Text and Art

From looking at Spy and Counter-spy: let Us Now Praise Famous Men in The Photographic Essay: Four case Studies, we saw how the essay was developed without referencing the pictures that were also in the text as well. The text and pictures were independent of each other. Instead the pictures do not illustrate the text they just are added to it. It just demonstrates how you need to use the text to see inside the picture such as not to merely describe what can already be seen but to lay out to the audience and clarify the background or the significance. So this shows me that for my visual essay I need to explain my pictures more. I plan to talk about the historical background of the objects that the art is portraying like the campanile, the traditions, and the rat cap (displayed). Also I think it is important to explain the theme of the homecoming events this year and how the art shows that. 

Current Events in Art

Public art is a great method to convey statements of current events to the public. These statements could range from social issues that relate to the local area like in the past for example women's rights or political issues. Furthermore, other fields include "art and craft, architecture and environmental design, urban design, landscape design, urban planning, urban history, urban sociology, cultural geography, and cultural policy" (Miles). An example of these social issues is displayed by Diego Rivera who creates murals of the political issues in Mexico. His murals which are painted in frescos pertaining to the Mexican society and display 1910 Revolution that happened in the country. From this, I decided to make my theme for my project on current events and what great timing because one of the biggest events that happens on campus which lasts for a week is homecoming. So I will be showing how art is displayed during homecoming to make everyone aware of the event such as how Rivera’s art conveys the current issues occurring during his time. According to Mirzoeff visuals reconstruct social patterns. I believe the displays set out which is only during homecoming changes the social feelings of the students and gets them excited for the football game!

Theme for Visual Essay

My theme is going to be on the Georgia Tech Homecoming which happened from October 3 to October 9. During this week, there were many events leading up to the football game including pomping, can-gineer, and wreck a window which involved many artistic creations to be made. My visual essay will depict the public art found during homecoming. 

Effective public art

Public art like other types of art has an impact on viewers. Mirzoeff states that”surely for the moment it is not so much what visual culture is, but rather what it can be enabled to do that matters.” This strengthens the fact that public art was designed to reach out to everyday normal people walking in the open environment in order to make a statement to them. A great example of public art that influences people are advertisement like billboards. Above are 2 examples of effective billboards. They are visually attractive to the people that drive by and they make a clear statement such as to buy their product and how their product is so effective. It is also that the clever, creative image sticks into your head so you remember the message of buying the product. This shows how the action of what the image does is the important part. 

Public Art in North Charleston, SC

 We discussed a new type of art in class today which many of us probably did not consciously realize was art despite the fact that we see these everyday but falls into this category: public art. Generally, I think public art is work that is displayed in an open environment which gets some type of message across to the public audience. There is no specific audience in which public art is displayed for. Miles agrees with this because he says there is a “lack of specificity of the public(s) for whom it is intended.” It is for EVERYONE!

                      

In my hometown, Charleston, SC, there is a public park that has sculptures displayed in the middle of the grass throughout the entire park. These sculptures are not confined in a museum but instead are available for locals to view. These are pieces also attract locals to the park as well. It is nice to go to a park to see the natural beauty of the harbor and the sunset but also to see the beauty of what humans can create in an open environment for everyone to enjoy. There in the pictures is a water bottle made of wire and other inventions. It is a unique element that this park has because none of the other parks in Charleston have art displayed so it is a good attracting technique. 

Punctum vs Studium

Of course when going into an art museum or looking at anything really, there are traits that will cause you to 

pause to admire the object in more detail or that will cause you to continue walking as if the object had not existed. Bartes uses two terms that are polar opposite to describe the level of interest that an artwork has on a viewer: “studium” and “punctum.” “Studium” is the factor that quickly draws a person into the painting. It is what makes you stare at a painting or what calls your attention. Above are the paintings that quickly caught my attention as I was scrolling down a collection of paintings. I believe the style I like which I find reoccurring in the paintings that I stare at are those that have a lot of abnormality and contrast to it. The painting with the women and the eye is very different to what one would normally see a women and an eye. This gives room to a lot of interpretation. I also enjoy the contrasting colors in the 1st picture and the brightness of the left side causes my eyes to go back to the painting. These pictures quickly interest me, grab me, and have an effect on me. On the other hand, “studium” is how one likes an artwork but not particularly loving it. It does not have the intense attractive power that “punctum” has. Below are 3 pictures that demonstrate my “punctums.” The pictures are repetitive and boring. There are just a group of colorful circles and to me I don’t really care as much toward them as I do to the paintings above. I feel like there is not a deeper meaning to these paintings

"Adventure"

For an English assignment in which we had to choose an artwork from the High Museum of Arts and interpret the meaning of the piece, I chose “The Avoider” by Michael Borremans. This painting I will admit looked very simple when I walked by it but there were aspects about it that drew me to it. Even when I showed the painting to other students they were baffled at how I could manage to write a 5 page paper on a man standing with a stick. Barthes stated that some photographs attracted to him to the photo and said that this was the “adventure” which lured him in. I believe that this happened to me when I saw this picture, especially when I noticed the double shadow and the contrast between the formality of the clothes but that he was wearing them casually. Also, despite the fact that he looks dirty and that he appears to have been outside, he seems satisfied at the moment. The very reason that I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I could read into the piece, made me experience this “adventure.” Even though others pass by the painting and never look at it again, I was mesmerized by how the painting seemed to convey a message to me easily. I even told some friends that the painting spoke to me and that is why I chose it.