Performance Art Part 4

Jordan Swartz
Performance Art Activity

One of the two peoples stands with their hands between their legs, while the other partner just holds their hands straight out, the two participants join hands. On the count of three, the partner with their hands between their legs jumps and throws their legs over while at the same time the other partner pull up forcefully. This makes the one partner completely flip.
In order to complete my activity, the partners need complete trust and must work off of each other. I'm really glad the people I chose were able to complete the task, they even did it more than once.

Conceptual Art

I liked the activity we did in class. I find it interesting how many different pieces could be created from just eight original 2x3 drawings. If there weren't the cross hairs pieces the overall work would look rather cohesive. I find it interesting that Sol LeWitt can send out these detailed instructions to various companies and institutions and all these works will be original Sol LeWitt pieces because he is the original creator and are all based off his works. All the drawings are based off of his originals so these works are his originals, which I find very interesting.

Performance Art Part 3

I participated in Britney's activity. Fran and I walked five steps apart and either threw, bounced, or rolled a tennis ball, but the same action could not be repeated more than twice in a row. We could move in different directions, towards each other, closer, farther apart, or opposite directions; the person with the ball being the one who decided. I found it an interesting and fun activity. The first few passes and movements were easy, but after the fourth or fifth pass, you had to begin to think what direction to move. You didn't want to continuously move in the same direction, causing a static state. I believe Fran and I completed the task well though. We varied between throwing, bouncing, and rolling and kept our movements varied as well.
I really enjoyed Casey's activity. For her performance art, she had two people repeatedly draw the star of David. The star could be altered as long as it was still the star of David; the participants could color it in, stretch it, shrink it, distort it, anything to alter its state as long it stayed some what true to the original shape. I found this activity to be extremely interesting. I'm fascinated by the power of symbols and this project only helped fuel that. The star of David was altered in multiple ways yet it still resembled the original. I love how something can me changed in multiple ways to express different meanings and evoke a wide range of feelings, while at its core is just a simple image. I'm glad she chose this activity because I think it is an extremely good performance piece in that it really makes people think in some form or another. While every ones pieces made the participants think and react, I think Casey's was good because it related back to one of the simplest forms of art.

Performance Art Part 2

The Fluxus group was a group of artists, composers, and designers who mixed mediums and medias through out the 1960s. They created kits called Fluxus boxes which contained "scripts" or outlines of how to perform various "do it yourself" art activities. These activities were meant to blur the lines between performer and audience. Most of what they did was to mock or upset high culture.
I really like their work, in that it was created to attack high culture, something i approve of. I also like that they wanted audience members and performers to be one in the same, I believe to many people think of art as some out of reach unattainable form, but art is whatever you want it to be. I like that the Fluxus group made that evident.

Performance Art Part 1

I performed Allan Kaprow's shaking hands activity with my roommate. It was interesting because it was a little awkward. Usually with a handshake it lasts at most a few seconds if not less, but with this project we continuously shook and while I don't know exactly how long it took for the activity to be accomplished, it was definitely longer than a normal handshake. I rather enjoyed this activity because I tend to really enjoy awkward situations. Most awkward situations really aren't that bad, it's just that our entire lives we've been taught that these situations are out of the ordinary, so thats how we perceive them.

Logos

http://thecontentwrangler.com/images/uploads/mcdonalds.JPG October 18 2007
This logo is one of the most recognizable logos used around the world. Logos are just streamlined descriptions of a company or corporation simply reduced to the most basic of terms. they are created so people can comprehend them with in a matter of seconds. They fuel our ignorance and help sell products.

The Large Glass

I really enjopyed "The Large Glass" by Marcel Duchamp. There was such a back story and so much of his life and thought went into it and I really wish all art was that completely thought out and intense. The top of this piece fascinates me. The three oddly shaped squares inside the cloud like object, shatter lines streaking across the the frame. It all works together to form something gloomy and drastic while also being beautiful. The intense effort, thought, and work that went into this piece baffles me. I wish I could create pieces that had this much information behind them and required this much thought. I wish someone would recreate this in real life. It would be a really interesting thing to see in person how it all worked and flowed. The fact that it shattered and he had to piece it back together makes it that more interesting and kind of goes with the theme and title of the work, in that things can fall apart at any time but if you want, you can fix it.

Pattern

Floor tiles and fabric prints tend to be similar in style. They vary in degree of intricacy and design but they it seems if you can have a pattern in a fabric print you can with a floor tile and vice versa. For fabric prints it seems to depend on the material for the detail of the pattern. While with tiles it seems to depend on size, the bigger the tile the more detailed they can be. Islamic architecture seems to be very detailed and intricate, but done in extremely large portions, encompassing streets, walkways, and buildings. Tiles are more self contained if only because of their size, while fabrics are able to be more open and unrestrained because of their size. I like the fabric patterns a lot because they are free flowing and seem to be more interesting. Islamic architecture is also very interesting because it is so detailed and also so vast.

Gestalt

http://people.csail.mit.edu/fredo/ArtAndScienceOfDepiction/links.html

Value

Creating the value scale is a lot harder than it would seem. I tend to write with intensity and usually press fairly hard, so getting the high values were kind of tough. It was also hard making sure the entire region was evenly shaded and there was no internal variations. Keeping each section as its own separate identity was tough, all i wanted to do was shade them together. I've done value scales before but I've always separated sections so that made it easier. Doing the drawing was a lot easier because we were able to do it in parts. There was a required number of values but they didn't have to be in any certain order or arrangement, which made the creation of the drawing a lot easier.

The string activity was definitely an interesting project and also an enjoyable one. Unraveling and wrapping the string was a mindless activity while the re wrapping and untangling was a thinking process. I hastily unraveled my string through out the room; not thinking about composition, placement, or having to clean it up at all. I think this is true of me i tend to do things rashly and not completely thought out. Then the cleaning up process was arduous and time consuming. At one point i was even cleaning up the wrong string and helped someone else early. I feel this is very true of who I am. I tend to pay for my rash actions and i end of put others peoples feeling over my own.

I also liked the line and shape project that we drew. It was interesting to see how each person did different designs and different compositions. I really liked this project because it made you think differently and out of box; I had to figure out a way to arrange the subjects so as to fit the page but also meet all the criteria.

Which of the images a, b, c, or d are lines?
a, b, & d
Which of the images a, b, c, or d are shapes?
a, b, c, & d
What makes a line?
It doesnt necessarily have end end point, it can go on forever.
What makes a shape?
A confined area or piece.

In this piece there are many boxes of varying sizes and colors spread through out the body of work. There is a concentration in the bottom right corner of larger sized squares. In the far bottom right is a strip of boxes with varying colors, from there black boxes radiate out, decreasing in size. They are in somewhat of a pattern but vary and differ a little, breaking the trend.

The artist of this piece was trying to convey a sense of nonconformity. The boxes in the the top half are of relatively the same size and shape and are all of the same color. The lower half of this piece is made up of boxes of varying sizes and colors, with the largest and most colorful boxev being exiled to corner away from the similar boxes.

The composition and values of this piece are overall very compelling and convey the message very well. The artist was able to easily convey his thoughts and emotions without making the piece to hard to understand and comprehend. This artist seems like he knows what he wants to accomplish and knows how to, yet his work is not tired or overused.