EYV Zoom Meeting – 30 July 2019

EYV Zoom Meeting – 30 July 2019

The Languages of Light: Robert Bloomfield

This meeting was led as usual by Robert Bloomfield and the topic was “ Languages of Light” and Robert planned to discuss Part 4 and the 4th Assignment.

There was a presentation of work by two students who were about to submit their work for the 4th assignment and had both chosen to do this on “The Beauty of Artificial Light”. There were two aspects of the discussion about these images which I found particularly interesting as they had themes which I have been considering.

The first of these was an image of someone looking at their mobile phone at night, illuminated by the light from the screen and the reflected light from outside lights. The quality of the two types of illumination was strikingly different, in particular with regard to the colour temperature of the light, the phone was a very blue/white light and had a stark quality to it, whereas the external light, although from an LED light had a warmer, softer quality as it was reflected off other surfaces. I had previously been considering how ubiquitous objects with light sources have become and how these influence our environment. I have started a consideration of this in another post and may develop it further for my assignment.

The other aspect of the student work which I found interesting was an image of a tower block with a sign across the windows. The wording was very prominent and gave a strong message in the image. However there were other aspects of the image which could be interpreted in many different ways. The incorporation of words into images is something I have considered before, and an area I need to research and consider more.

Robert gave a presentation about the concept of “Beauty” with the aim of making it a less subjective concept. He gave a historical view of the classical construct of “beauty” which equated to “perfection” and as such had a generally agreed definition and was not therefore subjective. However he then described the attack by the suffragette, Mary Richardson, on the “Rokeby Venus”, a painting by Valaquez in the National Gallery. My understanding of the rationale she gave for this was that the picture was an depiction of “beauty” but her own concept of beauty included the concept of “justice”, which she saw as missing from the contemporary treatment of women.

My own thoughts on this are that while the incorporation of other constructs besides perfection are important, there remains then an element of subjectivity as across societies, different people and groups are likely to have different understanding of concepts like “justice”, and value other constructs as defining beauty. For example in many elements of modern society, an artificial light source could only be considered to demonstrate “beauty” if it does not harm the environment.

Following the meeting I have briefly researched more about the attack on the Rokeby Venus by Mary Richardson. A description of this is at:

http://www.artinsociety.com/from-the-rokeby-venus-to-fascism-pt-1-why-did-suffragettes-attack-artworks.html (Accessed 1/08/2019)

Richardson is quoted as saying “I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government destroying Mrs Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history. Justice is an element of beauty as much as colour and outline on canvas”

There are other aspects of this painting and its subject which may have made it a target for such an attack as Richardson is quoted as saying several years later “I didn’t like the way men visitors to the gallery gaped at it all day”. Furthermore in the article, the authors cite descriptions of the painting as “’a body for Don Juanesque fantasies’ in a country (Spain) in which extreme machismo was the hallmark and women were regarded as ‘inferior, voiceless and … easy prey’”. This suggests to me that at the time of its painting the concept of beauty in that society included these aspects too. All of which shows how the subjectivity of the concept is influenced not only be an individual’s taste, but also societal values.

Other sources and writers to which Robert directed us in the meeting include Susan Sontag, “On Photography” in which she examines the development of the photograph beyond being a idealised image, and thereby a development of a set of aesthetic values by which a photograph can be judged. This is something I need to read more about.