Week 9

Word Count: 298

“Bryson says (2003: 154), ‘the mark on paper leads as much as it is led’, alternately sewing the line into the mind and the mind into the line in a suturing action that grows ever tighter as the drawing proceeds. Thus the drawing is not the visible shadow of a mental event; it is a process of thinking, not the projection of thought.” (Ingold, 128)

“So long as the main role of craft in society is to symbolize skill and taste in fighting off the onslaught of industry, no reconciliation with industry is possible. But before the Industrial Revolution, craft was not a symbol, it was the way things were made.” (Trilling, 190)

“…architecture has to slow down experience, halt time, and defend the natural slowness and diversity of experience. Architecture must defend us against excessive exposure, noise and communication. Finally, the task of architecture is to maintain and defend silence.” (Pallasmaa, 149-150)

“Nanotechnology entails a new level of abstraction of subatomic matter initiating a virtual action on the capacities of nature to become culture: the capacities of inorganic subatomic matter to become nanotechnological and in turn the capacity of nanotechnology to become enveloped in subatomic worlds.” (Parisi, 160)

“Bruce Conner created a double edged critique of American militarism with female sexuality that creates a sublime experience, sublime being beautiful and terrifying.” (Artist Lecture, Johanna Gosse)

 

The artist lecture experience yesterday was definitely sublime, and watching Bruce Conner’s innovating films inspired me to dabble with films. His work was very striking and powerful, and the psychological effects films have on the minds of people shined through his work.  Films in a sense are where visual arts, music, dance/movement intersect, and the correspondence of all the art forms create powerful peeks into other realms. This intersection of the arts, is what the readings seem to point architecture as well. Architecture creates the space for life, and provides glimpses into the past and future cultures as artifacts. I think that questioning what ornamentation in films/ video is an important question to ask, since we are so immersed in videos. I feel as though Conner’s films were highly ornamented, as the images flashed very quickly and there was a kind of chaotic quality that was intensely busy, more so then other films from the 1960’s.  I think that his purpose of re-creating the sublime relates to ornament, as ornamentation creates a sublime experience in its terrifying beauty. Ornamentation, as Katie put it, is, “bringing things to life,” and films bring a new realm of life to our imagination and fantasy.  It is interesting that in a time where ornamentation was being rejected, a new art form, film, arises. Is film in itself pure ornament?

Could film be a virtual form of architecture?

I have never seen film or architecture in this light, and have never been particularly interested in film making. At this moment, I am not sure what kind of film I would make, or if I would even seriously want to make a film, but seeing film in this way has sparked a deeper appreciation and love of film, and its sublime effects on society.