Art Essay 4

For my final art essay I decided to take an argumentative approach and tackle something which may or may not actually be art, graffiti. I was actually inspired by a film that we watched during my first year seminar, "Bomb It", which dealt with that question. Anyone else who took that class may remember the debate we had on whether graffiti counts as art, but now I would like to analyze graffiti from some the prespectives we have discussed in class. For the sake of length, I will not discuss the fact that graffiti is illegal and keep my arguments about it as aesthetically based as possible. Also I will limit my arguments to common graffiti found in the United States, as it does look different in Europe. So the question, is graffiti art or good art according to the criteria we have discussed in class?

Graffiti could be considered art from a formalist perspective. Formalist art could be described as art that is about itself, its own medium. Graffiti, is arguably about the location it is placed and how it is applied. Admittedly, this does not apply to political graffiti or name graffiti, but rather simple designs. Some graffiti artists, known as bombers, claim that their work is not actually graffiti if it is done on canvas in a studio. It is about marking a surface in a particular place. It could therefore be argued that it is about the surface, about itself.

Graffiti could also be considered art from an expressivist perspective. It can express the emotions of the artist. Many graffiti artists have what I see as a Romantic view of marking the world with their own names. Overall, a form of art that is about the artist.

Finally, one could argue that graffiti is art from a pragmatic perspective It is about how it influences those who encounter it. Whether these influences are a good thing or not is not the issue that I wish to discuss. This applies in particular to politically motivated graffiti, which makes a pragmatic statement.

I have never said that I find graffiti beautiful, in fact I do not find it beautiful, but the question I wish to tackle is could it if judged by the standards we have discussed be considered a work of art. I am not suggesting that anyone experiment with spray paint in the dead of night, but could we still call graffiti art?

-Laurel

Idea Essay #2: Formalism

Alright so as we know my peers and I tend to lean towards a romantic view of aesthetics. In the past few weeks, though, I am finding that when it comes to things that I am proficient in, I'm quite a formalist critic. Because of this I thought I'd take a peek at what the "less bad" parts of formalism are!
So my understanding of formalism is that the philosophy is based on the form of the piece. Meaning that its aesthetic value is based solely on its composition and its craftsmanship rather than any emotional or content-driven argument. In visual art this creates pieces with little to no storyline and creates paintings like this one by Mondrian:
As you can see this painting has no emotional content, it is simply a depiction of form (mainly the artistic qualities of line and color). While you might say that this is boring and pointless and uninteresting (I tend to think so), try applying formalist ideas to a more romantic piece. Think of the Mona Lisa:If Da Vinci hadn't had some sense of formalism, this painting would have absolutely no power at all. It would be sloppy, poorly painted, and uninteresting to look at. Formalism is what keeps "great art" great. Ironically formalist painters rely too heavily on a formalist aesthetic and simply paint lines, boxes, etc. ruining their potential greatness.

Formalism is necessary. It has always existed and is at the heart of great art of any kind (be it painting, poetry, film, etc.). My qualms with formalism come with extreme formalism that discredits anything that isn't purely based on technical mastery. To make truly great art one needs to be technical but they must also have pure artistic genius (usually enhanced by technical mastery).

In my opinion formalism isn't all bad (to anyone that has studied with professor Oakley, I would label him as a strongly formalist musician but his choirs sing beautiful music). I do think that extreme formalism is detrimental to art, but aspects of the formalist aesthetic are quite necessary for art. What do you guys think?

-Allijah

P.S. The views discussed in this blog post are my own and do not express the opinions of Da Vinci or Mondrian :-P

Idea Essay 2 - Collections

As I grow older, I become more and more regretful of the fact that I hadn't ever collected anything, and now I feel like it's too late. Even though I personally have never persistantly collected something, I know that people have a specific aesthetic drive to want to collect something they are passionate about. For some it may be books, for others it may be stamps, and so on. So what is it that drives people to collect the same things over and over again of a different variety? For one reason, it entirely appeals to a person's sense of aesthetics. Depending on one's taste, (whether it be "good" taste or not) it satisfies that person's need of constantly cultivating a passion. The thrill of the unknowningness of whether or not you can find that last baseball card from the 1970's that you've always wanted, or the last state in your U.S. quarter collection drives people's passions to collecting. Collecting allows people to tap into what they value and how they see things aesthetically, through allowing their sentimental vaules to tap into their passion. As the saying goes, "One man's trash is another's treasure," this holds true for many collectors. Because it depends solely on what someone sees as important or valuable to collect, which is derived from their aesthetic view, not everyone is interested in certain collections. Some people may know everything about every band in history because they collect records or CD's, and that is because they are aesthetically driven to music. Others may be extremely knowledgeable about bugs, because they collect them after they have died. Personally, I may find these things interesting, but I could never have ther perserverance of collecting countless records or the stomach to collect dead bugs. It all depends on a person's aesthetic view of value.

Art Essay 4 - Google Doodles

As I went on Google.com to research something for my last art essay, I took notice of the Google homepage. Instead of seeing the standard blue, green, yellow, and red letters that spell out "Google" above the search bar, there was an arrangement of a variety of birds on branches that supposedly spelled out "Google." This sparked my interest. I learned that these creations are called "Google Doodles" and are artistically created for holidays, anniversaries, and tributes to famous artists and scientists. In my research of this I found that there are so many creative designs that the Google logo has due to such events, and if you click on the creative logo, it will bring you to a Google page that provides links that give information on what it represents. Some logos offer an elaborate picture of whatever the logo of that day is. For Earth Day the background had an arrangement of varied greens and where "Google" was illuminated by a lighter green and curvy trees and branches intricately and beautifully spelled out the logo. It was also accompanied by friendly forest creatures such as beautiful birds. Another memorable one was for E. C. Segar's birthday, who was the creator of Popeye the Sailorman. For the "G" it was a picture of Popeye in a particular motion that looked like a "G" and the remaining letters were in comicstrip letters and colors with the black dots inside to make it seem like it was in newsprint. Of course, they couldn't forget the spinach; they had an open can of spinach for the "E" and designed it flying into Popeye's mouth. Having such elaborate and captivating logos for this search engine certainly appeals to site surfer's aesthetic. It adds a sense of excitement for each time one has the need to "google" something; the plain white screen with a search bar under "Google" just isn't enough. Having designers change up the logo from time to time that has a meaning to it allows surfer's to stay interested in this website and see the creativity even a search engine can maintain.





Here you can find many of the logos from the past:


http://www.google-logos.com/

Art Essay 3

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDjjR_EX1Bk&feature=related


For this next art essay I wanted it to have to do with art in a video and I came across something very interesting on Youtube.com. There are a series of 2D animation videos that correlate with some songs by Radiohead, and the first one of the series is based off of the song "Trans-Atlantic Drawl." The animations themselves are (I believe purposely) mediocre, but the way the artist created the plotline to correspond perfectly to the music, it almost seems like the songs were made for these animations, not the other way around. These videos don't offer any dialogue, so the artist is responsible for creating a plotline that viewers are able to understand without the need of words to describe the events, which he does very well. The beginning of "Trans-Atlantic Drawl"starts off sounding very chaotic and almost has a siren-y sound to it which makes listeners feel somewhat uneasy or restless to begin with, which coincides well with what the character is going through. The artist starts this "episode" off with showing the main character (who is drawn with a face that seems permanently worried) in four different screens waking up at 7:00 and going through a quick montage of his burned out daily routine repeatedly, as the rhythm and music of the song suggests. In the middle of the song, it cuts to being a very solemn tune, slow and almost conveys a mood of death. During this time the artist decides to cut to a memory of losing the girl that the main character loves that seems to be haunting him throughout the first half of the song. The transition worked absolutely perfectly, and was very creative; as a viewer I had no idea what could have possibly connected the first half of the song to the second half, them being two completely different sounds. This form of art is very interesting to me because there are so many things that the artist needs to understand and capture in his or her animation. In this case, there aren't many words in "Trans-Atlantic Drawl" so viewers don't have to try to understand what the words of the song are and how they connect to the sound of the music as well as what the story of the animation is about. Also, the correlation of the music and the animation work almost dependently on one another, because if you just watch the video without the sound, you lose all of the effect the music has on what the animation is trying to convey. When you just listen to the song, your brain gets scrambled about the countless meanings it could have. I look forward to researching more on animations in vidoes that are choreographed with music because there are so many possibilities of what could be portrayed from them.

Shift Happens

For my final idea essay I felt it would be appropriate to present a video/slide show that has a whole bunch of ideas thrown in it. Basically this video is trying to make those in the U.S. understand just how fast the world is moving and how we are not quite as great as we think we are. On the one hand this is an eye-opener that is designed to make you think and ponder the issues that the video brings up. On the other hand though, I feel that this video is trying to instill a sensation of fear because the meaning of these phenomena is so unknown. This presentation uses aesthetics to prove a point; that the world is changing and, as the title states, shift happens. By using visual representations of the issues at hand they are able to personalize the message so that it has a specific aesthetic affect on the individual.

The real clencher is at the very end when it begs the question “So what it all mean?” and gives no answer but instead leaves you to find out for yourself.

Art Essay #4 - Emily Dickenson #372

After great pain, a formal feeling comes -
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs -
The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’
And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’?

The Feet, mechanical, go round -
A Wooden way
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought -
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone -

This is the Hour of Lead -
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow -
First - Chill - then Stupor - then the letting go -

I studied this poem last semester with Dr. Fuller in Major American Writers and I fell in love with Dickinson’s poetry. This poem in particular resonates strongly each time I read it. The way she incorporates dashes implies much more meaning than if she had simply used commas or periods. For example, the dash at the end of the poem can signify different things to different readers based on how their experience or how they read the poem. Throughout the poem Dickenson describes her grieving process and at the end of the poem the reader could interpret chill as the chill of death and “the letting go” as the ultimate release in death. However it could also be interpreted as a chilling of the heart, the numbness that comes after severe pain, and the eventual letting go of those feelings and moving on. If she had used a period at the end of the poem I would interpret the ending only as death, but because of her use of the dash the poem has greater depth. There is also great power in her imagery. At the beginning of the poem she calls the heart stiff, which is still living but uncomfortable. Then the next image is wooden, again still alive but not motile like the heart. It then turns into quartz, a rock without life. Then it becomes the “Hour of Lead” a substance harder and more devoid of life than all the other images. Throughout the poem her images become harder and with each transition they loose more life. This poem has great worth in that so much is left up to the reader. Dickenson describes her experience with grief, but she does it using such abstract terms that anyone can interpret it to fit their own experience. Pain and grief are relatable experiences and this poem enables a deep connection to the reader because of this common experience. I find comfort when reading this poem in some ways because I usually interpret the ending as a release of hope. No matter what kind of pain I may be experiencing, I am not alone and there is hope for the future.