Human Compostions

The Exquisite Corpse Part II

Sentence :
      The weightless woman slapped an ugly animal.

Okay, so this assignment was a lot harder to do than thought it was going to be. I walked all around the entire campus this weekend trying to find anything that could resemble at least a tiny bit from my sentence. And let me tell ya, it wasn't easy. I finally got a small light bulb in my head when I saw this fallen tree limb right in the middle of campus, in front of the business building.

As to why this picture reminded me of my sentence, I just suddenly had an idea of how the fallen tree branch could be demonstrated as the weightless woman. At one point, that branch was in the air, swaying in the breeze, as though it were weightless, hence the 'weightless woman.' So when that tree limb broke, it fell and hit the ground. The ground represents the 'ugly animal', by which the branch 'slapped' the ground when it finally fell from the tree. Therefore, "The weightless woman(tree branch) slapped an ugly animal(ground)."

Texture Studies

Here are my eight texture images :

Cardboard Critique

    The final critique of our group's cardboard assignments were surprisingly positive. I think that everyone was at least satisfied with their final outcome, I know I was. My group's criticism of my crab were very positive, but there was some things they thought I could fix and also suggested more ideas to make it even better. They all love the structure of the crab's legs, which I'm glad for, because those legs were toughest thing to figure out during the whole assignment. They felt that the body of the crab was good, but could use a few more details and also make it a little smoother. They also suggested covering the holes on the sides of the crab's body to make it more complete and whole.

Overall, they thought it was an excellent cardboard crab and that one can definitely distinguish and recognize the structure of a crab if you looked at.

Lecture Summary (9/17)

Post-Modernism :
   
     - Pluralism of Viewpoints
     - Shift from a dialog taking place in person (in NY or Paris) to a mediated dialog - through art, fair, media 

Modernism :
     
      - the shock of a new rapid progression of styles
      - transgressive : opposition to mainstream society (avant garde)
      - Rejection of the Past : colonial view of Non- European Cultures

Impressionism and Post-Impressionism :

      - Monet
      - "Art consists of inventing, not copying."
      - Fauves - "Wild Beasts"
      - Cubism

Italy - Futurism
Russia - Constructivism
Germany - Expressionism
Holland - De Stijl

Lecture Summary (9/10)

Creativity :
          playful, sensitive(emotions, physical, mental), productive, maladjusted, originality, adaptable, flexibility,  organized, process, analyzed, fluency, observe

perception - ability to see relevant differences. Put their whole self into it!


Blocks :
       Physical - safe
       Intellectual
       Emotional - fear of failure
       Cultural - taboos, playfulness is for children, where art should be, fear

Understand the problem (sub problem/rules) :
    - devise a plan
            about language - math/visual
              put to other uses
                  adapt? modify it? magnify? minimize? rearrange? reverse? combine?

Lecture Summary (9/3)

What is Art?
       Sculpture : artist thought of it
       Nature : could be art, depends on artists (God's Art)
       Artifact : someone made it

Impulse for Art :
       Pyramids, Cave Paintings

To Represent or Re-represent :
        Representation - one thing stands in for another

Styles of Representation :
        Naturalistic - as in nature
        Realistic - true to life
        Stylized - simplified to emphasize important detail
        Abstract - highly stylized (may not be recognized)

Scale of Representation

                     <------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
                   Realistic     <---less stylized              Stylization               more stylized---->          Abstract

Lecture Summary (8/27)

Elements of Design :
          point, line, shapes/forms, color, texture, value

Principles of Design :
         harmony, dissonance, rhythm, contrast, balance, scale, pattern

Gestalt Principles :
         closure, proximity, similarity, continuance

 The Whole :
         The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

During the lecture, we all split into groups. Each group was given an element of design in which we had to demonstrate that element using only sound. Our group had the element shape, so we decided to demonstrate it by creating a circle around the room and clapping in rhythm around clockwise to create a circle with sound. It was fairly amusing way to start off the first week of WASH and was actually fun to do. :) 

The Exquiste Corpse

My sentence :
     
     The weightless woman slapping an ugly animal.

And here is the result of that sentance :

I know, I know. The woman looks nothing like its slapping a llama, but I couldn't find any other picture that was better than this one. It actually looks pretty ridiculous, as is the sentence, but it was fun to make at least, lol. I'm not sure if a llama was the best choice for an ugly animal. I probably should have chosen either a sloth or an anteater instead, but I do love llamas and they do seem to spit a lot which is pretty gross and could definitely be considered ugly xD.

Made in Photoshop CS3.

Playful and Periodic Thumbnails and Final Two

15 thumbnails for periodic : 

 

15 thumbnails for playful : 

 

And here are my chosen 8 from the 30 thumbnails :

 

 

 Final 2 : 

     My group's critique was very positive throughout it. They said that they both greatly demonstrated their element of playful and periodic. Both were also communicated well and were very strong. There was only a few things that they suggested that could make them better. They suggested making the periodic squares go off the the page, along with making the squares neater and bigger. Overall, there really wasn't much they thought should changed and felt that they were worked well. The group chose the periodic squares piece as my best composition out of all six of them, and I also agree with them on that.

Cardboard experience/process

When I first found out that I had to create a crab out of cardboard, I thought I would be nearly impossible. I took me awhile to actually think of way to start on creating this thing. This first day we started cutting cardboard and putting together our objects, I was kind of sitting there, trying to think of a way to start. I knew from the beginning that I needed to start with the body of the crab first, which is what I did. It was hard figuring out how to connect the bottom and top of the crab with just glue, but I was able to make it work by created a small support in between the top and bottom cardboard pieces. I then created two small little eyes and cut out two fangs and glued them the bottom piece of cardboard for the mouth.

The next part was the legs of the crab. This part actually left me clueless and blank as to what to do to create the massive legs of a crab. It took me at least three tries and quite a while to come up with a solution. I created a little support beam using a small piece of cardboard and gluing it to the body of the crab, then cutting the middle of it and then connecting it with the leg, which was already completed. I have 3 legs done as of right now and need to do at least 6 more, which is not an easy task. It takes me around at least 20-25 minutes to creates each leg and making sure it won't fall off the body. As of right now, I am probably almost half complete with the project and I'm liking the outcome of my crab.

Top 4 Dot Compositions

Finalized pieces of my Top 4

Group Critique on chosen 16

Critique

Group : Liz, Melissa, Tam, Allison

My group chose a few of my 16 to really suggest and critique on. Though these compositions were not in my top 4, my group thought it was a good idea to shed some light on tsome pieces that weren't quite right :

 This composition actually kind of confused my group. Most of them considered it closure when it was really labeled similarity. While it could be considered as both, my group decided it was more of an example of closure, which I now see when at first I created it as similarity. Group suggested that if the dots were a few different sizes, it probably would have been thought of as similarity.

My group thoughts were a little different from each others on which property this belonged too. Most said similarity but it also could be continuance or closure. While this is actually considered closure, I could see how it would be both similarity. Group suggested making the outer dots smaller and closer together if it was to be construed as closure.

This one was a tough one for my group. Some were insistent that it was continuance, while others thought it was closure. Group suggested making the dots closer together to complete the illusion of a square for closure, so it didn't look quite as spacious that it looked like continuance.

Top 4

Top Left : Group thought it was a great example of closure and good candidate for my top 4. They knew immediately what the composition's property was and that it created a good balance for the property, closure.

Top Right : My group thought this was a quick and simple example of continuance, which was very noticeable. Though the group suggested making the dots bigger for more distance.

Bottom Left : Group felt that this poece was a great example for proximity. Though they felt that would be a good idea to make the circles a bit bigger to give more depth.

Bottom Right : Good example of similarity, but suggested making the smaller dots a little closer to the bigger dots so it doesn't look too much like continuance.


Overall, my group was pretty accepting of my 16, aside from a few errors here and there. Though they suggested making all of my dots a tad bigger and bolder, for they were a little small compared to the size of the paper. Their choices for my top 4 were ones I strongly agreed on, in which they the 4 I would picked anyway.

Top 16 Dot Compositions

These are my top 16 that I have chosen for my Dots project :

Progess pictures on current projects (9/2/10)

Cardboard Project

 Mt nature object is a crab. This is a few sketches I did of it:

For creating the cardboard aspect of the crab. Here's what I've got so far (as of 9/2) :

Dots Project

These are a few of my finished compositions:

Newspaper/Cinderblock Project

(sorry for the blurriness)

      I thought the Newspaper/Cinderblock project was a very nice first start for WASH. It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do at first, but after a few minutes of brain-storming, I had figured out a, hopefully, successful way at doing it.

I made several newspaper tubes, then stacked them and taped them together. I also used a thick and folded piece of newspaper and taped that to the tubes to secure them and hopefully help with supporting the cinderblock's weight. My first try with the cinderblock didn't go so well, as it started leaning to the left right when I put weight on it. I knew my base was sturdy enough, but I seemed a little unsteady. So I then created a very thick and sturdy tube of newspaper and taped it to the left side of the base where it could hold the weight when the cinderblock was lowered onto the newspaper. My second try was a success, which I glad for because I was unsure that it would work.

I thought this project was a lot of fun to mess around with. A great start to an awesome semester!

Reading Assignment Summary (8/27) - Gestalt, Principles, and Form/Compositions

Gestalt Theory


Translated from german, gestalt means entire figure or configuration. The meaning of gestalt can best be descibed as the whole is understood to be different from the sum of its parts.

Four Aspects of Gestalt

• Closure
• Continuance
• Proximity
• Similarity

Interpretation of Form
Visual element interact through position, direction and space.
       Position - a placement of an element with another. Examples of this are overlapping and     touching elements.
       Direction - a course of movement. Horizontal and vertical lines give off the sense of direction.
       Space - areas between and around elements that can be both dominant and important in a composition (negative space).

Depth - can create contrast in both 2D and 3D compositions. It can also help form the composition's purpose and meaning.

Perspective - created through the use of lines to create 3D forms and concepts on a flat, 2D surface. Linear perspective is a fairly common use of perspective.

Symmetry - Form has symmetry when it can be divided diagonally or vertically and the other side is the same shape. It creates a stable and balanced form.

Asymmetry - Basically the opposite of symmetry. When folded over, the sides do not match up. It creates an active form, letting your eyes float around the composition.

Formal Matters

Content - Form is actually content and vice versa. It is that which it expressed or made manifest through form.

A shape or form that does not really look like anything but that reminds us of other things adds those identity to it. This slippage of identity can be called poetics of meaning.

 A Painting's Internal Logic - Line, Color, Composition, and Fields.

 A Painting's External Logic - Edges, Scale, and Format.

Elements of Design

• Conceptual Elements - Point, Line, Plane, and Volume
• Visual Elements - Shape, Size, Color, and Texture
• Relational Elements - Direction, Position, Space, and Gravity
• Practical Elements - Representation, Meaning and Function

Form

Main characteristics of a point: should be comparatively small and its shape should be rather simple.

Three separate aspects considered in a line

1. The overall shape - straight, curved, irregular or hand-drawn.
2. The body - contained within two edges
3. The extremities - may be square, round or pointed depending on the thickness of the line

Planar forms have a variety of shapes: Geometric, Organic, Rectilinear, Irregular and Accidental

Interrelationships of Forms - Detachment, Touching, Overlapping, Interpenetration, Union, Subtraction, Intersection and Coinciding.