Seeing the Past in Present Tense-Paula Levine

"Monuments, commemoratives, memorials assert themselves in our consciousness, creating a presence that calls for remembrance,"

I found this interesting especially in respect to the Harburg monument, which has been relatively forgotten. It's a monument which has been looked past, loosing it;s meaning and it's memory, being replaced by unaware or caring shoppers, cigarette butts, and grass. It brings to the question how can a community forget an important monument of the past.

Monuments are an important part of the present as well as the past. Commemorating some sort of significant event, ect.

Culture Jamming-Mark Dery

"Culture Jamming" is an interesting term I'd never really thought about before. The "media hacking, information warfare, terror-art, and guerrilla semiotics, all in one." Some manifestations of culture jamming are sniping and subvertising. We are subjected to the jamming all the time, and we never even realize it.

We also never realize how much we are involved in the "TV experience." It's crazy to think how many people are bound by this and how it even leads to the rejection of things that boost intellect like books for example. I love to read but I have to admit that I watch more TV than I do reading. All that pointless time sitting in front of a screen, watching useless shows or movies I could have spent reading a good book. It's kind of sickening but the amount of people watching television is huge.

It's also interesting to learn about the histories of why and when television became popular and used more. For example times like the Persian Gulf War and the Reagan years.

"Reality isn't what is used to be," a very true quote, Dery even uses perfect examples to back up this notion of reality.

Culture Jamming

Little Fang Night Care

This is where I put my logo in public, at child care centers and nursery schools. I decided to put them in these places because it goes along with my logo a lace that takes care of children, even though mine is for vampire children. I left it up in the places I posted and every time I drive by it, I laugh and am also happy they leave it up.

This particular location is off of Lawton and Great Highway on the corner, unfortunately it was under construction but at the same time it was fortunate because they left a perfect plastic case in which i place it in.

I'm sorry that the logo is hard to see, but we wanted to fit in the nursery school sign.

3rd Event

Musee Mechanique !

I had peeked in this museum once before because of the creepy, carnival music/laughing but I had never fulling explored the place. It is amazing, I had no idea how many interesting things this museum would hold...and for free! There was so many sexual things, so many references to drunks, and so much death, for example the multiple guillotine scenes. It was so much fun walking through and seeing how old all of these things were and how explicit they were as well, especially compared to the actual new age arcade in the back. Besides the amusement there was also a lot of cultural history, for example the horse that resembled Muybridge's galloping horse. I could go on and on about this museum, I had no idea how much fun I would have, as well as how much fun my friends would enjoy it as well!

proposal

Proposal: Improbable Monument-Memorial Tombstones

Introduction:

My Improbable Monument idea is to create six large headstones/tombstones and place them in National Parks within the six continents (Africa, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia). And engraved on each of the tombstones will be the names of the extinct species of each continent.

Background:

This monument is in memorial to all of the animals and species that have become extinct and are no longer with us. It's a monument in memorial and as a way to remember. And hopefully these monuments will help protect the species of the future.

People need to be aware of the significant impact we have in the world, including the disruption of the natural world.In the past animals became extinct because of natural causes but now because of human beings existence animals have been becoming extinct because of hunting, pollution, or the destruction of the places where they live. As well as the number of extinct animals around the world is growing.

This monument will be important in bringing to awareness the issue of human involvement in the animal and natural world. Even the extinction of a species that seems insignificant is important. Perhaps this monument will reduce the amount of deaths that occur every year by calling to attention to this issue in a monumental way.

Project Description (including timeline and costs):

The audience for these monuments is all of the people in the world. They are for everyone to see the importance of a memorial to all of the species of the world that no longer exist. They are for humans to understand the impact that they have on the world and how devastating it can be sometimes.These gravestones are monuments for remembrance as well as awareness.

The graves will be made out of granite, a common material used when making tombstones. And although granite is very expensive when making even regular sized graves it is a good, durable material. The cost of each will be around $45,000. There will also be labor and transportation costs, which are part of the total estimated cost.

Because they are made out of granite they will have to be maintained and inspected regularly, this is done by monumental masons. These masons focus on the “creation, installation, and repairs of the tombstones,” (wiki) They are also each specialized in different and various professional tasks.They also restore the graves in order to avoid damage. They also do not refer to tombstones as tombstones but rather markers or monuments.

The inscriptions on the surface of each tombstone will be made by using computer controlled rotary bits and sandblasting. This is a process that can engrave many different designs and letters, it's also much easier than carving by hand (especially on such a large surface).Engraved on each will be the names of the extinct animals and also the ancient symbol of life, the Ankh.

In order to actually create these larger than life tombstones a lot of time, money, and service is required. Extremely skilled monumental masons and volunteers will be creating these monuments. Depending on the weather conditions of each continent will be the basis on when production will occur. It will take around 2-3 years to finish the project, if everything works out as planned; but with everything there are always unexpected consequences.

The headstones will also be very large, ranging at about 50 feet tall. This is to demonstrate the monumental importance of them, their meant to be seen from a far as well. They are also able to fit all of the names of the extinct species which is an enormous list and there will be room for future animals whom become extinct.

These monuments will be placed within National parks that are relevant with nature and the protection of animals, etc. They will also be surrounded by gates, similar to that of a traditional cemetery.Within the gates and surrounding the monuments will be informational plaques, including the names of the species, information about extinct and endangered species, information on how to help, along with other things. There will also be benches for people to spend time there, peacefully.There will also be a possible option that visitors can bury their pets or the ashes of loved ones there. A donation is also asked of the visitors which will go to causes that help and protect endangered species of the world.

Benefits:

The public gains the benefit of awareness and the chance to take a stand and help the species of the world that are still alive but still have the threat of extinction among them. It is an important memorial monument that is acknowledging a large group of animals that will no longer walk this earth. Even thesmallest mollusk will be mentioned on these monuments. Just because they are not significant to most people in the world, they were still once a living creature and they should be memorialized just as much as the next pet dog or grandmother.

“The universe would be incomplete without man; but it would also be incomplete without the smallest trans microscopic creature that dwells beyond our conceited eyes and knowledge.” -Tim Vechter

Memorial Monument

Memorial's Dedicating the Extinct Species of the World:

Event 2

SF MOMA !

Another place I attended was the SF MOMA which was an interesting experience. This was the first time I attended the MOMA in San Francisco which I found ridiculous that i'd never been before. It' not my favorite museum but there was a lot of awesome artwork inside. One of the first things I saw when I got there was actually a wall on Sol Lewitt which was awesome because we had just learned about him in class. Unfortunately I don't have a digital camera so I have to wait for my film to develop but I wish I could have taken some photos of the amazing artwork that I really loved. There were a lot of larger than life pieces that were just incredible that I could not stop looking at; and I feel if you can find that type of work it makes the experience so much brighter.

Event 1

(Sorry about the poor quality/backwards photos all I have is my computer's camera)

Wondercon!
I decided to make one of my events a trip to Wondercon, which is a major comic book convention that includes not only comics, but artists, film, among many other relevant topics. I really thought that this event was relative to the class because of all the different art they have there a lot of it including graphics and computer art.

At one booth there was a demonstration on how to make intricate 3-D characters using illustrator. I even purchased a book, by the graphic/web designer Daniel m. Davis (a photo of it is posted up). I really enjoyed seeing sucha diverse spectrum of artwork, especially all the art that I enjoy a lot and can't really see so much of at one time! It was also cool that there were so many artists using illustrator and photoshop, after taking this class it really stands out to me and opens my eyes to all different forms of art.

There were also a lot of different events that were going on in different rooms including The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art which was a Q&A session, and art demo by Adam Hughes, a digital painting with Patrick McEvoy (which was a demonstration on the art of digital painting with Adobe photoshop), among so many other panels, demonstrations, Q&As ect.

works in progress . . .

improbable monument

these are just random ideas that randomly pop into my head:

rollar coaster made out of pumpkins

monument on the moon/space

monument made out of marshmallows

a giant martini glass in the arctic ocean (perhaps housing a certain species from prey, or a hangout for a certain species)

a giant pig or cow eating a human

i think the idea that i will use for the final is something that i came up with today;

i have always been fascinated by cemeteries (as creepy as that sounds) as well as animals both on land and especially in the sea. My idea is to create Six large tombstones and place them somewhere within the continents (Africa, Asia, South America, North America, Europe and Australia) Carved onto these tombstones will be the names of extinct species within that continent. For the sake of my project I will only be writing the names of mammals because thousands of names probably wouldn't fit in such a small space. I also think this idea will work well with google earth which should be interesting.

i'll blog more as the come to mind..

Monumental Silence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O1rvqeAiUc

Monumental Silence

www.youtube.com

National Day of Silence 2010 at SFSU

Emily and I decided to take a semi-different route for this project, we decided to use people as the monuments, in order to bring to life the national day of silence. We had people of different races, genders, and sexualities stand in intimate positions for a certain amount of time and then we would film them in order to document the experience. The footage shown is more of smaller groups of people around campus but we had lost the footage of the larger group that would hold their positions and then switch into a different one after the amount of time given. The larger group, I believe, had more of a significant effect because people would stop and ask questions about what was going on or would stop and stare. I think that we should do this again each year and hopefully it will catch on and more and more people will become a part of this monumental event. I liked the concept of of taking the idea of monument and allowing ourselves to become our own monuments that also have a significant impact on the world.

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Little Fang Logo

I decided to take a more fantasy route with my logo. It's called Little Fang Night Care which is a "day care" center for the children of vampires. They now have a reliable center that will take care of their children during the long hours of the night when they are working, feeding, partying, ect. I thought that this would be a fun interesting way to make a logo, especially with all the hype that is going o over vampires right now in pop culture. I am going to place this ad/logo at day cares and pass them out at night. Pictures will come later along with more information...I think that this logo is still in progress.

I used illustrator to create a cute, childlike, bold logo as well as i incorporated text to address the name of the company (little fang) and also what they do (night care). I am not used to illustrator so forgive my rudimentary skills but it has really opened my eyes and I want to work with it more.

my logo first sweep

this is only a first sweep at my logo creation. It is the Little Fang Blood Company, however this is not the final outcome..

South Face Logo

(Above is the original North Face logo)
This logo is a re-creation of The North Face brands logo which is mainly clothing for the cold while The South Face brand is clothing for warm weather. :]

The South Face logo:

Life and Art

The concept of using life as a medium to use in art is a relatively new idea to me. I have never really given thought to using life as a medium. It is although a fascinating and interesting way of looking at art. However there are questions that arise with not only artists using art but with science as well (I think science rises much more consequential questions), such as how far will and can they go with the use of life, what can they create, how much are they able to do, ect.
I do feel that art is relatively harmful depending on what the artist is doing with life and how life is being manipulated. I did enjoy the guest artist who came to talk to our class about her particular medium which is water. This form of art is very peaceful and all the different ways in which she used art to convey ideas was very unique and interesting.
USing life as a material is something that can raise many but can also be a powerful form of art.

Chance Project

my recipe:

1. materials: a piece of paper (any size), handful of coins (any variation of coins), 6 randomly chosen colors of paint, and a pencil
2. assign each color a number
3. drop coins on the paper, trace them, and number them (ex: first drop #1, second, #2, and so on)
4. once you've dropped the coins six times, start painting each circle with the assigned color
5. you done

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v188/phat_irie/IMG_0619.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v188/phat_irie/IMG_0621.jpg

Natasha's recipe:

1. get a large piece of paper, a ruler, 6 colors of paint and the tools to apply them (brushes, water, etc.), and a 6 sided dice.

2. assign the colors numbers 1 through 6.

3. roll the dice, the number you get divide by 2. Use the number you now have to draw a line that many inches over and parallel to the edge. keep repeating process to turn the paper into a grid.

4. start at the top left square and roll the dice. The number you get will correspond to a color number, paint the color you get in the square. keep repeating going one square at a time, left to right, going down one row at a time.

amusement tour !

Here is my amusement park tour using google earth (tip: you should download google earth, it's free) I still have kinks to work out and there is always room for more to learn. So this is not the final product but it is part of the process!
Enjoy :]


take my tour here

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower article by Roland Barthes brought an array of information about the Eiffel Tower to my attention. A lot of interesting aspects of the tower that I had never thought about before. I have always associated the Eiffel Tower with Paris and vise versa and within this article Barthes points out that the Tower is a universal symbol of paris, everyone everywhere knows of the Tower, what it looks like and where it is. It is a "universal language of travel". A kind of fun fact that he mentioned about the symbol of the tower is that it can also represent other symbols and one of those that he brought up was of a phallic symbol which is kind of odd but makes sense especially because the Tower appeals to our imaginations and fantasies, as well as it is even mythical. This Tower is full of myth as well as carries so much history within it which I found interesting, how much history one single monument can hold.

I also found it interesting that such a glorified monument was once thought of as useless, even before it was built. And that even now it still is "useless", an "empty sign" and that as Barthes stated is nothing, it serves no purpose really. The fact that it is empty and that there is nothing inside to see but the fact that we still visit it, celebrate, and admire it is fascinating because we want to participate in the dream of what it us,

"The Tower can live on itself"

Batarkan

Enad, the bartarkan
The hybrid I created is made up of a human, shark (tiger shark), and bat (Jamaican fruit bat). The dominant part of the species is the human whom controls the functions of both the shark tail as well as the bat wings while the habitat is that of the tiger shark. The habitat is the ocean, mainly tropical and temperate waters off of North America from Cape Cod to California. The diet of this hybrid is a variety of marine life which is also common to the human's diet, including: lobsters, crab, and shellfish, along with different kinds of fruits that can be found in the trees by the ocean. The Batarkan is able to retrieve these fruits because of their powerful bat wings (which have been conditioned to live and survive in the ocean). The Batarkan is not as aggressive as some of it's ancestors and is actually a quite pleasant species. They spend their days with other Batarkan as well as with other sea creatures such as other sharks and certain species of octopus. These hybrids live in colonies throughout the ocean, similar to humans. They also mate with their same species, in a manner similar to the tiger shark and reproduce in that same way. Although they care for their young in a combination of all three of the individual species this hybrid is made up of. This hybrid is also fascinating especially because of it's ability to adapt to different environments. The humanpart is able to survive in the ocean; they need to wear special goggles in order to see under the ocean and they are able to breathe because of special gills they developed as well as glands that excrete salt from their bodies.
The ocean is a fascinating place full of mysterious creatures.

ideas for hybrids

one idea i have come up with, but am not sure how attainable it will be but...

Hybrid: Octofan
a cross between a human, octopus, and fish/shark

I find the ocean fascinating and really wanted to combine species from it into my project. I see this project as exploring unknown ideas and in many ways the ocean is a place that is relatively unknown, so I thought it might be an interesting place to start.

Animal-Human Hybrids

This article sprung up controversy because it was based upon human-animal hybrids and the production of chimeras. I found it kind of creepy how the name we designated for these "creations" was chimera, which is a monstrous fire-breathing figure within Greek mythology...the creepy part being we are trying to re-create this but obviously not in the same way. Before reading this article I was indifferent to all of this, the ideas of cloning, stem cells, "chimeras", human-animal hybrids ect. mainly because I never really gave much thought to the idea. However after reading about it I have come to in some ways agree with Rifkin and his opposition in crossing species boundaries and that there are "other ways to advance medicine and human health besides going out into the strange, brave new world of chimeric animals." This whole concept of chimeras and blending species is completely fascinating while at the same time insane and kind of scary to think about. I can only wonder how far we are already able to go with this and don't even want to know how far we would go and will if we could. It's pretty scary to think of all the things that we are capable of doing and creating. Another good point the article brought up is that the worry surrounding all of this is on what the uses of these chimeras will be put to whether it be "problematic, risky, or dangerous," (Magnus) Another kind of creepy aspect were the questions that were raised which included : "What new subhuman combination should be produced and for what purpose? At what point would it be considered human? And what rights, if any, should it have?" These are questions that I never really thought about before but after reading the article they make perfect sense and can be frightening. However no matter how scary it can be, it is still pretty incredible what we can do and how we can change even a single species. In some ways, especially the ways we have used before like the transfer of faulty heart valves with those of cows and pigs, is acceptable and used often...but when I'm referring to scary I'm not referring to these types of procedures. While it is fun imagining hybrids and crazy creatures...I'm just not sure how far it should actually go...

Animal-Human Hybrids spark controversy article:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0125_050125_chimeras.html

artists who work with life

Edward Kac's " Alba"





Patricia Piccinini's "The Young Family"



"Australian artist Patricia Piccinini's concept of what human-animal hybrids might look like are provocative creatures which are part of a sculpture entitled The Young Family, produced to address the reality of such possible parahumans in a compassionate way. Transhumanists would call for the recognition of self-aware parahumans as persons."


http://thouart-aashild.blogspot.com/2009/10/two-artists-who-work-with-life.html

my life through amusement parks.

i've realized what an affect amusement parks have had on my life through this project. I always knew that they did but I'm realizing even more...strange. I had never before thought to look them up with a tool like google earth and what I find is interesting. For example most of the places especially disneyland and knott's berry (SCARY!) farm the resolution is very low and you can only see an aerial view whereas disneyworld has 3D structures and looks like a little miniature world (which I really liked) and then there is Universal Studios which is also low resolution but is filled with individual picture spots.

The affect these places have had on my life is strangely incredible. People associate me with disneyland (side note...I have always loved disney, the entirety of it...the art, the movies, everything...I want to intern for them and would love to be able to be part of their tea) for example as well as with knott's berry farm's Halloween Haunt which takes place during sept/October and then there is Universal Studios which I loved because of my love of film, ect. Both of these places have played a huge role in my life...mainly up until I moved to San Francisco which puts me much farther away. However I still love, enjoy, and am amazed with these places still.

This project of mapping parts of my life is also bringing back compelling memories of these places that have had such an impact in my life...mainly because of the memories that I have from them which is a nostalgic but good feeling.

peter pan's flight.

Knott's Scary Farm's Halloween haunt monsters on Supreme scream.

Universal's House of Horror.

Mickey Mouse ice cream bar, Disney World. (my favorite treat when i was young)

Astro Blasters, Disney Land. (it looks like I am a lot better than i am)

Knott's Scary Farm, Suki and I with a pirate monster.

Google Earth Mapping Ideas

I was thinking about mapping my life or using narrative by mapping out different amusement parks that I have been to in different states in which I have visited often or have lived in. I have always loved amusement parks and many of the ones that I have attended have had an impact in my life. I'm not sure if this idea is significant enough but I think it would be an interesting way to map important times and places that I have been to in my life...
The main places I have chosen are Disney World, Six Flags (in different states), Disneyland, and Knotts Berry Farm (among others) Each of these places I have visits multiple times to hundreds of times and they have held countless memories that I will always hold. Some people even associate me with these certain places and events that are held at them, ect...
What do you think?

Keith Arnatt

The Map as Art

Katharine Harmon's volume- The Map As Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography

http://mocoloco.com/art/archives/012085.php

The Map Room: Art

http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/categories/art.php

Joyce Kozloff:

http://www.artnet.com/Galleries/Artists_detail.asp?gid=291&aid=9792

Sol Lewitt response

Conceptual art is an interesting form of art that I had never really studied, examined, understood, or thought much about before. So after reading Sol Lewitt's article my eyes were opened to a new way of looking at and understanding conceptual art. This form of art that is based around an idea and that that an idea becomes the "machine that makes the art" and within this art process is important. Lewitt's also made a point that conceptual art is not logical and it does not have to be complex but rather made up of simple ideas. I also fancied how this art is open to perception and that it will mean something different as well as will be perceived differently by different people. I also enjoyed how he recognized in his final paragraph that the ideas he stated within his essay are not stagnant and will change as his experiences change along with that he acknowledged that the ways he pointed out are ways that work for him and not all artists.

"conceptual art is good only when the idea is good"

-Sol Lewitt