Current Art Practices Research Articles

Ready-made object and material as found

The topic of Concept and Materiality is discussed here from two points of view: in relation to recent art and architecture theories and as a resonance to current art practices. The first part starts from Marcel Duchamp’s concepts of Infra-thin (Inframince) and Ready-made as materialised in his Large glass, and continues with two architecture projects by Le Corbusier, one from his Purist period and another demonstrating his tactile use of concrete. The expression As found, formulated by the architecture writer Reyner Banham in 1955, further discussed by the architects Alison and Peter Smithson, is not only part of the visual language of New Brutalism, but also of a responsible Postwar ethos. Opening the perspective towards recent critical texts and iconography, we shall question what appears as opposition between Ready-made and As found, and focus on their respective relationship: between an object and its Ready-made quality and between material and its situation, As found. Then the title “Ready-made object and material As found” suggests a new reading of the relation between Ethic and Aesthetic, different from that formulated by Banham. The second part is dedicated to the current art scene, still holding some Postwar resonance of the notions of Ready-made and As found. The focus will move from The Independent Group’s statements to Arte Povera and to the contemporary artist Giuseppe Penone working with both aspects, Ready-made and As found. It is not possible to analyse here the rich historical background of an entire shift of concepts, but just discuss subjective aspects emerging in my practice and theoretical approach. Influenced perhaps by the discussions in the academic circles where I had worked in the 1990s, one is an installation consisting of two laminated glass panels with transparent images inserted in-between layers and another, a “cloud” of transparencies hovering freely above large format monochrome paintings with insertions of As found materials.

Posthuman Body and Visuality: Local and Virtual Interface in New Media Art

The term “posthuman” is used to characterise ways of existence brought about by hypothetical improvements to human nature brought about by technical and applied scientific advancements. It also denotes the decentering of human uniqueness and the triumph of humanistic ideas. The posthuman condition is an opportunity to restore the balance between humans and nonhumans, advance horizontal ontologies, expand the boundaries of ethics, and extend rational mastery, surmounting humanity’s biological limitations. Hypervisuality of the images situates the body as an instrument and a site for the local, global and virtual interplays of online global audiences and offline located/situated producers and consumers. This paper will study the concept of the posthuman body and visuality in the context of current art practices. It will analyse the shift new media brings in the concept of body from painting, and sculpture to the new media artworks.

Lithobox: Exploring Hybrid Crafting Practices through a Collaboration across Digital Fabrication and Fine Arts

Abstract New digital and physical fabrication tools are increasingly being integrated with traditional craft techniques to enable hybrid crafting practices. Inspired by the traditional lithophane technique whereby designs are molded in porcelain and visible only when backlit, the authors developed Lithobox: a software system, physical kit and workflow for creating illuminated 3D-printed lithophanes. They explored Lithobox as a creative tool in workshops with nine artists and presented the finished 3D-printed lithophanes and software tool as part of an international art exhibition. Through these collaborations and creative interactions, the authors’ work reveals how the amalgamation of material, technology and productive constraints can influence current art practices.

Current art practices: features of implementation in the educational process of hinger education institutions

Current art practices: features of implementation in the educational process of hinger education institutions

Meta-relativist agenda in contemporary visual arts theory and practice

The borders of visual art on the eve of the 20th-21st centuries are being extremely expanded both at the empirical and theoretical levels and so is the agenda of contemporary philosophy of art. Is the unprecedented polyphony of discourses a methodological drawback or is it a heuristic opportunity that can help to broaden our knowledge about the essence of art and the notion of a work of art? What is visual art and what is artwork speaking the 21st century language? The study examines the current trends and innovations in the visual arts field and how they can be interpreted. Authors come to conclusion that the times of normative or negativist approaches are over. The plethora of transformations is a value-in-itself and can be seen as a legitimate methodological situation, namely, as a meta-relativist turn. Examples that are presented in the paper deal with different sides of “a work of art formula”: span of discourse, artist, audience, art space, art market, new technologies, etc. Those cases demonstrate the ambivalence of current visual art practices that can be interpreted either as complete negation of the preceding standards or as new discourses that are equally legitimate with the older ones. Meta-relativist approach treats all existing discourses and practices as equally legitimate and thus provides the method to broaden our understanding of the essence of art and definition of an artwork. The study suggests that it is a contemporary tool for further intra- and inter-disciplinary dialogue.

Contemporary Art in the Cultural Space of the Metropolis

One of the most important features of modern art is its existence in the everyday urban culture and active transformation of the latter. The purpose of the article is to analyze the presence of art in the space of the modern metropolis and its influence on the culture. A special role here belongs to the current urban art practices, which turned out to be necessary for the development of Russian cities of the third millennium and their inhabitants. Using the socio-cultural and philosophical-aesthetic methodology to analyze the contemporary art in the context of urban culture, the author refers to the space of Yekaterinburg, which is a megacity of the third millennium. By way of concretization, the article addresses the results of a study of the cultural environment of the Ural capital called “Yekaterinburg Pulse”, which determined the features, status and problems of the megacity.
 Keywords: urban art practices, metropolis, language and institutions of modern art, culture space of Yekaterinburg.

The Specificity of the Aesthetic Phenomenon in the Philosophical and Anthropological Search of Georg Lukács

The object of our analysis is the works by Hungarian philosopher 20th century G. Lukács. The article investigates the interpretation of the phenomenon of special in Hungarian thinker aesthetic concept. This is the subject of this article. The use of the term "special" in modern aesthetic theory, from Lukács’s point of view, determines the peculiarity of aesthetic knowledge. As a hypothesis, we assume its heuristic and methodological value for the development of modern aesthetics. We emphasize that it allows us to understand the difference between the aesthetic experience from the individual sensory experience, as a single, and abstract-theoretical, as a general one. As a result, it has been found that the humanitarian outlook of the Hungarian thinker's creative heritage is humanistic. Exactly on this basis his aesthetic concept was developed and the doctrine of the special and sensual experience of man in particular. Therefore, ideas developed by the Hungarian philosopher and esthetician need more attention, and his appeal to the value of the idea of humanism in the evaluation of current art or artistic practices makes it possible to expand the criteria in the analysis of the latest art works and aesthetic phenomena.It is stated that modern aesthetics is based on all the previous development of aesthetic thought, but it is not a simple continuation of traditions. Aesthetic anthropology is one of the promising areas of its development. However, it is more overshadowed issue of art, artistic creation. It is revealed that aesthetic works by G. Lukács expand the field of non-classical understanding of art meaning in society, they allow studying the specifics of aesthetic, artistic experience and artistic practices of the present in the anthropological sense. We point out the need for a more in-depth appeal to the works of this scientist in the analysis of modern society and his desire for formative innovation, in particular, there is a need for further study of his early works. We consider this as a prospect for further research into the philosophical and aesthetic heritage by G. Lukács. In addition, it seems necessary to investigate the impact by Lukács’s ideas on the ideological searches of thinkers of Central and Eastern Europe when it comes to aesthetic and anthropological issues. We consider it important to do on the basis of consideration of the works by the Kyiv School of Philosophy and Aesthetics. Its representatives study the role of the aesthetic component in everyday life, and features of aesthetic experience in contemporary artistic practice, and aesthetic or artistic means of harmonization of the urban environment, etc.

DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVITY WITHIN THE CONDITIONS OF CONTEMPORARY ARTMARKET

Article is dedicated to the research of creativity within the conditions of contemporary Ukraine art market. Author have discovered factors, that improve development of current art practice in academic and non academic artistic education. The article explores contemporary education centers, that forms connection between emergency artists and established artmarket, topical Ukraine art, contemporary art galleries and education institutions. As important element of contemporary art, academic education forms process of it’s development in quality, innovative and actual aspects. Such factors as creativity, “unconventional thinking”, intuition, esthetic competence, self development, emotional intellect, idea thinking and project vision improve development of current art practice in academic and non academic artistic education.Contemporary art requires from artist to develop deep vision on period, time and actuality of current events. This means that artist should be active in artistic and social sphere. New art stands for culture as phenomenon.Development of project approach in contemporary art effect appearance of new communication — network communication, when occurs partners and sponsors support. In this context started to develop national and international grant programs, residencies, educational centers, art institutions forming path for emergency artists to contemporary art field.The most popular educational centers in Kyiv, Ukraine: Modern art research institute, Art Arsenal, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kyiv academy of media arts, Art Ukraine Gallery, Port creative hub, Shcherbenko art center etc. The main feature that combine well known educational centers with several years of practice, and those that just opened is openness to the public. No matter of education, social status, or belonging to art school, everyone can gain experience from professionals.

La Acción Estética del Trabajo Social desde la Perspectiva Artística

The aim of this text is to generate a space to reflect and theorise about the artistic aspects of social work. In our contemporary context we can envision the aesthetic possibilities which operate during the intervention process in social work, specifically in the relational area where the subjectivity of the social worker plays an important role in the transformation of the Other. Some current art practices, in line with paradigms derived from complexity, postestructuralism and ecological theories, give us some keys as to how to revise the aesthetical condition of social work. Thus, from the grounds of artistic experience and through a conceptual development of the aesthetics of the art world, we explore social work from a new perspective and aim to offer a different outlook on this field. It is when art operates in a person’s vital context that the everyday reality strengthens our relationships with the world. In the same way, when the social workers project an aesthetic look on their actions, they accept the exercise of their profession from a dimension which is autonomous, singular and, possibly, artistic.

Health and Disease After Assisted Reproductive Technology

Long-term health outcomes after ART have largely focused on offspring health and perinatal parameters. Longer-term health outcomes in female patients remain difficult to fully assess. Hypothetical concerns about the effects of endocrine manipulation on hormone-sensitive conditions, e.g. breast disease, are confounded by variable factors in patients and treatments. Obstetric and perinatal factors endow an additional layer of complexity to the overall analysis and more research is required to appreciate all aspects of ART. Notwithstanding the knowledge gap, clinicians must endeavour to individualise management plans, taking into account the pros and cons of ART in the context of immediate, maternity-related and long-term health risks for their patients.This review of recent literature examines current ART practice in terms of female health and disease as we strive for best practice in an ever-changing clinical and demographic fertility landscape.

Art as the practice of freedom: Critical alliances and professional identities within art librarianship

This article explores issues of developing individual and collective professional identities within art librarianship, with an emphasis on art librarians’ relationship to art and art-making. By having more honest conversations around what art does, what artists do and how they function in society, we can challenge deeply held assumptions about art librarianship; in particular, that our work is somehow removed from the political and social contexts in which we perform it. Through critical interventions within our profession we can develop a better understanding and definition of our relationship to art and artists in order to situate ourselves within current art practices. We can then build impactful relationships and social justice-oriented solidarity with creative practitioners and artists who are actively challenging structural oppression and promoting social justice through their work.

Doing things with being undone

Mis-hear the ‘cene’ in Anthropocene and we are not beholders of an epoch or witnesses to a prospect of distancing projection onto a deep past or lost future but, rather, in the scene of our undoing. In this scene that I reframe as the Necrocene, there are still ways of doing things with being undone. Current art practice offers a new ars moriendi to make contestatorily palpable and even transform the necropolitical conditions of the Necrocene crisis by working with the strangely resilient powers of death. Current practices that deform the landscape-form demonstrate how the vulnerability of living our dying offers a queer material medium to agitate for livable life toward a black, trans* more-than-human commons.

Rethinking the graphic trace in performative drawing

ABSTRACTThis article critically investigates the ‘graphic trace’, commonly perceived in drawings as marks left from physical actions. It is a notion fundamental to current art practices engaging performance and experimental drawing. The graphic trace is investigated through ‘inscription’, which is popularly interpreted as the visual expression of thought through marks or imprints of physical movements, from free-hand sketching to tracing choreographic movements. A critique of this inscriptive ideology shows that the inscribed trace as ‘line’ expresses thought under vitalist schemas exemplified by Bergson’s notion of multiplicity, that life is prompted by a creative event, and Deleuze’s articulation of such an event as ‘lines of thought’. The critique proposed in this article is that a more radically discursive and exceptional event, or ‘multiplicity’, does not really take place. An overview is given of performative, choreographic and process-led practices since the 1970s, while unpacking philosophical concepts of gesture, movement and embodiment. The conclusion lays out the paradox that the graphic trace stultifies thinking, offsetting a more materialist kind of event that affirms discourse in exceptionally different ways.

The Museum of Innocence: Five concepts for challenging the status quo in art education

Abstract In 2012, novelist Orhan Pamuk, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in literature, created a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Awarded ‘European Museum of the Year’ by the Council of Europe in 2014, Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence represents a personal, local and small-scale model for museums. Crafted first as a novel of fiction and later as a real-life museum, the interplay of the novel–museum duo unfolds a love story through a collection of objects. The article, investigating Pamuk’s curatorial lenses in arranging the museum collection, elaborates on five concepts extracted from this unconventional museum: Proximity to everyday objects, suggestiveness, polyphony, enquiry through the arts, and emphasis on the individual. By examining these key concepts in relation to and within the museum context, the article encourages discussion to challenge the status quo in approaching artworks and provides insight towards relevant practice for art educators who have close proximity to current art practices in art museums and similar institutions.

Editorial

It is a pleasure to be able to introduce the first issue of BackStory. The idea behind this journal is to provide a medium for those interested in ‘looking back’ at New Zealand’s art, media and design history. These are the stories that lie behind current media, art and design production and practice in this country. It is envisaged that this new journal will provide an opportunity to explore our rich heritage in these fields.
 In part the motivation to launch a new journal is to meet a perceived need. The country presently does not have a journal which has the focus envisaged for BackStory. The Journal of New Zealand Art History (JoNZAH) was last published in 2012/13 and its absence has meant that those interested in reading and writing about this aspect of our cultural history lost a valued publication. The editorial team has approached the Hocken Library who provided editorial and production input for the JoNZAH and gained their support for the BackStory initiative. It is acknowledged that the new journal is not a re-launch or continuation of the JoNZAH. Instead, BackStory: Journal of New Zealand Art, Media and Design History, seeks to broaden the scope of its predecessor to include media and design history. The editorial teamhope that those who valued the JoNZAH will find value in this journal as a worthy successor.The initial editorial team for BackStory is drawn from the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and an Editorial Advisory Board has been established. The establishing editorial team are Minna Pesonen (Designer), Rosemary Brewer, Alan Cocker and Peter Hoar from the School of Communication Studies, Peter Gilderdale from the School of Art & Design and Simon Mowatt from the Faculty of Business. It is the hope of this team that BackStory has an appeal beyond academia and will inspire contributions from those working in this country’s libraries, galleries and museums as well as others who have an interest in the history of New Zealand art, design, photography and media. We are pleased that this first issue contains contributions from curators at the Auckland Museum and Te Papa, and that there is a wide representation of different material drawn from across the target disciplines. Our hope is that the quality of the research and writing, and the common New Zealand focus will entice readers into crossdisciplinary explorations.
 All submissions except commentaries will be blind peer reviewed by two reviewers to conform to university research publication standards but we are seeking contributions that will have an appealbeyond the university. In the so-called online age the decision to publish a printed form is deliberate. The editorial team are seeking the highest print production standards conscious of the artifact value of this journal.

How Far Can We Go If We Keep Marching?

From “Black Collectivities: A Conference,” held May 3–4, 2013, at Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the University of Chicago’s Arts Incubator. This article combines remarks and images offered at the conference in response to a presentation by Claire Tancons with an article written for an unpublished collection, edited by filmmaker Mark Street, that ruminates on the city as a cinematic utopia. Both the conference and the book echoed concerns in Cauleen Smith’s current art practice, which involve collaboration with a high school marching band and her research into Sun Ra’s time in Chicago. Together the cinematic and the social relational threads highlight the complex roles of a filmmaker who engages her community and examines art’s political and creative stakes. Smith concludes that an artist must sometimes operate outside civil codes but that ethics are always in play.

O Espaço Virtual, a Arte Digital e o Ensino das Artes Visuais – Relações de Interinfluência

Given the variety of current art practices resulting of the interplay and relationships between the virtual space, the digital area, and the society, we are seeking to develop new ways in the educational process according to new paradigms, proposing new educational projects. In the field of visual arts are addressed topics related to digital art and development of artistic practices in virtual space, such as new media art, referring to works by artists such as Manfred Mohr, Charles Csuri, Gerhard Mantz, Vuk Cosic, Jodi.org and Cornelia Sollfrank. In this field, it was also studied the importance of software for digital art production and the development of individuals. Keywords: ; ;;;

The Image: Disaffect in the theatre of representation

ABSTRACTThis essay addresses the image as it appears in current contemporary art practice, principally through an examination of the work of Turner Prize nominees, The Otolith Group, as well as Hito Steyerl, Rabih Mroué, Gail Pickering and Tom Nicholson. Following an interest in the possibility of an image without a dependency upon a relationship with a human subject or viewer, the essay explores the consequences of the proposition that an image ‘has a life’ beyond representation. This question is addressed through the three parts suggested by the essay's title — first, the status of the image as being beyond representation but instead characterized by its operation and by its relationship to the event; second, the image as presence and the question of theatre as a process of intensification of the image's presentation and the accompanying experience of the image within the affective field; and finally to the question of disaffect. The essay ends with the proposition of disaffect as the reinsertion of the interval — the gap that is lost through the smooth space of affect. Disaffect is here a strategy for the curatorial to approach the question of the unbinding, the unraveling of the centrality of the subject within the representative order. And by contrasting Alain Badiou's notion of the event with that Gilles Deleuze, the question of the ‘outside’ is reintroduced as is, the essay argues, the subsequent unbinding of the centrality of experience to the curatorial project, therefore offering instead a focus on structure and on methodology rather than on the binding (of subject with experience, of experience with knowledge and so on) of affective processes.

Art since 1900: modernism, antimodernism, postmodernism

This is an updated and expanded second edition of the seminal book first published by Thames & Hudson in 2004, featuring 107 new illustrations and over 100 new pages, and completely updated throughout (including all reference sections). It introduces students to the key theoretical approaches to modern and contemporary art, enabling them to understand the many `voices' of current approaches to the subject. A flexible year-by-year structure and extensive cross-referencing allows teachers and students to pursue a chronological approach, and/or to study the currents of art since 1900 by medium, theme, country or region. It contains more than 120 essays (including fifteen new essays), each focusing on a crucial event in the history of art from 1900 to the present. The new essays cover subjects such as the De Stijl movement, the use of mannequins and the automaton in Dada, and modernist graphic design between the wars, as well as discussions of the global emergence of Chinese artists in recent years, the influence of gaming and social network technologies, and the impact of the market on current art practice. Text boxes provide further information on key figures and issues. A new final chapter is devoted to the first decade of the 21st century. Four introductions set out and explain the different methods of art history at work in the book. There are two roundtable discussions between the authors - one at mid-century, the other at the close of the book. All reference material has been updated.

Emergent landscapes

The classical Cartesian split between matter and mind, or ways of seeing and the effects of changing conceptual frameworks — both of these possible meanings of the conference title ‘On-Site/In-Sight’ are relevant to the content of this article, which investigates the expression in current art practice of the major change in world-view (‘paradigm shift’) which appears to be taking place at the moment.