Masaki Fujihata

    Masaki Fujihata uses interactive technology, virtual reality and networking to question human perception and awareness. His work really makes you question reality vs. technology. Fujihata is constantly questioning reality and his art work really makes you do some critical thinking. One piece of work Fujihata has done is the "Unreflected Mirror". The mirror is an extended version of a normal mirror, the appearance of the mirror looks completely ordinary. From the technical side it is realized with virtual reality using 3D position tracking and stereo projection. But it is a totally fake mirror. In it, a viewer wearing polarized filter glasses sees the glasses as a reflection, but cannot see themselves. The reflected image of the back walls follows the eye coordination of the person looking into the mirror. People who have looked into the mirror experience a strange feeling of the loss of their existence.
   I think this mirror is very weird but its different and that's cool. I really like the way Fujuhata art pieces make you think. The mirror tricks you and i think that people feel like they lost their existence when they look into this mirror because now a days most people are so used to seeing and feeling everything to be able to understand that some thing is real and not fake. So the question of reality vs technology is a debatable topic that can be argued for days. Since i haven't personally looked into this mirror i can only go off of what people have said about it but this is a mirror i would like to see.

Stelarc

    Stelarc is an Australian performance artist that uses technology to extend his body. He uses mechanical prostheses to create different body parts. Stelarc has been apart of several projects surgeries to fuse with the machine. In 2006, he surgically appended a third ear to his forearm made of his own skin cells, soft tissue and flexible cartilage. The ear was originally made up on a computer. He had a small microphone implanted in the ear in order to transmit audio signals wirelessly to the Internet so that people everywhere could have the possibility of hearing what his third ear was hearing. As a result of this the idea of a networked body, plugged in and tuned in to other bodies, as well as extending beyond its own skin as a border or boundary.

    The ear ended up getting an infection and had to be removed. So his experiment failed and the idea of mechanical prostheses becomes apart of the human body wasn't a reality for long. For Stelarc he says that the body has become "freed" by the mechanical prostheses. I kind of think this whole process is weird and NOT natural at all..that's why his body rejected the third ear. Trying to change the natural science and nature of the human body is just not supposed to happen in this way and sometimes i think too much technology can harm society. The whole third ear idea is a cool one i would see in a movie or read about but not something i would want on my own body.

Eva & Franco Mattes

    In “No Fun” Franco Mattes stages his suicide in a public web cam in a chat room. Over a thousand random people watched while he was hanging from the ceiling, swinging slowly for hours. The video documentation of the performance is super realistic and at times very disturbing. Out of the thousands of people who watched this there was a lot of different reactions. Some people laughed, some are completely unmoved, some people just sit there and make fun of him, and some people evens take pictures with their cell phones. Out of several thousand people, only one person actually called the police.

    I had to watch this video on someone's blog because the decumentation was originally put up on YouTube but was quickly banned and taken off the website. The video received a lot of different reactions from everybody and its interesting to see how confused and heartless some people can be. There are people who just sit there and laugh while Franco Mattes is literally hanging from the ceiling. I think its unbelievable that only one person actually called the police. When Franco Mattes was interviewed about this performance he said that many people live on the Internet so he wanted to "die" on it. I think that's a powerful statement because that's so true, many people are living their lives through a computer screen now a days. And i think his message is a powerful one.

Erwin Redl

 Artist Erwin Redl uses LED's as an artistic medium. He uses both two and three dimensions, he works with interior and exterior spaces. Erwin Redl has gotten a lot attention, his very well known to new media artists. Redl works with LED lights, but arranges them in a square grid with only a few inches apart. In his “fade” series, the LED lights slowly transition from red to blue. People have described his installations as “mesmerizing”. He works with many different lights, colors and room size art.

Erwin Redl has a really interesting way of his expressing his artwork. I like the way his work is room size and different, i loe the lights and color too. His work looks different from every point of view. He puts the lights above your head, eye level, and at ankle level so your basically surrounded by these lights and they look like something out of a movie about the future. His work almost reminds me of a diagram. He makes the enviorment seem unreal and something out of a science fiction movie. I would love actually go and see his work in person!

Scott Blake

Scott Blake is a new modern artist, a website editor and T-shirt maker. He is most famous for creating more than 30 images out of material (bar-codes) even though it can take him up to six months to finish just one design.  He has been making his bar code art for 10 years. He was inspired by Roy Liechtenstein large comic book style paintings with over sized benday dots. The first picture he ever made was of Jesus (pictured above) and it took him 940 bar codes. He also creates barcode stencils that he calls ‘word paintings’, and barcode graffiti, like an image that simply says “Scott Blake was here.” When Scott Blake was asked how this bar code art all started this is what he said, " I first tried circles and then squares. The tile patterns morphed into a cluster of lines, and before I knew it, I was staring at a bunch of barcodes. I assigned the numbers to describe each pixel’s grayscale value and grid coordinate.” -Scott Blake.

Scott Blake is such a creative artist! Who would have ever thought to create a bar code into art, i love his work. I think everything about his iconic celebrity portraits are modern and really a "new" kind of art. The fact that he sort of stumbled upon this bar code art is crazy. He is also known for making some other electric art but most famous for the bar code art he does. I think his work is new, fun, and interesting to look at. Scott Blake is really just an example that there are so many different types of art out there.

LACMA

Coney Island, 1934 by Paul Cadmus
This oil painting was the first painting i saw that i really loved! What really draws me to this picture is the fun cartoon like drawings and the characters are all sunburn and having fun at the beach. I can relate and identify with this picture because my friends and i love spending all our time in the summer at the beach! Just kicking back and having fun, everyone he painted looks so carefree and full of life.

This was my absolute favorite thing i saw at the whole museum! i love love love fashion and i am kinda obsessed with these bathing suits! the black and blue suits are actually swim suits and the yellow dress in the middle is a 'play outfit". I love old fashion, everything about vintage clothes are so cool and these swim suits are just to die for, i wish we still wore this to the beach or swimming!

 The Crucifixion of St. Andrew
I choose this painting because i was just so drawn to it and interested in it. I really like the way it almost tells a story, the artist did a great job at really capturing the moment for something none of us were there to witness.

The Mocking of Christ
This painting was really offensive. I hate the way there literally mocking Christ as his dying. These men are so wrong and i kinda do not understand why the artist painted this...

The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame by Georges de La Tour
Georges de La Tour painted four versions of Mary Magadalene, first of all i really like Mary Magadalene because her story shows how forgiving and understanding God will always be. I also like her because she is a sinner like the rest  of us and something when you hear stories about God its hard to relate to any of them but because Mary is so mortal like the rest of us its easy to relate to and really understand.

This is just some pieces of art that reminded me of the Norton Simon Museum!!

Weeping Woman with Handkerchief by Pablo Picasso
I can relate to his picture because everyone cries lol!

Bust of a Seated Woman by Pablo Picasso
Right now in my English class I am writing a paper on societies view on woman this painting is a perfect example of how even art and capture woman in such an unreal fake way. The woman painted in all sucked in by a dress. Shes wearing this because in that time all woman wore a corset like thing under there dresses to make them appear skinner.

Anger by Hans-Siebert von Heister
This painting was done in Germany which was very popular art work there. I really like it because its real and easy to read. The figure here is clearly angry and the sharp lines and colors the artist used show us that.

Identity Collage

My family is the most important part of my life and each one of them has a huge role in my identity. My mom was a teen mother and had to return to school later in her life to obtain her college degree and she's mainly the reason why i believe that education is the key to success. My dad is my role model and we are very close. I admire the standard of moral he lives his life by. When i graduated high school i decided i wanted to go to college and become a registered nurse. During high school i was a cheerleader but i was not always involved with cheer, growing up i was a dancer and in a dance studio was where i spent my childhood years. School is very important to me and in the middle of my collage i have a circle that tells you how i divide my time. School is a major part of my time than there is family and friends, i also spend a lot of my free time volunteering at USC county hospital in downtown LA. The rosary is the middle of my collage is a Catholic rosary because my family and i are practicing Catholics.

Karen Finley

"Ladies and gentlemen, there's a surprise substitute on the dessert cart this evening. Chocolate is no longer on the menu. Instead, it's gold, gleaming honey that is being served, by the gallon and on the skin. It is of course for external use only. And it will be worn, in a thorough scalp-to-toe coating, by your host, Karen Finley, the performance artist and specialist in the imaginative use of foodstuffs."

-Ben Brantlee, The New York Times

Karen Finley is an American performance artist, whose theatrical pieces and recordings have often been labelled "obscene" due to their graphic depictions of sexuality, abuse, and disenfranchisement. Finley received her education at the San Francisco Art Institute and after moved to New York where she quickly became apart of the art scene there and met her future husband. In 1995 she divorced her first husband and moved to LA. In July of 1999 Finley appeared in Playboy and received Ms.Magazine Women of the Year. Among Finley's books are Shock Treatment, Enough is Enough: Weekly Meditations for Living Dysfunctionally, the Martha Stewart satire Living it Up: Humorous Adventures in Hyper domesticity, Pooh Unplugged (detailing the eating and psychological disorders of Winnie the Pooh and his friends), and A Different Kind of Intimacy. Her poem "The Black Sheep" is among her best-known works, and has been immortalized on a sculpture in New York City. Finley has been dramatically influenced by her father's suicide in 1979. And you will often times she how her father's suicide has impacted her through her work.

Many of her works deal with the issues of violence against women, emotional despair, a sense of loss, and abuse. Some of her pieces deal with her upbringing and dysfunctional family situation. According to her book, "A Different Kind of Intimacy," her father used to put Karen in a refrigerator. During her performances she often goes into a trance like voice and verbally juggles different characters and voices. At the end of her shows, she often takes off her clothes and smears herself with chocolate or other substances. In "A Different Kind of Intimacy," Finely said that she smeared herself in chocolate to commemorate Tawana Brawley, a young woman who alleged that some police officers raped her and smeared her with feces. When she rants at the audience in different voices during the show it seems more like spirit channeling or possession than acting. The show features a series of gritty, sardonic dialogues about people trying to find sex. It features disco dancing, altered scenes from Winnie the Poo, a deconstructed lap dance and a nude dance in honey. In her current show, she rolls around in honey. She has said that this is both a parody of mud wrestling and homage to Winnie the Poo. She caused a big controversy when she made the cover of The Village Voice and she ignited a stampede with “POO POO AND PEE PEE,” her parody of Hitler and Eva Braun. She has collaborated with many other artists including Sinead O’ Conner and Tales of Taboo. Finely recently returned to Chicago, the town she was born in. She ended a triumphant show at the Apollo Theater in early April called” Shut Up and Love Me.” In her own words, the show is a “post feminist illustrative performance of a woman’s journey, of dysfunctional companionship, and psycho social lust without apology.”

Finley has often times referred to a women's body as a loaded gun. And when asked why she makes this comparison she said, "I had a good reason when i said it- it is difficult to bring up the past comments and then have to qualify of explain something said in the past. I think it is rather clear- maybe women would understand it, without needing to explain because womens' bodies are looked at as dangerous, taboo, and that the feelings of looking at a female body -sexual- desiring - sex." When Finley says this its a strong comment made about women. After researching about Finley its interesting to see and read about all her work. A lot of what she does is very sexual and surrounding her body. I agree with her about the women's body being a loaded gun, a women's body is a very powerful weapon that can be used to destroy a man. Through her work she brings awareness to women issue, she is a obvious feminist.

3-2-11

What is beauty? Well first off beauty and what is beautiful is different to everybody because everybody sees life and people differently and by a different set of standards. Plato says that beauty is objective, I would have to disagree with that. I think beauty can be objective but also subjective. It's not always something you can see and touch, smell or feel. The debate between beauty is truth vs beauty lies can be argued about for years. I think beauty can be both. Beauty is truth because it's something we see or feel and believe is beautiful but it can also be a lie because beauty can fool people. Beauty can be used to trick and fool people and sometimes what you see is not always the truth. There are many reasons and ways your vision can be distorted and one is love. When you love someone you believe there beautiful but someone who has no relationship to this same person might have a different opinion. Also in today's society beauty has a much different standard than hundreds of years ago. The media and couture has taught a new generation about beauty. Beautiful now is fake. Because of technology and medical science now you can fix or alter any part of the body to make your idea of "beautiful". People today live by a different standard of beauty. Women are often times harshly judged by these standards and the reality vs fake and beauty vs ugly is so distorted and wrong. I believe that happy people are beautiful and that natural girls are the realest. You should always feel confident with yourself. And although everybody has insecurities, these are only natural and nothing worth going under the knife to fix or feeling ugly. Everybody is beautiful in there own unique way and no two people are the same and I believe that's what makes people beautiful. Society has taught people that beautiful is "perfect" and I completely disagree with that. NO ONE is perfect and everybody has flaws but that's what makes us human. It's unrealistic to judge one another by today's standards. There too high and harsh. It's unfair and something that needs to be change. Society and media needs to start teaching people to love themselves and stop thinking so narrow minded. And now that were talking about beauty I kinda feel like it's unfair to label things and people as beautiful and not beautiful because who are we to make that decision.