Photos

So over winter break I called up a friend who is a photographer and asked him if we could set up a shoot pertaining to my thesis project. He was glad to help and we both got good images to put in our portfolios. I had a makeup artist come and had a photography studio set up. I based the images around plastic surgery. I didnt want to just draw surgical lines on my body because that has been done before, so I had the makeup artist make it as if I had already HAD surgery and I was photographing my scars. Overall I think the pictures came out great and I am going to blow a few of them up (I'm thinking 4) to hang in the show. I felt like I was able to capture a sense of pain in my face and I give myself a pat on the back for that. Of all the critiquing I have been through with various professors, one piece of advice has stood out more than others and that was to "Shock the viewer". I am very set on what I want for this project so I don't seek advice on how to maybe change my idea and altar it in some way. I seek advice that is going to make me think about it deeper and make it a better project. This one piece of advice has made me want to actually shock the viewer and have them walk away wondering why I "had plastic surgery". Visually I want the pictures to be the main focal point but I also want to have informative brochures on young women/celebrities who are the inspiration to young fans who have plastic surgery to feel better about themselves. I have a collection of images and data that can be constructed in an interesting and creative manner.

Field Trip

This past Friday Gerry took us on a field trip to see some design studios in the city. For me, this trip succeeded by showing me exactly what I DON'T want to do... ever. The first design studio for one was 10000 degrees but thats besides the point and it was 6 people in a small room as a total of 2 separate design studios. I admired the fact that Ken and his partner worked for themselves with their own company. I think a lot of people have goals to be their own boss. The only problem with this 2 person business was that there was immense work put on their shoulders aside from designing for clients. I feel like the stress level of that must be crazy but it also must be nice to be able to choose what you think is best for your company. What I disagreed with about their duo was that they started this company because they were sick of working for corporations and those corporations not "appreciating their design" therefore starting their own business for people who do appreciate the graphic art presented in front of them. (I believe Ken said this about working for Target). Anyway the cons in having your own company is the fact that it needs to be established and well known for it to be successful and profitable. In my opinion, as long as a company is paying me well and I am doing what I love, I will never take a pay cut just because someone else doesn't appreciate my design.
The other design studio on the opposite side of the room was made up of 4 people and they showed us the Yale art website they built. As I am looking at this site, I am thinking, "Do they think this is good? Because from what I have learned about web design, this site is everything I was told NOT to do". Then we find out it was voted worst website of 2010. In my opinion that is absolutely nothing to be proud of and definitely not something to show aspiring designers. Anyway that was that, and I left more sure of myself than ever before that I don't ever want to work in a design studio.
The Whitney art department was more of a place where I could see myself working. They have constant changing content due to different exhibitions, but there was also that certainty that they will always be busy with work. I would hate working in a design studio where the content is changing constantly and there is no guarantee you will have enough work to keep you busy due to the fact your looking for random people who are just looking for a designer. I like consistency in design. I like knowing exactly the work I would be doing and the Whitney seems like a cool place. I think the hardest part about their job was to come up with a poster for an exhibition that represents it well that the people curating the show will approve of. Although that is challenging, its interesting and keeps your creativity flowing.

Information Sites

Here are some cool information websites I came across. Im making an infograph in Processing for design class (if i can ever figure out HOW), that I think would be really cool to use for my thesis project. If I can make it really nice maybe I'll incorporate it with the photos I need to get done...
Anyway here are the sites. I'm making an infograph about the increase in women getting plastic surgery over the past ten years or so. Enjoy whenever.

http://www.cosmeticplasticsurgerystatistics.com/statistics.html

http://womenshealthnews.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/increase-in-cosmetic-surgery-in-the-us/

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/02/22/increase-plastic-surgery-sign-better-economic-times/

Mass Distractions and Cultural Decay

The new gallery exhibition has a lot of good representations of past and present American culture. My favorite piece was Michael Paul Britto's "Unarmed" 2007 digital video with sound. I am not much of a video fanatic because I find them to be too complex and sometimes hard to understand. People don't walk up to watch a video because it is aesthetically pleasing, they have to be drawn to it in other ways such as video descriptions if it's long etc. Anyways, I liked this video by Britto because it was short simple and to the point. I found the message about racism to be clear. The video was at eye-level and it showed a leggo cop raising his arm and shooting after each clip of a black or hispanic leggo flashed on the screen. Although this video was made in 2007, I think it's ironic that this video can perfectly represent the events occurring present day New Brunswick. The protests against racism happen everyday within the town due to a cop recently shooting an alleged innocent colored man who was in fact, unarmed. It goes to show that since this artist made a piece representing such a scene, means that it happens too often and that it has become a flaw in our culture. Racism is not dead and I think that is the point he was trying to make. I also noted the fact that the cop was white which has a lot to do with it, if he had put another race as the cop, the story would take on a different meaning such as abuse of authoritative powers.

The piece that I wasn't impressed with was Sam Durant's "Defaced Monuments" 2008. I thought it was a great concept but the way it was executed seemed kind of lazy. Being a design major and seeing how someone put together pictures and images and presents them has a lot of importance in the success of their project. This project was displayed on the computer, not at eye-level and the images were in the top left corner kind of small and the typeface was Times New Roman. Even non-designers know that Times New Roman is totally boring. Anyway I think this would have just been more successful with more attention to design. :)  

Heidi

For some reason whenever I think of plastic surgery amongst young women, I think of the most recent drastic surgery that I've heard about and that is Heidi Montag. I have never seen The Hills (the show that made her famous), but I have seen her before and afters and heard it all on the news. This young girl who felt pressure to look good before she became a star, pushed her over the edge when she eventually had all of this media attention. She had 10 plastic surgeries in one day and apparently the star told magazines that she is now unhappy with the results. I remember reading how her nose job gave her breathing issues, she had visible scars under her butt and her boobs were so big she had back problems... but hey! pain is beauty, right?
Attached is the link to her video of her pre-surgery and why she wanted it.
http://www.people.com/people/videos/0,,20336496,00.html

DH Cooper Video

I received a link from Amy Glass about an artist she saw a video about in class pertaining to plastic surgery. DH Cooper is a middle aged women who is feeling the effects of aging and is contemplating plastic surgery. She video tapes herself in the streets holding up a sign asking for change towards her face lift fund. Surprisingly a lot of people give money from what I think is out of amusement and not because they actually thought she needed surgery. She includes commentary battling with herself over whether or not she should go through with it and how she has stated that she is "ashamed that I've absorbed cultures messages about youth and beauty". I think that this statement applies to more than just middle aged women looking for the fountain of youth. It also pertains to young women who are looking for perfection via what media says and shows is perfect. The only difference between the young women seeking perfection and the middle aged women seeking youth, is that the young women have an insecure conscious and don't realize it is from the media they see everyday.
I also liked how a man on the street guessed her purpose by thinking it was artistic and a "fabulous statement about our times" and he looks at it as a "fabulous work of art". Ironically she was doing it in an art sense and if she wasn't then maybe she would have gotten offended. I just think it is interesting how someone looked at this experiment differently than most people walking by who were just staring and not thinking of the reasoning she was doing this. I also think that this was a test to the public to see how many people supported the idea of plastic surgery. Although it obviously wasn't for themselves, they thought about the idea for someone else and although most people said she didn't need it, they donated anyway.
 http://vimeo.com/29116705

2011 Welcome Back Show

The Welcome Back show at Mason Gross was a very diverse and intriguing show to view. The variety in mediums and experience made the show very interesting. I don't particularly like saying someone's art is good or bad because all art has a meaning. I believe if someone thinks a piece of art is "bad" then they didn't understand it correctly.
Since we had to choose our favorite piece and least favorite piece, I went by what was visually alluring and which wasn't. My favorite piece was by Steve Orlando who did drawings on handmade paper. Although I am a design major, my next favorite art form is drawing, especially intricate drawing. This piece had a different part of nature within the symbols. + had trees, - had mountains, > was oceans, < was desert. The way they were rendered were very intricate and had tight details and a great greyscale making the piece dynamic and realistic. The piece almost had a double positive space because from afar we see shapes but up close we see a scene. I'm sure there was a reason that each piece of nature was put into a specific symbol. My guess probably sounds silly but I think that it means we need to add more trees, we don't have enough mountains and we have more oceans than deserts. I feel as though it's an environmental awareness piece and I found myself looking at it the longest out of the whole gallery.
My least favorite piece, or the one I didn't understand at all was Rita Leduc's "Around Nodal Point Winding Outward". I didn't understand the meaning of the piece or use of materials. I question if the piece was experimental and if so, if there was a direction/point it was trying to make. On the other hand sometimes art doesn't have to make sense, but it also wasn't appealing at all to me. I also didn't understand they random way the individual pieces were hung. It seems as though the pieces can only work as individuals and don't work together as a whole. The one thing I do like about the piece are some of the organic shapes.