The Grotesque Physique

SPE and new work...

2008-03-24T09:27:00.004-05:00

So i went to SPE in Denver and had a wonderful portfolio experience. I met with Samantha Di Rosa, Libby Rowe (love her) and my undergrad professor Wendy Babcox. All of my conversations were incredibly helpful and fascinating. Interestingly though, I had signed up for Wendy as my reviewer because I was toward the end of my list and I wasn't sure who else to put down. This turned out to be my best critique of the three. My guess is because she already knows me and my work so much that when I told her my ideas and thoughts about new things it just spring boarded new ideas left and right. It could also have been because she is just so dang amaZING. I really am thankful for all of her help. I have not felt so inspired in a really long time (almost a year and half now). This will teach me to keep in contact better with her. :)

Anywho...... here is the first of many new things to come. I am really excited about moving away from photo for a bit too. though I see these turning into portraits of some type to accompiany the sculptures..... the new work is focusing on the need for masculinity and my interpretation of the new form of masculinity in my own life.... there are more grander ideas too come.....as well as several in this series!!!!

DRAMATIC LIGHTING...

2008-02-20T13:38:00.004-05:00

just been taking some clips around the house with the new camera and wanted to post this somewhere....

new camera....

2008-02-18T22:45:00.003-05:00

CANON G9......Its just a little point and shoot but its 12.2 MP and shoots in RAW-- not bad for my only digital camera. I am waiting for canons new version of the 5D to come out (probably August or November). It will probably be around 17 MP with a full sensor which is amazing so lets keep our fingers crossed... until then, I will use the schools leaf backs and Mark III's if I need a really camera and I can sketch with this little beauty!!

a bad laughable image....

2008-02-18T09:18:00.003-05:00

lol just too funny not to laugh at....

ENJOY!

FINAL PROPOSAL...

2008-02-18T09:11:00.003-05:00

Ok so last week I had my first full committee meeting and two days later I completed my Thesis Proposal... FINALLY!!! Praise God! halleluiah!!!! AMEN!!

So here it is.... It has changed A LOT!!!

Never Ever After

Patriarchal authority has been prevalent in American society throughout it’s history, as a result, affecting the construction of women’s identities and roles. Even today we still question whether women truly have control of their own identities. Considering the continued patriarchal domination, is it possible for a woman to truly find her own voice?
The romance genre has played a major part in forming the ideals of the patriarchy and the standards for which we as woman are told to strive. Predetermined ideals of love and romance as well as gender and gender roles are seen throughout our entertainment and media sources. One example of this is the romance novel; an exaggerated representation of the standards and roles seen in heteronormativity. This is also seen in children’s fairytales, as well as Disney movies. I want to show the absurdity of applying prefabricated standards onto the lives and beliefs of all woman through exploring my own life as a non-idealized construction of romance.
As a child, my favorite movie was Cinderella– my mother has stated that I probably watched it more than 100 times. Though I appreciate the sentiment and enjoyment from watching and reading such fairy tales, I am turned off by their blatant disregard for the perpetuating stereotypes they possess. My recent discovery of the romance novel has left me with the same conclusion of continued predetermined roles for women. After the Women’s Rights Movements and the sexual revolution of the 1970’s, a change in the views of the romance novel took place. With women in the positions of writer, reader, and subject there was an illusion of women in power, but the publishers maintained the patriarchal blueprint of the romance novel through the publishing guidelines. My ideas of gender and gender roles in romance and love that I came to understand from the fairytales, are visible in the romance novels. This sustaining of the heteronormative establishment and its effects on women is something that I wish to explore further.
The utilization of video performance and the focus on the styles of melodrama and farce, both in acting, set design, and composition will help me investigate the texts and the stereotyped gender roles found in the romance genre. Props and costuming will help me to emulate the fairytale aspects while my choices of staging and characters will give me the control to establish my invesitgative position toward the work. The use of digital photography as a means of production is appropriate for my work because of the ability to capture both the real and unreal through styles of the documentary as well as the tableau vivant. I am interested in the investigation of the self and therefore the use of the self-portrait is pivotal. Through studying and understanding my personal process, I know that I must start out with broad ideas and work my way towards the specifics. During my personal work routine I will make choices that will lead me toward my goals, however it will be a lengthy process. I will be focusing my research on artists like Anna Gaskell, Candice Breitz and Sam Taylor-Wood as well as authors like Adrienne Rich, and Judith Butler. Through my exploration I intend to show the need for change not only in the romance genre’s formulation but also in the heteronormative society we are still faced with today.
The manipulation we see in the patriarchal form of the romance genre has led to women believing that they share the same ideals of men when it comes to sexuality and romance. With such obvious sexism and stereotyping being displayed as normal at such an early age thru these mediums, one could question whether Women ever had their own sexual identities. Through documentary, satire, emulation, and blatant acts of tomfoolery towards the romance genre, I will explore the broader ideas of romance, and its standards of perfection.

update (cause i havent in a million years)

2008-01-12T09:45:00.000-05:00

Alright so quick update, still working things out. but still working on the romance novels and the absurdity that comes with them in gender roles. I am focuses on the sexual acts in the book since thats what they are all about. most of the women are seen as virgins and having there first experience is just this overwhelming act of PURE PLEASURE... ha! we all the first time hurts. anywho i am creating images (possibly video in the future) in hopes to show my humorous interpretation of the writing and starting to take aspects from the covers in props and attire. this is just my first sketch and i did it all alone (really hard to do) I will have better shoots with assistance hopefully soon! Tell me what you think!

looking forward to the break...

2007-11-14T22:55:00.000-05:00

I am really looking forward to the break so that I can finally focus on my work. I am thinking about having my family read for my video. I think it is interesting to capture peoples first reaction to the readings...plus it could be fun...especially my grandfather.... HA!

anyways my website will be being updated over the break as well (after the 30th- because i wont have internet while in NC) ok well have a nice break and see you around!

new piece..kind of... Romantic Reading

2007-11-03T14:47:00.000-05:00

So this is a trial/sketch if you would....of a new piece/series i am doing.... i plan on finding actors to read for me and perform the readings. I have costumes and wigs and possibly backgrounds. I am very excited about the direction the work is going... hope you are too....

thesis proposal...new work

2007-11-03T14:45:00.000-05:00

So, this year I have been working on my Thesis. I have decided upon a topic which has interested me for a while and deals with all of my favorite things....gender, the body, and sexuality... So here is my draft of my thesis proposal...

In looking at the writing and the covers of Romance Fiction Novels from the 1980’s to the present, we can see the influences of men and the social roles that have long been placed upon women. The Romance Novel has dominated book sales since the 1930’s, now carrying almost half of all paperback sales. During the 1970’s Women’s Rights Movement and the Sexual Revolution, a change in the authorship of the Romance Novel took place, and women were at the front. Though the sex of the authors had changed, the publishers maintained the patriarchal blueprint of the romance novel through the guidelines for their publishing’s and therefore the writing did not change too much. Instead the change occurred in the paperback covers and the level of sexual activity in the writing, shifting from a single scene from the novel to a lusty clutch between two lovers, with scarce scenery and minimal plot. The Cover Artists were also produced by illustrators (mostly a male profession), where as now the images are based off or are actually photographs, produced by freelance artists hired by the publishers.

Male dominance has been prevalent in American society throughout history. As a result, men have shaped the identity of women and specifically the female role in culture. In today’s society of economic and sexual independence and the new nuclear family, do women truly have control of their own identities? Considering the history of regimentation and position that has been imposed upon women, is it possible for a woman to truly find her own voice?

The study of the theatre style, both in acting and set will help to show my investigation of the writing and the over personified roles seen in the novels. The use of digital photography as a means of production is appropriate for my work because of photography’s replacement of the illustration, though the look of painting still remains in the digital imagery. The use of props, and costuming will help me to emulate the covers while my choices of staging and characters will give me the control to establish my position in the work. I also will be focusing my research on artists like, Thomas Allen, Gregory Crewdson, and Cindy Sherman . The use of actors to present the readings on video is meant to point out the apparent and preposterous writing within the Romance Novel. Through these displays I hope to show the need for change not only in the Romance Novel’s formulation but also in the Patriarchal Society we are still faced with today. Looking to authors like Janice Radway, Ariel Levy, and Pamela Regis I hope to use their studies to illustrate the new Romance of the 21st Century Woman, and Her relationships in the present day.

The relationship of men controlling the ideals of Romance thru the Romance writers, readers, and patriarchal form of the genre has led to women believing that they share the same ideals of men. Women now are seen as in “control” of the novels, and see the reading of these books to be liberating for the sex (Radway). This absurd response to such obvious sexism and slander is what my work focuses on. Through satire, emulation, and blatant disregard of the establishments of the Romance Novels History I hope to skew the perspective not only of women and today’s role of the woman but of the romance genre itself.

...it still needs a lot of work and i hope to complete it byt the end of the week, let me know what you think...

my pictures from the Global Feminisms REMIX show..

2007-08-27T22:05:00.000-05:00

go to my flickr Account and check out my images... The show was great though I wish I had seen the original show....

www.flickr.com

off to look at some art and a last hoo-ha!!!

2007-08-22T19:23:00.000-05:00

So we are headed to THE CITY to look at art and eat good foods, for two days...yes only two days....but its still two days. who cares if 11 hours of that is in the car. The rest will be in THE CITY.
and since it is August- the month in which all galleries close and nothing too interesting is showing. So we will go to Brooklyn to see the perfect show for me....
brooklyn museum is having a Global Feminisms Remix exhibit....
also on view is THE Dinner Party

all of this in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art....
YAY!!!!
perfect time to go in my opinion....if you know of any other shows i should see while im there let me know. Ok well Thats all.... SEE YAAAAAAAAA!!!

maybe I'm wrong....

2007-08-14T13:39:00.000-05:00

So this is more of a post for me to question what im doing more than research or information......

I have had this fascination with the female form for years now.
I am driven to it.
My older work deals with gender and the body
My new work is trying to talk about gender and sexuality.
But do I feel the same about the too
IS there the attachment and power in my work?
If I'm not in my work can i still make my work powerful and disturbing?

will i still be as interested...

When I read some of these books that I bought I am more interested in the issues surrounding the female and the female gaze,
this is STILL the body.

Is it just because I am stuck i this thinking mode and have been focused on the same thing for three years. Should I stop the
working I've been making even though I have finally become good at it?

I think I need to just keep reading.... a LOT!!!!!!!!

HERE IT COMES!!!!

2007-08-09T10:04:00.001-05:00

So I have been saving to buy that special digital camera, mainly because while at RIT i don't need to buy a camera when i can check out a 20-30,000 dollar camera. Well this article was sent to me today and it makes me so excited....though I'm still going to wait! Cause this is only the FIRST of the low-budget Medium Format Digi's!! And I can't wait for them to drop even more! And so maybe by next year I will be able to buy 22 MP MF camera for 5 grand!!! I can't wait!!! For those of you who already own a maymia this maye be a credit card away for you!! WOW-WEE here it comes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CLICK HERE FOR B&H's ARTICLE

more books...i think this is all of them...

2007-06-25T11:32:00.000-05:00

GENDERqUeer:voices from beyond the sexual binary
In a QUEER Time &Place: transgenderbodies, subcultural Lives by: Judith Halberstam
Gender Trouble - judith Butler
The History of Sexuality: an Introduction- Foucault
Undoing Gender- Butler
Sexing the Body: Gender politics and the construction of sexuality by Anne Fausto-Sterling
Female Masculinity by Halberstam
Erotic Ambiguities- The female nude in art by Helen McDonald

and on an older thought....

The Obsession: Reflection on the Tyranny of Slenderness by Kimm Chernin

and for FUN....if I have time....
The Third Way by Sheldon Lord

summer reading list

2007-06-20T21:44:00.001-05:00

ordered a butt load of books to read thru this summer to prepare for next year...

Gender:Key concepts in Philosophy by Tina Chanter

Simulacra and Simulation by jean baudrillard

Queer Theory, Gender Theory by Riki Wilchins

Writing on the Body:Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory by Conboy, Medina and Stanbury

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

and more to come....... as they arrive from amazon

cameras...

2007-06-04T23:08:00.000-05:00

WAY off track from my researching.... but its summer break and its only the second week in....i'll be noting soon on the visual culture reader book im reading and will be reading all week while i sit on the boat in the beauitful ocean while getting skin cancer from the hot florida sun!!!

So,
as an undergrad I rushed into the decision to buy a medium format camera rather quickly. I did a little research and decided i couldnt afford a hassy and went with a bronica..... which was supposed to be the "little brother" to the hassy...whatever, dumb little me i know...

but anywho, i loved my bronica gs-1 when i got it and i used it like crazy, bought all the accessories including a lense from ebay that doesnt focus properly. So as soon as i finished out that year, the crappy school i went to (good ol USF) decided to upgrade its color processor and basically forced us to use digital or scanners for my last year..... i started getting into video and digital more and lazy as i was almost done and long story short... i haven't touched my bronica in...... 2 or 3 years.... so..... im thinking even though i wont get very much money for it these days (maybe half of what i payed for it) I'm gonna try and sell it.... And probably the best bet is to sell everything off, piece by piece so i get the most money for it.

So...then the next step is to get a nice little digital SLR (since i can't afford the medium format digis i use at RIT... I think im gonna go with the Canon 5d...

but that means i need to wait for my loan money or the money my parents gave me for graduating undergrad..... and i should probably get a job over the summer too... baH!!!! Wish i was rich!! ok well off to bed so i can go job hunting tomorrow........

still working....

2007-05-08T17:22:00.000-05:00

head is still throwing up but i have decided to stick to one thing for now and then spend my time on developing my thesis and direction more over the summer. so i WAS going to use photographs of products and talk about the formation of gender and gender sterotypes from childbirth and influences from product marketing..... so this is an example of what i was looking at....

ok so instead of that i am going to project eyes (8 of them) disguised in costume/makeup to either appear as male or female with sound in the room also altered so sound like male or female voices.... looped in video to repeat the blinking and movement of the eye....

here is a still from a practice (without makeup and cropping)

jobs and gender...sketches....ideas...AHHHH 19 days!

2007-05-03T10:14:00.000-05:00

male or female?

2007-05-03T09:04:00.000-05:00

pilot
teacher
dr
nurse
flight attendant
plumber
construction worker
director
actor
designer
artist
mechanic
gardener
secertary
president
chef
waitor
model
photographer
mailman
garbageman
architect

difference b/w gender and sex....

2007-05-03T08:44:00.000-05:00

Sex = male and female

Gender = masculine and feminine

So in essence:

Sex refers to biological differences; chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs.

Gender describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine.

So while your sex as male or female is a biological fact that is the same in any culture, what that sex means in terms of your gender role as a 'man' or a 'woman' in society can be quite different cross culturally. These 'gender roles' have an impact on the health of the individual.

In sociological terms 'gender role' refers to the characteristics and behaviours that different cultures attribute to the sexes. What it means to be a 'real man' in any culture requires male sex plus what our various cultures define as masculine characteristics and behaviours, likewise a 'real woman' needs female sex and feminine characteristics. To summarise:

'man' = male sex+ masculine social role

(a 'real man', 'masculine' or 'manly')

'woman' = female sex + feminine social role

(a 'real woman', 'feminine' or 'womanly')

omg my head exploded and this is what came out...

2007-05-01T18:31:00.000-05:00

SOOOOOO.... I have had the toughest quarter yet this spring and i have been strUGGLING with my work and what I am trying to say. After I have been fighting with going into the office space and creating work in the office and in my studio....so anywho.... i HATE the Office Space pictures and the projections are awful as i will show you so i have decided to quit the office and go in a completely different direction...this is of course after lots of discussion and suggestions from teachers and peers....and tears and FREAKING out!!! ok so im going to try out this new stuff and i have a lot of reading and thinking and writing to do as well as shooting...so anyways here is all of the stuff that im talking about.....
so here are the shitty office projections...

In our society and in the world we have a need and a want to classify and label things, people, objects, etc.... the new work will comment on the idea behind things and people being either masculine or feminine. even language has a masculine and feminine. Even though we often blurr the lines between feminine and masculine in america, there is still a pronounced difference and it is observed when someone or something goes against those ideas of what is supposed to be Male or Female territory.

So these are five minute sketches i did in my neighborhood and i definitely want to reshoot and do people and different things..

projection- dictionary.com

2007-04-24T15:02:00.001-05:00

results for: projection

pro·jec·tion
–noun
1. a projecting or protruding part.
2. the state or fact of jutting out or protruding.
3. a causing to jut or protrude.
4. the act, process, or result of projecting.
5. Cartography. a systematic construction of lines drawn on a plane surface representative of and corresponding to the meridians and parallels of the curved surface of the earth or celestial sphere.
6. Photography.
a. the act of reproducing on a surface, by optical means, a remote image on a film, slide, etc.
b. an image so reproduced.
7. the act of visualizing and regarding an idea or the like as an objective reality.
8. something that is so visualized and regarded.
9. calculation of some future thing: They fell short of their projection for the rate of growth.
10. the act of communicating distinctly and forcefully to an audience.
11. Psychology.
a. the tendency to ascribe to another person feelings, thoughts, or attitudes present in oneself, or to regard external reality as embodying such feelings, thoughts, etc., in some way.
b. Psychoanalysis. such an ascription relieving the ego of a sense of guilt or other intolerable feeling.
12. the act of planning or scheming.
13. Alchemy. the casting of the powder of philosophers' stone upon metal in fusion, to transmute it into gold or silver.

wiki world!!

2007-04-24T15:00:00.000-05:00

Projection
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Look up projection in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Projection can be any of:

* The display of an image by devices such as:
o Movie projector
o Video projector
o Overhead projector
o Slide projector

* Map projection, in cartography
* Graphical projection, the production of a two-dimensional image of a three-dimensional object
o Orthographic projection, including:
+ Plan, or floor plan view
+ Elevation, usually a 'head-on' view of an exterior
+ Section, a cutaway view of the interior
+ Axonometric projection, including:
# Isometric projection
# Dimetric projection
# Trimetric projection
o Oblique projection, and
o Perspective projection

* In chemistry, any one of:
o Fischer projection
o Haworth projection
o Newman projection
o Stereochemical projection

* Projection (mathematics), any of several different types of functions, mappings, operations, or transformations
o 3D projection
o Projection (relational algebra)
o Projection (linear algebra)
* Projections (Voyager episode), an episode of the television series Star Trek: Voyager
* Power projection, the capacity of a state to implement policy by means of force, or the threat thereof, in an area distant from its own territory
* Psychological projection, a defense mechanism in which one attributes to others, one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or emotions
* a forecasting of future developments based on current statistics and trends
* Enamel projections, extensions of dental enamel beyond the normally smooth cervical margin and onto the root of the tooth
* Projection (Cylon ability), the ability to perceive your environment in any form you choose, displayed by the humanoid Cylons in the television series Battlestar Galactica .

* Natural Language Processing :
o Annotations Projection, the task by which researcher in NLP try to automatically annotate a side (a language) of a parallel corpus given the already available annotations of the other side of the parallel corpus.

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projection"

Category: Disambiguation

Totally new approach...

2007-04-19T22:07:00.000-05:00

So it took me long enough but through some disussing of ideas with Sara and after the portfolio review with the girls from the Absence/Excess/Loss Exhibition which opens at Roco Tomorrow night (7-10pm)- I have finally come up with a CLEAR idea for my work this quarter...BUT that means i have NO time and a lot to do so this will probably be one of the few blogs that is not filled with research info and all kinds of goodies. ok so so long and see you soon with some work....
ps i need to borrow someones projector and let me shoot in your house!! thanks

help me please....

2007-04-17T22:07:00.000-05:00

So i am trying to continue to make SOME work before walk-thru (MAY 22nd aka 5 weeks today).
this is more sketching but a little better (and some better ideas)

i have had mixed reactions to these. one of my proffesors thinks that some of these are "DONE" and that i should print them out and hang them up. He likes the rough studio look and the hot lights of the flash.... which is not usually my style. I like things to look done and i think that beauty is important to my work, not only because I am attracted to its aesthetics but also because it is the ideal.... what do you think? do u need to work on these more? (the ones he liked were the filing cabinet and the second to last panty hose picture....

new studio, new SKETCHES, new teachers...

2007-04-10T21:18:00.000-05:00

So a lot has been going on between breaks, and vacations, and conferences, and new quarters, and new studios, and new work..... and I'm sad to say new teachers....
first things first...

Its the FIFTH week (out of ten) and i FINALLY got into a studio to shoot my office.

before i got the studio this is what ihad in mind...

And this was the first BAD ps image i came up with unsuccesfully.... it was supposed to give the effect of me overflowing out of the chair and powering over the office. but i need to change a lot including the cropping of the image itself...anyways here ya go...

so here is what i have setup so far.... now be nice because i did ALL of this between the hours of 10-4pm today....that includes getting the key, cleaning, painting, moving furniture, painting, mopping, and setting up shots for images! so here we go...

and the first two images i have....also need a LOT LOT LOT of work but remember that all of these are sketches and that i did all of this in 6 hours today...

ok well leave comments...Also Myra I'm sorry to hear that you are leaving us....especially since you were my deciding factor in coming to RIT.... good luck in Chicago and PLEASE KIT!

moving out of the home and into the workplace

2007-03-20T20:09:00.000-05:00

ARTIST STATEMENT-FINE

2007-02-24T22:34:00.000-05:00

So the plan is to keep my definition of dispositions off to the side so to keep it involved but not to have it overhaul my statement since i do not reference the definition again in the statement other than the title of the series.

Dispositions

My work this year has dealt with self-defined issues of size, space and the interaction between the two. Dispositions addresses the questioning of the relationship between private space and the culture at large. Where is my space? Where do I fit in? The interpretation of a woman’s role is as the domestic “queen.” She rules the home and more specifically the kitchen. I do not easily fit into this role. Similarly, I do not fit into most of the cultural ideals imposed on women, particularly the standard physique. As an over-weight woman, and as a non-domesticated woman, I am trying to challenge the positions of the ideal woman and my place in the domestic sphere.   
Through the reality of large color photographs I explore the absurdity of trying to conform myself into spaces that I obviously do not fit into, both physically and metaphorically. It is a performance concerning the incongruity of society’s dogma on the ideal woman. For reference to this new exploration of the domestic space I have looked at feminist artists like Martha Rosler, Valie Export and art exhibits like “WomanHouse” and “Il diavolo, del focolare.” The seemingly straightforward lighting and focused subject matter depict the reality of my size, the duress of pose and the constriction of the spaces. The objective of my work is to show the Dispositions of myself in contrast with the societal ideals of the woman and the home.

surrealism- I LOVE WIKIPEDIA

2007-02-24T21:48:00.000-05:00

Surrealism
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Surrealism is a cultural, social and political movement asserting that liberation of the human mind, and subsequent liberation of the individual and society, can be achieved by exercising the imaginative faculties of the "unconscious mind" to the attainment of a dream-like state different from, or ultimately "truer" than, everyday reality. Surrealists believe that this more truthful reality can bring about personal, cultural, and social revolution, and a life of freedom, poetry, and uninhibited sexuality. André Breton said that such a revealed truth would be beautific, or in his own words, "beauty will be convulsive or not at all." When the concept of surrealism has been "applied" by associated groups of individuals, it has often been called a "surrealist movement," whether cultural (including artistic) or social.

In more mundane terms, the word "surreal" is often used colloquially to describe unexpected juxtapositions or use of non-sequiturs in art or dialogue.

Surrealist thought emerged around 1920, partly as an outgrowth of Dada, with French writer André Breton as its initial principal theorist.

In Breton's Surrealist Manifesto of 1924 he defines surrealism as:

Dictionary: Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.

The radical aim of surrealism is to revolutionize human experience, including its personal, cultural, social, and political aspects, by freeing people from what is seen as false rationality, and restrictive customs and structures. As Breton proclaimed, the true aim of Surrealism is "long live the social revolution, and it alone!" To this goal, at various times surrealists have aligned with communism and anarchism.

Surrealism also embraces idiosyncrasy, while rejecting the idea of an underlying madness or darkness of the mind. Salvador Dalí, who is considered to have been quite idiosyncratic, explained it as the following: "There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.

Not all surrealists subscribe to all facets of the philosophy. Historically many were not interested in political matters, and this lack of interest created rifts in the surrealism movement.

Hyperreality---WIKI

2007-02-24T21:43:00.000-05:00

This article is about the concept of hyperreality as it applies to contemporary continental philosophy. For hyperreality in art, see Hyperrealism (painting).

In semiotics and postmodern philosophy, hyperrealism (not to be confused with surrealism) is a symptom of an evolved, postmodern culture. Hyperreality is a way of characterising the way the consciousness interacts with "reality". Specifically, when a consciousness loses its ability to distinguish reality from fantasy, and begins to engage with the latter without understanding what it is doing, it has shifted into the world of the hyperreal. The nature of the hyperreal world is characterised by "enhancement" of reality. Some famous theorists of hyperreality include Jean Baudrillard, Albert Borgmann, Daniel Boorstin, and Umberto Eco.

Most aspects of hyperreality can be thought of as "reality by proxy." For example, a viewer watching pornography begins to live in the non-existent world of the pornography, and even though the pornography is not an accurate depiction of sex, for the viewer, the reality of "sex" becomes something non-existent. Some examples are simpler: the McDonald's "M" arches create a world with the promise of endless amounts of identical food, when in "reality" the "M" represents nothing, and the food produced is neither identical nor infinite.

Baudrillard in particular suggests that the world we live in has been replaced by a copy world, where we seek simulated stimuli and nothing more. Baudrillard borrows, from Jorge Luis Borges (which Borges also borrowed from Lewis Carroll), the example of a society whose cartographers create a map so detailed that it covers the very things it was designed to represent. When the empire declines, the map fades into the landscape and there is neither the representation nor the real remaining – just the hyperreal.

Baudrillard's idea of hyperreality was heavily influenced by phenomenology, semiotics, and Marshall McLuhan.
Significance of hyperreality
Hyperreality is significant as a paradigm to explain the American cultural condition. Consumerism, because of its reliance on sign exchange value (e.g. brand X shows that one is fashionable, car Y indicates one's wealth), could be seen as a contributing factor in the creation of hyperreality or the hyperreal condition. Hyperreality tricks the consciousness into detaching from any real emotional engagement, instead opting for artificial simulation, and endless reproductions of fundamentally empty appearance. Essentially, (although Baudrillard himself would perhaps balk at the usage of this word) fulfillment or happiness is found through simulation and imitation of a transient simulacrum of reality, rather than any interaction with any "real" reality.

Interacting in a hyperreal place like a casino gives the subject the impression that one is walking through a fantasy world where everyone is playing along. The decor isn't authentic, everything is a copy, and the whole thing feels like a dream. What isn't a dream, of course, is that the casino takes your money, which you are more apt to give them when your consciousness doesn't really understand what's going on. In other words, although you may intellectually understand what happens at a casino, your consciousness thinks that gambling money in the casino is part of the "not real" world. It is in the interest of the decorators to emphasise that everything is fake, to make the entire experience seem fake. The casino succeeds in turning money itself to an object with no inherent value or inherent reality.

artist statement.....WIP....HELP!!!!!

2007-02-13T21:45:00.000-05:00

Dispositions
Dispositions:
dis·po·si·tion (dĭs'pə-zĭsh'ən
n.
1. One's usual mood; temperament: a sweet disposition.
2. a. A habitual inclination; a tendency: a disposition to disagree.
b. A physical property or tendency: a swelling with a disposition to rupture.
c. The power or liberty to control, direct, or dispose.
d. Management; control.
3. Arrangement, positioning, or distribution: a cheerful disposition of colors and textures; a convoy oriented into a north-south disposition.
4. A final settlement: disposition of the deceased's property.
5. An act of disposing; a bestowal or transfer to another.
6. a. The power or liberty to control, direct, or dispose.
b. Management; control.

My work this year has dealt with self-defined issues of size, space and the interaction between the two. I took the question of looking at special relationships between the objects around me and the world around me. Where is my space? Where do I fit in? The interpretation of a woman’s role is as the domestic “queen.” She rules the home and more specifically the kitchen. I am not one who easily fits into this role. Similarly, I do not fit into a lot of the Ideals around women including the standard physique. As an over-weight woman, and as a non-domesticated woman, I am trying to challenge the positions of the ideal woman and more specifically my place in the domestic space.

Through the tool of large color photographs I am trying to show the absurdity of trying to fit myself into spaces that I obviously do not fit into, both physically and metaphorically. My work deals with the real but in itself is a performance of the incongruous in our societies dogmas. For reference to this new exploration of the domestic space I have looked at feminist performance artists like Martha Rosler and Valie Export. The straight lighting and focused subject matter depict the reality of my size, the duress of pose and the constriction of the spaces. The objective of my work is to show the Dispositions of the woman’s domestic role in my life.

2007-02-13T10:31:00.000-05:00

shooting the dishwasher on wednesday....

until then i am working on my artist statement and research...i will post what i have so far soon!

title for Series---- I think I've got it!!!!

2007-02-09T10:40:00.000-05:00

Top Web Results for "Dispositions"

1 result for: dispositions
View results from: Dictionary | Thesaurus | Encyclopedia | All Reference | the Web

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source
dis·po·si·tion (dĭs'pə-zĭsh'ən) Pronunciation Key
n.
One's usual mood; temperament: a sweet disposition.
A habitual inclination; a tendency: a disposition to disagree.
A physical property or tendency: a swelling with a disposition to rupture.
The power or liberty to control, direct, or dispose.
Management; control.
Arrangement, positioning, or distribution: a cheerful disposition of colors and textures; a convoy oriented into a north-south disposition.
A final settlement: disposition of the deceased's property.
An act of disposing; a bestowal or transfer to another.
The power or liberty to control, direct, or dispose.
Management; control.

[Middle English disposicioun, from Old French disposition, from Latin dispositiō, dispositiōn-, from dispositus, past participle of dispōnere, to dispose; see dispose.]

Synonyms: These nouns refer to the combination of qualities that identify a person. Disposition is approximately equivalent to prevailing frame of mind or spirit: "A patronizing disposition always has its meaner side" (George Eliot).
Temperament applies broadly to the sum of physical, emotional, and intellectual components that affect or determine a person's actions and reactions: "She is . . . of a serene and proud and dignified temperament" (H.G. Wells).
Character especially emphasizes moral and ethical qualities: "Education has for its object the formation of character" (Herbert Spencer).
Personality is the sum of distinctive traits that give a person individuality: possessed a truly unique personality.
Nature denotes native or inherent qualities: "It is my habit,—I hope I may say, my nature,—to believe the best of people" (George W. Curtis).

definition taken from Dictionary.com

walk-thru is approaching

2007-02-08T17:03:00.000-05:00

this is my second to last piece im doing.... only have the dishwasher to conquer next!!! let's hope it works out! woo-hoo!!
printing tonight and tomorrow!!! WISH me LUCK and MONEY~!!!!!!!!

WIP- Reshoot of all images

2007-02-05T10:49:00.000-05:00

So i reshot Everything this weekend. And i am satisfied but not completely yet. These have not been edited yet but i will be working on them throughout the week and trying to correct lighting situations (maybe by using nik software) anyways did I mention that all images on this website are copyrighted.....so in case i didn't here ya go.

all images on this blog are Copyright©EmilyWinton2007

postcolonialism

2007-01-29T14:51:00.001-05:00

Post-colonial theory deals with the reading and writing of literature written in previously or currently colonized countries, or literature written in colonizing countries which deals with colonization or colonized peoples. It focuses particularly on

the way in which literature by the colonizing culture distorts the experience and realities, and inscribes the inferiority, of the colonized people
on literature by colonized peoples which attempts to articulate their identity and reclaim their past in the face of that past's inevitable otherness.
It can also deal with the way in which literature in colonizing countries appropriates the language, images, scenes, traditions and so forth of colonized countries.
This page addresses some of the complexities of the post-colonial situation, in terms of the writing and reading situation of the colonized people, and of the colonizing people.

Structuralism

2007-01-29T14:46:00.001-05:00

I. General Principles

1. Meaning occurs through difference. Meaning is not identification of the sign with object in the real world or with some pre-existent concept or essential reality; rather it is generated by difference among signs in a signifying system. For instance, the meaning of the words "woman" and "lady" are established by their relations to one another in a meaning-field. They both refer to a human female, but what constitutes "human" and what constitutes "female" are themselves established through difference, not identity with any essence, or ideal truth, or the like.
2. Relations among signs are of two sorts, contiguity and substitutability, the axes of combination and selection: hence the existence of all 'grammars', hence all substitutions, hence the ability to know something by something else, or by a part of it in some way -- hence metonymy and metaphor. The conception of combination and selection provides the basis for an analysis of 'literariness' or 'poeticality' in the use, repetition and variation of sound patterns and combinations. It also provides keys to the most fundamental elements of culture.

3. Structuralism notes that much of our imaginative world is structured of, and structured by, binary oppositions (being/nothingness, hot/cold, culture/nature); these oppositions structure meaning, and one can describe fields of cultural thought, or topoi, by describing the binary sets which compose them. As an illustration, here is a binary set for the monstrous

4. Structuralism forms the basis for semiotics, the study of signs: a sign is a union of signifier and signified, and is anything that stands for anything else (or, as Umberto Eco put it, a sign is anything that can be used to lie).

5. Central too to semiotics is the idea of codes, which give signs context -- cultural codes, literary codes, etc. The study of semiotics and of codes opens up literary study to cultural study, and expands the resources of the critic in discussing the meaning of texts. Structuralism, says, Genette, "is a study of the cultural construction or identification of meaning according to the relations of signs that constitute the meaning-spectrum of the culture."

6. Some signs carry with them larger cultural meanings, usually very general; these are called, by Roland Barthes, "myths", or second-order signifiers. Anything can be a myth. For example, two-story pillars supporting the portico of a house are a mythic signifier of wealth and elegance.

7. Structuralism introduces the idea of the 'subject', as opposed to the idea of the individual as a stable indivisible ego. Toquote from Kaja Silverman in The Subject of Semiotics,

The term 'subject' foregrounds the relationship between ethnology, psychoanalysis, and semiotics. It helps us to conceive of human reality as a construction, as the product of signifying activities which are both culturally specific and generally unconscious. The category of the subject thus calls into question the notions both of the private, and of a self synonymous with consciousness. It suggests that even desire is culturally instigated, and hence collective; and it de-centers consciousness, relegating it....to a purely receptive capacity. Finally, by drawing attention to the divisions which separate one area of psychic activity from another, the term 'subject' challenges the value of stability attributed to the individual.
The value of the conception is that it allows us to 'open up', conceptually, the inner world of humans, to see the relation of human experience to cultural experience, to talk cogently of meaning as something that is structured into our 'selves'.
There is no attempt here to challenge the meaningfulness of persons; there is an attempt to dethrone the ideology of the ego, the idea that the self is an eternal, indivisible essence, and an attempt to redefine what it is to be a person. The self is, like other things, signified and culturally constructed. Post-structuralism, in particular, will insist that the subject is de-centered.

8. The conception of the constructed subject opens up the borders between the conscious and the unconscious. The unconscious itself is not some strange, impenetrable realm of private meaning but is constructed through the sign-systems and through the repressions of the culture. Both the self and the unconscious are cultural constructs.

9. In the view of structuralism our knowledge of 'reality' is not only coded but also conventional, that is, structured by and through conventions, made up of signs and signifying practices. This is known as "the social construction of reality."

10. There is, then, in structuralism, a coherent connection among the conceptions of reality, the social, the individual, the unconscious: they are all composed of the same signs, codes and conventions, all working according to similar laws.

movements and links

2007-01-29T12:36:00.000-05:00

Fat Feminism
Fat Acceptance
Fat Queers- LOL

is this the video artist
that's in the converge show

2007-01-29T10:07:00.000-05:00

search in google for art, body spaces = CLICK HERE

one more.... wish it had more range of exposure

2007-01-28T16:25:00.000-05:00

more images

2007-01-28T16:16:00.000-05:00

crappy=good....sometimes

2007-01-26T00:46:00.000-05:00

crappy stuff can be so great some times!!! i love low quality.... so i FINALLY got the toy digicam to work but it seriously took me three cameras and two hours+ of installing the drivers for the damn thing. it really is a piece of crap but i love the little images i got from it! too bad its for PC's only. anyways im gonna try to come up with something really good to do with it!!!! until then enjoy these little cheesy images and enjoy the beauty of the pixel!

TITLE

2007-01-23T18:28:00.000-05:00

so i am trying to work on coming up with a title for my new series of work.... i have been just refering to them as the Placement series but....one i dont care for it much... two it is too close to my displacement video title (which i didnt realize before).... and three i was told it was bad (which i already knew)... ok so here is the first try....

1. Circumstance
2. Intervention
3. piece de resistance (LOL)
4. preoccupy or preoccupation

that's all for now!!!

i want one....

2007-01-22T00:34:00.000-05:00

anyone got any spare moneys around!!!! I want THIS

HALT!!!

2007-01-19T18:18:00.000-05:00

so.... I have become obsessed with my blog and with reading blogs and finding links to post and what has happened is that the researching that I am doing and putting together thru my blog.... I am never actually getting to and reading most of it SOOOOO I am now going to stop blogging....unless it is notes from my readings and I have a lot of that to be doing....or new pictures...so there ya go....

AWESOMENESS

2007-01-18T09:58:00.000-05:00

so I took the home page link from Myra's my delicious page but the link for the film and video section on the UBUWEB page is awesome.....for future use this lists a whole bunch of artists AND....AND gives video examples of their work.....do u know how difficult it can be to find these things via google or youtube?!?!?! AWESOMENESS I SAY!!

digicam group

2007-01-18T09:39:00.000-05:00

Found Another group of mini 10 dollar digicam users this is one of the images... I ordered the double pack from target last night (since the one I have doesn't seem to work and I don't want to deal with the hassle of returning a ten dollar camera i got as a gift). Anyways....this image is awesomely distorted and pixelated and there is so much noise...i can't wait to get mines!!!

assignment

2007-01-17T18:41:00.001-05:00

So for experimental digital we are supposed to be workingon a project that our deals with different inputs and outputs for photography.... I am still working on the output for the project but for the input I am going to use my camera phone / miniature digicam i got from target [If I can get it to work] anyways.....we have to find people who do the same thing sooooo HERE is one....a link to an art show of invited artists to use a camera phone to take pictures...aka make art... still working on finding a person who uses the toy digicam...

more comments!!

2007-01-15T11:23:00.000-05:00

books/articles to read:
"The Symptom of Beauty by Francette Pacteau"
"The Body in Pieces; The Fragment as a Metaphor of Modernity by Linda Nochlin"
Uncontrollable Beauty
pantheon of hindu goddesses

quotes:
Our psychology and intangible nature is always just as present as our physical bodies yet it occupies more space, is entirely invisible and holds power over people not unlike our corporeality.

SNOW DAY!!

2007-01-15T08:37:00.000-05:00

Today is to be spent doing all of the reading i listed previously......need to get an ink cartridge for my computer first though....was gonna steal form the lazer printers at school...poop! oh well....enjoy your day as I will enjoy my day OFF!!!!

ps even though I went to school on top of a mountain in NC for 2 years (it did get cold there i swear -15 degrees sometimes) this is my FIRST OFFICIAL SNOW DAY!!!!! (i am so excited.... I always wanted one!)

pps do we have to make these up?

other definitions

2007-01-14T17:34:00.000-05:00

from email from a friend.... comments on blog...
Suppression, repression, oppression, secret, idea of hiding something, Compartmentalizing, exposed, exposure

and....... Physiognomy

ARTICLES I DOWNLOADED AND NEED TO READ

2007-01-14T17:01:00.000-05:00

{I hate reading but I love doing research for it.....now i just need to throw away the computer, TV, radio, Girlfriend, and cellphone, and maybe i'll get to it}

Blindness as Metaphor by Naomi Schor
From the Baroque to the Postmodern: Notes on a Translation from Giambattista Basile's "The Tale of Tales" by Nancy L. Canepa
The "Batty" politic: Toward and Aesthetic of the Black Female Body by Janell Hobson
Beauty's Chambers: Mixed Styles and mixed messages in Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast by: Virginia E. Swaim
Revisiting the Southern Grotesque: Mikhail Bakhtin ad the case of Carson McCullers by Sara Gleeson-White
Kant as Propagator: Reflections on the observations onthe feeling of the beautiful and Sublime by: Susan Shell
Speaking the Grotesque: The short Fiction of Gayl Jones by: Casey Clabough
Laughing at Cripples: Ridicule, deformity and the argument from Design by Roger Lund
Donne's Body by: Nancy Selleck
Victorian Culture and the idea of the grotesque by: john reed
Nathanael West and the mystery of Feeling by Jonathan Greenberg
Facing the Ugly: the case of Frankenstein by Denise Gigante
The Female Grotesque: Rick, Excess and Modernity by: Mary Russo
The Bodily Grotesque in Roman Satire: images of Sterility bye: Paul Allen Miller
Modern Taste and the Body Beautiful in Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust by Susan Edmunds

books to find and look up

2007-01-14T15:52:00.000-05:00

Mysteries and Manners by southern writer Flannery O'Connor

Geoffrey Hampton(sp?) on the grotesque

BOOK@LOOK^

definition of the grotesque: according to Wikipedia
When commonly used in conversation, grotesque means strange, fantastic, ugly or bizarre, and thus is often used to describe weird shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween masks or gargoyles on churches. More specifically, the grotesque forms on buildings which are not used as drainspouts should not be called gargoyles, but rather referred to simply as grotesques, or chimeras.[LINK]

search for "the Grotesque in Art" on Google came up with This

and this book

and this definition
n art, a style in which a profusion of human figures, imaginary monsters, animals, flowers, and fruit are mingled in a fanciful and eccentric way. It is found particularly in mural and sculptural decoration.
Such decorations were found during excavations of Roman houses at the beginning of the 16th century, notably at the Domus Aurea (Golden House) of Emperor Nero, and the Baths of Emperor Titus. Discovered in underground chambers (grottoes) they became known as grotteschi.

The designs inspired Italian Renaissance artists; Raphael and his followers quickly established grotesque motifs as a facet of their style, particularly in their frescoes. The medallions and panels of the loggia of the Vatican feature grotesque designs by Raphael, carried out by Giulio Romano and Giovanni da Udine. Early examples of grotesque ornament in architecture occur in Pinturicchio's cathedral library ceilings at Siena (1502), and Perugino's ceiling of the Cambio in Perugia (about 1500).

When I use the word grotesque though I do not reference this art period, one because I know so little about it and two and most importantly because I am trying to express the reality of the situation in my work (a little less in the new work) and les sof the science fiction that "grotesque art" touched base on.

other words to look up
the Sublime
Beauty
Ideal
Archetype

just cause they are so bad they are BAD

2007-01-11T16:43:00.000-05:00

these are me playing with PS and trying to see what the new images I will be shooting over the weekend will look like, we'll just call them sketches...really BAAAAAAAD sketches....they are laughable so i thought I would share them...LOL enjoy!

and if you can try and look at them like they will eventually be REAL photographs and I will actually be featured in them and not the cutouts from PS and the previous photos

Newest work...revising...need help

2007-01-11T11:29:00.000-05:00

So these are the current images I am working with.... The idea behind the work is dealing with the woman's role is in the home and more importantly in the kitchen. My work in the past quarter has been dealing with spatial relationships between myself and my body and my surroundings. therefore this work not only deals with my body and the physicality of me squeezing into a space that I am not comfortable in but also in a space that i do not feel comfortable in emotionally as well. I am not your standard woman and this work is a reflection of that....

So while working on this I am trying to decide whether to include outside information when i reshoot. Since I haven't had time to reshoot yet i went ahead and did some REALLY bad photoshopping and here are the results...try to ignore the ps bs and what do u think about the outside shot instead of the close up?

Added backdated post

2007-01-10T09:54:00.000-05:00

So I just thought I would let you know that I added an older post to my blog from over the break. These are some notes that I had made on one of the books I got from the library..... It was helpful with quotes but overall a let down. Still interesting but ehhhhh......next book up the beauty myth

added new sideline

2007-01-09T13:29:00.000-05:00

so i added a new sideliner with my Del.icio.us account

it's a way for you to see interesting links that i have found along the way and also a way for me to go back to websites without overloading my bookmark page....please check it out and add an account of your own...hey it's free!!

FatSuits are the new blackface?

2007-01-07T11:11:00.000-05:00

this is an article from the archive of BITCH MAGAZINE....
it deals with all of the new movies out where skinny actors put on fat suits for their parts in atempt to be funny and yet if the part was to be actually played by a Real fat person then it would be sad and not funny..... the article says it a little better than I so please read up!

oh an be sure to read the foot notes cause they say a lot!!!

im back.... time to work again

2007-01-05T15:44:00.000-05:00

ok so i'm back and im gonna try and keep up with this as well as my research.... i have a selection of books that i am reading (attempting to) for my work....I will add some of my notes for this later and post date them..... i don't know if all will be relevent at this time but We shall see: and here they are in no particular order:
Women and Space: Ground rules and social maps (ardner)
Bound to Please: a history of the victorian corset (summers)
Feminism/Postmodernism (Thinking Gender), Nicholson)
Beauty Bound (Freedman)
The Beauty Myth: How images of beauty are used against women (Wolf)
Reinventing Eve: Modern woman in search of Herself (Chernin)

ok well off to reading so until then!!

Women and Space.... NOTES and comments

2006-12-28T08:27:00.000-05:00

Ok so I read and skimmed thru a majority of this book and I say skimmed thru because at some point it stopped becoming relevant to my work and just became stories and examples of what was said in the introduction and the start of the first chapter.

"A restricted area....has a set of rules to determine how it's boundary shall be crossed and who shall occupy that space"

"systems and classifications will be detected by taxonomic rules of some kind which will define 'X' in contrast to 'non-X'

"....Much of social life is given Shape"

"appreciation of the physical world is in turn dependent on social perceptions of it"

"Once space has been bounded and shaped, it is no longer merely a neutral background: it exerts it's own influence."

"The environment imposes certain restraints on our mobility, and in turn, our perceptions of space are shaped by our capacity to move about... So: behavior and space are mutually dependent"

[Look up Judy Matthews](not sure if this is the correct person or not-if you know anything about this woman, please leave me a comment)

"space defines the people in it"
"People Define Space"

be back soon

2006-12-23T11:06:00.000-05:00

going home for the holidays but will start working on stuff more once i get settled in for the holiday...enjoy yours and I'll see ya soon!!!

learning digital techniques as well as....

2006-12-21T21:52:00.000-05:00

So in my class we had a silly little assignment used towards working on our digital techniques in PS (photoshop), as well as giving us something "FUN" to work on... Though I found the assignment to be a little annoying, I also found out how to manipulate my body image to a more "attractive" view.... This has been done over and over again in magazines as well as other many other venues. But I am just sharing mine because I think it's interesting to see what I could possibly look like If I lost weight....HA! who knows though...this file could Definitly use a LOT of work still but for now these will work and If I find that they could be helpful down the line I will continue to work on this project. anyways, take a look.....

BEFORE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

and AFTER>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

student photography exchange

2006-12-21T17:37:00.000-05:00

space for students from surrounding universities to submit work and get critiques on it! looks interesting but I have not discovered whether it is grad students or not but will let you know...

Body Space blog

2006-12-20T13:27:00.000-05:00

click on the link above!!!

This is a blog that I found a couple of weeks ago while researching my work and I thought that I would post this to show you an example of what I intend to do with my blog as well as including artwork and photographs of my own as well as contemporary artists. ok well enjoy it....

Virgin Blog

2006-12-20T00:05:00.000-05:00

So this is my first entry so I will use it to introduce myself to you...

For starters lets get this straight.... I can not spell, I will not be using correct grammar or punctuation, and I will from time to time say there instead of their.... oh yeah and I use ... a LOT!

I am a student and an artist and this will be used as a journal for my notes and interests in the contemporary art world as well as art history and more specifically photography and the video arts as well as some performance art.

I am in my first year of Graduate Study for my MFA and in a year from now will have to start a thesis, so this will be my backbone for my research until next year when it will really begin. I will occasionally place images of my own work on here for critque but for the most part you will have to go to my website to see my Art. Thanks and please be respectful. I hope that this will bring about lots of response and begin a relationship with the outside art world which I am working on finding my place in. Thanks and talk to you soon!!
~M