Object theory Catalogue project

Last assignment..and really I was doing this right up to the last minute...

Janice Vitkovsky: Artist of the Day

 The more I look at her works the more I love them. Gorgeous on pure visuals but the concept works for me too.

I can just imagine our thoughts and perceptions being materialised and captured like this. The sense of movement from line and depth convey the feeling that our ideas move and shift slightly (or radically) once they are formed. See more of her work at 'Sabbia Gallery', Bullseye Gallery and Jane Sauer Gallery.

'Becloud III'

'Merge'

'Moment when whole'

 

Detail of 'Moment when whole'

'Saturation'

 

Particles of vivid colour ripple explode and shift, suspended for a moment in clear minimalist slabs of glass. Viewing Vitkovsky’s works from many angles gains the viewer a shifting, mutable perspective. The perception of light and shadow between the clear and coloured elements create depth and cast illusions; a backlit dust storm gathering momentum, the quicksilver sinuous dance of a shoal of Mackeral, the undulating scales of a serpent or the crashing spume of the sea. The evocative imagery that Vitkovsky’s works conjures up, are about the sensations of the ephemeral, from one fixed moment in time to the next. After flying and falling through her work the artist’s term ‘immersive’ is apt. Her work matches her ideas on how emotions and thoughts affect perceptionby the non representational forms.

Objects of Desire: a book to look out for

Objects of desire / Simon Bruntnell

Simon Bruntnell is a photographer, who has gained a reputation for the photographing of contemporary glass art. The new book available from March 2010 includes work from 43 artists; students & international names in contemporary glass art making, are presented in the publication on even terms. We also get to see some of the faces behind the glass, with portraits, some not published before.
43 different artists

Patrick's clouds

Love 'em Pat

After Lunch at At fisher

Dougie and I had lunch with Barbel who was luxuriating in the thrum of Sydney (compared to Aukland), The Cafe was Clover in Annandale...related to Clipper in Glebe we think. Good food, cute if not accessible furniture. After we passed Barbel onto another friend (she packed a lot into a short visit me thinks) Dougie waited out side Fisher whilst I did some research and..
Whilst I was browsing the immense collection at Fisher Library, even the "to be shelved" section is browse-able I found my own name staring back at me in tooled cloth....so rare!

Take's Exhibition Opening

This was the first time I had visited the artist run space  ESP Gallery in Marrickville. Having seen Take's work in progress it was stunning to behold finished. The transformation of a work in progress to when it is in situ in the gallery always amazes me. I really enjoyed Zoe's Work too. Particularly the grey fused pieces, their titles making them humorous and enjoyable as well as visually pleasing..  

The event was catered by Matilda who made tier upon tier of scrumptious yet complex sweet taste sensations

Profiteroles, coconut and lemon cream tarts, hazelnut brownies etc. Very good!

 

Take's luminous "

 

Zoe's

 

Zoe's

 

Zoe's

Matilda exiting the kitchen with more treats

 

Katie Ann and Patrick with the Birthday Mug.

Essay

Only a week and a day late but almost finished, it will be good for me (and possible blog readers) to hear about something else instead (it will also be nice to get out of the flat).  I did do a quick pencil study nude of my love this morning (um yesterday morning) - on the back of a theory reading..but due to 'censorship' :) I won't be blogging it.

Essay

ditto yesterday

Essay

Still going.. I thought it would be easier this year, that I would write faster..if anything it's worse.

The great train / essay weekend

I think I will always associate that essay with a steam train. I live near a train station, seriously close (as you can see in the picture taken from the balcony) For three days over the long weekend every hour a steam train puffed and hooted its way past the flat. Pity about the city train going past in front.

Essay readings

Bolter, Jay David & Gromala, Diana. Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art, and the Myth of Transparency. Cambridge, The MIT Press, 2003.

Brody, Florian T. “Books the next generation: Reading on the Electronic Frontier”. Brody.org (2001) http://www.brody.org/Brody/Information_Superhighway_files/Brody_InfoSuperhighway.pdf (accessed June 6, 2010)

Brody, Florian T. “The Medium is the Memory”. Brody.org (2001) http://www.brody.org/Brody/The_Medium_is_the_Memory__files/Brody_MediumMemory.pdf (accessed June 6, 2010)

Caygill, Howard. “Meno and the Internet: between memory and the archive.” History of the Human Sciences, vol. 12 no. 2 (1999): 1- 11.

Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong. “The Enduring Ephemeral or the Future is Memory.” Critical Inquiry, no. 35 (2008): 148-171.

Danziger, Kurt. Marking the Mind: A History of Memory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Flynn, Bernadette, "Memory fragments as scene makers", Screening the past, is 13 (2002) in http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr1201/bffr13a.htm. (accessed June 6, 2010)

Graham, Beryl & Cook, Sarah. Rethinking Curating: Art after New Media, Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2010.

Lunfield, Peter (ed.).The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000.

Rabinovitz, Lauren & Gil, Abraham (eds.). Memory Bites: History, Technology and Digital Culture. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004.

Tribe, Mark & Jana, Reena. New Media Art. Koln: Taschen, 2006.

Van Den Boomen, Marianne et al (eds.) Digital material: Tracing New Media in Everyday Life and Technology. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2009.

Wolf, Mark J. P. Abstracting Reality: Art, Communication and Cognition in the Digital Age, Lanham: University press of America, 2000.

Loading the furnace and third year final preparations

Howie and I loaded the furnace today with some passing company that made the job go swiftly and we finished early. Pics  are of some last minute preparations and trial installations by the third year class.

Kirra hanging pollen

Patrick's clouds 

Oh the interminable polishing..

Natalie's magic mirror 

0/2000

Book in cataloguing keep an eye on it

A brief history of working with new media art : conversations with artists / edited by Sarah Cook ... [et al.]. Publisher Berlin: Green Box, c2010.

Text Rain byCamille Utterback and Romy Archituv. I love this!

Assessment day June 2010

Amazingly I got parasite on the wall and the pea pod finished. I had a really constructive 15 minute assessing session with Andrew, Lene and Kirstie. Later when the rest of the studio came in for a sticky beak I really enjoyed how their interaction with "As like two peas"

Howie, Kirra and Take inspecting "As like two peas" with "Parasite" in profile to the left.

"As like two peas" 

"Parasite"

the day before

Our second / first year studio has been transformed with newly painted walls and artworks. Lots of activity today.

Eventually with just a little encouragement..kiln no. 7 dropped in temperature, I took the slump out at about 4ish wrapped in a blanket and at 5 unwrapped it for a good look. there IS a nose.

Polyfiller, painting, polishing and kilnsitting

I ran back and forth between hopeful watching for the for the honey comb face nose to lengthen, and preparing the walls at uni for Wednesday's  assessment. Eventually at about 15:00 I tried out 720deg C. I think it may have worked. I finished the cerium stage of polishing for the peas.
Dougie chauffeured me to Bunnings only to find they had run out of the magnets I wanted. there were others..the trick like anything else in the rows upon shelves is finding IT!

Bubblebathed, Acetoned and drying. 

Problem pea pods

Well really it is the magnets that aren't strong enough..I hadn't really factored the pull of all that padding and fabric...so that's why some of the edges are un sewn..but a solution was offered by the everwise Dougie which i shall try v. soon, since it is being assessed on Wednesday morning.

And a close up of the engraving. (NTS chin almost peeled, still scabby and lobster pink instead of sunburn brown)

Art of memory: Essay question number 9

How has new technology influenced the way we understand memory now? Through the work of two contemporary artists and two contemporary theorists on memory, consider the question in relation to the trace (as both a physical and virtual mark of history).

A pity that our practical assessment is also set in study week (next week) for I quite like this question (though it took me ages to pick) and I won't be giving it the time it deserves.

Reading:
Brody, Florian. The Medium is the Memory.
Danziger, Kurt. Marking the Mind: A History of Memory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Van Den Boomen, Marianne et al (eds.) Digital material: Tracing new media in everyday life and technology. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2009.

Pixels by Patrick Jean

I caught this on Florain Brody's blog

Pea pod and the first sunny day for ages

Dye being added to the water.

The finished colour! the fabric is a medium weight viscose cotton satin weave. The viscose side has a subtle sheen like the fur of a healthy contented cat rather than a polyester satin sheet finish..if you know what I mean.

Did I mention rain?

Dougie drove me to Botany and back to pick up the strip magnet. Lucky for me, for other wise I would have been very wet. 

This is the view from the cold working room, the down pipe on the left was jetting water about a foot up..though by the time I found my camera the rain had lessened some.

What a way to spend a wet day! In the cold working room..using machinery that needs water, though one does feel prepared in gumboots, waterproof apron, earmuffs, face mask and goggles.

My Kiln with the honeycomb face cooled down this afternoon..a bit of a disappointment that the face has no nose. After some kiln schedule swapping I managed to get the same kiln for another few days (higher and longer temp)...though it has put my schedule out of wack....it will be tight!

The day I did something stupid

...and scalded my chin, so after I had stuck it under water for a good while and had a rant about how I didn't have time for this kind of thing, cursing my stupidity etc etc I phoned Deb with ice bag clamped to my chin (somewhat muffling my words) and asked her to check on my kiln that was coming to top temp. Luckily for me Kirstie and Deb watched the progress and lengthened and upped the soaking time. Meanwhile I realised that the burn was worse than I thought and realised I would ALSO have to miss a class and some polishing time. GRRRR!

Anyhow I went to uni after the pain subsided to do more engraving and polishing until 8.30.

Thank you Deb and Kirstie for stepping in.

In line....for the engraver

Last night I finalised the foetus drawing and made a plan for the engraving I had tested out yesterday. In the library this morning I resized the image to transfer onto the bubbles.

There was a queue for the engraver..I got to it at about 4pm..as it was all my marked lines washed off. huh some permanent marker!

Art of Memory - 13

Overview.

One last question / comment but no reading. So last week we talked about entropy. The way I explain entropy to myself is to think of the two large water tanks on my parents property. The two are linked by an underground pipe. No matter which one fills quicker, after the rain they balance out to the same level because of the underground pipe. This ensures that they both have the same amount rather than risking one overflowing. Of course they can BOTH overflow if you have enough rain.

The connotations of entropy though seem negative. The word does not enjoy excited use. Balance it seems is bad. I imagine the word being used with the type of enthusiasm only Marvin the robot in "The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy" could display.  Ennn tro pyyy. As a species we seem to enjoy excitement, action and all things new. No place there for statis, equilibrium or stagnation.

So where is this preamble getting us to? Well, another idea raised in class was that 'our reliance on technology makes it easier to forget'.  True or false?...good or bad? In the same way that having the skill of writing changed the way we used our memory. No longer the need to remember all that detail..it's written down. As like with the photograph, no more need to try hard to remember events as they are captured on film. Now we can store so much information...we don't have to remember so much more. What are we remembering instead? or are we using our brains in a different way..do we need the space to cope with all the images that we are bombarded with every day?

Roman lawyers apparently had slaves (called "little Greeks") purely for the purpose of remembering by rote large tracks of law to assist their master in court. We have always used some tool or another to help us remember.

People who are not so fond of computers often ask  "what would happen if they all stopped working?" I think we would readjust even though we would have lost a lot. I imagine the ancient Egyptians felt like that when the library of Alexandria was destroyed. All that knowledge..gone..never to come back as it was.

My point about new technology is..it's different, we change it, change with it, change because of it. We may lose somethings (how we used to remember perhaps) but we gain others. This is good, change and action are good because the opposite..entropy is bad.