8 - Hadley: Dérive

Initially I was planning on going on a dérive downtown, and I've trekked downtown numerous times in the last couple of weeks, but I actually felt more drawn to the buildings on the Brown campus. So the other day I walked on the same path that I walk on everyday to get to my various classes and took time to look at buildings and houses that typically I just stroll right past because I'm in a hurry. These are some photos that I took, and I'm sure that you're all familiar with the locations. When I was taking photos, I was continuously drawn to the blossoming trees since we've all been so deprived of any sign of spring so far.

Carmen - Final project

For my final project, I will be creating a short film based loosely around a play that one of my friends wrote. We will be collaborating on the content, and I will focus more on the technical aspects of the piece (filming, editing, etc.) I'm really interested in video because I have worked with it as an educational tool, but have not yet used this medium to express a fictional narrative. I think it will be challenging to incorporate content and form, but I'm excited about exploring that process. I don't have a complete vision of the piece's story yet, but I am meeting with my friend tonight to talk things through. (I can post an update to the blog when things are more finalized. Also sorry this wasn't up by midnight, I completely forgot!)

Amber - Derive and Final Project

I did my derive this past weekend when I went to Rowayton, Connecticut for Easter. I stayed a block away from the beach so I decided to go on a walk down the shore and explore the coast. It was very foggy out which didn't allow me to take very good pictures. I enjoyed looking through the sand for shells that had washed up on shore and found some cool sea glass and a small conch shell. It was a very relaxing and calming experience since no one else was on the beach with me, and it made me appreciate being away from campus and out in such a beautiful environment. 

My final project could still go in a couple of directions. I thought I had narrowed it down but then on Easter I found out about this cool way you can blow eggs - you put holes in the top and bottom and then blow from one end and the yolk comes out the other. Then you take the hallowed shell and can paint it or decorate it however you'd like, and it lasts much longer than an egg would in the fridge before it spoils. I played around with this idea and was thinking of different things I could do with them and made this on photoshop - a model of a project I could make, playing around with "cracked" eggs, with the cracks actually being painted on. I'd somehow mount the eggs to a thick board or display them in another way. I also was thinking about doing a self portrait or a portrait of one of my friends, a final drawing of sorts to include everything I've learned throughout the semester.

Christine - Final Project

For my final project I am going to be putting together a number of short videos that address various themes in consciousness, awareness, and perception. These short videos consist mainly of stock/found footage set to music. I am interested in using video editing techniques to create videos that at once generate a certain mood in the viewer and bring to mind questions of the power and reliability of perception. An individual is only capable of interpreting the world through his sensory experiences - specifically, I want to explore how these sensory experiences influence the way individuals navigate through the abstract structures that dominate society. How does a sensory experience translate into "meaning"? How does the act of making an associations between an abstract concept and a specific object affect the way the object is perceived? How does the categorical/symbolic language of social structures affect conceptions of the body and the self? I find video editing to be an excellent medium for addressing these questions. Editing together a series video clips means I can provide viewers with an ordered arrangement of images that build on each other and work as a coherent whole to convey a certain message or idea. For example, by carefully choosing a sequence of moving images and how they are cut together I can create a sense of continuity between disparate ideas, showing their commonality.

I also plan on putting together a simple website in which I could display my video clips and some of the other work I have done throughout the semester.

Ian - Derive

I did my derive today by longboarding from the top of charlesfield down to whiskey republic and then across india point park towards the studio ... Being in motion and on the streets I tend to pay most attention to what is moving around me. I break from the rules and boundaries constraining those in the city: Cars stop at light, people walk on sidewalks, but I become much more limitless. The streets are filled with predictable obstacles and I make my own path around and through the slopes I see before me .. I weave down charlesfield and carefully watch the cars on the streets below to time my passing though the open interception. Carving harder as I reach the bottom I bank my turn onto benefit and continue down the hill. I see that my passage is open and carve wide down the street. With each pass I feel the loose gravel collected on the edges of the street begin to come loose beneath my wheels. Reaching the bottom of the hill I see a red light but few cars passing on the street below. Quickly I make the decision to bank right into an open lane the cut across the street with the first opening. I see an open path aside the road and take my cut out. From here I take a casual ride down the flat streets towards the studio. I see a world more still then the bustle street I had left behind me. I pass under tunnels which throw shadows over the cracks and bumps I must avoid. Finally I reach the studio, and for the first time allow my feet to leave the board ... A rush. and ready for another run.

Jason - Final Project

So I'm a senior, getting ready to leave -- but doing some reflecting on the way. Looking back at my years here, I'd say I've learned two big topics: the first being econometrics, and the second being stochastic-calculus-probability-whatever. It took me four years to see how they're actually the same thing (true story! -- two sides to the same coin, it's funny how often that seems to happen).

Anyways, the goal of my art project is to help convey an underlying theme in these two fields. It goes like this: in order to understand complexity, you must use abstraction. This is math in a nutshell. The game goes, the world is far too rich and complex, so in order to understand it, you lay over a "cloth" of abstraction. The cloth is easy to understand, while the thing underneath the cloth -- really it's gross and impossible.

The swirly-pollocky lines on the canvas are the abstraction. The motherboard is a literal metaphor for complexity. From an artistic standpoint, I don't think you need the literal metaphor in the piece, so I might not have the motherboards nailed into the board, but that's where I'm at right now.

Here are some close-ups of my final project: 

 

Here are the close-ups of my prototype (the first is the base-coat only version): 

 

Thanks!

 

Ian - Final Project

The last post was me, Ian. forgot to title it ha.

For my final project I plan to continue woodworking. I want to incorporate natural patterns from the wood itself by leaving cut section of the wood exposed. As of now I am leaning towards creating a table inspired by a piece I saw today at the studio
(I have the image attached). I am not focusing on function as much as appearance but I am aiming for a chairside/bedside height. I may alternate cross sections of the wood (varying directionality of woodgrain) to add some complex detail to my final piece; In doing so I will integrate various elements of design into the construction of the table.

Charlie--Final Project

For my final project, I want to write and illustrate a graphic novel, which is basically a long-form comic book. The drawing unit was definitely my favorite part of this semester, so I want to continue drawing for my final project. Rather than devising characters and a plot, I want to use a real event from my life. This event is something that happened to me when I was flying home for spring break. Basically a flight attendent saw a shirt that I was wearing, which had the logo from an organization from back home, and asked me about it. This sparked a conversation between me and her where I learned a lot about her and her life. After I set up with this narrative, I would want to spend the rest of the graphic novel exploring some of the things that I learned by talking to the flight attendent. I think that visually, the drawings would start off realistic--portraying the plane and other physical things--but then take off from there and get more abstract. I hesitate to use words like symbol and metaphor lightly, but the images that I use would definitely have more meaning then just their face value.

Monica - Derive and Final Project

During my derive I decided to walk around to all the parks/playgrounds in my vicinity. Across the street there is a preschool where I usually see the kids playing outside. I stopped and observed for a while and took notice of how the children were all interacting with one another or not interacting with anyone at all. It was as if they were in their own little innocent worlds. Another park I walked past on Brook St. was also crowded with children, accompanied by their parents and older siblings. The last park I visited was on Preston and Ives. Unlike previous two playgrounds, the equipment was unoccupied. The park was empty save for a lone older man strolling through.

For my final project I would like to create a stop motion music video for the song "Opposites of Adults" by Chitty Bang incorporating elements from what I observed during my derive, which compliment the lyrics of the song quite nicely.

Charlie--Derive

Here are some pictures I took when walking around the neighborhood near my dorm. My favorite is definitely the last one, which shows a guy and his son playing in the street. I don't know if you can see from this distance but the dad wasn't wearing shoes, which I thought was pretty funny.

Lizette: Final Project

So my final project will be a nightstand that will have photocopies from my journal. I went through a few design ideas

And then finally settled on this one:

Leah: Derive

I got back from my derive a little bit ago. During my walk back from class, I noticed a bunch of people enjoying the beautiful weather in India Point Park just in front of the bridge. Some people were playing with their kids on the grass, others were simply relaxing and reading/enjoying the sun, and some others were on runs. By the time five runners passed me, I decided I wanted to come back after dropping off my art stuff in my dorm and go on a run in the park along the water. When I got back to the park, I put on my ipod because I usually run with loud music on to drown out my breathing. However, after a minute or so I decided to turn it off. There was something peaceful about hearing my heaving breathing in conjunction with the sounds of the wind and my feet hitting the pavement. It almost created a beat/pattern of sounds that made me forget I was exerting energy and running. Usually, I run on the treadmill and find myself staring at the timer and counting down the seconds until I am done, but that wasn't the case today. I loved watching the afternoon sunlight shine off the water and highlight the grass and trees. Unfortunately, I can't run with a camera, so I didn't take any pictures, but hopefully the weather stays this nice the rest of the week so I can go back and run again!

Jesse - Derive and Final Project

Derive:

For my derive I decided to walk up thayer street, starting from the OMAC area since I always walk the other way. I wanted to get away from all of the business and just see what else providence had to offer. As I kept walking up thayer, I started passing neighborhoods, schools, lines of stores, day cares and restaurants. I ended up in a small section above the main road, which was Hope street since thayer turned into it. I became fascinated with the way that a group of homes was tucked away, behind tennis courts, above a park and school, in a quiet corner of a sort. I walked around one block of houses four times and noticed the uneven sidewalks, evergreen bushes, thorns, and rickety porches along the street. This walk accomplished exactly what I hoped it would. It helped to clear my mind, while allowing me to investigate the neighborhoods that I will call home for the next four years.

Final Project:

For my final project I plan to create a set of photographs focusing on the lights that shine over providence during the night. I do not intend to just produce photos of lights, but rather more abstract versions of the lights. I want to show the way that the lights illuminate the city, create an atmosphere for us and the people who live in  providence, and travel all over the city. We take for granted the importance of light and how much it impacts our lives. I plan to mount the photographs on foam-core to create a more substantial piece.

7 - Hadley: Final Project

I'm going on my dérive later today, but I have nothing to show for that as of now. For my final project I plan to do a people study with my camera. I'm considering using black and white film with my grandfather's old camera, but I don't have access to a dark room right now, so developing on my own might not be possible. Another problem I may encounter is using a manual camera. I learned all about the aperture settings and shutter speeds for various light situations in high school but I'm a little rusty so I don't want to risk wasting entire rolls of film due to my lack of knowledge. If film doesn't work out, I'll use my digital SLR and maybe play with the photos in photoshop. Mainly I'll be taking photos of my friends, and asking them a short series of questions to pair with the photos in the final presentation. I'm still a little unsure how to present them, but I for sure want to have them printed out for a tangible display, perhaps with the question answers right next to the photos. Of course I am completely open for revisions to the project as I go along. I might decide to add to the project using different art mediums, but probably not. And that is all.

Kim- derive and final project

I went to Washington, DC last weekend with some friends for a conference on alternative energy. Getting everywhere on the agenda required us to navigate the city's streets and subways, so we were forced to plan out our days in advance- quite the opposite of a derive. However, the last day was so sunny and beautiful that we refused to stay cooped up inside conference centers, so we ditched the warehouse surroundings and headed outside on foot. Although we had originally planned to go to the Smithsonian museums, we found ourselves walking aimlessly along reflecting ponds and down wooded paths. It was such a lovely break from a weekend of rushing from one form of transportation to another. Letting my feet wander gave me time to reflect and enjoy a day without plans. When I was telling my parents about our trip, they asked what I did on the day we left the conference. In all honesty, we did nothing, but it was so peaceful that it felt like something.

On our walk, we ended up at the National Botanical Gardens which were lovely all in bloom. I took many pictures because I was obsessed with the vibrant colors of the flowers and the intricacies of the petals. For my final project, I would like to try to paint the flowers I saw, similar to the style of Georgia O'Keefe.

Berfu: Final project

For the Brown Fashion Show I'll be working in backstage, doing hair/makeup of the models. This inspired me to do something about makeup for my final project. Makeup is not one of the first things that comes to mind when thinking about different branches of visual arts, but I think it is a very creative process which might be used as a means of expression.

I've always been a girly girl, very interested in styling and makeup. I watch video tutorials of makeup artists on the web and try to apply them on myself occasionally. While looking for these videos I saw that the artists usually come up with a theme and create a makeup style accordingly. For example I came across with one artist who chose the theme of "world cities" and developed her idea by creating different makeup styles for each famous city. Paris makeup was marked by a red lipstick, London look evolved around smokey eyes etc.

I want to make a similar portfolio consisting of different makeup styles according to a theme for my final project. As a theme I thought of martinis at first, since I love martinis, there are many different types of them and each look very colorful. I thought I might also be inspired by the ingredients of martinis and create a look accordingly. However, after my derive I started to pay more attention to surroundings and now I'm considering to create a different makeup style for each Brown building, at least for the ones I've been to. Most of the Brown buildings look very similar to each other, since they were built in the same time periods when a certain architectural style was dominant, but I thought I can create very different looks for each, deriving ideas from the stories of the buildings and my own experience with them.

I will use a makeup template, which is basically an empty, quite dull-looking face. After trying out my ideas on the template, I might apply the makeup on a real person and take a photograph of her.

Berfu: Derive

My parents were in town during the weekend so on Friday we wanted to take advantage of the lovely spring weather and explore the surroundings.  I wanted to show them around but when we were in downtown Providence I realized how little I knew the city. Since most of the time I didn't know where I was taking them, our little downtown trip became my derive.

We ended up finding cute coffee shops in very narrow and seemingly deserted streets I've never seen before and a very beautiful restaurant by the river. The weather was perfect and trees were blossoming, making everything appear twice as beautiful.

I realized that no matter where you go in Providence it's almost impossible to get lost because it's such a small city and somehow you end up somewhere you know or you've been before:) And you can see college hill from everywhere.

My derive also made me realize that I wouldn't be able to live anywhere away from water. It's such a calming element, it makes me feel happy and perfectly balanced. Maybe it's because I was born in a city surrounded by water, I always feel at home and secure whenever I'm near water. I'm very glad that I chose a similar place to spend my college years.

Speaking of water, we went to Cape Cod on Saturday. Despite it was cold and rainy, the view of the bay was like that. I just want to move there!

Jane: Dérive and Final Project

So I went on my dérive with Carmen and our friend Ursula, on the most beautiful of Easter Sundays. While Carmen was being sneaky taking pictures of numbers unbeknownst to me, my own dérive adopted a much looser, open-minded structure...I started taking pictures of things I found beautiful (buildings, flowers), interesting (a bike lock, a children's play toy). Part of my walk found beauty in the unexpected: how often do we actually examine the places we live, stop to look before going about our lives? Another sought stories. A love-seat built for two sat peaceful and empty on a porch, and it was so apparently custom made, the size so particular, it seemed as if it could only fit one couple in the world: an image of soulmates. I photographed a statue of Jesus at the end of a driveway who held out his arms as if waving in the car in front of him, the most holy of parking attendants. But really, it was the camera in my hand that shaped my walk. I would never have stopped everywhere I did without it, if I didn't have the promise of preserving a snapshot. The camera was a third eye, hand held, and it mediated my walk. How might my journey have changed if I held a sketch book? Or a video camera, or for that matter, a camera that used film, one that would demand I take more care in choosing my subjects and frames? What would I have seen, chosen to document, what would I have done, where would I have gone differently? Questions that beg experimentation...

This bike's not going anywhere.

The Art of the Playground

Rapunzel!

Darling buds of May, upward-facing.

A seat, in love.

Park and be blessed.

....Which leads me to the topic of my final project. I really want to continue painting: it's been so fun working with color, playing with a medium that has such a variety of moods and textures with so many possibilities. When it came to subject matter, I took the idea of finding beauty in the unexpected and thought immediately of Pablo Neruda's Odas elementales, a series of poems about everyday objects which capture them in breathtaking images. In the style of the ode, these are poems of praise for those things we typically overlook in the day to day. I plan to take a selection of these odes and illustrate them with oils on small gesso boards, experimenting especially with color to bring a new perspective to objects generally thought as mundane. I want to play especially with Neruda's imagery, almost as an act of translation between linguistic and artistic imagery. 

This is one of the images I plan to use, which I'm sharing here because I love it so much. It is from Neruda's "Ode to the Lemon":

we opened

two halves

of a miracle,

congealed acid

trickled

from the hemispheres

of a star,

the most intense liqueur

of nature,

unique, vivid,

concentrated,

born of the cool, fresh

lemon,

of its fragrant house,

its acid, secret symmetry.

What can I say? Gives me chills. 

Madeleine - Dérive

For my dérive, I started walking away from campus to the North. I ended up walking along the same street for the majority of the dérive, and I was really interested in the way neighborhoods organized themselves and then dissipated as I moved along; the structure of the neighborhoods and the content of my surroundings were strikingly unrelated to the unchanging name of the street and the straightness of my path. When I turned around, I ended up finding my way back via a more circuitous route. One of the most interesting parts of the dérive was that, particularly on my walk away from campus, I completely forgot about the assignment and stopped paying active attention to my surroundings. When I got back, I was fascinated by the idea of just letting your feet take you somewhere without letting the mind become actively engaged, and it reminded me of the automatic drawing we did in class during the figure drawing unit. I responded to the dérive, therefore, by doing a little bit more automatic drawing. I'll post the drawing to the blog later when I have access to a camera, but basically I ended up using a lot of cross-hatching. This technique is interesting in relation to the dérive because it calls for building value with the repetition of nearly identical marks, which are similar to the steps of a dérive.

Jonathan 6: Dérive and Final Project

My dérive was a rather interesting one. I had originally intended on doing it somewhere around Brown's campus, but I actually ended up going home (Boston) Thursday night, so I spontaneously decided to do it then. It was an odd experience that I was not expecting to have, especially because that was the first time I had been home in months, having come back to campus early for winter break and staying on campus for all of spring break both due to track practices. I've lived in my neighborhood in Boston for over 10 years, but on my dérive I managed to discover areas in my neighborhood I have never seen before. During my hour dérive, I ventured into a small wooded area split by a parkway near my house. I have driven by in countless times, but never actually been in it. Meandering through the forest as it was nearing sundown made me think back to all of the Thoreau readings we've all had in english class in high school. I came across a marsh, a number of streams, and countless living quarters of various animals. I was surprised to stumble upon such an environment in a fairly urban area. It was the first time I had ever ventured on any type of walk like this, but I will likely do more in the future.

For my final project, I will build a chair. I will follow a similar process as I did with the iterations of my table design, challenging the notion of "what is a table," while creating a sense of movement within the piece.

Andrew, Asya, Chris, Lizette, Kim - Animation Project

I realized we never put up our animation on the blog. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE-T9bW99Ws

Our goal was to play around with different kinds of animation - claymation, live action, and stop motion with drawings and moveable cutouts. We wanted to draw a similar dinosaur form in our own drawing styles. After watching all of the videos across the groups, I think it is surprising that most of the animations incorporated a love story into them in some way, and that our video was no exception.

-Asya

Jason - Derive - Boston! Yipee!

I decided to go to Boston for my derive, because I think Boston is a lot of fun. Hip, young, historical and charming -- it's Boston!

So I'm going to Boston in my car, and right as I'm passing Braintree I realize -- gosh, I really don't like Boston at all! And then I remember that this has happened to me before. Every time I go, I trick myself into thinking that Boston is a cool city, and then (every time) I go and realize it's actually awful.

For instance, I love how there are so many mysterious one ways!! I love how there's no parking, and how there are so many traffic cops!! I love this so much! I love how I fight the good fight and really, earnestly, try to find parking, only to see that I need like 12 different passes and 4 different stickers on my stupid car and that there are SO MANY FIRE HYDRANTS. I find it ironic that people talk about Boston accents with the phrase "pahk yuh cahzzzzz" when PARKING IS IMPOSSIBLE IN THIS STUPID CITY. IS ANYONE ACTRUALLY PARKING??G?

So, after spending close to an hour crawling through the city, I decided -- my soul evacuated at this point -- that I would cough up the $20 for parking. I wait in the incredibly long line to park my car, roll down the window and SURPRISE SURPRISE JASON -- the guy running the lot says the park is full, and that I should check the lot two blocks over. LOL

True story. It counts as a derive. 

Asya - Derive and Final Project

For my derive, I wrote and narrated a story about my meanderings. I really enjoy the process of story telling, and thought about how inflection and intonation can accentuate or color various phrases or aspects of a story. I made several records of the same story, and didn't think any of them had the inflection I was looking for throughout the entire story, but the sharpest-sounding one came close. You can hear it here: http://floatingwaffle.tumblr.com/post/4912974369/clambering-out-of-providence

For my final project, I want to make a triptych of a story I am condensing and retelling that centers on three wishes. The center panel will be an oil painting, the other panels may be mixed media and ink. I want to display my triptych with the story playing in the background. Time permitting, I also want to ask my fellow students what they would wish for, overlay their voices, and highlight the most interesting responses.

I want my project to reopen the conversation we had as a class about "What is Art?" by blurring the line between original pieces and appropriation. Does appropriation count as art? What is an artful way to tell a story? What is the difference between stories that are art and stories that are not art? Does story-art have to be removed from reality? I am interested in the deepest desires of other people, and wonder how much they will share with a stranger.

Kati: Final Project and Derive

Up until now, I had planned to build trash sculptures for my final project. My idea was to go to India Point Park and collect trash, transform it into sculptures modeled after famous landmarks (Eiffel Tower, Golden Gate Bridge, Pyramid...), then go back and plant the trash sculptures into the park, forcing people to notice the trash and also transforming it into something they would emotionally interact with. 

However, during our recent forays into woodworking, I decided to do something a little more practical and a little less provocative. A lot of my classes have online reading, but I am terrified of using my laptop at the gym (A hard drive crash and a theft have taught me that they are very costly to fix and replace). In class on Thursday, I built a prototype for a laptop rack for the cardio machines at the gym, then went to the gym after class and tested it out. It securely holds my laptop and fits on all of the machines! I took pictures, but I left my camera in New Hampshire this weekend, so those will take a little while to get posted. For my final project, I would like to update my design so that it can collapse to fit in my backpack, and also to include a cupholder. Additionally, I want to build a few of the rougher versions to leave in the gym so that other people can use them.

Part of me thinks its very funny that my art final is a link between two machines-- it helps people use one machine while they are on the other, and this makes me feel slightly guilty since in general I like to be away from my computer and outside. However, I also think that it helps with efficiency, and I'm really enjoying the problem solving aspects of finding a way to integrate a cupholder and make the device collapsible. 

Something that I noticed while deriving was that I don't like to go to far in one direction from wherever I started. I like to make loops or rays, which aren't very spontaneous shapes. When I wander, I like to find small parks or gardens. Finding Swan Point Cemetery was awesome-- there are actually swans there!-- and I overheard some young folks saying Lovecraft is buried in there (but I did not seek him out).

Carmen - Derive

Today’s weather was beautifully conducive to a derive. I went on my adventure with Jane and our friend Ursula, and we had a great time meandering around Providence. We originally planned to kind of cheat and go to Blackstone Park, but we didn’t make it and I’m really glad. I didn’t really find that the derive had any theme until the second half – I just took pictures of the beautiful blooming trees and buildings that jumped out at me. Then for some reason I got really interested in numbers. Once I started taking pictures of them, I began to notice how many different kinds of things are numbered in cities – houses, construction areas, street signs, license plates…and this all got me thinking about how we structure our environments. Cities are such impressive bodies: they are filled with people living and working and navigating around each other, and somehow everything usually goes by relatively smoothly. We have created these interesting systems that somehow provide order to our habitat, and somehow all these forces shape an environment with a defining culture. I’ve included the pictures that represent these musings, and I chose to order them numerically (even though I did not take them this way) to demonstrate how all the different things we choose to arrange fit together to create a city. 

Lucy: Derive, website, final project

At the very beginning of my derive, I had this moment that completely colored the whole experience. As I started away from campus, I saw a building that for some reason, still not entirely clear to me, so strongly represented a person in my mind's eye that I haven't stop thinking about it, even now. It was totally square and had rows of very angular windows with window shutters. It was brick and white and black wood. It looks nothing like a person. But it was totally a person. This phenomenon made me start to think about representation, and what makes something physical have a meaning outside of its physical body. Like, what does art achieve? I combined those musings with an idea I had previously had to draw a portrait for my final project, and came up with this...

My idea for the final project is very nearly complete, but there is still a connecting link missing in the concept. I think this will not be discovered until I get started, so I'm really excited to get things rolling. I want to take portraits of people in my life at Brown--this will be a really, really great way to work on my photography skills, something I've never looked at with artistry in mind. Instead of just capturing a memory, like most of my pictures do, I want these pictures to say something more about the person in them than you could see just by looking at their face--I want to capture personality. The word "expressions" comes to mind as a possible theme/title. But taking it a step further, I want to invite my people to share with me something that demonstrates how they express themselves (inspired by my desire to include a page from my friend's journal next to her image) to be a part of the project. I'm not yet completely satisfied with this idea as a whole, partly because I really want to get some drawing worked into it. My current thought is that maybe for each face, I'll select a feature that contributes a lot to the expression and draw that. I'd like the end result to be a book--one page with the drawn feature, the next with the face and the opposite of the face with the piece of expression from the subject.
In terms of timeline, I'm going to contact the people I'd like to work with and notify them about the expression piece and set up photo sessions right away. I'd like to give myself a couple days after collecting all the pieces and before the first critique to really takes some time to figure out the best way to put it all together. Logistical things to work out are: the book (print images and paste into a notebook of some sort?) and the printing (affordable, viable, high-quality printing?).

Final note, unrelated: the website project... my friend and I worked on some css styling this weekend. The important (and quite obvious, if you look at it) next step is the color scheme. We're waiting on a third friend's contribution (Parsons student!), which will be an amazing, colorful/crazy background. From there we will be able to get the color scheme figured out. http://chiplockemusic.com/ I don't think this is something that I will be focusing on too much more this semester, both because we have to wait for the illustration and because I'd really like to put as much energy into my final project as possible. But hopefully this summer when we're all together back in Portland it will be easier to finish the collaboration.

Suji: Final Project

Animation has always been the artistic medium of my choice. It is a fascinating means of expression that comes equipped with both the traditional aesthetic and modern narrative forms of art. For my final project, I've decided to animate a short full-length flash animated film. I've come up with a storyboard for the plot and have started animating the key frames of the movie. I plan to stick with the traditional frame-by-frame animation style and rely on tweening as little as possible. I hope to finish the skeletal framework of the animation and fully animate at least one particular scene from my movie. Ideally, I would collaborate with people from the theater department and ask them to be voice actors for the film.

Leah: Final Project

For my final project, I have decided to paint wine glasses. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to paint on them, but after examining the shape of wine glasses I decided to paint them as flowers and trees. I bought acrylic paint and an array of glasses: red wine glasses, white wine glasses, champagne glasses, martini glasses, shot glasses, and glasses without stems. I have started painting them and have painted each shaped glass differently. For example, I painted the champagne glasses as tulips and the shot glasses as grass. To finish, I need to paint the rest of the glasses and add some detail using sharpee markers. I also need to figure out how I want to arrange the glasses on display. 

Stop Motion: Jonathan, Hadley, Madeleine, Ian, Monica

Journey's End in Lovers Meeting: A Modern Day Shakespearean Tale

Enjoy.

Carmen - Alternative animation assignment

For this project, I decided to explore narration through a medium other than animation. I examined the topic of the news, and how our perception of world events is shaped by the media’s choices of what to print, what lens to paint it in, and what images to highlight. As a result, there is no way for us to fully understand the true nature of world events: some individuals’ experiences are highlighted at the expense of others’, statistics about death tolls offer us little understanding of tragedy, and pivotal events receive little or no attention. I find this to be a significant problem, especially during this time when so many things are happening in the world (e.g. uprisings in the Middle East, the destructive tsunami in Japan, elimination of collective bargaining rights for some U.S. unions, etc.) If our democracy depends on an informed citizenry, what is the consequence of information that does not give us a comprehensive view of the world’s events? Is there even a way to do this effectively?

           I tried to pose these questions through this piece’s structure. I based the image off a photograph from the New York Times photojournalism blog, and altered it to reflect my intention (referring back to our discussion about appropriation in art.) The image of the man is a paper cut. I chose this medium because the process parallels that of printing the news: some things are cut out to leave the “important” details more visible. His headscarf is made of newspaper, which was intended to solidify the argument that the news establishes our understanding of other cultures through a certain lens. The other people are drawn without solid form and in pencil to represent their imperceptibility as a result of media choices.  The paper clips symbolize the ways in which the news erects a barrier to true understanding of other people’s experiences.

           I don’t know if this piece fully ties into the narrative nature of this assignment, or whether the form effectively reflects my intentions. However, I had an interesting time exploring how to express my questions and concerns through a visual representation of this issue.

Animation: Jane, Charlie, Amber, Kati

First, we intended to animate cartoon animals following Jane around the main green.

We spent a while getting the shots and then planned to superimpose crayon images on top of all of the pictures, but it took forever and we had some computer problems to boot.

So then we went back to the drawing board and came up with this cute idea. We hope you like it!

The Creative Process (Now in 3D!)

In the simplest terms, a table is just a plane set parallel to the floor, usually for the purpose of supporting objects. A chair is a transition between the body and the space around it. Any piece of furniture can be thought of as this kind of transitional object. These types of objects permeate our built environment and material culture - often saturated with meaning and value, in ways that we may not be consciously aware.

In class on Thursday we will make a piece of furniture. For many of us, this will be our first time designing and building something like this, so think of these objects as low resolution prototypes, which is to say, vehicles to explore ideas rather than finished pieces in themselves. We are restricting the materials to wood, OSB, fabric, staples, and screws. But out of this limited palette of materials, we will explore the “how and why” of furniture design. 

Before class Thursday, spend some time in your sketchbook developing 5-10 ideas for possible designs. These don’t need to be final renderings, but should be thought of as quick “back of the napkin” type sketches. The idea is to quickly ideate (idea generation) a diverse range of possible approaches to the prompt.

Theory of the Dérive

Posted on the blog you will find Guy Debord’s essay, “Theory of  the Dérive”.  The dérive is a strategy developed by Debord and the Situationists in the 1960’s as a tool for exploring the environment we inhabit. This activity should be thought of as more than just a stroll. It is research into the habits and behaviors, which are built into the spaces we occupy.

Dérive is French for drift, and that is exactly what I am asking you to do. Moving through space in this way, Debord theorized, opens one up to the relationships between people and things which can be obscured by our habitual attitudes to our environment. I’d like for you to read “Theory of the Derive” posted to the blog, and  in groups of 3 or 4, embark on your own derive. Explore the “pyschogeopgraphy” of Providence and post to the blog your response to the experience. This can take any form (i.e. photos, prose, drawings).  Be prepared to discuss your experience in class next Tuesday.

“In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a dérive point of view cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones.”

Guy Debord
“Theory of  the Dérive”.

These are also posted to the blog:

http://library.nothingness.org/articles/all/en/display/314

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9rive

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationist_International

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography