Hyperallergic - Hrag Vartanian

flexible and versatile artists

Into

blogasphere

being critical of the art world and market and the practicality of it

editor in chief of Hyperallergic

work on contemporary 

how tumblr is a artistic medium 

visual culture is what he is passionate about

• graphic design
• fine arts 

categories of art are blurred, and they are blurred in their own different way in every generation

After college he got out of art and went into no profit communications

came to NYC and did nonprofit communication and then art brought him back in

How do you make a living?

he wanted to write a book.. 

• who is going to buy it?
• how you ever thought about building an audience?
• start a blog, in 2006
• no one really knew what it was, not a lot 
• started a personal blog, and he discovered his voice
• even though he is a writer images are important to him
• Conversational tone

The online world.. you get a lot of letters to the editor, different conversations and different comments

• his desire to interact with people
• conversations are two ways
• even though we are taught that it is very one way

Business with his husband

Try building a site online about art

• no one was making a living out of that
• Hyperallergc - sensitive to art & its Discontent 
• a very different field, how to get an income
• founding idea, we need to get paid for our work, paid writers.. 

Create something not jst for themselves 

they started a forum that helped people write on art- 12 different sites

• 5 full time employees 

The role of the artists in society

• how do i fit in?
• what can i do with my voice
• we would all love to do one thing at a time but reality we cannot do that

he writes outside of hyperallergic and presentations 

we dont have to mandate ourselfs to make a living 

Social practice- not about selling project

• just to be outside the art market
• the art market dominates the conversation even though its not all that useful

Reality of what being a creative person, you wont just make work, making sure you have contracts and invoices 

• sometimes there are things that you dont know
• things that will impact you

Activists- Shepard Ferry - starting from stickers- used graphic sensibility and used street art as a way to raise awareness. Voice to a whole movement. Concentrate frustration in a poster. poeple took it on as an image. 

Asthete- art for art sake, beautify. Amy Sillman.  

poller Scher- artist and designer- map paintings.  Redesigned beach signs that transformed the urban environment of New York. Type face and color and typeface

Educator/Historian- Hans Hacke - 1993 german pavilion. Destroyed the marble floor, that was installed by the Nazis'. 

Lauren Monk- look at locations of where people live, where were people studios, eat, and hang out

bring in knowledge and color.

Explorer- what you can and cant do, perception, and exploration of space. Scientist like Mark Deion- contemporary. no one did this before him. He has a character, 19th century expedition, to just show how dumb they were and the issues involved with them. Educate the public.

Inspiration- Milton Glazers. I <3 NY. a feeling of loving NY. He was able to create something that people were able to own.  "The famous blue marble" people saw how finite the world is. The example of an image has a viral affect to change the world perception. Luis Hines-labor laws awareness, these categories blur

The Provocateur - Poster Boy- cut outs on posters and changed it. Alternative advertisement, aka culture jam. Feeling like you have a voice, not waiting for permission. Guerrilla Girls- text art- activists and created a conversation. Called out art critics, galleries even owned by women weren't showing women

Philosopher- Fuller - tried to re imagine the world and try to understand it .  Andre- minimalist, take out the traditional language 

Satirist- Banksy- makes fun of things, but it hits people. Feeing into mass conscienceless. Language that many people understand. Hennacy Youngman- comedian and artist. Painter, rapper, comedian and he has a youtube channel. Side projects get you the traction 

Spiritual Guide- Bronson- exploring the gay cruse of Fire Island, group and solo show. mentoring and helping younger artists and get them their voice. 

The prayer rug.. 

Zeitgeist

Jeff Koons- idea of the emerging clas of the wealthy and objects that aren't touched by the human hand. Barbra Kruger- text- I shop therefore I am. Language people were able to appropriate.

What is your roll- so that you are not just assigned a roll. How to use these categories? 

sharing is a reality of what we do, 67% when they shared them online it helped them understand better. Be part of a conversation with your work. 

Chapter 10

The Global Flow of Visual Culture

Globalization of communication technologies over the past few decades has shown that global image flows may allow an increased circulation of concepts, ideas, politics, and images, but this also helps to foster the growth of multinational corporations and the expansion if political influence by powerful nations over distant dominance with fewer resources.

but the ideal of a global world without boarders does not match the social reality of trying to forge such a world in the twenty-first century.  the reality is that national boarders have tightened since 2001.

The Global Subject and the Global Gaze

The declaration of being one. The idea that we are all one on this earth and Earth Day in 1970 solidified the unity of this "globe".  The picture of the earth was released in 1972 by NASA, the image is called "the blue marble.

after this no one would ever be able to perceive things in the same way.  "In an image such as this, the globe connotes and knowledges as within the reach of the next generation, thanks to the new communications technologies offered by companies like IBM".  Satellites are a key reason the changed perceptions of the earth and how we understand them.

During the 1960s and 1970s people were infatuated with the idea of satellite transmission.  Some artists projects during this time involved performers situated in different places but performing together through broadcast feeds.  And interconnectivity was a theme in ads like that of BBC.

The ability to use the web and find exact gps data mapping out entire towns and locations, The ability to both render this and get exact pinpoints of anything in anywhere in the world has only been possible with the help of satellites and things like NASA. 

Cultural Imperialism and Beyond

It is a paradox of globalization in the early twenty-first century that the new liberalization and policies of open media flow have not created a more democratic flow of information for the people. Some things like CNN have become more of a opinion changing point because they have the ability to be broadcasted globally and this gives them a chance to change things to help them win if favor.

Global and national are in constant battle, because the global is what shapes opinions of the entire world but they still must regulate in the laws of the nation-state they are broadcasting from.

Global Brands

The domination of commodity logos. But because of these global brands smaller companies have been able to create business by playing off the well known logos.  And on the global Starbucks was able to market "local" to entice consumers that the world is attainable through coffee.  Some of these brands create a subculture or even identity of its consumers because of the heavy influence they have over the global market.

Indigenous and Diasporic Media

programming in the global media environment demonstrates the power of cultural products to reaffirm ethnic and local values over the homogenizing forces of a vast national communication system.  The indigenous and automous practices of looking can not only survive in an era of globalization but can also thrive by using global technologies in a manner that rethinks what local means.

Borders and Franchises: Art and the Global

Globalization impacted distribution, exhibition, and production of art.

Art increasingly form of tourism.

Museums used to create images of urban centers as locus of creative global economies.

“Global sharing” as diasporic distribution of “world-class” culture.

Visual and material globalization of beauty and culture.

Franchise model = forge global network of display.

 Tension is between global and local/national.

Chapter 9

Scientific Looking, Looking at Science

Our interpretation and experiences of images are never that of a singular, discrete events but are informed by a broader set of conditions and factors that have already impacted our way of viewing the world.

Visual Culture is a broad spectrum of facets that make up this being; television, fine arts, popular film and advertising. But this is usually seen as distant from science, law, and medicine; but all of these subjects are impacted by how we look and perceive them.

Ever since the invention of photography, scientific roots are what make it up as a means of documentation, even the creation of film was a scientific discovery, not based in the art world. With the rise of digital importance in the 20th century, scientific data is also displayed in a new way using new technologies and advancements.

"seeing the unseen" -- has become even more prevalent in the now because of the technologies like ultrasound, CT, and CAT scan machines that can detect problems that were never visible.

Rose speaks about how we can experience our bodies on the molecular level, even though we cannot see it we understand it through a set of systems and scientific representation

These systems are both literal and metaphorical, where as before anatomy and physiology may have organized our way of seeing the body in terms of structure of tiny units that play off each other, things we cannot see or control.

The Theatre of Science

Leonardo is so prominent as an artist throughout history because of his overlap with science and art. He created a figure around the representation of proportions based on treatise De Architectura by the roman architect Vitruvuous that made reference to geometry and perfect human proportions.

THe sense of understanding the body by physically or virtually cutting through it to expose the organs is something common today. In the past the cutting of the body to see inside was something that was specifically deemed scientific.  In early modern society, many dissections were performed publicly. Anatomy theaters were a type of spectacle through which anatomists attempted to not only educate but also entertain colleagues, students, and spectators. This was the play between life and death.

These theaters were intended to convey messages about the deceased, many of which were criminals. This gave the scientists the justification to do so, the painting by Remberant depicts the doctor opening up a criminal and there is a crowd of onlookers.  A fascination with the dead body and an association of morbidity and crime would become a central feature of visual spectacle of modernity.

The Visual Human project (VHP) was funded by the US government and the University of Colorado. This involved taking two bodies, one male and one female, freezing them and then slicing each and taking digital images of the slices to create a digitally composited images of the entirety of the human body.

The desire to see art and science, or pop culture and science as separate has a long history in western philosophy, yet scientific images almost always beg the question of whether these domains can ever really be kept separate

Photography was a way of documenting offenders and these documentations of identification records were used to convict and fine repeat offenders

The use of electrical shock to make muscles contract to create specific expressions. this was done by Duchenne.

Imagining the Body's interior: Biomedical Personhood

starting from x-ray in the early developments of medical advancements, to the use of ultrasound in the early 1960s that does not expose the patent to deadly waves of radiation to see into the body. The use of the sonogram is something wit ha deep and personal emotion. The first "portrait" of the child to be.

Chapter 6

The Masses and Mass Media

The term masses was coined in the nineteenth century to talk about the changes in the structure of society was undergoing industrialization and he emergence of a massive working class.

The masses were known as having influence on opinion and on social character.

It is the masses response that shapes, classifications, laws, and judgement about actions, and it is this function of the collectivity that characterizes the masses as such

The rise of mass culture is also characterized like modernity; with increased industrialization and mechanization of modern society, populations consolidated around urban centers

From the urban metropolis the cities emptied out in to what were known as the suburbs. These were tight knit communities

The use of film, television, consumerism, and cheap amusements provided the connections among this almost alienated population

Mass media has been a term used since the 1920's to describe the media platform for large audiences that have a shared interest.

Jean Baudrillard used the term "cyberblitz" to describe the escalation of unpredictable and random media forms, images, and information that have bombarded us in postmodern society

Media Forms

A group of communication industries and technologies that come together to produce and spreads public news, entertainment, and information

medium- specific technologies through which public news, entertainment, and information are spread

The way in which someone speaks, inflection, tone, pitch and volume all convey a meaning within a meaning of what is being said.

Media editing work within a specific set of contexts to convey the meaning in which the show is intended to teach to the general audiences

Cross referencing in entertainment has brought a way to make it seem as important ti our lives as are politics and real-life events.

Broadcast, Narrowcast, and Webcast Media

Broadcast- has one central source broadcasting a signal to many venues
Narrowcast- targeted, via cable or other means, to niche audience

Early broadcasting model was narrowcast and has now been replaced with satellite transmission making global communications possible

Stories on the web have helped people to gain access to a greater audience.  The use of youtube has not only helped start careers but also has created a new framework of fame and notoriety

The use of consumer-user production, home entertainment, and web media suggests that the model of broadcasting has lost its dominance

Media and the Public Sphere

A public sphere is a space, a physical space, social setting or media arena in which citizens come together to debate and discuss the pressing issues of their society

But the problem with this set us is that it was just a facade because the average person was not able to keep up with the political issues and events given the chaotic pace of industrial society.

In ideal terms Habermas postulates that this public sphere of genuine debate within civil society.  There is this compromise by other forces in society including consumer culture, the rise of mass media, and the intervention of the state in the private sphere if the family and home.

many publics that can overlap and work in tension with each other; working class publics, religious publics, feminist publics, and so forth.

National and Global Media Events

By airing an issue or event internationally, broadcasters signal global importance and offer a means of connecting affected communities across vast distances.

public viewing of televisions grew in popularity in Japan in 1950s, because most households did not have a television.  After more homes had TVs the outdoor program shifted to entertainment, wrestling, and businesses would capitalize on getting a TV to increase business.

This collective viewing was also a bonding experience for all of those people who were watching it together.

Contemporary Media and Image Flows

The pictures of the flag draped coffins of US military was something that was never shown, but the public refused to let these service men and women go without getting the recognition they deserved for their sacrifices.  Even though the images were released the faces of those carrying the coffins were blacked out, so even with freedom of distribution, there are still restrictions.

In media power is not held by one group or individuals

Pablo Helguerall

Born in Mexico City

based out of NYC

Socially engaged art sculpture drawing photography

Also an author 

Solo show in Kent in NYC

Try to never repeat a presentation.. he never wants to boring 

Education for Socially- Engaged Art

Working in museums and museum education for 20 years

• education is intricate and a way to develop relationships with others 

When he started art he wanted to be a painter

• he could not get his communication across
• through teaching he became a better artist
• art that was not just and object but an experience

last art piece

• a game 50 participants only played once 
• will conclude in 2097 after all are passed away
• Friends, relatives and audience. Also 25 random visitors. All asked to engage in a life time commitment
• 16 envelops, only to be opened on a particular date
• all are doubled 
• the last is to be read on the day he dies
• he wrote a letter for the audience of the event
• each envelope have a series of instructions
• piecing together the past and giving us insight 

address concerns he already has. Time, with memory and relationships with individuals. The more we are connected the less we are in tune with each other. Create bonds with new people. The experience of being alive. See ourselves in the present. 

The Seven Bridges of Konigsberg. 2008

• similar rational 
• friends opened a alternative space in China Town
• Forever and Today
• Palm reading intrigued him, Gypsy 
• created his own set of cards, new and own system 
• Russian seven bridges, a mathematical problem, weather it was possible if you could crass all bridges then passing over one more then once. 
• by creating a proof, it founded systems theory 
• no life had a single path you can never recross a bridge or a time in your life
• the context of the images
• you teach not by giving people information by talking at, but help them articulate things they may know but not totally understand 
• people who would confess personal things and ideas 
• it was an art project, but it didn't matter to people, they felt as if it was real it was no longer a game
• getting out of the conventional environments of galleries and museums. we live in a world where art is an entertainment. Art is not just entertainment, it is supposed to ask questions and change minds and ideas.

Forum of Cultural Purification, Mexico City. 2003

• he wrote six papers and had actors learn them 
• organized a conference at a hotel and conference in a neutral zone.
• not one person knew it was a performance piece
• invited people who actually their papers next to the actors 
• the debates were strong and people were reacting in crazy ways
• the second panel he was the moderator
• final meeting- his friend ryan hill
• Ryan Hill for Rudy Gulianni 
• next day there was a press uproar, someone asked him if it was a performance... he told them nothing 
• does it matter if it a performance or not?
• Forcing a conversation that needed to be said

The Juvenal Players, 2009

• blurring the beginning and end
• For the art makers
• he wanted to do a play
• retrospective of a fictional artist
• died seven years ago 
• famous latin poet who is the father of satire
• he hated everything
• on the day of the opening there was a symposium there was a panel 
• all actors they knew nothing about art
• they can be more real then the real person
• no one knew it was fake
• be able to maintain the fiction till the very end
• at the end the characters confess their insecurities, how their lives are out of sorts
• moment of them questioning themselves
• they all leave except the one young woman
• she delivers a monolog
• she was a real artist
• how art is a very difficult thing  
• economic downturn

The BOy Inside the Letter

• diary, things everyday
• had to write even if it was stupid
• started writing to himself but in the future
• found a box and found his old diaries
• it was a younger but older him
• when he read it it made sense 
• Novel 
• confront that moment of a transition 
• we finally know who we are
• going from an art student to an artist
• child to adult
• from Mexico to U.S.
• showed it like an archeology museum

Wakefield 2010

• portrait of him and his daughter
• personal biography
• be brutally honest about the moment you are in
• not just confessional piece
• why do we need to share thins
• why does anyone care
• difficult to be a parent 
• Wakefield Nathaniel Hawthorne 
• feel completely contemporary
• changes his path, lease a room across the street from his house, what happens when he is not there
• still watching through the window, he finally leaves the room and goes across the street and walks right through the door.
• the possibility of breaking patterns 
• the social commitments