Controversy, Censorship & Visualization Video clip of curatorial discussion of exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference & Desire in American Portraiture (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution) & link to webpages
(main exhibition site) Link to panel discussion Iconoclasm & Iconoclash
Readings: Latour Iconoclash Mitchell, Offending Images Public Outrage Vandalism & Iconoclasm
Vandals as ignorant, silly, senseless, stupid Goya No sabe lo que hace Iconoclasm vs. Vandalism?
deliberate destruction of images rooted in religious, political, cultural beliefs or groups etc. vs. Ignorant behaviour. Which is it? Example: Destruction of 3rd c. A.D. Buddhas by Taleban in Iconoclasm?
Destruction of images linked to rational acts, meaning or connections of images to something-- but how? Ofili Virgin Mary
Why are some images kept & others destroyed? Personal (family) Networks & Values Community-based criteria Other factors (sometimes concurrent)
Scholarly Political Economic Moral & ethical Class-based (elite, popular) agendas etc. Variations in meaning over time
Inclusion --Exclusion & the democratization of image censorship Headbangers--Heavy metal fans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhGx4Rh0Qo8 Mid-Summer Night Swing Dancing at
the Lincoln Center, NYC Identity issues & the meaning of images Inclusion/cohesion Visual images as expression
of identity, difference (distinction) Exclusion Discriminatory Dimensions Censorship and/or
Democratization Mitchell--Why do some images offend? False Assumptions:
Images transparently linked to what it represents (doing something to image, does something to what it represents)
Images feels what is done to it Examples from Mitchell Richard
Serras Tilted Arc Maya Lins Vietnam Veterans War Memorial Lin
Mapplethorpe Michelangelo David Swastika Confederate Flage
Jasper Johns Flag Marcus Harvey Myra Damian Hirst Poussin Adoration of the Golden Calf
Serrano Piss Christ Offili Outrage over Virgin
Mary? Outrage about symbolic desecration Latour: Why do images inspire hatred?
ways of understanding iconoclasts Inner goals Roles ascribed to images Effects of destruction on others How reactions of those assocciated with images are interpreted by iconoclasts Effects on the destroyers own feelings
Fuseli: Artist weeping in despair diverse meanings of the disappearance & rejection of artworks
Vandalism vs. Iconoclasm Vandalists: ignorant, senseless Iconoclasts: deliberate opposition,
rationale grounded in system of . Censorship as an outcome of
democratization artists & minority publics rights to self-expression or freedom of speech (1st Amendment in US) But systematic suppression
VS. publics rights & governments duties to enforce standards issues-- what standards, whose standards?
Typology of Iconoclasts A-- against images
B-against freeze-frame C-against opponents images D-Unwitting destroyers E-Ironic destroyers Recall: Panofsky
