Performance art research

One of the leading art movements in performance art is called Dada. It began as an art form that represented a sort of anti-aesthetically pleasing viewpoint. Dadaists believed that the barbarism of world war 1 was caused by logic. They did not approve, and therefore sought to remedy the problem by creating and performing art that was illogical and irrational. Their performance art was also typically anti-upper class. One such performance art consisted of the participants walking past urinals while being read poetry. Dadaists would also create music that was generally nonsensical and not very pleasing to listen to.

All information provided by:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada

conceptual art activity

I don't really know the purpose behind this activity, or if there really is one at all. All we did was make lines and put them up in the order in which we chose our shapes from the hat. I did, however, like the bit about Rauschenberg's piece where he exhibited one of De Kooning's drawing that he erased. That is an "oh snap" moment if I ever heard one. As of yet, I cannot think of any concepts to propose. Hopefully I will have one by class tomorrow

Performace art

For all intents and purposes, I am brain-dead today (perhaps because I haven't slept in two months). I guess this made the activity slightly more interesting, as everything I think and experience is slightly fuzzy, and not processing quite as fast as it is happening. I think the activity I came up with went really well, and it was interesting that as they got towards the end, each person started responding to the other person's mark very rapidly.

Happening

This activity was real awkward. Most of the time I felt uncomfortable and overly self conscious. It is freezing outside. I just remember not wanting to copy someone else's facial movements. Usually people naturally mirror other people during a conversation but it felt wrong and weird to be doing it consciously. Also, the faces were funny so it was hard to concentrate on actually performing the activity rather than giving in to the absurdity of it.

Critiquing Duchamp

While I do not find Duchamp's piece The Bride to be visually appealing or to be clearly telling a narrative, his explanation of it seems valid and thought out. However, I would hesitate to call it a successful work of art, as the explanation required is not only extremely long, involved (and somewhat boring); but the same conclusion cannot be reached by an outsider merely looking at the piece.
For a work of art to be successful, it should be able to be "read" or understood coherently without the aid of multiple notes and pages of in-depth analysis. If this cannot be done, the viewer can neither connect nor react to the piece, and it may as well be completely meaningless.
Furthermore, Duchamp has also failed to produce the comedy that he claims it to be. If too much explanation is required of a joke, it becomes ruined. Humor is something that is intuitive, causing reactions first and then, later on, thought about more clearly. This aside, I would not even consider The Bride to be humorous though I do have a (vague) understanding of its meaning.
It seems to me that the message the piece sends is more depressing than anything else. It trivializes the pursuit of love and desire, suggesting that it is a meaningless, animal instinct, prompting actions that are futile and equally meaningless. The figures are not people that the viewer is allowed to connect to. They are mere types...the virgin bride, the bachelors with unquestionably masculine careers. Their actions are mechanical, part of a game, and they are propelled forth automatically, without having any concept of why or how.
The ultimate outcome of The Bride and her fate are never given, perhaps adding even more to cynical feeling that this work stirs in the viewer. She and the bachelors have come to the end of the game and are stuck in a standstill, unable to go forward or backward, with no future.

Patterns

Patterns exist in many different forms and functions. They can exist purely for aesthetic purposes, such a patterns printed on floor, ceiling and wall tiles. Patterns can be used for religious purposes, like the patterns in stained glass on cathedrals or the complex patterns created in Islamic art. They can also be celebratory such as the patterns of henna tattoos, which are often used to signify events like marriage.
Patterns can be intricate and dizzying, or they can be simple and soothing. They can also be used to create optical illusions and give the viewer a sense of motion, depth, or latent images.
The term pattern may be used in reference not only to visuals but to certain behaviors that individuals repeat over the course of their life.

Gestalt

My painting professor at BCCC used to walk around the room, expounding upon the importance of "gestalt". Good story, I know.

She explained it as "the overall image, parts coming together to form a whole, the bigger picture". In greater depth it refers to the way in which positive and negative space come together to form the entire image.

While you can see definitive positive and negative shapes in my Illustrator drawing, it is probably not the most clear example of gestalt because it is abstract.

And I still dislike/am afraid of computers. My laptop totally owns me.

the picture is from "http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm"