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November 4, 2009
Robert and Helen,
The origin of the ’ kanon’ was Polyclitus’s system of proportion for the sculpture Doriphorus.
Anon, bowles
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Robert Mantho’s Blog- New Start November 7, 2010O.K. so now this blog is going to my thoughts about life, sort of like the book I never wrote. I know that this is not an original idea, and I don’t really expect anyone to read it. It is just that I want to record some things that I want to say publicly, not like a [...]robert
- New Start November 7, 2010
- Helen McCormack’s Blog
- New skills and assessment April 28, 2010Observing other people at their work is a luxury. Over the past few months I have indulged in listening and watching fellow academics and colleagues presenting their recent ideas in a variety of different places, from the Association of Art Historians Annual Conference in Glasgow and the GI events still going on in the city [...]helenmccormack
- Two weeks later … November 16, 2009Helen McCormack, November 16th 2009. It has taken me a long time to get down to writing my thoughts on our meeting at the abode. This is partly due to my hectic family life and partly through my own hesitancy at putting these thoughts down on a blog. I enjoyed the three days that we [...]helenmccormack
- Hello November 4, 2009Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!helenmccormack
- New skills and assessment April 28, 2010
November 4, 2009 at 12:05 pm
O.K., so that is good to know. While I have always been interested in proportion and the idea of historical influences, not suprisingly I am a passionate believer in the avante garde. Obviously, as I get older I am more and more concerned about the ‘emperor’s new clothes’ problem. What I find is that inevitably if I pursue the context of the work, I find something interesting. Like conceptual art, when I first saw this stuff, I was like what a bunch of crap. But now I find myself fascinated by various people working in this way. Also, as to the canon (is that the right way to spell it), I am not sure that I have a problem with seeing certain pieces of art are important, but I can also see the point of people who resist privleging things to the exclusion of other people’s ideas. Have to go now, more later.
November 5, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Robert
I’m sending you the thoughts I posted on the wordpress (which I won’t do in the future), I’ll try and keep this blog business to stuff that’s good to know.
With thanks,
bowles
I can understand that by my abrupt and resentment charged words, will have caused some of my colleagues to be taken aback. Unexpectedly, I had some profound issues with the ‘groups’ resolved, (being different, on the outer) that reached far back into childhood. This underlying issue of being an outsider coupled with the very real resentment I feel with an art world which has turned its back on the well spring of creativity, produced a barely controllable geyser of fury. And I apologise to everyone who felt that torrent.
As a group I do think we failed to address Joachim’s line of reasoning that “these are just words”, that the jargon, so prevalent in theoretical works, can impede/get in the way of meaning, a courageous stand to take on, in an academic setting. Looking back, it was the ideal time to have questioned the parroting of the educational jargon.
These rarefied buzz words are used as baskets/hold alls of meaning, their ambiguity making for careless application while endowing the user with unfounded competence. Take the word ‘Contextualise’ as an example, its general nature does tend to blur meaning when simpler direct words offer more substance. Say framework or circumstance, have more distinct meanings (at least in a context!).
Jochim also spoke of a reformed education strategy in Denmark where the system intervened to prevent student failure and how the level of student performance had risen to meet that aim. It would be a good idea to examine this and other such instances of successful intervention.