Burning Man

Burning Man is more of a community rather than a group. Every year, thousands of people gather together to create a work of art or a show. These shows are all about bringing many peoples ideas together to make one work of art. These pieces are very elaborate and very creative and are usually created around a predetermined theme. The theme in this picture below seems to be death.

This particular piece is called " The Bone Tower." It consists of (yes you guessed it) lots of bones that are fastened to a metal frame. These were made of various types of animal bones from different animals. The Bone Tower looks more like a gateway to me. It makes me think of death and how every creature eventually dies, leaving only bones remaining.  It is as if the gateway is all the dead animals, crying out for us to join them.

Isamu Nogichi

Nogichi was a very skilled sculpture who loved working with nature and things in our natural surroundings. Most of his works are done in outdoor settings. Sculptures that usually consist of stones. He has also created some famous gardens that are still intact today.

This piece that he did required a great deal of skill. His attention to detail in his sculptures are amazing. The sculptures in this picture are made out of paper. I chose to write about this piece because it is a few different statue looking things in an indoor setting. This was not his usual art piece but it struck me. It still appears like a rock sculpture so I still get that outdoor feel inside.

Maurizio Cattelan

Cattelan is an Italian sculptor who is known for his dark, humorous sculptures. He is considered a contemporary artist. A lot of his pieces make fun of old artworks. He has made sculptures of giant middle fingers, foosball tables that are ten times larger than normal, and the pope being hit by a meteor. These are funny sculptures but they also take things from our everyday life and make them humorous.

In this sculpture, Cattelan put a taxidermised horses body (not including the head) on a wall with the body sticking out. I really like this piece because it makes me think of what a mounted head looks like on the other side. Many people mount heads of animals on their walls. Cattelan has given us a new type of mounting. He is thinking outside the box. We are often drawn to the bizarre and unusual, which is why this piece is so funny.

Stelarc

Stelarc is an Australian performance artist who has done many works with robotics, suspensions, and movements of the human body. He has constructed many prosthetics limbs that work along with his body to make himself a biotechnological work of art. Stelarc has a fascination with the movements of the human body. This fascination has turned into a love for robotics. Another thing he has done is suspend his body in the air with hooks and strings going through his skin up into the ceiling. 

To be honest, I don’t really understand most of his work. I think it is very strange. The prosthetics part is very interesting but I do not understand the hooks in his skin thing. For that reason, I have posted a picture of one of his robotics works. I like how he is working to improve the movements and ability of the human body through the use of robotics technology. It’s like he is trying to skip a stage in the human evolutionary process. He has made some other limbs like robotic ears, legs, and a head.

Kevin Bracken

Bracken is an artist in Toronto, Canada who has created many different public art installations all over major cities in the United States and Canada. The purpose of these large installations is to promote free events in public space while bringing people together with fun events. A lot of these events have also been used to raise money for charities.

These installations have included giant pillow fights, lightsaber battles, and giant games of capture the flag across downtown areas. These are really amazing because they bring life and fun to the urban life. Often times people (especially in the Metropolitan scene) are so busy. Cars, trains, and people are always going from place to place as people work, work, work. These events put a pause on all that. People can come together and be silly for a little while. They can live life and enjoy being a kid once again.

This picture is of their International Pillow Fight Day in New York City. 5000 people participated in over 150 cities.

Survival Research Laboratories

Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) was founded by Mark Pauline in November 1978. It is a group of around 50 creative technicians based out of the Bay Area in California that spends their time taking machinery that would normally be used in the fields of science, industry, and warfare, and then using them in different artistic fashion. They regularly put on shows that involve robots interacting with one another along with some cool special effects. Around 4 of these demonstrations have been done all across the United States and Europe since 1979. SRL has been considered the pioneer of industrial performing arts much like groups like burning man and the cacophony society.
Their shows feature a lot of machines destroying each other. This has created a lot of criticism. Many art lovers say that they are merely putting on "art shows of technological violence." But while to many it is pure violence, to them it is a way of bringing attention to the destruction that machines cause in industry and war. These shows are dangerous,noisy, and definitely entertaining. They have created some really cool machines. Examples of these are a six-legged running machine, a shockwave cannon (a cannon that shoots a shockwave of air, shattering glass remotely), and the pitching machine which a machine that launches two by four pieces of lumber. They pride themselves on taking old useless trash and making these really neat machines.
To some people, this group is a bunch of crazy, anti-Christian war mongers. Some say they have killed live animals in some of their shows. SRL denies these claims. Other people believe that this group is trying to bring attention to technological violence. Everyone agrees that these guys are kinda crazy in the brain. Some of their works have featured animal skins animated by mechanical endoskeletons. Weird!!
I'm not quite sure what to make of this group. Many people have different beliefs about this group. Maybe that is what they want. These shows have something in them for everyone. These shows fulfill the small desire within all of us for chaos and destruction. They capture our attentions with the noise and violence. The shows make us have an adrenaline rush. We love violence! In fact, if they were to make mistakes during their shows, people could die! I also think that they are trying to bring attention to machinery and how it affects our lives. Are machines good for mankind or are they bad? They take machine parts that we would consider safe and useful and they turn them into these mindless killing machines. For this reason, Mark Pauline the creator is considered an artist. He actually doesn't even consider himself an artist.


http://srl.org/machines.html

Marcel Duchamp

Duchamp was a famous post-impressionism artist. Many of his works reminded me of Picasso and that Cubism type of art. I thought this piece was particularly interesting. It is called, “Portrait of Chess Players.” Duchamp was fascinated with chess and cubism.

This painting is cool because it looks three-dimensional. It looks like everything is directed at the center of the image. In the middle we can see chess pieces. We can see faces and art pieces all mixed in throughout the piece. I think Duchamp created this piece to show his two loves, cubism and chess. It is an interesting piece because it appears as though he took two different images and put them on top of each other. I don’t believe this piece has anything to do with his normal “anti-war” demonstrations. I just think he created this piece in a time in his life when he liked chess.

Improv Everywhere

Improv Everywhere is a group that consists of actors and pranksters that works in New York City. They have done a bunch of different videos that consist of them coming into different populated places and putting on these shows or skits in front of other people. Anybody (18 and older) can join the Improv Everywhere group. These skits often make people laugh but sometimes they can be frightening. Their videos have consisted of them going pantless on a subway train, dressing like star wars figures, and pretending to be the actual King Phillip IV. These acts are done to bring joy to people. They take pride in creating an awesome scene that is really funny. They are out to prove that pranks don’t have to be humiliating or embarrassing.

In this scene, an actor dressed as King Phillip IV pretends to be signing autographs by his painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This painting done by Velazquez is 400 years old. It appears as though some people actually believe that it is the really King Phillip.

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy is a British artist who works with land art. He has done a wide variety of pieces that work with almost every naturally existing material in the earth. He has done sculptures of rock, clay, ice, leaves, and twigs to name a few. He creates art during every season. He just changes what materials he uses depending on the season. I think that’s really neat because Goldsworthy can create art anywhere, anytime.

This piece is an arch of slate stones that he created. It was his fourth attempt at this piece. I think this is really amazing for a couple reasons. First, I admire the sheer difficulty of creating this piece. This seems like no easy task, especially considering there was just one person working on it. Second, I think it’s really neat that he took something that exists in nature but made a creation that nature could never do. It really puts a human touch on nature. Archways can be found throughout the British countryside. However, none of them are as fragile as this one.

Farm Lab

My trip to Farm Lab was kind of a disappointment. I went there on a Friday at noon just like we were suppose to. Unfortunately, I found out that they no longer have the guest speakers or any kind of activities on Friday afternoons. They haven't done that since around August, 2010. In fact, there weren't even that many people there. So I just basically walked around and took some pics. There were some interesting things on display. I found out that they have been working on a few different projects at farm lab. Their art projects usually have something to do with preserving society or the Earth. Their "farm project" was when they spent a a few years drawing the toxins out of the ground in the plot of land that they purchased. The car in the picture below also represents an urban garden. Taking an old beat up car and making it into a garden.

It was somewhat difficult finding the farmlab because it was off in a corner with no real signs showing where it was. This sign that said "Not A Cornfield" was the only way I knew how to go. It was kind of in an underground parking area.

I liked the sign that said, "Artists need to create on the same scale that society has the capacity to destroy." This reminded me of the post-impressionism movement a little bit. Wars and pollution are destroying our world and artists need to create artwork that negates that. Art that brings life while these other things are bringing death.

Second Life

I finally did my second life art project! I think that Second Life is a really cool way to express what you think you really look like (much like Gracie Kendal) or just to create a fantasy person. It's really cool but really confusing in my opinion. I had a hard time figuring the whole thing out. Is it just me? Or is Second Life kinda confusing? Anyways, I created just a few different images. The first one was an avatar of what I would like to look like. He's tall and really buff. I'd like to think thats the person I am. In reality, i'm a lot shorter and not quite as strong. For my fantasy avatars I created two very scary looking people. One with big poofy hair and blue eyes and another short, bug eyed creature.

Knowbotic Research

Knowbotic Research is a German-Swiss electronic group. They have done many works in the technological and virtual reality settings. They have worked with robots and computers especially. Most of their works represent the interaction between the real and virtual world.

This picture is from their work called “My Black Cat.” It consists of 30 black balloons filled with helium. They are floating in a space with the help of a small fan. It is interesting because those viewing the piece are able to interact with the balloons. They can hit them or move them. The coolest part of this is that they installed a system that tracks the positions of the balloons and releases a different audio sound as the balloons move. This piece combines the visible and audio worlds.

This is an interesting piece because we are allowed to interact with the piece. The audience can be creative and play with the balloons to change the sounds coming from the self-calibrating audio system.  We can see that this type of art is the kind that represents something. Although that is cool, I am drawn to the intereactivity of the piece. The Knowbotic Research group is known for using really technologically cool pieces.

Tony Oursler

Tony Oursler is a multimedia and installation artist. Many of his works are composed of eyes, lips, faces, and other body parts. Many of his works are done by taking inanimate objects and using a video projection to put lips or faces on them. This brings the object(s) to life. They can be somewhat strange looking. Strange, but it really brings the pieces to life. Some of his pieces include different currencies with lips added to the president’s faces.

This piece is one of Oursler’s more famous ones. It is called “Purple Resonant Dust.” It looks like a purple crystal ball with different body parts in it. They seem to be coming out of the fog. It’s somewhat strange. When I look at this piece I am drawn to the lips, eyes, and feet. I don’t focus on the fog at all. It makes me feel like a human is trapped inside of this ball. Perhaps it is supposed to represent our feelings deep down inside of us, trying to get out.

Erwin Redl

Redl’s works use LED lighting to distort the viewer’s perception of space. It makes the viewer look at the detail to each shape that is found in that space. These works are very pleasing to the eye because of the brilliant lights but they are much more than that. They are abstract works that bring attention to the world of graphics and 3D animation. Redl’s interest in the virtual reality also influences many of his works.

This picture is from Redl’s work called Matrix V. The lights in this space distort the image a little bit. It looks like the shape on the inside of this room could be bowing inward or outward depending on how the viewer looks at it. Anyone can appreciate this piece because of its bright, pleasing color but I think Redl wants people to look deeper than that. It’s not about the colors, but rather about the space that the colors are lighting up.

Nam June Paik

Paik is one of the most famous new media artists. His works were all strongly influenced by his love of music, technology, and communication. We can see from all of his works that he had a great fascination with telecommunication. TV’s are common in most of his works. Paik experienced the rise of the technology advancement throughout his life and I believe he was trying to sum up 50 years of this technological advance.

In this particular piece we see television screens shaped like the United States. It’s called the “Electronic Superhighway.” On each of the screens there are images of things associated with American culture. I believe this represents both American culture and how telecommunication has influenced this nation. It represents these things but it is also aesthetically pleasing because of the neon lights and bright colors.

John Whitney

John Whitney was an American digital animator and music composer. His vision was to create digital art that influenced the world of animation and the world of music. Many of his works were created to sort of convert the world of music into digital form. Those were his two great loves and we can see that in this piece of art if we look carefully.

This piece makes me think of a song. I think that the swirls are meant to represent the different notes played in a song. By themselves, they are like different colors (or notes) but all together they make a perfect circle (or song). The circle is pretty and complete much like a song in its entirety.

Bruce Nauman

Bruce’s work in the field of art spans many fields. A few of the fields he works in are as a sculptor, photographer, and video artist. The piece in this picture is one of his most famous sculptures. This particular piece is known as “One Hundred Fish Fountain.” It features ninety-seven actual fish cast in bronze and then suspended in the air. They also shoot water out of their mouths.

It’s a very violent sculpture because it’s as if the fish were all turned to stone in their natural habitat. They are all there just suspending with metal hooks in the air. At the same time, it’s a cool piece to see because of the shine in the bronze and the noise coming from the water being shot everywhere. If there was no noise from the water it would probably be like a graveyard but I believe the noise adds to the beauty of the piece. The noise, shine, and the sheer number of fish all come together in a frightening but beautiful piece.

Beall Center for Art and Technology

This museum trip was really small! Small, but still interesting. I went there on thursday, March 31st. All three of the displays were done by Chico MacMurtie. They all used compressed air and inflatable material to show the movements of the skeletal-muscular system. I thought it was cool how it was loud in the room from all the clicking being done by the air machines. It added to the overall experience of seeing the exhibits.
The first exhibit was this big inflatable thing that was supposed to represent a standing person. At first it was just idly standing there but then it blew up. The "hands" reached towards the ceiling and it became more straight looking. It all got pushed together which made it look like a person standing with their hands on the ceiling.
My favorite exhibit was the second one. It was a bunch of birds with their arms to their sides. When it came to life they all started flapping their wings. It was a really good immitation of the arm movements of birds. It was really neat to see how they all moved in the same motion all together like a pack of birds.
The final exhibit was called "Inner Tube." At first it was all scrunched together but then it blew all the way up making a tube. It didn't start moving until I walked up to it which was pretty cool. It made me feel more like I was part of the exhibit.
Overall I really liked this museum trip. Robot exhibits are always cool and it was just fun to admire the work done by MacMurtie and to see his vision for these pieces of art. They did a good job of representing the movements of our skeletal systems which is what I believe he was trying to accomplish.

Artist Research Project: Joseph DeLappe

DeLappe is a media artist who works as an Associate Professor of the department of art at the University of Nevada. DeLappe is most famous for his protests on the Iraq war. He runs a website called Iraqimemorial.org. He has done many memorials for the civilian and soldier casualties in Iraq. He has done a series of protests and reenactments within computer games and online communities. One such protest occurred while playing a first person shooter game that was produced by the Defense Department. This game is called America's Army. He then made his character drop his weapon. The character was killed in the mayhem of the video game. In the chat box he proceeded to type the name, age, service branch, and date of death of each and every American casualty in Iraq. This protest was done in March, 2006. This was close to the time of the third anniversary of the United States being in Iraq.

DeLappe is also famous in the Second Life Community. He created a character named MGandhi Chakrabarti. This character looked exactly like Gandhi. From March 12-April 6, 2008 (26 day march with 3 rest days) he reenacted Gandhi’s 1930-1931 prison term imposed on him by the British as well as his 248-mile march to Dandi. The march to Dandi was Gandhi’s 1930 march in protest of the British salt tax. In this march, Gandhi was trying to protest the British rule in India. Everyone in India used salt and the British imposed taxes on it. Gandhi marched 248 miles to Dandi, a village near the seashore. Upon arrival, Gandhi began telling the people to boil the mud to get the salt out of it. This was illegal for Indians to do. Gandhi was arrested for doing this but the aftermath of this protest reached all the way across India. Gandhi was protesting bad government. DeLappe is on a similar mission. To bring attention to what he believes are "crimes" being done by the U.S. government. DeLappe was trying to get peoples attention by simulating this walk in hope that it would have the same effects as Gandhi's march. Gandhi was criticized by many for what he did very much like DeLappe.
This march was not necessarily done to protest state power. It was more to just show how useful and important peaceful protests are. This was also done for a few reasons. It was done to honor Gandhi's legendary trek as well as a form of civil disobedience. Along the way, DeLappe would stop when he saw people so that he could give them gifts and chat them to tell them what his march was all about. Many people followed him on his excursion. He never flew and only teleported a few times to get from island to island. DeLappe wanted this march to be as realistic as possible.
He simulated this while at Chelsea’s Eyebeam Art and Technology Center. He hooked himself up to a Nordic Trak Walkfit machine. He actually walked his second life character all the way through the march. His footsteps were connected from the machine to his computer. DeLappe did this to show the effectiveness of a peaceful protest and to get online users involved in such demonstrations.

While the second life Gandhi was in prison, DeLappe began writing out the Bus-era Torture memos. These memos were between CIA agents, talking about how they were supposed to torture their prisoners. As we can see, DeLappe was really against the war in Iraq and the things that went on.  DeLappe used cyberspace to show his feelings of anti-war in Iraq. It shows how much influence one man can have on the thoughts and feelings of thousands of people. People like DeLappe don't even need to leave their house to do these things. In an age where computers rule the world, he is making the most of this technology.

From DeLappe’s works we can see the power of the Internet. He has used the new media to get his message across. He has captured the attention of thousands of people to the horrors of the Iraq war. He has dedicated much of his work to those who died in battle. He is even using second life to capture the attention of video gamers as well. His works have gained both support and criticism from many people in the online community. In the video on the bottom of this report, we can see people chatting on the game saying things like, "lets kick him" (from the server) and "why are you doing this?" I don't believe that his protest on America's Army had a huge impact on the gamers at the moment. Most of the gamers were simply frustrated at him for not playing the game and just making himself die every time. It was more about when he recorded this and showed it on the Internet. Most kids who play video games don't really care about the war in Iraq. To them, war is cool! When in reality, it sucks. Perhaps this is why DeLappe made this demonstration on the video game. To influence the kids who have been mesmerized by the art of war in video game form.
Some of his physical works were in the form of cardboard statues that he made. He made a bunch that were made to represent Gandhi and some others that were shaped like the dead-in-Iraq soldiers in the America's Army Game. These works were not as powerful as the protests he had done online but they were a reminder to those who are familiar with his work.
He has also done some different somewhat random works. He did a piece where he put two computer mouses together to make a heart. Another of his pieces was a big ball of joysticks. When asked about this piece, he said it was to see how useless the joysticks are. They are a useless part of our lives. 

Joseph DeLappe

Gandhi

Robert Rauschenberg

This is one of Rauschenberg’s most famous works. Its called “estate.” It shows some 20^th century buildings, along with some signs and the Statue of Liberty. To me, this represents modern America. The Statue of Liberty shows that the piece is about America while all the rustic looking buildings sort of sum up the urbanization that happened in America as it was progressing in the 20^th century. The different pictures all seem to be inter-related. It all flows together.

Most of Rauschenberg’s painting use juxtaposition to compare different time periods in American history. All of these pictures are showing different aspects of America during the same time periods. Rauschenberg was known for taking non-traditional materials or pictures were combined to make art.

Mariko Mori

This image makes me think of juxtaposition. It’s as if Mori is using her weird alien suit to compare her world with the “normal” world. Most of her works of art have to do with taking some weird costume and putting it in a position of everyday life. I don’t quite understand the inspiration behind the purple alien/robot suit but I don’t think that is as important as what it portrays. It is almost as if Mori is showing how nobody really expresses themselves anymore. They just go about their busy lives like in the picture.

One of the other things I found interesting about this picture is that she is standing right next to the busy store and yet it appears as though no one is looking at her. In reality, we often ignore things that “stand out” because they have become normal to us. Everyone is so busy that we don’t even stop to see what is going on in reality. That is not the case in this picture. Nobody is even acknowledging her. 

Harold Cohen-AARON

Harold Cohen is a british artist who created a robot named AARON that paints! Every night, Aaron creates images in his computer memory. After Cohen picks a picture, Aaron spends about 5 hours painting the image. This is so amazing because it is artificial intelligence in action. Robots are starting to create paintings from their memory. The paintings may not be the most eye pleasing things in the world but they are unique because they are a robots view of the world.

This painting makes me think about the progression of art. Could this be the future of the art world? Will robots make our art pieces from now on? The people in this painting are somewhat frightening to look at but at the same time the rich colors make it look good. The swirls in the pattern make me think of Van Gogh a little bit. Perhaps that style of paining will be resurrected through robots like Aaron.

Eadweard Muybridge

Muybridge was one of the first modern video artists. He took still pictures and put them together to make videos. In a time when still photos ruled the art world, Muybridge began putting together videos like this. This video is made by putting still photos together and putting it all in motion. It is very interesting because it is one of the first motion pictures. These are two of his more famous videos. They show each and every movement of a horse and a bucking mule. It is very much like a modern day slow motion video. 

What is particularly amazing about these videos was the time they were created in. During this time images did not come to life. They were still photos. These however, brought a still world to life.

Scott Blake

Scott Blake works with electronic media. Here is one of his pieces of art. This picture is a bunch of pop up bars inside of each other, creating the image of lots of depth. The photograph represents surfing the web. It seems to show the infinite data that is found on the internet. This picture is not cool because it is difficult to make. Rather it is what it represents.

We can see from the top bar that there are 25 boxes. However to the viewer it looks infinite. Much like the internet. When we surf the web it seems like the choices are infinite when in reality there is a finite number. This is a really cool picture because it takes a flat computer screen and makes it look like it has a great depth.

The Quotidian World

Today we went down to the art gallery at Cypress College to look at the exhibit "The Quotidian World."Quotidian is defined as: "Of or occurring every day." I could understand how some of the videos were things that happen every day. One in particular was just a video of a glass of water. The focus shifted in and out. This was one "normal" video. I didn't understand a lot of the other ones.
 I was watching this one video that had these two girls with long hair. They were swinging their hair all around. Hitting each other, tying their hair together, dancing around. It seemed really weird to me. Then Glenn told me that these types of videos are definitely not like the normal "YouTube" videos. They have a deeper meaning to them. As I watched I tried to put the movements together but I just couldn't piece it together. I admired the beauty in their dancing but I couldn't understand exactly what they were trying to say through their movements...
Their were some other interesting videos to say the least. After walking around the area I was still kinda confused at what the videos meant. They were cool to look at! But hard to understand... At least thats my opinion.

Identity Project

First off, I have to say that I had two of our family computers stolen a few months ago so I lost almost all of  my pictures. Basically, the only pictures I have left are the few that I have on facebook. With that being said, here is my identity project.

I separated it into four of the most important parts of my life. In the center is a picture of a cross and a bible. These represent my faith in Jesus Christ which is the most important part of my life. Everything else comes from that. I am a huge sports fan.

 I love watching the Boston Red Sox and the Anaheim Ducks play. I play on a softball team and a hockey team. LOVE hockey and baseball. I'm also a good fisherman. Every July, I hike Mt. Whitney with my family and family friends. 

I also have a few pictures of my family. In the bottom left picture its me and my cousins. My cousins are my best friends. We've been close since we were all little kids. In the picture above it, we have my siblings. I cut out a picture of my older brother and glued it in there. For one thing, I couldn't find a picture with all of us. But at the same time, its symbolic because we don't all get along with him. There aren't many pictures of all of us together.

Another section is a few pictures of me in groups with my friends. Most of the kids are from my youth group at church. Those are my best friends. I'm a very group oriented person. I have very few pictures of just myself. I love being in pictures with all my friends. That way it isn't just about me, but rather the group as a whole.

The last couple pictures are me and my ex-girlfriends. I have been heart-broken twice. One time it was especially hard on me. Since then, I have just stayed content with being single.

That's my identity project. It isn't very creative (i'm not a very creative person) but I thought it summed up my life quite nicely.

LACMA

LACMA is a HUGE museum! I finally got down there on Saturday, March 5th. I went with my parents, little brother, and my uncle Joe. It got difficult to keep my little brother interested towards the end of the day. There was a lot of really cool stuff in each building. It was almost too much good stuff. When I was in the last few buildings I began to feel like I just wanted to go home. I wasn't studying all the pictures like I did in the beginning. It was still a cool experience though. I decided to spend my time focusing on the art that I wouldn't normally focus on. Instead of looking at the painting I tried to focus on the sort of weird, interesting art. I put a greater focus on the models and 3d art.
In the pavillion for Japanese art I found this picture of a tsunami/rocky waves. I thought it was a really cool picture and I loved the dark blue and the snowy volcano. I love the color blue and I love the snow. I thought it was interesting how this painting looked a lot like Japanese cartoons and yet this painting was drawn hundreds of years ago.
I found this in the Hammer building with the Chinese art. It's the eight Confucian principles in Chinese characters. The eight principles are: filial piety, brotherhood, loyalty, trust, propriety, righteousness, integrity, and sensibility.
In the Art of the America's building I saw this thing on the floor with tons of letters. It was cool because we could touch the letters and make our names or whatever so I decided to write my name. Except I couldn't find a k anywhere!! So I wrote Patrick in spanish, Patricio! Then I took a picture of it. I thought it was neat how anyone could create their own art from that piece.
In the contemporary art building there was lots of awesome stuff! The only piece I felt like I could relate with tho was this piece with these basketballs floating in water. I LOVE sports so I thought this was really cool. The basketballs were all signed by Dr. J.K. I wasn't sure who that was... I know Dr. J was Julius Erving who was a basketball player who played in the NBA during the 70's but is that who it was signed by? I still don't quite understand what defines art tho. A lot of stuff in that building was really cool to look and all but is it all art? For instance, the five colorful bars that were just laying against the wall. What makes those art? Or the basketballs floating in water, or the Corn Flakes boxes. I just thought those were all interesting choices to put in an art museum. While I walked through that building I also wondered why "modern" art looks like that. Who started that style? Why did the contemporary period start after World War 2 and why did it change?
There was a special exhibit about the history of fashion. I'm not really into "fashion" but I do love wearing suits. I was particularly interested in the old suits. Here are some of the cool ones that I saw. I probably wouldn't wear some of these but I just thought it was interesting how the style of suits has changed over the years.
There were some other cool pieces of art in the European art building. There was one piece that was just a mirror basically. I thought it was cool how that in itself was in the museum. There were some giant pool balls that were cool too.
Final Thoughts: I should have taken a lot more pictures with the exhibits but unfortunately I did not. I noticed that there were a lot of security guards but 80% (no joke) of them were texting or on their phones! The fail of the day award goes out to the men and women "protecting" the valuable art. I salute you!

Here are some of the pieces I liked:

"This is not a pipe."