Practices of Looking

Here is a quick summary of the chapter of Practices of Looking that you need to read for next week.  Please read actively.  This means using techniques like underlining, taking notes, outlining the content, and further researching images, artists, or ideas that are mentioned that you might not fully understand.  Please come to class next week with 3 questions/thoughts that you have prepared for class discussion.

Chapter 1: Practices of Looking: Images, Power, and Politics

Chapter 1 introduces many of the central themes of the book: the social roles of images in contemporary culture, the concept of representation, the relationship of images and ideology, the use of semiotics to interpret images, and the ways that societies award value to images. This Chapter introduces the general argument that the diverse and complex array of images we encounter in our everyday lives, from paintings to news images to digital representations, are subject to the dynamics of social power and ideology, and that images acquire meaning and value according to context and use. These concepts are explored through analysis of the concept of representation (from still-life painting to Magritte’s playful commentaries on images), the myth of photographic truth (through such images as Robert Frank’s photographs), the display of fine art (such as Vincent Van Gogh's paintings, viewed in museums or reproduced on shopping bags and puzzles), and the circulation of images through different social contexts (the appearance of O.J. Simpson's mug shot on the covers of Time and Newsweek). The role of image icons, ranging from the news image icon of the student stopping a tank in Tiananmen Square to the iconic images of Madonnas (from the history of painting to contemporary photographs and advertising to Madonna the performer), is analyzed, as well as the work by artists such as Andy Warhol who commented on such icons. This Chapter introduces the concept that practices of looking are not passive acts of consumption or interpretation, but that we as viewers negotiate the meanings and uses assigned to the images that fill our everyday lives.

color -- assign for 10/6

Here is the color powerpoint online for your reference: http://www.janemarsching.com/massart/ppts/color7.htm

Here is the full assignment:

COMMUNICATING COLOR, due 10/7


Concept: In today’s complex, and accelerated lifestyle, the use of color plays an important role in simplifying and communicating information all over the world. We can see this everywhere we turn, from color-coded levels of parking garages, to the use of primary colors to define political parties or flags, to color combinations used in product marketing. Colors are used for traditional historical reasons, to draw attention, to create emphasis, to simplify complexity, to create personality, etc.

Objectives: The goal of this project is to work with basic color theory and practice, but also to explore the use of color as a way to communicate ideas and meaning in contemporary art and culture. Our aim is to understand and explore the cultural, political and social use of color, by carefully choosing hues, values and shapes, and arranging them in a certain way to express meaning or symbolize a message.

Guidelines: Using the 10 words listed below; transform the meaning of these 10 words into color codes, using visual language.

1. Choose a set of 3 solid colors that best represents each word. Choose a set of 3 basic shapes you want to work with-- Do not use pictorial shapes, stick to non-representational forms
2. Using Photoshop, compose a 5” x 7” 72 dpi image using a combination of three hard-edge abstract shapes. Use 3 layers (with the background being one of the shapes)
3. Avoid narrative symbolism, instead use colors to evoke feeling and meaning
4. Utilize the organizational principles from previous lesson to change the composition to reflect each word
5. When composing, consider the color context of each composition; such as political, emotional, national, cultural, geographical…. Change the colors of each shape to reflect each word.
6. Post each of these images to your blog (include the word with each image)
7. They will be printed in class next week as time allows.

• Autumn
• Massart
• Iraq
• calm
• Renaissance
• Delicious
• Fever
• New
• Foreceful
• Your name here________


Read: Practices of Looking, Chapter 1 for next week. Here is an online pdf: www.oup.co.uk/pdf/bt/looking/pol-chapter01.pdf
Unfortunately it does not have the images, so if you have lost the handout from class you will need to research the images on the web as you read. We will discuss it in class.

Here is the vocabulary that applies to this week’s assignment.
* COLOR THEORY PHYSICS OF / CHEMISTRY OF / PSYCHOLOGY OF / PHYSIOLOGY OF
* COLOR & LIGHT SYSTEMS ADDITIVE [RGB] / SUBTRACTIVE [CMYK] / COLOR WHEEL
DEFINING COLOR HUE / VALUE / INTENSITY / SATURATION / CHROMA / SHADE / TINT / TONE / TEMPERATURE
* COLOR SYSTEMS MONOCHROMATIC / ANALOGOUS / COMPLIMENTARY / SPLIT COMPLIMENTARY / TRIDAIC /CHROMATIC
* COLOR COMBINATIONS DISHARMONY / COLOR DIESTRIBUTION / WEIGHT AND BALANCE / EMPHASIS OR FOCAL POINT / COLOR KEYS
* COLOR COMMUNICATION CONTRAST / EMOTION / SYMBOL
* COLOR INTERACTION BEZOLD EFFECT / COLOR SUBTRACTION & ADDITION / VALUE CHANGE

experiment assign due 9/30

The assignment this week

1. Look at the powerpoint on the principles of composition for you to review before working on your assignment:
http://www.janemarsching.com/massart/ppts/2form.htm

2. Make sure your camera as an option for aperture priority and shutter priority or a manual setting. Choose an ISO 200 or less. Make sure your white balance is set to auto. Figure out how to use the manual focus setting on your camera. For a refresher download the powerpoint that Stephanie and I showed you in class today: http://sf.massart.edu/tech-recitations/vl1-handouts and download the files under the Digital Photography heading.
Or
Take one of the cameras we learned on in class from our SF cage. The cameras cannot be taken out overnight but are available during evening lab hours. Also, AVMS (3rd floor Tower) has other models of cameras that you can take out for 2-3 days. Please be clear that sometimes all their cameras are sometimes checked out, so leave time to account for this just in case.

3. Choose one subject to stick with for all your experimentation this week. This can be anything you like: a person, something from nature, a building, a piece of garbage, a book, whatever... The narrower the subject you choose, the more you are forced to great experimentation with your approach to the principles of composition and the technical use of your camera (aperture, shutter, etc.)

4. Shoot this object 100 times. Experiment with depth of field and motion choices. Shoot 50 images of one extreme of your principle of composition, shoot 50 of of the other extreme of composition.

5. choose the 6-10 images that you feel are the most successful. Resize them in Photoshop to 3" x 5" @ 72 dpi .jpgs

6. Create your own blog in blogger. Email me the URL to jmarsching@massart.edu

7. Post your images to your blog

8. Write a few short sentences about why you chose your subject, how you worked with your compositional element.

Opening at school, Tuesday!

an interesting application of line, shape, collage

exhibition details below...

Juan Angel Chávez

"Speaker Project"

Sept. 23 - Nov. 22

Reception: Tues. Sept. 23 from 6 to 8 PM

assignment

If you need a refresher on thinking about the fundamentals of line/shape and their definitions with different examples from what I showed in class this week, go to these urls:
http://www.janemarsching.com/massart/ppts/4shape.htm
http://www.janemarsching.com/massart/ppts/3line.htm

Also, here is the assignment due for next week:

Seeing & Perception

Assignment: 1b Flickr lookalike

Materials: found paper, fickr photograph, collage tools

Fundamentals: Line, shape

Processes: internet search, collage

4. search flickr.com using a keyword or tag
5. choose one of the images that you are attracted to (one with some complexity, details, a lot of information is ideal)
6. identify how your flickr photograph uses line/shape to give a quality/feeing to the image
7. find at least 10 different kinds of paper (from the recycling, newspapers, Xeroxes, candy wrappers, cereal boxes, shampoo labels, posters, etc)—do not use magazines
8. get a posterboard weight 8” x 10” piece of white or colored paper, an archival glue stick, a metal ruler, an xacto knife, and spare paper
9. recreate your flikr photograph using your found papers paying attention primarily to the use of line/shape to give meaning/feeling/quality to the image—try to use as many of your ten found papers as you can. emphasize and draw out the use of line and shape in the picture.

Bring to class next week
your digital camera, if you have one, and its instruction booklet. If you do not have one, you may need to download it during class to learn how to use the manual options for focus, aperture, shutter, and white balance. Also bring any cord you have to connect your camera to the computer so that you can download images short during class. Finally, bring your hard drive, flash drive, or laptop for saving digital images.

here

I've set up a blog for our class. We'll use it for various things:
keeping in touch with each other
finding out from others what went on in class (just post a question)
posting images and statements for critique
downloading class notes of various kinds
etc.

check it out a couple times a week. save this blog in your bookmarks
go to your email and accept the invitation to join the blog as an author and now you will be able to post questions, images, statements, etc. to the blog any time you want