Study Task 2 - Davis Douglas quotes

The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction 

http://classes.dma.ucla.edu/Winter09/9-1/_pdf/3-Davis_Work_of_Art.pdf

'The work of art in the age of digital reproduction is physically and formally chameleon' (art its very versatile due to digital)

'There is not longer a clear conceptual distinction between original and reproduction in virtually any medium'. ( replicas are so clever)

"In one sense, Walter Benjamin's proclamation of doom for the aura of originality, authored early in this century, is finally confirmed by these events'

'You'll have to look hard in this col- lage of images, sounds, and words at any time, now or in the next century, to find a single universality'

'Analog signals may be compared to a wave breaking on a beach, breaking over and over but never precisely in the same form. That is why copying an au&o signal or video signal in the past always involved a loss in clarity'

'any video, au&o, or photographic work of art can be endlessly reproduced without degradation, always the same, always perfect.'

'The same is true for handmade images or words that can be scanned- that is, converted to digital bits.' 

'The moment a painting can be scanned, the original landscape, portrait, or color field can be altered or cloned in the manner of a vintage film.'

'Urszula Dudziak's wonderful layered singing, using a digital tape recorder that allows every line of a song to invade the next line, pointed in this direction years ago.' 

'We can walk, think, and feel the manmade world in virtually the same way we experience the "real" world'

'Yet more is at the issue here than simply reproducing or mimicking the art of the hand'

'By finding the means to transfer my early video works from analog to digital media, I can contemplate revisions on my computer that will allow me to change my mind, two decades later, about points where I erred long ago. This allows me to produce a "post-original original."' 

'Compressing the video signal before transmission currently allows an even purer and cleaner signal to be sent over a dedicated phone line than can be sent via satellite or analog relay.'

'What begins to emerge in the first digital decade is a fine-grained sensitivity to the unique qualities of every copy.'

'Here is is where the aura resides-not in the thing itself but in the originality of the moment when we see, hear, read, repeat, revise'.

Study Task 2 - John Berger quotes

John Berger/Ways of seeing 1972

  The process of seeing 'is less spontaneous and natural then we tend to believe. A large part of seeing depends upon habit and convention'.

'The invention of the camera has changed not only what we see, but how we see it'.

'Once all these paintings belonged to their own place'
'The images come to you. You do not go to them. The days of pilgrimage are over'.

'Everything around the image is part of its meaning. Its uniqueness is part of the uniqueness of the single place where it is. Everything's round it confirms and consolidates its meaning'.

'Its meaning, or a large part of it, has become transmittable'.

'Pieces of information to be used, even used to persuade us to help purchase more originals which these very reproductions have in many ways replaced. '

'Original paintings are still unique. They look different from how they look on the television or on postcards. Reproductions distort.'

"survived." "genuinely." "absurdly valuable."

Cash value 'what paintings lost when the camera made them reproducible'. Meanings different

'has multiplied its possible meanings and destroyed its unique original meaning'

'Occasionally, this uninterrupted silence and the stillness of a painting can be very striking' 'I can't demonstrate this stillness, for the lines on your screen are never still.'

'the most obvious way of manipulating them is by using movement and sound' 'no longer a constant'.

'become a form of information which is constantly transmitted'

'The meaning of an image can be changed according to what you see beside it or what comes after it.'

'the ways in which reproduction makes the meaning of words of art ambiguous'

Study Task 2 - Phil Taylor quotes

Phil Taylor Lo Fi Phenomena - Analogue Versus Digital in the Creative Process

'DIY approach using the tools of creativity seems to resonate with our young, eclectic creative individuals today (who can all self-publish with ease)' (everyone can be an artist)

'There are no barriers to reaching a wider audience, the mass reproduction of art works and self-expressions through digital technologies means that for the 'iPod' generation, the magic of the digital does not matter.' ( is there for everyone)

'The same can perhaps be said of music and self publishing. An iPhone App can become a self-contained digital recording studio' ( no need for analogue-possible at home)

'The is undoubtedly a draw towards the more intimate, and perhaps authentic, relationship an artist can have with his or her music making equipment that is located within the analogue realm.' (beauty of analogue)

'This is echoes in the creative professional world with a noticeable trend for young illustrators and filmmakers to increasingly explore analogue animation techniques that are less polished in their aesthetic qualities than CGI'. (popular with the younger generation-re-exploring)

"Impatience' is a topical term in our digital age' -'relentless "upgrade me' approach' 'invariably, it will disappoint to some degree' (impatience and ease)

'today there is a collectable status for vintage Polaroid equipment, although it is hard to use with inconsistent results the desire for the "authentic" in medium is driving the resurgence in interest' (people interested in vintage things)

Study Task 2 - Walter Benjamin quotes

Walter Benjamin

The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction

'In principle a work of art has always been reproducible'

'Mechanical reproduction of a work of art, however, represents something new'

'Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.'

'The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity'

'One might subsume the eliminated element in the term “aura” and go on to say: that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art.' 

'One might generalize by saying: the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence. '

'Namely, the desire of contemporary masses to bring things “closer” spatially and humanly, which is just as ardent as their bent toward overcoming the uniqueness of every reality by accepting its reproduction. Every day the urge grows stronger to get hold of an object at very close range by way of its likeness, its reproduction.'

'The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being imbedded in the fabric of tradition. This tradition itself is thoroughly alive and extremely changeable. '

'It is significant that the existence of the work of art with reference to its aura is never entirely separated from its ritual function. In other words, the unique value of the “authentic” work of art has its basis in ritual, the location of its original use value. This ritualistic basis, however remote, is still recognizable as secularized ritual even in the most profane forms of the cult of beauty.'

'From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the “authentic” print makes no sense. But the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice – politics.'

'Works of art are received and valued on different planes. Two polar types stand out; with one, the accent is on the cult value; with the other, on the exhibition value of the work. '

'With the different methods of technical reproduction of a work of art, its fitness for exhibition increased to such an extent that the quantitative shift between its two poles turned into a qualitative transformation of its nature. '

'Mechanical reproduction of art changes the reaction of the masses toward art. '

'Such fusion is of great social significance. The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion. With regard to the screen, the critical and the receptive attitudes of the public coincide.'

'A painting has always had an excellent chance to be viewed by one person or by a few. The simultaneous contemplation of paintings by a large public, such as developed in the nineteenth century, is an early symptom of the crisis of painting, a crisis which was by no means occasioned exclusively by photography but rather in a relatively independent manner by the appeal of art works to the masses.'

Print culture - SLOW Movement Lecture

Print Culture Lecture-SLOW

THIS LECTURE WAS PERFECT ON GIVING ME SOME BASICS AND GENERAL UNDERSTANDING OF MY THEME!

"The Age of Print" according to Marshall McLuhan started in the 1450s.

There has been a return in the 21st Century to older methods of handmade (mechanical) production.

There is an appetite for it now. Perhaps due to that it is a very explicit retreat from the modern digital age and that it is not instant/immediate?

A rebellion has formed in various ways against capitalism and its quick profit=SLOW

Carl Honove wrote a book called 'In Praise of Slow' which kicked this movement off. This intended to change the logic of society focussing on quality rather than quantity.

Slow Food- Trying to increase shops and restaurants to buy things on small scale, knowing the person who has grown the produce. Also questioning whether it is better to wait longer for good food rather than speed! Looking at the foods sustainability, freshness and if it is environmentally friendly

Slow Fashion- Items are brought to market just for money and profit. Every clothes item is pretty much the same in all the different possible shops (copies). Therefore even though people think they can show their identity it is through a limited range of items. Is it better to by individually sourced items, encouraging independent producers to locally source fabric and not focus on making a profit but rather individuality and creativity?

Slow Design- To encourage not producing designs on output but how the practice relates to others (socio cultural/economic/political). To be progressive not nostalgic praising difference and not capitalism rather humanist. 

The Print Project are an example of this - reclaims old printing presses, re-putting them into use as a creative tool and sustainability (not just expansionism). Old fashioned print for example the letter press can test mediums against the digital aesthetic.

Does digital technology take away the aura created by handmade? There is an aura about handcrafted things (skill admired, eternal value, authenticity, magical, creative, human effort) Walter Benjamin summed up the aura being killed by digital through "shattering of tradition" in 1930s.

Digital age has made it possible for everyone to become an artist/designer of some form, to not think and appreciate this, is this elitism? An example of this is the online exhibition by Jodi in 2012 of Screen grabbed desktops or the Inside Out Project which is like a digital Banksey (people send in photos and they are projected on buildings).