The article examines examples of live performance art that explore themes related to the genre of science fiction, and argues that in significant ways they make concrete and actualize the narratives of sci-fi. Works by artists including Stelarc, Eduardo Kac, Hayden Fowler, Fakeshop, Orlan, Norman White and Laura Kikauka are simultaneously political gestures, technical feats, and embodied art processes that both look forward to becoming the future and actualize a version of it in the present, live in front of us.
The article examines the interactions between the various modalities - poetic text, live stage performance, sound design and video projection - in a 2013 theatrical production of T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land (1922). It particularly focuses on the creation of the sound design for the performance and how this relates to the themes and sensibilities of the poem, its inherent sonorities, and what Eliot called "The Music of Poetry" (1942).
Abstract:
A 5000-word excerpt of a novel-in-progress devoted to global climate change and its concentration in Canada's contentious Alberta tar sands.
Citation:
Whetter, Darryl. "Scraping Off the Velvet." The Fiddlehead, no. 270, 2017, pp. 72-82.
Diverse art practices have, since time immemorial, sought to establish a visceral link with the viewer's insides in order to problematise order and disorder, normativity and aberration, totem and taboo, as even a cursory glance at Ghirlandaio's portraits of decay, Bruegel's depictions of disease, the Viennese Actionists' performances with animal carcasses or Athey's ritualistic work with HIV-positive blood, shows. In all these works, the defilement, the disgust, and the horror are intentional, strategic - even ideological.
The inclusion of Sur (soē เซอร์) reality as one of nine key themes in the 2012 exhibition Thai Trends: From Localism to Internationalism, curated by Apinan Poshyananda อภินันท์ โปษยานนท์ (b. 1956), reinforced the inclusion of 'surrealistic' works as a part of conventional histories of Thai artistic modernism. While the phonetic resonances between Sur and its English counterpart 'surrealism' might suggest European origination, Apinan's framework hinged on the nationalist premise of the uniqueness of Sur within the Thai context.
The full-scale house has a long history in theatrical set design, and the addition of video projections and digital effects in recent multimedia theatre has resulted in some extraordinary productions that compress or reconfigure ideas of time, space and place, and interrogate the close interrelationships between the macro and micro, and the real and the unreal.
This article focuses on the encounters and exchanges between French and Chinese artists, art critics and curators from 1985–90 and their impact on the development of two important presentations of the ’85 New Wave movement in France: Magiciens de la Terre (1989) and Chine Demain pour Hier (1990). Drawing on interviews with French and Chinese artists, critics and curators, it argues how the politics of intercultural encounters influenced the curatorial frameworks of both these exhibitions.
In the recent decade, a downward trend of employment has been observed in the animation and VFX industry globally. This trend is observed in Singapore as the domestic industry is integrated through international studios and markets. Tertiary institutions in Singapore, particularly media related courses, turn out a pool of talented graduates every year. Of those, only two tertiary institutions are equipped to cater to students seeking a career in animation and VFX industry in Singapore.
In the 1970s, Gilbert Gimon discovered the daguerreotype work of Jules Itier and subsequently published two articles: one in French in 1980 and one in English in 1981. The historical importance of this discovery is now firmly established and the two articles have become key sources of reference. However, a close study of these publications reveals mistakes and assumptions that require resolution. Part one of this article considers two phases of gathering and dispersal of this body of work, first in the mid-nineteenth century and subsequently in the twentieth century.
Recent years have shown a gradual shift in apparel production from China to parts of Southeast Asia, allowing fashion designers to leverage lower labour costs and raw material resources during sampling and production. These cost-saving benefits have impacted the overall perception of quality, as designers frustratingly come to realise the poor levels of skills and pattern cutting knowledge within the region.
