CCI103
Perspectives in the Creative Industries
Welcome This subject is a critical analysis of the shifts in practice and theory in creative practice as a result of the impact of technology; from photography to the computer. The subject proceeds from the advent of photography, and technological evolutions of the past hundred years, to the destruction of the concept of the “original” as a unique art work; to mass reproduction, and the influence of installation, sound and audio technologies. The culture of interdisciplinary arts arising from the breakdown of traditional art forms is examined to give context to hybrid arts, art as text, and performance - and to study the altered relationship of artist to media, and of artist to audience, at the end of the twentieth century and on into this one.
Learning Outcomes Upon successful completion of this subject, you should: • be able to critically analyse contemporary art and ideas within the context of postmodern culture; • be able to propose reasons and rationales for the impact of technology on creative practice over the past hundred years; • be able to analyse the structure and content of diverse fields of creative practice; • be able to engage in informed debate about hybridity/ intermediary activity in creative practice and theory; and • be able to demonstrate the use and structure of appropriate academic writing, research and referencing.
Assignments Tutorial Paper
20%
31 July 2019
Essay
40%
9 Sep 2019
Short Papers
40%
18 Oct 2019
Subject Coordinator Tyhe Reading E: treading@csu.edu.au P: 02 6582 9454
Class Delivery All classes are run in room 2045. This class will be run as a three hour workshop on Fridays between 1-4pm. You are advised to watch the lecture prior to class as workshop content may differ.
Topic 1
Advent of photography
Camera Obscura - 1824 A camera obscura is a device in a shape of a box or a room that lets the light through a small opening on one side and projects it on the other. In this device, the image that is outside of the box is projected upside-down. More complex obscuras can use mirrors to project image upwards and right-side up and they can also have lenses. Camera Obscura-related experiments began in 1824. Daguerre partnered with Joseph Niepce in research from 1829-1833. Developed copper plates coated with silver iodide to produce direct positive pictures. Images were “developed� with the fumes from warmed mercury.
The Advent of Photography In 1826, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a camera obscura to create what is recorded as the first ever photograph. This was created by using a bitumen of Judea-coated pewter plate, placed in the camera obscura and exposed for eight hours. The process was later called Heliography.
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras, c. 1826. Heliograph.
Daguerreotype - 1837 Following on from the success of Niépce, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was intrigued by the process and explored new techniques for himself. He came across a simpler way to develop an image which involved a copper sheet plated with silver and common salt, placed in the camera obscura. On 19 August 1839, at a meeting in Paris, the Daguerreotype Process was revealed. Richard Beard (1801-1885), bought the patent to Alexander Wolcott’s mirror camera and employed the services of John Frederick Goddard (1795-1866), a chemist, to reduce exposure times to less than a few minutes, thereby making it possible to take daguerreotype portraits. On 23rd March 1841, Richard Beard opened the first daguerreotype portrait studio in London. In June 1841, Beard purchased from Daguerre the patent rights to the daguerreotype process in England.
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, Still Life (Interior of a Cabinet of Curiosities), 1837. Daguerreotype
Louis-Jacques-MandĂŠ Daguerre, Boulevard du Temple, Paris, 1837. Daguerreotype
Cyanotype 1840 Jump a few years into the future, John Herschel was investigating colour photography using vegetable dyes. However it is his experimentation with iron salts is what he is most well known for. He created what is known as the cyanotype, which produced an image in which the dominant tones were deep Prussian blue and white.
John Herschel, Untitled, 1842. Cyanotype
Frederick K. Coulson, Artist’s Sister in a hat, late 19th Century. Cyanotype
Anna Atkins, Algae, 1843. Cyanotype
Camera Development
ABOVE: The first camera was developed by Alexander Wolcott in 1840 TOP RIGHT: The panoramic camera was developed in 1859 RIGHT: George Eastman created the Kodak roll-film camera in 1888
Camera Development
LEFT: The Kodak Brownie developed by Eastman in 1900 MIDDLE LEFT: The Candid camera (the first 35mm camera) by Oskar Barnack in 1913/1914 MIDDLE RIGHT: The first auto-focus camera Konica C35 AF, developed in 1978. RIGHT: Sony Mavica - The first digital electronic still camera developed in 1981. CMOS sensors appeared in 1997 - these are in all your digital cameras and smart phones.
Instantaneous Photographs The term ‘instantaneous’ implies the capturing of something in the moment and to have an image immediately. It could have been an action, emotion or event – but prior to the development of cameras that used roll-film, it was next to impossible due to the limitations of camera technologies. Some photographers used tricks, such as Charles Nègre in his photographs of live scenes that captured fortunate moments with some ambiguity in the subject through an expressive softfocus effect.
Charles Nègre, The Chimney Sweeps, 1852
Charles Nègre, Italian Musicians (Pifferari) at 21 quai Bourbon, Ile Saint-Louis,, 1853
Instantaneous Photographs “Snapshots” before the 1880’s utilised long-range views, as seen in Daguerreotypes of soldiers very immobile. This was due to the processing time required for Daguerreotypes being very long, restricting the possibilities for short-range “snapshots”. Now we are familiar with ‘snapshots’ being possible through the cameras on our phones and digital cameras, with digital technologies allowing us to capture any moment.
Unknown photographer, American Volunteer Infantry standing along a street in Saltillo, Mexico. 1847
Visual Impression The relevance of photography in the late nineteenth century was emphasised by its evaluation of its objectivity, depending upon scientific validity. Auguste Rodin focused on the contrast between two modes of representation: one drawing on “photographic belief” and the other on “visual trust”. What mattered most to Rodin was visual “impression”, not mechanical truth. He believed: “If the artist succeeds in giving the impression of a movement made in several instants, his work is certainly far less conventional than the scientific image in which time is suddenly suspended.”
Louis Loumiere, August jumping, 1888
New Representations For late-nineteenth-century artists, the appeal of instantaneous photography, now within the grasp of the amateur, was undoubtedly linked with a desire for new knowledge and a rejection of “conventional” representations of movement, particularly those simulated by models in the studio.” Artists were interested in what was happening outside, in the street, and were torn between relying upon direct observation and scientifically accurate representation, which partakes of modernity.
New Representations As a technological process, with an apparatus based on physics, photography played the role of intermediary and support for representation, even if it was not fully “copied.” It at least could be trusted, more than one’s own eyes, which were now known not to be adequate for capturing color, forms, or movement. Instantaneous photography opened up possibilities; it opened the eyes to an “invisible” form of reality and gave a fixed shape to things that changed shape constantly. By doing so, it provoked astonishment, and this astonishment at the “photographic” transposed back into painting was surely an outburst of creativity.
Edouard Baldus, Groupe dans un parc chez Frederic de Mercey, au chateau de la Faloise, 1855
New Representations Painters were less interested in making spectacular or sensational snapshots than they were in using handheld cameras to capture everyday, ordinary actions as they occurred. They fall into the category of “excursionists” and sought picturesque subjects wherever they went. Amateur photographers were looking for “true poses, scenes taken as they happen and to preserve the impression of truth.”
La photographie d’antan, 1914. George Eastman House, Rochester
Photographic Evidence The camera produced a somewhat deformed view of reality: space was flattened by the lens and the emulsions used at that time were unable to reveal every nuance in black and white, resulting in the oversimplification of shapes. In the 1840s, and increasingly from 1859, when stereoscopic views showing the boulevards in Paris shot from rooftops became widespread, photography became the means to observe truth in gestures that were snapped in an instant. These are the features inherent in photographic vision that must have influenced the Impressionists to want to paint what they saw, not what they knew. However, also under the influence of long pictorial tradition, photographers themselves brought some corrections to photographic vision. They particularly wanted to give their landscapes the same depth as painters, and so were careful to display a repoussoir in the foreground of the composition.
Julia Margaret Cameron, The Mountain Nymph Sweet Liberty, 1866
Pictorialism In the late 19th century, some photographers worked to advance photography into the realm of fine art by taking an aesthetic approach to the medium. The movement, known as Pictorialism, emphasised photography’s artistic, evocative and interpretive qualities rather than its documentary ones. Reacting to the widespread commercial and domestic uses of photography for recording people, events and places, Pictorialist photographers sought to evoke emotional sensations and states of mind. They depicted commonplace scenes in ways that suggested psychological and spiritual meanings. By focusing on the patterning of light and shade, blurring detail and compressing space, the Pictorialists reinforced photography’s status as an art alongside painting and drawing.
Edward J. Steichen, The Flatiron, 1904
Pictorialism The Pictorialists embraced a variety of artistic influences, including Symbolist literature and art, Impressionist and Pre-Raphaelite painting and Art Nouveau. They also employed new technologies and printing processes to create painterly, tonal qualities. Soft-focus lenses were used to produce atmospheric effects; platinum printing allowed delicate tones to be created on matte, textured papers; and gum and carbon bichromate and bromoil were used to manipulate the negative, allowing detail and tone to be adjusted. - Overview courtesy of the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Elias Goldensky, Portrait of Three Women, 1915.
Why do we take pictures? According to Susan Sontag (1977), there are a few reasons why we take photographs. They are: • Evidence that a journey / experience occurred. They record (engage) and refuse (distance) the experiences of the photographer. • Photographs convert experiences to souvenirs. • “The very activity of taking pictures is soothing, and assuages general feelings of disorientation that are likely to be exacerbated by travel” • “This gives shape to experience: stop, take a photo, move on.” • Taking pictures is “like a friendly imitation of work.”
Topic 1
Workshop
Study Guide (30 mins) You will be using the next 30 minutes to answer study guide questions. Note that assessment three requires that you answer four (4) study guide questions. Use this time to find questions that you may respond to and prepare for what you could write. This is a good opportunity to finish an assessment early...
Instantaneous Image (30 mins) Your task is to capture an image on your mobile phone that captures the “instantaneous�. You should aim to capture an image that is evocative of the moment or the subject. Once you have captured your photo, load it onto your computer for the next task.
Pictorialism Task (40 mins) We will be going through how to turn your photograph into a “Pictorialist� style image. You will need Photoshop for this task. If you want to use an image different to the one you have captured, feel free to download from the stock image section of the Interact 2 site. If you need a reminder on how to do this technique, please click here to watch the Youtube tutorial.
Tyhe Reading, Riders, 2017.