Chapter 7, Biology and Crime: Degeneracy and the Visual Trace

fin de siecle

 [fan duh sye-kl^uh]

The Ponce de Leon, St. Augustine, Florida, Postcard, Gilded Age.  Extravagant displays of wealth and excess.  Civil War.  Native peoples.  Loss of civil rights - Reconstruction Period.

Victorian and Edwardian era.  Lord Frederick Leighton, Flaming June, oil on canvas, 1895.  Oleander branch.
Current location Ponce Museum of Art, Puerto Rico.

The Scream, Edvard Munch, painted in 1893.

Klimt, The Kiss, oil on canvas, 1908.

Egon Schiele, Portrait of Klimt, 1913.

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918).  Vienna.   Above image, Judith, 1901, oil on canvas.  Art Noveau.

Egon Schiele

Sarah Bernhardt by Mucha, poster, 1894. Art Nouveau.

Sarah Bernhardt, 1865.

Flagler College Dining Hall.  Louis Comfort Tiffany.  Art Nouveau.

Mistinguett 1875-1956.  Moulin Rouge performer.

Exiting the Moulin Rouge, about 1900.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Poster for Moulin Rouge, 1891.  "Red Mill".  Cabaret built 1889, Paris.
More vintage ads from 1890's here.

Belle Epoque "Beautiful Era".

Paris.  How The Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis.  Social reformer. Social documentary photographer.  Flash photography.  James Fenimore Cooper.  Theodore Roosevelt.

New York

Camera Obscura - 1814, first photographic image, 8 hours of light exposure, later faded.  Image above circa 1820.  Link here for more info and images on camera obscura.

Daguerreotype - 1837, first image that was fixed, did not fade, under 30 minutes exposure time.

Collects evidence through observation.  Ink stain,  shape and size of footprints.

Link here for NPR article.

Ovary Compressor

Source is Oxford Journals.  Link here.

A demonstration by Charcot, 1885.

Drawing by Charcot

We can understand how it is, that as soon as some melancholy state passes through the brain, there occurs a just perceptible drawing down of the corners of the mouth, or a slight raising up of the inner ends of the eyebrows, or both movements combined, and immediately afterwards a slight suffusion of tears. (…) The above actions may be considered as vestiges of the screaming fits, which are so frequent and prolonged during infancy. 
— Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882. The expression of the emotions in man and animals ; with photographic and other illustrations. London: John Murray, 1872
Source Brown University Library Exhibits.  Link here.

The Arch

Hippocrates 460-377 b.c., Greek Physician

Passionate Attitudes, 1995, Threadwaxing Space, New York

The impulse behind this piece is the work of 19th century neurophysiologist J. M. Charcot, who worked at Salpetriere Hospital in Paris. Charcot studied the attacks in his female patients of what the medical establishment called "hysteria". Charcot theorized that "hysteria" was caused by a lesion in the brain. But because he could never actually locate this lesion, he suspected the female patient's body of playing a confounding theatrical game to frustrate his research. The four central camera obscuras in this piece are both beds and cameras. The interior space of the bed into which the viewer enters, contains a moving image projection in black and white, generated by light hitting the objects outside and passing through a lens. Whatever is "known" of the objects outside, this knowledge is altered once inside the camera obscura. Although in Charcot's case the camera was the instrument of classification and knowledge (he had hundreds of photographs taken of his patients as a cornerstone of his research), here the same instrument frustrates rational thought. Ellen Driscoll "The dark interior spaces of the camera obscuras and the hovering objects of Charcot's scientific speculation produced both explicit and inchoate impressions. Challenging the plausibility of images, reality and fantasy, creativity and madness, health and sickness, were endlessly reconfigured by shifting, often indiscernible boundaries." - Excerpt from "The Proportions of Paradox" by Patricia C. Phillips, Sculpture Magazine, November, 2000.  Link here for more of Driscoll's work.

Shana Lutker.  Link here.

Source link  here.

Henry Faulds, 1843 - 1930, Scottish scientist who is noted for the development of fingerprinting.    From Chapter 7:

"There are similar markings in the grain of woods, in the veining of leaves, and in the spots and stripes of flowers.  The barks of some trees often display the very patterns that are so useful and interesting in finger prints. Photography shows furrows exactly like those of finger prints in the overflowing lava of a volcano." -Henry Faulds

More here.
Anthropometry.  Repeat offenders.  

Alphonse Bertillion.  Classification of the Ear.  circa 1900.

Alphonse Bertillon

1853 - 1914.  Parisian law enforcement officer.

Ancient Greek Myth, many headed snake-like monster, beginning 19th century,  French Revolution.

Chapter 6, The Transparent Body: Biocultures of Evolution, Eugenics and Scientific Racism

JR, Inside Out Project, TED Talks

JR, Use Art To Turn The World Inside Out, March 2011.  Link here to watch video on TED Talks.

Why you should listen to him:

Working anonymously, pasting his giant images on buildings, trains, bridges, the often-guerrilla artist JR forces us to see each other. Traveling to distant, often dangerous places -- the slums of Kenya, the favelas of Brazil -- he infiltrates communities, befriending inhabitants and recruiting them as models and collaborators. He gets in his subjects’ faces with a 28mm wide-angle lens, resulting in portraits that are unguarded, funny, soulful, real, that capture the sprits of individuals who normally go unseen. The blown-up images pasted on urban surfaces – the sides of buildings, bridges, trains, buses, on rooftops -- confront and engage audiences where they least expect it. Images of Parisian thugs are pasted up in bourgeois neighborhoods; photos of Israelis and Palestinians are posted together on both sides of the walls that separate them.

JR's most recent project, "Women Are Heroes," depicts women "dealing with the effects of war, poverty, violence, and oppression” from Rio de Janeiro, Phnom Penh, Delhi and several African cities. And his TED Prize wish opens an even wider lens on the world -- asking us all to turn the world inside out. Visit insideoutproject.net ...

"I would like to bring art to improbable places, create projects so huge with the community that they are forced to ask themselves questions."

JR, Beaux Arts Magazine

Walking Tour, Downtown St. Augustine, Fall 2011

Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville

FILM/LECTURE:

Dirty Pictures: Controversy and Photography

Saturday, Oct. 8, 2 p.m.

See a screening of Dirty Pictures, a retelling of the 1990 attempts to censor the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center’s controversial Robert Mapplethorpe photography exhibit. Afterwards, MOCA Director Marcelle Polednik will discuss and answer questions about controversy and broader issues facing photography such as: Who gets to decide what forms of expression are valid? Does the constitutional right to freedom of expression apply to forms of expression you don’t like?

Free

Link here for more films/lectures/exhibitions.  Link also has map and museum hours.

Reaction Packet #1, Lightner Musuem

Field Trip to Lightner Museum

Homework, Part I - Collect at least ten (10) images that would appear in your museum.  Go global - search the world for object and images.

Homework, Part II - Create a brochure for your museum.  Refer to the original ten (10) images that you found for Part I of this homework.  You can handwrite, collage, type and/or use the computer to create the brochure. There is no format or size limit requirement.  Can be color or black/white.

Important! Use these terms in your brochure - ICON and SYMBOL.  Reference each term at least once.  Your brochure should demonstrate time and effort.  The brochure should also have content.  Information pertaining to the objects in your museum should be factual.  Other information such as the name of your museum, location, hours, etc.... will be invented.  Check out on-line museum information to help you design and write your brochure.

Hand in a hard copy of the brochure to me.  Due Wednesday, October 5.  Also hand in the original ten (10) images you found for Part I of this homework assignment.

Check list for musuem brochure:
-First task - look at museum pages on-line to get a feel for how to present and organize your information.
-Invent a name, location and hours of operation for your Museum.
-Include a description of your museum.  Include history of museum (who founded, when, why, how).
-Include at least four images should appear in your museum brochure.
-You should reference the terms ICON and SYMBOL (each one at least once) in your brochure.
-Feel free to add additional information to your brochure.  Suggestions: A current exhibition, upcoming exhibitions, artist talks and/or any awards/grants/recognition your museum may have received.

NOTE: Evaluation criteria based on including the information listed above and providing evidence of thoughtful, insightful and innovative content.