Hope Ginsburg
Faculty, Painting and Printmaking
Dana and I met together. It was interesting to see how she responded to different works. As I really appreciate the participatory element in artworks I was glad to see the conversation with Dana. She shared her excitement and concerns about her own work and had a very open conversation with Dana. Hope saw my photographs and simply accepted them without questioning. Then I showed my artist talk video with Claire and she liked as well because of the humor to it, the tackiness of the super 8 film.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Independent Studio Visit 5 (Fall 2011) I-Shian Suen, Ph.D
Dr. I-Shian (Ivan) Suen
Chair of the Urban and Regional Planning Program in VCU
As I am considering a career in urban planning I decided to definitely meet with people within the urban planning in VCU. Luckily I met with the chair of the program. He declined my request to be part of my committee as he is on other students committees already.
Ivan encouraged me to pursue a career in urban planning, as what I do now is research in this direction. He praised my photographs for their accurate observations and pointing to very specific issues but emphasized that they are interpretations. Urban planning goes into action for fixing these issues, or at least attempts to. My photographs show the surface of decisions and actions taken, they don't show what is beneath this surface: the reasons for the issues depicted.
From this conversation I gained the perspective of a non artist, whose ideas of aesthetics are based on everyday function. What is the direct application of this body of work, he would ask. His point made me understand better the writing of Bob Thall towards his photographic book The Perfect City where he discusses the definition of photo documentary. Although the work is about the relation between the public and urban spaces, it emphasizes on the aesthetics that are the product of these relations. Some weird beauty... (I am very skeptic about muddy adjectives).
My work stands between two realms, one of the fine arts and another of designing functional space and I feel that I have to find where exactly they overlap.
Chair of the Urban and Regional Planning Program in VCU
As I am considering a career in urban planning I decided to definitely meet with people within the urban planning in VCU. Luckily I met with the chair of the program. He declined my request to be part of my committee as he is on other students committees already.
Ivan encouraged me to pursue a career in urban planning, as what I do now is research in this direction. He praised my photographs for their accurate observations and pointing to very specific issues but emphasized that they are interpretations. Urban planning goes into action for fixing these issues, or at least attempts to. My photographs show the surface of decisions and actions taken, they don't show what is beneath this surface: the reasons for the issues depicted.
From this conversation I gained the perspective of a non artist, whose ideas of aesthetics are based on everyday function. What is the direct application of this body of work, he would ask. His point made me understand better the writing of Bob Thall towards his photographic book The Perfect City where he discusses the definition of photo documentary. Although the work is about the relation between the public and urban spaces, it emphasizes on the aesthetics that are the product of these relations. Some weird beauty... (I am very skeptic about muddy adjectives).
My work stands between two realms, one of the fine arts and another of designing functional space and I feel that I have to find where exactly they overlap.
Independent Studio Visit 4 (Fall 2011) Jack Risley
Jack Risley,
Associate Dean, School of the Arts.
This was the most recent meeting, I showed him the VA Beach prints, the playgrounds from Crystal City. Jack seemed to be fairly entertained by the images and exclaimed that I make photos of the US that look like Soviet scenery. And this is also done in a spectacular way, capturing truly oppressive imagery. For me personally environments can be depressing because of their restrictions or their decay.
Also he wondered how I found Crystal City which he just recently visited for first time for a conference and was really influenced by the weird space. Then we discussed my research in urban planning, as I did find Crystal City through reading. His suggestion was to move my interest from public space issues from the 1980-90's to these of the 2010's.
As images he favored the passages from VA Beach. I showed Richard Misrach's Golden Gate series as reference - spectacular photographs. I also played the Crystal City water park sound track.
Associate Dean, School of the Arts.
This was the most recent meeting, I showed him the VA Beach prints, the playgrounds from Crystal City. Jack seemed to be fairly entertained by the images and exclaimed that I make photos of the US that look like Soviet scenery. And this is also done in a spectacular way, capturing truly oppressive imagery. For me personally environments can be depressing because of their restrictions or their decay.
Also he wondered how I found Crystal City which he just recently visited for first time for a conference and was really influenced by the weird space. Then we discussed my research in urban planning, as I did find Crystal City through reading. His suggestion was to move my interest from public space issues from the 1980-90's to these of the 2010's.
As images he favored the passages from VA Beach. I showed Richard Misrach's Golden Gate series as reference - spectacular photographs. I also played the Crystal City water park sound track.
Independent Studio Visit 3 (Fall 2011) Gregory Volk
Gregory Volk,
Critic and full time faculty VCU School of the Arts
I showed him the prints from candidacy and the Bulgarian resort series. As well as the video with my 8mm film with preface by Claire playing the role of the critic.
He liked the candidacy prints, in his words, they are very strong images, great photographs. However, his main concern is their proximity to the work by other photographers, Gursky, Struth and Ruff. His challenge to me was to make the topic I am examining my own by having a personal style unmistakable with the others. Once again he pointed to Nedko Solakov, who like me is Bulgarian and Gregory knows personally. I showed him the Bulgarian vacation industry photos which he liked, they depict something different from the common knowledge.
However, the topic of nature and land use after the fall of communism is quite common topic where I am from. What should my "foreign" work be: form and subject matter to appeal the audience in the US or a personal investigation of what I am interested in? 95% of foreign art is selected to fit within the local narrative of what the world is. It needs to be different but only to the extent to strengthen the notions of what it is out there. Identity and differences are shoved in the face of the audience, however, the way they want to see it. Otherwise people are confused and simply dismiss the work if their expectations are not met.
Surprisingly, Gregory liked the video with Claire. He suggested to have more of this faces spewing nonsense with authority.
Critic and full time faculty VCU School of the Arts
I showed him the prints from candidacy and the Bulgarian resort series. As well as the video with my 8mm film with preface by Claire playing the role of the critic.
He liked the candidacy prints, in his words, they are very strong images, great photographs. However, his main concern is their proximity to the work by other photographers, Gursky, Struth and Ruff. His challenge to me was to make the topic I am examining my own by having a personal style unmistakable with the others. Once again he pointed to Nedko Solakov, who like me is Bulgarian and Gregory knows personally. I showed him the Bulgarian vacation industry photos which he liked, they depict something different from the common knowledge.
However, the topic of nature and land use after the fall of communism is quite common topic where I am from. What should my "foreign" work be: form and subject matter to appeal the audience in the US or a personal investigation of what I am interested in? 95% of foreign art is selected to fit within the local narrative of what the world is. It needs to be different but only to the extent to strengthen the notions of what it is out there. Identity and differences are shoved in the face of the audience, however, the way they want to see it. Otherwise people are confused and simply dismiss the work if their expectations are not met.
Surprisingly, Gregory liked the video with Claire. He suggested to have more of this faces spewing nonsense with authority.
Independent Studio Visit 2 (Fall 2011) John Malinsoki
John Malinoski
Full time faculty Department of Graphic Design and Communication at VCU
He really focused on the topics my work examines. My images were triggering a conversation about the aesthetics as well as the politics of the public urban spaces and John has a very definite opinion. It was very encouraging to hear feedback from someone who sees through the images into the subject matter they are meant to interpret. I don't know whether my work is very successful if seen as art-for-art-sake, because of its political element. The photographs point to something controversial. People accept them as matter of fact and so far has been the most interesting during group critiques when the differences of how people evaluate the spaces depicted or the meaning of these spaces come to the surface. I have been really enjoying the arguments that happen when people don't even talk about the work but the questions it raises. When this happens I feel that my work has fulfilled its goal.
Meeting John Malinsoki was equal to meeting someone on the same page. I now wonder about the balance between the fine art and the research side of the current series. How would they work with gallery goers versus designers versus planners versus developers (investing with the spaces).
Full time faculty Department of Graphic Design and Communication at VCU
He really focused on the topics my work examines. My images were triggering a conversation about the aesthetics as well as the politics of the public urban spaces and John has a very definite opinion. It was very encouraging to hear feedback from someone who sees through the images into the subject matter they are meant to interpret. I don't know whether my work is very successful if seen as art-for-art-sake, because of its political element. The photographs point to something controversial. People accept them as matter of fact and so far has been the most interesting during group critiques when the differences of how people evaluate the spaces depicted or the meaning of these spaces come to the surface. I have been really enjoying the arguments that happen when people don't even talk about the work but the questions it raises. When this happens I feel that my work has fulfilled its goal.
Meeting John Malinsoki was equal to meeting someone on the same page. I now wonder about the balance between the fine art and the research side of the current series. How would they work with gallery goers versus designers versus planners versus developers (investing with the spaces).
Independent Studio Visit 1 (Fall 2011) Ester Partegas
Ester Partegas
New sculpture faculty in VCU.
http://www.esterpartegas.com/
I was eager to meet with her after looking at her web site and seeing how our work relates. Ester has lived in the city of New York for the past 14 years after she moved from Barcelona. The visit became more of a discussion of her work as I kept asking her questions.
We talked about her life size mat board models, in relation to Thomas Demand's work and how they differ. Ester disagreed about the word "model" as they are spatial experiences. Instead of legendary media events in Germany, her structures are of the everyday spaces that one encounters. The spaces re-constructed, just like the ones in my photographs, are meant to mediate experience in such a way to minimize personal interpretation and the notion of place.
Another strong topic in her work is the aesthetics of waste and every day consumerism.
As she has moved in Richmond 2 months before the meeting, her initial drive was to photograph real spaces in order to make sense of them. Ester feels as a foreigner, in her words, as she moved from NYC to America. And she also is Spanish. She was really interested in my work from her standpoint, seeing images of the real waste facilities and mid sized American cities, and did not question or critique it much.
I wanted to have her on my committee but she declined. She has been in the university of 3 months now and this responsibility might be overwhelming. However, Ester insisted on having another studio visit next semester. I'll not miss it.
To From From at Across to in From. The Centerless Feeling, 2001
Black House 2003
Fixed and Hazardous Objects, 2010
New sculpture faculty in VCU.
http://www.esterpartegas.com/
I was eager to meet with her after looking at her web site and seeing how our work relates. Ester has lived in the city of New York for the past 14 years after she moved from Barcelona. The visit became more of a discussion of her work as I kept asking her questions.
We talked about her life size mat board models, in relation to Thomas Demand's work and how they differ. Ester disagreed about the word "model" as they are spatial experiences. Instead of legendary media events in Germany, her structures are of the everyday spaces that one encounters. The spaces re-constructed, just like the ones in my photographs, are meant to mediate experience in such a way to minimize personal interpretation and the notion of place.
Another strong topic in her work is the aesthetics of waste and every day consumerism.
As she has moved in Richmond 2 months before the meeting, her initial drive was to photograph real spaces in order to make sense of them. Ester feels as a foreigner, in her words, as she moved from NYC to America. And she also is Spanish. She was really interested in my work from her standpoint, seeing images of the real waste facilities and mid sized American cities, and did not question or critique it much.
I wanted to have her on my committee but she declined. She has been in the university of 3 months now and this responsibility might be overwhelming. However, Ester insisted on having another studio visit next semester. I'll not miss it.
To From From at Across to in From. The Centerless Feeling, 2001
Black House 2003
Fixed and Hazardous Objects, 2010Friday, November 4, 2011
The Baltimore Playground
Fallon Federal Child Care Center, Inc. 31 Hopkins Plaza
Baltimore, MD 21201
NAEYC Accredited
Operator: Child Time
Ages: Infant-5 years
Director: Miranda Whitman
Ph: (410) 962-2742
Fax: (410) 962-2536 E-mail: 0821@childtime.com
Website of the company running the facility:
http://www.childtime.com/our-schools/baltimore-md-0821/
This information is from a list with federal centers daycare facilities (the services are provided by separate companies)
After researching federal daycare centers in the DC area I found that all but one of them are far beyond more fences and gates. Of course the federal facilities have restricted access.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
8 Books, movies, articles
1) "The Forbidden Fruits of Urban Exploration",
an article by Stipo Consult
On their web site here
As a PDF here
My personal reason to look at this:
A consultant firm in Holland boldly proposing to move play out of playgrounds. Children should not need a staged experience of life, instead the challenge is to make cities safe enough for them to play in the real environment. By definition children and teen's view point is related to situationist and flaneurist view of the city because of their drive to explore without and end goal.
This is valuable as it lets young people interpret the world more freely. This is important for everybody.
Quotes:
- "Stipo (urban strategy advisors) created a temporary team especially for Child Friendly Cities, consisting of urban planners, designers, education designers and public space artists"
p.1, The Forbidden Fruits of Urban Exploration
- "Our vision, combined with the basic trends require a new and rich approach. An approach away from the usual short term solutions. Short term solutions like creating places to hang out for youngsters on the edge of the living zone, where they don't bother us - but where youth mostly don't want to be (in Dutch "hangplekdenken"). And short term solutions like the formal mini-playgrounds for smaller children (in Dutch "wipkipdenken"). "
p 6, ibid
images by Helen Lewitt.
2) The Playgrounds and the City, Aldo van Eyck
The design of his playgrounds is bare and minimal. They have no representation but devices to explore spatial relationships. No narrative is put into the children play, no super heroes, no references to iconic figures or places.
Is it too intellectual? They look like Robert Morris' sculptures:
3) "City: Rediscovering the Center"
William H. Whyte
My Reasons to like it:
A great study of social behavior in urban spaces, this book is the collection of Whyte's research. Main point is participation: streets are spaces where interactions not staged by a central authority happen. The ability of individuals to interpret or re-purpose spaces is what makes environments to be places.
Key term: Chance Encounters
Quotes:
- "Now coming of age is a whole new generation of planners and architects for whom the formative experience of a center was the atrium of a suburban shopping mall. Some cities have already been recast in this image and more a following suit."
p.7 Whyte, William H., City: Rediscovering the Center, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA 2009
- "Suburban shopping malls are not the new town centers. They lack or forbid many of the activities of a center: soapboxers, controversy, passing of leaflets impromptu entertainment, happenings, or eccentric behavior of any kind including persistent non buying."
p. 208 ibid
4) "Dream Worlds: Architecture and Entertainment"
Oliver Herwig (text) and Florian Holzherr (photography)
Reasons to like it: More on the positive side, the book describes without judging. It is a study of synthetic spaces, with great photographs made for the book. These are heavily controlled spaces converting free time into a prefabricated consumable product.
Quotes:
"Disneyland is not profitable because of constant inovation, but on the contrary , because it gives consumers what they already know. Again and again, guaranteed: fast food dreams in fantasy worlds and in architectural settings palatable for the masses. "
p. 24 Herwig, Oliver and Holzherr, Florian, Dream Worlds: Architecture and Entertainment, Prestel Verlag, Munich, Berlin, London, New York, 2006
"The demand for artificial paradises is increasing... that the energy that goes into work is transferred from production to reproduction, creating an icon of the new leisure and society: a gleaming bubble in the middle of nowhere. "
p. 139 ibid
5) "The Perfect City" by Bob Thall
Reasons to like it:
Great architecture photography and even more helpful righting. While I enjoyed the New Jersey's photographs or George Tice, I did not find a solid statement in his book. While Thall's statement remind me of my own. He also looks at structures as manifestation of social phenomena.
Quotes:
- "The photographs in this book provide only modest insight into the complicated forces that shape the physical landscape of Chicago or any city... These forces operate too far beneath the surface for a topographical photograph to describe them. But the medium of photography is nonetheless very good at capturing and structuring visual epiphanies and a sense of place."
p, 107 Thall, Bob, The Perfect City, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1994
- "Those children of the 1950's are parents now. And when they think of travel that broadens of expanding their children's horizons of all the cliches parents reconstitute from their own past, the city is central, one of the icons. There is the West. There is the seashore. There is the farm. There is the forest. And there is the city."
p. 7 ibid, essay Peter Bacon Hales, The Museum of the City
6) Calamari Union (1985)
by Aki Kaurismaki
Why I like it:
The city is a stage. A group of thugs named Frank break into restaurants and bars but not to steal instead to serve each other. They live on the street and wander aimlessly, true situationists reacting to the everydayness in absurd manner. Their actual journey is from the working class part of Helsinki to Eira, the affluent part of town but they never make it there.
7) The Red Swing Project
8) Candy Chang - Before I Die project
Can be seen here on her web site
Another example of intervention within a space. A vacant house can be worked instead of only photographed.
an article by Stipo Consult
On their web site here
As a PDF here
My personal reason to look at this:
A consultant firm in Holland boldly proposing to move play out of playgrounds. Children should not need a staged experience of life, instead the challenge is to make cities safe enough for them to play in the real environment. By definition children and teen's view point is related to situationist and flaneurist view of the city because of their drive to explore without and end goal.
This is valuable as it lets young people interpret the world more freely. This is important for everybody.
Quotes:
- "Stipo (urban strategy advisors) created a temporary team especially for Child Friendly Cities, consisting of urban planners, designers, education designers and public space artists"
p.1, The Forbidden Fruits of Urban Exploration
- "Our vision, combined with the basic trends require a new and rich approach. An approach away from the usual short term solutions. Short term solutions like creating places to hang out for youngsters on the edge of the living zone, where they don't bother us - but where youth mostly don't want to be (in Dutch "hangplekdenken"). And short term solutions like the formal mini-playgrounds for smaller children (in Dutch "wipkipdenken"). "
p 6, ibid
images by Helen Lewitt.
2) The Playgrounds and the City, Aldo van Eyck
The design of his playgrounds is bare and minimal. They have no representation but devices to explore spatial relationships. No narrative is put into the children play, no super heroes, no references to iconic figures or places.
Is it too intellectual? They look like Robert Morris' sculptures:
3) "City: Rediscovering the Center"
William H. Whyte
My Reasons to like it:
A great study of social behavior in urban spaces, this book is the collection of Whyte's research. Main point is participation: streets are spaces where interactions not staged by a central authority happen. The ability of individuals to interpret or re-purpose spaces is what makes environments to be places.
Key term: Chance Encounters
William H. Whyte - Social Life of Small Urban Places from Robin van Emden on Vimeo.
Quotes:
- "Now coming of age is a whole new generation of planners and architects for whom the formative experience of a center was the atrium of a suburban shopping mall. Some cities have already been recast in this image and more a following suit."
p.7 Whyte, William H., City: Rediscovering the Center, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA 2009
- "Suburban shopping malls are not the new town centers. They lack or forbid many of the activities of a center: soapboxers, controversy, passing of leaflets impromptu entertainment, happenings, or eccentric behavior of any kind including persistent non buying."
p. 208 ibid
4) "Dream Worlds: Architecture and Entertainment"
Oliver Herwig (text) and Florian Holzherr (photography)
Reasons to like it: More on the positive side, the book describes without judging. It is a study of synthetic spaces, with great photographs made for the book. These are heavily controlled spaces converting free time into a prefabricated consumable product.
Quotes:
"Disneyland is not profitable because of constant inovation, but on the contrary , because it gives consumers what they already know. Again and again, guaranteed: fast food dreams in fantasy worlds and in architectural settings palatable for the masses. "
p. 24 Herwig, Oliver and Holzherr, Florian, Dream Worlds: Architecture and Entertainment, Prestel Verlag, Munich, Berlin, London, New York, 2006
"The demand for artificial paradises is increasing... that the energy that goes into work is transferred from production to reproduction, creating an icon of the new leisure and society: a gleaming bubble in the middle of nowhere. "
p. 139 ibid
5) "The Perfect City" by Bob Thall
Reasons to like it:
Great architecture photography and even more helpful righting. While I enjoyed the New Jersey's photographs or George Tice, I did not find a solid statement in his book. While Thall's statement remind me of my own. He also looks at structures as manifestation of social phenomena.
Quotes:
- "The photographs in this book provide only modest insight into the complicated forces that shape the physical landscape of Chicago or any city... These forces operate too far beneath the surface for a topographical photograph to describe them. But the medium of photography is nonetheless very good at capturing and structuring visual epiphanies and a sense of place."
p, 107 Thall, Bob, The Perfect City, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1994
- "Those children of the 1950's are parents now. And when they think of travel that broadens of expanding their children's horizons of all the cliches parents reconstitute from their own past, the city is central, one of the icons. There is the West. There is the seashore. There is the farm. There is the forest. And there is the city."
p. 7 ibid, essay Peter Bacon Hales, The Museum of the City
6) Calamari Union (1985)
by Aki Kaurismaki
Why I like it:
The city is a stage. A group of thugs named Frank break into restaurants and bars but not to steal instead to serve each other. They live on the street and wander aimlessly, true situationists reacting to the everydayness in absurd manner. Their actual journey is from the working class part of Helsinki to Eira, the affluent part of town but they never make it there.
7) The Red Swing Project
Red Swing Project Documentary from erin harris on Vimeo.
An experiment into altering spaces through introducing 1 new element - a play device. This was carried out in different cities around the world.8) Candy Chang - Before I Die project
Can be seen here on her web siteAnother example of intervention within a space. A vacant house can be worked instead of only photographed.
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