Do Artifacts Have Politics? By Langdon Winner

Langdon Winner's classic article argues, in the element of 'soft' technological determinism, that technology determines certain social bases.
"Modern social and political thought contains recurring statements (Winner,1986).

What is winner saying?
-Artifacts have political qualities- have a way of shaping society.
-Certain artifacts were designed to create a particular social effect- Robert Moses 'Long Island' highways.
- Class and racial prejudice in the design or artifacts.

In Summary:
-technologies are shaped by economic and social forces.
-Artifacts are "deliberately" designed and built that way by someone who wanted to achieve a particular social effect.
-'Technologies can be used in ways that enhance power, authority, and privilege over others'.

What is an Archive?
A collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people.

Throughout this is Module I've been thinking of different types of Archive and what would actually interest me, so I chose something that's cool and close to me which is Middle Eastern Art.

I picked two different archives that I would like to go and explore which is V&A- the worlds leading of museum art and design, and the British Museum. I chose those two because I wanted to see which would help me pick my archive wisely and continue with what I would like to do, which is Middle Eastern Art.

Delfina Foundation's exhibition 'Unperformed Objects' by Geumhyung Jeong.

For more than 10years South Korean artist Geumhyung Jeong has collected everyday objects to use in her performances. Combining choreography and puppetry she bestows a bizarre, disconcerting life on those inanimate things through intense and risky interaction with them that challenges notions of sexuality, technology, and the human body. Jeong has picked objects that are used in our everyday lives and objects that we didn't think we could use; such as mannequins, vacuums cleaners, training machines and medical apparatus with little potential of working out well.

When visiting the exhibition I didn't know what to expect until I entered and saw videos of Geumhyung Jeong and I couldn't wrap my head around what she was trying to do.
I was so surprised to see a female so open about this type of nature she was exploiting so normally, Sex objects. If anyone had seen that they would be confused and maybe the viewer wouldn't be happy or even comfortable enough to be watching such thing that they wouldn't be very much used to, they would be very surprised with Jeong work.

Jeong explores the relationship between her 'collection' and her creative process. Jeong does that by being her own puppet master in this exhibition of control. As seen on the video monitors, it shows clips of the 'performed objects' of her taking control of the objects allowing them to interact with her body to challenge her emotions sexually and physically.

Delfina Foundation, London
Philomena Epps

Thinking Contemporary Curating: What is Contemporary Curatorial Thought? - Terry Smith

Current discourse on the topic is heating up with a new cocktail of bold ideas and ethical imperatives. Those include; cooperative curating, especially with artist; the reimagination of museums; curating as knowledge production the historicization of exhibition- making; and commitment to extra-art wood participatory activism.

Documenta- Exhibition of contemporary art which takes every five years in Kassel, Germany. Founded by artist, teacher, and curator Arnold Bode in 1955.
All this was created as an attempt to bring Germany up to speed to modern art.

The continuity of modernism is an idea about the current profile of arts autonomous evolution.
"Curating" is business as usual in terms of putting together an exhibition, organizing a commission, programming a screen series.

Stuart Hall Library visit

The Stuart Hall Library is an archive of works by various
different authors and artists.
The Stuart Hall Library was actually very interesting, as I didn't think it would be organized and as well as their method being very wise and it didn't confuse me one bit.

As I had a look around to see what I would be interested in for my archive, I was very interested in the Middle Eastern Side to it an the art of it is very interesting and is something I would like to pick. The book that interested me the most was 'Art Of The Middle East' by Zaha Hadid, and ' ISLAM Art And Architecture' edit by Markus Hattstein and Peter Delius.
Both books brought so much interest and as I am from the Middle East I do not see much art coming from that side, by seeing those books just made me want to know more about the Middle East art and Islamic Art as it grabbed my interest, I would like to do Middle Eastern art, but I haven't picked an archive yet and it's still undecided. I would like to go and explore more archives.

Archive Visit

Archive that I will be working with on my final project will be Victora & Albert Museum.
I decided to pick Middle Eastern Art or Islamic art. I had found that Islamic Art was very interesting subject and that it had grabbed my interest how old the pieces were.
That's why I had picked V&A because it had everything I needed to know and also researching what the pieces meant to the Gallery itself.

Lubna Agha: creator of Islamic art with meditative precision

She rose above words and imagination, viewing the ordinary with a new eye to create eternal pieces of Islamic art.
Born in 1949 in Quetta, Pakistan, Lubna Agha was an accomplished realist whose works are widely celebrated as part of a revolutionary Islamic art movement in both figurative and non-figurative abstracts. As a precocious preteen, she had shown a sharp artistic bend and enrolled as a full-time student at Karachi School of Art, where she soon started winning competitions and gold medals.
In 2004, Lubna and Yusuf visited Morocco and Turkey, where she gathered hundreds of photos of historical remains: ageless architecture, artefacts, manuscripts and motifs. Her later works depicted her discoveries in the two countries. She described traditional Islamic art and artefacts as not only irreplaceable beauty, but also an important historical discourse on the issues of identity and culture.

Research Question:

For my Archive, I've found it very hard to come up with a question to do with Islamic Art as I didn't know what would have been a suitable question for such a delinquent subject because it's a religion, not a normal subject. It's something that you wouldn't want to disrespect.

That's why for my Research question I've picked is "How does Islamic art reflect on Muslim belief" Thought that would be easier and better to answer and explain. As a Muslim myself I know my religion well, and I feel like I could explain it within art and also learn a little about it.

How Does Islamic Art Reflect On Muslim Belief?

ISLAMIC ART

Islamic art encompasses the visual arts produced from the 7th century onwards by people of the Islamic lands. It spans many different regions, cultures and 1400 centuries. It is not art specifically of a region, or of a time, or of a single medium like painting. It is not restricted to religious objects or architecture, but applies to all art forms produced in the Islamic World. Islamic Art refers not only to works created by Muslim artists or for Muslim patrons but includes art produced by non-Muslim artists or by Muslim artists working for a non-Muslim Patron. Thus Islamic arts encompass a very broad field spanning over 1400 centuries and 5 continents. It includes many art forms such as calligraphy, painting, glass, ceramics, metal, leather, woodwork, rugs and textile.

Despite the very broad definition there are some unifying features that are pervasive in Islamic arts:

Calligraphy is ever present and is considered the highest form of Islamic art as it is depicting the true and spoken word of God.

Arabesque is an artistic pattern created by repeating elements of geometrical floral or vegetal designs. It is a form of artistic decoration consisting of elaborative rhythmic repetition of patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, plants or plain lines. To many in the Islamic world; it symbolizes the infinite, un centralized nature of God.

A central feature of Islamic art is its emphasis on intricate and detailed craftsmanship. Creating a high quality object, something that is a delight to behold, is much more important than producing something new and innovative.

Another characteristic of Islamic art is that it does not necessarily tell us anything about the artist’s personal ideas or feelings.

There is emphasis on creating something beautiful and well made, and has a practical use. The artist aims at beautifying everyday life and making utilitarian objects into works of art. Transforming buildings, walls, doors, flooring, clothing into pieces of art is a prevalent theme in Islamic arts.

http://www.islamicartssociety.com/what-are-islamic-arts/what-are-islamic-arts-more/

How does Islamic art reflect on Muslim belief

Archive that I’ve picked out is V&A Islamic art. Before that I didn't’t really know what I wanted to do because I felt like there was so much for me to do. And I kept on doing research and found out that I actually enjoy art and the historical part of it. Like Islamic art, its modern and historical that’s why I've Picked V&A.

The art of the Islamic world reflects its cultural values and reveals the way Muslims view the spiritual realm and the universe. For the Muslim, reality begins with and centers on GOD. ... There is a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad that says: "Allah is beautiful and he loves beauty. Arab,’ ‘Islamic’, or ‘Middle Eastern’ art are all terms used interchangeably. Despite a wide variety of contemporary artistic practices in the region, artists from the Middle East are consistently labeled with ethnic and national markers.

From what I saw They Categories the art by age, they have over 4,000 pieces of including ceramics, textiles, carpets, metalwork, glass and woodwork, which date from the great days of the Islamic caliphate of the 8th and 9th centuries to the years preceding the First World War. The area covered stretches from Spain in the west to Uzbekistan and Afghanistan in the east, taking in important centres of artistic production in the Arab lands, Turkey and Iran. When I spoke to someone about the art pieces he had told me that these are very important part of the musem as its very sentamenaly and that the most amazing thing about the Islamic Art is the they have the most beautiful and historically piece in the world.

V&A present their Islamic art in a very protective way and what I mean by that is that its very secured and put in glass to make sure that the piece visible and clear for everyone to see. What the V&A done it make it look like its very delicate, which it is because in Islam having Gods Name for quotes from the Quran is very special and if ruined its very disrespectful to the religion

When I had researched for Islamic art and what it is exactly, its not only something that has gods name on it or the prophet's name. but its also the beauty of the art such at a mosque the designs that are on the mosque walls or even anywhere really. The beauty of that it’s the architecture and its everywhere. The beauty about it that its been around for so long its kept as beauty and its shown to the world.

For my Work, I've decided to work on my own as it gives me time to focus on what I want to do as I haven't thought about it yet.

After giving it a long and hard thought to it, I've decided to work in a canvas I do have a couple of thought about how I would like to present my work and what I want to do it about. I've drawn a couple of sketches about what my work will look like and I will explain why I've chosen to work with that.

I draw this as my first piece and I was planning to do it with chalk and draw a Muslim girl whos wearing a Black hijab and as you can see it had beautiful patterns at the end of it, to show that even though she's a Muslim girl shes into fashion and wants her hijab to be pretty looking. You can see that the girl's hijab is blown a little at the end of it to show how blown away she is with what she is looking at, which is the holy place of Islam. Mecca. Mecca is a beautiful place that all Muslims go on pilgrimage. I've heard many stories from family and friends that have been and said its such an amazing place to be and ask God for forgiveness. Mecca is the holy place and the house of Allah (god).

I wanted to show that Mecca is an important place for Muslims and someday I would like to go and experience the feeling of being blown away, and being around thousands of Muslims who are all one, and go to a place where everyone is the same everyone is on the same level. No rich or poor all the same.

For My 2nd piece of work, I've decided to write the word Salam in Arabic which means peace in English. I've decided instead of writing it or drawing it, I wanted to bring Arabic newspapers that talk about the world and war and make the world Salam into, to show that Islam is all about peace and although some people think otherwise. Salam is also a greeting that many Arabs use to say peace or peace be upon you of a way of respect to the person. I did this because i think its very interesting to do it and not in colours or throw a design to make it look perfect, but in black and white to show the simplicity in the word Peace.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

My Fascination with the different repetitive Islamic art continues. The patterns and design has led me to that direction to represent it. Using the different patterns and colors of each art piece just inspires me in every way you could imagine.
My Inspiration comes from visual images that were a part of history and now a part of me, its something that means a lot to me.
In my piece of work, it forms and builds up what has now become fear and lose of hope. The aim is to bring peace and diversity within the world that claims it does but clearly doesn't. The aim is not to capture the beauty of the images or anything like that, but hopefully it triggers pain and sadness, and feel the pain that the world has been feeling. My work is about bring peace within yourself and the world, and the issues of hate, crime, racism, and the war being everywhere we look.
The Technique that I have used involves newspapers about the war and burning the papers to create a sense of fear or even sadness to what i happening to the war, even though you cant read what it says the aim is for you to feel the power of what it might even say.
Written in big the word Salam in Arabic, which means peace. "Peace" cant sum up what these poor innocent people are feeling. Islam is peace and peace is spread around the world no matter what religion you are and no matter how you look.

What I'm going to show you with little describtion the process of making my piece of work.

Firstly,
I got a lot of newspapers to see what was important to put on and what would drag attention.

I cut the newspapers up into pieces and burnt them up.

In order to burn them they had to look like this, burns bring pain and thats what I felt burning up the piece.

After burning all these newspapers of stories of war it ended up looking like this, all burnt up and sad.

After sticking the burning newspaper I felt like it needed something else looked a little bit dull.
So i decided to add the word Peace which in arabic is peace which in arabic is Salam.

Spelling the word Peace in Arabic seemed a little boring so I decided to put red paint to make it look like blood.

This is the final look of the piece.
Just looking at the art piece is breaking my heart because we all wish that peace will come true one day and we won't see heartbreaking pictures.

Salam. Peace.
I decided to represent my work about peace. Blood. Sadness. Fear.
I decided to look at the world for some inspiration and what grabbed my attention the most was Islamic art. It was all so beautiful but modern art attracted me the most.
My Piece of work shows the blood of innocent people who crave Salam in the word Peace. Making my piece of worked seemed very easy, but the work of making something your own and making sure it has an impact on the people means a lot to me.
This piece of art should be an eye opener of the world we live in, even though there isn’t much we could do about it, but helping these innocent people.
Hoping that when you do look at the piece it hits your heart the same way it hits mines. I want this to impact you and seek to help people in need.
While doing the search for Islamic art peace was the only thing I saw. Not only In Islam but also in every religion.
My Piece of art is unique in its own way of representing its self; not only its self but also the people suffering out there