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Bricolage Research Method

Bricolage is a method of building a body of research using an array of pre-existing sources to generate new ideas.

Claude Levi-Strauss- ‘The Savage Mind’

“A bricoleur is a Jack of all trades or a kind of professional do-it-yourself person.”

Contextualizing Theories and Practices of Bricolage Research

Matt Rogers, University of New Brunswick- Great source for reference to bricolage method.

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The Vortex of Silence

Doren von Drathen studies 24 contemporary artists to demonstrate the inadequacy of current aesthetic categories.

She comments on "ethical iconology" through which she examines the art work's discourse with "the other".

She offers two key theories:

1. How we approach an art work as an intrinsic universe, where the silence of freedom and the dynamics of silence are inscribed - a gesture that reintroduces the monad as Walter Benjamin understood it.

2. Invests a chiasmus where the "unusurpable other" is in a dialectic with an ethics of subjectivity. 

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Dorothea Lange: Migrant Mother

Graham Clarke applied semiological theories to analyse Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother:

“Lange creates a highly charged emotional text dependant upon her use of children and the mother. The central position of the mother, the absence of the father, the direction of the mother’s look, all add to the emotional and sentimental register through which the image works: The woman is viewed as a symbol larger than the actuality in which she exists.”

One could also note that the image contains Barthes’ notion of studium and punctum. The punctum being the experiences one may have had, similar to the subject. 

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Roger Ballen

One of the most influential and important photographic artists of the 21st century, Roger Ballen’s photographs span over forty years.  His strange and extreme works confront the viewer and challenge them to come with him on a journey into their own minds as he explores the deeper recesses of his own.

Outland is the culmination of almost twenty years work for artist-photographer Roger Ballen and amounts to one of the most extraordinary photographic documents of the late twentieth century. Beginning by documenting the small ‘dorps’ or villages of rural South Africa, Ballen’s photography moved on in the late 1980s and early 1990s to their inhabitants: isolated rural whites, scarred by history, in the process of losing the privileges of apartheid which had provided them livelihoods and sustained their identity for a generation. The results were shocking, both powerful social statements and disturbing psychological studies.

Dresie & Cresie twins (1993)

The portrait depicts the twins as looking quite dangerous and scary. So much so, that many modern villains used in gaming and other design formats have been based on the twins.

This is what they look like today.

The contrast of representation of these photographs notes the importance of image in context and the connotations attached to it.

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The Burden of Representation: John Tagg

In The Burden of Representation (1988) John Tagg looks at photography in relation to its representation of history. Much of his text is concerned with how institutions enable certain photographic images to gain status when representing particular aspects of history. Tagg dovetails the theories of Foucault and Althusser when analysing power structures and ideological apparatuses in regard to the implications of representations of history. While Tagg reproaches Althusser for his circular analysis of power in its movement around the ISAs - the ISAs were unable to produce power themselves and were only able to act upon it (1988: 25) - this criticism also becomes a way of enabling Foucault's model of power to orient Althusser's theory of ideology:

The discourses, practices and institutional structures of the Ideological State Apparatuses could secure nothing in themselves but only function as the reflex of an already inscribed power and repetitively re-enact or re-present what was already ordained at the level of the relations of production, into which a complex diversity of irreducible social relations were now collapsed. (ibid).

In the chapter 'The Currency of the Photograph' Tagg, in his own words, “set[s] out to bring a semiotic analysis of photographic codes into conjunction with an Althusserian account of 'Ideological State apparatuses' and to hold them in place by a Foucauldian emphasis on the power effects of discursive practices.” (1988: 22). This has also been my attempt when discussing the actions and practices within the institution and the inscriptions of power on the body, prescribed through an ideology which promotes ideas of excellence. The institution can only re-present and re-inscribe power that is already available to it; but, I maintain, this is done through an ideological structure that promulgates certain ideas (ideologies) that become realised through concrete practices in the form of actions carried out by the body (the subject).

Tagg states that cultural practices belong to “a field of power effects in which they are articulated with economic and political practices, representations and relations, without presupposing any unified outcome.” (1988: 30). He explains that it is “systems of representation” that actually operate on identities; constructing them, rather than expressing them (ibid.). The problem for anyone attempting to scrutinise the contemporary university's representation of itself, in regards to the effects it produces, cannot be critiqued outside of a historical analysis. As Tagg says: “There are no laws of equivalence, then, between the conditions and effects of signification, only specific sets of relations to be pursued.” (ibid.).

Tagg's critique of how photography is used by the state hinges not around the “power of the camera” in its capacity as a technology used for surveillance but “the power of the apparatuses of the local state which deploy it and guarantee the authority of the images it constructs to stand as evidence or register as truth.” (1988: 64). In the age of virtual technology where the university's website becomes a portal to the educational institution, everything that is represented there, or indeed is accessed there, becomes, potentially, a guarantee of this authority. The university owns the copyright of the images of itself that appear on the homepage of the website, they cannot even be used by students in their own work. While my focus is not on photographic images, but rather cartography, many of the criticisms that Tagg directs at photographic representations of history also apply to representation in general, especially in relation to power. Tagg, in his discussion on Foucault, states that power “is what displays itself most and hides itself best” (1988: 67). This has become apparent in regards to the cemetery at the University of Leeds: it exists in actual geographical space, but is not very apparent in cartographic representations of the university campus1. The map entitled Where is the cemetery? (above) demonstrates this problem: the cemetery, St Georges Field, exists and does not exist at the same time. I maintain that St Georges Field, in its (non) representation by the university, is highlighted perfectly when Tagg states in his criticism of Althusser: “What he does not show is that it is in the representational practices of these apparatuses themselves that the ideological level is constituted [...]” (1988: 69). What is not represented (and what is) is both a cause and effect of ideology.

I believe these representations (for example, something as 'innocent' as a map of the university campus) become what Tagg describes as “discourses which themselves function as formidable tools of control and power, producing a new realm of objects both as their targets and as instrumentalities.” (1988: 70). Power produces the lived experience, what we consider to be 'reality'. This orients power in everyday gestures, actions and practices, at the same time naturalising it. The structure of the university in relation to power, with its project of excellence orientated in ideological concrete practices, becomes a self-sustaining operation. Tagg explains this circularity in relation to Foucault's model of power:

A regime of truth is that circular relation which truth has to the systems of power that produce and sustain it, and to the effects of power which it induces and which redirect it. Such a regime has been not only an effect, but a condition of the formation and development of capitalist societies; to contest it, however, it is not enough to gesture at some 'truth' somehow emancipated from every system of power. Truth itself is already power, bound to the political, economic and institutional regime which produces it. (1988: 94).

Therefore, the ideology manifest in the concrete practices of the university utilise power in order to produce truth. But while these 'truths' appear in representations of the university, it is important that one does not get caught up in these representations and forget what appears behind them and holds them in place. We need to study the material of the university in order to be able to question its origins and reveal these regimes of truth. While meaning is made within the specific formation of the particular institution, this does not mean that the dominant mode of power cannot be challenged. This is acknowledged by Bill Readings when he explains that the Renaissance city streets offer the inhabitant a chance to reappropriate its “angularities and winding passages” (1999: 129); so too Tagg explains that institutions offer “multiple points of entry and spaces for contestation” (1988: 30).

http://particulations.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/power-of-representation.html

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The photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin knows the power of photography to connect us to our world. In a talk filled with images, he talks about how we all use photos to tell our stories.

He uses imagery, humor, allusions to get his point across that photography connects people across the world. He says that photography is our way of slowing down time and freezing a single moment. Even though photographs aren't nearly as good as things are in person, they are merely a way to remember the time that the photograph was taken. A way to feel all of those feelings again. A way to live in a memory. 

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Hal Fischer: Gay Semiotics

A Photographic Study of Visual Coding Among Homosexual Men

Featured image is reproduced from Cherry and Martin's new edition of Hal Fischer's classic Gay Semiotics: A Photographic Study of Visual Coding Among Homosexual Men, the subject of a talk in David Senior's Classroom series today at the NY Art Book Fair and available in the ARTBOOK @ MoMA PS1 stores throughout the fair. "Traditionally western societies have utilized signifiers for non-accessibility. The wedding ring, engagement ring, lavaliere or pin are signifiers for non-availability which are always attached to women. Signs for availability do not exist," Fischer wrote in 1977. "In gay culture, the reverse is true. Signifiers exist for accessibility. Obviously, one reason behind this is that gays are less constrained by a type of code which defines people as property of others or feels the need to promote monogamy. The gay semiotic is far more sophisticated than straight sign language, because in gay culture, roles are not as clearly defined. On the street or in a bar it's impossible most of the time to determine a gay man's sexual preference either in terms of activity or passive/aggressive nature. Gays have many more sexual possibilities than straight people and therefore need a more intricate communication system."

http://www.artbook.com/blog-gay-semiotics-nyabf.html

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Published on Feb 17, 2015

Semiotics on Photography - The composition in the photographs of Ivan Cerullo ( Italy b.1979 ) . Staged photography - Conceptual photography . http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ivan-Ce... Semiotics definitions : _ Is the science that considers the nature of the signs that the mind uses to figure things out or forward our knowledge. ( John Locke ) _ Science that studies the life of signs within the framework of social life . ( Ferdinand de Saussure ) _ Science of the essential nature and fundamental varieties of every possible semiosis,relation to three . ( Charles Sanders Peirce ) _ Discipline that deals with anything that can be used to lie. ( Umberto Eco ) _ The science that encompasses the knowledge of all signs. _ Roland Barthes argues that signs are not only words but also visual and auditory cues such as gestures, objects, or sounds that can be interpreted within their respective systems of signification ( that is, systematic ways of producing meaning through an interaction with other signs by way of particular, culturally specific patterns ). Semiotics, then, is the study of these signs as they function in language and society. _Roland Barthes Codes Theory : The Hermeneutic Code ( HER ) The Enigma/Proairetic Code ( ACT ) The Symbolic Code ( SYM ) The Cultural Code ( REF ) The Semantic Code ( SEM ) The Hermeneutic Code ( HER ) ( the voice of the truth) Is the way the story avoids telling the truth or revealing all the facts, in order to drop clues in through out to help create mystery. The Enigma/ Proairetic Code ( ACT ) ( empirical voice) The way the tension is built up and the audience is left guessing what happens next. The Semantic Code ( SEM ) ( the voice of the person) The semantic code points to any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation which the story suggests. Connotation= cultural/underlining meaning, what it symbolises. The Symbolic Code (SYM) ( the voice of symbols) This is very similar to the Semantic Code, but acts at a wider level, organizing semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning. This is typically done in the use of antithesis, where new meaning arises out of opposing and conflict ideas. The Cultural Code (REF) ( the voice of science) Looks at the audiences wider cultural knowledge, morality and ideology.

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PHOTOGRAPHY & SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

Semiotics of Photography — On tracing the index By Göran Sonesson, Lund University, 1989

http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/Sonesson-Semiotics_of_Photography.pdf

Essay suggesting that photographic semiotics should be able to tell us something about the way signs may differ, how, the photographic sign is different from the drawing and the painting. Explores a number of analyses produced so far inside pictorial semiotics, trying to establish to what extent the presuppositions of the analyses differ between the diverging picture types; and, how far the results of the analyses are heterogeneous.

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SEMIOTICS- PRACTICE BASED RESEARCH

During the early stages of my developing practice module, I considered the theories relating to semiotics to construct my image in response to Alain De Botton’s text on Romantic Fatalism. It is a text relaying the story of how two individuals met and fell in love. It is primarily concerned with addressing the questions on if fate plays a part in how you might meet your significant other.

When constructing my image, I was primarily concerned with worldwide interpretations of myths and legends related to love and destiny. My research into this revealed an interesting concept called ‘the red string of fate’ which originates from Japanese and Chinese culture. The key theme regarding this myth concerns an invisible red thread which connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance. My image shows this red string which is connected to the two little fingers of each person’s hand as the veins in the little finger lead directly to the heart, to represent love. I used a map of the world as the background to symbolise the notion of time and place and converted it to black and white to create a sense of nostalgia which is also often associated with love in visual communicative terms.

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JOHN BERGER- UNDERSTANDING A PHOTOGRAPH

Analysis of Understanding a Photograph - John Berger

John Berger's essay written in 1972 which aims to challenge the notion that photography is an art form.

His key arguments are:

Photography has not moved into the realms of being ‘preserved in sacred isolation’ in museums and therefore has not been made mysterious to exclude the masses.

To have a value as ‘Art,’ art must have a monetary value and is only valuable as property or props which indicate a certain lifestyle.

Photographs have no value as they are not rare and can be easily reproduced.

Photography is everyday; the fact everything can be photographed continually would render it meaningless. The only message a photograph has is that the photographer thought the scene worth capturing.

Photographs are considered ‘good’ only when properly composed yet this composition is merely an imitation of paintings. True composition cannot happen in photography unless studio shots.

Photography is a popular medium used mainly for the production of mementos.

Due to it’s representation of realities photography is merely a weapon which needs to be understood only to enable us to use it politically.

According to Berger (1972) paintings and sculptures as an art form are dying. This he argues, is due to their consideration as property; becoming isolated, available only to the elite. However, in contradiction to this painters and sculptors are still producing bodies of work. Statues are erected in public spaces and not all are shut inside museums to be considered the preserve of the ‘nobility’. With the development of the Internet art is available to a much wider audience.

Berger’s (1972) stance that photographs have not yet reached the levels of being displayed in museums and considered as ‘property’ is no longer valid. Since 1972 more museums have photographic archives, and specialised museums have opened, for example The Museum of Photographic Arts, The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, National Media Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.

Another argument is that mass production removes value, Berger (1972). Nonetheless the Mona Lisa's monetary value and artistic integrity has not altered despite being reproduced. The same can be said of photographs. In May 2011 Cindy Sherman's "Untitled" (1981) sold at auction for $3,890,500.00. There will be an original, authenticity being one way value is attributed, it is just more difficult to prove. But even so each image has its own unique path to being created.  Admittedly a photograph is taken using a mechanical process but there are variables, settings can be altered, light experimented with and artistry applied. Value can also lie in social, cultural and aesthetic worth.

It was Benjamin (1936) who argued that original pieces had an ‘aura’ and that the physical setting, usually within the homes of the ruling elite, made them even more distant from the masses and that reproduction diminished this aura and therefore value. Many of Berger’s arguments are based upon his and Benjamin’s Marxist outlook on how art is perceived/stored or shown to the ruling classes/proletariat.

In a similar vein Berger (1972) points out that a photograph is testimony to what someone has deemed worthy of recording. The possibility exists that this event or subject can be photographed continually which he argues would render it meaningless. However each photograph would be individual, taken from an alternative perspective, the audience can read into it their own interpretations, discover diffferent messages therefore enabling it to retain meaning. Berger (1972) points out that photographers mimic the composition of paintings and only images considered as good follow these rules. Paintings follow the Fibonacci ratio, but this ratio occurs in the natural world therefore it can be argued that it is art, in whatever form, imitating life. These rules of composition make an image more pleasing to the eye, easier to read, make them have more impact but art evolves. It was not until the 15th Century that the Florentine architect Fillipo Brunelleshi created the first painting known to make use of linear perspective. Picasso and Matisse tore up the rule book yet again. Why can’t photography do the same?

Since when has ‘art’ merely been produced for the sake of being ‘art’? Photographs, it is true, are used on the whole by people capturing ‘mementos’, family, friends and holidays but they are also used to capture historic events, to convey a precise moment in time, emotions and possibly to deliver a message.

The dawn of the digital age has changed how images can be manipulated and images can be changed to represent many things. It is difficult to argue now that photographs only pin down one moment in time. This is so dependent on the particular style or genre of photography.

As to the use of photography as a weapon? This accusation could be put to many aspects of day to day life. Propaganda rears its ugly head in many forms of art, written or visual.

Having argued against most of Berger’s points I can’t say resolutely that he is wrong in his initial statement that photography should not be considered art. I just don’t think the issues raised to back his arguments have stood the test of time.

All photographs are photographs, but are all photographs art?  It would appear, as with most works of art, the answer is subjective. As far as I am concerned there is an artistic approach to photography, and, as with any piece of art, it can succeed or fail with its message/ability to stir emotion.

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ROBERT FRANK- THE AMERICANS

'The Americans' is a book by Swiss-born photographer, Robert Frank. published first in France (1958) and then in the US (1959).

It was a pioneering project by Frank as it challenged the established documentary traditions of photography. During the time 'The Americans' was published, documentary photography was meant to be a tool of didactic documentation and not to be influenced by the thoughts, emotions, or viewpoint of the photographer. A quote from the book on 'Looking In: The Americans':

“In the late 1950s and early 1960s neither The Americans nor Frank’s work made on his Guggenheim fellowship were well received, especially by the photography press. Edgy, critical, and often opaque at a time when photography was generally understood to be wholesome, simplistic, and patently transparent, the photographs disconcerted editors even before the book was published.”

The book provides an interesting perspective of the subject matter as Frank himself was not an American so he was able to photograph the country from an outsider's perspective. Through his book, he portrayed the uglier side of American culture which hadn’t previously been shown. These subjects included racism, consumerism, and the contrast between rich and poor people.

During the 1950’s technical perfection was paramount when executing a successful photograph- well-exposed, sharp, focused images.  However in 'The Americans', Frank initially criticised for his photographs which challenged this notion of perfect aesthetics.

In his early years as a photographer, Frank experimented with photographing situations emotionally to produce original works of art that reflected the connotations relevant to the environment. This included different techniques not just in the photography itself, but the printing and exhibiting process.

He would often shoot using grainy film and often incorporated blur into his work. He also experimented by printing his photographs with high contrast levels, in unusual shapes, and would crop radically.

This experimentation relates to semiological themes as it touches upon theories concerning Barthes's connotation ideas. The techniques used challenge the established traditions in the photography field which can be seen as signs themselves- something i can explore in my practice.

Ref: http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/01/07/timeless-lessons-street-photographers-can-learn-from-robert-franks-the-americans/

All images from Robert Frank ‘The Americans’

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RENE MAGRITTE

The Treachery of Images

“What one must paint is the image of resemblance—if thought is to become visible in the world.” (Magritte)

Similar to other artists related to the Surrealist movement, Belgian artist Rene Magritte wanted to interrogate the rigid structure of bourgeois culture. His work during this specific time was often destructive, unsettling, and contained forms of disruption. He used methods including repetition, concealment and minimisation to frequently challenge the norms of visual representation and language. As a result, he created ideas that question the nature of representation.

Magritte’s painting ‘The treachery of Images’ is a pioneering painting which introduces visual semiotics. It is an image of a pipe with a statement underneath which reads, ‘Ceci n’est nas pas une pipe’ which translates to ‘this is not a pipe’.  The painting reminds us that, it is not a pipe at all, but rather a representation of a pipe.  It introduces the notion of iconic symbols- when something resembles or looks like what it refers to.

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ROLAND BARTHES

The most relevant analysis of semiotics for my research aims comes from Roland Barthes.

He states that signs can be translated in one of two forms, connotation and denotation.

In terms of photography, denotation concerns the subject being photographed and connotation is the concepts applied to what is being photographed.

Connotation is subjective and dependent on the cultural experiences of the viewer.

In Mythologies, Barthes investigates how society maintains its principles through certain cultural materials. He argues that,

‘The audience look for signs to help them interpret the narrative… these deeply rooted signs are based on expectations the audience has due to their prior knowledge of old tales or myths.’

A method for translating the many forms of signs in relation to contemporary semiotics is called codes. De Saussure argued that signs cannot have meaning in isolation and only gain it when they are understood in relation to each other. Barthes refers to these codes  as the ‘coded iconic’ which is the common story that the message portrays, and the ‘noncoded iconic’ which refers to the direct, literal meaning of an image regardless of cultural influences.

In Camera Lucida Barthes introduces his theory of punctum and studium.

Studium is the element in a photograph which creates interest, a coded form of communication. It notes the idea of the photographer who then presents it in photographic form. The viewer acts in reverse by seeing the photograph first and then interpreting it.

Punctum refers to a specific detail within an image which attracts the attention of a viewer and can produce a deeper connotation and sometimes change the meaning entirely. Usually random or accidental and specific ideas will be attached to one viewer.

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Tate Modern

I visited the Tate Modern in London to explore the semiotics within contemporary art. It was a very interesting experience as I was able to apply semiological methods to analyse the artwork which in turn created new meanings and unearthed concepts I may have not noticed before. Below is a photo collage of my journey through the gallery. 

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Martine Franck- Greenwich 1977

This report is a summary of an evaluation of the ‘Greenwich 1977’ photograph by Martine Franck on display in the Tate Britain in the BP Walk through British Art Room. From my observations and analysis, I hope to raise questions linking to semiotics within photography which I may be able to explore further in my research project.

The photograph itself is a gelatin silver print on paper and was gifted to the gallery by Eric and Louise Franck in 2013 for the London collection. The image was originally part of an exhibition in 2012 at the Tate Britain entitled ‘Another London’. The exhibition featured 180 black and white photographs which documented London through the perspectives of foreign photographers who visited the capital between 1930 and 1980.

The image was taken on 9th June in 1977 when the Queen’s Silver Jubilee was celebrated throughout London culminating in a river procession along the Thames from Greenwich to Lambeth. Instead of photographing the obvious subject of the royals, Franck decided to focus on a child present within the crowds waiting to catch a glimpse of the queen. We can ascertain that she is there for this reason as she is wearing a Union Jack hat- an internationally recognised symbol of British patriotism. However, instead of appearing cheery and excited as you would initially expect in such a situation, the girl’s expression is sombre and slightly forlorn. This raises questions as to why she is portraying such an emotion, perhaps it is due to the long wait to catch a glimpse of royalty? Maybe she didn’t want to be there in the first instance and was taken along by royal enthusiast family members? She is restrained by crowd control barriers, physically separating her from the royals of the commemoration. This in itself could be interpreted in many ways, it carries connotations with social segregation and ‘celebrity’ culture. I think this is a really interesting theme to explore within photography especially and how the notion of a ‘celebrity’ has changed significantly in recent years with the idea that anyone can be famous in today’s multi-media society.

This image reminds me of the photograph ‘Movie Premiere’ by Robert Frank in his photobook ‘The Americans’ (1973) whereby the focus is switched from the Hollywood starlet to the fans themselves waiting to see their idols walk the red carpet. Using events or subjects which are stereotypically photographed and switching the focus to document another aspect or perspective of that event is also an interesting concept to explore within photography.

In conclusion I feel this photograph’s primary function is to represent culture and raise questions about society and how we perceive it. I think this is a valuable theme to explore in my research as it provides a plethora of avenues linking semiotics and photography.

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SEMIOTICS

The main focus of my aims and objectives are how semiotics are used to give meaning to a photograph. I have outlined the basics of semiotics in this blog post which I will refer back to underpin my research.

Semiotics is: The study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.

The study of semiotics is developed from 2 systems-

C.S. Pierce 1839-1914: based on triadic signs

Ferdinand de Saussure 1857-1913: based on dyadic signs Ferdinand de Saussure

Sign - which consists of two parts, Signified and Signifier

Signified - The Signified is a concept or an object

Signifier - The signifier is a sound or an image that is attached to a Signified.These are the two single biggest building blocks of a sign. Another way of looking at it from what I can see is if you say a signifier is what you see or hear with the signified being the concept or idea you are trying portray. Signifier + Signified= SIGN

Signs  can be visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory or taste and their meaning can be intended as in the case of the word uttered with specific meaning or unintentional such as a symptom being a sign of a medical condition.

Importantly:

The sign and the signifier cannot be conceptualised as separate entities.

The Saussaurean sign exists only at the level of the synchronic system in which signs are defined by their relative and hierarchical privilege of co-occurrence.

DENOTATION: The primary or literal meaning

CONNOTATION: Developed by the community and do not represent the inherent qualities of the thing originally signified as the meaning. They are context dependant.

DYADIC: The relationship between a sign and the real world thing it denotes is an arbitrary one.

Sanders Pierce developed a triadic method for his version of semiotics which consisted of:

representamen- the form which the sign takes

interpretant- the idea or interpretation of the sign

object- what the sign refers to.