Freedom in Modern Art - Research Paper Example

?Freedom in Modern Art Art is defined as a form of expression. It has evolved from a series ical dynasties throughout history. It also has continuously revolutionized radical movements especially in this modern time. Definition of art today greatly varies from how it is classified from old times. Art today is devoid of walls from the conventional aesthetic standards of output where expressions are devised in many various forms. Today, art has been exhibited and expressed in surprisingly varied media greatly influenced by the global modernization. Art is no longer defined with strict rules in terms of aesthetic value and medium used. Anyone has liberty to explore what is inside of them and express them in ways for arts sake. The cultural backgrounds influencing the inner system of the creators’ hands are expressed in the messages and media of their output. The freedom in every artist lets him explore the vastness of his creativity into varied concepts of supreme work using multitudes of possible media. This sense of freedom in the modern art has opened the gates for other kinds of materials to be used as medium in expressing art. Every man is an artist. Indeed, that has been very true this time. The intrinsic creative capacity of every human being is now exploding into manifestos that make viewers stand in wondering awe. Plus, the trend of digital modern day technology has been embedded in the realm of art. The digital age conquering the world has now come. It is a reality that is visible not only on the modern day gadgets and machineries but also in the art demesne. Art has turned into a real dynamic symbiotic system where artist’s magnum opuses are more interactive. There are voices that are heard in their silent protests and there are images depicted in shadows. Messages of their works cants with piercing sonata echoed with the various reactions, critics, appreciations and applause from those who perceive. There are various art shows, galleries and exhibits that take their audience aback with all the surprising media used by modern artists. Art exhibited are incorporated with high technology concepts, medium as well as some radical messages. A lot of artists join such exhibition in showing their masterpieces portraying art for arts sake idea. Art has indeed evolved from prehistoric dynasties where aesthetic value is the optimum criteria to judge a piece of work to an era where art works are expressed regardless of how they look in the human eye. There are even extreme works exposing radical movements created in skewed forms with messages hidden in graphics. Medium used has varied from oil based paints into lights and lasers. Canvasses containing them expounds from traditional easel-sized paints into walls, screens, and even a whole room. Who would have thought that art can consume such space? The vastness of possible resources to paint the many artists’ graffiti has sloped into infinity. Every now and then, a new thing happens. Every now and then, a new material coming from nature has been staged into stardom as they are exposed gradually. One of the most remarkable modern day artists that explored an extraordinary media in expressing art is Daniel Rozin. He expressed a different kind of art with the use of unreflective surfaces to act as mirror. His famous work, The Wooden Mirror has spectacularly amazed audiences from all over the world. He skillfully combined 830 pieces of wooden block hooked up with motors adjoined with built in cameras. This was built in the year 1999 where physical art is collaborated with digital technology. The other materials included to complete the whole piece includes servo motors, cameras for video, computer and of course the wooden frames. The natural resource from nature which is wood has been used to portray images through the web of intricate body part construction reflecting an abstract perception of digital pixels. The camera picks up movement from an object in front of the masterpiece thereby producing a shadowed reflection as the output. Anyone standing in front of it is immediately reflected on the surfaces. Rozin quite experimented with various materials to derive such masterpiece. There is a sophisticated interactive effect in his art (Wooden). http://www.designboom.com/weblog/read.php?CATEGORY_PK&TOPIC_PK=2897 Daniel Rozin has amazingly created various forms of art works that have been both appreciated and criticized by the public. As an artist, he concentrates on the field of interactive digital art. He subtly incorporates the use of computers and cameras in many of his artworks. But his works don’t focus on machines; rather, he keeps these computers and cameras behind his works as a tool to achieve his desired effects. Some of his works respond to the presence of viewers where the reflected output is dependent upon the point of view of the viewer. This interaction between the art and the viewer sets in itself exemplary and highest form of art with modern touch. Many of his art works are using mirrors as medium. Other integrated media he used can include stone mosaics, woven fabric, pixels, use of camera and etc. Many of his works are featured all over the world in various publications. Some of them include Ars Electronica Trash Mirror, Art Interactive, Elsewhere, Weave Mirror, Mirrors and many more. Rozin, as an educator and Industrial Engineer, became an exemplary to other modern day artists to explore other forms of media and expose them to great masterpieces (Daniel Rozin). Weave Mirror by Daniel Rozin Rozin is just one of the many modern day artists that used their freedom in expressing their thoughts and ideas. His works have evoked so much discussion among scholars, academe people and art critics. A portion of the population has criticized his works showing distaste and irrelevance of his work with the true meaning of art. They are those who cling to the conventional standards of art to be judged aesthetically. As for them, what is not pleasing to see and what is not understood by viewing the work is considered an outcast when it comes to art. However, major portion of the world’s population discussed his art in depth with a positive response. Rozin may have break away from the stereotyping way of making art works, but he has set a starting point for all the other artists out there to try their ingenuity and create what they see as art. Some may miss the point of appreciating beauty hidden in between the lines devoid of colors and hues. Some may not understand the message of the maker who fabricated such intricately woven parts to create a whole. Some have closed their minds, eyes and heart in deep understanding of the art. But, that is not true for all. There is even a long list of artists that have also gone astray from the old school of expressing their thoughts and emotions with the use of various media. Rozin’s interests in using mirrors as media in art are being known worldwide. There are other artists that explore this media in presenting their masterpieces. Black mirror for example has been used quite a lot in many art exhibits. Mirrors have even been used by historic people like the Aztecs making black mirrors from volcanic glass. They used this medium in many of their divination and healing practices. Until today, black mirror has been known to be a good medium in art. In 19th century up to the 20th century, black mirrors are found their thrones in many of the artist’s works in this picturesque modern culture. Artists like Monet and Matisse has explored their modern creativity as they resorted in using black mirror as medium for art. Accordingly, the black mirror reflects a different kind of figure providing an anti-narcissistic self-reflection form as one perceives his form in its dim internal film (Boym). Another exemplary artist exploring this black mirror as medium for art is Svetlana Boym. Many of her artistic works explore this creative medium to express cross cultural context. Some of her works were exhibited in Architectural Biennial in 2012, BKS Garage of the Royal Academy of Art, Madrid Center for Contemporary Art and Prometheus Gowanus. Some of her works include Phantoms (Black Mirrors), Flows (Black Mirrors) and many more (Boym). Svetlana Boym, Flows (Black Mirrors), 2009. Svetlana Boym, Phantoms (Black Mirrors), 2009. In this modern day era, the clashing of art with modern technology is inevitable. Rozin and Boym are just one of the few modern artists that use unique media in expressing their arts. There is still infinitely many other unspeakable media that has been used and can still be innovated in the future. Some may come out too strikingly where the public needs time to appreciate their works. There are works that are not accepted by the public at the first sight of it. They are perceived and judged immediately as one without worth. That is why, artists work with each other in order to be heard, accepted and appreciated by the world. Artists collaborate with each other to showcase their works at once to the public. In fact, many art shows conceptualized with a certain theme has been made all over the world. Artists, their supporters and critics flock like vultures at these events creating both ingrates and malcontents alike. However, critics expressing disdain over art works are not something that just came out from nowhere. They have been there since the classical period, impressionism and until now. Even one of the most historical artists, Claude Monet had tasted bitter applause from the public at his time. He started out the revolution in art world and freed their chained palettes and brushes into liberty during the impressionism period. His work of art provoked a lot of critics, where impressionists are branded as incapable of doing a properly composed and finished work of art just like the conventional paintings. Their works are alienated and unaccepted from the art Salons, and their works were continuously criticized. As they made a separate showroom for their works, people began to appreciate what they are trying to portray. People started to enjoy the play of lights and shadow adoring the spontaneity of their works. Impressionism as a whole left a legacy to the world of art. But still, their art is later considered by scientific researches that further developed the technology of photography (Douma). The chain of influence in art is traced back from history. The impressionist and the succeeding artists have contributed greatly to the future of art, which is greatly evident today. The modern day art styles birthed into reality has been due to them. For example, Paul Gauguin style influenced the period of Fauvism, Van Gogh gave way to Expressionism, Paul Cezanne was a major influence for the Cubists and Seurat’s style of pointillism greatly moved the art style of abstract art (Grisham). These arts paved way into the modern day technology such as photography and other photomechanical techniques. The evolution of time when it comes to art has truly been dynamic and a fast paced one. Galleries of before are composed of canvasses lining up in the walls displayed in studios. Today, modern artists gather together in shows and museums composed of videos, photography, sculptures, paintings, graffiti and words on the walls. They even come up with catalogs that contain the included artists and the thematic slogan featured on the event. There are riffs and themes collaborated in these events to unleash the stifled messages that artists want to convey in unison to the public. The immersion and integration of various works of arts revolving around a single theme or idea echo with a bang to the public. They are called in various names: Artist as Victim, Artist as Star, Victim’s representative or whatever. There is a raw exposure of the various artist feelings of marginalization and exclusion according to what they perceive from the present outside world. This even creates a big fiesta of whining with loud utterances of hidden parody made for socio-political issues (Hughes). To further express messages through art, artists even use materials such as gun spare parts, collage, photo shoot, or a canvass of massive blots with various hues, black and white pictures, enlarge image skewed to monumental proportions, photos from real life events, incorporation of various clippings and even art with captioned words to clearly define what the work is all about. As more sophisticated medium are being used, the sphere for the use of anything to express thoughts has indeed expanded. Technologies even produce these gadgets and machineries to make their expressions more explicit, genuine and unique. Art has sophisticatedly accelerated towards modernization. That is a fact that must be accepted by conventional minds who stick to the classical view of defining beauty. Art can no longer be associated with specified set of rules engraved on stone. There must be freedom of expression in art. There must be liberty in using whatever medium to use to express thoughts and emotions. Nature is boundless in providing whatever can be used to convey what must be said. Messages in art are stronger than words. They cannot be caged with definite formulas. This liberty in modern art must be something that the world must accept and the society must adapt. The voice in every masterpiece can express inner cries forever. Let the voices be heard. Works Cited Boym, Svetlana. The Off-Modern Mirror. Eflux.com Journal. 2010. Web. 11 December 2012. Douma, M., curator. Impressionism: The Innovation and Influence. Color Vision & Art from WebExhibits, Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement, Washington, DC.2006. Web. 14 December 2012 Daniel Rozin. Bibliography. NYU.edu. Web. 10 December 2012. Grisham,K. Post Impressionism Notes. West Valley. Retrieved from [http://instruct. westvalley.edu/grisham/1d_postimpress.htm] Hughes, Robert. A Fiesta of Whining. Time Magazine, March 22, 1993. Print The Wooden Mirror by Daniel Rozin. DesignBloom.com. 2012. Web. 10 December 2012 Read More