Experiment # 8 . Mapping Time & Space

Experiment #8 : Mapping Time & Space

Drawings that construct a narrative that maps areas over a period of time
Maps are a visual representation of knowledge

The Potentials of a Map:
i : a representation (usually on a flat surface) of a particular area and/or idea

>> a representation of the celestial sphere or a part of it <<

iii : something that represents the clarity of an idea  

>> the Freudian map of the mind <<

iv: the arrangement of something tangible (or conceived) in a specified type of ordering >> genes on a chromosome —called also genetic map <<


link: MoMA > Maps, Borders & Networks

Here are a few examples:

Maps are a visual representation of knowledge

• subway routes

• geographical locations

• brain waves

• mapping a foot path

• your charted growth on the inside of a door trespass  

• charted demographics in a census

• astronomy and the stars

• the genomes of organisms

• the way we plan research

• the mapping of your college years

Artists have always had an intuitive understanding of how even abstract knowledge and concepts can be made visual. 

Contemporary artists have expanded this idea by appropriating both the type of conceptualization AND the look of traditional maps. 

According to Emma Dexter, “[Drawing] is a map of time recording the actions of the maker."

TEXT: To Draw is to be Human

Read the above article, prepare notes in your sketchbook and be ready to discuss in our next class together. Tuesday, April 4th.

Experiment #8

Steps

Begin by brainstorming different things you can “map.”

Consider how these connections can be mapped across both space and time. 

Remember, you can turn the most conceptual of ideas into concrete form

Your work is a dimensional construct of your ideas

For example, you may have had a certain type of sneaker as a child. As you grew, your own tastes changed in foot wear. What are your taste's now? 
Map that evolution.

Map your actual travel.

Map your conceptual travel.

Where do you begin? 

Where do you end?

What do your book ends describe / notate?

Map this evolution, layering foot wear, size, travel.  

The multi-layered drawing or series of drawings that conceptually lay out this information. 

1. Your work will define area, time, energy, dimension, scale and object and will be photographed in various ways
2. Materials may be 2D or 3D -- but remember TIME, is your most precious of any material you may use!
3. Create a six paragraph (minimum) project statement of how your work effectively makes use of material, mark, time, space, your overall interpretive concept of mapping time and space. 
4. Consider the translations / perceptions others offered you from critique. 
5. Consider your work's relationship to the research you have conducted and placed its evidence in your sketchbook! 
6. Create a PPT of all your various 'studies.' Include discussion of the value of each as well as their limitations.
7. Put the list in its entirety on your PPT - we want to see your evolution!
8. Insert your project statement within your PPT.
9. Send me an electronic copy of your studies in a PPT the day of following critique. 
10. Submit hardcopy of your project statement the day following critique.

1. CRITIQUE DATE:: Thursday, APRIL 13, 2017

Here are a few examples:

Matthew Ritchie 

Let's concentrate on the work of Alighiero Boetti following...

Essay from the MoMA exhibition catalogue July 1 > Oct 1, 2012 

Alighiero Boetti (Italian, 1940–1994) began making art in his hometown of Turin in the early 1960s, against the backdrop of a resurgent postwar industrial society. 

He rose to prominence in the context of Arte Povera, a movement of young Italian artists attempting to create a new sculptural language through the use of humble, everyday materials. Arte Povera translates to 'art of the poor.'

After the student protests of 1968, which brought about an increasing radicalization of Italian society and politics, Boetti removed himself from the politicized atmosphere of Northern Italy and moved to Rome, far from the artistic centers of Turin and Milan. 

He abandoned Arte Povera and began anew with conceptual works employing existing systems and simple structures, often expressed through drawings and collages. 

Boetti frequently traveled to distant places, most importantly to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he returned many times between 1971 and 1979 (when the Soviet invasion made travel to the country impossible). There he discovered a rich tradition of weaving and embroidery, and his collaborations with local artisans are among his most iconic works.

Mappa (Map). 1989–94. Embroidery on fabric. Various dimensions.
Collection Giordano Boetti, Rome © 2012 Estate of Alighiero Boetti/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome

Throughout his career, Boetti experimented with a wide variety of processes, materials, subjects, and styles, and he often incorporated chance and invited collaboration. Nonetheless, his work was guided by a consistent set of philosophical principles, often conceived in opposing or differing pairs. 

Notions of order and disorder, duality and multiplicity, travel and geography, time and space, and intention and chance permeate Boetti’s projects, finding expression in conceptual works made using the postal service, brightly colored embroideries created with the help of Afghan artisans, and large-scale drawings that deploy mathematical systems and formal operations of chance or spell out his ideas in poetic puns. 

Dynamic and charismatic, Boetti brought his preoccupation with opposites into his artistic persona, signing many of his works as the twin characters “Alighiero e Boetti” (Alighiero and Boetti): one who responded to the rational side of the world and another who embraced its irrational aspects. In this vein, many of Boetti’s works can be understood as self-portraits as well as elaborate word games in which the artist is reflecting on his place in the world and on how to describe the world in his work.

Organized roughly chronologically, Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan (an exhibition on view at the MoMA > July 1–October 1, 2012) presented both the diversity and the consistency of Boetti’s practice; it also illustrates his idea that the artist, rather than inventing new objects, simply points to what already exists in the world in order to give it new meaning. Articulated through pithy phrases such as “bringing the world into the world” and “giving time to time,” Boetti’s guiding principles are the thematic threads that carry through the exhibition.   

Aligheiro Boeit = G A M E  P L A N

“First of all I prefer thought. This is the basic thing. I really think manual skill is secondary. . . . It’s taking things from reality. Everything, however small and humble, always has a beginning and stems from reality.”

“I had been going in one direction. . . . Then I began to doubt this direction. In the spring of 1969 I left the studio in Turin. It had become a depot for materials. I left all of this as it was and began again from zero with a pencil and a sheet of paper.”

“I went to a supplier of building materials. It was thrilling to see the wonderful things that were there! Seeing all these materials filled me with such crazy enthusiasm, in the end it turned to nausea! But still, some of the best moments in Arte Povera were hardware shop moments.”

“For me, the work on the embroidered maps achieved the highest form of beauty. For the finished work, I myself did nothing, in the sense that the world is as it is (I didn’t draw it) and the national flags are as they are (I didn’t design them). In short, I did absolutely nothing. What emerges from the work is the concept.”

“I have done a lot of work which presents a visual disorder that is actually the representation of a mental order. It’s just a question of knowing the rules of the game. Someone who doesn’t know them will never see the order that reigns in things. It’s like looking at a starry sky. Someone who does not know the order of the stars will see only confusion, whereas an astronomer will have a very clear vision of things.”

“Many people send letters, using the postage stamps unaware of their design, color and placement. Many people travel and document their experiences without being conscious that they are making art.”

“Often when I draw I use both of my hands. Normally I am right-handed. When I draw with my left hand it is a kind of conversation with myself exploring the positive and the negative, the ego and alter ego, the order and disorder and mounting it on paper. It is as if on one hand there is Alighiero and on the other, Boetti.”

“Do you know why dates are so important? Because if you write, say, ‘1970’ on a wall, it seems like absolutely nothing, but in thirty years’ time . . . Dates have this beauty: the more time passes, the more beautiful they become.”

BOETTI at the MoMA - Interactive drawings (connect to link)

Student Work

    

Trent C. - My project was to use freckles on someone's face as star constellations and paint that into the inside of a cup. I believed the project was mapping more of space than time. The experiment I felt really grasped the ideas of constructing a conceptual map.  My project was minimalist and did not take a huge amount of materials or exertion to craft but still held a strong conceptual idea. I felt that it portrayed imagination, and creativity. It reflects the infinite universe and being contained within a teacup.  I feel that my project speaks about containment in such a way that it isn't restricting the medium, the universe, but can show the ability of the project's potential to grow indefinitely and create more by painting more cups or taking other alternatives to expand the project.  A lot of my critique came from the size and complexity of it. I did not want to create the container for my experiment because I feel that my teacup that I use on a daily basis has more of a connection to me personally and the idea of my imagination and the universe being contained into a mundane object. I believe the only change I could have made is making more painted cups.