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Arts
Number of Followers: 5  Open Access journalISSN (Print) 2076-0752 Published by MDPI  [258 journals]
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- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 220: Paper Thin' The Evidence for 12th-Century
Gothic Design Drawings
Authors: Robert Bork
First page: 220
Abstract: No Gothic design drawings on paper or parchment have survived from the 12th century, and only a few have survived from the 13th century. For this reason, most recent scholars tend to concur at least broadly with Robert Branner, who argued in an influential 1963 article that such drawings were first produced only after 1200. This conclusion deserves critical re-examination, however, for two principal reasons. First, the continuity of the Gothic architectural tradition in both time and space strongly suggests that early Gothic builders used similar techniques to those used by their late Gothic successors. From this perspective, the lack of surviving design drawings from before 1200 seems likely to reflect their disappearance over time, rather than their not being used in the crucial period when the conventions of Gothic design and construction were first coming into focus. A second argument for the use of drawings in the 12th century comes from consideration of early Gothic buildings, whose complex and carefully calibrated forms would be literally inconceivable without such graphic aids. Churches such as Saint-Denis Abbey and Notre-Dame in Paris, for example, already display a level of geometrical sophistication and coherence that argues strongly for the use of scaled drawings in their original conception.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-24
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060220
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 221: “Lo que se ve, no se pregunta”:
Creating Queer Space in the Work of José Villalobos
Authors: Alana J. Coates
First page: 221
Abstract: This article examines the work of multidisciplinary artist José Villalobos through a queer Latinx lens using the theory of “disidentification” as put forth by José Esteban Muñoz and argues that Villalobos makes space for queer visibility and representation within Tejano norteño culture by subverting culturally specific objects that often perpetuate, sometimes violently, traditional Mexican and Mexican-American gender norms. By critically analyzing two artworks, Soledad (loneliness) (2022), a mixed-media triptych that takes the form of an ex-voto, and a performance, A Las Escondidas (Hide-and-Seek) (2019), this study demonstrates how Villalobos challenges gender-normative thinking in border culture through his artworks by incorporating the body and its adornments. Villalobos utilizes his body in his performances and the implied body in his installations and assemblages to critique and subvert homophobia. By doing so, he grafts queer identity onto norteño iconography to carve out space for representation and inclusion for himself and other members of the queer community.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-26
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060221
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 222: Tokenized and Tactile: Frank Stella’s
Geometries (2022)
Authors: J. Cabelle Ahn
First page: 222
Abstract: On 8 September 2022, the American artist Frank Stella launched a series of twenty-two digital art works minted as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in collaboration with Arsnl, the in-house platform by the Artist Rights Society (ARS). Titled Geometries, each “package,” included the NFT that would affirm ownership and the corresponding geometric model designed by Stella in JPG (image), MP4 (video), SLS (3D printing), GLB (virtual reality and model manipulation), and USDZ (augmented reality). This range of digital formats alludes to two of Stella’s innovations in this space: the license to remix and manipulate his models, and the ability to 3D print Geometries at any color, scale, and material. Taking Stella’s foray into the NFT-space as a starting point, my article focuses on an emergent trend by artists engaging with Web3: the effort to bridge the physical and the digital by giving tangible form to NFT artworks and what this suggests for the future of digital materiality. The paper at its core seeks to examine the relationship between the physical referents to NFTs at the very moment when new media returns to historical forms.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-26
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060222
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 223: Design in a Colonial Periphery: Guilds,
Artisans, and Non-Artisans in 18th-Century Sonsonate, El Salvador
Authors: José Ricardo Castellón Osegueda
First page: 223
Abstract: Historical studies on the subject of Central American design are scarce. This article attempts to fill the gap as well as to overcome the exclusive correlation of design with industrialization. It highlights the relationship in a space and time other than those studied customarily: in the present case, 18th-century Sonsonate, El Salvador. With this purpose, it analyzes crafts, based primarily on an unpublished census of 1787 housed in the Archivo Municipal de Sonsonate. Considering design as a practice inherent to human life, this paper argues that design was present in craft activity through the creation of products, becoming a key factor for survival in a colonial periphery and overcoming guild barriers. Research findings indicate the limitations of conceiving design in industrial societies as a construction of coloniality, positing also the need to advance a concept of design that addresses the cultural and historical realities of peripheral regions like Sonsonate.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-27
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060223
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 224: Old Is the New: Immersive Explorations in
Authors: Jenny Lin
First page: 224
Abstract: This article explores how diasporic Chinese video artists present familial histories and tales of cross-cultural exchange in the context of an exhibition I am curating, Another Beautiful Country: Moving Images by Chinese American Artists, at the University of Southern California (USC) Pacific Asia Museum. I discuss projects by featured artists Richard Fung and Patty Chang. These artists’ experimental documentaries and performative videos foster deep personal discoveries that defy the late-capitalist obsession with the new as defined by youth, novelty, and the next trend, providing revelatory insights through recuperative engagements with what has come before. In analyzing artworks by Fung and Chang, I also reference related texts by/about artists and historical figures including Walter Benjamin, Anna May Wong, and Zhang Ailing, who emigrated from the People’s Republic of China to the United States in the 1950s and whose special collections in the USC Libraries helped inform the exhibition’s programming. I also interweave my own related familial histories and share some (not-so-new) curatorial ideas for immersing audiences in intercultural art and reflection.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-28
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060224
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 225: Reconsidering the “Popular View”
(俗覧 zokuran): Tracing Vernacular Precedents in a Modern
Illustrated Hagiography of Kakuban 覺鑁 (1095–1143)
Authors: Matthew Hayes
First page: 225
Abstract: As a supplement to sermonizing, the use of images has been crucial to growing the lay Buddhist following in Japan since at least the tenth century. While it may be the case that Buddhist images, much more so than texts, have historically been better able to draw in popular audiences through their accessible means of communication, the emergence of contemporary literate audiences meant new modes of accessibility. This article explores both the textual and illustrative histories of a modern illustrated hagiography on the medieval Shingon Buddhist monk Kakuban 覺鑁 (1095–1143). By tracing earlier vernacular approaches to Kakuban’s narrative that emerged throughout the evolution of this hagiography, it becomes clear that images were merely auxiliary in their appeal to modern Japanese readers and that such an appeal had been a consideration for generations of Buddhist compilers. This example draws attention to the mutually constitutive relationship between otherwise traditionally distinct functions of text and image in Japanese Buddhist hagiography, but also common conceptual divisions between lay and monastic experiences and popular and elite reading practices.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-28
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060225
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 226: Correction: Leyda and Sulimma (2023).
Pop/Poetry: Dickinson as Remix. Arts 12: 62
Authors: Julia Leyda, Maria Sulimma
First page: 226
Abstract: In the original publication [...]
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-30
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060226
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 227: Crafting Recognition: Understanding Gendered and
Ethnicised Experiences in an Arts-Based Integration Project
Authors: Stella Grace Conard, Elena Horton
First page: 227
Abstract: In Denmark, heightened public interest surrounding migration politics has become embodied in the arts, leading to the development of migration-related arts projects. In this study we explore the experiences of women taking part in an arts-based integration project designed for migrant and Danish women to knit, sew, and crochet in female company, with a view to professionalise their handicrafts. Our findings, which are grounded in ethnographic fieldwork as well as interviews with members of the group, demonstrate how handicraft acts as a prism through which categories such as gender, class, and ethnicity are negotiated within the project. We found that group members’ national and cultural backgrounds shaped their different expectations and experiences in the project. The roles they occupied and their self-perception within the group were also shaped by other factors, such as their family status, their state of employment, and whether handicraft was more of a ‘hobby’ or a source of income. The study makes a case for appreciating the importance of social recognition. Understanding how these women perceived their own and each other’s work becomes a magnifier of the socio-political context in which the integration project is situated. Artistic practice both enabled members to respond to an integration and refugee discourse, while simultaneously positioning them within such frameworks.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-30
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060227
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 228: “Life Is a Poem”: Oral Literary and
Visual Arts of the Northwest Coast
Authors: Ishmael Khaagwáask’ Hope
First page: 228
Abstract: Elder Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Kheixwnéi, a poet and oral literary scholar and a mentor of the author, told the author “Life is a poem”. This essay will explore the ways in which the oral literary and visual arts of the Northwest Coast interact, how artists across multiple disciplines attain knowledge and develop as artists, and the ways in which the arts sing the poetry of Tlingit life. Examining the relationship between the arts will deepen one’s understanding of each art and illuminate how they inform and enrich one another.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-31
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060228
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 229: Amazonian Indigenous Artists as Agents of
Interface: Artworks, Networks, and Curation Strategies in the COVID-19
Crisis
Authors: Giuliana Borea
First page: 229
Abstract: In this article, I analyse how the COVID-19 crisis crystalised and fuelled the vigorous role of Amazonian indigenous artists as, what I call, “agents of interface”, enabling connectivity, translation, networking and bridging information, ontologies, claims, and aesthetics. With the pandemic’s spatial restrictions and the reduction of global activity in the arts with a return to focusing on the local, I argue that it is important to look at interfaces as arenas from which to understand further reconfigurations, actions, and values in the arts. Based on the project and exhibition Ite!/Neno!/Here!: Responses to COVID-19 co-curated by the indigenous artist Rember Yahuarcani and me, and on other various initiatives, this paper explores how Amazonian indigenous artists became crucial agents of the interface in four main arenas providing first-hand, real-time information of the impact of COVID-19 at Amazonian urban and rural settings, channelling networks of aid and curation, connecting different agents and worlds, and engaging in curatorial collaborations. I argue that by acting at the interface, artists have reinforced their voices, while pushing for redefinitions of and positions in the art system and suggest that the COVID-19 crisis has introduced a new moment in the configuration of Peru’s art scene.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-31
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060229
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 230: The Vicissitudes of Representation: Critical
Game Studies, Belonging, and Anti-Essentialism
Authors: Soraya Murray
First page: 230
Abstract: Video games are enjoying a flourishing of critical studies; they are finally taken as consequential forms of visual culture worthy of historical, theoretical, and cultural attention. At one time, their scholarship was largely overdetermined by issues of medium and treated largely as an entertainment product. But with the complexifying of the form, combined with a new generation of dynamic scholars and an expanded understanding of how to write about them, games now constitute a robust area of critical engagement with topics in race, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, ability, and other markers of difference. Those interventions have been key in driving the discourse forward, but game studies now faces a new set of strategic challenges. The gains have likely come at great methodological cost. This essay explores the consequences of identity-focused analyses and the roles of intersectional considerations of self and anti-essentialism as crucial tools in combatting enforced notions of belongingness. The author argues that the frontier of methodology in critical game studies may be to think outside of the prescribed ways in which academia encourages monolithic affiliation (or even false segregation) by validating and codifying identity-driven forms of expertise.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-01
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060230
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 231: Word, Image, and (Re)production in Francis
Picabia’s Mechanically Inspired Abstractions
Authors: Stephanie Chadwick
First page: 231
Abstract: Francis Picabia’s Bobinage (Bobbin, Winding or Coil) is a pencil and ink work produced on gouache-painted paper between 1921–1922. The free-floating forms in this piece appear, at first glance, to be studies in geometric abstraction. Yet, they, and the work’s title, make both semiotic and real-world references. The admixture of perspectives is notable, for it retains traces of the Cubist visual language that motivated Picabia and his peers as well as the imagery of the early twentieth-century technical diagrams that, as has been demonstrated by scholars, inspired his work. Examining Coil and other of Picabia’s artworks in tandem with the scholarship that has investigated these influences, this article explores the artist’s engagement with the very issue of representation. Through this investigation, this paper considers the ways in which Picabia’s work alludes to gender in a manner that privileges masculinity yet calls attention to the destabilizing effects of modernity—and modern representations—on notions about gender and, even, what it means to be human. Contextualized thusly, Coil represents not an abstract divergence but rather a continuation of the artist’s technical, gender, and, one could say, even cyborg investigations, revealing his engagement with new and innovative ways of perceiving, conceiving, and depicting modern experience.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-01
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060231
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 232: Ferdynand Ruszczyc: A Polish Painter at the
Crossroads of Cultures
Authors: Agnieszka Rosales Rodríguez
First page: 232
Abstract: The oeuvre of beloved Polish painter Ferdynand Ruszczyc (1870–1936) reflected the patriotic Neo-Romantic landscape trend of the fin-de-siècle prevalent in Germany and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden). It should be considered in the context of Nordic visual culture for two reasons: (1) until the affiliation of Central and Eastern European nations with the Soviet Union in the wake of World War Two, nations bordering the Baltic formed a single, fluid territory of cultural exchange, and (2) Ruszczyc’s oeuvre displays significant commonalities with dominant patriotic and Neo-Romantic trends of progressive artists around the Baltic Sea, where landscape became a vehicle for expressing dreams and emotions, as well as love of homeland. This article situates Ruszczyc’s national and artistic identity at the crossroads of cultures and artistic impulses, regional as well as international. Ruszczyc was born in Bohdanów near Vilnius (now Belarus) to a Polish father and a Danish mother. Like many Polish artists from the Russian partition, he was educated at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, where he studied with Ivan Shishkin (1832–1898) and Arkhip Kuindzhi (1878–1910). He also travelled to Sweden. Ruszczyc was influenced by the Russian art circle Mir Iskusstva (World of Art, est. 1898) and is often compared with Nordic (e.g., Akseli Gallen-Kallela; Finnish, 1865–1931) and German (e.g., Otto Modersohn; 1865–1943) artists. His visions of nature are sometimes raw monumental images of the northern landscape or fairy-tale fantasies containing symbolic allusiveness and a mythical, poetic element that evoke intimate memories of the land of his childhood. In his paintings, Ruszczyc presented the changeability of seasons, orchards, soil and streams, clouds formations, and tree trunks with palpable emotion. By exposing the material substance of nature, his paintings also reveal its mystical aspect, its ability to transform in accordance with the cyclical, cosmic rhythm of growth, maturation, death, and rebirth.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-02
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060232
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 233: Rethinking the Medieval Visual Culture of
Eastern Europe: Two Case Studies in Dialogue (Serbia and Wallachia)
Authors: Maria Alessia Rossi, Alice Isabella Sullivan
First page: 233
Abstract: This article explores how the visual culture of Eastern Europe has been studied and often excluded from the grander narratives of art history and more specialized conversations due to political and cultural limitations, as well as bias in the field. The history and visual culture of Eastern Europe have been shaped by contacts with Byzantium, transforming, in local contexts, aspects of the rich legacy of the empire before and after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. This study expands and theorizes the eclectic visual cultures of Eastern Europe during the late medieval period by focusing on two ecclesiastical buildings of the 14th century built under princely and noble patronage in regions of North Macedonia and Wallachia, respectively: the Church of St George at Staro Nagoričane, near Skopje, modern-day North Macedonia (1315–17) and Cozia Monastery in Călimănești, Wallachia, modern-day Romania (founded 1388). The 14th century was a transformative period for the regions to the north and south of the Danube River, establishing the contacts that were to develop further during the 15th century and especially after 1453.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-04
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060233
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 234: Who Is an Artist' Identity, Individualism, and
the Neoliberalism of the Art Complex
Authors: Amelia G. Jones
First page: 234
Abstract: The fantasized artist-as-origin began as the quintessential figure manifesting Enlightenment European concepts of individual autonomy and sovereign subjectivity—and thus of identity and meaning as these come to define and situate human expression as well as securing educated, middle-class, European white male hegemony in the Euro-American context. While we think of this conventional figure of the straight white male artist as old-fashioned, as having been relentlessly critiqued since the mid-twentieth century by artists, often from a feminist, queer, anti-racist, or decolonial perspective, this article asserts that the artistic author still drives much of the discourse as well as underlying the money and status attached to visual art today. Citing key works by a range of contemporary artists who have challenged these value systems—Cassils, rafa esparza, James Luna, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and Susan Silton—this article foregrounds the critique of whiteness and masculinity and the interrogation of capitalism and neoliberalism necessary to interrogating these structures of value attached to artistic authorship.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-06
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060234
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 235: The Future: Missing Children, Time Travel, and
Post-Nuclear Apocalypse in the Dark Series (Netflix)
Authors: Tomasz Łysak
First page: 235
Abstract: The concept of the post-apocalypse, a cultural imagination of nuclear energy, the temporality of trauma, and time travel are linked herein in order to arrive at a political reading of the Dark series. This show is a commentary on the phasing out of nuclear power in Germany in response to the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Two readings of this series are proposed: a meditation on the possible futures of the world (the possibility of reparative action and the post-apocalypse) and a traumatic narrative (the concepts of trauma and loss are crucial to understanding the plot, while both the visuals and the plot borrow from posttraumatic cinema). Nevertheless, the series plays by the rules of popular trauma culture, rules whereby a tragedy suffered by others serves the economic interests of the media.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-06
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060235
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 236: War and Contemporary Georgian Theatre
Authors: Lasha Chkhartishvili
First page: 236
Abstract: How is war and its consequences reflected in the theatre' How, in particular, has the Georgian theatre reacted to war, and to what degree does its presence impact Georgian theatre directors and audiences' When and under what circumstances do theatre companies stage plays on the theme of war' Since war never loses its relevance for Georgians, new texts are written continually on this topic and subsequently turned into plays, primarily by young directors. These productions grapple with the experience of war and its impact on the nation and its people, who are radically transformed by their individual histories. In addition, sometimes, they help to reveal hidden passions.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-07
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060236
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 237: Hollywood Genre, Cultural Hybridity, and Musical
Films in 1950s Hong Kong
Authors: Xiao Lu
First page: 237
Abstract: Following the trauma of the Second World War, Hong Kong, under British governance, enjoyed considerable economic and political freedom to establish a local entertainment industry. Musical films became a major genre of Hong Kong’s film releases in the 1950s. Local melodramas, Hollywood musicals, celebrities, and ideals of female beauty were all present in the growth of Hong Kong musical films, which culminated in a glorious display of cinematic art. This article aims to provide insight into the popularity of Chinese-speaking musical films by examining the social, economic, and political complexity of 1950s Hong Kong, including post-war migration and colonial censorship. An in-depth analysis of Li Han-Hsiang’s The Kingdom and the Beauty demonstrates how Hong Kong studios adapted the Hollywood musical to tell Chinese stories and how Hong Kong musical films incorporated Chinese literature and music to represent cultural memory, local identity, and modern aesthetics. This case study sheds light on the localization of a Hollywood genre and the hybridization of Chinese and Western entertainment forms to appeal to a Chinese audience, thereby broadening the definition of cultural hybridity and informing the practice of Hong Kong’s musical filmmaking.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-08
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060237
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 238: Architecture of Medieval Armenia as a Field of
Research for Russian and Italian Scholars: Comparative Analyses of the
Historiography
Authors: Armen Kazaryan
First page: 238
Abstract: For the first time in the literature, this study provides an analysis of the activities of two major architectural–archeological missions that investigated the architectural heritage of the Armenian Highlands: the Russian Ani Archaeological Expedition (1892–1893 and 1904–1917) and the Italian academic programs of the Universities of Rome and Venice and that of Milan Polytechnic (from 1966 to the 1980s). In this article, the results of the conducted research are compared, and their contribution to the development of the history of medieval architecture is evaluated. The differences in the results are related to the chronological distance between the missions, as well as the main focus of each work: the activities of the Russians are primarily archeological, while those of the Italian groups are architectural. The head of the Ani Institute, Nikolay Marr, set himself the task of exhibiting the original artifacts in the museum he had created in the medieval capital of Armenia, Ani, while the Italian professors relied on photography for both permanent and touring exhibitions. The second mission was in unspoken contact with the first, forming a kind of time-stretched dialog. Although, by the 1970s, almost none of the participants in Marr’s expedition remained alive, his scientific works were periodically being published, with some still waiting their turn in the scientific archives.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-09
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060238
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 239: Traumatic Female Gaze: Julia Pirotte Looking at
the Kielce Pogrom
Authors: Katarzyna Bojarska
First page: 239
Abstract: In this article, I analyze Julia Pirotte’s photographs of the immediate aftermath of the Kielce pogrom as a resource for conceptualizing the relationship between trauma and photography, gendered ways of seeing, memory and trauma, body and archive, vision and death, death and the archive, images and history, survival, and destruction. These specific atrocity pictures make a difference to contemporary conceptions of trauma photography and the female gaze in relation to racist, political violence. I work with theories that go beyond thinking about trauma and photography based on the Lacanian concept of tuché on the one hand, and Barthes’ punctum on the other. I investigate to what extent Pirotte’s documentation of the Jewish victims and survivors of the pogrom can be read as a belated encounter with the trauma of the Holocaust, and what it reveals about survival at the site of violence. The article is a work of a feminist academic oriented at reclaiming a space within the narrative on visual violence; the reflection on the female traumatic gaze is an element of a broader gesture aimed at reorienting the theory of atrocity pictures and documentations of political violence, as well as photography of trauma.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-09
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060239
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 240: A Brave New World: Maneuvering the Post-Digital
Art Market
Authors: Claudia Sofia Quiñones Vilá
First page: 240
Abstract: The digital revolution has launched myriad new technologies in the field of art and cultural heritage law, including digital art, NFTs (non-fungible tokens), artificial intelligence (AI)-generated art, virtual reality and reality augmentation, online viewing rooms and auctions, holograms, immersive experiences, and more. As a $67.8 billion industry, the art market is a global driver of innovation, international collaboration, and national economies, given its cross-border transactions. However, given the extremely rapid development of these new technologies, regulators have struggled to keep pace and implement legal measures that are fit for purpose in this field. Limited oversight has resulted in several claims that have the potential to change the legal landscape. For instance, claims over the theft/misappropriation of NFTs and the related fraud and money laundering that may ensue, as well as a recent class action copyright infringement suit against the creators of a popular AI algorithm and infringement claims over immersive installation and light technologies, demonstrate how new ways of thinking are required to assess cases involving digital property (distinguished from other types of non-tangible property). Moreover, the US Supreme Court has issued a landmark ruling on fair use within the copyright context, which will be relied upon in the future to determine whether (and to what extent) the appropriation of existing copyrighted material is permitted. This includes both the digital use of physical artworks and the use of born-digital works. Although jurisprudential decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, factual patterns involving online media, digital art, and related technologies could serve as guidance for legislators and other decision-makers when considering what limits should be imposed on Web 3.0. This article will focus on recent US-based claims and regulations and dovetail with existing art market regulations in this jurisdiction (e.g., anti-money-laundering statutes) to determine their impact on new technologies, whether directly or indirectly. Finally, the article highlights ongoing trends and preoccupations to provide an overview of the shifting legal landscape.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-16
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060240
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 241: Analyzing the Place of Isparta Governor’s
Building in the Urban Memory
Authors: Nurcihan Akdağ, Şefika Gülin Beyhan
First page: 241
Abstract: Public buildings, which have an essential place in the urbanization process, reveal their existence in the city through their location. Depending on the selection of the site, how memory is shaped and oriented or whether memory enters an extinction cycle forms the main problem of this study. Public spaces in the city center hold an essential place in urban memory. These spaces hold a place in the urban memory in terms of social and cultural architecture, which are elements that are built in line with the city’s administrative, educational, and military needs. Then, they become a remarkable part of a city’s social life. The main frame of the study is the Governor’s Office of the City of Isparta in the Mediterranean Region of Türkiye. This study aims to discuss the practices in which the social life of the city of Isparta takes place in the memory of the city. Several relevant official and other documents were obtained and examined to reveal the relationship between memory and place. The meaning of the building, news about the building, opinion articles, and texts were analyzed.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-21
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060241
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 242: Gudáang ‘láa Hl
ḵíiyanggang: I Am Finding Joy in Haida Repatriation and
Research
Authors: Lucy Bell Sdahl Ḵ’awaas
First page: 242
Abstract: Over 12,000 Haida belongings and 500 Haida ancestral remains were collected and locked away in museums at the height of colonization in the late 1800s to early 1900s. It has been my lifelong quest to undo the colonial harm done to my Ancestors and their belongings. With gudáang ‘láa, (joy) as a foundational philosophy and methodology, I am researching and telling the story of Haida repatriation and reconciliatory work with museums.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-21
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060242
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 243: Behind the Scenes: Insights on Pedagogy during
Implementation of an RbT Open Educational Resource
Authors: Susan Cox, Matthew Smithdeal, Michael Lee
First page: 243
Abstract: Research-based Theatre (RbT) offers a powerful stimulus for dialogue about the challenges of graduate supervisory relationships. This paper traces the implementation process for Rock the Boat, an open-access educational resource that includes four professionally acted scenes, a facilitator’s guide, and supplementary reading materials. The resource has been used extensively in online, in-person, and hybrid workshops to identify difficulties in graduate supervision, heighten awareness of power dynamics, and increase reflective practice among participants. Reflecting on lessons learned about the importance of pedagogy and practical logistics, we suggest that implementation aspects of RbT methodology are as vital as the creative and developmental.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-24
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060243
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 244: Global Cities in Transition: New York and Madrid
in the Films of Chus Gutiérrez
Authors: Sagrario Beceiro, Begoña Herrero, Ana Mejón, Rubén Romero Santos
First page: 244
Abstract: In her triple condition of emigrant, artist and woman, the work of Spanish filmmaker Chus Gutiérrez is a privileged and singular object of study. Through her filmography it is possible to approach the changes that have taken place in the cities on both sides of the Atlantic. Chus Gutiérrez resided in New York during the decade of the 1980s and returned to Madrid to witness the changes that this city was undergoing: from being the epicenter of a dictatorship to a democratic city. Her vision of both places is clearly reflected in two of her films: Sublet (1992) and El Calentito (2005). The protagonists profiled by Chus Gutiérrez in these films are young women who move through complex metropolitan spaces at a critical moment of their lives. Cities become another character, illustrating, pushing, or limiting their course; spaces in which the protagonists accept their differences and begin the search for their individual and collective identity.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-27
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060244
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 245: Housing the King’s Enslaved Workers in
the Spanish Caribbean
Authors: Pedro Luengo
First page: 245
Abstract: The construction of military edifices in Spanish Caribbean was overseen by engineers, as previous studies have largely shown, but forced labor played a key role in the processes, an understudied aspect. Hundreds of enslaved workers in San Juan de Puerto Rico or San Juan de Ulúa (Veracruz, Mexico) and thousands in Havana (Cuba) helped create the built environment of the Spanish empire in the eighteenth century yet both their significant physical presences and housing situations have not been discussed at large. Furthermore, general maintenance of these structures was one of the duties of military engineers serving in Spanish Caribbean and, thus, archival material should be rich in describing this aspect, yet very few plans or reports offer any information concerning enslaved workers’ habitations, apart from Havana’s galeras and some sections of San Juan de Ulúa, both unpublished until now. Recognizing that Spanish authorities paid little attention to the lodgings of their enslaved workers, this paper considers the forms of structures created by enslaved peoples for their lodgings. Through examples discussed in Havana and for San Juan de Ulúa, this study demonstrates that European architectural traditions were eschewed in favor of native and, likely, African customs. These examples offer unique insights into enslaved peoples’ living environments and expand our discussions into how race contributed to the diversity of architectural practices in the early modern Iberian world.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-11-29
DOI: 10.3390/arts12060245
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 6 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 180: Coming Home (2014) and Its Symptoms
Authors: Jun Lu
First page: 180
Abstract: This paper is an in-depth analysis of the Chinese movie Coming Home (2014), which mimics the way trauma works and brings the problem of memory into focus. I draw on a psychoanalytic perspective to interpret the storyline, characters, and metaphoric meaning embedded in the construction of the film. My analysis focuses on three symptoms displayed: forgetting, repetition, and historical void. As the most successful Cultural Revolution-related film in the Chinese-speaking world, Coming Home confronts the phenomenon of cultural amnesia and visualizes the subjective experience of struggling to remember.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-23
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050180
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 181: When the NFT Hype Settles, What Is Left beyond
Profile Pictures' A Critical Review on the Impact of Blockchain
Technologies in the Art Market
Authors: Daniel Chun
First page: 181
Abstract: In 2021, online marketplaces such as Nifty and Opensea gained popularity, and digital art creations, including Beeple’s pieces, made headlines worldwide. This attracted traditional fine art practitioners, artists, dealers, digital content creators, and crypto entrepreneurs who wanted to participate in this trend. Several significant investment and token-funded projects took place in Asia, fueling high hopes of revolutionizing the art market with nonfungible token (NFT) technology. However, the numbers suggest a different story, as NFT transactions have reached a historical low. Critics from both sides challenge the value of NFTs, and there is minimal empirical research on the topic of blockchain technologies in the art market. This paper explores the challenges and misunderstandings in the art market through the lens of the researcher’s insight as an art tech entrepreneur. Its aim is to provide an explorative account of the use cases of NFT and blockchain technology vis-a-vis the traditional art market. The paper discusses the current work in progress at the Art ID Standard consortium, covering decentralized identity, blockchain, and use cases, and provides insights into the implications of these challenges for artists, collectors, and the broader art ecosystem.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-24
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050181
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 182: “Vergis Mein
Nit”—Connectedness and Commemoration through Rings in the 16th
Century
Authors: Romina Ebenhöch
First page: 182
Abstract: By the end of the 16th century, finger rings in reverse glass painting technique became increasingly popular in Europe. Often, they are used in the context of signet rings with the monogram together with the coat of arms of its beholder depicted on the glass bezel. The following paper concentrates on nine finger rings of this group. Instead of an actual coat of arms though, these finger rings carry the device V(G)MN or FGMN (for-get-me-not) accompanied by a depiction of little blue forget-me-not flowers as the coat of arms. By collecting and describing the so far existing material, the paper aims to contextualize the use and function of the finger rings with the symbol of the forget-me-not flower in the fields of love, friendship and faith. Furthermore, it links the symbol of the for-get-me-not on finger rings and the imperative power of the written letters V(G)MN or FGMN to its tradition in German literature and texts.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-24
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050182
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 183: The Power of Glass: Craft Scotland Conference,
2022
Authors: Sarah Rothwell, Jessamy Kelly
First page: 183
Abstract: In 2022, the UN marked the International Year of Glass, celebrating the essential role glass has, and will continue to have, in society. One element of this celebration was the importance of glass within art and its history, which the Craft Scotland 2022 Conference: The Power of Glass looked to explore. The aim of the conference was to allow a range of individuals, be they academics, researchers, or students of glass and art history within Scotland and the UK, to access contemporary thought within an under-represented field in the UK craft sector. In this paper, we look to highlight the links between the aims of the International Year of Glass and the proceedings of The Power of Glass Conference, demonstrating how glass artists, makers, and designers are part of a growing international body of creatives who are using the communicative possibilities of glass as a vehicle in which to raise pertinent questions and platform unheard and overlooked narratives. Moreover, they seek to overturn perceived biases of what glass is and its future potential by placing their craft within an arena of judgement beyond discussions of process and technique and by elevating socio-political glass art on par with other forms of artistic protest and commentary.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-25
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050183
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 184: Activist Musicology and Informal Multimedia
Archives: The Case of YouTube Channel “Serbian Composers”
Authors: Bojana Radovanović, Miloš Bralović
First page: 184
Abstract: The YouTube channel “Serbian Composers” was founded in 2012 by four musicology students from Belgrade. As the first page dedicated to both art music and applied music of Serbian composers on this popular video-sharing website, over the past 11 years this channel has shown itself to be an excellent platform for the promotion, multi-media archiving, research, digitalization, and preservation of Serbian music. The founders of the channel—nowadays active researchers in the field—recognized the potential of YouTube for applied musicological work and worked diligently on making this channel the most reliable online source for anyone interested in Serbian composers and their works. In this article, we elaborate on what working on this channel throughout the years has entailed. We cover the realities of both the social media and internet presence of one such endeavor and situate the research in the domain of seeing YouTube as an informal multimedia archive. We also discuss the ongoing processes of collecting music and data, digitalization and preservation, selection and categorization, and the presentation of material on YouTube and other relevant social media platforms.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-27
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050184
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 185: “Once the Fire Starts Then There Is No
Stopping It”: The Revitalization of Chinookan Art in the 21st
Century, Conversations with Greg A. Robinson
Authors: Jon D. Daehnke, Greg A. Robinson
First page: 185
Abstract: Chinookan art centered on the Lower Columbia River and was created by Chinookan-speaking people living along the river and its tributaries. The style is unique, focusing on geometric forms, numerical patterns, and anatomical representation. It is embedded in Chinookan mythology and differs considerably from the more widely recognized Formline of Indigenous artists from the northern Pacific Northwest. It also receives less attention, both publicly and scholarly. Due to high rates of death along the Columbia from introduced diseases during colonial invasion, and high levels of looting that followed, Chinookan art nearly disappeared from the landscape. In the 21st century Chinookan art has had a resurgence, led by Chinookan practitioners. The resurgence occurs not only within individual households but also in public settings. This resurgence also includes an emphasis on teaching the style to youth, who learn that this is not just about making art but is integrally attached to culture more broadly, including connection to language, stories, protocols, and Indigenous identity itself. It is ultimately a source of pride, resilience, and resistance. As a result, where there were once generations who never saw a landscape with Chinookan art, there are now generations who will never know a landscape without it.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-31
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050185
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 186: La Serenissima in Cyprus: Aspects of Venetian
Art on the Edge of a Maritime Empire, 1474/89–1570/1
Authors: Anthi Andronikou
First page: 186
Abstract: This article investigates the manifestation of Venetian visual culture of the Renaissance in the island of Cyprus, which, between 1474/89 and 1570/1, stood as one of Venice’s Mediterranean colonies. To date, scholarship on panel and wall painting production of Venetian Cyprus has devoted careful attention to the infiltration of Italian details and styles in the broader sense—mainly drawn from the Italian Middle Ages—thus failing to notice any correlations between Cypriot visual arts and contemporary Venetian. In this study, I aim to provide an overarching perspective that will illuminate the presence and assimilation of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Venetian visual vocabulary in Cypriot artistic capital. With an emphasis on devotional painting, I will examine iconographic schemes, such as the Man of Sorrows and the Holy Conversation, and facets of stylistic and iconographic correspondences between the two territories. I will also probe the architectural function, purpose, and tenor of lunette-shaped panels in Cyprus and collate them with their Venetian equivalents. Put simply, I hope to flesh out the artistic contact Cypriot artists and their sponsors maintained with Venice rather than with Italy as a whole.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-31
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050186
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 187: The Orphic Gazelle: A Critical Iconology of the
Zoomorphic Trope in Franz Marc and Rainer Maria Rilke
Authors: Anna Casellato
First page: 187
Abstract: The article explores the curious landing of the gazelle in Franz Marc’s pictorial text (1913) and Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem (1907). An analysis of the iconographic and pictorial apparatus sets the foundations for a comparison to the poetic restitution of the same zoomorphic trope. Concepts from Visual Studies and recent iconological-anthropological schools of thought support a hypothesis of migration across time and medium of the gazelle’s symbolism and iconicity. Further, the critical iconology method reveals the possibility of autonomous expression for the zoomorphic trope in the idiosyncrasy produced by her torsion and gaze direction. Consequently, the gazelle offers a new path for decoding a precise historical and artistic attitude beyond expressionist pantheism. The implications of her alienating Orphic gaze are clarified when considered in contextual works and concern the visual projection towards a necessary turning point regarding Rilke’s and Marc’s ontological-aesthetic position. Beyond traditional symbolism, the gazelle depicts a transition toward formal experimentalism in the face of the impending First World War. It outlines the capacity of animal physicality to describe its genesis. Moreover, it illustrates the modern attitudes held towards culturally constructed change by distancing herself from hermeneutic overwriting while moving between precise ontological-aesthetic coordinates.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-01
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050187
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 188: The Medieval Chants for Ste Foy Considered
through the Prism of Their Nocturnal Performance
Authors: Henry Parkes
First page: 188
Abstract: The medieval cult of Ste Foy inspired several sets of liturgical chants, or historiae, including at least two that were probably made for use at Conques in the early eleventh century. Whilst it is widely understood that historia chants belonged within the liturgy of the Divine Office, this article explores the significance of two lesser-known parameters in their performance: their use during the nocturnal hours, above all during the lengthy service known as the Night Office, and their use alongside various modes of sensory augmentation that were employed on major feast days. By exploring these parameters as they might have applied to the medieval Abbey of Conques in the context of Ste Foy’s feast—using sources from Fleury and Saint-Bénigne, Dijon, wherever local evidence is lacking—the article draws attention to the ways in which historiae intersected with non-verbal modes of creativity within the performative frame of the Office liturgy. Ultimately, it argues for a more consciously multidisciplinary approach to this historically ‘musical’ genre.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-04
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050188
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 189: A Twisted Hand: Affective Iconography in Peter
Paul Rubens’s Adoration of the Magi
Authors: Koenraad Jonckheere
First page: 189
Abstract: After his return from Italy in 1608, Peter Paul Rubens received a commission to depict an Adoration of the Magi for the Statenkamer in Antwerp’s Town Hall. It was the first, grand display of his stylistic and iconographic innovations. By building on unexplored contemporary sources and close reading of the iconography, this article posits that Rubens’s canvas served as a questie on various matters under discussion at the time, and was designed to induce divergent affects in the beholders.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-04
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050189
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 190: “Pro-Raphaelites”: The Classical
Ideal in Religious Art and the Agency of Artworks in Estonia from 1810 to
1840
Authors: Liisa-Helena Lumberg-Paramonova
First page: 190
Abstract: This article analyzes Baltic German religious art based on examples from Estonia in the first half of the nineteenth century, focusing on artistic networks and the reclamation of a Renaissance classical ideal. Baltic German artists such as Friedrich Ludwig von Maydell, Gustav Adolf Hippius, and Otto Friedrich Ignatius were in contact with the Nazarenes, whose ideals were inspired by Raphael’s attempt to merge art and religion. The Nazarenes influence can be seen in Baltic German religious art, which favored idealized forms and followed on from the works of the Renaissance masters. In addition to presenting religious scenes, in the Baltic context, these artworks acted as mediators of European artistic heritage. The classical ideal was thus perpetuated by a tightly connected network in which Baltic German artists joined others in re-establishing the power of the European canon of art history.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-06
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050190
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 191: “Blast Off!”: The Afterlives of
Nostalgia in Su Yu Hsin’s Blast Furnace No. 2
Authors: Ellen Larson
First page: 191
Abstract: In her 2022 video installation, Blast Furnace No. 2, artist Su Yu Hsin explores the history of the German factory, Henrichshütte Ironworks. Namely, the artist focuses on Henrichshütte’s former blast furnace, which was bought by a Chinese steel mill in September 1989 and moved to China, where it operated until 2015. Now a state-owned museum, this former factory, located in Hattingen, Germany, is a snapshot of the past—a memorial of sorts for the region’s bygone industrial prosperity. The history and intercontinental movement of this blast furnace inspires Su’s affinities towards spaces located in-between shifting temporalities, identities, and changing environmental conditions within Hattingen and beyond. Su weaves archival materials, documentary film, and interview excerpts into a speculative narrative that connects the years 1989, 2022, and 2050. Blurring reality and imagination, the video follows the fictionalized trail of Lin, a Chinese translator who accompanied the dismantling of the blast furnace over thirty years ago. According to the narrative, Lin left behind an unfinished science fiction novel, which takes place in 2022. In Lin’s novel, the protagonist develops a utopian machine in the form of a blast furnace. With this apparatus, she sends herself into space with the goal of finding an alternative energy source to replace coal. Blast Furnace No. 2 constellates temporal spaces of socio-political and environmental nostalgia, predicated upon both remembered and imagined understandings of the past, present, and future. The work emphasizes contradictory gaps in between socially driven ideological systems and their afterlives, determined to memorialize what most would just as soon forget.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-06
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050191
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 192: Non-Fungible Tokens and Select Art Law
Considerations
Authors: Zeynep Ekinci
First page: 192
Abstract: Since 2021, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been a popular topic which has kindled the interest of art and technology enthusiasts and professionals. Some had very high expectations for the potential of NFTs, and in some cases, made an assessment for NFTs that go beyond the existing limits of NFTs. There have also been others who approached NFTs suspiciously and in some cases, described them as a hoax. The purpose of this study is to examine the important effects of NFTs on the art world and art law, and to consider NFTs’ current and potential impacts. In this context, this article first provides an introduction to NFTs and why the author finds it interesting to think about legal issues surrounding NFTs. After providing definitions of non-fungible tokens and highlighting technical aspects of NFTs, the article then discusses select legal issues surrounding NFTs, such as the importance of legal terms and conditions of an NFT purchase, legal qualifications of NFTs, artwork ownership, artwork authenticity, artwork provenance and intermediary liability for NFT sales. One of the aims of this study is to put forward clearly what should be expected of non-fungible tokens and their potential. Another objective is to underline the fact that the unique dynamics of the art world necessitate having a unique perspective for legal matters relating to them, which is satisfied with art law and its professionals. Ultimately, this paper aims to contribute to having a more comprehensive understanding of non-fungible tokens and their impact on the art world and surrounding legal questions.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-06
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050192
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 193: Cloudscapes over the Baltic Sea–Cloud
Motifs in Finnish, Swedish, German, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, and
Latvian Symbolic Landscape Painting around 1900
Authors: Emiliana Konopka
First page: 193
Abstract: The cloud motif, a significant one in the landscape painting of the 1890s and early 1900s, has been usually marginalized by scholars despite the fact that during this (Symbolist) period clouds became independent subjects of landscape painting in many European countries, especially in the Baltic Sea Region. Cloud imagery makes a robust appearance in Scandinavian, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, and Latvian art during the decades around 1900. The variety of symbolic meanings and possible interpretations of cloudscapes was impacted by cultural and literary associations that emerged with European Symbolism. There is a surprising resemblance of cloudscapes executed within the Baltic Sea Region, an examination of which reveals the complexity of artistic influence and the presence and wandering of motifs among artists.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-07
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050193
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 194: In Search of Context, In Search of Home
Authors: Sujata Goel
First page: 194
Abstract: In this text, the author outlines her personal narrative as a dancer and choreographer over twenty years. She traces her path of migration between the USA, India and Europe in search of artistic context and belonging. Her account addresses larger issues such as Orientalism and Eurocentrism in the global, contemporary dance sphere.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-07
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050194
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 195: Art and the City Fiction in Japanese American
Internment Camps: Sequels for Resiliency
Authors: Inmaculada Rodriguez-Cunill, Joseph Cabeza-Lainez, Maria del Mar Lopez-Cabrales
First page: 195
Abstract: This article delves into the creation a fictional city solely for the development of Japanese American internment camps and the way in which sustainable arts and crafts played a significant role in ensuring survival in such a hostile environment. To this aim, we searched the literature and reviewed archives, primarily from the American West Coast. We demonstrate that beyond adaptation to the circumstances, the visual representation of the new city’s settlement, founding, and daily activities, instead of adding to the typical panoptic or sombre prison imagery, remains inscribed in the images selected by the inmates, and that the use of such images precisely fostered the inmates’ resiliency. This leads us to deduce that such ’city fiction’ was necessary in this case for survival and endurance, and that its artistic representation was primarily incorporated into the State’s ideological apparatus. On the other hand, occasional fissures subtly seethed with the violence exerted in the camps. In this way, we conclude that the artistic activity itself justified the city fiction, among other situations, revealing the conditions of systemic violence and oppression faced by the internees. Within this framework, we deem that the artworks hereby generated constitute a paramount historical document for resiliency’s sake. The arguments contained herein are still relevant, because everywhere around the world, situations of exclusion and confinement of displaced immigrants, or simply those considered misfits, are repeated time and time again. Nor have we alleviated the issue in any way today, since we disregard the lessons learned from the past.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-11
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050195
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 196: The Death of Painting and Its Afterlife in
Morimura Yasumasa’s Portrait (Futago)
Authors: Kimiko Matsumura
First page: 196
Abstract: This essay performs a close reading of Morimura’s Portrait (Futago) to establish how the artist’s multi-media approach echoes 1980s declarations about the end of painting while also proposing alternatives for its historical and material afterlife. In many ways, the artist’s performances make the crises brought on by the emerging global economy visual, and as such pointed to a number of slow deaths: of painting, of capitalism, of Japanese tradition. But the images do not merely document the demise. Instead, they present a scenario in which multiplicities define contemporary being. By considering how the work engages with photography, performance, and painting, I argue that Morimura’s approach to modality pointed out inherently Western assumptions about painting as well as its incompatibility with a holistic global identity in the 1980s and 90s. Exploiting the stereotypes of his media, Morimura makes tangible painting’s complicity with Western hegemony and destabilizes it in ways that propose a new global subject.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-11
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050196
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 197: The Categorization of the Operetta Dance Genre
in the Táncművészet Magazine between 1952 and 1956
Authors: Emese Lengyel
First page: 197
Abstract: The aim of the Hungarian state socialist regime to renew the operetta art manifested in the transformation of operetta-playing via the setting of its main cultural objectives. Once private theatre organizations were disbanded in 1949, newly written and composed operetta pieces had to be adjusted to meet the expectations cultivated by those responsible for the drawing up of the contemporary cultural policies, not only in terms of theme, subject, and dramaturgy but also, as productions designed for stage performance. At that time, questions regarding the realm of operetta dance and choreography arose as significant professional issues. The remarkable case of operetta dance was brought to the notice of the larger professional community by an article written by choreographer Ágnes Roboz, which was published in 1952 in the Táncművészet magazine (1951). Due to its professional nature, this magazine served as a suitable platform for the discussion of the operetta dance genre. The present study reflects upon its publications from the period between 1952 and 1956. Throughout these years, 16 articles discussing the categorization of operettas were published. I aimed to analyze these primary sources according to their genre before presenting, juxtaposing, and contextualizing them. Thus, my objective is to gain a thorough understanding and comprehensive overview of professional discussions and arguments over 1950s operetta dances and choreographies.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-11
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050197
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 198: Knowledge Repatriation: A Pilot Project about
Making Cedar Root Baskets
Authors: Sharon M. Fortney
First page: 198
Abstract: This paper describes the first phase of a Coast Salish Knowledge Repatriation Project being coordinated by the Curator of Indigenous Collections and Engagement at the Museum of Vancouver, within the unceded, ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəýəm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. The goal of this knowledge repatriation work is to support cultural revitalization and language renewal through activities that generate learning opportunities for community members. These activities pivot around knowledge that has been lost due to urbanization, forced assimilation efforts, and other colonial activities that may have restricted access to traditional lands and resources, preventing knowledge transmission. This work is about shifting the focus from extractive projects, that benefit external audiences, to one that supports capacity building and cultural renewal within communities. This essay describes a project to reintroduce coiled cedar root basketry into communities within the Greater Vancouver area in the province of British Columbia, Canada.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-12
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050198
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 199: Reassessing the Gap: Transformations of the
High/Low Difference
Authors: Daniel Stein, Niels Werber
First page: 199
Abstract: Popular culture is a relational term that denotes the other side of the high culture coin (Hügel 2003, p [...]
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-13
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050199
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 200: Sign and Symbol in Picasso
Authors: Pepe Karmel
First page: 200
Abstract: Writers on the semiology of Cubism have often cited Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s 1946–48 descriptions of Cubism as a form of writing. They seem, however, to have overlooked Pablo Picasso’s 1945–48 statements about art as a sign language. The first section of this essay argues that Kahnweiler was in fact inspired by Picasso’s statements. The second section retraces the origins of semiology in nineteenth-century philology, its revival by Claude Levi-Strauss, his influence on critical theory, the rise of a semiological interpretation of Cubism, and the problems with this interpretation. The third section links Picasso’s 1945–48 statements about art as a sign language to his contemporary visual work; specifically, to his illustrations for Pierre Reverdy’s book of poems Le Chant des morts. The idea of art as a sign language is traced to Picasso’s 1924 drawings of “star charts” or “constellations”. However, Picasso’s 1945–48 designs using a similar vocabulary are analyzed as signifiers without signifieds—that is, as symbols, rather than signs.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-14
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050200
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 201: Riders in the Tomb: Women Equestrians in North
Chinese Funerary Art (10th–14th Centuries)
Authors: Eiren L. Shea
First page: 201
Abstract: For many women living in parts of present-day north China and Mongolia during the 10th to 14th centuries, equestrian activities were a part of daily life. Women of all social levels were expected to know how to ride from an early age. However, documentary evidence for women’s participation in equestrian activities during this period is sparse. This paper brings together materials that highlight the important role horse riding played in the lives of northern women during the 10th to 14th centuries from the funerary context. This study connects funerary objects with women’s participation in polo, hunting, warfare, and the Mongol postal system, among other activities. The synthesis of material evidence from tombs with period texts will illuminate the important role of equestrian activities in women’s lives and afterlives during this period.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-15
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050201
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 202: The Alcázar of Córdoba: The Seat
of Islamic Power in Al-Andalus
Authors: Alberto León-Muñoz
First page: 202
Abstract: In this paper, we show a synthesis of the recovered information in the most recent archaeological interventions of the occupied space by the architectural complex where the Omayyad seat of power and the following leaders of Córdoba were installed. As the most relevant aspects, we show the persistent continuity of the reoccupation and appropriation of the precedent buildings, the tight correlation with the Aljama Mosque, and the architectonic entity of the documented structures.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-18
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050202
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 203: Dravidian Futurities: A Creative Process
Authors: Meena Murugesan
First page: 203
Abstract: In this article, author and artist Meena Murugesan analyzes their creative process and research in the making of Dravidian Futurities, a multi-channel video installation with live performance. Methodologies of auto-ethnography, visual aesthetics, embodied movement practices, Tamil historiographies, queer futurities, caste analysis, and poetics are applied to treat the issues at hand. Dravidian Futurities draws connections between communities of South Indian and Sri Lankan Shudra and Dalit caste backgrounds, Dravidian, and Afro-Indian peoples, depending on the historical era examined. As someone of the Shudra caste, the author draws connections between agriculture, land, and earth, as being rooted in Shudra identities, and in opposition to brahminical systems. Therefore, the movement forms of somatics, improvisation, and nature-based embodiment practices are investigated as possible embodied inroads to grapple with caste within brahminized bharatanatyam. Notions of futurity and place-making are unearthed from the depths of the Indian Ocean with a hypothetical sunken landmass called Lemuria or Kumari Kandam that might have once connected South India, Sri Lanka, and Madagascar. Dravidian Futurities also dreams into existence this speculative landmass as a possible utopia we might co-build, similar to that which Dalit mystic saint Guru Ravidas imagined five hundred years ago with Begumpura (“land without sorrow”) as a casteless, stateless utopia.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-18
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050203
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 204: Clean-Up Workers (Deluxe Series): The Embodiment
of Waste Values and Aesthetics
Authors: Gayle Matthias
First page: 204
Abstract: Written from the perspective of practice-led research, this reflective case study rationalises and charts the production of ‘Clean-Up Workers (Deluxe Series)’—mixed media sculptures that embody notions of waste aesthetic, value and abjection. Integrating discourses surrounding waste theory and using the sink and plug as a metaphor to discuss Lacan’s theory of the objet petit a, the paper is presented as an autobiographical waste narrative. Production of a series of anatomical vacuum cleaners made from re-appropriated artwork found waste materials in the form of ‘pre-owned objects or materials’ and ‘by-products’ of a creative practice’, sit alongside crafted luxurious glass objects and speak of corporeal ageing, dysfunction and the domestic realm. Discarded objects take the form of car parts found in the non-places of the gutter. Through assemblage, these unique items’ ‘use-time’ is recontextualised and elevated as art objects viewed within a gallery arena.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-19
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050204
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 205: Andalusi Defensive Architecture through
Martín de Ximena Jurado’s Drawings (Mid-17th Century)
Authors: Luis José García-Pulido
First page: 205
Abstract: The antiquarian Martín de Ximena Jurado was a pioneer in the historical cartography of the old Kingdom of Jaén (Andalusia, Spain), where he tried to represent emblematic areas with their military defences with his particular graphic language. Not surprisingly, this territory has a high concentration of medieval fortifications. The data and drawings that he made of castles, towers, and defensive enclosures show a special interest in the militarisation of sites and places. He went beyond a simple toponymic study aimed only at finding a correspondence between the ancient name and the location of a settlement based on the evidence provided by coins and inscriptions. The medieval fortifications that he mapped were not drawn in ruins as one would expect they would be in the mid-17th century, but with their most characteristic construction elements. This fact gives it great relevance, as it represents the idealised hypothesis of the state of these constructions at the time of the Castilian conquest in the decades following the Almohad debacle in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212).
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-20
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050205
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 206: Jade for Bones in Hongshan Craftsmanship: Human
Anatomy as the Genesis of a Prehistoric Style
Authors: Sandrine Larrivé-Bass
First page: 206
Abstract: Jade artifacts produced in prehistoric China continue to generate extensive scholarly interest. In the absence of textual data, inferring how works functioned in Jade Age communities remains challenging. This paper focuses on Hongshan 红山 culture (4500–3000 BCE) jades, a distinctively styled corpus primarily recovered from late fourth millennium BCE graves in northeastern China. Recent finds within and beyond the Hongshan core zone have enriched the jade inventory and expanded the known scope of its stylistic variations. The analysis sheds light on enigmatic types, reveals the complex representational nature of this corpus, and clarifies the mimetic intentions that resulted in the soft rounded forms characteristic of the style. Most objects examined were unearthed at Hongshan ceremonial centers and have sound excavation pedigrees. Their study relies on contextual archaeological data and comparative visual analysis and draws on the broader Hongshan material world. Further considerations include environment, funerary practices, materiality, cognition, and human anatomy. Ultimately, the paper uncovers new paradigms of figural representation that should open fresh investigative avenues for specialists of early China. Preliminary evaluation of jades unearthed further south at Lingjiatan 凌家滩 and Liangzhu 良渚 sites suggests that some late Neolithic societies adopted Hongshan practices. Current evidence hints at members of prehistoric communities attempting, through jade works, to rationalize their physical circumstances and assert their social power by symbolically fusing with elements of their environments.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-21
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050206
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 207: The City of Muses Project: Creating a Vibrant
and Sensual Metropolitan Landscape through Architecture
Authors: Antonella Contin
First page: 207
Abstract: The Metropolitan Architecture Project aims to create an artistic metropolitan landscape, which captivates visitors. It focuses on the relationship between the form’s image and the surrounding context, emphasising the structural image in architectural design. The project draws inspiration from the City of Muses Project, incorporating a symbolic mediator as a propeller, which represents the connection with the contemporary society’s cultural symbols and bridges the gap between the past, present and future. The methods employed in the Metropolitan Architecture Project involve integrating artistic elements into the metropolitan landscape. This includes incorporating the symbolic mediator and designing the structural image to interact harmoniously with the surrounding environment. The project has successfully introduced a new type of built form characterised by a relational figure and a vibrant and sensual image. By embracing this approach, the architectural design actively engages with the environment and enhances the overall architectural experience. The Metropolitan Architecture Project demonstrates the significance of incorporating an artistic dimension in creating a metropolitan landscape. The project achieves a captivating and interactive architectural design by considering the dynamic relationship between the form, context and structure. This understanding of architecture contributes to a deeper comprehension of the society which constructs it, resulting in a rich and engaging architectural experience.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-22
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050207
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 208: The Shape of International Art
Purchasing—The Shape of Things to Come
Authors: Benjamin Duke
First page: 208
Abstract: This article is about the role of cryptocurrencies, for example, decentralized autonomous organisations (DAOs) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), in the international art market. These are cryptocurrencies which can be used to work with local governments to deliver non-state-funded consultancy in, for example, funding bid writing or community risk assessment. Self-polycentric and cause-based DAOs typically focus on actively listening to their token owners, utilizing the group’s skills under a transparent incentive structure fostering trust. This article delivers a critical evaluation of DAOs as an organisational management structure and business operations vehicle. This evaluation considers DAOs’ utility in supplying goods and services, through the critical lens of facilitating the international art market. The objective of this article is to raise wider awareness and understanding of DAOs as a legal entity. This paper acts to introduce the uninitiated to the business, societal value and legal uncertainties of DAOs and NFTs. DAOs are internet-based organisations built upon a set of instructions presented in and controlled by a computer programme, i.e., a smart contract. Effectively, DAOs are an artificial, electronic, online, digital technology entity, with no physical form.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-22
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050208
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 209: Sonorous Touches: Listening to Jean-Luc
Nancy’s Transimmanent Rhythms
Authors: Adi Louria Hayon
First page: 209
Abstract: Luigi Russolo’s Intonarumori together with his manifesto L’arte dei rumori (1913) marked a break with the art of clear signification. From here on, noise and dispersed sounds replaced the concept of music reverberating the harmony of the spheres by propelling the quandaries of immanence contingent on palpable resonance performing the differential relational manner of heterogeneous existence. This somatic turn is central to Jean-Luc Nancy’s Listening, where he proposes listening as a tangible fundamental resonance rumbling the corpse sonore. This paper elaborates on the move from the art of music to the plurality of rhythmic worlds. Nancy’s proposition of sonorous existence demonstrates two movements, one that retreats from hearing the Pythagorean musical-arithmetical cosmos exhibited in Robert Fludd’s Monochord, the other plays the singular plural pulsations of dispersed creation performed by Michael Snow’s Tap.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-25
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050209
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 210: The Community Museum of Sierra Hermosa
(Zacatecas): Rethinking the Museology, Landscapes, and Archives from the
Desert
Authors: Natalia De la Rosa
First page: 210
Abstract: This article presents the methodology and collective work strategies that constitute the Club de Lectura y Museo Comunitario de Sierra Hermosa (Sierra Hermosa Community Museum and Reading Club) in Zacatecas, Mexico, a space founded by visual artist Juan Manuel de la Rosa, a native of this place. The museum emerged as a small library in 2000; and a short time after its founding, the museological program incorporated textile workshops and an exhibition gallery for a collection organized with local and external donations. It also operates with a system of rotation within the town. This article reviews the historical, theoretical, and critical implications around the conception and action of the museum, with a focus on the colonial and the migration status that sustains the reality and history of this rural locality, situated on the Tropic of Cancer in the north of Mexico. In the context of extreme violence, extractive politics, and migratory crisis in Zacatecas, this article analyzes two artistic productions by the local painter Luis Lara and artist Cristóbal Gracia, developed in the context of this experimental and rural museum curatorial program. Moreover, this article redefines concepts such as the border, mobility, and cultural contact in an artistic, museological, and pedagogical context, and proposes alternatives to study Sierra Hermosa’s memory, history, and landscape.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-25
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050210
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 211: Post-Merge Carbon Footprint Analysis and
Sustainability in the NFT Art Market
Authors: Zhongbo Tian
First page: 211
Abstract: The market for non-fungible token (NFT) art is expected to reach USD 44.2 billion in 2021 and increase by 67.57 percent in 2022, revolutionizing the relationship between artists, collectors, and investors. Despite this, concerns regarding the environmental impact of blockchain technology’s high energy consumption persist. NFT art transactions will continue to generate significant carbon emissions after Ethereum’s “Merge” to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system in September 2022, rendering many low-carbon solutions obsolete and necessitating further research into post-Merge alternatives. This study identifies solutions in the NFT art market, such as carbon neutrality, lazy minting, alternative consensus mechanisms, Layer 2 solutions and policy interventions. Carbon neutrality is achieved through investments in renewable energy or carbon credits to mitigate emissions generated by NFT art transactions. Lazy minting reduces energy consumption by postponing the creation of NFT art until a buyer is secured. In the NFT art ecosystem, alternative consensus mechanisms such as Proof of Authority (PoA) and Proof of Spacetime (PoST) reduce energy consumption. By offloading transactions from the primary blockchain, Layer 2 solutions enhance scalability and reduce energy consumption. Carbon taxes and energy consumption levies are examples of policy interventions that promote cleaner energy sources in the NFT art market. This study will explore the role of artists, collectors, galleries, and other significant players in encouraging environmentally sustainable practices in the NFT art market. In addition, it will investigate the effect of prominent NFT art sales on carbon emissions and the adoption of eco-friendly alternatives. By integrating and optimizing current carbon reduction strategies, the NFT art market can continue to flourish while reducing its environmental impact. The study emphasizes the significance of implementing a comprehensive strategy that incorporates multiple solutions that are tailored to the specific challenges of the NFT art market.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-25
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050211
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 212: Comprehensive Analysis of the Trade of NFTs at
Major Auction Houses: From Hype to Reality
Authors: Christine Bourron
First page: 212
Abstract: On 11 March 2021, amidst the lingering grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, the art world witnessed an extraordinary event. Christie’s, the renowned auction house, hosted a groundbreaking auction counting just one lot: a Non-Fungible Token (NFT)—a digital asset that had been generating buzz in recent times. The astounding price fetched by the NFT sent shockwaves through the art world. While the 255-year-old auction house was known for selling unique assets, its auctioning of an NFT was surprising as Christie’s online marketplace was not on the blockchain, contrarily to NFT platforms such as Opensea, Nifty Gateway, etc. The resounding success, however, of its historic auction was followed by a surge of NFT off-chain sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips. While extensive research has been done on the trade of NFTs on the blockchain, little research exists on the trade of NFTs at public auction houses. Based on more than two years’ tracking of NFTs auctioned at major auction houses, our research identifies three phases in the development of the trade and provides valuable insights into the unique factors that contributed to the growth of NFTs at public auctions between the springs of 2021 and 2023.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-07
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050212
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 213: Contemplating Light: Experiencing Victor
Moscoso’s Psychedelic Lithographs in the Museum
Authors: Aleisha Barton
First page: 213
Abstract: Beginning in 1966, Victor Moscoso designed many of his psychedelic posters for the stroboscopic light shows of the San Francisco dance halls. Moscoso innovated a new mode of print that depended on its environment—kinetic lithography, a product of creative experimentation. He developed multiple iterations of this medium; however, installing it outside of its original context of the psychedelic dance hall continues to pose a unique challenge for preparators and curators alike. Today, museum display of his works relies upon experimental settings to activate his site-specific design. This article considers how immersive displays and antistatic artworks demand a new kind of relationship between visitor and artwork by decentering the museum’s longstanding emphasis on the optical, a regime that has long served to frame posters and ephemera in contexts of display rather than as active objects. By analyzing two recent exhibitions displaying Moscoso’s kinetic lithographs (The Summer of Love Experience, 2017, and Moscoso Cosmos, 2021), this article considers the mechanics of the print itself, curatorial decisions, and visitor engagement to assess the site-specific demands of a genre-bending medium.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-09-27
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050213
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 214: Aleijadinho’s Mestiço Architecture
in Eighteenth-Century Brazil: Inventing Brazilian National Identity via a
Racialized Colonial Art
Authors: Laura Ammann
First page: 214
Abstract: Antônio Francisco Lisboa (Aleijadinho) is arguably the most famous Brazilian colonial artist, known for his Baroque sculptures and architecture. The reception of his life and work, which often centered on biographical aspects such as his mestiço identity and his disability, conferred him a mythological positioning in Brazilian history. From the first sources from the 19th century to the modernist reappraisal of the Colonial Baroque in the 1920s, Aleijadinho became a foundational figure in the construction of Brazil’s post-colonial nationhood. This article contributes to the understanding of the mythification of Aleijadinho, paying special attention to how his mestiço identity was articulated in the essays of the Brazilian modernist Mário de Andrade.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-10
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050214
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 215: The Soviet and Stalinist Works of the Michell
Wolfson Jr. Collection
Authors: Matteo Fochessati
First page: 215
Abstract: This paper offers a survey of the Soviet propaganda works collected by Mitchell (Micky) Wolfson Jr. since there 1980s and now preserved at the Wolfsonian—FIU (Florida International University) in Miami Beach and at the Wolfsoniana—Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura in Genoa. The first collection to include the art of the regimes in a larger panorama of cultural production, the Wolfsonian offers, through a critical interpretation of the Soviet propaganda works within linguistic pluralism, a clear and immediate visual narrative of the history of the twentieth century.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-10
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050215
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 216: Manifesting Rights on Cloth: Regalia and
Relations on the Northwest Coast
Authors: Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse
First page: 216
Abstract: Using buttons and beads sewn on wool and calico, Northwest Coast First Nations women fashion the robes and aprons essential to ongoing expressions of inherited prerogatives and rights. Each piece of regalia is carefully crafted to include signifying materials and motifs, telling of the origins or relations of their owners. These creations exist as part of a holistic system that integrates material artworks within ceremony, including song, dance, and oratory, which in turn uphold the laws expressed through potlatching. Shifting scholarly focus from Northwest Coast carving traditions, this paper recenters textile arts within a holistic, culturally focused context while addressing issues of gender, the effects of colonial practices, and the damage wrought by salvage anthropology as it fragmented cultural information across archives. Women’s artistic productions embody long-held technical and aesthetic knowledge connected to oral histories and cultural practices. Restoring Indigenous perspectives connecting tangible and intangible cultural heritage counterbalances the aesthetic emphasis that has dominated Northwest Coast art history.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-13
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050216
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 217: The Corpse and Humanist Discourse: Dead Bodies
in Contemporary Chinese Art
Authors: Madeline Eschenburg
First page: 217
Abstract: In the 1990s, a notable trend in contemporary Chinese art was the use of human corpses as material for installation art. These works were called derivative and societally harmful by critics and have been dismissed as anomalous in more recent scholarship. This paper will demonstrate that the use of corpses was the continuation of a a decade-long attempt to free art from a perceived unhealthy relationship with society through ridding the human body of ideological meaning. I argue that the use of dead bodies marks a metaphorical end to this preoccupation within the contemporary Chinese art world and paved the way for a fundamental shift in the way artists approached society as a whole.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-18
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050217
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 218: Colonial Carpenters: Construction, Race, and
Agency in the Viceroyalty of Peru during the 16th and 17th Centuries
Authors: Francisco Mamani Fuentes
First page: 218
Abstract: This article examines colonial documents to shed light on the presence of non-white carpenters in the carpentry trade during the first two centuries of Spanish colonial rule in Peru. It first offers a general definition of carpentry work during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and then explores the specific environments in which Indigenous, black, and mixed-race carpenters carried out their activities. Through this analysis, it becomes evident that the agency of non-white individuals and groups in the carpentry trade was shaped by the diverse labor systems that predominated in colonial society.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-18
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050218
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 219: “Amphions Harp gaue sence vnto stone
Walles”: The Five Senses and Musical–Visual Affect
Authors: Katie Bank
First page: 219
Abstract: In 1582 George Whetstone described the feeling of entering a barren Great Chamber the morning after a night of sparkling social and musical entertainments. Recounting the previous night’s activities, he reflected on the relationship between musical activity and space, saying ‘the Poets fayned not without reason, that Amphions Harp gaue sence vnto stone Walles’. This article explores the complex relationships between sensing, sociability, activity, and space through an in-depth examination of a late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English interior design trend: personifications of the Five Senses. Using active imagining, it considers how the Five Senses engaged early modern English subjects in a dialectic between sensory/bodily absence and presence as a mode for exploring the precarious pleasure of holding the passions on the edge of balance. Looking at the spatial and musical-ritual framings of the Five Senses decoration at Knole House, Kent, it investigates how feeling, sensing bodies experienced musical–visual sensory interplay in early modern elite households. It seeks to better understand the aesthetic, emotional experiences of those who gave life to the musical, social situations in such spaces.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-10-23
DOI: 10.3390/arts12050219
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 5 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 146: Tactual Articulatory Feedback on Gestural Input
Authors: Bert Bongers, G. C. van der Veer
First page: 146
Abstract: The role of the sense of touch in Human–Computer Interaction as a channel for feedback in manipulative processes is investigated through the research presented here. The paper discusses how information and feedback as generated by the computer can be presented haptically, and focusses on the feedback that supports the articulation of human gesture. A range of experiments are described that investigate the use of (redundant) tactual articulatory feedback. The results presented show that a significant improvement of effectiveness only occurs when the task is sufficiently difficult, while in some other cases the added feedback can actually lower the effectiveness. However, this work is not just about effectiveness and efficiency, it also explores how multimodal feedback can enhance the interaction and make it more pleasurable—indeed, the qualitative data from this research show a perceived positive effect for added tactual feedback in the overall experience. The discussion includes suggestions for further research, particularly investigating the effect in free moving gestures, multiple points of contact, and the use of more sophisticated actuators.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-10
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040146
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 147: Challenges and Opportunities of Force Feedback
in Music
Authors: Christian Frisson, Marcelo M. Wanderley
First page: 147
Abstract: A growing body of work on musical haptics focuses on vibrotactile feedback, while musical applications of force feedback, though more than four decades old, are sparser. This paper reviews related work combining music and haptics, focusing on force feedback. We then discuss the limitations of these works and elicit the main challenges in current applications of force feedback and music (FF&M), which are as follows: modularity; replicability; affordability; and usability. We call for the following opportunities in future research works on FF&M: embedding audio and haptic software into hardware modules, networking multiple modules with distributed control, and authoring with audio-inspired and audio-coupled tools. We illustrate our review with recent efforts to develop an affordable, open-source and self-contained 1-Degree-of-Freedom (DoF) rotary force-feedback device for musical applications, i.e., the TorqueTuner, and to embed audio and haptic processing and authoring in module firmware, with ForceHost, and examine their advantages and drawbacks in light of the opportunities presented in the text.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-10
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040147
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 148: Feeling Connected: The Role of Haptic Feedback
in VR Concerts and the Impact of Haptic Music Players on the Music
Listening Experience
Authors: Tara Venkatesan, Qian Janice Wang
First page: 148
Abstract: Today, some of the most widely attended concerts are in virtual reality (VR). For example, the videogame Fortnite recently attracted 12.3 million viewers sitting in homes all over the world to a VR Travis Scott rap concert. As such VR concerts become increasingly ubiquitous, we are presented with an opportunity to design more immersive virtual experiences by augmenting VR with other multisensory technologies. Given that sound is a multi-modal phenomenon that can be experienced sonically and vibrationally, we investigated the importance of haptic feedback to musical experiences using a combination of qualitative and empirical methodologies. Study 1 was a qualitative study demonstrating that, unlike their live counterparts, current VR concerts make it harder for audiences to form a connection with artists and their music. Furthermore, VR concerts lack multisensory feedback and are perceived as less authentic than live concert experiences. Participants also identified a variety of different kinds of touch that they receive at live concerts and suggested that ideal VR concerts would replicate physical touch and thermal feedback from the audience, emotional touch, and vibrations from the music. Specifically, users advocated for the use of haptic devices to increase the immersiveness of VR concert experiences. Study 2 isolated the role of touch in the music listening experience and empirically investigated the impact of haptic music players (HMPs) on the audio-only listening experience. An empirical, between-subjects study was run with participants either receiving vibrotactile feedback via an HMP (haptics condition) or no vibrotactile feedback (control) while listening to music. Results indicated that listening to music while receiving vibrotactile feedback increased participants’ sense of empathy, parasocial bond, and loyalty towards the artist, while also decreasing participants’ feelings of loneliness. The connection between haptics condition and these dependent variables was mediated by the feeling of social presence. Study 2 thus provides initial evidence that HMPs may be used to meet people’s need for connection, multisensory immersion, and complex forms of touch in VR concerts as identified in Study 1.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-10
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040148
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 149: Design and Evaluation of a Multisensory Concert
for Cochlear Implant Users
Authors: Razvan Paisa, Doga Cavdir, Francesco Ganis, Peter Williams, Lone M. Percy-Smith, Stefania Serafin
First page: 149
Abstract: This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of vibrotactile concert furniture, aiming to improve the live music experience of people with hearing loss using hearing technology such as cochlear implants (CI). The system was the result of a series of participatory design sessions involving CI users with different hearing assistive setups (bi-implant, bimodal, and monoimplant), and it was evaluated in a concert scenario (drums, bass, and female vocals) at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. The project aimed to improve the music appreciation for CI users by providing a multisensory concert designed with CI challenges in mind, but not excluding normal-hearing individuals or individuals with other forms of hearing aids from participating in the event. The evaluation was based on (video-recorded) observations and postexperience semistructured interviews; the data were analyzed using event analysis and meaning condensation. The results indicate that tactile augmentation provides a pleasant experience for CI users. However, concertgoers with residual hearing reported being overwhelmed if the tactile stimulation amplitude exceeds a certain threshold. Furthermore, devices that highlight instrument segregation are preferred over ones that present a tactile mixdown of multiple auditory streams.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-10
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040149
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 150: All Is Not Well: Contemporary Israeli Artistic
Practices de-Assembling Dominant Narratives of Warfare and Water
Authors: Margherita Foresti
First page: 150
Abstract: Well (2020) is an installation by Israeli artists Noga Or Yam and Faina Feigin. It investigates the story of an underground passage in Tel Aviv designed by a British Mandate-era Jewish architect. Starting from this building, the artists’ archival research leads them to the story of a water source which does not figure in the architect’s plan. While the story of the well is unearthed, so is one about the tense relations between the Jewish architect and the Palestinian orange merchant who inhabited the site before 1948. By restaging a hypothetical archive, Well reminds us of the problems inherent in narrative formation and erasure in the context of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. Noga Or Yam also examined space and water in an earlier work, Black Soldier, White Soldier (2018): with the background sound of water drilling in southern Israel, urban photographic landscapes of Palestinian rooftops covered with water tanks are projected onto the walls. Water, either concealed or lacking, emerges in both works as a vehicle for unearthing a historical narrative that counters the official one. This research article reflects on contemporary art’s engagement with the formation of history, and how such engagement shapes the identity of present-day art in postcolonial realities.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-11
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040150
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 151: Looking at the Evidence of Local Jewelry
Production in Scythia
Authors: Oksana Lifantii
First page: 151
Abstract: This article considers finds from the Scythian monuments of the North Black Sea area that can be connected to local jewelry production from the 7th century to the end of the 4th century BCE. I wish to draw attention to the problem of prolonged bias in this area of study. The prominence of the famous masterpieces by West Asian artisans (Lyta Mohyla and Kelermes Kurgans) and of the Greco-Scythian goldwork from the North Pontic kurgans (Chortomlyk, Solokha, Tovsta Mohyla, etc.) invited the view that the vast majority of the gold objects that the Scythians used during their lifetime and later took into their graves were imported rather than locally produced. Instead of trying to consider all artifacts that could potentially be Scythian-made, my goal in this article is to review the direct archaeological evidence of local jewelry production in the form of punches, matrices, and recorded cases of workshops at Scythian settlements. Gathering this evidence, as I will argue, gives us compelling insight into the high level of Scythian goldsmithing from the beginning of Scythian culture in the 7th century BCE and its improvement and adaptation of new techniques in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE, probably in the context of intensified cultural exchanges between Scythians and Greeks.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-11
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040151
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 152: Spectator as Witness: Trauma and Testimonio in
Contemporary Cuban Art
Authors: Katherine Mato
First page: 152
Abstract: The current scholarship on testimonio largely focusses on its application in literature, failing to address the genre’s possibilities beyond written and spoken narratives. However, voices that exist outside of the literary realm have employed testimonio-driven strategies to produce witness accounts of events and experiences that were previously ignored by or erased from the collective consciousness. Broadening the genre’s scope, this article examines visual manifestations of testimonio in contemporary Cuban and diasporic art, focusing on works by Coco Fusco, Felix González-Torres, and Ana Mendieta that speak to personal and collective experiences of trauma. Experiences associated with exile, displacement, and erasure are particularly relevant to this article, as the artists in focus identify as dissident, immigrant, Latinx, queer, woman, and/or Other. Given the growing interest in accessible approaches to reworking trauma, this article contributes towards the current scholarship on nuanced understandings of healing, ultimately participating in uncovering the complexities of living through and with trauma. The works discussed offer critical reflections related to the AIDS crisis, colonization, and violence against female and Latinx bodies, which have produced personal, collective, and generational traumas that are rarely acknowledged by Western societies. Therefore, by employing a framework centered on testimonio, this article reveals possibilities for marginalized and minoritized spectators to partake in the reworking of trauma through witnessing, while also illuminating, the limitations of art’s healing capabilities for victims.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-11
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040152
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 153: More than a Man, Less than a Painter: David
Smith in the Popular Press, 1938–1966
Authors: Paula Wisotzki
First page: 153
Abstract: Media coverage was vital in establishing the popular reputation of the Abstract Expressionists. Reporting regularly relied on photographic portraits to present these artists as modernist innovators who were an extension of (or even a replacement for) the work of art. Jackson Pollock came to epitomize the Abstract Expressionist artist, with “action” photographs capturing his radical painting method. Pollock’s contemporary, American sculptor David Smith, similarly transformed his medium—in his case by embracing industrial methods to make three-dimensional objects. However, given the constraints inherent in the process of welding he employed, how could Smith’s image be reconstituted as a celebration of artistic individuality so crucial to modernism' The very method Smith embraced to push the boundaries of art kept him from representing the genius creator who channeled the forces of nature to produce culture. By tracing photographs documenting his career published in local and regional newspapers, popular magazines from Popular Science to Life, and mass art magazines from Magazine of Art to Arts, this paper demonstrates that images of Smith at work as an anonymous industrial worker enveloped in protective gear were regularly balanced with images of contemplation—the traditional image of the artist as mediating intelligence. Yet, over the years of his career, the problem of representing Smith was addressed somewhat differently. Early on, there was a tendency to show Smith applying his novel art-making techniques to the production of more traditional objects. During World War II, when Smith was employed as a commercial welder, Smith the artist legitimized reporting on Smith the worker. Finally, in the post-war world—as Smith benefited from the burst of publicity surrounding the triumph of Abstract Expressionism—his rigorous manipulation of metal was celebrated as masculine display, effectively shifting attention away from common industrial labor to heroic individual struggle.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-12
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040153
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 154: Exploring the Opportunities of Haptic Technology
in the Practice of Visually Impaired and Blind Sound Creatives
Authors: Jacob Harrison, Alex Lucas, James Cunningham, Andrew P. McPherson, Franziska Schroeder
First page: 154
Abstract: Visually impaired and blind (VIB) people as a community face several access barriers when using technology. For users of specialist technology, such as digital audio workstations (DAWs), these access barriers become increasingly complex—often stemming from a vision-centric approach to user interface design. Haptic technologies may present opportunities to leverage the sense of touch to address these access barriers. In this article, we describe a participant study involving interviews with twenty VIB sound creatives who work with DAWs. Through a combination of semi-structured interviews and a thematic analysis of the interview data, we identify key issues relating to haptic audio and accessibility from the perspective of VIB sound creatives. We introduce the technical and practical barriers that VIB sound creatives encounter, which haptic technology may be capable of addressing. We also discuss the social and cultural aspects contributing to VIB people’s uptake of new technology and access to the music technology industry.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-13
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040154
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 155: Exploring the Legality of Artists’ Use of
Animals: Ethical Considerations and Legal Implications
Authors: Yolandi M. Coetser
First page: 155
Abstract: A burgeoning field of literature considers animal law, the status of animals as legal objects, the protection of animals in laboratories, wild animals, etc. One aspect not often considered in the literature is the intersection between animal law and freedom of speech and, more specifically, the freedom of speech of artists. While these might seem disparate and mutually exclusive, they are not. A small but notable number of artists use, harm, or even kill animals in the creation of artwork. Elsewhere, this practice has been termed ‘cruel art’, defined as “the infliction of physical and/or emotional pain on non-human animals for the sole purpose of creating art that steps beyond the confines of the artist’s right to freedom of speech”. This article elaborates on the concept of ‘cruel art’ by considering animal law and the artist’s freedom of expression. Interesting questions arise at this intersection: Can the law grant rights or otherwise protect the animal from being used, harmed, or killed for an artwork' Alternatively, can the law encroach on the artists’ freedom of speech to protect the animals' There are good reasons to protect both parties—animals deserve protection from unnecessary suffering, and the artist should not be unduly censored from making art. This article seeks to engage with the following question: how can one consider an animal’s legal standing in relation to an artist’s freedom of speech' In order to answer this question, this article first briefly unpacks the concept of animal law and the need for legal reform in this arena. Secondly, this article considers freedom of speech as it relates to artists specifically. Third, it discusses the rising conflict between the legal protection of animals and the artist’s freedom of expression. This article argues that certain artistic uses of animals should be legally prohibited, despite the fact that artists enjoy the right to freedom of artistic expression.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-13
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040155
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 156: Feel the Music!—Audience Experiences of
Audio–Tactile Feedback in a Novel Virtual Reality Volumetric Music
Video
Authors: Gareth W. Young, Néill O’Dwyer, Mauricio Flores Vargas, Rachel Mc Donnell, Aljosa Smolic
First page: 156
Abstract: The creation of imaginary worlds has been the focus of philosophical discourse and artistic practice for millennia. Humans have long evolved to use media and imagination to express their inner worlds outwardly via artistic practice. As a fundamental factor of fantasy world-building, the imagination can produce novel objects, virtual sensations, and unique stories related to previously unlived experiences. The expression of the imagination often takes a narrative form that applies some medium to facilitate communication, for example, books, statues, music, or paintings. These virtual realities are expressed and communicated via multiple multimedia immersive technologies, stimulating modern audiences via their combined Aristotelian senses. Incorporating interactive graphic, auditory, and haptic narrative elements in extended reality (XR) permits artists to express their imaginative intentions with visceral accuracy. However, these technologies are constantly in flux, and the precise role of multimodality has yet to be fully explored. Thus, this contribution to Feeling the Future—Haptic Audio explores the potential of novel multimodal technology to communicate artistic expression via an immersive virtual reality (VR) volumetric music video. We compare user experiences of our affordable volumetric video (VV) production to more expensive commercial VR music videos. Our research also inspects audio–tactile interactions in the auditory experience of immersive music videos, where both auditory and haptic channels receive vibrations during the imaginative virtual performance. This multimodal interaction is then analyzed from the audience’s perspective to capture the user’s experiences and examine the impact of this form of haptic feedback in practice via applied human–computer interaction (HCI) evaluation practices. Our results demonstrate the application of haptics in contemporary music consumption practices, discussing how they affect audience experiences regarding functionality, usability, and the perceived quality of a musical performance.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-13
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040156
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 157: The Zone of Photography: Magic, Ghosts and
Haecceity
Authors: Tom Slevin
First page: 157
Abstract: Photography evidences presence, but what does it present' This article explores the notion of magic in photography through Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of ‘haecceity’, Jacques Derrida’s logic of the ‘supplement’ and Jean-François Lyotard’s ‘inhuman’. The sections ‘The Zone of Photography’, ‘Ghosts in/of the Machine’, ‘The Crypt and Encryption’, ‘Affect-Event-Haecceity’ and ‘Magic, Consumerism, Desire’ consider how photography provides a ‘zone’ that encrypts the desires of its photographer and viewer. A photograph, in its various forms and appearances, from scientific instrument to personal documentation, bears our need and desire to be affected. The photographic zone can connect with the anxiety, fear, grief, and ha ppiness that are latent within the irrationality of its viewer. The photography is never past as it continually unfolds into, and is entangled with, the fabric of the present. Through consideration of photography we will consider how magic does not happen to people but people happen to magic. We desire magic to appear.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-13
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040157
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 158: Kind Regards in These Difficult Times:
Anglo–Soviet Architectural Relations during the Second World War
Authors: Ksenia Malich
First page: 158
Abstract: The present article examines Anglo–Soviet architectural relations during the Second World War, the peculiarities of the perception of foreign experience, and the mutual professional interests. This paper aims to find evidence of multilateral and immensely diverse contacts and examine the reasons for and routes of such collaborations and the actors and institutions involved in the processes. This research attempts to construct new criteria for evaluating professional architectural relationships in the context of ideological and non-ideological obstacles. For this reason, this paper draws data from a wide range of sources, including the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) and the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), the Schusev State Museum of Architecture (GNIMA), and research from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Berthold Lubetkin and Erno Goldfinger archives.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-13
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040158
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 159: Force-Feedback and Music: Five Decades of
Research and Development at ACROE: An Interview with Claude Cadoz (ACROE,
Grenoble, France)
Authors: Marcelo M. Wanderley, Christian Frisson
First page: 159
Abstract: Recorded on 23 March 2023 [...]
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-17
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040159
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 160: Knickers in a Twist: Confronting Sexual
Inequality through Art and Glass
Authors: Sophie Longwill
First page: 160
Abstract: Knickers, big, small, plain, sensual, provocative, or practical, can be an unremarkable part of everyday life or an object of feminist protest. Women’s clothing, like the experience of womanhood itself, can often have multiple contradictory narratives. In this essay, the author discusses the history of women’s underwear and its links with socio-political revolution and feminist art. Against this contextual background, she discusses the development of the body of sculptures entitled Let’s Hook Up, a series of life-size, paper-thin drawings of lingerie in pâte de verre glass. The author details the artistic processes involved in making the works as well as the conceptual development and exploration of material and meaning. She demonstrates how artwork can act as a gateway to begin conversations about challenging topics like sexual assault whilst also providing a platform for creative expression and connection.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-18
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040160
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 161: “Pretty in Pink”—The Pink
Color in Architecture and the Built Environment: Symbolism, Traditions,
and Contemporary Applications
Authors: Justyna Tarajko-Kowalska, Przemysław Kowalski
First page: 161
Abstract: The main goal of this article is to summarize and present the most important facts concerning the use of the pink color in the built environment of the 20th and 21st centuries, considering its symbolic, functional, and decorative aspects, with particular emphasis on Western cultures. This monograph of color is aimed to contribute to a better understanding of the place and meaning of pink in the contemporary architectural space and to allow architects to use this color with greater awareness of its characteristic features. The results of the analysis of over 100 pink buildings and spaces, collected by the authors since 2016, are grouped into seven main thematic sections, which express different ways of applying pink in the built environment: as a traditional color, a stereotypic feminine and girlish color, a contrast color in public spaces, an extravagant color, a symbol of peace, hope, tolerance, and solidarity, a trendy color, and finally an “Instagramable” and fictional color. The main conclusion is that the pink color usage in contemporary architecture is very diverse and reflects the various associations and symbolisms of the color itself, which can only be understood in its socio-cultural contexts. Currently, two opposing styles are especially compelling—the first related to the kitschy and plastic aesthetic of “Barbie pink”, and the second associated with more neutral and universal “Millennial pink”.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-19
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040161
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 162: The Wolf King’s Leisure Estate: An
Andalusi Agricultural and Palatine Project (Murcia, 12th Century)
Authors: Julio Navarro-Palazón, Pedro Jiménez-Castillo
First page: 162
Abstract: The Castillejo de Monteagudo, which has been well known since excavations began in 1924, is a palatial residence built on a promontory. However, the fact that it was part of an extensive agricultural estate, known as Ḥiṣn al-Faraj, which included dry-farming, orchards, gardens, woodland, hunting areas, and marshes, as well as important hydraulic infrastructures, has not been sufficiently emphasised to date. Archaeological research on the irrigated plain during 2018 and 2019 has brought to light part of the palatine area, which was organised around a large garden presided by a residential complex with a porticoed pavilion and a pool at the centre. All known buildings date to the reign of Emir Ibn Mardanīš (1147–1171), although the possibility that the estate was created earlier cannot be ruled out. It was destroyed twice by the Almohads (1165 and 1171) and reused by the Castilian King Alfonso X, perhaps after being restored by Ibn Hūd al-Mutawakkil (1228–1238).
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-21
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040162
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 163: Back to the (Winter) Garden: On Still Video,
Motion Pictures and the Time of Early Photography
Authors: Saltzman
First page: 163
Abstract: This essay, which reframes elements of my 2015 book, Daguerreotypes: Fugitive Subjects, Contemporary Objects, returns to the lacuna at the heart of Roland Barthes’s reflections on photography: the so-called “Winter Garden” photograph of his mother as a little girl. An image that is lovingly conjured but forever withheld, this photograph is the fulcrum of a theory of photography that emerged from the conjunction of mourning and desire. For Barthes, and all those working in his wake, the absent photograph is something of photography’s primal scene. With attention to the work of Eve Sussman and Simon Lee, their 2011 three-channel HD video Wintergarden and her 2018 NFT 89 Seconds Atomized in particular, this essay takes readers “back to the garden” to think about the time of early photography. To do so, this essay considers a range of contemporary videos that mine and mime the conventions of photography to produce static, durational encounters with stillness in a medium that is anything but, ultimately, revealing the truths and fictions of photography’s founding moment and fundamental logic.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-21
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040163
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 164: Identity as Palimpsest
Authors: Gregory Blair
First page: 164
Abstract: This article focuses on the formation of identity as a stratified discourse between the singular and the collective, and how that exchange is expressed as a visual palimpsest by the artists Annette Cords, G Farrell Kellum, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby. Through their artworks, each artist explores their own identity formation, but also identity formation of those living amid the Postmodern condition of the Western world in the late stages of capitalism. All three artists explore how the collective is manifested in their singular identities by weaving in the personal, intimate, and everyday vernacular into their artworks while also including remnants of wider cultural influences. In the contemporary moment, the dynamic process of identity formation remains betwixt any sort of settled or concretized state. This unresolved status is also reflected in the conceptualization and construction of the artworks by Cords, Kellum, and Akunyili Crosby. The messy interplay between the singular and collective is presented in their artworks as unexpected juxtapositions of diverse information, images, materials, and mark-making.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-25
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040164
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 165: My Practice of Re-Patterning My Art
Authors: Pramila Vasudevan
First page: 165
Abstract: This essay shares the various ways in which my socio-political context and health background has impacted my journey as an artist and culture worker through my work with the Aniccha Arts collaborative in the Twin Cities. I would like to share how my (un/re)learnings have materialized into different movement textures of togetherness over the years. I describe how I arrived at creating the current movement-based project, Prairie Concrete, and the questions that I am asking as a path forward.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-26
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040165
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 166: Developing Techniques for Closed-Loop-Recycling
Soda-Lime Glass Fines through Robotic Deposition
Authors: Maria Sparre-Petersen, Simona Hnídková
First page: 166
Abstract: Glass is made from sand—a finite resource. Hence, there is a need to maintain glass in the industrial cycle as described in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s circular-economy diagram. This research project examines the reallocation of material resources in the form of waste glass fines from the industrial recycling process for soda-lime glass. According to the plant manager of Reiling Glasrecycling Danmark ApS, the fines are currently sold to be used for insulation. Although this process prolongs the lifespan of the fines before they become landfill waste, a closed-loop circular option would be preferable. In order to establish a closed-loop circular model for waste glass fines, this research investigates their material and aesthetic qualities and proposes a strategy for maintaining the fines in the closed loop cycle together with the soda-lime glass. The fines are manipulated through robotic deposition and formed into 3D geometries. To expand the aesthetic applications for the material, an investigation is conducted by combining 3D geometries with the traditional glassmaking techniques of glassblowing and casting. The research contributes knowledge of the materials’ technical qualities including printability, durability and workability of the 3D prints combined with cast or blown recycled container glass as well as with blown waste glass fines. Technical obstacles are revealed and alternative routes for further explorations are suggested. Finally, the performative and aesthetic qualities of the results are discussed, while artistic applications for recycled soda-lime glass fines remain to be explored in future research.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-27
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040166
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 167: A Natural-Worker Leaves the Colonial Visual
Archive: The Art of Vered Nissim
Authors: Sivan Rajuan Shtang
First page: 167
Abstract: The colonial visual archive has occupied in recent decades the work of scholars and artists from indigenous and racial minority communities, who revealed it as a major apparatus of historical meta-narratives. This article aims at pushing forward this preoccupation by revealing an additional scene: the art of Mizrahi women, descendants of Jewish communities of Arab and Muslim countries. Relying on a visual culture approach and focusing on an analysis of artworks by Mizrahi artist Vered Nissim, as well as on photographs of Mizrahi women, fund in Zionist archives, I demonstrate how Nissim’s work challenges the racial category of Mizrahi women as “natural workers”, constructed in the Zionist historical meta-narrative. Nissim does so by re-enacting the category’s paradigmatic visual image—the Mizrahi women cleaning worker—in a different way, visually and discursively. Body, voice, and visual image, three instances of the subjectivity of Mizrahi women cleaning workers that were separated, shaped, and mediated through Zionist colonial visual archives unite in Nissim’s work when embodied by a real Mizrahi woman cleaning worker: her mother, Esther Nissim. By casting her mother to play herself over the past twenty years, Nissim creates political conditions for the appearance of her mother as the author of her own history as she orally, bodily, and visually writes it in front of her daughter’s camera. Thus, Nissim joins a transnational phenomenon of global south artists who create political conditions enabling the self-imaging of colonized peoples, empowering the reading of colonial imagery and the historical meta-narratives attached to it through their situated knowledge and lived experience and, thus, constructing a counter history communicated visually.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-28
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040167
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 168: Tacita Dean’s Affective Intermediality:
Precarious Visions in-between the Visual Arts, Cinema, and the Gallery
Film
Authors: Ágnes Pethő
First page: 168
Abstract: Tacita Dean’s art relies on the perception of liminalities, of moving in-between, of one medium unfolding into another through dispersed, “molecular” sensations, either subverting or augmenting impressions of art forms perceived on the level of larger, structural wholes. Arguing against the wide-angle perspective employed by media studies approaches and for a close-up analysis of an “affective intermediality” in Tacita Dean’s art, the author looks at the landmark exhibitions at the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Royal Academy in London organised in 2018. The article singles out some of the individual works in the context of the exhibition as a work of art, and focuses on questions like the cross-media phenomenon of the “cinematic”, the affective performativity of the various dispositifs employed in her installations of celluloid films, the affordances of Dean’s signature aperture-gate masking technique, as well as the relation between narrative cinema experienced in a theatrical space and film as the medium of a visual artist. The essay concludes with a brief analysis of her gallery film, Antigone (2018), unravelling an allegorical journey through cosmic time and atmospheric landscapes, viewed as an ode to the “blind vision” of photochemical film and as a synthesis of key features of her intermediality conceived as a strategy for the re-sensitization of mediums by approaching one art from the point of view of another.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-07-31
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040168
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 169: Intermediality in Academia: Creative Research
through Film
Authors: Lindiwe Dovey
First page: 169
Abstract: This article provides an overview of the recent flourishing of research and pedagogy in higher education that seeks a greater rapprochement between criticism and creativity, bringing together diverse media, disciplines, and modes of knowledge production and expression. It focuses on transformations in film and screen studies and on the ethical and aesthetic possibilities of conducting creative, intermedial research through filmmaking, drawing on the author’s recent, first-hand experiences of conducting such research through her making of two films about the African women filmmakers Judy Kibinge (from Kenya) and Bongiwe Selane (from South Africa). The author gives specific examples from her filmmaking process to show how she has attempted to unsettle the generic space between documentary filmmaking, curatorial practice, and video-essay making to engage in a collaborative research practice with Kibinge, Selane, and their communities, as well as her research teams. Grounding itself in a decolonial feminist framework, this article draws on the perspectives of a wide range of thinkers and filmmaker scholars to explore ways in which the colonial, patriarchal values that have haunted many academic institutions can be reformed to allow for the envisioning of new futures that will lead to a more self-reflexive, socially just higher education environment.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-01
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040169
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 170: Intermedialities as Sociopolitical Assemblages
in Contemporary Art
Authors: Helen Westgeest
First page: 170
Abstract: This article is an introductory essay to the Special Issue “A Comparative Study of Media in Contemporary Visual Art”. It starts with a short overview of the terminological discussion about intermediality as a concept and its relationship with medialities with other prefixes—such as mixed, intra-, multi-, and transmedialities. So far, intermediality has been discussed less by art historians than by literary scholars. This introductory essay argues that critical analysis of intermediality in contemporary artworks may offer additional insights for investigation of the issues addressed in these artworks. The case studies in this Special Issue underscore this view. As a kind of kick-off, the second part of this essay includes a short case study that focuses on two artworks by the Lebanese artist Rabih Mroué in order to provide insight into how intermedial relations can act as metaphors for the sociopolitical relations addressed in his artworks. Applying philosopher Manuel DeLanda’s “assemblage theory”, philosopher Edward S. Casey’s concept of “absorptive mapping”, and anthropologist Tim Ingold’s view of living beings as consisting of a bundle of lines facilitates the highlighting of the sociopolitical aspects of intermediality in Mroué’s artworks.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-03
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040170
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 171: A Foreign Artist and a Russian War: Peter von
Hess, a Case Study in Imperial Patronage and National Identity
Authors: Andrew M. Nedd
First page: 171
Abstract: A number of foreign artists received the earliest commissions to represent Napoleon’s Russian Campaign of 1812 for Russian emperors. My paper is a case study of a German artist who served the Russian Imperial court. Peter von Hess trained at the Academy in Munich and served both King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Otto I of Greece. In 1839, Emperor Nicholas I commissioned the artist to complete 12 monumental canvases for the Winter Palace representing key battles that followed Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. While earlier battle paintings and portraits commissioned by Alexander I dealt only with elite officers and the emperor, Hess’s paintings elevated the common Russian as the bearers of a great sacrifice and as the true defenders of Russia. This representational shift is the product of changing ideas concerning Russia’s involvement in several alliances from 1803 to 1815 that included Austria, England, Sweden, and Prussia. In addition, over the course of Nicholas I’s reign, the concepts of “autocracy, orthodoxy, nationality” crept into representations of the Russian experience of the Napoleonic wars.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-08
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040171
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 172: Elliptical Forms: Abstract Algorithmic Objects
Authors: Paul Goodfellow
First page: 172
Abstract: Contemporary systems painting directly engages with the material of contemporary culture, not necessarily the technological substrates of computation, social media, the Internet, and artificial intelligence, but the concept of the algorithm and the circulation and patterning of information at the limit of human apprehension. Systems painting emerged as part of the wider category of systems art in the 1960s—a heterogenous collection of artists who were focused on the exploration of social, ecological, and technological systems, and the processes that underpin them. These systemic fields increasingly define and shape our lifeworld in the 21st century, producing an excess of algorithmically generated information. It is, therefore, appropriate to consider the role system painting plays in addressing the conceptual, aesthetic, and affective aspects of information derived from computational, algorithmic, and rule-based processes. This paper discusses the practice of the contemporary systems painter James Hugonin and his series of paintings Fluctuations in Elliptical Form (2015–2021). Karl Popper’s theory of three worlds is introduced, and the concepts of ‘concrete’ and ‘abstract’ objects are described and applied to Hugonin’s painting as a way of understanding the role externalised rules and internal intuitive decisions play in the construction of these complex and visually mesmerising paintings.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-10
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040172
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 173: Kafka’s Ape Meets the Natyashastra
Authors: Shanti Pillai
First page: 173
Abstract: To the Academy is a multi-media performance work that makes poignant and humorous commentary about education, common paradigms of diversity, and the oppressive nature of institutional labor. Created through a dialogue between myself, an Indian American with training in various forms of physical theatre and Indian dance, and Guyanese-Canadian actor Marc Gomes, it has been performed at several universities and arts centers since 2015. In this essay, I will interrogate the ways in which we place select elements of “Indian tradition” at the service of the piece’s overarching theme of histories of European domination, asking whether making these cultural materials subservient to our political agenda constitutes a form of appropriation. I examine three components of the work: the character of the classical Indian dancer who appears in the first section of the show, the explicit references to the ancient Sanskrit treatise on performance, the Natyashastra, and the framing of both these elements within our adaptation of Franz Kafka’s story, “Report to an Academy,” about an ape who learns to impersonate humans. In so doing, I explore the ethical responsibilities artists of color have in working with intercultural aesthetics. Furthermore, I assert the inevitably ambivalent nature of activist performance, even if artists aim to resist hegemonic structures.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-10
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040173
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 174: Artist Ethics and Art’s Audience: Mus
Musculus and a Dry-Roasted Peanut
Authors: Rosemarie McGoldrick
First page: 174
Abstract: The museum’s instrumentalisation of contemporary art as a visitor attraction has come to mean that any use of live animals in art now must participate in and acknowledge the politics of spectacle, which for other animals means the optics of the zoo or the circus. At the same time, established social media can now deliver mass criticism of an artwork, requiring artists to learn how to manage reputation as a matter of professional art practice. In this article, I examine art’s changing ethics by working from a dilemma I faced recently as an artist over a simple 30-s video I had made featuring a wild house mouse that I had trained between COVID-19 lockdowns to take food from my shoe. Subsequently, I decided not to exhibit, publish or broadcast that video. I argue that it is the digital—its exposure of the micro-issue, its close focus on the individual case, its onus on linguistic precision and its diligent proofing and testing of arguments large or small—that now transforms the work the artwork does. This may now push artists into a much wider range of ethical decision-making about artworks to arrive at the artist’s regular mode of reflection and evaluation via a level of hyper detail and super nuance that, historically, artists of no particular celebrity have had little or no reason to engage with before.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-10
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040174
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 175: The Laocoon Moment
Authors: Jens Schröter
First page: 175
Abstract: Lessing’s Laokoon from 1766 is still an important text in the discussion on the borders between different arts and their media. Especially in the 20th century, texts were written that referred back to Lessing’s seminal text. One of the most important ones, which will receive a detailed discussion, is Clement Greenberg’s “Towards a Newer Laocoon”. The discussion will on the one hand start from the observation that drawing borders between different arts and their media has always had political implications. On the other hand, this discussion will be related to the transformation to digital media in the late 20th century. By reading Greenberg and discussing some examples from art, especially from the recent field of AI-generated imagery, the concept of “digital modernism” and its political implications will be introduced. The two main findings are as follows: Firstly, it might be problematic to construct a progression from medium-centered to multimedial art since both tendencies coexist in contemporary art. Secondly, the current situation once again points to the politics of drawing borders between different arts (and their respective media).
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-12
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040175
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 176: Saint Mamas at Exeles: An Unusual Case of Ritual
Piety on Karpathos
Authors: Angeliki Katsioti, Nikolaos Mastrochristos
First page: 176
Abstract: The church of Saint Mamas is a small, domed structure that lies close to Menetes village in Karpathos. It preserves most of its painted decoration, consisting of the scene of the Ascension of Christ on the dome and saintly figures on the rest of the surfaces. A dedicatory inscription, read here for the first time, dates the frescoes to 1312/3 and places them in the broader context of precisely dated monuments. Certain features of the iconographic program, such as the presence of healer saints (Panteleemon and Kyprianos) but mostly of the officiating Pope Sylvester and the passage used in the codex of Christ Pantocrator on the apse of the altar, lead us to interesting conclusions concerning, among other things, the perception of anti-Latin propaganda in the islands of the South Aegean. Also, the stylistic affinities between the art of Karpathos and Crete corroborate the diachronic interrelations between the two islands. The church of Saint Mamas is an exceptional example and one of the few Byzantine-decorated monuments that survive on the island.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-15
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040176
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 177: Mapping the Anthropocene: Atelier NL, a Case
Study of Place-Based Material Craft Practices
Authors: Inge Panneels
First page: 177
Abstract: This paper argues that mapping as a methodology can support localised production, as exemplified in the case study of the design studio Atelier NL which marries contemporary design sensibilities with traditional glass and ceramics craft-making techniques. The paper puts forward the argument that by paying attention to local ecosystem services through mapping, place-based design solutions can be developed. Furthermore, the paper argues that the methodologies deployed by Atelier NL borrow from contemporary art creative mapping practices. This case study uses the framework of the Anthropocene to situate these mapping practices identified within the case study and contextualises these within 20th-century environmental arts practices, and those of the environmental art pioneers the Harrisons in particular. Finally, the paper argues that these mapping practices are responding to the conditions of the Anthropocene which increasingly makes clear that culture and nature are enmeshed, an insight that 19th-century town planner Patrick Geddes argued for more than a century ago.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-15
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040177
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 178: Converged Aesthetics: Blewishness in the Work of
Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell
Authors: Brett Ashley Kaplan
First page: 178
Abstract: This essay examines the converged aesthetic of Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, focusing on the Kosmopolitan video projects. These videos, and Russell’s work overall, resist the singular terms “Black” and “Jew,” constructing a Blewish converged aesthetic by overlaying images of Josephine Baker or a lonely, lost child walking backward with Russell’s rich and full voice singing Yiddish songs. These remarkable videos, and the projects created by Tsvey Brider (Russell and Dimitri Gaskin), disrupt assumptions about race, gender, sexual orientation, and ethnoreligious affiliation in profound and important ways. I argue that this work performs convergence, thus bucking against the very insistence on antagonism that forms the conditions of possibility for racism.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-21
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040178
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
- Arts, Vol. 12, Pages 179: Chiroscript: Transcription System for Studying
Hand Gestures in Early Modern Painting
Authors: Temenuzhka Dimova
First page: 179
Abstract: The main goal of this article is to introduce a new method for the analysis of depicted gestures in painting, namely a transcription system called chiroscript. Based on the model of transcription and annotation systems used in linguistics of co-speech gestures and sign languages, it is intended to provide a more systematic and objective study of pictorial gestures, revealing their modes of combination inside chirographic accords. The place of chirograms (depicted hand gestures) within pictorial semiotics will be briefly discussed in order to better explain why a transcription system is very much needed and how it could expand art historical perspectives. Pictorial gestures form an understudied language-like system which has the potential to increase the intelligibility of paintings. We argue that even though transcription is not a common practice in art history, it may contribute and even transform semiotic analyses of figurative paintings.
Citation: Arts
PubDate: 2023-08-21
DOI: 10.3390/arts12040179
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 4 (2023)
