Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Simulation / painting as nature

Dear Veroniki,

thank you for raising another level of simulation, in particular in Pollock's art and fractals! :-)

Some other links:
http://www.uoregon.edu/~msiuo/taylor/art/fractal.pdf
http://materialscience.uoregon.edu/taylor/art/TaylorlCCS2002.pdf
http://discovermagazine.com/2001/nov/featpollock
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/41944/title/Nevermind_the_Pollock_fractals
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/phys_about/PHYSICS!/FRACTAL_EXPRESSIONISM/fractal_taylor.html

It is fascinating to me because it raises a good topic. Under certain conditions fractals are considered as reliable representations (patterns) of nature elements, and Pollock's drippings are fractals before fractals were publicly presented (Mandelbrot coined this word in 1975).

So what? Why fractals - which are mathematical functions - imitate nature? Because they are a tool of the human culture, which is Nature anyway? Because they represent something which is in Nature? Is it why Nature (the human culture) can't do without simulating Nature itself? Is simulation a global underlying resource? Is simulation a way we construct our vision of the world?..........

Best,

Pier Luigi

Il giorno 10/feb/2010, alle ore 16.41, Veroniki Korakidou ha scritto:

> Dear Jennifer, Pier, Colette et al.
>
> hi!
>
> Interesting topic.
>
> I can't help but bringing up at this point of the discussion Jackson Pollock's famous quote, when asked, "do you work from nature?" Pollock's answer was, "I am nature".
>
> This quote can be traced to an interview of Lee Krasner. The question belongs to Hoffman, when first introduced to Pollock's work and noticed that he didn't use any still life models, as there weren't any to be found around his studio.
> http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/krasne64.htm
>
> Interestingly, an attempt has been made to determine the authenticity of some later discovered paintings that were atributed to Jackson Pollock. This method of authentification was established on the basis of an argument that Pollock's art incorporates fractal patterns as these can be seen in the natural world.
>
> This is only the latest in a long line of interpretations of his works in terms of references to nature. For more details on how Pollock was painting as nature, see this article:
> http://www.apollo-magazine.com/features/71129/i-am-nature.thtml
>
> For abstract expressionism, an interesting interpretation is also the one drawing from psychoanalysis, i.e. Nicky Glover. In her book Psychoanalytic aesthetics: an introduction to the British school (2009) and more specifically, Chapter 7: "Painting as the Body" cites the analytical work of Fuller and Wollheim as seminal for the foundation of British psychoanalytic aesthetics. Quoting Adrian Stokes in his Critical Writings (1978, Vol. III, p. 238): "There is a sense in which all art is of the body, particularly so in the eyes of those who accept that the painted surface and other media of art represent as a general form, which their emplyment particularises the actualities of the hidden psychic structures made up of evaluations and phantasies with corporeal content".
>
> Only wanted to add these elements to your lively discussion.
>
> Congratulations:-)
>
> All the best,
> Veroniki
>
>
> --- Στις Σάβ., 06/02/10, ο/η Simon Biggs <s.biggs@eca.ac.uk> έγραψε:
>
> Από: Simon Biggs <s.biggs@eca.ac.uk>
> Θέμα: Re: [Yasmin_discussions] it is not a starting point//
> Προς: "YASMIN DISCUSSIONS" <yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr>
> Ημερομηνία: Σάββατο, 6 Φεβρουάριος 2010, 12:40
>
> I doubt many artists have worked by copying nature. I don¹t think they can
> as this presupposes a particular engagement with things that many have
> argued is not possible. We (artists included) see things through our own
> preconceptions. Everything we experience is mediated.
>
> Artists are not mechanical devices replicating what is before them. They
> are (can) not (be) interested in the appearances of things but in
> apprehending them from various points of view. The potential angles artists
> might work with can include one or more, and not be limited to,
> sociological, political, historical, conceptual, philosophical, physical
> and/or emotional. This array of approaches have been pursued by artists for
> centuries and are not restricted to specific practices. Some artists might
> choose to intervene very little in that which they are representing and in
> that sense they could be seen to be ³presenting², in the sense that Jens
> Hauser means. However, I cannot think of such an example where the artist
> has not, as part of that, sought to contextualise, consciously or
> unconsciously, that which they are presenting, effectively re-figuring and
> thus representing the thing they are working with.
>
> It can be argued that no artist (or anyone else, including scientists) can
> directly ³present² something but only represent it. We can never escape
> context and condition. This is an application of McLuhan¹s insight regarding
> the mediated status of things. It can also be argued that no artist (or
> anyone else, including scientists) can gain direct access to something but
> only to its representation. Again, this is basic McLuhan.
>
> Thus, at best, artists represent representations. That¹s basic Baudrillard.
>
> Best
>
> Simon
>
>
> Simon Biggs
>
> s.biggs@eca.ac.uk simon@littlepig.org.uk Skype: simonbiggsuk
> http://www.littlepig.org.uk/
> Research Professor edinburgh college of art http://www.eca.ac.uk/
> Creative Interdisciplinary Research into CoLlaborative Environments
> http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/
> Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice
> http://www.elmcip.net/
>
>
>
> From: <natasha@natasha.cc>
> Reply-To: YASMIN DISCUSSIONS <yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr>
> Date: Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:21:15 -0500
> To: <yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr>
> Subject: Re: [Yasmin_discussions] it is not a starting point//
>
> When the painters copy the nature - like for instance in the
> Renaissance - they don't copy the matter the nature is made of (and
> its biology, its "substance"...) but its appearance, that is the way
> it works, its behaviour. Maybe one of the art forms which escape this
> condition are the bioarts, where some artists, as Jens Hauser wrote,
> do not *represent* but *present*.
>
>
> Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201
>
>
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--
Pier Luigi Capucci
e-mail: plc@noemalab.org
web: http://www.noemalab.org/plc/plc.html
skype: plcapucci

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