Arts and Communication

Ten years ago, I was more interested in giving a response inside "return of the real" (Hal Foster) through the ordinary much more than an alternative to it. It is a theoretical sythnesis that sums up what I have published then more than an analythical piece. Hope it may be useful yet. I am just not so interested in what I was trying to do then

A change in any medium brings about a change in our life. This change does not only affect the way we use the said medium but also affects the way we feel, understand, and perceive the world through that medium. As we are adopting and adapting new, mostly democratising, digital technologies, new aesthetics seep into every aspect of our life. It is thus necessary to understand the dimension of aesthetic education with respect to new media technologies and its effects on the society. And, to be able to understand these new cognitions and definitions a tangible source is required: exhibitions. An exhibition is a product of curatorial knowledge, research, and technical labour which communicates and educates ideas, concepts and worldly themes to its intended audience. This thesis reflects upon the importance of exhibitions as a necessary communication and an educative tool especially in a highly mediatised world for media aesthetic education. It reviews exhibitions, their design and content and their evolution and relevancy to the community as well as takes note of ground-breaking exhibitions over the years and their subsequent effects on exhibitions and arts. With the support of an apartment and online exhibition, ALT//OurImaginedRealities and its analysis as a case study, this thesis further examines the capacity of exhibitions as a medium of learning as well as the scope of utility of apartment or similar exhibitions in transforming shared spaces into spaces of interaction, communication, and making them the foundations of an art conscious community in the near future.

Keywords: new media, media arts, aesthetic education, media aesthetic education, experience, exhibitions, alternative exhibitions, apartment exhibitions, online exhibitions

The ultimate American paranoiac fantasy is that of an individual living in a small idyllic Californian city, a consumerist paradise, who suddenly starts to suspect that the world he lives in is a fake, a spectacle staged to convince him that he lives in a real world, while all people around him are effectively actors and extras in a gigantic show.

Guardare alla storia delle forme d’espressione dell’uomo significa seguire il percorso e le problematiche del suo pensiero simbolico, i suoi obiettivi e le sue speranze, spesso utopiche. La sperimentazione scientifica e quella artistica sono due volti di questa “creatività” umana e ambedue ci restituiscono modelli e rappresentazioni che hanno a che fare con la simulazione e che, da sempre, hanno ritagliato nella sfera cognitiva due mondi in costante interrelazione: il Naturale, come “reale fenomenico” da esperire, e l’Artificiale, come continua riformulazione culturale di quello stesso reale.

“Chi consuma oggi fa gesti autobiografici”. È con questo assunto che nasce questo lavoro di ricerca. In una società post(post)moderna e industrializzata, dove ormai sono andate disintegrandosi le strutture societarie tradizionali, l'individuo è impegnato in progetti identitari, nella costante definizione e ridefinizione della propria identità, tramite i rapporti sociali e il consumo. La propria identità, la propria esistenza ed essenza, sono ridefinite continuamente dalla narrazione che si fa di se stessi. Una narrazione che vede come strumenti prediletti i beni che si consumano, portatori di significati, valori e simbolismi di volta in volta diversi.
In uno scenario del genere, il processo di risignificazione identitaria coinvolge non solamente gli individui ma anche strutture più ampie, come le stesse aziende. Le esigenze di questo processo identitario sono diverse: da una parte, vi è la necessità di rispondere a un’esigenza funzionale e legata alla sopravvivenza stessa dell’azienda: volersi distinguere ed emergere, in qualche modo, in un panorama di profonda indifferenziazione, in una realtà dove il rumore di fondo è sempre più alto e dove differenziarsi diventa sempre più difficile. Costruire una propria identità, risponde, quindi, alla necessità di essere diversi, e essere capiti in quanto diversi.
Dall’altra parte, la narrazione permette all’azienda di capire il proprio posto nella società: capire chi si è, permette di proiettarsi verso il futuro e di stabilire una missione, un punto di arrivo. Narrarsi permette all’azienda di avere chiara questa missione, e di inserirsi culturalmente nel contesto socio-culturale di riferimento, apportando valore e significato alle esistenze dei pubblici interessati.
Il presente lavoro di ricerca si prefigge di indagare come questa narrazione avviene, in particolare, nel caso di una delle aziende italiane più influenti nel mondo della moda che, negli ultimi anni, è riuscita a cambiare profondamente, proprio grazie all’atto del narrarsi, la propria identità e il proprio corso esistenziale: Gucci. Uno storytelling, quello di Gucci, capace di comunicare e ri-definire l’identità stessa del marchio tramite un racconto pregno di valori artistici e culturali.
Nella prima parte della tesi sarà analizzata criticamente la principale letteratura già esistente sull’argomento che andremo a trattare. Sebbene, nello specifico, non vi sia letteratura che tratti precisamente ed esclusivamente l’argomento della ricerca, vi è comunque un’ampia mole di pubblicazioni che abbracciano trasversalmente le macro-tematiche costitutive della ricerca stessa. Andremo, quindi, ad indagare l’uso e l’utilità dello storytelling all’interno delle aziende; il ruolo sempre più centrale e funzionale dell’arte nell’industria della moda; gli effetti che l’arte ha poi sui consumatori, ma anche sui dipendenti stessi dell’azienda che ne fa “uso”.
Nella seconda parte dell’elaborato, verrà dato spazio al quadro teorico con cui si dovrà, auspicabilmente, “leggere” la ricerca stessa. Verrà, quindi, definito il capitale intangibile di un’impresa, e come essa può in qualche modo accrescerlo; sarà poi trattato il fenomeno dell’artificazione, analizzando le sue varie stratificazioni; si discuterà dei brand, di cosa dia loro valore e come essi possano diventare delle vere icone culturali; infine, si parlerà di storytelling, e di come la comunicazione narrativa può avvenire anche, e soprattutto, tramite l’uso delle immagini. La definizione di queste teorie sarà utile per meglio comprendere le ipotesi a cui questo elaborato vuol tentare di dare una risposta.
Nella terza parte della tesi, si entrerà nel vivo del lavoro di ricerca: dopo aver brevemente ma efficacemente esposto la metodologia di analisi adottata, sarà analizzato il caso studio di Gucci, utilizzando gli strumenti teorici e metodologici precedentemente esposti. Tramite l’analisi critica della comunicazione aziendale del marchio, si cercherà di dare una risposta al quesito di ricerca che ci siamo posti.
Infine, dopo aver discusso della teoria girardiana del desiderio mimetico applicata alla moda, tramite la lettura e interpretazione critica dei risultati di un questionario, si cercherà di comprendere se possa sussistere un legame tra la cultura personale, l’istruzione e l’interesse per l’arte e la considerazione “artistica” di Gucci. Inoltre, si indagherà sull’incidenza del meccanismo mimetico girardiano sui rispondenti.

The project analyses the impact of immaterial flows produced by the infrastructure of connectivity in the understanding of the concept of the site. The emergence of information spaces in urban centres changes the notion of what is visible and not visible in the society and in the arts field. The approach considers the site as a field affected by socioeconomic and technopolitical issues, as well as by semantic migrations, which occur due to cultural displacements, linguistic operations, poetic licenses or theoretical digressions.

The specificities of an architectural space that increasingly involves intangible aspects in its constitution, such as radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) generated by cell phones, wi-fi networks, TV broadcasts, satellites and cordless phones are discussed through a series of art projects in constant friction with elements of communication, in relations that have intensified notably since the beginning of the 1990s. The investigations seek to inquire not only to which extent the site can actually be constituted by non-visible elements in view of the progressive new seizures of space in the face of technological innovations, but to point political implications behind the networking infrastructures. To do so, the project starts from metaphorical considerations and concepts discussing the notion of informational space and the communication flows immersed in society (CASTELLS, SANTOS, VIRILIO, BEIGUELMAN, DI FELICE), aiming to inquire the three essential approaches in the research: the perception of the site, loaded with information and immaterial constituents (FOSTER, LIPPARD, DEUTSCHE, KWON, DIDI-HUBERMAN), including the presence of the infrastructure behind connectivity and its ubiquity (DUNNE, SAVIC, EASTERLING, GREENFIELD); the technologies, its instabilities and side effects on subjectivity and ideology modulations (AGAMBEN, FOUCAULT, ZUBOFF, BRUNO, CRARY, RANCIÈRE); the arts created under new specific conditions and places (CAUQUELAIN, FOSTER, ZANINI, MEDOSCH). Concerning the methodology employed, the research comments on these theorethical concepts in relation to art projects that are either allusive to the idea of supposition as an art component as well as inductors of awareness about the invisibilities, ideologies and policies immersed in the environment. In a dialogue with artworks by several artists, and my own ones, the research seeks ways to activate the perception in order to consider what is not explicit in the surrounding space, as an apprehension of communication flows and electromagnetic fields increasingly ubiquitous, intrusive and determinant of our participation and existence in the current cultural, social and political spheres.

While the most memorable Dada photographs show groups of members together, the movement developed in fact over great and isolating distances. Dadaists seized on distance, separation, and isolation, and used those difficulties productively to concentrate attention on the very character of community and communications in a world at war.

Traditional visual communication and graphic design curricula at the university level perhaps may not adequately educate, train and/or prepare students to successfully work in the intended creative professions. This critical study found three suspected reasons for this problem: first, that higher education art studio and mass communication curricula are stalled in a historical pedagogy that no longer is viable. Second, that employee compensation for traditional graphic design graduates is typically lower than integrated, interdisciplinary, multimedia graduates and third, that current institutional structures are based on past practice constructed by higher education’s territorial resistance to change.
Keywords: Traditional Graphic Design (TGD), Multimedia Arts (MMA), MultiCom Arts (MCA), Produsers, Creative Professionals,

"Independent Art Spaces in Hungary and
Poland: Artpool Archive (founded 1979, Budapest), the Exchange Gallery (founded 1978, Lodz) and Accumulatori 2 (1975-1990, Poznan)". Paper for the conference "ARTPOOL. Active Archives of Contemporary Art in Hungary" on the occasion of the exhibition at the Weserburg / Zentrum für Künstlerpublikationen, Bremen, June 15th 2017

Dentro do desenvolvimento humano, a comunicação tem um papel essencial para organizar a sociedade. É através dela que foram perpetuados os conhecimentos desenvolvidos pelo homem, que culminaram em sua constante evolução. Os processos comunicativos incorporaram a evolução dos meios de comunicação. A tecnologia ofereceu suportes que ampliaram a capacidade humana, como extensões de sua potencialidade e criatividade.

Graduate teaching in art and humanities is undergoing a transformation parallel to the one that museum management has shown in recent decades. Research tools applied to teaching have also evolved deeply and very quickly with the online development. The incorporation of transmedia channels and digital communication has strongly entered education today, providing new ways of analyzing this evolution common to society as a whole. In museums and artistic institutions, digital communication is increasingly used as a fundamental means of connection with society, a way to attract new audiences and establish new dynamics, defining the hybrid identity, analogue and digital, of each institution. The development of new forms of communication of museum collections and activities through the different channels available on the web, and of common use by society, is nowadays a priority objective of museums around the world, adapting new strategies of communication and optimizing resources and content. Between 2013 and 2018, in the Master in Art Market at Nebrija University, we have developed a teaching project based on the use of these channels and strategies as research tools of curatorial processes in Spanish and foreign museums. Following a qualitative analysis methodology (selection of institutions and campaigns, monitoring and data collection from each campaign, segmentation and qualitative analysis of results), the students have deepened the use of the content provided by the institutional or corporate profiles, internal professional profiles and professional profiles external to the institution. The results of this innovative epistemology have provided a detailed knowledge of this reality, new possibilities of transversality in research in digital environments and new analytical capacities.

The author was requested to provide classes in exercise, crafts and Asian Brush-painting to multi-ethnic residents of three low-income senior buildings in Los Angeles. Creative expression processes were included in the exploration of how the Arts can connect people who lack a common language and so address the serious issue of social isolation. It was important that participants enjoyed themselves and felt empowered through the new skill-acquisition while building bridges towards each other. The focus of each class was on creative process versus research goals. The assembled teams included bilingual teaching-artists to engage monolingual participants; we distributed lists of cultural values to inspire reflection and to guide individual themes. Information gained in earlier groups was incorporated into later groups. A total of 56 older adult residents attended one or more sessions, with 30 consistently participating weekly. Observations by team members, as well as photographs and videos, documented an increase in non-verbal communication between participants. On-site staff also reported increased interactions outside of the projects and first-time attendance at other classes grew. The arts possess potent properties for dissolving boundaries, revealing interconnectedness in non-verbal ways while also providing opportunities for mastery and expression. Initial connections, however, must be built upon in order to increase both individual relationships as well as a greater sense of community. While this project involved older adults, these methods can also be used with other, younger groups who need to co-exist yet lack a common language.

The purpose of the present article is to show the rudimentary assumptions and the main search directions in the fi eld of sociology of art. The author also emphasizes the question of the parallels linking the sociological reflection on art with the problems centered the around the concept of visual literacy.
The text is first of all concerned with the person of the artist and characteristic mythology of creativity; it contains both references to P. Bourdieu’s already classic writings and to more recent conceptions formulated by V. Zolberg and H. Becker. Another section considers the subject of the work of art as a culture text and the “center of new social
relationships”. In this case the author has used S. Ossowski’s pioneering studies. Selected case studies from Polish and English-language literature aptly illustrate the second constituent of the title: The Work of Art as A Social Mirror. The last section of the article deals with the social reception of J. Duda-Gracz’s metaphoric painting. The author
has largely based her considerations on A. Matuchniak-Krasuska’s writings: she refers to the results of the latter’s studies and formulations associated with the “mirror model” and the “floodlight model”. She also cites the statements by her students, which distinctly differ from the previous interpretations of the same pictures. During her discussion the author concludes that the knowledge of visual signs and codes is just as essential as the knowledge of words and grammar of verbal language
because visual grammar constitutes a substantial part of the world of culture. That is why proper esthetic education should be conducted at all stages of school learning.

Illinois Art Education Association Conference (2015)

Presentation concerning the place of Media Arts as a discipline in Higher Education. Two models are provided to explain both how Media Arts is defined and its cross-disciplinary opportunities

Using a case comparison approach, this research synthesizes observations related to John Dewey’s premise of art as communication from communities of students, teachers, and artists in seven different countries: Haiti, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Iceland, Israel, Uganda, Nepal, and
Indonesia. With a focus on the diverse manifestations of artistic expression and the equivocal influence of art on social capital, I engaged in sixty-three days of highly participatory ethnographic research, during which I conducted observations, interviews, and surveys. My findings offer three reflections as extensions to Dewey’s ideology: the attributes of art that most
significantly contribute to its function as (and means to increase) communication are imagination and play; social capital is strongest in communities with institutions that provide and promote opportunities for self-expression; and while art may strengthen community, it cannot solve a
community’s lack of resources, particularly those related to basic human security.

Discussion of genesis and development of abstract art and abstract expressionism with special reference to the contributions by Wassily Kandinsky. In conclusion the text emphasizes that abstract art, like all art, must entertain and develop the artistic mind set, engaging perception, conception, craftmanship, aesthetics and valuation - and thus support the universal mission and functionality of art. .Abstract art, like all artistic imagery, in one way or another, must make sense and it can only do so practically by enticing the viewer into the artistic experience.

It is envisaged that music influences emotions, but little attention has been given to understanding how it affects emotion regulation in driving accidents. To the music therapist, an understanding of this phenomenon has therapeutic implications for a variety of clinical populations that find it a challenge to regulate and manage their emotional experiences. Music instructive therapy provides avenues for communication that help those who find it difficult to express themselves in deeds. This paper provides an analysis of the instructive music therapy which Charles Charamba, a musician, offers to Zimbabwean drivers to combat the menace of driving accidents. It analyses the psycho-therapeutic-remedial implications inherent in the musician’s lyrics with the view to offer instructive insights to drivers. A driving accident is an accident which is caused by human errors. Thus, this paper advances the contention that the musician through his music offers an instructive therapy which is psychologically rehabilitating in alleviating the rate of driving accidents in Zimbabwe. This discursive discourse emerges against the realization that there is a high rate of driving accidents in Zimbabwe that have become a cause of concern to human security.

No hay arte sin espectadores. Por más extraordinaria que se considere a una obra y al artista que la produjo, sin la participación del espectador el arte no tiene razón de ser. En este sentido, el carácter críptico y excluyente que caracteriza al arte contemporáneo –y al discurso que la crítica de arte produce de él–, ha alejado al público. El arte se ha vuelto un asunto elitista para supuestas minorías especializadas. En este contexto se inscribe la obra del artista conceptual uruguayo Luis Camnitzer (Lübeck, 1937), que le otorga al espectador –en particular al de América Latina, destinatario principal de su trabajo– el papel de co‐creador y coproductor de un conocimiento que aporte elementos para el reordenamiento social.
Este proyecto de investigación se propone responder a la pregunta de si puede la interpretación de una obra artística –según la define Umberto Eco (1979)– estar relacionada con algún eventual proceso de empoderamiento y/o emancipación en el espectador/intérprete. Los sujetos de investigación son espectadores de las exposiciones “Luis Camnitzer” y “Contra el olvido”, montadas en el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo y el Museo de la Memoria de los Derechos Humanos, respectivamente, de la ciudad de Santiago de Chile, entrevistados durante el mes de agosto de 2013. Todo ello en el marco del 40 aniversario del golpe militar. Como una
manera de reforzar el análisis, y haciendo uso del procedimiento de triangulación metodológica, la obra artística más referida por los espectadores se analiza de acuerdo a tres categorías (ritmo y repetición; límite y exceso; y detalle y fragmento) propuestas por Omar Calabrese (1989) en La era neobarroca, obra que busca entender las manifestaciones culturales de la contemporaneidad.

Desde comienzos del siglo XX, el objetivo de la vanguardia fue la ruptura con los condicionantes que limitaban la comunicación en el hecho artístico. Las tentativas de hacer fluir la comunicación entre artista y público se han basado en diversas estrategias: de la socialización de la creación a la disolución material de la obra como elemento intermedio. Gran parte del arte contemporáneo ha tratado de convertir al público en partícipe, o bien conseguir involucrar al artista en la sociedad. Una tercera salida será la de la presencia física de artista y público en un mismo lugar y mismo tiempo.

Since the early twentieth century, the goal of the avant-garde was the break with the constraints that limited the artistic communication. The attempts of flowing communication between artist and audience have relied on different strategies: from the socialization of creation to the material dissolution of the work as intermediate between both. Much of contemporary art is built on the attempt to turn the audience into a participant, or get involve the artist in society. A third output will be the physical presence of the artist and audience in the same place and the same time.

In 2014 verschenen er twee bundels gewijd aan schrikbeelden: 'Apocalyps in kunst. Ondergang of loutering' en het themanummer 'De kunst van het verbeelden' van het Tijdschrift voor Cultuur & Criminaliteit . Misschien niet verwonderlijk in een tijd als de onze waarin we omgeven zijn door vele beelden die angst en vrees oproepen. Maar de vraag is hoe men eigenlijk met Kunst en beelden omgaat. Een dubbelreview over het gemak én ongemak van Kunst als bron in Religie en Criminaliteit.

Gıda ve sanat arasında çok uzun bir ilişki geçmişinin var olduğunu ve aslında bu ilişkinin bir sanatsal iletişim aracı olarak kabul edilebileceği gerçeğini, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Şeker Ahmet Paşa, Vincent Van Gogh ve daha pek çok ressamın eserlerinde, antik tarihe ışık tutan tasvirlerde, Mısır piramitlerindeki çeşitli yiyecek çizimlerinde ve hatta geçmişin henüz keşfedilmiş kalıntılarında görmeniz mümkün.
Günümüzde ise modern ve çağdaş sanat alanında dahi yer bulan hatta bir sanat yapıtı olarak sadece tabakta sergilenmeyen mutfak sanatının, bir iletişim biçimi olduğundan söz etmemek imkânsız. Yemeğin bir sanat dalı olduğu gerçeğinin kabul edildiği yakın tarihimizde elbette ki mutfak sanatlarının, sanatsal bir iletişim olarak itibar görmesinden daha doğal ne olabilir?

The logic of communication has changed over the last few years, due to the merger and acquisition of media groups,. This lead to the elimination of the richness of diversity and, secondly, to the centralisation of information on this increasing dimension communication agents. This phenomenon may become cultural agents hostages of elitisation of information, where a niche controls the information that could be disclosed by the major media, such as television, radio and newspapers. This phenomenon questions the freedom of the press and the right to information (Llosa, 2014). However, there was, in some cases, cultural and artistic agents’s communication was emitted only for their own niches without diversify their communication and therefore not reaching a larger audience. This article seeks to answer how the roads, channels and ways of communication can favor a particular artistic or cultural practice, either by the prestige of the specialized critic, promotion, advertising or through the side effects that may arise for misrepresentation or modification of original information.