From Immaterial to Material

One hundred years after the foundation, the Bauhaus is well known as the epitome of modern design with countless books, articles and reviews illustrating a vivid discourse on how the Bauhaus influenced the design development since then. Greater parts of this discourse are dedicated to a rather material approach by pointing out the contradictions of Bauhaus design: the promise of creating prototypes for serial production on the one side and the actual products which are often handmade original art works, rather crafted in exquisite materials than designed for the masses. Walter Gropius’s original idea for his school thereby was about educating and inspiring modern individuals, teaching them how to work with their hands as well as their minds, how to reflect on the surrounding world, unifying hand crafting skills and artistic personality in times of the Machine Age. In the very special case of the correlation between design work as material product and the process of creating a design idea with all its psychological and personal implications must be differentiated. Especially the early spiritual and philosophical Bauhaus had set the base for a strong community, welded together by idealism, artistic spirit of creativity and strong faith in the sociocultural power of form and design.

The Crip Tarot Card

The Crip is one of thirty cards in the Asian American Tarot, an original deck of tarot cards I curated as part of my hybrid book arts project on mental health, Open in Emergency (first published in 2016 and then in an expanded second edition in 2019/2020). Each card names an archetype that structures the psychic and material life of Asian Americans, and draws upon knowledge production in Asian American studies and Asian American communities to theorize that archetype’s shape and reach. Each features original art and text, a collaboration between a visual artist and a scholar or literary writer. Each ends with guidance, a gentle directive to the reader for what to do now that they have drawn this card in a tarot reading. The Asian American Tarot is art-meets-scholarship-meets-wellness-practice-equals-magic-for-our-times. The Crip is the twenty-sixth card in the major arcana, and it is here welcoming us all on our disability journeys.

An integrated analytical study of crayons from the original art materials collection of the MUNCH museum in Oslo

Among the artists’ materials of the nineteenth century, pastel crayons merit scientific interest since their early commercial formulations are mostly unknown and, until now, have been considerably less studied with respect to other contemporary painting materials. In this framework, research herein reports the results of a comprehensive multi-analytical study of 44 pastel crayons of two recognized brands (LeFranc and Dr. F. Schoenfeld) from the Munch museum collection of original materials belonging to Edvard Munch. The integrated use of complementary spectroscopic and hyphenated mass-spectrometry techniques allowed the compositional profiles of the crayons to be traced providing the identification of the inorganic and organic pigments, the fillers/extenders and the binders. All crayons resulted to be oil- based and the binder was identified to be a mixture of a drying oil (safflower or linseed oil), palm oil or Japan wax and beeswax. Among others, pigments such as ultramarine, chrome yellows, Prussian blue, manganese violet, viridian and madder lake have been identified. A significant alignment in formulations of the brands was observed with the only exception of the greens which showed distinctive pigment and filler compositions. The analytical information provided for these commercial artists’ materials will be of great interest for academia, museum and other institutions hosting art collections dating from the same period and it will be used by the Munch museum to draw proper conservation strategies of its own artwork collections.

Testing a calibration-free eye tracker prototype at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna

Eye tracking research in art viewership is often conducted in a laboratory setting where reproductions must be used in place of original art works and the viewing environment is less natural than in a museum. Recent technological developments have made museum studies possible but head-mounted eye tracking gear and interruptions by researchers still influence the experience of the viewer. In order to find a more ecologically valid way of recording eye movements while viewing artworks, we employed a prototype of a calibration-free remote eye tracker hidden below selected paintings at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Museum visitors were unaware of the study and informed post hoc that we had registered their viewing behavior and asked to give consent for the use of their data. This article presents the study design as well as results from over 800 participants. While the data quality from the eye tracker prototype was not sufficient to conduct the intended analysis on within-painting gaze movements, this study might serve as a step towards an unobtrusive examination of the art viewing experience. It was possible to analyze time spent viewing paintings and those results show that certain paintings consistently drew significantly more prolonged attention from viewers.

From Parchment to Podcast: The Collaborative Process of Building and Unlocking an Archive

This project began with a deceptively simple question: “Were there runaway slaves in Indian Territory in the 1830 s and 40s?” The answer was complicated and relied upon the combined expertise of historians, archivists, curators, and collectors. This article describes how collaborative research, performed at the Helmerich Center for American Research at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, uncovered a long-neglected piece of history in Indian Territory. The collections, which contain diverse sources such as manuscripts written on parchment, archaeological artefacts, original art, and more recently, digitised documents, images, and videos, shape the way scholars answer their questions. Although scholarly research may appear to be an independent endeavour – the professor mining sources at a desk or writing alone on a computer – the reality, especially in the twenty-first century, is much different. What shows up on the page and, now, what results in a podcast, is rooted in a shared journey, beginning with an archivist or curator collecting and cataloguing materials and ending in cyberspace.

Artists or Slave Laborers? Performing Uncapturability in Burkinabe Performers’ Labor Rights Struggle in South Korea

This article traces eight performers from Burkina Faso, who in 2014 protested unfair labor practices at the Africa Museum of Original Art in South Korea, where they had been hired to perform. In the process, they demonstrated political and artistic endeavors in live concerts and dance workshops to reclaim both their monetary compensation and their artists’ status. Nevertheless, public and media discourse that followed this nationwide news—no matter how sympathetic—tended to treat the artists’ experiences as merely a failed Korean dream. Using performance studies methodologies and ethnographic methods, this article uses the terms performance and performativity more capaciously to include a range of embodied acts. With this, the article argues that framing the artists’ experiences within the narrative confines of struggling migrant workers fails to capture the complex, often contradictory relationship that they have with acts of performing beyond the existing categories of migrant labor. Furthermore, the sympathetic discourse capitalizes on hypervisibility of blackness, through which the artists’ suffering becomes a spectacle. This article suggests consideration of the concept of uncapturability—the embodiment of which exposes failures of a nationalist and racialized language—as well as existing theoretical frameworks mobilized to understand the interiority of performance and the artists’ work.

The art heritage of Sergey Kochaa

Статья посвящена творчеству заслуженного художника Тувинской АССР Сергея Хомушкуевича Кочаа. В частности, представлен искусствоведческий анализ серебряных сережек с подвескамиколокольчиками. Определено, что растительные мотивы черпались из окружающего мира, подсказывая многообразные и вполне совершенные художественные решения. Приведенные детали орнамента, выбор цвета несут определенную информацию, значительно обогащены и изменены за счет шаманских воззрений мастера, ассимилированных с буддизмом. Используя в своем творчестве традиционные мотивы, а также под влиянием определенных условий Сергей Кочаа смог придать этим мотивам специфичные только для его творчества черты, которые впоследствии становились неотъемлемой составляющей оригинального художественного направления. This article is about the work of the honored artist of the Tuva Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Sergei Khomushkuevich Kochaa. In particular, it presents an art analysis of silver earrings with bell pendants. It is revealed that plant motifs were drawn from the surrounding world, suggesting diverse and quite perfect artistic solutions. The given details of the ornament, the choice of color carry certain information, are significantly enriched and changed due to the shamanistic views of the master, assimilated with Buddhism. Using traditional motifs in his work, and also under the influence of certain conditions, Sergey Kochaa was able to give these motifs specific features only for his work, which later became an integral part of the original art direction.

Revitalisasi Tari Tayung Raci Desa Raci Kulon, Kecamatan Sidayu, Kabupaten Gresik

Tayung Raci dance is the original art of Raci Kulon village, Sidayu district, Gresik regency, which has been experienced apparent death 27 years. Meanwhile, Tayung Raci Dance begin to reappear sometime around 2014. The form of presenting Tayung Raci dance experience a change that is used to maintain its exclusion as the original art of Raci Kulon village. The change does not leave a culture that has became the identity of Tayung Raci Dance adapt to the community. This is called the revitalization effort that serves as one way of cultural preservation. The formulation of the research problem is how to revitalize Tayung Raci dance, Raci Kulon village, Sidayu district, Gresik regency. The objective of this research is to know the revitalization of Tayung Raci dance, Raci Kulon village, Sidayu district, Gresik regency. This research uses qualitative approach for the case of this study. The results of revitalization research take place in the form of presentation of Tayung Raci dance. The form of presentation are the presentation plot, motion, clothing, property, and music. Revolutions are divided into 5 rounds with some motion. The dress code has a symbolic meaning of dress or soldier’s uniform. The property consists of Wijil Trunojoyo spear, horses, Ketekan mask, Wedokan mask, Macanan mask and Pecut. Musical instruments use drums, Kenong and Tanjidor (drum), slompret and gong with the lyrics of songs use Sholawat Nabi.Keywords: revitalization; Tayung Raci dance; arts of Gresik district

Identitas Budaya Masyarakat Kota: Teater Tradisi di Kota Surabaya Pada Awal Abad XX

This study examines why does Ludruk represent the cultural identity of the people of Surabaya? How does society appreciate the traditional theater, especially in Ludruk in their daily practice? The purpose of this article explains the historical reality of Ludruk art that serves as entertainment and cultural identity. This article using the historical method by relying on historical sources. The result shows that theater traditions that existed and famous in Surabaya at the beginning of the 20th century were Comedy Stambul, Wayang Wong, and Ludruk, then appeared Ketoprak in the late 1930s. The appearance of this theater has been adapted to the tastes of the support community. Comedy Stambul is a theater that originated in India, then spread to Southeast Asia. Comedy Stambul is considered as a hybrid art because it comes from a blend of local cultural elements, while Wayang Wong, Ludruk, and Ketoprak an original art derived from customs and local values. Theater that represents the cultural identity of the people of Surabaya is Ludruk.