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
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