Dinner For Two

when you're 21 you're no fun.

I LOVED this class. This really resonated with me, probably because we are getting closer to the current time. Yet we are still far enough back for me to appreciate the historical importance of the type of music and art was being produced. I was really interested in the Moog Synthesizer and I liked listening to “Switched on Bach”. I liked learning about the house movement and how it was created in a Warehouse in Detroit.

It was really fascinating to see how the culture shaped the music and in turn the music shaped the culture. Also, it was interesting to see the practicality in using a rhythm box/synthesizer, when the police would come it was much easier for the artists to pack up and get our quickly.

I loved hearing groups such as Ladytron, Gorillaz, Blur, Massive Attack etc. in the context of this class. I really loved listening to Michel Cleis ft. Toto la Momposina- La Mezcla. This was such a fun mix of songs. What we listened today in class was so interesting to me because I love synthesized songs, and combinations of songs that seem polar opposite. Great class!

Whip It

I really liked George Ligeti and the visualization of the score, made by machine in the 1960’s. I know this is very “easy” today but at the time it was very revolutionary. It was really interesting to see all of the metronomes going off at once. Diamanda Galas is quite an interesting character. I really liked where this class was going and how we began to talk about synthesizers. I think it is so neat how a machine can change the whole aura of a sound.

I loved when we watched “Whip It” My Mom loves this song, it’s funny to see the evolution of songs like this. I also liked when we listened to “Tainted Love” because I have always like Marilyn Manson’s version and I thought Soft Cell was the original creator and not Gloria Jones. One aspect I absolutely love about this course is that I can finally see so many connections. Connections in culture, music, and art can be seen even now in the current culture.

I also really was interested in the New Psychedelic movement and how culture impacted the art forms of the times. Of course this culture was centered on drugs which made the art that much more interesting.

Isadora

Klaus Nomi rocked out Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead. At first when we watched Klaus Nomi I was impressed by his voice but I didn’t think I really connected with any of his songs. However, when we watched this video and Falling In Love Again I started to understand his strangeness. Everything about him was so bizarre, his look, voice, behavior.

I thought what we watched about AIDS was really interesting. During this time it was common that if you had AIDS you only would have around two months to live. The body would become frail and this allowed for expression through art. People saw how important the body was and at the same time whom non-important the body was. This opened the door for piercing, body modification and other ways to alter the body.

Leigh Bowery was so wild looking! It was really interesting to his how he dressed and how everyday was a performance for him. It is really crazy to think of how people commit their whole lives to this type of art.

I researched The Wooster Group a little bit. It is interesting to see how they have combined so many different types of media and art styles.

“Isadora” was SWEET. This would be so cool to play around with this type of technology. I know it is not similar but it reminded me of the stairs with sensors on them to play tones from.

The Body

Stelarc was a really interesting person to watch, I liked how the movie Avatar was blended into this style of cyborg technology. It is a pretty neat concept of making the human body into some machine that is controlled by the body yet many times more powerful. By “expanding the operational capabilities of the body through means of technology” a whole new way of conceptualizing what the body can do is changed.

I went on to VBS.com and explored this site a little. I watched the short movie “Balls Deep” it was about the “Sewer Kids” of Colombia and it showed the horrible conditions these people were basically forced to survive under.

Bob Flanagan was funny! So odd, but his story is depressing. I really liked listening to Throbbing Gristle.

This class was really interesting for me because I always am thinking of the different uses of the human body. Viewing the human body, as a tool is something we all do, yet usually we think in the confines of societal norms. Most of these individuals use the body as a tool for many different uses than just what our culture defines as proper.

The Origin of War=Penis

I really enjoyed seeing all of the Xerox projects-well done everyone! Class was especially interesting, performance art is an art I am very unaccustomed with seeing. I don’t like the whole throwing up/eating feces/hurting yourself. However, I can very much appreciate the art exposed in the viewer reaction. This art seems to play on many aspects of society and in turn how society will interpret the art. I really loved “O Superman” by Laurie Anderson, I love most things involving a syth. I’m listening to it right now and it reminds me of Imogen Heap, I think it is really brilliant and her performance just adds to the strangeness of it. Gilbert and George’s pieces were hysterical and fresh. I thought it was pretty interesting that these grandfather-like men were posing nude and were also gay lovers. I read online a bit about them and I saw that many of their pictures were first produced black and white and then they went in and hand colored them. The colors really pop out at you (along with their penises). What a sense of humor these two had. I am so glad Santiago shared this with us; it added some needed comedy to my day. Orlan reminds me of Edna in “The Incredibles”, mostly just her look.

Now here is an interesting character, full of sexuality and strangeness. One theme in my Xerox project was the manipulation of the body through means of cosmetic surgery. Watching Orlan in class perfectly complemented the meaning of my project. I cannot imagine wanting to be conscious during a plastic surgery but she surely pushed the envelope. On Grey’s Anatomy there is a major surgery in which a patient requests to be awake. Immediately after viewing Orlan’s awake surgery I thought of this episode.