PG: A Day in a Life of a Postgraduate Student

Hi! This records one of my busiest day as a Postgraduate. I started my Masters in Visual Culture at Durham University in the Michaelmas term. Don't let the frequency of the classes fools you, even though I only have a weekly seminar, the readings are definitely intensive and it is solely up to us to allocate the amount of time we want to invest in reading. 

6.30 a.m.  I set the alarm every night but my internal clock is rather reliable. My morning routine is to open the pivot windows to let the air in and get ready for the day. I make Camomile tea in my thermal flask and put it aside. 

7 a.m.  Incorporating physical movements daily is crucial for me. I energise myself my with online yoga classes. I especially enjoy the Meridian Yoga, Vinyasa and Core. They target different areas in the body and help me to get the day right. 

 

8 a.m.  My hearty breakfast consists of the staple overnight oats with plant milk. The plain-looking bowl of oats can be brighten up with different kinds of fruits and homemade granolas. My favourites have to be pomegranates, raspberries and chopped apricots topped with some nuts and seeds.

 

10 a.m.  Today, I had an object handling class at the Oriental Museum. It was conducted by Dr Craig Barclay, Curator of University Museums. My coursemates and I sat around the art objects and we described the visual elements. What was missing was shared further and almost each object has a fun fact. On the way, I was just awed by this tree. The colours during Fall are phenomenal! 

 

12 p.m.  They say never do grocery shopping on an empty stomach but I never heed the advice. When I overbuy, I do batch cooking so I do not have to make every meal from scratch. Cooking is therapeutic, like mediation. Nourishing my body and mind for better health. On the way home, I went to pick up my pair of pre-ordered boots from a shop. 

 

1.30 p.m.  Five of us share a kitchen and we bond over meals and drinks. Today, I joined Anna, one of my housemates in the kitchen. She has just returned from York with her groceries. She showed me a printed recipe she got from Waitrose and made roasted aubergines for lunch. 

 

3.30 p.m.  I just realised that I have missed out printing a reading for next week. Heading to Bill Bryson Library and I hope my printing credits are not running low. 

 

6 p.m.  The Research Forum at St. Chad’s College is incredible. Two of my housemates are presenting today so I am exceptionally hyped. There are usually two speakers for the presentation and the research can be past or whatever the presenter is working. Presenters can use the opportunity simply to practice their presentation and public speaking skills in a friendly and relaxed environment to a non-specialist academic audience. 

7.30 p.m.  There are weekly formals which college students can signed up for. As I live in a self-catered college, I would need to buy a meal ticket for £7 for a three-course meal which is incredible! St Chad’s underground bar would also be open for wine purchase if you like pairing your dinner with wine.

 

10 p.m.  Darkness sets in by 4.30 p.m. I feel that I needed to make better use of the daylight hours that is available. Going to bed early is a habit that I have cultivated and it’s keeping me going.

PG: Bright Ideas Gathering

My lecturer gave us tickets to the Bright Ideas Gathering which was held in conjunction with Lumiere Festival 2021. It featured twelve talks and performances from innovators and influencers shaping our world and our future. This event was produced by the same team who created TEDxManchester, TEDxNewcastle and the Thinking Digital Conference. Topics for the presentations were varied and it ranged from visual art to anti-ageing to the Sciences. The last speaker was a performance chemist who literally created explosives on the stage! His timing for his speech (science facts) were seamless with the chemical reactions. You can search for his YouTube videos.

Alfie Joey

Helen Marriage

Dr Nichola Conlon

Tim Etchells

David Callaghan

Chris McDonald

Nikki Dravers

Dr Paul Chazot

Alison Clark

Pam Warhurst

Elaine Buckholtz

Chloë Clover

Sugata Mitra

PG: Lumiere 2021

The most recent biannual Lumiere Festival is such an uplifting public art event that has inspired me. The sun sets by 4.30 p.m. and the crowd streamed in to Durham. Walking around the city centre was very enjoyable in the cool weather. There was even an app developed for this event to help visitors navigate. Art installations were varied and layered with different medium. I also attended an artist's talk where the artists talked about circumventing the on-site restrictions and not diluting their artistic concepts.

12-minute video and sound loop

light and sound test

Permanent exhibit

PG: Wings of Desire Film

Screenshot from Wings of Desire film

This week, we analysed a film, Wings of Desire and read a chapter from The Act of Seeing by Wim Wenders on Box of Broadcast. YouTube version is here. The film is a 1987 romantic fantasy about immortal angels who populate Berlin and hears the thoughts of humans but stays invisible to them. One of the angels, Damiel, falls in love with a trapeze artist, Marion, and he decides to become mortal in order to experience the human sensory pleasures/ pain such as taking a bath, enjoying foods, seeing in colours, rubbing hands together to generate heat, broken skin and getting black fingers from reading the newspapers. 

The cinematography of this film is shot in monochrome from the angel's point of view and colour from the people's point of view. A fun fact is: the name of the French circus in the film: Alekan Circus was named in Henri Alekan's honour – the film’s cinematographer. The German- and French-speaking film has English subtitles which does interferes with the enjoyment of the film. Filming technique such as panning the camera in shots to mimic the angels’ elevation might be overdone. Juxtaposition of real video documentation (e.g. dead children) in the film suggests the desire to evoke emotions from its viewers. Angels perched on places where one normally wouldn’t sit is suggestive of their immortality. I speculate that the amount of narration supersedes direct speech in the film is due to the practical reasons for sound technicality. This black and white footage evokes nostalgia by showing records of the past, making memories in the film and using film as memory. 

Referring to Wenders' chapter on The urban landscape from the point of view of images, the parallel he draws between the development of images and of cities (p. 96) is that they both grown out of proportion, become colder, more distanced/ alienated/ alienating, more commercially oriented. It's the saturation of images in cityscapes. He likens images to addiction to drugs and cautioned overdose of them. Berlin has a lot of empty spaces due to the aftermath of war and nothing much to see. Visitors can see through the space like how they see through time, just like in a movie. The eyes and the mind are allowed to wander. He is convinced that film should have gaps between imagery to allow us to see anything else other than what the film wants to show us. Thus, the storytelling exists and comes to life in the mind of the viewer or listener (p.99). 

It makes me think about how people described themselves as storytellers or sharing the origins of businesses' stories. It appears that these people do that to not let images or noise drown in the flood of the others and to not let them become victims of the ongoing competitiveness and the overwhelming spirit of commercialisation by telling a story. 

References

Attie, Shimon, ‘The Writing on the Wall, Berlin, 1992-93: projections in Berlin's Jewish quarter’. Art Journal (2003, Fall),  74-83.

Wenders, Wim, 'The urban landscape from the point of view of images'. In The act of seeing: essays and conversation (London: Faber and Faber, 1997), pp. 93-101.

 

Wim Wenders, Wings of Desire (1987), on Box of Broadcasts at: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/000BEFF8?bcast=134925775

PG: What the Art Teacher Reads

Same chapter found in different books 

Last week, we discussed on the chapter on The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction which appears in both of these books. This chapter was first published in 1936 and we looked at the points Walter had made that are in fact still prevalent now. The main points that were made are (1) the masses/ proletariats gain access to images easily. (2) Reproducibility enhances the ease of distribution. (3) Technology enables these changes. That said, the ability to reproduce does not mean the value of the 'original' art has lessened. It plays a critical role in the dissemination of knowledge about an original work and the maintenance of its value. Thus, the 'original' value does not derive from its uniqueness but rather from its status as being the original form.

We linked 'aura' to the reading as the definition of aura defined by the author is the artwork's 'presence in time and space', its unique existence at the place where where it happens to be. Aura also refers to enduring, timeless quality or authenticity. However, 'aura' is subjective. The GIF image below shows University Castle, one of Durham's student accommodations. For the record, most people would feel delighted to actually live in a castle. But, the sense of novelty and romanticism may wear off because you live and experience it every day. So, the aura of that awesomeness differs according to individuals in this case. 

University College

Same chapter, different writing styles

Even if you don't know much about art or never step in an art gallery or museum, chances are you've seen well-known art reproductions in books, postcards, calendars, magnets and other trinkets. Artist Marchel Duchamp responded to the mass production by presenting Readymades, such as the famous inverted urinal titled Fountain. This act paves the way for conceptual art as it disrupted traditional knowledge of artist's role as skilled creator of something original. 

In Shenzhen's Dafen Village, a Chinese art copying market, challenges the codes of valuing original art in the same way conceptual art does (Sturken and Cartwright, 2018). The replicas paintings in the original medium (oil) are sold at affordable prices. In Winnie Wong Won Yin's book Van Gogh on Demand, she states that there are very strong discourse of originality, authorship, craft and artisan skills at work in the copying market. 

References

Benjamin, W., Zohn, H. and Arendt, H., 1955. Illuminations. 1st ed. New York: Schocken books. 

Benjamin, W., Zohn, H. and Arendt, H., 1955. Illuminations. 1st ed. New York: Schocken books.

Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L., 2018. Practices of looking: : an introduction to visual culture. 3rd ed. USA: Oxford University Press, pp.191 - 198.