Lists of the blogposts

Art History

Text from a 16th century as a way to destroy any sense for a modern men

The text I’ve been given to read was really hard for me to understand. It is really old-fashioned. For nowadays people the extract has several points, making it unreadable and sense-destroying.

As a person, who has some experience in writing, I know what kind for text is interesting to read. One of the main rules can be easily found by reading something. It is about sentence length. It isn’t a big new for a writer...

Gain knowledge. Keep originality

The Extract from First Discourse of art was enjoyable for me to read. It is an interesting topic about the importance of knowledge and having spacious mind. It made to think more about the school role in art.

Joshua Reynolds, the creator of text has told 4 main ideas (at least that may I’ve found for myself) in the extract...

Teaching ART. Drawing future

The “Art cannot be Taught” extract basically says the same thing could be seen in its name. Gustave Courbet literally says every artist should be his own teacher, saying art can’t be taught by others but could be learned by yourself. He argues this main statement, saying art is individual and depends on our own experience, knowledge, and interests. Also, he says an artist must...

Is it important to have a child in your art?

In “The Painter of Modern Life” extracts the author writes about an artist and modern art.

He describes M. G. as the man of the world, who have seen a lot, and who felt at home everywhere. Who was really into basic questions kids usually ask their parents about. Actually, it seems like the writer finds children's interest as one of the main driving forces for an art. What is quite interesting...

How to make a picture without drawing anything but writing

“A Man of the Crowd” is a beautifully written text even read partly as an extract. It is full of artistic descriptions making its own atmosphere of London and its people.

The plot and main idea is the writer, who follows the stranger and describing his way and observations. That’s actually is the main idea of what is this text about without looking deeply in it. The words story written with are making me feel...

Mosaic and Collage - Cubism difference

Cubism is an interesting art movement. It has lots of variations of the final look of art, which could be clearly seen in two cubism paintings made with 6 years’ difference.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon – is an artwork the cubism was born of. The creature of Pablo Picasso made in 1907. It is made with a mixture of different styles combined on one canvas. Five women are illustrated in the picture, with a different style of faces and bodies, created in different ways. Some of them...

Messy thoughts for a messy artwork

Emil Nolde’s “The Last Supper” is the Expressionist painting made in 1909, illustrating the famous Bible scene.

There is the Jesus sitting in the middle with closed eyes, and a bit opened mouth, holding in his hands something liking as glass, but I also thought it was a playing card when I’ve seen the picture for the first. There are 12 people around him, being really close to...

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Feeling and thinking of Artist and Viewer

What makes art catchier – engagement of emotions or intellect? Looking on supremacists and conceptualists art it became clear – if art requires the brain to work, it becomes more interesting.

For example, the “Ubiquitous” by Naoko Ito, that is basically are some sticks and parts of a tree in lots of cans placed together to form a branch. Firstly, it looks attractive and intriguing. Then it forces...

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The superiority of the reader

"The death of the author" by Roland Bathers says the main person in any book or text is not the author or critic, but the reader. 

In classic literature history, it was important for critics to validate their interpretation of the book by attaching it to the author's personality. By mixing authors with their pieces, critics were given powers to make the final and the only correct interpretation possible. That kind of interpretation makes no sense...

"Germania" - the piece, that put an end to the disturbing reminder of Nazi history

Germania is Hans Haacke’s piece that was located in the German Pavilion during Venice Biennale in 1993. At the entrance to the pavilion, there was a photo of Hitler, to remind people – he stood at the same place they are standing now. Above this huge photo, there was a large copy of a German coin, made out of plastic. It was placed in the same place, where the swastika and eagle were hanging before. Inside the pavilion, there was a large sign “Germania” and a destroyed floor filled with pieces of tile.

The look of the pavilion itself has been influenced by Hitler and...

The Walled Off hotel - when placing actually matters

Banksy is one of the most (at the same time least) known modern artists. Probably everyone have seen his work at least ones in the internet. And nobody knows the real name of the artist or his appearance.

Mysterious artist creates street art, and it is usually based on a features of the concrete place. For example, his work "Reading prison" depicts escaping prisoner...

Critical Writing

ART criteria. Artist and Viewer – The Difference

“Good ART must…” - How could we finish the sentence? What kind of criteria should be filled in there? Well, it depends on which position are you looking at the ART.

Let’s say there are two main positions you may look at ART: as the Artist and the Viewer. Let us start from the second one – the position most of us actually have. What are the main...

"Trapped by school" - how much can you see in the drawing?

“Trapped by School” is an artwork made by Destiny Blue, an artist from the UK who mostly make digital drawings. On the piece of art, we could see the girl sitting on the desk in front of the board. The clothes and surroundings make us think she is a student sitting in the school. The name of the art piece proves this suggestion.

Her face is sad, the pose is closed, and there is a bird’s cage drawn on the board behind her. The chalk in girl’s hand shows us...

"Ever Is Over All" Interpretation - Some ideas to disagree with

While reading “Pipilotti's Pleasure Dome” article I’ve noticed one of the biggest paragraphs are about the Ever Is Over All, so I have decided to peak this art piece as a subject of discussion.

As for me it is hard to decide what kind of two ideas I could see in it is more important and truthful, so let’s say it is both. So, in Ever Is Over All I can see the ideas of feminism, and idea of...

Studium and Punctum. Two photos

There are two photos I would like to write about. Of course, I’ve should have chosen one, but I am not sure the first photo I found “pierces my heart” with those type of feeling the punctum is about.

So, there are two photos. One of them shows the church, and women in Islamic clothes coming in, and women in Christian type of outfit coming out. Also, the church (or some other kind of Cristian building) is in a construction or restoration process. At the same time, the second photo has much fewer people in it and...

Is there an expression in the impression?

Erin Hanson’s painting of birch trees is made in impressionism way. It is really colorful and shows the atmosphere artist been in.

On the artwork, we could see some grass at the bottom, two birch trees on the right side, being really close to us, and some more birches and other kinds of trees at the background. It is also a nice turquoise-colored sky on the picture. It seems like a forest or a park, represented with love...

The arm who thought the sky is reached

Deucalion’s people is the oil painting made in 1943 by Josef Sima. It shows the landscape with some dry tree parts and peoples parts coming from the ground. It isn’t creepy but it disturbs in some way.

Going more detailed, the landscape looks like a forest, because of lots of trees and green grass with rocks, but at the same time we see it as a path – all trees are located on left and right sides of a painting, it the middle its only grass and more trees going into perspective and creating the trail. The sky is full of clouds. On the front of the painting...

Making art, not a product

There are two articles about the art in mass media, I’ve read – “The Avant-Garde and Kitsch” and “The Arts and the Mass Media”. Those texts are about “kitsch” – the type of art made by formulas, and about its role in art and society. The first one made me think “Oh, there are some issues in the modern world”, the second one turned it into “And so what?”.

I really hate blaming modern society. I could even say blaming it is popular in a way. But yet I should admire that we do have problems...

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Body and Mind

“Body and Mind” is the of the latest and the most popular paintings made by Emma Valisova von Sanger in June 2021. It is one of the 6 paintings in series about self-discovery and self-acceptance over the course of time, made with gouache colors on A2 sized paper. The “Body and Mind” is an abstraction, it looks like a number of complete solid color shapes mixed all together. The painting is made with...

Live with yourself as a postmodernism art

Live with yourself is a comic strips made by Shen Comix. It is the story about a guy, who lives with himself, himself and himself. He broke the timeline and now he lives with four versions of him from different timelines. The original character is called Todd (for today), he wears a green hoody. The second character is Tomo (for tomorrow), in a blue hoody, with stubble on his face. He is tomorrows version of Todd, so he kind of knows Todd’s future for one day, and whatever Todd do would almost immediately affect Tomo. There is also Babs – baby version of Todd, and...

KikoRiki's hidden philosophy

KikoRiki is a Russian cartoon series first made in 2004. Although it is aimed at children of 3 to 8 years old, it is known for its depth and hidden philosophy.

“God is dead” – is one of the famous citations of Nietzsche. Telling about God’s death philosopher meant religious moral is old and people need to find their own, new moral. It also means there is no life meaning given to humanity from above.
In the episode “The Meaning of Life” Wally saw no sense in anything...

Sims 4 as a reflection of social network culture

Sims 4 is the last released part of The Sims series. It is a life simulator where you create your own characters – sims, and make them go to work, raise kids, cook dinner, and do other everyday...

"White wine in the sun" as a metamodernist piece of art

Tim Minchin is a musician who is known for his sarcastic songs with atheist and scientific ideas. The song “White wine in the sun” seems to knock out of his common repertoire, since it reveals not only his opinion and jokes but also his true feelings. The way, how Tim unites incompatible things in one song seems really metamodernistic.

His scepticism and dislike for the church and the religion are really clear from most of his songs, such as “Thank you God” or “Good Book”, where he makes fun of...

Visual Cultures

Ways of Seeing, Episode one. Notes

Tradition of European painting ~1400-1900

"Way we see them in 20th century, as nobody saw before" (photos of paintings?)

Process of seeing is not spontaneous.

Describes how the eye works and also similar how a camera works

We can see things at one place -> changed with the camera invention

The way only camera can see things...

My art and Japanese culture

Here you may see a part of my comics, made about my life in my own world that also intersects with the real one. I have come up with that the idea when I was 15, so I have decided to create an ideal world with no politics, no sex, and no violence, and place in it characters who represent me and my friends. I have decided to tell a story of my life, and then, when I started to face problems, I have understood it will be hard to make an interesting story in the utopia, so some problems were introduced into the story by adding...

Ways of Seeing - the idea

The first episode of “Ways of Seeing” is explaining how the way of how people see and understand paintings was changed after photography invention. Starting from the second part of the 20^th century an ability to see art in the way, nobody could before, was gained.

Originally paintings had their own place, they were created to be in. Sometimes artworks were pats of building, or of the interior. The man should have been gone to a concrete place with a concrete...

Communication with pop and niche culture

Nowadays almost everyone has pages on some social networks. So, it was an easy and obvious choice to surround myself only with stuff I am interested in or I might be interested in, and by friends with the same taste. That is how almost all information received became a piece I would like to see. That data space creates a false feeling – most people share the same interests and point of view as do I. All I like feels as popular culture in the niche culture space I have created. That is an internet false pop culture trap...

LG company advert

LG company is specialized in different devises and appliances. Usually, their adverts are colourful and dynamic, such as illustrations of abilities of the new TV screen. LG Optimus 3D advert repeats this dynamic style in a still picture.

The clear denotation locates on the right side of the picture – people (women, men and a child) in black and white clothes in unusual...

Sarah Andersen and her art

Sarah Andersen is known by her comics, especially by Sarah’s Scribbles. In her art, she is illustrating her own life, thoughts and some funny moments. Is there is something, that could call her work feminist? Well, yes.

The first thing to mention, is her characters look pretty same no matter sex. While most of the people are drawing women with some specific attractive features, such as big eyes, thin body, small waist, with long hair and in clothes that would emphasize the body figure, Sarah doesn’t stress the sex of the character. Of course, mostly it is understandable because of...

Mother's ugly heart

In Ukraine, Kramatorsk town, there is a monument called “The mother's heart”. It is made with granite, in the form, that should remind heart. The statue stands on the pedestal, with a little poem about mother, made with some general phrases as “Mother is snow, the mother is an autumn leaf” and “mother is serenity, happiness and beauty”. In the middle of the monument, there is a tetrahedral prism with photos of children of different nations. Five arcs around it are connected in the middle and should symbolize...

Effect in 26.04

26.04 is the date of international Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day, and also it is the name for the song made by Noize MC. It is dedicated to Chernobyl accident, and to some other tragical events, including coronavirus.

The interesting effect is shown during the whole music video – alive photos. Probably most of them are actual photos, with cut original foreground and specially captured or replenished original background, to make an effect of still photo with changeable perspective (pic 1). Some other examples apparently are...

About Image Circle

In the image circle there was a specific strategy - to post an image, that would associate with the last one posted.

The first connection was pretty simple; it was the reaction on the famous scene from Hayao Miyazaki's animated movie – My Neighbor Totoro. On the picture, there is two girls (one holding another) and a big fluffy creature...

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How to see the world. Summary

Visual culture is not only visible content made during human history, such as paintings or movies, but also relation between visible things, given names, and invisible concepts related to the piece or direction, such as feelings or experience. The concept of visual culture as a specific area of study appeared after Cold War, in a period of vital change, when politicians were not confident, and cyberspace started to influence real world. Ways and especially places to perceive art have changed in past...

Manipulating paintings meaning using sounds and visual effects

Examples of niche and mainstream cultures

As an example of mass and niche culture, I've chosen two pretty similar games in their idea. Both of them are based on the "Mafia" board game, and basically have the same circumstances in the beginning - there is a team that needs to do something to survive. But one or several members of this team are betrayers and want to kill everybody else. So the team should figure out who is the traitor and kill them before they got killed themselves.

Both games are really alike, but Among Us is much easier to play because of...

Mother's ugly heart - update

Mother's heart located in Kramatorsk, Ukraine was already described in previous blog post, including its material, placement and concerns. Several ideas were suggested on how this monument could be changed. But it was two years ago, and there is something new to be shared.

An interesting replacement might be a play area or a playground, made in a shape of anatomical human heart. It might be easer a cage...

Updates hate

"Diss on updates" made by Russian blogger sndk, is a video-clip with rap song that praises nostalgia for 00's and denies necessity of updates. Video starts with a short story of three guys getting in contact with each other. The first hero named Sienduk was sitting at home at the computer, when it got blue screen of death, so he called his friend Poperechny, who have been making photos on his "Nokia" mobile phone, and purposed to go to the computer club together. Poperechny called another guy, who have been making...

Aesthetic? Nostalgia? Both.

"Terrorist of love" and "NO PURPOSE" are music videos created by keren cytter. Their music style is very different, but they share the same atmosphere of the early internet and create nostalgic feelings.

At first, when looking at the videos, it might be hard to understand what is nostalgic about them. They might look a bit strange and may be uncomfortable. But there is a clear reference to videos, websites and the general taste of users of the internet at the...

How to turn yourself into meme

Research Specification

Research specification update

During the break between the semester, I’ve managed to visit my school and to make a quiz inside there. Unfortunately, I had only one day, before the holidays, so I only managed to ask around 80 people or even less instead of 200 as planned. As one of the reasons – the principal allowed me to...

Zine as a post-modern art piece

Since I am still not sure how exactly will I interpret my research, there might be several theoretical concepts. But I would like to focus on the one concrete interpretation I find most interesting – zine. Most of the zines I’ve seen had only illustrations on one topic attached together as a small book, while I would like to make it a real magazine, with articles, games, letters, posters and maybe comics. It should mimic kids' magazines but on the punishments and...

It's gonna be a sculpture! No! A book! Wait, forget it. Zine. It will be zine!

My original idea of a sculpture has changed into a book with illustrations and then into a zine, so my original timeline is destroyed.

At first, I planned to make a sculpture with papier mashe, so it required from me to gain some knowledge on the topic, to get the needed materials. I’ve been making papier mashe in primary school, so I have some ideas about how it is done, but definitely don’t remember what amount of materials I need, and how exactly it is done. Plus, I don’t know how to make...

Coming all together

My project was changed several times from the very beginning. At first, I wanted to make a story out of drawings kids would make. Then, I decided to place drawings and stories as a final coat on papier mashe, and that was my suggestion during last semester. When this semester started, I changed my idea again. I wanted to make a comic book inspired by data I’ve collected, but it would take a huge amount of effort and I time I simply wasn’t prepared for. So my idea transformed into...

Professional Practice

Where do I see myself in 3 years?

Honestly, I have no idea where do I see myself in 3 years. I can’t even imagine finding myself a job and being a real adult. Before I was planning to get one more education as a teacher in Russia and have practice in one of my favourite schools at the same time, but now it seems nearly impossible. I thought I finally got a plan that leads to my dreams and I know what to do in my life but no more.

Since I don’t know Czech, I probably would not be able to find a job here and stay in this country. So I was thinking about...

Why my research is different?

As for my research project I've asked children in the Russian school in Dubai how they were punished, how trustful their relationships with parents are and do they think the punishment is a necessity. I chose this topic because I wanted to be a teacher, so I've read lots of books about teaching and raising children and seen lots of surveys on the topic. Some of them show the inefficiency of punishments as a motivational method, and another explains...

Artist and personal website

Nowadays being online is really important. If one does not have their page on social media - it is almost like they do not truly and completely exist. It definitely refers to artists as well. Even if their work does not fit properly into the virtual space, they still should have some kind of representation online. Most internet users spend their time on social media, so for artists, it is extremely important to have an account on TikTok, Instagram...

How to find a perfect grant?

There are several aspects I may focus on while choosing a grant for my project. The main one is about its form – since I am making a zine, I can find something about supporting individual printing projects. Secondly, it is about raising children, so if there are some grants that would like to provide money for people, who would like to artistically illustrate important topics, it also would be a great opportunity. But I really doubt there is...

Convincing myself to stop missing my opportunities

For some reason I was and actually still am really scared of adult life. That’s fun and sad since I AM an adult! Finding a real job, going on interviews, finding a flat to live in, paying taxes, and all this adult stuff makes me extremely anxious and horrified about my future life, so I am trying to avoid this topic.

Maybe that’s because I suffered from depression and social phobia since high school, and started to get meds only about a year ago, and I still have some of my old fears...

Timeline and Budget updates

I started to work on this project in last semester, since back then I’ve made an idea, and during the winter holidays I collected data from kids in Russian School. It took me some time to finalize my idea about what am I planning to do and to make the whole project. And that’s why I am a bit concerned about the timeline. Should I write down all the steps of zine creations or just the ones I will need to do after the grant application? Should I keep the gaps in my calendar, or should I...

What has changed

During this semester I’ve discovered plenty of new information and faced my fears. I finally made myself a CV and discovered how it should be done. I’ve never before heard about grants, but now I know there is this opportunity and how can I apply for it. Also, the project itself showed me the path I would like to follow, and the type of content I would really enjoy making during my life. It shows me how can find myself in magazines and...

Other

Interview with phinlana_ll

Julia Chubarova, known as phinlana_ll is a 21 years old artist, famous in the community of “Metal Family” cartoon lovers. Mostly she creates fan-comics with characters of the original cartoon and posts it on Instagram¹ and in her own group² in the vk.com social network. Comics are made in Russian and translated into English and Spanish.

In the interview, she shares her...

"Inside Out" blacked-out image