Arts

Architecture has yielded some of the world's greatest monuments, evidence of passed and present civilizations. Pharoes, Emperors and Kings made sure to leave their mark in the world. It's a combination of precise calculations, artistic vision and hard work. What has become of architecture today? Where is it headed?

With the development of new and more intricate technologies, artists seem to be turning more and more to creating art through the use of their computer. Do you think that modern art that is produced this way lacks the same emotional overtones as older pieces that were developed by the artist brush-to-canvas, so to speak?

A central issue that seems to plague even the most respected media critics (including the likes of the late Roger Ebert) is the potentially unfair expectations placed on the materials they review. For instance, if a film critic went into every movie expecting it to be Citizen Kane, it puts an immediate handicap on all films that do not intend to be critically acclaimed dramas like straight forward action movies, horror, etc. In turn, this can cause critics to give lower scores to pieces of media that are good but simply don't fit their mold of success. On the other hand, one could also argue that judging a piece of media on what it intends to be lowers cultural standards and gives an unfair advantage to lesser works. This article would weigh both sides of this argument and attempt to find reasonable conclusions.

OOOs, a brand of Speculative Realism supposes that objects have agency, an experience, a unique existence. This seems to have been an understanding long held by Indigenous Cultures in Canada and abroad. Though OOOs seem to have taken hold in contemporary Western philosophy and art practice (many examples can be seen in modern art galleries today) these knowledge systems have been around for much much longer in a different content. Who are some historical and contemporary Indigenous artists that practice under this system, what are they making and how can it be compared, or contrasted to Western practice?

The international art market functions based on the premise that prized works in western art history will continue appearing. But there is a limited number of pieces that can bring six-figure commissions to auctioneers and experts, particularly when contemporary works, and art from post-colonial nations, are generally ignored. This situation encourages forgers like Beltracchi, who said in the documentary The Art of Forgery, that the higher the price of the artwork, the less scrutiny from dealers.

In this context, can the forgery of artworks be interpreted as a revolutionary action that challenges the status quo of the international art market? Are these forged paintings still art?

Artists are more and more turning to the computer as a tool in the studio process. Many artists use digital tools as mere processes in the creation of traditional work, while many other artists now produce the entire artwork on the computer. These digital artists are are left with one method of making their art creation into a physical product. This is the use of pigment-based printing technology, which prints out their work as as a digital print. This is sometimes called, Giclee, or Digital Pigment Printing. For these artists, this is a legitimate way of constructing artwork. But, there is a massive prejudice against digital prints by the art gallery community. Many talented artists who use digital technology are excluded from showing with these galleries. In a vast number of open exhibition calls, the requirements specifically exclude digital artists and their work. How can the growing body of artists who produce digital work gain a sense of legitimacy from both their audiences and the galleries who control the purchasing public?

For a long time documenting as an art form has been left to photographers and filmmakers, whatever happened to history painting? Is documentary only to be created in two-dimensional art forms or could a document appear as sculpture, installation or performance art?

I'm not a person of colour so this topic isn't for me, but it would be interesting to see someone write an article on how ingrained the symbolism of white and black is in Western society. Like things as white are coded as "good, pure, holy" ect where black is coded as "evil, impure, associated with death" ect. and how that's kind of built into a lot of popular imagery and maybe how reversing those codes can be seen as an act of political subversion like having white represent coldness, antiseptic, emptiness and using the colour black to symbolize something like warmth and comfort ect. Anyways these things are just super pervasive and it would be interesting to see some one really analyze how that kind of symbolism plays into and reinforces racism in media