jcunninghamseniorportofio

PANEL REVIEW!!!!

2010-04-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

my panel Members included Jeffery Allison, Gordon Stettinius, Jon Henley and Frncis Thompson. Things got off to a bit of a wet start however this worked out as Gordon Stettinius and I both stumbled through our first meetings. He expressed that he had never been on that side of the table before and we worked our way though my portfolio. He like myself is a closet/beginner graphic design geek and we spent a fair amount of the time getting through the technical parts of my previous semester's work. His critique was far more technically focused than the rest of the meetings I would have for the day. It was helpful to have someone go over my images with a sharp eye and help give me ideas for tightening the post work even further. Other than that we spoke quite a bit about what i would be doing next and about the possible complications to health that can sometimes be a part of shooting documentary/ editorial work.

My next meeting was with Jon Henley who I had met previously through the professional practices class I took from last semester. Being that he also recognized me it seemed tat he was pleased to finally see some of my work. For the first seven minutes or so of the meeting we discussed the work I was presenting, spending a great amount of that time on the various ways the series could be interpreted. We spoke about the way work is valued and looked at by our society and some of the other connotations of class. He was pleased to hear about the process of shooting and how the choices were made in wardrobe and model selection. The rest of the time was spent on discussing how the industry was changing and what kinds of technical knowledge I should be getting up on to stay competitive.

The time I spent in my 3rd meeting with Francis Thompson the Capital One Art Buyer was the most stressful and nerve wracking of the meetings not because he had negative things to say about the work but because he had such an amazing poker face. He wanted to as much as I could say about the work in front of him without offering too many of his own questions. I tried to fill the time as best as I could but felt pretty insecure talking to a guy who's face wasn't telling me anything about what he was hearing. When he did respond it was generally in a clarifying manner or with a very specific question about the concept or execution.

The final meeting of my day was also the most successful, by having my meetings back to back with only a few minutes to pause in between I was able to catch a flow of ideas and adapt quickly to the challenges of each meeting all the while revising my presentation and making my comments more concise. The last meeting was with Jeffery Allison from the VMFA. He laughed at the work and was visibly enthusiastic about what he was seeing. He seemed to get every little reference i had thrown into the series from the title of the series right down to little details others had been uninterested in or had missed entirely.

I truly enjoyed the experience and feel that the comments made by my panel members were all good to positive. While some of them pointed out technical errors all were considered to be small and simply a matter of tightening up the post production. The concept was well received by all and none of them found it to be uninteresting or some about which they had nothing to respond with. All of my meetings were engaging and even the most difficult of them ran full with discussion up to or past the allotted time.

Monday ARTIST // Walker Evans (Makeup for missed)

2010-04-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

Bud fields and his family, Hale County alabama (1941) from the book below
The first publishing of Let Us Now Praise Famous men came out in 1941. Taken on in 1936 the book grew out of a magazine assignment about white sharecroppers in the southern United States. Exploring the quality and conditions of life for some of the poorest members of society during the New Deal Era Walker Evans shot some of the most iconic photographs of the time if not in US history. The subject of work, the hardest kind, in the most dire of circumstances was not only a matter of journalistic human interest. The work explores life at losing end of the economic latter.

In my project the central question between the photographs "is what are they selling?". In the work of Evans the answer is that these poorest segments are selling their very lives. I am attempting to create work that asks the viewer to examine their own relationships to each of my characters, are they buying the image, protection, or salvation temporary and otherwise. In contrast to Evans' stark portrayals I choose to construct images slick and magazine ready, with clear sunny days overhead. the kind of image we are used to seeing in the visual lexicon of our advertising environment.

COntest Entry #2 04/14/2010

2010-04-14T12:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.stacarts.org/exhibits/show/38
Mills Pond House Gallery Exhibition 2010 entry

contest Entry #1 04/14/2010

2010-04-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.collegeart.org/opportunities/listing/4552/
EYA National Juried Competition 2010 application

Lecture Matthew Crawford 040510

2010-04-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

Put on by a joint effort between the Craft/Material Studies and Sculpture and Extended Media departments, this unique lecture was unlike the kind I've regularly attended during my time at VCU. Matthew B. Crawford the author of Shop Class as Soul Craft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work, is also a Research Fellow at UVA and a Contributing Writer with The New Atlantis Magazine.

When showing his work there were photos of engines and engine troubles along with a could shots of the kind of motorcycles pictured above. After abandoning the world of political think tanks and corporate desk jobs Crawford has found intellectual satisfaction, physically rewarding work and the want to spread the word by learning the art of motorcycle restoration and maintenance and with it running his own shop.

Lecturing on the value of the labor arts, as mentally and physically demanding as any of the fine arts I've worked in, Crawford made a strong argument for the preservation of such skills. In the world of skilled manual labor there is a level of craft seen just as easily in the works of master painters as can be observed in the careful hand of an auto-mechanic or carpenter.

Crawford also expressed the idea that wrapped into the practices he described there are moral and ethical decisions as well. I very much agree that there is a responsibility social and otherwise within the world of any art, and appreciated his thoughts on the matter.

Thursday Idea blog #10

2010-04-04T20:12:00.000-07:00

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Thursday Idea blog // what wasn't working

2010-03-26T13:50:00.002-07:00

As titled this post is about what isn't working at this point. I think it's entirely helpful to hone down what wasn't working in forming how to move forward. The immediate problems with the above images are that two of the three have characters (billy mays and sarah palin ) that are far too recognizable. The third image falls down by attempting to go toward religious imagery simply for the sake of playing off of it with a jesus skateboarder (a person who sacrifices their safety for the sake of others entertainment) and pursues it without actually getting far enough to make it work.

Monday ARTIST // El Greco

2010-03-26T13:50:00.001-07:00

These two images as well as many other paintings by El Greco feel like they help me be confident in my decisions with my current photographs. the crisp clear blue skies overhead in his paints depicting saints and other topics such as a view of Toledo(as pictured above in the second painting) while not placed within the frame for the same reason are just as striking. In his time El Greco's bright colors and other elements of style were completely out of step with his contemporaries. While representing old ideas and continuing to work with characters and stories well explored by other's El Greco managed to bring new life to them through his painting styles.

Monday ARTIST // Rene Magritte

2010-03-07T18:00:00.000-08:00

the above in order of appearance: The Great War on Facades (1964), Man in the Bowler Hat (1964), The Son of Man (1964)

From all i've read about Rene Magritte i've gathered that when looking at his paintings there are no concrete answers about their meaning. The mystery and the pleasure derived from sorting out that mystery is a key element of any of his works. He changes out objects, and creates pairings that are not easily interpretable. Sometimes he uses very basic pairings as in "the son of man" pictured above. A human figure, an apple, the title itself; delving into religion and religious imagery without really wanting to talk about it. It acts as the initial grab at the audience, the first clues that when immediately applied, make sense then begin to fall apart as you begin a process of deciphering the contents of the image. What he wants is for the viewer to experience that process, and while I am choosing specific characters and archetypes and they are being chosen for some basic relationships, I wish to consider possible connections but not work to make them any more obvious.

Thursday Idea blog // Magritte and other odds and ends

2010-03-05T23:28:00.000-08:00

I think this is a good time to further flesh out what i'm doing with this project.

From Magritte by Jacques Meuris

"His painting choice was based, from the very beginning of his definitively surrealist period, on an observation whose actual implications were not understood until later: namely that by the most faithful reproductions of objects, things -- including people-- and all that we see around us in everyday life, one can force the beholders of these images to question their own condition. There is one proviso, however: it is necessary for these objects and things to be combined in some unexpected, or in other words, unaccustomed, manner.

My project and its working mode are directly inspired by the above statement. Realizing that what i was most interested in about the super hero figure reporter figure was the relationship to it and why it existed or continued to be perpetuated. That it sold media that it was a tool to sell advertising and the product that is the commercial character of the figure in question. While I at the time of this writing am still struggling with what complimentary figure can be placed with the hero reporter, i have gone on to find other relationships that function in the same way. Or rather, by pairing other characters, archetypes and recognizable figures in uncommon instances, i feel that i can engage the viewer to seek out what the relationship between the two subjects might be (based on their own experiences and ideas ) and then to look at their relationship to those ideas. Where they came from, how they were formed , why they make those connections. While this is a serious aim I believe that there is an inherent element of humor to the project. I would further suggest that this is a positive thing, that by taking a road in image making that is less harsh than my usual presentation, that the viewer might find it easier to engage the work. I feel that it is important to me to also attempt to bring the viewer a feeling of playfulness. I do not intend to make fun of the subjects of my photographs but I consciously choose to go about their creation and presentation in a manner that could easily be found funny or that the viewer might draw a sense of amusement from.

Monday ARTIST // David LaChapelle

2010-02-27T17:44:00.001-08:00

(the last supper, David LaChapelle, 2008)

jesus is my homeboy editorial photos for I-D magazine can be found here:

http://www.lachapellestudio.com/editorial/i-d_3/?ci=17

By taking the literal translation of a phrase both common and amusing, David LaChapelle delivers a thought provoking series of photographs for I-D magazine. In this iconic set, both literally in the sense of religious icons, and in general as product of the common occurrence of these images of jesus, Lachapelle transforms the classical representations into a more easily recognizable and surprising set up. In replacing the period and set pieces the situations turn everyday events into truly fantastic happenings while sometimes adding a sense of the banal or sexual as can be found in the photo of Mary Magdalene washing Jesus' feet in nothing but a bra and panties.

In looking to perform the reverse with my own subjects, seeing how LaChapelle was able to take the iconic and religious and turn it toward the modern and lowbrow is really inspiring.

THursday Idea blog // NEW DIRECTION BUILDING ON THE OLD

2010-02-27T17:42:00.000-08:00

After considering the direction the project was moving i have decided to use the image of the super hero reporter but to drop the focus on the individual figure. Through several conversations and a lot of writing I have decided that the reporter figure is more interesting when compared/contrasted against a complimentary cultural counterpoint. Taking that dynamic in mind and considering what it is that makes the work of artists like Lynne Cohen and Alex Soth so interesting to me, I have decided to create a series of diptychs that share common elements but act as cultural counterpoints. I mention Soth and Cohen as their series take images that might be similar in form and content but are different enough that the viewer is asked to tease out the relationship between the images and to find the overarching threads that bind them together. Taking again from the original project idea I will expand upon the idea of cultural worship, of modern saints. I believe that based some simple observation one could state that in our American Media Culture the celebrity has taken the place of traditional figure of worship. Also from that view I have felt that these relationships have a great element of the surreal and absurd. I have long had an interest in Rene Magritte and have responded to his stylistic elements and presentation on many occasions. I think that in this case the common blue sky that visually joins the figures in his paintings might be a useful unifying visual element and signifier relating to the absurd relationship between the public and the common media tropes. I feel like I might be able to bridge this further into other common media related relationships but not necessarily one that shares a unified theme of media depiction. Perhaps one link between my figures is their economic relationships, the overarching question being, "what are they selling?"

Some of the pairings i have written up are as follows

drug dealer // pharmacist

televangelist // politician

sports player // ?

day laborer // millionaire

Monday ARTIST // Bayete Ross Smith

2010-02-22T23:08:00.000-08:00

image above sourced from

http://www.patriciasweetowgallery.com/exhibitions/Glock9mm.jpg

Artist's personal website

bayeterosssmith.com

Acting as a silent collaborator, Bayete Ross Smith has worked with Hank Willis Thomas through most of his major projects. I found Smith while looking through Thomas' website and was immediately captivated by his works. The image above is part of Smith's series "Taking Aim", a series of photographs that act both as object and image. Included in the series of portraits are copies of many of the images which have been shot through with handguns. Also available is a video from the series in which the portraits are shot by the subjects they depict with a paint gun in an action of mock violence against themselves.

what really interests me about these works beyond their flawless execution can be found in the following quote from the artist's website concerning this series:

"Taking AIM" brings to the forefront, the feeling that is evoked when a viewer is in front of a target. I am interested in that fine line that exists between acceptable, condoned and recreational violence, and deplorable criminalized violence. This dichotomy exists through out popular culture, from Hip Hop to action movies, to sports like boxing, mixed martial arts and football. It also exists through out history, in terms of what wars, massacres and assassinations are considered just, and who is considered a tyrant. Finally it exists in the news and current events, in terms of what types of violence gets reported and how it is contextualized.

In searching for artists who's works examine media representations and their memetic functions i have not yet seen any other artist who's work hits the so directly home. I was unable to find some of the works on his website in a postable form, however also included in this series are images that when exhibited are life size featuring the same figure in up to 3 different outfits or costumes with the same target graphic superimposed over them. By presenting the figures in this manner Smith asks the viewer to examine the media backed cognitive leaps between depictions of respectable members of society and perceived threats to our safety, packing a powerful punch through the self reflective process.

Hank Willis Thomas Lecture

2010-02-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

image sourced from http://www.18thstreet.org/_archives/2007/crosssections/crosssections.jpg

Acting strongly within the situationist traditions of Détournement, the appropriating of images and symbols for the use of turning them back upon their related producers and proponents (such as corporations, governments, advertising campaigns, etc), Hank Willis Thomas creates biting work that serves to examine the relationship between Black Identity and corporate advertising. Much of Thomas' work could be identified as adbusting, a practice that has gained in popularity since the early 80's. In one work Thomas, takes the form of a Mastercard ad, introducing his own image from the funeral of his cousin who was killed by a youths mugging him for his gold chain. The work takes a commonly recognizable form and introduces to it text and imagery that asks the viewer to interpret the relationship between the text image and appropriated form. In handling often uncomfortable and brutal images and subject matter Thomas seems to maintain an element of humor in the process. A point that was very apparent in the lecture, and evident in his demeanor. What is most successful about his work, whatever form it takes, is Thomas' ability to cut right through the sheen of advertising and reveal the problems of authenticity and racism that lay just under the surface. I was surprised to learn that outside of one minor incident Thomas has never had issues with the companies who's advertising he appropriates. Often in my own work perhaps I have been unnecessarily concerned with possible legal issues surrounding the use of logos and appropriation of advertising or broadcast work. From the lecture I definitely gained a sense that one can be both bold and subtle at the same time when handling such controversial subject matter.

Monday ARTIST //Zbigniew Libera

2010-02-15T20:56:00.000-08:00

Zbigniew Libera- Polish artist born in 1959

images preceding the artist portrait are from a 2002-2003 series titled "Positives", all images taken from the artist's website here:

http://raster.art.pl/gallery/artists/libera/libera.htm

description of "Positives" from artist's website:

Positives, 2002-2003
Series of staged photographs, printed and reproduced photographically
Series of photographs restaging the famous historical press photos in a "positive version" - repeating the original in terms of composition, but changing the characters and the general meaning of the captured events. "The series is another attempt at playing with trauma" Libera comments, "we are always dealing with memorized objects, not the objects themselves. I wanted to employ this mechanism of seeing and remembering and touch upon the phenomenon of memory's afterimages. This is how we actually perceive those photographs ["Positives"] - the harmless scenes trigger flashbacks of the brutal originals. I have picked the "negatives" from my own memory, from among the images I remembered from the childhood."
playing with the cultural memory, trauma, and media coverage, I feel as if i've found an artist that truly works with similar ideas and in a similar manner as I do. by manipulating images from the past, Libera offers works that play heavily on the experience of the viewer and their own feelings about the past. I am interested often in figuring out similar modes in my own work. While my current project does not fall into the same category or rely upon the same emotional notes and Libera's work, I feel that by looking at his handling of graphic and emotionally charged works, and his willingness to handle controversial material I might be able to further my own skills in presenting subtle and smart artworks that handle issues of similar weight.
Really what i value most across his works is his willingness to confront the viewer with uncomfortable subject matter. To do it in a smart way, to do it in a way that provokes and to do it at all. I see him as a brave inspiration and will continue to follow his works for the foreseeable future.

THursday Idea blog // the hero narrative in mass media // the media in haiti part 1

2010-02-15T17:41:00.000-08:00

the hero narrative in mass media serves not only to drive up ratings but to advance the clout and admiration of reporters. One easy example of the hero narrative at work in popular media is the public persona and television journalism work of CNN's Anderson Cooper. Looking at the recent incident in which Cooper saved a young boy after the boy had been hit with a piece of concrete thrown from a roof top during a looting spree in Haiti.

CNN video of the incident is here and gawker analysis of the CNN media coverage in general is found here as well as a collection of videos from the cnn broadcasts
http://gawker.com/5451459/anderson-cooper-saves-boy-as-cnns-haiti-coverage-reaches-strange-apotheosis

From the gawker article its clear to see i'm to the only one who finds something a little off about the media coverage, to use their words:

"But things got weird tonight as the news/newsmaker barrier was dramatically breached.

On AC360, Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta played a team of roving superhero reporters, covering the news but only after saving everyone's lives. (Imagine if somebody could be Clark Kent and Superman at the same time.) Here's a gripping report from Anderson "AC" Cooper on looting, which ends in him picking up a bloodied kid and dragging him to safety."

The idea of the heroic foreign correspondent is one that has a long history in modern media. From George Orwell's account of the spanish civil war in "Homage to Catalonia" up to Anderson Cooper's "Dispatches from the Edge" which cover's his early life in contrast to covering the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 as well as armed conflicts in Africa and Hurricane Katrina. The image of the hero reporter is supported by the ongoing narratives like those of CNN coverage in the current Haiti crisis. As an easy case study is the presentation of Dr. Sanja Gupta 's story (the video is also on the above gawker post). the incident in question being that there were no qualified neuro-surgeons around and Dr. Gupta was called to attend to a young girl who had a shrapnel injury to the head. The question of presentation comes about when the story is delivered in conversation fashion over a video of Dr. Gupta scrubbing in and performing surgery. What is the news value of this story? why when asked to perform a medical task which required his pick up by helicopter did the cameras accompany him?

The main question that i feel arrises from the situations being presented and the manner in which they are presented is one of authenticity. When presented with a catastrophe, in which the death toll continues to climb well into the hundred thousands now why are the news stories focused so frequently on the exploits of the reporters sent to tell the larger story?

Monday ARTIST // AGAN HARAHAP

2010-02-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

From the artist's Deviant Art: http://TOYIB.deviantart.com/art/Neuschwanstein-1945-139274187

From the artist's Deviant Art: http://TOYIB.deviantart.com/art/MATS-Terminal-Washington-1959-143027359

http://melmanandthehippo.blogspot.com/
ARTIST BLOG ABOVE

Harahap's Superhero series has recently gained attention spreading first throughout the blogs and most recently being recognized by such news and entertainment outlets the likes of the Telegraph and the Metro Herald. While this series has gained attention for the artist it seems that it is a minor note in the larger body of work he is currently producing. Taking famous images from WWII and other news events up through the 60's and 70's, Harahap uses his sharp photoshopping skills to insert common and easily identifiable comic book figures into world events. The majority of the works center around moments of conflict, and in my interpretation offer a commentary on how the real life participants have since been portrayed. I am interested in somewhat of a reverse in my own work. rather than creating visuals in which super-heros are superimposed on happenings i would like to identify where reality is glossed over into the land of the action narrative and raise questions about why and who is being propped up in the lead roles occupied in the Harahap's work by the likes of Superman, Spiderman and Batman.

THursday Idea blog

2010-02-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

In developing my concept for this semester's work i've been considering the role of reporters and the narratives applied to the major network reporters in haiti. In my past work i feel that I concentrated on events that were closer to home, in the case of the ash project I covered the topic of mass trauma through the lens of media where that trauma happened to the american public. In looking toward haiti i do not feel that i can take the same approach. For the most part the american population has not directly experienced the events of the disaster in haiti. Looking beyond haiti toward the general mythos of the foreign correspondent, I believe it is fair to say that the narratives built around the coverage of disasters abroad has continued over time to prop up the correspondent as a super hero like figure. What i am suggesting here is that in the coverage of events like the haiti earthquake and the coverage of the Tsunami not long ago as well as other international incidents is taken in only through the lens of the major media networks and in forming ratings grabbing narrative packages around the stories presented, networks continue to push their major correspondents the likes Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta to new heights at the center of their ongoing coverage. I am seeking to find a visual form that connects these larger than life characters and their often pristine presentation to the bleak realities of the destruction that surrounds them. Through this contrast i hope to raise questions in the viewers mind about the authenticity of the coverage, and the motives in creating such narratives amidst the already powerful human drama that is a disaster.

Monday ARTIST // Jill Greenberg

2010-02-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

from the artist website

art also made by Jill Greenberg
(source: http://www.lifelounge.com/resources/IMGDETAIL/jill_greenberg_manipulates_john-mccain_detail-1.jpg)

A major commercial photographer, Jill Greenberg's work also explores political content and a general feeling of unrest. While her stylize work is instantly recognizable, the concepts of her series are not always apparent. Other than the many slick covers shot for the likes of The Atlantic (shown above), Time Magazine, and the New Yorker, her recent personal work has focused on frustrations with politics and politicians. Her series End Times, a sequence of images of toddlers crying, expresses the artists frustration with the late Bush Administration. In a more recent controversy the photos shown above were taken during the same photo shoot, but the latter edited in post for the demonic look. What i appreciate about her work is her ability to create images that are perfectly t home on the cover of magazines. For me Greenberg's work belongs to the trade publication medium the high lit images translate to the trade gloss perfectly.

Alec Soth Lecture

2010-01-28T18:33:00.000-08:00

Joshua, Angola State Prison, Louisiana 2002
(source: http://www.alecsoth.com/Mississippi-new/pages/frameset.html)

Born 1969, Minneapolis, Minnesota

In searching for new ways to authentically create works of photography Alec Soth employs a method of storytelling that may be next direction in photography. It was absolutely inspiring for me to see the embrace of such adventurous methods and the obvious joy taken by Soth in pursuit of his art. Focusing heavily on the expansion of William Eggleston's concept of the Democratic Forest (the idea that all subjects may be photographed and considered with equal weight) into that of the Democratic Jungle, Soth seeks to find a meaningful way to approach photography in the current image saturated environment. While his past work is connected with loose themes that developed over the course of many and repeated road trips, his more recent works focus on bringing together the art of storytelling and the art of photography. Series like "the most beautiful woman in georgia" or "the loneliest man in Missouri" take a on the literary tone of great road novels placing him in often strange situations while in search of his subjects. Soth's approach to the process of photography is one i might very well explore and if not in active practice his views and comments on the purpose of photography and documentation will stay with me for a long time.

MONDAY ARTIST // TARYN SIMON

2010-01-23T19:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.ted.com/talks/taryn_simon_photographs_secret_sites.html
Above link to Taryn Simon's TED talk.

http://www.ted.com/speakers/taryn_simon.html
Short Artist bio and back ground on the work being present.

I absolutely love the work of Taryn Simon. Her conceptual backing is extremely strong and well thought out. In expert fashion the images themselves appear just as complete as the thoughts that support each subject's selection.

"Simon shows the things that are integral to America's foundation, mythology and daily functioning, but remain inaccessible or unknown to a public audience."(from the artists bio, link above)

What makes the conceptual backing of her work so interesting to me is that it functions to reveal the conflict between the public and private while exploring the mythology of American culture as well as teasing out the relationship of the broad culture to often uncomfortable realities. In presentation the work is accompanied by text, SImon explains:

"A big part of the work that is sort of absent in this context is text, so I create these two poles. Every image is accompanied with a very detailed factual text and what i'm most interested in is the invisible space between text and its accompanying image. And how the images is transformed by the text and the text by the image. So at best the image is meant to float away into abstraction and multiple truths and fantasy. And the text functions as this cruel anchor that nails it to the ground. "
-transcribed from the video (link at top)

I am considering the ways in which i might be able to attempt to construct a similar relationship between the images i will create for this semester. In exploring the visual language of the media coverage of the crisis in Haiti it may be advantages to anchor the constructed images with transcriptions of related reports and commentary from the popular media's reporting.

link to artist's website
http://www.tarynsimon.com/#

SPRING SEMESTER BEGINS HERE

2010-01-23T18:47:00.001-08:00

SPRING SEMESTER BEGINS HERE

Grad App- U Arts

2009-12-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

save for future carl bender

2009-11-28T00:55:00.000-08:00

http://lovelypackage.com/student-work-carl-bender/

Monday Artist // Gregory Green

2009-11-23T18:35:00.000-08:00

“if some yahoo from Brooklyn, with no technical training, can do these things then anybody can do them.”

Gregory Green earned his MFA at the School of the arts Institute Chicago in 1984, after receiving his BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1981. Since then his work has focused on the idea that the possibility for chaos exists ever more greatly as the tools to make bombs, computer viruses and other such weapons is ever more available to the public. Throughout his career he and his work have been at the center of a storm wherever he is shown. In his piece "10,000 hits of acid" he reproduced what that would look like creating the chemical compound and providing the recipe with all but the key hallucinogenic compound. When authorities got word that some artist had manufactured 10,000 hits of acid his gallery director was arrested and Green went into hiding until the chemicals had been tested proving he had committed no crime. With no further technical training then any other average American he has gone on to create almost working reproductions of missiles, spy satellites, and nuclear weapons. His more recent work has focused on the idea of creating a country and annexing space including the home base of the gallery that represents his work for the country's embassy.

Thursday Idea blog #10 FIne Print

2009-11-22T14:35:00.000-08:00

In discussing my most recent developments with paul I have decided to include fine print in the bottom left or bottom center of each photograph in 10 or 12 point font.
from the wiki

The larger print that is used in conjunction with fine print is ingenuously used by the merchant to, in effect, deceive the consumer into believing the offer is more advantageous than it really is, via a legal technicality which requires full disclosure of all (even unfavorable) terms or conditions, but does not specify the manner (size, typeface, coloring, etc.) of disclosure.
Fine print often says the opposite of what the larger print says. For example, if the larger print says "pre-approved" the fine print will say "subject to approval." [1] Especially in pharmaceutical advertisements, fine print may accompany a warning message, but this message is often neutralized by the more eye-catching positive images and pleasant background music (eye candy). Sometimes, television advertisements will flash text fine print in camouflagic colors, and for notoriously brief periods of time, making it difficult for the viewer to read.
The use of fine print has become a standard method of advertising in certain industries, particularly those selling a higher-priced product or service, or a specialty item not found on the mainstream market, or involving a signed contract. The practice, for example, can be used to mislead the consumer in reference to an item's price, its value, or the nutritional content of a food product.[2]

The use of small print as seen above often directly contradicts the statements of the advertising offering full disclosure of conditions, terms, true cost and side effects. In pursuing the often negative relationship we have with advertising, fashion and participation in our consumer environment i believe the inclusion of fine print in my works to be a missing piece that has been eluding me for some time now. The relationship between the large "free with purchase" text and the fine print offers along with the image of oppression a direct link to the subject matter being considered. I intend to gather fine print from advertising over the next week before Black friday to add direct text to the photos i'm manufacturing. By including real text from advertising i feel that i am able to step out of an editorial role and better allow the viewer to consider the work without bashing them over the head with an overly revealing text in fine print.

Francis Cape Artist Lecture

2009-11-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

Two of the above images represent the current installation titled "Waterline" currently on exhibit in VCU's Anderson gallery.

This lecture by sculptor Francis Cape began with one of his last graduate works involving cardboard boxes arranged on palettes concerning the transport of goods and their delivery methods equalized by the often present containers. His back ground is in wood work and fine restoration of several hundred year old wood work in his native England. Cape spent sometime discussing how we see and go through the process of seeing to sharing what we have seen as artists. Through his work with historic structures a key component of his work is the idea of the transience of objects. In the work Waterline and several other works within a similar vein he presents wood reproductions of the mass made "utilitarian furniture catalogue" a series of home furniture and storage pieces produced within England during world war II paired against photographs from Post Katrina New Orleans. In his piece Waterline the waynescoat represents the waterline found in the middle class neighborhoods he was shooting in. More images form Katrina and the waterline referred to in the installation are framed and hung above about head height. He works seeks to comment on the universality of the destruction caused by Katrina, it did not only happen to the most poor or the most rich but ot everyone within it's landfall.

Lecture Mary Scurlock, Diego Sanchez at the Page Bond Gallery

2009-11-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

Mary Scurlock

Deigo Sanchez

Page Bond Gallery Nov. 17th 2009

Mary Scurlock
This work By Mary Scurlock represents a departure from her past works on paper. Working on paper for most of the past 25 years she had considered using panels but had never really explored their potential until now. She works on these panels by applying 5 or 6 layers of gesso then sanding and scratching back into the panels. Through out her process she adds layers of wax in with the oil paint and further develops the surface by way of automatic writing. Another aspect of these works is her use of a much more muted color palette. Her past worked was marked by brighter colors as well as a larger range of media used in developing her work. the images of trees follow a pattern of drawing from life and then moving in a direction more representative than realistic. She intends to continue working with these tree images and in this new direction.

Diego Sanchez
For the most part the work by Deigo Sanchez does not represent a departure from his past works. Still presenting images of the Colosseum, he has begun to add images of chairs found left out to the garbage as well as overpasses in an effort to uplift the locations and items in question to the level of importance represented by the Colosseum. His color palette is bright and his obsession with the surfaces of the work is clear as he invited the audience to touch and feel the paintings. In his process he paints complete back grounds and after considering the space decides on an images to paint over it. Additionally he paints no representational objects over the near completed works to slow the viewers assessment of the painting hoping to bring the viewer to consider the work in all of its complexity.

Monday Artist BLog// Leonard Freed

2009-11-16T17:41:00.001-08:00

“The concerned photographer finds much in the present unacceptable which he tries to alter. Our goal is simply to let the world also know why it is unacceptable.”
--Cornell Capa (b. 1918), photographer

Freed was one of five photographers selected by Cornell Capa to shoot for and be shown in the "concerned photography" Exhibition. Freed was a long time member of magnum working in the documentary mode.

shown above is the cover of and one photo graph selection from Freed's photo series and book titled "police work". This book came 12 years after Freed's more famous work "black In White America", which had him documenting the "African American struggle for self definition in mid 20th-century America." Like many other of the magnum photography members the majority of his work following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other struggles for civil rights as well as photographing in Berlin around the cold war and the construction of the wall was through the lens of social documentary for with the goal of social justice.

SHIMON ATTIE LECTURE

2009-11-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

I really really enjoyed the Shimon Attie lecture on Wednesday. This year's lectures have proven to be the best series of lectures i've seen in the 4 and half years of art lectures i've attended at the school.

Since leaving grad school in 1991 Attie and completed between 20-25 major works in places as disparate as Berlin, New York, Copenhagen and Amber Van. The first images shown to us were of his series of projections in Berlin circa 1991. Just several years after the fall of the Berlin wall Attie plunged into research looking for street maps and archive photos of former Jewish places of residence and businesses pre- holocaust. He went on to project these images on top of the existing structures or approximately in the same locations. The powerful images join the world of the past and disappeared with the often crumbing architecture of the time. THis work takes the images of these locations and places the visual memory of the past in the context of the current landscape.

He went on to show images constructed into light boxes that were then lowered into the Copenhagen canals. these images which show a selection of photos mixing current refugees with images of the rescued Jews of Denmark layered against images of water borne craft uses the juxtaposition of past heroism against current social ills as an active challenge to the social policies in denmark concerning immigration and refugee assistance.
I find Attie's work to be interesting as it often engages with social history and current social issues in the same work joining our memory of the past or lack there of to the current situation in a way often challenging the viewer to consider the links and to become informed about the contrast of ideas.

Attie finished his lecture showing images and video from two projects both involving still subjects on moving platforms giving both motion and stillness to the subject matter. Using a similar process in both works Attie pursues different ends with each project. in one the project exists as a way to help the community of Amber Van to reclaim their identity alongside other Welsh towns and away from being constantly defined by the mining disaster that claimed the lives of some hundred of the town's children. In the other the memory of a racetrack is illustrated through the sites artifacts and persons who were drivers, regulars and technicians associated with the site.

Contest Entry #2

2009-11-15T12:03:00.000-08:00

REDUX CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER
http://www.reduxstudios.org/exhibitions/apply.html
general exhibition application

Monday Artist BLog// Carrie Mae Weems

2009-11-14T15:34:00.001-08:00

will fill in soon!(willbe edited with txt i promise this s just a place holder )
http://www.30americans.com/Artist/Carrie_Mae_Weems/1.html

Contest Entry #1

2009-11-11T19:01:00.001-08:00

“3rd Annual Naturally Nude”
Application Deadline January 22nd 2010

Ciao Gallery of Jackson, Wyoming is pleased the opportunity to participate in our 3rd annual “Naturally Nude”, an exhibition of exceptional nudes. This show is open to all artists in any mediums. Traditional renderings as well as unique interpretations. This exhibition opening takes place on Valentine's day eventing and has become one of our most popular events for the gallery.

THursday Idea blog #9

2009-11-11T18:16:00.000-08:00

new artist statement.
i think a really helpful piece of the process to figuring out where my project is at has been having to write a new artist statement for the project to be presented after the midterm at the research presentation. It absolutely needs some cleaning up but i do feel that it has helped ot form solidify the new ideas of the continuing project.

The concept of my work is to create images that hijack the visual language of fashion photography in an effort to explore the relationship between consumers and the social and economic situation in which they act. The experience of economic coercion reaches every person that engages in the western consumer landscape both directly and indirectly. Foucault suggests that our internal relationship to coercion leads us to desire the ability to coerce. Advertising has a long tradition of working towards controlling the choices of consumers and in turn western economic powers have a history of exploiting those who produce goods. In participating in the current consumer environment the consumer is complicit in this exploitation. The youth obsessed world of fashion photography and the advertising it produces seeks to create a mental environment of desire in the viewer, thus moving the consumer to desire the objectified contents of the advertising and while asking them to engage with a system of coercion that produces the objects featured.

In pursuit of my concept I have created images that seek to use the visual language of youth targeted fashion advertising to suggest the coercive relationship that forms as a result of participation in the current economic environment that produces the goods to be sold to those youth targeted by these ads. The elements of the consumer object, the coercive object and the objectified person form a visual language that I hope will bring the viewer to question the relationship of the objects pictured and lead them to examine their relationship to those interactions.

Monday Artist BLOG // Liu Bolin

2009-11-11T18:09:00.000-08:00

Liu Bolin
" In my photography, historical statues, costumes and architecture become symbols of that which confines us. I am expressing the desire to break through these structures. I portray subjects that seem to disappear into these structures and become transparent. The subject is released from social constructs and he is free."
from the artist statement

In the images Liu Bolin produces he makes himself become part of the back ground. the back grounds he chooses are of special significance as they embody aspects of the communist specter. trains, graffiti of mao's statements construction equipment and the pedestals of great statues never constructed form the objects with which he blends in.

It is the specter of communism that keeps the work of artists like Liu Bolin Underground to some extent. havign had his studio shut down he makes work that is both a commentary on his outsider status and feelings toward society as well as creating material images of protest against the state that surpresses his aciton.

Monday Artist BLOG // Richard Kern

2009-11-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

Richard kern
(from the wiki)
Richard Kern (born 1954 in North Carolina) is a New York underground filmmaker, writer and photographer. He first came to underground prominence as part of the underground cultural explosion in the East Village of New York City in the 1980s, with erotic and experimental films featuring underground personalities of the time such as Lydia Lunch, David Wojnarowicz, Sonic Youth, Kembra Pfahler, and Henry Rollins in movies like "The Right Side of My Brain" and "Fingered." Like many of the musicians around him, Kern had a deep interest in the aesthetics of extreme sex, violence, and perversion and was one of the leading lights of Nick Zedd's coined Cinema of Transgression.

Kern is now a photographer featured in every VICE magazine. a section called "shot by kern" regularly appears in both video and still form on VICE magazine's website.

In searching for the right color palette to add just the right amount of flash and saturation to my photographs i've been looking at photographers like Kern and McGinley its important for me to try and find the best of the photographers that ride the line between fine art and commercial work and the artists that exist in both worlds. while Kern is more known for his erotic and nude works i feel that he is recognized by the same realms as McGinley, so much so as he is featured in one of the best known fashion and youth targeted culture magazines. I've also been looking for clues as to how to more appropriately light the photographs and am leaning toward the soft whites and golden magic hour colors. maybe shooting with a flash bouncing off of a gold reflector would be most appropriate.

thursday Idea blog #8

2009-11-02T17:51:00.001-08:00

I will definitely be reshooting for the final. while i may use a few images from my previous shoots i will be refining my process to include a tripod to secure a specific vantage point. i want that vantage point to be from slightly above and down the point of view of the person arresting the subject as opposed to the more straight on near ground level shots i've been taking. something cin between the images included at the top of this post. I think if i am making it more about the relationship to the consumer it should include slightly more about the consumer and if its relating to fashion photography i should also include more of the subject while still leaving the identity exposed only by way of the objects and materials they are wearign and choosing to show the world as their outward appearance.

Artist Blog Ryan McGinley

2009-11-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

What interests me about Ryan McGinley's photographs in relation to my project is the often warm yet unsaturated tones of his color palette. While sometimes he will go about employing a cooler color palette such as in the wrangler ads they are always tones that are without specific spark bright flashy color. I chose to show the pictures above due to the fact that his fine art photos more often than not feature persons who are mostly naked if not sparsely dressed.

not only do i enjoy his color palette and wish to employ it further in my own, i also feel an affinity with his working method. Specifically in the project, i know where the summer goes.

“It’s really a world–you have to remember that. People look at photographs and believe them as truth and they always will. People look at my photographs and think this is real–this life exists. Even if they know that it doesn’t”

[S]kateboarding is a lot like photography because skateboarding is about making something out of nothing. You’re using the urban landscape as a playground and you’re making ideas for doing skateboard tricks–using a handrail or some yellow curb on the sidewalk–and photography is about the same thing for me [ . . . ] You have to sort of create these scenarios to shoot, these ideas to work, and you have to use the world as the backdrop for your photograph.

i like this quote as he refers to a similar working mode as my own. rearranging reality into fantastic situation that do not exist too far from the truth that speak to specific experiences.

from a Time magazine article speaking mostly to the youth centered nature of his work.
"Photography is about freezing a moment in time; McGinley's is about freezing a stage in a lifetime. Young and beautiful is as fleeting as a camera snap--and thus all the more worth preserving."

i think it is worth noting how while he has only done a few print ads they work in the same way as his fine art works. youth centered and obsessed, illustrating an emotional state of being a young adult. there is no shift in the subject matter the fine art works the same as the advertising seeking creating attractive objects and an attractive situation all manufactured in the same method as you would find an advertising shoot executed.

Thursday Idea blog #7

2009-10-22T17:03:00.001-07:00

In attempting to figure out where i'm going with the other less lethal weapons in my projects i've been considering how they relate to the objects used by protest groups against institutions, buildings and representatives of state power. Maybe a side by side comparison of relating objects in diptych form would be a good way to present them. paint bombs or glitter grenades compared to tear gas, gas masks to bandannas, whip cream pies compared to pepper spray, signs to batons. One image contrasting the vibrant colors and energy of actions such as funk the war against the dark and more uniform color palette of the police force.

Monday Artist BLOG // Bash Back

2009-10-22T12:32:00.001-07:00

Human Rights Campaign HQ Glamdalized By Queers Against Assimilation

HRC headquarters was rocked by an act of glamdalism last night by a crew of radical queer and allied folks armed with pink and black paint and glitter grenades. Beside the front entrance and the inscribed mission statement now reads a tag, “Quit leaving queers behind.”

the most recent large Bash Back! action is a good example of using alternative tactics in the pursuit of militant action. In this case the "glamdalism" included glitter grenades (probably glitter and glue in lightbulb or water balloon) along with paint bombs. their actions often take on performative aspects as is a strong tradition in resistance movements. In a Memphis, Tenn action a hearse and coffin were sent to the home of an officer alleged to be a part of the beating death of a Memphis transgendered person. Past actions have taken the tone of a radicalized be in staging a queer kiss-in in the large Mount Hope megachurch outside Lansing, MI in '08.

Often in modern resistance movements large symbolic actions and events are staged to disrupt or draw attention to events an issues using a tactical presence that relates directly to the performance art traditions of happenings and be-in's. The tactic of occupying space and opening it up to free expression is a practice that has seen the participation of many groups such as Reclaim the Streets out of the UK and europe in the 90s leading today into the tactics of bashback! funk the war and other groups and actions.

thursday Idea blog #6

2009-10-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

I'm currently exploring ways to expand my work beyond the use of handcuffs on to at least one other less lethal class weapon used by state and national law enforcement agencies. the ones that appeal most are pepper sprays (OC) and CS/CN gasses also known as tear gas. from my personal experience with both of these items the more visually appealing of the two is the tear gas that often is tinted in many shades of color some bright such as the blue tear gas i deployed against myself and 400 others at the RNC in 2008 in St Paul, Minnesota. In conversations with Paul we've discussed how the tactics employed by the students for a democratic society members that were there employing the funk the war model of street action creates a different visual presence than the more common black bloc set of tactics. While both often employ the same militant actions, the taking and holding of physical space, redecoration of the urban landscape, and occasionally the destruction of private property, the perception of the groups in the media and public view have very different characters. I've often joked at funk the war actions that "we bring the music, the police bring the light show." and in working with this project i'm interested in finding a middle ground where the weapons of state power meet the vibrant visual textures of the funk the war street tactic.

its these images versus

Monday Artist BLOG // Brian Ulrich

2009-10-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

Brian Ulrich's work explores our relationship to consumerism in the post 9/11 economic and social environment. His work uses the camera as a way to create a space in which the viewer can become critical of capital driven environments. While searching for a way to capture the the new social interactions that formed after 9/11 Ulrich was inspired to move indoors to retail spaces upon the "fight terror go shopping" moment. In photographing he found that rather than the interactions between people, the interactions between people and the products and spaces they engaged with were the most interesting relationships to examine. sometimes his work is exclusively about the retail spaces whether they are in use such as the shots taken inside home depot and target but in the more recent work he turns his camera toward the collapsing and abandoned architecture of former retail spaces.

I found his analytical statements about consumer culture and consumer spaces to be of great value to my work. In talking about retail spaces and his photographs of them he mentions how the architecture is designed to wear down the consumer, to make them feel small and to never allow them the space to engage critically with the environment. In his photographs the objects often become stand ins for people not within the frame documenting their traces left behind.

RESET

2009-10-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

reset and catch up time!

ARTIST BLOG PENELOPE UMBRICO

2009-10-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

artist lecture was awesome!!!

I found some of the language she used to describe her work immediately interesting. In her process she talks about using fragments of other images to create a desired whole. I've been thinking about my project and the function of the photographs i'm taking as more relating to consumerism and the inherent violence of capitalism lately so the lecture she provided us really helped to move those thoughts forward.

Another phrase she used that i really latched onto was the"purgatory of consumerism" she used to refer to a series of works that are all slightly out of focus. she used the phrase in relation to the way consumerism places our consciousness in a frame of reference to objects and obscures our ability to see the whole picture clearly. Perhaps my photos can begin to function as a solution by placing the relationship we have with capital and consumerism in a clear image using the language of capitalism and fashion to deliver the content.

My favorite part of the lecture was when she went into detail about the series of mirrors. As part of her discussion of them she mentioned the idea that in the advertisements when looking at the mirrors the viewer becomes erased and replaced by objects for sale that appear in the viewers position within the environment.

Thursday Idea blog #5

2009-10-11T15:01:00.000-07:00

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108388646279717843565.00047511f1c3e76b114a4&t=h&z=16

Inspired by the radical cartography post i've been mapping the locations of the mass arrests i've been performing. i'm thinking about how my locations reflect ongoing police raids and arrests. last week a home in New York City was raided by the JTTF (joint terrorism task force) and the inhabitance detained. the warrant was issued based on the alleged use of the inhabitance of twitter during the protests in pittsburgh the week before. In response i performed several arrests in the home of a student here in richmond.
i'm not sure how i will use the mapped information but it may be useful in creating visuals for the project.

MONDAY ARTIST BLOG // the institute for applied autonomy

2009-10-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

I recently picked up a book/map collection titled
An-Atlas of Radical Cartography

included in the book is a map by designers Site-R based on the work of The Institute for Applied Autonomy's isee project
a video on the project follows

iSee - The Institute for Applied Autonomy from Rich Pell on Vimeo.

from the radical cartography website a short bio of the Institute

"Institute for Applied Autonomy was founded in 1998 as an anonymous collective of engineers, designers, artists and activists who are united by the cause of individual and collective self-determination. The IAA has produced several projects under its flagship initiative, "Contestational Robotics." Their work has been seen at MassMoCA; Ars Electronica Festival (where it has won awards in 2000 and 2006); ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. TXTMob, a recent project, was a cellphone text message broadcast service widely used by demonstrators during the 2004 DNC and RNC protests and at election protests in the Ukraine and Washington D.C. www.appliedautonomy.com"

An essay on the project is presented in the companion book to the set of maps
from the essay

"As Cities like Boston, Chicago, and Washington DC implement city-wide video surveillance programs, grassroots efforts to map CCTV networks take on the crucial role if creating public proofs that both document and challenge emerging infrastructures of control. CCTV maps have rhetorical value in raising awareness and provoking public debate. They also have analytic value, enabling citizen-science of surveillance in which surveillance systems are monitored and evaluated by the communities they purport to serve."

for me lately the there have been two main questions related to the content and process of my work. I feel like this mapping project has found answers to both. the first being how to identify the subject matter and record its presence. in this case it was CCTV cameras and the participation of the public in researching their location. The second is how the information functions and what can be done with it. The information provides a open ended collection of data that can be used by anyone for whatever aims related to the location and number of CCTV cameras. the end product presented in this work is a poster that documents several paths of least surveillance available to the public for whatever aims they choose to use them for.

2009-09-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

9/14 September Blog Evaluation

2009-09-28T08:59:00.001-07:00

Paul Thulin has read your blog up to this point/entry. Your blog is currently up to date and complete.

2009-09-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

10:50 40 detained near carnagie melon u near cathedral of learning

confirmed students shot with rubber bullets

confirmed tear gas deployed

students being denied access to dorms

booking units at 5th and tennyson

"we need to cut them off at bouquet and we will have them encircled"-scanner

"OC deployed 5th and bouquet, taking one intocustody" 11:39pm -scanner

"they all ran inside of ridgefield towers" -scanner

228115-all arrest to be filed under -scanner

"arrest numbers have increased - seems to random- teargassing guy in pitt hoodie- great i'm being peppersprayed, guy on his face, they are arresting him, i'm withdrawing now" forbes st and oakland st-caller to indy radio

"there seems to be three towers(campus residence A B and C) residential or campus about 100 riotcops converging at 5th and bouquet" -caller to indyradio

Four arrests at University of Pittsburgh Fifth and Bouquet so far #g20 Friday September 25 2009 11:46pm

"people standing around in the restaurant district, a little excitement for the neighborhood, the cops are deploying against them as if they are in combat" -caller "nigel" to indyradio 11:48 pm

kellyowarrior RIOT POLICE ENTER TOWERS LOBBY. NO ONE ALLOWED IN OR OUT. TOWERS SURROUNDED. COPS ASKING FOR ID. #G20 (via @infernoenigma) #resistg20
less than 20 seconds ago from Twitterrific

SocialistZine RT @resistg20: the police are planning to do a sweep through 'the towers' to check for protesters in upper floors" #resistg20 #g20
less than a minute ago from TweetDeck 11:51pm

wrightwilliams #g20 police HAVE entered dorm lobby, possibly 56 arrested so far. demanding ID for all in dorms. lock up and do NOT answer door 11:52pm

razorianfly Police station in Pittsburgh got shot up. G20 is a war-zone. http://twitgoo.com/3rkht / (via @MissKEEP_IT_100) / #G20
half a minute ago from Tweetie 11:54pm

"1 block away the police deploy teargas at oakland, it would be very generous to call it a protest, form what i can tell it was just a group of people standing around trying to figure out what was going on "-caller indyradio 11:56pm

thepittnews No one is allowed to get close to Towers Lobby. A Pitt security guard said there is a sit-in inside. #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from web (pittnews is the campus paper) 11:57pm

Phlegon RT @infernoenigma: COP IN TOWERS LOBBY SAYS THIS IS NOT MARTIAL LAW, BUT 'ALMOST JUST LIKE IT.' #G20
less than 20 seconds ago from Tweetie 11:57pm

acedrew RT @Digeratii: I HAVE BEEN ATTACKED BY POLICE, I TOOK TEARGAS TO THE FACE WHILE ESCORTING AN INJURED STUDENT SHOT WITH RUBBER BULLET #G20
half a minute ago from TweetDeck 11:58pm

"NIGEL":
"they've been threatening people with dogs, which is really kind of gross in a residential area"
"they are patrolling this restaurant area with armored vehicles like you would see in northern ireland"
"its the last night of the protest, they've got the tools, the toys and they are going to use them"
5th and atwood then oakland and forbes

"protesters and students are barricaded at the litchfield towers"-from police (confirmation unclear)-indyradio

g20pghlegal corporate media confirms ~40 arrests, 9 more just reported #g20 #reportg20
less than 20 seconds ago from TweetDeck
12:07am sep 26th 2009

"they are going to deploy just because they can they have been prepaid and they are probably on hold"-Nigel indyradio 12:09am

prerecorded dispersal order is being played (generally accompanies use of LRAD) 12:10am

mikegogulski ( {police} scanner) "hammer and anvil up on tennyson ... clear the tower" #g20 #resistg20
half a minute ago from TweetDeck 12:11am

kimberlyjean83 going to "sweep and clear towers and arrest as necessary" "initiating 'hammer and anvil'" #g20 #reportg20
half a minute ago from web 12:12am

mikegogulski Corrected: (scanner) arrest reported at Bouquet and Forbes #g20 #resistg20
half a minute ago from TweetDeck 12:14am

state police want to take over from the pitt police so they can enter the dorms -indyradio 12:19am

toxictwins21 @BoringPgh Arrests are being processed at the quad. #G20 #PITT
less than 20 seconds ago from web 12:20am

Hargoosh RT@jose602 Hey, all! @DaveyD is live-tweeting the #G20 protest madness in Pittsburgh. Cops are storming student dorms! #tcot #p2 #tjcot
less than 20 seconds ago from web 12:23am

mikegogulski (scanner) Command police officer congratulating cops on all their good work tonight and during #g20 #resistg20 #acab #anarchy
less than a minute ago from TweetDeck12:25am

notyourbroom "I'd like to express my professional regards to everyone tonight, they did an excellent job down here" #g20 #oakland #pittsburgh
less than a minute ago from web 12:25am

8 arrests at forbes and bouquet -police scanner 12:27am

CORRECTION
notyourbroom "We're drawing a crowd at Fourth and Bouquet ... gonna have 8 arrests" #g20 #oakland #pittsburgh
less than 20 seconds ago from web 12:28 am

228147 arrest label -24:00hrs
drawing a large crowd most of which are professionals, professional what "not college students" -police scanner

228142 arrest label- start time is 12:12 -police scanner

crowd is getting rowdy. are there any cops left in oakland?-police scanner

awrsaystara People are chanting "Let him go" on fifth ave near tower c #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from TweetDeck 12:32 am

request for support at forbes and oakland ave to disperse crowd, smoke deployed-police scanner 12:33am (police dogs heard)

229 what number?

812 1294 -police personal number ?

228139 arrest number, start time ?

crowd dispersing at forbes and oakland ave 12:34am
code three have them come code one
-5 previous from police scanner

teargas launched at 5th/bouquet #reportg20 #resistg20 Saturday September 26 2009 12:32am report on-help map this from pittsburgh indymedia twitterstream RT

Hargoosh RT@tonywhite412 Scanner... "Losing all my prisoners at Fifth and Bouquet! ... [disperse] ... We've launched teargas!" #g20 #oakland #tcot
less than a minute ago from web 12:37 am

1901 murray ave john able two individuals in black with radio placing traffic cones in st. - police scanner 12:39am (10 able, may be filming a movie)

SelfOwnership RT @thepittnews Student Life director Kenyon Bonner and Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey have been in the William Pitt Uni since 8 am #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from web 12:40am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj7hye9d5PQ
video from earlier tonight on pitt campus dorms police brutality

resistg20 RT @toxictwins21: @vsoe RT: @mrdaveyd Just saw student get a rifle pointed at him... As cops told him to leave.. #g20 #resistg20
half a minute ago from TweetDeck 12:44am

emokidsloveme RT @bradleyjp: RT @Digeratii: POLICE STILL FIRING ON STUDENTS ON FIFTH AVENUE #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from TweetDeck 12:53

oxictwins21 @mikegogulski RT @infernoenigma: Major police activity, gassing students on Fifth Ave right now. #g20 #resistg20 #reportg20
half a minute ago from web 12:54 am

thepittnews Police are not letting people approach Towers from the Oakland Avenue side of Fifth Avenue. #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from web 12:55 am

drgoddess Cops are at fifth n bigelow and fifth n S. Bouquet. Just got out of police jam. On Forbes, all is normal for students, like 2 campuses. #g20
half a minute ago from UberTwitter 12:55am

4 arrests at forbes and atwood, will bring them down to 5th and atwood -[police scanner 12:56 am

_katiely very bad that police are not showing ID, purposely covering armband badge IDs on sleeves COVERING UP POLICE BRUTALITY #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from web 12:57am

thepittnews At least three people are sitting on ground w/ hands clasped behind their backs near School of Public Health. Police standing near. #g20 12:59 am

228151 arrest number, the four arrest at 12:56 am - 12:59 am

spikenlilli Just returned from driving the perimeter of blocked Pitt campus. I saw approx 200 students scattered about but not protesting. #g20
less than a minute ago from Seesmic 1:00 am

joaquinuy RT @anarchists@ZMatrix @kellyowarrior REPEAT, I WAS ATTACKED BY THE PITTSBURGH POLICE FOR TAKING PHOTOS, AND TEARGASSED #resistg20 #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from Echofon 1:01am

Police Having a Hay Day in Oakfield
Forbes was blocked off by hundreds of riot cops while surroundingcontingents of cops moved in on the other areas of the campus to corralpeople in. Police brutality has been witnessed -- folks being thrown tothe ground and shot with rubber bullets, media being pepper sprayed andgassed. There have been 48 confirmed arrests with more reports stillcoming in. Protesters and students alike are being held in the dormtowers unable to leave in fear of being arrested, other students cannotcross 5th Avenue to get to their residences without being thrown to theground. Legal folks out on the street want more legal observers andmedia to get out there to document police brutality, please come if youcan! Be careful and stay safe!

posted by Skadi Sat 9/26/2009 12:59 am (pittsburgh.indymedia.org- http://indypgh.org/g20/#)

wolfdancer5 RT @ThePittNews: Pitt Police Chief Tim Delaney estimates more than 100 arrests in Oakland 2nite, most of which 4 failure 2 disperse #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from TweetDeck 1:03 am

spikenlilli RT @Liebchen36x Got gassed and shot at. Home now. Eyes still burning. I shouldn't have come down to use the computers... #g20
half a minute ago from Seesmic 1:04 am

anarchisms Businesses windows reported smashed on Carson....scanner #g20
half a minute ago from HootSuite 1:09 am

thepittnews The three people seen sitting near school of Public Health have flex cuffs on. About 30 people are watching nearby from Towers patio. #g20 1:10 am

kimberlyjean83 wow, foxnews (lol) is reporting pittsburgh protests as "violent" and terrorizing the city #reportg20 #resistg20 #g20 no mention of cop abuse
half a minute ago from web 1:12 am

PITTSBURGH POLICE LAUGHING, TAKING GROUP PHOTO WITH ARRESTED, BEATEN STUDENT. I HAVE VIDEO.
about 1 hour ago from Tweetie 1:16am

I'm back in my dorm room, which is filled with tear gas from a crack in the window. Getting videos and photos off of my camera.
about 1 hour ago from Tweetie
1:17am

(information obtained from indyradio, twitter and live police scanner)

thursday idea blog #4

2009-09-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

the weapons/devices/mechanisms of repression

Some things already seen and yet to be used in pittsburgh during this latest round of protest and repression

LRAD (long range acoustic device)
generally mounted on a vehicle these devices produce a sharp loud noise that can lead to permanent hearing loss if you are too close

extendable and fixed batons
made of steel in the extendable version, wood and other plastic coated metal materials

CS/CN gas
also known as tear gas. this is a weapon developed for chemical warfare regularly used on protesters in the united states. It may surprise some to learn that for the military to use this same weapon it requires a direct order signed from the president to deploy. the long term effects of this weapon are unknown any medical studies are unavailable to the public as it is a weapon not a medically approved substance.

Mace/Pepper spray (OC)
oil based, and spread by contact with water. creates intense burning where ever it makes contact with the uncovered body. inhalation can lead to serious injury if compounded with asthma or other respiratory issues. If not removed within hours of contact burns up to 2nd degree can develop on the effected areas of the body.
International Association of Chiefs of Police suggested at least 113 pepper spray related fatalities had occurred in the United States

Hand cuffs
metal, standard police equipment

Quick Cuffs
nylon or other plastic material, do not have double lock device. in regular handcuffs a double lock is employed to prevent the further tightening of applied cuffs. there is a higher risk of nerve damage and soft tissue damage

less lethal munitions
rubber bullets, "bean bag" baton rounds, wooden dowel rounds, wax rounds. plastic electroshock delivering rounds

the following is from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less-lethal_weapon#Safety.2C_effects.2C_and_legal_status

Safety, effects, and legal status
In the United States of America, the University of Texas-Austin Institute for Advanced Technology (IAT) conducts basic research to advance electrodynamics and hypervelocity physics related to electromagnetic weapons.[9] Generally considered 'non-lethal weapons', electromagnetic weaponry do however pose health threats to humans. In fact, "non-lethal weapons can sometimes be deadly."[10]
Department of Defense policy explicitly states that non-lethal weapons "shall not be required to have a zero probability of producing fatalities or permanent injuries."[11] Although a Human Effects Advisory Panel was established in 1998 to provide independent assessment on human effects, data, and models for the use of 'non-lethal weapons' on the general population,[12] the TECOM Technology Symposium in 1997 concluded on non-lethal weapons, “Determining the target effects on personnel is the greatest challenge to the testing community,” primarily because "the potential of injury and death severely limits human tests." However, "directed energy weapons that target the central nervous system and cause neurophysiological disorders may violate the Certain Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980. And weapons that go beyond non-lethal intentions and cause “superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering” could violate the Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1977."[13]
Some common bio-effects of electromagnetic or non-lethal weapons include affects to the human central nervous system resulting in physical pain, difficulty breathing, vertigo, nausea, disorientation, or other systemic discomfort. Interference with breathing poses the most significant, potentially lethal results. Light and repetitive visual signals can induce epileptic seizures (called the Bucha effect). Vection and motion sickness can also occur.
Project Pandora, conducted by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, WRAIR, included externally induced auditory input from pulsed microwave audiograms of words or oral sounds which create the effect of hearing voices that are not a part of the recipients own thought processes. Microwave pulses can also affect the epidermis (skin) and dermis, the thick sensitive layer of skin and connective tissue beneath the epidermis that contains blood, lymph vessels, sweat glands, and nerve endings, generating a burn from as far as 700 yards.[14]

Thursday Idea Blog #3

2009-09-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

All of these thoughts about coercion, state power, police action and the presence of police in a community are all of great importance to me as today was the first day of the the group of 20 meetings in Pittsburgh. already on the pittsburg indymedia website there are reports of dozens of riot cops hanging out near the university campuses. the next few days are sure to be full of reports of police brutality.

already the reports are ominous

RT @someclevername: police choppers spotlighting friendship park/wooded areas in hollow behind bloomfield. what is this, blade runner #g20 Wednesday September 23 2009 12:31am

RT @G20IMC: G-6 Billion March Rerouted by Police http://bit.ly/Z5DwK #g20 #pghg20 Tuesday September 22 2009 11:58pm

i'll be watching closely as i've decided to sit this summit out. I'm sure that there will be plenty of numbers to make work from.

Meeting with Jeff #2

2009-09-22T19:07:00.000-07:00

I found this meeting much more helpful than the last. It appears i need to be looking more into what other objects can be used to form a larger visual vocabulary for the communication of my ideas and the larger concept in the long term development of the project. I'm also considering how the end format of the work might be useful in determining how to go about constructing the visual body that will define it.

as far as the latter is concerned i need to be thinking about how the format of the final product can be appropriate to the concept and delivering the information to the audience i am creating it for. I am looking heavily toward silkscreening or another form of diy printing as a possible large part of the final formats. I feel that it is appropriate to the material and follows a long tradition of the diy print and printing press in the history of political action and education.

Another suggestion that we covered was how to find appropriate numbers for the amount of photographs i will create. currently my interest is in the numbers dynamics of how police mass actions and national special security events function. How many people get caught up and arrested in mass arrests what kind of people they are. how many protesters vs how many cops. as was the case at the rnc last year, was the national guard called out and how many military members were assigned to intervene.

I think the photographs i brought went over well. We discussed how to go about cropping them to really draw attention toward the mechanism of authority and away from the individuals.

test shots

2009-09-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

POSTER BOY AND WHAT

2009-09-15T17:01:00.000-07:00

POSTER BOY

flicker stream here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26296445@N05/

I find it truly hard to go about finding artists who work visually (let alone photographers) who work with the same interests and ideas in mind as i employ in my work. Often it is the work of performance artists, new media and sculpture artists that I relate most directly to. What i feel interested in about this artist is his very basic use of existing mass imagery at the site of its active communication. In changing advertisements where they are found the artist takes his analysis and turns it to practice at the point of delivery.

In the Fear //Anxiety // Trauma i went about delivering an analysis using the visual language of capitalist advertising. High gloss, poster sized photographs similar to that of advertising lacking ad copy. While i"m still not sure where i'll go next i still find it useful to use the visual language of capitalist advertising. How would we have reacted if the photos from abu grahib were high res and studio lit?

Thursday Idea Blog #2 An exploration of the idea of photography as a use of force:

2009-09-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

An exploration of the idea of photography as a use of force:

In activist literature and in modern Anarchist analysis there is an idea that power can be categorized into three modes.

The first: Power Over
When power is experienced or used in the form of coercive force. Power gained by oppressive social and economic conditions, and systematic violence impressed upon one group by another.

The second: Power With
When power is experienced or used in the form of collective action against unjust conditions or systems experienced in whole, part or symbolically by members of the collective. A common idea that is directly related to this kind of power is solidarity.
Solidarity can be defined as:
noun, plural -ties.
Union or fellowship arising from common responsibilities and interests, as between members of a group or between classes, peoples, etc.: to promote solidarity among union members.
Community of feelings, purposes, etc.
Community of responsibilities and interests.

(Definition from dictionary.com)

The Third: Power Under
When power is experienced or used in the form of actively or passively giving up the power of an individual or group to another group or system.

I would like to attempt to examine the use of photographs and the practice of photography through this lens in order to tease out the ways in which we experience and employ photography as an act power or use of force.

Some quick examples that may lead to an understanding of how this analysis might play out.

Power Over:
In the Early 1900’s the Roma populations of Eastern Europe were rounded up and confined to specific geographic locations outside of cites and their populations documented. Some of the first uses of photography in the criminal justice system can be found to have been employed during this time. The mugshot has become a common element in the visual language of criminal justice. The first recorded use of the photograph in the form of a mugshot and mugshot book was during this period. Roma populations were photographed and the images held with the local authorities or police forces in a process of criminalizing whole groups of people without charging every individual. As such the entire population through the means of the photograph were shaded with suspicion and subject to social systems of domination by local authorities.

Power With:
The photograph as an act of solidarity has been evidenced by the tradition of modern war photography. Whether intentionally or not the photographs of the Vietnam War and atrocities committed therein added a visual texture to the news or massacre and destruction at the hands of western powers. There is a strong tradition of leftist photojournalists taking their craft to conflicts in support of conflicts in support of social movements. One notable photographer who acted in solidarity with embattled social groups is Robert Capa as he documenting the Marxist and Anarchist forces during the Spanish Civil War.

Power Under:
Power Over could be seen as being experienced by the average American citizen through the means of advertising and mainstream media. The effects can be seen in the links between body image issues and the depiction of women and men in advertising. In politics and the creation of culture the process can be seen as giving up the power to create culture and define political issues by interacting with these arenas as passive consumers rather than image makers and producers.

MONDAY ARTIST// WAFAA BILAL

2009-09-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

Wafaa Bilal
(from the wiki)

"Bilal's family is from Najaf, Iraq. He dreamed of becoming an artist but was prohibited from studying art in a university in Iraq, because of the alleged disloyalty of a member of his family; he studied geography instead. He continued to work on art and was arrested as a dissident for his art critical of Saddam Hussein. He refused to volunteer to participate in the invasion of Kuwait, and began organizing opposition groups. He fled Iraq in 1991 and lived in a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia for two years, teaching art to children.
In 1992 he came to the United States to study art at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, from which he graduated with a BFA in 1999. He later moved to Chicago, where he earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2003, and became an adjunct assistant professor the following year. In addition to his art he has given lectures about Saddam Hussein's regime and was interviewed by the History Channel."

(I post this because i feel the entry was too detailed and interesting in it detail to paraphrase)

The above video was put together by the hudson mohawk independent media center.

Better known perhaps for his piece titled "Domestic Tension" from may 2007 in which he invited the public through and online interface to "shoot an Iraqi". The idea came after the death of his brother by shrapnel, at the time he had read of a soldier stationed in colorado that was using a computer interface to shoot missiles in iraq.

I find that project to be of special interest as it offers a fragmented experience to both the artist and public participants. the public takes part in the mediated experience of shooting a genuine iraqi through an interface similar to that of a first person shooter video game. the artist was able to experience the fragmented experienced of being shot at and constantly being under the threat of attack.

Perhaps this project offers a case study of what i've been referring to as a fragmented experience. Everyday realities are reconstructed and introduced through a controlled and fabricated situation. the artist was shot not with a real gun but with a paintball gun, not real bullets but paintballs. On the flip side the public participates through a set interaction of "shooting" an iraqi. Once again not truly taking a gun and shooting the artist but shooting the artist with a paintball gun through the mediated experience of the internet interface. On both sides the participants take part in only a fraction of the represented real life situation. through these actions the brutal reality of the real experience of warfare, as well as the underlying reality of the rhetoric of war is exposed. the documentation of that experience moves the temporary nature of the constructed situation to the permanent record of human suffering and has the potential to expose the connection of the simulated experience to the reality by way of the revealed suffering.

video of Wafaa Bilal discussing the project

the day by day video account of the project can be found here

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8E2DB23DB7246D69&search_query=paintball+project

Thursday Idea Blog

2009-09-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

From the Momentary to the Permanent
(or the coercive use of force in the moment as a stand in for the constant use of force in the everyday)

Throughout of our lives we live under the threat of coercive force. As a basic building block of the relation of the individual to the larger system of capitalism the threat of starvation (a threat of physical violence) for the most part guarantees the participation of the individual in the path of submission to hierarchy and the system of wage labor. From this basic building block, the use of coercive force takes many forms most visibly in the role of the police. As the only public institution with the sanctioned ability to use coercive physical force (violence), police action is the most recognizable form of order maintained through force.
Several project ideas i've been kicking around include a conceptual mass arrest of my fellow students in which the temporary use of coercive force as experienced through the application of handcuffs becomes a permanent representation of that use of force through the record of the photograph. In the process of serialization, the photographs of many students in handcuffs becomes a record of a conceptual mass arrest. Another project takes cues from both street art and my experiences in alternative processes. In this exploration I would use source photographs of riot police gleaned form the upcoming G20 meeting in Pittsburgh on the 23 and 24 of September to recreate life size replicas of the police formations in the form of cardboard cutouts in and around the campus and richmond metro area. The temporary installation of the police into the local environment becomes a permanent record of a physical occupation of space through the photograph. As a body of work the photographs together would become a record of how the police representations change the use of physical and in this case public space to both students and members of the general public.
obviously these need to be fleshed out a bit more than they have been but i feel like they both offer opportunities to further explore the ideas i've been presenting.

Meeting with Jeff

2009-09-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

First Individual Meeting

I seems that i already have some ideas that i'm working with and plenty of research to go with them. What i need to do a lot more of i s finding specifically photographers who have worked with the ideas i have in mind. I feel like I really do have an understanding about how to use one visual language, say that of pop culture, to go about making another point entirely. I do not believe that making political statements needs to be limited to the classical language of propaganda. In my work i prefer to create open ended situations and questions as an end point on my work. hopefully the experience of my work goes on to live in the mind of my viewer in whatever form or reaction they have as it relates to their specific experience. The classical function of propaganda does not allow for an open end, only for the statement being made.

Yves Klein// Alexander Rodchenko artist for Monday august 31st 2009

2009-08-31T14:11:00.000-07:00

Saut dans le vide (Leap into the Void)

From the wiki page
"Klein presented his work in forms that were recognized as art—paintings, a book, a musical composition—but then would take away the expected content of that form (paintings without pictures, a book without words, a musical composition without in fact composition) leaving only a shell, as it were. In this way he tried to create for the audience his "Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility". Instead of representing objects in a subjective, artistic way, Klein wanted his subjects to be represented by their imprint: the image of their absence. Klein's work strongly refers to a theoretical/arthistorical context as well as to philosophy/metaphysics and with his work he aimed to combine these. He tried to make his audience experience a state where an idea could simultaneously be "felt" as well as "understood"."

When writing for the allotted time in class today I focused on several points that I haven't fully formed in my own head about the work I'm interested in creating. I found this short excerpt from the wiki on Yves Klein to be extremely helpful in giving a more clarified form to the ideas I'm struggling with. While writing i focused mostly on the work of Alexander Rodchenko who in process of art making paired down common images from magazines and other mass media of the time until a more universal visual body/ language could be created as fragments of the former images. By removing elements from the larger whole images Rodchenko's process is in my mind linked with that of Klein's. While Klein's work presents as a reversal of Rodchenko's process removing that which was essential to the object in question the aim appears to be the same. In absence of the essential or in the removal of everything but the essential, attention is brought to that which is missing or that which is presented in a new and concentrated form.

Another aspect of Klein's work that I am attracted to is the last line of the excerpt presented.

"He tried to make his audience experience a state where an idea could simultaneously be "felt" as well as "understood"."
I struggle to make my images an experience beyond the physical act of looking. In the ash project of last year care was taken in its presentation to have the ashes scattered about the floor become part of the viewing experience. In transfer to the clothes air and general space the ashes produced effects within the environment as well as physical effects for the viewer as they gazed on the images of other covered in ash they too were breathing the very same ash.