Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Syllabus Changes

I'm noticing an interesting occurance about new media artists : Not all new media artists are "working" artists. Some of the new media videos/projects I've got bookmarked are one-off things; People do something good, post it, and thats it. They don't get gallery shows, or reviews in fancy magazines. Maybe its time to re-think the idea of what makes a professional artist?

Marks List of possible artists :


Playing For Change
http://playingforchange.com/journey/introduction

I first found this group through this youtube video, which was realy cool.



I like their ideas that music can be this universal worldwide tie-in that connects all people, and I think their project is particularly well-suited to new media, and the internet is continuing to spread worldwide and reach a larger and larger audience. Some of their work is also borderline doccumentary, giving musical artists/cultures a way to get recorded and archived for the future.


Eepy Birds
http://eepybird.com/

I remember hearing about these guys back when it became a fad to put mentos in diet coke and watch the rather explosive reaction that followed. Actually, these guys WERE the fad - they pretty much started its most recent incarnation. Anyone who can take a bottle of coke and a candy and make cool performance art from it is cool. Period.

(View video here)

http://revver.com/video/27335/extreme-diet-coke-mentos-experiments/

Their latest work has involved sticky notes, but I'm not sure they've really done much since. . .

Eepybird's Sticky Note Experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

From the creators of the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment, EepyBird show us how to have fun with sticky notes.


Mike Stimpson

http://www.redbubble.com/people/balakov


Mike makes re-creations of famoust artwork (mostly photographs) in lego.

I like these two, since they represent a range of complicated to simple renderings.
I love the idea of high art being rendered in a childrens play medium.








FEB 2
3 artists - your interest to : jhall@massart.edu
-Start collecting info on chosen artists

-Artists Name
-URL with their work
-Why did I pick the artist?

-Check out steve wilsons link list (from class babel page) - Good place to get ideas

FEB 9
(Probably a work day)
Research includes citations
1)Web resources
2)Massart Databases

Feb 16
-Present your artist

1 comment:

Jen Hall said...

interesting observation about new media art. I would argue that there have always been artists who work outside the traditional venues in art. There have also always been artists working without interest in a professional practice. I think what is interesting is that now you can see more of these individuals as they can self-publish/self-promote on the internet. So the question you may want to ask is what makes the difference between an artist who just does a single artwork and someone who has a life-long commitment to making art?

I would suggest that you will find that the "professionals" have peer review articles, critical reviews, on-going shows, etc. So there will be a development of ideas from individual work to individual work, creating a larger (meta) discussion about the content they work with. So in this way, they make a contribution to the arts -- moving the content area forward.

This distinction is not trivial -- it is the difference between someone who gives a try in the arts and then someone who has/is building a career. For this project, we are looking at career artists. This is why I want you to make sure that you can find published critiques on your chosen artist. We will talk more in class today. Cheers!

-jen