12th Oct 2015
Matthew Bowman - lecture
notes and response
Work in the work of art/artwork and work in graphic design context
What is the 'art' definition? It is very elastic category and it depends on individual perspectives of what is or isn't a piece of art. Similarly the definition of the art school isn't always that obvious as it's a specific, more vocational form of education. As I considered last year, there are definitely spaces that you learn and spaces that you're thought. Process is more important than technique. It's gaining knowledge and development of creative skills, passion and talent.
This year our lecturer focused on the other part of the word 'artwork', namely the word 'work'.
I think a lot of the time effort and labour (material and intellectual) put into piece of art or design are underrated or forgotten, while apart of pleasure and passion there is a great intellectual input and manual skills needed in creative world. The work for the work of art is, as for everything else, the whole work that has gone into it (which differ in level and amount of abilities required and applied).
Today's lecture focused on both these art creation/production skills described through two definitions:
Fordism - material labour; production line factories; deskilling; manual work; work 9-5 factory labour.
Post-Fordism - immaterial labour, intellectual work, cognitive capitalism, knowledge economy, semiocapitalism, communication industries; networking, flexible work, creativity and individuality. We're predominantly Post-Fordism society where an immaterial labour is required and essential.
Through history a lot of technological and social changes took place in practice of art and design. The view on art as a form of labour still has its debates and investigations.
Utilisation of the machines (industrialisation) and birth of capitalism made drastic change to the world of art. It became possible to simply make a replica of an artwork and put it through mass production that could be easily done by non-artists (de-skilling, amateurism). There were various reactions shown by artists and designers to the changing world. For example, modernist and contemporary art is seen by some people as artworks presenting much less technical skills and talent than pre-modern traditional art.
In 1969 The Worker's Coalition came to existence and made a protest against unequal employment protection (Museum of Modern Art). They emphasized that art is an intellectual work).
Photography wasn't accepted as a form of art till 1960s. There is possibly still a debate about it. Nowadays most people have easiest access to camera that ever existed - on their mobile phones.
I think that everyone can take pictures of course, but not everyone can do it brilliantly; not everyone has a good eye for it. It's about different, special way of seeing that makes it art. Sometimes it's also about the ability to edit those photographs.
I really liked the words of modernist photographer Edward Weston, quoted during the lecture: 'Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable it may be.' I love to take pictures and I am hoping to make it a big part of my future profession. I am on the way to try more professional level in photography and I think it does take a fair amount of work to create an amazing photograph.
Although photography was indeed accepted as a form of art in conceptualism, it was still usually treated as amateurism activity, liking compositional and technical failure.
Art became an object easy to sell (market logic), as a high end luxury goods in the great world of consumerism. Art could be anything or simply nothing. It was a bit of a shock for me hearing that piece of sky was sold in exchange for gold (immaterial zones near the Seine in Paris called 'Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility' 1959-62, Yves Klein). Non-objects were producing money. Incredible!
'The New Spirit of Capitalism' 1999 by Luc Baltanski and Eve Chiapello shows two modes of critique against capitalism crisis: social critique (focused on inequality, egoism and exploitation of the system) and artistic critique (against oppression in the capitalist world and its domination on the market and mass society). Term 'work' becomes more artistic once again and it's more about self-awareness.
'In a connexionist world, loyalty to the self looks like inflexibility; resistance to others seems like a refusal to make connections... In a network world, the question of authenticity can no longer be formally posed.'
Artists and designers have started to look much more outside of the gallery spaces (as the immaterial spaces of the websites were added) and into social connectivity.
'My work is like the light in a fridge, it only works when there are people to open the fridge door. Without people, it's not art - it's something else - stuff in the room.' - Liam Gillick, interview, 2000
Matt Bowman notices that artistic labour is not an opposition to all of the other forms of work any longer but to some it seems to have its own separate category. An equivalence between work in art and conventionally understood labour (usually physical one) is still questioned.
Although I think it's not as stereotypical for non-artists as it used to be because it's got more recognition as professions, being a great part of today's employment and desired services. Besides it is different kind of work in those cases; possibly different purpose, different level and kind of effort required and so different skills necessity. It's the matter of some kind of talent or its lacking, passions and determination for self-realisation, opportunities or lacking of those; but most of all it's the matter of choice. I think every sort of work act should be respected, however is there a real need to compare them...?
After the lecture we had a group discussion about the functions of the work of art. There are numerous functions, including the following:
- to inform
- to communicate
- to solve problems
- to sell idea/product
- aesthetics, appreciation (just nice, eyes pleasing) for audience and self-expression of artist/designer
My work as a graphic designer
Actually as I remember about seven or eight years ago I was thinking that I cannot really go into university for the course that would give me a great career especially on financial level. That's because I was always into cultural studies or linguistics. The second option would possibly give me better chance as tourism development took place intensively through last few decades. Anything relating to art or literature didn't seem to be that exciting as I didn't see plenty of opportunities for myself in my home city. Until I actually completed my portfolio and got the place at the Colchester School of Art, when I finally tried after few years gap in education, I wasn't sure what I could actually study. My aim was to do a degree which could offer me successful future career, chance to get an enjoyable job that is financially beneficial. Moving to Great Britain and starting the course gave me a great opportunity to do so and I really hope I can manage the requirements. I feel like discovery of graphic design which additionally relates to photography, (now possibly my first passion) has a fantastic potential and it's the perfect choice I could make. What I wanted to say is that market has changed even since 2008 and it needs graphic designers more than ever.
Can art be more than a hobby and passion? Can it become something called a 'proper job'? I think diversity of jobs and roles offered in the creative industry give us all the answer. Definitely yes! I really hope it will be part of my future too and that I could make a living out of it.
As graphic designers we sell our intellectual skills or craft skills; work is driven by an idea for particular purpose. Graphic designers work usually for particular purpose (work is more complex) and for people to see, outside of galleries, usually to sell idea or product or to advertise something... Does it devalue the art/graphic work? I don't think it does unless it's some sort of 'dirty', unethical outcome, for example having a bad influence on the audience. It's about the truth in the message it persuades. Besides it's also a creative duty within society.
I would like to perform design that is ethical. Creativity and flexibility must not interfere with the need for honesty and moral values. I like advertising but I don't want to consciously lie about important details of the potential product/service what apparently shouldn't happen at all. I want to design responsibly to myself. In spite of that, I am aware that to sell means to highly emphasize all positive aspects of the product and to try to make any disadvantages of it less visible.
I am not interested in purely political work such as elections but anything to do with social issues could be interesting and I would love to be a part of a campaign with a good cause. It would have to obviously fit my morale in this case too (for example I know I would never be a part of any project involving an encouragement or agreement for abortion because I am totally against it). Mostly though I am interested in advertising, publishing and photography projects; possibly packaging.
Do you need skills to be a designer?
In my opinion being familiar with some traditional skills, especially drawing and hand writing is essential. Those abilities and basic knowledge how they function give a chance to express an idea on paper before even thinking of professional software. As I imagine hat is how most projects are made. It starts with a pen and paper, with written and visual notes of thinking process. Although sometimes maybe most important becomes pure inspiration and a work of graphic can be created straight on the computer program. I think creative/intellectual side is possibly more than just dry technical skills which are obviously useful and I think those should definitely be absorbed and practiced in at least basic reasonable level.
Technological and traditional hand skills, craft are just tools in the box for realising and generating ideas. This abilities are changing and they can be improved through practice and experience.
'Art is what you conceive it to be.' (M. Duchamp)
Especially in conceptual graphic design and art it's all about exploring and finding an idea through arranging together elements that send the message we're after (a combination of images and words; type, colours, shapes and texture).
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