My Semester as Research

Art 610, Artist Reasearch, Uncategorized

For my final paper I plan on documenting my semester as the course of my research. I will be discussing the origin Pele’s curse and Og. I will also address the process and reasonings behind changes and decisions made in regards to the change from one form of animation to another and the evolution of the character Og. Along with the questions about white culture and appropriation.

slides

Projection Panels

Art 610, steps

Here are the two 24″ by 36″ painted canvases in a gradation of red and blue using oil and acrylic paint. Both canvas received an acrylic wash of red or blue which was allowed to drip. The final layer of oil paint was then applied using paint thinner and linseed oil as a mixing medium; the colors used were ivory black, titanium white, and alizarin crimson or permanent blue.

Here is a link to the tutorial for the basis of the technique used to apply the paint.

Goals and ToDo’s for the rest of the semester

Art 610

Edit* The reming time of the semester will be used to finish the key animation, redo the chewing animation, record audio for all animations, and hopefully animate and construct a projection background for the wall animation. The story of Og may be sidelined for the research paper as well as the wall projection depending on time.

Goals and ToDo’s for the rest of the semester:

A-Finish last two animations in Illustrator: Keys and Mirror (2 weeks)

B-Redo the Chewing animation in Illustrator (1 week)

C-Record audio for animation loops: crunching cables, walking, sliding, cracking, jangling, running and jumping. (1 week)

D-Paint canvases for projection : 2 @ 24″x36″ (1 week)

E-Print large poster(1 Week)

F-Begin work on Wall Animation using a ball, pure data as the projection software (? weeks)

G-Build bass relief for wall animation: cardboard panels and paper mace, painted white. (2 weeks)

H-Refine and smooth out animations (time allowing)

I-Install/show work

J-Write the story of Og

Rooting

Art 610, Artist Reasearch

As an anthropologist and an artist the areas of culture have been of interest to me, including the places where culture has been adopted and reappropriated from one culture into another. The current area of interest is the appropriation of aspects of Polynesian culture in the 1940’s and 1950’s by the United States. specifically the adaptation and the idealisation of the idea of the natives as being primitive and the landscape as being a paradise to escape the realities of daily life. Some of the questions that I have been asking are along the line of white culture and how, in the United States, it has become a sponge absorbing aspects of other cultures with a richer history. Could this be because the United States is so young in comparison to the other First world countries. Or could this be due to the inherent nature of the United States being a melting pot where the population is a mix of a multitude of ethnicities and family lines branching from various nations. Another aspect of interest is the creation of myth and the ways it is used to pass traditions and convey narratives.  My work is a way of being able to understand and further investigate some of these questions, in a similar way that other artists have used their crafts to deliver critiques on culture and society.

Anthropology has a long history of observing and reporting, beginning with the armchair anthropologist who mused on the finding s of explorers, to the revolutionary fieldworking anthropologists who wrote on first hand experience. it also has a longstanding tradition of carrying the ideas of Western Supremacy in its findings, and the concept of the primitive and primitivism. Those biases remained with anthropologie up until the 20th century, when the west began to look at the east, and the east began to look back, allowing for the western anthropologists to reflect on their methods and biases in their studies. The theories about the development of culture and the way people exist and operate in anthropologie can become an influential lense through which one looks and interprets activity and even provides a context for art; it also becomes a lens of looking at history and  everyday life.

Anthropology has adapted multiple forms of technology as a way of presenting their findings and information, from printed text, to photography, to audio and video, and now to animation and graphic novels. Anthropologists have taken to the web as a way of reaching a broader audience through web comics and infographics. these new tools have the added bonus of being a visual form of presentation with the addition of text as opposed to the standard and often wordy typed reports and essays. These info graphics and comics are a great way to demonstrate and aid in defining some of the more abstract concepts and ideas that are key to the development and holistic views that anthropology uses. So it is by no means a stretch in using animation as another way of making those ideas and concepts easier to grasp or even making them more palatable to the average viewer. The website Up Teaching Culture is a blog dedicated to the idea of building a community that expands the ways that anthropology is taught through new media. Infact, in early 2015, there was a short seven post blog series that was dedicated to the idea of using graphic novels as a  way of producing ethnographies. The method of using art as a way of informing anthropology, rather than anthropology,  is inline with the trend of infographics; Info graphics have been great tools for presenting a large amount of information in a simple and visually appealing manner.

While the media used may vary based on the artists backgrounds and specific intentions, there are three artists whose work is similar in context and its critique of modern culture; Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Coco Fusco, and Merav Tzur. These two artists used scientific and anthropological methods to create a discussion about culture, gaze, and Western Supremacy through various types of performance.

The work known as Undiscovered Amerindians Visit… ,1992-94 , in which the two artists –Gomez and Fusco– were locked in a cage for public viewing under the guise of a newly discovered tribe of Indians found in the Amazon. They would watch television, tell stories in a nonsensical language, be lead off to the restrooms on leashes by the two “translators” who were stationed outside the cage, and expose their genitals exchange for a donation.  This show toured internationally and globally and was often staged in museums and places of legitimate scientific findings, which would provide the viewer the safe context of being able to observe these human specimens. This work is largely about the idea of western supremacy and the history behind early colonialism, which is what rooted it in the manner allowed it to be viewed and in some ways acceptable in society. In Diana Taylor’s essay A Savage Performance:Guillermo Gomez-pena and Coco Fusco “Couple In A Cage”, she talks about the performers ideal viewer would have opened the cage, however the history of museum acquisition and curation provided a setting of separation and preservation.

http://www.alexandergray.com/artists/coco-fusco/coco-fusco_2/

Merav Tzur’s work The First Sighting of the Ego Monster,, was a source of inspiration for my own work. The work involves the  documentation of a created myth; the ego monster. In this piece the artists proved the existence of a creature  by providing samples of the smell, soil, and pieces of its torture machine. The creature, which was documented via video and audio recordings, spewes egotistical statements such as “I used to live in LA”, and “I’m a famous photographer” while prowling in what was referred to as the lower bottom.  Her work is largely inspired and based on Dante’s Inferno and the ideas of hell. The idea of the evidence and documentation being the primary portion of the work, was the primary influence in my own work. the creation of mythology in her work and the creation of science – through the Sara Grey Research Institute a faux scientific community that uses performance a as a   – is a trend she follows  through other works such as  Grafted Arboreous Sabius, Or A Failed Attempt To Propagate The Tree Of Knowledge, 2012, and the Spring Open House, 2012.  

http://meravtzur.com/first-sightings-of-the-ego-monster-post/

These works both tap into histories and sciences to root themselves and create a  ground for their presentation. and go further into topics that deal with social and cultural ideas and concepts. There are lessons and methods of application that can be drawn as sources of inspiration from the mentioned works. The delving into history as a root and method of solidifying the existence into the history of  humanity. The ability of root a work can be crucial in placing the viewer in the proper headspace to accept a work as being truthful when it is infact fictitious. Having the documentation, in the manner of dramatic reenactments, being the work  provides the artist with a flexibility and agian another way of showing truth.  My aim is to use some of the same tactics and methods of thought to explore my line of cultural research. Using mythology in place of history not only allows for the rooting but also elements of creation. These artists are the sources  of inspiration for my work and lines of questioning.

Works Cited

“Coco Fusco – Alexander Gray Associates.” Coco Fusco – Alexander Gray Associates. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

“First Sightings of the Ego Monster (2009).” Merav Tzur. N.p., 26 Nov. 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

“Tag Archives: Graphic Adventures in Anthropology.” Teaching Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Taylor, Diana. “A Savage Performance.” JPLL InvestiGator Catalog. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Out line for the Research

Art 610, Artist Reasearch

Intro

what my work is – a critique of cultural appropriation as a way to develop a ‘cultural history’, specifically the idea of paradise  and a simplified style of living as being prefered to the reality of life in the united states.

reasoning and questions being asked with my work – looking at white culture, desire for paradise, the illusion of the “golden age thinking”,

segment of my artist statement?

animation

graphic novels and origins

adaptations with technology

anthropology

the anthropologists use of animation and graphic novels – new way of presenting ideas

use in analysing and representing culture

as a lense that can influence concept and context – how it influences my views and the difficulty i have separating the theories from the work

artists working with similar concepts and methods, inspiration

the primitive

picasso, desmoin – early use of primitivism

the creation of myth

merav tzur – the ego monster – source of inspiration and influence for my work and the presentation of evidence

http://meravtzur.com/first-sightings-of-the-ego-monster-post/

using anthropologie as a cultural statement

undiscovered amerindians  visit london may 1992 – artists using art and performance as a critique of primitivistic and western superiority – artist creating a faux arch dig site to circumvent

http://www.alexandergray.com/artists/coco-fusco/coco-fusco_2/

New Mexico

conclusion

a meshing of what i want my work to be with the mentioned artists and a restating of the questions i’m asking

Og Hides the Wallet

Art 610, steps

Here is the 21 second loop of Og moving the wallet, this piece is to be projected on to a painted canvas and looped in sync with Og breaking the mirror;which is yet to be made.

Og’s hiding of a wallet is anther way ins which he attacks the identity of the cursed individual, as wallets holds so much information –Identification cards and papers, methods of financial an capitalistic identification, and social and economic membership cars and papers– that it is a key and crucial thing to an individuals life. And the loss or theft of this object sets into motion a chain of emotional and situational repercussions; worry, fear, anxiety, the need to find or cancel the sensitive information that was contained with in.

Installation plans

Art 610, steps

This is my current plan for installing my works where there will be two animations playing at a time–wallet and mirror, and then key and chewing– projected onto painted canvas, and a larger projected image of tiki Og against the long wall. The animations projected on canvas will run on a loop for a few minuets, and then stop, with a fifth projection of ogg jumping from one side of the room moving across to the other, interacting with three dimensional objects; boxes, tubes.