Art+&+Culture

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 * __Questions:__**

__**Interview with Gord Ferguson:**

Ryan:__ During the Italian Renaissance, we saw that the Catholic Church played a vital role in people's decisions. Do we see this in Calgary today? Specifically a large group or organization that persuades people into thinking in a certain way?

__Gord Ferguson:__ Sculpture Program Head, Alberta College of Art and Design. Great to see you undertaking a project like this. A bit of background regarding the Renaissance; Historically there have been many periods of exponential growth and development, the Renaissance was a such a period. These historical moments are always followed by a period of reflection or re-examination. The Baroque period that followed the Renaissance was such a time. In recent history, we often refer to the period from about 1880 to about 1976 as the "Modernist period". This period of history was marked by enormous progress in thinking and development. It began in concert with the industrial revolution and sustained itself until the mid 1970's when an awareness of the costs and illusions associated with continual growth made people rethink what it was they were actually trying to build. Historians and others began to re-examine history with an eye to what was absent and many felt that anything built on such a selective version of history could not be worth sustaining. At this time feminism, environmentalism and political correctness began to become popular. Some philosophers have coined this period of time the 'postmodern' period. Today in Calgary, in both arts and in industry we are seeing a very different approach to progress that we did in the 1950's. People are much more aware of what's being lost as something else is being built, which is a more reflective position than we previously took. Today there is much reflection, remixing and repeating of everything old, like 'The Who' playing at the Superbowl. Given what I've just said, I don't believe it's possible for Calgary to achieve a Renaissance-equivalent status in any really meaningful way, but there may very well be some similarities that would assist us in learning more about ourselves. To answer the above question, I would say that business and economic growth have replaced the Catholic church in our current renaissance comparison. Notice how the state of everything from nature, to art, to the health of the environment are given a dollar value. We are highly focused on monetary gain without much thought on what we might do with all the money we collect.

__Gabrie:__ During the Renaissance, we saw great inventions such as the Printing Press and the Compass. Do we see technological advancements in todays society that help us spread new ideas?

__Gord Ferguson:__ In 1835, with the invention of photography, surfaces could be replicated with incredible accuracy. Before this time, simulation was accomplished by painting and drawing, but after 1835 there was a mechanical / chemical way to create duplicates. The most astonishing and meaningful recent advancement is the development of digitization. We can now replicate anything molecule by molecule if we wish. It brings the question to mind, "what is real" and "what is simulated". Today many of us participate in virtual landscapes to one degree or another. This fundamentally changes our relationship to the earth, to natural resources and to each other. In a virtual world, air and food are not required so why should we protect these things. The shift from the analogue to the digital is still in its infancy, but instead of just theorizing about simulation, we are now beginning to live in it.

__Andrew:__ During the Renaissance, we saw changes in art. Specifically different figures and landscapes were portrayed. Do we see this represented through the arts today?

__Gord Ferguson:__ We are always seeing changes in art as it continually responds to changes in the world. The figure is till a popular subject in art and artists seem to be able to continually find new ways to address it. One shift in figurative art has been to make the viewer the figure. In other words create an immersive experience where the person viewing the work realizes that they are the figure in the work. Artists like Anthony Gormley and Anish Kapoor routinely do this in their work. Because we are at the beginning of a digital revolution, many new artforms are enabled by digital media. Immersive video installations, audio installations, kinetic and computer-driven work are all appearing more and more frequently. Look up Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. They have 2 installations at the new Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton.

__Gabrie:__ During the Renaissance, art played an important role in peoples lives. Do you think that art still plays an important role in peoples lives today?

__Gord Ferguson:__ Before the Renaissance, art and science were much more closely related, even the same thing for many centuries. Remember Leonardo was as much a scientist as he was an artist. Both these activities were ways of exploring and understanding the nature of the world. I would like to think art does play an important role today, but with regard to the visual arts, I think it might be more indirect. Theatre, on the other hand plays an important role in contemporary Calgary, the city sustains many active and relevant theatre companies. The businessman and the office worker go to work each day to earn their living, then go to the theatre in the evening and see their lives reflected in a stage play. I'd say that is an important role for art, to bring a degree of awareness to the lives of people.

__**Interview with John Ralston Saul:**__

John Ralston Saul op-ed
March 8th, 2006 Calgary is approaching the upper limits of size at which citizens can still feel the tension between a big city and the land around it. Another two or three hundred thousand people and the city dweller will find himself pretending that the land around, however dramatic, is a mere backdrop, a place for pleasure or relaxation, but not a meaningful reality.
 * Calgary Herald**

You might say Calgary is a metaphor for Canada as a whole, its people largely jammed into southern cities with European densities, while all around lies the distant shadow of the world’s second largest country.

The sign of this risky state is that few of us realize, in our wealth and urban savvy, that a critical percentage of our national GDP still comes out of the land. And those commodities in turn have to be processed, refined, milled, pulped and transported. Calgary talks of oil, but to that you must add every form of mining, pulp and agriculture. Without these commodities we are a poor country. And yet, commodities are historically associated with economic fragility. Right now their value is up. It is often down. And the producer has difficulty influencing the price.

Lip service and a few billion dollars are invested against the future uncertainties of commodity dependence, but if you walk through the streets of our cities, including Calgary, you won’t sense much conscious concern about that fragility. The recent rise in commodity markets has inflated our wealth and our dependence, but I see few signs of care being taken to lessen the risks.

Each time I find myself feeling comfortable about our urban wealth, I remind myself of Buenos Aires and its commodity financed glories. In the 1920’s, Argentina had a higher per capita standard of living than Canada. What went wrong? Their economy slipped into highly concentrated holdings. These in turn undermined the citizenry in their role as active players, destabilized their individual social and economic ambitions and encouraged an ever larger rich-poor divide**.** The outcome was the rise of populism - something we can see growing in Canada- followed by a general social collapse, followed by an economic collapse.

Canada has almost always been able to protect itself from such dangerous social imbalances thanks to an unusual combination of egalitarianism and individualism. Of course we have had our risky and unpleasant moments, but crises are relative. And compared to our neighbours, friends and allies, we have managed to avoid the collapses, to say nothing of the persistent violence, civil wars and democratic breakdowns which have overcome them all.

That capacity to establish and maintain a fragile balance was first put in place by Louis LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin almost 160 years ago. That tradition of restraint in a society which was already multi-lingual, multi-racial, poor, northern, and yes, dependent on commodities, spread over the decades, across the continent, taking different forms in different regions. What we forget now is that in three short years – from 1848 to 1851 - the Great Coalition of LaFontaine and Baldwin put in place hundreds of laws which still shape the way people live everywhere in Canada, including Alberta.

The pre-eminence of trial by jury, the independence of judges, the professional civil service, universal public education, public universities, public roads, and of course democracy, just to name a few, are all products of that government. If you dig deep enough, the Calgary tradition of volunteerism owes something to that tradition.

Compare that energy, that ethical courage, that imagination and originality to so many of our recent governments at different levels, awash in money, yet ready to chop away at the public good, to trade off an inclusive view of society in favour of the financial advantage of a few.

I must admit that over the last few years I’ve been amazed by the facility with which our society has come to accept serious levels of poverty, exclusion and homelessness. Our new wealth has brought a certain gloating. Richer people, it seems, have the right to better artificial hips. After all, golf must be played. While a farmer or rancher with smaller or poorer holdings, who needs his hip for his work, must quite naturally, it seems, settle for the lesser model.

I am one of those for whom Calgary is part home. I love it and love its sense of community and creativity. Yet I feel the city has still to make up its mind about what its wealth means. Not just today, but long into the future. I remember clearly Peter Lougheed’s sense of the risks that such an economy carried and the need to build something more complex, more inclusive. That willingness to look openly at what worked and what didn’t was a great contribution to the province, but also to the country.

The city of justice is an idea stretching back to Athens, to Saint Augustine, to the renaissance Italian city states. It revolves around the idea of citizens prepared to build the public good by embracing one central philosophical idea: we must try always to imagine //the other//. The condition of //the other// is the mirror of our own condition. Poor societies like that of 1848 understood the role of empathy only too well. Rich societies have often found this more difficult.

And that is Calgary’s test. Charity has its role. But the central need is not to give charity to those who have fallen to the wayside. The need is to apply ideas which emerge from egalitarianism combined with responsible individualism. We know that that approach can produce the sort of inclusion which a healthy society calls justice.

__3 significant points:__


 * Gabrie's:** In response to the whether Calgary possess the necessary wealth to make it a Renaissance city, John Ralston Saul believes that Calgary has an up and down economy and is only reliable on one source: oil.

In this sense, he believes that Calgary's economy has a fragility but you don't see that concern and fragility much today walking in the streets of Calgary. Commodities for oil are getting higher in price each day but people don't seem to be too concerned about it.

He states, Calgary talks of oil, but to that you must add every form of mining, pulp and agriculture. Without these commodities we are a poor country. And yet, commodities are historically associated with economic fragility. Right now their value is up. It is often down.

By this he means that Calgary has lots of oil but it needs to go through many different stages before actually becoming usable oil. Without going through these stages oil is unable to be used therefore we are a poor country. Our economy is fragile and would not be able to support a Renaissance.


 * Ryan's: T**o respond to whether Calgary does or does not have the necessary conditions to be a renaissance city, John Ralston Saul believes that it does not.

He believes that this city has an up and down economy that is only reliable on oil. He specifically believes that Calgary's economy is very fragile and that the people of this city do not seem to be concerned about it. He precisely States that Calgary talks about oil but to that you must add every form of mining, pulp and agriculture. Without these conditions we are a poor country. And yet, commodities are historically associated with economic weakness.

He means that make the oil you need to put it through different stages to actually make it usable. Without this our country would be poor because we would not be able to use the oil. This is why our economy is fragile and this shows that we cannot support a Renaissance.

Julie, Sabrina, & Brant:

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Questions:

1. During the Italian Renaissance, we saw new techniques which changed the way people viewed paintings and the world. Do we see new ideas that are revolutionizing different techniques in art today?

-We have the same ideas/ themes, Religion, fantasy and myths -The world has become influenced by different cultures -new techniques and digital art and more technological advanced materials

2. Do you think digital art has emerged the same way as the art did in the Renaissance?

-Yes -we have had a renaissance time with the new media and artists having new ideas and ways -Artists moving into digital art

3. During the Renaissance, themes of paintings were about religion and humanism. Do we still see these same themes today?

-definitely yes -we look at spirituality, ourselves and our culture

4. Do you think it would have helped the artists in the Renaissance to increase popularity if they had the materials we have today?

-I don't think so -Artists are extremely creative and can embrace and use the things around them and use them to their advantage

5.Do you think that art today is emerging the same way it did in the Renaissance for example by Patronage?

- Julie's SESC Paragraph:

In response to the whether Calgary possess creative artists to make it a Renaissance city, Lorrie Emin believes that yes, artists are extremely creative and can embrace and use the things around them and use them to their advantage. Further, she believes that artists don’t need new materials to help them be inspired, they can just look around them and use them as subjects or models for their paintings. When asked if, “Do you think it would have helped the artists in the Renaissance to increase popularity if they had the materials we have today?” She states, “I don't think so. Artists are extremely creative and can embrace and use the things around them and use them to their advantage.”

Sabrina's SESC Paragraph:

In response to whether the Renaissance artists would have done better with more materials such as ones we have today, our groups expert Lorrie Emin believes that No, artists within the Renaissance focused less on the materials that were available to them and more on the techniques and styles they incorporated into the painting. This what allowed them to make their paintings more unique and different. She further stated that artists today, even though exposed to much more materials, are doing as the Renaissance did by focusing less on the materials they use and more on the techniques and styles they are incorporating into their paintings.

ANDREW SESC PARAGRAPH

In response to whether Calgary does posses the necessary conditions to become a renaissance city. To be a renaissance city John Ralston Saul believes that the citizens have to be prepared to build the public by embracing one central philosophical idea. He also believes that we have to look back at the city of justice that is stretching back to the renaissance city-states. The rich societies have often found that embracing one idea is found more difficult. John Says that: Charity has its role. But the central need is not to give charity to those who have fallen to the wayside. The need is to apply ideas, which emerge from egalitarianism combined with responsible individualism. We know that that approach can produce the sort of inclusion, which a healthy society calls justice. That the citizens of a renaissance city should believe in just one philosophical and that charities are the most important thing to becoming a renaissance city because charities are a big part of being friends or allies.