Assignment for the Body - March 22

This post is a little late, but I figured I'd still reflect on the process of making the little shrine like room with Lisa. It was a fairly smooth process - Lisa and I got along well and were productive. I guess in the end though I was just a bit burnt out. I like large scale pieces, but maybe I'm realizing that I don't like making them. The whole process involved many different concentrated ideas, such as the coffin or the floor or the walls or the general shape and each of them took a considerable amount of thought and work. It ended up just being an exhausting piece to work on, so maybe that's what wasn't very enjoyable for me.

In the end, though, I'm pleased with the piece. I really liked people's comments, and it actually helped me a lot in thinking about it after the fact of making it. I particularly liked what people had to say about there being no center, no central icon or figure through which one can find some finite meaning or intention. It's like Christianity without Christ or something. As we were working on the room, I thought about how there really wasn't a center, but I never realized that it's we were engaging in an interesting way with things that signify an immersive, religious experience without any religion, without any iconography, without any symbols of an ideology. Sure, the black roses signify something, but I think that '8th grade goth' can easily be superseded or displaced by other parts of the space (the perspective created by the walls, the leather texture of the coffin, the shining floor, the lamp, etc).

I'm really, really excited to play with light. Today was really fun, and I'm realizing how much I love messing around with projectors and light in general. No doubt that I will want to incorporate this passion (coming from my filmmaking aspirations?) into my final project. Until then...

Skills?

1 = No skills

5 = Michael Jackson

All Adobe software - 1

Final Cut Pro - 4

Music Software (ProTools, Logic, MaxMSP) - 3

Cameras - 4

Sound/Lighting Equipment - 4

WOOD

Here's my box, in my room! Fully functional!

I was really happy with the outcome of this last project. Even though I had some trouble dealing with basic math, I enjoyed working with wood and putting this thing together. I think this was one of my most direct and clear (idea-wise) projects that I've ever done. I set out to build something that I wanted to use in my room immediately after putting it together. I didn't want to make something that would require a lot of conceptual or stylistic considerations, so I just went for something that would be functional for me. In other words, I let the design be something simple. What I was happiest about is how the diagonal piece contributes to the whole of the piece. It serves no proper structural purpose, but I think it adds a little bit of character or style to the piece (but takes nothing away from the functionality of it). If it were all straight and square lines, I think it would read differently - more bare-bones functional considerations and less stylistic ones.

Of course, this raises the question of why or how is there any difference between function and style, utility and aesthetic, work and art? Personally, I don't think this debate is one that bears many fruit. The two ideological camps are so closely intertwined that it doesn't make much sense to pull them apart. So, when I say that my piece is very functional, this is precisely what I mean - that it has a function beyond (or before) being a 'sculptural piece of art.' When I say it has a certain style or aesthetic quality, this is precisely what I mean - that it is also aesthetically pleasing. Nowhere does there need to be a line drawn between these two qualities of the piece - they can exist together without one infringing on the other.