Week 11

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

For the final Conceptual self portrait I chose to illustrate the prescribed medication I have been taking since last year. I wanted to display it in a grid pattern and decided to show it on a calendar grid starting from last January to this past week. The pink and white pills are for my ADHD and the yellow ones are for my depression. You can tell the periods in which I would stop or forget to take my medications and when I started treating my depression with medication. I also think it illustrates my patterns from ADHD which is scattered planning; I tend to do it all in my head or on random pieces of paper. I rarely use my calendar online even though our everyday lives have shifted more and more to using technology for tasks. I use paper agendas and sometimes I go weeks without writing in them. This also solidifies time for me as lately the days have been melting into each other like a big time puddle. Sometime my medications alter and affect my time perception so this lays it all out.

Week 10

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Week 9

I changed my idea from last week to create this audio; a self deprecating, self love affirmation recording. This shows my constant struggle with self love, but I think it shows my progress. Leading up to my attempted su*cide, the left track was on repeat in my head, just constant self hate. Since then ive gone through therapy, medications and self improvement strategies that have allowed me to for the first time in my life be able to go to bed and think that i love myself and say nice things to myself. it seems so simple but I was shocked the first time it happened.

I was going to play the “Hate” track first and then the love, but i think that would imply that I’m all better which is far from the truth. In reality the thoughts are still there, but i can drown them out and counter them with love.

Week 8

For my first audio piece, I focused on recording sounds in my daily life that reflect activities that either bring me joy, calm, peace, etc.. The past few months have been incredibly difficult emotionally, but through this pain I have been able to still see and appreciate the little things that if I stay mindful and in the moment, are so small yet so meaningful.

The audio has been layered, however I am providing them separately if you’re curious to listen to each one alone. The different sounds include:

• bubbles in my bubble bath (after leaving the hospital I tried to find something that calmed me down, I began taking baths every day (sometimes twice a day) and really used that as self care. I have pleasant memories of baths as a kid and I hadn’t taken one in years so I became a little obsessed.
• me listening to one of my favourite artists while smoking, I use this time to unwind and sometimes sing and dance to let loose
• the sound of my dog wagging her tail against the floor; my dog Zoey loves attention and she wags her tails really hard, to the point where she’ll hit herself in the face and her tail is very strong (shes hurt me before) so I call her “thumper” like the rabbit from Bambi. Everytime i get near her she wags her tail and it brings me a lot of joy
• the last recording is of me meditating to some calming music, if you listen you can hear my breathing, i also used my crystals during this practice

Week 7

• 

• 

Other Examples I Looked At:

Yok Ono SCREAMING! I really enjoyed this piece, especially in reference to the Donald trump photo, I have often used screaming as a way to let out my frustration/pain/anger. I liked that she didn’t just try to scream for three minutes without a break, I like that she varied her tone, her pitch her breaths, it was like a language through scream.

The prompt for this piece is to use one instrument and one action: screaming.

I’m Practicing My Cartoon Voices, Steve Reinke
Prompt:

Voice Over by Brain Joseph Davis
Prompt: Read a

Prompt: make as many different voices while saying “im practicing my cartoon voice” to invent as many different “characters”

These two works utilized only the voice of the artist and varying pitches to change sounds or voices. However screaming for three minutes is seem as much more bizarre in our society, and the video of Yoko Ono to me at least, causes some discomfort while watching, but it is also a cathartic experience, and you almost wish you were up there screaming.

Brian Joseph Davis and Reinke’s pieces are more “culturally acceptable” and I found it a little more entertaining, although it was off putting to hear the same phrase so many times, after so many repetitions, words start to lose their meaning. The voice over sounded like a movie trailer that never ends and makes no sense, I was drawn to it the most because made me feel like I was going to hear something great if I just waited long enough. The voice was so excited that I was drawn in to the weirdness and started trying to make my own story from the weird phrases that came about.

Ideas:

• I am drawn taking sounds out of my life, exploring the mundane or routine for me
• ASMR is always fun
• Recording myself singing?
• Reading a passage, changing the mood of it by changing my tone of voice

Week 6

Exercise Photos:

• 

• 

• 

• 

These are the 4 final pictures I chose for the exercise. If I have to narrow it down to 3 I put stars ⭐️ on their captions.

I liked the idea of using my face as the material, whether it be changing my facial structure by pulling, squishing, poking, constricting, etc. I grew up with severe self-esteem issues from a very young age; I’ve avoided being in pictures or taking pictures of myself, and if someone else took a picture of me I would refuse to see it just to avoid the anxiety of seeing myself on camera. However, I never really minded seeing a picture of myself if I was in disguise or changing my appearance. These types of exercises allowed me to disconnect myself from the image. Although I’ve become more confident and love photography so I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone for this exercise and release the ideals I have of a “nice photograph”. Instead of focusing on just wanting to look just pretty, I made new uses for my face, molded into forms I’ve never seen before and combined myself with someone else’s face.

Notes and Tests

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Week 4 – Social Distance Portraits

Social Distance Video Portrait

“It has changed my day to day, I can’t go out to the places I normally would, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think it is really limited the amount of spending I’d usually be doing, so in one sense that’s great because I’m saving money. I’m also spending more time to myself and doing things that matter. Over all it hasn’t impacted my day to day drastically. At work sales have actually been better because of my particular line of business – art supplies – a lot of people are doing more therapeutic art because they’re stuck inside all day. It’s interesting to see how certain industries that were kind of forgotten: crafts , fitness, roller skates etc. people are driven to these things now because they need an escape for their own mental on-ability & health.”

---

I asked my partner Jermaine to help me out with this project. He manages Deserres art supply store and has a unique experience during the pandemic. The following videos are other poses I was trying out. The first one is a close second but I liked the first one better. The second one after feels a little too much like just a photo for instagram so I didn’t like it as much, but I like the way the fringe on the jeans moves to show its a video and he’s standing still.

---

I also asked my brother and his partner Tania to pose for me. I didn’t choose it because I wasn’t too fond of how I framed it, I experienced some trouble there and lost their interview recording. Having both worked in the aviation industry (my brother is a pilot, Tania was a flight attendant at Air Canada) they expressed that COVID19 has figuratively (and almost literally) “clipped their wings”. Both are used o a lifestyle of travel, work and exploration and their particular industry has taken a big hit and it’s been a huge adjustment being home now. This is a stark difference to Jermaine, where he describes his industry as thriving in spite of the pandemic.

---

Notes:

---

WEEK 3

• 

---

WEEK 2

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

---

---

WEEK 1

A ride in my overalls: 1 km of gardening, a Time lapse.

I measured 1km using my step counter, which also measures distance walked, and I filmed by sticking my phone in my overalls front pocket. I wanted to see how long it would take to “work” for 1km and what 1km would look like in gardening work. The time lapse video took approximately 1 hour to make and it stops when I reached 1 km of walking. I had many ideas for this project and I was not going to chose this for my main one as the video seems disorienting and too fast. It occurred to me after I watched it that I had to pick it because I felt like I actually conveyed what I was feeling into the video, which is rare for me. Watching back the time lapse I felt like I was reliving my summer, one that I have been anxiously trying to grasp back at, grieving the loss of the summer sun to make way for autumn frosts. A frenzy of images flicker in my mind trying to recall the last 6 months of my life, at times it feels like just yesterday I was starting this job and other times memories a few days ago feel like years. Usually my summers feel long, bored of working and waiting to return to school, but since the pandemic hit in March, it’s as though my sense of time has been sped up x10. Mentally my mind is still in March and my body is still coping. A kilometre of yard work (that I actually enjoy) has taught me bout the relativity of time; what may have been a speedy hour for me may be long and dragging for someone else, it can really about your mindset and how present you are or aren’t, or maybe it’s just one of the side affects of a global pandemic. 

NOTES and answers to weekly questions:

• 

• 

• 

Week 1:

1 KM: Thought Process

As soon as I heard the prompt for this assignment I knew that I wanted to do something related to all the stressful thoughts that I have every day. I decided to create a map of my thoughts. I have a very active mind, and I feel like I go great distances in my mind in my thoughts, if that makes sense. For my km, I chose ten thoughts that I have almost every day. I wanted to make it a map so that anyone who views it can also experience what I feel, and follow this map to walk through my thoughts. It took me a while to come up with how to express this, but I am happy with the result. I hope that everyone can follow this map and go on a mental km walk through my daily crisis. I wanted this to be like a little pamphlet you might pick up before going on a hike to visit some interesting landmarks and locations. In this case, the landmarks you will visit will be one of weird thoughts. I also thought it’d be a funny detail to create street names such as “Fear St.” to help give you a greater understanding of how my mind works. I like to incorporate comedy into some of my art, so I thought this might be an interesting way to do it.

I started this assignment by writing down some of my weird thoughts that I have when I wake up. I would take time to reflect on some of the things that I thought about frequently, and recorded them. Once I had a collection of them, I mapped them out from where my first few thoughts were to some of my last thoughts. I added some fitting street names to connect them and ended up with a map through my thoughts. The idea was for each “landmark” to be about 100m away, ending up as a Km in total.

I’m sure many of you also have very active and anxious minds like I do, so I’m hoping you will be able to relate to some of these thoughts that I start every day off with.

Also, as you can see, many of these thoughts are school related. I love school, but when I’m feeling worried I sometimes think irrational things, like dropping out.

1 Km: Finished Product

Response to Sol Lewitt Video:

Sol Lewitt has a very interesting approach on art. He creates plans, or instructions, that a team of artists carry out. I think this is a very fascinating way to make art. It was said in the video that there are very few opportunities for art to be collaborative rather than individual, and I think this is a great way to get many people to work together. Although Sol Lewitt does not make the finished product himself, it is his ideas that are followed and replicated exactly how he intended. The artist himself plays a major role in the final product. He created instructions that include everything the artists need to know, down to the exact painting technique that was to be used. While Sol Lewitt was not involved in the process, it is his work and his ideas that gave these artists this opportunity.

Notes:

• New way of making/thinking about art
• Turned minimalism into a movement
• He viewed himself like a composer of music 
• Had instructions/diagrams
• All planning and decisions came beforehand
• Many artist help make his art
• A team brings his creations to life
• He plans them, the team makes it
• “Team Art”
• Has instructions for which painting technique to be used for each part
• “A successful collaboration”
• The team keeps in contact with him throughout the process

I also wanted to share an example of something similar that I have experienced. In Grade 12, I was given the opportunity to work on a large art piece with a few other classes in my school. It was a stained glass window type artwork, but made with tissue paper and plastic film. My teacher planned out the whole project, assigning us each with a section to be completed. We had more creative freedom with this than the artists who carried out Sol Lewitt’s ideas but it was a similar setup: A blueprint that we had to follow. We were making an Indigenous animal artwork stained glass window to display in the library, so we each chose an animal from the list my teacher made, and we each did our assigned part. Here are a few photos of the finished work.

Response to Yoko Ono Video:

I found this video to be a bit overwhelming at first. Ono moves from section to another without much of a pause, so it can be difficult to get lost if you aren’t focusing. I could draw the boundaries by listening to her announce the name of each activity that she talked about. She would explain one, and then address another, often related to the previous one. I believe the artworks are the thought or or the action of doing each activity that she lists. The artwork would be the end result, or even simply the concept, of each prompt that she gives you. I think that imaginative thinking can also be considered a form of art. Even if you are not doing any of the activities that she is talking about, you have no choice but to imagine doing some of these interesting things. This video caused me to visualize some  of the things that she said. Perhaps this is a way to get into an artistic mindset: to think about or do things that you normally would not. I personally really like the concept where she talks about stacking stones for your sadness and for your happiness and compare the two piles.

Notes: 

• Leave a piece of canvas in the streets to be walked on
• Keep laughing
• Converse with hands
• Paint to see the skies
• Drill holes in the canvas to see the sky
• Watch the sun until it becomes square
• Put shadows together until they become one
• Listen to your heartbeat
• Walk in the footsteps of the person in front of you
• Send letters to friends
• Watch the sunset, feel the earth moving
• Your feet are physical connections to the earth
• Write down a wish and tie it to a wish tree
• Make a list of sadness in your life and stack corresponding stones
• Do the same with happiness and compare the stones
• Try to say nothing negative about people and see what happens
• Count the words in books without reading them
• Listen to your breathing
• Keep listening
• Find a comfortable spot
• Write down your fears and burn it
• Think of the people close to you as planets

Response to Works by Bruce Nauman:

Work #1: Wall-Floor Positions

In Nauman’s work “Wall-Floor Positions,” he uses his own body as the medium. Instead of physically building a sculpture, he uses his body to create different poses, making sculptures out of his body. He claims that everything that he does is art because he is an artist. I think this can help us understand that art can be anything that we want it to be. To many people, art is drawing, painting, or singing. As Nauman shows through this work, art can be anything, and you can use or not use whatever resources you want to create art.

Work #2: Raw Materials

In this work Nauman created a corridor of sounds and silence. When you walk through it, sounds will play in certain areas and it will be quiet in others. This is framed as art because it is a creative way of having people experience something. Similar to the last work, Nauman shows that art doesn’t always need to be made from physical materials. It can be anything, even an experience. By opening our minds to all the possibilities of what art can be, I believe we can become better artists ourselves, or at least find new ways to appreciate art.

Notes:

• Disturbing at first
• “What the hell is going on here?” disturbing
• The works speak to each other
• Works with what’s there
• Lets the work speak for itself
• Not concerned about beauty
• Sense and nonsense
• Obsessed with language

Week 2

Notes:

• Very unusual works
• Rather intense works
• Likes to see how far the human body can be pushed
• Carves symbols into her body
• Uses new artists to recreate her work to be displayed

For this week I decided to take one hour to look at my reflection. I was inspired by Marina Abramovic and her rather unusual works. The one that particularly inspired me was the one where people would sit down and look her in the eyes for long periods of time.

I do not like looking at myself, especially for long periods of time. This whole assignment sounded overwhelming to me. I have a hard time sitting still and I have always have to move around every couple minutes. As predicted, I felt overwhelmed after a few minutes. But as the time passed, I would start to feel more relaxed, but then I would switch back to feeling uncomfortable, and this repeated for the whole time. Overall, it was a very strange experience. I looked at myself and I started to look and feel different. It was very weird, and at some points it felt like I was looking at someone else other than myself.

Week Three:

Making Changes

“Rearrange your world to make the simple changes that you want to see.”

Thoughts: I found this video to be very entertaining. At first I was unsure of what the title “Making Changes” might be conveyed as, but I soon saw exactly what the artist had in mind. It made me wonder if any observers of his works have ever questioned him on his actions, because I feel like I would probably have a few questions for someone if I saw them moving random objects around for seemingly no reason.

Sitting 

“Get closer to the people around you, in whatever way possible.”

Thoughts: This is one of my favourite videos of the six that we watched. It makes me so uncomfortable, but I can’t stop watching. I am surprised that not many people were very phased by him sitting too close, perhaps to be polite, because I know that I would feel very uncomfortable if a stranger sat that close to me.

Ladder Climb

“Keep climbing, do not let gravity stop you.”

Thoughts: This video gave me a nice sense of hope. He kept on trying to climb the ladder, even though the results were the same each time.

Dead End, Eastern Market, Detroit

“Do exactly what you would not do during your driver’s test.”

Thoughts: This video stressed me out quite a bit, because it shows a situation that I would not want to be experiencing. I am the kind of person who takes like ten minutes to park properly, so being in any sort of car-related uncomfortable situation sounds stressful to me.

The Distance I Can Be From My Son

“See how far a young mind can go, compare it to your own.”

Thoughts: I found this to be a very interesting but stressful video. We, as adults, know the dangers of the world and would feel nervous about letting a child unattended. Young children do not yet know these dangers, so it would not occur to them that it might be dangerous to stray from your parents. This video was very intense, because I know the stress that the mother felt watching her child get further away from her.

Several Observations

“See how many noises one object can make.”

Thoughts: This video was very soothing to watch and it reminded me about how I like to feel certain objects that make satisfying noises. As a kid I always loved playing with things like bubble wrap, so this reminded me of all the noises objects can make when you take the time to feel all the different parts of them.

Notes:

I enjoyed thinking of instructional sentences for these videos. For most of these sentences that I wrote, I chose the first thing that came to mind. A lot of these thoughts were kind of humour-based, like the driver’s test one. But overall, I enjoyed doing this because you don’t know what sentence you’re going to come up with until you watch the video. You could instantly come up with a sentence or you might have to watch it a few times. I found that every single one of these videos seemed to catch me off guard, especially “sitting.” I thought about how uncomfortable I would feel if a stranger sat that close to me, or if I chose to intentionally sit that close to someone. This video reminded me a bit of some of Marina Abramović’s works from last week, in the sense that it made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but I can’t stop watching. With every one of these videos, I did not know what to expect from the title alone. I was surprised with what I saw every time.

I had a lot of fun with this assignment. I decided to throw spaghetti into the air. It created so many interesting and abstract shapes and I am so happy with how this turned out. It was kind of difficult to photograph this, though. It had just rained, so I had to keep picking up cold, wet spaghetti out of the grass. I was going to use my DSLR camera to take the photos, but it was too hard to hold the camera with one hand and throw the spaghetti with the other. I ended up using my phone, which worked really well. Because I could not really adjust the shutter speed like I could have done with my camera, I took Live Photos so I could choose from a variety of keyframes. I chose the keyframe that looked the most interesting and put the final pictures into a grid. I like to look at all the shapes that the spaghetti made. I think that the middle photo looks a bit like a face.

Week 4

Notes:

Adad Hannah: Studio Visit 

• “Moment of the pose”
• We assume a pose when we think we’re getting our photo taken
• A story within a story
• Lets the people populate the story
• A mirroring and realization of one’s own body

Handheld Case Study 

• Very shaky 
• Kind of uncomfortable to watch 
• Photos look very interesting, compositionally
• The videos show how challenging it can be to hold a pose

The Burghers of Vancouver 

• Mimicking a famous work
• Feels tense, like something is about to happen at any given moment
• Compares itself to the actual statues
• Like the previous example, the photo versus the video doesn’t show how much movement the human body makes while trying to be as still as a statue 

The Screen

• Intense
• Almost everyone is looking away except for the one woman who is looking at the viewer
• Very tense atmosphere
• Intense compositions
• Feels like you  shouldn’t be looking 

Social Distancing 

• These had a tense feeling, which is fitting to how the world is right now
• Felt like I was waiting for something to happen
• Tableaux vivant means “living pictures”

I think that these photos give a great sense of many of the emotions that we are experiencing right now. Personally, looking at these photos makes men feel uneasy, and they make me feel like I am waiting for something to happen, which is a feeling that I think most of us can relate to. Since March, life in our country has been completely different. Every day we feel like we are waiting for something to happen. Every day when I wake up I wonder if today I will hear any good news, or if I’ll only continue to hear bad news. I think that these portraits capture this feeling that many people, including myself, are experiencing. I noticed that he seems to include very different people in his portraits, but they’re people who you see everyday. His captions also give you great insight to how everyone is living their lives differently. But ultimately, I think that he shows that we all  have some of the same struggles right now, and we are all together in these very strange times. 

I found his composition to be very interesting, usually framing the subject or subjects in the middle of the picture, with very simple, uncomplicated backgrounds. I found this unusual, because in every art class I have taken, the teachers have stressed that it is considered boring to have a subject in the middle, rather than off to one side using the rule of thirds. So to see this intentionally done in every photo shows that it was definitely formulaic. I think he chose to do this to once again capture a sense of uneasiness. I think that he also chose to have simple backgrounds so that we wouldn’t be distracted from the subjects themselves. Also, I find that he chooses to take videos in a large variety of settings.

“My eyes hurt. The sun was so bright. My eyes were in immense pain. It was particularly weird how much my eyes hurt. It was the most painful sun in my eyes. The place was spooky. I love the rural clash between civilization and where civilization once was and is now discarded on the side of the road.”

I chose to do a portrait of my brother in front of a road, which happens to be a road in front of an abandoned building. My mom, brother, and I always drive past this very sketchy location on the way to our cottage, and we had always talked about taking a photoshoot there. I thought this would be a great opportunity to do this project. Adad Hannah’s videos make me feel unsettled, like I’m waiting for something to happen. So doing this in a very sketchy location made me feel this same emotion of being unsettled. To make things even more unsettling, we had to quickly leave because we heard someone start to come out of one of the buildings. So in my case, the unknown thing that I was waiting for to happen actually happened. I wanted to include an additional video, one in front of the building, where I had to cut the video short because someone started approaching. I didn’t choose this as my main video because I felt that the composition was off, but I still wanted to include it so show my progress because I wanted to share the story that goes along with it. In Adad Hannah’s photos, there isn’t typically a complex background, so I thought that going with the first video would fit more into his style. While backgrounds don’t seem to be very crucial, the overall setting of the portrait is. Each photo has a unique setting, often with a unique pose that the subject needs to hold. I feel like because of this, each photo tells a story.

Here is the second video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZNfBWe6cmA

WEEK 6:

I was particularly interested in the beginning of the article because it made me think about how much we use our faces in everyday activities and how this has been affected by the pandemic. We use our faces to communicate more than we may have realized before. I often find myself using facial expressions to convey certain feelings, but then I realize that the person who I’m talking to cannot see the face that I’m making. I feel so different without having most of my face visible. I feel more confident about my appearance and also less confident. I feel like I am anonymous and I sometimes feel like I don’t have to act like myself because no one knows who I am. I typically feel nervous in public and while interacting with people, so by having most of my face hidden I feel less pressure to have interaction go perfectly. I never realized how dependent I was on facial expressions until I had to wear a mask, covering half of my face. If I pass by someone who I know but don’t have time to stop and talk to them, I would always smile to acknowledge that I saw them. Something that happened to me made me realize how much I depend on my facial expressions. This is a bit of a strange example, but at the beginning of the semester I was walking to campus to pick up textbooks and someone almost hit me with their car. I turned around and gave them the greatest angry face and death glare, but then I realized that they couldn’t see it because I was wearing a mask and my glasses were fogged up. I can’t really imagine new ways to face the world. This year has been the most unpredictable experience of my life. Every day there is something new that I am not prepared for and it has been a very weird time to be alive.

NOTES

I wanted to include and comment on five quotations from the article that stuck out to me:

1. “One friend, in a floral mask, after identifying herself, told me her mother had died. I found myself fixating on her eyes. Brown pupils with tiny bits of grey thread, dark lashes and eyebrows. Wetness flooded the whites and pooled at the red edge. Without being able to bring my face close to hers I could not really comfort either of us.”  

This part made me realize how difficult it can be to recognize people without being able to see their face. We may think that we would be able to recognize someone by other factors, maybe by hair, style, height, or weight. I have found that if I cannot see someone’s face, I start to doubt myself. I look at the features of someone that are still visible and try to determine if that person is who I think they are. I have seen people in grocery stores that I thought looked like people who I knew, but I avoided talking to them because I wasn’t 100% sure that it was them. I could just be being extra paranoid about mistaking a stranger for someone else, but this sure has shown me about how much I depend on one’s face to identify them.

2. My face is my trademark and my main mode of communication.“The face is a source from which all meaning appears.” 

I really related to this part of the article. A large part of my communication is done with my face. I like to smile or make exaggerated expressions. I am a very quiet person, so I like to let my expression do most of the talking for me. In order for people to understand me and the way I respond to people, my face is essential. I find that I already come off as unapproachable because of how quiet and introverted I am, so I feel even less understood when I am unable to use my face.

3. The masks people wear in upstate New York come in all varieties of fabric patterns and colors. Some have slogans Black Lives Matter, Keep Your Distance, God is Love, others logos for Hello Kitty, Harley Davidson, the Bulls, or the Knicks

This shows how masks can be used in many different ways other than the intended use. They can be used to share important messages, such as showing support for Black Lives Matter. Masks have also become an interesting platform for self expression. Many of us are purchasing masks with unique designs and colours.

4. Unseen regularly and in-person by friends, strangers, even loved ones, I feel my identity, never that solid to begin with, fraying. I feel unmoored, less real. 

Like the previous quotation, I strongly relate to this. I feel like my identity seems less real these days. Before the pandemic, I had a good sense of who I was and how I acted in public. Now that I am harder to identify, I have found that I have started to care less about many of the things that I worried about before. Before the pandemic whenever I would go out without makeup or in unflattering clothes, I would feel worried about bumping into someone and having them see me looking pretty rough. But now, I have relaxed a bit more on this. No one can see half of my face so they’re likely not to remember me, so I feel like there is less pressure to look presentable in public, in my experience. 

5. Pareidolia, is the opposite of face blindness. It is a condition, Darwinianly selected, that pushes us to see faces everywhere, whether they are there or not.  

I found this very interesting because I always see faces wherever I go. I like to look for faces in inanimate objects, like lights on cars or in nature. It was interesting to read that some people have trouble doing this or are unable to do so. I see faces almost everywhere I go. Sometimes when I am bored, I try to look for faces or other objects in my surroundings. 

Photo 1: For this photo I decided to transform my face into a forest. I went into my backyard, collected a variety of leaves, and taped them onto my face and in my hair. I wanted to use different kind of leaves and place them in different positions of my face. I also thought it would be interesting to take photo in front of a few trees. It feels almost like I’m trying to blend in or camouflage.

Photo 2: I decided to make a face mask out of processed cheese. Recently I have been enjoying incorporating food items into my art in weird ways, so I thought that these cheese slices would be a good choice. I also found it funny how it did not even work as a mask because there was a big opening. Part of this was to make fun of people who think that wearing something on their face equals a mask. I recently read a comment by a man on Facebook and he claims that he only wears his mask on his chin because his face is “technically covered.” So according to his logic, I could get away with this as a mask.

Photo 3: For my last photo, I wanted to make a mask out of my hair. I have a lot of hair, and it is always getting in my mouth or getting stuck in my glasses. One day when I was thinking about how annoying my hair wast to deal with, I thought about the most unpleasant thing that I could think of: hair mask.

WEEK 7:

For my proposal, I want to introduce my idea of my everyday life through sounds. I want to layer sounds to create a chaotic blend of everyday noises. Some of the things I would like to include would be a kettle boiling, the timer on a stove beeping, the shower running, and my dog barking. I’m in the process of moving back home from an apartment that didn’t work out, and things have been more chaotic now that I’m back home. I was used to living by myself for about two months and it was very quiet and I missed the sounds I was used to hearing at home. I was inspired by Jonathon Monk’s piece “My Mother Cleaning my Father’s Piano. In this piece, it sounds more musical as it goes along. I want to do the same thing with my piece. I want it to start off with seemingly random noises, but I want it to become more chaotic and composed as it goes along.

Video 1: Yoko Ono Message to Donald Trump

This video is very different from usual sounds or music that we’re used to hearing. To me this could either be a response to Trump’s presidency or a mocking of Trump himself. While this was posted back in 2016 when Trump was elected, (why??) I think that this is very relevant again now that Trump has lost. I think the overall conceptual influence of this piece was a response to Trump winning the election and the strong reactions many of us had to it. I think that many of us can relate to this video. I remember when Trump was elected, I had absolutely no words. I couldn’t believe it. This is what this video made me think of. She portrayed a reaction that so many of us felt without the use of words. I think the progression of  her voice is what keeps this piece consistently open to her audience. At first, she makes kind of shocked or uncertain upsetting noises, then they transform into a baby-like crying noise. 

Notes:

• Very unsettling
• Baby-like
• Emotional response

Video 2: Jonathan Monk, My Mother Cleaning My Father’s Piano

I enjoyed this audio piece. The best way I can describe it is that it sounds like fake music. You hear notes and scales, sometimes at points sounding like it could be from a song, and other parts sounding like someone is just hitting random parts of the piano. There are also some other noises in the mix, such as the talking at the beginning or a cough towards the end. I think that the strategy that was used to keep interest was to have the sounds come together as the audio goes along. At first, there are just random noises, but they slowly turn into a musical sounding arrangement. 

Notes:

• A look into everyday life
• Uses a musical instrument, but not conventionally
• Some parts sound more musical than others

Video 3: I’m Practicing My Cartoon Voices, Steve Reinke

This was a very interesting piece. Steve Reinke kept repeating “I’m practicing my cartoon voices” over and over in many different cartoon-like voices. I found this piece both captivating and also hard to listen to. The repetition starts to become a bit too much to listen to, but I was also very interested in what voices would come next. I think the conceptual concept behind this piece is “practice makes perfect.” I think this is trying to show us how many times it can take to get something right or to be happy with your work.

Notes:

• A bit hard to listen to
• Repetitive
• Intriguing

My final work includes a variety of noises, including:

• A kettle boiling
• A shower running
• A tap running
• Typing
• Writing
• Dropping a cup
• Ripping paper
• A light switch being turned on
• A washing machine
• A drawer being opened
• A container of Advil being poured
• A Stove beeping
• Turning on a fan

As I recored these sounds, I realized that I had created a story without meaning to. Throughout the piece, I had audio of myself typing. The typing is constant throughout the whole duration, with loud, distracting noises in the background. It made me realize that I was used to working with these loud sounds in the background. When I listened to all the annoying sounds that I hear everyday, it made me realize how much I have to tune out. I’m sure some of us are back home because of the state of the world and perhaps we are also back home with all the loud noises of our families and homes. Listening to my piece, it sounds like a student who is trying to work while their family/household appliances are making a lot of noise. My goal with this was to make it get progressively more annoying and chaotic and rather hard to listen to. One of my favourite parts in when a cup is dropped a bunch of times in a row. It is annoying the first time, and only continues to get more annoying. Like I mentioned in my proposal, I was inspired by Jonathan Monk’s “My Mother Cleaning My Father’s Piano.” I really love the idea of working with everyday objects to make audio pieces. In mine, I did use quite a bit of editing. I wanted to layer my sounds to create an intense and rather annoying audio piece. In the ending, I wanted it to sound like I gave up and left.

I added the audio but it wasn’t working for me so I’m including a YouTube link too just in case!

WEEK 10:

For my assignment I want to make a conceptual portrait of society’s ideal week, according to advice from the internet. I would like to create a series of photos of me following instructions of how to get the most out of my day as literally as possible. I have never felt more unmotivated as I have this semester, which I’m sure many of you can relate to. I feel like I often find myself wasting my time or not living every day to its fullest, so I thought it would be fun to take some advice from the internet. I also love to include humour in my art, so this is a great way to do it. I went on various websites to see what they suggested that I do in a day. Some things were valid, while others seemed a little unrealistic. I kept the exact wording from the websites and with it, I want to do exactly what it says.

I found so many websites offering ways that I could improve my day, and I found it kind of funny. Of course, some suggestions were helpful, like exercise or drink water, but there were some really over the top ones that I can’t really see the average person doing. I chose a variety of suggestions, mainly ones that I thought could be misinterpreted or twisted. These websites try to be so motivational and I honestly find it kind of amusing because I don’t do most of the stuff that they say I should be doing, so this week I will do these things, just not in the way that they intended me to.

My inspiration for this was the assignment where we got to throw objects outside. I used spaghetti and I had so  much fun with it. Before taking this class, I was always told that art is only traditional things, like painting or drawing. I have had so much fun in this class trying out new things that I never would have considered art in the past. 

I was also inspired by the series of photos from “Take Care of Yourself,” by Sophie Calle. I really like to make and display collections of photos, especially when there is a theme to them. I considered maybe doing a video instead, but I’d rather have a final work where every photo is immediately visible. Currently, I am trying to think if there is a creative way I could display my photos.

Some of my ideas for this are:

Get into nature: literally cover myself in leaves and dirt

Take a shower: steal a shower (I don’t think this is possible, but I thought it was funny)

Read something positive: look at math on a calculator

Get physical: fight someone

Be flexible: weird leg thing that I can do

Get rid of distractions: put my dog in the garbage can

Be present: dress like a christmas present

My final product is a collection of photos following the instructions of

• Get Physical – punching my brother
• Read Something Positive – Look at addition on a calculator
• Be Present – Dress as a present under a Christmas tree
• Be Flexible – Move my double-jointed leg
• Get Into Nature – Cover myself in pieces of nature

I really struggled with this assignment because I am worried that it is more like photography than conceptual. But, all of these photos are conceptual. I am trying to portray society’s ideal day, although with incorrectly followed directions, through a series of photographs. One of the suggestions for this assignment was to follow a set of instructions, and that’s where this idea came from.

I tried to think of ways that I could portray these themes without having myself or anyone else actually in the photos, but I was unable to do so. But I do like the commentary on how we are supposed to act. I encourage everyone to take a look at a few websites regarding something along the lines of “how to live each day to its fullest.” You might notice that some of the suggestions are quite vague, so that’s why I decided do whatever I felt like with the suggestions that they shared.

It is important to know that one message might mean more to one person than another. The way we interpret information also varies from person to person. While most people would know what these suggestions are getting at, it is interesting to see how we might respond to different sentences if we interpret them in less common ways and reject common sense. It’s fun to completely twist something around and see what you can get from a simple instruction.

I like the concept of unconventional activities or tasks as being considered a type of art. Earlier in the semester we looked at Marina Abramović’s works, and I have been inspired by her rather strange practices ever since. One of her performances consisted of her and a partner repeatedly slapping each other in the face. When I did the “get physical” photo, I was inspired by her use of physical contact and often violence or uncomfortable uses of physical touch or space.

Week One:

Sol Lewitt Video Response: Sol Lewitt expresses this notion by creating his blueprints that other artists can recreate. He created the original idea, and created blueprints that were easy to follow which allowed other artists to try and replicate his work. As shown in the video by the group of artists moving his piece to a different area of the gallery. This idea allowed the other artists to come together and re-create his piece as a collaborative work. The idea put this project in motion and creates a wonderful outcome, and a great journey along the way for the artists at work.

Notes:

• Recreating piece to move in museum
• Have blueprints – Sol’s original idea
• Other artists follow
• Collaborative piece
• Unified

Yoko Ono Video Response: At first I watched this video and had a difficult time trying to separate one idea from another, but I decided to play it back and instead of watch it, I just listened. This helped me greatly and I was able to jot down more notes. The boundaries I felt were drawn by the themes of each of the pieces. Initially watching I thought it was all one big art piece with one overall theme, but listening back to it again, and reading my notes I realized that was not the case. Each piece was separated by theme and the emotions that you feel along with it. I think an important tool Ono used was her use of tone in delivering the ideas. She used the same tone to describe everything which I think was extremely beneficial to the viewer watching because we were able to envision what we felt and not Ono. We were able to feel for ourselves and not have Ono’s tone of voice sway our opinions and feelings.

My favourite concept that Ono discussed was about comparing the stones. She was saying that when you are sad, put a stone out to create a pile, and when you are happy to do the same thing in a different pile. After the piece is done compare the two and see what it looks like when you are done. I think this is a powerful idea to compare the happy and sad days.

Notes:

• Keep laughing
• Shake hands
• Painting for canvas
• Hole in canvas
• Shake hands – converse
• Cut hole in bad with seeds – winds
• See the sky
• Drill hole in canvas – see sky
• Change place of hanging – different?
• Square to circle
• Object, smell, colour comes to mind?
• Shadow becomes one
• Fly
• Heartbeat
• Walking in footsteps of person in front
• Be quiet
• Declare ownership of spot
• Send pictures to friends of spot
• Visit and invite spot
• Keep clean
• Send card to friends about spot
• Historical spot
• Feet are physical connection to the planet
• Let circulate
• Cleaning piece – pile up stones to sadness 
• Appreciate beauty of stones
• Happiness stones – pile up
• Compare stones – happy and sad
• Say nothing negative about anybody

Bruce Nauman Video Response:

Studies for Holograms, 1970, Bruce Nauman

Response One: I chose his piece, Studies for Holograms, as the first image of his to write about. This piece is a series of him making weird faces at the camera. Everyday we make strange faces and this would typically be seen as ‘art’, but the way he frames this image makes it a true piece of art, and not random photographs. The framing of this piece is very clean and pleasing to look at. It’s like a series that guides your eye through the overall piece of the work.

Fifteen Pairs of Hands, 1996, Bruce Nauman

Response Two: For the second piece I chose, Fifteen Pairs of Hands. For this piece I am going to focus my response around the hands in the foreground of the image. This sculpture is just one of a pair of hands, but the framing of it is what makes it very interesting. The hands could have been flat on the pedestal, they could have been clasped together; but instead they are attached by the fingers on a diagonal. The way the hands are positioned makes it very eye catching and it even makes the rest of the sculpture intriguing. The hole in the center of the first pair of hands acts as a viewpoint to the next sculpture, making it a unified piece.

Notes:

• Unique works
• Not supposed to be ‘pretty’
• “If I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art.”

My Project Response: For this assignment I had a very difficult time deciding what I wanted to do. I felt I was overthinking everything and started to get overwhelmed, until it finally came to me. I decided to look at how long it would take, on average, to walk a kilometer and make something based off of that. On average, to walk a kilometer it takes twelve minutes so I thought back to me stressing out about this assignment and decided that sometimes twelve minutes is all you need to calm down and recollect yourself. So, I decided to make a twelve minute video with the word breathe in the center, and calming music in the background. My project is “taking a kilometer” out of your day to take a step back, so you can recollect yourself and clear your mind.

Link to project: https://youtu.be/0OS-3oxzfX4

Song used: Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Isle of Songs, Nintendo, 2011.

Week Two:

For this assignment I took the time to sit down and relax for a bit, but I didn’t just sit. I decided to wear my new Doc Martens while sitting down. If anyone has ever owned a pair of Docs then you know that it is not a comfortable process to break them in. So for the hour that I was relaxing, I was also breaking in my shoes. I wanted to take before and after photos of what my feet looked like before the hour and after it was over. About 20 minutes in I could start to feel my feet going numb and giving me the tingles. I found it very hard to sit still breaking them in versus walking around. This was a very hard assignment for me to do because I cannot sit still at all, especially when my feet went numb and all I wanted to do was move them. I put on some music before the hour started so I could distract myself because I knew I would move if I just sat there and had nothing to distract me. I give Abramovic a lot of credit to be able to endure her performances for so long. While I was sitting and my feet were in pain I was thinking back to Abramovic and Ulay’s performance of them slapping each other. Their performance was not an hour but instead 20 minutes, but still the thought of them slapping each other (and not lightly) for that amount of time astonished me.

As you can see in my progression photos my feet became very red and I had many indents in them.

Week Three:

Making Changes: “Moving things that don’t belong to you”.

This piece made me laugh a lot. I love how he just kept moving things and nobody said anything. Except for the one part with the giant cylindrical thing that he push and went on the road. I was just envisioning a disaster waiting to happen!

Sitting: “Appreciating the companionship of strangers”.

This piece made me very uncomfortable as he was sitting so close to people! It made me think back to when I had to take the bus to school and there would be so many empty seats, yet a stranger would sit right next to me! The artist seems to be content with sitting next to the strangers. I give kudos to the strangers in the video as I would’ve gotten up and left!

Ladder climb: “Keep trying, no matter how impossible it may seem”.

This piece gave me a sense of adrenaline. I felt so invested in watching him trying to climb the ladder, I felt so motivated. After watching I wanted to go do something exciting!

Dead End, Eastern Market, Detroit: “Patience is a virtue, and that patience will reward you”.

This piece made me mad! I was getting so frustrated seeing him trying to get out of the tight alley and made me want to go help him get out! In the end though he did get out and going faster wouldn’t have been as successful.

The Distance I Can Be From My Son: “No matter how far you go, there will always be home”.

This piece gave me such anxiety because I just kept envisioning a car driving by and hitting the boy. I wanted to chase after him and make sure he was ok! I can just imagine the mother’s anxiety. But she did chase after him which made me so relieved!

Several Observations: “You can be more than what you think you are”.

This piece made me feel calm. I love the sound of bubble wrap so much and it was just so nice to listen to!

I loved watching all of these videos as they made me feel a variety of emotions in such a short amount of time! It’s so unique to witness these events and see how we feel because others could feel completely different!

For this assignment I decided to throw bagged air so  I could see how it would move in a natural air environment. I was not able to throw this out a window, so I just threw it outside. I had some other ideas of what to possibly do for this assignment. For example one was throwing peanuts up in the air, but the final products for those did not live up to my expectations, so I decided to change my idea. I had no idea what else to do but then I saw the bagged air that came with one of my packages. I initially was going to either store it away or throw it out, so I thought it would be a great idea to use it as a piece of art! I enjoyed seeing how the bagged air reacted, well in the air, and seeing how it fell. I especially love how it is something so artificial being placed in such a natural and green environment. It is like two different worlds colliding.

Week 4:

Adad Hannah Studio Visit:

• Moment of pose when we think we are getting our photo taken
• Decameron – Frame story
• When you watch someone being still, you also tend to stay still
• Mirroring
• Reminded of moment

Handheld Case Study:

• Video makes me feel anxious
• Just waiting for the ball to drop, but it never does
• Photos are very compositionally pleasing

Burghers of Vancouver:

• Beautiful piece of work
• Waiting for something to happen
• Models are very still, almost look as if they are completely frozen
• Makes me hold my breath

The Screen: 

• Interesting piece as models are all half dressed (except for two)
• Make viewer feel as if they intruded, especially as front model stares at you

Traces: 

• Similar to The Screen, viewers feel as if they are intruding on an intimate situation
• I feel discomfort when looking at the female model as she is holding an awkward pose and I can imagine how uncomfortable it is
• Captures an intimate moment in time

Social Distancing Portraits 2020:

• Empowering
• Telling a story
• A documentation of the year 2020

Adad Hannah’s videos are so unique and interesting to watch because all of his subjects are so different. Not even just look and style wise, but in what they are doing. Some are standing, some are holding things and some are even in cars. Each of these videos tells a different story of each individual subject. It’s interesting to see how the portraits change over time. They start off normal, how we would see people just on the daily but as time goes on you can see the masks start to be a prominent feature. It shows a shift from how things were, to how they are and how they are going to be for a long time. The portraits show a story over the year of 2020 with the rise of the pandemic and the protests for the BLM movement. It is a powerful story that Hannah has documented that I am certain people will look back on in future years.

My work:

“I’m feeling a little awkward but also good!  I’m doing ok standing still for a minute (though it is a little awkward). For life in general I’m also doing ok! Especially today! I really enjoy the cold, but I do kind of wish it would rain! I love the rain.”

For this assignment I decided to do a portrait of my friend Shelby. I filmed the video of her outside of our house in the afternoon. It was a little hard because we were both trying to keep a straight face. She was trying her best not to smile or laugh, and I too was trying not to laugh behind the camera. I also had a hard time filming because Shelby is a bit shorter than me and I wanted to get her full body in the shot nicely so I had to hunch over. Being hunched over I could feel my back aching, and my hands got really shaky as I had nowhere to set my phone down. So the minute did feel very long!

Week 6:

Article Questions and Answers:

Describe a situation from your recent experience where not seeing faces has caused significant misunderstanding, confusion, or grief.

I work in retail and I always smile at the customer when I cash them out, so with the masks they obviously cannot see me smile. I had one experience that I was so confused by with a customer. I finished cashing her out and told her to have a great day and smiled at her. I thought I was being very friendly but the lady glared back at me and left. I was so confused as to why she would glare at me. I knew we had the masks, but still I was so confused. I looked in a mirror we have near the cash and realized what probably happened. I normally have an “RBF” and my eyes and eyebrows looked as if I was glaring at her first. Since she couldn’t see my smile she was just going off of the ‘emotion’ of my upper face. I was so embarrassed and ever since that experience I made sure to over exaggerate my emotions so people could tell I was smiling at them and not glaring. 

Which of the faces discussed in the text were of particular interest to you and your experience? What do you think about these faces?

The face in the text that most related to my experience I would have to say is with the author and her husband when they went grocery shopping. She was trying to give him instructions and as he could not see her mouth he was confused. We take for granted the simple gesture of even reading lips for instruction or clarification. Now it is almost re-learning another way of communication with one another.

Who are you without your face? How is your experience different without your face in public? Can you imagine new ways to face the world?

It is hard to say who I am without my face. It was hard at the beginning, trying to get used to the look and feeling of wearing a mask, but now I see the mask almost as an accessory. I especially love wearing the masks that have some sort of pattern or face on it because I see it as another way to express ourselves and bring a little joy to these times. Wearing the mask I have noticed I am less self conscious going out in public. Usually when I go out I am always worried that I have something on my face or in my teeth but now it doesn’t matter since no one can see.

Photo 1:  Lights

For this photo I went searching through my household’s Christmas decorations. I thought this would be an interesting picture, especially to see how the light casts shadows and interacts with my face. I really enjoyed playing around with the lights, but I had to stop at a certain point as they were heating up and I could feel them burning my face!

Photo 2: Masks

For this photo I decided I wanted to mock the people who wear their masks wrong by covering my entire face except for my mouth and nose. I see way too many people wearing their masks improperly which completely defeats the purpose of them. This one I was inspired a lot by Jan Hakon Erichsen’s (2020) image of the face with masks everywhere, but for mine I left the nose and mouth exposed.

Picture 3: Broughie

For this picture I grabbed one of the Broughies we have in the kitchen and stuck it under my glasses. I really don’t know why I did this one other than I thought it would look funny. One thing about my picture is that I feel I look like some sort of animated/cartoon character but I can’t place the name of them!

Week 7:

Audio Lecture Notes:

Piss Record, Matthew Sawyer

This is a very interesting piece since it is the artist peeing and creating a song out of such a weird subject. I think this piece maintains interest because of its unusual subject. Going to the washroom is a private thing and Sawyer is sharing it with the world. This piece, at first, made me feel uncomfortable as if I was intruding. The longer I listened the more I found the song hilarious. Adding in the additional music transformed this piece from a simple bathroom routine to an actual song.

“Love-online-audio-converter.com_”

I really enjoy this piece and find it very catchy. The use of repetition makes for an interesting compilation but I also think it tricks the viewer. I recognize a lot of the songs and when I hear one of them start singing, in my mind I want to continue with the rest of the song, but another completely different ‘love’ is said next. The use of repetition is so interesting because it is the same word but sung in different ways with different background music. You would think it doesn’t work well together but it surprisingly does!

I Really Should, Kelly Mark

I think this piece is one of my favourites from all of the audio pieces. When I hear this I think of intrusive thoughts that we have all had. A lot of the things Mark says are quite normal, alsmot as if you are cresting a to-do list, but then some obscure ones make their way in. It reminds me of whenever I have intrusive thoughts. I’ll be thinking of what I still need to do but then a random thought will pop in (For example, I should get bangs or shave my head). The repetition also makes me feel as if I am forgetting something that I need to remember.

Proposal:

Looking at the audio examples I really enjoyed listening to Anna Ripmeester’s Pipes in “C”. I love the idea of creating music just from simple everyday sounds. I would like to also try and create a song, but instead of a pipe life Ripmeester, I want to use a variety of noises that my dog makes. I hope to create a piece of music that encompasses all of the noises my dog makes. I want to use my dogs’ sounds and overlap them and hopefully create a harmonious piece.

Some of the noises included would be:

• Claws tapping on ground
• Rustling in the leaves
• Barking/Growling
• Snoring
• Licking
• Whining

Initially with this project I wanted to make a song with the noises from my dog. I tried but I wasn’t happy with the result so I instead made a piece that is just a complication. I guess it could be seen as a song, but not what I originally indented for it to sound like. Sally makes a lot of weird and interesting sounds so I did have a lot of fun playing around with them. The sounds I used in the video was of her bark, her claws, her prancing in the leaves, her snoring, and probably the most uncomfortable noise of them all, her licking and chewing on her paws. I used that noise as the base for the audio clip and the longer I listened to it the more grossed out I got. It reminded me a lot of the sound from the Sucking Face exemplar. I am happy how this turned out and though the licking sound grosses me out, it all reminds me of my dog who I don’t get to see that much as she is at my hometown and I am currently residing in Guelph.

I was only able to add the YouTube video because whenever I tried to add the audio file it said it couldn’t add for ‘security’ reasons and I don’t know how to fix it.

Week 10:

For my idea I decided that I was going to go to my most listened to playlist and find the top 50 most listened to songs I have on it. After finding the songs I am going to create a list with the number of times I listened to certain songs. After I do that I want to do different types of grouping of the songs and create a photo series on that. For example: Organize all the artists, then organize all the albums, the genres, etc… I was inspired by Douglas Gordon’s List of Names, 1990 to Ongoing series. He created an entire list of all of the artists he has ever met. I find his concept interesting as it is a reminder of these people that he met. For me it will be interesting to see what the results are and how they relate to me.

Update: I had another idea and that was to write out each of the song names the amount of times I’ve listened to them. This new idea was still inspired by Gordon’s piece, but it was also inspired by John Baldessari’s I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, 1971. It is a repeated piece with the words “I will not make any more boring art”. I repeated the song title with the amount of times I listened to it. I unfortunately was not able to fit all 50 songs but I got up to 42. The piece took a very long time and I went through two Sharpie markers and writing nonstop took up to three hours. By the end of the piece my hand was in a lot of pain, but I am very happy with how it turned out!

Songs:

1. Cola, Lana Del Rey – 82
2. Garden, Halsey – 81
3. Nightcore Mashup – 77
4. Lolita, Lana Del Rey – 65
5. Sweet Dreams, Emily Browning – 65
6. Blue Jeans, Lana Del Rey – 60
7. September, Nightcore – 55
8. Lonely Hearts Club, Marina and the Diamonds – 54
9. Teacher’s Pet, Melanie Martinez – 54
10. Queen of Disaster, Lane Del Rey – 53
11. Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea, Missio – 52
12. Smarty, Lana Del Rey – 51
13. Wicked Game, Chris Isaak – 49
14. Kinda Outta Luck, Lana Del Rey – 49
15. Body Electric, Lana Del Rey – 48
16. Gods and Monsters, Lana Del Rey – 48
17. Break My Fall, Lana Del Rey – 48
18. Be my,  Lana Del Rey – 46
19. You Can Be the Boss, Lana Del Rey – 45
20. Serial Killer, Lana Del Rey – 44
21. Hit and Run, Lana Del Rey – 42
22. Back to Black, Amy Winehouse – 41
23. Off to the Race, Lana Del Rey – 41
24. Big Bad Wolf, Lana Del Rey – 39
25. E.V.O.L, Marina and the Diamonds – 39
26. F*ck it I Love You, Lana Del Rey, 380
27. Agoraphobic, CORPSE – 37
28. Forever… is a Long Time, Halsey – 35
29. How You Remind Me, Avril Lavigne – 34
30. Money Power Glory, Lana Del Rey – 34
31. Lolita (DEMO 1),  Lana Del Rey – 34
32. Diet Mountain Dew, Lana Del Rey – 33
33. The Blackest Day, Lana Del Rey – 33
34. Religion, Lana Del Rey – 32
35. Summer Bummer, Lana Del Rey (feat ASAP Rocky) – 32
36. Dance Monkey, Tones and I – 32
37. Paralyzer, Finger 11 – 31
38. Nightmare, Halsey – 31
39. Graveyard, Halsey – 30
40. You Should Be Sad, Halsey – 30
41. Ultraviolence, Lana Del Rey – 30
42. Florida Kilos, Lana Del Rey – 30
43. Wicked Game, Theory of a Deadman – 30
44. Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, Lana Del Rey – 29
45. Sad Girl, Lana Del Rey – 29
46. Froot, Marina and the Diamonds – 29
47. Finally//Beautiful Stranger, Halsey – 28
48. More, Halsey – 28
49. Million Dollar Man, Lana Del Rey 28
50. You know I’m No Good, Amy Winehouse – 27

Portrait Series: Playlist C

Week 1

Sol Lewitt Video: Lewitt is a conceptual artist, meaning for many of his pieces all of the planning and ideas are flushed out before the construction of a final piece even begins. He uses instruction-like-blueprints for his final pieces that other artists refer to to construct the piece. Notice my use of the term construct rather than create. These artists simply use his pre-determined instruction, or his ideas, to finish the work. Thus, enforcing the idea that Sol’s ideas are the machine that makes the work. In terms of the artist’s hands in the final piece, I think that the hand is seen more as a tool. The hand is much like a hammer hammering a nail into a board indicated by, for example, instructions for an IKEA bed frame. The hand does not lend any creative element in the piece.

Yoko Ono Video: In the video Ono is reading descriptions of different “paintings” one can make. In terms of drawing boundaries around the artwork, I think anything that creates a dialogue about the notions of what is art or what are the boundaries surrounding a work of art is hard to put boundaries around at all. I think that the “boundaries” we put around art are constantly changing and that change is how art and what we consider art evolves throughout history. Ono challenges the viewer’s stereotypical notions of a “painting”. For instance, in many of her scenarios the canvas itself is the painting (by being reworked, stepped on, hung in windows, being punched through) rather than painted on. In terms of me liking the work, I think what is like most and respect about it is the dialogue and discussion it can produce rather than the work itself. I feel like when an artist can accomplish that it says a lot more about the impact the work can have on society than something aesthetically pleasing.

Bruce Nauman Video: The two works I chose of Nauman are: “Bouncing in the Corner No 1”, 1968 and “Coffee Spilled Because the Cup Was Too Hot”, 1966-67. In the first piece Nauman utilizes himself for the work by taking an everyday action (gently falling against a wall and getting back up again) and repeats it over and over again. The repetition seems to take the meaning out of the action itself, much like repeating a word over and over makes it loose its meaning. The second work shows exactly what the tittle describes, a spilt cup of coffee. Nauman frames an instant of everyday life this framing forces us to look at this action in a different way emotionally, in my opinion. If one where do spill their hot coffee: one, it probably hurt and two, its probably would make someone angry or at the least, irritated. However, when I look at Nauman’s piece I do not feel those emotions, I did not spill coffee, I am simply looking at spilt coffee.

Week 1 Activity: Make a Kilometre

I happened to stumble upon my kilometre for this assignment, originally I had planned to go on a kilometre long walk and collect things from my walk as evidence because I enjoy going on walks as they help me to unwind. However, the other day I was visiting a friend and they were excited to show me this new video game they had started to play. It is a Japanese game called “Katamari”. The basic goal, as far as I understood, was to roll a ball around the different rooms and places set up for each level. There are a bunch things strewn about and as you roll through the game you pick them up to create a bigger and bigger ball, much like making a snowman. And at the end of each level you ball of stuff is transformed into a star. As I watched my friend play I noticed that is kept track of how “big” your ball gets. I asked my friend if he had ever gotten it to be a kilometre long and he said depending on the level you could get them to be really big. So, long story short I rolled up a virtual ball of virtual stuff to make a virtual kilometre. Due to the quality of my camera it is a little hard to tell but there is a flower in the upper left corner that shows the ball is a kilometre long.

Week 2 Activity: 1 Hour

For my one hour activity I decided to stand on one leg. I was inspired by this drinking card game my roommate has. One of the cards has everyone playing stand up on one leg and the first person to put their other leg down drinks. I was actually surprised that some of us could last as long as we did. My roommate and I have gotten to around 15 minutes before with no issues other than getting bored and thus quitting. It made me wonder how long I could actually stand on my leg for. I think, like a few other of my classmates, I put a focus on trying to get into a more meditative state like Marina Abramovic seems to do in her performances. I was pretty good at the beginning then it stated to get a bit rocky. I ended up finding one area of my room to focus on and just lost myself in that. I did not actually make the full hour because my roommate came home while I was doing it and it startled me, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

Week 3 Notes:

Lee Walton

“Making Changes” Move an unsuspecting object to a new spot.

“Sitting” Sit in close proximity next to an unsuspecting stranger.

Jon Sasaki

“Ladder Climb” Climb a ladder with nothing to support it but yourself.

“Dead End, Eastern Market, Detroit” Drive to a dead end, only to turn back around.

Lenka Clayton

“The distance I can be from my son” Physically demonstrate the distance in which one can be away from their son

Yunla Berevoski

“Several observations” Give an inanimate object a soothing massage

Week 3 Activity:

“How Baristas Really Feel About Pumpkin Spice Season”

This is a picture of a Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew (AKA the most popular drink at Starbucks right now) that I had thrown into the air. This drink had to be remade right before the end of my shift so I decided to take it home and throw it into the air out of slight frustration. These drinks are notoriously more complex to make then others because of the cold foam and when you’re behind bar during a rush with a line up of these guys its a little tiresome. That being said, I do not wish to deter anyone from ordering one, they’re popular for a reason and many of your friendly neighborhood baristas love them too 🙂 aaand it made a cool picture so I guess they’re not all that bad.

Week 4

Notes:

Studio Visit: Adad Hannah works to capture the “moment of pose”. He states that when having a photo taken humans tend to get into “pose” or a moment of stillness. This is what a lot of Adad’s is reflective of.

Handheld Case Study: Adad recodes and hand in almost contorted positions while holding coloured balls. Although the colours seem to be fun and happy, you can see the hand moving and shaking while being in such a strained position. The videos become almost uncomfortable to watch once I realized this and thought of my own, smaller, hands trying to do this.

Burghers of Vancouver: Adad has dressed people up to resemble a public statue in Vancouver and videotaped them trying to be still. The video cuts to a shot of the original piece as if to compare the two. When I saw this shot I realized who very un-still the performers actually were. It shows that being still is not a simple task and may even be one that is impossible to accomplish.

The Screen: This photo was a little different from the others that I looked at. Composition wise it was very complex. It must have taken several adjustments and camera angles to get it just perfect. When I was looking at it, it really did feel like there was a type of screen in front of these people and they were actually clothed behind it. It felt like the people had no idea how exposed they really where. The idea of the screen invites the viewer to look at the people in an extremely private way.

Social Distance: In terms of formula, most of the subjects were centered in the frame and there were mostly full body shots. I found those wearing masks were a bit eerie to look at. It spoke to how still all of our lives have become during this pandemic.

My Work

Notes: I chose to do a self portrait because I was nervous to ask a stranger and my roommate is unfortunate a very busy person. However, doing a self portrait gave me the opportunity to really think about what I wanted to convey. I have always really loved windows and the way they frame the outside world. It occurred to me that looking out a window was very similar to Adad’s work. When I look out my own the trees are in the same spot, the buildings never shift or move, sometimes there is the odd person or animal, but it stays a relatively “still” composition. The trees are moved slightly by the wind in a similar way that those hands in the Handheld Case Study shake while holding the balls.

Week 6

I really enjoyed this article for this weeks assignment. I jotted down some quotes that caught my attention, found interseting, or related to.

• “my face is my trademark and my main mode of communication”
  • I really related to this, I feel like wearing a mask inhibits strangers to “know” me or “see who I am” from simple/short interactions, compared to before. For example, at work the most important part of our job that is constantly drilled into our heads is making customer connections. To do that, I need to make an effort to “know” the customer and have them “know” me, if only in that small moment. Our faces are representative of our whole beings, like the author says our feet or other parts of our body do not convey who we are. So, at least without a mask on we all see each other as a somebody, but now we are just strangers to one another more than ever before.
• “the face is ground zero of expression”
  • I think I took for granted how much I relied on expression to help me understand what someone is trying to communicate with me. When I pass a stranger on the street they no longer see the small smile under my mask as a silent greeting. I can only hope it reaches my eyes and they are paying enough attention to even catch that.
• “when looking at masked people my brain still feels like its malfunctioning, skipping a sensation, a tenuous connection is reached for and missed”
  • I totally agree with this. It still feels so weird to see people in masks everywhere. It makes me feel like we are all still around one another but so very very separate. Like these other quote have hinted at, without the face I can not “see” the strangers around me. I feel like when our brains subconsciously normally take that quick second to pass judgment on strangers it creates somewhat of a narrative surrounding somebody. But, with the mask concealing that integral part, the face, my brain misses that part. I’m just alone in a sea of strangers.
• “my face, as I age, has become less interesting to men. this is what women mean when they say they feel invisible”
  • although I cannot directly relate with this statement I used it as a jumping point to think about how the pandemic in relation to masks has affected my self image. I feel less noticeable in a mask and by feeling less noticeable I feel less important, easily forgettable. These feeling are obviously not ideal during I time when we are supposed to be distancing ourselves from others. The act of wearing a mask itself has physically affected my face. It cause unmanageable and painful acne for me, which affected my self confidence.

Week 6 Activity: “Serums, Spot Treatments, and Skincare”

For this weeks assignment I decided to focus changing the visual evidence that mask-wearing leave on my face. I do not think I have ever cared about my skin so much and nobody can even see it right now! Its kind of ironic, the mask is what conceals my battle with acne from the outside world but also the same thing that causes it. I wanted to experiment with different funny ways of concealing it or making light of it. My hope was that if I could interact with this unwanted side-effect of mask wearing in a humorous manner I could maybe make it less important to me. *Although I feel very comfortable with everyone in this class and sharing this issue I have been struggling with I do ask that everyone is respectful in their comments :)*

Week 7

Notes:

Janet Cardiff, “Lost in Memory Palace: 40 part Motet”

• took multiple recordings of choirs and had them playing through an oval of speakers, singing a 15th c song
• it was different from conventional music because, as described in the video, it was like “stepping a song” and being surrounded by music, which is something that concerts and headphones cannot do
• it kept interest by being able to walk around an hear the voices from different areas of the oval, which made the piece more complex and gave listeners the ability to listen over and over but hear the different nuances every time
• the way I experienced it was different than in person but I can understand how it would be a very moving experience and I wish I could have experienced the emotion release that others did

Alter Banhof “Video Walk”

• was a video on one walking along to a video of the exact same walk with a voice over of someone directing you around while also hearing all of the noise that had been around that person whilst recording
• it is obviously not like typical music as it is a voice over of a video, which is a little reminiscent of the idea of music videos, but not quite
• the background noise was consistent, her directions were repetitive, while her “chatting” in-between her repetitive direction giving changed, what she was talking about was easy to get lost in and when she gave a direction it brought you back into the present (even though you are watching a video of the past)
• i experienced a sense of calm while watching the video, i am the kind of person who enjoys background or white noise while studying, working, and trying to sleep
• this one was the most inspirational for my proposal as i am focusing on the noises around me at work and how that background noise of people and machines whirring can be very comforting

Christian Marclay “Guitar Drags”

• this particular piece was different from the other two as it was just a sound recording of a guitar being strummed or dragged
• the prompt seemed to be to make was many guitar noises possible, maybe even with objects that were not the hands
• it did not feel like any kind of music as there was no melody or any obvious form of repetition of notes that i could follow like in a song
• the sounds very very jarring and made for a very tense experience as a listener
• however, it did keep my interest as within the sounds i was hearing i related them to ones i have heard before like thunder or large crowds

Proposal

There were three main artists that inspired me for this proposal of a work to be completed for next weeks class. I found a quote from John Cage while exploring dome of his work: “I have come through my music to enjoy the sounds that are in my environment wherever I am”. I thought about all the places that I am normally at right now. More often than not, I am at home for work. The pandemic has obviously limited the places that I can spend my time so I thought it would be interesting to really explore these places and try to enjoy the sounds that they make. Both Janett Cardiff (especially in her “Audio Walks” series) and Emeka Ogboh make use of the natural ambiance produced by the environments in which they are working in. Ogboh even goes as far to say that Lagos (a heavily populated city in Africa he uses in much of his work) composes. For this work, I would like see what my environment’s sounds compose. I want to focus my attention more at work as I have less control over the sounds there. My plan is to take a one minute recording of the sounds produced by my work environment and listen back to it to see if I am pleased with what it composed. I did think about recording lots of sounds and cutting and pasting them together to make my own composition. However, I like the calming aspect of Cardiff’s work as one long “flow”. Picking sounds and putting them together would be too choppy and now have the ambiance affect I want.

Final Work

Milky Way

Final Proposal

I really liked Teching Hsieh’s One Year Preformace. In particular I liked the idea of documenting an object or action at a precise time consistently. It made me think about the candle I have in my room. I burn it when I am studying in the evening once it is dark out to make my room cozy.

I decided to take some pictures of if every hour while it burned while I studied. I thought it would be interesting to see how there would be small subtleties in each photo.

Final Conceptual Portrait

I filmed the view of my window for 24 hours. I included the end of my bed in a bit of the frame so that not only what was going on outside was documented but also what was going on inside. I did include sound, so you can here some of my zooms, my roommates around the apartment, mu music etc. Unfortunately, I did miss hours 4 and 5am. However, I have never tried to make a piece such as this and I am just happy that I got up for the hours of 2 to 3am and 6 to 7am.