Adam Loughnane (Philosophy, UCC)
Merleau-Ponty: Ecstasis, Trust and Artistic Practices as Philosophic Practices
In his writings on painting, Maurice Merleau-Ponty offers an account of artistic activity where perception functions in an ecstatic relation through which new types of vision and action are made possible. Placing his reflections on artistic practice in a philosophic context, Merleau-Ponty allows us to compare these artistic practices with the academic/philosophic practices we rely on to engage phenomenological works such as his. The ways of seeing and acting enabled in artistic activity, as Merleau-Ponty understands them, the engagement with visibility and invisibility and the attunement afforded between body and world, challenge the deeply ingrained notions of perception, doubt and understanding upon which our philosophic practices are based. If there is value in thinking with Merleau-Ponty and experimenting with his concepts and philosophy, can we do so authentically while maintaining philosophic practices which are based on the concepts he seeks to replace? If not, can the artistic practices themselves supplement or replace aspects of our philosophic practices?
Monday, November 1, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Wednesday May 26th, 6.30-8pm, O’Rahilly Building, UCC, Room 123.
Sabine Kriebel: Left-wing Humour, or, Heartfield’s Holy Hate
“Holy hate,” according to Georg Lukács, is the driving force behind penetrating social satire, its Marxist ‘holiness’ rooted in a political ethics of equity that prevents parodic forms from becoming trite or vulgar. This paper interrogates the politics of subversive laughter in John Heartfield’s AIZ photomontages, demonstrating that while his motivations might be holy in Lukács’ lexicon, his pictorial tactics are mischievously regressive, grotesque and often in bad taste. Embedded in contemporaneous theories of critical humour, this paper proposes to take Heartfield’s transgressive play seriously as a radical political tactic, shedding light on an often-overlooked aspect of interwar Marxism.
Ed Krčma: Wols, Smallness and Creaturely Life
The first post-war exhibition of German-born artist Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) consisted entirely of drawings. These tiny raw worlds, set down ‘on little scraps of paper,’ were compared by Jean-Paul Sartre to ‘pullulating viruses under a microscope.’ Rather than developing the kind of poetics of angst in relation to which Wols’ work has often been discussed, this paper offers a phenomenological reading of his drawings, taking their remarkable smallness as a starting point. Smallness in Wols is immersive and vertiginous, lending the drawings a magnitude in the imagination, as these teeming worlds are brought up arrestingly close. In thinking about the stakes of such a project for making art in a devastated post-war France, I will also briefly explore the usefulness of Eric Santner’s concept of ‘creaturely life’. For Santner, this term refers to the realm of compulsions and excitations, where the animal and human are brought into a peculiar proximity by the latter’s exposure to the exertions of sovereign power and uncanny desire.
“Holy hate,” according to Georg Lukács, is the driving force behind penetrating social satire, its Marxist ‘holiness’ rooted in a political ethics of equity that prevents parodic forms from becoming trite or vulgar. This paper interrogates the politics of subversive laughter in John Heartfield’s AIZ photomontages, demonstrating that while his motivations might be holy in Lukács’ lexicon, his pictorial tactics are mischievously regressive, grotesque and often in bad taste. Embedded in contemporaneous theories of critical humour, this paper proposes to take Heartfield’s transgressive play seriously as a radical political tactic, shedding light on an often-overlooked aspect of interwar Marxism.
Ed Krčma: Wols, Smallness and Creaturely Life
The first post-war exhibition of German-born artist Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) consisted entirely of drawings. These tiny raw worlds, set down ‘on little scraps of paper,’ were compared by Jean-Paul Sartre to ‘pullulating viruses under a microscope.’ Rather than developing the kind of poetics of angst in relation to which Wols’ work has often been discussed, this paper offers a phenomenological reading of his drawings, taking their remarkable smallness as a starting point. Smallness in Wols is immersive and vertiginous, lending the drawings a magnitude in the imagination, as these teeming worlds are brought up arrestingly close. In thinking about the stakes of such a project for making art in a devastated post-war France, I will also briefly explore the usefulness of Eric Santner’s concept of ‘creaturely life’. For Santner, this term refers to the realm of compulsions and excitations, where the animal and human are brought into a peculiar proximity by the latter’s exposure to the exertions of sovereign power and uncanny desire.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Next Session: Wednesday 31st March, 6.30-8pm, O’Rahilly Building (ORB 212).
We are now in a smaller seminar space in the O’Rahilly Building (ORB 212). For a map of the campus, please follow this link
We are pleased to welcome Mr. J.P. McMahon, who lectures for the Centre for Adult Continuing Education and is a PhD candidate with History of Art at UCC. JP has provided the following title and abstract for a talk on American artist Vito Acconci:
The Eye, the Mind, and the Disappearance of the Body: Vito Acconci, 1969-1973
This paper examines the performance/conceptual work of Vito Acconci produced between the years 1969 and 1973, and questions the relationship of the artist's performances to specific notions of the physical and material body. Though Acconci’s performances were made on, with and in the body, the resulting art was for the beholder always one for the eye or the mind rather than the body; that is to say, it affected the beholder perceptually and conceptually rather than physically. While this separation of the eye, the mind, and the body may seem somewhat reductive, it is deeply pertinent for an art historical examination of the formal and physical effects of Acconci's work on the beholder. This paper will also align Michael Fried's notion of absorption and theatricality with the art of Acconci, examining the latter in relation to Fried’s conception of the eye, the mind, and the body, which in turn were crucial to his understanding of modernism both critically and historically.
We are pleased to welcome Mr. J.P. McMahon, who lectures for the Centre for Adult Continuing Education and is a PhD candidate with History of Art at UCC. JP has provided the following title and abstract for a talk on American artist Vito Acconci:
The Eye, the Mind, and the Disappearance of the Body: Vito Acconci, 1969-1973
This paper examines the performance/conceptual work of Vito Acconci produced between the years 1969 and 1973, and questions the relationship of the artist's performances to specific notions of the physical and material body. Though Acconci’s performances were made on, with and in the body, the resulting art was for the beholder always one for the eye or the mind rather than the body; that is to say, it affected the beholder perceptually and conceptually rather than physically. While this separation of the eye, the mind, and the body may seem somewhat reductive, it is deeply pertinent for an art historical examination of the formal and physical effects of Acconci's work on the beholder. This paper will also align Michael Fried's notion of absorption and theatricality with the art of Acconci, examining the latter in relation to Fried’s conception of the eye, the mind, and the body, which in turn were crucial to his understanding of modernism both critically and historically.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Next Session: Thursday 25th February, 6.30-8pm.
figura serpentinata in Art and Poetry: A Comparative Reading of Frank O'Hara's 'In Memory of My Feelings'
Dr Sam Ladkin
Department of English, UCC
My current project seeks to revivify a critical terminology derived from the rhetoric of art of the Italian Renaissance, in particular that which surrounds the work of Michelangelo Buonarroti. This terminology illuminates, I hope, the seminal work of Frank O’Hara (1926-1966), a gay poet of the “New York School”, an art critic, curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), and a friend to many of the major artists and poets (and composers and dancers...) of the 1940s through the 1960s. The term figura serpentinata, a term attributed to Michelangelo, describes the serpent-like twist in the pose of the (male) body, and is arguably reprised in O’Hara’s seminal 'In Memory of My Feelings'. Or rather, that is what I will argue.
You are encouraged to read Frank O'Hara's 'In Memory of My Feelings' prior to this talk, mostly because it is splendid.
Dr Sam Ladkin
Department of English, UCC
My current project seeks to revivify a critical terminology derived from the rhetoric of art of the Italian Renaissance, in particular that which surrounds the work of Michelangelo Buonarroti. This terminology illuminates, I hope, the seminal work of Frank O’Hara (1926-1966), a gay poet of the “New York School”, an art critic, curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), and a friend to many of the major artists and poets (and composers and dancers...) of the 1940s through the 1960s. The term figura serpentinata, a term attributed to Michelangelo, describes the serpent-like twist in the pose of the (male) body, and is arguably reprised in O’Hara’s seminal 'In Memory of My Feelings'. Or rather, that is what I will argue.
You are encouraged to read Frank O'Hara's 'In Memory of My Feelings' prior to this talk, mostly because it is splendid.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Next Session: Thursday 28th January (6.30 – 8.00pm) in West Wing 6, UCC
Please note the change of venue – if you’re not very familiar with UCC, the room is on the western side of the main quad. This month we are very pleased to welcome Chris Clark, Curator of Education and Collections at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, who will be giving a talk on Guy Debord entitled:
Memoranda for a Series of Histories: Guy Debord and Dissimulation
Memoranda for a Series of Histories: Guy Debord and Dissimulation
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
WEDNESDAY 18th: Eye and Mind : Art and Locality - A multi-disciplinary panel discussion. CIT Crawford College 6-8pm
This is a reminder concerning this evening’s meeting of Eye and Mind, this time in association with Art Trail and the Crawford College of Art and Design. As part of the events accompanying the ArtTrail festival, a roundtable will take place in the Crawford College of Art lecture theatre on Wednesday 18th November, 6-8pm. Please note the change of time, date and venue from our usual slot at the Glucksman. The subject of the roundtable (following that of Art Trail more broadly) is ‘Locality,’ and I am delighted to announce the following participants:
Stephen Brandes is an artist whose work is particularly engaged with cartographic practices and has been described as a kind of ‘absurdist travelogue,’ combining fantastical elements with deadpan humour and dry social commentaries. Stephen represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2005.
Maureen Considine is an artist from and based in Cork, whose work uses lens based media to explore social formations in the city. Exhibiting widely, Maureen also completed a residency at the Cork Film Centre which culminated in an exhibition of new work at the Triskel Arts Centre in 2006.
Kieran Keohane is Senior Lecturer in the Sociology Department at UCC, whose research interests include the sociological analysis of urban life. His most recent book, co-authored with Carmen Kuhling, is entitled Collision Culture: Transformations in Everyday Life in Ireland (Dublin: The Liffey Press, 2004).
Each participant will deliver a short presentation on how their work relates to the issue of locality; I will then moderate a conversation between our speakers before opening the discussion out to the audience. I would also like to offer my thanks to Chris Clarke at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery for organising this great line-up of speakers – it is much appreciated.
Hope to see you there,
Ed
Stephen Brandes is an artist whose work is particularly engaged with cartographic practices and has been described as a kind of ‘absurdist travelogue,’ combining fantastical elements with deadpan humour and dry social commentaries. Stephen represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2005.
Maureen Considine is an artist from and based in Cork, whose work uses lens based media to explore social formations in the city. Exhibiting widely, Maureen also completed a residency at the Cork Film Centre which culminated in an exhibition of new work at the Triskel Arts Centre in 2006.
Kieran Keohane is Senior Lecturer in the Sociology Department at UCC, whose research interests include the sociological analysis of urban life. His most recent book, co-authored with Carmen Kuhling, is entitled Collision Culture: Transformations in Everyday Life in Ireland (Dublin: The Liffey Press, 2004).
Each participant will deliver a short presentation on how their work relates to the issue of locality; I will then moderate a conversation between our speakers before opening the discussion out to the audience. I would also like to offer my thanks to Chris Clarke at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery for organising this great line-up of speakers – it is much appreciated.
Hope to see you there,
Ed
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Thursday 22nd October in the River Room at the Glucksman Gallery, 6.30-8.00pm.
Dr. Julia Jansen, Philosophy Department, University College Cork,
will be giving a talk entitled:
“Relational and Participatory Practices: Committed Art or Art for Art’s Sake?”
will be giving a talk entitled:
“Relational and Participatory Practices: Committed Art or Art for Art’s Sake?”
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