Amy Franceschini Reinvents Victory Gardens

Practical propaganda: Amy Franceschini reinvents the Victory Garden

Neighborhood Fruit

Another Art & Ecology inspired project in San Francisco...

Art & Ecology: Amy Franceschini & Future Farmers

Link to Amy Franceschini's site on Future Farmers.

Project 3: Site Specificity, Installation, Performance and Intervention

Site Specificity, Installation, Performance and Intervention

For this project, you will create a site-specific work, installation, intervention, or performance work. You will be working individually or collaboratively to make an installation, event, or situation that fundamentally alters the viewer’s experience and perception of a space. Below are some ideas and things to consider:

Installation & Site-Specific: Installation art engages the viewer’s entire sensory experience in four-dimensional space. It dissolves the line between art and life (see Kaprow). It moves away from viewing art as discreet objects isolated from the environment in which they are encountered. An installation artist uses almost any material and media to create an experience in a particular environment. Oftentimes, installation art is highly site-specific. It is not confined to gallery spaces but can be material intervention in everyday public or private spaces.

Performance Art & Intervention: Performance art involves the artist and is created in real time. What makes performance art so intermedial in nature is that it is slippery and truly defies most boundaries and definitions that are imposed on it. On one end of the spectrum you can argue that a performance begins and ends in the place and time that the artist says it does. But if you are in a room waiting for a performance to start, isn’t that part of the experience, hence part of the performance too. And approaching the place of the performance: part of the experience. Getting ready to go to the performance: part of the experience. So on the other end of the spectrum, you could argue that we all are involved in a lifelong performance, that every social act is essence a performance, that there is no boundary between performance and life. Should you choose to do a performance, think less of performance art as a sort of “art-theater”, that is, a “detached, closed arrangement in space-time” in Kaprow’s words. Instead, think of the performance as a way to direct and alter the experience of your audience in real-time. There is no limitation on how you choose to do this.

Everyone is an Artist

"Every human being is an artist, a freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking, and structures that shape and inform our lives." -Joseph Beuys

Intermedia Visiting Artists This week!!!

Intermedia + Cinema & Comparative Literature present:
A public lecture and live performance by artists Sabine Gruffat & Bill Brown

Public Lecture: Sabine Gruffat & Bill Brown
Wednesday, February 24
6 - 7:30 PM
3321 Seaman Center

Time Machine, Performance
Thursday, February 25
8PM, Public Space One
129 E. Washington St. (Basement of the Jefferson Building)
Free!

Time tourists unite!

Bill Brown and Sabine Gruffat set the dials and push the levers while guiding you through the fourth dimension! Our machine will be carried on the breezes of parallel universes to return you to your rightful futures and pasts.

Riding frequency waves of sight and sound, Sabine Gruffat will navigate by the red, green and blue stars of electronic constellations. Watch and learn about Real-Time Rendering, Quartz, and Max patches as she steers you through the sensory drone of the digital and analog hyperspace.

Dropping out of the temporal flux and onto the lonely highway, Bill Brown will take you on a guided tour of memory's roadside attractions. Brown will pilot the machine toward the irretrievable past and the inaccessible future by way of scratchy records and the hazy glow of 35mm slides, narrating the interspatial monuments of our
extemporary voyage.

BILL BROWN: Reading, slide projection, digital video, and records.
SABINE GRUFFAT: Real-time rendered audiovisual performance with analog video mixer and game controllers.

More info:
http://www.sabinegruffat.com
http://www.heybillbrown.com

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (just sound it out) - Contemporary Female Thai Artist

"Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s output makes the work of a critic easy. Since turning to video in the late 90s she has unfolded an oeuvre that approaches questions of the relationship between life and death in the manner expected of all great art. By turns, Araya’s imagery is contemplative, mysterious, questioning, illuminating and provocative." -Art.Signal




(Unknown Title) from "Those Dying Wishing to Stay, Those Living Preparing to Leave"
(okay, i realized it's not children slumped over. i think that was the image i was getting when i first heard about this piece!)


"Wind Princess White Bird" 2002 from "Those Dying Wishing to Stay, Those Living Preparing to Leave"


Newest project! - I feel like the villagers in the art world most of the time.


"Renoir's Ball at the Moulin de la Galette 1876 and the Thai villagers group II" 18 minute video

For more information go here! --> http://www.rama9art.org/araya/index.html

Happenng- 2007 New York

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N8VsdaX8RM

Sharks and the Jets

#2

I dont explain myself. I dont find it necessary. I touch items everyday. I don't think about it, I just do. Items are not important. They explain, but NO one will ever understand. These items describe me. but only as much as you can see and understand. So much more is behind them. it is not to be explained. it is not to be understood. These items people see everyday. People dont see them as being possibly something more then items. It is to be understood that they are truly just things. These things are out of my world. Put them into your own. What do YOU see? do you see what I do? It is a finger, a glass, a guitar, hair, a purse, and a burner. But does it actually mean something. Did I take these pictures because they were around. cause they were easy to take a picture of? or because I want you to know me because this is the only way I will ever let you know me? Or because I think these items photograph well. what is it? why do you even care about it? It is me. It is my context and only mine that these 6 pictures will ever make sense.

Project 2

For the ‘Appropriation and Recontextualization’ project (pictured below), I chose to use a set of heirloom dinnerware, gifted to me by my mother. With it, I explored the way that location affects the viewers (as well as my own) understanding of the item itself. I wanted to consider the way that environment and treatment of physical objects drastically alters, on an emotional level, our reactions to people and to the objects themselves.

I chose to use this particular set of china because of its emotional tie to myself and to my family, as opposed to a brand-new package from a store, or a used or borrowed set from Goodwill or a friend. The foreknowledge that the dinnerware is a personal gift from a family member drastically changes the viewers, as well as my own, interpretation of and response to the set of china as seen in different locations and environments.

I photographed the dinnerware in several different settings, in a home environment, outside of a house, and beside a household garbage bin. I also photographed the imprint that the box left in the snow, visually representing the absence of the items in a physical sense.

On a personal level, I am not at all attracted to the physical and aesthetic qualities of these plates (I’m rather fond of Fiesta Ware, actually). As a clumsy person, the qualities of bone china (tendency to chip, crack, and shatter) make me nervous. However, as a personal gift from my mother (whom I am extremely close to), the items take on a new meaning: they are now representative of a family history. However, having come without a detailed story of their former use (only that they had once belonged to ‘someone’ in our family), they are still partially bare objects to me, devoid of any real or substantive meaning.

In this project, I tried to visually reproduce the steps that I take mentally in trying to find a place for these items in my home, family, and life. I look forward to learning the detailed history of them in order that they find a place on my future dinner table.

Project 2: There are so many terrible puns here, it blows my mind.

Project 2!

I can remember my childhood memories like it was yesterday. I think about them almost everyday. I had a wonderful childhood and I documented this in the form of these pictures. I used a Barbie as my object because they were one of my favorite toys. My sister and I would play with them for hours and I will always have that picture in my head. So I decided to use these memories in my project.

The first picture is taken in the store. My sister and I would save our allowances for weeks just to buy a new Barbie. We would spend a long time in the store picking out the perfect one.

The second picture is a group of images put together to show movement. This represents the memories of us actually playing with the dolls. We set up dollhouses and rooms and would play for hours.

The last photo represents the dying of the doll era. When I was younger I thought I was going to play with dolls forever, but as I got older I found new interests. The dolls may not still remain in my life, but the memories will always be in my heart.

Project 2 -Being a pack rat is a tiring thing to be!

I am a pack rat! Anything that comes into my possession that has the least bit of meaning, I keep. In the back of my mind, I always think there might be a reason I need the item. The main things are: Receipts, tags off bought items, special bags/boxes that merchandise is sold in, work schedules/availability sheets, former class folders, agendas, emails, letters, cards, flowers, makeup, event ticket stubs, ski passes, movie stubs, lights, ccorks, notes (class notes and notes from friends... yes, i have some from 7th grade.. and I'm not joking), bobby pins, and lastly lists that I creats (like this one).. particularly "to do" lists and "wish" lists. It's almost a compulsion. I had no idea what I was going to do for this project, and then I started looking around for "junk" and found that I have multiple places where I "hide" these useless items that I can't seem to get rid of. This project is somewhat therapeutic because by me using these worthless things, it makes me feel like htey did have a meaning to be kept; and that reason is to be used on this project. Finally, I can let go of them!

Project 2- Nicholas Dean

My original idea for this project was to find something that was art already and show it in different settings to give it a different meaning in each situation. However something that is already art usually already has a style that shows through in each situation. Then I thought of using my dog or another person, but no one was around and my dog is too dramatic to work with. As I have stated before I love comedy to show in my work as much as possible, so when I saw this weird crab that I won at Adventure Land, and ta-da! I had my model.

The Panopticon of ©ivilization - a religious piece. (Project Two)

Copyright 2010 Seashia Vang All Rights Reserved

“The Panopticon of Civilization”

[This article is specifically for the United States, but the concept is universal.]

This is a religious piece is called, “The Panopticon of Civilization”. The photo stills were captured by me using Crtl-PrtSc during a rerun of the Juun J. men’s fall fashion show in Seoul, Korea.

Today religion is more widespread than ever. It is socially constructed, widely distributed and is engraved in our minds as a common belief system. This religion that we all worship today does not have a divine deity, but multiple – over ten. Our daily devotion is to that of money. Capitalism, commercialization and consumerism. My piece consists of three images (the film is a connected theme but is not part of the set images), two male models walking down a runway and spectators watching or observing a common ritual. The first model is stepping out from the darkness and the second model has come into the light. He is now captured in a religious aura as believers watch in silence. The last image is of the second model’s back, representing the end to his performance, or the rebirth of a new model.

My idea is that we – anyone who has access to the internet, the west or capitalism, now live in a society that has created its own financial, technological and social panopticon. Whether being the viewer or subject being viewed – or both. What does it truly mean to view or be viewed? Why, who and what creates these stimulants in our visual culture today and are they necessary?

I do not have a set idea about how to read this piece, except for that this is a religious piece. Personally, every time I look at this piece, I get a different interpretation. Here are some things I think about when I view this:

•Power and oppression
•Economic coercion
•Social institutions
•Fashion
•First world problems
•Third world problems
•Hetero-normality and issues about sexuality
•Cultural imperialism
•The western ideal
•Governmental authority
•Social hierarchies
•Classism
•Christianity
•Performance art/Happenings
•Puppet and the puppet master
•Simulacrum
•Big brother
•Freedom and slavery
•Development and pseudo-development
•Exclusion of power
•The 21st century tailor
•The 21st century Asian
•Political power implementation
•Etc. etc. etc…

Who is the spectator?

Project #2

Okay. Well I was having a hard time trying to figure out what to do for this project.. what could I put together to make a different meaning? So I was looking around my room just daydreaming and my eyes landed on my converse shoes. Thus, an idea is born.

I don't know how anybody else feels about these shoes, but I know I think a certain way about them. They just represent certain things.. to me.

A little history of these excellent shoes:
Chuck Taylor (basketball dude) chose them as his preferred footwear during the game and this is when they became popular. People wore them in the colors of their favorite teams.

In 1950's became popular in the greaser subculture.

Late 1970's converse came into the punk rock scene. The Ramones are seen wearing them.

1990's grunge.. but still rockers. Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine.



That's all I have for history.

But to me, Chucks are a symbol and expression of individuality and rebelliousness. They represent free thinkers.. or at least they did. Now they're an overused fad.





Okay I've gathered a few pictures of converse in different settings. Each has a different context.. but I guess it's up to you to decide what they mean. Perception and all that jazz.



My friend Ashliys sisters wedding picture.




Thats me.. really blurry (I took a picture of a picture) sorry.



And.. yeah!

Project 2: and some words

Photograph © 2010 Cyprian Alexzander

Project 2: Oh come out from behind the cat litter box, oh you dazzling devil.

This object has been around for awhile but was recently discovered behind the cat litter box. I'm not sure why it was hid there. It may have become to intimate with the occupants in the past. Like all technology, it does seem to demand so much from us. We cannot be satisfied by the wonder of technology, but we must make it our own (note. It refused to be bedazzled!). Again, like all technology, it demands so much from us.

It is so wonderful; it is so magical. We connect to its human qualities and accept it as one of us. Though eventually, we find its burden too much and must escape.

Photograph © 2010 Cyprian Alexzander

Jailbreak

Photograph © 2010 Cyprian Alexzander

It Compliments Your Nose

As She Climbed Across the Table, Don Quixote, The New York Trilogy

Are you TIRED of looking at that ugly old paperback? Are you EMBARRASSED to be seen reading low brow fiction? Do you want people to think you're reading something more "Sophisticated"?????? Want me to make you a new book cover?

Look at deese!!!!!

(Real deer hide)

(More to come, one's still drying)

Paint-Dryer

Huma Bhabha, Pakistani-born sculptor/found artist.

Just found this, I think it relates to what we are currently doing. Bhaba's work is pretty interesting, she uses found objects to create her sculptures.

"[Huma Bhabha] creates her works — grotesque, often entropic figures that can suggest paranoia and trauma — using construction materials and found objects: a shaft of piping, say, or a sinewy, wooden chair. Frequently, she’ll simply grab whatever detritus she finds on the street."

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/the-nifty-50-huma-bhabha-sculptor/?ref=t-magazine&src=tmcc

Exquisite Corpse: Collage, Found Objects, Re-Contextualization, Oh My!