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?

accumulation 4/25

i have finally realized what i want to do. my minor has is urban studies. one thing we study is urban sprawl. basically it is unplanned growth. people just build and have no plan for what is going on. my project is still going to be about the environmetn like i wanted but its a lot more than my original idea of doing another symbol.

pollen

i thought trying to accumulate soda cans was a pain in the butt. i would hate trying to work with pollen. this is exactly what wolfgang laib does. he collects pollen for years and makes sculptures out of it. he also uses rice, beeswax, sunflower oil, etc. trying to collect large amounts of things can be frustrating, especially when you have no control over how much you get. his works take time to make. im not that patient. i get an idea and i have to go work on it immediately. i really respect the patience he has in order to make it. it also has an affect on how his work is viewed. when i first saw it, i was like thats dumb but as i read and found out it was pollen i was like holy crap that is crazy. it put into perspective how hard it must have been to do that. and that to me is what is interesting.

unconventional

this class has seemed to get me to transform things and use them as the shouldnt be used. john bisbee seems to do that well. he dumped a bucket of rusted nails out only to realized the nails had rusted together and formd something totally different. so he ended up using this concept to make his art. he welded, hammered, and bent nails to create his works. some abstract and some recognizable. point is he used an unconventional media to create his work. i kinda like it. i like it more for the process though. i understand how hard it is to be unconventional and stuggle with that daily. so the time he puts into making his piece as well as to figure out how to do it is something i find intriguing.

classic struggle

there is just something awesome about carvings in stone. im not sure if i just appreciate the process behind carving or if it is the final look of the media, or even both. the sculpture sampson and the liion by gleb derujinsky is just phenominal. it is nice to be able to see some sculpture of the human form in the midst of todays very conceptual contemporary art. the smooth flow of the piece and all the detail of the muscles are crazy. the fact that someone can work and smooth stone to show that much movement is insane. this also has some meaning to me because i feel like i am sometimes in a struggle between my old self and the one of me trying to grow. sometimes i feel like i really try to fight off growth because im scared or vulnerable and other times i just let it consume me. but it is always a struggle the same way there will be struggle between man and animal.

art and science

structures of science have are very appealling. take scientist/artist julian voss-andreae's work for example. he takes things from science and make them sculpures. every thing from concepts to molecular structures. and its all appealling. i just like the forms. there is alot of energy flowing through his work. throught jagged lines and curvey smooth objects, i see plenty of moverment. i love the feeling that his stuff might just get up and move or just hover. it really justifies his subject. things in science are always moving

negative review

nelleke beltjens work is very simple. a little too simple. i seem to think simple is better, to an extent though. her pieces are complex like others, but their simplicities take away from their complexity. her inspiration is american landscapes; the openness. the way she made her pieces and displayed them doesnt portray a landscape to me. she has these simple forms, mostly rectangular and geometric, and places them on gallery floors and walls. i think if she would have been more aware of the site, it might would have been stronger. if she would have put these figures outside, i would see it. when they are placed inside i see them more as stepping stools or things you could sit on. i dont see the connection tht she wants me to get

new source of insparation

there is just something about architectural drawings and floor plans that appeal to me. i dont know if it is the complex thoughts that are conveyed through simple simple geometric designs, or the fact that its just visually stimulating. whatever it is, i really like don gummers piece, falling water over broadacre. gummer takes copies of floor plans and overlaps them. he makes sure they fit aesthetically. he then builds and paints them. its so easy but yet the 2 actual planes and the plane that is made by shadows make the piece so interesting. to me it makes me think that while these just seem simple, the thought behind it is utterly complex. knowing how there are reasons behind the layout of a floorplan and then he goes and places 2 different plans on top of each other kinda floors me. to think something so complex could be displayed so simply is a good concept. i really want to do something like this

continuing bodies of work

we have sort of touched on continuing bodies of work in class. until then i just figured they were of the same subject in the same meaning and they kind of have the same look to them. artist, Anna-Maria Bauer did the opposite. she was inspired by the geometric qualities of a turle shell and she has been doing works that are based on geometic principles. the thing that is different from what im used to thinking is that her work is done in many mediums. she uses steel, copper, brass, wood, stone, and so on. before i knew this, i just thought id get bored looking at a continuous body or ork because its basically the same thing. the fact that she uses different mediums keeps her art fresh. it also shows she is diverse when it comes to how she wants to make something. that serves importance to me because i used to only work with pencil and paper and as im growing, im learning new materials and its not easy, but it makes my works much more interesting cuz you have something new to look at

metalmorphosis

take the most recignizable feature of a person, the head, and make a work that distorts that image to the point where you dont even recognize its a head. thats exactly what David Cerny did in Charlotte, NC. his piece metalmorphosis was the sculpture of a head broken down into 7 sections that rotate at diffent times via computer program so that you dont even realize its a face. as i have learned in this class, people love to be able to always recognize what art is suppose to be. if that were the case, art wouldnt be that interesting. when his piece rotates with its different sections, it makes the scupture almost unrecognizable. people will wait for the head to take its normal shape. thats what public art should do. it should captivate people; keep them wondering what is going on. that seems to be what i am starting to do. my work used to be easy to figure out. now im learning to use different means to get my point across instead of a literal symbols.

4/21

its crazy how much art history influences things in todays society. we looked at some artists who reference things in art history. this goes to show that not much has changed in these times. i hear a lot of people complaining about how much sex is a factor in everyday life now days. truth is sex has always been around and has been depicted and flaunted. you can see this by how women are depicted in magazines, art, movies, and so on as objects of lust or just as body parts and thats it. people think its just recently started but that has been a problem for a very long time ago. this goes back as far as paintings of venus of urbino in the 1530's all the way to picasso and manet and up to now in advertisements. the women of today are are posed/ focused on just like they were then. its crazy to think that how women were depicted back then has to do with how they are portrayed now

4/16

today we saw barbara schreibers work. i dont know what it is but im starting to really like simple things. she took very simple, illistration figures and had comedic commentaries on them. her work was fun and interesting. its doesnt look like it took a whole lot of skill but it did take a lot of patience because of her scale she was working with. i really like how she made these paintings that look like they have no importance, and painted them it on 3 inch by 3 inch squares. at first glance, you could really miss how significant or how much meaning is behind these peices. its cool to see how contradictary the pieces are because it doesnt look like much, but in actuality these peices can be very complex.

4/14

today we saw alot of different kinds of work. it got me thinking, i need to have a portfolio of different things so people dont get bored looking at the same kind of stuff all the time. at least change mediums up or do diifferent subjects or something. just switch things up, keep it fresh, and keep learning and growing.

4/9

today we went and saw will pucketts studio/house/work. im not really sure how i feel about it. i love the way uses simple figures because simple things help get the concept through. i dont like everything i saw of his but thats usually the way it is. but at least he puts himself out there. thats one thing i learned. i need to be able to take negative criticism because not everyone will like it. i also need to just put myself out there and make connections with people. its like people say, any criticism is good because then you know you are getting noticed.