Ning!

My ning network account name is Courtney Look, and my social network that I am creating is called "Everyday Beauty"

The link is http://everydaybeauty.ning.com

I want to add this photo as my icon, but it's not working:

Douglas Weathersby

As artists, we all want to be original. We want to think we are making work nobody else has thought to make. We like to think we notice things that other people pass over and ignore. Douglas Weathersby does this in a very practical way. He provides a service to a client or a gallery, and uses that work to make his art. The commentary made a good point that in many ways he is working for you, but in other ways you are working for him.

Douglas Weathersby uses photography and video to record his work process to capture moments that may otherwise be considered “mess” or “dirty” or as something in need of cleaning or fixing and gives them significance. He finds beauty in these small moments that are often very intimate. He takes photos at unique perspectives of things like a close up of dust or light or a spider web blowing in the wind. These photos often seem abstract at a first glance, but then you realize that you have just never noticed how many colors can be found in sawdust, or a revelation of a similar sort.

This way of working is very interesting because he does not have to have a studio to make art, he can make art anywhere, and as a result, he is able to support himself as an artist. It is inspiring to see his work and how he turns what might be considered a mundane activity and turn it into an opportunity to create art.




I think an obvious, but significant generative topic that can be derived from this work could be “notice something you’ve never noticed before” or “make art by doing your homework or chores.” It might be interesting to have a middle school to high school age student carry a camera around and take a series of photos based on their homework and chores because it is probably not a place they have thought to look for the potential for art and it might give them reason to be excited to do something that normally causes frustration and boredom. Looking at these things from fresh perspectives can make them more fun. This sort of assignment would probably go over very well with the other teachers and parents as well!

My images are Douglas Weathersby photos from Google Images.

Generative Topic Idea

This is my project. The concept behind the piece was to explore the dualities of self within two separate but connected worlds. I wanted to explore the existence of self in both my "jelly-ware" world, which I have dubbed the "real world" and my self in my virtual world, via facebook. I wanted to explore and attempt to disprove that "anything can happen" in virtual worlds. If you consider our real world as the gateway to the virtual world, then you have to accept that anything that happens in a virtual world is only possible through your existence in the real world.

I was inspired by the lives of people who spend more time as their virtual selves and seem only to exist in the real world in order to get to their virtual existence. I do not feel like this applies to me, but I do use facebook as a major means of communication, and I wanted to question my life in these terms.

My generative topic idea would be to assign students to work in a medium of their choice to explore the dualities of their selves. The two worlds do not have to be real vs. virtual as my exploration was, but everyone has situations in which they behave or think differently. It could be an exploration of comparing behavior while around family vs. friends, school vs. home, academics vs. sports, etc. I would say that this project would be ideal for high school students because it is an exploration of identity which takes in to considerations the complex lives of students. It is a conceptually based project that allows an exploration in craft that is unique to their strengths and is unique to the way they might define themselves. It is a less literal version of a self portrait.

In my previous post I talked about using meditation as an immersive environment. I think that the use of meditation in addition to my new concept would make a very good pair. Students could use meditation to explore their ideas about their existence.

"Immersive Environments" ~Meditation

Virginia Peck, Inner Realm, oil on canvas, 44 x 42".

Although our generative topic is “Immersive Environment” which may not seem like it has much to do with meditation, you can draw parallels if you choose not to look at it so literally.

Why learn to meditate?


Meditation is an act of concentration on the body, mind, and spirit as one unit. It is something that many people practice regularly because it is very calming and relaxing. People may practice it to gain focus on a project they are doing, or to help them rest easier at night. It can help relieve tension and even invoke happier feelings, which can be useful to anyone.

Why meditate as an artist?

Nadja Van Ghelue at work

There are many reasons to meditate as an artist. Nadja Van Ghelue is a calligraphy artist who practices meditation daily; she practices the traditional seated styles of shamatha and vipashyana. She meditates because she says it unifies her spirituality and her artwork. She says, “Through these meditations I experience more clarity and expansiveness of my mind, which results in a higher awareness and receptivity, indispensable tools for a good artist.”

Closer to home, Lowell artist Virginia Peck uses meditation and Buddhism as both a spiritual practice as well as a source of inspiration for her art. In her interview with the Boston Globe, she talked about her spirituality and her paintings of Buddha that was on display. She described one particular instance where meditation helped her realize a goal for her art: “One day I was sitting in meditation, and all of sudden, the proverbial light bulb went off. I thought, 'I've always loved to paint the face, the human head. [I] could paint the face of the Buddha.' An electric shock just went through me. It was like I was being called. That's what I was meant to do... I'm always struggling to find purpose and meaning in my life. It's not enough to just kind of go along.”

In both of these cases, these artists were able to achieve a higher sense of their own work through meditation. My current Portfolio teacher, Chandra Ortiz, also uses meditation and encourages her students to practice it as well. She says that meditating on a subject that you may be having trouble with is a good way to separate yourself from it and regain focus so that you can revisit your work in a more effective manner. You can accomplish a lot when you think you are not thinking about anything and only focusing on the relationship between your mind and body. I have tried this on a couple occasions, and each time has made me feel better about where my work is going as well as giving me a renewed sense of focus and energy.

How is meditation an immersive environment?


I think of meditation as being a sort of immersive environment for the anti-immersive environment. It is a way to immerse yourself in your mind and forget about your physical environment; that your body is all that is left of the physical world. You immerse yourself in your mind and use that to gain focus and energy while relieving stress and negative feelings. Meditation can become a part of your art practice and a part of your daily life if you feel it is personally helpful to you.

http://www.how-to-meditate.org/index.php/

http://www.theartofcalligraphy.com/artist-interview.html

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/01/19/artist_expresses_peace_using_buddha/

Brian Knep and Theremin Follow-up

Brian Knep was an incredibly interesting man and artist; I enjoyed listening to him talk about his work. I already liked his work and had some sense of appreciation for it, but after hearing his conceptual ideas that were behind each piece and his reasons for producing each piece made me appreciate and enjoy his work on another level. I enjoyed that he derived so much of his inspiration from science and math because it makes his aesthetic choices seem more meaningful.

I also liked the way he interpreted his own art pieces in a way that says they are existent with or without the existence of an audience, yet they are so interactive. The idea that the viewer interrupts the activity of the piece's natural life is an interesting perspective. I did like that even though the audience's presence changes and disrupts the piece, the piece is able to deal with the change and grow in a new way as if to say, "life goes on, roll with the punches." I feel like I learned a lot from his talk about ways to view art and to make it so that it can fit in all kinds of different communities and be seen in all kinds of different ways.

The Theremin was a fascinating instrument that I had never seen before. I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to try playing it. It was definitely difficult to coordinate both sides of my body, but the idea that the sound was being produced by my interference with the space around it was amazing and even reminded me a little bit of the concepts used in Brian Knep's work. The idea that the instrument exists and is changed and altered by the presence of an audience, or in this case a musician, and that it flows with the environment and all the changes that come to it. The Theremin is like new media art for the music world which uses a lot of science and technology to produce the music.

Brian Knep

Brian Knep’s work was really interesting. My favorite pieces were those that were expressed using the childlike drawings: Emerge, Expand, Erect, and Escape. I enjoyed the play of the simplicity of the forms displayed, contrasted to the complex concepts and the precision needed to produce the movements through the technology. I enjoy the concept that these little creatures represent mankind and that in each piece they are struggling to reach a goal.

“The works in this series use child-like drawings to examine, in a humorous way, the illusions that drive us. The creatures, with their huge, exaggerated faces and skeletal legs, are caricatures of the endlessly cycling everyman. Visually, the creatures are presented as shadows, illuminated only by the lights that are cast upon them. They cover all available surfaces, reacting to our intrusions into their small worlds.”

I also found the piece Deep Wounds very moving. It definitely made a strong statement about how we fear the enemy, yet it conveyed this by touching upon ideas that are significant and close to us like relationships. It successfully made me think about the way we treat people who are close to us or who have the same ideals as us versus how we treat people, and even think about people, who are different in such strong ways that we are physically against them.

My Questions:

The piece Deep Wounds seems as though it could have been quite controversial. It brings significance to confederate soldiers, but it does this in an anonymous way (instead of bringing up their names directly). It is juxtaposed in a space that has forgotten the confederate side of the war, which could highlight something they now feel shame about. All the soldiers’ memorials are projected on the floor that we have to walk over to view, which could be interpreted as insulting if it was not seen as the idea that they have been buried and are now being unearthed. When creating Deep Wounds, did you encounter opposition from people about how, where, or why it was displayed? If you did, then how did you overcome those obstacles?

In your pieces Emerge, Expand, Erect, Escape, you use the creatures to represent the “endlessly cycling everyman,” and they all seem to be grouped and have the same goals. Do you see yourself as being one of these creatures? Is it a play on the idea that we are all trying to be the same or end up being the same? Or is it meant more to represent the idea that we work together or need to work together more to succeed at these universal goals?

Daniel Rozin

As a “new media” artist, Daniel Rozin creates interactive digital art sculptures and installations. The pieces I’ve been looking at are all based on the idea of reflection using the principles of mosaics to deliver an image that directly connects to the viewer. He uses computers that are hardly visible to control the movement of each piece.

Rozin was born in Jerusalem, but he now lives and works in New York. He is an art professor at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, as well as the owner of his software company, Smoothware Design.

He has won numerous awards for his work in industrial design and within the multimedia community including the Prix Ars Electronica, ID Design Review and the Chrysler Design Award..

I find his work fascinating because of the way he is able to manipulate his materials, such as wood or trash, and use light to control the illusion of a reflection in an otherwise non-reflective surface. It is amazing to see the transformation of the materials and the elegant collaboration of the digital elements working with the sculptural elements.

This is a video of my favorite piece:

Wooden Mirror - 1999
830 square pieces of wood, 830 servo motors, control electronics, video camera, computer, wood frame.
Size - W 67” x H 80” x D 10” (170cm , 203cm, 25cm).
Built in 1999, this is the first mechanical mirror I built. This piece explores the line between digital and physical, using a warm and natural material such as wood to portray the abstract notion of digital pixels.

All of my information and images were from the following site:

http://www.smoothware.com/danny/index.html