"Words words words."

I realized that I haven't mentioned my mail art project yet. The assignment was to create a network and send to each person in that network something to interact with. For me, I sent out requests for two or three words from a phrase each recipient liked. When I get them back, I will arrange the words into a poem.

These are some of the un-stamped, unlabeled envelopes I made for the project. I had fun working on these. First, on it are references to one of my favorite passages in one of my favorite plays: Act II scene ii of Hamlet by Shakespeare. In that scene, Lord Polonius spots Hamlet reading a book. When the lord asked the prince, Hamlet replied "Words words words." I printed that excerpt from that scene onto each envelope. In addition, I added a drawing of a fish (Hamlet calls Lord Polonius "a fishmonger") as well as the quote.

I will add some images of the stamped and labeled envelopes later.

Net Art

Most people (myself included) believe the Internet a useful tool and a treasure trove of data and information. It is practical, and we have a vague idea that it connects people from across the globe. Outside of that, we nowadays don't think too much on it. It has become so commonplace and not particularly remarkable.

Learning about Net Art and key net artists made me realize how remarkable a thing the Internet can be - especially as an art medium. I did not even think that it could be used as such since it is vastly different from the art I am used to seeing. In most cases, artists use their mediums to suspend disbelief and create a window to a different time and space. The Internet breaks that suspensions by offering multiple windows at once in tandem with other things on the computer screen. The Internet works on a real time continuum, and yet non-sequentially with the moments of time difference from the transfer of information between the server and the viewer.

However, what interests me the most is the interactive potential of the Internet. With this technology, artists can bridge gaps between authors and users, and the computer screen can become something viewers can use to explore for themselves. The art becomes something more than just a piece delivered to the viewer to look at - the viewer can play with it to or delve into the spaces of others. The art inevitably becomes and exploration about the connections between people as well as the visual or audio itself.

Response to "At a Distance..."

"The art world is something I'm not too interested in. I don't feel as though I share in its values. But I do feel I'm part of the art community." - Marcia Tucker

Admittedly, I wasn't very impressed by the concept of Mail Art at first. I wasn't sure what the big deal was with artists collaborating together to make a display by sending in small-scale pieces via the postal service. This may be because I don't live in the art world thus I do not understand the norms and traditional values that form that world. I still don't, but I have a sense of what they are from the common view of how art is supposed to be: majestic with painstakingly-detailed realistic subjects, perfectly composed on a giant canvas. Bonus points if it is an oil painting. At the bottom of the painting is a single signature of a genius - most likely Caucasian male. You had to have make that kind of work to succeed, and you had to do it all by yourself.

As it turns out, Mail Art is a big deal because it takes some of those norms and throws them out the window - particularly the idea that art has to be by a singular person. What I have come to appreciate about Mail Art, Dadaism, and similar art forms is the level of interaction the art engages people. With Mail Art, it brings together artists from all around, linking them together in a final exhibition. In a way, Mail Art focuses more on the connections contributors make by sending in their pieces rather than the pieces themselves. I do appreciate the skill and talent of the more "traditional" artists, but there is something more "human"about mail art that puts it on a level above stroke technique and composition.

So yes, Mail Art is pretty impressive. And while technique is something to admire and cherish, I feel that artists make a greater impact on society by involving many people, engaging them, and forming a community.

____________________________

John Held, Jr. "The Mail Art Exhibition: Personal Worlds to Cultural Strategies." At a Distance: Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005. 89-114. Print.

Kabeej.... PEEEEEENKU.

Behold.

VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

This is what my semester of animation has come to.

Final Project YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!

YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Voiced by Primehunter01@deviantart.com and yours truly. 

The soundtrack, Overthere Stair, belongs to Nintendo.

Universe based the one in Super Paper Mario.

Side Animation

This was actually for a different class, but it's still an animation.