convert

I'm getting a little sentimental writing this but subconsciously, I've grown attached to this blog. I'm an engineering major but I surprise myself every time I realize how much I love English and the arts. It's easy, in the world and society we live in today, to be polarized into being either a person of math and science or a person of English and humanities. I mean, heck, I'm at Georgia Tech. You're either an engineering major or something else.

All joking aside though, I truly appreciated and enjoyed English I. When I first heard about the topic of our class, I spoke a little french because I thought I hated art. But what do ya know, art is actually enlightening and inspirational. And what do I love? Being enlightened and inspired. Going back to the first piece we read in class and the title of my blog, I'm glad that now, art objects at my ignorance in art objects and I'm proud to say I am no longer an art-hater.

Atlanta Art 101

Atlanta Art 101: A Georgia Tech Student's Guide to the Atlanta Art Scene in 7 Days.
Are you a Georgia Tech student? Do you want to explore Atlanta? Do you have limited time and resources (meaning are you swamped with tests and homework and dead broke)? Then this is the guide for you.

The above is what I was thinking when I came up with the theme of our website. This last project is no longer a "school assignment" but we're creating a real product that will be useful to a real audience- us.

Here's a screen shot of the homepage. I know, no pictures or moving graphics but it's made to resemble a course description page you might find online when searching for classes to sign up for. And of course, an edited SGA course critique screen shot that all of us fervently check before registering.

And zooming up on a bit of my corny humor,

weebly

My group and I have decided to use Weebly instead of Dreamweaver. I am a little sad because there's less designing involved in Weebly but with the time constraint, Weebly will help us more efficiently. It was actually voted #4 by TIME magazine for the 50 best websites in 2007. It's a widget-based website so it's really easy to use. You pretty much click and drag then edit. It's also convenient because more than one person can be logged into the account which allows all of our group members to edit at the same time. Dr.Bremm mentioned the website in class but after actually having used Weebly, I definitely recommend it.

cool stuff

Click here to see 20 websites with really cool layouts. If you look at the worst websites in my previous entry and then compare those to the ones compiled in this blog, you'll notice that appearance is important. You can't judge a book by it's cover but you can definitely judge a website by it's layout. That was really corny but it's true. In a way, with this project, we're given a blank canvas with our mouse and keyboard acting as paintbrushes. That was also corny but this website is going to test our artistic skills way more than our previous two projects. Thank God for Dreamweaver is all I have to say.

design with common sense

worst websites of 2010

When it comes to websites, the content is important but honestly, it's about the visual appeal. You could have the most useful information but if it's arranged in a way that irritates the readers, you've lost your reader at the first click. With that said, I think the simpler the better. I really don't understand people who create websites that have hard to read text, in terms of color, background, and size, that is. Why in the world would you present information that is unreadable? It might as well be a blank page then... Creativity should be explored but within the realms of basic common sense.

facebook generation

We have now begun the last and final project for english1101, the Atlanta Art Guide and I guess as a pre-planning tool, I want to jot a few notes down and hopefully it'll help not just me but anybody reading.

So I think interaction is going to be HUGE. By interaction, I mean the type of interaction we have with facebook everyday when we "like" stuff or comment on walls or join various groups. I know we're creating an art guide but thinking about the audience of this project which would be the Georgia Tech community, and more specifically- us, college students, if my group and I could weave in interaction tools like the ones on facebook, our website would take a familiar shape for the intended audience enticing them to visit the site. I hate to admit I'm part of the facebook generation but I am and aside from other great things that facebook offers, interaction is definitely one of them, making it the most visited site for me and probably all of you.

museum experience part 2

I can add my trip to the High with my group members today to my list of museum experiences and one that I enjoyed. Going to the museum with fellow peers definitely made the trip a pleasant experience because as I mentioned before, I feel extremely out of place in art museums, like I shouldn't be there. But today, I had a purpose for being there and knowing there were others in the same boat assured me I didn't just stroll into a museum by accident.

The Titian exhibit, for those of you who visited already, are paintings and drawings from the mid 1500's that includes mostly religious human subjects. This was vastly different from where I spent most of my time during my previous trip to the High which was on the 3rd floor looking at modern and contemporary art. Christina already beat me to blogging about our adventure today but one big difference I too noticed right away was the color of the wall: Titian exhibit- red, contemporary permanent collection- white. This popular museum trend of "white spaces" is something I accepted as the norm for museums because that's pretty much all I've been exposed to in my lifetime experience of museums. So the red today was different. In retrospect, if Titian's Diana paintings were displayed on white walls, it wouldn't have worked out as well as it did with the red walls. Why? Because his subjects are fair skinned and light so there's a definite contrast that exists between the color of the subjects and the color of the wall that garners my attention as a spectator. I like to believe that is a good thing.

red wall

museum experience

I missed class Thursday but having read the Weil and Hein readings and judging from other blog posts, we're now talking about museums. Hein talks about the "museum experience" in one section and from what I understand, he talks about the museum experience as one that is advertised as a unifying participation but actually, what makes a museum experience memorable is the uniqueness of each individual's trip. I'm appreciating art more now because I'm taking this class but recalling on my past museum experiences, I was that girl who walked aimlessly ooh-ing and ah-ing just for the sake of ooh-ing and ah-ing because, well, it's art that I'm paying to admire and be inspired by. My trips to art museums have almost always been with school groups except for one time my date and I walked into the MoMA in New York City because it was freezing outside so I don't think that counts. Unless you're "into art", most teens don't find it worth their time to seek out enlightenment and pleasure from going to the museum. Museums are for old people. That last statement was a joke but the stereotype does exist to an extent. I think what it is though is that more adults than children have the capacity and openness to communicate with the art pieces and walk into a museum knowing and expecting this communication to occur. The unique experience stems from this mindset and it's one I'm learning to possess as I grow older and more mature. I think it's great that museums are trying to expand their traditional visitors by transforming this and that, not for economic gains (although this is true) but to increase enlightenment for all ages.

in one breath

 

Wow. In one breath is the making of The Russian Ark and oh my goodness, it's just brilliant. It honestly makes me one to visit the Hermitage in St.Petersburg. I think this will definitely go on my bucket list. So the mastermind behind this movie is Alexander Sokurov and he kept saying throughout his interview that he only wanted to be recognized for the artistic result of the movie and not for anything else. Believe me, he is truly humble for declaring such a statement because after watching the making of, I don't think anyone can disagree that directing, producing, and filming this movie was somewhat of a miracle and that it was able to be done in a single day because wow, Sokurov, Büttner (cameraman), the 2,000 plus cast, and assistants were literally working with a time bomb. Anyways, I liked the critic that was interviewed a couple of times in the making of. He "got" what Sokurov meant to portray with this movie and it's really about the relationship of the Hermitage and Russia as two interconnecting entities; the relationship between life and art, life and culture, art and culture. Soukurov also delves into the relationship between Russia and Europe, a relationship that isn't so... nice and equal. Unfortunately, I don't know enough Russian and European history to comment further but yeah, really interesting stuff. And lastly, the ending- that was my favorite. Sokurov's ingenious view of seeing the Hermitage as a floating ark for Russian culture and history in the water that lives on forever is just brilliant. Brilliant!

art vending machine

Interesting newsfeed I came upon in Time.

So this guy in Germany came up with the idea of vending machines that would vend art pieces for really cheap and supposedly, this is getting popular throughout Europe. He says the idea of these vending machines is to target places where art is scarce like public buildings (which is funny because a lot of people in class chose architecture itself as public art for the visual essay theme), bars (can't really see how people would want to buy art in a bar but ok), etc. The guy is quoted as saying, "We wanted to get art into places that don't have anything to do with art so that it would become a part of everyday life." My theme for this project was everyday art so I definitely read this differently than most people would have because my argument for the project was that art is everywhere and most certainly found in everyday objects, like benches. Art is already a part of my everyday life but of course, I wouldn't have realized that without this project and maybe I would have been super duper excited about these vending machines so I can make art a part of everyday life by paying $2.78 for art in a box.

a learning experience

A learning experience is what I will call my presentation yesterday. In other words, FAILURE. Just kidding. Well half kidding. I walked out of English feeling so horrible but now that I've had a day to reflect, I'll be calm and cool about my "learning experience". So now I will rant I mean reflect on everything about this project and more.

So first thing first. I blame the government. Just kidding. That was just to catch your attention. But I really think I've been conditioned to strictly follow directions, exactly as they're written, word-for-word. I'm talking about annual DSTP's (Delaware State Testing Program, yes I'm from Delaware or as students like to call it the Delaware Student Torture Program), the SAT's, AP's and the list goes on and on. I've been disciplined to read the directions and re-read and re-read until I fully understand what I'm asked to do, stay on topic, and always include part of the question in my answer to get full credit. So coming from this disciplined educational background, I struggled with the vagueness of this project. I think I read the visual essay assignment sheet about a hundred times. Art itself is so vague and have I told you, vague is not my thing? I got so caught up trying to make sure I followed everything on that assignment sheet that I let myself be confused. I focused so much on the structure trying to come up with a clear theme, a beginning, middle, and an end that I ended up choosing a boring and unoriginal theme and ultimately forcing my photos to make sense. If I could re-do this project, I would definitely let myself not be confined to words written on a sheet of paper and really think outside the box, embracing the vague directions as a potential for creativity. Whew. Ok.

Another thing. Speaking for 5 minutes to an audience feels like an eternity if you don't know what you're talking about. It's not that I spoke complete nonsense but my theme was functional art and you really can't make a story about functional art. My images had no chronological timeline so I arranged them in a way that made sense to me. The sequence of my images beginning with illustrating the function of a bench to illustrating the details that make everyday objects public art to ending with combining the two elements and revisiting the first image to tie it all together made sense in my head but I definitely struggled to reiterate the same message aloud yesterday eloquently and clearly.

I actually did learn a lot from this project which mostly consists of a long list of don't do's but hey, learning is learning. I can now understand why people say college really broadens your horizons because college is not like high school. The math problems don't work out to a rational number and apparently, vagueness is the new black on campus. Life itself isn't black or white and I know this wasn't one of the key learning points listed in some thick book located somewhere in the English department that I was supposed to learn from this project but when life gives you lemons, don't just make lemonade but take from it what you need and don't be afraid to explore other options that might result in something better.

public art scarce on campus?

I attempted to take pictures of public art today but I got lost instead and climbed through a hole in the fence behind Woody's dining hall and ended up with 18 awful pictures of lamps, benches, and trees. Let me tell you, that was not fun.

So I initially thought I would be staying on campus but I think that's what most of us are doing and there's only so much public art on campus, no? I know we made that huge list of what public art can be but I think public art is pretty scarce on campus. There's only so many fountains, statues, or paintings for some of us...

Anyways, I think I'm going to venture off campus or at least try to, we'll see. I hope I see a plethora of public art because I'm not seeing it here on campus. All I see are red bricks and squirrels -_-

controversial public art

I found an interesting article about controversial public art here about a statue in Washington. It's controversial because the statue is a nude woman located in the middle of a park next to a newly built library. Location certainly matters when discussing public art.

the art of david fincher

I came across this video titled the "Art of David Flincher". Flincher is the mastermind behind the Social Network and other critically acclaimed films such as the Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to name a few. The video is just a montage of his prominent films but these scenes effectively show that David Flincher is in fact an artist. So enjoy!

the social network

I usually try to blog about something we read in class or at least a topic that was discussed instead of random things about art but I think I'm allowed a random art blog post because one, we didn't have class this week and two, we all wrote 5 pages analyzing art so yeah.

This isn't totally random but we have talked about the different mediums of art including painting, photography, and the topic of this entry- film. I know some people won't consider recent movies exactly "art" but I went to the premiere of the Social Network Thursday night and yeah, it was art. It wasn't art in a necessarily visual way but the whole movie was so intense and if I think about why, it's partly due to the storyline but what the spectator is most impacted by at every moment during the film is what you see and hear directly in front of you. I'm not going to write a movie review but the cast, the script, the music- it all combined to create art that I fully enjoyed and appreciated. Let's show some support for our Hollywood friends who produce works of art because it's one medium of art we can all enjoy while sitting down with a box of popcorn.

Blank spots

Edward Ruscha leaves blank spots usually in the form of a rectangle or square in some of his paintings including the painting I am writing about for this class. (look below for Home Power) I have no idea why he does this. The blank rectangle is obviously an integral part of the painting because it stands out so much but I don't want to end up 'over interpeting". Why does he do that?!

Here are some others...

Why I like photography

I must say photography is my favorite medium of art. Now you may agree or disagree but here's why I like it.

1. It's "real"
2. I grew up with it  (myspace, facebook, etc)
3. It's art I can produce, sometimes

Now having said that, Roland Barthes in this section of his book writes about the spectator. He says, "And I, the spectator, I recognize them (functions of photography) with more or less pleasure..." (pg26) He stands neutral in his stance of photography, at least if I understood the main idea correctly. He talks about themes of photography, principle of adventure, and how these concepts make him more or less inclined to like or dislike a picture. I think we do all of these things unconsciously but thank God for art critics for writing and naming all these processes down in a book right? So anyways, my point is that I fully love being the spectator. Like Barthes, there are certain pictures that I like and dislike for various reasons and I love that this medium of art is personal, more so than other mediums. That's number 4 for why I like photography and this list is elongating as I learn more about art.

One of the pictures of the week from TIME magazine. I just thought it was funny, really funny.

Check out time for legitimate pictures under today in pictures, pictures of the week, or pictures of the year, unlike the silliness above.

click to add title

I'm realizing as I analyze my painting that the title plays such a crucial part in forming my interpretation and analysis on an artwork. This could be related to the discussion we had on captions and additional notes and information on specific artwork sometimes provided by museums or art critics, but titles written intentionally by the artist are a different story, no? I know we're supposed to analyze the image but the title gives so much insight that I cannot ignore it. On that note, good luck to all those with untitled artwork!

language language language

I just finished reading Patterns of Intention by Baxandall and what do you know, language is really important when you're dealing with art. Sound familiar? All the past readings we've done in class say a thing or two about language. I guess this is reasonable. First comes the art. But what good is art if everybody kept their thoughts to themselves? So directly following art are words. Whether we're interpreting or describing, key words attach themselves to pieces of art. Baxandall talked mostly about describing art. This too is a personal experience along with interpretation, in a way. It is a personal experience in that descriptions are biased and may or may not fully follow the artists' intentions. I thought that was interesting.

So the artist I've been introduced to as a result of this class is Edward Ruscha. I mention his works a couple of times in previous entries but he is definitely a special case in the way that he is known for his art with language as his main subjects. He literally paints words. So for him, language does not follow art. Language is art. Word.

by Edward Ruscha

Las Meninas, the movie.

So there was a movie made in 2008 titled Las Meninas by a Ukrainian director. I read the plot summary and the director seems to have been inspired by the painting's structure in the way that the audience must figure out and piece together the story from what they see, much like how viewers see only pieces of the painting then interpret the story. I'll have to check out this film sometime.

Las Meninas

Las Meninas. I've realized by now after reading the essays by Bal&Bryson and Foucault, the painting is famous. Not to mention, Picasso, the Picasso, painted a rendition of the original that is just as famous. You know a painting is legitimate when Picasso paints his own interpretation of it. Just kidding. But, this painting is legitimate in many, many ways, especially in the way Foucault describes the intricate connection between the artist and the viewer within the painting. The first thing I noticed was the fact that there was an artist in the painting, complete with his paintbrush and easel. I usually think of the artist as a third party when I view an artwork. He or she is sitting there with a paintbrush in hand, painting the painting, not painting himself painting the painting. But that is essentially what Velazquez did. That forces me to think of the artist from the beginning and now the artist's intent becomes my intent when viewing the artwork. I think about why he painted these subjects, who these people are in relation to Velazquez, and so on and so forth. Because there are so many other subjects in this particular painting, my mind will wander off to different people in the painting but it's interesting that the artist will situate himself or herself among the subjects, creating a sort of depth and level.

Speaking of depth and level, I just wanted to post a picture that I took at the High that illustrates the concept. Yay for visuals!

For Interpretation

Since seeing Edward Ruscha's work in the High Museum, I decided to do a little research. I came upon a quote by Ruscha in which he said, "Art has to be something that makes you scratch your head." As a class, we recently read Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag in which she makes a solid argument that as viewers, we tend to over interpret content instead of seeing art as it is. For artists like Ruscha, he welcomes interpretation which I will gladly give him.

Edward Ruscha is well known for his images of words and phrases which may be ironic, satiric, or just simply random. I found this article about him and it's interesting that the journalist tries to interpret the images below but Ruscha only laughs and leaves the meaning up to whoever is seeing the art.

La visite première.

So my first visit to the High Museum was much like visiting a foreign country. In light of this, I title this post in french because french is a foreign language to me and "la visite première" sounds much cooler than "my first visit". So there you go.

I felt like a foreigner as soon as I stepped into the museum. You see, I am not much of a museum-goer. Artists like going to the museum. People who like art go to the museum. I am neither. So truthfully, I felt extremely out of place when I walked in and was at once surrounded by artsy looking people including a boy maybe nine or ten years old with what appeared to be an extremely professional looking camera with which he was taking pictures, holding out his hand and making an L shape with his fingers before snapping a photo or two. He knew exactly what he was looking at. For me, not so much.

At first, I strolled. I strolled past paintings and ambled past sculptures. My first thirty minutes or so at the museum was leisurely paced, glancing at this and that- until I got to the painting below.

This painting titled Home Power by Edward Ruscha made me stop and think. Much like the study of structuralism in the field of psychology, I saw the painting for it's basic elements such as it's color. For this painting, the contrast between dark and light was overwhelmingly apparent and it was in it's basic elements that I found this particular painting powerful. Albeit the darkness surrounding the house, the light from within the home made me feel safe. There was power in this inner light. Home Power made me feel a bit more at home and a little less like a foreigner.

Art Defined.

Art is in front of me everywhere I go. Art exists in living and nonliving objects; from large to small, tangible to intangible- art is everything and everyone. When one knows the creator of everything set out before her eyes, there is only one artist that she is aware of. Instead of asking what is or is not art, the question then becomes, where do I look next for this inherent beauty sewn all across the horizon?

*****

I guess I should explain the photo. This was taken on August 17th at Piedmont Park in Atlanta (credits given to Christina Lee). The girl with her arms spread open facing the sky is me. This photo actually inspired me to define art as I have written above. Noting from the essays we've read in class, the first thing I've learned about art is that it is personal. Photography, especially if I am the subject of such form, is personal art. I connect and relate with the picture as well as relive past moments and conjure up former feelings. It's about the experience. That is all.