Michael's Personal Space Project

I thought that Michael's video personal space project was a good idea. I liked how the fights between him and his girlfriend were escalated and how they seemed very real. The exchange back and forth was half playful and half serious with undertones of spite and that's what made them so successful in making the people that he was interviewing uncomfortable. It was a good experiment to see how people are responsive to others emotions around them. You could tell that the subjects became more and more uncomfortable as the scene progressed.

I think that it was an interesting experiment to do. It was thoroughly documented without cuts it seems making the experience all more miserable and hilarious at the same time because it is so strung out. All in all I think it was a good examination of human response.

Art Show Review: Dan Kwong Visit

Dan Kwong Is a very interesting live performance based artist that utilizes film, effects and other mechanisms to give an interesting performance while on stage. When I went to the meeting with him I got to hear a bit about his artistic philosophy. He said that he believes that there is a part of us that marvels at being the center of attention, that we believe that we have something to tell the world, and that's where performance comes from. He said that experiences where we are judged or shut down can hinder this ability. He also said that he believes that the "Mad Artist" stereotype is a misconception an that artists such as Van Gough created in spite of their mindsets not because of them. I thought he was very insightful. He then asked the spoken word artists to come up and share their pieces to receive professional critique. They had very good pieces and they all were quite entertaining to hear. I thought that Chanel Miller was a very good spoken word artist. Her pieces touched on insecurity and inability to fit in being of mixed asian american heritage. I thought that the analogies that she used were very relative and compelling. Dan kept trying to make me go up on stage, but I had no performance pieces to tell him about so I shared some of the projects that I had been working on in Art 7A and the others asked me questions about them. It was a great experience and I am very grateful to have gotten the opportunity.

Projects

Here Are All My Projects And All The Links :)


Personal Space: http://art7andrea.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-personal-space-project.html


Alternate Persona: http://art7andrea.blogspot.com/2011/05/alternate-persona-project.html


Sequence Project: http://art7andrea.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-sequence-project.html

Confession Project: http://art7andrea.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-confession.html

Random Act of Kindness: http://art7andrea.blogspot.com/2011/04/random-act-of-kindness.html

Nexus Article: http://art7andrea.blogspot.com/2011/04/follow-up-to-work-this-week.html
http://art7andrea.blogspot.com/2011/04/breaking-news.html

Altered Everyday Action: http://art7andrea.blogspot.com/2011/04/ordinary-action-unordinary-place.html

Pun: http://art7andrea.blogspot.com/2011/04/documentation-of-pun.html

http://art7andrea.blogspot.com/2011_03_29_archive.html

My biggest fears were the workload of this quarter, the critique and the creative expectations of the course.

I think it's safe to say that I overcame all these fears. My workload has been a lot stressful during finals and midterm time, but since this was the class that I liked the best, and I really didn't like my other ones, I gave my most to this class and I enjoyed doing so.

The critiques weren't that bad. I thought that people were going to be brutal but even when we were evaluating something that was obviously not done with much effort or time, the critique was gentle suggestions to develop ideas. I think that the ideas behind all the work were good and original and personal for the most part and that made it inappropriate to tear people apart, they definitely wouldn't deserve it.

I feel like the intimidation of the creative process of the project proposals was quickly one of my favorite challenges rather than a real struggle. I really like this sort of live art aspect of the class and I feel like I rose to meet the challenge and the out of my box thinking that the class required. I truly enjoyed, and learned from this class and feel like I want to further my work in this area.

Classes

I think that all of the classes that Desiree has dreamed up sound really interesting. I would be down to take all of them actually. They seem a lot better than some of the courses that are upper division right now. After this class, I have become much more interested in art as it relates and plays into life and I feel like that is a common theme in all the courses that were advertised. I really like the Spectacle Praxes idea and the Art as an Activist idea. These are classes that I feel I would enjoy most and have a great time in. They kind of focus on areas of Art and life that I enjoyed most in 7A and would love to have spent more time on. I want these classes to be real!! They seem so much better than the classes that I'm looking at taking such as digital media and stuff like that. I don't love building websites or programming but it seems like that's one of the only ways to go for upper division art credits. I like art that was featured in art 7a so much better, it seems so pertinent to life and culminates in a beautiful array of ways, that's why I like these class ideas a lot.

My Personal Space Project

For my personal space project, I decided to have a table where people could relive their childhood for a few moments via toys and play objects that would possibly conjure up nostalgia. I covered the table with paper and had crayons, paints, markers, a few balls, play doh, and bubbles. I invited people to come play and dressed up in a tutu with pigtails and an oversized shirt. I wanted to convey the image of a little girl just playing who wore whatever she wanted for the day. I stood outside the Ucen. I had not a lot of people come to my table. I think because it was so early and they were going out to classes, all busy. The people that did come however were really enjoying themselves. I think that Play doh was the most popular object. I also had a question written down for people to write their answer on the paper. I asked "what do you miss most about being a child?" Some people wrote answers, but since I didn't get much traffic anyway I didn't get many answers. I got a few funny responses such as "pokemon" and "light up shoes" "everything" "just miss having fun" I talked to people and I think that the most common thing that people miss are a sense of carefree and no worries as well as not having to provide for oneself. I had a great time interacting with people and it was a very successful experience.I just wanted to give people an escape and touch on a few happy memories from their past playtimes.

Freeform

I would like to use this time to rant about how much I am hating this past couple of weeks.
I have so many projects, papers and studying to do! I can't believe it.
Then on top of that my friend quit my work where I got her a job and so now
I am having to pick up hours for her.
The next day that I have to relax is after finals, for half a day and then I have to go to work again.
Basically I have no time for breathing and relaxing and it stresses me out!
I cried yesterday after writing a 5 page paper
because I feel like I have way too much stuff to do in too little time.

I have learned a little bit from this experience though
I have learned the value of me time
Like I always took it for granted and just messed around or napped with my free time.
Since I am so busy with everything
I would literally give money to get time to just do anything that I would do in my freetime again.
I'm not trying to be super dramatic
But it is really therapeutic and essential to have time to relax, clear your mind and do something for yourself.
I can't wait to do that.

Personal Space Tuesday

I thought that all the personal space projects were extremely creative and fun. It was great going around to see what everyone had come up with. One of my favorite would have to be Eddie's project where he asked people to convince him either way about religions, since he was agnostic. I liked how he had a guitar and seemed peaceful and approachable. it was a creative idea and although we didn't encounter anyone interacting with him later I passed by the Ucen and I saw a group of 2 or 3 people crowded around talking to him. I noticed that religion and ideology has been a overarching theme for the work that he has done in the class and I appreciate how it is obviously a topic that is personal and inspirational. I also liked Chelsey's project where she was dressed as a skunk and was spraying everywhere. It was a very brave project to do because I know how hard it is to approach people, especially when you're going to do something unpleasant to them. Everyone that she interacted with didn't seem to mind too much though. I appreciated the way that she went all out with her face make up, the bottle of liquid ass, and the costume. The best projects were the ones where the people thought a lot about what they wanted to do and paid attention to making the details of it enhancing to the experience.

Art Show: The Bellagio Gallery Room, Las Vegas

 At the Bellagio Las Vegas there was a very awesome over the top art gallery complete with parrots in a glass aviary, I never would have guessed that there was art in a place like Las Vegas but there was. Even though the vast majority of people who see it will never appreciate it like they appreciate their pseudo tribal lower back stamp or bicep tattoo stating their biker gang status.

 They had umbrellas hung from the ceiling making beautiful 3d patterns. They had a ferris wheel that lit up, they had a handmade tree and fake hot air balloons hanging everywhere. it looked like a little wonderland. It was really magical and interesting. No artists were cited here. There were also rose parade style larger than life birds made out of some seeds or some organic looking material.

I liked the Chihuly ceiling a lot. It was huge! it covered the length of the lobby much larger than I had seen in pictures. Finally my own picture of it is to the right. I loved the organic shapes and structures that I saw in the Bellagio. I was greatly impressed by its gallery, if only there were more places in Las Vegas like this, if only hotels they used their money for art also, because they can afford such extravagant things, they might attract a classier crowd.

ADIOS LAS VEGAS!

My Least Favorite Place

My least favorite place...

The doctor's office.

In addition to being a slow and inefficient trip with a lot of waiting, going to the doctor's office usually means that I'm hurt or I will be hurt by needles, or some other piece of doctors office equipment. It all looks like torture devices. None of that shit is natural. Then someone invades your personal space completely, and you're supposed to be okay with it because society tells us we need to do this yearly to make sure we are healthy. What's really sad is that it's come to the point in society where we are all feeding ourselves such bad food and not exercising or anything to keep ourselves healthy that we probably do need someone to assess us each year to help us with medicine which allows us to keep treating ourselves badly but get away with the consequences and still live a little longer.  Nexium for a clogged arteries and acid reflux, prozac for people who can't deal with their lives, and face their problems to be happy by themselves, you can get lipo if you just can't bear to work out or eat healthy, theres a fix for literally everything without actually having to put energy or consciousness for your own health. I am not saying that hospitals or doctors offices are all bad, some are really miracle workers for people and fix things that people didn't do to themselves, like leukemia and cancer in children, congenital diseases and deformities. An overarching theme for the doctors offices that I have been in though is a fast cure for people who won't take care of themselves. Upper middle class. Standard. I hate being around it and I hate people telling me I need a shot to ward off disease because we live in a place so infested with crap that my body will probably be too weak to ward off the crazy evolved viruses that people in essence have helped evolve through things like antibiotics and vaccines. Vicious Circle. 

Fuck Doctor's Offices.

My Favorite Place

My favorite place is probably the beach on Maui Island.
It is so calming and beautiful and the water is clear and warm. It is so much nicer than the Santa Barbara beach. I love the rain forest that lies along the beach. It is amazing to be in such a tropical ancient area. I love tropical climates. That is what I'm most comfortable in. It gets cold for me in a lot of other places. If I could live on Maui when I graduate I would be living my dream. This is by far my favorite place that I have been to by far.

My favorite place locally would probably have to be my bed.
It is always warm and cozy and I can always count on it being there for me. I've taken measures to maximize comfort with blankets, a mattress topper and down bedding. I love my bed and it is always really hard for me to get out of in the morning. I know it sounds lazy but I do a lot in my bed. I do my homework while I sit on it, and I watch movies with my friends on it, paint my nails, watch tv on my laptop. basically a lot of my leisurely activities center around my bed and since free time is a thing that I am always low on I really enjoy when I have time to be in my bed.

Freeform

I am about to go to Las Vegas tomorrow. I am really excited for the trip. I have to do my freeform today so that I can take  the weekend off in Vegas. I can start by telling you about what I'm going to do there.
I am going to Vegas with Sigep. My favorite bros. :)
We're staying in 2 bedroom suites at Planet Hollywood. We have Jacuzzis in the rooms!
I am really excited for that...who doesn't love a jacuzzi?
I can't wait to have a vacation day before finals although Memorial Day traffic is going to suck!!!
I am going to check out some art while I am there.
We're going to the Cirque Du Soliel  Love show that features the Beatles music.
It should be really interesting. I like the idea of acrobatics as art.
I also want to see the Bellagio where they have a whole ceiling constructed by Chihuli.

It should be a fun trip.

Critique of Persona Projects 2

Today I really liked Mary Beth's project. I felt like her persona and the way she presented it as an audition tape for the Real World was so smart. I appreciated how she went all the way as to get fake nails, bleach her hair and get a spray tan to get more into character...and that stuff isn't cheap! Her video was well made and she stayed in character the whole time, I felt like this was a very opposite role for her because she seems so laid back and quiet. She really went the extra mile with her persona. I also thought that the ninja persona was good. The video was also very well made. I liked how he was always creepily hiding, but yet always getting discovered by people. it made for a funny video.

I don't want to say that there was any project in particular that was weakest today. But, as a closing statement to this project I would like to say that it really showed when people really got into their work and diligently documented and acted out their persona effectively. Projects that came out of this kind of an experiences were 100 percent better than those who didn't get into their persona or didn't change much about themselves. It often reflected in the documentation as well. Overall there were a lot of great projects and a few ones that could have used some work.

Alternate Identity Reflection

I had a great time doing the alternate identity project. It made me think of how we conform to our own social niches quite often. I feel like based on what category people fall into, they dress a certain way say certain things and adopt a certain persona. It is not always the other way around. I thought that it was interesting how it was so easy for me to think of how to dress and how to talk because such a stereotype follows the term of frat guy. I feel like even if I had not said what I was that people would have still been able to tell by those markers and I think that that says something about how our social system works. In an age of online social media I feel like there are a lot more people trying to give off a persona. as opposed to a more accurate representation of their personality. I think that they think that this may be easier than actually letting people see who they are, because after all this is such a public space, but also maybe people try to attract certain types of people to them by the way that they represent themselves online. I think that there is much to be analyzed in the range of reality vs projection and the projected persona and stereotyping. I would love to learn more about the social experiments or research in this area because it is so pertinent and intriguing.

Alternate Identity

I liked Erika's alternate identity as Martin the alien and Kate as a cowgirl as well. I thought that these two stood out very nicely among the rest. Their videos were both very strong and it seemed like they stayed in character the entire time. I liked how both went the extra mile to include props and accessories as well as back story to their identities. They were very creative and hilarious identities. I liked how Erika was communicating with the plants and telling them they deserved a better life it was endearing and interesting how they would intercommunicate. I thought her use of props and strange antics was really funny. I also liked how Kate actually took her identity very public and filmed peoples reactions to her at various stores. It was a great idea to lasso her food at the grocery store and her dinner looked delicious even the components reflected her alternate identity. The way she treated her horse was very in character. I thought that these two were the best examples of alternate identity because they executed the project and also had a great video documentation to follow it up with. They went the extra distance and it definitely showed, they could have just taken photos but the choice to do both made their project with both and i thought that was one of the things that made it most effective for me because I'm really into the effort and professionality of a project no matter what the subject.

My least favorite would probably have to be Dane's: I mean it was a good idea but it needed more documentation. He had a minimal amount of photos for a 48 hour project and not real laid out guidelines as to what "living casually" meant.

Alternate Persona Project

For my alternate persona I chose to be a frat guy for 48 hours. I was called Andre and dressed like a frat guy and joined in on frat activities.The guys totally played a long with the project and got really into it. They let me film a good amount of my experiences. Some things were kept off film though because filming would upset people. For example in the morning the guys all sing in the shower and yell hilarious things usually commenting on their morning shits, but no one wanted to be filmed during that part of their day. The Rec Cen at UCSB would not let me film inside their facilities while I did bench press and was led in a work out by one of my frat brothers, that was a shame.  Also, they had a huge party the first night that I was there but I could not film it. It was interesting being on the other side of their parties though, I usually attend them as a girl obviously, but it was fun hanging out with the guys and hearing the things that they pay attention to at parties like how the girls look and how fucked up their friends are getting. I learned alot from this, for example, "Bass Fishing" is a term used by the frat to stop their bros from hooking up with an unattractive girl. I.E. "Dude let's go bass fishing this weekend, you down? I heard there are a lot of bass out in the lagoon to catch!" Then the guy knows to try to shake off the girl. I also played volleyball, drank a lot while playing dangerous drinking games, went to the gym, played some video games, fucked around with some kitana swords and learned a lot of new frat skills like opening a beer with a lighter. All of which is documented. It was an exciting project. I feel like I bonded with the guys and will always have a little frattiness inside me after this. It was a great experiment and I enjoyed it very much. I would love to keep doing alternate personas because they are so fun.F

Response to Final

I had a bit of a hard time with the final exam,
I recognized all the work and remembered what they were about but I only remembered the artists that I had just reread about in my notes minutes before the final. I hope I get most of the points. The girl next to me took the whole time writing about the work so that kinda made me feel like an underachiever.

I liked the TA presentations alot. I would have liked to have more background info on the first guy's class projects. It looked like they made a lot of dioramas or something. Then I didn't understand what the portraits of the students had to do with anything or if that was a project too, I also didn't get why some portraits were all tribal and some were all black and white and clean. I have no idea what went on in that section but it still looked like a good time. The other 2 sections were good as well. I would have liked to see more confession pieces. I know Kiki Neibhur is in one of the sections and got a lot of attention for hers because she made herself look like a date rape victim and had video of that. I would have liked to see it. Our section's random performance was great! Alex is hilarious! It was easily the best show of alternate persona in the lecture. So Funny!

Today it is Fraturday

So... I'm in Sigep and it is just as epic as I thought!
I basically rage and hang out with the bros all the time. It is livin the fuckin dream let me tell you.
50 guys all in one house and there is never a dull or quiet moment.
We burp and sing and drink and work out all together and motivate each other to excel in all aspects of our lives.
I had a philanthropy this weekend, which is like...a party for a cause.
I worked out.... obviously.
I played fuckin epic and dangerous drinking games but thats what being a bro is all about.
I volley balled it up and showed my skills.
I also killed fuckin zombies on the new Call of Duty map. All the guys will appreciate this.
Alot of the events that we do are secret aka too epic to let the rest of the school know what we're doing so I'll just have to write about those things because they aren't documented.
We had a great weekend. Me and my Bros for life.
Later. Gotta Blast.

Which artist I would be...

If I could be any artist I would be El Mac. He is a great photo realist and street artist. I would love to have talent to be able to render such realistic images. A lot of his images center around latino heritage and celebrating latina women. I like how his images look like they are photoshopped but they are done with paint. It would be amazing to be commissioned to make beautiful murals such as the one above in LA. It is like 15 minutes away from my house and I have always admired it. I would like to have talent like his and have my street art shown in a legitimate way where people now pay me to  put my art on the street to be seen by a huge number of people. I like how public the canvas is. I would love to have both this artists skill and his job. i love the intricate details and how he embodies chicano culture.

Super Villain

If I could be any super villain I would be Star Sapphire from the Infinite Crisis Comic Series.Her alternative identity is Deborah Camille Darnell and she is also Remoni-Notra; a princess from outer space who doubles as Deborah the flight stewardess. "As Star Sapphire, Darnell can use her gem of power to fly and to hurl blasts of force nearly equal to the power of a Green Lantern's ring. Moreover, the Sapphire bestows upon her a certain amount of invulnerability and allows her to survive in airless space." She battles the Justice League and is eventually killed by them but until then she does some really bad ass things. She can fly so she just flies around in space and causes chaos and annoys the justice league. Personally the justice league seem like a bunch of self righteous pricks that are super nationalistic and non questioning. I like star sapphire because she obviously has a vast knowledge of what else is out there and has been indoctrined into the secret society of super villains and obviously has a problem with the justice league who all seem pretty annoying to me. It seems like a battle that our government has waged for a while advocating ignorance and fighting outer space ideas and possible alien encounters, we are so quick to judge and just kill people who are different. I think this is highly symbolic and I am on the side of Star Sapphire.