Unique Instuments

For our last class field trip, we went to the Museum of Metropolitan art. It was my first time being there. The museum is pretty big, considering that it's structural complex is longer than it's height. What intrigued my attention the most was it's musical gallery, considering that I am a musician my self. Our assignment is to create our own gallery of art based on the exhibits we saw at the Met. My gallery is going to be about unique musical instruments. Instruments that you will never see the common musician play.
"Mayuri"
19th century
Wood, Parchment, Metal, Feathers



"Sea Dragon"
17th Century
Wood, Brass

"Grand Piano"
ca 1790-95
varius materials

"Yunluo (Cloud Gong)"
19th century
Bronze

"Erhu"
19th Century
Wood, Python Skin, Cane, Gut

"Double Chromatic Harp"
After 1895
Wood, Various Materials

"The Whistling Jar
1000-1476
Mold Form Clay

"Slento"
Late 19th Century
Wood

"Gong Mallet"
19th-20th Century
Wood, Cotton

"Orcarina"
Late 19th Century
Clay

Public Art Reaction

Public Art is pretty much self explanatory. Usually landmarks which attract tourists.In my share of being a tourist, I once visited my birthplace; Los Angeles. In LA, one thing you will definitely see when you see is Hollywood's famous sign over Mt Lee in the Hollywood Hills.The sign stand 45 feet tall and is 350 feet long and was designed by Thomas Fisk Goff in 1923. It was originally named Hollywoodland and its purpose advertise local real estate development in the surrounding areas for only a year and a half but the sign was recognized as an international symbol during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Thomas Fisk Goff

"Hollywood"

Wood and Sheet Metal (1923-1978)

Steel (1978 - present)

1923

Illustrate a Story

Eric Jones was one of the first people in the United States to be fitted with a bionic hand. A bionic hand is a robot prosthetic that simulates an actual hand for amputees. His kids, Lanie and Alex ask him a few questions about it and he says that he misses being able to play the piano but he's trying to learn how to control the hand so he can play catch with his kids. Alex says that his dad reminds him of Darth Vader from star wars since he also has a bionic hand as well.

Below, I found a picture of Michael (Aka Shane West) from the show Nikita and I replaced his head with Darth Vader's mask. I chose him to represent Eric Jones because during the show, he loses his hand and it is replaced with a bionic hand as well.

http://storycorps.org/listen/lanie-alex-and-eric-jones/

Design In Our Lives

So for our third field trip, my art class and I went to the MoMa again to explore the architecture and design galleries. Our assignment was to determine the Ergonomics or Functionality of each design presented in the gallery. Many designs have both high functionality and low functionality.

 The Mine Kafon Wind Powered Deminer was designed by Massoud Hassani. It's purpose is to sweep any open fields to detect land mines and detonate them before any war soldiers proceed to infiltrate. I believe that the functionality is high because instead of soldiers risking their lives for a perimeter sweep, the Deminer makes everything a lot easier and safer. It saves a lot of time, walking, and most importantly the lives of others. It is easily assembled with bamboo and biodegradable plastics so it was reusable and easy to travel with.

The Bell-47D1, designed by Arthur Young, is the first helicopter certified for civilian use in 1946. It is two bladed, has a single engine, was produced by Bell Helicopter over 3000 times and was sold in 40 different country. This has a high functionality because the helicopter can be generally used as a method of transportation for passengers, and is still used to this day by news reports and police officers. Through the enhancements over time of course.

This may look like a simple table to our eyes, but the significance of the structure is that it is designed to withstand earthquakes. It can hold up to 1 ton in mass with out being destroyed. Though it has a meaningful design, the functionality isn't to high because the occurring of earthquakes are not to often as they once were. But the table would still make a nice office desk.

Another design with low functionality with a nice purpose would be the Basic House. It is used as a homeless shelter and can be pocket sized when put away. But the reason that it is low functioned is because it doesn't protect civilians from anything other than the rain.












The ergonomics of each design and prototype have their similarities and differences. The similarities between the high functioned designs is that the products are proven useful and are used every day but many people of to today's world. And of course the similarities between the low functioned are that they are less likely to be used if used at all by others. But the art and design were created by others for a purpose.


Artworks:

Massoud Hassani
Mine Kafon Wind Powered Deminer
Bamboo and biodegradable plastics
2011

Athur Young
Bell-47D1 Helicopter
Bent laminated birch plywood and metal
1946

Ido Bruno & Arthur Brutter
Earthquake Proof Table
Steel and birch plywood
2010

Martin Ruiz De Azua
Basic House
Polyester
1999

Art and Identity: The Museum of Modern Art.

     So about two weeks ago, I had my first class field trip to the Museum of Modern Art (Moma). It was actually my first experience there as well, so I was a little entertained by the works of art I saw. While I was there, my class and I were assigned to pick three separate paintings. Each painting is to fall under the category of either personal identity, historical identity, and cultural identity.

 

 A painting I chose to represent historical identity is the Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure) by Giorgio de Chirico. Gare Montparnasse is a train station in Paris and this painting was painted in 1914 just months before World War I. As you can see the two figures on the right, it appears to be two people that seem to be walking towards the train to make their departure from Paris. For what reason? Maybe to flee prior to the happening of WWI, one of the world's major historical events. In my perspective, as I look at this painting, I can feel the idea of the fear that some civilians had at the time knowing that a war could happen at any time.

The painting I chose to represent personal identity is Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World" which happened to have caught my eye as I walked around the Moma. The woman in the photo was Wyeth's neighbor who happened to be crippled by polio, a fatal crippling disease. He was inspired to create the painting when he saw Christina crawling the fields of grass. "She was limited physically, but by no means spiritually" stated Wyeth. He wanted to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would have considered hopeless. 

 Lastly, what I chose to represent for cultural identity is Philip-Lorca diCorcia's photograph titled "Major Tom; Kansas City, Kansas; $20". diCorcia took pictures of men who had moved to Hollywood to follow their dreams, only to be found on the streets for prostitution. He paid the men to simply pose in the streets. Each photo is titled with the man's name, where he was from, and how much the man was paid for the photo. I feel that his photo strongly represents culture because in today's economy, many people struggle to make a decent living in cities and such.

As I browsed through the Moma, I learned that there were many different forms of art. To be honest, many forms that do not interest me. But three main forms are Paintings, photographs, and sculptures. Photography is where my interest lies the most in today's art world.

Artworks used:

Giorgio de Chricio

" Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure)"

Oil on Canvas

1914

Andrew Wyeth

"Christina's World"

Tempera on panel

1948

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

"Major Tom; Kansas City, Kansas; $20"

Chromogenic color print

1990-1992

Narrative Digital Collage

These are the things that were in my head when I was younger. The things that were my hobbies and interests at one point. Super heroes saving the world. Giant robots fighting for control and freedom. Break dancing to keep in shape. Video games in my spare time. Cars. Typical teenage guy things.

As you can clearly see, there's cars trying to race through Times Square while there's a bboy just trying to show off. As for Snake, he's just in his box as usual, trying to go unnoticed. And at the same time, Spider man is rushing to help while the city calls for batman as well. Optimus and Megatron are about face off in the middle of everything while Aang enters the avatar state to stop them. And obviously, my face is in on a bill board!

Good Art vs Bad Art.

Art is used in a way to express one's emotions. To be artistic is to be creative. To be creative is to be able to turn your distinctive personality into visual and/or mental images in another's mind. It gives them an idea of who you are. Visual art comes in many different forms such as dancing, drawing, acting, graphic web design, theatrical, etc. Mental art comes from verbal description such as poetry, music, and writing. 

In my personal perspective, good art is anything you can relate to, be inspired by, and appreciate. Everyone will always have different opinions because of their different interests. As for my self, I would honestly probably never develop an interest in such things you can find in museums. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate paintings and sculptures. I just wouldn't understand the meaning behind them as clearly as others can. The way I see it, you can have a great appreciation in art for the things you understand, but aren't capable of doing your self such as dancing, or drawing, or simply fashion. My skilled assets of art lies in the field of dancing, body movements such as gymnastics and parkour, music, and a little bit of photography.

Bad art in my opinion is I guess is art that no one can appreciate due to negative influence from the art. Art shouldn't be used to discourage others. It should be used to bring out the productivity and imagination in each person.

Here are some of examples of good art in my interests: