Collecting

I was inspired by an article in the August/September 2008 Ready Made magazine about Shauna Alterio and Stephen Loidolt, an artist couple who, with their loves of sculpture, collecting, and design, make a very creative space out of their Philadelphia studio loft apartment.

"Shauna describes herself as a super-organized collector. 'I'm obsessed with multiples of things, from being a printmaker'" (ReadyMade, 64). This is shown in the images below: a collection of old classroom globes line the top of their studio wall, and a well presented display of plastic deer add character to the couple's headboard. Their collections are fun and unique, but also very polished due to their specific color palette.

Shauna's collecting ties into the article from our course reader in that, "artistic collecting is relatively open-ended, less goal-oriented" (Collecting, 22). In my opinion, her reason for collecting is more for visual pleasure than chaotic documenting and saving, however her collections also archives things from the past, "[Their home] is as refined as a finely curated art show, partly because the couple is fearless about getting rid of things that don't belong anymore" (ReadyMade, 67).

Their space is very inspiring to me. They are able to pair unwanted, random stuff into an organized and beautiful display.

T-Shirt: The (not so) Great Wave by Hokusai

For our culture of the copy assignment, we were instructed to take a popular image or icon and and use the derivative on the front of a t-shirt and place our own trans formative image on the back. The class looked at examples of the Mona Lisa; one of the most copied images of all time, to serve as inspiration.

I chose to take the popular "Great Wave" image by artist Hokusai. I broke the painting down into graphic, black and white counterparts. I then cut a stencil out of acetate (overhead transparency) and used black fabric paint to adhere it to my white shirt. On the back of my t-shirt, I used the same stencil but used iron on transfer paper to print out images of garbage that I cut out and ironed to the image of the wave. I just wanted to make a comment about humans pollution of the oceans and how trash make the "Great Wave" not so great. It was the first shirt I have ever made, and was challenging but rewarding as well.

Reflection on chapter 5: Visual Technologies, Image Reproduction, and the Copy

The last chapter in Practices of Looking that the class read was all about technologies and reproduction. A quote right from the beginning of the chapter summarizes it well: "Our discussion spans from the early nineteenth century through the early twenty-first century, considering photography, cinema, television, and digital image techniques. We discuss visual technologies from the mechanical to the digital and the impact of reproducibility on the social meanings and value of images" (183). A lengthy quote, yes, but I appreciate the clarity of the thesis on such a "dis clear" subject. The chapter is divided into seven sections: Visual Technologies, Motion and Sequence, Image Reproduction: The Copy, Walter Benjamin and the Mechanical Reproduction, The Politics of Reproducibility, Copies Ownership and Copyright, and Reproduction and the Digital Image.

In the first section, the author went into great detail about the changes that the photographic camera brought to the world. The text then questions the moment that photography shifted from the individual to the social, "Photography emerged as a popular medium not simply because it was invented, but because it fulfilled particular social demands of the early nineteenth century" (184).

Motion and Sequence, the next section, talked about sequential photography in the 1800's. I find it interesting that there was an increased interest in visualizing movement - something everyone in society today take for granted. With many scientific studies on movement, it is obvious to see that this research foreshadowed cinema (which this section also covers). The one point that I find most interesting about early cinema, is that it was designed for only one very at a time (not a whole theater full!) That along can change the whole way an image is viewed.

Following that history lesson of visual technologies, the chapter talks about the copy, first as a highly revered art form in Egypt, and then once again in the subject of photography. A main point dealing with "the copy" is the factor of value. "When works are produced in a series, reproducibility is often understood within a system of limited works" (190) An example that always pops into my head is prints; my mother loves collection art, and as a child I would always go to art fairs and bizarres with her, and I remember her saying (as she was flipping through a stack of prints) always look for the lowest number, and I was always confused, because to me they all looked exactly the same. Walter Benjamin, a German critic, was highly interested in the ideal of the copy and wrote an essay "about the cultural shift to reproducible forms in art" (195).

Tuned Out: Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!

For our third project, we were assigned as a group to make a fictional movie synopsisthat represents our time and then, on our own, design a movie poster that reflects our movie. Heres is my groups synopsis:

Ledger lives in a high tech and fast pace world. No one talks to anyone and everyone stays in their houses. Ledger begins to realize how lonely this life is. He convinces a girl from an online chat to join him. The two of them both decide to turn off all of their electronics and go out into the real world. Will they be surprised by what they see, what will they find and is there anyone else out there or are they the only ones?

I chose to portray the movie as a romantic comedy and used design elements that were common for movie posters of that genre; white background, title at the bottom, actors names at top, and some cutesy photo of the two in the middle. I really enjoyed making this poster even though my hand got quite a workout cutting everything out with an exacto knife. I'm pleased with the results and I think it represents the movie synopsis well.