In my opinion an idea is the start of a work of art so even if it is still and idea in the head of someone in that persons mind they can see what that work of art will look like when finished. No good art is not always skilful as art is the interpretation of the viewers mind so wether one is skilful in their work doesn't mean that their work is not meaningful in some way. Technically thinking in our life we have all made at least one work of art which makes everyone an artist but if your thinking professionally then if you do not make works of art then you are not an artist. So they can build their next piece of work on something someone else has done so the person does not have to think of something from scratch. It depends on the instruction and the mentality of the person receiving the instruction as it is the persons own view to what makes an instruction interesting. No as if the photo is directed by the photographer no matter who presses the shutter it is still that photographers photo.
Introduction to Do It Project
link to Do It article here
The Do It project started with conversation in a Paris cafe in 1993 and the brainchild of french artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier with also Swiss curator hans Ulrich Obrist. It is a gathering of artists and normal people where the artists put on a show or something they are personally doing and gives instructions and commands to the people watching, where the people help the artists help create their work. The artists hope that the viewer gains a new view on how art is created and maybe start to create art themselves while also giving the viewer haves fun and makes a spectacle of themselves in the process. If I were to describe the project I would say it is an interesting and fun way to bring people together to create something you weren't planning on. My views on instruction based art have not really changed as of much grown onto my original views as it builds on the fact that it is about people interpretations to the instructions given.
John Baldessari inspired photos
The first thing I see is a man standing in the middle of the road where there is only one car and a big tree with some buildings in the back ground. This image has been composed in an odd way as nothing is really in focus so there is not telling what the actual subject is and it could be a multitude of things. My eyes are mainly drawn to the lone car as usually on a road you would see at least 3 cars parked as people live there and need a way to commute and it could be the fact that they are at work so the cars are not there but the fact that one car is there makes it feel as if something is not right about the street. The fact it is in black and white makes it feel old and gritty like it was one of the first cameras made and if it were in colour we might actually know what the subject is and it would make it seem less odd if it were in colour as we mainly see photos in colour know which would make it feel more comfortable. In my opinion it is not a good photo as it does not have one thing that makes sense other than the fact that it was taken. Although it may not be a good photo it is an interesting photo as it does not follow the norms of stereotypical photography.
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Evaluation
Due to the fact we were entirely confused on why we are taking the photos we did well to follow the instructions we were given and it was fun to take the photos especially the ones where we threw stuff in the air. We weren't very creative we thought the simplest way is the best way as we probably would be more like John Baldessari as we were just going with it doing what we want. I did not feel any sort of restriction it was more like we had a guideline but what we did with it was down to our discretion. I think to photos actually turned out better than I originally thought it does seem more like John Baldessari the more I look at them with just their randomness. I did take a lot more than I am showing but we were instructed to only use 20 photos. I wouldn't want to refine or redo this again as then I would have expectations to what they would look like which would completely defeat the reason why i like mu photos.
John Baldessari Research
Article link about John Baldessari here
John baldessari is in a lot of different types of art and is well known in a loth of them as the unreliable narrator between the relation of text and imagery he also emphasises the wrong and right of photography. His earliest work I can see is in the 60s with the compositional elements of images and the advice given from it although his advice is not useful and practical that is the reason it is different from artists in the 60s at the time which made him stand out among the rest. In terms of mediums of his work he doesn't really have any that I have read it is only that he values everything equally and always keeps it like that. John is a man that doesn't follow a strict policy on what he is doing and just kinda does what he wants so what he does other than art is unknown to me. His latest work more or less relies on the emotion and colours of actors from films and it is similar to his previous works in the balance between words and images.
An Instruction given by John Baldessari
I am taking photos based on the 10th instruction in a series of instructions link here
Assignment #10 Photograph backs of things, underneaths of things, extreme foreshortenings, uncharacteristic views. Or trace them.
Assignment #10 Photograph backs of things, underneaths of things, extreme foreshortenings, uncharacteristic views. Or trace them.
Evaluation
Following this rule I mainly focused on the back of things or underneath things mainly for the fact that you won't be able to see the front of things which gives it a little mystery. The main thing about taking these kind of photos is that it makes you think about the things not normally seen and what that looks like. Some of these photos involve reflection which is interesting as when I am taking a photo of something from behind you can see the front of something and it is not particularly in line in the instruction but makes more playful. This series of photos was peaceful to take as they didn't require to much complex thought process which made it quite enjoyable. Following the instruction and making good photos are quite simple as you have a precedent to make good photos from.
An instruction given from a classmate
The instruction given to me was to take a picture of a banana in a dimly lit room but the banana has to be visible.
To be honest this instruction was annoying for the fact that to find a dimly lit room was impossible in my house so I had to wait fro a time where the natural light made it dimly lit but that didn’t make things better as taking the photos was annoying as I could barely see and the camera shutter speed was super slow so a lot of the photos are blurry and some the camera couldn't keep up and ended up being really dark and some it worked to well and are to light so it was hard to find the right balance to keep it in a dimly lit and the fact the banana had to be visible made it extra difficult to see them as they are there just extremely hard to see. It was and interesting instruction as it requires different thinking than normal and that was annoying as I don't normally think like that but was expanding.
Erwin Wurm research
One of erwin wurm's most notable works is the one minute sculptures where it is a game where players use whatever they have in their surroundings and come up with the oddest use for them it is a simple game to be the weirdest you can be.
I have done my own photos around the idea of being weird and not quite right |
Although these photos weren't takes in one minute and instead 45 minutes they are weird in the way that they are simplistic things that I first thought were weird.
Photography Game
We were tasked with the creation of our own photography game but in simple terms it is create your own game with photos. So i first looked at board games I could sort of re vamp into my own game and in the end I chose to re vamp boggle the game where you shake a box filled with die with letters on the side and you shake it and see what words you can make there are many different game modes you ca play but that is the general premise. So for my game I have called it grobble and the premise is that there are 5 category of photos pick one at random, shake the box the pictures are of those categories and get as many of the pictures in that category as you can there are more precise rules but that is the gist.
The photos in the game are nothing special they are just plain photos clearly identifying the subject and the repeated photos makes it easier to make the rule about the same object simpler to identify. All the photos are laminated to make sure they don't get damaged when played and the rules are easy to understand when you start playing it. I have never actually laminated something before so some of the photos edges with the laminate are not even as when laminating with such small images it is difficult to keep them in the exact places needed for a good laminate. The photos were purposefully taken for the clear identifying of the main objects as if not it would be a lot more difficult to get the correct photo. The overall effectiveness of it being a game is successful.
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