Colin Ives, boii!

Week two is underway, and the Artist’s Experience is continuing to challenge how my mind looks at art. The University’s Director of Digital Arts, Colin Ives, presented his work to the class this week, and similarly to Professor Warren’s work, Ives primarily works with digital media, such as, photography and video. Also, in Ives most recent work, he puts a heavy emphasis on ecological issues, which, conveniently, fits right in with this week’s readings by Rachel Dutton, Rob Olds, and Christopher Manes.

Taken from “Doin’ Dirt Time,” Rachel Dutton speaks of her work and says, “The images in my work were what would grow from that seed if it had a chance to grow; it was a new way of living with nature, something that’s different from what culture provided.” Ives’ piece, The Clearing, demonstrates this point very well; only, he does it backwards. Rather than showing what would have been there, if it wasn’t for mankind, he shows what mankind does to a certain setting. In his interactive video installation, he finds a way to use the audience to deliver a very powerful message. It is my understanding that Ives used an oscillating projector to project a thin image onto the wall. This 360-degree, interactive experience, projected what appeared to be a wooded area, until someone in the room came between the projector and the wall. When the projection was interfered with, the projection on the wall turns from a wooded area to a clear cut. This actively displays Ives’ message that humans interacting with ecological areas is harmful.

The environment and natural world are topics that have taken a back seat in modern art to that of mankind, industrialization, and what we consider to be our world. These few articles offer a revitalization of environmental art and respect for the world around us for which we have done just as much to destroy as we have to promote. The second article entitled “Making Art About Centipedes” discusses this feeling of superiority that we as humans feel towards our animal relatives and brings forth the ignorance in the statement. We feel so powerful but what do we have that sets us apart from other species? This is a question that I have found very surprisingly hard to answer. After all mankind has become extinct what will still endure on this earth, the answer is nature. Nature has endured for all time through civilization after civilization it has remained constant, and we still think of ourselves as powerful?

The connection between this weeks’ readings and our presenter Colin Ives is not one that is hard to see. The environment is much more powerful than mankind will ever be, yet we lose sight of this concept in thinking that we are the center of this world. In this time of ignorance and selfishness, artists have found a way to communicate the importance of awareness to the pubic in an effective manner just as you see in the work of Ives. Hopefully one day we will begin to see more of an awareness for our environment and our place in the world as humans, but for now what we have is art.

Here is a little tid bit that I would like to share with you.. Related? Tough to say..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2BgjH_CtIA

What is art, Ty Warren?

It’s fair to say that one of my closest friends is, give or take, my polar opposite. He chose a small college while I chose a big university. He chooses to travel, as I tend to be more of a homebody. I dedicate much time to fitness and my physical health, whereas he smokes cigarettes and drinks Pabst Blue Ribbon. I’m a pre-business major and he’s studying art and philosophy. Lucas Cook is one of my dearest friends and I could spend months at a time with him, but we don’t choose to live our lives the same way. In fact, we never choose to live our lives in the same way. This summer, while we were back home in McMinnville, Oregon, Lucas challenged me take an art class. He said to me, “What’s the worst that could happen? You find something other than numbers that interest you?” Lucas has already found success in his short career as a photographer, so I’ll award him some credibility. With that being said, I accepted his challenge and now I find myself in Art 111 with Ty Warren.

Within the first week, we were challenged with analyzing and interpreting an artist. Analyzing and interpreting the style, motive, emotion, and all other things that can be drawn from art. Our first artist demonstration was our professor, Ty Warren. Before the session where we would see her work, she explained that she would be showing a video of her doing push-ups until she passed out…

“We’re watching a video of our professor doing push ups? And this is art?,” said Thomas Moore, another Art 111 student.

“I’m going to be one hell of an artist if she’s calling that art,” said Adam Grodahl, another Art 111 student.

Art is an expression. It has emotion, meaning, and reasoning. Whatever that emotion or reason is and how the artist chooses to express it, is his or her way of doing it and to them; it’s the right way.

After seeing Ty’s work progression, it’s not hard to tell she has been “toeing the line” throughout her career. That’s how she chooses to express herself, and to her, it’s the ‘right’ way of doing it. Her final piece was, in fact, a video of her doing push-ups until she passed out. I’d be lying if I said the film didn’t make me uncomfortable. It made me very uncomfortable, as my body tensed up and my stomach turned, but I feel that was her objective. This wasn’t a piece that everyone would put on repeat (hell, I’d be surprised if anyone put it on repeat), but nonetheless, it was an expression.

From this week’s reading, “What Is Art For?,” there is a quote from Dissanayake’s book, Homo Aestheticus, that really stood out to me. “The dominant idea about art is our culture, ever since the idea of ‘art’ itself rose in the eighteenth century, has been that it is superfluous-an ornament or enhancement, pleasant enough but hardly necessary.” When I think about Ty’s video as an expression, rather than work, it makes me question the accuracy of the belief that Dissanayake touches on. Is art necessary to everyone? To each his own.

I’ve seen Lucas progress through his work and I must admit, I’m proud to call him one of my closest friends and I hope all of you enjoy his work as much as I do.

www.lucascookphotography.com