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.