Lawton Hall: A True Artiste ! ! !

I was inspired by Lawton's tales of life in music and art after college graduation. He explained that he felt his time studying at Lawrence University provided him with a space to experiment and served as a time to interact with others and 'make connections' with people that have benefited him in his life now. Feeling down about academia lately, I found some optimism in his contentedness with what he learned here.

Now, to the art. My favorite of the projects he shared with us today (although they all struck me in a good place) was his installation, This Place is No Place, 2013.

I thought that his use of visual and auditory randomness were most effective. He said that a poetry emerged from these unplanned combinations (spanning 12 hours) which I have been thinking about a lot lately. Especially when using someone else's images, any real concrete connection with the artist is removed, save their hand in assembly. This project is an example of a situation in which the artist is an 'everyday' person (just like non-artists!) who experiments with ideas that they are currently most interested in but still figuring out and expressing thoughts and their own ideas through art.

from Postcards from the Anthropocene, 2014-15

 

 

from Postcards from the Anthropocene, 2014-15

Similarly, his series Postcards from the Anthropocene, 2014-15 connects unrelated images and forces them to be taken in new light as if they were always meant to be together. In this way, I think he shows his interest in shaping a place–that is, forming an ideological object that exists just out of reach through the process of altering physical objects.

Lastly, his compositions with Holy Sheboygan! and other pieces of music he's written were refreshing and interesting. He comes from a world of music with a formal background, but importantly, he builds upon what he has learned and innovates his own techniques of art.

This blog post was bad and I will mull it over some more and probably post a better one.

--
Lawton: Vimeo | bandcamp | Sensorium

An Exciting New World ! ! !

I transformed pieces of my basement into an oddly navigable path using entirely digital means.

I think the definition between a 'space' and a 'place' is one that is not always well-defined, but I wanted to question their meaning (not necessarily provide an answer). Michel de Certeau, in his bible The Practice of Everyday Life, expresses places as "fragmentary and inward-turning histories, pasts that others are not allowed to read, accumulated times that can be unfolded but like stories held in reserve, remaining in an enigmatic state, symbolizations encysted in the pain or pleasure of the body." Now what the hell does that mean. I think what I took from it is the idea of a place separate from the space it takes up; where a space is worldly and physical and

a place = space + association/meaning

This image fragments the space (namely, a crummy basement) and reassembles them into an imaginary place in which the visual aspects originally associated with the space now are removed from that reality and transferred to the idea of the place. Right?

Check out a weirder version on my newhive page.

Don't go away! Stay tuned for more – I like this project.

An Exciting New Social Media Experiment ! ! !

Last week I continued with and took more seriously (sort of) a photography (sort of) project centered around ideas of consumerism, social media culture, waste, self-awareness, and THE INTERNET. I was toying with several different things, clearly, but mostly I wanted it to be an examination of my own wastefulness and privilege. At my school, we have an incredible buffet-style dining service with great food but I don't always eat everything I ask for. Without thinking about the project, I get my food and eat normally and then photograph it for Instagram as it is when I'm finished. Sometimes I eat it all, sometimes I leave mass quantities of food to be thrown away. Michel de Certeau, in his book, The Practice of Everyday Life, highlights the impact of the individual. This project has forced me to think more about how I eat and be proactive about steering it in a healthier direction (for all).

But the really fun stuff is the social media. Look at how many people I'm connected with.

I wanted to try to be like one of the awesome spam accounts you see on Instagram. 

At one point, the app wouldn't let me follow anymore people because I followed so many so quickly. If you want to get noticed on THE WEB, you need to bombard the world with your content. And that's what I did! With the help of hashtags (social media symbols that allow users to find similar content at once) I reached a larger audience than just those already following me. 

Hopefully it will grow over time. Exponentially.

Also, you know those super annoying people that post pictures of their food or coffee with a ton of hashtags? That's another, more satirical aspect of the project in which I tried to emulate that same enthusiasm for sharing your plate and presenting it as art, but making sure the art is completely disgusting (there are exceptions). Sometimes it even unintentionally looked beautiful.

Ridley Tankersley
04/07/15 #plate1 #dinner #tacos
#tacotuesday #food #plate #art, 2015

Jackson Pollock
Red, 1950

Ridley Tankersley
04/11/15 @sjrennick's #beets #noodles
#peas #alfredo #food #plate #art, 2015

Kimberly Conrad
Pinkogram II, 2010

I will keep all you loyal fans updated as the project continues!

Unrelated, this FIDLAR album is very well mixed.

A New Newhive ! ! !

My first attempt at this medium. True Digitalist form (mostly). It's not well done.

https://newhive.com/gotohell/i-love-my-brother

Bye

Spring Term, Baby ! ! !

Hi folks, Artboy is back in New Media in Art to continue to express the Digitalist manifesto (coming soon). For my first project, I'd like to expand on a project I failed successfully carrying out before, which is a social media publication of each of my meals after I've eaten them. 

I haven't received my de Certeau manual in mail yet, but I think this project is a funny stab at social media culture as well as a developing examination of the abundance of food in my living environment (1st world, capitalist).