performance art piece

This is my performance art piece. The topic we were assigned was to create a performance art piece that related our university major. My major being math, this was very difficult to do. I had many ideas of things that I wanted to perform however could not find a way they related to math. Most of the ideas that I created were along the lines of technology or communications. Both of which I hate, by the way!

However, I thought that by going around a public area performing my art by allowing the users to be interactive with my piece would be a great idea since most math people are quite sheltered. Santiago even made this point that math people are usually alone working on paperwork, computers, or reading. This is very true, as I personally love to be alone and don't like being bothered my others or modern technology. What I love about math is that there is a very set in stone system of how things work. These ideas will never change, they may be applied in different aspects however the rules of physics don't change.

This performance was very nerve racking. I was so afraid to do this because I do not like being out in public being the center of attention. But I had my friend come with me and together we made the project fun. We asked people who were either running, walking, or biking down bayshore if they would like to participate in my art project. They were asked to make anything they wanted on my poster with the paint provided and a sponge.

A lot of people did not want to participate, most likely because they do not like being bothered while they are working out. Which is understandable, if I were doing my daily run down bayshore I probably wouldn't have participated myself.

However, those who did participate were very interesting. They all had different reasons for drawing what they drew. Most of the items were very cliche hearts and squiggles. Some people chose the color of paint based on their moods at the time. One man said that he wanted to paint with blue because he was calm, and then yellow because he was excited. Those contradict each other which was interesting and I sort of laughed when he said this. He clearly didn't know what he was feeling.

But I liked that piece a lot, and I think that it came out interesting at the end. Here is a picture of the collaborative painting after about 15 people worked on it.

Difference Between a Commercial and Propaganda

A commercial is a t.v. or radio advertisement intended to make a profit whereas propaganda is information used to promote or publicize a particular point of view, typically political.

An example of a commercial is a Ford F-150 t.v. advertisement. During a t.v. advertisement, they are trying to sell you their truck. They want to make their truck stand out from the rest and be so irresistible that you have to go out tomorrow and look for their truck!

A classic example of propaganda is posters of Uncle Sam trying to recruit U.S. soldiers for the war. These posters are propaganda and not commercial because they are not trying to sell a product, they are trying to sell a point of view, or convey a political message.

After comparing the two definitions with examples, it is clear to me the difference between the two meanings. It is also clear to me how the two could be confused. I think the best way to look at the two definitions is by defining them with examples. 

Sheryl Oring "I Wish to Say"

Sheryl Oring "I wish to say" is a really neat project that she's working on. She goes around and tells people to write out something they would like to say to the president on a post card from all different areas. She then actually sends them to the president! These letters were collected in 2004 when George Bush was president.

Some letters that I liked are:

I liked this letter first because its from someone from Boston, MA which is the area that I am from. But I also liked it because it is like the guy is reaching out to the President saying please, please do not lie to us. We are the people and you are suppose to have our back. I think that these types of requests are very common from the public as we feel we have no control and the President, along with other members of congress do not fill the public into all the details that they know.












The second letter that I want to talk about is from Tampa Fl. This man, Jim, is addressing his hatred towards the President. Letting him know all of the things that he does that bothers him and those around him. I like how he addresses topics such as racism, sexual preference, religion and class. These are all issues that were problems during 2004, however still continue to be problems today. This man is from the south and for him to be disapproving of racism and sexual preference is refreshing because most people are set in their beliefs in the south.










Overall after reading through several letters from all over the United States during this time period, the letters all say the same thing. No one is happy with the government and how things are being run. People are needing a change and feel they need to express to the President that they do not agree with how things are being run right now.

Although I believe that there no way to make everyone happy, and what makes one person happy will make another upset. This makes being president a difficult job, when you have billions of people that you have to please. Knowing that I think that it is interesting to see so many people with the same attitudes. Now I was too young during the time to remember or even understand the negative implications of what George Bush did to the people, however I do remember my mother being quite upset at points.

Looking back now, it is commonly said that George Bush was the most hated president, and based off of these letters I certainly would agree!

Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara was an activist. He was the leader of the Dadaist in Europe at the time. He liked to express himself through art and through how he was feeling about violence and the war.
Tristan Tzara

His work closely resembled the image below:



Titled "Manifesto Dada" this piece was done by Tristan Tzara. The image itself has no meaning because its a man on top of what looks like a platform, in some foreign land. However what is important is the face of the man who clearly is being tortured. These are the kinds of art pieces that were being produced by artist during this time period.

Dada

The Dada is an art movement that evolved from the artist who feared WWI. These art pieces were not something that I could relate to and I found them to be confusing. If the Dada were around today I feel like they may be the outcast group of artist. Their works had no meaning, or if there was a meaning they were not meant to be known. These group of artist produced art that is to abstract for me to understand. I can better relate and appreciate are that is of realism.

Below are some images from the Dada movement:

Persuasive Games

Colorfall

Colorfall is the first game that I looked at and I thought that it was neat. It reminds me of a game I used to play when I was a child, about putting puzzle pieces together. This game however, is designed to challenge your brain. I think this is an excellent field because people are totally not thinking to their capacity because of all the technology. And from the way that the world is going, technology is not going to slow down anymore. Unless we want to have a bunch of robotic people walking around the US I think that those who created a way to use technology but still improve peoples minds are great. This is similar to the games in Lumosity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGDMqj7kwtQ

FatWorld

FatWorld is the best game on the list! So many people today are overweight and wonder why? Well it's simple! We live in a world were people are lazy and don't want to workout or eat right. Then they go to health professions asking for more medication to help them lose weight because they are too lazy to lose it on their own. It's a sad world that we live in and I can't believe that so many people would just lose themselves to this society. It is so sad/disturbing when I see people walking around 400+ lbs. This games gets people thinking straight and understanding the negative effects of bad health. I like that its a virtual world that you can be fit or be fat. Hopefully people apply these rules to their own real lives when they see how damaging poor health can be.

Reviews of Everyone's Art Project

I thought that everyone's project was really neat. One thing that I liked was that everyone's was different. And I think that is because I know that I was unsure about what you completely wanted, so I'm sure others felt the same way. Maybe this was the point so that we would all come up with different ideas. The ones that I liked the best were Holly's (the two face sides of college) and Gina's (the luffa skirt). I liked these two the best because Holly's had a ton of meaning and you can tell that she put a lot of thought into this project. She used elements of light and dark to make her statement and I really enjoyed that. I liked Gina's because it was a wearable element. That is something that I didn't even think to make, is a 3D project. But I liked that she also had a theme. And I was under the impression that we were to use parts of our body so I liked that she used a lot of different elements other than the body.

The projects that I didn't much care for were Andrea's and Bryan's. The only reason that I didn't enjoy theirs so much was because I know that they are both great artists and although the work wasn't "bad" I just expected more from them because I know that they have presented better work previously. Andrea's looked like she just did it before class, she only used 4 pictures and they were on a white canvas shirt. I did not feel like there was a lot of design behind that work, especially since she was making a piece of fashion. I didn't like Bryan's that much because the work was very sloppy, you could tell from the picture. I also didn't like that he only used on scanned image instead of multiple.