An open discussion about your ISPO (Independent Studio Practice Objectives), reading assignments, and Thesis progress if applicable.
ISPO: Each of you should post one ISPO to which you continually add throughout the semester.
Reading assignments: I will post one topic per reading and you will each add your comments on the reading to that topic.
Thesis progress: If you are working on the written paper for your thesis, please post chapters for discussion.
I was already familiar with this project so it was nice to finally understand why a giant nose was being pursued by KGB in the bits and pieces I had seen on Youtube. I found many similarities to the Metamorphosis by Kafka in that a satire meant to be comedy takes on a darker overtone in perspective. I especially enjoyed "...circus like physicality' in the marriage between Russian art, folklore, signage and the operatic- a blending of high and low forms, especially with a 'sensitivity to social implications.'- The blending of forms, even outside of the time written and then movinginto 4d elements, is particularly cool. Perhaps this is the new post post modern- an explosion of collage that goes beyond the 2 or even 3 d element, now involving new media. However, some critics did say the animation aspect was distracting so maybe this new form of collaboration will take time to be widely appreciated- then again, how different is it from say, the Lion King?? Perhaps purists will always be purists, who wont want peanut butter on their chocolate or chocolate on their peanut butter.
I agree with the new media aspect, which is why I thought it to be a good subject. I can imagine that they critiques might have said that and I bet it was.
I've also seen some of the scenes from "The Nose," but had NO idea how much went into the production. The article stated:
For some critics, the unrelenting presence and pace of projections ultimately distracted from rather than complemented Shostakovich’s music,18 which raises an old and much contested issue, namely the degree to which image, action, and music compete with one another in opera. In a recent interview with Kentridge, Calvin Tomkins confessed that with respect to the artist’s production of The Magic Flute (2005) there were times when he felt “that the visual effects were a distraction from the music.” To this Kentridge responded: “Some people hated it because there was too much to watch.” The having of too-much-to-watch is a problem, in some quarters, because it implies a loss of the ability to grasp the putative totality, a loss of mastery. But for Kentridge, this is simply not a problem because, in his opinion, “opera is an impure medium” that combines many different elements.19
Kentridge approaches art the same way he would approach an opera, with multiple elements working together. I do wonder if the music, while crucial, came second to the artist, meaning that the musicians complained that the art at times distracted from the music. For myself, I enjoy the art first, and the music second, finding the music an accent to the art. I wonder if Kentridge viewed the art as an accompaniment to the music, or the music as part of the art (answering my own question, I assume that he approached it with a more holistic point of view, wanting the art and music to compliment one another, appealing to both groups of professionals).
Also, on page 39, the long quote, I loved it. We all want to find meaning behind art, behind words, through touch, etc. It seemed to be a really nice complement to what Kristin is writing about - she brings her own iconography to the table, but without her to tell the story, the viewer has to impose their own meaning, converting the image into their own iconography. Ketridge solidifies this connection, providing a testament to or the reasoning behind our desire to impose said meaning. To simplify, Kristin says despite her meaning, the interpretation of art is up to the viewer, and Kentridge explains WHY it's up to the viewer.
Adding on, I also liked the point he was getting at, explaining how we attach ourselves to the idea of utopia. I wanted to establish that I did understand the reading, but I can be pretty A.D.D. and go a completely different direction than the text if I don't focus.
Although I’m not familiar with many of the comparisons, I found this review somewhat interesting. I would defiantly agree and call this satire a hybrid of different media, which has probably influenced many films after. The actual nose was an interesting metaphor between us and the other us. I do enjoy this constructivist approach… simplifying the subject to amplify meaning. Russian suprematism is one of my favorite movements. It is amazing how simple shapes, movements, and compositions relate and tell a story. I found the title I Am Not Me, The Horse Is not Mine clever. Society influences us everyday, if we want to or not. We are just humans and far from being perfect. But after coming to a realization, we have to adjust and do what is right. I was amazed on how many artist were involved in this montage.
While I have never seen or heard of Kentridge’s production of “The Nose”, I found the You tube clip interesting and entertaining. Of course as an artist, I can see how adding the visual images would make the opera more interesting, and also I understand that the images could also be distracting too! The article was looking at the blending of different media, both high and low forms using drawings, animation, combined with live action, and footage of archival films. The opera seems to have metamorphosed into this new form of mixed media. I see the similarities between the combining of elements of the theatre, music, action, visual images with video, to the combining of elements in the visual arts, with movement, time, and sound, now called “New Media”. I even wondered if this was something for me to explore, to share the essence of the experience of a time, a place, through my paintings. My intent is to engage the viewer to share in the experience. Maybe by taking a multi-media approach it would help the viewer to understand and share in the experience by hearing, and feeling, as well as seeing nature through my experience. But then I stopped to ask myself if sharing the experience was more important than my painting the experience and I believe it is the latter of the two. Maybe I am more of a purist than I realized. I do take a mixed media approach, but it must include a presence that I can touch such as, paint, surface texture etc. Traditionally painters have painted the illusion of nature, more like a documentary of what was there, I am simplifying the experience to share the essence of the place and through the application of paint, abstracting the landscape. With paint, the shapes, space, and color are manipulated to emphasize my emotional response to the transitory, fleeting moment of that place and time. I may include other mediums, but paint is primary.
Opera meets Cirque du Soleil...anyone else get that feeling. Although I am not an avid opera goer..."I know, big shock, right?" I wonder, does all of the visual add to or take away from the overall production. It's very strong imagery (I watched a youtube clip) and I kind of forgot that I was supposed to be listening to the music and was drawn in more to the imagery. I know that I was affected by the music but it took a back seat. I do like a non-traditional approach...and of course someone is always trying to do something new and exciting.
I do like the idea of the actual story itself. It sort of reminds me of my work. The nose basically rejects it's former self and sometimes we reject or dislike the way we see ourselves and sometimes would like to remove some or our behaviors and tendencies much like the nose removed itself from the body.
All Opera has and is a grand spectacle, from the music to staging, props, costume, and lighting. Magnificent buildings were designed just for opera. Divas and impresarios strut the grand surroundings, singing tragic stories of love and betrayal.
1910 In the audience you will find the creamed la cream, Kings, Emperors, Tyrants, people of power, people who commanded their cultures.
1919 In the audience you will find the proletarians now for the Czars and Kings are all gone now wiped away by changing politics , wars and revolutions.
The Nose presentation of 2010 is quite different from the one of 1927.
It is still satire but the irony (at least in my mind) has a new twist.
The Irony The audience today is still filled with folks of high culture and power players , captains of industry, politics, media makers, their entrances the men in evening ware, ladies in d’lorane, draped in gems and perfume, sporting new tummy tucks. I’m sure the Art press was there, critics and opera aficionados.
It is at this point the opera truly begins with the entrance of the audience for they are the point of the satire, the irony, the parody and the grotesque farce and the curtain has yet to come up!
Kintridge took on a massive project, but who would be better at it for he had lived through a revolution of sorts.
In my mind the Nose is our nose and when we lose it, it goes to all the faceless bureaucrats for in the end it is they the bureaucrats who always supersede the Kings ,Czars and Emperors’ of the world.
Gogol’s was wise to make the main character an employee of the Romanoff’s or was that just a masking device?
Revolutions and war are like car wrecks, you are cursing along and suddenly your life changes forever, WAM!
No on would be better than Kentridge how to put you behind the wheel and drive you into a stone wall.
From reading of Kentridge I know he loves music and he has used it masterfully in his previous work.
From what I read in this review Kentridge drive us softly at first then increases the speed to a point of being overwhelmed, speeding images and music, physical actions at several levels , chaos , overload, wham revolutions, jubilation, betrayal, then the let down, nothing really changes.
Kentridge has taken that car ride and multiplied it by 100 and given us the Nose.
So Kentridge has given Opera a revolution, of images, video, sound, information, movement, lighting, laughs, and violence all crashing into the wall at 100 miles an hour!
Who was the hero, who was the villain? Are they the same? Is it us? Are we the senseless mob?
The senses mob was the proletariat acting as if they were the Czar.
The police inspector was replaced by the KGB , nothing really changes.
I think Kentridge drove that car into the Upper West Side audience at full speed!
Question is was it slapstick or a slap in the face.
Kintridge still hangs onto the hope that there is a Utopia out there somewhere, he is digging up the bones hoping the flesh will return, this is a false hope, a lie, a denial of reality, but the he is an Artist.
Drew PS The faceless Noseless bureaucrats still run the world. This fact giving birth to the phrase “You have to Laugh to keep from crying” maybe Gogol was thinking that when he wrote the Nose.
I had no idea that Shostakovich collaborated with this opera...in fact, I'm going to be honest, I have never heard of this opera before. It took a while for me to understand what it was about, well, aside from the main character loosing its nose. I have been to operas before, haven't really seen all of them completely since I have been one of the musicians in the pit. When you are a musician you can only see what's going on on stage when you are not playing. It can be a long time, or you may not have a break at all. The reason why I am bringing this up is because, I have never seen projections of art, or graphic designs, on stage in an opera. The article also says that the art distracted the audience from the music. I really don't know...I guess I heard the music before I saw the art. But, it could be biassed because I am now playing Shosty so...and I heard some really awesome violin parts! anyways, I think that whenever I have been playing, people pay attention to what is on stage. The music is really background, even in opera. You first see the character and then you judge whether you like his solos or her arias or not. At least thats how I see it. I liked the combination of Shosty's music with Ken's art. I don't know whether I would put it in an opera, but then again I would have to see the whole thing first and judge it later. I do love how ken, in his interview, explained the meaning of it all. It made sense and I thought it was pretty deep too :) like Maria Cough says in her article : "My argument is that the artist's extreme visualization of this remarkably experimental work brought to the fore a new reading or inflection of it, one having to do less with its indisputably satirical register adn more with its thematization of metamorphosis and, more broadly, social transformation."
The use of installation/new media collage mixed with Ruski overtones was interesting, to say the least. The video was a whirlwind of an almost Napoleonic-statured Schnozz performing various antics, which, if it weren't for the cyrilic alphabet being used (looks like the buttons on a calculator that no one uses) you could almost think that it was Nazi anti-Jew propaganda. As far as the story is concerned, I agree with Kristin's conclusion of the piece, being the excising portions of one's self to better your outcome.
I was already familiar with this project so it was nice to finally understand why a giant nose was being pursued by KGB in the bits and pieces I had seen on Youtube. I found many similarities to the Metamorphosis by Kafka in that a satire meant to be comedy takes on a darker overtone in perspective. I especially enjoyed "...circus like physicality' in the marriage between Russian art, folklore, signage and the operatic- a blending of high and low forms, especially with a 'sensitivity to social implications.'- The blending of forms, even outside of the time written and then movinginto 4d elements, is particularly cool. Perhaps this is the new post post modern- an explosion of collage that goes beyond the 2 or even 3 d element, now involving new media. However, some critics did say the animation aspect was distracting so maybe this new form of collaboration will take time to be widely appreciated- then again, how different is it from say, the Lion King?? Perhaps purists will always be purists, who wont want peanut butter on their chocolate or chocolate on their peanut butter.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the new media aspect, which is why I thought it to be a good subject. I can imagine that they critiques might have said that and I bet it was.
DeleteI've also seen some of the scenes from "The Nose," but had NO idea how much went into the production. The article stated:
ReplyDeleteFor some critics, the unrelenting presence and pace of projections ultimately distracted from rather than complemented Shostakovich’s music,18 which raises an old and much contested issue, namely the degree to which image, action, and music compete with one another in opera. In a recent interview with Kentridge, Calvin Tomkins confessed that with respect to the artist’s production of The Magic Flute (2005) there were times when he felt “that the visual effects were a distraction
from the music.” To this Kentridge responded: “Some people hated it because there was too much to watch.” The having of too-much-to-watch is a problem, in some quarters, because it implies a loss of the ability to grasp the putative totality, a loss of mastery. But for Kentridge, this is simply not a problem because, in his opinion, “opera is an impure medium” that combines many different elements.19
Kentridge approaches art the same way he would approach an opera, with multiple elements working together. I do wonder if the music, while crucial, came second to the artist, meaning that the musicians complained that the art at times distracted from the music. For myself, I enjoy the art first, and the music second, finding the music an accent to the art. I wonder if Kentridge viewed the art as an accompaniment to the music, or the music as part of the art (answering my own question, I assume that he approached it with a more holistic point of view, wanting the art and music to compliment one another, appealing to both groups of professionals).
Also, on page 39, the long quote, I loved it. We all want to find meaning behind art, behind words, through touch, etc. It seemed to be a really nice complement to what Kristin is writing about - she brings her own iconography to the table, but without her to tell the story, the viewer has to impose their own meaning, converting the image into their own iconography. Ketridge solidifies this connection, providing a testament to or the reasoning behind our desire to impose said meaning. To simplify, Kristin says despite her meaning, the interpretation of art is up to the viewer, and Kentridge explains WHY it's up to the viewer.
Adding on, I also liked the point he was getting at, explaining how we attach ourselves to the idea of utopia. I wanted to establish that I did understand the reading, but I can be pretty A.D.D. and go a completely different direction than the text if I don't focus.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I’m not familiar with many of the comparisons, I found this review somewhat interesting. I would defiantly agree and call this satire a hybrid of different media, which has probably influenced many films after. The actual nose was an interesting metaphor between us and the other us. I do enjoy this constructivist approach… simplifying the subject to amplify meaning. Russian suprematism is one of my favorite movements. It is amazing how simple shapes, movements, and compositions relate and tell a story. I found the title I Am Not Me, The Horse Is not Mine clever. Society influences us everyday, if we want to or not. We are just humans and far from being perfect. But after coming to a realization, we have to adjust and do what is right. I was amazed on how many artist were involved in this montage.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but I’m a little confused on what I should take from this reading?
DeleteJanet’s Reading response to “Kentridge’s Nose”
ReplyDeleteWhile I have never seen or heard of Kentridge’s production of “The Nose”, I found the You tube clip interesting and entertaining. Of course as an artist, I can see how adding the visual images would make the opera more interesting, and also I understand that the images could also be distracting too! The article was looking at the blending of different media, both high and low forms using drawings, animation, combined with live action, and footage of archival films. The opera seems to have metamorphosed into this new form of mixed media.
I see the similarities between the combining of elements of the theatre, music, action, visual images with video, to the combining of elements in the visual arts, with movement, time, and sound, now called “New Media”. I even wondered if this was something for me to explore, to share the essence of the experience of a time, a place, through my paintings. My intent is to engage the viewer to share in the experience. Maybe by taking a multi-media approach it would help the viewer to understand and share in the experience by hearing, and feeling, as well as seeing nature through my experience. But then I stopped to ask myself if sharing the experience was more important than my painting the experience and I believe it is the latter of the two. Maybe I am more of a purist than I realized. I do take a mixed media approach, but it must include a presence that I can touch such as, paint, surface texture etc. Traditionally painters have painted the illusion of nature, more like a documentary of what was there, I am simplifying the experience to share the essence of the place and through the application of paint, abstracting the landscape. With paint, the shapes, space, and color are manipulated to emphasize my emotional response to the transitory, fleeting moment of that place and time. I may include other mediums, but paint is primary.
Kristin's Response to The Nose
ReplyDeleteOpera meets Cirque du Soleil...anyone else get that feeling. Although I am not an avid opera goer..."I know, big shock, right?" I wonder, does all of the visual add to or take away from the overall production. It's very strong imagery (I watched a youtube clip) and I kind of forgot that I was supposed to be listening to the music and was drawn in more to the imagery. I know that I was affected by the music but it took a back seat. I do like a non-traditional approach...and of course someone is always trying to do something new and exciting.
I do like the idea of the actual story itself. It sort of reminds me of my work. The nose basically rejects it's former self and sometimes we reject or dislike the way we see ourselves and sometimes would like to remove some or our behaviors and tendencies much like the nose removed itself from the body.
Oops....? after the first sentence.
ReplyDeleteKentridge’s Nose
ReplyDelete15 Feb 2012
All Opera has and is a grand spectacle, from the music to staging, props, costume, and lighting. Magnificent buildings were designed just for opera.
Divas and impresarios strut the grand surroundings, singing tragic stories of love and betrayal.
1910 In the audience you will find the creamed la cream, Kings, Emperors, Tyrants, people of power, people who commanded their cultures.
1919 In the audience you will find the proletarians now for the Czars and Kings are all gone now wiped away by changing politics , wars and revolutions.
The Nose presentation of 2010 is quite different from the one of 1927.
It is still satire but the irony (at least in my mind) has a new twist.
The Irony
The audience today is still filled with folks of high culture and power players , captains of industry, politics, media makers, their entrances the men in evening ware, ladies in d’lorane, draped in gems and perfume, sporting new tummy tucks. I’m sure the Art press was there, critics and opera aficionados.
It is at this point the opera truly begins with the entrance of the audience for they are the point of the satire, the irony, the parody and the grotesque farce and the curtain has yet to come up!
Kintridge took on a massive project, but who would be better at it for he had lived through a revolution of sorts.
In my mind the Nose is our nose and when we lose it, it goes to all the faceless bureaucrats for in the end it is they the bureaucrats who always supersede the Kings ,Czars and Emperors’ of the world.
Gogol’s was wise to make the main character an employee of the Romanoff’s or was that just a masking device?
Revolutions and war are like car wrecks, you are cursing along and suddenly your life changes forever, WAM!
No on would be better than Kentridge how to put you behind the wheel and drive you into a stone wall.
From reading of Kentridge I know he loves music and he has used it masterfully in his previous work.
From what I read in this review Kentridge drive us softly at first then increases the speed to a point of being overwhelmed, speeding images and music, physical actions at several levels , chaos , overload, wham revolutions, jubilation, betrayal, then the let down, nothing really changes.
Kentridge has taken that car ride and multiplied it by 100 and given us the Nose.
So Kentridge has given Opera a revolution, of images, video, sound, information, movement, lighting, laughs, and violence all crashing into the wall at 100 miles an hour!
Who was the hero, who was the villain?
Are they the same?
Is it us?
Are we the senseless mob?
The senses mob was the proletariat acting as if they were the Czar.
The police inspector was replaced by the KGB , nothing really changes.
I think Kentridge drove that car into the Upper West Side audience at full speed!
Question is was it slapstick or a slap in the face.
Kintridge still hangs onto the hope that there is a Utopia out there somewhere, he is digging up the bones hoping the flesh will return, this is a false hope, a lie, a denial of reality, but the he is an Artist.
Drew
PS
The faceless Noseless bureaucrats still run the world.
This fact giving birth to the phrase
“You have to Laugh to keep from crying”
maybe Gogol was thinking that when he wrote the Nose.
I had no idea that Shostakovich collaborated with this opera...in fact, I'm going to be honest, I have never heard of this opera before. It took a while for me to understand what it was about, well, aside from the main character loosing its nose. I have been to operas before, haven't really seen all of them completely since I have been one of the musicians in the pit. When you are a musician you can only see what's going on on stage when you are not playing. It can be a long time, or you may not have a break at all. The reason why I am bringing this up is because, I have never seen projections of art, or graphic designs, on stage in an opera. The article also says that the art distracted the audience from the music. I really don't know...I guess I heard the music before I saw the art. But, it could be biassed because I am now playing Shosty so...and I heard some really awesome violin parts! anyways, I think that whenever I have been playing, people pay attention to what is on stage. The music is really background, even in opera. You first see the character and then you judge whether you like his solos or her arias or not. At least thats how I see it. I liked the combination of Shosty's music with Ken's art. I don't know whether I would put it in an opera, but then again I would have to see the whole thing first and judge it later. I do love how ken, in his interview, explained the meaning of it all. It made sense and I thought it was pretty deep too :) like Maria Cough says in her article : "My argument is that the artist's extreme visualization of this remarkably experimental work brought to the fore a new reading or inflection of it, one having to do less with its indisputably satirical register adn more with its thematization of metamorphosis and, more broadly, social transformation."
ReplyDeleteThe use of installation/new media collage mixed with Ruski overtones was interesting, to say the least. The video was a whirlwind of an almost Napoleonic-statured Schnozz performing various antics, which, if it weren't for the cyrilic alphabet being used (looks like the buttons on a calculator that no one uses) you could almost think that it was Nazi anti-Jew propaganda. As far as the story is concerned, I agree with Kristin's conclusion of the piece, being the excising portions of one's self to better your outcome.
ReplyDelete