Taylor's DTC 355 Blog

As someone who really likes Cubism, I found Gaussian Quadratic  really interesting. It is a computer generated image that kind of relates back to Picasso's Cubist work, which I found really cool. It goes to show that the multi-perspective nature of Cubism was influential in a lot of more recent art. The other computer art that was included in this section was also cool to see and read about because making art digitally really allows for so much creativity. People really can do loads more than they used to with the use of computer and various technology that exists today. It really opens up the possibilities of what art is and what it can be. I think this is really awesome as a whole.

The piece Siemens, Karlsruhe,  by Andreas Gursky stood out to me in this section because it shows how crowded workplaces can be in factories and other manufacturing jobs. Conditions aren't the best in a lot of workplaces like that, and this just shows that. Too many people are crammed into too little an area and that can cause the whole workplace to be unsafe at the very least, if not dangerous or life-threatening, depending on the job. This piece really speaks volumes, even though it is an older image. That sort of unsafe work environment exists in many places even now, and so this piece is still relevant.

This section talked about scanning famous artwork and digitally recreating parts or bringing attention to certain aspects of these pre-existing works. I thought that Mona/Leo was interesting, simply because of the incorporation of some of the most famous artwork of all time. As recognizable and iconic as the Mona Lisa is, Lillian Schwartz made the final piece her own while incorporating these famous works. In a way, digital art can be a form of found art. Appropriation is really easy using digital mediums, and if done well, you can still claim the work as yours provided that you made significant changes. It's interesting. Digital art sort of walks that fine line.

I really enjoyed this section because it had a focus on female artists that work to redefine the dominant ideas in art and add a more feminine perspective to various mediums. The idea of the female gaze being prevalent in so many of these pieces was really interesting. The book also specifically named Stephanie Smith and Edward Stewart, saying that these two artist were confounding relations between the sexes in their installation works. I think this concept is really intriguing and inspiring, because it challenges society's standards and expectations for how people are supposed to act or portray themselves or their work. Another artist that was mentioned was Pippilotti Rist, whom I have only heard of recently. I think her work is really cool though. It is kind of confusing and also challenges expectations that people may have based on her appearance or other factors of her pieces.

In this section, I liked looking at the work of Mary Lucier. Her work was kind of an homage to Monet and similar artists, according to the book. This was really apparent to me when I very first saw it, because the example piece in the book immediately reminded me of a puzzle I got for my mom. The puzzle was an image of one of Monet's garden paintings. The colors and the overall composition of Lucier's piece reminded me a lot of this puzzle, which I found cool. The colors themselves are lovely; they really reflect nature's own artwork. The leaves and the flowers that occur naturally were captured nicely in this image and I really enjoyed Lucier's pieces overall in this section.

I thought Douglas Gordon's Hysterical  was interesting to read about as a visual experience, because the subjects of the piece are equal parts the actors on the screen and the audience members being confronted by the actors. I think this sort of digital installation is really well done because it can be difficult to make the audience feel like they are really in it sometimes when the installation is shown through screens as opposed to physically being there in the room. Having this sort of audience inclusion factored into the piece is quite powerful and it draws attention into the piece for sure. If I ever do a digital installation in the future, I will be thinking about this piece as inspiration for the setup at least. The audience is incredibly important. If the audience doesn't feel anything from the piece, it's harder to communicate the message behind it.

I think this is an interesting section because of the section about making political statements. I think that using art to bring awareness to important issues that may not be taken seriously or are potentially covered up is incredibly important. In some cases, this can be dangerous, but regardless I think artists have a specific, unique ability to open conversations on topics that are otherwise taboo. One might even say that to a certain extent, artists have a duty to showcase political statements that they feel passionate about. If they can reflect their own opinions in their work, why not do it? Maybe it's not for everyone, but I think art is a great tool for activism and push towards social and political change.

One artist that was talked about in this section that caught my attention was Mariko Mori. The example image from her video, Miko no Inori, may have been futuristic and sort of out there for 1996, but compared to music videos and other visual performances nowadays it seems right at home. When I saw the pictures and read about Mori's video, I thought of more recent music videos, such as "Break Free" by Ariana Grande. Grande's video from a few years back involved metallic costumes and silver/white wigs as well. This and plenty of others seem to be similar to Mori's original piece. I thought it was interesting that the book said Mori drew inspiration from David Bowie, because I think he inspired so many other people as well with his whole persona that he created for himself as a performer. I know of a couple different artists that draw on Bowie for inspiration, and not all of them are performance artists. The sort of futuristic style that is seen in Mori's video ...

This section mentioned Chris Burden, whom I have already heard about quite a lot during my time in school. He was a pretty extreme performance artist, and I find him really interesting and oddly inspiring. Even though I don't think I could ever pull off the kind of stuff he did, I still think that his willingness to push the limits of performance was incredible. He did some stuff that actually caused him physical harm, which is really intense, but he also made people think about the concepts of violence and pain. What do people think of those? How do they feel about it? Why do they feel that way? Why is is jarring to see someone rolling in glass when it's real, but not when it's faked for a movie or something? I think sometimes people get wrapped up in action movies and such, and we see movie violence on a regular basis, but seeing things like what Chris Burden did for performance was quite different and it really caught people's attention in a different way even if the...

This section of the reading included explanations and examples of video art that employed the use of computerized elements. There is some level of digital effect or digital image created for the final version of the video art. I thought that Videospace,  by Robert Zagone was pretty interesting because he took images on a television that seem familiar enough and he altered them by using television feedback techniques. So for anyone that saw them, they would see that a seemingly average video clip would become distorted and strange-looking, sometimes unrecognizable. The idea of taking something that is familiar and known to many people and turning it into something that is out of the oridinary (especially for the time) is really interesting. Pushing the boundaries of what is known to people is and I think always will be an interesting technique for artists, especially when working with any type of digital art.

An idea that was introduced in this section of the book, in a quote from page 87, caught my attention. The quotes says, "What makes Paik's filming of the Pope or Warhol's taping of one of his 'superstars' video art?" The book says something along the lines of this being video art because Paik and Warhol are artists, and these acts of filming these other people went beyond simple documentation. These films that were produced were extensions of the artists' own artistic practices. Because of these things, video art is described as going further than film documentation. Documentation is showing something that is happening just as it happens, no additional effects or any really unusual/dramatic camera angles. Video art may involve visual affects, done practically or post-production. There is more of a message with video art. Something that takes it to a new level of meaning that is more than just "this happened at this time in this manner."