Course introduction, form, content and context in contemporary art

1. VASE7200
Extended Context/Extended Media

2. Course website
http://vase7200.wordpress.com

3. Teachers
Prof. John Aiken
Dr. Bryan Wai-ching Chung
http://www.magicandlove.com

4. Schedule
Course introduction
Master project arrangement

5. Assignments
Individual project proposal, presentation &
discussion (15%)
17 Oct
Group topics presentation & display (15%)
07, 18 Nov
Individual artwork display & presentation (50%)
05, 06 Dec

6. Advice
Do not wait until late November to work on
your project.

7. Advice
Many SAEM students will develop their Master
Projects according to the artworks in this
trimester.

8. Master Projects supervisors
Primary supervisor – from faculty members in
AVA
Secondary supervisor – either from faculty
members in AVA or outside artists

9. Secondary supervisors
Dr. Jackie KWOK (PolyU)
Dr. Samson YOUNG (CityU)
Ms. Ellen PAU (Video artist)
Mr. CHING Chin Wai (Artist)
Mr. WONG Ping (Animator)
Mr. Jamsen LAW (Video artist)
Mr. Blues WONG (Photographer)
Mr. LUI Chun Kwong (Painter)

10. Secondary supervisors
Mr. Otto LI (Artist)
Ms. AU Hoi Lam (Artist)
Ms. Stella TANG (Artist)
Ms. CHOI Yan Chi (Artist, 1A Space)
Mr. Henry STEINER (Design pioneer)
Mr. Steve HUI (Composer)

11. Evaluation criteria
Concept development
Creativity in extending context or media
Media aesthetics
Significance in contemporary art context

12. General rubrics
Grade C – meet all requirements on average
Grade B – exceed requirements in some aspects
Grade A – exceed requirements in all aspects

13. Tentative group presentation topics
From representation, abstraction to performative
From object to process, craft in technological era
Tactical media, urban intervention and art
Artist’s body, obsolete or extended?
Site specific art

14. Course format
Mini-lectures
Tutorials
Presentations
Workshops
Project

15. Activities
Exhibition visits
Guest talks
Graduates presentation
Other informal gatherings

16. 360 Gallery

17. Jim Campbell, 2014

18. Jim Campbell, 2014

19. Microwave Media Art Festival, 2014

20. Microwave Media Art Festival, 2014

21. Nicholas Hanna, Microwave Festival 2015

22. Nam June Paik

23. Nam June Paik Exhibition 2015

24. ?

25. Kacey Wong

26. Works
Artworks from last year’s students

27. Carol

28. Alice

29. Annette

30. Brandon

31. Gloria

32. Katie

33. Lee

34. Michelle

35. Rachel

36. Samuel

37. Sid

38. Ula

39. Wing

40. Zoie

41. Ashley

42. Boy

43. Cymas

44. Dino

45. Fan Shing

46. Greta

47. Janet

48. Johnwell

49. Julvian

50. Karina

51. Leo

52. Liam

53. Parry

54. Patrick

55. Tap

56. Extended Context/Extended Media
How do we want to study in this course?
We are going to have a revision of what you have done so far.

57. Art
Artist
Practice
s
Artwork

58. Artwork
Artist
Practice
s
Artwork
Object
Image

59. Production of artwork
Artist
Practice
s
Artwork
Object
Image
Material
Medium

60. Practices
Artist
Practice
s
Artwork
Object
Image
Material
Medium
Craft
Idea
Tool
Technolog
y

61. Artist – who am I?
Artist
Practice
s
Artwork
Object
Image
Material
Medium
Craft
Idea
Tool
Technolog
yIdentity
Race
Gender
Sexual
orientation
Class

62. Ideas
Artist
Practice
s
Artwork
Object
Image
Material
Medium
Craft
Idea
Tool
Technolog
yIdentity
Race
Gender
Sexual
orientation
Memory
Languag
e
Place
People
Class

63. Reception of art
Artist
Practice
s
Artwork
Object
Image
Material
Medium
Craft
Idea
Tool
Technolog
yIdentity
Race
Gender
Sexual
orientation
Memory
Languag
e
Place
People
Display
Institution
PatronCurator
Critics
Class

64. Your participation
How can we talk about art?

65. Discussion about art
Form vs. Content

66. Form vs. Content

67. Formalism
The artwork should be enjoyed for its formal qualities (e.g.
composition, material, shape, line, colour) rather than its
representation of a figure, story, nature or idea.

68. Medium specificity
The medium, material and the application of the medium,
material determine the unique artistic qualities of the artworks.

69. Form vs. Content

70. Iconography
Iconography works to retrieve the symbolic and representational
meanings contained in the works of art.

71. Iconographic questions
What does the artwork represent?
Who are these figures? How did you identify them?
How is the artist’s depiction of the subject similar to or different
from other artists’ depictions at the time this was made, or at
different times?

72. Semiotics
Study of sign
Signifier (symbol) vs. signified (thing)
Representamen (form) vs. interpretant (sense) vs. object (thing)
Symbol (arbitrary) vs. icon (resembling) vs. index (connected)

73. Semiotic questions
What part of the image catches your eye first?
What are the denotative and connotative aspects of the image?
How do materials and techniques signify meaning in the work?

74. Anything else other than form and content?

75. Materialist
Materialist art history has focused not on iconography or stylistic
classification, but rather on art’s modes of production – that is, it
focuses on the labour that produces art and the organisation of
that labour. Art is the product of complex social, political, and
economic relationships, not something labeled “artistic genius.”

76. Materialistic questions
Who was the patron? What was her social and economic status?
What was the social status of artist-and that of the artists in
society at this time?
How did the artist receive the assignment from the patron?
Where was the artwork displayed? Who saw it?

77. Extended Context/Extended Media
Form vs. Content vs. Context

78. Does it matter if the artist is female, male or transgender?

79. Did the artist presume the sexual orientation of the viewers?

80. How does nationality facilitate and hinder the artist?

81. How would the artwork shape the viewers’ sense of self and others?

82. Does the exhibition location matter?

83. About us
Interpretation on the part of the image make must always be
matched by the interpretation of the viewer. No image tells its
own story.
Ernst Gombrich (1982)

84. About context
I am not an artist any more. I am a content provider.
Laurie Anderson

85. Extended Context/Extended Media
The public’s experience of the biennale phenomenon has
developed from viewing to participation, giving rise to a marked
shift, in some instances, in the role of the artist from object-
maker to service provider.
Claire Doherty

86. Extended Context/Extended Media

87. Extended Context
Relational aesthetics
Bourriaud, Nicolas, Relational Aesthetics – Themes, Motives, Art, Communication in Art, Art
Modern, Art and Society.
Fluxus & Arte Povera
Higgins, Hannah, Fluxus Experience.
Offences of art
Julius, Anthony, Transgression: the Offences of Art.
Participatory art
Bishop, Claire, The Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship.
Art, design & architecture
Coles, Alex, ed. Design and Art – Documents of Contemporary Art.

88. Extended Media
Art & language
Information visualization
Mediated perception
Media architecture & space
Tactical media

89. Art & language
The language of art
Conceptual art
Machine art
Art and code
Fluxus – instructional art

90. Information visualization
Information & entropy
Medium & communication
Semiology of graphics
Data as material

91. Mediated perception
Body and tool
Extension of body and senses
Ecological approach to perception
Embodied interaction

92. Media architecture and space
Everyday life & spatial practices
Psycho-geography
Media façade & urban screen
Ambient intelligence

93. Social interaction
Tactical media
Social media
Performative media
Virtual communities

94. VASE7200
Some examples

95. Sol Lewitt

96. Bryan Chung

97. Sol Lewitt

98. Yoko Ono

99. Harold Cohen – Aaron

100. Jean Tinguely

101. Drawing automaton

102. Drawing automaton

103. Chuck Close

104. Charles Joseph Minard

105. Martin Wattenberg

106. Martin Wattenberg

107. Lisa Jevbratt

108. Nancy Peterson

109. Josh On

110. Steve Mann (Wikipedia image)

111. Eric Siu

112. Jennifer Ringley

113. Stelarc

114. Sputniko!

115. Sputniko!

116. Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

117. Greyworld

118. Projection mapping

119. Graffiti Research Lab

120. Ben Ruben, Mark Hansen

121. Jim Campbell

122. Ken Goldberg

123. Mark Napier

124. FUFME

125. FUFME

126. Valie Export

127. Jodi

128. 0100101110101101 – Biennale Virus

129. 0100101110101101 vs. Marina Abramovic

130. 0100101110101101

131. IP Yuk-yiu, Another Day of Depression in Kowloon

132. IP Yuk-yiu, Another Day of Depression in Kowloon

133. Blast Theory

134. Tamiko Thiel

135. Tamiko Thiel