Trauma i identitet u medijima, medijalizacija i konstrukt

Author(s): Silva Kalčić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 13/2018

Rebecca Randall’s hybrid term “Ideoscape” refers to series of images relating to ideologies and anti-ideologies, for which will I seek to give examples in my text. A special theme is that of the truth-ness of images – in mass media (media-mediated reality), as opposed to the status of image in contemporary art where it is often used as a medium for anthropological or sociological mapping as well as archiving, according to Hal Foster’s 1990s definition of the Artist “as Ethnographer.” The theme of trauma in the picture is often associated with political or economic connotations of place, which affect the future of man and question the integrity and even sustainability of one’s body. The subnarrative of this text is the inability, impossibility of communication of the traumatized observer, the spectator who “returns from the battlefield” not richer but poorer in terms of communication experience – according to Walter Benjamin. My text is based on the media-mediated images of traumatic events, as well as the media-constructed reality (reality of media).

Narcisse et la photographie. De l’objectivation à l’objectivité

Author(s): Nikol Dziub / Language(s): French Issue: 5/2015

Baudelaire blamed the bourgeois society and its photographic narcissism which leads to a perversion of the mythical posture and to a loss of consciousness of the ontological dissimilarity between reality and its image. That is why literature has to develop the imagination of the photographic image, which is both useful and magical, both referential and wondrous. Writers of the romantic era may disdain or admire photography, but they all experience the photographic objectivity and thus develop an antidote to the vain objectification of the collective Narcissus.

Miroir en cuivre et plaque daguerrienne : autour de Salammbô de Gustave Flaubert

Author(s): Agnieszka Kocik / Language(s): French Issue: 5/2015

The paper brings a motif of Salammbô’s preparations undertaken prior encountering Mathô. The scene becomes a motive for analysis of the paradigm of relation between a copper mirror and a daguerreotype plate. Both artefacts are made of the same matter. Being tools for discovering reality and outpouring into an imaginary world at the same time, both provide special dimension to the visual experience. Finally, both are epistemic metaphors. Since second half of 19th century copper finds a new place in mythology of the industrial object. Vast presence of copper in Flaubert’s Carthage impacts historical and oriental picturesqueness. Does Carthage resemble the legendary City of Copper?

Obraz jako szibbolet. Wokół Pierścieni Saturna W. G. Sebalda

Author(s): Radosław Filip Muniak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2018

Muniak examines the metaphysics of the image in W.G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn. His focus is on the role of photographs and what constitutes their meaning in the novel’s narrative layer and in the notion of the image in general. The point of departure is the figure of the window as an image that cannot be transgressed (a shibboleth), its metaphysical and hermeneutic connotations as well as its meaning in the context of a broadly understood philosophy of culture.

Millenniums Plus: Hungary-Austria 1100:1000

Author(s): Pál Lővei / Language(s): English Issue: 04/1996

Following the plebiscite in Vienna vetoing the joint Austrian-Hungarian Expo planned for 1995, and with the vanishing of the dream of a 1996 Budapest Expo, both countries sought “substitutes” to commemorate their jubilees.

An Eye on the Other. On Human Rights

Author(s): Alicja Węcławiak / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

The aim of the study is to show the role of culture in constructing human rights and translating them from theory to practice. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Western world seemed to unite, the differences between the developing West and the East that had been functioning behind the Iron Curtain, began to disappear. However, on September 11, 2001 new problems and cultural differences revealed themselves. It became clear, that - despite globalization - the world is not becoming the same. There are divisions that exclude security, so important for maintaining the status quo. Human rights established after the Second World War function well only in theory, and in practice there are many examples that question the effectiveness of these laws. One of them is the current refugee crisis. The article shows the role of art, and more specifically reportage photography, which is giving the voice to the Other, who needs help and can effectively speak to the social worlds, bringing the history of a particular person/group closer, revealing what connects us culturally.

Problem definiranja prostora u zrcalnoj, grafičkoj i digitalnoj slici

Author(s): Vladimir Rismondo / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 01/149/2018

The paper considers the problem of defining the space in previously identified types of images. In this context the author is discussing about a mirror image, graphic image, photographic image, film image, animated image and digital image. Previously, the term “space” was defined through Doležal’s modification of Leibniz’s idea of the “possible world”. The term “image” is defined separately of the image representation, or as “the condition of syntactic and semantic density” which cannot be equated with the conditions that govern the “actual world”. Unlike all pre-digital image types, digital image is not based on “syntactic and semantic density”. Within the framework of computer generated “virtual worlds”, digital image is showing tendency to simulate the conditions that govern the “actual world”.

Negative Testimonials. Photographic Representation of Holocaust Memory

Author(s): Adam Mazur / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

Snapshots of Intimate Encounters

Author(s): Paweł Mościcki / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

Article analyses specific moment of historical interconnection between literature and photography . the years of Great Depression in the United States. The activity of national agency FSA, which was supposed to document and present to the entire society issues concerning the most economically and culturally handicapped classes, was often used as a raw material for much more advanced and complex artistic projects. Thus lots of intriguing collaborations between photographers and writers were born and their achievements are today an important and autonomous testimony not only of a moment in social history but also an episode in the history of media and their mutual relations. The author of the article tries to explain theoretical, political and ethical contexts of these collaborations.

Zobaczyć Drohobycz (i…)

Author(s): Stanisław Rosiek / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 11/2018

But which Drogobych? There are many of them. Certainly it is not the town which now belongs to Ukraine. One may easily go there for a tourist trip. What is at stake in this game – the game of aspects, views, and images – is not the Drogobych that is actually accessible, but the one that is probably gone forever no longer to be found. In that Drogobych, of the cinnamon shops, Schulz was born and lived. Can we still have any access to it? The safest and the shortest way to Drogobych runs through Cinnamon Shops. Schulz’s drawings and graphic works, where the town is always the setting, may be of some help, too. But there is also another way, through collecting documents and meticulous reconstructing of the place (and time). It is taken by these travelers who are passionate collectors of postcards and photos. Each town has its visual conventions beyond which it is hard to reach. The more often towns and cities are photographed – Paris is a good example – the more prevalent and permanent visual schemas become. The spectator must abandon them to see the place with an unprejudiced eye. Also the official photos of Drogobych from the early 20th century show some kind of excess of the visible. Yet it is enough to change perspective, reduce the distance or enlarge the background and suddenly the official locations may reveal their private atmosphere.

Semiotyka dziwactwa

Author(s): Marek Hendrykowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 32/2018

The author assumes that the curiosity is a type of human expression. It can manifest in various languages and people’s behaviors, e.g.: verbal, mimic, gestural, costume and also by props, hairstyles, makeup etc. Regardless of differences between particular manifestations of the curiosity it is always semiotic. Freaks, eccentrics and weirdoes disturb human community’s order and call into question established norms. They do that by their specific behaviors, appearances and individualism. They rectify, transform and change the social reality. The artistic curiosity not infrequently turn out to be the metaphor of an individual lifestyle (e.g. Witkacy, Dali). Freaks in the world of culture are not either savages or barbarians. They express themselves as well as they express their distance from the cultural system. In connection to this thesis, the author assumes that the curiosity is culture-producing.

Obiteljska fotografija – analiza i interpretacija u okviru teorije predstavljanja Ervinga Goffmana

Author(s): Melanija Belaj / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 29/2006

In this article, the author has tested E. Goffman's theory of presentation on material collected for writing her Master's thesis. The research was conducted over the 2003 to 2005 period on the territory of the city of Zagreb. The presentational perspective as suggested by E. Goffman is applicable in the case of family photographs, particularly in activities which, according to Richard Chalfen, the American visual anthropologist, relate to the act of presenting and showing photographs.

Mnich z duchowym wyposażeniem artysty. Sztuka Thomasa Mertona

Author(s): Paul, M. Pearson / Language(s): Polish Issue: 31/2018

Born in a family of artists, Thomas Merton was destined to become an artist himself. As a young man, he tried his hand at drawing; he drew the faces of women and saints. Later, distancing himself from representational art, he took to calligraphy and was attracted to abstract art (especially the minimalism of his Columbia friend, painter Ad Reinhardt) which fascinated Merton as an analogue of the apophatic tradition. Towards the end of his life, the monk was attracted to the camera as a tool of contemplation, enabling him to look at the world as it is rather than through the prism of his imagination. This article demonstrates that Merton’s artistic development parallels his evolving spirituality, both of which started with youthful dogmatism and ended with a mature relationship with God, the world, and himself.

Юбилейна изложба на Васил Гарнизов „Антропология и фотография. 60 години в 60 снимки“

Author(s): Magdalena Elchinova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

„В света на фотографията – у дома“

Author(s): Diana Todorova,Svetlozara Koleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

Младият човек – структури на разказите за и от него

Author(s): Deiana Dragoeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2018

In the article are introduced the conclusions from the research of the series produced and distributed by the television giant “Disney Channel”; web series that are original Bulgarian production created in the period 2013-2018; and the storytelling in the narratives of the video creators – vloggers and youtubers – of content for youth public. The task in analyzing these structures is to follow how the stories are changing from institutional created business constructs into authentic personal narratives. How these narratives exist in the new informational system of Internet? On the other hand, which elements of these stories are kept the same or are changed and what new storytelling forms arise. How through these storytelling structures are build and impose behavioral and mental models that influence on the culture of the children and youths in the time of global connection and destruction of the local relationships. The research opens the space for reflection what are the new myths that will transmit experience and knowledge. Who are the storytellers – the contemporary shamans – that deliver the content showing the meaning and searching for the answer of the question “Who am I”? In the never ending space of Internet, where the hero has thousands faces, isn’t it time for returning to this “radical honesty” that stand the searching man against his biggest trial – himself?

ASOCIERI ÎNTRE FORMELE GEOMETRICE DE BAZĂ ȘI CULORILE PRIMARE, DE LA WASSILY KANDINSKY LA INGO GLASS

Author(s): Vasile Duda / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2018

Basic Geometric Forms and Primary Colors Associations, from Wassily Kandinsky to Ingo Glass. An inventory of theoretical interpretations, from Wassily Kandinsky to Ingo Glass, was sought and explanations were sought for these interpretations and associations. With the arrival of Wassily Kandinsky at Bauhaus, the theory of the relation between the geometric forms and the primary colors emerged, whereby the yellow color is associated with the geometric shape of the triangle, the blue with the circle, and the red with the square. A test applied to students around 1923 supported this association that influenced the artistic theory of the 20th century. In search of a synthesizer concept, Ingo Glass reinterprets the Bauhaus theory in the nineth decade of the 20th century. In the Ingo Glass artist's view, the yellow color is associated with the triangle, blue is a color that receives expressivity in particular by associating itself with the balanced shape of the square, and red is predominantly related to the expansionist dynamics of the disc or circle. Through this reinterpretation, the artist simplifies the shapes of the sculptural constructions at the triangle, square and circle, and from the chromatic point of view he limits himself to the use of primary colors. The comparison between the two theories made by Peter Volkvein, the director of Ingolstadt's Concrete Art Museum, in 1998 stated the need to determine who is right! The history of the arts was thus given a theme by which to articulate the artistic axiom of the relationship between basic forms and colors. The analysis of this issue has not been transformed into a partisan for one or the other of the two theories because we consider the differences between the two interpretations as the consequence of a socio-cultural evolution and the imprint of the environment in which we have formed our artistic sensitivity. The understanding of Kandinsky's theory and then the acquisition of this point of view within the Bauhaus School is outlined in the cultural context of the early 20th century. The test given to students at Bauhaus revealed a perfectly justified viewpoint and consequently was embraced by the members of the school and the artistic world that followed this experiment. A century away, Ingo Glass changed the interpretation as a result of adapting to a more abstract cultural environment. The reasoning of combining blue with rounded shapes that are specific to the depth of the water and thus to the relationship with centripetal space specific to the circle is close to individuals who lived in a more natural environment at the beginning of the 20th century. The reasoning of square association, as a balanced geometric shape with a static color (in a stable sense), is close to individuals living in a more abstract, more common notion at the end of the 20th century.We therefore consider that these differences of perception are due to the dynamics of perception of the contemporary man. Changing the socio-cultural environment also causes changes in how to perceive the relationship of forms and color, between natural and abstract. To test these issues, a test close to that offered at the Bauhaus School was designed and respondents were the students participating in the National Olympiad of Visual Arts, Architecture and Arts History. So the test has national coverage, but it has been limited to students aged 16-19, qualified at the 2018 National Olympiad, organized in Bistrita. The results were compared with those obtained about ten years ago at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which showed that 48% of the respondents chose the blue color combination with the rigorous form of the square. The test from Bistrita confirmed an association of the yellow-colored triangle in the proportion of 39%, 36% red, and 24% blue. The circle was associated 39% with red, 37% with yellow and 23% with blue. The square met a majority of 52% for blue, 25% for red and only 22% for yellow. The experiment itself reproblematizes the relationship between the intuitive and rational approach of the contemporary plastic phenomenon.

DESPRE JURIZARE, LA UN PROIECT DE ARTĂ PLASTICĂ ÎN ANUL 2018

Author(s): Gheorghe Mândrescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2018

Sulla giuria, a un progetto d’arti plastiche nell’anno 2018. Non mi sembra un falso problema, dopo cinquant’anni di sorveglianza e ripresa di quello che esce dal Vaso di Pandora, servendo alla rappresentazione di un programma ideologico, dittatoriale, il problema della scelta di un lavoro d’arte, creato liberamente, senza barriere e con la speranza che porta un messaggio valoroso, quale rimarra per il futuro. Il modo in cui lo facciamo oggi, vuole esprimere anch’esso la separazione da questo passato recente, malefico, sottoposto a una propaganda per un sistema che si è dimostrato utopico, e quale vogliamo, o non vogliamo, ha lasciato tracce profonde. Non basta dire che vogliamo essere differenti, e con questo pensiero tutto si risolve. Nell’arte rispettare il gusto della maggioranza diventa spesso dannoso, esprime l’apprezzamento della mediocrità in nome della quale, la storia ce lo dimostra, si sono sacrificati tante idee che sono sparite, o sono stati obbligati di aspettare decenni o secoli. Ci proponiamo alla giuria di nuove creazioni, e vogliamo dare soddisfazione a una maggioranza mediocre, dominante, o desideriamo un’apertura quale porti verso il futuro, che ci offre qualcosa che noi i molti non possiamo vedere oggi ma aspettiamo di darci gioia domani? Il comunismo non ha permesso nemmeno la propagazione nella grande massa di alcuni successi quali l’intero mondo ha riconosciuto allo spirito uscito dallo spazio romeno (vedi il caso di Constantin Brâncuși. La scultura „La saggezza della terra” non ha avuto ecco a un intero popolo quale, oggi, non ha riuscito di raccogliere nemmeno un euro/rumeno per godere noi e i nostri successori di un opera quale nel mondo occidentale vale decine di milioni di euro). Per non allungarci troppo, desideriamo un nuovo approccio verso il rifacimento della vera scala valorica, dopo più di mezzo secolo in cui le giurie erano supervisionati totalmente dal Comitato di Cultura ed Educazione Socialista - il braccio decisionale del Partito Comunista Romeno, sezione locale oppure nazionale.

IN MEMORIAM ANDREA RAGUSA

Author(s): Gheorghe Mândrescu / Language(s): Italian Issue: 1/2018

Una telefonata del professor Pasquale Fornaro mi ha annunciato la triste notizia della scomparsa del giovane professor Andrea Ragusa, nostro amato collaboratore. L’ho conosciuto nel 2013 come ospite del nostro Istituto, all'Università Babeș-Bolyai di Cluj-Napoca, con una conferenza ed un seminario, entusiasti davanti ai nostri studenti. Il nostro dialogo ha continuato nello stesso anno, a poco tempo, in occasione della mia conferenza all'Università di Siena, ambedue essendo preoccupati del problema del patrimonio (vedi l'Annuario dell'Istituto di Studi Italo-Rumeni, X, Cluj-Napoca Roma 2013-l'articolo, La gestione del patrimonio culturale ed ambientale tra centro e periferia: l'esperienza regionale. - vedi anche le locandine.

Principles and Logic of the Depiction of Flowers in Vanitas Photography

Author(s): Līga Sakse / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

Art must reflect something that cannot be called trivial or perceived by rational means, as well as what we cannot experience in reality – the borderline between life and non-existence, death among other things. Certainly, ways of depiction vary – there are works of art where the temporariness of life and the inevitability of death have been modelled as a type of a game and there are also those works of art that bear an indirect reminder of death – through allegories or metaphors. Vanitas belongs to the latter. Vanitas is an allegorically presented still life that emerged as an independent genre in about 1550 and became most widespread in the 16th and 17th centuries in Belgium and Flanders. Traditionally the composition of a still life of this type included a human skull, a burnt-out candle, small cut flowers as well as other objects that all seemed to say – everything and anything is transient. The purpose of the paper is to undertake the comparative analysis of vanitas still lives by artists from the USA, Japan and Germany. The photographs of flowers will be used to read the cultural historical message contained in them as well as the technical means of expression used in photography that are enhanced by a profoundly personal depiction. The perceivable designation created by the photographer and the aesthetic object registered by the collective consciousness will be defined and described taking into consideration, as far as possible, the social context that has led to the creation of the given artefact. Works of art will be summarised according to different principles of depiction and the main trends that are reflected in contemporary art photography and have not been encountered before will be outlined. It will result in a general overview through applying acceptable norms that will make it possible to determine whether the picture is or is not contemporary as well as to establish criteria characterising the concept of the contemporary.