Friday, April 29, 2005
Art History 215: Printed Page/Virtual Page
Spring 2005/Fedorchuk
A seminar on the impact of the “digital revolution” on art, on everyday life and on fine lines and intersections between the two.
There are 3 (overlapping and interconnected) parts: Each of these may be addressed in one class session. It may sometimes seem like 3,000 overlapping and interconnected parts :
1. Ideology and History
• Overlapping histories of the book and the computer as well as a look at contested beliefs and ideologies surrounding its uses and cultural and social value.
2. Art
• How might art be reframed or redefined in light of current technology?
• How does the Internet impact and alter communities, relationships, space, artistic practice, ideas about public and private, fiction and fact?
• How might an artist maintain a critical position when relying on expensive "state-of-the-art" technologies which are supporting and being supported by Big Business. What is our stance as artists and designers regarding the "digital divide?"
• How might artists use and at the same time critique uses of electronic media?
3. New Models and New Obstacles
• New models are needed for describing and analyzing new media.
• How might digital media alter static and clearly delineated definitions of autonomous and distinct media?
• How do media that are potentially altered (and copied) at any moment - that are never permanent - affect ideas about value, permanence, physicality and materiality?
• The class will review new media practices and methods, while providing an historical overview of digital theory, design and art.
• Effective visual process communication; meaningful solutions; creative approaches to problem solving and method; and an understanding of the vocabulary of multimedia are some of the main objectives of this course. We will read and write about the works and words of artists and cultural critics actively engaging multimedia, placing it in its social, historical, and political context.
STUDENT PORTFOLIOS
MARIA BOLIVAR
KATLYN BRUSKIEWICZ
NICHOLAS COTTER
CHAD DODDS
DAN EVANS
BRAD HORTON
ALTON JANELLE
MIACHAEL MURPHY
ADAM SETALA
DIA TATREAUX
EVELYN TORREZ
Spring 2005/Fedorchuk
A seminar on the impact of the “digital revolution” on art, on everyday life and on fine lines and intersections between the two.
There are 3 (overlapping and interconnected) parts: Each of these may be addressed in one class session. It may sometimes seem like 3,000 overlapping and interconnected parts :
1. Ideology and History
• Overlapping histories of the book and the computer as well as a look at contested beliefs and ideologies surrounding its uses and cultural and social value.
2. Art
• How might art be reframed or redefined in light of current technology?
• How does the Internet impact and alter communities, relationships, space, artistic practice, ideas about public and private, fiction and fact?
• How might an artist maintain a critical position when relying on expensive "state-of-the-art" technologies which are supporting and being supported by Big Business. What is our stance as artists and designers regarding the "digital divide?"
• How might artists use and at the same time critique uses of electronic media?
3. New Models and New Obstacles
• New models are needed for describing and analyzing new media.
• How might digital media alter static and clearly delineated definitions of autonomous and distinct media?
• How do media that are potentially altered (and copied) at any moment - that are never permanent - affect ideas about value, permanence, physicality and materiality?
• The class will review new media practices and methods, while providing an historical overview of digital theory, design and art.
• Effective visual process communication; meaningful solutions; creative approaches to problem solving and method; and an understanding of the vocabulary of multimedia are some of the main objectives of this course. We will read and write about the works and words of artists and cultural critics actively engaging multimedia, placing it in its social, historical, and political context.
STUDENT PORTFOLIOS
MARIA BOLIVAR
KATLYN BRUSKIEWICZ
NICHOLAS COTTER
CHAD DODDS
DAN EVANS
BRAD HORTON
ALTON JANELLE
MIACHAEL MURPHY
ADAM SETALA
DIA TATREAUX
EVELYN TORREZ
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Made In Japan: The Postwar Creative Print Movement
The images book-ending the beginning and end of this post are from an exhibit opening this week at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Made In Japan: The Postwar Creative Print Movement. It will be on exhibit April 29 - August 9, 2005. There is a elegant little catalogue, with essays by Alicia Volk and my colleague at MIAD, Helen Nagata.
The harbinger of Sosaku hanga ("creative print") artists in the west, Pulitzer-Prize winning author and patron of Japanese prints, James Michiner - who knew? - seems to have served in part as a bridge between them and the tradition known as ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world"). Of course that bridge was already there for the Sosaku hanga artists - who had built it themselves by looking back and referencing ukiyo-e, as the curatorial essays adeptly point out.
The harbinger of Sosaku hanga ("creative print") artists in the west, Pulitzer-Prize winning author and patron of Japanese prints, James Michiner - who knew? - seems to have served in part as a bridge between them and the tradition known as ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world"). Of course that bridge was already there for the Sosaku hanga artists - who had built it themselves by looking back and referencing ukiyo-e, as the curatorial essays adeptly point out.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
From Jeff Filipiak
Well, on this Earth Day eve I went to a talk about the event’s founder, Gaylord Nelson. Nelson is discouraged today about efforts to roll back what the environmental movement has achieved, and appropriately so. But I thought I’d send out a few words of hope in my annual Earth Day message (2005 Polish-heritage edition); trying to take inspiration from valuing what we do have.
To appreciate how the nonhuman and parklike places provide us places for reflection. I was struck, while watching coverage of the life of Pope John Paul II, by the value he found in trips to nature (especially taking risky group tours under Communist rule in Poland). Such trips, short or long, can be a moment for taking what we cherish, taking what we ponder, with us. Taking those thoughts away from the forces that would insist on us making certain choices, following certain behaviors. A space for helping us discover who we want to be; remind ourselves what we want to appreciate; focus on what we think life really is about.
And also, on a less 'long bright day of the soul' kind of level, a place for refreshing pauses through observation. As my Grandma Florence suggested (and practiced), people taking time out to watch the birds could find a lot to appreciate…
So I hope you enjoy a Happy Earth Day Weekend,
To appreciate how the nonhuman and parklike places provide us places for reflection. I was struck, while watching coverage of the life of Pope John Paul II, by the value he found in trips to nature (especially taking risky group tours under Communist rule in Poland). Such trips, short or long, can be a moment for taking what we cherish, taking what we ponder, with us. Taking those thoughts away from the forces that would insist on us making certain choices, following certain behaviors. A space for helping us discover who we want to be; remind ourselves what we want to appreciate; focus on what we think life really is about.
And also, on a less 'long bright day of the soul' kind of level, a place for refreshing pauses through observation. As my Grandma Florence suggested (and practiced), people taking time out to watch the birds could find a lot to appreciate…
So I hope you enjoy a Happy Earth Day Weekend,
Friday, April 22, 2005
National Catholic Reporter: Joan Chittister April 13, 2005
We’ve been living in an ecclesiastical tsunami this week. The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the position of Pope Benedict XVI has had all the force of a universal avalanche. The questions never end.
Journalists are rushing from source to source trying to determine the future of a church led by a theologian considered by many to be both doctrinaire and dogmatic. The apparent answers to their questions leave many in more darkness than light, in search of some kind of spiritual security that their church still includes them, too.
The questions may be difficult but the answers are even more unsettling. They read like an inquisition–and a conviction-- of their own. Is there any possible hope to be had here?
Did anyone really think such an election could happen at a time when the church is apparently more in need of openness than intransigent resistance in the face of so much new information and emerging new questions? Answer: No.
Does anyone know why the Cardinals of the church elected as Pope one of its most polarizing personalities? Answer: No.
Is anyone sure what will happen to church unity now if the oppression of thinkers and the suppression of questions becomes a papal norm? Answer: No.
Is it possible for a disciplinarian of the church to become its universal pastor? Answer: God willing.
And therein lies my hope.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI is said to have taken the name ‘Benedict’ to indicate that the model of his papacy would be the great Patron of Europe, Benedict of Nursia. If that’s really the case, I can’t think of anything more hopeful for the church.
As a Benedictine, I state my case for hope in any leader who sees Benedict of Nursia as the measure of his leadership.
The Rule of Benedict, a document now over 1500 years old and the basis for the lifestyle of monastics around the world, is based on four major concepts that are totally incompatible with authoritarianism or suppression of the human spirit.
Listening is at the center of this Rule for those who live in community. “Listen...with the ear of the heart,” its Prologue counsels. Listen, in other words, not so much for what is canonically right but for what is spiritually true, for what speaks to the deepest part of the human being. Listening to the Word of God, to the tradition, to one another, to the circumstances of life becomes the cornerstone of spiritual growth. It is questions, not answers, that guide this life.
Humility, the second major concept of Benedictine monasticism, requires that each of us come to realize how limited is our own understanding of the universe. It demands that we let God be God. It’s not for any of us, Benedict teaches, abbot or monk, to think we can bend the world to our own designs. After precisely defining the mode of community prayer in twelve separate chapters, Benedict ends the chapters dealing with the most important aspect of monastic life by saying, “If any brother knows a better way, let him arrange things differently.” We cannot look to the Rule of Benedict to legitimate authoritarianism in the name of God.
Community, the third dimension of Benedictine spirituality, brings us to realize how bright and good and essential to our own growth is everyone else around us. We learn from the community. We serve the community. Benedict is clear: “Whenever weighty matters are to be discussed,” the Rule requires, “let the abbot call the community together and, starting with the youngest, ask each their advice.” No thought suppression here. No smothering of fresh thought here. The abbot does not come to the community with answers. The abbot comes with questions and finds his answers there.
Hospitality, the fourth dimension of Benedictine spirituality, takes everyone in. No one is excluded from the Christian community. No one is too bad, too poor, too useless, too unimportant to be part of the community. “Let the Guest be treated as Christ,” the Rule says. Treating one another as Christ becomes the norm.
Finally, St. Benedict had a sister, St. Scholastica, whom he treated as an equal. They came together yearly ‘to speak of holy things together.’ She learned from him, yes, but he learned from her as well and her monastery was independent of his. In Benedictinism lies a holy model of male-female relationships and the authority of women.
Each of us has a piece of the truth, Benedict shows us; no one has all the truth. We need to learn from one another.
Believe me, if this pope really takes Benedict of Nursia for a model, this will be a very healthy church.
Journalists are rushing from source to source trying to determine the future of a church led by a theologian considered by many to be both doctrinaire and dogmatic. The apparent answers to their questions leave many in more darkness than light, in search of some kind of spiritual security that their church still includes them, too.
The questions may be difficult but the answers are even more unsettling. They read like an inquisition–and a conviction-- of their own. Is there any possible hope to be had here?
Did anyone really think such an election could happen at a time when the church is apparently more in need of openness than intransigent resistance in the face of so much new information and emerging new questions? Answer: No.
Does anyone know why the Cardinals of the church elected as Pope one of its most polarizing personalities? Answer: No.
Is anyone sure what will happen to church unity now if the oppression of thinkers and the suppression of questions becomes a papal norm? Answer: No.
Is it possible for a disciplinarian of the church to become its universal pastor? Answer: God willing.
And therein lies my hope.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI is said to have taken the name ‘Benedict’ to indicate that the model of his papacy would be the great Patron of Europe, Benedict of Nursia. If that’s really the case, I can’t think of anything more hopeful for the church.
As a Benedictine, I state my case for hope in any leader who sees Benedict of Nursia as the measure of his leadership.
The Rule of Benedict, a document now over 1500 years old and the basis for the lifestyle of monastics around the world, is based on four major concepts that are totally incompatible with authoritarianism or suppression of the human spirit.
Listening is at the center of this Rule for those who live in community. “Listen...with the ear of the heart,” its Prologue counsels. Listen, in other words, not so much for what is canonically right but for what is spiritually true, for what speaks to the deepest part of the human being. Listening to the Word of God, to the tradition, to one another, to the circumstances of life becomes the cornerstone of spiritual growth. It is questions, not answers, that guide this life.
Humility, the second major concept of Benedictine monasticism, requires that each of us come to realize how limited is our own understanding of the universe. It demands that we let God be God. It’s not for any of us, Benedict teaches, abbot or monk, to think we can bend the world to our own designs. After precisely defining the mode of community prayer in twelve separate chapters, Benedict ends the chapters dealing with the most important aspect of monastic life by saying, “If any brother knows a better way, let him arrange things differently.” We cannot look to the Rule of Benedict to legitimate authoritarianism in the name of God.
Community, the third dimension of Benedictine spirituality, brings us to realize how bright and good and essential to our own growth is everyone else around us. We learn from the community. We serve the community. Benedict is clear: “Whenever weighty matters are to be discussed,” the Rule requires, “let the abbot call the community together and, starting with the youngest, ask each their advice.” No thought suppression here. No smothering of fresh thought here. The abbot does not come to the community with answers. The abbot comes with questions and finds his answers there.
Hospitality, the fourth dimension of Benedictine spirituality, takes everyone in. No one is excluded from the Christian community. No one is too bad, too poor, too useless, too unimportant to be part of the community. “Let the Guest be treated as Christ,” the Rule says. Treating one another as Christ becomes the norm.
Finally, St. Benedict had a sister, St. Scholastica, whom he treated as an equal. They came together yearly ‘to speak of holy things together.’ She learned from him, yes, but he learned from her as well and her monastery was independent of his. In Benedictinism lies a holy model of male-female relationships and the authority of women.
Each of us has a piece of the truth, Benedict shows us; no one has all the truth. We need to learn from one another.
Believe me, if this pope really takes Benedict of Nursia for a model, this will be a very healthy church.
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Life at school this week.
Senior Thesis Exhibits opened this past week and these images are from women who are graduating this year, both photography majors, both hitting their stride as thinkers and writers and makers of images. The first piece is by Jamie Bayliss and the next by Helen Rowinski. Exactly what you hope to see happen for everyone who comes through the doors. See more about what we are about at
MIAD (I am shameless about promoting this college and its programs, because I truly believe in what we do.) Jamie Bayliss also has a web address - HERE
Still. Maybe it is just the time of the semester. We are all tired. The budget process has crossed most of its hurdles. The last day to drop a class has passed, as has registration for the fall. Is that why the antics at PRANSTGRUP - especially the lecture piece - had me laughing so hard yesterday?
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
global from the coast
Spent the weekend in situations that spanned the globe - and it was humbling to consider the ability to do this. Friday at the Art Institute of Chicago with colleagues and students. Matthi Forrer (Curator of the Japanese Department at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden) gave our small group a walloping dose of the history of Japanese woodblock prints.
We were behind the scenes, with the prints - up close and personal - including this one by Katsukawa Shunko: Bust Portrait of the Actor Ichikawa Danjuro V as Kazusa no Gorobei Tadamitsu, 1780.
Up before the sun on Saturday and was able to finally watch the film Motorcyle Diaries. Hauntingly beautiful on so many levels, visual, political, spiritual...watching the birth of consciousness of a man that so many have reduced to an iconic image without any understanding of what they are "using" as they bandy his picture about like any other piece of popular culture. Into the mix, it's all into the mix....
We know so little of the America to the south. Another good site to check out is CONVIDA: http://www.convida.org/. This is the work of long time friends Barbara Cervenka and Mame Jackson.
Sunday the choir sang at St. Francis Borgia - gave a brief concert afterward. The lack of altos was a problem - I was one of four...pitiful. KC Williams sang Children of the Sea (from the Tsunami Benefit we recently did- with all benefits going to kids...60% to children in Africa and the other 40% to children in Asia).
In between - the funeral at the Vatican and the wedding in England. AND ooh those hats - all the way around they were there. Leather motorcycle hats and ornate haircombs in the woodblocks...native Peruvian headgear, magenta and scarlet scull-caps and feathers of all kinds.
Happy Birthday John. I love you.
We were behind the scenes, with the prints - up close and personal - including this one by Katsukawa Shunko: Bust Portrait of the Actor Ichikawa Danjuro V as Kazusa no Gorobei Tadamitsu, 1780.
Up before the sun on Saturday and was able to finally watch the film Motorcyle Diaries. Hauntingly beautiful on so many levels, visual, political, spiritual...watching the birth of consciousness of a man that so many have reduced to an iconic image without any understanding of what they are "using" as they bandy his picture about like any other piece of popular culture. Into the mix, it's all into the mix....
We know so little of the America to the south. Another good site to check out is CONVIDA: http://www.convida.org/. This is the work of long time friends Barbara Cervenka and Mame Jackson.
Sunday the choir sang at St. Francis Borgia - gave a brief concert afterward. The lack of altos was a problem - I was one of four...pitiful. KC Williams sang Children of the Sea (from the Tsunami Benefit we recently did- with all benefits going to kids...60% to children in Africa and the other 40% to children in Asia).
In between - the funeral at the Vatican and the wedding in England. AND ooh those hats - all the way around they were there. Leather motorcycle hats and ornate haircombs in the woodblocks...native Peruvian headgear, magenta and scarlet scull-caps and feathers of all kinds.
Happy Birthday John. I love you.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
Sunday, April 03, 2005
"If you want a little happiness in life don’t forget to look at the little things. It is a poet’s work to see the incidental, pluck it, place an appropriate silence around both sides and see the profound in what passes for a passing moment. It is an artist’s job to as much discover art as create it. Prayer is a way of making the common profound by pausing, tying knots around a moment, turning our life into a string of pearls." -Noah benShea
Friday, April 01, 2005
Verses by JRF
RAPID WISDOM
Deep in the Barrens aft Hudson’s Bay,
Persist twin legends old and grey.
Sung there first by Voyageer;
Rubrics now, let all revere!
Scriven there they are today,
On maps n’ charts to guide the way;
Of those who brave water white
Ancient widsoms, writ up-tight!
Rendered there in single line,
Of Whitman logic, nigh-Divine,
Spelled out clear, loud and large:
“INJUNS SHOOT…ALL OTHERS PORTAGE!”
but should ye seek, wit more sage,
derived be this of that some age;
as Redman echoes, o’er Lak Lebarge;
“NO INJUN DROWN…ON HEEM PORTAGE!:
J.R.F., P.C.; 5/69
WRY BREAD
WELL DONE, WELL DONE,
MY SON, MY SON.
WE ARE NOT CURSED,
IN ONE SO VERSED.
YOU PASS THE TEST,
MY SEED IS BLEST!
PATERNAL PRAISE, PROFOUND AS THIS,
HAZARDS A GRAND HYPOTHESIS:
BREAD O’BARDS, THE WRY KIND,
FEEDS THE SOUL AND WITS THE MIND!
AT THE END, WHEN ALL IS VERSE,
SCORN THE EMERALDS IN MY PURSE;
PASS THIS PEARL, DOWN THE LINE:
TO HEIR IS HUMAN --- TO RHYME DIVINE!
JRF:12/77
(Oolamah to Fili)
Fili: First rank poet, hierarchy of ancient Eire
Oolamah: Teacher of fili, “ “ “ “
FAILLELURE
Far and alone he paddles,
Groom to that roaring stream;
Guard to trove and treasures,
Guide to the fabled dream!
Where eagles shriek dark canyons,
And bighorn hold the heights;
Where grayling streak bright rapids,
And grizzly win all fights!
May the snows eternal fall,
Down soft on Nahanni creeks;
May the lodevein never end,
Where his spirit ever seeks!
J.F. 1/74
Albert Faille lived alone in the 45,000 sq. mi. South Nahanni (Yukon Territory) watershed for 40 years. Hunter, trapper, prospector – he sought, but never found the fabled “Lost McLeod Mine”. He became a beloved wilderness legend. He died alone in his cabin, age 91, New Years Eve – 1973.
HAUTAUMAKI’S TAVERN
(on Paddy’s Day!)
Standin’ mute and compoundin’ me sins,
I drink surrounded by Swedes and Finns;
Not a harp upon a face,
Nor song t’praise the thirstin’ race!
Patrick on thy brave son smile,
Recall the pain o’yer own exile;
Cast hold light on pagan voodoo;
Green ‘em all ----- includin’ Urhoo!
A Northern Gael
From Exile: 3/74
Send in someone, don’t leave me forlorn
McBrien – Lynch –hell, even Steinborn!
Send in someone, heal the hurt
McBrien – Lynch – hell, even Kinert
Deep in the Barrens aft Hudson’s Bay,
Persist twin legends old and grey.
Sung there first by Voyageer;
Rubrics now, let all revere!
Scriven there they are today,
On maps n’ charts to guide the way;
Of those who brave water white
Ancient widsoms, writ up-tight!
Rendered there in single line,
Of Whitman logic, nigh-Divine,
Spelled out clear, loud and large:
“INJUNS SHOOT…ALL OTHERS PORTAGE!”
but should ye seek, wit more sage,
derived be this of that some age;
as Redman echoes, o’er Lak Lebarge;
“NO INJUN DROWN…ON HEEM PORTAGE!:
J.R.F., P.C.; 5/69
WRY BREAD
WELL DONE, WELL DONE,
MY SON, MY SON.
WE ARE NOT CURSED,
IN ONE SO VERSED.
YOU PASS THE TEST,
MY SEED IS BLEST!
PATERNAL PRAISE, PROFOUND AS THIS,
HAZARDS A GRAND HYPOTHESIS:
BREAD O’BARDS, THE WRY KIND,
FEEDS THE SOUL AND WITS THE MIND!
AT THE END, WHEN ALL IS VERSE,
SCORN THE EMERALDS IN MY PURSE;
PASS THIS PEARL, DOWN THE LINE:
TO HEIR IS HUMAN --- TO RHYME DIVINE!
JRF:12/77
(Oolamah to Fili)
Fili: First rank poet, hierarchy of ancient Eire
Oolamah: Teacher of fili, “ “ “ “
FAILLELURE
Far and alone he paddles,
Groom to that roaring stream;
Guard to trove and treasures,
Guide to the fabled dream!
Where eagles shriek dark canyons,
And bighorn hold the heights;
Where grayling streak bright rapids,
And grizzly win all fights!
May the snows eternal fall,
Down soft on Nahanni creeks;
May the lodevein never end,
Where his spirit ever seeks!
J.F. 1/74
Albert Faille lived alone in the 45,000 sq. mi. South Nahanni (Yukon Territory) watershed for 40 years. Hunter, trapper, prospector – he sought, but never found the fabled “Lost McLeod Mine”. He became a beloved wilderness legend. He died alone in his cabin, age 91, New Years Eve – 1973.
HAUTAUMAKI’S TAVERN
(on Paddy’s Day!)
Standin’ mute and compoundin’ me sins,
I drink surrounded by Swedes and Finns;
Not a harp upon a face,
Nor song t’praise the thirstin’ race!
Patrick on thy brave son smile,
Recall the pain o’yer own exile;
Cast hold light on pagan voodoo;
Green ‘em all ----- includin’ Urhoo!
A Northern Gael
From Exile: 3/74
Send in someone, don’t leave me forlorn
McBrien – Lynch –hell, even Steinborn!
Send in someone, heal the hurt
McBrien – Lynch – hell, even Kinert
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