Jorkjeimer last post

Phase 4 is done!

And it's time to say goodbye to JORKJEIMER/art&technology and to "The Electronic Landscape". I've spent this last week working hard on this phase 4, trying to coordinate everything so it could make sense... I'm quite proud of what I've done, and just hope to have achieved my goal: to trace the Exquisite Corpse using the Google Image Engine... questioning some of its implication, its artistic values...

When I finished my project, I had the feeling all was very abstract, and some things could be misunderstood (or not understood as I intended). So I immediately thought about doing a "Reference Page" so I could include further written explanation. Paradoxically, the different meanings and interpretations are part of the Exquisite Corpse project... so I shouldn't have worried about that! I have finally decided not to include the references and leave it free for interpretation.

It's been really tough work posting in this blog during all this VERY LONG school year. But it's worth it! I've learned A LOT and my Canadian experience (even though it ended one month ago) has been excellent; in part because I've had this big opportunity to learn very different things, and study very interesting and different areas to what I usually do. Thanks Nadine and Mark! :)

phase 4.- google image trawl EXQUISITE CORPSE (II)

6.-
This picture is located in the sixth page of Google Images, and links to a very informal and personal blog about design and fashion. It is only one of a “compilation” of three drawings.
This very informal context (references to the alcohol), with the absence of explicit references to the exquisite corpse, links the idea of the EC to the inspiration or the sense of “being lost and free”. The picture is actually tagged as “random”, and the text does not show any artistic pretensions. “None of us consider ourselves sketch artist (it’s quite obvious) but with each pass we became more and more comfortable with what we were doing,” states the author.
I'm wondering if this “informal” and “improvised” sense is also reinforced by the formal/physical characteristics of the picture. The chaotic and random drawings, the ink texture, the notebook page with the folded corner...

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7.-
In the seventh page I found this image. It is posted in a BBC blog (called Imagine), with a very “wide” idea of what “culture” is. They cover from ballet to fashion, sculpture to hip hop, literature to Britart.
The picture is actually the poster used for an art exhibition: they asked several artists (Grayson Perry, George Melly or Phillipe Starck, among others) to create an Exquisite Corpse. The actual EC is displayed at the bottom of the page. The image is taken from one of the 7 exquisite corpses (the fifth one), a collaborative work by Jean-Jaques Lebel and George Melly. Formally, the picture has been distorted, because a “bubble effect” (similar to the blog's brand image) has been added at the bottom of it.
Does the BBC and the blog quality provide more credibility and a higher status to the EC corpse as an art movement? Does it take us back to the ideas stated in the first images, where we found a more “institutionalized” information?

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8.-
I personally find it very interesting that this is the first Exquisite corpse using only words. There is no other one like this in the seven previous GI pages. Also, this is a very enriching instance because it operates in several levels. First, it is located in a web design/technology blog, being this one the only “artistic” post in its section. Some posts also contain logos and advertisements of big famous brands (Adobe). Does the author want to relate the EC “artistic values” to the hypertext/web revolution?
But most importantly, it is necessary to trace back the original location of the picture to understand what the EC experiment is about. The image is not actually an image but a flash application located in littleminx.tv, a Exquisite corpse project in which 5 filmmakers work together with only one rule: each director has to start with the last sentence of the previous one. The flash application provides a link to each of the short films, which has some valuable implications. Does it take us back to the originary ideas of the EC (work in collaboration, surrealism, random associations)? Does the EC take a step forward with the mixture of genres and stlyes (film, web-based art, images, hypertext...).

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9.-
We may also find a “written” EC in the ninth page. The picture (a scanned piece of paper) is located in a personal blog, folded under the category of “writing”. That could make us think about the origins of the Exquisite Corpse movement, with a strong relation to the poetry.
But regarding the EC implications, the author does not talk about it in terms of collaboration. I assume he wrote the first sentence, and then passed the paper by the rest of his mates. The informal/personal nature of the blog (and of the crumpled paper!) may arise questions about “quality” in literature or art: can we think of this in terms of surrealistic poetry?

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10.-
The last image I chose for this project. I found it in the tenth page of the GI search. It is kind of paradoxical, but interesting at the same time, how we go back, in a sense, to the “institutionalized” information of the first pages... Very similar images (EC representations), located in “official” sites.
The picture is a part of an illustrated book exhibited in the MOMA institution. It is accompanied by technical data and a brief art review, basically talking about the authors (the brothers Dinos and Jake Chapman).
Does this environment (the musuem, the “formal” exhibition) helps to reinforce the original EC ideas? Does it help to demistify and challenge the concept of “author”?

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phase 4.- google image trawl EXQUISITE CORPSE (I)

1.-

I found this image on the first page of Google Images. The picture is actually a compilation of six visual “exquisite corpse” representations, and works as an illustration of a blog entry. The blog, named “lines and colors”, reflects on several artistic expressions (drawing, sketching, painting). The author took these images from a “morgue” of some of the original surrealist corpses and made a very simple compilation himself.

The blog quality and the links posted at the bottom of the text make me wonder if the images/text end up reinforcing the idea of the EC as a valuable and relevant aesthetic experience, even more than a artistic expression. Also, the brief history on the surrealism helps to contextualize the EC in a larger movement.

Is that because it is one of the first images to appear by the GI engine that it gives more “institutionalized” information about the EC?

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2.-

This is the second one of the images I selected from the GI search. It appears in the second page, and is taken from the SFØ page, a web-based community game in which players have to complete different tasks, often with a focus on creativity, exploration, community, or performance. This image is part of one of the game events. The game consisted in creating a conversation without using “formalized language”. These are the rules:

“On November 21st, between the hours of 1 and 7PM, Dax Tran-Caffee agreed to meet with members of the SFØ community, but imposed the following rule: conversants would avoid using any formalized language (such as writing, sign language, or morse code). Participants were asked to bring materials of their choice to facilitate communication.”

The drawing -scanned from a sketchbook- was made in coordination with two people (Lara Black, the player) and Dax (the instructor). I think two important questions may arise from the GI search: why is a drawing (like youtube videos, also used in the game) a non-formalized language? Did the EC help to facilitate communication/expressed art or it was just used as a tool for a game?

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3.-

This image is located in the Pitchfork Media website (an Internet publication devoted to music criticism), and I reached it through the third page of GI search. The picture is the cover for the album named “Exquisite Corpse” by the experimental musician Daedelus.

This instance introduces significant factors to think about regarding the EC as collaborative art. It relates the EC to the music (highliting the power of collage art, as stated in the album review), and thus poses the image in the background (it is not an EC example). Also, it incorporates the commercial value, with the advertising surrounding the album reviem/album image.

Is there, thus, a factual relation between the image and the text in terms of EC? Does the album really reflect the EC values or GI just linked it based on the title of the review?

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4.-

I found this picture on the fourth page of GI search. It is located, again, in an art blog, and the image is part of many others as an illustration of the artist (Jill Tattersall) interview. The interview is very generic and does not talk about the EC at all, but about the artist work in general. The image is named Exquisite Corpse and was taken directly from the artist official website.

It is very interesting to find out that the picture is not complete: if you go to the artist page, you will find the whole artpiece, formed by a “head”, a “torso” and “legs (etc)”. I particularly like the “etc” of the third part, which remains ambiguous.

The artist that was being interviewed only did the “torso” part, as she explains in her own site with a post entitled “The Corpse's Torso”. he image was tagged as “Exquisite Corpse” whereas the artist only got a “real” EC when they put the three works together. That makes me think: why did I find the blog interview first with the uncomplete part, instead of the official artist website with the complete work?

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5.-

The fifth page of the Google Image search links to “The Exquisite Corpse” as a theatre play. The picture is the play poster with the slogan “5 writers/15 scenes. 6 million possibilities”, accompanying a very short text summarizing the plot, the cast ensemble and other information.

In this case, the context in which the image/text are located takes us back to the first instance: even though there are not explicit references to the EC movement or the surrealism, the website generates a kind of aesthetic intellectual puzzle reinforcing the artistic value of the EC. There is no advertising or any commercial indication.

phase 4-images (II)

I'll try this weekend to post something a bit more detailed (a few paragraphs about the texts), but I only post the rest of the images I have already selected for my phase 4 project.

phase 4- images

I'm still on the process... but I would like to show you some of the images I already selected for my project. The html is sometimes driving me crazy (I want to use some javascript, to work on an image-map) but I think I'm on the right path...

PHASE 4! - guidelines

These are some of the main guidelines I'm going to follow regarding Phase 4. I'm finding some little problems on the way, but nothing really important. Basically, I have chosen to work on the second model of the "Google Image Trawl / Small World / Rhizomes / Digital Trails" option. Therefore, I will try to trace the lineage of an image and its different applications and implementations throughout the closed system of the Internet.

My idea is to create an html-language based project, taking advantage of what we learned during the Phase 1 project. I will use images, text, hyperlinks, connections... through which I will explain the keyword EXQUISITE CORPSE is interpreted, visualized and contextualized through the Google Image search engine. I have chosen this keyword because it will allow me to work with the concepts of "hypertextuality", hyoerfiction, death of the author... that I used on my presentation, and engage them with the visual environment I tried to formulate in my Phase 2 video.

I still have to think how I'm going to visually display the photos (that I have looked for, but not chosen yet) and the paragraphs (a short paragraph of text for each instance of the word/image), and how I'm going to map out the possible connections (I'll try to follow, more or less, the Spoerri idea of the desk as a map)... We'll see!

An Anecdoted Topography of Chance

The Anecdoted Topography of Chance has been called "arguably the most important and entertaining Artist Book of the post-war period" and a "quasi-autobiographical tour de force."

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.- by Daniel Spoerri

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I'm working on my Phase 4, and would like to stop a little bit and talk about Daniel Spoerri's project, Anecdoted Topography of Chance, probably the work which this Swiss/Romanian artist is widley acclaimed and known for author. This project is a literary analog to his snare-pictures, in which he mapped every object located on his table at a particular moment in time, describing each with his personal recollections evoked by the object. Mark has linked this project in the wiki page as possible model for option 2, and I've been exploring it in order to conceive my final project. A brief summary of what this project is about would allow me to explain in detail what I want to do for Phase 4.

Spoerri drew on a "map" the overlapping outlines of all the 80 objects that were lying on the table in a specific moment (October 17, 1961 at exactly 3:47 p.m.). Each object was assigned a number and Spoerri wrote a brief description of each object and the memories or associations it evoked. The descriptions cross referenced other objects on the table which were related. This project is more than just a catalog of random objects, because if we read it in its entirety, "it provides a coherent and compelling picture of Spoerri's travels, friends and artistic endeavors."

In my case, I won't obviously talk about my travels or friends... but about my other 3 phases and my presentation. My main challenge for this Phase 4 is thus put everything I've done these past 9 or 10 months together, following the project guidelines stated in the wiki page. I will explain further details about how I will connect everything, which are going to be my main ideas and concepts I will be dealing with, and how I will eventually come up with a final product (an html-based project, in this case) to hand in!

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DANIELSPOERRI.ORG (official website)

TORPEDO- KUNSTBOKHANDELEN (project's review)

AUDIATUR (another project's review)