Ethan Hopfer Artist Statement work in progress

My artwork is an extension of my inner child. It refuses to grow up, play nice, or be appropriate. Continually challenging the established art aesthetic I use humor to address social and political issues. Whether it be print, sculpture, paint or digital media levity is paramount in my work. We are surrounded by so much doom and gloom that if we can't laugh at it there is no way to survive. Evil corporations, lying politicians and mass media all cry out to me to be knocked back in their place.

Interview with Leslie Rule head of KQED's Center for Community Media

Me: In your own words what is location based education?

Leslie: Location based education is another way of saying place based education. place based education takes in the community and goes well beyond what can be found in a text books. It frees students from the confines of a four walled classroom and rigid textbooks by placing them in the context of community because we are not isolated from each other.

M: How long have you been working in the field?

L: I have been working with locative media for about 5 years, but have been working with different forms of story telling for over 20 years.

M: What got you interested in the field?

L: Well it was a bit of a fluke. I went to a conference at MIT were i was inspired by two speakers, Paula Levine with her "Shadows of Another Place: San Francisco <-> Baghdad," and Jeremy Hight and his piece "Narrative Archeology." Shortly after Hewlett Packard came to KQED with a new software they developed and asked if we would work with them and put on a lab using their product.

M: What would you like place based education to do for schools?

L: On a grand scheme I'd like to see it change the educational experience as a whole. I'd like to see it change the way in which school happens. I'd love to see scientists and artist come together and find knew ways of educating. And I'm not talking about people being assigned to develop this, but individual who really want to make change and believe in what they are doing. To not just see this as linear thinking and story telling but to develop create and new ways to use the technologies. I want teachers to understand the importance of getting out of the classroom.

M: What are some of the limiting factors facing place based education and how can they be overcome?

L: Lack of standardization in mobile devices. We also need to develop a standard operating system. Another problem is in the development of curriculum. as I said before it is important to get people together and try to come up with new and interesting ways of presenting information. Yet another problem facing us is that we are forced to build these systems upon the lowest common denominator. right now we are building to be used with cell phones because they are cheap and everyone has one.

M: What devices and technologies are best suited for immediate implementation of location based education?

L: At the moment cell phones. Mainly, as I said earlier, because everyone has them. There is not as large of a disparity between kids with money and those with out. Plus cell phones are becoming smaller with better computing power and are replacing desktop computers for many features we traditionally used them for such as email and data management.

M: Do you see location/place based education replacing the current system we have in place?

L: Yes

M: What do you think it will take to get teachers and the public on board?

L: As Arnie Duncan said, "If you're not in you're out." There are no gradual steps to take. to achieve this we have to build from the ground up. Sure we can do a case by case study in class rooms but then it is only trial runs. It is going to take sweeping changes to break away from the status quo.

M: Do you feel location is useful outside of the school system?

L: Absolutely, in two ways. One, seeing the community as a living text. And two, for people interested in life long learning. There is so much information out there that you are not required to obtain it in a class room.

What are your thoughts on augmented reality and its importance to place based education?

L: Augmented reality is just another term for content in place, used by a different subset of people. Persnoally i don't care for it all that much because it elevates technology over content. This are just my personal feelings. Who knows what will happen with it. I would always rather look at the real world then an overlay of it.

Wireless Art Symposium

On Thursday Night Nov. 5, I met with Leslie and a group of new faces at KQED headquarters. The agenda was to finish planning the call to artists and set a date for the wireless art festival currently with the working title "Art in the Air." so far we have a tentative date of May 14th-16th to be followed up on the next weekend by a number of hands on workshops for the community. In the tasks delegated I will be re-doing both "Mapping the Hood," and "The 1906 Earthquake." Along with that i will be creating a map using Google maps that shows where all the previous wireless artwork in the city is located. On top of all that i have decided on a personal project of a walking tour of my neighborhood in which i highlight things and places I enjoy along with humorous stories along the way.

A bit late but this is an update

Well it sure has been a long time since i came on here and blogged about my internship. the reason is quite simple up until the other day not to much had gone on at my internship. First i guess i should fill in how my internship at KQED came to fruition. Initially I wanted to intern at the Exploratorium, unfortunately I was not able to work in the hours need to do so (also they were terrible at getting back to me). Leslie Rule on the other hand was and is fabulous over at KQED. I went over there about a month ago to meet with here and discuss the possibilities of interning there. She explained to me two projects she was working on. One being place based education and the other a wireless art symposium. For the location based education we will be working with two schools here in the city one a continuation high school and the other balboa high school. The goal is to develop and implement educational practices built up around a technology that all of the students have...cell phones.This is still in the preliminary stages so i don't really have much else to report, and as to the symposium i will be giving it its own blog post.

The New Semester

The new semester is upon us, let me be the first to say FUCK THE CSU SYSTEM!!!

there with that out of the way i my proceed with the purpose of this blog. What was the purpose again? oh that's right to share my resumes and artist statement, let me just link them up.
ethan's art resume
ethan's work resume
ethan's art statement
artist statement to come shortly

GOcars

I had an amazing time on our field trip to go cars. First off it was just plain fun. Secondly it was very informative. Seeing GPS work in the real world in real time was awesome. The programers they used are top notch. It was great to interact with a city i have lived in for two years in a new way. My favorite part is the way they synced music with the ride. When speeding down a big hill the car would play a fast paced song that really added to the feel of speed. the directions were great and the route it took you on are really enjoyable.

511 Final project

for my final project i will be doing a continuation of my earlier downhill SFSU. i will take the map i created for that and turn it into a locative walk, or rather skate. i will be laying audio tracks over it and creating the finished piece using mscape.

Dialogical Art:610 final

            Since the dawn of history when man first put pigment to cave wall, art has been an integral part of human existence. Art is a way to communicate thought and idea and is a way to initiate public or private discourse. It is difficult to pigeonhole what exactly art is because subjective and can take many different forms and can be created in a limitless number of ways. From early wall paintings to the digital art being created today, humans have always found the need to express themselves creatively, often trying to define ideas and issues larger then themselves.

            In early cultures art was produced for all and was largely used in spiritual or religious practices. The artist was not yet defined and was merely a craftsperson. It was not until the Renaissance that the status of Artist was elevated. “In the 16th century the new image emerges of the artist as genius, giving to eccentric behavior, or even slightly mad. The artist also appears as an intellectual given to abnormal modes of thought, and regarded as an inspired and special individual. (Witcombe)” This image of the artist seems to linger to this day. It is an idea that the artist is different then the rest of is. While this might hold somewhat true it is dangerous to the concept and expression of art. It says that there are only a select few people who can be artists and that they need a special set of skills to be accepted in the arts community. 

            While this has held true in the gallery community for quite some time, there are several movements that seek to take back art and free it from the gallery and give it to the people where it belongs. The goal of art should be to connect people, not divide them. One such artistic movement that does this is dialogical art. There is no set definition for dialogical art because it is continuously being formed, but Andrea Assaf writes, “Dialogic art uses dialogue as an artistic medium, in a variety of forms including, but not limited to speaking, writing, and physical participation.” It liberates art from the restricted forms of drawing, painting, and sculpting. Dialogue has a vast number of possibilities therefore it is important to set up a set of aesthetics on how to judge dialogical art, this is because it is certain that not all dialogue is art. According to Grant Kester in his essay, Conversation Pieces: The role of Dialogue in Socially-Engaged Art, “the concept of dialogical art practice is derived from the Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, who argued that the work of art can be viewed as a kind of conversation: a locus of differing meanings, interpretations, and points of view.” He also states that, “it is quite common for a work of art to provoke dialogue among viewers, this typically occurs in response to the finished object.” The artist makes a piece of work and displays it. They have created the work and the environment in which it will be presented and we as viewers will try to ascertain some sort of meaning.

            True dialogical art challenges the traditional gallery setting. In Eduardo Kac’s essay, Negotiating Meaning, he says “dialogical aesthetics [are] intersubjective and stand in stark contrast with monological art, which is largely based on the concept of individual expression.” In dialogical art the content actually comes from the conversation that takes place between viewers and participants. Unlike traditional art there is no object or tangible ‘thing’ that comes out of its creation, but rather a greater knowledge and understanding among the participants and the viewers. One such example is by the Californian artist Suzanne Lacy, along with Annice Jaroby and Chris Johnson. The piece is entitled, “The Roof is on Fire,” in which Lacy gathered 200 Oakland students of African American and Latino decent, and had them sit in parked cars on top of an Oakland parking structure and carry out, “a series of unscripted dialogues on the problems faced by young people of color in California. (Kester)” Topics ranged from the under funded schools they attended, police profiling and racial stereotypes. Politicians, news media, and regular citizens were invited to walk around the parking lot and listen in on the student’s conversations. This is a great piece because it works on multiple levels and contains multiple conversations. The first is the conversation amongst the young people in the cars, who might not necessarily discuss such things in a formal manner in their daily lives. The second conversation that takes place is between the youths and the viewers. While the students are not speaking directly to the viewers, the spectators are taking in their discussions. Lacy sought to break down the preconceived notions the public may have had and show them a side of these students that they would have been unaware of otherwise. Dialogical art is closely related to activism and social issues because it can address issues and spark communication between parties that are sometimes not willing or able to do so. Our society is a fairly rigid one, where we are placed in hierarchal orders, this makes free and true communication hard to achieve. Dialogical art seeks to bring down these walls and bridge the gap. It seeks to level the playing field making all participants are equals.

            A fantastic example using dialogical art to open communication and activism was done by The Austrian arts collective Wochenklauser.  In 1994 they sought to address the homeless problem amongst drug-addicted sex workers in Zurich. The “intervention consisted of a boat outing on Lake Zurich where the collective gathered politicians, journalists, sex workers, and activists. The goal was to create an open dialogue in which participants would be able to express their views and beliefs on the subject freely. While it is difficult to get a politician to speak so openly and truthfully about a topic that could seriously affect their professional career Wochenklauser, as well as other artists, “Encourage their contributors to question fixed identities.” This “questioning” is done through “a cumulative process of exchange and dialogue rather than a single, instantaneous shock of insight precipitated by an object. (Kester)” By taking the participants out of their normal status and position Wochenklauser effectively levels the playing field, allows everyone to speak as equals and begins an important change for these people.

            There are many other artists who take this approach. But it is not just limited to the taking the participants out of their normal realm of discourse but some artist even move the conversation. One such artist is Maria Salo. For Vertigo, her 1989 installation at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in New York City, she presented her work in the woman’s bathroom and asked the question, “When you watch the film Vertigo, are you Scottie Wanting Madeleine, or are you Madeleine wanting Scottie to want you? Or both? Alternately or Simultaneously? In What Proportions and intensities?” She painted the back of the stalls white so people could respond. She included two separate photos in multiple. One of Scottie and one of her with Madeleine’s face projected on her own. She later remarks that, “Within one month of the opening, three quarters of the photos were torn off the wall, remarks had spread from the doors to the bathroom walls and the name Scottie was removed from the running text.” While this might not be exactly how Salo envisioned the shape of her piece taking it is the beauty of dialogical art. It engages the viewer to participate and shape the work into the finished project. In dialogic art, “every subject with the competence to speak is allowed to take part in discourse.” “Everyone is allowed to question any assertion whatsoever. (Kester)” Remarks on Salo’s piece varied greatly. Some directly answered the question she posed; some were comments on the piece itself, while others were comments made about comments. It is this connection and communication that I find most fascinating about dialogical art. Participants are free to do and say whatever they want, and it is through looking back at these remarks that we can get a better grasp of the subject matter. All dialogical art is interactive, but that is not to say that all interactive art is dialogical. It is through the exchange back and forth that the dialogue is created.

            This semester I undertook the task of creating an artwork that embodied the ideals of dialogue. It was a daunting task. I had no real clue of what to do, all I knew is that I wanted to create a piece that gave people the ability to express themselves freely and hopefully a type of dialogue would ensue. Because this was my first time working in the field I did not want to be overly ambitious. The community I wanted to engage was that of my fellow students at SFSU. I have done two iterations so far of my project Conversation Station. The piece is a booth I constructed out of PVC piping and blank canvas. Inside the booth I left felt pens so that passers by could contribte to the finished piece. My first experiment with it was during the senior show. I thought it was a good place to start because the people who would see it were primarily those interested in the arts. I wrote one work on the inside, create, and was thrilled with how well it was received. People both wrote and drew all over it. Not just on the inside but the outside as well.

            For the second iteration I took a bit of a chance and opened it up to the rest of the school. I replaced the canvas and moved the piece from the 5^th floor of the fine arts building down to the Malcolm X Plaza. This time I left the canvas completely blank as to not influence what people would contribute. Once again I was blown away at the results. I had all kinds of different responses ranging from poetry to cute drawings, and even some confessions. What excited me the most is that I was actually able to spark a bit of discussion. One addition to the booth was a heart with the words “Jesus loves you,” inside. Under that some one wrote, “No he doesn’t.”  Someone later wrote under that, “Actually he does!” And even later still someone crossed out the name Jesus and added Allah. This simple interplay exceeded my expectations, a janky little booth that I rigged together, along with the contributions of anonymous passers, was able to create a dialogue as well as get a better look at the student population of a university. While it might not be an earth shattering or life-changing event, it was my first attempt at undertaking such a daunting task, and by no means am I finished. I expect to continue down this road and push myself to be a better artist.

            As I have expressed through out this paper dialogical art can take on a wide range of possibilities and processes that can help challenge or establish a set of beliefs. It is through this dialogue that we can better understand and connect with the world and the people around us. It may not be able to hang in a gallery or be commoditized by the mainstream, but it will remain in the hands of the people where art can really do the most good.

References:

"An essay on community and communication in art." Oturn. 19 Oct 2006. 21 May 2009 .

 

deNobriga, Kathie. "Community-based Art for Social Change." http://www.communityarts.net/. Oct 1999 http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/1999/10/communitybased.php

 

Kac, Eduardo. "Defining Lines: Breaking Down Boarders." http://cristine.org/. 1999. 15 May 2009 .

 

Kester, Grant. "Conversation Pieces: The Role of Dialogue in Socially-Engaged Art." http://digitalarts.ucsd.edu/. 2004. UCSD. 15 May 2009 . 

 

Witcombe, Christopher. "ART & ARTISTS: the Renaissance and the Rise of the Artist." arthistory.sbc.edu. 1998. Sweet Briar College. 12 May 2009 .

Art 511 final paper

What is locative media? According to Wikipedia.org, “Locative media is media of communication functionally bound to a location.” Now that doesn’t tell us much but it gets us started in the right direction. Locative media is an emerging field that ties technology and location together.  It is hard to define because it is ever growing and every changing to encompass new possibilities and new ideas. Locative media has a wide variety of applications, and has potential in the commercial, personal and educational arenas. In this paper I would like to explore a few of those possibilities and raise questions about the limitations facing this exciting new emerging field.

In March of ‘07 Technology Review reported a team of researchers, led by Markus Kahari, from Nokia’s research center located in Helsinki unveiling a prototype system on one of their smart phones that included a GPS sensor, a compass and an accelerometer.

"Using data from these sensors, the phone can calculate the location of just about any object its camera is pointed at. Each time the phone changes location, it retrieves landmarks from an external database. The user can then download additional information about a chosen location from the web."

 

While the technology is still in development think of the possibilities. Not just for tourists navigating a new and strange city but giving friends the ability to go around and geo-tag all over a city. Tagging restaurants they like, basketball courts they want to set up pick up games and possibly leave notes for friends that are date and time specific as to arrange meeting places or events. Again because locative media seems tailor made for narrative people could create stories and histories around the city that could be locked in place and time and keep those as a record for all that follow after.

Social networking and gaming are also being redefined with the advent of locative media. Websites such as Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter are changing the way people connect with each other and the way they communicate and interact. At first these services were tethered to the home computer and a internet land line, but now as computers are getting smaller, being integrated with cell phones and wireless internet they are beginning to be taken outside into the real world. You can check your facebook for notifications or update your tweet in real time on the go. And now with GPS enabled phones it has become possible to navigate your way around unfamiliar places, as well as locate friends, restaurants, shops and more. While this is a start I foresee the technology moving well beyond its current state and shattering the limitations of its hardware.

             These are great ideas but they are still limited to using a handheld or laptop device. I see the future potential going well beyond this. I believe in the near future the technology described in the Technology Review article being implemented with wearable technology such as virtual reality headsets which are becoming smaller and smaller and are now about the same size as a pair of sunglasses. There are many different styles of head sets on the market right now that are designed to be incorporated with standard computers, but there are also great number of headsets or virtual reality goggles, VRG’s, that are in conceptual stages. One such device reported on the website, Gearfuse.com, entitled “Intense” by designer

 Benjamin Hubert looks to the future and hopes to do away with the computer and allow, “feedback from a sensory rich reality [to] directly stimulate the brain via a chip in the motor cortex of the brain.” These stylish goggles would allow the wearer to be freed from the restrictions of being tied to a computer and would allow them to roam free in reality while enjoying a virtual world. I like the potential of this product and ones like it but I would like to see them taken one step further and implement augmented reality.  Instead of just walking through a purely virtual world I envision cameras being attached to the goggles/glasses so that information from the real world could be changed and have digital information superimposed on to it. If this becomes a reality I see a lot of money being made in the gaming industry.

            The gaming industry already makes up the majority of VGR purchases on the market. I think the Immersive realities would change the way gamers play. At the moment there are quite a few games that create online communities such as world of warcraft and secondlife. I think it is great to connect people from around the world but it is hindering connections with people from around where you live. A goal for me would be to bring people together to a common area where they could play their game but still interact with real people. Imagine a warehouse with physical structures that could be transformed into any world or time just by using an augmented reality. With the right programming

this could become a reality. Players would wear VGR’s or whatever new technology might arize and beable to interact with eachother in realtime but instead of being themeselve the would appear as the avatar they create. Whether it be medieval knights or futuristic space rangers, it wouldn’t matter because all it would take is loading a different game map and program to change the surroundings and game play. There would even be the possibility to load in players remotely from around the world. Then when the game is turned off and everyone is finishehed they will be surrounded by actual people and have the ability to make deeper connections with those around them.

I think artists are going to have a major role in where this technology is going as well. Art interventions will be able to be carried out in a much larger scale because the cost of physical materials will be removed from the equation. It is true that much of the equipment that would be needed is very expensive at the moment or even still under development, but over time the cost of all technology comes down. If devices such as VRG’s become common everyday gadgets like the iPod or iPhone, arts will be able to target the audience they want. Dr. Samuel Centralai writes, “Locative art suggests a future in which artists will create virtual works, specifically placed at GPS coordinates to overlay our regular, pedestrian reality.” He continues to speculate that, “there could potentially exist millions of different "channels" -- different worlds, even -- which one could choose to perceive at any time.” I too have thought about having a system for many channels to exist in. As more and more people define the space around them, channels can be created to accommodate people with shared interests and aesthetics. There could be a limitless number of layers occupying the same space and depending on what channel you have your device (what ever that may end up being), tuned to will determine what you see. The Beauty of this kind of art is that there are no restrictions on it. It could be as large or small as you want it to be. The artist imagination is its only limitation.

            These ideas could even be incorporated into the educational system. One of the great aspects of locative media is its ability to use narrative to tell stories and give information. Text books may some day be replaced or at least supplemented by immersive environments created with integrative technologies. Instead of merely being given information one would be allowed to wander around and “discover” it. An early incarnation of this sort of learning would be the audio tours you can take at zoos and museums. While they give you information they are designed in a way that present the same information to everyone. With the new technologies emerging it is possible to add a bit more user control over them. As we have learned using mscape, it is possible to add many layers of information and as the field becomes more refined and integrated it would be possible to allow for different tours from different perspectives to be given from the same devise. Historic events would also be able to be brought to life. As a child I remember going to Historic Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. While there my family and I watched a video about the events that took place at the fort. While it was informative and entertaining it was a passive experience. With locative media it would be possible to recreate some of the historic battles and events and transplant visitors into the action.

         I see great possibilities for this field but unfortunately I am also a bit of a cynic. I have spoken much of where I would like to see the technology lead, but the artists and educators are rarely the ones with the financial means to shape technology. It saddens my heart to say but the people who will probably dictate where this all goes are the large corporations. In there eyes they will use this as just another way to slang their wares to a public that is becoming more and more desensitized. The only hope for us is the creativity and ingenuity of artists and hackers alike to find ways of turning the system onto its head and reclaiming digital space as they have done now with actual space in reality.

References:

Centralia, Samuel. "Locative Art: The Aesthetics of GPS." Dyscern.com. 17 Jan 2008. 12 May 2009 .

Fallon, Sean. "Virtual Reality Headset For The Style Conscious Consumer." gearfuse.com. 17 Sep 2007. Gear Fuse. 12 May 2009 .

Jonietz, Erika. "TR10:Augmented Reality." technologyreview.com. 12 Mar 2007. Technology Review. 12 May 2009 .

Update on research paper and art project

I have been doing more research on artists who work with dialogical art work. One such group is WochenKlausur. WochenKlausur is an arts collective from Austria. They have done many pieces that deal with soicial and political issues. On such piece was Intervention to Aid Drug Addicted Women. This piece was started on a three hour cruise around lake Zurich in Switzerland. The collective gathered an unlikely group of politians, journalists, sex workers, and activists from Zurich. They were brought together as an intervention to discuss drug policy in the area. By taking the participants out of the normal setting for such debate they were able to get people to speak more honestly and freely and actually were able to address the problem and set up a home for drug addicted women to stay at during the day.
Another Group i am researching is a group from Denmark called Superflex. One of their newest pieces is called Flooded McDonals, a film piece where they flood a convincing life size replica of a McDonalds.

Flooded McDonald's from Superflex on Vimeo.

From What i have researched so far the purpose of these groups is to push and challenge the viewers and participants to question established ideas and push for greated communication between groups.
I have started reading Kester's book Conversation Pieces: Community + Communication in Modern Art, and it is very interesting. Kester presents and discusses various issues facing communicative art and it's aesthetic.

As for my art project itself, i have finally been able to put it together. The dimensions have changed do to the fact that during construction i realized that the piece would inherently exclude some people because the writing surface was too high for kids and people under a certain height. I am really pleased to how the frame work came together and am excited to unveil it and see how it works out on saturday at the senior show.

SF Muni vs. The Wall

So after some discussion in class about the wall in israel, and possible ways of interpreting it, i decided a good way to try and contextualize it in local way was to do an overlay of it onto the transit routes in San Francisco. I think a lot of us, myself included, take the transit system here for granted. I have been known to piss and moan about 15min-45min delays on the bus/train, but it became very apparent that i have no room to complain. With the vast expanse and complexity of the wall in Israel public transit must be hell. I didn't really visualize this until i did the overlay. After i layered the two images (sf transit map and wall diagram), i saw that a functional, efficient transit system is impossible. While the layouts of the two regions are very different, i realized that imposing an arbitrary wall over the city would reek havoc on the transit system. There were only a few routes that would be unaffected by such a wall. What was an even bigger surprise was that most of the major routes would pass through the wall 2-3 times at least. If such a system were in place i could easily see it taking many hours to get through the city if there were check points. This in a city which usually takes less then an hour.

610 Project: Venting Station

Well we are at midterms and my project is still under going some changes. While the idea is still the same, being that i want to create art installations where people are invited to participate in the creation of the final piece, but the purpose seems to be evolving. I'm thinking about naming my installations "Venting Stations." In today's fast paced and frantic pace it is very easy to get weighed down buy stress and anxiety. My goal is to place these venting stations around the city and provide a release point were people can vent and let go of some off the things that are bogging them down. While it is true we all living in a streamlined digital age where more and more people are blogging about there lives, but i feel there is still a need for a tangible space for venting especially because when you are done you can physically walk away from it. Essentially leaving what ails you behind.

While designing this i ran into quite a few problems, number one being cost. I am quite broke at the moment and many of the materials i was thinking were just to expensive (i.e. wood, metals), also these materials would be too heavy for me to transport and set up. I decided it would be best if i constructed the booth out of PVC pipe and connectors. This makes the booth very light weight and portable.

Another problem facing my original design was that it was going to be fully enclosed on 3 sides. I initially thought this would be a great idea because it provided a lot of writing space, but then Paula enlightened me to the idea that if something were set up like that in public some people might use it as a discrete place to urinate. To fix this I made the "booth" portion only at the top so the lower limbs are visible to all those around.

And on the right is a mock up i made using Sketchup. Try and envision a curtain covering the opening. i just don't know how to create that effect in Sketch up.

Below is a list of materials i will need to make this project


3-way Ell connectors, 8 @ $1.90 = 15.20





Tee connectors, 2 @ $1.30 = $2.60





4-way connectors, 2 @ $2.00 = $4.00

PVC pipe, 50' @$ 2.33 = $11.15

Art 610 Research Paper (midterm)

For my research paper i want to focus on community based and public artwork. First it is important to establish what community based artwork is. In Kathie deNobriga and Matt Schwarzman's article Community-based Art for Social Change, they wrote, "Community-based art is a creative expression that emerges from communities of people working together to improve their individual and collective circumstances." they go on to say that, "Community-based art involves a wide range of social contexts and definitions, and includes an understanding of "communities" that includes not only geographical places, but also groups of people identified with historical or ethnic traditions, or dedicated to a particular belief or spirit."

Community-based art can also be referred to as Dialogical art because it hopes to engage communities in a sort of social conversation. One of its goals is to bring to light social conditions and challenges facing communities. One Piece that I am planning on doing more research on is entitled "the roof is on fire." The project was organized by Suzanne Lacy in 1994, and consisted of ov

er two hundred Oakland high school students sitting in cars(on a rooftop parking structure) carrying on their own improvisational dialogues on the problems facing young people of color in California. Over a thousand oakland residents and representatives of local government were invited to participate and overhear the conversations that were taking place. The topics ranged from media stereotypes, racial profiling, and underfunded schools.

Another goal of community-based artwork is to educate and get the community to participate. This can be done in many ways through performances, community workshops, public debates and so on. There was a project in Hamburg entitled park fiction, where artists invited the community to come up with ideas of how to utilize the park space. they provided supplies, i.e. paper, crayons, markers, clay, etc. The dialogue is not created by the artists themselves but the interaction of the community that partakes.

SFSU Downhill Mapping

For this project i wanted to create a sort of trail map similar to the ones you would get at a ski resort, but instead of ski trails i wanted to do it for skate boarding. It is complete with trails as well as places to eat, drink, relax, and even the location of "lifts," aka bus stops

Below is a still image of the "trails" but there is also a Google Eart tour that i will be presenting in class.

Art 610 project idea

For my senior project i want to work with the idea of community-based/dialogical art. I like the idea of reclaiming art from the galleries and giving it back to the people. In western culture we have elevated the role of the artist and set them apart from everyday people. We have been told that they are some how better then everyone else. I am fascinated by the idea of having the viewer become not only included, but involved in the creation of artwork. My goal is to have a sense of communication through art. To get people who might not talked to each other normally to create some form of dialog.

I have always had a fascination with the graffiti/writings people do in public places, such as: bars, restrooms, street signs, etc. Much of the time these are mean, rude, or derogatory, but some are just funny or entertaining. I hope to create a series of booths that give people a place to write their feelings. I am hoping to create a positive and constructive place where people can express their feelings without fear of judgement or ridicule, for all their writings will be anonymous unless they want to lay claim to it.

Each booth will start out as a blank canvas aside from one quote i will put in them to act as a catalyst. Hopefully people will make comments on other peoples writings as well as including their own thoughts. In the end i hope to have all sides of the booths covered. People don't have to contribute, they can also just go inside and read what is in them and hopefully take something away from it. At first i wanted to set a theme for each booth (which I still might do), but to me now it seems a bit contrived. I think the whole part of this piece is to let go and see where the community takes it. I have an idea where I would like it to go, but in all actuality once i set them up they are out of my control. To be honest I think that is the beauty of it. People will be free to express themselves in any way they like. Some might be frustrated and need a place to vent, while others might try to leave words of encouragement for that person, if they ever come back to look at it again.

I am intrigued by the fact that once these are constructed i will have no control over them. Any thing that might get censored would be done by a participant and thus another part of the piece. In a sense it will be a living piece of art work, that is not managed or contained by any one person.

Open Street Mapping Project

At first i didn't see the need for the Open Street Mapping Project. I thought it was a redundancy since we now have Google Earth and Mapquest. Since these two tools are free for use on the internet i assumed that they were free to use in any way we wished. I had no idea that they had proprietary issues. After finding this fact out i gained a whole new appreciation for The Open Mapping Project. An open source map that everyone can contribute to. And what i particularly found beautiful is that the user is able to highlight what they find important. By allowing them to focus on mapping things other then just roads and street names, they can activley change and expand how we use maps as a society. They make an example of people mapping mailboxes but i see greater possibilities. People can decide to map open spaces, or trees or sites of importance to them. From this we can create a living map of experience that is more then just a map showing where we are but also where we have been and where we are going.

Trimble Tutorial & The GPS Revolution.

I found both of these articles very interesting. For the first time i actually understand how the GPS system works. I find it fascinating how many different ways the satellites and receivers can make corrections for tremendous accuracy. The GPS Revolution was a nice read because it is a quick overview of GPS and it's history while the Trimble Tutorial is much more indepth and informative. Overall they work very well as a one two punch of explaining the whole GPS process. What I found most interesting is the triangulation of points and how it can be achieved two ways. One by three precise measurements or by using four satellites that don't have to be as accurate.

Art of Participation

The Art of Participation at SF Moma is by far one of the best exhibits I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. I say experiencing because for once i was actually engaged in the works of art, not merely a passive observer. Two artists that really struck me were John Cage with his piece 4:33, and Tom Marioni with The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest form of Art. I really enjoyed these pieces because in both cases they would be nothing with out people their to create them. In Cage's piece it is a composition of 4 minutes 33 seconds of silence. It was and still is a profound piece because while the artist has not composed a single note there is a great deal of ambient noise. It is the awkward silence that then gets broken by the shifting of the audience or a cough from the crowd, but it is at that point that one realizes that they are not witnessing a piece of art work but they are PART of the artwork. And while the composition of the piece remains constant throughout every performance, each in itself is completely unique and can never be recreated.

Similar to this is Tom Marioni's piece in which he holds a kind of salon where he invites the public (in this case) to come together and drink beer and share and swap ideas. One difference is that participants in this piece are aware before they even step into the room that they are going to be part of the work. It was great to see the different kinds of interactions that took place. Some people were content to just drink beer and observe while others took a more active role. One component that i particularly liked was the hands on activity of constructing cardboard furniture. There were tables and benches that had quite a difficult set of instructions to follow. it was great seeing people struggle both on their own as well at together. The best part for me was when some people took partially completed furniture and arranged them in new ways to create completely different pieces. Proving that ideas and creativity flow freely between groups of people, especially when social lubricant is involved.

The Start of a new Semester

So once again I find myself in the familiar academic atmosphere of the higher educational system. Surrounded by young minds with a fervent zeal that can only be quenched by knowledge...ok who am i kidding? We are all just trying to get out of this place alive, and with the recent budget cuts its not looking too good.

This blogger account has been created to chronicle and document the work and research I will be doing throughout this semester and who knows what after that.