“Studies in Visual Arts and Communication –
an international journal”
Volume 3 – Nr 1, 2016
Table of Contents
June 2016; 3(1)
1. Ruedi Baur, Ulrike Felsing
Researching Visual Application Respectful of Cultural Diversity
Studies in Visual Arts and Communication – an international journal / June 2016 3(1)
ABSTRACT
The general intention of this paper is to provide insight into a problematic area, that of visual application respectful of cultural diversity, and to demonstrate the relevance of graphic design research in a societal environment. The paper presents methods and results from two completed research projects in the field of intercultural visual communication. The key findings of Research Project 1 are methods of multilingual typography communicated by type specimens and text samples, annotations on books, visual examples from Chinese designers and texts. The most important results of Research Project 2 are visually communicated by 120 newly drawn infographics. In addition, a new research plan will be discussed, namely the development of visual identities for public institutions that implement cultural and social diversity policies. The proposed design methods in all three projects respond to the complexity of changing social requirements and forms of communication. They have been developed through visual applications of design that focus on the approach called “research through design.” The fundamental research goal is to practice sovereign interaction, also with visual differences, and thus counters the tendency of globalization and commercialization to equalize differences.
Keywords: diversity; globalization; intercultural visual communication; multilingual typography; public institution; visual identity.
2. Simona Drăgan
Abnormality, Deformity, Monstrosity: Body Transgressions in Contemporary Visual Culture
Studies in Visual Arts and Communication – an international journal / June 2016 3(1)
ABSTRACT
With the development of cultural studies about the human body, predominantly with regard to body perceptions in certain forms of contemporary culture (including popular culture and mass-media), my study investigates the reflection of abnormality and corporeal monstrosity in some forms of contemporary visual culture, and proposes to illustrate, in a large context of historical anthropology, how a form of voyeurism first incriminated in the 1930s (once the exposure of ‘monsters’ in fairs and salons was prohibited) reappears in indirect ways in the contemporary culture, particularly in certain elite forms of visual art and theoretical studies.
The study first documents how, with the passing of time, old voyeuristic practices have gradually evolved, in principle, to total interdiction and dissimulation, even to the denial of people’s curiosity, fears or instinctive disgust towards physical abnormality.
And, if trivial observation can account for the fact that nowadays popular culture still tends to maintain old voyeuristic practices under some false pretences (like certain American medical dramas in search of high TV ratings), my study would like to point out at two different ways of monstrosity approach, one from the inside (when the subject-artist accepts to exhibit his/her own handicap), and the other from the “peaks” of high art. Both ways (German film director Niko von Glasow and art photographer Joel-Peter Witkin, respectively) propose artistic and ideologically credible approaches to contemporary monstrosity or physical disabilities. In this second section of my study, I chose to focus the title theme on a medical leitmotiv: the thalidomide.
Keywords: monster, corporeality, transgression, freak shows, thalidomide, popular culture, German documentaries, shock art
3. Josipa Lulić
Illyrian religion and nation as zero institution
Studies in Visual Arts and Communication – an international journal / June 2016 3(1)
ABSTRACT
The main theoretical and philosophical framework for this paper are Louis Althusser’s writings on ideology, and ideological state apparatuses, as well as Rastko Močnik’s writings on ideology and on the nation as the zero institution. This theoretical framework is crucial for deconstructing some basic tenants in writing on the religious sculpture in Roman Dalmatia, and the implicit theoretical constructs that govern the possibilities of thought on this particular subject. This paper demonstrates how the ideological construct of nation that ensures the reproduction of relations of production of modern societies is often implicitly or explicitly projected into the past, as trans-historical construct, thus soliciting anachronistic interpretations of the material remains of past societies.
This paper uses the interpretation of religious sculpture in Roman Dalmatia as a case study to stress the importance of the critique of ideology in the art history. The religious sculpture in Roman Dalmatia has been researched almost exclusively through the search for the presumed elements of Illyrian religion in visual representations; the formulation of the research hypothesis was firmly rooted into the idea of nation as zero institution, which served as the default framework for various interpretations. In this paper I try to offer some alternative interpretations, intending not to give definite answers, but to open new spaces for research.
Keywords: Roman sculpture, province of Dalmatia, nation as zero institution, ideology, Rastko Močnik, Louis Althusser.
4. Esther Rodríguez Ortiz
Negros, chinos y republicanos o la demonización del “otro”. El humor gráfico en periodos de guerra. / Blacks, Chinese and Republicans or the demonization of the other. Graphic Humour in war time.
Studies in Visual Arts and Communication – an international journal / June 2016 3(1)
ABSTRACT
A través de la historia del arte los conflictos entre civilizaciones han quedado reflejados de alguna manera, -se nos puede venir a la cabeza cualquier obra de arte que documenta el momento puntual de una batalla o de las secuelas de un hecho bélico-, Y es que para escribir una historia no sólo nos podemos servir de las palabras que han quedado impresas en documentos oficiales, sino que las imágenes son fundamentales para tratar de completar ese puzle que el tiempo ha dejado deshecho. No se trata aquí de juzgar, ni de abrir zanjas entre una y otra ideología, sino de exponer y tratar de comprender cómo a través del humor pueden llegar a unificarse criterios, pensamientos, grupos sociales, opciones políticas, etc., cómo el humor gráfico puede llegar a ser también una valiosa y eficaz herramienta de control de las mentalidades, que juega con la frescura y con las bondades que el humor – siempre divertido- , ofrece. Se trata en todo caso de una información directa, breve, resumida, fácil, que entra por los ojos directamente hasta nuestro cerebro sin darnos cuenta, subjetivamente, irracionalmente y en la que no nos paramos a pensar pero que retenemos. Un arma de doble filo que se aprovecha de lo cotidiano y lo familiar para asentarse y posicionarse entre grupos sociales.
Palabras clave: Guerra, humor gráfico, ideología política, otredad, mentalidad.
5. Sandra Sánchez García
Dibujando la estética de Milton Glaser: la importancia del dibujo en el diseño gráfico neoyorquino de la década de los ochenta
Studies in Visual Arts and Communication – an international journal / June 2016 3(1)
ABSTRACT
El presente artículo está enfocado, en primera instancia, en reafirmar la importancia del dibujo como base previa al diseño gráfico neoyorquino de la década de los años ochenta, dentro de la estética de Milton Glaser. Por consiguiente, en el siguiente estudio, se analizan desde la base los postulados estéticos del célebre diseñador gráfico e ilustrador neoyorquino. El estudio Push Pin Graphics, fundado por el ya mencionado Milton Glaser, Seymour Chwast, Reynold Ruffins y Edward Sorel, fue uno de los grandes pioneros del diseño gráfico, llegando a contribuir en el campo con excelentes obras. La ilustración y los diseños que iban desarrollándose a finales de la década de los 70 marcaron un punto de inflexión tanto para profesionales destacados, como para aquellos artistas que buscaban hacerse un hueco en la industria y acababan de sumergirse en este campo. Las nuevas bases que surgieron entonces estaban marcadas por el dibujo como punto de partida de cualquier estética gráfica, logrando además que el proceso informativo nunca perdiese ni la fuerza ni la original intención del diseño gráfico. Esto, sin duda, dio lugar a obras cargadas de pericia, en primera instancia, además de obtener una resolución magistral enriquecida gracias a una sencillez y claridad que ya iban aventurando los principios minimalistas de inicios del siglo XXI. Por consiguiente, las innovaciones y las bases que se asentaron en la década de los 80, en cuanto al diseño gráfico neoyorquino se refieren, tienen una importante repercusión en la actualidad.
This article is focused, firstly, to reaffirm the importance of drawing as a previous base of the New York graphic design from the eighties, in the aesthetics of Milton Glaser. Moreover, in the following study, it is analysed the base of the New York famous graphic designer and illustrator. Push Pin Graphics Studio, founded by the aforementioned Milton Glaser, Seymour Chwast, Reynold Ruffins and Edward Sorel, was one of the great pioneers of graphic design, contributing in the field with excellent works. Illustration and designs that were developed in the late 70s, started a point for both outstanding professionals, for those artists that seeking to gain a foothold in the industry and for those that had just immerse themselves in this field. The new bases that emerged then, were marked by the drawing as a starting point of any graphic aesthetic, also making that the communication process never lost neither the strength nor the original intent of graphic design. This undoubtedly, brings works full of expertise firstly, moreover with a master result enriched by simplicity and clarity that was proposing minimalist principles of early twenty-first century. To add, innovations and foundations settled in the 80s, as the New York graphic design is concerned, currently have a important impact today.
Keywords: Graphic Design, Visual Arts, Milton Glaser, Drawing, New York School
6. Tijen Tunali
Net Art and Activism
Studies in Visual Arts and Communication – an international journal / June 2016 3(1)
ABSTRACT
Digital art activities (commonly known as net art) refer to a wide range of works that are computer-based art, accessed freely online, created by artists using web browsers, developer codes, scripts, search engines, applications, and various other online tools. Net art blurs the boundaries between art, design, political activism, and communication and raises questions about the authorship and translocality of art. Its relationship with the art world has been unclear as much as its nature as an avant-garde art movement.
The activist artists on the Internet incorporate new as well as old media into their practice and reach a diversity of audiences that was not possible for the mass movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The unknown recipient is involved in the tactical intervention of civil disobedience without necessarily recognizing its artistic origins. The activist net art practices take a revolutionary role already by transcending the exhibition-oriented nature of art and its commodity function. Not all the producers of tactical media on the Internet call themselves artists but their practices are often seen as a form of art, in their creative and subversive uses of form and content, and their symbolic, representational and practical work that intervenes, disturbs and challenges the commercial and corporate power in the cyberspace. This study points to some issues on the nature and outcome of the net art and investigates its potentiality to be a plausible tool for political activism.
Keywords: Net Art, New Media Art, Virtual Activism, Tactical Media, Digital Activism.
7. María de la Luz Feijóo Cid
Cuerpo y pintura. Pollock: Recuperación de vínculos ancestrales
Studies in Visual Arts and Communication – an international journal / June 2016 3(1)
ABSTRACT
Podemos afirmar que cuerpo y pintura han estado vinculados desde tiempos prehistóricos. Ya en el Paleolítico, el hombre empleaba sus dedos como pincel y la sangre como materia pictórica, estableciéndose una relación directa entre ambos. En el siglo I d. C., Plinio el Viejo relata el origen de la pintura a través del mito de Butades, en el que, curiosamente, también se observa una relación entre cuerpo y pintura. Con el paso del tiempo, el hombre, insatisfecho con las pinturas planas y los simples contornos, inicia una búsqueda de la representación fiel de la realidad en la que cuerpo y pintura se irán distanciando: la perspectiva de Alberti; los artilugios de Durero; los nuevos materiales pictóricos y los numerosos dispositivos ópticos serán algunos de los elementos que se interpondrán entre el cuerpo del pintor y la pintura.
Afortunadamente Jackson Pollock en 1947 rompe todas las barreras que distancian el cuerpo de la pintura. No sólo la mano de Pollock, sino todo su cuerpo actúa como herramienta pincel, el artista entra en contacto con la obra y se desplaza sobre la superficie pictórica de un lado a otro, recuperando esa relación directa de tiempos prehistóricos.
Pollock abrió el camino y a partir de este momento el artista evidencia un cambio sustancial con respecto al cuerpo, éste no sólo ejercerá de pincel, sino que también le servirá de soporte y en otros casos utilizará sus propios fluidos como materia pictórica, recuperando así todos los vínculos ancestrales.
Palabras Clave: Cuerpo, pintura, relación, pincel, soporte, medio
8. Ricardo González García
El digital velo del nuevo Parrasio como pictórica trama interferente
Studies in Visual Arts and Communication – an international journal / June 2016 3(1)
ABSTRACT
El presente artículo analiza la contaminación digital a la que se ven expuestos los procesos pictóricos actuales. En este caso, lo digital es tratado aquí como si de un velo se tratara; cierta pátina que en la actualidad recubre el modo en que concebimos y recibimos la práctica pictórica; un prisma que, unido a una nueva forma de experimentar la situación, hace que volvamos sobre ciertos procesos que afectaron a la pintura, como aquellos que comenzaron a darse con la revolución industrial. Para poder estudiar esta nueva forma de ‘darse a ver’ de la pintura; del velado y confusión que, paradójicamente, ello implica, diferenciaremos entre lo que supone borrar y ocultar, como recursos propios de un tipo de pintura que, mediante dichos procedimientos, trata de reflejar una síntesis del mundo contemporáneo.
Palabras clave: Pintura, velo, digital, interferencia, borrosidad, desenfoque, ocultación
This article analyzes the digital pollution which the current pictorial processes are exposed. In this case, the digital is treated here as if it were a veil; certain patina that currently covers the way we conceive and receive pictorial practice; a prism which, together with a new way to experience the situation, takes us back on certain processes that affected the painting, as those who began to occur with the industrial revolution. In order to study this new form in which the painting shows itself to the viewer; of the fogging and confusion that paradoxically implies, we will differentiate between which involve erase and hide, as own resources of a type of paint that, through that process, tries to reflect a synthesis of the contemporary world.
Key words: Painting, veil, digital, interference, fuzziness, blur, concealment