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Written for the Kaunas Biennial catalogue, this paper is an introduction on the importance of storytelling for a greater public and also investigates how contemporary artists have related to storytelling and how the same event is conveyed... more
Written for the Kaunas Biennial catalogue, this paper is an introduction on the importance of storytelling for a greater public and also investigates how contemporary artists have related to storytelling and how the same event is conveyed differently through different visual tellings.
In this article (German and English translation), I reflect on the way images both reflect and determine our way of seeing the natural world. The text was published for the catalogue of the exhibition "Fragile Schöpfung/Fragile Creation"... more
In this article (German and English translation), I reflect on the way images both reflect and determine our way of seeing the natural world. The text was published for the catalogue of the exhibition "Fragile Schöpfung/Fragile Creation" on our relationship to nature, which I co-curated at Dom Museum Vienna in 2020-2021.
Dieser Text führt alle mir wichtig scheinenden Fragen der Erzähltheorie für ein kunstinteressiertes Publikum ein - entstanden ist er für die Transmediale Kunst an der Universität für Angewandte Kunst in Wien. Auszug statt Abstract: "Ich... more
Dieser Text führt alle mir wichtig scheinenden Fragen der Erzähltheorie für ein kunstinteressiertes Publikum ein - entstanden ist er für die Transmediale Kunst an der Universität für Angewandte Kunst in Wien. Auszug statt Abstract: "Ich versuche zu klären, wie Erzählung im Raum funktionieren kann. Das ist wichtig, denn während Erzähltexte, Comics und Filme seit Langem in der Narratologie diskutiert werden, gibt es bislang kaum groß angelegte, systematische Arbeiten zur Erzählung in der visuellen oder bildenden Kunst. Eine Arbeit über Erzählung im Raum ist mir nicht bekannt. Das ist eigentlich überraschend, denn in Design, Architektur und visueller Kunst ist seit einigen Jahren ständig vom Erzählen die Rede [...]. Insofern im Kunstkontext überhaupt Definitionen von Narration versucht werden, bleiben sie meist vage, intuitiv und unbefriedigend. [...] Es wird zwar viel beobachtet, gebaut, markiert, strukturiert, kategorisiert, vermessen, beschrieben, bezeichnet, gezeigt, ja auch angeboten und erprobt, aber nur selten erzählt und schon gar keine Geschichten. Das ist in der zeitgenössischen Kunst kein Sonderfall. [...] Das Wesen der bildenden Kunst sucht man in der visuellen Form. Erzählung, so behaupten Theoretiker von Jacob Burckhardt über Konrad Fiedler bis Gottfried Boehm, entfremde Kunst und Bilder von sich selbst und verstelle den Blick auf die der jeweiligen Kunstform eigenen Ausdrucksmittel. [...] Ich glaube, dass der Welt und der Kunst etwas verloren gegangen ist, als die bildende Kunst das Erzählen den Regisseur_innen, Romanschriftsteller_innen, Politiker_innen und Marketingabteilungen überlassen hat, denn das Erzählen ist eine besonders ursprüngliche Form der Wissensvermittlung und eine, die den Menschen besonders nahesteht und -geht. Deshalb soll mein Text zum Raum in der transmedialen Kunst auch ein Plädoyer für Narration sein. [...] Eine Erzählung ist das, was eine Geschichte zum Inhalt hat. Es kommt also darauf an, was bei uns ankommt, ganz gleich wie. Geschichten spielen sich nie direkt im Raum oder Bild ab, sondern entstehen erst wenn Betrachter_innen aus räumlich erfahrenen Sachverhalten und Ereignissen eine Geschichte zusammensetzen. [...] Es ist einfach in Worten oder Filmen zu erzählen. Raumerzähler_innnen müssen dagegen besondere Strategien entwickeln, damit wir zu Erzähler_innen werden. Das Problem verschärft sich, wenn sie ohne Worte und womöglich auch ohne Abläufe in der Zeit auskommen wollen. Deshalb geht es hier um Raumerzählungen, die genau das tun. [...] Die Ästhetik, die Lessing hier skizziert, ist eine des Nichtzeigens und Vermutenlassens. Sie steht ganz im Gegensatz zur Ästhetik des Draufhaltens, die der Actionfilm und der Fotojournalismus meist bevorzugen. Wenn das Schreckliche oder Wunderbare nicht gezeigt wird, nehmen unsere Ängste und Hoffnungen ihren Platz ein. Diese sind zwar nicht unbedingt schrecklicher oder schöner, aber sie sind persönlicher und entsprechen unserer eigenen Wesensart. [...] Neben der theatralischen Figurerzählung hat sich weit weniger prominent, gewissermaßen unter dem Radar der Kunsttheorie und deshalb nahezu unreflektiert, ein zweiter Typ von Bild- und Raumerzählung entwickelt: die Spurerzählung. Spurerzählungen sind Erzählungen, die auf Interpretation von Spuren beruhen. [...] Auch Werke der zeitgenössischen Kunst sind bisweilen spurhaft narrativ. Daniel Spoerris Fallenbilder, für die er Überreste von Banketten mit Kunstharz auf Leinwand fixiert, sind spurerzählend. Während Figurerzählung hauptsächlich ein künstlerisches Phänomen ist, stellt Spurerzählung einen Bezug zur Welt außerhalb der Kunst her. [...]"
Note: This is an introduction to visual narrative for artists as much as (or more than) narratologists. It sums up all the elements I deem most important in narratology and then focuses on narratives in space, mainly in installation art.... more
Note: This is an introduction to visual narrative for artists as much as (or more than) narratologists. It sums up all the elements I deem most important in narratology and then focuses on narratives in space, mainly in installation art.
Excerpt: I think that the world and art lost something when the fine arts surrendered narrative to directors, novelists, politicians, and marketing departments, for narrative is an especially primeval form of communicating knowledge, one that touches us quite deeply as human beings. This is why I want to address the question of narration in the context of a text on space in Transmedia Art. […] Narrative is par excellence a transmedia phenomenon and stories can be transported to various media. This is why many criteria defining narrative are medium independent. […] When somebody says a work “narrates” something, we notice that the term “narrate” is usually being used as a synonym for “communicate.” But narrative is actually a very specific form of communication that differs, say, from description or argumentation. […] In the art world, the term “story” is often used where there isn’t one. Clearly, the idea of narration is attractive enough to talk a great deal about it, but artists have lost interest in actual narrative or the ability to narrate. To the extent that definitions of narration are attempted in the art context at all, they usually remain vague, intuitive, and unsatisfactory.
[…] There is a great deal of observation, construction, marking, structuration, categorization, surveillance, description, labeling, showing, presenting and experimenting, but only rarely does narration take place, and there are never any stories. […] Modern art is narratophobic. And yet, for centuries art was primarily narrative in nature. Narrative was first dismissed in the 19th century, when it was claimed that storytelling is actually at home in language, not in the image. […] One might think that spatial narration is not as efficient as filmic or linguistic narration, because due to medium-specific omissions it presents things not as clearly and we as beholders have to think and imagine more, it might well be that it has an even more powerful effect on us for that very reason. […] The gaps should not be so great that the receivers do not even want to imagine something, or that they have the feeling they could not fill in the gaps. Otherwise the work, for all its reticence, would not tell anything at all. As mere things in space irrelevant to us, the objects then remain “rigid and silent,”14 something we experience all too often. […] Beside theatrical figure-based narrative, less prominently, in a certain sense under the radar of art theory and thus virtually untheorized, a second type of visual and spatial narrative has developed: the trace-based narrative. Trace-based narratives are narratives based on the interpretation of traces. Just like the linguistically communicated narrative and figure-based narratives, the result of trace-based narratives is by definition the representation of action or events. […] While figure-based narrative is an artifact, trace-based narratives surface in everyday life whenever a trace turns into a narrative. Trace-based narrative can either be intended as such, when, for example, artists depict traces or leave traces, or they emerge when somebody tells a story based on a trace. […] Works of contemporary art are sometimes trace-based narratives. Daniel Spoerri’s Snare-Pictures, for which he affixes the remains of lavish meals to a canvas using synthetic resin, tell stories through traces.33 While figure-based narrative is a decidedly artistic phenomenon, trace-based narrative creates a link to the world outside of art. […]
Excerpt in lieu of an abstract: In narratology, it is usually maintained that verbal utterances, films, and picture sequences can fulfill the aforementioned and similar criteria, but a single picture cannot. In this article, I would like... more
Excerpt in lieu of an abstract: In narratology, it is usually maintained that verbal utterances, films, and picture sequences can fulfill the aforementioned and similar criteria, but a single picture cannot. In this article, I would like to question this point of view. More specifically, my analysis focuses on the difficulty associated with conveying a story through single monochronic pictures that only depict one moment in time, as opposed to polychronic pictures that explicitly represent several moments. If I were able to prove that it is possible to convey a story with a single monochronic picture, then it should follow by implication that polychronic pictures can also convey stories. The most common reason for thinking that this is not the case is because of the perceived temporal limitations of pictures in terms of presentation and conveying story content (Speidel 2013). I would like to challenge this notion, by suggesting that there are [end p. 2] single pictures that correspond to the major criteria used to determine whether something is a narrative, including the criteria Herman introduced. Recent experiments (Speidel 2018) show that this is in accordance with the nonexpert conviction that some single pictures that explicitly show only one moment do convey stories. I have argued that a narratology that wants to operate descriptively rather than normatively should revise definitions of narrative that exclude such pictures from the realm of narratives. Here, however, I would like to take a different approach by accepting, for the sake of the argument, definitions that are considered to make pictorial narrative problematic, and arguing that specific examples can comply with them. My argument will mainly be based on one well-known painting; it appears that no one has interpreted it as an autonomous narrative thus far, either in narratology or in art history. I conclude with a few words on why scholars have not offered said interpretation in the past. I will further argue that pictures can have a complication and resolution. Certain narratologists, such as Françoise Revaz (1997), even take complication resolution structure to be synonymous with the quality of having an intrigue (180) and also consider it necessary for distinguishing a narrative from other “action texts” such as recipes or chronicles (178). This article follows their use of the term intrigue as referring to a plot with a complication resolution structure. I try to show that a single picture, and not only films, verbal utterances, or comics, can also achieve this typical narrative complexity. Access to original publication here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5250/storyworlds.10.issue-1-2
This article (available in German and English) discusses strategies of depicting wounds through the ages, situating different depictions between the two extremes of trace on the one and allegory on the other hand. Published in the context... more
This article (available in German and English) discusses strategies of depicting wounds through the ages, situating different depictions between the two extremes of trace on the one and allegory on the other hand.
Published in the context of the exhibition "Zeig mir deine Wunde / Show me your wound" that Klaus Speidel co-curated with Johanna Schwanberg at the Dom Museum in Vienna (September 2018 - September 2019).
Concise semiotic/iconographic analysis of the work "Artemis and Actaeon" by Roy Lichtenstein on the occasion of the exhibition Roy Lichtenstein
“The Loaded Brush” at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg, 27 July – 28 September 2019.
Review of the exhibition "About life in the countryside" at Kunsthaus Wien, where I discuss the gap separating art photography and photography in the photo world, arguing that the latter often has a less complicated relationship with the... more
Review of the exhibition "About life in the countryside" at Kunsthaus Wien, where I discuss the gap separating art photography and photography in the photo world, arguing that the latter often has a less complicated relationship with the real. I call for an end of photography in the Ernst and Hilla Becher (aka Düsseldorf school) style.
Intro: “Is it photography, is it art, or is it both?” is a question I don’t often ask myself, but it seems that the difference matters, at least socially. The art world travels to Venice, the photo world goes to Arles. Star photographers like Cristina de Middel, who triggered the self-published photobook boom, are nearly unknown among artists, while artists such as Gillian Wearing are equally remote for photographers. Even though there are artists whose work is appreciated in both worlds, like Hilla and Bernd Becher, Andres Serrano, Nan Goldin, Candida Höfer, Cindy Sherman, Thomas Demand, and Hiroshi Sugimoto, photography has its own festivals, galleries, magazines, masterclasses, stars, prizes, and criteria that have little to no crossover with the art world."
Conclusion: "While building a photographic archive of people and/or their environment in the tradition of the Bechers is still a worthwhile endeavour in documentary terms, its artistic potential has been exhausted. When so many politicians try to convey simplistic images of the world, we need the subversion of stereotypes, not their confirmation. In a world of “alternative facts”, photography is at its best when it tries to develop more complicated relationships with the real."
Based on the claim that essentialist definitions of painting (with criteria like flatness) are bound to fail, I argue that painting is an open concept for which a symptom-based approach is more suitable (similar to Nelson Goodman's... more
Based on the claim that essentialist definitions of painting (with criteria like flatness) are bound to fail, I argue that painting is an open concept for which a symptom-based approach is more suitable (similar to Nelson Goodman's symptom-based approach to art). I define the symptoms of painting and then show that digital retouching corresponds to them. Here's how Carl Robinson, the editor, sums up my argument: " [...] Speidel replaces an approach to painting through definition by outlining what he sees as the “symptoms” of the medium. For him these “symptoms” include operations such as smudging, rubbing, covering, layering and so on as well as incorporating a sense of flatness, and degrees of transparency and opacity. Speidel argues that digital retouching is painting as it incorporates such operations and qualities as fundamental aspects of its nature. From this Speidel positions David Bornscheuer’s (b.1983) and Joshua Citarella’s (b.1987) digital retouching of fashion shoots as painting. He understands that in fashion photography digital retouching only truly performs its function when hidden. It discreetly adjusts the photograph (usually of a person), and becomes embedded within it, such as to make a believable reality out of another, manipulated, one. Exposing this retouching, and removing it from the milieu of the fashion-shoot by placing it within art world contexts, reconceptualises this activity (and by association the medium) as art. Bornscheuer’s and Citarella’s work highlights that the transposition between photograph and painting not only achieves a fluidity across mediums but also a cross-over between fashion and fine art." I'm not allowed to post the text on a public website (5 year embargo). Order the book for your library (and/or PM for full text info).
Summary by the editors Stefan Iversen; Karin Kukkonen; Gunther Martens: "Klaus Speidel takes a first step towards “descriptive narratology” in his article “What narrative is. Reconsidering the role of definitions based on experiments with... more
Summary by the editors Stefan Iversen; Karin Kukkonen; Gunther Martens:
"Klaus Speidel takes a first step towards “descriptive narratology” in his article “What narrative is. Reconsidering the role of definitions based on experiments with pictorial narrative. An Essay in Descriptive Narratology”. Speidel takes the well-known theoretical discussion about whether an individual image can be considered a narrative and puts it to an empirical test. He argues for the value of the intuitions of everyday picture viewers over the definitions derived from theoretical systems that might be biased towards the verbal model. Speidel brings into dialogue the discussions of narratology, that unfold around very specific and refined terminologies, and the everyday sense in which picture viewers might say “this really tells a story”, presenting a new possible model for doing narrative studies empirically."
My abstract:
Unacknowledged by its practitioners, narratology has often been revisionary rather than descriptive when categorizing narratives. This is because definitions, expert judgment and personal intuition, traditionally the main tools for categorization, are vulnerable to media blindness and to being theory loaded. I argue that to avoid revisionary accounts of ordinary everyday practices such as narrative or gameplay of which non-experts have a firm understanding, expert categorizations have to be tested against folk intuitions as they become apparent in ordinary language. Pictorial narrative in single pictures is introduced as a specific case of categorization dispute and an experiment laid out in which non-experts assess if different pictures tell stories. As the chosen pictures correspond to different criteria of narrative to varying degrees, the experiment also serves as an implicit test of these criteria. Its results confirm monochrony compatibilism, the position that single monochronic pictures can autonomously convey stories. While the pictures rated high in narrativity correspond to traditional criteria of narrative, I argue that the way in which these criteria are usually interpreted by narratologists is problematic because they exclude these pictures from the realm of narratives. It is argued that the way marginal phenomena are categorized is essential for a sound understanding of even the most paradigmatic objects of a domain because categorizations influence definitions and definitions ultimately guide interpretations.
Paper in French & English / Article en anglais et français Abstract en français ci-dessous The possibility and interest of narration in abstract art has long been questioned. Where Modernism considered that narration was foreign to... more
Paper in French & English / Article en anglais et français
Abstract en français ci-dessous

The possibility and interest of narration in abstract art has long been questioned. Where Modernism considered that narration was foreign to visual art and should thus be avoided, narratology has often considered that it was impossible to narrate with single images, let alone abstract ones. Developing an idea by David Hume, I start by opposing Media Essentialism, the thesis that each medium has an essence that should be exemplified by any use of the medium. However, I also show a problem with W. J. T. Mitchell's criticism of Modernist arguments about narrative: Mitchell fails to distinguish stories told in works of art from stories told about them.
I argue that narration should be understood as a phenomenon located in reception rather than production. This is a position that has long been recognized by reception theory (see Umberto Eco& Wolfgang Iser) and cognitive narratology. If we want to know if there is narrative in abstract art, the question we must ask then is if abstract works of art can systematically convey narratives. I try to show that this is indeed the case.
Radicalizing a reception-based definition of narrativity, we can say that any representation that systematically conveys a story should be considered a narrative and that any representation that is systematically understood as narrating something should be considered to have at least some degree of narrativity. In my paper, I demonstrate that the latter is the case with at least some abstract works of art. I more specifically argue that abstract single paintings can have narrativity and that abstract films can be narratives, conveying full-blown stories. I also provide criteria to distinguish abstract works of art that have narrativity from others that don't.

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La possibilité et l'intérêt de la narration dans l'art abstrait font question depuis longtemps. Là où le Modernisme a considéré que la narration éloignait l'art visuel de sa nature propre et considérait l'abstraction comme un moyen pour l'éviter, la narratologie a souvent considérée qu'il était impossible de raconter une histoires en une image et ce d'autant plus si l'image était abstraite. Cependant, si on comprend la narration comme un phénomène de réception plutôt que de production, comme l'a fait la théorie de la réception depuis Umberto Eco et Wolfgang Iser et le défend la théorie cognitive de la narration, la question qui se pose est celle de savoir si des oeuvres abstraites peuvent être reçues de manière récurrente et systématique comme narratives. Si cela était le cas, elles pourraient alors être jugées comme narratives. Dans mon article, je démontre que cela est le case. Je ne vais pas jusqu'à défendre qu'une image unique abstraite peut être un récit, mais je soutiens tout de même qu'il y a des films abstraits qui sont des récits et je discute de nombreux cas de réception narrative d'images abstraites, ce qui me mène à reconnaître la narrativité de certaines oeuvres d'art abstraites. Je donne également quelques indications sur les critères pour les distinguer d'oeuvres abstraites non-narratives.
This is the original manuscript of a text translated into Polish and published by Universitas in a volume edited by Katarzyna Kaczmarczyk under the name “Jak pojedyncze obrazy opowiadają historie. Krytyczne wprowadzenie do problematyki... more
This is the original manuscript of a text translated into Polish and published by Universitas in a volume edited by Katarzyna Kaczmarczyk under the name  “Jak pojedyncze obrazy opowiadają historie. Krytyczne wprowadzenie do problematyki narracji ikonicznej w narratologii”. Both from a historical and a theoretical perspective it is by far the most complete article on pictorial narrative I have published so far. It contains some of the essential ideas of my doctoral dissertation. Please send any remarks or requests or if you are interested in a publication in English, German or other languages. I respond to all emails.

*CONTENTS*
Introduction 3
Narrative pictures and iconic narrative 5
On the concept of single picture 6
Three reasons why narratives in single pictures matter 7
Narrative in art history, Bildwissenschaften and Visual Studies 13
Iconic narrative and definitions of narrative 15
Narrating pictures 21
Story time and single pictures 24
Five narratological positions on iconic narrative: a critical presentation  33
-Wendy Steiner and the question of realism 34
-Aron Kibédi Varga and the question of mere illustration  37
-Jean-Marie Schaeffer and the problem of iconic representions of time 41
-Werner Wolf and the question of suspense in iconic narratives  54
-Rick Altman and the problem of a double standard for narrative 56
Narrative and the picture: a plausibly narrow definition  57
Aristotle's plot-structure and Sternberg's curiosity and suspense 60
The problem of a temporal program in pictures 62
Addressing the problem of a temporal program in pictures: relative determination of order of access  64
A painting with a temporal program 65
A painting evoking suspense and relief 66
Alternatives to armchair definitions of narrative 70
Some pictures are exciting, others aren't. Some are art, some are advertising, others were perhaps drawn by a small child. But regardless of whether we are seeing a picture because someone has sold access to our consciousness for a few... more
Some pictures are exciting, others aren't. Some are art, some are advertising, others were perhaps drawn by a small child. But regardless of whether we are seeing a picture because someone has sold access to our consciousness for a few cents or because a good friend has posted it on our profile: images now have little time to grab our attention.
Every day subtle ink drawings fight fixed fights against creations of international advertising agencies in my online feed. If the algorithm actually lets a picture through, a decision is quickly taken on what we look at for longer and what immediately returns to the proverbial flood of images. We tend to dislike advertising that forces itself on us in a commercial break or through blinking gif banners. Here I will argue that working with drawing style artists can create pictures that oppose expectations to grab and hold our attention.
Research Interests:
In this short thought piece for the art magazine Spike, I look at different ways the real is and always has been mixed up with fiction, discussing food, computer games, virtual reality, narrative identities, Putin and terrorism, arguing... more
In this short thought piece for the art magazine Spike, I look at different ways the real is and always has been mixed up with fiction, discussing food, computer games, virtual reality, narrative identities, Putin and terrorism, arguing that the real has always been a question of degrees rather than absolutes.

In diesem kurzen Aufsatz für das Kunstmagazin Spike, untersuche ich wie das Reale schon immer mit Fiktion durchsetzt war und diskutiere dabei Beispiele aus der Kunst, der Lebensmittelindustrie, Computerspiele, Putin, Terrorismus und die Art und Weise wie Erzählung unsere Identität konstituiert.
(English translation and French original also available on profile) This article offers a new perspective on René Magrittes word paintings, which combine pictures and words in surprising ways. By analyzing Magritte's theoretical texts as... more
(English translation and French original also available on profile)
This article offers a new perspective on René Magrittes word paintings, which combine pictures and words in surprising ways. By analyzing Magritte's theoretical texts as well as his paintings, I come to the conclusion that Magritte's project differed significantly from philosophical reflections on words and pictures such as those of Plato, Saussure or Nelson Goodman. I thus oppose the common conviction that Magritte believed that linguistic signs are arbitrary  or that he simply wanted to say that pictures are not the objects they depict -  which is often said to be the message of his "Treachery of Images" ("This is not a pipe"). I also reject that he simply created dadaistic combinations of words and mismatching pictures for the sake of shocking. As opposed to this common view, I believe that we should take Magritte seriously when he affirms that there are names that work BETTER for objects than the names we usually use. Such better names are those of other objects that have unobvious or poetic affinities with the objects Magritte re-names in his work. Magritte was not interested in reference or denotation, rather,  I argue, he was interested in a relationship between objects that he called "elective affinity", which he explored by confronting pictures of objects as well as names of objects and pictures of others.
"This is not a pipe" is thus more than a denial of the identity between an object and its picture: by negating the adequacy of the object's initial name, Magritte invites us to seek another name, that better suits the object depicted, which is the name of an object that can enter into an interesting relationship with the pipe. This is something which becomes more obvious when the work is read in the light of "Words and images" and "Key of dreams" that were painted before (1927) and published simultaneously (1929). The quest for "elective affinities" is essential for Magritte and he illustrates it both in paintings with pictures only and in paintings that combine pictures with words.
As opposed to the interest philosophy has taken in the way words and pictures refer to the world, Magritte's works are about the relationships between objects in the world itself. His style of painting aims at effacing the trace of the maker and thus, as he says, "facilitating a natural exchange between the world and its representations".
Magritte's works are really "serious games" that can teach us how to find new affinities in order to free ourselves from the purely functional perspective on the objects of the world. In this I argue, he joins Rainer Maria Rilke's poetic quest. As Magritte states himself: "I would be glad if my works weren't necessary any more to make spectators think of what they show."
Research Interests:
(German translation and French original also available) This article offers a new perspective on René Magrittes word paintings, which combine pictures and words in surprising ways. By analyzing Magritte's theoretical texts as well as his... more
(German translation and French original also available)
This article offers a new perspective on René Magrittes word paintings, which combine pictures and words in surprising ways. By analyzing Magritte's theoretical texts as well as his paintings, I come to the conclusion that Magritte's project differed significantly from philosophical reflections on words and pictures such as those of Plato, Saussure or Nelson Goodman. I thus oppose the common conviction that Magritte believed that linguistic signs are arbitrary  or that he simply wanted to say that pictures are not the objects they depict -  which is often said to be the message of his "Treachery of Images" ("This is not a pipe"). I also reject that he simply created dadaistic combinations of words and mismatching pictures for the sake of shocking. As opposed to this common view, I believe that we should take Magritte seriously when he affirms that there are names that work BETTER for objects than the names we usually use. Such better names are those of other objects that have unobvious or poetic affinities with the objects Magritte re-names in his work. Magritte was not interested in reference or denotation, rather,  I argue, he was interested in a relationship between objects that he called "elective affinity", which he explored by confronting pictures of objects as well as names of objects and pictures of others.
"This is not a pipe" is thus more than a denial of the identity between an object and its picture: by negating the adequacy of the object's initial name, Magritte invites us to seek another name, that better suits the object depicted, which is the name of an object that can enter into an interesting relationship with the pipe. This is something which becomes more obvious when the work is read in the light of "Words and images" and "Key of dreams" that were painted before (1927) and published simultaneously (1929). The quest for "elective affinities" is essential for Magritte and he illustrates it both in paintings with pictures only and in paintings that combine pictures with words.
As opposed to the interest philosophy has taken in the way words and pictures refer to the world, Magritte's works are about the relationships between objects in the world itself. His style of painting aims at effacing the trace of the maker and thus, as he says, "facilitating a natural exchange between the world and its representations".
Magritte's works are really "serious games" that can teach us how to find new affinities in order to free ourselves from the purely functional perspective on the objects of the world. In this I argue, he joins Rainer Maria Rilke's poetic quest. As Magritte states himself: "I would be glad if my works weren't necessary any more to make spectators think of what they show."
Research Interests:
(French original, English and German translations also available on profile) This article offers a new perspective on René Magrittes word paintings, which combine pictures and words in surprising ways. By analyzing Magritte's theoretical... more
(French original, English and German translations also available on profile)
This article offers a new perspective on René Magrittes word paintings, which combine pictures and words in surprising ways. By analyzing Magritte's theoretical texts as well as his paintings, I come to the conclusion that Magritte's project differed significantly from philosophical reflections on words and pictures such as those of Plato, Saussure or Nelson Goodman. I thus oppose the common conviction that Magritte believed that linguistic signs are arbitrary  or that he simply wanted to say that pictures are not the objects they depict -  which is often said to be the message of his "Treachery of Images" ("This is not a pipe"). I also reject that he simply created dadaistic combinations of words and mismatching pictures for the sake of shocking. As opposed to this common view, I believe that we should take Magritte seriously when he affirms that there are names that work BETTER for objects than the names we usually use. Such better names are those of other objects that have unobvious or poetic affinities with the objects Magritte re-names in his work. Magritte was not interested in reference or denotation, rather,  I argue, he was interested in a relationship between objects that he called "elective affinity", which he explored by confronting pictures of objects as well as names of objects and pictures of others.
"This is not a pipe" is thus more than a denial of the identity between an object and its picture: by negating the adequacy of the object's initial name, Magritte invites us to seek another name, that better suits the object depicted, which is the name of an object that can enter into an interesting relationship with the pipe. This is something which becomes more obvious when the work is read in the light of "Words and images" and "Key of dreams" that were painted before (1927) and published simultaneously (1929). The quest for "elective affinities" is essential for Magritte and he illustrates it both in paintings with pictures only and in paintings that combine pictures with words.
As opposed to the interest philosophy has taken in the way words and pictures refer to the world, Magritte's works are about the relationships between objects in the world itself. His style of painting aims at effacing the trace of the maker and thus, as he says, "facilitating a natural exchange between the world and its representations".
Magritte's works are really "serious games" that can teach us how to find new affinities in order to free ourselves from the purely functional perspective on the objects of the world. In this I argue, he joins Rainer Maria Rilke's poetic quest. As Magritte states himself: "I would be glad if my works weren't necessary any more to make spectators think of what they show."
Research Interests:
(Abstract français ci-dessous) The concept of style denotes both collective phenomenon and individual expression. While some assign styles a place in linear time and space, others model style based on the cycle of life: works of different... more
(Abstract français ci-dessous)
The concept of style denotes both collective phenomenon and individual expression. While
some assign styles a place in linear time and space, others model style based on the cycle of life: works of different periods simply exemplify the same anachronous oppositions or cycles. These approaches are not always opposed, but superimpose or complete each other. However, while the conceptualization of collective styles is very refined, personal style is often seen as monolithic. The concept needs to be refined to account for the fact that artists sometimes alternate styles or even use different styles in the same work.
Keywords: style, collective, individual, artwork, variation, art history.
----
La notion de style renvoie simultanément à des phénomènes collectifs et l’expression d’individualités. Si certaines acceptions inscrivent le style dans une linéarité stricte, le situant précisément dans le temps et l’espace, d’autres apparentent les traits de style au cycle de la vie : les oeuvres de différentes époques ne font qu’exemplifier les mêmes oppositions ou cycles achrones. Loin de toujours s’opposer, ces approches se superposent ou se complètent. Mais là où la conceptualisation des styles collectifs est d’une grande richesse, celle du style personnel reste souvent monolithique. Elle demande à être affinée pour rendre compte du fait que les artistes peuvent parfois changer de style ou même utiliser des styles différents dans une même oeuvre.
Mots-clés : style, collectif, individu, oeuvre d’art, variation, histoire de l’art.
Research Interests:
Article en français. Voici quelques extraits au lieu d'un abstract : "Paradoxalement, Ie modernisme se sert d'un grand récit sur l'art pour montrer que la narration n'est qu'un prétexte en art." "Il y a des oeuvres qui se racontent... more
Article en français. Voici quelques extraits au lieu d'un abstract :

"Paradoxalement, Ie modernisme se sert d'un grand récit sur
l'art pour montrer que la narration n'est qu'un prétexte en art."

"Il y a des oeuvres qui se racontent mieux que d'autres. Elles sont plus narratogènes."

"Aujourd'hui, l'art n'a plus a narrer la vie des puissants. Ceux-ci s'en chargent a coups d'interviews et de tweets, et les Closer, Sun et Bild du monde ont pris Ie relais des chroniques en images."

"Le régime actuel de l'art contemporain sacralise certaines références qu'il devient par conséquent presque impossible de critiquer. Les récits au sein de l'art contribuent considérablement à ce processus de sacralisation."

"Une oeuvre qui se limite essentiellement à son contenu narratif ne propose pas d'autres sources d'expérience possibles que ce contenu. Or, si celui-ci consiste en une anecdote sur un acteur de l'art contemporain, alors l'oeuvre dépend fondamentalement de l'estime qu'a déjà le public pour les «héros» de l'art contemporain."
[Abstract français ci-dessous] Expressionist portraits and caricature There is a certain visual evidence which makes it tempting to link modern art and caricature. At least two art-historians have done so: Ernst Gombrich and Werner... more
[Abstract français ci-dessous]

Expressionist portraits and caricature

There is a certain visual evidence which makes it tempting to link modern art and caricature. At least two art-historians have done so: Ernst Gombrich and Werner Hofmann. However, they nowhere develop their contention that caricature may have a link to modern, more specifically, expressionist art.
My more programmatic than exhaustive article aims at developing the relationship they hint at. I will argue that the surface resemblance is the symptom of a deeper connection between caricature and expressionist art.
More specifically, I will show that expressionist artists share a common goal with caricaturists: they want to show the deep nature of that which they portray. The seeming deformations or distorsions that appear in their works are linked to an ideal of realism: showing the otherwise invisible nature of people.

If this link existed, then it would be more plausible than has generally been thought that caricature plays a role in the development of modern art. I believe that realist aspirations along these lines are sufficient to explain how caricature came into being and that it is unnecessary to appeal to the idea that caricature opposes ideal beauty, that it is, in this sense, an anti-art, as Werner Hofmann and many others have suggested. This has  a historical implication: If the birth of caricature can indeed be linked to the will to unmask, then the Northern countries become candidates for the place of emergence of caricature again - for they have long been discarded precisely because they didn’t have the ideal of beauty which existed in Italy and it was thus suggested that they didn’t have anything to oppose to. And as long as caricature was defined as an anti-art, negatively rather than positively, it could only be born in Italy. But if it the visual deformations it displays is explained as an extension of the will to show reality, earlier Northern examples have to be taken into account as examples of caricature.
Portrait expressioniste et caricature par Klaus-Peter Speidel

La tentation de relier certaines œuvres de l’art moderne à la caricature est grande. Au moins deux historiens de l’art – et non les moindres – n’y ont pas résisté : Werner Hofmann et Ernst Gombrich. Toutefois le rapprochement qu’ils opèrent n’est développé nulle part. Dans cet article analytique, qui se veut plus programmatique qu’exhaustif, j’essaierai d’élucider la pertinence et la portée de ce rapprochement. A partir de quelques éléments de définition et de la structure de l’activité figurative dans les domaines de la caricature et du portrait moderne, je tenterai de déterminer si la ressemblance de surface pointe vers un lien profond entre portrait caricatural et portrait artistique moderne. Si tel est le cas, alors la caricature joue sans doute un rôle clé dans l’avènement de l’art moderne.

J’essaierai de montrer que le lien entre art moderne et caricature est non seulement formel, mais que les peintres de portraits expressionnistes parta­gent des objectifs réalistes que l’on remarque déjà chez les premiers carica­turistes. Je montrerai que la « déformation » ou « distorsion » que l’on observe chez les uns et chez les autres est un écart par rapport aux normes de la peinture naturaliste, mais au service du réalisme [1] : la déformation de surface permet de rendre compte d’une réalité qui est moins apparente. Je crois que l’aspiration réaliste suffit pour expliquer le cheminement vers la caricature. On n’a pas besoin de faire appel à la beauté idéale comme l’autre qui serait nécessaire pour « l’invention » de la caricature."
Research Interests:
A fusion between narrative and theoretical reflection on a number of found photographs displaying people and men disguised as icebears taken in Germany between the 1920ies and 1970ies, collected by Jean-Marie Donat and published by... more
A fusion between narrative and theoretical reflection on a number of found photographs displaying people and men disguised as icebears taken in Germany between the 1920ies and 1970ies, collected by Jean-Marie Donat and published by Innocences in 2015, when the collection was exhibited at Rencontres photographiques d'Arles
Research Interests:
Dans la première partie de mon article, je tenterai de saisir le rôle que Goodman donnait à son travail artistique. Je montrerai en particulier comment la manière dont il évalue l’une de ses principales oeuvres d’art, Hockey Seen (1972),... more
Dans la première partie de mon article, je tenterai de saisir le rôle que Goodman donnait à son travail artistique. Je montrerai en particulier comment la manière dont il évalue l’une de ses principales oeuvres d’art, Hockey Seen (1972), le rapproche de l’esthétique de la réception et de l’esthétique de l’effet. Nous verrons que c’est, dans son travail théorique, la notion d’activation
qui permet le mieux d’en rendre compte. Là où ses réflexions sur les langages de l’art et les symptômes de l’esthétique concernent la signification et l’ontologie des oeuvres, les articles autour de la notion d’activation portent sur ce qu’une oeuvre fait à un spectateur plus que ce qu’elle signifie en et pour elle-même et ce qu’elle est. J’essaierai de montrer comment une distinction entre l’implémentation et l’activation, traitées comme synonymes par Goodman, peut clarifier davantage ce qui se passe lorsque nous sommes face à une oeuvre d’art. Ces outils conceptuels guideront l’analyse des enjeux philosophiques de différentes oeuvres d’art dans la deuxième partie de mon article. Les analyses feront apparaître des différences subtiles entre plusieurs oeuvres d’art conceptuel et j’y esquisserai même une grille d’évaluation à partir des symptômes de l’esthétique. Au début de la deuxième partie, j’introduirai la notion d’absorption pour montrer quel intérêt il peut y avoir à analyser son propre travail plutôt que de se contenter d’analyser celui des autres.
That the same story can be told in different media is one of the fundamental claims of narratology. Claude Bremond (1964) famously listed verbal narrative, novels, theater, movies and ballet among potential vehicles for story. He thus... more
That the same story can be told in different media is one of the fundamental claims of narratology. Claude Bremond (1964) famously listed verbal narrative, novels, theater, movies and ballet among potential vehicles for story. He thus prepared the ground for narratology’s future as a discipline engaged in narrative research across media, in principle including single still pictures. However, narratological research concerned with pictorial narrativity generally proceeds from the assumption that although single pictures may evoke or imply stories, they are unsuitable for storytelling in a strict narratological sense. Focusing on the key issue of temporality, this essay will show that a single still picture may indeed tell “a story proper” (Wolf 2003, 180) and can thus be regarded as a narrative, even according to a narrow definition.
"Surpris par le tableau La Libération de saint Pierre par l’ange (1642 et 1647-1648) de David II Teniers, où le sujet religieux est traité au second plan et comme un détail sans que ce geste soit justifié par les Écritures, nous avons... more
"Surpris par le tableau La Libération de saint Pierre par l’ange (1642 et 1647-1648) de David II Teniers, où le sujet religieux est traité au second plan et comme un détail sans que ce geste soit justifié par les Écritures, nous avons recherché des précédents formels de la peinture en question. À partir d’analyses proposées pour certaines des peintures de Joachim Patinir et Pieter Aertsen et d’une réflexion sur la narration picturale, nous pouvons expliquer le geste de David II Teniers. Il y croise le sujet de La Libération de saint Pierre par l’ange avec l’« inversion maniériste » pour transformer le récit biblique. Teniers met ainsi en œuvre un procédé pictural qui surprend le spectateur pour l’entraîner dans une réflexion sur la vie pieuse et le danger de se perdre dans des occupations profanes. Notre analyse, qui établit un lien organique et essentiel entre la partie profane du tableau et sa partie religieuse, s’oppose ainsi aux interprétations courantes selon lesquelles le sujet religieux figurerait simplement comme prétexte pour traiter un sujet profane, autant qu’à celles qui y voient un surplus amusant sans lien profond avec le reste du tableau.

Dans cet article, nous abordons la question de savoir comment un certain type d’organisation d’images picturales, apparu au début du xvie siècle, répond à un problème de narration que pose, cent ans plus tard, un peintre pour illustrer un texte biblique. Il s’agit d’un dispositif parfois appelé « inversion maniériste » constitué par l’enchâssement d’un sujet noble dans
un motif prioritaire trivial.
Notre analyse prend deux directions. Nous commençons par aborder le sujet, la Libération de saint Pierre par l’ange, pour ensuite nous familiariser avec le dispositif pictural peu commun qu’utilise David Teniers dit le Jeune (David II Teniers, 1610-1690) en 1642 et vers 1645-1647 pour représenter la scène en question. Nous tachons alors d’expliquer en quoi ce dispositif
était particulièrement utile pour rendre compte de la scène concernée."
Research Interests:
English (French below) Karl Kraus’s favourable and conceptually complex comments of the portrait drawings by Oskar Kokoschka in 1910 put us on the trail of a host of different phenomena of pictorial representation. Based on... more
English (French below)
Karl Kraus’s favourable and conceptually complex comments of the portrait drawings by Oskar Kokoschka in 1910 put us on the trail of a host of different phenomena of pictorial representation. Based on close-readings of several aphorisms by Kraus and drawings by Kokoschka, I propose that realistic distortion can be distinguished from its defamatory counterpart, and that the traditional concepts of style cannot account for all essential stylistic variations that are important in pictures. I argue that we need to introduce the concept of subject specific style. This must be distinguished from other concepts such as signature style. I try to show how these conceptual distinctions are connected to the difference in representational range displayed by media that are based on traces, like photography, and by media based on testimony, like drawing or writing.

French (English above)
En 1910, Oskar Kokoschka produit une série de dessins pour la revue expressionniste berlinoise Der Sturm. L’un des portraits représente le satiriste Karl Kraus, un autre l’architecte Adolf Loos. Au même moment, Kraus fait paraître une série d’aphorismes qui commentent le travail de Kokoschka. Kraus part du travail de Kokoschka pour arriver à des principes généraux sur la représentation picturale. Une analyse des réflexions de l’écrivain et des deux dessins faits par Kokoschka nous permet non seulement de mieux comprendre comment un dessin peut saisir le caractère d’un modèle au-delà du physique, mais aussi de forger des concepts pour enrichir les notions de style traditionnelles. Nous soutenons dans notre article qu’il faut introduire l’idée d’un style à l’oeuvre pour compléter les notions de style habituelles. Le style à l’oeuvre peut être spécifique au sujet traité. Nous montrons en particulier comment le dessin permet des distorsions réalistes, difficiles à obtenir dans des médias basés sur la trace comme la photographie.
"Article in French. Résumé en Français après l'Anglais. "In my article, I suggest that Andy Warhol's work can be understood as an anthology of pop. His objects of appropriation (approprianda) are popular when Warhol appropriates them for... more
"Article in French. Résumé en Français après l'Anglais.
"In my article, I suggest that Andy Warhol's work can be understood as an anthology of pop. His objects of appropriation (approprianda) are popular when Warhol appropriates them for one of his works. As any sucessful anthologist's, Warhol's choices end up being performative. While he chooses Campbell soup in the 60s because it is pop (the best-selling soup brand in the US), Amiga chooses Warhol in the 80s to present their new computer because Warhol can make the Amiga pop. The fact that Warhol deems something worthy of interest makes it pop (the ambivalence of the term designating the art movement and the popular nature of something helps).
After having discussed his anti-narrative approach to painting (other than Lichtenstein's, Warhol's appropriations of comics delete their narrative elements) and even more clearly video, I show how Warhol's choice of approprianda reveals the secularisation of religious and spiritual promisses in advertisement and how religious and spiritual practices are "sold" with the methods used for other products."
"Je propose de lire le travail de Warhol comme une anthologie du pop pour tester ce que cette approche peut apporter de plus ou de différent des approches dominantes: celle par l'anecdote et celle par la philosophie.
Je montre comment Warhol s'est d'abord fait seismographe des préocuppation de la culture où il vivait et comment il est ensuite devenu législateur qui pouvait décreter le caractère pop d'un objet ou d'une pratique. Je propose différents concepts de style et m'oppose dans ce contexte à une critique récente du travail de Warhol par Georges Didi-Huberman dans un article intitulé "Rendre une image". Les dernières pages de mon article sont consacrées à une analyse de la relation entre commerce et spiritualité que Warhol révèle par le choix de publicités qu'il s'approprie vers la fin de sa vie."
[Abstract français ci-dessous] Expressionnist portraits and caricature There is a certain visual evidence which makes it tempting to link modern art and caricature. At least two art-historians have done so: Ernst Gombrich and Werner... more
[Abstract français ci-dessous]
Expressionnist portraits and caricature

There is a certain visual evidence which makes it tempting to link modern art and caricature. At least two art-historians have done so: Ernst Gombrich and Werner Hofmann. However, they nowhere develop their contention that caricature may have a link to modern, more specifically, expressionist art.
My more programmatic than exhaustive article aims at developing the relationship they hint at. I will argue that the surface resemblance is the symptom of a deeper connection between caricature and expressionist art.
More specifically, I will show that expressionist artists share a common goal with caricaturists: they want to show the deep nature of that which they portray. The seeming deformations or distorsions that appear in their works are linked to an ideal of realism: showing the otherwise invisible nature of people.

If this link existed, then it would be more plausible than has generally been thought that caricature plays a role in the development of modern art. I believe that realist aspirations along these lines are sufficient to explain how caricature came into being and that it is unnecessary to appeal to the idea that caricature opposes ideal beauty, that it is, in this sense, an anti-art, as Werner Hofmann and many others have suggested. This has  a historical implication: If the birth of caricature can indeed be linked to the will to unmask, then the Northern countries become candidates for the place of emergence of caricature again - for they have long been discarded precisely because they didn’t have the ideal of beauty which existed in Italy and it was thus suggested that they didn’t have anything to oppose to. And as long as caricature was defined as an anti-art, negatively rather than positively, it could only be born in Italy. But if it the visual deformations it displays is explained as an extension of the will to show reality, earlier Northern examples have to be taken into account as examples of caricature.

"Portrait expressioniste et caricature par Klaus-Peter Speidel

La tentation de relier certaines œuvres de l’art moderne à la caricature est grande. Au moins deux historiens de l’art – et non les moindres – n’y ont pas résisté : Werner Hofmann et Ernst Gombrich. Toutefois le rapprochement qu’ils opèrent n’est développé nulle part. Dans cet article analytique, qui se veut plus programmatique qu’exhaustif, j’essaierai d’élucider la pertinence et la portée de ce rapprochement. A partir de quelques éléments de définition et de la structure de l’activité figurative dans les domaines de la caricature et du portrait moderne, je tenterai de déterminer si la ressemblance de surface pointe vers un lien profond entre portrait caricatural et portrait artistique moderne. Si tel est le cas, alors la caricature joue sans doute un rôle clé dans l’avènement de l’art moderne.

J’essaierai de montrer que le lien entre art moderne et caricature est non seulement formel, mais que les peintres de portraits expressionnistes parta­gent des objectifs réalistes que l’on remarque déjà chez les premiers carica­turistes. Je montrerai que la « déformation » ou « distorsion » que l’on observe chez les uns et chez les autres est un écart par rapport aux normes de la peinture naturaliste, mais au service du réalisme [1] : la déformation de surface permet de rendre compte d’une réalité qui est moins apparente. Je crois que l’aspiration réaliste suffit pour expliquer le cheminement vers la caricature. On n’a pas besoin de faire appel à la beauté idéale comme l’autre qui serait nécessaire pour « l’invention » de la caricature."
Research Interests:
À travers divers programmes de Drawing Now, une certaine pratique du dessin contemporain peut être mise en lumière, entre hyperréalisme, diagramme et notation. Extraits: "La pratique du dessin diagrammatique est souvent liée à... more
À travers divers programmes de Drawing Now, une certaine pratique du dessin contemporain peut être mise en lumière, entre hyperréalisme, diagramme et notation.
Extraits:
"La pratique du dessin diagrammatique est souvent liée à l’insatisfaction que ressentent certains artistes vis-à-vis des modes de représentation traditionnels."

Introspection et Extrospection
Deux types d’approches se distinguent pour appréhender la feuille vide, même si elles ne sont jamais uniques : une approche introspective et une approche extrospective, celle-ci partant d’une réalité extérieure à l’esprit du dessinateur. Si l’opposition peut paraître manichéenne, il s’agit bel et bien de deux pôles entre lesquels existe toute une panoplie de pratiques.
L’extrême extrospectif est le photoréalisme. Mort en peinture, il est bien vivant dans le dessin contemporain. Même si ceux qui le pratiquent parlent en général aussi peu que possible de l’aspect mimétique de leurs œuvres, les interrogations premières sur le médium et la virtuosité sont constitutives du respect dont on leur témoigne et du plaisir esthétique ressenti. On voit ainsi des visiteurs s’approcher des dessins de Tim Plamper, reculer, plisser des yeux et secouer la tête"

"Abandonner le mimétisme pour mieux saisir le réeel
Si Gansterer procède de manière introspective et tente de ne rien prendre pour acquis, le diagramme, la carte et la notation ne relèvent pas exclusivement de l’introspection. Souvent, les œuvres qui s’ap- parentent à des diagrammes tentent de mieux exprimer la complexité du réel. Les cartes politico-écono- miques de Mark Lombardi et les Mind Maps de Lia Perjovschi, en dépit de leur titre, représentent des relations et connexions conceptuelles et circonstancielles dans le monde plutôt que des phénomènes mentaux.
Les limites de l’image photographique l’ayant poussée vers un des- sin diagrammatique, Jorinde Voigt quitta la section photographie de l’Universität der Künste à Berlin pour pratiquer le dessin qu’on lui connaît
Qu’en est-il du beau aujourd’hui ? Telle est la question que le critique d’art Klaus Speidel s’est posée à partir de l’exposition « Beauty » au MAK, à Vienne. Extraits: Il est vrai que la beauté a long- temps été source de questions dans... more
Qu’en est-il du beau aujourd’hui ? Telle est la question que le critique d’art Klaus Speidel s’est posée à partir de l’exposition « Beauty » au MAK, à Vienne.
Extraits:
Il est vrai que la beauté a long- temps été source de questions dans l’art. Le philosophe et critique d’art américain Arthur Danto a même forgé un concept pour désigner le rejet du beau : kalliphobia (du grec kallos, « beau »). Pourtant, en 2018, la kalliphobie est en voie de dispa- rition. Il y a au moins cinq causes à cela : le principe de familiarité, l’avènement d’une nouvelle rhétorique réaliste, le capitalisme esthétique, le devenir conceptuel de l’art et l’influence des réseaux sociaux.
My reviews (in German) of three exhibitions in Frankfurt: Rubens at the Städel Museum, We are here to learn at Kunstverein and Basquiat at Schirn Kunsthalle.
Research Interests:
In a brief text written for "Oracles", a book edited by Pierre Leguillon and Barbara Fedier with facsimile reprints of numerous artist calling cards, I focus on a diptych of such cards produced by the French conceptual artist Claude... more
In a brief text written for "Oracles", a book edited by Pierre Leguillon and Barbara Fedier with facsimile reprints of numerous artist calling cards, I focus on a diptych of such cards produced by the French conceptual artist Claude Closky. I analyze what producing and handing out these cards implies from a communicational perspective, concluding that they give an answer to what I call "the predicament of the calling card": Handing out a cheap mass produced item seems to be a bad start for a personal relationship"
A text about Claude Closky and his exhibition "Vampires et Fantômes" and its relevance for image theory.
Research Interests:
In two very brief texts written for "Oracles", a book edited by Pierre Leguillon with facsimile reprints of numerous artist calling cards, I focus on two such cards produced by Adrian Piper. I analyze what producing and handing out these... more
In two very brief texts written for "Oracles", a book edited by Pierre Leguillon with facsimile reprints of numerous artist calling cards, I focus on two such cards produced by Adrian Piper. I analyze what producing and handing out these cards implies from a communicational perspective, concluding that they are passive-aggressive devices. I briefly contextualize them in the context of Adrian Piper's work and (street) harassment. Last but not least, I insist on the indexical dimension of the cards, imagining how their meaning would change if they were used by someone other than Adrian Piper.
Research Interests:
Fracis Alÿs is a painter as well as a video artist and performer. But while his videos and performance work is famous, his paintings are quite unknown. Why is that so? I explain that this is because the former are "narratogenic", while... more
Fracis Alÿs is a painter as well as a video artist and performer. But while his videos and performance work is famous, his paintings are quite unknown. Why is that so? I explain that this is because the former are "narratogenic", while the paintings, are not. They are not "tellable" - most paintings aren't. As opposed to this performances are highly "narratogenic": running into the eye of a tornado ("Tornado") is highly tellable, just as trying to build a bridge with fisher boats ("Bridge/Puente") or walking into a Mexican village until there are so many  stray dogs around you that you get bitten and have to run away ("El Gringo"). "Narratogenia", I argue, can explain the success of many artists. Depicting the pope as struck by a meteorite or having someone shoot you in the arm with a real rifle as Maurizio Cattelan's or Chris Burden's did are also highly narratogenic. Even Jackson Pollock's success might rely on the narratogenia of how he painted as much as - or more than  - on the actual aspect of his finished works. In the final part of my article, I take a closer look at Alÿs' paintings and suggest that they might evoke deep meaning rather than actually possessing it.

Francis Alÿs malt. Wer sich noch nie intensiver mit seiner Arbeit beschäftigt hat, wird das nicht wissen. Denn bekannt ist der in Mexiko lebende Künstler vor allem für seine Aktionen und Videos. In meinem Artikel führe ich den Begriff der Narratogenie ein um diesen Wahrnehmungsunterschied zu erklären. Ich die Ausstellung des Künstlers in der Secession in Wien zum Anlass, um zu erklären, warum seine Videos erzählbar - ja sogar auf Erzählbarkeit angelegt - sind, seine Malerei es aber nicht ist.
Research Interests:
A painting by Dana Schutz included in this year's Whitney Biennial in New York has been criticized for perceived racial insensitivity. It lead to a big controversy in the contemporary art world. But, as I argue, the reasons for being... more
A painting by Dana Schutz included in this year's Whitney Biennial in New York has been criticized for perceived racial insensitivity. It lead to a big controversy in the contemporary art world. But, as I argue, the reasons for being critical of the painting were misguided. The problem was not the identity of the white painter as opposed to the Black subject matter, but the way in which she had painted Emmet Till, which both masked and repeated the act of violence initially perpetrated.
Research Interests:
Sparkling Past is a Visual and Verbal Essay in Pictures, French and English. This is the verbal part. ==== Sparkling Past est un essay visuel et verbal en images, français et anglais. Ceci est la partie verbale. For this publication,... more
Sparkling Past is a Visual and Verbal Essay in Pictures, French and English.  This is the verbal part.
====
Sparkling Past est un essay visuel et verbal en images, français et anglais. Ceci est la partie verbale.

For this publication, Benjamin Hugard and picture theorist Klaus Speidel appropriate preparatory images for studio photography that advertising photographer Jean-François De Witte only made to optimize his shots of mouth-watering beer, subtle dishwashers or carefully lit motors, pictures never published before, icons from the age of analogue, when a sparkle you wanted to see in a photo first had to be created in the world.

All these pictures lack something or have something more than the final shots chosen by the ad agencies at the time. But it's precisely in the diversity and quality of their blemishes that the authors see their critical and poetic potential.

Beyond its documentary aspect, Sparkling Past is a visual and verbal essay that raises deep questions about authorship and the artworld’s paradoxical relationship to advertising. With a text by the authors, a preface by Raphaël Cuir and a foreword by Catherine Bédard.
Graphic Design: Clovis Duran

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Dans cette publication produite par l'Association Internationale des Critiques d'Art (AICA) France, Benjamin Hugard et Klaus Speidel assemblent des photographies préparatoires, rejetées ou ratées de publicité à l’ère argentique. Faites pour optimiser des clichés de bière alléchante ou rendre des moteurs désirables, elles révèlent les bricolages, mais aussi les éclairages sophistiquées que l’on orchestrait pour une bonne photo lorsqu’il fallait encore faire réellement pétiller une bouteille pour qu’elle pétille à l’image. Prises par Jean-François De Witte, un spécialiste du packshot, ces photographies ont toutes quelque chose de moins ou de plus que l’image finale qu’avait retenue l’agence de communication de l'époque. Or, c'est précisemment dans la diversité et la qualité de leurs défauts que les auteurs voient le potentiel critique et poétique de ces créations pré-promotionnelles. Au-delà de sa valeur documentaire, Sparkling Past est un essai visuel et verbal qui questionne la notion d'auteur et interroge la relation souvent paradoxale entre art et publicité.

Avec un texte des auteurs, une introduction de Raphaël Cuir et une préface de Catherine Bédard.
Graphisme : Clovis Duran
For this article, the magazine artpress invited me to write about aspects of contemporary drawing that I perceive as significant. The article was published in the edition that came out for Drawing Now 2016. I therefore took up the... more
For this article, the magazine artpress invited me to write about aspects  of contemporary drawing that I perceive as significant. The article was published in the edition that came out for Drawing Now 2016. I therefore took up the challenge by going through the list of artists presented at Drawing Now, trying to see what might connect different positions. Several things appeared as significant: 1. the tendency to reproduce photographic images in drawing. 2. the tendency to erase pictures. 3. the general tendency to refrain from engaging in narrative, while still evoking scenes which seem to have a certain degree of narrativity. The work of Agathe Pitié seemed to me highly significant insofar as she really tries to narrate something in her still images. While the second tendency may seem as a reiteration of Rauschenberg's gesture when he first erased a De Kooning drawing, one aspect which seems to have changed is that the way in which you negate other images has become significant in itself. Where the mere erasure was important in Rauschenberg's iconoclastic action, it is now important how, exactly, artists erase. The significance of materials and processes of erasure now clearly appears.
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My article takes the form of several remarks on narrative in contemporary art. I first argue that the modernist obsession with autonomy continues to haunt the discourse on pictures in the works of Gottfried Boehm, who believes that the... more
My article takes the form of several remarks on narrative in contemporary art. I first argue that the modernist obsession with autonomy continues to haunt the discourse on pictures in the works of Gottfried Boehm, who believes that the referentiality of painting - more specifically its reference to stories - has made the development of a theory of pictures impossible for many centuries. The preoccupation with media-specificity leads Boehm to disregard - or even reject - the narrative dimension of images as something considered contrary to their essence. The standard view has it that art suffered disenfrenchisement by those in power until it's gradual liberation in the 19th and 20th century. Since Antiquity, the narrative goes, artists had to use their skill to tell the stories kings and the church wanted to tell them. Only privately could they focus on the medium which was all that counted for the great artists. This is a story told by Clement Greenberg, but we can retrace it to the works of Jacob Burckhardt at the end of the 19th century, whom I extensively quote in my article. When artists gained the freedom to work for itself, they had two possiblities: not tell stories anymore and even give up the figure all together. That's what happens in abstract art. Or continue to tell stories, but not in praise of the rulers. Artists could start to tell those stories that nobody else tells, e.g. giving a voice to minorities, talk about suffering. But artists could also focus on themselves and privilege telling stories about the artworld. This happens a lot today. Aritsts such as Tacita Dean and Mario Garcia-Torres focus on art-world stories. As I argue, they thereby launch a new kind of hagiography, about such saints as the artworld veneres (Duchamp, Broodthaers...). Unfortunately, many of their works do not question or even transform their reference. The mere evocation of a major artist in a work is considered sufficient for a successful work.

I also introduce the concept "narratogenie" to talk about artworks which are readily told. This means that they are tellable in two senses: 1. their gist persists if you tell their stoy 2. they are surprising enough to be spontaneously "told". One such works is, I suggest, Duchamp's "Fountain", rejected as a sculpture when he first sent it in, etc.
I suggest that it's far greater success as a ready-made than earlier ready-mades by Duchamp can be linked to its greater tellability. Other works that are "narratogène" are those by Maurizio Cattelan or videos by Francis Alys. Works by Matthew Barney have a very low degree of narratogénie.
I talk about "narratogenie externe" if what is told is really a story about something that happened to the work. "Narratogenie interne" is the concept I suggest to speak about works which are in temselves tellable. The case of "Fountain" is a case where it is not totally clear if the staging is part of the work or not.
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Winning presentation for the AICA Prize for Art Criticism 2015, where I shortly explain my vision of art criticsm & present the work of Benjamin Hugard. As it was a Pecha Kucha Presentation with 20 images, the video available on Vimeo may... more
Winning presentation for the AICA Prize for Art Criticism 2015, where I shortly explain my vision of art criticsm & present the work of Benjamin Hugard. As it was a Pecha Kucha Presentation with 20 images, the video available on Vimeo may be of interest: https://vimeo.com/124914323
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A critical assessment (in French) of the exhibition "Usages du Document", with works by Matthew Buckingham, Mario Garcia Torres, Mario Poloni, Alain Bublex, Gianni Motti, Lamia Joreige, Ian Tweedy, Jeffrey Valence.
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Monographical article (in French) on the videos and photos of Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler, where I focus on their  use and deconstruction of essential elements of the language of Hollywood cinema to create spaces of doubt.
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Article (in French) on Stefan Brüggemann's personal at Frac Bourgogne, where I maintain that the line running from Stephen Kaltenbach to Etienne Chambaud is more interesting than the line running from Joseph Kosuth to Stefan Brüggemann.
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Article (in French) on the artist's video trilogy "Play the story", which was an occasion to reflect on the question of explicitation and opacity in French and international art.
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I offer a philosophical conceptualization of certain works by Guillaume Leblon.
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Article (in French) on an exhibition curated by the performance artist Olga Mesa with Rémy Zaugg, Ann Veronica Jannsens, Mario Garcia Torres, Jan Mancuska, Decostered & Rahm, Dora Garcia, David Lamelas, where I draw a difference between... more
Article (in French) on an exhibition curated by the performance artist Olga Mesa with Rémy Zaugg, Ann Veronica Jannsens, Mario Garcia Torres, Jan Mancuska, Decostered & Rahm, Dora Garcia, David Lamelas, where I draw a difference between the unvisible and the not visible and insist on the distinction between the role played by imagination and intellectual analysis to show why Rémy Zaugg is less of a conceptual artist than many critics seem to believe.
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I show different aspects of the work of Jean-Christophe Norman, trying to see its philosophical implications, especially concerning Walter Benjamin's thoughts on aura and Nelson Goodman's distinction betwee allographic and autographic... more
I show different aspects of the work of Jean-Christophe Norman, trying to see its philosophical implications, especially concerning Walter Benjamin's thoughts on aura and Nelson Goodman's distinction betwee allographic and autographic works.
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A short explanation and critical assessment of crowdsourcing as a contemporary practice for design, research, innovation, funding, ranking... Among other things, I explain why crowdsourcing fascinates so many people and suggest that... more
A short explanation and critical assessment of crowdsourcing as a contemporary practice for design, research, innovation, funding, ranking... Among other things, I  explain why crowdsourcing fascinates so many people and suggest that Google can be said to practice implicit crowdsourcing.
Problem desciption can be a thorny task, especially if we want others to work on our problems based on our description, for example when we are crowdsourcing solutions. This short essay provides somes basic guidelines for successful... more
Problem desciption can be a thorny task, especially if we want others to work on our problems based on our description, for example when we are crowdsourcing solutions. This short essay provides somes basic guidelines for successful problem-descriptions.
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This is a very short return of experience on a do-it-yourself business model for a B to B service. The case is hypios marketplace, a platform built for crowdsourcing R&D solutions, operating in an open innovation framework.
The first part of this article explains the main approaches to crowdsourcing for open problem-solving, focusing on an approach that combines expert identification and problem-broadcast as practiced by hypios. The findings are illustrated... more
The first part of this article explains the main approaches to crowdsourcing for open problem-solving, focusing on an approach that combines expert identification and problem-broadcast as practiced by hypios. The findings are illustrated by two short case studies.
The second part gives a more detailed account of the technologies
that can be used for expert-identifi cation and of the open challenges that have to be solved in the next years for expert-identification online to become even more efficient.
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Open Innovation and Open Problem Solving tend to focus on the outcome, a solution. With the right process in place, there's a lot of value to be captured on the way. Here are some indications for what exactly that value can be and how to... more
Open Innovation and Open Problem Solving tend to focus on the outcome, a solution. With the right process in place, there's a lot of value to be captured on the way. Here are some indications for what exactly that value can be and how to capture it.
Paper about the difference between Crude Crowdsourcing and Intelligent Crowdsourcing, and the variables that influence the success of a crowdsourcing initiative.
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[French below] The concepts of "Färbung" (coloration) and "Beleuchtung" are introduced by Frege to refer to everything that is not the Sinn (Frege-sense). The terms have hithero been treated as synonyms and gotten little attention in... more
[French below]
The concepts of "Färbung" (coloration) and "Beleuchtung" are introduced by Frege to refer to everything that is not the Sinn (Frege-sense). The terms have hithero been treated as synonyms and gotten little attention in their own right (Michael Dummett translates both as "tone"). I believe that they are not only negative concepts, but that Frege gives them positive and disctinct meanings, which can be understood based on the different definitions and, more importantly, examples he gives.

Frege traite la coloration et l’éclairage toujours en second lieu, à la
marge de ses grands textes. Mais il les traite dans tous ses grands textes sur le langage et on les retrouve aussi dans un grand nombre de textes secondaires. Leurs désignations se multiplient, mais si on sait les reconnaître, on peut dégager un noyau de propriétés que Frege leur accorde ou – très souvent – ne leur accorde pas. Dans ce travail, nous allons essayer d’y voir
plus claire sur la fonction et le fonctionnement de ces concepts pour aboutir à une présentation aussi systématique que leur traitement chez Frege et son intérêt décroissant pour ces concepts le permet.
Comme nous allons le comprendre, les deux expressions ne renvoient pas réellement au même concept, mais à deux concepts distincts, ce qui permet de contrer une objection que Dummett fait à Frege.
The concepts of "Färbung" (coloration) and "Beleuchtung" are introduced by Frege to refer to everything that is not the Sinn (Frege-sense). The terms have hithero been treated as synonyms and gotten little attention in their own right... more
The concepts of "Färbung" (coloration) and "Beleuchtung" are introduced by Frege to refer to everything that is not the Sinn (Frege-sense). The terms have hithero been treated as synonyms and gotten little attention in their own right (Michael Dummett translates both as "tone"). I believe that they are not only negative concepts, but that Frege gives them positive and disctinct meanings, which can be understood based on the different definitions and, more importantly, examples  he gives.
Si le terme « storytelling » est une invention contemporaine, l’usage du récit à des fins idéologiques est loin d’être nouveau et le récit de réel qui amène Christian Salmonà à déclarer que « l’empire a confisqué le récit » est... more
Si le terme « storytelling » est une invention contemporaine, l’usage du  récit à des fins idéologiques est loin d’être nouveau et le récit de réel qui amène Christian Salmonà à déclarer que « l’empire a confisqué le récit » est  trompeur. La Stèle des Vautours (v. 2500 avant J. - C.), le plus ancien document historiographique connu, est un récit visuel empreint d’idéologie. Célébrant la victoire d’Eannatum, roi de Lagash, sur l’état d’Umma, l’œuvre prépare l’usurpation de l’état de dieu par les rois. Or, depuis au moins le XIXe siècle, beaucoup d’artistes et théoriciens de l’art rejettent la fonction narrative de l’art visuel au nom de l’autonomie de l’art par rapport à la littérature, une position radicalisée par Clement Greenberg au XXe siècle. En dépit de la méfiance désormais généralisée concernant l’essentialisme de Greenberg sur la nature des média, le rejet moderniste de la narration influence encore la production artistique et le discours sur l’art à tel point que l’on peut parler d’une véritable narratophobie.
J’essaierai de montrer qu’en même temps le discours sur l’art serait impensable sans récits. Beaucoup d’œuvres d’art que nous célébrons sont influentes en raison de leur place dans une histoire narrativisée de l’art. Beaucoup d’œuvres sont de plus « narratogènes », c’est-à-dire que leur genèse, nature et/ou réception fait une bonne histoire. Elles sont, en somme, tellables au sens narratologique du terme.
Qui plus est : à l’instar de Fountain (1917) de Marcel Duchamp ou Erased de Kooning Drawing (1953) de Robert Rauschenberg, certaines œuvres d’art conceptuel dont l’apparence visuelle est sans importance, peuvent circuler à part entière sous forme de narration. L’art conceptuel est ainsi profondément lié au récit.
Le résultat est une situation paradoxale : d’un côté, l’art moderne et contemporain rejettent le récit (et les artistes contemporains produisent très peu d’œuvres narratives). De l’autre, les récits sur les œuvres sont plus que jamais constitutifs de leur succès et parfois même de leur existence (on peut penser à Banksy ou à Mauizio Cattelan, par exemple).
M’appuyant à sur la théorie de l’Enrichissement de Luc Boltanski et Arnaud Esquerre, je vais montrer comment les récits enrichissent les objets d’art, augmentant leur valeur. Partant des recherches empiriques sur la « viralité » de Jonah Berger, je vais élucider comment la narratogénie assure le succès public des œuvres. Enfin, partant du travail de Timothy Binkley sur la nature ontologique des œuvres d’art, je vais argumenter que certaines œuvres d’art conceptuel dépendent du récit autant que du concept.
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The use of art installations to mediate people’s responses toward societal challenges— climate change, refugees, general prosocialness—is emerging as a main interest for arts institutions, artists, policy, and, recently, empirical study.... more
The use of art installations to mediate people’s responses toward societal challenges— climate change, refugees, general prosocialness—is emerging as a main interest for arts institutions, artists, policy, and, recently, empirical study. However, there is still much need for data regarding whether and in what ways we might find detectable change. Even more, important questions concern whether typical methods, with two data points and theoretical question constructs, can reliably detect subtle impacts and, even if we do find change, how long effects last—a question which is almost completely unanswered in empirical research. We assessed an exhibition focused on power imbalances and acceptance for refugees, employing both a pre-post design (Study 1) and (Study 2) a daily diary method, which tracked participants’ reports, over two weeks, regarding how they had actually felt or acted each day and employing multilevel modeling to assess estimating changes from a first baseline week. The ...
A l’occasion de l'analyse de la question des capacités de l’image immobile isolée de « raconter une histoire », l’auteur développe les bases d’une narratologie fondamentale renouvelée, revisite la sémiotique du texte et les théories... more
A l’occasion de l'analyse de la question des capacités de l’image immobile isolée de « raconter une histoire », l’auteur développe les bases d’une narratologie fondamentale renouvelée, revisite la sémiotique du texte et les théories de l’image et réalise un déplacement méthodologique qui remplace l’approche sémiotique de la question du récit et de la narrativité par une approche en termes d’effets et de réception. La réflexion croise plusieurs disciplines : l’histoire de l’art, la narratologie, la sémiotique, mais aussi la philosophie et l’esthétique. Si l'auteur se propose bien de reconstruire les fondements même de la théorie de la narration visuelle, il ne cherche pas cependant à remplacer les théories existantes par un nouveau paradigme construit ex nihilo. Les bases nouvelles émergent au fil d’un travail sur les théories développées à ce jour ainsi qu'un corpus divers d'images narratives. Les théories critiquées se voient intégrées plutôt que niées dans le dépla...
Surpris par le tableau La Libération de saint Pierre par l’ange, 1642 et 1647-1648 de David II Teniers où le sujet religieux est traité au second plan et comme un détail sans que ce geste soit justifié par les Écritures, nous avons... more
Surpris par le tableau La Libération de saint Pierre par l’ange, 1642 et 1647-1648 de David II Teniers où le sujet religieux est traité au second plan et comme un détail sans que ce geste soit justifié par les Écritures, nous avons recherché des précédents formels de la peinture en question. À partir d’analyses proposées pour certaines des peintures de Joachim Patinir et Pieter Aertsen et d’une réflexion sur la narration picturale, nous pouvons expliquer le geste de David II Teniers. Il y croise le sujet de La Libération de saint Pierre par l’ange avec l’« inversion maniériste » pour transformer le récit biblique. Teniers met ainsi en œuvre un procédé pictural qui surprend le spectateur pour l’entraîner dans une réflexion sur la vie pieuse et le danger de se perdre dans des occupations profanes. Notre analyse, qui établit un lien organique et essentiel entre la partie profane du tableau et sa partie religieuse, s’oppose ainsi aux interprétations courantes selon lesquelles le sujet religieux figurerait simplement comme prétexte pour traiter un sujet profane, autant qu’à celles qui y voient un surplus amusant sans lien profond avec le reste du tableau.Speidel Klaus. Dispositif pictural et problèmes de narration : l’exemple de la Libération de saint Pierre par l’ange de David II Teniers. In: Images, textes et concepts. Actes du 132e Congrès national des sociétés historiques et scientifiques, « Images et imagerie », Arles, 2007. Paris : Editions du CTHS, 2012. pp. 85-92. (Actes des congrès nationaux des sociétés historiques et scientifiques, 132-9
Jean-Christophe Norman s'est longtemps interesse a l'ecoulement du temps. Lors de performances, il notait minutieusement le jour, le mois, l'annee, l'heure, la minute et la seconde. L'artiste etait donc condamne a une... more
Jean-Christophe Norman s'est longtemps interesse a l'ecoulement du temps. Lors de performances, il notait minutieusement le jour, le mois, l'annee, l'heure, la minute et la seconde. L'artiste etait donc condamne a une ecriture perpetuelle, sans pouvoir rattraper le present. Pour son exposition au Musee du Temps de Besancon, Jean-Christophe Norman s'attache a questionner la representation, notamment en camouflant des œuvres marquantes de l'art contemporain avec une fine couche de graphite. Communique de (...)
We live in a digital age where the mediums of art are inextricably bound to the binary code, and painting and photography are redefined in their interconnected relationship through digital reconfiguration. As digitisation unmoors these... more
We live in a digital age where the mediums of art are inextricably bound to the binary code, and painting and photography are redefined in their interconnected relationship through digital reconfiguration. As digitisation unmoors these mediums from their traditional supports, their modes of production, display and dissemination shift. These changes bring about new ways of creating, and engaging with, artworks. Through this, the innate qualities of the mediums, previously anchored in their analogue nature, are re-evaluated through their connection with “the digital”. Born out of the PaintingDigitalPhotography conference, held at QUAD Derby, UK, in May 2017, this anthology of essays investigates aspects of interconnectivity between painting, digital and photography in contemporary art practices. It contributes to critical discourses around networks of associations by examining where syntheses occur, and differences remain, between these mediums at the beginning of the twenty first century.University of Derby Arts and Humanities Research Funding Panel
... Milan Stankovic 187, rue du Temple 75003 Paris France milan.stankovic@hypios.com BenjaminRoth 187, rue du Temple 75003 Paris France benjamin.roth@hypios.com Klaus Speidel 187, rue du Temple 75003 Paris France klaus.speidel@hypios.com... more
... Milan Stankovic 187, rue du Temple 75003 Paris France milan.stankovic@hypios.com BenjaminRoth 187, rue du Temple 75003 Paris France benjamin.roth@hypios.com Klaus Speidel 187, rue du Temple 75003 Paris France klaus.speidel@hypios.com ...
That the same story can be told in different media is one of the fundamental claims of narratology. Claude Bremond (1964) famously listed verbal narrative, novels, theater, movies and ballet among potential vehicles for story. He thus... more
That the same story can be told in different media is one of the fundamental claims of narratology. Claude Bremond (1964) famously listed verbal narrative, novels, theater, movies and ballet among potential vehicles for story. He thus prepared the ground for narratology’s future as a discipline engaged in narrative research across media, in principle including single still pictures. However, narratological research concerned with pictorial narrativity generally proceeds from the assumption that although single pictures may evoke or imply stories, they are unsuitable for storytelling in a strict narratological sense. Focusing on the key issue of temporality, this essay will show that a single still picture may indeed tell “a story proper ” (Wolf 2003, 180) and can thus be regarded as a nar-rative, even according to a narrow definition. 1. Still single pictures: Narrativity without narrative? Mieke Bal is probably the narratologist who has most consistently analyzed single still pictu...
As a proponent of the idea that there is a (purely visual) language of comics, Neil Cohn has emerged as a new voice in the domain of visual narrative studies over the past ten years. In his Visual Narrative Reader, the... more
As a proponent of the idea that there is a (purely visual) language of comics, Neil Cohn has emerged as a new voice in the domain of visual narrative studies over the past ten years. In his Visual Narrative Reader, the linguistically-minded author of The Visual Language of Comics presents a choice of texts from different disciplines. Diversity is a major strength of a collection in which even readers who are well-versed in the theory or history of visual narrative, will discover unfamiliar methods and material. Including the introduction, the Reader contains twelve articles divided into three sections. Part I deals with “Theoretical Approaches to Sequential Images”. Part II is concerned with the “Psychology and Development of Visual Narrative”. Part III is entitled “Visual Narratives across Cultures”. The articles fall broadly into four categories: theory papers, overview articles on theories, descriptions of experimental research, and analyses of specific cultural practices. Six of...
Temporality has long been recognized as a defining trait of narrative. This article introduces new concepts, methods, and arguments to analyze the relationships between represented and representational timelines for a transmedia... more
Temporality has long been recognized as a defining trait of narrative. This article introduces new concepts, methods, and arguments to analyze the relationships between represented and representational timelines for a transmedia narratology with a strong focus on emotions, rethinking such fundamental concepts as complication, resolution, and illustration. Since Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1766) distinguished the temporal arts like poetry, where signs are consecutive, from the spatial arts like painting, where signs are juxtaposed, the latter have been considered to be limited when it comes to conveying stories autonomously. Opposing this point of view, this article explains how monochronic pictures can convey timelines by relying on the depiction of traces, as well as an appeal to anthropological and cultural knowledge. It then shows how some monochronic pictures intended as illustrations sometimes convey stories autonomously. The author argues based on a choice of photographs that in...
Unacknowledged by its practitioners, narratology has often been revisionary rather than descriptive when categorizing narratives. This is because definitions, expert judgment and personal intuition, traditionally the main tools for... more
Unacknowledged by its practitioners, narratology has often been revisionary rather than descriptive when categorizing narratives. This is because definitions, expert judgment and personal intuition, traditionally the main tools for categorization, are vulnerable to media blindness and to being theory loaded. I argue that to avoid revisionary accounts of ordinary everyday practices such as narrative or gameplay of which non-experts have a firm understanding, expert categorizations have to be tested against folk intuitions as they become apparent in ordinary language. Pictorial narrative in single pictures is introduced as a specific case of categorization dispute and an experiment laid out in which non-experts assess if different pictures tell stories. As the chosen pictures correspond to different criteria of narrative to varying degrees, the experiment also serves as an implicit test of these criteria. Its results confirm monochrony compatibilism, the position that single monochron...
... Milan Stankovic 187, rue du Temple 75003 Paris France milan.stankovic@hypios.com BenjaminRoth 187, rue du Temple 75003 Paris France benjamin.roth@hypios.com Klaus Speidel 187, rue du Temple 75003 Paris France klaus.speidel@hypios.com... more
... Milan Stankovic 187, rue du Temple 75003 Paris France milan.stankovic@hypios.com BenjaminRoth 187, rue du Temple 75003 Paris France benjamin.roth@hypios.com Klaus Speidel 187, rue du Temple 75003 Paris France klaus.speidel@hypios.com ...