Television Delivers People

The music in the background reminded me of something that would have been on Leave It to Beaver, where you have the perfect family with the perfect hair who all wear nice clothes and the mom wears lipstick and pearls while vacuuming. This is ironic, because the whole point of the video is to tell us that television is not perfect, and advertising it consuming us, which is completley true! But really, who ever thinks of their lives being controlled by what they watch on tv? With advertising schemes being shot at us left and right, whether it be from telelvision or billboards or magazine adds or whatever, all of our decisions are somehow guided by the advertising that we see every day. I think that what struck me most about the music is that it represents something safe, like having a perfect family. While the music should be warm and comforting, the words on the screen makes you think and realise how you are really living your life. For a video that could have potentially been incredibly boring, this one made me think much more than anything else we have watched in class this semester!

Nam June Paik

The obituary of Nam June Paik's is the longest I have ever read. The list of this man's achievements is extraordinary. The obituary mentioned several times that Paik was proficient with televisions, which mirrors what we learned about him in class.

My favorite piece of Paik's that we talked about in class was the television bra that he made for the naked ciellist. I found it ironic that Paik used such a public piece of machinery, such as the television, that everyone watches and which televises the personal business of people worldwide, to cover up such a private part of the woman ciellist.

I also appreciated that Paik's first piece of video art was a video of the Pope, whom he followed around with a camera. Paik's sense of humor was really remarkable. So was his originallity and creativety, as shown with pieces such as his video art on stained glass. I also appreciated how reused all of his videos, this gave me lots of ideas for when I do my own video art project.

Giant Eyeballs

So, in class we have been watching a lot of music videos that The Residents made. Most of the music videos that we have watched have been very abstract. We learned that we never see the musician's faces because they are always wearing giant eyeballs over their heads. We also learned that The Residents made the first "real" music video in 1971.

What I find the most interesting about this band is that all of their music videos are a form of performance art. Since we have been learning so much recently in class about performance art, seeing videos from this band gave me a clearer view of what performance art actually is. It also helped me form ideas for my own performance art piece.

Last Monday we watched the video for "This is a man's world" which was a piece of video art created by The Residents that was the first to show some hardcore computer animation. It was interesting to see what the first forms of computer animation looked like. To me, it simply looked like squiggly lines coming out of a man's face. Other animation that was used in this video was comprised of repeating shapes in various colors. It was really cool to watch along with the music, and it was a trippy experience. This abstract computer animation combined with the fact that the band was a bunch of giant eyeballs made me feel as though they probably did a good amount of drugs, and power to them.

Performance Art

Credits:

Thanks to:

Samantha Burns and Jeff...? for filming

Matt Rossetti for help editing

So I wanted my performance art to focus on how people look at women. When women are spoken to the focus is usually on their bodies, so I wrapped my body in black trash bags and walked around Channelside asking people if they knew what time it was. In some cases they gave me strange looks on the spot, but in most cases they waited until they passed me and then turned around to get a second look. Needless to say, the focus was still on my body, but for an entirely different reason. I de-contextualized the trash bags by taking them out of the trash and wrapping them around my body instead. Ripping them off at the end was thrilling because a) i felt like a normal person again and b) i was sweating balls walking around channelside.

There was one woman who actually stopped and asked me why I was wearing trash bags, but the camera died as soon as she came up to me so I only managed to capture the tail end of our conversation. She was pretty cool though, and had graduated with a degree in women's studies so was all about what I was trying to prove.

Wooster Group

I would love to be part of the Wooster Group. I think it sounds weird as hell, but there is something about the phrase "an ensemble of artists who, under the direction of Elizabeth LeCompte, make work for theater, dance and media" that really appeals to me. Actually, on second thought, that first sentence was a lie. However, after further research I have decided that interning with them would probably be fun, even though I would not have the balls to join them professionally. Not that they would even accept me, but still. A girl can dream. And they say it would be a "mutually rewarding experience," which sounds promising.

On a completely un-related note - does wooster remind anyone else of Rooster? I have the attention span of a peanut.

The Wooster Group's programs for junior high and high school students seem to be very educational and beneficial. It looks as though exposing young students to the arts could keep them out of bad situations, as well as broaden their horizens theatrically.

Stelarc = STELLAR (ER?)

First of all, can anyone clarify how to spell the word steller (ar) please? Does it end with an ar or an er?

One of the things that I thought made Stelarc steller (ar) was his australian accent. Another thing was that THE MAN WAS HALF ROBOT!!! Well...sort of. He reminded me of the scientist with the robot spider legs going on in the second spider man movie. At least I think it was the second movie...anyway, writing all of these blogs has made me realise that i do NOT take art seriously, which will probably be my downfall in this class. While I appreciate it and enjoy it, hearing all of the deep interpretations gives me a headache. Wouldn't Stelarc have been satisfied to know that I think that the stuff that he does is really uh, rad? Not only does it take creativety but it also takes brains to build the things that he did! I was really impressed by him.

Xerox & Orlan

Tell me what you think! I almost broke the copier when i tried to sit on it to photocopy my butt...it had to restart each time. After the 2nd time i learned my lesson.

On another note, I actually enjoyed learning about Orlan. I thought that the way she ended up looking after all of her major artistic surgeries actually overpowered how weird i thought it was that she would film herself getting cut up in the first place. When Santiago pointed out that all we're really watching are pixels on a screen, and our feelings are only what we make of them, that really helped me to stomach watching this woman get lipo suction. However, I do feel that she could have made a similar statement by reading poetry while she was doing something less invasive, such as doing jumping jacks or shaving a cow...but I guess art is art and i will never truly understand it.

Gilbert & George

These two men were fabulous. I wish i had grandfathers as outrageous as them. Of course I moreso thought that they were funny than took the time to appreaciate their artwork in class, but now that i've googled some more images I guess I can comment on the art rather than on how hilarious i thought they were...

Nooo, on second thought I still think that they're really funny. I think that the names of their artwork are funny ("in the piss"), and i'm laughing while looking at old man genitals. But on a more mature note, I do like how they broke some of their work up into geometric modules, and I also really like the bold colors that they use, since I tend to gravitate towards bold colors in my own artwork. But overall, what I loved the most is how the two of them seemed like such "bros," just makin' art pieces and human sculpture together.