VIDEO REVIEW:

I liked Kirsten's video because I think her concept is strong.

I like the way she can "comment" on human behavior  using the

animals she made, and how her message is stronger

because she chose to use animals. The concept and execution

were excellent!

Final Project

Final Video Process

        My final video project started out focused on the concept of TIME. 

Ideas on how I relate to time, how I feel squeezed by time, interact with

 time, etc. As I began thinking about time, I wondered what images and 

words might best represent my theme. Words like 

decay, growth, aging entered my mind as elements to consider filming. 

Once I started shooting video, I remembered the assignment from Daniel 

Pink's book which was to place an object on a table and write about it.

      I thought about those objects that I wrote about and gathered some 

of them to look at again. One of these objects was a photograph of my 

son Geoffrey that I took ten years ago at my sister's wedding. He was 

wearing his first suit and tie, and I remember buying that for him and

choosing his tie together. The picture of him all dressed up gave me a 

glimpse of what he might look like as a young man, handsome and smart. 

I felt very proud of him, still do, but that day and especially that picture 

captured a moment in time that I'll savor forever.

      My son's picture reminded me of other memories I have of him 

growing up, and if I was to create another video, I'll focus on creating a

"memories" piece of key times we've shared together. 

     I like the way "art" happens. If you think of an idea, put it in the back 

of your mind for your unconscious to work on, the final outcome usually 

becomes more meaningful. I let this idea sit, and came up with combining 

two ideas into one. I'm not really sure it 'works", but I learned how to 

make this piece a personal journey through time. I'll take elements from 

this and incorporate them into my next piece, getting a little more "lively" 

with the images and the music. Right now, this looks like a good start.

Whole New Mind...Meaning

This chapter described the reason I'm back at Mass Art which is: getting my degree so that I can become a certified teacher.  I never realized how much I love teaching until I taught my son and his third grade class how to make an iMovie.

After teaching my first 45 minute class, I sat down with huge smile on my face. I felt like I'd just won the biggest Jackpot ever! My son's teacher looked at me and said, "Wow! That was great"...'You should seriously consider doing this for real"

Those little kids made an impact on me.

The whole Mass Art experience of making art again has enriched my life. The satisfaction of teaching, and continually learning from my students and other teachers, will keep that smile on my face for many years...or until the next chapterin my life.

The ICA show review

This show was much better than I anticipated.

     The ONE work that grabbed by attention was Cornelia Parker's 

"Hanging Fire ( Suspected Arson)" piece of suspended sculpture. 

The verticality of the piece literally "woke me up" and called me 

in to take a closer look. The blackness of each speck floating in the 

air against the white "sky" and walls reminded me of heavy rain. 

The transparency of the piece was beautiful, allowing me to see the 

whole thing at once, unlike most sculptural work. I also like how 

"architectural" the piece feels, and the precision of the corners.

 Her quote gives us a clue into her thought process when she says,

"If you lay the charcoal on the floor, it starts to look like a morgue... 

But once you reanimate it... it becomes reactivated."

   To me, the artist is saying that you CAN give "new life" to almost

any object, you just have to sit with it for a while to discover what 

it wants to become. It's like clay, if don't force it to become something,

a beautiful shape will (sometimes for me) magically appear.

Overall, this piece emits a positive energy, even though it comes from

something lost forever. I see this piece as a representation of hope, and 

of a spirit that's  been "lifted-up" and given a new life.

Two other pieces I liked from this show were, the Andrea Frasier "spoof"

on the Tate Gallery Audio Tape, where she becomes aroused by feeling the 

smooth walls of the gallery foyer.  This overtly sexual drama was very effective

in getting a laugh, and also it nicely let the artists audience in on the spoof.

The Paul Chan video was another work that made me stop and take notice.

Viewing this video I focused on the small details, the thin telephone wires, 

the thin "wire" outline of a human figure, the bicycle tire spinning freely, 

the blue irregular shapes that seemed to hover at the top of the piece. All of 

these shapes, although they were totally separate from each other, blended 

in a rhythm of a symphony as they moved. 

Whole New Mind...Play

The best statistic from this chapter was the following...

Even doctors can benefit from playing Game Cube.

One study found that physicians " who spend at least

3 hours a week playing video games made about 37

percent fewer mistakes in ... surgery and performed

the task... faster than [other doctors] who did not play"

I've been yelling at my son to get off the game station

and get back to studying for the last two years, without

much success. Then I read this statistic and I thought...

maybe it's not so bad after all. 

Overall I think when you "play" at anything, you are 

letting off steam, unwinding, and enjoying a quick

"time-out" for yourself. I think it's an important part

of a sane and balanced life. 

Paper making Video

Whole New Mind...Empathy

I found a few things about this chapter VERY Interesting..

In 1965 a psychologist named Paul Ekman traveled to many countries

showing photo's of faces fixed in various expressions. He traveled 

to New Guinea and showed the same images. In all of these places

people everywhere understood the emotions expressed in the

photos. We carry our emotions on our faces for people to read!

And EVERYONE in the world, no matter what language they speak, 

can understand us! I think that's amazing.

"Empathy is an essential part of living a life of meaning", says

Mr. Pink. It's funny...I never thought about empathy as being

an important part of a meaningful life.  It does make sense...

for all of mankind have a universal understanding.

Whole New Mind...Symphony

         Seeing the big picture and making connections to concepts and ideas that haven't been paired together before are what makes good managers GREAT, and great businesses even better. I know people who are relationship builders, constantly pairing up people and things together who initially have nothing in common. After a few minutes of conversation, a stranger would look at them as thinking they've known each other for years. I think the ability to pair people and ideas together is risky, but ultimately a smart risk to take. My wife's brain is programmed to work in that way. Unfortunately, mine is not...but I'm thinking about things in a whole new way!

Long Life Cool White: Photographs by Moyra Davey at the FOGG Art Museum

             I immediately connected with Moyra's photographs at the Fogg museum because the images brought back remembrances of my past. Vivid memories of listening to great music, bringing joy into my life, independence, separation from my parents while living at home, finding my own path. It's funny, as I'm writing these words and my 15 year old son is sitting behind me on the computer, just beginning his separation from me. His attitude, the music blaring in his bedroom, his "space", all remind me of myself at his age. One advantage I have over my parents in dealing with the teenage "loud music" phase is my son and I have very similar taste in music, so I like the majority of the songs he plays. I find that fact pretty amazing.  Music plays such a huge role in a persons independent rite of passage. Music truly begins to define who we are during the teenage years. It did for me, and it's now beginning to happen with my son, too.

The image of Moyra's that launched me back in time was the close-up of the shure record needle pressed into the grooves of black vinyl. The records that I loved had perfect scratches at the beginning because of all the times I just guessed at where to start the song, moving the needle over to what I thought was the correct spot by eye, and dropping it down into the sound.  That feeling of standing in my bedroom, blasting the volume when no one was home, really came flooding back into my mind. I wandered around, looking at the other images of the show, shifting back and forth between being in the "now", and then floating back in time to my old house, my old friends, neighborhood, in essence "childhood". 

The first LP I bought was American Woman by 'The Guess Who".  It was the mid 70's, cassette players in cars were hi-tech inventions. When I begged and begged some more, my older sister let me take her Midnight blue , metallic paint Pontiac LeMans to bring my girl to the movies. OK,. back to the gallery.  In the second room, the photographs of LP's reminded me of how much physical "space" the records used. The whole experience of examining the LP cover art, pulling out the paper or plastic sleeve wrapping the vinyl, and then pulling out the jet black 12" record, became a somewhat spiritual ceremony with certain LP's. One other thought that occurred to me when scanning the Lp titles in the photograph. I used to think that I could tell if I'd truly like a person or not based on the record collection they had. Based on the collection of LP's in Moyra's photographs; Al Green's Have A good time, John Coltrane's Impulse, and Gang of Four's Entertainment, to name just a few, it sounds like me and this mystery person would get along just fine.

Video presentation critique - Sam Masterson

Did the video hold my attention?

Yes, for a little while. The concept was good, but it got a bit repatative 

the longer it played.

Do I have a clear understanding of the artists work?

Yes. I think the discussion about collaboration was thought provoking

and gave more impact to the video.

Would this presentation work for any audience?

Yes. It might work best with a younger age group who are just beginning

to explore the outdoors doing science experiments, etc, with

their class.

A Whole New Mind-"Story"

I like the author's definition of story..."content enriched by emotion".

These words could be used to describe any form of art, including my own.

This is an important concept that my personal artwork seems to be 

missing.

If I created my artwork guided by these principles, my art would be 

better. Right now I am only thinking of creating a meaningful piece 

for ME, mostly leaving the "emotion" out of the piece. Hmmm....

The wine bottle story was for a good cause. Contributing to a cause 

makes people feel connected. That's one way that "story" puts more 

meaning in our lives. We become a part of the story, and feel good.

The Portfolio section has great ideas. The one I liked best was the 

mini-saga.      Here's mine...

Temple Bell

S   i   l   e   n   c   e  . . .    

                                     stillness  

                                           . . .  s   i   l   e   n   c   e . . .   

                                                                                     stillness 

 . . .   s   i   l   e   n   c   e . . . 

The monk's spirit guides his frail body ringing the temple bell . . . 

. . . g o n g . . .

S   i   l   e   n   c   e . . . 

                                b r e a t h 

                                               . . . s   i   l   e   n   c   e . . . 

                                                                                        b r e a t h 

. . . s   i   l   e   n   c   e . . . 

 

Beautiful mist swallows hundred year old pines in the night . . .

. . .  g o n g . . . 

S   i   l   e   n   c   e . . .  

                                  stillness

                                                . . . s   i   l   e   n   c   e . . . 

                                                                                        stillness 

. . .  s   i   l   e   n   c   e . . . 

 

This vivid memory catches my soul swirling in a misty fog. . .

. . . g o n g . . .

ASPECT VIDEOS

I looked at the ASPECT video's from the web only. I don't know if they have more artists on the dvd than they do on the web, but I wish more interesting artists were shown. We chose Peter Welz simply for his work's visual interest. He uses the human body as an artists 'tool". I like his way of thinking and his use of space and time as metaphor for his work. His work relates to the human condition, and the transformation that happens to the human psyche as it responds to the environment it is contained within. His work allows the viewer to "connect" or "disconnect" to the work, depending on the viewer's current psychological state of being. If you are in a reflective mood when viewing the work, for instance, you might be moved by the presentation and human elements the artist delivers. His work "requires" you to reflect or to interpret your feelings about the human condition. The work "looks" simple, but from my perspective, it is complex. 

A Whole New Mind-"Design"

I agree, regrettably, with Gordon MacKenzie's observation that kids in elementary and junior high school don't really look at themselves as an "artist". In contrast, kindergarten and first grade students DO think of themselves as "artists" when asked by a teacher. One reason for this is the school curriculum. In the first few years on "school" kids don't just jump into doing math problems and writing assignments. Their day consists of participating in "fun activities" like drawing or making designs with cut-out paper and collage. More of their day is spent on these activities, thereby making them feel "artistic". Once kids get into third and fourth grade, they begin to tackle more challenging concepts in math and social studies and learning to write in sentences. So they are less likely to consider themselves "artists" because they don't create as much art as they did at a younger age. When I was in high school, I only thought of myself as an artist in my junior year, when my art teacher told me I should start putting together a portfolio of artwork to apply to art school. He took an interest in my work and helped me think in terms of being an artist or illustrator.

I'm happy to learn that schools like CHAD, The Charter High School for Architecture and Design, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania exist and I'm impressed that they are tuition-FREE! It is the first charter high school for architecture and design in the nation, grades 9 through 12.

Chad receives a $7,248 (per-pupil) allotment, which covers MOST of the costs, with the remainder given as donations from the community and businesses of Philadelphia.

They currently enroll 500 students from within the city of Philadelphia.

I like the concept and the style of teaching used at this school. They make the students understand that this is a serious school for the serious minded student wanting to get a great education. The school takes more of a hands-on approach to learning. Students study an event in social studies, and in order to understand the concepts and the challenges that the societies and builders of those societies struggled with back then, they actually build small scale models of the structures they are reading about. It brings the discussions clearly into focus, and fosters "teamwork", which will be a key component in their success as future professional designers.

Lastly, I was surprised by a product design statistic I read in this chapter. It said that for every percent of sales invested in "product design", a company's sales and PROFITS rise by an average of 3 to 4 percent, according to London Business School. I don't know if this is particularly focused on European products or not, but it is still an interesting statistic to consider.  It is becoming more obvious to everyone, consumers and product design firms, that  "good design" is an important part of our lives, and that the trend for better and better design will continue indefinitely.

http://babel.massart.edu/~sgenova/

Web site needs tweaking

I made my home page and three other pages

but I'm having trouble getting the links to work. 

I know it's a simple thing that I'm just not

doing properly, so I'd like to have someone

help me get it straightened out tomorrow.

I'll bring everything on my rugged hd.

Thoughts on "A Whole New Mind"

I like Daniel Pink's thoughts on creating products that not only have exceptional design but also

look and feel good to the touch. I found out very recently that one of our new friends works at

an innovative design company in Newton called Continuum.

Here's how Continuum describes itself on their web site:

Continuum is a design and innovation consultancy. We are a group of design strategy, brand experience, and product innovation experts.

That's High Concept, High Touch, and Market Testing, too!

They use 6 to 8 people per project, a designer, an engineer, a color theorist, a scientist(if necessary), musicians, Industrial designers, and a psychologist, all approaching the "problem" from a different perspective. I really like this model, because you are working on a daily basis with very high level thinkers, you are challenging yourself to do your best work.

Working as a team usually produces stellar results, which they almost always do. 

Smart right AND left brained people WORKING TOGETHER= a good company

 

Learn about my history below...

http://steveteach.tripod.com

New Buddha Drawing!

Here's a quick sketch I recently made at the Museum of Fine Arts.

I only had 15 minutes to draw something because they were about to close,

so I found this wood carving and started drawing. Having only a limited

time to draw forced me to get "loose", which I like.

New Media Artist

I'm new to new media so I'm not familiar with any of the " hot" or best people, but I kept intersecting with work by a pretty famous local hero, John Maeda. He's a mega superstar of MIT fame, but what drew me toward him was his thinking. He's a graphic designer, software engineer, scientist, professor, all rolled into one seemingly "normal" guy. I just found out he lives in my town, and I can actually picture he and I having an amazing discussion on design, where I sit there in total agreement with him because he would explain things in a way that, I, a total novice, could understand.
His background is MIT and Japan (PhD). In June 2008, he will assume the position of president of RISD. ( Wikipedia) In 1999 he was named one of the 21 Most Important People (Designers). In 2001 he received a National Design Award for Communication Design.
What I like most about John is that he is helping to make "design" and "technology" easier to understand by the non-technical people out there in the world. He takes complex concepts and ideas and s-i-m-p-l-i-f-i-e-s them down to the bone.
I would imagine that his mind works like a spark plug in your cars engine, popping new thoughts and ideas into his head that he immediately sits down to figure them out. He can simplify these concepts for "us" to understand. I like what he's doing and the way he's doing it!

Video experience #1

Melissa and I came up with  good ideas for the video. What we found hard to do was turning those ideas into interesting video footage. Actually, our plan was to make a funny video, which I think we achieved with half of the video, (the "magic" part). The second half of the video was not as successful as the first, so I think we could have done better.

My definition of new media

My definition of new media is one that combines ALL or parts of traditional forms of media, synthesizing these into a new or original artistic statement. I guess new media has to include the use of computers or video to capture and display the work. The best thing about new media, to me, is that it becomes instantly available to an audience for viewing as soon as it has been produced. I don’t mean a few people going to a gallery show to look at the pieces hanging on the walls. I mean through the internet, millions of people can view and post comments on the work, giving instant feedback to the artist, allowing the artist to edit, revise, and resubmit the work based on the comments or feedback. I guess an added benefit of new media is that “ instant feedback” and quick delivery into mass media and culture. So in conclusion, new media borrows from one or all aspects of traditional media, as decided by the artist, and is a personal narrative created in a format that is instantaneously available to be seen by the world, and has the potential to become a part of the cultural fabric of the society as well.

Comments on Aspect Videos

I think “new media” should do something that you can’t do in traditional media, and say something to the audience that’s fresh and visually interesting. Out of the many videos that were shown, the three pieces that were the most successful were:  “Type Rain” , “Soap Opera Blenders”, and the "Yes" men.

Type Rain took an interesting idea and pushed it into a new realm of art. It engaged the viewer visually, and somehow it began to grab me emotionally , too. I wanted to be in the piece playing with the letters, seeing if I could create something interesting with this “new” way to manipulate type. It was like watching a dance performance, where art and body movements collide peacefully and calmly in three-dimensional space. I could see this type of idea used in the classroom, as a teaching tool for kids of all ages and abilities. It might even be used ( if it was altered slightly ) for kids with disabilities, in wheelchairs, teaching them how to spell, read, and learn in a new way. I wonder if the artist ever thought about allowing this piece to be used as a teaching tool. I’d like to make that happen.

The second piece I liked was the Soap Opera Blenders. It is true for most men, me included, that not all, but a lot of what we hear from women sounds like the same old complaint or nonsense. I’ve been married for 17 years, and after a while it all sounds the same. What I liked about this piece is the low-tech solution to this idea of women speaking in “noise”. The sex scene was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time, and it reminded me of pranks with my old roommates. I think this was a perfect solution to a boring and useless form of TV, the soaps.

The third video I liked was the "Yes" men. This is a smart group of people doing good for society. I wish more people would have the guts to think of things like this and to prepare and produce them as professionally as these guys do. I wish I had the #*@@ to do that!