RE: [-empyre-]from Renate on a quiet Ithaca morning / From Alice on awarm Rio evening
Hi Alice
Just to say more about the concept of "Critical Fusion"
We talked about this point before and here is a comment by Tim the I added
some more details. Of course as a metaphor, critical fusion directly apply
to nuclear matter. It applies to your work if they are somehow a real fusion
of information/fiction and reality.
The previous discussion:
***
>I'm very interested in your notion of "critical fusion" as something
>that refers metaphorically referring to the atom (critical mass + atom
>fusion) as something close to explosion, producing the maximum of
>energy-. It might be argued by many that such critical fusion is
>inherent in art, as something naturally explosive, like the atom,
>waiting to be unleashed.
Critical Fusion as a concept belongs mostly to the physical space, the so
called "real world", the one that is not built initially with symbolic
purposes. What I call in French "Fusion critique" (not so different...) is
about entering the social, physical, architectural space with some insider
symbolic inputs that make it more understandable, that help deciphering it,
unveiling undercover aspects of our daily life (as far as we can:-). Let say
it is the opposite of framed art, set inside galleries, inside museums,
boxes: preserved inside boxes, inside boxes close to the confining envelope
on Chernobyl reactor (tribute to Alice) attempting to limit the impact of
art confining it in the sphere of exquisite and delicate mental disorders.
***
Maurice
-----Message d'origine-----
De : empyre-bounces@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
[mailto:empyre-bounces@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] De la part de Alice Miceli
Envoyé : vendredi 21 septembre 2007 01:41
À : soft_skinned_space
Objet : Re: [-empyre-]from Renate on a quiet Ithaca morning / From Alice on
awarm Rio evening
Hi Renate,
That is a very interesting question. Concerning the social/political
"fallout" on actual viewers - actual viewers being, so far, the blog
online visitors or people who attended presentations of the ongoing
process of the project (since it is not done yet, as a matter of
fact, it is only beginning): it has helped, even if to a narrow
extent, to raise awareness and debate towards nuclear energy and its
consequences, and hopefully it will be able to contribute more -
visibility, again, being the central keyword in this discussion. It
has and will be doing this, so I hope, mainly by means of its formal,
conceptual, elaboration - in a quest to create specific images of
particular places. Images that can bear the full presence of what has
taken place in their locations, created in specific ways that intend
to expose their particularities in the very way the images themselves
are generated. As you mentioned the "reality of Chernobyl's site in
its presence and in its history", it seems to me that, beyond being
history, beyond being a historic disastrous event, it is also
"present", as it will sadly remain a catastrophic situation for
hundred of years.
I am not very familiar with the concept of "critical fusion", please
let me know with I have answered this in a totally crazy direction,
like not answering it at all / or if there are further points that
you would like to discuss. Thanks.
Alice
On Sep 18, 2007, at 7:05 PM, Renate Terese Ferro wrote:
>
>
> I?ve been reading ?empyre posts furiously these last few weeks
> between an
> intense teaching schedule so I?ve been lurking more than I have been
> writing but I wanted to ask Alice and Maurice to respond to a
> couple of
> items in their posts on this unusually quiet morning in Ithaca:
>
> First to Alice: I'm fascinated by the juxtaposition between the
> reality of
> your interventions at Chernobyl, the photographic traces of your
> work, the
> blog entries and then finally the reception of the viewers to all
> of this.
> The resonance between the reality of the Chernobyl site (both the
> presence of the site and its history) and its traces must produce some
> degree of "critical fusion" for the viewers to your project. What
> is the
> social/political ?fallout? of your project on actual viewers? Do your
> images or blog entries stir up narratives of the event?those
> narratives if
> they exist must contain a blend of fact and fiction given the
> resonances
> of memory.
>
> And to Maurice: Earlier this month we talked about the affects that
> our
> artistic work might have sociologically or politically on the
> viewer. I
> was wondering if you could comment on real life examples (in
> regards to
> your use of ?critical fusion?) for example how our government or any
> other social institution for that matter constructs situations or
> events
> fusing reality and fiction for its own motives. You do the same by
> constructing politically charged events within the VR archtiecture.
> Is there a reasonance between the two--Reality and VR-- and how so?
>
> I?ve been reading ?empyre posts furiously these last few weeks
> between a
> pretty intense teaching schedule so I?ve been lurking more than I have
> been writing but I wanted to ask Alice and Maurice to respond to a
> couple
> of items in their posts on this unusually quiet morning in Ithaca:
>
> First to Alice: I'm fascinated by the juxtaposition between the
> reality of
> your interventions at Chernobyl, the photographic traces of your
> work, the
> blog entries and then finally the reception of the viewers to all
> of this.
> The resonance between the reality of the Chernobyl site (both the
> presence of the site and its history) and its traces must produce some
> degree of "critical fusion" for the viewers to your project. What
> is the
> social/political ?fallout? of your project on actual viewers? Do your
> images or blog entries stir up narratives of the event?those
> narratives if
> they exist must contain a blend of fact and fiction given the
> resonances
> of memory.
>
> And to Maurice: Earlier this month we talked about the affects that
> our
> artistic work might have sociologically or politically on the
> viewer. I
> was wondering if you could comment on real life examples (in
> regards to
> your use of ?critical fusion?) for example our how a government or any
> other institution for that matter constructs situations or events
> fusing
> reality and fiction for its own ulterior motives.
>
> There are so many recent examples but in some of the work I?ve been
> doing
> for my project "Panic Hits Home" I appropriate public service
> announcements from government sources that fuse fiction and reality
> for
> ordinary citizens In the case of the Cold War, the US government
> contracted major Hollywood studios to produce short films that were
> designed to educate and inform a certain demographic of the
> population.
> One of my favorite examples is a short film designed for businesses
> produced in the early 1950's. The message of the film was that in
> case of
> nuclear war a business could survive by microfiching all of the
> business
> records then storing these records in a safe place away from an
> urban area
> where the likelihood of a nuclear bomb may be less. After the
> fallout the
> business owner and the workers could reenter from their shelter,
> retrieve
> the safe records and reconstruct business again!
>
> Or perhaps I can site another current day example shortly after
> 9/11 when
> the government encouraged citizens to prepare for a possible airborne
> infiltration by sealing off a room with duct tape and plastic and
> using
> the website of the Office of Homeland Security to inform citizens
> on how
> to go about doing this.
>
> Thanks so much again to both Alice and Maurice.
>
> Renate
> Thanks so much again to both Alice and Maurice.
>
> Renate
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
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