#advancedresearchmethods

I thought I was well prepared, but I had missed the real learning behind which was to collaborate with other students! I did not feel confident in the ideas that I was bringing to the meeting, as I found the theoretical concepts interesting but I felt I only just understood them myself, as soon as somebody asked me to explain the concepts even when I tried, I could see that I had not made myself understood, and in no way had I sparked a glimmer of interest :) I had worked quite hard to get the information together, but on reflection I would have been better off trying to make contact with the other students in the group. As our lecturer pointed out, how can we cover the subject of philosophy as method with four individuals each doing five minuites. In the meeting I found myself far more interested in her ideas about Arthur Schopenhauen and Joseph Campbell then my own ideas. I suppose this is what makes collaboration interesting.

We decided to divide the presentation up into: Schopenhauer; Joseph Campbell; Artists/Pictures; Paul Graham.

We had a not of discussion about the order...we started with Schopenhauer, but a group member felt that it was very important to start with context first. I need to read up on Schopenhauer, Campbell and Graham and am hoping I will have a better understanding of why it is important to start with context.

30th October - Wellcome Collection

After the Photographers’ Gallery, we headed to Wellcome Collection to have a look at Jo Spence and Oreet Ashery, Misbehaving Bodies. The exhibition explores how illness shapes our bodies and ways to live with it.

30th October 2019 - The Photographers’ Gallery

The second exhibition on when visitied the photographers’ Gallery, was Feast for the Eyes - The Story of Food Photography which broadly explored the history of food photography. There were a wide variety of work from different photographers such as Stephen Shore, Guy Bourdin, Hank Willis Thomas or even Russell Lee.

Again, I think any kind of methodology could be used while analysing this work. It might depends from images on their own than when looking at the whole body of work. But after rereading what I wrote about the exhibition, I think I unconsciously used a photographic theory kind of approach.

For example, the two images from Stephen Shore above could be analysed by looking at the history of still life. Why did he photograph them this way, what does it mean. We’ve learned in the past that whether it was painting or photography, the use of “rare” aliments was a way to show how wealthy people were. For example in one of the photo further below dated  from the 1850′s from photographer Roger Fenton, we can find a pineapple which was quite a rare fruit to get at the time, it highlights a certain wealth that we can’t really see on, for example, Shore’s image above of a fast food meal.

Roger Fenton, Decanter and Fruit, ca. 1853-60 (left) Wolfgang Tillmans, Summer Still Life, (right)

Irving Penn, Frozen Foods, 1977 (left) Holger Niehaus, Untitled, 2000 (right)

The two images above reminded me of something that Walter Benjamin wrote in his article about the book of Karl Blossfeldt on plant photography (Artforms in Nature) and how Blossfeldt’s images were a new way to perceive the world. In a way we rarely look at fruits and vegetable this way. Penn and Niehaus, both, showed us a different way to look at those elements, a way that we have never really looked at before.

Guy Bourdin, Vogue Paris, September 1981 Hank Willis Thomas, You’ll Never Guess Our Deep, Dark, Delicious Secret, 1984/2015

We could also find a lot of fashion and commercial images in the exhibition which was to me very unexpected but not out of theme. It was actually fascinating how disturbing some of them were such as the one from Guy Bourdin (above, left) of the two models eating sausages.

We could also find some more documentary directed kind of work such as the two images above from photographer Peter Menzel who photographed what families eat for a certain amount of time. It highlights how different our alimentation is depending on our culture and wealth.

Another quite interesting documentary images showed, was the images from Russell Lee expressing a rather harsh reality after the War.

30th October 2019

This Wednesday, we went to the Photographers’ Gallery in central London to visit the two exhibitions they had on at the moment. One of the them was Shot in Soho which was a collection of work from different artists such as John Goldblatt, Corinne Day, Anders Petersen or even William Klein. To analyse the work seen in this exhibition, we could use the following methodologies:

History

Photography and art theory (documentary, street, fashion, portraiture, ...)

Gender theory

Psychoanalysis

But sometimes when we are asked this question of what type of methodology could we use to analyse this work, I often think that we could use any, it’s just a way to approach the photograph from a certain angle, depending on what we are interested in. The few methodology I have listed above are the one I thought about when I looked at the exhibition but I am sure that anyone who wants to, could use any other one listed in our module handbook.

The Undressing Room (1968) by John Goldblatt

I personally really liked looking at Goldblatt series of images. This sort of black and white documentary work has always been something that attracted me, but I have to admit, I always wonder what does it say about the photographer. When documenting other people’s life, especially something that is happening in a dressing room, I always think, as a photographer you need to be a sort of fly on the wall but still need to make sure that your subject trust you. His photographs reminded me of Diane Arbus’ work.

The Brewer Street Work (1990-2003) by Corinne Day

Day’s photographs were the sort of staged, fashioned-editiorial kind of work. I often think that when it comes to fashion, there is always a message like “if you wear those clothes, you’ll be as cool as the models wearing it on the images” but I have to say that looking at her work I don’t really see that. We can observe a certain experimentation. By reading the information about her work, we can learn that she was photographing her friends which almost make me wonder if her work could also be considers as documentary even so most of her images are probably staged.

Soho (2011) by Anders Petersen

Petersen’s work reminded me of Robert Frank’s work The Americans. I always find it interesting when a foreigner comes and depicts a place that isn’t his usual surrounding. By not being British, Peterson was able to give a more neutral view on the subject, whether it is good or bad. We can find really harsh contrast in his work, probably due to flash and postproduction, which gives a raw and darker side to his images.

Soho Observed (1968) by Kelvin Brodie

Looking for Love (2018) by Daragh Soden

Soho, Fight for Survival (1980) by William Klein

Looking at a body of work from William Klein that isn’t black and white is quite new to me. I think it was the first time ever that I saw colour photographs from him. I have never researched any other photographs from him than his black and white project on New York so that’s probably why. But it’s funny because we can observe a different approach. When we look at this body of work, I can’t see the anger and frustration that is clearly visible in his New York project which shows that he probably didn’t have much history with London unlike with New York.

Blog task for seminars: write a reflective passage on your own group’s presentation: think about questions such as, what went well; what would you improve; what did you learn from the process and the discussion; how will this assist you in your future work, including the essay for PDP3?

PHILOSOPHY AS A RESEARCH METHOD:

Abril Sigle

Giulia Procopio

Venus

Fiona Harnett

WHAT I LEARNT FROM OUR FIRST GROUP MEETING :

I thought I was well prepared, but I had missed the real learning which was to collaborate with other students! I did not feel confident in the ideas that I was bringing to the meeting, as I found the theoretical concepts interesting but I felt I only just understood them myself. When somebody asked me to explain the concepts, I could see that I had not made myself understood, and in no way had I sparked a glimmer of interest :) I had worked quite hard to get the information together, but on reflection I would have been better off trying to make contact with the other students in the group. As our lecturer pointed out, how can we cover the subject of philosophy as method with four individuals each doing five minutes. In the meeting I found myself far more interested in her ideas about Arthur Schopenhauer and Joseph Campbell than my own ideas. I suppose this is what makes collaboration interesting.

We decided to divide the presentation up into: Schopenhauer; Joseph Campbell; and artists.

We had a lot of discussion about the order…we started with Schopenhauer, but a group member felt that it was very important to start with context first. I need to read up on Schopenhauer, Campbell and Graham and am hoping I will have a better understanding of why it is important to start with context.

My five minutes is about looking at artists/pictures using philosophy as research.

The first meeting felt quite tense and on reflection it would have been better to decide on how we would proceed with making the presentation, and on which format.

WHAT DID I LEARN FROM THE PROCESS:

I learnt how to  use google slides, which is a good way of collaborating with others.  It was interesting listening to the thoughts of other group members and I completely gave in to their interests.   This worked well for me in that I started to read the work of Schopenhauer and Joseph Campbell and began to understand their enthusiasm for the subject.  The work of Schopenhauer was very relatable and I found it interesting to relate his thoughts on life to artistic practice.

I really enjoyed talking to the other group members, and realised they had very different ideas on putting the presentation together.  They challenged themselves to talk without a script and just from a point of understanding.   Although I don’t  think this was an altogether successful approach from the audience’s point of view, I admired their confidence in trying.   Whilst delivering the presentation I was struck by how low the energy felt in the room; this was the result of the audience having no understanding of the subject being delivered.  The questions/discussion at the end reflected this and I felt that although I had learnt a lot from the process of taking part, I felt the flatness of an unsuccessful attempt at engaging with an audience.   There are lots of things I would do differently if I were trying to present an engaging presentation, but given that the learning was as much about the process as it was about the presentation I was happy that we all worked well together, and each of us got a lot out of it.

HOW WILL THIS ASSIST YOU IN YOUR FUTURE WORK/ESSAY:

I am really pleased that I have chosen philosophy as it is not an area I am familiar with, and I am finding it really interesting.  The feedback at the end of our presentation was really helpful and I realise that when I do my essay I need to really set out the approach thoroughly and then refer back and integrate the two.  The mistake we made in our presentation was to not make clear the philosophical points of views, so that by the time I linked them to artists, we had lost our audience in a sea of confusion!  I need to make sure that I present a very clear philosophical argument.  I can only do this by having a very clear understanding myself.  In my initial idea for the presentation I was unable to successfully explain the idea to my group.  Talking to the group about my idea around the writings of Diarmuid Costello made me realise how even though you may understand an idea, being able to think creatively around it and explain it to others is something that requires a deeper understanding.

MY IDEA FOR PRESENTATION:

The writer Diarmuid Costello talks of two theories for photographic agency:

ORTHODOXY - which reduces photography to the event of image-transcription, together with the recording of information from the image created, it is forced to conceive photography as mind-independent: if not ultimately of the camera designers, chemists, and software engineers responsible for determining how scenes will be mapped, processed and preserved, then at least of those constrained to use what they provide. What may look like photographic agency decisions made prior to exposure

NEW THEORY

The camera records what was before it at the moment of exposure, which would fit in with orthodoxy. New theory would would look at the pro-photographic scene as an essential stage internal to the photographic process itself. For example it a photographer over-exposes in camera to keep detail in the shadows, and then has to over-expose again in the darkroom to compensate for density in the negative. Though the camera may record what was before it at the moment of exposure this does not give us the whole picture of what is going on. . The camera becomes can be a means not only of recording a scene, but a condition of the scene that is recorded.

THINKING ABOUT MY ESSAY

Although my presentation work is not directly related to the essay I have chosen, I think it has given me a good introduction into using  philosophy as a method of research.

PHILOSOPHY AS A RESEARCH METHOD

 Abril Sigle 

Giulia Procopio 

Venus

 Fiona Harnett

Our group has been looking at philosophy as a research method

Why philosophy? Philosophy is an attempt to express the infinity of the universe in terms of the limitations of language.

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER "All willing arises from want, therefore from deficiency

That having been said, atheism does seem to be a clear implication of Schopenhauer’s system: for given that this world is essentially blind eternal will to life, there does not seem to be any need for an intelligent and good God who creates this world.Schopenhauer’s discovery that the underlying “essence” of life is will is not a happy one. For, as the second of the Buddha’s “Four Noble Truths” tells us, to will is to suffer. What follows, as the first of the “Truths” tells us, is that life is suffering, from which Schopenhauer concludes that “it would be better for us not to exist”. He offers two main arguments in support of the claim that to will is (mostly) to suffer, the first of which I shall call the “competition argument” and the second the “stress-or-boredom argument”.In a manner reminiscent of traditional Buddhism, he recognizes that life is filled with unavoidable frustration, and acknowledges that the suffering caused by this frustration can itself be reduced by minimizing one’s desires.

The World as the Will:

●The Will is the actual and ultimate reality of the world and ourselves 

●It is “the-thing-in-itself” 

●We cannot know the Will itself but we every individual is a manifestation of the Will 

●The Will can be seen in every action of the body and impression on the body (emotions, ect)

●The Will is violent 

●Every act (manifestation of the Will) is either an act of procreation or destruction ●The mind is “self-deceiving” of the Will

ULTIMATE REALITY

●There is no hope in life

●Happiness is unattainable

●Any arts, morals, or sciences are only distortions of the will

•Seen as good, but are actually the manifestation of the Will

●Suicide may seem like the perfect escape, being the last act if the Will

BYUNG-CHUL HAN

 Much of Han's writing is characterised by an underlying concern with the situation encountered by human subjects in the fast-paced, technologically-driven state of late capitalism. The situation is explored in its various facets through his books: sexuality, mental health (particularly burnout, depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), violence, freedom, technology, and popular culture. Han also uses his Eastern roots in his philosophical thinking. Back in 2002, when he was still an unknown, he published a book called The Philosophy of Zen-Buddhism. In this book, he illustrates that the Buddhist concept of ‘nothingness’—as the absence of an exclusive subjectivity—is what makes Buddhism pacifistic and non-violent, because there is no essence where power can be concentrated. Also, the concept of ‘emptiness’ is the reason why narcissism is something very un-Buddhist. There is no unchangeable ‘me’ in the mirror; rather, I am being formed by life.

“The acceleration of contemporary life also plays a role in this lack of being. The society of laboring and achievement is not a free society. It generates new constraints. Ultimately, the dialectic of master and slave does not yield a society where everyone is free and capable of leisure, too. Rather, it leads to a society of work in which the master himself has become a laboring slave. In this society of compulsion, everyone carries a work camp inside. This labor camp is defined by the fact that one is simultaneously prisoner and guard, victim and perpetrator. One exploits oneself. It means that exploitation is possible even without domination.” ― Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society Self exploitation. 

In Han’s opinion, society’s attitude has moved from “we have to do it” to “we can do it.” “We live with the anguish of not always doing what we are able to do.” “Today a person exploits themselves believing they are fulfilling themselves. It is the wicked logic of neoliberalism that culminates in the syndrome of the burned-out worker.” This has a very damaging effect. “There is no one the revolution can attack, repression does not come from other people.” It is the “alienation of one’s self” that can manifest as anorexia, overeating or the over-consumption of consumer or leisure products.

“There is only one inborn error, and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy... So long as we persist in this inborn error... the world seems to us full of contradictions. For at every step, in things great and small, we are bound to experience that the world and life are certainly not arranged for the purpose of maintaining a happy existence... hence the countenances of almost all elderly persons wear the expression of what is called disappointment.”

― Arthur Schopenhauer

JOSEPH CAMPBELL 

“We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about.” ― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

The divine manifestation is ubiquitous, Only our eyes are not open to it. Awe is what moves us forward.

Live from your own center. The divine lives within you. The separateness apparent in the world is secondary. Beyond the world of opposites is an unseen, but experienced, unity and identity in us all.

Today the planet is the only proper “in group.” Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. ~Joseph Campbell

“You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.” ― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

RINKO KAWAUCHI 

The first photographer that I am going to share with you is Rinko Kawauchi, she’s someone whose work I am sure that you are all familiar with.

Her art is rooted in Shinto the ethnic Religion of the people of Japan. According to Shinto, all things on earth have a spirit, hence no subject is too small or mundane for her work; she also photographs "small events glimpsed in passing," conveying a sense of transience, for example this chick hatching from an egg.

She encourages the viewer to use their imagination to interpret her images. This series on murmuration epitomises notions of transience.

The philosopher Schopenhauer believed that art ( and that moment when engaging with great beauty takes us out of ourselves) was the only means to escape, however fleetingly, what he called the “will to live”. The purity of Kawauchi’s work can also be seen as an escape - moments of existence captured, never to be repeated.

She says that thinking too much is boring, not good. It stops the surprising from coming through. When a picture happens, she says thank you and moves on. It is only afterwards that she becomes the editor and imposes meaning on the work.

Schopenhauer interprets death as the aim and purpose of life and the origin of all philosophy. He maintains that to live is to suffer, that the triumph of death is inevitable, and that existence is a constant dying. So what happens when an artist finds out they have a life threatening illness.

GREG GILBERT

Greg Gilbert was the lead singer of an indie band - The Delays. On a UK tour back in 2014, he was having the time of his life, he’d just become a father and had settled with his girlfriend. But he found himself in constant extreme pain and was diagnosed with cancer. At the moment doctors told him there was nothing they could do he says he felt an interconnectedness between everything.

https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2017-09-08/convalescence-art-and-politics-greg-gilbert-on-living-with-cancer/ Here’s an interview where he talks about his creativity has been shaped by his diagnosis

https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2017-09-08/the-tyranny-of-positivity-musician-greg-gilbert-on-his-battle-with-cancer/ Greg Gilbert on the tyranny of positivity: What he said in the video...If video doesn’t work :(

As the father of two young children it is particularly cruel, the odds of recovery, slim. Whilst he believes in positivity…..he finds the “everything will be alright attitude” wearing. The thing that helps him most is ploughing his energy into his creative work; writing, drawing, reading.

The images are surreal in content, and while there’s no clear narrative expressed by them, they reflect some of the darkness Gilbert experienced as he underwent his first bout of chemotherapy.

He used one of the drawings from this sequence on the cover for a pamphlet of poems entitled Love Makes A Mess of Dying.Which brings me to: Jo Spence...

JO SPENCE

I recently wrestled with my own feelings about seeing the Jo Spence exhibition. I think Schopenhauer would say my fear of cancer is an inevitable part of my miserable existence and being able to view her work only through my narrative of fear, is a sign that I am being driven by my ego.

Here is a picture from the Final Project, in 1990 where she has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. During her second illness , photo therapy proved emotionally difficult, so a more story telling approach evolved. At the bottom she has written ‘What 1991 felt like, and in brackets most of the time.

“All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells, are within you.” ― Joseph Campbell

Conclusion

SLIDE ONE - RINKO KAWAUCHI

The first photographer that I am going to share with you is Rinko Kawauchi, she’s someone whose work I am sure that you are all familiar with.

SLIDE TWO - CRACKED EGG

Her art is rooted in Shinto the ethnic Religion of the people of Japan. According to Shinto, all things on earth have a spirit, hence no subject is too small or mundane for her work; she also photographs "small events glimpsed in passing," conveying a sense of transience, for example this chick hatching from an egg.

SLIDE THREE - BIRDS MURMURATION

She encourages the viewer to use their imagination to interpret her images. This series on murmuration epitomises notions of transience.

SLIDE FOUR - BEAUTIFUL WOODS

The philosopher Schopenauer believed that art ( and that moment when engaging with great beauty takes us out of ourselves ) was the only means to escape, however fleetingly, what he called the “will to live”. The purity of Kawauchi’s work can also be seen as an escape - moments of existence captured, never to be repeated.

SLIDE FIVE - DEAD DEAR

She says that thinking too much is boring, not good. It stops the surprising from coming through. When a picture happens, she says thank you and moves on. It is only afterwards that she becomes the editor and imposes meaning on the work.

SLIDE SIX - DEAD CHICKEN

Schopenhauer interprets death as the aim and purpose of life and the origin of all philosophy. He maintains that to live is to suffer, that the triumph of death is inevitable, and that existence is a constant dying. So what happens when an artist finds out they have a life threatening illness.

SLIDE EIGHT - GREG GILBERT

SLIDE NINE - BAND SLIDE

Greg Gilbert was the lead singer of an indie band - The Delays On a UK tour back in 2014, he was having the time of his life, he’d just become a father and had settled with his girlfriend. But he found himself in constant extreme pain and was diagnosed with cancer. At the moment doctors told him there was nothing they could do he says he felt an interconnectedness between everything.

SLIDE NINE - GREG GILBERT ART The images are surreal in content, and while there’s no clear narrative expressed by them, they reflect some of the darkness Gilbert experienced as he underwent his first bout of chemotherapy.

SLIDE TEN - GREG GILBERT ART

SLIDE ELEVEN - GEREG GILBERT BOOK He used one of the drawings from this sequence on the cover for a pamphlet of poems entitled Love Makes A Mess of Dying, Which brings me to: Jo Spence

SLIDE TEN - JO SPENCE

SLIDE ELEVEN - JO SPENCE SELF PORTRAIT

I recently wrestled with my own feelings about seeing the Jo Spence exhibition. I think Schopenhauer would say my fear of cancer is an inevitable part of my miserable existence and being able to view her work only through my narrative of fear, is a sign that I am being driven by my ego.

SLIDE TWELVE - JO SPENCE WALKING ACROSS SOME WATER

During her second illness leukemia, photo therapy proved emotionally difficult, so a more allegorical approach evolved. At the bottom she has written ‘What 1991 felt like, and in brackets most of the time.

Greg Gilbert on the tyranny of positivity: What he said in the video

20th November 2019

After choosing the method of psychoanalysis for the group presentation, I was put into a group with two other people (Miro and Tanya) with who we decided for each one of us to explore a topic of our choice link to the chosen method. After long deliberation and many changes in example, I decided to look at part of Carl Jung’s theory on the personal and collective unconscious. Tanya concentrated more on Sigmund Freud’s theory using an example of her choice while Miro had a mix of both Jung and Freud’s theories using the example of William Klein’s work on New York and Antoine D’agata’s series entitled Antibodies from 2014.

Freud’s ‘Unconscious Mind’ Theory:

Personal Unconscious

Events or feelings that we were conscious of at some point but were slowly forgotten or repressed over time.

Senses and impressions which were never really strong enough to reach our consciousness.

Childhood memories

Feelings

Could also be something like even just a smell that we attribute unconsciously to a person or an events.

We can probably find it in anyone’s work. Whether as creator (photographer/artist) or viewers.

Robert Frank, The Americans: Blurry beautiful girl (actress) at a movie premiere. what is in focused? The other woman at the back -> The other women at the back, admiring, looking at her. We could almost he missed his shot.

Women looking at women -> Could it be envies? Was it really the photographer’s intentions?

What does it say about the viewer?

The Collective Unconscious

Contents common to everyone. “The collective unconscious, however, as the ancestral heritage of possibilities of representation, is not individual but common to all men, and perhaps even to all animals, and is the true bassist's of the individual psyche.”                                                                   C. Jung, “The Essential Jung”, pp. 67

People from the twentieth Century by August Sander

French Philosopher Louis Althusser talked about the topic as Ideology and it was communicated through “images, myths ideas or concept” (Bate, 2009, p30)

Sander intended to create a “comprehensive cultural history and social analysis in pictures” of German people (the way Claudia Bohn-Spector puts it) by creating a collective portrait of German society during the Weimar era (Germany’s government from 1919 to 1933) trying to outline the existing social order.

We can feel a sense of conventionality in Sander’s image. Not only esthetically but also in the way he might have thought of society and maybe even how most people were picturing Society at that time. Another sign very noticeable is the chosen order of the presentation of his work: presented from a scientific point of view, arranged in 7 groups, published in 45 albums of approximately 12 images. Starting from the bottom (lower class) going all the way up and down again, ending his work with the sick, disable and dead. Often separating men and woman (unless it was a family photo). He apparently did it as an immediate observation. (that’s what the editor said) -> he followed his instinct.

A representation of what society thought of each other at that time.