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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00819
- Thesis Title
- Images of Time in the Technological Poetics of Harun Farocki, Bill Viola and Anthony McCall
- Author
- Fernanda Albuquerque de Almeida
- E-mail
- fernanda.a.de.almeida AT usp.br
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- PhD
- Year
- 2019
- Number of Pages
- 189
- University
- University of São Paulo
- Thesis Supervisor
- Ricardo Nascimento Fabbrini
- Supervisor e-mail
- ricardofabbrini AT uol.com.br
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Language(s) of Thesis
- Portuguese
- Department / Discipline
- Aesthetics and Art History
- Copyright Ownership
- Languages Familiar to Author
- Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, German
- URL where full thesis can be found
- www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/93/93131/tde-16102019-154240/pt-br.php
- Keywords
- Anthony McCall, Bill Viola, Contemporary art, Harun Farocki, Images of time, Technological poetics
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- This PhD thesis seeks to investigate modalities of time images in the technological poetics of three contemporary artists: Harun Farocki, Bill Viola and Anthony McCall. This choice is due to the recognition of the existence of a hegemonic time image in the early 21st century, linked to the rapid obsolescence of late capitalism, which can be synthesized by Jean Baudrillard’s notion of simulacrum. This image would effect a “neutralization of perception” given the excess of stimuli in the “full screen” era. In this context, by providing the experience of other possible times, the works of Farocki, Viola and McCall would consist of immanent critiques of the very technology they use. In other words, their political dimension would be closely linked to the way these artists operate different technologies in order to produce time images resistant of the tendency to accelerated and monotonous stimuli.
The artists were chosen for their distinctions and approximations. The distinctions relate to their particular poetics and also to certain classifications in the history of art and cinema. Farocki is a filmmaker who enters the field of contemporary art, moving his essayistic approach regarding film and television to multi-channel gallery installations. Viola is one of the greatest exponents of video art, having elaborated works that explore different possibilities of this technology, such as single-channel, closed-circuit videos and installations. McCall is a filmmaker known for his “solid light films”, which result from a dialogue between the tradition of structural cinema and various artistic languages. Despite these specificities, they make the transition from cinema and / or television screens to art galleries and museums, serving as paradigms of the tendency for artists to use audiovisual media.
My interpretation suggests that the different ways of articulating time in their works cause the viewer to become aware of issues that usually remain hidden, promoting a contrary movement to the alienation of mind and body, individual and collective, in the so-called image society. In short, Farocki hints at the mechanisms underlying the devices that are intended to condition our perception, so his time images of restitution restore our gaze; Viola evokes anguish at finitude, so his time images of nothingness challenge us before the nothingness of existence; and McCall raises a multisensory enjoyment that involves conscious and unconscious aspects of ourselves, so his time images of presence help us recognize the limitations and potentialities of our corporeality. The sequence of analyzes is intended to highlight a tendency to produce images that expand across screens in installations becoming increasingly immersive.