kroberts-utcoad2017

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Amazing Things _ 05

While downtown, I visited Professor Mark Stanley’s exhibit. I found the narrative very interesting because it was a combination of concrete facts and fiction. I personally have a difficult time being abstract so seeing his work gives me inspiration to continue to try. I also find it really encouraging to see that several of the pieces within the cases were things that Mark has shown us how to do in our Representation class. He has taught us different skills that he sees as being valuable enough to use in his own work.

Also after reading the display, it made me curious about what aspects of his writing were true and what he made up. So his exhibit was successful in making the viewer question his work as well as look into the history of the area. I had heard of different parts of the Manhattan Project but didn’t realize that it happened at Oak Ridge which I found really interesting.

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Amazing Things _ 04

Recently I visited the Knoxville Museum of Art and toured each section of the building. I saw three exhibits including Virtual Views: Digital Art from the Thoma Foundation, Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in East Tennessee, and Currents: Recent Art from East Tennessee and Beyond. I was most interested in the Currents exhibit because of the variety of mediums used in each piece and the way they were presented. The pieces I found most interesting included Devorah Sperber’s recreation of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and Evan Penny’s self-portrait because they include materials that I wouldn’t usually think of using for art. Penny used his own hair and transplanted each piece, one by one, into dye-painted silicone. He included each scar, blemish, and imperfection creating a very realistic figure. In Sperber’s recreation of the Mona Lisa, she used spools of thread and mirrored and inverted the image forcing the viewer to look through a specially-designed acrylic gazing ball, producing the real image. A third piece I found interesting was Goldenstein’s One Mile. They are abstracted oil paintings of pictures she took on walks through her neighborhood in North Knoxville. From a distance, I thought that they images were photographs, but upon closer inspection, I noticed that they were paintings. From each piece of work, I noticed that attention to detail is what made each one of these so successful. And I’m sure that none of these were exactly how the artist wanted the first time, so patience and iteration is also important.

image :: collage of Sperber’s Mona Lisa, Goldenstein’s One Mile, and Craig Dorety’s Offset Circles - Yellow Flowering Tree Against Blue Sky

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observations:

- section drawing

- use of light & shadow // shows depth

- texture enhances the image

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observations:

- the children are innocent and seem oblivious to what is going on around them

- WWII England

- ironic / they almost look like they’re playing while there is war going on around them

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[04] - - New Norms – We can never be enslaved by the ordinary. Design must strive to go beyond the everyday or that which is considered a norm.

              I think this problem of conforming is a problem within design, but I also think it goes much farther beyond. Within design, it’s easy to see how conforming to the norm is such a popular thing because as a style or trend emerges, it’s suddenly everywhere and that’s all you see. But what if instead of just copying that style, you only steal one aspect of it and steal different components from several other sources? Then you have your own unique style and it keeps the creativity flowing.

              I know that when I create something, it’s very easy to find something that I don’t like about it and I automatically look to people who are doing similar things as me. The temptation is always there to just do the task in the same manner they are, but I’m getting into the habit of critically thinking about what I like and dislike about theirs, and stealing from the good. If there is one thing that I have learned in design school, it has been to think critically about how I feel about things instead of just acknowledging my feeling and then moving on. I’m getting better at creating new norms.

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By examining artists that use different types of collage, it made me ask myself why I don’t use it more often. It’s an excellent and efficient way to convey multiple ideas at once and provide a unique representation of a project. Using techniques similar to Hannah Hoch, the artist can distort reality or bring the attention to a specific aspect of the work. Using similar styles to Christo and Jeanne-Claude can provide a viewer with multiple views or types of drawing in one drawing.

Collages similar to those of David Hockney can show the viewer the immense detail found in a photograph by using many smaller images. The portrait of his mother is an excellent example of his attention to small details. With Hockney’s transition into moving pictures, it poses the question as to which is better: still or moving pictures? With enough still images, you can capture all of the detail that can be shown through moving images so I believe that still images are equally or more valuable than moving images. I think another lesson to be learned from Hockney is that you can find inspiration in the most simple and unusual things such as tarot cards.

Using technique similar to that of James Corner and Bob McClain’s Hoover Dam drawing can provide immense amounts of information and would be an excellent method of representation for project proposals. Josef Koudelka’s Prague illustrates an interesting way to show a place in an exact moment and state of being.

By using collage in these ways, it gives the artist or creator several unique methods to portray their ideas. I felt that by studying each one of these artists, I found something that I can steal and use in my own future works.

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observations:

- abstract

- controlled lines // feathering 

- two black lines / accidental or intentional?

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observations:

- contrast between new and old (car vs building)

- collage/montage

- obvious vertical and horizontal axes

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-        Many of the lines tend to overlap in the center, creating thicker, darker,      lines

-        The left page looks like it could be iterations of the “final” on the right

-        Bild à German publication?

-        Dark cross at the center

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“The computer is the dumbest thing in the room.” With the amount of emphasis and regard we give to technology, sometimes it is easy to forget that this statement is true. The computer does not have the capability to think on its own and come up with new ideas. We, as humans, have this privilege. We are the ones that created the computer and all of the different miniscule components and programmed it to function the way it does. Many see the computer and technology in general as a corrective tool for when we make errors, but this type of thinking could potentially hinder future advancements and creativity. A computer can only be programmed to do so much whereas our minds have no limits. When we finally begin to see the computer as just a tool for enhancing our ideas instead of being the generator for ideas, the opportunities are endless. Once we abandon the notion that computers are essential, our work can be liberated from the computer’s programming and can grow into its full potential. When we realize that we are the smartest ones in the room, we can utilize each other’s minds to help advance the technology even more.

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When it comes to representing objects and other things, we must assume that the viewer does not understand. To us, they are illiterate. This is why, as the viewer, it is essential to understand symbolism and what it means to combine certain signs. For example, in Fra Filippo Lippi’s Annunciation, the white lily holds several different meanings. As a whole, the lily can represent birth or chastity. One wives tale claims that if you present a pregnant woman with a rose and a lily, if they choose the lily, the baby will be a boy and if they pick the rose, the baby will be a girl. Not only does the lily as a whole have a meaning, but the individual parts hold their own meaning as well. The petals represent purity, the stem represents a religiously faithful mind, and the color, white, also represents purity. Grass represents something completely different than what its actual purpose is. Lawns were originally used leading up to French and English castles. They were open areas that provided soldiers a clear view to efficiently protect the castle. Now, they are just seen as another means of comparison between neighbors. As designers, it is important to understand that we have a power and privilege to show stories and ideas to people who are illiterate in art and design. “Representation is a loaded word. It is the re-presentation of something else.”

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observations:

- the center column, as well as the lighting, make it seem like the people are in two separate rooms.

- The angel (Gabriel) almost seems lie he is bowing to the woman (Mary)

- White lily represents purity

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Captured by her lecture, I hung on every word of Diane Fox’s presentation. Her UnNatural History series amazed me; she was able to encapsulate exhibits that might not receive more than a second’s glance in such an interesting and captivating way. She brought dead things back to life. Through her lecture, I gained a new perspective on how I can treat photography and a greater appreciation of her own work.

 One of my favorite photographs was “Poached.” I appreciated how the Naturhistorisches Museum in Bern, Switzerland  treated the rhinoceros exhibit and used it to bring about awareness to the issue of rhinos being poached for their horns. I also appreciated that Diane used the exhibit to do the same thing. Within the exhibit I love the contrast between real and fake. The painted background versus the plants in the foreground; the rhinoceros’s body versus the fake, wooden horns.  Another part of the presentation that I enjoyed was the series of portraits. It truly seemed to bring the animals to life and captured their expressions.

 A major lesson that I took away from the lecture was to capture everything. Even the smallest and seemingly mundane details of any day or event can be captured in a beautiful way. The things that seem to “ruin” a photo can make it that much more interesting. The reflection on the glass in some of Diane’s earlier photos could have been seen as problematic and unwanted, but since she saw it as something more, it inspired an entire, very successful, series of photographs.

 Through the lecture, I was able to understand a brief history behind natural history exhibits, Diane’s method for how she takes her photographs, and gain a new outlook on how I can treat my own photography.

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through the lens

window to my world

my outlook

from up high

a cyclorama

orange city

abandoned

trapped behind the bars

forgotten

opened. closed.

antique privacy

protection

oculi

elaborate rifts

subtle glow

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aperture -- a space through which light passes in an optical or photographic instrument, especially the variable opening by which light enters a camera.

7:27 am – Light floods through the aperture in my wall, illuminating my room and the apertures in my head. I rise from my bed and begin my day as the light continues rushing in, increasing in brightness as the minutes come and go. My roommate sleepily reaches up to the blinds, twists the rod and decreases the size of the aperture. Only a small sliver of light reaches through the glass, resting on the floor.

12:00 pm – Even in the darkest room I can find, with only a small window, the miniscule amount of light coming in still manages to illuminate the room because the light will always overcome the darkness. Walking from the dark into the brightness of the day, the irises of my eyes expand and contract, desperately trying to adjust to the insane level of change in brightness of the space around me.

11:59 pm – Through the wide-open window, the glow of the streetlights reflecting off the wet pavement still won’t reach far into the aperture in my wall. The apertures in my head completely close until the sun rises again.

Simple apertures such as the window in my room don’t typically lend themselves to exciting conversations. But on occasion, they provide a few surprises such as a construction worker hammering and drilling at six in the morning. Or as a curious child, the simple window in the room above our garage proved to be the most interesting. It gave me a position of power and kept me hidden away from the neighbors moving in across the street. Perhaps, looking at it years later, that window would have been more appropriate as a peephole. It is interesting to see what kind of conversations windows and other such apertures do, or don’t, start.

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5 Amazing Things

Last week, I went to a showing of “Miss Representation” in Hodges Library. This documentary shines a light on how women are represented in the media and some statistics to back up their findings. As a woman, I was aware of the topics brought up in the film but I found many of the statistics shocking.

For starters, the average person spends 10 hours and 45 minutes per day behind a screen. During this time, they are bombarded with hundreds and thousands of images and sound clips. Through different advertisements and images, both men and women are subjected to viewing the physical standards that have been set for women.  Children learn from a young age what the media expects women to look like whether it’s from playing with Barbie dolls or seeing the covers of magazines in the checkout line in the grocery store. Because this image is engraved in their minds from a young age, many girls and women who do not have the “perfect” body turn to self-harm. 65% of women have had eating disorders at some point in their life.

Only 67 of the 196 countries in the world have had a female president or prime minister and only 16% of the protagonists in movies are women. This lack of powerful female role models will keep the rates of women in power low because “you can’t be what you can’t see.” Women are portrayed in the media to be without efficacy leaving many feeling that their voices do not matter. Because of this, many women do not run for office or other positions of power.

A few of the more common stereotypes that are portrayed in movies include the bitchy boss; a woman relying on a man for love, marriage or kids; or the emotional and unstable woman. Many men seem to believe that once a woman has children that she has no place in the workforce yet 70% of the women in the workforce are mothers.

Hopefully as more people see this film, it will change the hearts, minds, and attitudes of those who see it. I can only hope that the men will change the way they treat women and that women will stop accepting anything less than what they deserve.

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5 Amazing Things

The most recent exhibition in the Ewing Gallery was composed of an assortment of student work from within the art and architecture building. When I was walking through the gallery I felt inspired by much of the work. There were several pieces that I could have envisioned in different art museums or galleries at a higher prestige. It is strange to think that these people are my peers because I think of great artists as elderly or middle-aged men and women, not college students. It also made me more confident in my own work because it reminded me that my age has nothing to do with how successfully I can create art.

 Some of the stuff I saw was just plain weird. But even though it was weird and not necessarily something I would look at on my own didn’t mean that I didn’t appreciate it. One of the things I love most about our building is that there are so many different styles and backgrounds and that makes it easy to appreciate different kinds of art. Not only does it make it easy to appreciate different art, it also gives me confidence and encourages me to try different medias and techniques.

 Getting to view and experience other student work was also very eye-opening for me. I have realized that many people use their artwork to show their stance on politics or to share some kind of story. By looking at some of this featured work, it opened my eyes that I, and anyone else, can do the exact same thing. Everyone has beliefs and everyone has some sort of story to tell, and by using art in some way, it can do that story or those beliefs justice when words can’t describe it.