Linear perspective has long been used to create the illusion of three-dimensional space on the picture plane. One of its central axioms comes from Euclidean geometry and holds that all parallel... Show moreLinear perspective has long been used to create the illusion of three-dimensional space on the picture plane. One of its central axioms comes from Euclidean geometry and holds that all parallel lines converge in a single vanishing point. Although linear perspective provided the painter with a means to organize the painting, the question is whether the gaze of the beholder is also affected by the underlying structure of linear perspective: for instance, in such a way that the orthogonals leading to the vanishing point also automatically guides the beholder’s gaze. This was researched during a pilot study by means of an eye-tracking experiment at the Lab for Cognitive Research in Art History (CReA) of the University of Vienna. It appears that in some compositions the vanishing point attracts the view of the participant. This effect is more significant when the vanishing point coincides with the central vertical axis of the painting, but is even stronger when the vanishing point also coincides with a major visual feature such as an object or figure. The latter calls into question what exactly attracts the gaze of the viewer, i.e., what comes first: the geometrical construct of the vanishing point or the visual feature? Show less
In this paper processes of appropriation and commodification are discussed from the perspective of subcultures and their relation to class. Dr. Martens boots are discussed as a specific case-study.... Show moreIn this paper processes of appropriation and commodification are discussed from the perspective of subcultures and their relation to class. Dr. Martens boots are discussed as a specific case-study. They were appropriated in the 1960s by British Skinheads to signify their working-classness. Besides being functional, design objects are apparently endowed with meaning and these can vary depending on different modes of appearance, on different styles. Today Dr. Martens, is primarily a fashion-item. This calls into question to what extent commercialization undermines the potential of design objects to be endowed with meaning. By critically discussing recent scholarly literature on subcultures and style I will explain how in recent decades the dynamics of the neo-liberal market economy with its emphasis on consumption, facilitated a further commodification of style-objects as desirable value-objects. What will be argued successively is that appropriation and commodification in late capitalist society might obscure but not obliterate the social realities of class that lie hidden beneath the flux of images in which we are engulfed today. Show less
Besides the official care for cultural heritage on Java, which in the 1920s and 1930s was under the responsibility of the Dutch Archeological Service, different attitudes towards heritage are... Show moreBesides the official care for cultural heritage on Java, which in the 1920s and 1930s was under the responsibility of the Dutch Archeological Service, different attitudes towards heritage are identified of which three are discussed more elaborately using three typical case studies. It will become clear how for the local population on Java statues and sites were still places of worship where offerings were made and rituals performed. This use of heritage often clashed with repairs undertaken by the Archeological Service, for instance, for constructional reasons, but which in practice sealed off the heritage for local people for whom it was a site of veneration still. On the other hand, local people sometimes also deliebrately destroyed heritage such as statues who would have had a negative agency. This chapter aims to contribute to how such responses and attitudes should be explained and what questions need to be addressed further to understand the meaning of cultural heritage for the people living nearby heritage sites to whom they are more than reminders of an ancient past. Show less
In this article the social and aesthetical potential of community art will be addressed from the perspective of how space, place and community relate to material manifestations within urban... Show moreIn this article the social and aesthetical potential of community art will be addressed from the perspective of how space, place and community relate to material manifestations within urban community art projects. As a case-study two installation works by Dutch artist Sara Vrugt will be discussed. Since 2010, Vrugt, an autonomous artist originally trained in the textile arts, has developed a number of community art projects in which she does not refrain from addressing societal issues. Her textiles installation Look at You 05, addressed self-representation through social media. This work was embroidered by two-hundred people from a local community in The Hague over the course of three months and was shaped into an installation in the form of a four-meter-high elongated embroidery of abstractions of social media profile pictures, which was folded into a spiral to create a spatial structure through which the viewers could walk and watch the work as it were unfold. Vrugt’s latest project 100.000 trees concerns climate change and is another embroidery installation work containing one-hundred embraided trees that were composed in four different pop-up studios. The embraided trees in the work refer to the one-hundred thousand trees that as part of the project will actually be planted. I will approach both these installations from a notion, derived from Gottfried Semper, of weaving as the primordial craft which underlies the creation of spatial surface and thereby that of architectural space as well as place. I will argue these works provide a place for the community members in which their collective effort manifest through the work’s embroidered surface: a surface that creates both a space and place for community members as viewers, makers, and active participants within the spatial and social relations in the community to which they belong and to which the artwork relates. Show less
In diesem Kapitel beschäftige ich mich mit Möglichkeiten und Grenzen unterschied- licher Strategien, mit denen Architekten und Stadtplaner neue Technologien und Materialien einsetzen und... Show moreIn diesem Kapitel beschäftige ich mich mit Möglichkeiten und Grenzen unterschied- licher Strategien, mit denen Architekten und Stadtplaner neue Technologien und Materialien einsetzen und alternative Formen der Kooperation nutzen, um ein Re- pertoire an Formen für eines tieferes Verständnis der Beziehungen von gebauter und natürlicher Umwelt zu entwickeln. Die Überlegungen speisen sich aus der seit der vielzitierten Krise der Moderne geäußerten Skepsis gegenüber großmaßstäblichen Visionen zu Architektur und Städtebau. Zudem stellt sich angesichts der globalen Phänomene von Überkonsum und Klimawandel gegenwärtig die Frage, wie die gebaute Umwelt in einer nachhaltigeren und weniger ressourcenintensiven Weise gestaltet und organisiert werden sollte. Bisher wird Nachhaltigkeit vor allem im Hinblick auf Kosten und Nutzen diskutiert und droht ausschließlich instrumentalis- tisch verstanden zu werden. Als Kunst- und Architekturhistoriker denke ich, dass das Konzept der Nachhaltigkeit um einen formbezogenen Kontext erweitert werden könnte. Insbesondere möchte ich darauf eingehen, inwieweit die Entwicklung eines zukünftigen Formenrepertoires neue übergreifende (Autoritäts-)Visionen zur Archi- tektur, Stadtplanung und ästhetischer Form erfordert oder gar rechtfertigt, oder ob Architekten und Stadtplaner sich mit gesellschaftlichen Akteursgruppen verbindensollten. Show less
In deze thesis wordt het argument verdedigd dat de manier waarop geometrische patronen als decoraties functioneren precies laat zien hoe representatie werkt. Het argument ontvouwt zich onder... Show moreIn deze thesis wordt het argument verdedigd dat de manier waarop geometrische patronen als decoraties functioneren precies laat zien hoe representatie werkt. Het argument ontvouwt zich onder meer door middel van een uitgebreide analyse van het recente ‘core knowledge’ paradigma uit de cognitieve psychologie. Core knowledge onderzoekers stellen dat culturele fenomenen zoals muziek, taal en visuele patronen, geworteld zijn in aangeboren kennissystemen bijvoorbeeld op het gebied van geometrie en nummer. Hieruit wordt duidelijk dat iedereen over dezelfde mentale bouwstenen beschikt om abstracte patronen te herkennen en te maken. Een analyse van onderzoek uit de antropologie en de semiotiek toont aan dat ook het vermogen om abstracte tekens als representatie van een ander object, lichaam of idee te zien, in elk mens aanwezig moet zijn. Met behulp van theorieën over representatie uit de kunstgeschiedenis, zoals die van Leon Battista Alberti en Gottfried Semper, wordt ten slotte duidelijk hoe het maakproces verloopt door middel waarvan abstracte tekens representaties worden. Geconcludeerd wordt dat als zodanig geometrisch decoratieve patronen op z’n minst en per definitie altijd naar een menselijke maker verwijzen en daarmee naar intentionaliteit. Show less
