Tuesday, January 31, 2012
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
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
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.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
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
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
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
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.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
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://
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/
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://
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://
http://
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/
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://
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://
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.
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