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.

1st BIG experiment

What I Did:

Time Calendar:
2 hours sketching gross and mean faces (the darkest and oddest I could make them)
1 hour breaking down my project into different categories for evaluation
1 hour thinking of a big experiment to incorporate all of these categories
11 hours making large face, vomit, and attaching cups

(sorry about the rotation of the images)

I have a place planned to put it in the art school and got my installation form signed by Mark but could not get a hold of Peter in order to put up my face, so I will do it within the next few days. So look out for it.


What I Accomplished/ Discovered/ Encountered:


This week, realized that some of my faces were just too happy to be thought provoking. So I went deeper and darker and tried to make them the most grotesque that I could. I then realized that I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with these faces and I still wasn't set on the entire theme of my project. So I broke my project down into 3 categories of what I wanted it to represent. 1) Faces: I have been wanting to do this the whole time. They are what I really enjoy doing and I feel that I am skilled in creating them. 2) Public art: This enables me to show off my work in public, which is scary for me because I am a very shy person. But it is also exciting because it is always fun to do something daring and then get good results in the end. 3) Environmental Issues: I respect this kind of artwork most. Sustainability is a huge issue and I would love to create things that not only have aesthetic value, but also have a good message. So here I have the 1)what, 2)how, and 3)why, but integrating these things is a lot more difficult than I thought. This is when I talked to Hannah and Stephanie and got my idea for the large face vomiting up used coffee cups. I think the excessive use of paper coffee cups is my biggest pet peeve around campus, because I see it so so often and each time it builds my anger and my need to say something about it. I believe my big vomiting face (Yeah. That sounds weird.) incorporates all of my ideas into an interesting piece of work, and it is exciting to finally figure out something that actually works fairly well. And it looks just how I envisioned it, I just think I need to add some more cups to get a bigger effect, possibly.

I didn't look at any other artists this week, I just tried to focus on my own goal and come up with an original idea that incorporated everything that I wanted it to.


What I Think I Should Do Next Week:

First, I will put up my face as soon as possible. Then, I will complete another big experiment that incorporates my ideas and probably install it in the art school as well.

One site, multiple faces

This week, I took on the assignment that I was told to try, which was to pick one site or object and to put as many different types faces and ways that people could intervene with the faces as I could. I also took a step back and tried to figure out just what it is about material objects and facial expressions/emotions that I find so fascinating.

What I Did:

Time Calendar:
5 hours writing and completing grant application
3.5 hours thinking of one site, multiple faces, and then sketching ideas and drawing faces
.5 hours putting up faces and documenting
2 hours revising my main point: Why emotions and material objects?
1 hour researching artists

Sometimes the faces were blatant...

 And sometimes you could not see them...

until you got close up.

Others didn't necessarily make any sense on the object, but were merely there for a surprise around the corner.

What I Accomplished/Discovered/Encountered:

After completing the faces the on drinking fountain, I realized that I needed to figure out what certain objects I wanted to personify and why I wanted to do this. What is it about material culture and facial expressions/emotions that I find so interesting? I realized I needed to do this because I felt that my project was getting into a realm of which I did not know exactly how to describe it, and things were going in a bunch of different directions. I also didn't know exactly why I was doing what I was doing. After sitting down and figuring these things out, I came to a satisfying conclusion that the thing that interests me the most about material objects is how much Americans take them for granted. So much energy has gone into the production and distribution of every object, but we don't see (or care) about this. I want to focus on materials that I see everyday being used and thrown away excessively. Things like coffee cups, water bottles, napkins, and plastic and paper bags are constantly being used excessively and it really bothers me to see this happen so frequently around me. When people can easily bring their own mugs for coffee, bottles for water, bags for groceries, and just take less napkins (you know you're not going to need 5 for one sandwich), it makes me question why everybody doesn't do this. Therefore, I want to get this message and reminder across to the public to use and waste less.

I also think that using faces with facial expressions can really make this message even more powerful than any words can for a number of reasons. First, people can instantly relate to facial expressions, and they can relate to them better than with words. With being able to relate to them, people may consciously or subconsciously respect the objects more. Second, people see words making messages all the time, but rarely do they see faces making messages, which can come as a surprise and make them remember the object and message more. Third, they have to figure out why these faces are on certain objects; it's not spelled out for them. This figuring it out will have them think about it more, and I think this will have a lasting impression.

After the critique of my drinking fountain, I got some feedback that I really agree with. A lot of my faces are too happy and cartoon-ish to make a real impact on how people view my art. Also some of the faces are not integrated enough with the object, such as the faces on the wall. I think my faces can and should be somewhat humorous, but I think I need to go for a darker humor; one that isn't so cutesy. I want people to have strong reactions so that they are impacted in some way, and I do not think this will happen as much as I want with the faces I made for the drinking fountain.

After researching artists who use trash in their work, I found 2 artists who make very cool and intense pieces. They make people out of trash, but in different ways.  The first is making them from a silhouette and the second just makes them out of trash, but then puts hundreds of them in very public spaces. They both give me this gross sense of the waste that people produce and how trash can define certain people, or a culture.

                                   "Dirty White Trash", 1998, Tim Noble and Sue Webster

               "Trash Man", 1996, HA Schult      Barcelona, 2007

What I Think I Should Do Next:

I made a quick sketch of what faces I want to put on a trash can, but I want to actually do this with a real trash can. I want to make really gross and disturbing faces that will get a lot of reactions from people. I want to push the boundaries of my faces, maybe even go off the edge of where I should be when I am putting these out in public.

Pillows, wood, and Borders

This week, I used different materials on which to put my faces according to their sites, along with finally putting my face onto the Borders window.

What I Did:

Time Calendar:
2.5 hours researching public artists and watching "Beautiful Losers"
.5 hours talking with my material culture professor about my project
1 hour shopping for and gathering pillows, cloth, wood, and attachments
2 hours drawing on different kinds of cloth with Sharpie
4 hours drawing on wood
1.5 hours drawing on pillows
1.5 hours putting up all the faces and and documenting
1 hour thinking of one site with many possible faces 

What I Accomplished/ Discovered/ Encountered

I tried to go out and put different faces on different sites that I had that I thought would make a good statement. Then I tried to discover which face and object related to what I want to do with my project the most. My favorite face that I put up was the sad face on Borders. I think it made the biggest statement, left people thinking about it for a while, and attracted the most attention because it was in the most public location and I left it up for the longest amount of time. More than one person in the art school today came up to me and told me that they saw it. I am actually going to see how long it stays up before someone takes it down.

I really liked the way that the couch pillows and the tree looked, but I do not think that people got as much of a reaction from them. Even though I had statements that I was making with them (that people don't notice and appreciate Michigan trees in the fall enough, and that students need to get sleep whenever and wherever they can), I am wondering if people just saw these faces, thought they were funny, and then quickly forgot about them.

Aside from creating my faces on objects, I also researched more public artists that James told me about and watched the documentary "Beautiful Losers" which is about mainly graffiti artists. I really like how a lot of Margaret Kilgallen's work includes images of women along with just one word of text that says a lot. Another artist that I came across was Vinchen, whose work relates more to graffiti. He makes a lot of good statements in his work that I agree with and I think it would be fun to also touch on these subjects.

                                           some of Margaret Kilgallen's work

                                           Vinchen, Live With It

                                               Vinchen, Bargain Heart Attack

                                                  Vinchen, Ivy

Vinchen's Ivy inspired me to do my tree face.

I talked to my material culture professor, but she is only filling in for the regular material culture professor who is on sabbatical, so I only got a few ideas from the conversation. She mainly focuses on food and mass media, which are important things to our culture because we experience them everyday. These are some things that could be interesting to focus on in my work as well. She also suggested that I consider doing a video documentary on the faces out in public and their reactions. I had always thought that I was just going to take pictures, but recording my process and reactions with video could be interesting and reflect even more information than I could get with just pictures.


What I Think I Should Do Next

As suggested during my critique, I will try to focus on one object and think of as many ways to formulate emotions about that object as I can. I will think about different ways that viewers can intervene or interact with the faces and object, and I will think about how subtle and how blatant I can make the faces on the object.

graffiti, other art, and ideas for display

This week I displayed some more faces, looked more at graffiti artists, along with other related artists, and expanded my ideas for display.

What I Did:

Time Calendar:
1.5 hours putting magnetic nauseated face on The Cube and recording reactions
3.5 hours making Saran wrap nauseated face, putting it on my glass apartment door, and recording reactions
1.5 hours watching Exit Through the Gift Shop
1 hour making a list of sites to put my faces and materials and attachments to use
2 hours researching artists

                                                          Shepard Fairey, Obey Giant

                                           Jeff Koons, Balloon Dog (Blue)

                                                    Jeff Koons, Basketball

                                                    Jeff Koons, Hoover Celebrity III

Overall, this week was a success. Even though I had some issues that kept me a little shy from accomplishing the required 10 hours of work, I still made some progress that will really help me in my IP journey.

What I Accomplished/Discovered/Encountered: 

Notes about The Cube are listed in my last blog entry, but the Saran wrap nauseated face is new. It probably got the most reactions from people, because it was seen by a lot of drunk college students. I live right next Backroom Pizza, which accumulates a line of people until 4 am, and I left the face on my door all weekend. Especially at night when it's dark outside, but the light shines on the inside of the door, the face is illuminated and can be seen much better than during the daytime. There was a lot of laughter and many people wondered if I drew the face directly onto the door.

I had never seen Exit Through the Gift Shop before, but graffiti has been a real interest to me lately, so I rented the documentary and watched it this weekend. It is a great film and I came to find out many different graffiti artists out there along with different reasons for why they are doing what they're doing. Some artists don't even really know why they are putting up what they are, but it is just the thrill from the act of tagging public things that makes them do it. Of course, there are some great statements that some artists make too. I always thought that graffiti artists like to remain anonymous, but some actually want people to know who they are. Shepard Fairey was who I connected with the most in the film. His Obey Giant stickers and graffiti have similarities to my faces, and I like this quote from him: "The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker."

Jeff Koons is another artist that I looked at that has similar messages in his work about making the viewer think differently about the material object. His Balloon Dog piece is a lot larger and made out of metal instead of an actual balloon, the Basketball piece is made out bronze, and Hoover celebrity III is brought into a different light by literally putting a light behind it and hanging it on the wall. Especially with his Balloon dog, his work reminds me of Claes Oldenburg.

I did not know much about Marianetta Porter, but when I talked to her on Tuesday, I got a lot of good insight for my project. I ended up talking with her for an entire hour. Her work includes African American history and culture, but what relates a lot to my project is that she also works with what is revealed and concealed in African American material culture. She really liked my idea of having my faces on site specific objects that say something about the object. She suggested that I make huge lists of every site to put my face and every material and attachment that I could think of. Then, connect the dots with the best material and attachment for each site, and after going out and doing all of these things, I will have a better sense of what I like to do and what I want my faces to say. Here are some of my ideas:

Sites:
bike racks, bar bathroom mirrors, all my apartment windows, bridges, trees, fire hydrants, telephone poles, A&D couches, windows and stairwells, mailboxes, bus stops, public computers, construction sites, and billboards

Materials:
paper, Saran wrap, cloth such as denim, cotton, and silk, newspaper, pillows, wood, glass, hard plastic

Attachments:
magnets, static cling, velcro, safety pins, tape, glue, stitching, poster putty, nails

What I Think I Will Do Next:

I will use some of my materials and attachments to make at least 2 faces that I can put up in as many different places as I can.

The Cube

Reactions from The Cube:

I got many reactions after so many people came to visit The Cube today. Immediately when I put the face on it, a group of people came up, realized that you could move the face around, and made the eyebrows into a mustache. I left it like that for a while, but then decided to change it back into eyebrows. To my surprise, a minute later, another group of people turned them back into a mustache... Interesting. Many people took pictures of it and with it. There was also a tour that went on, which was really funny because the the tour guide was not expecting to see the face,  and when he spun the Cube around all the people in the tour were very confused about it.

I was sad to see that after I turned my back for about 5 minutes, a group of people stole my eyebrows. Really? Just the eyebrows? I didn't get it. So there are good and bad things about making my magnetic facial features. It's good that people can interact with the art, and I can take it down if anybody has a problem with it. But then again, people can steal them if I leave them up without monitoring them at all times.

 This is a picture that Rebecca Tulis found on Facebook and sent me. This is after another group turned the eyebrows into a mustache.