Saturday, February 8, 2020

Concept Note for Simulacra -the Digital Magazine on Visual Arts in Europe:and Asia







The Faculty of Liberal Arts and Media Studies proposes to launch a quarterly digital magazine ‘Simulacra’- art as a simulation of life or events- that will prompt exploration and put forth perspectives of visual arts in Europe and Asia.

The magazine will disseminate ideas about art that evolved on the continent and must have been influenced by cultures across the globe. We hope to motivate the academia, scholars and practitioners in the discipline to endorse this endeavour by contributing their articles and reviews. 

Furthermore, the magazine will be sustained by Lab inputs from ‘Visual Arts in Europe’ which is a subject included in 2nd Semester of MA (English) and Graphic novel which is offered as lab in 1st semester of MA (English).

For the first issues, we plan to collect material through both solicitation and in form of submissions/contests:


Since the quarterly issues will be digital, the magazine entails no cost except for any contests/prizes.
If the first year production is successful, a print magazine of 60 pages may be brought out after due approval.

The following is a concept note for the magazine SIMULACRA:

Investigations on social and economic contexts that lead to fermentation of creative ideas and art movements will enlighten the readers on the deep engagement of art with society. Even when art ostensibly exists for its own sake, it has resonates with the concerns of those who claim to represent society.

The Sistine Chapel, Hogarth’s caricatures and William Blake's engravings tell stories of diverse nature but the language used is not of words.

Had the masons and architects of the tower of babel ‘talked' using drawings, they may have succeeded better. Art has its own tongue- it speaks with shapes, lines and colour.

Art has its own way of keeping historical accounts- it leaves interpretation to the discerning eye and the meaning to those who make effort to decipher. A painting could catch the spectacular energy of a revolution, the grandeur of a national ruin or the despondency of a house cursed by feud- all in a medium embracing dimensions that go beyond geometry and symmetry.

Edouard Manet asserts, ‘there are not lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another’. We may agree or disagree but it is a matter worth investigating.

Within the rubric of visual arts in Europe, it is proposed to explore the following themes:

1. Social life as witnessed in a particular period from the visual representations of chosen artists.
2. Economic life
3. Art and propaganda
4. Gender divide
5. Social Values
6. Idea of god
7. Religion and profanity
8. Depiction of various professions
9. Representations of Industrial Revolution and Industrialization
10. Emergence of Romanticism
11. Caricature and political commentary in Europe
12. Revival of Greek classics and Renaissance
13. Renaissance concept of man
14. History and evolution of visual arts in Europe
15. Impact of other cultures on European art.
16. Techniques and their relation to time.
17. Perspectives in visual arts
18. Anomalous representations
19. Illusion and its importance to realism in European art
20. Digital media art
21. Discourse surrounding Visual Arts
22. Visual Arts in India

The list is by no means exhaustive and articles that introduce fresh ideas are welcome. We shall be grateful to the contributors for enlivening the pages with their insights and sidelights on creative ventures ranging from sculptures to photography by European masters, artists and schools.

You may send your entries at : divyajyotsnasingh@gmail.com




                                                                                                                            Programme Coordinator

2 comments:

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  2. Congratulations. Looking forward to the convergences and resonances this blog promises.

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