For my second year paper I'll be analyzing a portion of Kaija Saariajo's first opera, L'Amour de Loin.
Kaija Saariaho: Stylistic Development and Artistic Principles
Sanna Iitti, IAWM Journal (2001)
(http://www.iawm.org/articles_html/Iitti_saariaho1.html)
L'amour de loin: Kaija Saariaho's First Opera
Sanna Iitti, IAWM Journal (2002)
(http://www.iawm.org/articles_html/Iitti_saariaho.html)
TBC...
11.29.2009
7.27.2009
Body Modification and Identity
Just beginning the research for an upcoming performance art piece. A list of preliminary resources:
Books:
Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing
Clinton R. Sanders
The Body Aesthetic: From Fine Art to Body Modification
Tobin Siebers, editor
Appearance and Identity: Fashioning the Body in Postmodernity
Llewellyn Nerin
The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture
Joanne Finkelstein
Subcultures: Cultural histories and social practice
Ken Gelder
Authenticity in Culture, Self, and Society
Phillip Vannini and J. Patrick Williams, editors
Critical Terms for Art History
Robert S. Nelson and Richard Shiff, editors
Witness to Her Art: Art and Writings by Adrian Piper, Mona Hatoum, et al...
Rhea Anastas and Michael Brenson, editors
Web:
http://www.thelizardman.com/faq.html
http://www.bmeink.com/A30306/tatxtatt.html
http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/5/8/2/4/pages258244/p258244-1.php
(A terrible paper overall, but useful for references.)
http://wiki.bmezine.com/index.php/Spider_Webb
(Need to look into this guy more, but information is scarce and largely comes from questionable sources.)
http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/skin-city/Content?oid=1065859
Books:
Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing
Clinton R. Sanders
The Body Aesthetic: From Fine Art to Body Modification
Tobin Siebers, editor
Appearance and Identity: Fashioning the Body in Postmodernity
Llewellyn Nerin
The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture
Joanne Finkelstein
Subcultures: Cultural histories and social practice
Ken Gelder
Authenticity in Culture, Self, and Society
Phillip Vannini and J. Patrick Williams, editors
Critical Terms for Art History
Robert S. Nelson and Richard Shiff, editors
Witness to Her Art: Art and Writings by Adrian Piper, Mona Hatoum, et al...
Rhea Anastas and Michael Brenson, editors
Web:
http://www.thelizardman.com/faq.html
http://www.bmeink.com/A30306/tatxtatt.html
http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/5/8/2/4/pages258244/p258244-1.php
(A terrible paper overall, but useful for references.)
http://wiki.bmezine.com/index.php/Spider_Webb
(Need to look into this guy more, but information is scarce and largely comes from questionable sources.)
http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/skin-city/Content?oid=1065859
5.01.2009
Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 6)
Promethea Annotation #6: When New York is Normal...
Issue 4, pgs. 17-19
Before delving into the complex issues of time and space associated with the Immateria, it is useful to establish a baseline against which these excerpts can be judged. While the characters are in New York, the frames of the panels are made of clean lines and forms. Often, they are typical rectangles; sometimes the frame shape is more creative, though no less cleanly executed (see above, pgs. 17-19). In the Immateria, however, frames are always formed of unsteady, wavy lines, rough edges, or highly decorative lines.
Issue 4, pgs. 17-19
Before delving into the complex issues of time and space associated with the Immateria, it is useful to establish a baseline against which these excerpts can be judged. While the characters are in New York, the frames of the panels are made of clean lines and forms. Often, they are typical rectangles; sometimes the frame shape is more creative, though no less cleanly executed (see above, pgs. 17-19). In the Immateria, however, frames are always formed of unsteady, wavy lines, rough edges, or highly decorative lines.
Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 5)
Promethea Annotation #5: Symbolic Space
Arguably one of the most spatially complicated spreads in the book is in issue 5 on pages 18 and 19.
The time in this panel is measured once again by the dialogue. What is not readily apparent, though, is that space seems to be measured by the dialogue as well. What appear at first glance to be panels containing symbols and images laid over a continuous background are in fact backgrounds that, at certain points in time, become the continuous background themselves. As the characters fly over each panel, the symbols and colors shown within that panel are actually being experienced by the characters as an entire environment, as filling the immediate area around them for as long as the dialogue placed over that panel takes. This is proven by the dialogue on page 19 as the characters fly over the red panel characterized by the symbols of the scales and the sword:
Sophie: "Whoah! Th-the weather feels like it's getting rougher!"
Margaret: " We're moving through the stern and martial stratospheres of universal judgement, tilting in the very balance of the cosmos. Hold tight, Sophie. Hold tight..."
Sophie: "...Where did all these rain clouds come from?
Margaret: "Past universal judgement are the sheltering, Jupiterian skies of universal mercy, where the gods of storm and lightning play."
It can be seen from this dialogue that the characters are experiencing these thematic panels not just as images projected in space, but as dynamic, physical spaces. This is further proven by the final panel of the page, referred to by Margaret as the "skies of universal mercy", where we see the lightning not only inside the panel, but outside as well.
Arguably one of the most spatially complicated spreads in the book is in issue 5 on pages 18 and 19.
The time in this panel is measured once again by the dialogue. What is not readily apparent, though, is that space seems to be measured by the dialogue as well. What appear at first glance to be panels containing symbols and images laid over a continuous background are in fact backgrounds that, at certain points in time, become the continuous background themselves. As the characters fly over each panel, the symbols and colors shown within that panel are actually being experienced by the characters as an entire environment, as filling the immediate area around them for as long as the dialogue placed over that panel takes. This is proven by the dialogue on page 19 as the characters fly over the red panel characterized by the symbols of the scales and the sword:
Sophie: "Whoah! Th-the weather feels like it's getting rougher!"
Margaret: " We're moving through the stern and martial stratospheres of universal judgement, tilting in the very balance of the cosmos. Hold tight, Sophie. Hold tight..."
Sophie: "...Where did all these rain clouds come from?
Margaret: "Past universal judgement are the sheltering, Jupiterian skies of universal mercy, where the gods of storm and lightning play."
It can be seen from this dialogue that the characters are experiencing these thematic panels not just as images projected in space, but as dynamic, physical spaces. This is further proven by the final panel of the page, referred to by Margaret as the "skies of universal mercy", where we see the lightning not only inside the panel, but outside as well.
Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 4)
Promethea Annotation #4: Where You Most Expect It
As is typical of most of JHW3's art in this book, the dividing line caused by the binding of the book should be ignored and the two facing pages should be treated as one large spread.
This spread, when taken by itself, is one of the most temporally and spatially normal layouts in the book. The background forms a continuous space, and time passes as Sophie stands on the beach, climbs up the hill, and stands overlooking the shore. The panels magnify small portions of this space from the recent past (left, page 22) and immediate future (right, page 23), with the time of the background space as a temporal reference point. These panels also serve to direct the reader's eye through the correct chronology, leading us down the first column of panels, across the beach, up the middle, and then from the top of page 23 down. Easy to follow, logically shaped and laid out.
However, there is one small artistic clue JHW3 gives us about the sudden spatial shift that comes on page 24. The very edge of page 23, the portion bounded by the panels and the edge of the page, is dark gray and filled with sharp, black plants. As the reader turns the page, the brightly colored, sparkling beach gives way to the ominous, forbidding gates of Hy Brasil. This phenomenon shows how space and time can be altered by mere thoughts in the Immateria. Just before the page turn, Sophie says, "They wander out of the safe and sane areas of their minds, and they wind up somewhere bad and wild," and when she looks up, the bad and wild has come to her, manifested by her thoughts. The fact that space is so malleable in this world has an impact on temporal issues as well. Does it take time to travel, or are you always where you need to be going? Does traveling take an unexpected amount of time, because your thoughts keep accidentally manifesting, distracting from the journey (if there is one)? The implications are quite complicated.
Issue 5, pgs. 22-24
As is typical of most of JHW3's art in this book, the dividing line caused by the binding of the book should be ignored and the two facing pages should be treated as one large spread.
This spread, when taken by itself, is one of the most temporally and spatially normal layouts in the book. The background forms a continuous space, and time passes as Sophie stands on the beach, climbs up the hill, and stands overlooking the shore. The panels magnify small portions of this space from the recent past (left, page 22) and immediate future (right, page 23), with the time of the background space as a temporal reference point. These panels also serve to direct the reader's eye through the correct chronology, leading us down the first column of panels, across the beach, up the middle, and then from the top of page 23 down. Easy to follow, logically shaped and laid out.
However, there is one small artistic clue JHW3 gives us about the sudden spatial shift that comes on page 24. The very edge of page 23, the portion bounded by the panels and the edge of the page, is dark gray and filled with sharp, black plants. As the reader turns the page, the brightly colored, sparkling beach gives way to the ominous, forbidding gates of Hy Brasil. This phenomenon shows how space and time can be altered by mere thoughts in the Immateria. Just before the page turn, Sophie says, "They wander out of the safe and sane areas of their minds, and they wind up somewhere bad and wild," and when she looks up, the bad and wild has come to her, manifested by her thoughts. The fact that space is so malleable in this world has an impact on temporal issues as well. Does it take time to travel, or are you always where you need to be going? Does traveling take an unexpected amount of time, because your thoughts keep accidentally manifesting, distracting from the journey (if there is one)? The implications are quite complicated.
Issue 5, pgs. 22-24
4.30.2009
Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 3)
Promethea Annotation #3: Dividing Space and Time
This annotation focuses entirely on the following two-page spread.
Issue 5, pgs. 16 & 17
The frames and gutters on this spread are largely decorative. To clarify, there are actually three dividing gutters in this spread, though one is located directly on the crease of the book, making it invisible. The space of this spread is continuous; the "panels" do not excerpt pieces of the space as they typically function. Instead, it is as if the space is a background image, with the frames laid overtop. These frames serve one purpose: to clarify the time that the characters are experiencing. Each "panel" contains a section of dialogue that is spoken as the characters walk. This point is emphasized by the edges of Margaret/Promethea's wrap in the first panel, which flutter in front of the gutter and across into the next "panel". This point in time is happening before the events of the next panel, and so take place farther in the foreground. It is fairly safe to assume that the conversation progresses at a typical pace, thus giving the reader a reasonably solid conception of the temporal progression across the spread.
Since the content of the Immateria is essentially created by those within it, it seems logical that time would work much the same way. In this spread, time seems to move almost as a wave, following Margaret and Sophie as they walk. As they continue forward across the page (and farther into the background), the environment around them seems to progress as well. The skulls on the ground in the first panel turn to eggs, which then crack, which then hatch into bats. "Sphere of influence in which things progress". Note the growing flowers. Echoing the barbed wire from previous pages. Trail of movement, stars. Panel 3 into panel 4, trace the arc of their flight in the flower.
The Four Horsemen are an issue all their own, and lend to the temporal ambiguity of the space. Are they present for the entire duration of the spread? Do they appear when they are spoken of in conversation? Is this an image projected in the sky by Margaret's thoughts, a peek into a different time, or is the image purely there for the reader's benefit? The latter seems unlikely, as that idea seems to take away from the deep, immersive world JHW3 envelops the reader in.
So...if this is a continuous space, then what the hell is going on with this bat? God damn the bisected bat!
This annotation focuses entirely on the following two-page spread.
Issue 5, pgs. 16 & 17
The frames and gutters on this spread are largely decorative. To clarify, there are actually three dividing gutters in this spread, though one is located directly on the crease of the book, making it invisible. The space of this spread is continuous; the "panels" do not excerpt pieces of the space as they typically function. Instead, it is as if the space is a background image, with the frames laid overtop. These frames serve one purpose: to clarify the time that the characters are experiencing. Each "panel" contains a section of dialogue that is spoken as the characters walk. This point is emphasized by the edges of Margaret/Promethea's wrap in the first panel, which flutter in front of the gutter and across into the next "panel". This point in time is happening before the events of the next panel, and so take place farther in the foreground. It is fairly safe to assume that the conversation progresses at a typical pace, thus giving the reader a reasonably solid conception of the temporal progression across the spread.
Since the content of the Immateria is essentially created by those within it, it seems logical that time would work much the same way. In this spread, time seems to move almost as a wave, following Margaret and Sophie as they walk. As they continue forward across the page (and farther into the background), the environment around them seems to progress as well. The skulls on the ground in the first panel turn to eggs, which then crack, which then hatch into bats. "Sphere of influence in which things progress". Note the growing flowers. Echoing the barbed wire from previous pages. Trail of movement, stars. Panel 3 into panel 4, trace the arc of their flight in the flower.
The Four Horsemen are an issue all their own, and lend to the temporal ambiguity of the space. Are they present for the entire duration of the spread? Do they appear when they are spoken of in conversation? Is this an image projected in the sky by Margaret's thoughts, a peek into a different time, or is the image purely there for the reader's benefit? The latter seems unlikely, as that idea seems to take away from the deep, immersive world JHW3 envelops the reader in.
So...if this is a continuous space, then what the hell is going on with this bat? God damn the bisected bat!
4.29.2009
Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 2)
Promethea Annotation #2: The Story of Charlton Sennet
In issue 4, Sophie decides she needs to learn more about Promethea and goes to the library to research one of the men known to have manifested her through his writing. The final panel on page 7 shows Sophie opening to the first page of chapter one of a book about the man's life. Page 8 is a sudden contrast to the previous spread as we move from the flowing illustrations of a hybrid of 1999/immateria to a dreary day in the early 1800s, featuring a desolate man surrounded by fairies. This image begins an 8-page sequence portraying the man's accidental summoning of Promethea into his servant, Anna, and their subsequent affair. The text tells of the timelessness of their experience together, saying, "Each kiss endured while mountains wore to dust. Whole lives passed 'twixt each measured bedboard squeak. So lost were they in their transcendant lust that they knew not the hour, not the day, nor week." JHW3 portrays the contrast between the way time flows when Anna is herself and when Anna is Promethea through page layout and design. On those pages where Promethea dominates, or where the world of the fantastic holds sway, the images usually completely cover the page, bleeding off the edge in a show of continuous time and space (see pages 8, 10, and 12). The layout and shape of the panels on these pages are non-traditional, featuring panels layered overtop a larger image, placed in whatever way suits the background, and usually more than one shape of panel per page.
Issue 4, pgs. 8, 10, and 12
This smooth, expansive style is markedly different from the techniques used on panels where Anna is merely a servant and the material plane is dominant. These areas have more traditional layouts, leaving the gutters between their evenly spaced squares and rectangles empty and white. Panel 1 on page 13 shows this contrast more sharply, placing the two styles directly against each other on the same page. Panel 1 on page 9 is similar. The familiar layout automatically switches the reader back into a more typical mode of comprehending the passage of time by providing a measured, even pace.
Issue 4, pgs. 11 and 13
JHW3 deliberately combines these two conflicting stylistic ideas on the penultimate page of Sennet's story, as a human Anna gives birth to a baby that is only "half real", an idea created between two people and born from the Immateria. While he retains the empty white gutters, the panels take the shape of three vertical columns of varying sizes, bringing back the odd layout and panel shapes.
Issue 4, pg. 14
All images are copyright Alan Moore, J.H. Williams, America's Best Comics, and everyone else involved in Promethea's creation. Not me, in other words.
In issue 4, Sophie decides she needs to learn more about Promethea and goes to the library to research one of the men known to have manifested her through his writing. The final panel on page 7 shows Sophie opening to the first page of chapter one of a book about the man's life. Page 8 is a sudden contrast to the previous spread as we move from the flowing illustrations of a hybrid of 1999/immateria to a dreary day in the early 1800s, featuring a desolate man surrounded by fairies. This image begins an 8-page sequence portraying the man's accidental summoning of Promethea into his servant, Anna, and their subsequent affair. The text tells of the timelessness of their experience together, saying, "Each kiss endured while mountains wore to dust. Whole lives passed 'twixt each measured bedboard squeak. So lost were they in their transcendant lust that they knew not the hour, not the day, nor week." JHW3 portrays the contrast between the way time flows when Anna is herself and when Anna is Promethea through page layout and design. On those pages where Promethea dominates, or where the world of the fantastic holds sway, the images usually completely cover the page, bleeding off the edge in a show of continuous time and space (see pages 8, 10, and 12). The layout and shape of the panels on these pages are non-traditional, featuring panels layered overtop a larger image, placed in whatever way suits the background, and usually more than one shape of panel per page.
Issue 4, pgs. 8, 10, and 12
This smooth, expansive style is markedly different from the techniques used on panels where Anna is merely a servant and the material plane is dominant. These areas have more traditional layouts, leaving the gutters between their evenly spaced squares and rectangles empty and white. Panel 1 on page 13 shows this contrast more sharply, placing the two styles directly against each other on the same page. Panel 1 on page 9 is similar. The familiar layout automatically switches the reader back into a more typical mode of comprehending the passage of time by providing a measured, even pace.
Issue 4, pgs. 11 and 13
JHW3 deliberately combines these two conflicting stylistic ideas on the penultimate page of Sennet's story, as a human Anna gives birth to a baby that is only "half real", an idea created between two people and born from the Immateria. While he retains the empty white gutters, the panels take the shape of three vertical columns of varying sizes, bringing back the odd layout and panel shapes.
Issue 4, pg. 14
All images are copyright Alan Moore, J.H. Williams, America's Best Comics, and everyone else involved in Promethea's creation. Not me, in other words.
Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 1)
For my final paper in my class on Narrative and Time, I've chosen to look at Promethea, a 32-issue comic series written by Alan Moore and penciled by J.H. Williams III (hereafter referred to as JHW3). This series does an incredible amount with time, and my hope is to focus specifically on JHW3's art for my analysis. The pencil work of Promethea is truly groundbreaking for many reasons, but what really fascinates me is the complete breakdown of traditional panel structure, layout, and use of the page. To keep the scope of the paper small enough, the plan right now is to work with just the first collection (issues 1-6). There is so much that happens artistically later in the series, though, that the temptation to look at it all might be too much for me. We'll see.
Promethea Annotation #1: Misty Magic Land
The Immateria is a plane of timeless, fluid imagination, constantly bending to the thoughts of those inhabiting it. Time in this world is not only linear, but circular, square, mobius-stripped, dizzy, and possibly hole-y as well. JHW3 transitions the reader into this world of flowing matter and questionable time by loosening the straight lines of the panel frames (page 7, panels 2 & 3), turning the panels into wavy, gelatinous blobs (pages 10 & 11).
Issue 3, pgs. 7, 10, and 11
Page 11 also shows one of JHW3's ingenious uses of layout to portray both temporal and spatial clues. As we drop down the page, following a fairly linear progression of time, we see each nested panel taking us closer to, and finally deeper into, the Dark Woods. Spatially, the effect is of the woods enveloping the characters, as the panels get larger as we progress down the page. The sequence is odd temporally in that, unless there are points of silence that are not shown, such a journey could hardly take place in the amount of time it would take to recite that amount of dialogue. At the start of the conversation, they are far from the Dark Woods; by the end, they are deep within and ready for a confrontation with the Big Bad Wolf. This illustrates the unstable nature of time in the Immateria.
The Misty Magic Land sequence begins with the transition on page 7, sustains from pages 8-21, and ends with Sophie and Stacia's escape on page 22.
All images are copyright Alan Moore, J.H. Williams, America's Best Comics, and everyone else involved in Promethea's creation. Not me, in other words.
Promethea Annotation #1: Misty Magic Land
The Immateria is a plane of timeless, fluid imagination, constantly bending to the thoughts of those inhabiting it. Time in this world is not only linear, but circular, square, mobius-stripped, dizzy, and possibly hole-y as well. JHW3 transitions the reader into this world of flowing matter and questionable time by loosening the straight lines of the panel frames (page 7, panels 2 & 3), turning the panels into wavy, gelatinous blobs (pages 10 & 11).
Issue 3, pgs. 7, 10, and 11
Page 11 also shows one of JHW3's ingenious uses of layout to portray both temporal and spatial clues. As we drop down the page, following a fairly linear progression of time, we see each nested panel taking us closer to, and finally deeper into, the Dark Woods. Spatially, the effect is of the woods enveloping the characters, as the panels get larger as we progress down the page. The sequence is odd temporally in that, unless there are points of silence that are not shown, such a journey could hardly take place in the amount of time it would take to recite that amount of dialogue. At the start of the conversation, they are far from the Dark Woods; by the end, they are deep within and ready for a confrontation with the Big Bad Wolf. This illustrates the unstable nature of time in the Immateria.
The Misty Magic Land sequence begins with the transition on page 7, sustains from pages 8-21, and ends with Sophie and Stacia's escape on page 22.
All images are copyright Alan Moore, J.H. Williams, America's Best Comics, and everyone else involved in Promethea's creation. Not me, in other words.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
