some inspiration for you as you work. ideas we have covered this semester, roughly ... 

We have a RUNWAY

All - an artist has been kind enough to loan us a specialized flooring to use as our runway this April 29.
We should treat it with the utmost care. That means: *models only* on the runway.  : ) 


Best,
DR. T. 

Mechanization turns cookies into cutters and genericism explode

Thinking back from last class, in my process of creating my zip-tie light, I thought about the mechanization and the generic yet unique qualities i'm trying create with my light.  This made me think of how architecture today is morphing into a general design quality of futuristic with organic qualities.

What happened to all of the variety?  What happened to making things more than just plain walls and open spaces?  Where is the home, where is the personality of design?  Architects are building the shells of an egg, but an egg is not an egg without the yoke.  Without the yoke, the egg is something that can be broken and smashed and forgotten.  Design has progressed towards a generic quality of design; beginning from the industrial revolution to the ideology of the “American Dream” founded by the creation of Levittown, to now the Ikea mentality of cheap mass produced products.  Though in form building design has progressed farther away from the cookie cutter bland generic Levittown house, it is following the trend of organic crazy shapes such as those created by Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid.  There is nothing truly original since, the internet makes it so that any original idea is quickly dispersed and made into a general lack of consideration. 

Political Prisoner

I was reading about Ai Weiwei and found him an example of political prisoner.

I first heard about him when he had his Sunflower Seeds installed at the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London last year. "The work consists of one hundred million porcelain "seeds," each individually hand-painted in the town ofJingdezhen by 1,600 Chinese artisans, and scattered over a large area of the exhibition hall.^[31] The artist was keen for visitors to walk across and roll in the work to experience and contemplate the essence of his comment on mass consumption, Chinese industry, famine and collective work."

Recently I heard from TED and other sources that because of the anti-country art works and his activist protest against the government, first surveillance cameras were installed outside his studio, then he got beaten up by the police, detained from leaving the country, imprisoned, and his studio was destroyed by the Chinese government.

I love his work as an artist and really appreciate his courage to stand up against the authority regardless of the threats to his life. I recommend you to watch the video below if you're interested in his story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vX8OM7f9sE

A brief biography of Ai Weiwei from Wiki:

Ai Weiwei (pinyin: Ài Wèiwèi; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese artist and activist, who is also active in architecture, curating, photography, film, and social and cultural criticism.^[1][2] Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuronas the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics.^[3] In addition to showing his art he has investigated government corruption and cover-ups. He was particularly focused at exposing an alleged corruption scandal in the construction of Sichuan schools that collapsed during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. He intensively uses the internet to communicate with people all over China, especially the young generation.^[4] On 3 April 2011 police detained him at Beijing airport, and his studio in the capital was sealed off in an apparent crackdown by the Chinese authorities on political dissidents.

News on Set Design/Props

Hi Students,

FYI's: 
You are in charge of bringing pedestals and any props you'd 
like to decorate our exhibition space.

Using tables for our runway is not going to possible - safety is the concern.


Have a great week and get your Artist Statements to me as soon as you can.


Dr. T.

A design competition - Queer Fashion

Hi Students,

I am organizing the Saturday night fashion show for this, below.  

UCLA is offering prize money for the best poster. 

--

UCLA LGBT Studies Poster Competition.  Prize: $500. 

Deadline:  Monday July 25^th, 2011

The topic of the conference is “Fashion” which we interpret very broadly to include the fashion industry, fashion history, and ways of ‘fashioning’ or making selves, families etc.  You can put the word “Fashion” on the poster anywhere you want. 

The poster should contain the following text. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

UCLA Queer Studies Conference 2011

Fashion

October 14 and 15, Royce Hall, UCLA

Keynote Speakers:

Jack Halberstam, Monica Miller, Mignon Moore,

Karen Leigh Tongson, Deborah R. Vargas

Closing Performance: 

“Queerture: A night of rocket science and fashion design”

with artistic director Tania Hammidi

Organized by the UCLA LGBT Studies Program

For more information see www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/lgbts

Contact lgbts@humnet.ucla.edu

---------------------------------------------------------

We are hoping for a poster that is strongly multicultural.  Other than that, we don’t have requirements for the style. 

Size: 8 1/2 x 11

(Ideally, you would also be able to adjust it slightly so that it could be printed as either

11 x 17 or 8 ½ x 11.)

Send as a jpeg file to contact below.  Should be available as a vector file with as high a resolution as possible.  (It should allow us to blow the image up to larger poster size.)

Should be somewhat flexible so that you can, for example, add a name later if we need to. 

You can see other examples of posters and can also get a sense of the papers presented at the conferences from--

http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/lgbts/events/pastconferences.html

Email Catharine McGraw at mcgraw@humnet.ucla.edu

415 Portola Plaza

146 Humanities

Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1384

(310) 206-1145

Alternative Body

This practice was about using zipper and words, 'Alternative Bodies' and create an image out of Alternative Body. The 'A' has a foot and zipper opens up and create a new space and on this space, there is the man and woman, I got them from the sign.

Collage

Collages of stripes and patterns and lot of passionate colors. I create an image of a cat.

Alternative Bodies Final Show Page

Hello all! So the poster/publicity team finished and ordered the postcards. I'm picking them up tomorrow morning in Oakland before coming to class. And. Surprise! We agreed upon creating an event page on Facebook for our final show. Since I don't have everyone as my Facebook friend, I couldn't invite all of you. Please follow this link, RSVP and invite your friends and family if you like!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=117344491679852

Cheers!


For those who aren't here in class today, each of you need to give me $2.50 for the postcards because the total was ~$30 and there are 12 of us. You can pick up 3 or 4 cards per person. If you don't need them let me know, so that I can place them in A2 cafe. :)

The art that does not define the artist

Last week's discussion brought me back to a class I previously took called Heroes & Anti-Heroes.  This course touched upon the ideas of certain heroes having a different background than what they represented.  If an artist's background or personal choices affect the perception and reception of their work.  I would like to say that it doesn't, (because it shouldn't) but art is such an emotional extension of one's body and mind that to disregard the artist as a person would change the art and the definition of art.  The definition of art has gotten rather blurred, so its not a concrete definition, but for those who make art for arts sake or just because it looks nice still has an emotion attached to it.  I wonder how many people reconsider how they perceive someone's art once they find out more about the artist?

Music Team - Report in!

Music Team 
Read on - this is what I need from you!  We need about 20 mins of music that rocks - pick some fast songs and some slows songs.   Consult with the three designers + 1 illustrationist (see below for names) and ask them what kind of music they want for their designs. Create a music list that incorporates 4-5 minutes for the first FOUR names below.  Total: ~20 minutes.   We may fine-tune this list next week, but for now: get working please!


SUMMARYof all music needs 
Opening music for 3-3:20 pm.
Music for Fashion Show: 3:20 - 3:40
Music for Introductions of all students and projects to audience: 3:40-4:30
Quiet music for end of the main event: event ends 5-6pm.


ALL:  FYI. Please no alcohol prior or during runway walk, not for anyone in class nor the models.  Modeling is a skill and art form! Take it seriously and give it your full attention!


1 Caryn: DESIGNER  - Caryn: train your model/s! 
2 Maria: fashion illustrations 2D    Maria, I have an idea for you about the install - let's talk on Fri
3 Jason: DESIGNER - go for it!
4 Patti: DESIGNER - have a blast and train your models!
5 Eun: installation and wall space for 2D Eun, share your ideas with me about your install so I have an idea of it - let's talk Friday
6 Devin:  sculpture Keep me posted where you might want to put this and what the install looks like.
7 Amy: light installation Keep us all aprised of where you might put the light as next week or so comes around.
8 Adika: installation and wall space for 2D We're all set - ask any questions as they arise.
9 Martinus: installation and wall space for 2D Looking forward to your work - ask any questions!
10 Denali: painting installation and illustration Denali: let's go to 141 and you share your ideas about the install - even if it you are still feeling it out.
11 Peter: graphic novel Peter, will you install this on a platform, hand it out, or put it 2D on the wall?
12. Suri: Fashion catalgoue -- installing on a table top. Great!


See you all soon,
~ Dr. T.

Fun Vs Fear

Here is a link of an interesting video with a topic related to our discussion and novel.

http://www.thefuntheory.com/piano-staircase

In this video, a group of creative people is trying to prove that fun is a more powerful compare to fear (coercive VS non coercive). The aim is how to make a healthier lifestyle and saves energy by taking stairs rather than an elevator.

What they did was transforming the stairs into piano keys and they will sound just like a real piano, the tone will be higher as you goes up and lower as you goes down. Some people are even trying to play a song by going up and down. From this innovation, it has been observed that more people took stair than the elevator.

It is a good idea to apply this kind of non coercive method to create a sustainability or lowering the crime level in United States. Fun as a replacement for fear (prisoner).

Nation Building

After the discussions in class, i was thinking about the term "nation building". I was thinking about how a nation develops and how communities form. Superiority over another is what really interested me, because i think this is a problem that is also suffered in my home country Indonesia. The two races in Indonesia both feel that they are superior to each other, thus sometimes creates segregation between each other. I have been thinking hard how i can change this as a designer. I am very nationalistic and i hope that my designs in the future can help my country "nation build".

The video we were watchin in class made me realize that there are lots of people in this world that are not being treated fairly. Personally i think i would go crazy if i was put in a small white room for years.

Nation Building and Design

I was researching and reading some journals online to make sure I got the concept of nation building correct, and found these particularly nice/helpful articles I wanted to share:

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/nation-building/
http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=2167

They are not exactly about contemporary American designs, but very well-written!

Social Resistance

I keep thinking how there are people who find it important to speak their mind and i wonder why is that they have the need to protest.The way society is build, the powerful on top, then the rest who follow and the ones who don't care to belong and the once who care too much.
In every single group there is, I am sure, that person that feels need for change because of personal need or else.
I think the Hegemony system is not fare, it works because it is the organized way society is been built to work successfully. It is unfair because the people from the lower part of the triangle will never claim up, since they lack source, not enough education and most of all because the top keeps them oppress. It is suppose to be an agreement because there is not other choice for the unfortunate.

Nation and the movers

From last class, and thinking about nation building and what it means makes me think to the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.  Though this might not directly associate with what the main categories of an alternative body, I feel like (especially with the term nationbuilding) her novels, The Fountainhead, The Anthem, and Atlas Shrugged enforce this idea of individualism.  The protagonists celebrate individualism and ideas that seem to go against the current.  Society expects them to fit and form to the methods and traditions, and a quality of giving people a reward for such a lack of effort.  In nationbuilding, and thinking about the movers and shakers of the world, it makes me realize how much negativity is used as a natural fuel for motivation and drive.  Fear and insults drive people to do better, but why is this tactic necessary?  Thinking about the laughter as a fuel comment, it seems as though the main basis for why people might do something extraordinary is that they feel that they some how have to be vindicated for whatever trouble had affected them (directly or indirectly).  Leadership and the desire for leadership and changing is based off of negativity.  I was just thinking, what if we stopped and thought, and turning internal negative energy into supportive laughter. 

Structure of the 2-3 page paper

Hi students,


FORMAT/SUBJECT OF ESSAY


Turn in a professional, double-spaced essay that addresses this question:
what is the relationship between your design, and how the U.S. nation might be constructed?


You should reference Dylan Rodriguez's _Forced Passages_, pages 1 - 39 and p. 185-223 for this. 
If you do not reference Rodriguez, you will be penalized.


While you can help each other on this project (perhaps by blogging? or just talk to each other), your essay should reflect YOUR ideas about YOUR design process.


Yes, as discussed in class, you may reference your home country if it is helpful to compare what you know best, about your experiences as a designer/artist/illustrator in the United States.


STRUCTURE
A good essay will have an imaginative opening section, followed by your statement that describes what nation-building is, as we discussed in studio.  At the end of this section, you will asssert your THESIS.  A thesis is an opinion and belief that you can back up by providing EXAMPLES and ANALYSIS throughout the remainder of the paper. This opening should be 2 - 3 paragraphs long.


The remainder of your pages will be your argument, providing visual and/or verbal examples that support and build your argument (or, thesis).  In this secion, you can and should cite Dylan Rodriguez's book.   Reminder: don't just site Rodriguez in quotes. Also argue with him, bring up a subject he leaves out, discuss why or why not his ideas are helpful to you as a designer.


The last 1-2 paragraphs are your conclusion to the paper. Summarize what you have just told your reader, then finish with an exciting few thoughts of your own!


DUE
This essay is due as soon as class begins - noon.
No late papers, no absences.


Bring drawing and/or paint utensils to class this upcoming Friday.


My best,
Dr. T.

Keep Blogging!

Hi Everyone,


Wouldn't it be nice if audiences of alternative markets embraced the 'different' with the same
laughter and joy?


Let's see what you can do!  If you get stuck in your process, always defer to laughter. This is
something we haven't talked about much this semester. But: humor is often a great antidote for
Serious Topics.

http://vgportal.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/3481908/Transgender-singers-a-web-hit.html


Dr. T.