Personal Identity and Consumerism

I chose to write my four dimensional image evaluation on Scott Blake and Nathan Halabuda’s work “Every Barcode.” These artists are conceptual artists, a type of art that I studied and wrote about in my first image evaluation. In “Every Barcode,” ten barcodes are flashed every second, starting with 0 and ending with 99,999,999,999. This essentially is every product made. Fascinatingly enough, this will take approximately 317 years.

I discovered this piece on Rhizome and found to be particularly interesting because it uses state of the art technology to give the viewer a sense of motion. This vertical sense of motion was intense to watch, and I was afraid to blink for fear of missing something important. Even though it was only the right side of the piece that was constantly moving, it almost made a ripple effect through the entire barcode. This ripple effect or “ebb and flow” of the barcodes also correlates with the “ebb and flow” of supply and demand in our market.

I also liked the fact that there was no sound. Just watching the barcodes continuously transform was enjoyable. This piece leaves sound to the imagination. I feel if the viewer relaxes their eyes, and takes in the piece as a whole, they can almost hear in their head a ticking noise of rapidly changing barcodes.

When I saw this work, I immediately thought of how many products every single individual in our world consumes on a day to day basis. This work is similar to “My House and Me” and “The Corporation” for it also reiterates our theme of the semester: over consumption and the environment. After these products are used, where are they discarded? Are they recycled or just thrown away? After one use, it’s gone…just like its barcode that was flashed in front of my eyes.

I even felt as if I was part of the piece of art, for as different barcodes flashed up onto my screen, there would also be a manufacturer’s name. I had even bought something from that manufacturer! This piece is fascinating, and I almost wish there was a comment page to see other responses. Hopefully they will add one in the next three hundred years.

Link: http://www.barcodeart.com/every_barcode.html

Crazy Weekend

This weekend I went home for Easter. I went to an Auto glass place to try to be some lamenated glass (the kind that is used on your windshield) and couldn't obtain any until Monday when I was back on campus. Instead, I rumaged through my basement and came across two large picture frames with glass. I removed the other pictures and replaced them with mine. After that I put a cloth over the glass and gently hammered out different parts of the glass. I got exactly the effect I was going for! Unfortunately on my ride back to Denison some of the pieces came apart, which was my biggest fear. Critique is this Wednesday so hopefully I will find a solution by then.

3D Project Update

Over spring break I went to Hilton Head Island. During this trip I took photographs of nature, either of nature untouched, or of nature being destroyed. I've decided I'm going to print out six pictures. Three of them are going to be of nature in color, representing the beauty of our world. The other three are in black and white and symbolize nature being tampered with, mainly by humans. I'm hoping to put these pictures back to back. Then, with shatter proof glass, I want to lightly hammer the black and white pictures putting cracks over top of the photos. After this I want to hang them from a shovel, or possibly a tree branch. I haven't exactly figured out how I would like to display the pictures but for now I'll work on printing the pictures out and trying to find shatter proof glass while I'm at home this weekend.

Right now, Blogger is not allowing me to upload pictures...I'll try again later.

New Project Idea!

I've been thinking a lot about our new project, especially over this past weekend. I just got back from Indiana this afternoon, and on the car ride back I got to admiring all the different elements of nature. With the theme of "My House and Me" and "The Corporation" in mind, I have come up with a new project idea that could potentially be very cool!

With the digital camera, I would like to take pictures of nature around campus as well as off of Denison grounds. This will be a particularly cool project with spring just around the corner. Then, I would like to buy some type of glass and put it over the photograph(s) and hammer out particular parts of the picture, representing nature being destroyed. This way, the photograph(s) will have a shattered look to them. I may do this with 10 photographs seperately, or 10 photographs together. I would like to see what the next step of the project is before brainstorming any further.

We'll see what happens in class!

Image Evaluation - Jim Zuckerman

I chose to study the famous photographer Jim Zuckerman and his use of photography with three dimensional images. Zuckerman is a domestic and international photographer who has toured Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and the American Southwest. His work has been used for packaging, advertising, editorial layouts, as well as calendars, posters, and greeting cards. Zuckerman’s gallery includes photography of different landscapes and cultures from around the globe. There is a specific gallery that I discovered by Zuckerman that is called conceptual art.

Conceptual art, according to the Artlex Art Dictionary, is “art that is indented to convey an idea or a concept to the perceiver, rejecting the creation or appreciation of a traditional art object such as a painting or a sculpture as a precious commodity.” (http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/c/conceptualart.html). This type of art emerged as a movement in the 1960s. Within Zuckerman’s conceptual art gallery is a piece of art called “Vegetable Face.” This particular photograph is of a face that is simply made up of various vegetables and some fruits. The face is most likely made of a melon, with kiwi’s cut in half to form eyes, carrots as eyebrows, and strawberries in the shape of a mouth. Surrounding this “face” is broccoli, tomatoes, parsley, and onions to construct the creature’s crazy hair.

In this image there is a strong sense of shapes and color. The background of the photograph is white, which in turn enables the face to pop out with its bright green, orange, and red vegetables. The parsley leaves trickle down from the neck creating a large shirt or perhaps a beard reminiscent of an older actor during the Shakespearian era. The texture of the vegetables and fruits also plays a major role in the photograph. When one thinks of lips, the picture that comes to mind is normally of pink or red lips. The strawberries even glisten in the photograph, giving off a sense of wet lips. The onion strands that create the top of the figure’s body can either be interpreted as hair, a hat, or as both. The way they are arranged gives the viewer room for imagination.

The outlook of the photograph is upbeat and optimistic due to its white/clear background. The creature seems to be smiling and although the onion strands are scattered about, the figure looks generally friendly. I found it ironic that Zuckerman made a face composed of numerous vegetables for vegetables are also something that you eat. The correlation between the constructed face and the food is blatantly obvious. This makes the viewer think differently about the work because these are all foods that are healthy for you. Why did not Zuckerman make a face of candy instead of vegetables? He could have used any possible edible object and the viewer most likely would have still found a connection between the food and the constructed face. I believe that Zuckerman wanted to illustrate our society and our current health. He chose vegetables and fruits to work with due to their healthy state and unique coloring.

Unfortunately, I can not attatched the picture. To view, click on this link: http://corporatefineart.com/-/corporatefineart/gallery.asp?photoID=2633883&cat=1696

DA BIRD'S NEST!

Currently I have 43 pictures picked out. In class last week (I now have 100 photos!) we transfered all of our photographs to black and white. We printed them out and then this weekend I chose which ones I found the most interesting and would add the most depth to my project. Sarah and I even went to WALMART to pick up photo paper so we'll be able to print out a few images tomorrow. This project is coming along so fast!!

Thinkin'

Okay new project idea. Something to do with the Olympic rings, peace/brotherhood, and then the opposite: the human rights crisis. Possibly turning into a mobile? This could be really cool! I need 50 more photographs by next Wednesday somehow. I think I need to take these photographs with a camera from the library though and shoot some things around Granville/Denison.


Some ideas:
- Patriotism
- Mix of two cultures
- Idea of "made in China"
- There are those peace activists in Granville sometimes, maybe a picture of them and their signs? "Honk for peace!"

Still brainstorming....I'll be back later!