on body augmentation and modification

Orlan has become a media sensation in Europe. I like her work and understand her thoughts behind her actions. She has no shame, and she is honest from the beginning.  Although her shows are in your face, they are thought provoking. Using her body as the main text/subject/vehicle in her work, has made it more interesting to me. He hybridization of sculpture and body via digital format is something I might look into for my project in class. 

Some thoughts that came to mind while researching this topic were of self image and identity. People always make a decision about how they look or like to present themselves to other people.  Taking into consideration that inaction is an action itself.  Everyone has their own way of portraying themselves on a regular basis. It seems that these people/artists all want to transcend their original body blueprint to be different then the rest for social awareness, whether it be political or psychosocial. Stelarc with his suspensions, implants and Virtual Reality processes has lent him to learn more about his personal relationship to the physical world. 

•interesting conversation I had with a classmate was how someone that has a specific hairstyle, gets caste to a specific group sometimes. Stereotyped if you may, and inadvertently thought of as a certain kind of person. A person fights stigma both negative and positive traits that really have nothing to do with the person sometimes based on just a hairstyle.  A person maybe once thought the hair would make them different, but in doing so, made them part of another group. Or at least a part of a group, of people trying to be different, which logically just makes them part of another group.

Culture Jamming

The symbol of Obey used in clothing line is synonymous with youth culture in present time.  Upon asking people wearing obey, if they know who the image is about or the artist who created the image, I usually got a blank stare or stupid face back form them.

So i just changed the words to don't from obey. Because frankly, thats exactly what i think in my head when I come across these "contemporary" fashionites.

Indeterminacy Assignment

1) Post on facebook.

2) Paint a swatch of the color(s) the person has chosen. If the person comments on the conversation, but doesnt not post a color, leave the color blank, but still acknowledge the post with time and persons name.

3) make a grid and chart chronologically in order by time. all the posts on team mates facebook post and self post.

on AS WE MAY THINK by Vannevar Bush

Vannevar's writings of technology and the future capabilities it holds is quite extraordinary. The writings although printed in 1945 are true to todays technology and how we see the future with products being created around the world. One of the most fascinating points he brings up is just how so much research and study goes into creating and developing, and how much time gets wasted in the process. Just like with anything else, development of a product whether its Art, prose or even the cooking a meal yields inferior products in the beginning. Its after practice or debugging of a product, that we are happy with the results and truly get closer to what success looks like. 

A couple of thoughts on some quotes in the writing.

"The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it."

•extention cords, coffee machines, printers.. all now. 

"All our steps in creating or absorbing material of the record proceed through one of the senses - the 

tactile when we touch keys, the oral when we speak or listen, the visual when we read. Is it not possible 

that some day the path may be established more directly"

•more true now than ever. with objects being created like the google glasses, complete immersion of transmitting data with senses is the new frontier. 
•I get a mental picture of a human plugging in to computer directly by means of a port. Just like a blood transfusion. 

It's pretty remarkable to see Vannevar write of about all the growth and potential the world has accomplished. I'd be more interested to read what he would write today. Since many of the things he writes now are just as true as it was in 1945. Makes me wonder... Would it just be the same?

On panorama.

Although I dont really comprehend the science or the purpose of the installation, It seems to me that Job Koelewijn's work of trampolines and cut holes in a space are a bit funny or meant to be fun.  It reminds me of a picture I read about in a blog once when the Iron Lady came out (with Meryl Streep). It's called the Margaret Thatcher Illusion. Perception keeps us from deciphering some information when its mirrored or turned upside down. Its until we see it right side up, that we see the facial expression information changed.

on Conquest

Olga Kisseleva is an artist known for her use of scientific methods to create pieces of art. In one of her most recent works, Kisseleva created a new kind of map which shows the invasion of companies currently present in the Arctic. Its geopolitical and corporate powers, are shown through a series of company logos such as Shell Gas company and Esso. 

Arctic Conquistadors, Olga Kisseleva

As research and data progress, more and more oil and government company logos are placed and overlapped to show how deeply saturated the Arctic has become with private company acquisitions of land and government property.

It's interesting to see such a beautiful landscape be decimated by imagery of corporations from around the world. It looks almost as if there was a map spread out on a coffee table and a toddler just came and dropped hundreds of corporate stickers and paraphernalia on top of it. creating an obscure image of the natural looking map to a cluster of repetitive symbols.  With that said,  one of the answers as to why Kisseleva creates these maps is highlighted. Enlightening the viewer of what is actually going on in the world is the main focus. The Geopolitical and corporate struggle extends to cities in many ways. Political unrest in forms of demonstration and war have been breaking out both nationally and internationally and I feel this is just one more avenue in which activist or artist are achieving the spread of knowledge to their audiences.