Topic 3: Rhino- Communication, Illustration, Propaganda and Interpretation.

Rhinoceros: Communication, Illustration, Propaganda and Interpretation

Introduction

There is no ‘pure’ image—images always carry an embedded bias of their creator or of the era in which the image was made; the bias can be unintentional, contextually historical, or intentional.  Images can serve different purposes, too: consider the different contexts and functions of scientific illustration, individual portraiture, or religious, political, or other propaganda. 

The overall goal of this Topic is to cause students to first see representation, then trace the influence of representation into the intentional creation of meaning (communication, illustration, propaganda).

Deadlines

October 11, Wednesday (Midnight)—First reading (Clarke) Response Form Due.

October 12, Thursday (In Class)—Creature/Other Due.

October 16, Monday (Midnight)—Second reading (Lampert) Response Form Due 

October 16, Monday (Midnight)— Museum Visit Response Due. Link to form HERE.

October 17 Tuesday—In Depth Portrait/Propaganda Due.

Readings

All readings will be distributed via email, along with link to Response Forms:

1) The First Lisbon or Durer Rhinoceros of 1515 (Chapter 1), The Rhinoceros from Durer to Stubbs; 1515 - 1799; T. H. Clarke, 1986.  [sent via email]

The above text links the arrival of a real rhinoceros in Lisbon in 1515 to depictions stemming from that arrival as they propagated over time.  The author notes the influence of depicting artists' own personal experience and formation, as well as the replication of form as one artist is influenced by another.  This chapter serves as an object case study on the issue of received knowledge, using concrete historical tracking of an image's spread of influence.

Due October 11th at midnight. 

2) Photographing the Past During the Present (Chapter 6), A People's Art History of the United States; Nicolas Lampert, 2013.   [sent via email; link to response form: CLICK HERE. ]

This text discusses the difference between photography depicting Native Americans as practiced by an outsider versus an insider.  Noted are what each photographer chose to represent, the relative success and/or popularity of their imager`y, and the effect of each on the popular understanding and depiction of Native Americans.  The issue of Authorship is also brought up.  This chapter serves as a case study of intentional visual propaganda--the intentional shaping of the message utilizing the tools and formal qualities of a specific medium.

Due October 16th at midnight. 

Assignments

1) Creature/Other-- using source texts from a) scientific observation (biology) and b) colonial exploration as source material to visually depict what is described.  Students are limited to using their imagination, and are discouraged from researching the text online.  The idea is to understand the role of early artists and illustrators as important interpreter/creators of visual culture, as well as scientific and anthropological 'fact'.  Choose one of the four source text options.  Work may be created in any medium, but should be no larger than 10” in the longest dimension.

Due October 12th at 10am.

2) Portrait/Propaganda (In-Depth Assignment)

This is a two-part assignment.  Work may be created in any medium, but each work should be no smaller than 12” in the smallest dimension.

Part A) students will create a portrait of an individual and must choose whether to depict the subject as admirable or ignoble.  This choice will be realized through specific formal choices—composition, color, line weight, energy, texture, scale, contrast, etc.—in the medium of their choice.  The portrait should also be a good representational likeness of the individual, and not an abstraction or substitution (e.g.: a person must be represented by a person, and not by a bottle, or a cow, for example).  No smaller than 12” in the smallest dimension.

Part B) Students will next create a form of propaganda—some combination of text/speech and image that will promote a message opposite that of the portrait about the same subject.  For example, if you depicted one of your professors as destitute, intimidating, and horrible in a portrait, then your propaganda should promote them as rich, welcoming and wonderful.  No smaller than 12” in the smallest dimension.

In the propaganda you may feel free to use a personified representation of your subject—you may depict a bottle or cow, which has the characteristics of your subject in place of your subject, for example.  The propaganda may be created using the medium of your choice, though the requirement to use text may make some of you feel limited—consider that there are many ways to use text; it doesn’t simply have to be a digital insertion.  Formal choices will also be important in the propaganda. 

Museum Visit

Lewis Hine; Social Justice and Child Labor:  https://thefrost.fiu.edu/exhibitions/2017/lewis-hine.html

Frost Art Museum (FIU; free admission)

From the exhibition’s webpage:

One of the most influential social documentary photographers of the 20th century, Lewis Hine dedicated his practice to capturing images of children toiling in factories. His powerful photographs told the story of children's abuse as workers and helped influence the creation of labor laws in the United States.

In 1908, the National Child Labor Committee commissioned Lewis Hine to photograph conditions of child labor in America. With the surge of the Industrial Revolution, factories and mills sought unskilled labor. While a child may have previously worked on their family’s farm or shop, a promise of higher wages lured many families to send their children to work in cities. Hine’s photographs are often accredited as one of the driving forces for inciting the American population to demand an end to child labor.

Despite the difficult lighting and locations, Hine managed to create thoughtful and provocative compositions that capture the child’s exhaustion, pain, and anguish.

Museum Location and Hours:

Florida International University

10975 S.W. 17th Street

Miami, FL 33199

Monday: Closed

Tuesday: 10 A.M. - 5 P.M.

Wednesday: 10 A.M. - 5 P.M.

Thursday: 10 A.M. - 5 P.M.

Friday: 10 A.M. - 5 P.M.

Saturday: 10 A.M. - 5 P.M.

Sunday: 12 P.M. - 5 P.M.

Optional Information

For those students who wish to pursue these ideas further; this reading is not required.

1) Enter the Dragon; on the vernacular of beauty; found in The Invisible Dragon; Four Essays on Beauty; Dave Hickey, 1993. 

[Available online here: http://sculpture.artapsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/hickey_beauty_selected_essays.pdf ]

Hickey's essay illustrates the problem of the conceptual systems of thought underpinning art, within which we make and exhibit art, as power structures which serve to tell us what content is possible or impossible to present within those systems.  The argument is the conceptual extension of issues illustrated by the first two articles.  Hickey provides a helpful and simple explanation of the arguments laid out by Michel Foucault in Discipline and Punish as an illustrative example, and also uses as an example the NEA controversy surrounding the work of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe from the 1980’s.