Please post this writing to the blog or email it to me.
Respond to a piece of art we discused in class, or one that you've experienced on your own. Write a three paragraph review discussing the content of the piece and your personal reaction to it.What was the piece about?What techniques did the artist use to address the subject matter?Was the piece effective? Why or why not?
This piece is called Bicyclettes Abandonnees meaning abandoned bicycles. I'm not sure about the meaning of this piece but my personal reaction to it was that it caught my eye fairly quickly. The reason it did was because of the colors and the open space in the photo. The mirrored landscape makes it seem like there is no end to the edges or road. The abandoned bikes makes this piece more powerful by sending out the message of abandonment.
The aspect that was most interesting to me about this piece was the way it was made. Jean-Francois Rauzier constructed this piece with "...by precisely assembling up to 1000+ close-ups taken with a telephoto lens achieving gigantic images with extreme precision." That right there is very impressive to me. The amount of time and planning for something like this must have taken a very long time.
To me the piece was extremely effective even though you can tell that the photo was made up of others because of the squared edges and rough lines. I looked at some of his other constructed photos and have seen that Rauzier makes a good attempt at making those photos as real as possible. They still seem to be a bit digitized looking but it works for me.
I am responding to the piece "I Am Sitting in a Room" by Alvin Lucier. We listened to this piece in class, and I chose to talk about it because I had an immediate negative response to it. The artist speaks for about a minute, records it, and plays back the recording across the room, rerecording it. This is repeated until you can no longer distinguish his voice from the sound.
After the first few "rounds" of re-recording, I began to feel as if the clip that was being used was too long, since the replaying seemed to be intended to illustrate the point of the acoustic and resonant qualities of the room the recording was done in. I feel that a different technique could have been applied to mix the different stages of the recording into a more listenable structure. I do appreciate the concept of the piece, and consider it a successful experiment with a concept. The recording itself, however, was not a good listening experience and did not hold my interest. While the piece was obviously not intended as entertainment, an engaging piece of artwork should naturally cause curiosity and thought in the "audience".
I decided to look back at “The Yes Men – New York Times Special Edition”. This piece uses the Internet to convey an interactive political message. The template used by these artists exactly replicates that of the New York Times online media page except it reports news that is more wishful or satirical in content. The use of this page to convey politically stimulated is obvious. In fact, the top, bold headline reads “IRAQ WAR ENDS”. Additionally, if you select the links of the articles, to the right of the text (just like on the actual nytimes.com) there are advertisements. On the link that I selected, the moving, fabricated advertisement was for De Beers stating that every diamond purchase will enable the company to by a prosthetic arm for Africans that lost their arms in diamond conflicts.
To me, this website accomplished many things. First, the site evokes emotions and causes people viewing the site to reflect on how much of our world we wish would change. Secondly, the site shocks the viewer with all of the good news displayed. I even clicked the link from the class blog knowing very well what I was about to see but still had a momentary increase in heart rate when I saw the large headline. To me, my mind is so used to seeing nytimes.com (my personal homepage) that my instincts took over. Finally, the website accomplishes a large amount of interactivity. Not only do we work our way through the site, people are also able to comment on specific articles. These forms of interactivities allow this piece of art to be a working piece that never is truly finished.
Personally, I enjoy artwork that mimics everyday visuals. Using this technique allows for the shock and reactions that would be different than if this content were presented in an unfamiliar format. Since everyone knows what nytimes.com is and most people connote the formatting to authentic and reliable information, this website accomplished everything it sets out to do.
We discussed "Learning To Love You More" briefly during class, and a few weeks later I visited the site for a more thorough viewing. The “piece” is a website for a project that began in 2002 that gives specifically instructed assignments to participants to complete and send back to the site to post. The original piece has ended, but there are spin offs and continuations of the idea on other sites.
The creators use a website to display the work of participants. The site is pretty basic and no-fuss, and easy to navigate and to use. At first I didn’t like the look of it at all because of the white highlighted writing, but after awhile it starts to work with the orange and brown/gray of the site. The wording on the site is non-judgmental and a little poetic at times, and the layout and presentation is effective because it’s simple, organized, and has room for a ton of entries in each category.
I think the whole concept of the piece was to get people to step out of their comfort zones, use creativity that isn’t usually needed on a day-to-day basis (unfortunately), and to try new things. I have looked at a lot of the assignments and they are things I would never think of doing, but after reading them and seeing people’s interpretations, it looks like a lot fun and like a great escape from the reality of papers and complicated life stuff.
I am responding to the piece of sound art we saw that involved the Millennium Bridge in Britain and the sound that was produced by the vibrations caused by the people walking on it. I recall being having the concept of the piece explained to me before hearing what was recorded and I thought that it would sound absolutely horrible. However, I was greatly surprised by the soft harmonic nature of the piece that paired quite nicely with the interesting architecture of the bridge itself. I would have never thought that such sounds could be produced by such a large structure like a bridge, let alone that the sounds would fit together so nicely.
The sounds recorded were done so by installing tiny little accelerometers that pick up the smallest vibrations. All of these accelerometers then transmitted their data back to the artist who then combined all of the recorded data into one cohesive piece. I was glad that the artist/video we viewed took the time to explain the process of making this piece because it was interesting to see what lengths the artist took to install all of the accelerometers all over the bridge. I was also excited to see that accelerometers were used to record the piece because I have previously worked with accelerometers but in a much different way.
My interpretation of the artist’s message in this piece is that sound/music is all around us, even when we don’t realize it. We are constantly surrounded by noise all days in our lives, but we often don’t think about how we are constantly producing sounds, some of which are inaudible to our naked ears. Our exerted energy is transferred into the environment and onto a new object which uses this new energy to produce a completely new sound. I believe the piece was very effective in getting me to think about sound in a different way. I started to wonder what other unique and beautiful sounds I was missing in the world. I will say that the whole development/recording process seemed a little scientific for an art piece, but I believe the final product’s organic feel brings the piece back into the realm of art.
David Byrne and The Room of Sound
Bryan Strickland
Last week in class we were shown a clip of David Byrne’s sound art. The piece was presented with an organ that was electronically connected to the warehouse ceiling, walls, and ventilation contraptions. Through a series of circuits connected to tiny pulsating hammers, sound would be derived from the pipes, and rather non-musically associated objects in the room. I thought this concept to be quite inspiring, considering how the organ, a musical instrument in itself, was not used as it was initially intended for. Taking David’s idea and applying it to a rather bare room was somewhat boring in my opinion, however if the overall product of the show was compiled together in a more musical sense I would have appreciated it more.
My critique of his work goes beyond just the bareness of the room he used, but also to the devices that were attached to the circuits to electronically derive sound from the pipes, and walls. The hammers that would take impulses from the organ and hit the objects in the room did not have a purely singular sound. I found that when the object received an impulse and responded with a short click from the mechanical device the illusion purity was destroyed.
In my opinion, the music was half of what it was supposed to be. Much of he recording ended up sounding like electronic gadget and clicks, those of which did not come from the walls and pipes, but from the materials used to derive sound from the room. Nonetheless, the idea was a brilliant and almost perfectly executed. The room could have used a more diverse level of sound and object to create a more complex recording.
The piece that I really wanted to write about was the series of paintings done by British artist Banksy along the West Bank Wall. I remember we viewed one of the stencils in class as an intro to the creative landscape project. The piece itself is part of a 9 stencil series that Banksy painted on the wall while visiting Israel on vacation. The pieces were painted on the wall a little over four years ago, yet still hold relevance to the conflicts in the surrounding area today.
Banksy is know for his distinct style of graffiti where he collages stencils together to create public pieces of art. All nine of the stencils he painted on the West Bank Wall tied back to the overall theme of escaping to freedom. The one piece shown in class consisted of a young boy standing on a pile of rocks that had gathered after he supposedly dug his way through the wall with a toy shovel and bucket. Some of the other paintings in the series displayed intricate scenes of paradise, if only the other side of the Wall could be reached.
I think that this piece by Banksy is very effective, both in location and content. These paintings depict freedom in a country that has been ridden with religious and political controversy ever since the dawn of time. I also think that the way Banksy produces his art adds to the overall message of power the people through rebellion. Many times his art is considered to be vandalism, because it is a form of graffiti. The thought alone of being the first one to tag the West Bank Wall is incredible to think about, none the less very intimidating. This piece is especially effective when characterized with the first project because Banksy literally changed the landscape to his visual liking.
I decided to write about a Banksy piece, which we may have seen in class, but one I have seen before either way. The image is typical style for Banksy, stencils on a surface of his choosing. This one is particularly powerful because of the surface he has put it on the wall in
Palestine. In his book “Wall and Piece”, Banksy describes the area as the world’s largest open-air prison. The image itself with the children playing in rubble and the hole in the wall showing a sand beach has a large impact upon first viewing. You look at it and are struck by how simple yet powerful the statement is. These people are forced to live in squalor when all they want is freedom and their own homeland.
The method Banksy employs to display his art is typically any area he chooses. This particular place adds so much to the image. The knowledge that this is a wall separating people from people and from their homeland is powerful. The image certainly shows the atrocity of keeping people in an area against their will and the sadness it can bring. I think it also shows hope for the people, that if the wall could fall then things would get better.
The image is simple yet really speaks to me as an individual; it is striking that something so simple can be so powerful when placed in the right area. If it had been somewhere else it would not have this meaning. Banksy always seems to provoke something in the mind when you look at his images, illegally placed in cities, but this one is all the more powerful for the topic it brings up and the hopefulness it shows.
The piece I choose to respond to was apiece called Flower Chucker by Banksy. I found this piece on his website. On the website, there was no listed information about it. I was not able to tell the dimensions of the work or the material used. However, making an educated guess using the evidence of his other work, I assume it was made with spray paint and a stencil. Many of Banksy’s work are on walls of various buildings throughout UK. I am assuming this particular piece was stenciled on some wall. Using Google Image search, I was able to find the Flower Chucker painted on the wall; however, I did not find it on Banksy’s website. Therefore, there is ambiguity in its authorship.
The image itself is of a man wearing a hat backwards and a scarf covering his mouth. The man is in a throwing position and appears as if he is going to throw a bouquet of flowers. The man’s face is looking off to the right, and has a squinty determined look. His arm is cocked back and it appears as if is going to throw this bouquet with a lot of intensity. This image is quite interesting because, usually when we see a person in this position, we see them throwing a ball. However the person is not wearing a sports uniform, but in fact his clothes suggests that he might be a rebel, or a civilian fighting against the some higher governmental power. This is because his face is covered, and he looks as if he is wearing jeans and a jacket. Because he is dressed as a rebel, our minds automatically think that he will be holding something that can be used as weapon. Instead, he is holding a bouquet of flowers. These flowers are also the only thing colored in the picture. This is picture challenges our cultures’ normative idea of what a rebel is.
Looking at this oddly placed bouquet of flowers, we can then speculate what this piece address. Using the evidence in this piece, we can assume that the artist is trying to say, be a rebel without using violence. This is because of the juxtaposition of the bouquet of flowers in the hands of a rebel about to throw something. In many culture, flowers are a symbol of love, happiness, and good intention. Flowers are used on dates, weddings, celebration, and sometimes as tool in aiding when seeking forgivness. A rebel, on the other hand, many view them as a person that uses violence to fight against an unjust system. This artist is using two things that we consider opposite. He is putting a sign of peace, in the hands of someone who is fighting for a cause. The overall message appears to be say fight for something using peace, not violence.
I am extremely fond of this piece. I value its overall message, its simplicity, and its application. I am fascinated by public art and spray paint as it medium for communication. This piece’s composition is intriguing to me due to its content and the way the color are highlights the flowers. I also enjoy, its simple composition, using black and white almost as if it was a stamp. Usually graffiti works have a name next to it, to show authorship, but there is no name just the image. This lets the image stand for its self and there is no claim of authorship, almost as if it belongs to all. Overall, I believe this to be a highly effect piece of work.
The artwork that I liked the most was The“Street with a view” by Robin hewlett & Ben kinsley. The project involved the famous google street view application. The whole project was to capture images of more like a virtual life on the streets of pittsburg. The residents not only showed their talents but also contributed a lot of their time and energy to create a new street life on the sampsonia way.
On may 3rd 2008 robin and ben invited the google inc. street view team and the residents of pittsburg's northside to participate in a series of events along the sampsonia way. Residents and other participants staged scenes like parade , marathon, garage band practice and much more.There were also a set of heroic rescues and seventeenth century swordfights. The google team captured 360 degree images of the street along with these scenes in action and integrated the images into the street viewing platform. This was the first time that google allowed artistic intervention in its street viewing application.
I was totally amazed by the fact that so many people participated in this huge event contributing their valuable time and energy. The fact that google team captured the whole series of events was even more amazing. The one thing I liked about the artists who made this project a success is how they really managed to get hold of the google team and make them capture the whole event and ultimately put it into the street viewing platform. And also I was wondering how they succeeded in making the residents stage such a huge event. I mean its really a difficult task to do. The artwork was way too effective because on one side it shows how happy and joyful life can be if we share some of our time and energy with our neighbors and on the other side it describes how a street life can be put together to form a great piece of art.
This piece of art from an artist named Julian Beever. Not drawn or painted on paper or canvas this piece of work is drawn as an illusion on sidewalks with chalk around the world. The one illusion I choose was a piece or Beever looking like to was about to jump off a plank into the water below. He successfully is able to create a situation where fake water is flowing down real stairs, and the real buildings behind him are falsely held up by algae covered planks. This looks so real that the only thing to bring your mind back into check and realize what you’re seeing is the lines in the blocks of concrete.
My first few reactions were amusement and amazement. Beever is able to make these seemingly impossible situations come to life with nothing more than chalk and cement. The fact that he does this on public sidewalks and not on other traditional surfaces shows his creativity and love for his skill. Not only is this piece, along with others, fun to look at, they’re also interactive. For most people the interactivity is walking around them in fear that they’ll actually fall into this pit, or get wet by the chalk water. But others enjoy getting into the scene and playing out the scenario Beever has set up.
I don’t believe that Beever is trying to create some deep and heavy underlying message with his art, he’s just there to have a good time, and sucking in others to have a good time, if but for a second as they stroll by. In this respect, I believe his pieces are very effective. Beever puts his portraits out in the public for the public to see, no need to walk into a museum and pay for them. He adds in an interactive factor where people can for example pretend to jump into the water(emphasis on the pretend part, you’re still defiantly standing on solid concrete) or be clinging onto the molding boards. Lastly Beever just wants to have fun, and when looking at the photos or watching the videos it’s hard to find someone without a smile as they walk by. For all these reasons I say, crack open an ice cold bud light you champion of chalk drawing, you’ve made a sidewalk much more than a sidewalk, you’ve made a sidewalk with chalk on it.
Joseph D Cacek
Art 1601
Jonathan Kaiser
7 October 2009
The New Guthrie Theater
“Art” in the classical or popular sense of the word usually refers to drawings, paintings and sculptures found in an art gallery, however I feel that the word is much more flexible. I personally believe that buildings can be art and that the Guthrie Theater by Jean Nouvel in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis is a work of art. This building replaces the older Guthrie theatre on Hennepin Ave, which was nowhere near as striking or thought provoking as new one. The building, in my opinion is all about connections to the past, its location and to the performing arts and everything that surrounds the theatre-going experience.
Nouvel and those that worked on the design of the Guthrie used a few key elements to ensure this new building’s “connections”. Its location on the Mississippi River, surrounded by historic grain milling buildings like the Pillsbury flour mill is incorporated into the very fabric of the building by giving breathtaking views of the neighboring buildings and sites. Windows are positioned in just a way to “frame” specific views of the mill buildings next door, even one dedicated solely to the blinking Gold Medal Flour sign. This use of “picture framing” displays the history of the area in a way that almost seems like you are walking through an art gallery. To connect the building to the Mississippi river, a cantilever “endless bridge” sticks out from the edge of the building, putting theatergoers almost right above the rushing waters below. The building contains 3 theaters one of which is an almost exact replica of the thrust stage theatre in the old Guthrie building. This connects the new building to its roots in the old one by the Walker.
I think the new Guthrie is a very effective work of art. It may not be well received in all circles, but it undeniably projects a powerful image. Whenever I enter the building, I can feel the thought put into the planning and design. The hypermodern look, coupled with its connections to its historic location and rich history of the theatre company is inspiring, which is what effective art (and architecture) should do.
I decided to look up a video that I watched a few weeks ago, which obviously hit home somewhere if I could remember where it was and what it was called. The title of the piece of artwork is "Weekend Out: A Self Portrait at Age 19"; a piece done by an anonymous 23-year-old female artist.
The video shows a 19-year-old female getting ready for the night in a very "horror" movie manner. There are many flashes of lights in a dimly lit room and the film speeds up in certain places. There are also captions placed throughout the film that describe what she is doing or thinking, which in my opinion make it a little easier to follow. Soon after she is finished she heads out to the clubs by herself. Throughout this whole club scene the girl is consuming alcohol and flirting with a man that she met there. The flirty quickly intensifies, and the girl is found leaving the club with this man. The next flash shows the man completely naked and the girl throwing out all sense, leaving her drunken curiosity to take over. Before long, things start to get rough; too rough for her liking. She attempts to escape, but her attempts are pointless as the man effortlessly pulls her back to him. This is where the screen slowly fades to the morning after, when she is in the shower. The text points out that she has no recollection from the night before, and assumes her everyday role.
I absolutely loved this piece, as it tries to exploit the truths about alcohol and the dangers that it presents. The video itself was fairly graphic, but I feel that it is necessary when dealing with such a subject. I think it would serve as a good public service announcement because it instills fear into people, which would easily convince them to stray away from drugs and alcohol. The lighting and creepy music were key assets in this because it gives it the horror feel to it.
Overall, this is a great piece of work that not only entertains, but also informs. The strategies used to portray certain situations are brilliant and worked out perfectly. Schools should consider using this to show the dangers of alcohol abuse.
I immediately liked many things about this project. I liked the way the project encouraged people who were in many cases "not artists" to be creative. I liked how the creators of the project took on the role of teachers, in a way, by issuing out assignments that had open space for interpretation. I loved the warm, heartfelt compassion the project seemed to have for the unique lives people could lead. I liked how part of the project's goals seemed to be in addressing the alienation that people living in the hypercapitalist, high-technology first world can experience. The title, "Learning to Love You More," says it all, for me, in the way you begin to think that the projects are meant most importantly for the individual to connect with himself, his environment, or with other people.
The assignments are varied. Some are like elementary school arts and crafts projects, like "Make an Encouraging Banner." Others are more anthropological, asking the participants to consider aspects of their day to day life, like "Ask your family to describe what you do." Others are social experiments, like "Make a protest sign and protest," or "Take a picture of strangers holding hands." Others can be guerilla public art, like "Grow a garden in an unexpected spot." Others are thoughtful moments you're encouraged to create for yourself, like "Climb to the top of a tree and take a picture of the view."
The project definitely possesses something of the era that created Youtube and Myspace. Part of that might be its presence on the Internet, but I think also that the greater reason is the way the project emphasizes the unique creativity of the "non-artist" individual. I think the artists behind this project have created something meaningful. Rather than think of art as something created by other people to be observed, the best art is the one created by yourself and with other people. They teach by encouraging others to do for themselves, and in the process confront alienation and embrace the wonder of everyday life on this planet.
The piece of art I will be responding to was a piece I saw in an exhibit called “The Quick and the Dead,” however, I can’t find either the name of the piece or the exact details. This piece, however, was the piece that I found the most intriguing and thought provoking, so that is what I will respond to.
In the first large room of the exhibit sat a clear plastic case, which had a very old audio recorder in it and a microphone sticking out. This system recorded the input it received from the microphone onto a tape, which was long enough to record ten minutes of audio. From there the tape was feed back into the machine and recorded over. This process was a continual loop, with none of the recordings being saved for more than ten minutes.
There were several interesting ideas and questions this piece evoked in me. The most prominent reaction I had to this piece was questioning the importance of myself, or anyone else for that matter. In terms of humanity most people will go through their life without having any major effect on or notoriety in the human race. Over a long enough period of time even the people we consider famous historical figures now will become forgotten in time. Our insignificance in the scope of this piece is very similar to our insignificance as a human after we establish our place in history. If I go up to the microphone and reveal my darkest secret or great scientific discovery it is no more important or memorable to the piece than a bored teen that swears into the microphone. Although my message may be considered more significant, we are both equally forgotten.
The simplicity and interactivity of this piece was what really made it effective for me. The interactivity of the piece was what first caught my attention, because I could be a part of the art and a part of the message. I was compelled to linger at the piece, both to record my own sound and to listen to what other people said into the microphone. Also, because it was not flashy or complicated the message became the focus of the piece.
I found the piece thought provoking, interesting, and well designed. It is and excellent example of interactive art and an interesting twist on sound art.
http://www.piecesfineart.com/images/rauzier/76_large.jpg
title: Bicyclettes Abandonnees
medium: digital photograph mounted on plexiglass
dimensions: 274 x 122 cm (9' x 4'feet)
This piece is called Bicyclettes Abandonnees meaning abandoned bicycles. I'm not sure about the meaning of this piece but my personal reaction to it was that it caught my eye fairly quickly. The reason it did was because of the colors and the open space in the photo. The mirrored landscape makes it seem like there is no end to the edges or road. The abandoned bikes makes this piece more powerful by sending out the message of abandonment.
The aspect that was most interesting to me about this piece was the way it was made. Jean-Francois Rauzier constructed this piece with "...by precisely assembling up to 1000+ close-ups taken with a telephoto lens achieving gigantic images with extreme precision." That right there is very impressive to me. The amount of time and planning for something like this must have taken a very long time.
To me the piece was extremely effective even though you can tell that the photo was made up of others because of the squared edges and rough lines. I looked at some of his other constructed photos and have seen that Rauzier makes a good attempt at making those photos as real as possible. They still seem to be a bit digitized looking but it works for me.
I am responding to the piece "I Am Sitting in a Room" by Alvin Lucier. We listened to this piece in class, and I chose to talk about it because I had an immediate negative response to it. The artist speaks for about a minute, records it, and plays back the recording across the room, rerecording it. This is repeated until you can no longer distinguish his voice from the sound.
After the first few "rounds" of re-recording, I began to feel as if the clip that was being used was too long, since the replaying seemed to be intended to illustrate the point of the acoustic and resonant qualities of the room the recording was done in. I feel that a different technique could have been applied to mix the different stages of the recording into a more listenable structure. I do appreciate the concept of the piece, and consider it a successful experiment with a concept. The recording itself, however, was not a good listening experience and did not hold my interest. While the piece was obviously not intended as entertainment, an engaging piece of artwork should naturally cause curiosity and thought in the "audience".
I decided to look back at “The Yes Men – New York Times Special Edition”. This piece uses the Internet to convey an interactive political message. The template used by these artists exactly replicates that of the New York Times online media page except it reports news that is more wishful or satirical in content. The use of this page to convey politically stimulated is obvious. In fact, the top, bold headline reads “IRAQ WAR ENDS”. Additionally, if you select the links of the articles, to the right of the text (just like on the actual nytimes.com) there are advertisements. On the link that I selected, the moving, fabricated advertisement was for De Beers stating that every diamond purchase will enable the company to by a prosthetic arm for Africans that lost their arms in diamond conflicts.
To me, this website accomplished many things. First, the site evokes emotions and causes people viewing the site to reflect on how much of our world we wish would change. Secondly, the site shocks the viewer with all of the good news displayed. I even clicked the link from the class blog knowing very well what I was about to see but still had a momentary increase in heart rate when I saw the large headline. To me, my mind is so used to seeing nytimes.com (my personal homepage) that my instincts took over. Finally, the website accomplishes a large amount of interactivity. Not only do we work our way through the site, people are also able to comment on specific articles. These forms of interactivities allow this piece of art to be a working piece that never is truly finished.
Personally, I enjoy artwork that mimics everyday visuals. Using this technique allows for the shock and reactions that would be different than if this content were presented in an unfamiliar format. Since everyone knows what nytimes.com is and most people connote the formatting to authentic and reliable information, this website accomplished everything it sets out to do.
We discussed "Learning To Love You More" briefly during class, and a few weeks later I visited the site for a more thorough viewing. The “piece” is a website for a project that began in 2002 that gives specifically instructed assignments to participants to complete and send back to the site to post. The original piece has ended, but there are spin offs and continuations of the idea on other sites.
The creators use a website to display the work of participants. The site is pretty basic and no-fuss, and easy to navigate and to use. At first I didn’t like the look of it at all because of the white highlighted writing, but after awhile it starts to work with the orange and brown/gray of the site. The wording on the site is non-judgmental and a little poetic at times, and the layout and presentation is effective because it’s simple, organized, and has room for a ton of entries in each category.
I think the whole concept of the piece was to get people to step out of their comfort zones, use creativity that isn’t usually needed on a day-to-day basis (unfortunately), and to try new things. I have looked at a lot of the assignments and they are things I would never think of doing, but after reading them and seeing people’s interpretations, it looks like a lot fun and like a great escape from the reality of papers and complicated life stuff.
Barrett Srtska
I am responding to the piece of sound art we saw that involved the Millennium Bridge in Britain and the sound that was produced by the vibrations caused by the people walking on it. I recall being having the concept of the piece explained to me before hearing what was recorded and I thought that it would sound absolutely horrible. However, I was greatly surprised by the soft harmonic nature of the piece that paired quite nicely with the interesting architecture of the bridge itself. I would have never thought that such sounds could be produced by such a large structure like a bridge, let alone that the sounds would fit together so nicely.
The sounds recorded were done so by installing tiny little accelerometers that pick up the smallest vibrations. All of these accelerometers then transmitted their data back to the artist who then combined all of the recorded data into one cohesive piece. I was glad that the artist/video we viewed took the time to explain the process of making this piece because it was interesting to see what lengths the artist took to install all of the accelerometers all over the bridge. I was also excited to see that accelerometers were used to record the piece because I have previously worked with accelerometers but in a much different way.
My interpretation of the artist’s message in this piece is that sound/music is all around us, even when we don’t realize it. We are constantly surrounded by noise all days in our lives, but we often don’t think about how we are constantly producing sounds, some of which are inaudible to our naked ears. Our exerted energy is transferred into the environment and onto a new object which uses this new energy to produce a completely new sound. I believe the piece was very effective in getting me to think about sound in a different way. I started to wonder what other unique and beautiful sounds I was missing in the world. I will say that the whole development/recording process seemed a little scientific for an art piece, but I believe the final product’s organic feel brings the piece back into the realm of art.
David Byrne and The Room of Sound
Bryan Strickland
Last week in class we were shown a clip of David Byrne’s sound art. The piece was presented with an organ that was electronically connected to the warehouse ceiling, walls, and ventilation contraptions. Through a series of circuits connected to tiny pulsating hammers, sound would be derived from the pipes, and rather non-musically associated objects in the room. I thought this concept to be quite inspiring, considering how the organ, a musical instrument in itself, was not used as it was initially intended for. Taking David’s idea and applying it to a rather bare room was somewhat boring in my opinion, however if the overall product of the show was compiled together in a more musical sense I would have appreciated it more.
My critique of his work goes beyond just the bareness of the room he used, but also to the devices that were attached to the circuits to electronically derive sound from the pipes, and walls. The hammers that would take impulses from the organ and hit the objects in the room did not have a purely singular sound. I found that when the object received an impulse and responded with a short click from the mechanical device the illusion purity was destroyed.
In my opinion, the music was half of what it was supposed to be. Much of he recording ended up sounding like electronic gadget and clicks, those of which did not come from the walls and pipes, but from the materials used to derive sound from the room. Nonetheless, the idea was a brilliant and almost perfectly executed. The room could have used a more diverse level of sound and object to create a more complex recording.
Response Writing 1
The piece that I really wanted to write about was the series of paintings done by British artist Banksy along the West Bank Wall. I remember we viewed one of the stencils in class as an intro to the creative landscape project. The piece itself is part of a 9 stencil series that Banksy painted on the wall while visiting Israel on vacation. The pieces were painted on the wall a little over four years ago, yet still hold relevance to the conflicts in the surrounding area today.
Banksy is know for his distinct style of graffiti where he collages stencils together to create public pieces of art. All nine of the stencils he painted on the West Bank Wall tied back to the overall theme of escaping to freedom. The one piece shown in class consisted of a young boy standing on a pile of rocks that had gathered after he supposedly dug his way through the wall with a toy shovel and bucket. Some of the other paintings in the series displayed intricate scenes of paradise, if only the other side of the Wall could be reached.
I think that this piece by Banksy is very effective, both in location and content. These paintings depict freedom in a country that has been ridden with religious and political controversy ever since the dawn of time. I also think that the way Banksy produces his art adds to the overall message of power the people through rebellion. Many times his art is considered to be vandalism, because it is a form of graffiti. The thought alone of being the first one to tag the West Bank Wall is incredible to think about, none the less very intimidating. This piece is especially effective when characterized with the first project because Banksy literally changed the landscape to his visual liking.
-Ethan Weber
Casey Cayko
Art 1601
http://artandmusic.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/071208-banksy.jpg
I decided to write about a Banksy piece, which we may have seen in class, but one I have seen before either way. The image is typical style for Banksy, stencils on a surface of his choosing. This one is particularly powerful because of the surface he has put it on the wall in
Palestine. In his book “Wall and Piece”, Banksy describes the area as the world’s largest open-air prison. The image itself with the children playing in rubble and the hole in the wall showing a sand beach has a large impact upon first viewing. You look at it and are struck by how simple yet powerful the statement is. These people are forced to live in squalor when all they want is freedom and their own homeland.
The method Banksy employs to display his art is typically any area he chooses. This particular place adds so much to the image. The knowledge that this is a wall separating people from people and from their homeland is powerful. The image certainly shows the atrocity of keeping people in an area against their will and the sadness it can bring. I think it also shows hope for the people, that if the wall could fall then things would get better.
The image is simple yet really speaks to me as an individual; it is striking that something so simple can be so powerful when placed in the right area. If it had been somewhere else it would not have this meaning. Banksy always seems to provoke something in the mind when you look at his images, illegally placed in cities, but this one is all the more powerful for the topic it brings up and the hopefulness it shows.
Zeeshan Dawood
http://www.banksy.co.uk/indoors/flowerchucker.html
The piece I choose to respond to was apiece called Flower Chucker by Banksy. I found this piece on his website. On the website, there was no listed information about it. I was not able to tell the dimensions of the work or the material used. However, making an educated guess using the evidence of his other work, I assume it was made with spray paint and a stencil. Many of Banksy’s work are on walls of various buildings throughout UK. I am assuming this particular piece was stenciled on some wall. Using Google Image search, I was able to find the Flower Chucker painted on the wall; however, I did not find it on Banksy’s website. Therefore, there is ambiguity in its authorship.
The image itself is of a man wearing a hat backwards and a scarf covering his mouth. The man is in a throwing position and appears as if he is going to throw a bouquet of flowers. The man’s face is looking off to the right, and has a squinty determined look. His arm is cocked back and it appears as if is going to throw this bouquet with a lot of intensity. This image is quite interesting because, usually when we see a person in this position, we see them throwing a ball. However the person is not wearing a sports uniform, but in fact his clothes suggests that he might be a rebel, or a civilian fighting against the some higher governmental power. This is because his face is covered, and he looks as if he is wearing jeans and a jacket. Because he is dressed as a rebel, our minds automatically think that he will be holding something that can be used as weapon. Instead, he is holding a bouquet of flowers. These flowers are also the only thing colored in the picture. This is picture challenges our cultures’ normative idea of what a rebel is.
Looking at this oddly placed bouquet of flowers, we can then speculate what this piece address. Using the evidence in this piece, we can assume that the artist is trying to say, be a rebel without using violence. This is because of the juxtaposition of the bouquet of flowers in the hands of a rebel about to throw something. In many culture, flowers are a symbol of love, happiness, and good intention. Flowers are used on dates, weddings, celebration, and sometimes as tool in aiding when seeking forgivness. A rebel, on the other hand, many view them as a person that uses violence to fight against an unjust system. This artist is using two things that we consider opposite. He is putting a sign of peace, in the hands of someone who is fighting for a cause. The overall message appears to be say fight for something using peace, not violence.
I am extremely fond of this piece. I value its overall message, its simplicity, and its application. I am fascinated by public art and spray paint as it medium for communication. This piece’s composition is intriguing to me due to its content and the way the color are highlights the flowers. I also enjoy, its simple composition, using black and white almost as if it was a stamp. Usually graffiti works have a name next to it, to show authorship, but there is no name just the image. This lets the image stand for its self and there is no claim of authorship, almost as if it belongs to all. Overall, I believe this to be a highly effect piece of work.
Jyotiranjan (Joe) Jena
The artwork that I liked the most was The“Street with a view” by Robin hewlett & Ben kinsley. The project involved the famous google street view application. The whole project was to capture images of more like a virtual life on the streets of pittsburg. The residents not only showed their talents but also contributed a lot of their time and energy to create a new street life on the sampsonia way.
On may 3rd 2008 robin and ben invited the google inc. street view team and the residents of pittsburg's northside to participate in a series of events along the sampsonia way. Residents and other participants staged scenes like parade , marathon, garage band practice and much more.There were also a set of heroic rescues and seventeenth century swordfights. The google team captured 360 degree images of the street along with these scenes in action and integrated the images into the street viewing platform. This was the first time that google allowed artistic intervention in its street viewing application.
I was totally amazed by the fact that so many people participated in this huge event contributing their valuable time and energy. The fact that google team captured the whole series of events was even more amazing. The one thing I liked about the artists who made this project a success is how they really managed to get hold of the google team and make them capture the whole event and ultimately put it into the street viewing platform. And also I was wondering how they succeeded in making the residents stage such a huge event. I mean its really a difficult task to do. The artwork was way too effective because on one side it shows how happy and joyful life can be if we share some of our time and energy with our neighbors and on the other side it describes how a street life can be put together to form a great piece of art.
Paul Hilsen
Response Writing #1
This piece of art from an artist named Julian Beever. Not drawn or painted on paper or canvas this piece of work is drawn as an illusion on sidewalks with chalk around the world. The one illusion I choose was a piece or Beever looking like to was about to jump off a plank into the water below. He successfully is able to create a situation where fake water is flowing down real stairs, and the real buildings behind him are falsely held up by algae covered planks. This looks so real that the only thing to bring your mind back into check and realize what you’re seeing is the lines in the blocks of concrete.
My first few reactions were amusement and amazement. Beever is able to make these seemingly impossible situations come to life with nothing more than chalk and cement. The fact that he does this on public sidewalks and not on other traditional surfaces shows his creativity and love for his skill. Not only is this piece, along with others, fun to look at, they’re also interactive. For most people the interactivity is walking around them in fear that they’ll actually fall into this pit, or get wet by the chalk water. But others enjoy getting into the scene and playing out the scenario Beever has set up.
I don’t believe that Beever is trying to create some deep and heavy underlying message with his art, he’s just there to have a good time, and sucking in others to have a good time, if but for a second as they stroll by. In this respect, I believe his pieces are very effective. Beever puts his portraits out in the public for the public to see, no need to walk into a museum and pay for them. He adds in an interactive factor where people can for example pretend to jump into the water(emphasis on the pretend part, you’re still defiantly standing on solid concrete) or be clinging onto the molding boards. Lastly Beever just wants to have fun, and when looking at the photos or watching the videos it’s hard to find someone without a smile as they walk by. For all these reasons I say, crack open an ice cold bud light you champion of chalk drawing, you’ve made a sidewalk much more than a sidewalk, you’ve made a sidewalk with chalk on it.
Joseph D Cacek
Art 1601
Jonathan Kaiser
7 October 2009
The New Guthrie Theater
“Art” in the classical or popular sense of the word usually refers to drawings, paintings and sculptures found in an art gallery, however I feel that the word is much more flexible. I personally believe that buildings can be art and that the Guthrie Theater by Jean Nouvel in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis is a work of art. This building replaces the older Guthrie theatre on Hennepin Ave, which was nowhere near as striking or thought provoking as new one. The building, in my opinion is all about connections to the past, its location and to the performing arts and everything that surrounds the theatre-going experience.
Nouvel and those that worked on the design of the Guthrie used a few key elements to ensure this new building’s “connections”. Its location on the Mississippi River, surrounded by historic grain milling buildings like the Pillsbury flour mill is incorporated into the very fabric of the building by giving breathtaking views of the neighboring buildings and sites. Windows are positioned in just a way to “frame” specific views of the mill buildings next door, even one dedicated solely to the blinking Gold Medal Flour sign. This use of “picture framing” displays the history of the area in a way that almost seems like you are walking through an art gallery. To connect the building to the Mississippi river, a cantilever “endless bridge” sticks out from the edge of the building, putting theatergoers almost right above the rushing waters below. The building contains 3 theaters one of which is an almost exact replica of the thrust stage theatre in the old Guthrie building. This connects the new building to its roots in the old one by the Walker.
I think the new Guthrie is a very effective work of art. It may not be well received in all circles, but it undeniably projects a powerful image. Whenever I enter the building, I can feel the thought put into the planning and design. The hypermodern look, coupled with its connections to its historic location and rich history of the theatre company is inspiring, which is what effective art (and architecture) should do.
Mitch Mastey
I decided to look up a video that I watched a few weeks ago, which obviously hit home somewhere if I could remember where it was and what it was called. The title of the piece of artwork is "Weekend Out: A Self Portrait at Age 19"; a piece done by an anonymous 23-year-old female artist.
The video shows a 19-year-old female getting ready for the night in a very "horror" movie manner. There are many flashes of lights in a dimly lit room and the film speeds up in certain places. There are also captions placed throughout the film that describe what she is doing or thinking, which in my opinion make it a little easier to follow. Soon after she is finished she heads out to the clubs by herself. Throughout this whole club scene the girl is consuming alcohol and flirting with a man that she met there. The flirty quickly intensifies, and the girl is found leaving the club with this man. The next flash shows the man completely naked and the girl throwing out all sense, leaving her drunken curiosity to take over. Before long, things start to get rough; too rough for her liking. She attempts to escape, but her attempts are pointless as the man effortlessly pulls her back to him. This is where the screen slowly fades to the morning after, when she is in the shower. The text points out that she has no recollection from the night before, and assumes her everyday role.
I absolutely loved this piece, as it tries to exploit the truths about alcohol and the dangers that it presents. The video itself was fairly graphic, but I feel that it is necessary when dealing with such a subject. I think it would serve as a good public service announcement because it instills fear into people, which would easily convince them to stray away from drugs and alcohol. The lighting and creepy music were key assets in this because it gives it the horror feel to it.
Overall, this is a great piece of work that not only entertains, but also informs. The strategies used to portray certain situations are brilliant and worked out perfectly. Schools should consider using this to show the dangers of alcohol abuse.
This is about "Learning to Love You More."
I immediately liked many things about this project. I liked the way the project encouraged people who were in many cases "not artists" to be creative. I liked how the creators of the project took on the role of teachers, in a way, by issuing out assignments that had open space for interpretation. I loved the warm, heartfelt compassion the project seemed to have for the unique lives people could lead. I liked how part of the project's goals seemed to be in addressing the alienation that people living in the hypercapitalist, high-technology first world can experience. The title, "Learning to Love You More," says it all, for me, in the way you begin to think that the projects are meant most importantly for the individual to connect with himself, his environment, or with other people.
The assignments are varied. Some are like elementary school arts and crafts projects, like "Make an Encouraging Banner." Others are more anthropological, asking the participants to consider aspects of their day to day life, like "Ask your family to describe what you do." Others are social experiments, like "Make a protest sign and protest," or "Take a picture of strangers holding hands." Others can be guerilla public art, like "Grow a garden in an unexpected spot." Others are thoughtful moments you're encouraged to create for yourself, like "Climb to the top of a tree and take a picture of the view."
The project definitely possesses something of the era that created Youtube and Myspace. Part of that might be its presence on the Internet, but I think also that the greater reason is the way the project emphasizes the unique creativity of the "non-artist" individual. I think the artists behind this project have created something meaningful. Rather than think of art as something created by other people to be observed, the best art is the one created by yourself and with other people. They teach by encouraging others to do for themselves, and in the process confront alienation and embrace the wonder of everyday life on this planet.
Art 1601 Response Writing #1
Jeff Mondloch
The piece of art I will be responding to was a piece I saw in an exhibit called “The Quick and the Dead,” however, I can’t find either the name of the piece or the exact details. This piece, however, was the piece that I found the most intriguing and thought provoking, so that is what I will respond to.
In the first large room of the exhibit sat a clear plastic case, which had a very old audio recorder in it and a microphone sticking out. This system recorded the input it received from the microphone onto a tape, which was long enough to record ten minutes of audio. From there the tape was feed back into the machine and recorded over. This process was a continual loop, with none of the recordings being saved for more than ten minutes.
There were several interesting ideas and questions this piece evoked in me. The most prominent reaction I had to this piece was questioning the importance of myself, or anyone else for that matter. In terms of humanity most people will go through their life without having any major effect on or notoriety in the human race. Over a long enough period of time even the people we consider famous historical figures now will become forgotten in time. Our insignificance in the scope of this piece is very similar to our insignificance as a human after we establish our place in history. If I go up to the microphone and reveal my darkest secret or great scientific discovery it is no more important or memorable to the piece than a bored teen that swears into the microphone. Although my message may be considered more significant, we are both equally forgotten.
The simplicity and interactivity of this piece was what really made it effective for me. The interactivity of the piece was what first caught my attention, because I could be a part of the art and a part of the message. I was compelled to linger at the piece, both to record my own sound and to listen to what other people said into the microphone. Also, because it was not flashy or complicated the message became the focus of the piece.
I found the piece thought provoking, interesting, and well designed. It is and excellent example of interactive art and an interesting twist on sound art.