It was Marcel Duchamp who invented the notion ‘art can be anything.’ By looking at the influences through a time shift starting from the Renaissance through to contemporary times examine exactly how true this revolutionary statement is or whether it is a matter of shock value that the Artist of today wants to put across, whereby the skill in drawing and painting has undoubtedly been lost. My aim is to explore the notion ‘art can be anything’ through three different time periods Renaissance, Baroque and Contemporary. The first will be the Renaissance (the early fifteenth century) which focuses on the issues of function and purpose of art. A major criticism with the youth of contemporary art today is the lack of knowledge towards the primitive foundations of art. This knowledge has been replaced with abstract ideas and theories about what art should and should not be. I used various influential names in my introduction to sketch an overall outline to the subject of art. Plato emphasises the ‘capacity of art to perfect nature, to correct in the mind of man the deficiencies of nature.’1 Wollheim and Panofsky said that only humans make art whereas Sir Philip Sidney said ‘The artist often creates things such as never were in nature.’ As a result, given the differing attitudes towards this particular subject the point is made that art is a matter of personal opinion. Using the theory of Utilitarianism I tried to use a system where the individual could categorise high and low art. It was Mill who said that a higher pleasure was one that stimulated the mind. Was it then possible to use this Utilitarian system within art? The higher pleasures of the mind are without doubt more desirable and valuable than those of lower pleasure of the body. Taking this approach the appearance or aesthetic value of a modern piece of art becomes worthless and what becomes important are the effects on the viewer. Utilitarianism is a teleological theory where the consequences are important. In some cases within modern art i.e. conceptualism, the effect can be sublime. Looking at the intention of the artist using Kant’s system of ‘means ends reasoning’ I wanted to look at what makes the moral motive a ‘pure’ motive. This is a disinterested one and it is solely based on the fact that we are motivated to act on the moral law by the moral law itself and not by some self-interested end. The idea of universality is used by Kant to support a theory of moral reasoning. Thus, we are to ask whether our maxim is one we can expect all rational agents to adopt in relatively similar circumstances. Using this Kantian system, the intentions of modern day artists like David Blaine and Damien Hurst were closely examined. I stated that it was the intention of Damien Hurst to shock his audience rather than to please. Consequently, Hurst’s works like the ‘shark’ was viewed as aesthetically poor but led to fame and fortune due to him gaining recognition by the public eye. However, is unlike Caravaggio (from the Baroque era) who had similar intentions in depicting truth within reality and whose skill and technique is certainly not limited. The key difference between the two artists (Caravaggio and Hirst) is not the obvious answer of ‘time’. Instead, it is how Hirst seems to have a good sense of the media and understands how that mindset works, which results in his intention being primarily concerned with a self-interested end. I argued that due to the influence of time and the drastic changes in fashion and philosophical thinking that have taken place since the early 15th century, it is time that dictates what art is considered acceptable and where art is going. The shock value of some artists today has lead to skill being undermined because they are reacting to a demand from society. Consequently, I believe that art can be anything, but that it has become a response to commodification and the need to make money as opposed to conveying personal expression. I feel that Kant’s philosophy of morality is key to my argument because it deals with the reasoning of the validity of art and the intentions of artists in order to determine whether their motivation is pure.
Category: 2004
Explain what modernism is and how philosophers have described modernism and the way it produced post modernism. 2. A conclusion as to what I conclude postmodernism to be after reading and exploring philosopher’s notes. 3. How does modernism and post modernism affect the architecture? 4. Choose examples in and around Newcastle and Gateshead that I can compare and explore as to whether they have been affected by modernism and postmodernism. 5. Visit the few places of interest and explore their history. 6. Conclude as to whether modernism and post modernism has actually affected those areas that I have chosen to explore. SOURCES: Books: The theatres royal in Newcastle upon Tyne – Oswald Capitalism and Modernity – Goody The post modern and the post industrial – M.A Rose Post modernity – Barry Smart Max Weber and Post-modern theory – N.Gane Social and Cultural Forms of Modernity – B. Bocock And K.Thompson Visits: Gateshead Visitor Centre – The Sage, Gulbenkian Theatre, Theatre Royal – Grey Street
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Existential Condition of Love based on a Literary Analysis of Flaubert’s ‘Madame Bovary’. Key Concepts: being, existence, reality, individuality, subjectivity, freedom, will, authenticity Aims: in short, to combine love, literature and philosophy. This project will investigate the notion of love as philosophical concept. In taking the notion that the discipline of philosophy is essentially a quest for knowledge and truth, I feel that love is perhaps neglected within the subject. The concept (i.e. love) is of such breadth (as well as depth) that I have specified it to the Existential period. The tool I am using is literature, as it seems to be the most accessible for the topic in hand. The novel has a feeling of timelessness about it at the same time as holding the quintessence of a certain philosophical epoch, i.e. Existentialism. Structure: The first part of my project is an introduction into love as philosophical notion with regards to epistemology, ontology etc. The second part of my project will be entitled simply ‘Existentialism’ and will explore the definition and nature of it, which instead of being a simple definition will contain key themes which are indicative of it. This will be followed by studies of philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Sartre, Nietzsche and Heidegger. The third part of my essay will draw upon Flaubert’s Madame Bovary in relation to the previous two sections. i.e. existentialism and love. Primary Sources: Flaubert: Madame Bovary, Sartre: Being and Nothingness & Existentialism is a Humanism, Kierkegaard: The Works of Love, Heidegger: Being and Time
A study of the book:- its history, form, market, authors and its changing place in and of society. For centuries people have recorded important events and thoughts for their own personal reasons or for posterity. The format and availability of books have helped to shape the way knowledge has been received and perceived. However, in recent times the place of the written word as the primary source of information has been challenged as a consequence of technological advances. The role of the author has changed through time, from a position of anonymity, to one where the presence of the author had a significant impact on the work and so on to now where the reader is a significant impetus for what is produced Books afford a certain status, particularly hardbacks, despite the fact that technology has meant that books can be produced as quickly as carefully prepared magazine articles. Technology has also resulted in a rise in Internet sources and an increasing numbers of television channels needing information to transmit. We are bombarded with information and this makes it gradually more difficult to discern which facts are important or even true. Territory The changing modern society: – increasingly consumer driven, mediated by technology or the media, confusions of reality, the loss of meaning and the increasing sense of transience. Looking at current book sales and bestseller statistics in the UK, including the BBC big read winner’s list. Objectives To offer some insights into the future of books and their place and influence in society Sources Internet sources e.g. www.bookmarketing.co.uk, www.publishers.org.uk. The works of Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard.
Objectives: To investigate antithetical theories of objects and examine the ways in which human knowledge and experience are shaped and determined by the things it apprehends. Key concepts: Thing-hood; appearance and properties; contradiction and conceivability; concept; perspective; skepsis; the atom; arkhē; metaphor, grammar, and word. Achievement of the work: The subjection of Kantian metaphysics to the rigorous philosophical methods of Nietzsche, and a radical re-evaluation of both the ‘thing-in-itself’ and the scientist’s need for the fundamental material object, the atom, as the building block of reality.
A Study into the decline of the Christian Religion in Northern Europe transposed against the rise of religion in North America. Objectives To investigate the cultural differences between the new and old world, to see the appeal of religion between the two worlds and investigate the reasons for a decline in Europe Concepts The shifting role of religion in western society Territory Religious belief in the U.K. and U.S.A. throughout the 19th and 20th centuries The way we see the world around us defines us as spiritual beings, our whole religious outlook is affected by the way in which our national identity is formed. The U.K. lacks the drive and ambition to discover more about ourselves and so we are left behind
Objectives 1. To explore how styles of dance have progressed from rudimentary stamping and clapping to intricate and complex steps considering the evolution of the language of dance and the crossing of boundaries between styles and moves, and a progression from freestyle, expressive dance to more formal, conceptual dance such as Ballet, then the application of forms to again, more freestyle, expressive dance. 2.How dance’s role in expressing religious, ethnic, and aesthetic paradigms throughout the history of our civilisation has evolved, and how the development of technology and communication has allowed a new level of interaction and sharing of knowledge, enabling avante garde dance forms to spread beyond their cultural boundaries through the sharing of abstract knowledge. 3. To explore dance as a cathartic and expressive means and the relation humans have to visual expression throughout the ages, breakdown of dualistic mentality allows bridge between mind and matter to be crossed, where both abstract ideas and subjective emotions can be expressed in movement. Look secondarily at physical comedians, mime-artists, free-running, how objects can be implied and their very nature changed by miming a door or turning a city into your playground. The meaning of expression and movement in the arts. 4. To explore the places associated with the dance: theatres, clubs, music videos, streets, studios and all-important practice spots, exploring the connections these places have to the dancer and the origins of the dance, i.e. Ballet in the theatre, Breaking in the streets. To create a video with philosophical commentary juxtaposing different styles and areas. Field / territory Contemporary Dance forms, performance and practice locations. Key Concepts To what extent conditions and paradigms mould the form of a dance, the age of expression, how popular dance forms are an expression of the times, the commercialisation of dance forms Sources Expression and Movement in the Arts, David Best, America Dancing, John Martin; The Male Dancer, Bodies, Spectacles, Sexualities, Ramsay Burt, Understanding Dance, Graham Mcfee, A Short History of Classical Theatrical Dancing, Lincoln Kirstein, Web based articles and downloadable clips, Videos, Style Wars DVD, The Freshest Kids DVD, Interviews of dancers, choreographers and spectators, BBC1 Documentary.
The Side-effects. The objective of my project is to look at the mediums of mass communication and mass media on the world today. I am exploring the effects they have on us and ultimately how it has created a world in which we no longer interact with the world per se; there is no conversation, but one way communication. Mass media and technological advances have lead to a world in which individual thought has been displaced, and taken over by externally programmed thought. I am looking at the views of the following people primarily: Marshall Mcluhan, Jean Baudrillard. The main concepts that I will be covering are as follows • Global Village – I will be exploring the concept that the world in which we live is that of a village again. Today’s instant communications have all but erased time and space and rendered national boundaries meaningless • Hyper-reality – The concept of hyper-reality refers to the idea that it is no-longer possible, in a media-saturated world, to distinguish between what is real and what is not (what is, in essence, a simulation of “reality”). Hyper-reality, therefore, is a situation in which nothing and everything is “real”; it is a situation in which we have lost the ability to distinguish reality and fiction. • Television – I will explore the side effects of this medium including how it provides an outlet for hyper-reality, how advertising effects the world and how it has lead to a desire for instant gratification, an emphasis on personal experience and a de-emphasis on acceptance of responsibilities Sources: Marshall Mcluhan and Bruce Powers: The global village, Jerry Mander: Four arguments for the elimination of television, Jean Baudrillard, System of objects, Marshall Mcluhan and Questin Fiore: The medium is the message, Adorno: The culture industry, Jean Baudrillard: The ecstasy of communication, Jean Baudrillard: Simulaca and simulation, Jean Baudrillard: Simulations, Paul Virilio: Open Sky, Marshall Mcluhan: Understanding Media: the extension of Man, John Fiske: Power play power works, Jean Baubrillard: Seduction, Douglas Kellner: Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Post Modernism and Beyond, Marshall Mcluhan: Mechanical Bride Daniel Joseph, Boorstin: The Republic of Technology: Reflections on Our Future Community, Jerry Mander: In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations, Nick Stevenson: Understanding media cultures : social theory and mass communication
Religion as a particular system of faith or worship. A system of beliefs. A belief in a higher power, a belief in spirits, Mana, Darshan. A development from primitive culture. A direct relationship with God, or with an unseen higher power. George Bataille, Theory of Religion. A destruction of the world of immanence, a destruction of the vague intimacy of man. The creation of tools, the turning of everything, man, animal and tool in to a thing. The thing, a symbol of duration, of utility, of productivity, that which destroys intimacy and immanence. The Sacrifice, is the only way to restore things to the realm of the sacred, make a thing no longer a thing, to return it to what it once was “The thing – only the thing – is what sacrifice means to destroy in the victim.” The Festival is that which offers a release from the problem of being human, it is not the perfect solution, but it is the only one. It allows man to break free, but only as free as his consciousness deems useful. Intoxication, Drugs, Alcohol, Raves, Clubbing. Various forms of release in our society, ways which match the Bataillean idea of festival as being the only way for man to get in touch with his lost self, a return to immanence. All these things are depicted in the work of the contemporary author Irvine Welsh, as he describes the exploits of his characters in working class Edinburgh, whether they are on psychoactive drugs, or in the lost world of heroin.
Aim: To explore Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s arguments on Capitalism as an axiomatic and socially repressive system, in the book ‘Anti-Oedipus.’ Concepts to be explored: -An analysis of the concepts ‘schizophrenia’ and ‘paranoia’ as two opposing poles of the dynamics of capital. -A reference to the criticism of psychoanalysis and Freud’s Oedipus complex. -An investigation of the ‘three syntheses’ and the ‘five paralogisms.’ -An exploration and history of ‘social production’s’ repression of ‘desiring production.’
OBJECTIVES: • TO EXAMINE THE ORIGINS OF MONEY • TO EXPLORE WHAT MONEY REPRESENTS • TO SEE HOW MONEY AFFECTS CLASS • TO EXPLORE A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MONEY AND NATURE. Money is thought to have originated in about 800BC and has continued to develop ever since. Coins or metal money were the predominant form of money until banks were introduced. Paper money was then introduced, offering a promise of payment in metal. Since then we have become more distant from actual metal money as we use debit cards, credit cards and internet banking. Fraud and Forgery emerged almost as soon as money was invented. This led me to ask what money represented to make it so desirable. I came to the conclusion that money represented power, status within society, privilege, respect and an easy way of life. I looked at class and how boundaries have changed as views towards money have changed. Class is now much harder to define as money is more available and therefore new classifications have to be introduced and these vary from person to person. The human-nature divide is linked to the way we look at money. For example, the first banks emerged at the beginning of the enlightenment, when science was beginning to distance man from nature. We now live in an increasingly computerised world and think of ourselves as further away from nature. This is happening as we are becoming further removed from the value of money.
My place: The stage, the stage defines a reality Madness and Norms, the idea that a person’s existence can be defined by a definition. How key madness is to our concept of the world ‘we only have reason through the classification of madness’ We only have reality through make believe Objective The stage defines a reality, an exploration between the reality of madness as a concept and the reality of the stage. How fundamental madness is to our concept of the world ‘we only have reason through the classification of madness’. We only have reality through make believe. Sources: Foucault: Madness and Civilization, Derrida: Dissemination, Nietzsche, Shakespeare Part 1: Defining madness Part 2: Classification of madness Part 3: Madness and the stage Part 4: The mind as the stage, concept of reason and rationality
Objective: My objective in my project is to study the various methods that country’s have of detaining young offenders. I will look at the conditions that they are detained in and the treatment they receive from the authorities. The countries that I will focus most of my essay on are: Brazil, Turkey, USA, and England. Having studied the state of the juvenile prisons, I will hopefully have come to a conclusion as to which country has successfully reformed the most children, so that they are able to lead constructive lives when they are released. The philosopher who I will mainly focus on in Foucault, and in particular his book “Discipline and Punish”. I will look at his writings on how the penal system has developed over the years, his views about torture, his writings on Jeremy Bentham’s “Panopticon”, his belief that the authorities are diminishing the human spirit, and his beliefs in why prisons continue to be used when they appear to be unsuccessful at reducing crime. Sources: As I have already said the philosopher who I will focus on is Foucault so I will use his books. The information I will use when writing about the prison system will largely come from reports made by groups such as the Human Rights Watch, who have been over to these countries and have interviewed the prisoners, government officials, lawyers, and social workers. Achievements: Having studied the various juvenile prisons around the world I have come to the conclusion that out of the four countries that I have focused on the USA and surprisingly Turkey have the lowest number of children re-offending when they are released. Although both prisons appear to have very contrasting methods of treating the children (USA like a military camp, and Turkey like a boarding school), they do have many similarities. Both prisons have a very specific structure to the day that the children must obey. Both are also concerned with integrating the children back into society, Turkey while the children are in prison and the USA when the children have left (which they refer to as “after care”)
The aim of my project: • To examine the influence of the media on society and it’s potential to alter society’s perception of reality • How big a role does the media play in shaping our views of the world? • Does the media affect some groups more than others, who is more susceptible? • How do media effects occur? Resources: • Robinson Library • The Internet • Questionnaires Conclusions: Due to the mass media, the world in which we live has become a ‘global village’, we are constantly surrounded by the media in our daily lives. It is the biggest supplier of information on places we have never seen, and people we have never encountered. Through the media we can receive information on anything or anyone we wish to learn about, but sometimes this information is biased, or wrong, and our perception of reality can become distorted yet we do not even realise it. The media is a hugely powerful phenomenon in the modern world, enabling us to gain in knowledge in a variety of topics, and shaping our perception of the world. However not all media effects are positive, the negative aspects- the communication of unreality are not only wrong but potentially dangerous.
OBJECTIVE: • I intend to explore the oppression of women in a patriarchal society with particular reference to art. • To achieve this I will examine the treatment of women in art institutions and within society as a whole and by discussing assumptions about the nature of femininity and how these have an oppressive force. SOCIETY: • Family: What does it mean to be a “good” women? An exploration into patriarchal codes of conduct enforced upon women that forbid female professionalism. • Institutions: How knowledge is manipulated to maintain current social divisions that segregate men and women and prioritise male characteristics. • Power: artistic impressions of the power dynamic that exists between men and women. Using examples of pictures I will demonstrate different approaches to this subject. ART HISTORY: • An investigation into the manipulation of knowledge and the use of negative assumptions of femininity to prevent female artists achieving recognition. EROTICISM: • The evident bias in painting of the nude that only acknowledges the male viewer. • How does this bias affect the idea of rights and equality and how have female artists confronted this issue? • Have women escaped oppression today?
I wanted to explore why we (Western Society) have the belief that it is right for humans to have authority over the rest of the environment and to dominate it, utilising it however is deemed fit. My outlook within this project is to clarify differing perceptions of nature and how they are influential. My aim is to establish how society has got the perception of nature that it has. Intro: the underlying question is why do humans believe that they have the right to dominate the environment? I intend to clarify differing attitudes towards, and beliefs about nature. Discuss the different focuses of the discussion. What is nature? Different Viewpoints on Nature. Environmental ethics: anthropocentrism, speciesism, eco-feminism, humanism, idealism, deep ecology, animal rights, vegetarianism and veganism etc. What do they say about the relationship between humans and nature? How past perceptions of nature have changed e.g. Romanticism, and why has it got more controversial? Religious Concepts of Nature. Why I am looking at religious examples. Different time spans and areas. Primitive v Modern. Religion communicates social norms. Totemism. The religion, the relationship with totems. Different teachings and sacraments. What does this say about the relationship with nature? Paganism. Mother nature, link with eco-feminism. Different beliefs. Relationship with nature. Judeo-Christian beliefs. Patriarchal, anthropocentric, institutionalised. What does this say about the relationship with nature? Religious Conclusion. What do these contrasting religions communicate about man and nature? Comparison of Christianity and Paganism-Mother v Lord. Look at respect for nature in Totemism and compare this to modern Christianity. Is Christianity fundamentally anthropocentric? Dualism, Patriarchy. Ecological effort. Psychological Relationship. Importance of psychology, what can it tell us about our preconceptions of nature? Jung’s Collective Conscious. What is it? Is it plausible that our collective conscious can dictate our relationship to nature? Discussion General psychological opinion. Nativists v empiricists. Psychological Conclusion. What do these arguments infer about humanity’s attitude towards nature? Philosophical Relationship. What can philosophy tell us? Different Arguments. Kant, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Plato. Dualism v Monism. Descartes. Spinoza. What a world view’s impact on the relationship between humanity and nature is. Conclusion. Religion, Psychology, Philosophy and Sociological ⇒ what they infer? Which has the most impact? Why do we have the relationship with nature that we do?
Territory & Field of Exploration This project will discuss the field of contemporary architecture. I want to discuss some of the major challenges that face the contemporary architect in relation to his particular ‘way of thinking’ about the problems of designing in our technological age. In Our Modern Technological Age, Can Contemporary Architecture truly appeal to The Heideggerian Notion of Dwelling? Aims & Objectives. • I will discuss Heidegger’s essay ‘Building. Dwelling, Thinking’ in order to reveal the nature of Heidegger’s notion of dwelling. • This project will discuss in detail the relationship between Building & Dwelling in order to adopt a ‘way of thinking’ about the challenge of building that may be applicable in the contemporary world. • I will discuss Heidegger’s use of ‘the poetic’, and ask weather or not there is the possibility in our contemporary world for ‘poetic building’ • This project will discuss the affect of modernity on Heidegger’s notion of dwelling, my focus will rest specifically on mans ‘homelessness’.
Part 1: The Development and Awareness of the Individual within Community. Role of Education in the Development of Faith in Children; Interplay of education and faith; Education as a resolution. Part 2: Reassessing/Reconstructing an Ethical Community. A Future Community Ethic; Necessary? Possible? What is needed to construct a future community that meets the required ethic? Aim: Looking at what brings an individual to their moral potential, investigating through faith and education. Territory: Community of South Bailey, Durham, with education and community linked through pre-school to university colleges. Paradigm Shift: Moral and community Sources:Derrida, Foucault Tolstoy, Aquinas
Prague is my chosen place for the study of my project and the development of architecture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The architecture is a mix of all time periods and have al been preserved, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque are just some of the styles that can be seen. I am focusing on the Renaissance to Baroque period and the reason for the architectural transition. Along with this transition and the reasons behind it there is the main theme of individuality and power and how these characteristics may have helped the process of Renaissance to Baroque. The individuals that could have the kind of power needed to influence a change in style are emperors, religious leaders, architects and the aristocracy. But how do these individuals use their power to influence others? Can style really be changed through the will of one person? These questions lead to an investigation of individualism and its impact and influence on others. The main buildings I am exploring are the Renaissance Beldevere, a summerhouse, built for Queen Ann, the Baroque Wallenstein Palace, the Baroque St. Nicholas Church and the cathedral of St. Vitus. These buildings are interesting to compare and contrast so as to get a real feel for the different periods and stages of development. The Belvedere- 1535-63, Renaissance Summerhouse built for Queen Anne. The idea of an individual being responsible for the development in architecture is possible but unlikely so there must be other reasons. These are blunted sensibility, advancement of architectural tools and abilities, the need for new art to admire and the natural development of style. All these have to be discussed in order to find which is most likely to have had the most influence. Religion is also a key factor in the development as the transition may be connected to the Thirty Years War and this would mean limitations or requirements were needed to be seen on buildings in order to promote or demote certain religious beliefs. Sources The Architecture of Prague and Bohemia- Brain Knox, Renaissance and Baroque – Heinrich Wolfflin, The Thirty Years War- Stephen Lee, Space, Time and Architecture- Sigfried Giedion, Rudolf II and Prague: the court and the city- Eliska Fucov, Also a study of the buildings themselves in Prague.
Objectives – To show how and why society still needs myths and magic in the ages of science and enlightenment. Method – Define the language of myth, and why we read significance into events and objects; Define the function of myths and magic in relation to the human psyche and psychoanalysis; Sources – Barthes’ Mythologies, Rollo May’s The Cry For Myth, Adorno and Horkheimer’s Dialectic Of Enlightenment.