archive 2012-15
For those who were interested (in the last lecture) here is that very good Poetry anthology - Do go buy it if you've not got it. Published by bloodaxe , hats off to Neil Astley up in the Toon by the Tyne
heavy - beware - go in with care - and dont watch the film - its a poor attempt
Amor fati - love of fate -
Nietzsche's spirit of acceptance occurs in the context of his radical embrace of suffering. For to love that which is necessary, demands not only that we love the bad along with the good, but that we view the two as inextricably linked.
''Only great pain is the ultimate liberator of the spirit….I doubt that such pain makes us ‘better’; but I know that it makes us more profound.''
Nietzsche on 'eternal return'.
" Eternal return is the idea that our universe and our existence has occurred an infinite number of times in the past, and will continue to occur ad infinitum. In this theory, time is cyclical rather than linear. The idea of eternal return is an ancient one, but Nietzsche, a 19th century German philosopher, popularized it for modern times. That's why the narrator of Unbearable Lightness refers to it as Nietzsche's concept.
Nietzsche explored what the consequences of such eternal return would be. In his eyes, eternal return was das schwerste Gewicht, or "the heaviest weight." It was a petrifying concept to imagine that our lives have been and will continue to be repeated endlessly. But one could learn, through philosophy, to love the idea. The proper mind can embrace this weight, rather than be terrified by it. Nietzsche seems to conclude in Thus Spoke Zarathustra that we must live and act as though our lives functioned in eternal return, suggesting that we give our own lives meaning and weight by behaving this way. This brings in the concept of amor fati, or the love of one's fate. To embrace eternal return is, roughly speaking, to love one's fate. And the major question is this: which is better? Do we want lightness, or do we want weight? Which do we choose? Kundera takes a look at Parmenides, a Greek philosopher in the 5th century B.C. who considered the same question. Parmenides argued that lightness was positive and to be desired, while weight was negative. But the narrator of The Unbearable Lightness of Being isn't so sure about this. "The heaviest of burdens is […] simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment," he says. "The heavier the burden, […] the more real and truthful [our lives] become"
During the course of the novel, the narrator refers to the lightness of being in two different ways: the sweet lightness of being, and the unbearable lightness of being. A few characters are able, momentarily, to revel in the sweet lightness of being. A key example is Tomas, after Tereza leaves him alone in Zurich and returns to Prague: "Suddenly his step was much lighter. He soared. He had entered Parmenides' magic field: he was enjoying the sweet lightness of being" (1.14.7). For two days, he feels the "sweet lightness of being rise up to him out of the depths of the future" (1.15.4). For it only lasts for two days before he is "hit by a weight the likes of which he had never known" (1.15.4), namely, his compassion for Tereza.
Amor fati - love of fate -
Nietzsche's spirit of acceptance occurs in the context of his radical embrace of suffering. For to love that which is necessary, demands not only that we love the bad along with the good, but that we view the two as inextricably linked.
''Only great pain is the ultimate liberator of the spirit….I doubt that such pain makes us ‘better’; but I know that it makes us more profound.''
Nietzsche on 'eternal return'.
" Eternal return is the idea that our universe and our existence has occurred an infinite number of times in the past, and will continue to occur ad infinitum. In this theory, time is cyclical rather than linear. The idea of eternal return is an ancient one, but Nietzsche, a 19th century German philosopher, popularized it for modern times. That's why the narrator of Unbearable Lightness refers to it as Nietzsche's concept.Nietzsche explored what the consequences of such eternal return would be. In his eyes, eternal return was das schwerste Gewicht, or "the heaviest weight." It was a petrifying concept to imagine that our lives have been and will continue to be repeated endlessly. But one could learn, through philosophy, to love the idea. The proper mind can embrace this weight, rather than be terrified by it. Nietzsche seems to conclude in Thus Spoke Zarathustra that we must live and act as though our lives functioned in eternal return, suggesting that we give our own lives meaning and weight by behaving this way. This brings in the concept of amor fati, or the love of one's fate. To embrace eternal return is, roughly speaking, to love one's fate. And the major question is this: which is better? Do we want lightness, or do we want weight? Which do we choose? Kundera takes a look at Parmenides, a Greek philosopher in the 5th century B.C. who considered the same question. Parmenides argued that lightness was positive and to be desired, while weight was negative. But the narrator of The Unbearable Lightness of Being isn't so sure about this. "The heaviest of burdens is […] simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment," he says. "The heavier the burden, […] the more real and truthful [our lives] become"
During the course of the novel, the narrator refers to the lightness of being in two different ways: the sweet lightness of being, and the unbearable lightness of being. A few characters are able, momentarily, to revel in the sweet lightness of being. A key example is Tomas, after Tereza leaves him alone in Zurich and returns to Prague: "Suddenly his step was much lighter. He soared. He had entered Parmenides' magic field: he was enjoying the sweet lightness of being" (1.14.7). For two days, he feels the "sweet lightness of being rise up to him out of the depths of the future" (1.15.4). For it only lasts for two days before he is "hit by a weight the likes of which he had never known" (1.15.4), namely, his compassion for Tereza.
Albertine Sarrazin, Dubbed the ‘petite saint of maverick writers’ by Patti Smith, whose life story is as intriguing as the electric prose of her cult novel, Astragal
Summer Reading: At the age of twenty-one, a sad and hungry Patti Smith walked into a bookshop in Greenwich Village and decided to spend her last 99 cents on a novel that would change her life forever. The book was Astragal, by Albertine Sarrazin. Sarrazin was an enigmatic outsider who had spent time in jail and who wrote only two novels and a book of poems in her short life - she died the year before Patti found her book, at the age of twenty-nine.
Reseaching archives
2015 summer research project - Level 6
a chance to evolve your own authorial practice and celebrate your identity and voice - PLAY with visual materials,nuance and notion.
The amalgam of genuine research and playful intuitive Experimentation = strong work = good grades.
Marsha Rowe and Rosie Boycott in the Spare Rib offices, 1972. Photograph: David Wilkerson
2015 summer research project
Here is your Level 5 and 6 Creative Practice research task(s) It is optional and not assessed - but recommended for deepening your studio and contextual synthesis and knowledge. ( constellations distillation task)
Research the periodical 'SPARE RIB' (in print 1972-1993) and its social / historical 'context'. There are no anachronisms in the archive - for it is an historical document in its own right - and a time capsule of its own 'Feminist' Zeitgeist. (what is 'Zeitgeist' and what is an anachronism ?)
Marsha Rowe (left) and Rosie Boycott, co-founders of the feminist magazine Spare Rib, in 1972. Photograph: Sydney O'Meara/Getty Images
Regarding 'anachronisms' the archive at your disposal is not, say, a book about the Magazine with an authors view - subjective account (open to error etc) -
... It IS 'the actual magazine' itself (online) for you to research as PRIMARY material ( you are reading the contents in its time period etc )
Read through them - buy some on ebay ? dont get too bogged down by interesting theoretical issues at this stage - i.e How has Feminism evolved or changed ? Just study the SPARE RIB archive contents and its design - the fashions and societal stance - and consider it all as a whole ? - is it 'of its time' ? and what is its relation to 'the now' ? How does it relate or not relate with today Can this set of documents trigger any visual responses and your own imagination - empathetic responses - ?
Make intuitive visual experimental work 'inspired' by the contents and themes - invent and make things up in response - connect your own work and ideas - amalgamate and improvise - be playful - in 2d or 3d or both.
Take inspiration from the themes raised by the article. Hopefully you will find work in the contents that actually resonates and consolidates some of your own current thinking and ideas for creative expression - thoughts on identity and Artistic making / Societal inks etc.
very good Guardian Article here -
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2015/may/28/spare-rib-the-top-10-reads-from-the-archives
then study the archive in full below- be patient it takes time to LAOD up the full size pages and images
full archive here https://journalarchives.jisc.ac.uk/britishlibrary/sparerib
very good British Library contextual bite size articles here from the main tree
http://www.bl.uk/spare-rib/
Triangulate and juxtapose your research by joining up your interests with other Archives - visit and use the SLIDE archive at MMU ( join Johns Flickr and twitter feed ) to find local images from this era that may support or juxtapose with your own thinking - Design - colour, fashions - Politics - social tropes or trends etc?
*and then also Visit the exhibition in special collections on Art Schools and Protest for a further source of material.
This whole Task will require an genuine interest in researching text and image - or visiting the archive - and reading through it for source material, connections and threads - then responding with visual and material experiments of your own - inspired by the connections you have made and found - this is all stimulus for further work next term. Research the archive with patience and depth - use a good PC /Mac not a phone etc - the British Museum / Spare Rib images take a while to load up on the archive pages;
Read Men too - read Patchen & Bukowski and Richard Brautigan - a fine punchy counter balance to the 'Oxbridge' poets ( Image of Patchen book from collection of mm)
Hard Feelings Prose and text from Spare Rib (from my collection / mm)
two other texts I recommend are the following - again used sucessfully as curriculum texts in the past - they are old books now but strong insights anecdotes and facts - and both very readable in a day or so - hard to put down - and both by Rosalind Miles
Dear Level 5 / 6 I will be publishing the room number for tuesdays all day lev 5 powerpoints asap - today I'm contemplating other matters with some weekly updates and links to seminar books we discussed on Tuesday: so for follow up.
*these are the authors and books mentioned in my last semianr with level 5 - may be of interest to some not others
Murray Bookchin
2. Stone tape theory ( again - yep ! this always makes an annual appearance )
this is also of interest to Sue and Veronica and co - archive is at Manc Univ;
http://championupnorth.com/music/features/7-visionary-women-who-paved-the-way-for-electronic-music
more on GUY Sherwin & Lynn Loo here Alchemy festival
http://www.alchemyfilmfestival.org.uk/2015/performances/
SOUND: links
1; https://wiki.manchester.ac.uk/tbmap/index.php/Archives_and_Collections
2; http://championupnorth.com/music/features/7-visionary-women-who-paved-the-way-for-electronic-music
SONICS - TIME - Tate talk
watch this first - Artist : Guy Sherwin
click link below not image (still)
Recommended new book
http://www.alchemyfilmfestival.org.uk/2015/performances/
SOUND: links
1; https://wiki.manchester.ac.uk/tbmap/index.php/Archives_and_Collections
2; http://championupnorth.com/music/features/7-visionary-women-who-paved-the-way-for-electronic-music
and some of you were asking and were curious about my talk at Birmingham City University ; here are some of the Semiotics and Image workshop 'Metaphor and Metamorphosis" images slides content etc
by 'ambition' - read ... 'ambition for your work' - and your autonomy as an individual - autonomy Individuality - shared, and hopefully socially minded
real science fiction - comets over moominland -
'Lore' and 'making things up' - outsiders welcome
The Rear View lens - the future is now ? Archives;
time travel; Chris Marker and Atget :
Weegee
Poets
Diane De Prima 
'zones' of magic and disbelief - merging the future and the past - Solaris & Stalker
Stanisław Lem & Strugatsky brothers
The importance of humility over hubris - Be Ripley - be for 'the good of the many' ? or just give in and own status anxiety and envy (read Alain de bottons book on status anxiety)
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the importance of ones own historical palette / mythologies ( a little of mine - I used to dig Peat !)
survival ......... 1930s germany and paris
Violette Szabo, Noor Inayat Khan WW2 and fighting National Socialism" 1930s Europe
Lee Miller in Hitlers bathtub: and in the field
all our anthropologies
The Primitive - the rear view mirror - anthropology and the human as 'artefact'
more tales of the unexpected
'UN / Reality' and the Noumenal .... Ghosts in the machine / stone tapes - inner space outer space. Betty & Barney Hill
genesis p orridge and Orlan
the child and the inner lens - the toddler mind as a brilliant spongey 'SOFT' machine - recording this and that
Slavoj ZiZEK; possibly the best living critical thinker and speaker
( Flux magazine 2009 , illustrations by MM - editorial layout John Walsh )
this DVD is a must for anyone interested in Film and Human 'being' deconstructs the self, Hitchcock Tarkovsky and Lynch
Poets
Stevie Smith & Basil Bunting - the voice as 'drum'
More mythologies, felt frogs , female icons / Euro Chic
Kent Landscape location thing MMJ
Anecdotes: ''But who is going to protect us and will we survive ''? cold war fears , anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress in children - the danger of adrenalin
shot on location in and around the tiny village of Le Rat, in the Corrèze with
Jeanne Moreau
Mademoiselle
Anecdote: The Exogenous and the Endogenous - - and how we come upon things :
Macks Falmouth Lecture : The Memory and the Whistle :
Slide 1; Curlew, Snipe & Lapwing Chicks :
Life on Moors ( Mars) :
when not to acquiesce
celebration - in the small things
.....................................................
TOP: Jacqueline Marie Porret Forel - and Manuel Lanca Bonifacio in RAW Vision magazine - please research this Artist and look at the MMU library archive of RAW for your general drawing referencing - RAW available online and at Whitworth / Cornerhouse HOME bookshops also ?
Above: Blue Chalk drawing MM demo ; Portrait of 'Odysseus' WW2 RAF 1944 series
below; Durer self portrait study; and below that 'wire' drawings by Calder
Drawing and the figure :
Tutor Mack Manning ( )
Improvisation - Imagination - storytelling - Play - Making things up is what we do - The vitality of 'Personal interpretations' - injecting your emotions and personal ownership and stories into your work - The importance of Contextual and historical awareness - know your subject and get to know the real innovators in the history of Art - Lots of 'Seeing and Looking' - Gallery visits - research research research.
above : Collins, Blake Chagall at his Easel
BOOK Vitamin D 2 ...buy this book
below
Artists to research on pinterest from week 2 session.
Louise Bourgeous Jasper Johns drawing
Brice Marden
Gorky
Film to watch DVD 'The cave of forgotten dreams' ( herzog )
Louise Bourgeois
Drawing and the figure : Week one:
Tutor Mack Manning
Drawing & Observation:
Is Drawing like a Poem ? economical and 'Analogous' to Song' ?
research metaphor and analogy in visual language
Brice Marden, David Smith, Bacon
Above - Improvise on your drawings when you get them home - evolve them
Research list - to do: search on Pinterest for
Millais drawing
Rodin drawing
Rodin Watercolour
Kiki Smith
Narrative drawing observation and seeing ones self not just the sitter:
Research : Kiki Smith, Andrew Wyeth,
Sir John Everett Millais Slight Sketch for the painting Ophelia 1852
below TWO drawings by RODIN
Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917) Graphite with wash of watercolor and gouache on cream paper;
above; Wyeth, Baskin, Shahn, Matisse poster - see the 'interior' of figure
and below Ned Ludd ! - and below that several pencil demos from the Tutor: (me, Mack)
Leger Poster (Left)
In time for next weeks life drawing WATCH this Superb Documentary on Drawing and how we approach it with not just skills of the intellect but mostly through the confidence of instinct and intuition;
''ALL IN THE MIND - THE SECRET TO DRAWING'' by Andrew Graham Dixon
It discusses what we explored on Thursday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KhmsJNiKqc click this link for footage please and take notes - evidence your learning for assessment;
The Be Good Tanyas 'Horses'
