Conceptual Puzzle

- The class did an activity that required a group effort of drawing individual lines and placing them in a specified order to create a bigger picture. The picture was that of abstract lines that flowed throughout most of the composition, but certain sections of lines stood out, because of their placement on the papers. The lines tend to go from one corner to another corner, but some didn't follow the same procedure.

- During the process, it was a little confusing at first, because of the way the papers with lines had to be arranged as well as the order of how things were suppose to go.
This project reminded me of the activity where people take a smaller picture and enlarge it by drawing sections of the picture on many sheets of paper. Then, they piece them together as if it were a huge puzzle. The result would be a huge composition that was arranged with many individual drawings.

-The result of the conceptual activity was interesting, because of the general flow of the composition.

Performances of the Class

The performances made by my classmates were pretty interesting. One of my favorites was the performance that involved two people mirroring each other's hand movements while keeping them close at the same time. It was cool how the gestures and positioning of the people matched that of reflections in a mirror. The smooth motions required by the performers had a graceful look to it that made it interesting to view as part of the audience. It was also intriguing how everyone's proposals went in various directions. They ranged from a game of catch, to the mirroring of hand gestures, to actual collaboration drawing of various shapes. Overall, participating and viewing the performance activities was a fun and pleasant experience.

The Gutai Group

The Gutai was a Japanese artistic movement founded in the 50’s. The word translates to embodiment or concrete. “In their early public exhibitions in 1955 and 1956 Gutai artists created a series of striking works anticipating later Happenings and Performance and Conceptual art.” The art of the Gutai was created to give life to the material instead of changing it or falsifying it. Their work included events such as: rolling through mud, running through a paper screen, painting with feet, throwing glass jars filled with paint into a canvas, and more.

(10/29/07)
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=130
http://www.ashiya-web.or.jp/museum/10us/103education/nyumon_us/manifest_us.htm
http://nezumi.dumousseau.free.fr/japon/j2/japarmurakami2.jpg

Faces and Mirrors

Today's activity of using mirrors to imitate each other's expressions and walking as far as you can while still trying to imitate facial expressions was sort of interesting.
The activity was kind of strange, but also humorous and a little fun. It was insane how the activity can actually go on for a long period of time with enough space. I expected the activity to take a while, although it was a short and quick performance. I think that the activity could be more interesting with maybe bigger mirrors and instead of only facial imitations gestures and motion was copied from each other. Also, being the viewer of the activity instead of the performer might be more fun as well.

Logos?

Logos are generally used to simplistically represent business entities such as corporations, product lines, stores, organizations, various proprietorships, and etc. They tend either to involve both a symbol/shape/design as well as unique font or just unique font. There are logos that have several sets, which can consist of one with only font, one with only the design and/or one with all of the above. Logos are designed to stand as the image of company’s products or services in the form of planned typeface and/or intriguing shape(s) (sometimes even line).

http://www.gameonly.pl/partners/playstation.jpg

http://www.minidisc.org/images/walkman_logo_2000.jpg

10/16/07

Comment on "Bride"

The work of Duchamp, "The Bride" is very interesting in its own way. At first glance, it just appears as weird and random shapes that all differ from each other in many ways. One panel of glass appears very spacious, because of the abundance of negative space. The opposing glass appears very crowded and in turn acts as an opposing reflection of the first glass and vice versa. Some parts appear machine like, but there are also shapes in the composition seem more organic or out of place. After, seeing a digital animated version (a manifestation created from Duchamp's notes), the art appears as a giant flowing machine that is similar to the union of woman & man and reproduction. The machine ingenuously flows smoothly as one and perhaps reveals the artist’s genius intentions and the massive amount of depth he put into his work.

Patterns, All Around

Patterns are basically everywhere, in many forms, for many purposes. For design purposes, it is very plentiful in a vast amount of things. Generally, most designs of floors, walls, and fabric are dominated by pattern designs. All of the patterns differ in their own ways, while others become similar. Some are more complex, some are very simplistic; some are eye-catching, can hurt eyes. These designs may vary from substance to substance, but the patterns used in Islamic art are all designs of a different category. They seem to blend shapes into shapes, patterns into patterns, and lines into both patterns and shape so flawlessly. These designs display great intricacy and precision; and at times are spread over great distances of structures and other items. Patterns may frequently stress eyes, if they aren't simple, but each design can be significant in it's own right if fitted for the best purpose.

Gestalt?

http://people.csail.mit.edu/fredo/ArtAndScienceOfDepiction/figGroundVasa.gif

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Gestalt can be:

-Described as shape, form, guise or likeness.

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-Described as a figure or as a synonym for person.

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Or,
- Decribed as a collection of physical, biological, psychological or symbolic entities that creates a unified concept, configuration or pattern which is greater than the sum of its parts.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt

Value Study Composition

Value Study

- A typical art project such as the creating value scales can easily become a tedious activity, especially when executed numerous times. However, when extra conditions are placed, such an activity can become more interesting and at times maybe even delightful.
- Creating a value scale, while at the same time manipulating it into a design and in a more original and less containing shape brought life into an otherwise bland exercise. The process of setting flat values in various shapes that all had to contribute to the overall composition paired nicely with the fluid sketching of the design. Designing compositions out of simple concepts can be so refreshing and rewarding.

Strings and Things

Creating webs with string that become manipulated from other strings can be a pretty interesting activity. The finalized look of the giant web integrated around the studio was really connected and wound in a creative and beautiful way. It was nice for a change to do such activities that can turn into a group effort. The only thing that wasn't as great about the activity was the clean up, obviously... One thing I would do differently on this kind of project is use less string the next time, the clean up would of been so much easier.

Line... or is it Shape?

1) Which of the images a, b, c, or d are line?
--Mostly A, and B. Though in a way all can be lines, C that seems like a shape can be interpreted as really short and thick line.
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2) Which of the images a, b, c, or d are shapes?
--Again, all can be examples of shape as well as line. A and B may seem more like lines, but the first can be seen as a triangle, and B can be a more swirled creative shape.
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3) What makes a line?
--What makes a line can be the way it is formed to seem infinite, or finite, but doesn't connect to it.
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4) What makes a shape?
--The deference between shapes and lines can be the way shape is whole or is what line can create when lines connect.

Crit# 1

- In this piece, there are a lot of free flowing lines. Among the falling, fluid lines there are seemingly chaotic marks that almost resemble ink splatters. The layering found about the “splatter” marks appear as random spots, dark misting areas and nearly unnoticeable, washed out, short lines. Around the lighter areas of the art reveal sturdy, geometric lines that are on the other hand softer than both the striking, fluid lines and the noticeable dark splatters. Certain flowing lines stand out, because of their orange/brown color, which opposes the overall grayscale theme.

- The work can bring up the feeling that spontaneous efforts overshadow predicted order. Also, the lines that lead through the splatters could represent thriving beings/groups/etc. that experiences its own spontaneous events that sometimes can result to utter destruction.

- Overall, the work seems to be a successful design, which at first might seem unfocused in meaning, but can suggest the audience to create their own interpretations and meaning for it. The lines lead the eye around most of the composition, and at the same time, it takes you back to the darkest splatters dead center of the image.