Building light box to expose anthotypes over break. Hope to have all blocks printed by mid January.
Site that describes how to build the box using UV strips.
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
What Photography Is by James Elkins
I enjoyed this book so much more after he stopped rambling about Camera Lucida and just started writing his thoughts.
Some Quotes:
It is important not to forget the billion of photographs that aren't saved or printed. They are the population of photography, just as a count of living things shows bacteria are incomprehensibly more numerous than the kind of life we end up noticing. -p.95
I selected them, and brought they into this book, they are "found photography": they aren't quite art, but they are also no longer what they once were. -p.101
I see these people's lives as if they are covered with an old veil: they feel dank. Nostalgia self is stale, and this is second-hand nostalgia. A breath of someone else's life, breathed out into my mouth. -p.107
That searching for memories in photographs was therefore a flash solace, in which I had fooled myself into thinking that my own memories, which are naturally growing fainter and more inaccurate with each passing day, are not ruined and ultimately erased by the force of the particular faces captured in photographs, but that somehow, paradoxically, those memories could actually be strengthened by reviewing those same images. But photographs of people I know and love are actually a poison to memory, because they remain strong while my memories weaken. The more often I look at a photograph of someone I loved who is no longer alive, the more my own faltering memory tries to accommodate itself to the unchanging images, accurate by distorting itself, harming itself, conforming to what they photograph continues to present, until my memory is nothing but a tattered shadow clinging to the photograph. - p. 114-115
Some Quotes:
It is important not to forget the billion of photographs that aren't saved or printed. They are the population of photography, just as a count of living things shows bacteria are incomprehensibly more numerous than the kind of life we end up noticing. -p.95
I selected them, and brought they into this book, they are "found photography": they aren't quite art, but they are also no longer what they once were. -p.101
I see these people's lives as if they are covered with an old veil: they feel dank. Nostalgia self is stale, and this is second-hand nostalgia. A breath of someone else's life, breathed out into my mouth. -p.107
That searching for memories in photographs was therefore a flash solace, in which I had fooled myself into thinking that my own memories, which are naturally growing fainter and more inaccurate with each passing day, are not ruined and ultimately erased by the force of the particular faces captured in photographs, but that somehow, paradoxically, those memories could actually be strengthened by reviewing those same images. But photographs of people I know and love are actually a poison to memory, because they remain strong while my memories weaken. The more often I look at a photograph of someone I loved who is no longer alive, the more my own faltering memory tries to accommodate itself to the unchanging images, accurate by distorting itself, harming itself, conforming to what they photograph continues to present, until my memory is nothing but a tattered shadow clinging to the photograph. - p. 114-115
Why Art Cannot Be Taught by James Elkins
I agree with a lot of things that were said in this book. He reinforced some of my thoughts about what types of media are acceptable to educational institutions. My thought is that they are unacceptable because white men predominately controlled the higher education system and they had no frame of reference for art outside of their mediums. So textiles, ceramics, etc. are usually looked down on as forms of art since they can also be practical.
A few Quotes:
What I want to stress here is not how we are connected to the past but how strongly we are disconnected. For practical purposes current art instruction doesn't involved a fixed curriculum, a hierarchy of genres, a sequence of courses, a coherent body of knowledge, or a unified theory or practice. - p.38
Behind this assumption is the idea that what artists do is different in kind from what electrical engineers or physicists do: in theory everyone can understand art, but only some people can understand engineering or physics. And in the end, everyone needs art, while only some people could be said to need the expertise of an electrical engineer or a physics. Art is ideally or potentially universal: it has to do with the people's feeling an dinner lives, and so it isn't a specialty known only to a few individuals. - p.63
Artists are educated differently, typically with fewer non-art subjects, and that contributes to the fact that artists make art that expresses their own minority subculture and not the culture as a whole. -p.64
p. 73-78 are especially good.
They all boil down to one central problem, which has been with us since the early Renaissance: the notion that the crafts are not as important as the arts.
Our indecision about crafts, decoration, and design suggests that it's a deep-seated inequality, built into Western culture: we just feel it is true that chairs have a different value from paintings. - p.83
A few Quotes:
What I want to stress here is not how we are connected to the past but how strongly we are disconnected. For practical purposes current art instruction doesn't involved a fixed curriculum, a hierarchy of genres, a sequence of courses, a coherent body of knowledge, or a unified theory or practice. - p.38
Behind this assumption is the idea that what artists do is different in kind from what electrical engineers or physicists do: in theory everyone can understand art, but only some people can understand engineering or physics. And in the end, everyone needs art, while only some people could be said to need the expertise of an electrical engineer or a physics. Art is ideally or potentially universal: it has to do with the people's feeling an dinner lives, and so it isn't a specialty known only to a few individuals. - p.63
Artists are educated differently, typically with fewer non-art subjects, and that contributes to the fact that artists make art that expresses their own minority subculture and not the culture as a whole. -p.64
p. 73-78 are especially good.
They all boil down to one central problem, which has been with us since the early Renaissance: the notion that the crafts are not as important as the arts.
Our indecision about crafts, decoration, and design suggests that it's a deep-seated inequality, built into Western culture: we just feel it is true that chairs have a different value from paintings. - p.83
Artist Statement
Anthotype is an
early photographic process, which uses natural dyes and extended sun exposure
to create photographic images. The first anthotype prints were made in 1842 as
an experiment to invent color photography. As an artist, I am drawn to this
Victorian process, because it is a ecologically and environmentally sound
method of photography. In order to
preserve knowledge of the anthotype process and make it more available to the
photographic community, I have documented my experiments with the medium and
detailed the creative process.
My present body of
work combines anthotype onto textiles, in the form of a quilt. By creating the
quilt, I’m marking time, and specifically this time in our life with a small
child, while my husband and I both have jobs. Life is not particularly easy,
nor is it impossible, but it is beautiful.
I am exploring our
human, and specifically female, connection to landscape and nature through the
imagery I create and the dye sources I employ. With the entirety of this work I’m making
connections between natural dyes and nature, quilting and female identity, and
feminine knowledge transfer through shared techniques and traditions. The
female lineage of quilting forms the roots of this body of work, and illustrates
the knowledge transferred through women over time, both through craft and as a
tangible object by representation of multi-generational female experience.
This work also
challenges the basic photographic principles of light and time since anthotype
is both created and destroyed by light. All photographic processes require
light to create their imagery. Most are light safe and permanent, but anthotype
is not. Anothtype is a truer representation of time, because it isn’t
permanent, it changes over time just like the original image source in
photography. Anthotype is closer to reality than traditional photography.
All of these
processes are deeply seeded at the core of who I am. The history of natural
dyes, photography, and quilting are vast and deep with significant artistic,
gender, and cultural importance. This quilt provides a marker of the physical
landscape we currently live in for my daughter and myself. Combining anthotype
and quilting allow me to express my personal connection to place as well as my
personal history with the medium.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Crit #2 - 3/1/17
Impossible Bi-Chromate Test #1
Scans of family photographs
Sketch designs for remaining Quilt Blocks
Starting Black Bean dye solution
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Final Crit
Beginning of exposure test.
Final quilt top ready to expose. final size is 36x44.
Anthotype getting additional exposure at night.
Anticipating the anthotype will be complete in 2-3 more weeks.
final test results from spinach.
final results from turmeric.
final results from pokeberry.
All three are a months worth of exposure
These are new quilt squares for the thesis quilt. That are from family heirloom quilts.
Anthotype Exploration
This project is an
extension of my alternative process work. Anthotype
is an early photographic process, which uses natural dyes and extended sun
exposure to create photographic images. My present body of work includes other
mediums by combining anthotype onto textiles. Anthotype is historically
considered a “craft” form of photography, but with this series I hope to change
that perception by using multiple “craft” forms to create a work of art.
Within the work I’m exploring our human,
and specifically female, connection to landscape and nature. My personal connection to nature and place has
strong visual representation in the work through the dyes used and image
sources. With the entirety of this work I’m hoping to explore connections
between natural dyes and nature, quilting and female identity, and feminine
knowledge transfer through shared techniques and traditions. The female lineage
of quilting will form the roots of this body of work, and should be
illustrative of the knowledge transferred through women over time, both through
craft and as a tangible object. This work will also challenge the basic
photographic principles of light and time since anthotype is both created and
destroyed by light.
All of these processes are deeply seeded at the
core of who I am. Quilting has a rich history within my family lineage. The
history of natural dyes, photography, and quilting are vast and deep with
significant artistic, gender, and cultural importance. As I continue to explore
all of them it creates a new way of viewing each separately. The process of
creating this work is also extremely time consuming. The fabric is solar dyed
which takes at least a week and the Anthotype can take anywhere from 3 days, in
the summer to months in the winter. Through this process I am learning patience
in art rather than discipline, which is a new principle within art for me.
Other ideas I want to explore:
-Having my daughter was what gave me the courage to come back to school, and in a way I'm creating something lasting that chronicles my time here. It will be a tangible object of what she gave me.
-Fitting the family heirloom squares into the piece and what that means
Hito Steyearl, In Defense of The Poor Image
Hito Steyearl
In Defense of The Poor Image
2009
"The poor image is an illicit fifth-generation bastard of an original image." - pg1
"The contemporary hierarchy of images, however, is not only based on sharpness,but also and primarily on resolution." - pg.3
"Poor images are poor bequest they are not assigned any value within the class society of images - their status as illicit or degraded grants them exemption from its criteria." - pg.6
"While it enables the users' active participation in the creation and distribution of content, it also drafts them into production. Users become the editors, critics, translators, and (co-)authors of poor images." - pg.6
"The poor image thus constructs anonymous global networks just as it creates a shared history." - pg.8
The information that Min shared about the history of the jpg was extremely interesting and directly related to the content of the article.
I also feel that as time progresses the "quality" of poor images will increase. As storage grows and the cloud lets us take more and more photos there are more digital images around. The resolution of images also continues to increase, but not the technical skill or "quality". how many selfies and food pictures does the world need people?!?
"What I find interesting is the specific ways in which this format affects what we see, and how a set of arbitrary decisions made by the group have governed all visual representations using this format."
-Some Thoughts on the Poor Image by Robert Carter
In Defense of The Poor Image
2009
"The poor image is an illicit fifth-generation bastard of an original image." - pg1
"The contemporary hierarchy of images, however, is not only based on sharpness,but also and primarily on resolution." - pg.3
"Poor images are poor bequest they are not assigned any value within the class society of images - their status as illicit or degraded grants them exemption from its criteria." - pg.6
"While it enables the users' active participation in the creation and distribution of content, it also drafts them into production. Users become the editors, critics, translators, and (co-)authors of poor images." - pg.6
"The poor image thus constructs anonymous global networks just as it creates a shared history." - pg.8
The information that Min shared about the history of the jpg was extremely interesting and directly related to the content of the article.
I also feel that as time progresses the "quality" of poor images will increase. As storage grows and the cloud lets us take more and more photos there are more digital images around. The resolution of images also continues to increase, but not the technical skill or "quality". how many selfies and food pictures does the world need people?!?
Thomas Ruff, jpeg nt01
"What I find interesting is the specific ways in which this format affects what we see, and how a set of arbitrary decisions made by the group have governed all visual representations using this format."
-Some Thoughts on the Poor Image by Robert Carter
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