Starting questions
1. Can an idea be a work of art?
In a technicality, concept art is the art of ideas; However, concept art has been solidified and turned into an outcome. So I think that while an idea may start a piece of art, without any evidence to show for this, it can't be called art in the modern concept of what art is.
2. Is good art always skilful?
Good art, in my eyes, is not based purely on skill. A good piece of art needs to have good ideas behind it. It needs to be mentally engaging, not just, if at all, aesthetically engaging.
3. If you don't make works of art can you be an artist?
Yes. For example, the do-it project; The artist does not technically make the art. They simply set up the elements necessary to create the art, while the audience
4. Why might artists ask other people to make work for them?
5. What makes an instruction interesting?
6. Does a photographer always have to be the one who presses the shutter?
In a technicality, concept art is the art of ideas; However, concept art has been solidified and turned into an outcome. So I think that while an idea may start a piece of art, without any evidence to show for this, it can't be called art in the modern concept of what art is.
2. Is good art always skilful?
Good art, in my eyes, is not based purely on skill. A good piece of art needs to have good ideas behind it. It needs to be mentally engaging, not just, if at all, aesthetically engaging.
3. If you don't make works of art can you be an artist?
Yes. For example, the do-it project; The artist does not technically make the art. They simply set up the elements necessary to create the art, while the audience
4. Why might artists ask other people to make work for them?
5. What makes an instruction interesting?
6. Does a photographer always have to be the one who presses the shutter?
Instruction based art
Instruction based art is a type of interactive audience focused art. In a sense, the audience collaborates with the artist, following instructions left by the artist to create something, cook or sing or anything that the artist wishes. The 'do-it' project was thought up by Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and French artists Christion Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier. During the 20 years since its creation, it has been reincarnated over 60 times by various artists. Do it is a new event showcasing instruction based art, with the concept taken on by artists such as Ai Weiwei, who leaves instructions o dismantling a surveillance camera, and Yoko Ono who tells the public to write down a wish and add it to her wish tree. Instruction based art is an interesting concept, as they have the ability to be manipulated and perceived in different ways, meaning each out come is different from the next. Every single piece is individual to a person. This type of art encourages the audience to become more that just a passive viewer. They become and active voice, and are included more than ever before.
The instructions need to be easily accessible to the audience, as its appealing to a wide range of people, with a wide range of abilities. The art is the instructions, along with the things created, the reactions to the instructions, but it begs the question; Are the artists really the artists if they don't specifically make the art?
The idea of instruction based art is one that creates a lot of questions, because it doesn't adhere to traditional views of what art is. It changes the concept of art as a form of self expression.
The instructions need to be easily accessible to the audience, as its appealing to a wide range of people, with a wide range of abilities. The art is the instructions, along with the things created, the reactions to the instructions, but it begs the question; Are the artists really the artists if they don't specifically make the art?
The idea of instruction based art is one that creates a lot of questions, because it doesn't adhere to traditional views of what art is. It changes the concept of art as a form of self expression.
Photo sequencing diptychs
As a class we were placed into pairs and told to write down a title for a photo we had not taken yet, and did not know what it would be of. I jotted down a lot of ideas, before finally landing on a word. The significance of the title was that it was just a word I had said a lot while trying to determine what the task was about.
The next task was then to take a photo following instructions that our partners had came up with.
The instruction my partner gave me was “go down to the hill in the corner of the school and take a photo from it.”
I followed this instruction while my partner followed mine, and after we had taken the photos we made them into collaborative diptychs.
I found this task to be a good way too consolidate our class work on John Baldessari and instruction based art, because it combined the two main elements, and helped us to experience the thought that goes in to creating a lack of context and the balance between being completely unrelated and having the ability to create links.
Our next task was to take our diptychs and photograph them in different places around the school. I tried to do this in as many ways possible.
The next task was then to take a photo following instructions that our partners had came up with.
The instruction my partner gave me was “go down to the hill in the corner of the school and take a photo from it.”
I followed this instruction while my partner followed mine, and after we had taken the photos we made them into collaborative diptychs.
I found this task to be a good way too consolidate our class work on John Baldessari and instruction based art, because it combined the two main elements, and helped us to experience the thought that goes in to creating a lack of context and the balance between being completely unrelated and having the ability to create links.
Our next task was to take our diptychs and photograph them in different places around the school. I tried to do this in as many ways possible.
John Baldessari
John Baldessari is a conceptual artist who uses a wide range of mediums, for example photography and video, as well as film, paintings, drawings, books and text. Originally a painter, in the late 1960s he transitioned into photography. His cremation project saw all of his work dated 1953-1966 burnt in a crematorium.
Baldessari uses text and image, sequenced together, as equals in terms of composition and context. His work investigates the effect of distorting the context of an image, and how the audience uses context to create links that may or may not be there, and differ depending on the person. To do this he uses found images, such as screen shots of of a film or a painting, or photographs that he doesn't take, he adds text from a play script, for example, to add some type of context. He sequences these two things together, whether or not they have no relation,and leaves it up to the audience to figure it out.
His use of text as a compositional element has been widely researched, most famously by " Russell Ferguson’s essay about Baldessari as the unreliable narrator"
Baldessari uses text and image, sequenced together, as equals in terms of composition and context. His work investigates the effect of distorting the context of an image, and how the audience uses context to create links that may or may not be there, and differ depending on the person. To do this he uses found images, such as screen shots of of a film or a painting, or photographs that he doesn't take, he adds text from a play script, for example, to add some type of context. He sequences these two things together, whether or not they have no relation,and leaves it up to the audience to figure it out.
His use of text as a compositional element has been widely researched, most famously by " Russell Ferguson’s essay about Baldessari as the unreliable narrator"
John Baldessari's Assignments
John Baldessari's list of assignments where a series of assignments that he gave his students when he was a college professor. We were focusing on completing Assignment #10 : Photograph backs of things, underneaths of things, extreme foreshortenings, uncharacteristic views. Or trace them.
My Evaluation
I don't feel as though my pictures fit the brief to some extent, because I think that I thought too deeply about it. I grasped a different understanding of what could count as an uncharacteristic view. I took photos of things out of place, and the shadows of thing which could be seen as viewing something from a different angle to what you normally see, because the shadows are a depiction of the object. When retaking the photographs I am going to try using angles and experimenting with foreshortening.
These 3 photos fit the brief the most in my opinion as they contain elements of what we were instructed to do, for instance the first photograph is an example of foreshortening. The second photograph focused on showing the side of something you wouldn't normally see, because it is a picture of the inside of the ceiling. The third photograph takes two different sized objects and makes them look the same size.
Re-taking the photoshoot
instructions
The instructions that I followed were to "take 15 photographs of different types of surfaces that show reflections but are also see through. Do not show a human in the pictures, even yourself."
I thought of some transparent objects; glass, water, some plastic. I then went around the school trying to source these objects, and photographed them. I think that the use of a puddle for something transparent fits quite well, as it depicts the instructions better than some top the other things I used.
I like that we are using John Baldessaris Fourteen disparate assignments and creating our own, however I wish we could do this out of school.
I thought of some transparent objects; glass, water, some plastic. I then went around the school trying to source these objects, and photographed them. I think that the use of a puddle for something transparent fits quite well, as it depicts the instructions better than some top the other things I used.
I like that we are using John Baldessaris Fourteen disparate assignments and creating our own, however I wish we could do this out of school.
The Formal Elements
Photography Games
Our homework was to create a photography game. I brainstormed some ideas and decided to major a