Friday, June 9, 2017

The Exhibition at Hammar Museum, Judith Hopf

This exhibition was presented at the one of the corners in Hammar Museum, and it was shown in a way so amusing. The project was organized by a Berlin-based artist, Judith Hodith. She expressed her idea of how technology has been influencing our life and perception.
While walking through the exhibition, I couldn’t get the meaning which the artist, Judith Hodith, is trying to point out. After reading the program of this exhibition, I totally agree with her and take the credit of her.
The first thing jumped into my sight is the pair of feet which she set as two variations. Both of them were titled Brick-Foot  (all 2016). Hodith used the way of old-school to make the work more like ancient figurative sculpture than minimalist carving. Unlike the contemporary sculptures which are typically full of sense of energetic and modern, even are painted with the impression of colorful abstract, the feet are not as fancy as it was stated, “technically perfect.”   The creation reminded me the previous event I attended: Eco Materialism and Contemporary Art. While our life has been becoming more convenient because so many inventions with advancement technology have been produced, people gradually forget how to use our body physically. For instance, people are lazy to walk since we get cars. I feel these feet ironically express the meaning of “heavy” that our feet are heavy enough to lift them up for walking because we are using the easier way- driving, instead of walking.
Another work that caught my eye is a series of paintings of laptops, which was titled “In Waiting Laptops.” Obviously, our lifestyle has been changed because of more and more high-tech devices. Laptop is one of those. The pictures of laptops which were drawn by Hopg are “anthropomorphized, sporting faces, hair, legs, arms, and personalized accessories such as shoes, sunglasses, and hats.” Yes, we cannot deny that we are using our laptops to do most of things that people did before the age of internet. Laptops are treated as human beings that they are doing the jobs which human should do physically, such as shopping, social contact, and so on. It is so true that Hoph addressed for her works, “the overwhelming presence of technology in our lives by contending with the ways in which the now-ubiquitous laptop mediates and enables, but also limits, human interaction.”

 




Sunday, June 4, 2017

Space + Art


Formation of Earth - Ron Miller
Space and art seem like two quite different subjects that it is impossible to show an intersection of them. However, art in which relates with space represents that the knowledge of the universe has been discovered, understood, and conveyed by some way of art. It is amazing that people would be able to know and see what is the outer space look like from artworks which include the creations of photograph, fiction, and etc. According to the lecture video, the professor, Victoria Vesna, gave an infusive opening to briefly introduce the space where is a yearning for travel in the future; she said “we have been fascinated by the sky, the stars, the plants and we have looked at the cosmic ocean for thousands of years.” Before the age of the invention of the telescope, all the points of light in the sky attracted attention of ancient astronomers and they did a romantic thing for those stars- making Roman names of deities to call them, such as Venus which means the goddess of love and beauty. For me, this work- making names for all stars to give themselves meanings, was creative and imaginative, and it was a part of art.

"The Pale Blue" dot. The rays of light are artifacts on the photo from the Sun.
-NASA

Owing to new technological advances, people have been able to use the telescopes to look at and observe all the shining spots in the sky, even taking photographs of them, such as “Pale Blue Dot,” a photograph of planet Earth that was taken by Voyager 1 space probe. By showing from the photo, the apparent size of Earth is less than a pixel. The planet is appearing as a tiny dot that against the vastness of space. Carl Edward Sagan, an astronomer, cosmologist and author, was impressed by this photo, and he contributed a book named “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space.” He pointed out that on the dot, “every human being sho ever lived, lived out their lives”.
Another example is about Ron Miller, an illustrator and author specializing in science, astronomy, and science fiction, has published more than fifty books. Also, he is a production designer and an artist that he has designed postage stamps and worked on motion picture. He has ever described that the Earth actually has a ring like Saturn. And there are so many incredible photos shown on his post “If Earth Had a Ring Like Saturn.”


It is a good comprehensive topic of which combining art, science, and technology. All the beautiful works struck me and those visions give me hope for the future. Not only the photo works, but also the imagines the artists captured in ink, oils, watercolors and bytes. Importantly, all the artworks are waking dreams of us.











References:
"A Pale Blue Dot - Animated Version." YouTube. Ed. Gokumon17. YouTube, 13 July 2015. Web. 04 June 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH12FJDmVpU>

Miller, Ron. "If Earth Had a Ring Like Saturn." Io9. Io9.gizmodo.com, 20 May 2013. Web. 04 June 2017. <http://io9.gizmodo.com/if-earth-had-a-ring-like-saturn-508750253>
Sagan, Carl Edward. "A Pale Blue Dot." The Planetary Society Blog. The Planetary Society Blog, 1994. Web. 04 June 2017.<http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/earth/pale-blue-dot.html>

Szoldra, Paul. "26 Years Ago, Carl Sagan Gave Us an Incredible Perspective on Our Planet."Business Insider. Business Insider, 14 Feb. 2016. Web. 04 June 2017.<http://www.businessinsider.com/pale-blue-dot-carl-sagan-2016-1>

Victoria, Vesna. "8 Space Intro 1280x720." YouTube. YouTube, 29 July 2013. Web. 04 June 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dPAmpBiVHY>

Victoria, Vesna. "8 Space Pt1 1280x720." YouTube. YouTube, 29 July 2013. Web. 04 June 2017.

Victoria, Vesna. "Space Pt4." YouTube. YouTube, 30 May 2012. Web. 04 June 2017.

Victoria, Vesna. "Space Pt5." YouTube. YouTube, 30 May 2012. Web. 04 June 2017.

The Exhibition at Hammar Museum, Judith Hopf

This exhibition was presented at the one of the corners in Hammar Museum, and it was shown in a way so amusing. The project was organized b...