Fall 2010 Neighborhood Narratives: November 2010

Can way finding become traditional knowledge/song in today techno-psychotic society?

The ability for one to see who is around them in the local area by use of GPS tracking their friends on their phone is scary and dissolves the chance of life to play out like it should. Basing decisions off a map that's tracking people dissolves destiny.

The art of experience" I think this quote definitely summarizes what video installation art can be. A connection of the body to a work of art and how you move and interact and be inside the piece is the most important aspect.

Public Space should be available to anyone who can bring meaning to it. I think this quote is describes perfectly what this country is lacking and today we see public space filled with advertisements when it should be filled with peoples thoughts feelings and expression.

Now when thinking about wayfinding...isn't wayfinding the idea of the structure of the way the world is/was/has been set up? There is not much chance if you are walking through the streets and following the side-walk. Would that mean that John Cage would sit down and write a series of directions and simply walk them not concerned as to where the path is leading him-whether through the streets and alleys or not? Or is having the choice available and simply letting chance choose which of those paths to take the way that John Cage would attempt wayfinding?

My absolute favorite part of "As American as..." was as he talked of the child who sat on the rug and used the patterns on it as streets or ways for his cars etc. to go.

Video installation art captures the senses of the viewer to become an all senses experience rather than a single-sense experience. The idea of presentational arts being considered, "hybrid and complex" allowing the artist to represent not only one tense but multiple tenses such as past, present and future layered within makes the space in which video installation art encompasses both real and imaginary-giving an almost infinite spectrum of subject matter to attend to.

Do I consider myself an artist? I guess in order to answer that question we would have to first ask ourselves what an artist is. In my opinion an artist is anyone who produces art. Which of course leads to the question what is art? Which of course is a highly controversial question because it is so subjective, the definition of art varies from person to person. In my eyes, art is anything that a person can create. This creation does not need to be tangible either it can simply be an idea, however there is one exception: art isn't art without an audience. It is almost similar to the debate on whether a sound is a sound if nobody is there to hear it. Art is not art without eyes to see or ears to hear.
Keeping this in mind, I think everyone is an artist. In fact many things are created by people, entirely by chance or accidental, which is still art as John Cage taught us. What separates an "artist" from the average Joe? The idea and belief that the person is an artist. When a child makes a finger painting and they take it home for their proud parents to look at doesn't the child have their audience? Since art is so subjective, any piece of art has the potential to be considered a success in somebody's eyes. Now this doesn't mean that everyone is considered a professional artist. The difference is that a professional artist makes a living off of producing art regardless of the mediums used. So to answer the question in layman's terms I am an artist, and anybody else with a creative mind is too.

the immigrants who come here now are already walking into communities which are already established whether it be a community which is inhabited by other foreigners or a community of American citizens. So what role do these new immigrants play in contemporary American communities? Their role is actually to unbuild this community and help rebuild a new, different one which will take their past traditions and cultures and together with others, transform them into a more diverse community. Now, some might argue that by doing this, you are destroying the memory of the old country and culture that was left behind.

Krysztof also believes that history tends to repeat itself but people can use past mistakes in history to prevent them from repeating themselves.In order to do this however, each day history needs to be rewritten in order to correct the injustices of the past. What he means by this is that we as human-beings need to first honor the past by remembering it, than pass the knowledge of it on to others so that it will live on and lastly, use the errors of the past in order to change the present and the future. The worst thing that we can do is be like the Nomads who lost their history by not defending it. It is essential for growth that we our first human-beings before we our citizens of a country or members of a community. While being members of a community or culture help us define our pasts and our own identities as well, we also need to realize that migrants or immigrants also have their own identities that they bring to the table. We all belong to many different groups or cultures which help make us who we are and this is very important, but we also need to take a step back and realize that as humans we all share at least one common group or community together and it is important to carry on past traditions which help each of us establish ourselves as individuals.

This means that not everyone experiences being in a particular space or place in the same way. A point that I thought of while reading this article has to do with the mental attachment to space & place.

· How do we differ mentally while being in spaces since the awarness and emotion behind being there is all in your mind?

· What does these mental thoughts say about us as people?

I must say that I don’t agree with the majority of Yudell’s article. I do not believe that the places we live in produce instant instinct for movement. Of course we, as living creatures are meant to move: jump, skip, dance, etc. because if we did not move, we would be dead. However, I do not feel that the buildings we’ve formed and the houses we’ve built encourage motion in our bodies, if anything, I think they prevent it. When we are in these places, we instantly limit what our bodies can do. We do not run in the house or dance grandly in an office cubicle. I do agree though with the notion of space within our bodies, i.e. finding one’s “center” or even “chi”.

· How does our interior space dictate our exterior space?

· What does it mean for the body to move internally?

“Not all who wander are lost.” I find this quote to be extremely true, especially concerning our second assignment of drifting. We were lost on possibly unfamiliar streets drifting/wandering, but at the same time we knew where we were going because we had mapped it out in class. Additionally, I thought the article touched on a lot of interesting points about humans enjoying the feeling of being lost, as seen by our dialect, some of the structures we create (labyrinths and mazes), and extensive tools to find our way. I believe that “wayfinding” is something we all can relate to, whether literally or emotionally. Before reading this article, I didn’t stop to think how often we need/desire to find our way —- so much so that it consumes our culture.

I thought it was interesting how Morse placed “art” seperately from “video” almost as if they didn’t belong together. In my opinion, many individuals in the art world do not necessarily consider video an art as much as other mediums (such as painting) and do not see the difference between this medium and film. I believe that art should not necessarily have a distinct definition being that it is something left up to the interpretation of the viewer.

it makes the statement of the rise of mobile phones and/or smart phones creating awareness for many users. I myself use my phone to find a navigate my way through any situations. If I see a billboard that promotes a new movie, out of curiosity, I would jump on my phone and look it up either watching a trailer or reading a synopses. I even would then look for the closest theater and get directions leading me to that same theater.

Next what I found interesting of what could be possible in the near future is the invention of "Geo-Annotation." Geo-Annotation could possible be the future for advertisement, when walking by a restaurant or even an outlet store you can access deals or sales that the store is promoting. This evolution can bring a new change in society and how it operates. To be able to receive knowledge on a location will be amazing and very productive as well as fortunate

"exchanges between the work of art and the places in which its meaning are defined." Right when I read that, it made me think of this one photographer (don't remember the name) took pictures of fabrics that people have stained after their deaths of either suicide, murder, or sickness. From looking at each photo, you can receive a sense of a story or a happening that has taking place on that specific fabric.

Technology has seized to amaze me after watching this one documentary for this one piece. It's called Under Scan by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, after recording a thousand short clips of random people laying down looking up to the camera and interacting with it in their very own way, they would have a tracking system in an area and when someone would pass through, it will then project one of the random clips where ever the pedestrian will be walking. I was blown away when I saw this technology in use as well as the thousand of recorded random clips, making wish I was there until I've seen all one thousand clips, more or less.

It is my understanding that a place provides security and stability as a location (a home). A space can be defined as an uncertain territory because it has yet to be defined. In other words, once you have defined a space, it becomes a place.

There are many ways in which humans and animals go about “marking territory”. For one, we begin by attaching symbols. Symbolism is used when a person/place or thing represents something else. Because of this, we attach meaning. These meanings will ultimately develop the emotions we may feel when dealing with a particular environment. These emotions, which are inspired by memory and thus anticipation, complicate the human experience. Our past experiences define how we feel about that space/place. This also serves as a conditioning tool.

One of the ways in which we construct our perceptions is through our senses. They allow us to construct our reality. They provide an explanation for the things we cannot understand. Religion was first used to explain ‘space’ before research and science were introduced.

Maps have been a way for humans to create tools and technologies in order to shape their environments. Wayfinding is just a clever tool which helps establish our sense of reality and control. The Baldwin Effect, as described by James Baldwin, a pioneering developmental psychologist illustrates how organisms can learn to shape their environment and alter paths of evolution. Wayfinding is the process that allows humans to evolve.

The relationship between space and place is key to our understanding of site specificity. Both are influenced by our experiences in that environment. Influential artist Marcel Duchamp pioneered this theory when he debuted the urinal artpeice. Is main purpose was to question art and our perceptions of placement. Could a urinal become anymore attractive now that it was placed in an art gallery? Although most mainstream people could not grasp the genies behind the art, it does send a crucial message. Location determines our overall perception of an object. This theory can be applied to real life swell.

Platos' Cave Theory and how it applies to how many of us relate to the media. The theory states that we as humans are being tied down to watch media simultaneously whether we want to or not. It was interesting because Sarah labeled this theory as 'passive' although the figures were meant to be chained down.

“I didn’t choose art, art chose me”

art is “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance”.

Referring to Wodzicko: I do not completely understand his explanation of a “newly designed equipment”.

these recent stories affected me on a personal level. I’ve never been too interested in politics, but these stories made me question the responsibility we the people have to our state. Politicians are supposed to represent people and help organize society with the people’s interest in mind. However, a quick assessment of the common quality of life and everyone can agree that is not the case. Everyday issues such as property taxes, school taxes, healthcare plans, and social security are constantly being argued but never improved. Which brings me back to the responsibility we have as the people. We have to be more responsible; meaning we have to give more effort in trying to understand the issues at hand, what are the viable solutions to these problems, who is proposing or fighting for these solutions, are they genuine and truly knowledgeable about the subject, and perhaps most importantly go out and vote.

“The Robot Dancer” is probably my favorite of her pieces. The way it is able to interact “dance” with a person is interesting because it demonstrates the way one’s identity can be recreated. It also asks the question what qualifies something to be apart of another. Does the robot take on apart of the living dancer?

Yi Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, University of Minnesota Press 1977

- Chapter 1: Introduction

- Chapter 3: Space, Place and the Child

Kent C. Bloomer and Charles w. Moore, Body Memory and Architecture, Yale University Press 1977

- Chapter 7: Robert J. Yudell, Body Movement

Peter Morville, Ambient Findability, O’Reilly Media 2005

- Chapter 2: A Brief History of Wayfinding

Ina Bloom, Signal to Noise: On John Cage and the Anarchy of Silence, Artforum Magaizine, Spring 2010

Anthony Townsend, Locative-Media Artists in the Contested Aware City 2006

Drew Hemment, Locative Arts 2006

Miwon Kwon, One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity, MIT Press 2004

Introduction: Site-Specifics

Doug Hall and Sally Jo Fifer, Editors, Illuminating Video,

Aperture Foundation 1990

- Chapter: Chip Lord, Mobility as American as…..

- Chapter: Video Installation Art: The Body, The Imgae and the Space-In-Between

Krzysztof Wodizcko, Critical Vehicles, MIT Press 1999

- Designing for the City of Strangers

- Interrogative Design

Auxiliary Reading

Alex, Ross, Searcing for Silence: John Cage’s art of noise, The New Yorker Oct. 4, 2010

Walter Kirn, The Way We Live Now, The New York Times Magazine, Oct. 17, 2010

Raymond wacks, Privacy: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press 2010

- Chapter 1: The Assault

Fall 2010 Neighborhood Narratives

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Schedule of Presentations for Final Assignment

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Final Assignments

National Design Triennial - A MUST SEE - up until Jan. 9, 2011

Discuss

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction

Bibliograpy of Readings for this Class

Bibliography of Related Books for this Class

Monday, November 8, 2010

Links from Sarah's talk

Thursday, November 4, 2010

What is due on 11/10

Augmented Reality