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February 28, 2007
Hypertext Discussion, Feb 21
Words that we have come up with to the Word: HYPERTEXT
hyper multifaceted
connection-links excavation
paths research
meandering - interweaving layered
accidental surprises cyclical
quest hypertag
going somewhere criticism
place to place attention deficit
new knowledge - explorative thought self-directed learning
reference complicated
brainstorm weave
living information depth
mental mapping connection
associated understanding between
pop-up interpretation
organic, webbed structure self-concious
uncovering mind
perspective life
layers communication
reflective thinking
mapping showing the brain paths
exploring working on one another
construction neurons
individual
group
self-teaching
like life
King James II and King Charles II
February 27, 2007
Post Secret Blog
February 26, 2007
Rule Britannia 4th grade Queens
Jan & Shannon's Podcast attempt
Aura
In the last few weeks, my first orchid of the year started to bloom. It takes a long time to have the plant grow the flower spike and then each bloom opens slowly. The whole process from when the flower spike starts until the first flower opens is usually 2-3 months.
This past weekend, I went to an orchid show and saw a woman who was selling her small life-like sculptures of orchids. They were so realistic that I had to touch one to be sure it was not real. In my opinion, they are works of art that strive for mimeticism. Being in that setting with "real" orchids and then the sculptures of orchids made me wonder where the aura resides. Is the aura in the living plants or in the works of art that are reproductions of the living plants?
Interestingly, I purchased a new orchid (not the one in the pic - I did that on my own!), but was not at all tempted to buy one of the sculptures. I found myself thinking of the sculptures as "fake" even though they are original works of art.
What are your thoughts about this? Can objects other than a work of art have an aura? If so, what objects (or people) have an aura?
February 21, 2007
Web Artists
Katie: Cory Arcangel took nintendo supermarios game took off the characters, in presentation only plays clouds, revealing all the open code, humurous, answers to our generation. Performance in gallery deleting MySpace account. Doogie site, any search goes strait to Doogie Howser search. You tube changes the tube text into blue text. Possibly considers his art to be his myspace page, website or delicious network.
Another artist that Katie found is Kate Bingaman and her website is Obsessive Consumption.
obsessiveconsumption.com
She draws her credit card statement from every month. She is going to do this until all her debts are paid and she has a lot of debt. She sells the drawings to fund the payment of her credit card. Each day she draws something that she buys and postst he images on Flickr. The drawings bear a resemblance to Andy Warhol's drawings. She has every daily drawing that she has done and this February marked her 1 year anniversary. She recently had to re-draw all 365 drawings to install in a gallery show. She takes photos of her workspace and you can see her studio. She works at Mississippi state University and uses her workspace there in some of the images. Her website has links on it directly for her students to access her work and their class assignments. She takes the thing that makes her crazy and uses it as healing or gets money for it.
Luiz: Steve Danzig, Australian. Digital Artist used to be a psychiatrist, dream-like images, reminder of German Expressionism. In favorite work, Death 04, worked with Mythology. Images are faceless. Works on the computer and then makes prints. Art is meant to be seen in gallery not on computer screen. Works with photoshop and uses layers, thinks our lives are in layers as well.
Soh-Yoon: Martin Wattenberg, digital artist, researcher at IBM, Information based digital project, type a word and then builds an apartment/home as you type more phrases. You can look at other rooms that other people have created. Rooms contain words that relate to their function and are constantly floating around. His work is also posted through the Whitney at http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/idealine.shtml#
Jan: Ursula Endlicher, 2 or 3 pieces displayed on turbulance, first piece; html-butoh, dance style in Japan, people send in short clips of movements and then these movements are used as a symbol for different tags. Enjoyed interaction with other people, using a collaboration to create a work of art. 2nd work is Thread, how working with a computer has developed into a "craft". Website Wigs, how computers become an extension of yourselves, click on a wig and shows major categories and then expands to further strands on the wigs.
Shannon: Amy Alexander, net artist, professor at UC San Diego. Most recent project; SVEN, Surveillance Video Entertainment Network, everyday people and then matches people and their movements to music, videos are then displayed to the public from the outside of the van. Like Candid-Music-Videos. SVEN is about turning around the meaning of Surveillance into a positive thing. Ubergeek is other project, googles into the internet random phrases, then turns her findings into a work of art. While music is playing, does searches then places text on the screen in conjunction with the music. She also made a "scream" for the computer that a user can activate when the technology of a computer frustrates them. It is only available for a PC - interpret as you wish.
Sasha:
www.coverpop.com
Jim Baumgardner - collages that are made of individual images. The small images are clickable. In Flickr, you can see where the images came from initially. He has links to consumer items that are through amazon.com. The collages make up images and then you can directly click to the consumer site to purchase the item. Some topics include sudoku, women's sneakers, magazines & books. At the same time it is both beautiful and disgusting because of the consumerism that is behind the images. The works are updated on a regular basis.
Test of a podcast posting
Taylor & Carpenter Article
In the Taylor and Carpenter article, they discuss uses of hypertext with students at a variety of levels. Have any of you used hypertext with students? If so, what were your experiences? What was rewarding about it and what was a challenge? What grade do you think would be good to introduce students to hypertext? How could you work with this concept if you do not have computers in yoru classroom? What do you think about hypertext?
This is a link to the Tinderbox program that they describe. Note that you need to buy it if you want to use it at home, but it is installed on the computers in the lab in Hibbs.
Alison Coleman Article
In Alison Coleman's article, she mentions numerous web and/or Internet artists. Whose work did you find the most compelling and why? Is this a new type of art for you? What are your previous experiences with web and Internet art?
Scholarship
Here is a link to information about scholarships in the School of the Arts
http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/artweb/test/html/scholarships.asp?page=financial
February 19, 2007
Virtual Reality
The article on virtual reality and the implementation of it in the Harmony Quest project was fascinating to me. I kept wondering about the reasoning for picking the 4 elements. Was this something the students chose to do, or was it decided by the teachers. The discussion of constructivism as related to the use of the technology also interested me. I thought it was unusual though, that the author did not explain how he made the groups in the class.
What it got me thinking about in terms of implementation is Second Life Because the article encouraged (or maybe it was the other one about Art Criticism) teachers developing art-specific software and tools for students, I thought an environment where students can creage might be best.
Also, if students are working in Second Life or another type of VR program, then they can engage in what Shin encourages in terms of creating and critiquing art.
What are your thoughts about how you could use VR or Art Criticism in a technological way in a classroom?
February 13, 2007
Art in the age of biocybernetic reproduction
On p. 487, Mitchell writes, "...the copy is no longer an inferior or decayed relic of the original, but is in principle an improvement on the original..." In the next paragraph, he explains Benjamin's point that photographic copies produced a "decay of the aura" and then he states that now a "...copy has, if anything, even more aura than the original."
This is fascinating to me. How could you help students understand the idea of an aura in a classroom? How could students be introduced to the idea that a copy is not inferior? Any thoughts as to how you could work with these ideas and students? How could this relate to the study of 'Net or Web artists?
February 12, 2007
Waiting to hear Christo & Jean Claude
One night, January 31, we had class outside waiting in line to hear the lecture by Christo & Jean Claude.
February 7, 2007
Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
It has been several years since I read this, and it seems even more true today than when I first read it. The description of the ways that the lines between the author and the public are blurred and, in his words, "about to lose its basic characer" is so appropriate for today.
What do we as educators do when our power (our being people with sanctioned knowledge) to inform is completely dismantled? I see this as a positive move in education. However, it is not without its problems. What will happen when our students make a wiki page or a podcast and it has incorrect information? Obviously, most things are open to interpretation, but what about when it is patently wrong - ie they say that Guernica was painted in 1972.
How does the availability of the Web 2.0 and various read/write technologies of the web affect how we teach and what we encourage students to do? How do we , as educators, monitor (or really police?) what our students make public?