August 7, 2010... graduated from the VCFA MFA program in Visual Arts with classmates who are the best people imaginable.
...starting a new studio journal blog [post-graduation].
http://workinginthedigitaldivide.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
some installation clarity...
Some great dialogue today, with my artist-teacher, provided some much needed clarity and direction.
For the exterior bench installation, I am going to focus on the installed audio and abandon use of the windows. I feel this is a good decision, as the windows are a distraction from the audio (and the audio experience is the point of this project).
I am very excited about furthering my explorations with audio and collecting more noises.
I already have some very interesting and connective audio "threads" which I am excited about. More posts to come. As always, much more to do.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
installation trials
Sound is the dominant component of this work. Collected social noises flowing over a public space meant to allow a certain degree of introversion and solitude [bench]. For the past several weeks, I've been performing a certain degree of surveillance... collecting a wide variety of public and social noises from places such as: Mall of America, restaurants, grocery store, and amusement park. I am interested in the way in which individuals interact with one another in various public spaces.
In addition to exploring these various social & public noises, I am also working through various sculptural arrangements for the installation. I've been using a variety of collected windows, playing around with lines of sight, placement, and gesture. There is still something lacking in this arrangement. I'm going to print some imagery on mylar to adhere to some of the window glass. I will also be experimenting with materials to create visual distortion. More work. Much more.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
surveillance of a chicago street block- audio_ captured (unedited)
I am currently collecting surveillance-type noises & video which contain evidences of either mass socialization or operational public interactions between individuals. Through trials and reworkings I am now experimenting with collecting noises and audio which contain evidences of mass socialization from public places. Below is a 16 minute track of collected audio from a linear street block in Chicago. This week I will record various interactive noise from restaurants and a mall. Next week I will record airport noise and applause from a performance.
I will then try out this new audio collection with the park bench installation (at a public site) for documentation and critique.
My hopes are to present passerby's with a multi-layered experience of displacement (socially, bodily, spatially) of sensory input and expectations. Through this use of displaced audio (in conjunction with the park bench) those engaged will need to work to reconcile notions of public and private as well as introverted spaces and spaces of surveillance. The windows set into the ground in front of the bench (at varying positions and degrees) are meant to operate as metaphors of social constructs -- as frames or evidences of architecture, community, industry and civilization (in various states of flux, operation, and existence).
I will then try out this new audio collection with the park bench installation (at a public site) for documentation and critique.
My hopes are to present passerby's with a multi-layered experience of displacement (socially, bodily, spatially) of sensory input and expectations. Through this use of displaced audio (in conjunction with the park bench) those engaged will need to work to reconcile notions of public and private as well as introverted spaces and spaces of surveillance. The windows set into the ground in front of the bench (at varying positions and degrees) are meant to operate as metaphors of social constructs -- as frames or evidences of architecture, community, industry and civilization (in various states of flux, operation, and existence).
Monday, April 19, 2010
blubs about Bench [exterior/interior] project
Bench [exterior/interior] is a two part project centered around two site specific architectural fixtures (one inside, one outside) at the Wood Gallery at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Both parts of the work are related in the sense they will both contain at least one window and one bench. In both works the bench operates in a utilitarian manner; as public seating and as positioning mechanism. There is something very public about a bench. No manner where they are installed, people generally feel welcomed to use them. When we sit on benches, we sort of assume their accumulated spaces within our own, creating an instant familiarity which borders on momentary ownership. As passerby's and viewers engage with work (by sitting on the bench), they are presented with multiple rifts with which to seem. The confrontations begin.
The work itself does not rely on the positioning of viewers on benches for operation. What the benches do, is offer viewers alternative experiences to navigate different rifts and antagonisms (for the sake of forming new meanings and associations). As both benches are positioning device within the work, viewers will most likely be looking for visual cues, within their position, as to what they should be looking toward or looking at. For the exterior bench, viewers will look out toward a small gathering of windows coming out of the ground (at varying degrees). The exterior bench will also have a pole mounted speaker set directly behind it, lowly playing sounds of people socializing and laughing in large groups. The windows set into the ground are meant to operate as metaphors of social constructs. Simultaneously, they also operate as metaphors for democracy, industry, and civilization within the displaced setting of sound and exterior public space.
The interior bench will be placed directly in front of one of the gallery's 3 x 20 foot rear-facing windows. Within the window sill will be an etched piece of glass. On the glass will be a projected video of a sequence which illustrates the obscurity of activities which occur within interior spaces. The window in this part of the project works in two ways: as utilitarian framing device (to watch the video), and metaphor for the liminality which exists between culture manifest and culture understood. The video sequence operates as fetishistic documentation of spectatorship as well as trigger in assuming a comfortable distance from culture as spectacle when received through video media.
The work itself does not rely on the positioning of viewers on benches for operation. What the benches do, is offer viewers alternative experiences to navigate different rifts and antagonisms (for the sake of forming new meanings and associations). As both benches are positioning device within the work, viewers will most likely be looking for visual cues, within their position, as to what they should be looking toward or looking at. For the exterior bench, viewers will look out toward a small gathering of windows coming out of the ground (at varying degrees). The exterior bench will also have a pole mounted speaker set directly behind it, lowly playing sounds of people socializing and laughing in large groups. The windows set into the ground are meant to operate as metaphors of social constructs. Simultaneously, they also operate as metaphors for democracy, industry, and civilization within the displaced setting of sound and exterior public space.
The interior bench will be placed directly in front of one of the gallery's 3 x 20 foot rear-facing windows. Within the window sill will be an etched piece of glass. On the glass will be a projected video of a sequence which illustrates the obscurity of activities which occur within interior spaces. The window in this part of the project works in two ways: as utilitarian framing device (to watch the video), and metaphor for the liminality which exists between culture manifest and culture understood. The video sequence operates as fetishistic documentation of spectatorship as well as trigger in assuming a comfortable distance from culture as spectacle when received through video media.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
working plans [bench]
Below is a rough illustration for the upcoming work I will be setting up in Vermont for my graduate exhibition. The plans include an audio track which will run on a loop through an installed outdoor speaker. The bench is a pre-existing public structure outside of the Wood Gallery.
Below is a very rough version of my audio track. I plan to re-record the train noise as well as the crowded room noise for another version. Click play to hear the work in progress.
Throughout the planning process, many ideas have come and gone. Here is one of my favorite mistakes. It is a gaudy interactive intrusion to a public space - obnoxious yes... but changes public space into spectacle, with complications. Difficult to see from the crude illustration, the bench is upholstered with soft red velvet in the sculptural manner of a large peony - petal like. Underneath the bench are installed bird barbs.
Below is a very rough version of my audio track. I plan to re-record the train noise as well as the crowded room noise for another version. Click play to hear the work in progress.
Throughout the planning process, many ideas have come and gone. Here is one of my favorite mistakes. It is a gaudy interactive intrusion to a public space - obnoxious yes... but changes public space into spectacle, with complications. Difficult to see from the crude illustration, the bench is upholstered with soft red velvet in the sculptural manner of a large peony - petal like. Underneath the bench are installed bird barbs.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
architectural fixtures
In the everyday grind and grid of cell phones, www, ipod, digital tv, email, facebook, twitter we are connected more than ever, right? - but at what level and what loss? As human beings we work, play, and dwell among one another within physical spaces, some of which are in nature, others constructed to varying degrees via the disciplines and practices of architecture and construction. I like to think of architecture as an artistic practice which places organizational emphases on the meeting of two needs within society; the physical/spacial and utility/function. Both of which are vital to addressing daily needs of being human and possessing a concrete sense of self. To have no understanding of one's physical or spacial is to be purely metaphysical or metacognitive [which is altogether impossible and it denies us of the physical part of ourselves]. This brings me to wonder about societal utility and function. These words are wholly descriptors of physical tasks. Within a building an elevator is constructed and installed to carry the physical self up and down within an elevated structure. A chair is built and made to provide a comfortable seat for a human body. All things considered, our world is full of historical fixtures and practices to support the needs of the physical self. Why then, are we so incredibly addicted to the new virtual realm of digital, simulation, and virtuoso? What is it satiating within us that is worth the denial of our analog selves?
I'm asking myself these questions as an artist because I'm feeling a loss or void of my physical self and all that is grand about the physical world - anything that is still "real". I'm feeling a need to make work which evokes an appreciation for bodily sense of self. An articulated sense of real vs simulation [in compared to... or perhaps within the context of...].
I'm currently working to alter a window and a bench as a way of working out these issues. This work will also be part of my graduating MFA show. Wish me loads [lots of them] of luck. This is a very tall order.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Some highlights from the residency
Artist in residence lecture by Carlos Motta
http://www.icaphila.org/exhibitions/motta.php
Carlos Motta at ps1 in NY
Guest artist lecture by Lisa Sigal
Lisa Sigal at Whitney Biennal 2008
Faculty workshop (photography and nostalgia) by David Deitcher
Faculty lecture (History of sound art) by Dont Rhine
Faculty lecture by Michael Minneli
Faculty lecture by Mario Ontiveros
http://www.icaphila.org/exhibitions/motta.php
Carlos Motta at ps1 in NYGuest artist lecture by Lisa Sigal
Lisa Sigal at Whitney Biennal 2008Faculty workshop (photography and nostalgia) by David Deitcher
Faculty lecture (History of sound art) by Dont Rhine
Faculty lecture by Michael Minneli
Faculty lecture by Mario Ontiveros
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Final Semester Begins... graduate show approacheth
And so it begins... my final semester, graduate show, process paper. During the last residency, we chose our spaces in the gallery for the upcoming graduate show in August. Space was very limited (due to the fact there are 17 of us).
I chose two small spaces; an unusually tall, old, arched window inside the gallery and a bench which sits in front of a walkway and large fountain directly outside of the gallery main entrance.
For this exhibition, I am interested in exploring the social spaces of introversion and what these spaces represent within the social sphere. I plan to create a series of sculptural, installation works which further explores this notion. Recently, I have come to an awareness of my own introversion. Since coming to this awareness I have become consumed by the constructs which make these spaces manifest and how they operate within culture.
My friend David, loaned me an article which highlights the significance of windows in some historical works of art. I am anxious to read this, as I feel that much of the space we create socially has to do with perceptions.
I chose two small spaces; an unusually tall, old, arched window inside the gallery and a bench which sits in front of a walkway and large fountain directly outside of the gallery main entrance.
For this exhibition, I am interested in exploring the social spaces of introversion and what these spaces represent within the social sphere. I plan to create a series of sculptural, installation works which further explores this notion. Recently, I have come to an awareness of my own introversion. Since coming to this awareness I have become consumed by the constructs which make these spaces manifest and how they operate within culture.
My friend David, loaned me an article which highlights the significance of windows in some historical works of art. I am anxious to read this, as I feel that much of the space we create socially has to do with perceptions.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)