Research Project

DM 7152 - Fall 2009

economic chic

NATE MUELLER
economic chic

Question :
This economy is a bore. How can I have fun with it?

Working project title :
“Economic Chic”
Feeling guilty about not feeling guilty about the economy? 
At least your shirt can reflect it.

Historical Context :
Most of my work, and that of the Brothers Mueller has a strong connection and emphasis placed on image, and fashion. Described as modern day Dandies my persona is just as much my work as the physical objects I make. Recently I noticed that there exists an image of a “conscious consumer” that is being pushed by advertisers. It is as though the economic downturn has struck so hard that it is now fashionable to save money, to be cheap, to be price conscious. Some even feel guilty not to be hit by the economy. This summer Starbucks unveiled an “Economic Value Meal” for that conscious consumer. The Brothers Mueller relate this to the period just after the war when fashions shifted to military wear. Shaun Cole writes in ‘Don we Now our Gay Apparel’  that after the war there was an “appropriation of masculine working clothes, the clones adopted uniforms, continuing the fetishisation of ‘masculine icons’. Elements of military uniform, such as jungle fatigues and bomber jackets, were incorporated into everyday wear and authentic, full uniforms were worn to clubs.” (Cole 22) 

Description :
Economic chic is a series of white T-shirts made of expensive organic cotton that are soiled with sweat stains. The sweat stains are made of crushed velvet with gold luster. From far back the shirts look as though they are soiled with sweat until further inspection reveals that the stains are made of gold.

Material Choices : 
The shirts in this series are made of organic white cotton, highest quality made in the United States. The sweat marks are made of crushed velvet mixed with mother of pearl and gold pigment so that under light they glimmer upon closer inspection. 

Working Bibliography :

Calloway, Stephen. Baroque Baroque. London: Phaidon Press, 2000.

Cole, Shaun. 'Don We Now Our Gay Apparel Gay Men's Dress in the Twentieth Century (Dress, Body, 
Culture). New York: Berg, 2000. Print.

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One More

Title: One More
One More is a further investigation into domestic space, public and private views. This time I use light in a different way, to delve more into symbols of fear and comfort that I hope are more accessible and/or universal.

Question: How does light relate to fear?

The world inside and around me:
My last piece of the semester is a reinterpretation of the previous piece Nostalgia. I learned a lot through making that piece. It was a lot more complete, refined, and orderly than my usual treatment of the material. The piece was so complete that the performative aspect became a duplicate instead of a completion of the piece.
One More using the same domestic structure and materials to convey a sense of connection and comfort. I decided to incorporate found objects again, as a source of history and universality. The small dwelling is constructed as just the frame with the found windows as the most opaque part of the wall. Some glass panes are left intact, adding a transparency, and marks are seen through the dust. Some panes are replaced with translucent porcelain, which alters the viewer’s perception of the house and reveals psychological imagery inspired by protection and fear. They act as clues to the narrative of this snapshot of a scene: stitches, fingerprints, flowers, prison bars. Inside are power strips and nightlights, which contain more marks and imagery. The nightlights are varied, some showing age and some showing parts of a face. Nightlights are used to illuminate in the dark but also to chase away fear. In the house one nightlight is placed, then another, then another. The accumulation of nightlights reveals the fear that is not relieved no matter how many are placed. There is more variation in imagery and levels of transparency than there were in the previous piece. A nightstand is across the room from the dwelling, it exists as a point of memory, floating in space. A small ceramic sculpture sits on top and is illuminated from behind; the shadow it casts looks like a ten-foot tall boulder, looming beside the dwelling. I am playing with different ways of creating tension using the symbol of the boulder as an object of beauty and intimidation. The physical size of the object is amplified through light. The ceramic piece, which is small and harmless, can become an immense source of fear.

When the viewer approached the previous piece the light emerged and the marks were revealed. The marks were much more consistent than anticipated and although I was pleased with the results, the overall impression the marks created was too much of a regular pattern. The openness of the new structure gives the eye more space to wander and rest. It lies away from the wall and can be looked at, in and through. As the viewer looked at and wandered through the piece their shadow and their bodies became part of the piece, being protected onto the wall next to the boulder or reflecting in the glass.

Methodology and Materials:
I used found windows that contained a lot of history, through the paint cracking, the marks in the dust on the panes, and the weathered rope along the sides. I replaced certain glass panes with ceramic ones, calculating and allowing for shrinkage. I am intrigued by the old and new, found and bought, previously constructed mixed with the objects I make. The piece occupied and activated more space.

Historical Context:
My historical context remains the same. I am excited about using porcelain to replace parts of manufactured objects. The next step will be to also incorporate unfired clay to further explore my interest in the life cycle of material and objects.

Clay is a material directly originating from the earth and is very impermanent in its raw state. Unfired clay exposed to air or water is blown away or slaked down. The firing process changes the molecular structure of clay, turning it into ceramics, which can last for thousands of years. Many archeological records are based on ceramic evidence dug up from the earth, these shards of vessels, figurines, and simple shapes provide a glimpse into the life of the maker and shed light onto ancient cultures throughout the world. The Jamon culture used impressions from rope to create pattern on their pieces over 12,000 years ago (Cooper, 2000). The urge to ornament and create has further developed through time. We still use clay as a material to make and to record. A child’s handprint pressed into clay will provide a record of size and fingerprints. The impression will live beyond the life of that individual, to be buried, displayed, or discovered by future societies.

In my work, unfired clay and ceramics, are imprinted with my touch. The unfired elements disintegrate, while the ceramics translates this impermanent touch into a form that lasts forever. These pieces will communicate with unintended audiences, for others to discover and interpret far after I have gone. My structures are made from wood and fabric, both with a set life, a familiar material. Wood and fabric are vulnerable to the elements. When the wood gives out the structure will collapse, the porcelain tiles will break. In the future will someone piece it back together?

Theoretical Framework
In, In Praise of Shadows, Jun’ichiro Tanizaki says, “The quality that we call beauty, however, must always grow from the realities of life, and our ancestors, forced to live in dark rooms, presently came to discover beauty in shadows, ultimately to guide shadows towards beauty’s ends.” I see the shadow as a symbol of finding beauty in what we have been given, which may be pleasant or unpleasant, harmless or tragic. I aim to respect the shadow or experience and to express it through visual methods, to take something that already exists and amplify and share it.

Abstract Revised
Humans are simultaneously strong and fragile, simple and complex, passive victims and active creators of society. The individual’s struggle to come to terms with society and nature is a recurrent theme throughout my work. I am interested in finding the moments where private and public life intersect, where the lines become blurred. Tragic events, quiet moments, illness, beauty and attachment are universal to human existence. We transfer and recreate cultural history through language recorded in words, material, and our bodies. I aim to investigate and share my experience through creating artifacts and to encourage the viewer to activate their own experience with feelings, senses, and attachment.

Past, present, future.
From my experiments working from a constant theme this semester I have begun to solidify my plan for a larger installation piece. Before I was thinking about passageways and windows with full walls. Now I realize that light and the armature or skeleton of the inner structure of a wall or window would lend to a more engaging installation. My next step is to develop more imagery and experiment with different ways of altering space with light and shadow. I will also continue to research ways of making the viewer a passive or active participant in the piece. Spirituality and ritual continue to be important sources of inspiration. Below is a list of terms that are an important part of my current process. I am also working on my role as facilitator of an event, or ritual, which I am drawn to more than a theatrical approach to performance.

Terms

LIGHT:
Light is shifting, direct or filtered, constantly moving. We perceive light and are able to see the world around us. Light acts on our biology and on our emotions, we feel through light.

SHADOW:
Often associated closer to darkness but only existing through light. Shadows keep time and construct space.

TOUCH:
One of the five senses. I am interested in how we experience place, the location of our being, through touch.

INVOLUNTARY MEMORY:
Memory, the archive of one’s experience, activated through experiencing something through one of the senses.

ARTIFACT:
Material remains of a cultural creation. A glimpse into the past through material evidence.

DEJA VU:
I am grasping for that eerie familiarity, feeling, and emotion through light and space.

FEAR:
A powerful, primal human emotion. Fear can alert one to the presence of danger and increase the chance of survival. It can also become a psychological block, preventing one from moving forward. There are biochemical (universal) and emotional (individualized) stages.

Sources:
http://www.ninakatchadourian.com/misc/officesemaphore.php
Contemporary Art and Memory. Gibbons, Joan.
http://www.lithophanemuseum.org/what_is_a_lithophane.htm
In Praise of Shadows. Jun’ichiro Tanizaki

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Final Proposal_Soo Jin Rho

Question: How can interactive media cause the audience to have a transformative experience?

Title: Circumambulation

Description: 

     I had a chance to participate in a Buddhist ritual in a Korean temple when I was tired and confused with the mundane troubles. I performed the Korean prostration action following the monks' Yeombul(Korean Buddhist Mantra) for about an hour. In the process of giving myself into the rhythm of movement and sound of the ritual, I could forget myself for a while. It was a experience in which I could be detached from what I was doing. Repeating the action and falling into the concentration might have caused some change to my energy pattern. I realized it was a transformative experience for me to have rest and get healed. After the ritual in the temple, I could have a different insight about my situation and got more comfortable. 
      What I want to create through my work is an alternative experience of the transformation that can be performed through interactive media in a gallery space. Digital technology enables the random repetition of digitized patterns that is ephemeral. I think it can simulate the procedure of the ritual and lead the audience to get into the meditation.

Methodology:

     If a person circumambulates following a bell sound, the movement creates a Mandala pattern. In this work, a circumambulation around Mandala functions the same as a bowing action in the Buddhist tradition. I want the audience to be immersed in the rhythm of movement and sound, and finally fall into deep meditation. To accomplish it, the audience should repeat the action of circumambulation at least more than 108 times. (ideally 1080 times)

Historical Context:

     Until about two centuries ago, religion was the most important theme of art. Now religion and spirituality is just a part of diverse playgrounds of modern art world. However, we still have need for the transcendence and I could find the works and artists related to spirituality and ritual in contemporary context. 

1. Ernesto Pujol 

     Pujol is an artist who pursues the hybird of spirituality and art in his work and life. He was once a Catholic monk before becoming a visual artist. Later he converted from Catholicism to Buddhism. As a part of Walk(#1 in 2006) in which a performative walk through a historical landscape is done, Pujol performs walking in circles for about thirty minutes in the garden of McNay Museum of Art. Pujol explains that "the tradition of meditative and prayerful walks is common to many ancient world faiths, such as Western and Orthodox Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism". In Grass Circle(2009) Pujol and other 23 artists walked backward forming many circles during 24 early mornings. Pujol explains the piece was based on the tradition of walking meditation in Zen Buddhism. 

2. Soo Ja Kim 
     
     Kim believes sewing(or art making) can be an activity that connects herself to the energy of the world, great whole. She suggests her performance as a meditation for herself and the audience. In A Laundry Woman(2000), Kim asks questions looking at the flow of the river, " Is it the river that is moving, or myself?" The performance becomes finally an important awakeness about the change of body and death. 
      
Theoretical Context:
 
   I think that psychological theories related to religions are important for my work. Especially I am interested in the theories of the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung and his followers. Jung was a great bridge between eastern spirituality and western academics.

1. Mandala

    Mandala is a universal pattern found in various traditions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and indigenous Australians. The patterns of Mandala exist in diverse forms, but the principle of shape is a circle with a center. Jung himself drew the patterns of Mandala and watched his patients drew it spontaneously without any background knowledge. Based on his and the patients’ experience, Jung concluded that the activity of creating Mandala is a trial to recover from one’s personal turmoil and reach the wholeness of the psyche. That is, according to Jung, creating Mandala is a natural attempt at self-healing. Jung thought that Mandala is a symbol of overcoming inner chaos and reaching balance. Some of Jung’s followers researched the empirical effect of drawing Mandala and proved that it has the actual healing effect of mental disorder . 

2. Circumambulation

      

Circulambulation is a ritual of walking around something holy in Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Islamic traditions. The center of circumambulation can be deity image, stupa, Mandala ,etc.  The holy object becomes the center of the concentration in the circumambulating movement.Jung interpreted Mandala as a form of a ritual dance or of a temple building. His argument is based on the symmetrical patterns of square and circle of Mandala. Also J.M. Lundquist noted stupa is a three-dimensional representation of Mandala. The ritual of circumambulating around stupa is the most common form of Buddhist circumambulation. Jung thought the process of circumambulation conveys the symbolism of wholeness and cosmic-spiritual integration. 

Material Choices: I am considering ceramics as the base of the projection of the digitized Mandala pattern from the ceiling. I might construct the pilgrimage path to the Mandala using ceramics. Also I use physical computing circuits, sensors and laptop.  

Please Watch Over Me

Project Title:  Please Watch Over Me
Chosen question:
Creating intimacy (a private space) with urban infrastructure.
Revised question: 
Searching for the sublime in urban infrastructures and logging my journey

Description of Project:

I view the police department as a body, one that lies underneath the outer layer of the city. Through participating in routine ride along, I am able to embed myself under the flesh of the city structures.  Through this journey I look for the potential breakdown of boundaries between the individual and the city infrastructures.  Creating private and intimate moments with the city.  The idea of establishing my place within public infrastructures is through a reciprocal relationship with it.
Methodology:
1.Direct Experience
2. Entry/Logs
3. Film
By participating in routine ride-alongs with the local police department, I become an immediate interloper in a system that watches over public spaces. Forming an intimate relationship with a team of officers that patrol a notoriously dangerous district of South Providence I establish a reciprocal relationship with a larger public structure. The police officers' acceptance of me, I change the relationship from one in which the observer has control into one in which I have access and control.
Theoretical Context:
In a “Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Social-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” Donna Haraway uses the metaphor of the cyborg as a postmodern subject that moves beyond dualism, rejects theories of origins or wholeness, and enables an experience of the hybrid variety.  She points out that our “bodies are maps of power and identity.  Cyborgs offer a new map, a new way to conceive of power and identity, one potentially more effective in understanding, confronting, and reshaping the actual networks of power in late postmodernity and its mutations.”

Material Choices:
I am using  film and the camera to reconstruct my relationship with the police department and the city.  A non-linear representation of the reciprocal relationship I have been forming.  Creating an intimate portrait of systems and structures that often ignore the individual.
The text acts as another way to transmit this intimate narrative between the city structures and myself.

Melissa Cha Final Proposal

QUESTION 


If film (or any image that represents real life) is inherently deceptive because it tricks the viewer into emotionally connecting to a constructed reality, how can I use narrative to make the viewer conscious of this very presumption? 


PROJECT


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In a society over-stimulated by images and objects that simulate something real, people lose themselves and connections with others in objects they believe reinforce, or are extensions of identity. Film and video are media that manipulate the viewer into identifying with simulated environments and characters. I am interested in making conscious the deceptive nature of image-based media with a deceptive medium. 


DESCRIPTION


Last year I created a semi-fragmented narrative that briefly explored the lives of several characters, all connected by a common place. They all shared a similar sense of ennui and were alienated by their incapacity to engage in communication deeper than surface-level. (). Unfortunately, the film may have failed, because I believe the ideas I was trying to articulate were in fact communicated in a surface-level way. 


Another project I worked on was a video installation that is more or less about the impossibility of knowing the truth of an event through anything other than the direct experience itself. I attempted to express this idea through an estranged couple, each retelling their extremely conflicting testimonies of a traumatic event only the two of them experienced. 


I am interested in the viewer's relationship with a simulated event. How can I mediate division between me and the viewer? How can I relinquish my control over the viewer so that they become a conscious participant rather than a passive spectator in viewing a film? I aim to create characters that carry the audience through a world of deception. The characters will deceive each other, and themselves. Using narrative as a mere tool, I will hopefully depict the illusory nature of image-based media by revealing my deception of the audience. 


METHODOLOGY


So far I have been making short sketches in an attempt to execute these ideas. I plan to keep shooting intuitively until I find the most articulate way to express myself. After actively sketching, I can begin writing some semblance of a script. 


HISTORICAL CONTEXT


D.W. Griffith's film, The Birth of a Nation (1915) was technically innovative, gained wide commercial success, and was explicitly racist.  Griffith used innovative techniques that are still used today, like an original score that cues specific moods, intimate close-ups, suspenseful cross-cutting, and creating meaning with montage. The strategic editing between sentimental family scenes in the Old South and the brutal depiction of African-Americans falsely authenticated a representation of history and constructed a deceptive nostalgia in its audience that helped perpetuate racism through generations.


In the late 50's, pioneers of the French New Wave, like Jean-Luc Godard, supported the notion that "Realism is the essence of Cinema." Godard attempted to achieve realism through techniques such as cutting in a scene as little as possible, so as to minimize the manipulation of what is seemingly real. However, jump cutting was also used so that when cuts were necessary, they were also made conscious to the viewer. Godard's films were a direct reaction to film history and traditional cinematic techniques that were established from films like The Birth of a Nation.


How has the history of film affected the development of the viewer? Was Godard attempting to communicate more with the viewer, or other filmmakers and theorists?          


THEORETICAL CONTEXT


What is the barrier that hinders communication? I believe that this barrier largely has to do with the disintegrating line between real and simulation. In the moment one projects themselves into a TV drama, the interior living space and exterior fantasy world  become indistinguishable and merge into one reality. On the internet, constructed identities live as an extension of actual people who connect better with others in this virtual space. Even in transit, (in a car, on a bus, or subway,) there is the illusion of being somewhere, a person is distanced from the outside world flying by - there is only point A and B. These are all aspects of true life that I think relate to the idea of deception. Baudrillard stressed the idea that consumers believe that objects say something about subjects - that is, objects have symbolic value. Meaning is given to an object when it is associated with a subject. The futile search for meaning and complete understanding through objects leads to self-deception, and society is locked into a simulated reality. People do not consume for the functionality of an object, but rather the identity they presume it gives them - this is deception. 


MATERIAL CHOICES


I want to use film to shoot this project opposed to video, because film already has an illusory quality, whereas video is visually harsher and its movement more immediate. However video in the end may be more relevant to my ideas than I want to believe, so I'm not ruling out the option.


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