Well I have come to the conclusion that Blogging isn't so bad, if you relate it to keeping visual diary of your life that your kids can read. I think that in an art school setting it is a good resource for keeping things up to date and could be used as a researching tool for students. Yet, I still contest that their are better ways to keep children informed about the art world. A Facebook page would serve essentially the same purpose and would be far more accessible to students. Plus Blogging consistently is a lot of work/time/effort that I am always running short of, which is why this marathon sprint to the finish is occurring.
My advice for future Non-Traditional Canon classes would be to not use the Blog. It is not an effective means of critique, not useful in an way to the learning process, and it felt like chore or busy work. I loathe busy work, we are all far to busy to be burdened with busy work.
Also, shorten the class. As art students we are used to 3 hour blocks but 6 hours is ridiculous! When I tell people on campus that I have a 6 hour class they look at me like I have been through the Spanish inquisition. A shorter class period would have been a welcomed change!
Thanks Hsiao-Ping, not sure if you are actually going to read all this but....
Thursday
Art Student Owl
Meme's are a part of culture for better or for worse. Art Student Owl is no exception, and his image has been appearing all over campus recently and they are somewhat amusing. While it is no Ermahgerd girl
or Forever Alone
but is still pretty funny. Keep up the good work art students of Calder!
Santiago Sierra and why he is not a wanker.
While looking at another blog (I know, sad right...) I found a piece on Santiago Sierra and artist whom I admire for his...for lack of a better term...balls. His work cannot be dismissed as mere insensitivity to the disenfranchised and debased, but as pure genius. His work is political in nature, and he is full recognition of what he does and what work like his makes him....the devil.
This is where the pure genius part comes in, he is purposely taking on the role of the devil. He fully expects there to be backlash against his work and he takes full responsibility for it. The simple fact that he can tattoo a line on junkies who have been compensated with enough money to buy the drug of their choice, shows that he is thinking of the politics involved and understands the risks.
Pure Genius
This is where the pure genius part comes in, he is purposely taking on the role of the devil. He fully expects there to be backlash against his work and he takes full responsibility for it. The simple fact that he can tattoo a line on junkies who have been compensated with enough money to buy the drug of their choice, shows that he is thinking of the politics involved and understands the risks.
Pure Genius
How I work...
It is amazing to me how much better I preform in class when I am truly interested in what I am looking at. I have always been like this, ever since I can remember. Frequently my parents would leave teacher confrences with these types of statements from my teachers
"Mark is capable of doing this, he is just disinterested in it."
and the proverbial
"He is smart enough, just not motivated enough."
Maybe I am too independent, or maybe I am selfish and shallow, either may be true but I do know I work way better when I am challenged and interested in the subject matter. This fact about myself has manifested itself in two ways this semester.
1. My paintings at the beginning of the semester were complete crap. I just could not get the hang of it, all this mushy paint on paper. It was the first time I can remember that I was truly lost in the art world. I can usually bullshit my way through some art stuff relying on innate abilities to see me through, but with painting bullshit doesn't work, and bullshit looks just like it's name on canvas. For our last painting we got to make our own still life's, and viola my painting turned out decent! I just needed the change in subject matter, and it made all the difference. While DaVinci, Michelangelo, or Ofili (Virgin Mary covered in dung) have nothing to fear from me, I was pleased by the result.
2. I need a challenge. Without it I think what is the point? I need to pushed, and pushed further until I get pissed, and then push again. Some of my best work was done under duress, and were probably over extensions of my resources, but they turned out great. Take my video "A Prison Fairy Tale" I decided to make a video that was 8 minutes long, that was synched, had meaning and involved a lot of different clips. Also I did this video two days before it was due. I could have made something simple, done something that would have garnered a good grade but was uninspired, and I would not have been satisfied with it. This has been my downfall in the class that this blog is for. I basically had already had all the projects in Time Studio and CPS and the challenge had gone out of these projects for me. I was not going to turn in something I did not pour myself into wholeheartedly. It would not feel right.
"Mark is capable of doing this, he is just disinterested in it."
and the proverbial
"He is smart enough, just not motivated enough."
Maybe I am too independent, or maybe I am selfish and shallow, either may be true but I do know I work way better when I am challenged and interested in the subject matter. This fact about myself has manifested itself in two ways this semester.
1. My paintings at the beginning of the semester were complete crap. I just could not get the hang of it, all this mushy paint on paper. It was the first time I can remember that I was truly lost in the art world. I can usually bullshit my way through some art stuff relying on innate abilities to see me through, but with painting bullshit doesn't work, and bullshit looks just like it's name on canvas. For our last painting we got to make our own still life's, and viola my painting turned out decent! I just needed the change in subject matter, and it made all the difference. While DaVinci, Michelangelo, or Ofili (Virgin Mary covered in dung) have nothing to fear from me, I was pleased by the result.2. I need a challenge. Without it I think what is the point? I need to pushed, and pushed further until I get pissed, and then push again. Some of my best work was done under duress, and were probably over extensions of my resources, but they turned out great. Take my video "A Prison Fairy Tale" I decided to make a video that was 8 minutes long, that was synched, had meaning and involved a lot of different clips. Also I did this video two days before it was due. I could have made something simple, done something that would have garnered a good grade but was uninspired, and I would not have been satisfied with it. This has been my downfall in the class that this blog is for. I basically had already had all the projects in Time Studio and CPS and the challenge had gone out of these projects for me. I was not going to turn in something I did not pour myself into wholeheartedly. It would not feel right.
Education vs. Art Education
All semester long I have struggled with why as an Art educator do I need to take ALL the Education classes? Some of the classes I understand as they pertain to an art classroom as well as a general education classroom, such as Classroom Management, and Child Development. Yet some of the classes are a complete and utter waste of time.
Over the summer I took an Assessment class, which basically told me how to write tests and quizzes. While this may be useful to an English teacher, it helped me realize that it was pointless for me. When I asked how to grade or assess something subjective as a piece of artwork. My instructor gave me the basic rhetoric, of comparison, general confusion as to the question and looking at the content standards. The content standards for art in the state of Michigan are a complete joke, so they are useless. Comparison between students only differentiates skill levels, and the confusion should be clear.
Why can they not create classes that teach us all these things within an art ciriculum? I know we have to take specialized classes that allows us to be art teachers but why must I double up on everything. Do I really need a Technology in the Classroom class when I have had Non-Traditional canon? Plainly it's bullshit.
This doubling up on everything, makes Art ed one of the toughest majors on campus. Super frustrating, I feel like I have been in school forever!
Over the summer I took an Assessment class, which basically told me how to write tests and quizzes. While this may be useful to an English teacher, it helped me realize that it was pointless for me. When I asked how to grade or assess something subjective as a piece of artwork. My instructor gave me the basic rhetoric, of comparison, general confusion as to the question and looking at the content standards. The content standards for art in the state of Michigan are a complete joke, so they are useless. Comparison between students only differentiates skill levels, and the confusion should be clear.
Why can they not create classes that teach us all these things within an art ciriculum? I know we have to take specialized classes that allows us to be art teachers but why must I double up on everything. Do I really need a Technology in the Classroom class when I have had Non-Traditional canon? Plainly it's bullshit.
This doubling up on everything, makes Art ed one of the toughest majors on campus. Super frustrating, I feel like I have been in school forever!
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
When I first witnessed Tim and Eric, I thought to myself. "This is stupid, how can this be on Television." Yet it slowly grew on me, and I was locked with Tim and Eric forever.
The show itself contains some of the most inane insane banter, graphic images, amateurish camera shots, and techno 80's backdrops, that it cannot help but be funny. Trying to describe what the show is like is a lesson in futility.
My wife thinks that the show is pointless, stupid and immature, and I agree with her and I tell her frequently that's why I love this show! I have yet to see the movie, as I am only allowed to watch it when my wife is asleep, out of town, or clinically dead, but if it is anything like the show I am sure it will be AWESOME!
Freddie
Many years ago my friends, who are all equally crazy, decided to make up a person. Where we got this idea I do not know, all I do know is that alcohol was probably involved and a lot of air conditioning.
Freddie is a fictional person who was born on July 17, 1976 so he is older than all of us. I think at some point he became French (not born French, just BECAME French), and he is super arrogant. He owns a Porsche and is generally loved and loathed all at the same time. Some sample comments made to Freddie are:
Happy Birthday you stupid moron!!!! I hope you have the worst birthday ever, and somehow get run over by your own Porsche!!!! YOU SUCK!
I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU!!!!!
but there are moments where he is loved by us:
July 17th brought us one of the greatest men to live!! Happy birthday buddy. Sucks we can't celebrate together with some hot tamales...
and
Freddie--what are you and I doing for the Holidays?! (Other than a handful of blonde hookers that is?)
I think a psychologist would have a field day with my little clique. We have frequently created these alter ego's to illicit our rage, and at the same time it became a gigantic inside joke that snowballed out of control. Yet I think Freddie embodies us as a collective and I think it is important to keep imagining and not lock your mind into real and unreal. I think as an educator we lose sight of that sometimes, we focus solely on what is tangible, and forget that an imagination is just as important if not more so that the physical realm.
Oh yeah Freddie has a dad:
Happy Birthday you stupid moron!!!! I hope you have the worst birthday ever, and somehow get run over by your own Porsche!!!! YOU SUCK!
I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU!!!!!
but there are moments where he is loved by us:
July 17th brought us one of the greatest men to live!! Happy birthday buddy. Sucks we can't celebrate together with some hot tamales...
and
Freddie--what are you and I doing for the Holidays?! (Other than a handful of blonde hookers that is?)
I think a psychologist would have a field day with my little clique. We have frequently created these alter ego's to illicit our rage, and at the same time it became a gigantic inside joke that snowballed out of control. Yet I think Freddie embodies us as a collective and I think it is important to keep imagining and not lock your mind into real and unreal. I think as an educator we lose sight of that sometimes, we focus solely on what is tangible, and forget that an imagination is just as important if not more so that the physical realm.
Oh yeah Freddie has a dad:
Taylor Mail
So my wife consistently tortures me with Taylor Mali videos. According to his website this is his introduction:
“Our featured reader is New York City performance poet Taylor Mali, one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement and one of the original poets to appear on the HBO series “Def Poetry Jam.” A four-time National Poetry Slam champion, Mali is the author of two collections of poetry and, most recently, a book of essays called “What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World.”
In April of 2012, Mali completed a 12-year project of convincing 1,000 people to become teachers and marked the occasion by donating 12 inches of his hair to the American Cancer Society. Once the official voiceover on all Burger King commercials for radio and television, Taylor Mali has narrated several books on tape. He has also taught college, high school, and middle school; and once, in a single SCRABBLE game, earned a score of 581! Please help me welcome a true advocate for teachers, Taylor Mali.”His poetry is interesting, comical and he certainly does love teachers which is always a bonus. So now I will pass my tortured existence on to you (it's not so bad really)
What Teachers Make
The The Impotence of Proof-Reading
Year in Review
My Year in Review According to Facebook
Wow! When you pile all that stuff up, it looks even more insane than I remember it.
Wow! When you pile all that stuff up, it looks even more insane than I remember it.
I have no Alma Mater
 | |||
| FAC Class of 1998, also I miss the shoes I am wearing |
I guess it always was a church first and foremost but it still saddens me that my school is no longer there.
So now I will begin a long reminiscent wandering about FAC, and yes I still wish I was in high school.
First Assembly of God (Do not do the acronym for that) or First Assembly Christian was my high school, and I loved it, but most of all I loved that gym.
I learned about on the line up the line, got fouled super hard by Perry Lewis in there and watched cliff alter scores. I watched James Paul Horn call his own number 6+ in a row, made a lot of friends in that gym, held Michigan Lutheran to zero points for a quarter, and dunked for the first time. I watched someone run into a wall, broke my hand, and had 24 rebounds in that gym. I made lifelong friends in that gym, learned about Jesus, life, girls and college locker rooms in that gym. Goodbye FAC gym, you will be missed, you formed the basis for some of the greatest memory I have about FAC.
The Off Shop
 |
| Civic Studio |
Civic studio is an applied experimental studio project started in 1999. It operates as a public project and is organized as a course in the Art and Design Department at Grand Valley State University.
It is the ultimate in strange. It mixes philosophy, civic mindless, volunteerism, and art all in one big mash that is often hard to swallow and tastes bitter and sweet simultaneously.
This class has made me feel lost, beaten down, rejected, stupefied and down right angry. There was a period in the beginning where my bones ached to create some type of lasting public art, but that was quickly replaced by a desire to do nothing which in turn became a lack of motivation which morphed into some semblance of respectability.
I have never had a class that I struggled with more than Civic Studio (well Teaching the Non-Traditional Canon is a close second for different reasons) it was so alien and the concepts were so heavy that I often just relegated myself to not thinking about it.
While I struggled others thrived. Those far more culturally sensitive than I loved the class and their touch was soon seen everywhere. I kept wanting to rock the boat and blow up this concept of doing good for the community through whatever means necessary. Every project needed to be put through the gauntlet of committee opinion and soon was wheedled down to nothing. The list of scraped projects is lengthy and a lot of them were insightful but not "good" for the community.
This class is not for everyone, but my experience was meaningful in the end. It taught me never to become involved in committee based art-making.
A complete list of all project ideas for Fall 2012 Civic Studio.
- Baking and serving bread
- Bread Machine / Workshops
- Lint Rolled Ground Prints
- Sidewalk talks
- Recipe share
- Other Way Ministries listening project
- Sunday Soup inspired project
- Recording and displaying dispatch data in neighborhood
- Map of neighborhood using found string
- Add images onto local takeout menus
- Bakery font project
- Playing recordings of local church sermons
- Designs for local bars
- "This is not a bakery" vinyl on the front of the building
- Mapping bricks made by a local bricklayer
- Holistic Gymnasium
- Rooftop Garden
- Exterior text projections dealing with gentrification
- Mobile meeting places
- Playing with different furniture arrangements in the storefront
- Adding found furniture into storefront
- Documentary of locals' histories
- Sharing stories at an open mic event
- Community sketchbook
- Community timeline on storefront windows
- Checkerboard in front of bakery
- Free popcorn and conversation
- Community Radio
- Knowledge share projects
- Alternative economic inquiries (timebanks, alternate currency)
- Embroidered napkin dinner
- Ethnic soup potluck
- Recording sounds from animals in the bakery
- Community projects using leftover doughnut boxes
- Taking pictures of locals and incorporating them into a project
- Youth workshops
- Community quilts
- Mobile dishwashing project
- Recording neighborhood sounds
- Mobile Simon Says game
- Costume Walk
- Zine projects
- Games with a pool table
- InConvenience store
- Hat project
- Tiny House Project
- Bread vs Doughnuts projection
- Food Co-Op/Food Pantry
- Mapping transitional spaces in neighborhood
- Translating gentrification into an abstract art medium
- Bread clay
- 3d map
- American Bread Company Memorial
- Gentrification first aid kit
Ideas utilizing the loading dock space:
- Movie Theatre
- Bunk House
- Hammocks
- Found furniture
- Bike repair stations
- Displaying a fishing boat and then displaying a sail boat
- Displaying a hipster bike and then displaying a modified low-rider bike
Shameless plug for Leniency
I recently did a project that did not exactly meet the requirements set forth by my instructor. In this assignment we were supposed to use our own footage to make a 1-2 minute video. After shooting a lot of video, going through three separate ideas, and scraping all of my own footage I decided to do something far more interesting to me. I created a video using found footage that I felt far more comfortable with. I think the video is compelling and interesting, even though it did not meet the requirements for the assignment.
This got me thinking about why we set such rigid requirements for students? Does it really matter what medium was used, or what subject matter was displayed? Should we be more concerned about the connection to their own work or what this work is saying? In my art education department they are constantly preaching the "Big Idea" concept, isn't that what we should be concerned about?
Sure I could have made a clunky, nondescript video that was uninspired and not really what I wanted to do, but I felt that methodology was destructive to my creative process.
Most of my classmates backed me up (Thank you guys since you are probably the only people subscribed to this blog) which was appreciated.
I do not know the grade I will receive for this project, regardless I like my video and I know it will stand up to the scrutiny of an art review process far better than what I was required to do.
The Harbingers
This got me thinking about why we set such rigid requirements for students? Does it really matter what medium was used, or what subject matter was displayed? Should we be more concerned about the connection to their own work or what this work is saying? In my art education department they are constantly preaching the "Big Idea" concept, isn't that what we should be concerned about?
Sure I could have made a clunky, nondescript video that was uninspired and not really what I wanted to do, but I felt that methodology was destructive to my creative process.
Most of my classmates backed me up (Thank you guys since you are probably the only people subscribed to this blog) which was appreciated.
I do not know the grade I will receive for this project, regardless I like my video and I know it will stand up to the scrutiny of an art review process far better than what I was required to do.
Wednesday
Adult Swim
 |
| Ichigo |
I had my staples that I thoroughly enjoyed, Aqua Teen Hunger Force (back when it was good), Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job (Renaissance men and subject of a future blog), Robot Chicken, etc.
What I didn't like at first was all the weird Anime programs that got re-dubbed in English. Full Metal Alchemist, Bleach, and Inuyasha, just to name a few. When these program would come on I would switch to playing video games. They were not interesting to me, and most of all confusing. (Inuyasha is a half demon that falls in love with a teenage girl, if that's not weird enough then watch Full Metal Alchemist where two young brothers {Edward is missing an arm that was replaced by another teenager with metal Auto-mail, and Alric is a disembodied soul in a suite of armor} try to bring their dead mother back with equivalent exchange.) Weird huh?
Yet one fateful night I realized that these programs were confusing because I did not watch them from the beginning, I knew nothing of the back story. It just so happened that Adult Swim cycled all these Anime's in loops starting over after a while, and I caught the very first episode of Bleach and I was hooked.
I got into the characters and fell in love with the story and especially the swords, each with unique capabilities weakness and other mess. I highly recommend Bleach and Full Metal Alchemist, they are corny and times but they are addictive.
Blogging...or why I would rather make a website.
Blogging
I will be the first to admit that I think the idea of Blogging is a waste of time. In a world where we are constantly connected via every social network available, creating a blog seems redundant. I seldom find things on the internet interesting enough to write a full blog about them. As you can tell, I am currently writing a blog, but it is under duress. Grades and the like dictate my current course of action.
This spectacle of blogging is a surreal thing, that carries no real substance. I could never use a quoted blog in a collegiate paper, and if I want to know what someone is thinking about I will ask them. I would have much rather created a website, at least that is culturally interesting, relevant and useful. This is a gigantic waste of energy.
I will also admit that I am trying to make up for 16 weeks of blogs in a couple of days, this will no doubt temper my attitude towards blogging and not in a good way. So thus I begin my "blog" and I will try to make it meaningful but if it degrades into offhanded comments about sea squids and puppies please let me know.
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