ontology, history: hand-crafted

I have always been interested in Ontology - what is real and what constitutes a reality and if it is someones' and not anothers' then in a sense it is contrived, so is it truly real; what it means to have existence, and the state of being etc. 

History ... Completely contrived... based on events and mostly from the white man's perspective... 

So, for those like myself, that are studying, memorizing, and regurgitating some sort of history (art for me) well then they are just perpetuating a facade, a contrived past existence or state of being. For example when i have a conversation with someone i am taking in (consciously and unconsciously) certain details while the other individual is doing the same. let just say, we both write down our individual accounts, which would ultimately be our reality of the situation. Totally different, they will be. So which is real, well can something be real if it is refuted? Well in science it is, if you can prove a hypothesis wrong then your assumption is invalid. 

Acceptance... our society accepts these truths as each and everyones reality...  i say, question your answers... or theirs

So.. to get to the point of this all, In looking at a timeline of fashion and comparing it to my previous knowledge of art history.. on first inspection i was interested in how 'styles/trends' are demarcated by numbers... years.. but mostly numbers.. the 50s 60s etc. and with art it is those avant garde -isms, words, letters etc. 

Interestingly so... Fashion... an industry powered by commerce and consumerism ($$).. knows nothing but the universal number system... 

Art... i believe should maintain a certain level of integrity... yet as we get closer to this day and age i see those -isms dying down and and art being referred to its decade... have we moved from the age of concept, ideaology, and MOSTLY communication! (bc as visully artists I use my art to talk to others/ communicate/ and instill ideas and thoughts in the viewer).. how can one communicate a feeling emotion or idea through numbers? (im sure there is a way.. .numerology.. but for all intents and purposes I am going to be looking at numbers with in the universal knowledge of each).... 

So as i previously stated in another entry, what i think interests me the most, is this idea of the 'hand-made' or 'hand-crafted'... and not only are the products (art works and clothing) hand made but the history is as well... hand crafted by the writers of the cannon -they chose what to include and to exclude... (maybe, in a duchampian way of thinking, historians are artists as well, they made the final decision, and because they chose to include or exclude it gives them full artistic rights over that history) ...

Both industries are shaped by the people in them... if we have ex stock-brokers (no names mentioned... : cough: koons) creating art then their interest will lie in the numbers... and it will be carried over... clearly.... 

So perhaps im really interested in the idea of 'hand-crafted' 'hand-contrived' all encompassing... and for me the only way to say that ... is to do it!!!! I can't keep telling you... so ... im an artist.... I will SHOW you!

Language...!!!

Emerging Thought Process:

 Language (semiotics?) has also been extremely important in regards to my search, i found it interesting how the word 'trend' is only used in the 'art world' when it comes to the market (changes in buying/ selling/ as a comodity) where as style has been reserved for the aesthetics (movement/avant garde / established way of making a mark)... trend in the art aesthetics seems to be tabooo; interestingly so trend is used for the changing 'looks' (hot new items/latest garb and accesories/ patterns, colors,cuts etc) used freely and coinciding with established styles in fashion.

Haute Couture Meets Fine Art

Currently I am in Delaware working on research. The concept is loosely based around conflating the art and fashion industries in an attempt to collapse medium specificity within an artistic practice. 

My first step has been researching what entails haute couture fashion and the latest trends/styles in fashion for spring/summer 2008. In the process I have also been referencing a how to draw for fashion book, in which have done several practice sketches of the 9 headed.

croquis

I have also been in a mad pursuit of obtaining keys for a working space. In which i spent a bulk of last night trying to clean up the printmaking darkroom, as well as discovering that the chemicals in that space were last used in 2006!!! I am a bit unsure as to whether I want to open and/or use them!!!

Study Abroad/Aexchange

http://www.lhi.is/media/skjalasafn/english//curriculumMYN07-08Autumn.pdf

This is an incredible discovery... Iceland Academy of the Arts!!!

Interesting Courses UDEL doesnt have but should!!!!!!

ART HISTORY / ART THEORY, ELECTIVE COURSES:
LIS4502M PHILOSOPHY OF ART 2 CREDITS / 4 ECTS
Description: The course reviews some of the basic concepts used in art theory, such as art, beauty, taste and artistic
value judgements and how their meaning has changed in the Western world from ancient to contemporary times. The
basic theories of art in modernity will be examined. We will also study various issues/controversies in modern art
theory and how contemporary art has tried to influence our understanding of them.
Objectives: The student understands the basic concepts of art theory in modern times. Recognizes the basic theories
of modern art. Understands the relation between art theory and the development of modern art.
Assessment: Assignments during classes 40%, essay 60%
Instructor: Gunnar J. Árnason

HLJ6603M SOUND AND INTERACTIVE ART 3,5 CREDITS / 7 ECTS
Description: This course deals with sound as material for art creation. Computer software and sensors and how they
are used to make interactive works will be looked at. The interactivity between sound and pictures and sound and
movement will be explored. The possibilities of using sound in connection with other media and sound in space will
be worked with.
Objectives: That students become familiar with the use of interactive media in art creation.
Assessment: Attendance, participation and assignments.
Instructors: Haraldur Karlsson

TÍM2007M TIME / STUDIO 7 CREDITS / 14 ECTS
Description: These 10 weeks are committed to video and time based art practice. Students are trained to identify a
methodology and means through digital technology in realizing their works. Students are assisted on individual basis
and the technical aspects of making video works covered.
The course end with a joint presentation and critique with other 2nd year students.
The goal is that students become acquainted with the wide range of possibilities of video and time based art, at the
same time as they increase their ower all critical awareness and creativity to express their ideas through digital
technology and place them in the contemporary art context.
Assessment: Attendance, participation and assignments
Supervisor: Lára Marteinsdóttir
Instructors: Haraldur Karlsson and guests.

VSM2201M WORKSHOP / VIDEO AND SOUND 0,5 CREDIT / 1 ECTS
Description: An introduction to the video and sound recording studio and basics aspects of video and sound work.
The course covers the main technical aspects of digital recording and processing in video and sound as well as basic
computer software and their use. The studio facilities and equipment, their handling and possibilities will be explored.
This course is required for access to the studio during the course of study.
Objectives: That students attain basic skills and knowledge of the use and handling of the facilities and equipment of
the video and sound recording studio.
Assessment: Attendance, participation and assignments
Instuctor: Haraldur Karlsson
Period: 10.09.07–14.09.07 (group

líst íslenka @ Scandivnavia House MAY2nd!!!!!

From Another Shore: Recent Icelandic Art

May 2 – August 15, 2008
The exhibition From Another Shore: Recent Icelandic Art is a succinct account of Icelandic art as it appears in the works of 21 artists who have been prominent in the last two decades. Due to particular geographical conditions, Icelandic artists are to a large extent influenced by the overwhelming nature of the country, which is Europe's largest unspoiled territory. They are also marked by the particular isolation of the island, halfway between Europe and North-America, which despite its area as Europe's second largest island has a population of a mere 300,000 spread along the rugged coast, turning its back on the uninhabited, volcanic, and glacial highland. Keenly aware of the international art scene, Icelandic artists are constantly torn between their sublime hinterland and the urge to seek out its opposite—the bustling vitality of a cosmopolitan city such as New York.
Drawn from the collection of the National Gallery of Iceland, the exhibition ranges from sculpture and installation to painting and photography. It includes approximately 40 works by 21 internationally acclaimed artists: Þórdís Aðalsteinsdóttir, Ásgrímur Ásgrímsson, Olga Bergmann, Hildur Bjarnadóttir, Margrét H. Blöndal, Ólafur Elíasson, Steingrímur Eyfjörð, Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, Jón Óskar, Hulda Hákon, The Icelandic Love Corporation (Sigrún Hrólfsdóttir, Jóní Jónsdóttir, and Eirún Sigurðardóttir), Guðný Rósa Ingimarsdóttir, Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir, Ólöf Nordal, Eggert Pétursson, Katrín Sigurðardóttir, Hrafnkell Si
gurðsson, Magnús Sigurðarson, and Hulda Stefánsdóttir.
Support for the exhibition is provided by Alcoa Foundation, Iceland Naturally, and the Icelandic Cultural Fund of The American-Scandinavian Foundation.

PULSE!

Today I traversed to Pier 40 with a dear friend to witness the 2008 PULSE contemporary Art Fair. It was this incredible display on a pier of international art work. The place was enormous, there was so much work I know that I did not get to encounter everything though we saw the bulk. I was a little disappointed because it was comprised of mostly conventional 2d work, though this being a 'fair' it makes sense that the 'type' of art was catering to collectors/buyers/profits/commodity etc. All the fun things about the art world in which i abhor. Not too many placards discussing the concept or meaning (that is if there was really any?) it seemed to be alot of eyecandy succumbing to the conventions of 'beauty'. To sum up my good friend dave hickey, once a viewer's eye is met with something "beautiful"/"pretty"/"conventionally nice and pleasing" the work stops there, further inspection and probing ceases. Which is why beautiful images become so problematic- which may be why i could not delve deeper to find such a compelling message. 

Awesome things include:

PULSE PLAY >
Sameness, Difference and Desire
Curated by Bill Arning

In making sense of the visual world the human eye scans constantly, and then when objects of interest are identified the mind is engaged and starts making distinctions with other previously identified objects,; Are they the same or different? If different, how are they different? If the same, are they the same, similar or two iterations of the same phenomenon? This is true if the objects under consideration are fellow humans or products on the supermarket shelf. Somehow in this visual perusal the close examination leads to inchoate feelings of desire, some for sameness, some for difference. In this selection of international video artists this process of comparison provoking desire is replayed in each video in ways that are also both exactly the same and completely different

Mary Coble
Blood Script, 2008
Courtesy of CONNER CONTEMPORARY ART

In Marker New York (2006), DC (2007) and Madrid (2008) Mary Coble stood silently while passersby wrote in marker on her body derogatory words they had been called or had used against others. In Blood Script, these documented hateful insults will be tattooed onto Coble’s skin without ink. Ornate script will create a dichotomy between beautiful visual forms of the words and the horrible meanings they convey.

Words will appear in blood as needles penetrate Coble’s skin. Contact prints will be made of each word by pressing paper against the incisions. As they are created, blood impressions will be displayed on the wall.

In a related performance, Note to Self (2005), Coble had names of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans-gendered hate-crime murder victims tattooed on herself in inkless block letters. The blood prints and documentation are in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

isnt that the creepy ron jeremy look alike that masturbated under a ramp?

 

On Friday, February 29th, a cohort and myself traversed the asphalt paved paths to an incredible opportunity at UPenn. In conjunction with the exhibition “Power Fields: Explorations in the work of Vito Acconci” at the Slought Foundation, Mr. Acconci spoke that night to a sea of people dressed in mourning at UPenn. Aptly named, his talk “From Word to Action to Architecture” cycled his career, aesthetic explorations, and the progression of chosen medium. He started out using words as a material with an agenda to make them as literal as possible. One of which I really enjoyed was, for example: 

 

“On the one hand there is a finger.

On the one hand there is another finger.

On the one hand there is another finger.

On the one hand there is another finger.

On the one hand there is another finger.”

 

From there he started to incorporate words with action. He would read as he was walking so as to translate spoken word into time and distance. One of the great things about his early work is that it is a non-traditional artist’s medium, like paint or clay. Which coincides with the great facet of art, which is that (what he explained it as) it is a “non-field field” in which one can “import from any field”. As he progressed along the timeline he spoke about his Following Piece in which he was interested in a real space and how he would move through it. This ultimately was by way of a randomly chosen pedestrian. He talked about how his movements than became the emulation of another’s, and how he became tied into someone else’s time and space, literally being dragged along. He was extremely fascinated in the role of the viewers and the attempt to actively engage them. So he began making works in which he made himself vulnerable (there include most of his video pieces such as converging). He expressed his theory in which he felt this would open up the circular exchange of the artist and action in turn extending it to the viewer. Yet in retrospect he said that in these explorations “I started an action that ended in me”. This closed the circle, creating the voyeuristic viewer. Which is where his work then shifted to live performance. This includes works such as Claim, and the infamous Seed Bed. In which the former turned out to perpetuate the hierarchical role of artist and viewer and in which in the latter though trying to become part of the space he questioned whether his presence was superfluous. After this he became extremely interested in installation and art that only made sense in a particular space, which soon changed into an attempt to redo architecture and became involved with various public art projects. This was the shift from where he stopped working alone and instead in a group (Acconci Studios). “If you start private it will end private, and if you start quasi public it will end publically. “ One project in which he was involved with was to redesign the WTC. This was a “pre-exploded WTC so that if terrorists were flying by they would look down and see that this one was already taken care of and that they would just pass it by”.

 

The best part was when you headed over to the gallery, which had all his documented work, videos, and architectural design. This space was literally a labyrinth in which gallery goers were forced to interact with one another. The main room house this enormous amorphously shaped table that came up to your shin, in which viewers could sit on the pepto bismol pink table/bench and peruse through copies of his textual works. This was AWESOME because during the talk he had spoke various times on how it was important for him to try to re create the gallery space as one in which people could gather.