Globalisation

The dictionary definition of globalisation is:

1.	the process enabling financial and investment markets tooperate internationally, largely as a result of deregulation andimproved communications
2.	the emergence since the 1980s of a single world marketdominated by multinational companies, leading to a diminishingcapacity for national governments to control their economies
3.	the process by which a company, etc, expands to operateinternationally
Session notes: globalisation can be associated with mulitiplicity & diversity. also uniformity and homogenity. paradox term first used to describe political and economic changes in the 80s gone on to include social and cultural associations Term first derived from Marshal Mcluhan 1970s, globalisation replaced internationalism 1st world countries loaned millions to 3rd world countries structural adjustment loans allowed multinational companies to trade without considering individual states Documenta 11 - production of art. cultural drive of globalisation today Fredrick Jameson - if everywhere is connected how can you be given an individual space, can't conceptualise the given space you live in Andreas Gursky - large scale images distinctive for critical look at effect of capitalism & globalisation people often tiny against huge backgrounds of machines etc Simon Starling - investigated historical processes by which objects and situations are created often focuses on how we transform raw materials into usable objects task: For the task this week I decided to explore the work of the parisian photographer who lives and works in Morocco Yto Bararda, as I've seen a couple of her images before and have found them quite beautiful. Top image: Yto Barrada, Hôtel Ahlen, Tangier (2006), from the ‘Iris Tingitana’ series Bottom image: Yto Barrada, Field of Irises, Tangier, 2007 "In a  documentary vein, colour photographs trace the contest between iris tingitana (Moroccan iris) and encroaching commercial developments outside of the city (‘Iris Tingitana’, 2007)." The work formed part of an exhibition in 2009 called 'face of our time' "Face of Our Time presents the work of four artists aligned for their shared interest in making pictures about the current condition of our world. Yto Barrada looks at the transformations occurring in northern Morocco as the area becomes a tourist destination and the local culture is disrupted." The images work really well as a series, seeing a photograph of the irises next to one showing dug up ground really highlights what is really being lost when these hotel complexes are being built. I really like the square format of the images, the look very beautiful. The photographs are taken in a very factual and objective way. I think this adds a responsibilty to us as viewers as we can form our own opinions of what is happening. I believe most people would see that this is bad and maybe it might cause some one to act upon this and could potentially change something. I think the aim of the project works and results in beautiful images that will raise awareness about something that we might not ordinarily see.

Repetition

Session notes:

aim: to examine how photographic practitioners have used repetition since the 1960s as a mean to examine the structure of visual experience

John Berger - painting and reproduction

virgin on the rocks by Leonardo da Vinci

even on google images all differ slightly, quality/style of reproduction etc

Walter Benjamin says after seeing reproductions 'one can go to the national gallery to see the original and discover what the reproduction lacks, or forget about the quality of reproduction, and when you see the image reminded that it's a famous painting, of which one has seen a reproduction'

original no longer valued for what it uniquely shows

unique simply for what it is.... the original of a series of copies

rarity - confirmed by it's price

Dan Graham, photographer and makes installations

'photo conceptualism movement' project: phot essay

instamatic camera, went and made photographs of the kinds of houses people live in

mechanical limitations

almost deskilling the photograph

(but surely still skill in creating a powerful/good image based mainly on composition)

Ed Ruscha - 26 gas stations

sunset strip, milk etc

repetitive structures

Thomas Demand - relates most to Baudrillard

takes images from mass media, makes large scale models purely to photograph them

Roni Horn - you are the weather

Task:

The task for this week was to consider repetition and create our own series of images.
I decided to photograph some flowers in my room. To standardise the images I photographed the same flowers at 4pm every day. I was going to do it for a week but I did 8 days instead to make an even number, this means it could be made into a grid or displayed in another way.
I purposely didn't use a tripod, I just held the camera in roughly the same place every day. I like this because it creates subtle differences within the images.
I like the photographs as if you look through them quickly you might think they are all exactly the same but then you look closely and see little details such as more leaves have fallen onto the table, the colours of the leaves have also lightened as the week has gone on.
This was an interesting project as it meant I looked closely at how the flowers changed with time, something I wouldn't have noticed as much if I hadn't been photographing them.
This is a project that could be continued for a very long time. It would look interesting to have a vast amount of images as an individual becomes less and less important and noticable and the focus becomes simply the differences between them.
I chose to end it at this point because after this the flowers will start to really die and I didn't want to photograph this because I wouldn't have liked it aesthetically.