C E S 3/29

now that the internet is up and running, we can get serious :)

it was difficult getting back into the swing of school...spring break was not long enough. Despite my complaints, things have been going pretty well. In my first project about measurement, I played off of Les Corbusier and his "model man". through a series of photos, i created the model woman (i e me ha ha). they are taken in a bathroom, each one touching a different surface of the room. it starts with the toilet and then proceeds on through until the ceiling.
This project opened things up for the next project about spectacle. Before, I had created a static representation. i now moved to a moving film. I addressed the idea of privacy, or rather a lack there of. In my photos, the figure is unaware of the viewer. She is in a towel, going about her daily routine. But she is being watched. The viewers of the photos are "peeping"...and it is without their consent. In my film, I am creating a similar situation. a shower curtain conceals a wall with a "peep hole/box". when the viewer stoops down to look inside, he/she will be looking at the video of a woman taking a shower. the viewer is invading on a private moment...stumbling on it. he feels guilty, but cant look away.
dont worry, this project is pg...no nudity...only bare from the back and the waist up
get excited

photos attached

Mary Ellsworth

i spent last weekend viewing many specticals i attended a mass in assisi, watched a soccer game at the stadium, and saw the flight of the dove (aka the easter parade).
I really enjoyed engaging with the city in this way. i especially liked the easter parade with is layers of seemingly illogical pieces which make up an elaborate spectacle. i think i am interested in using the easter parade as my spectacle. it attracts me because it has many complex parts which when disjointed would be almost illogical. it would only make sens to someone who had been to florence and seen it. i enjoy the idea that the parts of this spectical are only really conneced by this one event.

i was also inspired by my travels on spring break and my previous works last semester which i would like to incorperate into this piece.

over spring break i visited pompeii and i was inmpressed by the textures and ambiguity of the many frescoes i saw. It is interesting to me that when taken out of there cultural perspective or disjointed that these images become more intriguing. i would like to reduce and separte my spectacle into the spectators, the players, the objects, the ritual. i think by separating and fading out these objects i can make an interesting work.

i would also like to modify and reincorperate the book form a form i have been exporing this semester. Instead of making a book out of paper i intend to make a three piece accordian style form out of metal. i think the metal wil be intersting base for creating textures on. i have some idea about the way i want the metal to be but i need to make sure i can access that type of metal.

i am worried to some extent about time constraints.

Professoressa Julia

Hi All,
I am back in NY/CT and thinking of you all, and wondering how it is going in Firenze. I miss being there with you! It has taken me a full week to stop being disoriented; I am fully back in my "normal life" now. Sigh. How are your "Spectacles" progressing? I keep hitting the "refresh" button on the blog page, anxiously awaiting news. Nerdy, yes. Is the internet healthy again? Has spring sprung? Keep in touch, OK?

baci,
Julia

vidya as spectacle

As a consequence of being a dark-skinned, upper-middle class American female in a mostly white country with more conservative gender roles, I find myself extremely often in the position of spectacle. I think I might measure Via Palazzuolo with the attention I receive from immigrant (and Italian) males of all sorts. I don't like having to define myself to satisfy other people's need to categorize me. Well, I'll be darned: she's brown, but she's not poor...she rides the bus and looks like she might live here, but now she's looking at a map. I defy a lot of expectations, and so I get looked at. While I feel as though my culture has made me what I am, I am not so used to being made so aware of my 'race.' I've been starting to think about the spectacle-izing people based on their physical traits, and often without their consent.

Christy Nigh - week 7

So I have been thinking a lot about spectacles. I haven't really been thinking much about what we might typically consider spectacular because, although that is interesting, I find the semi-mundane and ordinary much more worthy of being turned into a spectacle. (This definitely happens when you make something into a piece of art) I prefer to think of things like the school boy crossing himself as he walks down the street, or the beggar on the corner, or the person who absentmindedly drops something and has to turn and pick it up. I find people's interactions quite spectacle-like.
Besides the mundane, the other thing that I find fascinating about spectacles is the difference between what is being watched and the watcher. The concept of a spectacle from the inside of it, flips the whole idea of a spectacle upside-down and inside out. Most people generally prefer to be watchers (at least I know that I do), so what happens when the viewer becomes the viewed?

taryn riley

hi only a quick scarce post right now since the internet has been down i am in an internet point thingy and i only have a minute left. things are good. we met ken. i will update later when i have pictures and more to say or internet to update with. sorry

Sarah Q. 3.23

hello!

well this is my sunday blog post... we dont have internet at school and i have one minute remaining on my time in the internet cafe..

i am real excited to make this next project with measurements, but am still not positive what i will do. possibly something with songs to measure my path, or perhaps just my footsteps and combining songs? we shall see.

spring break was great, good to be getting into the swing of things again! pictures later!!!