The importance of the labelling of clothes in the late nineteenth century is often associated with couturiers. Their use of labels was aimed at branding both their fashion houses as well as...Show moreThe importance of the labelling of clothes in the late nineteenth century is often associated with couturiers. Their use of labels was aimed at branding both their fashion houses as well as themselves as artist designers. Little attention has been paid to the labelling practices of nineteenth-century dressmakers, although it is known to have been widely applied. Just as few women have been identified while the dressmaking trades were a female dominated industry. For the Netherlands in particular, it is interesting to examine dressmakers and their labelling practices as the lack of Dutch couturiers made Dutch dressmakers the most important figures in the Dutch dressmaking trades of the nineteenth century. This thesis aims to identify Dutch dressmakers through their labels while questioning to what extent late nineteenth-century Dutch dressmakers used their labels for branding their fashion houses and how this related to the Western European fashion practice. The Dutch labelling and dressmaking practices are contextualised and compared with their Western European counterparts through literature analysis and stylistic object-based analysis of labels found in five Dutch museums and seven museums from across Western Europe. The exceptionality of these labelling practices in a female dominated industry is explored as a notion of female agency through the concepts of feminisation, female individualisation and authorship. In addition, this thesis examines how the commercial significance of a dressmaker’s name as a brand name manifested itself in a dressmaker's labels and advertisements. This research results in fourteen biographies of Dutch dressmakers whose labels, together with the Western European labels, can be divided in three stylistic categories. It shows that the strength of the label as a branding tool laid in the continuous use of the same design, just like a signature. This thesis argues that the strongest example of female agency lies in the dressmaker’s name on the label which speaks of an awareness of her own originality and individuality, while at the same time publicly claiming her authorship.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
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‘The Making of Modern Art’ is a long-term exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven that ostensibly presents the story of modern art. This thesis explores the significances and implications of...Show more‘The Making of Modern Art’ is a long-term exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven that ostensibly presents the story of modern art. This thesis explores the significances and implications of this: how does presenting modern art history as a story, and specifically one that is ‘made’ in the present tense, challenge dominant forms of history that claim to be singular and objective, and how does an exhibition such as this implicate the art historian whose methodologies of writing and representation similarly tend to obscure their own historical position? ‘The Making of Modern Art’ uses copies of paintings, of exhibition form, and of modes of history-writing. These copies, I suggest, function as translations. By engaging with these copies as translations, I explore how originality, authorship and subject-object relationships might be conceived of differently in contemporaneous art historical practices. The contemporary is a historical position, and contemporaneous artistic practices that address or re-imagine modern art history might, or indeed should, have implications on how we continue to write and reinforce particular forms of history.Show less
The staircase of the Biblioteca Laurenziana is generally attributed to Michelangelo, leaving only a minor role in the execution for Ammanati. This Thesis contends that is better and fair to...Show moreThe staircase of the Biblioteca Laurenziana is generally attributed to Michelangelo, leaving only a minor role in the execution for Ammanati. This Thesis contends that is better and fair to attribute the staircase as a whole to Ammanati, who had to base himself on rather rudimentary ideas of Michelangelo as expressed in two short letters to Vasari and Ammanati, which ideas only covered the design partly.Show less
For over a decade, Basque artist Mattin has worked collaboratively to make improvised noise concerts characterised by clusters of silence, scything feedback howls, and haunting shrieks, which are...Show moreFor over a decade, Basque artist Mattin has worked collaboratively to make improvised noise concerts characterised by clusters of silence, scything feedback howls, and haunting shrieks, which are produced digitally with guitar, amongst other instruments. Often improvising with a an invited set of guests, Mattin’s noise concerts create situations of instability and uncertainty, and perhaps even a sense of danger, through the drama of his aesthetic which antagonises his audience, forcing them to become active participants whether they are willing or not. By engaging collaborators and audience alike, Mattin uses his noise concerts as a tactic to activate a shared state of political agony in a period of Western capitalist society’s demise. Operating at the borders of noise music as a genre, Mattin’s improvisation practice is supplemented by his exploratory writings on improvisation and the importance of free software – a position he claims against the perils of intellectual property, defying any sense of ownership or property we may have. Mattin has over seventy albums attributed to him under several labels around the world, and has also independently founded the experimental record labels w.m.o/r and Free Software Series, as well as the net-based label, Desetxea. He releases and distributes his music under the no-license of anti-copyright, which further ramifies his political methods that are non-conformist and non-profit. Problematising the occularcentric tendencies within art history, which privilege the visual over the sonic, this paper investigates Mattin's practice in terms of his own doctrine of noise practice, situating it as worthy of analysis within this disciplinary frame. Centering on Mattin’s contemporary practice I will investigate what is at stake in his quest to “cuts things up” and will do so by identifying a wider historical and socio-political context for his practice, touching on rock history and a number of other conceptual artistic practices. Through this lens, I will examine the political efficacy of Mattin’s methods in challenging authorial status; the relationship between performer and audience; as well as how such socially-inclined art practices can engage and contribute to the struggle against our commodified mode of existence.Show less
This thesis is a report on what the definition of authorship is and if Te Winkel meets the criteria to be seen as an author of poetry. The edition consists of two parts. In the first part...Show moreThis thesis is a report on what the definition of authorship is and if Te Winkel meets the criteria to be seen as an author of poetry. The edition consists of two parts. In the first part authorship is investigated. The development of the word ‘author’ is given and several philosophers is given some attention to come to the final definition of ‘authorship’. Along the way the findings will be coupled with Te Winkel’s work and life. This will eventually lead to a definition of Te Winkel’s poetical activities. Was it authorship or recreational writing? In the second part of this thesis a full edition of Te Winkel’s book Lycoris: Bundel minnedichten 1864 - 1874 is given.Show less
