More wikipedia research...

What would we do without wikipedia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Area_Psychogeographic

A Manchester based group of psychogeographers who disbanded in the late 90s. Can't find much more out about them at the moment, but this post is a note to myself to do so.

Situationists_psychogeography_

"Down with a world in which the guarantee that we will not die of starvation has been purchased with the guarantee that we will die of boredom." - Raoul Vaneigem, The Revolution Of Everyday Life

Kevin Linnane's comments on my Impressionist-inspired-art-piece blog (see link to the right) included the observation that some of what I was saying was similar to what the Situationists of the 1960s were saying. I have always thought of myself as a poorly disguised political and artistic agitator.

He also mentioned the Dérive: In philosophy, a Dérive is a French concept meaning an aimless walk, probably through city streets, that follows the whim of the moment. It is sometimes translated as a drift. (From wikipedia.)
The Dérive was a radical offshoot of the flaneur - the dandyish stroller of mid to late 19th century Paris. The Dérive was inspired by psychogeography: "a slightly stuffy term that's been applied to a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities. Psychogeography includes just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape." (Again, from wikipedia.)
Such as: http://timdevin.com/providence.html

cassatt//feminism and the impressionists

This image is by Mary Cassatt who, along with Berthe Morisot, was the leading female Impressionist. Which means what?
If we've established that Impressionism was an artistic interpretation of modernity, then didn't the sexes experience modernity differently?
There's enough evidence to say that they did without any doubt. The subtleties of the differing experiences can be exemplified by the image above and the image below.

Cassatt's image places women in a safe, regimented space, having a gentle cup of tea. Manet's bar-girl is in a chaotic public space, under the gaze of many men, each inebriated no doubt and looking for their own little adventure. She's bored, impassive and resigned. Cassatt's women are impassive but pensive, frustrated perhaps? But less tense, less on show.
Which is a more accurate depiction of a woman's lot in the second half of the nineteenth century in Paris?

Another road song...

The link on the right which says Jeroen's blog/website takes you to the website of my friend Jeroen Wilhelmus.
I haven't seen Jeroen in a while: he lives in Holland and my father has just moved from Holland back to the UK. On one trip to the Netherlands, my father took me to Scheveningen on the coast, on a wet day, a windy day, where I took this photograph:

I spotted this same pier-end in Andrew Brooks' (see link right) work, Sealand, when he came to talk to my HNC class last year. He creates hyper-real images in photoshop, built out of hundreds of individual images and a lot of patience.
I think I have this right, please correct me, Jeroen, if I'm wrong... Jeroen is the son of the daughter of the man under who my grandfather studied music in Amsterdam after completing his degree in Edinburgh and before the Second World War. There is more to it than those words imply, of course.

form, content: content form

Trying to think about how the Impressionists would react to the world today. What kind of art would Monet want to make if he were alive now? Would he want to paint his landscapes in the open air? Would he remove himself from politics and conflict? If he still painted as he did then, would his art end up directly on biscuit tins, diaries and in clip frames in cheap hotels? Or would it spend time in a gallery, get discussed on the Late Review?
My wife and I have conflicting views on music. She is a classically trained singer and appreciates the skill and craft that goes into creating a good vocal performance. Thus she can applaud the contestants on the X Factor because they show a vocal ability. She also detests Bob Dylan because he sounds like he's beating a bag full of cats and dogs instead of singing. I can't argue that his voice is beautiful like Pavarotti's. But I can argue that what he sings and the emotion with which he sings it makes his song more moving, more like art or poetry than Gareth Gates.
Content over form. Form over content.
So, going back to our Impressionist friends, art is about content over form, isn't it? It doesn't matter what form the art takes (it could be a painting, a sculpture or a disused unrinal) if it has something to say, some observation to make on the world, the human condition, sex, death, MacDonalds... If it has some contribution to make to how we understand the world and ourselves and if it isn't something that // Falling into the old trap of trying to define art here I fear. I keep forgetting I live in the post-modern age...