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Art in the Everyday – ‘Music of Spheres’

By: Anthony Tommasini

This article also talks about are out of its platform of sensory perception, and perceived as art none the less. A good example of this in real life is when I am walking down the street at night, its never quiet, but the noise of the day has died down to a much more manageable level. There is the sound of my boots on the pavement and the whiz of the infrequent cars, the sound of the street lights buzzing, the sounds of a bar traveling onto the street, the sound of people having a good times in these places. It is an experience, walking the streets of NYC at night such as any other experience, like a performance.

Art in the Everyday- Around the Corner, Inadvertent Galleries

By: Roberta Smith

This article talks about find art or even a gallery in everyday life and appreciating it. The article had a heavy theme of minimalism in it, which I am glad of simply because I’ve never before put together the connection between the widening in what art is and minimalism. Anyways, an example of this in life as I have experienced it would be that the other day I was walking up 1^st avenue I noticed it light creamy-tan colored building, and all along its side, it was tagged up all up and down. Though not in the ordinary fashion of disorganization, it was almost as if it had been planned, and put there on purpose by someone other then the average vandal. It wasn’t gorgeous, there were no bright colors or heavy stylization, not even any beautiful or fun drawing. It reminds me of the signing of the constitution, for the tags seem to be less tags and more like script signatures and the orderly manner in which they are spaced also makes it seem like some sort of collective effort on this nearly white canvas.

The Art of Summer – ‘The Music of Gridlock’

By: Jon Pareles

This article talks about like the other articles find artful things in everyday life, but this one specifically talks about it on a musical level. It is also something we are a part of but do not usually take the time to notice. An example of this would be the industrial musical din that is the subway platform. There’s lots of noise different noises that all work together to make this symphony possible. The constant clacking of feet on the ground, the sound of subways rushing by, the screech of the subway breaks, the whoosh of sound and it comes through a platform, and of course this is also intermingled with the sounds of music, of a lone violin playing down the platform in a mournful way. All this as I have listen to actual industrial music, which is harsh, rhythmic and melodic, just as the subway sounds are.

Clip of the violinist

The Art of Summer – ‘Starring the Kitchen

By: Charles Isherwood

This article talks about the performance in creating a meal, and that there is an art to nearly everything, and as such it can be considered a performance. An example of this in everyday life would have to be the everyday commuting of people in the city. It is like clockwork, the huge steams of people rush the subways and buses from 7am to 12pm, a lull and it picks right back up where it started for the second act at 4pm to 10pm. Then a lull but the lulls shouldn’t really be called such since they are more of a second rate act then a lull. Since the show is never over here in the city. There is always someone up, someone doing something, someone needing to get somewhere. The artfulness in this is the finesse that one acquires after having being part of the theater for a while. The quick step, the leap over a puddle, the rush in to the closing door subway, the following of the flow of people and the aggressive break through an on coming crowd. All of this takes experience to get under one’s belt and once acquire there is an art. There is an art in this ocean of people, crashing into each other and flowing, all existing at once together. I must note the silly title and its reference to The Beauty and The Beast, especially since it is what I first thought when reading the article, without seeing the title.

The Art of Summer – ‘The Words We Live By’

By: Dwight Garner

This article talks about finding are in words, spoken and written in everyday life. It is something that is always present and surrounds us but we are often too busy or preoccupied to noticed. An example of myself doing this would be, recently I was in the subway, just another busy day of school and life in general. But I noticed written on a pillar the words ‘Jesus practices safe-sex’. It really brightened my day a safe-sex vendetta through the hilarious use of an iconic religious figure that was supposed to never have had sex. Its great what more could you ask for.

I had been something always me at the back of my mind, I had been told by various friends that the exhibits at the Museum of the Moving Image was a sight that was not to be missed. So thus when Christina mentioned to me that admission was free on Fridays I told her that we must go as soon as both of our schedules allowed us to. The anticipation on top of the fact that it was a very cold day when Christian and I decided to make this journey made the journey to the museum seem like one of the longest journeys of my life. The feeling of relief and excitement was indescribable. The museum of the moving image is in general a museum that follows the development of ‘the moving image’ (or as its usually referred to as television and film).  It covers a very wide scope from the development of televisions to sound recording, video recording, costume, props as well as just design of many ideas that are in some of the most famous movies of our time. Also as if simply just thrown in at random they showcased the development of video games from the genesis to the xbox360. What I really liked about this museum was the amount of interactive exhibits they integrated to the museum overall. They had a little voice over booth, where you could voice over different movies and see your voice come out of the mouth of your favorite actors on a big screen. They had many nineteenth century optical toys, which you were actually allowed to touch and try out, such as a picture revolving contraption, that showed a three stooges skit and an optical illusion wheel, which features a man running. Of the vintage optical illusions my absolute favorite was one that was shown in a completely dark room that had one large spot light flash very rapidly at what seems to look like a tall circular cage. It spins around rapidly and as the light flashes on it rapidly, it appears as if the cage is not in fact spinning. What you do see is the optical illusion of a rain drop, that morphs into a rocket, then a hand appears and catches the rocket which splatters, then it turns into a piece of paper, and then fold into a paper air plane that lands in a basket. The museum also feature a lot of photographs of actors, of which one of Whoopi Goldburg stood out to me, because it was when she was much younger, and it is not how I usually picture her, it I think of her. Lastly it must be said that the moving image museum is beautiful, from the architecture outside, to the lighting, and the use of white and space. I absolutely loved this museum and definitely plan on going back one day very soon.IMG_2240

I always walk down this street, not only this street, various streets. There are many places where I’m sure that I’ve seen on of this artist’s elusive tags or attractive posters, but before today I never went out of my way to record it. The time has finally come where I can now actually ‘see’ what it was that has been catching my eye all over the city. What had been catching my eye were tags of ‘MuffinMilk’ in script writing near my dorm and down in St. Mark’s place. Also these posters which bear the same name, but with the accompaniment of a silly cartoon character of either a mickey mouse with a milk carton as a head and muffin in hand or of a baker holding a glass of what is assumed to be ‘muffin milk’. I personally find that these posters are hilarious and it simply makes my day better when I see on the side of the street, smiling at me trying to get me to get whatever this ‘muffinmilk’ is. Because of the posters I decided to do a bit of research on the ‘muffinmilk’, what I found was that muffinmilk is apparently a streetware clothing company. A small one that is local to right here in New York City. MuffinMilk proposes to be the embodiment of street culture, connecting every element of the ‘hustling.’ They also claim to simply represent artist everywhere of all mediums. I really like that this is the manner in which they have decided to advertise they’re merchandise. I had been aware that it is actually quite popular to hire graffiti artists to advertise clothing and things in other countries such as Germany. I did not know that the practice was also done here in our lovely city. In my opinion it is a very effective means of advertisement, since it is relatively cost effective, easy to execute and the majority of people who will notice the work would probably be those that are in this case the target audience. This artwork means to me that some artist somewhere, somewhere relatively close to me is trying to make this New York jungle we live in just a bit more attractive. Also that an artist, of little or large noteworthy is trying to have their voice her, their work seen, if by somewhat illegal means, they are accomplishing what they have set out on doing.  In general this art work has nothing to do with anything we have done thus far in class

Name of Artist: MuffinMilk, the artist is undisclosed

Title of Work: MuffinMilk

Date of Work: November 18, 2011

Materials/Medium: spraypaint, posters

Genre: graffiti

Location: 3rd ave and 12th street (near st. marks place)

Accompaniment?: Margo Curz

I recently saw an exhibit showcasing stills from Jan Svankmajer’s latest film, Surviving Life. Jan Svankmajer is a Czech-Slovakian surrealist who was born in 1934 and has been making films since the 1960s. His works are unique because of his blasphemous black humor, playful use of viewpoint, and the sensible and penetrating intellect that comes across in his works. At this moment various institutions around the world are exhibiting his work, including China, Germany and of course here in New York City.  His film is a story about a middle-aged man who leads a double life. One of these lives is ground in this world, in reality, but the other life he lives it in his dreams. In his dreams he literally peruses the woman of his dreams, she wears a red suit. The main character, Evzen, goes to a psychoanalyst to have his dreams interpreted. Evzen then finds a way to enter he dreams of his own accord and we learn much about his childhood and his parents. He purchases a room so that he can spend more time sleeping and in his dreams. And when his wife, in reality forces him to chose only one of his lives, Evzen chooses the dreams.

I am very sorry to say that the exhibit did not include a showing of the actual film, but as I said it had on display many stills from the film. They did have a film that Svankmajer has created, it was a clay-mation, and it is what first caught my eye about this exhibit.  In the film Svankmajer uses a mix of live-action film and cutout animation, to tell the story. In the surrealist fashion in nearly every scene the background is grey, bland and unimportant. While in the foreground we have bright colors, especially on people, like Evzen’s dream woman. The foreground also features very fantastical things such as huge apples rolling down the street, and naked chicken-headed women. Even more striking then the fantastical characters and things, Svankmajer uses huge amounts of grotesque imagery, such as the dead cow tongues, monstrously large snakes and Evzen’s boss who had the head of a dog. Svankmajer’s work is my first experience with surrealist work in the ‘codified’ platform of the museum. All that I can say is that I find that I am very much intrigued by the entire idea or surrealism, and that I absolutely love Svankmajer’s work. I can no longer imagine a life in which I do not know about Svankmajer’s work, he delves into many of my favorite topics, dreams, the psyche, sexuality and probably above all black humor. I must and I shall see this film, if it is the last thing I ever do!

DAS VIDEO!

Written by: Jan Svankmajer

Produced: Jaromir Kallista

Cinematography: Jan Ruzicka, Juraj Galvanek

Animation: Martin Kublak, Eva Jakoubkova, Jaroslave Mrazrek

Sound: Ivo Spalj

Costumes: Veronika Hruba

The play Antigone was playing at the Hunter Frederick Lowe theatre and I was at first interested because I’d read the play in high school. Since I’d seen References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot in this same theater, this time around I knew where it was, where I was going and what to expect. This time around the stage was set-up such that there were mountains in the background, and there was a large platform made of sand bags. It worked together well and made the set seem like a desolate, and far away place, just as the play called for. The play was the story about the princess, Antigone, who goes against the King Creon’s decree, and buries her brother to bring her brother’s soul peace. Because of her blatant disregard for the law, Creon sentences her to death to set and example of the princess. As soon as he sentences Antigone to death nearly every other character tries to convince Creon to simply let Antigone’s transgression go. But Creon was too stubborn to see that what Antigone did was honorable above all else. During the entirety of the play there is this back and forth, between various characters on which has precedent, the state (the government) or the adherence to god, religion and family. By the end of the play it is obvious what idea the author of the play was trying to get across. He felt the gods were above all else everything else was secondary, and he make this plain by killing everyone who Creon loved by the end of the play. There is no other way in which he could have made his opinion plainer. One of my favorite things about the performance that was put on was the old woman, narrator. She gave and absolutely fantastic performance, her monologues about the destruction the war had brought and about how the gods will have their revenged, made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Something that I found very interesting was the use of guns in the show. If I’m not mistaken, there were no guns to be found in ancient Greece. I’d be curious to learn why it is that they decided to include them in the play. If I had to guess it further dramatizes some parts of the play, at least to an audience of our time period, and it was probably simply easier to incorporate guns into the play then have the actors wielding swords. I greatly enjoyed the play, and it was interesting to see they great dynamic that the Hunter College, theater department has such diversity in its performances.

Set Designer: Louisa Thompson

Lighting Designer: Nick Kolin

Written by: Sophocles

Directed by: Tea Alagic

Title of Work: Antigone

Material/Medium: play, visual and oral performance

Duration: November 30, 2011 to December 9, 2011

Genre: play, classical

Venue/Location: Hunter College at the Frederick Lowe Theatre

Accompaniment?: none, this was a sole adventure