Category Archives: Blog post #2

Blog #2

The first image is the picture of a famous bronze ware in China. This bronze ware named “Copper Flying Horse”in English was from the Eastern Han Dynasty which is about 1800 years from now. It was found in a grave of a general lived in that period. This artwork shows us there is a running horse whose one foot rests on a flying swallow. It seems that this horse is flying on the sky. And this picture of it was taken in Gansu Provincial Museum. Through this picture, its metallic luster shows me the honor of that great general. The muscle of this horse indicates us that it is a warhorse. Maybe 1800 years ago, it accompanied its ower to fight for their kingdom to agasint enemy. It is impossible for a horse to fly in the sky in the real life. But in the imaginary world, it can. Its flying pose shows the best wishes of the ancients at that time—-people’s intense curiousity to the sky. They wish they could be a flying horse to explore the unknow in outer space. Take advantage of the invention of camera, I could see such an outstanding artwork on my screen. By watching the introduction video of it, I could follow the lead of camera to appreciate its detail and know so many backgrouds and story of it.

The second image is the symbol of Chinese tourism inspired by this extraordinary artwork. Chinese National Tourism Administration use the image of “Copper Flying Horse” as our symbol for three reasons. First, it symbolizes that Chinese tourism is full of glory, with bright futuer. Secondly, horses have played a very important role in China from ancient times to the present. With the meaning of endeavor, tourists can enjoy travelling in China. Thirdly, its peerless status in broze also symbolizes Chinese splendid cultural history for thousands of year. And this logo gives “Copper Flying Horse” a new meaning. Its a kind of reproduction of this artwork, it not only conveys the ancients best wishes for human’s exploration, but also expresses the desire for the better future of Chinese tourism.

camera vs real life

Pictures have reached a more persuasive age. On social media, on the Internet, images are very popular. Colorful pictures attract people. People think what they see is true, but it’s just the opposite. In the book “Smart History”, art is created with lines, colors, and shapes. People use it in many ways. Now the advent of high technology has created many opportunities for false information. They spread so fast that they spread faster than anyone could have imagined or controlled. For example, advertising. advertising makes perfect moments that mislead many people because using pictures or videos can convey a message in the most direct way. The most persuasive ones that we see everyday. When people see this advisement  youtube.com,  How do we feel? The direct uses clothing, hair, environment, tells a story. There is no gorgeous language in front of the camera, but it is especially close to life and perfect music. It’s a perfect artwork, but it also gives some inappropriate information. What about food in real life?  romantic? beautiful as advertised? There is a big gap between the picture and real life. The lens, the music, the technology can completely change the facts. Cameras can record time or beautiful moments, but when people use the camera, the camera has people’s ideas. So I think sometimes the camera or the machine is innocent, and the big problem is people who develop the technology and operate the technology.

Expectation vs reality - We try out the big fast food chains to ...

Berger’s Ways of Seeing and Starry Night abused

 

Van Gogh’s Starry Night is one of the most famous and recognizable paintings in the world. Its value is priceless and seeing in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City is truly a magical sensation. Berger explains this is partly due to its monetary value. This may be true, but to see it in its silence and stillness, after seeing it everywhere from books to coffee mugs, the real thing transcends just its rarity and authenticity. Starry Night has a brilliance in it’s dark contrasting colors and brushstrokes that are lost in most prints. Berger correctly explains how photography has changed that. Now art can be used or abused as its own language by someone other than the artist. I think John would shudder to see the effects of not just photography but now years after his video, Photoshop and the ability to not only reproduce but severely alter an image into a completely different image. In this ‘meme’ Starry Night has been altered as a joke to make people laugh on the internet. It has been photoshopped so someone can increase their social media presence. Van Gogh painted this scene in a severe depression in a mental hospital. He never intended for his painting to be used as a language of humor. Berger uses the camera as the culprit for this trend of manipulation of art, but I’d argue it goes well beyond the camera. It’s modern technology that is the true offender. If Berger had experienced the digital world, he would see art being metamorphized not just by its context but by actual true digital manipulation. He would see his theory proven to an extreme he never imagined when he filmed this 40-50 years ago. Images today’s day are so accessible to manipulation that anybody with a computer can abuse art for their own purpose. It has ultimately changed the value of visual art and stripped it of its original meaning.

Ways of seeing blog post #2

According to John Berger in his essay “Ways of Seeing” the way that a painting is viewed by some may already be distorted prior to analyzing it because we are not viewing the original piece. Seeing comes before words. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. The information that comes from the silence of a painting is only truly experienced when looking at the original work rather than a reproduction of it. The original work speaks to you in a way that a reproduction is not able to. Berger says this clearly when he states: Original paintings are silent and still in a sense that information never is. Even a reproduction hung on a wall is not comparable in this respect for in the original the silence and stillness permeate the actual material, the paint, in which one follows the traces of the painter’s immediate gestures. An example of a painting that the camera and the possibility of recreating and copying the image made very popular is Van Gogh’s starry night. It is debatably one of the world’s most widely-known painting even though only a select people have been to the museum of New York to see the original. This painting has become so popular that people try to recreate it, add their own touches to it, and even do things like design clothes with the painting on it. In this case, the camera and remediation of the painting, made the painting extremely popular, as well as the original. The original piece because it’s widely known, loses some of that mysteriousness that Berger talked about, but the market value of the painting is so high because it’s very popular.