Synopses & Reviews
The oral eye is a metaphor for the dominance of global designer capitalism. It refers to the consumerism of a designer aesthetic by the 'I' of the neoliberalist subject, as well as the aural soundscapes that accompany the hegemony of the capturing attention through screen cultures. An attempt is made to articulate the historical emergence of such a synoptic machinic regime drawing on Badiou, Bellmer, Deleuze, Guattari, Lacan, Rancière, Virilio, Ziarek, and Žižek to explore contemporary art (post-Situationism) and visual cultural education. jagodzinski develops the concept of an 'avant-garde without authority,' 'self-refleXion' and 'in(design)' to further the questions surrounding the posthuman as advanced by theorists such as Hansen, Stiegler and Ziarek's 'force' of art.
Review
"A novel and persuasive analysis. Bringing together a range of theoretical positions with discussions of visual arts and culture, this book juxtaposes art and design in order to argue the importance of the idea of 'avant-garde without authority' in contemporary art education. Brilliant discussions of art - from post-Situationism to Viola, Jaar, and Wodiczko - highlight the ways in which such avant-garde without authority expands freedom and nonpower by 'ruining representation.' - Krzysztof Ziarek, Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of Graduate Studies, University at Buffalo, SUNY
"This book is an important intervention and exploration of art and its education in our current socio-cultural, political, and economic contexts. It is an insightful and valuable resource for students, teachers, and researchers in the field. jagodzinski draws extensively upon an impressive breadth and depth of theory and art practice in order to make and consolidate his thesis concerning art and education in an era of designer capitalism." - Dennis Atkinson, Director of the Research Center for the Arts and Learning, Goldsmiths, University of London
Synopsis
This book offers a unique perspective of art and its education in designer capitalism. It will contribute to the debate as to possibilities art and design hold for the future. It also questions the broad technologization of art that is taking place.
About the Author
jan jagodzinski is a professor of Visual and Media Education in the Department of Secondary Education at the University of Alberta, where he teaches visual art and media education and curricular issues as they relate to postmodern concerns of gender politics, cultural studies, and media (film and television). He is a founding member of the Caucus on Social Theory in Art Education (NAEA); past editor of The Journal of Social Theory in Art Education (JSTE); past president of SIG Media, Culture, and Curriculum; and co-series editor with Mark Bracher of the book series, Pedagogy, Psychoanalysis, Transformation. Other works include Television and Youth Culture: Televised Paranoia, (Palgrave, 2008) and Arts Based Research: A Critique and Proposal (forthcoming).
Table of Contents
Introduction: Aestheticization of the Wor(l)d Picture - Bernard Steigler * PART I: DECONSTRUCTING THE ORAL EYE * Situating the Oral-Eye in Designer Capitalism * On Visual Regimes and their Shadows * PART II: RUINING REPRESENTATIONS * Historical Antecedents: The Rise of the Unconscious in Artistic Practice * Deleuzes "logic of sense": The Importance of Affect for Art and its Education * Badiou? 15 lessons * PART III: ART AND ITS EDUCATION IN DESIGNER CAPITALISM * Between Art and Design Education: The Fundamental Antagonism * The Primal Fantasy of Visual Art Education: It Just Keeps Going and Going and Going... * Fantasies of Radicalism: Art Educations Conservative Appropriation of Postmodernism * Badious Challenge to Education: The ‘Truth" of Art, the Art of Truth * Creativity? * PART IV: LESSONS FOR ART EDUCATORS: ENCOUNTERS WITH THE REAL * The Impossible Real (Nachtwey) W(h)ither Pain? * Avant Garde without Authority * Virillo meets Bill Viola: How to Overload the Circuits of Thought * Krysztof Wodiczko: Counting the Uncounted * Alfredo Jaar: The Limitations of the ‘Real Mondofesto * PART V: REORIENTING ART EDUCATION FOR A POSTHUMAN AGE: SELF-REXFLEXIVITY OF INDESIGN * From Eye-World to Brain-Eye: Self-RefleXivity in Art and Its Education * PART IV: THINKING DIAGRAMATICALLY * Orlan/Stelac/ Bilal * Decentering the Visual Organ of Designer Capitalism: Probe-heads and Beyond