Can art still shock ? analyzing provocative art of the last 100 years
Lundi, 17 Septembre 2012 13:26
Jennifer Schuessler of New York Times Magazine, wrote an interesting article about how art shocked the audience during the last 100 years. First controversial art performance which caused thrill and raised passionate discussion was ballet premiere of “The Rite of Spring” on May 29, 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris where "passionate discussion began during the first few bars of the music, as derisive laughter rose from the seats, that sent Stravinsky fleeing the hall in disgust". Although Stravinsky didn’t intend to start a riot, he indeed started it together with New York's International Exhibition of Modern Art - Armory Show exposed few months earlier and shocking (at that time) Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase” painting - those works created a new chapter in world of art and a new trend in culture.
All actions to provoke audiences elevating shock to an artistic value through the decades raised natural question - Can art still shock today? Nudity and raw language after decades of Modernist productions aren't scandalous anymore, the works such as “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”, “Tropic of Cancer” or sadomasochistic “50 Shades of Grey” fantasy did prove it.
Karen Finley performances in 1990.But when famous erotic Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition appeared in 1989, it began national debate over public support for “obscene” art. These times, where homosexuality is broadly accepted and hard-core pornography is available "at the click of a mouse", where avant-garde aesthetics penetrated advertising and debates over gangsta rap, potential to shock seems close to vanishing altogether.
In the early 1990s during battles over public funds for controversial art, artist Karen Finley became a national symbol for shock - “Conditions in society are shocking, and art really does become a mirror to society in that way” she said. Her works which were heavy politically charged - include smearing her body with chocolate and stuffing orifices with yams, to as she said illustrate society’s degradation of women.
John Waters is a film maker who began in 1981 his autobiography “Shock Value” where he stated, that having someone vomit while watching one of his movies was “like getting a standing ovation", in a same time claiming, that shock just for shock’s sake, is recently “deathly.” - “It’s easy to shock, but it’s much harder to surprise with wit.” he said.
For him, most shocking thing about his “Pink Flamingos” film from 1972 exploitation classic that depicted the drag queen Divine gleefully eating dog feces, was the fact that people laughed. “It was a commentary on censorship” he said. “It was about what was left once ‘Deep Throat’ became legal.”
The question is not can art still shock but rather whom and where it can shock?
European movie directors like Lars von Trier and Gaspar Noé (whose “Irreversible” assaulted audiences with a nine-minute rape scene) shocked at the guilt-free pleasure taken by fans of the torture-porn, but violence in cinema is not that shocking as in a live theater.
When Thomas Bradshaw’s “Mary” satire about a Southern white couple who keep a slave was staged at the Goodman Theater in Chicago last year, it caused a storm of criticism, including a review in The Chicago Sun-Times wondering if it wasn’t “a complete and total hoax designed to see just how much hokum and bunkum today’s theater audiences might be willing to tolerate before rebelling.”
Beside controversial debate and lots of walkouts Mr. Bradshaw claimed that at the performances of “Mary” he saw, a good part of the mostly white audience was laughing at the liberal use of racial epithets and comically genial “slave owners” — at least once they looked around the theater to make sure someone else was laughing too - “My work puts people in the position of questioning their own reactions..." states Bradshaw. During his new play based on the biblical story “Job,” the audience had a similarly uncertain reaction to the violence, which included incestuous rape, necrophilia, sodomy with a broken stick, and an "anatomically vivid castration that tipped the crowd into anxious titters".
Many artists create their art in the same fashion. Sarah Kane’s “Blasted” from 1995 where play is packed with scenes of rape, cannibalism and serial mutilations is one to name a few. New York artist and Pulitzer Prize finalist for “Red Light Winter", Adam Rapp use similar stylistics: blood, vomit, diarrhea and pus. “I love putting dangerous moments onstage. It raises the stakes and brings out the nervous system in an actor.” states Rapp who claims that people focus on his plays’ sensational aspects and fail to appreciate the deeper shock of seeing life as it really is, in a media-saturated age “it can be incredibly powerful to see something real, to have things feel like they are really happening.” he said.
Comments at this year’s controversial performance of “Disabled Theater” a work by the French choreographer Jérôme Bel featuring mentally handicapped adults continue to grow. Peter Eleey, main curator at MoMA PS1 in Queens commented: “He essentially choreographed your own emotional reaction to the people you were watching: the question of their exploitation, their complicity, their free will, their happiness...Some people gasped or cried. You were really whipsawed around in a way that felt very close to shock."
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of 9/11, group of artists have not shied from shocking depictions of the further violence the attacks set in motion in “September 11” performance. Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn’s “Superficial Engagement” - a 2006 installation at the Gladstone Gallery in New York that featured gruesome photos of exploded bodies of Afghan and Iraqi war victims - bodies that according to author had suffered “abstraction” by violence is also the one which belongs to this category: “Those images are indelibly shocking to people in the West who aren’t used to seeing them in the media...but the way the shock goes beyond the horrific images and gets into a broader way of implicating us abstractly in a much larger system of violence” said Eleey.
Critic Maggie Nelson in her new book: “The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning” (2011) questioned the argument that “we are only reflecting the brutality of the world", calling intention to shock the audience “shock doctrine”. Analyzing art and cruelty, writers, painters, filmmakers like Goya, Kafka, Tarantino etc. she claims that art still needs to “say things the culture can’t allow itself to hear...but all shock is not created equal...once the original ‘ugh’ is gone, you’ve got to look at what the next emotion is, and that next emotion may be nothing more than a hunger for the next, deeper shock and refusing to deliver it in the expected ways may be the most shocking move of all".
This is how John Waters summed up his latest movie: "If you could think of something that would get an NC-17 rating with no sex or violence...you would have the most radical movie of the year" - his film “A Dirty Shame” shows semen shooting out of a man’s head (and hitting the camera).
Obviously levels of shocking the audience are still changing and evolving, but do we still need it and find it exciting ?
Pictures courtesy of The New York Times.
More here: The New York Times
Picture references: from left, Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2)," still from Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange," Divine in the John Waters film “Pink Flamingos,” Buñuel and Dalí's 1928 short film "Un Chien Andalou" and the cover from Ice -T's metal album "Body Count."
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Resurrected Polaroid camera developpers announced a new invention for iPhone users
Vendredi, 14 Septembre 2012 12:12
Remember the old Polaroid times, where our parents were documenting everything with funny little instant pictures popping out from the mysterious boxes ? It is really surprising to see, how colorful and sharp those pictures are and in what a great condition they still remain after years.
When founder of Polaroid - Edwin Land appeared on market with his first instant pictures camera, he revolutionized people's life - he made it possible for a picture to be taken and developed in 60 seconds or less. His invention, which went on sale in late 1948 gained tremendous success and turned into a passion of millions around the world, lasting for decades till today.
Years later, media announced that producers of Polaroid cameras decided to stop producing and developing analog photography equipment and materials which was for all Polaroid lovers very sad news. But instead of mourning and giving up their passion, a team of instant-photography fans got together in 2008 in order to acquire a Polaroid factory in the Netherlands and restart production of the film packs based on the Polaroid’s SX-70 technology.
Calling themselves The Impossible Project - was to show about how crazy idea was it - but it turned out not to be so crazy, possible and it met with worldwide enthusiasm.
Edwin Land proudly presents his instant camera invention
They bought the plant, figured out how to make film and have been doing so ever since. Naturally it was impossible to immediately recreate exactly same products like Polaroid’s, but Impossible has been developing their own version, which tries to get a little better with every new product.
After successfully finding own place at the market, especially among creative artists and photographers, The Impossible Project decided to build up first own hardware with Impossible Instant Lab. So what would be the difference between classic Polaroid camera and this one ? It’s essentially a Polaroid-technology instant camera which have one innovative, special purpose: to capture images of an iPhone’s screen, so snapshots taken with an iPhone can become instant photos. For many it sounds amazing for others useless but nevertheless it's a sign of development and a will to provide some new and modern possibilities to Polaroid lovers.
The company announced the project at TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco and launched it as a Kickstarter project - a place available for creative ideas where people are donating the aid which they choose and like. The goal was to raise $250,000 in a month, but after less than a week, supporters have pledged more than $370,000. (They’ll get the $299 Instant Lab when it ships at discounted prices.)
The lab is designed to work with the film that Impossible producers makes for Polaroid instant cameras. The idea is quite different as classic Polaroid cameras are powered by battery which is in the film while Impossible decided to create a camera powered by its own batteries and Impossible will make special battery less packs for it.
The company plans also to make other products based on its revived version of Polaroid’s original technology, including both standard and pinhole cameras.
The Impossible Project is a result of passion and true love for analog 
technology. Trying to give a bit modern shape to an old analog abandoned invention, there is no doubt, that founders of this project made a lot of Polaroid fans happy and gave them opportunity to develop their passions.
In contrary to what many predicted before, we can quite clearly see, that digital-imaging revolution did not kill the appetite for Polaroid cameras at all.
Although it isn't widely popular to use Polaroid these days, as they naturally demand more time and money (the price of 10 piece instant pictures box cost around 10 Euro) it's nice to notice, that after over 60 years from it's own birth, analog instant photography seem still to excite many people, increasing new numbers of fans around the world.
Impossible film is available to buy online on official website as well as in small Urban Outfitters stores worldwide alongside variety of Polaroid cameras and other gadgets.
Pictures courtesy of Life and The Impossible Project.
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First Study in history on music influence over the brain: unexpected benefits from music lessons in childhood proved
Jeudi, 13 Septembre 2012 14:53
Perri Klass of The New York Magazine reveals the details of the first study in history on influence of music lessons in childhood over the brain which shows surprisingly unexpected benefits. As scientists discovered, early engagement in music lead to changes in the brain that persist years after the lessons stop and these benefits extend all through life, specially for those who are continuing their relationship with music.
Northwestern University researchers recorded auditory brainstem responses, measured in electrical brain waves of college students in response to complex sounds. Students who had musical training in their childhood had more solid responses and their brains were more able to pick out essential elements like f.e. pitch in the complex sounds during the test.
Although some studies suggest that these benefits are the effects of active engagement and discipline, learning to play an instrument improves the brain’s ability to discern the components of sound like the pitch, the timing and the timbre.
As it's written in the article: “To learn to read, you need to have good working memory, the ability to disambiguate speech sounds, make sound-to-meaning connections ....each one of these things really seems to be strengthened with active engagement in playing a musical instrument.” - according to Professor Nina Kraus - director of the
Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University.
Skill in appreciating the subtle qualities of sound turns out to be important not just for a child learning but also for an elderly people struggling with hearing loss. In a latest study of Rotman's Research Institute in Toronto-scientists found that older musicians preserve the brain functions, the central auditory processing skills that can help understand speech against the background of a noisy environment. According to them: "The older adults who are musically trained perform better on speech in noise tests — it involves the brain rather than the peripheral hearing system.”
Another researchers at the University of California in San Francisco are studying the genetics of absolute pitch. Dr. Jane Gitschier, a professor of medicine and pediatrics who directs the studies, together with her team is trying to find out the genetics and the effects of early music training. Whats is interesting is, that almost everyone who qualified as having absolute pitch turns out to have had musical training in childhood.
It is not accidental that many researches of that subject are themselves musicians interested in the plasticity of the brain and the effects of musical education on brain waves. Alexandra Parbery-Clark which was trained to be a pianist in her childhood, a doctoral candidate in Dr. Kraus’s lab is exploring the subject of auditory working memory and music. She claims “If you get a kid who is maybe 3 or 4 years old and you’re teaching them to attend, they’re not only working on their auditory skills but also working on their attention skills and their memory skills — which can translate into scholastic learning."
Ms. Parbery-Clark looking at brain’s electrical detection recordings of Northwestern University researchers is clearly seeing that musically trained brains produce different, stronger responses, therefore she can confirm her speculations: “Now I have more proof, tangible proof, music is really
doing something."
However it's fascinating to know what are the effects of the combination of stimulation, application, practice and auditory exercise that musical education provides on brain, researchers state, that there is no best way to apply these results.
The family should find what appeals to their child by different instruments, teaching methods and regimes. Beside all these elements it seems that key lays down in pleasure and master, hence children should enjoy themselves and their lessons.
As Ms. Parbery-Clark explains, it is not about forcing your kids to play in order for them to have better cognitive skills, it's about the joy of music: “We want music to be recognized for what it can be in a person’s life...music is great, music is fantastic, music is social - let them enjoy it for what it really is.”
More here: The New York Times
Chateau Marmont released a new video for upcoming first album "The Maze"
Mercredi, 12 Septembre 2012 12:11
Chateau Marmont is a band formed from four french friends, who since their childhood were united by one thing - love of synth music. This fascination with electronic sounds and synthetic generated tunes resulted in constant music gatherings with an intention to explore new fields and find appropriate channel to spread own creativity.
Shortly the four formed Chateau Marmont group successfully producing ep's and albums with approved worldwide recognition. Their debut EP, "Solar Apex" released on Unsunned Institubes recordings in 2008 began their fruitful music career. Since then, they’ve spread their wings of productivity making various of remixes like for La Roux, Heartsrevolution, Ladyhawke or Röyksopp (after Poney Poney, Koko Von Napoo and Midnight Juggernauts…). They have also remixed their own music for Chromeo’s DJ Kicks release on K7! recordings and released a track in famous french electro-pop Kitsune record label later on.
Chateau Marmont contributed also as a co-producers to an album of a pop-electronic french singer - Alizée. Continuing their creative activity they engaged themselves to work on a second EP. Coming back thereafter with "Nibiru" - less poppy, dedicated more to the dance floors EP, based on precisely selected tunes - an outcome of fascination and flirt with analog sounds, vintage synths and dirty analog machines.
This based in Paris group of a Frenchmen, created in 2011 own label Chambre 404 focusing on artist of a similar electronic feeling. Soon after new names appeared on board, so we can find in a roster beside Marmont: Exotica, Glass Figure and Stella Le Page.
Chateau Marmont decided to release the newest album LP "The Maze" on their label, taking care of production process, promotion and management. Album is planned to be fully released at the beginning of 2013.
Furthermore in order to promote the album, artists produced already a new video for "Wargames." - single taken from "The Maze" which as they did put in their own words has "prog-rock flavor". This is about to imagine, what we can expect from the whole album.
Chateau Marmont is one of this bands with perceptible, outspoken analog synth fascination and appetite to break new grounds, creating ambitious electronic pop sound. "The Maze" will be available soon in stores and more music is widely welcome.
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