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AVT 280: Project 3

Our assignment was to take an iconic food label and change it to speak to an issue that we saw as pressing. As an overtired, overworked full-time student who is working her way through school, I turn to coffee to help me exist. However there are many people in this world who overwork themselves solely for the purpose of financial gain, or escaping the lives that they’ve created for themselves.

I took the Folgers Coffee label, changed some of the graphics, and made it speak to the issues of overworking oneself and being exhausted all of the time. Here are some snapshots from the endeavor.

Jeff Soto: http://www.jeffsoto.com/installations.html

Perception of film, popular culture, graffiti, and advertisement in the installations.

First of all, Soto’s use of colors gives off a pop culture/graffiti/advertising feel. He uses clean lines, simple shapes, a collage of different items that our generation can connect with, and a style of art that we all recognize and accept as the norm. The idea of the illustrated collage is something that the current generation has become accustomed to and generally drawn to—at least from my experience. He also seems to try to comment on contemporary issues, such as the energy crisis. I can tell there are moments where he tries to push his concept, but because there is so much chaos present in his installations, it’s really difficult to figure out exactly how he is trying to make his point.

The installations are visually stimulating, and honestly a bit overwhelming. I think in photograph they’re very hard to experience, but in person it might be easier to spend some time with them, follow the illustrations, and maybe get more meaning from his work. Even without understanding any kind of underlying concept, his installations are attention grabbing and fun.

Mariko Mori: http://art-passion.site.voila.fr/marikomori.htm

Elaborate on the use of parody when looking at Japanese culture.
Well, for starters, the artworks are a bit ridiculous looking. Essentially the artist has taken something stereotypical of Japanese art (anime, Manga, etc) and put it into real life. Half of the appeal of Manga/anime is the fact that it is drawn, so putting it into real life pokes fun at the artists, the concepts of that kind of art, as well as the actual people. These characters and their settings look absolutely ridiculous—when animated no one questions it, but when put into photography or real life, it seems to be incredibly off base and very comical. It almost looks sinister, really. Especially the first photograph of the girl as the doll…

Martina Lopez:
http://www.johnvalentino.com/Teaching/Art190/Projects/190Proj3/Lopez/MartinaLopez.html

Discuss the use of memory and narrative in her work.

Lopez has created these composited images that tell a rather disjointed story. Very much like the postmodernists, she tries to draw attention to the chaos and disjointed nature of life and families through the random characters, landscapes, and placements within her works. While the text on her website talks about how she feels it explains the nature of family, I really don’t understand the work. It draws on the disjointed nature of life, however I don’t really understand the narrative that is meant to be representative of her family.

Haziz and Cucher: Dystopia

http://www.azizcucher.net/1994.php

What are the main concepts, and how do the digital effects imply these concepts.

The faceless people are rather eerie, honestly. But the commentary on the human lack of identity and individuality seems rather obvious. In a world that is so big, it’s hard for every single person to have their own discernible identity, especially if we’re talking about within governments and such. The digital techniques are well executed, as it’s actually relatively difficult to see that the images were doctored and it looks more like these faceless people have some kind of skin disease (via the quotation at the top of the page). Excellent use of the photoshop patch tool!

Map of Nacirema: Land of the Free, Home of the Blissfully Ignorant.

When I separated the images, the idea was for it to look rather bright, cheery, and advertisement-like. Eye-catching, so that when people stopped to look at them they read into it a bit more. I hung them over the water fountains in the School of Art at GMU because it seemed like one of the places people actually take a few extra seconds to enjoy themselves and absorb their surroundings. My idea for my “map” was “Stop to drink; Stop and think”.

I got photos of two of my pairs hung over the water fountains, however by the time I returned to finish the photographing process, my images were gone. But here are the photos of the hung-up version.

This is my second project for AVT 280. The assignment was to create a grid of 12 photos that was based on our interpretation of this reading:

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~thompsoc/Body.html

After figuring out that the article was talking about America, we were also instructed to think about otherness. Otherness, to me, is how we perceive groups of people that we can’t relate to, or don’t think we can relate to. Often times it has to do with ignorance more than anything else. One of my very close friends just got out of being in the Marine Corps for 5 years, serving more than 3 of those years deployed, protecting our freedoms. Now, as a Military brat, I can relate to his frame of mind on many of the issues. But one of the things he would say over and over to me is how “people don’t understand how lucky they have it…people are dying every day and they’re living like there’s nothing else going on in the world”.

My concept for the piece was to pair photos up with the same timestamp in the bottom right corner—one of the photos from Iraq, and the other from “everyday” American life (aka blissfully ignorant). I also used similar body positions. So you can look at a photo of someone in despair and someone enjoying themselves, in generally the same physical position, at the exact same time on earth, and yet their circumstances are completely different.

Pictured here is the entire series together.

I created this animation as my first project in AVT 280. It was for my baby sister who is spending her first year away from home at college and was feeling incredibly homesick and negative about her school, education, and living situation.

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