Final Project: Restrain(t)

I am exploring an object which restrains or restricts the motion of playing a record. I thought this might be a good start:

Restrain: 

1 a: To prevent from doing, exhibiting, or expressing something <restrained the child from jumping> b: to limit, restrict, or keep under controlrestrain your anger>

2: to moderate or limit the force, effect development, or full exercise of <restrain trade>

3: to deprive of liberty; especially: to place under arrest or restraint

Final Project

So I am beginning to figure out my final project. I am making an object to restrain the movement of playing a record. I altered a fabulous pair of cheetah-print gloves last night so that they inhibit motion in all the fingers except for the pinkies. I now need pick the music for the piece. I want it to be from the 50's or 60's in keeping with the time period of the gloves and the record player. I now need to make a shelf to display the piece (if I can install it wherever our show will be) and I need to film one of my roommates performing with these gloves. 

I feel like I've been working in the dark this whole semester. We have no where to work, no space for our class to work because our classroom is a shared space. I have heard people complaining about grading for the class. I find it difficult because we work by ourselves some where else and then present our work with no feedback until the critique. I hope we will be provided with more feedback next week in our in-process critiques. I feel like the assignments have been so broad which is great, but we haven't had enough clear feedback along the way to encourage our ideas and craft to be improved, which has led to a somewhat bitter class as we were suddenly given grades. I hope the process will improve as we enter or final project.

story of the kiln god

So I thought I ought to give some background information on the tradition of the kiln god. Kiln gods can be found in the traditions of many ancient cultures including the Chinese (Tung- the god of fire) and the Egyptian (Khun- protector of all things made on the wheel) cultures. Kiln gods are traditionally made out of raw or fired clay and placed over the entrance to the kiln. Kiln gods are used as good luck idols to bless each firing. 

I chose to make my miniature monument to Alfred a kiln god to represent the ceramic history and traditions being passed on at the New York State College of Ceramics. Although bronze is not a typical material to use for a kiln god, I think it is appropriate because it is an enduring material that will outlast clay. The first thing I think of when I think of Alfred is ceramics. Ceramics is a central part of the village's history. I wanted to commemorate this long history of ceramics in Alfred and acknowledge its ancient origins. 

To see more images of kiln gods click on the link for Kiln God National.

Bronze Kiln God on Site

I went today and took pictures of my bronze kiln god mini-monument on top of the wood kiln. 

My How to Guides

So I decided to do my how to guides on the two thing me and my suite mates do everyday: 

-Brew delicious pots of coffee

-Play records

I have started by taking digital pictures of them performing these tasks step by step. Now I am going to trace/sketch them into my guide books and write up the instructions. I have to go up to the print shop or photo studio to use the light tables. I will scan in pages from the book once their done and I have access to a scanner. We had fun acting out and taking pictures, I'm taking that as a good start. Fun seems to be an important aspect in my studio process. In ceramics we're just experimenting and having fun, which is perfect for this time of the year when no one really cares anymore and we all just want to be outside in the sunshine. 

This is what I got while researching how to guides:

"How to..."

Pump Up Your Search Skills

By Susan Ayers Walker

When you think of searching the Internet, you probably think of Google or Yahoo, and you probably search by typing in a few key words into the query box and hope the results will contain something useful. Although that may be a quick way to perform a search, with billions of pages of content throughout the Internet, your results likely contain more useless and unrelated junk than the information you are seeking.

Here are a few simple tricks that will enable you to tap into the power that search engines can deliver and improve your odds of obtaining meaningful search results.

Using Double Quotes

Some search engines like Google evaluate each word individually. Knowing how to group words in your search query will be helpful. For example, if you're looking for song lyrics, a book title or a quote, you'll have better results if you place double quotes around the phrase you are seeking. This makes the search engine look for the words in the exact order as typed between the quotes. This is also useful when searching for a person, place, or thing that has two or more words in its name, title or description, such as “John Paul Jones”, “Colorado River”, or “salt water taffy”.

Be Specific

If you use too few words or words with double meanings you will likely not get the results you are looking for. If you want a nice image of a pink rose, you should be aware that the word rose is both a flower and a type of pink wine. Because search engines typically return pages that contain all of the words you type into the query box, using just the words pink rose will return hundreds of thousands of pages that have both roses and wine in them.

To make your search query more specific, you can make your search words more detailed, such as pink rose flower clipart. You can also place a minus sign (–) without a space in front of the word you don't want (in this example, you would type –wine). Just as with math, the minus sign subtracts a key word from your search and helps you avoid getting pages that you don't want. For this search, typing “pink rose” flower clipart –wine gives you a good chance of finding what you're looking for in the first 20 or so returns. You can also do this with bothersome words that show up in your search results.

Google offers many helpful features for searching all sorts of specific areas such as movies, music, phone numbers, people, stocks, the weather and much more. Just go to Google's Web Search Features to see their selection of specific search features. Yahoo! Shortcuts also offers special features designed to help you to find answers quickly they can be found at Yahoo! Help.

Specialized Search Engines

There are hundreds of free, specialized search engines that can also help your search. Here are some of my favorites.

Dogpile® is a meta search engine, which means that it gives you results from many search engines and web sources. Dogpile currently gets its results from Google, Yahoo, Live search, Ask, and more.

Search-22 is a directory of search engines, especially for kids and teens. You can find links to family-safe sites and reference and educational search engines.

The National Archives offers a search of the records from every branch of the Federal government. Almost all Americans can use this site to find themselves, their ancestors, or their community in these archives.

Zillow.com™ is an online real estate search engine dedicated to helping people find places to live or get the value of the home you have today. It also offers interesting housing information and maps.

Wink is a people search engine. The search engine finds individuals who are active Internet or social network users. It searches the public profiles on MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, LinkedIn, Live Spaces, and other sources.

I thought this might be useful to everyone in their internet researching

water in motion

Along with looking at how the body moves through water I am also interested in researching how water moves in the ocean in tides, whirlpools, tide pools, and currents. I am also interested in mapping and the different techniques used to map water and its movement patterns. 

how to swim

This is another quirky image I found on "how to swim" 

This what I got when I Googled: "How to Swim" these are instructions on how to swim free-style. I liked the descriptions of the motions and how the body and water interact. 

Step 1: Visualize a line running down the center of your body from your chin to your chest. This line is the axis upon which your whole body should pivot, and it should extend horizontally in the direction you are swimming.

Step 2: Keep your legs straight, but not rigid, with your toes pointed out, and kick up and down. Continue kicking the entire time.

Step 3: Move your arms in a windmill motion opposite each other. While one arm is extended completely out, the other should be all the way back, almost against the side of your body.

Step 4: Keep your hands flat, thumb separated from the index finger and pull the extended arm through the water beneath your body. Bend your arm at the elbow and draw your fingertips along the imaginary line down the center of your body.

Step 5: Lift your other arm out of the water and move it all the way forward as the first arm is pulling beneath you. Bend at the elbow and drag your fingertips along the surface of the water. Penetrate the water with your fingertips and completely extend the arm.

Step 6: Breathe on one side by turning your head to that side as the arm comes out of the water.

Body in water research

Here are some images I found of different leg movements in water. Water provides buoyancy and flexibility allowing the body to move in ways not easily replicated on land. 

Body and motion research

As a part of our Intro to Sculpture class we were asked to research a motion or set of motions our bodies make. I thought a lot about the body and its relationship to gravity, light, and force. In my Recent Sculptural Practices art history class we have been reading a lot about minimalism and the triangulation between the viewer (body), the work of art, and the space. Many artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Robert Irwin and Alfredo Jaar have used light and installation space to manipulate the viewers perception of the space. 

When approaching this research project I didn't want to pick a circumstance or motion arbitrarily, I wanted it to relate to my recent projects and perhaps help me develop and articulate my artistic investigations more clearly. I discussed the research process  with Jonathan and he asked me "what is your work about?" It took me a little while for me to categorize and summarize the many different assignments and themes I have been working with recently and I finally came up with the concise answer: "the ocean." Until we have this discussion I was aware of my fixation with coral and other organic forms and organisms in the ocean, but it had never come together in my mind so neatly. Jonathan then suggested that I research how the body moves in water and how water moves around the body and other objects in the ocean. Perhaps this fixation with the ocean comes from my Caribbean blood. Some how since I've been away from the coast, here in Alfred I am much more sensitive to the ocean. 

Bronze Pour

I really enjoyed the build up to the pour and then the fast paced team work it took to execute each pour in 20 minutes.