Video artists

For my Fine Arts 333 class I just did a presentation that required me to look at many different artist, specifically video artist. The first artist that I examined was Ed Emshwiller, a trained painter from the US, experimented with video in his piece called "Sunstone." This piece was very creative and something that I was not expecting. I never real thought of video manipulation as art, but as I examine artists who create some really bizarre pieces, I am starting to appreciate the work that people do with video art. I also examined many video artist like Peter Callas, Steve Hawley. One group in particular that left a big mark on video experimentation was the Vasulka's, which created many different video production pieces as well as new technologies.

FA 103: Project One Progress

My work with the wire is slowly getting to where I want it. This piece is very fun and unique since I have never worked with wire before. Its a heart being stabbed by a blade, and I also want to included ventricles at the top to be more like a real heart. This piece is symbolic for me, since the heart is considered an organ for love and also for pain, which I wanted to portray with the blade. 

The Photograph as Contemporary Art, Introduction, Ch 1-2

In the introduction, the author Cotton mentions that a lot of photographers and their work was intended to be in books and in galleries, which reminds me of a lot of the work done at the gallery on campus(7-8). Usually whenever I leave campus, I always popped my head in the gallery a few times to see the very interesting pieces there, which in fact could be in books one day. On page 22, Cotton mentions a photograph taken by Alfred Stieglitz, which shows Marcel Duchamp's fountain. I have seemed to remember this piece, and in most classes that I have taken, mention this piece, which I can't seem to forget considering how subtle, yet unique it really is because it's just a urinal turned upside down. Reading about Ukrainian artist Oleg Kulik, on page 25 mentions that he does animalistic performance art, and I find that very unique and interesting. When I read that Kulik even acted like an animal and attacked the police, which to me, was something I have ever heard of. But nonetheless, Kulik sought out to do something that wasn't done before, and that's unique in itself. Cotton also mentions Jeff Wall's work "Insomnia" which has a man lying on his kitchen floor as if he is sleeping (50). This photograph is somehow a glimpse of what an insomniac might go through, but to me stands out as a unorthodox photograph that seems plain, bit also has a story behind it.

New Media Artist-Nam June Paik

Currently, for my Fine Arts 332 class, we were asked to choose a new media artist. As I skimmed through the book to find a piece that was interesting, I stumbled upon a piece called "Uncle" by new media artist Nam June Paik. When I saw the piece I was like "what is this?" It was odd but also somewhat cool to me. My first impression of the piece is this attempt of this robotic machine to resemble a human. I also got the impression that this is also a commentary on how much of an impact television has had on American culture as well as other cultural backgrounds. I also think it is also a commentary on how technology, is somehow embedded in each of our lives, that we are some sort of blend of human and cyborg when it comes to how much in contact we are with technology. When this piece was made during 1986, the primary technological devices at the time were probably television and radio, but from a modern point of view, it seems like that that could stand for many modern day electronic devices that we use.

Comments about Helvetica

I was not expecting the video to be all about typography, but overall was very interesting. Now I look at things, especially advertising, a lot differently now because of how the video gave much insight to something that most people don't pay attention to. Before watching the video, I just looked at what I thought were just words, as seen in adverting, but now I see things differently, now I am a little more conscious about the many different fonts used besides Helvetica, being one of the most common fonts. The video Helvetica made me think about what fonts to use for project one, since previously, I would have never thought much about fonts, other than the fact that they look different, but the video gave me an insight about how different font usage can really impact a company name or logo.