Michael Craig-Martin: Artist of the 1970's

Michael Craig-Martin (http://www.michaelcraigmartin.co.uk/): If you click on his website you can look at his work from decade to decade and you can see that he's heavily influence by Duchamp's (artist who took the urinal and called it 'the fountain') style-he even uses it in a piece called "Common History" of his 90's works.

In the 60's Craig-Martin's work was mostly photography and conceptual pieces with boxes, etc.. Then in the 70's he began to do installation pieces where he would hang jars of paint, use mirrors, and glasses of water. Things became just straight forward and clear cut at that time for him. Then in the 80's he progressed to mixed medias of household objects with neon colors in them. So what can this say about the time periods that he worked in, other than that the 80's are associated with neons and so was his work? Maybe in the 60's it was all about being straight forward and presenting something that one could make sense of. Potentially in the 70's he wanted to make people view the ordinary as a form of art. He possibly was trying to inspire hope by taking something average and demonstrating how it could be so easily made intriguing. And then in the 80's he could have been trying to draw attention to simplicity by juxtaposing his metal objects with bold neon stripes.

Citation:

MICHAEL CRAIG-MARTIN. Web. 31 Oct. 2010. .

Link for the post below:

http://www.americanhitnetwork.com/ahn/decade-overview.cfm/decade/1970

Social and Musical Change in the 70s

Citation:

Mid-decade, By. "1970's Decade Overview." American Hit Network. Web. 05 Oct. 2010. .

Nixon's resignation should have been a time of victory for the counterculture but the lack of political vision that followed led to a realization that the hippie look could no longer be a form of protest. As people were driven to think of their own interests, a generation of self-centeredness was born.

Pop music was redefined in the 70s to be an overall lighthearted experience as a form of escape. By the end of the 70s, punk music began to invade the scene as a form of rebellion to the laziness of society. Later it was filtered into mainstream, never having gained as much of a hold as disco had.

Nan Goldin

Nan Goldin was a photographer in NYC in the early '70s through today. In the early 1970s Goldin started a documentary with the objective to depict the people, whom she admired. These people included drug addicts, sex dependent. Later Goldin brought her pictures from this scene together in her book "The Other Side". She is most famous for her slide show, The balled of Sexual Dependency". This is a very sexual oriented show with music and voice overs. This was very important to America's youth because she was fresh out of college and in the late '70s it was art from the youth for the youth. She showed this idea of a "beat" generation such as Dylan and others did in their time. She was new age and inspirational to up and coming artists.

http://www.art-directory.info/photography/nan-goldin-1953/index.shtml

Apollo 13

This was supposed to be the 3rd mission to the moon. The three aster nuts lifted off from Kennedy Space Station in a Saturn V on April 11 1970 from pad 39 A. During second stage boost the center engine of the S-II stage cut off 132 seconds early, causing the remaining four engines to burn 34 seconds longer than normal. When they got into Orbit there appeared to be a a ruptured air tank. When The Accident Review came out the board had concluded that wires which had been damaged during pre-flight testing in oxygen tank no. 2 shorted and the teflon insulation caught fire. The fire spread within the tank, raising the pressure until oxygen tank no. 2 exploded, damaging oxygen tank no. 1 and the interior of the service module and blowing off the bay no. 4 cover.
The crew Eventually got very lucky and ended up. They eventually had to transfer into the lunar module and left the command part. They shut off all electronics except communications so they could contact earth. Then they finally planned to power the ALSEP apparatus on the lunar surface and containing 3.9 kg of plutonium, fell into the Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand.

http://www.apolloexplorer.co.uk/apollo13.htm