bodies experiencing

Hey everyone-

Here's a delayed post about the book that I talked about during my presentation. It's called The Spell of the Sensuous, by David Abram. I have the library's copy right now, but if you ever run into it anywhere, or have time next semester, I would highly recommend flipping through it a little. He talks about his experiences of re-entering the bland Western environment after having traveled through Asia where he was very stimulated by his surroundings, and his attempt to re-connect to or explore the "reciprocal relationship" that humans have with nature. It's a really delightful read because of his writing, but for me especially because of his discussion of the subjective, emotional daily experience--which is often overlooked in a world where hard sciences and non-subjective truths are prioritized.

Also, congratulations with Feet to the Fire--I was very impressed with everyone's work!

The Earth From Above

While I was avoiding my term paper by googling random stuff in the library last night, I stumbled upon the French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and was really taken by his work. His series 'La Terre vue du Ciel' [The Earth From Above], is an aerial portrait of the world and is quite striking. Check out his website. He also founded the non-profit organization GoodPlanet.org, an advocate for environmental sustainability. 

plastic ocean

miwa koizumi wanted some pets. so she created PET project, a set photography and installation pieces. She created sea creatures out of plastic bottles
She said: "I love the idea of using liquid containers to make water animals. Contained/containing, trash/not-trash, like the jelly-fish or anemone: Living/non-living"

These really resonated with me in relation to our discussion last week on the levels of plastic accumulating in the ocean.
Now let's enjoy her PETsCheck out more at http://miwa.metm.org/PET_project/

yum yum

In case anyone wanted more information on the Acorn Pig Cinema, Insa Winkler's official website is insawinkler.de. The Acorn Pig project is under the ArtEcology section.

She also has a lot of other cool projects that she's done, or that are in the works, so I recommend peeking around the site.

The F.R.U.I.T project's site is http://www.free-soil.org/fruit. 

Go grow a demonstrator! 

Sloooow

As in, I have been slow to post on our blog. Also, as in "slow prototyping." Tomas Gabzdil over at Studio Libertiny created a clever and beautiful counterpoint to the sudden profusion of rapid prototyping in the form of a simple vase. In order to make a vase, he enlisted the help of thousands...of bees. The results are quite haunting. I first saw a photograph of this work months ago, and I still can't get it out of my head.He created hives in the form of a vase, then let the bees do their work. In one week, he had a set of incredible, unique objects. It makes me think about other ways we might be able to work with animals and natural processes to create art.

Final Project Idea

I want to create a performance piece that consists of me "sleeping" in a "dangerous" environment composed of natural, and perhaps recycled materials. I want to highlight the simultaneous calmness, inaction, and fragility of humanity in the face of dangers posed by the earthly environment as altered through human action. I'm imagining myself laying in the grass closely enclosed with sharp objects (tree branches, maybe glass).

whoa

I'm thinking about doing a piece of living sculpture for my project, and I was just cruising the web and I stumbled upon this guy- Theo Jensen. He builds gigantic skeletal structures that are able to walk in the wind. They are called 'strandbeests,' which means "beach animals," and he eventually wants to build enough for a whole herd that will live there on the beach. It's kind of creepy, but really cool. Here's a good article on him: http://www.artfutura.org/02/05jansen_en.html
I'm not sure how to upload videos directly on to here, so check out the video about him on youtube. It's a little dramatic, but he's actually building these crazy strandbeests!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMqftVhOuTw

-Katherine