UMMA explorations & project info

After exploring the UMMA, I came out of the museum realizing the many frames of presentation I was in under while looking at the art work. Visually, the architectural framing of the building and the frames of its interior contribute a lot to the influence of the artwork for the viewers. For example, the newer section is surrounded by glassy walls and quite modern-looking architecture that peppered in, at least to me, a contemporary feeling towards the presented art even if they're not supposed to be contemporary art. Inside the building, the walls were plain & blank and didn't try to communicate too much to the viewers, as if to block an interaction between the actual interior space and the art objects. The museum tried to give a respectable section of space frame for every work because I felt like they believed that each art and idea is uniquely their own and should not blend together with any other object in and at the museum, and the only framing and grouping the museum allows for the art pieces are the different collection sections they're placed under. It's under this kind of notion of respecting something and its space that art museum goers tend to be quiet and silent.

For my project, I'm interested in how garments frame the body and what kind of impression they leave for an individual. I'm going to find a old-fashioned garment or a very specific event garment (such as a wedding dress) and alter it using only the materials provided by the garment into something that tells a completely different impression or culture from its original form. I plan to find a way to use every piece of material on the original garment to create the new form.

UMMA, hidden patterns

I was happy that my photos fit right in line with what we talked about last class. Art museums really should have other ways of organizing pieces. Personally, I try to organize things in my mind in other ways automatically. In this case, I was drawn to work with zig zag patterns. What if a museum organized the work by pattern? Or color? Please excuse the pixelated quality of the pictures. I had to photograph them with my phone, and then take pictures of those with a point and shoot...Enjoy!

Eliana

The video contains pieces of what I have been filming throughout the semester. My purpose is to capture (frame) certain objects, people, and whatever I feel like! Originally I wanted to frame innocence and reality, by filming random things and people I come in contact with. When you watch a movie, usually you have an idea of what you will be watching, and the plot. I think it is more interesting when you have no idea what you are watching, but can create a scenario of your own instead. I'm not sure that this is very conceptual yet, but i've changed my idea many times.

I may change my focus to what we discussed in class on Monday. I was very interested in how artwork can be framed differently, and "taking it off the walls."

Apparently the video is too large to upload or something....

I will just show it tomorrow in class!!!!

Video Promo (loopy behavior)

For my project I'm thinking of recording people exhibiting odd or unusual behavior. So the video I'm uploading is one of my family friends who was in the hospital highly drugged up on pain killers after a surgery.


Thanks, ~Brittlyn

Museum Trip! UMMA

The day we went to UMMA (University of Michigan Museum of Art) it was a beautiful day outside. Funny that 50 degrees and being able to see grass puts one in such a good mood. So being inside was sad, but I was so thrilled and energize with the weather that I was open to the visit. I found out later we weren't suppose to take pictures in the museum,  but as an art student what do you expect?

This is an interactive table I found really entertaining.

A piece made of AK47 pieces, very cool.

UPCLOSE

Delicate looking wood piece

VERY long video piece which was projected on three walls.

Commas,,,,,,,

The wall paper it was played upon.

I want a neat lamp like this

Maniquennis freak me out....but these ones are okay...I guess....

This was the only piece I was able to stand and read.....

Thanks, ~Brittlyn

Ideas on Framing (The faculty show)

This post is a little less somber and much more fun. Our teacher had us choose a frame, any frame upon a table to keep and then go and look at the faculty show held at the Slusser Gallery. Out of all the frames there was only one which was a circle so of course I chose the odd one. I took a series of fun pictures with my frame because I was attempting to find what fit best into my circular frame.......

Maybe.....

Almost.....

\

Success!

Not quit....

Nope.....

On to something......

Very close (love her hair and this piece overall. It was a series of images and evidence which portrayed women killers.)

Winner....

Almost.....

Definatly!....

Thanks! ~Brittlyn

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Early class assignment-measuring boundries

So I kinda suck at posting blogs, but I'm going to post three now and monopolize our blog. Apologies.

 One of our first assignments was the measure a boundary system using 2 different types of measurements one of which had to be larger than the other. Honestly this assignment stumped me at first as our teacher sent us out of the classroom for about an hour. I simply started walking around the art school thinking of the assignment and was distracted by all the student works on display. Therefore I incorporated this into the assignment by counting the number of steps I was taking and recording time with my phone. I decided that I would stop the time once I found a piece of art I personally really admired. Finally after 812 steps and 40.36 minutes I found a piece in the Slusser Gallery.

 (TO THE LEFT) All of the names and burn holes correlate.  
  

(Below) Shows the piece from various aspects and gives and idea of how large it is.


Overall this piece made me the viewer think after the hooked me in from across the room. Before really understanding the piece by reading the artist statement I already knew it had to due with important, serious subject matter and if it did not I would have been highly disappointed.

This is the artists' statement, which I found very intriguing because it hits a personal cord with me. 

As the daughter of an army officer I have a fear that my father will be injured or even killed while on a tour of duty. Not only do I have a fear for him, but for his friends as well as the people they come in contact with because no matter what side you're on war is a horrible thing. Seeing all the burn marks really helped further put all of this into perspective for me.

Thanks~Brittlyn

These are some pictures from the Denver Museum of Art. The walls of the interior are angular and create an indescribable atmosphere. I think that this museum is definitely not comparable to a mausoleum!!! Also, the museum uses a lot of outdoor space which can be seen from indoors.

Promo For Weaving Sound!

Listen with headphones for the full effect!
Eliana

Toddler Observation

I took this video while babysitting for the "Life in a Day" documentary project. It was fun to observe what fun a toddler can have doing simple activities, in this case running and hiding!

Eliana

T-Shirt Skeletons: Rags to Rags video as complex framing system

Those of you who have followed the progress of the Lexicon 97 Project (now up, in an unfinished way which is the status the project should maintain until an end of any possible way on any scale in any location that any iteration of the project may exist; the configuration of tines of the project are subject to reconfiguration at any moment in any location on any scale for any duration of time);

those of you who have followed the progress of lex97 may be aware that the T-Shirt skeletons themselves were an unintended project tine whose existence became apparent only after the cutting of the 97 shirts to mine them for the only words that would form the project's lexicon was underway.

Because the lexicon was extracted in such a way that the 97 previously discarded shirts retained a basic t-shirt structure and were wearable, locations of extraction became frames for the absence itself or for any substitute content. This absence became quite intriguing, and the mined shirts avoided another disposal through reconfiguration of their contribution as collaborators, in form of upgrade to T-Shirt skeletons that many of you modeled, in headless fashion of course.

Because the initial idea was flexibly framed, that pliable (of a putty related to the taffy served up by The Mid-Hudson Taffy Company) framing system could be easily configured in any form that becomes necessary, so any particular form is treated as a temporary form though being temporary does not mean the configuration does not become part of the frame's identity (on some scale), information infiltrating, on some scale (could be super-diluted) the internal structure of the frame, on the level of frame genetics (which becomes, as outcome of this infiltration —mild or profound— a mutation, a reconfiguration of evolution).

THOSE T-SHIRT SKELETONS ARE THE BOMB!

—Think of as many configurations as you can to frame meanings and implications of that statement, and then extend the boundaries of that frame system of configurable meaning systems to include implications of the lexicon 97 project and circumstances related to the existence systems of t-shirts.

BUT SUCH CONSIDERATIONS DO NOT PREVENT THE T-SHIRT SKELETONS FROM BEING CONFIGURED AS EXQUISITE AND DESERVING OF BEING FEATURED IN THE SLUSSER GALLERY SHOW WITH A RAGS-TO-RAGS FASHION SHOW (captured and put on youtube to give back to the world, the world that is involved and entangled in all facets [all possible t-shirt system & subsystem framing systems] of t-shirt existence, including the materiality of t-shirts, the fiber of which they're made, their complex substance):

Please listen to Are My Hands Clean (the story of a blouse) 
as performed by Sweet Honey in the Rock  
(Lyrics and music by Bernice Johnson Reagon. Songtalk Publishing Co. 1985)

and let the song have a chance to mingle with some aspect of your frame of thought (possibly tweaking its configuration here and there, if but for a brief moment) before going on to see the T-Shirt Skeletons: Rags to Rags video again or for a first time. Thanks.

  

Buy Are My Hands Clean, live at Carnegie Hall
at Amazon  or at iTunes

Are My Hands Clean  (lyrics)

Moving Pictures

Sometimes accidents can be good. While framing pieces in Slusser with my physical frame to give them new context, I accidentally recorded this video, giving the frame an additional context. One could imagine that this serious matter (in this case murder) could come to life when framed by something that evokes memory (a frame with flowers and a mouse, that conjures memories of childhood or even a grandparent's house).

Eliana

Pushing Sound

I am currently exploring the boundaries of sound. I'm interested in its ability to weave in and out of the mind, and our ability to manipulate the mind so it feels as though sound is being pushed, pulled, stretched, torn, etc. What are the boundaries of sound? What are the boundaries of our own mind? Are they real boundaries if we only perceive them to exist even if they don't?

The following clip is a piece of my experimentation. In this experiment, I am trying to push air from one ear to the other. When I've done similar experiments like this, I give the piece more fluidity by tweaking, but I wanted to see what conclusions can be drawn by listening to a more raw version created only be moving pieces of the sound to the other ear. Note: MUST LISTEN WITH HEADPHONES!!!



Eliana