IVT105

IVT105/

Objective and Subjective Seeing / Self-Portrait Assignment

Definitions:

objective (adjective): based on real facts and not influenced by personal beliefs or feelings. objective reality: having reality independent of the mind

objectivity (in reason): based in a separate, distant, and unbiased point of view, such that concepts discussed are treated as objects.

objectivity (in science): empirical evidence, observation and experimentation in the physical world is conducive to the verification of scientific judgments. These methods of reasoning in science address the objectivity or neutrality of their theses or theories.

subjective (adjective): influenced by or based on personal beliefs or feelings, rather than based on facts, involving or deriving from sense perception or experience with actual objects , conditions, or phenomena

subjectivity (in reason): subjectivity refers to the property of perceptions, arguments, and language as being based in a subject's point of view, and hence influenced in accordance with a particular bias. Its opposite property is objectivity.

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, :http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Subjectivity&oldid=131857619

We have been investigating how human vision might or might not be an objective (mechanical?) act. Artists have different attitudes about vision and this is nowhere more self-evident than in the classic act of self-seeing, the self-portrait. We are studying three artists (Chuck Close, Alberto Giacometti, and Roni Horn) and thinking about how their very different approaches to portraiture stem from fundamentally different ideas about vision and representation. Close aims to treat vision as an act of information gathering, attempting to objectify the process. Giacometti seems to be trying to capture the haunting presence of his own biased (subjective) experience of looking each time he sculpts or draws from himself or his sitter. Roni Horn is somewhere in the middle as she uses photo mechanical means to objectively document her subject but then throws that fixed presence into doubt by reminding us of the flux inherent in time and perception. Other artists creating self-portraits we looked at include Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Max Beckman, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, and Lucas Samaras.

1. Create 2 Self-Portraits:

In this assignment you will be challenged to create two self-portraits where your aim is to 1) create a work by any means that you think will represent you in the most objective way and 2) conversely, create a second self-portrait that is the most subjective. You may use any materials or process you choose, your choices should be based on your specific definitions of objectivity and subjectivity. These two artworks should not just passively enact your definitions, but rather be taken to a point where they become a statement about attitudes of self-seeing. In fact, I will expect you to formulate a specific definition/idea of both these concepts and create artworks that pursue these specific definitions.

Submit: Present artworks for in-class critique (digital works should be submitted by email as jpegs)

2. Self-assessment (no less than two pages)

Summarize your goals and expressive intentions:

· How you have specifically defined subjective and objective in the context of this assignment. Explain how each work manifests your definitions including how the specific choices you’ve made in creating each work achieve your goals.

Reconsider specific decisions:

· Given these goals, what were some of the most and least successful aspects of your artwork?

· How could you have handled the least successful aspects better? (be specific as possible).

Submit: This assignment, prefaced by this assignment page, should be printed for your notebooks