Getting ready for my December Review

I have been chugging along and I feel like I am learning more each week and getting closer to finding out how to execute my final project.

The past week I have stayed in one specific site where I am creating a few projects. It happens to be outside of my apartment, where trash accumulates often.

Here are some images of what my latest projects have been...

view from the sidewalk

view from inside my apartment

chalk arm underneath the face

throwing away a paper plate (many accumulate around this pizza place area)

sad face made from trash

from far away it just looks like plain litter

but from the right angles and when you get closer, you are more able to see the face.

With these experiments around my apartment, I have been trying to create a few ways to intervene with the people surrounding it. Many people walk by here everyday and see the litter and think nothing of it, or they are the people actually littering up the sidewalk. I am trying to think of creative ways in which people will actually stop and think about their actions that they do everyday. I want my projects to make sense, but I want them to be intriguing enough that it actually makes them think about it, and then ultimately stop littering in this area.

I think I am getting closer to combing my ideas into a cohesive project, but I don't think it is quite where I want it to be. I want my projects to be more in-your-face, but right now, they're not quite there. Hopefully after December Review, I can get a little more help with actualizing my idea.

2 other big ideas

Since I started my project, I have been a little discouraged finding a good place to put my pieces and thinking of the best content in which to evoke a reaction of curiosity and intrigue, but ultimately showing the viewers my point behind my work. The past two weeks, I have tried to combat these issues, but I am still not getting the results that I want.


What I Did:

Time Calendar:
1 hour putting up face in A&D building
2 hours researching artists and watching "Bomb It" (a graffiti documentary)
1 hour coming up with more projects
5 hours working on sticker art
6 hours starting my face on Flex-O-Glass

My first idea was to make stickers on stickerjunkie.com, which I could put in hundreds of different places easily.
My second idea was to use plastic sheets used for window insulation on which to draw a face and install them either on my windows at home, or a large window in Pierpont Commons.
I also thought about experimenting with spray paint in places that I know people won't see me such as under the railroad bridge in the Arb. Since I have never used spray paint before and all the graffiti documentaries and artists I've seen recently use this technique, it has urged me to try it. I am not sure if anything will come of it, but it sounds exciting.

sticker graphic

view of my apartment

from inside my apartment

 

What I Accomplished/ Discovered/ Encountered:

After having my individual meeting, it was brought to my attention that I still wasn't getting site-specific enough with the projects that I have accomplished. And the sticker idea wasn't creative enough.
I had been trying to pick a site and then creating my face because of that site, but I always had a specific face and way to make that face in mind beforehand that I assumed I would use.

I really need to try to pick a site, and then work from there. I have looked at some site-specific graffiti, and I think it has a look that I strive to accomplish in my work. The picture below is very much like another picture I posted previously with a face peeking out from ivy hair, but this art goes even further with the idea of being site-specific. You need to look from a certain angle in order to see the full picture, which is sprawled across a wall, a sidewalk, and a brick road.

What I Plan to do for Next Week:
I picked one site, which is right outside my apartment, and I am going to experiment as much as I can in this area. I live in a very populated area right next to a pizza place (which I previously mentioned) and trash seems to accumulate a lot right outside my door. With this trash, I will come up with creative ways to show this area in a different light. I want to let passer-bys come to the realization that busy streets do not have to be littered and we do not have to take the paper plates, paper cups, napkins, and plastic bags that are always free and offered to us.
 I will begin by putting a throwing up face on my three windows, which will have actual trash coming out of its mouth and outside the window. I just bought a huge roll of Flex-O-Glass that will allow me to draw my face huge and have a seamless finish, unlike the small sheets of plastic wrap I used previously.
With my remaining time I will experiment more with the area after really observing the relationship of the place with the trash and the people around it.

What I Plan to do for December Consultation:

I want to have at least 6 different experiments to be able to show the professors at my consultation.