We started the day with donuts from Rolling Pin (5 star home made local donuts delectable!) for all and a brief discussion of the reading from The World Without Us which I could tell most of them hadn't read. A few did and they had lights on in their eyes and made it quite evident to me. But, I am not going to hold a grudge against them - they have a lot to do at this point. In fact, in lieu of the crunch time at hand for the students, I've opted to eliminate 2 of the readings I had planned to assign. I am replacing one with a 20 minute video that you can watch via The Story of Stuff website (Bravo Annie Leonard!). I have asked all students to watch it and please post a comment to our class blog with their perspective on it before class on Monday.
I want to stress to students to try to take turns looking at the big picture and the details, as much as possible from this point forth. I know is really hard with the lighting problem in the studio but this is the critical phase of their creations. Also, I'm asking students to stop to consider the foundation for their sculptures - whether it be a practical solution for how to wall mount their relief, a stable foundation for a standing piece or establishing a hang point for a suspended piece, this aspect should be addressed before too much more fabrication takes place - if any. It is easy to get lost in art making and forget these important issues and end up in a quandry later on.
That said, I am glad to see more effort being put in by most of the students. Effort makes itself apparent. Effort has a value. Art reveals everything the artist is thinking and doing. It is a window into the soul of the artist. There should be no automatic decisions. Kill your autopilot, love what you love to the fullest, make that your focus, and then you will make unique work that will resonate. Easy as pie. But you must think it all the way through, for yourself. Straight from the Aurora advisory board. Ha.
Good news: Thanks to Professor Sconyers (who has work in an exhibit called Printmaking Perspectives opening tonight at The Beverly Street Studio School in Staunton from 5:30-7:30) we managed to get our paws on a mini-airbrush that he loaned us for the duration of the class. It is so much more efficient and good for the work we are doing then using Prevals - which are simple and quite useful, but also very fussy & require an extremely light touch to get a consistent paint application. They really require some getting used to.
Okay, signing off for the weekend! I expect the students to be here diligently working in order to achieve their respective goals... If you are reading this send them some love and feel free to comment and cheer them on!
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| Note the reusable BPA free water bottle... |
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| Don't forget to breathe & be conscious of your breath! |
“The Story of Stuff” shines a light on the typical life time of consumer items and how it is actually harming not only the environment but our selves also. The chemicals that are placed in the products we use daily can cause a great deal of environmental issues in its creation and destruction once we are finished with it. Yet in the film they used an example of pillow and the chemicals it goes into creating said pillow that we breathe in for at least eight hours a night. While relaxing on Tumblr I came across a comic that explains nature and humans perfectly. http://imgur.com/r/pics/D05e8cE This image also made me think back to the film, and how this is exactly what we are doing to the earth and ourselves.
ReplyDelete"The story of stuff" really amazed me at how the resources are not only consumed to make harmful chemical products sold at a general store, but that once we use up all our natural resources we move to another third world country, claim it as our own, and use up their natural resources as well. I think the most shocking thing I learned was the part when she discussed the computer. How corporations try to upgrade all their old product to new ones, and that the only thing they are changing is a tiny chip that you could easily change, right?...Wrong! They make the same exact computer, change one thing (only changing the chip to a different shape or size) so you have to throw away your old computer, spend money and buy a new one, and waste resources. It's all about the dollar bill...sad!
ReplyDeleteI really liked The Story of Stuff because we as consumers never get the "Full Story" on where our stuff comes from, and what happens to it when we can't use it anymore. I didn't realize that Planned Obsolescence was a concept that corporations discussed to keep their consumers coming back. The fact that these companies that we love and trust are purposefully creating stuff that we can't use six months down the line is ridiculous, and very scary. I make it a point to use things as long as I can without replacing them with the new and better models that perceived obsolescence deals with. We are stuck in this cycle of consuming and destroying, and hopefully with new initiatives, we can escape it, not only for our own benefit, but for the earth's benefit as well.
ReplyDeleteThe video ,The Story of Stuff was very informative and had a lot of interesting facts in the video. Its pretty disturbing to think about how much we really consume as country and how it affects everyone living in it along with the environment.Also the information on Breast feeding was disturbing too. I think there are too many people that are not informed of so many things that they should be informed about.Also the note that if it goes in toxic it will come out toxic really stuck out to me.
ReplyDeleteI found "The Story of Stuff" to be quite interesting. Though I don't think I found anything mentioned in the video to be particularly surprising, it is nevertheless disturbing to note the outrageous amount of waste we produce as a society. I had not considered the fact that toxic substances are likely to be passed from mother to child through breast feeding, but it does seem obvious in retrospect.
ReplyDeleteI didn't actually realize until the video that consumers really only see one part of the chain. They just see the ipod - not the workers that mined the minerals to make it or pumped the oil to make the plastic; not the factory that turns the oil into plastic and pollutes the nearby environment; and not what happens to the ipod when they want to upgrade to a newer model. It explains why people are so apathetic. If they just see the product, and not all the harm that product caused on its way into their hand and all the harm it will cause after they grow weary of it, then they have no reason to care. It's times like these that I don't mind being a packrat so much. I don't buy new things because I get too attached to my old things, but maybe that's a good thing. I don't succumb to perceived obsolescence and a little glue and duct tape can defeat most planned obsolescence.
ReplyDeletetoday was hard but I made progress. Watching the video story of stuff, I liked how she broke down the behind the scenes of pollution and how we could better the environment. Of course it is going to take a long time before every area is spick and span, but with the right amount of diligence and dedication it could possibly happen. Honestly, I wonder where would people even begin to start cleaning?
ReplyDeleteThe video of "The Story of stuff" ties down together the importance of being aware of how much we consume. The amount that is wasted in America is amazing because having only 5% of the worlds population, 30% of the world resources are used in this country only. The way she broke down the consumer cycle made me think more about the things I purchase and the value of trash. It also made me reflect more on my project and how trash can be used; most of the materials would've been thrown away if we weren't using them, they would've been part of that endless cycle of toxins. However by understanding all the work that is put into trash that was thrown away and consider worthless, and creating art, we are helping to break the cycle. The video does a great job at explaining the consequences of our actions if we are blind to these issues and points out the ways we can change to improve on our behavior as a society. I like how she uses various examples to illustrate the main point that our quality of life is decaying because of the unhealthy ways we chose to live in terms of overusing resources, people and ourselves.
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