🛠️04 Do Something and Do Something Else

Lead on this creation: Alex

DESCRIPTION

1. Use multiple platforms and practices this week.

2. Elements from previous class assignments can be incorporated

3. This can be a collaborative project.

4. If the work is time-based (performative or video) please make sure it is under 7 minutes.

5. Course Naming Conventions for Digital Files: YearSemester_CourseTitle_NameOfActivity_FirstLastName.fileformat Ex: 24SP_AI_DoSomething_CarlaGannis.doc

6. If a live performance, please make sure to arrange in class video documentation of your performance (*this will be the digital file you turn in as the assignment on the class google drive)

7. Questions? Ask us!

INSPIRATION: Iteration: “Take an object, do something to it, do something else to it”-- Jasper Johns

Example (you are required to make a hand drawing, sculpture, or other physical medium as your starting input for this creation)

Example by Alex: I made this sample work using a three step process. First, I did a sketch inspired by my thinking over the summer about the latex and rubber sculpture of an artist I've been obsessed with lately, Eva Hesse. Then I fed the sketches into Midjourney. I tried working with both versions 6 and 4 of the standard algorithm, but they were too posterized and clean-- essentially boring. You can see the three outputs that finally inspired me were from setting the algorithm all the way back to version 1 (click outputs to enlarge these images) ! Then, after upscaling, I used those outputs to inspire another physical sculpture. This piece, which I'm calling Untitled Industrial Chronic Illness, uses one of my own prescription bottles, some latex sheeting to wrap that, and plastic aquarium tubing to do the coils on top inspired by the Midjourney outputs. The materials cost about $4 total max at Canal Rubber (where Hesse herself often bought latex and rubber-- visit for fun sometime or if you want to use tubing too, it's on Canal Street on the Lower East Side!) but your local hardware store is a great, cheap resource for sculpture too. The hardest part was honestly getting the superglue off my hands with acetone afterward....

If I was asked in a crit about this piece, I would talk my listeners through my process, from sketch, to digital, to physical again in the form of sculpture. Then I would explain how my choice of materials and form, as well as prompt inputs, relate to Hesse's work, her premature death from cancer in her late 30's, and my own experience with chronic illness (that's why I had a prescription bottle just lying around to make this with). The process is part of the concept of the final artwork. If I were doing this for our class, I'd be sure to bring the sculpture with me in person the next week, since it's small and portable, as well as post images from many angles on the Discord.

PS-- If I were thinking about expanding this for the final project, I'd consider scale. Should I make a really large piece to increase physical presence in the gallery? Maybe 20 or so wrapped bottles for more visual impact? What about doing this with a set of related sketches and making all the outputs into related sculptures?