body and architecture

vidya finally posts photos

2008-04-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

Forgot to post on Sunday. I also am writing this as I finally put some pictures up on flickr. Today, I had my critique on the mutual observation project. It was really good to hear feedback from fresh eyes, because when you work on something for long enough, it becomes completely pointless and mundane to you. Seeing everyone else appreciate and be excited about what, in effect, became a quasi-daily ritual to me, reminded me of the reason for this undertaking.

Which is?

I set out to change the world, but I ended up, not surprisingly, learning so much..about how change happens one person--one conversation at a time. I reached out to people and realized that I wasn't necessarily breaking down barriers of racism and anonymity for all of the world, or even all of Florence, but engaging people in a discourse. I was showing them generosity, and those who participated found at least a part of themselves with which they could be generous.

I think Regan put her finger right on why this project was so fitting for me - I was using the medium that comes naturally to me: conversation. I do like to talk. I do relate well to complete strangers. And I value face-to-face interaction and conversation. I'm definitely glad now that I never took pictures of the drawings I made. (They were so good, believe me.) This way, I have no ownership over them. Neat to think that they're out there floating around somewhere...and not necessarily in Florence, because I convinced some of the participants to mail them to their friends/family. For me, this was a work of persistence, also. EVERYONE was curious, but man are people too afraid/busy to care and ask. Last Thursday, I went to three piazzas for 1.5 hours each and got ZERO participants.

We'll see how the show goes..I will be doing my "performance" (I don't think it's a performance) on the evening of the opening as well as, if I can, for about an hour at the bar every evening until we take the show down. I am terribly excited to just bask in the glory of a semester's worth of hard work, now that we have come out alive. I feel really privileged to have an environment of such genius creative minds.

Carters Pics

2008-04-18T08:12:00.001-07:00

Julia....here are some pics of stuff....some progress pics. it is coming together really nicely. i am integrating the body with the chair. the ropes of the seat are coming up and molding into the wax. hee hee so fun

vassallo

2008-04-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

GREETINGS JULIA AND FELLOW BLOG READERS.

soooo this week is all about rituals. good times. i am somewhat keen on rituals because of my slightly ocd tendencies. so last week for the miniature project i decided to use my rubix cube as my ritual. i have this sick obsession with my cubes (i have three of them) and always do them... like constantly, whenever im bored. so i made this sweet movie, using pictures i took of the cube. i put it on a table (refer to pictures for a visual, please) and took a picture of it after every single move i made. then i put it on imovie and played the pics really fast. and then i played a very catchy and enjoyable postal service song in the background. sortof techno-ish. i loved it. i love that damn cube. the pics werent that great though becuase i stupidly didnt use my flash, but you cant win em all. and i dont think anyone even noticed.

so for the big final-o project-o, im combing my lovely obsessive compulsiveness with a weaving technique i love to do. so i just wanna weave tons of stuff. cubes, blankets, chairs. and perhaps make a little haven for myself. so thats what im working on. and then in regans class, im making very adorable and slightly oversized stuffed animals! yes, theyr so fun. im making them big so that theyr not just stupid stuffed animals. but im trying to be really detailed with them. its very time consuming though, but now i have regans sewing machine and it is the most magical device ever, i love sewing. so thats what im workin on. very artsy and enjoyable. the end is near.

CIAO... JULIA WE MISS YOU!

Christy - week something or other

2008-04-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

Right, I officially have no more sense of time, but oh well. The basic reality is that we have very little time left, and I have lots and lots to do. Presently, I am taking over the seminar room, and simultaneously drawing a movie, and four large animal drawings. I think I have drawn for at least 6 hours today, and it is a rather good feeling. Once I finish this post I am going to go draw for a couple more hours! All in all I'm enjoying the progress I'm making, and sorta figuring things out as I go along. I am also having fun jumping back and forth between projects which makes working seem less endless because it changes periodically (aka. whenever I get tired of one thing).

Ok, so a little bit more about my actual drawings:
Right now I am bringing four different, large-scale animals up to finish together. At least that is the plan I still have to start one of them, and restart the first one I did, so that it fits into the set (yay for plan changes :/). The concept behind those drawings is pretty much the same as I started out with (getting the idea of the animal through small parts of it). I'm using this concept as a metaphor for how museums present information.
On the ritual end of things, I'm drawing. I finally decided to start drawing an old photograph of me when I was six years old. Originally I was considering doing another self portrait of me now over it, but I think that it might be too cliche, so I decided to draw images that relate to different periods of my life. I have only drawn the original self portrait so far, so I guess we will see how things go.
Ok, back to work....

vidya: mutual observation

2008-04-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

Maybe because I'm a woman, because I'm Indian, because I'm American, because I'm human, or all of the above, I feel really watched walking down the streets here. I've never felt more aware of my race, either. We all do it - we look at one another from afar, but I wanted to push people to put themselves out there, face to face, in front of someone else. Since drawing is seeing, I've set up what I call a "Mutual Observation" booth in several piazzas in Florence. People come to the booth, I do free pencil portraits for them as long as they agree to do one of me. Then we trade. Fun! I give them the drawings envelopes that resemble my "momento" envelopes and seal them with the personal seal I designed in drawing and had engraved for my momentos. I then encourage them to find a stroke of generosity and send the drawing in the mail to someone else. I've also succeeded in opening up a small dialogue about watching, racism, immigration in Italy, and the act of drawing. People are afraid - to come up to my booth, to ask what I'm doing, to actually sit down and draw. I sit for two or three hours and I get two or three people. I assure them that I don't care what the drawing looks like - just that they are courageous enough to do it. The box I carry around with all my stuff is slowly becoming personalized, and it will be my ritual object. All the things one needs to perform this ritual.

I like meeting strangers and talking to them and sharing with them. This, in some ways, is a self-portrait. Because, after all, I am going to end up with a bunch of drawings of me. I'll post pictures as soon as I can of everything from this and the last projects.

Andrea Noble

2008-04-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've finally arrived (pretty much) at my final project. Unfortunately, it always takes me forever to work out what I'm actually doing and what I want it to be about.

At first I was thinking about going inside my box every day for an hour and writing inside of it, and then opening it up at the end as kind of an artifact. However, I decided that this didn't really seem finished enough for me, and that it wasn't a proper goodbye to my box. Then I began to think about commemorating the box by either memorializing it or slowly taking it apart (the ritual of taking apart the box.) For memorializing, I began to think about possibly filling it with cement or plaster (similar to a Rachel Whiteread), but I wasn't really so sure about this. I didn't like the idea of just being left with a giant block of house. I decided instead to focus on taking apart my box and somehow leaving it in Florence, relating this idea to my leaving Florence (leaving my home behind) as well as leaving behind anxieties (often times I let out all my worries/anxieties in the box). Regan suggested that I pick apart the box with my hands. This idea was appealing because this would be a way for me to really interact with the box, as well as letting out frustration and other feelings. Furthermore, I liked the fact that this would be a performance piece, which would relate to my previous work.

Anyway, my box is now torn apart. (I have posted pictures) I filmed this process and I'm either going to create a documentary or simply display photographs, because I love the way the photographs turned out. I still have a lot of decisions to make. For instance, I was thinking about possibly burning these remains so that they turn to ashes, and possibly sprinkling them somewhere-- either in the Arno to represent movement or in the train station (to bring my project full circle). However, it might be nice to also just end the project as it is.

I'll fill you in on how it goes!

Nason April 13th

2008-04-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

HEY GUYS!

at this point, i wasnt quite sure which photos to add because i am at a half way point, and dont want to post photos of the project i am working on just yet. I am posting photos from the specola again, but this time specifically ones that relate to the body as a point of possible entry/exit and contact. Though both of my projects for our two studios seem pretty far apart (for Sketchbook i am making drawings of snakes and the body, using the body as a metaphor for entry and exit of lessons learned, emotions...what have you. actually not having anything to do with sex despite how sexual i guess you could make it seem. for Body and Architecture I am essentially making a cloth phone booth that relates to communication/dealing with Obsessive Compulsive-ness in general, from which i kind of suffer if you cant already tell. well, maybe its not obvious, but chatty Cathy over here feels like sometimes it is), they are very related as i have found.

i was inspired to center my projects on major changes that have taken place here in me, and while immediately looking at my projects might not show this exactly, they are both ways for me to work out what i have figured out here. What have i figured out? I feel now, kind of simply put i guess ---because otherwise you're in for a long, boring talk on my mental / emotional states, both of which i am constantly overanalyzing---more clearly than ever the importance of knowing and trusting oneself as their own source of advice, their own authority. I am tired of looking to other people to tell me what to do...and its still taking me time to work through whatever insecurities constantly find me asking other people's approval.

This may seem like a distant connection, but it all comes back, to me, to the human body, and respecting my own (your guys' own, too, for you, respectfully) as my home for the next howevermany years.

I am going to get overwhelmingly corny, but this explains the pictures ive added, perhaps.
holler back.

taryn

2008-04-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

eyyyyyyyyy i didnt really post but one picture this week ( a still from a little vid from ken's class documenting my daily routine of putting on makeup). For ken's final project I am focusing on my ritual of Feminizing myself ~ and thus creating a shrine to it. kind of both a glorification and "eff you" to femininity (hopefully). tinfoil. WHATever.

The book i am working on for regan's final is killin' meeeee. cutting out tiny little details from wings and lace.... its funny that someone as dirty, uncontrolled and expulsive as i chose to make a book of delicate little shmeebops. its purdy though and some of the cut pages feel reallllllly nice.

finally - a witty update!

2008-04-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the severe lateness of this update.

Where to begin?

Patchyness. What is it? It is applying the medium in - well, patches - or not applying the medium is larger tonal areas. It is a lack of sensitivity, without a sense of gradation or gradual build up. So I needed to try and resolve this. The prescribed means for the resolution was a series of ink drawings. At first, the process and new medium was very frustrating. Then it got better. Then I fell in love with it. Now I wish I had time to go back and finish that last drawing after a Sofonisba Anguissola painting I saw at the Galeria Doria Pamphilj in Rome.

Then it was on to spectacle. Somewhere along the way I decided to draw my own wall paper. And did. Then built an installations around it, then staged a performance piece in front of it. Vidya encouraged the class to eat fruit in the installation - what I saw as a constructed space meant to reference the world of Dutch still lifes - she spoke French, until everyone participating ate the fruit, then she switched to English, thereby ending the performance...... One can see in the photos that the wall paper was an adam and eve snake pattern -- meant to lay down a sense of specificity for a site constructed as a place to encounter the symbolism of fruit.....

.....and now, the work continues. More wall paper like pattern filled drawings - more carefully planned and constructed photos taking place in the installation -- and we shall see how all of the above will be resolved!

a dopo

John

allegra fisher

2008-04-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

last week for my ritual I worked with my daily, morning espresso. for that I painted a small espresso pot with the left over coffee that I drank that morning. now i would like to continue with that ritual as i move into the next part of the project. i have been trying out more ways of drawing with coffee as well as possibly making a short film about making coffee.

Sarah Q. 4.13

2008-04-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

ciao ciao ciao

so for my ritual i chose the glorious palio of siena. i just talked about it and how fascinated i am by all of the mini rituals that each neighborhood/contrada has (as well as individual families and groups of friends...) so fun! i had a slide show in which i included the holiness of the horses, games that children play, dinners, specific food that is eaten, etc. i love the palio and have seen it twice and for me and all of siena its a very ritualistic event.

i am playing around now with thinking of the symbols of the palio - the horses, the armor and outfits, and the main patterns that all of the contradas have based on their mascots. for example, "bruco" (the caterpillar) has the colors yellow and green - which are represented on their flags, armor, outfits, horses, everything!! and it has been this way for hundreds and hundreds of years!!

i was thinking of doing a drawing combining the patterning of the contradas mixed with another ritual, like add horses in the foreground to represent the actual race. i have been experimenting with mixed media again too - so like doing the contrada colors in watercolor in the background and having a more rough and abstract take on the horses battling to take first place. thats alllll for now!

peace
$@|2@#

Michelle Israel

2008-04-12T05:24:00.000-07:00

So for my documentation of a ritual, I made a video mocking my OCD tendencies. Basically, every night before I go to sleep, I set up my night table in a very specific way (though I won't say how because it's kind of crazy and obscene). The video mimicked the way I feel about/towards this nightly ritual: pathetic and ridiculous (with the first half of the video being very melancholic, and the second half being upbeat and repetitious).

For my final project, I'm combining projects for both Ken's and Regan's classes. For Regan's class, I'm doing a project inspired by the Bargello. I made myself into a sculpture by wearing bed sheets and painting myself white (what an experience, might I add!) and posing in my living room, thus making my living room into a "sculpture museum," like the Bargello. But when I researched the history of the Bargello, I discovered that it was once used as a prison and barracks, and that there were a lot of public hangings there way back in the day before it became a National Museum. So I did a re-shoot of myself as a sculpture. Except this time, instead of posing arbitrarily, I posed "with a purpose." In other words, I created a sculpture scene where all the sculptures are dead, dying, praying, crying, etc...all the different emotions one would witness during a hanging ritual. I'm playing with the cast shadows on the back wall to subtly hint at the story of what might have happened in the sculpture scene, but I don't want to give too much away. I've attached to Flickr what I started out with, and what the project progressed to. Enjoy!

Molto amore from Italia,

M

C E S 4/11

2008-04-11T01:08:00.000-07:00

i spent this week making the plaster molds of my body. i was lucky enough to have the help of alex, sarah, reed and regan. it was AWESOME. basically, i would spread a different part of my body in vaseline every day and then just let them glob and gloop the plaster all over me. the most difficult part was my face. i had to lay completely still for 25 minutes with two straws sticking up my nose to breath. it was hard not to laugh, being able to hear what everyone was saying and not being able to communicate in any way. in the end, i got an awesome mold of my face. unfortunately, i lost about half of my eyelashes, but i happen to have a lot so it is not too noticable. next week i will start the was casting. i have decided to dismiss the idea of multiples, due to time and to lack of reason. right now i am playing with different materials to embed in the castes (rope may be an integral part). I am also looking at incorporating old wood and furniture. i have a great old chair that the figure may sit on / become a part of.
so EXCITING!!

sarah q. - joshua tree video

2008-04-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

kaityli

2008-04-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

So somehow I also managed to forget about blogging until now, but better late than never, I suppose.

For last week's project, the spectacle, I went through several changes. First, I wanted to do a film about confrontations and crowds, but then I couldn't really get the footage I wanted. Then I thought about ways to achieve a claustrophobic feel physically, and I was so ready for it that I bought 15 euros worth of fabric, but then I actually started and just wasn't feeling it anymore. In the end, what I really wanted to do was draw. I didn't want to work towards a critique, and that's pretty much what it felt like when I came up with my initial ideas. In the end, I did an accordion book of people senza architecture or context. I enjoyed working on it, and critique was helpful in the way that made me actually want to go back and work on it some more in order to improve it rather than fix it.

I'm excited for Regan's final project, but it might be a semi disaster because I'm totally terrible with sculpture, and I've never figured out the secrets to paper craft.

As for the ritual, I've thought about it, but not really in a completely serious way until yesterday. When the assignment was first introduced, I thought about sporting rituals, religious rituals, and how the two converge, because I care about soccer for cultural reasons mostly. I mean, I like the sport, but I don't care about Wash U's team, or my high school's team for more reasons than just that they were tools. I thought about building a shrine to someone (it's a secret). Maybe I still will. We'll see. But when I was having dinner with Mary last night, she was taking forever. I ate, paused, read a guidebook in French for like 15 minutes, continued eating, and still finished first. But that's not fair; I eat really quickly. I always win the race. So maybe I'll do something about that. I'm pretty indecisive and vague.

Emily's photos

2008-04-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23219926@N02/

kind of out of order, includes some photos from the midterm project

below is Emily's blog...forgot about my name

2008-04-06T14:00:00.001-07:00

too long...

2008-04-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

Somehow I managed to completely forget about blogging until now, so this is going to be a long one. I don’t want to leave you in the dark.

I’ll start with Ken’s class. For our measurement project I decided to utilize my time on the train. Within my seating area I measured all of the spaces I could think of. I made some ink drawings of this area and wrote in the measurements (in centimeters). Then, I added myself interacting with the space—sitting back in the seat, leaning into the window, and putting my bag on the overhead rack. I measured myself, also, and added these measurements into the drawing, however, here I used inches. The idea basically stemmed from the frustration of my not being able to grasp the metric system. Thus, the two sets of numbers in the drawings really don’t match up or make any sense with each other.

For my spectacle, after many other ideas passed through, I continued to work with the train. I started by filming a person next to a window on a train—looking out the window, reading a book while occasionally looking up, etc. I worked with these clips on my computer for a while—editing contrast and boosting color, fitting the pieces into an order to play in a loop. From the beginning I knew that this was not a movie to be projected, but rather I wanted to build a space around my computer for viewing. Since my train drawings had a nice sense of transparency I played around a lot with layering in this project. I cut out from a piece of cardboard a window that resembled the train’s and set it in front of by computer while I played the train movie. I filmed this set up, so I then had a two-layered movie. I played around with some other layers after this, but didn’t like how distorted the original train movie was becoming, so stopped with the two-layer version. Then I built a box around my computer and cut out a little peep hole. Inside the space of the box, I placed some cut out figures leftover from failed layering experimentation. Then I took this whole computer/box object and placed it in the studio on a shelf and covered the area with trash bags to make a giant black mass with my little peep hole of light (from the computer screen). The light draws you to look into the hole into the space which features the movie on a loop. You’re watching a person who’s looking out the window but you’re also blocked by another window, so you feel like you’re both inside and outside of the train, and then there’s the whole other space of the actual box, so you’re never really sure what you’re place is or exactly what the spectacle is, but it’s all a very intimate, quiet experience. Or at least, these were my intentions.

Still working out in my head what to do for the ritual project. I have a desire to paint objects and also to work with another system that I make up for myself (like the midterm handwriting project). I might make my system revolve around the act of reading, since that can be a ritual.

For Reagan’s final project, I’m working on a new sketchbook that I made with bigger, but fewer pages. I’ve chosen fourteen of the cities that I’ve been to this semester and from each of those a monument in the city. I’m currently drawing these monuments (black/white) on separate pieces of paper to be transferred into the sketchbook. On top of these transfers, I will be drawing birds from La Specola. After I chose my monuments I went to choose a bird that relates to each one (in form/texture/style). So each page of my sketchbook with represent a city using a large monument and a drawing of a bird using many materials and a little bit of color.

Ok, there it is, and I’ll put up some images of what I’ve finished and what I’m working on.

Christy Nigh - week 9

2008-04-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

Right, so this week was a lot more chill than last week, especially once I got past the intense frustration and annoyance I had been feeling with my last project. It will definitely have to be revisited since I really didn't finish it to my satisfaction or really the best of its potential, so I can't leave it hanging forever, but it was good to move on a little bit and gain some space.
Looking forward, there are the two new final projects, both of which I am relatively excited about. They both involve lots of drawing, but that really doesn't bother me, since I normally love to draw and find it relaxing when it isn't shoved up against a deadline. Anyways, drawing fits pretty much perfectly with the concept of ritual. It has most definitely had a fairly ritualistic presence since I was very little. It is a way of considering and processing the world. Something that pulls the world into my thoughts and pushes it out at the same time. I'm going to make a movie about this process and just to see what comes of it. I am a bit worried that it will become something of an instructional video. I'm not really all that interested in creating a how to video for drawing (useful though that might be to some people). Mostly I want to get across the slow process of drawing as it meanders, or occasionally staggers, its way into being. This new attitude towards movie making relieves some of the pressure from me as the hand behind the drawing, to be making entirely perfect frames. I think I would like this movie to as open as possible about the mistakes and problems that come with image making. Particularly with this project I think I just need to get to work and see where it takes me. (Now if only I could decided on something to draw....)
My other project is also about drawing. It deals with the process of how drawings are created, but instead of showing the process, it is about what makes it to the final drawing, and what gets cut. I'm working on using the idea of a drawing as a metaphor for the selection process that takes place in museums as to what information is shown. Plus it means I get to spend lots of time at La Specola drawing the animals, which is quite pleasurable. I don't have a ton of stuff to post in photos, but there are my Specola drawings. So those are linked.

Well, back to my meander-stagger-something-or-other. =)

Amy TTTTTTT

2008-04-06T12:34:00.000-07:00

hello there its been quite awhile but ive been trying to figure out how to sign on to this darn website and i can never do it! so thanks sarah for helping me. anyhoo. julia, if youre reading, im sorry its been so long.
i made a movie! it is for my spectacle and the theme of it is A watched pot never boils. literally. and its a silent film and i dont really know where i got the inspiration for it. its on youtube but its not working so well there...so julia, you can see it on my facebook. i think i can get a link for just the video so you dont have to have a facebook account to watch it. it stars kate, liz and hillary. in my opinion its pretty funny. mostly because of the superb acting.
next up is my project that is joint between regan and kens project.
i tried to fit in ritual with the museum-y idea and came up with something that can be described as a museum style framed drawing sequence of fictional imagined histories of baby jesus in different animal/object niches that i will create from the museums like la specola and the anthro museum. i am currently on the lookout for frames. old wooden ones. and need to go do some extreme museum drawing in order to get some compositions down. i went to santo spirito but there wasnt a market today. bah. if you have any ideas....i need them! the plaques with the descriptions are gonna be professional looking and it will be installed. not sure where? i am excited to get started on it and spend lots of time on it!
oh and ill be putting various previously painted images of the baby jesus i nthe drawings. basically ill be forming the drawing around the images of jesus that i use. ritually, it is about nativity scenes and different versions. there will also be a correlation between the number of drawings and the life of jesus. we'll see where that goes.

Allegra

2008-04-06T12:17:00.000-07:00

In the last week I have been back and forth a lot on thinking about rituals between the more grand Rituals of big life moments and the everyday ritualistic activities we all partake in. But, because we are in Italy I wanted to find something that was more of an Italian ritual that I have adopted during my stay here. The morning cappuccino and or continual espresso drinks through out day are something I love despite having not been a big coffee drinker in the States. So now that I have found my ritual and begun documenting it I am starting to think about ways to create my final project. Right now I am interested in drawing with espresso and my body--we will see how this turns out.

For this week I've posted some pictures from my the last project about spectacle. For that one I recorded an afternoon on Santa Trinita bridge and the scene of watching and being watched there.

Sarah Q. 4.06

2008-04-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

buona sera!

alright, well my bar project went really well and it was so fun to make. it helped that i was already friends with all the owners at joshua tree so they were thrilled that i was making a movie there. giulia, the bartender, was so excited to be in it, she kept giving us shots and free drinks just to be putting her hand in front of the camera... the action was great, the alcohol might have made things a little harder (haha). I put up a few still frames from the movie, and you can view it on youtube also.. its not fully loaded yet but if you search for 'night at joshua tree goings on at pub in florence' you should be able to find it in the next few days

moving onto rituals.. i have so many rituals in my life it seems impossible to just pick one. im jewish and have so many rituals associated with judaism that i love and do all the time, but im in italy and so i want to do something more italian and in the moment that im really involved in. i thought about siena and what rituals they have there, and decided i want to do my project, or at least some of my preliminary research, on the Palio (the horserace that happens twice a year in the piazza del campo of siena). there are 17 sections of the city, and each one has its own mascot/team. there are SO many rituals involved.. like taking the horses into the churches the day before the palio (and if they make a poop its really good luck!), and guarding the horses all the time so other contradas (neighborhoods) dont try and hurt it, or how in Onda they eat 'trippa' the day before the palio every year, and the HUGE cenas that the contradas have before each palio, etc.

i might want to make a piece thats more generic and captures just the spirit and emotions throughout the ritual of the palio - perhaps a big watercolor or all the different contradas and overlap it with a stunning charcoal drawing of horses charging down the streets of the piazza. i would love to give this piece to our friends in Siena - Angelo and Laura and their daughter Giulia.. but i'll have to make their contradas (Onda and Bruco) stand out more than the other ones probably!!

taryn

2008-04-06T04:46:00.001-07:00

oops

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23224331@N04/

Alex Nason, April 6th MADNESS

2008-04-06T04:45:00.000-07:00

i am really confused in my head about the next project, so im working on it. but as it happens as a child i was really freakishly OCD about weird freakish things about which i will not go into detail right now, because i might need it for inspiration later. anyways, i was obsessing about this project and worrying about it because i needed inspiration and realized that the only thing i reallllly do ritualistically is a. obsess about decisions/whatever b. think i am dying of some bizarre disease that i pretty much am certain i dont have (hypochondria, i think). so while i was worrying i REALIZED i was just worrying again and got semi inspired because OCD tendencies kind of define my persona. so i think i will take that further, but right now im still in the process of being OCD anyways...so yea. medication helps.

I posted some photos that interested me, though i dont know where they will take me, if anywhere. there is this CUTE little pasticeria on the way to the specola. it looks like it comes right out of a little story book, i am pretty much obsessed with it. it is just so quaint and clean and perfect. so, maybe ill make a candy shop and let you guys eat everything. or MAYBE i will just eat everything from the candy shop and give birth to a giant candy baby. im not sure.

but the idea of body/birth has interested me too, such as pictures from the specola. for regan i am working from the anatomy figures, and i really am taken by all of the waxy figures and whatever. the bones and flesh and anatomy studies in general are a total blast to draw, even though every time i actually go to the specola the same lady asks to see my student I.D. she knows i am a student, but it is okay. It could just be her way of reaching out.....

obviously i am in a bitter mood, which is only helped by the horrifying taste of death i get when i bite my fingernails because i put this bitter clear stuff on them so i stop biting them but...to no avail. i just ingest a lot of bitter clear stuff. hope all your inspiration is going better than mineeee.
whoop whoop.

vassallo

2008-04-06T04:40:00.000-07:00

hello all. how is everyone doing. ok great. uhmm so i attached some picturamas of my project from last week- i made my pasta blanket and carried it with me everywhere. i think it worked out pretty well. i would have liked to take it to more places but i didnt really have time. it would be funny to see me carry it over the ponta vecchio, or into a discotec. people said that it looked more like a handbag than a blanket, which isnt that surprising cause i always have a handbag with me. for the next project about ritual- i really want to do seomthing with weaving. i used to weave a lot when i sewed in highschool- like ribbons and fabrics and stuff. so i would love to make a giant weaved something, like a blanket or something to hang. im not too sure. but for regans project, im in the process of making tons of stuffed animals. theyr looking pretty cute. but im going to make stuffed animals of creatures from la specola... and also some items from the anthropology museum. should be interesting.
thats all for now, ciao ciao.

taryn

2008-04-06T04:34:00.000-07:00

hihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihi ayiyiyii i uploaded lots of film stills onto flickr from my film. i was really surprised and happy that so many people seemed to "get" it - or at least feel the same feeling i was trying to convey with the video. it's been really really weird using video this semester. i used to HATE video. like, ABHOR. i hated anything that wasn't directly hand on paper or hand on canvas. Last semester I had to do this project that used computers and i was so pissed but i have found that videos are actually a really legitimate way for me to express ideas. i love them. however, i think for the next project i'm gonna do a shrine type thing. out of tinfoil etc. having to do with my ritual of feminizing myself. its going to be purposefully gaudy and ridiculous, i think.

for regan im working on a book but im really pissed because gli insetti are and have been being restored for the past eight bazillion years so.. asldfj.

Andrea N.

2008-04-06T04:16:00.000-07:00

Hey,
So for my first Ken project (measuring architecture with the body), I decided to measure the protrusions of the architecture using different parts of my body. (I've included some pictures). I wrote down the times it took for each area of architecture to make the protrusion that it made. I was interested in this project because Ken had been speaking a lot about the traces that humans leave behind on architecture, so I wanted to study instead the traces left behind by architecture on the human.
For my next project, I wanted to return to my former body of work. Since my box project has always dealt with me looking out at the world and the world looking at me, I thought my box would fit very well with the spectacle project. I wanted to set up a system that questions who is actually looking at who, so I projected my face from my box seemingly watching people as they walked by.
For my last project (ritual), I am thinking about going inside my box each day for an hour and writing/drawing inside it (or doing whatever I feel like.) The ritual will be that I go into my box each day for an hour, and at the end I will cut it open and display it as an artifact. I think this is fitting for the last project because my box has been extremely important all semester, and it seems only appropriate to display it as a significant object/"habitat"
Sorry, I know this is poorly worded but I'm kind of out of it right now. Miss you Julia!

Michelle Israel

2008-04-06T04:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, so in my last post, I explained that my spectacle project was playing with the idea of reversing the roles of the observer versus the observed (by turning myself into a sculpture that others view). I'm not exactly sure how this ties into the ritual project yet, but I want to try and take this "back pocket" idea of observer/observed and include it in my final project.

For this week's recording of a ritual, I'm thinking of recording my slight OCD-habits: mainly in the way I set up my night-table before I go to sleep. Right now, I'm playing around with the idea of making a video that mimics this obsessive compulsiveness, maybe in the way I edit my film. If I like the way it turns out, maybe I will consider playing with this idea for my final ritual project.

Sorry, no pictures this week - for some reason, I'm having some issues with flickr.

Kate Owens

2008-04-06T04:03:00.000-07:00

Soo overally I was happy with how Vidya and I's bread world turned out... Unfortunately our documentation of the project wasn't the most successful. We wanted the documentation to be more like a documentary rather than a full out movie with music, effects, and all... I think we ended up being somewhere in between. In the future I see this project being shown either in a few selected still images or with just runnning footage.

For the ritual project, I am kind of moving in a different direction than what I've been doing with all the mini worlds. After seeing some of the really kind of more obsessive two dimensionial work that Ken showed in class, I realized I wanted to do something similar. One of the artists I saw did really convoluted drawings on notebook paper and I liked how they related to doodling but created something also considered as "fine art". For my project I plan on taking my personal ritual of doodling around the holes of notebook paper, by cutting squares around my notebook hole doodles and sewing them together into a tapestry. The tapestry I want to be about 4 feet by 3 feet.... so that everything becomes a lot more abstract and you have to reallly go up close to understand what the piece is made from and to see all the little drawings.

For some reason I've suddenly become really stressed out about my two final projects here.... Finality is so scary and I've been having trouble thinking of ideas because I feel so pressured to make these projects the best of what I've done. I'm excited to start the ritual project because its so prescribed and almost meditative.... I'm not sure if it will be the best piece I've done but I'm pretty attatched to it and curious to see how it comes out.

Jonathan Monroe-Cook - 06.04.08

2008-04-06T03:23:00.000-07:00

Ciao.

For a while now I've been under the belief that the art I make should be inspired by the place I am in. Florence is pretty spectacular. You can barely look anywhere without seeing something visually intriguing, whether it is a famous Renaissance painting or cracked paint on a building. As I was working this week, though, I wasn't feeling inspired by the city. In fact, I was kind of tired: tired of trying to come up with the next best idea, tired of trying to be inspired, tired in general.

So I dropped my project from last week, which I was trying to force my way through, and I decided to lie down. Right in front of the Duomo.

"HA Duomo! Take that!" I thought to myself, "I am so not inspired by you that I am going to lie down in front of you. And not only that, but I am going to steal attention away from you!!" Basically, I was more popular than the Duomo for a few minutes:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23203997@N05/tags/060408/

The Duomo has its own means of fighting back... the police. I guess you can't lie down in front of the Duomo.

Oh well. Until next time.

Alison 4.6.08

2008-04-06T03:21:00.000-07:00

So I just wanted to start off by saying that I'm really sad that this semester is so closed to ending; I woke up this morning and realized that in exactly a month I will be on a plane back home to the United States, which is crazy scary and I don't even want to think about it because it seems like I just got here (minus the ridiculous amount of stuff that I've done between when I first arrived and now)...

But anyways, on a less emotional topic, I've figured out what I want to do for my ritual and final project. I am going to be combining my Regan and Ken projects together to make one project. My idea stems from my midterm for Regan's class in which I altered famous works of art by taking things out or changing them around. One of my pieces was of Rafael's "School of Athens" in which I removed all of the people, leaving only the architectural background. This piece is what has inspired me in this new, "ritual" project. I am taking pictures of the Botticelli Room at the Uffizi, focusing on not only the works of art but also the tourists who come to view them. My goal is to take one of these photographs and then "remove" all of the figures from the paintings so that the tourists are only viewing the backgrounds of these famous works of art.

Especially now because tourist season has started there are tons of tourists everywhere and the Uffizi is no exception. My goal is to illustrate the ritual of "non-art people" (meaning tourists who go to museums and see these famous works of art because that's what they are "supposed to do") going to museums and seeing the few highlighted works. What happens when you remove what these figures that what are viewed so often are no longer there? I then want to further this idea by asking/answering the question of where are the figures if they are no longer in the paintings? So I will probably create a diptych of two photos: one of the Botticelli Room without the figures and one of Florence life with the figures (possibly a café scene, but right now I'm not quite sure what the second picture will be)

So thats basically it for now... until next week, CIAO!!!

Carter Schwarberg 4/6

2008-04-06T02:56:00.000-07:00

Soooooo my last proj was ok, mediocre i guess, not my favorite...aspects went well i suppose.

but all is in the past. now, i am only moving forward with my last project. it is going to be a joint project between both studios, ken's and regan's. I am taking influence from the shrunken skeletons at the anthropology museum as well as my previous interests. These interests include the human body, large hollow structures, alternative materials, and nature. I have decided to make a plaster mold of my entire body and then caste wax duplicates of myself. I will be sitting in a nascent and vulnerable pose, just like the skeletons in the anthro museum. Ideally, I will caste myself 7 or more times. I think that there is power in numbers. Ritual will undoubtedly come into play, both in the process of casting as well as in the pose and what it stands for.
This is quite an undertaking, wish me luck...pictures to come after we start the mold on monday.

wrapping up spectacle and moving on to ritual

2008-04-03T05:31:00.000-07:00

i am just giving a brief summery of how my spectacle project turned out for people (aka julia) who may not have seen it.
i ended up painting images in watercolor of the pasque parade on some pieces of scrape metal that i found and arranging them in a manner that is vaguely reminiscent of the accordian style book form that i was exploring earlier this semester in the sketchbook class. this piece was moderately successful. i was pleased with how well the paint adhered to the rusted metal surface. the texture and transparency of this mark was the most successful aspect of the project. i will probably try and tweak ares of this project to make it more successful. there was some variation within the mark-making which i wish was more uniform. the side of one of the metal pieces was without rust and therefore did not accept the paint as well, so this side was much brighter than the other. i am exploring ways to tone down this side and possibly increase the contrast in areas on the other sides so the images are more apparent.

i am still unsure as to where my ritual project will go. i have several ideas one of which involves incorperating it with my sketchbook project. i am however trying to give it a little time to mull around in my brain. i will be traveling this weekend which should give me some time to think about all the different options in a less stressful atmosphere.

laura 3.30.08

2008-03-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

today i lit myself on fire.
in the porta al prato.
that was my spectacle.
here are pictures.

the idea behind the porta virgin was that i was going to turn myself into a cross between a saint statue and one of those candle offering candelabras that you find in churches. i was contemplating making a narrative film, but i decided that the spectacle wasn't about the story so much or the actions behind the making of the thing which are really quite mundane, but about the weird sight of someone on fire in the porta.

i attached candles to my crinoline with little wire holders, and then had Andrea and John and Alison light them while Michelle took pictures. thanks, guys!

Alison 3.30.08

2008-03-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

Ciao! Sorry it's been a long time, internet issues made last week posting not really feasible, but I'm back this week to get you all caught up. Our current project is to create a spectacle, and being in Italy, I've been intrigued with how they do laundry, leaving their clothes hanging in public view to dry. For my spectacle, I've decided to exaggerate this idea by placing my drying laundry in a very public place that does not have laundry hanging about.

I set up my laundry on our drying rack in Piazza della Signoria and took pictures and some film footage of it in relationship with the area around it, and/or people. Laura photographed me setting up the laundry and taking it down which got more attention from people than when we left it and watch it from a distance. I discovered that the laundry on its own... probably because it is pretty small in comparison to the Palazzo Vecchio (which was in the background) did not draw that much attention to it. However when I was interacting with it (hanging it up, moving it around, and photographing it) people noticed it much more.

Currently I am debating the best way to display the picture and/or video. I think that I will be printing out a series of photos (probably 5-7) that best embody the laundry in the public location, but I haven't entirely decided.

Oh... and on a completely different note, we went to the Alps this weekend and they are AMAZING!!!

vidya

2008-03-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally seemed to have gained some momentum! As Kate said, our collaboration is going extremely well..I think we were both just thinking along the same lines. I guess it's not all that surprising that we ended up working towards similar concepts, given my orange peel world and her little Florence. We work well together and it's just nice to have another brain and another pair of hands around. I will post pictures later tonight, but you can also just click on her link.

The project still talks about the man-made and the natural, and we have a lot to say, but my goal is to avoid force-feeding the viewer/stuffing bread down her throat. We should trust people to make their own inferences - that was probably the strength of my orange peel landscape.

Time is flying and it scares me. I want to savor this last month here before it passes me by...

Liz Walworth

2008-03-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings.

Kate and I made a video last week where we stripped and it came together in a magical way. We didn't have to edit it and it fit perfectly with the song we picked. MAGIC. I tried to post it on youtube but I don't think it worked. I'll keep trying.

I planned on making a naked suit and taking sexy pictures of myself for the spectacle thing, so the viewer would think that I would be completely vulnerable and naked for a split second, when, in fact, I'd be fully clothed. It was going to be about the illusion of having something when you're really getting nothing. But then I was watching Sin City and I realized I just didn't want to make it anymore. I was over it. It really has nothing to do with Sin City, but I was watching it when I stopped caring. But I started caring about Bruce Willis. He was looking good in that movie.

However, my spectacle has nothing to do with Bruce. I'm doing a painting of Kate. If the result is underwhelming, I plan on blaming Kate. Thanks Kate.

Christy- some time after spring break... =)

2008-03-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

Right, so this week has been more motivated than last week for sure, though still not all that much productive. Until today, and now I'm pulling a marathon session to finish all the stuff I've been procrastinating on for the last week. Anyways, maybe less about my work habits and more about what I have been thinking about, because I am always thinking. Both a blessing and a curse I suppose.
Our current project is all about spectacles. I decided to do another movie, because I don't feel like I'm quite done exploring this process yet. I'm not sure if it is something I will do a lot in the future, but for the moment I'm still fascinated. For me the idea of a spectacle is all about the mundane. Because I consider mundane things spectacles, it makes me think about whether or not other people/things realize that I am watching them, and thus, making them into a spectacle. This brings in the whole idea of who is watching whom, and whether or not they could be watching me and making me into a spectacle, except that I'm not aware of it. Also, I like the idea of how a spectacle feels from the point of view of the watched.
All of that, very logically brought me to animating a pigeon. Of course, this may not seem logical to the random passerby, but it made sense when I was thinking about a lot of that stuff on a park bench in the sun one afternoon and watching the pigeons in the park. Also, I like the concept of pigeons because they are so common place that they tend to become wallpaper that just happens to move (and poop on you). They are not normal fodder for the spectacular, and they are not a point of view from which people normally consider the world.
Well, back to work....

Kate Owens 3/30

2008-03-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

mmm... so this week has been the week of collaborations.

Starting with the project regarding how to measure space.. Liz and I worked together to make a short movie where we measured how far our clothes will take us in life… literally. We stripped down right outside of our door and stretched each item of clothing out side by side to see who could get the farthest. I won. I believe Liz is putting it on youtube right now so she or I will post it.

The spectacle project also turned out to be a collaboration.. but more by chance… Vidya overheard me talking to Ken about and an idea where I make one of my mini worlds out of bread and set it for the pigeons to attack. She had been planning to do a project with orange peels that was addressing very similar concepts to mine so she proposed that we collaborate and I agreed and it’s been going extremely well. Right now we have so much footage that its kind of overwhelming… The filming of the pigeons went better than either of us expected and there are a lot of interesting moments that I’m not sure how we will be able to edit it down to a short enough movie…

Bahh I’ve eaten too much bread this weekend.

Taryn

2008-03-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

hello folksies HI JULIA!!!!!!!!!!

for the first exercise in ken's class i did a fairly simple drawing of body parts in my room as they related to both practical and impractical uses (turning on lightswitch .. splits across floor etc)

Included on my flickr are two very random stills from the video i am working on... kind of having to do with OCD and the feelings of human discomfort that have to do with being dirty, slimy, etc.. feelings off being constrained.... it isnt as narrative as i think ken and i talked about it being but right now i am just working with the abstract images - then im going to try to piece them together in a slightly more logical sense.

ok maybe thats it for now chachacha

vassallo again

2008-03-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

helllloo sorry i totally forgot about pictures. but i have attached these pictures of my last project- the one when ken wanted us to experiment with meauring space. i decided to measure space using an imaginary pogo stick. i made marks around my appartment with flour, in the shape of the bottom of a pogo stick. and i strategically placed them in groups, as if someone had dipped a pogo stick in flour and this is what they did with it. i think it came out pretty well. someone suggested covering the floor in flour, then making the marks inversely, which couldhave been pretty cool i think.

vassallo

2008-03-30T09:24:00.001-07:00

helllllooo alllll. hiiii julia. uh as a sidenote i would like to mention that iv been trying to figure out whats wrong with my jpegs... and the internet is going slow as a goose right now but il try emailing them to you again tomorrow.

but in other news, so im working on our new project. and my "backpocket idea" is basically the idea of pasta. working with it for my last project, i have grown to kindof love pasta for some weird reason. i love the shape and the texture, and the different things you can do with it. so i took this to ken, and he was basically like, why do you want to work with pasta. and pretty much the only responce i had was, cause i like pasta. so im trying to dig deeper. and i think iv come to the comclusion that pasta is kindof my reminder of home. at home, both in saint louis and in my house in maryland, pasta is for dinner overwhelmingly often. and even though im in italy, where pasta is also on the menu 24/7... it still reminds me of home. and then me and ken started brainstorming about this idea that pasta is my "security blanket." and from there, i have decided to make somekind of pasta creation, using sewing. and perhaps really make a blanket, or just sew a "plate of pasta" and hopefully bring it around florence with me. and probly take pictures... of my security pasta and me, banging around town. we'll see how this goes... i gotta go figure out how im gunna do it.

pace all!

nason, pics.

2008-03-30T07:36:00.001-07:00

Alex Nason, March 30thhhh (pictures to follow)

2008-03-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

HEYYYYYYY,

so long time no blog, eh!? word...

so it is absolutely gorgeeous out and we went to the Specola today, which totally blows my mind. i was really taken with all of the wacky specimens and especially the wax body parts! in the projects i like the idea of making people squirm, so the fetuses were pretty sweet. . .

hmm, so for the spectacle project? i had trouble thinking about what i wanted to do, but kind of landed on the idea of the masses of tourists, poop, street cleaners and PIGEONS that somehow make it hard to pay attention to the intended spectacles in the city (im thinking duomo, piazza della signorina, what have you). I am always laughing at the tour groups walking around following one person holding a bright red stick or a flower or something. i mean, seriously how hilarious is that? or when there are tours of old ladies and they all whip out their cameras at the same time? horses running people over, followed by carts and crying children...florence is in FULL BLOOM guys!

So im making a movie on all of this, and partly because it is going to be oh such a wonderful surprise and partly because its not finished yet...i am going to refrain from saying much about it. Also, what if i jinx myself and then it totally stinks? that may already be the case....but guess well see on tuesday.

Ive been filming alot out on the streets and its amazing how many people are here from so many different places. it makes me feel alot smaller, in a way. and sometimes it just really ticks me off because im either stepping in horse poop or on someone else's foot or getting run over by a baby carriage....my oh my. so much darn inspiration, i have like 50 minutes of footage i have to cut down. just can't get enough of these tourists/attack of the pigeons deal. i am interested in the idea of what is grotesque and disturbing, even scary, but also laced with an edge of humor--bordering on the sarcastic, satirical, and then also the idea of "hilarity." You know, that which is "hilarious" and that which is a little overkill hilarious?

hmmm....

Holla back.

Sarah Q. 3.30

2008-03-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

allo!

so, for last week i tried the whole 'stop-motion' idea to show how many footsteps it took me to listen to one song on my ipod. i began with the idea of couting my footsteps all the way to our italian school, and then have them also coincide with the songs i listened to. that turned out to be a hell of a lot of footsteps and songs, so i just limited myself to one song.

i thought that using actual footsteps would be too cliche, so i decided to use the actual song that i listened to. i counted the number of letters in the song and then divided them by the number of footsteps. i made a stop motion film where each time i took a footstep, the next two letters of the lyrics would show up. i didnt use a tripod and i used pencil and lined paper because i wanted it to seem kind of juvenile and quick.. kind of like what i would write at school. i thought it was awesome, but i think some of the criticism was actually smart - for example maybe making the letters appear in a more footstep-looking kind of way. or like down the page in a path instead of just left to right in a line.

for the spectacle.. i began by just thinking what i think os as a spectacle - i came up with a few key words: mystery, motion, abstraction, immersive, and musical. then i tried thinking of spaces in florence that i get this feeling from... i ended up exactly where i began at the beginning of the semester: at the joshua tree pub. i am going to try and make a film where i compress maybe 4 or 5 hours of the night into a few minutes. im going to just film close up on the bar, so that all you can see is hands giving and taking away alcohol.. you cant see any of the people or how intoxicated people are getting.. its a mystery! i want to do instances where i speed through the time, and instances where i slow down and emphasize other parts. i wanted to make a film so that i can project it and in a way take everyone through the spectacle that I see every time i go to joshua tree pub.

Michelle Israel

2008-03-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

Ciao again!

It's tourist season in Italy. It's kind of annoying trying to get around all of those tourists. So I decided to make that into an art project, of course! I went around the Ponte Vecchio and snapped photos of all of the things I wanted to see (mainly the jewelry shops). Except those damn tourists were always in the way, so I measured "How Many Tourists Does it Take to Block My View?" My photos ranged from 2 to 25 tourists blocking the things I wanted to see.

For my spectacle project, I took my "back pocket" idea of tourism and thought about all of the spectacles that tourists come to Italy to see: paintings, museums, sculptures, etc. So I decided to make myself into a spectacle; or more specifically, a sculpture. I painted my body white and wrapped sheets around me to make myself look like a sculpture in a museum. To make it more personal (i.e. bring more of myself into my project), my pose complements a story from my life. I plan on making a tiny display case featuring this anecdote (similar to how a sculpture would be displayed in a museum), and projecting a picture of myself as a sculpture life-size on a wall. Hopefully, this will create a "museum effect," in which I am the spectacle in the museum, the thing to be looked at.

That's all for this week - enjoy the photos!

Michelle

Jonathan Monroe-Cook - 30.03.08

2008-03-30T05:27:00.000-07:00

Back again, finalmente!

This past week's project was to measure a space or a place using the body or an extension of the body. For this project, I used all of my photos from Florence that I have taken of/with friends and I covered all of the faces with black bars that extend the width of the image. The composition of the images changes in a way that relates the "architecture" of the photographs to the bodies in the images. After a conversation with Ken, I realized that using photographs of my friends in this project may be interpreted as a statement against my relationships with them. This was not my intent, and since then I have revised the project to only include photographs of people I don't know. In some ways I see this project as the collection of absences I would have made for the previous assigment had I known then how to realize it visually.
Some example photos for this project are here (or click the title of this post):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23203997@N05/tags/300308/

I'm still in the planning stages for our next project, the spectacle project. I have been looking for "everyday" spectacles in Florence. There are three kinds of human spectacles I find that seem closely related. First, there are the people who paint their bodies and pose like famous statues outside of the Uffizi. They make a spectacle of their bodies in order to earn money. Second, there are the beggars who beg for money outside of the Duomo. Some kneel on the ground face down and await donations, some walk around persistently asking tourists for donations, others show their infirmities and injuries to gather money. Like the people who pose as statues, the beggars use their bodies (and their poverty) as a "spectacle" that is meant to compell people to donate money. Third, there are the vendors who sell fake designer-name sunglasses and purses. I often find myself watching the "spectacle" of the vendors as they interact with tourists.
I first imagined blending these different human "spectacles" and pretending to be a beggar or a Gucci vendor. However, I realize that doing something of this sort could be interpreted offensively, for in truth, I am a white American who has not had to bear the burden of poverty. Ken suggested that, like the vendors and beggars and statue-posers, I should try to seek out my own spectacle, something I can "sell" to my audience. We'll see where it goes from here.
A dopo.

C E S 3/29

2008-03-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-26T05:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-23T15:59:00.001-07:00

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

2008-03-23T15:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

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!!!

laura mart returns from her sojourns

2008-03-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

Spring Break was positively amazing, although after a bit more than a week I am done sleeping in youth hostels for a little while. The break saw many moods for me: antisocial art nerd time (during which I sat in a succession of several cafes/kavarny, bars, and restaurants drawing in my sketchbook and not really talking a whole lot), amazed-by-the-beauty-of-Prague time, guide book time, escapades in the night time, bonding with Julia time, antisocial art nerd in the museum time, shopping time.
The best part was getting to see Julia in Vienna and getting to chill with her. JULIA I MISS YOU!!!! COME BACK TO US!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to see, among other things, Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9, a weird film in which Matthew Barney and Bjork turn themselves into whales through some bizarre ritual involving getting dressed up in bizarre theatrical fur outfits, drinking ambergris mixed with green tea and slicing into each other's legs. On a whaling ship (that reminded me more of a tanker). It was visually engaging and quite beautiful at points, and at points too gross for me to watch.
Watching Drawing Restraint made me think a lot about ritual preparation in daily activities. The sending off of the whaling ship was surrounded by a large celebration involving traditional dance and dress and processions. The boat's departure was celebrated by classes of schoolchildren who showered it in confetti, and the crew threw streamers from the deck. The arrival of a tank of liquified vaseline was also made into a large spectacle: the tank was decorated like a whale, complete with faux water coming out of the blowhole. Bjork and Matthew Barney underwent several stages of ritual preparation for their transformation into whales. First, they had to board the boat: Bjork gets picked up by a man in a boat after sort of meditating on the coast, they meet up with the tanker and board it, Bjork takes an intense bath attended by several Japanese women in traditional dress, Matthew Barney gets his head partially shaven, they both get dressed by more traditionally-dressed Japanese women who put them in very strange and beatiful fur kimonos that are reminiscent not only of Japanese dress but also of northern Northern European fur garments and Inuit dress, then meet up with this Japanese guy who serves them the "tea" made from ambergris and green tea. There was also a side narrative about several female pearl divers that was quite beautiful, but I didn't quite get what it had to do with the story. But it sure looked cool.
So that element of the film made me think about incorporating ritual elements into my own work. I was mainly thinking of making everyday actions/happenings into elaborate rituals and the aspects of preparing the body for ceremony. I think this could tie in well with the Spectacle part of this week's assignment, we shall see. I'm going to probably go to Mass today (being as it is Holy Thursday) and witness the washing of the feet. How fortuitous. I just realized that it was Holy Thursday. I was thinking today was Tuesday.
So yeah.
Enclosed in the link are pictures from 1. my sojourn to Centro wearing my outfit from before, and 2. the break.
Prague really reminded me of my childhood (because it smelled like cooking on a fire outside; I used to go camping a lot), but I liked Vienna a lot also and went to many museums there. Andrea and Michelle and I figured out that we look like we could easily be under 18 so we got into a lot of museums for cheaper. It was good.
The last museum I went to was the Albertina, which I think was actually my favorite in Vienna. There was this awesome exhibit of Max Ernst surrealist collage novels, which I enjoyed quite thoroughly with John and Julia. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the Drawing Since 1970 exhibit there or anything else, and I really want to go back! If only.
I also had several existential crises on break, mostly involving my major. First it was, "Do I want to be a sculpture major?" then it was "Do I ACTUALLY want to be a VisComm major?" and now it's "I really think I want to be a Drawing/Printmaking major..." I don't know. I'm so conflicted. I think I may just pick my major out of a hat. I NEED SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE ON THE MATTER.

vidya, back from the break

2008-03-20T05:15:00.000-07:00

Here I am, back in the Florence. My experience on the Amalfi coast was one of scenic landscapes and interesting characters. It was a well-needed and well-appreciated contrast to the week prior. I intended to continue my "momentos", but I didn't do any recordings. I think what needs to happen is that I need to find a way to treat these things one at a time and not feel as though they are a massive project hanging over my head - right now, I'm working on the finishing touch of the seal and the delay in sending them has me a bit anxious and a bit frustrated. I want to keep going, though. I think the form might change a bit, but we'll see.

Over break, I gave much thought to the idea of "home". When out on vacation, home is the hostel. From the hostel, home is Florence. From Florence, home is St. Louis/WashU. But from there, home is still the house I grew up in. There are two types of homes - the one where the heart is, but then, there's the one where you brush your teeth. I'm really interested in the possession we take over places...I guess that's what makes a place a space.

Feeling right now all kinds of inertia, but hopefully a new point of departure will stir something up. I can see it having to do very much with tactile materials. And touching them..among other things. I kind of miss my orange peels.

Christy Nigh- spring break week

2008-03-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

Right, so it has been a while since I have posted, which is mostly related to being exhausted after mid-terms and being away on break. It was really great to just relax and see things. We spent a fair amount of time exploring random areas in the very beautiful Amalfi Coast. All in all, I feel refreshed and ready to get working again.

excuse the long absence - John Witty

2008-03-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

Austria, Vienna.

Provided opportunities to see, absorb so many more of the things that have been interesting me. Not so many grotesques, but Adam and Eve paintings by Lucas Cranach, winter festivals by Dürer, Medusa heads by Rubens and Frans Snyders. Also Klimt paintings, even a Matthew Barney installation and video. Also, the personal spaces once lived in by the Hapsburgs.....

In the mad rush before the break, even though overwhelmed, I was asking some questions.

Maybe the grotesques really are just plain beautiful -- a variety of forms, colors, intense, busy, and varied compositions.....

The masterworks projects. Sadly to say it was a failure. No pictures of it here - stayed up till five in the morning working on it, then cut it up later that day. Knew it was a failure as it emerged - I fell into a mode of horrible suffocating stiffness -- though it was a great experience to go through - putting a lot of effort into that failure and then cutting it up. The other question - that goes along these lines. Is it possible for a double self portrait to not be trite after all the exposure we have had to the idea? I love the idea, it fascinates me.... a conversation with the self - but how to communicate it??? Vediamo.

vidya

2008-03-06T12:26:00.000-08:00

For several weeks now, I've been working on what can be called a collection on many levels. It is, in fact, a collection of collections. The best way to describe it is to simply quote here an excerpt from my personal statement:

"I have also been engaged in a project to communicate with people when the desire strikes, regardless of location. I do this by recording that which I want to say to whomever I want to say it and doing a drawing with any available materials of what it is that I am seeing or imagining. Then, I burn a CD and put it all in the mail. My interest is in capturing these fleeting moments which contemporize the present, my memory of and nostalgia for a person, as well as the future moment when the recipient will open and experience the contents of the envelope. I have thought to call these little collections of aspects of a memory/moment “momentos.” The containers for these bits, as I call them, are in the tradition of letter writing, but all translated to my purpose. As marks of the place, I use a pattern created from rubbings of the acquedotto covers that polka dot the city of Florence. In addition, I design a personal seal to stamp on the back in wax. Here resurfaces my love of the tactile and spontaneous: in the frottage, the envelope making, but also in the act of receiving and opening this parcel. I wish my recipients to feel the difference between the interior and the exterior, to understand that as much as a particular place and moment has been delivered to them, they have also been carried, with me as their vehicle, to these places. We comprise the places we inhabit and travel to, even if briefly, and bring to them everything that we are.
Further, the structure of the experience of opening one of my mementos reflects the progression of a relationship between a person and a place, specifically in the context of belonging. An initial impression of a place is like a first impression of a person, which is superficial and begs for more information, and so the envelope’s exterior resists betraying its contents. However, the more time one spends with a place, the better one can to appreciate it and feel even a sense of belonging. So, my recipients might initially feel as though something has arrived for them from somewhere else, but will conceivably come to feel as though they, themselves, are a part of the space and experience contained therein. I enjoy this project immensely and have a great deal of personal investment in it. It remains to be seen how my friends and family react to the momentos, but that will become part of the art."

This process has been very satisfying because, finally, my art and my life are no longer two separate things.

christy's videos

2008-03-05T16:50:00.000-08:00

So both my videos are on youtube now. They are titled "Cramped Spaces" and "Collections". One is linked to the title and the other is linked below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwM133lQCCw

Jessica Wetterer- collections

2008-03-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

The final run before midterms has gotten to be a bit hectic, especially because I have decided to put my initial project idea on the back burner and take my collection project to a different place. This past week, for Reagan's class and the master's project, I have been drawing in the academia. Instead of the David, however, I have been drawing the classical, marble nude statues by artist Lorenzo Bartolini (of the typical "venus, nymphs, idealized woman" variety.)
Anyhow, in complete contrast to the idea of last week, I have decided to focus on women as my collection, particularily the underapprecited nude statues in the academida. Each time I've gone into the academia to draw, I have found that there has been a huge crowd (surprisingly) around the David and then a small just a small trickle of people who manage to filter through the statue room. Though I didn't really mind not having to deal with the crowd, I still felt that the girls were being overworked and underappreciated
So I decided to give them some freedom and take them out into the world.
Enter: my project

I have decided to take three of the drawings I have made of the figures and blow them out to be life size. After mounting them on carboard I am going to take the trio out and about around town and let them have some fun-- and a drink.

In the end, it's kind of a full 360 from my first project, where I took a 3 dimensional space (the giardino) and presented it in my own 2 dimensional, objective view (postcard... see first project is desired.)
Here, I have taken my 2 dimensional obective view (of the ladies as lifesize paper dolls) and created a 3 dimensional space (the installation) for them to be in.

Though I haven't decided on the final installation destination, I have a few cool, chic places in mind...

video

2008-03-04T05:21:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it, my kitchen movie is now on you tube.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=d_hyDaH-Xeo

Tyler Crain

2008-03-02T16:12:00.000-08:00

I am working on a song in garageband with which I will choreograph drawn marks to form a sort of video/light show. I don't have a song I am happy with yet, so I don't have the marks ready yet, therefore, I don't really have much to show you right now. I have done a lot of work for Regan's class because for her projects, it is crucial that I did them at certain times (the photo shoot, alternative photo processes, on-site drawings etc.). The marks will be photographed and matched with corresponding notes, sounds or instruments. For example, every time I play a C note on a synthesizer, I might have some sort of swish mark that plays on a screen at the same time. My only concern is that iMovie won't be a very good program for this type of quick image flashing. The entire collection of marks will add up to form a sketch of my location from the first project at Piazzale Michelangelo. So my collection is essentially a compilation of sounds and marks to create a sort of language between them. My goal for the song is to gradually layer a lot of repetition of melodies.

Professoressa Julia

2008-03-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

It is unbelievable that last week of class has arrived. Like all of the studenti, I am also feeling the "burn" of midterm stress, and racing to get everything done. During moments of high anxiety, I normally I try to calm myself by visualizing how lovely "being done" will feel. This is not working so well for me now, because being "done" means that I am on a plane going back to NYC, and that I won't be back post-spring break.

This has been a supremely marvelous experience, teaching this course with this group. I am almost absurdly proud of you all for the risks, connections and commitment evidenced in our studio. I realize that working in a theme-based, concept-driven class is very new, and a real departure from skills-based Core classes. We are also not equipped with fancy facilities, and on-call staff here. I want to give a loud and sincere shout-out to you all for such fine work, even in the face of challenges posed by uncertainty, doubt, and technical difficulties. Bravi, really. My greatest hope for this half-semester was to facilitate a transition from an assignment-based working process, to a mode of working that is self-navigated and directed. I believe that the latter closely resembles what it is actually like being an artist (in ANY media or major!). I predict that everyone in this class will be prepared to enter their major area of study, and will hit the ground running.

Please know how sincere I am when I say that I will miss our class terribly. Also, please continue to blog and post images regularly, so I may follow your progress. I would be happy to meet every single one of you, if you are in the NY area:

Julia in the USA:
(212) 675-4456
(860) 248-3067
julia_randall@yahoo.com

Keep up the stamina for this week--I know everyone is really feeling overwhelmed/anxious, but a break is in sight.

Buon lavoro e tanti baci,
Julia

Emily

2008-03-02T14:01:00.000-08:00

I will here attempt to explain the leap that my brain took from my last project to this one: From my kitchen-becomes-alive movie I decided to go with the "objects taking on a personality" concept for my next project. From there my brain went through many obviously forgettable ideas of different ways that objects can start to have identity. Mostly in the beginning I was thinking of 3-dimensional objects, but then I realized that my personality is actually a part of my handwriting, which can be considered a "thing." At this point, I'm settled on using a collection of my handwriting. Now...what to write on? How to house the collection? Write all over a wall, write on objects, write in a book? What would I write? Thinking about what to write I realize that I want it to be about the mark-making--not about the words that the marks form. From this is born my random-lettering system. Also at this point I have decided to write in a book, although the format is still to be decided (perhaps the pages might come out of the book...we will see).

Random-lettering system explained: For each page of my book, there are 4 variables--the number of characters on the page, what those characters will be, with what I will write the characters, and whether or not I will be wearing one of my wrist braces, since it slightly alters my handwriting. These variables are decided my drawing slips of paper out of a bag (very technologically advanced, these things). The number bag contains two zeros, two ones, two twos, two threes, two fours, two fives, two sixes, two sevens, two eights, and two nines. For each page I choose two numbers out of the bag to get a number anywhere between 00 and 99. Then, depending on that number, I choose the characters out of another bad, which is filled according to the Scrabble letter distribution (you know, like 12 As, 9 Es, etc.) in order to be based on an English-language system, since that's my native language. I also put ;:.-- and some spaces in there. Then I choose from the material bag which ranges from highlighter to gold ink. Then I choose from the brace bag which has mostly no brace (since I'm usually not wearing it), a small brace, and 2 large braces (since I wear it more often than the small brace). Capish? Example: on the third page, I have 14 characters, which are as follows-- Ora ixalo yen. (the spaces and period count) which will be written in a 2B pencil while wearing my big brace. Other small rules I gave myself--no pages can begin with a symbol; all pages end in a symbol; all pages begin capitalized; after a symbol there must be a space; after a period the next letter must be capitalized. By the way, I know this is neurotic and obsessive--go with it.

So the first step...finding the appropriate book to gesso. I want to write in a gessoed book so you can see the contrasting printed word against my handwriting. I wanted an English book since my system is based off the English language. I wanted a relatively large-sized book, but not with so many pages that I couldn't fill them all. The fewer pictures, the better, since I don't want them to have too much influence on the piece. Preferably the topic of the book would have something to do with the kitchen/domestic sphere since that's been sort of a theme for me in this class. I found the perfect book.

Since then I've been gessoing like mad. I covered each page with one layer of gesso, drying before flipping the page so they don't stick together. After that round, I went back with white acrylic and further covered some of the images, while letting parts of them show through. This is where I am now, but my next step will be staining the pages with tea and/or coffee, so they're not so starkly white. Then I will begin the process of writing/drawing the letters according to my system. I already spent pretty much a whole day sitting with my random bags and recording what I will be writing on the pages, so I am fully ready to write-draw and actually really can't wait to start that process.

pictures of some of the gessoed pages: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23219926@N02/

kaityli

2008-03-02T13:34:00.000-08:00

So I'm pretty excited about my Julia project. I've been collecting all of my receipts up to this point because they're like pieces of memories, and so they're precious to me, which is why I shove them in my pockets and purse and forget about them until I clean out. If you have receipts, hand them over, unless you're actually keeping track of your finances, like I should be. Anyway, I'm making a book out of these receipts, and then I'm going to draw in this book. The drawings will probably relate to the receipts somehow, like something I associate with the transactions. I'm pretty obsessed with the idea of memory and the passage of time now. It probably has something to do with turning 20. No photos yet, because they're just pages now. Also, I need to study for art history.

Also, like everybody else, I want to say, thank you, Julia, for all your help. It was something I really needed.

laura mart week 6

2008-03-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

These past few days have been crazy for me, as I'm sure they've been for everyone. I've been crocheting like mad, on my BodArch project (i just invented a new term!) and on my Regan project. The overall scheme for both of them is that I am a collection of historical personae, like a Minoan snake dancer and Queen Elizabeth the First and Frida Kahlo. But when I was creating my mind map I only thought about female personae, and it didn't really cross my mind that I might have been male in a past life (except for Michelangelo, who made it onto my list). So the structure I decided to create to house my collections is a structural skirt garment called a crinoline (or farthingale or hoop skirt, depending). I'm crocheting it. So far it's taken about 20 hours and I'm about halfway done. I'm loving it though. I love to just put it on and stand and move my hips a little - the whole thing swishes and bounces like a slinky. It's pretty great. Other people also like to put it on, especially Alison and Allegra. But I'm definitely gaining a new appreciation for how much life must have sucked if you had to wear one of these things around all the time - it gets caught on things, especially doorknobs, and it's nearly impossible to fit through a doorway without bending the hoops. I would post pictures but my camera cable is at home... and I did something to my ankle running down the stairs in the dark so walking isn't the nicest thing right now. ALWAYS TURN THE LIGHTS ON BEFORE YOU RUN DOWN THE STAIRS.
lesson learned.
Good luck everyone!

taryn

2008-03-02T12:59:00.000-08:00

mahhhhhhhnot sure what to say. for julia's class i am working on a video - with myself as the only subject. and it is proving quite taxing to be both the filmer and "actress" but im having a fine time, i guess. I have approximately half of the footage i want/need. im going to shoot the rest and then finish editing - which i already started in spite of myself. I have been working on my immaculate conception drawing alllllll weekend for regan. its getting really detailed - the picture is a little older so its further along even now as i update. i just have a lot to do.

thats it.
turn

Christy - week 6

2008-03-02T11:45:00.000-08:00

This week has been a bit crazy, although I think everyone is feeling the push to get everything done. There is nothing quite so helpful for working as the flutter of thousands of minute details in the back of my brain! All in all things have been going all right. My movie is a bit slow going, but I was expecting that. It is a much larger undertaking than the last one that I accomplished and has all the hassles that come from larger volume.
Conceptually I am enjoying the switch from the illusion of moving through space to moving through ideas. The wider option of visual languages is rather freeing, although at the same time mildly scary in its vastness. All in all the major challenge I have dealt with so far in the movie has been with the figures. I knew they were going to be a challenge to begin with, but I feel light the statue went fairly smoothly. (Although it was most definitely a challenge to draw a figure piece by piece, and have it be proportionally correct in the end.) The challenge of drawing my friend and having her look like herself was tough. Also, then making the picture move is tough to say the least. The drawing style I chose might not have been the most conducive to that, but I am going to see how I can make things mesh better in the editing process, but first I need to finish the drawing stage. So, back to work....

Michelle Israel 3.2.08

2008-03-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

Okay!! Last post before midterm crits...oy. I struggled a lot this week with coming up with an idea for our collection/structure project because I was, once again, putting too much pressure on myself to make "good art." At first, I thought I was going to do a crazy installation of my thick, curly, insanely destructive hair, but my paper sculptures were too representative. Then I thought I was going to make myself crazy long hair extensions and pose as Rapunzel, but there were several problems with the materials I needed to use. After changing my ideas about 6 or 7 more times, I realized that with each new idea I had, I made more and more plans for how to organize my work schedule. Whenever I get stressed, I tend to make plans to give my work a structure, and that is where my art suffers (because I "must" get the project done by certain deadlines, and the stress and tension builds up way too much). So I ultimately decided to make my collection my plans. My plans are currently taking over my work space: my desk, my overturned chair, my wall, and my floor area. To "rebel" against the control and structure of my plans, I am layering them with "uncontrolled" art, so-to-speak: spray paint, gesso, ink, etc. That's all I really have for now, but hopefully this art project will not only be successful, but also will help me move past my obsessive compulsive need to plan out my work schedule so I can be a better artist.

Ciao!!

M

Andrea N

2008-03-02T11:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, so tomorrow I'm borrowing the projector to project my thoughts from my box (hopefully in a public space). I'm going to ask now about projecting so that I know ahead of time but I keep putting it off because I'm shy. Anyway, I don't have much to say and I don't have any pictures but I'm excited to see how my project turns out because I'm definitely pushing the extreme of the internal which is much different from my last project. Also, this project definitely moves away from my others in that the train station is no longer necessary as the setting.
Also, lately I've been working on my essay and it's cool to write about my own work but I've also found that its hard to write about my own work formally. As of right now its also stream-of-consciousness style and I'm not sure that its supposed to be. But anyway, I'll keep working on it. Sorry I don't have much to say-- I'll have more after tomorrow.

PS: Julia, please don't leave!

Alexandra Nason

2008-03-02T10:42:00.000-08:00

WhazzzaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaa.

ok, so long week huh? but not so much, cause its going by too quickly and ima-leel-scared.

no, not scared. totally excited to see what everyone's doing for the final, i feel like there are alot of videos, which is interested because the number of people doing videos seems to be going up, and they are a total blast to watch, technical glitches aside. anyways, i am also one of the people doing videos (get scared folks), and im having a great time with it, to the dismay of my suitemates due to the smells of rotting meat and octopus...sorry guys!

although the octopus deal is actually for Regan's drawing project, both relate to the idea of animation using stills. ive got to say that Imovie can be intensely frustrating---but there are some pretty sweet aspects to it if you play around. apparently you can add "rain" effects and like, lightening bolts and stuff. it was hard for me to resist...but i did. or maybe i didnt. guess you guys will all have to find out on THURSDAY you lucky monkeys.

hmm--i really dont want to speak too much about the project i did for body and architecture coming up, though i will say that i feel like the departures i found myself taking from the last project are crazy, and also crazily connected to my last project. what i mean by that is that there are connecting elements---the themes were born from the ideas in my last project relating to color and movement---but i am really interested in the way our ideas lead to such new and different solutions each time. this one is definitely different than the last, and i feel like a lot of people are experiencing the same freedom of creativity and process which is really cool.

this afternoon found a sleepy, dehydrated Alex wandering the banks of the Arno, octopus in hand. yellow kitchen gloves, CHECK...tripod...CHECK...absolutely nauseating octopus STANK? absolutely CHECK.

completely marvelous, ill make octopus snacks for everyone with the remaining carcus. its marinating in Arno juice in the fridge, so save up your appetites. or maybe not...im kind of attached to Japetto.

Alison 3.2.08

2008-03-02T09:58:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone! So my project has changed entirely since last week when I was thinking of making my collection shadows that illustrated my emotions and making it into a film... After talking to Regan on Tuesday about my project for her class and tell her about what I was thinking about for Julia's, she sent me off to San Marco to see a fresco in one of the monk's rooms that had Jesus on a throne blind-folded with floating hands around him head, which when just described sounds sort of odd. But anyways, seeing the fresco inspired me to head along a similar line as Regan's where I'm altering famous works in Photoshop... so for Julia's new project I'm going to create a slideshow of sorts that shows famous paintings where I've changed the hand gestures to make them more modern. It will be set up slightly as art history slides with titles on the bottom. I haven't figured out if it would be best to change the titles or not, so I'm going to be experimenting with that. Also I talked to Julia today and she was thinking it might be interesting to create images that go the opposite way (modern day images with famous painting gestures) so I'm going to play with that idea. I'm not going to set a limit to the types of images I create, so some will probably be quite humorous while others much more subtle. Right now everything is just crazy with the amount of work to do and everything happening this week, so I'm going to leave you with these thoughts and get back to working on my projects. :-)

vassallo

2008-03-02T09:49:00.001-08:00

greetings from a chair in the studio on which i have been sitting for the past several hours......... so as the blessed event we like to call midterms waits to grace us with her presence, i will thrill you with my thinking behind the alleged "pasta landscape" that i have been spending my time on.

my "back pocket" idea that im working with is basically the wild shapes and figures that i created using fabric in order to make my gelato... as julia put it, i did something with that material that it usually does not do. with that in mind, im working now with pasta (because clearly i have somekind of sick obsession with foods of all kinds...). but rather than stick with pasta, im going to make the landscape grow into somethings else. iv been searching for objects that have the same qualities that i find so interesting in the pasta. so iv come up with some cardboard tubes... hair curlers... hair scrunchies... you name it. and rather than make the pasta grow into these things, im thinking maybe these things will grow into said pasta! yeh, im going wild. because none of these objects have all of the qualities im searching for, but perhaps combined they do... so as these objects combine, they grow into pasta? ok... and to top it all off... im gunna SPRAY PAINT IT... i think. the reason being... im interested in the shapes going on, im trying to make the most intriguing composition possible out of rediculous materials, so why be confused with the color? i want everything to be MONOCROMATIC... then the viewer is forced to focus on the shapes and composition, rather than be distracted by ugly pasta and colorful haircurlers. but what color? silver? black? white? hot pink?... clearly i have some thinking to do. but im on top of it.

and i am proud to say that the amount of times that my new and beautiful hotgluegun has burnt me is minimal. and im trying to keep it that way.

CIAO CIAO FOR NOW

amyt march second two thousand and eight

2008-03-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

so i have a pretty big obsession with my collection... i cant stop making my hand weaving things that i call crotchet. you can thank my friend at home for that name. anyway, i have tons of them and its taken me hours and hours of work. i put them up to test out my space and it seems as though i wont get the opaque quality i wanted with them. no worries, though, there are still lots of them. i think it looks ok. i might make more. theres a little time. i am currently playing with soundsssss via the lovely little device that we just got. i cant seem to work on stuff thats due BEFORE thursday or wednesday. oh well.
i am thinking including some semi ambient noise to listen to while the viewers are in my nook i created in the library of 66. now i need to find a way to play it discreetly! it never ends. sorry no pictures. i have no camera. but i should have it back and working in the next couple days.

Sarah Q. 3.2 (haha IT RHYMES!)

2008-03-02T08:23:00.000-08:00

ciao ciao ciao!

alright.. here we go. i have been working and reworking and adding and subtracting and ripping and gluing and art-ing in my Vogue magazine. My collection is going great - i am documenting everyone i have met so far in siena that I've had real interactions and memorable experiences with and housing all of them in my magazine.

it's actually pretty hard to incorporate what is already in the magazine and also make it seem like it's not a vogue at the same time. i want the outside to look like a vogue magazine still, but when you pick it up, i want it to seem like something completely different... like a mind and body of its own. so im keeping the vogue on the front, and the back cover the same, but the inside will be a different world entirely. i think im doing well, but as julia says, even when i think im done im going to have to go back in it and add more and more and more! just completely TRANSFORM it!!! i think itll be a grand success in the end. its lookin pretty sick so far.

also, im going to keep like half of it untouched... because we're only half way through, im going to meet so many more people! already from starting it, i have to keep adding pages its ridiculous! im up to like... 64 people now.. not counting any washu students.. fantastic though. itll serve as a great memory too i wonder what it will be like to find it after a few years and try to remember who each person was and the relationship we had to make me create the pages the way i did.

ill put more pictures up later when its more finished... a piu' tardi! ciaoooo

Jonathan Monroe-Cook - 02.03.08

2008-03-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

Ciao. Short entry today (and sorry, no pictures either). Like everyone else in the midterm rush, I am kind of pressed for time. Also, I don't know how to describe my midterm project: a film with mini-paper cities in apocalyptic settings, the new Sodom and Gomorrah, people rising out of the sea on shells, giant hands, umbilical cords made of string, fires, floods, low-budget epics, revelations, facades... it sounds more exciting on paper. I can't exactly trace the path this project took from my thoughts last week and as per usual I don't know where it will end up. I am indeed a bit lost, but I'm sure it will be OK.

On that note... I want to say a quick thank you to Julia. Julia, thank you for giving us ways to find our way. Thank you for the guidance and insight your thoughts provide. Thank you for being our teacher and our friend. I know the quarter is not quite done yet, but we will all miss you when you are gone.

C E S 3/29

2008-03-02T07:17:00.000-08:00

In the midst of all this midterm craziness, my cocoon/hive/pod is emerging, but NOT without a fight. The structure took a while to figure out, and only ended up standing on its own after the addition of a piece of scrap metal that Regan found in the courtyard. The butcher paper that I bought needed to be treated in order to work the way I needed it to. In the end, I smeared wood oil/balm all over it, crinkled it, and then washed it over with sepia ink and coffee. The wood balm reeks of toxic chemicals. Now, after a few days, the odor has now changed to that of hamster....like the wood shavings that go in their cage. Never the less, everything is working together. However, I have already worked about 20 hours on it and it still does not resemble a "collection." I will be working up until the crit finalizing the overall concept and working with the place/way in which I will present it. I also need to continue to treat the paper for transparency. YEESH...not as simple as I thought. Word to the wise: consider your amount of time when wanting to build a personal cocoon.
pics to come this week when the hive is lookin' gooood

Kate Owens

2008-03-02T07:14:00.000-08:00

Soo I think I might literally be going crazy. Yesterday I spent 6 hours recreating the duomo out of paper and then going ahead and painting every little detail on it in watercolor. I got about 3/4 way done until I stood up and realized exactly what I was doing and exactly how long I'd been sitting there and that I probably need to be a little less obsessive. I think this has been the main issue going into my collection project.. I get so caught up in details that sometimes I forget aout the main picture. However... since I've combined all 3 of my projects due next week into this one project.. I think I have enough time to make my obsession with detail work.

Right now, my bookshelf is a mess of miniature tables, futons, builings, monuments, etc... I've told myself just to keep on making and making and then closer to critique I will play around with the arrangement of them. Its starting to get overwhelming because I have a lot of half done mini projects which need lots of time to finish aka the duomo. Bahh... I'm having fun though..kind of..

Allegra

2008-03-02T05:11:00.000-08:00

My collection is about storytelling and non-verbal communication. I started out filming hands and stomachs as people told me a story but I was not thrilled about what I gathered so I looked for a new body part to explore gesture with. This led to me to backs and shoulders. I started filming my own back as I told a story and was really pleased with the different movements and gestures that came out but it wasnt quite coming together as a project right away. After experimenting more with croping and filming conditions I started to film in the dark with a spotlight that accentuates the musculature. Then I was ready to really start filming and thanks to my lovely host brothers, Mike and Jonathan, I have recorded the gestures of our three backs as well all tell a story.

What the actual story told was not important to me because I am interested to see how our movements relate and play off each other taken out of their original context. Will they still communicate a narrative or emotion? As I work on the new narrative of our combined "story" I am working with similar gestures that we all made and the differences between the movement and shapes of our backs. Lastly, I had considered recording a new story--different than the original three--to play with the video. But now as I am bringing the video together I am more interested in the abstraction of the narrative. Backs, especially a naked back, is intimate and private and bringing out to be the main, or only, form of communication is arresting without any other audio. To get a better idea of my upcoming video project see some of the film stills I have linked.

Jessica Wetterer... belated post...

2008-02-25T08:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, so after getting back from Rome- the beloved city to which my wallet, major credit cards and 1st piccell wireless cellphone were lost- and finding myself without my camera as well, I got a little behind on my blogging. To atone for my lack of responsibility, here's a little recap of studio fun.
I finished my video, which was a study of imagination abstraction told through light and color and distortion (mainly of Amy's eye- thanks amy!) using glass. I was very satisfied with the finished work and would love to use film again as a medium, particularily to experiement and perfect those few frames that didn't quite hit the mark in this last piece.

you can watch it on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPhHz77jCuE
(though the quality is kind of lacking)

Moving on to the collections project-
My inital idea of presenting myself as a collection and housing it is to take the glass bottles from my last project and use them to structure a kindof psuedo graveyard of men that have affected my life. My dad died when I was younger and I am thinking of making a more personal, private piece reflecting upon the effects of that event regarding my male friends and/ or lovers since. Taking from the idea of the distorting/ amplifying properties of glass filled with liquid I may work with photographs where the face has been rubbed or scratched out and sink them to the bottom and then adding in objects or symbols. It's still in the preliminary stages and acquiring materials has been difficult, but it should be interesting.

collections of mary

2008-02-25T08:13:00.001-08:00

um i am sure how i will procede with my next project. i was really inspired by my last project and creating transparent artist imagined spaces or openings. i have sketched and thought of a lot of places i could add them into the existing architecture (the terrace, roof, stairways. i am really intersted in spirals and stairways in general so i thought about incorperating that into my project somehow. i am currently personally exploring spirals and stairways and other unsettling things in my project for reagan. while reading the e-mail julia sent us i expanded my idea of what a structure can be. i am interested personally in books which i am also exploring in reagans class and which i would like to see if can incorperate here. i think right now i have a lot of ideas in my back pocket i am just trying to see where they all lead and what of interest they mght be juxaposed against one another. i love looking at all the anciet roman greek buildings in the roman forum and the 3- and low releif statues in the capoline museum. i liked the idea of partial architecture or remains of spaces or the implied spaces that can be imagned from the ruins. or the reuse of spaces throughout time. the low realif ideas of space were also intrigueing.

i like the idea of my collection being less a group of objects and more a body of ideas which are encompased in a structure whether a pysical place you can walk through or something more compact like a book.

John Witty - beginnings of collections

2008-02-25T01:52:00.000-08:00

The last project helped me move out in a new direction. After over seven years, I feel like I have reached a point where drawing is no longer characterized by a constant sense of frustration. I want to celebrate by focusing my work on drawing. But what to do with my drawings, what to say? A question that can go on forever, thankfully. With this project I tried to use my drawings to explore different contexts. I have been interested in the many burial places and memorial sites created for foreigners around Florence. I continued on from the Cimitero degli Inglesi by drawing from the monuments erected to a young Indian Maharajah and a Portuguese Prince. I focused on the effigies, the images made to commemorate the individual. Then I was stuck. What to do with them? Take them with me to Germany. And once I get there? Stick them on the surface of a grave atop a recent burial in the cemetery of the village where I lived for four months? Seemed like a good idea at the time. Well, later I realized that the image I had created didn't say as much as it seemed to at first. It was simply funerary sculpture in the context that one would expect to see it in. From this block a new task emerged. Now try putting the funerary image in other contexts. The context I chose to explore was the area of Piazza della Republica - the former Jewish ghetto and thriving market place of Florence - all destroyed in the late 19th century to celebrate the Risorgimento by erecting some neoclassicist buildings in their place. A lost era, actually an obliterated area. Does my "dead guy" lying around the piazza as tourists eat their gelato serve as a reminder of what has been lost, of what lies below? In the end, I don't think so, but in the critique people responded to many other aspects of the piece that I can take with me for future projects. One of the most concrete lessons was that the digital photos that were the most successful were those in which my drawing was visibly incorporated into the composition of the shot. Something to remember. I need to think of the more basic impact of the images I have chosen, and focus on how this interacts with the new context compositionally and thematically, but on a more visually direct level.

Onwards and upwards with collections. For a while now a collection of grotesques has been emerging. I have also been drawn to portrait busts all over the place, especially the "funny" ones - i.e. double chinned widows, old men with their mouths hanging open, and ladies with hairdos. Its funny to imagine that these people, while they were alive, made a clear decision that they wanted themselves permanently commemorated in this way. Put your imperfections on display in perfect detail for all eternity. Or maybe they were just so vain that they saw their busts as paragons of beauty. I think there is a similar dynamic in the way we perceive things on our museum visits. When we first walk into the Uffizi, we look up at the ceiling of grotesques and exclaim, "how beautiful!" But is it really, are all those slimy mer - people and strange beasts really beautiful? The Medici had them painted because they thought it would up their prestige. This style of painting was perceived as an imitation of the ancient Roman style - and that is really the only reason the Medici wanted it on their ceiling - so they could be associated with the power and prestige of ancient Rome. So is that really beautiful? Some old rich family's struggle to legitimize their political power mongering? These questions are where I want to work from, at the same time asking myself why I really do find the grotesques so beautiful. Why do they attract me? What do they say to me? Why do I want to collect them and why do I dream of painting them on my own ceiling? I may organize my investigation of these strange characters with a narrative or a new language of commemoration. For example, Olimpia Aldobrandini, a long dead rich woman who still stares down at you from atop a pedestal in her palace in Rome, is surrounded by male and female mer - people who hold colorful scrolls. At some point she made the decision to have those painted on her hallway, probably for the same reason the Medici did. Today the mer - people represent that period, and her decision of how to represent her inherited wealth. Long after her death they commemorate her ostentatious life style - the decisions she made. I work towards a way to represent this visually.... I have spent time drawing her bust and others from various angles, as well as the spaces in which they reside. The most fun part is focusing on the details that surround them....

Another great discovery in Rome (unrelated to any projects or assignments) was Cravaggio. Bliss. The Calling of St. Matthew in San Luigi dei Francesi, and the Madonna of the Pilgrims in St. Agostino. Who is St. Matthew? It could be anyone and that is the miracle. The old man with the glasses could be a detail from a Rembrandt painting. I love the young man's desperate hands collapsed against his precious coins that no longer satisfy him. In the Madonna of the Pilgrims, the feet are real, dirty pilgrim's feet, and the old lady praying has no teeth. These details are what make the experience.

Stefania Ford

2008-02-24T14:44:00.000-08:00

So, the more I travel, the more i notice little idiosyncricies about the people i travel with, as well as tourits in general. When doing a lot of traveling people seem to pick a form of memoriabilia best suited to themselves... and stick with it pretty consistantly, wether it be t-shirts, or post cards, or stamps. I'm personaly a big fan of magnets and wierd religious trinkets. Reading into what people pull near to them in the form of memoriabilia can say a lot about their character, or at least thier interests. The lady who chooses the sparkly, b-dazzled Roma t-shirt is a little different from the women who chooses a small statue of the pieta, or a man who buys a single post card of an obscure ancient fresco of the catacombs. I think it would be interesting to collect souvenier items (discarted, boughten, photographed, etc.) and create identities of people from them. This would connect with my previous work with voyerism, as I would like to keep that strange looking in on something you shouldn't be feel. I'm not sure wether I would do ttaht again through video, or some other form of art.... maybe just a series of portraits. (Perhaps mix work with Regan's class... staging and dressing up models/friends to fit into the identity I have decided belongs to each piece of memorabilia...) Now to collect and brainstorm more!
(P.S.- video from last project coming soon!)

vidya on 24 feb

2008-02-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

I am on the verge of something, but it's not yet in sight. I learned a great deal this week from the critique, so thank you all. A few nights before, I sat at my desk looking helplessly at the orange peels and my tangled ball of wire at a complete impass. My solution: return to the idea of playfulness and just start building. So, that's what I did, and all the concepts that drew me to the peels in the first place were allowed to speak for themselves. The one I plan to stick in my thinking cap is the idea of the relationship between the "man-made" and the "natural." I especially like the idea of the patterns that emerge from this relationship. For example, I've included a photo of old Egyptian objects from the Vatican that have been chipped away at by time, and what remains is this jagged irregular pattern (that looks oddly like a map.) I don't really know if this will be evident in that which I come up with ultimately, but it's where my head is now. If I choose to continue with orange peels, I think I am interested in a project that relates to time, such as an evolving public sculpture, as well as the presentation of such a sculpture through video/slideshow.

As far as a collection goes, I noticed that I've already started to collect rubbings of the ACQUEDOTTO thingys. It also occurs to me that I have been engaged in the development of a collection over the past few weeks with the "postcards" I have been working on. The concept is that when I am thinking of someone but can't speak with him, I try to capture the moment through sound and drawing, things I will eventually send on in the form of a letter in the mail. Perhaps this is my collection, something already in the making.

Quite aside from all that, I'd just like to comment that Rome was unreal, and that three days is enough to see only the tip of what seems to be an iceberg of infinite magnitude. The city is a COLLECTION of cultural knowledge and tangible things that have manifested from that knowledge. Viva Italia!

Christy Nigh- week 5

2008-02-24T14:06:00.001-08:00

So this week began with new assignments for both sketchbook and bodyandarchitecture. When first told to figure out something that I collect and then make a storage container for those things, I first thought that I collect people, which is true. I really enjoy people, I find them both the same and different from myself, which I think is fascinating. I also find the way in which different people think about the world fascinating. Besides collecting people(in a way), I also collect patterns. I find patterns fun to deal with because they deal with simple shape relationships and many of them follow a simple rule or two that are easy to manipulate and modify. It was pretty easy for me to go back and find several different kinds of patterns in my photos (some of which I posted).
I have been considering combining the two concepts of people and patterns together through the same medium I used for my last piece (hand drawn film, or a time lapse drawing). It is a rather labor intensive process, but I quite enjoyed it in my last project and would like to try taking a similar technique in a different direction.
Besides combining a couple of my main "collections" I am also going to combine the project for sketchbook with this one, in part because it allows me to have more time and energy to focus on this, and also because they work really well together (which as Regan has noted, is not a coincidence) ;) Anyways, I am considering incorporating statues in my piece in order to stand in for the many people I have collected over the years. I am not entirely sure how this is going to work, but I intend to figure it out.

One last note, I am working on putting my last project on YouTube, but I haven't had a chance to convert the movie format yet, so hopefully it will be coming soon.

Emily

2008-02-24T14:02:00.000-08:00

Ciao. This past week I worked on my kitchen movie. It was really fun for me, and I was actually able to express my ideas in a much more immediate way than I was able to with my first drawing. My photos for this week are still frames from the movie, but soon I will actually post the movie on youtube for those of you who didn't get a chance to see it. I think my favorite part of the project was the way that the kitchen-objects began to take on a persona towards the end when they marched out of the kitchen--for example, the trash can as the leader. I think as I'm pondering myself as collection I might use that idea of object as character to express myself as a collection. Still don't know where that's going, but it could get interesting. On a separate note, I've been doing a lot of traveling since I've gotten here and will continue to do so, so that might start becoming a part of my work. There are so many themes that come with moving oneself to a new place--issues of time, displacement, memory, "sightseeing," etc., which might begin to infiltrate.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23219926@N02/?saved=1

laura mart 2.24.08

2008-02-24T13:58:00.000-08:00

So this project is pretty exciting. At first I was having trouble thinking of myself as a collection of anything other than body parts and memories - which are both pretty valid but sort of obvious. But then something occurred to me while I was walking through Rome - Who would I have been if I had been living in ancient times? Who would I have been a hundred years ago? I'm sure it's a thought that occurs to everyone at some point. So now I'm thinking of something along the lines of a collection of historical alter egos. I really want to make some sort of structural garment for this piece, especially because my "thing" is costume design and I NEVER do wearable art(!) which feels like sacrilege.
I was also thinking of myself as a collection of feelings about my surroundings, or a collection of responses to nature. But I think the historical alter ego thing is a little more interesting. I kind of want to crochet a crinoline cage... or a corset... or both. we'll see.

nason photos...

2008-02-24T13:19:00.001-08:00

Andrea N.

2008-02-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

Okay, so as much as I'm excited about this project, I'm having a hard time concentrating my ideas. For one thing, I can't seem to get over the idea of myself as a set of thoughts. Often times I love to be by myself and just think, which is one of the things I loved about my box project- the box gave me my own little place to exist and think. Thus, I was thinking about keeping some kind of abstract journal about my thoughts, perhaps when I am in my box. I also love the idea of an ephemeral piece, since most of my thoughts are quite ephemeral. I was thinking about writing down my thoughts as they occur and handing them out to people, or perhaps painting them outside where they will soon disappear. I also worry a lot, so I began to think about myself as a collection of worries, but I did not get much further along than that. Perhaps a quilt piece would be interesting, because a quilt acts as an object of comfort but it would be composed of a number of worries. I was also realy pleased by Julia's mention of a shrine or a crowd as a structure-- I might like to do something more with that.
I think that one of the reasons I am having such a hard time is because I am trying too hard to incorporate my last piece which is forcing me to think backwards in a limiting manner. I need to start thinking forwards and perhaps there will be a point of intersection.
Two important aspects of my last project were movement vs. stasis and internal vs. external. I am going to work with one or both of these in my next project, but I have yet to decide how.
I have attached more still from my last project (I think the stills might actually be my favorite part), as well as a photograph of some brainstorming.

Michelle Israel 2.24.08

2008-02-24T13:10:00.000-08:00

Okay!! New week, new assignment. When Julia asked us to think about what we are "composed" of, I immediately thought of gelato, mainly because I eat so much of it here. At first, I toyed with the idea of making a stomach to house all of the gelato that I've eaten so far. But when I really thought about it, I realized that I wanted to be more creative, more unique. While I was thinking, I was eating some crackers, and as usual, lost some cracker crumbs in my insanely crazy hair. And that's when I had my "a ha moment:" I am "composed" of my hair. My hair, being the thick, curly, disgusting mess that it is, eats, absorbs, and traps people and things on a daily basis. I've lost pens, pencils, my glasses, crumbs, etc. in my hair so many times that I've lost count, and therefore, I want to create a crazy installation of curly hair to act as a structure to house my collection. For my collection, I want to collect all of the things that have actually gotten eaten by my hair (I think it would be fun to actually document/use all of the things that I lose in my hair from now until the due date). I realized in my last critique that I put too much pressure on myself to make "good art" that I forget what it actually means to just go with an idea and play with it. So for this next project, I'm going to try not to tighten up and just play around with creating a massive, curly hair structure with crazy objects stuck in it. I'm going to try to take the lesson that I learned from our "art play-date" and apply them to this project. When Julia suggested that we make a connection from this project to the last project, I thought about what I liked the most from my last project. Turns out, I didn't really like anything about it at all. In fact, I actually hated the fact that it had a solemn, eerie tone. So my inspiration is the exact opposite of the mysterious moods that my last 2 projects created. Hopefully it will turn out crazy and insane, because that's what my hair is.

Until next week!

Michelle

nason, february 24

2008-02-24T12:59:00.000-08:00

so this past week was definitely pretty hectic getting my giant white cave in order. it was a total mess for a while--i think i went through at LEAST 40 different roles of toilett paper--and i sincerely apologize that you guys still have to walk all over it to get to the sink. i will clean it up pronto, unless anyone has any sincere objections??

no, i had alot of fun making my white tunnel--but it taught me a thing or two about what to expect when getting into something like that. of course, i understand that an artists' vision is hardly ever exactly realized in a work, and sometimes this is rewarding when your vision morphs and changes with the process to create some grand, fulfilling work. this wasn't exactly what i found to be true while working on my giant installation. i was happy enough with it, but it did require me more patience and surrender than i am normally used to, and i cant imagine it is going to be fun un raveling that thing. i will give 500 dollars to anyone who wants to do it for me. is that inappropriate to put in this blog? ok wasting your time.

i am really enjoying this "concept based" class though--i feel like i am more open to materials and media than i ever have been. i always joke with my friends about making something disgusting or disturbing--really sexual or something---because at wash u i always feel like i am making something pretty to impress the teacher. but...get ready guys, this next one might cause you all to puke in your mouths a little bit! no, kidding again. but this freedom is excellent and i think its really cool to see what you are all coming up with. critiques are more fun when there are tons of different things to see, and its really impressive to see the scope of the class' creativity, i would say at least.

im still working out my ideas for this next one, so i guess you are eall in for the surprise of your LIVESSS

oh, and i am attaching some photos of the finished project---some details and then one glance down the hallway, though it is all kind of disconcerting-enjoy.

Alison 2.24.08

2008-02-24T12:46:00.000-08:00

CIAO EVERYONE! I just want to start out on a completely unrelated note by saying that I think that Rome is my new favorite city. We went this weekend and I had an awesome time seeing the Colosseum and Roman ruins as well as Vatican and St. Peters. Everyone says that you can't see Rome in a day... or a weekend for that matter, which is very true, but the small portion I did see I loved and it just makes me want to go back.

Okay... so my last project with the shadows of sign language went pretty well. I had some bumps along the way but I ended up pleased with it. During critique, the main issue was that people felt that the connection between the sound piece and the pastel drawings wasn't really working and instead of supporting each other, they detracted from each other. I think that this is one of those things that I have to pay attention to; when I know my thought process it makes sense to me, and I some times forget to view it more objectively as most people would be viewing the piece.

For my next project: my collection, my "back pocket" idea from my last project that I'm taking with me is the idea of shadows and how they communicate ideas. I've been thinking about making a collection of emotions. I would keep a record of the emotions I felt throughout a day (possibly a different length of time, depending on how it goes) and then I would translate these emotions into some sort of action or motions that I would then capture through their shadows. My structure would be the shadows and then I want to present them in a film form.

So far that is my concept for my next project... as for photos of my last project, I am currently having camera issues which will be resolved on Tuesday, so until then you will just have to use your imagination, but don't worry they will on Flicker soon :-)

kaityli

2008-02-24T12:37:00.000-08:00

As usual, I'm having a hard time focusing my thoughts, which makes collecting kind of hard, since collections are usually defined by a central theme. Lately, I've obsessed with finding ways to have tangible records of memory, like receipts, so I'll start with that for my collection, even though myself as a collection of memories is kind of obvious.

Rome was so amazing, and Roma vs Fiorentina was the perfect way to cap off the trip. The energy and passion were just amazing, and never have I seen a more genuine public display of emotion in my life. I want to find some way to work it into my receipt collection, but I'm not willing to sacrifice my ticket stub. Or maybe I could go in a different direction, like a collection of people in terms of emotions.

I'm really happy that I was able to let go of my original idea for the bodies in film project and just work with what was happening. Sometimes I get really attached to a certain idea, even if I have no way to realizing it as exactly as I have it thought out, I'm extremely reluctant to let it go. This time, however, I just did it as I went along, and it was pretty liberating.

Allegra

2008-02-24T10:55:00.000-08:00

I had hoped to post a link to watch my film project, "A Tavola," on youtube this week however I have run into a small problem. It seems the hard drive of the school computer I used was cleaned out and that was the only copy of the film. But fingers crossed things will be resolved and you can watch my film soon.

I quess then it is time to move on to the next project. During the last few weeks I became very excited about working with film and want to continue exploring with this medium. I also had been bouncing around some ideas about body on film in a more direct way than I had used in the last project--basically focusing on only the body and how it relates to the camera in motion. One of the artists we discussed in seminar, Wodiczko, projected of body parts (hands, faces, etc.) onto monuments while the person spoke about issues such as murder, gang violence, sexual assualt, and other difficult and often private subjects. I was fascinated by his use of film as well as the exchange between the personal--the stories--and the pubic--the monuments. Florence is certainly a city with many monuments and as a visitor here I spend a lot of time in these public places.

On our field trip to Roma with all our explorations of catacombs and places of housing the dead I thought a lot about how our society now buries and commemorates our dead--and what it is about death that makes it so hard to talk about. How does Wodiczko approach this gap between a need to share our experiences as well as the discomfort talking about them. This weekend I made two mind maps that are linked here. First, about gesture from my last project and how I can continue to work with it and second about public v. private. With those I am now ready to start with some video fun!

amyT2008february24

2008-02-24T10:33:00.000-08:00

well well well i got some ideas i guess.
my structure will be made of my collection. i'm planning on making these things i knit with my hands and creating a nesty place with them. i have to work out the details of the structure, but i know ive got to make lots of my yarn knitted things. i know how specific im being is just driving you nuts. my "yarn knitted things" are hard to explain. you probably all made them when you were younger. i make them when my hands want something to do and when my mind wanders. i really do it without thinking about it, so the concept will be that the knitted stuff represents my wasted time and boredom that have collectively affected my life and may have also been the same for others. it just shows how much time i spend doing nothing and how it really does represent a significant amount of myself. im gonna have to do some mindmapping to figure out the logistics for the rest of it.
rome was fun. i stayed til today (sunday) and it was a good time. they have some really great museums there and i spent some time just drawing there.
i dont have many pictures to post
(mostly because the lack of a camera). next week ill have some good ones.
this conceptual business is not taking a toll on me quite as much as liz, but im certainly feeling like ive been on a whirlwind of surprises so far in our studio classes with all the experimenting and different media used for every project. i think im glad about it, but its all very confusing sometimes. just throwing that out there.

i also got inspired for regans new project while i was in rome...got lots of postcards...i dont really wanna give away my ideas becuase theyre not solidified and i dont want yall to steal em. i hate when people say yall. sorry.
have a swell evening.
oh and my mom got a dog yesterday! im really excited. her name is cookie. hahahaha.

oh and by the way i want to include noise in my new proj but i really dont have a clue as to how to do that yet. because i havent thought that far. but i really enjoyed making noises and recording them for the last film project. we'll see what happens.

Hillary

2008-02-24T10:14:00.000-08:00

So I realized that I'm a big dumby. Last week I had internet issues and didn't post my blog. I apologize for being stupid, and I'll try to make up for it this week.

For the Bodies in Film project, I started out with not many ideas of what to do / where to go with the project prompt. During class for the experimental video sketch, I decided on a whim to film a woman walking down the sidewalk near the Arno. When I put this video on my computer, I was immediately drawn to the idea of stalking, and the idea of what is public / what is private / who has control over that / where and how these seemingly separate worlds can coexist... So for the actual project, I created an "installation" of a private space, a woman's bedroom, with a projection on the scene of my stalking footage. After a million billion technology issues, I was really happy to finally have this project realized. I have more plans for the project, but they might be logistically impossible. I would like to re-project in a public space the filming of the first projection of my stalking/bedroom scene. Don't know how to work that out... Maybe someday it will happen.

As for the next project, I'm not exactly sure where to start. When I first heard Julia mention the word collection, I immediately thought of my obsessive collection of keychains I kept when I was a bambina. I thought maybe I could relate this to my thinking about public versus private, I'm just still working out how to do so. I have yet to do the mind mapping, so this could lead me in a completely new direction. I guess I'm really just up in the air with this project... If I don't use the keychains as a starting point, I would like to explore maybe using something more recent in my life. Maybe I could collect everything I use in a week and do something with that. Boh. For now I'll leave my options open and dig deep to find what I'm all about, what obsessive collection really describes me.

Taryn Yelir

2008-02-24T09:57:00.000-08:00

My photos this week are mostly of my torture chamber. it was a hell of a lot of work to make but i had a really good time doing it - and i enjoyed being able to work in a tiny little closed off, private area where no one knew what i was doing. i really wanted to make it -- freakishly badly -- so i think thats partially why i went so insane with it.

theres also a picture of one of my larger drawings im working on for regan's class. i just started it today so it looks kinda dodgy right now.. but you get the idea i guess. i like meat, skin, etc pink foldy stuff so this is satisfying. i just dont like drawing architecture very muc h and that probably shows. meh.

not much else to say. rome was great even though i spent only a day there. my favorite part was the Space Invader who i saw and got to observe in a piazza as he received transmissions, made faces, and hit people on the head with his Twig of Wonders. I hope one day to receive a transmission.

Ive been thinking about my collection too.. but i dont have a hard fix on anything.
okoi over'n'out angels

turn

Sarah Q 2.24

2008-02-24T09:15:00.000-08:00

ciaooooo tutti!

allora, di che cosa scrivo oggi...?!

So I just returned from a fabulous weekend... Roma on Friday and then Siena (again) for the past two days (along with my family). I began to realize how many people I have met and interact with here that are so important and have added so much to my experience.

For the next "collection" project, I was thinking of making a collection of photos or drawings of all of the people I've met here. My "thing" has been textures.. I am obsessed with textures and creating big trippy art pieces (like the wall melting onto the floor of the studio... see photos!) so maybe I will represent all of the people I have met with different textures that I associate with them. Or maybe with writing too.

For Regan's next project, I wanted to use Vogue and replace the women in master art works (and maybe also master literature) with the models demonstrating contemporary high fashion in Vogue.

OKAY here's a good idea.. keep an ongoing documentation of the people and stories I have collected and dedicate each page to one or two people.. keep some of the layout but write over it with my own stories of those people, collage onto the pages, draw onto the pages, and make a collection of my thoughts and memories housed by the magazine! Genius.

Alright, well thats all I guess. Sorry this was so broken up and maybe confusing, I am really tired though. But really excited to start this!!

Kate Owens 2/24

2008-02-24T08:13:00.000-08:00

I have decided to, as my final project in Julia’s class, to create a collection of “Florence” in the bookshelf of my apartment living room. This project will be an extension of the sketches and projects I’ve been developing for Reagan’s class along with a continuation of my most recent project-my living room diorama. So far, I’m not quite exactly sure exactly in what way I will end up accomplishing this. I know that I want to work with preexisting elements in my bookshelf like the lamp and books.. but I’m not sure if I want to treat materials exactly in the same way that I did for my last project. In my “living room”, I tried to keep the integrity of all the materials. However, in the collection, I’m interested in getting back to drawing and including a mix of both raw, recognizable materials and straight up drawings.

Because of traveling, this project is still very much in the form of idea stage so I really don’t know what will end up working and what will not. I want the end product to be layered so that discoveries in changes of scale and sizes cannot all be discovered and realized within the first few seconds of looking at the bookcase. I also want to personalize what monuments or places that I plan to create mini versions of so that the overall project doesn’t simply ending up looking like an objective version of a miniature Florence.