September 19, 2007

Rape of the Wall

A few days back, we discussed rape and abduction as an iconographic theme. The Greeks had much to say about it - we spoke of various examples in Classical art. Then, sir posited an absurd question - we were to think about what can be more absurd than the rape of a hand glove (a quasi-Christian example).

We, of course, all gave examples - rape of the sanitary napkin, rape of the phone, etc. I gave the example the rape of the wall - it contained both the elements of desperation and frustration so it was arguably an example of rape. Dr. Miroy said it was very Ateneo High School - apparently, there was a famous play there, Sinta, which was/had an excerpt from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The wall was central there - in the myth of Pyranus and Thisbe (a story similar to Romeo and Juliet).

Pyranus and Thisbe, of course, propped up in discussion again - this time in Love and Death (Eros-Thanatos) as an Iconographic theme. It just strikes me as interesting how everything seems to be tied together.

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My roommate said staring at blank spaces at the wall in front of you is good for studying and concentration. At tense situations, at crunch times and at hell weeks, we see this and this, then, is the Rape of the Wall. We take it on the blank space in front of us by staring at it.

September 9, 2007

Ideas and Images

After my proposal presentation with Dr. Miroy, we (or rather I) decided to take the project on Album Art of Christian Alternative Bands although I am thinking of extending the analysis to other Alternative Bands.

Sir, I think, found most of my proposals interesting - even I find everything interesting but his main problem with one (the one about the Iconography of the Machine) is that it sounded more like a philo paper than a fine arts paper. Probably because 1. I have this tendency to use lots of terms normally associated with philosophy, cultural studies and critical theory and 2. I listed, a priori, some of the issues/ideas that I think are being tackled by depictions of the Machine in Art and Popular Culture. The thing, of course, in our class was to start with the images and draw ideas from it (not the other way around - the way I thought about my philo paper).

And I guess it seems pretty natural for me to do so - to start with ideas and sort of look for images that will support it because I am, after all, under left-brain thinking and that most are versed in thinking at the realm of words and ideas, not at the realm of images and representations. It is making the transition that is hard - which is probably the reason why I should take this class more seriously, not that I am taking it lightly.

I chose this class as a free elective over Fil 105 - Teoryang Pampanitikan under Mr. J Salazar primarily because 1. the HEAVY reading list for the latter class and 2. I figured that I wanted to explore images rather than ideas this semester. I found the latter interesting and important but I probably took this class and not Fil 105 because I wanted to make the transition from ideas to images - not necessarily at the level of production but even at the level of comprehension and analysis.

Lets see me make that transition.