foodings; not paintings

This is a peice I did in artmaking but it gets its own post because its still an idea in progress.

[apologies for the glossiness, i used a wash of rasberry vinagret when it was done]
This peice was done off the premise of using no paints whatsoever. Specifically because one of the reasons I don't like painting is because it leaves the artist totally dependent on the paint-companies, who can then charge whatever they want. I think thats a bad way to make art, hence why i often like using found objects or reoppropriating object in the way they weren't intended.
>This peice was made using:
Brown- Soy Sauce- microwaved to get the water out, then used as water color
Blue- toilet bowl blue-water-maker as water color, toothpaste
Yellow- mustard
Red- Ketchup, Hotsauce, M&M
Green- M&Ms, mustard + toiletstuff
some are combinations of the above.
Below are some pictures of my work-station when making this- I like it because the pallet is unusual for painting.. because there is no paint.

Artmaking projects

I wanted to post up projects from this past semester, but unless they are ideas that I'm still working, I'm just going to post them in one post (post- there- 4 times in one sentence).


This is a painting made from a song. The song is "Hey Pachuco" by the Royal Crown Revue (also known as the song from the Mask). I painted the different musical parts of the song as I saw them visually.
I don't like painting that much- its slow, uninteresting to me, and I'm not too great at it.


This peice is just experimenting with smoke-painting, using burnt paper, and spray paint at an angle. Its not anything special really, just some playing around


This is a peice made totally out of fabric peices donated to me by White Lotus (furniture store on Hamilton St in New Brunswick). Its just fabric and hot glue. No concept really, just alot of playig around with color schemes and composition.

[maybe ill put the pictures up here, later though]
There are three small collages, not that great (and my teacher let me know, don't worry). On the subject of natural vs man-made. nothing too deep.

art? fork art!

[i can't figure out for the life of me how to make those come out right and i just ran out of patience]
Using plyers and hot glue, nothing to complicated I just wanted to post this up.
fork art.

light "guard" ideas

here is a lightguard:The thing about them is that it is not that hard to take them down and put them back up, so there are a few ideas that i have had for them:
>The first idea I have already done- i took the one down in my room and we put a bunch of christmas lights into it and ran an extension cord along the ceiling and turned the main light off and the christmas ligths on- that was awesome

>The other ideas I had have to do with using the lightguards as installation peices throughout the dorm- because they are in all the hallways.
---One idea is paint them, with regular paint or watered-down (and so semi-transparent) paint- and that leaves alot of things open- an eye-ball is an easy obvious one. but you could do the earth, just plain words circling or spiraling, etc.
---Another idea is sort of a play on stenciling- if you make a stencil and tape it (using minimal amounts of clear, scotch or packaging tape) to the inside- you use the light to draw out the stencil- keeping in mind that i think you'd have to do it backwards but thats not really a problem because a stencial can be made normally and just flipped. but you now have a really simple place to get your stencils so many people will see them and this (unlike the paint) is non-destructive.

[in case you are someone reading this who could potentially get me in trouble for any of this- i hope you are enjoying my JOKE website. its a place where i post things that i would NEVER do in real life because I don't damage school property, i just like to indulge in fantasies here on the internet because it isnt real].

picture says enough.

banksy. graffiti.artist. check out his other work on my links (see the right).

magnetic tape dj

alright i got this idea... im not sure from hearing about this women who made a shirt by weaving together magnetic tape and then attaching the 'magnetic reader' from a tape player to the end of a pen and rubbing it along the shirt.
-later i found out about Laurie Anderson, who did a similar project, attaching the magnetic tape to a bow and using it like a violin- she is a musician who has made cds and tours.
-I did a similar project (before i knew about laurie anderson, not that it matters) and took apart a tape player (below)


-isolated the 'reader' peice (below)

-i took clips of magnetic tape and attached them, like bows, to paper clips (below)

-instant DJ
-you run the bow along the reader at a certain speed (it take some playing around to get the right speed) and you can replay the tape as it was meant to be heard- but you can run it faster or slower as you want, you can also scratch and repeat parts as you want to hear them.

possible ideas are pretty endless- furnishing the reader into a nice little box, with the reader sticking up would be easy- then making a bunch of 'bows' or 'samples' of whatever i want (keeping in mind that, though it would be difficult, i can record whatever i want onto tapes with no difficulty). then i can sample instruments, clips of voices, famous movie quotes, etc. then i can have a set of bows, labeled and marked where the quote starts and potentially become very good at the instrument.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update: What about a magnetic tape VJ?
Idea riding on the tail of the above project:
>if I can do this with an audio tape, can you do it with a video tape?
-could I mix visual and audio?
-Reid says that a vcr is much more difficult to mess with- not that I don’t believe him- but I got a vcr and im going to find out for myself (the next I get some free hours)

no clever title here

okay, this is random idea. no concept, it might just be funny. but i'd like develop some sort of concept for it before i do it.
simple: run a line from third floor rooms on each side of my dorm, and hang something from the line.
>idea: underwear/undergarments from people all over the dorm.
>use: strong rope or wire (electrical wire?) + clothpins or paperclips?
>sign: it would have to be water proof and tear proof and non-offensive enough that it wont get taken down right away.

>sort of different idea: use that space- visible to so many people- as an area for an installation or just to hang a sculptre, what if I don't hang clothing... i hang...
-cardboard cutouts of something?
-of people? i have britney spears and shakespear

signs:
-surprising facts:
did you know: every 7 seconds... etc etc
- hang the sign in segments, in between the segmants hang peices of something related to the subject
-like people who die of hunger and hang leftover food
-people who work in sweatshops and hang clothing made in sweatshops
-NOLA? DID you know: it tooks FEMA # days to etc/ #,000 people died / etc.
-hang with clothing, mardigras.

.... more to come. i like this idea.

~~~~~~~~~
update on this idea:
i just mentioned this idea in the room to eli and shriane, and shriane came up with a really good idea-
steal a one pair of underwear from many people in the dorm and put them up there as an april fools joke.
-write "april fools" on the underwear in black tape
-put up early april 1st!
>how to get underwear? use roomates against each other! (i hope no in the dorm reads this)- ask a roomate to help me get his/her roomates underwear for a practical joke, then ask the other roomate also.
use either my room and tony's room- or daz's room and third floor lounge or bobby/eric.

road to omelas

i have an idea for an installation peice, based on a story by Ursula Le Guin, called "the Ones who walk away from omelas". its a short story, really easy read- very interested, you can find it here - its a pdf on that site.
once you read it, this will make more sense. But I'd like to simply reenact the basement with the child. have a dark, dirty basement, with shit everywhere. mop and buckets in one corner. make a bad smell, so viewers smell it. in the other corner, a small child- on its butt, holding its knees- facing the corners, so you only see the back of the childs hear- androgenous haircut. problem; the story says naked... making a naked body would be really difficult, clothing would be easier but really difficult at the same time. plaster carving?
and maybe a constant whinning taped-looped.

and... give out a copy of the story? maybepost the end of the story somewhere in big letters... and give out a copy of the whole story?
or not and just give out a copy of the whole story.
hm.

great ideas from germany, i think.

This site was brought to my by Matt via StumbleUpon. Its a german website for a book that is basically a bunch of cool ideas, some are better than others.
Atelier v (I have no idea what this or means).

Highlights:

Cool Idea, similar to another one I had, I'll post it up here eventually.

and this one is awesome.

burnt hair

this idea is simple i just wanted to post it up. the above pictures are of hair strands placed a little above a flame, the heat burns it slightly and causes it to curl up tightly. it mightbe cool to see it in a gallery, maybe with a magnifying glass.
not much concept though... DNA comes on hairstrands. ... thats I can think up.

warped LPs

I had heard about this idea a while ago and did some research and decided to try it. Its really easy-
>Vinyl in Oven, make it hot and it wont take long
>It will get very pliable (and not that hot- you can touch it with your hands!)
>press it into a bowl

-My above trial was into a weird pot that we had in the kitchen in the dorm, so it looks weird.
Ideas:
>sorta obvious, press more centered into bigger bowl
>Try cutting into small circles and press into smaller cups to make vinyl shot glasses.
--------used middle of CD as coster set- laminate?
>try pressing into full glass or vase
>try cutting when its pliable, it will make a smooth bowl with overlapping parts
------maybe melt flaps together with fire or soldering iron?
>try poking legs into it- like in picture (not my picture)

creative earings

Unconventional Earings

On , they have a tutorial of how to make the actual earings, using pre-bought earing peices. Thats probably easier than making my own. But as for ideas for subject matter (actual dangly part...)

>Foreign coins, broken zippers, gummy bears, sim cards, etc

pixelated TV- not my idea

TP TV

Are you sick of looking at your generic TV screen? Maya Berger suggests transforming the boob tube into a pop-art showpiece. Start by collecting a bunch of toilet paper rolls (you'll need 70 for a 19" screen, and the ones lined with white centers work best). Find a cardboard box that's approximately the same size as your screen, and cut out the bottom. Cover the box with a heavy vellum paper by taping it to the sides. (You can also build your own box out of vellum.) Fill the box with TP rolls, and place the whole thing in front of your screen. Dim the lights, turn on your set, and let the pixelated show begin.

from: http://www.readymademag.com/feature_22_remake.php

Using Smoke to Paint...

This idea I picked up one some website a long time ago (i think it was a WikiHow)- and never thought about it until i had to do an artmaking project and i was trying to do anything except paint. So i experimented with a small tea light and a peice of paper- it worked but it was that great- the flame was too small, the paper was too weak and difficult to handle. I used it in one artmaking project, which I probably post up here next post (im still backlogging ideas and projects).

Two ideas changed the project into something awesome:
-making use of an oil candle i had build in ceramics that had been a failed project at the time. It was failed because I did not create any mechanism to seperate the flame from the oil reserves, so the flame got too big and let off ALOT of smoke, which doesnt work as a nice little oil candle. However, it does work for this project, which needs smoke.
-I gessoed a peice of cardboard to use a canvas and tried it for this idea and it was also a success- 1) because the gesso doesnt burn as quickly (it would probably take a while to burn it) and 2) because its easier to hold the cardboard over the flame, move it however i want- really use like a canvas.
------interesting idea- this is like painting where the paintbrush stays still and the canvas moves- but its 3d because the canvas must move on more than 2 axises because the angle at which the flame hits the board changes the final product totally.
-things to note: -must use fixative when youare done or you can easily brush away the smokemarks. (i was lucky enough to find someone with a whole bottle that they didnt need)
-also, you can't do this indoors because theres alot of smoke, but outdoors the wind makes it difficult to control the marks- must use in isolated outdoor area, or foundry/metal shop.

Possible ideas:
-try smoke on glass- this has cool potential. Especially on glass of a glass coffee table. Maybe do it on the underside of glass table.
another idea:- do it on glass table, and then spray paint white over it, then flip the glass over and it might look awesome.
-or, do smokemarks one side and paint the otherside, then use smoke-side up.
-should try these ideas soon.

Where ideas go to die...

Did you ever have a sculpture or art project that failed miserably? Or perhaps you were distracted or annoyed at it and you could not finish it? Or maybe even it never made it past a drawing or sketch but it had the potential to be great but you know that it could not be met?
We all need closure, and this is where ideas, hopes, and dreams go to be put to rest.

The idea is an installation/sculpture peice- take over a plot of land- demarcate the land with a fence (chicken wire painted black? green fence from my house painted black?)- (idea- make cool entrance like gateway for it)
-vaguely mark out grave plots for sculptures- start out with one of mine- put it there, make a gravestone-
gravemarker/stone- either styrafoam or cardboard or something
------reids idea- make it very small to play on the idea of an idea being small..?
------have person make their gravestone- that is only rule to having your stuff in graveyard
-graveyard is like a gallery but of broken ideas, dead dreams, failed projects
-but gallery is like one last attempt at their success before they are done for
-viewing of body.... before burial :: gallery opening ::graveyard

-advertise- maybe make a website- make facebook/myspace info on it
-photograph its creation- document carefully

maybe when its done have a gallery closing- or viewing- or burial- etc...
-

crackled CD clock

This idea is basic, no concept behind it- use crackled cd (microwaved) for background of clock.
-used basic clock components from some crappy clock thing
-problem: to mass produce would need cheap, easy to get, clock parts
-hands- cutouts from magazine, too floppy, dont hold shape- cross paths
-solution: need firmer material
-i think it runs incorrectly time, need to be more careful with arm placements
-hanging possibilities: use picture hanging thing, or fishing wire, or floss, or paper clips

how did you get to this party? connections

i had this vague idea at a party once- i was looking around- all these people- with their unvierses, their own friends, family, socks, drama, pencils, desks, emails, and universes- and they all collide at parties. before the party, i was in place x. and in my personal narrative- i was in place x, then went to this party, and saw all these people. but before the party- everyone was somewhere- doing something.
i had the idea of photographing people at a party, then getting a bunch (maybe 10) of them involved in this photoessay or photonarrative, in which i traceback their steps to what they did before the party, how they heard about it, how they got there, etc.
Coincedences, random instances, etc would enhance project. This may need words, but thats okay- it can have captions.
The final product would be photos of a party and branching out would be how those people ended up there- the branches could be backwards chronologically from the party to maybe how they first heard about the party or how they came to find out about it. then trace it backwards more- they saw a flyer for it? in what building? what class did they have there? why did they take that class? why are they that major? work backwards and backwardser.
why? based on the idea that if one could know everything in the universe (the placement of each atom in the universe) and you could have this ideal/incredible calculator - then you could predict the future. if you didnt want to major in taht- you would never have ended up that party.

the party where universes collide.

process of making sandals mine

idea: to get a brand new pair of sandals in the beginning of the spring/summer- photograph them on a plain repeatable background- wear them all the time, everywhere, and photograph them daily/weekly whatever is necessary to show the process that one goes through in wearing in sandals- at first sandals are puffy, impersonal, plain. slowly toes and the balls of my feet start to make their own grooves in the sole (soul). more and more, the grooves go deeper, the sandals become more specific to me and my foot and my toes. slowly they wear in, maybe too much. the fabric may begin to wear, slowly tear. the sandal eventually falls apart (rain, weather help process along.
concept: makign something mine, personalization, individualization, uniqueness, getting used to something, getting comfortable, wearing it, but what does it mean that this all leads to the destruction of the object and starting again?
end photo esay with picture of new, different sandals.

Oil candle apple

Use apple or other fruit (or any object) as vehicle to hold lamp oil and wick (with wick head/holder that are obtained from work-place garbage)
-Use knife to remove apple in correct side as to fit wick holder in perfectly
-Use foil to hold oil inside apple
Problems: apples/fruit decay.
More ideas: use potatoes and roots will look awesome eventually
-other objects? Anything~ doll heads?

Vacuum hose + parking cone

Music Instrument-
Based losely on blue man's wackophone or drumbone- instead of using different lengths of tube or tubes that fit into each other and lengthen- use a material that expands- vacuum hose.
-Use cone to amplify sound
-Use soft foam material to smack hose
-it produces little sound when physically contacts hose lip
-gets good contact, good sound

Blog rebirth as idealog

This blog shall now be devoted to ideas- it is an ideablog or idealog.

finished project!!

I have finally finished it- here are photos:



The different objects include: a block of wood, an opened cheese grater, a plaster bottle, some aluminum tubing, leftover aluminum from casting, and other things- all making awesome sounds. I'm excited about the final projects.
I realize now that I never tried it out while sitting... ooops.... we'll see how that works out.

I realized the other day along that I didnt know what I would do with this generator and I couldnt think of any projects that really really caught my attention or got my excited.
Finally I got a great idea that I really liked but realized it had no electricity involved in it. So eventually I gave up on the generator, which I still have at the LAB and will use, just for another project.
The idea that I will be using now is a Stomp Jam Drum Set! A stomp jam is like a drum circle but instead of drums, there are random objects to bang out that make cool sounds. I really like drum circles and stomp jams are equally awesome- so this project just seemed to speak to me. A drum circle is like no other experience and you can’t explain unless you have been in one and really enjoyed it. The music is so loud and every person, no matter how loud or quiet their instrument or how complicated their rhythm, matters a lot because the beat- while it could exist without them- would not be the same beat, it would be different in some essential way.
The synthesis of all the different people and objects is a synergistic effect (good word)- the sum of the parts is greater than any of the part individually (that was poorly explained- but I think you get it).

The idea is either to play while riding (maybe, but not sure if that will work) or just to ride to someplace and play there. It think the idea is awesome- because stomp jams are usually so situation-based and dependent on whether there are things for it- but I envision (though this is not part of the project) a bunch of these stompjamdrumset bikes and all biking to some place and meeting there. It would be awesome.

generator

Anyhoo- it took alot of work finding the motor- i called a lot of local car repair shops but found out that they have to send back old motors because they cost alot and companies pay for them back to melt down and reuse. I finally had success at a local (piscataway local) lawnmower place that had an old motor and were willing to give me, which was awesome.
[I realize I should have a picture here but I never took one and I keep forgetting]
Here is what a motor looks like in general:
More later, on what I do with this crazy contraption.

Bike project- yeehaw

Immediately when we got the bike project I knew that i wanted to do a project involving a bike powered generator. This idea had been in my head before we officially got the project, I had come across the idea when exploring into electricity for past projects/for my own interest.
the concept has to do with independence, self reliance, making mystical magical incomprehesible thing (electricity) into something that is made by a simple action (biking).
I researched alot into it and found various sites , , , etc.
The project involved either creating my own motor or getting an old motor from a car or a lawnmower (they use the same style engine). The motor is the part that actually turns the kinetic action of circular motion into electricity by electromagnetic induction (i'll spare the details- look it up, its interesting)
The process is amazing- magnetism is like this mystical force that we sort know how to control but can't exactly explain why it exists or how it started. Electricity is the same.
That’s all I have now, more later.

Link to pictures

Mold Album!

Pressing things into clay, etc

The project I am currently emersed in involves pressing things into clay, created the art in the negative space, pouring plaster into the clay, and tearing away the clay.
I have tried two basic ideas:
>the first is to create a cup like structure out of the clay and press different shapes into it, the product of which is a mound with shapes protruding from it. (see picture)
>the other idea is to use the shape of my hand and different variations on the hand shape. one is a hand with spikes and the other (drying as i write this) is a hand with worms.
-the idea of using hands in art is aweosme- im not sure where I got it from but I have used the image of hands in several pieces. they seem to show power, the power of man, hands are used to DO things, etc.
>a hand with spikes is sharp and you dont want to touch it but it can touch you, etc.
>a hand with worms seems to have something slithering beneath it, caught underneath, hiding, trying to get out (etc etc).

pictures

Here are my TV project pictures ~Album~


~mark

Second TV project post

The project with marie is really cool- the idea seems to be coming together. i have started collecting random electronic devices to take apart and yesterday i went around my dorm asking people if they had broken electronic devices. I got a broken plasma lamp (which i tried to make it work, but did some research and discovered that plasma lamps are vacuum sealed in glass and filled with argon or some other stable gas (like a light bulb!) ). that stuff doesn't matter but goes to show my obsession with understanding how things work (.com). I ended up taking out two switches from the plasma lamp to use in the TV project.
We have decided to use the switches from the TV itself and hook all these up together. we discussed using one battery source and having one on/off power switch but we are most likely not doing that now just because we need too many batteries and it would be alot more confusing wiring, so we wired them all separately- though we may still have one on/off switch for everything. it just might be only for show, but thats okay.
pictures will come soon- its not that i'm not taking them- its just that i hold them out until i can put them all in one kodak album and link it all together, otherwise i have to put them in their own albums.
I did some research on the Rutgers site and found out that the physics and chemistry dept have their own electronics shop. I emailed the head engineer and he said he would be cool with me coming and picking up a toggle switch for free. Marie and I went there twice today and the door was locked, but I am working on it still- I emailed both the man i was in contact with and the man who works in the office usually, hoping to find a time when I can get over there.
I am going to post this and work on an album and post the link in a separate post.
~mark

a change of direction

so the project has taken a total change- but, going with the theme of my original idea- i'm just a product of crazy coincedences and i figure i might as well flow with them and see where they take me. this one took me to working with Marie. we realized that we were both working with electricity and had similar ideas so I decided to apply something that I was working on as a side project to her original idea. my original idea will shift into the backburner, only to come back another day, though.
her project idea ties in with ALOT of my own ideas about technology. her ideas are these (this is a huge summery, check out her page for the whole deal): to make a TV in which the viewer makes their own entertainment. she was using a paperclip or steel wire dancer figure and two electromagnets on either side of the dancer so that the viewer can (via a switch) the turn the magents on and off at their will. she also is planning a spotlight over the dancer. the idea has to do with self-dependence, making your own shit, taking into your own hands. Also the idea that we made the TV and know how to work it and fix it.
This lends well into my own idea about technology- which has led me, in the past few months, to figure out how things work. the idea is just that its ridicuolous how much people use in their lives and dont understand. wake up using an alarm clock, bathroom (plumbing), electricity, cars, computers, traffic lights- the list is insanely long. reaching into how foods are made, how products are made, etc. its leading to a society that is so far from any raw materials and is totally codependent. while on one side it makes the society progress quicker and develop, it also loses alot. think of the way societies formed- people lived in houses they built, ate food they hunted/cooked/farmed, used only the products they made- there is something attractive about living in a society that you made. i figure that the way we live is too far from that- but there is noreason why we can't make attempts to understand- this led to my current obsession with www.howstuffworks.com - its great.
this idea lends to the TV- something that SO many people enjoy, use, obsess with, etc- but probably something like a few hundred people in the whole united states actually understand how all the parts work- and so we will be making a TV that we understand. it wont be as complex or, ill behonest, exciting as a real TV- but i made it, i understand it, i can fix it- there will be a pride in it that most people dont have in anything. I amnot by any means a marxist, but marx wrote about worker alienation and one of the important problems with the way society was progressing was that no one owned their own work- in assembly lines people only do a part of the final and no one owns the final project- except for the big bosses and CEOs who don't even know how the product works (thats a good irony and come full circle).
so my part of the project will come from a side project of mine which has developed alot in the past week- it has to do with taking apart little kids musical toys and manipulating the sound, its called circuit bending. the first thing i took apart and starting playing with was a toy guitar, which i found- and started playing with it before i knew what circuit bending was and someone taught me. anyway- that guitar toy will be used a remote control to make music for the dancer. I also might try to make lights in additional colors- in addition to the spotlight.

Update on the random shit project~

So since the last post my project has changed considerably. I have dropped the phsycial objects from last semester but kept the concept that I got from them. The concept that I started to develop had to do with a few things, specifically that we are/I am a total product of chance and randomness. The idea that thefinal project would have been the result of a thousand unrelated coincedences and products of chance. for example that little gold ear-ring type thing was something my friend Emma grandma's had sent her, emma didnt know why, she did sent it to her and emma was going to throw it out because she had nothing to do with it- and I happened to have walked in to her room when it was sitting there. Now if it were possible, I liked the idea of trying to see if could trace it back- maybe it had significance or maybe her grandma found it on the floor. It brings to my mind something like a movie- where a random object is followed through a set of total coincedences to end up (think that movie about the graduation party after high school... Can't Hardly Wait- with that letter that the kid writes for the girl- he gives up, throws it out, it goes through a bunch of random things and it gets tot he girl).
Following that idea, I want to show how things are connected that way. I have a lot of different ideas for the specifical application of this concept in the final project.
1. Interconnectedness just in my life (i dont like this one as much, i dont like making projects too personal.
2. I was at a party on friday night and I had my camera, it was really crowded with alot of really interested people- and i thought aout the idea of taking pictures of ALOT of people ehre and then tracking them down and getting their stories and finding out how they found out- im sure it would be interesting to find how all these random things ended in a party where people all ended up together.
3. General connectedness- using the types of objects i had in the first post- and just branching out from there.
4. I have a current side obsession with Galileo and it would be cool to start with his life and the random coincedences that led him to make all of his amazing discoveries (he wanted to join the monestary when he was younger, his dad wouldn't let hiim- forced him to go to medical school, but he disobeyed his dad and studied math instead and through meeting people, etc, etc, he got a big job in a certain university and eventually made these discoveries- but imagine if his dad had let him become religious clergy instead- we could be 100 years behind where we are now. its interesting stuff- so i could should one leven of connectedness in his life to what lead to him making his discoveries and all the things they had lead to today.

The physical organization of the project is going to have to do with electricity. This came from Christmas lights that I’ve been playing with (that Susan threw out last time- if she hadn’t found broken lights and thrown them out, then I wouldn’t have found them, started playing with them, and my project would be totally different.. see?). So the connection between the objects will be wires, with electric currents running through them.
At one point I had the idea of the project being all on one common surface (not literally, but picture one box- the objects on top)- the objects seemingly random but each having a light involved in it- and one plug coming out of the box, plugging into the wall. The idea being that these objects MUST be connected because there is one current going in and out of the box, so there is a connection between them all, even if we don’t see it.

That’s all for now. More words and pictures later.
~mark

Random shit project!

I started collecting my found objects with an idea- it was to go from room to room in my dorm asking for a small random object that they won't need back. I got a few things, hopefully I'll find more.
An idea started to form about them in my head.
Instead of loading the pictures onto here, im going to make an album on kodakgallery and here is the link: >>>Random Shit Album<<<

There it is. More later.
~mark

final pictures-

here are pictures of thefinal project though the pictures due the final product no justice- because the whole peice is an experience, not just a visual perception- if you'd like to see it, it will be at the demarest art show on feb 19th, inthe the basement of demarest hall.

>the first is a picture of the installation from the outside- but there were no good wayst o take pictures because everybody's peices were right ontop of each other. so ignore the brown peice on the right and the newspaper peice on the left.



>this is last part. sorry, i sort of gave away the ending. anyway- its much cooler in person.

~mark

the self

the final project is different than the original but there are visible similarities. it changed alot as it was made, but that was part of it. No final picutres- i'll post them all when i take them as a final done project during the critique. the project is a journey in the creation of self. it begins with a few quotes to introduce the journy- the first being a quote fromalice in wonderland, which proves as a warning to those who don't go on this journy. the next dr. seuss who says that the journey goes where you want it to. and the rest discuss the self and different parts of the journey. the last big quote is douglas adams and its about ending the journey. then there are questions that people use to form their selves- questions where the answer is different for each person. and the ending.. is a surprise, its one good quote to end it all from the master of knowing shit- Socrates. enjoy!
~mark

third "maze" post-

So the project has changed a bunch since the last post. physically its the same- the walls and ceiling are complete (i dont have pictures yet) but i finally have a concept and its different from the idea of a maze. it came about when looking for quotes, i found a bunch of good ones about searching for yourself (i really like quotes). It also changed based on the fact that my project is not a maze anymore- its more of a long winding path toward something inside. the something inside isn't totally figured out yet but i have more of an idea now.
i got alot more quotes and they are on the subject of forming a self or creating who you are, and as of now i think i will be printing them out in big (white letters on black) and posting them along the walls of the maze to read as you walk. there willbe a mixture of quotes of famous people on that subject and a bunch of questions that you ask yourself when forming a self.
the center will be the self i think. it is a dark small area, you can't even tell its there from outside. the inside will have, i think, blue lights and one good quote. i think it will be "Know Thyself" -socrates.

I'm also pretty sure there will be music playing as part of the experience. i have old computer speakers that i can hook up to a CD player, which i play a burned CD on. im still choosing music but thinking alot about the blue man group, the album being 'audio'. it you havent heard it, you should- its great. hopefully the speakers will be loud enough. im nervous about leaving the speakers and CD player there. iguess i can take the CD player with me and leave the speakers there... i dont know. i dont want them stolen. whatever.

also i was posed with the option that i could put this installation in the dorm's art show, my dorm is demarest and they have a show in the basement in two weeks. but i can't nail in to the walls so i have to figure out still. alright thats enough for now- no inspirational pictures, sorry. i have been keeping an eye out but havent seen anything.
-mark

second maze post-

so i have been looking for qoutes that i could use either literally in the project or just as inspiration-type ideas. i looked for quotes around the idea of decisions, choosing, etc- because in a maze you have to choose your own path- get it? my favorite one is from alice in wonderland- "One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."" - Lewis Carroll
i think that is an awesome quote and im thinking of putting that at the entrance of my maze and then perhaps putting something different at every dead end. i havent exactly decided on what to put at the ends or what to out at the end, depending on what i decide.

oh yea, and here are pictures of myproject in process. because you know, the process of making some is an art too (rees, you know you like that).
the next step is to take the orage screen and drap it across the top. and then start hanging the "walls" ofthe maze in the desired way.
i think im going to try to go to murry hall tomorrow morning before class and liberatethis stuff i saw there today when i was going to class. it looked like it could be used as a floor, if i wanted one.
thats all i got for now.
-mark

Maze

The project is to create a room that can be inhabited. and I sort of moved away from that idea... My project idea now consists of the follwing materials:
PVC pipes- I had originally planned on borrowing this from the Hillel Theatre Company, who I worked with on their last play (I helped build sets and such) but I had trouble finding it. Luckily, I found exactly the pipe I needed in the junkyard behind the LAB.
Orange Mesh- this stuff i found in the big studio room at the LAB but the weird thing is that I had been looking for something exactly like itbefore I knew it existed- I had my plans for this project and I had even written down that I was looking for some sort of mesh or netting. Weird.
Lots of Black fabric- I looked in alot of cheapo stores and eventually bought alot of window treatment for cheap at Shoppers World.
>There is no solid concept for this but the idea is to create a maze of some sort. The fabric will hang has walls of the maze and it will hang from where I choose on the orange mesh. The mesh will be suspended between the PVC pipe structure and the wall. The fabric is semi-transparent which could add or take away from the effect. There is still a chance I may change the project as I built it. I have already changed it someone as the materials changed, etc.
This is just a picture i took from the internet but the idea is that this will be what it looks like from above. each line is the fabric. The start will be the entrance and the end will be the corner of the area- it is not an exit to the maze- it is the end of the maze. I have not decided what it is that will be at the end of the maze. I have several ideas so far.