word swap

Rape.  One in six women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime.  College age women are four times as likely to be raped.  Sixty percent of rapes are not reported to the police and only six percent of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. Today, you probably walked by or talked to someone who has been raped.  Maybe you have been raped.  Maybe I have been raped.  If I tell you, will you tell me?  If I tell you and you tell me, do you think it will be better?  To know that you are not alone, that I am not alone?  That is isn't your fault.  That it isn't my fault.  That it isn't our shame.  It is pain we share.  Why does it feel like shame?

Graffiti......

The other day in my hip hop social justice class, we got on the discussion of graffiti. I thought that I would rant about this discussion on this blog because its an art discussion so.... Here I go.

So my teacher posed the question: “Is graffiti art or vandalism?” The answer was pretty obvious to me. Graffiti is a form of art utilizing spray paint and grease pens that can be, at specific times, illegal. Whenever someone defiles or vandalizes another person’s property is it most certainly illegal and it is an act of vandalism. Graffiti is, most famously, done on buildings and train cars that are not owned by the artists. The graffiti can still be art while being vandalism and that’s exactly the case.
Then the class moved on to another topic. The class argued as to whether graffiti is still art or if it still graffiti at all when taken out of its natural habitat. Many members of the class argued that graffiti is an act of defiance and that the act of graffiti includes breaking in and defiling someone else’s property. I found this to be both appalling and ridiculous. Basically, these students think that graffiti is strictly vandalism. They do not even think of graffiti as a legitimate art form. I believe that talent is still talent no matter the setting or circumstance. I also believe that graffiti is still graffiti no matter what medium it is on. Artists and writers are still incredible even if they are in a gallery; it is still the same artists with the same talent, just a different place. On the topic of the meaning of graffiti, one can still send a message at a gallery and graffiti can still be potent without being illegal.
I couldn’t believe what the class thought about graffiti and I couldn’t believe that they reduced it to beneath art.

On top of everything else, two members of the class said that the 337 art project was dumb and fake. They said it was just "white power taking advantage of the next big thing." I felt like that was so ridiculous because the 337 project was just a great way to get publicity to urban art. Also, I can't believe that the class thought it was stupid or not important because it was temporary, it was powerful even if it was torn down. Tons of art exhibitions are temporary, this one just happened to let urban art be in its natural habitat.

What do you guys think about graffiti? Is it art or vandalism? Is it still graffiti if it is in a gallery, can it still send its message

word swap: Gravity

For one reason or another, when I thought of gravity, I didn't think of the force holding us on on the surface of the earth. That may have been my initial thought, but almost immediately my mind turned to gravity as in seriousness. But I suppose they are one and the same; I don't quite understand the finer details of Newton's law, but I know that it relates to seriousness in that both tend to "ground" us. Without it, we would float away. A scary thought at first conception, but it holds a certain amount of silliness, in both senses of the word, and while it would not be practical to be silly always, now and then (as in at least a few minutes daily) I think a return to a childlike state of mind would improve general morale and lift many spirits and encourage much creativity.

Word Swap; Life

Grandma and Granddad Gilmore always had life cereal. The only time we had it in the cereal cupboard was when they were coming to visit for a week. Eventually my parents realized the greatness of this simple pleasure and it became a regular in the Gilmore household. I'd keep an eye on the box, checking the cereal level often, timing it right so I could have the last bit of it- the pile of crumbs and sugar. We'd celebrate when we found a double square, sometimes even a triple!?!? and watched the familiar face of Mikey slowly fade out of the commercials.

Poem; As Is

As Is

I'm learning to let moments exist in time, 

in space,

without my comment, my diagnosis.

John and Paul have it right: Let it be.

The integrity of the moment, the person

the conversation, the idea, 

is pure, untainted

when I walk away

leaving it to be what it wants to be,

a monument, a pivot,

a reminder, a definer,

or simply

Beautiful, 

rather than what I drive it to be,

coexisting in my actuality

as something important. 

How mysterious and memorable are those conversations,

those people we speak with once,

never to be seen again,

but who frequent our mind

because they simply were,

they just Are.

Those events, ideas that graze our identity 

then scatter, remembered with fondness 

for their simplicity,

their short appearance.

Maybe nothing happens for a reason.

It wasn't meant to be,

it isn't fate, the stars are

hardly writable.

Things just happen. 

And they are Beautiful.

That lyric, that painting, that scene,

that spark, the beauty of 

a moment, a person, 

a conversation, an idea,

can Be, without significance. 

Don't learn a lesson,

take away a moral,

or even be inspired by

this, that, him, her,

then, there. 

Quietly step back, 

let it take on whatever life it chooses,

Watch or don't watch it slip into the past,

just being exactly what it wants to be,

or not be,

a moment, a person,

a conversation, an idea,

nothing more than what it is

or was

or will be. 

Beautiful Silence

The day's buzzing and throb of noise is incessant. It usually begins with the most annoying of all noises, the alarm clock. Though it may come in many different sounds it is made to be obnoxious. The day progresses with horns, hollers, bells, beeping, speaking, music, roaring, and so on. Each day has a variety of noises and obnoxious sounds. Silence is one thing we may crave. No noise, not even the sound of one's own repetitive thoughts. Beautiful silence to mark down the ugly noises of day. Since absolute silence is about unattainable as absolute zero, we make due with as little noise possible. The relaxing CD at the end of day, or meditating out in the wilderness. One noise source, one distraction, a lesser headache.

Word Swap: House Elves

House elves are perhaps the most desired entities of the present decade.  However house elves are only currently available to those possessing the gifts of wizardry.  In fact, house elves are also in high demand within the wizarding community and are most often in service to households belonging to very rich or old wizarding families.  Given the current times and circumstances this rather universal unavailability of house elves is likely for the best.  Due to a troublesome economy there are growing unemployment numbers for maids, cooks, and butlers- and their respective unions are increasingly hostile to any form of competition.  Hopefully house elves will continue to stick to their highly selective market and relative peace will be kept within house keeping circles.

Trust:

The imperfect maket spawns network of trust between companies. Where they will soon form into units of oligopoly to control the maket. Usually result in higher prices for higher profit for the members in the trust system. However, under the notion of invisible hand, this system can never last. Because any one firm in the system can have significantly increase in its profit by lowering it prices. The trust betwwen the owners rarely excced the greeds in the market, but this trust is often holen tied by threat or laws. This result is the crisis that underlay in every market...

"Cake"

The baker meticulously finished up the final touches on the cake he had named “il mare bello.” This cake was unlike any others he had made. He has been in the cake business for years, and yet this was the only time he had felt so attached to a cake. The colors, the detail, the design; everything about this cake was perfect. The cake was simple but elegant. Its four tiers were covered in white icing, with blue sugar flowers. The small flowers were bunched into larger flowers, which were then positioned beautifully in an upward direction. This cakes beauty amazed the baker. He wondered why he had never felt this way before, he had made many many cakes over the years, and although he thought they were nice cakes, he had never seen their beauty. On this day he realized he was an artist, and was finally able to appreciate his work.

Word Swap: Light

Light
Renaissance Masters: The control of light within the dark, holy illumination. Chiaroscuro.
Caravaggio was the exemplar:

For Impressionists, the greatest goal with painting was to render the fleeting effects of light in a single moment, as in Monet:

Nowadays we have technology on our side, and people like Olafur Eliasson use pure light to create spectacular effects:


Light is everything, really, and it doesn't go away.

renaissance venice.

Renaissance Venice is elevated. It stands above us as a pinnacle of creation and creativity. It represents rebirth, renewal, and reverence to the nature of Man and God and Art. In spirit, Renaissance Venice is above us, but what we don't recognize is its physical elevation. Venice is sinking. The Venice of Duhrer, Lotto, and Vivarini was about 16 inches higher than it is today. Perhaps one day, hundreds of thousands of years from now, Venice will be gone, slipped slowly beneath the waves of the Adriatic, joining the ranks of Vineta and Atlantis.

Poem - Sex

Sex

Whispered and hidden, but known all around,

when shared by each other pleasure is found.

The passion and feelings that two people show,

are often times given to someone we know.

Our body is open exposed to attack,

but often accepted despite what we lack.

The feeling of closeness with husband or wife,

that brings us together by forming new life.

Can strengthen or weaken our love for the one,

who shares all our struggles when work days are done.

Jeremiah R. Turner - January 28, 2009

Word Swap = Minimalistic

There seems to be a prevailing view that is minimalistic in the way we interact with people we come in contact with, but really don't know.  If my our own design or society it is my feeling that minimalistic conversations will eventually cause an outlook on life that in general is minimalistic.  People will take a minimalistic approach to doing things a a whole.  Take andy profession that is generally expected to perform a quality task.  Now take that task and make it minimalistic.  How would that effect other things?  There are things that should be minimalistic in nature.  For example libraries are minimalistic with respect to loud conversation.  That may be okay, but are there things that when made minimalistc will be more harmful or slow progress?  This is my question to you?

My word = family!

I have way too many families. It starts out with your immediate family, and then you realize you have a huge extended family. And then at some point in your life you suddenly become part of your friend’s family. I am so many people’s second daughter. If you are lucky to become a nanny like I was, you become part of another family, and then their extended family. But thank God for them!

some wire work

I couldn't find the best photos but this should give you some idea of how I am using wire sculpturally.

assignments 1/27

Idea/word trade.  With someone else's idea/word in hand, please write a minimum of two sentences about it.  This exercise is to help see how someone else translates your idea..and to realize that we can learn to think more broadly by listening to others.  The sentences should be posted on the blog asap.  

Idea/word development.  Choose one of your idea/words and write a small (or long if you prefer) poem about it.  You may want to incorporate your thinking from the combination exercise where you combined the two least likely words together, or the thoughts of someone else about the word that have been posted on the blog.  This is due next Tuesday.  You can always post your poem on the blog.

Presentation.  Write one paragraph describing how you are thinking of presenting your person/book to the class.  We will think about these presentations together.  This is due next Tuesday.

Photograph a dream.  The most fun and due next Tuesday as well.  And again, you can always post the photos.  But you should also bring a photo to class.  No instruction here.  You are on your own with your imaginations....

Keep up with the journals.  And while doing it, try to give yourself no assignment but to free flow write.

I think we may want to share some of our ideas on the readings -- the paragraphs you are writing.  And if you don't have the Art Since 1960 book, please let me know.  And in the meantime, I will check libraries.  

Jeremiah - have you checked the library for your book.  

Davey -- I also have a book on Stanley Douglas.  Let me know if you would like me to bring it to class.  And let's talk more about your video.  Pick a time.

Jessica -- I use different types of wire but mostly I use a grid hanging wire, 18 gauge.  I buy 300 foot rolls at home depot.  I will put another photo on the blog of one of my  wire pieces.  

Send any questions.  And have fun!!!!  And from Stephen I think of -- no silos, and of those sacrificial branches, closing leaves and connected roots.  

"Seeing" Assignment

Framing

I love your Post-It stories! I'd love to read about your "framings". Here's a recent one of mine:

Saturday afternoon I was sitting in the coffee shop of Borders as a fifty-something fellow at a table behind me was holding forth (apparently without benefit of inhaling) to an unfortunate adolescent boy from whom he clearly expected, and occasionally received, gasps of awe. Suddenly a five-something boy broke away from his mother as they were leaving and exploded in a tantrum that he attempted to distribute throughout the store, running and screaming his demands. He stopped in front of a copy of "The Advocate" and yelled, "Jelly beans! I want jelly beans!" The man behind me said, "It got dropped down to a misdemeanor." The boy, failing to lure his mother's pursuit, took off with a rhetorical leap, "All I want is jelly beans!" The man added, "And I wasn't even that drunk."

websites to check out

http://issue.com/  (this is the place we can publish the post-it notes-- with drawing???)

http://flavorpill.com/daily/  (this the daily dose of really cool contemporary art and thinking from artkrush)

http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/  (this is miranda july's book -- with lessons.  it is an interesting project)

Creativity Photos

question

Hey sorry... I forgot what I am supposed to do with the words of our 100 list. I know we are supposed to the two that don't fit together together, but I don't know where to go after that... thanks!

assignments and syllabus

here are the links to:

Syllabus

Assignment 1

Assignment 2

Assignment Thinking Games

okay i'm testing my skills at putting photos (and video and assignments, etc.) on the blog.  here is some of my work...pig feet from a sculpture of a pig.  They are a little bit bigger than real pig feet.  more to come....

Sidewalk Cinema and Julie Taymor

Hi Anne & Everyone,
I made this short film over the break. Anne is part of the selection crew for the Sidewalk Cinema and I wanted to show it to her. I think it's pretty relevant to our discussion on Julie Taymor as well. You'll notice it has a similar feel to a snowboarding video or something, sans tricks. I'm trying to cultivate an aesthetic that wows and inspires, but isn't quite as dazzling as say, 'Moulin Rouge' or 'Chicago'. I really respect Taymor's stuff because of how personalized but spectacular it is.
Film #1: Bike Winter

This one is more conceptual, more of a video art piece then say, a music video. It might work better in the context of the sidewalk cinema, but I like the former more as a portrait of Salt Lake:
Film#2: Messiaistic Figure Pt. 2

I didn't embed the videos because they're in bigger resolution on Vimeo. Let me know what you think, I might try to incorporate the former one into my presentation this semester.

I can get either one to you as a DVD if you'd like, Anne.

Words words

I was talking about astronomy with a friend and we stumbled upon the word "parallax." It means the apparent displacement of an observed object due to a change in the position of the observer." I am trying to exercise my brain by projecting the word into a context other than astronomy. Any ideas?

Post It Note

So I was inspired and decided to write a post-it note story. My comp does not have that awesome post-it note ap, SOOOOO I decided to just type it! (I'm so creative) Here it is...

Wandering the streets of Park City with one goal in mind; it was Sundance time and all Katie wished for was to see a glimpse of one of the following: Paris Hilton, Mary-Kate Olsen, or Ashley Olsen. What could be better than meeting one of them? Well, Katie was in for a surprise… While ordering a apple pie caramel apple at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Katie noticed the dark haired boy next to her order a cauldron cake then wink at the worker. Interested by this seen, her eyes worked up to his forehead. “OH MY GOD,” she muttered when she realized it was THE Harry Potter. Then she fainted.

This was based on a real life fantasy in case anyone was wondering...

the clouds

Davey -- did I say I think the clouds look great!!!  perfect.  Thank you.

In a common setting what do we miss?

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. 

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. 

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Stick it story

Good thinking with the Stickies application Davey. Here's a simple one:

photo assignment.

Bean, paperclip, etc

From the throwing-a-bean-or-other-something-into-a-field-of-bland assignment, here are a few photos

class tuesday january 27 Stephen Goldsmith

Stephen Goldsmith will be coming to our class on Tuesday January 27th from 3:30-5:00.  We will meet in OSH room 174.  To learn more about Stephen go to www.stephenagoldsmith.com/ ( a little bit of information about what he is doing now and www.museumofchange.org (his creation on line "the temporary museum of permanent change").  He is also a sculptor.  

more help

how do I transfer files from the desktop?  I want to put all the assignments on the blog.  oh dear.  I will learn this.  I promise.

Anne

eBOY IN BARCELONA

Awesome!


















Pixorama is huge supercomplex urban scenes built out of hundred of parts which themselves are build with eBoy's magic object: the pixel. Pixorama is the culmination of a modular and object oriented work style that introduces reusability and remodulation of its atomic parts. Like the real cities, Pixoramas are living objects that constantly change and grow. Pixorama is not a comment but reality in itself. Displayed in LED backlight boxes.

My Stickie Note Story

Hey, anyone care to share their stickie-note story?


Davey

New Header

Hey guys!

I quickly put a new banner across the top of the page, let me know if you like it and if it works! If anyone wants to do a proper one I'd be happy to upload it.

Also, if you have trouble using copy and paste in blogger and you're using the Mac web browser safari, try switching to another browser like firefox and it should work. This only happens intermittently, I don't really know what the deal is.

Davey

Photos for class

Hey,

I must not have been paying enough attention during class, but I missed the details of the photo assignment and didn't get them in my journal to remind me.  Would someone who remembers what we were ask to do post a comment to this post?  Thanks and good luck on all our creative endeavors.

Jeremiah

Howdy from Jeremiah

Hello fellow classmates, 

I have found my way into the blog world!  I am a computer science major and have never blogged before now.  I do however have a webpage of my own, so that, at least is something.  If you would like to view my page, use the following info:

URL: TheTurnerClan

Username: guest

Password: turnerclan

Happy blogging, and I'll see you in class Thursday!

Jeremiah

Here's the Test!

Hey Guys, welcome to blog land! Explore around the options to learn how to post, it's pretty straightforward. Let me know if you have any questions. Blogger's help section is really good at getting you started too. Try creating a post, and commenting on another post! try the 'edit html' option if you're into coding, or the 'compose' option if you'd like to simply change colors, and include links.

We can add images, either by uploading them (click the little picture icon above the text when you're writing a new message) or by linking to them:


For this one I used flickr's embed option.

We can add movies:

Most youtube and vimeo videos have an 'embed' option, simply copy and paste it.

We can link to other articles by clicking the little green world with a chainlink button and pasting in a url. Here's a link to something I wrote yesterday.

Try previewing your stuff before you post to make sure it's ok.