RED SQUARE GALLERY is specialized in architectural and urban photography. Every 10 days a selection of 6-8 photos with a short interview is presented on the gallery’s blog.
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Monthly Archives: April 2011
Aaron Sjogren :: pause
Mutant Jukebox :: Lilly Donaldson : Flying Hair
Melissa Grance :: The Confirmation of My Existence
Joan Fontcuberta :: what’s next : on future of photography
“What is commonly understood as art has become a mere genre of culture, a genre aimed at the production of artistic merchandise and ruled by the laws of the marketplace and entertainment industry. It is a genre in the way that any other cultural form such as design, fashion, film or advertising might be.
There is another art which does not draw the spotlight or walk the red carpet, but which, from the most clandestine dissidence, proposes to fight the laws of the marketplace and the entertainment industry at precisely the same time as it reinvents itself as art. It’s an art which rejects the splendor of the museums and biennials and any other efforts at subjugation.
We live in a world saturated with images: we live in the image and the image lives in us and makes us live. Since McLuhan in the 1960s, the preponderant role of the mass media has been confirmed and the iconosphere can be considered the model of the global village. What changes has brought now is not the immersion in new communication frameworks (digital formats, internet, social networks), but the degree to which this extraordinary flow of images is found accessible to everyone.
We are therefore passing through an age of access. It is an era that crowns a process of secularization of the visual experience: the image ceases to be the domain of magicians, artists, specialists and professionals. We all produce images as a natural way of interacting with others. On the other hand, the consolidation of new work and behavioral habits (such as cloud computing) will catalyze many more dynamic cultural stages on a large scale (cloud imagining, cloud living).
This situation implies substantial changes for photography and the image in general that in the near and medium term will only increase. This will be its decalogue:
1 – ON THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST: no longer a case of producing works, but of prescribing meanings
2 – ON THE ARTIST’S BEHAVIOR: the artist merges with the curator, with the collector, with the teacher, with the art historian, with the theorist … (all facets of art have become chameleon like and authorial)
3 – ON THE ARTIST’S RESPONSIBILITY: an ecology of the visual, which will penalize saturation and encourage recycling
4 – ON THE FUNCTION OF IMAGES: the circulation and management of the image will prevail over the content of the image
5 – ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF ART: discourses of originality will be delegitimized and appropriationist practices will be normalized
6 – ON THE DIALECTIC OF THE SUBJECT: we will find greater camouflage of the author and reformulation of the models of authorship (co-authorship, collaborative creation, interactivity, strategic anonymities and orphan works)
7 – ON THE DIALECTIC OF THE SOCIAL: further advances in overcoming the tension between the private and the public
8 – ON ART’S HORIZON: more play will be given to the ludic aspects and less to the solemn and the boring
9 – ON THE EXPERIENCE OF ART: creative practices which accustom us to dispossession will be privileged: it is better to share than to own
10 – ON THE POLITICS OF ART: not to surrendered to glamour and consumption but rather to embark on the act of agitating consciences
It is a matter of greeting a new visual culture able to prepare us for resistance, which trains us not just to live in the image, but to survive the image.” Joan Fontcuberta
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Published in WHAT’S NEXT? printed publication 2/4 from FOAM (Fotomuseum Amsterdam) as part of their recent project that critically examines possible future in the field of photography. More info on WHAT’S NEXT forum.
“In fact the question is about far more than just the future of photography. It is about the future of a society directed by visual media, a society in which people primarily communicate with technological tools that are developed and made into consumer products with great speed, a society in which every layman can and will be a photographer, sharing his experiences with newly made online communities, a society in which the time and space have drastically changed. In short, What’s Next? is a debate about the future of a medium and of a society in transition.” (edit from FOAM website)
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Click here to read Jim Casper’s article about Fontcuberta’s photographic work, where he also included an audio interview with the artist.
azurebumble :: fragmental : book
Fragmental is a new book from Azurebumble (Alan Wilson), it consists of six series of digital artworks, each having evolved from small sections ‘sampled’ (cut) from photographs.
“A process where these basic elements have been combined and recombined numerous times to produce an extensive vocabulary of shapes and forms. With no preconceived ideas, I begin to play and improvise with these pieces allowing my imagination to create compositions, perhaps based on a simple pattern, an interesting association or architectural element, or maybe they’ll suggest some surreal narrative. These constructions can then form the basis for a continuation of this process, whereby selecting the most interesting aspects of these new images and placing them into the original pool, can create possibilities for fresh combinations and different ideas. This continual process of deconstruction and reconstruction also makes it possible to trace the evolution of specific elements throughout a number of incarnations and series. Despite the multiple choices this technique allows, I think it’s also important to introduce source material from outside the pool. Lately, using a similar process, I have been ‘remixing’ works by another photographer (Fernando Prats) and ‘refurbishing’ and ‘reimagining’ an old photograph by Andreas Feininger. In time, certain aspects of these series could possibly be integrated with earlier works to produce new and interesting hybrids.” Azurebumble
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astrophonica :: fracture&neptune ft. martin fieber : CUSTOMTONE
ASTROPHONICA in collaboration with UTILE present the video for Customtone by Fracture&Neptune featuring Martin Fieber to celebrate the launch of their album ‘Retrospect – a Decade of Fracture&Neptune’. The sleeve art for this release will be hand printed and individually numbered by Emilski, it will be available at the end of May 2011.
‘Retrospect – A Decade Of Fracture & Neptune’ is an 18 track, digital LP that brings together the classic, always cosmic, Fracture&Neptune sound from the year 2000 up to the current date. Some released faves, some unreleased, some brand new and some unheard tracks from the vaults! All wonderfully remastered by Bob Macc and sounding better than ever.
Design and animation by Emilski & Nick Duggins for UTIL
Music by Fracture&Neptune at astrophonica.com
brancolina :: geometric correspondence #1
©brancolina, all rights reserved
the black dog :: virtual • end of time
Taking their name from a British euphemism for imminent doom, The Black Dog (also appearing variously as Black Dog Productions, Balil, Xeper, and Plaid) formed in the early ’90s as the trio of Ken Downie, Ed Handley, and Andy Turner. Forging a challenging, relentless combination of early techno, electro and hip-hop with a penchant for odd time signatures, high-tech atmospherics and Egyptian iconography, the group immediately distinguished itself from the scores of disposable techno musicians covering familiar ground in the post-rave U.K. electronic music scene. Something of a closet phenomenon attracting the devotion of DJs who nonetheless refused to play their complicated brew for fear of being booed off the decks, The Black Dog were immediately placed in the emerging “intelligent techno” category upon the release of their full-length debut Bytes. A largely U.K.-media constituted phrase meant to peg music involving dance music compositional styles nonetheless intended for home listening, the term has since taken hold and is often applied to groups like Autechre, Aphex Twin, µ-Ziq and As One.
Click on waveform to listen to Virtual (1989, Black Dog Productions)
As Plaid, Ed Handley and Andy Turner had already released a handful of material (including an album) prior to meeting Downie, but their time spent in B.D.P. was their most productive up to that point. In addition to their inclusion on the perhaps more high-profile Artificial Intelligence compilations on Warp label and remixes for the likes of Björk, Blondie, UNKLE and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, they also released several full-length works as a group before Handley and Turner defected in 1995 to refocus on Plaid full-time. The pair released an EP on the Clear label in mid-1995 and issued their first full-length Not for Threes two years later on Warp. Downie continued on with the Black Dog name, releasing the full-length Music for Adverts (And Short Films) in 1996. In 2002 Downie collaborated with Parisian spoken word artist Black Sifichi on the William S. Burroughs tribute Unsavoury Products and the Downie/Sifichi pairing was given the remix treatment on the following year’s Genetically Modified. Downie resurfaced in 2005 with Martin and Richard Dust releasing the strong albums Silenced (2005), Radio Scarecrow (2008), Further Vexations (2009) and Music for Real Airports (2010), a pointed response to Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, designed to “reinforce the false utopia and fake idealism of air travel.” During this period of heavy activity, the Scottish label Soma also compiled early Black Dog material for the two-disc set Book of Dogma. (written by Sean Cooper)
More info on The Black Dog’s career details on wikipedia.org.blackdogproductions. Their complete discography is listed on Discogs, where some vinyl copies are available for sale, digital downloads are available from duststoredigital.com. For the latest follow up check their Facebook page
Click on image to listen to End of time from the album Spanners (1995, Warp)
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