It's an omnipresent image that has inspired music, tattoos, and even an emoji on your phone. But Hokusai's Great Wave is a woodblock print that was made to be reproduced. What's its story? Let's better know the Great Wave.
KIROKAZE
almost home

Origami Around

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Alisa U Zemlji Chuda

Janaina Medeiros
styofa doing anything
Sweet Seals For You, Always

Kaledo Art

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Cosimo Galluzzi
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One Nice Bug Per Day
taylor price
Three Goblin Art
d e v o n
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@theartassignment
It's an omnipresent image that has inspired music, tattoos, and even an emoji on your phone. But Hokusai's Great Wave is a woodblock print that was made to be reproduced. What's its story? Let's better know the Great Wave.
This assignment started with me (badly) describing it to my roommate and then her pointing out all the white things in our house. Because she was cooking dinner at the time, I decided food was the best thing to use. Also, because my roommate gave me so many options, I decided to do another set.
Test 1 - Inside of an egg shell and Rice: When put side by side, the rice looks more yellow and the egg shell is pink. We turned one light off in the kitchen and left another on in the second picture, making the rice gray and the eggshell brown.
Test 2 - Fur Rug and Pearl Necklace: The pearls become pink or purple on top of the fur rug, which is red and orange. With a flash light on the objects, the pearls appear green and the fur rug is yellow.
Oh, those last two images are especially nice. I like how we see your journey here, finding materials and experimenting with how to photograph them. (Whitescapes response)
For the Whitescapes Art Assignment, I took a white piece of paper outside to photograph with the white snow on my white car. Then I came inside and recorded my observations on the paper. Transcript:
The paper looked bright and blue against the snow, a more neutral white beneath the paper. The wind* fought my ill-prepared plan, ut I managed to get some snow on top of the paper. Against the blue, it took on a slight reddish tinge. I’m sure I would have had different–and perhaps slightly more interesting–results, if I’d gone out in the day time and again around now, in the dull blue fading twilight on a stormy day, but procrastination got the better of me.
Back inside, under my incandescent light, and with no other whites around, the paper takes on a more neutral white. The splotches where it was soaked with snow, however, are no longer white at all, but a sparkling mid-gray.
Art Assignment: Whitescapes Paige Breisacher Mar 14, 2017
*and my own lack of gloves
Beautiful words. And wonderful how the page taken back inside so well reflects the experience.
Whitescapes
Details of the structure of a ship. In the virtual reality age, a homage to a few thousands tons of metal, massive and heavy yet light enough to float.
Worth clicking through for “external images.” (Whitescapes response)
Art Assignment #60: Whitescapes - “Shades of Innocence”
We once again went a bit further away from the prompt for this art assignment, but we did accomplish what the assignment said to do in the process! The assignment was to place two white objects so that they overlapped each other, and try to describe the actual color of each white, then change the lighting and repeat the process. We found ourselves naturally thinking about costuming and stage lighting, since a lot of modern dance choreographers like to use white costumes and extremely-saturated lighting to turn the dancers different colors. We didn’t have immediate access to a full-on light lab, but we could mimic some of those aspects in the studio, so that’s what we did. We each brought as much white clothing to rehearsal as we could today, and then spread them all out and compared the color temperatures of the whites. You can see the picture we took of the collection at the end of the video. Then we each selected a costume to start with, thinking about layering different whites over top of each other. We did a long, half-hour improvisation using several different inspirations from the assignment: 1. Taking the liberty of switching out costume pieces whenever the mood struck us, 2. changing the lighting frequently, from overhead flourescents to daylight through the windows to backlit from the atrium outside and back again, and 3. Making a list, both before and during the improv itself, of words that we tend to associate with the idea of ‘white’. From Ellen: “Connotations and symbolism are really important for a dancer or choreographer to consider when deciding on costumes, since no matter how little the choreographer cares about it, the audience most certainly will draw implications from the choice of costume. In particular, watching this piece back I couldn’t help but think of the strong connotation of things like purity, youth, and innocence that the color white conveys. And the flowy skirt carries its own connotations, which are poignant and fluid. I noticed them particularly strongly when held up in front of my rapidly-growing pregnant belly, and when worn by our male dancer, Lamar. Something about a man in a dress always screams "MODERN DANCE!” to me…and seems odd even when I’m expecting it…“ What connotations does this dance’s white outfits give you? Music: selections from 'Songs for a New World’ Dancers: Ellen Deutsch, Patty Petronello, Lamar Williams
I always look forward to and enjoy responses from Geeksdanz. This group is such strong evidence that you can incorporate these prompts into any practice, and interpret the assignments in such a wide variety of ways.
Whitescapes.
No need for caption.
Really like this approach. Giving yourself the added challenge of choosing other colors to depict these “whites” is such an elegant way of describing them without words.
Our understanding of color is based on relationships. It’s experiential and this is why the assignment is so interesting to me. We bring our baggage and experience to all color interactions.
The drawing casts symbolize ideals of beauty and culture. They are white plaster casts and are used to teach a way of seeing. The flayed arm represents the idea that color is skin deep. It’s not the surface that matters.
I added the color wheel behind the sculptures after viewing Sabina Joeck’s #theartassignment extra credit video. Her idea and presentation was elegant and honest, and made me look to my surroundings for something similar to include. The xerox of the color wheel hangs in my studio and was given to me in a pre-college summer art program back in 1985. It was in this pre-college program I first studied the Munsell color chart. An aged and yellowed color wheel; that lacks color, seemed appropriate for the assignment.
Another striking image coming out of the Whitescapes assignment. Interesting range of whites, to be sure, but such a strong composition. I keep thinking about lighting with this one, how strong light sources, flashes, etc., tend to obliterate information almost.
@theartassignment
The Art Assignment, my favorite educational Youtube channel, posted their last “assignment” video: Whitescapes. Artist Odili Donald Odita asked questions about what whiteness is (in both a color theory way and a construction-of-race way). While I watched the video I took photos of my work space: my walls, white board, plate, and even the Youtube background were all different shades of white (if white even has shades). As you can probably see on this blog, I have been doing a lot of photography for local live music; a crash course in color theory, since performances usually happen in low, artifically colored lights.
I took comparison photos of my white items as they originally appeared (in relative darkness), then with the flash, then with “lights on.” The blue tone of the computer screen stayed the most constant. The flash made my walls look almost rosy, the lamp light turned everything yellow. The blacks of the computer body, board frame, marker writing and tabletop were similarly challenged (but not as much).
The video touched on reality/naturalism a little bit… there are a lot of scary articles around about the effect of light bulbs and computer screens (and even carpented corners) on our psychology. I also keep getting questions about “natural” treatments for serious autoimmune conditions over on the EN advocacy blog (as if vitamin pills grew on trees, or could treat lupus). And I thought about the faux-natural sterile wood, desktop succulent aesthetic. And who profits from fads. It was a good exercise.
Yesterday marked the first “deadline” (I can’t even say it without adding scare quotes) over in our Extra Credit facebook group. We took a vote and decided to do Odili Donald Odita’s Whitescapes assignment, and have been posting what we’ve done over there.
What I especially appreciate about this particular response, is how easily the artist pivots from work/life/youtube, to making art. It’s not a hard and fast dividing line, but a simple “I am watching a video at my desk, and now I’m making art.” This is one reason why I like this particular assignment so much. It’s about art as part of your lived experience, and about the way you look at the world already around you.
Over the past 3 years, 60 artists have offered art assignments, and thousands of artworks have been made in response. Here's a brief glimpse of what we've all made together over the course of this series so far. So KEEP ASSIGNMENTING! If you'd like to join a group that does assignments together, sets deadlines, and engages in fascinating discussion, go to: www.facebook.com/groups/artassignmentextracredit/
There are lots of wonderful things happening this weekend at NerdCon: Nerdfighteria in Boston. One of these is rug-making. Join us! No skills required.
What is white? What is any color? Philadelphia-based abstract painter Odili Donald Odita talks with us about his work and offers us an assignment about color. Your specific instructions:
1. Find a white object and place it next to another white object. Compare how the two colors change. 2. Describe the difference in color 3. Change the lighting and take not of how the colors change 4. Name the colors in the new lighting 5. Share your findings in whatever way you see fit, using #theartassignment Recommended reading: - David Batchelor, Chromophobia (2000) - Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (2015) - Josef Albers, Interaction of Color (1963)
We've spent quite a bit of time exploring art in other people's cities, so we figured it was time to come back home and try being tourists in our own town.
The itinerary: Kaffeine Coffee: http://www.kaffeinecoffee.com/ Indiana Pacers Bikeshare: https://www.pacersbikeshare.org/ Indianapolis Cultural Trail: http://indyculturaltrail.org/ The Alexander: https://www.thealexander.com/ Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital and Health Campus: http://www.eskenazihealth.edu/ Wildwood Market: https://www.wildwoodmarket.com/ Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art: http://indymoca.org/ The Museum of Psychphonics: https://www.facebook.com/museumofpsychphonics/ People for Urban Progress: http://www.peopleup.org/ General Public Collective: http://general-public.us/ Tube Factory: http://www.bigcar.org/project/tubefactory/ Listen Hear: http://www.bigcar.org/project/listen/ PRINTtEXT: http://printtext.co/ Open Society: http://www.opensocietyindy.com/ Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres: http://www.imamuseum.org/visit/the-park
We introduce you to the talented and amazing JooYoung Choi, who shares tales of her fictional realm The Cosmic Womb and beckons us to create our own IMAGINARY FRIEND. Your specific instructions: 1. Make an imaginary friend using any medium you like 2. Introduce that friend to others 3. Share your friend with us using #theartassignment 4. Fame and glory (your work might be in a future episode)
We take an art pilgrimage to Houston, Texas, and visit the likes of the Rothko Chapel, James Turrell's Twilight Epiphany, the Menil Collection, and Project Row Houses, among others. Come with us we feast upon Houston's many cultural riches, and some good food, too!
The full itinerary: The Rothko Chapel: http://www.rothkochapel.org/ Siphon Coffee: http://siphoncoffeehouston.com/ The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston: http://camh.org/ Cullen Sculpture Garden: https://www.mfah.org/visit/cullen-sculpture-garden/ Underbelly: http://www.underbellyhouston.com/ Lawndale Art Center: http://www.lawndaleartcenter.org/ Project Row Houses: http://projectrowhouses.org/ James Turrell’s Skyspace at Rice University: http://skyspace.rice.edu/ Common Bond Cafe and Bakery: http://www.commonbondcafe.com/ The Menil Collection: https://www.menil.org The Orange Show: http://orangeshow.org/orange-show-monument/ The Beer Can House: http://orangeshow.org/beer-can-house/
New assignment!
We meet up with artist Jamal Cyrus in his hometown of Houston, Texas, where we broach the topic of "postmodernism" and are challenged to summon an impossible sound. More specifically:
1. Think of a sound you've never heard before or an unlikely combination of performer and venue, et al. 2. Represent this sound visually, taking any form you like 3. Share your representation using #theartassignment
With 2017 comes great change. Assignments are ending, but the channel is not! Starting in March we’ll be focusing on "The Case for" videos, Art Trips, and other art and art history related topics. We're also starting an Art Assignment Work Group to keep the assignment flame alive. If you're interested, please fill out this survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NSMXSKC.
@xenolilly found the Nerdfighter community she was looking for in @theartassignment .
Xenolilly, you’re the best. Thanks SO much for being such a huge part of The Art Assignment community (which IMHO is also the ultimate Nerdfighter subgroup). It wouldn’t be the same without you.