Emma BridgemanChelsea College of Art and Design.BA (Hons) Fine Art 2011 Stage 2.Introduction to Art Theory.Level 5 Essay 1.
A Definition of Crowd Phenomenology and theories, which influence the various depictions within Contemporary Art.
Crowd phenomenology is a transformative influence, compromising the herd instinct and group psychology. The most conspicuous crowd example is the chaotic, powerful convictions present more than ever in an unstable political climate through political riots and social upheaval. The phenomenon of the crowd has been discussed by philosopher’s Freud, Le bon and Canetti as an anthropological investigation attempting to define and understand the way in which individuals change within a large group and the physiological effects it opposes.
The philosophers I am quoting all agree philosophers that the crowd “changes people”. Anthropologist and philosopher Elias Canetti investigates the change ensued by the crowd phenomenon within his anthropological empiricism in “Crowds and Power.” Canetti notes that humans naturally have a fear of the being touched.[1] However within a crowd this repulsion of the other is transformed, the fear and natural human instinct of personal space is altered to desire to belong to a procession.
“It is only in a crowd that man become free to this fear of being touched...the crowd he needs is the dense crowd, in which body is pressed to body [i]”
The nature and influence of a crowd is not always carnage and chaos. The choreographed crowd, examples of which are shown through interactive and performance art, present group intelligence or crowd wisdom which in production creates a phenomenon which is wondrous, rather than fearful.
The distinctive nature of a crowd is usually associated with power, the larger the procession with a single fixed nature, the more powerful and infectious the influence.
The phenomenology of the crowd suggested by Elias Canetti is a study into the strange mental influence that takes hold of an individual through the nature of a crowd, inducing an emotive reaction, transforming a single conscious individual into a group mind as a single entity. Elias Canetti views the crowd phenomenon as a physiological authority, various descriptions he uses are:
“Total alterations of consciousness[ii]” “puzzling tremendous force[iii]” “human instinct[iv]” “the most crucial enigma to solve[v]”.
Within his description of the crowd Canetti uses language that is poetic, excitable and suggestive of a religious awakening, the discovery of the enigma a moment of illumination:
“a few people may have been standing together...suddenly everything is black with people and more come streaming from all sides as though streets had only one direction. Most of them do not know what has happened and, if questioned, have no answer; but they hurry to be there where most other people are.”-Crowds and Power, pg16
Experiments within social science have tried to predict the behaviour of a crowd, through comparing it to liquid.
“Presumably, like molecules in a liquid, people in a crowd all behave in more or less the same way. Capture those similarities in a model and it should be possible to predict how a crowd will behave.”
These experiments work up to a point but, unlike liquid molecules, a crowd is made up of many different individuals, with varying physiological reactions. This unpredictability somewhat explains Freud’s views towards crowd phenomenology.
Freud discusses the phenomenon of the crowd within Group Psychology And The Analysis Of The Ego; he draws references from the authority of other philosopher’s, mainly Le Bon. Freud separates the crowd phenomenon through definition of “the herd instinct” and “the group mind” noting that an individual changes within a group dynamic, acquiring a characteristic of a psychological group'. Freud acknowledges that the natural formation and behaviours of a crowd as a unique phenomenon.
“Part of a crowd of people who have been organised into a group at some particular time for some definite purpose. When once natural continuity has been severed in this way, it is easy to regard the pheno-mena that appear under these special conditions as being expressions of a special instinct that is not further reducible, the social instinct ('herd instinct', 'group mind'), which does not come to light in any other situations.”
Although Freud addresses that phenomenon of the crowd with references to the changing nature of the individual, his writing does not possess the same illuminating and excitable language that Canetti uses to discuss the phenomenon. Freud seems weary of the idea of the crowd, presenting the instinct that influences the accumulation of individuals as animalistic and isolated from social instinct. Canetti approaches the subject with wonder, making parallels with the phenomenon as a tempting desire to belong to the mass force as a commanding enigmatic body who’s strength, exuberance and conviction is infectious and one to be pondered with relevance.
Within contemporary art there is an interplay of the crowd concept, with artists who appear to translate the emotive phenomenon of being in a crowd with the conglomeration of mediums and methods to depict the subject, which is done not only through the literal use of a crowd of people. I believe that manifestations of the concept of the crowd are depicted through different approaches. Artists who have created work that suggest the enigma of the crowd, display theoretical and aesthetic references that intertwine with the study of Crowd Phenomenology which can be easily referenced to writers and philosophers. To show this connection I have selected titles from Canetti’s crowds and power to categorise the different types of representations of the crowd that I believe are shown within contemporary art; such as “Open Crowd” “Closed Crowd” “Crowd Symbols” “Destructiveness” and “Rhythm.”
The Open Crowd is the type of crowd that is organic and a spontaneous phenomenon.
Contemporary Art that relates to the open crowd is created through performance, participatory art, often using large clustered groups of people who when crowded together transform into living sculptures. “The Open crowd exists so long as it grows; it disintegrates as soon as it stops growing. For just as suddenly as it originates, the crowd disintegrates. In is spontaneous form, it is a sensitive thing.”-Canetti, Crowds and Power, pg16
The wondrous effects of a crowd and the beauty of individuals working as a single entity is depicted in the photography and performance art of Spencer Tunik. What is also important about Spencer Tunik’s work is that it is temporary and organic; he creates artwork by photographing large groups of nude volunteers in public. He has been documenting the live nude figure since 1992 in photography and film and has organised over 75 site specific installations. Tunik’s nude crowd photography are often depicted in social dwellings, creating temporary installations. Tunik describes the use of the hundreds and thousands of naked figures grouped together as having an effect of metamorphosis, the group transforming into new shapes;
“The bodies have a different feel from a work with a hundred people where they are facing the camera like a group portrait. The big group work is more of an abstraction like a land work or an environmental work.”-Spencer Tunik
What is noted within Spencer Tunik’s work is the recurring transformative effect of the crowd, not only physiologically through the individuals, but within the landscape.
“The bodies extend into and onto the landscape like substance. The group masses that do not underscore sexuality become abstractions that challenge or reconfigure ones views of nudity and privacy.”-Spencer Tunik
The second type of representation of the crowd phenomenon in contemporary art relates to Canetti’s Crowd Symbols; this work is symbolical and often sombre. This type of symbolism is compelling when used in monuments for the dead; an example of which is the Berlin holocaust memorial. The Berlin holocaust memorial is “designed to commemorate the murder of six million Jews at the hands of Hitler and his forces.” It is minimalistic and covers a vast area (19,000 square meters). It is comprised of 2,711 gray stone slabs of varying heights that bear no markings, names or dates. The memorial is powerful emotionally and aesthetically. The ground that the slabs stand on rise and fall in soft hill, the slabs undulate in a wave-like pattern, each individually unique in shape and size. However the monument is equally compelling as an experience; paths that are shaped between the slabs ripple in a wave like way; walking among the imposing stone slabs gives the feeling of being lost in a maze, or trapped in a faceless procession. The architect who designed the monument, Peter Eisenman “hoped to create a feeling of groundlessness and instability; a sense of disorientation.”
Contemporary artist Ai WeiWei creates an impressive effect through symbols within his installation Sunflower Seeds installed within the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, 2010. Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of unique hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seed husks, each appear identical to the naked eye. 100 million of these seeds are displayed in mounds, Poured into the interior of the vast industrial space of the Tate Moderns Turbine Hall, creating a seemingly infinite landscape, the millions of individual pieces clustered together form a single unique surface, transforming the space. The work is repetitious and powerful in its size and production; it is not only pleasing visually but is also an experience; Juliet Bingham, Curator, Tate Modern states
"Ai Weiwei's Unilever Series commission, Sunflower Seeds, is a beautiful, poignant and thought-provoking sculpture. The thinking behind the work lies in far more than just the idea of walking on it. The precious nature of the material, the effort of production and the narrative and personal content create a powerful commentary on the human condition.”
Symbolism of a crowd through repetition and strength in numbers is a commanding aesthetic;
However another type of symbolism that I feel relates to the crowd phenomena is remnants of crowd carnage and the chaotic effect, symbolised through photographs and remains from riots such as gutted buildings and burnt cars. Artist Adel Abdessemed installation Practice Zero Tolerance, is an evocative depiction of the disruption to lives and the sensational after math caused by carnage induced by crowd riots; in the case of his work, the riots in the suburbs of Paris in 2005. The work is a life-sized terracotta car moulded from a burnt out car. Displayed within the Modern Art Gallery of Oxford, 2009 the work stands, perched precariously on one side like an obtrusive monument in the centre of an otherwise empty room. Adel Abdessemed has been described as a political provocateur but counter argues that once the work of art enters the public realm, it’s already political. The work he creates is in reaction to what surrounds him, rather than based on a political assumption. Practice Zero Tolerance represents the destructive and dangerous effect of the herd instinct within a crowd, where inhibitions are forgotten and primitive instinct becomes contagious, transforming into recklessness and violence.
“the destructiveness of the crowd is often mentioned as its most conspicuous quality.... it can be observed everywhere, in the most diverse countries and civilisations...the crowds particularly likes destroying houses and objects...banging of windows and crashing of glass are robust sounds...everything shouts together, the din adding to the applause, it is simply an attack on all boundaries.”-Crowds and Power pg 20
Translating sensation into visual art is often difficult. The enigma of the crowd as a physiological effect is a translation of sensation within contemporary art, therefore it is often the most abstract type of work; this work focuses on the illusion of the emotional power of a crowd such as disorientation of perception and the atmosphere of loss, confusion and claustrophobia.
An artwork that I feel creates the same wonder and uncertainty of the crowd phenomenon is Antony Gormley Blind Light-Hayward Gallery 2007. Blind Light I feel relates to Canetti’s “Closed Crowd”:
“The Closed Crowd renounces growth and puts stress on permanence. The first thing to be noticed about it is that it has a boundary. It establishes itself by accepting its limitations. It creates a space for itself which it will fill. This space can be compared to a vessel into which liquid is being poured and whose capacity is known.” –Crowds and Power, pg 17
Antony Gormley’s installation Blind Light is based on the senses of self, the other and viewer’s participation. It is a closed disorientating claustrophobic space, which completely engulfs the viewer in a white fog; the experience distorts the natural instinct of perception. It is a luminous glass room filled with dense mist which the viewer has to walk through. Even before experiencing the work, Blind Light creates an ominous feeling, as clouds of white mist, luminous from the light within the space, pour out of the two regular sized doorways. From within dark figures slide in and out of vision and hands can be seen tracing slowly and cautiously along the walls. Within the viewer is enveloped by the mist and the effect is nothing but loss, visibility obstructed. Unlike within the Open Crowd of Spencer Tunik’s work, the impression induced by loss of perception is to increase inhibitions, as all natural instinct and recognition of the other as well as one’s self, vanishes.
On sensation as a unit experience, Maurice Merleau-Ponty summarises:
“we think we know perfectly well what ‘seeing,’ ‘hearing’ and ‘ sensing’ are because perception has long provided us with objects which are coloured or emit sounds. When we try to analyse it, we transpose these objects into consciousness. We commit what psychoanalysis call the experience error[vi]”
We already know, from the social science experiments using molecules of water, that a crowd’s behaviour cannot be predicted. Merleau-Ponty’s theory on perception in relation to the individual in the crowd, show that space and perception is transformed beyond experience, becoming disorientating. Perception is altered by a dense array of bodies, the universal and primitive language of shouts and laughter are conflicted becoming infectious within a crowd and the senses are inflicted with contrasting feelings within a claustrophobic space. Disorientation and unpredictability of the crowd can be related to the philosophy of Heraclitus within his theory Panta rhei (everything flows). The connection between Panta Rhei and crowd phenomenology is made through the flow of unpredictability and the ever changing phenomenon; what is also interesting is that Panta Rhei is expressed through imagery of water.
“After all, one does not step into the same river twice. waters disperse and come together again ... they keep flowing on and flowing away”- Heraclitus
“All things move and nothing remains still” -Heraclitus
Heidegger views Panta Rhei as misunderstood, that the flow within the natural universe is chaotic. Heidegger states that Panta Rhiei means
“The essent (essence) as a whole, in its being hurled back and forth from one opposition to another, being is the gathering of this conflict and unrest.”
Heidegger believes that essent are things at our disposal, as an example Heidegger states
“Essent is the swarming crowd of people in a busy street.” –Heidegger, Aporetic ethics, pg 116
This cleary shows the parallel of essence with the phenomenology of the crowd and phenomenology of the crowd with Panta Rhei, seemly to suggest the subject as posing a hierarchal title as a representation of a natural instinct and flow within the world. Perhaps Canetti’s theological astonishment was justified when he wondrously expressed
“I didn’t know what the crowd itself really was. This was an enigma I now planned to solve; it seemed like the most critical enigma or at least the most important enigma in our world[vii]”
In conclusion, the parallels drawn up between the crowd phenomenology, sensation, instinct, Contemporary Art and philosophy of the universe Panta Rhei, suggest to me that the phenomenon of the crowd is representational of something much more than a large group of people. It is memories of the dead, a rippling landscape, the sense of disorientation, it is freedom of consciousness, metamorphosis, physiological groundlessness, instability and the rhythmic ever-changing flow of water, metaphorically, visually and scientifically.
Bibliography-
Elias Canetti- The Torch In My Ear. Picador Edition 1990
Pan Books Ltd, Cavaye Place, London SW10 9PG
987654321
Elias Canetti- Crowd And Power. Translated By Carol Stewart.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux New York.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty- Phenomenology Of Perception
First Published in Routledge Classics 2002 by Routledge
Reprinted 2003 (twice) 2004, 2005 (twice) 2006 (twice) 2006 (twice) 2007 (twice) 2008 (three times) 2009
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-27841-6 (PBK)
http://whitehotmagazine.com/index.php?action=articles&wh_article_id=1786
http://www.economist.com/node/18584096
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unileverseries2010/
http://www.optionality.net/heraclitus/
http://www.spencertunick.com/bio.html
http://www.archive.org/stream/grouppsychologya00freu/grouppsychologya00freu_djvu.txt
http://internationallife.tv/International-Art-Oxford
http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art47386
Elias Canetti's counter-image of society:
Crowds, power, transformation Jóhann Páll Árnason, David Roberts
Jacques Derrida's aporetic ethics By Marko Zlomislić
http - //books.google.co.uk/books?id=pQUs4aliKDkC&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=heidegger+%27essence%27+the+swarming+crowd+of+people&source=bl&ots=-QDQOVojxs&sig=KKAourvHR5HFmsfG5o-HZQVOYZM&hl=en&ei=xXPSTvTdB4mw8gOOubzYDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=heidegger%20%27essence%27%20the%20swarming%20crowd%20of%20people&f=false
[1] “Man always tends to avoid contact with the unknown... In the dark fear of the unexpected mounts to panic.. The repugnance of being touched remains with us when we go among people, in busy streets, in restaurants, trains or buses.”[1] Elias Canetti: Crowds and Power; The Fear of Being Touched. Page 15.
[i] Elias Canetti: Crowds and Power; The Fear of Being Touched. Page 15.
“Man always tends to avoid contact with the unknown... In the dark fear of the unexpected mounts to panic.. The repugnance of being touched remains with us when we go among people, in busy streets, in restaurants, trains or buses.”[i]
Elias Canetti: The Torch In My Ear
The Torch In My Ear- The second part of Canetti’s autobiography, many parts of which reference crowd phenomena. (Trains of thought record the early musings of Canetti, when he first noticed the influence of the crowd.)
[ii] Elias Canetti: The Torch In My Ear; Storm and Compulsion,Chapter-The Buddhist pg 80
[iii] Elias Canetti: The Torch In My Ear;Storm and Compulsion,Chapter-The Buddhist pg 80.... Abbreviated from- “I wanted to know what it was all about. The riddle wouldn’t stop haunting me; it has stuck with me for the better part of my life. And if i did ultimately hit upon a few things, I was still as puzzled as ever”.
[iv] Elias Canetti: The Torch In My Ear; Storm and Compulsion Page 149
[v] Elias Canetti: The Torch In My Ear; Storm and Compulsion. Chapter- Early Honor of the Intellect. Page 123
[vi] Maurice Merleau-Ponty- Phenomenology Of Perception: Sensation As a Unit Experience-page 5
[vii] Elias Canetti: The Torch In My Ear; Storm and Compulsion. Chapter- Early Honor of the Intellect. Page 123
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