While a lot of the pieces at the Whitney Biennial stood out to me, none caught my attention as much as Ari Marcopoulos's DVD video project titled "Detroit." The movie showed kids playing a continuous sound they could manipulate via a very impressive arrangement of guitar pedals and stomp boxes. As a guitar player myself, I was instantly draw towards the familiar sounds of some of the crazy effect pedals before I even saw what the video was. I really loved that the sound never stopped. Even when they weren't touching the pedals, the sound wave was always present in the work. Just as the sound started to settle into something closer to a normal guitar, the kids would press another pedal creating a whole new sound. This random experimentation with the different effects creates a very interesting piece. I sure if they were to try this again the piece would remain somewhat similar, but it would take on a whole new sound in the end. I think it would be cool to have someone who's established in terms of using these guitar effects featured in the piece to see what they could create without normal music boundaries. The name that first comes to mind for me has to be Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. He pushes his guitar playing to extreme sounds with his effects and styles, and would really give a piece like this unimaginable impact. Another cool thing would be if us as viewers were able to play with the pedals to create the piece. The sound would be continued and changing every day.

Text Exercise

Presentations

Sci-Fi Nightclub:
This presentation featured the works of Erwin Redl and Leo Villareal. I really liked the ideas that the curators presented about combining the different yet related works of the two artists. While one worked with exteriors, the other worked predominately with interior spaces. This combination could really create a very interesting exhibition. The entire building could be transformed. They also discussed the difference between working with sculptural aspects versus using virtual reality. I thought they really did a great job presenting the works and really found two artists who would create a compelling show. I loved all the images of the Matrix collection.

Living Computers:
Laurent Mignonneau and Chirsta Sommerer with Rafael Lozano-Hemmer were the artists focused in this exhibition. They were exploring the differences of organic and human interactions. I really liked both the piece with the moving chairs, Wavefunction, and Pulse Park. I wonder if they could somehow be combined to chairs moving to your heartbeat. I like that the artists both invite you to interact with the art, and I feel like that could make for a really fun show. The information presented was solid and really gave me insight on artists I wasn’t very familiar with before hand.

Independence:
This show would feature Q.S. Serafijn and Gerhad Mantz. The two artists would really work well in contrast since while one imposes their art, the other one receives to create their works. I like the idea of combining an “undercover artist” with a more traditional gallery style artist. I think that the presentation was well made and all the information was nicely presented. I enjoyed the bright pictures to go along with the works even including four different shots of the “D tower” to capture the different emotions.

Define Structure:
This show also included Erwin Redl, but this time he would be paired up with Asymptote consisting of Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture. I found this to be one of my favorite projects. Putting and artist with an architecture company is a really bold and interesting idea. I was a little skeptical at first, but they really made some great comparisons. The Yas Hotel was really impressive looking. I can only imagine the things that Erwin Redl would be able to do with his LEDs to make the place look completely out of this world. It was a really great presentation for a show that I would really enjoy seeing in person if it were to actually happen.

Future Shock:
Dan Deacon and Danny Perez would star in this really bizarre show. I have to say that the information was given and the videos were really key to understanding the artists and their works. While I can see how well the two would function together, I would probably steer clear of this show. Perez’s violent videos and Deacon’s crazy music together might be simply over bearing for me. I can really see the points that were stressed in the presentation such as abnomalities, experiences, and lasting effects. I really loved the planning of the actual show at the end. They really adapted their artists perfectly to the new museum and showed how much thought they really gave their exhibition.

Mechanical Creations:
Ken Squared, Ken Rinaldo and Ken Feingold were the two artists selected for this show. Both worked with arifical intelligence and really push the boundries of the world. The videos really added a nice touch to their works in terms of understanding exactly how they would work together. I would’ve maybe liked for there to been a little bit more for each artist. I feel like I didn’t really get too much out of the presentation. I would’ve liked to have learned more about each one. Then at the end I would’ve enjoyed gaining a better understanding of how they would envisioned the exhibition to look. I see how they work together, but could’ve used a little bit more.

Triptych Description

For my triptych project, I wanted to explore the conflicting aspects of the humorous quality to my life. I like to consider myself to be a pretty funny person and most of the people around me would agree with that. Recently I asked my floor to complete a survey for my conceptual art class and asked them one simple question, “what do you think about Tim Brown?” While a good number of people had very nice things to say, there were still a number of those that choose to take shots at me. I realize that at times I cross the line and really offend people with my jokes. The problem is that people don’t remember the fifty times I made them laugh, but rather focus on the one time I made fun of them. Even the same jokes can deduct completely different reactions from people. One day they find it hilarious, while the next day I’m a big jerk for saying it. These jokes are really a double-edged sword, as I like to keep things lively and fun, but I am aware that with the territory I also over step my boundaries at times. This is the concept that I wanted to focus my project on. The very same thing can get a different reaction, even from the same person at times. The final project ended up being two pictures of my friend and future roommate, Steve, and one picture of myself in the middle. I used Photoshop to get the images out of their backgrounds and did a little editing such as changing the color of his shirt. The rest of the project was made completely in Illustrator. Despite my unfamiliarity with the program in the beginning, I feel like the software really grew on me as I worked with it. Using the pen tool and the brush tool, I was able to make the stylized backgrounds for the three panels. I didn’t really want to make the three pictures all that large, so I stuck with the 12 by 18 printer. I haven’t talked to Steve about it, but maybe we can hang these pictures up in our room next year since they are such a manageable size. I took the prints and simply double mounted them to some foam board. I really had trouble when it came to cutting the board. I tried just about everything to get a clean cut. I used a box cutter, exatco knife, and even made a trip to the library to use the large paper cutter. All of my efforts resulted in mostly straight cuts, but I would’ve liked for them to be much cleaner.

Poem

  Fire and Ice

 Some say the world will end in fire;
 Some say in ice.
 From what I've tasted of desire
 I hold with those who favor fire.
 But if it had to perish twice,
 I think I know enough of hate
 To know that for destruction ice
 Is also great
 And would suffice.

By Robert Frost

Illustrator Portrait

For my portrait, I just found a picture of myself from I think right around Christmas this past year. I live traced the image with the gray scale option selected. The picture was pretty boring just in black and white, so I decided that I would live paint it in some parts. I found a nice set of swatches that contained the cool blues that I used. I just tried to match the values the best I could. Then I just colored the letters on my sweatshirt for some contrast.

Illustrator Exercise 1