Final Project WIP Part 2

This is the video version of my project. Enjoy!

Final Project WIP Pt. 1

This is a still from my whole project. I will eventually bring the board in and use it as a permanent fixture.

Final Project Proposal

For my final project I would like to record a doodle of me drawing a sort of Infographic. I am hoping that by recording marker stroke by marker stroke as I apply it to either marker board or paper. I want the piece to be art about art, or use art as a communication tool. It will be versatile and meant to be shared across social media platforms and hopefully be something that I can further develop.

Performance Piece

For my performance art piece, I chose to place a blank sheet of paper beside my collage of brush strokes, and encourage my audience to join in my piece. My project deviated from my anticipation of what it would be. I was hoping that individuals would embrace the idea of making abstract marks and joining in continuing the project. However, what I have thus far is a combination of abstract marks and acrylic brush graffiti. I observed that my audience was also more interested in observing and participating than they were reading the statement. What I believe the project informed me is that individuals are interested in communicating things literally. Symbols and marks are, as of now, an even spread across the page. While not literal some of my marks are, in fact, representations of specific emotions, movements, and gestures themselves. Also, I observed some fear about violating a clean canvas. Then I encouraged mark making, as did Kate, and John, and people joined right in. When given unrestricted freedom it was interesting to see what came about, and how quickly individuals actually joined in. I had a filled page within an hour. As the project continues I am still hoping for more abstract marks. I may very well hide the graffiti marks and put up a half sheet of abstract lines and patches. Where the audience takes it will be interesting to see.

Participation & Performance

For my performance piece, I will be setting up an easel near my exhibit "Untitled-1." The existing piece has roughly 100 patches made from digital and paint brushes. I made the patches along with my siblings and grandma. I gave them a blank sheet of drawing paper, brushes, and black acrylic; and said "Make whatever you want." I then took those brushes and scanned them into photoshop. Using photoshop I also made digital patches using simulated brushes (the digital version of what I used in the originals). Finally, in full color, I made collages of those are central to the piece. Folks will be asked to approach the easel and make their own patch of paint. By joining in something so simple and freeing, I hope that negative perceptions and attitudes toward art will be broken down. The action is so primitive in the simple making of marks, but so freeing in the unrestrained expression of self. I hope that the piece grows with completely random additions from artists, professors, students, the public, and possibly E. Gordon Gee, himself.

Drains: The Feature Presentation

This is a video of my house. I decided to use the most mundane element that I could possibly find: my drains. I think this video causes me to consider many things. One is the equality that a drain represents. Sure the MTV shows might display bigger more elaborate homes but I doubt that the drains are much different, save some gold plating. I find a little comfort in that fact. That though life may give us different things, there is the common denominator of our humanity. Also, I think that we take many things for granted. Drains and other mundane elements are quietly integral to our lives. So I wanted to give the mundane a little time in the limelight.

Drains

Today I will be exploring my house using only drains. This is an abstract social/economic commentary that I think only this assignment would allow me to get away with. Part of me hopes this is as really weird and awkward as it sounds, and part of me hopes it isn't. Hahaha. But seriously, my thought in doing this is two fold. What if I were able to make drains exciting, or what if I were to choose to make a boring video? Furthermore, with MTV shows about houses showing every bit of huge mansions, what if they were to only take footage of people's drains. Now, with the few overdone exceptions, all of our drains look the same. The inside of our toilet bowls are pretty well identical. And it's in this lowly denominator I find kind of a cool equal ground with every single human being on the planet.