Loops have been Lost!

Lev Manovich describes what a loop is and how it has impacted us in society. He pretty much explains how life is one big loop and really it is. You are nothing and then you are born and you are something. You live a long life and then die and you are nothing again. It just goes around in circles or loops. He states how video games and everyday life is in loops and you just rotate around and around and this somehow keeps people entertained. But he begins to argue that life these days is moving away from the loop. The loop lifestlye of living is giving way to a more in depth and complicated means of society. I believe that the increased level of technology is the reason for this dismissal of the loop. In video games alone human society has progressed from such games as Packman to interactive games such as Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero. Games are being taken away from that initial idea I started writing about where everything is to do with loops and living and dying and then doing it all over again. eg Packman is a game where you have a life and you try and live on and then die and then you can do it all over again. But how representational is this of human life? Not very because as far as I know you don't get a second chance in human life or multiple lives. These itneractive games are getting the gamers to actually play a "sport" or an "instruement" and get off their feet. There is more to the game than a human like character trying to beat the computer and then dying and doing it all over again. This dismissal of the loop is what enables us to move away from the boredom of life and its circle of repeat so unexpectedness and real life can prevail.

The Real and Truthful Characteristics of The Photograph

Camera Lucida really brings up many issues about what does it really mean to be alive or
real.....The book uses so many ideas that give suggestions about photographs and what they
really are as a medium. The book suggests that photographs are more a pose and not so much a concurrence of events. Film is shown to be a better medium than photography because photos get denied by the continuous series of images that film produces as opposed to the single one in a photo. Then there is another main issue with photography and that is that it doesn't "call up the past" (page 82). The portrait of William Casby on page 79 "Born a Slave" does not tell the reader of his journey or his past but just tells us what he is now and consequently what his bleak futrue holds...Death! Another theme brought up about the photograph is its authenticity. The thing about photographs is that if they are not altered with (new technology getting in the way of authenticity) then they are a true representation of themselves. The photograph doesn't lie and tells people where one person is if it is caught on tape. Two quotes I liked from the book to explain these two ideas were: "It does not invent; it is authentication itself" and "Every photograph is a certificate of presence". But the photograph is without a future. The photo only tells of the here and now and has little ability to tell what the future holds. Page 95 has a photo with the heading "He is dead and he is going to die......". This picture tells us little from simply viewing it but the words are what tell us about what is going to happen in the future. Photos can't tell us about the future but the combination of words and a picture can tell us so much about what will happen.

Teletopia

I am choosing to write about something that I am concentrating on a lot at the moment with my paper and it was clearly evident in the plany we saw today, especially in the first piece. I am talking about teletopia. The idea of being in two places at the one time. This usually comes about from advancements in technology and people have the ability to be in one place but virtually be thousands of miles away. The whole idea in the play about not acutally being in the room was confusing but I liked the way the actors made use of all senses when it came to realising if the other person was actually in the room. I think it would be interesting to block out all the senses but one and see what peoples reactions were to having another person enter a room. Teletopia creates a false present and makes out that there is more than one present but really there is only one present and that is the here and now present. To be called the present you need to be physically there and virtual presence can not act as a substitute because it takes away from the realness and is less genuine. The dancing in this piece intrigued me as to how it represented teletopia in some way? But I couldn't find any links. The dancing was really such a huge part of the piece that I thought it had some meaning but I couldn't find a meaning. Any ideas in your comments?

The Total Exhibition Experience

As I walked through the Nauman exhibition I was trying to focus on one or two works and comment on them. But what I found myself doing was being drawn to every single artwork at the same time. I could not view one art work and then analyze it and simply move onto the next one but what I was experiencing was the whole gallery as an artwork. For me walking though the exhibition was an experience and I could not look at one artwork without being distracted or drawn to another artwork. I felt mysef experiencing more than one artwork at the same time. I would be looking at a sculpture and then out of the corner of my eye I would see a movie playing and then I would hear an audio from another part of the room. This was made possible by the use of a range of mediums that the artist uses in his exhibition. By using a range of mediums Nauman is allowing the audience to experience his artworks through a range of senses (look, listen, touch) but this can be done with a range of artorks simultaneously. He creates a room that is much more powerful and intriguing than other exhibitions.

His untitled artworks allow the audience to view it how they like. Titles of artworks often depict how a piece should be viewed. They can tell the viewer what the artwork is when it would otherwise be obscure. eg the artwork "Abstracting the Shoe" could be seen as anything but the title tells us that it is a shoe. Nauman also often mixes more than one media into one artwork which complicates the subject and gives it more characteristics. eg photography and sculpture together and then the audio from a different artwork in the background indirectly changes or contributes to the mood of the artwork I was looking directly at. This often makes the artwork seem human like and as if it is speaking, looking and listening.

Photography: a deeper meaning

Camera Lucida shows the reader the deeper meaning of the camera. It tells us that photography tells the real time and does not lie. The "Winter Garden" photograph makes the viewer feel their own death just by looking at that photo. Paintings just don't possess the same reality that a photograph can. Photographs just show one point in time. They are merely a pose and not a process or concurrence of events like that of the film. Photo vs film is shown on page 78: "The pose is swept away and denied by the continuous series of images". A photo is a living image but can show a dead image. It can be a living image of a dead thing. A simple photograph can only show one point in time. It can not tell past or future but only the situation at that current time (page 82: "The photograph does not call up the past". Photographs tell the truth and are a form of evidence: two quotes from page 87 in the book which highlight these are: "It does not invent; it is authentication itself" and "Every photograph is a certificate of presence". The difference between life and death for a camera is just a simple click away. The actual characteristics of the photograph material are lifelike: the paper fades, weakens, vanishes just like all life forms. Headings or titles to photos may tell us more about the picture and its past, present and future than just the picture itself.

Just letting you know that I tried to post but could not work out how to do it. Will look into this further. Thanks. Tom Sproats