AAD 250

This is my first time seeing these Runquist Murals in the Knight Library even though I have been to the library so many times. It was a shame that I never seen these murals. They are very different from the online version and the real ones. It took me quite a while to scan all the details on the murals where some I have to come back and look them up online because they are a lot of details that I don’t want to miss out.

The first I observed was the Development of Arts Mural. It was very fascinating on how the mural was developed from the bottom to the top. The colors and the light are in the perfect combination where it remind me of Artifact 7: Spirituality. The light mixing with the color make it more spiritual and I would say that the artists had some spirituality influenced.

“public art is as diverse as the people who view it”, a statement said by Doss in her article Public Art Controversy. I would say that diversity is clearly shown in the murals where I can find people in different ages, occupations, genders and races. Moreover, the audiences would be a large number as the murals have a wide range of diversity.

What really interest me most in this mural is the bottom part as they are the beginning of arts where I as a foreigner have a little information about. It is very thought-provoking on how each era develop into another era and how much we have changed. Also, the man in the middle at the bottom looks like he is the roots of everything and looking at how we have changed.

Then, I moved to the Development of Sciences Mural where I can feel the different right away. I feeling is exactly opposite to another mural. The mural was painted in darker tones and presented in a darker lighting which it gives more seriousness. Also, the man in the middle at the bottom is also facing down with his hair covered his head. It looks really scary to me. I noticed that there are very few females in this mural where she appears to be holding a baby and the rest of the men are working. This really shows something that men are the only sex that works since the beginning and women are they to support the men. I really having a hard time figuring out what they are doing in some panel such as the bottom right. Some of these are very educational and can show a lot of our history.

I really pleased that finally I once seen these murals and as a foreigner, I might have a different opinions on some aspects but I believe that we all are getting more clear about public arts after viewing these murals whether in real life or online.

 

Idea, Unique, Freedom, Love, Confidence, Colors

This image could be considered art where Dissanayake mentioned in her article, “What is Art for?” that in the era of Modernism where people tend to have more freedom to choose what art is. Personally, i would say that this image can consider to be an artwork because we all interpret art in different meanings and everyone sees art differently and have their own opinions on each work.

“We made mixed tape, they remixed music. We watched TV, they made TV. It is technologies that made them different” stated by Lawrence Lessig in his TedTalk, “Laws that chock creativity” describing people in old generation and new generation as copyright can have a lot of effects on new generations if we still have this copyright law that still hold our creativity back.In the modern society copyright plays as a law so that no one can copy one’s idea that have copyrighted. Copyright has been regulated so that ideas that have been created by individual cannot be copied and said that they create the idea or in another word stealing someone’s creation. This would include everything such as songs, artwork, movies, names (titles) and etc.

In my opinion, by having copyright can create fear that makes people or new generation too afraid to create or build something new as they are afraid that they will get sued by the copyright law. This would limit opportunities and chances for something brighter and more creative to be created. Or even taking clips or songs to make their own video clips or “Remixing” as mentioned from TedTalk by Lawrence Lessig. Moreover, each content should be labelled so that people can know that which content can be used commercially or non-commercially.

I believe that this copyright law should be changed or weaken so that people will have more courage and opportunities to create more creativities or even a remix video clips. “people taking other’s content in wholesale and distributing it without the permission of the copyright owner, I’m talking about people taking and re-creating using other people’s content using digital technologies to see thing differently” said by Lawrence in his TedTalk. I believe that using parts of other’s idea to create your own work in other context is not stealing. However, copyright law should stand if the whole content is used by others without permission so that there would be no stealing.

The primary thesis of this essay is “to establish the relation of specific image, object, event or environment to conceptual frames. These frames exist within art and technology and are present in other forms of symbolic and material culture.” (Jones, 1990). The changes of computer graphics are not simply relate to technology. It involves cultural historical context. Jones tries to classify the relationship between technology and culture

The three historical examples Jones provides are “the stone columns of ancient Egyptian architecture were based on earlier bound papyrus columns; early oil paintings were similar in technique to egg tempera paintings and did not take advantage of oil’s mixing properties, slower drying and resultant appearance of softer edges; early mass-produced furniture imitated handcrafted furniture in form and applied ornamentation.” (Jones, 1990). The stone columns of ancient Egyptian architecture is very interesting as this architecture has passed on from the ancient time to the later time or even now where people can still be able to use that architecture from the past into the architecture in that certain time.

I choose a game application on mobile phone called Game of War- Fire Age. It is mass multiplayer online strategy game where players have to build a city including have a strategy to defend and attack the others. The game is based on events from Stone Age to Iron Age where we can see the environment, architectures and people in the certain time period. It leads players to experience the ancient and historic events and cultures in such an easy way.

Computer graphics nowadays is increasingly getting more advance and more real in term of the context of the graphics. A study from Yale shows that by using the technology from the computer graphics to study the structure and history of the particular sculpture. Some artifacts may be too fragile and might not be able to handle the work from humans, so this is where computer graphics come in and aid us.

 

“Game of War: Fire Age.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_War:_Fire_Age>.

“Yale C2 — Research — By Topic.” Yale C2 — Research — By Topic. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. <http://cs.yale.edu/c2/index.php/research/by-topic/topic/applications-of-computer-graphics-in-cultural-heritage>.

How do you define “spirituality”

In my opinion, spirituality is something very deep-thought and might differ from each persons’ beliefs. I would say that spirituality is related to conscious lives. As an international student, I might have a different thoughts from the Native Americans, I think that when I hear the word spirituality, I would think of spirits or ghosts. This is because from where I was grew up, we really do believe in spirits and spirituality is something very powerful and move us forward.

Does spirituality differ from religion?

I would say that there are both differences and similarities between spirituality and religion where the similarities are that they both consist of beliefs from people and have heritage from the very old days. On the other hand, spirituality is differ from each persons’ thoughts where religion is strictly same for that religion and cannot be changed.

How do you define “creativity”?

Creativity is being different and dominant from the others where artists or anyone who think of something new and mind-blow. “Thinking outside the box” is one of the phrase used to describe people who is creative. Creativity can be used with other thing rather than art such as sports and fashion.

What is the source of creativity?

The source of creativity can be everything around you including yourself. I believe that every can be the source of the creativity where it has to be interpret into an artwork or something that people can acknowledge or see so that you can be proven that you are creative. Different people have different ways of interpret the ideas and different ways of making creativity where this is the creative parts- where everyone have their different unique ways to come up with ideas.

The presentation is very interesting and confusing at the same time. From the eyes of a foreigner i think spiritual art is something very deep and hard to understand as it consists of culture, religion and beliefs. However, some artists shown in the presentation has a very interesting idea such as John Feodorov. He includes toys to his artwork to create spiritual art which i think is very cool. A performance shown in the presentation by John is very interesting and strange as he put on a mask and use paints and toys to illustrate many situation where i, myself, don’t really understand. To be honest, i don’t really understand the first three artists as they are so deep and contain a lot of religious and cultural contents. However, the last artist, James Turrell is more scientific where it becomes more interesting and understandable as he talks more about light and Earth.

The article is about examples of horror films that trying to expand the genre of horror or contemporary horror and pushes towards art house. The author, Adam Hart, mentions that “the art house has never been far from the grindhouse” (para 1). Art cinema and horror cinema have been in a surprisingly cozy relationship. Then, he shows examples of how each filmmaker develop horror and art together. For example; filmmaker, Michael Haneke, who examines in detail the impulse to see disturbing images onscreen while holding their power to shock. Another filmmaker, Danny Boyle, who restarts the low budgets zombie film to create an imitate portrait of desperate people running from the infected dead. These filmmakers understand the broader expressive possibilities of horror films by bringing in the effects of shock, revulsion and fear into the films. These filmmakers approach horror films with no limits by adding more imaginations and a bit of art can open up new kind of films or genre.

 

This article is about how horror film or horror art express themselves to the audiences, what messages filmmakers and artists trying to send to the audiences and how the audiences will react or express to the horror films or horror art. The example that is shown in the article is a painting called “Saturn Devouring His Son” by Francisco Jose de Goya. He describe the painting as “Wild- haired and wide-eyed, peering out of the near total gloom that engulfs the canvas, the Titan hunches over his child, naked, mouth agape, body tensed. His pale knuckles dig into the white flesh of a child of indeterminate sex; the child’s head and right arm have already been consumed, and Saturn is in the midst of finishing the left arm” (para 1) The author mentions that first we need to know the actual meaning of “horror”. He states that there are 2 ways of using the word “horror”. “Horror in the first instance is used to indicate a particular emotional response to a stimulus. In the second instance, horror is the genre of art that is somehow connected with this emotion” (para 6).

 

In the article, Avant-Terror: Contemporary Art-House Horror, Adam Hart asserts that horror is starting to integrate both elements of horror and art. Hart supports his statement with a few examples, which includes Michael Haneke and Claire Denis, whom managed to introduce disturbing images into their films while maintaining the power to shock the audience. Hart further states that modern filmmakers now begin to be more creative in making their films and “they approach horror not as genre that confines or limits the kinds of films they make, but as a mode that opens up their films to new thematic, formal, and narrative opportunities” (Hart, par.3). Hart perceives the horror genre as being incorporated into a form of art and hence, it is essential for filmmakers to be creative in their production. On the other hand, Noel Carroll focuses on what attracts the audience to horror movies. Carroll explores into the ways in which filmmakers produce such horror stories to serve consumers’ needs. She believes that horror is driven by curiosity and that “it engages its audience by being involved in processes of disclosure, discovery, proof, explanation, hypothesis, and confirmation” (Carroll, p.279). Carroll emphasizes solely on the techniques used to create curiosity and satisfaction for the audience, while Hart highlights on the creativity of horror movies as a form of art.

In addition, the article, Dead Letter: The Aesthetics of Horror, written by Jude Russo, questions whether it is possible to produce something that inspires horror for its own sake. Russo begins by defining the word “horror”, which is referred to something that is used to show a certain emotional response to a stimulus and it is also “the genre of art that is somehow connected with this emotion” (Russo, par. 6). Furthermore, Russo states that modern horror relies more on the illustration of disturbing images that are designed to deliver an emotional effect rather than a moral. Modern critiques believe that horror works must convey a moral message to be considered as a good art. However, most modern school of thoughts would prefer to judge the quality by its own standards. Because there are two contradicting ideas about what would be considered as a good art –in terms of moral or emotional effect, Russo states that “we must turn away from holding a work’s intended effect as the highest standard of art” (Russo, par. 21). However, Carroll would argue with his statement for the fact that she believes that horror is induced by an emotion. To her perspective, a good horror work must be able to create the curiosity –which is “an appetite of the mine” (Carroll, p. 284). While the monsters have to be disturbing and repulsive in other to create that satisfaction in a pleasurable way. Therefore, Carroll would assert that a moral message has nothing to do with the quality of work.

 

Hart, Adam. “Doc Films.” Doc Films. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2015. <http://docfilms.uchicago.edu/dev/calendar/2014/spring/2014-spring-thursday-02.shtml>.

Russo, Jude D. “Dead Letter: The Aesthetics of Horror | Arts | The Harvard Crimson.”Dead Letter: The Aesthetics of Horror. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2015. <http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/10/28/arts-cover-horror-aesthetics/>.

For non-diagetic sound, I chose a scene when the ghosts are floating around the city to kill each person. There are no sounds except the background music. I chose this scene because the background music has a lot of impact on this scene as no one cannot speak. This means that there is only the background music that can imply or make any meanings to this scene. Clearly, the background music is very creepy and chilling. This non-diagetic scene did contribute to the aesthetic of horror for the video as it provides the movie the dark and evil perspectives.

For diagetic sound I chose a scene where all peoples’ sounds were stolen and there is a scene where is a computer or robot speaking. I chose this scene because it shows clearly that the sound is from the computer as everyone’s sound is stolen and there is no sound from any humans. I believe this robotic sound somehow make the movie scarier due to the scene that no one can talk and there is only the robotic sound from the computer. Also, the context of the conversation the computer and humans are speaking plus the situation of the story makes the robotic sound more intense. However, if the tone of the computer sound is lower and more human-like, I believe it would be more creepy and scarier.

For Mise-en-scene, I chose the last scene where the lead actor and actress is fighting with the ghosts and destroy the box, where their sounds were kept, and get their sounds back. The actress suddenly scream as loud as she can and the ghosts’ heads blew off. This scene includes all of the purposes of mise-en-scene such as production design- the costumes of each ghosts and the props on the set, lighting of this scene- has to be dark but still able to see the characters and the blocking of each characters- so that we can know the depth and the position of each characters. As this is the last main scene of the film, this scene did contribute to the aesthetic of horror for this film.

I do believe that everyone have their own values and belief on what they are wearing or choose to wear but just some might not realize that they put beliefs and values in their dresses. Occasionally, values and beliefs are factors that make me choose what to wear for today. What I meant is that, there are times that I have to go out to events such as wedding, funeral or meeting that I have to dress according to suitability or dress code of that events. Moreover, I believe that every dress I choose either to go outside or stay at home have their own values and beliefs. I, personally, like to wear comfortable clothes with I am at home such as tank tops and basketball shorts as they are very easy to wear. I don’t have any tattoos or piercing on any parts of my body as I see them are just accessories and not necessary to have one. Also, my parents don’t want me to get them because they believe that tattoos and piercing will change my look and affect my personal matters. This is just their opinions but I do believe them as in my country is not as open as the United Sates where people have their own freedom. Over the years my taste of fashion has changed according to my age. As I get older I wear something more mature and look appropriate for my age. Moreover, I have developed an interest in getting a small tattoo as I see that it can be a reminder to me on why I get this tattoo and I see it as a work of art more than just an ink.

My family is quite old fashioned especially my father where he is very strict on tattoos and piercing. I have one younger sister where she has a lot of piercings on her ears and a small tattoo on her wrist. For my father it was fine when my sister went to get ear piercings if they are not too much and not appropriate but it was a chaos when he knew that my sister got a tattoo. He made it very clear that he doesn’t like me and my sister to get a tattoo. But what can he do if my sister already got the tattoo. As I mention earlier, my parents believe that tattoos and excessive piercings will affect your look and the way people look at you. However, after I came and studied aboard, I realize that it is the opposite of what my dad said. People are more open to tattoos and piercing and they are normal things. I do understand that eventually I have to go back and live my life at my own country and if I get tattoos and piercings it will affect my life. Personally, I have no interest in piercing at all but I want my dad to be more open to people who have tattoos and piercing as they cannot be the factors to determine values of people. My parents are very strict on how my sister and me dress when we go formal places such as restaurants, airports or meetings. I think the way we look will affect how they look to as we are a family.

I do believe that community you are in have a very huge impact on how you express through dress and body adornment. Trend is one of the influences that changes the community’s beliefs and values. My friends, both male and female, mostly dress according to the trends especially female as they love fashions and cannot miss the trends. However, if body adornment is a trend it has to be considered thoroughly as they are permanent. I would say clothes is the only thing that they can express through as it can be varied. Wearing expensive clothes and using luxurious accessories would show their values and beliefs. However, it is not always true that we can define people by how expensive their clothes and accessories are. As I mention a lot earlier, dresses and body adornment cannot be used to determine peoples’ beliefs and values. In my opinion, peers have a huge impact on my values and beliefs on dress and body adornment as they have a lot of effects on my life.

The first person I see is wearing dark blue sweat pants, a black t-shirt, a grey jacket covering the t-shirt, a blue cap and wearing Nike running shoes. He is carrying a black bag pack. There are no tattoos and piercing from I can see. By the way he dresses, I can tell he is a student in his early twenties. I think that he is a very confident man from what he dresses as he does not really care what other people think of the way he dresses. He can dress where ever he wants. In my opinion, someone who dresses as free as they can is some who has a really high self-confidence. However, I also think that some that dress themselves excessively fancy also have a high self-confidence because a lot of people will gaze at them.

The second person I see is an Asian male. He wears a white shirt, jeans and a black over coat. He wears a lot of accessories such as necklace, bracelets and rings. He also pierce his ears. By looking at the way he dresses, I would say he loves fashion and like to dress. Also, by looking at his accessories, I can say that he is a very detailed man as he takes care of every accessories. In my opinion, I feel that it is too excessive. However, it might be the way he dresses normally as to show how he really taking care of his look. I believe it is another way to show how people appreciate themselves and take care of themselves to look good. I would say that he comes from a rich family according to his clothes and accessories.

The last person I see has a small tattoo on her wrist wearing a blue shirt, black pants and a huge scarf. She has a piercing at her nose and her ears. I would say the piercings are not too abundant, just like a usual girl.  I think that someone who have some piercings and tattoos are someone that have their own mind- in the box. Just a little bit, not too much. However, she might have some tattoos hidden somewhere in her body, who knows? I would say she is in her early twenties basing on her dress. She doesn’t wear fancy dress or accessories so I would assume she is not very extravagant. I couldn’t really see what the image of the tattoo is but I would say that the tattoo would have mean something to her because the tattoo is not too excessive and she doesn’t look like someone who would tattoo for pleasure.