audio-tour-ideas

Audio Tours: Ideas for / Ways of Doing ="Official" Story= toc There is a lot to say about any "work of art," including the "art" you've "found" on the Cypress College campus. Here are some traditional ways of talking about art:

Description
Description of your artwork, it's subject matter and the elements you see:

Basic Information
You should include information on your artwork such as:
 * Artist - Name, Nationality, Dates of Birth & Death
 * Artwork - Title, Date, Dimensions, Medium & Technique
 * Museum - How and when did this museum acquire this work? Where was it before? Is the history of the work from the artist's hand all the way to this museum in 2008 known?

Formal Elements
Describe how the artist uses the elements of art within this piece:
 * Line
 * Space
 * Color, Color Scheme, Complementary Colors? Analogous Colors?
 * Texture
 * Light & Dark, Value, Contrast
 * Shape, Volume, Mass
 * Time & Motion

Design Principles
Describe how the artist uses the principles of design within this piece:
 * Emphasis / Focal Point
 * Balance, Symmetry, Asymmetry
 * Scale & Proportion
 * Unity & Variety
 * Rhythm, Repetition

Content & Meaning

 * Context, Content, Meaning:**
 * Cultural & Historical Context of your piece
 * Can you categorize it within a stylistic period?
 * What is the content? What is going on?
 * Aside from any literal narrative, does your work have a subtext?
 * Is the artwork open and inviting of various interpretations? Or does it have an integrity that resists arbitrary or capricious readings?
 * Are there themes in this work? Is there symbolism? Iconography?
 * What do you think the artist wants the viewer to feel?
 * What is the meaning of the work? What is the artist trying to say? Is s/he successful?

1911, oil on canvas, about 6.5' x 5', Museum of Modern Art, New York
 * //I and the Village,// Marc Chagall**

From //Janson's History of Art: The Western Tradition// 7th Ed by Davies et. al. Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007 "...Russian Marc Chagall (1887-1985)... embraced Cubist structure in many of his works. With its ability to juxtapose and integrate the most disparate objects, Cubism was a perfect tool for creating dreamlike, fantasy worlds. Chagall grew up in the Jewish quarter of Vitebsk, and his paintings evoke simpler times, values, and rituals. In 1910, Chagall moved to Paris, where he immediately converted to Cubism, as seen in //I and the Village.// But this dream is hardly a cubist intellectual dissection of form. Using the saturated colors of a stained-glass window and the simple shapes of Russian folk art, Chagall conjures up the most elemental issues of life itself. Man and animal are equated in almost mirrorlike symmetry, and the translucent, ephemeral quality of their heads makes the scene appear ethereal and mystical. The circular composition symbolizes the cycle of life, with birth as the blooming bush and death as the farmer carrying a scythe. Chagall adamantly denied any links to storytelling or fairytales in his paintings. Instead his dreamscapes are a cubist kaleidoscope of objects and incidents he considered to be of elemental significance."
 * Here's a sample of the //"official story:"//**

=Personal Narrative= The Janson text on this painting is excellent. Still there are other perspectives / other responses, possible to this work. Here is an excellent personal "read" of the same painting from a New York museum goer: //Right-click to download MP3//

Or, click to play now: media type="custom" key="2767197"

=Satire / Critique= The master of //Institutional Critique// is Andrea Fraser.

Museum Highlights
//Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1989:// Good afternoon. My name is Jane Castleton, and I'd like to welcome all of you to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I'll be your guide today as we explore the museum, uh, its history, and its collection.

Our tour today is a collection tour - it's called "Museum Highlights" - and we'll be focusing on some of the rooms in the Museum today, uh, the Museum's famous period rooms; dining rooms, coat rooms, et cetera, rest rooms...

And isn't this a handsome drinking fountain! Hmm, "... a work of astonishing economy and monumentality," "it boldly contrasts with the severe and highly stylized productions of this form." Uh, notice, uh... "The massiveness... the vast, uh... most ambitious and resolved!" Graceful, mythological, life-size...

Official Welcome
//2001:// Good Evening. Hello Everyone.

I do know many of you, but I'll introduce myself anyway. I'm Andrea Fraser, and I'd like to thank you for coming to this presentation of my project for the MICA Foundation. It's called "Official Welcome" and, as most of you have probably guessed from the cameras and the lights, this is it. This is "Official Welcome."

So, I'm happy, I'm pleased, I'm honored, I'm privileged, I'm really thrilled, really, to welcome you, officially, to Barbara and Howard's lliving room...

I have to begin by saying that I've knows Barbara and Howard for many years - more than a decade. For most of those years, Barbara and Howard were my only collectors. Even when I didn't want collectors, when I was against the whole idea that art was bought and sold, they were there, trying to buy.

I used to think I was changing the world...

I really like that piece Nauman did - you know that piece? Um, "The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths." And you go, oh, yeah, great. And then you go, oh God, oh fuck, you know, what is this shit.

No, I love saying a few words at events like this.

Okay, here're a few more words. How about, "Kiss my fucking ass!" That's a great statement anywhere, right? Right?! Well, why don't you all kiss my fucking ass!

Wonderful Place
"Isn't This a Wonderful Place" //Bilbao, 2003:// As you look around, you'll see that every surface in this space curves. Only the floor is straight. These curves are gentle, but in their huge scale, powerfully sensual. You'll see people going up to the walls and stroking them. You might feel the desire to do so yourself...

Let's take a closer look at one of the stone-clad pillars in this space... Go right up to it. This pillar is clad in panels of limestone. Run your hand over them. Squint along the surface. Feel how smooth it is.

=Alternate Realization= The best known artist for //Alternate Realization of a Space// is probably Janet Cardiff. Here's a sample of her work to inspire you: Right-click to download MP3 [|http://www.csulb.edu/~gzucman/audio/Cardiff-LouisianaWalk.mp3]

Or, click to play now: media type="custom" key="2767061"