AIB Foundation Blog

Sand Animation

Kseniya Simonova - Sand Animation (Україна має талант / Ukraine's Got Talent)

My brother sent this link to me in an email a while back and I recently rediscovered it. Thought it was worth sharing. ~ Katie Dabal

 

MOMA Fairy Tale

By Katie Dabal

 

This is the tale of my dad and the shoebox… 

Once upon a time, in a far away land known as New York City, a mother, father, and son decided to visit a castle of sorts. The daughter, who was away at boarding school, was not invited to join them and still feels bitter about it to this day. This castle was a magical place. It did not house princes and princesses but, instead, it was home to a large collection of art. The palace, sometimes know as the MOMA, had a strange visitor from another land take up residence there for a limited time, and this family very much wanted to view his handiwork. The visitor, an inventor of sorts named Tim Burton, was a foreigner not from this world, and many people came from far and wide to view his creations.

 

Upon entering this art wonderland, the father noticed a piece of art that has plagued his happily-ever-after ever since. It was a shoebox, placed against a wall.

 

Its simplicity troubled and disturbed him. The father recognized that this object was somehow art but, because he felt like he could have created this himself, he did not feel like this piece should be displayed in a castle with other artworks that were worthy of being there. He felt like art in a castle should look like it had been created by a master artist, people who had spent many years slaving over their craft until they reached perfection, not like something a lowly peasant had concocted. This made the father feel frustrated and insulted, like this piece was a mocking court jester who had made the father the target of a particularly crass joke.

 

Was this shoebox an evil demon in disguise?

Or, was it merely a misunderstood woodland creature?

 

The father later had a lengthy conversation with his daughter, who had just begun studying at the prestigious Art Institute of Boston and was learned in such matters. He was still suffering from the terrible affliction his encounter with the shoebox had caused, and he wondered if she could help. The daughter sat the father down and recounted a tale she had recently heard from a wise elf. The story was called “Contemporary Art and the Plight of the Public”, and she believed it would cure him of his ailment. This story explained that the very nature of this piece was to trouble people like the father and make them question what they had seen. It was possible that the piece of art in question was created by a trickster or by a dark philosopher but this did not mean the piece was inherently evil. The story went on to explain that there was probably more to this piece than that what meets the eye. It was something more than a shoebox against a wall and it was also just a shoebox against a wall. Upon hearing this, the father was most relieved and sincerely thanked the daughter for her kindness. To this day, the father is no longer troubled by thoughts of the shoebox against the wall.

 

The End

 

Harvard Happening

Danielle LaCasse

Foundation Seminar

Stuart Steck

December 28, 2010

 

Response to Happenings

 

Happenings are truly hard to define. Starting in the late fifties a school of artists and musicians began questioning what art actually was. They began criticizing the type of art that “sits on its ass” in a museum all day and vouched for a more active thought provoking kind of art that made people stop and notice. Happenings like Oldenburg’s or Kaprow’s often included other people and a stage set in a specific manner so that the props could be utilized. While many people often assumed that things that were going on were improv many happenings were actually loosely rehearsed so that every performance would follow the same theme but would vary greatly between shows. This week I witnessed a semi-impromptu kind of happening on Harvard quad.

I was walking back from Harvard square at about ten thirty on a saturday night when my friends and I started hearing this loud banging sound coming from behind one of the buildings. We decided to go back there and see what was going on, as the sound was getting louder and louder. When we rounded the corner we discovered a group of about forty people, and growing, playing instruments in a marching band type formation. They were all playing different songs and miscellaneous instruments. Those who didn’t have instruments were walking along side them making noise any way they knew how. One person at the front of the march yielding a large drum marked with a Harvard “H” seemed to cut off the band and there was a short pause for cheers. People were hanging out their dorm windows hooting and hollering at the band. At that moment people began running out of the dorms with instruments of their own to join the marching band. Then, on the drummers que, they all started playing and screaming again. My friends and I watched in absolute awe not knowing what to do and trying to define what was happening, but we didn’t have any way of knowing why this was happening or what it meant. The group turned and headed for Mass. Ave and we were left standing uncomfortably in Harvard Yard, a place that we didn’t belong to, and didn’t really understand.  

Later that night I was left still thinking about what I had just seen at Harvard, I couldn’t tell if it was their real band just trying to cause a scene or a few members just trying to get people involved in music making. But in my mind it was truly a happening. Maybe thats just because I could not understand it at all and thats kind of what I picturing a happening being like. While I wasn’t being forced to stand on narrow planks in inches of water I still and uncomfortable situation for the viewer where they were left not knowing what they were supposed to have learned. You could argue for days what it truly meant but as in most happenings the performers may not even have truly known what or why they were doing what they were doing. Happenings are radical and beautiful and I was truly impacted by my first viewing of one so close to home. 

 

It Can Be Happening

Olivia Khamsombath

Foundation Seminar

Stuart Steck

12.5.10

 

Response to Happenings: An Art of Radical Juxtaposition

 

I recall a time in my high school art class, a time when we were getting to learn about Happenings and Assemblages. My class and I were taking notes, given packets, and taking turns reading the packets. Suddenly, the teacher gave us an assignment to create our own brief Happenings and present them in class. However, no one really understood the subject of Happenings well enough. Basically, we tried to make our own Happenings by referring to examples. Soon, the confusion of the assignment reflected in the presentations. I still wish I did a better job on my project. Also, I still find Happenings confusing to understand.

 

On the other hand, Susan Sontag seems to understand very well about Happenings based on her article. Sontag's Happenings: An Art of Radical Juxtapositions states the purpose of Happenings in a simple yet compelling way. Happenings are compared to paintings based of depth, but Happenings have much more depth because they are tangible to both the artists and the audience. Therefore, Happenings are considered a kind of art brought to life because it's a kind of art that actually breathes. Also, Happenings are seen as contemporary art because they are based on and happen in the present tense. Despite a great amount of time and planning of an artist's Happening, it's performance is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. It can happen anywhere at anytime, receiving multiple reactions expressed from the audience. These performances can be an optical illusion to the audience, creating a realistic kind of art. An example of this kind of Happening is an improv where twins reflect each other's movements in a train, creating a kind of "human mirror."It seems that Happenings actually are set on rules, such as being based on the present and never performing twice. However, Happenings are very open-minded to the audience, especially when they involve themselves in the event.

 

Because of Susan Sontag's article, I have a much better understanding of Happenings. As an art, it animates in the audience's dimension, otherwise known as reality. It can be outside and seen by everyone with no judgement. Overall, Happenings are a kind of art based on life itself, whether the moments are little or big. I love how art can be so open-minded for everyone. 

 

My Happenings to a Page of Literature

Courtney Knight

Foundation Seminar

 

            Temporary art, or ephemeral art, can be found in the streets or in lofts, people act them out or paste it on walls. These happenings made me think of my “black-out poetry” where I make literature temporary, changing its intention into my own story through eliminating the surrounding words- it’s found and reborn. 

What’s Happening

 

Kelly Jenkins

11/29/10

Stuart Steck

                                         What’s Happening  

            To me a happening is a cross between performance art and the group Improve Everywhere. Happenings are depictions of life, and the imagination. They are the very essence of what Oldenburg was talking about. A happening in its core is the reaction of the viewer’s to what the artist is displaying. They are without plot, without beginning, and without end. They are the day to day routines that we have. They are pouring coffee over and over again. Happenings tell us about life, without needing a plot or story.

            Happenings are much like Improve Everywhere, which is a group of people who basically do, well, whatever. One of the things they did was called Lunch time Musical, where they put on a musical amongst a group of unexpecting bystanders. They had no idea what was happening while music came on and people around them began to sing and dance. The cameras went to the faces of those who had no idea what was happing, showing their reactions. Weather it is a train filled with twins mirror each other, or hundreds of people going into best buy with blue polo shirts on; each time they show the reaction of the people around them. Improve Everywhere has the same type of idea to them that happenings have, that the art is the reaction to the performance.

 Happenings have the strangeness that comes with performance art and the reactions of those who witness Improve Everywhere. Happening are about life, and art. They show that the way to show art come in many different forms.