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5.1 Art Media and Culture Methods Version 1.2 March 2012What are the main methods and techniques of art? Is low brow (like pop, rock and jazz) art? 5.1 Conclusions on Artistic Methods (Statement
27) Art, media and culture are
inextricably linked: The artistic medium and its method
of creation are linked to its distribution – paintings are best viewed live but
may be photographed and distributed through high quality books or low quality
internet (or vice versa). ● The media is partly how
information is distributed – through pamphlets, newspapers, books,
popular magazines and more professional journals, radio, movies, television,
and the internet. Some art is distributed through art galleries
and theatres, or physically fixed to one place (like a large public statue or a
building) or “street art”. ● The media now also means what information is being distributed, which is called the
“content”: factual information such as news and current affairs, documentaries,
and so on, produced by journalists, as well as fictional or partly fictional
presentations, game shows, talk shows etc, produced by artists and
entertainers. ● The media now also refers who owns and runs the distribution networks and produces the
“content”, which can be governments seeking to inform or guide their people,
large public companies seeking to make a profit, small businesses, or various
non-profit organisations. ● Art is part of the “content”: narrative arts (novels,
movies, TV serials), performing arts (music, singing, dance, theatre, opera,
comedy), visual arts (painting, sculpture, photography), decorative arts
(clothing, body decoration, architecture); ● What is distributed by the media is part of our culture,
and helps to form our cultural beliefs, but other parts of our culture are
unrelated to media. Artists, journalists, entertainers
and media owners will use all the technologies available to them. All traditional and modern techniques are
legitimate to produce news, art or entertainment. ● Art has moved from simple static representations (cave
drawings and sculpted figures) to highly realistic representations with depth
(perspective and 3D), sound recordings and movies. ● Art has also moved away from representation to the
abstract, to attempt to evoke more subtle responses. ● Similarly, news and current affairs includes hopefully
precise descriptions of the events, but also now includes graphics, pictures,
video and sound that is intended to enhance the presentation. ● Modern technology enhances the ability of artists to
produce things, images, sounds, etc that could once only have been imagined, to
a very high resolution, making them almost seem real – Lord of the Rings, Harry
Potter, Van Helson. ● There is a move away from “traditional” print media, from
books, newspapers and magazines (which have affected popular culture for
perhaps a few hundred years) to online publishing, videos, TV, cartoons,
movies. Just like philosophers, scientists,
historians and clerics, artists must be aware of their responsibilities,
because of their impact on society; ● It
may be regrettable, but many people learn their culture, values, history and
science from ● Art
historians (art or history professionals, journalists or amateurs) try to
discern trends in art, as we must if we are to make sense of it, but they
should acknowledge, and we must recognize, the difficulty shared with all
history, that it is necessarily selective in what is judged to be the
significant works or collections that demonstrate the mooted trend; ● Artists
must, and must be made to be, aware of their influence, and we should take
steps reasonable to prevent them from denying it, such as refusing funding for
or not attending movies made by producers or artists in such denial; ● Artists
often work in areas others choose to ignore, which is what sometimes makes it
confronting, but also sometime important.
Artists can challenge our preconceptions, offer insights, sometimes
promote alternatives, and promote debate.
Artists need to be aware of the moral and ethical frameworks in which
they work because they are often testing their boundaries in this way. ● The
work presented by all artists, journalists and entertainers, as well as media
owners, reflects: their own personal philosophies, scientific, historical and
religious knowledge, their own personalities,
backgrounds, training and experience, and their expectations of the
potential audience in these areas; so the work inevitably has some
bias and cannot be completely objective. ● Journalist
and artists can work within the current culture, or its peripheries, or push
the boundaries, working in areas others choose to ignore. This is sometimes confronting, but also
sometimes more important, so they need to be critically aware of the moral and
ethical frameworks in which they work. ● But
despite the difficulties, and the inherent dilemmas we all face, as with all
other areas of knowledge or action, the most critical aspect of art, journalism
and entertainment is honesty, that it must somehow reflect an attempt to
“speak” the truth, or at least not be misleading or convey a lie: it must be
authentic. ● If a work is not authentic, then it is rubbish: bogus art,
propaganda rather than news, destructive rather than entertainment. Avoid it. Preliminary thoughts on how to get to the next level of detail are shown below, followed by commentary. 5.1.1 There is no generally accepted response to “what is Art?” ● Traditionally a piece of art may have been something made by a person, that had little “practical” purpose, to invoke a sense of beauty – a sculpture, a painting, a poem, or a song; ● Alternatively, an artistic work could be a useful thing constructed in a way that is not solely required for its use, just to enhance its beauty – a teapot, an iPod; ● Traditional art may have represented some other part of reality – a portrait or a landscape, or a cutesy teapot that looks like a pig – but art does not have to represent something physical; ● Some eastern traditional art isolates the essence of the scene, avoiding unnecessary background, but presenting the key features in minute detail, perhaps illustrating or enhanced by a text on the side; ● In many cultures, but particularly in the Muslim world, where representation is seen as idolatry, there is an emphasis on displaying sacred texts in the most beautiful style or setting (eg the Taj Mahal); ● Many artists have tried to eliminate the limitations of technique from their art, and moved away from representation to the abstract, to attempt to evoke more subtle responses. Cave – 2 minutes and 37 seconds of silence; White sheet ● Art does not even have to be beautiful in the standard sense of the word, because it can portray some other aspect of life (or the universe), that evokes a satisfying physical, intellectual, emotional or spiritual response, and that is its beauty (eg Hieronymus Bosch); ● Art does not have to please the populace or the elite to be good: if it evokes the required response in the required audience, then it is good art; 5.1.2 Art and Context ● Art exists in context, as part of an ongoing tradition within a culture, or in contrast or as an extension of that tradition, and we gain a better appreciation of art as we learn about the context and this is part of the many to many “conversation” of art; ● Anyone can produce an object and call it art. But others may judge that it has no relevance to the ongoing conversations, or it is not inspiring as a work in itself; ● Some artistic objects stand alone, and can be judged beautiful or impressive without knowing the context: The Pyramids at Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto Number 5” Michelangelo’s statue “David” Asian, African, American?? Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” ● Other items must be taken in context, because it is not the work itself but what it says (or rather the statements that we can infer from its creation) that is its worth: Jackson Pollock’s abstract paintings, such as “Blue Poles” Various people who have created “art” out of toilets. 5.1.3 Authenticity A problem is that much art is junk, it is not ‘authentic’. Authenticity is the key attribute of quality art and media presentations, combining the truth with an element of compassion – the presenter must really mean what they are presenting and believe it is worth presenting, so: ● This is why not anyone can produce an object and call it art – if they do not mean it, if they produce it cynically or simply for commercial reasons, it is not authentic, it is not art; ● Political correctness – to use words and images accurately when referring eg to ethnicity or gender – is not ideology gone mad but truly authentic. ● When we allow ourselves to get involved in a story we willingly adopt its presuppositions (it’s setting in time and space, its real or imagined historical context, the characters and the issues that form the story) and if the story fails to stay within these boundaries or involves emotional changes or choices (in a way that would never happen, especially for that character) or uses other cheap resolutions, it is a lie; ● Any artistic or media presentation that deliberately shows an untruth as a truth, or does not attempt to tell the truth, is a lie: It is a lie to portray the baddies as stereotypes of ethnic minorities; It is a lie to portray women simply as sex objects; It is a lie to portray all actors and models, especially the goodies, as thin and beautiful, in films and magazines; It is a lie to continually portray only the rosy side of life, or to always portray life as a simple dichotomy of good and bad, as many Hollywood films once did, and most Bollywood films apparently do now; A film that uses product placement so that it interferes with the story is to that extent a lie; A movie totally designed around product placement and promotion is a lie; It is a lie to portray someone as guilty when they had no choice, or innocent when they did have a choice; It is a lie to portray supposedly historical events with known errors. An American film that shows a British victory as though it was an American win is a lie. A Soviet film that shows Stalin as a hero is a lie. An Israeli film that implies the Palestinians were the original aggressors is a lie. It is a lie to pretend that all good
stories are linked to It is just as much a lie to restrict your movie world to Chinese, Hindi, Muslim, or European actors, protagonists and stories, portraying the other as irrelevant or evil. Of course, Americans, Indians, Chinese and Muslims must be able to tell their own stories, within their own regions with their own voices. It is not the American’s fault that others take up their stories, because they are cheaper and or better than local products. And the best of American movies are more universalist – including protagonists of all races, both genders, addressing issue that face humanity as a whole. ● Commercially produced pap designed to attract the widest audience by appealing to their base instincts (with lots of sex and violence), the lowest common denominator (with little intellectual or emotional challenge), and pandering to their ignorance and prejudices (eg sexism, racism) is not art, it is detrimental rubbish. ● We must teach the young how, and promote in the old a willingness, to assess art, literature, and film for its authenticity and artistic value, and reject bad art, then we will get better stories, better sit-coms, funnier comedy, more life; ● People can watch crap if they like, so long as they don’t think it’s good. All around the world culture is now dominated
by the electronic media, especially TV, movies and the internet. But it was not always so. Early techniques in art includes story telling,
singing, poetry, plays, drawing and painting, music and dance, carving in wood,
sculpture in pottery and stone, and working with gold, silver copper tin and
precious stones. Art was traditionally
representational, depicting things like animals, people, gods, scenes and
telling narratives with a middle beginning and end. As technology developed in the last few hundred
years, art has moved away from being purely representational. Once we can take photographs, the need for
accurate representations declined, and artists explored other uses of the old
media, producing more distorted or abstract works, to express new ideas, or old
ideas in new ways, and evoke different responses from the audience. Classical Western music traditionally has a
structure, and progresses from the beginning to the middle to the end. Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” was “program music”,
designed to evoke something extra-musical, like the languor caused by the heat,
in the first movement of “Summer”. Later
classical western music moved on from such structure and made no illusions to
reality. Architecture can be public art on a grand
scale, adding beauty to functional forms.
Bridges, freeways, temples and cathedrals, opera houses and houses of
parliament, can all be inspiring. Modern abstract art is often lampooned because,
it is said, any five year old, or uncultured bogan, could throw together pieces
of junk or splash around tins of paint to produce a work that has the same
artistic merit as one by a famous artist, such as “Blue Poles” by Jackson
Pollock. But art is more genuine if it
is created in context, within a tradition, or to escape the bounds of a
tradition, and the intent is a measure of its authenticity as a work of art. Each region tells their stories in different
ways, using different techniques. We
need to promote local voices, to preserve our diversity, maintaining some
fidelity to tradition, because diversity is stimulating. We get bored hearing and seeing the same
commercial crap all the time. We can be
stimulated by difference into creating something completely new. We need to allow the people currently in
“traditional” cultures to feel valued. Resources
must be dedicated to making traditional culture available to subsequent
generations, although, this effort mustn’t be at the expense of suppressing artistic
innovation. Nearly everyone except the Americans is
concerned about the loss of their culture.
Globalization in recent decades has meant Americanization. In the 21st century CE the rise of
But there remains a dilemma between promoting
global innovations and local tradition. We need the global awareness to address global
problems that must be addressed on a global scale: pollution, population,
climate change, social collapse, fortress scenarios. These are directly linked to our understanding
of science and history, and our values of truth, compassion and responsibility. But most people cannot be philosophers,
scientists or historians, so we need artists to explain these issues to us. Other problems are more local in their
immediate effects, but occurring in many areas.
With modern communications we know about them, and with modern
governance we can solve them. These are essentially are poverty and human rights
abuses. These also effectively become
global issues because they occur around the globe and call for a global
response. These are obviously linked to
our understanding of history and values of compassion. But we need local and global media to
publicize the needs and provoke the relevant organizations and individuals into
producing the required response. * * * * * * *
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