Project Number Four

So, for my object I chose my desk chair, for two reasons.  The first being that I spend the most amount of time when I am at home sitting in my desk chair.  The second reason is I always want somewhere nice to sit when I have to kill time on campus in between classes.

My favorite spot on campus is in front of Hayes Hall on the Oval.  I've always appreciated the architecture of the building and it's proximity and view of the Oval.  If I have to spend time on campus, I would most enjoy sitting in front of this building and having the opportunity to sit and watch both the Oval and Hayes.

I wanted to keep the chair small and didn't want it to stick out.  In the first picture, it is sitting towards the bottom corner, facing Hayes but at enough of an angle that it is not solely focused on the building.  The second picture is meant to be one view from the actual chair.  I usually turn around in my chair because of the lack of arm rests and this would be about that view.  The last frame has the chair also in the corner, with it's back toward the camera.  It shows the whole other view that you get from the chair's perspective, as if you were sitting in it.

The toothbrush is the new paintbrush...

What a different piece.  Just as quickly and abruptly as it started, Kaprow's article ended, leaving me questioning his morning routine.

I identified mostly with his argument that most of the habits in our daily lives are so mundane and planned that we don't realize the true act of performing them.  He characterized this with brushing his teeth.  He picked probably one of the best actions to show how little we pay attention to our daily habits.  I know I'm not thinking about my brushing patterns when I brush my teeth in the morning, in fact I don't think I think about anything as I am definitely not a morning person.

I did disagree with Kaprow on some levels.  It's great that he wants to pay more attention to his actions and understand their every ebb and flow, yet I don't think that qualifies them as art.  Instead he is really just focusing on every little action his body performs, which is well and good but nothing of interest to anyone else because we all do it!  If I wanted to write a book on breathing I'm almost positive it wouldn't be on the best seller list simply because who cares, we all do it, why would you want to read about it?

MP3

This post gave me a harder time than the last project.  I spend a lot of time over analyzing the topics that we're supposed to be portraying.  I didn't struggle much with choosing the items that I would save over others; that was the easiest part of this assignment.

Postcard - This was a postcard from my friend from Germany.  It's nearly 3 years old and I still keep it in sight to remind me of the friendship and the bond between us.  She's actually the reason I started learning German.  All of my frustrations and confusions with the language fade when I remember spending time with her and how she struggled just as much with her English.  Lasting Friendship.

Headphones - I feel like every human being is impacted somehow by music, so it may be cheesy that I too would save my phone/iPod but it is a very important item.  Music is how I wake up in the mornings, how I walk to class, how I drive; it literally is incorporated into every part of my life.  I find myself whistling and humming when I don't have my headphones in simply because I'm constantly caught up in music.  Habitual Addiction.

Necklace - This is a token of a ministry that I have taken part of over the course of two summers.  I spent 12 days biking 250 miles in Ohio and then in Michigan.  It reminds me of all the heat, humidity and headwinds of those rides.  But it also reminds me of the people that I met and how I still keep in touch with every single person from those trips.  How many late nights I spent talking to those people and how many laughs we shared.  Strong Connection.

Bracelet - It's fairly simple as to why I would save this.  When I joined my sorority last year I had expectations; every single one of them was surpassed.  I have never known a more loving and accepting organization and a source of so much knowledge and growth.  This bracelet reminds me to always think about my sisters first and to love them unconditionally.  I carry them with me everyday and they lift me up continuously.  Sisterhood.

Bobblehead - This is obviously my most prized possession!  I won this autographed Gordon Gee bobblehead last year at BuckeyeThon.  I literally am in love with it, partly because Gordon Gee is the best and mostly because it reminds me of the night I won it.  17 hours of standing and dancing to help raise money for cancer research.  Every thought of it makes me smile with pride for the Buckeye community's commitment and support of this amazing philanthropy.  It was probably the experience that has most defined my life, especially my time at Ohio State.  Philanthropic Dedication.

The hardest part of this assignment was deciding how I wanted to lay out the pictures.  I played only a little with the size of the objects, pulling Gordon Gee and my bracelet a little larger to show their importance.  I also overlapped the images to show that they all are linked in a way.  I discovered that a lot of the things I chose were items that linked me to someone else or something else and they overlapped in that way.  I also decided to leave the background blank.  I wanted to keep the idea simple:  that all of these items have meanings and memories that have shaped me.  I wanted their shape to be clear and I didn't want to outshine their meanings with too much clutter and glitz.  It might seem a little boring but it is my way of showing the most important things to me and my dedication to them.

Feet in smoke...

John Sullivan's Feet in Smoke was a hodge-podge of thoughts and ideas about the author's brother's near death experience.  I found the piece interesting in that he witnessed his brother's anguish like no one could, but he kept it to himself.  I don't think he wanted to tell anyone about witnessing his brother's seizure in the hospital bed because he didn't know how to help him.

A lot of emphasis was put on the medical terminology, and how Worth was only functioning at 1% of brain activity.  Sullivan states that he can imagine that while his body is unresponsive to the human eye, the brain is trying fervently to repair itself, causing the anguish that Worth experiences and Sullivan sees for a brief moment.

I like the tie into his near death experience, imagining himself on a riverboat with Twain's Huck and Jim.  It may seem a little random but I think that is what Sullivan wants to convey.  The idea that the only person will understand what happened on Worth's deathbed was Worth himself.  It's suggestive that each individual has a unique experience in combating death, that no one will ever know the feeling of death until it comes there time.

Map Project...

So, this is what the route from my house to class looks like on any given Monday or Wednesday morning.

I started off with a picture that is from the perspective of standing on my lawn. It then follows the sidewalk, to the street sign. I walk across the oval, past one of my favorite buildings, University Hall. Then it's past all the construction to the Shoe.

One effect I played around with was blur. I wanted to make the images feel like I feel in the morning. The first image is the blurriest and as I start to "wake up" the images get sharper and sharper.

I also played around with saturation. It follows the same pattern where the first picture lacks a lot of vibrant color but the final picture has really beautiful hues. I felt this was similar to what I see in the morning; when I start out I'm tired and don't appreciate all the colors around me, but as I start to wake up I see more of the vibrant colors like in the photos.

Visiting the Wexner...

So, today was my first time being inside the Wexner Center and I really had no idea what I was doing.

I stumbled upon two exhibits, both were video presentations. One was My Own Private River featured in the box. I was more intrigued by the room itself than the movie. It was appropriately named as it felt like I was stuck inside a box (I'm sure that was the whole point). The cube cushions also played into "The Box" mindset.

The movie itself was peculiar. I'm not sure if it was meant to skip a bit or if the film was damaged but that was once obstacle I faced.

I came into the movie once it had already begun, so I'm not quite sure where in the movie I had actually begun watching. I didn't learn much about the characters because of my late arrival but I sensed a very close bond between them.

I found out after visiting the exhibit that the video was a redone version of My Own Private Idaho, as a tribute to the late River Phoenix, completed by James Franco. That might be why the video was harder to follow.

I'm not sure if I'll ever visit the Wex again but it was definitely an interesting experience. I personally would be more interested in paintings and photos over video but it was interesting to see what artists come up with.

My Name on Campus...

Scrounging for pictures this weekend resulted in me having to post this morning, but most were taken in Columbus.

In both projects, one similarity I experienced was feeling like a dork snapping random pictures all over campus. I tried very hard to look inconspicuous, however I feel I probably didn't succeed. I noticed that I spent more time on this project as I was trying to take pictures that fulfilled certain criteria.

I much preferred the first project because I liked taking pictures of whatever I chose. I feel that most of the best pictures I've ever taken have been spontaneous and not detailed and planned.

I'm probably most partial to the outdoor photos, especially those taken close to the Wexner Plaza as the architecture is really playful and makes for creative pictures.

See above for my name on campus...

More Pictures...

Pictures...

"Wait, the painting is called Nipple what??"

I loved hearing responses from my friends when I told them the title of the story I was reading was "Nipple Jesus." Even a fictional story about a picture of Christ made of boobs gets people talking.

It took me a little while to understand the reasoning behind the creation of the picture. After understanding that it was meant as a provocation piece, I realized that Hornby is really doing the same thing to the reader. Think about it: If you proposed this type of art to anyone you are bound to get some kind of reaction, negative or positive. I think that Hornby did a really great job of showing that art is what you make of it (through Dave's perspective) and that no matter what you create, someone else is going to hate it. Think of Dave's feelings on the onion at the end, it might not be as controversial but he still has strong disdain for it.

The ending was kind of anti-climatic and I was disappointed. We got the reaction from the people, resulting in a smashed portrait of Nipple Jesus but then there was confrontation between Dave and Martha that ended with Dave showing no more interest on the topic. This might be Hornby's way of showing that controversy over provocative art dies down after time but it didn't play into his beginning theme of wanting the rise out of others.

To Ensoul...

It fascinates me that anima in Latin is translated to soul, and the difficulty that is faced by the subjects of this paper to capture a human-like soul in an animated object.

Chances are there aren't many people who haven't experienced high profile animation in modern movies. From Jurassic Park to the special effects of Avatar, there has been significant advancements in animation. I took to the article in that there are so many different objects that are difficult to animate. I would have never imagined that milk would be the most difficult. It is a as simple as one perceived color in a glass, but the details that are seen by the naked eye are so much harder to capture in animation. I would have guessed that there would me more struggles animating trees or humans but there is so much detail in every object.

I argue, in a naive sort of belief, that I don't think it is necessary for animators to master all 5,000 facial expressions capable of humans. While we will perceive the falseness of the object being animated, there is nothing wrong with it not being perfect. There is a separation between reality and imagination and personally I don't see anything wrong with that fact. Why does the movie industry believe that making all movies 3D will entice viewers to want to see their production even more? I'm a fan of the fiction of movies and then I promptly return to reality. It is impressive that so many advancements have been made, but a certain point animators need to be happy with their work and enjoy the real world; take time to smell the real roses, not the artificially animated ones on the green screen behind you.

From Rolling Stone to Cereal...

I loved reading Terry Barrett's article on denotation and connotation. It was such a fun and creatively written piece, that featured research spanning from adults to preschoolers.

He created a quite conducive learning curve that made the concepts he was presenting easily understandable to the reader. I identified mostly with his opening example of Panzani. I think most people can admit to staring a any label on a grocery item and feeling persuaded by it's image. That's what Barrett is arguing in his research. The denotations are simple: fresh produce, packaged spaghetti, lots of reds and greens. The connotations were relayed just as simply: the image is trying to create an image of what Barrett calls "Italianicity" and makes our mouths water and our minds imagine a home cooked meal. Barrett made a point in his case study of denotations and connotations across age gaps extremely accessible for the readers and the people he was studying.

I struggled to find meaning in his constant persistence about the Dalai Lama and his role as a subtitle on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. I felt he was trying to convey some deeper role of the editorial that was feature in the same issue as was the image of the sexually provocative Destiny's Child. However, I found no deep connection to the two other than who the reader's are familiar with and how that might change their perceptions of the magazine's content.