1800 push pins later...

New artists and new movements

This last week in Art 211 we viewed some new material. We jumped off the main track of watching video excerpts about art/technology advances and actually focused down on a handful of artists and their movements.

After seeing the timeline of the ever changing art movements we were introduced to a few in particular. A couple of artists were brought to our attention. One of these being Marcel Duchamp. This artist helped to fuel one of the largest turning points in art history. His works challenged what had become know as art. One picture in particular stuck out and is considered one of Duchamp's most important paintings.

This painting makes fun of histories most noticeable painting, the Mona Lisa. In the Duchamp version not much is changed. The women still sits in her pose, but now she wears a mustache and a go-tee. Also, at the base of the painting there is text spelled as L.H.O.O.Q. This text has little meaning unless you speak French. If said in the right way the text becomes a phrase, "Her ass is on fire". Duchamp is clearly making a huge statement with this painting. He is making fun of not just the Mona Lisa but all art.

The second artist we viewed was one I have heard of and seen a large portion of his work. He is the father of the surreal movement and he is Salvador Dali. We were shown a video of his that was incredibly hard to understand. But I believe now that, that was one of the points of the movie. Some of the scenes were odd. One scene had a man cut open a womens eye, another a hand with a hole in it and ants crawling out. Very interesting video to say the least.

Flip Book Clip

Just a little snip-it from my flip book animation for class.

Minority Report

After seeing clips in class I was intrested in seeing the full movie, so I did just that. After the class I went and got my hands on a copy of the movie, sat down and watched it, and I have to say that I did enjoy it quite a bit. I have always loved sci-fi movies and this one has made it into my top 10. If you haven't seen this movie make sure you do.

Big Change

In class the other day we viewed several clips from movies in chronological order. The first few we watched we your idea of an old black an white movie with a story that tries to tell a simple but important story. When we got to the end of the class we watched some clips from movies after an apparent change in times had happened.

One of the movies we viewed had extreme violence, nudity, and other things you would have never seen in the old black and whites. The change wasn't slight but extreme. The whole idea of a movie had seemed to have changed between the few clips we saw. This is all most likely based on some world events and social changes that allude me at the moment.

A good start.

At first I was a bit iffy about the Art and tech class, but now that a few class has come and past my thoughts have changed. This class seems to go in a completely different direction than the greater majority of my other art classes. So, at this point I can say that I am enjoying the change, and looking forward to what this class has to offer. On the other hand, a big change can really throw you off the beaten path and present some new and difficult problems. Guess I'll have to wait and see.

-Mike