Happiest Moment

Cheesy as it sounds, my proudest/happiest moment has to be the day I made the Varsity Girls Basketball team at Granada Hills Charter High School as a freshman.  Basketball is a huge aspect in my family, my aunt played for USC, my mom was All City in high school, and both my brother and dad still play.  Starting from the age of seven my life consisted of basketball practice, clinics, games, drills, weight training, and tournaments.  All this preparation was intended for the day I entered high school.  I was determined to make the varsity level team as a freshman no matter what it took.  It may seem trivial to others, but in a sense I felt like I had to prove something to myself and others.  When I want something specific, I will do whatever it takes to get it.  Now, I am not talking about materialistic items, or friends, or boyfriends; I am talking about issues that have to do with myself.  Making the team was a test for myself about how good I really am or working to become the person I want to be.  Basketball is a reflection of myself, an identity, and not making the team would mean I wasn't good enough.  The way I think usually doesnt make sense to others, but I truly believe that if I try my hardest to attain a goal and fail, it means I am not good enough.  Over and over I have strived to attain my dreams, making varsity my freshman year, getting into my #1 pick school, and maintaining at least one 4.0 in college.  This moment was, so far, the one and only time in my life where I gave it my all and came out on top. It was literally, a dream come true.

Embarrassing Moment

 During PE at Nobel Middle School I decided to play on the "jungle gym" during free time with my friends.  At my school we had metal horizontal bars at varying levels, pull up bars against the wall, climbing pole, and rope.  Attempting to execute as many tricks as we could, I decided to try and show off my acrobatic skills and do a fancy flip/tuck around the horizontal bar.  Keep in mind our PE uniform consisted of a baggy white t-shirt and mesh basketball shorts.  While spinning around the bar my PE clothes got stuck and literally wrapped themselves around the bar.  I could not get down from the bar because my clothes were holding me up and I hung there while my friends fell to the floor laughing.  In a struggle to get down my shorts eventually ripped and freed me.  During the rest of PE I had to walk around with basketball shorts virtually ripped into a semi skirt.  Maybe you had to be there.

Looking back at my most embarrassing moment I realized that as a middle schooler my self consciousness was not as big of an issue as it is today. As embarrassing as this event was, it did not scar my self confidence at school or around my friends.  At the time I thought it was hilarious but in retrospect I made a huge fool out of myself.  Nowadays even speaking up in a classroom can make me flustered and embarrassed.  I guess this story can take on the quote, "ignorance is bliss".  In middle school I could care less what people thought about me or what I thought about myself.  Sometimes I think I am my biggest critique.  Before I had an idea of what my ideal self should be, I acted without thought, without worrying what does this action say about me or how will others perceive me.  This all has to do with self consciousness, image, and personal strength.  

Art Show Review: SRB Women's Center

http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/women/VisitourSpace/ArtGallery.aspx

For this week's art show review I decided to visit the SRB Women's Center Art Gallery.  This art space holds workshops and displays pieces related to gender and social injustice.  The work on display is usually done by locals or created from the workshops.  The Women's Center Art Gallery has their own art curator that "updates the gallery quarterly, hosts art openings, workshops, and related events.  

One piece in particular stood out to me, which consisted of some type of ink on wood panels.  The detail in each face and the emotions it provoked was quite powerful.  The women on the panel to the right are portrayed as broken, lost, beaten down.  But the face to the left is the essence of power and strength.  It seems as if this work reveals some type of transformation.  How all around the world women are seen as the inferior gender yet it only takes one to emerge as an icon to others, invoking hope and a future.  

It is nice to know that students have a place to put their art up for display.  I also like how the theme of this art gallery revolves around gender issues, something I take great interest in.   

Confessions

Every time I go to the bathroom I read confessions and secrets on the walls.  Sometimes these confessions are deep and serious, as if the stall acts as a secret therapist.  Surprisingly, chains of conversations take place with girls giving advice, support, even criticism.  I immediately thought about a project involving documentation and participation of confessions and secrets inside the girls' bathroom.  I think because these comments can be anonymous and the writer will never know who exactly will read the writings on the wall, true feelings come out.  These are real confessions that take place everyday in a public area, with the proper documentation and artistic details, these stalls can evolve into works of art.  

Influenced by a prank on TV, I thought about suspending objects inside jello.  Because jello is a solid that has the properties of a liquid, objects have the ability to float.  For this project I thought jello could be a metaphor for a state of mind.  I would put objects that represent problems in my life inside the jello.  These objects would be suspended through out the jello representing my current state of mind.  Sometimes it is hard to talk about problems and art can act as a form of catharsis, an outlet to express our inner most thoughts in ways words cannot.  

I have always taken an interest in photography and while learning the elements of a camera, such as shutter speed and aperture, I also learned about long exposures.  When you set a SLR camera to a slow shutter speed time (seconds) another person can write or draw images with a light and the effects result in  the picture above.  This technique would be a good way to incorporate the confessions project because the person writing with light cannot be seen in the picture.  This project can involve many people, in a sort of photoshoot, the participants can write or draw a word or image that represents an inner most secret.  With these pictures I can create a collage or some type of photo book that can display all of the confessions.  

Understanding Comics: Chapter 3&4

Chapter 3 focuses on a key element in understanding comics, closure.  McCloud defines closure as "the phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole".  In a sense closure acts as a cognitive function in our brain that fills in missing information based on prior experience.  A prime example is a comic book, and how a narrative is conveyed through this medium.  McCloud describes six different approaches to panel to panel transitions in comics (comic narrative).  The first is moment to moment.  Here a picture shows every move with great detail.  The second is action to action where there is a single subject in distinct progressions.  The third is subject to subject which stays within the scene or idea but involves a greater degree of reader involvement to create meaning.  The fourth is scene to scene.  This requires deductive reasoning to understand the transitions.  Here the panels transitions transport the reader across significant distances of time and space.  The fifth type of transition is aspect to aspect.  This bypasses time and sets a "wandering eye" on different aspects to create mood.  The six and last type of transition is non sequitur.  Oddly this final transition offers no logical relationship between panels.  

The main theme of chapter four focuses on the idea of comic frames and how these frames can evoke time and motion.  Scott McCloud points out that time in comics is a very complex notion that can be executed in many techniques.  A single comic panel can be seen as representing a single moment in time and between those frozen moments (or between panels) the readers' minds fill in the intervening moments which ultimately creates the illusion of time and motion.  McCloud emphasizes the fact that the frame itself is an important icon, it acts as a "general indicator that time or space is being divided".  Panel shapes can actually make a difference in the perception of time, thus real time is altered and can be controlled.  To show motion, McCloud explains that idea that a single panel can "represent a span of time through pictures", this can be called a 'motion line'.  Different comic styles to evoke motion have evolved around the world, for example, between America and Japan.  

Function of Art

A non art object can easily be transformed into a work of art.  Through the medium of photography and the dark room, an everyday object such as a baby fence, can turn into a crisp black and white image.  With the correct use of shutter speed and aperture artistic techniques can be applied in the photograph to change a mundane object into something visually stimulating and aesthetically appealing.  Photography can capture a moment in time, document an item, even tell a story.  An artist can manipulate an object and have it be perceived as whatever he wants.  Just because the creator calls it art, does it make it so?  What constitutes art and who verifies this claim?  Is photography even a form of art, or a form of documentation?  These questions have arisen through out the art world debate and yet no answer can be concluded as "the one".

On the other hand, can art be functional?  Recycling last week's project I made a bow tie out of game dice.  This "tie dye" actually acts as a bow tie that closes a button up dress shirt.  Here a piece of art becomes functional.  At first I thought it would be hard to find art that is also functional, but when taking a closer look and doing some research, I actually realized that many utilitarian objects in life can also be called art.  Furniture, electronics, clothes, houses, and much more, are all designed by artists.  Creative thought goes into the creation of each object, it has to take into account who uses the object and how they use it.  In a sense, the creators of utilitarian objects go through the same process as an artist creating art work.  And just as art is put on show, everyday objects are critiqued and scrutinized when going on sale.  Both art and functional items are determined successful by the public's reaction.  Whose to say that art and utilitarian object are all that different.

Everyday Activity in a Public Space

For me, personally, sleeping is a very private activity.  I get very uncomfortable if there are people in the room who are not sleeping when I want/try to sleep and I can never fall asleep in public places.  This assignment seemed to test my public space consciousness and personal awareness.  Self consciousness is a big issue in my life, they way I am perceived and how I present myself to others.  I guess I always felt embarrassed when sleeping in public or infront of other people because you cannot control what you look like or if you drool, snore, talk, etc.  While attempting to sleep outside on the sidewalk, it was very hard to just lay there with my eyes closed in the first place.  I felt awkward and out of place, out of my own environment. 

 This assignment help me understand my personal space boundaries.  I had to break the barriers of the comfort zone and just go for an out the box idea no matter what it took.  In the end I didn't get to actually take a nap, I would doze off here and there but kept waking up.  Self perception, or rather self image, is a big issue in today's society.  We attempt to give off a certain "look" by the way we dress, walk, speak, act, style our hair, etc.  This assignment in particular reminded me how big of an impact society puts on "images".  From selecting our profile pictures to posing a certain way to take pictures, we consciously control every aspect of how we want others to see us or how we want to be seen.  Ironically the only time we cannot control our "image" is when we sleep.  By sleeping in public I hope to break the binary of the controlled "image" and all its underlying meaning.  

Truth and Fiction

 Floatopia Officially Moved to Kiddie Pools 
Posted April 5, 2011


Due to the recent closure of Isla Vista beaches, locals have taken it upon themselves to keep Floatopia alive and well.  This past weekend front yards were filled with inflatable/kiddie pools, alcohol, floaties, and bikini clad locals.


It is nice to see students enjoying themselves even under the dire circumstances.  According the the Daily Nexus's article "Police Barricades Capsize Floatopia" Santa Barbara County Parks Department is monitoring any type of Floatopia even postings online.  IV Foot Patrol has around 40 extra officers patrolling Del Playa and the beach fronts.  It is said that beach closure revolves around the pollution caused from 2009's Floatopia rage that cost the county approximately over $20,000 in damages.

Can we officially say that Floatopia is back? Has Isla Vista inhabitants made the best of their situation without violating the county’s demands? Is the new location of Floatopia lawful, or will authorities shut down the very notion of Floatopia itself.  According to Officer Smith drinking in inflatable/kiddie pools oppose no immediate threat, he states “I am glad Isla Vista can come to terms with the authorities rather than go against them.  Floatopia is a fun event that doesn’t have to die just because it cannot be held at the beach”. 

Response to Lecture 2

Today's lecture introduced me to many Asian American artists that I was not aware of before. A few that stood out to me the most was Maya Lin's Systematic Landscape, Tatsumi Orimoto's Bread Man, and Valerie Soe's film on Cynthia Gouw.  All three artists seemed to use different mediums such as sculpture, performance art, and film.  These works are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also interesting to learn about for they all have a story behind them.  Maya Lin's sculpture is made out of 2x4 wood pieces yet they convey a sense of movement and an optical illusion of an object in space.  Orimoto's Bread Man persona takes on a new meaning when he incorporates his Alzheimer's "Mama" into his work.  The work is not only playful and fun, but also meaningful and heart felt.  Soe's film involves more scandal and controversy over a friend at UCLA named Cynthia Gouw who initially entered a Chinatown pageant to expose the stereotyping of women, but left with the title Miss Chinatown Queen and went on to become a Chinese American Star.  

Reader: Introduction

Calvin Tomkins introduces the reader to five masters of avant-garde in the introduction of his work, "The Bride and the Bachelors".  He first states that these artists do not share a common point of view or constitute a movement or school.  Rather, Tomkins finds that these artists have a natural affinity in their basic attitudes toward art and toward life.  Each artists has attempted to break down the barriers that exist between art and life they have also discarded tradition notions of the role of the artist.  This "new" artist invites the viewer to participate and interact with his/her work by simply experiencing it rather than defaulting to an interpretation.   Tomkins also points out that all five artists originate from a different country or state yet they all end up in New York City.  In conclusion, Tomkins states that all five artists attempt to break down the barriers between art and life, a impossible undertaking.  

John Cage

1912-1992

American Composer

Merce Cunningham

1919-2009

Dancer/Choreographer

Marcel Duchamp

1887-1968

French Artist

Robert Rauschenberg

1925-2008

American Artist

Jean Tinguely

1925-1991

Swiss Painter and Sculptor 

Themes

Confession

• self portrait
• anonymously have people write down secrets, categorize it, put it on display
• personal blog
• facebook post: if you like the status I will write down a confession about you, etc

Sequence narrative

• film
• comic
• animation
• skateboard and take consecutive pictures on a high shutter speed
• flip book

Alternate persona

• walk in the life of another person's shoes
• alternate ego, be who  you've always wanted to be 
• disguise
• sit in on a class you are not enrolled in, take a test

Personal space

• follow random people until they enter a private space 
• not quite sure yet, more to come

LACMA

Over spring break I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  While taking the 7 series here at UCSB I have been introduced and learned about different types of artists and their works.  But since taking these classes I have not had the chance to see some of their works in person, until now.  While at the Ahmanson Building I had an opportunity to get a first hand experiences of the works we all learn about in class.  I feel as if seeing art in person is a whole other experience from viewing a projection in the class room.  Yet if we see these works of art in person without the information given in the classroom the work does not hold the same significance.  Since it goes hand in hand, time, space, and knowledge all attribute to an art piece.

One work in particular stood out from all the rest.  The sculpture by Constantin Brancusi entitled, "Bird in Space", was mention by Professor Jane Mulfinger in the 7c class.  In her lecture and even in this picture,  the sculpture looks small as if it could be a pen.  In real life however, this sculpture stands over six feet tall.  At the LACMA this sculpture is put on a pedestal for display thus exaggerating its height.  

Understanding Comics: Chapter 1&2

Scott McCloud successfully attempts to explain the dynamics of comics through an actual comic book.  He engages the reader by including himself in the narrative, taking on the identity of a tour guide and navigating the reader through his own comic.  Through the use of images rather than words, McCloud is able to teach substance material without the conventional boring "book" form.

In chapter 1 McCloud introduces himself and how he became interested in comics, he also goes on to give a lesson on the history comics.  Throughout time, civilization has depicted stories or narratives with the use of images.  In a sense these stories can be called comics.  But what exactly are comics? According to McCloud the definition of a comic is as follows, "juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer".  Although there is a overall description of comics, they are not bound to any formal criteria when it comes to paper, ink, subject mater, style, printing process, materials, tools, etc.  

Chapter 2 goes on to describe and introduce the vocabulary of comics.  McCloud first describes the term "icon" to mean "any image used to represent a person, place, thing, or idea".  There are many types of icons, including, symbols that represent concepts ideas and philosophies, icons of language, science, and communication ($), and pictures that actually resemble their subjects.  Comics also play on the idea of realistic images.  According to McCloud a photograph ist he most realistic icon because it resembles their real life counterparts.  As the example image above shows, an icon can become less and less realistic, finally resulting in an icon referred to as a "cartoon".  McCloud creates a scales with some key concepts.  Complex --> Simple.  Realistic --> Iconic.  Objective --> Subjective.  Specific --> Universal.  

Pun

 Pokerface

Tie Die 

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