Filed under: Uncategorized
Frieze
Theory
Franki Starr
In this issue of Frieze there was a reoccurring theme on theory. One of the first articles it talks about how theory in arts schools is fading away or into a more digestible form. They even mentioned Stanley Fish an anti-foundationalist as saying the end of the ‘age of theory’ was in the early 1980s. He says this because art terms like deconstructed were now being loosely used for anything.
In the next article Real Abstractions it was applying theory to the modern world. The writer was claiming we used watered down and vague anti-concepts like difference, sensation and multiplicity which he compared that to buffoon empiricism or consumerism. Empiricism means is that we gain knowledge through experience. The problem with this they say “is it makes a widespread view that making a determinate clam is dogmatic, oppressive, and even totalitarian.”
In the following article Ancient and Modern, the writer was making a comment on globalization in that with ‘theoria’ would prevent cultural differences from turning into cultural clashes. Theora was a Greek term used when contemplating or viewing as a spectator. She then pointed out that Ancients erased the traces of a crucial intercultural tradition marked by tolerant sharing and we today struggle with that removal.
The next article I saw Out of the Picture, I got really excited about because we learned about Malevich how he wanted “art for art sake” and how his red square meant so many things. In this article it talked about a great philosopher Vladimir Solovyov; without him his ideas wouldn’t have made it possible for the Russian spiritual renaissance.
Throughout Freieze the theme was theory they even got perspectives of 4 teachers at universities and art schools that seem to think that theory is dead, some thought that it is coming back because theory becomes popular at times of economic crisis.
These articles were hard to encompass because I am in the position of a student, where I think theory is taught to us through everyday through assignments. Every assignment that I have gotten this semester has been associated with a movement which can be theories. In photography the decisive moment with Henri Cartier, or Graphic design history with Moholy-Nagy with the telephone experiment exemplifying the Bauhaus movement. In typography our last assignment is we have to base our favorite movie into a poster based on a specific style like Art Nouveau or Swiss International Style. I think we receive theory at Longwood the best way through visual assignments that heighten our awareness.
What is frustrating is they are categorizing our generation into hopeless one I think this is wrong. One of the teachers in the article had said that some professors are hesitant on teaching theory because then the students would use those styles in there own work. Well I think that is missing the point of life. I am going to quote Mr. Lough a professor of graphic design who has told us this quote. We stand on the shoulders of giants meaning we see what has been done and do greater things.
this was Malevich pesent work. Look at how it is just basic shapes
No Comments so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>