human mirror
grocery store musical
suicide jumper
cell phone symphony
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
more on improbable monuments...
Roland Barthes, Roland Barthes, what to say about Roland Barthes...
It's like I'm in his head when I read his words. The way he writes... unstructured and jumbled with no clear beginning or end. Just his thoughts exactly as he's thinking them.
Advertisements and magazine covers are made to draw people in; the image is the selling point. Every color, every shape, every letter is strategically compiled to catch the eye of the passerby. Barthes really felt the need to go way into that. A different and interesting read nonetheless.
Onto the Eiffel Tower.... he talks about it in relation to vision, science, art, architecture, religion... he's everywhere. Still, not much structure in his ideas.... just a cluster of them, seemingly never-ending. Interesting though, how the monument has no physical use. It's just a symbol; something to see. He also discusses the Tower in relation to nature. How it overlooks the city, the mountains, the waters, the forests. One of the major power that the Tower holds is its height; (makes me wonder.... what if there was a monument so tall, it overlooked Earth. A bird's eye view of not only a city.... but an entire world...). His last comments say that the Eiffel Tower does everything. People can use it to think... eat... relax... be separate from the city and look upon it simultaneously. It's pretty magnificent.
I find monuments to be fascinating. They combine architecture with a deep sense of culture. They're truly massive despite the physical size. As Paula discusses in her article, they remind, they warn, and they mark. Their presence is remarkable. When I visited Washington DC, the monuments almost took my breath away. Not only is the architecture amazing, but also the age of the monuments and the immense meaning behind them. The Library of Congress was one of my favorite places to be. The building is so old. The interior was painted entirely by hand. And the documents inside are awesome! One of the most incredible documents I saw was the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. There are ideas written in the margins, and words scratched out. It's a really cool thing to see, the very beginnings of the ideas that built the country we live in today. DC in general... it's a very moving place to be.
It's like I'm in his head when I read his words. The way he writes... unstructured and jumbled with no clear beginning or end. Just his thoughts exactly as he's thinking them.
Advertisements and magazine covers are made to draw people in; the image is the selling point. Every color, every shape, every letter is strategically compiled to catch the eye of the passerby. Barthes really felt the need to go way into that. A different and interesting read nonetheless.
Onto the Eiffel Tower.... he talks about it in relation to vision, science, art, architecture, religion... he's everywhere. Still, not much structure in his ideas.... just a cluster of them, seemingly never-ending. Interesting though, how the monument has no physical use. It's just a symbol; something to see. He also discusses the Tower in relation to nature. How it overlooks the city, the mountains, the waters, the forests. One of the major power that the Tower holds is its height; (makes me wonder.... what if there was a monument so tall, it overlooked Earth. A bird's eye view of not only a city.... but an entire world...). His last comments say that the Eiffel Tower does everything. People can use it to think... eat... relax... be separate from the city and look upon it simultaneously. It's pretty magnificent.
I find monuments to be fascinating. They combine architecture with a deep sense of culture. They're truly massive despite the physical size. As Paula discusses in her article, they remind, they warn, and they mark. Their presence is remarkable. When I visited Washington DC, the monuments almost took my breath away. Not only is the architecture amazing, but also the age of the monuments and the immense meaning behind them. The Library of Congress was one of my favorite places to be. The building is so old. The interior was painted entirely by hand. And the documents inside are awesome! One of the most incredible documents I saw was the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. There are ideas written in the margins, and words scratched out. It's a really cool thing to see, the very beginnings of the ideas that built the country we live in today. DC in general... it's a very moving place to be.
the inside of the Library of Congress:
FDR Memorial Museum:
For my Improbable Monument, I think I will create it as massive as possible. I want it to reach space, and overlook our Earth.
(ideas/research in progress)
COLUMBIA PARIS
"The Bold, The Beautiful"
Paris!
Delicately draped over the Hills,
breathtakingly displayed below the letters that spell
HOLLYWOOD;
in all her remarkable glory.
more on chance... John Cage and the likes
John Cage's 4'33 is really a piece to think about. It's funny because it's so awkward... but that's almost the point. It allows people to enjoy silence. It lets them relax for a bit and open their minds. It provides 4 minutes and 33 seconds of free time... and Cage left it to chance what the audience would do with that time. It is quite the spectacle.
4'33
I had never thought to use chance in art before reading about Cage and his ideas. I always think of art as something you have to put time into brainstorming, designing, and eventually executing. My goal is for my end result to be as close as possible to my original idea. But art isn't perfect. That's what is so beautiful about it. You can work with your "mistakes," you can absolutely digress from your original idea. Chance art is exactly that, but you're working with something you cannot control. So even the artist is surprised with the end result. Awesome.
other artists...
Dove Bradshaw:
4'33
I had never thought to use chance in art before reading about Cage and his ideas. I always think of art as something you have to put time into brainstorming, designing, and eventually executing. My goal is for my end result to be as close as possible to my original idea. But art isn't perfect. That's what is so beautiful about it. You can work with your "mistakes," you can absolutely digress from your original idea. Chance art is exactly that, but you're working with something you cannot control. So even the artist is surprised with the end result. Awesome.
other artists...
Dove Bradshaw:
R A D I O R O C K S 1 9 9 8 - 2 0 0 8
A Limited Edition, 2008, Boxed Edition of 10; Self-published on the occasion of the Radio Rocks exhibition at Larry Becker Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA and Permanent Radio Rock Installation, Bolognano, Italy, beginning in 2006
30 pages, 7 x 5 inch archival inkjet prints of plans and installation shots accompanied with an artist's text and a CD of the portfolio; each page has sounds of radio emissions from Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Earth; housed in a 7 1/2 x 51/2 inch box, wrapped in an inner sleeve
Print version: Edition of 10, see MULTIPLES
Negative Ions I and II, and Salt, Half Heard, in salt boulder and granular form subjected to a slow, steady drip of water, accompanied by a salt work titled, Six Continents, consisting of salt taken from each continent, are represented in a variety of installations, including one in a Rome where the dripping action took place through a square cut between two floors. The text is by the artist, accompanied by reviews and comments by John Cage, Thomas McEvilley, Peter Frank, and Christopher Knight.
Alison Knowles:
In the process of papermaking particularly the shapes formed by the wet pulp as it is left to air dry are respected and become indigenous to the sculpture. In performances I am drawn to objects for their sound. My orchestra consists of beans, toys, papers, and words .... Each instrument comes out of silence, makes its performance, and returns to silence. --Alison Knowles, Statement.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
by the way...
watch the documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop" if you haven't already. It's very cool.
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