Friday, April 24, 2020

Art 340/540 New Media; Fordism and Art, the Hysteria of Production

Here, in a country on the brink of massive recession, this topic becomes especially relevant. Fordism is a term widely used to describe the system of standardized mass production that was pioneered in the early 20th century by the Ford Motor Company, and a term used to describe the basis of modern economic and social systems in industrialized mass production and mass consumption.


This video tells how Henry Ford made affordable automobiles possible. Others look at the darker side of his vision.


Jeff Koons' artwork is the the most expensive in the marketplace for a living artist. Although critics are divided on the merits of his work, its presence in commerce is substantial. The video below, a rant by mosaic artist Ayhan Keser, explores the impact of this.



The PowerPoint below further explores Fordism, consumer culture, and Art;

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_aTbCSA4lCpfL0aOyB71I793wrPkJiyo?usp=sharing

YOU WILL NEED TO DOUBLE CLICK hystericalproduction2.pptx AND THEN SELECT THE CloudConvert APP TO OPEN THE FILE OR DOWNLOAD TO YOUR HARD DRIVE.

Email me if you're having technical difficulties with the PowerPoints, getting the videos to play, etc. My newer computer opens these so effortlessly that it's not clear to me what it's doing! 

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Art 330/530 Photo; In My Room


Confined to an apartment overlooking NYC's Washington square park, the extraordinary life of Andre Kertesz (1894-1985) would have a final period of solitary reflection. A gift from Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills, & Nash) who would occasionally visit the apartment with his wife Susan, would help him objectify this emotional journey...a Polaroid SX-70 camera, the ultimate creation of instant photography inventor Edwin Land.



On page 18 of The Critical Eye Lyle Rexer states, "Kertesz had an ability to find metaphors for his inner experience." Throughout his long career Kertesz's work would embrace this, and in his last pictures that was all that was left.

August 3, 1979
April 11,1979


December 9, 1979


January 1979



Susan Nash, September 27, 1979


"Without a sense of the life and the work that have come before, the world of these last photographs may appear confined and melancholy. With that background, it appears rich with the possibility of making meaning about the most profound experiences, from the smallest things." Rexer, p.22