Video Project: Mash-up

Artist's Statement

Tis’ the season for some holiday shopping on Black Friday once again.  The one day where people line up hours early to get into stores and bombard the doors once the second hand strikes the hour of admittance.  For my video mash-up  I decided to work with the idea of the Black Friday shopping rush and mixing it with something as high tension and exciting, a horse race.  Many aspects of these two ideas parallel each other, such as the horses out of the gate and the people being let into the stores, the race to be the first horse to cross the finish line and the person to get the first good sale, and the winner’s circle with the happy customers leaving with their purchases.  Black Friday is hyped up for its sales, and who can resist during times when our economy is so low.  I decided to exploit the madness of this shopping day and express how mad it really can get.

Tim Lefens: A.R.T.

Today I went to a lecture presented by Tim Lefens, the creator of the A.R.T. Program.  A.R.T. stands for "artistic realization technologies".  I was first introduced to this program in the course Art for the Exceptional Child, where we learned about art for students with disabilities.  

In this lecture, Lefens spoke about a few of his theories.  many dealing with the way that we as artists live our lives.  

1.  Death Bed Theory:  What painting would you want to view hanging across from your death bed?  Is it something beautiful?  Peaceful?  This made me really connect with what I believe art is.  I have always been a firm believer in creating art for the beauty of it.  As an answer to this, I would like to have a large colorful painting, that would submerge me in its beauty, which is a concept that Lefens spoke of as well.  Losing oneself and letting go of oneself when it comes to creating art.  It should be every artists goal to completely let go and not be held back by anything when it comes to creating. 

2.  Truncated Pyramid Theory:  Over the years we have diminished what "great art" is.  We have cut off the top of the pyramid and the only thing left is the "joke art" according to Lefens.  I feel that this is a bold statement because I feel that many artists still today grab my attention and inspire me through their works.  I can still go into a museum and lose myself in a work of art.  

3.  Double Funnel Theory:  Lefens describes creating art as a double funnel.  One needs to diminish themselves to nothing.  To cramps themselves so when they are completely compressed, they can expand and let go larger than they ever have before.  One needs surprise in order to get the free feeling of a masterpiece, and by letting go to create piece, this can be achieved.  

Lefens states that one cannot be drawn in by anyone or told by another what great art is.  For each person it is different.  Different people are attracted to different things.  We are all individuals.

He then brought all of these theories back to his program of A.R.T.  All of his students are severely limited (quadriplegic) when it comes to mobility, and the use of a laser allows them a sense of freedom.  The smallest movement when the right distance away may create a large motion on the wall.  The ability of choice allows these people freedom, something that they are not always given because of their disability.  

I found this lecture very interesting and very inspiring.  It showed me that I should not be drawn to a certain type of art or to create a certain type of art because that is what is being asked of me.  I need to stay true to my inner artist and create the type of art that I love.  

Tim Lefens wrote the book Flying Colors and also has a website.  Check it out for more information about A.R.T.

Video Projects

So we have been working on a couple of projects using video.  I have never worked in iMovie before and it is very similar in format the the GarageBand program that we used in the previous set of projects.  I think it is a little more complicated however, because not only are you mixing video, you also need to consider the audio as well.

For my first project, a mash-up, I am combining the madness of Black Friday (the busiest shopping day of the year) with a horse race.  There are many correlations between the two ideas, and I am lining up video sequentially.  For instance, the cars pulling into the parking lot and the horses getting prepared.  The people lining up outside of stores and the horses getting corralled into the gate.  The doors opening and the gates opening.  And at last, the mad dash to the good sales with the race for the finish line.

For my second video, I am creating a documentary.  I am using the idea of the sport that I partake in, swimming.  There are many aspects of swimming that are glorified by the many medals that are won by Olympians at the Olympic games.  But what people really do not often realize is the hard work and training that these athletes put in.  As a collegiate athlete, I often find it harder for us because we have a similar training regimen to these elite athletes, however we also have to balance schoolwork in order to participate in our sport.  In my video, I am exploring the feelings of my fellow teammates about the sport as well as using found videos from Olympic swimmers about their training and feelings on the sport.

I look forward to posting the video on here to show my exploration and final product!

Network Publics and a Response to Danah Boyd's Article

For many teens, social networking is a must in order to keep in touch with friends and be able to stay in the social loop.  I find it interesting in the article that it is stated that "Although the luster has since faded and teens are not nearly as infatuated with these sites as they once were, they continue to be an important part of teen social life"(page 1).  I actually believe that these sites are more popular than ever.  Majority of students with access to the internet, have social network sites and I believe it might be rather a normality of daily life which creates this view that the interest is not as high.  It is not a new thing in other words, and because so many people are involved in it, it is not as abnormal and fascinating to explore anymore.

The social networks explored in the article are Myspace, Friendster, Xanga, and Facebook.  All of these sites allow teens to have accessibility to others connected to such networks as themselves.  They are allowed to delve deep into the lives of their peers and search them.
The idea of Network Public was brought up in Boyd's article, and the meaning of this is "a collection of people who may not all know each other but share 'a common understanding of the world, a shared identity, a claim to inclusiveness, a consensus regarding the collective interest.'"

Below are different properties that separate unmediated publics from networked publics,
Persistence: This is the fact that information posted online can be replicated, copied, or reproduced. Enabling communication, but also extending the period of existence of any speech created
Searchability: We may not be able to find one another in a town or state, but by a couple of clicks on a keyboard, a person can be found within seconds. Words or things they may have said can be found just as easily
Replicability: This is similar to Sweeney's article about cloning. Anything in the networks public can be replicated/repeated or copied. It can be made over and over or be used again and again by different individuals
Invisible audiences: This can cover parents, community, administrators, anyone who has access to the internet. It is virtually impossible to know all of those who come across our path online. 

I have been taught throughout my life what is appropriate to put online and what is not.  However, certain sites do not give the option.  Many students have changed their privacy settings so that they are not searchable on search engines such as Google, however on these sites, they are susceptible to searchablility from their peers, who have access to view their network.  I believe that many of these teens do not understand the concept of virtual privacy and many of them find out the hard way through internet bullying.

There is actually an instance that came up in my fieldwork, where a student was threatened via a social network.  These are very serious matters, and as a teacher, is something very important and fragile that we need to pay much attention to.  I feel that it is important to not only teach students the importance of privacy and information that they may reveal on these networks, but also see it as a harmful tool that may increase issues in every day life.
In our fieldwork, Melinda and I are working with the concept of bullying and using websites such as postsecret.com and thebullyproject.com that will help students to see what these ways of networking, although at times very exciting, can also have a dark side.

Presentation Summary

After giving our class a presentation about the topic of "Hybridizing Symbols",  both my partner Melinda DiGiovanna and I felt that overall our presentation was solid.  We created a powerpoint exploring different symbols that our society sees in every day culture and used artists Ryan McGinness and Mambo (Flavian Demarigny) as examples of how symbols can be used in to convey a message in a simple visual fashion.  We felt that both of these artists were strong examples because of their use of symbols in their artwork and the way that they display their artwork.

We began our presentation by asking the audience (our classmates) what different symbols were and why they knew what they stood for.  Working in a simple to more complex fashion seemed to really draw more interest in our topic.
We first used Ryan McGinness's piece "Duality" as an example, and asked audience to look for symbols, then link those symbols to what the meaning of the piece is.

The audience pointed out a number of different symbols represented in this work such as people, handcuffs, holding hands, and intertwining snakes that all represented a connection or a bringing together.

The other artist that we explored was a graffiti artist named Flavian Demarigny, who goes by the alias of Mambo.  We used a piece from an installation assembled in Lyon, France.  Mambo collaborated to create artwork that combined symbols in the form of street signs.  

The audience pointed out a flower, a hazard symbol, as well as the surroundings of where the sign was placed.  All of these details contributed to what the sign might stand for as well as why the artist chose to bring attention to this area.

As an installation, the audience determined that viewing many signs as opposed to just one allowed the viewer to stop and pay attention to their surroundings, or to just play with the idea of signs and how society is so trained to view signs by shape and color, that we often do not even really pay attention to what is depicted.  By creating a play on the normality of street signs, the viewer is tricked to pay more attention to what the signs are saying.

After our presentation, the class evaluated Melinda and I.  We had high ratings for our teacher presence and the engaging quality of our presentation.  Many students wrote that we had great starting questions and really caught the audience's attention with the selection of our artists.  

Most students felt that we did a good job at researching our artists and theme as well.  However, many felt the need for a deeper exploration of the artist's background.  Melinda and I did our best to incorporate enough information while still budgeting our time to explore the theme.  It is amazing how fast 10 minutes goes by!!!

Lastly, was the synthesis of the artists and themes.  Although many loved our choice of artists, many were lost about the theme of hybridizing symbols.  Some students pointed out that our theme would work if we simply switched out hybridizing symbols with recontextualizing symbols to make it more clear.  

Overall, it was a very successful presentation of our artists and a great teaching/learning experience!

Thank you everyone!

PEW Internet Article

This article was very straightforward through its information.  I found myself drawn to the charts that were posted throughout because so much of the information could be compared and analyzed at the same time.  It was interesting to see how each generation associated themselves with the technologies around them.

The older generations tend to use e-mail more than younger generations, I find to be very true.  I feel that personally I communicate more through instant forms of technology such as text messaging or through instant chats.  I noticed a change when I got a phone that I can receive e-mails on, which always allows me to be connected.  I e-mail more often now that I can always have access to it.

The research showed that the younger generations were more involved in technologies by a landslide.  However, in schools, I find that teaching these technologies fall short in the classrooms.  If the majority of students are involved with technology in some way, I think that the curriculum needs to form more toward their interests.  I think that once we can associate education with things that are of interest to the students, students would be more eager to learn.

Update from New Paltz Middle School Fieldwork

The past two weeks at New Paltz Middle School have been quite exciting.  Ms. Sturgis has allowed Melinda and I to really become active in her classroom.  She allows us to work with her students and help out where we can.

Last week, we were there for our first "A" day.  The 6th grade students are working on a self portrait exploration through collage and text.  Students were in the process of cutting out images from magazines, and they were encouraged to lay out their pieces to see how many more images and words were needed to complete the project.
Ms. Sturgis introduced the directions to her first class and asked if Melinda and I would like to introduce the same project to the following two classes.  Melinda and I took the challenge and the students responded really well to our teacher presence.  After working hard for the class periods, the students found it fun to have a little friendly competition during the clean up.
We pointed out what table was doing a great job at cleaning up, and that they were going to get first place.  The other tables around quickly followed the table in the lead and the classroom was clean in no time.  The first table that was seated quietly a their cleaned up table was awarded first place.  The allotted time for cleanup was 5 minutes, and the students scurried to clean up in just 3 minutes.  This was great because Melinda and I wrapped up the day by telling them the next step of the project as well as asking what some students were using in their collages!