accumulation proposal

My project has changed a lot since day 1. When I first heard about this project, I just thought of something easy to collect and that was soda cans. As I thought about what to make I thought I would just make some kind of representation sculpture of something that could help the environment. I would make that be out of soda cans to juxtapose how cans are usually littered and trashed but could be recycled for something good. As I went through the semester I realized that wasn’t very conceptual and I have become somewhat aware of concept in my artwork now. I don’t need to create work that is so easy to see. It needs to have meaning and people should have to work or use their brains to figure out what I am trying to depict.


For my accumulation project, I decided to do a continuation of my project 3. As I talked about in project 3, I have been doing study on urban sprawl and urban sprawl is pretty unplanned development on the big scale. Urban sprawl is a very big problem when it comes to the environment and I would like to really show how this is a problem. I would also like to make another sculpture to show a possible solution to urban sprawl, one that depict what we call “new urbanism”. This is a place that is has multi use buildings. For instance, one floor is a retail section and the 2nd and 3rd floors are high density housing units/apartments. There will also be single family homes that go in the well designed area, not just in cul-de-sac forms.

general idea of what it could look like, just think about

a couple thousand more cans.

Site: the site I had last time was fairly good because it kind of gave off a gloomy feeling. I think I would love to make this project in a junk yard or a trash dump. This would give the real feeling or mood that I want to convey. I think urban sprawl is nasty and the city would be a much better place if it cleaned up a little bit. As for where I’d put the sculpture of the solution, I think I’d go with a construction site. This would depict the fact that we are starting over and trying to build something new.

Materials: for my sprawl piece, I will have tons of different cans and bottles. This represents the different kinds of buildings that come along with sprawl and they will be separated so you can see the division of the land. I will also have a crap load of cans to represent the problem that I see with it; that it is overcrowded, dirty, and harmful. Unlike my last project, the amount of cans will be overwhelming this way you will feel like you’ve just been hit in the testicles. Its not a good feeling. For my solution piece I will also use cans and bottles to show the different types of buildings, but unlike the sprawl piece, the new urbanist approach integrates the different buildings so there will not be a clear separation. Like the sprawl though, there will be a lot of cans, it will just be more dense and neat to show that there was some thought behind what was happening.

this is the different kinds of materials i will use. notice the different size

of cans, differnet types of cans, and bottles; these will represent the different

types of buildings

Scale: I want these to be massive. I want people to walk around and through these “cities”. It should be experienced so that maybe I can make an impact in other peoples lives. This is a problem, and a big one at that so that it another reason. I really want it to be big so it smacks you in the face and you have to experience it. I want to have thousand of cans for just one sculpture so it is going to be one heck of a process to make this.

how creativity is killing the culture

i dont know if creative people need to be stopped. i think the people who tell people to be creative need to be stopped. if people are truly creative, they will be creative, they will come up with original stuff. most people do what is pushed on them, not what they want to do. in a way people do need to be pushed but if they get pushed and dont change then they arent really wanting to and probably shouldnt be the ones being creative. i think pushing someone a time or two is fine but i dont think everybody needs to push me into doing something i dont really want to do. for instance when melena pushed me to get away from the literal, i didnt really know what to do, but i stuck with it and figured it out, ultimately helping me become more creative. whats crazy about this though is that it makes me think. to be creative, i dont need to be completely innovative, i need to know what ive come from, what my subject is, etc. i need to see what history was like in order to see where i can go. i think that if creativity is grounded in history it can make the culture richer, not kill it. it may even create culture.

planned chaos?

"Planned Chaos?"
6"x48"x36"
aluminum cans

sources for ideas:




urban sprawl: general concepts


marcel duchamp "the fountain"

answers to questions:
the sources will make my ideas richer because i will know more about what it is
the audience would be anyone. i kinda want it to be a learning experience
the audience could walk up to it, walk around it, and get a birds eye view of sprawl
i think photos will be able to show you everything you need to see


i am deciding to major in urban studies and one problem that is always arising is that of urban sprawl. urban sprawl is basically development that is either unplanned or not carefully planned. it is low density development, single family suburban housing, that is usually spread out across the land. it is not very efficient at any means. it has more negative effects than positive ones on things like environment, transportation systems, etc.





i was thinking alot about what to use and in art history we saw works of art by marcel duchamp. he seemed to questions alot of things, for instance what is art?, how do we make art?, is it even something that we make? his piece "the fountain" is a urinal that was flipped upside down and he concidered it art. he even signed it? but it really make you think about art in a different way. he made me want to make something that might not be considered art?




















i chose to use soda cans as my media. first off, because its something that is mass produced and i didnt make, so could that be considered art? i wanted my piece to be one that might not be typical art but got peiople thinking about what art is and what my subject is. secondly i used cans because with sprawl, you usually get these buildings, mainly houses, that basically look the same but have small differences. i call them cookie cutter houses. other than the brand of soda, the cans look the same.





the way i chose to arrange this on the site kinda gives the viewer my attitude toward the subject. since i want to become an architect, i will need to think about originality, plan with the city, and use specific site which is exacty what sprawl doesnt do. i think sprawl is trashy, unorganized, and chaotic; this is why i just dumped the cans everywhere.





i chose to put my piece on a piece of cleared out empty area because that is what sprawl does. the developers bulldoze the land and there is nothing underneath it. sprawl doesnt interact or take the environment into account. it also shows my negative view because there is nothing spectacular about that site. if i were to put it in a place that had green grass or flowers mhy attitude may be a little more cheerful, but thats not my view. the place also helps to achieve my trashy look.








source quotations:


Samuel R. Staley, Ph.D., "The Sprawling of America:In Defense of the Dynamic City", http://www.reason.org/ps251.html#_Toc440269869, april 18, 2008








Bonnie Nobles, class lecture on April 7, 2008

yukinori yanagi

why ants?
is there a theme of nationality?
where is the works viewed?


the first 2 questions show an artistic attitude? the artist's attitude is shown through their work. the answers to these questions show his attitude toward a subject; one of the relationship between animal and person. obviously comparing humans with ant shows that he views us similar in the way we operate as an individual and society. the second is how he shows his view on certain works. what his nationality/identity is or how we as a group of nations are easily toppled by things that shouldnt be able to do so. as an artist the way you create art, what you use to create it, and even who you create it for helps determine the attitude of the artist. i think attitude is created not thought about before it is created; or at least thats how attitude happens to me. its a byproduct of your work.

would the type of ant he used change the meaning?
how about the nationality change the meaning?
would making renderings from an ants eye view help relay a concept?

arnaldo morales

what exactly is his work about?
is his work meant for everyone to view?
where is his stuff meant to be displayed?

morales's pieces are like hoaunted houses. they usually evoke some kind of fear or distress but still people come to see it. they want to experience it because they are curious and if they didnt want to experience it it will "experience them". i really love this people because its truly meant to be viewed by everyone because everyone has fear and no matter if you want to participate in it or not, when you come close enough it comes for you. its crazy how people are attracted to fear like this. most people go see scary movies or haunted houses because maybe they re curious. morales wants you to be subjected to this to learn how people react, to get them interacting with his work, and to get them to communicate with others. his thought is that if you experience violence, you can learn from it and make strides to lessen it.

would his stuff have more meaning if it were placed in violent areas?
would violence be reduced because of it?
would that work for positive aspects of life? will it keep positive things positive or turn them negative?

daniel joseph martinez

is his work aout one races struggle?
is it about social issues?
does he do it to get a rise out of people?

this guy is very interesting. he doesnt just do work for one race or one social order; its about anything that people dont or cant talk about. he says that no matter what the review, if people talk about his work then it is successful. he doesnt think success is in money or fame. i agree with that. i think to be successful, you have to accomplish what you set out to do. if you want to open up unopen issues and you get a rise then you are successful. a good review or a bad one is not a measure of how successful a work is. some people are more about making money or getting fame. they arent successful artists no matter how much they make. i think success is shown by people pushing the envelope and the outcome of that.


can he get more responses out of people or is he done?
is he as rebellious as he thinks he is?
what would happen if he attacked just one issue instead of all issues?

julian laverdiere

are most of his works tributs/memorials?
what is his inspiration?
who does he make his art for?

have you ever been told that artists are dumb or so stoned they have no idea what is going on? i have and i dont like that stereotype and i dont think its true at all. most artists works have complex meaning behind them. julian's art is the same way. he really knows his stuff. he is concerned with imagination, curiosity, and motovation and is inspired by what happens in the past. he takes important events in history that arent really documented and put his imagination to work to show what happened. he makes his works for people to understand what happened and to motivat or encourage them to think about what happened. i really like how he depicted the first attempted trans-atlantic telegraph cable crossing. the f.a.t.a.t.c.c. was one of the monumental events of the communications age, but nobody really knows about it. it actually ended up failing. jullian actually built his sculpture to show the tragedy of this event and make you see what happened, but also to get you to think about how it changed history. he wanted to resurrect the memory of the people who dared to make this invention. in a sense his sculptures are tributes but its not consided one; it is just to make you think and get involved.


would the f.a.t.a.t.c.c. be more justified in some other site?
would it be as effective if it were just a painting?