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Theme: Testing the
Boundaries Between Text and Image
Have you ever seen a letter (as in the letter "A")
continuously metamorphose
into a totally different visual image? The continuous
transformation of one
visual image into another is called morphing, a process
easily accomplished
with modern visual technology. Cartoons on television
have been doing this for
quite some time. The question is: What does the process
of morphing do to
the traditional boundaries between the visual image
(paint) and the text (poem)?
[ The following site presents an example of morphing: in
this case
the image of Nietzsche morphs into the
image of Hegel:
http://xyz.uchicago.edu/users/bmdelane/hnanim.htm ]
Question
A: What is the traditional concept of painting?
Assignment
A:
Read in the Alperson text Plato: A Copy Theory of
Representation
(pp. 63-71)
Plato was the first to present the theory of art as
mimesis, that is, art as an
imitation, copy, or representation of something real
outside ourselves. It is
important to try to understand exactly how Plato sees art
as an imitation: what
is the painting an imitation of and in what way does the
painting imitate that
thing? According to Plato, can a painting present or show
the truth? Why
must certain kinds of art be banished from society?
Answer these questions
briefly but concisely and post them to the FTP site.
Bernard
Suzanne's Links to Plato
http://phd.evansville.edu/plato.htm
Look up the terms "mimesis" and
"imitation" at Words of Art (an on-line
glossary of theory and criticism for the visual arts).
Look up any relevant terms also at ArtLex
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Question
B: John Berger also sees art as representation, but how
does his
understanding of representation differ from Plato's?
Assignment
B:
Read in the Alperson text Berger: Ways of Seeing Women
(pp. 248-259)
According to Berger, what does the painting of a nude
represent/ How does
this differ from Plato's idea of representation? Do the
contexts in which art is
explained differ between Plato and Berger? For Berger, do
nude paintings
reveal something about the artists who painted them?
Would Berger banish
nude paintings from society? Explain why or why not.
Answer these questions briefly but concisely and post
them to the FTP site
A
review of Berger's novel To the
Wedding
(http://www.literascape.com/Readers/Archive/1995Writer/berger.html)
.
Question
C: What are the traditional differences between painting
and poetry?
Assignment
C:
Read in the Alperson text Lessing:" On the Limits of
Painting Poetry "(pp. 51-55).
According to Lessing, what sorts of things do painting
and poetry represent
best? Explain briefly why this is so. What have the new
technologies film,
video and electronic imaging done to the boundaries
between painting and
poetry? Explain.
Answer these questions briefly but concisely and post
them to the FTP site.
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