Week 12- Responses

Society-
http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Parents-wire-kids-to-prove- teachers-verbal-abuse-3509966.php

Upon reading this I was quite appalled at the situation that sparked the article's content. To see that a child could be called such terrible things by a teacher that they should be able to trust was more than disheartening. However I found the following debate about whether or not recording teachers should be allowable or not really threw me for a loop. While I understand why the national association of special education teachers would be concerned with patents altering recordings to falsely incriminate people, it is difficult to say if there is any other way to monitor something like that. If a person came in to check the situation then the teachers doing the abusing would act differently in order to avoid consequences. It is a fine line between breaching teachers rights and protecting children, however I think the idea of video monitoring is a sound solution. However, if that recording didn't have audio recording then it could be manipulated to avoid verbal abuse. I just hate that this has even become an issue, and I sincere hope that no parents abuse the ability to record teachers in the legal states to abuse the system for gains that are not warranted.

Art-
http://www.artnews.com/2012/04/19/use-your-illusion/

I was immediately intrigued by this article because I very much like trompe l’oeil art. The realism of these works are breathtaking, and the artists attempts are admirable to me. While that is all my aesthetic opinion, the new sculptors playing with perception and super-realism have interesting works. The painstaking remaking of reality in materials that contradict the purpose or general nature of the objects being recreated takes a lot of time, observation, and consideration. While objects that completely mimic reality seem to be an easy approach to making art, I find that to be an idea that undercuts the efforts and ideas of the artists creating these works.
I really like the quote from Elizabeth Armstrong, curator of contemporary art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, “It’s taking Duchamp and standing him on his head—this notion of returning to what art used to be, beautifully crafted handmade objects, but in fact they look like throwaways.” I feel it really helps to construct the understanding of realistic sculpture's intentions.

Final Project- Little Red Riding House

Final Product:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRJ63idCb88&context=C4c4d875ADvjVQa1PpcFO9VU_JvpmCyCnLEFiUJBjIdHP-Vmxb83I=

This project is an animation created based on the idea of time-stop collage animation. I hand drew images, uploaded them into the computer and collaged them digitally.

Project Description:

The project is entitled "little red riding house" and combines the ideas of escapism and feminism to create a cyclical animation. I heavily researched escapism through media (specifically film and television) in our society since spring break and wanted to center my project around that idea at the onset. Escapism is arguably an experience that can be associated with all art, which is partially why I found it fitting to explore. However, I wanted to move outside of the traditional art world and into that of mass media, which is more telling about our society. At the present I feel that fairy tales is one of the most prominent genres being explored in American film and television. With this idea in mind I knew I wanted to create something involving film using the idea of escapism. As I continued to develop my project I decided to embrace and negate escapist tendencies simultaneously. To do this I wanted to create a situation in which viewers normally find themselves falling in to (such as a familiar story like little red riding hood) while subtly undermining it through images that don't match the story as the viewer knows it. In considering this I decided to pick another theme to use in my project. I decided to use feminist ideas after the lecture we had towards the end of the semester. Little red riding house represents women (through the symbolism of the house) when she picks the flower it is representative of the reclaiming of her femininity. The wolf in a business suit is the male dominant political debates over women's rights and their destruction of a woman's familiar choices. However when the house is destroyed it still creates a flower thus showing that femininity and the choices of women will survive even if torn down time and again by political turmoil. I put a lot of time and thought into this project and I am pleased with the results as well as the reaction of my classmates in class.

Additional Images/Information

This is an example of a scanned image that is used in the walk cycle.
The image on the right was "cut out" using the magnetic lasso tool in photoshop
and then re-sized and placed in the appropriate spot on the background
to create a segment of the walking cycle.

This is an example of what one panel of the animation looks like.
There are 4 separately drawn images (flower, girl, wolf, grass) collaged on a photoshopped background.
There are approximately 75 different panels in the 40 second clip.
I hand drew approximately 25 images to create the collages. 

Week 13 Art- Final Progression V

This is the up-to-date version of my final. It is about half way through the animation sequence at this point...I look forward to getting feedback on this animation...

Week 12 Art- Final Progression IV- Opening Sequence Loop

While this is really short, it is a loop of the 3 second opening to my final project "Little Red Riding House"

I've scrapped the cell phone opening and have exchanged it for the ability for my video to seamlessly loop.

Week 11 Art- Final Progression III

Little Red Riding House Plot and Story Board

Okay, so this is the newest story board idea I have. I am actually fairly happy with this one, but I would love to know what other students think before I start the long process of animating it. So the basic idea is that we see a patch of wild flowers, followed by a figure that seems to be little red riding hood with a house for a head picking those flowers, she skips along holding the flowers before the big bad wolf character (dressed in a suit) pops up and attacks her, she falls and the wolf takes of his mask revealing the thinker statue (tentative to change, not sure if I like it completely) he then leaves the house-headed maiden on the ground, and we watch her decay until the same flowers re-emerge and the video starts over (it will be looped.) If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I am open for feedback at this point. I am currently working on drafting Little Red Riding House figures as well as the swanky big bad wolf....

Week 9 Art- Final Progression I

In progress Warning Label for animation...

This is very tentative to change, however, for now I am planning on including warnings at the beginning of the film that are reminiscent of when someone watches a film. In reading a study of women going to cinemas in the UK, a writer used the term "dream palace" to describe the experiences within the dark of the theater. I really latched on to this phrase, and while I find this to be possibly too blatant, for now I will continue developing it to see where it goes. This may get scrapped by the final product, but here is some proof that I have been working to develop my idea.

Week 11- Responses

Society-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/explosion-in-student-loan-debt-reaching-crisis-proportions-but-largely-flying-under-radar/2012/04/03/gIQADFFQsS_story_1.html
Due to the fact that this pertains to all of us, I thought I would write about it this week. I don't know about the rest of you, but I personally take out student loans to get through school, and this article describing the issues around federal student loans really hit home. Evidently the government is concerned that the student loan section of their industry will turn into the housing market, in that it won't hold up in the next few years, due to students' inabilities to get jobs after college and pay their loans off. While this is obviously a very real concern for those watching the economy to have, students as well as future students are getting sent so many mixed messages about colleges because of this student loan debate. We are told, from a very early age, that we must go to college in order to make a living. It would seem in the growing technology age this is growing more and more evident. (Not that my choice in majors is facilitating this idea that I'll go into a technological field, but the great number of students in Speed school does attest to this job driven mentality.) However, with the tuition of institutions rising it is becoming more and more expensive to get that diploma, making it harder to pay of the loans. Another problem that these articles generally neglect (this one included) is the decline of scholarships now that the economy is heading south. I promise you any student with a decent GPA would be going for free money over federal money any day if that were as much of an option anymore. Obviously it doesn't help that we are in a recession where there are less jobs. This has all been an obvious recap, but with higher tuition and more students with less jobs and greater student loans, it is obvious that there is trouble on the horizon. While certain conservative candidates are attempting to appeal to a 'blue collar' audience, the argument that going through a higher education makes a person liberal and threatening to those hard American workers (which couldn't be further from the truth, just taking the hard laborers at UPS who are primarily students into account counters this on our campus,) is so wrong it is almost frustrating to hear it repeated over and over again. The worst of these arguments, however, is that there are just as many, if not more, jobs waiting for the averagely-educated (those with high school diplomas only) as the higher-institution-educated is obviously false. If that were the case then not nearly as many people would be bothering with college. Some people arguing about student loans make it sound as if we like to just grab all the student loans we can and deal with it later, but any art student will tell you money really matters, and for the most part we are very conscious of how we as students utilize it.
While we hear we have picked a bad time to be artists, it would seem we have picked an even worse time to be art students.

Art-

         

http://buttnekkiddoodles.com/
Don Colley is an artist I have looked at a few times before, but I find myself constantly coming back to his work. He lives and works in Chicago, and while he does to time intensive works of art, the primary work that catches my attention is the ink drawings he does straight from life all over the city of Chicago. From watching a documentary on him previously, he prefers to draw in old accountants books, giving certain drawings a deeper dynamic. His versatility as well as quick study skills are very impressive, as well as beautiful to look upon. While he does has a sense of humor that lends itself to entertaining work (just look at the name of his website) his delicate attention to features of those he observes, and his delicate use of ink tones really takes my breath away. Don Colley is a dimensional, entertaining artist, who I love to be inspired by when I need a reminder that drawing quick life studies out in the open can lead to greater work.

Week 10- Responses

Society-

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/11682964-418/supreme-court-strip-searches-ok.html
The article above explains that the Supreme Court ruled that jails can do invasive strip searches (including cavity searches) of people brought in for minor crimes. In the past this ability has been debated, considering minor crimes can including arrest for unpaid fines. The man who has fought to bring this hearing to the Supreme Court's attention, Albert Florence, was strip searched for being arrested for unpaid fines (which had been paid) in two different jailing institutions while waiting for the problem to be straightened out.
While I think searching people before placing them into a jail is important (not knowing what they are carrying) invasive strip searches seem extreme (for minor offenses that is.) While I partially understand the reasoning behind it (guards can never be sure what an incoming inmate has hidden on them,) it seems strange that they would search them without some sort of probable cause. While it could be argued that the 'probable cause' is that they are in prison at all, it seems unfair for minor crimes like an unpaid fine to be searched in the same way a drug dealer or robber would be searched. Even writing this response I find this to be a hard topic to respond to. It would seem the Supreme Court had an equally hard time deciding the ruling, as it was only declared by one vote that these searches would be considered legal across the board. I think that what happened to Albert Florence was unjust and unfair, but who is to say that the next unpaid fine isn't trying to purposefully smuggle something into a prison? There is no way to know and that is why the institutions better safe than sorry attitude has won out, however it would be nice if there was some sort of opportunity for an alternative solution within the system. While some may not agree, I do not find all 'criminals' to be equal in their transgressions, which is why this notion of minor crimes prompting strip searches seems odd to me.

Art-

http://www.dzimirsky.com/

Dirk Dzimirsky's drawings blew me away. I personally prefer drawing an graphite, and these pieces are technically wonderful. The detail and realism he gets at such a large scale is breathtaking, and I was so happy I stumbled across his work. Every piece of his does a great job of capturing unique human qualities (such as the crinkling of the eyes and the beard hairs in the drawing above.) While he seems to focus on primarily figurative work, I couldn't find out much more about his art, seeing as a lot of the writing on his page was in German. However, I think that work can bridge language gaps, and in this case my lack of translation abilities is fine, because this work speaks for itself. I have a hard time not being overly complimentary, because I am biased in how much I appreciate hyperrealist drawings such as his. I think his drawings are phenomenal and without getting too repetitive I don't have anything else to say besides fantastic drawings from Dirk Dzimirsky. I plan to use him as a source of inspiration in the future.

Week 10 Art- Final Progression II

Tentative Story Board Ideas

Obviously this isn't the easiest thing to read, so I put a larger file up this time. This is the tentative story boards for the animation I am planning to create. As soon as I finished sketching them out I found them to be to blatant as well as too comical for the point I am trying to make. I don't plan to pursue these any further, but you never know what may grow back into my final project. Again, some more proof that I am thinking about the final, as well as actively working to develop the idea. Hopefully the newer ideas I have will be more beneficial than I found these to be....

Week 9 Responses

Society-

 

http://news.yahoo.com/pink-slime-choice-schools-230530972--abc-news.html
Pink Slime is back in the spotlight after ABC News did an investigative report on how much of it is in grocery bought ground beef products. According to the meat industry it is considered beef, therefore it does not have to be labeled on the grocery-bought packaged whether or not ground beef contains the additive. Evidently it is also somehow nutritional, according to the beef industry, however before they began cleaning the meaty leftovers with ammonia, the "BLBT" (boneless lean beef trimmings as pink slime is called by the industry,) was primarily found suitable for dog food mixes. While all of that was interesting (and now I know where to avoid buying beef,) I was primarily intrigued by the fact that it is now a choice for schools. Do the parents realize it is a choice? Because if I had a child in school it would seem there was only one option: ditch the meat filler. While it is assumable that meat with the additive is much cheaper, it doesn't meant that has to be the only option for schools. After watching Jamie Oliver's show last year, "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution," it bothered me how difficult it seems to be for schools to make any changes to create healthier diets for children. I can't help but compare Jamie's fight with this one. It seems unlikely that many schools will drop the pink slime from their menus in order to cut costs and stick to the routine. As it is becoming plainer everyday, cheaper isn't generally better, and in this situation it is important to remember that fact when considering the health of future generations.

Art-
http://www.jenniferlinton.ca/

Domestikia, Chapter 6: An Unfortunate Incident Involving Her Hat. from Jennifer Linton on Vimeo.

In looking for more modern feminist artists, I found Jennifer Linton. Her work blew me away, specifically her time stop animations using prints she has made (which is featured above) in her newest series of work: "Domestikia." Linton is interested in the macabre as well as in the placement of women in society. She has other series on motherhood, specifically her experiences balancing children and being a professional artist, but this one (so far) seems to be more about the placement of women in the home. She is currently working on the series out of order (chapter 6 being the first released,) but according to her description it is a delineated story line. Story lines such as this intrigue me normally, but the way that Linton is approaching time stop, the medium, and  the story are all fascinating.The maid is de-humanized through a baby-bird head, and the woman depicted tries on strange outfits and troublesome hats in this video, and it is all a beautiful sequence to watch. Linton's other work, specifically the St. Ursula series (one of the pieces is depicted below) really comments on the issues of women, especially those that are placed in institutions that supress their sexuality as developing young women. All of her work is very oriented around the issues of women, particularly drawn from her personal experiences to create intimate, complex works of are that are beautiful as well as thought provoking.

 

Week 8 Art- Locates A Tree

This was the piece I created the week I was sick. Due to my below normal physical state I chose to explore a past project I had really enjoyed creating. This time the entire piece is from the original book (including the illustrations) excluding the additional pen marks made by myself.

Week 8- Responses

Society-

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/13/living/lorax-movie/

I saw this film this weekend and had to post about it for our class. While my personal opinion is that this film is fantastic in almost every way, what I saw after the beautiful graphics and marvelous music wore off was less than pleasing. Specifically a car commercial claiming their car was "Lorax approved" using graphics from the movie. The entire film is a technicolor critique of big business and its negative effects on the environment as well as society. And yet, universal negated their point by making a deal with Mazda cars to allow their environmentally-friendly Lorax support the very thing it is battling in the movie. (By the way, the car it is supporting isn't even electric...it is still fueled by gasoline.) I was further disappointed to see at lunch the following day that Universal has also signed with iHop for children's meals that are "Lorax themed." While I don't have qualms with the movie itself (and highly suggest people to see it and give their opinions,) I was sad to see the exploitation of the film for profit on Universal's part as well as the companies that bought into it. The article that I have linked to above highlights the opinions of people who feel similarly, which is why I have posted it as my article of the week. I found the point in the article that there are other industries cashing in on the film to be enlightening as well. While I had seen the effects of children's movies being transformed into multiple forms of books, the fact that the book industry always exploits children's films hadn't occured to me. At the end of the day it would seem that while the Lorax is as relevant as ever, even it can't really fight the institution in which it is placed, that is our consumerist society always seeking to make the newest and best things, even if they are a fad like the Thneed. However, the fact that the Lorax can't completely succeed doesn't dishearten me when I remember the final words of the film (as quoted from the original Dr. Seuss book,) "UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." and consider the fact that those are  the word that children are taking away at the end. While the whole world may not change, that doesn't matter as long as those who do care begin to change and spread the awareness just as Dr. Seuss and the creators of this film.

Art-

 

 

http://www.artnews.com/2011/06/01/cosmic-comic/
The pop art of Kenny Scharf is interesting to read about, but his words about how to deal with the art world in which it is placed interests me more. He has been going "in and out of style" in the art world since the 80s (and right now he is back in.) Living this roller coaster of being the fad and being forgotten is one that all artists need to learn to accept if they are planning on having long standing careers, and it is a process that Scharf is all too familiar with. He now finds that it isn't worth worrying over, and would rather keep creating than worry about whether or not he'll be back on top again in the art world. This mentality is one that I think all aspiring artists should consider before entering the tumultuous art world. I think that Scharf's mentality also translates into his fun-loving work that is carefree in its presentation of things that speak to our culture. He uses images that he enjoys from our media and our popular culture to create work that is as fun loving as he seems to be, and works to give people joy upon seeing them. I think his concept is one that isn't explored enough anymore in the world of art that seems to take itself almost too seriously at times. As well as a society that takes itself too seriously. 

Week 7 Art- additional experimentation

Week 7 Art- Country Fish and City Fish

This is a collaborative piece between Megan Franck and I about the fishes' environment here in KY. Primarily about the comment that they "need a safe place to have sex" we wanted to make a commentary on the fact that in our city they don't. While natural environments also have their own issues the fish in Louisville are gone because of issues like that. Country fish is the first image and city the second.

Week 7 Responses

Society-

 

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-red-meat-20120313,0,565423.story 

Follow up: http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-red-meat-study-20120313,0,7594229.story

This new study released about red meat seems extremely obvious at first, "eating red meat increases risk of death," is an accepted statement among meat eaters. It is like saying "driving a car can kill you" to anyone who own an automobile, everyone knows the risks, but they accept them. However, the statistical implications of this study is what causes a person to ask if they really know the risks of eating red meat. While it may not seem like a lot, according to the study eating red meat creates a 13-20% increase risk of earlier death. The study was taken over the course of 20 years, and that percentage rate is based on people who passed away during that 20 year span of time. The result on the opposite end of the spectrum, showing what will help you live longer, are equally interesting. Many are under the impression that fish is better than chicken, but it would seem that the chicken of the sea can't hold up against the land-lovers (chicken doubles the percentage of fish.) While the connotations of this study are making me want to continue altering my eating habits, it is the reactions to the study (found in the second link) that are interesting me the most. Un-surprisingly enough, the meat companies are attacking the 20-years-in-the making study, using its form of data gathering against it. It finds the data to be too randomly compiled, and dislikes the fact that it is filled out by the participants. The fact that participants could be lying about their true eating habits is enough for the companies to attempt to debunk the entire study. It is responses like this (and like those of the many responses from internet users) that show our society's greater concern with living how we want and ignoring the consequences, as well as the maintaining of big-business no matter what the industry's effect on people and the environment (we know that meat industries are just as bad for the environment as others and worse in some cases.) It is irritating to know that no matter how many studies are put out members of our society would rather make the assumption that it is a scare tactic than a legitimate study that they should take head from. 

Art-

http://www.artnews.com/2011/12/06/biting-the-hand-that-feeds-them/ 

I know we have mentioned this in class, but this article detailed some of the work that is happening in the art world around the idea of "the art world." Artists are working to critique the institution of art, but inevitably finding themselves encapsulated in it, needing it to give recognition to their ideas. One of the larger issues that surrounds the art world and the artist is that of money. Money is needed for artists to continue to create, but in order to get that artists must show their work in galleries or artistic institutions. This creates an interesting loop that artists submerged in "the art world" full of galleries and collectors can't always find a way out of. However, I find the relationship between the artists and the world in which they are presenting their work to create a much more interesting paradigm than that of other works. They need the institution they critique, and that institution is embracing them for defacing their placement instead of rejecting them outright (as I can imagine the critics of old would have sought to have done.) Art is being created to make a dialogue about how the artistic institution is bad, and yet the only people who can endorse or provide space for the artists and their work are those who belong to that same institutions. The artists themselves admit the strangeness of their placement in the art world, but they continue to present their work in these places to continue fueling this paradigm and unconventional statement about the relationship between artists and the artistic institutions they inhabit. 

Week 6 Art- A Nest for Nature

This is the installation piece I did involving another nest.
The nest I built was still there from two weeks ago, so I built this one and placed it in the same area. It has moss eggs this time to imply a place for nature to grow. It is on a bench to show concrete vs nature.

Week 6 Responses

Art-

http://www.ulrikearnold.com/galerie_meteorits.html

The work of Ulrike Arnold is very interesting, in that she insures that all of them are unique to the areas in which they are created. She travels the world and creates “Earth Paintings” that are paintings that use the Earth from the areas she visits to create them. While I found that to be an interesting pursuit, her newest project intrigued me even more. Now Arnold is creating works out of components from meteorites. She went from using the natural material of the Earth to the natural material of space in a shift to her new style of painting. The works expand on the nature of the universe as well as the beginning of the Earth from which she has created so many works. Her Earth works had viewers thinking globally, but her newest work has them thinking on a much larger and more impacting scale. The universe is full of potential, and for me personally that potential comes across in her works. The forms she creates using this alternate material are astonishing and really facilitate her project well. The forms are entirely organic, negating man-made principles of perfect geometry, and accepting the chaos of the universe from which they are inspired. Overall I find her work to be breathtaking and extremely interesting in their genesis.

Social Change-

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2012/02/google-glasses-new-york-times/1#.T0Ushk6PW8A

While this was an extremely short article, the implications of products such as these really intrigued me. Futuristic movies bring items like the glasses Google is in production to make all the time. (The first that came to mind was Pixar’s Wall-E where people are spinning around in their TV-chairs.) In my opinion, though, the implications of these spectacles are going to be much less extreme (at least in the near future.) The primary concern I found with the product is the idea of it video-recording your surroundings to assist you with finding things (which the article pointed out as a hitch with the release.) The idea of a product recording everything you do as one that has yet to be encountered.  For now all technological products give you a choice, however, the iPhone doesn’t always alert you that it is using your current location. The new Siri feature just assumes you want it to be used in order to assist you (it can be turned off, but you would have to know how.)  The primary difference with these glasses is the fact that it is video recording you versus knowing where you are. Essentially the two could be construed as just as bad as the other, they both track you in order to provide help, however, video recording is perceived as a larger invasion of privacy. Will the tracking features of the glasses eventually be accepted as common place, though? Will it fall into the realm of Facebook knowing everything we like, Amazon knowing everything we buy, or the iPhone knowing where we are at any given moment? (With unnerving accuracy I might add.) Only time will tell; but these glasses are something that (if successful) will continue molding the future of our society. In my opinion whether that change is for better or for worse will depend on the users.  

Week 5 Art- Mightily

This week's piece was made using an old book my grandma gave me for collaging, a scrap piece of cardboard, glue, and ink pens. The words that write the poem I created are all from 2 pages of the book, and were arranged by me to create a narrative to the piece, following along the idea that it was created from a story to begin with. The poem is intended to be concerning environmental as well as internal issues.
The size is approximately 5x10"

Week 5 Responses

Week 5

NEWS

http://www.app.com/article/20120210/NJNEWS/302100011

After taking a course on Civil Rights History last semester, I have taken an interest in the portrayal of African American History in America today. During the last portion of the course we read The Civil Rights Movement In American History edited by Renee C. Romano and Leigh Raiford. That book helped give me a starting point for analyzing this depiction of African Americans in history. The debate about having a month dedicated to African American history began when the week was brought to fruition (as the article states,) and the arguments are valid. One of the main arguments against the idea of separate history months is that it does not support the equality in history that is desired. From the opposing stand point, African American History should be a year-round integrated part of teaching history, not just highlighted once a month and then set aside until the next February. This is a valid argument, but the reason we have the monthly celebration is obviously because the struggle of African Americans is one to be highlighted. The history of African Americans (as well as women and other groups that have a month dedicated to them) deserves attention in the public’s eye. In schools the information should be integrated, yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that the average adult American can forget about the history of America at leisure without being reminded of events. The month also provides an opportunity for people to continuously learn new information about our collective history. For example, another article that I found involved a community coming together to honor a large burial cite that contains the remains of hundreds of slaves in an unmarked field. Situations like these, while they are reported on, receive extra attention during this month, and that attention helps the nation’s collective memory grow.

The only issue that I have with this collective memory is that it forgets the individuals who brought about change. The Civil Rights Movement had people working hard for equality long before Parks sat down or King stood up. Even looking at Rosa Parks there is a lot forgotten. She is remembered as an elderly woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus. What our nation’s collective memory doesn’t know on a larger level is that she was an activist long before refusing to move, and she was not the first to protest in this way. She is remembered because it was the trigger that brought Martin Luther King Jr. to the public’s attention. I’m not trying to say by any means that these great Americans shouldn’t be remembered for their deeds, but there are local heroes that are often forgotten who did more work for their individual communities than members of those communities now even know. The University of Louisville has done a great job of keeping our local heroes in our memory by installing the large glass panes depicting and describing Louisville’s Civil Rights workers in their new renovations of Freedom Park (by the Playhouse Theatre facing Cardinal Towne.) For this African American History Month I urge people to skim those descriptions and get a better feeling for the Civil Rights work done in our hometown, as well as learning about other heroes in the movement. African American History Month is a celebration of where our country is now, as well as a reminder of all of the work that has yet to be done.

(Sorry for the lengthy post, I started typing and couldn’t stop.)

ART

http://greenmuseum.org/artist_index.php?artist_id=15

http://www.amdandart.org/tour_solution.html

Created and lead by T. Allen Comp, AMD&ART is an interesting project that has a team of artists, engineers, scientists, and humanists working as a collective to help create a creative solution to a problem that is facing Appalachia communities, AMD (Acid Mine Drainage.) AMD is causing pollution to the water systems of the area in which they began their work in 1994, Vintondale, Pennsylvania. That pollution creates unhealthy environments and destroys the land. The team SPLASH (Sustainable Partnership of Landscaping Architects, Scientists, and Historians)  uses three key aspects in their approach to making real change in that area. They start with the sciences, treating the water, then use the arts, public works created by the suggestions and needs of the public throughout the park, and finally the humanities, using history and humanities to get large amounts of community involvement on the project.

I find this project to be very interesting. It is hard to necessarily critique the work itself, as there are not many photos of the artistic side of it nailed down on the site, however the project is an ambitious and interesting one. The idea of bringing so many different types of forward thinkers together to created one large project is something I really appreciate in art today. The ability to spread the conventions of art into areas that allow other types of thinkers to put their ideas into the project are generally more dynamic from works I have seen. 

Week 4 Art- close up on object

Week 4 Art- The Two Lenses: Electronic Vs Organic

For this week's project I created a birds nest using organic material- sticks and twigs from fallen branches (which is now on a bench outside the art building if anyone wants it.) my purpose in making the piece was for a photograph embodying the idea of the duality of our society (continuing on the path of my first weekly project.) This one is about the two lenses of seeing real life and viewing life through a screen of some sort. This photo is to how that the viewer would rather look at the object on the screen of her phone then at the actual object which is right next to her, highlighting the tension between society's perception through electronics vs what's really around them.

Week 4 Responses

http://news.yahoo.com/man-stole-glacier-cocktails-063000532.html

I found this article and didn’t even link it to the detriment it is to the environment at first, being too busy thinking ‘who would pay that much just to have “rare glacier” ice in their glass?’ Evidently enough for a man to swipe ice from a glacier that has parts over 1000 years old, not to mention the fact that it is one of the world’s fastest receding glaciers. While this is an environmental issue, that can not be denied, what does it say about society? This ring of ice thieves transported 11,453 pounds of glacier ice for the purpose of making money (estimations are around 6,000 dollars.) Making money and catering to the outlandish eccentricities of the wealthy is the only reason for the theft of an environmental landmark that may not be here much longer. Perhaps that is exactly why they justified taking it. Who is to say that that 11,453 pounds wasn’t part of the mile that was going to be gone within the year? They were preserving it in their ice truck, that is at least until the rich could swallow it with their brandy. This act of strange theft is one that speaks volumes about the world. It’s come down to making money and piggy backing of the trends of the rich in order to make it faster. These thieves stole part of an environmental landmark that isn’t going to be around forever just to make a quick buck and facilitate more strange trends for the wealthy.

http://www.janeingramallen.com/Janeweb-environment/Janeweb-environment.htm

I found the work of Jane Ingram Allen to be very interesting. Being a handmade paper artist, her work is not what I would have automatically assumed environmental. But in looking at the “environmental work” link in her gallery, I found her work to be extremely environmental. Her choice to make art that react to nature by being changed by nature is a choice that makes the work well rounded. What she got from the ground, the plants to make her paper, is being returned to nature through the eventual decay that will happen as the works are weathered down. The work I found to be the most interesting was the Earth Day art installation at Tunghai University in Taiwan. She combined her paper making art with nature in order to create a more permanent work that has a real message behind it. That message is saving Earth’s water supplies and not taking it for granted. To make the work she used non-toxic dyed paper pulp with seeds in it, and poured it along the tilled up soil path that was created in the shape of the Earth with a long stream of water flowing off of it. The paper will eventually degrade into the soil, causing the piece to loose its color until the flower seeds that were mixed into that pulp bloom and produce the same colors that were in the papers. The piece will change and adapt to nature over time in order to carry the same message, but be completely integrated into the natural environment in which it rests. The flowers will create a three dimensional piece of art that is a natural statement about environmental issues. 

Week 3 Art- Show Me What You Are Made Of

This piece isn't exactly environmentalist, but I wanted to make a comment about how we relate to the world. While I went from environmental to scientific, it all goes (excuse the unintentional pun) hand in hand. So I covered my hand in carbon molecules to remind the viewer that we are only carbon based beings at the end of the day, and that carbon will return to nature when we pass. All of it is cyclical like nature, and we all relate on the most microscopic of levels.

Week 3 Responses

Social Change

http://www.ilovemountains.org/communities/c274?feature_id=10

I was interested in Mountain Top Removal issues before Ying Kit Chan brought it up in class the other day. Last year a fellow student brought it to my attention, and it really resonated with me that this was an issue directly affecting the people of Appalachia, which means it is affecting Kentuckians. I found ilovemountains.org through a series of links that started with Google Earth and ended there. The tool that I find to be most impressive on this site is the one that allows you to type in your zip code and see what area of mountains is being affected by our region. As it turns out, Louisville gets its coal energy from the top portion of Tennessee, and the interactive map on the website allows us to look closer at the impacts on those individual communities. The site allows you to slowly narrow it down to the voices of the people, which allows us to understand the problem on a more intimate and emotional level. The area that the link to the article I’m writing about is an explanation of what is happening near Zeb Mountain, TN. Something that struck me about the article was the fact that the corporation is trying to fix it by putting it back together again after the damage has been done. They say they will do it by storing the mountain bits in facilities until the job is done. They’re attempting to dumb down the issue in a way that is almost insulting. It is a mountain with a corresponding environment. That environment will not be fixed from, as the article phrases it, “put[ting] humpty dumpty back together again.” The issue is not that simple, the explosion, machinery, and removal of resources will all adversely affect the environment. One of the primary issues that most mountain top removal opposition activists focus on is the pollution of the water that occurs because of these abrasive removals. That adversely affects the entire environment in that region, because that is where animals receive their needed portions of H2O, as well as many humans who use the rivers for assorted needs. This mountain top removal issue is not as simple as saying that the people are upset because you messed up the way the mountain looked, it is about the problems it creates for the communities and the environment.

Art

http://www.treehugger.com/culture/top-5-environmental-artists-shaking-up-the-art-world.html

When I thought of environmentalist art, there was only one artist that popped into my head, Andy Goldsworthy, the artist who makes art purely out of nature with no other materials than what he can find in the woods. I tried to think of other artists that I knew, but none came to mind. So I found this article (which happens to start with Goldsworthy) that lists the top five environmentalist artists today. I hadn’t heard of all of them but Goldsworthy, but I found their work to be equally if not more intriguing that his in some cases. The one that really stood out to me was on the second page of the article, wherein the lawyer turned artist, Chris Jordan, Creates an image that is 2 million plastic bottles, which is from a statistic that says Americans use that many plastic bottles every 5 minutes. He couples the startling statistic with a visual reference to help us wrap our minds around the number. It is difficult for us to imagine the amount that is until he put it right in front of us. These works all are trying to portray different environmental issues, but all of them are trying to show that the environment is important and we should treat it as such. 

Week 2 Art - The Two Lenses

This piece is the first of an idea I've been trying to develop for a little while, as a commentary of how our society chooses to endorse our view of the world. The idea is that there is a pair of glasses with two lenses, the clear lense and the rose-tinted lense (which we know is about seeing the world in a prettier light. This piece is showing the two versions of the little mermaid. The original story (where she cuts out her tongue) and the Disney version where it is trapped in a beautiful shell (which is far less gruesome.) While that moment in the story doesn't show the endings of story that really shows the way our society wants us to perceive the world (with happy endings and romance) versus the original story (the mermaid dying and becoming sea foam,) but I felt this moment was a good showcase of different values in our society versus that which created the story 100 years ago.

Week 2 Responses

Week 2

Art

http://www.artnews.com/2011/09/15/puff-piece/

I found this artist’s intent to be an interesting undertaking. In general (because of the context of our society) we see smoking as a negative thing, with more and more places banning indoor smoking (or even outdoor, as we’ve seen on U of L’s campus.) Because of the connotations that come along with tobacco in today’s society, it is an alternate point of view when someone is neither for not against it. The artist featured in this article, Xu Bing, is trying to show the neutrality of the plant through his work, but what I think makes the installations so much more poignant is the fact that they are focusing on the history of the area they are being showcased in. The fact that the show adjusts itself for the artist’s research about individual cities and even individual people within those cities shows an attempt to connect with the viewers on a more personal level than just doing the same installation everywhere. The artist wants people to see tobacco as it fits into a history, rather than preaching his opinions or trying to sway the viewer in his favor. Even with the death of his father from lung cancer he shows the place tobacco has in our culture, and the fact that it is not good or evil through his interesting installation choices.

Social Change

http://www.freep.com/article/20120124/COL41/201240307/Mark-W-Smith-Apple-aims-to-update-student-textbooks-via-iPad?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

This is an issue everyone in our class can relate to, textbooks or e-books? While this debate has continued on college campuses (professors endorsing the use of technology versus forbidding it in the class room,) there has been less of a question about non-higher education textbooks. The ebook system hadn’t crossed over to the K through 12 school system until now. Apple is attempting to launch a set of textbooks aimed at these grade levels that are interactive. While it could take a sizable amount of time, it could mean the end of traditional textbooks in the class room. But this article doesn’t approach the issues of what schools don’t have access to this technology. It does mention that Apple has said that there are over 1.5 million iPads being used in educational institutions today, but what type of institutions have them? Are they in private or public schools? How many iPads do the institutions that use them actually have in their schools? While it is an impressive number (1.5 million) it doesn’t really help us know what that means. The iPad has proven to work well in many schools that have experimented with them, but there are many schools that can’t afford to convert over to iPads when their budgets are being cut so often. The textbooks are said to stop at $15.00 per book, which is a great price, but the schools will have to make the initial investment to buy iPads, and that amount may not be comparable to the textbook budget they have now. While I think that the iPad’s interactive textbooks are going to impact schools in a very positive way (it makes learning more interesting and fun for children,) it is going to take a long time to see these changes in the less funded schools. It is those schools that often times need to make learning more fun in the first place, in order to keep a higher graduation rate amongst their students. This innovation is going to have an impact, yes, but it will take a while (as many new technologies do) to come into the hands of those that need it.  

Thinking

http://jorbon.tripod.com/niet01.html

I’ve never read Nietzsche’s work before, so in reading this (I’m assuming simplified) article explaining his view on aesthetic and art is a different perspective than one that I have heard prior to reading it. The idea that art is the “highest form of human activity” is one that I think many artists would like to agree with; who wouldn’t want to be in charge of creating something so meaningful to humans in this world? But I find the most interesting point of this article that which says art doesn’t need a purpose, for its purpose is the purpose of life. In our artistic education we are taught that everything we do as artists must be deliberate, meaningful, and primarily with purpose. Nietzsche’s argument, that art needs no additional purpose than continuing to be a “stimulus for life,” is an argument I’m not sure I entirely agree with. I think as artists it is impossible for us to create without an additional purpose at heart (if not at mind.) If that purpose happens to stimulate life (which we generally hope it will in some way) so be it, but our soul purposes as artists is not entirely based on this concept. Our art brings different points to the table, some want to make art that focuses on the formal qualities, while others want to make art with a message, and still others do want to follow that which Nietzsche has noted and focus on their contribution to the human life. I do think it is a shared purpose to stimulate the viewer in some form or fashion, which lines up with Nietzsche’s perspective; however I don’t agree that the purposes of the artist should be overlooked or ignored because it isn’t being sought after by the viewer because art is only for art’s sake. Saying art is always for art’s sake is too general and misleading to viewers of art.   

Week 1 Art

This is a piece I did at the end of last semester for drawing and composition. It is an example of what my work is like now. The circle of white in the background is where the light is hitting it, it is actually a flat gray background.

Week 1 Responses

Social Change
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2012/01/is-america-ready-for-a-bald-barbie-doll.html
What is it is that makes little girls so ashamed of their missing hair that prompts them to create “Beautiful and Bald Barbie”? While it is not the purpose of the doll in any way, the bald Barbie is a testament to the gender confines that dominate the American culture today. Little girls don’t feel like themselves without hair, because they are taught at a very young age (through media influences as well as direct influences) that hair is an important trait for little girls to take pride in. While the group pushing Mattel for this new Barbie edition are focusing on the children’s acceptance in society, they fail to mention what created the taboo the children face of being hairless in the first place, namely the American culture and media. Bald is beautiful Barbie would help to break through the confines of the atypical-female appearance (that Barbie has always been the face of) in more ways than just for the sick; the message of accepting those that look different would also be sent to children who weren’t bald themselves. For this reason I was disappointed in what was essentially a brush off from Mattel in response to the proposal. 


Art
http://www.artnews.com/2012/01/03/why-leonardo-is-a-letdown/
The author of this article makes their case clear after essentially making a mockery of the way the National Gallery showcased the small gathering of da Vinci’s work. The part that grabbed my attention, however, was when he switched from putting down the paintings to talking up the drawings, saying they have the “true Leonardo magic.” It had me contemplating on the hierarchy that exists in art and art history at times. Due to the iconic nature of many works, painting has held its place in many members of the general population’s opinion as the highest form of art. While the art community bickers over this notion, people are flocking to see paintings that don’t measure up to drawings, at least according to the reporter in this article. The drawings were not, however, what people came to see, begging the question why the paintings receive the most attention while the drawings (that are in the same exhibit are often ignored.) The institutional theory of art cannot define the answer in this situation, as the drawings and the paintings are both held in high esteem by the artistic institution by making it to the gallery in the first place. 


Thinking
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/morbid-curiosities/201111/the-moral-the-morbid
Throughout the reading of this article I had one word running through my head on loop: catharsis. It is extremely important for us as artists to understand the power that can come from the purging of emotion through our work (for ourselves and for our viewers.) This article does a great job of plainly explaining why catharsis is needed in our lives without going overboard with jargon. His paragraph concerning Carl Jung’s argument about adults’ needs for the dark in their lives has a short quote that really hit home for me, “To achieve wholeness, we must acknowledge out most demonic inclinations.” While I knew that catharsis was an important aspect in the arts, I didn’t stop to consider how it actually contributes to mental health and wholeness of the self. Andy Warhol knew this well, even if he didn’t state it in this blatant way, when he created prints of tragedies found in the daily newspapers. The author’s explanation that “when we agonize over what has cruelly been bereft from us, we love it more, and know it better, than when we were near it,” summarizes this feeling of emotional release As well as explaining the (seemingly) strange mental understanding that comes with that release over the most horrific of tragedies for us as humans, who feel the unquenchable desire to look upon and embrace them. 


(In case anyone doesn’t know what catharsis means: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/catharsis and in case anyone hasn’t seen Warhol’s images of violence: http://img.artknowledgenews.com/files2007/AndyWarholGreenBurningCarI.jpg and http://www.artsology.com/gfx/warhol-pink-car-crash.jpg )

Note for non-classmates

So for those of you who aren't in my Art, Thinking, and Social Change class a bit of an explanation seems warranted. So each week we post a link that pertains to each of the subjects of the class (art, thinking, and social change) and a 200 word response to it. We also have to post an artwork we produce each week. So there you have it...a short explanation to the complication that is our Art, Thinking, and Social Change class. I hope everyone at least finds the articles interesting if not what I say in response.