From Berger's Ways of Seeing...
On the invention of the camera:
On the camera and reproduction of original art:
On using reproductions and originals to create personal meaning:
Every drawing or painting that used perspective proposed to the spectator that he was the unique centre of the world. The camera -- and more particularly the movie camera -- demonstrated that there was no centre.
The invention of the camera changed the way men saw. The visible came to mean something different to them. This was immediately reflected in painting.
For the Impressionists the visible no longer presented itself to man in order to be seen. On the contrary, the visible, in continual flux, became fugitive. For the Cubists the visible was no longer what confronted the single eye, but the totality of possible views taken from points all round the object (or person) being depicted. (page 18)
On the camera and reproduction of original art:
The uniqueness of every painting was once part of the uniqueness of the place where it resided. Sometimes the painting was transportable. But it could never be seen in two places at the same time. When the camera reproduces a painting, it destroys the uniqueness of its image. As a result its meaning changes. Or, more exactly, its meaning multiplies and fragments into many meanings.
This is vividly illustrated by what happens when a painting is show on a television screen. The painting enters each viewer's house. There it is surrounded by his wallpaper, his furniture, his mementoes. It enters the atmosphere of his family. It becomes their talking point. It lends its meaning to their meaning. At the same time it enters a million other houses and, in each of them, is seen in a different context. Because of the camera, the painting now travels to the spectator rather than the spectator to the painting. In its travels, its meaning is diversified.
One might argue that all reproductions more or less distort, and that therefore the original painting is still in a sense unique. (pages 19-20)
On using reproductions and originals to create personal meaning:
Adults and children sometimes have boards in their bedrooms or living-rooms on which they pin pieces of paper: letters, snapshots, reproductions of paintings, newspaper cuttings, original drawings, postcards. On each board all the images belong to the same language and all are more or less equal within it, because they have been chosen in a highly personal way to match and express the experience of the room's inhabitant. Logically, these boards should replace museums. (page 30)
Seeing / Art
Yesterday I blew a 1/3 of my remaining monthly budget on 2 new books (yes, I have that little left until payday). I picked up Ways of Seeing by John Berger and The Necessity of Art by Ernst Fischer.
Blog / Decor / Textile
Here's a wonderfully inspiring post from Rambling Rose: http://ramblingrose.typepad.com/journal/2010/10/the-wall.html
Just today, in the book store, I flipped through a magazine featuring a space created in a very similar style. Basically mixed and matched fabrics were used to create a wall of color in a space.
I absolutely love this idea. And with an intensely white apartment, this is a very useful idea. Material could be purchased from proper fabric stores, or re-defined from any textile found in second-hand stores, even wonderful designs in new fashions. There are many clothing pieces that I love to look at, but know right well would never flatter my figure. What a wonderful way to add that pattern into your life without leaving the clothing section feeling like a total fashion flop. Of course, this would qualify you as an art geek, or some kind of geek, for sure. But geeks are good people.
I've kept a journal pretty regularly, or regularly written of personal things, for almost all my life. In the last couple of years, I've tinkered with visual expression: sketching, painting. The largest thing that has kept me from exploring art further has been a fear of imperfection. Making a mistake. Doing something that looks stupid.
Somewhere, I broke through some mental barrier and I feel much braver and confident to try things. This doesn't mean I may be eager to show what I create online, but I am already heartened by the amount of art that is shared online. And that art is often very personal, not perfect, but full of meaning and significance. The presence of that work on the web is another influence on my growing confidence.
Recently, I found myself in the art section of Barnes & Nobel and I left with a copy of 1000 Journals Project by Someguy and Kevin Kelly. The book is an amazing glimpse into an ambitious project to connect the journal writings of hundreds and thousands of people. Basically, 1000 blank journals were given graphically appealing covers and an explanation of their purpose was written on or in them. They were sent randomly to individuals around the country, continent, world, with the simple instruction to use the journal as they pleased, and then to pass it along to someone else, by any means necessary. For some, this meant mailing them to other people. Others simply passed the journals to strangers on the street. Some laid the journal down on tables, benches, subway cars, to wait for the next person to pick them up, read the instructions and keep the book rolling.
What the project developers did not expect was how this experiment with collective creativity would grow into the virtual world online. Book-finders began to share their contributions or findings within the journals by scanning the pages and sending the images to the originators, who then compiled and shared them with the rest of the world via the web. Journal meets world. More about this project can be found here: http://www.1000journals.com/
That initial project is still underway, as long as any of the original 1000 books are still floating around. Recognizing that so many individuals were inspired and intrigued by the concept, they offered a second experiment: the 1001 journal project. This 1001st journal is the online community of journalists, diarists, memoir writers, visual journalists, and reflective artists who choose to continue the collective creativity humming by willing sharing their journals online. This continuation of the initial project can be found here: http://1001journals.com/
I've registered as a member of the 1001 community, but have not yet shared anything personal. I'm still working on the first pages of my first visual journal. But already I feel a sense of release and accomplishment. It is nice to have something to look forward to working on for an extended time. And this visual journal is something that will define itself over time.
Perhaps I will begin a second one with the express purpose of documenting family history and photography. It may take the form of a mixed media collage book. But right now, I'm most invested in the creation of a deeply personal book that combines words, images, colors, and mixed media to express my experience of life. There will be things that I feel confident sharing. And some things that will remain in the book, on my table, unshared.
My goal for this blog is to provide a place to organize my inspirations and what I choose to share in a space that models the book in the world: the blog on the web. It could be picked up and opened by anyone. Read or ignored. Perhaps something here will be worth someone's while and they'll stay long enough to follow one of my inspirations to their own creative spark. In the magical world of the web, I can mention an inspiration and one click is all that separates a reader/viewer from seeing that image. Cross-references do not require tracking down another book, but only following the hyperlinked web that creates a single "document" online. The multiple layers and dimensions and tangents that a web space makes possible is perfect for the way that my mind works, how the physical body encounters stimuli and sparks the beginning of the creative process, a process that is rarely linear.
And so, my physical journal / experience meets the world / collective via the nonlinear / hyperlinked / multilayered Internet.
Somewhere, I broke through some mental barrier and I feel much braver and confident to try things. This doesn't mean I may be eager to show what I create online, but I am already heartened by the amount of art that is shared online. And that art is often very personal, not perfect, but full of meaning and significance. The presence of that work on the web is another influence on my growing confidence.
Recently, I found myself in the art section of Barnes & Nobel and I left with a copy of 1000 Journals Project by Someguy and Kevin Kelly. The book is an amazing glimpse into an ambitious project to connect the journal writings of hundreds and thousands of people. Basically, 1000 blank journals were given graphically appealing covers and an explanation of their purpose was written on or in them. They were sent randomly to individuals around the country, continent, world, with the simple instruction to use the journal as they pleased, and then to pass it along to someone else, by any means necessary. For some, this meant mailing them to other people. Others simply passed the journals to strangers on the street. Some laid the journal down on tables, benches, subway cars, to wait for the next person to pick them up, read the instructions and keep the book rolling.
What the project developers did not expect was how this experiment with collective creativity would grow into the virtual world online. Book-finders began to share their contributions or findings within the journals by scanning the pages and sending the images to the originators, who then compiled and shared them with the rest of the world via the web. Journal meets world. More about this project can be found here: http://www.1000journals.com/
That initial project is still underway, as long as any of the original 1000 books are still floating around. Recognizing that so many individuals were inspired and intrigued by the concept, they offered a second experiment: the 1001 journal project. This 1001st journal is the online community of journalists, diarists, memoir writers, visual journalists, and reflective artists who choose to continue the collective creativity humming by willing sharing their journals online. This continuation of the initial project can be found here: http://1001journals.com/
I've registered as a member of the 1001 community, but have not yet shared anything personal. I'm still working on the first pages of my first visual journal. But already I feel a sense of release and accomplishment. It is nice to have something to look forward to working on for an extended time. And this visual journal is something that will define itself over time.
Perhaps I will begin a second one with the express purpose of documenting family history and photography. It may take the form of a mixed media collage book. But right now, I'm most invested in the creation of a deeply personal book that combines words, images, colors, and mixed media to express my experience of life. There will be things that I feel confident sharing. And some things that will remain in the book, on my table, unshared.
My goal for this blog is to provide a place to organize my inspirations and what I choose to share in a space that models the book in the world: the blog on the web. It could be picked up and opened by anyone. Read or ignored. Perhaps something here will be worth someone's while and they'll stay long enough to follow one of my inspirations to their own creative spark. In the magical world of the web, I can mention an inspiration and one click is all that separates a reader/viewer from seeing that image. Cross-references do not require tracking down another book, but only following the hyperlinked web that creates a single "document" online. The multiple layers and dimensions and tangents that a web space makes possible is perfect for the way that my mind works, how the physical body encounters stimuli and sparks the beginning of the creative process, a process that is rarely linear.
And so, my physical journal / experience meets the world / collective via the nonlinear / hyperlinked / multilayered Internet.
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