Visual Artworks Research Articles

Painting Music: Using artificial intelligence to create music from live painted drawings

This article describes the development of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that monitor a painting or drawing evolving in real time and produce musical notes that relate to the individual elements of art as the artwork develops on the canvas. The article describes the practical approach required to capture the artwork unfolding in real time and then describes the framework used to develop the correlations between visual art and music. The AI technique exploits these areas of similarity within the two distinct artforms in order to respond to the live-painted elements and produce musical notes that reflect the development of the evolving artwork. A prototype of this system was implemented in a live stage performance at Aberdeen May Festival 2019 whose narrative centred on the question Is AI good or bad? Other outputs of this project are a 20-minute film and a body of (tangible) visual artwork for digital platforms and gallery environments informed and inspired by AI. The integration of these disciplines through AI transforms a static artform into one that is dynamic, interactive, transformational, transient and temporal.

The Impact of Visual Art and High Affective Arousal on Heuristic Decision-Making in Consumers.

In marketing, the use of visual-art-based designs on products or packaging crucially impacts consumers’ decision-making when purchasing. While visual art in product packaging should be designed to induce consumer’s favorable evaluations, it should not evoke excessive affective arousal, because this may lead to the depletion of consumer’s cognitive resources. Thus, consumers may use heuristic decision-making and commit an inadvertent mistake while purchasing. Most existing studies on visual arts in marketing have focused on preference (i.e., affective valence) using subjective evaluations. To address this, we applied a neuroscientific measure, electroencephalogram (EEG) to increase experimental validity. Two successive tasks were designed to examine the effects of affective arousal and affective valence, evoked by visual artwork, on the consecutive cognitive decision-making. In task 1, to evaluate the effect of visual art, EEG of two independent groups of people was measured when they viewed abstract artwork. The abstract art of neoplasticism (AbNP) group (n = 20) was showing Mondrian’s artwork, while the abstract art of expressionism (AbEX) group (n = 18) viewed Kandinsky’s artwork. The neoplasticism movement strove to eliminate emotion in art and expressionism to express the feelings of the artist. Building on Gallese’s embodied simulation theory, AbNP and AbEX artworks were expected to induce lower and higher affect, respectively. In task 2, we investigated how the induced affect differentially influenced a succeeding cognitive Stroop task. We anticipated that the AbEX group would deplete more cognitive resources than AbNP group, based on capacity limitation theory. Significantly stronger affect was induced in the AbEX group in task 1 than in the AbNP group, especially in affective arousal. In task 2, the AbEX group showed a faster reaction time and higher error rate in the Stroop task. According to our hypotheses, the higher affective arousal state of the AbEX group might deplete more cognitive resources during task 1 and result in poorer performance in task 2 because affect impacted their cognitive resources. This is the first study using neuroscientific measures to prove that high affective arousal induced by visual arts on packaging may induce heuristic decision-making in consumers, thereby advancing our understanding of neuromarketing.

Online Humour, Cartoons, Videos, Memes, Jokes and Laughter in the Epoch of the Coronavirus

From the onset of the indefinite deferral of our previously taken-for-granted lives, an abundance of humorous online cartoons, jokes, memes, videos and other satirical material relating to the COVID-19 outbreak—and its consequences—has emerged. Humorous responses to this dire global pandemic proliferate irrespective of location, nationality, ethnicity, age, gender and/or socio-political affiliations. Against a background of enforced lockdowns, quarantine, and sometimes gross political ineptitude, with a mounting daily global death toll, humour referencing this scourge continues to blossom. This may seem counterintuitive or inappropriate at a time of heightened anxiety and fear apropos of an invisible killer-virus, known only in diagrammatic—and, ironically, aesthetically pleasing—visual form. Online humour evoking the COVID-19 crisis is expressed recursively via intertextuality referencing literary, visual, written, oral or other “texts.” Interpictoriality is evident with memes that reconfigure renowned visual artworks. The internet enables copious discourse related to the COVID-19 eruption/disruption.
 Embedded in this article are examples to support the article’s theoretical basis, with intertextuality its major focus. Discussion follows, with speculation as to why humour, absurdity and wit are able to prosper in an environment of radical uncertainty and why joking about our parlous global predicament acts as a vital coping mechanism.

Cultural Sharing Through Visual Art Exhibition ‘Dalam Bingkai’ by JSRB-UPSI with FSRD-ISBI

The cultural sharing of artworks and the creation of visual art can be expressed through exhibitions and demonstrations of artistic involvement. The artistic exhibitions can facilitate the factors of appreciation and understanding of visual art culture. Through the field of visual arts program, artworks and creation was inspired by the Department of Art and Design, Faculty of Art, Computers and Creative Industry (FSKIK) in collaboration with the Faculty of Design and Design (FSRD), Indonesian Institute of Cultural Arts, Bandung (ISBI). The ‘Dalam Bingkai’ Visual Art Exhibition associates the influence of internal sensible factors on the construction of an artwork. Art and cultural contribution programs are generated to achieve the field-sharing approach and mechanism. The objectivity towards this article sharing is due to the knowledge of the artistic delivery in preferring the style and gaining the experiences based on the artwork requirements. The article addresses the inquiries related to the fundamental aspect of visual art and the extension of artistic fundamental practice demands. The article is also based on an exploration of the pragmatic factors of the artwork construction. The quality of the visuals art argument of reflection related to the quality of the artwork that opens up the success of the impact upon the acceptance and attention. The understanding of the cultural sharing can be associated with logical thinking and the perception of awareness in the artwork making. The concept of visual practice is related to the factors of observation that need to be defined through the perception of the artist. The methodology relates to the artwork collection in exhibition space that indicates the content in presenting at UPSI Art Gallery. The appointed exhibition curators express the visual description into the reality of the artwork making. The observation processes promote the data based such as from field notes, interviews, photos and video recordings. The understanding of the elements and principles of visual arts technically meant as guidance. The duration of the exhibition was four (4) days aimed at the impact of the subject of ‘Dalam Bingkai’ meaning. Visual art exhibitions and cultural programs through a collective of an artistic understanding contribute to the stress-free condition from the artist perspective.

Çağdaş Görsel Sanatta Yeniden Üretim ve Sınırların Belirsizliğini Benjamin ve Adorno’nun İzinden Sürmek

İçinde bulunduğumuz çağın adını nasıl nitelendirirsek nitelendirelim, günümüzde her alanda bir parça yeniden üretim ve tekrarlama olduğunu inkâr etmemiz mümkün değildir. Çağdaş dönemin görsel rejimi, bir anlamda var olanı yeniden üretme ideolojisi üzerinden gerçekleşir. Bu bağlamda en önemli düşünürlerden Walter Benjamin ve Theodor Adorno’nun yeniden üretim yazıları başlangıç noktası olarak belirlenerek, aradan geçen yaklaşık seksen yılın ardından konunun günümüzde hangi noktaya geldiğine dair bir tartışma yapılmaktadır. İletişimi bir toplumsallaşma süreci olarak ele alırsak, bu sürecin alt sistemlerinden biri olan sanatın son dönemini tahlil etmek toplumsallaşmanın kendisini anlama adına önem kazanır. Dolayısıyla çalışmada çağdaş görsel sanat yapıtlarının son yüz yılından seçilen örnek çalışmalar, yeniden üretim bağlamında tartışılmaktadır. Çağdaş sanatın tekrarlama kapasitesinin yanı sıra, şok edicilik ve agresyon da önemli konvansiyonlardan biri olarak incelenmektedir. Bununla ilintili olarak gerek global düzeyde küreselleşme üzerinden gerekse sabit normların akışkanlaşması üzerinden düşünülerek, bunların çağdaş görsel sanatlardaki yansımaları bağlamında sınırların belirsizliği değerlendirilmeye çalışılmaktadır. Çalışma hem içerik hem de biçimsel olarak Benjamin’in ve Adorno’nun çalışmalarından ilham alarak yapılandırılmaya çalışılmaktadır. Görülebileceği gibi, çalışmanın bizatihi kendisi de self-refleksif bir şekilde yeniden üretim hakkında bir yeniden üretimdir. Arzulanan; nesnel ve genele dair betimleyici bir tasnifleme yapmak yerine, tıpkı Benjamin gibi numuneleri toplumsallıkları açısından analiz ederek, onların asıl bağlamlarına ulaşmaya çalışmaktır.

The Provocation of Jasper Johns: Pushing the Representational Limits of Pictorial Expression

This paper explores the relationship between visuality and verbal language in the works of Jasper Johns roughly between the period of 1955-1965. Works such as Numbers in Colors (1958-59), Gray Alphabets (1956), False Start (1959), Jubilee (1959), By the Sea (1961), Fool’s House (1962), Map (1961), The Critic Sees (1961), Voice (1964-67), Voice 2 (1982), Light Bulb (1958) and Watchman (1964) provide us with fertile ground to explore issues pertinent to the limits of pictorial expression by revealing how visual and verbal spaces are intricately interwoven. However, the relationship in between also embeds a great deal of tension hosting constant interruption and violation. For a fair evaluation of any visual artwork, we end up having to suspend our habitual ways of looking and realize the complexity of the basic task of looking. These works challenge our vision by making us question the diverse experience of looking (seeing, beholding, saluting, reading, counting, studying, memorizing, spying, voyeurizing, gazing etc.). The paper claims that what grants Johns’ art its provocative power is the realization that the realm of the visual is never a pure space but is constantly influenced by verbal and other senses.

AESTHETICS INPUT OF MURALS AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCULPTURES IN THE BUILT CITY OF LAGOS

There is a conscious effort to improve aesthetics, using visual arts to beautify the city of Lagos like other cities of the world. This study examines aesthetic characteristics of selected visual artworks in form of sculptures and murals erected at strategic places in the city of Lagos with a view to understand their aesthetic functions and socio-cultural relevance in the environment. Using qualitative art historian method, the study employed field investigation for getting useful information for the study; while photograph of selected works were critically analysed, using symbolic reality, unity of fascination and aesthetic appraisal. The study justifies reasons for appraising the use of visual arts for the beautification of Lagos city; it identifies and presents values of visual arts, in the society.

Forensic Traceological Analysis of Works of Visual Arts

The article discusses the fundamentals of traceological forensic analysis of visual artworks within both the framework of forensic traceological examination and comprehensive forensic research with the participation of expert-traceologists. Works of art are investigated to identify them, diagnose their condition, and establish the origin of various negative changes. Forensic traceology methods can play an essential role in the controversial attributions of paintings, drawings, and sculptures. The necessity and feasibility of developing a modern forensic traceological research methodology of fine artworks are substantiated.

Experiencing a 20th-century visual artwork – Andy Warhol

This paper presents the results of a research on students' reactions to 20th-century visual artworks. The research involved 300 students attending lower grades of primary school (Grade 1-4) from Split-Dalmatia County. The aim of the research was to examine the reactions of students to the works of the famous Pop Art artist Andy Warhol, using the method of aesthetic transfer. The task of the students was to describe their impression of the observed paintings of Marilyn Monroe and Coca-Cola. Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that Grade 1 1-4 students react positively to the mentioned artworks. Most of the children accepted the works of the famous artist. Students were expected to react differently to the observed artworks with respect to gender and age, while the research showed that a statistically significant difference existed in only one segment of the research. Additionally, the emotional engagement aroused in students by the observed works was studied. The results in the reception phase show students mostly react emotionally to the observed artworks. Furthermore, the artworks in the reaction phase showed interesting creative variations on the artwork of the famous artist, which means that they inspired the students to a creative aesthetic response. Apart from getting acquainted with 20th-century artworks, we can see from these examples that they can also be a good stimulus for articulating students' own artistic expression. Keywords: students, visual artworks, attitudes, motif, Andy Warhol

Za hranicemi jazyka. K teorii umění Susanne Langerové

To discuss a question of the possibility of a“translation” of a visual work of art into language, the paper outlines the distinction between presentational and discoursive symbols as it was conceived by Susanne Langer. It emphasizes the fact that the disctinction does not overlap with a difference between the picture and the language. Since the arts (visual as well as literary ones) are a primary example of presentational symbolism, the paper focuses on the mechanism of “swallowing” or “recruiting” a variety of material, including the discoursive one, in the creation of works of art. It is emphasized that presentational symbolism is a form of non-discoursive knowledge; a claim that, eventually, implies that works of art are liable to discoursive treatement only provisionally, with an acknowledgement of the limits of such an endeavour. The discoursive exercise of the philosophy of art is then primarily oriented towards securing the conceptual space in which artworks are granted the status of genuine knowledge.

The Global Garden project: Imagining plant science

Social Impact StatementPlants are rich sources of drugs and other high‐value chemicals that are used by humans. Many of the plant species that produce important molecules grow in remote locations and have extensive histories of indigenous use. Global concerns about sustainable supply have in some cases led to the development of alternative methods for production using biotechnological approaches. Consideration of responsible stewardship and use of the world's plants and associated traditional knowledge for the greater human good are at the heart of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the recently implemented Nagoya Protocol. The development of fora that enable open discussion and exploration of issues relating to these aspects will be critical in endeavors to protect and preserve both the environment and present and future generations.SummaryHere, we investigate the application of cross‐disciplinary approaches to explore societal perceptions of plants and their uses, focusing on high‐value chemicals. The Global Garden project engages the public, researchers, and regulators in day‐long workshops that combine science, poetry, and visual arts practice to foster participants’ skill in imagining and re‐imagining relationships between high‐value plant products, biotechnology, and social and ethical aspects of these. The project represents an intervention into discussions of science communications and public engagement, addressing the uses and benefits of arts‐based approaches to foster imaginative engagement with plant science. The workshop reported here began with real plant case studies and a discussion of the aims of scientists using them. Participants were invited to respond to the issues of relationships among plants, chemicals, and people raised by the case studies through poetry and visual artwork. The poems and artwork that were produced show variation in the participants’ imaginings of plant science. They present distinctive visions of research and innovation and of the associated ethical and social implications. This type of forum, based on creative immersion, opens up opportunities for engaging with and exploring complex relations between plant biotechnology, society, and ethics. This article offers a reflection on the uses, challenges, and implications of arts‐based approaches to research communications and public engagement that disrupts traditional knowledge transfer structures. In doing so, we frame the project within science communication pedagogies and consider public engagement a form of pedagogy.

The Work of Modern Art: In Search for the New Meanings

The article discusses the characteristics of contemporary art works and the specifics of its interaction with the audience. We demonstrate that contemporary art is not so much a way of reflecting on the world around us, but rather a way of learning about it, as well as a peculiar game (provocation) whose meanings are unknown and closed for discussion. Today it is impossible to provide unambiguous answers to the challenges faced by the art practice of the twenty-first century. Nevertheless, it is necessary to consider topical issues, outline ways to study them, structure groups of facts, and determine methods for their research and description. The priority during this process is to identify the qualitative components of the works of contemporary visual art. To do this, it is necessary to determine the features that distinguish contemporary works from those created at the previous stages of art development. Further research is required for this problem. Here we use as case examples the works of Krasnoyarsk artists Anna Osipova and Alexander Surikov, who combine both classical and actual characteristics.
 Keywords: contemporary art, communication, Anna Osipova, Alexander Surikov

The detail is more pleasant than the whole: Global and local prime affect esthetic appreciation of artworks showing whole-part ambiguity

Esthetic experience is the result of the coordination of different cognitive processes. It has been widely reported that top-down processes of orienting of attention interact with bottom-up perceptual facilitation occurring during esthetic experience of artworks. Here we use whole-part ambiguity as a tool to test the effect of global and local prime on esthetic appreciation of complex visual artworks. To this aim 139 healthy young individuals completed an esthetic judgment of Arcimboldo’s ambiguous artworks, which were preceded by a local or global prime. Their perceptual style was also assessed using a Navon task. We found that local prime significantly enhanced esthetic appreciation of ambiguous portraits. Also, we found that prime level interacted with individual’s perceptual style: participants showing local perceptual style liked less ambiguous portraits when they were preceded by global prime. Overall, the present findings shed some light on the processes involved in esthetic experience, pointing towards a pivotal role of re-direction of attention towards perceptual features of the artworks and its interaction with individual factors, such as perceptual style.

Artists as catalysts: the ethical and political possibilities of teaching artists in literacy classrooms

PurposeThis study aims to discuss the ethical and political possibilities offered by the presence of teaching artists (TAs) and visual artwork in racially and culturally diverse high school literacy (English Language Arts) classrooms.Design/methodology/approachThis study explores episodes from two separate ethnographic studies that were conducted in one teacher’s critical literacy classroom across a span of several years. This study uses a transliteracies approach (Stornaiulo et al., 2017) to think about “meaning-making at the intersection of human subjects and materials” (Kontovourki et al., 2019); the study also draws on critical scholarship on art and making (Ngo et al., 2017; Vossoughi et al., 2016). The TA, along with the materials and processes of artmaking, decentered the teacher and literacy itself, inviting in new social realities.FindingsTAs’ collective interpretation of existing artwork and construction of new works made visible how both human and nonhuman bodies co-produced “new ways of feeling and being with others” (Zembylas, 2017, p. 402). This study views these artists as catalysts capable of provoking, or productively disrupting, the everyday practices of classrooms.Social implicationsBoth studies demonstrated new ways of feeling, being and thinking about difference, bringing to the forefront momentary possibilities and impossibilities of complex human and nonhuman intra-actions. The provocations flowing from the visual artwork and the dialogue swirling around the work presented opportunities for emergent and unexpected experiences of literacy learning.Originality/valueThis work is valuable in exploring the boundaries of literacy learning with the serious inclusion of visual art in an English classroom. When the TAs guided both interpretation and production of artwork, they affected and were affected by the becoming happening in the classroom. This study suggests how teaching bodies, students and artwork pushed the transformative potential of everyday school settings.

Seeing and Seeing Again: Close Reading in the Gallery

This article, taking its title from T. J. Clark’s The Sight of Death, forges connections between Clark's diaristic, close reading of visual artworks and Ali Smith’s 2014 novel How to be both. Reading their shared interest in the possibilities of re-reading, close reading, or what Clark calls ‘seeing and seeing again,’ I draw on theories of reading, particularly those of Paul Ricoeur, to argue that Smith not only writes a version of Clark's repeated looking—she also produces the conditions within How to be both for her reader to draw out a series of observations which mimic and reward Clark's discourse of detail-orientated and ‘ludicrous’ close attention. Smith's novel, filled with a playful attention to the unit of the letter and the word, does not just pore over questions of artistic and critical practice but invites its own method of close reading too.

The Flourishing Folds

The Flourishing Folds is a solo video-art project, which re-negotiates the author’s relationship with ageing through creating intimate skin-portraits in near-touch close-up. The article reflects on these processes of re-possessing and re-purposing images of ageing skin and shares affirming experiences of embodied, sensory-perceptual video making. Tibetan Buddhist meditation practices inform the project and the article shares reflective writing on deep body meditations that dwell in locations where creasing skin offers pockets for holding spiritual humility and where folds form valleys that map sacred sites of vulnerability, self-acceptance and self-esteem. Writings by Stephen Connor, Claudia Benthien and Michel Serres illuminate the text with reflections on skin and embodied consciousness. New paradigms for dancing into maturity and the visual artwork of Helen Chadwick, Pipilotti Rist, Marna Clarke and Faith Wilding inform the project. The article writes into locales where creasing skin may increase skin-on-skin contact and offer sites of sensual, sensed soul, consciousness.

ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL SELF-OBJECTIFICATION OF THE PAINTER (BASED ON WORKS BY ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI)

Purpose. Based on the anthropocentric approach to the analysis of visual self-presentations of Artemisia Gentileschi in paintings, to present the artwork as self-objectifications of the artist, which give rise to a new cultural reality and are at the same time a means of knowing the essence of man. Theoretical basis. The principles and methods of philosophical and anthropological research in combination with biographical, historical and comparative, iconographic, figurative and stylistic methods were used when writing the article. Among philosophical and anthropological methods the principle of anthropological reduction was used, based on which the works by Artemisia Gentileschi were analyzed as her self-objectification, principle of extrapolation of a separate fact (rape) of the painter’s life and anthropological interpretation of art evolution, when an attempt is made to know their creator through a series of chronological consistent works as figurative objectification. The biographical method was used when working with data on the painter’s life, iconographic and figurative stylistic (techniques of composition, narrative, color characteristics) – when analyzing the art visuals: self-portraits, allegories and narrative paintings. The analytical work was carried out in stages as transition from an iconographic interpretation of paintings with gradual elimination of art and style characteristics as extra-anthropological cultural constants with subsequent anthropological reduction of cultural image. Originality consists in the author’s method of analyzing the works of visual art in terms of anthropocentric approach, as well as in considering the artwork by Artemisia Gentileschi as her self-objectification as such that give rise to a new cultural reality. Conclusions. The artworks by Artemisia Gentileschi in diachronic deployment can be seen as the painter’s self-objectification, which traces the evolution of self-expression from a person with traditional self-perception by social gender stereotypes (1610) to the phenomenon of personal life, which will determine further evolution of her self-identification (rape in 1611) and extirpation of sense of shame through virtual revenge (self-expression in the cycle of Judith), repentance (cycle of Mary Magdalene), guilt (cycle of Lucretia), and formation of component of the painter’s identity as exemption from social gender prejudices and stereotypes on roles and standards of behavior socially assigned to women (cycle of Susanna).

The origins of the aesthetic appreciation and artistic depiction of the industrial landscape

ABSTRACT This article presents a historical survey of aesthetic attitudes towards industrial landscapes and industrial sites, such as factories and mines, from the late seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. It further seeks to show that the ambivalent attitude, widespread since the 1960s to the present day, partly rejecting these landscapes and sites as aesthetically third-rate, partly appreciating them (as did many members of the Avant-garde in the early twentieth century), was in fact already becoming established in varied attitudes at the beginning of the industrial age. The paper argues for a more diversified approach to the period, one that is influenced by Classicism, the Picturesque, and Romantic aesthetics, reflecting the full range of attitudes towards industrial landscapes, from dislike and disgust to positive aesthetic appreciation. Surprisingly, the range of reactions commonly included indifference. The article analyses and compares travel writing, fiction, and works of visual art, mainly those originating in Britain and Central Europe in the period under consideration.

Autiethnography

Autoethnography may be regarded as writing of and about the self as embedded in culture; however, neurotypical status affects autoethnographic perception, and such so-called autiethnographies can cross the boundaries of humanism by providing examples of metahumanist subjectivity. As an autistic gamer, I engage with games in a different way, showcasing how (dis)abled gaming, neurotypicality, fannishness, and sociopolitical responses are never independent from one another. Autiethnographies blur the limitations of science and creative writing, and may be expressed through other forms of communication, such as a performance, a podcast, or a work of visual art.

Introduction to the Thematic Issue of the Siberian Federal University Journal, the Humanities series, in the “History and Theory of Art” Research Field

The introduction precedes the publication of the results of scientific research in the field of history and theory of art, as well as in the field of the most important conceptual problems of modern humanities and social sciences. The major current problems in the field of world and Russian art are considered, the main trends in the development of modern humanities and social sciences are determined. The introduction presents a theoretical position that should reveal the methodological approaches to the analysis of works of visual and musical art. The research is based on the basic principles of the modern theory of art, which states that a work of art is always the result of complex interaction in two forms: 1) the result of an interaction of an artist (master) and an art material; 2) the result of the interaction of a work of art as a material thing and a recipient (viewer, listener). The task of an art historian is to become an intermediary between the recipient and the work of art. This mediation in world philosophy is called maieutics. The maieutic function of the humanities and social sciences is revealed in all the studies, the results of which are published in this thematic issue