Cristine Posner’s Project Proposal

There is no doubt that I have an awkward relationship with the news, whether it be in print, on television or via the internet. I just don’t feel the need to cloud my brain with thoughts of negative things happening around the world that I have no control over. For this reason, and the fact that a positive news story is very seldom amongst the negative or bad news, I choose not to pay much attention to news reports and broadcasts. Even though I stay a safe distance from the news, I am not totally disconnected, in fact, most of my artwork revolves around social-political concepts often appearing in the news, such as immigration issues and environmental concerns. (Oh, the irony!)

In my current method of receiving “newsworthy” information, I have come to view new stories as a sort of fad. A co-worker will say to me, “did you hear about the Tucson shooting” as interested and enthusiastic as if they were a child asking if I had heard of Silly Bandz. What interests me though, is how quickly these stories enter and exit the minds of those they had interested. Before the Gulf oil spill is even resolved, it is already forgotten, fleeting out of headlines once the public gets bored of it. Although newspapers are not archival, once it is in the print it becomes a part of history, and because of that it has a sense of permanence; but what happens to these stories when them move from being breaking news stories to a piece of our history?

My proposed project will be a personal response dealing with the importance of the news society receives today. I will start a personal investigation of the news, either printed stories or broadcasts, and evaluate the percentages of positive news versus negative news. Using this data I will incorporate text and other objects recognized as fads in today’s society. I envision these pieces coming together as miniature Abstract Expressionistic pieces utilizing the process of cyanotype. Cyanotype is a photographic process not only established in the history of photography, but one that also signifies permanence and which the intense blue color emits a feeling of sorrow. Each finished piece will be a play on positive and negative space relating directly to the imbalance of these roles in news today.