Jason Yi Lecture (1.16.15)
Jason Yi talked a lot about space on Friday, which makes sense, considering he was trained as an architect, but also because his current sculptural work is often based on spatial concepts like fragility and instability, and playing with the traditional roles of objects or tools.
What Jason said about space is relevant to digital art when you consider how it can be applied to the digital medium, which typically inhabits two dimensional space, coming through to us as light or sound but without any construction or inhabiting space within our physical world. At the same time, it seems obvious that film or a photograph or even a sound has space -- both within the world it was captured from, and in the present world. Jason Yi addressed this dissonant concept in his own way with the photography and film he introduced early in his lecture.
By portraying his parents performing very American rituals in his photography, often in a very awkward manner, Jason Yi showed how space could be used in a photograph to further unsettle the viewer's perception of what was taking place in the photograph, compounded by the racial implications of the photographs (a Korean family participating in heavily Americanized activities). The short film uses a different spatial technique; the layered images of Jason's parents doesn't serve to unsettle the viewer, but it is still a perfect example of how an artist can create a message by using space in a medium which is fundamentally two dimensional. Jason's overlapping of his parents' stories about him show his origins, both through the monologue and through the combination of these two people, literally combined through post-processing as they recount their stories.
Thanks for separating out the different layers of space: 2d and 3d, photos and real time, I think we can even see race and history can have a kind of space, like how you mentioned the awkwardness of Jason's photos with his family and his parents' stories overlapping each other. Looking forward to your short film tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteI am glad you mentioned that Jason Yi was trained as an architect because that detail slipped my mind. It definitely helps explain his interest in the meaning and function of space.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I'm glad you included that particular picture because I did not notice the red stenciling detail when I looked at this piece in the Wriston Gallery. It makes it much more interesting!
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ReplyDeleteNoah, although Yi spoke a little bit about space, didn't you think the video of his parents kind of took away from the main focus of his visit? I really thought he was going to go into more depth as to why he chose art over architecture and explain the palatability of zip-ties in art. I think if he did that, that would've offered a bit more to students at lecture as to advice they can hold onto when they enter the art field in the business world, and I didn't feel like he really offered much in that instance. Sure, he spoke elegantly about space and how it can be altered, but that was something that we already came to expect him to say. He had nice ideas, but he didn't really surprise me in any way other than the work he did in past that he showed us. I really wanted him to shed some light as to what it means to be an artist and what you have to do to succeed in the art field.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that you addressed the racial (or cultural, rather) resonance of Yi's false americanized photos. I think that's something he didn't address enough in the lecture, though it's an important dimension of his work. Also appreciate your connecting the 2-dimensional medium of photographs to McLuhan's ideas, because I think the role of pictorial space in 2-d art is really interesting, especially with the expansion of the virtual realm.
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