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. 

PG: COP26 Summit

The UK hosted the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October – 12 November 2021. The COP26 summit brought countries together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Last Saturday, I joined The Game Changer COP26 Challenge and it's for us students to consider how we can contribute to this important global problem. 

During the special edition of Game Changer, we:

• Explored the problem of Climate Change and its impacts
• Analysed the news stories and outcomes of the COP26 Summit
• Understand how Design Thinking was used to generate innovative solutions
• Generated ideas that contribute to tackling the problem of Climate Change 
• Created a plan to implement our ideas
• Developed communication and pitching skills

We could form our own groups but I joined students whom I do not know. The challenge made use of Design Thinking principles and a planning method known as Lean Canvas. There were also some guiding questions to structure our presentation. From 2pm, we were left to our own device to brainstorm and executed a video pitch. I introduced my group to the Loom app and we individually recorded our segment and someone did the editing. Our group successfully emailed our group video just by 6pm! What a relief! 

St Chads organised its own event in conjunction with COP26

The prototype section was changed to pitching using videos

A template for idea pitch

PG: Object Handling Class

Some photos from our object handling class at the Oriental Museum. Our class was spilt into two groups, each taking turns to view the museum collection. That day was closed to the public so that a live online museum lesson can be conducted to the primary school students. The voice of the education officer reverberated around the space as we were ushered into a room. Sitting in front of our chosen art objects, we described the visual elements. What was missing was shared further and almost each object has a fun fact. 

Very Edo period but look at their attire

This is a porcelain pillow!

Engravings on a gunpowder holder 

Opium Pipe

                                

Base of the teacup after you've finish the tea

Islamic coin with portrait

PG: Aesthetics and Race

Photo credit: Unsplash

If you've filled in registration forms in Singapore before, chances of it asking you for your 'race' is quite high. The options are usually Chinese, Malay, Indian, Others (CMIO). We don't get to choose which race we most identify with but it's based on paternal line of descent. In the local context, the understanding of 'race' is rarely debated or discussed unless there are episodes such as this and this.

In August 2011, an immigrant Chinese family had complaint to the local mediation centre about the smell of curry in their home by their Singaporean Indian family. The outcome of the mediation, which involved the Indian family agreeing to cook curry only when their neighbours were not at home, caused furor amongst Singaporeans across races. A “cook a pot of curry” day was spontaeously declared by a group of citizens to celebrate multiculturalism it and went viral across social media. As a result, this incident inspired a play written by Alfian Sa’at.

Our class discussed about "race as a social construct"[1], looked at the periods of slave trades and slavery, making connections between the senses and emotions, race-thinking and gut-thinking. The lecturer asked us to close our eyes and recalled the colour of our coursemates' eyes. She tried to make a point that it's very easy to notice someone's skin colour at the first impression. It's not because it's the most prominent or the skin has the largest surface area because if someone were to have a face piercing or tattoo which is much more smaller in scale than the skin surface, we would notice that too. So, how would that be explained? 

Some physiological explanations for our ocularcentrism is due to being largely visual creatures, our eyes enable us to process information much rapidly and at distances greater than the reach of our other senses unaided. 

Coffee, sugar and tobacco - these were non-essential food items and yet they were needed to satiate the culture of taste and civilisation[2]. Within the culture of modernity, slavery would appear to be anachronistic. A receipt detailed inventory of objects of trade and the geography in which they were exchanged dated June 1659 would come to be known as The African Trade. These humble subjects were featured in great works of art such as in Rembrandt's paintings, Baroque painters of the period - Diego Velasquez and Peter Pauls Rubens. How could such elevated images of art exist in the same space as the harsh world of enslavement and the slave trade? In the 18^th century, the age of slavery and culture of taste emerged and transformed the cultural landscape of Britain and the Americas. This binary dichotomy is intimately connected. The immense fortune made lead to bourgeois ideas (art and freedom) and enabled refinement of taste, beauty standards and practices of high culture. 

References

[1] Smith, Mark M.. How Race Is Made : Slavery, Segregation, and the Senses, The University of North Carolina Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/durham/detail.action?docID=413426.

[2] Gikandi, Simon. Slavery and the Culture of Taste, Princeton University Press, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/durham/detail.action?docID=736910. 

Reads: What the Art Teacher Reads

In the early weeks of our seminars (a.k.a tutorials), my class pondered on readings about visual essentialism (by Mike Bal), the early modern periods and art nouveau in fin-de-siecle period etc. Visual Culture is multimodal and multisensorial, not just by using our visions. The study of visual culture is to grasp their place in broader contexts of meaning and experience. It may be the core in which we can examine the geopolitics and aesthetics of a national culture as displayed in a museum, gallery or an artefact.

Dr Zoe Roth questioned our definition of 'aesthetics', 'the aesthetic' and 'common sense'. After digesting our readings, we defined them in our own words. There's a great sense of satisfaction to having my old thoughts disrupted. Art teachers are usually in the 'aesthetic department' in the school context and by that I mean art and music teachers are in the same department. How often do we deconstruct the meaning of words to think and discuss the basic and fundamentals?

These are samples of weekly questions to guide our readings:

• Bring two questions about the reading to class. These could be concepts you need help defining, ideas that are unclear, something that relates to your own research interests, etc.
• How are aesthetics and the aesthetic relevant to the study of visual culture? How can you think of visual culture through the lens of sense perception, common sense, the distribution of the sensible? 
• What are the similarities between Arendt and Ranciere’s concepts of “common sense” and the “distribution of the sensible” respectively?  
• How can forms of aesthetic production help reorder the distribution of the sensible?
• What happens if "common sense" breaks down? 
• What are some ways aesthetic and politics are linked? Give examples.

I've enjoyed listening to my classmates' thoughts and comparing their responses to mine. Very often, the questions might look seemingly straightforward but it isn't so. For example, the question about 'common sense' is not what the general public's understanding of it. Our responses are based on the context of our readings and also to produce a few real-life examples.

The readings on Hannah Arendt's The Life of Mind, first chapter on Thinking is essentially a philosophical view on thoughts. She asks the overarching question if thoughtlessness is connected to evil. Admittedly, we only need to read the first few pages of her book for class but it took me long enough to read reviews about her book from various sources and then draw my own conclusions. Arendt wondered if the absence of thinking lead people to wrongdoings? 

 

That said, perhaps it is not that people refuse to do thinking but it's the lack of choice. In Jacques Ranciere's The Distribution of the Sensible: Politics and Aesthetics, he argued that people do not have time to devote themselves to anything beside their work. Thus, it can be through artistic practices that 'ways of doing and making' that intervene in the community that things get maintain to 'modes of being and forms of visibility'. For example, homelessness on the street can be a common sight in some big cities. Due to the prevalence and the lack of urgency, most people are desensitise to the state of the homeless they see on the street. Thus, what "distribution of the sensible" inscribes to is the suggestions of the community actvities such as participatory art/ relational art or community art practices which we commonly see to create a sense of community. 

PG: Art in Everyday Objects

It's been two weeks since we have started the term. Reading is very intensive with either books or journal articles to consume weekly.  The figure is terrifying I try not to be precise. On top of that, we have short individual presentations. Some readings are very palatable while others require more efforts. Most of my waking hours are devoted to reading or exploring nearby amenities. That said, the small group seminars are definitely helpful when we all come together to discuss what we have read with the tutor as the facilitator. 

A few distinctive features of Durham Uni are classes can be scattered throughout the town depending on the modules we are taking. So even though my programme is under the Modern Languages and Cultures department, I have had classes in the Philosophy building or the History building. The buildings look so well integrated with others that to the public eye, you wouldn't be able to tell which is the police station or the teaching block. Another feature is all the seminar rooms are equipped with Owl Labs, 360 camera and sound system. The lecturers have to be trained to use the technology and I thought it must be hard to accommodate hybrid learning. But the sound projected by a distanced learner is terrific. 

This week, most of our time was spent discussing Baxandall's Painting and Experience in 15th century Italy. It's amazing how the publication in 1972 is still so relevant now. There are a lot of examples about Painting in the book and lots to see and understand just by looking. 

Let me briefly give you an example. Looking at this window display, it may look like some hanging Papier-mâché bowls. Besides its earthy colours and organic forms, what impresses me is its ability to balance. It reminds me of Artist Alexander Calder who is well known for his colossal mobile making use of the principle on stability and movement. Artists in the past took into considerations mathematical principles and science concepts in terms of translating their understanding of realities into artworks. They also flaunt their skills for their viewers/ patrons by using rare colour pigments or arts that shows perspectives, ratios or conversions. Even gestures in paintings with the palm slightly raised and fingers curved naturally is often a sign of invitation. What do you think of when you contemplate artworks?