Reading #4

1. How is Warhol able to turn in “off” and based upon the article does he not care about the work? He changes his perspective of his art, essentially. This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care about it, but continuing on despite mistakes or despite things not turning out exactly as you want them to, it seems, inspires different sorts of art that, in my opinion based on what was said, brings it to life in a new way. Letting things happen and looking at how things “fall” essentially, you can find new meaning in things.
2. Why is the article relevant to the last project? Because the attitude that Warhol shows in his interview, “Nothing To Lose,” shows the fluidity that art has, and how meaning can be assigned to something after the fact, the way we did with the pictures – we were instructed to take a large quantity of pictures, pick our favorites, and find meaning in our own photos. This meaning was then going to be compared to what other people thought. Overall, though, the photos themselves were quite “trial-and-error,” and it would be incredibly difficult to actually get a good picture intentionally out of that sort of project. The same can be said about the “100 photos” project. In art, sometimes the creator realizes they have “nothing to lose” and quit trying to perfectly create exactly what they had in mind and end up developing something really good out of their mistakes or general encounters. Art is about keeping an open mind, essentially, which is what that philosophy is all about.

Personal Reflection

1. Do you become self-conscious of your ideas? I always become self-conscious of my ideas. As a budding person, let alone creative mind (I dare not use the term “artist” to describe myself quite yet) I feel that all of my earliest works in the art field will be scrutinized heavily, and I have a prominent fear of failure that extends into my creative mind and can even be, not to sound overly dramatic, incapacitating when trying to create. I don’t wish to fail in my creative experiences because of how much I value art and creativity as a whole, and the fear that sets in makes it difficult to even get up the courage to try to create a piece.
2. What do you think of the nothing-to-lose attitude? What are it’s pros and cons? I honestly really like it. It’s a philosophy that I’ve seen applied to real life at times, with results that are arguably quite good. However, I feel that it’s definitely applicable to art just because of art’s fluid, subjective nature. The fact that any change to a piece can change it into something completely different but similarly beautiful is astounding, and that idea really inspires a “nothing to lose” attitude in and of itself. Anything you do to a piece has the chance to affect a work positively or negatively. Essentially, if you’re almost finished with a piece you can add onto it, even if you’re a bit scared. If you don’t like it, you add more things and keep changing the piece until it’s something you enjoy. Now, this isn’t exactly common practice, nor is it perfect. I understand having a vision and wanting to make a piece exactly how you imagined it, and constantly changing a piece won’t always be a solution – you have the chance to completely ruin a piece if you aren’t careful, but personally, I enjoy the philosophy. I think its main idea makes its pros outweigh its cons.

Readings #3

Readings #3

Questions:

1). Based upon the readings the word design comes with many definitions. Across all the readings what are some examples of these differences?

Design means numerous different things to different artists – For one, design can simply relate to the aesthetic or thought of a thing. Clement Greenberg argues that minimalist art isn’t truly art, but “Good Design” because it appears to be devoid of feeling, and lacks the “aesthetic surprise” that comes with well-thought-out, or rather, well-felt-out pieces that express an artist’s thoughts and feelings.

In another mind, design is art in the service of business, or that enhances the quality of life. It is not motivated by expression but by solving problems. Rather than making their pieces or plans for their own sake, they make it for the sake of production, for the sake of work.

A third way of looking at design is through its meaning and linguistic background – First and foremost, design can be viewed as a noun and as a verb. To sum up the author’s ideas, as a noun it means something similar to “plan” or “layout”, whereas its verb form means “To Plan,” “To Draft,” or “To Layout.” However, after discovering its roots, the author has uncovered that design, art, etc. share many of the same roots as technology, machine, and the like, all of which relate back to ancient words related to deceit, trickery, cheating, etc. The author uses this as a way to give their own definition – “In contemporary life, design  more or less indicates the site where art and technology… come together as equals, making a new form of culture possible.” She then goes on to say that these same roots mean that all art, all technology, the culture built on design, or rather, the design behind all culture is, by nature, deceptive.

Hal Foster seems to see design as an all-encompassing word to describe the layout of just about anything, going so far as to say that the world we live in today is one of “total design,” mostly due in part to the way we value things in our culture nowadays due to our capitalist nature.

2.) How does misunderstanding or rather multiple definitions of a singular word effect how we perceive design? Be sure to reference the four articles.

Having multiple definitions of a single word, whether these definitions be made by oneself or taken from a dictionary, may convolute not only the idea of design but surrounding ideas. For instance, in Flusser’s article alone, the discussion of the word’s roots rather than its current, set meaning changes her definition of the word. Though she’s not blatant with its meaning, she relates it to deceit and trickery because of its ancient predecessors, and therefore names all artists and designers as tricksters, even going so far as to talk about how a culture built on design is a culture of deceit. Alternatively, Greenburg’s definition of “good design” isn’t really described much, save for hinting at the fact that a good design need only be aesthetically pleasing, and that design does not always mean the same thing as art. This itself can affect the view of art and design by separating them completely, and belittling certain forms of art. Foster’s “definition” of art as an all-encompassing, (not really) new idea that fits into everything that can be planned is confusing in and of itself, but serves to devalue what design truly means if its modern day definition fits into everything. Finally, Rand’s idea that design is only a form of art to serve a purpose rather than express a feeling, thought, or emotion serves to make design seem insensitive, and at its base completely goes against what Greenburg’s idea seems to imply – whereas Greenburg sees art as a subset of design, merely with the thoughts and emotions of the creator taken into account, Rand sees Art as the bigger issue, with design as the business-oriented subset. It seems that trying to use multiple definitions of the same word can ultimately lead to a very confusing and convoluted view of design, especially since some of each definition seems to contradict an idea that another one has. One misunderstanding leads squarely to another, to answer the question in a more concise fashion.

Personal Reflection:

1). How do you suppose you could better prepare yourself as a maker of aesthetic objects/ideas?

I could study the creations of other artists that have come before me, especially ones with a lot more experiences than myself. If I find an art style that really resonates with me, I could practice trying to create my own works using them as inspiration. That aside I think it’s important to learn a bit about art theory and know not just from experience but from a classroom setting what works, what doesn’t, and what might, and that would partially mean studying, in depth, the things that were discussed in the readings assigned – design, its true meaning, and its elements.   I think it’s important to just use different mediums and materials as much as I can so that I can get what I want out of anything. Mostly I think that preparing myself to be a maker of aesthetic objects/ideas will consist a great deal of self-exploration.

2.) What are things you currently do to practice your creative muscle?

Most of the time I try to either analyze works of other artists and writers to try to catch what they mean and try to find ways that other people think “outside the box” so to speak so that I can get a better sense of how I can push boundaries, or different ways of thinking that might prompt me to work more openly and creatively. One of my favorite things to do is analyze movies and certain television shows because I like catching small details that are either well-hidden jokes or smart design choices or just noticing underlying themes and symbolism. For instance, in a show called “The Flash”, an episode shows a man named “Mr. Tockman” taking hostages in a police station so that he can make a deal with police. He assembles them in a circle unceremoniously around a large, circular seal on the ground. It wasn’t until the shot slid up and panned down at the arrangement that I realized he had 12 hostages, arranged evenly across the circumference of the circle – the clock obsessed maniac had unknowingly made a clock out of his victims. This sort of detail is a bit too exact, I believe, to have been an accident. I thought this subtle detail was very clever (however, after voicing my opinion with the group of friends I’d been watching with, I was promptly shooshed and told to stop being overly analytical). In order to “flex my creative muscle, I try to do that sort of thing a lot, force myself to think outside the box when looking at art in any form.

ARTS1311_100 Solutions

 

 

 

 

The object I chose for my 100 Solutions project was my roommate’s over-sized, deflated rugby ball. The reason I chose it was because at first, I found it interesting simply because of its odd shape and general absurdity – it is for a sport that is not played very much in America (and therefore not very well known), a novelty version of the ball used for said sport, and unable to be used for its general purpose due to the fact that it cannot be inflated.
IMAG0146I particularly enjoy this photo because aesthetically, it matches up with my connotation of “artsy”, in that it has a serene and candid feel to it, which is almost made ironic by the subtle absurdity of the subject.
IMAG0221This photo is interesting because it takes advantage of the ball’s unique shape and gives new dimension to the background. This photo was actually inspired by a joke between my roommate and I, where we were talking about the most important things in life and he said jokingly “Rugby is my whole world.”IMAG0168I really enjoy this image because it started off accidental. I’d been squishing and trying to change the ball in whatever ways I could, and ended up folding it in half. Naturally, because of my love of games, the first thing I saw was “Pac-Man”. This photo took a bit of work to actually accomplish, as there were many versions of it (different backgrounds, different items used as pellets, etc.) and I really enjoyed this final picture because I was able to get this idea out after struggling with making it look acceptable.IMAG0261S
imilar to the previous image, I really enjoyed this image because of its root in gaming. For those who don’t see the similarities or don’t get the references, I, on the floor, am dressed as a Toad from the “Mario Bros.” series, while my roommate is actually (doing his best to be) Mario. We’d put this thing on our heads numerous times attempting to come up with ideas and it wasn’t until we took a break and started playing video games that this idea occurred to us, so not only is the image itself funny and is rooted in my passion.IMAG0165This image was one of the first that we thought up. The ball’s size was near that of a toddler, and its general round shape was perfect for an image used to simulate a fat-suit or pregnant belly. The few minutes we spent trying to find good lighting to shoot this image were very fun and honestly quite memorable. IMAG0172This photo was taken shortly after the pregnancy photo. I had wanted to personify the ball this way because I meant to imply that I, the parent, was assisting my child in helping them to get ready for a first day of school. It’s one of my favorites because it is also humorous and follows the previous photo in a chronological sense. IMAG0239I love this photo because it implies some sort of surprise, and the angle makes me feel as if it were taken in a suspenseful situation. On a side note, I may be a bit biased in really enjoying this photo because it stemmed from a small, yet funny event that occurred in our dorm.
IMAG0225T
his image is one of my favorites because it was incredibly difficult to capture, and seeing it reminds me of a sort of triumph, but also because, generally, if the subject of this photo were a person it would be quite a serious situation, but the ball’s lack of arms makes the actions being performed on it pointless and therefore humorous in an ironic sense.IMAG0194I couldn’t help but include this one because it acts as a sequel to the previous image, and the idea of an inanimate object being imprisoned (in a cell that it can easily escape because it can be squeezed through the holes in the bottom, I might add) is humorous to me, and the only thing I could think of while taking this was the horrible waste of resources it would lead to.
IMAG0220I loved this image because the subject, a rugby ball with the name Gilbert printed on its side (though not the side shown here), obviously implied to be male through most of my other photos that involve some form of personification, is in a public place facing a computer screen with pink rugby balls being displayed, implying that he is looking at pictures of females of his own race. The implications of this image are what I can only describe as “raunchy”, and it was one of my favorite images in the entire shoot because of its humor.

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