writing

Land Acknowledgement:

Before I commence I wish to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this place and all land upon which the University is

located, and pay my respects to the Chumash Elders past, present and future for they hold the memories, the traditions, and the culture of this area, which has become a place of learning for

people from all over the world.

Vetted and approved by Mia Lopez, Chairperson of Coastal Band of the Chumash Nations

https://native-land.ca/

Visual Experience and the Shape of Meaning in Images

w e l c o m e

Madeleine Ignon (she/her/hers)

*Class originally designed by Professor Laurel Beckman

7B Image Studies

Commitment to Diversity and Safer Spaces: We understand the classroom as a space for practicing freedom, where one may challenge physical, social, and cultural borders and create meaningful artistic expressions. To do so we must acknowledge and embrace the different identities and backgrounds we inhabit. This means that we will use preferred pronouns, respect self-identifications, and be mindful of special needs. Disagreement is encouraged and supported, however, our differences affect our conceptualization and experience of reality, and it is extremely important to remember that certain gender, race, sex, and class identities are more privileged while others are undermined and marginalized. Consequently, this makes some people feel more protected or vulnerable during debates and discussions. A collaborative effort between the students and instructor is needed to create a supportive learning environment. While everyone should feel free to experiment creatively and conceptually, if a class member points out that something you have said or shared with the group is offensive, avoid being defensive; instead approach the discussion as a valuable opportunity for us to grow and learn from one another. Alternatively, if you feel that something said in discussion or included in a piece of work is harmful, you are encouraged to speak with the instructor.

Via Sarah Brady, Professor in the Art Department

TA intros!

Marisa de la Peña (she/her/hers)

Dani Kwan (they/them/theirs)

Alex Ehrenzeller (he/him/his)

TAs - please put your emails in the chat box!

• Crashers, please private message or email a TA so they have a record of who wants to be in their section, and they can give you section Zoom links

• Those who want to switch sections, please fill out GS questionnaire. We will try to get add codes for everyone, but we need to keep an even distribution across sections

• PRIORITY goes to senior art majors - 7B is offered every fall, you will get a chance to take it if not this year!

• Attendance will be taken in lecture and sections by your TA - they will let you know how they will take attendance

Zoom / online learning / boundaries / expectations - from syllabus***

This is a shared space. The Honor Code applies. We are all in this together.

Under no circumstances may you record the lectures. Recording lectures legally requires the express consent of the professor, teaching assistants, and students. Out of respect for everyone's privacy, and to protect their rights over the use and dissemination of their digital physical likeness, opinions and speech, recording any portion of this class is strictly forbidden.

1. Disable sound notifications on your phone, computer and tablet. 2. Turn your camera on during lectures and sections whenever possible. We encourage that you turn your camera on, but it is not mandatory. Also, please put your pronouns in your Zoom name if you can! 3. Mute your microphone when you are not talking. This helps eliminate background noise. 4. Use the chat window or shout it out when you have questions, or raise your hand (actually or by using the “raise hand” feature on Zoom. This can be found on the bottom of your screen). 5. Close unnecessary applications on your computer to keep the video optimally functioning. 6. When you are speaking let others know when you have finished by saying one of these sign-offs: “That’s all.” “I’m done.” “Thank you.” 7. If you have a busy background, consider using a virtual background. 8. No disrespectful behavior. Respectful behavior is expected. Think of Zoom as a professional environment, and behave accordingly. 9. Remember to sign out when class ends.

y’all….

Please REGISTER TO

VOTE!

Oct. 19 is the deadline for

CA

Basics about the course:

This course is about ways of seeing, analyzing and making images.

Each week there is 1 lecture and 2 section meetings

In lecture, you’ll be introduced to concepts and images - the concepts/terms you need to know will be in bold/red

(you will not be tested on names, dates, etc)

In section, you’ll create a weekly art project

There is a written final based on these two components (on Monday 12/7)

Supplies: kit sold at UCen bookstore

(at a discount) or via blick.com

The syllabus, supply list, lectures, image lists with lecture notes, & reader materials

are all on Gauchospace

Course “readings” (they are often web links, video, audio), as well as Understanding

Comics, are listed on the syllabus as links.

***PDF book (free download online - link

on Gauchospace)

1C Colloquium Speaker Series, Thursday evenings from 5:00-6:50 (October 8 through December 10)

*On Monday, November 23rd (week of Thanksgiving, the 1C lecture will stand in for 7B lecture; same time. I will send out

Zoom link closer to the date)

Schedule/list of speakers: https://www.arts.ucsb.edu/colloquium/

Stay tuned for Zoom links

Neuroscientist Beau Lotto TED Talk

Space, Color, & Context coexist

All elements in an image are relative

W H

What!

WHat!

Making an image can be defined, most broadly, as applying an organizing principle to a space.

(This class will focus mostly on 2D spaces)

Vision: Interpretation and

Projection

It is generally understood that we see what we believe.

Visual perception specialists working in cognitive science and philosophy have a phrase to describe what/how we see:

“THE WORLD SHOWS UP FOR YOU”

Two approaches to what that may mean are:

a. materialist based: The world is a kind of visual illusion, the brain makes sense of what we see through optics and by using memory. It’s

up to us.

b. integrative: The conscious mind is attuned to and achieves integration with the world. The world itself (we are a part of it)

determines the nature of conscious experience, of which visual perception is a dominant component.

What is vision? What does it mean to “see”? How are seeing and reading images the same?

Different?

How vision works

Various vision views (regular, farsighted, nearsighted, astigmatism)

first artificial retina, 2013 transmitter and implants

Ways of looking out/looking in

our eyes / brains when we look at our phones

Computer vision syndrome - eye strain, blurred vision, headaches, discomfort, fatigue, trouble sleeping, etc

Ilya Repin, “Unexpected Visitors”, 1884-88 (painting)

1. examine the painting freely 2. estimate the material circumstances of the family 3. assess the ages of the characters

4. determine the activities of the family prior to the visitor’s arrival

5. remember the characters’ clothes 6. surmise how long the ‘unexpected visitor’ had been away

Involuntary eye movement study, 1965, Alfred L. Yarbus

Irwin*, The Constructed Impact of Images, 1998, live, mixed media *collective of Slovenian artists, primarily painters, and an original founding member

of political art collective Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK)

1. micographer Henry Dalton, microscopic collage made with scales from butterfly wings, 2. 19th century - an example of a “micromosaic”

Hagop Sandaldjian, micro sculptures on the eye of a needle

The Museum of Jurassic Technology, LA

Tupac ‘hologram’ projection, Coachella 2012

ethics of imagery / recreations of imagery

Flat and Shallow Space

Flat space contains no reference to or feeling of dimensionality.

Shallow space is somewhere between flat and fully dimensional.

left: Egyptian Wall Painting (the bird hunter, detail), 1400ad right: Dunhuang Star Map, 940 ad (China)

Nuria Mora, street painting, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2009

Pattern Motifs, 1994 Emigre magazine

Sister Corita Kent, unknown title, c1965, serigraph

Paul Morrison, Anthrophyton, 1999, paint on wall, Inverleith House, Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh

Life Magazine Cover “The Brain”, 1971

Seismograph device for registering earthquakes

from the Hastings Hours c.1470

personal religious tract (literary work)

Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, c.1486

Beyonce birth announcement,

2017

culture, images, and intertextuality

David Hockney, Domestic Scene, Los Angeles, 1963, oil 60x60”

Paul Wackers Colors in Sunlight, 2013

Acrylic, Spray paint on canvas 60"x48"

L - Swoon, untitled, 2003, cutout adhesive paper on board, approx 4’x2’ R - Annette Messager, My Trophies, 1987, acrylic, charcoal and pastel on gelatin-silver photograph

Miwa Matreyek, excerpt from This World Made Itself, 2013, experimental animation with performance

CJ Hendry

Illusionistic Space Illusionistic Space creates the illusion of

depth through overlapping, layering, change in size and/or uses perspective.

Kara Walker Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred b'tween the Dusky Thighs of

One Young Negress and Her Heart Cut paper on wall, 1994

Akiyoshi Kitaoka, from Trick Eyes 2, 2004 book

Carlo Crivelli, The Annunciation with Saint Emidus, 1486, egg tempera and oil 6.9’x4.11’

a mathematical system for projecting the

apparent dimensions of a sculptural object onto

a flat surface.

Linear perspective

Erik Parra Monstrous Delicious, 2018

acrylic on canvas 75in. x 60in.

Thomas Kincaid Is this painting example of realism?

Charlie White, Understanding Joshua, 2001, 36x60”, photograph (part of a series)

Didier Massard, c 2002, photograph of a model/diorama

"graphic abortion photos ahead" sign was vandalized to read "grab abortion photos ahead 1$”, 2016

(Chicago Tribune)

Abstraction Based on natural forms, has a relationship to representation

non-objective or “pure” abstraction

abstraction is derivative or referential of a source image; non-objective images have no derivation

Chumash Cave Paintings Santa Barbara

1600's or earlier

Harvey Ross Ball, an American graphic artist and ad man, invented smiley face in 1963

realism…abstraction…non-objective

left: John Currin, The Moved Over Lady, 1991, oil 46x38”; middle: negative space treatment of Currin’s painting; right: Ellsworth Kelly, Red and White, 1961, oil, 5x7’

Ryan McGinness, from Flatnessisgod, 1999 book

James Chronister Deinze (1), 2018

Oil on canvas 40 × 30 in

And why would you “abstract” something?

• To pick out what is vital (in the opinion of the artist)

• To control the viewers exposure to detail • To express or amplify a specific quality or

characteristic

• Abstraction might be described as capturing something’s essence.

Joan Mitchell, Untitled 1952-53

Abstract Expressionism

Ryan McGinness, from Flatnessisgod, 1999 book

Ryan McGinness, from Flatnessisgod, 1999 book

woman

artifact

icon

idol

what is its purpose or

use?

does the purpose or use change over time?

how does abstraction change or influence meaning?

Ryan McGinness, from Flatnessisgod, 1999 book - the abstraction of forms from nature image: Venus of Willendorf, c. 28,000 BCE – 25,000 BCE

5 minute break

Lightning

Jack Goldstein, Untitled, 1983, 96x132” acrylic

Georgia O’Keefe, Lightning at Sea, 1922, pastel

Agnes Pelton, Nurture, 1940, oil, 30x28”

images that arrive at fantasy through our concepts of what is real and extra-real

Loie Hollowell

Keith Tyson, Mathematical Nature Painting: Nested, 2008, Mixed media on aluminum, 149 x 149 cm

Julie Mehretu, Stadia II, ink & acrylic, 2007

Andy Warhol, Shadows (series), 1979

Haluk Akakce, Sweethearts, 2001, installation, latex, enamel, wood on wall

Nic Hess, Dreaming of el A, 2005, mixed media installation

Pokemon Go screen shots

Elizabeth Murray, Do the Dance, 2005, oil (painting/sculpture) 9’5”x11’3”x1.8”

Katharina Grosse, Untitled, 2001, installation,4’x60’, sprayed acrylic on

wall

Katharina Grosse, The Horse Trotted Another Couple of Metres, Then it

Stopped, installation

Communication Strategies

the image, information, and realness

Voynich Manuscript, unknown origin and author, in the style of 16th century

manuscripts

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled, 1991, offset print ideal height 7”, 39x45”

Mierle Lederman Ukeles, The Social Mirror, 1983, tempered glass, Plexiglas mirror 338”x126”x100” on a 20-cubic-

yard sanitation truck

Daniel Buren, Guggenheim museum site- specific installation, 2005

“It is by working for a given exhibition site that the work in situ—and it alone—opens up the field for a possible transformation of the very

place itself.” — Daniel Buren

Hilma af Klint The Swan, No 17, Group IX, Series SUW 1914-1915 Oil on canvas 155 x 152 cm

Early (earliest?) Western abstraction

Anish Kapoor, Cloud Gate (the ‘bean’), 66’x33’, 110 ton mirrored surface public sculpture

MOCA ad campaign billboard, Untitled (Six Palm Trees…), 2000, approx 14x48’

Trompe L’oeil building, painted

building face, New York 2005

Pirates of the Caribbean, film still Image as conveying “truth” or revealing reality?

BP’s (British Petroleum) Photoshop attempt to show they are busy working on the oil spill, 2010

Deep fakes! Deepfakes (a portmanteau of "deep learning" and "fake") are media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness

What happens if we can no longer trust our eyes or our ears?

“Everyone can be part of manipulating the hell scape” - Serene Blumenthal

Memes & the dissolution / democracy of the image

A MEME is an idea, behavior, or style that becomes a fad and spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme

The term meme is a shortening of mimeme, which comes from Ancient Greek mīmēma, meaning 'imitated thing’

Mimesis - representation or imitation of the real world in art and literature

“‘digital blackface’ is used to describe various types of minstrel performance that become available in cyberspace. Blackface minstrelsy is a theatrical tradition dating back to the early 19th century, in which performers ‘blacken' themselves up with costume and behaviors to act

as black caricatures.”

- Lauren Michele Jackson, August 2, 2017, Teen Vogue

“Scholar Sianne Ngai uses the word ‘animatedness’ to describe our cultural propensity see black people as walking hyperbole."

Pepe the Frog, originally from a web comic by Matt Furie from 2004, was widely embraced by Trump supporters leading up to the 2016 election; many of the memes

included white supremacist and anti-Semitist messages

Furie told The Atlantic he thinks the association with far-right ideology is "just a phase…In terms of meme culture, it's people reappropriating things for their own

agenda. That's just a product of the internet.”

In September of 2016, the Anti-Defamation League added Pepe to its "Hate on Display" database of symbols used to spread hateful messages.

Did memes help get Trump elected?

In short, images are everything, and they are everywhere.

How they are CONTEXTualized is key.

Course Supplies: • 2 pencils - 6B and 2B • Pencil sharpener • Mixed media pad 18 x 24 inches (must be mixed media, so that it can take paint and drawing

materials)

• Sketchbook, 7 x 9 or larger • Tracing paper, 11 x 14 pad • Glue stick • 9 x 12 self-healing cutting mat • X-acto knife and blades • Small plastic palette for paint (can also use wax paper taped down to a hard surface) • Black art pen, fine tip (can buy a set for more variety or buy individually)** • 2 small acrylic paint brushes, one round, one flat • student gouache paint set, 12 or 24 tubes* • White or pink eraser • Ruler, 18” or longer (metal preferred) • Black Construction Paper - 9'' x 12'', need 3-5 sheets • Bristol Pad - 11'' x 14'', Smooth, 20 Sheets • Colored Pencil Set OR colored marker set

(Note: if you have acrylic paints from Painting 10, those will work for this course)

Supplies needed for Week 1 section:

pencil and eraser, 18x24 paper, still life, markers or colored pencils, misc supplies for object: found or sourced (wire, paper, paper

maché, plaster, sculpting, tin foil, styrofoam, etc.)

Project 1:

(Your TAs will go over this again with you in section)

Warm up: blind contour drawings (in section)

Shape Shifter, a four-step project. 1. Draw in pencil from still life arrangement.

2. Make an abstract drawing in pencil of your still life drawing. 3. Make a 3D object from your abstraction.

4. Make a drawing in color marker of your 3-d object.

Project objectives: drawing from observation, presenting representation & abstraction, working experimentally through an idea, image, relationship, the

slippage between 2D and 3D.

***Think of this a bit like the art class version of a big game of telephone, it is all about shifts in form and meaning during TRANSLATION