Category: Videos

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John Berger, ‘Ways of Seeing’

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

John Berger’s YouTube series, Ways of Seeing. From 1972. I can’t recall who recommended his video series but it predates this course. I watched over a lunchtime bowl of soup, slightly taken aback at the age of them and the brown/beige 1970s feel of them. They looked like the early days of the Open University, all kipper ties and heavy-lidded 5 am students figuring out Plato. So it came as a shock to hear him speaking about the role of women in art as if he were a contemporary of Mary Beard; calling out the male gaze for what it … Continue reading John Berger, ‘Ways of Seeing’

Research & Reflection, Videos2 Comments

Blurred Lines: inside the art world

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Blurred Lines: inside the art world. Netflix 2017 I found this simultaneously shocking and depressingly predictable. As in so many other areas, creatives become patronised by powerful others whose money opens the doors of galleries, museums, and collectors’ basements or vaults. After watching this, I felt grubby and no longer knew what ‘good’ art is because somehow it seems to be bound up in a rigmarole of taste and power that may have nothing to do with quality. There’s also the inevitable male gaze – whether directed to the subject of the art or the artist him or herself – … Continue reading Blurred Lines: inside the art world

Research & Reflection, VideosLeave a comment

Abstract: the art of design – a Netflix series

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYaq2sWTWAA Trailer for the 2017 Netflix series. Accessed 8th August 2019. This is a documentary series featuring designers/architects/artists operating in different commercial arenas. It’s easy to imagine that slick, polished adverts, stark photographic portraits, or magazine front covers, just get there through some act of private genius. But even though extraordinary talent is clearly a factor, so also is a work ethic that requires constant exploration of what’s required, rehearsal of skills, inquiry, and intellectual framing of the problem to be solved. These are people who don’t wait for the ideas to come, they create the environment to maximise those … Continue reading Abstract: the art of design – a Netflix series