Next week we will be having an exhibition at Bellas Artes. Each one of us will be working collaboratively with students at Bellas Artes on projects that have to deal with the idea of dissent, debate and freedom of expression.
david
My project began as a basic smaller version of my thesis show, but in conversations with my group, which has merged with Jessi's (making about 9 of us) it has grown and changed into a fantastic exploration into the illusion of choice. We have been talking about freedom of choice and noticed that the choices we are given, mostly in a commercial and/or political sense are black and white, they are yes or no, and often do not serve a to better end. The middle space, the shades of gray if you will, are left out of the equation.
For our project we will be creating an interactive installation exploring this idea. We will be utilizing paths to choose from, which will give you "yes or no" options. These options will be expressed with the use and manipulation of light and sound. The work is still in the development stage but is rapidly growing into the final project. I have been working on a MAX/MSP patch that will control the work and we will be using media mapping to create video projections that fall directly onto objects.
To put it simply. This is really cool stuff and it is a pleasure to work with some extremely thoughtful and creative minds.
Jack
I am collaborating with Bellas Artes student Sofia Martinez on several works. The first of which is a series of collages. Collage has been a very important medium and way of thinking to me, as the material used is very reflective of one's environment. Publications, magazines and books are things one must acquire from an environment. The scraps of paper, magazines and books I have collected here are extremely representative of Uruguay and Montevideo, my transplanted location.
We are also working on a short video loop exploring my difficulty with the Spanish language. Rolling R's, a common sound in Spanish is very hard for me, the native English speaker. Eben has had the good sense to film me when I am trying to do this. I have been interested in video loops since investigating Abdel Abdessemed's work, an Algerian-French artist that makes loops exploring cultural differences.
I feel these projects simultaneously explore my interests and location.
eben
Eben is working with the integration of shadow puppetry, music, and digital video projection to create a work considering mysticism, memory, and forgiveness. He will be collaborating with musician, visual artist and vegan Hiram to create a shadow sketch loosely exploring these ideas. Presented in three simultaneous shadow stages, Hiram and Eben will play with juxtaposition and the complication of narrative through both synchronous and incongruous imagery- mixing low tech and high tech, as well as recorded and live images.
Jessi
Estoy trabajando en un proyecto que me parece muy interesante, con más o menos siete estudiantes de la escuela de bellas artes y otro estudiante de la universidad de Minnesota. Juntos, creamos un "installation" o ambiente en lo cual una persona se dará opciones específicas para recorrer por un camino; sin embargo, las opciones son en realidad ilusiones porque hay solamente dos rutas sin intermedia (es decir que hay blanco y negro pero ningún área gris). En esta manera, hacemos comentarios en la falacia de la ilusión de opciones que muchos de los estudiantes acá creen existir - me parece que ellos creen que sin opciones de intermedia, el progreso en los sistemas políticos y sociales no pueden ocurrir en Uruguay. Nuestro installation me interesa mucho porque lo implica temas importantes, como la libertad de expresión y la posibilidad del disenso por un ciudadano que no quiere adherirse al sistema actual. También, no he trabajado en un proyecto tan grande y con tantos otros artistas nunca. Estoy emocionada para aprobar trabajando con "media mapping," y creo que este proyecto producirá muchas cuestiones importantes para los estudiantes de mi universidad y los estudiantes uruguayos iguales.
Vong
I am working on a few projects. One project is making animal figures out of paper. I will be making dozens of them. My goal is that they will remind us about our planet's finite recourses and animals. This piece is a response to the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the debate surrounding global warming.
I am also working with Gabriela, a student here at Bellas Artes in the New Media class taught by Daniel Argente. We will continue to work with the theme of Debate as we try to merge photography and drawing. Gabriela has shown me a photo of a bridge she took while she was up north in Fray Bentos, a small town located on the river. She manipulated the picture to show two faces under the arch of the bridge. One representing the people on the Uruguayan side and the other representing the people on the Argentinean side. The two are facing one another, a metaphor for the current tension there involving the newly constructed paper factory and the bridge connection the two countries.
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