Thoughts on the Concerned Citizen

Here are a few admittedly scattered thoughts related to your Concerned Citizen project due Tuesday:

• Remember 1-3 minutes is your time requirement. 
• Post the video/audio doc on your blog with an accompanying artist's statement that (1) addresses your creative process--how and why did you choose to make this thing in the ways that you did, (2) correlates your piece with concepts from class discussion, the reading (Goldbard's article) and media from outside of class.
• A common mistake on this assignment is to overemphasize institutions rather than individuals. Remember that this is not a promotional video for a non-profit or whatever. It is to address an individual's involvement in their community. It should tell a story--one that will probably describe the person's engagement in their community, depict their relationships with others, and give us insight into the personal experiences and motivation behind this engagement.

 And for those of you who enjoyed And A New Earth film we viewed in class, here is a link to HitRECord. The film is on the main page under 'Videos' (along with some other interesting things they've made together).

Another thing having to do with community...

...This one addresses place.

Media & Community

Here's an example to consider...

Everyone Forever Now - "Stoop Sitting" from Everynone on Vimeo.

And another...

And another...

Some inspiration...

...for your Protest Posters

"Cut your shower short" by Michael Beirut

"Walk the walk" by Marina Willer

"Your body is a battleground" by Barbara Kruger

"I shop therefore I am" by Barbara Kruger

"Dough Nation" by Robbie Conal

"Contra Diction" by Robbie Conal

Protest Poster

To begin, here is a TED Talk from Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie talking about the consequences of the uniformity and unity of media in 'The Danger of a Single Story.' Consider this your assigned viewing for the week, and be sure to reference it in your artist's statement next week.

  

 As a reminder, here is the assignment description for the Protest Poster.

Each student will create a poster that utilizes images and text to raise awareness for a particular social issue that he/she feels has been inadequately addressed in the public discourse. Students are encouraged to consider both the aesthetic presentation of their ideas, the information provided, and the political perspective represented.

So, basically you will...

1. Choose a social issue that interests you.
2. Research the representations of this issue in the public sphere (political discourse, media representations, scientific publications, etc.)
3. Create a poster that both demonstrates your (newly informed) perspective on the issue and departs from conventional representations of this issue.
4. Post the poster on your social media site of choice and watch the comments pile up.
5. Incorporate the concepts from class, outside/inside media, your research and creative process, the feedback from your online community, etc. into an artist's statement.

Webspinna & Experimentation

Hey, isn't it cool that we made this?

Also, remember how we also went to the MOA and looked at this...

And this...

Those are cool. In fact all of the Heroes and Monsters exhibit is pretty cool. But we're not just interested in them because they're cool.

 

Someone asked, "So, is this just cross-media inspiration or are we going to make something visual like this?" Good question. At this point, we're not going to experiment with image or video (although, I think it would be awesome to incorporate live glitch-video mash-up mixes into our Webspinna performances in the future). But the Webspinna correlates with our discussion because, while last week we were interested in stripping a medium down to its bones and exploring its fundamental elements (its roots, as it were), this week, we're interested in pushing a medium's boundaries (exploring its branches). 

So for example, digital media--video, image (and I suppose sound, in this over-auto-tuned age of pop music) can be characterized by the opportunity the media provide its authors to hyper-idealize artistic work to seamless, unified perfection. Then, glitches are typically understood as malfunctions, cracks in the veneer. But glitch artists see these imperfections as opportunities to experiment, play, and in doing so, critique the hyper-ideal-ity (I think I just made that word up) of contemporary media.

Or another example, if sculpture is traditionally thought of in terms of physical objects, inhabiting three dimensional space, made of stone or bronze or clay, sitting on pedestals, etc....how might the sound installation we visited in the HFAC be considered sculpture? In what ways does it push 'sculpture's' boundaries and potentially redefine what we understand 'sculpture' to be?

In regards to the Webspinna, we typically use the web for information and communication--mostly through image and text. But what if we use the internet for creation and expression--entirely through sound and music? In media production, we typically write, stage, record, edit, etc. (pre-, production, and post-). But what if our media production is performative--composed but not edited--allowing for improvisation, subject to artist error/technical malfunction, and (like the Lucky Dragons performance we viewed) more reliant on the context--artist and audience, eating, talking, sharing in a dark room with loud music?

So for Thursday--Come with your links to your sounds on your blog, so you can share your Webspinna with another person. You may also choose to come with headphones, so you don't have to share earwax with another person. The workshop will require you to perform your mix at least once before Friday night's event, and it will hopefully provide you with the chance to share cool ideas, resources, techniques, etc. with each other, and thereby enrich your mix.

Further Experimentation

Here is a brief introduction to 'glitch art.'

Watch Glitch Art on PBS. See more from Off Book.

A documentation of one of the Lucky Dragons' 'performances.'

And a translation of a mathematical theorem into interpretive dance (and video).

Webspinna

Here's the assignment description for the Webspinna from the syllabus...

Each student will prepare a 3-4 minute mix of sounds collected from the Internet. Students are to rehearse this mix to become comfortable with their performance and work out any potential technical problems. In place of class, students will meet at an undetermined location at an undetermined (probably night-) time and perform the Webspinna as a collaborative, continuous mix. Students will be asked to bring food, friends and family to enjoy the evening.

And here are my links...

Star Wars Soundboard
Darth Blues 
Dark was the night..

I know how to pray

In B flat

Tapestry

Raindrop melody 

Medium Specificity

Jackson Pollock, "Number 6"

What might Pollock be up to? According to this experiment, how might he define 'painting'?

Andy Warhol, "Eight Elvises"

What might Warhol be up to? According to this experiment, how might he define 'printing'?

Now, regarding medium specificity in music--John Cage's "4'33."

What might Cage be up to? According to this experiment, how might he define 'music'?

As a reminder, here is the assignment description from the syllabus:

Each student will choose an artistic medium (film, photography, drawing, painting, medium, dance, performance, graphic design, poetry, literary narrative, etc.) and produce a work which explores the specific elements unique to that medium--like Brakhage or Daren’s films, Pollock’s paintings, Warhol’s prints, Cage’s music, etc. Students are encouraged to consider how their particular work functions as a celebration, commentary or critique of their chosen medium.

For Thursday, come with 3 media which you might choose to explore in the assignment. We will brainstorm medium specific elements of each media in small groups, and then you can choose what medium to explore, what elements to emphasize and how to make this experiment into an artistic work.

I will evaluate your work with the following in mind:

• Did you choose a medium, identify a fundamental element of that medium, and produce a creative work that both conceptually and artistically engages with that element of the medium?
• Did you provide an artist's statement that explains (1) your decision to explore a certain element of the medium and (2) how your piece creatively engages in that exploration? 
• Did you consider (as mentioned in the assignment description) how your project functions to celebrate, comment on or critique the chosen medium.

Unintelligible Art

"The usual difficulty with the observer of modern art is that he does not inquire patiently and sincerely concerning the 'meaning' of a work of art which strikes him as grotesque, distorted or eccentric (in another word, unintelligible), but, by a sort of symbolic thought-process, recognizes its unrecognizability and thus thwarts any possible further intelligent interest or ultimate enjoyment. It is as if, in a crowd, seeking someone we knew and, looking into each strange face, we should recognize its unrecognizability and pass it by as irrelevant to our quest. This would be a perfectly natural procedure under the circumstances; but in art we are not looking for something we already know; we are looking for a new experience whose value and quality are unknown to us. In such a case to permit unrecognizability to be a barrier is to condemn ourselves to a life of monotony, without the thrills of discovery, insight and 'conversion.'" 

- Edward. F. Rothschild, "The Meaning of Unintelligibility in Modern Art," 1934.