To photograph reality is to photograph nothing.
The best part of us is not what we see, it's what we feel. We are what we feel. We are not what we look at . . .. We're not our eyeballs, we're our mind. People believe their eyeballs and they're totally wrong . . .. That's why I consider most photographs extremely boring--just like Muzak, inoffensive, charming, another waterfall, another sunset. This time, colors have been added to protect the innocent. It's just boring. But that whole arena of one's experience--grief, loneliness--how do you photograph lust? I mean, how do you deal with these things? This is what you are, not what you see. It's all sitting up here. I could do all my work sitting in my room. I don't have to go anywhere.
And in not learning the rules, I was free. I always say, you're either defined by the medium or you redefine the medium in terms of your needs.
The only thing we know for sure is what we experience. If you look at a photograph of somebody crying, you register grief. But in fact, you don't know what people are experiencing at all. You're always protecting your version of what that emotion is. What is known is only what I know. The only truth I know is my own experience. I don't know what it means to be black. I don't know what it means to be a woman. I don't know what it means to be Cartier-Bresson. So I have to define my work in terms of my own truth. That's what the journey is all about, if you are to use your own instincts. The great wonder is that we each have our own validity, our own mysteries. It's the sharing of those gifts that makes artists artists.
Interview with Robert Farber
| Robert Farber: I'm here in Florida with a great photographer Duane Michaels. I've first started ???? actually in Vogue magazine. And with those commercial-grade editorials, his work to me always had a fine art edge to it. Then I started following it more and more and I've seen his work over the years. And Duane is one of the few photographers that make his living both in commercial as well as...should I say fine art or...Duane? Duane Michals: The finest art. Robert Farber: The finest art photographer you've ever seen. His work is quite interesting. There's something to it that tells a story, whether it's a fantasy or an illusion--there's just some quality to it, I don't know if it's humorous, serious--but it goes all over the place and I find it very entertaining. So not only his books but his exhibitions really are very enthralling and I appreciate his work, and I'm really happy that you're here doing this interview with me. Duane Michals: I am too. Robert Farber: When did you first start your career? Duane Michals: I was a very late bloomer. I became a photographer when I was 28. I first went to Russia when I was 26, but I was never an amateur. I didn't have a camera, I borrowed a camera. I'd taken one small photography course that I'd forgotten--it was forgettable. And going to Russia really changed my life because as a result of those photographs I became a photographer. Robert Farber: Your first type of photography that you first got involved in was--was it more commercial or was it showing your work in more of a non-commercial vain? Duane Michals: In those days there was no non-commercial vain, there was only commercial. We're talking about 1960. There were no galleries, the underground hadn't opened up yet. And I worked as a commercial photographer doing portraits for magazines, freelance. Robert Farber: How were you first discovered? Did you assist at first, how did you get your first assignments? Duane Michals: I never assisted, I always an amateur. As a matter of fact, I worked for almost twenty years before I finally used an assistant myself. I knew nothing about photography, which was my saving grace. I didn't come up through the ranks, I simply wanted to go out and do portraits. I figured I was making 105 dollars a week at Time, Inc. doing promotion material in the graphics department. I figured if I could make 105 dollars a week doing portraits wouldn't that be great, and that's exactly what I did. Robert Farber: Where do you feel your first real break came from? Duane Michals: There was no real break. I got work immediately. If I had to wait six months to get a job I never would have been able to do it. But I got work right away. I think probably my first real break in terms of being seen seriously was when I had a one man show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970 of Sequences. Robert Farber: And that's way ahead of it's time for photography, especially in a museum... Duane Michals: At that point--you have to think photography history--when I came on the scene in the 60s, you could be Ansel Adams, Robert Frank, Cartier Bresson But the kind of thing I was interested in was without precedent, if you want to count Mulbridge. And the things that interested me were not visible. I didn't want to photograph a corpse, but what interested me was what happened when you die. And so I did a sequence called The Spirit Leaves the Body, which shows somebody getting up and walking away from their body. I was never a street photographer in the sense of looking for something to take a picture of. I would simply sit and find those things in my head which I found scary or interesting or whatever. Robert Farber: So with these series of images, and the sequences, the way you do the images, I notice some of them have a sense of humor, some are more serious. Is there a preference or a way that you work--did you evolve into more of a sense of humor--because you're a funny guy in person? And it comes through in some of your work. Then I look at it and I say, "You know what, this is serious." Duane Michals: It's neither yin or yang, it's all the whole. It's the whole package. Sometimes I sell for credit, sometimes I sell for cash. What I do, whatever I find funny--let me put it this way--I'm totally free. I can talk about or photograph anything I'm interested in and I like good jokes. I think to be very serious, you have to be very foolish, so it's keeping that balance of foolish and serious simutaneously. Robert Farber: I also love the way you caption your images, the way you write about it. Are these thoughts that you write, are they made up or are they really happening to these people in their lives? Is it really the traumas that they've gone through? Some of them seem realistic and some of them I just don't know.... Duane Michals: Well it's all fiction. The people are really actors, and it's all out of my imagination. I believe in imagination, I love wit, surprise...I like to deal with issues that aren't visible, essentially. I'm much more interested in what something feels like rather than what it looks like. So if I see a woman crying, or I photograph Magritte asleep--I'd much rather photograph Magritte's dreams. I'd much rather see a woman crying, I really want to know what's the nature of her grief. What's making her cry, what does it feel like to cry? So photographing tears doesn't do it for me. Robert Farber: How much of the work or the models that you use in your work are actors? And you've also photographed some well-known people--personalities. Duane Michals: Well those are mostly assignments of celebrities--I'm not a celebrity monger. What I do, is find people I like, and they're not professionally actors but I have to direct them. They don't know what I want, so I have to make them perform. Robert Farber: And the type of portraiture that you do, is more story telling. It's not really the face, but the whole body, the environment I've noticed... Duane Michals: I've always had a trouble with portraiture because I believe people aren't what they appear to be, so when somebody says "Oh! you really captured somebody" that's filled with nonsense--you can't capture anybody. People perform in front of cameras, especially if they're celebrities. They do their celebrity schtick for you. But the problem is, my mother and father--I knew them my entire lifetime, not once did they reveal themselves to me...so I don't believe that a portrait of a total stranger or a very famous person has anything to do with who that person is. Duane Michals: I like to photograph anybody. It's easier to photograph artists because they live in interesting spaces, and they lend themselves to photography. Photographing a business man will kill you. I've photographed lots of business men and they're always very tight-assed, and they're very difficult to do, but that's part of the challenge. I'm up for anything, I really am. Robert Farber: And in your latest work which direction have you taken? Do you find yourself evolving in any new directions? I should ask you this way--as a photographer I can relate and it's important for me to know--I find myself evolving in a certain direction--are you taking your work in new directions as the days go by? Duane Michals: Actually, over the years, I began to write about 20 years ago with photographs, and now I'm writing more and more. I think I can express myself more intimately with language than I can with photographs. So I call myself--when people ask what am I, I say I'm an expressionist. It's not about photography, it's not about painting, it's not about writing--it's about how well you express yourself in terms of what you have to say, what you need to say. Robert Farber: But I also notice how beautiful and story-telling your still life images are without people in them. Not only the way you capture life, the feeling of it, but it really tells a story, and that's nice. Is that something that you continue doing? Duane Michals: Well I'm very verbal, and that's the way Cartier Bresson had to walk around with a camera, that's what he did. This is what I do. I love the products of my imagination, and my only limit is my own imagination. Robert Farber: You, with your involvement in both areas in both fine art, even though you don't like to call it fine art, and the commercial work--what advice could you give to photographers that are just starting out who are trying to find their direction, trying to develop a style.... Duane Michals: Do it. You have two choices in life--doing and bullshit. I hate photographers who talk about photographs but never take any. And the only way you're ever going to grow...two things, one you have to take risks, you have to be able to let go of all your preconceived notions of what photography should be, and open yourself to the possibilities. Otherwise you're going to be spinning your wheels the rest of your life. Robert Farber: As far as with new photographers starting out...do you suggest that they concentrate more on their fine art or commercial work if they have an interest in both--because I know as a photographer there's one thing I say, you always forget once you start making money at photography--what interests you in the first place, what's your advice in that direction? Duane Michals: I think what's essential there is not to become a business--I've never had a studio, I've never had an agent until just recently. When you take the traditional route of the assistant, then you take over and have $5000 doa week in overhead, then you've got to take all kinds of crap you don't really want to do. So I never wanted to be Avadon, I didn't ever want to do five million a year. I didn't want to do any of that. I want my freedom, and that's exactly what I've done. So I'm cottage industry, I think small. So if that's what you want, then do it, but when you do that be aware that you're going to be stuck with this great overhead and you're going to have no freedom. So I usually work on avg one or two days a week. I've done tons and tons of exhibits and books and its because I've always worked simultaneously on my own work as well as jobs. Robert Farber: When you say you work one or two days a week, is that that you make sure you shoot your own things aside from shooting jobs, even during your down time do you shoot your own work? Duane Michals: I always do my own work. But it's not the shooting--shooting is the easiest part--for me it's what do I care about, what makes me angry, what scares me? Figuring that out and being moved to somehow find a way of illustrating it or showing it. Robert Farber: What does move you? Duane Michals: A lot of things. The traditional ones: death, desire, anger, politcal anger, becoming aware of old age, paying attention to the way my mind works. Things that most people- Robert Farber: When do you find yourself inspired the greatest? Through what, is it seeing other work, other visuals of things that go on during everyday life? Duane Michals: No, it's paying attention, and sometimes we all have particular points of view. For me the father/son relationship is a subject I've come back to in so many many versions. Life after death, death state, metaphysical implications, I keep coming back to it. So, you know, I may read something and it suddenly catches my eye and I respond to it. I generate an enormous amount of curiosity. I think that's what separates me from other photographers. For example, I would never go to Africa and photograph black people and exotic costumes...I just did a project, as a matter of fact, for French Vogue a year ago in December. They wanted me to illustrate quantum physics, and I've always been interested in quantum, of course there's nothing to see. So that's a real problem, but that's the sort of thing I get intrigued by. Robert Farber: If someone really wants to, what do you think is the best example of your work that people can look or go to the bookstore and pick up to really study you...or what museums or collections would you refer them to? Duane Michals: I have a book out, about a year now, called the Essential Duane Michaels. That covers lots and lots...almost every area that I've been interested in and the text is very good. It's all the categories that I've been thinking about, and that's probably the best one. It's published by Bullfinch in the U.S. Robert Farber: May I ask how old you are? Duane Michals: 68. Robert Farber: You look great for your age. Let me ask you, how do you feel about growing "old" (party expression, growing old), but so am I... Duane Michals: No, it's terrific, we have such a youth culture, and there's always this fixation of being young and all the whole 14-18, what is it 18-49, the age group, the 90210, the Friends generation, and I'm so glad I'm not young any more. This is a great time of life. Young people never think they're ever going to get old, and of course it's inevitable. And if you play your cards right, your life should get more interesting and better and better, it shouldn't get worse and worse. It all depends on you, but I highly recommend getting older, but in a good way. Robert Farber: Very well said. And with that, I really want to thank you. I really enjoyed this, and I know our listeners at the photo workshop will also. Thank you. Note: The above is a transcript of Robert Farber's interview with Duane Michals. It has undergone some editing for improved readibility. |
Wednesday 4 August 2010
Creative Sculpture 2
Plaster, hessian, bone and rusty manhole cover:
Chloe Leaper teaching.
Plaster is a good material to learn basic sculpting skills. It is quick to set but soft enough to carve. We used clay as a moulding base and then poured plaster to create the mould. Clay can be imprinted with found objects (stones, peddles, sticks), pre-made objects (kitchen items, pre-made plaster casts) or simply with the hand. The plaster casts can then be worked on with carving tools, rifflers, knives and files or broken and re-joined using plaster as a glue.
Interesting to combine plaster and seaweed!
Chloe Leaper teaching.
Plaster is a good material to learn basic sculpting skills. It is quick to set but soft enough to carve. We used clay as a moulding base and then poured plaster to create the mould. Clay can be imprinted with found objects (stones, peddles, sticks), pre-made objects (kitchen items, pre-made plaster casts) or simply with the hand. The plaster casts can then be worked on with carving tools, rifflers, knives and files or broken and re-joined using plaster as a glue.
Interesting to combine plaster and seaweed!
Creative Sculpture 1
I'm back home and inspired from a Creative Sculpture Course in Porthleven, Cornwall. The course was run by the Art Academy and tutored by Chloe Leaper.
Day one we did blind line drawings out in the harbour - looking at the object but not at the paper. It is amazing how this produces a freer line and trains the mind to harmonize eye and hand. This is also a 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' type exercise devised to sidestep the brains tendency to think it already knows what an object looks like. This is one of the hardest obstacles for a beginner to overcome - the tendency to draw what we think rather than what we see. It's a kind of visual familiarity breeding contempt. But the nice thing about the pencil basic line is that it can be converted into a wire line. Then the wire line can be modified into a 3D model. The 3D model can then be explored in terms of planes and spaces by filling the negative spaces with paper, sellotape or string etc.
I love the elegance of this exercise and the steps in the process are satisfying.
Day one we did blind line drawings out in the harbour - looking at the object but not at the paper. It is amazing how this produces a freer line and trains the mind to harmonize eye and hand. This is also a 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' type exercise devised to sidestep the brains tendency to think it already knows what an object looks like. This is one of the hardest obstacles for a beginner to overcome - the tendency to draw what we think rather than what we see. It's a kind of visual familiarity breeding contempt. But the nice thing about the pencil basic line is that it can be converted into a wire line. Then the wire line can be modified into a 3D model. The 3D model can then be explored in terms of planes and spaces by filling the negative spaces with paper, sellotape or string etc.
I love the elegance of this exercise and the steps in the process are satisfying.
Thursday 22 July 2010
Horses
Two Horses (charcoal on paper) 21/7/10
I'm still struggling with being a beginner at drawing. But at least I enjoyed drawing these horses. Got a long way to go technically, but I like the concentrated look of the horses. And it's kinda moody.
Horses seem to be pressing into my psyche over the last year. I met with a horse in the winter snow on a walk in the fields above our house. He followed me and my partner, probably wanting food. We had nothing to offer. But I was struck by the depth in a horses eyes. The eyes of a horse are large, dark and mysterious. That led to me writing a song called 'Horse in the Snow' which my band 'Three Piece Sweet' perform.
Horses seem to be pressing into my psyche over the last year. I met with a horse in the winter snow on a walk in the fields above our house. He followed me and my partner, probably wanting food. We had nothing to offer. But I was struck by the depth in a horses eyes. The eyes of a horse are large, dark and mysterious. That led to me writing a song called 'Horse in the Snow' which my band 'Three Piece Sweet' perform.
Here's the lyrics:
Horse in the Snow
There's a horse in the snow and he's looking at me
There's a glint in his eye of eternity
I haven't got food in my outstretched hand
He's looking at me, he doesn't understand
What I'm seeing
What I'm seeing
The hills are cold, the trees are dark
There's something sleeping under the bark
I'm thinking of the time when the apples fall
Through a gap in the side of the garden wall
Of Eden
Of Eden
Now some might like to call it the fall
But I like to climb up the garden wall
You can't keep beauty in a confined space
You can't fall in love with a single face
When you hear Her calling
Hear Her calling.
There's a path in the snow like a thread of light
It sways like a snake in the full moon night
Follow it out into the open field
You'll a sword and a silver shield
And you'll hear Her calling
Hear her calling
Well the world needs water, and the water is free
You said the thing you like about me
Is the way I change when I start to cry
You drink the fountain in my eye
And it's healing
And it's healing
And it's healing
And it's healing
(c) R.Bygott 2010
The song can be heard on the Three Piece Sweet page of Reverbnation
Thursday 17 June 2010
'Woman & Child'
'Woman & Child'So what happens if you just take a piece of paper, some pastels and the basic idea that there is a figure in there waiting to emerge? This piece went through several stages from rough outline to something Madonna & child like, to ghostly, to tribal. It's probably still not finished and I didn't like it at all after the first session on it. But having done some more work I think she and her child have something - life and death? Maybe there is a bit of Munch influence in there?
Saturday 12 June 2010
5 Rhythms of Life
I came across 5 rhythms dance about 10 years ago but I have been dancing it regularly for the last couple of years. It has had a big effect on my life.
The 5 Rhythms are:
1) Flow
2) Staccato
3) Chaos
4) Lyrical
5) Stillness
I consider them to be 5 archetypes of life. At any moment we can be in one of those rhythms. We can be fully in a particular rhythm or stuck in a particular rhythm. Either way, with awareness, attention and intention we can dance on and through.
Today I'm wanting to flow more. But I'm slightly staccato, i.e. a touch edgy and uncertain. Things are not going quite to plan. But I'm with it and doing a few creative things - making collages, adding to my scrap-book, playing with images.
Life as a dance is an old metaphor, but a good one. It's good because dance is all about energy movement, expression of form, creation of meaningful form. And what is life if it is not about energy movement, expression of form and emergence of new forms?
The 5 Rhythms are:
1) Flow
2) Staccato
3) Chaos
4) Lyrical
5) Stillness
I consider them to be 5 archetypes of life. At any moment we can be in one of those rhythms. We can be fully in a particular rhythm or stuck in a particular rhythm. Either way, with awareness, attention and intention we can dance on and through.
Today I'm wanting to flow more. But I'm slightly staccato, i.e. a touch edgy and uncertain. Things are not going quite to plan. But I'm with it and doing a few creative things - making collages, adding to my scrap-book, playing with images.
Life as a dance is an old metaphor, but a good one. It's good because dance is all about energy movement, expression of form, creation of meaningful form. And what is life if it is not about energy movement, expression of form and emergence of new forms?
Wednesday 9 June 2010
Blog Manifesto
This blog is an attempt to explore the whole idea of being a creative part of the evolutionary process. I'm assuming, and do believe, that evolution is a creative process. I believe that evolution is neither mechanical or totally random - it is is an open ended creative unfolding. There is direction but not a predestined one. I believe that evolution is complex, messy, can go down blind alleys, and can go backwards. But I believe that there is an inherent urge (call it God, Eros or the Bodhicitta whatever you like) in the universe. I think we are both an expression of that urge and also co-creators of the emerging forms that the creative impulse gives rise to. I believe the past does create the conditions for the future and has an influence on what happens next. I also believe that the present can be the ground for totally new manifestations. Of course the present is the only place where new energy can arise. So we are in a dance of already set conditions and also at the same time in a position of profound potential for new shapes and structures. There is something in the universe that wants to be forever new. There is something in the universe that clings to the old and the familiar. This is the evolutionary tension that we emerge out of, live within and move on from. To fully take on the implications of the evolutionary nature of things is both a challenge and a liberation. It is a challenge because it is complex and potentially overwhelming. It is liberating because the principle of evolution points to the reality of things, how things really are. And the source of most of our suffering is due to a profound disharmony with how things are, a misalignment of how we think things are and how things really are. And it is liberating because life loves to be fully alive, fully expressive, fully flowing and open to new possibility.
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