THE INTERACTION OF COLOR
It is interesting to observe how certain colors, even when they are interacting with the mundane, make you feel. These might be feelings that you would never consciously associate with these people, places, and things. When I look at this picture of a random door on a random street that I happened to stumble open one afternoon in Barcelona, I feel instant warmth. The door is an electric shock surrounded by earthy, neutral tones, such as the color of the wall that surrounds it. Looking back at the moment that I took the picture, I don’t quite remember what I felt, but I do no that I was instantly attracted to the pop of green that door provided. It vaguely reminds me of pistachios, who’s color makes them appear not natural. In Spener Finches essay about the color Pistachio, he discusses Vladamir Nabokov’s concept of “colored hearing.” Nabokov states that there is a connection between the sound of a letter and color; for example, “the a in English is weathered wood.” In the case of my photo, I too can connect it to sounds. While the action of taking the image was a quick moment in time, one is able to look back at it and form associations that were not there to begin with. The way that it felt in that original moment is not the same as it now feels as a photograph. The warmth that it exudes is of a calming nature; I think of the warm summer sun, and I hear the leaves being blown by the wind—perhaps, if listen close enough, I can hear faint conversation and muffled giggles.
NEWSPAPER PROJECT
For the newspaper project, I decided to center my work around the issue of police brutality within the United States. I had done a photo project last year on the subject, so I was excited to incorporate those images into the newspapers. To figure out the layout of each page, I searched for various headlines/front pages that I could mimic. I chose four that I felt could communicate the idea well, and then juxtaposed my images into the pre-existing articles. Using the same headlines, I utilized a mixture of cut out letters from various newspapers as well has handwriting to spell them out. Furthermore, each paper has the original publication title drawn on the top of it—I used two from New York Post and two from Daily News. My process slightly differs from the artists in “The Last Newspaper Artists in Discussion,” as they discuss how they collected images and information from newspapers over long periods of time to create large collections and bodies of work. But it is interesting to see a how a medium that one often might think of as being “dead”—especially in our digital age—is being utilized in modern and contemporary forms of art. Artist Nate Lowman comments on digital culture states that online news sources seem to be “built on the idea of distraction” because everything is “one click away.” Physical newspapers present a completely different experience—there is a level of involvement that one doesn't experience when scrolling online. New Museum curator Benjamin Godsill furthers this by stating that when he reads a physical newspaper, he’ll ”flip the page and [he’ll] start reading something that [he] would never in a million years click on actively.” We approach the two different mediums differently.
PROGRAMMED: RULES, CODES, AND CHOREOGRAPHIES IN ART
1. Mika Tajima, Negative Entropy (Digital Ocean, NYC2, 4U, NAS, Pink, Quad), 2018 / Negative Entropy is a series of pieces that draw connections “between weaving and the history of computing.” Tajima calls them “abstract portraits,” but her subjects are not what one would typically think of upon hearing the word “portrait.” While one might know it without context, the subjects of this piece are “factories that employ industrial Jacquard weaving looms” and computer data center sites. The intricate works of art were weaved to create a Jacquard fabric; the patterns created are the visual translation of the sounds heard at the production sites that have been “transmuted into digital spectrogram images.” This specific piece from the series contains pinks, blues and oranges—all varying in shades. These colors were assigned to specific wave forms. Tajima’s work relates to what we’ve been learning in visual thinking because she took direct, scientific observations and data and then translated them into art. This is similar to what we did with the line project. I found it intriguing that she turned something that was originally an audio experience into a beautiful visual one.
2. Sol LeWitt, 4th wall: 24 lines from the center, 12 lines from the midpoint of each sides, 12 lines from each corner, 1976 From Wall drawing #289 / Sol Lewitt’s piece instantly reminded me of our line drawing project, as each time it’s created, it’s done via a set instructions, and therefore it’s also different every time. This also reminded me of previous artist’ work such as Donald Judd’s 1965 piece Untitled (Stacks); the amount of pieces this sculpture contains is based on the environment it is displayed in. Factors such as light then also affect what the audience sees, therefore always changing. LeWitt’s full Wall Drawing #289 is supposed to actually take up 4 walls, but in the Whitney’s exhibition it is kept to one; but, in the case of the style of work, that is perfectly okay, The instructions lie within the title, and that is the only thing that one must follow when creating the piece. It can be adapted for a variety of environments, so its presentation changes each time. In this rendition, the lines find themselves on a black wall; they are a simple white, creating a stark contrast. The viewer’s eye is drawn to the center point, at which 24 lines emerge from—it looks like a star or beam of light.
3. Ian Cheng, Baby ft. Ikaria, 2013 / Cheng’s piece instantly intrigued, as at first I was not quite sure what was going in. Baby ft. Ikaria is created through software, and it consists of a large screen containing a white space and “a swirl of debris.” The debris is animated by a set of voices; the interesting thing is that these voice belong to three customized chatbots who have been programed to conversate with each other. The bots are equipped with “basic learning abilities” and can “continually expand their dialogue,” but their thoughts often appear incoherent or intelligent. The debris continuously shifts, “repeatedly coalescing and then disintegrating.” The entire piece—the combination of the debris and the voices—feels alive, but also simultaneously completely mechanical. Perhaps Cheng’s work is a commentary on the modern life—a mix of real, human interaction and the ominous presence of technological innovations.
WORLD WIDE WEB
“The World Wide Web,” while certainly a loaded read, was interesting because it talked about something that has become second nature to many in a very scientific, introductory manner. It provided an in depth explanation about the Web and what it entails, and the tone made it clear that this was a completely new concept to many people. Reading it now, when technology and the internet has become so intertwined within our daily lives, is almost comical. But, it did relate back to the things we have been working on in class, like HTML—”a language of communication.” Furthermore, the article discusses the incredibly fast pace at which the Web changes and improves, which is something that holds true today. The world of technology is constantly changing, and people have more access to more data every day. At the end of the article, there is a list of developments that the authors hope to see come about, and to someone reading them now, they seem so incredibly simple. In The Library of Babel, Jorge Luis Borges discusses a philosophical concept of a library—one that is never ending and all consuming. According to him, “there was no personal or world problem whose solution did not exist in some hexagon,” a hexagon being a gallery within the library. This is similar to what the creators dreamed the Web to be—a place where one could access anything and everything, a place that held all of the answers.
LINE
When walking around a place as lively as New York City, one often does not take the time to think about what they are doing, seeing, or hearing. Every now and then you may focus on one thing, but many moments go unnoticed. The city is constantly changing and evolving,”throwing away its previous accomplishments and challenging the future.” When viewing the agglomeration of people and skyscrapers, from above, perhaps from within one of those very skyscrapers, the city begins to open up. Suddenly, you are able to draw connections from place to place, connecting the lines formed by the busy streets and congested buildings. The people become small, scurrying ants, hurrying to get back to their job before their lunch break comes to an end.
For my line project, I chose to look down onto Washington Square Park, allowing me to see it in its entirety. I then observed the park goers and watched them go about their day. What I was looking for was signs of intimacy, love, and connection. This included the four gestures of holding hands, hugs, having one’s arm wrapped around another, and the kinking of arms. This could have been enacted between friends, lovers, a mother and child—it didn’t matter. I observed in 5 minute intervals, and recorded every instance in which I saw one of the mentioned gestures. The reading stated that it is hard to reduce these “enunciatory operations”—the actions movements, transgressions of the “walkers”—to “a single graphic detail,” and there is a clear truth behind this. The gestures I observed, ones that can hold an abundance of feeling and meaning, were reduced to single lines—varying in color—on a piece of flat, white paper.