Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

Allison

Fashioning the Body

Winter Project Proposal

November 27, 2007

            My winter quarter project for Fashioning the Body is composed of a critical writing element and a photographic work in series entitled The Body as a Machine: a Visual Perspective. By looking at art, especially 19^th and 20^th century photographs, and putting it in a historical context I hope to discover the significance of the body being represented as a machine.  I will be evaluating topics such as  mechanical prosthesis, body imaging and conditioning, as well as the body’s relationship with technology in today’s post-industrial society. I intend on representing my work in a photographic work in series which will be a compilation of portraits of bodies juxtaposed with images of technology and mechanics. This project will be monitored by the Fashioning the Body faculty as well as my project group. I will be presenting my project to the students and faculty of Fashioning Body during week ten of winter quarter.

            My primary theme for this project is evaluating the body as a manufactured entity.  This encompasses topics of how the body is depicted as an automaton in labor practices, the medical field, technology, and politics. I am particularly interested in how the visual arts have used mechanical imagery to discuss the relationship that our bodies have to machines. In her essay Envisioning Cyborg Bodies, Jennifer Gonzalez defines the cyborg body as “the body of an imagined cyberspatial existence. It is the site of possible being. In this sense it exists in excess of the real. But it is also embedded within the real,” (267). All images that depict the body as a machine are straddling the boundaries between current society and the realm of the imagination whether utopian or apocalyptic, optimistic or pessimistic.  It is the relationship that history has with the depictions of the mechanized body that will be the focus of my work for winter quarter.

            The second component of my project is a photographic work in series in which I will be taking portraits of bodies that are entirely or partially composed of machines or other relative pieces of technology. The themes of this photo essay will reference the texts and visuals from the first quarter of Fashioning the Body as well as additional resources that I have found outside of class in preparation for this project.     

I chose to use a combination of photography and critical analysis for this project because I want to investigate and evaluate artwork in a historical context and partake in the dialogue that persists about the body and its relationship to the machine.  It is also interesting to use a mechanical device to make images that will be alluding to the body as a machine. My ultimate goal with the creative aspect of this project is to discuss the common cultural anxieties and pessimism toward technology while giving my audience san image of ideal beauty. A keen understanding of art history relating to the body as a machine will help me develop visual ideas for my work in series.  I believe that the best way to visually express my acquired knowledge is through photography, the new artistic medium that defined the Industrial age.  I will be printing 8x10 and 11x14 black and white photographs because this medium is best suited for negative sandwiching, and in comparison to color photography, black and white is a more apt approach in creating distinctive shapes and forms. 

            I will be in direct dialogue with all of the texts in my annotated bibliography including Le Mattrie, Zabel, and Kahn as well as texts used in the first quarter of Fashioning the Body such as Gonzalez and Huyssen. I will be viewing films in which the bodies are depicted as machines such as Metropolis, Star Wars, AI, and Bicentennial Man. There are many artists whose work I will be analyzing. I will be contemplating the art of Diego Rivera, Fritz Kahn, and Hannah Hoch as well as Fascist art produced by Arno Brecker for Nazi Germany. However, I will mainly be focusing my critical analysis on photographic works by artists such Man Ray, Grete Stern, Felix Man, Paul Strand, Peter Keetman, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Weston. These photographers’ use of subject matter and form are greatly inspirational to the photography I will be accomplishing during winter quarter. All of these sources relate to my theme and I will be using these works to discuss the body as a machine within my critical writing and photographic work in series.    

            My imagined audience consists of academics as well as the general public. My critical work will be speaking specifically to people who are knowledgeable in the subjects of art history, anthropology, geopolitical history, and gender studies. I want my photography to transcend academic audiences. I would like my work to be visually compelling and intellectually stimulating for the public in general.

 Preliminary Annotated Bibliography  

Texts 

Descartes, Rene. Treatise of Man. Prometheus Books, 2003. 

            It is in this book that Descartes likens the animal body to a mechanism. This theory changed the way the body was envisioned and encouraged the modern assumption that the anatomical body is uncannily similar to machines. This text will be used in my winter quarter project so that I may assess how Descartes’ theories became a catalyst for the early Occidental depictions of bodies as machines.

            Fox uses this book to place modern anxieties about technology into an historical context.  She uses examples of art and literature and describes how technological anxiety is hidden within them. Against the Machine will help me analyze works of art through a historical perspective as well as give me a retinue of new visual works to consider and investigate.

            This article discusses cyborgs and analyzes visual images that could be interpreted as cyborgs. I will be using this text for definitions of cyborg bodies as well as academic perspective on the art of Hannah Hoch.

            This book is about modern art and expands upon the PBS series of the same name. In this book, he discusses how technology influenced modern art. Fashioning the Body faculty member Julia Zay recommended this book to me, and although I do not know much about it, I trust that this book related to my project.  

            Fritz Kahn created drawings of the body that depicted anatomy as a working machine. He even included laborers working in the nervous system. This comparison of the human body to modern machines has made me curious about his writing. This book is about anatomy and the biological functions of the body. This book will give insight into his visual pieces that directly influenced other artist during the second half of the 20^th century. His writing and visuals will be useful in my critical writing as well as inspirational to the concepts explored in my photography.

La Mettrie was an 18^th century materialist and his philosophical writings in Machine Man focuses of the perfection of the mechanism. This book was discussed during the Fall Quarter of Fashioning the Body, and I believe that La Mattrie’s philosophy directly affected visual art during the early stages of industrialization. This will be a much used source in my research of how certain historical events and works of literature changes visual art as well.

In his book Art and Technics, Mumford assesses the relationship between art and

technology and how this affiliation impacts humans in the post-industrial age.  His view is pessimistic and discusses how he believes technology has depersonalized modern life. This book will be a source for examining technology’s relationship to visual art as well as discovering possible subject matter for my photography.

understanding art history through a critical reading of the field's most innovative and influential texts over the past two centuries. Each section focuses on a key issue: aesthetics, style, history as an art, iconography and semiology, gender, modernity and post modernity, deconstruction and museology.” This book will be a great secondary source for me to use in order to further my knowledge of art history and its importance in academic society.

This book is an examination of technology’s influence on art of the American avant-garde. Zabel asserts that machines directly influenced American modern art and explores this concept through examples of jazz music and visual art. This text will have a considerable influence on the topics of discussion in my critical writing as well as the subject matter of the photography component of my winter quarter project.

Star Wars Episodes III and V directed by George Lucas. 20^th Century Fox, 1980 & 2005.

            This project requires an active and advanced knowledge of art history for the critical writing portion. I have studied art history for five years and I have many professional connections including professors, curators, archivists, and art historians who may help me and advise me throughout the course of this project.

            The photography component requires the skills of developing and printing black and white photographs. I have printed silver gelatin pictures before and know the basic components of the darkroom. I live a professional photographer and he will assist me with any problems that I face during the darkroom process.  

          There is a complete studio darkroom set in my home and I will be using this studio for my project. I am ordering all required chemicals, film, and paper from the Freestyle Photographic Supplies catalog. I also will be using a Pentax 28-90 35 mm camera that I have borrowed for the duration of my project. I do not require a media loan from The Evergreen State College.

 Project Budget 

Film

Kodak Tri-X Pan (ISO 400)

35 mm X 100’………………………………………………………..48.99

Kentmere Fineprint Finegrain VC Double-weight Fiber Semi Matte Warmtone

8” x 10” / 100 sheets………………………………………………….$63.99

11” X 14” / 50 sheets…………………………………………………$58.99

Kodafix Solution (1 Gallon)………………………………………….$7.49 (x2)

Tmax Liquid Film Developer (1 Gallon)……………………………..$11.49

Dektol Powder B&W Paper Developer (5 Gallons)……………….....$26.49

Indicator Stop Bath (8 Gallons)………………………………………$5.99

Shipping………………………………………………………………$25.00

Computer Ink…………………………………………………………$16.28

Computer Printer Paper………………………………………………$4.99

Books (estimate)……………………………………………………...$300.00

Matting (estimate)…………………………………………………….$75.00

Total (preliminary estimate)………………………………………..$652.19

-Read Assembling Art: The Machine and the American Avant-Garde by Barbara Zabel and common group text by Thursday

-Develop film taken over holiday break

-Add finishing touches to group syllabus

-Update personal calendar

-Contact models if need be and finish shooting

-Post blogs on website

-Finish developing film if need be

-Set up darkroom/mix chemicals

-Start print tests

-Seminar with group over a common text and how it is relating to our projects

-Read through The Art of Art History over the weekend and finish up first common text for Tuesday

-Seminar with group, present progress report and possibly watch a film of common interest

-Continue printing

-Watch a couple other films (TBD)

-Write short essays on films and how they relate to topic of body as machine

-Start reading Descartes, La Mettrie, and Kahn

-Post essays on website

-Continue reading Descartes, La Mettrie, and Kahn

-Seminar with group and present progress report

-Any shooting that may need redone

-More printing and developing

-Watch a film

-Post blogs on website

-Finish Descartes, La Mettrie and Kahn

-Write art history essay part 1 pertaining to three works and their relation to art

-Continue printing

-Seminar with group

-Begin any other related group texts 

-Post art history essay part 1

-Decided which prints will be part of final presentation and reprint the chosen photographs

-Finish up group text

-Seminar with group and prepare for critical writing on group members’ projects

-Begin reading Fox and Mumford

-Watch film

-Post blogs on website

-Finish printing

-Start matting and framing if possible

-Finish Fox and Mumford and begin essay part 2

-Meet with group, evaluate progress, and offer advice for finishing up projects

-Watch any remaining films

-Post blogs on website

-Finish matting and framing

-Meet with group, show finished photos and essays

-Start critical writing on group projects

-Finish up any drafts that need fine tuning

-Post essay part 2 on website

-Prepare finished portfolio

-Develop a presentation

-Share finished critical writings with group members

-Post photography work on website

-Make sure that any loose ends are taken care of in preparation for week 10

            The attached calendar is in its preliminary stages. Activities or requirements that I am not certain of the specific time in which they will be placed are currently labeled under the 7:00-7:30 a.m. time slot just to be certain that I have reserved time for them to be completed.