Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Therese/Shane/Jeremy

Jeremy/Sartre
     While the article remained slightly over a page in length, and attempted to cover an authors entire life of work, it was still extremely successful.The idea of predestination being challenged at that time was an extremely daring thought. The idea of this shook the very idea of organized religion, and essentially religion as a notion, to its core. The main idea that Sartre conveys was dumbed down by the articles author. The idea that your existence precedes and defines your essence. While the notion of this was simplified, it does convey the ideas that Sartre was attempting to explain with his literary works. In my work there has been a huge influence some ideas that were contemplated in this writing. The main idea that has influenced my work would be the thought that one day your essence will  simply cease to exist. Dealing with thoughts like these are a daily battle in my life. While i do believe that early french existentialist authors are generally full of swill, I thoroughly enjoyed an author dumbing down his simple form of philosophy. 

Ehow/Shane
     I do not agree that the Ehow article provided a good example of conceptual art. The fact that there is an Ehow article on conceptual art does not change the way that I think about conceptual art by any means. There is one large difference between the Ehow article and the Bob Ross painting show, the fact that Bob Ross could paint beautiful shrubbery. It is possible that high art can survive in the modern world, and will more than likely continue to do so for many years.  

Adrian Piper/Therese 
     I do not feel as though I would like to discuss what stereotypes that I may or may not fit into. I suppose that I feel most masculine when I am taking a trip to the store to by cologne made for men, or perhaps being fitted for a suit. I do not generally ever feel feminine, nor do I have any desire to. You may not take a video of either of my actions. I do not know how to feel about Adrian Piper being put on a suspicious traveler list as the article did not provide enough information about the event. There was not enough information provided in the article for me to form an opinion on her work. 

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Michelle Grabner artist talk?USF





So tonight I attended an artist talk by Michelle Grabner at USF in Tampa. The talk was extremely interesting. A large portion of her talk concentrated on an exhibition space that she has started out of her home in Chicago called "Suburban".The artists and work that she has shown thus far in the "Suburban" exhibition space are extremely interesting, and most definitely worth paying attention to.The requirements for artists that show at Suburban are fairly loose, the main rule being that the artists may not be from Chicago. The last rule is that the work shown within the space are not for sale, therefore the exhibition space is a non for profit entity. She also has an exhibition space called the poor house in a small rural town outside of Chicago. Here are links to the two various spaces that she owns and runs, as well as some notes that I took during her talk. 

http://www.thesuburban.org/artists.html
as well as an article on her exhibition space the poor house
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/52921762.html













Robert Smithson/entropy

     I did not realize,until many days after I had read the article, that the author was the creator of the sculpture "Spiral Jetty." I feel as though the role that he played in the earth art movement plays a crucial role in the opinions that are conveyed throughout the text. The notion of entropy being something that can occur on a social scale was a new concept at that time. In this current day and age people can use the term on a personal scale.
    The term extropy was not coined until 1984. The author refers to extropy as "reverse entropy" throughout the article. Smithson also mentions that actions like recycling contain "reverse entropic" properties. In this day and age extropy has been stretched to other ideas and actions that pertain to the maximization of human life. A strong example of such a thing would be a drug that prevents, or slows down, aging within humans.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

hello.

     After finishing page three of the article, I had to walk to the library desk and ask the librarian for a hi-liter. The article jumped between so many ideas and examples within the first three pages alone. I felt as though a prescription of Ritalin might have been more beneficial than attempting to root through muck of ideas that the author is bringing in to play. I did enjoy the comparison of the I-pod design flowing into the design of many everyday things. The author makes the claim that his neighborhood has succumbed to the i-pod design invasion.
     "Optional environments, optional creatures. Made for each other." This statement was made after the author made a paragraph rant about some of the more important advancements humans have made over the past fifty or so years. The amalgamation of all these things into one possible entity is a scary and formidable thought. The supreme example of this idea is accredited to the example of a quadriplegic whose paralytic state has been "cured" by connecting him so a large amount of wires, which enable him to control a computer mouse. This literary representation of the crippled man serves as a puppet to make claims that the meshing of human life and technology is more than likely going to advance to more bizzare, and macabre, states in the near future.