ARCHIVE - Creating a Conceptual Framework for Images - Week 1

ARCHIVE - message and medium

taycan04 — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:20:50 -0700

"Earler attempts to define installation art by medium alone failed because it is in the nature of the practice itself to challenge its own boundaries." p. 14

To me, medium plays a significant role in installation art. It is where one draws from conceptually to understand the entire installation and to get the message, therefore the medium is the message. I think that there will always be debate in installation art if it is necessary for a message to be present in the work.

In Barabara Kruger's, Power Pleasure, the viewer doesn't have to search for the message. It is there in text and aphorisms suffocating them, just like most of her work. It doesn't take a lot from the viewer to understand her work where as you really have to search for a meaning in Ernesto Nesto's, Walking in Venus Blue Cave.

ARCHIVE - Week 1

brotab05 — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 10:56:58 -0800

The introduction takes us into a discussion of Installation Art as a supposed medium. I don't see how it can pretend to be a single medium; a medium as far as I can tell involves a specific material, used in accordance with enduring cultural guidelines or at least following some specified tecnique. All mediums aside, Installation Art is supposed to represent an entirely new approach to art. But if Installation is as revolutionary as its authors insist, then A) why hasn't it changed the world for the better and B)

I find this question has not yet been addressed. The introduction to the book states, "Earlier attempts to define installation art by medium alone failed because it is in the nature of the practice itself to challenge its own boundaries." This makes it sound like installation is not for the most part locked within its own set of specified cultural norms, responding firstly to the expectations and presumptions of its viewers; that it is totally original and more or less immune to the limitations of history. But flippng through the book, although there are many surprises, I don't see that as true. Most installations, unless their authors are profoundly priviledged, conform to certain types of media and categories of expectation.

ARCHIVE - week 1

sanshe07 — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:32:27 -0800

Installation Art pg 6-77 Sherda sanders

“Controlled space” where the artist can control the environment of the viewer is important to installation art, and has never ending possibilities; by heightening or taking away from the five senses, hopefully sending the viewer a message, whatever it may be, that they understand or causing the viewer to think or re-think. But is controlled space necessary to installation art? What about using a part of a city or town or an entire public place as your canvas for art. Is that the same as installation? I think so and it brings back this art form to its roots part of which is the rejection of the gallery. Is it wrong for installation to be in a gallery? Galleries are intimidating to people, essentially the gallery its self is a controlled environment, where yes its open to the public, but honestly you are only going to get a certain kind of person in there. I depends on your work if you need an extremely than a gallery space might be just what you need. I have so far enjoyed this book much more than our previously assingned installation book for two reasons: one they artists examples are very current and two because in the reading so far there are serveal examples of artists ‘thinking out side of the box’ when it comes to the size and placement of their installations. Some of the works I enjoyed where Mischa Kuball ‘Believe/Disbelieve, Julian Opie Imagine that you are moving, Diller+Scofidio Blur Building

ARCHIVE - Week One Responce

dankam12 — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 13:17:05 -0800

I had major problems logging in, so sorry for the lateness.

When you think of installation, you think of the normal art piece that one can move into. Giant paintings, sculptures, ect. When reading this book, the thought of installation beginning to cover more of a medium outside of being just art, and becoming its own genra of sorts, got me to thinking of how everything can be some for of installation art. (Decorating your dorm for example.) But it was interesting to read how installation as a whole has evolved into a whole new art form, compared to how it used to be.

Although, I still stand by the idea that the term installation art cannot be defined. From all the books we read last quarter and this one, it seems hard to try and escape the mentality that we have to have a cemented, structured definition of what can be seen as installation, and just a “normal art piece. So my question is, Can you define Installation? It can be an idea, or terms you have to follow, but does it HAVE to be as what we define it to be? A room we interact with, or a art piece that makes us wish we could interact with it?

ARCHIVE - Week One Responce (Kidnapping Privacy)

selcol15 — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 15:46:44 -0800

In the precedent section of Installation Art in the New Millennium, the delegation of a Reality-TV performance by Blast Theory entitled "Kidnap" drew me into thought. For the utilization of this medium, the two winners of abduction were taken to an undisclosed location and their captivity was broadcasted over the internet. The access of this performance installation was experienced wherever a computer might be; whether it be a bedroom, a library, an office, or a desk at school. Instantaneously through broadcast, the audience became generators for a mediated cultural experience in the new-found telematic forms of art installation.

ARCHIVE - week 1 response

lenvip14 — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 15:39:07 -0800

this book has a really long introduction that again refering to many aspects of installation art which sometime can still be difficult for someone to undertand what the installation is and what it is not. From reading both installation art book of this quarter and the last one byclaire bishop, it seems like many installation artists and audiences are still coming up with a common ground of descrbing what is an installation art and how it is different from just a 3D art or sculpture or architectural designs. though, i found that this issue of defining an type of art happens to all forms of art especially music because many time the definitions are open-ended. of course, it is good that we as an artist of audience should have some idea of what installation art is and what are some characteristic of it, but i think that we shouldn't be concern too much about weather if some pieces are considered an installation or not.

ARCHIVE - week 1

hamtar16 — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:16:33 -0800

Installation art is not a term that all artists or art related people use. Installation seems to have formed its own genera. It was the next step that art made after just hanging images and paintings on the wall. Installation is so different than just a painting or a photograph that in many cases people wouldn’t call it art but what else do you call it?
“Installation Art in the New Millennium” shows installation as an art and how artists used it to push art to a new level. Artists have taken art beyond four walls and moved it to any place possible. Pieces such as Keith Wilson’s Puddle, and Francis Alys’s When Faith Moves Mountains are great examples. This book really expresses the fact that art is constantly moving in a new direction.

ARCHIVE - Response

donand10 — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 09:30:43 -0800

This book in some areas read more like a science fiction novel than anything else. I really didn't care for the way it was written. Not only did I feel like I was trying to disect a Talking Heads song after every paragraph, but the authors came off as boastfully snobby. As for the content, and if it were only the bare bones content I might have appreciated this reading immensly, due to the tremendous artists spotlighted here. The artist which most caught my attention was Olafur Eliasson. His work, Things You Cannot See, simulated a natural phenomena to create art using optical illusions and natural sources.

ARCHIVE - intro / escape

mcajul15 — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 09:21:08 -0800

To me, the term "installation art" is really quite vague. It seems that installation art can be just about anything - which serves as the great and the awful thing about it. You are given so much freedom to express yourself and your ideas in this medium, but it also leaves you with a never-ending world of possibility that is a little hard to swallow (who likes to makes decisions anyway?). In reading the chaper on Escape, I was forced to think about installation art from that perspective: that it is a means of escapism and imagination, where we can be catapulted into a new and exciting world. In the real world, walking, lying down, and dancing would be rather mundane activities, but in installation art (Ugo Rondinone's "It's late and the wind carries a faint sound as it moves..."), these things become extraordinary, they become Art.

ARCHIVE - week one reading and possible questions

shadav09 — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 09:16:15 -0800

I loved this book in that that offered so many in depth pictures of installation art. With the pictures came very nice narratives of the artist and the type of installation art it involved. I loved the forward by Jonathan Crary. It covered the idea of installation art exploring boundaries beyond the normal medium by focusing on different disciplines. I loved this book more so because it covered the evolution of installation instead of the history. It's a lot easier to relate to more recent works then it is to old ones. I also liked that it had a chronology of the art.

One of the most influential artists in the book for me was Doug Aitken with his use of video media and multiple screens to create a more submersive environment for the viewer. I love how he found cinema to be too boring. He created a cinema, with a new age twist giving the viewer an all around experience.