Monday, February 27, 2012

CLASS 2-27-12

Today's class made me realize how much I am able to take for granted. We, as human beings, take things for granted such as our senses; including hearing and seeing. After watching the YouTube video of the orchestra, it felt like I needed to sit there for a moment to think about what had just happened. At first I was confused as to why I couldn't hear any music. Once I realized this silence was intentional, I started to think about the smaller sounds that were being made in the background. It was a really inspiring to see this video and think about sound/music in a different way. I also loved the part of class when all the different, crazy instruments were shown/played.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

CLASS 2-20-12

Soooo....I definitely forgot about writing this blog after class, but I will still write it anyway. What stood out to me in class was when Beth showed us the cool rocks she had found. At first they didn't seem like much, just another everyday rock. But the second that she turned on the lights that made the minerals on the rocks glow, I was surprised by how beautiful they were. They were all so different too. It got me thinking about underlying beauty of all the nature we pass by every day without acknowledging it. Everyone is always so worried about the hustle and bustle of their tightly knit schedules that must be followed and we sometimes forget to "stop and smell the roses."
As far as this helping me better understand my take on the creative process, it made me realize that even though something might seem uninteresting at first, it is most definitely interesting once you analyze it more and give it a second chance. I believe that everything in the world can have a creative interest to it if you just dig deeper. Sometimes it's hard for me to remember that and I get very discouraged at times when doing projects. Maybe now, when I feel that way, I can think back to the underlying beauty of the rocks I once saw in my Seeing Sidways class. :))

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Tyger Tyger Burning Bright

For this assignment, the first thing I did was research about tigers. I then started to think about wanting to make something dealing with a tiger's eye. I started looking around the house for materials I could use for this and remembered that I had recently bought some sculpey clay for my capstone project. I have never worked with this kind of clay, so I thought it would be good to practice before it came time to work with for my capstone. I mixed some colors together to make similar colors to the tiger's eye gemstone and made a bead out of it. Below are some pictures of the final product.



QUESTIONS:
1. What if I used different colors for this bead?
2. What if I flattened the bead?
3. What if I threw the bead on the floor?
4. What if I broke the bead in half, then glued it back together?
5. What if a tiger's eye really looked like this bead?
6. What if I let my dog chew up the bead?
7. What if I put the bead on a necklace?
8. What if I used this as something else than a bead?
9. What if a famous artist had created something like this?
10. What if I didn't cook the clay long enough in the oven?
11. What if I wrapped the tin foil around the bead?
12. What if I didn't have the rolling pin to help me?
13. What if I put the bead in water?
14. What if I threw it in the sky?
15. What if I ran over it with my car?
16. What if the bead was smaller?
17. What if I scanned the bead?
18. What if I mixed the bead in hydrochloric acid?
19. What if I ate the bead?
20. What if the bead tasted good?
21. What if this bead was used as a fake eye?
22. What if the bead was part of a treasure?
23. What if I wore the bead in my hair?
24. What if I made an earring out of the bead?
25. What if I set the bead on fire?
26. What if I threw the bead away?
27. What if I read about it in a book?
28. What if there was a movie based on it?
29. What if my human eye looked like this?
30. What if I saw the bead on T.V.?
31. What if it became a robot?
32. What if the bead could talk?
33. What if it could walk?
34. What if someone pierced it to their nose?
35. What if when you wore it as a necklace, it would give you magical powers?
36. What if I glued the bead to my shoe?
37. What if the bead was alive?
38. What if the bead was my friend?
39. What if it was my boyfriend?
40. What if my boyfriend played the guitar with it?
41. What if I gave it to my boyfriend as a present?
42. What if I shoved it up my nose?
43. What if I put it on a spaceship?
44. What if I buried it at the bottom of the ocean?
45. What if it learned karate?
46. What if the bead grew from a tree?
47. What if it was a forbidden fruit on a tree?
48. What if it could tell me jokes?
49. What if it was a candle?
50. What if it smelled good?

Monday, February 13, 2012

CLASS 2-13-12

What stood out most to me today in class was when the topic about time came up. While we were talking about "what is real time" I started to think about how sad this world really is when it comes to how we spend most of our time. We think it's normal to spend all our days working in order to make money, so that we are able to survive. If you think about it...it's really just all revolved around money. We spend our time going to school so that we have an education in order to get a job in the future so that we can make money. We need that money so that we can have food in our bellies and a roof over our heads. And after thinking about this, you can't help but begin to ponder the "what if" question that was brought up in class today. What if we didn't have to spend five years going to college to further our education to get a good job? What would we do with all of that time? What if we didn't have to worry about money and paying bills? Would the world be a better place? I wonder about this very often, but I find myself going in a revolving cycle over and over again. This all ends up leading me to question my life, how I choose to live it, and what I choose to do with my time on this earth.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Book v2.0

What makes a book a book, is the writing within it. The story that is being told. The information that is being shared so that others may have better knowledge and more reference. If anything was possible for a book, I would envision them as pieces of writing on any material imaginable. Books could really be interesting to look at and read if they weren't all made with the same material and all written on the same piece of boring paper on every single page. I think it would be interesting to see an everyday book held together with something other than glue, and it's pages to be something other than paper. Maybe the writings would be on something visual that could help further explain the story or emotion that should be given off. Maybe what holds the book together goes along with the story and helps give you something to feel that emotion and connection with the book.
I made a mock-up of what I thought would be a cool book. The story would be about something on a beach or in the ocean and the shells that hold it together would be the source of power to help give off the feeling of the book and the emotions that are within it. Anytime you would want to have a better feeling of what is going on in the story, all you would have to do is hold open the book with your fingers on the shells and almost feel as though you were a character in the story, experiencing all the emotions that they were.

Monday, February 6, 2012

How to "Read" a Book

1.  The thing that stands out to me are the bright colors on the spine of the book. This stood out to me because there are no other books in my collection with bright colors to catch my eye upon.

2.  The sentence that I landed my finger on stated, "but then again you might not." Her voice was creaky, like a hinge that wants oiling. The letter p shows up twice in this paragraph. The specific spot that my finger landed on was the space below the word "again". The white space is surrounding a whole bunch of words. I can imagine the words being like islands in water, but it is a little odd being that I have always read words in a certain way in order to understand.

3.  The paper in this book feels old and thin, which is really weird because this is a newer book that I have recently been given. The cover feels smooth and raised on the parts where the title is written. I can barely feel the ink of the words when I close my eyes. Different colors do feel different with my eyes closed. Everything seems to be in black and white. I can tell that this book has not been read or opened yet because of the way the paper looks. The cover has a picture of farm animals on it. There is also a pattern of flowers in the background that you can only see if you look closely.

4.  This particular book seems to be glued, not stitched. There is some cloth on this book. It's in the spine. It is hardback and does not have signatures. The glue at the end of the spine looks dark gray. There also seems to be a couple of spaces where the book would open up to when the front and back covers are held in the air.

5.  There is no writing in this book other than the printing. To know that I am the first person to think about this makes me feel like I have the chance to make my imprint first on the pages if I wanted to. It also makes me feel as though I shouldn't write in it at the same time in order to keep it looking "new."

6.  I do not see any stains or fingerprints in the book considering that it is new, but there is a small piece of paper that has been ripped to use as a bookmark on page 6.

7.  The color of the pages are an off-white color. They look more or less cream-colored. The color looks more warm than cold, and more dull than bright. One thing I have noticed about the back of the book is that it includes a historical note, resources, recipes from the land between the lakes, and also a glossary. I found this to be a little odd being that this book is considered a blend of fact and fiction. I also noticed that some of the typography they have chosen to use is there to make it look old.

8.  The only evidence of the book being handled by someone is the paper bookmark. The edges of the paper feel a little rough and uneven. They do feel as though I could get a paper cut if I rub my finger against it too hard. I think that if anyone has read this book, they felt bored by it. I don't think that anyone has done anything with this book like I am doing now...but I could be wrong!

9.  I do hear the sounds when flipping through the pages. When flipping through the pages quickly it almost sounds like a hummingbird flapping its wing's in the wind. When I flipped through them slowly it could be compared to the sound of a helicopter flying in slow motion, like in the movies. I can hear the breeze. I can move the ashes of my incense with the breeze created by the book. I could most definitely use this technique to win a game that is based off of being able to give off wind power.

10.  I experienced the rumbling of the floor and the loud noise it made. Yes, I sensed the vibrations the book made in my feet. There is a weird difference when I take off my shoes and drop the book to the floor. For some reason, I don't seem to feel as many vibrations in my feet compared to when I had my shoes on.

11.  The book does feel cold at first and I can feel the temperature change where my hands were on the cover. I have been aware of this sensation before when reading a book. I noticed it because I used to work in a library that was kept very cold during a hot summer.

12.  When smelling the book, all I think of is old papers stored in files that haven't been looked at in years.

13.  The title of this book is, "The Tale of Hawthorn House." Based on reading the first page, I would guess that it is all about a haunted house and the stories that go with it.

14.  Now that I have experienced this book differently, it sort of makes me want to open it up and start reading it more. Books do still seem a little boring to me, but I have never been much of a reader. I will say that there is a lot of time and effort that goes into making books. I took a class once where I had to make one and I really enjoyed it.

16.  I feel like having this experience with a book makes me feel like I should explore other objects in the same way or maybe even people. Seeing things and using things in a different way than they should sounds very intriguing to me. I think that the point of this exercise is exactly that, to examine things in a different way than you ever have before. From this exercise I can take away the exploration part and use it towards my next project. I will try to see it from different views in order to make it seem more interesting.