Guggenheim Visit response

Because I could not go on the class trip to the Dia Beacon, I went to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.  I loved the museum—I had never been before, and it was such an interesting space.  I went to the museum by myself, which is also something I have never done before, and I was able to take my time and appreciate the work more because I was alone.  The exhibits were really interesting and a lot of them were relevant to Digital Imaging.  The Third Mind, American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989, the show that was taking place when I went in March, featured over one hundred different artists, and contemplated how philosophies from the East have influenced art in America.  I thought it was interesting how Asian ideals, especially religious and aesthetic ones, such as minimalism, have influenced American artists for well over a hundred years.

My favorite piece was Teching Hsieh’s “One Year Performance 1980-81”.  I think the reason I was able to appreciate this piece was because I had seen another of his one year performances at the MoMA earlier this semester—not only was I able to compare the two, but I feel like I have a more solid understanding of Hsieh’s work after seeing more than one of them.  Like the piece at the MoMA, this work was about unfolding time, a concept that definitely relates to the Digital Arts.  In this work Hsieh punched a time clock in his studio once every hour of the day for a year, and took a photo after each punch.  Because he was doing this action every hour, he couldn’t leave the studio or sleep for more that 50 minutes at a time, or he would miss the punch for that hour.  For documentation of the project, the museum displayed the photographs from each punch, as well as the time cards from the punching.  These were hung around the walls of the gallery in chronological order, and like his work in the MoMA, the pictures not only demonstrated the passage of time, but they show the repetitiveness of this project in their own repetition.  In addition to the photos was a six-minute long video that showed the artist, with each hour of his time during the year he spent on the project seen in less than one second of video time.  I find Hsieh’s fascination with time and this display of time passing extremely interesting; the documentation of the work through photography and video is how I can most relate the piece to the work we have studied this semester, and were very effective.

Nam June Paik’s “Zen for Film”, another video work I saw, was part of the “New Media Movement”.  On display was an empty film projector as well as a film canister.  The projector is playing, leaving a white square of light on wall.  The idea of this pure white light contrasts with the truth of what the viewer sees—the noisy projector and the dust on the film contrast with this supposedly pure, empty light.

Although there were not a lot of digital works using techniques we have used in class, such as Illustrator or Photoshop, I was still able to relate much of the work to other concepts we have used on our projects, such as composition and mixed medium pieces, and many of the artists used older forms of digital technology, such as video, in their work.

Project 3, Poem Visualization: Project Statement

In my poem visualization I wanted to emphasize the calm tone of Hopler’s poem by using soft images.  I altered the transparency of each picture in order to make the words of the poem stand out more, but also because I believe that it gives the book a softer feel.  Had I left the images at full opacity, the colors would have been very bright, and I felt that bright, vibrant colors would be wrong for this poem that is very soft and quiet.  I also wanted to use simple imagery, which I believe goes with not only the simple descriptions in the poem, but also the simple diction and syntax of Hopler’s voice in the poem.  The images I chose literally illustrate the poem, but they also portray the simplicity of the poem itself in their minimalism.  Although the poem is simple, there is emotion and a deeper theme, and I hope that my images allow the reader to connect to the poem’s emotional content in a visual way. 

To create the images in my book I began with photographs.  I edited each photograph in Photoshop, including cropping, changing brightness and contrast, altering light levels, often adding a filter, and finally editing the transparency of the photograph.  Some photos were more complicated to edit, for example, to create the porch photo I added the light fixture from a separate photo, and then created a spotlight to make it seem as though the light was actually shining from the porch.  For the image of the drain, I had to transform the flowers individually from a separate photo and then add shadows in order to make it appear that they were floating in the water.  After working with each image in Photoshop, I placed them one by one into Illustrator documents.  I then formatted them to the proper size for my book (six by nine inches), and locked them in place.  Once the background was set, I added the text on top.  I did this by typing the poem, and then creating outlines and ungrouping the words so that I could move each letter individually.  I chose to use Myraid Pro font because it is clean and easy to read, but it is also an interesting and modern looking font.  I felt that all I needed to use was one font—there was no need to complicate the poem by using multiple typefaces.

I chose to create a very traditional book because I believe that this simple poem is best illustrated in traditional ways.  If I had chosen to make a very complex book form, with many folds or pop outs I think it would have detracted from the simplicity that makes this poem so effective.  The feeling of quiet and calm that I tried to portray with my images works with the traditional book format.  To construct the book I printed the images on thicker drawing paper.  I cut out the pages to the proper size, then stacked them and glued them together one by one.  I then constructed a cover from Bristol board, and glued that to the binding on the packet of pages.  Finally, I trimmed the cover to the proper size.

Project 3, Poem Visualization: Final Images

Here are three pages from my Poem Visualization book.

Project 2, Self Visualization: Final Image

I could not save a jpeg of the Illustrator file, so here is a photo of the actual project, hanging in Holman.

Word Visualization exercise

Project 3: Poem Visualization

Jay Hopler

OUT OF THESE WOUNDS, THE MOON WILL RISE

Now that the sun has set and the rain has abated,

And every porch light

in the neighborhood is lit,

Maybe we can invent something; I'd like a new

Way of experiencing the world, a way of taking

Into myself the single light shining at the center

Of all things without losing the dense, eccentric

Planets orbiting around it.

 

What you'd like is a more

Attentive lover, I suppose-.  Too bad that slow,

Wet scorch of orange blossoms floating towards

The storm drain is not a vein of stars...we could

Make a wish on one of them; not that we would 

Wish for anything but the impossible.

For my poetry visualization I have chosen this poem by Jay Hopler.  I am a Creative Writing major as well as a Graphic Design major, so this project is very meaningful to me.  I have studied poetry in many classes, so it was interesting to pick a poem that I would respond to visually, rather than for poetic analysis.  I hope that with this project I will be able to capture the emotional weight of this poem.

Project 2 Concept

After speaking with Professor Miller, I've decided to do a collage in the form of a mural for my self-visualization project.  It will be short in height, but long in length, looking like a long, rectangular mural.  The images will be somewhat random, a combination of photos edited in Photoshop and drawings done in Illustrator, all which relate to me or describe me.  Right now I am working on taking photos and editing them, as well as sketching more specific ideas about arranging these items on the mural.

Project 1: Photoshop & Illustrator

Photoshop:



















Illustrator:

Kahlo/Sherman/Xiuwen Comparison

Kahlo:

Sherman:

Xiuwen:

Each of these artists uses her work to make a statement about the portrayal of females in art, and the role of women in society.  The first major difference between these three artists is the medium used in their work.  While Kahlo paints, Sherman uses traditional photography with herself as the subject, and Xiuwen uses altered photographs.  Kahlo's works are truly meant to be self-portraits; they feature her placed in a setting, often with surreal or symbolic backgrounds.  This altered realism was used to express Kahlo's self and her experiences.  Her expression is often intense and serious, and her clothing is ornate.  She looks directly at the speaker, but is usually alone in the work, perhaps showing her feelings of isolation and physical suffering.  Artistically, her work features bold colors and flat shapes; her work is not meant to be realistic, but rather to be symbolic.  Cindy Sherman was doing something different with her work.  Although she too is the central figure in the art, posing in the photographs herself, these works are less about self-portrait and more about the portrayal of females in mass media of the time, especially in film and television.  Sherman placed herself in roles that were typical for women to play, concealing her own identity to make a social commentary.  She questioned stereotypes for women, and played with the idea of what was expected of women at the time, both with this Film Stills series, and with her editorial work.  Finally, Xiuwen is using her work in a more recent time to make a similar social statement as Sherman was.  Her series 'Angel' makes a radical statement about womanhood, pregnancy, and maternity.  This is an especially interesting statement to make because she is a Chinese artist, and the role of females is different in that culture.  As opposed to Kahlo and Sherman's work, the emotion in these pieces is clear.  Where Kahlo and Sherman are the sole figure in most of their work, Xiuwen alters the photographs, repeating the image of the pregnant girl over and over in various positions.  Her work shows the vulnerability and anxiety this girl is feeling, and the viewer understands this emotion, as opposed to Kahlo's work, where the expression is often somber.  Like Kahlo and Sherman, Xiuwen comments on themes of gender and sexuality, and this is what makes the work of these female artists relatable.  Each one comments on a woman's role in art and in society.

Class Exercise

Class Exercise

Project 1 Original Photo

Artists

Jeff Wall

Of these four artists' work, Wall's seems to be the one most concerned with realism.  Each of his images features a scene that could take place on any day, and the artistic alterations made are not used to create a surreal or an eerie tone.  It is difficult to even tell where Wall changed the photograph in many of these works, because they appear to be so natural.  I like these works, especially the ones which capture movement, such as this one, but overall I find them less interesting than the work of the following three artists.

Cindy Sherman

Sherman's photographs feature her posing in varying scenes which may be stills from films.  These black and white photos make a statement about the stereotypical role women played in films during the 50s and 60s.  Because each photo features the artist herself, the angles of the shots are chosen for artistic purposes, and the work comments on society, these were considered highly important pieces of postmodern art.  I appreciate these works not only because of the statement they made about female roles in popular culture, but for their artistic qualities.  

Gregory Crewsdon

There is something cinematic about Crewsdon's work.  Each piece feels as though it might be a still shot from a movie.  The pictures are composed in such a way to evoke a feeling of isolation and fear in the viewer.  Many of the shots feature a strange scene, sometimes one with symbolic human figures or settings, and have been altered to seem eerie and unnatural.  The lighting is an important aspect of the work, and it is used to create these emotional responses in the viewer, for example, this street is dark and foreboding, yet there is an unnatural spotlight on the abandoned car.  While I am not personally drawn to these pieces, I do find them interesting, and I understand the artistic intention behind them.  I think they are successful because they cause the viewer to experience an emotional reaction, and to think about the meaning behind each one.

Teun Hocks

Of the four artists here, Hocks is my favorite.  His work seems to be a response to the Surrealist movement, which I have always loved.  I really appreciate Hocks' unique process of painting with oils on top of an original photograph.  The medium helps to create the whimsical feeling in the pieces- the settings are never realistic because of the soft, painterly tones.  These works also portray emotion; Hocks is seen in each work performing some task, and while the paintings are surreal, there is a relatable human quality in each one, and a sense of humor.  I love the playfulness of the scene here, but I also really enjoy the technical decisions Hocks made, from the softness of the sky to the intriguing shape the poured water creates, to the gentle suggestion of the skyline in the far background.  The playfulness of the subjects in combination with the unique use of materials is what makes Hocks' work so interesting to me.

Inspiration

I have always been inspired by Dali's work, and "Female Figure with Head of Flowers" is one of my favorites.  I find Dali's view of the world extremely interesting; it makes his work imaginative and unique.  Although this is one of his lesser known pieces, I think it really shows his artistic genius- it's a beautiful piece.