Real - istic?

For this week, I was just reading an article on cnn.com about how science is trying to understand how we, as humans, view art. Personally, I don't think the collective WE will ever know for sure what happens when we view art, but at least they are thinking about it. So art, it is a Nonverbal form of communication, it is also fake and from the perspective of one person. Art, the root word itself, means something that is not real or naturally occurring... Art-ificial, Art-ifice... (artificial (adj.) late 14c., in the phrase artificial day "part of the day from sunrise to sunset," from O.Fr. artificial, from L. artificialis "of or belonging to art," from artificium (see artifice). Meaning "made by man" (opposite of natural) is from early 15c. Applied to things that are not natural, whether real (artificial light) or not (artificial flowers).) The word art itself from 14c. means cunning or trickery, mostly because, through your invention, you may alter how others perceive the natural world. .

So just think about how we stare at a painting and talk about the bed in a painting, or the flowers, or any object as if it is real, yet, it isn't real, and even if it resembles something real, it is still your twist and definition on the object. The idea is real(To the artist only - to the viewer, the idea is an abstract idea because they do not have the same definitions, ENTIRELY, as the artist). I think this opens the door for us to discuss Plato's "forms." If your interested in this topic google it, but I'll bring some literature for us to discuss in class on the Plato's world forms next week.

 So, knowing that art isn't real objects, but still may illicit very real ideas and emotions, read the article, and come back and comment. http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/15/health/art-brain-mind/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Asemic Art

Asemic Art Something to think about. I'm sure many of you are unfamiliar with the term Asemic writing, but almost everyone has done it at some time int he past. An Asemic mark is something we do when we go to see if a pen has ink in it. It is a mark that may look like a letter, but is illegible and not intended to be a letter. I find this an interesting premise for art. A mark that means nothing, yet, because it is made, cannot possibly mean nothing, but has to mean something.

So what causes you to make the mark that has been made? Some people give slow meandering, wandering lines, while others may mark quick and erratic. So what is the driving force behind that mark? The subconscious? There may be an intent in the mark making, but as your making it, it is unplanned and the line just moves.

The word Asemic means "having no specific semantic content." With the nonspecificity of asemic writing there comes a vacuum of meaning which is left for the reader to fill in and interpret. All of this is similar to the way one would deduce meaning from an abstract work of art. The open nature of asemic works allows for meaning to occur trans-linguistically; an asemic text may be "read" in a similar fashion regardless of the reader's natural language.

Multiple meanings for the same symbolism are another possibility for an asemic work. Some asemic writing includes pictograms or ideograms, the meanings of which are sometimes, but not always, suggested by their shapes. Asemic writing, at times, exists as a conception or shadow of conventional writing practices. Reflecting writing, but not completely existing as a traditional writing system, asemic writing seeks to make the reader hover in a state between reading and looking. Asemic writing has no verbal sense, though it may have clear textual sense. Through its formatting and structure, asemic writing may suggest a type of document and, thereby, suggest a meaning. The form of art is still writing, often calligraphic in form, and either depends on a reader's sense and knowledge of writing systems for it to make sense, or can be understood through aesthetic intuition.

zhang xu

Try, in your sketchbooks just making illegible marks that may resemble text, but clearly isn't. Do it a few times, stare at it, then write back here about your experience and what you think about the whole Asemic idea. Could it be useful to your artistic endeavors at some point? Some people... many people, often say "That's just not my style." or "That's just not ME." Who are you? Why does the YOU have to be contained and limited? The worst thing you can tell yourself as an artist is no. No to artistic experimentation (unless its meth or something like that). No to exploring your boundaries. Try it. Here are some examples of artists who work in an asemic fashion: Zhang Xu, Cy Twombly, Brice Marden, Jean Degottex,Mirtha Dermisache, Christian Dotremont, Jean Dubuffet, Brion Gysin, Marvin Jordana, Kandinsky, Tom Kemp, Paul Klee, Rashid Koraichi, Kruchenykh Kruchonykh, Ungno Lee, André Masson automatic drawings,Georges Mathieu, Henri Michaux alphabets narrations, Joan Miró, Morita Shiryu, Hélène Smith Martian, Austin Osman Spare, Antoni Tàpies, Mark Tobey, Ulfert Wilke, Wosene Kosrof.

cy twombly