Discussion homework
What does a painting depict?
Painting as translation: relation with a visible reality- painting as rendering
Different modes of representation implicitly refer to particular ways of seeing the world
Painting also implicitly depicts and communicate a particular relation/understanding of reality. Renaissance paintings conveyed powerful messages about the new place occupied by humans in the new vision of the world.
“Travelers, you will soon be able, perhaps, at the cost of some hundreds of francs, to acquire the apparatus invented by M. Daguerre, and you will be able to bring back to France the most beautiful monuments, the most beautiful scenes of the whole world. You will see how far from the truth of the Daguerreotype are your pencils and brushes.”
Technical Images– human civilization has seen two fundamental turning points since its beginnings. The first occurred approximately during the second half of the second millennium, B.C., and may be defined as “the invention of linear writing”. The second — we are witnessing it — may be called “the invention of technical images.”
Photography- the pencil of nature.
Photography= Truth
The notion that Photography could give us un-mediated access to a fragment of the real created the conditions for the advent of documentary and scientific photography.
Russian propaganda
From the exhibition Rodchenko and Popova:
artists should devote themselves to industrial production. Popova and Rodchenko were both among those who signed their agreement, adopting the slogan ‘art into life’ and acknowledging ‘production art as an absolute value and Constructivism as its only form of expression.’
Man with a Movie Camera- life itself
What are the images of Today? What do they say about our perception of the Real?
Homework
I feel that the images of Today still hold the same purpose to images of the past, in that they are used to express feelings and emoticons that a purely representational picture cannot express. This is especially interesting to learn about, as I have learned in my Art History class about the shift in painting from classical forms of European art to other forms such as Primivitism, Impressionism and Cubism. These art styles tend to reflect upon the shifting times of society such as modernity, or certain revolutions, I feel that our “change” of Today is greatly impacted by our societal relationship with technology. Most of the images created today are photos taken on our phones, which are readily available, and tend to show aspects of our daily lives. The images of Today hold many more everyday memories (as cameras/developing images would be harder in the past). At the same time, many of these images are shared on social media, which also renders the purpose of these images. Are these images shared so the experience can be related by others, or are images created to be shared? I think this is just one of the main branches behind images of Today, and in this particular matter, our perception of the Real, or what is the reality from the pictures, is a filtered and controlled version of ourselves. Photos are chosen to be uploaded for a reason, to show what we are thinking or what is important to us. They represent us, and the fact that photos are filtered shows a lens of what we want others to see in our ourselves. This is the Real that we project, and what we want others to perceive in ourselves.