Call to Order: the subordination of the matter to the light of the form
"The French poet and filmmaker, Jean Cocteau, is usually given the credit for the title by which the neoclassical revival of the 1920′s and early 1930′s is known. Le Rappel a l’ordre or the Call to Order summoned the civilized world to its senses. These were the very organs, you will recall, that had been ripped away by a shell fragment in Dix’s Skin Graft.
This 'call to order' actually had its roots in French wartime propaganda. The virtues of France’s Latin-based civilization were ranged against the Teutonic brutalism of the Germans. Before the war, néoclassicisme had languished like a discarded stage prop. In 1918, with the 'Huns' surging for a second time toward the gates of Paris, Cocteau and others summoned the cultural icons of Greece and Rome to join the Allied ranks. That year, Cocteau published a book, Le Coq et l’Arlequin, which he revised and renamed in 1924 as Le Rappel a l’ordre. The message was the same, without the 'us versus them' jingoism of the war: civilization must look to its ancient past to regain its bearings and enhance its vitality.
Cocteau’s thesis found an appreciative audience in many circles, including the United States. According to French writer Jacques Maritain, 'what makes the purity of the true classic is … a subordination of the matter to the light of the form.' The discipline and dedication of the artist would admit only the essential elements of art into the work being created, excluding anything that would 'debauch' the senses of the viewer."
(Ed Voves, 4 October 2010)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
The Commissar Vanishes: retouching Soviet Russian history
"The Commissar Vanishes is an installation of haunting images from the David King Collection, which coincides with the Russian publication of the book of the same name that traces the falsification of photographs and art in Stalin's Russia.
Like their counterparts in Hollywood, photographic retouchers in Soviet Russia spent long hours smoothing out the blemishes of imperfect complexions, helping the camera to falsify reality. But it was during the Great Purges, which raged in the late 1930's, that a new form of falsification emerged. The physical eradication of Stalin's political opponents at the hands of the secret police was swiftly followed by their obliteration from all forms of pictorial existence. Photographs for publication were retouched and restructured with airbrush and scalpel to make once-famous personalities vanish. Entire editions of works by denounced politicians and writers were banished to the closed sections of the state libraries and archives or simply destroyed. Soviet citizens, fearful of the consequences of being caught in possession of material considered 'anti-Soviet' or 'counterrevolutionary', were forced to deface their own copies of books and photographs.
The subject matter of this exhibit focuses on one particularly evocative example: in 1934 the artist/designer/photographer Alexander Rodchenko was commissioned by the state publishing house OGIZ in Moscow to design the album, Ten Years of Uzbekistan, celebrating a decade of Soviet rule in that state. The Russian edition, full of Rodchenko's skillful design techniques, appeared the same year and the Uzbek edition, with some politically induced changes, in 1935. But in 1937, at the height of the terror, Stalin ordered a major overhaul of the Uzbek leadership and heads began to roll. Many Party bosses photographed in Ten Years of Uzbekistan were liquidated. The album suddenly became illegal literature. Using thick black India ink, Rodchenko was compelled to deface his own book. This installation now brings together, in the form of photographic enlargements, the published portraits of the high-ranking officials victimised in Stalin's Uzbek purge, juxtaposed with their eradication by Rodchenko's hand. The macabre results - ethereal, Rothko-like, sometimes brutal and terrifying - came close to creating a new art form, a graphic reflection of the real fate of the victims."
(The Photographers' Gallery)
David King (1997). "The Commissar Vanishes".
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Mana Waka: feature-length documentary showing the re-building of the seven wakataua/war canoes of the Great Maori Fleet
"Mana Waka, working title Canoe, is a feature-length documentary made to launch New Zealand's 1990 centennial celebrations. The documentary has a fascinating history. Princess Te Puea Herangi of the Turangawaewae Marae, Ngauruawahia, was a great Maori leader committed to work that would uphold, and be used for the benefit of, the Maori people. During the late 1930s she conceived the idea of celebrating the 1940 centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi by re-building the seven wakataua/war canoes of the Great Fleet, According to legend these canoes had journeyed from Hawaiki to Aotearoa some 25 generations previously. Princess Te Puea asked stills photographer R.G.H. (Jim) Manley, who had not previously made a film, to film the re-building, and he did so over a period of three years. Up north in the Puketi Forest, a great kauri tree was felled for the building of the Nga-toki-matawhaorua canoe which is now housed at Waitangi. Two totara trees from the Oruanui Forest provided the timber for the canoes that were carved and built at Turangawaewae."
(Helen Martin, 8 July 2011, Onfilm Magazine)
Fig.1 Still from "Mana Waka": NZ 1990 Documentary prod co Nga Kaitiaki o Te Puea Estate and the Turangawaewae Marae Trust dir Merata Mita camera R.G.H. Manly (filmed 1937 - 1940) ed Annie Collins kai korero/narrator Tukuroirangi Morgan film preservation Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga The New Zealand Film Commission, Ngā Kaitiaki Ō Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua The New Zealand Film Archive, NFU Laboratory, NFU Sound finecut Nga Kaitiaki o Te Marae o Turangawaewae sound Merata Mita, David Madigan, Chris Verberg, Mike Hedges, Annie Collins. 85 minutes.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Integrative Education: education proceeds from the interests of students rather than from disciplined subject matter
"As early as 1918, Kilpatrick elaborated a 'project method,' in which education proceeded from the interests of students rather than from disciplined subject matter. In the 1930s, thirty schools participated in a long-term experiment with integrative education called the 'Eight-Year Study.' Although this study documented the benefits of integrative education, the study had little impact on the traditional structure of education (Daniel L. Kain 1993). In spite of its shortcomings, the practice of breaking down instruction into separate academic disciplines has seldom been challenged.
While integrative education is not new, current supporters offer proof of its wisdom by pointing to recent research that indicates information is most securely encoded and best retrieved by the brain when it can be connected to a web of meaning. Jane Roland Martin (1995) argues that integrative education allows curricula to educate through the experiences of diverse races, genders, and classes, thus creating a place of significance for each child."
(Dean Walker, ERIC Digest 101 January 1995)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Portfolio for Video Game Environment Artist Philip Howlett
"The Second City is a 1930's Chicago inspired street scene. This was created for a client who was looking for a proof of concept, with a view to presenting it to games publishers. All assets were modelled and textured by myself, from an extensive catalogue of reference photography. ...
This is a fly-through video recorded in Fraps straight from the UDK viewpoint. Breakdowns of meshes and lighting can be seen. Thanks to Robert Antill for the work he did in After Effects on this."
(Philip Howlett)
CONTRIBUTOR
MultimediaSHARE
