MicroProject 4

For this project I chose 'my' parking spot on WC.  This picture has dual meaning as I park in the exact same spot nearly everyday and between work and leisure activities I spend a large amount of time in the truck; referred to as my second home.  I attempted to interact with the truck and parking lot through a close up of the truck's point of view and the tree I park in front of, a close up of the boundaries that are the white lines in the lot and my silent rebellion against conformity as I am parked on the lines on the other side of the spot, and a far away image as I was standing in the bus stop hut with all the other cars blurred out. Lastly, the background is the asphalt zoomed in so I as to highlight the grain, texture, and randomness of the material that we all seem to overlook.  I want the viewer to see the parking lot differently, it isn't just the purpose-driven section of earth where we've leveled the trees and ruined the environment.  The parking lot is a second home for our vehicles, an extension and part of ourselves so to speak as we depend on them for transportation, work, and play.  From a humorous perspective, maybe even think about parking your cars near the fresh grass, the flower pots, or the trees; I wouldn't want to sit in a scorching parking lot all day and stare up another car's bumper... would you?

Response to Kaprow

I'll just start off by saying it took me three re-reads to even figure out what Kaprow was saying.. and I'm still not entirely sure I have it right.  I understand the perspective he makes in regards to trying to distinguish what is art, what is life, and how one goes about deciding what goes in which category and those that are both.  His narrative about how Duchamp ironically placed a physical limit on art, the mode of self expression and personal opinion, supports his following paragraph about how the watching of his elbow in the mirror counts as a form of art.  As Kaprow continues, I found his thoughts on our attempts at differentiating ourselves and how we all appear dissimilar despite our similarities. This is shown when he proclaims "An unremarkable picture of myself was beginning to surface, an image I'd created but never examined".

I'm not sure if it's due to the lack of a creative side that has been suppressed by 4 years of business schooling and exceptionally black and white technical training in regards to engines, but I found this article to be the hardest one to effectively comprehend so far this quarter.

Micro Project 3

Cricket Ball and Collingwood footy - I chose to show both of these as they represent the interaction I had with family as a young child.  We would spend entire weekends enjoying each other's company.  When I get homesick I often sit in my office chair and roll the 7 pound leather cricket ball around my desk.

Family, Childhood
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Mission street hockey skates - For me, these skates were the sign that I had finally achieved proficiency and began playing in the varsity tournament.  I played our entire season in them and we took third in the league; an accomplishment as we were predicted as bottom of the pile at season start.

Success, Perseverance 
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 MSR dirtbike helmet - This is my newest helmet purchased this spring.  For me, dirtbikes have been around my entire life ever since my uncle propped his up against the shed so I could climb up on to it and ride off when Mum wasn't looking.  Now in the everyday bustle and hectic schedules, taking a break from the world and riding off into the woods or racing with mates is my main sanctuary. This helmet has saved my skull from getting crushed as I am unable to take a picture of my bike as she is in the shop.

Peace, Adrenaline
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Bullets - I have a rural Australian upbringing on a cattle island, and as such firearms were prolific and therefore an everyday norm.  As I grew in both size and experience, my collection has expanded and I  have to come to respect and treasure them.  They also symbolize independence and ability to provide a blanket of security for loved ones and myself. (Used bullets to represent my guns for both privacy and not disturbing the peace in class)

Protection, Manhood
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Air Impact Gun and Magnum Logo - I have been told by family that I would crawl under the trucks and tractors with my grandpas and uncles long before I would play with the plethora of toys in my crib.  There is something amazing about a relationship with a bike/car/truck.  For me, I don't see them as inanimate objects; they feel, they talk, they hurt, and they give back to those that take care of them.  This impact is my primary tool of choice and the logo is adorning my truck.

Non-rationale affection, Smiles
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This Blog - This blog shows my identity through my interests and pursuits.  In attempt to view it from a 3rd party perspective, I assume it shows how I seem to favor the tangible and definite more then abstract (this is most certainly true), no fear of becoming involved and working with my hands, yet in retrospect it is decidedly lacking in regards to my education. What this blog lacks is the 'gray' side of my nature, outside of the everythingisblackandwhite mode I seem to enter at times,  this simple JPEG can't reveal how I can spend hours on the bow of a fishing vessel in Bass Strait doing nothing more then soaking in the natural show that is the dolphins in the wake or the seagulls dancing in the air.  It can't show me laying on a ATV in the middle of an open field, watching the clouds roll by while listening to the Kookaburras in the gum trees.

Feet in Smoke

I found Sullivan's "Feet in Smoke" to be a representation of the challenges in life and the difficulties we have in communication amongst ourselves as seen in the difficulties that Worth receives and overcomes in his post microphone shock experience.  Sullivan uses humor and the ending with a positive tale of full recovery to have the reader focus on Worth's condition without openly revealing the deep and painful struggle he faces.  My favorite parts of this are the episode Worth has where he comes to life on the bed, only to fall back to the embrace of unconsciousness but not before John sees the eyes of madman.   Also, I physically started laughing as Sullivan narrated that antics of Worth in the hospital after he rejoins the land of the living.

For this story I had no storyline comprehension issues, the only minor point I had an issue with involved the medical terminology, specifically "asystole", and a little outside reading was required. 

MicroProject 2

For the map of my journey to class, I first thought of the real-world map layout.  From there I would base my work of geographic positioning and locations that accompanied my morning commute.  However, during the process of taking pictures I realized something; I don't really pay attention to what is outside the truck windows.  Consciously I am aware of 161, 270, 315, and finally Lane Ave exit ramp but as for the details I am oblivious.  Therefore I decided to construct my journey map around the two main areas of realization and their scale.  It goes Western style left to right, with the left in high opacity to represent that bleary-eyed morning perspective.  The breakfast stool, pan, and orange juice containing fridge are my AM focal points.  From there I work to the garage, where the pictures and my eyes began to come further into focus, but not yet all the way.  As I open the door I am greeted by my ever present dirtbike helmet as backseat passenger and the gauges, ready and waiting for ignition and to come to life. 

The journey itself becomes of background importance and it overtaken by the recognition of destination points; the stadium, walk up the Welcome steps, and finally the directional arrow directing the path to ArtEd252.  While I am irritated that I lack the imaging skills to create on screen what I see in mind, this picture is as best as I am able to portray my morning commute.

Micro 1

Person and surroundings

 Radial

 Person up close

 Bird's eye

 Ant perspective

 Stable

 Symmetrical

 Asymmetrical

 Unstable

My name on campus

I found that compared to the first photo assignment, there was much more conscious thought as to what I was taking photos of and how I had to utilize the surrounding environment (friend's hoodie, brother's index card pyramid, elevation, etc.) to achieve the goals outlined in the assignment.  This left the difference between the first and second photo assignment to be in the premeditated thoughts before snapping the picture while leaving the actual act of taking a photo unchanged.  My favorite parts of the process for this assignment was looking for settings that had been naturally set up without any involvement on my part, required that much more conscious effort into my work and I found myself enjoying it as a challenge.  My favorite pictures were my brother's unstable card pyramid, my friend in a non pose picture just enjoying an afternoon, and a picture of a hoodie with Ohio State on it as I feel that as students we have entered into a relationship with the university and their name and ours are now associated for life and we describe each other. 

Wexner Center

Wednesday after class I went with a classmate to tour through the exhibition of David Smith.  As a 'gearhead', I found the use of metal and the industrial nature of his works to be very interesting and pleasing for the most part.  My favorite pieces were large in nature and involved bare stainless steel where Smith had taken some sort of abrasion wheel and scoured the metal surface.  At first I thought it rather stupid, but as I walked around the piece I found that the reflections seemed to move in a non-predictable oscillating pattern and in a fashion follow my eyes around the piece. 

As a whole I enjoyed Smith's exhibition, the only things I felt were out of place involved the canvas paint-spatter works that he created.  They seemed out of place in the hard, tactile company of the metal structures but as we were informed this exhibition is by no means an inclusive display of his work and therefore I can only speculate what techniques dominated his works.  

Picture Upload

Response to Nipple Jesus

The story comes across as a summary of the changing of individual's viewpoints as decided by their involvement, or lack thereof, with a certain topic or focus and how others can affect that positioning.  I found Dave's story from big, beastly, tattooed bouncer to art gallery guard as a parallel journey for him physically as to his mental shift from the Nipple Jesus being a work of art, to a disgusting and offensive piece of pornographic media based crap, to once again being beautiful in its existence. 

My main difficulty with the story was what exactly was the main focus of Hornby.  Was it the perspective of the art for Dave, how it caused him to delve in to the consideration of his past and how family affected his life choices, or how he took a self-motivated journey away from the dangerous bouncer scene to that of a guard and the result of his actions?  I want to say that it is the culmination of each of these 'mini journeys' but I'm not entirely sure. 

Response to Walker and Barret

Walker

In Big Ideas and Art Making, Walker discusses how art is an extension of the artists themselves and how they/we use art to actually ask and unearth more questions then answers. The way in which he talked about how the questions that owe their existence to art actually go beyond the formal, technical choices that the artists make.  This was in a sense quite revealing to me in that I always looked at art as more of an example of the artists abilities and then considered why they made the decisions they did, whereas after reading this it almost makes the technical decisions be of no consequence in comparison to the message and question the artist is asking.

I found difficult his explanation of the differentiation between theme and big idea.  Using the Robert Motherwell example, Walker talks about how while he had over 100 paintings in which Motherwell depicted death, it was not death but human emotion that was his theme.  To me this seems skewed in the focus of his work.  The only explanation I can think of is that without having knowingly seen any of Motherwell's work, the paintings express the emotions felt by those after the death occurs.

Barret

Being a marketing major, I have spent days of my life going over a broad range of advertisements on a wide selection of mediums.  Barret's differentiation between denotations and connotations was an eye opener for me, instead of merely looking at and advertisement and looking for strengths/weaknesses and judging the applicability of the broadcasted message, I picked up an ad and searched for the denotations and connotations it possessed and was startled to realize things that I had never really 'seen' in them before.

I did have a problem with how the Michael Ray Charles section of the article was handled.  As Barret went on to talk about the examples and forms of denotations and connotations Charles used, it appeared that he didn't even consider the fact that not everyone is as racist and biased as he made them out to be.  This skewing of people's connotations, for me, weakened Charles' efforts at showcasing the perception of African Americans.  I did quite like the art students dissection the Rolling Stones cover, the way they pulled apart the image and broke down what was really being said without being said was excellent.