Assignment Portfolio

Here is a link to my finished portfolio!

Improbable Monument: Proposal

Proposal: Monument to Commemorate Nestlé-Brand Water Practices

            Even though California is entering its fourth year of a serious drought, Nestlé continues to extract water from precious, finite aquifers at unsustainable rates. It’s unclear how much water Nestlé extracts annually, as they haven’t submitted an extraction report since 2009. No reports have been received from their Arrowhead plant located in the Mojave desert, as it is protected by Native American Reservation sovereignty.

Arrowhead Mountain Company Bottling Plant, located on Morongo Reservation land

         

   In an interview, the CEO of Nestlé Brand, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, admitted that he believed the notion that humans have the inherent right to access water is an “extreme solution”, and that it’s better to put market value on the resource “so that we’re all aware it has its price”. Nestlé is the most prolific brand of bottled water in the world, having presence in the Third World as well as developed countries, even though the morality of extracting water from third-world aquifers is still heavily debated by critics.

           

My proposal includes building a 25ft long water bottle made from a specific synthesis of Superabsorbent Polymers (SAB’s) and polyethylene and setting the giant structure atop a cast stone fountain base set into the ground with no apparent plumbing to serve as an actual functioning fountain. This piece would be found in the Mojave Desert, in a rather arid, secluded area of the territory, where it will sit inactive for most of the year. The synthesis of SAB’s and polypropylene would serve to allow the water bottle to “absorb” moisture caught in the air or from annual rainfall (it should be noted that the Mojave Desert receives a maximum of three inches of rainfall annually), where the water will sit, seemingly untouchable, until the captured water is “extracted” by unknown means and the cycle repeats itself.

Finished concept of the Mojave Monument to Nestlé Brand Water Practices

          

  This monument would be a clear illustration of Nestlé’s questionable practices regarding the world’s shrinking water supply. The logo on the bottle itself would be the general Nestlé logo instead of the more specific Arrowhead logo, as it would signify its importance as relevant to all Nestlé bottled water brands, and even the bottled water market itself. The logo would be made with washable ink, so that, eventually, it would only be an unspecified water bottle as the centerpiece; however, since it would need water to wash off, and since the rainfall in the region is so little, the brand name would linger on the bottle face for some time.   

            Because of the bottle’s size, it would need to be built from separate casted molds instead of the ultrafast high-pressure methods used by many plastic bottle makers. Then it would have to be mounted as a separate piece onto the fountain bed, which would be a relatively cheap construction, considering its apparent uselessness. The bottle will be assembled completely sealed off from any access to its hollow area; the extraction of the water will remain a mystery, and every new visitor will wonder where it goes. 

            The object of this monument is to bring greater awareness of a concern that is happening under our very noses. Because of a plethora of political controversies and celebrity nonsense, these unethical practices by Nestlé and many other companies besides remain relatively unnoticed by the general populace, unless it directly affects a specific area. If we are to take a stand against these tycoons, first we must be educated, and before we can even do that, we must be aware of what is going on around us. We cannot afford to wake up one day and wonder where all the water went. 

Improbable Monument: Final Concept

MONUMENT TO NESTLE BRAND BOTTLED WATER IN MOJAVE DESERT

Created to evidently commemorate responsible bottling policies practiced by Nestle, this 25ft bottle of water will be situated in a picturesque fountain oasis that will have unfortunate, perpetual difficulties in pumping enough water to establish the full effect of the majestic bottle of water. 

Obviously this is a sarcastic monument, to protest Nestle's privatization of water. Nestle has explicitly declared that "access to water is not a public right."


Links for reference:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-privatisation-of-water-nestle-denies-that-water-is-a-fundamental-human-right/5332238

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEFL8ElXHaU

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/us/drought-widens-economic-divide-for-californians.html?_r=0

Improbable Monument: Dumbass Ideas

Here is a dump of some of the ideas I've come up with so far while brainstorming possible ideas:



CHIP BAG MONUMENT--

After blowing through an entire grab bag of assorted snacks with my sister, I idly wondered what it would be like to build a monument dedicated to the deliciousness of Frito Lay brand snack chips, made entirely out of the plastic bags the chips come in.

The "improbable" part of it would come from the sheer impracticality of building something stable and enduring with nothing but such a light, flimsy, easily weather-degradable material. It would also be unorthodox to build a monument for greasy, salty snack foods (although the commentary behind the monument might be interesting in itself). For the sake of construction, however, I doubt I'll go with this option (I have absolutely no idea how I would go about constructing something out of paper bags in sketchup).



SEX TOY MONUMENT--

I read the "no censoring" section of the original project instructions, and true to form, I immediately thought of something that would require censoring.

The idea would be to build some sort of spire-like (dildo) silicon construct, or perhaps a cavern or tunnel of some sort (flesh light) that would also be lined with silicon material. I'm not quite sure how well silicon stands up to long-term outdoor conditions, so I cannot really say how a 25 ft tall dildo would hold up out in the elements (although a flesh light cave might be somewhat more resistant due to its construction. The surface dedication of a sex toy monument  would be the celebration of human sexuality--although, in its deeper layers, it could be a defiant claim on female pleasure, as much of the sex toy industry caters to female patrons and sexual drive.


NORTH KOREAN MONUMENT TO SONY--

The improbability of this particular idea is rather explanatory.

Virtual Placemaking: Dam Foolishness

The basis of this project was sticking a piece of historic propaganda discouraging the Tuttle Creek Reservoir from being built around an area that was most affected by the inevitable dam.

Randolph was one of four cities that were actually submerged by the resulting lake waters that welled up due to the Tuttle Creek Dam in 1962. "Old Randolph", ruins of the town that still stand half-way submerged near the northern part of the lake, can still be seen to this day. It was a politically charged debate that spanded over a decade and even though the slogan "Let's Quit this Dam Foolishness" won Howard Shultz Miller a position in the U.S. House of Representitives in 1952, it did not stop the dam from being built. While the value of the dam was proven during the Flood of 1993, the original flood waters that were caused *by* the dam aren't generally addressed.    

Seeing the Past in Present Tense

The biggest question take-away I got from this article was the question of whether or not there was such a thing as an "accidental" monument? A footprint or fingerprint imprinted in the concrete of some walkway, or perhaps a shoe that was caught somewhere in the air, in the treetops or the cable lines, that no one could or cared to get down. 

Could monuments meant for one memory actually preserve something drastically different? Say, Mount Rushmore--a clear representation of great US presidents, a cornerstone of American pride. What's to say that it's not actually a monument of colonialism, or the great destruction the immigration of European peoples brought to the "New World"? In some lenses, this monument mockingly celebrates known "murderers".

Radical Cartography: References

For referencing this project, I turned to different types of provincial maps:

As well as elevation maps:

as visual and technical references.

Radical Cartography: Finished Touches

While my drafts were becoming more and more complicated, I decided to crank it down some and go with a little more simplistic approach:

The key indicates what sort of "province" every color represents, or the degree of obsession of a fan within their particular fandom. As you can see, the train tracks that travel amongst many of the "provinces" of the island has become "derailed" at some point after entering the "Otaku" territory. This indicates the difficulty that some people have to "pull away" from their particular anime obsession, and how bleak it can be to fall into this type of state.

To underline my point further I did an alternate elevation map of the island of Fandom to further indicate the "peak's" and "absolute lows" that an obsession with anime can elicit. Notice how there is a ring of grossly high elevation (mountains) that ring around the sub-sealevel pit that marks the "Otaku" territory. These mountains are representative of what people who aren't associated with that type of fandom "see" when they look on people with an Otaku complex; something insurmountable and grossly overblown, something that seems wholly inaccessible. In short, it becomes unthinkable that someone could fall into such a state of absolute addiction.  

Radical Cartography Project: Phase One

Due to recent events, I've decided to map out the phases of "Fandom", or the range of interests found in pop culture.

The Red part represents "Obsession", and will have many markers outlined/defined within the perimeters of unhealthy interest. There will be a very fine line in between the Red and the "Acceptable" parts of the island (for fandom interest is its own island of a mental state) such as a creek or some thin forested area, while the train tracks leading into the Red Zone will be damaged beyond repair, preventing/hindering return. The entire Zone will be a ruin-like scape. 

Logo Heist

I decided that my logo victim would be the recent update of deviantART's logo:

I felt that there was enough of a charged circumstance regarding this logo from the community to warrant a viable heist of the design!

My original ideas, while being mocking, were pretty one-dimensional in terms of scope and impact:

I decided I wanted to go for something that would not only physically alter the logo instead of changing its meanings, but change it into something that really brings into perspective the kind of community drama that unfolded with its unveiling:

That is, until I learned that this wasn't an all-together original idea:

Original artwork by "zebdal"

In the end, I settled for a logo that, while heavily modded, I feel still harbors the true, original spirit of the new logo:

FINAL

Culture Jam: Response

The term "guerrilla semiotics" encompasses this article very nicely.

Here we see a particular semiotics at play, particularly pertaining to cultural critique by means of vulgar, seemingly random yet meaningful gestures and pieces scattered throughout media culture.

I wonder if this is smaller, or larger, than the satirical movies and television shows that are prevalent today? Whether or not something like the antics found in "The Boondocks", a cartoon that is heavily satirical of black American culture, would count as culture jamming?

Semiotics for Beginners: Reflection

At least now I somewhat understand what "Anterior Semiotics" was supposed to mean. Somewhat.

As it was mentioned in the article, I've seen breeds of this field of study in many different places under many different titles--namely Linguistics, although there's also cultural anthropology and, to a certain extent, theology as well (I believe the term for it is "iconography"). Whatever the case, semiotics in some form has been present in art for hundreds and thousands of years; indeed, the vast majority of artwork spanning from the Classical age all the way to the High Renaissance was nothing but piles upon piles of representative artwork displaying signs from Mythology or the Bible!

On a basic level, one could also argue that semiotics proves a certain correlation between human interaction and the systems within computer networks. While human life seems boundless and often random, it is actually limited within our own perceptions, which in turn are based by the "signs" we've read in our lives, interpreting them in ways that we've decided to interpret them (either personally or by long-standing tradition). In much the same way, computers are similarly limited by the set "code of conduct" that is set before the first launch.

Mail Art

Illustrator is definitely turning out to be a much more different and complex program to learn with. I think I'm getting the hang of it, however!

Both images were primarily done in Illustrator (including text) with minor edits made in Photoshop:

This piece was in equal parts based off of the song"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" originally by Pete Seeger (although my favorite version is the rendition done by "Earth, Wind, and Fire") as well as lily plants I received for my birthday. The nuance ended up being something either hopeful or wistful, as though something were being lost--or born.

This one was a direct response to my first piece, conveying a darker, gloomier atmosphere with harsher contrast. It may also be an echo to the wartime theme that's presented in the song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"; a dog-print amid a confused, eccentric, violent flux of imprints on an indistinct background.

Augmented Body: Empathetic Hair 3

The initial inspiration for this type of project originated from this experiment about puppies being bred with sea anemone proteins:

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn17003-fluorescent-puppy-is-worlds-first-transgenic-dog.html&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFyvy8q8X8iZ53KjNg38Z1Iw_aRcA


There was also the implications brought to hand about the type of cultural impacts this type of augmentation would have.

--If there were one type of "ideal hair", how would one force that sort of idealized texture/color onto themselves?

   -Would it be mentally healthy?
  -Would it be considered a norm to try and go for ideal hair?
  -Would someone be able to give convincing lies in their lifetime? Could this ability be controlled and used for manipulation?

--Would the ideals be drawn from our current standards, or would an entirely different standard be introduced?

Augmented Body: Empathetic Hair 2

Here is the primary image I started with. I would be changing my hair color to suit my current expression (keep in mind that eyebrows won't be affected, since the alteration of all bodily hair follicles would border on the inefficient):

I decided based on the loose curliness of my hair and the crooked, flat smile, my hair would range in the yellowish tones:

However, once I came to this color, I decided I wanted something a little more vibrant instead of a color that could probably found in nature. I also decided that I was showcasing a little bit more emotion, like some sort of "pique" or interest:

Augmented Body: Empathetic Hair 1

My idea for an augmented body would be to replace head hair (excluding the eyebrows) with a type of synthetic hair-like fiber that would be able to detect changes in the person's emotion and alter itself to reflect that change.

Mundane hair color would not be used with these fibers--rather, the color spectrum would change dramatically depending on the metaphysical, subjective "mood" the person is currently in (righteous, happy, depressed, angry, etc.).

Hair texture would be affected too--although this would be affected by the physiological aspect of the human emotion that is felt (changes in body heat, heart rate, etc.)

The changes would take place in real time as the fibers themselves are altered by special glands and sensors that would replace the sebum and sebaceous gland of regular hair. While the synthetic hair would still grow to a max 10", new growth wouldn't be required for changes to take place from the follicle level. 

Here would be some concepts  regarding the hair's appearance during/after change. The colors follow the ROY G BIV color scale, only white would indicate an "absence" of "data" (IE, there are no/there is very little subjective emotion in the area to determine a suitable reaction). Similarly, straight hair would indicate sub-par body heat, while the hair fibers would get wavier and curlier with more excited the person would get (Their heart rate goes up, their blood pressure rises, etc.). 

Flesh and Metal: Reconfiguring the Mindbody in Virtual Environments

It's true that the language and the research used in this article far out-strides any common understanding that I might have within this field. I feel, however, that the real reason it's so obscure for me to understand is also the reason why it's such a fascinating topic, which is the metaphysics involved in the topic. The idea of perception being a sum of its parts (the idea of what it means to have a body is dependent on the idea of embodiment, and vice versa) is an idea that's not often expounded upon, but whose implications potentially impact many technological and cultural forms and expressions.

My biggest question concerning this topic is: Where is our collective perception going? How will we view our bodies and embodiments in 2020? 2220? It's astounding to think about, especially since we're unable to predict the technological and cultural advancements that will happen in 5 years or so.

Chance and Indeterminancy: "Ultradelic"

Using the same system as before, I rolled again for a second piece:

MY RESULTS WERE AS FOLLOWS:

1. Charcoal
2. "Dreamscape"
3. "Ultradelic"
4. Cow
5. Strong Reds (rolled for "muted" tone)

Since the red would have to be muted and my materials were restricted, I decided to flood the entire plane with a washed-out red tone:

Here would be the charcoal "pencils" that I would be using (I had totally forgotten that I had white charcoal available!):

Since the style was "Dreamscape" there wouldn't be much in the way of a set design/pattern to the composition (unlike with the "It Came From the Night!!" piece, which was heavily processed and planned before the final product). When I think of dreams, I think of something ephemeral and half-formed, yet filled with the sensations and intentions of an idea or an emotion-- something whimsical and coherent all in the same time. How could I translate a "dream" onto paper? Basically, I just splashed as much charcoal as I could onto the paper without it resulting in an inarticulate mess--and it was somewhere around here that I discovered an "udder" somewhere in the work, thereby tying it to a bovine subject:

Here would be the finished product! (Although, of course, the image quality does it poor justice):

Chance and Indeterminancy: "It Came from The Night!!"

So! First thing's first, I had to have come up with a system for determining how/what I would make with said project.

My system included using these dice:

With this system:

d(4) Media-- Charcoal(2), Gouache(1), SAI(3), Graphite(4)

d(6) Style-- Anime(1), Abstract(4), Naturalist(3), Inorganic (objects)(5), “Dreamscape”(2), Typography(6)

d(8) Title-- “The Sea Shore’s Calling”(8), “It Came From the Night!!”(6), “Thumping”(1), “Ultradelic: The Return of the Green One”(7), “Bounce Bounce! New Egg Super Happy”(3), “Flight”(5), “Soft and Sweet; Simple and Clean”(2), “Not Today”(4)

d(10)--Subject: Cow(1), Donkey(2), Orangutan(3)(?), Construction worker(4), Lunchlady (5), Doctor(6) Banana (7), Cheese (8), Ball(9), Feather (10)(Suggestions by: Semper, Evvers, wanderer, imi)

d(%) Note--colors will come from COLORED PENCILS if SAI or Gouache are not rolled for Media

10%--Strong Reds,

20%--Strong Oranges,

30%--Strong Yellows,

40%--Strong Greens,

50%--Strong Blues,

60%--Strong Violets,

70%--Heavy Highlights/Reroll,

80%--Heavy Shadows/Reroll,

90%--Muted Tones/Reroll,

100%--Heavy Saturation/Reroll

d(12)

d(20)

MY RESULTS WERE AS FOLLOWS:

1. GRAPHITE
2. TYPOGRAPHY
3. “It Came From The Night!!”
4. Ball
5. Strong Violets

I was *not* happy at this point, as I didn't really expect to roll for Typography (which is, by far, my least favorite and least practiced expression on the list of possibilities). 

And here is where I finally sat down to attempt to put it all together!

Cleaning lines!

The preliminary outline. Typography is a lot harder than I anticipated, as it forces you to utilize the space/parameters provided in ways that stretch your imagination to the limits.

A close up of the preliminary sketch.

I forgot to take some progress pictures of the color--however, you can clearly see the poor, decimated  prismacolor pencil (which was brand-new when I started this project!)

And here is the (first) finished product! (of course, I will probably bring it into class).

Self Portrait: The Ingredients

Screenshot of "Killer Instinct", a childhood favorite of mine.

This is BrickSQUAD!, a knock-off alpaca plushie purchased from an anime convention.

'

My 7-set gaming dice. Very proud.

Fried pies like my father used to make. Since he literally made these.

A MadCatz gamecube controller; what a relic indeed.

Self Portrait: Clearly Some Interesting Stuff Happening Here

The surrealist quality of the piece is intended, I assure you. I am quite surreal.

Feature Artist: Lionel Theodore Dean and "FutureFactories"

What started as a research project-turned-thesis, FutureFactories is the studio of Lionel Theodore Dean who specializes in the use of 3D-prints, Additive Manufacturing and Rapid Prototyping technologies in order to create end-use projects. He works exclusively within the realms of Direct Digital manufacturing.

This work featured here, named "Creepers", was a commercial work commissioned by the company Materialise. It's a modular space-dividing LED light system. In Dean's words: "I imagined this design by slwoly spreading across the room sending out 'feelers' for the next attachment." I'm personally not quite sure exactly why it was originally commissioned or how Materialise will use the piece. For me, I like this particular piece for the simple yet intricate composition of the crawling vines of flowers across the space, as well as the soft, ambient glow of the LED's which give it a soothing, tranquil effect.

In all, I found Dean's work to be enthralling and interesting, especially when one considers the lack of a physical medium. I think it's the unorthodox use of digital and computerized tools to produce something traditionally aesthetically pleasing that really captures my eye. When asked if one could visit the factory, Dean's responded with: "The factory is virtual; perhaps you are already there. A wide variety of systems and technologies are employed in the work. Where it is physically produced is not the issues. It could already be done in your own home."

"Tuber9"

Sentences on Conceptual Art

"When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art." <---Baller Comment.


However, I have to say the comment that really took the cake for me was this particular sentence here: "The artist may not necessarily understand his own art." I feel as though this particular comment builds off of other sentences previously stated in the reading, but this one here really drives home the concept of perception. In my mind, I could imagine an artist working on a piece of tragic art for the sake of creating tragedy--and yet, it only takes someone who has been through, or who is going through, tragedy to fully appreciate the concept and feel the underlying pain behind a piece built out of catastrophe. For example: an artist trying to convey the wreckage of a hurricane or a tsunami, and a victim of Hurricane Katrina happens upon it.

English is Wonderful

Hello, world! And welcome to my first ever english-speaking blog! Huzzah 'n such!