Spring 2013 History of Photography

To myself, sleep can be considered art if they were just viewed in still images. But it would be boring if I were to find myself watching an entire sleep session. Almost anything can find itself as a subject of art. The Andy Warhol movie and even watching Tilda Swinton (but not in an art exhibition) can more or less be used as a study of how one person’s sleep cycle would be like, since not everyone sleeps alike. They can even suffer sleeping disorders if they are evident, and action must be taken to treat it. But a movie of an entire sleep cycle wouldn’t as appealing as Andy Warhol would expect it to be. I wonder if Tilda Swinton didn’t mind being viewed in an art exhibition and didn’t feel any kind of invasion of privacy before, during, and after. “The Sleepers” would be a different story since the homeless have themselves different strategies of surviving from what the ended up losing. The situation for the homeless would be picking a place where to sleep and how, and some of those places can end up being unusual places like subway stations, park benches, etc.

I dont know how to feel about Sleep as a form of art, if its just nothing but sleep its boring, the Andy Warhol trailer looked like a joke. Depending on the context it can be art but without any context its uninteresting. In Sergio Clavijos photo The Sleepers, he trades clothes with homeless people and poses sleeping with them. I think a much better idea would be to have a series of photos of homeless people sleeping, that seems more like art to me. I’m not sure what message “The Maybe” was trying to show, a women sleeping in a box isn’t much without a message. Just sleep isn’t doing it for me. I need something else, something to decipher and think about.

Katchadourian’s Iphone photos are unique and innovative. She put her own modern twist on classic. I believe that she is paying homage to the classical style of clothing and posture. Katchadourian is evoking her personal style which may seem peculiar at times. Viewers can see her personal style through her “Seat Assignments”, she puts her personal touch on everything for example: her disasters on the mountains she filled it in with pretzel crumbs. Her personal style may be “one man’s trash is another mans treasure”. Katchadourian takes minuet objects; seat belts, toilet paper, crumbs etc. and she turns them into her primary focus for photographs. I find her photography inspiring, her photography exemplifies her ability to turn any “dull” moment into a spontaneous moment. She is stating through her photographs that her personality is quirky, creative and fun.

This topic reminds me of a lesson in psychology class that discussed about conscious while asleep. Sleeping is an interesting topic to Psychologists that they can study conscious awareness during sleep. Not just Psychologists are interested in sleeping, though some artists they are also found out sleeping is an art form and interpret it in their own way to people. So far the action art what I seen from the artist Sergio Clavijo or Any Warhol’s film sleep is kind of confused me. Perhaps I’m not very sensitive art because I don’t get the message they sent. In particular, the actress Tilda Swinton was sleeping in a glass box as the part of her performance. It’s so odd that she slept in a glass box for eight hours and claimed as art.  To me, I’m not able to answer her work whether art or not. I think sleeping as art is as similar as other discussion topic “connecting to Spirits via photography”. The both subjects are not easy to convince people that are the subjects of art. What I’m thinking is the more people they seen the more they understand. Sleeping as art is still new to everyone.

Nina Katchadourian’s photos much to be amazed by, unless you know what you’re looking at. But if you Google image search Flemish portraits you instantly see what she was trying to emulate and how creative she got with what she had on the plane. The video was very interesting and showed many different types of photography she tried with nothing but props found on a plane everything from magazines to food. Although she used a cellphone(which are arguably magnitudes better than what early photographers had to work with) the message comes across fine and you see what she is trying to do. I’m not sure what exactly she trying to say about herself, maybe that she is creative or that she can do a lot with a little at hand.

I find my self in the gray area with this discussion topic. I do find pictures of sleep or brief slides/ motion pictures of sleep as beautiful. However long movies such as Andy Warhol’s “Sleep” and Tilda Swinton’s sleep exhibit I may view as monotonous. Paying to see an individual sleep is absolutely outrageous in my opinion, considering a majority of individuals who may watch her exhibit have a great chance of falling asleep. If Swinton’s exhibit may seem boring to some individuals, however the unique idea of publicly displaying her sleeping patterns intrigued many individuals. It may look easy to some however, Swinton should be commended for her patience and determination to make it look so easy. As I stated before sleep can appear beautiful for example in; pictures, briefly in movies, or music videos. If it is documented for long periods of time it can become dull.

Art is in the eye of the beholder, and what it might be art for someone might not be for other people. I think sleeping is art because when we are sleeping we enter a state of mind that set us apart from reality. I love to watch babies when they are sleeping, I could watch them for hours without getting bored. The beauty about art is that it enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. Just as a painting, a sleeper may transmit different emotions to different people, and what it might transmit to me it might not transmit it to other person. When I watch a baby sleeping I feel calm and it opens my head to so many thoughts. In the other hand, I think going to a gallery to see award winner Tilda Swinton gives me a total different perspective of when I watch a baby or a special person in a calm place compared to a crowded museum where there is no really that much intimacy. Moreover, I also believe that the environment matters, if I go to see Tilda Swinton, I can’t really smell her fragrance, hear her breath or watch her closely, and that really changes the way you perceive her.

I don’t think sleep is art. After watching the videos and reading the blog post my opinions have not changes. I think its just weird to watch other people sleep, creepy even. A part of me thinks that I feel this way because whenever I see people sleeping around me I just keep walking and don’t give it much importance. At home, if I were to see my sister sleeping, I would not stop and watch her. She would probably punch me for this. I would also feel awkward. As for Tilda Swinton sleeping in a box, I doubt that the people going to see her where interested in the “art form” they probably just wanted a chance to see their favorite actress. I don’t think I would visit an exhibit like this either. It’s just plain weird and a waste of money.

Well… I believe there are no limitations when we talk about subjects of art. Perhaps in the classic art standards there were some, but nowadays, you can make art out of anything. People consider that you are creating art when you do a portrait of somebody (it does not really matter the materials you use), or when you create a documentary or film about people’s active life. But my question is, if we consider art the awaken part of the human being, why is the inactive part something else? The coin has two sides, and I do not think it is a good idea to just ignore one of them. It is true that sleeping people have been watched extensively by the scientific society, but just for medical/psychological purposes; and I guess people could say that when you put an actress to sleep inside a glass box at MoMa, you are not going after any practical result, as the scientist, but isn’t art just that? Art does not need a why, because or what for… I think art is just about how, when and where. I also believe that art (or some kind of art) is not for everybody, so there will always be somebody who claims that something is not art, and that is ok, because in the end that rejection is just part of the existence of art.

Many things can be seen as art. It all depends on the viewer and the artist. It could be interesting to see how people sleep. Many people sleep in very different ways. People would probably move around and then stop. Their positions changes from time to time.  It would be interesting to see how some people sleep. They could be having a dream or nightmare and their body would change accordingly. When watching how people sleep, the viewer may think about their sleeping habits. They would probably think about whether they move when they sleep, or do they sleep talk. People may possibly find out something about themselves that they never knew. So, whether sleep is a subject of art all depends on the viewers. If they feel like it is art, then it is art If they feel like it isn’t, then it isn’t to them.