Author Archives: Jacob Armas

Reflection on Feedback from Creative Presentation #1 

The most important criticism I received as feedback was the perceived weakness of a social component to my presentation of Buster Simpson and his work. It is true, my main focus up until that point had been on Simpson’s environmental projects, and the vast amount of scientific scholarship that has gone into studying some of the topics he alludes to in his work, namely nurse logs, riparian restoration, and pH imbalances. This feedback was helpful because it gave me an opportunity to narrow my study of Buster Simpson. He has produced a vast body of work, and I was not sure how to choose an aspect of it to focus more in-depth on. The desire of others to hear more about the social impacts of Simpson has led me to focus in on his persona of the Woodman. His performances as the Woodman made some of the biggest social statements of his early career, on the nature of waste in the city. I would argue that the spirit of the Woodman was carried on into his later installation works. Simpson himself addresses this in a video I was very fortunate to locate. In it, he discusses the role of his piece Secured Embrace   as the spiritual successor to the Woodman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE6F8P17F_g

This allowed me a more pronounced sense of direction in my paper, but there was as still a social component missing from my creative response, which will take the form of recycled materials, a 3D printed block, and sword ferns as symbolic representations of the ideas discussed in the paper. Many commentated on the prototype of the sculpture that they appreciated and/or were intrigued by the symbolism contrasted with the simple shapes of the actual form. What it was lacking though, was some mention of this social component. At first, I thought the only way to rectify this was to write some sort of paragraph that would be displayed in front of the sculpture, making some comment on restoration that was vaguely connected to the nurse logs. Then, I realized there was a much simpler, and therefore more effective, was to integrate a social message into my work. I took a cue from Simpson and decided to write a simple phrase around the the four different half-tree outlines that will make up my sculpture.

Image from Pinterest  

I have not finalized the phrase, but it will be something such as

Our material die but the forests don’t

or

Material dies but trees don’t 

This allows me to speak both to the fact that we as a society often do not think about what happens to materials once we use them, and it introduces the topics of nurse logs, that don’t truly “die” because they still contribute to the forest, in an interesting, integrated way.

Another important piece of feedback I received was that people were getting my ideas, but the were not organized in a clear way. I attribute this scattered description to the fact that I have read a wide range on things about the artist, and was myself still trying to see how everything fit together in the sculpture. In response, I developed a chart that traces my thought processes in the symbols of the work and also provides rudimentary answers to my research questions:

If anything, what causes nurse logs?

and

What is the role of the Woodman in Buster Simpson’s work and how is that philosophy carried through in the works of his in which I am examining? 

Search Terms Used in my Research 

At this stage in the project, I have narrowed my focus to the study of nurse logs, and primarily of the environmental works of Buster Simpson. As such, many of my searches had very narrow results because of their specificity. For example, common searches were:

nurse logs 

tree species that produce nurse logs

locations of nurse logs 

buster simpson 

ecoart 

art in public

installation art 

Though these searches are broad, they did not return thousands, or even hundreds of useful resources. This attribute to two things I learned in my ongoing research: Nurse logs have not been intensively studied, work needs to be done on defining and examining the microclimates that seeds growing on logs exist in. Buster Simpson, though prolific and provocative, is often underrepresented. His contributions to the developing world of public art (or art in public as he insists) have not been thoroughly documented.

In attempts to begin to synthesize these disparate ideas, of Buster Simpsons’s guiding philosophy, of art in public, of the science of nurse logs and the idea, I performed a few more queries:

the woodman 

crows 

nature in the city 

soil chemistry 

mycorrhizal fungi 

nurse logs in non-Pacific North West forests

tree decay

This final search has brought up an interesting image, and prompted me to start thinking of unguided nature as a force of decay, while Buster Simpson is also a “force of nature”. The key difference being that he uses nature to renew instead.

La Recoleta Cemetery; Small Vault in Decay. 2012. Contemporary Architecture, Urban Design and Public Art (ART on FILE Collection), Junin 1760, Recoleta Neighborhood, Buenos Aires, Argentina. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. ART on FILE. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.  

Response to Dr. Taylor’s Presentation at CAMCOR

Image from eecs.oregonstate.edu

A) Even though I had read the assigned article on the work of Dr. Taylor, there were a plethora of ideas I learned through this morning’s presentation. In a general sense, Dr. Taylor’s whole life paints a very inspiring picture, that of a real, living artist-scientist. What was most striking to me, and seems to be a trend in the lives of many historic thinkers, and prolific scholars, is how young he was when he first started on the journey that he daily embarks on now. I believe that sort of focus and extended questioning on a single subject, or narrow group of subjects, is an interesting phenomena in its own right.

Today, I learned where the divide between art and science developed, form the book The Two Cultures, by C.P. Snow. Of course, I am now very interested in reading this book, as my interest in the intersections, and possibility for collaboration has peaked over the past few weeks. Another part of today that will stick with me was the theory that our eyes are fractal detectors. In my own musings and experience with art, I wondered if it would be possible to quantify the amount of relaxation that a strong composition can impart in the viewer. Taylor’s findings that fractals in a certain D-value have the ability to induce a sense of calm seems to be the beginning of answer to this perennial question. I know have many more questions on the subject:

Is it only these fractal patterns that can induce this decrease in anxiety in a viewer? What about fractal movements in dance? Do these produce the same decrease in anxiety? Can our eyes even detect fractal pattern in motion? Or only on static surfaces? 

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960077906007399

This publication may answer some of these questions.

What sort of movement would it take in our popular and academic culture to merge the arts and sciences? Is this a movement that would have to be motivated by students? professors? curriculum writers? Would these collaborations speed innovation? Can we even conceive of a world where our architects are our chemists, where our geologists are our printmakers anymore? I suspect in this case, the integrative teaching of art and science in the elementary years would be the most beneficial. On the college level, I believe the primary difficulty would be with training a person in the technical skills required for both disciplines simultaneously. It would also radically challenge the notion of college being the factory where employees are produced.

B) The largest contribution this presentation had on my project was a rekindling of the desire to look for the confluence of art and science. It allowed me to see my project in a new light, and brought with it ideas on how to organize my creative response.

C) In terms of what to apply to my life, the sheer thought that my own life could be half as interesting as Dr. Taylor’s is a takeaway. It was inspiring to see how far one can go when one has goals, deep questions, and undertake a scholarly pursuit of knowledge wholeheartedly. The talk started my own thought process on what subjects I would want to study for decades if given the opportunity. In a world that is so interconnected, it is easy to assume everything has already been done and discovered, because there is so much scattered about. This talk has given me new perspective on the unexplored frontiers of human knowledge, and the belief that some of those frontiers will be explored during my lifetime.

Response to Perceptual and physiological responses to Jackson Pollock’s fractals

Image from betanews 

Although I had some previous knowledge of fractals and that fractals contributed in some way to the work of Jackson Pollock, I had no idea to what extend this connection had been studied, or any knowledge of its findings.

I am always astounded when I read about how simple the mathematical functions that guide fractal generation are. As such, I found the discussion of how D-value is calculated to be simultaneously illuminating and awe-inspiring. 

Of most interest to me, was the discussion that followed the finding that fractals in the 1.3-1.5 range had the most widespread appeal. To me, this seems to point to some concept of balance and moderation present in the universe, and would be very interested in any further exploration of that concept. This paper also introduced me to the field of “neuro-esthetics” which is highly intriguing to me. I have identified in my own life noticeable changes of disposition and a lessening of internal anxiety when viewing stirring, well-composed artworks. The thought had not occurred to me before that it could be possible to qualitatively explain this phenomena.

Finally, I also found the idea that Pollock was more prone to creating complex fractals because he had been exposed to them for so long to be very stirring. This seems to start in the direction of proof that art becomes more enjoyable, specifically complex art, the longer it is viewed. This concept could easily be extended to considerations of why those in the “art world” are interested in artworks that do not captivate the interest of a general public in the same way. The more complex ideas, themes, or emotions presented in this art are perhaps enjoyed more by those in the “art world”simply because they have been exposed to them previously. If this is the case, this would provide impetus for the more widespread placement of complex and contemporary art.

Building on the topic of fractals hidden all around us, here are two discussions of fractals that I have found illuminating and endlessly fascinating.

 From TED.com 

Errors in Rhythm follow Pattern 

Questions for Dr. Taylor 

Are there any other current theories for why fractals are more pleasing to view than other patterns? 

How aware of this patterning was Jackson Pollock when he created these images?

How will the knowledge that humans prefer images in the D-range of 1.3-1.5 affect current artists?

Is there any way that fractals can be compounded to form a distinctly more complex patterning?   

Moving Onward

I identified many questions regarding the science explored and demonstrated in Buster Simpson’s art in Report #2. All of them were of an environmental bent. This is because Simpson’s work that imparts environmental narratives has been the most captivating to me thus far. The questions concern nurse logs, tetrapods, and root wads and are as follows:

Can only certain types of trees function as nurse logs? If so, what makes those trees more apt or capable than others? 

What causes nurse logs, if they are indeed caused by something? 

How does their decomposition protect the surrounding trees against disease? 

Are tetrapods worth the cost of disrupting costal views and changing the nature of the beaches on which they are placed?

How does one decide where to place tetrapods?

How does one decide how many to use?

How are tetrapods managed and monitored? 

How do root wads protect against erosion? 

Are tetrapods and root wads essentially the same device but employed in different ecosystems? 

After receiving peer feedback in class, as well as personal evaluation, I have decided to focus in on the study of nurse logs for the purposes of this project. That being said, I am sure more questions will arise as I begin to study them in depth. Already I have learned that they are more common in areas that receive large amounts of moisture in the form of fog and dew and do not undergo frequent, drastic temperate changes. Naturally, this has lead me to the question of which world regions are able to support nurse logs. I am also interested in knowing what additional conditions need to be met for them to exist.

In regards to research on the artist, I did not formulate as many questions, but they are each wider in scope. From this point moving onwards, I plan on pursuing answers to all but the final question. It is equally intriguing to me, but it does not refer specifically enough to Buster Simpson to pursue seriously at this juncture.

How does Buster Simpson use art to make change on a local level?

What does Buster Simpson’s created avatar, The Woodman, symbolize and thus reveal about his art?

What role does Buster Simpson believe the artist plays in educating the general public?

How is value assigned to fine art that is not “made” or “crafted” in the way one traditionally conceives of fine art (i.e. painting, sculpture, metalwork, pottery)?

Much thought still needs to be put into the creative display. Since the large majority of Buster Simpson’s work is in the form of building or instillation, I feel led in that direction with my creative response. However, this runs the risk of paralleling too closely Simpson’s work itself, instead of being a personalized response to it. My strengths lie in physical sketching and drawing over digital production, but I do have an interest and some basic experience in photography, which could be beneficial to incorporate in some manner. I have also distilled a few possible concepts to guide my creative process moving forward, namely:

The use of found or recycled materials in an echo to Buster Simpson’s employment of them.

The idea that nurse logs protect the forest, in a very combative way, fighting against fungus and disease.

The idea that nurse logs can completely disappear and leave only a mound or empty space as tells of their previous existence. This is the idea of void or the idea of the white space that completes graphic design or the spaces in between notes that make music.

The idea that since nurse logs are in some forests the sole way that new seedlings can grow, they are the mythological equivalent of the Phoenix. 

The idea of a beautiful or pleasing object being used to draw attention to a more dire narrative.

The idea of small, deliberate changes causes larger events to unfold over long periods of time. 

These two images, from the blog Kind of Curious, currently serve as visual inspiration and demonstration of some of these concepts. 

This image, taken by me near the Oregon Coast, could also serve as a conceptual launching point for the creative component. It introduces a layer of removal from the strict science of nurse logs. The log lies not in the forest but in a new environment entirely, while still functioning the same way as forest-bound nurse logs.

Moving in an entirely different direction, perhaps something such as a map of the regions that more frequently contain nurse logs could be interpreted in a creative way. Or perhaps the data of which species of tree are apt to become nurse logs, as well as which species of tree they incubate, could be visually represented in any engaging way.

Finally, a possible research statement could take the form:

Why do forests evolve in such a way that nurse logs are both necessitated and plentiful?

A general purpose statement regarding the artist could be:

How does Buster Simpson effectively draw the attention of the public to the environment using installations and sculpture? 

Response to Designing for the Web and Principles and Elements of Design 

 The Acceptable Typefaces According to the Late Massimo Vignelli

Image from luc.devoye.org.

Key Ideas

Pixel concentration 

Differences between browsers 

Colour 

Layout 

Purpose Statement 

Joshua David McClurg-Genevese covers the myriad difficulties that web designers face in regards to formatting and application of formal design principles. He introduces a complex world of ideas that are often never addressed or consciously considered by the average web user. 

Points for Consideration 

These articles were very eye-opening to me because, although I have more than a passing interest in art and design and am familiar with its basic tenets and themes, I was not aware of the importance of width-height ratios in web design, or of how important resolution was. The portion divulging user interface peaked my interest. I have a friend studying computer science. Through the combination of his knowledge and the provided articles, I have no doubt that I will find a wealth of new information to learn about a topic that I had never seriously discovered before. 

Moving on to the application of these ideas in my own work, I have identified Proportion, Colour, and Dominance as the principles that I am most interested in learning how to apply more readily. All great buildings are built based upon some sort of modular, with the most important features calling attention to themselves in a hierarchical arrangement. My interest in architecture has no doubt informed my interest in these principles. Colour is, of course, the most difficult of the presented concepts to grapple with. So many Modernists have rejected colour as a medium of exchange by adopting either black and white or very limited, neutral colour palettes.

Conversely, and also admitted influenced my by interest in Modernist architects, I found the examples of Rhythm and Line distasteful. The “Manhattan Edition” example struck me as needlessly subdivided into too many elements. Likewise, the placement of text according to the “Subway Dream” style appears arbitrary. What the author deemed to be a looseness reminiscent of line-projected-from-point (perhaps invoking Matisse) struck me as sloppiness.  

The discussion of design principles reminds me of the work of Christopher Alexander on the different types of “strong-centres” that bound living space.

Image from Pinterest. 

Image from blog.mentallycharged.com 

Reflection on guest speaker: Lisa Freinkel

A) Though not a completely new idea to me, I had never before mustered the discipline to take the time and examine a food in a slow, measured way, one that required the careful concentration of all my senses. Overall, the experience reminded me very much of this scene.

B) A major takeaway from the speaker,  immediately applicable to my current project, was the idea of self-imposed rules. Even over the course of gathering introductory material and locating more in-depth sources, I have noticed an increasing anxiety within myself concerning which direction to take the project in, as if I needed to know right this second. I found the reminder to relax, and to let things unfold along their own course, greatly reduced my stress and even allowed me to see the whole thing in a better light.

C) Even now as I sit here, I find I have re-discovered the simple joy which comes from typing, itself a very tactile and exact exercise. The idea from today that applies to my life is that each activity, whether that means eating a food that I’ve enjoyed many times, reading poem that I have memorized, or running familiar route, can always be re-examined at a deeper level. Through this re-examination often comes new insight or appreciation, and to understand and to appreciate the world around us are two of the most basic goals in both art and in science, disciplines that are not only the focus of this course, but have captured my attention on countless occasions.

Response to “Art Practice as Research in the Classroom”

Image from Atako Tani

Key Words 

art-based research 

self-guided 

holistic 

reflective/connective

Purpose Statement 

Julia Marshall and Kimberly D’Adamo employ the use of a case study in an IB art program to introduce and discuss the idea of students pursuing independent, art-based learning. With the teacher acting as a guide, the students would learn skills in connectivity and metacognition, which are then applicable to other forums of academic discovery.

The authors contend that this idea was first introduced by Elliot Eisner, late professor at Stanford University.

The authors argue that one of “artmaking”‘s benefits is the connection of ideas. This reminded me of William Cronon’s article on the goals of a liberal education.  I think this article makes a strong argument for the inclusions of art, experiential, studio art that is, into the realm of general higher education. This inclusion would start to bridge the gap between art students and general university students, which would be a meaningful connection in itself.

Points for Consideration 

As the author suggests, this form of learning would be vastly different than the accepted way of teaching art, or any subject for that matter. What impact would this have on students who learn best by being directly taught facts and skills, rather than by doing? I would argue that instead of a revolution in education, this idea of “art-research” should be seen as simply another method of teaching, as each student has a different learning style. 

A major benefit of this model is the wide range it can cover. This begs the inevitable question of what exactly the goal of education at any level is. Micheal Orr discussed this idea in his book Earth in Mind.

The notion that deeper understanding can come from art-based inquiry is pervasive in this article. What sort of change would this have on the world? How much would our corporate culture and governments improve if they were made up of students brought up in this way of thinking?

A further benefit of art driven research and education is an instillation in the student of their confidence in making objects. How would this change our current consumerist mindset in America?   

An integral part of this sort of learning involves critique of creative work. Since this is an aspect of art school that drives many students away and psychologically harms many that do stay, how would this be introduced into the high school setting in a way that did not alienate students or detract from the overall goal of improvement? 

The article concludes with the idea that this sort of education would turn students from students to learners to researchers. I found this an interesting parallel to how many universities are set up. Students gain independence from high school and gain some measure of control and responsibility over their education, then graduate students make the leap into self-written curriculum and research.   

Response to “The Art of Science“

This brief overview of scientific images that venture far into the visual art realm raises some strikes questions and provides many points of departure for further study. Of chief interest to me was the image “c. instagram”. It is quite exciting to see that life’s daily, normal activities, in this case the basic clumping of worms and their response to food, can create something of such compositional profundity.  Adding to the excitement of the image for me is the fact that the researcher saw the appeal of applying a quick filter to the image. In my mind, this begins to develop a practical way in which an image created for a purely scientific purpose could be brought into the sector of the arts with such a slight change. Although her choice to do so was likely rushed and haphazard, it serves as a departure point to consider the idea that perhaps only the presentation of an image, and not its actual content or encoded meaning, is the dividing line between which images strike us as primarily scientific or artistic. On a still deeper level, I was inspired by the image to quickly read about these worms. I learned that they are often used to perform experiments in the molecular biology lab, and that they undergo a blue florescence when nearing death, a phenomena I think is almost as visually striking as the aforementioned image.

Image from Science Daily

I also found that these worms, and some related species, are currently being used as models to study genetics at the University of Oregon Phillips Lab

Another particularly interesting image was “Light Eddies” wherein neural systems were modeled with lasers. Though the science behind a neural network may be complex, I find the image to contain a sublimity that can speak to connectivity and emergent pattern on an artistic level, creating a deeply feeling in the viewer that could perhaps move them ever so slightly towards an understanding of the actual science of connectivity behind it, or at the very least spur someone’s interest in the particular scientific discipline.

The final question that lingers in my mind stems from the idea broached in the article-that unknown results can come from controlled experiments. If one of the primary reasons of pursuing visual art is the stirring of emotion in the viewer, is it possible that these controlled experiments with unknowable results stir an equal feeling of excitement and wonderment? If so, the traditional idea of art, specifically of performance art, could even be extended to the very set-up or implementation of scientific inquiry.

Image from Ned Kahn.com

Image from Buster Simpson.net 

Out of an extremely wide field of artists dealing with science and all the myriad questions it raises, I have chose the following two to focus more attention on:

Ned Kahn

Pros 

• His work connects to me on a primal level, because of its fascination with the elements.
• His work ranges from calming to exciting.
• His work resonates on a natural level displayed it displaying nature in a highly controlled, man-fashioned way.

Cons

• Understanding fluids and waves, which would add a lot to viewer experience, are often defined with complex science and underlying math.
• Often, his installations function as objects that inspire curiosity and no other direct outcome. While this is valuable, a case could be made against them for the use of resources and labour involved.

Buster Simpson

Pros

• He creates beautiful, sculptural objects.
• He  illustrates direct links between parts of nature.
• There are a few projects that make direct environmental statements.

Cons

• His ideas are interesting, but usually implemented on a smaller scale than some artists.
• The science component of his projects is often not terrible complex.
• His work is certainly striking, but when viewed solely as images his work is not always as unique as other artists I researched.