1. What and when was the Industrial Revolution?

'The industrial revolution may be defined as the application of power-driven machinery to manufacturing. it had its beginning in remote times, and is still continuing in some places. in the eighteenth century all of western Europe began to industrialize rapidly, but in England the process was most highly accelerated.'

2. Research both Modernist paintings in order to comment on the subject matter, form and style used to celebrate the machine and motion in each painting. Answer the question in 2 parts for each painting.

                                       

                                            

In this painting 'Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash' the subject matter of the moving dog is used to celebrate machine and motion as you are able to visually see a motion on a still image. This was very advanced at the time this was painted as it was very unsual to be able to see motion on a still canvas. This painting was created by multiple strokes to show each motion that would have taken place with the movement of the dogs lega and tail, along with the lead and the walkers feet.  

                                                                       

'The City Rises (or La città che sale in Italien) is a vibrant, colourful Futurist work by Umberto Boccioni from 1910 to 1911 and is painted in oils. It depicts the labours of men on a construction site utilising the power of horses in their labours. It is this power that appears to be the central focus of the painting as the strong horse in a dominating position filling the centre of the composition.  While the construction of a new modern building is the theme of this work, shown by the partially completed building visible in the top right hand corner, it is the strength and energy of the work that comes through. The colours are bold and dramatic, typical of Futurist artworks, shifting from the light yellows of the men in the bottom left to the dark shadows of the central horse. These shadows draw the viewer’s eye into the painting and their mind into the action. Like many other of Boccioni’s paintings The City Rises is energised by the quick successive brushstrokes.'

This painting similar with the form and style as 'Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash' as it also it created to show movement and motion but with a different subject matter. This painting is to show a construction by horses and men. The short brush strokes show the motion as there are so many it comes together as a blur creating the rush that would have been captured within this painting. 

3. Research Cao Fei's RMB City (2007-9)  in order to comment on this work in more depth.
i.e describe the images that has she used in her digital collage that refer to China's present and history, and explain why has she used these images.

                                                                           

                                  Cao Fei's RMB City (2007-9) refers to China's recent rapid industialisation and urbanization.
                                                                (www.artspace.org.nz/exhibitions/2009/cafeintopia.asp)

'Named after Chinese money,RMB City shows a perverse view of Beijing—a blend of communism, socialism, and capitalism. Like Beijing itself, it is constantly under construction, candy-striped smoke stacks suggest continuous industrial production and ships move goods swiftly in and out of port. A giant shopping cart, filled with skyscrapers and religious monuments, floats nearby...Her work is timely and responds to Chinaʼs rapid urbanization and the giddying pace of social and economic development experienced there and ask us to think about the reorganization of social interactions through online and social networking sites' taken from www.scoop.co.nz

This artwork has the subject matter of a view of Beijing. Obviously not a realistic view but more of a symbolic view, it is the artists interpretation of the city. The form and style of the work in my opinion helps to show a celebration to new technology/machinery as it almost looks like a carnival. The bright colours, and the cluttered look help to make it look like things are happening and changing. It shows movement and motion with the smoke in the air giving us a sign that things are being manufactured and with other parts looking like they should be in motion, all of this gives a sense of the industrial revolution.    

4. RMB City is described as a utopia/dystopia. Comment on what these terms mean, and how they can be applied to the work.
According to the online dictionary 'utopia' is a perfect place, especially in social, political and moral aspects, and dystopia is the opposite with everything being as bad as it could possibly be. These can be applied to the work as two different view point. The first being utopia, this work could be viewed in this way as it is a movement towards greater things, it holds a bright happy future with lots a manufacturing and things going on. It shows a successful place as the is happening going on. The opposite view point being dystopia could be applied to the work as it may be looked at as to commercial. Too many machines and manufacturing could be viewed as a negative as the world has become to materialistic and needs to get back to the basics. But both views can be argued for and against the work depending where you come from. 

5. Although the Modernist paintings and the contemporary digital work have emerged from
different contexts, there are also many similarities. Comment on the similarities that you can see in the work. Look at the moving digital image at vimeo.com/4272260, if you have not
already researched it.
I am able to draw comparisons between the works as they both contain a modernistic view in their works, they are just to different extremes. They are both study's showing different changes/movement/motion that are happening. All the artists have captured the movement and have shown them in different forms but all for the same reason of changes. 
6. Comment on other student's blogs.

Rempel, G. (n.d). The Industrial Revolution. Retrieved 29 May, 2006 from http://www.ecology.com/archivedlinks/industrialrevolution/index.html

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0906/S00212.ht
http://jade-wildy.suite101.com/futurism-and-umberto-boccionis-the-city-rises-a280519

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/utopia

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dystopia

1. Define the 17th century 'Scientific Revolution', and say how it changed European thought and world view. 

According to Chegg.com the scientific revolution refers to the rapid advances to the European scientific, mathematical and political thought that was based on a new philosophy and faith progress that defined Europe in the 16th and 17th century. It came out of the Renaissance period when the universe was questioned by scientists and the belief process was changed.

2. Give examples of how we can we still see evidence of the 'Scientific Revolution' in the world today.

Today the scientific revolution is still evident as we are continuously seeing 'new' or 'modern' thing, such as technology. Sientific revolution has become very common with new technology such as iphones and new cars etc. i believe that the scientific revolution will never come to an end as new ideas are always evolving and improvements are forever taking place. If they never started the scientific revolution then we would not be where we are today and we would not hold such a promising future. 

Research Pipilotti Rist's video installations to answer the following;

3. From your research, do you think that the contemporary art world values art work

that uses new media/technology over traditional media?

While researching Pipilotti Rist's video installations i found that most people are adapting to the change in the media with a positive outlook. On one blog, the art blog, the have said 'new media is a young artform, but its fresh and engaging, and being experimental it lacka the pomposity that often is attached to traditional art forms.'  here the art blog is for traditional media giving the explanation that it is new and exciting being different from the traditional art forms we are now used to. Looking at comments on the you tube video of her work 'ever is all over' most comments are arguing that her work is 'Beautiful. Fantastic' and ' I love love love love her work' all positive comments giving her work hype. But there are still the odd people that are against the change in the art world saying that she is 'sick minded' and has 'disturbed and traumatized' her viewers. 

4. How has Pipilotti Rist used new media/technology to enhance the audience's experience of her work.

On the web site sport your food.com they have said, 'in these works provocation is a constant and it is created by a playful mix of fantasy and real life where the ongoing movement of the images gives life to a transformation of the subjects, of familiar spaces translated in mesmerizing kaleidoscopes.For the Swiss artist the video images are the projections of emotions and desires, a new form of organic life that will be perceived by every single sense the audience has.' here it explains that Rist's embraces the audience by using spaces that are familiar and not out of the ordinary so you are able to relate to the situation and out yourself in the space easily. She also uses calming music, especially in the video clip Ever is all Over, it is a slow calming relaxing song which tends to mesmerize the audience so they are almost no longer in control of their oen fellings and they are forced to be apart of the video. I felt this when watching Ever is all Over i was unable to stop it, i watched it to the end, even though i wasn't hugely enjoying it, i was just following it until the end. 

5. Comment on how the installation, sound and scale of 'Ever is Over All' (1997) could impact on the audience's experience of the work.

In the clip Ever i all Over the music is very romantic and happy which contrasts to some of what is happening in the clip, the violence of smashing car windows. The music creates a fantasy world which the lady smashing the windows appears to be caught up in, she is oblivious to the fact that she is smashing windows and it to caught up in the music and fantasy of it all. Her complete outfit, the pretty dress and her happiness also gives this feeling to me. The music impacts the audience as i think that it puts the viewers in the same state of mind as the lady walking down the street, the also get engaged into the fantasy land and no longer have a say but they just follow the video.

 

6. Comment on the notion of 'reason' within the content of the video. Is the woman's behaviour reasonable or unreasonable?

The behavior of the woman is strange to me, it was unexpected that with the romantic music a pretty women in a dress walking down a street carrying a flower would out of the blue strike at a car with the flower and smash the window. It was a shock for me to see this and confused me, i thought it was unreasonable. While watching the video there did not seem to be a good enough reason to just randomly break parked cars windows. When the female police officer then walks behind the lady you expect an arrest or at least a form of constraint to stop the ladies behavior but nothing but a wave from the officer makes the behavior of the women almost seem as if it is reasonable or else the officer would have done otherwise. It is a split view, the audience may seem her behavior to be unreasonable but if an authority doesn't seem to mind this behavior it makes you re think, maybe it wasn't unreasonable?

7. Comment on your 'reading' (understanding) of the work by discussion the aesthetic (look), experience and the ideologies (ideas, theories) of the work.

My understanding of the work is that is shows a feminist view using romantic music and a pretty lady in a dress , which contrasts with the violence used when smashing the windows. The look of the video is interesting with the two different videos happening in one, the main video of the lady and the side video of the close-up of the flowers, this makes the video interesting and exciting you can flick between the two videos. The idea's behind the work as i said before is the feminist views. Also another theory could be to make the viewer feel as if they are apart of the video to make the experienced shared between the viewers and the actress in the video. I found the video very interesting and excitingly different. I had not experienced an art video like this before and it was very enjoyable for me. 

 

http://www.theartblog.org/2012/02/new-media-art-white-hot-gold-at-murray-state/

http://www.chegg.com/

http://www.sportyourfood.com/en/Parasimpatico.-The-Nicola-Trussardi-Foudation-presents-Pipilotti-Rist/