Journal #2

The article I chose from cabinet magazine is called "The Origins of Cyber Space" written by Carolyn De La Pena.  This piece is especially interesting to me because it explains how American workout equipment was born.  The very first machines were first built by a Swedish Physician named Gustav Zander's at his institute in Stockholm which was founded in the late nineteenth century.  He invented a machine called the mechanical horse which imitates the StairMaster, which is what we have today.  One of the amusing inventions he made was the first ab working machine, which was called the stomach-ab punching apparatus, the title speaks for itself.  His inventions were made in the nineteenth century and were eventually immigrated to the US in the early twentieth century.  What we have now are the prototypes of his inventions.  I really enjoy working out once in a while so this was a very interesting piece for me, also I don't think many people would even wonder where all the ideas and equipment we have now came from, and how basic they really were.  His institute primarily treated male workers and children.  Zander claimed that his machines were "treatment" and quoted that it was "a preventative against the evils engendered by a sedentary life and seclusion of the office."  He argued that they could even heal people faster that doctors pills and potions, which I highly disagree with.  As the twentieth century moved on, collections of his work were found at elite health spas and private institutions.  Now days, many people are so worried about there physical appearance and what people think that they go work out, in my opinion, I think people should work out because it does make you feel better just as the article describes.  I mean why not? I know a lot of people usually don't have time, but Zander even states that a massage every now and then improves muscle building, I don't think this is true though.  

Todays art world has so many prototypes and upgrades of what we used to have, even though I think it all does and means the same thing.  

Blogs #3

Amy Globus has a fantastic piece called "electric sheep" which combines beautiful or disturbing images (whichever way you take it) with a beautiful and disturbing soundtrack at the same time.  The piece involves an octopus maneuvering its way through seemingly impossible curves and corners in glass tubing and as the music and octopus keep making its way through, it just seems to suck you in.  The soundtrack played is called "wrecking ball" by Emmylou Harris, it is a very eerie song, which is why the combination of the two made the piece so interesting. There is a line in the song that just seemed to fit absolutely perfect, it goes "We've got no where to hide, we got no where to go.", in my opinion this line fits the octopus's situation perfectly.   During Julie's lecture, it was brought up about how the combination of editing sound and image can bring up many different complex multiple meanings.  Interpreting this, one could take the combination of the octopus with this track as a struggle for the octopus to find its way, another way they could have taken it is how beautiful the octopus's design is and how it really doesn't even have to struggle for survival.  Either way the soundtrack has an immense impact on it.

Another especially interesting piece to me was the Deeparture film by Mircea Cantor.  One reason I found this film especially interesting was the extreme potential danger that could be involved, and actually ended up to be what I was waiting for while watching this.  What happens is there is a wolf and deer stuck in the same room with each other with nothing in it except white walls, and everybody knows that wolf and deer do not live with each other, it just keeps you on the edge of your seat because you're always waiting for a potential attack.  The entire time you feel an uneasy tension between the two but for some reason the wolf never decided to attack the deer.  I think the wolf doesn't attack because of it's surroundings, it didn't feel safe in it's environment so it didn't attack.  This film has no sound, which actually probably added more effect to it than if there was sound.  Another reason I think this had no sound is so you can actually feel the tension between the two, it's like as if you're watching it you can feel your heart beat.  You can feel the tension just looking at the animals faces without any sound. Adding sound to this film probably wouldn't have been a good idea because it wouldn't have the same effect.  So comparing this film to "electric sheep", I can conclude that some films need a soundtrack to influence what is going on, and some don't  

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field reports 2

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Art Encounters - Field Report 1

Stephen Shore takes a month-long trip across America to document historical places of America.  He went all the way from New York to the west coast.  He kept a journal of very specific things including what he ate and places that he stayed, the gas he bought for his car, which was actually around forty three cents a gallon around that time.  He stated that he wanted it to be a collection of facts with no subjective writing whatsoever.  More people are involved with his piece than they were back in 1973.  He also never visualized his work as a publication but instead as an artwork.  He believed there was something about the war ending which made people travel to America.  From an early age Stephen was always interested in photography, he taught himself how to take photographs with meaning.  At age nine he made his first color photographs.  At age fourteen he sold three of his works to a curator of a museum.  Stephen's work also proved that a color photograph, like a painting in black or white could be considered a work of art.  When he was twenty four he was the second living person to have a solo exhibition.  I believe his work can relate to our lecture and discussions in more ways than one.  One way is how he expresses his beliefs through a creative artwork, just by taking pictures around the country.  It seems everything we've studied so far, including the films in the lecture, has been different and creative just like Stephen Shore's work.  Things like expressing their ideas through sometimes horrifying videos with no sound or odd sounds.

Field Reports 1