tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/acmi-18485/articles
ACMI – The Conversation
2024-03-01T01:15:46Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222498
2024-03-01T01:15:46Z
2024-03-01T01:15:46Z
‘An odd work that has borne the brunt of my grief’: the serenity and the grit of Stanislava Pinchuk’s The Theatre of War
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579075/original/file-20240301-26-i9mxdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C1908%2C1072&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Theatre of War video still, Stanislava Pinchuk, image courtesy of the artist.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Through a nuanced exploration of place, time, and memory, a new video work invites audiences to reflect on landscape and its relationship to the echoes of conflict. </p>
<p>Stanislava Pinchuk’s three-channel installation The Theatre of War uses a diverse range of performers, people and locations, interlacing the introductory passages of Homer’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-homers-iliad-80968">The Iliad</a> across three films which contend with grief, memory and place.</p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-homers-iliad-80968">Guide to the classics: Homer's Iliad</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>A compelling story</h2>
<p>Pinchuk is a Ukrainian-Australian artist who grew up in Melbourne and now resides in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her body of work traces the shifting topographic landscapes of war zones across the world. Her pieces range from large-scale <a href="https://stanislavapinchuk.com/artwork/thewinedarksea/">sculpture</a> to <a href="https://stanislavapinchuk.com/artwork/fallout/">data-maps</a> and <a href="https://stanislavapinchuk.com/artwork/sarcophagus/">tapestries</a>, and incorporate drawing, film, tattoo and installation.</p>
<p>At the launch event for this new work on display at ACMI, Pinchuk spoke compellingly of the time the work took to compose, the support she received, and the grief that surrounded it. Commissioned in 2019, the making of The Theatre of War was interrupted by the COVID pandemic, and deeply inflected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Headshot" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579076/original/file-20240301-18-ci71uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Artist Stanislava Pinchuk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Hartley</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Describing the piece as “an odd work that has borne the brunt of my grief”, Pinchuk shared memories of months in combat training with the Ukrainian army, where she and the soldiers would spend one minute of silence each day for those who had died. </p>
<h2>A carefully constructed sonic world</h2>
<p>In the darkened exhibition space, we sit facing three screens with three films in different locations and contexts. </p>
<p>In a Sarajevo theatre, six female performers in traditional costume take their seats on a stage. At the tomb of Homer on the island of Ios, a long path to a craggy isthmus overlooks the Mediterranean, where two young people perch on the rocky bluff. In a remote and destroyed village in the United Kingdom, masked and armed Ukrainian soldiers engage in very realistic combat training: boots, guns and all. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A carving of Homer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579077/original/file-20240301-20-vld2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Theatre of War video still, Stanislava Pinchuk, image courtesy of the artist.</span>
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<p>Each film has its own discrete audio which makes for random or purposeful intersection. The soldiers, in full battle gear, run drills, shouting to clear rubble-filled rooms and firing off automatic weapon rounds as the choir’s singing swells and the wind gusts. Ammunition and cartridge cases clink as the opening lines of the Iliad – “Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles, Peleus’ son!” – are repeated in text and voice across the three screens: from a smiling chorister and then like a radio broadcast to the soldiers as they move through the destroyed landscape. </p>
<p>At times the films synchronise sets of still, detailed images: discarded bullet casings in the dust, a nose ring, a kneeling soldier. Long fingernails holding a mobile phone, a laughing singer, the metal discs of her head piece dangling. A shoe, a necklace, a freighter in the blue mist. The work builds to a sonic crescendo as the sounds of sirens and songs intersect with the bluster of automatic weapon fire echoing across the concrete bunker. At Homer’s grave, the scene is an azure, infinite sea.</p>
<h2>Storytelling at the heart</h2>
<p>The Theatre of War is rich, resonant and thoughtful. There is an essence of storytelling at its heart which coheres the work, reminiscent of Pinchuk’s interest in Homer’s universal, timeless themes of migration, battle, loss and yearning.</p>
<p>At times, extreme closeups of lines and wrinkles on hands and lips remind us of the resilience and the frailty of the body in war. There is a potent metaphor of landscape in the work: as a geographic descriptor, certainly, but also as a container for memory, and as a way to think about the terrain of bodies. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Women singing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579078/original/file-20240301-30-33gtfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Theatre of War video still, Stanislava Pinchuk, image courtesy of the artist.</span>
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<p>There is something vulnerable and arresting about the faces, hands and legs in the work, which are variously marked, lipsticked, wrinkled or pierced. We are reminded of the traces that life leaves on our bodies, as well as the traces through time from ancient stories of war to modern, horrific ones: how innocent people become, as Homer describes, “the spoil for dogs and birds of every kind”. </p>
<p>I am struck by my own inadequate set of understandings as I view this work. I feel lucky, privileged, deeply moved. I notice my attention to the details, the physical bodies, the half hidden bits and pieces, but also the challenge established by the artist in the creation of three films viewed concurrently. Where do I look, and for how long? What is important? What might I miss?</p>
<p>Pinchuk has created a work which is somehow serene and gritty in equal measure. A meditation on memory and sadness, it considers, with compassion and courage, the ways in which places bear witness to history. The Theatre Of War asks us, compels us, to look.</p>
<p><em>Stanislava Pinchuk: The Theatre of War is at ACMI, Melbourne, until June 9.</em></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-russia-ukraine-war-has-caused-a-staggering-amount-of-cultural-destruction-both-seen-and-unseen-221082">The Russia-Ukraine War has caused a staggering amount of cultural destruction – both seen and unseen</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Hunter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Through a nuanced exploration of place, time, and memory, this new video work invites audiences to reflect on landscape and its relationship to the echoes of conflict.
Kate Hunter, Senior Lecturer in Art and Performance, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/215877
2023-11-28T01:02:04Z
2023-11-28T01:02:04Z
Marshmallow Laser Feast at ACMI is a sumptuous visual feast – but something is missing
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561991/original/file-20231127-19-mddbin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3994%2C2658&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eugene Hyland/ACMI</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In my office, someone has pinned a cartoon in which two dogs consider an abstract sculpture on a plinth. As he strokes his chin one of them asks, “Yes, but is it food?”.</p>
<p>ACMI’s Marshmallow Laser Feast: Works of Nature is most definitely food. </p>
<p>This exhibition featuring artworks by London-based experiential art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast is sumptuous, a feast for eyes and ears at the technological bleeding edge of audio-visual practice. With its swirling murmurations of atoms, cells, blood platelets and gravitational forces, it is straightforwardly beautiful.</p>
<p>We are immersed from the moment we begin our descent into the vault of ACMI’s project hall. On the first landing is a portrait ratio image projected flush with the architecture and populated with flowing, bifurcating veins that break like dandelion blossoms to disperse. </p>
<p>Text from the poetry of Daisy Lafarge fades up and down between images. Linking each space, wall panels of Lafarge’s writing offer us a counterpoint to the didactic panels. The projection is accompanied by sound somewhere between breath and wind in the trees, an analogy central to an exhibition so focused on the breathing, pulsing dimension of all that lives.</p>
<p>Lafarge’s text is memorably recited into our ear in the meditation room by video art go-to Cate Blanchett (see her ongoing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOA6ramO1aw">collaboration</a> with Julian Rosefeldt). Blanchett has shown great generosity to artists and lends a gravitas and humanity to all she touches. </p>
<p>No exception, this ten-minute experience lounging in bean bags sets the tone, gearing us down to the required contemplative tempo.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/light-works-from-the-tates-collection-honours-the-body-and-its-sensations-this-is-art-which-is-meant-to-be-felt-184162">Light: Works from the Tate's Collection honours the body and its sensations – this is art which is meant to be felt</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>United by sound</h2>
<p>Sound is a vital feature of the installation. </p>
<p>Crackles, creaks, drippings, fizzes, distant reverberant booms and rushing fluid sounds suffuse and unite the space, contributing to the sense of interiority established by the dark subterranean setting.</p>
<p>At times, though, I found myself slightly troubled by the score. Recurrent throughout the exhibition are the smeared synth pads and soothing, never resolving harmonic progressions of massage therapy rooms. This fairly screams calm and slightly cheapens the installation.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561999/original/file-20231127-27-gygexi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A tree projection." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561999/original/file-20231127-27-gygexi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561999/original/file-20231127-27-gygexi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561999/original/file-20231127-27-gygexi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561999/original/file-20231127-27-gygexi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561999/original/file-20231127-27-gygexi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561999/original/file-20231127-27-gygexi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561999/original/file-20231127-27-gygexi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The motif ‘as above, so below’ replays throughout the exhibition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eugene Hyland/ACMI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Next to the meditation room is a towering projection of a Colombian kapok tree. The camera slowly circumnavigates this buttressed giant as the naturalistic image transforms into a 3D scan reminiscent of <a href="https://www.gim-international.com/content/news/point-clouds-photogrammetry-or-lidar">photogrammetric point-cloud images</a> showing the flow of oxygen and nutrients within the tree. </p>
<p>A black mirror at the foot of the projection extends us further underground and compounds the “as above, so below” motif recurring throughout the exhibition.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561995/original/file-20231127-19-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People stare at large screens with red." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561995/original/file-20231127-19-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561995/original/file-20231127-19-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561995/original/file-20231127-19-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561995/original/file-20231127-19-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561995/original/file-20231127-19-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561995/original/file-20231127-19-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561995/original/file-20231127-19-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oxygen flows into swimming, hurrying platelets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eugene Hyland/ACMI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mirrored floors also feature in the third space where diagonally opposed screens are accompanied by the rushing sound of water, muted in its upper frequencies, emphasising our interior perspective. </p>
<p>Oxygen flows into swimming, hurrying platelets which move like plankton, fish or flocking birds as we travel inside our own bodies. These dots, whether acting cells, atoms or droplets, provide a delightful flip between 2D and 3D. A skeleton is revealed as we shift from micro to macro, up and out, and form is conjured out of air.</p>
<p>In the fourth space we loll on more of the comfortable furnishings provided throughout, as these eddying dots take us down and further down to our cell’s engine room, conjured here as a literal furnace.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561997/original/file-20231127-21-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People look at a projection above." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561997/original/file-20231127-21-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561997/original/file-20231127-21-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561997/original/file-20231127-21-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561997/original/file-20231127-21-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561997/original/file-20231127-21-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561997/original/file-20231127-21-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561997/original/file-20231127-21-h9xkjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We loll on the comfortable furnishings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eugene Hyland/ACMI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>It tells, it doesn’t ask</h2>
<p>After a room of prints, we travel into illustrations of cosmological phenomena. </p>
<p>While I appreciate the design conceit that led to this decision in an exhibition replete with mirror motifs, aesthetically, it did seem a little tacked on relative to the very unified earlier rooms. It was also the first use of interactivity, a type of chase-the-mouse atom cloud which failed to meet the grandeur of much of the rest of the work.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562000/original/file-20231127-17-u4bhej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A girl in a VR headset." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562000/original/file-20231127-17-u4bhej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562000/original/file-20231127-17-u4bhej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562000/original/file-20231127-17-u4bhej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562000/original/file-20231127-17-u4bhej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562000/original/file-20231127-17-u4bhej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562000/original/file-20231127-17-u4bhej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562000/original/file-20231127-17-u4bhej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Moments of interactivity don’t match the grandeur of the rest of the work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eugene Hyland/ACMI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, we encounter another scanned tree, a sequoia. After vertiginous tilting and thunderous rumblings, we head up the tree and inside its glowing heart, a transcendent moment in which we are shown once again all in nature is in flow and flux.</p>
<p>The appearance of birdsong here is a delight and a welcome change from the massaging synth; a sombrely cinematic harmonic sequence which stands out among the rest of the music.</p>
<p>The exhibition is most definitely a spectacular achievement for ACMI and the many (many!) people it took to pull this all together (witness the pages of credits in the final room). Works of Nature, however, sits firmly within the museological remit of ACMI and is distinct from the far more open, ambiguous and troubling works ACMI also commissions. Works of Nature is clearly in the business of knowledge transfer: it tells, it doesn’t ask. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562002/original/file-20231128-21-mddbin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A body in front of blue lights." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562002/original/file-20231128-21-mddbin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562002/original/file-20231128-21-mddbin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562002/original/file-20231128-21-mddbin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562002/original/file-20231128-21-mddbin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562002/original/file-20231128-21-mddbin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562002/original/file-20231128-21-mddbin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562002/original/file-20231128-21-mddbin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This is information design, rather than art at its more ambiguous, troubling task.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eugene Hyland/ACMI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As was eloquently stated by Ersin Han Ersin, the director of Marshmallow Laser Feast, in his opening remarks at the launch, here art’s role was to make us feel something: feel the significance and wonder of our inescapable entanglement with the entirety of the biosphere. </p>
<p>It achieved this most certainly, but I was left with the impression that this was information design – rather than art at its more ambiguous, troubling task.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vivid-sydney-contemporary-art-or-just-a-bright-night-out-41957">Vivid Sydney: contemporary art – or just a bright night out?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215877/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Redfern does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
London-based experiential art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast’s Works of Nature is clearly in the business of knowledge transfer: it tells, it doesn’t ask.
Dominic Redfern, Associate Professor, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/203930
2023-04-19T05:48:20Z
2023-04-19T05:48:20Z
ACMI’s Goddess asks us rethink our gaze – and the bias it contains – when we look upon women on the screen
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521765/original/file-20230419-19-zlj6co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4493%2C2984&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">ACMI's Goddess: Power, Glamour, Rebellion. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eugene Hyland Photography</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The most fascinating aspect of screen museum ACMI’s new exhibition <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/goddess/">Goddess: Power, Glamour, Rebellion</a>, and the major contribution it makes, is the way it generates fresh understandings of women on screen, including in relation to Australia. </p>
<p>Goddess has been in planning for five years, celebrating 120 years of women and the moving image. Curated in Australia by Bethan Johnson for ACMI, the museum will eventually travel it globally. </p>
<p>Geena Davis and her institute on <a href="https://seejane.org">Gender in the Media</a> are the perfect partners for the new show; not only because Davis is a screen goddess herself, but because of her leadership. Gender in the Media is a research and advocacy organisation which looks at the representation of gender and sexuality, race, disability, age and body types on screen.</p>
<p>“You cannot be what you cannot see” frames not just the mission of Davis’ institute, but points to the key message of the show: the power and significance of representation. </p>
<p>The exhibition features cinematic moments, iconic costumes, sketches, posters, photographs, magazines and interactive experiences. You can even make a goddess image of yourself to take home.</p>
<p>Stars we ordinarily think of as goddesses are showcased, such as Marilyn Monroe, Pam Grier and Davis in clips and costumes of their iconic roles. </p>
<p>But the show also asks audiences to rethink what a “goddess” might be understood to be, do and mean.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/where-are-the-women-scientists-tech-gurus-and-engineers-in-our-films-70032">Where are the women scientists, tech gurus and engineers in our films?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Aussie goddesses</h2>
<p>Curators draw their inspiration and vision from the culture within which they operate. The exhibition, therefore, has something to say about – or from – this country and its talent.</p>
<p>The Australian lens shaping the selection, presentation and commentary about characters, stories and experiences is initially invoked by the soundscapes created by Melbourne-based composer, DJ and musician Chiara Kickdrum. </p>
<p>This continues further inside, in a darkened room where audiences see a montage of clips of stars speaking at awards and events about industry ageism, sexism, racism, advocacy for women and female courage. First Nations filmmaker Leah Purcell, in full regalia at the AACTA awards, says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s truth telling that this country needs to hear [so] we can move to the future with better understanding of who we are as a nation. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0SesIaGZIec?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Elsewhere, the exhibition features “Fearless Nadia” (Mary Ann Evans), an Australian actor who became Bollywood’s leading stunt woman in the 1930s, swinging from chandeliers, leaping from speeding trains and taming lions. She was one of the earliest female leads of Hindi cinema.</p>
<p>Australian Hollywood costume designer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orry-Kelly">Orry-Kelly</a> won three Academy Awards and the show includes the iconic costume he created for Marilyn Monroe for Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959). </p>
<p>In the book that accompanies the exhibition, a quote from Monroe gives an insight into being typecast by her body: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am tired of the same old sex roles. I want to do better things. People have scope, you know. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The body of the goddess</h2>
<p>A key element of this exhibition is the spectacular display of the body of the screen goddess – from classical Hollywood to contemporary popular culture.</p>
<p>ACMI is framing the goddess not just by the tired “starlet” and “bombshell” tropes, but as a woman who pushes boundaries, questions norms and stereotypes.</p>
<p>At the beginning of the exhibition we encounter fashion model Winnie Harlow in Monroe’s iconic pink dress from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfsnebJd-BI">Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend</a>, a performance in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.</p>
<p>The beautiful Harlow is a spokesperson for the skin condition vitiligo (where her skin has lost colour in parts). Her gaze is confident: she invites our gaze in return, challenging notions of perfection. Her flesh becomes costume, and I think of the idea “it is not what you wear, but how you wear it” — a kind of mantra for individualism (although what she wears also has its own meanings and legacy). We are all unique, but her skin conveys this idea. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521763/original/file-20230419-16-gvtlwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521763/original/file-20230419-16-gvtlwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521763/original/file-20230419-16-gvtlwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521763/original/file-20230419-16-gvtlwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521763/original/file-20230419-16-gvtlwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521763/original/file-20230419-16-gvtlwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521763/original/file-20230419-16-gvtlwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521763/original/file-20230419-16-gvtlwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Winnie Harlow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Albert Sanchez</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In clips we see the pressure on female actors to achieve an impossible standard of beauty. </p>
<p>Olivia Colman argues for the messy, imperfect body: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m an actor, not a model and I think you should be able to look horrendous […] that’s what I love doing. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>A young Helen Mirren asks a journalist whether he means “serious actors cannot have big bosoms?” </p>
<p>Speaking across the decades Audrey Hepburn, Kate Winslet, Michelle Yeoh and Ellen DeGeneres all offer commentaries about how their ageing bodies have influenced their selfhood and careers. </p>
<p>A youthful Jane Fonda alludes to her experience of being a body and not a mind: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>people seem to think that if you’re a girl, you have to behave in a way that is not militant or political, especially if you’re an actress […] how dare an actress think or be political!</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-843" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/843/6aef6bfd55fe55dedc7f04eb95db5a91739744e3/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>Gender fluidity, women of colour, queer women, culturally diverse goddesses, and high-kicking action heroines all have something to say about the myriad of ways that we can understand a goddess in 2023. </p>
<p>As this exhibition has it, the goddess can be anything she wants to: not just swing from chandeliers, leap from speeding trains or the backs of lions (while being drop dead gorgeous). </p>
<p>In the battle to be represented, she has been seen, she has offered a female gaze — one where they are individuals rather than ideals or icons. Goddess asks us to rethink our own gaze, and the bias it contains, to see the ways in which identities are constructed in media, according to the belief systems of the culture that created them. In this, the exhibition admirably succeeds.</p>
<p><em>Goddess: Power, Glamour, Rebellion is at ACMI, Melbourne, until October 1.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/changing-the-portrayal-of-women-in-film-means-getting-more-women-behind-the-lens-60021">Changing the portrayal of women in film means getting more women behind the lens</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203930/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa French was a guest speaker for ACMI's Public Program aligned to the Goddess exhibition: 'Being Seen on Screen: The Importance of Representation'.
RMIT University, ACMI’s Major Research Partner.</span></em></p>
Stars we ordinarily think of as goddesses are showcased, but the show also asks audiences to rethink what a ‘goddess’ might be.
Lisa French, Professor & Dean, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184162
2022-06-27T19:51:30Z
2022-06-27T19:51:30Z
Light: Works from the Tate’s Collection honours the body and its sensations – this is art which is meant to be felt
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470201/original/file-20220622-15-rm7mnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C0%2C3570%2C2392&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Raemar, Blue, 1969, Tate: Presented by the Tate Americas Foundation, partial purchase and partial gift of Doris J. Lockhart 2013. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© James Turrell. Photo: Chen Hao</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Light: Works from The Tate’s Collection, ACMI</em></p>
<p>The first room of <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/light-works-from-tates-collection-exhibition/">Light: Works from The Tate’s Collection</a> at Melbourne’s ACMI, begins, cannily, at the end of the Enlightenment – the period of the 17th and 18th centuries characterised by the emergence of the scientific method and the decline of the power of religious thinking. </p>
<p>Beginning in the 18th century and winding up with work from the 21st, it is a show of some 70 works that surveys the many ways light has been important to artists as both the material and content of their work.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-ideas-of-kant-121881">Explainer: the ideas of Kant</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Light and the birth of abstract painting</h2>
<p>Not surprisingly in an exhibition by Britain’s Tate, J.M.W. Turner is front and centre in this first room. </p>
<p>Turner is commonly associated with his contemporary John Constable, as he is here. </p>
<p>Constable applied himself scientifically to the recording of atmospheric effects. But there is really nothing like Turner’s swirling, highly textured, and downright experimental work of the second half of his career. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470480/original/file-20220623-51616-g76syn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470480/original/file-20220623-51616-g76syn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470480/original/file-20220623-51616-g76syn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470480/original/file-20220623-51616-g76syn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470480/original/file-20220623-51616-g76syn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470480/original/file-20220623-51616-g76syn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470480/original/file-20220623-51616-g76syn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470480/original/file-20220623-51616-g76syn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harwich Lighthouse, exhibited 1820, John Constable, Tate: Presented by Miss Isabel Constable as the gift of Maria Louisa, Isabel and Lionel Bicknell Constable 1888.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Tate</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Turner’s later work can be abstract to the point where we must rely on the title to tell us what we are looking at – as is the case with Light and Colour (Goethe’s Theory) – the Morning after the Deluge – Moses Writing the Book of Genesis from 1843 (yes, that’s all one title!). </p>
<p>Turner points the way to the shift in the late 19th and 20th centuries away from naturalistic representation as a key value in art. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470193/original/file-20220622-12-1iy4wo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470193/original/file-20220622-12-1iy4wo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470193/original/file-20220622-12-1iy4wo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470193/original/file-20220622-12-1iy4wo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470193/original/file-20220622-12-1iy4wo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470193/original/file-20220622-12-1iy4wo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470193/original/file-20220622-12-1iy4wo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470193/original/file-20220622-12-1iy4wo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joseph Mallord William Turner, Light and Colour (Goethe’s Theory) – the Morning after the Deluge – Moses Writing the Book of Genesis, exhibited 1843.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tate Britain</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the exhibition travels forward in time through its various galleries, it is a delight to find the mid-century abstract photography of György Kepes and Luigi Veronesi. </p>
<p>So often the history of art leaves out the attempts by many 20th century artists to use film and photography for ends other than naturalistic renderings of the world as we see it. </p>
<p>Seated among these works is a Yayoi Kusama sculpture, The Passing Winter (2005), sitting at the centre of the exhibition. </p>
<h2>Seriously dotty</h2>
<p>With her iconic and cartoony bobbed hair and polka dot fetish, Kusama is occasionally overlooked as Instagram eye candy and grandmother of east Asian cute. </p>
<p>In reality, she has been a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/23/yayoi-kusama-infinity-film-victoria-miro-exhibition">deeply serious artist</a> since her emergence in 1960s New York. Her installations can be quite intense, disorientating experiences. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470195/original/file-20220622-11-rplx6f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470195/original/file-20220622-11-rplx6f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470195/original/file-20220622-11-rplx6f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470195/original/file-20220622-11-rplx6f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470195/original/file-20220622-11-rplx6f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470195/original/file-20220622-11-rplx6f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470195/original/file-20220622-11-rplx6f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470195/original/file-20220622-11-rplx6f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Passing Winter, 2005, Yayoi Kusama. Tate: Purchased with funds provided by the Asia - Pacific Acquisitions Committee 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Yayoi Kusama. Tate</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stereotypically Japanese, Kusama’s craft is exacting in terms of the experiences she creates, and this work is no exception. Using a complex set of mirrors and portals, the work by turns fractures, refracts and reflects the room around it.</p>
<p>As you play with the various portals it offers, the work feels so very precise in its ability to surround you with shimmering dots or echoes of our own circularly vignetted face. </p>
<p>Transported into the world of Kusama’s unique psyche, while remaining at a safely bell-roped distance, I couldn’t help but smile. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-selfie-to-infinity-yayoi-kusamas-amazing-technicoloured-dreamscape-87076">From selfie to infinity: Yayoi Kusama’s amazing technicoloured dreamscape</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>More circles</h2>
<p>As you approach the end of the exhibition, there is a room dedicated to Tacita Dean’s 16mm film installation, Disappearance at Sea (1996). </p>
<p>In an echo of Turner’s seascapes, Dean creates a deceptively simple, circular portrait of a lighthouse. Like Kusama, all is circles: day to night the lighthouse lamp rotates gravely as the giant film loop chases its own tail. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470198/original/file-20220622-23-53my8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470198/original/file-20220622-23-53my8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470198/original/file-20220622-23-53my8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470198/original/file-20220622-23-53my8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470198/original/file-20220622-23-53my8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470198/original/file-20220622-23-53my8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470198/original/file-20220622-23-53my8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470198/original/file-20220622-23-53my8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Disappearance at Sea, 1996, Tacita Dean. Tate: Purchased 1998.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Tacita Dean, courtesy Frith Street Gallery, London and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris. Photo: Tate.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We have all become accustomed to 4K televisions. We now realise just how orange TV makeup is. Our eyes have also become retrospectively more sensitive to the lack of resolution in earlier formats like DVD and the humble VHS tape. This technological advance made this work feel entirely different now to when I first viewed it in 2001. </p>
<p>The grainy 16mm film, ticking through the intricate looping film projector, foregrounds the ephemerality of light through its precarious physicality. </p>
<p>None of the glassy imperviousness of the digital image, we were looking at a fragile remnant from another time, like the Constables and Turners.</p>
<h2>Art as phenomena</h2>
<p>This show offers a respite from contemporary art dominated by social concerns. </p>
<p>Even as an insider, I feel contemporary art is, at times, theoretically and politically overburdened. </p>
<p>This comes on the back <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-64644-2_8">of a suspicion of aesthetics</a> among many contemporary practitioners and academics (by aesthetics I mean the realm of the sensory, intuitive and prelingual). That’s fine: contemporary art is a broad church, and if art can help with society’s ills, there’s certainly plenty of work to do. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470199/original/file-20220622-3417-p3n7uq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470199/original/file-20220622-3417-p3n7uq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470199/original/file-20220622-3417-p3n7uq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470199/original/file-20220622-3417-p3n7uq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470199/original/file-20220622-3417-p3n7uq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470199/original/file-20220622-3417-p3n7uq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470199/original/file-20220622-3417-p3n7uq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470199/original/file-20220622-3417-p3n7uq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stardust particle, 2014, Olafur Eliasson, Tate: Presented by the artist in honour of Sir Nicholas Serota 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Olafur Eliasson. Photo: Jens Ziehe</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But this is something different, an exhibition which privileges the body and its sensations. </p>
<p>Curated as they are here, these works are presented not to be read for meaning but to be experienced as phenomena (yes, yes, good art can do both). </p>
<p>There is plenty of representational, narrative content amongst what is on show: people and places, moments from myth, imagination and history. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470482/original/file-20220623-51933-930myg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470482/original/file-20220623-51933-930myg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470482/original/file-20220623-51933-930myg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470482/original/file-20220623-51933-930myg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470482/original/file-20220623-51933-930myg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470482/original/file-20220623-51933-930myg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470482/original/file-20220623-51933-930myg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470482/original/file-20220623-51933-930myg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nataraja, 1993, Bridget Riley. Tate: Purchased 1994.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Bridget Riley 2022. All rights reserved. Photo: Tate</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, for me, this is a show to be felt: floating in front of James Turrell’s Raemar, Blue (1969), sitting surrounded by the circling sparkles of Olafur Eliasson’s Stardust Particle (2014), being hypnotised by Bridget Riley’s Nataraja (1993), or considering the clouds that overshadow Constable’s bucolic (ok, admittedly a little saccharine) scenes.</p>
<p><em>Light: Works from The Tate’s Collection is at ACMI until November 13.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/james-turrell-a-mythic-artist-in-the-contemporary-constellation-35040">James Turrell, a mythic artist in the contemporary constellation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184162/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Redfern has previously had work funded by local, state and federal government bodies. </span></em></p>
From J.M.W. Turner to Yayoi Kusama, this exhibition explores 200 years of art about light.
Dominic Redfern, Associate Professor, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/181245
2022-05-03T20:07:53Z
2022-05-03T20:07:53Z
How conceptual artist Gillian Wearing and photographer Cindy Sherman make us confront our performances to the world
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460749/original/file-20220502-21-dfaibx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4725%2C3136&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still, 1980. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Cindy Sherman</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Gillian Wearing Editing Life, and Cindy Sherman Untitled Film Still #58, PHOTO 2022.</em></p>
<p>As we struggle to recover from the pandemic, “Being Human” – the theme of this year’s <a href="https://photo.org.au">PHOTO 2022</a> international biennale in Melbourne – could not be more apt. </p>
<p>It is a recognition that interacting with other humans is the most cherished part of being alive, and one which we enthusiastically embrace. </p>
<p>This biennale has a wealth of outdoor experiences as well as indoor ones. Walks around Melbourne create surprise encounters in the city (or curated walks and cycle tours are available). </p>
<p>There are five stands: society, nature, history, mortality and self. The latter two are keenly addressed in works by Gillian Wearing at ACMI and Cindy Sherman outside the NGV Australia. </p>
<p>Through their close proximity, the PHOTO 2022 curators have effectively encouraged a conversation between artists. </p>
<p>Both adopt impressive scale. Sherman’s work is larger than most billboards at 20 metres high. Wearing’s giant floor-to-ceiling self-portraits wrap around the gallery. </p>
<p>Both artists use their own bodies and faces to communicate ideas beyond the self; they connect to human experience of the world, mortality and gender.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/on-the-intimate-and-character-revealing-photographs-of-linda-mccartney-pauls-wife-and-a-stunning-artist-170957">On the intimate and character-revealing photographs of Linda McCartney – Paul's wife, and a stunning artist</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The masks of Gillian Wearing</h2>
<p>British conceptual artist Gillian Wearing is on display at ACMI in a survey of four works. </p>
<p>In Rock ‘n’ Roll 70 Wallpaper, she asked collaborators to visualise how she might look when she is 70, creating 15 different imaginary photographic portraits. </p>
<p>Using age rendering tools created by artificial intelligence, her possible future selves are depicted. </p>
<p>The images’ size, as a collage of portraits extending floor to ceiling, create a dramatic experience while also illuminating the psychological dimension of the portraits. </p>
<p>On walking into the gallery, you are surrounded by the many kinds of expressions and gazes of a variously aged Wearing: vulnerable, defensive, benign.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460620/original/file-20220430-18-1o0npk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460620/original/file-20220430-18-1o0npk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460620/original/file-20220430-18-1o0npk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460620/original/file-20220430-18-1o0npk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460620/original/file-20220430-18-1o0npk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460620/original/file-20220430-18-1o0npk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460620/original/file-20220430-18-1o0npk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460620/original/file-20220430-18-1o0npk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rock ‘n’ Roll 70 wallpaper, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Gillian Wearing, courtesy Maureen Paley, London, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York and Regen Projects, Los Angeles</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The work asks us to question how we feel about and react to ageing. How we might respond to not knowing whether an image is a truthful depiction. And, emotionally, how we contemplate the unknown factor of what time will impose upon the human form.</p>
<p>A second work is a deep fake video made with collaborators Wieden+Kennedy, a global advertising agency best known for working with Nike. </p>
<p>In the video, a digital mask of Wearing’s face is disconcertingly mapped onto the faces of others, making them eerily familiar and yet unknown. The participants were strangers responding to an advertisement to be in the film. On watching this, I am struck by the question: what is the true self? Are you obedient to social norms, a fraud, an authentic or frustrated character? </p>
<p>A person is more than a name, or an image. We embody and reflect experiences. Can we be who we say we are, or the persona we offer to the world?</p>
<p>The work creates the impression we are all one, an idea undercut by knowing that these are all constructed portraits. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460621/original/file-20220430-17-wbsym4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460621/original/file-20220430-17-wbsym4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460621/original/file-20220430-17-wbsym4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460621/original/file-20220430-17-wbsym4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460621/original/file-20220430-17-wbsym4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460621/original/file-20220430-17-wbsym4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460621/original/file-20220430-17-wbsym4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460621/original/file-20220430-17-wbsym4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Self Portrait of Me Now in Mask, 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Gillian Wearing, courtesy Maureen Paley, London, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York and Regen Projects, Los Angeles</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are two self-portraits, one of Wearing at age 17, and another titled Self-Portrait of Me Now in A Mask. Together, they expand Wearing’s reflection on ageing. The latter explicitly picks up on Wearing’s extensive interest in masking, self-production and personas. </p>
<p>As the video work in the exhibition offers: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We all wear masks. We’re all actors. When you leave your front door in the morning, you’re putting on a performance for the world. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Cindy Sherman and women photographers</h2>
<p>Sherman’s work conveys a similar sentiment. </p>
<p>All representation – even of real things – is selected and presented by someone. When we are photographed, we offer an idea of ourselves to the photographer, we perform ourselves. The photographer selects the frame, the tone, the style and which image is presented. </p>
<p>From this point of view, an image is never neutral. </p>
<p>The American artist <a href="https://www.moma.org/artists/5392">Cindy Sherman</a> has portrayed herself in her photographs as film stars, unhappy housewives, socialites and other iconic female roles — conveying commentary on gender and celebrity. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460637/original/file-20220501-24-afozj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460637/original/file-20220501-24-afozj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460637/original/file-20220501-24-afozj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460637/original/file-20220501-24-afozj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460637/original/file-20220501-24-afozj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460637/original/file-20220501-24-afozj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460637/original/file-20220501-24-afozj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460637/original/file-20220501-24-afozj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The scale of Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Photograph #58 is spectacular.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lisa French</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The image outside the NGV Australia on Flinders Street, Untitled Film Still #58, is one from a series of 69 self-portraits Sherman produced from 1977-80. All in black and white, they recall scenes from movies. In most of those images, a single female figure appears as if caught spontaneously. </p>
<p>The monumental presence in Flinders Street is spectacular. The woman looks at something beyond the frame – as many in this series do – and the averted gaze invites the viewer to contemplate both the woman and what is just out of frame.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-looking-at-cindy-sherman-head-shots-59444">Here's looking at: Cindy Sherman 'Head Shots'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Perhaps she is aware of being looked at or objectified, concerned with being on the street and wary of the urban environment.</p>
<p>Wearing edits life while Sherman imitates it, but in all of these works, the images are not about the photographers themselves as people. They draw on their experience, but are about issues such as what women face in their lives, bodies and culture, and about how visual representations construct meaning. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Gillian Wearing: Editing Life and Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Still #58 are on display until 22 May.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181245/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa French does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Wearing edits life while Sherman imitates it, in these pieces in conversation at Melbourne’s PHOTO 2022.
Lisa French, Professor & Dean, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/169359
2021-10-14T19:10:29Z
2021-10-14T19:10:29Z
Videogames or homework? Why not both, as ACMI has 75 game lessons for you to try
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426124/original/file-20211013-17-n0ffil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-boy-playing-pc-game-home-210236821">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/heres-how-technology-has-changed-and-changed-us-over-the-past-20-years/">growth of technology in our daily lives</a>, the integration of digital technologies into education has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-reasons-teachers-can-struggle-to-use-technology-in-the-classroom-101114">slower than anticipated</a>. There seem to be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131518300058">a number of factors at work</a> here, including problems with access to technology and the time and support needed to use technology successfully in the classroom. </p>
<p>Teachers may also lack confidence in choosing and using technology or <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339280635_The_Role_of_the_Teacher_in_Primary_School_Web_20_Use">believe technology will not improve learning</a>.</p>
<p>Australia’s national museum for screen culture, ACMI, has released an online digital learning lesson bank to address these challenges. This is part of ACMI’s <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/education/school-program-and-resources/">school program and resources</a> database. Game Lessons offers digital games as lessons – 25 lesson plans comprising 75 digital lessons. These are created by expert teachers and include areas such as the arts, humanities, sciences, literacy and capabilities such as ethics.</p>
<p>The new resource is an interesting step forward that builds on the existing pedagogy of digital game-based learning. This refers to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaming-in-the-classroom-what-we-can-learn-from-pokemon-go-technology-63766">use of games to teach content</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gaming-in-the-classroom-what-we-can-learn-from-pokemon-go-technology-63766">Gaming in the classroom: what we can learn from Pokémon Go technology</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A brief history of digital education</h2>
<p>Digital games such as <a href="https://www.playdosgames.com/online/math-rescue/">Maths Rescue</a> and <a href="https://www.carmensandiego.com/game/">Carmen Sandiego</a> have been used in education for as long as computers have been available in classrooms.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426077/original/file-20211012-18-nnaatt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="1980s computer with Carmen Sandiego on the screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426077/original/file-20211012-18-nnaatt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426077/original/file-20211012-18-nnaatt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426077/original/file-20211012-18-nnaatt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426077/original/file-20211012-18-nnaatt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426077/original/file-20211012-18-nnaatt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426077/original/file-20211012-18-nnaatt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426077/original/file-20211012-18-nnaatt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People may remember playing the educational computer game Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego in classrooms back in the 1980s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/markgregory/5734810764/in/photostream/">Mark Mathosian/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The developers of globally-popular games such as <a href="https://education.minecraft.net/en-us/resources/explore-lessons">Minecraft</a>, <a href="https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/onlinelearning-courses/teaching-with-fortnite-creative">Fortnight</a> and <a href="https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Teach_with_Portals">Portal 2</a> have already capitalised on their potential in education. They’ve all developed educational versions of their games with supporting lesson plans and online communities. </p>
<p>Playing fun games that interest and motivate students is <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-reasons-video-games-should-be-more-widely-used-in-school-164264">a key aspect of digital-based learning</a>. Games, however, include other <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131520301342">educationally useful</a> features: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>students can work at their own pace, or collaborate in a team</p></li>
<li><p>students practise skills until they are achieved and then move to a higher level. This provides experiences of mastery, continual assessments and immediate feedback</p></li>
<li><p>games automatically adjust to the level of difficulty needed to encourage student persistence. Students then gain rewards for hard work including virtual lives, coins or badges</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1177/1046878120904976">transferable skills</a> such as communication skills, strategising and problem solving are essential for collaborative gameplay. It also fosters creativity, flexibility and resilience skills</p></li>
<li><p>activities become more student-centred and students can be positioned as experts co-constructing knowledge with their teacher. This is a powerful motivator.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The research into the effectiveness of game-based learning seems highly <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1177/1046878117736893">contextual</a>. A 2017 study examined the way teachers designed 27 game-based learning courses from middle school to higher education, including the specific game elements they used and why. It found</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The structure of game-based learning at different levels will vary to meet the developmental and academic needs of students, but more work is needed in determining which strategies are most effective for learning.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another study found many teachers <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10639-021-10622-z">feel unsure</a> about using games in specific classes. </p>
<h2>So, what is the ACMI resource?</h2>
<p>ACMI’s Game Lessons are connected to the Victorian Curriculum and can be searched by learning area and year level, from foundation to year 12. To support these resources, ACMI also has <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/education/school-program-and-resources/?program=5">professional development</a> opportunities and peer to peer interactions in a Slack community.</p>
<p>Teachers are encouraged to pick and choose and adapt the most useful or inspirational aspects of the plans for their classrooms. They can leave out those aspects not meeting their needs. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-creative-use-of-technology-may-have-helped-save-schooling-during-the-pandemic-146488">How creative use of technology may have helped save schooling during the pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the lesson plans, students are no longer positioned simply as learners but as having active roles including watchers, players, makers or explorers. In some lessons they simply watch YouTubers playing games; in others they make their own online or offline games.</p>
<p>In one lesson, called <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/education/school-program-and-resources/game-lessons/teaching-with-videogames-historical-concepts-in-gone-home/#intro">Gone Home</a> the players are immersed in a story where the protagonist is a mystery but players discover more about her through narration and the exploration of objects. This is a historical video game to develop skills in evaluating evidence. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x5KJzLsyfBI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In Gone Home, players figure out the mystery of the protagonist while learning about historical concepts.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another video game is called <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/education/school-program-and-resources/game-lessons/teaching-with-videogames-energy-science-lesson-contraption-maker/">Contraption Maker</a>. Here students learn physics by becoming explorers in sandbox or simulation games and invent, tinker and test their ideas. A sandbox is a style of game in which minimal character limitations are placed on the gamer, allowing them to roam and change a virtual world at will.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q31YlQd3OIM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In Contraption Maker a physics sandbox allows players to explore energy and energy transfers/transformations.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Games such as the ones in the new ACMI resource can be seen as another tool in a teacher’s toolbox. The technology may be used as a stimulus for a main teaching activity, such as <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/education/school-program-and-resources/game-lessons/teaching-with-videogames-exploring-character-with-untitled-goose-game/">a writing task</a>, in the same way a book, video, excursion or objects are currently used. </p>
<h2>Maintaining momentum</h2>
<p>The continual renewal of learning technology is relentless. It forces teachers to think twice before embracing this type of resource in case the technologies become redundant within a year or two. </p>
<p>For ongoing success, ACMI will need to ensure the Games Lessons library continues to meet the International Standards for Technology in Education. The library would need to <a href="https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards-for-education-leaders">meet current needs and anticipate future needs</a> too.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z4a81iYyuDE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p><em>Game Lessons is an ACMI education initiative funded by the Department of Education Victoria’s Strategic Partnerships Program, and supported by a committed network of teachers.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169359/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Australia’s national museum for screen culture, ACMI, has released an online digital learning lesson bank — In Game Lessons.
Amber McLeod, Lecturer in Education, Monash University
Jo Blannin, Senior Lecturer, Digital Technologies, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/160770
2021-05-16T19:54:33Z
2021-05-16T19:54:33Z
From Mickey to Moana — Disney treasures at ACMI tell the story of animation’s evolution over almost a century
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400679/original/file-20210514-19-1wv4h2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C44%2C5874%2C3637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ACMI/Phoebe Powell</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/disney-the-magic-of-animation-exhibition/">Disney: The Magic of Animation</a> at ACMI.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.disneyanimation.com/">Disney</a> is one of the longest running animation studios in the world. As a result, the studio’s nearly 100 year legacy also provides a substantial insight into the history of the animated film.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/disney-the-magic-of-animation-exhibition/">Disney: The Magic of Animation</a> features 500 items — original sketches, drawings, paintings, concept art and models. They have been carefully curated from the 65 million artworks at the Walt Disney Animation Research Library in Los Angeles. </p>
<p>The first feature exhibition at Australia’s national museum of screen culture since its major redevelopment, it showcases Disney’s legacy, and the process and artistry at work. </p>
<h2>Moving pictures</h2>
<p>When you first enter the exhibition space you are greeted with an array of large scale <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/zoetrope">zoetropes</a> — spinning cylinders with flickering images inside. They display the animated characters of Mickey Mouse, Pluto and Donald Duck. </p>
<p>These pre-cinematic animation devices provide a neat summation of the animation process, in which a quick succession of individual drawings, each one slightly different than the previous, can create a moving image. The zoetropes remind us animation has existed for <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/07/before-walt-disney-5-pioneers-of-early-animation/241448/">many decades</a> (<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/30/the-surprise-and-wonder-of-early-animation">if not centuries</a>) prior to the invention of cinema.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mhfp6Z8z1cI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘They worked in shifts, night and day, to create this unique experiment in entertainment.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Also on display are artworks from some of the studio’s earliest and most iconic animated shorts, such as Mickey Mouse’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019422/?ref_=tttr_tr_tt">Steamboat Willie</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019278/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Plane Crazy</a>. Equally impressive are the extensive artefacts from more than 25 feature films, ranging from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029583/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs</a> to this year’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5109280/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Raya and the Last Dragon</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400684/original/file-20210514-19-p04qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man draws cartoon mouse on chalkboard" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400684/original/file-20210514-19-p04qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400684/original/file-20210514-19-p04qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400684/original/file-20210514-19-p04qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400684/original/file-20210514-19-p04qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400684/original/file-20210514-19-p04qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400684/original/file-20210514-19-p04qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400684/original/file-20210514-19-p04qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Walt Disney and his Mickey creation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos-cdn.aap.com.au/Image/19380426000017682234?path=/aap_dev2/imagearc/2006/11-20/c6/80/3b/aapimage-5ca8w4i0kpt1bcpjol5g_layout.jpg">AAP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australia has also played a little known but substantive role in the Disney animation story. Between 1988 and 2006 Walt Disney Animation Australia operated in Sydney, and employed hundreds of extremely talented Australian animators, artists and technicians. </p>
<p>They worked on dozens of animated sequels to big name Disney features, including The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea, Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure, and Peter Pan: Return to Neverland.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shrek-at-20-celebrating-the-films-unique-brand-of-animated-anarchy-and-sardonic-irreverence-159797">Shrek at 20: celebrating the film's unique brand of animated anarchy and sardonic irreverence</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Artistry on display</h2>
<p>Exhibition curators have chosen a remarkable selection of highly dynamic animation drawings for display. Even as still images, these pencil drawings express incredible life and movement.</p>
<p>There are also a number of concept drawings created by American artist <a href="http://magicofmaryblair.com/about-mary/">Mary Blair</a>, whose designs informed Disney’s Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. She was also known for her children’s book illustrations (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42278.I_Can_Fly?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=GV1MtToA8t&rank=1">I Can Fly</a>) and murals (including Disneyland’s <a href="https://www.designingdisney.com/parks/disneyland-paris/disneyland-park/fantasyland/designing-its-small-world-mary-blair/">It’s a Small World</a> attraction). Her drawings and paintings use just a few strokes and splashes of contrasting colour to convey brilliant vibrancy and expression. </p>
<p>Also remarkable to behold are the series of background paintings from 1959’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053285/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Sleeping Beauty</a>. Created by artist <a href="https://eyvindearle.com/bio/">Eyvind Earle</a>, the works show angular shapes and exquisite detail. Eyvind Earle’s sister, <a href="https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A47505">Yvonne Perrin</a>, was also an animation background painter, who spent much of her life in Australia, working at the Eric Porter Animation Studio in Sydney and later illustrative children’s books with bush themes. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zurARl81oQ8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Walt Disney was a fan of Mary Blair as an artist within the studio and beyond.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-storyboarding-for-film-131205">Explainer: what is storyboarding for film?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Mechanical to digital</h2>
<p>It’s not just two-dimensional art on display. Model cars made of wood and metal from the production of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055254/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_26">101 Dalmatians</a> provide insight into the technical aspects of making the film. </p>
<p>Painted black and white, the cars were moved by hand and filmed in real time, using high-contrast film-stock. The resulting footage was then enlarged and transferred, frame-by-frame onto <a href="https://www.animationconnection.com/about-the-art/cels">cels</a> and incorporated into the rest of the animated scene. </p>
<p>The result was fluid motion on screen and accurately depicted vehicles which, despite appearing to careen around corners and collide with each other, maintained their precise dimensions. The approach, to some degree, anticipated the use of 3D digital models that would be incorporated into the studio’s later animated films. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400685/original/file-20210514-15-z4l6au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Disney warrior Raya" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400685/original/file-20210514-15-z4l6au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400685/original/file-20210514-15-z4l6au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400685/original/file-20210514-15-z4l6au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400685/original/file-20210514-15-z4l6au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400685/original/file-20210514-15-z4l6au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400685/original/file-20210514-15-z4l6au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400685/original/file-20210514-15-z4l6au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Modern Disney warrior princesses are a tougher breed than their dainty predecessors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5109280/mediaviewer/rm1195559681/">Raya and the Last Dragon/IMDB</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because Disney’s more recent films like Frozen and Moana were created almost entirely in the digital realm, the displays devoted to them tend to highlight concept art, rather than production materials. But it is still fascinating to see the concept artwork which guided these films through their early development. We gain a greater understanding of how the artists conveyed atmosophere, adventure and enchantment to create fantasy worlds.</p>
<p>As technology has evolved, so have Disney’s characters and narratives. This is notable as the exhibition reacquaints visitors with <a href="https://www.cottonable.com/entertainment/chronological-timeline-of-disney-princesses/">classic and dainty Disney princesses</a> through to today’s more contemporary warriors like <a href="https://observer.com/2021/03/raya-and-the-last-dragon-review-disney/">Moana and Raya</a>. </p>
<p>Disney: The Magic of Animation celebrates each frame and component behind some of audiences’ favourite films of the last century. In doing so, the exhibition not only provides an illuminating peek into the animation process — but also gives us the opportunity to admire the artistry and complexity of what went into making every second of these works of art. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/disneys-mulan-tells-women-to-know-their-place-146017">Disney's Mulan tells women to know their place</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/disney-the-magic-of-animation-exhibition/">Disney: The Magic of Animation</a> is on at ACMI until 17 October.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160770/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dan Torre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
ACMI’s first feature exhibition since its redevelopment shows fans the complex artistry behind their childhood favourites.
Dan Torre, Senior Lecturer in the School of Design, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/80195
2017-06-29T01:28:35Z
2017-06-29T01:28:35Z
Pirates, penguins, Wallace and Gromit … the Aardman show delights
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175995/original/file-20170628-25825-9mxvu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wallace and Gromit were first introduced in the 1989 film A Grand Day Out</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aardman Animations</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/events/wallace-and-gromit-and-friends-magic-aardman/">Wallace & Gromit and Friends: the Magic of Aardman</a>, now showing at the Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne, is an astonishing exhibition 45 years in the making. Aardman, the British animation studio that gave the world some of the finest animated films of the past three decades have delved deep into their archives and come up with a veritable treasure trove of creative genius.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176147/original/file-20170629-10672-1v1j570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176147/original/file-20170629-10672-1v1j570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176147/original/file-20170629-10672-1v1j570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176147/original/file-20170629-10672-1v1j570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176147/original/file-20170629-10672-1v1j570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176147/original/file-20170629-10672-1v1j570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176147/original/file-20170629-10672-1v1j570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176147/original/file-20170629-10672-1v1j570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Morph, Aardman’s first claymation character.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aardman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A vast array of design drawings, storyboards, characters and props has been brought out for display. The exhibition includes more than 350 objects, including some classic pieces from the short films <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104361/">A Grand Day Out</a>, where the characters of Wallace and Gromit were first introduced, and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099317/">Creature Comforts</a>. And alongside them is the original Academy Award the studio received in 1990 for Creature Comforts.</p>
<p>My personal Aardman experience began with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435939/">The Amazing Adventures of Morph</a>, which aired on weekday afternoons on the ABC. I credit Morph as one of the earliest influences that inspired my own experimentation with claymation on Super 8 film, and eventually led to a career in animation and visual effects. I am certainly not unique in that regard, local animator and filmmaker Darcy Prendergast also began experimenting with claymation while in high school: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’d freeze frame my way through entire VHS tapes of Wallace and Gromit – hoping to understand the dark magic their plasticine creations were under. Little did I know that it was right there and then that I fell in love with film, and the reason I’m a filmmaker today. Now you think about that impact the world over, and you start to realise just how influential these guys have been.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Prendergast later founded <a href="https://ohyeahwow.com/work/">Oh Yeah Wow</a> which has gone on to forge a reputation as one of Australia’s most exciting young animation studios. Now the wheel has turned full circle as the Aardman super-fan has been invited to <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/events/night-out-aardman/">host a discussion</a> with Aardman founders Peter Lord and David Proxton at ACMI in honour of the new exhibition. </p>
<p>Founded in Bristol, UK, in 1972, Aardman’s first professional sale to the BBC was a simple 2D hand-drawn animated cartoon of a somewhat down-on-his-luck superhero character, dubbed <a href="https://media.timeout.com/images/102596295/image.jpg">Aardman</a> (Hard-Man). </p>
<p>However the fledgling studio really came to prominence with a series of claymation shorts featuring <a href="https://youtu.be/7sUJRx-dSxQ">Morph</a>. Claymation involves manipulating modelling clay or plasticene, changing the shape of the model a little at a time and taking an image of each iteration. When all the images are played back at 24 frames per second the model appears to move and change shape of its own accord.</p>
<p>Morph was a small, brown plasticene man with the ability to transform into any shape he could imagine. He first appeared as a support act on childrens’ TV show <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303543/">Take Hart</a> in 1977, but by 1980 Morph had <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435939/">his own show</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176149/original/file-20170629-9937-1lnwiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176149/original/file-20170629-9937-1lnwiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176149/original/file-20170629-9937-1lnwiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176149/original/file-20170629-9937-1lnwiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176149/original/file-20170629-9937-1lnwiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176149/original/file-20170629-9937-1lnwiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176149/original/file-20170629-9937-1lnwiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176149/original/file-20170629-9937-1lnwiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An animator works on Shaun the Sheep.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aardman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the mid-1980s, Aardman was successfully producing a variety of spots for British television and some high profile music videos, most notably <a href="https://youtu.be/OJWJE0x7T4Q">Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer</a>. However when recent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Film_and_Television_School">National Film & Television School</a> graduate Nick Park came on board in 1985, things began changing very rapidly. Park brought with him an unfinished student film featuring a couple of charmingly eccentric and very British characters, Wallace and Gromit. </p>
<p>At Aardman, Park finally completed his student film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104361/">A Grand Day Out</a> and while that film was in post-production he also directed a short called <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099317/">Creature Comforts</a>. In 1990, both of Park’s films were nominated for an Academy Award for best animated short, with Creature Comforts taking the Oscar. Since then, Aardman have consistently been at the forefront of the international animation scene, winning a swag of international awards including <a href="http://wallaceandgromit.wikia.com/wiki/Academy_Awards">three more Oscars</a> for Wallace & Gromit films. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OJWJE0x7T4Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Wallace and Gromit are undoubtedly the superstars of the Aardman stable of characters, however their standing has been challenged in recent years by Shaun the Sheep. Shaun first appeared as a supporting character in the Oscar-winning <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112691/">Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave</a>, but, like Morph before him, he couldn’t be contained and now has <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0983983/">his own TV series</a> (five seasons so far), a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872750/">feature film</a> and a half-hour Christmas special. Shaun is well represented in both the exhibition and the ubiquitous gift shop merchandise.</p>
<p>The items on display run the gamut from relatively simple but instantly recognisable plasticine puppets, such as nefarious penguin in disguise <a href="http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Feathers_McGraw">Feathers McGraw</a> from <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108598/">Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers</a>, to intricately detailed sets from Aardman’s more recent feature films. The level of detail in the props and set pieces are truly astonishing, particularly those from <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1430626/">The Pirates! Band of Misfits</a>. The world inhabited by the Victorian era pirates is lush and opulent, every inch covered in gloriously intricate textures.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176148/original/file-20170629-31297-13c9uip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176148/original/file-20170629-31297-13c9uip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176148/original/file-20170629-31297-13c9uip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176148/original/file-20170629-31297-13c9uip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176148/original/file-20170629-31297-13c9uip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176148/original/file-20170629-31297-13c9uip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176148/original/file-20170629-31297-13c9uip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176148/original/file-20170629-31297-13c9uip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ship used for Pirates!</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aardman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Detailed sets, beautifully crafted puppets and replicated studio spaces displaying the Aardman working process are all joys to behold, however the capstone to the entire exhibition is an astonishing and truly massive pirate ship. The size of the piece is incredible, one can’t even imagine how torturous the packing and handling process must have been to safely transport such an item across continents. But there it is, looking for all the world as if it could sail back to Bristol on its own once the exhibition is done.</p>
<p>ACMI have added one more bonus feature in the exhibition space: there is a workshop area where visitors can build their own characters using tubs of plasticine and then animate their models with one of the Ipad-based animation sets.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/events/wallace-and-gromit-and-friends-magic-aardman/">Wallace & Gromit and Friends: the Magic of Aardman</a> will be showing at ACMI until October 29.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80195/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Allen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Aardman studios has produced some of the most-recognised animated characters of the past three decades, including Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. A new exhibit at ACMI brings their creative process to life.
Peter Allen, Lecturer in Film and Television, Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/69479
2016-12-01T02:03:56Z
2016-12-01T02:03:56Z
Why the world needs superheroes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147868/original/image-20161129-10957-1doevue.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Superheroes – and villains – are more popular than they've ever been. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Superheroes were born in the United States in the late 1930s as a four-colour rebuttal to the misery of the Depression and the rise of fascism in Europe. Today, superheroes are no longer confined to America, or even the comic book page. From Marvel movies to convention cosplay, superheroes have never enjoyed greater visibility. </p>
<p>Earlier this year, for instance, parts of Sydney were shut down as the Make-a-Wish Foundation and NSW police worked together to help <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-11/iron-boy-saves-sydney-australia-from-ultron/7159820">nine-year-old Domenic Pace</a> become Iron Boy. After rescuing a “kidnapped” reporter and facing down baddies on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, Pace was awarded a Commissioner’s Award for Gallantry before a cheering crowd. </p>
<p>In anticipation of the upcoming <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/live-events/talks-performances/superhero-identities-symposium/">Superhero Identities Symposium</a> in Melbourne, we interviewed 100 fans and celebrities to better understand why the world needs superheroes. We wanted to find out what these icons mean to people, as the genre reaches heights of popularity not seen since its origins on the comic book page. </p>
<figure>
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</figure>
<p>“An escape” is how superhero devotee Melanie explains their popularity. The traffic control administrator, who is also president of Australia’s <a href="http://www.austrek.org/">longest-running Star Trek fan club</a>, argued, “We’re constantly bombarded with negativity in the media. These characters may be flawed, but they’re positive people”. </p>
<p>As many political orthodoxies across the world seem to fall away, comic book writer Tom Taylor agrees that these characters speak to modern anxieties: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’re getting more and more jaded by politicians, people in power, and businesses. We want to have an ideal that we can actually look up to, and I think that’s why everybody’s flocking to see all these Marvel movies about people wanting to help.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Comic book characters such as Batman and Wonder Woman have been in constant publication for more than 75 years, and they enjoy a unique cross-generational appeal. One father, who was reluctantly brought to Oz Comic-Con by his children, described how the superhero jamboree provided an unexpected hit of nostalgia: “It brought back a lot of memories from when I was a kid.”</p>
<p>For some, watching the movies isn’t enough; they want to don their favourite character’s costume (cosplaying). As one Doctor Strange cosplayer explained, “I work in an office. I don’t get to save the day very much”, but cosplay “allows me for a day or two, even a couple of hours, to really be that hero”. </p>
<p>While it may seem niche, one Ghostbuster cosplayer argues, “It’s no different to supporting your local football team or wearing a Hawks jersey”. While another fan who divides his attention between superheroes and footy joked, “I love both. Talk bad about DC Comics or Carlton and you’re dead”</p>
<figure>
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</figure>
<p>Following the success of Suicide Squad, many fans are gravitating towards the anarchic Harley Quinn (whose creator <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/live-events/talks-performances/in-conversation-with-paul-dini/">Paul Dini</a> is a special guest of the symposium). Wonder Woman artist Nicola Scott describes the chalk-faced antihero as a “great entry point for female fans”, while one cosplayer who arrived at Supanova as “her own version of Harley” credits the character’s troubled relationship with the Joker for helping her recognise the “obsessive compulsive relationships that you can get into”. </p>
<p>Many fans point to the police and other uniformed public servants as “real world superheroes”, yet the fantasy figures they celebrate act outside the law. Even at their most noble, superheroes are vigilantes, while no-holds-barred crime fighters like Deadpool, Green Arrow, and Harley Quinn are, by any standard definition, criminals. </p>
<p>When asked about this tension most fans struggled to justify the actions of their (anti)heroes, with one suggesting of maladjusted Vietnam War veteran The Punisher, “It’s because he’s doing it for the betterment of the world, that he still stays on the side of a hero”. </p>
<p>What many fans seem to celebrate is the ability of these heroes to transcend the limitations imposed on us, be it gravity, social norms, or the law. From virtual reality games like Batman: Arkham VR to convention cosplay, the industry is increasingly offering opportunities to enact this escapist fantasy. </p>
<p>However, while superhero fandom may be positioned as an underground culture, two of the world’s largest entertainment conglomerates, Time Warner and The Walt Disney Company, own the majority of superheroes. Thus, whether wearing a retro Batman T-shirt or cosplaying as a Guardian of the Galaxy, fans are also serving as mascots and walking billboards for larger corporate interests. </p>
<figure>
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</figure>
<p>On the other hand, many of the enthusiasts we spoke to see this as a mutually beneficial relationship, parlaying their superhero interest into ambitious careers. For instance, self-described “geek musician” Meri Amber has amassed a fan following writing songs with titles like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWWljxO6VCw">My Superman</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkzIB6s8QtY">Work It Out Like Goku</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, a fan with aspirations of becoming a TV presenter began a YouTube channel, Luka Online, dedicated to cosplayers. Initially he hoped to “learn on the job, but it actually turned into the job that I was aiming for”. </p>
<p>More altruistically, Scott Loxely of the Star Wars fan club <a href="http://mashable.com/2014/10/01/501st-legion-star-wars/#aLnzLHv1ukq4">501st Legion</a> raised A$100,000 for charity by <a href="http://mashable.com/2014/11/11/scott-loxley-stormtrooper-australia/#aLnzLHv1ukq4">walking across Australia dressed as a Stormtrooper</a>. Scott recognises how these fantasy figures can bring visibility to a cause: “everyone loves a Stormtrooper”. </p>
<p>Despite their fantastical abilities, what many fans celebrate is the connection to their heroes’ humanity. Jessica Jones’ star Eka Darville described growing up in the Northern Rivers of Australia as the only black kid in his school:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When we’d play Power Rangers they were like, ‘You have to be the black Power Ranger,’ but I secretly wanted to be the red one [traditionally the leader]. So when I booked the role of Scott Truman, Red Ranger, I was, like, ‘Yeah, vengeance is mine’. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such diversity is necessary given the superhero’s increasingly important role as escapist fantasy, cross-generational icon, and aspirational figure. One fan, heroically braving a Melbourne winter in a Little Mermaid costume, articulated the feelings of many:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think superheroes today are a symbol of hope, making yourself a better person and using that in your everyday life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><br></p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/live-events/talks-performances/superhero-identities-symposium/">The Superhero Identities Symposium</a> takes place at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) on 8-9 December, 2016.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69479/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liam Burke receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Linkage project Superheroes & Me.</span></em></p>
From Wonder Woman to Doctor Strange, superheroes are at peak popularity. As political orthodoxies across the world fall away, these flawed, but good-hearted characters speak to modern anxieties.
Liam Burke, Senior Media Studies Lecturer, Swinburne University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/44569
2015-07-14T03:16:41Z
2015-07-14T03:16:41Z
Bowie and gender transgression – what a drag
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88176/original/image-20150713-9480-ospmei.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C87%2C1473%2C1208&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">David Bowie posing for the Aladdin Sane tour, 1973. Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of ACMI. </span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Same old thing<br>
In brand new drag<br>
Comes sweeping into view<br>
<br>
– David Bowie, Teenage Wildlife (1980)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Time and again, <a href="https://theconversation.com/back-then-and-now-just-who-is-david-bowie-42052">David Bowie</a> has confounded us with enigmatic acts of gender transgression. </p>
<p>Those acts have been fuelled by a restless drive for recreation, often in the form of ambiguously-gendered personas, such as <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2012/09/ithe_story_of_ziggy_stardusti_how_david_bowie_created_the_character_that_made_him_famous.html">Ziggy Stardust</a> and the <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/the-thin-white-duke-gets-busted-david-bowies-arrest-mug-shot-1976.html">Thin White Duke</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88280/original/image-20150714-11798-1z007zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88280/original/image-20150714-11798-1z007zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88280/original/image-20150714-11798-1z007zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88280/original/image-20150714-11798-1z007zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88280/original/image-20150714-11798-1z007zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88280/original/image-20150714-11798-1z007zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88280/original/image-20150714-11798-1z007zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover for David Bowie’s album, Changes One Bowie (1972), illustrates the androgynous Thin White Duke persona, in which Bowie drew on the gestural traits of Frank Sinatra.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">RCA Records</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bowie’s mutating personas do not simply emerge from a constant need for transformation. They are created as part of a complex process of performativity, in which Bowie mimics and re-animates the gestural traits of performers such as <a href="http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:125150">Marlene Dietrich</a>, <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/katharine-hepburn-9335828">Katharine Hepburn</a>, <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/lauren-bacall-9194111">Lauren Bacall</a>, <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/greta-garbo-9306210">Greta Garbo</a>, <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/elvis-presley-9446466">Elvis Presley</a> and <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/frank-sinatra-9484810">Frank Sinatra</a>.</p>
<p>In her book <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/85767.Gender_Trouble">Gender Trouble</a> (1990), <a href="http://www.egs.edu/faculty/judith-butler/biography/">Judith Butler</a> described this aspect of gender play as “drag” – an ongoing process by which gender is performed, imitated and re-performed. </p>
<p>Bowie fell to earth and thrust himself into this cycle of mimicry at a prescient moment in the seismic landscape of gender politics. Never content to just mimic the costume and bodily gestures of other performers, Bowie has been a cultural alchemist, hybridising gestures with references from music, theatre, philosophy, literature, <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/avant-garde">avant-garde art</a> and cinema. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88157/original/image-20150713-9476-1n0z34y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88157/original/image-20150713-9476-1n0z34y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88157/original/image-20150713-9476-1n0z34y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88157/original/image-20150713-9476-1n0z34y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88157/original/image-20150713-9476-1n0z34y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88157/original/image-20150713-9476-1n0z34y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88157/original/image-20150713-9476-1n0z34y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88157/original/image-20150713-9476-1n0z34y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of ACMI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the process, he has given new life to certain gestures, performing acts that transgress the boundaries of normalised gendered behaviour.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88185/original/image-20150713-1546-15spiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88185/original/image-20150713-1546-15spiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88185/original/image-20150713-1546-15spiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88185/original/image-20150713-1546-15spiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88185/original/image-20150713-1546-15spiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88185/original/image-20150713-1546-15spiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88185/original/image-20150713-1546-15spiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88185/original/image-20150713-1546-15spiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover for David Bowie’s album, The Man Who Sold The World (1970).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.google.com.au/search?q=the+man+who+sold+the+world+cover+art&espv=2&biw=2103&bih=1198&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=FjujVdmKO-S1mwXU6qBo&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#q=the+man+who+sold+the+world+cover+art&tbs=isz:lt,islt:xga&tbm=isch&imgdii=ukOPzhNtDmQphM%3A%3BukOPzhNtDmQphM%3A%3BdoN3e9gBxX4dhM%3A&imgrc=ukOPzhNtDmQphM%3A">Mercury Records</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This has been played out progressively over several of Bowie’s album covers. His elaborately feminine dress and reclining pose on the cover for <a href="http://www.davidbowie.com/album/man-who-sold-world">The Man Who Sold the World</a> (1970) provocatively invites us into his game of gender play. </p>
<p>Bowie’s pose and self-touching gestures on the cover of <a href="http://www.davidbowie.com/album/hunky-dory">Hunky Dory</a> (1971) are drawn from those of Garbo, Hepburn and Dietrich. For the <a href="http://www.davidbowie.com/album/aladdin-sane-0">Aladdin Sane</a> (1973) album cover, Bowie mutates beyond gender. He is reborn as an exquisitely androgynous, carnal alien, who plays with the alienation of being “Other”.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88186/original/image-20150713-14724-hfdfm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88186/original/image-20150713-14724-hfdfm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88186/original/image-20150713-14724-hfdfm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88186/original/image-20150713-14724-hfdfm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88186/original/image-20150713-14724-hfdfm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88186/original/image-20150713-14724-hfdfm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88186/original/image-20150713-14724-hfdfm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88186/original/image-20150713-14724-hfdfm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover for David Bowie’s album, Hunky Dory (1971).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.amazon.com/Hunky-Dory-DAVID-BOWIE/dp/B00001OH7O">RCA Records</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Alienation and gender fluidity also play out in Bowie’s music videos. A particularly enduring gestural act is performed in the music video for <a href="https://youtu.be/UMhFyWEMlD4">Boys Keep Swinging</a> (1979), directed by <a href="http://davidmallet.com/">David Mallet</a>. </p>
<p>In the midst of his drag of Hollywood starlets, Bowie aggressively pulls his wig off and throws it off stage, then with the back of his hand, defiantly smears his lipstick across his face. Reappearing moments later as another drag persona, he repeats those gestures, as if to reinforce the gender subversion.</p>
<p>Being a master of drag, Bowie probably foresaw the cyclic reiteration of the back-handed lipstick smear. It resurfaces in the music video for <a href="https://youtu.be/E_8IXx4tsus">China Girl</a> (1983), when New Zealand model <a href="http://www.nzonscreen.com/person/geeling-ng">Geeling Ng</a> smears her lipstick in a clear echo of the Boys Keep Swinging video – but this time as an act of defiance to the racial positioning of the “exotic Other”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UMhFyWEMlD4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Boys Keep Swinging, David Bowie, 1979.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some 31 years later, at the 2014 <a href="http://www.theamas.com/">American Music Awards</a>, New Zealand singer <a href="http://lorde.co.nz/">Lorde</a> ended <a href="https://vimeo.com/112818560">her song</a> with the back-handed lipstick smear, which was regarded by <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11366449">media commentators</a> as a “punk rock move and a protest against perfect beauty”. </p>
<p>The gesture of lipstick smearing has migrated across cultures and performance mediums, where it has been inflected with <a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/why-women-are-intentionally-smearing-their-lipstick-this-week.html">alternate meanings</a>. It could be associated with <a href="https://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/tag/the-mask/">mime</a> and <a href="http://50watts.com/Kabuki-Lipstick">kabuki theatre</a> – art forms that Bowie integrated into his <a href="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2013/06/11/style/for-david-bowie-japanese-style-was-more-than-just-fashion/#.VaRNB5OqpBc">performances</a> and <a href="http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/article/TMG9933155/Kansai-Yamamoto-on-designing-for-David-Bowie-in-1973.html">costume design</a>. </p>
<p>Although the origin and meaning of the lipstick smear may be difficult to pinpoint, its enactment by Bowie has played a crucial role in characterising this gesture as transgressive, and giving it a mimetic life of its own.</p>
<p>And so the cycle of drag continues. Performers such as <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/tilda-swinton-267548">Tilda Swinton</a> and <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/jessica-lange-9373026">Jessica Lange</a>, and models such as <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/kate-moss-201298">Kate Moss</a> and <a href="http://www.iselinsteiro.no/about">Iselin Steiro</a>, have used costume, gesture and musical performance to drag Bowie. Bowie-drag proliferates stage performances, music video, fashion magazines and everyday life. </p>
<p>The fashion industry barometer has sensed a flame fuelling the zeitgeist of retro fashion and transgendered identity. Fashion designers, fans and identity-forming youth, have jumped aboard the drag-ship and <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/1940483/david-bowie-fashion-influence/">participated</a> in the cyclical re-enactment of gender transgression.</p>
<p>Just when many thought Bowie had outgrown gender play, at the age of 66 he confounded us with just how complex his gendered identity really is. In the music video for <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/david-bowie-confronts-fame-in-the-stars-are-out-tonight-20130226">The Stars (Are Out Tonight)</a> (2013), Bowie and director <a href="http://www.floriasigismondi.com/bio/">Floria Sigismondi</a> collaborated in a vicarious meta-performance in which Bowie’s prior gender play is re-cast through four androgynous co-stars. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gH7dMBcg-gE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Stars (Are Out Tonight), David Bowie, 2013.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Bowie appears the least androgynous of these characters, Steiro’s drag of the younger Bowie is achieved by emulating the costume, posture and gestures of the Thin White Duke persona. </p>
<p>Steiro’s ever-gazing presence threatens to unsettle the serenity of Bowie’s “normal” life as an older man. He is also haunted by the sycophantic goading of a celebrity couple, played by <a href="http://www.saskiadebrauw.com/info">Saskia de Brauw</a> and Australian transgender model <a href="http://andrejpejicofficial.com/">Andreja Pejic</a>.</p>
<p>Swinton is shrewdly cast as Bowie’s wife, whose domestic bliss is disturbed by the threat of her husband’s past personas. Undergoing a psychic transition, Swinton transforms into a gesturing hysteric, as though channelling the estranged bodily movement of <a href="http://cinecollage.net/surrealism.html">1920s surrealist film</a>. </p>
<p>Then, morphing into another ambiguously-gendered drag of a younger Bowie, she showers him with lipstick kisses. In Boys Keep Swinging, lipstick smearing was a defiant signifier of gender transgression. In The Stars (Are Out Tonight), Swinton’s lipstick kisses suggest the unification of femininity and masculinity within an individual. </p>
<p>With this ironic act of self-love, the ghosts of Bowie’s past personas reposition themselves, leaving him in peace. Re-asserting himself as the king of drag, Bowie has passed on the drag-torch to others. </p>
<p>Thanks to Bowie and his collaborators, the flame of gender transgression continues to burn brightly.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><em>Lisa Perrott will present at the David Bowie symposium, The Stardom and Celebrity of David Bowie, as part of the David Bowie is exhibition at ACMI, on July 18. Details <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/live-events/talks-performances/the-stardom-and-celebrity-of-david-bowie/">here</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>David Bowie is will be exhibited at ACMI, Melbourne, from July 16 to November 1. Details <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/exhibitions/bowie/">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Perrott will deliver a presentation paper at the Bowie Symposium held at the ACMI.</span></em></p>
David Bowie has long confounded us with enigmatic acts of gender transgression, with gestures and personas drawn from Hollywood stars, literature and avant-garde art. That flame still burns brightly.
Lisa Perrott, Senior Lecturer of Screen and Media Studies, University of Waikato
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/42052
2015-07-08T20:06:30Z
2015-07-08T20:06:30Z
Back then, and now – just who is David Bowie?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87583/original/image-20150707-1297-c9lph4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Our lives are often shaped and made meaningful by the stars and celebrities who enter them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Stephanie Pilick</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Rebel Rebel, you’ve torn your dress<br>
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess<br>
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?<br>
Hot tramp, I love you so!<br></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our lives are often shaped and made meaningful by the stars and celebrities who enter them. Our bedrooms can become shrines of longing, identification and desire, and the friends we make and the lovers we take can gravitate around the famous figure we together so admire. </p>
<p>For the writers of this piece, David Bowie is one such star-man: his music, lyrics, writings and performances are felt to wrap themselves around their youth, their rebellion, their hurt, and their love. </p>
<p>When Bowie sang of aliens, cross-dressed, or emptied himself of colour and light, he demonstrated the power that music, fashion and performance can have in creating the landscape of endless possibility for those who danced in his long if glittering shadow.</p>
<p>That Bowie has influenced many lives is undeniable. For more than four decades he has represented restless change, social rebellion and artistic innovation. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.openculture.com/2012/09/ithe_story_of_ziggy_stardusti_how_david_bowie_created_the_character_that_made_him_famous.html">Ziggy</a> partied and died too young. <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/aladdin-sane-mw0000247727">Aladdin Sane</a> swam in his own melancholia and depression. The beautifully suited <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/my/tvc15/faq.html">Thin White Duke</a> overdosed on coke and power. And one-eyed <a href="http://www.wired.com/2010/09/david-bowie/">Halloween Jack</a> became a fairground wild animal of unlimited potentiality.</p>
<p>In each image, one witnesses the crystalisation of difference, of alienation and marginalisation, and yet within each strutting incarnation is also an open, carnal defiance of artistic and social norms. </p>
<p>Few figures have been able to straddle the art/popular culture nexus as well as David Bowie. </p>
<p>Few figures have demonstrated so exactly the art of rebellion. </p>
<p>In the terrible shocks and jolts that emerge from having to grow up into a banal and conforming world, Bowie gave each of the writers the means to exist freely, openly, and with an unearthly politics that allowed them to challenge gender and sexual norms. </p>
<h2>Exhibiting the exhibitionist</h2>
<p>The question is often asked – just who is Bowie? The answer is never a simple one: his polysemy and contradictory and challenging masks render him a figure of diversity and confusion – which is of course part of his attraction – and mean he simply cannot be defined. He exists in a carnival of exhibitionism, something that continues to this day.</p>
<p>His cultural and artistic currency is presently at an all time high with his first album in almost a decade. <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17855-david-bowie-the-next-day/">The Next Day</a> (2013) reviewed as one of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/david-bowie-album-review--track-by-track-the-starman-pulls-off-the-greatest-comeback-album-in-rocknroll-history-with-the-next-day-8510608.html">the greatest rock comebacks ever</a>; the release of a series of portentous music videos that recall and reflect upon his artistic career; the recently released, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/songreviews/david-bowie-sue-or-in-a-season-of-crime-20141118">Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)</a> from his compilation album spanning 50 years of recorded work on <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20004-david-bowie-nothing-has-changed/">Nothing Has Changed</a> (2014), and the record-breaking <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/exhibitions/bowie/">David Bowie Is</a> global exhibition tour, which opens at the ACMI in Melbourne on July 16.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87574/original/image-20150707-1306-19fcnvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87574/original/image-20150707-1306-19fcnvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87574/original/image-20150707-1306-19fcnvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87574/original/image-20150707-1306-19fcnvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87574/original/image-20150707-1306-19fcnvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87574/original/image-20150707-1306-19fcnvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87574/original/image-20150707-1306-19fcnvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87574/original/image-20150707-1306-19fcnvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Striped bodysuit for Aladdin Sane tour, 1973. Design by Kansai Yamamoto Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photography by Masayoshi Sukita © Sukita / The David Bowie Archive</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now seen by more than 1 million people worldwide, the exhibition will include more than 50 legendary costumes, original stage set designs, handwritten lyric sheets, album artwork, rare film, video and photographs, and interviews with collaborators. The David Bowie Is program of events incorporates film, live talks, music, live performances and other creative works. It is the must-see event of the winter season.</p>
<p>Nested within this cornucopia of exhibition delights is a two-day multidiscipline symposium, <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/live-events/talks-performances/the-stardom-and-celebrity-of-david-bowie/">The Stardom and Celebrity of David Bowie</a> (July 17-18). </p>
<p>The symposium – at which both writers of this piece are participating – explores an array of topics including Bowie’s most interesting artistic collaborations; his performative history in mime, theatre and film; the poetic sensibility of his cut and mix lyrics; and fashion and artistic trends and their influences on his own unmasked “transgressions” of sexuality, race and class. </p>
<p>In addition, a number of creative artists will respond to Bowie’s work through their own practice. Installation artist <a href="http://www.jamie-oconnell.com/">Jamie O’Connell</a> will calibrate a photocopier so that it counts the number of times a piece of Bowie memorabilia is auctioned and bought in the world. In this piece, Bowie becomes the star who is sold to the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87723/original/image-20150708-31572-4eb2tk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87723/original/image-20150708-31572-4eb2tk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87723/original/image-20150708-31572-4eb2tk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87723/original/image-20150708-31572-4eb2tk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87723/original/image-20150708-31572-4eb2tk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87723/original/image-20150708-31572-4eb2tk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87723/original/image-20150708-31572-4eb2tk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87723/original/image-20150708-31572-4eb2tk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Original photography for the Earthling album cover, 1997.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photograph by Frank W Ockenfels 3, © Frank W Ockenfels 3</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is easy to be mesmerised by Bowie’s powerful visuality in a media saturated world where the role of the ocular is increasingly essential to thinking across a range of motifs. We sometimes see too much but are asked to feel too little. Bowie, by contrast, turns seeing upside down, and wraps the strings of feeling around his envisioned worlds and characters.</p>
<p>A fascinating artist, <a href="http://tanjastark.com/">Tanja Stark</a>, draws on visual expression to present her creative work that places strong emphasis on Bowie’s visionary opus. Visitors are offered a walk-through sonic and visual labyrinth as a means to explore the archetypal theme of the profound personal and sometimes mysterious journey. Stark’s work acts to reflect the impressions left by Bowie’s presentation of the scintilla sublime or those mesmerising moments which make one swoon.</p>
<p>By way of concentrating research debate and critical analysis around Bowie’s music, art and video work, the symposium offers a full circumnavigation of the significant implications of his incredible oeuvre, and deals with notions of “stardom” more broadly. </p>
<p>So, who is David Bowie? </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m not a prophet<br>
or a Stone Age man<br>
Just a mortal<br>
with the potential of a superman<br>
I’m living on</p>
</blockquote>
<p><br>
<br>
<em>David Bowie Is will be at ACMI, Melbourne, from July 16 to November 1. Details <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/exhibitions/bowie/">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Redmond is one of the organizers of, and will deliver a presentation paper at, the Bowie Symposium held at the ACMI</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Toija Cinque does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
When Bowie sang of aliens, cross-dressed, or emptied himself of colour and light, he demonstrated the power that music, fashion and performance can have in creating a landscape of endless possibility.
Sean Redmond, Professor of Screen and Design, Deakin University
Toija Cinque, Senior Lecturer, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.