Reflections on the theory lecture regarding presentations, (No. 2) by Dr Graham Lister.

In this lecture, Dr Lister asked the questions how and why we use images in presentations.

He went on to discuss three main exemplars.
1) ideas of not what not to do.
2) how to focus on one image.
3) how to use text successfully with images.

The overall objective of artists' presentations is to engage with ideas in order to develop your own language of presentational style. The presentation should showcase your research and provide sufficient interest to the viewers to stimulate further discussion. By engaging with the audience properly, one can see what is interesting, and one can see what is boring them. This is done through careful observance of body language.

Remember....

• As part of the forthcoming presentation, provide evidence of your work over the last year. Also, make relevance to your long essay written at the beginning of this calendar year.
• Show what went wrong in your practice, and how you learned from it.
• Don't forget at the end of the presentation to provide a reference list, bibliography and an image and diagrams index.

IMAGES;

With respect to the use of images, one must always ask the question why are we using a particular image? ...
We discussed this amongst ourselves and the outcomes were as follows;

• Humans learn from three different types of interaction. Auditory, Visual and Kinaesthetic learning.
•  A good presentation with a good mix of image and text engages both the right-hand hemisphere of the brain (which is responsible for the visual component of cognition and spatial awareness); and the left-hand hemisphere of the brain (which is concerned with logic and language). 
• The combination of both left-hand and right-hand stimulus is brought together in the corpus callosum.
• As a result, a visual, audible and textual presentation, if done correctly, provides interesting stimuli, where all receptors of 'remote' senses are being triggered. 
• The use of images provides a mechanism that goes beyond the confines of a written language.
• Images provide a prompt to facilitate recall from past experiences much better than pure textual presentations.
• An image makes a deeper connection with the viewers attention. For example, feelings and emotions are triggered.

An anecdote was then provided by Dr Lister when he recalled a student who was studying for a doctoral certification provided a presentation about historic castles in Scotland. Whilst this doctoral student was able to articulate the argument that she was putting forward quite well, her continual flicking of slide images of each of the castles of Scotland, going backwards and forwards, but without any text, provided an unbelievably boring presentation for all the viewers. "It was like moving wallpaper". - The speed at which this particular student (who should have known better), flipped through each of the slides, meant that very little of the presentation provided any stimulus in order for the audience to ask further questions, nor any form of interview ensued.
Dr Lister emphasised never to make the same mistake!

Too much visual stimuli are overpowering. Whilst this doctoral student talked about some very deep and interesting quotations, the absence of those textual references were completely lost.

Practical Example of an artistic presentation with one image;

An example of a strong artistic presentation was then given by Dr Lister concerning one painting by Salvador Dali, that being "Christ of St John on the Cross" (1951), courtesy of Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow.

Dali (1957) 'Christ of St John on the Cross',
Courtesy of http://www.dalipaintings.net/christ-of-saint-john-of-the-cross.jsp, Retrieved 24/04/2016

Dr Lister opened the presentation with a reference to the relative context of Dali and his other work of surrealism (which he is more famous for). Dr Lister also provided some interesting snippets of information that an audience are less likely to know too. (For example, he mentioned early in the narrative, that Dali was terrified of ants and grasshoppers, and it is for that reason, that ants often appear in Dali's work.)

Coming back now to this painting under scrutiny, of "Christ of St John on the Cross", there is a hyper-realistic rendering of the painting. Whilst the painting is figuratively accurate, the feeling that it gives is, however, surreal, but the ambience of the painting is calm, and this calmness is provided by [what Dr Lister described as] "the cool morning light" that Dali was able to inculcate.

It can also be noted that in the image of "Christ of St John on the Cross", there is no rendering of nails or blood, where there is a "holding" of the body to the crucifix. This alludes to Dali's own deep religious convictions and also to why the painting was initially created by him. It shows that the crucifix is 'drawing St John towards God', in as much as 'St John (and his invisible belief) is drawing himself towards the Cross'.

The grounding details; that is, the details provided at the base of the painting which includes the landscape the lake and the boat, provides a symbol of spirituality which is within human reach.

Drilling deeper still, into the paintings' construction, the annotation lines on the next slide provided an outline of the Trinity and the nucleus of the painting. The metaphysical links to what Dali is referring to, through these, his pictorial notes, and also accompanying written notes that Dali made at the time, refers to a vision in a dream that he had when he was initially starting to compose this painting.

Dr Lister then gave an explanation of the siting of this important works, within the Kelvingrove Gallery, Glasgow. It was originally cited at the end of a long corridor with tessellated (black and white) floor tiles. The very entrance and passageway leading to this painting provided part of the experience of its own viewing.

Furthermore, when the painting was originally bought, the price that the dealer was asking for, was alleged at the time, some £12,000, but an interesting and creative deal was cut by the Glasgow Council which allowed for a sale price of (allegedly) just £8200. However, Glasgow Council was very shrewd in making sure that the intellectual property of the painting was also sold with the object itself. This meant that Glasgow Corporation was able to earn royalties from copies of the painting and which it still receives; for example, it is regularly used in the production of T-shirts and mugs as well as all sorts of other merchandise to help support the museum and other causes in Glasgow.
A further point of interest which creates a level of mysticism or myth around the painting is that it was attacked in the 1960s by what was claimed to be a religious individual, who attempted to destroy the painting, by using a sharpened stone. The damage has since been repaired, but it is still visible in the lower right-hand quadrant of the painting. This small act of rebellion by one individual, provided further publicity for the object which increased its aura and hence importance as an object of art, even though the subject matter was at the time highly contrary to many religious sensibilities.

TEXT;

We then discussed how text should be used in successful artistic presentations;
we asked ourselves what springs to mind when we think about test texts during presentations?… How does one make sure that the audience takes away a specific message?
1) text provide easy prompts to both the viewer and the narrator as they are easy to record with notes and captions. Proper texts demonstrate good research and providence.
2) avoid too much text or the "death by PowerPoint" syndrome will be the result. Too much text is boring.
3) Information is only activating the left hemisphere of the brain. Linguistic details can only be delivered properly through text, however, for example,  A legal presentation.
4) text must be brief and to the point, but relative.
5) the choice of words must fit the audience's ability to understand the subject matter.
6) text should always be used for quotations to provide some validity and correct authority, with correct referencing.
7) If one does use quotations, do not leave the quotation on its own after it has been recited, but ensure that a good explanation of why it is important should also be given.

Text; A practical Example:

An example of the good use of text was given in the following sub- presentation; this was about the artist Gavin Turk.
In his work, it is the "perceived" or "actual" value of an object which is what is important to him as a point of enquiry, an artist.
Materiality is also what is being focused upon at the same time.
For example his work "bin-bag" (2004) or his earlier work, such as "cave" (1991).
"Revolting Brick" (2008), with an obvious reference to the work of Marcel Duchamp and his "Fountain" (1916).

An interesting point raised, was that Gavin Turk was unable to get his degree when he submitted the piece "cave" in 1991. This was because the adjudicators and assessors were simply unable to provide an assessment of his work in the absence of it.
Later, the exhibition of "Revolting Brick" was put into turmoil, when the original signed version by Turk was stolen / swapped, and then ransomed, whilst at the same time it was replaced with another brick (of exactly the same type), which simply had written upon it "thank you, have a nice day".
All of this work is a reference to value and status, et cetera. The ongoing  press narrative was extremely useful to Turk as he was able to expand his publicity even further.

------------------------------
When this sub-presentation was deconstructed, the Gavin Turk presentation gave "facts about him", with text, that would keep the viewer engaged.
The text also provided a fallback to assist in an understanding of a subject that is difficult at first to grasp.

It is, therefore, wise to think about the questions around text such as,
1) what is it that we have been trying to find out in our research?
2) Why was this particular subject of interest to us as artists?
3) What were the visual touchstones that we were able to to receive influence from in the creation of work?

And finally a few words on slide design.

 Keep it simple!

• Avoid the use of word art! It is simply distracting and looks very unpolished. 
• What is important is the content and work which is what needs to come across.
• A neat, simple, elegant presentation where the text is all presented on the same scale, together with images that make sense and are relative.

Conclusions;

This was a useful lecture and provided a number of reminders to suggest within the presentation; e.g.

1. that the various steps of production should show that each of them were a form of a test;
2.  and can succinctly be delivered as "I did this as a question or Test, ... but if it didn't work because of XYZ, then, as a result, I tried something else...
3.  I then built upon XYZ, because of ABC was a good way forward... And so on. 

References;

A lecture provided by Dr Graham Lister, at the University of Huddersfield, 22/04/2016.

Images;
Dali (1957) 'Christ of St John on the Cross',
Courtesy of http://www.dalipaintings.net/christ-of-saint-john-of-the-cross.jsp, Retrieved 24/04/2016