Industrialization and Art- Week 7

1.Define the Industrial Revolution and Industrialism.

Industrialism-Is an economic and social system based on the development of large-scale industries and marked by the production of large quantities of inexpensive manufactured goods and the concentration of employment in urban factories.
(http://www.answers.com/topic/industrialism)
The Industrual revolution discussed in this weeks ALVC was confined to four simple points.
Beginning with the agricultural revolution, which lasted from the 1760s to the 1830s. This movement nearly a century of rapid development beginning with home base for every civilization at one point or the other, the farm. During this time of vast technological progress for the English countryside, we begin to see access and availability of food. Everything from Tull's inventions of the drill and hoe, then eventual discovery of magical crop rotations. Leading to Blackwell's stock breeding for better quality of food, and the establishment of the Board of Agriculture in 1793. We quickly learn there is nothing these farmers can't do!
Next we have the "technological change" featuring the timeless classics: the steam engine, electric power, railroads, automobiles, and last but certainly not least the steamship! Now this section of industrialization literally lit and paved the way for 95% of today's conveniently handy according to The Tri-City News a proliferation of new “time-saving devices”.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/tri_city_maple_ridge/tricitynews/?cat=46&more=&paper=74&id=963391
Thirdly we have communications and we all know who takes the cake on that little bullet. It is none other than the unforgettable, unmistakable Alexander Graham Bell. Bell transmitted the human voice through a wire, at the tender age of twenty nine. Which was godfather to an interconnected world, and communication as we know it.
Lastly, yet most importantly we have the reason behind it all. The Changing of social patterns, progress makes convenience, convenience makes hapiness. Meaning happiness is only achieved through stability and surety, which lucky for us was provided by the industrial revolution.

2.Research Monet's painting 'Impression Sunrise'(1873) to analyze the work in relation to Industrialization.

'Impression Sunrise' (1873)

Monet's 'Impression Sunrise' speaks volumes on the Industrialization. To begin with it is a sunrise. Landscape and natural settings prior were used only for settings or backdrops to a subject. With the world turning their gaze to technology and the mechanics of the revolution, it seems almost obvious that Monet would capture the sunrise on canvas. "Impressionism got its start when several painters began using more natural methods of lighting their work and looking at the world with freshness and immediacy." The style and genre I believe is a harmonious effect of Industrialization.


3.Olafur Eliasson's 'Weather Project'(2006) is a contemporary work that relates to Monet's
famous landscape.

Research the project to identitify the artist's intentions, as well as the site (space or venue) chosen for the project, to provide depth for your answer.







'Weather Project' (2006)

Olafur Eliasson

Tony Oursler- Week 5

Research Tony Oursler's projection sculpture to identify some of the ideas and methods he uses in his work.

How do you think the Enlightenment concepts of Science, progress, reason, individualism, empiricism, universalism, freedom and secularism can be applied to Oursler's work?

Refer to pages 96 and 97 in the ALVC handbook for the full list of key ideas of the Enlightenment. Also use Youtube, the internet and the library to research Oursler's work.

Tony Oursler's work is directly related to principles featured in the enlightenment. Beginning structurally with his methods and uses of materials. His use of projection and moving video on sculpture devoid of angular characteristics, indicates a non lifelike futuristic approach to expression. His subjects being distorted and arrayed sensory organs are displayed in such a manor that the pieces promote an anatomical and psychological appraisal. As opposed to the regular run of the mill gallery piece which can be contained on canvas, or in a frame, again referring to materials used. Anatomy and psychology came to pass by and through, and therefore substantiate, the sciences. The selection of subjects being destitute of gender, race, or sexual orientation suggest a view of humanity as a species, society as a trend. Which in turn strips the mind of independent thought past tendencies or characteristics, and focuses in on the make of the organism. This process of eliminating variables compliments universalism and uniformity of human nature. This piece I think seeks to challenge the capacities and extremities of sociological escapism through technology today.

Oursler's disturbing yet fascinating works demand critical speculation, concerning conceptual and ethical issues. His near performance projections, give the illusion of entrapment and reactionary responses. While viewing the works i found them engrossing and deeply moving. Journalist Gloria Moure had this to say of Oursler's work, "Each and every one of his works provokes an empathic attraction in the spectators, who can hardly help but feel an identification or even a complicity with it, but do not feel exposed, because the interaction to which Oursler impels them holds them back and allows them a protective distance." . I feel His work translates effectively and in its passive aggression allows the viewers to remain viewers, much like watching a documentary on television.

Fiona Hall Week 3

Research the two examples; 'Tender'(2003-05) and 'Leaf Litter'(1999-2003) to explain how they relate to this concept. First define mercantillism and explain how it has developed since the Renaissance. For each work you will need to describe the shape, form and materials of the work, and explain the ideas behind each example.

These works were part of an art show titled 'Force Field' which can be viewed in one of the exhibition spaces on Youtube - Part Three: Fiona Hall: Force Field.

Mercantilism is a system of major trade, primarilly focussed on the interests of state. Promoting the process of aquiring goods and product in society. It was the dawn of an age through which visceral enlightenment and appreciation for history roman and grecian infulence to the western world came to pass. Mercantilism impacted history by marketing trade and, fame by way of painting, sculpting, architecture, poetry, and engineering to the masses during the Italian Renaissance. It is still heavily embedded in western and global societies today. As a result poetry turned to lyrics, theater turned to movies, painting turned to make up, and sculpting to plastic surgery. In 2010 everyone's a patron.

Fiona Hall's piece 'Tender' is a collection of birds nests comprised solely of American dollar bills. In a changing world, money, has been crowned the saving grace. Even though the value fluctuates daily, and economic and financial turmoil plagues even first world countries. "The American dollar is the most desired currency in Third World countries, for those desperate for it, like birds scavenging for material to build their nests, the greenback provides shelter." Which is a direct effect of advances of capitalism, consuming everything from clean water to countries.

(Julie Ewington, Fiona Hall, Piper Press, p. 169)

The second piece 'Leaf & Litter' is a beautiful connection of botany, to todays ecological and cultural expansion. I think her style is more poetic than a historical piece and less blunt than the gore of pop art, its sort of classical like Darwin's first sketches of the Galapagos Islands. Hall said this of 'Leaf Litter' ,“Money doesn’t grow on trees–or does it? Plants have played a crucial role in the history of colonisation and the development of world economies. Many species have been responsible for the rapid growth of European power and wealth over the past five hundred years. Plants, and along with them people, have been shifted across oceans, battles have been waged over them, forests razed. But everything comes at a price, and now we are paying heavily for over-taxing the environment and for cultivating an ever-widening gap between rich and poor nations. Many of the once most plant resource-rich countries are now amongst the poorest on earth. Leaf Litter aligns the distribution of plant species with the distribution of monetary wealth.”

(http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/news/releases/2002/10/24/35/)