Boogity Boogity

So I guess I never said why we were working with felt anyway. It was to make these interesting mask and alter egos for ourselves.

I chose something of an Anti-Hero, for as much as I try to stay the ever positive one, I have strong convitions deep down.




Working with the felt was an immense challenge for me. I think it was mainly because I became impatient and did not put enough layers on the material. Or it was mainly because I put far too much water on it and had to spend the better part of two days drying it out. It was just mainly a mess, that I stayed up a good few late nights to fix.



Crit turned out okay though, and people kind of understood what I was going for. I feel really bad though, because I think it could have been great, and could still be great. It would just take a lot of extra tailoring...

The Fruit of Naked Sheep

Felting is weird.

I guess I hadn't given much though as to how this process was done by hand before, though I knew there was a strong craft and skill to it.

In my first attempt, I don't seem to have much control over it. We'll see if that changes a bit over time.

Bustering

So we were able to take a field trip to the Frye to see the exhibit on Buster Simpson. He's an extremely fascinating guy, with a large body of work. I know we were there mostly to learn about his interventions even though there was a lot of gallery work.



I particularly enjoyed his Hudson River Purge, wherein he threw in limestone antacids for the bay, neutralizing it's acidic Ph balance. It's very humorous and I think that it is a quite successful intervention that bring your attention to the environmental problems of the modern world. Seeing the video as a projection, almost an animated gif, worked well for the gallery and makes it almost never ending.

Busters' Woodman, the man walking with sticks, didn't appeal to everyone, but I get it. Here's a guy actively struggling with his task and he is pretty much being ignored wholesale. I feel like I do that a lot, in regards to seeing people struggling with their loads, be they homeless or not. I feel guilty on many an occasion, since I think I could help, but I suppose the problem is that once you start helping, people kind of expect you to help whenever they need it, which can be troublesome for you.

I am getting off topic somewhat though. The trip was very enlightening, and while it is still kind of tough to make those distinctions between performance art and social practice, seeing Buster Simpson's work does solidify some of the ideas we should be thinking about.

Complaint Choir (part 2)

The second part of our complaining exercise was to take other peoples clips and intermix them into something interesting. The class seemed to like mine. I feel it was just a few seconds too long but I liked messing about in final cut pro. Take a look and see what you think!

Spend the Hours, Talking, talking

We're doing interviews. The first was with my mom. It was a bit strange, talking to her so formally with structured questions, but we got through it. I asked her things about animation, which she knows some about but not nearly as much as me.


The next was going on the beat with a couple classmates of mine. Here's an edited clip of the interview with guy we ended up talking with. He was really cool and receptive.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B10mTUG-8vFIYlRIOUVyNHZRMzA/edit?usp=sharing

Complaint Choir ( part 1)

So this project is a beautiful thing where a ton of citizens sing harmoniously about their issues.



We've been asked to make 10 complaints about whatever, hopefully about local or student based issues. I don't really like to complain so this is tough for me!



Just went for a general Youtube quick cut kind of thing. I hope that it is entertaining despite my bitching =P

Of Hangers and the Shirts that Wear Them

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't hopping back onto this blog because of my current Art class requiring some kind of online diary. However, that doesn't mean I can't make the most of it.


So my first project for my Sculpture class was to take a shirt and transform it into something sculpturally interesting. We started with a group project, and my partner and I came up with this little thing.

By little, I mean it's actually pretty large. About 3 feet tall, transformed by  wood plank and some rubber bands. We did this in under 20 minutes in fact, and I think it was quite successful.




When asked to come up with something else in my own time using more sewing skills, I struggled to come up with an idea I loved. I'm not super familiar with 3D art, and sometimes it takes me a while to wrap my head around it.

Once I bit the bullet and actually got to making, I found some coat hangers( I bought them in excess in preparation for my move into my new apartment). I was curious how I could  cut them up to make a neat structure that the shirt could then wrap around.

The coat hangers themselves ended up pretty compelling, but I could not find a way to cut up and wrap the shirt around it in a way I was happy with, be it due to my lack of skills or time (probably a little of both!). I'd like to revisit the project again at some point, as I feel my end result did not bring out the potential of what it could be.

The year is 2013, things have changed.

Okay well, maybe just things besides my affinity for bad media. But honestly, there's a lot of stuff out there now!

It's pretty exhausting when you try to think about it. In fact, there have been studies saying that those without all this social media hulabaloo are a bit happier! When I read that, I feel a little responsible. 

See, when I was in junior high I decided to be a typical misanthrope and live my life online. I was pretty active in message boards, making lots of online friends at the time. I have always thought of Facebook and the like as a message board but for your friends in the physical world. Now it seems that everyone is living the digital way first and their real life and real conversations are becoming a lot harder for them to enact.

I also feel jipped! I worked really hard to get out of being so uncommunicative and made sure I could converse really well. Was that time wasted? Should I have spent it learning how to text faster instead? I wouldn't doubt that that has become a desirable job skill.

Anyway, I have just been trying to make sense of it all and get back into it somehow. I suppose putting a lot of work into a written blogpost that I wouldn't get much for didn't appeal to me. Also how does one compartmentalize? I mean if I want to do some varied things should I start a different blog for each? I have trouble finding my own keys sometimes, how can I expect myself to keep up with 2 blogs? 

This online world is constantly evolving. Who knows if these networks will last. I've always liked blogger though, since it allows for long form posts and interesting discussion, so that is where I'll try and get back into this.

Sightseeing

So we had an assignment to find one place we were familiar with, and another that we knew but always wanted to find out more about. The familiar place for me was UW's Odegard Library where I have spent many a late night on an assignment. But man, I knew so little of the Hub, our recreational center.

There are game consoles and Bowling alleys down there?! Guess I know what my tuition is paying for. Too bad I probably won't get the free time to use them. My partner had been there a lot, so I think it amused him to see me so amazed and interested in it all. We then got to show off our areas and there were some pretty neat things to see, like this secret harp practice room.

It pretty astounding to see all the little nooks and crannies of the campus that I miss durig the basic commute from one class to the other. I wonder if we'll get to do more of this.