LIFE CLASS (fragment)

I

As a statement, a joke falls somewhere between truth and a lie. Truth can be self-evident or it can be corroborated. A lie can also be manifest or—given certain conditions—be exposed as false. Moreover, a statement of any kind can also become true or cease to be true depending on a changing context and the passing of time. Therefore, the condition of being true or false is neither absolute nor permanent, involving a dimension of mobility. [i] Like reality, a joke is a mobile proposition that defies categorization in terms of these two polarities. Unlike a joke, however, reality, even a fluid and changing reality, is based on certain assumptions that make it possible, a broad notion of form. This unsettled or mobile quality of reality has been described by different authors and from different points of view depending on whether they focus on perceived reality as a flow of events linked in our minds and as a meaningful continuity; as the manipulation and control of such perceptions by the powerful in a form of spectacle; as the Freudian strangeness of the familiar or, finally, in a view of life as text, with the 'looseness of definitions' that provides the necessary openness that allows for real communications to take place.

The series of drawings called Life Class, of which this is a fragment, presents a moment of this reality: it provides a place to loose oneself and then find oneself again. Shorter phrases within longer series of drawings provide elements of stability and recognizable form on which to focus in an attempt to make sense of that reality. As autobiographical notations they also document the process of habitation of a specific place over a period of several months. The drawings themselves embody a personal learning process, with the life class as a methodical and regulated model of observation of the human body based on the pose as a referent with historical roots in connection with the notion of the Academy and through it classic (Greco-Roman) parameters that over the centuries have acquired a value as signs in connection with certain subject matter and the process of learning to draw.

II

The humorous quality of a proposition is independent of whether it is true or false, even though for authors such as Henri Bergson, a dislocated relationship with reality is a defining factor of the comic.[ii] The nature and form of the comic has been discussed primarily in the field of Psychology in connection with human behavior[iii] however, following Bergson, I propose here that humor or the comic is a strictly formal perception based on timing and movement in relation to our expectations, emerging briefly only to return to a general flow of experiences (nobody laughs forever).

As a 'curvature of the spirit'[iv] humor, or the comic involves our perception and interpretation of order in words or events as well as a shared dimension of understanding. This understanding is not to be found in the objects themselves or even in the space they occupy, but rather in the [humorous] relationships we ourselves may establish between them in a shared perception[v] of these relationships, linking these works to an idea of drawing as a collaborative embodiment of order.[vi] Also, humor, or the comic arises from and is directed at a specific human audience, giving rise to its multiple forms.[vii] This idea of an audience links the comic to theater, for example, as well as to various tactical and strategic forms of human behavior and mobility in semi-structured social environments, such as the world of business or the world of art, where different actors (artists) vie with each other for others' perception of their emergence or leadership.[viii]

The life class at the Prince's Drawing School provides a theatrical - academic environment similar to models of observation and education of the human body used in other areas such as, for example, the anatomy theatre in medicine, where there is a similar tripartite relationship [teacher-human body-student]. Unlike the life class, however, in the anatomy theatre the topography of the [dead] human body is examined using intrusive methods, aiming to reveal the inside of the body not on the basis of its external and superficial manifestations or spatial relationships but instead, based on the actual observation and physical exploration of the interior of the body, by touching it.[ix] In terms of this tripartite relationship and the hierarchies it implies, the special status I enjoyed as a Year of Drawing student at the Prince's Drawing School transferred the focus and initiative from the teacher as source of information and learning to myself as artist-gatherer of such information and, also, as participant observer in a personal research project. In the drawings themselves, this upsetting of hierarchies, and therefore this 'dislocation' between expectations and reality also touches upon the status of drawing in painting, for example, in connection to the traditional role of the under-drawing.[x]

III

Essentially equivocal, a joke refuses to settle down into a definitive statement explainable as true or false with respect to existing or imagined reality. In this sense, the comical involves what one might call 'factual instability' (and with it mobility) as well as the perception of distance (from reality). Humor distorts communications in a way that is not directly linked to content but to form, and through that form, to content, establishing a 'once-removed' sense of distance (or, as Bergson puts it, a 'dislocation') from its actual or proposed frame of reference. Jonathan Finenberg describes a similar operation and effect in connection with the making of the work of Bulgarian artist Christo Javacheff as:

"(...)erasing the visible anchor that attaches the object or situation to its place or proper context in a removal that ensures their permanence as ideas rather than settle in as objects."[xi]

Also, explaining the role of the operation of wrapping in Christo's work, Dominique Laporte describes a similar uncertainty that surrounds observed reality when such element of reality is removed from its proper context (from view in Christo's particular case):

"When the object (…) is incongruously encircled (…) it no longer forms part of known spaces. By its unfamiliarity, it perverts our space (…) where does it come from? What is the origin of that which surrounds our familiar landscape and renders it unrecognizable even to itself? When the landscape cannot integrate things that come from outside it, then it has undergone a topological revolution. When it no longer absorbs objects the eyes perceives as foreign, then its verisimilitude is thrown into question and the landscape itself becomes an alien object."[xii]


This mechanism of dislocation involves a poetic sense of the narrative, whether of epic and mythical proportions, as in Christo's work or quirky and refined, like certain surrealist practices. Used thus, humor or the comic results in the uncanny (Freud) or the strangeness of the familiar, in an intellectual operation that may or may not be the cause of mirth, but which in any case determines a sense of visibility.[xiii] It is not that we know or don't know, it is just that we cannot be certain and because of this we cannot judge, decide, learn, historicize or forget. The comic does not entirely prevent communication, however, it merely diverts its flow, temporarily removing an object or aspect of reality from a given context—momentarily suspending our assessment of both—and, as a result, opening up new, provisional flows or levels of communications.

Our human need for stability and certainty is what ends the joke and one reason why we finally stop laughing. It is also why, in a complex environment like the full series of 100 drawings of Life Class our mind will instinctively attempt to make sense and establish connections, identifying elements of order, form, hierarchy and stability that will lead to readings and interpretations of what is being seen, even if the drawings themselves don't contain any such narrative or specific order. Bergson proposes that the inertia of human behavior, the automatic gestures that continue even though the cause or need for them has passed, is the source of the comic, particularly when such inertia is unexpectedly and involuntarily revealed. His example of the man who trips and falls for failing to act upon changes in his routine is comparable here to the inertia of the viewer who will automatically tend to seek out relationships and meanings in a context purposefully conceived to loose all such logic and sense of meaning and which, as a result, induces a sense of permanent instability.

IV.

Artists today and particularly artists from outside the main art centers frequently use mechanisms similar to the comic—if not actual humor in its many forms—as tactics of distancing that form part of personal myth-making practices to open up spaces of communication and circulation for their professional persona and work. To borrow the words of Mary Louise Pratt, the contemporary artist’s goal is “to be read, and to be readable.”[xiv] But this human desire for visibility and readability is not limited to the arts. In the world of business, for example, and in general in all hierarchical forms of human association there is a similar communicational need to produce and control flows of mediated narratives and citations in connection with the achievement of (upward) mobility and through it leadership, a concept that in the world of art is explained by the term emergence.[xv] Given the widespread use of such practices and tactics today, a complete breakdown of our sense of reality can only avoided by our faith in a general assumption of truth, in the sense that the biographical and other references used in the work and the events that originate or justify such references are true and not a lie or a joke.[xvi] Consequently, our sense of what is real and what is not real is based, among other things, on a social contract, on the basic assumption that when one speaks, one speaks with the truth. A cornerstone of all human endeavor, this understanding is being challenged daily by the possibility of outright deceit for tactical reasons and also by ambiguities of meaning derived of the gaps there is between language as descriptor and the reality it describes. Our general sense of certainty is challenged, also, by technology, as demonstrated for example, by the current digital-analog debate in the field of photography.[xvii]


V.

In his book Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method[xviii] John Collier discusses the role of photography in anthropological research. As outlined by Collier, the observation of cultural phenomena involves a three-stage process beginning with an overview or descriptive study aiming to provide general orientation and education for the observer. This fact-gathering stage provides a researcher with sufficient information to observe, identify and relate, acquiring in the process knowledge about the total environment under study, and defining a broad overview of the field “within which cultural detail can find an organic place.” The initial process of observation of reality requires visual orientation and time. To understand the systematic character of an observed phenomenon, he says, it is necessary to begin at some point, and this point is the visible, recording it through photography. The process of familiarization with a specific environment necessarily requires time. Time for the researcher to become acquainted with the object of his observation, and to become immersed in it as a participant observer, in a way inhabiting the space observed. Initially, accurate records are made without a precise understanding of what is being observed. This overview is followed by the identification and recording of culturally precise landmark events and forms drawn from the broader context, looking for particular evidence pertinent to the goals of the observer. The initial phase provides guidance for this second information gathering stage, at the same time that it defines the setting for interrelations and cross-referencing. As more knowledge is gained about the background, the methods of observation and gathering of information become more specialized and structured. Information from other fields and sources comes into play in an increasingly complex and interrelated scenario where clarity of the background views becomes more important than ever. In the third and final stage, the research must develop into conclusions. Photographs (and drawings) must be abstracted, verbalized and translated into a form that becomes part of a definitive statement.[xix]

The methodology described by Collier is used here to provide what he describes as “a wide view within which cultural detail can find organic place” defining the proper context of the observation, in this case, the different modalities of the life class at the Prince's Drawing School, London. But what is being observed here is not the building, the model or the students, but the story, a story moreover, whose credibility depends on certain conditions. What is narrated here is the personal experience of the art-historical, academic model of the artist drawing from life as reflected in the autobiographical drawings produced there. In this sense, my self-awareness as an artist temporarily working in such an environment attests to the theatrical dimension of the figure of the artist and to the performative dimension of drawing that is implicit in drawings that document such activity. The drawings comprising the larger series I have called Life Class have an information-gathering role similar to that of photography in the early stages of anthropological research. The random order in which they are presented provides an unstable environment where the viewer's inertia of observation/interpretation can be revealed, even if only to himself, linking the works to the view of humor developed by Bergson. Also, the act of drawing is essentially subjective and therefore, from the point of view of research methodologies in general and this project in particular, these drawings have the same value of a personal diary. Finally, just like photos used in anthropological research, a 'good' drawing' is not the most beautiful, or the most skillfully rendered, but instead the most revealing of the object under observation and the methodology employed.

Like the traveling artist of our times, in the 100-panel drawing I have called Life Class, of which this shorter series of drawings is but a fragment, the viewer's gaze moves continuously over the surface of the object-drawing trying to find a way in, a way to grasp the object intellectually, a way to pinpoint elements of stability that may add up to some coherent mental image. The mobility involved in the experience of the drawing opens up the possibility of further research into the subject of drawing using methodologies drawn from the field of dance for example, given that, as I said, the experience of the drawing involves the self-awareness of the maker and the viewer in a performative or dramaturgical relationship.[xx]


Conclusion

The humorous aspect in this work lies not in the possibility that the individual drawings or what they depict might be amusing to someone but in the possibility that there may be no content at all (despite the visible evidence of the substantial amount of work involved in their making). Form and the suggestion of narrative structure are all there, or at least appear to be there. But perhaps all there is, is the artist's perverse desire to lead the viewer into a visual loop where there is no hope of finding form or content other than what he himself may contribute. In other words, there may be nothing to 'see' but ourselves in relation to the reflecting structure we have before us.

The viewer's gaze has been emptied of its supposed meaning and the viewer turned into a parody of himself. If the object being observed is not art, then the viewer is not 'looking at art'. That being the case, what he believes (and what others who see him believe) is his 'experience of looking at art' is actually not real either. This is, for me, the truly fascinating—and dangerous—aspect of dealing with or even acknowledging humor in my work, and what most attracted me about this project. Ultimately, this line of thought leads to absolute relativity, and with it madness. Form is necessary and reassuring. Definition is necessary also, because sanity dictates that at some point we draw a line between what is and what is not. In terms of the object of observation and the methodology used in that observation, humor or the comic raises questions about the effectiveness of applying methodologies drawn from anthropology or other fields to explain or produce art. Here, however, it also raises questions about the reality of this particular work and that of the viewers' experience of gazing at these 100 drawings, of the entire learning process they seem to document and also the art system they claim to be part of.

P.B

[i] "Human movement made meaningful in a social and cultural context." Creswell, Tim, “The Production of Mobilities”, New Formations, August 2001 and Creswell, Tim, “Mobilities – An Introduction” in New Formations, August 2001.
[ii] Bergson Henri, Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, Authorized translation by Cloudsley Brereton L. ES EL (Paris) and M.A. (Cntab) and Fred Rothwell B.A. (London), IndyPublih.com, McLean, Virginia USA, 2002.
[iii] Bergson, Henri, see also Freud, Sigmund Jokes and their relationship with the unconscious, James Strachey (ed). WW Norton and Company, New York, London, 1960. Research on the psychological dimensions of humor is presented in Roeckelein, Jon, E. The Psychology of Humor, a reference guide and annotated bibliography, Greenwood Press, Westport Connecticut, London, England, 2002 and Chapman, Anthony J. and Hugh Foot (eds.) Humor and Laughter: Theory. Research and Applications, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick (USA) and London (UK), 1996.
[iv] Bergson, Henri, op.cit.
[v] Bergson, p.4 "However spontaneous it seems, laughter always implies a kind of secret freemasonry, or even complicity, with other laughers, real or imaginary. How often has it been said that the fuller the theatre the more uncontrolled the laughter of the audience! On the other hand, how often has the remark been made that many comic effects are incapable of translation from one language to another, because they refer to the customs and ideas of a particular social group!"
[vi] Beuchat, Paul, The Little Birdhouse in the Sky : Drawing Utopia, 2003, "As a form of order, independently of any particular medium or representational or mimetic function and independently—also—of whether the reality subjected to that order actually exists or is imagined, drawing precedes the “object-drawing” that reflects or embodies that order. In this sense, drawing could also be defined as a socially relevant, multiform, immaterial and intelligible structure comprising a series of spaces and functions identifiable and explainable primarily in linear terms."
[vii] Bergson, Henri, op. cit. p. 2 " The first point to which attention should be called, is that the comic does not exist outside the pale of what is strictly HUMAN."
[viii] In this context, the emergence of the figure of the artist as a form of leader is the result of a process of identification and self-identification associated with the building of a personal image. In his essay on the role of personal charisma in the achievement of leadership, William J. Gardner argues that leadership is achieved through a social-psychological process of identification and self-identification whereby the leader is identified within a group as possessing certain qualities. The most important of these is a vision, which he transmits to people who identify with this vision and who see themselves as followers. This process is based on the leader’s own self-identification as a leader and his capacity to transmit his vision to a group of peers who see in the achievement of the leader’s vision the means to realize their own goals and ambitions. In an organized and regulated context such as a large company for example, charisma becomes the means through which the concerted actions of the leader and the followers produce specific results that coincide to a greater or lesser extent with the respective visions of all those involved. Given the need to externalize this vision in order to achieve visibility and leadership in a context of multiple competing visions, the form taken by the communication of such a vision becomes a key factor. Gardner quotes Errin Goffman as proposing a view of reality in which “actors” engage in “performances” in various “settings” for particular “audiences” in order to “shape their definition of the situation”. This is very similar to saying that the artist (actor) shows himself and his work (performs) in various venues (settings) for particular audiences (other artists, critics, curators, gallery owners, etc.) Therefore, Gardner’s point of view that “the meaning of people’s doings is to be found in the manner in which to express themselves with similarly expressive others” is coherent with other authors who have discussed the practicalities involved in the leader's (artist) need to communicate his vision.

[ix][ix] See Sawday, Johnathan The Body Emblazoned: Dissection and the Human Body in the Renaissance, Rutledge, London, 1996.
[x] See, Bonford, David (ed.) Art in the Making: Underdrawing in Renaissance Paintings, National Gallery, London, 2002.
[xi] Finenberg, Jonathan, ' Meaning and Being in Christo's Surrounded Islands' in Christo: Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida 1980-83, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1986.
[xii] Laporte, Dominique, op cit. Page 54
[xiii] Dittborn, Eugenio, quoted in , " Eugenio Dittborn" in Art in Latin America: La Cita Transcultural Museum of Contemporary art, Sydney, Australia, 1993,
[xiv] Pratt, Mary Louise Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation, London, New York, Routledge, 1992. Michel de Certeau, in The paractice of everyday life, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1988 distinguishes between tactic and strategy in connection with the notion of consumption and the relationship of power that determines the displacements of the weak in the territories defined by the powerful.
[xv] The concept of emergence is defined in connection with images as follows: “ An image displays emergence when its parts or features are combined such that additional, unexpected features result, making it possible to detect new patterns and relations in the image that were not intentionally created.” (Source: R. Finke, T. Ward and S. Smith Creative Cognition, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992). In the art world, the term is used differently, usually to express the rising professional visibility and dynamism of the artist.
[xvi] Daniel J. Boorstein, quoted in Robert Huges The Shock of the New (New York, Alfred Knopf, pp. 381-83) develops the notion of pseudo event to describe a "media event" or an event that is not spontaneous but planned, planted or incited primarily, but not exclusively, for being reported and reproduced by the media and whose success is measured by how widely it is reported. Its relationship to the underlying reality of the situation is usually ambiguous and intended to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Boorstein's view is critical of the relationship between the artists and the media and can be applied to the production and manipulation of events in a process of personal myth making.
[xvii] J. Ronald Green in “ Maximizing Indeterminacy: On Collage in Writing, Film, Video, Installation and Other Artistic Realms (as well as the shroud of Turin), Afterimage, May 2000, discusses the notion of collage in relation to photography, video and installation, which he views as a form of writing, as an “essai concret,” an essay made of things, a form of “writing” based on the concept of visual writing developed by Alexandre Astruc in his 1949 essay “ the Camera Pen.” Green draws a genealogical line from photography to video and finally the digital mediums and their break with the analog, commenting on the complementary nature of analog and digital mediums. In this sense the digital requires the analog in response to an expectation of veracity. According to Green this is so because the digital code’s complete mutability has eroded public belief in the veracity of digital mediums. In other words, the idea of photography as “true” and therefore as a conceptually stable and relatively permanent representation of reality based not on human skill necessarily but on a chemical process has been eroded in practice by the editing possibilities of digital technology. Ian North, in his essay The Digital Corrosion of Postmodernism discusses this issue further. The term Indexical refers to the work of the American philosopher and semiotician Charles Sanders Peirce’s three kinds of signs: index, icon and sign. According to him, “ an indexical sign is one in which there is a direct physical relationship between marks and a referent; an iconic sign is one in which there is a resemblance between marks and a referent and a symbolic sign is an arbitrary or conventional relationship between a sign and his meaning.” These signs are indistinguishable from one another and can be considered in isolation, but they also occur in combination, superimposed. Source, Walker, John A. Art and Outrage: Provocation, Controversy and The Visual Arts, p. 211.
[xviii] Collier, John, Jr., Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method, Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, Montreal, Toronto, London, 1967.
[xix] See, also, Spradley, James P. Participant Observation, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980 and Taylor, Steven J. and Robert Bogdan. Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods. The Search for Meanings New York: Wiley and Sons.
[xx] For a complete reference on dance reserarch methodologies and practice see Sondra Horton Fraleigh and Penelope Hanstein, " Researching Dance, evolving modes of inquiry, Dance Books Limited, University of Pittsburgh Press, London, 1999. In particular, Part II, 'Modes of Inquiry and Dance Research Methods', pp99-249. See also Janet Adshead (ed), "Dance Analysis, Theory and Practice" , Dance Books, Cecil Court, London, 1988, Part I (pp 4-90) provides the results of research seminars attended by the different authors, addressing the theoretical concerns of dance analysis. Part II (pp108-193) deals with dance analysis in practice. Also, Bopp, Mary Strow, Research in Dance: A guide to Resources, New York: G.K. Hall, 1994; Hyerle, David Visual Tools for Constructing Knowledge, Alexandria, Va. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1996; Panalsek, Ann Marie, "The idea and movement Relationship: A phoneomenological Inquiry into the Transformation Process." Prospectus for a master of fine arts professional paper, Texas Womens' University, 1996; Preston Dunlop, Valerie, "The Nature of the Embodyment of Choreutic Units in Contemporary Choreography." Doctoral Dissertation University of London, Goldsmith's College, 1981; Schon, Donald, The Reflective Practitioner: How ProfessionalsTthink in Action San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers, 1983; Siegle, Leslie, "Movement as identity" Master of Fine Arts professional paper, Texas Women's University, 1996; Lynne Anne Blom and L. Tarin Chaplin in "The Moment of Movement" explore the area of dance improvisation and address the issues of kinesthetic awareness, movement as communication, the creative process, phrasing, forming, relating, abstracting and the abstract from a practical perspective, as well as discussing the notions of format, open content and structure. Other references include: Adsheadm J. 1981, The Study of Dance, London: Dance Books; Bartenieff, I, Hackney, P, Jones, B T, Van Zile, J, and Wolz, C. 1984 ' The potential of movement analysis as a research tool: a preliminary analysis', Dance Research Journal 16/1, Spring; Croce, A, 1977, Afterimages, New York, Knopf; Hanna, JL, 1979, To dance is human A theory of non-verbal communication, Austin, University of Texas; Pforisch, J., 1978, ' Labananalysis and dance style research' CORD Dance Research Annual IX: ' Essays in dance research' pp-59-74.