Dezyn, Dezyners, Art, Whatever

HOLY AMAZING DESIGNERS AND DESIGN SITES!

2009-04-03T10:24:00.000-07:00

Check Out: http://www.hipsterbook.com/ - REFERENCE "scrapbook" for designers, all sorts of awesome stuff.

Through this site, I found these two EXCEPTIONAL graphic + web designers:

KURT GANNON. http://www.kurtgannon.com/

DAVID HELLMANN: http://www.davidhellmann.com/

I'm sure there are more amazing designers on the hipsterbook site, so I'm going to keep looking. But for now, check out those two!

The Elegance of Imperfection

2009-03-30T20:55:00.000-07:00

The Elegance of Imperfection
David Sherwin

Asymmetry, asperity, simplicity, modesty, intimacy, and the suggestion of a natural process: these attributes of elegant design may seem relevant only to a project's aesthetics. But the most successful web designs reflect these considerations at every stage, from idea to finished product. Bring heart to the experiences you create by infusing them with intelligence that transcends aesthetics and reflects the imperfection of the natural world.

Design Process Diagram

2009-03-30T10:28:00.001-07:00

Six Phases of Web Development

2009-03-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Six Phases of Web Development

Discovery: discovering the business goals and audience; determining capabilities
==> Using a client profiler to understand the client
==> Using an RFP (Request for Proposal)

Definition: defining the strategy and preparing a proposed solution for the client.
==> Business proposal
==> Creative components
==> Technical components
==> Overview of materials and resources
==> Estimated timeline
==> Estimated costs
==> Signed contract or project approval

Design: developing the solution and planning the process developing the purpose in line with the business goals and audience develop marketing plan
==> Develop creative, navigational, and editorial briefs
==> Determine technology, programming methods and requirements
==> Develop project timeline, assets list, team composition, project management
==> Information design
==> Interactive design
==> Screen design

Development: develop creative and technical components for the site
==> Develop a project site for project management and client review of development process
==> Generate or assemble all media assets
==> Build user interface
==> Build templates
==> Assemble pages and links
==> Testing and revision (staging)

Delivery:
Developing the site
==> Installing on host server and testing
==> Promoting the site
==> Documenting the site
==> Site maintenance
==> Site metrics
==> Site revisions

Post-Delivery:
This phase is needed to shift ownership to the client and initiate any hosting or support follow-up.
==> Forming a maintenance team
==> Sharing information

Egypt in the Late Period (ca. 712–332 B.C.)

2009-03-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

History

Kushite Period, or Dynasty 25 (ca. 712–664 B.C.)
From ca. 728 to 656 B.C., the Nubian kings of Dynasty 25 dominated Egypt. Like the Libyans before them, they governed as Egyptian pharaohs. Their control was strongest in the south. In the north, Tefnakht's successor, Bakenrenef, ruled for four years (ca. 717–713 B.C.) at Sais until Piankhy's successor, Shabaqo (ca. 712–698 B.C.), overthrew him and established Nubian control over the entire country. The accession of Shabaqo can be considered the end of the Third Intermediate Period and the beginning of the Late Period in Egypt.

Nubian rule, which viewed itself as restoring the true traditions of Egypt, benefited Egypt economically and was accompanied by a revival in temple building and the arts that continued throughout the Late Period. At the same time, however, the country faced a growing threat from the Assyrian empire to its east. After forty years of relative security, Nubian control—and Egypt's peace—were broken by an Assyrian invasion in ca. 671 B.C. The current pharaoh, Taharqo (ca. 690–664 B.C.), retreated south and the Assyrians established a number of local vassals to rule in their stead in the Delta. One of them, Necho I of Sais (ca. 672–664 B.C.), is recognized as the founder of the separate Dynasty 26. For the next eight years, Egypt was the battleground between Nubia and Assyria. A brutal Assyrian invasion in 663 B.C. finally ended Nubian control of the country. The last pharaoh of Dynasty 25, Tanutamani (664–653 B.C.), retreated to Napata. There, in relative isolation, he and his descendants continued to rule Nubia, eventually becoming the Meroitic civilization, which flourished in Nubia until the fourth century A.D.

Saite Period, or Dynasty 26 (664–525 B.C.)
When the Assyrians withdrew after their final invasion, Egypt was left in the hands of the Saite kings, though it was actually only in 656 B.C. that the Saite king Psamtik I was able to reassert control over the southern area of the country dominated by Thebes. For the next 130 years, Egypt was able to enjoy the benefits of rule by a single strong, native family, Dynasty 26. Elevated to power by the invading Assyrians, Dynasty 26 faced a world in which Egypt was no longer concerned with its role in international power politics but with its sheer survival as a nation. The Egyptians, however, still chose to think of their land as self-contained and free from external influence, unchanged from the days of the pyramid builders 2,000 years earlier. In deference to this ideal, the Saite pharaohs deliberately adopted much from the culture of earlier periods, particularly the Old Kingdom, as the model for their own. Later generations would remember this dynasty as the last truly Egyptian period and would, in turn, recapitulate Saite forms.

Under Saite rule, Egypt grew from a vassal of Assyria to an independent ally. There were even echoes of the bygone might of Egypt's New Kingdom in Saite military campaigns into Asia Minor (after the collapse of the Assyrian empire in 612 B.C.) and Nubia. In pursuit of these goals, however, the Saite pharaohs had to rely on foreign mercenaries—Carian (from southwestern Asia Minor, modern Turkey), Phoenician, and Greek—as well as Egyptian soldiers. These different ethnic groups lived in their own quarters of the capital city, Memphis. The Greeks were also allowed to establish a trading settlement at Naukratis in the western Delta. This served as a conduit for cultural influences traveling from Egypt to Greece.

After the fall of Assyria in 612 B.C., the major foreign threat to Egypt came from the Babylonians. Although Babylonia had invaded Egypt in 568 B.C. during a brief civil war, both countries formed a mutual alliance in 547 B.C. against the rising threat of a third power, the Persian empire—but to no avail. The Persians conquered Babylonia in 539 B.C. and Egypt in 525 B.C., bringing an end to the Saite dynasty and native control of Egypt.

Persian Period, or Dynasty 27 (525–404 B.C.)
Egypt's new Persian overlords adopted the traditional title of pharaoh, but unlike the Libyans and Nubians, they ruled as foreigners rather than Egyptians. For the first time in its 2,500-year history as a nation, Egypt was no longer independent. Though recognized as an Egyptian dynasty, Dynasty 27, the Persians ruled through a resident governor, called a satrap, helped by local native chiefs. Persian domination actually benefited Egypt under Darius I (521–486 B.C.), who built temples and public works, reformed the legal system, and strengthened the economy. The military defeat of Persia by the Greeks at Marathon in 490 B.C., however, inspired resistance in Egypt; and for nearly a century thereafter, Persian control was challenged by a series of local Egyptian kings, primarily in the Delta.

Dynasties 28–30 (404–343 B.C.)
In 404 B.C., a coalition of these rulers succeeded in overthrowing their Persian masters. From 404 to 399 B.C., Egypt seems to have been ruled by Amyrtaios II of Sais, who is traditionally recognized as the only pharaoh of Dynasty 28. Control then passed for twenty years (399–380 B.C.) to Dynasty 29, in the eastern Delta city of Mendes, and finally to Dynasty 30, in the mid-Delta city of Sebennytos.

The first king of Dynasty 30, Nectanebo I (380–362 B.C.), managed to repel a Persian attack shortly after he ascended the throne. The remaining years of his reign were fairly peaceful and were marked by an ambitious program of temple construction, which was continued on an even grander scale by Nectanebo II (360–343 B.C.). The latter king managed to hold off another Persian attack in 351 B.C., but in 343 B.C. a third attack succeeded, and Egypt fell once again to the Persians, who were defeated in turn by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. These final invasions were the death blow to Egyptian control of their own country. Nectanebo's dynasty is recognized as the last in ancient Egyptian history, and Nectanebo II became the last Egyptian to rule in Egypt for the next 2,500 years.

Art and Culture
During the Late Period, the reemergence of a centralized royal tradition that interacted with the relatively decentralized network inherited from the Third Intermediate Period created a rich artistic atmosphere.

Particularly among royal artworks, it is possible to speak of marked affinities for models from certain anterior periods: Kushite kings admired Old Kingdom models, Saite kings those of the Old and New Kingdoms, and later kings of Dynasty 30 looked back beyond the Persian interlud to the kings of late Dynasty 26. Viewed from the perspective of metal statuary produced in temples or of nonroyal artworks, however, stylistic patterns suggest a complex interplay of influences less hierarchically determined by the temporal power of the king than in previous periods, with the result that the choices of patrons and artists are more recognizable.

A taste for realistic modeling of features of nonroyal persons emerges, while attention to the naturalistic modeling of flesh and bone in human and animal sculpture reaches new heights.

While precious metal and bronze statuary and equipment had long associations with temple cult and ritual, by the first millennium B.C. changes in beliefs and practices had come about. A broad range of individuals made temple offerings, including relatively valuable bronze statuettes and equipment. While the king made offerings in his role as mediator between the gods and mankind, for private donors the goal was attainment of eternal life, for which the personal favor of or physical proximity to a deity was now believed to be as or even more efficacious than tombs and mortuary cult provisions. Osiris and the flourishing cults of animal avatars of certain gods were particular beneficiaries of these new offering practices.

Following the period of Persian rule, the kings of Dynasties 28 through 30 brought a new focus to their role as maintainers of a long tradition. Prodigious temple building and major production of statuary enacted an impressive reformulation and promulgation of the concept of divine kingship and formalized many other aspects of Egypt's ancient artistic and religious traditions in the face of threatening outside powers.

James Allen
Department of Egyptian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Marsha Hill
Department of Egyptian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation for this page

Allen, James, and Marsha Hill. "Egypt in the Late Period (ca. 712–332 B.C.) ". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lapd/hd_lapd.htm (October 2004)

Suggested Further Reading(s) Find these publications in a library

Lloyd, Alan B. "The Late Period (664–332 B.C.)." In The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, pp. 369–94. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Russmann, Edna R., et al. . Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from the British Museum. Exhibition catalogue. New York: American Federation of Arts, 2001.

ARTICLE SOURCE: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lapd/hd_lapd.htm

2008-11-26T13:01:00.000-08:00

Cai Guo Qiang - Dream
-Chinese artist, but truly a global artist.
Shanghai Art Museum

Cai Guo-Qiang: Painting, Chinese Painting Air Show

Cai Guo-Qiang on the Roof: Transparent Monument -- Clear Sky, Black Cloud, 2006

Above photo is time-based. Can be called performance, or ephemeral.
Exhibition was up for 6 months. Every new Tues-Sun of each week it'd burst against the sky like an ink blot, invoking Chinese traditional painting; and then disappearing.

"Move along, nothing to see here," 2006 (below)

This crocodile has a bnch of knives stuck in it-- playing on terrorist acts, security.

Rent Collection Courtyard, 1965 - Cai-Guo Qiang

Relationship between owner and renter displayed. This work becomes a form of propaganda.

Footprints of History: Fireworks Project for the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Beijing, China, 2008

Baochi Zhang, currently at the Feldman Gallery PNCA-work usually has politically charged subject matter

Fred Wilson. "Turbulence II (Speak of Me as I Am)" 2003 United States Pavilion.

-Changes in context create meaning, in Wilson's eyes.

"Chandelier Mori, (Speak of Me as I am)" 2003

"Part of the difficult thing with glass is that it’s hard to make anything that has a lot of meaning- or where the meaning is at least as strong as the beauty of the material. Infusing meaning is what I’m really interested in...I’m teasing [black glass] apart and confusing it because this idea that black represents humans is really such a wild construction not only in America but, looking at Venice, going back to the twelfth century when Africans first met Europeans. I put it together and take it apart so that we’re aware that it’s a construction or representation but also that something in that representation still bears fruit for us."
- Fred Wilson

IWAI SHIGEAKI, Dialogue, 1996-99
"The artist chose four representative languages spoken in multicultural cities, he then asked four speakers who respectively speak the mother tongue of the chosen languages to perform a short play using their differing languages. The play was about the impossibility of communication, but was performed as if the conversation in differing languages were conducted with no problem. This performance was recorded in video images and, based on the footage, four different versions were created."

Iwai Shigeaki, "Could you guide me around? 'Cause I'm just a tourist from Japan, 2001"
The artist spent long periods of time conducting intensive research and interviews in a small wheatbelt town called Kellerberrin in western Australia. The aim of the project is to search for issues in the community by using the tourist point of view.

Boris Mikhailov - Case History, 1998.

This photographer considered one of the most important to come out of the soviet union.

New Site Project: MODERN SEXISM

2008-11-24T15:28:00.000-08:00

I am creating a new website for a Communication/Information Design project called "Modern Sexism." It is a work in progress, but please visit it and if you have any suggestions or ideas for content, let me know..

www.tutorialistic.com/fem/index.html

Globalization and the Contemporary Art World

2008-11-24T15:25:00.001-08:00

Globalization and how it affects contemporary art. One cultural identity having an impact on another.

-"A broadening of focus onto the international character of contemporary modernity...visions of the non-western world..." Contemporary art becomes a vehicle for bringing concerns into view, to the forefront.

-Representation of nearness of world peoples and cultures. From de-colonization to independence to modernization to globalization: overcoming role of the 'other.'

-Migration of artists from oppressed cultures into economic systems of the West, and the integration of many developing countires in to the global system of production and communication, removes the western-centric perspective and thus introduces art centers beyond Europe and the US. Which also leads to critiques of capitalism and "world economies."

--Technology and the impact of Global expansion in the electronic realm, furthers the blurring lines between high art and popular culture and creates a network of communiation that knows no geographical borders.

--An inquiry into national identities in the wake of the dismantling of political systems: Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, South Africa reveals new voices, renewed identities. "From unfreedom to freedom."

--Internationalization of the art world, through international network of art professionals and art exhibitions/fairs. Economy and culture are inextricably linked.

The example of Documenta 11, 2002 (Documenta always held in Assel, Germany).
Documenta 11 was specifically to show effect of globalization, and to show multi-disciplinary approach to visual arts.

Yinka Shoonibare, Glalantry and Criminal Conversation 2002

Reference to a "Grand tour," a country outing of noblemen in the 18th century. The costumes are tailored from printed African cloth.

Yinka Shonibare is someone born in England but born to Nigerian parents. Eventually moves back to Nigeria, but was also educated in England; so is truly bi-cultural, and uses this experience to confront what it's like to grow up in with Nigerian traditions but to be educated in Western culture.

-Most of Yinka's figures in his art are headless, which gives a type of anonymity.

The Swing (reproduction of Fragonard's 'the swing'), 2001

Maxa (detail) 2003 -- direct use of African fabrics. This work can be seen as a challenge to high or fine art as it enters this idea of craft (as opposed to doing a painting, etc).

Mona Hatoum, Homebound, 2000.
Installation

The installation entitled Homebound - furniture and household items united in an electrical circuit and fenced in by metal cables as a security zone - tells a story about the home and family as an unstable, exposed and dangerous zone.

"According to the prize committee, Mona Hatoum's contribution to the European visual arts tradition makes her an obvious recipient of the Sonning Prize. She has developed an aesthetically distinct, political language to express the experiences of refugees and immigrants and their need to balance identity somewhere between modern Europe and their non-European native countries.

As the nominating committee put it:
"In the world of culture, more specifically the world of visual arts, the British-Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum is someone who has found the most significant visual expression for the experience of 'New Europeans' as living on that unstable ground between two cultures, where you do not feel at home in either - not the one you left or fled from nor the one you have voluntarily or involuntarily become a part of."

The Committee's selection for the Sonning Prize winner is applauded by Oystein Hjort, professor in art history at the University of Copenhagen. "Mona Hatoum's works are both distinctive and visually astonishing," says Professor Hjort. "Her works reveal the individual, exposed and vulnerable, and she reflects disease, suffering and death, oppression, even torture in many of her pieces. The body is an important part of her working process, where taboos are challenged and dismantled in a continuous attempt to redefine the place of humanity in a politically infected world."

Mona Hatoum's relationship with the unsettled, fragmented and vulnerable identity felt by many "New Europeans" is nourished by personal experience with migration and exile - without this making her art a private affair. She was born in Beirut in 1952 to Palestinian parents who had been forced into exile, where she grew up with an ambivalent, unsettled sense of being both at home and homeless.

While on a visit to England at the age of 23, civil war erupted in Lebanon and she was prevented from returning home to her family. Instead, she applied to a school of art in London, where she has lived and work ever since. " -- exflux.com

On Kawara, One Million Years (Past and Future), since 1970. Machine-written directory, two sets of leatherbound books, each in a black box.

this book just lists the years since one million years ago.
PAST: all years from 998.031 BC until 1969.
FUTURE: all years from 1969 until 1.001.995 AD.

In the actual installation of this art, people in a glass cubicle are reading the years outloud.

DORIS SALCEDO - "6 November 1985" - installation done in 2001. Stainless steel, lead, wood, resin, and steel.

The works by Doris Salcedo relate to the following event:

"On 6 November 1985, a commando of the guerrilla movement M-19 raided the Supreme Court in Bogotá and took everyone inside hostage. Without negotiating, the army and police force attacked the building with tanks and helicopters, etc., and set it on fire. Altogether, 53 Justice Department employees and visitors died, including 11 Supreme Court judges, as did all 35 guerrillas.

In No 45 of his Columna de Arena, José Roca wrote about the two installations:

The first is a series of chairs made of steel, wood, resin and lead, which are scattered in a large room as the remnants of a tragedy, melted together at the armrests, the seats or the legs. The other installation is a room crossed diagonally by the elongated lead chair legs, so that a space is created which relates to the tragedy (charred pieces of furniture, piled on top of each other). At the same time, their presence prevents access to the room, putting the viewer in the position of a powerless witness, or in the situation of "a glimpse that comes too late" - as Alfredo Jaar said in relation to photography of violence.

Pieces of furniture are elements which are in daily contact with the body. Their form and dimensions are like a continuation of it, which allows for a metonymical substitution of the furniture (in this case of the chairs) through the absent body." (source: http://www.universes-in-universe.de/car/documenta/11/frid/e-salcedo-2.htm)

TENEBRAE Noviembre 7, 1985, Installation.

Poetic Justice 2003 Istanbul Biennial

Emily Jacir, Where we come from, 2002-2003

Emily thought about the question, "If I could do anything for anyone living in exile, what could I do?" ..She explores the physical liberty of movement. How free ARE we to move about, in this global world, where boundaries SEEM to be eradicated and we SEEM to much more freedom...how free are we really to move around?
-Therefore, her project was the result of this question that she asked. She took a photo of the actual action of the enocunter of that wish (to do something for those living in exile). In both english and arabic (on the left in the photo) she has put their wish in writing.

-her work is based on documentation; her interpretation of their wish. One of her requests was, "go to hatha and play soccer with the first Palestinian boy you see on the street." She ends up playing soccer with a boy named Kamel (sp?).

THE ART WORLD at Large!

2008-11-17T13:03:00.000-08:00

What is SUCCESS? Definition of success if relative, but many interconnected factors can contriute to a defined "success" for an artist.

Depends on the individual goals of the artist.

The Art World At Large:
Institutions of Art:

-Collecting Art useums (MoMA, SAM, the Louvre, National Gallery, etc.).

-Non-collecting Museums/Galleries (contemporary arts museum, houston, aldrich museum of contemporary art).

OTHER VENUES/INSTITUTIONS:
-Commercial galleries (PADA-Portland Art Dealers Association)

-Non-Commercial: Non-profit at organizations and exhibition venues. Artist-run galleries, government-sponsored or foundation-run glaleries (PICA, Blue Sky Gallery, etc).

Modernist Architecture -- The louvre.
-Centre de Georges Pompidou, Paris - 1972 to 1976.
Architecture of this reflects what you will see on the inside - great art works with a very modernly designed space.
New Museum of Contemporary Art: New York, 2007.
Guggenheim in New York, 1937--Frank Lloyd Wright (1959).

What is the role of Museum in our Culture?
--Public learning space
--Gives public a reference as to what is going on in our world art-wise.
--A type of attraction for tourists
--Warehouses for storing art
--Documentation
--Preservation
--Collection
--Education
--Creating and reinforcing identity of location (region)
--Representing Values upheld by various groups (ie. ethnic groups)
--Classifying objects and creating value judgments (this is ART).

What are newer roles within museums?
-Public place/community place
-Gathering place
-Place for entertainment, activity, fun
-Place for producing/interpreting experiences:
gift shops, education spaces, audio/multimedia tours, venues for music, performance, lectures, film screenings, space for hire, multimedia displays.

Goals of attracting diverse audiences, of all ages and interests.

Major Contemporary Art Exhibitions:
-Biennials (Whitney, Venice, Site Santa Fe, Shanghai, Singapore, Yokohama, Taipei, Sydney, Liverpool, Sao Paolo, New Orleans (prospect), Havana, Montreal, Istanbul, Lyon..)

-Documents (every 5 years in Kassel, Germany) since 1955. Documenta 12 held 2007.

-Manifesta (biennial every 2 years in Europe in a different city), since 1996. In Italy in 2008.

-Sculpture projects muenster 2007. Mounted every ten years and previously hosted in 1977.

Art Fairs:
-Art Basel Miami
-AFFAIR @ the Jupiter Hotel (Portland)
-Art Chicago
-LA Art in New York
-PULSE Contemporary art Fair (NYC, London, Miami)
-FRIEZE ART FAIR
-The Armory Show
Auction Houses:
Christie's
Sotheby's

The Cultural Commodity
10 most Expensive Living Artists - 2004

"Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" - Lucien Freud's. 1995. Sold for $33 million.

Jeff Koons - New Hoover Deluxe Shampoo Polishers - 1980-1986.

Jeff Koons - Sandwiches, 2000.

Gerhard Richter

Richard Serra, Prop, 1968.

Jasper Johns Flag, 1954-55

Brice Marden, Vine. 1991.

Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram

Frank Stella, The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, II. 1959.

Bruce Nauman, One Hundred Live and Die.

Anselm Kiefer

Ellsworth Kelly

Wayne Thiebaud

David Hockney

Chuck Close

Julian Schnabel - Self Portrait

David Salle

To extremes--maximizing the potential of the market.

DAMIEN HIRST--Devil Worshiper...Sold for appox. $600,000
(painting of a black star...covered in dead flies).

Damien Hirst - For the Love of God

--Themes of death and decay, preservation, are prominent around this time (1990s etc).

Contemporary Art: IDENTITY

2008-11-10T13:08:00.000-08:00

In what various ways does "identity" play a role in Contemporary Art?

--Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation
--Geography as Identity
-Fictionalized Space as Identity
-A new history as identity.

IDENTITY in Post-Modern Theory
Death of the Author (Roland Barthes)
-Considers the limits of individual self-expression.
-Criticizes viewr's tendency to consider aspects of the author's identity to distill meaning from his/her work.
-Doubting the Ultimate Truth.

Identity is CONSTRUCTED (Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault).
-One is not born with a unified, inevitable identity.
-Identity is a product of culture, created by a network of independent forces in the society that 1) define roles 2) govern behavior and 3) order power relations.

Identity is RELATIONAL (Lucy Lippard).
-Identity is always in relation to something/someone else (how are we similar, how are we different).
-Identity results from network of independent forces.
-Any culture defines itself in relation to or in opposition to other cultures.
-Relations are never relations of equality.

Identity is COMMUNAL
-Shaped by group associations and social variables.

Examinations of Identity in Contemporary Art
-Identity is Communal or Relational
-Identity is Hybrid
-Identity is Political
-Identity is Constructed (critique of essentialism)
-Identity is Fluid/In Flux - Not fixed (when are you your true self?)
-Identity is Sexually Diverse
-Identity can be reinvented

CATHERINE OPIE
"Dyke," 1992, Cibachrome Print.
-Makes powerful statements about the socially constructed identity.

CATHERINE OPIE - "Sky", C-Print.

CATHERINE OPIE - SELF PORTRAIT/PERVERT:

CATHERINE OPIE - SELF PORTRAIT:

Catherine Opie - Melissa & Lake, Durham, North Carolina. 1998.

Catherine Opie - Joanne, Betsy, & Olivia.

FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES: American, born in Cuba. Gay male.
Gonzalez-Torres was known for his quiet, minimal installations and sculptures.

-Using materials such as strings of lightbulbs, clocks, stacks of paper, or packaged hard candies, Felix Gonzalez-Torres's work is sometimes considered a reflection of his experience with AIDS.

Stack of Photolithographs: Must be replenished every time the stack is reduced; very conceptually based, based on the idea of generosity. Constant giving.

Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA): Invites visitors to take from this pile:

Another installation - one stack of paper is labeled "veteran's day," and the other "memorial day."

JAMES LUNA, Half Indian/ Half Mexican. Installation and performance artist. Embraces idea of hybridity, recognizing cultural background.

Luiseno, Diegueno, Mexican, 20th century. 1991. Black & White photograph:

James Luna in his performance: The Artifact Piece
"For the performance piece Luna donned a loincloth and lay motionless on a bed of sand in a glass museum exhibition case. Luna remained on exhibit for several days, among the Kumeyaay exhibits at the Museum of Man in San Diego. Labels surrounding the artist's body identified his name and commented on the scars on his body, attributing them to "excessive drinking." Two other cases in the exhibition contained Luna's personal documents and ceremonial items from the Luiseño reservation. "

-The viewer become the one that is watched by him in this exhibition.

"Two Walls" from the James Luna Exhibition at the Centro Cultura de la Raza. A room has a television and a Ntive American altar on a dirt-coverd floor. The door and a row across the top of the room have been painted with indigenous symbols.
(no picture yet)

INSTALLATION ART

2008-11-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

Installation Art:
-Site-specific, exploring space and time within given parameters. Taking cues from Dada, Assemblage, Minimalism, and Conceptualism.

-Resisting definition of art as "permament." Often the work (a combo of objects or effects) is displayed and subsequently dismantled, leaving documentation as its only trace. Artists use installation to deal with their own thematic concerns, making their choice of included objects or effects particularly relevant.

-Even within an institution--museum or gallery space--such work is atypical because its little (or absent) commercial value.

Installation art is one of the reigning mediums in contemporary art.

Project Timeline I did on Modern Feminism

2008-11-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

Still to be improved later.. CLICK it to see full size.

More Performance and installation Art

2008-10-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

Marina Abramovic, uses her body in extreme ways to make statements. Believed in spiritual transcendence through these physical expressions. "Abramović's work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind."

In one of her pieces, she creates a star, lights it on fire and goes in the middle of it.
She didn't realize the fire surrounding the star would suck up all the oxygen around her, and she actually went unconscious during her 90 minute session inside the outline of the star.

Rhythm 5, 1974

"Abramović sought to re-evoke the energy of extreme body pain, in this case using a large petroleum-drenched star, which the artist lit at the start of the performance. Standing outside the star, Abramovic cut her nails, toenails, and hair. When finished with each, she threw the clippings into the flames, creating a burst of light each time. Burning the communist five-four rayed star represented a physical and mental purification, while addressing the political traditions of her past.

In the final act of purification, Abramović leapt across the flames, propelling herself into center of the large star. Due to the light and smoke given off by the fire, the observing audience didn’t realize that, once inside the star, the artist had lost consciousness due to a lack of oxygen. Some members of the audienced realized what had occurred only when the flames came very near to her body and she remained inert. A doctor and several members of the audience intervened and extricated her from the star.

Abramović later commented upon this experience: “I was very angry because I understood there is a physical limit: when you lose consciousness you can’t be present; you can’t perform.” (Daneri, 29).

-excerpt from wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramovi%C4%87

Rhythm 0, 1974 - AMAZING

To test the limits of the relationship between performer and audience, Abramović developed one of her most challenging (and best-known) performances. She assigned a passive role to herself, with the public being the force which would act on her.

Abramović had placed upon a table 72 objects that people were allowed to use (a sign informed them) in any way that they chose. Some of these were objects that could give pleasure, while others could be wielded to inflict pain, or to harm her. Among them were scissors, a knife, a whip, and, most notoriously, a gun and a single bullet. For six hours the artist allowed the audience members to manipulate her body and actions.

Initially, members of the audience reacted with caution and modesty, but as time passed (and the artist remained impassive) several people began to act quite aggressively. As Abramović described it later:

“The experience I learned was that…if you leave decision to the public, you can be killed.” ... “I felt really violated: they cut my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the public. Everyone ran away, escaping an actual confrontation.” (Daneri, 29; and 30).

VANESSA BEECROFT, VB 35
Vanessa herself had an eating disorder.

Vanessa's VB55 Piece:
For this one, they tried to teach the models to "let go" so the audience could also let go. A mass of people came to view another mass of people.
-Took both models and non-models for this project.

PERFORMANCE ART EXTREMES - ORLAN
-This artist has undergone seven plastic surgeries on her face, each of which she calls performances that she documents at every step of the way.
-Her goal is not to become beautiful but rather to suggest that objective beauty is unattainable and in turn the process is painful and horrifying. Allows you to view her plastic surgeries.

-Recently had two goldish bumps put in near her temples, to show that her surgeries were not about being beautiful.

DAMALI AYO - "An author, speaker, artist, performer, and catalyst for change." Improv everywhere --- causes scenes of chaos and joy in public plays.
-Art deals with issues of rate, specifically African American in this society.
--She sat in streets in Portland and gathered money from white people for reparations payments and gave them right back to black people and said, "Here's your first reparations payment." Her objective was not to just collect money but to make a point. Trying to expose the race issue, not enforce it.

(Mainly) Performance Art & Photography

2008-10-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Sacred and Profane - Joel-Peter Witkin. Mother of the Future (2004). -Seeks to redefine beauty -- seeking unity in the grotesque. -Makes the impossible, possible. Attempting to communicate what is incommunicable. Robert Mapplethorpe Photos - Erotic type photos with a message. Andres Serrano - Piss Christ, 1989. A controversial photo he took, submerged in his own urine. -Many people accusing him of being anti-Christian, where that was not his intent here. "You can't have the sacred without the profane" he says. He wouldn't spend time with christianity if he had no feeling for it. PERFORMANCE, INSTALLATION AND VIDEO in Contemporary Art produce alternative forms of expression and communication, manifesting often in hybrid artistic practices. Artists and viewers become linked to real-time experiences through art. Performance Art, Body Art, Happening, Event:
Live art activity that encompasses elements of theatre and visual art. Origins in the Fluxus Movement of the 1960s and the work of Allan Kaprow. Expanding the boundaries of space and time. Blurring the line between art & life, between reality and fiction.

May have (but not always):
-performer
-stage
-script
-audience (happening: audience is performer)
-use of body as medium.

Performance/Body Art: Five Day Locker Piece. Chris Burden.
-Artist locked himself in a locker for five days.

“I was locked in locker No.5 for five consecutive days and did not leave the locker during this time. The locker measurements were two feet high, two feet wide, three feet deep. I stopped eating several days prior to entry, thereby eliminating the problem of solid waste. The locker directly above me contained five gallons of bottled water; the locker below me contained an empty five-gallon bottle.” Chris Burden

-In a way shows a way of life, in that we can survive off of minimal needs -- or brings out the things many of us shower ourselves with for comfort in our everyday lives.
-Or simply just pushes the body to extremes.

Chris Burden - Transfixed. 1974.
"In 1974 Burden performed Transfixed in which his body was stretched along the roof of a Volkswagen Bug while a friend drove spikes through his hands nailing him to the car. The vehicle was then driven out into the street where it obstructed traffic. Aside from the strange religious connotations of this piece, the point of Transfixed might have been merely to shock and disturb."

VALIE EXPORT - Touch & Tap Cinema, 1968. Still photo documentation.
"Valie EXPORT’s early guerilla performances have attained an iconic status in feminist art history. Tapp- und Tast-Kino ("Tap and Touch Cinema") was performed in ten European cities in 1968-1971. In this avowedly revolutionary work, Valie Export wore a tiny "movie theater" around her naked upper body, so that her body could not be seen but could be touched by anyone reaching through the curtained front of the "theater." She then went into the street and invited men, women, and children to come and touch her."
-She is trying to subvert visual communication by doing this as well, since "seeing the cinema" in this case was done only by touch.
Did work in trying to create and portray woman as the subject rather than the object. She is free to expose her breasts and is no longer confined by social ideas of a woman and of what's right or wrong. Many people though don't believe she was successful in how she tried to portray the message, yet others did - and said she was still in control of her sexuality, even though she was letting many people feel her. She is still the one in control of it.
Joseph Beuys - I Like America and America Likes Me, 1974.

-In this performance and ritual piece he bridges the duality between coyote and shepherd -- shepherd usually drives coyotes away from the domestic animal. In this he attempts to make friends with the coyote rather than drive it away. Spent a week in a room with the coyote. CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN - Up to and Including Her Limits. Uses her body and bodily fluids in her art. Idea of liberating the feminine. Releasing the female body from male attitudes. 1973-76. Performance, live video relay.
-Transforming male desire into feminine experience."I am suspended in a tree surgeon's harness on a three-quarter-inch manila rope, a rope which I can raise or lower manually to sustain an entranced period of drawing– my extended arm holds crayons which stroke the surrounding walls, accumulating a web of colored marks. My entire body becomes the agency of visual traces, vestige of the body's energy in motion."
-Role of the body and the mind in executing these concepts.
-She talks about emancipating herself from male-centric subject matter.

More contemporary artists

2008-10-22T14:39:00.000-07:00

Jeff Wall, Photographer from BC, Canada. Image above: A Sudden Gust Of Wind, 1993. Inspired by/after Hokusai. Image Above: Dead Troops Talk (Jeff Wall). 1992. Henry Peach Robinson, Fading Away. 1858. Printed using five negatives.

More Conceptualist Artists, Feminist Artists

2008-10-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

Sophie Calle in her series of "The Hotel," tries to define private space and public space (for one, she enters into private spaces, yet then exposes them to the public), to investigate art and life, fiction and reality.

--However, how much of what a photograph reveals is actually true, though? Is Sophie truly exposing someone's private space, or is it she just making it appear that way? Sophie Calle : "Exquisite Pain." In this work of art/photography, her theme is dealing with exquisite pain, more in relation to her personal story of a breakup with someone, with whom later she was supposed to meet somewhere but then he blew her off. She then also documents her friends' own experiences of pain, yet again displaying the idea of relative truth. "Exquisite Pain" is actually an installation on embroidered panels. Barbara Kruger - "I Shop Therefore I Am": Barbara takes images to reinforce the thinks that we think we value in our society. She is particularly critical about the way women are portrayed in the media. She mentions how there is politics in everything -- in every exchange with every person; in every exchange there is a power play. She makes her art about politics, life, death, power, etc.
"I'm living my life, not buying a lifestyle." Barbara Kruger Look, we're all saddled with things that make us better or worse. This world is a crazy place, and I've chosen to make my work about that insanity. Barbara Kruger

Doubt tempers belief with sanity. -Barbara Kruger "I think that I'm trying to engage issues of power and sexuality and money and life and death and power. Power is the most free-flowing element in society, maybe next to money, but in fact they both motor each other." - Barbara Kruger Cindy Sherman.
-Appropriation of the medium of films. She saw Femininity as a Construct, not as something innate. Above photo is an Untitled Film Still. 1977-1980. She is the woman in the picture, as well as the one photographing herself. She is interpreting how she will be seen here by photographing herself, to oppose to the idea of being an object of desire in the man's eyes. She plays upon the idea of the "male gaze."
Laurie Simmons - Interested in the idea of identity, the role of women in society, sense of nostalgia in her work. It is about creating a narrative that is left to the viewer.
Displaying women's role, especially as it was in the 50s.
Above house is "The Kaleidoscope House," where she collaborated with an architect to make this. A Toy company contacted her though, and there are now limited edition toy reproductions of it.

Conceptual Art's Legacy to Photography

2008-10-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

Photographic use in post-modernism and challenges thus proposed by such post-modern works of art.

A challenge to the traditional/historical notion of "Photograph as Documentary" in nature + examination of history of documentation.
Use of photography as a critique of mass media (we are a product of such images; such images do not reflect who we are).
Photography as poised to counter the traditional notion of the "male gaze" (for whom works of art are made).
Photography confounding the truth: Constructed images + fictionalized histories (documents v. pictures).

DOROTHEA LANGE - migrant mother, Nipomo, California. 1936. WALKER EVANS - Hale County, Alabama. 1936. Consider: How objective ARE these photos? Their objective was to bring to light the reality of these people. "Their aim has been not to reform life but to know it. Not to persuade but to understand." - John Szarkowski said of the photographers.
By the 1970s, the era of social reform, documentary is being considered as remnant, an act of refusal; is seeing really believing?
Martha Rosler - Red Stripe Kitchen:Above image attempting to show daily life in the U.S... "Red Stripe Kitchen is also a harbinger of our own present moment, in which media images of domestic comfort and security no longer seem to keep the violence and chaos of the outside world at bay."
OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS: Allan Sekula, Aerospace Folktales - creates a series of folktales as yet another way to approach the public documentary.

Victor Burgins: "Life Demands a Little Give and Take" Pedro Meyer - also works to redefine documentary. "Documentary photography has implied a practice in which the photographer examined a socially conscious concern of the time within an extended form. An extensive series of images as well as the use of text are utilized to provide an in-depth examination into a subject with the intention to suggest empathy and/or social change."

Artists are turning the nature of traditional documentary on its side. How objective is documentary?

Documentary photography is interesting because people normally expect a the contents of a photo to be true, as opposed to an interpretation of reality (such as like in a painting) -- but it isn't always entirely fully true.

How do we know if something is true or not in a documentary?

One person's idea of documentary photography is to bring awareness to an issue.

CARRIE MAE WEEMS
From Here I Saw what Happened and I cried: - Reinterpretation of a historical document.

Carrie Mae Weems - Kitchen Table Series.

DAILY DESIGN INSPIRATION

2008-10-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

By Oliver Munday. http://www.olivermunday.com

Intelligentsia Coffee Packaging

Post-Modernism Painting

2008-10-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Post-Modernism Painting Shows:
-Variation of Styles
-Historical pastiche
-Appropriation -Response to mass media and media-driven imagery.
-Critique of authorship and originality.

Gerhard Richter - Atlas Sheet 515. 1994. Understanding painting by understanding photography.
A New Spirit in Painting, 1981
1980s interest in return to the figure and expression in painting, especially in response to de-materialized art forms of the 1960s and 1970s.

Lucian Freud, Reflection, 1985.
Lucien Freud's painting of a woman: This sold for $33 million.

Francis Bacon, Self-Portrait, 1979.

George Baselitz, The Gleaner, August 1978. Oil and tempera on canvas.
Neo-expressionist, focuses on re-formation of the figure, on vibrant color.

Sigmar Polke, Another Neo-Expressionist.
'Untitled (Abstract Red Transparent Picture with Arrow Pointing Upward). 1990.

Land Art - Postmodernism

2008-10-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

Postmodernist Art

Land Art -New Possibilities for Medium in Art -Temporary Works -Site-based Works -A Challenge to the notion of "object for institution"

EXAMPLE OF LAND ART: Walter De Maria - The Lightning Field, 1977. Western New Mexico.
Lightning hits the poles, you can pay to go there and witness the lightning.

http://www.lightningfield.org/

Walter De Maria - The New York Earth Room, 1977
-An Interior Earth Sculpture, 250 cubic yards of earth, within a space of 3600 sq. feet. 22" depth of the material.

Richard Long - A Line Made by Walking. 1967
Richard Long often incorporates circles and lines in his art. He doesn't want to change or alter landscape on a permanent scale, but accept that their art will return to their natural state after it is created (like with his line made by walking).

Richard Long - Red Slate Circle, 1980. Red slate stones. Diameter: 336 inches. Goldsworthy, Andy. Snowballs in Summer.
In 1999 he collected snowballs, filled each one with surprise in the center -- pebbles, sheep wools, etc. Put the finished snowballs in a deep freeze storage until summer, then transported them to London in refrigerated trucks. Midnight June 21st, 2000, he rolled these snowballs out all throughout parts of London.
They melted in two days, but what remained were the natural elements embedded within the snow.

Pop Vs. Soda Map

2008-10-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

Information Design

Examples of Information Design

2008-10-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

Graphs, Charts, and other ways of mapping information in a visually appealing, clear way.

DRAPLIN DESIGN CO.

2008-10-08T16:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.draplin.com/

I found these guys through one of my studio classes. They are based in Portland, OR. I love the work!

some of their posters:

Intro to Contemporary Art

2008-10-08T13:01:00.001-07:00

Conceptual Art challenged the Modern Art World beginning in the 1960s. ART begins to be seen as an INQUIRY; ART as ANALYTICAL.
What is the nature of art? Object becomes "art" by virtue of selection or nomination on the part of the artist (a la Marcel Duchamp). Is there no intrinsic value?

Marcel du Champ - 1912, into cubism and abstraction. Takes nude form and expresses it mechanically.

Abstract Expressionism - male dominated movement, mostly male artists. Kandinsky was one of these Russian abstract expressionists. He focused on music as an art form. He was more about an "essence" rather than purely what you see.

The abstract form becomes ideal due to the idea that aesthetic pleasure is found in painting itself and not the subject. Ideas of abstraction in art are at this time being paired with philosophy; it becomes very personal.

"Neo-Dada" Art Movement - Bridge between Abstraction, Expressionism, and Pop art.
"Watershed Years" 1965-1985: Pop art enters the realm of fine art.
1970s: Minimalism, Post-Minimalism, process art, earth works, body art, feminist art, conceptualism, photorealism, video, film, performance art, etc. Themes of this time period are critique of institutional structures, role as artist in society.
1960s-1970s: Explosion of anti-form, process-oriented practices: environment, performances, happenings.
Conceptual Art: Concept is primary over material; the artist isn't always the "maker" in the traditional sense but sometimes the director or etc.
1980s-1990s: Art reflects consumerism, provides "food for thought."
Postmodernism: Art & attitudes from later 20th century. Emphasis on content and "impurity of works" that mix mediums, embrace diversity, use vernacular imagery. Embraces modernism. Represents a dissolution of traditional categories. Free from the dogma of modernism.

Eventually abstract impressionism becomes irrelevant because people want to start seeing art with a message. -Art becomes DE-MATERIALIZED and exists only as a kind of possibility of the mind (Does art have to be about objects at all?). -Art is Philosophy; it is not about process or technique, it is about the theory (A. Danto).

Conceptualist Artist Joseph Kosuth (American, born 1945). One and Three Chairs. 1965. Wood folding chair, mounted photograph of a chair, and photographic enlargement of a dictionary definition of "chair."Interpretation of One and Three Chairs:

"The work One and Three Chairs can be seen to highlight the relation between language, picture and referent. It problematizes relations between object, visual and verbal references (denotations) plus semantic fields of the term chosen for the verbal reference. The term of the dictionary includes connotations and possible denotations which are relevant in the context of the presentation of One and Three Chairs. The meanings of the three elements are congruent in certain semantic fields and incongruent in other semantic fields: A semantic congruity ("One") and a threefold incongruity ("One and Three"). Ironically One and Three Chairs can be looked upon as simple but at the same time be a rather complex model, of the science of signs. Looking at the piece, it causes you to ask yourself what's real here. What's real here, is the fact that the definition is real. This being that without a definition, you would never know what an actual chair really is.

There exist different interpretations of these semantic and ontological aspects, some of them refer to Plato´s Republic (Book X) and others refer to Ludwig Wittgenstein´s Tractatus (see Inboden) or to Charles S. Pierce's triad icon-index-symbol (see Tragatschnig). Dreher discusses the semantic problems of One and Three Chairs as inclusions of circles which represent semantic fields (see Dreher).

The work tends to defy formal analysis because one chair can be substituted for another chair, rendering the photograph and the chair photographed elusive to description. Nevertheless the particular chair and it's accompanying photograph lend themselves to formal analysis. There are many chairs in the world thus only those actually used can be described. Those chairs not used would not be analyzed. The enlarged dictionary definition of the word chair are also open to formal analysis, as is the diagram containing instructions of the work." -From Wikipedia

Joseph Kosuth, Ex-Libris (Wittgenstein's Gift), 1990. Lithograph on vellum paper with following quote:

"What you are regarding as a gift is a problem for you to solve." -Wittgenstein

Gives to the concept that there is more than one way to interpret art, a post-modernist theme.

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #146, September 1972.

Value we find is knowledge and thought gained through artistic production, which is more important than the finished product.

Sentences on conceptual art by Sol Lewitt:

Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
Rational judgements repeat rational judgements.
Irrational judgements lead to new experience.
Formal art is essentially rational.
Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.
Since no form is intrinsically superior to another, the artist may use any form, from an expression of words (written or spoken) to physical reality, equally.
For each work of art that becomes physical there are many variations that do not.
One usually understands the art of the past by applying the convention of the present, thus misunderstanding the art of the past.
Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.

Lawrence Weiner's Declaration of Intent, 1969
1. The artist may construct the piece.
2. The piece may be fabricated.
3. The piece need not be built. Each being equal and consistent consistent with the intent of the artist, the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership.

Art is the hands of the receiver.

2008-07-30T12:10:00.001-07:00

In my interactive media class, we are working on a website for our electronic portfolios. Mine is a work in progress at www.tutorialistic.com. Feedback/suggestions welcome.

In the process of developing our sites, the professor gave us two very interesting links... one with examples of inspiring portfolios, and one with not-so-great portfolios.

I really enjoyed these links, especially seeing the good portfolios. In many of them not only was the layout great, but the design work was amazing.

It also talks about the use of small thumbnails as a way of showing work, and why it isn't always the best thing to do. It mentions that when you use thumbnails that show only a small portion of your work, it doesn't really give you any motivation to click on one or the other. As thumbnails many times being part of the design of the website, I believe it may be better to make them bigger so that they show more of the work's uniqueness before the user even clicks on them for full version. Anyway, it has much more information about it on the link.

THE LINKS:

http://astheria.com/design/portfolios-that-accomplishgoals - portfolios that accomplish goals

http://astheria.com/design/my-last-portfolio-sucked-yours-might-too - portfolios that kinda suck

2008-07-29T16:39:00.000-07:00

More Work

2008-07-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

While I was at school, I thought I'd post another one of the pieces that I've done and that also went into my Sophomore Portfolio Review. It is another assignment from one of my classes. It's a jazz poster for the Annual PDX Jazz Fest (but it had nothing to do with the actual event). It was an assignment that was originally worked on by three of us, which I then took and customized to my own liking for submitting for the portfolio review.

Original size was 16" x 22".

Some of my work

2008-07-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd provide images for some of my work I've done so far. Most of these have been done in school classes - all aimed toward achieving a certain design goal.
This first design was created using only the letters "g" and "d." The grid in the middle was incorporated because it was part of the instruction for the assignment. We had to come up with a grid that resonated and worked well, considering the colors and the letters "g" and "d"; including how they were arranged, what colors they were going to be, and so on.

This second image was created actually on my own outside of class. It's a design incorporating a quote from the Tao te Ching, one of my favorite books. I currently am using it as a design for my online store at cafepress. (www.cafepress.com/observed)

This third image is a pepsi label I design for the Pepsi Can contest. Whoever won of course got their design on pepsi cans all over the place and won a bunch of money. Unfortunately I didn't win. :( But I still like the design.

This fourth image was a class assignment. The goal was to create a catalog cover for Portland State's 2009 Summer Session classes. The final version is slightly different - the "e" in summer is moved to the left a bit, and the small print in the lower left is spaced better. I'll have to find the final version later. Anyway, we had to use type in an interesting way for our catalog cover.

This fifth image was also a school assignment. The objective was to create a cover for a technical design graphics manual. We had to find technical graphics and create unique illustrations from them. So I found some technical graphics, took them into illustrator and re-drew parts of them and put the parts together to create my own unique illustration.

More to come later!

Ellen Lupton

2008-06-30T13:51:00.000-07:00

So, I'm working on a project for typography - it will be an approximately 20 page booklet, serving as an anthology of the works of designer Ellen Lupton.

Upon doing research for this project, I found out lots of neat things about Ellen.

Ellen Lupton is a writer, curator, and graphic designer. She is director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, where she also serves as director of the Center for Design Thinking.

What I like about her is her philosophy on design, and how it should be shared with others and allow others (even those who aren't designers) to learn about design; and she goes out of her way to make information more reachable by the public via blogs, being a teacher and providing her projects and syllabi online as well, writing articles, giving lectures, and so on.

Ellen came from a family of English teachers, and she has incorporated a more intellectual aspect (rather than mostly visual) into her design. She likes to view the designer as an overall producer, and she is a great speaker and writer in addition to being a designer, and so she uses this to bring design awareness to anyone who is willing to listen.

Ellen is a 2007 recipient of the AIGA Gold Medal, one of the highest honors given to a graphic designer or design educator in the U.S.

She also has a blog along with her website at http://www.elupton.com, the blog being at http://www.design-your-life.org/

"I launched the Web site DesignWritingResearch.org in January 2003 in order to revive the studio in the extra-curricular, quasi-underground spirit with which it was founded. The site is an archive of writing and a communications tool for my work as a curator and teacher. Having this site has put me in contact with students and designers around the world. A group of graduate students in Israel was reading the material on design and deconstruction, for example, and I constantly get questions and requests from students working on research projects. I now have two other Web sites, ThinkingWithType.com, a resource for teachers, students, and designers, and design-your-life.org, a blog about applying design thinking to everyday situations. The most interesting thing to me about all of these sites is how they put readers and writers into direct contact with each other. The Web is a social medium." - Quote from interview with Lawrie Hunter

In addition, Ellen has written a few books, one of which I just ordered, called "Thinking with Type."
A great book for typography, and has its own website at: http://www.papress.com/thinkingwithtype/
Its website is basically considered an online companion for the book, so the website actually has a lot of useful information on typography rules and so on. It also has projects to try as well as tools for teachers.

Among Ellen's other books are D.I.Y. - Design it Yourself, a book for generating ideas for all sorts of creative designs serving different functions, whether you are a designer or not.
If you want to get a preview, check it out HERE. As you may know, google allows you to preview select books (with some pages omitted from the preview). In the book she explains many different techniques for making things visually appealing.

There is also a Design it Yourself for kids - with artwork featured by other kids. Ellen explains that it's not one of those how-to art books that you always see where the animals start out as mere triangles and circles, then suddenly transform into a beautiful drawing. She keeps it simple and practical, showing how to do things that can challenge a child while teaching them about art and design, but that will be completely do-able, not being unreasonable in terms of difficulty and complexity.

The Design it Yourself for Kids book also has its own website (a very nice one indeed) at http://www.diykids.org/ which features some of the sample projects that are in the book as well. The book was co-authored by her identical twin sister Julia Lupton, who is involved with Ellen's career in many ways - influencing her writing, helping her with blogging, writing books, and so on.

Introduction to the Blog

2008-06-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

So, this is my second blog created on blogger, the other covering spiritual issues, poetry, philosophy, humor, and so on. However, being a third year undergraduate graphic design student, I am constantly thinking about, and doing design. Throughout research, my classes and professors, and experience itself in general, I come across many different articles, good books, good examples of design and design theory, and so on. In this way I am able to provide constant new design/creative news. So I thought, why not make a design blog about it and collaborate these things? Hopefully making it easier for other students and dezyners (don't ask me why I love to spell it like that) to find good information and good books that comes from not just myself but my professors.

I'll do what I can to make the blog interesting and fun, so please - enjoy your visit and check back for updates! :)

If you'd like to contact me about anything whatsoever, please do so, at balanc3d@gmail.com