Week Five: ART SHOW REVIEW

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a show in downtown Goleta that some friends of mine put on to raise money for a charity / cause that they have been passionate about as of recent. The show was entitled "Save Naples". Naples is a fairly secret surf spot in Santa Barbara County, on some fairly undeveloped land, that is currently subject to potential development. Development at this beach would mean losing one of SB's last truly untouched, beautiful beaches. The show consisted of work (all of which was for sale), of all types. From paintings (some of Naples itself), to photography, to pottery, sculpture, and drawings, the show was a "hodge-podge" of work done by locals all for the purpose of raising both awareness and funds to stop the ruining of this beach. During the show, which lasted two nights, some local surfers / musicians kept the mood of the show fun and entertaining with jam sessions that lasted the entirety of the show. Part of the musical entertainment was my friend Catherine (or "Kat" as most know her), who sang with the band both nights. Although some of the work was truly awesome (I liked much of the photography of surfing on the california coastline), the vibe of the show, that of community and common cause,  is what made it a very enjoyable experience.
heres an article i found about the show.,,check it out!

http://www.independent.com/news/2011/apr/13/artists-join-forces-naples/?print

Day 36: THOUGHTS ON PERSONAL SPACE / ALTERNATE PERSONA ASSIGNMENTS

I'm pretty damn excited for these two projects. That doesn't mean I have the slightest clue as to what I might do for them, but brainstorming should be quite a "cluster-fuck" of fun ideas. Lets just Start (key word here is start) the process, shall we? Ok...Go!
Personal Space:
slip-and slide on grass along the bike-path? outdoor shower in a public space... shampooing and soaping up, the whole 9 yards? hang up my laundry to dry between trees? put up speakers (disguised in bushes), and have a loop of frightening animal sounds, and startling sounds playing, catching passers by surprise (lion roar, elephant honk, eagle squawk, beak attack, etc... the scarier the better)?...i kind of like that one. on the same track, do the same thing but with sounds that are just completely out of place, like the sounds of waves crashing violently, lightning, thunder, etc". I don't know, just a rough brainstorm without really knowing what the project is yet.
Alternate Persona:
switch up my routine, wearing my clothes when i surf, and a wetsuit when I'm out of the water for two days straight? Fake beard (not an obviously fake one), wrinkles, etc... basically make myself look like an old man for two days, walker and all. be a tree for two days (with branches and leaves? yikes i don't know about that one). punk rocker for two days...go all out (piercings, tat's, hair-do and all).
JUST a start. The wheel has only just begun churning.

Day 35: RESPONSE TO CHAP 9 McCLOUD

In the last chapter of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, the concepts covered throughout the entirety of the book, or comic, are wrapped up, highlighting the importance of understanding how comics work. McCloud, in this chapter, states that the common thread throughout nearly all forms of visual communication is the inability for the messages to be understood in the exact, thorough way that they were intended in the communicator's (or for that matter, the artist's) mind. He describes the messages as having to survive a "journey" through barriers existing between communicator and receiver, and that when artist's master their medium, they are, in fact, mastering the ability to reduce the affects of these unwanted barriers. Another way to lessen the detrimental effects of these barriers, as McCloud proposes, is to learn, and understand the workings of the given medium. Comics, with their usage of mixing media, empty space, closure, etc, have many hurdles to jump before being fully comprehended by the viewer, however, this chapter proposes that the knowledge expressed throughout the previous chapters can lead to greater understanding of the art-form, and thus, greater appreciation for its many complexities.

Day 34: NARRATIVE IDEAS?

IDEA I:
I was thinking about maybe incorporating a song into video narrative. I would pick a song that i feel like tries to tell a story, and attempt to capture the story through video images that may not seem so obvious, but more on the obscure side. Hopefully these images would in a way capture the story in the song. Im not so sure about the legalities of using a recorded song, but, an idea none-the-less.

IDEA III:
I could take pictures of my shoes in all the different locations that they have been throughout a day in my life, and compile them in sequential order, in a video format (or even film a few seconds in each location). What may simply seem like a flashing sequence of the same shoes in different places, it would capture the passing of time and the movement through time.

IDEA III:
I could re-wax my surfboard, taking pictures with every 10 strokes of wax, capturing images of the buildup of wax into eventual bumps (hard to envision if you don't surf). when, placed in sequential order, and  played back and forth, the buildup and breakdown of the wax could be a cool visual representation of the passing of time, construction and destruction.

Day 33: FAVORITE ARTIST?

Although it's hard to pinpoint a single favorite artist, I would have to say my favorite at the moment is an Italian graffiti / mixed media / stop motion artist who goes by the name of "Blu". I came across his work during an english class i took during my senior year of high school when my teacher showed us a video of a mural he did in germany. Since then, I've followed Blu's website, always looking for his newest work. What I like so much about his work is its raw nature, and how he successfully brings graffiti, something that covers the streets of my hometown neighborhood, into a new light. His works come alive through his stop animation, in a way, transforming average city blocks, or building's walls, into surreal universes, where shapeshifting, or for that matter, anything, can happen. Another thing that really impresses me about his work is the scale of projects he tends to take on. while his drawings and still pieces can be incredible, both visually, and in size, his stop motion pieces often span across whole city blocks, covering entire sides of buildings. The time and effort put into these pieces blows my mind. Heres the link to his website. I Highly recommend you check him out.  http://blublu.org/.



Here's one of my favorite of his videos, although there are many more on the site (link above)

Day 32: FREE FORM

Sometimes people bug me. Have you ever had a conversation about music with someone who simply has no idea what they're talking about? So fucking annoying. Im not saying that just because someone has different musical taste than me, they annoy me... that would be ridiculous. What I'm talking about is when someone who has never given any real attention to certain genres of music tries to act like they know what they're talking about, often discounting the genre as "not real music". For me, this conversation seems to always be about Hip Hop, debatably my favorite genre of music. Im not talking about mainstream, popular, excuse my french, but, bullshit version of hip hop. The genre has a real history, and goes much deeper than the sad representation that plays on the radio. When people who don't listen to, or for that matter, study the genre beyond that which they hear on the radio or see on mtv (in my opinion the most ridiculous television station around), try to act like they know what hip hop is all about, and that it's the same, "idiots talking about money, babes, and guns, with no skill", thats what ticks me off. I urge all of you "haters" out there to look a little deeper before opening your mouth and making yourself seem like a musical ignoramus, stereotyping artwork based on the needle-point tip of a monstrous iceberg. A musical Bigot. Open your ears a little. you don't have to change your opinions, thats not fair to ask, but please, i repeat, P L  E A S E back up your opinion based off real musical research, otherwise your opinion is, to tell the truth, a quite-offensive "non-opinion".
Here's some food for thought:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ctpic0VhrA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nVzSr3yDcA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi7phK5zp8I

Day 31: RESPONSE TO CONFESSIONS DAY THREE

Out of todays confessions, my favorite was done by Andrew Munoz. For his piece, he edited together the sounds of someone walking through the woods, including sounds of birds, insects, bears, and the ground crunching under-foot. To present the sound, we all sat in the room with the lights off, the room blacked out into complete and utter darkness (with the exception of a quick burst of light when the door opened to let in a late classmate), and listened to it through surround sound speakers. His confession was the he was, and still is, afraid of the dark. He told a story that marked the start of this fear. When he was 6 he wandered off into the woods on a camping trip at night, only to be found hours and hours later by the rangers, crying, only feet from a family of bears. His presentation made for a truly unique viewer experience. Rather than simply listening to his confession, or showing us what happened visually, he succeeded in putting the viewer in a seemingly vulnerable position, pulling out the same kind of feelings of vulnerability that he may have felt, leading to his confessed fear. This may have been my favorite confession out of all that we have seen because of this very experience aspect. hats off!

Day 30: RESPONSE TO TODAY'S LECTURE

Today in lecture Kip focused on the broad theme of Personal Narrative. We determined that personal narrative is distinguished by its basis in truth, its inclusivity of signifying details, its non-transferable qualities, as well as its ability to allow the audience to feel empathy towards the story and its components. We then proceeded to look at various people and narratives that have been especially resonant throughout history, such as on the topic of the Holocaust, the massacre at Tienanmen Square, Rosa Parks, and Palden Gyatso, all or which the basis of endless numbers of powerful narratives. We then looked at the work of Sally Man, photographic narratives documenting the aging and relationships of her children, followed by the work of Lynda Barry, with her piece entitled "The Aswang" (from One! Hundred! Demons!), highlighting the childish, yet dark relationship between three generations of a family. My favorite piece that we looked at today was the narrative by David Sedaris entitled "6 to 8 Black men" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYdpte1W0vk). This piece takes narrative in its simplest form, and in my opinion, hits the nail on the head (sorry for bring so cliche...truly). I laughed my ass off during this piece, and even emailed the link to my dad as soon as I got out of class.

Week Four: ART SHOW

This weekend I had to go down to San Diego for a surf competition, so on my way down south from Santa Barbara, I stopped in my home town of Venice. During the short time that i was home, i went to a friend of mines small art opening he held his house. A current student of photography at Brooks institute, he decided to invite a small group of friends and family over to display what he has been working on. My friend, the photographer (who asked that I not use him name in this write-up), focused much of his photography on images on Downtown Los Angeles, attempting to show the contrast in dark, filthiness, as well as random beauty. My favorite image, Untitled, was taken from within dark alley, looking up against the side of an overflowing, fluid-leaking dumpster, with the sun just overhead, the overflowing trash casting unique shadow effects against the bright sun as a background. All of his shots were in black and white, and were blown up to be at least my height, and just as wide. At this scale, it was often times difficult to even make out that the shots were of common city scenery, making for many abstract interpretations amongst many other viewers, as well as myself. It was cool to go to a small show of a close friend's work, allowing me to see his work that i would have otherwise not known he had been making.

Week Four: PROJECT DOCUMENTATION.

This week we focused on finishing our confession pieces, and presenting / critiquing them to the class. The project that i followed through with was the one that i alluded to in last weeks "project documentation post". My confession, in a nut shell, was that I am still bitter about something that happened to me when I was five years old. To perform my confession, I stood in front of the class, wearing awkwardly-fitting children's clothes, and vented. To prepare for the "venting", I simply wrote down a couple major points that i should touch on, like the story of what  actually happened (this little bastard threw a metal fire truck toy at my head for no fucking reason), and how I met him over ten years later and still hated him without even really knowing him. before presenting, however, I didn't really "practice" the performance, for i felt that the more natural my expression was, the better, and more "real" of a confession it would be". Just as I didn't rehearse the rambling, I also refrained from trying on the small shirt i wore before the presentation. I knew it was small, but didn't know how awkward it would feel, making for a palpable level of tension between me and my wardrobe. My idea behind the small clothes was to represent the awkwardness, and childishness of holding a grudge of such an immature nature, into adulthood (Ironically, the most awkward part of the clothing wasn't wearing it in front of the class, but, instead, going to the thrift store to find it...in a way, that almost made part of my confession public). The language i used in the "speech", chalk full of "F-Bombs" and such, was very adult language, contrasting with the clothing...A very intentional contrast. Here are some pictures (Courtesy of "Danger" Dane) taken during the performance...

Day 29: RESPONSE TO RAUSCHENBERG.

After reading Tomkins'  piece on Robert Rauschenberg, I was left slightly confused as to the unique qualities of his work. I understood that he really focused on changing his work, in terms of medium of painting, the materials, as well as his attention to the fine line between art and life, however, unlike the other artists that we have read about, with very distinct, dare i say, "mission statements", this biography didn't seem to be quite as clearly laid forth. Upon review, however, i began to realize that his very questioning of the medium, and all aspects of his work, including the meaning, is what truly separates him from other painters of the time. Rather than repeat a theme, or explore the depths of a theme in series of works, Rauschenberg strives to simply "move on". He explains this in an interesting way towards the end of the article. "When a painting is finished it's already something I've done, no longer something I'm doing, and it's not so interesting any more...The point is, I just paint in order to learn something new about painting, and everything I learn always resolves itself into two of three pictures". This quote in a sense sums up my still slightly fuzzy understanding of him and his work.

Day 28: RESPONSE TO McCLOUD 7 AND 8.

In Chapters seven and eight of McCloud's Understanding Comics, two main topics stand as the central focuses. In Chapter 7, McCloud focuses on revealing the common ties between the art of "Comic"and all other forms of art. He suggest that all art consists of six components -- Idea / purpose, form, idiom, structure, craft, and surface -- which all together can be applied universally, with emphasis on various aspects for artists with different goals. In Chapter 8, McCloud brings in an aspect of comics that has, until this point, been left out of the equation, that is, the subject of color. He highlights the two main components of the struggle "Comic" has had with color throughout it's history, that is, the problems with "commerce" and "technology", and how these two restrictions have shaped the artistic use of color in major ways. He also focuses on the different uses of color, from the "four colors process" to color as an iconic / symbolic tool, to color as a means to express the subjective, and how they are part of conscious decisions that the artists make to convey different "vibes".  I found the notion that the cost, as well as the available printing technology, has dramatically shaped the use of color, with all of its potential as an artistic tool, as well as laid forth a context for situational creativity, very interesting.

Day 27: RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS

Today I was down in Encinitas for a surf contest. I was on my way to the beach in the early, pre-light hours of the morning, when i stopped at a local coffee shop along the side of the Pacific Coast Highway. Outside the coffee shop was a homeless man, asking for change to get a coffee. At that early hour, there weren't many other people passing by. This meant that, no matter how successful he was at asking for spare change, a cup of coffee was a goal that would take hours to achieve. I thought that rather than giving him my little change, only helping him get to his eventual success of a morning cup-a-joe, I'd just go ahead and get a cup for him. I came to this conclusion after ordering my coffee, and just before the lay behind the register finalized the same, I slid back out the front door, and asked him how he took his coffee, and proceeded to order him a cup. Upon exiting the shop,and handing him the hot, steaming large cup of coffee, almost dramatized by the cold, foggy morning that it was.  His eyes lit up, as he responded with an earnest "god bless you". A simple cup of coffee might not have done all that much in the long run to affect his life or anything, but making his challenging day that much better, and that much easier most definatly  had an effect on the both of us.

Day 26: CONFESSIONS DAY TWO

Today in class another bunch of confessions were displayed. I would have to to say the piece done by Maxwell about alcohol abuse. Max obviously took much time and effort to dial in every detail of his performance, making for a truly unique, powerful experience. With the lights turned off, all except a spotlight on the center of the room, the classroom was transformed into the unique locations of his scenes. He started off his piece pinning up a painting of two wine bottles, one pouring onto another, and proceeded to act out a scene taking place back when he was 14, an early introduction to the consequences of alcohol abuse. He then proceeded to fast foreword to present day, acting out a scene in which the role were reversed, where he now was the one being drunkenly "cared" for. This piece hit home with nearly everyone in the room, showing an all too familiar occurrence in our nearby Isla vista.  I personally got chills during his performance.

Day 25: FREE FOR ALL

Free for all...what to write. I could write about how much work i have to do, but that would just be complaining. I could write about how I can't seem to do any work right now, but then I'd seem lazy. I could solve my problems through a facebook status, but then I'm begging for attention. I could start stressing, but thats no use. I could think about my dogs, my home town, and how much i miss it all, but I don't intend to come off unhappy. I could get worked up about this weekend and the contest im competing in, but i dont wanna get nervous. I could work ahead, but thats not my style. I could stay inside, but id rather not. I could mope about, but thats not helping. I could go eat. but im not that hungry. Drink? not that thirsty. eeeh. Ill just write about what i could write about...or maybe just go to sleep. Im tired.

Day 24: CONFESSIONS, DAY 1

Today we held a "crit" day ("Critique day") in class, in which about half of the class presented their confession pieces. A thought the great majority of the pieces were really interesting, making it hard to choose a favorite.  However, one piece that stood out to me as particularly powerful was the piece about the father-daughter relationship. In this piece, the artist set up a dinner place setting, equipped with a salad, with a heart shaped bell-pepper on the top, a wine glass filled with water, a candle, a small pile of sand, and lastly, utensils wrapped in a two page letter. As a visual piece (what it was intended to be), it seemed to make a statement about loneliness, and in a sense, heart-ache, with a single setting, untouched and alone. The letter was long and dense, so the majority of the class didn't read it at first. The artist, however, decided to read it after everybody had a look at the display. The letter, eloquently written, was addressed to her father, spilling the artists emotions and feeling about her fathers unhealthy habits, and how she resents the fact that they have never had a strong relationship, and how she has longed for one her whole life. By reading her letter, the artists transformed an already strong visual piece, into an extremely powerful performance piece. Looking around the room as the artist read her letter, nearly every member of the class was completely fixated, many even visibly trying (rather unsuccessfully) to hold back tears. A truly passionate piece, well thought out, and well executed.

Day 23: RESPONSE TO TODAY'S LECTURE

Today in lecture we focused on the theme of Mapping and Systems, and how they pertain to art and its daily implications. Rather than  looking at maps in a traditional sense, we focused on the idea of maps as "celebrations of knowledge and mastery", as well as how we map human behavior, beauty, hierarchy / power, demographics, fashion, as well as gentrification throughout history in a social context. Mapping, in this sense, can be as simple as tracing (or "mapping") themes throughout series of works, such as the "Ugly Duckling" motif throughout pop culture shows such American Idol, and outsider / Native interaction as seen in James Cameron's Avatar and its obvious predecessors. In each of the aforementioned categories, we discussed various art works (each mapping different societal "things"), as well of various pop cultural examples. I found the works of Nina Katchadourian that we examined at the beginning of lecture to be quite interesting, in particular, her "World Map", "Coastal Merger", and her "Map Dissection". I liked how in the first two of these works took very common images of world maps, and subtly changed the placement of countries, continents, sizes and orientations, making a completely new world view, potentially a statement about how we, the average viewers, really don't know anything about how the world is laid out, always faced with distortion...a different approach to displaying knowledge, or rather, lack thereof.

Week Three: ART SHOW VISIT.

This week, I attended a show at the Contemporary Arts Forum in downtown Santa Barbara, right off State street. The show was entitled Eating Apples in Paradise, and features the works of twelve local Santa Barbara artists. The show was wrapped around the theme of Santa Barbara, and how it has, throughout it's history, been tied to notions of paradise through the ways it has been marketed to tourism and developed. Works in the show accepted this common theme in very different ways, utilizing very different mediums and art-forms, from photography, to paintings, to large installations. My favorite piece in the show, entitled Blitzed, by James Van Arsdale, was a mixed media installation that was both eye-catching in its execution, as well as allowed me, a spectator, to play with it in terms of its connection to the overarching theme of the show. It consisted of a painted, idealized city-scape, with plants in the foreground, on the wall, with what looked like painted cardboard rocks on the floor directly in front. Even further in front of the wall were two jagged red barriers, and various other cut outs strewn about. On the wall above the painting was a large hypnotizing black and white spiral, dramatically lighting the rest of the piece. Personally i interpreted this aspect as a statement about how Santa Barbara's Chamber of Commerce and Conference  and Visitor's Bureau has pushed forth an image of the city highlighting only the beautiful and "grand" characteristics, in a sense "hypnotizing" visitors with its facades, represented by the barriers in front of the wall.  I really enjoyed the theme of the show, for it allowed the artists to take their respective pieces in a number of directions.

Week Three: PROJECT PROGRESS.

This week we focused on narrowing down, and refining our ideas for our confession pieces. Personally, I wasn't too happy with my brainstormed ideas going into this weeks workshops, however I think I've chosen a project that I'm actually pretty stoked on! My original ideas were striving to be fairly "Deep", making it very difficult to do the topics justice (at least in my mind), so I started joking around with a classmate we call "Danger" about less serious confessions, and, through this unintentional process, landed on an idea that, at first glance, may seem trivial, but upon examination, has roots that extend deeper into the notion of confession. Its hard to talk about my project here, explaining it before I do it for the class, for, otherwise certain elements of confusion, or for lack of better words, "surprise", may be weaker in its actual performance. Out of fairness, however, Ill explain in one sentence what my project is.
PROJECT: Im still bitter about something that happened to me when i was but five years old....thats it.

Day 22: RESPONSE TO CAGE

     Calvin Tomkins' chapter on John Cage, in The Bride and the Bachelors, highlights the avant-garde American composer's principle, overarching theories regarding music composition, as well as a history of his major works and artistic affiliations and achievements. The overlying ideas of Cage's work revolved around his notion of art as "purposeless play", an idea that centers itself on the idea that the artists must attempt, not to portray his inner expression through an orderly creation, but, instead, through an attempt to "wake up to the very life we're living"(p.73). Cage suggests that because the modern world we live in is one of constant change, the music created should be encompassing of these ever-present new developments. Within this notion lies Cage's propositions. He "Proposes an art born of chance and indeterminacy, in which every effort is made to extinguish the artist's own personality"as well as "urges a perpetual process of artistic discovery in out daily life" (p.73). Here lies the strongest tie to the overarching class theme of "Art and Life". Rather than creating stagnant "masterpieces", that remain unchanged through eras, Cage seems to strive for a unending effort to capture the sounds and experiences one experiences (or will experience) in their increasingly progressive lives, smudging barriers between the process of composition and daily life. Cage's separation from his artistic and intellectual control over his pieces struck me as especially interesting, as well as acts as a target for his numerous critics.

  

Day 21: McMCLOUD CHAP 5 AND 6 RESPONSE

Amongst other topics, the focus of these two chapters is to uncover how comics go about representing emotional qualities, tones that are otherwise "unseen" (to take the unseen, and make it visible), the differences in how lines portray meaning, as well as reveal how words play in integral part in the clarity of portrayal. I thought One of the most interesting points made was in chapter five, when the author, Scott McCloud, talks about how the emotional, or rather tonal representation stems from language, which in turn stems from "the primordial stuff from which a formalized language can evolve" (127). This struck me as interesting for a couple reasons. Most predominantly, I like to think of language as stemming from ideas that have been with us forever, with roots deeper than those of the words themselves. This idea captures this notion, suggesting that how we represent things is rooted in what has led to the language itself, a cool way to think about representation and its depths of universal communication.

Day 20: SCARIEST MOMENT?

One of my scariest moments took place a couple years ago. When i was in my junior year of high school, I came home one friday night at around 1 am after a party. I wouldn't go as far as to call my neighborhood "ghetto", but living in venice, less than fifty yards off of the boardwalk, my house is constantly surrounded by our more-than-fair-share of questionable characters, especially once the sun goes down, and the sunny weekend visitors go back to where ever they came from. So as one can imagine, coming home that late, having an extra pair of eyes in the back of your head would be quite comforting. living there my whole life, however, its easy to simply forget about some of the dangers, becoming comfortable in the otherwise sketchy scenario. Anyways, that night, walking up my front porch's stairs, putting my house key in the lock, a little jammed after the rains we had had the week before, I head a snoring...a little confused, I slowly turn my head to the left only to see one of the local crackheads curled up in a ball sleeping, his belongings scattered all over porch. In the dark, this was an incredibly surprising and frightening scene. Only to make situations worse, as i open my door, my dogs started barking like crazy, waking the man up, who proceeded to go on a screaming rampage around my yard, tweaking out. A neighbor must have called the cops because in a matter on minutes, our yard was converted into a police chase-down.

Day 18: HAPPIEST / PROUDEST MOMENT?

When I try to think of a single happiest moment, my mind, in a way, draws a blank. Not in the sense that i cant think of happy times (I swear I'm not depressed), but in the sense that happy moments  kind of meld together into spans of time that i can look back on in a truly jovial light. The Summer in between high school graduation and moving up here to Santa Barbara, for example, strikes my memory as being a truly care free, happy time. Days on end spent at various surf spots with a good group of friends, dawn 'till dusk...Those times are what i look foreword to all year. No stress, just good fun with the people i enjoy hanging out with. Last summer, my Happiest moment lasted for over three months. After a couple months of surfing all day, a few surf contests mixed in, and a few days of work a week thrown in the mix, I took a trip to a secluded town in Baja called San Juanico, or as surfers call it, "Scorpion Bay", with a couple buddies, and a photographer. After an epic ten day trip, we came right back home and straight into a surf contest at one of the best waves in LA, making for an amazing weekend. Only a couple weeks after that, I was off the New Jersey for another surf contest with a good friend. Perfectly timed with Hurricane Igor, the waves were insane, and a bunch of friends were there. Two days upon arriving back home, It was time to move in to my dorm here in Santa Barbara. Traveling is one of my favorite things to do, and ultimately, stands as my goal year round, to be able to travel. I had never travelled so much in my life as i did last summer, and partially owe my good times to that.

Day 17: MOST PROUD ARTISTIC MOMENT???

Considering that i haven't been done very much artwork that i have actually documented, I think im going to have to draw from a project i finished back in my junior year of high school. I was taking a ceramics class, and, for one of the open assignments with no real guidelines, I decided to just screw around and make a pretty cool paper weight. After fiddling around with a hunk of clay for quite some time, i decided to make a wave, with a dolphin in its face, a gift to my mother for mothers-day. Even though it wasn't the most difficult piece, nor the most complex piece, I was most proud of it because i had decided to make it without an assignment, so it was something i actually wanted to make, and i followed through to finish it, and gift it. It may be a stretch, but i think it actually kind of relates to the theme of the class, being art and life. This is because of the fact that its a functional piece, a paper-weight, so it doesn't just sit around for looks in my house, but rather, moves from place to place, incorporated into my parents at-home-office space as a functional utensil. Hopefully i can get a photo of it in the next few hours to throw up here. Until then, just imagine it!

Day 16: MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT?

For me its really difficult to recall moments that are truly embarrassing. I think this may be because people perhaps suppress negative memories more than positive ones, but I'm no psychologist, so I'll just stop trying to be. One of the most embarrassing moments I can think of happened about two years ago. Me and a couple of my buddies went for a surf at a spot in northern Malibu. After a nice cold winter surf, we were changing out of our wetsuits right on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway. We didn't have to be at school until later in the morning that day, so while we were getting out of our suits, hordes of kids were driving by us, turning off the PCH just across from us at the the entrance to Malibu High, a busy intersection of the PCH at the start and finish of the school day... PERFECT setting for a prank, with many spectators.  I was the last out of my wetsuit, just in my towel about to get dressed. As i begin to reach for my pants, one of my buddies runs up behind me, pulls off my towel, jumps in the car with it (and my clothes), and locks the door and begins honking his car horn to attract attention. So there I am... butt naked on a freezing winter morning...no towel, or clothes...on a busy high school intersection. Honks, whistles, and laughs galore. Great start to a school day...more for them then for me as you can imagine.

Day 15: MONDAY'S LECTURE RESPONSE

Today's lecture revolved around the theme of "The Body" as incorporated into art. When i think of intersections of art and life, the body comes to mind as a clear link between the two, however, a complicated one. As Kip talked about in lecture today, not only do images of the body hold some artistic value in and of themselves, but the contexts in which they are laid play a huge role in shaping their inherent meanings. We looked carefully at the works of Robert Mapplethorpe, who consistantly touched on the themes of race and homosexuality as they related to sexuality, as well as fetishism, Catherine Opie, who released her views towards lesbianism as an alienation in society through her works, James Luna, whose works focused in on being a Native American in todays society (and what social behaviors and expectations) come with the territory, as well as William Feeney, my personal favorite for the day, who focused in on using body as a means to produce shock, as seen in his work entitled Some Thoughts On Leaving (1995), in which the simple placement of his body in place where it seemed out of context deemed it artistic. We ended lecture today looking at the works of "Sam" Hsieh, and his year long performance pieces of control, making bold statements about time and its importance and relation to greater society. 

Week Two: PROJECT REPORT

As a follow up to the "Truth and Fiction" assignment finished earlier this week, i thought it'd be interesting to note that my comment on the Daily Nexus website appears to have been removed. Interesting. So it might be okay for them to publish some fake stories on April Fools day and get a good laugh, but thirty (+) fake news story comments are FAR to much....I guess we pushed it...I mean i talked about wealthy Santa Monica as a "rural coastal hovel"...i guess it was a touchy subject (for who? I have no idea). Regardless, i belive this week out class' false news story may be getting some actual coverage in the printed Daily Nexus, so overall, this seems to have been a pretty cool assignment with some real public recognition (only compounded by a plug in the flourishing Circadian Chronicles). Let's give ourselves a nice pat on the back!
On another note, a few days after walking through Santa Cruz residence hall with a DJ Boom-box (for Wednesday's outgoing Public Sphere assignment), I have had to answer questions from numerous students regarding my motives behind that musical act. People seem jealous that it was for a class project, and all wanted to get into the class. I was fairly surprised that it sparked so much response even days later, and that people paired the action with me, however, enjoyed it nonetheless.

Week Two: ART SHOW REVIEW

This week I went to an art show in Isla Vista, on Fortuna St. This show was unlike any other I’ve ever been to, considering that fact that, first, it was just in a house in IV, and second, that it was the most informal, relaxed, and fun vibe, almost more like a party revolving around the artwork.  The theme of the show was to display art that either resulted from, or was inspired by psychedelic drugs. Most of the works in the show aimed to simulate feelings that come with psychedelic drug use. One of the most interesting pieces, done by an artist named Tony, who, not to mention, was walking around the show in a top hat and a circus ringleader’s suit. This untitled piece was completely interactive, and consisted of a seesaw with a big mirror in the middle, so as you bounced up and down you saw an image of yourself, watching your playful reactions. Another interesting piece there consisted of a large projection with remixed images from the film Jesus Camp, and tribal women. The way the clips were edited together, it appeared that the piece was trying to brainwash the viewer, leading to its title, Brainwash. Techno and dub-step played while you watched the images, while, simultaneously, bubbles and lights surrounded you. All of the artists were casually mingling around the show, willing to explain the experience of the piece, guiding the viewers, and all of them, like Tony, were dressed flamboyantly. This show was a “trip” so to speak, and really an enjoyable, wacky experience. 

Day 14: CONFESSION IDEAS..ROUGH

Confession Project Proposals:

ONE: The first idea I had, similar to a project explained a few posts back, was to try to capture the two main, opposing aspects of confession as a whole, being the release of something intentionally suppressed, as well as the possibility for growth after the “hairball” is coughed up (so to speak). I could either actually construct something with hard materials, or use photography of daily encounters, to try and successfully accomplish this. Below is a rough sketch I did when brainstorming on the idea. Doesn’t have to look anything like 

this though…

 TWO: The second Idea I had came about when doodling. I noticed a lot of my doodles are based 

around drawings of punks. At a young age, I was slowly exposed to the world of underground punk music and lifestyle through my “ex-punk” brother. I used to want to be just like him in the sense that I envied two foot tall Mohawks, ripped up, patched clothes, and the “Fuck You!” attitude. I though it’s be fun to confess my once powerful desire to hold this identity through an identity emersion.  Below is one of the self “inspiring” doodles.

THREE: The last idea I had, and in my opinion, the weakest 

idea, was to draft a letter to either a family member or friend about how I think they’re roles in my life have affected me (Positive or Negative). I don’t know if I’m comfortable with the direct self-disclosure this project might include (or not include, depending on how I would approach it), but if done in a sort of theatrical way, could be kind of interesting. 

Day 13: McCLOUD CHAP. 3 AND 4

In chapters three and four of Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, the ideas, and methods behind the working of time in the context of comics are deeply examined. From the historical evolution of how time and movement have been represented in graphic art, to the symbolic meaning and uses of borders, McCloud takes what, at first seems to be a simple topic, and unveils the complexities, leaving the reader with a more comprehensive, and almost more confusing, understanding of time, space, and motion in comics. The fact that all of the information presented in these chapters seems to lead to a slight level of confusion, or rather, cloudiness of understanding, may stem from the fact that the readers, or viewers, naturally take in what they see, without necessarily needing training to enjoy the works. When the mechanisms behind their understanding are revealed, it is almost hard to imagine that the subtle changes in style, layout, etc, can have such a profound impact on the meaning that they naturally procure. From closure to the reading of what is not written (or drawn), the reader is shown to hold a large part in the smoothness, and coherence of the comic, while at the same time, the artist’s task is made more difficult, with the weight of determining which methods of portrayal fit with their individual styles resting on their shoulders. 

Day 12: DUCHAMP

The chapter on Marcel Duchamp, from The Bride & the Bastards, highlights on the movement away from established norms of art that Duchamp refers to as “retinal art”. Retinal art, as Duchamp describes, was the art which was solely based on pleasing images, that evoke nothing more than the image itself, also referred to as “olfactory art”.  Duchamp consciously steered in opposition this “Anti-intellectual” art accepted by the impressionists of his time and before. Duchamp’s art, and his surrounding theories were rooted in the ideas that the artist and the spectator, together, work in the “game” that is called art. According to Duchamp, the artist, rather than being the creator of meaning, standing above the viewer at a higher level of understanding, was simply the one who created the object (whether meaning was implied, or not), whereas the spectator took responsibility for the interpretation and assigning of meaning. Whereas many artists were made “uncomfortable” by this notion, as it implies a lack of control of meaning, a whole movement spun off of these ideas, resulting in an influx of almost cult-like “Duchamp-ians”. Personally, I love the lack of seriousness tied to this train-of-thought and practice, often poking fun at the consumer-based bourgeoisie,, while simultaneously producing the evolution of other forms of art that I very much enjoy, like pop-art. 

Day 11: ART OR NO ART

Non-Art Object as Art:

For this part of the assignment, I am going to discuss Surfboards as typically non-art objects that can pose as works of art. In the first lecture, Kip Fulbeck outlined the necessities of works of art, being that they must include some kind of “making”, or production, as well as a “conveyance of meaning” or representation. Surfboards fit comfortably within both of these parameters. The people who make the boards, or rather, “Shapers” must construct the boards through many stages. It process involves shaping a foam blank (the raw core material), glassing the shaped blank, and lastly sanding the glassed product. The production process can be tedious, and requires years upon years of experience to master, allowing for finished products that can actually work, fulfilling a utilitarian function. The conveyance of meaning, however, comes into play in the varying shapes of the boards. Depending of the types of boards, and the outlines, someone can read a lot about the shapers interests, goals, and experience, as well as the customer’s preferences. Not to mention… a well shaped board is beautiful in its own right, without any interpretation.

Art Object as Non-Art Object:

For this part of the assignment, I have to warn, my strong biases have come into play, and may nullify my argument, however, I’m going to stick with it regardless. About a block and a half away from my house, there is a humungous statue of a male clown, wearing a corset and tutu, with a top hat. This statue used to move mechanically, while singing a horrifying, screeching excuse for a song. Although some may consider this public monstrosity a piece of art, if they had grown up seeing it, and hearing it over ten times a day, I am sure, without a doubt, they would barf at the notion of it as a piece of art. I would say that it serves more of a utilitarian purpose, which is the purpose of scaring little children away from walking any closer to the dirty, previously-ranted-about world that is the boardwalk.

Day 10: SWITCH-UP

For today's assignment, which was to change an everyday action in a public sphere, I thought, what is more of an everyday action what walking out of my dorm building? the start to my everyday. For my "out-of-the-ordinary" action, I though it would be fun to mix up my walk to with an old school portable DJ mixer / boom-box called the YAMAHA DJ X. Everybody has seen someone carrying a boom-box on their shoulders in music videos, and everyone has seem people with their headphones on, walking to class, jamming to themselves, but how often do you see someone walking around, bumping some tunes and DJ'ing on the go, spreading the good times? not that often. Thats just what I did. The primary reactions i received from others included some laughs, a few stares, and some "what the F%$#'s". a few people that i know from my building were up in a study room with the window open, and heard / saw me as i exited through the front door, and proceeded to yell out the window to me, as I stopped outside, sat down on my skateboard and continued mixing with equipment on my lap. A girl that i happen to know sat down with me, as i continued to give a concert to the passers by. Peoples reactions didn't catch me by surprise at all, but instead just reaffirmed the community vibe thats present in the dorms. Had i done this same thing in an area in which the crowd was older (and more bitter? not that older people are bitter), i may have not experienced the same jocular responses. I had fun with this one, and, perhaps because of that, received fun responses. 

Day 9: TRUTH AND FICTION?

The theme of “Truth and Fiction” arises throughout daily life in many ways. Whether in the media that you are exposed to everyday, or in the interpersonal communication that you experience daily, you are forced, perhaps subconsciously, to sift through information and determine what to pay attention to, and what to ignore. However, the way that I believe truths and fictions most prominently play into daily life is in the ways that they effect ones own personal interpretations of things. We all have schemas engrained in our psyches that we accept as truths, as well as ways that we twist truths in order to fit our personal perceptions, or “fictions”, that we create for self-comfort. These truths and fictions affect how we receive information from outside sources, as well as our views on politics, and more commonly, how we receive, or rather, perceive, daily interaction and experience.

BREAKING NEWS...

    Extra extra! Read all about it! New LA Metro line to be finished this week! In a matter of days, LA residents will be able to luxuriously travel from booming downtown community  to the rural coastal hovel of Santa Monica. The Metro Line is rumored to travel at a whopping 5 miles per hour, suitable to the slow paced LA mentality. The city promises to allow all travelers free passes, while upholding the high standards of Hollywood living, serving caviar and promises of stardom with every ride. 
     Environmentalists across the nation are enthralled, for not only is this metro system going to be fuel free, but electricity free too! staying true to its sponsors motto, Nike(c),the metro will "Just do it!"...it will just GO! Celebrities in LA (all residents, of course)have volunteered, without advice from publicists, to man he pulley system used to run this state of the art, 21st century system.
       Staying true to its environmental agenda, Nike has assured the residents of Los Angeles that the construction of this magnificent tram is not to emit any harmful toxins, or for that matter, any noise that may disturb the quite, pastoral sounds present in all regions of LA. This tram not only promises to connect the downtown metropolis with the near-indigenous, untouched, undeveloped landscapes present along the coastline, promoting ecological tourism, but also allow for long drunken nights out on the town, with safe transportation home. No longer will road rage exist in LA, nor will, cars be needed in any circumstances. 

     True,LA may be extremely underdeveloped outside of hollywood, but this seems to be a positive step foreword for the future of Los Angeles. 

      

Day 8: RESPONSE TO TODAY'S LECTURE

Today’s lecture revolved around the question, “How do we determine who we are?” We discussed the many different classifications that we use to categorize ourselves, or identify ourselves, or, rather, that are imposed on us by other people. From broad classifications such as species and gender, to more specific ones like personal mental abilities, testes and activities. We then went on to talk about reflexivity, and looked at how we can learn little bits about the identities of artists through close examinations of their works. My two favorite artists that we looked at were Albert Chong, and Tatsumo Orimoto. I loved the mixed mediums involved in Chong’s work, often mixing found objects with photography and sculpture. What I found gripping about Orimoto’s work, more specifically, his Bread Man Performance Series, is the playfulness surrounding it, an apparent lack of seriousness, yet the creating of fresh, eye catching visuals that simply put, made me laugh, a good reacting in my book. I liked how this collection of pieces involved both a physical performance aspect, immersing himself in the piece, or rather, bringing the identity of the piece, into his life, as well as took the form of photographic documentation. 

WEEK ONE PROJECT DOCUMENTATION

Week one's assignment was to make a pun. At first I had a lot of trouble thinking of humorous puns that i could act out, however, once i thought of one, my first being "Dirty Mind" (in which i was going to print out a picture of a brain, and drop chunks of mud / dirt all over it), they started popping up in my mind all over the place. I actually though of my final pun, the one i chose to make (depicted down below) when i was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in one of the campus dining halls. A glob of jam eventually led to the idea of "jamming out", which, after a solid lunchtime brainstorm session, made its way to "Traffic Jam". After unloading a jar of jam into a tup-a-wear container i had laying around,  I went to K-Mart and purchased a few top of the line hot-wheels cars (a whopping 79 cents each), and proceeded to jam them in the jam. This was the final product:

The second part of the assignment was to bring in a prop. Searching in my tiny dorm room, crammed with all sorts of random items, I decided to bring my "Dust Devil", a handheld vacuum. When our group got together with all of our props, we ended up with a coffee cup, a Japanese fan, a strainer, a seat from a workout machine, a peacock feather, and a billy club... quite the random assortment, making for a daunting informercial task. however, we came up with the "Tactical Fury Defense Package", a home defense package suited for all single women bringing home "sketchies" from a night at the bars. As one can imagine, acting out how it is used was the fun part of the assignment. 

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DAY 7: CLASS THEMES PROJECT BRAINSTORMING

CONFESSION-

When I think of confession, I not only draw upon images of shame, and feelings of guilt, but also of rejuvenation. With these characteristics in mind, I believe a project following a theme of confession should show both the strain and tension of getting out something you have intentionally suppressed, while simultaneously (or perhaps through sequential narrative), demonstrating the positive senses that come afterwards. A potential project that would encompass these elements could include an extremely unattractive blob of rubber bands, hair, and darkly colored resin, with a plant, or something that aids the calling of images of growth, protruding from the mess. When thinking about this, I imagined the messy blob to be like what a hairball is to a cat, something that must be coughed up. Maybe ill incorporate a cat (fake one of course) somehow.

SEQUENCE/ NARRATIVE-

For sequential narrative, I think it would really fun to mess around with stop animation, something I’ve never tried. Drawing inspiration from the work on www.blublu.org 

ALTERNATE PERSONAS-

I think for this theme, doing a project revolving around disguises would be interesting. Rather than looking at alternate personas as a deep, multi-sidedness in personality, I think it would be cool to have a photographic collection of someone in various disguises, in places that would seem ridiculous for the given wardrobe (i.e. me, a surfer, wearing my wetsuit in the Davidson Library, or someone wearing a suit laying on the beach).

PERSONAL SPACE-

A full size human cocoon…’nuff said (invasion of the body snatchers anyone?), however, customized as one would their room, complete with posters, lamps, music (making this project a very multimedia piece). 


*SEQUENCE / NARRATIVE 

Day 6: RESPONSE TO McCLOUD CHAPTERS 1&2

In the first two chapters of Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud attempts to define “comics” in a sense that encompasses the many faces of the broad art form, as well as explain their broad appeal in societies across national boundaries.  McCloud, through his comic representation, comes to “nutshell” definition that Comics are “Juxtaposed Pictorial and Other Images In Deliberate Sequence”. He then adds on that they are “intended to convey information and / or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer”(p.9).  After applying his new definition to comics in a historical context, going as far back as the 1300’s with the Egyptian hieroglyphics, McCloud goes on to examine comics in terms of their relationship to “Icons”, and how there is method to the apparent simplification of reality and abstraction of figures in comics. A conclusion is drawn that as a result of the abstraction, we, the viewers / readers (depending on whether you want to say your looking at a piece of art or writing, a distinction that McCloud suggests must be blurred), are able to project abstract images of ourselves upon the characters, standing as the primary attraction. This is made possible, as McCloud expatiates, by our inability to see ourselves in a natural, or realistic, representation, but rather in a more abstract form, allowing for easy displacement onto the page. 

Day 5: RESPONSE TO INTO IN READER

In the introduction to The Bride and the Bachelors, Calvin Tomkins gives an overview of the art movement highlighted in the works of the five, varying, focus artists; Duchamp, Cage, Tinguely, Rauschenberg, and Cunningham. The movement, or, rather, the “revolt” as Tomkins calls it, centers itself around a separation from the “established traditions” of art, and the increased focus on breaking apart the barriers between art and life. This shift involved the recognition of art as “not an end in itself, but simply a ‘means to function thoroughly and passionately in a world that has a lot more to it than paint” (p. 2). With this new outlook on art, and its goals of perforating habitual barriers, comes an inherent inclusion of humor, with its roots in the artists recognition that breaking all of the barriers is an absurd task, humor acting as the means of addressing this impossibility. Tomkins goes into brief explanations of how each of these artists demonstrated their interpretation of the movement, emphasizing that the movement was not necessarily an “anti-art movement”, but an “anti-seriousness” one (p.4). This notion of art as an incorporated part of life, with a lack of seriousness, really hits home with me. My whole family has been involved in the arts, from my grandfather Danny, a gallery owner in New York, to my brother Sam, a working artists in New York, to my parents, both independent film makers, I have always been exposed to varying forms of art, and often times, would become frustrated with myself for not understanding the art’s meaning, feeling belittled intellectually and artistically. The question always remained in my mind, “why should I have to try to understand the piece and pick it apart?”, when sometimes I simply wanted to just enjoy the work for what it was. That seems to be a portion of what the movement described in the introduction was, a movement to not taking art, as a separate entity from daily life, so seriously, with momentous, and “correct” interpretations, but rather something to incorporate into daily life, as a constant way of thinking creatively, and openly.