Lecture 11 - Modernity and modernism

John Ruskin - 1819 - 1900

• 'To be modern is to be new'
• 'Modern Painters' - book
• The works of modernism aren't as good as the traditional
• Favoured the Pre-Rafaelites such as William Holman Hunt

Paris 1900 was the epicentre of modernity at the time.

• life becomes regulated and industrialisation pushes people to clock in/out progressively.
• Some say the 1950s/60s was the end of the modernism period. Today we are in post-modernism or as some call late-modernity.

Upper/middle class start to express creatively. Paris begins to adapt to new architectural ideas. (In with the new and out with the old).

Haussmanisation

• large boulevards in favour of narrow streets. this made streets easier for the police. (social control)
• Manet - The Balcony(1868) art begins to reflect the views on modernity in society.
• Caillebott - Balcony
• The Flaneurs - people who embrace modernism by showing off their lavish lifestyles and clothes. They also showed off extravigant pets.
• Seurat - Isle de la Grande Jatte (1886) - expressionless people shown in modernism and its effects. 
• Bather in the Asniers (1884) - social distinctions created by the modern world.

Degas 'Absinthe Drinker' - (1876) - Represents the mood of the time. Compositional technique, reflective of photography and modernism.

Manet - Bar at the Folies Bergere (1881) 

Kaiserpanorama (1883)

Max Nordau Degeneration (1892) - anti-modernist showed his worry for the modern world.

Etienne - Jules Marey - Photographic gun

Lecture 8 - Colour theory Systematic colour (part 1) - An introduction to colour theory

As practitioners it is vital that colour is introduced into our practice. To know about colour we need to ask what colour is. Isolated colour is always surrounded by other colours. We need to determine one from the other.

Physical > Physiological > Psychological

Colour is inextricably linked to light. Our interpretation is based on a wavelength of length. All light has the colours, but wavelength differentiates the colours. Black absorbs more light light than white, therefore it maintains its properties, rather than reflecting like white.

The eye contains two kinds of receptors:

• Rods - conveys black/white/grey
• Cones - Perceives the colour.

Cones:

• Type 1 - sensitive to red light/orange
• type 2 - sensitive to green
• type 3 sensitive to blue

If two types are simultaneously stimulated we see a mix of colours. For example, yellow.

Complementaries are the chromatic opposites. When mixing some opposites the colours cancel out one another, creating a dark grey colour.

Spectral colour

Colour modes - red, green, blue

RGB - is screen based colour mode - Additive colour

CMYK - cyan, magenta, yellow, black - subtractive colour

Chromatic value - Hue + tone = saturation