D.Green - Task 1

Wednesday, September 16, 2009
3:50am

It would be this early/late when the ideas would start rolling in.
Woke up at quarter after one and I have been mauling around and developing ideas/concepts all in the comfort of my bed. I’d wait until a reasonable hour to, at the very least, jot down some points but like dreams, ideas are always harder to remember when you wake up.

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Dave Green - MPM33 Communication with Hybrid Environments
Assignment 1: Pass/Fail

Task: Using ANY media, create something that can be transformed by its user. Discuss your process and your work.

In preparing:
As often as the loosely worded project instructions have always been dreaded, for an artist it should more over be interpreted as the opportunity to create. The wording of this project is an example of what I mean: (1) The word “ANY.” Awakening this rusty mind and dusting out summer cobwebs, this word might be overlooked, but plays a key part in the final results. (2) Discuss your “process” and your “work.” Process could be what it is you did to create a piece that was “transformable” OR (again, the joy of loosely defined assignments) how it is you came to this idea or in this case creation. And work could be defined as the actual physical way of bringing about OR be understood as a reference to the piece itself, the work.

Sooo…..

Final Piece:
The Paper Cup Telephone!!

Explained:
In New Media the discussion of interactivity, whether its between the art piece itself or the resultant between the viewers, has been a major discussion.
Myself took this task and focused on what would the people interacting with this piece be doing.

Thoughts: I want to make something FUN, but it is something that has to be transformed in some way from its original form. So, puzzles, games, rubix cube… but it should be created by you as well.
Trying to think outside the box I often find myself fascinated more with the idea that is behind a work I’ve created, and how it is I came to the conclusion of what I felt to be sufficient enough to present and make.
I originally wanted to make a large scaled rubix cube, or a giant sized puzzle but then time restriction was taken into consideration and I had to evaluate what could I create in a simplistic form that would still convay my inspiration.

The “Mauling Around” Part of Things:
Which you can tell by the time in which this blog is being created, inspiration can be speratic.

I had been playing with the idea of how when we were younger (kindergardener age more specifically) we could make something out of anything or anything was something. I wanted to be able to do that again, capture that imagination and ability, and make nothing something. Creating art and finding ideas would be a million times easier.

I had thought of a time when a younger relative sat at the bottom of a tree with only a piece of bark, a stick in hand, the grass, dirt and fallen leaves surrounding. She had sat their some time and curiousity had gotten the best of me, “what are you doing over here?” And with an egernace to tell me but ever so matter of factly at the same time I was told: “The fairies are trapped on this island here (pointing to the piece of bark), and are surrounded by water (the grass), and with my magic powers (stick in hand as magic wand) I will save them by sending them a boat (a leaf), and get them safely to shore (the dirt area). But there are invisible evil bad guys that you have to be careful of…

I could even recall as a younger child having that quality of imagination too, a cardboard box, for example, that became a “fort” and place I spent a lot of time in. Doing what, I dont remember, but it occupied me for hours on end, so I wondered what had happened to the ability to do that now. Discussions of how now those box forts and imaginary lands are being filled with with computers, video games & tv’s, is always a popular discussion amongst childrens health and the people of today. But the art student remembered a lecture insted.

In the history of new media it all really did begin with playing and that play was restricted to no one. It was somewhere in the middle ages that adults playing amongst children became inappropriate. Right around the sametime, exposing children to gambling and drinking was wrong too. Night hours became the hour of adult play but even that had changed to be a more “suitable” behaviour for the age. A line had been drawn and thinking like a child would now be “too childish.”

What this also refers to is the discussion of ethics(wrong word). It is something artist have to consider when creating pieces, to be sensitive for their audience. Somewhere along the line rules were embeded into the concept of what is appropriate and breaking that social norm, tradition, becomes very intrusive. But again, why? I think something is to be learnt from the lives of children: their curiousity, exploration, making the simple things amazing things, etc. A quote used as a reminder for myself of this: “Never lose your childish innocence. It’s the most important thing.”

So in the spirit of childish innocence, a project idea came about. Just as to soup cans tied to your shoes were stilts making you reach great heights, a piece of string and two paper cups was the first walkie-talkie, or phone in some worlds. The transformation here then is the idea of play, the presented task of having fun, the present change/breaking of ‘lines, and send a message. This is you challenge!