9:03 PM
8:34 PM
Medium Specificity
8:34 PMArtist's Statement: I chose to explore the medium of painting. I picked something very unique to painting as ...
Artist's Statement:
I chose to explore the medium of painting. I picked
something very unique to painting as a medium: its origin. Art Historians have
discovered that painting began in about 20,000 B.C.E. Very few other mediums, like film or
photography, have this ancient of an origin. It began with paintings on cave
walls in parts of Europe. All of the images were done with black, brown, red,
and orange pigments. The depictions were of animals, like buffalos and cows.
These were very common, yet highly important to this hunting and gathering
society. The cave paintings were simple, yet they showed what was valued at the
time.
I wanted to explore the medium of painting because of this
unique origin. In other words, cave painting is painting reduced to its
simplest, most basic form. These paintings were done on stone. I explored the
medium by creating my own “cave painting.” I painted a version of Van Gogh’s
Starry Night on the stone. I wanted to paint a more current painting that is
well known, but on an actual rock and in the colors the prehistoric artists
would have had. I did this as a commentary on the medium. Would this painting
be as esteemed if it was simplified and painted on stone thousands and thousands of years ago by an unknown artist? It
is an interesting idea to ponder.
My “cave painting” also serves as a celebration of the
medium. Even though cave painting is a prehistoric art form, it is still
possible to recreate it today. I did just that. We have been able to see so
many different styles of art and painting develop through history, but the
creation of a new style or new work of art doesn’t invalidate older works. We
can still study, enjoy, and create every form of painting, ancient and
modern.
5:27 PM
Social Media Adaptation
5:27 PMArtists' Statement: The creation of our project involved a very large detour. The idea was simple enough, adapt Jane Aust...
Artists' Statement:
The creation of our project involved a very large detour. The idea was simple
enough, adapt Jane Austen’s classic, Pride and Prejudice to Facebook. The social
network is the perfect venue for such a relationship driven story. The entire
book focuses on social interaction, social status, and relationships, which is what
Facebook is all about.
Our method was ambitious; we would create real Facebook accounts for the main
characters and re-create the narrative following the order of events from the
book. We met together in the computer lab and each opened up three or four
different web browsers on our respective computers. When we had a list of all the
most important events to cover, we began to create events, add friends, and post
comments and status updates. All of the characters were friends with Jane Austen,
and we were tracking the story via her home feed. We created the Netherfield ball
event, invited guests, accepted invitations, commented afterward, etc. Then the
unthinkable happened. Facebook began to shut us down! Our accounts were logged
out automatically and we were unable to log back in. We received messages that we
were in violation of Facebook policy by having and using multiple accounts. So our
elaborate and fun project suddenly got wiped out. Oh, internet!
Ironically, the only somewhat important thing we have ever tried to do on Facebook
is the only thing we ever were not permitted to do on Facebook. The social network
has managed to hurt us academically not only by facilitating excessive time-wasting,
but now by figuratively “eating our homework!” We invested hours of time to create
the accounts (and accompanying email addresses), and actually perform the story
live, only to have it all taken away in an instant.
We resorted to plan “B”, which was the website ‘thewallmachine.com’, to create a
fake Facebook wall. This was not the way we wanted to tell the story because it is
much more flat and linear than we wanted our presentation to be. Real Facebook
accounts would have provided layers of profiles to explore. Anchored by Jane
Austen’s home feed, one click could link viewers to the other profiles, events, etc.
As it is, our project is a nice re-telling, but not the social media experience we had
originally hoped for.
5:19 PM
Textual Poaching
5:19 PMArtist's Statement: I did ballet for 8 years, and then other types of dance for 3 years after that. I'm only 19, so when you ad...
Artist's Statement:
I did ballet for 8 years, and then other types of dance for 3 years after that. I'm only 19, so when you add those years up, you find I have spent the majority of my life involved in the world of dance. When I was younger, I thought I would be doing ballet forever. I thought I would go on to be a prima ballerina or a ballet teacher. I was certain it would stay part of me forever. I still identify with dancers, ballet specifically. I have stopped dancing, but It was such a big part of me for a long time, that I still feel connected to that world.
Degas' ballerina paintings have always struck me. They represent more of the behind-the-scenes world of ballet. Degas liked to portray ballerinas as workers. Ballet is their job, and they work hard at at. It isn't all glamorous; there is more that happens behind the curtain. I took this particular painting, called Le Classe Danse, and found that I could really identify with it. I agree with Degas' portrayals of ballerinas and all of the time and work that goes into it. Ballet is something you have to be committed to for a very long time. It's much like any other serious sport. A person can't simply decide at age 18 that she wants become a professional ballerina, without having put in a lifetime of training. For people like me, this characteristic of dance is what made me stop. I didn't feel like I would be able to commit so much time and energy to ballet, because I was interested in too many other things. I wouldn't be able to achieve what I thought was my goal, because I didn't want to live that lifestyle.
I decided to repurpose Le Classe Danse to reflect my views of the dance world, and how I now fit into that world. As I mentioned, I still consider myself a dancer. It really has been something that has shaped me as a person. But now, I am on the outside of that world. I was once an insider, and I still understand the world of dance. I illustrated this by inserting a glass wall around the actual dance class. It is an extremely exclusive thing that can not easily be entered. The ballerina in the foreground is on the outside of the glass, but the action can still be seen. She is no longer a part of that world, though she has strong ties to it.
I feel my manipulation of the piece is similar to the DJ Spooky video we viewed in class. He took a piece of media that he identified with, and then remixed it to show his current views. I think I did exactly that with my piece, even though the medium was different. It also makes me think of fanfiction in general. People are taking a work that they feel strongly about and identify with, and they manipulate it to show their views and make it even more personal to them.
I got some interesting feedback when I posted this piece to a social media platform. The people who looked at it all interpreted it slightly differently. A few people who know me well thought it was about my introverted personality. I like to be on the outside of events, and just learn by observing. Most people said they could relate to it, especially because it could apply to athletics in general. The feedback I got was almost completely positive. A few people didn't like that I had colored the ballerina in the foreground, saying it was distracting. But some others said it added a lot of personality and had a lot of meaning. I decided to leave her colored differently, because I felt it represented my feelings accurately; I'm much different now than I was when I danced. I am glad people were able to interpret it in their own way, but could understand my views at the same time.
5:04 PM
Historical Story - Scott Raia and Jessica Marquis
5:04 PMArtists' Statement: This week we discussed the role of history in our lives and in storytelling. Many people consi...
Artists' Statement:
This week we discussed the role of history in our lives and in storytelling. Many people consider history to be concrete and unchanging – it happened exactly a certain way, one person wrote it down, and that’s that. But the recollection of history is actually quite relative. Each person perceives the past differently, and events that occurred embody different meanings to everyone.
The story we chose for our script is from my family history. It is based on the story of how my grandparents met. It takes place in 1950, right after the start of the Korean War. But the war does not exactly play a major role in the story. Its inclusion in the form of a newspaper article serves only to establish the historical context wherein the story transpires. The acquaintance of these two people is the big event in the script and in my family’s history.
This script is based on an true story, but we added and omitted some details to improve its fitness to be a screenplay. I feel this falls in line with article we read by Ethan Canin. He wrote about his relationship with an old photo. Throughout the story he thought it was a photo of his mother, hanging up blankets after a family activity, but later he finds out that it was actually a picture of his grandmother, and what he thought was happening in the photo was not at all what actually happened. In one sense, he fabricated his own history, and it was a big part of him.
We discussed this idea in class, and we think this script is a great example of this phenomenon. We did change the story, but it does not necessarily make it less true. We simply shaped history differently.
