Week 1

Brainstorm

• Knit something out of a km of yarn
  • Will take too long and I don’t have enough yarn!
  • The yarn I have is 0.39th of a km!
• Play around with proportions!
  • Scale down the ratio of my height to a km to the ratio of ant to a km.
• Film the cars on the street to make up a video where they all add up to have driven 1 km!
  • It takes one minute to drive 1 km at a speed of 60km an hour, and one minute and 12 seconds to drive 1 km at 50km an hour.
  • The street I live on (Gordon St. in Guelph) has a speed limit of 50km an hour, but I would say most people drive at least 60k an hour down that road.
• Film my feet walking for 1 km and then count how many steps it took.
  • Then draw each step on a piece of paper – this is a representation of a km in my steps!

This artist, Lenny Maughan, reminded me of this week’s exercise! He creates art using a GPS tracking app and goes for runs to create an image!

My Work

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Explanation

For the first exercise where we were asked to ‘make a Km’, I decided to see what a Km looked like walking in my shoes. So I put my trusty Filas on and headed out into the neighbourhood.

I used the app RunKeeper to track my distance and the route I took, and then I used the Health app that comes with the iPhone to track my steps. As you can see in the pictures I posted above, it took me ten minutes and forty two seconds to walk 1 km, and I took 1, 357 steps.

In order to express this Km in something more tangible, I decided to stamp every step I took. It ended up taking two pieces of paper. I found this activity to be very rewarding, because I was able to see how fast I normally walk and how long it generally takes me to get places on foot. The act of stamping each step was a very mindful activity, and I found it a great way to reflect on something that we often take for granted, the ability to move our bodies!

Overall, this was a really interesting exercise and I had lots of fun playing around with ways to express a km!

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Sol LeWitt: For All to See

Video

He had a new way of thinking about and making art.

Turned a generation of minimalists and conceptualists into a worldwide movement.

He viewed himself much like a composer of music.

• The documentation and planning was the true work of art, so that other artists could recreate them.

Conceptual Art

• “The idea becomes the machine that makes the art.”
• Follows a predetermine procedure and plan.

A team of artists at the IMA is moving LeWitt’s wall drawing 652 to a new location.

• No creative input
• Gain experience learning how things work.
• Get to work with a crew of artists.

WRITE: Sol LeWitt encapsulates the notion that “the idea is the machine that makes the art”, as his practice is centred around the idea that other artists would be able to recreate his work. A perfect example of this is shown in the video, as a group of artists are carefully following his instructions to recreate one of his pieces in a different location of the museum. Thus, his idea is the machine, and the machine is run by the team of artists. He puts the focus on the process of curating a plan, rather than on the finished piece, and encourages recreation rather than claiming complete ownership over his idea. This, I think, is a very refreshing perspective in an age where people tend to selfishly cling on to their own ‘intellectual property’.

In the context of conceptual art, the artist’s actual hand is not the focus. The artist’s role is in that of creating the plan and procedure, and beyond that the focus becomes the process. In conceptual art, it is not so important that the artist actually physically creates the piece, as the piece is really the idea. The creation of it is merely a by-product.

Yoko Ono Reading from her GRAPEFRUIT Book

Video

• Painting to be stepped on
• Laugh piece
• Painting to shake hands
• Painting for the wind
• Painting to see the skies
  • Drill two holes into canvas and hang in a place where you can see the sky.
• Painting you construct in your head
• Sun piece
• Shadow piece
• Fly piece
• Beat piece
  • Listen to heartbeat
• Walking piece
  • Walk in the footsteps of the person in front.
  • Try not to make sounds.
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WRITE: At first it was hard to tell where one artwork started and the other one ended, as her speech was in a continuous flow. However, after watching it again, I was able to pick up more quickly when the concept changed. In this video, the artworks are the concepts. She is given simple instructions on how to create each of the pieces from her book. Ono uses simplicity and ambiguity to challenge the viewer, as it allows each of her concepts to be brought to life in whatever way the viewer perceives it.

My two favourites of these concept works are the Walking Piece and the Painting to See The Skies. Both are very simple, yet grounding concepts. They force you to take notice of the world and people around you, and I think that is a really amazing thing.

Bruce Nauman -‘The True Artist Helps the World’

Video – TateShots

He doesn’t want the experience to be pleasant and perfuming.

“what the hell is going on here”

The works are in very different technologies and mediums, yet speak to each other.

Bruce is very inquisitive, asking what works and using the materials and spaces he has.

“If I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art.”

Early black and white videos where he just puts himself in different positions.

• Making sculpture with the least amount of things needed to make a sculpture.

“Playfulness and not knowing everything is what makes the magic happen.”

Bruce is a longer in the studio.

• Artist block to him is like gesso on a canvas; it’s the first thing you do.

“When language begins to break down a little bit, it becomes exciting.”

Sense & nonsense.

Humour.

The world is observed, not concerned with beauty.

Bruce is interested in a sort of intellectual distance from something that’s very visceral.

WRITE: Bruce Nauman’s piece For Beginners (all combinations of the thumb and fingers, 2010) is a great example of his work that pertains to every day, banal actions. I really like this piece because it takes a series of simple actions that anyone could do with their hands and highlights it as a grandiose piece as blown up images in a gallery space. They are framed as art through the presentation of them as large scale pieces in a gallery, much like you would see a painting. Thus, this gives us the illusion of a carefully crafted work of art, when in reality it is an image anyone could recreate.

His piece, No, No, New Museum, 1987, is a looped video of Bruce dressed as a jester performing a temper tantrum. This piece takes a temper tantrum, something common for young children and probably all too common for a parent’s liking, and dresses it up in a mocking way. Its simplicity highlights mundanity of the action, yet the costume adds a more unrealistic flair to it. Overall, I think it’s a fun spoof that we can all relate to. Everyone gets frustrate and I’m sure we can all think of a time where our reaction was “no, no, no, no!”

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/lDDoo1zkn0M

A Memory of Long Ago – A Mini Series.

I couldn’t decided which one was best so I decided to upload my different styles that I did, and created a little series that made I created to remember my Pappy. When doing the video my roommate’s cat wanted to be in it but I wants to keep the video whole because it capture the sound of the pen and I enjoyed that about the piece, I also uploads the scanned photos of the final product and it sits heavy on my chest because I remember him a lot. I hope this series helps you remember someone special to you!

Week 9

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The Memory of Long Ago — Conceptual Portrait 

I wanted to use the photography we did in this semester and also use to the memories of someone who had a huge impact on my life even though it’s been 10 years since they have gone to rest. 

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I bounced between either adding an audio and movement or just one to the photo to make it a style of performance art like we learned about during the semester. 

I found myself connected to Spring Hurlbut when it came to working with the memories of people, My pappy isn’t in ashes and I don’t have much of his left to use as props next to photos of his life and those are limited from what is posted to facebook from when he passed.

If you refer to the photos above you will see my brain storming when it comes to the idea that my mom and grandma came up with that would work with keeping his memories but keeping it creative where you can’t really tell the stories of where the photos came from and make you question his life and make up your own interpretations and I like that idea as long as nothing horrible comes from it but understand it might. 

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Week 8

Repetitive Reminders

I had so much fun recording these audios, it was interesting to play them back just on my phone and hear the different audios. Once I finally got them uploaded onto my computer and into Garageband that is where the fun started. Though in the start I wanted to channel Kelly Mark and have this basic monotone reminder going nonstop on a loop but I like the idea of making it your own and changing the sounds in post production. I put both audios in reverse and but a voice effect on them to see how it would change the sound of the audios and I loved listening to each one to hear the differences. When I let my family listened they heard different things each time, what do you hear in the individual audios and the combined audio?

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Week 7

Repetitive Reminders — A Proposal

I do mindfulness every day and I find myself always stating to myself throughout the day with reminders and I thought it would be good audio to repeat over and over what I say to myself to get through the day. After completing DBT therapy with the CMHA in my hometown I find myself doing these daily reminders. I find that sometimes people need to hear these small reminders to continue in everyday life, and I wanted to make that happen. I got the inspiration from Kelly Mark’s I really should piece but instead of things that I should do it is things that I am or that I am worthy of. For example, I would say some things:  

I am powerful

I am enough 

I am beautiful 

I have self-worth 

You create your own clam. 

I would try to be in a very quiet spot just like Kelly Mark, I do not have a studio to record in but I would try to find a spot to do this audio, so it is a peaceful reminder of just my voice a calming effecting. I am currently unsure if I should possibly add music to the piece or if that would distract from the affirmations that I would be saying. Most mindfulness exercise and affirmations I have come across on youtube and websites it just talking so I am leaning towards that so I can stick to that type of things. 

Resources/References: 

Pinterest Board of my reminders → https://www.pinterest.ca/imrachealnorton/mindfulness/

Mindfulness Website → https://www.excelatlife.com/downloads/mindfulness/index.htm

Kelly Mark’s I Really Should → http://kellymark.com/MULT_IRS_CD1.html

Three Artists & The Breakdown

Kelly Mark – I really should

The User – Dot-matrix Sympthony

Laurel Woodcock – One Minute Apology 

What were the conceptual prompts for each piece?

I believe each of these artists had their own prompts in mind when it came to creating these pieces, narrowing down the prompts can seem a little hard but I will give it a shot. For Kelly Mark I believe she gave herself a prompt of using a list of things from past New Years Resolutions that never came to be and just keep growing as she thought about what she could do better or change. For The User I think they decided to give themselves a prompt of being old technology into a world of new, to use something that creates a unique noise and make it into a sound track. And finally for Laurel Woodcock, hers was a little more challenging, I believe she gave herself a prompt to remix something already made and put her own twist on it. All of their prompts to me seem so amazing with the outcomes they created, they all show conceptual art prompts amazingly well even if we can’t pinpoint the exact prompt itself and have to make up our own for it. 

How are these audio pieces different from conventional music, or scoring of films? 

I feel like each piece that is create is different in their own way but if we are to thinking about this when comparing it to the conventional music that we listen to everyday or the scores on films, these pieces are different. For Laurel Woodcock she uses music from an early generation and put a little twist on it, the music she used would be classed as conventional music that would be listened to either today or in the past and she put it in a program and cut it up and made it a different piece all together. For Kelly Mark her piece is all spoken word with some repetitive words, and I find those words create a beat for the piece itself but past that it is not like a regular day music, it could be close to a film score because sometimes in films there is voice overs instead of music but not to the extent that she does it in this one piece. And finally for The User their piece is completely different from any conventional music we listen to or film scores, they use items that create a unique sound and put the record of those sounds in a program and mix them up to create a different type of dubstep style of music, it not exactly like the conventional dubstep music you would hear but the more you listen to it, it has that quality. 

How did the artists perform and resolve these ideas in the works? 

I personally believe each artists has their own way of performing be it with paint or audio or any other type of media. For The User I believe they stayed in a quiet room with just the printer so only the sounds of the machine were to be picked up, they probably used a high quality microphone and recording equipment to make sure no background noise was picked up including the breathing of the artist. I believe the same goes for Kelly Mark, I believe she sat in a recording studio that was super quiet and only picked up her words and saying so it had no distractions other then what she was speaking. Laurel Woodcock seems to have used a program on a computer to make the changes to the audio, unless she sat in-front of a record player and made it skip and scratch it at certain parts to create the noise and musically tone she was looking for. 

What are some of the strategies they used to maintain interest in listening to the works – how did the works use repetition and change over time? 

I think I choose these three artists because each of them used different techniques to keep our attention during the audio piece. For Laurel Woodcock, she interchanged which part skipped and how long it skipped creating a different illusion the skipping/scratching noise is also a jolt of energy because that isn’t a sound you like to hear when listening to records. For The User, they used tonal variations; they had the machines make different noises throughout though defiantly repetitive it changed in volume as well making you think was this change on purpose or mistake when listening to it sometimes. And Finally for Kelly Mark she used the same words I really should and made a statement, though she used repetition their wasn’t much change over time that I caught when listening to the piece itself, it was very monotones and sometimes hard to listen to and keep my attention on.  So some of the strategies that these 3 artists used were; volume control, beat change, repetition of certain words. 

What is the effect of listening to the piece on you?

These pieces defiantly had an effect on me when listening to them. Each artist had a different effect on me when listening to them. Kelly Mark, I was entranced for the first bit curious as to want she was going to say next because she was all over the place with what she really should do, but also awhile I lost instead in the lengthy piece of work and started to tune it out. For Laurel Woodcock I found myself cringing as the scratch of the record, unable to tell if it was a real scratch or a fake one create in a program either way it made me jump because you don’t do that to records. And Finally for The User I loved listening to this piece, it kept my attention and curious as to what part of the machine was making which noise and enjoy the slight volume changes, nothing that made myself jump or overthink or tune it out; it was by far my favourite piece. 

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Week 6

❁ The Failed Masks of Our Times (A Series) ❁

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Photo 1 (blue cube): a cat toy with 3 holes in it, sitting on my head and face poking out of another hole. I call this one the failed masked astronaut, my expression in this one gives me the weird childhood astronaut portrait vibes and I am looking at how baby my face is looking.    

Photo 2 (red tube): a cat toy again, I was sighing in defeat when the tube would not stay flat and kept popping up; so I just went with it and I think this represents some peoples tunnel vision when it comes to the pandemic, I also just laugh at this picture and the 3rd one as well. 

Photo 3 (Tupperware): a piece of Tupperware of my countertop, I was just happy I got it to stick to my face even for a brief moment and you can see the smile on my face behind the well used container. I have 2 other photos (?) of different facial expressions behind this container and each of them made me laugh.  

❁ Article Answers ❁ 

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

I find that when I am covering security break at work and having to keep count of how many people enter the store, the faces blur together, they sometimes seem like the same person. The literally masks that they were sometimes make it hard to distinguish if I counted that person or not when another person is talking to me or asking myself a question. I find it hard to tell people apart nowadays. 

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

I think all of them had some sort of interest for myself and they all sort of connected to my experience stated above. I liked when she talked about the plague doctor mask being worn and scaring some people on the street, I believe that type of mask kind of suits the times we are in currently. When it comes to connecting to my experience, I’d have to say that when she was talking about the masks everyone wears from patterned fabric ones to regular surgical ones and that her identity is fraying. I feel like my identity is fraying but also the identity of everyone around making it hard to tell them apart and count them as individuals. 

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

Who am I without my face? I don’t know I feel like I would be no one just another body on this earth, I feel like our faces give us our unique place in the world. The experiences daily are so different from before the pandemic, I feel like smiling is a lot harder nowadays because no one can see it so do you really want to smile? I feel that interacting and recognizing people is harder especially if you rely on faces to remember people because you suck at names, which is defiantly me. I believe I am adjusting more and more every day when it comes to our new world, I find myself smiling with my voice instead of my face so people can hear the cheerfulness instead of seeing it, I rely on looking at the top half of faces to remember who they are for the best I can so I can remember who they are it, my coworker or friends. 

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Week 4

I decided to do a self portrait idea after trying to work with my family over the thanksgiving break but not being super successful with them staying still even for one minute.

I measured a 6-foot distance even though it does not look like it because my camera zoomed in when on video mode. I wanted to capture the essence of online zoom University which is what we are all stuck in for now. I tried my hardest to stay still with my whole body in the frame while not talking to my grandma who insisted on a conversation at the very second.

I found staying still even for the one minute was hard, it made me think about the stay still for the 1-hour project we had a few weeks ago, yes it wasn’t as long but still hard. In the end it was a fun project to do, even when trying with my mom fidgety and never stop moving family on mine I have a few outtakes of videos from my step-dad and grandma when I tried to make them stay still for 1 whole minute and I tried to have them relate to 1 hour exercise we had earlier, they congratulated me for being able to do that because their 1 minute was hard enough.

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Week Three

Video Sentences: 

Making Changes — change one thing in the space he’s in.

Sitting — to make people feel uncomfortable and awkward.

Ladder Climb — successfully climb the ladder without support.

Dead End, Eastern Market, Detroit  — successfully turn the van around in the alley. 

The distance I can be from my son – Back Alley — let my kid travel as far as possible before nerves kick in.

Severa Observations — give the viewer relaxing tingles. 

I did a lot of my brainstorming for this project on the phone with my mom and grandma. I tossed around ideas for things to throw and if it was safe to throw out my window on the 3rd story (we ruled no). 

Some of the ideas that we came up with by bouncing ideas off each other and viewing Pinterest as inspiration

✿ hard boiled eggs

✿ cereal 

✿ books 

✿ medication packs 

✿ skeletons 

✿ raw eggs 

✿ rice 

✿ fruit 

these were just some of the ideas. My final idea came from combining two ideas together and see what would come of it. I took some old cereal that I had in my apartment and the spooky cheap skeletons I got from Walmart. 

When it comes to shooting I needed to find a spot that would be safe and not super embarrassing spot on my living property to photograph me throwing these images up in the air, I believe I have a spot I will document if it was successful later on. 

Equipment Used: 

✿ Nikon 7100 

✿ 18-140mm lens (kit lens) 

Camera Settings: 

✿ ISO 100

✿ 20mm

✿ f/3.5

✿ 1/60 sec 

Shooting went a little rough, getting the setting right and getting the camera to focus was the hard part. I took about 63 photos and only 2 came out and only 1 was really useable in post. I found myself making a huge mess when throwing the items, I even broke one of the skeletons’ arm. I have attached some behind the scenes and one of the attempts that my hand decided to make an appearance. Overall the shooting went okay, my feet were cold because of the morning dew by other than that it was good. 

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In the video is the quick recap of the drawing, the drawing in total took about 10-12 minutes which is also how long it takes for the average person to walk a kilometre, so I used two different types of measurements in this prompt, it is sped up because procreate does not allow real time if it is under 30 minutes I believe.

Week’s work can be reached by the numbered buttons at the bottom of the page.

The midterm break was included in the page count, following weeks for exercises correspond to their consequent number.

Week 1: September, Tuesday 15th 2020

How does Sol Lewitt express the notion that “the idea is 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?

Sol Lewitt expresses the notion that “The idea is the machine that makes art” in Paragraphs on Conceptual Art (1967). It is implied that in the process of making a work of art, the written instruction and diagrams are to be sent out to performing equipment operators (In this case, the art students). This act challenges the role of the artist’s hand, changing it to resemble that of an engineer. Every decision is made meticulously before it reaches any hand. Colours and Planes are an abstract to Lewitt, pure idea than physical material.

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.

The Artwork is nested among multiple scales. At the most largest scale, it is a video performance depicting Yoko Ono declaiming a list of instructions. The instructions representing another scale, a different aspect, that are predetermined. Similar to Lewitt, they are decided and coordinated before the act and hand of the artist.

Dressed in black, with a hat and circle sunglasses to match, Ono is slouched and perched on an ordinary bar-stool. Looking much like someone who may well have been to a funeral. A kind of To-do list is read out loud; spoken dispassionately, even ironically staged for five and half minutes. It makes for a challenging experience, not because the material and the execution is not interesting but because of it’s own disinterest and non-seriousness. It is quite literally Yoko Ono reading to a witness with a set of instructions to perform. It is quite humorous in that regard, making it successful as a provocative piece of work.

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?

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Bruce Nauman was inspired by a sense of helplessness, the creative block. When given an art studio, was lost as to what to do in that space. He reached out asking what he should be doing and the response he was given had a profound effect on Nauman. “Do what you do” was exactly he was told to do in the studio, cause if you are given an art studio you are expected to make art in it. In a way, it is a measure of artistic intent.

The art pieces I chose are framed curiosities. Both perform an activity. Double Poke in the Eye II(1985) is a comic animation of two profiles poking each other in the eye. made with neon lights, this piece feels like a sign, and signs function like directions, as if allowing the audience to know what is to be expected. The second image, studies for hologram(1970), is a silkscreen of a person holding their mouth open. This demonstration is possibly Nauman looking for a way to see how wide it opens.

Everything is examined.

A kilometre is a concept. Make a kilometre in any medium – photo, video, object, text etc.

As described in the assignment: “make sure to measure your kilometre in some way. Discuss your process in your description of your kilometre, and how you know it is precisely a kilometre. Don’t decorate your kilometre or make it “artistic” and masterful. Use only the necessary materials to be what it must be. “

What is a Kilometre?

Breaking down the word, Kilomtre is literally a measurement of a thousand, which prompts an additional question: A thousand of what?

Take into account that Artists like Lewitt, Ono, and Nauman were about the idea of what makes art. Nauman specifically was interested in performing activities within an art space -Nauman found the studio to be the measurement of what consitutes as art and non-art.

The following are a list of requirements for the assignment.

The final activity was decided to be a morning walk to Royal Park in Guelph with my partner. measured out our thousand (or two thousand?) with an app. Photos of where we started and ended up were taking, as well as a intermediate photograph of the space and time between. The final measurement was captured while watching the phone’s screen and screen-capturing that data as it reached 1km.

WEEK ONE

WRITE: How does Sol Lewitt express the notion that “the idea is 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?

As the video describes, he is a composer, he composes these works for others to “perform.” His work is all behind the scenes, much like the work of an architect who creates blueprints for a construction site, he creates the blueprint for a group of artists and installers to follow through with. Each and every detail has been thought of by the artist in their plan or blueprint and is thusly executed. Everything from the colour to the way each colour is applied to the wall. Lewitt has created the instruction that then performs the final tangible artwork and in so doing has created an art form all his own.

WRITE: 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.

In the works of Yoko Ono, the “work” of art varies depending upon the instruction. Sometimes, the resulting artwork is simply a feeling while in other cases the final product is a tangible item. Her artworks though are the instruction and how each individual interprets them. Her works have to do with human interaction more so than a tangible item that represents a final work. I think that the works that have to do with canvases that she described at the start of the video are perhaps more easily understood as art where, the rest must be considered and thoughtfully come to by an interpreter in order for them to be considered an artwork. I think these instructions are a great way of becoming a more mindful artist, they are a practise more than anything else.

WRITE: 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?

The “Run From Fear” piece rendered using neon lights and mounted on the wall caught my eye. It is yellow and pink and says “Run From Fear” then below that “Fun From Rear” which is a comical statement with a sexual connotation to it however, all Nauman did was switch the “R” and the “F” from the first statement. The framing occurs in the action of lighting the words up which, brings attention to statements that otherwise are just simple statements, not anything note worthy. By lighting them up Nauman has made them note worthy.

“Coffee Spilled Because the Cup was too Hot” is a photographic presentation that has framed the cup and the spill of coffee on the floor in a colourful manor. The image is of an ordinary occurrence, everyone has spilled coffee before, but Nauman has highlighted his own spill. I find this piece humorous and pushing the boundary of what we traditionally call art.

EXERCISE: A kilometre is a concept. Make a kilometre in any medium – photo, video, object, text etc. Post documentation and description of your kilometre on your blog page.

For this assignment I decided to think about the construct of a kilometer in terms of how a car engine describes a kilometer. Cars measure the output of gas whether in motion or stationary. There are censors that calculate how much fuel is left in the tank and how many kilometers you have before the tank is empty. For this reason, I measured my kilometer by sitting in the car in the exact same place. I took a photo of the gas level and idled the car until it read one kilometer less. It took about a minute or two. What I find interesting about this measurement though, is that it is so vastly variable. This same measurement could be taken at a high speed and the gauge would read a kilometer lower much faster although you may not have actually gone a full kilometer yet, you’ve just burned that amount of fuel.

WEEK TWO

For my interpretation of Marina Abramovic’s work, I laid on my parents kitchen table with the overhead light very close to my body. The light is adjustable, so I pulled it down as far as it would go then laid flat underneath it for an hour. The whole process was strange and I giggled a few times because my sister was watching me do this. She studies at the dining room table with a clear sight to the kitchen table and this “event” so to speak was distracting.

As I laid there, I really thought about how food might feel were it an animate object. I felt like I was served for dinner. What if someone sat down and decided to bite my toe? What does it feel like to be the roast beef about to be carved for consumption? Or maybe with the light so close to me, like a piece of fried chicken or some other kind of fast food, under infrared light to be kept warm. Slowly drying out.

I also felt a bit like Frankenstein’s monster. Like I was going to have something about my person altered. Perhaps the close lighting and being on a table in the kitchen exacerbated the feeling of some DIY surgery. What would happen if you were awake for such a thing? What if a cold blooded killer happened to break in right at that moment and decide to fillet me? I felt very strangely exposed even though I was in my parents home where everything is familiar.

The act itself was kind of uncomfortable and awkward, especially being that I had an inadvertent audience. At the end of the process, I had my sister take photos of me for documentation. After reviewing the images I felt as though I was looking at a dead body, which was uncomfortable. I also happened to be wearing black which elevated that dark eerie feeling.

WEEK THREE

Making Changes, instructional sentence: Adjust the placement of random objects in the city, don’t move them far, or remove them.

Sitting, instructional sentence: Sit closely to patrons seated on benches.

Ladder Climb, instructional sentence: Ascend a ladder without anything to support it.

Dead End, Eastern Market, Detroit, instructional sentence: In a cargo van, locate a small ally way in which you must complete a full turnaround, complete in the smallest ally the van can fit.

45.9 Yards, 42 meters, instrctional sentence: Find a long driveway, observe a toddler walk up the driveway, measure the distance.

Several Observations, instructional sentence: Feel an object wrapped in bubble wrap, remove the object from the wrapping and feel it more.

Defenistrate an object

The item I chose to throw out of my apartment window was a Klean Kanteen. The reason for this choice is their claim… they say they are indestructible. So, naturally, I put this to the test. I filled the water bottle, screwed the cap on tight and gave it to my significant other to throw out of our second story bedroom window. The bottle itself stood up quite well to this test actually. I was surprised at only some small dents being made in the aluminium. The cap on the other hand was completely smashed and leaked all the water out all over the place.

I found it difficult to know if I actually captured the bottle falling. It felt like I was trying to search my image for a ghost. As the water bottle was a small one and it was thrown with some vigor the spin on it as it descended made the bottle just a metallic blur in the photos. There is one image of the back ground, one of the bottle in mid air, a few are of it once it hit the ground, and the final image is of the remains of the cap.

I’m not totally sure why this is art but it was kind of cathartic so, I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

WEEK FOUR

Write: Actively explore and think about the work of Adad Hannah.

The work of Adad Hannah is very interesting, I enjoy the idea of watching someone hold a pose that would normally be captured in an instant. His work reminds me a little bit of the Humans of New York blog with his approach. The way the images are set within the frame as well as how the individuals are interviewed are very similar. I enjoy that he went out into the community and made a point of connecting with people in a time when making connections is not easy.

I think that the weird in between time Hannah describes is a good way of describing the time we are all living in. We are all together going through this crisis, we each have our own lives going on and have our own routine’s we have developed in order to continue living in this new normal. I think that the way the images have been captured are quite lovely and personal feeling, he is respecting social distancing while creating these intimate images. They feel as though he was much closer and was having a personal conversation with his subjects.

I think the videos are kind of empowering and insightful. They seem to act as a way of bringing people together in a scary time. It’s interesting to see how people are making their way through the difficulties of every day life right now. There are people from all walks of life and all nationalities in his work. There are images of people safely being activists during the pandemic. There are images of people going outside to enjoy the outdoors. Each image is set within the frame the same way, right in the center of the frame, the background is out of focus and the subject in focus. When the pandemic began and this art work began it seems that Hannah was still adapting the structure of the images and how they would be described within the frame. Where later in this work the images are mostly of people standing and the images are set more similarly. I enjoy the evolution of the images and the time documentation. As you scroll through the images there’s the start, in the spring, before there were leaves on the trees and everything was very desolate and reflective of the fear everyone was feeling. Then as you scroll further there are images of people out enjoying parks and outdoor spaces and embracing what’s going on around them.

Exercise: Make a self-portrait or portrait of someone else in the style of Social Distancing Portraits. Post and describe your 1 minute video.

For this assignment I chose my models based on my own every day life. Right now I am homeschooling my aunt’s children three days a week while my mom helps out the other two. They are going to school synchronously online every day from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. They have attendance taken, stand for “Oh Canada,” have their recesses and stretch breaks the same as they would at school.

This strange time is very scary for them and when speaking about the craziness that is currently going on we choose our words carefully so as not to exacerbate their fears. Sayge, 6, and Siena, 8, have become a part of my own routine with synchronous learning. Sayge sometimes sits in my lap while he listens to his teacher and I listen to my own instructor. This bizarre time has been stressful and sad. These kids can’t be with their friends, they can’t connect with their teachers in the same way and they are expected to sit in front of a screen for hours on end. On top of that, they are living with our grandmother while their house in Windsor is being built and their parents oversee the construction.

On the day I took the video the kids were participating in crazy hair day and were thrilled to be doing it. It was difficult to get them to stand still for one whole minute, Sayge had a very hard time with this. I think he’s the wiggliest little human I have ever met. Siena had an easier time with standing still and only cracked a grin while I filmed. Prior to taking the video I had told them the goal was for them to stand like statues for one minute and then they could go run around because it was a beautiful day and they were on recess.

WEEK SIX

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

Recently my great grandmother passed away. She was a week shy of her 104th birthday. It is always unfortunate to attend a funeral however, during this unusual time it was particularly sad. Not many people came as there were strict regulations on the number of people who could be there. We all stood behind a taped line and the people coming to give their condolences had to remain behind another taped line in order to abide by social distancing regulations. We were only allowed within touching space of people we lived with or were in our social bubble. Anyone coming in we could only waved and speak to. It was difficult to recognize some people and it was very difficult to read the emotions on people’s faces. Was anyone sad? Were they angry? Were they content because she had lived a full life and died simply of age? Who knew!? In this regard I would have to say that wearing masks was taking away from a human exchange, the sharing of emotions over the loss of a loved one. My great grandmother was a pillar in our little community, she owned her own business and was acknowledged for her expertise in her field on more than a few occasions. It was sad to see only a smattering of people come out to pay respects for this woman who had been outfitting women in bras and lovely undergarments for 60 years. Many women from our little town had bought their first bra from my great grandmother when they were young girls and they had continues to purchase their undergarments from her for many many years. Any of these women that came to the funeral were had to recognize either from the disguise of old age or because of the face coverings we all are required to wear. It is difficult to understand grief when you cannot see the emotion on people’s faces. I think that the masks have made us all a little bit blind.

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

I am currently reading Boccaccio’s Decameron and have found some interesting connections between that book and Steinke’s article. She mentions a few different stories of plague and the masks worn with scented objects tucked into the beaks of the bird-like masks. In the Decameron the introduction describes people walking through the streets holding items of pleasant scent to their noses so as to avoid the stench of death and decay in the streets. I suppose what interests me here is that we in Canada have not had piles of people decaying in the streets however, in New York in April, people were dying from this virus so rapidly that they were forced to put the bodies into cooled 18 wheeler trucks so the smell could be avoided and because people were dying faster than graves could be dug. This is very similar to the Black Death that Boccaccio writes about in his Decameron. Steinke mentions different accounts though history of masks being worn and I appreciate the fact that we right now are living in a moment in history. I think that seeing a bird -like mask would be jarring and I don’t think I would want to get too close, they remind me of a gas mask.

WRITE: 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?

One of the attributes about me that my boyfriend loves is how expressive I am with my face, he finds humor in it and likes knowing the excitement or frustration that I am feeling. I agree with Steinke in this regard that I don’t feel like myself with a mask on because I feel that I can’t express myself appropriately. Facial expression is a way of connecting with others and making them understand you. The faces you make are what give you your unique and characteristic lines which then become a part of how people identify you as you. I suppose then that without people being able to see my face I also don’t feel like myself. I feel like even just smiling to someone from behind a mask feels strange because they have to rely on your eyes to understand what your face is doing. Do your eyes then always convey what the rest of your face does? Or do we need to see the face as a whole to really understand? I think the thing I think about most is how my face does not necessarily matter in the grand scheme of things however, the face of a nurse in a children’s hospital, that face matters. Those children need to feel emotionally connected to their health care team and need to feel safe and encouraged. Not being able to see their faces is jarring and impersonal. So, yes I feel less like myself when half my face is hidden by a mask but that said, I don’t think I feel as strange as some others might. Those who rely on making personal connections in their jobs I think would feel more strange than I do.

EXERCISE: Change your face three ways. Make up a new face, or a new way to hide your face. Make an alternative pandemic mask. Use your face as the base of a sculpture. Make your face into something that is not a face. Or that is someone else’s face. Be playful, and see how many ways you might explore your own face, and to think about faces in this moment.

In these images I do not see myself, I cannot recognize my face. The first is a sort of costume, the second is a complete covering but made of canvas and is breathable, the last is also a complete covering and makes a sort of sculpture. For this project I tried a few different things covering my face, one was a candle in an attempt to make a parallel to people in the Decameron walking with scented things to avoid the stench of death. Another was my small pencil case unzipped and sitting vertically covering my nose and mouth and part of my forehead. I tried to make each image as similar as possible so I sat in the same position and used the light switch in the background as a means of centering myself in the same spot. My head was tilted the same way and I looked in a slightly upward direction in each photo even though you can only see my eyes in one of the images I have here.

WEEK SEVEN

WRITE: Select a total of THREE works from the Audio lecture, each by different artists, to describe and discuss in your notes. What were the conceptual prompts for each piece? How are these audio pieces different from conventional music, or scoring of films? How did the artists perform and resolve these ideas in the works? What are some of the strategies they used to maintain interest in listening to the works – how did the works use repetition and change over time? What is the effect of listening to the piece on you?

Kelly Mark

Horroridor, created for Nuit Blanche in 2008 is a sound piece that takes clips from movies of people screaming. This is not a movie nor is it music, it is entirely removed from any context that may aid us in placing it. Instead, the clips are forced together in a sort of collage of screaming horrors. To me, the idea was to hear the screams as noises the human body creates in a vast variety of scenarios. When do people scream and why? It was uncomfortable listening to screaming like that. As an experiment, I turned the volume up considerably and listened to it as I imagined it would have sounded in person, LOUD. I’m sure that most people came and went as the screaming loop played without standing and listening until the moment came back around from whence they arrived. Thus, the sounds would not often have been heard more than once by the same listeners which makes for an interesting display, seeing many different clips of many different people doing the same thing, screaming. The screams range in intensity and I’m sure range in meaning, from excitement to horror to panic to anger.

Marla Hlady

This interactive musical piece of art is quite a feet of engineering. Each way the “instruments” are turned and oscillated they make a different sound. This means that the sound is as individual and unique as the person who created it. To me, this piece is all about human interaction and experience. If these items were simply on display or even shown in use in a video they (the viewer) would not have the same pleasurable experience as they do being a part of the art and sound making. I think that having a “try-me” aspect makes the viewer experience much better and aids in the understanding of the work overall. Though the sounds are not music per se, they are musical and melodic and they play off each other when used at the same time creating interesting sounds. None of the sounds will ever be quite the same which makes this piece more encapsulating.

Emeka Ogboh

Ogboh uses the sounds of Lagos, his home, as a sort of back ground noise to what is to him, a quiet city (New York). I find the purpose of his music shocking, to me, New York is a bustling and noisy city no matter the time of day or night. However, according to Ogboh it is too quiet and he missed the sounds of home. He creates his city sounds as a means of reminiscing about his home in Lagos. These sounds he then shared with others who agreed that this helped them with this permanent state of quiet to which they were not accustomed. The sounds of Lagos are constant and ever changing, it is the music of the city.

PROPOSAL:

After listening to the work of Emeka Ogboh and his ambient city sounds I was inspired to listen to the ambient noise of my hometown. With Christmas coming soon and people out shopping the streets are bustling. It’s comforting to me knowing that people are staying local to do their shopping because they aren’t risking spreading this virus but also because my family’s small business is thriving. Seeing people in the streets means they are spending their time in small mom and pop shops, buying from local artists, and supporting families in our community.

I was also inspired by the work of Cevdet Erek who recreates the sounds of the ocean. My town is on the St. Laurence river which is quite an immense river, it filters in from the Ocean in the south east of Quebec and runs into the great lakes. I spent early mornings in high school out in rowing boats on the river and feel a calm connection with it.

I feel connected to the water that is a focal point of my town as well as the hustle and bustle that is the downtown that I have spent so much of my life in. My plan for my audio piece is then to record the hustle of the street while layering the lapping of the water in the harbor. Both of these sounds play on memory and familiar sounds. Both of these sounds are so integral of my experience of my hometown, but my experience is entirely different than any other individual’s experience would be. The only other person that could relate to these two sounds is my younger sister who also rowed and worked in our family business. She is the one I walked to practice with and the one I continue to walk along King street with.

In order to record the sound, I will walk from my family’s business at one end of King street to the bakery we get egg salad sandwiches from at the other end of King street. I will then layer over that with the sound of the water lapping against the docs in the harbor. I plan to use the sound of the water only during lulls in the street noise. The walk itself is about 2 minutes so I may look at speeding up the sound so that it fits in a one minute parameter. However, if the sounds are too mottled I may simply use a segment of the sounds of the walk.

The title of this piece will be: The Sounds of Home

I also read this article about sound artists:

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/12-sound-artists-changing-perception-art-587054

The Sounds of Home, audio art piece

WEEK TEN

Write:

Wow, the time commitment that some of these artists has committed to is immense! I could hardly imagine having one task like punching a time clock every hour on the hour for a year, what an incredible and bizarre accomplishment. I appreciate the imperfections in these tasks the artists have laid out for themselves, having a count of the number of times they did not complete the task which just shows the fallibility of man. To me this is like the artists hand being visible, like the brush strokes in a painting.

I also appreciated the portraits of boys and men named David. This makes me wonder what would happen if someone were to document everyone’s names like this. What if there were a catalog of names and portraits of the people that had the same name together in sections. What an immense collection that would be. I feel as though that may also have an affect on the way people select the names of their children. Perhaps they would go through these catalogues and see what names had on average the longest lives if this information were attached to the portraits.

Proposal:

I am intrigued by the documentation of people and things over time thus for my conceptual piece I will be examining all the places that I have lived. This examination will remove completely any emotional sentiments I may have to these places and be simply locations where at one time I existed. In order to remove emotion I will utilize google street views as my “camera.” This will put me in the position of an observer simply doing a task and nothing more. I have lived in 8 different residences in two different cities throughout my life. Each place has a certain image in my memory and that memory is entirely different from the way they appear in google street view. What I find interesting about this conceptual piece is that while these places have left a mark in my memory they have also been eternalized in the cyber sphere, meaning that in 10, 20, 30 years or maybe more, I will still be able to find these places even if they no longer have a physical or tangible place on earth.

Week #1

Exercise: For my 1km challenge I decided to capture 1 km in meters. The reason for this is because for my sport which is track and field for the last 10 years everything to do with my event is seen in meters. Whether it be for training or a weekend full of competition. I have run this distance many times in my life 5-6 times a week for the last ten years. Ps halfway through, I sprained my ankle in the making of this assignment and rolled around in the grass while my friend sat down 300m away from me on the phone.

Week #1: notes

WRITE: How does Sol Lewitt express the notion that “the idea is 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?

Sol LeWitt expresses the idea of the machine being the main driver that makes art in his work is the many different part and processes that come together to make this collab one piece that cannot be understood by logic, but by the heart. Also, by having the other artist there to help on the team it helps add there on personal touch to the piece.

WRITE: 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.

When watching this video with Yoko Ono it was quite interesting. When it comes to drawing boundaries of the various artwork mention in the video. I think it depends on the artist and how comfortable they are when it comes to doing the artwork mentioned in the video. Ono challenges people by seeing how personal one would go to document the task that is given. I found many of the concepts pretty interesting, as she went on somewhere more personal than other and or time-consuming. The one challenge that stood out to me was the “not saying negative things” for 3 days then to 45 days then to 3 months. this to me is a useful exercise that could help someone that might need this in their life.

WRITE: Describe two works by Bruce Nauman (include images) where he frames everyday 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?

One work that stood out to me was the exaggerated walk he filmed going around the taped box on the ground to slow down the process and really demonstrate this movement helps one view an everyday regular movement in a different way.

Another one of his works that stood out to me was the sex position 69 instalments. to me this piece is playful and at the same time changing the way society sees relationships. The overlapping of the neon light also gives the piece movement which I found quite interesting to me.

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