Martin Heidegger

"Being and Time" by Martin Heidegger was suggested to me by my tutor as part of my assignment 2 feedback. He also recommended an accompanying book "Heidegger Re-framed" by Barbara Bolt as a key to unlocking this difficult philosophical read. I must say that I struggled with both texts which appeared to write about "Das Sein" Heidegger's German term for those moments that catch us unaware and make us realise the strangeness of the world we live in - the things we accept as normal about our lives when they are in fact anything but. I had to get to grips with other terms, such as, "Das Nichts" meaning that we are heading towards "the nothing" and also the concept of being "thrown" into the world where we are forced into social and ideological situations from birth that have little to do with who we are as individuals.

The Barbara Bolt book also looks at Heidegger's thoughts on making art. That by handling, using, and becoming familiar with the tools to make art we can perceive the inherent message of a piece that utilises praxical rather than conceptual knowledge. In other words, by thinking of a concept before attempting to make an art piece the inner message will be hidden until we pick up the tools and handle the piece of work. Only then will thoughts and ideas occur to us that will help unlock the ideas within that would never have occurred to us just by thought alone. There is a lot of truth in this statement and the first few assignments of this module are based around creative play, which indirectly adhere to these concepts.

The Heidegger text is known to be a very difficult read and in the end I had to enlist the help of other OCA students. My Facebook post asking for help provided a link to a set of youtube videos explaining the work of Heidegger and broke down his ideas into easy to understand chunks. I was then able to go back to my reading and figure out the more complicated texts.

I think the attempt was worthwhile although I will definitely need to go back and re-read the texts again.


Heidegger - youtube short video

Google Hangout - BoW update

Yesterday's Google student hangout was most productive. I submitted the below prints for discussion on my Body of Work up to this point (Assignment 3). The work was received positively with various questions, suggestions and points of view. I came away with a number of thoughts and some pointers that will help me move forward to assignment 4. It is always interesting to get another students opinion on the work.

Our discussion covered a number of topics relating to Nazi concentration camps and the nature of humanity. A very rewarding session I think.

Gregory Crewdson - Cathedral of the Pines

I attended the OCA study day at the Photographer's Gallery recently. I must admit I was expecting to see more of the same with regard to Gregory Credson's work. I was pleasantly surprised. I think most photography students become familiar with his Twilight series early on in their studies and then move onto other interests as they progress. The Cathedral of the Pines is more subtle than his previous work. Maybe it is the reduced colour palette or the all encompassing mist that seems to pervade most of the outdoor scenes. Most of the images are of interiors, a solitary figure pauses to contemplate, their gaze turned inwards. Through windows or doorways the landscape is partly visible and the mist is laden with meaning.

I found it interesting during the post student discussion at the pub how many students had attached different readings to the ambiguous expressions of the subjects. Ironic that in most of the images a half empty glass sat on side tables or in a corner. For a glass half-empty person like myself (I hate to admit that!) I read, sorrow, anxiety, trepidation, longing, on the looks of the characters. Because of this reading I saw the mist as forbidding and ominous. That even if the characters were to step outside their oppressive houses there would be nowhere to escape to. So I was quite surprised when our tutor, Jayne, said that she read the mist as hopeful. That the characters were at a turning point and I assume she saw that turning point as a moment in which the character moved forward in a positive way.

I enjoyed seeing the large scale of the images and that the series was all in one place across four floors. I was pleasantly surprised to re-engage with Gregory Crewdson's work.