Category Archives: Initiative

How film photography has changed me

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A few weeks ago I found my Grandpas old film camera which hasn’t been used for over 30 years. The Ensign Selfix 16-20 shoots on 120 Film and is a fully manual camera. This means it is a tedious process when setting up a shot. When i first looked at the camera, i didn’t thing there would be any film still in it so I possibly ruined the photos when i opened the back. Turns out the film which was inside, was so old it that cant be developed anywhere in Australia. The only place you can get C-21 film developed is at a place in the UK. I would love to get these photos developed some time soon.

Screen Shot 2016-06-08 at 12.48.52 PMSo I bought new film started taking a photo everyday. It was kind of a learning curve because I have always used a DLSR camera for photography. I could rely on its auto abilities such as shutter priority. Now with this camera i need to learn how to compose a shot. I need to know the f-stop of the suns reflections, the shutter speed when shooting inside a car etc. To help I have to use a light meter app on my phone. Its actually been very useful and has only failed a few times.

I now look at photography differently. Film photography is counter productive (especially in the digital age), but it makes the photographer question whether the photo is really necessary because there are a limited number of shots on a roll (which costs a lot to buy and process). This is kind of scary because if you take an amazing shot, then when it gets developed it looks horrible, youre stuck witha bad photo.  If you had a digital camera you could have seen your mistakes and then taken another.
Theres a certain finesse with film photography as well. Theres also the anticipation of waiting for the film to be developed. When I handed in my first reel of film, I wasn’t even sure if the camera worked. I couldn’t wait to see the photos at Home so i looked at them on the train. i was happy but there were only three photos that i really liked. The whole excersise cost $32 for three good photos.
This one is my favorite because of the vibrance of the reds against the blues and blacks; it also has good framing which i tweaked in post-production.
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Im always cautious with the focus focus ring because its in feet, and theres no ‘live view’ to check the subject is in focus. I have to mentally or physically measure how far away the subject is from the camera. It does take longer to take a photo on a camera like mine for the above reasons but it make you think of why you are taking the photo in a certain way.It makes it rewarding when these photos you spent minutes setting up, come out so well.

Part 2: New-age appropriation and ‘the remix’

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PART 2:
I believe that appropriation grows from the ideas of the past rather than obstructing originality and creativity, and therefore is an important part of cultural evolution. As Michael Mandiberg (Artist and blogger) puts it “Appropriation is a way to experiment with images and objects by shifting the context around them”; in effect re-framing their meaning in the process. In this way Koons’ art challenges the way people think about originality and whether or not it is actually important in this day and age; in doing so he also challenges the ethical standards of appropriating another artists work to heighten its existence. In many instances, Koons disobeys the moral rights of the artist by not attributing their name under ‘his’ work. In my opinion Jeff Koons did not distort Art Rogers’ “puppies” in a way that may haveharmed his reputation in breach of his moral and legal rights of integrity.

The problem with this type of appropriation these days is that the entire edifice of contemporary art is built on the idea of total revolution, of things new and challenging. The one thing that contemporary artist may lack however is the connection to the past when priding themselves as ‘original artists’. This is impossible to achieve as everyone who functions in society is bombarded with art and advertisements.

In the age of the Internet and advancing technology there is a sense that no one owns the copyright of their own work as it can be freely distributed outside the gallery system. This allows others to appropriate your own appropriation of authenticity. Now the medium we choose to express ourselves is not an original direction; it is not an original idea.so-long-copyright

Literary theorist and philosopher Roland Barthes argues that ‘no artist can create something new and unique’, but rather everything is ‘recycled regurgitation’ of what preceded it. Koons’ remix of society is ‘recycled’ and ‘regurgitated’ into living visual history of kitsch and readymade. This issue and debate on originality is an ongoing dilemma.

PART 1: Challenges in the Art world

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Selected Listening N°10: Come-n-Dance by Blekbala Mujik

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kZGm0B137k

The way an artists performs their work influences how the listener, listens.  The live version of “Come-n-Dance” by Blekbala Mujik is a great example. The song mixes  Reggae, Rock, Traditional and World genres to create something truely unique using clapsticks and didgeridoo together with Western instruments. The lead singer and band founder Peter Miller asks the audience to sing and dance along. You can sense a feeling of community and togetherness in this footage form 1995 in Arnhem land. I hope we see a resurgence in this type of music because it is truely unique.

Part 1: Challenges in the Art world

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Part 1
Jeff Koons has become a trademark for what not to do. He has been sued, slammed and reported on from since the 1980’s when he first copied Art Rogers Postcard ‘Puppies’ into a life-sized polychromed wood sculpture named ‘string of puppies’ in 1988. Issues revolved around copyright and fair use however, Koons complied with none of these conventions and was ordered to destroy his sculptural reproduction and the case was closed.

jeffkoons-puppies

Brian Sherwin (Art critic and writer for Fineartviews) contends “originality in art, as in all things, does not exist”. This concept raises a debate on whether or not an artwork can be truly original, and not appropriated from anything else. Robert Hughes examined Koons and his appropriations as “calculated and obvious attempts to manipulate collectors” thought their desire to be “challenged”. It’s true that his artworks are commercialized, kitsch and ‘readymade’; he has over 20 artisans working for him at once and manufacturing his ideas of everyday banal objects and transforming them with varnish, a reflective finish or enlarging.

c6dd23f8f1054c644134698b1ac0fe0eThis concept is far from original and is attributed to Marcel Duchamp‘s iconic urinal “” and readymade objects that coined the Dada movement in the early 20th century, which rejected logic praising nonsense, irrationality and intuition. Ironically this originality of anti-art has become the norm with Artists like Andy Warhol and Koons who have been exploiting its commercial appeal to the art market and its audience. Koons has also copied the idea of ‘artist as a label and celebrity’ from Warhol; making himself the commodity. Again Koons’ influence extends to Warhol’s iconic repetition of objects; as seen in the 32 canvases of “” in which the same image is reproduced with varied labels on the front. Koons’ repetition is now “too repetitive” and “unoriginal” for Postmodern art (Matthew Collings).andy-warhol-campbells-soup-cans_650

PART 2: New-age appropriation and ‘the remix’

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Im a bit worried

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So after today meeting i really don’t feel comfortable about our theme. Originally we were just going to focus on how films are structured compared to other mediums. Now we have narrowed the theme to “What make a successful childrens narrative”. I dont feel comfortable doing this theme because i feel like we’ve backed ourselves into a corner. But if Hannah and Elise are comfortable with this theme i’m happy. I trust them.

Copyright Exploration

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In todays Lectorial a portion was devoted to the concept of copyright and appropriation. My view on Copyright is a lot different now that im an ‘Adult’ because it means im more accountable for using other peoples material. Music is a big thing I use in my videos without asking for permission. Its kind of scary because someones more likely to sue. Ive been working on Abelton Live so that i can produce my own music instead on relying on getting permission.

Over the next week i’m going to research and then build an essay that explores the idea of originality by looking at the past, present and future of the art world.

I’ll split the essay into two sections which are linked bellow.

Part 1: Jeff Koons, Warhol and Duchamp – Challenges for the art world

Part 2: Michael Mandiberg – New age appropriation and ‘the remix’

 

Selected Listening N°9: Lyle Mays – Teiko (1987)

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Teiko is amazing. The sweeping synths and symbols build a mechanical rhythm which entices us into a land of fantasy sounds. At about 4minutes into the song, the double bass and the Soprano saxophone come to the forfront. The percussion builts in voloume with these instruments. What i really like about this song, the album, and Jazz in genreal, is that everything magically ‘works’. Theres no ultimate climax, jazz is just progression from one hump to another. its not danceable, maybe head bobable, but
wash of synths and then offers a mechanical rhythm that is vaguely Asian in feeling
Piano, Synthesizer, Autoharp
Saxophone Double Bass

Selected Listening N°8: Fatima Al Qadiri – Brute (album)

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https://fatimaalqadiri.bandcamp.com/track/endzone

Fatima Al Qadiri’s Newest Album ‘Brute’  is a comment on Protest, the police and the media around the world. The album opens with overwhelming confusion with recordings of the unrest in Ferguson. A loud thump is heard every 5seconds as the confusion builds. Shouting and sirens howl, putting the listener onto the streets. ‘Endzone’ sets the scene and the following tracks build upon its ominous timbre.

The ambient atmosphere Fatima builds through the album is built up to the final track ‘Power’. This is the first song thats actually danceable. It takes elements from previous tracks and reconfigures them into the new song with the loud thump from ‘Endzone’.

With just field recordings, i think this album aims to comment on the corrupt nature of the media and the over-militarization of police departments who are  “drunk with power”.

Give it a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8T36ns-Paw

Avant-garde web resource Ubu: I now feel the sun

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Im genuinely very happy I drifted though the internet to find Ubu.com

Last week i ‘soundhounded’ (pretty much shazamed) this song from a mix on soundcloud.  I re-listened to the song just now Tully – I feel the sun. I wanted to learn more about this band so i went on wikipedia. Tully were an Australian Progressive rock group in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
After skim reading though the wikipedia page i found that they had “close associations with Sydney underground media collective UBU”. I wanted to find out more about the “psychedelic light show” UBU created for Tully.

So i search what Ubu is and it was “an experimental film-making collective based in Sydney that operated from 1965 to around 1970”. Around this time i had been down teh rabbit hole for at least 20minutes. Cut to 40mins and i’ve seen a few of their experimental films and read a bit more about them.

QUICK DIGRESSION POST 1

Then i found though google Ubu.com ( or ubuweb.com)  where i would spend 30minutes finding more and more stuff which led me to further and further places. I feel like Ubu will be a valuable source in the near future because its pretty much an encylopedia of Avant-garde film, audio, performance, conceptual art, poetry and much more. I need to explore this website a bit more but will be making frequent posts on interesting things i find.

 

QUICK DIGRESSION POST1: Noticing Media (music)

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Digression in relation to Avant-Garde Web resource Ubu: i now feel the sun

A quick comment. This year i’ve started to actually appreciate Australian media more and more. The more i actually ‘NOTICE’ the media, the more i see how saturated we are by American influence. Recently i’ve been stumbling upon Australian music groups from the 70’s and 80’s (such as ‘Tully’ and ‘Flash and the Pan’) that are quite ‘underground’ (for someone whos grown up in a completely different era) and really quite interesting. You only hear John Farnham-eque songs on the radio but you never hear these for obvious reasons. While these are more ‘new wave’ they are actually kind of enlightening in their originality compared to music these days. Im not the type of person who says “i wish i lived in the _____”, and i do love current music, but its just the simplicity and progressive qualities of some of these songs from the early 70’s to mid 80’s that and so ‘original’.

Im going to explore Australian Media under a tagging system