Video Art

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6_C8DthN94

Ryan Trecartin

Out of all the art pieces I've ever seen, this guy takes the prize for the most outrageous. At a first glance at any of his video art pieces, it seems like a bottled up mess of insanity. But if you take time to listen to some of the things the characters are saying through all of the insanity, it is actually kind of poetic. I think the overall idea that Trecartin is trying to express in his work is the mixing of so many stereotypes together as one chaotic mess. I think he's mainly trying to express the absurdity of doing so.

The Residents

This group of musicians/artists are way out there. I think it's cool that no one actually knows who any of them actually are. It kind of gives them the ultimate cult status unlike crappy bands like Slipknot, and other bands who wear masks who commercialize what they do in the cheesiest way possible. I've seen many bands who try to hide their identities by using masks or makeup, but it always ends up just being a gimmick. These guys aren't, and I think that's very different approach for the music world at least. All in all this group of artists serves justice to the world of music and of art as a true and unique creation.

Performance Art

Nam June Paik

I really enjoyed the diversity of all of this man's work. What I like best about Nam June Paik is how he fiddles with the notion of reality vs. virtual reality with many of his art pieces. It seemed that he made the use of the television to display this notion most of the time. I also really enjoy the "retro" look of many of his pieces, using old pieces of electronic equipment.
The way in which he used many different televisions to create a larger creation through putting them all together, really inspired me when I was thinking of ideas for my performance art piece with the solo cups. It used the same notion of putting a bunch of small objects together to create something with a greater meaning.

Stelarc

As soon as I saw this guy I thought immediately of the Borg from the old Star Trek shows. He has applied technology to try and add functions to our existing human bodies, which is remarkable. I think he is a very unique person to be able to apply his engineering ability with a completely creative and artistic attitude. I think that there is a lot of validity for some of the positive uses his works could be used for to help everyday people. I hope he continues his work and passes it down to a predecessor to carry on his work when he is no longer able to.

Orlan

Out of all the performance art pieces we have observed in class, her plastic surgery pieces are by far the most intense and powerful in my opinion. Most people would probably consider them to be way over the line of insanity, but I think in many respects that is part of what she is trying to express through them. I think that her underlying goal is to completely destroy the "image" barrier that binds our society by destroying her own feminine characteristics with the plastic surgery.

Grid Art

My gee-tar.

Flip Book Animation

The Change from the 1950s to the 1970s

There are a lot of factors that went into the culture shift from the 1950's to the 1970's. The must drastic underlying creator of change would be the Vietnam War, in my opinion. This created the biggest uproar and chaotic unrest into the US's society. There were thousands of Americans killed, many for a cause that the majority of people thought was useless. I think this opened the gates for art and entertainment to reach that darker plateau because of the anxiety and extreme uneasiness that was felt because of our involvement in this war.

The iPad

Since the unveiling of the Apple iPad last week, it has received massive amounts scrutiny from everyone. I have heard some people call it "an iPod touch on steroids", and "crap futurism". Many say they won't buy it because they already own an iPhone and an Apple computer, and that the iPad doesn't contain any extra features that those devices don't already do.

Now I'll admit, I was personally hyped up when I heard about this product. As I'm sure thousands of others were as well. And there in lies the main problem I think. All of Apple's new products have built such a strong halo effect that expectations have become incredibly high. Probably too high. Yes, even I was a little disappointed when I found out that it didn't really contain any extra major features that an iPhone or iPod Touch already had. But I don't think that that is the purpose of the iPad.

Our society is completely engulfed in technology and specific features included in all of our gadgets, most of which we all take for granted on a daily basis. I think we all often lose sight of the overall significance of it all.

I think the iPad deals mostly with aesthetic value. It isn't neccisarily about what it can do, but rather the ease and intimate nature of the device.

It's interesting that Steve Job's considers the iPad his most important thing he's ever done. We will find out soon enough if consumers think so too.