Month: March 2015

When visiting these historic pieces of art by Albert and Arthur Runquist, it was a surreal piece of art. At first glance, the art piece really captures your attention from the different possible interpretations. When understanding the different panels, its incredible how thoughtful the painting was and artists’ perception on Capturing History. With the landmark that Knight Library represents today, more students should acknowledge this artwork to truly appreciate the building they value so much.

In this weeks reading by Erika Doss, she brings to our attention the controversy of public art, which was not apparent to me at all. According to Doss “it’s too hot to handle” (doss 1), the topic of establishing a public art piece that will represent a culture or community may not be as accepted as most would think. Doss continues to mention that even with the Washington Memorial was controversial to been built at first.

As we progress as a nation and a community, we continue to neglect the spirituality and art that represents us for what we stand and defend. ” The dynamics surrounding public art reveal an ongoing American commitment to meaningful conversations, which are the cornerstones of an active democratic culture.” (Doss 2) The authors makes a statement with the quote stating that we, as a democratic nation, need to not be ignorant with the value of art and accept change and representation; such as “…public art is as diverse as the people who view it.”(Doss 6) representing our nation being diverse.

I find it strange that more of this public art reform hasn’t been more apparent in recent culture, more or less there not being a big historic movement or figurehead. Public art used to the backbone of art and the exposure of masterpieces, such as the Statue of David. This statue and many others were major highlights in their generation of art. Another notable example was the Sistine Chapel that painted to show the passion and murals of Catholicism. An example like these are art pieces that we don’t see in our culture today. Such as a building that has more structure to it rather than a tall rectangle. The monograph that Doss writes us about gives us many examples of shifts and hardship of public art on where it was and where it will be, along with the controversies associated with it.

 

Reference

Doss, E. (2006, October). Public art controversy: Cultural expression and civic debate. Retrieved from http://www.americansforthearts.org/pdf/networks/pan/doss_controversy.pdf

• Creative
• Insightful
• Intelect
• Innovator
• Spiritual
• Right-Brained
• Faith
• Determination
• Imaginative
• Reflective

 

It’s hard to say but I would say that this collage that I have created may be a piece of art. The reason being is due to my creativity being explored and expressing myself in putting together my thoughts. According to Dissanayake, she says “In the eighteenth century is recognized as having been a focal point in which a number of social and intellectual trends came together, intertwined and influenced one another…” (dissanayake 2). With this new creation of art of our era, this collage reflects a ‘remix’ of art that I had collectively put together from an original art piece.

The TED talk that Lawrence Lessig does is interesting to watch , plus it makes his reading make more sense. He brings to out attention these two cultures of RO and RW that have shaped our cultures to differences in certain points of views. He brings to our attention User Generated Content (ugc) that has created a controversy of this ‘remix’ of art and copyright infringement debate. Lessig quotes “…this remix era is not copyright, but remaking the content and adding more creativity” (TED talk) which I understand where the controversy comes from as these creators of remixing the content, or the RW culture, alter someones main idea. I would argue that as well, taking someones idea and altering it to make a remix is copyright infringement, wouldn’t you? How would you define copyright?  Lessig makes the statement of “The ability to channel commercial the return from music or film has allowed other to create what others have not” (lessig 85) to be the argument for copyright law.

Copyright in today’s society it not tolerated as people, most RO cultured, believe to have the right to their ideas. Examples we see is peoples writing, lyricism, and filmography. There is slightly a way that people work around this, by ‘remixing’ the main idea, it is then a new idea with new content. I would argue that copyright does in fact limit or creates an obstacle for peoples creativity to expand. With 7 billion people alive, someone else is bound to have the same or similar idea as another. This idea of remixing creates and enables people to expand their creativity to new limits. For example, in our generation we have noticed how much Disk Jockeys (DJ’s) have evolved and how much people experiment with altering music to create a new genre of music.

Although I support the idea of people creating new ideas, I believe that the current copyright law don’t necessarily need to be strengthened but remain unchanged. I’m a strong believer of peoples ideas being altered to others work. How else would someone be glorified for the main idea that others are credited or rewarded for?

 

Reference

Lessig, L. (2008). Comparing Cultures. Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (pp. 84-116). New York: Penguin Press HC, The.

Lessig, Lawrence. “Laws That Choke Creativity.” Lawrence Lessig:. TED Talk, Mar. 2007. Web.

 

 

In this article excerpt Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins, written by Beverly Jones, the author believes that art is becoming a new revolution of art that is resulting in a change in the way we envision it. The author states “…examples illustrate cultural tendencies to cast developing forms of material and symbolic culture in previous modes” (jones 21). Examples that she uses was the columns in the ancient Egyptian era, these columns were a different type of art that had influenced other developing arts.

Jones states that we are witnessing a change in art. In accordance with the TED talk and the Studio 360 presentation, we are primary users to this developing art of online graphic design. Both sources tells us that about the innovation of video games and how much they have developed in our generation. I, for one, who grew up with the booming of these video game platforms, can adhere that graphics do matter. Going from a generic platform such as the Nintendo that has classic games, to platforms such as an Xbox the revolutionized the way that we value graphics in our games. We test the game makers too, ‘this game is awesome with amazing graphics, what will they make next?” Game developers are attempting to meet demand with gamers as the art in technology continues to develop. With the effects and visionary aspects that go into the making of video games is much more than that. With TV’s producing high quality of vision effects, graphic artist are now attacking the idea of making our electronics ‘real life’ perception. To add on to Jones thesis, I believe that within the technology industry, there are a tremendous amount of careers that deal with art on a daily basis. From program development, algorithm design, to computer programing, all areas have an aspect of ‘art’ that goes into their work.

 

References

Jones, B. J. (1990). Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins. LEONARDO: Digital Image – Digital Cinema Supplemental Issue, pp. 21-30.