Context of Practice - Seminar 1

This context of practice seminar was related to putting things into context, and identifying the context of art and more specifically, animations place as an art form. The general idea of something, whatever it is, having a context is; 'why is it the way it is?'. There are a huge number of variables that could have potentially influenced or had an effect on someone and something that in turn manufactured a certain piece of art. These can be anything from historical, social, political or even economical contexts that have in turn shaped and crafted a piece of art due to the circumstances when a certain piece of art was crafted. There is a great and hidden importance disguised in art and knowing, 'why it is the way it is'. I think it's important for people to think about, discuss and reflect truer meanings that artists have and have had behind their work, in order to not only understand the artist and their artwork but the influences and contexts of the time it was created.



Looking at this further, as a class we were shown two images. The first image, depicted the cover of time magazine, which featured a photograph of the world trade center exploding on the 11th September, 2001. When this image first came on the screen, I instantly identified what it was and a flood of memories and connotations of the image came into my head. We were then asked our opinion on the image, and if we remember what we were doing on the day it occurred since most of us were only around six or seven when it happened. From here, the general discussion shifted to the idea of this event being a conspiracy. I have seen several documentaries that put forward ideas about the attacks being a conspiracy and had some thoughts on this myself, that I was reviewing whilst people were putting their opinions forward verbally during the discussion.



After being introduced to this hard hitting image of one of the most famous 'terrorist' attacks in history, often dubbed, 'the day that changed the world'. We were shown a much more light hearted image of a CD cover, which in composition was actually quite similar to that of the Time Magazine cover, but with an interesting twist. What was interesting is that people's reactions, mine included to this image were not only how ridiculous and laughable it was as a whole, but a little bit concerned as to how offensive it was or could be, not necessarily to us, but to people who have been directly affected by the September the 11th attacks. It was then revealed after a few minutes of discussion about the image and how bad the overall design was, that it was released around a month prior to September 2001. Changing ideas and the general context of the image completely. I almost felt a little bad for the people who had released the CD because it would obviously have to be withdrawn from public view, out of fear of causing offence and consequently causing a bad name for themselves. I think the purpose of this exercise was to demonstrate the important of context and knowing facts before you put forward extreme views and judgments based on a piece of art work or design. I enjoyed this seminar quite a lot due to the way it made us think and overall how thought provoking it was. The revelation about the CD cover in connection to the terrorist attack was quite eye-opening and definitely made me think about how much I knew about it before I judged it.