BEFORE MIDTERM (One hour cultural event) Michael Velliquette's ''Power Tower" at MAD

When I walked into the “Under the knife” exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design I was intantly drawn towards the “Power Tower”, by Michael Velliquette. The first thing I asked myself is, “What am I looking at.” “The Power Tower” resembled a totem or altar, but crafted in way that made me think of neo-psychedelia. The tower was made from cut paper and cut paper only. The sculpture was full of life. The colors and the way they were cut and assembled created an energy that pushed itself on the viewer. The paper was arranged in a way that made my eyes vibrate. Once I got closer to the sculpture I could see snakes neandring through object along with birds, butterflies, and other unidentifiable cycloptic, almost futuristic animals. The sculpture in itself was full of life.

As I continued to explore I asked myself, “What is the artist saying to me?” This was not an easy answer. I was making associations to different cultures and tribes. I was thinking of the pacific northwest Indians as well as Aztec and Myan mythical symbolism. I was also thinking of 1960’s psychedelia and OP-Art. I kept looking into the sculpture finding more and more little animals hiding, looking at how he had placed paper getting me to look deeper and deeper into the paper sculpure. Velliquette had created so many different images that were placed next to other patterns that I was creating new images that were created by many different singular images. He had combined enough different references that were vague enough to let me continue to make up what I wanted from the piece and by combining those cultural references it made me think about him and his viewpoints as an artist.

This created a dialogue between me and the art. He was giving me insights into viewpoints and symbolism he had set up. I was digesting what he had given me to start thinking about and I was coming to conclusions on my own. Which makes the experience of viewing this piece different for each individual. He had set up a circumstance where the more someone engaged themselves with the piece the more they would get out of it, which is very satisfying. I concluded that he was creating his own form of visual culture using universal symbols. In combining all of the symbolism into one large object he created a universal “ Power Tower.”

(One hour observation) Visual Stereotypes

Last night I was riding on the Q train back into Manhattan after class and saw two people walk in the train at canal. Both of these gentlemen looked to be latino. One man was young, 18-24 years old about 5'11", 250 pounds and creamy skin. He was wearing a NY Yankees ball cap, NY Yankees hoodie and baggy jeans. The other man was in his mid thirties about 5'8", 160 pounds and light brown, but darker than the other man. He had jelled hair combed back, wearing a red and white striped shirt with jeans and rugged cowboy boots. I inherently thought that the younger guy was probably born in the United States.

One of guys sat next to me and the other sat across from him. A couple of seconds later the younger guy asked the man sitting next to me, " Comprende espanol?" Which means do you understand spanish. The man who I thought would reply back in spanish said," No. Then he said, " uh poquito." Once the young guys across the aisle started speaking the man next to me said sorry and tried to say something in english, but the other man just shook his head not understanding.

This little event which took place for the duration of about two and half minutes, maybe not even that long, I had just changed my visual cultural preconceptions. Maybe thats what I was suppose to think? He looked like a new yorker with all the garments. Wearing the states sports memorabilia one can say they like that state, which I would think that they're probably local. That would be a good coverup for someone that's trying to fit in to the area. Just a thought.

I also wondered why the younger guy thought that the man sitting next to me would understand spanish. The young guy didn't ask anyone else on the train if they understood spanish. I looked down the train, I didn't see anyone that looked spanish either. Did the young guy support my initial suspicion as well?

(One hour of child observation) Can Hollywood make education cool again?

Yesterday observed at the Museum of Natural History. I went to observe the room of aboriginal art and the Easter Island sculpture. Last time I came to the museum I saw many children flocking towards the Easter Island Sculpture right after the movie "Night at the Museum" came out. This time I wanted to further investigate this event.

The room that the sculpture was in is a long room. A group of children walked in and saw the sculpture known in the movie as "Dum Dum" at the opposite side of the room and ran towards the sculpture. I can't emphasize enough how many times the kids repeated, " Dum dum dum dum dum." It rang from their mouths.

At first thought it was really great to see that a hollywood movvie could interest children in cultural history. I started to brainstorm how children are so interested in hollywood and celebrities that it would be great if hollywood could re-spark childrens interests with school and cultural history. Unfortunately, shortly after I established my idealist hopes I observed that the children weren't interested in the Easter Island Sculpture. They enjoyed matching the sculpture to something they thought was cool that they saw in a movie. It was like seeing a movie star on the street and matching them to the role they have played in a movie.

As I continued to watch I noticed that the children had little if no interest in the origins or history of the Easter Island Sculptures. The education was at a very surface level. The children might have known what the Easter Island sculptures are from the movie. Maybe a docent could of sparked interest with the children. I was only able to see individuals and families walk through on their own. In the end the children just saw their famed "Dum Dum", nothing more.

This hurt me a little. I wanted to know why children were so fascinated with the object just because it was in a movie. An answer came to me quite quickly," Movies and hollywood are cool and the general public is obsessed with celebrities... Ultimately "Dum Dum" is a celebrity of sorts. He just not human. "Originally I had thought I had a great a idea brainstorming that hollywood could serve an education purpose. I thought this would be a new way to bring "cool" back to school.

I think that could be an interesting project to find out if kids became more interested in history through hollywood. Unfortunately when I think about the few cases when hollywood has taken a historical story, a topic with educational content, it is always created in binaries. It's oversimplified and taken out of context. I understand why they do this, it makes it easy to understand. This is because we are lazy. As a society we watch movies generally for entertainment. We want to sit in front of the t.v. or projector and veg out.

I suggest an alternative to this norm. This isn't a new idea and is happening more and more, but big budget hollywood needs to throw us a challenge. I say give us a movie that makes us feel empowered by problems solving and strategizing. It feels good to think and all of us want to be smart, I would assume. Don't only give us one good guy and a bad guy. What about introducing people who are people and aren't just good or bad, but possess many different emotions and tendencies. Let us think, investigate and let us make up our minds about the issues presented instead of indirectly or directly telling us how we should feel.

MTA stickers or public intervention

Have you ever seen a triangle, star, or V to the upper left or right hand side of the subway doors? Next time your riding the subway take a look. Two or three months ago I first noticed a triangle sticker pasted left of the no smoking sign in the subway. I was asking myself what is this?What does it stand for/represent?At first glance, I thought this was put up by the mta, then I thought maybe this was a form of public intervention. After looking closer the stickers are the same dimension as the L5, R6 which are at the left and right of the subway doors. The stickers seem to be adhered in the same way as well.

After battling it in my head, I started to think about what makes something appear official or unofficial. I know when I see something printed instead of hand written I inherently think its more official or legitimate. I also think about the context and if the symbols appears to fit in or stand out in that environment. The sticker upon appearance seemed to fit in with the surrounding environment. The information wasn't numbers or letters though, it was symbols, which stood out. To me, they didn't seem to totally fit in. So what do these symbols mean? What does a triangle or star mean in the subway car? It's fun to think that the mta's okaying each train car by giving it a star. Could it be telling the "inside people" that there's a camera installed in the train. When it comes down to it these symbols are vague enough to be unknown to the everyday rider.

If the mta installed these they did a good job of hiding of what they mean, but why do they want to hide the information? If it was a public intervention, well they did a pretty great job of fitting in and not getting taken down. Take a look next time your out on the subways and tell me what you think these symbols represent. I look forward to hearing others opinions.