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."

Identity #3

While watching the videos today that talked about beauty I realized a few things. Those videos that showed the women getting plastic surgery made me feel sick. Not because they were getting plastic surgery, but because society has told women how they have to look. The video of the girls picture getting photoshopped was terrible. I don't think that there is an objective beauty. Much like the beauty of a rose, the beauty is in the authenticity of it. Women are beautiful the way they are and they don't need to succumb to the pressures of what others tell them they should be like. I think that beauty is subjective. A person or an object is not beautiful because it has no flaws. Everything has flaws. To try and distort that view would be wrong. When a persons picture (could be a man or a woman) is changed to make them look skinnier than people normally are is changing the person in the picture from a human to... Something else!
When Glenn showed us the pictures of the women, most people chose the painting of Venus as the most beautiful. I think this is because the painting looks like a woman. It wasn't distorted. Just an authentic picture of what a woman really looks like.