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

See below for "The Editioned Body: A Study of the Portrait in Print" PDF file

check the linksssss

I am looking to do a series of portraits in different print media (relief, some intaglio, and some silk screening) and I am looking for other printmakers/ visual artisits/ photographers to share in critique of content/process. I have always been interested in portraits, and am going to use this project to look deeper into portraits. I am going to study the history of portraiture and non-traditional portraiture, and I am particularly interested in what I call "The Myspace Self portrait"...those glamour shots that everyone takes in the mirror with a sultry look on their face. I am thinking about contrasting these in my own series of self portraits.

I am really excited about this project and I am looking to work with others that feel the same. If you have printmaking/photography background, or just any visual art and are looking for a group that will thoroughly critique your visual process, so am I! And if your interested in portraiture and self-image but are working in an entirely different medium...so what..contact me anyways, I'd love to share ideas!

Molly

 

Molly
Fashioning the Body
October 2nd, 2007
Concept Rhyming Essay #1



Michel Foucault explains to us in the introductory chapter of The History of Sexuality that he wishes to “...write the history of what has been said concerning sex in the modern epoch.” The key word in this sentence is “said”. In the rest of his book, Foucault uses the word “discourse” to tell his history of what has been “said” about sexuality, mainly regarding the sexual prudishness of the 19th century, he goes on to say “I would like to write a history of these instances and their transformations”(12). Foucault employs the word “discourse” in a variety of different ways throughout the book, which is appropriate because of the ambiguity that surrounds the term, which can suggest many different ways of communication.What is concrete about the term is that it expresses a form of communication, and in conjunction with the word “sexual” Foucault uses it to tell us exactly what has been communicated regarding sex in the modern epoch. These things that have been said, or more appropriately, these discourses range from the sexually illicit confessions of the Marquis de Sade and his 120 Days of Sodom to the scientific system that names and categorizes “people” like the Marquis and their “disorders”.
As stated in The Oxford English Dictionary, “discourse” comes from the latin “discursus” which means “running to and fro”, this root explains the connection the word has to communication, which is essentially a verbal “to and fro” between two people. According to Fillingham, Foucault has a broad meaning for this term “discourse” that is innately “...anything written or said or communicated using signs, and marks another connection to structuralism and its dominant focus on language” (100). Foucault also has a more particular way of using “discourse” and this is also pointed out in the text by Fillingham. She relays that “discourse” “...has a very specific meaning: writings in an area of of technical knowledge--that is, areas in which there are specialists, specialized or technical knowledge, and specialized or technical vocabulary” (101). An example of Foucault using the term “discourse” in this specific way in The History of Sexuality is as follows: “And not so much in the form of a general theory of sexuality as in the form of analysis, stocktaking, classification, and specification, of quantitative or causal studies. This need to take sex “into account” to pronounce a discourse on sex that would not drive from morality alone but from rationality as well,...”. In this quote Foucault uses the term to express the development of a more formal and technical use of the word discourse, as it relates to western sexual history. In the Oxford English dictionary, there is no specific definition that matches up to this interpretation of what Foucault means when he uses the word “discourse” in this way, but many can blanket this specific form of verbal or written communication. The fifth definition in the dictionary of the noun “discourse” seems to be the best match, it explains “discourse” as: “a spoken or written treatment of a subject, in which it is handled or discussed at length; a dissertation, treatise, homily, sermon, or the like.” This definition seems to make sense with Foucault’s denotation of the word, but it doesn't really grasp it exactly.

As we approached a singular object that makes up part of what is called "The Soup", we noticed to our right on the blue exterior wall, under a covered area, a brown, somewhat spongy, though still firm, rectangle. Stuck upon this rectangle were various other rectangles. These flat rectangles seemed to have no order to their placement, though occasionally two of them would appear to be exactly the same. I snatched one of these flat rectangles as an artifact. I will transcribe it as follows:

After I retrieving my artifact I ascended the stairs directly in front of me. I noticed the area around me festively decorated; I took note of some colorful flat objects stuck onto the blue walls. These objects gave me a vague, though lacking feeling of welcoming. They were nice, though what they were attempting to cheer up was not. It was harsh and foreign seeming. Upon reaching a landing I found myself looking over the covering of the path leading up to the building, and the whole “Soup” itself. I looked down upon the blue walkway covering and noticed some short brown hair clumps, laying as though they had jut been clipped from an inhabitants head and clumsily been thrown out of an above window. Interesting behavior…