Research- Visual Politics of Psychoanalysis
Commencing 27th September 2017- Book completed 8th October
Research Work
Contextualization
'cultural analysis works with travelling concepts' 'to produce new readings of images, texts, objects, buildings, practices, gestures, actions' Preface xv
I have begun to read the above book due to my vast interest in psychology, also as part of my historical contextualization aspect of the course. My work is very socially based and I feel reading in and around psychology will inform why people make certain decisions. This book is a good extension of that concept. The above quote begins to introduce the idea of 'travelling concepts', although not the first time I have heard the term, it is the first time I have seen it in use as justification of aesthetics overlapping psychological fields. My works is very much filled with travelling concepts and ideas that can find true meaning rooted in a different academic area. I too believe that these travelling concepts are vital aspect of modern interpretation and contextualization. Work being produced in response to an ever merging world can not ignore other fields that closely hold relevance.
'we need, therefore, politically to situate the engagement with psychoanalysis and notably with the concept of trauma associated with what lies beyond graspable knowledge but may be accessed through the process of aesthetics' page. 13
The book references 'post-traumatic' culture extensively with many examples of how and why misplaced contextualization can be culturally detrimental. This resonates within my own work as our culture is currently in a post-traumatic stage politically and therefore socially due to unknown futures and a reduced analysis of how to remove ourselves from this position. Although many narratives are present to the chronological happenings, the aesthetics from that culture also plays a vital role. This is directly what my practice would fall under, although accompanied by a lot of words an research, the visual aspects aim to embody the psychological aesthetics of a modern traumatic culture. This, in a way is psychoanalytical of the self, as the production of these images is in response to unreachable thoughts and feelings. The book uses Freudian history and concepts to analyse whats the use for psychoanalytical methods politically and how aesthetics closely relate to this in a travelling concept.
'Does the focus on trauma displace history and its still urgently political contests? Furthermore I was asked if the insistence on a kind of vigilant memory of past trauma might not lead perhaps to a culture trapped in and even over determined by a past that is used to justify its own acts of violence against each other?' page 14
The above question begins to address the issue of past trauma affecting modern governance and decision making. This is an interesting aspect of the book using extensive examples to ask why certain aspects of history have either been unrepresented or misrepresented distastefully. The past is something that holds tight grip over the present and very often justification can be found in the past for present behaviors. Although the above examples references violence against each other as a result of this memory, this could also include portrayal. Past bitterness or issues still held can leave misrepresentation a massive issue in the visual world of historical representation. The book goes on to talk of miniatures, a historical painting tradition used greatly through colonial times. These paintings, we know now, were incorrect often in skin tone or cultural positioning of the chiefs or British settlers. This misrepresentation can still cause tensions today in modern context, therefore is part of that culture still trapped in the mistakes of the past.
'aesthetics of connectivity to the ethics of responsibility' page 15
The above words are very apt for my own practice and throughout the book they are what resonates with me. The aesthetic aspect the book constantly spoken off is often in reference to connectivity of either cultures or individuals. The book then talks of, through historical context, the ethics of that situation and the psychoanalytical pattern of the work and trauma suffered to give inspiration for the work. This to me is an aspect of modern art, specifically fine art that is vital. The aesthetic responsibility of the work and the drive for the work to be connective and ethical. The connections that modern art could produce, alongside other fields would be ground breaking. Therefore, although often producing work in reference to inequality, the contemplation of the ethic paths the way for the work to connect ethically. The dismissive factor often lies in the lack of responsibility for traumatic consequence the work may leave. Another of my favourite paraphrases of the book is as follows;
'faced with trauma, terror and horror, can we work across aesthetics, ethics and politics towards sustaining human life? Where does a study of the image open up into such enormous questions?' page 22
Both these questions are a near synopsis of what my written and visual work aims to answer. Although my visual works are less a study of the image and more a study of the psychological reaction of the information, this ties into the psychoanalytical point of view taken by the rest of the book to rationalise the trauma before the image is considered.
'imagery works on the public consciousness and that it can produce an unwanted and troubled self-awareness which might form the basis of critically' page 26
The above quote embodies exactly what my artistic practice is based upon. The notion of unsettling the public's consciousness and producing unwanted awareness. However, coupled with this is the aesthetically pleasing visual aspect of my practice. This pleasurable view matched with the uncomfortable unconscious is what I hope will draw public attention. The conflicting feelings tricking the viewer into a uncomfortable curiosity.
'The miniature portraits of Norton and Jones thus stand in a complex relation to the sharing and crossing of boundaries during a period of particular flux and re-stabilization in North America's History' Page 54
The above notion of the miniature was something I have chosen to pick out due to its relevance to my visual and craft based practice. The miniature (portrait in this case) is a small object of craft that not only speaks across borders but also historical times. The fact the work is minature offers a contrast between distance and intimacy. The very small object can be intimate as it can be held and moved however there is much distance between the person viewing the miniature and the concepts and meanings behind it.
'Cathy Ginith- focusing specifically on the concept of postmemory, the sense that subsequent generations bear some particular responsibility for grappling with the experiences and traumas of their forebears and do so through imaginative investment and creation rather than recollection of lived memories' Page 64
Chapter 5
it is rare in research that one book, quote or person can perfectly speak of much of what you have thought for a long time. This book has done exactly that, through explanation of themes such as the above, I have begun to further understand what I am aiming to achieve with my work and the fields that surround it. The above concept of responsibility is something that features very often in my writing, the argument as to who is responsible and why. This spans across generations; this makes it difficult for individuals to understand a stance of responsibility when it comes to things such as colonial trauma and environmental breakdown.
'Literary testimony rarely seeks to represent the traumatic event' Page 126
I chose the above quote to reflect upon due to the fact it is something I wish to change. Literary devices are underused when documenting the immense issues and suffering of modern day. this should work side by side with art and visuality to embody the modern happenings.
'An important aspect of Big Brother concerns the ongoing transformation of the self in a world where the subject is constituted as spectacle' Page 142
The analysis of the reality show 'Big Brother' was very interesting within the book. Many historical examples had been given yet this tied the concepts back to modernity. The concept of the self and the intentionally created environment to experiment with human behaviour is something very modern and relevant to 'reality TV'. The spectacle they become transforms the individual into more than self. This is rife in modern society, every move must be reconsidered as far as others gaze is concerned. The ethical and righteous of the movement is less analysed by the modern individual.
Chapter 8
'On the one hand, and especially after the end of the cold war and the strengthening of the homogenizing tendencies of Western capitalism, we (global citizens in both the 'centre' and the 'periphery') are confronted with increasingly mediated (and mediatized) realities. As geographically and cultural borders give way under the pressure of economic or political interests and at a time when all sorts of heterophorias threaten to erupt in violence, the need for mediators (i.e translators, individual or institutional go-betweens, facilitating tools for practice) is becoming more and more urgent' page 143
This quote from page 143 sums up some very vital points where globalised problems and frictions are concerned. The urgency is also stressed in a non-aggressive manner. The need for the aforementioned 'mediator' is an interesting comment and concept. This mediator may be less a physical person but an ideology/concept of self-education that would spread and facilitate increased ideas of generalised peace and progression. Progression; past the stance that we culturally take at the moment when faced with recurring issues. The above quote is one side of the 'on the one hand' argument, the opposing argument is suspicions of mediation and political mediators. The 'rights of men' as individuals stand firmly. I can agree with aspects of both these arguments and understand that the complexity of individuals would make a definite notion of progression difficult.
'In the context of postmodern politics, however, the concept has not been so easy to abandon. As Hanssen points out, 'The category of recognition has moved to the centre of contemporary political and philosophical discussions about multiculturalism' precisely because the psychic and political need of particular individuals or groups for respect , visibility or acknowledgement remains imperative'
' Once more, we are face-to-face with yet another configuration of the double-bind between ethics and politics'. Page 147
Ethics and politics is a long standing debate of relation. Many argue that the two should never cross over yet with an ever fluid system of professions and concepts within different fields, this seems highly unlikely. Also, there are so many visual aspects of history and therefore politics and social interactions that can not be discounted, such as colonial art. Configuring ethics, politics and art is a rabbit hole of information, theology and concepts. The more I read the less I feel I know. Therefore, this configuration in my own head grows ever more difficult.
'Matrixal thinking arose for Ettinger out of her own aesthetic processes in art, whence, translated into psychoanalytic concepts it can also be taken up thoughtfully to develop active political work or analytical practice' Page 169
Introduction to Bracha Ettinger was of specific excitement to me. This is due to the fact she is the first individual I have come across that embodies a lot of what I am aiming to achieve. her combined practices across varying fields is what my work will, hopefully, one day create. Her extended writing regarding the phallic gaze and her theorist point of view is allowed through her creative process. The translation of this allows a visual representation of thought processes and complicated theory.
'complex web of connectivity with the almost-Other who is not some generalized same as we find in idealistic and universality discourse suggesting that all humans are the same. The point is that we are not the same. Our experiences, delivered by real political histories, are agonist. As humans we are unique, each one and our socially, historically and politically inflicted humanities are plural and diverse. What we share is not a common pre-social, pre-political origin by means of which to transcend the temporariness of current conflict. We are, however, the product of an aesthetic pre-social, pre-political, proto-ethical situation rich in possibilities for subsequent imagined and symbolized human-to-human relations precisely in conditions of agonized and agonist conflict where both have to survive, but humanly. Page 189
The above quote is the best suited to finish my reflections on this book. This is due to the stressing of the notion of humanity within the quote. Although we are all products of different social histories, progression is vital with all this considered. The 'complex web of connectivity' is difficult to understand yet even more importantly, not ignored. The possibilities that are held in the future should not be stopped or tied down because of the past. The relations that are possible with positive impact are re imagined through the visual and creative.
Research Work
Contextualization
Visual Politics Of Psychoanalysis
Griselda Pollock
'cultural analysis works with travelling concepts' 'to produce new readings of images, texts, objects, buildings, practices, gestures, actions' Preface xv
I have begun to read the above book due to my vast interest in psychology, also as part of my historical contextualization aspect of the course. My work is very socially based and I feel reading in and around psychology will inform why people make certain decisions. This book is a good extension of that concept. The above quote begins to introduce the idea of 'travelling concepts', although not the first time I have heard the term, it is the first time I have seen it in use as justification of aesthetics overlapping psychological fields. My works is very much filled with travelling concepts and ideas that can find true meaning rooted in a different academic area. I too believe that these travelling concepts are vital aspect of modern interpretation and contextualization. Work being produced in response to an ever merging world can not ignore other fields that closely hold relevance.
'we need, therefore, politically to situate the engagement with psychoanalysis and notably with the concept of trauma associated with what lies beyond graspable knowledge but may be accessed through the process of aesthetics' page. 13
The book references 'post-traumatic' culture extensively with many examples of how and why misplaced contextualization can be culturally detrimental. This resonates within my own work as our culture is currently in a post-traumatic stage politically and therefore socially due to unknown futures and a reduced analysis of how to remove ourselves from this position. Although many narratives are present to the chronological happenings, the aesthetics from that culture also plays a vital role. This is directly what my practice would fall under, although accompanied by a lot of words an research, the visual aspects aim to embody the psychological aesthetics of a modern traumatic culture. This, in a way is psychoanalytical of the self, as the production of these images is in response to unreachable thoughts and feelings. The book uses Freudian history and concepts to analyse whats the use for psychoanalytical methods politically and how aesthetics closely relate to this in a travelling concept.
'Does the focus on trauma displace history and its still urgently political contests? Furthermore I was asked if the insistence on a kind of vigilant memory of past trauma might not lead perhaps to a culture trapped in and even over determined by a past that is used to justify its own acts of violence against each other?' page 14
The above question begins to address the issue of past trauma affecting modern governance and decision making. This is an interesting aspect of the book using extensive examples to ask why certain aspects of history have either been unrepresented or misrepresented distastefully. The past is something that holds tight grip over the present and very often justification can be found in the past for present behaviors. Although the above examples references violence against each other as a result of this memory, this could also include portrayal. Past bitterness or issues still held can leave misrepresentation a massive issue in the visual world of historical representation. The book goes on to talk of miniatures, a historical painting tradition used greatly through colonial times. These paintings, we know now, were incorrect often in skin tone or cultural positioning of the chiefs or British settlers. This misrepresentation can still cause tensions today in modern context, therefore is part of that culture still trapped in the mistakes of the past.
'aesthetics of connectivity to the ethics of responsibility' page 15
The above words are very apt for my own practice and throughout the book they are what resonates with me. The aesthetic aspect the book constantly spoken off is often in reference to connectivity of either cultures or individuals. The book then talks of, through historical context, the ethics of that situation and the psychoanalytical pattern of the work and trauma suffered to give inspiration for the work. This to me is an aspect of modern art, specifically fine art that is vital. The aesthetic responsibility of the work and the drive for the work to be connective and ethical. The connections that modern art could produce, alongside other fields would be ground breaking. Therefore, although often producing work in reference to inequality, the contemplation of the ethic paths the way for the work to connect ethically. The dismissive factor often lies in the lack of responsibility for traumatic consequence the work may leave. Another of my favourite paraphrases of the book is as follows;
'faced with trauma, terror and horror, can we work across aesthetics, ethics and politics towards sustaining human life? Where does a study of the image open up into such enormous questions?' page 22
Both these questions are a near synopsis of what my written and visual work aims to answer. Although my visual works are less a study of the image and more a study of the psychological reaction of the information, this ties into the psychoanalytical point of view taken by the rest of the book to rationalise the trauma before the image is considered.
'imagery works on the public consciousness and that it can produce an unwanted and troubled self-awareness which might form the basis of critically' page 26
The above quote embodies exactly what my artistic practice is based upon. The notion of unsettling the public's consciousness and producing unwanted awareness. However, coupled with this is the aesthetically pleasing visual aspect of my practice. This pleasurable view matched with the uncomfortable unconscious is what I hope will draw public attention. The conflicting feelings tricking the viewer into a uncomfortable curiosity.
'The miniature portraits of Norton and Jones thus stand in a complex relation to the sharing and crossing of boundaries during a period of particular flux and re-stabilization in North America's History' Page 54
The above notion of the miniature was something I have chosen to pick out due to its relevance to my visual and craft based practice. The miniature (portrait in this case) is a small object of craft that not only speaks across borders but also historical times. The fact the work is minature offers a contrast between distance and intimacy. The very small object can be intimate as it can be held and moved however there is much distance between the person viewing the miniature and the concepts and meanings behind it.
'Cathy Ginith- focusing specifically on the concept of postmemory, the sense that subsequent generations bear some particular responsibility for grappling with the experiences and traumas of their forebears and do so through imaginative investment and creation rather than recollection of lived memories' Page 64
Chapter 5
it is rare in research that one book, quote or person can perfectly speak of much of what you have thought for a long time. This book has done exactly that, through explanation of themes such as the above, I have begun to further understand what I am aiming to achieve with my work and the fields that surround it. The above concept of responsibility is something that features very often in my writing, the argument as to who is responsible and why. This spans across generations; this makes it difficult for individuals to understand a stance of responsibility when it comes to things such as colonial trauma and environmental breakdown.
'Literary testimony rarely seeks to represent the traumatic event' Page 126
I chose the above quote to reflect upon due to the fact it is something I wish to change. Literary devices are underused when documenting the immense issues and suffering of modern day. this should work side by side with art and visuality to embody the modern happenings.
'An important aspect of Big Brother concerns the ongoing transformation of the self in a world where the subject is constituted as spectacle' Page 142
The analysis of the reality show 'Big Brother' was very interesting within the book. Many historical examples had been given yet this tied the concepts back to modernity. The concept of the self and the intentionally created environment to experiment with human behaviour is something very modern and relevant to 'reality TV'. The spectacle they become transforms the individual into more than self. This is rife in modern society, every move must be reconsidered as far as others gaze is concerned. The ethical and righteous of the movement is less analysed by the modern individual.
Chapter 8
'On the one hand, and especially after the end of the cold war and the strengthening of the homogenizing tendencies of Western capitalism, we (global citizens in both the 'centre' and the 'periphery') are confronted with increasingly mediated (and mediatized) realities. As geographically and cultural borders give way under the pressure of economic or political interests and at a time when all sorts of heterophorias threaten to erupt in violence, the need for mediators (i.e translators, individual or institutional go-betweens, facilitating tools for practice) is becoming more and more urgent' page 143
This quote from page 143 sums up some very vital points where globalised problems and frictions are concerned. The urgency is also stressed in a non-aggressive manner. The need for the aforementioned 'mediator' is an interesting comment and concept. This mediator may be less a physical person but an ideology/concept of self-education that would spread and facilitate increased ideas of generalised peace and progression. Progression; past the stance that we culturally take at the moment when faced with recurring issues. The above quote is one side of the 'on the one hand' argument, the opposing argument is suspicions of mediation and political mediators. The 'rights of men' as individuals stand firmly. I can agree with aspects of both these arguments and understand that the complexity of individuals would make a definite notion of progression difficult.
'In the context of postmodern politics, however, the concept has not been so easy to abandon. As Hanssen points out, 'The category of recognition has moved to the centre of contemporary political and philosophical discussions about multiculturalism' precisely because the psychic and political need of particular individuals or groups for respect , visibility or acknowledgement remains imperative'
' Once more, we are face-to-face with yet another configuration of the double-bind between ethics and politics'. Page 147
Ethics and politics is a long standing debate of relation. Many argue that the two should never cross over yet with an ever fluid system of professions and concepts within different fields, this seems highly unlikely. Also, there are so many visual aspects of history and therefore politics and social interactions that can not be discounted, such as colonial art. Configuring ethics, politics and art is a rabbit hole of information, theology and concepts. The more I read the less I feel I know. Therefore, this configuration in my own head grows ever more difficult.
'Matrixal thinking arose for Ettinger out of her own aesthetic processes in art, whence, translated into psychoanalytic concepts it can also be taken up thoughtfully to develop active political work or analytical practice' Page 169
Introduction to Bracha Ettinger was of specific excitement to me. This is due to the fact she is the first individual I have come across that embodies a lot of what I am aiming to achieve. her combined practices across varying fields is what my work will, hopefully, one day create. Her extended writing regarding the phallic gaze and her theorist point of view is allowed through her creative process. The translation of this allows a visual representation of thought processes and complicated theory.
'complex web of connectivity with the almost-Other who is not some generalized same as we find in idealistic and universality discourse suggesting that all humans are the same. The point is that we are not the same. Our experiences, delivered by real political histories, are agonist. As humans we are unique, each one and our socially, historically and politically inflicted humanities are plural and diverse. What we share is not a common pre-social, pre-political origin by means of which to transcend the temporariness of current conflict. We are, however, the product of an aesthetic pre-social, pre-political, proto-ethical situation rich in possibilities for subsequent imagined and symbolized human-to-human relations precisely in conditions of agonized and agonist conflict where both have to survive, but humanly. Page 189
The above quote is the best suited to finish my reflections on this book. This is due to the stressing of the notion of humanity within the quote. Although we are all products of different social histories, progression is vital with all this considered. The 'complex web of connectivity' is difficult to understand yet even more importantly, not ignored. The possibilities that are held in the future should not be stopped or tied down because of the past. The relations that are possible with positive impact are re imagined through the visual and creative.
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