With the topic being conceptual art, the entire class banded together to make a piece composed of letter-sized paper and thick graphite lines. I'm not quite so sure the goal was to make something that was aesthetically-pleasing, because the end result was pretty anti-climactic. As the name implies, conceptual art is more about the concept and its implementation than the final product, and there was actually a bit of a system involved to the piece described above. We had to draw randomly from a hat a certain type of line, and put it together respectively to the order in which we had drawn. So to some degree it wasn't completely random. I tend to think it's the participant's discretion whether they want to take anything away from the experience and the boundaries are really quite limitless.

Since the video of my piece is too large to post, I decided to just post a photo of the final product.

performing art

Jaime and Lindsay had the task of performing my proposal. I thought they did a wonderful job and it turned out better than I expected. I was thinking that they would sit beside each other but they chose to sit opposite each other and that aspect made the design much more interesting. I had them close their eyes and trace each other's hands onto a single sheet of paper. It took some focus and teamwork to not poke one another with the pens. This was more of a meditative experiment. I wanted them to focus on their interaction with the other person and reflect on how they could communicate with the other person without the use of words or sight. I also wanted them to think about the aspect of design.

I had the pleasure of performing both Kayla's and Lindsay's piece. First I performed Lindsay's with Pavlos. It was like a take on chirades. Basically, without using words we had to act out an idea or object and make the other person guess what that idea was. I chose to act out a birdhouse and Pavlos chose Guitar Hero. I also participated in Kayla's project with Liz. In this piece, I had to blow green bubbles and make a 5' by 5' square. Liz had blue bubbles and she had to outline my green square. This was a little messy and hard on the knees but we made it happen.

dada and tzara

DADA was an international movement originating out of Zurich, Switzerland that reached its peak during 1916-1920. It was mostly a reactionary movement against the horrors of World War I. Tristan Tzara was one important figure who laid the foundations for the DADAist movement. Born in 1896, he grew up to become most famous for his manifestos which were some of the first Dadaists texts including "The First Heavenly Adventure of Mr. Antipyrine", "Twenty-Five Poems", and "Seven DADA Manifestos". His philosophy is known for embracing contradiction and chaos and being against conformity and logic. Along with André Breton, Philippe Soupault, and Louis Aragon, Tzara performed pieces to shock the public. He was also a poet. He had an intense energy that was crucial to the success (or failure) of the DADAist movement which meant to destroy the values of the current culture. Tzara explains in "DADA Manifesto on Feeble Love and Bitter Love" that, "DADA is not a doctrine to be put into practice: Dada - is for lying: a successful business. Dada gets into debt and doesn't live on its well-filled wallet." In 1930, perhaps tired of his own pessimistic and nihilistic outlooks, he joined the much lighter Surrealist movement. Later he joined the Communist Party and then the French Resistance during World War II. Tzara passed away in 1963.


Information retrieved Nov. 5th 2007.

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/dada/Tristan-Tzara.html

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9074038/Tristan-Tzara

http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/tristan_tzara

shadow

At first, I thought the main point of this experiment was to try and prevent your partner from staying in your shadow, so I started out skipping, jumping, and making sudden movements to try keep Ashley out of my shadow. Once I realized that we were trying to do the opposite, I started moving slower. When Ashley and I traded positions (signaled by the tapping of two stones) I found it quite challenging to complete the experiment successfully. If Ashley moved away from the sun, it was hard to predict where she might go next. Since we had to be silent, I started to think about the significance of the assignment. I thought of a quote I had seen stenciled onto a wall in France. Roughly it translates to, "Leave the prey in the shadows." So I started thinking about the idea of weakness and darkness and perhaps a connection between the two. This assignment was pretty much how I expected it to be, but perhaps a bit more challenging.

sign, symbol, logo, or icon?

blockbuster logo retrieved Oct. 22 2007 from: http://www.novaconusa.com/Art/blockbuster_logo.gif

A sign is basically something (like a figure or gesture) that represents something else and has a special meaning.

A symbol often deals with double meanings. They can be objects or characters that stand for a certain idea or concept, but there is often the literal translation as well as a more cryptic one.

A logo is meant to be easily recognisable. It is some sort of graphical image that can be combined with a specific font to identify a brand or trademark.

And lasty, an icon is an object or image that represents something else usually of greater importance.

the bride stripped bare

When I first saw this piece I had no idea on Earth what was going on. I saw that it was divided into a lower and upper half that possessed three window-ish squares in the upper-right, mechanical-looking figures such as racks and pulleys in the bottom, and a strange dog looking figure in the upper-left. In order to understand this work though, you can't just simply look at it. It is important also to try and disect the notes that Duchamp himself took on the piece which are still quite confusing. From reading these notes though, the subjects become a little clearer. The top figure represents the bride, and the lower nine figures on the left side represent her bachelors. By being placed alone on the top piece it is implied she had superiority over her bachelors. Basically, the bride and bachelors work together in a mechanical way to produce sexual desires and the means to satisfy them. Each figure has a specific duty to ensure that the machine works properly. Visually, it is almost impossible to understand how this machien works, but if you read Duchamp's notes carefully, you find that he had a plan for each figure. What is noticable though, is how the top portion appears very abstract with organic lines while the bottom portion is sharp and geometric. Perhaps this is a commentary on the female being generally associated with the abstract. Although each figure has a specific function, this is not a work that I can relate to easily. What could be an interesting idea is rather ruined by the fact that it is so cryptic. But maybe being cryptic is what it's all about.

tiles, wall coverings, and islamic art.

There seems to be many unifying aspects in Islamic art. There is much repetition and interconnectivity between designs. We can see this in oriental carpets or on Islamic mosques. Nature appears to have a strong influence throughout as well. It is not hard to find floral or vegetal motifs in Islamic art. Most patterns found on these works are also very geometric. It has a strong resemblance to Islamic calligraphy as well. It works well on architecture and carpets because it gives similar importance to each feature of the building. There is not a single focal point that directs attention. Overall, this repetition and interconnectivity creates a very unified and appealing image.

Escher, M. C. "Sky and Water".
www.mcescher.net/ escher03.jpg


1. a configuration, pattern, or organized field having specific properties that cannot be derived from the summation of its component parts; a unified whole.
2. an instance or example of such a unified whole.

"gestalt." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 07 Oct. 2007.

value appreciation

This assignment was actually quite frustrating. I tried to keep the shading equal with no gradation, but the slightest difference in pressure on the lead made a large difference. It took a little patience and a lot of concentration to keep the shade consistent with itself. I also ran into other problems making the grey scale. After the eigth shade I would realize that I couldn't make it any darker, and so I would have to begin again.
I thought the shape assignment was a little more fun because there was more freedom to create a larger, more incorporative design. In the scan below, some of the lighter greys did not register, but they are there. I tried to draw more than four different shades of grey, but it gets difficult to make the difference noticeable. I thought this design was more aesthetically pleasing than the grey scale, but if I were to redo it I would possibly leave negative space around the whole image.

At first, I thought lines and shapes were easily distinguishable, but after a while I found the boundaries between them to blur. Some very thick lines might be considered shapes and some thinner, slinky shapes might be considered lines. I find it hard to distinguish the difference. In terms of the string project, I thought it seemed silly in the beginning, but it turned out to be a pretty arduous assingment. At first, I was just concerned with covering the greatest amount of space with the string, but I later decided to focus my attention on a particular chair. I thought about how I could make it look "pretty", but it turned out to be a chaotic mess. This was definately something I've never done in class before and I apprecaite novelty, so it wasn't a bad time, even the unwrapping. If I had to do it again, I would have put more planning into it so that it would be easier to unwrap. If I had a lengthy amount of free time, it would be nice to map out a design with the string as well. This assignment did make me think about the relationship b/w line and shape b/c many shapes and lines were made with the intertwining string.

1.) A, B, and C are lines.
2.) D is a shape.
3.) A line is the continuation of a single point. It can vary in thickness. No point on a line can touch itself.
4.) A shape is a closed form that is two dimensional.

Assignment # 1

Description: This painting is composed of a yellow horizontal band than gradually fades darker into the left-hand side. The various figures create another horizontal plane that dissects the middle. The figures are surrounding by a pale green hue. The figures on the right side are generally darker than those on the left. There are also green, red, and white figures that contrast with the mostly dark figures. The right side consists mainly of women who gaze in the same direction, while the men stand on the left side. The men do not look in the same direction and have varied postures. In the center a brown, darkish hole appears and rising out of the left hand corner is a cross.

Interpretation: The pale colors suggest a dismal atmosphere. They also bring a foggy, unhealthy feeling to the air. There also seems to be a division between the darker, predominately female figures on the right and the more colorful, predominately male figures on the left. Some of the figures on the left are obviously of the cloth, and since my eye is drawn towards to them it suggests a hierarchy. My attention is also drawn towards the cross in the left hand corner. The clumping nature of the crowd gives the painting a chaotic feeling, but the uniformity of the women on the right side balance some of the chaos. The flowing horizontal planes do create a calmness though.

Evaluation: I don't really care for the pale, depressing colors. This painting seems really heavy and the subject matter isn't that interesting to me. None of the people seem to be really affected by what's going on around them. It seems to be a funeral, but only a few people seem like they belong there. The way the artist obviously put emphasis on the clerical people doesn't suit well with me either.