Thinking Outside the Coffin

Extra Credit Blog

2007-05-02T11:10:00.000-04:00

English 1020 Students,

For this final, extra credit blog, tell me what you've learned about art and writing over the course of the semester. It can be something small, something large, or nothing at all. It can be thesis and color, chiaroscuro and Rothko, point-by-point outlines and pointilism. Whatever it is that you have gleaned from the class, I am interested to learn about it.

My best wishes to you for a happy summer break!
Sincerely,
Prof. O

Blog #5 ~ There's Something Happening Here!

2007-03-20T11:20:00.000-04:00

Select one of the four photographs and write a narrative that explains what's happening in the photograph. Be sure the story is appropriate for a wide audience. Have fun!

BLOG # 4 ~ At last!

2007-03-03T12:37:00.000-05:00

COMPARE & CONTRAST ART WORKS

This blog asks you to take a look at one of two pairs of artworks in order to compare and contrast them. Choose Group A (Deviant Art) or Group B (Planes & Spheres). Notice my questions in BOLD! Take some time to browse the art works, making lists of what's similar and what's different about them--then, write a response to my inquiry!

A. DEVIANT ART

What makes art deviant? Is deviant art different from subversive art? Could be say that ALL art is deviant?

In order to answer these questions, first check out the Deviant Art website at http://www.deviantart.com/, where you will find more photos like the one below, entitled Crime Scene, which was created by Lara Jade Coton, the 17 year old photographer from the United Kingdom (her personal website is http://larafairie.deviantart.com/).

After looking at the Deviant Art from the website, take another look at Maurizio Cattelan's work at http://www.mauriziocattelan.org/. In particular, check out the reproduction of his work, Bidibidobidiboo (1996), the tableau featuring a squirrel suicide which we looked at in class.

In what ways are Coton's (or other deviant artists') works similar to or different than Cattelan's? Which do you like better? Are they all deviant or not?

B. PLANES & SPHERES

What's different about reducing the visible world into spheres and planes? Are there similarities? Does this effort by artists to strip things down help us understand those things at their most basic level, or is it just a trick designed to sell art?

To determine your answer to this question, first look at Lars-Erik Fisk's Rolling Art, such as the reproduction of his VW Bus Ball, pictured in this blog. Check out Fisk's other sculptures at

http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/2007/02/vw-bus-ball-and-other-rolling-art.html.

After looking at Fisk's sculptures, go look at Pablo Picasso's cubist paintings to see whether you think turning reality in to its planes is similar to turning into its spheres. You can find some of Picasso's work at http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm.

Is there anything alike in turning a VW Bus into a ball and turning a human figure into a bunch of boxes? What are the differences?

Ice hotels, self-portraits, and optical illusions, oh my!

2007-02-03T14:09:00.000-05:00

Thanks to several of you for suggesting interesting topics for us to discuss on the blog; I welcome your additional suggestions for blogging and/or class discussion. For this week's blogging assignment, look through the websites listed under one of the three categories and write a response--what do you think of the ideas expressed in these related websites? Is any of it art? Does it remind you of something you've seen before? Happy Reading & Blogging!
P.S. Check out the photograph above to see if you can find the face in the beans!

1) HEY! I'M FREEZING IN HERE ~
Ice Hotels: Sculpture? Art? Insanity? Or just another one of Dante's rings of hell?! One of your colleagues recently emailed me to mention a new form of art he's enountered: ice sculpture/architecture.
See this link to h2g2, the BBC's online encyclopedia project, which has an entry on ice hotels: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A756047
Also, check out this link to the Jukkasjarvi, Sweden IceHotel's website:
http://www.icehotel.com/
Also, see Canada's ice hotel at http://www.icehotel-canada.com/en/index.en.php

2) NOAH'S PHOTOGRAPHIC ARK ~
Self-Portraits in the Digital Age: There are so many different kinds of strange!
Another of your colleagues told me about Noah Kalina, a professional photographer who has taken a digital photograph of himself every day for the last six years. He started when he was 19 and plans to continue until he dies, and he has made a video that strings the photos together into a sort of film.
Check the "film" version of his compilation at http://youtube.com/watch?v=6B26asyGKDo.
Visit Noah's "Everyday" website at http://www.everyday.noahkalina.com/ if you'd like more information about how he understands and executes the project.
Visit Noah's other website at http://www.noahkalina.com/
See also his page on Flikr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/noahkalina/. The self-portraits of Noah with celebrities is especially funny.

3) NOT FOR MINORS OR THE PSYCHICALLY IMPAIRED! ~
Optical Illusions and more...What in the *#!$?@!* is that thing I'm looking at?!
Check out Michael Bach's website, 69 Optical Illusions and Visual Phenomena (Optische Tauschung) at http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/.
See especially the connections between scientists exploring optical illusions and artists, such as Marcel Duchamp (of the urinal sculpture fame!) and M.C. Escher (of the college dorm room print fame!).
Check out Marcel Duchamp's work at http://www.marcelduchamp.net/index.php
See some stuff by M.C. Escher at http://www.mcescher.com/

Is Graffiti Art?

2007-01-23T11:52:00.000-05:00

Today, I'm wondering about the boundaries of art--what's in and what's out of the box we call "art." Can magazine ads be art? What about bumper stickers on people's cars? How about the can of Sprite I just drank or the furniture at a Starbucks? What are the criteria that you'd use to define what is (and what is not) art?

Before you answer the question, read the short article "Graffiti grows as costly nuisance" from The Tennessean, which can be found at the following link:
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070114/NEWS01/701140381/-1/ARCHIVES .

Also, before you write on this issue, check out some graffiti by exploring Banksy's work at: http://www.banksy.co.uk/help/index.html

Now that you've taken a few minutes to read and think on this issue, is graffiti art?

Art & Architecture: Form & Function

2007-01-03T14:02:00.000-05:00

Today, I'm thinking about the difference between art and architecture. I'm wondering about the relationship between form, content, function, and cultural context in each one. What are the proportions of structure and matter, of practicality and social meanings in both architecture and art? And how alike--or different--are these two media in their constitution of these various elements?

For instance, when I think about architecture, I wonder about the difference between the ubiquitous, typical glass-and-metal office buildings that sit on the suburban fringes of cities like Nashville and Atlanta and Nashville's odd Victorian-era downtown church built in a neo-Egyptian style. When we compare these kinds of architecture, what is the level of functionality in each one? How much does each building convey ideas in a three-dimensional form? Is there a balance between form/content and function? Most of the time, we don't think about these questions very much. Most of us tend to take architecture for granted, marvelling at its beauty or complaining about its limitations only in relation to a very limited set of expectations. But isn't there more to it than these shallow expectations? What would happen if more of us contemplated these issues and demanded more of our civic building projects, our city planners, and developers putting in new shopping malls, housing units, and office parks?

On the other hand, there's art--which some people find frivolous and others see only as a means to make the walls of their homes and offices less bare. Here, there's such a gulf between the multi-layered conceptual work of, say, Wade Guyton, and the commercial nostalgia of Thomas Kinkade paintings that I wonder if we can call both of them art. The former is an experimental effort that uses various technological tools to create provocative, original, and sometimes uncomfortable aesthetic ideas; the latter uses similar technologies to create reproductions of mediocre "original" paintings that people use to create a feeling of comfort in their homes. In examples such as Guyton's and Kinkade's work, what is the role, if any, of functionality? Or should art--paintings, sculpture, multi-media pieces, photography--be about the unity of idea and aesthetics alone? Is a work of art with a major functional role still art? What happens when we examine our ideas about what art is and should be? Would this make a difference in what we want to see in our homes and in public spaces?

I don't know the answers to these queries, but I submit them to you, gentle readers, to consider along with a question about the degree to which art and architecture are similar. What do you think is the relationship between art and architecture?