WSC 2024: Art and Music

The Ochre Atelier

Tate modern, VR exhibit about Modigliani's art studio.

Andalusian cadence

The Andalusian cadence is a term adopted from flamenco music for a chord progression comprising four chords descending stepwise. Traceable back to the Renaissance, its effective sonorities made it one of the most popular progressions in classical music

My Girl With a Pearl Earing

The Hague's Mauritshuis museum launched a project asking any interested artists to reimagine the famous piece.

Singing In My Sleep | Semisonic

The lyrics convey a sense of longing and desire, with the singer expressing a strong emotional connection to someone or something. The idea of singing in one's sleep can also be seen as a form of escape or release. Music, in this context, becomes a powerful means of expression, allowing the singer to communicate emotions that may be difficult to convey through other means. symbolize the impact of music, which was becoming more accessible through digital platforms.

I Saved The World Today | Eurythmics

The lyrics suggest personal struggles and hardships, with lines like "Monday finds you like a bomb" indicating the weight of daily challenges. The mention of saving the world adds a layer of irony, as the singer acknowledges the limitations of individual efforts in the face of larger issues. There are references to broader societal problems, such as war and environmental concerns.

Nighthawks | Edward hopper

The painting captures a moment of four people in a diner in the middle of the city, in the late hours of the night.

Into Bondage | Aaron Douglas

The painting depicts a group of enslaved individuals with their hands bound, heads bowed, and bodies bent, conveying a profound sense of the dehumanizing experience of slavery.

New Moscow | Yuri Pimenov

The painting portrays scenes of construction, urban development, and the presence of modern architecture, reflecting the optimistic vision of progress prevalent during that time in Soviet society.

The Oxbow | Thomas Cole

The painting was shown at the national Academy of Design in 1836. The painting reflects Cole's fascination with the subject dating back to his European trip in 1829-32. the artist juxtaposes wild wilderness and pastoral settlement, highlighting the potential of the national landscape and pointing towards the future of the American nation.

Freedom! 90 | George Michael

The song refers to the artist's past success with his band, it also shows a new side of himself as a new man, who is more cynical about the music business than he had been before.

Images of the late Qing dynasty

These photos are from a rare collection that really shows us what life was like in China at the beginning of the 20th century, taken by photographer Stephan Lowentheil

Llyn-y-Cau, Cader Idris | Richard Wilson

This painting depicts the Llyn-y-Cau lake on Cader Idris mountain in North Wales.

Pink Flamingo | Alyona Sviridova

This song is a picture of an unreal world where you want to escape when everything goes wrong.

butter sculptures

three-dimensional works of art created with butter, The American sculptor Caroline Shawk Brooks managed to exhibit her butter sculptures in galleries and exhibitions by using ice to keep them from melting.

Judith and Holofernes | Pedro Americo

In this version you can barely see his head, Judith is stepping on it and so she is the main idea and focus of this painting. In this painting you can also see Judith gives thanks to God for having liberated her country from the wrath of Holofernes.

Campbell's Soup Cans | Andy Warhol

the work is made of 32 canvases in each one flavor of soup that Campbell sold

Cassette Tape Sculpture

Ghost in the Machine, Erika Iris Simmons,

Life, Miracle Whip, and Premium | Brendan O'Connell

this a series of painting reimagining supermarket scenes and specific brands

Our Lady of the Iguanas | Graciela Iturbide

a photograph, shows the power and dignity of a Zapotec woman, who carries on her head live iguanas that form a bizarre crown.

Pre-1906 San Francisco | William M. McCarthy

A collection of photographs, taken in 1906 by the McCarthys. became accessible to the public six years ago. Photographs of places in San Francisco. One of the special things is the fact that these photos were taken right before the earthquake in 1906

Oriental Riff

A musical phrase often used in Western culture as a trope to represent the idea of East or Southeast Asia. It is a Western creation, perhaps first starting in the circa-1847 song "Aladdin Quick Step" used in "The Grand Chinese Spectacle of Aladdin or The Wonderful Lamp", though this was showing just the rhythm.

Tarantella Napoletana

A musical phrase that comes directly from a tarantella from Naples. It is often used in American media to trope the Italian culture or region.

Arabian riff

A musical phrase used as a trope to represent the idea of the Middle East or Arab culture. It likely developed from the French song "Colin prend sa hotte" from 1719, which itself was likely derived from the lost "Kradoudja", an Algerian folk song of the 1600s.

Are you using that chair? | Banksy

A painting based on Nighthawks. In the painting we see the exact same painting but with the window almost shattered and with a man in pants with the Britain flag on them with plastic chairs around him.

Renaissance lute

A pear-shaped plucked lute from Europe.

The Strolling Saint | Pedro Meyer

A photograph depicting a surreal street scene with an overcast sky. A saintly figure in white floats above the pavement and casts a shadow on the wall running down the street. A woman and child are walking up some steps whilst, on the right of the image, a man is standing under some plastic sheeting.

After The Ball | Charles Harris

A popular song written in 1891, In the song, an uncle tells his niece why he has never married. He saw his sweetheart kissing another man at a ball, and he refused to listen to her explanation. Many years later, after the woman had died, he discovered that the man was her brother.

Hijaz scale

Also known as the Phrygian dominant scale, it is a scale in which the 2nd, 6th, and 7th are flat. It is common in Middle Eastern music, but can be found in Indian, Eastern European, Central Asian, and even Iberian music, in which flamenco music is where it is most used.

Ed Ruscha | Sunset Boulevard

An art project, a lot of photos of the Sunset Strip taken over fifty years and more. the artist would travel with his partners and a camera and take thousands of pictures of the streets, shops, restaurants, etc.

Charlie Brown Firestarter | Banksy

An image of Charlie Brown appeared in the run up to the Oscars on the side of a burnt out building in LA. That painting suggests that Charlie Brown started that fire.

Judith and Holofernes | Kehinde Wiley

Contemporary interpretation of the tale, depicting Judith as a black woman in a Givenchy gown. Holofernes's severed head is here a white man, a symbol of the need to vanquish white supremacy.

Missa

Dominique Blain, serves as a stark memorial, reminding us of the sometimes abstract but very real consequences of conflict.

Kintsugi

Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. It represents embracing our failures and flaws.

Judith Slaying Holofernes | Artemisia Gentileschi

Judith, richly dressed, is aided by her maid in pinning Holofernes down as she decapitates him. The paintings convey the physical exertion experienced by the three characters, and shows Judith unafraid of the task at hand.

Le Camera Insabbiata

Laurie Anderson & Hsin-Chien Huang, VR work.

Black Hole Sun | Soundgarden

Many interpretations suggest that the song serves as a critique of superficiality and the pursuit of an idealized, utopian image. It could represent a void or emptiness beneath the surface of a seemingly perfect facade.

Phase—Mother Earth | Nobuo Sekine

Mono-ha creation that explores the relationship between positive and negative space, the contrast between nature and human intervention, and the temporality of materials. The artwork consists of a large hole dug into the ground and excavated soil molded into a cylindrical shape.

The Opening of the Diet 1863

National Museuum of Finland, VR exhibit about R. W. Ekman's painting 'The Opening of the Diet 1863 by Alexander II'.

Judith With The Head of Holofernes | Michael Wolgemut & Wilhelm Pleydenwurff

One of the most famous early illustrated books, woodcuts,

images of meiji era japan

Photography in Japan began during the Edo period, was introduced by Dutch traders to the Japanese in Amora Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture.

Judith and Holofernes | Giorgio Vasari

Using a pose copied from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, Judith is portrayed as a physically powerful woman, a visible indication of her inner courage. This biblical heroine's strong arms and angled shoulders create lively diagonal lines that enhance her exaggerated musculature.

Judith On The Red Square

Vitaly Komar & Alexander Melamid, It is the head of Josef Stalin, freed from its body and perched on a woman's hand (Judith).

El Otro Oz

a bilingual musical inspired by the original "The Wizard of Oz". A salsa, merengue, and Mexican folk-infused musical inspired by The Wizard of Oz. As her fifteenth birthday approaches, Dora, a contemporary Latiné teenager, struggles with her family's ideas about tradition and dreads her impending quinceañera.

Kawsbob | Kaws

a collection of three screen-prints of spongebob in the artist's special style. They show close-up renditions of the universally recognised SpongeBob Square Pants, capturing the character's original goofy charm, but adding the artist's signature cross-eyes.

Fountain | Mike Bidlo

a contemporary artwork that serves as a replica or homage to Marcel Duchamp's iconic work of the same name.

Girl With a Pearl Earing | Johannes Vermeer

a famous old painting depicting a European girl wearing exotic dress, an oriental turban, and what appears to be a very large pearl as an earring.

Untitled (Lipstick Urinals) | Rachel Lachowicz

a feminist, minimalist, post-modernist, and conceptualist, explores the male-dominated world of modernism through her work. She uses unconventional materials like eye shadow, face powder, and lipstick to recontextualize canonical works of art by famous male artists.

Bas Uterwijk

a freelance photographer that uses GAN (generative adversarial network) to generate hyper-realistic portraits of famous historical figures.

A reversible anthropomorphic portrait of a man composed of fruit | Giuseppe Arcimboldo

a fruit ball that turned upside down looks like a man.

Impression, Sunrise | Claude Monet

a harbor scene with boats in the morning light. The painting is famous because it helped start the Impressionist movement, which focused on capturing light and atmosphere in a new way.

Aerial rotating house | Albert Robida

a house that's been raised up on a rotating table. It makes a statement on overcrowding and access to light and air for urban residents. For the book "Le Vingtième Siècle"

McMansion

a large modern house that lacks architectural integrity

Panorama de Constantinople pris de la tour de Calata | Sébah & Joaillier

a panoramic painting of Constantinople from the Tower of Galata, a medieval stone tower in Istanbul, Turkey.

Mannerist movement

a period in art history known for its exaggerated and unconventional style, breaking away from the more balanced and realistic approach of the Renaissance.

Boulevard of broken dreams | Gottfried Helnwein

a scene late at night in a diner in the USA during the 1950s. Outside, the street is dark and empty. Inside, there are three people sitting at the counter, two men and a woman, and there's a barman standing behind the counter. The four people in the painting are all famous American stars from the 20th century.

Nighthawks | Moebius

a sci-fi version of Nighthawks.

diorama

a small model of an ecosystem.

Losing My Religion | R.E.M

a song in the themes of doubt, disillusionment, and searching for meaning can be interpreted in the context of the times.

"Brændt" | Lis Sørensen

a song that projects a sense of emotional intensity, perhaps a love that has been consumed or ended. Like many songs dealing with love and loss, it involves a reflection on past experiences. Nostalgia for a time when things were different or a relationship that has changed or ended could be central to the song's narrative.

Yodeling

a style of singing that switches from high falsetto to low chest notes at a rapid rate.

Yobitsugi

a technique often used when original pieces of a broken vessel are missing, and a variety of patchworked materials are brought together to fill in gaps and breathe new life into a fractured piece.

Washington Crossing The Delaware | Mort Künstler

an accurate representation of the event (unlike Emanuel Leutze's) yet not very popular.

Napoleon Bonaparte crossing the Alps | Paul Delaroche

an accurate representation of the historical event, and not propaganda, opposed to Jacques Louis David's version.

Mono-Ha art movement

an art movement that emerged in Japan during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The movement marked a departure from traditional artistic practices and focused on the relationships between natural and industrial materials, as well as the space they inhabit.

A Girl With Glowing Earrings

an entry to the Hague's competition, one of the five winners, sparked controversy

George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware | Robert Colescott

capturing the event in new lenses, a political statement, featuring the "wrong race" in order to convey a message.

The Romantic Dollarscape | Pedro alvarez

combines images from Cuba with those found on United States dollar bills

Old London Bridge | Claude De Jongh

created in 1632, depicts London Bridge from the west, with buildings clustering along the riverbanks and sometimes projecting out into it.

Late Visitors to Pompeii | Carel Wilink

depicts four modern men at the forum of Pompeii with Mount Vesuvius in the background.

Washington Crossing The Delaware | Emanuel Leutze

iconic painting, but inaccurate: standing up, age, sunlight, flag, river

Napoleon Crossing the Alps | Jacques Louis David

in this painting, the emperor's features are idealized, largely because he refused to attend any sittings. an icon of imperial majesty. propaganda

Eifella

mini Eiffel tower, created by Phillipe Maindron.

Hamilton Musical

musical created by Lin-Manuel Miranda that reimagines the life of American Founding Father, through a diverse cast and a blend of hip-hop, R&B, and traditional Broadway music.

The Liberation of Aunt Jemima | Betye Saar

overtly political work: a small box containing an "Aunt Jemima" mammy figure wielding a gun.

Love Story | Taylor Swift

reimagines the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet, blending timeless themes with contemporary music.

Fountain | Marcel Duchamp

sculpture, a mass-produced urinal

Weirdos of Another Universe | Avery Gibbs

series of paintings that describes the feeling of the beginnings of new experiences, the artist described those new experiences as new worlds that we enter to and need to get used to.

Jarabe Tapito

the Mexican Hat Dance, Mexican folk dance and the region of Tapatio, which is related to the city of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco, Mexico.

PSEUDOMNESIA: The Electrician

the Sony World Photography Awards announced a winning entry in their creative photo category: a black-and-white image of an older woman embracing a younger one. But this photograph wasn't actually a photograph, but crafted through creative prompting of DALL-E 2, an artificial intelligence image generator.

Nighthawks revisited | Red Grooms

the painter paints the environment and the streets around the diner as lively streets, and in fact the whole situation in daylight, rather than in the middle of the night, as in the original painting. Outside there are people, cars, cats walking around and we also see many other details such as trash cans, plates and glasses inside the diner and more.

Renewing Chinese Opera 'Hua Mulan' with AI and VR Technology

transformation of an old 1956 opera performance using artificial intelligence to create a new look, a clean, "fixed" look of the video, drawing in over 7 million viewers to its live stream.

The Libertation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail

transforms a Gallo wine jug, a 1970s marker of middle-class sophistication, into a tool for Black liberation.