Collaborative Presentations: Day One

Toni Dove and Christopher Jordon; Pascal Dombis and Jeffrey Shaw.


Toni Dove and Christopher Jordon:

They said that the interactive video artist Toni Dove and the photographer Chris Jordon are both artists making a statement about consumerism. I definitely was able to see the connection in Chris Jordon's work. Both his Intolerable Beauty and his work with the trash found in bird corpses really force our eyes open to what we as wasteful humans are doing to our environment. The arrangement of trash in the birds' bodies make one wonder if such an arrangement is even possible and the painting replica made up of 106000 cans - and that being 30 seconds worth of cans - is a shocking thing to hear. I think that the explanation along with the Colbert Report video really enhanced the work and helped to drive the point home. Toni Dove, on the other hand, I wasn't really getting "consumerism" from her. Sure, her Artificial Changelings piece was really cool and a look at how our generation is so different from previous ones, as well as probably what we will do to ourselves if we continue on this path (that's what I'm assuming the land of fire was supposed to represent), so I can kind of see the connection there, but Spectropia, other than show her style of artwork, I thought wasn't so much any statement on consumerism as it was a showcase of awesome video game potential.



Art Through Systems, Pascal Dombis and Jeffrey Shaw:

The commentary on search engines and how we have connected ourselves so thoroughly to such an unreliable source as the internet is pretty radical. I felt like the Jeffrey Shaw section didn't make much sense though. They said that it was about "how people are connected to the net and control what they look at", but I don't really understand how, and I kind of got the feeling that they didn't either. Pascal Dombis, on the other hand, was a well developed section. His search-engine-produced results really speaks for itself, to the point where I wish he hadn't included the overlay of colors. I felt that was kind of unnecessary. Also I have no idea what the whole "straight line curving into a circle reforming into a straight line again" thing had to do with the theme. This exhibit started me thinking on how it would be cool to make a sort of interactive statement on search engine's unreliable results, maybe by having someone type in anything they want and the computer would then bring up many results on google image search or some such thing - both the relevant and the extremely NON relevant. I'm not sure how that would work though: it sounds too complicated even for programmers.


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Word Visualization

Here is my word visualization. I chose "speed" and tried to make it look like it was taking off quickly by kerning the letters more as I got later in the word as well as making them thinner. Elements at the very beginning were stretched too, to give the feel of an afterimage: that the word was going so fast the rest hadn't had time to catch up yet.



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Poems

There is still some confusion about my poem because of that whole not knowing it had to be a published author thing. I have been trying to think of another poem since then. I had one recommended to me that is a cool poem, but I don't have nearly as developed an idea for it as I did for the other one. I will post them both here I guess.

Here was my first idea (The one with the children's book):

Stephanie Cuono - "Song Number Three"

we lie to little girls from an early age
we try to tell them that everything'll be ok
that if they wish upon a star their dreams will all come true
well, twinkle twinkle little star
how i wonder where the hell you are
cause i'm looking to the night sky
and i can't find you
and i wish that life was like a fairy tale
where everybody gets what they deserve
where the good guy always wins and the bad one always dies
(or has their eyes gouged out by little birdies beaks and claws)
and i wish that life was like a fairy tale
where even if things don't go according to plan
and everyone fails and you lose your man
you can still make everything right with a justified suicide
star light, star bright
first star i see tonight
i wish i may and i wish i might
that everything will turn out all right



Here is the other one I am considering. I am thinking about maybe incorporating a real orange with nails piercing the slices somehow? I'm not sure. It's a very underdeveloped idea right now.


Gary Soto - "Oranges"

The first time I walked
With a girl, I was twelve,
Cold, and weighted down
With two oranges in my jacket.
December. Frost cracking
Beneath my steps, my breath
Before me, then gone,
As I walked toward
Her house, the one whose
Porch light burned yellow
Night and day, in any weather.
A dog barked at me, until
She came out pulling
At her gloves, face bright
With rouge. I smiled,
Touched her shoulder, and led
Her down the street, across
A used car lot and a line
Of newly planted trees,
Until we were breathing
Before a drugstore. We
Entered, the tiny bell
Bringing a saleslady
Down a narrow aisle of goods.
I turned to the candies
Tiered like bleachers,
And asked what she wanted -
Light in her eyes, a smile
Starting at the corners
Of her mouth. I fingered
A nickle in my pocket,
And when she lifted a chocolate
That cost a dime,
I didn't say anything.
I took the nickle from
My pocket, then an orange,
And set them quietly on
The counter. When I looked up,
The lady's eyes met mine,
And held them, knowing
Very well what it was all
About.

Outside,
A few cars hissing past,
Fog hanging like old
Coats between the trees.
I took my girl's hand
In mine for two blocks,
Then released it to let
Her unwrap the chocolate.
I peeled my orange
That was so bright against
The gray of December
That, from some distance,
Someone might have thought
I was making a fire in my hands.

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