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.