Monday, March 22, 2010

Seeing

Last week we presented our sculptures we made out of our found objects. I made a sculpture of a hummingbird carrying a person in a jazz dance position to symbolize “freedom to express yourself” or “freedom of expression.” My found objects consisted of gum wrappers, plastic tv dinner containers, and granola bar wrappers. There was a lot of variety and styles that people use to make their sculptures such as film strips, nature, trash, mesh netting, and lots of other found objects. The whole class tried to interpret what message each sculpture was trying to send. Some of us had similar perspectives and others had very different perspectives. This emphasizes that art is constantly open to interpretation and no interpretation is right or wrong.

We also had a reading from an excerpt from The Object Stares Back by James Elkins. In the reading, Elkins explores the complexity of seeing rather than merely looking. Elkins described vision as the act of hunting and is a process where one seeks to possess what is observed. Although vision is an incomplete process because one cannot see everything all at once it’s impossible. Elkins mentioned in the reading that there are three objects that can’t be seen: the sun, genitals, and death. Although the act of seeing itself is simple, the different ways of seeing and certain aspects such as the media influence what we see is complex. Perhaps not everything is meant to be seen or maybe we unconsciously chose things we want to see and things we don’t want to see.

Questions to consider:

1) In what ways is vision a web of self definition?

2) What is the connection between visual comprehension, linguistic reference, and anatomical reference?

I wanted to know more about how blindness could be a necessary component of sight.

There are different types of blindness such as color and legal blindness where people need special assistance. Complete blindness is know as NLP (no light perception) Those who are blind that have light perception only have the ability to tell light from dark and the general direction of a light source. The way most people who are blind use sight is replaced by sense of touch such as reading Braille for signs, books, and other objects. There are many objects and technologies blind people use to accommodate for their “lack of perception”

Project 2 proposal:

I’m doing my research project on Tony Oursler. His art covers a range of mediums working with video, sculpture, installation, performance and painting. The fields he works in are mainly video, performance, and installation art.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

3-D collage reflection

For my 3-D collage of found objects I created a sculpture of a bird flying off with a person who is in a jazz dance position. My found objects consisted of a granola bar wrapper, gum wrappers, and parts of a plastic tv dinner tray. The other supplies I chose that were provided was clay, wire, glue gun, sharpie markers, and wood.
The message of my 3-d object was "freedom of expression" or "freedom to express yourself" I chose to sculpt a bird because I thought it symbolizes freedom because birds can fly many places whenever they want to. I made the bird a hummingbird because I think think they are pretty, small, and have cool features such as being able to fly backward. The person in the jazz dance position represents expression/ expressing yourself. I chose dance because it's one of my favorite hobbies and one of my favorite forms of expression by the use of body language and movement.
I wanted to show the movement of the bird getting ready to take-off in flight while grabbing on the person's top hat. At first, I had a little difficulty how to make the sculpture stand upright while still showing motion, but then I decided to use scraps of wood for support. I used one square-shaped scrap of wood for a base and a uniquely-shaped scrap of wood to support the sculpture. I chose to add texture to the scraps of wood by using different colored sharpie markers. I chose warm colors such as yellow and red on the uniquely shaped scrap of wood to represent the passion (flame-like colors) that comes with expressing oneself. I chose cool colors such as blue, green, and purple on the square-shaped scrap of wood to produce a calming affect because while there is passion, expression can also be seen as a stress-reliever.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

first half of semester

The first half of the semester is almost over so I’m going to reflect on about studio projects and sketchbook assignments I have done so far. In the beginning of the semester we discussed what is art and what is time. I still believe what I said before that both art and time are open to interpretation because each viewer or even artist for that matter has a different perspective of art as well as time. There is no right or wrong way to define those two topics.
In class we have explored various time-based projects and artists. The time based projects involved drawing twenty different lines, illustration of how you got to class this morning, a collage of model drawings, flip book animation , drawing dreams, drawing the negative space between objects, listening to music while illustrating the tones and pitches, illustrating different emotions (calm or anxiety) and currently in the process of working on collaging a 3-D object/ sculpture. Time based artists and topics we have explored Gondry, Phieffer, Barney, film called ‘Memento’, right brain- left brain transitions, Mayans view of time, Early filmakers Einstein, Muybridge, Melies, Lumiere, Futurists, such as Balla, Duchamp, Servini, animation-Windsor McCay and Betty Boop, and Martha Rosler.

Out of all the projects and sketchbook assignments I have completed so far I thought the flip book animation was the hardest to do. I was pleased that I was able to create motion . The main problem was getting the frames to hold together and flip smoothly and easily. Also, in order to create motion the frames had to be very repetitive and in proportion within the frame. For example, the farther away an object or figure is the smaller it has to be until it gradually gets bigger and bigger. Although, if an object or figure is already big and in the foreground then the size must remain constant.
I liked creating the collage of the model drawings and using the negative space of an object or figure to create other objects and figures. I really got the sense of time through the collage of the models because looking at my collage as well as my classmates, I was able to see the sequence of time by looking at the different body parts and the way they were displayed. For instance, some chose a linear or circular progression.
We had a reading about Martha Rosler which focuses on her view of technology’s role in art. It was obvious that Rosler was particularly fond of Nam June Paik. Rosler believed that Paik horribly represented the use of technology in his artworks such as stacking tv sets on top of one another to create one image or multiple images. Also that his artwork is not really art it’s “anti-art” What exactly is considered “anti-art?” As I mentioned before, everyone has a different interpretation of what they consider art so therefore everyone has a different interpretation of what isn’t considered art.