| Art Studio: The Artist’s Perspective: Multimedia Assignment Form for ARTS-235 | Date: 1/11/2010 Name: Michael Widener Major: MMDD Specialization: Computing Year: Senior | ||
| Type of assignment [ ] Semester project √ Blog entry / Reading response [ ] Technical evaluation [ ] Exhibition | Title of the assignment: Strauss Blog entry / Reading response | ||
| A description of the assignment. Throughout the semester, readings will be assigned which correspond to the area of multimedia we will be discussing or to the specific project you are working on. The readings will be discussed in class and the student will post a response to the reading on his or her blog. | |||
| Contend of the assignment. Vito Acconci’s work Centers, demonstrates Multimedia’s way of looking at conventional critical standard and doing away with it. In his work, he focuses on Pop Art’s 1960’s criticism that a “strict application of symmetry allowed a painter ‘to point to the center of the canvas.’” But in television, unlike a painting, what does this mean? In his work, Vito literally points to the center of a television, filming himself in this gesture for the 20-minute duration of his multimedia project. Kraus writes, it “is clearly intended to disrupt and dispense with an entire critical tradition.” Yet in so doing, Vito creates a narcissistic work that exemplifies, according to Strauss, possibly all video work. “Yet what does it mean to say ‘The medium of video is narcissism?’” Strauss highlights the difference between multimedia art and traditional art in that we are accustomed to psychology being a part of traditional, however not in psychology constituting the medium of art itself. In Vito’s work, there is separation between “objective, material factors” such as video aesthetics for video or pigment quality for painting. Instead, the medium is mental – a play on the mind instead of on the eyes. Using the eyes as the conduit to mental artistic expression. It is a fairly substantive and advanced method of conveying a message and owes much of its success to advanced critical thinking. Strauss analyzes the work so as to make it’s meaning more accessible. I’d enjoy the chance to delve into why Strauss uses the term “object-state” to contain her analysis. As it doesn’t make full sense upon first reading why. This will be food for thought in class. Terms defined: “The Simultaneous Reception” (TSR), “Projection of an Image” (PI), and “The Human Psyche used as a conduit” (HPC). Strauss attributes these three features to her psychological characterization of multimedia as a mental medium mediated by the human mind and discusses their effect on artistic recipients. | |||
| | Biography of the author. | Michael Widener was born and raised in Berkeley, California. He is a thoughtful, quality-focused web programmer with accomplishments in computer problem solving and Internet business start-ups. | |
