Robert Frank's Journey to the Outside

Sarah Greenough discusses the structure of The Americans in this video. She authored the 528 page volume that investigates Frank's Guggenheim project and the resulting 180 page book, first published in the United States in 1959. More here

Pemiere Pro Tutorial

This is a fairly tolerable tutorial and completely in sync with our assignment;

 

 

From Work to Text

This essay extends the notion of 'the death of the author' to an analysis of forms. The Work is the physical product, The Text is the consumption, where the ideas can live on and mutate. It's almost cliche now to look at an artwork and talk about 'the text that surrounds it', but this idea is relatively new, and represents for many the transition from Structuralism to Post-Structuralism. 

Here it's very clearly explained by Tom Nicholas;

Acknowledgment of the text can transform meaning;

These images could be decor in a clinic. When put in the context of power and race they become powerfully loaded.

Robert Hughes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roland Barthes and Us

 Welcome! In this class we will be working on term-long projects and looking at some of the ideas of Roland Barthes. Translations of ideas originally written in French. Even if we can't follow the words the tone of his speech is significant;

Here's a very friendly overview of the structuralist theory we will be exploring;

Tom Nicholas doesn't get to Barthes until 15 minutes into this video but the linguistic theory that informs structuralism is good background on the origin of Barthes' concepts.

Yvonne Rainer

 

Yvonne Rainer, 1964. Photograph Collection Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives, New York

 "NO Manifesto"

 

Yvonne Rainer, “Trio A,” 1973.
Performed as part of “This is the story of a woman who…,” Theater for the New City, New York, 1973.
Performers: John Erdman and Yvonne Rainer.
Photo: © Babette Mangolte

 

 

 

Born to self-proclaimed 'radicals'.

Grew up in San Fransisco.

Somewhat directionless in early adulthood.

Moves to New York with painter Al Held.

Takes dance classes...faces various insulting comments by mentors.

Early 60s...Rainer focused on choreographing her own pieces, favoring everyday movements and the chance procedures innovated by Cage and Cunningham.

Makes a major contribution to dance over the next decade and continues to be an influential innovator.

Then...

"I made the transition from choreography to filmmaking between 1972 and 1975. In a general sense my burgeoning feminist consciousness was an important factor. An equally urgent stimulus was the encroaching physical changes in my aging body."

 A few minutes of Yvonne Rainer’s fourth feature-length film, Journeys from Berlin/1971 (1980);

 

See more here;

https://ubu.com/film/rainer.html

And again...

A return to dance in early 2000s.

Now still at it at age 85. Check this out!!!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/arts/dance/yvonne-rainer-do-it-yourself-coronavirus.html

 

ART 125/FIST 318 Jean-Michel Basquiat

“I don’t know how to describe my work. It’s like asking Miles, ‘How does your horn sound?’” - Jean-Michel Basquait

 

Jean-Michel Basquiat Liberty, 1982-83

It's the subconscious as conscious, and consciousness. It's like thinking about writing something, along with visuals, color, forms that are not the obvious choices, but the real ones. It's lettering, like in drafting, and with that special 'E', of some intention, because everything truly means something. Filling up all the space with a very lovely teetering balance. It is a horn, but on a 2D surface.

Jean-Michel Basquiat made pictures that sing like a horn.

 

 

 

 

 

Jean-Michel Basquiat, A Panel of Experts, 1982