#vtfall2017

[arodr916-blog]

Self directed practice #8: Post-script

Title: Untitled

Medium: Digital image 

Dimensions: Unspecific 

[hntrehlrs-blog]

QCQ #2

Quote:

“A certain intellectual tradition rooted in the writings of Walter Benjamin and Guy Debord states that the aestheticization and spectacularization of politics, including political protest, are bad things because they divert attention away from the practical goals of political protest and towards its aesthetic form. And this means that art cannot be used as a medium of a genuine political protest—because the use of art for political action necessarily aestheticizes this action, turns this action into a spectacle and, thus, neutralizes the practical effect of this action.”

Comment:

I feel as if I have been attempting to fish up all of the emotions I have towards the concept of Art Activism for the past couple of years; this article basically just put dynamite in the water. In light of the recent political office changes in Washington the grand gesture of being apart of the progressive culture is to be incongruently conducting your expressions in the form of a counterculture. Which is tremendous...Until the unstoppable consequence of a new, enormous thing appears, having its conceptual entirety warped and dissected for personal expansion. With such a platform for the simple idea of creating something visually stimulating conducted under the decision making process of satisfying a form of protest (political or societal) to be considered as an Artistic work inherently works only in favor to the opposing side.  More specifically of why I feel that is, is because a creation with the representation of itself having a questionable credibility in terms of the motivations behind it. The drive from the artist propelling the gesture of a movement is then to create a “spectacle” which drives the core, true, values of what is actually trying to be changed into nothing more than hypocritical, self-indulged, content. The moment hypocrisy enters the space of either a protest or an artwork the sincerity and beauty behind the energy spent is completely wasted.

Question

Is a movement usually compromised by the ignorant, hypocritical actions of its members or by the actions to exploit those indecencies by the opposition? To want to create change in another individual’s life, one must have considered the entirety of elements the process of change to be underway will need. Should one have to be radical in or to be true?

[cristhiancarrillo-blog1]

Self Directed Practice 3 

In addition to my research of distortion art I have created a digital piece that was extremely technological in a futuristic manner. Also wanted my piece to entail a message. Nothing extremely meaningful but a secret message nonetheless. The binary numbers in my peace on the bottom right reveals  my first and last name as my signature on my work. As for the box on the left it says “a secret never helped anyone” 

[hntrehlrs-blog]

I do not enjoy the technical aspects of Film Photography. I love the printing process though, the ways someone can manipulate the color balance creates a few beautiful test strips every time. My main quarrel with it is that you are supposed to look at everyday objects and make them interesting with capturing the perfect lighting, angle, aperture, etc. for the shot. You learn about the quality the cameras can achieve when people take pictures of a sweating apple up close. Taking photos for me is a form of documentation, containing an envelope of visually pleasing flavors. I guess the whole idea of capturing the moment is not as literal as I imagined.

[maarusan-blog]

Meme Mini-highway, 2017

Materials: black foam and printed images This piece was influenced on Paik’s work Electronic Superhighway, instead of using electronic devices I decided to make a collage using a black foam. Since Paik’s work was made in the 90s, I used what’s popular nowadays on the internet, memes. I put each meme according the states.  

[hntrehlrs-blog]

“wood destroyer”

I really enjoyed stepping out of my medium and getting to do something off of a 2-D surface. Doing this has inspired me into researching on the internet how to make furniture. I wanted to create something with all of the debris lying around after Irma while at the same time keeping the concept of crossing a threshold constant from my last project. Most people can remember the classic science textbook diagram of changes of state that involved a tree log, well for some reason my brain put the debris and random fourth-grade diagram together. There would be no way I could even splinter a log with another piece of wood and though the design of the hatchet would definitely be effective with the correct material on the head it turns out to be a failure in the sense of its practical purpose. I considered the idea of just using a log or large bulky branch to chop down a tree with just an awkward amount of unhonored effort. I used a razor blade, chop saw, circular saw, and a steel hatchet in making this piece, also the wood came from the front of someone’s house on 27th.

[hntrehlrs-blog]

For my presentation, I would like to dwell into my interpretation of our countries media. Watching the news has become more of a Jersey Shore experience than an informative one.

[xelite109-blog]

Qcq 1

student Id: 5507619

As artist we rely extensively on creativity and are often told the advantages of being a creative thinker. As it is, most of our biggest accomplishments and strides in developments such as technology, medicine, and science arrived from creative people who came up with solutions to situations that were not explored or considered at the time. Though people like Albert Einstein, Steve Job, Charles Darwin, etc, are often attributed with revolutionizing the world and how we live and view it, most inventive minds are not seen that way. As stated in the exert from Jessica Olien’s article “ Inside the box”, “People are biased against creative thinking” Often times people view these creative individuals radical ideas as too crazy or plain stupid and just cast them aside. While their ideas may be innovative, people will often times go with a widely accepted basis of what is “correct” or “true” then a brand new view that conflicted entirely with the way we were taught. An example of this was when earth was believed to be the center of the universe and the Bibles idea of creationism. While these were widely accepted theories, new theories arose that trumped the pre-conceived notions that were set. Hence, the thoughts of a heliocentric galaxy and theory of evolution was largely denounced by the people of the time. I do not believe our underlying problem is change but rather how we are taught and told what is acceptable and unacceptable. Through out our time in school we are forced to conform and are disciplined by our instructors to do so. Its is thanks to this strict adherence to what is right and wrong that we are made to be afraid of branching out and experimenting or just trying something new as it will result in failure. Ultimately, it is the strict guidelines set up by the school systems as well as their lack of a silver-lining that inhibits us from performing creative ventures and instead uses grades as either a badge of shame or of praise.

My question is whether we can improve how school is currently teaching children?