master of ethos?!

Somebody made up a MLK Jr quote and now it is all over facebook and twitter in one day? If this is true, it is also amazing.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/out-of-osamas-death-a-fake-quotation-is-born/238220/

just a couple flawless remixes

still looking for clips I like. My idea changed a little bit, so I am searching more but finding some beautiful stuff.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: A Drama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcAuFQ42bxg

The Jersey Shore interpreted by the cast of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhk5Rjz7xk0

this is part 1, but I recommend all 5

Enjoy!!

pop art vs. pop imagery

I have pretty much decided that for my final project I will be making a video for my final project to be accompanied by the explanatory paper. I have been researching videos made by multimedia artists, both professional and amateur, throughout the semester. What I find so interesting about the whole topic is that in the art world that is so often consumed with the idea of “genius” or infallible nature of the artist, multimedia artists are working in ways that reject hierarchy and appropriate pop imagery to do so.

I have been working with this idea all semester and realized that I may not have elaborated on the difference between this art and other pop art thoroughly enough.

Lets look at possibly the most famous pop artist shall we?

Andy Warhol

This guy worked almost exclusively in popular imagery. He worked mainly in silk-screening, a printmaking technique that is relatively easy to use, such as the video equipment used by multimedia artists now. The repetition within the works and the way color is applied is treated with a similar silly attitude as the video mash-ups of these contemporary video artists. So then what’s the big deal with these new artists?

The difference is really in context and informality. Even if their work has similar tendencies, the intent of the multimedia artists is to question hierarchy, and with it, the audience’s relationship to the artist. Andy Warhol LOVED being a celebrity and partying with socialites. Artists like Cory Arcangel instead tries to make himself and his work more approachable, offering to answer personal emails, do a show you want to schedule him for, or use the coding he made for his own projects.

The Internet and YouTube play a huge part in this, allowing for wide audiences to see the work and share it. It seems that amateur creators are not threatened by these venues because they know and understand them. And what is so great is that the artists know and understand them in the exact same way.

Please check out this video, its Hennessy Youngman, explaining art concepts insightfully and truthfully, with pretty awesome results.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVFasyCvEOg

transformative schmansformative

While reading the Flegel and Roth reading for tomorrow’s class, I became interested in an idea they mention, that fan fiction allows for the creation of “a complex space in which romantic tropes can be both subverted and perpetuated” (1.4, http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/133/147).

This idea relates to some issues happening in the past month or so, as the Austin art scene has been experiencing some controversy, the beginning of which seems to stem from a programming issue at the exhibition space Arthouse. Artist Michelle Handelman was showing a video piece there entitled Dorian, a cinematic perfume, which reinterpreted Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. The video was essentially a piece dedicated to exposing queer themes in Wilde’s original, and as a result included a considerable amount of same-sex sexual content. The video projection was shut down without the knowledge of the artist during its run, the defense of Arthouse being that it was unsuitable to be shown at certain times, particularly when the institution’s teen programs were taking place.

The event with Arthouse and the class reading led me to think about the trappings of professional institutions, even within a field such as contemporary art, which would typically have fewer qualms supporting work that may be controversial. I started to believe that fan fiction was the ultimate free space, where anyone can post anything and have it be supported by somebody, somewhere, anywhere with an Internet connection.

But even though this fact is incredibly powerful and encouraging for anyone who has a voice and wants to create something that expresses that, it seems that all spaces, whether recognized institutions or fan fiction websites, are still confined by expectations of sexual or gender hierarchy. In the other class reading by Reid, The Hunt for Gollum, the author notes that videos such as the fan-created work named in the essay’s title, are respected for their professional and therefore masculine quality; vids, largely created by women, are still looked down upon as amateur because they do not aspire to be professional, despite still incorporating plenty of time, effort, and imagination to create (3.8, http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/162/123).

In considering this, I have to wonder when or if either field, both known for disregarding the wishes and agendas of authority, can completely subvert romantic tropes and can claim to be completely transformative.

photo still from Handelman’s video (http://www.fluentcollab.org/mbg/index.php/reviews/review/164/327)

Vito Acconci

Vito Acconci’s Seedbed (1972)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seedbed_(performance_piece)

Eva and Franco Mattes (AKA 0100101110101101.org) Synthetic Performance in Second Life, Reenactment of Vito Acconci’s Seedbed (2007)

And then this

 

Keepin’ up with the news

Found this while researching. Clearly, I am learning a lot

http://www.presidency.gov.eg/

No citing your sources necessary, it’s better this way

Art has got to be THE MOST unregulated field in terms of copyright and ownership.

For example, Martin Kippenberger’s Model Interconti. The tabletop is a painting Kippenberger bought at auction by well-known artist Gerhard Richter.

Then there is the repurposing of a Willem de Kooning drawing, called Erased de Kooning by Robert Rauschenberg.

I like it better this way, it keeps competition up. Idea stealing is expected. If someone uses your idea better than you, it’s time to get smarter.

OH! Another fun example of defying the system, first introduced to me by Carrie Lambert-Beatty (a terrific speaker interested in all things art, activism, and cheating), is by the artist group WochenKlausur, who got 7 refugees into Austria by having them documented as “artists”, a profession that has no quota limit in immigration policy.

I can highly recommend you read her work here, if you are interested http://www.contemporaryfeminism.com/Lambert_Beatty.pdf

Also, she is speaking here for Viewpoint this year, so here’s my plug http://www.finearts.utexas.edu/aah/studio_art/special_programs/viewpoint/index.cfm

EDIT: I accidentally just liked my own post. I mean, I DO like it, but not that much

HOLOGRAMS

I suppose this goes along with the Star Trek theme of class today…

 

So today for my installation art class, we took a field trip to Zebra Imaging and spoke with Mark Holzbach, the company’s CTO, about their incredible 3D Holograms.

Transforming imagery and how we view it for sure, WITHOUT dumb 3D glasses.

To become a transformed work when I can someday get my hands on it for a project. Too bad each panel costs a couple thousand dollars…..

it’s not as great as in person, but you kind of get the idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp7BP00LuA4

p.s. YES, they are working on video capability, televisions, etc. When I asked him about their timeline, he told me that they are hoping to premiere the first of it in a few years.

Cool, no?

loving argument… via what I already love

It feels wrong to start this, diving into what I hope will be some sort of honest and personal reaction to the readings/class, without some minimal introduction of myself and what’s important to me.

As a student I’m thinking about how this class will be useful to me as something that is part of my general education requirements. I’m an art major here, so I find that I am particularly interested in the visual or other sensory capacities that writing and argument have. Beyond my label as a student, I have a continued interest in how argument and writing can affect emotion and ideally be used regularly, and eventually expertly, in interaction with the people in my life.

The first bit of text that resonated with me from chapter 1 of Everything is an Argument was the bit entitled “Arguments to Explore”. The examples used in this section indicate the importance of reflection and pondering of ideas. This, in combination with a section that soon followed called “Argument to Meditate or Pray” emphasize the importance of a slower, possibly more thoughtful, and deeper analysis of ideas that are important to us. I find this particularly interesting in that it reminds me of the ways I go about making a sculpture or painting in the planning, making, and critiquing stages. I know that within the tactile work I make, I enjoy keeping my intentions vague enough so that multiple valid and meaningful interpretations can be made by people other than myself. Therefore, the work becomes greater than anything I could have ever made on my own. I am wondering (hoping?) that this could be something I could achieve in writing this semester. In keeping with the visual part of this blog, here are some pictures of one of my newest sculptures,  I only remember the good parts.

While I have my own intentions in this piece, for example, the existence of both the good and bad/beautiful and terrifying/intriguing and repulsing, it can still be anonymus and evocative of emotion for a viewer who has no knowledge of what my intentions are. Can I achieve the same kind of ambiguity in writing? I don’t know. I feel like the only way to write a successful paper is to be clear… but maybe there is another way? I have no idea, but I would like to.

Other than all the art related thinking, I’m interested in the emotional pull of argument in particular. Always the most vivid example for me is sports fiction, like Friday Night Lights when Coach Taylor makes some awesome speech and I’m bawling after his minute long monologue. How can the show’s writing turn me into a crybaby so fast?! It would be pretty awesome to have that power. Teach me how?