{"id":150,"date":"2016-12-01T16:36:42","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T16:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/?p=150"},"modified":"2017-01-17T16:37:40","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T16:37:40","slug":"semester-summary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/01\/semester-summary\/","title":{"rendered":"Semester Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/b>For me, it is an important distinction that this is my first semester. As such, I was afforded various challenges and opportunities which I believe were critical in laying the groundwork for my goals and approaches to my study in the coming semesters. Perhaps the most relevant was that this semester allowed me to create for the singular purpose of producing Art, looking within myself to find what that meant for me, and having the luxury of spending my term bringing it to some form of external expression. Furthermore, I spent a considerable portion of time analyzing what I felt art and Art were because I found it vital to have a more thoughtful, detailed understanding of what specifically it is that I am exploring.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Academic<\/b><\/p>\n

From an academic perspective, I enjoyed a great deal of reading, poring over books, articles, and journals. This is my first foray into an academic environment for, and approach to, art. As such the assigned readings catapulted me into a wonderful rabbit hole of knowledge. The internet served as a beautiful web, as it was originally intended, and as I began to look into terms or artists or pieces that piqued my interest, I would inevitably look up from my screen hours later to find I had ended in a new realm entirely. I realize I likely could have spent my time more efficiently in my research if I had a bit more of a background, but personally I found my train of thought and the connections I followed to be fascinating. That said, it was invaluable to have the course readings, the paper assignments, and my advisor to help me maintain focus.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Term Papers<\/b><\/p>\n

For my focused research, I explored a number of topics related to Art movements and artists to which I relate, and I began to overhaul my personal definition of art and Art — for me these are subjective, relativistic terms that offer meaningful concepts when situated in the context of us as humans, informed by spheres of culture, and as speakers of a language. I found that required research of art in its historical context partnered with requests to explore contemporary pieces on exhibit, helped me to synthesize the rather large influx of knowledge, thus informing my studio work as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Throughout the semester I studied Baudrillard and Walter Benjamin, their opinions on what art is, why it is or can be meaningful, and how each thought it was (d)evolving. From here I decided to more carefully consider the idea of \u2018aura\u2019 in art and its contemporary status, as well as its place in my own work. I then went on to revisit some artists who had been most influential in my life, now that I had a new context with which to view them [historical and academically informed]. I looked to Janet Cardiff and George Miller\u2019s work with a new eye — their works had the same powerful and wonder-inspiring effect on me, but the take-away, the sustained influence, was more provocative, more lasting because I was able to experience it, analyze it, and integrate it with new found vocabulary and context.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Exploring themes of previous interest, but through new artists, I researched Christian Marclay and specifically his piece, \u201cThe Clock\u201d, thanks to recommendations from my advisor and mentor. [Again, a great leap into the rabbit hole for me!] I went on to look at movements which I felt a kinship toward, to help ground me in the evolving art landscape and situate me with peers — those with a common objective or spirit in their work. I began to explore Allan Kaprow and John Cage, looking at the Happenings, Fluxus, and the various movements influenced by them. For me, the idea of experience is critical to my art, both my experience [artist\u2019s and artists\u2019] and that of viewers and\/or participants. I find discussion of Happenings and later related explorations to be provocative, particularly in relation to games as Art — something I plan to continue to research and analyze in the coming semesters.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Studio<\/b><\/p>\n

From the Studio side, my work involves a great deal of planning and experimentation. If I were painting, perhaps one could discuss the conceptual steps, sketches, research into lighting, practice of capturing various form, volume, and challenging materials, the mixing of personal recipes of paint for unique colors, underpainting, etc.. As I am creating a mixed media installation, there were many such steps involved, over a very broad spectrum of practice. First, of course, came my concept itself and a great deal of research in order to solve the problems involved in moving from idea to experience. I then drafted plans for the physical elements, sketched and modeled for the visual pieces, and wrote algorithms for the digital components. Final assembly involved programming, rendering, building, and construction of electronics. I continued to ask a number of questions as I moved through each phase, reconsidering certain solutions and tackling new challenges that arose with progress. My mentor meetings were wonderful experiences, cathartic, and confessional. I never speak of my work to anyone until it is to be open to everyone, and so she was the single exception to this rule, not only for this piece but for any I have ever done. I had already incorporated this mentor portion into my plan for the program, so I consider it an element in the piece itself, and it was a very positive component!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Coming Semester<\/b><\/p>\n

I cannot be entirely clear about next semester as I will be using my Residency to inform my intentions. At this particular point, prior to that information, I am working on a concept involving the exploration of visual reality and human empathy. Reality has always been a topic of interest, as seen in my submitted portfolio pieces and this semester\u2019s work — I am particularly interested in subjective\/objective reality and the persistence of reality over time. I strongly foresee a continued exploration of that as one element of my work next term, but the specifics of how that will manifest for viewers\/participants, I will leave open until after interactions at the Residency. Experience and interaction will almost certainly remain components of my work next term, as that is the core of my chosen<\/p>\n

medium.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For me, it is an important distinction that this is my first semester. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151,"href":"https:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions\/151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulm.taddug.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}