Presence

"The reader should be carried forward, not merely or chiefly by the mechanical impulse of curiosity, not by a restless desire to arrive at the final solution, but by the pleasurable activity of the journey itself." -Coleridge, poet

Art as Experience, John Dewey. 1934

The Berkley Publishing Group, Penguin USA.

Although somewhat dated in that what Dewey novelly stated long ago at the time of publication, we now accept as obvious. This gives insight to gain an understanding of art both as a producer and as a spectator. The central theme is that life is an experience, and that the goal of art is to recapture that experience. He captures a number of concepts established earlier by Leo Tolstoy in his "What is Art?" but goes deeper into them, expounding on their more practical uses.

This relates to my work because a huge part of my photography relies heavily on the viewer to feel a presence, or other life in the work. Im working partly to capture an experience that could eventually be real, while creating a presence of life at the same time to create more of a personal feeling.

Yeondoo Jung

Bio

• Yeondoo Jung was born in 1969 in Jinju, Korea.  He currently lives and works in Seoul, Korea.
• Education: 1997 University of London, Goldsmiths College, MFA 1995 London Institute, Central Saint Martin College of Art, Diploma in Sculpture 1994 Seoul National University, College of Fine Arts, BFA- sculpture
• 2007 Artist of the Year, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul

About his work

• "Winner of the 2007 Artist of the Year Award by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korean artist Yeondoo Jung is well respected for his art form. In his Locations series, he approaches his photography in a unique way opting to utilise traditional prop making techniques and scenery construction to create his ideal custom landscapes. A bit of a purist, his landscapes combine natural and artificial elements without any digital manipulation giving his images an awesome nostalgic feel. Amazing work."
  
• "In his Location series, Korean artist Yeondoo Jung utilises traditional prop making techniques and scenery construction to create his ideal custom landscapes."
  
• "Photographs of Yeondoo Jung evoke warmth, presenting positive energy to viewers through simple pleasure and splendor imbued within. Rather than presenting images by putting different subjects together, Jung attempts to represent the relationships brought up amongst the subjects, and sentiments or dreams that are held by them, which becomes the quintessence of his “constructed photography.”
  Therefore, Jung’s photos can be distinguished from those of Jeff Wall that revive the pictorial structure into the context of modern life or those of Pierre & Gilles that create spectacular fantasy with impersonation of Cleopatra or naval forces. Especially, the works of the latter hold their signature character that lives in the artificial paradise, so called “Pierre & Gilles Land,” which emanates unique radiance."

Tina Kim Gallery

Yeondoo Jung Website

Interview

Commodity

 "It's addiction to portable technology, which you take with you practically to bed, the cinema, to the theatre, to a dinner party. The symptoms are, like with any other addiction, that people spend more time using their technology than spending it in socialising or in family time."- Professor Nada Kakabadse, Northhampton Business School

Tech We Can't Live Without

PC Magazine

Jennifer L. DeLeo

This article outlines some of the gadgets that people cannot seem to live without.  As technological advances allow us to come up with these products, the general population gets more and more addicted to using them.  It changes our lives, and everything in it- from how we communicate to the things we do in our spare time, or things we do just to get through the day.  Ranging from TiVo, Gutiar Hero and other video games, cell phones and PDAs, as well as the internet and portable music devices.  

This relates to my work because I am incorporating objects into my images.  A route that I am trying to take with these objects is to abandon these technological gadgets that generally would not be discarded, I guess to create more of a forcefully abandoned feel into my imagery.

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison

Bio

• 
  RPH Born in 1968 Fort Leonard Wood, MO 1964
  SPH Borin in Tulsa, OK 1964
  
  They currently reside in Massachusetts
  
  


• RPH 1994 University of New Mexico, M. F. A.
  1990 kansas City Art Institute, B.F.A.
  SPH 1991-94 Graduate Studies, University of New Mexico
  1986 William Woods College, B.F.A.
  


• (In 2001, after many years of an evolving collaboration, the ParkeHarrisons began to
  exhibit their work recognizing both Robert and Shana as creators.)
  

Their Work

• "Much has been written about Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison, the husband and wife team whose photographic tableaus took the art world by storm more than six years ago. Creating a genre unique within the photo world, the ParkeHarrisons construct fantasies in the guise of environmental performances for their Everyman – a man dressed in a black suit and starched white shirt – who interacts with the earths landscape. Tapping into their surreal imagination, the artists combine elaborate sets (which can take months to construct) and an impeccable sense of wit and irony, to address issues about the earth and mankind's responsibility to heal the damage he has done to its landscape." -Edelman Gallery

Jack Shainman Gallery

Artist Website

Interview

Deterioration

"The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard."
— Gaylord Nelson
former governor of Wisconsin, co-founder of Earth Day

Is the environment a national security issue?
Levy, MA
International Security. Vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 35-62. 1995.

Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife.

This essay examines the idea that global environmental degradation is a security threat to the United States. It focuses on three distinct forms of connections between the environment and security, which is termed the existential, the physical, and the political. This article reviews each link and evaluates each on its own terms. All of these views pertain to links from processes of environmental degradation to deterioration in security positions. Connections that run in the opposite direction (from use of force to deterioration in environmental quality) are not discussed.

I think its interesting to think of environmental deterioration as a security threat to the US, or any country, because it gives my current project that much more of a statement- it kind of adds this precursor of a story to my images where nature is taking back over.  It makes me think about specifically what occurred in these places that I am creating, how they got to their absent state in the first place.  

Elizabeth Turrell Lecture

Elizabeth Turrel works in the enamel medium, and dedicates much of her practice to research in enamel art at the Centre for Fine Print Research at UWE.  She has done many comissions, some of those include works for the CATALIS Public Art Project, the Emmerson Green Library control desk, and contributor to the Tree of Life Exhibition in 2002.  Earlier commissions include coordinator/artist work for the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, The National Library for Women, and a book for A&C Black on contemporary enamelling.

Before the lecture I was not quite sure what enamel art was.  It is more of a 2 dimensional art at first, unless later applied to a 3 dimensional surface- but in her case usually a metal surface.  In Enamelling, Turrell creates decals with the use of a highly technical process, some of the materials and processes she utilizes are steel, stainless steel, copper, larger sheets of metal, litho, typesetting, screen printing, and stencils for enamels from a laser cutter.  What I find interesting about this work is the wide variety of visual possibilities that can come from working in this medium.  She describes enamelling as being similar to glaze in pottery.

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