Science and Reason

1. Define the 17th century 'Scientific Revolution', and say how it changed European thought and world view. 

The Scientific Revolution was a change in the way of thinking. In 1543-1600 people began to think reason and science over religion and god. This was seen as 'a revolution in human knowledge.' 

2. Give examples of how we can we still see evidence of the 'Scientific Revolution' in the world today.

A lot of the ideas that were developed in this era still exist today. These are concepts like the earth revolves around the sun. This was thought up by Copernicus and he published his theory in 1543. In today's society it is considered common knowledge that the earth revolves around the sun.

3. From your research, do you think that the contemporary art world values art work

that uses new media/technology over traditional media?

I think it has learnt to adapt and recognize it as an art form. The critics mostly focus on the messages she brings through her work as opposed to how she is using video installations to get a message across to the audience. In some articles (such as this one) they say 'Yet the analogies Rist sets up – dreams/films, minds/screens – do not come off because her videos, of late, are so frictionless and empty.' So the critics focus more on how she demonstrates the message.

4. How has Pipilotti Rist used new media/technology to enhance the audience's experience of her work.

She uses audio in her work along with projectors. Rist also positions the projectors so that two videos merge together and fade into one another. She uses different ways of drapping projector screens and projecting on other objects like  One work is devoted to sex in the head (a head, upon which sex is projected).

5. Comment on how the installation, sound and scale of 'Ever is Over All' (1997) could impact on the audience's experience of the work.

I think the overlapping of the two projectors impacts on how the audience sees the work because they could interpret the video differently if the videos were just side-by-side. The way that they're overlapping suggests that they are connected to the same idea and message of the work. The work is big which creates a feeling in the audience where they have to look at it and pay attention to what is going on. If it was smaller the viewers might not be compelled to watch it enough or as closely as needed to get an idea about the work. The sound is very much in sync with the videos and the sound fades away when the woman is about to smash a window. This makes it more dramatic and shocking to the audience as they can only focus on her smashing the car windows and why she is doing it.

6. Comment on the notion of 'reason' within the content of the video. Is the woman's behaviour reasonable or unreasonable?

I think the woman's behaviour is unreasonable. No one should think it's okay to damage someone else's property. Even the argument that she's destroying something with nature is not very reasonable. Maja Horn writes that 'The startling juxtaposition and scrambling of traditional associations that come with flowers, women, violence, and destruction, manifest in Phelan’s apt words a “daring exuberance of thinking outside the law, imagining a different relationship to property, to movement, to the criminal power of beauty itself.”'

7. Comment on your 'reading' (understanding) of the work by discussion the aesthetic (look), experience and the ideologies (ideas, theories) of the work.

I think the reasoning behind Rist's work is that it's about the realationship between nature and destruction. The woman is smashing car windows with a flower. This makes the audience think about if it's okay to do something if nature is involved or if it's still not acceptable. 

http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture10c.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/oct/02/pipilotti-rist-barry-flanagan-review

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/sep/26/pipilotti-rist-hayward-gallery-review

http://artpulsemagazine.com/moving-matters-pipilotti-rist-moma

Landscape and the Sublime

1. Define the Enlightenment, including its context (time and place).

The Enlightenment was an era or movement in 18th century europe and america. It was an movement in which people began to believe in science and reason over religion. They still very much believed in a god heaven and hell, but they thought while man was on earth he would be able to determine his own fate. 

2. Define the concept of the Sublime.

The sublime is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as 'of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe'. This is mostly seen in art as a huge or vast landscape that makes the audience feel overwhelmed and small.

3. Explain how the concept of the Sublime came out of Enlightenment thought.

The concept  of the sublime came out of the enlightenment because artists drew away from painting religious or mythological concepts. They started creating paintings that reflected on the world around them. This meant things like still life and landscapes (which later developed to the concept of the sublime.)

4. Discuss the subject matter, and aesthetic (look) of Misrach's work to identify the Sublime in his work. Include some quotes from art critics and other writers who have written about his work. 

Richard Misrach's work makes the viewer feel small and overwhelmed by the environment. It is said his pieces are of 'an aerial perspective of human interaction and isolation' (http://www.cityarts.net/event/richard-misrach/) And on his work 'On the Beach': "the individuals in Misrach’s latest images seem every bit as vulnerable as the world that they occupy. The work is at once more urgent and more poetic as a consequence."

5. Add 2 new images of his work to your blog.

6. Describe how does Misrach's photography makes you feel. How does it appeal to your imagination?

His photography makes me feel very small. It makes me believe that there are still large areas of land that are almost untouched by civilisation but accessible to humans. I especially like the aerial shots because it makes me think of planes and how people can see of such vast and beautiful landscapes from the air.

7. Identify some other artists or designers that work with ideas around the Sublime, from the Enlightenment era as well as contemporary artists.

1840 John Martin, Assuaging of the Waters 

John Beerman, 2008

8. Add a Sublime image of your choice to your blog, which can be Art or just a Sublime photograph.

Albert Bierstadt, 1867

9. Reference your sources (books and websites).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

New Oxford American Dictionary

http://www.artistdaily.com/blogs/features/archive/2009/07/17/the-sublime-and-the-beautiful-painting-the-hudson-valley.aspx

http://www.cityarts.net/event/richard-misrach/