Author: erincho1

In the Art in Theory: Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant, Kant discusses about the peculiarity of judgement of taste. He writes that beauty is not applicable with universal rules, cannot be determined by proof, and it is objective; asking what is “Beautiful Art?”. Nowadays, everybody is constraint and committed to be within the society’s perception circle of what is beautiful. I read an article called “Who Decides What is Beautiful?”, which gives an example of a positive awareness campaign Diversity not Disability, with an image of a disability fashion model. The article argues that the beauty perception is intentionally built by companies and people advertising in order to make sales. I think this article not only applies on people, but could also apply on the art work we design and create.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/lisa-balcombe/diversity-not-disability_b_9193850.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGI08GxKvDHVrG-YqD4rYragqBor28ivHy3m5oggAmeAJhkHjmRFlcxjVyNu0pcPaJxYZ8XrlBIw_Pb6awga1E19X5AzbFsRHAIxADInh3yrbQVeDYqW_O9QdWAeo97to1uGpKBERyGgztUvZgP9g0tLbX_Pm8Qf2JeniEY37SA-&guccounter=2

I recently read an article about the Pride Flag, and I thought it had some interesting facts that would be interesting to share. The Rainbow Flag was first hand-dyed by Gilbert Baker and his boyfriend Jomar Teng. The original flag had eight colors, symbolizing healing, sunlight, nature, and spirit. Later, the flag was updated to have six colors that symbolize the diversity of the LGBT movement. The creator of the flag, Baker, wanted people to keep on remaking the flag because he wanted the movement to repeat and represent the experience.

This is Andreas Gursky’s sensational photos of North Korea’s mass games. He travelled to Pyongyang, North Korea, to watch the Arirang festival. The photo kind of shocked me in a way. Everybody in harmony and doing the same action could possibly mean peacefulness, but it also looks like lack of freedom. I think this was a very moving picture and a great piece.

I am Making Art (1971) by John Baldessari

I thought this video could be a very controversial work in the modern society, where “Art” can be defined as almost everything around us. The author suggests that whatever he does as an artist while working has something to do with art and claiming his creative autonomy. The video made me think a lot about just What is Art? It was very interesting and I wanted to share it with the class.

I read an article about Catalytic Clothing, that can purify air. The substance called photocatalysis works similar to photosynthesis and it uses artificial and natural light to stimulate chemical reactions that can degrade hazardous air pollution (e.g. nitrous oxides, benzene, formaldehyde, VOSs) from indoors. The photocatalysis could prevent these air pollutants from piling up in the air around us. The photocatalysis does not wear off from the reaction or process, in other words, it lasts long. I thought using a long lasting material in clothing production that could eliminate close range air pollution would really help the air pollution in New York City, where a lot of people are packed and is one of the most populated cities in the world. 

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/catalytic-clothing-purifying-air-goes-trendy/

Pawel Kuczynski is a Polish, award-wining, anti-war political artist, who delivers his message through satirical drawings and paintings. It was amazing to just look carefully and see how much meaning all his artwork has with no single word used. I thought some of the images could apply to our current situation right now during COVID-19. Here are some of his artwork.

I thought the Walt Disney Studio’s first released family animation film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs could be a good inspiration to the work we are working on right now. The masterful storytelling and ground-breaking technology from the time was very fun to watch. Here’s a link to the Animation Process from 1938: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2ORkIrHUbg, and these are some sketches the studio drew for the animation.

After taking this course, I realized how delivering ideas and stories with limited pen or paint lines is difficult as it sounds, and is very important. I found to very famous minimalism artists that I found very inspiring. The first artist is Yayoi Kusama, a Japanese contemporary artist. She works primarily in installation and sculpture. Her work is based in conceptual art, trying to express minimalism, feminism, abstract expressionism, surrealism, and others. When she was ten years old, she said she saw vivid hallucinations of “flashes of light, auras, or dense fields of dots.” Below are some of her famous art works!

The next artist I researched about is Carl Andre. He is an American minimalist artist famous for grid format and ordered linear sculptures. Varying in size, his sculptures also vary in installed areas — woods, indoors, floors.

Italo Calvino’s 1972 novel, the Invisible Cities is known for its vivid recollections of cities in his style of narratives. His unique architectural language and sensory appealing vocabulary is captured in details. The most interesting thing about his writing was how he makes connection between the architecture and the nature’s omnipotence. Below are some illustrated versions of Calvino’s explanations based off the Invisible Cities

I really enjoyed Helen Frankenthaler exhibition last week; especially how most of her work did not have symmetrical or measured patterns, and how her work were free from mathematical measurements. I found another artist named Betil Dagdelen, who studies a pattern that could be called “metrical” patterns. All of Dagdelen’s works has no repetition, no hierarchic patterns, and has de-centered shapes creating a natural pattern like Helen Frankenthaler. I enjoyed watching these unique and independent shapes in every piece of work.