World Changing Response EXTRA CREDIT #2: due 12/13

World Changing Response EXTRA CREDIT #1: due 12/13

Weekly Statement due 12/7

 A quote from Maya Lin's artist statement:

Landscape is the context and the source of inspiration for Ms. Lin's art. She peers curiously at the landscape through a twenty-first century lens, merging rational and technological order with notions of beauty and the transcendental. Utilizing technological methods to study and visualize the natural world, Ms. Lin takes micro and macro views of the earth, sonar resonance scans, aerial and satellite mapping devices and translates that information into sculptures, drawings and environmental installations. Her works address how we relate and respond to the environment, and presents new ways of looking at the world around us. (http://www.mayalin.com/)

Below are some examples of Maya Lin's work:

Topographic Landscapes

Three Ways of Looking at the Earth

2x4 Landscape

What is Missing?

To access the What is Missing website, go here: http://whatismissing.net/#/home

And for further information about the sound installation above, feel free to view this youtube video about it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jCGiSDfIAM&feature=player_embedded#!

What is significant about Maya Lin's work in regards to the landscape and environment? How is her most recent (and last) memorial effective? In what way might it be ineffective? If it was your project, what might you do differently?

World Changing Response due 11/30

The Park Spark Project

Artist Matthew Mazzotta is a conceptual artist who creates participatory public interventions. His work has evolved from his interest in exploring the relationship between people and their environments. One of his newest projects is called The Park Spark Project:

Dog owners everywhere are collecting pet waste in plastic bags and then sending it to landfills. The waste contained in these plastic bags release small amounts of methane that over time is a substantial quantity. The Park Spark Project is based on substituting the common trashcan and plastic bag with a public methane digester and biodegradable bag, so that the dog waste collected is converted into a usable form of energy (methane). This methane will burn constantly in the form of an 'eternal flame' monument until someone proposes an idea for the use of the flame.

The energy of the digester manifested as an ‘eternal flame’ is evidence of the redundant and unquestioned nature of our behaviors. Once in place, as long as people own pets in the city and throw away dog waste, the production of energy will be continuous and unlimited.  (http://parksparkproject.com/home.html) 


On BBC Radio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaqJL8iw4gs

Weekly Statement due 11/30

Dark Silence Suburbia

100% Hybridity 2

The Road to Utopia

Gods Feeding

Born in Los Angeles of mixed Native and European American heritage, John Feodorov spent summers at his grandparent’s homestead in the “White Horse” region of New Mexico.  This time spent between the Navajo reservation and the California suburbs of Whittier continues to have an important influence on his work. Feodorov often utilizes pop culture detritus, as well as sound and video, to create what he considers contemporary “sacred” spaces in order to question ideas of spirituality, identity and place. In addition, his paintings and drawings are experiments in creating hybrid mythical iconographies.

In his artist statement, John Feodorov describes an experience when visiting the Anasazi Ruins at Chaco Canyon, near his family's land in New Mexico: Several years ago, I visited the Anasazi ruins at Chaco Canyon, near my family’s land in New Mexico. This was during the much-hyped Harmonic Convergence when people were gathering at numerous traditional sacred sites around the world. Along the inside perimeter of one of the large kivas, a throng of tie-dyed spiritual enthusiasts formed a circle while sitting in lotus position. At the axis, they had erected a plastic totem pole, an object possessing no significance to the native peoples of the Southwest. Their act, while well intentioned, seemed more like an act of spiritual despondency than of connection. It is this kind of sincere yet misguided event that interests me as an artist. (http://www.johnfeodorov.com/index.htm)

What was significant about his observation of the 'tie-dyed spiritualists' and their ignorance to the native culture that they claimed to be worshiping? How does Feodorov's art work reflect this juxtaposition between Native American and contemporary American culture? What other examples of ignorance toward Native American culture might be found in contemporary society?

Weekly Statement due 11/23

Ross Racine is an artist who creates drawings of fictional suburbs on the computer and then prints them out as digital images. As described in his artist statement:

"These invented suburbs exaggerate existing situations and drive the subject matter into the investigative domain of science fiction. Examining the relation between design and actual lived experience, the works subvert the apparent rationality of urban design, exposing conflicts that lurk beneath the surface." (http://www.rossracine.com/)

What other ways might artists and designers use their skills to re-evaluate suburbia and other conventional living styles in the U.S.? Can you imagine living in one of the fictional suburbias that Ross Racine has created? What would it be like? Would it exaggerate the downfalls of suburbia living, or increase their viability? Furthermore, did you ever dream of creating your own imaginary living environment? If so, what would it be, and how is it similar or different to typical housing/living styles in America? Feel free to talk about this or something related in your Weekly Statement.

Weekly Statement due 11/16

Dianna Cohen is an artist who creates work primarily out of plastic bags. She describes her use of plastic as a medium in her artist statement:

"Having worked with the plastic bag as my primary material for the past fifteen years all of the obvious references to recycling, first world culture, class, high and low art give way to an almost formal process which reflects the unique flexibility of the medium.


Cut like paper, sewn like fabric, these constructions have been presented as flat art (framed or mounted) with crumpled and shiny surfaces that are dulled by dirt and time: un-useful pieces of their former selves. The work is becoming more sculptural; literally folding off of the wall, hinged by discombobulated handles, the real potential of the medium presents itself to me.

The material’s relationship to marketing and advertisement culture is ever present, unavoidable and inherent in my work. The graphic text on the bags often influences the theme of a piece, but just as often disappears into the background of color, almost becoming subliminal in the work.

The somewhat dirty, hands on approach involved in working with what has already become trash and the labor involved in the sewing process directly belie the promise and mythology of convenience that the plastic bag represents. In this juxtaposition lives the alchemy of my work, like the alchemy of plastic itself." (http://www.diannacohen.com/_portfolio/home.html)

Do you think that Ms. Cohen's use of plastic in work work is an effective way of promoting understanding about consumption and material culture?  What are the advantages and disadvantages of using recycled items in art work? Do you think more artists should be doing it? Do you do it? Why or why not?