scholarly journals Lost in Transmission? John Berger and the Origins of Ways of Seeing (1972)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Conlin
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Art History ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Advertising Agencies ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Western Art ◽  
Colour Television ◽  
John Berger

Abstract The documentary series Ways of Seeing was broadcast on BBC television in January 1972. Directed by Mike Dibb and presented by the marxist critic John Berger, the series addressed the canon of western art history as well as contemporary consumer culture. The conspicuous use of cross-cutting and music along with Berger’s emphatic ‘talking-head’ delivery were employed to dispel the aura enveloping ‘original’ artworks, and reveal the technologies by which art historians, curators and advertising agencies shored up a capitalist, western, male social order. The series and its associated book were canonical for the nascent disciplines of media and culture studies. Drawing on scripts and other materials from the BBC, Berger and Dibb archives, this essay explains how the four episodes were conceived and executed. It places the series in the context of Berger’s prior activity as artist, art critic, presenter and author, noting the influence of Frederick Antal, Walter Benjamin and others. It concludes that Berger’s charisma and the mastery of the relatively new technology of colour television displayed by the series undermined its intent: rather than encouraging viewers to use images in framing their own personal narratives, its message was consumed as an invitation to view all images in political terms.

The Effect of Frames on Personal Narratives of Bullying Memories

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110063
Author(s):  
Abigail M. Stark ◽  
Olivia H. Tousignant ◽  
Gary D. Fireman
Keyword(s):  
Peer Relationships ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Positive Emotion ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Psychosocial Effects ◽  
Emotion Words ◽  
Bullying Experiences ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Past Experiences

Research demonstrates the malleability of memory; a dynamic process that occurs across development and can be influenced by internal and external frames. Narratives of past experiences represent one modality of understanding how memories are influenced by these frames. The present experimental study examines how memories of bullying are affected by two distinct yet common cultural frames. College students ( n = 92) were randomly assigned to one of two groups; one with a definition of bullying framing the experience in terms of resilience and one framing it in terms of negative psychosocial effects. Participants then wrote about a remembered experience with bullying. The researchers coded the narratives for coping strategies used in response to bullying as well as for positive or negative emotion words and story endings. The results demonstrated statistically significant differences between groups in the ways bullying experiences were remembered and described. Participants in the Resiliency Group more often had positive endings to their bullying narratives and used more coping skills and positive emotion words overall. The implications of a subtle frame influencing memories of bullying and its relation to development, identity, social order, peer relationships, and resilience are discussed.

scholarly journals The grotesque as it appears in Western art history and in Ian Marley’s creative creatures

Literator ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-54
Author(s):  
R. Swanepoel
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Western History ◽  
Western Art ◽  
History Of Art ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Grotesque

This article presents a theoretical exploration and reading of the notion of the grotesque in Western history of art to serve as background to the reading of the original creatures in the “Tracking creative creatures” project.1 These creatures were drawn by Marley, based on imaginary creatures narrated by his five year-old son, Joshua. The focus in this article is on the occurrence of the grotesque in paintings and drawings. Three techniques associated with the grotesque are identified: the presence of imagined fusion figures or composite creatures, the violation and exaggeration of standing categories or concepts, and the juxtaposition of the ridiculous and the horrible. The use of these techniques is illustrated in selected artworks and Marley’s creatures are then read from the angle of these strategies.

scholarly journals A descriptive mode in art and the issue of a representation

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
O. V. Bezzubova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Art History ◽  
American Art ◽  
Pictorial Representation ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Visual Culture Studies ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
New Research

The predominant for XX century art studies tradition was seriously reconsidered during the 1970– 1980s during the so called «new art history» development, when many received concepts were called into question. A notion of descriptiv e mode of painting proposed by an American art historian S. Alpers is of great interest in this context because it allows us to revise the homogeneous development of European art. While elaborating the concept of descriptive mode of painting, Alpers took under consideration a wide range of historical and cultural sources thus contributed to the new research approach nowadays known under the title of visual culture studies. It is not less important that she also focused on the issue of pictorial representation, which inquires the essence of the work of art.

scholarly journals Temptation, Resistance, and Art Objects: On the Lack of Material Theory within Art History before the Material Turn

2019 ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
Charolotta Krispinsson
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Art History ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Simple Fact ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Visual Culture Studies ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
History Of ◽  
Material Turn

Niccolò di Pietro Gerini's painting “The Temptation of Saint Anthony” (1390-1400) serves as a point of departure for this essay. It depicts Saint Anthony during a lapse of self-control as he attempts to resist an alluring mound of gold. Since the mound is in fact made of genuine gold leaves applied to the painting's surface, it works both as a representation of temptation as well as an object of desire affecting the beholder. The aim of this essay is to explore different approaches to materiality before the material turn within the art history discipline by examining two opposing directions within the writing and practice of art history:  the tradition of connoisseurship; and the critique of the fetish within the theoretical apparatus of new art history and visual culture studies of the 1980s and 90s. As an expression of positivism within art history, it is argued that connoisseurship be considered within the context of its empirical practices dealing with objects. What is commonly described as the connoisseur's “taste” or “love for art” would then be just another way to describe the intimate relationship formed between art historians and the very objects under their scrutiny. More than other humanist disciplines, art history is, with the possible exception of archaeology, an object-based discipline. It is empirically anchored in the unruly, deep sea of objects commonly known as the history of art. Still, there has been a lack of in-depth theoretical reflection on the materiality of artworks in the writings of art historians before the material turn. The question however, is not ifthis is so, but rather, why?In this essay, it is suggested that the art history discipline has been marked by a complicated love-hate relationship with the materiality of which the very objects of study, more often than not, are made of; like Saint Anthony who is both attracted to and repelled by the shapeless mass of gold that Lucifer tempts him with. While connoisseurship represents attraction, resistance to the allure of objects can be traced to the habitual critique of fetishism of the first generations of visual culture studies and new art history. It reflects a negative stance towards objects and the material aspect of artworks, which enhanced a conceived dichotomy between thinking critically and analytically in contrast to managing documents and objects in archives and museum depositories. However, juxtaposing the act of thinking with the practice of manual labour has a long tradition in Western intellectual history. Furthermore, it is argued that art history cannot easily be compared to the history of other disciplines because of the simple fact that artworks are typically quite expensive and unique commodities, and as such, they provoke not just aesthetic but also fetishist responses. Thus, this desire to separate art history as a scientific discipline from the fetishism of the art market has had the paradoxical effect of causing art historians to shy away from developing methodologies and theory about materiality as an act of resistance. 

A Call to Otherness: Inscribing Digital Vernaculars into the Art Institution

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-115
Author(s):  
Gabriel Menotti
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Art History ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
Digital Arts ◽  
Western Art ◽  
The World ◽  
Aesthetic Forms

In the mid-2010s, a number of renowned museums and galleries across the world held retrospective exhibitions positioning digital arts within western art history. While inscribing some techno-aesthetic forms and behaviours into the contemporary arts institution, these exhibitions nevertheless cemented the exclusion of others. By examining the role and shortcomings of curatorial practices in this process, this article seeks to frame curating as an art of inclusion able to carve institutional and epistemic space for otherness. In doing so, I argue for the relevance of devices for noticing, defined as a range of tactics that enable the apprehension of digital vernaculars – everyday, ‘lower’ expressions of digital media culture – within institutional sites and discourses. Through these tactics, curators may provoke under-represented cultural actors, forms and behaviours into recognition, reverse the violence of institutional occlusion, and fertilize art histories.

Material Culture

Buddhism ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kieschnick
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Art History ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Buddhist Art ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Traditional Art ◽  
Material Culture Studies ◽  
Textual Representations ◽  
The Subject

The study of material culture belongs to a relatively young discipline that examines artifacts as well as ideas about, and practices related to, artifacts, with artifacts defined as material objects created or modified by people. Aspects of research in material culture overlap with art history, archaeology, and anthropology, but studies in material culture approach the subject from a different perspective, focusing on areas not necessarily emphasized in these disciplines. Unlike traditional art history, material culture studies concentrate on the function of objects, devoting little attention to their aesthetic qualities, with more emphasis, for instance, on miracles associated with icons than on the style or iconography of icons; unlike traditional archaeology, material culture studies do not necessarily focus on extant artifacts, giving as much attention to references to objects in texts as to extant objects; and, unlike traditional anthropology, material culture studies often give great emphasis to historical development, often over vast expanses of time. While the field of material culture studies has flourished for decades, religious studies have been slow to recognize the importance of material things. Many areas of religion in which material culture plays a prominent role remain largely unexplored, including the place of objects in ritual, religious emotion, pilgrimage, and doctrine. Readers interested in the material culture of Buddhism will want to consult entries for Buddhist art, archaeology, and anthropology as well; in the entries below, the focus is on areas of material culture not necessarily emphasized in these disciplines as well as on studies within these disciplines that are especially relevant to the study of material culture. The term visual culture overlaps with much of what is considered material culture, but excludes objects associated with other senses, such as taste, smell, and touch, which are covered by the term material culture. The material culture approach is particularly well suited for exploring the qualities of particular classes of objects. What is it about relics as body parts that accounts for their appeal? Why are miracles so often associated with physical representations of holy figures and how do these differ from textual representations? How do clothing and food differ from language as a medium of communication? To highlight this aspect of research in Buddhist material culture, the scholarship listed below is divided according to type of object. At the same time, material culture studies also offer an opportunity to examine attitudes toward the material world as applied to a wide variety of objects normally separated by discipline. The doctrine of merit inspired the creation of a wide variety of different types of objects, and the monastic ideal of renunciation permeates many different areas of Buddhist material culture.

Art History: A Very Short Introduction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Art History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Western Art ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Global Art

Art history encompasses the study of the history and development of painting, sculpture, and the other visual arts. Art History: A Very Short Introduction considers the issues, debates, and artefacts that make up art history. It explores the emergence of social histories of art and, using a wide range of images, it discusses key aspects of the discipline including how we write about, present, read, and look at art, and the impact this has on our understanding of art history. This second edition includes a new chapter on global art histories, considering how the traditional emphasis on periods and styles in art originated in Western art and can obscure other critical approaches and artwork from non-Western cultures.

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