Over break, I was approached by a company to develop a way to display their products in 3D. I am hoping to utilize this time to learn how I would approach this problem. I have done some research and have seen that most of what is out there is not “beautiful”; the products are shown in a very dressed down window that almost looks like the 3D object is still living in Maya. I do not find this to be aesthetically pleasing, however, the technical uses of this are very desirable for customers. I would like to create a visually appealing model that would work for this application.
In addition to creating 3D displays for products, I was also set to the task of creating a more visually appealing way of showing sizes of apparel. I was hoping to utilize 3D scanning, but am also afraid that the outcome would not be “clean” enough. I am also interested in perhaps using DAZ3D for this project, but feel it would be cooler/ better/ bigger if i figured out a way to scan actual people.
Competitors of this company have taken to photographing different people of different sizes, stating their weight, height, and size they’d wear so that customers may compare themselves and choose accordingly. I really like this idea, but I want to push this further to create something new and “wow”.
For this portion of the project I have two real questions:
-How do I UV the jersey onto the model?
-Should I model my own? Should I find one on the internet? Should I take a DAZ model and cut it up in Maya and then apply the UV?
Skills Required for Project:
-3D Modeling
-Cinema 4D
-Coding Magic (for putting movable 3D model on website) I do not know any coding, so there’s that.
-3D Scanning Knowledge
Resources Required:
-Maya
-Cinema 4D
-iPad/Structure Scanner
-Models (Perhaps I could coerce some instagram cyclist people, trying not to use Adam for everything)
-Daz3D
-Coding…? I don’t really know if I’ll need that or be able to use it, but I’ll put this here just in case
Deliverables:
-3D model of Jersey/ Bibs on my website
-Explorations of varying avenues/ ways to show a size guide. This will include both digital and physical sketches backed up by research. What’s out there already? How could this be improved? What is practical? What is impractical? What is the ideal situation?
-Each week one new avenue should be explored
Weekly Schedule:
Week 2: Research what is already in place. What are the needs for this specific industry?
-Professional level scanning? Depth Kit?
-Chop up a Daz3D model/ UV map bibs/ jersey onto model
Week 3: Continue Research, develop idea
-Photoscan?
-How do I put finished 3D model on a website so it’s interactive?
Week 4: Project Due.
***This is tough to just focus on this one project because I’m also wanting to explore photoscan models from video, and making things in C4D… MOGRAPH.
This is not directly relative to this exact project, but I really would like to understand how to use photoscan/ original video content to create something like this.
I’d like to apply this to drone footage of cycling. of course.
This ties into my project in that it focuses on bringing the cycling industry into the 21st century. Cyclists are notoriously obsessed with tech; there’s even VR indoor cycling now. (TOTALLY MY IDEA).
While the wearable market for the sport is totally cornered, I don’t think advertising/ marketing has caught up to even current methods. What I would like to do is create visually appealing/ innovative ways to market these products. Stunning media with a side of product placement.
The link Bart shared with me, the breakdown of chanel #5 in mograph/ chemical form was beautiful. I absolutely love how Chanel got this artist to make work for them. It’s like Field.io and their Nike stuff… That’s the ultimate dream. Make highly polished beautiful stuff for giant companies.
This interactive space for the fragrance is so strange to me. Most of the “levels” are based around breaking things to create sound/ different visual experiences.
And maybe I’m only saying cycling specific things, but it would be sweet to apply this to anything in the outdoor industry. Hook-up with redbull.
I was approached over break by a company to develop a way to display their products in 3D. I am hoping to utilize this time to learn how I would approach this problem. I have done some research and have seen that most of what is out there is not “beautiful”; the products are shown in a very dressed down window that almost looks like the 3D object is still living in Maya. I do not find this to be aesthetically pleasing, however the technical uses of this are very desirable for customers. I would like to create a visually appealing model that would work for this application.
In addition to creating 3D displays for products, I was also set to the task of creating a more visually appealing way of showing sizes of apparel. I was hoping to utilize 3D scanning, but am also afraid that the outcome would not be “clean” enough. I am also interested in perhaps using DAZ3D for this project, but feel it would be cooler/ better/ bigger if i figured out a way to scan actual people.
Competitors of this company have taken to photographing different people of different sizes, stating their weight, height, and size they’d wear so that customers may compare themselves and choose accordingly. I really like this idea, but I want to push this further to create something new and “wow”.
For this portion of the project I have two real questions:
-How do I UV the jersey onto the model?
-Should I model my own? Should I find one on the internet? Should I take a DAZ model and cut it up in Maya and then apply the UV?
Websites for my colleagues:
Heidi-http://forecastpublicart.org/public-art-review/current-projects/2014/11/skies-painted-unnumbered-sparks/ “I hope that visitors feel more connected to those around them- to neighbors and strangers.”
Jayne-http://sewelectric.org/ This is not specifically an artist, but i though it would be a nice primer for things you’re thinking about. Also backed by MIT Media Lab, so you know shit’s legit
Bart-http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/happening-robots-may-creative-artists-future/ not an artist, but discusses some of the things you have discussed in your work. What does it mean if even our art is done by robots?
Cover the entire floor space in house so that worms can live inside, because they’re so important they deserve real estate.
Bees, they’re dying. Creative/ attractive bee hive that optimizes their um living/ people actually want to own bees. Cater to customer; if Paris Hilton wanted them what would they look like? How do you make bees “hip”?
A service that takes care of your bees for a nominal fee, imagine pool guy, but bee guy.
3d animation of horse, nude woman, beer (trailing liquid), diamonds, falling from gradient sky on loop forever
crystal box with drug baggies “you need dis shit.” Peddled by non-descript older white male. Packaged for popular consumption. Sold by ‘the man’
Blend an iPhone in a blender, with glitter, and colors and stuff, then drink the smoothie. “YUM! PHONE!”
Or use the “smoothie” created in 6, to water plants. NOW YOUR PLANTS ARE TECH TOO!
Make a onesie out of material that my rainbow shoes are made out of; wearable that makes you impervious to bullshit, should be paired with those glasses that shield your whole face. #BULLSHIT_BLOCKERS. Maybe if the bullshit gets too crazy, the wearer pumped with a low dosage of MDMA to offset the influx of “bad vibes.” (#COACHELLA #HASHTAG) does this protect one from being seen on the internet? Does this shield one from embarrassment (on the internet) while still allowing for them to be “fucked up’ with no possible recourse?
Resin molds of hands that highlight the evolution of the muscular system in our hands/ thumb muscles out of control from texting. These are filled with emoji shapes/ glitter? And fake nails (BECAUSE I SAID SO)
Get new tech, destroy it, make it “better”, think bedazzling that makes your phone at least 3 times bigger than it was with plastic flowers and crystals and stuff. But even more. Just TOO much. And have friends that have the same one, make it about trying to have the “best bedazzling” but the phone ends up being unusable.
Tattoos that double as codes, but they’re still tattoos, not ugly looking QR codes, but they tell vital things, bring up twitter account, horoscope, and number of sexual partners
Nihilism and its effects on society. They don’t matter tho bc nothing matters. Really fascinated by nihilism NOT AN IDEA MOLLY
A study of major fuck ups people have posted on the internet, somehow turned into an infographic. Why do people think they can post compromising shit on the internet? What are the repercussions for this? Should there be, seeing as how this behavior takes place in their “private lives”? What is private and public? Is everything public? This isn’t really a project idea. http://www.apa.org/monitor/2008/07-08/ethics.aspx (ethics of how pyschologists should conduct themselves on the internet/ that should apply to all of us)
A ridiculous PSA that tells one what and what not to post on the internet. Over the top. From food photos, to ridiculously compromising things.
3d print a cast that is lightweight and has healing laser technology built into it, treatments occur when required (timer set up)
As computer technology becomes ubiquitous, what will happen to those that are choosing a life without it? Will those people end up dying out? Or will that become a new specific sector of society. What will those people look like in the near future? Will their hideaways be encroached on by development? Or will there be an allowance, a strange borderline between their hideout society and development?
Work-out clothing that has built in HR monitor, that’s affordable. That doesn’t look dorky af. Cycling specific. Also tells you you need to hydrate more/ eat food/ push yourself. Like a coach, but you’re wearing it. And looking like a BOSS.
https://www.liveathos.com/ (this seems to be geared toward people that are really in the know about working out… I want gear that is educational. It teaches you how to fuel your body, and what certain heart rates mean and what levels you personally should be at. I don’t really care what specific muscles I’m working, because I don’t know what the numbers given by that clothing means)
A cycling coaching app for the beginner; straightforward, inexpensive, personalized, non-judgmental, wholly informative. What it takes to get faster and ride for longer. What sort of shape you should be in to be able to participate in a race and not feel embarrassed or out of shape or defeated? Does not assume you know anything about training, yet doesn’t make you feel like a total idiot. Very robust program: covers EVERYTHING. Maybe curated articles and information gathered from users/ professionals. Crowd-sourced, but each of the pieces of information are tested and cross-referenced. IS THIS RELEVANT?
With self-driving cars, how will we reach the wilderness? Will it become more protected? What will adventure look like in that age? Right now, I drive to remote trail heads and explore from there. Will self-driving cars make access to the wilderness WAY more difficult, thus protecting it more but limiting desired interaction?
Casts of prophetic changes in human anatomy due to our change in lifestyle. Hands, other things I can’t think of right now.
Bioluminescence of plants along trails that light when you pass or are near.
What can I say what can’t I say as a woman, made into a visual of some sort. What bothers men that women say? Pain in the dick?
What makes a woman a woman, what makes a man a man?
An experience that makes riding the indoor trainer on your bicycle not so goddam boring. Kinect that follows the motion and speed of your legs, and something that is also connected to information generated by heart rate. Informative art, it’s like you’re seeing your stats, watts, whatever but also a beautiful and engaging data visualization? Or not. Interactive beautifulness. SEE FIELD: https://www.field.io/project/nike-force-of-nature/
A device that’s like a built-in therapist, warns you when you are repeating harmful patterns. Though non-intrusively, you can take the information as it is, a suggestion. Highlighting that we can no longer rely on ourselves to take care of our human mental health, this should be farmed out to the non-human, who knows humanity better than we do.
Speculative piece highlighting the fact that the earth/ solar system/ galaxy/ universe is merely some godly (to our feeble minds) graduate student’s thesis; in some much grander, larger lab, grown to fulfill their graduation requirement.
Genetically engineer a unicorn, combine something with a horse to make a unicorn. Fight all the legal battles/ PETA, create art. Be a jerk.
Photograph people wearing VR equipment in remote/ wild locations. The wilderness is no longer of interest other than a place to participate in virtual endeavors.
Everyone at a large gathering (concert) wears a VR headset, our eyes are no longer able to give us the “full” experience. Normal sight is no longer enough.
Create pigments/ inks from “nasty” biological substances, found and other wise to create 2d prints. Grow some things from some substrates. PORTRAIT. Though all of the biological substances are collected from varying places, thus the place they were procured should be represented as well as the form taken by the producer of the biological substance. Or just a frankenstinian portrait of the contributors. Rendered BEAUTIFULLY. Hyper-real.
Along the same vein as Tomas Saraceno’s work, speculate what it would be like to live extra-nationally. In a world where we no longer differentiate between those from other countries. What will that world look like? If we are all from one place (even more of a concentrated place than earth) do we continue to find differences within each other?
Speculate what will become of animals as we continue to mess up the earth with human waste/ destruction: reference the post natural history museum in PGH, what is happening to animals now?
With land rapidly being overtaken by the ocean, future settlers will be forced to move inland, but perhaps eventually to the sea. What will those dwellings look like to achieve the condition of life required to continue to survive as a race, as well as develop/ evolve into the future.
Create bioluminescent horses; they have very similar metabolisms to rabbits. BIGGER GLOWING ANIMALS.
Project onto the flatirons, create large festival visuals for this project. Appeals to festival crowd but also underlines the fact that this is a very privileged activity to take part in…?
What would developing technological advancement in “Third World” countries lead to? How would this affect pollution scales/ education/ happiness? From the polls found on the internet, it looks like places that lack these things are evidently happier. Visuals highlighting the projected differences
A suit created entirely of mirrors for a woman and man; this is meant to camouflage/ confuse predators and protect the skin. This mirror suit allows for those that have chosen to escape the grasp of society and wish to remain unnoticed/ largely unnoticed. Video/ photo/ suit deliverables
Reverse breed pugs. They’re so messed up, breed them back to where they aren’t that way.
There are a lot of problems with horse breeding, particularly in the American breeds. I find that interesting. European horse have problems as well, I’m sure. But Americans have bred their breeds so damn closely and ridiculously and I wonder why that is? Why would we want to create an animal that is, for the most part, crippled. They are also bred huge like beef cattle, and that serves no purpose. Could I make a project to reverse engineer that?
Create a 3rd party app that is able to manage all of your presences online. All of them. Everything you’ve ever created on the net is managed through this app. You can delete whatever harmful things you posted when you were 13 that you want
Design an online presence/ brand for myself, create an online identity that isn’t MOLLY LOFTON ON FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM TWITTER.
Why are we deciding to give up so much control to technology? Are we decidedly lazy? What delineates between help we need and too much reliance on technology. I am interested in exploring how we could interact more efficiently with our technology.
Luminescent grass that reacts when you run on it/ great marketing tool for soccer/ field sports.
A sensory depravation device that subtly sells you things, you’re so in your head that you have no idea you’re being sold anything. Like today, but in a worse way. Nowhere is safe
A film/ 3d modeling project that highlights the sunset of various locations around the world with varying levels of pollution. The 3d element would reflect the amount of pollution in each area, while the sunset would just be a beautiful backdrop (sunsets are often more beautiful in places with greater pollution levels)
A film about the life of a young girl who has rebuked her duties as a future person and how she avoids living within the technological confines prescribed by the future. Future girl in nature land. Avoiding future as much as possible, while being of the future. (well, present in this instance) strange things occur, representative of technology, but she brushes past them. Culminating in some sort of climax, or anti-climax.
A room filled with glass/ 3d printed hollow vessels that are filled with glowing liquid, they are held up by strings that cannot sustain their weight for very long, and fall intermittently, painting the entire room with the glowing, varying colored liquid.
Elevator pitch:
I am Molly Lofton. I have been trained as a traditional visual artist, focusing primarily on two dimensional mediums, printmaking and photography. I am currently seeking to combine my knowledge of these traditional mediums with digital and interactive design to create new and innovative ways of sharing my message. Historically, I have enjoyed working with themes regarding youth and what that term looks like from the perspective of a burgeoning adult. As I outgrow these themes, I am seeking a conceptual landing space, where my desire to learn and excitement to create will develop new and innovative work.
A Klee painting named Angelus Novus shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.benjamin, walter via wikipedia
one single catastrophe that continuously piles wreckage at the angel’s feet. the angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what had been smashed. but he is forever pulled away from the wreckage that forever follows him.
this excerpt from walter benjamin’s theses on the philosophy of history inspired me to contemplate our current situation. i thought of my high school laptop, buried under linens in a storage closet. i thought of the carcases of the iphones i’d killed over the years; (i am currently on phone 13). where do they go when they die? these things are created to be replaced at least every two years, and that amount of time seems to be shortening as we progress further into the future.
this technology is made to wear out, not in. this isn’t something i have spent much time thinking about. but it’s something i am interested in discussing for this project. i wonder what will happen to these things in 1000 years. what will they look like? will our bones be found buried next to our technology?
and i think of the angel of history, forever looking at the detritus left behind him. he is able to see what must be done to fix the ways of the past, but he cannot go back to the past.
i love talking myself out of ideas. it’s my favorite. i do it so well.
i’ve been looking at work made by dmitri obergfellrecently. the materials and subject matter he utilizes captures this sort of neo-ancient historical monumental thing that i love. it made me think about what sort of monuments might remain in 3016.
i imagine our bones intermingled with technology, a pile of indeterminate detritus, calcified, ossified, weathered, bleached, affected in every way by the elements. strange colors have transformed the objects, as batteries, and internal electronic guts have melted out of their metallic/ glass casings. this has mixed with the human bone and created a sheen reminiscent of an oil spill on many of the things in this pile.
these things have seen the rise of the oceans, and the perhaps recession of those same oceans.
all that remains of our civilization is this monument of fossilized bone and tech.
project:
pile of cast bones, largely arm and leg
cast ipads, ipods, iphones, imacs (i love apple products)
each of the casts are treated with a borax/ dye treatment so they look ossified
various pieces have been treated with metallic bismuth crystals for variety
at the top of this “pile” a prominent human skull, i want to paint it with chameleon car paint, but that’s like…. all dmitri. so probably treat it with several different borax baths to give it depth of color and varying crystal growth. or it’s made of resin. i dunno. resin doesn’t really fit the theme. but plastic doesn’t degrade…?
one of the “phones” is outfitted with a proximity sensor, so if something comes close to it, it sort of glows.
it’s kind of like “the past is alive,” “the tech outlived us,”
i see this pile taking place in a desert; somewhere desolate.
resin cast of right and left hands, with very crazy nail-art applied to the nails of the casts. these will serve as pedestals for the kit, though they would be able to stand alone as their own pieces. what i see now are clear hands, perhaps with a very, very slight seafoam/ pink/ purple/ blue tint, almost unnoticeable. the hands would also have very, very fine suspended glitter in them.
i had one idea where i would put cigarette butts, and a drug bag (with unicorn icons if i could find such a thing) inside of the palm. if this is at all possible, the bag would have glitter spilling out of it, but suspended in the resin. do not think this is achievable, but it sounds stunning. (to me) maybe i could suspend some pills in there.
made of the shit. you are the shit. consumed by you. you consume it.
also, i want to make a ring pop for the left hand’s ring finger; trying to utilize the layered/ colored plaster method that dmitri obergfell used in his piece under the paving stones, the beach. but how to do that… i will then put it through a chemical crystallization process (maybe i will do that with the hands as well. perhaps i will have a matching set of hands and rings, resin and/ or multi-layered plaster, crystalized with borax)
married to the underground, the shit, the derelict (no hope of reform?)
derelict is cargo that is also on the bottom of the ocean, but which no one has any hope of reclaiming.
this will take multiple casts, it would be great to have several options of hands. maybe 4 or so sets.
the kit will be bedazzled. it needs an icon. or something on the top. i keep coming back to the idea of using a pendleton pattern. i can’t explain reasoning for that. i am drawn to that imagery, yet this wouldn’t be an organic molly pattern, which is troublesome. i was also thinking it could be a gradient, but that seems too girly-girl/ bad. like cheap-looking bad. which is sort of what i am going for, but the gradient doesn’t achieve the level i am seeking. maybe pink/ orange? remember the inside will be red.
the box will be lined with some sort of velvet, a deep red. it will be divided like a jewelry box. on the left in a row will be several different drug bags filled with glitter powder, perhaps in multiple colors. hanging over the side/ half in the box/ propped up will be a cat skull i’ve had that is resin and filled with glitter, perhaps tinted resin. crystal beaded rosaries would be draped around the box, flowing out. there should be lollipops made of the mulitplaster/ and wrapped in tootsie pop wrapper i’ve made myself in illustrator. the box needs to be filled with things. razor blades made of resin with iconography in them. perhaps matching the icons on their respective bags.
in the top of the box, there will be an ipod that plays a video relating to the items in the box, that plays on an endless loop. the narrator will be someone wearing the horse head.
what does any of this shit mean?
a separate iteration could be the sets of hands holding variations of the cat skull in a line.
the cat skull: on my birthday, i was discussing my desire to have a skull to use as an ornament in my new car with my younger brother. after that discussion, he decided to go for a hike and stumbled upon this skull and presented it to me at my birthday dinner later that evening along with a bottle of nice whiskey. we both postulated that it was a prairie dog, native to the hiking trail where it had been discovered. i was thrilled.
a few weeks later, i was taking a summer anthropology course to fulfill my graduation requirements for undergraduate and thought to confirm our suspicions with the graduate student that was teaching the course. after several texts, we were able to determine that this was actually a common house cat. it added an extra element of creep and interest to the skull; a boulder house cat, killed on a trail just outside of town by something, later to be bedazzled and briefly adorn my rearview mirror in my truck.
does this matter? no. probably not.
materials needed:
casts of hands/ skull/ ring pop/ lollipops:
two-part resin, probably a large quantity
oomoo 30 silicon rubber
silicon mold release
plaster
fine glitter for resin
cigarette butts
ring pop
food coloring/ or some more professional pigments, like india ink
hands (OH BOY!)
cat skull
razorblades?
lollipops
lollipop sticks
containers to make the molds in, tupperware is supposedly best.
fake nails, pre-decorated (or will i decorate them, or shop that out to someone with this skill)
box:
wooden box (will i make this? will i purchase this?)
bulk drug baggies from amazon (?)
leather straps (saddle color, with bolts to hold up ipod that will display video, or iphone that receives messages and interrupts the movie, or that’s part of the movie)
ipod
red velvet
batting for making the dividers and lining of the box
i have had a special things box since i can remember. there have been several iterations of this. one lives permanently at my parent’s house; this one is from my childhood, it’s a box a house-keeper of ours gifted me one year for christmas, it’s shaped like a treasure chest. these items once lived in a box given to me by my late grandmother, but the collection soon outgrew that small container. the small treasure chest was the best place to fit them all.
items (from memory):
small pendant filled with mint green glitter, purchased at a renaissance fair in 5th grade, arlington, texas
a rusted weighted ball discovered on a camping trip or field trip to lake ray roberts in 3rd grade.
a chestnut from one of my horses, probably sky, but maybe my mare, mariah who has since died. it makes the box smell like earth and horse. it sounds super gross and it probably is, but i don’t care. the smell is incredible.
a jade ball with goats inscribed in it on a red cord and a red tassel from our trip to hong kong in 2000, it may have been given to my grandfather, but i got it when he died
a medal i won in a singing competition in 5th grade, along with a tape with the recording of the song i sang: “she’s like the swallow” during this performance i was really nervous and forgot how to breathe, gasping at awkward times throughout the song. I was still given the highest mark one could get. i never sang again after that
various state quarters i tried to collect when that was a thing. this collection waxed and waned depending on how desperate i was for gas money in high school. it was started with my grandmother.
a perfume automizer with mother of pearl inlay, from my grandmother.
various horse broaches
there was once a stack of all of the ticket stubs i’d ever had from flying various places, but they stopped giving out the cardstock tickets and i lost interest, so those may or may not be there any longer.
the current iteration is less structured, my dad took up woodturning around 2002/ 2003, so i have ~20/25 bowls in various spots around my house that hold items that i would place my special things in. i still have the box that was outgrown and it holds the highest concentration of special things. though i don’t know what they are off the top of my head, like the box at my parents’ house. is it because that box i had in my childhood was kind of all i had. it was special. it was mostly secret. and those memories were pre-internet, so they stuck better? memories are now remembered with posts and photographed, you don’t have to have physical things to remember moments by. that box was pre-photography stage in my life as well… photography became my collection. i am rambling my A$$ off right now….
box contents, because now i’m curious:
(i am really happy i opened this, wow)
rose quartz pendant heart my mother got me for valentine’s day in like 3rd grade
1 tapered guage earring hand turned by my father, made of cocobolo that infected my ears beyond reason and i had to wear bandaids on my ears for 2 months
a gold pendant replica my dad had made for me (to match his and my brother’s that we either got in Sedona or Australia, my memory is very bad) i believe it means integration. this is from at least 2000. in undergraduate, when i was very, very poor, i considered selling it, but it is of low-quality gold and would have only brought $100 or so dollars, and i felt really guilty, even though i haven’t worn it since i received it.
a ring my ex-boyfriend’s mother bought me for christmas in 2009
sequined rooster patch purchased in albequerque, nm in 2013 during a trip to visit the tamarind institute when i thought i was going to be a printmaker for the rest of my life.
a cheezburger patch i won in a photography contest from saga outerwear in 2011, that i wore on the ass of my favorite jeans that were subsequently destroyed from overwear and screenprinting ink.
a few polaroids from high school, most notably a picture from senior prom of my brother and i
a blue swiss army knife with my name inscribed in it, my dad brought back from switzerland which was one of his stops on his trip around the world he made after he sold his software company in 2000
my grandmother’s rolex, i’ll never wear it, but i’ll keep it.
a strange triangle chicken stuffed animal ornament that looks really stupid that i bought with my mom in santa fe in 2014 at the world craft fair there. she has a matching one
a razor blade i used to cut my legs and arms in 2012 during a tough relationship. i was told to throw it out, and i threw most of my stash out, but i kept one. this one.
a patinaed, silver tiffany’s key i received from my first boyfriend
a pin my mom used to wear in highschool. it has a rainbow and clouds on it.
a pair of my mother’s earrings
surf patron saint pendants from maui
earrings i wore to senior prom
I don’t know if this exercise is important, but I enjoyed it.
Most of these things are representations of the strong bond I have with my family. There was only one dark, bad thing in there, and I think that’s interesting. so many positive things and the one almost unnoticed razor blade, and in a way it evens out the entire contents of the box. from being a happy box, to being a box of special things. ??????
i have a box that i keep various little trinkets and artifacts in, each ascribed certain little memories. these items don’t particularly hold much monetary value, but they hold enough value (spiritually) to be put into a collection. some of the items hold secrets, or bad memories that i put away, but feel strange letting go completely, or happy memories, or things that were simply present for a certain period of time, not particularly part of a story, but were around when a story happened. this box holds secret things, particularly things i don’t want other people to see, this box is ideal for hiding such things; they blend into the stuff.
it’s like… there’s a bunch of shit that conceals other shit, due to the sheer variation of shit and amount. which is like… a metaphor. for how we deal with people? i don’t want to talk about social media, but i need to? we put up a bunch of stuff, and it conceals who we are. veiled by variation/ amount/ decoration? do i even want to talk about this?
text in black, before 3/30, text in pink, 3/30, text in teal, 3/31
time spent so far:
1.5 hours, March 23 (Sketching and thinking about what to do, horse head video and acting idea)
5 hours, March 25 (Research Charlie White, read all of everything, design images to “bedazzle” top of box, collage = appropriation)
2 hours, March 28 (Research, initial project proposal, how will this play out as a performance)
3 hours, March 29th (Tightening up project proposal)
2 hours, March 30th (Continued research on artists to draw inspiration from, trying to narrow down what I want to SAY)
4 hours, March 31st (2nd critique, working on concept, changing concept forever, add more research)
2 hours, April 1st (Meet with Laleh, change direction to focus on make-up specific)
4 hours, April 4th (Change direction to make-up performance)
Be Fucking Happy
A performance meant to highlight the ridiculous guidelines given to young girls in order for them to be “happy”. Young women are told that they will be happiest if they don’t think, and are left to mindlessly buy meaningless bullshit (that is somehow ascribed meaning by society and culture) and beautify themselves with often times toxic and inhumanely produced beauty products. These products are coated/ lacquered/ plastered by a sickeningly sweet wrapper.
***Laleh had the wonderful insight about the smell of an ice cream parlor and it seems really wonderful when you walk in, however as time progresses, the smell turns sickening.
Stricken, March 29 A kit designed to aid one’s journey to ultimate happiness. Don’t you want to be happy?
Brainstorm:
-Kit: wooden box with Swarovski crystals on lid, enticing, shiny!
-Drug baggies filled with glitter; will bring happiness, the antidote to not happiness. Lollipops too? Different forms?
-Must complete a set of (5) tasks to receive happiness.
-Happiness not being what one might expect; anti-climactic ends.
-Negative, uninspiring message in the drug bag? “nothing happens when you die.”
-What is the glitter actually comprised of? Bones of your oldest relative?
-Does it make you happy to a standard of happiness decided by an outside force?
-Yes, you receive happiness, but at a cost that isn’t outlined before one receives their bag of happy.
-It is so desirable, and people really want what is in the bags, but it won’t actually bring happiness, it’s just thought that it will.
-Instead of happiness it erases the shit facebook does to you. Stricken
-There is a promise of transformation, however ultimately nothing happens, or you’re worse off.
-From “A Life in B Tween” by Charlie White: “Real happiness is in the 4th Wall, everything is better. Everything that’s dumb and gross and ugly become like cool and part of your story like this stinky bus, it would be way better if it was on tv. All of these people would be the same but way cooler and they would have real products that we actually want.” “I know reality is bad for us.” “We all need an audience; if nobody’s paying attention then nothing matters.” “I wanna be an idea, a story, a franchise.” “Life is filled with barfiness. Boring and gross.”
-Happiness derived from media; attention on the internet. Addresses acquired to
-Weird things one must do to be known on the internet = happiness. But people will do anything for that sort of recognition
-the “kit” could be my old MacBook Pro that doesn’t work…?
Synthesis:
Girls don’t think and should buy stuff and be fucking happy.
Target of performance: hapless girl, not seeking what I am “selling”, at least not outwardly. However, when I ask her if she’d like to be happy, she of course responds ‘yes,’ because we all fundamentally want to be happy. (What about that? Why? Do we all want to be happy? Can I say that with certainty?) I don’t want to make this like a spa treatment because people generally plan/ desire to be in a spa environment. Comments made during proposal critique “Man, I’d love to have a spa treatment.” I want to make it seem like this way of being was seamlessly foisted upon the girl, who somehow goes along with it thinking these painful/ unnecessary/ over the top activities will lead her, ultimately, into happiness.
I don’t wish to focus on cosmetics. Though my original plan seems to highlight them, as they are an easy thing to acquire cheaply, and perform within a shorter period of time. I want to really give an outline of what grooming/ performances women do to achieve what is depicted as the ideal woman? I’m SO new to focusing on feminist thinking that I don’t really have a good grasp on this idea yet.
What is Jayne wearing?
What am I wearing:
I am not going for the puritan, religious woman,
Blonde wig, my crystal heels
What if I’m dressed like a crazy scientist/ witch from snow white. I’m merely the facilitator of the desired look, why would you listen to me? I guess I can have an authoritative voice “you need this.”
[social?] media is the wicked stepmother of American society, the epitome of beauty, who vies to kill it’s step daughters not with poison but a forever changing, unrealistic standard of beauty/ happiness. we all start off as snow white, blissfully unaware of the dangers that are presented to us in the form of a single beautiful item/ product, that is poisoned with the spell of forever desiring to acquire more to continue the cycle of desire, acquire, desire.
Sketches:
No box for now.
Top of box ideas-
Since this is sort of emulating drugs/ medicinal stuff to make you “happy”, can I appropriate INCORRECTLY a pattern appropriated from Pendleton which was originally appropriated from Native Americans? I know that satire will be missed in my project, but I thought it would be interesting. Plus, pretty. Plus there is a rash of privileged, middle-class white girls (the demographic I am representing, I guess) appropriating Native American art/ culture without giving credit or understanding the meaning or reasoning for and behind the imagery?
Or should it just be plain crystal, intriguing enough with its own sparkle. Though I feel like that doesn’t play to the idea of SICKENINGLY sweet.
Music for sleeping children has been the most influential work I’ve found regarding this project. In the video Sabrina, you hear a young girl describing her perspective on how her life is going and outlines her plans to a certain extent. You do not see Sabrina, you only see the words she’s saying matched to her cadence and even subtle stammer.
I find the work kind of terrifying. I’m not 100% sure how to articulate why I feel that way. I think it’s in the fact that she’s so confident about knowing what the future holds for her “I’m going to get married and have 4 kids and I have their names picked out already.” I just think it’s so interesting that that is where she expects her life to end up, there’s no mention of further education, no mention of dreams outside of having a family. Another segment I found particularly troubling was her focus on how the dreams she has could easily be taken away if she makes one mistake. I think that’s the epitome of neurotic… I mean, I kind of think that way, but for a 15-year-old to have that in the back of her mind all of the time is something I wouldn’t wish on any kid.
Title Here, Charlie White for ArtForum. Discourse on the resurgence of collage and how the digital age has facilitated this renaissance.
I really loved this article, I thought his discourse on the resurgence of collage in digital form was really interesting. I had never spent time thinking about how collage is something we participated in throughout our teen years, manifested in the form of cutout images stapled to our childhood bedroom walls. More thoughts on this forthcoming.
The institute of illegal images, blotter art. This picture is ugly and I want to delete it, but I might need this for later?
Honestly, I don’t think her work is particularly special. I would love to hear from someone who finds value in her photographs. She does have some work that was focused on neon lights that were shaped like text messages (and one of a woman fingering herself) that I thought were pretty neat; personal conversations/ situations depicted in lights, there’s something there! But her photos are like… bad? So why include her? She is working on subject matter I am interested in, is very successful and younger than myself. An interesting person to put into the file. I just don’t understand the photos, man! Inspiration to take this to a secondary or tertiary level. BUT HOW!
Breathe Deep is a film about a virtual sculpture that could only exist in the realm of the digital combining natural and synthetic, human and avatar, plant and machine. A dystopic female figure has become one with a pile of debris. She is a virtual architectur- al ecosystem made of gifs, 3d models, plastic and fake liquids. This is represented through a combination of live action video of performance with sculptures composited with 3D animation and special effects.
Breathe Deep is a commission for the Denver Theatre District | Denver Digerati, 2014.”
I want to make stuff like this. It’s an incredible collage of all sorts of girly things, with creepy, subtly dark undertones! IT IS AMAZING. Is she urinating on other women/ women-like men/ transexual people? Or watering flowers with Mountain Dew? Why is her head concave? with Also, commissioned by Denver Digerati? Close to home! She also went to undergrad for painting! It’s all very exciting.
This article from NPR titled ‘You Cannot Shame Me’: 2 New Books Tear Down ‘Fat Girl’ Stereotypes. I am not trying to address weight by itself. But some of the quotes found in this article were in line with my ideas:
“Lizzie does get thin and is obsessed with staying that way. Happiness eludes her because she has fallen for the myth that everything will change if she just loses weight.”
it’s really weird, because even though the article is about empowering “fat” there is still a focus on the outcome of both books: “does get thin.” “doesn’t get thin.”
In my search for examples, found this. Pissed me off. “‘Be a lady in the street… but a wildcat in bed’: Agent Provocateur creates sexiest Stepford Wives ever in hot new campaign”
Feedback From Instructor + Other Students:
-Figure out: parody, serious, but funny, subtly
-A lot is going on, drugs, cosmetic products, spa?
-Could use a happiness meter to show her happiness level, not necessarily have her grin bigger and bigger each time (I am not really going for this… the end result is happiness, not the in between)
-Reference informercials
-Bull shit promises, her potential, she’s almost there but not quite, and with a little more help from me she will be.
-Spa packages: addition keep adding more and more and more
-Narrow down my focus, what am I trying to say.
-Kim Kardashian’s nudes, empowering or a slut. (Neither. She’s married to Kanye West, a horrific misogynist, I don’t know that a woman seeking female empowerment would be able to be married to someone who often speaks of women as less than.) I loved Kanye’s work until I heard his most recent single “Famous” where he references that he and Taylor [Swift] might still have sex. So he’s using sex to make her less than? To add her to a list? So then he’s better than her? There’s a lot wrong with that. And that’s merely one line in the song.
-Watch Brazil
–Pretty Woman, be a whore then get money from rich old men, be saved by them
Actual Performance/ Final Product Synopsis:
Performance based on make-up brand ‘Be Happy’ (a subsidiary of Walmart Stores), specifically their new DNA line. This line features DNA from your favorite beautiful young celebrities that will actually transform the parts of your face that you have applied the make-up, to a close approximation of that celebrities’ particular feature. In 60 days. If you wear the absurd amount ofmakeup as prescribed for the duration.
The treatment includes a scan of the client’s face, a computer generated mock-up and recommendation regarding which celebrity’s features fit best with the client’s current face. This is followed by a demonstration, instructing the client as to how to apply the genetically modified mask, in the form of makeup. At the end of the demonstration, the client is reminded that their refills and free samples will be in the mail weekly. (Their credit card will be billed accordingly)
I wanted this to highlight the ridiculous measures women will go to in order to achieve beauty and hopefully, happiness. And how this desire is taken advantage of by large corporations that promise things that are not possible.
Artifacts from performance:
Used as photographs of satisfied customers:
Computer scan and recommendation for client:
Products:
Video of performance:
Critique Comments:
Practice, practice, practice
Speak louder
play more to camera
love the product branding
dialog with client is great
Show parts of celebrities mentioned in post production
add image to iPad screen
take the whole thing even more over the top, really slopping the make-up on
elaborate scene set up,
interesting concepts celebrity DNA connection to international megacorp emphasize this as part of the critique you are making
Set-up context before play
look more insane
more absurd statements, push it to the extreme)
go more crazy on makeup
disturbingly believable
go into more detail about the nature of the changes being introduced. it’s not just introducing stars’ DNA, but overwriting your own. cheerily add “changes may be irrevocable.” is there a monthly royalty fee due to the stars for using their DNA? the old you could be lost forever
love the “perfect for the grocery store look” comment. the “ideal face” photo of a Frankenstein face is wonderfully horrible.”
maybe you should do a film? can get great close ups + cheesy smiles, etc.
crazier makeup
perfume spray
dialogue, what aspects of the face do you hate?
design of make-up is fantastic
concept is so awesome + best area to be in- believable enough
love photoshop mock-ups
Inspirations that require further research:
Mrs. Betty Bowers:
Man. This makes me feel all types of ways. I don’t understand why people follow the bibble. (spelled that way purposefully)
Final pieces for the showing. I recently discovered Andrew Benson’s Jitter Recipes, but like in real life, not just Andrew Benson making work, but Andrew Benson sharing his work with real, alive patches available for me to tweak and destroy (see what i did there?).
I found some lovely effects from them, after playing with them for WAY too long. Too long meaning, I neglected adult life responsibility to make rainbows happen when i turn my head in the web-cam of my computer. But from that I was able to find these incredible gasoline dribble rainbow swirls that I wanted to combine with my .gifs. I found the effect really beautiful.
here are my .gifs. i was able to round up my model and get some photos made to work on these puppies. it was good to get out and kind of go “ok, this works,” and “this really doesn’t.”
friday, february 19th, my canon 5d was stolen, so I wasn’t able to use my camera to photograph these and instead had to rely on the school’s canon t3i to shoot. unfortunately, the only other time I was able to reshoot (my model being someone who works 7am-7pm, m-f) fell during a time both of the nice cameras available for check-out needed to be checked out by a class for documentation. so, that kind of hosed me.
i would like to have shot more. i would like to have worked on my storyline. but where this work stands i know where i need to go, it’s just going to take more shooting.
glad to know she uses a “3d modeling program for animation” and a “different 3d program for modeling.” i now know so much.
She cites this group in one of here pieces and I find the sound to be… strange. Yet inspiring, too. It lacks lyrics, or, rather, doesn’t possess lyrics and I find that to augment the work itself. It’s like Tycho but jumped off of the safe space Tycho operates from and into some strange beyond land.
crawleysoftpen 