February 6-9  “Erasure”

Outcomes

• Technically execute a work of digital art, and apply formal decisions that communicate ideas visually.
• Identify personal inspirations and interests as a way to see their own artistic agency as self-reflective practitioners.
• Enact a critical outlook as visual readers, recognizing how meaning is cultivated and perpetuated through representation.
• Produce ethical, informed, multi-dimensional, work that is situated in contemporary concerns.

Lecture “Erasure”

Digital Photography, do photographs lie? From analogue to digital, what changed? Overall, we will talk about truth and fabrication in photographic documents.

Lab: Reading Discussion (45 minutes)

Students should have prepared for class by reading the Barbara Savedoff text Escaping Reality: Digital Imagery and the Resources of Photography (1997) which is by no means a perfect text, but it is somewhat relatable,  gives just enough historical context and is written at a time when manipulation is becoming a concern about photographic objectivity, or ‘truth’ with the onset of more accessible digital tools.

You may wish to show works from the reading, such as:

• Ritchin admits to the alterations in his book In Our Own Image
• Example of the Ted Kennedy alteration (photojournalism)
• Mitchell uses Alexander Gardner’s Fallen Sharpshooter which used the same body, moved and set up in as Slain Rebel Sharpshooter
• Meyer Contestant #3 combination of two beauty contest photograph that forced a juxtaposition (no decisive moment, so he made one)
• Might want to talk about the ‘decisive moment’ adn show Cartier-Bresson’s Behind the Gare St. Lazare –how much can we trust it?

With this text, some things you can focus on for discussion are:

• Effects of the documentary/truth factor of the medium no longer trusted
• Traditions of photography no longer, how do we redefine?
• Photography becoming more like painting

-break-

Artist Workshop (45 minutes)

Please come up with ways to discuss issues of manipulation and trickery with your class.  You can have them dissect work from lecture or links below, or other ways you can uncover this idea towards helping them think about manipulation in a more critical way.  Can we trust an image?  You may want to ask how truth and manipulation might be used for issues of their disciplinary/overall interests.

Other artists:

• Hiraki Sawa
• Tian Taiquan
• Jieming Hu

Reminders

• There isn’t a prep lecture or technical demos this week, tell them to concentrate and work on their projects which are due after reading week.
• You can tell students to bring their drafts to the next lab for discussions and further help, set up appointment times this week if you wish to have consults, otherwise perhaps do group consultations