Part 3, project 3 – contextual focus, relationship with materiality

We’re asked here to think about materiality, a word I’ve only recently come to terms with, and to consider Lange-Berndt’s question about what it means to give agency to material, to follow it and act with it [see reference below]. My initial response is to reject the idea that I give agency to my materials. I choose them after all so I make the first choice as to which class of medium is going to go on stage, as it were. But that isn’t the whole story because I have discovered that, exactly as with writing, while I may have … Continue reading Part 3, project 3 – contextual focus, relationship with materiality

Part 4, research point 1

Angela de la Cruz – is there anyone who isn’t a Goldsmiths graduate? With a background in philosophy, de la Cruz got her BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths in 1994, then an MA in sculpture and critical theory from the Slade. In this exhibition she ‘mangle[s] the stretcher’, to ‘unleash [the work] into three-dimensional space’. I wish I could find this kind of work interesting but unless I know what it’s trying to say, it just passes me by. Novel idea but if it isn’t speaking to someone who would like to hear from it, how can it be … Continue reading Part 4, research point 1

Psychology and/of art

As university blogs (learning logs) are transitory creatures, this will be the permanent home of links to research papers originating in psychology and having relevance to art. This is about pseudo-hallucinations (vivid mental imagery) and Ganzflicker. Pseudo-hallucinations: why some people see more vivid mental images than others – test yourself here (theconversation.com) Cognitive flexibility, IQ, and creativity. IQ tests can’t measure it, but ‘cognitive flexibility’ is key to learning and creativity (theconversation.com) How context (a museum) affects your appreciation of art. BPS Research Digest Feb 2015. Why colour shifted abstracts are less attractive than the original (they used a Delaunay … Continue reading Psychology and/of art