Postmodernism

One of my favorite lines in the Postmodernism Intro, is "all the world's cultures, rituals, races, databanks, myths and musical motifs are intermixing like a smorgasbord in an earthquake." This line really helps you picture all of these things coming together and creating this weird and crazy world. A question I had from this article is: Is art, in all its different forms, the reason for this phenomenon? Or did art just conform with this idea of Postmodernism?

In the next article about American and Disneyland, I found it really interesting how Baudrillard compared America to Disneyland. Then at the end, said that LA was basically Disneyland. That LA is made up of all of these fake realities, its basically just filled with movie scripts and movie clips and none of it is actually reality, just like Disneyland.

Color Podcast

"What is color?"

Something that I have thought about a lot. I remember in Chemistry class in High School my teacher tried to explain to us how we basically see colors, and how colors on shirts are actually missing the color of the shirt but we see that color. Color is something that is so confusing and I still do not understand what our teacher was trying to tell us. The point it, most people just see colors and don't actually think about where the colors come from or how we actually see color. It's weird to think that hundreds of years ago no one understood this concept of color and where it came from.

The story about the monkeys was very interesting and just shows how complex and compelling colors actually are. They were able to wrap the red color gene into a virus and put in into the monkeys. It's weird to me that we actually have certain genes in that allow us to see color. To think that there are a lot of people that actually cannot see certain colors is very weird to think about. Also, the fact that people are not allowed to get this to fix their color blindness confuses me. If it could help people and they did not find a lot of problems with it then I don't know why humans are not allowed to get it.

This podcast of color reminds me of the argument over whether or not that dress is white and gold or blue and black. 

I see this dress as gold and white and I don't get how people can see it differently. It's crazy that we all see different shades of colors on things. When this started I would always try and see it as the colors of blue and black and never could but I knew people that could see those colors and didn't see gold and white. Colors have always amazed me and how many different colors we can see or the different colors that we can see.

Lastly, thinking about the fact that some women have that fourth cone that could make you see even more colors. However, some women can't use their fourth cone. It makes you wonder if you possibly know one of these women? Or what do these colors look like to them?

Color

In the first picture that I took, the white in the back looks a little yellow. The white object in the front looks much brighter but also has a little bit of a blue tint to it. When looking at these two things separately they look white. However, when you put them together you can see that even white has different variations. When these two objects are put together they no longer both look white. They have a tint of white along with tints of other colors.

In this picture I moved the objects to be in a different type of lighting. The object in the back now has a little bit of a pink/red tint to it. It looks darker than in the first picture. The object in the front has shadows on it now which cause it to look darker but it also has a little bit of a grey tint to it. Now that these objects are in different lights they show even different colors. While they are still considered white when they are alone and show white in these pictures, you can see that other colors appear in each object.

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BMA Pieces

#1
My favorite piece from the BMA was Dancer at Pigalle's by Gino Severini. 

The composition of this piece was interesting. There were lines all throughout the painting pointing you to the dancer that is in the middle. There are a lot of organic shapes that are used in this piece, along with a lot of texture. It can't be seen in this photo, but there are thing that are actually raised off the page slightly. To me, this looked like a moving dancer. I felt like it was probably to an upbeat song but also elegant. It seemed like it was in the middle of the dance and while the dancer was in motion. I thought that the bottom part of the painting was the audience. Its darker than the rest of the painting which could represent all of the people that are sitting in the crowd and how it just looks like a dark blob. There also looks like there might be some people that are standing because of how it kind of goes up and down and not just a line that is straight across at the bottom of the page. I also think this is in the middle of the dance because there are light yellow/white lines that are coming down at the top of the page into the middle that looks like spot lights on the dancer. 

#2

My second favorite was Large Fish with a Cliff by Henri Matisse

This painting uses dots in order to give things in the painting texture. It also uses dull colors to set the tone for the picture. This seemed like this was at sunset possibly on a small private beach. It doesn't look like it is a big beach and I cant picture it being much more beach behind us where we can't see. When you're look at this picture you almost feel like you are standing on this beach because of the way the dead fish are laid. They are in a position where it almost looks like you are looking down on them or standing right next to them. I almost imagine this beach being in California. The colors and the dead fish kind of make it seem like there is not something happy going on in this picture. Maybe the people in the picture are planning on cooking and eating those fish and that is why they are laid out on something. Or maybe they just got washed up to land. 

#3

My third favorite painting was View of St Lazare Railway Station, Paris by Norbert Goeneutte 

This painting looks like a photograph when you first look at it in a way. There are a lot of lines that seem to pointing to one building in the middle of the painting however, they are not straight lines, it is the smoke lines from the trains. This picture seems like it is early in the morning as the sun is rising and everyone is going to work. It feels like it is during a depressing time, I imagine the Great Depression for some reason when I am looking at this photo. Also, the smoke from the trains and the trains in the stop make it seem like everyone is off to work. Putting yourself in this painting, it feels like you are at a window looking out into the town. 

John Berger - Ways of Seeing

In order for us to describe something or explain something we first imagine it. From this imagination is where we find the words to depict this image. From there it is up to the person that is listening to imagine what is being described in their own head. It is very likely that whatever the person describing this thing is thinking of is completely different than what the person listening is thinking of. The images that are created in our heads come from things that we have seen or believe in.

Invention of camera allowed us to capture these images and created this notion of time. In order for a picture to be taken, that person had to be in a certain place at a certain time. Photos weren't something that people imagined like a painting or drawing. A photo puts the viewer directly in that time and place when it is being looked at. Each photo is taken from a different perspective. When someone is looking at a photo that are in that perspective, there is nothing else to look at or understand.

The camera also allowed paintings to be seen millions of times. Paintings used to be only seen once, but now could be see across the globe. Now a painting had a million different meanings. Each person looking at a painting had there own reasons for the purpose of the painting and idea or images behind it. When before the camera, a painting was in one place and not everyone got a chance to look at it.

For example, this painting. Each person looking at this painting could have a different perspective, a different reasoning for the painting and different ideas of who these people are. 

Visibility

The idea of Visibility is something that we all understand. While reading anything we are constantly visualizing things as we read to help better understand the story. Visualizations and pictures help to make a story more clear or more understanding. It is how we connect to something by thinking of our own ideas of something. We all think of things in different ways and it is because we visual different things when thinking of something. 

Visualizations have been helping us learn things and imagine things for a long time. Mentioned in the chapter is religious images. We all have an image of what Jesus and God both look like. We have an image of many of the bible stories in our heads. That is what we were taught when we were younger, we were shown pictures to visual what scenes in the bible might have looked like. Another example is Unicorns. We all have an image in our head what a Unicorn or any fake object is even though we haven't actually seen it. 

This idea of having visualizations when reading something or simply thinking about something could be a form of art. In order for art to be made it first must be thought of. Art starts with an idea and a visualization of something. If visualizations are a form of art than it could be argued that art is everything. Since when something is invented it first much be thought of. Someone had to have an idea and visual picture when creating something. This creation could considered art.