Saco and Venzetti

I attended a conference titled American Phobia: Collecting in the History of Fear. The purpose of the speech was to promote an exhibit opening in the library. The speaker, Sean Quimby talked about the concept of fear in America. He traced the evolution of fear throughout the course of American history. The interesting part of the speech was when he discussed how as a librarian, he collects works that chronicle fear. Through his act of obtaining a collection of works on the subject he formulated a thesis on a definition of fear.

The various works in the library's collection yielded different explanations of the concept of fear. Quimby theorized that specific trends in fear are prevalent throughout American history. The fantasy of invasion, and the gradual emergence of a therapeutic culture are the persistent trends in fear. It is ironic that both of these trends can be seen as a result of our imperialistic growth and our advanced technology. The imperialistic desires of Americans, to constantly expand and invade other countries has perversely influenced our way of thinking. Now, Americans constantly fear that others will invade our borders. The other issue is kinf of ironic. Parents are getting increasingly more worried about their kids, therefore to ease all of the pressures of of the children, the parents have resorted, in a sense, drugging their children. Thus, we have a generation of children that as they grow up become increasingly paranoid about many things in the world. The rest of the presentation was not that useful. Quimby just summarized all of the works he had collected. Nevertheless, it is an interesting hobby to collect works about fear. This will have to be an ongoing project because as the world continues to evolve, so too will our concept of fear.

Blog #2: Binh Danh

The exhibit by Binh Danh serves as a testimony to all of the lives lost during the Vietnam War. The work of art can be considered avant-garde because it challenged people's perceptions of wartime events. In our current time of war, it is important to realize that the masses of soldiers being sent abroad are not simply faceless anomalies doing something in a far away country that is of no concern to us. Danh's portraits portray the individual faces lost in war. Although many of these portraits are close-ups, in none of them are any of the faces completely distinguishable. This importance reveals that while photography can preserve an image, it will never duplicate exactly the reality. These men were brothers, fathers, and husbands, and seeing the faces triggers empathy in people. Danh's exhibit can be considered a ready-made. The men's faces were taken from a magazine where a week's casualities were photographed yearbook-style. Henceforth, Danh's creative reproduction putting faces admist leaves and grasses add a sense of poignancy that has enabled the exhibit to become renowned. Danh creates the photographs in his own image with the leaves and grasses to symbolize the jungles of Vietnam that still to this day can evoke painful memories. With our current war in many ways offering an eerie parallel to Vietnam, Danh's exhibit takes on added relevance as once again many soldiers are dying fighting a war that has polarized the American public.

In the early pages of Sontag's article she states that a photograph is not dependent on the image-maker (352). Yet, there are flaws in this statement. The image-maker or photographer can manipulate the camera to allow for changes in scenery, or how an event is perceived. Similarly, Danh is an image maker because he took photographs and changed the setting in order to evoke emotional response. Perhaps the original photos were actually in focus. Yet, Danh creates a scene that was not innate from the natural photo. Danh's exhibit does not seem to have much in common with the views laid down by Sontag on photography. Her article seems to be an overview of photography with critical overtones about the effects of photos on the world. Danh's exhibit is not based on photography. The signature element is the background of leaves and grass. This makes the work unique, while also serving as a powerful reminder to the myriad of lives lost during the war.

Sept. 3 Blog

There are many meanings to the word art, yet to me art can be defined as anything shaped my human hands in order to represent something. A memorable experience I have had with a piece of art was in Chicago where I saw Andy Warhol's famous tomato soup can. I spent about 10 minutes staring at this piece. I found it memorable because it astonished me that this simplistic representation of an everyday item was deemed so famous. This is memorable because it was at this instant that I realized that I did not understand anything about art. It was distinguished from other art works because it is so simple and understated, and supposedly made a statement about American life. When I saw this piece I felt confused because I didnt understand all the fuss about the painting. After careful reflection I believe the artist's intention was to illustrate the 1950's, the era of conformity with his tomato soup can. I dont know why, because I am not good at analyzing art, but it seems to be stating that this tomato soup can has become an irreplaceable part of American life. I do think the artist was successful in capturing this intent because it has become one of the most famous paintings in American history.





The essay about art by de Duve was an interesting piece of writing. I realize it is just a small part of a much larger book, yet it was still kind of difficult to understand. For the most part it seemed to be about what the definition of art truly is. After careful reading, and a lot of thinking, it seems that my definition of art nearly parallels the one laid down by de Duve. In reality, everything is art, or everything has the potential to become art. My thoughts about art is that any artistic expression makes something art. When the artist sculptes or creates something in their own image then it is art. The one piece of art that was repeatedly mentioned in de Duve's essay was "The Fountain". This "readymade" as they are called, revolutionized the art world because it was simply a urinal that the artist chose to put their name on. Yet, this is the essence of art. One person sees a urinal, others see the linear patterns and the formation of the urinal: not seeing it as a urinal but rather intricate sculpture. Henceforth, everything is art, it just might not be created yet.