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Misc. Art History
loose ends
8
Art History
Undergraduate 4
03/18/2009

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Term
Anthropometry
Definition
A technique dealing with the measurement of the size, weight, and proportions of the human or other primate body.
 Yves Klein used the term anthropometries as the title his performance paintings where he covered nude women with paint, and used their bodies as paintbrushes.
Term
Fluxus
Definition
—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in visual art and music as well as literature, urban planning, architecture, and design. Fluxus is often described as intermedia, a term coined by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins in a famous 1966 essay.
The origins of Fluxus lie in many of the concepts explored by composer John Cage in his experimental music of the 1950s. Cage explored notions of chance in art, through works such as 4' 33", which influenced Lithuanian-born artist George Maciunas.[1] Maciunas (1931–1978) organized the first Fluxus event in 1961 at the AG Gallery in New York City and the first Fluxus festivals in Europe in 1962.
Term
Simulacrum
Definition
Simulacrum, from the Latin simulacrum which means "likeness, similarity", is first recorded in the English language in the late 16th century, used to describe a representation of another thing, such as a statue or a painting, especially of a god; by the late 19th century, it had gathered a secondary association of inferiority: an image without the substance or qualities of the original.[2] Philosopher Frederic Jameson offers photorealism as an example of artistic simulacrum, where a painting is created by copying a photograph that is itself a copy of the real.[3] Other art forms that play with simulacra include Trompe l'oeil,[4] Pop Art, Italian neorealism and the French New Wave
Term
autographic gesture
Definition
Not a picture but an event.  The image is the resault of an encounter with the canvas. 

A style or work of art that can be associated with an individual artist without signature, an example being the paintings of Jackson Pollock and the abstract expressionist. Not a picture but an event the image is the resault of an encounter with the canvas.

Term
Abjection
Definition
The term Abjection literally means "the state of being cast off." The concept of abject exists in between the concept of an object and the concept of the subject, something alive yet not. In contemporary critical theory, it is often used to describe the state of often-marginalized groups, such as people of color, prostitutes, homosexuals, convicts, poor people and handicapped persons. This term originated in the works of Julia Kristeva. Often, the term space of abjection is also used, referring to a space that abjected things or beings inhabit.
Term
"The medium is the message"
Definition
"The medium is the message" is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium imbeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived, creating subtle change over time. The phrase was introduced in his most widely known book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964.[1] McLuhan proposes that media themselves, not the content they carry, should be the focus of study; he said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself.

He pointed to the light bulb as a clear demonstration of this concept. A light bulb does not have content in the way that a newspaper has articles or a television has programs, yet it is a medium that has a social effect; that is, a light bulb enables people to create spaces during nighttime that would otherwise be enveloped by darkness. He describes the light bulb as a medium without any content. McLuhan states that "a light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence."[2] Likewise, the message of a newscast about a heinous crime may be less the individual news story itself — the content — and more the change in public attitude towards crime that the newscast engenders by the fact that such crimes are in effect being brought into the home to watch over dinner.[3]
Term
[image]
Definition
Nam June Paik, Global Groove, 1973
Term
[image]
Definition
Dara Birnbaum, Wonder Woman, 1978-9
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