“A Place of Sun”

http://vimeo.com/40127569

Inspired by the BP oil catastrophe, this new work – a collaboration with artist Benjamin Heller, marries the visual and physical arts – sculpture and dance – to investigate entering and exiting space — adaptation and transformation — to show the resilience of both human and nonhuman nature in environments during the act of discovery/recovery – maybe not to be restored to pre-disaster conditions, but transformed and reborn anew.This work will focus on an inhospitable habitat that we render habitable in order to survive and have our place of sun.

Music: Karol Szymanowski

Lighting Design: Lacee Godman

Dancers: Miguel Anaya, Brittany Engel-Adams, Emilie Camacho, Raphaël Kaney Duverger,Trenard Mobley

 

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Writing Assignment – due Sept. 27

To prepare for Dustyn Martincich’s workshop with our class, watch the videos below (You’ll need to scroll down a bit for Johnson’s video) and address the following questions in a one or two paragraph response.

  • According to Steven Johnson, where do good ideas and innovation come from?
  • How does Wayne McGregor describe the process of choreography?  What does McGregor think dance is all about?
  • Why do you think your professor would include a dance workshop in a sculpture class?  How do you think the workshop will be relevant to this course?

Please post your written response in the “Aquatic Uncle” category — sorry, I know this is semi-confusing.

Be sure to include your name in the title of your post so I can give you credit for your work.

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After burning to the ground, the “Touchdown Jesus” sculpture is rebuilt as “Hug Me Jesus”

top: original sculpture pre-lightning strike — below: remaining armature after lightning strike

The story behind these two sculptures, and their dynamic with the public, and the rationales behind depicting Jesus in one form and then another is as thought provoking as any work of academic conceptual sculpture.  What does the church achieve by creating such a spectacle in a location visible from a busy highway?  What are the implications of spending so much money on a sculpture like this — is it an important act of proselytization or an example of misdirected resources?  Was it indeed an act of god that the first statue was struck by lightning and burnt to the ground, and if so, then what was god trying to tell us?  What prompted the church officials to sculpt the second sculpture to reach out rather than up — how does this change the sculpture’s message?  Obviously, the meaning of the three-story Jesus sculpture is subjectively determined by the viewer’s religious persuasion and past experience, but regardless of the viewer’s interpretation, the sculpture’s scale commands attention and provokes a litany of questions.  What significance do read into the sculpture and its story?  If you send a response to me by email I’ll add it to this post.

Read more:

USA Today article on the fateful lightning strike incident.

Cincinnati.com article on the new sculpture.

CNN article on the new sculpture.

the new, recently installed sculpture

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUZ3d1tTbWg

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The New MakerBot Replicator Might Just Change Your World

Take the subway to an otherwise undistinguished part of Third Avenue in Brooklyn. Knock on the door. Wait for some stylishly disheveled young man to open it and let you in. You’ve arrived at the BotCave—the place where 125 factory workers are creating the future of manufacturing.

The BotCave is home to MakerBot, a company that for nearly four years has been bringing affordable 3-D printers to the masses… click here to read more

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Why Art Matters

by Anthony Bond OAM

I strongly believe that art can sometimes change the way we look at the world. It is all too easy to ridicule the preposterous claims often made for art in catalogue essays , however I reject the view that art merely excites aesthetic pleasure and should attempt nothing else. I have a strong commitment to the fundamental importance of aesthetic quality in art, but for me it is the means and not the end. I believe that art has to be grounded in the real world and enhance our understanding of ways of seeing…. click here to read more

 

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