☆ Writing Prompts + Make a Km ☆

Writing Prompts

SOL LEWITT: What does Sol Lewitt mean when he says that “the idea becomes the machine that makes the art” in his work? What does the artist’s actual hand have to do with the final work in a conceptual art context?

When Sol Lewitt says that ‘the idea becomes the machine that makes the art,” he implies that in the making of art, the artist’s idea comes first, and throughout an artist’s building on their idea, the materials needed to execute it will begin to manifest themselves and come to light. Lewitt’s process is very unique and also brings me another perspective on his statement. After Lewitt has come up with his original idea for a work of art, he creates step-by-step instructions for how it should be made and passes them on to a team who completes the work. He feeds his ideas into a metaphorical machine—the team that follows his instructions and creates the work on the scale and in the mediums he desires. Lewitt’s initial idea is still present in his final works, even though he himself was not the ‘machine’ that painted it onto the walls. This makes me think that the artist’s hand can take many different forms in a conceptual context. While Sol Lewitt’s hand isn’t physically present in his final works, his ideas influence the way that other artists work, resulting in a distinct style that is visible. With conceptual work, the ‘hand’ of the artist may not be communicated to a viewer through brushwork or linework that looks a certain way. The hand of a conceptual artist can take many forms. It could be an idea itself that is spoken verbally like in Yoko Ono’s work, acted out using the body, or simply the initial concept of a work itself that traces us back to the identity of the artist.

YOKO ONO: Where do you draw the boundaries around the artworks in this video? What are the artworks? What strategies and tools does Ono use to challenge the viewer? Do you like any of these concept-works? Discuss.

I really enjoyed Ono’s concept-work titled Painting On The Floor because she strategically uses a painting—an item that is viewed as precious by society and art institutions—as a tool to break mental and institutional boundaries that dictate the way art should be seen and interacted with. She asks us to leave a finished painting (something that is seen as so precious) outside on the street to be walked on. In Ono’s work, the art is the acting out of her instructions itself, and the thoughts and ideas the actions provoke. I love the idea Ono introduces about breaking the barrier of prestige around paintings and how they are meant to be looked at from afar on display. She asks us to bring the painting into an environment where people can truly interact with it. This definitely challenges me to view the works I create as an experience coming from curiosity and interest rather than a glorious final product.

BRUCE NAUMAN: Describe two works by Bruce Nauman (include images) where he frames every day actions (non-heroic, banal) as art. How are they “framed” as art, and what does the framing do to our understanding and experience of the actions?

Make a Kilometre: A Kilometre of Music

My kilometre is a collection of the music I listened to on a kilometre-long walk accompanied by a photo I took along the way. I overlapped the twelve minutes of music it took me to walk a kilometre into a four-minute file to make it more (or less) digestible because the idea of an entire kilometre can feel loud, overwhelming, and intimidating. Luckily, this distance can feel much shorter with a little bit of music.

☆ An Hour of Stillness ☆

My Hour of Stillness

For my hour-long performance of stillness, I decided to sit cross-legged on my kitchen table in my house in Guelph. I chose this location because I was inspired by the way in which Marina Abromovic created connection and interaction with others in her work The Artist is Present despite the fact that she is still. I wanted to sit on my kitchen table—a place where my roommates and I usually spend time together—to see what kinds of interactions and connections could form in the space even if I was in stillness. I specifically chose to start my hour around 5:30 when they usually make dinner (I was sure to ask their permission so they weren’t caught off guard).

Throughout the course of my hour, I found my pose physically demanding to hold, as my crossed legs kept falling asleep and it was difficult to sit up and keep my spine straight. It is truly incredible how Marina Abramovic was able to sit still for seven hours each day, I felt exhausted after only an hour of sitting. I also found it challenging yet interesting to sit and observe interactions and conversations I would normally participate in. As my roommate and my partner who was visiting cooked dinner in the kitchen across the room from me, it was quite difficult for me to hold back my responses to the conversations they were having. The two of them also seemed to find it difficult that they couldn’t quite connect with me in ways they were used to, but by the time they finished cooking dinner, they developed some strategies to poke fun at and interact with me. One of them was sitting on either side of the table and talking about me, saying comments like “Celeste hates ice cream” (which is absolutely not true) as a way to include me in the conversation (and also to try and pull me out of my stillness). It was very interesting to be able to interact with people I’m close with on a much more limited level using only my physical presence, and to have to tune into the idea that I was performing in order to keep myself from reacting.

There were also some very interesting moments of silent connection where my roommate would sit in silence at the table as they were eating, and we would simply acknowledge and feel each other’s presence while not fully being able to interact. I felt a stronger parallel between my act of stillness and Abramovic’s at this moment because I felt more of a sense of contact between another person and myself, similar to the connection she created using eye contact in The Artist is Present. Instead of observing a conversation as I did for most of my hour, here I was a part of a silent one. I felt much more connected in this moment than when my roommate and partner were directly poking fun at me and indirectly including me in conversation earlier. Those conversations felt more disconnected because the two of them had more of a means of communicating than I did. When they were present in silence just as I was, the connection felt more equal and reciprocated, and we could sit acknowledging each other’s presence. Sitting through these feelings and performing my act of stillness has helped me to understand the many dynamic levels on which connections and interactions can take place.

☆ Defenestration ☆

Defenestration of a Journal

In my two final images, I am pictured throwing an old journal of mine from my balcony. I have been considering what happens when you defenestrate an item that is usually meant to be contained or kept private, I see my journal as a physical container for my thoughts—a storage unit where I can hide them away to collect dust so that they don’t clutter up my life and cloud what is truly important to me. Defenestrating my journal alters my perception of it as a secret place to write and contain my thoughts. By throwing it outside, I am not only defenestrating the physical object of the journal itself, but also an accumulation of over two years’ worth of my thoughts, goals, and experiences. My buried thoughts are made available to the world as the pages flip open and the journal falls, revealing my face to the viewer in the second image. The visibility of my face suggests that as I release my journal, I am making a vulnerable layer of myself more visible to others, providing whoever catches it or stumbles upon it with the opportunity to understand me on a deeper level.

Defenestration Test Images of Headphones and a Journal

Working with the idea of defenestrating something that is usually meant to be contained or kept private, I originally experimented with throwing headphones off my balcony because they are meant to contain sound that you do not want others to hear. I decided that without the option of recording audio or video, this act of defenestration would lose a large portion of its meaning since headphones are meant to contain sound. The headphones were also not very visible on camera. The original thought process behind my choosing of the headphones led me to think of throwing my journal instead, and to extra experimentation with camera angles.

☆ Masks ☆

My Favourite 3 Masks:

Glasses as Masks in Film: Experiment 1: Masking ‘True” Beauty

In my experimentation of how I could use masks to distort my face, I found myself returning to the thought that certain daily items can function as masks, and that some of these items are used in the media to convey standards and status. I became very interested in the way that glasses and hairstyles are used as masks in films to signify transformation or to disguise someone’s identity. Here, I am exploring the way that glasses and hairstyles are often used in high-school films to disguise the ‘true’ beauty or potential of a nerdy, unpopular character before their famous makeover scene where they remove their glasses, take down their hair, and then wow! they’re suddenly popular and everyone wants to be them! I was inspired by Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills and the way she transforms herself to look as if she belongs in a film. Although it’s very clear I look the same in both of these images, on the left I am playing the role of an unpopular character trope with my hair in a ponytail and glasses, and on the right, I have my hair down, glasses off, and suddenly I’m nonchalant and don’t care about my schoolwork—perhaps this transformation came about during a classic makeover scene? Most of the time during makeover scenes in movies the characters look nearly the same before and after, and the only difference in their appearance is that they aren’t wearing their glasses and their hair has been let down.

Placement of a Learning Artist

With this experiment, I was thinking about discussions from my Theory and Criticism class last semester where it was mentioned that as learning artists study works of the great masters, they often feel overshadowed by them and wonder if they will ever create works to this standard. As I am still learning and experimenting as an artist, I wanted to explore my relationship to that feeling using my face, cutting images from an old art textbook and some print-outs of my own facial features and taping them to myself.

“You Can No Longer Wear a Cloth Mask on Campus”

Other Experiments with Masks:

Here are some of the experiments that didn’t quite make my list of favourites, but are still worth sharing 🙂

Glasses as Masks inn Film: Experiment 2: ‘Masking’ Identity with Glasses

This was another one of the experiments I did with the idea of glasses as a mask. I wanted to reference the way that in movies glasses are used as a disguise to conceal characters’ identities. I was specifically thinking about the story of Superman, and how the only way Clark Kent hides his identity from day-to-day is that he puts on a pair of glasses and wears regular street clothes. In my two images, it remains clear that I’m still the same person, the only difference is that I’m wearing glasses. With this in mind, I find it interesting that the public in Superman buys Clark Kent’s disguise, given as his facial structure stays exactly the same with and without his glasses.

Hiding my face with sunglasses

This was my first experiment for this assignment. I started out taking things from my room and covering my face with them as a way to get inspired and gradually discover more interesting ideas. The first item I started with during this process was sunglasses. This experiment eventually led me to think about glasses as masks and to my exploration of movie tropes.

☆ Pandemic Portraits ☆

This has been a very interesting set of portraits to complete, and this activity has pushed me far out of my comfort zone in terms of talking to strangers and working with new technology. It was a challenging experience but helped me to realize that people are usually very kind and willing to have a conversation (and even share what they have pent up) if you take the first step to approach them.

Someone I Know: Pete

“I just finished a three-hour reading and I’m very happy you called so that I could get a break from my work.”

Someone I Don’t Know: Miriam

“Oh man . . . this could be a long one . . .” (in reference to the list of things that she had pent up she could talk about).

*When she mentions “coworkers like him,” Miriam is referring to Steve, who Sophia interviewed in one of her social distancing portraits*

Someone I Don’t Know: Amara

“I just wish things could’ve gone better.”

Since Miriam introduced herself at the beginning of her portrait, I was able to record another portrait of Amara. I have been having issues editing the audio on this one, but I did learn how to access the voice filter on DaVinci Resolve to try and solve some of the issues.

☆ Buttons ☆

“HELLO, my name is . . .” Buttons

When I started brainstorming for this project, I wanted to explore the habit I have of naming inanimate objects. This habit stems from my sense of humour and also from a sense of attachment I grow to items including my plants (Evie and Van) and my phone (Craig). 

My initial idea for my button project was to make a series of “HELLO my name is . . .” buttons and to write a different name onto each one. I then planned to pin them onto inanimate objects as a way to experiment with the ways in which giving them a name can alter their significance and importance to people, or to make them laugh if they share the same sense of humour as me. 

With more thought, I came to settle on my final idea, which is meant to experiment with what can happen when pre-established titles of inanimate objects are shuffled around and placed in contexts they are not normally associated with. My final series still includes the phrase “HELLO my name is” but deviates from the typical format of a name tag. Each button has the name of an inanimate object written on it instead of a human name.

These buttons can be pinned in a way that is literal (i.e. “HELLO, my name is a chair” can be set on a chair). They can also be used to explore the process of how languages name objects (which can seem quite mysterious) by placing them onto an item they aren’t usually connected to (i.e. Pinning “HELLO, my name is rock onto a pillow can disrupt the connotations associated with both of these words. A person wearing the word rock can also disrupt the typical representation or meaning language has established for the term). If a person chooses to wear one of these pins, they might feel encouraged to act as an animated personification of the inanimate object on the pin they are wearing, bringing life and personality to an object that was once inanimate. Regardless of the context they are placed in, these buttons are meant to make someone consider and potentially challenge the associations and meanings they are reminded of when they read or wear the name of an inanimate object. 

Examples of my buttons in use (according to my own associations):

Our class + others wearing their buttons out in the world:

So far, my buttons have mainly been worn as name tags or pinned onto bags, which makes the most sense as these are the typical ways that buttons are used. I have found that when they are worn this way, they maintain the ability to get people to question the connotations associated with specific objects and the way these connotations shift when they are placed in an unusual context. People that have worn my buttons out have said that they made people do a double-take, laugh, or question the wearer about the meaning of their button.

☆ Audio Art ☆

Brainstorming:

• an audio file of me learning to tap dance (as someone who has done tap once in their life) or improvising a tap dance with no experience
  • inspired by the idea of creating music without any experience but applied to a style of dance I have no experience with
• a compilation of people doing their best tap dance or making a rhythm with their feet
  • 15 seconds per person – get 4 people to dance
  • could also have 10 seconds a person and get 6 people to dance)
  • titles: “do your best tap dance” “show me your best tap dance” “6 tap dance improvisations”
  • meant to capture a sense of the person’s personality in the way that they approach the tap dance prompt
• make a song from the scraping of my annoying desk chair
• a narration of every move I make for the span of an audio piece
• speaking every thought that comes to mind for the duration of an audio piece
• a list of every question I ask myself or others in a day
• audio portrait of the sounds of getting ready for a party/to go out

A Pre-Party Audio Portrait

Of the two audio works I completed, this one feels the most resolved because it has a clear beginning and end. In one take it captures the relatable experience of getting ready to go out and functions not only as a portrait of a moment before a party, but also as a self-portrait through the sounds of the products I used, the music I listen to, and the way I include my own voice.

5 Tap Dance Improvisations by 5 Individuals

Each ‘tap dance’ acts as a portrait of the person performing it, giving us a sense of their personalities through their improvisations.

This piece doesn’t feel fully resolved yet. After critique, I’ve thought about it more, and I do feel that the lack of tap shoes captures more of a sense of amateurish feel that aligns with the quality of the dances that I recorded. I believe it could be beneficial to announce each improvisation (i.e “Improvisation 1”) to make the work campier and comedic rather than ambiguous as the audio I currently have recorded would be more successful in this context.

☆ Conceptual Portrait ☆

Inspired by Sophie Calle’s work Take Care of Yourself, I wanted to create a conceptual portrait based on the concept of closure, working from a personal experience where a close friend of 12 years left me in nearly complete silence after the pandemic hit and we graduated high school.

I first thought about making posters that read “in search of closure,’ or printing out a letter to this person and posting it around Guelph (as we have coincidentally ended up in the same city) in hopes that they might see it.

Instead of passively sitting and having the signs search out closure for me, I decided it would be beneficial to act out the closure that I truly wanted in this situation. Even before starting this piece, I always pictured that I would run into this person on the street one day, and finally have the chance to tell them how truly upset I was but also to thank them for the lessons I was able to learn from the way they treated me. A phrase that I always pictured myself saying (even though I don’t think I’d have the guts to say this in person) was “fuck you but thank you.” Working with this phrase, I took all of the recurring thoughts I’ve had about our friendship since it ended, and organized them into a monologue that I performed and recorded. My performance acts as a conceptual portrait of the end of a friendship, of my perspective on the friendship, of myself, and of closure.

12 Years’ Closure

I feel that this video is the closest I can get to the proper closure I want to give myself without the presence of my friend. It is a reenactment of scenarios where I picture running into my friend in public, the only difference being that they aren’t there. I chose to film my monologue with a plain white background to communicate the way that I imagine this encounter happening in so many different locations, and to allow the viewer to add a bit of their imagination into the scene about where this one-sided conversation takes place.

12 Years’ Closure: Alternate Version

While this video is a less accurate depiction of the ideal closure that I’ve always thought about, I feel that putting the camera/viewer in the place of my friend who cut me off generates an interesting sense of confrontation and emotional intensity.

Week 1:

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1 km: Running Like a Lunatic with Bonnie and Manuel

A cement block 25 metres long, back and forth, reminiscent of the ‘suicide’ drills from pubescent grade 5 gym classes. Tragic. A 1 km run. Clonking around in Doc Martins whilst my wild cats (Bonnie and Manuel) frolic alongside me. Dad pops in too. All are intrigued and equally frightened by my antics. That was a genuine workout.

In more serious terms, the running was… Benny Hillesque. I wish I was a better editor; I would have totally put this song in the background:

Unfortunately I had already walked a kilometre during a previous attempt. I live in Turkey Point, a beachside village on the cusp of Lake Erie, and due to the cold weather and insane lake-effect winds, ice mountains have piled up in front of my house and the rest of the beach. I trekked on top of them. A -15 degree walk, many mountains and 5 hours of technological frustration caused me to cave in and create an easier fix- one that would help shorten the video. I am horribly out of shape and was losing daylight, so I thought the reservoir platform would make for better running grounds. I was dead wrong.

2 kms had already been completed before this second attempt, hence the 2.01 km starting point. I tried my best to reach 3.01 km, but apple watches are finicky sometimes, and I may have ran an extra couple of steps to complete my ‘run’ at 3.06 kms.

The quality of the videos went down as I edited, so I apologize for that. A huge airplane flew close to the beach and the fuzziness of the video totally removed it from view. It was pretty epic. Take my word for it.

Crisis alert, I have just been informed that the plane had to crash in a nearby farmers field. Here’s the article:

https://www.simcoereformer.ca/news/pilot-walks-away-from-plane-mishap-with-minor-injuries

This project reminds me of earlier works from Alan Resnick, who is one of my biggest inspirations. Please, please do yourself a favour and deep-dive Alan’s stuff.

Thanks for watching !!! : ) Hope I’m posting this in the right place.

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3 Questions:

★ Sol Lewitt ★

Personally, I slightly disagree with Sol Lewitt’s statement that “when an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all the planning and decisions are made beforehand, and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” I think the enigmatic or entropic dynamic of conceptual art should be encouraged, and not pigeonholed into a machine-like formula.

Limiting conceptual art to just a singular artist’s hands closes many doors. With present expansions in artistic thinking, doors have been opened to create multitudes of possibilities. Art goes far beyond the ideas of singular artistic originality. The ways in which we can present and accumulate these ideas are very different than previously thought. Works may rely on existential means, technological means, and social means for this experimental presentation. An artist with an idea may look to other artists to speed up artistic progress. This combines work from not just the first idea-maker, but with other artistic brains and their ideas. I recognize that he utilized other minds and hands within his work, which is respectable.

Despite the word perfunctory slightly loosening up Sol Lewitt’s statement, creating conceptual art can be thorough in execution as well. I do understand that a person’s lens regarding their specialized category of art can be based on personal experience. His experience with conceptual art is different than that of another conceptual artist, therefore his statement is completely fine. Going on a tangent. Yada yada yada.

I believe that artistic concepts can brim with calculative patterns and intuition. It is a very plausible and acceptable way of creating; nevertheless, conceptual art should not be limited to that method. The universe may find a way to help bring new objectives or surprises to conceptual narratives and individualistic expression.

That is why I appreciate Yoko Ono’s contributions to the art world. Her concepts include the magic of the everyday, of individual experience (not just of herself, but of other beings), and the notion that the art she creates is mostly out of her hands. She also sheds light on the atrocities, devastations, and other disturbances that plague the world. Yoko Ono embraces the idea that art can very much be made of the audience, such as with emotive or interactive responses, nature, happenings, and many uncontrollable factors that consistently dominate our lives as humans beings. It is a shared and connected experience through the means of creating. Personally, her works often pierce me with stinging emotion, such as deep reminiscence, pain, anger, and discomfort.

★ Bruce Nauman ★

I thoroughly enjoy the approach Bruce Nauman has to conceptualizing. He used some of the most mundane actions in his earlier works, such as repetition of simple movements, to create performance and video art. This way he breaks down the barrier of the materialistic, physical production of art which is more common of mediums such as painting or photography. He continues to spark wide conversation and broke barriers regarding the definition of what art can be. The concept of the action is of importance.

I especially love his neon works, and I think his use of neon animation is very effective. It is reminiscent of nighttime advertising and carnival signs. He simplifies glorified and powerful actions, such as having sex, or experiencing pain, and diminishes them into minimally framed animations, basic colour schemes, primitive text, linework and symbolism. I have always been drawn to neon signs in both an aesthetic and spiritual(?) manner. TMI. If you catch my drift.

Thanks for reading!! Have a Grateful day! (~);}

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Week 2:

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An Hour of Sitting

For my hour of sitting, I wanted to experiment with the relationship between sound and movement, or in this case, the lack thereof. To many people, music is a main source of mental stimulation, and each person’s experience with music is completely individualized to preference and an array of emotional responses. No matter the opinion, a reaction will generally spawn within the brain in one way or another when listening. Babies and toddlers respond and learn when exposed to music. For those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, music can be a way to spark familiarity in a confusing and disorienting existence.

It is very rare that I can sit still and shut up for more than a few seconds, especially in the presence of noise; specifically, music. I feel as if my brain is simultaneously in harmony and at war with sound. I am a serial whistler. It’s honestly a sickness.

An hour is not that long of a timespan, but when the mind is not entertained and the body is not in action, an hour feels much longer. The struggle between keeping a consistent stature whilst letting precious time roll by can take a toll on your mentality and physical comfort. I decided to use something to at least entertain my mind while I sat- not talking, not dancing, not singing, not twitching, not whistling, not tapping, not snapping- nothing: with a playlist. The playlist is exactly an hour and acted as my timer for this experiment.

We all know what happens when we experience joy through music and the physical reactions that take place, both knowingly and unknowingly. We also know what happens when we experience dislike towards music. I know how I react to music that I despise; with (not to be dramatic) burning rage and disgust. I am heavily opinionated regarding what I am passionate about and what I am not passionate about. I’m sure many will relate.

I filled the entire hour of this playlist with these godforsaken abominations. I was hoping that in forcing myself to listen, I’d give the songs that I hate a more thorough analysis. Maybe these songs could be the ‘enemy-to-lover’ storyline; if only I gave them a true chance to come out of the hard shell that encapsulates them.

I was wrong, and it sucked. To not physically grimace at each song or run and turn them off was a special sort of willpower that I didn’t know that I had. I managed to be reactionless, but my mind was screaming in silence. The itchiness of my wool sweater irked me as well, and I should have just slouched right as I started the playlist. Keeping a good posture is a challenge.

I took a time-lapse of this hour since I don’t have another person around to take a picture. This photo is a still from that time-lapse. I look pretty fed up.

In the performance, ‘The Artist is Present’, Abramovic’s sheer determination and concentration to keep eye-contact with the strangers is astounding. Being still and focused on another person’s gaze takes courage. Facial recognition is such a vital part of human instincts and survival, much like the recognition of noise. The eyes are truly the window to the soul, and many struggle with eye contact in day-today life due to this powerful social and biological connection. We can read so much from another person just from their eyes. Like noise evolving to music for pleasure, empathy and facial recognition has evolved into a means of complex communication reserved for us in the world.

Here’s the playlist. BNL is awful.

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Week 3:

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Flying and Apologies

I threw my beloved stuffed animals off the balcony. I felt so bad I thought it was only appropriate to give them a kiss in apology. Like when you slept with every stuffed animal as a kid so no one got offended. Don’t be fooled, there is definitely a soul within the stuffing. Throwing Sparkle off the balcony was difficult, she is my oldest Webkinz. I thought it would look cute but kissing them each on the lips was a weird choice I know.

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Week 4-5

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Pandemic Portraits

★ Steve and Celeste ★

Celeste: Celeste was kind enough to volunteer as my first pandemic portrait.

”I keep getting one piece of bad news after another and don’t have time to process my emotions.”

She is a personal friend of mine and she had been bombarded by a plethora of bad things all week. I was trying to manifest goodness for her but unfortunately life can be A LOT sometimes and doesn’t go as planned. I hope she’s doing better now : ) !!

Steve: Steve is someone I ran up to. Probably startled them. I was nervous. I asked him and his coworker if they could help us out with the Pandemic portraits and they agreed. Steve unfortunately introduced himself which I did not specify that he wasn’t supposed to do that, so we cannot use the footage. He was extremely optimistic and was avid about spreading positivity.

”Hey, I’m Steve. I’m glad that the days are getting longer; it’s light after six o’clock nowadays. It’s been a beautiful sunny period for the last six weeks or so, it’s all good!”

Thank you for the positivity Steve! We all need it right now 🙂

★ Lily and Pup★

Lily: ”Stress.”

Puppy: *drooling*

I saw Lily’s puppy and I knew I had to interview her. She was extremely kind and when I told her the prompt, she took quite a while pondering what to say. She settled on the word ”Stress.” which was very relatable. Unfortunately there was very loud construction going on, so I messed with the audio so we could hear her response better. I regret not asking her the name of her puppy : ((((

Thank you Lily for your time! : )

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Impromptu Masks:

Masks aren’t particularly the most glamorous things in the world. There has been a prominent disconnect from identity and self expression due to having to cover the majority of our faces. As much as people tried to wear decorative masks, I personally feel like wearing cloth masks do a disservice and are counterproductive to the proper function of masks. I’d much rather wear safe surgical masks, and they aren’t very flattering unfortunately.

I do not like hiding my face, emotions, makeup, etc. Some days it’s nice when my face is not up to par (per say), but I feel as if I cannot express myself. I was talking with a friend today; we went out for lunch the first time and I hadn’t seen her full face before, though we have been friends since the first day of classes this semester.

I live in a dorm in South, and my room is very baron. This week has been really stressful and these objects are a couple of things that tickle my fancy whenever my grey jail cell of a room or lack of sleep is bringing me down. A lot of people are depressed due to the dullness of life, and the lack of social interaction and facial recognition. Empathy is the root of all things human, which includes human aesthetic. Facial recognition stems from empathy as well. If only we could wear our most favourite objects on our face instead of the masks.

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Week 7

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Button Making : Conceptual 10 Second Cats

I wanted to have limited time in order to strip an idea down to its most basic meaning, while also using sporadic movements and thoughts to create something new and fun.

I have been doodling cats my entire life, and always put a celebratory cat drawing in cards for my friends and family. I wanted to see how my stylistic drawings of cats would evolve if I only gave myself 10 seconds to draw each one. It was stressful, but it was successful in the fact that each cat has its own spur-of-the-moment personality.

Each of us have our own visualization of a cat, a quick one that pops into our heads when the word is mentioned. Cat. Ears, round face, little cheeks and whiskers, big eyes. This is merely the concept of a cat, and not it’s true form. Giving yourself only ten seconds to draw a cat breaks down its form into something childlike and basic.

I was also thinking of digging up cat drawings from my kindergarten days, or possibly creating an exercise that involves classmates by making them draw a cat in 10 seconds so the cat’s concept varies from person to person.

Putting each cat on a button lets the button holder have their own unique pet cat to keep.

Edit: I totally forgot about this brilliant music video my They Might Be Giants. Sort of a similar conceptual breakdown. Maybe this was my subconscious inspiration.

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Week 8

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Audio Piece: Sightless and Soundless Sonata No. 20 in G Major, Op. 49 No. 2 by Ludwig van Beethoven

This assignment was a tad bit frustrating due to the absence of two essential senses that I rely on to play my conservatory pieces. I experimented with playing sightless and soundless while improvising, but it ended up sounding ok surprisingly due to my comfortability and knowledge of tones and chords. I felt as if my fingers were comfortable creeping unknowingly when improvising. Beethoven songs, on the other hand, are a lot more technical. Dynamics, tempo, general movement and location of fingers all factor in when playing a more challenging piece. It’s interesting, one mistake was obviously enough to skew the entire song onto a different path. I have this song tight within my belt already but without knowing the location of my fingers on the keyboard, once I got further along in the song, mistakes became extremely audible. I played this for my grade 8 piano exam last year, and my technique now is far beyond this song- I consider this Sonata a warm up lol (my ego and confidence in this song has been damaged lol).

Note the buzzing of the piano, it could definitely be a mixture of the piano- (piano strings sometimes buzz, I don’t know the exact reason. This is a piano located in the basement of Alexander Hall, and is the best piano out of the three practice rooms. Pianos are never perfect)- and also the force and drive of the dynamics I was expressing. It was definitely a lot louder due to my lack of hearing, and also because I find when I am learning a song or am having a brain fart during a song, I let go of all expressionism in order to be as accurate as I can with the notes (even though expressing a song with proper dynamics and mood is equally as essential as getting the notes correct). Also, my Blue microphone I used was sitting directly on top of the piano, which then vibrated and picked up a lot of the buzzing. I generally use it for shitty demos for my personal music and totally forgot that I should have put it away from the piano.

I relied extremely heavily on muscle memory throughout the song, the beginning being smoother than the further parts of the song. The beginning of the song is the most comfortable for me; I’ve played the beginning gazillions of times. This song is a 4 minute piece, so once I get further into the song and run unto… the runs of the scales, and also octaves and jumps to lower and higher notes in a sporadic manner, I fall apart very quickly. Distance is hard to determine when you cannot see or hear. I feel like I did pretty good regardless though.

I also wanted to pay homage to the struggles that Beethoven had experienced in his life as he aged; he experienced extreme deafness (60% of hearing loss) by the time he was 31 in 1801. He developed three distinct styles within his playing and composing, and pursued writing beyond the development of his disability. He started hearing high pitched tones, starting from his left ear and travelling to his right eventually. There is lots of speculation regarding this deafness, some people arguing it was caused from lead poisoning, and some arguing it was caused by typhus.

Obviously I’m not half as good as Beethoven was. This recording is like nails on a chalkboard to me. But I like to think of myself as just ‘Glenn Goulding’ it. (Glenn Gould was a famous Canadian pianist who specialized in Bach and Beethoven, and critics hated him because he played around and experimented heavily with tempo and dynamics in respected songs which were generally played with great discipline.

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Final Portrait: Lil Irrelevancies

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Firstly, I wanted to create a portrait symbolizing my mother’s talent in floral design and colour. My mom has the best taste, but unfortunately she doesn’t feel that way about herself. I wanted to celebrate my love for her and her taste through a portrait. I had a few ideas but none of them seemed to work, and both my mom and I were struggling to pinpoint a general theme or concept, which in turn caused stress. I wanted to save her portrait for a later date so I could truly take the time to make the portrait as expressive of her as possible.

Flipping through an old notebook, I discovered a few odd phrases which were scattered randomly throughout the notebook. I tend to whip out my journal to write down phrases that are important to me in the moment, in order to not forget the importance of the thought. Curiously, I totally forgot many that I had written in this particular journal. No matter how hard I rubbed my temple I could not remember,

The idea popped into my head to create a conglomeration of all of these little thought blorps. Once important, now forgotten. The word irrelevance popped into my head, merely for the reason it describes these blorps perfectly ( and I just like the sound of the word) ‘Irrelevancies’ sounds too pretty to mean what it does. Through reexperiencing them, we create new meaning. It is a blank slate for new interpretation. Celebrating these irrelevant thoughts. The illustrations resemble what the blorps describe, just to create more substance to the pages.

Hello everyone 😀

I’m excited to get to know you all while making art alongside each other.

Thoughts on the conceptual…

Over the past few years, as I have tried my hand at many mediums, I have found that there is a distinction that can be made. The final product of the artist’s labour and the process that take place in order to make a work all contribute to the viewers experience with the work. These distinctions are often what may drive an artwork. Sol Lewitt’s comments on ‘the machine’ encourage us to consider the process of conceptual art as a piece of the final work. So much of Sol Lewitt’s artistic plans require the help of other artists and hands to execute a final plan, but its that planning and cooperation that is the art work. The machine that is the idea is the artistic piece, the process and final product and equally important. The conceptuality of some of Sol Lewitt’s ideas make all the participating parties conceptual, we can ask who is the artist? What is the art? The final piece, the process, or the plan? What is the artist’s hand when there are multiple minds at work? These are some of the things that I admire most about conceptual work, the aesthetics and composition are admirable to say the least, but it is also the discussion. The emotional responses and thoughts evoked by the work deepen our connecting to the visual world and each other and we explore ideas brought forth by artists like Sol Lewitt.

Yoko Ono’s work has always be so interesting. Its always multifaceted, it always, somehow, personally striking. It always connects to me somehow. I don’t think I have any boundaries to draw, I don’t think I have any place to restrict her work, I am only a humble viewer! The artworks I see live in the viewer, the thoughts her writings and performances provoke, live on within the viewer. She puts forth both normal and out of the ordinary prompts for us the interact with the physical world, these tools she wields are all experimental. Something that stands out to me in Grapefruit is her writing style, I find that each page is a sort of poem. Her word choice and style of instruction are artistic and it’s like I can hear her speaking to me when I read them.

One Hundred Live and Die is a popular work of Nauman’s, I admire how it confronts us all with the possibilities in our existence. The volume of light fills any viewers eyes and how they react varies, but it does reminds us of many things. I think this work is framed specifically to contrast against itself. Without the combination of the “bad” (kill, hate, cry) or “good” (love, touch, feel, play) concepts, the weight of each combination would not be nearly as heavy. All these experiences and actions affect us different (and similarly) and Nauman just works to present them to us. Framed as a beautiful neon blast of light, these combinations presented all together insinuate there is no one actions that comes without the other.

Fist in Mouth also strikes me as highly interesting, though it is technically a simple motif with the addition of Nauman’s hand, it speaks volumes. I think a lot of Nauman’s work asks us to consider what we see and we naturally try to connect it to what we know or feel. This piece questions who we are without our voice or what is left behind when we are blocked of communication. Nauman’s framing allows us to take his work and form our own meaning as we see fit. I read about Nauman’s work and consider all these specific meanings and nuances that are pulled out and I imagine Nauman in his studio. With everything he produces being art and I wonder what he has hidden away in his lab, where he crafts these meaningful and emotional works, I wonder how his unseen experiments  would affect me. I wonder how he would frame them if he was required to.

Kilometre

This video is a documentation of me sitting, simply doing nothing for the time that it takes for an average person to walk a kilometre at an average pace. Growing up an only child, I spent a lot of time hanging out with myself doing things like reading, drawing, watching television etc.. My Dad would always consider these small habits as “doing nothing”. He would regularly find my in my room spending time with myself and ask why I wasn’t outside, going for a walk or doing something more involved. This never seemed like a problem to me, but to him it seemed not as productive as he would have liked.

In this video I sit in my room for 12 minutes (the average walking time of a km) and do absolutely nothing, just reflecting on such a small moment of my day and reminding myself that not every second of your life needs to be used doing something “productive”

In this time I could have walk a whole kilometre, but I didn’t, I just spent 12 minutes with myself.

This is my kilometre.

Yoko Ono Wishing Tree

After writing my wish I sealed it with wax and used a small hair clip to attached it to my one and only house plant. It recently put out a new baby leaf and hopefully the leaf and wish will emerge together.

Week 2 – I Hour Performance (❁´◡`❁)

Hi everyone! I chose this week to watch paint dry. My landlords recently erected a new room in our basement and have been finishing it up lately. The other day, they dropped by to give it a few coats of paint. After they left I snuck in and sat down on the couch, I sat for an I hour without a clock or phone and told my partner to come tell me once an hour came. I just sat in the cold basement and watched this coat of white paint dry. It was quite relaxing in a way and I quickly wanted to slip into a nap. I am not sure if it was because it was meditative or boring though. Eventually I couldn’t smell the paint fumes anymore and was just acting in time, just sitting and letting thoughts pass. I became very aware of my surrounding, I listening to the distant street sounds and the washing machine work away.

I didn’t get a photograph in the moment because no one was home, but I snapped this photo in the space to show the plainness of the room.

I feel like Marina Abromovic would chuckle if I told her I watched paint dry. I was very conscious of how difficult it must have been for her to sit for 7 hours a day, but also maybe it wasn’t, she believes so strongly that the artist is present when they are still that she is her art at the end of the day.

Week 4 – up, up and away….

For this week, I threw my groceries into the air! I literally just experimented with trying to compose something in midair, I don’t have a window high enough to throw things out of and I chose groceries for a specific reason. Basically, I got hit by a car on Saturday night on the way home from work… I am totally fine, but I keep imagining how much worse it could have been. I was walking home from work with 2 bags of groceries when it happened so I imagined a more dramatic outcome for these photos.

some test shots;

and some of my favourite compositions;

Alternative Mask

For my alternative mask, I created a cone, a sort of blinder.

I hate talking about covid and covid and everything related because the past two years of my life have been hell. The pandemic aggravated every mental illness I already had and made living borderline impossible. I short, I am exhausted, everyone is, I hate talking about the “silver linings” because i don’t believe there was any for me. It alienated me from everyone I know and separated me physically and mentally from any loved ones. I had nowhere to run, no home to move back into, I lost my job, and I didnt even experience the worst of it. I can elaborate so much more but I didn’t want to lie and say that I was feeling hopeful or blessed. This is how I truly feel about everything.

My mask is a paper cone. In order to function during the pandemic I have become reliant on my ability to use tunnel vision. Focusing on one thing, whether or not its physically or mentally, it is really the only way i have been able to stay on top of everything.

Video Portraits

Button Ideas

Artist Multiples – Buttons!

🎵Audio Project🎧 – System Regulation

For this week’s project I decided to collaborate with my partner. Both of us are quite anxious people and we express our emotions in different ways. Personally, I deal with things very mentally, until they manifest into physical feelings. My partner expresses himself very physically right away. He tends to pace, to tap, hum, whistle and pick at his hands while working. He has never been one to notice this so I invited him to collaborate with me on the piece.

The fun twist here is that he is quite musically inclined, he has a deep sense of rhythm and training on multiple instruments so music really flows out of him. He was surprised to find out how much I notice his habits of tapping out rhythms on his desk or whistling melodies absentmindedly.

I wanted to make this as a sort of ode to him, we made it together and it was such an interesting conceptual idea, but also a great way for us to combine our arts!

I also intended to keep to sounds very organic, we did our best to recreate them as naturally as possible. Almost sounding as if the song happened accidentally, the same way he usually releases his nervous energy.

Final Week – Conceptual Portraits

I created this triptych in ode to my mother. My memories of her exist only within my mind, while I was young and still developing . The mind manipulates moments once stored in the brain. It pushes and pulls information, altering what we remember. This process of compartmentalization is one that has informed my practice thoroughly. Like memories that are archived in the mind, these photographs are manipulated through photoshop. The dreamy state I achieved is representative of the feelings left behind by confusing and traumatic moments. These photographs are of my parents and I in particular, but I believe that this notion of memory, as it affects us all, is a realm in between reality and and fantasy and is applicable to all archived moments. It is a landscape created by the brain to reinforce moments that we are sure happened but may not be correct.

These conceptual portraits of significant moments in time exist to affect the emotional state of the viewer, regardless of personal connection to the subjects. They use the digital medium to contradict the physicality of the printed photograph. As the photograph exists, so does the memory, the seemingly permanent state can still be altered as it remains in flux.

Week 1

Sol Lewitt

When Sol Lewitt says “the idea becomes the machine that makes the art”, I find this to be a very interesting and straightforward way to think about art. We often think of art as just a product of one artist or a work as a product of one single effort, when it does not always act that way. This idea that each member of a team is a functioning part of an idea that has evolved into a machine is definitely something new for its time. When the team fully and irrevocably understands the idea and internalizes it, they can act as the machine carrying out such an idea.

Thinking of Lewitt’s ideas, the artist’s actual hand is more of an automatic, less important matter. Because he has a team of people working for him, Lewitt has demonstrated that the execution of a work is “more of a perfunctory affair” rather than what’s most important. From what I understood, the key to a massive team project is a deep integral understanding of the structure, idea, and vision. Personal flair is unimportant in these works, and the intention is to “re-execute the original score”. This idea can easily be applied to conceptual artworks, as within such works the idea is what is translated, rather than simply the execution. We should not place such emphasis on the execution, but rather the driving force behind the execution and what it represents. 

Yoko Ono

It is difficult to draw boundaries with Yoko Ono’s works as they are so captivating and stand alone. By this, I mean that each section Ono read gives no further instructions other than what is written, and provides no visual. She allows the viewer to focus on what she is saying and to interpret however they please. This challenges the viewer because it leaves them alone with their thoughts and understanding of what she’s just said, and provides an outlet to express such emotions about this work without any outside influences. 

Although Ono’s instructions are clear, each person who follows such instructions might do so differently. Because we all experience life and art differently, no outcome will be the exact same. Specifically this can be demonstrated when she says “arrange your room in a way you wish your mind would be”. We all have varying wishes and vastly different minds. And yet, perhaps people will act eerily similar. The range in which we can choose to think and act is so broad, yet we see people with similar ideas every day. Perhaps this is a side effect of environment, or personality; the psychology behind this work is fascinating. 

These concept-works are strange to experience, as I am a visual person. Although I struggled at first, trying to follow Ono’s instructions and interpret how I please was an interesting feeling; trying to visualize something or act accordingly with no visual prompt is challenging. 

Bruce Nauman

Bruce Nauman is most definitely an innovative mind. What most people would consider unimportant, irrelevant parts of one’s day, he turns into art. When he says “a work of art ought to hit you like being hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat”, I find this to be somewhat of a commentary on how we don’t expect normal, everyday things to be turned into such public (and sometimes provocative) displays of art. 

Self Portrait as a Fountain shows Nauman shirtless while spitting water out of his mouth, as a sculpted fountain would do. His imitation of such fountains is almost satirical, as he purposely imitates stereotypically poised figures. Initially, I saw this action as someone in the shower, pretending to be a fountain. Showering is such a banal activity, yet Nauman has managed to take the comedic aspect of it and turn it into art. The framing of such an act shows Nauman’s intentions to not take himself so seriously. Our experience of pretending to be a fountain, or even just taking a shower is suddenly shared, as we view someone acting comedically as we might do. 

Bruce Nauman: Contrapposto Studies depicts Nauman walking in a narrow corridor while keeping the typical contrapposto pose as he walks. The dramatic, S shape of the pose is one we often find ourselves displaying in life, without realizing it. He imitates what is simultaneously a normal, everyday state of being and a dramatized, respected sculpture technique. This framing allows the viewer to see how when actually trying, moving in contrapposto is not as easy as being still in the pose.

Wish Tree

Conceptual Km

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QO3PCOrFWR8%3Fenablejsapi%3D1%26autoplay%3D0%26cc_load_policy%3D0%26cc_lang_pref%3D%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26loop%3D0%26modestbranding%3D0%26rel%3D1%26fs%3D1%26playsinline%3D0%26autohide%3D2%26theme%3Ddark%26color%3Dred%26controls%3D1%26

For my conceptual kilometre, I was a bit lost at first. I had a lot of trouble finding a concept that I felt would be successful. I ended up landing on an “uneventful kilometre”. After some research I learned that it takes the average human approximately 10 to 12 minutes to walk one full kilometre. I filmed myself doing some tasks around my room for a goal of 20 minutes, and carried this out until my FitBit marked one kilometre traveled. I found it interesting that we can travel so far while staying in the same place. During this activity I did not physically leave my house, so did I really “travel” a kilometre even though I was able to commit an act equivalent to walking a full kilometre?

I also found the science behind this activity (the free energy change of bodily exertion and fuel burned) to be extremely interesting, as mixing science and art is something I am fascinated by. Looking at it literally, I didn’t walk a kilometre, but scientifically and conceptually I produced the same results; the same average amount of calories were burned, I produced the same exertion of bodily energy, and my steps–or at least the energy equivalent to steps–during this activity were roughly around 1300 (the average number of steps in a kilometre). This has me thinking about what is possible in terms of conceptual art in relation to scientific evidence.

I think this was successful conceptually, as I address what it truly means to travel a kilometre; is it covering the distance of one kilometre, or is it possible that it could be an activity that produces the same results in terms of biological function and free energy change? I do think that my execution of this task could have been more successful, as it is a bit difficult to see in the video what I’m doing at some points. I also was unable to capture the before and after of my FitBit as it died immediately after I finished.

Week 2

Hour of Stillness and Marina Abramović

For my hour of stillness, I sat and read the same two pages out of the book I am currently reading, Normal People by Sally Rooney. I kept my body still, while only my eyes moved to read the book. Over this past week I found myself wanting to pick up a book again; having bought this book but never getting around to reading it, I finally did so and I’m glad I made that decision. This book has had me absolutely engrossed the past couple days; for how old it is and how late I am to reading it, I find it to still be a great read with parts that apply to present time. 

While reading these two pages for an hour, I found myself firstly analyzing the pages more in depth than I would have while reading normally. I reread the same excerpt(s) over and over until I could infer new possible meanings. By the end, I felt more connected to each character and I feel like I understood the scene exactly as Rooney intended it to be understood. 

While I did come to appreciate Rooney’s writing, I also found myself starting to pick at flaws within the book, even though I was focused on only two pages for the hour. I came to realize the books that are pushed to become popular often only focus on white, straight people/relationships, and oftentimes such books focus on the small, dainty, white feminine body. Normal People is no exception, and I started to feel disappointed in myself for participating in a flawed romanticization of white relationships. While this is not a new realization for me or most people, I find that it is easy to forget that such a small representation of people is pushed so heavily in the media. Having this hour-long experience with Rooney’s writing helped me to continue the book more critically, and I hope to be more conscious in the future of what books I read and what societal expectations are subtly enforced in such books. 

While sitting for so long, I found myself growing extremely tired (more so than I thought I would). Keeping such stillness for a long time is taxing physically, and I commend Abramović for her commitment to this type of conceptual art. My hour of stillness loosely connects to her work, Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful, in that I found myself to be worried about how I looked while reading this book on camera. I did not necessarily feel “beautiful enough” in the outcome, however I am realizing through this exercise that beauty is not owed to the viewers of art. Abramović carries out this sentiment excellently in her works, and while mine doesn’t measure up in the slightest, I found myself relating to her in a small way. 

Week 3

Defenestration Activity

For my defenestration, I threw one of my plant cuttings out my kitchen window. I thought it would be interesting to do a plant that actually has fenestrations (holes within the leaves). This monstera adansonii cutting has very pronounced fenestrations, and it made some interesting shapes within the photos. I find the biology behind leaf fenestrations extremely interesting, and I’m currently learning about cell death/apoptosis, so I enjoyed making the connection between my two interests.

Something else about this that I found interesting is the fact I threw a living organism out into the worst possible conditions for it. This was a water propagation that lived in prime conditions in my room, and I essentially ripped it from its place, and threw it into freezing snowy conditions outside. The thought of doing this to a living thing in any other circumstance upsets me, but actually doing it for this assignment was surprisingly introspective for me. The plant will most likely recover now that it is back inside, but thinking about how much intracellular work it takes just to recover from a 10-minute stint outside is compelling. I essentially set this plant cutting back in its cellular growth timeline, altering its entire life cycle. Yet for me, it was a simple activity for a class that affected my life very minimally.

Week 4

Masks

This assignment had me thinking about recognizability and how we present ourselves to the public. Am I still recognizable if my face is obscured? I find that we often subconsciously alter or personalize elements of our appearance, and these small changes add up to one’s recognizability. The face is not necessarily what allows us to know who someone is at first glance. 

Using these different items actually allowed me to see that the things i chose to cover my face with are actually indicators of myself as well. Let me explain myself:

1. I often write myself to do lists (almost everyday). I actually keep the old ones in a stack on my desk, and while trying to find items for this assignment, the stack immediately stuck out to me. I live and breathe by my to do lists, and I would not get anything done without them; they are something I use to keep myself moving forward in my everyday life, and although to do lists are not unique, I would say that my regimen of keeping every single one is somewhat individual to me. I find that this mask specifically reflects how I’ve been feeling about school lately, and I think it’s definitely visible in my eyes how I’ve been feeling.
2. This brown hoodie has been one of my favourite clothing items recently, and the process of buying it is a small anecdote that makes me smile each time. I had seen it on Depop for dirt cheap, and with these hoodies often being quite expensive, I jumped at the chance. The seller had also listed it with free shipping (absolutely unbelievable) so of course I metaphorically slapped my debit card down. This hoodie has been one of my staple items in my wardrobe, and although it’s “just a hoodie”, it has become part of my life in a way, and essentially part of me as a recognizer. 
3. As we know, I am a plant girl through and through. When introduced to this assignment I immediately knew I wanted to incorporate a plant as a mask. this string of dolphins has been in my collection for a while, and its become somewhat of a miniature beast (definitely needs a repot). I would say it covered my face in a more loose/minimal fashion than the other items I used for this assignment, yet I think I like it the most. Being able to see small slivers of my face, including my defining physical features such as parts of my eyes/mouth, adds a sense of humanity to this photo that I really enjoy. 
4. I would say my hair is my single most important feature that makes me identifiable aside from my face. I’ve gone on a long journey with my hair; learning how to take care of it myself and recovering from heat damage has been a long process that I now feel has really paid off. I care about my hair a lot in that I’m proud of its growth in the last year and it allows me to express myself. Being a person of colour in a white town, as well as now a PWI, it’s important to me to value traits/features that remind me of my origins. 

I find it extremely interesting how these defining factors of me and my life are able to both hide and expose me simultaneously. Literally, my face is obscured and I am “unrecognizable”, yet looking intrinsically it is obvious who is behind the masks. 

Week 5

“What’s Pent Up”

Someone I Know

“A lot of thoughts, I feel like I’ve been thinking a lot”

– Faith M.

Faith is one of my closest friends, and I feel I know her well enough to ask her such a question (ironic since I did ask a stranger as well). In living together, we have both experienced university during this pandemic, and I feel her response is something a lot of people can relate to. In a time of feeling alone and isolated, we are bound to let our minds run and accumulate a ‘rolodex’ of thoughts, good or bad.

In being a university student currently, I can heavily relate to Faith’s response, and I find that the added stress of school during these times has changed how we view healthy school/life relationships. I find myself constantly thinking about school, even when I am caught up, and it can be truly damaging. Many students feel shame about this, and I hope Faith’s candid response will help more people feel “normal” for what they may be thinking about.

Someone I Don’t Know

“Sex drive”

– Isla S.

Faith and I live on quite a busy road, and our specific street holds a shortcut from campus to Gordon street. Because of this, we see a lot of students making their way to and from campus. This day, I saw a student walking with a friend and asked if she’d like to be in my video.

I admire Isla’s candor in her response, and I found it refreshing to hear something comical. Isla’s honesty was great to hear, and during a time of lessened personal connections, I can see why she might feel this way. Isla displayed courage in giving me such a personal response, and being so straightforward like this assists in removing the taboo of this subject; hopefully her response can make others feel more comfortable in discussing personal satisfaction during this pandemic.

Week 6

Button Ideas

Week 7

Finished Buttons

For my buttons, I ventured into what it would possibly look like if people were “stuck” inside their buttons, and the weird and wacky angles that come with that. I used the 0.5x lens on my iPhone camera to achieve this fishbowl-like effect, and I think it was successful in replicating that look.

At first, I had the idea of enlarging/emphasizing what everyone said their favourite facial feature was. In hindsight this was more of a way of dancing around the fact that this lens undoubtedly makes everyone look super weird! I’m glad I went with more of an “escaping face” idea, as I was able to embrace the ugliness of the lens and how it distorts everyone’s features.

This series of buttons was a new concept to me, and I found it to be more difficult than just a standalone work; I did enjoy this process as creating a collective took some more preliminary thinking, one of my favourite things to do (although I’m usually pretty lazy about it). My final collection is one that I am happy with and I hope these buttons can make some of you laugh 🙂

Some of my favourites:

The Photos:

Week 8

Audio Art Brainstorming

Main Idea: relation to living with a lesser quality of hearing, how I perceive/experience life

• Hearing tests
  • Having hearing aids, I often have to go in for routine hearing tests and reprogramming, This encompasses many different beeps and tests
  • recreation of a “beep test” – the audiologist usually plays beeps and I am told to raise my hand when I hear them; beeps range in volume and tone
  • creative enough? recordings already exist of this, ∴ idea scrapped
• Roommates 
  • I can hear everything that goes on in my house; recording these sounds and specifying who is doing what would allow for an interesting set of comparisons between how each roommate performs tasks within the house. 
  • Did not work out: all the roommates were actually out of the house at the same time; I figured I would not be able to get as many recordings as I wanted to. Additionally, in my test recordings the sound quality was not the right “muffled” sound I was going for, ∴ idea scrapped
• Layering 
  • Layering different sounds from being in public
  • Could create chaos if too much noise – need a similar vibe to a busy store/restaurant to make sure listeners can still make out some words

Week 9

Final Audio Art: Chaos of Conversation

I ended up deciding on a layering concept; I recorded a tidbit of the public sounds any time I went out, and layered them together. This resulted in what sounds like an extremely busy public area, and it is hard to make out what anyone is specifically saying. I then decided to try and muffle the recording as well.

mp3:

WAV:

All these elements worked together to result in what I consider a representation of how I experience life with hearing loss. Oftentimes, things are quite muffled and bleed together, resulting in many missed bits of information. In public places I often need extreme focus to engage in a conversation; this element of my life is represented as the many different conversations occurring that are all simultaneously unintelligible. I recorded sounds of personal conversations, other people speaking, retail store chaos, and more. My goal was for this to be an unpleasant listening experience as listeners try to make out context and words for each of the conversations going on. 

By allowing for some breaks in the noise and including clips from varying distances from the mic, this accurately represents a lot of my life. As the audio plays, some words become intelligible while it also descends into pure white noise; I find this to be a look into my experience navigating a constantly obscured range of hearing, even with my hearing aids. 

Week 10

Conceptual Portrait Brainstorming/Proposal

• Different uses of everyday items 
  • Taking a photo of the products I use daily each time I use them, showing them decreasing in quantity over time. This would show how I prioritize self-care/maintenance and provide viewers with information on who I am based on the subcategories of my products 
  • Ex: curly hair products = curly hair, specific face wash = certain skincare needs, etc 
• Showing the “degradation” of things I use every day
  • Similar to the first idea, this would be taking a photo of things I touch/use every day. This could expand to different items 
  • Ex: showing my makeup brush(es) each time I use them and the change in bristle conformation
  • Ex: showing my ip balm slowly losing layers as I use it

Proposal: I find that one’s choices regarding their personal care can tell a lot about a person. I’ve always enjoyed seeing what products others like to use and comparing them to mine. I find that this element of our lives can be a connector and allow for mutual understanding between people without a need for heavy/deep conversation. Displaying such products like a brand photoshoot will highlight the vast array of things we use on a day-to-day basis as consumers and as people in society

Inspiration:

Week 11

Final Conceptual Portrait: Personal Products

In this final work, I collaborated with classmate and friend Faith to display our personal care items as a conceptual portrait. We collected all of our daily personal products and posed them in contrasting compositions with our hands shown adjusting in each one. The goal of these photos is to show that  we contrast as face-value people, yet in other realms (such as personal care and hygiene opinions) we are quite similar. This can be seen in my use of curly hair products versus Faith’s use of blonde wash treatments. Our hair differs in every aspect; this then allows for the further assumption that we are different ethnicities and possess vastly different features requiring different care. Including our hands in each photo was an element that I did not expect to work out as well as it did. Having this extra piece of information further allows the viewer to understand who we are and what we use/need. Because so much of our personal lives are displayed, hopefully viewers can gain an understanding of who we are, what we like, and maybe even product recommendations!

While trivial at first glance, these items do show our individual differences and agreements simultaneously. Past our differing needs, we agree on certain smells and brands, such as our similar perfumes and face products, or our deodorant. The slight variations in specific products displays our knowledge of our needs in terms of skin, hair, and hygiene. Our differences as people are displayed in everything we use; while it can be easily overlooked, our connection to our needs paints a portrait of us as people. Each product acts as a supporting beam for our presence in others’ lives, and provides building blocks for a deeper connection to oneself. 

Our contributions to consumerism can be seen through these images. We each use at least 10 products in our daily routines, and through using and buying them we establish our place as consumers as well as individuals. The relation between consumerism and individualism is something I hope to continue to explore in my studies.

Through these photos, it can be understood that Faith and I are two separate entities with varying wants and needs. Those who know us are able to pick out who’s who between the two, and they are also able to understand who exactly is behind each set of products. 

Contender photos before choosing the final two: