Project #4
Elizabeth Shores
I struggled with the A/V project, mostly in coming up with an inspiration or a strong concept to base the project on. It was an evolving project, which I will describe here.
I had recently watched a documentary about what happens to people in the US who die without families. It covered the steps taken by law enforcement to locate families, the search for cemetery plots, and the eventual cremation of the individual. Eventually, if there was not enough money, the cremated remains were poured into a mass grave for all those who had died the previous year and were the final descendents of their family lineage. Such a fate was terrible, and made me think a lot about the idea of a sense of purpose in life as well as in death. I am not particularly interested in producing a depressing or ennui-inspiring art piece, so I eventually chose to avoid the topic of death itself. However, I eventually came to be interested in the idea that the things you do have far-reaching effects and consequences that inevitably reach beyond your lifetime, often without your knowledge.
I used a train to symbolize forward motion and movement through space and time. I chose to focus on the idea of American women cutting their hair during the twenties and thirties, a time when the only discussion of feminism was seen in the treatment of haircutting by major women’s beauty & lifestyle magazines. This new trendy ‘do spurred changes beyond anyone’s expectations. Like trains on a track, we leave dissent, then order for those we don’t see. The order that comes about from the chaos of our lives lives on for future generations.
So, the dissent is all the hustle and noise we get while the train is at the station and is also the act by the women of cutting their hair. The order is the nice neatness of a train once it is underway on the tracks out in the country, and is the new normal that has been established by those women cutting their hair; it is now normal for a woman to have short hair.
Our lives seem like meaningless chaos, but we create the world the next generation lives in, no matter what we do.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Project 3
Project #3
This project was created after I read a news story detailing the recent discovery that a great number of vegetative state patients are actually fully aware and capable of communication, although physically unable to express it. In response to questions the doctors would ask, patients were told to recall a memory of movement (such as a soccer game) to denote ‘yes’, or a memory of an unmoving thing (such as an apple) to mean ‘no’. Using MRI scans, the doctors were able to see what part of the brain lit up in direct response to questions such as, “Is your name Tom?” or “Are you married?”, leading them to believe that this sort of communication was possible in a large percentage of patients.
This amazing revelation in the scientific community made me think a lot about interior space, communication, and the idea of self. I produced an all-white sculpture for the back of the Intermedia classroom that was roughly the size and shape of a person with a hole in the top, with a mirror rotating inside of it. On the inside walls of the piece were images of bright abstract colors that were reflected off the mirrors and visible to the viewer. The wires of the piece were suspended outside of the structure.
I wanted to make something that was not entirely understandable, the shape itself suggesting a human form, but not directly. The images suggest a part of the interior space, or an MRI, and the wires suggest the state of a wired patient. By putting it in our classroom, it is something that was accessible to all of us, not just the medical community.
This project was created after I read a news story detailing the recent discovery that a great number of vegetative state patients are actually fully aware and capable of communication, although physically unable to express it. In response to questions the doctors would ask, patients were told to recall a memory of movement (such as a soccer game) to denote ‘yes’, or a memory of an unmoving thing (such as an apple) to mean ‘no’. Using MRI scans, the doctors were able to see what part of the brain lit up in direct response to questions such as, “Is your name Tom?” or “Are you married?”, leading them to believe that this sort of communication was possible in a large percentage of patients.
This amazing revelation in the scientific community made me think a lot about interior space, communication, and the idea of self. I produced an all-white sculpture for the back of the Intermedia classroom that was roughly the size and shape of a person with a hole in the top, with a mirror rotating inside of it. On the inside walls of the piece were images of bright abstract colors that were reflected off the mirrors and visible to the viewer. The wires of the piece were suspended outside of the structure.
I wanted to make something that was not entirely understandable, the shape itself suggesting a human form, but not directly. The images suggest a part of the interior space, or an MRI, and the wires suggest the state of a wired patient. By putting it in our classroom, it is something that was accessible to all of us, not just the medical community.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Wednesday, May 4- Our Last Day!!!
1. Announcements, events, and more
2. Evaluations
2. Critiques- Continued!
-Liz
-Zach
-Kaylee
-Cyprian's blog project
4. Let's look at some art!!! Shows around Studio Arts Building... Q & A about grad school
5. Don't forget to turn in your Final Portfolio by next Wednesday (put it in my dropbox and email me to confirm you have done so)
6. Goodbye!
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