Jessica Clay // JellySansCanIcy

Seminar 1

2012-02-22T12:29:00.002-06:00

So I haven't been that great about keeping up with my progress from my Seminar class this semester at Watkins. The class is first of three along the way to senior thesis. It is comprised of rapid 2 week projects that are geared toward developing a critical practice, writing and research, and short deadlines. The work is usually not fully realized but each project is a possible jumping off point for future projects. Unlike seminar 2 which is more self-directed as far as the content of each project, seminar 1 is all about assignments given by our teacher Terry Thacker.

The first project was "In my sin/sinn" and we were required to deal with the sacred and profane through selection and use of cultural signifiers which we then interpreted as metaphors for greater aspects of our culture - specific to the here and now. We read parts of Roland Barthes Mythologies and Kracauer's Mass Ornament as research for the project. We also looked at Gerhard Richter's Atlas and gathered images for our own collaborative "atlas" of cultural signifiers. Such images included; hot chicken sandwiches, digital maps, cell phone snap shots of prefab architecture, and hillbillies. They were arranged by connections within the images and ended up looking similar to a page of google images.

I will follow this up with specifics about the project I completed and some writings about my idea soon.

Poor Steak

2012-02-01T13:47:00.000-06:00

Things from My Studio From The Past Few Weeks

2011-11-16T19:30:00.005-06:00

pathetic - whimpering - trembling -line

pathos- full of sorrow (like christ) throw away

neglected

seeming

(meaning)

magnify what is already there compression - begs for reading - blessing or any other subjective meaning

mannerism/ theatricality

quotidian - of or occurring everyday

New Things Working With

2011-10-09T20:28:00.004-05:00

(view of whole installation and stuff on either side)

look and follow the link

2011-10-05T19:34:00.002-05:00

BODY OF COLOR

Between The Real and The Unreal

2011-09-18T22:19:00.002-05:00

first truly chilly day of the year

2011-09-15T22:38:00.007-05:00

In modern art history we studied the fauves and matisse:

Henri Matisse, "Nude man, le Serf", Oil on Canvas, 1900 (cell phone photo)

We did not discuss this painting but I saw it last January at moma in New York. It was one of my favorite paintings that I had the opportunity to see ( my visit was really rushed so I may have overlooked something ). The construction of form with color in this painting is brilliant. The anatomy is exaggerated but somehow believable because of the intuitive feeling of the colors applied with perfect descriptive brush strokes. Even though this painting has the aura of importance equal to a preliminary sketch it struck me as beautiful in its simplicity and feelings of stability. The color gives the figure a strong sense of existence asserting its weight in the illusion.

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Maurice de Vlaminick, "Restaurant de la Machine at Bougival" 1905, Oil on Canvas

Today we did view this painting which I had never seen but instantly liked the pink and orange of the buildings and the road. It changes from yellow to a tint of blue green as it recedes in space into the buildings. The blue and orange contrast in the foreground is really striking as well. Vlaminick was very influenced by Van Gogh's colors but was following the handling of the Impressionists.

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Okay, Now here are my inspirational photographs. All were taken in the past year with a cell phone camera that recently broke.

Thursday, September 8th

2011-09-08T22:59:00.005-05:00

(Paul Cezanne, Great Bathers, 1902-06)

and Jessica Stockholder made of small piece of furniture

enamel, a small incandescent light and newspaper with

glue 1988)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I saw Emile Bernard's painting, Iron Bridge at Asnieres 1887

in modern art history class today. The figures seemed so

bizarre, completely black, vacant space. They are completely

separated from the environment they pictorially occupy.

things from now

2011-09-04T12:25:00.003-05:00

This was taken a year a so ago

with black and white 35mm film

these three were taken in 2007 - recently processed and scanned

i had no memory of these photographs

2 drawings from a few months ago

fecund frustration

2011-08-31T14:57:00.004-05:00

Im going to be honest, I'm feeling frustrated by painting right now. I know that frustration fosters fecundity but I just feel incapable of making even one interesting/meaningful mark. Part of it is due to the fact that I didn't size the canvas enough and so the oil paint just started bleeding all over the place and didn't want to spread.

as a cure for all this or at least a remedy i have prepared three other smaller canvas and i am going to try to make some drawings. maybe i'm feeling so lost because these two current paintings (with the hands) are almost in a completely different direction than some of my past work. it feels like slightly unfamiliar territory. but moving in different directions is good because it means i'm forcing myself to try some new things.

Im looking at :

Phillip Guston

Per Kirkeby

Luc Tuymans

today today today

2011-08-30T20:35:00.001-05:00

this is how it looks today - tuesday

this painting will be in The Line Between which Courtney and I will be installing at the Lowe Mill in Huntsville Alabama

below is a teaser along with our postcard

hotdogs with courtney

2011-08-30T11:07:00.002-05:00

cerebrum is the part of the forebrain that expands to form the cerebral hemispheres, found in all vertebrates except fish.

e- or ex- prefix denoting out of, without

membranous labyrinth see ear

habituation the progressive loss of a behavioral response as a result of continuing stimulation

arcane mysterious, impenetrable, opaque, understood by few

so few. yet how does one know they are

" oh right yeah yeah okay

so not having wires is,

helpful.

i believe

what it is is uh

im pretty sure its

under the "

from notepad of late

2011-08-29T19:14:00.002-05:00

This is kind of a weird idea - basically notes taken - from various sources and also my own notes - i do not claim ownership over any of these ideas. but i find them all important or at least leading to important things.

"but has one foot in the field of the real (8). Which is a nice way, of course, to say that instead of simply telling a story, it tells a lie. It deceives tactically, and for progressive purposes, and in a way that allows for the possibility of the lie’s discovery. But it lies nevertheless, allowing view- ers to be caught in a “gotcha” moment of having been fooled, to wonder uncomfortably about the status of the claims the exhibit makes, or to go away in a strange kind of edu- cated ignorance, their worldview subtly altered by untruths."

"How would you feel about Fred Wilson’s Mining the Museum if you learned he had been less than honest in making it? What if it turned out that the slave shackles he exhibited had not been languishing in the museum’s storage areas, or that he had painted the black children into the paintings he so powerfully animated?"

If you make something that is plausible (however not real) than it can create an atmosphere for realization that (we) were just about to accept the existence of this thing

(like we had been believing something all along and just accepted it because it seemed like it fit into the history and we all believed in it and than things escalated to a point and after a while of going on like this we found out that none of it was real. we had really believed in something that never existed and we were made to feel completely ashamed at accepting something so horrific.)

"that it is necessary to be devious now in order to be honest" - so as to force confrontation of the truth, reality, honesty etc

"Artworks whose mode of reception is doubt thus serve a pedagogical function with political conse- quences: they train us in ways of seeing and thinking that increase our resistance to the racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and anxiety about terrorism that have been persistent- ly mobilized in recent years by politicians in Europe and the U.S."

are the ability to distinguish sources’ various levels of reliability, and a proclivity to question the trans- parency of information

this sort of art lets people see where change can occur and how and what can happen when change is handled in different ways. it lets us imagine different possible realities and try them on to see how we feel in a way.

The new paradigm of contemporary art has been extensively explained by art historian Miwon Kwon's assessment of site-specific practices. Kwon found the best reasons for experimenting with new formats to be "the epistemological challenge to relocate meaning from within the art object to the contingencies of its context; the radical restructuring of the subject from an old Cartesian model to a phenomenological one of lived bodily experience; and the self conscious desire to resist the forces of the capitalist market economy."

Current Events

2011-08-29T16:42:00.004-05:00

(Luc Tuymans)

Second full week of my second to last year of undergrad at Watkins College of Art and Design. Nothing better than reading reading reading painting painting reading and more painting. I plan on continuing to use this blog through to the end.

mess, but hopeful

2011-08-04T19:10:00.003-05:00

drawing of a photograph by courtney greenlee

arrived at or to: from the pacific

2011-07-18T18:52:00.001-05:00

disposable camera 35mm 2011

not being kept up

2011-07-17T14:00:00.001-05:00

hula hoops, wooden flutes, grey clouds and birds loud

2011-06-19T12:56:00.005-05:00

A RAINY DAY

2011-06-18T15:25:00.000-05:00

Houseplant

2011-06-04T23:09:00.001-05:00

words+pictures

2011-06-03T00:21:00.001-05:00

found

saw

liked

foot

friend

cold, new york, wish it was cold now, here, or i could be there, then, knee deep in a snowdrift

2011-06-02T12:30:00.002-05:00

Some Lately

2011-05-31T23:16:00.003-05:00

"You ever think she may be out for love, you know just out for love, don't be a sucker!"

2011 - sanded and cut bits of wood, housepaint, skewer sticks

little bits of town

2011-05-31T00:08:00.000-05:00

also to read and listen to more stuff

2011-05-27T00:34:00.001-05:00

go to my other blog JellySansCanIcy

work

2011-05-27T00:17:00.003-05:00

canvas, house paint, enamel - 2011

wood frame, dryer lint, spray gesso, house paint - 2011

old silkscreen, sign paint, house paint,

wall chippings from sfai, plaster fragments - 2011

house paint, enamel

digitally manipulated images of "Dust Collector" 2011

rains

2011-05-23T17:14:00.000-05:00

bones from bones and then more bones from trash now digital trash

2011-05-22T12:31:00.003-05:00

free card book

2011-05-21T15:47:00.004-05:00

free card from old card catalogue taken from table at library in oakland, california turned into book sent back.

dead things

2011-05-18T15:46:00.001-05:00

surfeit of seeming

2011-05-15T18:46:00.000-05:00

2011-05-15T18:42:00.001-05:00

2011-05-04T02:48:00.000-05:00

2011-04-26T18:47:00.002-05:00

Nail Salon

2011-04-25T18:48:00.002-05:00

Dear Patron,

I am writing on behalf of the Nail Salon to thank you for participating and for letting us paint your nails. As a courtesy to our patrons we would like to know how your experience could have been improved and/or what you felt after the appointment. Please take the time to respond to this email to let us know how to better serve you in the near future.

Thank you very much,

sincerely,

The Nail Salon

Hey I really enjoyed the experience of the nail salon. I feel like it really helped that I dont really know you. painting someone's nails seems lighthearted and casual and the news is serious and heavy. So, at first i was like, wow this is a heavy conversation your starting.

I am touched that you are interested in my experience as a patron. I must say, I find it somewhat difficult to describe my time at your salon. You see, I've never been to a nail salon; of course everyone knows why you go to a nail salon, and in my case, I had the good fortune of having been given some insight into the make-up of your operation.

That having been said, upon entering your salon, I felt that my senses where somewhat heightened by the arrangement and overall aesthetic of your operation. The minimalist decor and lighting appeared to direct me through the space while allowing me to take in the subtle and pleasing environment of your salon. Your technician was cordial but to the point as to my options and services rendered. I was a little uncomfortable at first. Having selected a color, I sat down in the chair and placed my hands in position and the technician proceeded with my manicure. She began to speak, not to me, though I thought for a moment she was addressing me, I soon realized she was reciting information of various types. As I mentioned, she was not speaking to me. However, as time passed I felt relaxed and at ease and to some degree at peace, yet I could not help but begin to feel as if the technician was and had been speaking to me. Not that she was addressing me personally, though the information was intended for me. I'm certain that on some level this was an exchange. My mind seemed content with taking in this information. It was as if my mind and body were engaged in separate activities. Physically I was very relaxed, I noticed my breath began to slow and I felt again at ease. Having completed my manicure the technician told me she was finished and advised me how long it would take for my nails to dry. I thanked her and exited the space. In the lounge I sat and reflected on my experience while watching the monitor and listening to the information as it was recited for the next client.

Yours Sincerely,

Moses

I felt glamourous.

In the beginning, your piece made me nervous and I was hesitant to participate. To me, hand touching is such an intimate affair and I'd never been in a nail salon before so I was intimidated by the whole idea. To my surprise, through out the whole experience, I felt very disconnected from it (the experience). The "nail salon" felt more like a doctor's office than a place to relax. The entire place felt so clinical, thus making it feel inhospitable. It was strange to me how the human touch could feel so impassive especially with the person performing the service's phlegmatic personality. I left with impeccable nails but also with a feeling of neglect.

But I really liked your piece though, on the real! =D

It was a unique experience. At first I felt anxious about not having conversation...and just listening to your recitation of the NPR program. then I settled in and marveled at the fact that you could do it at all.....while polishing my nails. I think you did everything right. As far as the performance goes....I loved it. thank you for letting me participate. joymck

My experience at the Nail Salon was pretty nice! Though, it would have been nice if there had been more conversation. Or maybe less one-sided conversations. But thanks for the free paint!

Hi,

Your nail salon made me feel very confused and uncomfortable. Maybe some nice background music would calm the situation? Maybe.

The appointment went well. I would like to see more colors.

2011-04-03T12:16:00.002-05:00

still animals

2011-03-31T22:28:00.001-05:00

CURRENT PAINTING WORK - IN PROGRESS

2011-03-27T13:30:00.001-05:00

MARCH 15 TO 21

2011-03-27T13:09:00.004-05:00

Recent Sculpture Work

2011-03-13T15:38:00.004-05:00

mantle piece

plaster, found objects, acrylic, glitter, house paint, spackle, wood, cinder block

where you should or shouldn't be

1 channel sound and sculpture

550

2011-03-13T15:33:00.003-05:00

Make a List:

Please name ten things (living or non-living) that you see/encounter/utilize in your daily habitual life.

The definitions of the words "things" , "environment" are open to interpretation.

The dictionary definition of environment|enˈvīrənmənt; -ˈvī(ə)rn-|

noun

1 the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates.

• [usu. with adj. ] the setting or conditions in which a particular activity is carried on : a good learning environment.

• [with adj. ] Computing the overall structure within which a user, computer, or program operates : a desktop development environment.

2 ( the environment) the natural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, esp. as affected by human activity.

Once you have a list , rename the things based on your personal interaction with them. These names can be anything; they can be describing words or words that represent the sound the thing makes or your feelings about the thing.

The names must evoke your experience or personal connection to that thing

Example: dandilion = wish flower

Please send lists to fivehundredandfifty@gmail.com

more information can be found at

fivehundredandfifty.blogspot.com

some art i have been looking at

2011-03-06T13:03:00.003-06:00

david gilbert

vincent fecteau

brion nudarosch

leopoldine roux

2011-03-04T20:56:00.002-06:00

near metro center, nashville tn

plaster cakes

behind

xerox maquette

Dust Collector

2011-03-01T18:08:00.000-06:00

oil on masonite on found board with knitted yarn

THRICE

2011-02-23T19:57:00.001-06:00

On the front door of a day care in new york

2011-02-21T12:33:00.000-06:00

I'm going to keep writing jokes like that till the day I die

2011-02-13T12:57:00.000-06:00

2011-02-12T14:41:00.000-06:00

TELEVISION

DRAWING OF NOTHING

ORANGE CONES IN SNOW

SCATTERED METAL PIECES

SOMEONE CHECKED, HE WAS NOT DEAD

WILL BE PAINTED SOON

WALKING PAST THE GLASS FAST

PORTRAIT OF FRIEND ON DISPOSABLE CUP

INSIGNIFICANT GESTURE OF CONVERTED SUGARS

2011-02-10T18:49:00.000-06:00

2011-02-06T16:10:00.000-06:00

"BN : I know there are artists who function in relation to beauty, who try to make beautiful things. They are moved by beautiful things and they see that as their role: to provide or make beautiful things for other people. I don't work that way. Part of it has to do with an idea of beauty. Sunsets, flowers, landscapes; these kinds of things don't move me to do anything. I just want to leave them alone. My work comes out of being frustrated about the human condition. And about how people refuse to understand other people. And about how people can be cruel to each other. It's not that I think I can change that, but it's just such a frustrating part of human history."

from 10. Breaking the silence: An interview with Bruce Nauman, 1988 from the book, "Please Pay Attention Please: Bruce Nauman's Words writings and interviews edited by Janet Kraynak

Anyone who cares to would you?

Answer the following questions:

1. What is one thing you find beautiful? Why?

2. What is one thing you find ugly? Why?

you can be anonymous or not, whatever...

flash the square

2011-01-31T10:21:00.000-06:00

this was made with a double exposure photo i shot with a disposable camera in New York. i just cut up digital images and add line and color with an open source program similar to microsoft paint.

this semester at watkins i'm taking painting 2, time based media 2, sculputre, and math 1o1 while also preparing for a show at the flying monkey in huntsville, alabama with my good friend courtney greenlee.

in sculpture we are learing welding and we have to make a piece using steel and one other material. we were given two words as a springboard for the piece. my words were; "nipple" and "run" so im thinking about a long linear form created with small elliptical pieces hammered out in the center sort of running down the "wall" or the space.

in time 2 we (the five in the class) are each supposed to create some sort of "instrument" and create a composition which will be installed all together in this little alcove at school, we call the node. each of us is independently creating our own piece without any indication of what other people are making. the end result will be a loop of all of our sound pieces and any artifacts or residue from our individual efforts.

ill post images and recordings of the results of these two projects later

also, i found some interesting things online which i am feeling inspired by,

this is matthieu lavanchy

and isa genzken

and annie lapin

2011-01-17T18:24:00.000-06:00

Leaving the City

2011-01-09T15:51:00.000-06:00

This was made from a photograph by Courtney Greenlee that she took of two sleeping women on the subway.

Made this on the train to New Jersey.

I have the nicest surprise for you

2011-01-06T20:54:00.000-06:00

my eyes hurt from too much lookin

2010-12-24T23:34:00.000-06:00

2010-12-04T22:19:00.001-06:00

Investigation of Self by Courtney Greenlee - here is a link to her blog where you can view and interact with the piece

2010-12-01T14:59:00.000-06:00

Here are some more things I am working on:

It started out like this...

and now it looks like this...

also Im working on the final project for 4D. I'm making a sound piece. Its going to be sort of an educational, therapeutic tape for humanoids of the future, to help them to feel more like humans.

This is a finished painting that will be exhibited in the Nashville airport along with other work from Watkins students.

I really like this photographs here by Amy Eckert

The collages are really great too, here is one:

monday

2010-11-22T16:24:00.000-06:00

I visited the mountains over the weekend, it was good to be that far up in the sky.

Things I have been working on .

A painting thats nearly finished

(there is something else behind it and in this picture it looks like it is part of it, but it isn't)

Public Intervention Project

2010-11-15T22:38:00.000-06:00

Critique Response

This project was really good, it was really interesting to see the different directions in which everybody went. One thing that was gleaned from the whole experience was that people are not easily bothered. They just don't really care that much. Can't be bothered to see if they really just witnessed a kidnapping at the parthenon and they can't really find the motivation to preform a wave at a school symphony.

Watching all the projects it was a cool feeling to know that all of us and another class full of people were all out somewhere in the city these past three weeks doing something to disrupt the daily flow of life. We were all out there causing some level of chaos in our own ways. This project definitely gave us all a sense of power, we were out there and just by asserting ourselves on the environment, we had the authority and could feel it. Even and maybe especially if it was slightly illegal.

2010-11-10T15:14:00.000-06:00

wen UR luvd it iz t% much

2010-11-10T14:45:00.000-06:00

I just saw a show of paintings and drawings by Jered Sprecher at Lipscomb University. Sprecher teaches painting at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. The tittle of the show, "wen U R luvd it iz t% much" and Sprecher's statement can give you an idea of what the paintings could look like. The tittle is made up using words and characters which are not grammatically correct by any means but can be nonetheless found being used in daily life. Replacing 'you are' with 'U R' speaks to the pace of our culture right now. The casualness of speaking through the computer and the ease at which mistakes can be overlooked in type make it so that we can accept the replacement of 'you are' without much difficulty. It is easier and faster to use such replacements and so it becomes something that is no big deal.

Similarly to his title, the paintings are also these things taken from daily life. Taken from the constant movement and put up against other things. Things that may or may not be instantly recognized but do evoke feelings of familiarity.

"I am a hunter and a gatherer, constantly accumulating images produced by the people and cultures around me. Segments of this collection of images then emerge in my paintings. My work shows images that are revealed as fragments in the midst of change, destruction, redefinition, and restoration. The sources they are drawn from are changing and evolving and the paintings are caught in that “still” moment of change. Today as the exchange of information increases on a daily basis, it becomes more difficult to trace the heredity of images. One is seldom afforded the time to begin to understand what one is viewing before the image has moved on and evolved. It is out of this fast paced exchange that I extract elements that resonate with a sense of vital meaning. I seek to use this wide language of visual marks and notations to describe that which humanity has in common, be it humor, mortality, or yearning to understand what is beyond.

My work is based in an eclectic aesthetic. My paintings extract elements from the high and low of visual culture. This culture and crush of images is in constant flux. My paintings hold no single allegiance, but are constantly shifting from one form of representation to another. The paintings function as sources of both inductive and deductive image making processes. In our day-to-day life, one is seldom afforded the time to comprehend what one is viewing under the barrage of images produced by humankind. I try to grasp a single moment, a glance, a small epiphany. The paintings are haptic documents of everything and nothing."

2010-11-03T12:40:00.000-05:00

october

2010-10-30T11:58:00.000-05:00

RABIES

2010-10-29T14:59:00.000-05:00

Critique Response Assignment #3 : Stop Motion Video

2010-10-28T13:02:00.000-05:00

This project had only a few requirements; to make a video using still photography to create motion. We could use live action, drawing, or anything except computer animation to give the impression of life to something inanimate. We had to create at least one minute and add sound to the piece. We had three weeks for this project which was ample time and I think even made things a little more difficult. Having too much time is sometimes a problem. During the course of the three weeks I had a hard time making initial decisions and changed my mind a lot. Other people in the class also changed their minds last minute or even started completely over multiple times.

For me this project ended up being a sort of merger between painting, sculpture and experimental video. After about a week of trying stuff out, nothing was really feeling good so I checked out a book on Jessica Stockholder to get inspiration and also paid a visit to the goodwill outlet for some objects. After I had a stock of materials, I just started to play around with what these materials could do and how they could become animated. Putting things next to each other to find out what it looked like and then responding or reacting from there. Following a feedback loop of responding to what I just did and then doing something else.

During the course of making this I found an essay taken from a statement from Marina Abromovic in 1992.

"In our 'civilized' world the non-rational capacities which we still posses as children are completely destroyed within a rational education system. Bit by bit we are pushed into a rational pattern, losing our non-rational abilities and instincts. Our society is constructed entirely upon rational patterns. Everything which is not rational is treated with a certain secrecy. Only among friends can someone admit he believes in dreams, telepathy, acts of providence, astrological prophesies, magical powers or visions. Our rational way of thinking demands proof, evidence, but this is only one element in our preceptive capabilities."

The statement goes on to say that artists should take on the role of couriers through the non-rational. Artists accompany society on the search for a new order. For a new way of thinking for society. Making art is about searching for new ways of thinking, probing the limits of the realm of perception for things not previously explored. For new "mental jumps" which aid the brain in finding new places for opportunity to open up, new ways for the brain to make sense of phenomena.

2010-10-25T22:41:00.001-05:00

Stop motion animation with 2 channel audio

2010-10-24T23:03:00.000-05:00

playing with paint

2010-10-13T17:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday in painting class we had an experimentation day. We all had huge pieces of paper and acrylic house paint; quite a few colors to choose from actually. We were told to basically just do anything but to go around and observe what other people were doing; and then do those things. After I spilled red paint all over the studio and my bag I put up a piece of this black tarred roof paper and went at it. I only took a few photographs of the progress but were going to work on them some more. I think i got one to a fairly decent place ( which i don't have a picture of). After the paper paintings were going to make four dialectic pairs and from those one large painting. I'm looking forward to all that.

We looked at some abstract painters, heres a few that i liked:

Thomas Nozowski

Robert Ryman Terry Winters

Jessica Stockholder

In other news I would like to excitedly announce the launch of my good friend's (who is an AMAZING photographer) new and improved website! Go check it out at:

COURTNEY GREENLEE . com

Here is some of her work, they are photographs taken at the house where we both live.

From her series: "The French House"

2010-10-07T14:55:00.000-05:00

Critique Response: Project 2, Sound

This project forced the class to focus on an aspect of the senses that can go largely unrecognized in daily life, hearing. However sound strongly felt in the body wether we are consciously aware of it or not. Sound can create an environment from nothing and transport the listener to a place which is highly subjective but filled with endless possibility. You can create, with sound, a strong sense of anxiety, anticipation, or even boredom. Many of the pieces from the class used words spoken so softly or not in english that it became more about the sound the words make than the meaning of the words themselves. There were a lot of weird sounds that made me feel uncomfortable or feel tense. We usually only encounter sounds like that in regular life in small doses, instances where the sound only is describing what we are seeing. Taking the sound away from any other possible sensory faculty makes the listener infer the rest of the senses that may be present, it makes the listener fill in the gaps and allows the listener to visualize inside her/his own mind.

This assignment inspired me very much to record a lot of sound, I started to feel like I was hoarding. I was collecting sound that I had no idea what it was actually from, thinking I could possibly use it in the future. The collecting and cataloging of the sound clips was interesting because in some instances I had to guess what the sound was from. Sometimes certain sounds were very specific but a lot of times they were more ambiguous and could have been from several things. Other times, I thought I was recording something good and then I would listen to it and it would have turned out to sound like nothing.

I feel like sound is more intuitive and works more subconsciously similar to smell and therefore can have a more profound affect on the listener because they are not aware of how the effect has happened.

just some stuff I found online recently...

Good, how are you?

2010-09-29T17:17:00.000-05:00

2 Chanel Audio, 2:57 2010

best when listened to using headphones

This is my project for 4D for the second assignment which was to create a sound piece that utilizes stereophonic sound using two independent audio tracks to give the impression of sound heard from various directions. We were supposed to experiment with different ways of doing this through dialogue, environments, narrative, abstract, and/or exploitation.

Some sound artists we looked at were:

Janet Cardiff

John Henry Blatter

Bruce Nauman

sound project

2010-09-21T14:39:00.000-05:00

"another popular greeting i heard in the us was "how are you"

although when people would ask me it was hard to answer quickly

i then began to wonder if people were asking because they really cared to know or was it just another greeting?"

this is from John Henry Blatter's sound piece, Language Lab.

It gave me an idea:

i could revisit an idea i had in the past about cordialities. i made something for a class touching on this idea but i don't feel it was well articulated. i think a sound piece would be a better investigation.

the quote from the john henry blatter piece basically sums up the problem only the person who said this quote is a norwegian commenting on greetings in the united states. Which lends a new perspective on the phrase we say automatically.

sometimes i ask someone how they are and they don't even reply. or you have already passed by and there is no time to reply, i wouldn't have heard it anyways.

sometimes people say "whats up" or "whats going on" as i try to think of a reply i have already walked past them (and they have walked past me) so we wouldn't be able to hear each other. the longer the questions, also, the less time each person can reply...

sometimes somebody will say whats going and i will say good how are you?

it makes me feel like theres no point to saying anything, that i would be more sincere if i just smiled. but to not say anything is rude as well. to even think that cordialities are just automatic responses leaves a shallow robotic feeling. sometimes i really mean it but theres just no time to really talk about how the person is doing or what is going on.

is it better to feign interest or give the impression that you intend interest when neither person really has time to be truly interested?

sound projects

2010-09-21T08:33:00.000-05:00

those links to the sound projects may be a little faulty...takes forever to load etc.

as a solution :

i have been making these little collages and i'm going to make the sound works into movie format and use stills of the collages as imagery. it won't be anything literal so i think it will work. so im going to upload about five more soon!

in the meantime theres this:

2010-09-17T23:47:00.000-05:00

sound experiments: number 1

painting is incredible

also....

I took a picture of some rocks.

2010-09-16T19:56:00.000-05:00

I just made this contact microphone. I used directions on this site.

It is really amazing. I recorded the sound of a plant shaking:

Plant Shaking (open this in a new window or tab)

Our next 4D project is to create a two channel audio work using

mono sound footage we record. It has to be a minute and a half. I have been experimenting with layering sounds using the two channels lately so I am looking forward to this.

critique: project 1

2010-09-15T20:26:00.000-05:00

This self portrait video project was really interesting because every person came to have some kind of relationship with their cardboard construct. The doppleganger ended up being a representative of all different things from costume and alter ego to spokeswoman and abstract representation of self. It was interesting because each video evoked some sort of empathetic emotional response. It was usually empathy with the cardboard person. The were made to have human elements; image, actions, dialogue, interactions, and the fact we knew this was a self portrait project all contributed to the feeling of connection between the viewer and the cardboard. In one video the construct became this mischievous character and it became this extremely weird thing out in a bar. Another gave us a sense of loneliness with a cardboard self pasted with a photograph which got peeled off in the rain.

The video had to be a 60 to 90 seconds which to be honest really made them easier to watch. Not for the quality, I just can admit that I have a hard time focusing my attention to videos, I have to force myself to pay attention. The length of the videos let us, during the critique, watch each video multiple times and so we were able to really find specific things that worked or did not really work. I think many of the videos really spoke to the absurdity of life. Some were taking this cardboard so seriously. Others brought it out into public and let things happen. The idea of taking something ridiculous out into a public area is hilarious to me. I liked that about this project, even though for my own I did not go out into the world. Maybe I should have gone out and gotten a table for two at some restaurant.

2 art sites!

2010-09-10T19:08:00.001-05:00

Margo Majewska
Denise Schatz

Some things

2010-09-09T13:31:00.000-05:00

I found this website, Contemporary Art Daily, which puts up exhibitions from around the world.

I was reading the current issue of e-flux journal which has some interesting articles. You can sign up to recieve an email whenever the new issue comes out which is convenient.

Here are some photos from the contemporary art daily website to entice:

Having a Body

2010-09-05T18:42:00.001-05:00

ASSIGNMENT 1: SELF PORTRAIT VIDEO WITH CARDBOARD DOPPLEGANGER

Having A Body from jessica clay on Vimeo.

2010-09-05T18:38:00.000-05:00

I was reading an excerpt from Katherine Hayles' book "How We Became Post-Human" for my post-human bodies class and came across the term 'epihenomenalism' which is a view that mental phenomena are ephenomenon in that they can be caused by physical phenomena but cannon cause physical phenomena. In strong ephenomenalism, this is very strict in that physical can only cause mental and mental cannot ever cause physical. This further explains that some or all mental states are simply by-products of the physical (ex. the brain, the nervous system)

The assignment is to make a 60 second self-portrait video using a doppleganger which is supposed to either literally or abstractly represent the self.

I am thinking about creating a comical scenario in which my mental self and my physical self are represented in a conflict in which the physical is trying to prove she is in complete control of the mental self.

I have not yet started on the construction of the doppleganger for the video but I am thinking about using myself and a constructed form to represent the two states of being. I want to give them stereotyped characteristics and kind of low brow comedic costumes like a flamboyant old lady for the mental state and for the physical - some sort of character who is only concerned with eating and excreting.

Here is a blog that discusses a good argument against epiphenomenalism.

talk to an iraqi

2010-09-05T18:35:00.003-05:00

I thought this was interesting in the way that this interaction plays with the dynamic between the subject and the object. How the different people are talking with this man and viewing him not only with their subjective opinions but also as an object that represents the iraqi people to which they can voice their opinions about Iraq and the war.

2010-09-05T18:35:00.001-05:00

I wonder what will happen if I float "myself" (cardboard) in a body of water and watched it change?

The whole body controlling mind thing can get pretty loopy when your thinking about hunger:

So my brain is telling my body to go get food but it is my body that has the need for the food. My brain is part of my body and needs the food to function. If my mind did not tell my body to go get some food how would my body know that it should do so? Would it starve? Would there be an 'I' to starve?

On another note:

I am really excited about the new developments in the fine art department. I think the mentoring is a great first step. Part of the point of going to college is the opportunity to be a part of a community and to feel close enough to everybody (and this is such a small department) to be able to have conversations about what we are learning here, our individual practices, and relate it to what is currently going on in the world . I know all of that could happen without a mentor program or facilitated "get togethers" but I feel it is unique to find a place where the faculty is truly passionate about what they are doing and a certain environment that is created at Watkins which fosters community in such a way.

two websites to check out:

we make money not art

broken city lab is an art group from Windsor Canada. If you look though the archive and tags you can find some pretty interesting things.

2009-10-22T21:35:00.000-05:00

I made this from scraps and paper left overs.
July 2009

silver leaf

2009-10-22T21:26:00.000-05:00

This is from October of last year.