Guided by the question of what does photography bring into being, 'Against Indexicality' is a proposition to rethink the foundation of the philosophy of photography - to rethink the supposed relation of truth between the photograph and the world. Taking Indexicality as a messy and convoluted conceptual field comprised of the notions of pointing, stillness, and fragmentation, this study works to untangle the three from each other, separately challenging each individual notion. In analysing each of the three through their conceptualisation by prominent thinkers, including Charles S. Peirce, Susan Sontag, Henri Bergson, Walter Benjamin, André Bazin, Rosalind Krauss, Jacques Derrida, and Roland Barthes, and examining them against and through examples of photographic images, this study points to the imprecisions, insufficiencies, and incompatibilities of Indexicality in relation to the photographic image and form. Undoing Indexicality as a field, this study resists Indexicality as a paradigm, proposing a new theoretical framework for photography: rather than looking at photographic images as truth bearers that can evidence the photographed, it proposes to look at photographic images as formations that form a thought out of the photographed. In that, this study works to remedy the Indexicality fever, or compulsion, which it identifies as the root cause of theoretical mess within the philosophy of photography. By evincing that Indexicality is a wrong, albeit necessary, solution to a problem that is to do with identifying the relation of the photograph to the world, it not only lifts photography out of a Procrustean bed in which it was never comfortable, but also allows for a new solution to develop. This solution is the theory of photo-poiesis: a move beyond the materiality and away from the referentiality of photography towards its being in the world and the thought that it forms and brings-forth - towards thinking.

Avhandlingen kretsar kring frågan om hur ett förhistoriskt bildskapande var av betydelse. Studien är riktad mot den materiella bilden och syftet är att diskutera betydelser av hällbilders materialitet och hur relationen mellan människor, hällbilder och platser var meningsfull. Utgångspunkten för undersökningen definieras som konceptuell, där en definition av begreppen bild och materialitet ligger till grund för studiens teoretiska och metodiska utformning. Studiematerialet utgörs av den sydskandinaviska hällbildstraditionen, med ett fördjupat fokus på området kring Motala Ström utanför dagens Norrköping. Undersökningen består av tre delar. I den första delen genomförs en diskursanalys, där frågan om hur hällbilders betydelse skall förstås diskuterats i relation till tidigare forsknings syften och resultat. Ett samband visas mellan hällbildsforskningens vetenskapliga illustrationspraktik och sätten hällbilder ansetts vara av betydelse. Ambitionen att avbilda hällbilder så exakt som möjligt är bunden till tolkningen av hällbilder som avbilder. Upptagenheten med avbilden har resulterat i att betydelsen av hällbilders materialitet generellt har varit åsidosatta. En utblick mot hur andra historiska och förhistoriska bildtraditioner varit av betydelse visar att avbildens symboliska betydelse inte alltid kan förutsättas vara den primära. Tvärtom tycks bildens betydelse vara flexibel och föränderlig, särskilt när dess materialitet möjliggör en upplevelse under lång tid. I den andra delen fördjupas studien genom en undersökning av Motala Ström-områdets hällbilder. Hällbildernas materiella kvaliteter definieras i relation till tre skalnivåer, landskapet, platsen och hällen. De materiella kvaliteterna har generella likheter, men varierar även från plats till plats. Upplevelsen av likformighet och variation präglar hällbildernas alla delar. Materialiteten är essentiell för upplevelsen av hällbilder som föreställande. Den nutida upplevelsen av bilder ligger till grund för en kategorisering av hällbilder i föreställande bilder och icke-föreställande former. Kategorierna form och bild ligger till grund för en kvantitativ sammanställning av inventerade hällbilder i socknarna Östra Eneby och Borg. Områdets hällbildsförekomster är strukturerade på ett tydligt sätt i landskapet. De allra flesta lokaler består av ett fåtal hällbilder (färre än 30) och präglas av formmässighet. Ett tjugotal lokaler består av fler än 79 hällbilder, och de präglas av variation och bildlighet. Den nutida upplevelsen av föreställandegraden hos hällbilder har relevans för betydelser under den aktiva hällbildstiden, då hällbilderna brukades på olika sätt i landskapet. På de stora platserna fungerade bilden som ett instrument att tänka med och en konceptualisering av tillvaron, medan de små formaliserade platserna uttrycker en praktik som markerade närvaro i landskapet. Hällbilders placering studeras vidare genom en fenomenologiskt inspirerad undersökningsmetod, där platsbesök bearbetas genom sytematisk fotografering och rendering av 3D-modeller. Tolv lokaler undersöks och det visas att hällbilders materialitet på ett direkt sätt strukturerar upplevelsen, där de antingen skapar en visuell tillgänglighet eller saknar visuell potential. Ett intentionellt bruk diskuteras, där möjligheten att upptäcka bilderna eftersträvats på stora platser och varit mindre viktig på små platser. Det har skapats visuella noder i landskapet, kreativa punkter där världen konceptualiserades. Kring noderna finns en större mängd mindre koncentrationer där estetiska teman upprepats som en del i ett inmutande och markerande i av landskapet där visuella normer upprätthölls.   Avhandlingen avslutas med att hällbildernas sociala och kronologiska sammanhang diskuteras. De sydskandinaviska hällbilderna dateras vanligen till bronsåldern (1 700-500 f.kr.), och produktionen anses ha pågått från början av perioden fram till inledningen av äldre järnålder. Slutet av den aktiva hällbildstiden föreslås som den mest arkeologiskt relevanta eftersom den motsvarar landskapets lämningar. Den aktiva hällbildstidens slut präglas av relationen mellan en materialiserad bildtradition och ett omfattande bildskapande i olika material. Till skillnad från den äldre bronsålderns bildskapande, som var ikonografiskt och repetitivt, så expanderar bildens möjligheter i slutet av aktiv hällbildstid. Bildens format, material och betydelse förändras och varieras. Bilden utvecklas inte enbart i sten utan också i brons och keramik och dess betydelse går från att vara strikt ikonografisk till att bli instrumentell. Hällbilderna spelar en stor roll i utvecklingen av en ”pictoral turn” som uttrycker sociala förändringar i samhället då bronsåldern övergår i äldre järnålder. Bildskapande blir i en del i utvecklingen av ett mer heterogent och regionaliserat samhälle. / The thesis revolves around the central question of how pre-historic images were meaningful. The focus is put on the material image, with the aim to discuss the meaning of south Scandinavian rock art as a relation between materiality, people and places. The empirical focus consists of the south Scandinavian rock art tradition, with a deepened analysis of the rock art area around the river Motala Ström, in south east Sweden. Initially, a connection between the practice of illustrating rock art and the interpretation of its meaning is presented as characteristic for previous research. The ambition to depict rock art as exactly as possible, has led to an archaeological focus on depiction as the primarily meaning of the images. An outlook, consisting of a historical and theoretical perspective on images, shows that the symbolic meaning of depiction cannot be presumed as most valid per se.   The material qualities of rock are defined in relation to three levels of scale; the landscape, specific places and the rock panels. These levels constitute the materiality of rock art and cannot be separated from its meaning. The material qualities have general similarities, but they also vary from place to place. A quantitate compilation of the documented samples of rock art in perishes Östra Eneby and Borg, shows that they are structured according to a principle of variation and likeness in the landscape. The placing of rock art is studied further by a phenomenological method, which reveals the construction of visual nodes in the landscape were imagery was used in creative ways to conceptualize the world. Around these visual nodes, a vast number of small concentrations of rock art is scattered in the landscape. The small places express an attitude towards the landscape, were aesthetical themes and ideals was maintained. The end of the active production of rock art is defined as the most relevant for an archaeological study, due to the material setting of the contemporary landscape. The presence of rock art represents the final stage of production. The end of the rock art tradition is characterized by a relation between a materialized art history and an extensive practice of making images in different materials. The image is materially expanded, being made not only in stone by also in bronze and ceramics. The meaning of images is transformed, from being strictly iconographical to becoming an instrument for thought. Rock art played a major part in the development of a “pictoral turn”, which expresses social changes in the society of the late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age.

<p>This dissertation is an attempt to explain art in the 21st century by an artist/researcher. It is a theoretical writing on art informed by current discourses that influence art such as science and technology. There are two goals of this project. The first one is to understand art’s cultural role in the age of the anthropocene. What is the anthropocene? How does art’s role in society change in this particular geological epoch (following Crutzen’s definition), compared to for instance Holocene? This brings us to the second goal of my project. To better understand art’s role in society, can we benefit from a theory of art, that could present an insight on the dynamics within an artistic experience? What are the current tools and tendencies that can help form such a theory of art? Which fields can contribute to such an understanding?</p><p>As an instance of artistic research practice which involves both academic research and art practice, I will be using art projects as case studies to reach these goals. Case studies will consist of my own projects as well as projects by other artists who had been working on similar topics such as Edward Burtynsky, Chris Jordan, Louis Bec, Trevor Paglen, Patricia Piccinini and Lynn Hershmann to name a few. From Timothy Morton to Mackenzie Wark to Donna Haraway cultural theorists of our time, highlight the fact that there is a need for a cultural theory that can attend to what we might call the anthropocene. What is the contribution of art for such a theory? Or can art be instrumental in building a cultural theory at all? My dissertation offers a multi-disciplinary argument for the need to address such questions . Starting from art’s roots in biology and extending to what we might call our biological imagination, the dissertation focuses on art’s connection to biology to initiate a formula for art in the age of the anthropocene.</p> / Dissertation

(EN) Evaluation is an inextricable part of perceiving artworks and therefore it is necessary to study it. Evaluation is always an evaluation of something, it presupposes certain knowledge and idea of what is being evaluated. Evaluation presupposes conceptualization. If we want to say something about art or better of our experience of it and want to be understood and believed, we will need to study our conceptual equipment we use. This paper offers a conceptual minimum, being important, almost inevitable for the evaluation of art. All encounters with art are connected to the consideration of authorship. Concept of the author seems to be with the concept of art more then adherent. Nowadays authorship flounders between complete sovereignty and dissolution. There are theories of artworks, that leave or even protest against the connection between art and author. Art has a long tradition, but the contemporary notio of art is relatively young and conceptually very much laden. On the one side there is ignorance of its character, on the other there are tendencies to fix it forever. Man understanding art as an expression, perceives, looks for meaning and evaluates differently, then the one understands art as an institutinally given status. The manners of thinking art are decisive. The concept of art depends...

Summary: Main task of this work is to present life and work of important person of Czech culture and society at the end of the 19th century - Renáta Tyršová. The work presents the biography of this author including family relations. At the next part of the work is analyzed the work of Renáta Tyršová at the field of art criticism. At the end is described her work in context of art criticism history in Czech lands.

In this dissertation, I argue that the iconoclastic and anti-materialistic "art of living to God" is the central theoretical preoccupation of English and American Puritan intellectuals. I call attention to a wealth of previously unacknowledged writing about image, art, architecture, and form in Puritan literature, while highlighting how recent materialist analyses of Puritan culture have effectively obscured evidence of iconoclasm and anti-materialism in this milieu. In the first chapter, I explore the Puritan inheritance of John Calvin's theology of the "living image," which defines human beings as God-made pictures and greater than all images that are man-made. I explain how Puritan image theory is wedded to a theorization of the art of living to God, such that Puritan art and image theory are one and the same. The second chapter delineates various ways in which the imitation of Christ undergirds the conceptualization of "art work" in Puritanism. Here I focus on how Puritan ideas about both art and image intersect with their theorizations of happiness, shining, walking, and printing/pressing. I examine the theology of "edification" in my third chapter, probing how godly Puritans were understood to be "living architecture" and "living plants." In Chapter 4 I consider how Puritan anti-formalism contributes to and complicates Puritan art and image theory. More than anything else, a preoccupation with theorizing image, art, architecture, and form is what makes intellectual Puritanism a coherent tradition across space (England and the Netherlands to New England) and time (ca. 1560-1730). In the fifth and concluding chapter, I address an aspect of Puritan ministerial writings in which pastoral practice is defined not as art work but in terms of image curatorship and conservation. I then suggest that Puritan biographical literatures are archives or histories of artful and edificatory performativity. I argue that texts such as broadside elegies, funeral sermons, the monumental collections of lives by Samuel Clarke and Cotton Mather, and perhaps even gravestones should be understood as histories of Puritan art and architecture. / History of Art and Architecture

Orientador: Anna Paula da Silva Gouveia / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-11T01:08:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigues_LigiaLuciene_M.pdf: 12550285 bytes, checksum: 4f284662bc2db2aca73e8df0bb416bee (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo investigar a utilização da perspectiva na arte contemporânea por meio do trabalho da artista plástica brasileira Regina Silveira. Uma das preocupações foi analisar as questões que estão por trás da presença da perspectiva dentro da produção artística atual, como por exemplo, a crítica à natureza da imagem e seus meios de representação, a manipulação do ponto de vista, a simulação e a ilusão do espaço e ainda como deformação no caso das anamorfoses. Todas essas questões foram permeadas pela teoria da percepção visual e da psicologia da percepção em análises das obras da artista brasileira, seus trabalhos gráficos (desenhos e gravuras), objetos e instalações a partir do final dos anos 70 até os mais atuais, como também os chamados desenhos preparatórios e as maquetes, que são projetos nos quais a artista desenvolve as idéias de seus trabalhos e são neles que mais se percebe a manipulação da perspectiva. Também foram analisados trabalhos de outros artistas que discutiram ou discutem as mesmas questões que a artista brasileira, como por exemplo, Marcel Duchamp e Jan Dibbets. Essa análise mostrou que cada período histórico possui sua visão de mundo e uma maneira de dirigir o olhar para um determinado ponto de vista, portanto uma maneira de utilizar a perspectiva. Nos dias atuais, a subversão do olhar do espectador e, ainda, a destruição da estabilidade de sua percepção causada por essa subversão, fazem da manipulação do ponto de vista a partir do uso da perspectiva, uma atitude contemporânea no trabalho desses artistas / Abstract: This research was intended to investigate the use of perspective in contemporary art through the work of the Brazilian artist Regina Silveira. One of the concerns was the issues behind the presence of perspective within the current artistic production, for example, the critical of the image¿s nature, the resources of representation, the manipulation of viewpoint, the simulation, the space illusion and the deformation as in the case of anamorphosis. All these questions were related to the theory of visual perception and the psychology of perception in analyses of the Regina Silveira¿s work, in graphics (drawings and prints), objects and installations from the end of 70 to the current, but also the called preparatory drawings and models, that are projects in which the artist develops the ideas of their work and more if realizes the manipulation of perspective. Were also analyzed works of other artists who discussed or discuss the same issues as the Silveira, for example, Marcel Duchamp and Jan Dibbets. The analysis showed that each historical period has its vision of the world and to deal the look for a particular viewpoint, so a way to use the perspective. Nowadays, the subversion of the look of the spectator and, yet, the destruction of stability of their perception caused by such subversion, make the manipulation of viewpoint a contemporary attitude in the work of such artists / Mestrado / Mestre em Artes

Processes and forms of valuation, evaluation and valorization are important for bringing contemporary social life in order. In this thesis, I study the values of the small and autonomous avant-garde of the art-world, performance art. In art worlds, arguably, we can expect to find the most extreme cases of activities which constantly aim at transgressing existing ideas of what is valued in this world, i.e., art. Performance art is an activity that contemplates the border between art and non-art, and that as an activity contributes to the constitution of this border. My focus is on the ongoing process, which is seen in a historical light. I look at the social structure that both enables and constitutes values. I argue that this process should be understood as a convaluation (Aspers 2008), a partial order with some temporal extension that enables coordination based on valuation and evaluation processes. I find that the convaluation of performance art is characterized by a switched role structure––meaning that actors operate as both artists and curators and as such, switch from being evaluated to evaluating others. The central value that constitutes the convaluation of performance art is bodily presence.

This thesis focuses on the sale of a painting titled Portrait of Edmond de Belamy, a portrait produced by an artificial intelligence, at Christie’s auction house in New York in October 2018. The piece was created by the collective Obvious Art using the AI system Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). An art piece of this genre has never before been presented at a prestigious institution such as Christie’s. The purpose of the study is to estimate the importance of this auctioning for the Art world, based on textual analysis. Firstly, the essay will consider written articles processing the event of the auctioning by using a discourse analytic method. Secondly, the thesis will place the event into a context of art concepts, where Arthur Danto’s theories of the institutional art theory and George Dickie’s reasoning about the conferred status of art are particularly important. In addition, Stephen Davies’ theory of the concept of authority is equally essential in this part of the study. This part of the thesis also considers the historical event when Marcel Duchamp presented the urinal Fountain as art in the early 1900s. Finally, Portrait of Edmond de Belamy is analyzed using Heinrich Wölfflin’s formal analytical method. In the final discussion all parts of the study are merged, and it is argued that the sale of Portrait of Edmond de Belamy may represent a milestone for the art world, the art history and, in particular, for the AI art genre. Since Christie’s has the authority to confer art status upon objects and, based on the act of doing so regarding Portrait of Edmond de Belamy, one can see a clear change in the art history when an AI art is presented as an important piece in the art scene. On the other hand, it is also argued that it is far too early to predict what impact the auctioning will have for the future of the art history as the event is still imminent.

Over the last sixty years, overtly intertextual poems with titles such as “Poem Beginning with a Line by John Ashbery” and “Poem Ending with a Line by George W. Bush” have been appearing at an increasing rate in magazines and collections. These poems wed themselves to other texts and authors in distinct ways, inviting readers to engage with poems which are, themselves, in conversation with lines from elsewhere. These poems, which I refer to as “apprompted” poems, explicitly challenge readers to investigate the intertextual conversation, and in doing so, they adopt inherent risks. My thesis will chart the various effects these poems can have for readers and the consequences they may hold for the texts from which they borrow. Literary critics such as Harold Bloom and J. H. Miller have described the act of borrowing as competitive and parasitic—“agon” is Bloom’s term for what he sees as the oedipal anxiety of poets and poets’ texts to their antecedents, but an investigation of this emerging genre in terms of linguistic pragmatics shows that apprompted poems are performing a wider range of acts in relation to their predecessors. Unlike Bloom’s theory, which interprets the impulse of poetic creation through psychoanalysis, I employ linguistic terms from Brown and Levinson’s linguistic Politeness theory to analyze apprompted poems as conversational speech events. Politeness theory provides a useful analysis of these poems by documenting the weight of threats to the positive and negative “faces” of the participants in each poetic conversation. I have documented these “face-threatening-acts” and used them to divide apprompted poems into five major speech events: satire, revision, promotion, pastiche, and ecclesiastic. Ultimately, this paper serves at the intersection of literary criticism and linguistics, as I suggest a theoretical approach to the interpretation and criticism of apprompted poems by way of linguistic pragmatics.