SMP Critiques

The first critique I attended was Reena's sculpture. It was a large sculpture up on the wall of wooden planes that had color (redish colors) on some of the edges. She said she started off with boxes but ended up using planes. The sculpture was supposed to convey a slow sliding movement and balance that was set on an imaginary diagonal grid. The large scale of the peice was supposed to give a feeling of movement. The sculpture was made up of many constructed of many smaller pieces of 4-5 planes. Those pieces were then put on the wall but not connected, but is supposed to appear as if they are. She said she had a fascination with rectangles and that is what drew her to creating this piece. When they critiqued her, they said that her ambiguity about the reason for rectangles lead to the piece having no purpose. They questioned whether the piece was finished, and when she said yes, they seemed skeptical. They asked her if she had sketched it out and she said she had it layed out in her head. They said that was her downfall. They said they felt like the piece was moving from left to right but not from front to back. They then said that after a certain point, the piece just gets repetitive.

The second critique I attended was Ashley's. She had three different pieces that were all constructed with fabric and embroidery. Her creations were meant to resemble collections in her family's home and how collections are displayed in the home. The pieces were meant to be autobiographical and to resemble collections her family has. The first piece is a bunch of small shadow boxes with different size "buttons" (that she recreated with embroidery). Apparently she recreated all these buttons from her head. The second piece was recreated from a photograph and it was a piece of fabric that had 4 pictures of spoons created with embroidery. She tried to recreate the tarnish in the spoons as well. The third piece was a pice of fabric and was supposed to be a bunch of embroidered old fashioned oil cans. When they critiqued her, they said her pieces just represented objects and that there was no significant part of the pice that represents sentimental feelings or emotions. They said that the oil can piece was confusing and problematic. You couldnt tell they were supposed to be oil cans unless she told you. They said the spoon piece was good and seemed resolves. They said that the button pice was confusing but had potential. The didnt know why she chose to put each individual button in its own shadow box. They felt that the shadow boxes obscured the piece. They said it was a presentation issue.

The third critique I attended was Tom's photography. His was the creation of a photobook. In his photobook, he had paired up images that were similar in their composition. His intentions were to show connections between things in the world around us. It was about an appreciation of life. Very few of the pictures were actually staged. Then he had a few pictures on the wall that did not have a place in the book but he really liked them. He said these pictures he would put up by themselves and not in the book, just because he felt they were really good. When they critiqued him, they said that they were concerned that people would flip through the book quickly and would want people to investigae. The want him to consider the ordering of the pages and also to consider what should be in the gallery. In my opinion, this was the best of the critiques I saw. I liked his idea and I think the pictures worked very well.

The fourth critique I attended was Vanessa's. She had a display that went across an entire wall. It was supposed to represent and play off woman in today's society and how we have the tendency to listen and read magazines and take seriously and listen to what they say. The piece was like it was a journey of self discovery that was directed from a silly magazine. It started off with a cartoon looking drawing she did of a family of foxes. One young female fox is supposed to be the narrator. There is a drawing of her reading self help books. And then a blown up Cosmopolitan magazine cover. Then there is a note saying she discovered Cosmo and has to find herself. There is this a small suitcase. Then there is a map with postcards attached to every place she visited on her religious journey. Then there are magazine pages with fashion styles on it. Then there is letters, cards, and a calender that say she is found a man. So she found love. Then there was evidence that the relationship didnt work out. Then there was a paper that implied that she was looking into plastic surgery. In this piece, Vanessa used a combination of different things such as drawings she did, real items such as the suitcase, hand written letters, magazine pages, and cards. While the piece was interesting and there was definitly a lot to look at, it was a little messy looking and seemed unfinished.

Postcard Proposal

For my postcard project, I am making John Wilkes Booth and Edgar Allan Poe gambling, playing poker in Vegas. I chose to do this because I read the Poe was a gambler and had a lot of gambling debt. On one post card, I will show a view of Poe’s hand and across the table will be sitting John Wilkes Booth. Poe will have a 10 and 7 of hearts. This is because he died on October 7th and the hearts are supposed to represent his story “The Tell Tale Heart”. Next to him he will have beer bottles, since he died a mysterious death that was rumored to be because of alcohol. On the other post card it will be Booth’s hand with Poe sitting across the table. Booth will have two 4’s since he used a .44 caliber gun to shoot Lincoln. Out on the table, the 5 cards will be 4, Ace (which can stand for 1), 4, 6, and 5. This is because Booth shot Lincoln on 4-14-65. Then, to bring it all together, they will be gambling with Pennies and $5 bills since they have Lincoln on them. I intend on finding pictures to scan of a poker table in Vegas, Booth, and Poe. I intend on taking my own pictures of hands holding cards. One for Poe, and one for Booth. I also am going to take a picture of beer bottles and stacks of pennies. I intend on actually scanning in the cards that lay out on the table, pennies, and 5 dollar bills. The interesting thing is that you will need to have both post cards to understand the whole picture. Only with both post cards will you know who is on each side of the table and who actually wins the hand.

Celebrity Sports -Flav Plays Soccer

The contest I entered was called "Celebrity Sports". For the contest, I was supposed to take a non-athlete celebrity and photoshop that celeb to make it look like he is playing a professional sport. For mine, I chose to make Flavor Flav play soccer.
I used a variety of photoshop techniques to make this image. I took a picture of soccer players and put Flav's head on it. First I used the cloning tool to erase the original guy's head so it was just the background. Then I put Flav's head in its place. I had to use the arbitrary rotating CCW thing on his head so it would match the position of the body. Then for the neck, I used the healing tool to make it look natural. For the arms and the legs, I used the magnetic lasso tool to select those areas and i reduced the brightness since the original player was white. I had to match the arms with the tone of Flav's face. I also used the burn tool for this. For the clock, I used the magnetic lasso tool to cut it out of a different picture and then pasted it on the picture. For the rope around the neck, I used the brush tool. Go Flav!!!! Yeahhhhhhh Booooyyyyy!!!!

Click here to get to the contest entry.

William S. Burroughs Reading

After reading the reading, my opinion about the cut up technique is that I don't really like it. I feel like all it does is jumble up words so that is doesn't really make any sense. I don't think that it should be compared to an artist's collage at all. This is because I feel a collage is something you visually look at, and normally all of the cut up images are put together with some type of common theme that makes sense. Cutting up words and phrases and pasting them together I feel is nothing like that. The randomness of it also makes it less comphrensive when it is done. The examples of cut ups that are in the reading are not appealing to me at all. The finished product just seems like a mess to me, like it is butchering the English language. I personally just dont like it. My question is what do people who actually like this "cut up method" find appealing about it?

Magic Wand, Smudge, and Sharpen Tools

Dada Artist: Man Ray

The Dada Artist whose artwork I chose to discuss is Man Ray.

The first peice of artwork I looked at is called Cadeau (Gift).

This peice of artwork is an example of a rectified readymade. "Readymades are everyday manufactured goods that are deemed to be art merely by virtue of the artist's selection of them as such". This readymade is an painted flat iron with a row of tacks that are glued to the bottom. The reason this is a rectified readymade is because a rectified readymade is a readymade that has been modified by the artist. In this peice, Ray modified the iron by gluing the tacks to the bottom.

The second piece of artwork I looked at is called Rayograph.

This piece of artwork is an example of a photogram. A photogram is defined as a "camera-less photographic print that records the placement of objects on photosensitive paper that has been exposed to light". This creates an abstract photograph. The objects that Ray photographed using this technique is obviously camera negatives. If you look closely, it looks like there is another object in there but you cant really tell what exactly it is. This piece is my favorite because the negatives are transparent which looks really neat and if you zoom the piece in, you can kind of make out that photo that is actually on the negative. In one part, it looks like a womans torso area (but that is just what I am seeing, Im not sure if I am correct). Also, if you zoom in to the top left hand corner, you can even see a fingerprint.

Casey's Audio Journey From Home to the Beach

My Audio Journey

My audio journey is supposed to take you from a house in a neighborhood to the beach. I started off the peice indoors, and had the sound of flip flops (typical beach shoewear walking. I then had a door open to the outside. Outside, there is the sound of birds chirping and even a neighbor's dog. Unfortunately there is a short part where the sound cuts out, although it is not supposed to. That peice some how got cut out as I turned it into a wav or mp3. The journey then takes you to a car where you here keys juggling and then the open and slam of the car door. when the car door slams, the outside noises stop. The keys are put in the ignition and the car starts. You then hear the windows roll down and you can faintly hear the birds in the background. Then the car drives away and you can hear it on the road and cars passing by like on a highway. When the car arrives at the destination, the windows roll up, the car turns off and you hear the car door open and slam. You hear the sound of the ocean and the sound of walking. The walking stops and there are seagulls and the sound of a ship in the background. Yay, you are at the beach! I did this for my project because I love the beach, and the sound of the waves and the ocean is my favorite sound in the world so I had to use it for my project.

The sounds I recorded myself were the flip flops walking (inside and outside), the door slamming, and the car.

Attributions:

Ship Sound: By milo (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=444) ship2_bergen.aif (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=23722)

Car Highway Sounds: By FreqMan (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=92661) cars pass by.wav (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=20049)

Ocean Sounds: By Dynamicell (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=47052) Water_Miami_beach_Atlantic.aif (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=17552)

Seagull Sounds: By hazure (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=30150)
seagull.wav (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=23707)

Outdoor Sounds: By pcaeldries (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=97826) CountrySideSummerEvening.wav (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=23131)