Comments on: Emily Sessions: “Code”

By: Patricia Brace

Patricia Brace — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 17:59:24 +0000

As we talk about codes, graphs, and charts it seems as though we are performing the act of viewing. Through this discussion forum it feels as though we are taking on a more active role as viewer. This to me is so exciting!

Amelia Jones talks about the act of viewing in Performing the Body/Performing the Text when she states, “artistic meaning can be understood as enacted through interpretive engagements that are themselves performative in their intersubjectivity. Thus the artwork is no longer viewed as a static object with a single, prescribed signification that is communicated unproblematically and without default from the make to an alert, knowledgeable, universalized viewer.”

This feels empowering as both the maker and the viewer to know that both roles are required in this system of artistic transmission.

By: Nathan Langston

Nathan Langston — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 21:42:40 +0000

Data=Narrative? Data=Drama?

By: Karen L Schiff

Karen L Schiff — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:57:33 +0000

Hm, great question. If I like Weiner’s piece, & it has no clear referent, maybe it’s just the data-aesthetic that’s appealing in some way? Though Patricia, I also take your point about the human element. Last night, I saw a friend’s video in Chelsea (Elizabeth Stehling, at Ground Arts at 526 West 26th, Suite 9E!), and it started with a contra dance move that turned into an abstract study of something rhythmic that was also somehow dramatic. In other words, there were people moving in the video, but it was not a real event. And I think it didn’t matter if the audience is familiar with contra dancing or anything else. Data=drama?

By: Nathan Langston

Nathan Langston — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:43:32 +0000

Whoa! “The appearance of information.” I’ve had this line of yours stuck in my head all day! You could also call it “the look of meaning,” or “the aesthetic of something real.” So when you see something that has “the appearance of information, you automatically start doing the work of figuring out, or even creating, what the code represents.

By: Nathan Langston

Nathan Langston — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:27:00 +0000

This is great! It’s as though the “familiar” aspects of the work is the door the viewer gets to enter through and the “illegible” aspects are the strange and beautiful room that the viewer then gets to explore inside. So the “trope,” as you put it, is the recognizable element- the book, or the ledger, or the bar graph, or the book, or the equation, or the sentence…

I know that a big part of my human brain is built for finding and deciphering patterns. When I see a “chart,” it’s a cue to look for patterns in a certain way. When I see a pattern that is aesthetically interesting, I read it as a trend, I read it as “This Means Something! Pay attention to this!” I bet political pollsters read their charts the same way.

By: Nathan Langston

Nathan Langston — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:27:00 +0000

How much does it matter if the information conveyed by the graph, chart, code is something real? Your project of conveying tempo (which is “off the charts” because it is attempting to convey something time-based in a static way) is based on something real. So’s your Agnes Martin obituaries. So’s Nancy Haynes’s QR codes. So’s Baroff’s work, which charts the very real tide levels. But, as you say, Weiner’s work might be “a graph of nothing.” His graphs may simply be a code for an abstract, aesthetic inkling in some corner of his imagination. So how much does it matter if the code represents something real? How much does it matter if the audience knows whether it’s something real or not?

By: Patricia Hannaway

Patricia Hannaway — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 19:56:21 +0000

Dear Karen, Visualizing data can be hit and miss, interesting but not always creating something visually intriguing. Maybe you need to combine it with other images….related to human imagery to create context. What is fascinating is the context, and that contrast of the two may lead you in some new directions. Just a thought as many possibilities!

By: Patricia Brace

Patricia Brace — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 19:26:08 +0000

Thank you for this great discussion topic Emily. I will respond to your last question, “Do you think that this initial relationship to the chart affects your experience with the work?”, specifically thinking about Weiner’s “Untitled” piece above.

For me the chart’s relationship to the “real world” and its “real world applications” makes it both more approachable as the viewer as an easily recognizable object, and more austere in its ability to transcend its utilitarian form. Our attraction to the symmetry and repetition of a grid (or chart) plays with our desire for order and completion. Weiner shows us a structure that is simultaneously familiar and illegible, which evokes both a sense of comfort and longing. The trope of the grid in visual art seems to have a longevity of play for the viewer because of its ability to reference to both micro and macroscopic subjects. When thinking about a code as being “a rule for converting a piece of information into another form or representation” the grid becomes the code for an intersubjective interpretation that seems to stick or stay with us as we move forward.

By: Karen L Schiff

Karen L Schiff — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 18:26:49 +0000

I am so glad you’re writing about this…I’ve been puzzling over the problem of how to make a drawing out of data because I have this project about the tempo of American culture (based on Top 40 songs from the last 40 years of the 20th century), & I haven’t been able to find a way to make any visual art out of it. The problem is that I can’t figure out how to make the chart look like something that’s not just a chart. I think that’s the key for me, as far as “what makes these works so powerful” — it’s that there’s something visually and/or materially compelling about them (or something compelling on some other channel that I haven’t figured out how to name), so that the image/data can’t be narrowed or resolved into being solely informative. Like how Elizabeth (Hi, Elizabeth!) is talking about “wiggle room” — I like a piece that’s mostly wiggly, where the data is buried so far that it’s basically a pretext instead of a text. Like Jill Baroff’s drawings of the tide charts, or the Lawrence Weiner graph accompanying your intro text above (It graphs what? I read it as a graph of nothing, using the “language” of data/graphs to make patterns that appealed to him.)

By: N. Elizabeth Schlatter

N. Elizabeth Schlatter — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 16:26:07 +0000

Right. They are “like” charts or graphs but not. The Lombardi is challenging because it’s a flow chart that is complete with concrete references. So if you don’t know what he’s referring to, then it can be hard to penetrate. But if the “chart” is ambiguous then it’s like an invitation to fill in the blanks so to speak. And with visitors, and especially with the Trisha Brown pieces, we can play with that. As in, what kinds of movements do you think might work to fit with her drawing? It can be pretty fun to look at drawing this way and try to interpret what you see with your own body, which ultimately helps you look at the drawing even closer to see if you’re “right.” To bring it back to your essay, it’s like these ambiguous works present us with the appearance of information.