nabilla4

[nabilla4]

Initial Essay Ideas!!!

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1. Last year I explored diaspora aesthetics and I really enjoyed it so I think I could go into it in more depth or at a different angle. Some of the things within this topic that I am interested in are:    

     diaspora art; assimilation; loss of culture; third culture kids; code-switching; masking (Fanon?); The myth of primitivism (book); hybrid cultures; globalisation; performance culture (Goffman?); art representing communication between cultures e.g. oriental patterns.

There were also artists whom it felt like I only wrote about the surface level of their work because I didn't have enough time so I would love to look at more of Yinka Shonibare and Chila Kumari Burman's work.

2. A similar topic that I think would be interesting is the disneyfication of cultures. Q: What is that? A: “Generally, Disneyfication refers to the process of adapting and transforming places, cultures, and traditions in order to make them more appealing and commercially attractive, often at the expense of their authenticity and original characteristics”

E.g. Aladdin is set in the Middle East but the 1992 film has influence from India, which is even worse in the live-action as they just borrow clothes and designs from surrounding cultures (mainly Indian) for aesthetic purposes.

I think that this also represents a “communication between cultures” like the oriental pattern that I learned about in the myth of primitivism. It is a representation that is altered to fit people's perception of what it looks like rather than what it is  ((cultural appropriation, authenticity, representation in media??))

3. In relation to ideas #1 and #2 I could look at beauty standards and how they transformed and traveled. I got this idea because I saw that The Wellcome Collection is going to be opening a new exhibition on “The Cult of Beauty.” I haven't looked into this much yet but think it can relate to the first two points especially because from my experience it has always been taught that “whiteness is desired.” The topic by itself might be a bit boring for me though.

4. Another topic that I am very interested in is what I wrote about in the first year which is to do with hyperreality and post-modern ideas in relation to art and technology.  I enjoyed looking at work by Hito Steyerl and Jon Rafman. These are also two artists I feel like I didn't quite get to look at much of their work and to be honest, I'm not sure if I even fully understood what their work means in the first year (or even now). This is why I think I might be able to learn more from investigating art related to technology. Compared to diaspora art I have researched diaspora art in much more detail than this topic. However, for this essay idea, I'm not sure to what extent I can write about this topic, how far I can go with it, and what my point would be. Will I be able to write 5000-7000 words that are interesting…((Always On?))

5. If all of these topic ideas get rejected a new topic I could research is how ethics affect art. I actually thought about this in the first year when I was researching surveillance. One of the artists that I studied, Jill Magid’s work involved basically distracting the police. Which seemed kind of wrong in some ways. They focused their attention on her using the surveillance cameras for her art but what if, as a result, they missed a crime? But that wasn't really Magid's fault… The police shouldn't have been distracted by a potential love interest…There was also the Serbian artist, Marina Abramović with her project Rhythm 0. She laid items out for the public to use on her for 6 hours which included a loaded gun. She said she was prepared to die but that doesn't really justify it….

6. I’m also still interested in surveillance art and work by artists like Ai Weiwei but not so much anymore after writing all of this.

I am not as connected with the last two topics compared to the previous ones, so I may be less engaged. I prefer looking at work to do with diaspora or virtual worlds etc. because I feel like they speak to me more from my experiences.