From your votes, here’s a table of feedback on our 12 Activities this summer. I’ve listed them in the order we did them, and then given the number of UpVotes, the number of DownVotes, and then the “Total” (+ – -)

• View directly in Google Docs

Love & Hate

As you can see, one person’s most favorite activity was another person’s least favorite activity. Even the most most favorite activity still got 5 downvotes. Even the least least favorite activity still got 2 upvotes.

Putting all your votes together (upvotes minus downvotes) the class’ overalls are:

Alana (Amanda’s niece) & Amanda sitting on top of Amanda’s name!

Favorites

+6: Painting
+5: Instagram
+4: Plaster Casting
+4: vlogging
+4: Your Turn

Least Favorites

-7: Kickstarter
-5: Rapid Prototype
-3: CFID

Summer ’14 Art110 students in their “Counterfactual Identity” outfits.

And unfortunately, as my scheduling genius would have it, your 3 least favorites were 3 weeks in a row!

The Kickstarter Conundrum

If your votes are to have any real meaning, I kind of have to do something with them. So yes, Painting & Instagram will definitely be back – that part’s easy!

The not-so-easy part is that something should also be out. And that bright red -7 is pointing straight at Kickstarter.

I think one of the many reasons you guys didn’t like the Kickstarter project is that it felt fake. You felt like late-nite TV hawkers selling something bogus. I’m not sure why it came out that way, but that was far from my intention.

I thought the Rapid Prototype project would be cool because it’d be a chance to play with something more related to your major or other interests. Instead of go do painting or photography, it could be think up some simple but useful thing related to Aerospace Engineering or Fashion Merchandising.

Freedom & Democracy

And following RP, I thought Kickstarter would be a nice chance to both think about Arts Funding in the 21st century and also your personal opportunities for funding any sort of creative project.

Money & Power

If you think about art through human history, it’s sort of always been guided by the hand of money and power. In the 16th century it was the Medici family. Here in the 21st century it’s Americans like Eli Broad & Europeans like Charles Saatchi. What they find interesting and valuable comes to be interesting and valuable to our culture. What they choose to overlook often comes to be overlooked by our culture.

Charles Saatchi happens to like spending huge sums of money on sharks in formaldehyde tanks. He’s not so interested in riding a real bicycle through a virtual city. Because of those tastes on the part of people like Saatchi, Damien Hirst is today a global brand, while Jeffrey Shaw‘s name is found only in “Computer Art” books. There’s a whole alternate late-20th-century Art History that wasn’t really written because of the tastes of money and power.

The Politics of Art

Another way we fund art is through nations and budgets for things like the American National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) The politics and nuances of who and what does and doesn’t get funded by the NEA, and whether America even wants to have an NEA at all, are complex, nuanced, long running, and unfortunately, highly politicized. I shouldn’t even start on all that here, but suffice to say, when politicians and political appointees are choosing what art gets funded, it can get pretty messy.

Another Way of Funding Art

Which brings us back to Kickstarter and why your very least favorite activity of all feels so important to me. With a platform like Kickstarter you don’t need elite access to money and power, you just need to build a small network of people who care about your ideas.

Kickstarter projects are funded by family, friends, people who read your blog, people on your mailing list, and Kickstarter website surfers.

With drones so crazy hot ATM, an Aerospace Engineer like Ricki could put together a pitch for a cool new low-cost drone project. Or if you think about our Singer & Dancer: Juston & Justin: Juston could pitch for funds to produce a new record, Justin for a new performance. And not just “art,” but anything creative. We have a number of Engineers in the class who could pitch all sorts of things that might be interesting.

The Philosophy Duo we looked at raised $500 to produce their songs. Kristen Bell & Rob Thomas raised $5,000,000 to make their movie. You guys could easily imagine small things and make them real. It’d be a little weird to call up your aunt or uncle and say, hi, I want to make some paintings, can you give me a hundred bucks? But if you sent them off to a nice, shiny site like Kickstarter where they can see how serious, passionate, and professional you are, I think they’d be thrilled to invest $100 in this cool project by their favorite nephew or niece.

Sami & Kate metup at the Venice Art Walls. Unfortunately they’re both shy & introverted.

Do Votes Matter?

So I’m kind of stuck. I truly do want your votes to mean something. Which suggests that Kickstarter should be out. (or substantively modified) But I also think it’s so important both as an understanding of the way we as a people fund Arts, and also as a real possibility to fund your own creative ideas, be they small, medium, or large.

Prototype What?

Your 2nd least favorite activity was Rapid Prototype. This also surprised me since I thought it’d be a chance to do something related to your major or other personal passion. I actually like the RP project a lot. I’ll spare you the passionate plea why I like it for now, and just say that while I do like it, it’d be a less bitter pill for me to let this one go.

ePortfolio

Meanwhile, while I’ve been talking a lot about having your websites be ePortfolios and not only “turn-in-my-homework” sites, I haven’t really given you the opportunity to make that happen. I just talk a lot and hope you’ll do it on your own.

One thought is to let go of the RP Activity and replace it with a “Real ePortfolio” activity where you focus on making your website about your Journalism or Nursing or Marine Biology or other professional pursuit. Or about Cars or Cosplay or other personal passion.

We could rename the Wk 1 Activity that’s currently called “ePortfolio” to “Web Design.” That’s more accurate anyway, since Wk 1 is really more like make an account and get yourself on the web nowwww! And then have (real) ePortfolio be about making a site that truly presents what you’re achieved. For a senior looking to enter the world that might be a bit different that for a freshman looking to have fun in college, but for both it could be a place to document your achievements for presentation to the HR Directors of the world, be that next month or in 4 years.

Tell Me Again?

Strictly by the numbers, Kickstarter should go. Or Kickstarter and Rapid Prototype. I’d love to hear if my argument above does or doesn’t carry any weight with you. What do you think about keeping Kickstarter (as is or as a redesigned Activity) and instead letting go of Rapid Prototype and replacing it with You-specific ePortfolio Design?

You’re welcome to leave a comment below if you’d like to share your thoughts.

The students aren’t the only ones who benefit from asynchronous learning: Practicing my *cough* flawless surfski remounting technique over summer.

Here’s a video I sometimes play in the F2F class. The singer has so much charisma & power it’s hard to believe that he’s been dead for just a little longer than almost everyone in Art110 has been alive. Time really does fly.

Number One

So many of you did such wonderful work in so many different ways this summer that I almost hate to say who happened to ring up the most points. Jessica, to name just one of you, almost certainly wins the prize for the most creative reinterpretation of the weekly activity briefs. In an art class or really, at a university, Jessica’s kind of creativity should be celebrated. I think it’s why we’re here. Not just to be “creative” in The Arts, but to be “creative” in Business, Engineering, and whatever your life passion is.

Jessica with her painting activity.

Maybe you’re the accountant who creatively rearranges a spreadsheet to reveal something important about your business that no one else has ever realized. Maybe you’re the programmer who doesn’t know that everyone knows that what you’re trying to do can’t be done. So your creative ignorance leads to innovation in programming. Honestly, if the university isn’t about creativity, I don’t know why it’s here.

Nonetheless, I have to confess, that when you have the task of handing out points to a big group of students as fairly and equally as you can, you get just a little bit nervous about how many points is fair for Jessica’s paradigmatic creativity. In the long run, I’m certain that Jessica, and all of you, will be well-served by being true to your deepest self.

Just Tell Us!

Albert Le, #1, Art110, Summer ’14

Competition and rankings can certainly be critiqued. Still, without stopwatches & scoreboards, we’d never know just how extraordinary the achievements of people like Serena Williams or Michael Phelps are. And if you want to talk about points in Summer Art110, I have just two words for you: Albert Le.

As you know, we had 1,008 points possible this summer, with 900 needed for an “A”. Albert finished Art110 with 1,128 points for a “perfect” 112%! Here he is in the Art110 Hall of Fame!

Besides Albert’s name sparkling there, 4 other interesting things you’ll find there are his connections. Albert’s brought one home for the poor, failing male gender! He’s the first male to take the top spot since Patrick Ho & Tatsuya Ando back in Fall 2011. Yes, the women have been that dominant!

Lee Le, Fall ’07

He’s also the 2nd “Le” in the HOF, joining Lee Le back in Fall 2007. Lee went on to graduate (double major) and today she does television reporting for a Vietnamese station here in Los Angeles. Albert’s the 2nd person from the Management major in the HOF, joining Nikki Bark from Spring ’06. And finally, in addition to saving his gender, Albert also pulled one out for those poor, lame duck seniors. Art110 has had 19 Freshmen as #1, 7 sophomores & 4 juniors, but before Albert, Paul Morales from Spring ’06 was the only other senior.

The Le clan, Seniors, Management Majors, and the Male Gender all owe you one Albert!

But Wait, There’s More!

Jenn at her CSULB Graduation in May!

Albert’s work this summer was, honestly, extraordinary. Week after week, he brought depth, seriousness, and even fun to his work. But he wasn’t alone. 3 other of you joined the “Better-than-perfect” club: Jenn: 1081, Sadie: 1069 & Heather: 1028.

Here’s the Top 10 list for Summer ’14:

• direct link to the Google Doc

Other Feedback

Besides your valuable Upvotes & Downvotes for our 12 Activities, you also answered the question, What was the Best & Worst of Art110 for you?

Almost the only thing you listed under “worst,” and listed by almost every single one of you, was the Online Discussion Groups. Fortunately, we already fixed that last week!

The #1 thing you liked was the Activities as a whole. You also liked Blogging, having a Website No Book, Artist OTW, Art Talks, and taking a class where you could travel anywhere and have the class comes to you.

Me.com

Only one of you actually thought the $18 was a waste of your money. Almost all of you were happy to have a website and your own URL, even if your intentions for future use varied a lot. Many of you said that you were happy to spend $18 for a domain name and not buy a textbook. You guys definitely liked not buying a textbook!

“Landscapes with a Corpse” wasn’t everyone’s favorite activity, but Sadie liked it so much she decided to teach it as her A12 “Teach One.” While she was at it she created another photograph. The 1st time around she was brutally slashed by a home invader. This time she was somewhat more gently bitten by a snake. Like Cleopatra, lying in perfect, eternal repose.

Happy Trails!

And now it’s time to say goodbye. I’ll be hanging out in the School of Art, Art Gallery Courtyard every Thursday this year from 11 – 12:15. If you’re on campus, please feel free to drop by anytime and say Hi! Of course you know my URL & email. But given the busyness of life, for most of you, this really is goodbye.

It’s been a privilege, a pleasure, and an honor to spend a small piece of your college experience with you and to see what you all can do. To see the power of someone like Albert, the creativity of someone like Jessica, the generous community building of someone like Jenn, the innovation of someone like Sadie. (I’ll resist the temptation to go on about every single one of you!

I’ve never had so many seniors in this class before! It’s so awesome to see someone like Julia graduate and already have a great job to start her career with. And yes, freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and super-seniors too, who get to come back and explore college for a while longer.

I hope you find a way to keep art & creativity in your life. I hope we’ve thought about a few possibilities for the 21st century this summer.

We got to go to the beach a couple of times – not just The Beach with buildings, but the beach with sand and water – which I thought was pretty cool, but I’ve since learned that a number of you actually hate the beach!

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

— T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding

I hope your journey in Art110 this summer has helped you know your place a little better. Thanks for sharing it with me.

For those of you returning: have a great time in college. For those of you graduating: have a great career. And for all you: have a great life!

Go Beach!

— Glenn

Glenn Zucman & Laura Kaiser. Photo by Erik Morales.

We’ve reached the end of, I hope, a great summer! One more thing to do before we go: teach something about art to someone else! Full details on the Teach One page.

No Late Work

IMPORTANT NOTE: There is no late work for Week 12! Unlike past weeks where you can turn work in up to a week late for partial credit, after this coming Sunday night at 11:59pm I won’t be able to accept any late Wk 12 work. To accept late Wk 12 work would mean I’d have to delay posting everyone’s final grades to Brotman Hall for an extra week. I’m pretty sure both you guys and Brotman Hall wouldn’t be too happy about that, so please be sure to turn in Wk 12 on time!

Discussion Groups

Like last week, instead of discussion groups, I’ll ask an extra “Question 4″ to get some feedback about the course from you.

Discussion Questions

One
Teach One
There is no question one! (other than making your video or other media and explaining a bit about what you’re trying to teach and how you’re going about it)

Two
The Art of Our Time
What have you learned and experienced about art and your life this summer?

Can art be a part of your personal experience of life? Can art be a part of your professional and career activities? By art in your career I don’t mean painting or going to museums exactly, but the idea of different perspectives, of examining figure and ground, and the other ideas we’ve thought about, being applicable to problems you might face in Aerospace Engineering or Nursing or Marine Biology or Physical Therapy?

May 1, 1965: Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, Chuck Wein & Gerard Malanga in bed in a Paris hotel while waiting for Warhol’s Flowers show to open at Gallery Sonnabend.

Three
Andy Warhol
We often identify artists by the media they work in, “painter,” “video artist,” “performance artist,” and so on. Andy Warhol worked in virtually every media he could get his hands on: He was a a very successful commercial illustrator before beginning his fine art career, and continued to do commercial projects for much of his career. Warhol painted, screen printed, created sculptures, public art, films, videos, produced a rock band, staged multimedia events, published a magazine, hosted a TV show, had small parts in film & TV, and worked for a modeling agency. He even created some early computer art. He experimented with engineers like Billy Kluver to create works like Mylar Balloons. And the art-as-life performance art of Andy Warhol’s Factory was for many, his greatest work of all.

Do you think of Warhol in terms of one media? Like pop paintings of Marilyn Monroe or Campbell’s Soup Cans? Or films? Or? Do you think he was more successful or more impactful in one media?

Hollywood produces a wide range of artists and styles. Yet compared to Warhol, Hollywood is constrained by traditional “entertainment” tropes. Warhol just turned a camera on and put people in front of it. He didn’t zoom or stage or edit. The less Warhol did, the more powerful his films were. Think about all the Hollywood films you’ve seen. Think about all the GoPro video tricks you’ve seen on YouTube. How would you do something truly different? Not simply a more amazing explosion or a more incredible trick, but a rethinking of the media itself. What would it be?

I said that Warhol was gay, yet Art History ignored that essential piece of his identity for a long time. What about other artists or cultural icons or politicians or people in your own life? Is there some real, and solid, and knowable identity that people have? Or is it always a negotiation of perceptions? Is Warhol or Picasso or Lady Gaga or Obama or your boyfriend or girlfriend a real and knowable identity? Or a constantly negotiated construct filtered through your own needs and perceptions?

Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures, KW ICA, Berlin, 2004 — in this installation Warhol Screen Tests & other films are presented as a sort of subtly moving portrait gallery.

Four
About Art110
Last week you all provided a lot of valuable feedback on the Discussion Groups. Many of you thought that they had some or a lot of value, but as I look over everything you all said, it looks like they’re going to be out for next summer. I’m still tallying your feedback and will LYK the final results, but that’s how it’s looking so far.

This week I’d really appreciate your thoughts on the rest of the course.

• What were your 3 favorite activities? Why?
• What were your 3 least favorite activities? Why?
• What was the best part of the course and should definitely stay?
• What was the not-so-best part of the course and should maybe go?

I’d also like to get your thoughts on the ePortfolios / Websites / Blogs. As you know, I’m really hoping these will become valuable tools for you guys. Some of you were already doing great portfolio/blog work before the summer started. Some of you have built the start of something powerful this summer. But for others of you, it mostly has been a “place to turn in my homework”. And no doubt for some or many of you it will never go farther than that.

What do you think about ePortfolios?

I think the materials for this course have been fairly modest in price. Still, I’m sure you’d be happy to spend $18 less. I asked you to buy your own Domain Name (“me.com” instead of the free “me.wordpress.com”) for a few reasons. I think having your own domain name gives you a certain ownership over your site. I hope it gives you a feeling of empowerment. I also hope that some of you will maintain and expand these sites and make them powerful tools for your ongoing careers.

Of course I could also be wrong about all that.

Are you happy you have your own domain name? Or do you just wish you could have saved $18?

Happy Trails

This isn’t goodbye goodbye, I’ll send you another post in a week after all your A12’s are in. But it’s pretty close! Thank you all so much for putting time in on Art, and on Art110 this summer. I’ve enjoyed working through ideas with you and I’ve loved seeing your diverse and creative projects. And you have been diverse! Different projects, and lots of different opinions: some found discussions valuable, others thought them a waste of time; some found Joseph DeLappe’s work enormously important, some “didn’t get it” or found it offensive and would have kicked him out like some of the real players did; some of you thought Scene Completion was really cool, and some thought it was totally fake and meaningless.

In the end perhaps it doesn’t matter too much where on these wide spectrums of opinion and perception you came down, but simply that the ideas and artists we’ve looked at asked questions and made you think. Our lives can be so busy that we sometimes find thinking to be a burden. Just strap me to the tracks, fire up the engine, and let’s go down the tracks already!

For me, great art is art that asks questions. Art that questions my assumptions. Art that invites me, or demands, that I look at things from different perspectives. I hope the diversity of your perspectives on these many ideas means that “we” have asked a lot of questions and looked from a lot of perspectives.

For those of you who already “Walked” in May and Art110 was the last class in your CSULB career, CONGRATULATIONS!! I know there’s jobs and apartments and so many things to get moving on! But try to take a moment to savor what you’ve accomplished. It’s incredible! It’s fantastic!

For those of you coming back to CSULB, or Penn State, or anywhere else, for a year or four, best wishes! Sometimes being in college can seem like so many hoops to jump through and so many units and things to collect so you can get out already and move on to the next square in the game of life. I hope you can take a moment now and then to remember that in life the journey should be at least as important as the destination.

I’m sure you all know that Robin Williams passed away yesterday. I’m not a big fan of art being plundered to sell things, but I can’t deny that the Robin Williams Dead Poets Society iPad commercial that you probably saw replayed a lot yesterday, is just a great piece of poetry.

Happy Trails!

— Glenn

Glenn & Julia (with Julia’s JEM logo) at the Venice Beach Legal Art Walls, Summer 2014

Art Talk 12: The Art of Our Time

Art Talk #12 – The Art of Our Time from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Artist OTW 12: Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

On Nov 13, 2013 Andy Warhol’s Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) sold at auction for 105.4 million dollars. This interview was recorded in advance of the auction by Sotheby’s:

David Bowie wrote a song about Andy Warhol:

Edie Sedgwick was unquestionably one of Warhol’s greatest female film stars. Animated, beautiful, and trend-settingly thin, this unhappy child from a prominent New England family fascinated almost everyone who met her. In the mid-1960′s she became something of an icon, influencing popular style with her dark, heavily made-up eyes, cropped silver hair, elaborate dangling earrings, and long tights-clad legs.

Although the tragic and sometimes sordid details of her short life have been extensively recorded elsewhere, the most compelling record of Sedgwick’s personality , the best evidence of her particularly fascinating presence, are to be found in the Warhol films themselves. Sedgwick nearly monopolized Warhol’s camera for much of 1965, starring or appearing in every single sound film to come out of The Factory between late March and the shooting of My Hustler on Labor Day Weekend in September.

— Callie Angell

In 2008, 21 years after Warhol’s death, The Warhol Museum commissioned musicians Dean & Britta (Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips) to create Sound Series: 13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests

Screen Test: Ann Buchanan:

Edie Sedgwick died of a drug overdose in 1971 at the age of 28. 42 years later, in 2014 she had a Twitter Resurrection and filmed a new screen test of her avatar afterlife:

Edie Sedgwick, Screen Test #5 from Edie Sedgwick on Vimeo.

• Warhol Grave 24/7 Earthcam: warhol.org/figment

WhatsApp!

This surprised me. I thought video chat would be more engaging and fun. And I know how hugely successful Google Video Hangouts are in the professional world. I think what I may have failed to realize is that a Video Chat is a lot like a Voice Call, and student-aged peeps have, I think, overwhelmingly chosen text apps like WhatsApp over voice. Just as email used to be “what you use to talk to old people,” a role that Facebook seems to have now, I think voice might be what you use to talk to parents, but WhatsApp is probably a more fun way to engage with friends.

SIDENOTE:
It’s interesting that the already aging Facebook is trying to stay relevant by buying both Instagram and WhatsApp and trying to buy Snapchat. (Facebook bought Instagram in Apr ’12 for US$1B, WhatsApp in Feb ’14 for US$19B, and unsuccessfully offered US$3B for Snapchat in Nov ’13)

Read

Whenever you visit a library you see one of those well-intentioned Read posters featuring some cool celebrity. I do think reading is important and valuable and the decline of reading probably isn’t good. But it’s also important to remember that back in the days of yore, reading didn’t have a lot of competition. Today reading not only has competition from films and myriad other media forms, but it also has competition from, well, reading! When you see a poster in a library that says “Read” it might be suggesting to read a book. But if you count all the messaging, blogs, and other online media that peeps read, that probably adds up to plenty of novels worth of pages in a year. We can debate whether the nature of short chunks of reading offers the same intellectual and analytic value that diving into the mind of a novel does.

Maybe a novel is a much richer experience for a human being.

Or maybe the interactivity and discussion of text, chat, blogs, and other media offers a rich space of community, interaction, and a place to test perceptions and ideas.

Infinite Choice

We probably should read more novels. It is an extraordinary form that at its best offers unique and powerful insights. But we should also appreciate that reading has a lot of competition today. Similarly, in the past, and in rural places, things could get boring. But in a place like Los Angeles in the 21st-media-century, boredom almost isn’t an option. One student commented that Foucault wouldn’t get tenure today! And I wonder how many students are ready or interested in embracing the subtlety of a John Cage or Allan Kaprow perspective when they have so many options and so much stimulation available in IRL Los Angeles plus the infinite vastness of YouTube and all the other online spaces.

Today’s academic model is about 200 years old. Affluent kids moved from boarding school to university. There wasn’t much else to do besides studying and pranks. I think college is still a place where new ideas and great friendship are formed. Does a class need to be part of that? Maybe. But the sorority, the anime club, the volleyball team, the debate team, and so many other options on and off campus also enrich the student experience.

Flexibility

Also dragging the discussions down is the idea that an online class is supposed to be at the learner’s convenience. So text chat: maybe. Video chat: way too much scheduling hassle.

Summer ’14 Art110 students in their “Counterfactual Identity” outfits.

Conclusions

Weekly video chat is out. There could be a possibility of having a week or 2 of special meetups so students could actually meet each other. Text chat is a possiblilty. But as one student noted, since they’re doing weekly creative activities and blogging the results, why not have them look at and comment on each other’s work.

I think that’s the best answer for next summer. Instead of discussion groups move to commenting on each other’s blogs. In the academic year F2F class with 150 students it’s easy to be lost. But in a summer class with 25, commenting on each other’s blog posts could be a way to develop better insight into what others are thinking and doing. And it preserves the asynchronous nature of online classes & text chat that students value.

OMG, just 2 weeks left! We started this course 10 fast weeks ago looking at The Broken Man in the Lascaux caves in Southern France. We said that The Broken Man had been on a vision quest and died to his initial mortal existence to returned as a Shaman for his people.

Broken Man, Lascaux, France, 17,000 years ago

You too have been on a sort of Art & Contemporary Culture Vision Quest these past 10 weeks, thinking about Art History, Artists OTW, and trying out Drawing, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Web Design, Vlogging, Performance Art, and more! Last week you metaphorically joined The Broken Man in ending your journey with your Landscapes with a Corpse Activity.

For the last 2 weeks it’s time for you to be a Cultural Shaman! Hopefully the 10 activities I picked for you were well chosen, gave you an intro to lots of things, and let you think about ideas. But even if they were, I’m still not you. I don’t have your life journey, your passion, your experience, your interests.

At last it’s time for Activity 11 – Your Turn. This week you pick any art activity you’d like to try and give it a shot. If you want to kick ideas around you can hit me up here on the website with a comment or chat message. Or email. Or chat with a classmate about your activity. If you want to. Activity 11 is all yours. You don’t need any pre-approval. If you know what you want to do, you’re welcome to just go for it. Full details on the Activity 11 – Your Turn page.

Next week we’ll finish up with Activity 12 – Teach One where you complete your shamanistic journey by teaching an Art Activity or Art Idea to others.

Discussion Groups

There are no discussion groups this week!

You guys have been great sports coordinating schedules, dealing with tech, and trying to make our discussions successful. Heather, Jenn, Shamir & Ricki have been generous to facilitate this last month of discussions. For these last 2 weeks, I thought I’d free you from the task of finding time to meetup, and just ask you to answer 1 extra question on your blog. Unlike the regular academic year, these summer classes don’t have the University Evaluations that I’m sure you’ve filled out plenty of. But your feedback is still valuable. Your feedback really helps me make the course better for future students. Do feel free to be completely honest!

photo by Gerald Streiter

Unfortunately the university never shows you the results of the evals you fill out. If the university published that info, we wouldn’t need RateMyProfessors.com. But since they don’t, we do. Apparently it’s kind of complicated: I’ve been told that the average score for Liberal Arts faculty is about a point higher than for the average Science & Engineering faculty. IDK if that’s true, but you can imagine that harder classes might have lower scores and it could all be messy. Anyway, if you liked Art110, and ok, even if you didn’t, I do encourage to leave some comments on RateMyProfessors.com. I’m sure you know better than me that students want some idea of who they’re signing up to spend 4 months with.

BTW even though the university doesn’t publish eval scores, I do voluntarily publish mine. You can see them on the “Glenn Zucman” tab on the spreadsheet on the Hall of Fame page

Discussion Questions

One
Your Turn
There is no question 1 this week! Since we don’t have discussion groups, you don’t have to discuss your activity with yourself! You can just do it and blog about it in the normal way.

Two
The 21st Century
In the video I talk about Images that Think, and the idea that today images have agency. In the past an 8×10 print could only do whatever you physically did with it. Today on sites like Flickr and others, images can get together and do stuff even while you’re asleep. What do you think about that? Awesome? Creepy? Once again the idea of licenses and intellectual property comes in. © All Rights Reserved images are a little bit like “slave” images in that they can’t go to the party and create new forms. But Open Content images can go make new things. Like that Scene Completion software that lets you create the perfect vacation image from an imperfect one.

What do you think about Scene Completion? Is it more real than real because it depicts the way your vacation experience felt? Or is it fake because it depicts a scene that your human eyes never physically saw?

What do you think about Seam Carving? Is it obscene to take a sublime photograph that Ansel Adams spent days just measuring the light for, like Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941 and “carve” it up to fit your phone? Is it a wonderful convenience to have an otherwise tiny picture of your sister with her new baby be big and bright on your phone?

Three
Joseph DeLappe
As you see in the sample videos I’ve included, Joseph DeLappe has created virtual performance art works in many game-like environments like Second Life, America’s Army, and Chatroulette. In Second Life his Gandhi avatar had fans and a following. In America’s Army he annoyed players and they voted to kick him out. On Chatroulette where he read Michel Foucault‘s thoughts about The Panopticon, everyone just seemed to ignore him.

If you encountered DeLappe or his avatar in each of these 3 virtual places, what do you think your reaction would be?

Four
About Discussion Groups
Since we don’t have discussion groups this week, this is a great time for you to do an extra post and LMK your experience with, and thoughts about, our discussions this summer. The groups mainly had 2 goals: to let you discuss and help each other think about the ideas in the class, and also to get to “meet” your classmates in an online class where you might never interact with them otherwise.

For the discussions that I participated in, they were almost all Google Video Hangouts, and with an exception or two, we mostly didn’t have many tech difficulties. But from the screen caps that you guys included in your posts it seems like you mostly did Text Chats rather than Video Hangouts. Why? Were there tech difficulties? Or did you just not like F2F video, preferring text format?

• Were the chats a hassle in terms of scheduling or tech issues?
• Were the chats helpful with the course ideas?
• Did you like the chance to meet and interact with classmates?
• Were the chats a waste of time?
• For next summer, should we keep the discussion groups? Or dump them?

Art Talk 11: 21st Century

Art Talk #11 – The 21st Century from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Artist OTW 11: Joseph DeLappe

Joseph DeLappe from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Joseph DeLappe with a cardboard sculpture of his Gandhi avatar

Gandhi’s head made out of cardboard polygons

Cardboard avatar from America’s Army

Joseph DeLappe standing next to a large sculpture of his Gandhi avatar

Joseph DeLappe holding an oversized rifle made out of cardboard polygons from the game America’s Army

Before diving in to your Landscapes, you also had great discussions about the ideas of Free Culture & Intellectual Property. You expressed a wide range of opinions on the topics. Here’s a couple of videos to help you think about the possibilities. The first fits in the zone of “Remix Culture” even though it’s not actually a Remix but a Lip Dub:

And here’s Julian Sanchez from the CATO Institute to break down some of the issues:

Landscapes

kk, on to a few of your wonderful Landscapes with a Corpse photos!

Each person’s name is also a link to their website. Don’t forget to follow the links and leave a comment! It’s still not too late to appreciate each other’s work and make new friends & connections.

A is for Albert; asphyxiated by adrenaline games.

A is for Amanda; annihilated by a chain saw.

D is for DeMeire; dead as a door-nail.

E is for Emilie; everyone dies eventually.

G is for Georgie; a gorgeous corpse by the seashore.

J is for Jenn; just wanted to be perfect.

J is for Jessica; joints frozen in the cold night.

J is for Julia; a jumble of broken bones at the bottom of the stairs.

K is for Kaitlin; killed by excess.

K is for Kate; krushed by 10-ton boulders.

R is for Ricki; run-over on her way to exercise.

S is for Sadie; slashed by a home invader.

S is for Sami; sleeping forever thanks to carbon monoxide.

S is for Shivam; snuffed out by gangsters.

S is for Sung Hyun; spirit lost.

Landscapes with a Corpse, Summer 2014, School of Art, Long Beach State

Landscapes with a Corpse, Izima Kaoru.
Koike Kiko wears Gianni Versace, 2004.

In Week 6 we tried Social Photography with our Instagram project. Some of our photos were great, but the overall aim wasn’t about traditionally compelling photography, rather it was a collection of photos that might say something about our relationships to our lives and to each other.

Last week played with Identity Art by “wearing” a different Identity for a day.

This week we try a photo that is in many ways a more “traditional” use of photography, The Portrait. But the twist is that it’s a portrait of how you think you might exit this mortal existence. Identity Art mashes up with Portrait Photography. Our inspiration is the photographer Izima Kaoru and you’ll find full details on the Landscapes with a Corpse page!

In terms of our Artists OTW, the photographs of Francesca Woodaman & Nikki S. Lee are quite different, yet both are self-portraits that say so much about Identity.

Discussion Qustions

One
Landscapes with a Corpse
If you’ve already taken your photo, then talk about your experience. If you haven’t taken it yet, then share your ideas. Or help each other brainstorm on scenarios, locations, props, ways to photograph.

Two
Free Culture
We know the Internet allows, or almost wants ideas, culture, and creativity to flow freely. We also know that lots of people, from giant corporations to individual singer-songwriters or photographers feel that they own their creativity and no one should use it without paying them first. What do you think? What’s your vision of a culture where we can share and perhaps remix with the many immediate tools on our desktops and mobile devices, but also honor and pay artists for work that we value?

What about your own website? Right now it might be mostly Art110 posts, but imagine that Ricki puts her year-long Aerospace Engineering project on her site, or that Sami posts videos of her acting work, or that Jenn posts essays and advice on health, fitness & lifestyle. What should others be able to do with that work?

• Can I go to the website and view it?
• Can I repost / reblog / embed Ricki’s photo or Sami’s video or Jenn’s paragraph on my website?
• Can I remix their work into a new or derivative work?
• Can I put it in my textbook?
• Can I sell it to NBC?

Three
Aaron Swartz
If you weren’t already familiar with Aaron Swartz, you can learn a little from my intro video and the trailer for the film The Internet’s Own Boy. You can also take a look at Aaron Swartz’ wikipedia page, or his website, or the Remembering Aaron Swartz website.

Is he a hero? A victim? A martyr? A criminal?

Lawrence Lessig defined “hacking” as using technical ability to advance a social good. Richard Stallman defines it as playful cleverness. What does hacking mean to you? Is it a positive word? Or something destructive? What responsibility do people with technical abilities have?

Discussion Groups

The discussion groups with Jenn, Ricki, Heather & Shamir seem to be working pretty well. Remember, if these 4 times are bad for you, just send me an email and you can host another time slot that works better. Otherwise, be in touch with Jenn, Ricki, Heather or Shamir to stop in at one of their time slots.

• Wednesday 9p with Jenn / Jsolis91 at aol dot com
• Thursday 6p with Ricki / cline dot ricki at gmail dot com
• Thursday 9p with Heather / hmichellebencivengo at yahoo dot com
• Saturday 2p with Shamir / shamir dot mohideen at gmail dot com

Art Talk 10: Free Culture

Art Talk #10 – Free Culture from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

In the video I talk about Creative Commons as an alternative to the traditional ©2014 All Rights Reserved. You each started your website 10 weeks ago and 2 weeks later you made an “About” page and put your “Hi, it’s me” vlog on it. But you never picked a license for your website. You never told visitors to your website what they can and cannot do with your work. Now’s a good time to do that.

The most Open thing you can do with your work is to place it in the Public Domain. The most Closed thing you can do with your work is to make it © All Rights Reserved. In-between those 2 extremes are 6 flavors of Creative Commons licenses. This video explains:

Here’s a rundown of the “flavors” of Creative Commons licenses: creativecommons.org/about/license

And by clicking a few boxes on this page you can get a CC License to put on your About page: creativecommons.org/choose

You have a total of 8 choices then, Public Domain, © All Rights Reserved, or any of the 6 flavors of CC license. Pick one and put it on your About page. You could make a “Terms of Use” heading and put it there.

I personally prefer a very open license and so I use Creative Commons Attribution for my own work. Another license a lot of people like is Creative Commons Non-Commercial. This license allows reuse and remix, but it doesn’t allow any derivatives of your work to be sold. It’s sort of a new community creating license: when you use CC-NC on sites like Flickr, YouTube, etc, you’re letting others make new works from your work, as long as they want to create culture in that same umbrella. But if NBC or the New York Times wants to use your work, then they still have to ask you and negotiate terms.

Artist OTW 10: Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Just last month, a year-and-a-half after Aaron Swartz’ January 2013 death, Brian Knappenberger’s documentary The Internet’s Own Boy was released. Below is the trailer for it. The Take Part.com website has links to buy or rent it from Vimeo, iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and others.

In a way we’ve said a lot about Identity this summer: The photographs of Francesca Woodman, the photographs of Nikki S. Lee, this CFID project, the Landscapes with a Corpse project. But what we haven’t had a chance to do is look at the nearly 50 years of compelling contemporary art exploring Identity. Identity Art has been a place where oppressed and marginalized people have found a place to express themselves. A place to claim, reclaim, and rehabilitate their cultural identities.

There’s been powerful work from Feminist Artists like Judy Chicago & Barbara Kruger; Latin-American artists like Guillermo Gomez-Peña & Coco Fusco, African-American artists like Adrian Piper & Dread Scott; Native-American artists like Jimmy Durham & James Luna; LGBTQIA artists like Robert Mapplethorpe & Andy Warhol, and many others.

Anida Yoeu Ali & Facebook

Here’s a couple of recent Identity videos. The first, 1700% Project: Mistaken for Muslin is from Anida Yoeu Ali, an artist whose works span performance, installation, video, poetry, public encounters, and political agitation. She is a first generation Muslim Khmer woman born in Cambodia and raised in Chicago. It is part of an ongoing project that engages art as a form of intervention against the racial profiling of Muslims in a post 9/11 era.

The second is a video on identity, coming out, & bullying, especially at young high-school and earlier ages, from Facebook.

1700% Project: Mistaken for Muslim from Anida Yoeu Ali on Vimeo.

Your Projects

And on to your CFID Activities!

Li-Ren Chang

In a remarkable project Li-Ren decided to dress as a Communist and try to have discussions about Marxist ideology. Sadly he wasn’t able to have those conversations with the people he met. In fact, far from debating ideological nuance, he discovered that none of the people he spoke with even knew the difference between Taiwan & China! I think in a different location or around a different group of people, Li-Ren might have had very different and perhaps really interesting conversations.

Kelsey DeMeire

DeMeire put on the most random outfit she could come up with and then made this cool video wandering around Long Beach’s 2nd street area at night.

For the most part, everyone was nice and willing to talk to me despite the bright camera lights shining in their face. I only have two people walk away from me as if I was some crazy person, I can’t say I don’t blame them though. I’m actually surprised so many people were willing to talk to me wight he camera on them. It was really interesting seeing what their responses were though, and funny enough I got a lot of people who thought I was a fashion major which is kind of ironic seeing as though my outfit was hideous.

Sadie Soto

I decided to dress completely out of the ordinary. I put on random clothes and accessories that would normally not be placed together including 2 shirts, tights, leggings, boy’s gym shorts, one sock, a glove, a scarf, one bracelet, a bandanna, a snow boot, and a sandal. I even placed half my hair in a bun and the other half in a braid. I figured that by dressing so crazy, I would achieve more reactions from outsiders then by portraying a certain identity.

I received numerous looks that were often inquisitive and perplexed. Many people looked me up and down or even stared. I noticed that many students tried to avoid me either by putting in headphones or straying away from eye contact. Often times, people would say they had class or were too busy to answer my questions. Nevertheless, I did receive some answers. When asked what they thought my name was I received: “something with an S,” Megan, Anne, Sarah, and Leslie. As far as what people thought my major was I got answers such as art, human relations, theater, communications, and math.

Although I was really nervous for this activity and kept putting it off, I feel that I was actually able to grow through this counterfactual identity. Normally I am not one to approach people and ask questions. In fact, I would probably have been too embarrassed to even wear this outfit in public if it was not for this project. However, I was able to get out of my comfort zone and branch out which is really cool.

Kate Brogan

For her CFID outfit Kate decided to go to her first ever EDM (Electronic Dance Music) show and try to look the part.

What I usually look like: T-shirt, barely any make-up, and hair in a ponytail.

This change definitely made people react to me different; I think in a better way. My outfit made me look like I had a lot of confidence and I truly belonged with that group of people, which was my intention when I changed my “identity.”

Jessica Garnett

Jess decided to turn up the volume with a hot pink wig and a tight dress. She met people on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore. A lot of peeps thought she was a Fashion or Comm major. Nobody thought she studied Math or Science. Some asked if she even went to college at all. Jess had a great time with this activity and wants to do it again, just for fun.

Sami Focarino

Sami decided to try something 180° from Jessica. As she put it,

I can get pretty crazy with my outfits. So for this project I decided to wear something I would NEVER wear out of the house: sweatpants! I am not the type of person to ever go out of the house in sweats. I am a dress to impress, you never know who you’re going to meet kind of gal. So, I wore sweats, an oversized t-shirt, and no shoes. Ew, I know. But I did it.

A number of you tried to talk to people who didn’t really want to talk to you. Sometimes because you looked a little different, or perhaps because they were just in a hurry. Ricki looked great and I was surprised that so many peeps were too busy to talk to her. We the CSULB Campus were pretty inconsiderate of Ricki which really surprised me and made me a bit sad. But Sami’s sweatpants project got the opposite reaction:

With this outfit I was really expecting people to completely ignore me, turn or even run away. But what I got was much different! I had people coming up to me asking if I needed help! This project restored my faith in humanity. It was amazing how many people wanted to be so generous. Someone even asked me if I needed a place to stay that night! I think this all happened because I was a girl. If my brother did this project, I do not think he would’ve received the same reactions. Overall, this was an amazing experience for me.

Drew Jimenez

Drew decided that where he went was even more important that how he looked. His plan was to put together what for him would be an offbeat look, go interact with some people at Starbucks, and then get out before someone photographed him and turned him into an Internet Meme.

When I ordered my drink the barista asked me what my name was; so I told her to guess. I did not even see the name till after which I thought was kind of funny. She guessed I was a music major at Cerritos College. Probably because I was a couple pieces of jewelry away from looking like a hip hop mogul.

Shivam Mehta

I decided to wear something not too crazy but just something that wasn’t me. At first I was a little self-conscious but with time I started feeling comfortable. I decided to go to the mall. I wore sunglasses, with plugs in my ears. I asked people what they thought my name was and I got all sorts of different names. The funny thing was that not one person guessed my ethnicity right in this outfit. I also I asked them what they thought my major was and a few people said Psychology. As I approached them a few people asked, “are you doing a YouTube video?”

Some of our activities have come in 2-week pairs, like Drawing & Painting, or Rapid Prototyping & Kickstarter. For the next 2 weeks we’ll be thinking about Identity with our Counterfactual Identity and Landscapes with a Corpse activities. So much contemporary art in the last 1/2 century has been about Identity. Even after all that powerful work our Wk 6 Artist OTW, Nikki S. Lee, was still able to come along and create work that’s fresh & compelling. She’s kind of the cheerleader for our Counterfactual Identity (CFID) activity. CFID can be a lot of fun. I hope, like Eva & Franco Mattes, you can embrace the prank-like fun in this activity, and also explore the truly powerful ideas it brings up. Full activity details on the Counterfactual Identity page!

A Better Website?

A while back Justin asked me about improving his website design. I’ve thought about all of your websites, and with no disrespect, I’ve come to the conclusion that almost all of you have the “wrong” theme! Less than 10% of you will ever be “bloggers,” yet over 90% of you have chosen “blogging” themes. I think almost all of you will be better able to put your most compelling online face forward with a “Portfolio” theme. Here’s a video where I explain what I mean and show you a bunch of great choices using free themes from WordPress.com

Picking a Design 4 Your Website from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Discussion Qustions

One
Counterfactual Identity
If you’ve already done your CFID project by the time you meetup for discussion, you can share your experience. If you haven’t done it yet, you can talk about what Identity you’re thinking of creating, how you might go about it, and what sorts of reactions you might expect.

Two
Eva & Franco Mattes
In projects like Luther Blissett, Darko Maver, Nike Ground, and many others, Eva & Franco Mattes have “hacked reality” or put “fake content” online and in the world. We live in a world where any blog could be fake or misleading. But it’s not only new media: the New York Times & NBC News also have perspectives, agendas, and cultural contexts. The 2001 photographer of the year, Brian Walski, was fired by the LA Times in 2003 for an altered photo of the Iraq war. Al Jazeera & Fox News broadcast pretty different content: is one “truth” and one “lie”?

What do you think of Eva & Franco Mattes many “pranks”? Are they deeply insightful cultural critiques? Or offensive breaks of our social contract?

Three
Abstraction & Representation

I try to downplay subject matter because I’m afraid it limits how people think about pictures… ambiguity is as important as specificity. It becomes a beautiful dialog, a tightrope walk, between abstraction and representation.

— Wayne Thiebaud

In the video I talk about Kasmir Malevich’s idea of discovering the surface of painting. What is a painting to you? Is it a gold-framed “window” to step into another world? Or a “surface” on which an artist confronts formal elements like line, color, mass, texture? What do you think of Wayne Thiebaud’s idea that abstraction & representation are a kind of dance or balance in a work? Do you prefer works that are more representational? Do you prefer works that are more abstract? What do you make of a monochrome (single color canvas) by Ellsworth Kelly or Yves Klein?

Discussion Groups

The discussion groups with Jenn, Ricki, Heather & Shamir seem to be working pretty well. Remember, if these 4 times are bad for you, just send me an email and you can host another time slot that works better. Otherwise, be in touch with Jenn, Ricki, Heather or Shamir to stop in at one of their time slots. Note that Heather moved from Tue to Thu, so you can now do a Thursday discussion with Ricki at 6p or Heather at 9p

• Wednesday 9p with Jenn / Jsolis91 at aol dot com
• Thursday 6p with Ricki / cline dot ricki at gmail dot com
• Thursday 9p with Heather / hmichellebencivengo at yahoo dot com
• Saturday 2p with Shamir / shamir dot mohideen at gmail dot com

Art Talk 9: Abstraction & Representation

Art Talk #9 – Abstraction & Representation from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Art Talk #9 – Abstraction & Representation – CSULB, School of Art, Art 110, Intro to the Visual Arts.

Artist OTW 9: Eva & Franco Mattes

Eva and Franco Mattes from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Mu gallery: It’s always six o’clock from robertanderson on Vimeo.

Nike Ground from Eva and Franco Mattes on Vimeo.

Eva and Franco Mattes
Nike Ground
2003

In September 2003, together with our friends at Public Netbase, we set up a fake Nike advertisement campaign, including a public installation, a website and a performance. The news went out nationwide: "Karlsplatz, one of Vienna's main squares, is soon to be renamed Nikeplatz, and a huge monument in the shape of Nike's famous Swoosh logo will be built in Nikeplatz". The one-month campaign provoked the reactions of Vienna's citizens, city officials and the Nike group, which started legal action to put an end to this bizarre performance.

Recent CSULB Film & Electronic Arts graduate Raeha Keller talking about Eva & Franco Mattes.

Jenn & Sami both pitched projects promoting self-esteem for girls. They’re really beautiful and important projects. I know these were only “practice” pitches, but it’d be great to see Jenn & Sami collaborate on something. Perhaps their Activity 11 – Student Choice could be more on this? Sami’s already started her work, and Jenn’s fits so nicely with her already active Health & Lifestyle blog.

College is a truly great time to run with ideas that inspire you. Never forget that the #1 market cap corporation in the world, Apple Inc, was just 2 guys in a California garage a few years ago. Or on a much lighter end, that 2 people who thought an Emoji-only social network was so silly that they had to do it for real. Or the amazing new ideas for health & longer-life that are coming in wearable designs. Small or large, change happens when a couple of people with passion and vision collaborate.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
— Attributed to Margaret Mead

Sung wants us to visit Korea – here’s his pitch:

Thinking about girls and self-esteem in our media saturated world

Photo: Sara by Alena Navarro-Whyte

Sadie did a really impressive job this week! She pitched the Desk-a-roo product that she designed last week in the Rapid Prototype activity, and she also found the “Coolest” pitch video on Kickstarter. If you’d asked me if I was interested in buying a new ice chest, I’d have said no. But after this really effective video that Sadie found, I don’t think I can live without one! From “no interest” to “must have” in 3 minutes & 21 seconds – that’s impressive.

Speaking of things you didn’t know you needed, here’s Cat Hats from Kaitlin!

Cat hats from Kaitlin on Vimeo.

Emilie has reinvented air conditioning for apartments!

Marina Abramovic from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Activity 8: Kickstarter Pitch Video

See the Kickstarter Activity page for full details!

Discussion Questions

ONE
Kickstarter Activity
Share your Kickstarter pitch ideas with each other. Try to help think through the ideas in the project. Give each other suggestions on points to make in your pitch viceos.

TWO
20th Century
In the video I use Ellsworth Kelly’s work to introduce the concept of Figure & Ground. We say that a painting or photograph has figure and ground. I note that in many Kelly paintings, the painting itself is all figure, and it is the architectural context that is the ground. Then I talk about Marshall McLuhan’s slightly different thinking about figure and ground: that we are distracted by figure (like the automobile and sexy ipod docks & gps units) and we fail to see the ramifications of the ground (like massive interstate highway systems, poor mass transit, dependence on foreign oil) What are your thoughts about Figure & Ground? Can you think of an interesting example of figure & ground in art? Can you think of an interesting example of figure & ground in your life?

THREE
Marina Abramovic
Lady Gaga describes Marina Abramovic as limitless. She also says that we set our own limits. Who sets your limits? What are your limits? How do you know you are truly alive? At the end of your life, how will you know that you truly lived?

Art Talk 8: 20th Century

Art Talk #8 – The 20th Century from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

the band plays a prelude, and Utopia in Four Movements starts at 2:55

Discussion Groups

Our latest new plan for even easier Discussion Groups is to skip the Doodle. From past Doodles we’ve picked the 4 most popular time slots and Heather, Jenn, Ricki & Shamir have generously agreed to host them. So here are your first 4 choices:

• Tuesday 9p with Heather / hmichellebencivengo at yahoo dot com
• Wednesday 9p with Jenn / Jsolis91 at aol dot com
• Thursday 6p with Ricki / cline dot ricki at gmail dot com
• Saturday 2p with Shamir / shamir dot mohideen at gmail dot com

Based on past Doodles, the majority of the class should be able to make one of those. You can email Heather, Jenn, Ricki or Shamir to let them know to expect you. About 5 minutes before the discussion hour, they will leave the URL to the Google Video Hangout as a comment on THIS post. So you can just come here, click the link, and join the Hangout.

Most of you should be able to make 1 of these 4 time slots. But what if you can’t? Then take a look at our Doodle from Week 7, pick another time slot that works for a bunch of classmates, and email me: I’ll add you as a host and let others come to your time slot.

LMK if you have any questions or problems with this. I’m hoping it will be an even easier and more flexible way to organize our hangouts.

Sadie Soto

Lecture hall desk organizer by Sadie Soto

Polly Nguyen

Desk organizer by Polly Nguyen

Eating Convenience

Kelsey DeMeire

Napkin-in-a-bag by Kelsey DeMeire.

Kaitlin Krumiede

Instant toothpick holder by Kaitlin Krumiede

Phone Accessories

Siraj Aboulhosn

Here’s a demo of Siraj’s passive speaker system for your phone. Active speakers have power & electronics and other requirements. Siraj has designed a device that doesn’t require any of that.

Heather Michelle

Phone Lens / Case by Heather Michelle

Li-Ren Chang

Super-alarm-clock by Li-Ren Chang

Sung Hyun Han

Cardboard Box Theater by Sung Hyun Han.

Janet Cardiff from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Activity #7: Rapid Prototype

This week you get to design something. Quick. Cheap. And use it already! By taking your simple prototype into the field (your life) you can get a quick feel for how it functions, what’s desirable, and how strong your use case is.

Full Rapid Prototype Activity details here!

Discussion Questions

ONE
Rapid Prototype
Share with your discussion groupmates:

• The area you thought about, like Aerospace or Nursing, like Cars or Cosplay
• The “need” you wanted to address
• The “device” you prototyped
• What your experience of using it has been so far

TWO
Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller
Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller create site specific works or experiences. Have you seen or thought about site specific installations or public art before? What do you think of this idea? Versus, say a painting or sculpture, that can go anywhere?

THREE
Aesthetics & Beauty
In the 4 paintings from Bouguereau, Manet-Meurent, Picasso & de Kooning, I argue that the works get progressively less pretty, but also more honest or truthful about people, experiences, and attitudes. And that if beauty is truth, then the less pretty paintings are perhaps more “beautiful.” What do you think?

I mention briefly that there is also a gendered component to many of our ideas of beauty. What do you think about beauty and gender?

FOUR
Realism & Romanticism
In the video I ask,

If you had a dial from 100% Realism & 0% Romanticism… to… 0% Realism & 100% Romanticism, where would you set your personal life dial?

What’s your answer?

Buffy is upset with Willow because she has rejected Halloween’s invitation to “Role Play.” Our Artist OTW last week, Nikki S. Lee, did a lot of role play. Pablo Picasso once said,

Everything you can imagine is real.

What do you think of imagination and role play? Is it just idle fantasy for the affluent and bored? Or do we create our own reality?

Art Talk 7a: Aesthetics & Beauty

Art Talk #7a – Aesthetics & Beauty from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Art Talk 7b: Realism & Romanticism

Art Talk #7b – Realism & Romanticism from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Discussion Groups

Group 1 – Tue 9p – Heather

1. Heather Bencivengo – Heather Michelle Photography.net << Organizer
2. Sung Hyun Han – Sung Hyun Han.com
3. Polly Nguyen – xPolly Nguyen.com
4. Albert Le – Albert Le123.com
5. Soo Kyung “Emilie” Kim – Emilie Soo Kim.com

Group 2 – Wed 9p – Jennifer

1. Jennifer Solis – JennsLife22.com << Organizer
2. Glenn Zucman – Mixed Reality.me
3. Andrew Jimenez – Drew Jimenez.com
4. Amanda Peck – Amanda Peck.com
5. Taryn Rescigno – Taryn Rescigno.com

Group 3 – Thu 6p – Ricki

1. Ricki Cline – Ricki Cline.com << Organizer
2. Sadie Soto – Sadie Soto.com
3. Shivam Mehta – Shiv Mehta.com
4. Kaitlin Krumwiede – Kaitlin Krum.net
5. Julia Meinen – Julia Meinen.com

Group 4 – Sat 2p – Shamir

1. Mohamed Mohideen – Shamir Mohideen.com << Organizer
2. Juston Couch – JustonKaceBlog.com
3. Justin Guiu – Justin Guiu.com
4. Kate Brogan – Kate Brogan.com
5. Siraj Aboulhosn – Siraj Aboulhosn.com

Group 5+

Kelsey, Emily A., & Sami did fill out the Doodle, but only gave us 1 hour out of the week and unfortunately I couldn’t match you with a group. Jessica, Jorge & Li-Ren didn’t fill out the Doodle. For all 6 of you, you can:

• Join any one of the 4 groups above if you can do that time slot.
  or
• email each other and find a time that works. It doesn’t need to be all 6 of you together, but if groups of 2 or 3 of you can “Hangout,” that’ll be great.

1. Kelsey Hitchcock – Demeires Dose.com
2. Emily Alpaugh – Emily Alpaugh.com
3. Sami Focarino – Samantha Focarino.com
4. Jessica Garnett – JeSSS GarneTTT1.com
5. Jorge Ulloa – Georgie Ulloa.com
6. Li-Ren Chang – LiRen Chang.com

TY everyone!

1962: designers at the Ford Motor Company imagining an early prototype for the Mustang

To view on Mobile: Instagram > #art110sum14
To view on Web: iconosquare.com/viewer.php#/tag/art110sum14

Ricki ‘n her Dad! Instagram Day Summer ’14!

Please snap 4 (or more) IG’s between the time you get up on Wed morning, and the time you go to bed on Wed nite.
Hashtag: #art110sum14
Full Details: Instagram Page
[box type=”alert”]NOTE: it is not enough to only post pix on Instagram. You must also “analyze” (write up) what you see in our “Giant Group Selfie” on your blog to receive points for the IG Activity. Details on your blog post are at the bottom of the IG page.[/box]

Art History: 19th Century

Art Talk #6 – The 19th Century from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Discussion Questions

ONE
Instagram
Your discussion on the IG Group Project should probably focus less on taking the pix, since most of us have done that before, and more on viewing the Group Creation the 26 of us make under the hashtag #art110sum14 The idea of authorship came up last week. Each of you is the “author” of an individual photo, but the thing that our collaborative 100+ photos is, who is the author of that? 26 individual people? One entity called “Art110″? Or is Glenn the author because he wrote the Activity Brief that sets all of you in motion? Or are Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger the authors of our project because when they created Instagram they created the platform from which all future works flow forth?

When we say that James Joyce wrote Ulysseys, or that John Lennon & Paul McCartney wrote A Day in the Life, that seems to make sense. In an era where motion pictures are worked on by hundreds of craftspeople, and every video on YouTube is a mashup of so many cultural sources, does it still make sense to talk in terms of authors? Or curators? Or readers?

What about the money? In an art class we might think about culture, creativity and ideas, but to giant corporations and small individual artists alike, authorship has something to do with who gets the money. Is it fair to mashup work that other people invested a lot of time and money in creating? Or on the other hand when corporations practice aggressive copyright enforcement like YouTube takedowns against college students, or the RIAA suing college students, is that money and power denying a voice, denying the right to participate in culture, to individuals with less money and power?

Don’t hold back, just push things forward from Ithaca Audio on Vimeo.

Enough about the context of our Art110 Class IG Selfie! What about the Distributed, Relational, Selfie itself? What common threads do you find in the different pictures? What differences? Are they just 100+ random pix? Or, different as your lives may be, do these 100+ images define some sort of ad hoc community, some sort of ad hoc culture that connects you to 25 other people, most of whom you’ve never met F2F?

TWO
19th Century
Denis Diderot invented The Encyclopedia in 1751. Jimmy Wales & Larry Sanger invented Wikipedia 250 years later in 2001. What does Wales & Sanger’s innovation mean to your life? What might Diderot’s innovation have meant to the lives of people in the 18th century? Can you make a connection between Diderot’s innovation and your life today? What does being a student at the California State University at Long Beach mean to your life? Opportunity? The joy of knowledge? Building blocks to a career? Hoops to jump through? Irrelevant general education classes to slog through? How would your life be different if CSULB didn’t exist?

Romanticism? Realism? Impressionism? Post-Impressionism? What art has the biggest impact on you? Why? What does this work mean here in 2014? Do you think it meant something different in the 19th century?

THREE
Nikki S. Lee
Somewhat like our Instagram project, Nikki S. Lee’s photography is less about sublime aesthetic and technical achievements like Edward Weston or Robert Mapplethorpe, and more focused on Social and Relational image making. Does Nikki S. Lee’s work resonate with your life? How so? Or why not? Nikki S. Lee’s Projects seem to suggest that we have more choices in our lives than we often think. Do you think that’s true? Could you switch groups? Could you be one of them? Do you “wear” the same identity every day? Why?

Artist OTW: Nikki S. Lee

Nikki S. Lee from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Discussion Groups

For groups 1-5 the Group Organizers only need to start the discussion. For groups 6 & 7 you need to get in touch with your group members and find a time. But for ALL GROUPS, Organizers please send an email to your members TODAY, confirming that you’ll all be connecting at the given time. And when you send that email, please include me on your email recipient list. We’ve had some failures to connect and I’d like to monitor who’s getting the word out and who is not.

Week 6 Organizers are: Taryn, Justin, Shivam, Juston, Kelsey, Sami, Jessica!

Week 6: June 30 – July 6

Group 1: Wed July 2, 6pm

1. Taryn Rescigno – Taryn Rescigno.com < Group Organizer
2. Glenn Zucman – Mixed Reality.me
3. Sadie Soto – Sadie Soto.com
4. Emily Alpaugh – Emily Alpaugh.com
5. Julia Meinen – Julia Meinen.com
6. Amanda Peck – Amanda Peck.com

Group 2: Thu July 3, 2pm

1. Justin Guiu – Justin Guiu.com < Group Organizer
2. Kaitlin Krumwiede – Kaitlin Krum.net
3. Andrew Jimenez – Drew Jimenez.com
4. Siraj Aboulhosn – Siraj Aboulhosn.com

Group 3: Thu July 3, 8pm

1. Shivam Mehta – Shiv Mehta.com < Group Organizer
2. Heather Bencivengo – Heather Michelle Photography.net
3. Polly Nguyen – xPolly Nguyen.com

Group 4: Sat July 5, 2pm

1. Juston Couch – JustonKaceBlog.com < Group Organizer
2. Kate Brogan – Kate Brogan.com
3. Sung Hyun Han – Sung Hyun Han.com

Group 5: Sat July 5, 8pm

1. Kelsey Hitchcock – Demeires Dose.com < Group Organizer
2. Albert Le – Albert Le123.com
3. Ricki Cline – Ricki Cline.com
4. Soo Kyung “Emilie” Kim – Emilie Soo Kim.com

Group 6: TBA

1. Sami Focarino – Samantha Focarino.com < Group Organizer
2. Jennifer Solis – JennsLife22.com
3. Jorge Ulloa – Georgie Ulloa.com

Group 7: TBA

1. Jessica Garnett – JeSSS GarneTTT1.com < Group Organizer
2. Li-Ren Chang – LiRen Chang.com
3. Mohamed Mohideen – Shamir Mohideen.com

But at other times it seems like the groups have been a hassle to schedule and then not very much was said when you finally did get together. This week we’ll do our best to improve both the Form and the Content of the Discussion.

Discussion Schedules

As you already know, this week we flipped our old format of Set weekly groups then schedule a time. With our big group Doodle we’ve been able to make groups that we already know work at given times. I think this is better – do LMK what you think! Is it better? Or not? Is it making the scheduling faster and less hassle?

Hangouts for Wk 5, New Improved! from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Discussion Questions

The other half is, what are we talking about anyway? Again, it seems like some discussion groups some weeks have been great, while others may have seemed kind of pointless. So this week I’ll give you a couple of questions for the AH Video and a couple for the Artist OTW video that you can think about and work through in your discussion group. Again, LMK if this helps facilitate better discussions or if you have any other ideas.

Renaissance & Baroque

Art Talk #5 – Renaissance & Baroque from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

ONE
Michelangelo & Bernini both sculpted David. Michelangelo & Bernini were both architects of St. Peter’s. If you were Bernini, so aware of your existence in the shadows of a past master, how would you organize your own career to try to create a space for yourself? Or is that too egotistical? Would it be sufficient to do a good job and not worry about distinction and acclaim? Do you think Michelangelo’s David reflects a Renaissance Man is the measure of all things aesthetic? Does Bernini’s David reflect the drama and grandeur of The Roman Baroque?

TWO
In the video Glenn show’s Gian Lorenzo Bernini‘s (1598-1680) sculpture The Ecstasy of St. Teresa in the Cornaro Chapel in Rome. Here’s what St. Teresa (1515-1582) wrote to inspire Bernini’s sculpture:

Beside me, on the left hand, appeared an angel in bodily form, such as I am not in the habit of seeing except very rarely… He was not tall but short, and very beautiful; and his face was so aflame that he appeared to be one of the highest rank of angels, who seem to be all on fire…

In his hands I saw a great golden spear, and at the iron tip there appeared to be a point of fire. This he plunged into my heart several times so that it penetrated to my entrails. When he pulled it out, I felt that he took them with it, and left me utterly consumed by the great love of God.

The pain was so severe that it made me utter several moans. The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one cannot possibly wish it to cease… This is not a physical, but a spiritual pain, though the body has some share in it – even a considerable share.

Do you think Bernini’s sculpture does justice to St. Teresa’s writing? Is it more or less compelling than Peter Paul Rubens portrait of St. Teresa? People in the 21st century don’t really write the way St. Teresa did. Why not? Today we might give St. Teresa or Joan of Arc or Vincent van Gogh a diagnosis like temporal lobe epilepsy. Does such a diagnosis “explain” or “explain away” the achievements of people like these? Is knowing the diagnosis of such individuals “better”? Or, even if we don’t use the diagnosis to explain away the work, is there something “better” about not having such knowledge and experiencing the magic of their acts?

Victorine Meurent

Victorine Meurent from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

THREE
In your opinion, who is the author of the painting Olympia? Who is the author of a Lady Gaga video? Is the director of a film the author of the film? After we Paint this week, next week our Activity is the Art110 Group Instagram project where each of us will snap 4 (or more) Instagrams in a single day and hashtag them all #art110summer14. Who will be the author of that project? Are the 25 of you co-authors because you each create your own images? Or is there some entity “Art110″ different than simply the 25 people who compose it, that will be the author of that project? Or is Glenn the author because he wrote the Activity Brief that sets all of you in motion? Or are Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger the authors of our project because when they created Instagram they created the platform from which all future works flow forth?

FOUR:
In the video Glenn talks about Meurent owning her own gaze. If you compare Olympia to a painting like Bouguereau’s Birth of Venus you can see how much more typically paintings of that era offered the female body as a commodity to be consumed by the male gaze. Today we live in an era of so many singers staring down a camera lens so boldly as they make their music video, it’s hard to appreciate just how much confidence and courage 19-year-old Meurent had back in 1863. Can you find a resonance that connects Meurent in 1863 to your favorite hip hop artist in 2014? Do we truly live differently here in the 21st century? Are our lives different in nature from the lives afforded by the world Victorine Meurent, Edouard Manet, et al, inhabited in the 19th century?

The Art Mind Map

A few of you asked me how to get a copy of the “Mind Map” I use in the Art History talks. You can download it here!

Embedding Instagram & Twitter

I was inspired by the work Ricki, Julia, Jenn, Amanda, and so many of your are doing, and wanted to show you how easy it is to embed Instagrams and Tweets on your website. I also show how to use WordPress Galleries, and talk about the power of Sharing (Syndication) of your work:

Embedding Twitter & Instagram from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Painting

And finally, as you already know, it’s painting week. Full details here!

Thank you everyone! Have a great Week 5. Shout if you have any questions about anything!

— Glenn

Photo Credits

photo by Penn State

Thank you to these photographers for posting Creative Commons images on Flickr!

• Group discussion at NSO event by Penn State
• Headshift business card discussion by Lars Plougmann
• Discussion by Gerald Streiter
• Diversity Discussion by Patrick Giblin

Metup w Amanda, Siraj & Julia & Amanda's niece & Julia's roommate @Venice Artwalls. Lostone JSK was a big help! pic.twitter.com/3zAEKKACN7

— Glenn Zucman (@gzucman) June 22, 2014

Lostone JSK was checking peeps in yesterday and he was super helpful! He even gave them some cool can tips to get different kinds of lines and coverage. Thanks for all your help & hospitality Lostone!

Great day at the beach yesterday, so fun to see the Venice Solstice Parade and the skate park and especially to get a chance to say Hi! F2F with Amanda & Niece, Siraj, Julia & Roommate!

Amanda’s niece, Amanda & Siraj standing in-between Siraj’s 2 pieces in English & Arabic.

1. From Last Week: Fonts!
2. Activity: Drawing (& painting next week)
3. Possible meetup @Venice Beach Art Walls – Sat June 21
4. Discussion Groups: what our Organizers should do next! (Ricki, Amanda, Heather, Sami, Andrew, Albert)

Trajan the Movie Font

It seems that a number of you were interested in the typography story, the idea of typography crossing so many centuries of time, and at least in my own group some didn’t even realize that somebody out there like Carol Twombly actually gets paid to design typefaces! Twombly’s former employer, Adobe Systems in Mountain View, California, is, as some of you may know, a very large corporation. But there are also independent type designers and smaller type design houses. Here’s that video about Trajan the Movie Font that I mentioned in last week’s video but didn’t get a chance to show:

You Can Read My Neutraface

As long as we’re taking a moment to geek-out on fonts, I have to share my favorite font video with you! Speaking of those more medium-sized type “foundries”: type used to be poured from molten lead, so type manufacturers were called foundries, even though they’re made of pixels and Bézier curves today, they’re still sometimes called foundries. One cool medium-sized foundry is House Industries in Deleware. Just as Carol Twombly reached back a couple of millennia to create Trajan, so the designers at House Industries reached back a few decades to create a font called Neutraface, based on the architectural lettering of legendary Southern California architect Richard Neutra.

I won’t go total dweeb on you and go into detail on why peeps find Neutra’s architecture or House’s Neutraface font so awesome, I’ll just share the video. Some cool Portland area graphic designers who love Neutraface and Lady Gaga videos had some fun and showed off their skills at the same time. The video is probably funnier if you know all the graphic design geek references, but you guys will probably enjoy it even without them:

Art History: The Middle Ages:

Art Talk #4 – The Middle Ages from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Artist OTW: Joseph Cornell:

Joseph Cornell from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

Activity: Drawing

This week we start a 2-week Drawing & Painting experience. Drawing & Painting might be what many of you 1st think of when someone says “Art.” But we’re updating it a bit by intersecting these very traditional media with the urban culture of street art.

• Drawing Details Here – for this week!
• Painting Details here – for next week!

And Next Week…

We’re going to Draw our name in Bubble Letters this week. You can work in color or black-and-white as you prefer. But either way, next week you’ll paint your name with spray paint in at least 2 colors. If you work by yourself then you’ll need 2 cans of spray paint. If you have a chance to meetup with an Art110 classmate, then you can just bring 1 can each and share paint. You can paint anyplace that’s legal. A piece of cardboard or plywood in your back yard is fine. Fine, but maybe just a little bit boring. You could have a lot more fun at the Venice Beach Legal Art Walls. I know most of you hate to drive, so let me sweeten the pot a little: you can paint anywhere that’s legal, but if you go to the Venice Art Walls, I’ll give you +25 of EC.

Venice Beach?

The Art Walls are only open Sat & Sun from 10am to 1/2 hour before sunset. Super-close parking is $15. Far parking on the street is free. Since it’s due on Sunday the 29th, you can go next weekend, the 28th or 29th. Or you could go early, and do it this weekend the 21st or 22nd. I wanted to go hangout on the 28th just in case any of you wanted to come say Hi! Unfortunately I’ve got another commitment on the 28th, so instead I’ll go hangout at the Venice Art Walls THIS Saturday, June 21st from 10am to Noon. Sketching your name will be pretty quick, so you could totally go to Venice this weekend if you want to. If you do, then you’ll just have next week’s activity done already.

Meetups

I’ve read everyone’s posts from last week and it seems like we’ve had a lot of different results with the meetups. Some of you had really awesome, fun, engaging chats with your classmates. But others had scheduling frustrations or other problems. I’ve generated this week’s lists of groups and they’re on the Group Discussion Page. They’ll work mostly the same as before, but with a couple of small changes that I hope will make connecting easier and better.

• As you’ll see on the discussion page, I’ve appointed 1 person in each group as the organizer. I think in the past you sort of waited for the other person to move first. Now we’ll appoint a first mover.
• My group last week found Doodle pretty helpful to use. In our case the actual checkbox part didn’t totally work, but the comment feature turned out to be a great discussion board for us to get down to a time as you can see here So each Group Organizer should not later than Tuesday night start up a Doodle form and then use Summer BeachBoard to send the URL for that form out to your groupmates. Starting by Tuesday should give every one more time to pick a time and get organized.
• When discussion time comes, the Group Organizer can start a Google Video Hangout, get the Share URL and paste it as a comment in your Doodle page, and then everyone can just go there, click on the link, and be in the group discussion.

I think this should make it a bit easier and more painless. Let me know of any problems anyone has or any help anyone needs.

If you can make it over to the Venice Beach Legal Art Walls on Saturday June 21st, it’ll be nice to meet you!

Have a fun week!

— Glenn

Your Vlogs!

You guys made wonderful vlogs last week! There’s more nice ones than I can possibly fit on a page, but here’s a few:

Drew Jimenez

In just 37 seconds Drew manages to tell us so much about himself! What he’s working on, what he’s studying, what his plans and dreams are. His style is very easy going yet I think we can feel his depth at the same time.

Emily Alpaugh

Well, aside from doing a very nice, engaging vlog, Emily shares the awesome news that she’ll be studying abroad next semester at the University of Granada in Spain! It’d be so great if some of you can keep in touch with Emily after Art110 and now that we’re such pros as Google Hangouts maybe you can video hangout next semester with your CSULB classmate on another continent!

Heather Michelle Bencivengo

Can anyone possibly doubt that Heather had fun making this video??

Jennifer Solis

Jenn’s really passionate about her health & lifestyle blog which she’s had running for a lot longer than Art110, however this is her 1st ever vlog. I think she does a really nice job of bringing us into her world and sharing her vision with us.

Juston Kace

I don’t necessarily recommend editing and music for your vlogs. They’re mostly meant to be short very eye-contact heavy Hi, it’s me! pieces. But as you’re about to see, in Juston’s vlog he uses editing and music to really have a big impact. Oh, and be sure to visit his “real” website. He’s got all kinds of content there including some awesome t-shirts for sale! I just bought one and will do a selfie with it when it arrives!

Ricki Cline

Here’s a very direct, engaged 44 seconds from Ricki. She presents herself as smart yet accessible. She mentions “converting” this art website to her passion, aerospace, down the road. I know you all are pretty busy this summer, but I definitely encourage Ricki and all of you not to wait, and to make Your website Yours now!

Siraj Aboulhosn

Siraj went just a little bit longer than most of you. His vlog comes in at 2:40. With the extra time he really gets the chance to connect with us. He has an easy and accessible style but he clearly knows what he’s talking about. It’s impressive that his monologue to us manages to feel like a dialog with us. As far as the Brazil thing, IDK, what do you guys think?

No, I’m not going to the World Cup

I hate to be a buzzkill on Siraj’s Brazil dreams, but speaking of compelling vlogs, I have to share this one from CSULB Film & Electronic Arts graduate Carla Dauden:

Week 2 Recap

Lots of nice work in Week 2. Cool plaster hands & feet! Nice group discussions on Cave Art & Ana Mendieta!

For most of you your website, so far, is mainly the place you post your Art110 work. Some of you are starting to make your sites your own. We looked at Sami Unfiltered last week; Amanda‘s starting to shape up what might become an active lifestyle site; Georgie‘s busy on a wrought iron site; DeMiere‘s working on her life and relationship blog; and Jenn‘s been so busy with her health & lifestyle blog! In the video below I use Jenn’s site as an example to talk about:

• The “More” Tag (Full Posts vs Excerpts)
• Themes
• Categories & Menus

Week 3

Activity: vlog

This week’s Activity is to make a vlog. Our vlog isn’t a “real” vlog. Our “fake vlog” is more of a Hi, It’s Me! vlog to welcome visitors to your website. Whether you’re a Health & Lifestyle blogger, The Dean of the College of the Arts at CSULB, or the Sales Guy at a Wrought Iron company, there’s nothing like a short video filled with enthusiasm and eye contact to make peeps feel a personal connection to your website.

• vlog activity details here!

AH: Greece, Rome & Woodman

We’re diving into Classical art & culture this week. I’ve broken the videos into 2 parts, one for Ancient Greece, and one for Ancient Rome:

Our Artist OTW is Francesca Woodman:

Discussion Groups

My group with Georgie, Julia & Polly had a very nice video Hangout in Wk 2. Seems like a few of you might have had trouble connecting last week. My best suggestion is not to wait till the end of the week to get in touch with each other. Even if your hangout will be later in the week, get in touch right now. Don’t wait for everyone else to contact you, go ahead and contact them first! The Wk 3 Discussion Groups are now up:

• Discussion

And I show how to get in touch with your groupmates in the Wk1 Welcome video, from 10:45 – 12:25.

Due by Sunday night

What’s due this week?

[box type=”tick” style=”rounded” border=”full”]
Due: 2 Posts: Studio Art (Activity) & Art History (videos & discussion)
When: by 11:59pm on Sunday night.
Rubric: The rubric for what I’d like to see in your posts is here: Rubric for Posts
[/box]

Oh, and actually most of your “Posts” are what WordPress calls “Posts.” But your About Me Page is a thing WordPress calls a “Page”! Posts and Pages are pretty similar. You just say New > Post or New > Page from the toolbar menu in the upper-left when you’re logged in. Give a shout if you have any questions about it!

Hope your summer’s going well so far!

Upcoming!

Next week we’ll be drawing, and the week after that we’ll be trying our hands at Graffiti Writing. You can spray paint on a piece of cardboard or wood in your backyard. But if you’re in the SoCal vicinity, you’ll have SO much more fun if you go to the Venice Beach Legal Art Walls. I’ll be at the Art Walls on Sat, June 28 from 10am – Noon if you want to say hi. Perhaps you can even carpool with a classmate to share gas, parking, and paint. BTW, the Art Walls are only open Sat & Sun from 10am to 1/2 hour before sunset. For parking there you can either park super-close for $15, or you can park pretty far on the street for free.

Have a nice week everyone!

— Glenn

Looking at Week 1 Websites

I made a video for you. I take a look at some of your websites and give some feedback. I also talk about:
1. Informative Titles for your posts
2. Using SubHeadings
3. Adding Pix
4. Using Categories & Menus
5. Site Title & Site Tag Line
6. Syndication (Sharing)

Your Wk1 Websites from Glenn Zucman on Vimeo.

• Video: Looking @ Your Websites

Week 2 Activity – Plaster Casting!

I think this should be a fun project. You get to go to the beach for class credit! You can go to any beach you like on any day you like. For those of you in the Long Beach area, I’ll go to the Seal Beach Pier on Thursday, June 5, from 10am – Noon and help anyone who comes by. It’s optional. And I’ll bring some iced tea in case you’re thirsty. Full details on the Wk 2 Activity Page

Week 2 Art History

The same format as last week: 2 videos & 1 discussion. Then blog your analysis of the ideas.

• New Discussion Group List for Week 2
• Use Doodle.com to help find a 1/2 hour to meetup

• Try to do a Google Hangout on Video, I think they’ll be easier and more fun than the text chats some of you did. LMK if you have any questions or have any problems!

• Art Talk #2: The Mind in the Cave

• Artist OTW #2: Ana Mendieta

Here’s a video where I give you a tour of the “classroom,” the course, and how to get started:
• vimeo.com/channels/art110

As you’ll see when you look at the materials, in each of our 12 weeks we’ll have 2 short videos, one on Art History and one Artist Of The Week. After you watch them you’ll meetup with Google Hangouts in groups of 4 or 5 to discuss. I think it shouldn’t be hard to find a half hour during the week when your group can meetup. LMK if you have any problems. If you haven’t used Google Hangouts before, it’s pretty easy and you can use it on your Phone, Tablet, Laptop or Desktop. After your Hangout you do a blog post on your reaction to the Videos & the Hangout.

The other thing we’ll do each week is an “Activity” and a 2nd blog post about the Activity. Some Activities will be 2D Art like Painting, some 3D Art like making Sculptures with Plaster Casting, and for Week 1 we’re creating “ePortfolios” aka Websites where you can do your 2 blog posts each week. Each week’s posts are due by 11:59pm PDT on Sunday Night.

Take a look at the materials and give a shout if you have questions.

I hope you enjoy Art110! And Happy Summer!

— Glenn