Presentation and Representation in Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer
Theatricality and Delinquency in Michel Foucault's Discpline and Punish
A seminar for the London College of Communication, Faculty of Media, October 2009.
Smith convening Fine Art Graduate Seminar.
State University of New York at Buffalo. 4/2009
Some intentions of the seminar and the artist:
I am invested in the creation and analysis (through my art practice and research) of Relational Art practices or those practices named as art by the practitioner, starting from a conceptual origin and realized in the time/ space and event of an exhibition, performance, or any specific time/space to be encountered (that which is designated or made ‘sacred’ by the artist). These practices often include the use of the artist himself/ herself; not as a self-portrait but as a ‘social representative’ involved in an aesthetic arrangement that parallels and eventually intersects real, lived life. Relational Art practices also situate a change in the consideration of the art audience. This is a change from considering the audience as a ‘beholder’ of images and instead posits the audience as being an integral, formal element used in the making of the work. The audience is being combined with the artist in the making material or actualizing of the conceptual framework for the artwork.
With this interest, and coming to performance and media art practices from a background in music composition I am trying to understand or at least to make trouble for dominant writings on the media object that treat it solely as a medium for ‘representation.’ I wonder what else can it do in an era of free-market capitalism- or at least during the tail end of such an era. What do global communication networks, virtual aesthetics and relayed theatrical productions of dynamic media make possible for informed, political practice? The economy and notion of spectacle in 2009 is different than that of 1968….but the ‘limits’ posed on the manner in which/ and the categories through which these issues are discussed has been similar over the 40 years.
One of the things this brings up for me, for my use and analysis of media, are relations to ‘truth’ (gasp)….to represent the real….we can deconstruct this yes, through the application of Jacques Derrida’s analysis of cruel theatre and of the postcard and of the act of writing….but I’m curious for all that deconstruction, the ‘real’ and the ‘representation’ of the real continue to be a dominant force in the writing and expectations (curating, historical writing) of media art production.
This is why the Agamben….as he looks at processes, truth processes, for the application of late 19th century scientific methods (the use of photography among them) to consider the plight of the human body engaged in events that are both representational of truth and of a model for mankind to emulate, but also a presentation of unintelligible realities, horrors or revolting potentials that have yet to be lived by the reader, viewer or receiver of the image / message.
I am invested in the creation and analysis (through my art practice and research) of Relational Art practices or those practices named as art by the practitioner, starting from a conceptual origin and realized in the time/ space and event of an exhibition, performance, or any specific time/space to be encountered (that which is designated or made ‘sacred’ by the artist). These practices often include the use of the artist himself/ herself; not as a self-portrait but as a ‘social representative’ involved in an aesthetic arrangement that parallels and eventually intersects real, lived life. Relational Art practices also situate a change in the consideration of the art audience. This is a change from considering the audience as a ‘beholder’ of images and instead posits the audience as being an integral, formal element used in the making of the work. The audience is being combined with the artist in the making material or actualizing of the conceptual framework for the artwork.
With this interest, and coming to performance and media art practices from a background in music composition I am trying to understand or at least to make trouble for dominant writings on the media object that treat it solely as a medium for ‘representation.’ I wonder what else can it do in an era of free-market capitalism- or at least during the tail end of such an era. What do global communication networks, virtual aesthetics and relayed theatrical productions of dynamic media make possible for informed, political practice? The economy and notion of spectacle in 2009 is different than that of 1968….but the ‘limits’ posed on the manner in which/ and the categories through which these issues are discussed has been similar over the 40 years.
One of the things this brings up for me, for my use and analysis of media, are relations to ‘truth’ (gasp)….to represent the real….we can deconstruct this yes, through the application of Jacques Derrida’s analysis of cruel theatre and of the postcard and of the act of writing….but I’m curious for all that deconstruction, the ‘real’ and the ‘representation’ of the real continue to be a dominant force in the writing and expectations (curating, historical writing) of media art production.
This is why the Agamben….as he looks at processes, truth processes, for the application of late 19th century scientific methods (the use of photography among them) to consider the plight of the human body engaged in events that are both representational of truth and of a model for mankind to emulate, but also a presentation of unintelligible realities, horrors or revolting potentials that have yet to be lived by the reader, viewer or receiver of the image / message.
References:
Agamben, Giorgio. Homo Sacer; Sovereign Power and Bare Life. (Trans. By Daniel Heller-Roazen.) Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish; The Birth of the Prison. (Trans. by Alan Sheridan.) London: Penguin Books, 1991 (1977).
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