Micro Project 3

Calculator - I choose it because I am Math major and I use it everyday. I need it to do some complex calculations in order to simplify the problem-solving process. It is really helpful to my study.

Essential tool

Watch - It is quite important for me in daily life. Although cell phone is widely used nowadays and it is convenient to see the time, I am still used to getting time directly from my watch. I need it to be punctual for class and other important activities. 

Necessity

Laptop - I bring it everyday for taking note in lectures and completing assignments after class in the library. In leisure time, I usually surf on Facebook or chat with friends with an instantaneous chatting tool.

multifunctional use












USB flash drive - I choose it simply because it is easy to carry and quite useful in keeping files for extra copy. It can reduce the burden of my laptop for its large storage space.

Portable helper

 Earphone - I keep it with me everyday for listening to music on the way to class or back to dorm. Music can get rid of my tiredness and alter my mood to a better level.

Mood condiment

    The final image is actually a good reflection of my personalities. The watch, which always reminds me not to be late, reveals that I am punctual. The calculator implies that my major can be somewhat related to calculation. Though it cannot apparently show my identity, but I think it is a suggestion that I frequently need it and maybe interested in mathematics. The laptop is significantly useful everyday so I choose it, however, it can hardly show my personal identity. The USB flash drive indicates that I am a cautious one that saves backup copy of files in case of loss. Last but not least, the earphones are really a mood condiment for me to cheer me up. When I was on the way to class or back to dorm alome, music is a nice companion. It shows that I don't like loneliness and boredom, I enjoy passion!

Responses to Kaprow, Weschler "Desert", and Saunders

    Kaprow's article has a really attractive title "Art which can't be art". He started by describing the scene of brushing teeth and watching the rhythm of elbow  moving up and down. He considered such movements not suggesting art at all at first and made no secret of the distain for so called "artworks" - industrial products at the same time. Then after observing brushing teeth carefully and thinking about it seriously, he get the relationship between life source and art. He finally broadened the definition of art and regarded the ordinary life as the huge power, no matter whether it is perceived as art or not. I like the conclusion he draw in the end of the article, which brings art to a larger space and gives readers more power.
    I really like the process of finding ordinary life to be a kind of art and the depiction of psychology switching, but I was expecting the author to give more examples and explanations of it when I was reading it. Anyway, he tells me a class that art should not be stuck in the gallery only. 



    I really appreciate this article "Desert". It starts with the background that Irwin got rid of everything and sold his studio. Then along their journey to desert and talking process, Irwin finally learnt a lesson from the desert and picked up the trail again. Irwin switched from a tactile man to a perceived one because the desert showed him that things tangibly exist in one particular way - the way they are, not the way they supposed to be. The flat desert, no particular events, no rivers and mountains, seems to appear in front of me and I can perceive what it is going to tell me and what the author is talking about in the article. 
    People all have one pattern that they like to dominate and control what they like and keep them the way they like. But actually nature cannot be tangibly reached and depicted. Photographs, maps or drawing neither could transform everything into art in gallery. Actually I like the ending that the desert gives Irwin the power and confidence to manage the studio again and then perceive art all the time. 



    The article is about an excellent writer, who writes the world a beautiful one after experiencing a flight accident and was nearly dead. One always learns to cherish living in the world after confronting loss and death. His depiction of the accident is so close to the actual scene and I can really feel the tension and depression atmosphere at that time. But after a catastrophe he got a better psychological state and could capture a more beautiful world. I think I get to understand why the author admire Saunders so much.
    I enjoy the ending sentence Saunders said to himself. “Don’t be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end”. It meaningfully implies that the beauty never die if we have bright eyes and mind to capture it. But candidly speaking, the article is too long and I think the author speaks over highly of Saunders.

Wexner Review

    The gallery in Wexner Center of Art has three components: clocks, light club and photographs. I mainly focused on the photographs, and browsed light club for a while. Light club is a set of collection of artworks made up with light elements, including a thirty-minute film and several mirrors reflecting different angles. Colorful light tubes are really amazing. 

    The selection of photographs mostly reflects the diverse impacts of financial downturn as the United State endure the most significant economic recession since the Great Depression. I remember some themes such as immigration, gentrification, environmental negligence and multiculturalism. Some photographs are really impressive and shocking. I remember an image shows the elderly foraging for food in the city dump, which is actually depressing. Other photos, such as convicts and guard, immigrations under the elevated railway, peckish children are also good reflections of people living at the bottom. Such sad photographs document some flounders parts of the United State though flourished parts exist at the same time. Also, I found a set of 72 digital chromogenic prints folded in a line interesting because of its special shape and arrangement. What I found the most interesting is a collection of four photos displayed together but it seems nothing inside at the first sight. From the denotation, I knew it shows negative and positive transparency, which surprised me a lot. 

    Besides, I also visited another part of art center. It is a cartoon museum, right beside the Fine Art Library. Some comics are displayed there, including the initial sketch paper of some famous comics exhibited in the international exhibition. On the wall, a procedure of how colorful prints are produced is introduce, which enriched me a lot.

Response to “Cardiff, Miller and the Power of Sound”

This article introduces a Canadian artist couple Cardiff and Miller, who are interested in building up artworks using sound and voice as material and subject. I like the beginning part of depiction of the big boom. Hundreds of noises out of Forest making the author felt the explosion as real. What Cardiff said surprises me and makes me feel amazing. He describes capturing sound as time travel in some sense, away from reality but consensus reality at the same time. Their impressive multimedia collaborations bring them recognition and their marriage is also considered romantic to me due to art collaboration.

Some dialogues are thought-provoking such as the ending. She said that some people have no sense of peace. I suppose it is due to her increasing ambition and continuous pursuing of art. I am not sure whether it is accurate but I think power of sound are pretty interesting and amazing, disturbing audience by mixing audio tracks. 

Micro Project 2

On the first day to having class, I got lost several times. I really do not have a good sense of direction and the big campus is also pretty confusing. I walked to the classroom with the orientation of google map in cellphone and did not dare to take a bus because I was not familiar with bus routes. I just walked in the direction that map offered me, turning left when it told me to turn, going straight when the compass did not move. Even though I arrived all the classrooms in time, but I remember I got lost on the way to Jennings Hall and Arps Hall and it took me a lot of time to compare map with real road and ask passersby for the way. But two days later, I can clearly remember the route to different classrooms. I divided campus into several parts and marked my dorm Morrill Tower to be the start. Turn left if I have class on 17^th street or streets nearby, turn right if I want to go to the Thompson Library and RPAC. Then remark each college and some important buildings such as Union to divide campus into smaller pieces. This idea magically worked and I never get lost again.

       For this project, I choose the route from Psychology Building to Stadium, which means the way I walk from my previous math lecture to art education class. By applying my approach of distinguishing direction, I make my journey to class unique and simple. I remember Stadium is just on the right side of Morrill Tower and psychology building is beside library, so I walked in the direction back to Morrill, along with RPAC and turned right when there was no way to go straight forward. As expected, Stadium ran into my eyes immediately. Then I just need to walk around Stadium to find the 24^th door, the access to art education lab is right beside it. However, the 17^th street is on construction and I walked some more to reach stadium. It means I cannot walk directly across the road and need to turn right, cross the road and go back to stadium. I missed to record this portion of journey. It was hard to document because the alternative route is a narrow path along the edge of RPAC and number of pictures is limited to synthesize one image.