Monday, January 31, 2011

Computer Post #1: UPenn Stuff!

For my first Foundation Computer photo excursion, I went to University City! Sean works at The Blockley every Sunday night, so I started the evening there taking pictures of sound equipment. Usually Sunday night is the open jam, but tonight it was some random band for the Auto Show afterparty. God only knows how/why that ended up being at a college rock bar, but there you go. The one dude was pretty great on guitar and he had a theremin...I unfortunately didn't stick around long enough to hear him play the theremin.
When I got tired of Blockley I ran across the street (in the freezing cold, yuck) to scope out the three or four churches in the area. One is apparently the "Philadelphia Cathedral," which is super cool to me. Cathedrals are such a novelty in the US. I'm not religious, but I've always had a thing for cathedrals and carved stone decorations in general. Wish I could've gone inside... Next time I go on a photo excursion, I'm definitely going during the day and getting as warm as possible. No more cold hands and blurry photos. :[
Other than that, the only last words I have are that UPenn is fancy, and the lighting at the Blockley is not really my favorite. It just makes me feel sort of grotty and lethargic.
Also, there are always a ton of mice on the tracks on the blue line. They're too fast to photograph, but it's nice to see them. I saw one on the way back who was going to town on a bag of BBQ chips, and that made me happy.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Misc. Post #1: Louis Wain

I'm obsessed with Louis Wain. He started out painting cheesy scenes of cats doing human stuff, and eventually he developed schizophrenia. As his condition got worse his cat paintings got crazier and crazier, to the point where they just became complex psychedelic designs.


Drawing Post #1: Quote Response

"The point is, that every piece of art changes your whole perception of the rest of the world for the rest of your life. And it's not a joke! And if it doesn't, then it's not art, it's a commodity." -- Lawrence Weiner responding to a question from Liam Gillick in "Between Artists" p. 20


     I like this idea of defining "art" as something that makes people think and affects them forever, even in the smallest way. This definition might not be viable in every single situation, but it seems like a good start for figuring out whether things are art or just people screwing around. And even people screwing around have the potential to change out perception of the world. So I guess when it really comes down to it, the definitions of "art" nowadays can be totally arbitrary, and the stimulus we experience changes very much from person to person.