week 8 Reproduction of Crafts and Dreamcatchers FOR SALE

 

This week in Art class our guest speaker was Anya Kivarkis, a professor here at the University of Oregon. Her are of expertise was about crafts and methods of production. She first began the presentation talking about handmade reproductions of originals. The original is genuine and authentic while the reproduction is just an imitation, a copy and a fake. She went on by explaining the reproduction is a failure; it’s vulnerable because of its imperfection, and sometimes even completely dysfunctional or useless. The reason why they even make a reproduction is because in some cases the reason might be to make an expensive and popular product more available to the general consumer. Ms Kivakis also gave us an example of Wim Delvoye a craftsman who reproduced a beautiful marble floor entirely out of deli meat, which was somewhat interesting but not long lasting. Another reason artist reproduce handmade reproductions is to make a point. We also learned about Myra Mimlitsch-gray, an artist who duplicated a gorgeous ceramic teapot and also made a box to fit around it with a slit for the handle, and two holes; one to pour tea into the teapot and another to pour it out at the spout. The idea of it was looking Vs using. The teapot still worked and it was exactly as the original but a wooden box was hiding it’s beauty.

         We later talked about regular reproductions and historical changes. Anya told us that the reproduction is not only of lesser value but it sometimes even lowers the value of the original piece. We also learned about Richard Neilpovich, who mass-produces sets of silverware in which each piece was different from the other. What he’s trying to prove is that normal mass production allows no mistakes to be made which is dehumanizing; humans make mistakes so why not make mistakes.

         Our reading for this week was about John Feodorov. An artist that is part Native American and well aware of the stereotypes of his own heritage. He does not agree with ideas of selling spirituality because owning an object gives someone power over that object. He believes spirituality should be something that is not easily acquired in a materialistic way. He in a way makes fun of western culture by over exaggerating how crazy it is. He stresses the fact that people are buying things that should not be bought, he says a person can buy a million totem poles and dream catchers but you can never buy spirituality and happiness, kind of cliché but I totally agree with it. John says in the reading these are things that you don’t have to think about doing it just comes naturally.

  

Week 7 Environmental Art & Death Reading

 

This week we learned about the connection between environmental art and humans. There has always been a gap between humans and nature that’s around them. Most people when they think of environmental art they think of landscapes and forests but through this lecture this week I have learned that it is much more than that. Our presenter for this week was Carla Bengston, she came into our class and told us that she was a painter at first but as she went on with her lecture she never mentioned anything about her paintings. Instead she talked to us about how we feel, and reacted with nature based art. We also discussed the relation humans have with starring at pieces of nature-based art, and she also ended up asking us how we felt towards the pieces. We looked at artist like DeMaria and Daniel Buren; and what I liked about them is how they physically used themselves with nature to create art. There’s a difference between painting a picture of landscape but to use the environment to paint the picture is incredible. When I say use the environment I mean the artist shaping the movements by simply molding them little by little and using the ground as a canvas was really fascinating. The Earth room I must admit is personally one of my favorites from the presentation, the idea of putting “earth” inside a modern building was quite amusing and out of the ordinary, I liked it because it broke the rules and was edgy.

            We also read about Kiki Smith, we got a first look at her ideas about art. One thing that really stuck to me was a quote she said, “Art is just a way to think”. Which if you think about it, it really makes a lot of sense art is the way the artist thinks and visualizes life. I really enjoyed how she was explaining how art was to her in her point of view. Her response in the video towards re doing a sculpture was priceless, how she refused to not start over but keep going at the wax sculpture. She seems a little un-normal with her dead animal gallery but isn’t that what art is, being out of the ordinary. 

            The Death reading that Ty assigned to us was really self-explanatory, I mean the title says it all and during class Ty even warned us that it was going to be one of the hardest readings you will do. So this week we read from Roland Barthes “Death of the Author”.  The reading was horrible and I’ll admit it I skimmed through it and I’ll also admit I didn’t finish it. But I did take a couple things from it I tried to make sure that this assigned reading benefited me in some way. What really helped was the next day after the reading in class Ty showed the class a picture of a man and his dog and asked the class what does it make you feel? After listening to peoples responses I finally got it; it became obvious and Ty explained it to us to that the picture had a life of its own and we can respond to it in any fashion we wanted. In the reading there was a constant artist to viewer debate on what the work represented. In the reading they had this saying of letting go of your art and it will build a life of its own. When you connect all the readings, the presentation, the movies and, the lectures it all makes sense(almost like Inception).

Digital Arts and Zombies

This week in Contemporary Art class we learned about the digital Arts today. In today’s world technology has become an important part of our lifestyles. A new world of art has been growing and art has been emerging from new technological places.  Our guest speaker, John Park gave a presentation to our class about the new world of digital arts. John went into great length of detail discussing how digital technology has come a long way. John told us about our technology and how advanced it has come since the first computer. Now all technology plays a major role in everyday life and artist have been able to take advantage of this technology and come up and experiment with thoughts and new ideas, and most importantly interact with the audience especially with the new tools that are available to an artist these days. John also went into detail about the problems there are with frequent use of technology, since the styles and trends of new software or upgrades are constantly changing and people get persuaded to always buy the newest and latest gadget out. John also explained how people are dependent with electronics therefore their desires become dependent as well for example such as craigslist.com and eharmony.com websites where you can shop and find love without leaving your seat. By relying on technology to do everything for us people are becoming dehumanized and basically turning into “mindless zombies”. John explained the importance and benefit of finding the art in technology. John showed us the problem with most people is that society compares the old technology with new, he really stressed the fact that digital effects are a tool and should be treated like any other paintbrush or pencil. John also went on to show us some digital media such as Chunky Move Dance Company a mix of interpretive dance with abstract animation. With providing and combining the two art forms to making something new is simply revolutionary. Visual allows the viewers in the audience to experience and visualize the art form in a specific way the way the artist intended it to be.

 But that doesn’t compare to my favorite video, the Graffiti Research lab. The video is a documentary about special technology in these glasses .It is a pair of glasses that allows you to draw with your eyes by shining a very small amount of infra red light into your eye. A man who was a street artist became diagnosed with Logarakis Disease and lost all movement in his body, but his brain is still active. So what the camera allows you to do is  to control all the drawing with your eye it is very neat and when John showed us I was simply amazed. It really is incredible that were in a age of technology were even a paralyzed artist can still fulfill there visions.

We also read about David Byrne and his work Playing the Building; First look at his work was a huge space with piano in the center and wires all going in many directions. When I first started reading about a guy actually playing the piano I was in awe, Hitting a key in the piano so a noise comes out in a part of the building if that’s not creative then I don’t know what is. I felt that David Byrne was a genius artist for creating the Piano-Building but when it all comes out to it the person playing the Piano-Building at the moment and creating synchronized sounds is the artist then.

This week was very insightful and I enjoyed our guest speaker John Park and the reading that we did with David Byrne hopefully next week we have a speaker just as if not better.

week 5 Photography and Up close with Flowers

This weeks guest lecturer was Craig Hickman, a photographer, multimedia designer and computer scientist who works here at Oregon. His presentation had many other photographers work and focused on the details that their work consisted of. Mr. Hickman started in high school doing photography work, which I found pretty interesting. To be able to find something you like and last you a lifetime at an early age is simply amazing. What I find interesting about photography, unlike other types of art form, its exactly what the artist sees. I have a friend that graduated from Brook’s institute of Photography and she puts so much time and thought in every picture she ever snaps and has to know why that angle, and why exactly that picture it can get pretty intense. It is like seeing the world through the photographer’s eyes in that moment. Mr. Hickman also stressed the fact that art includes colors, subjects, lighting, and the way it is developed. The pictures that really caught my attention was the work of Tony Mendoza. He did close up shots of distinct flowers; the pictures were taken from a flower perspective up close and from the ground. The color in the pictures were magnified and intensified to make the picture of the flowers really come to life. Mr. Hickman explained to us about Mendoza’s work how he focuses on the scene and presents it with more light to bring more balance to the photo. After a long semi dry lecture Mr. Hickman makes an argument of when art can be photographed and when it cannot. He tells us about how we know when its ours and how do know how to document it. Mr. Hickman says that the purpose is to find the relationship between the world and photography. Toward the end of the lecture he logged into his Facebook and showed us some of his work, one that caught my eye as I started packing to leave the class was one picture he photo-shopped to make an elephant with a sign on the its back. I found his work to be quite amusing and clever the way he photo-shopped the sign on the elephant.

As for the reading this week It was on Errol Morris. The reading was mostly based on how photography can be used as a so-called “weapon”. How deceiving pictures can actually be. It would really hard to tell if a photo has been messed with, unless you’re a professional at detecting fraud pictures. I really cant see how you can use pictures as weapons maybe as propaganda but it really depends on who is trying to convince people and for what purpose. I really did not care much for that article. The other reading was on Alfredo Jaar he was an installation worker and also made videos. One that was good was the “The Ashes of Gramsci” I found it to be a cool piece because of its pictures of space. To tell you the truth I would’ve not known if the pictures were real if I didn’t see what he made the image with. It was another good week in art class hopefully we have another good speaker like Mr. Hickman but not too monotone.