tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post2483093346886502671..comments2009-01-26T00:06:34.795-05:00Comments on EMS--Blogging from the Edge: FIELD NOTE: AT THE "ART + ENVIRONMENT" CONFERENCEsmudgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12049362367191357767noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-87463010344252341492008-10-21T22:32:00.000-04:002008-10-21T22:32:00.000-04:00This just made me think of a cement plant called A...This just made me think of a cement plant called Ash Grove a mile from my house in Louisville, NE - population of about 1,000 people. It's located right on the edge of the Platte River, and sort of relates to this idea of the desert in relation to livability, but pertains to the great plains instead. Aside from producing vast amounts of concrete, the plant also used to store nuclear waste, and has been trying to get the right to burn high quantities of old tires. They are also constantly dynamiting the landscape, and digging deeper into the Platte River for sand and river rock.<BR/><BR/>Here is a link to a ground level image: http://nebraska.sierraclub.org/movalley/local/awquality/AshGrove-1.jpg<BR/><BR/>Also, just type in Louisville NE on google maps, and go to the satellite view and zoom in and go to the North East side of the map to view the concrete plant. You will notice a semi-spherical structure on the property which has a large neon American flag on the top. Nobody I've talked to knows the purpose of this structure either. In addition the concrete plant lights up at night and presents a mirage of a distant city skyline with a cloud of smoke emitting into the night sky.Andrew Tatreauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12398998632846897281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-84103312828431124142008-10-21T13:55:00.000-04:002008-10-21T13:55:00.000-04:00"Media have been used strategically to reveal just..."Media have been used strategically to reveal just enough information to intimidate enemies but not enough to give away secrets"... This seems to be such an interesting concept to think about. It makes me curious to know in the future due to the advancement of technology if we will be able to gain knowlede to many if not all secrets we are still so puzzled about, and what the effect of this knowlede will have on the way we view media. Maybe it will not seem to be a bridge to the unknown. what would happen if media eventually allowed for general knowledge about things so secretive now?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-57333492150506939492008-10-19T12:51:00.000-04:002008-10-19T12:51:00.000-04:00Haya KramerI wanted to elaborate on this idea brou...Haya Kramer<BR/>I wanted to elaborate on this idea brought up in the field note 2: How might media be enlisted to make the hidden visible and show us “more of what we should now” by generating views and perspectives that give experience-able form to the invisible forces of histories and assumptions?<BR/>When I think of media - not “the media” - I think of something in between two entities that helps these entities connect. What is broadcast to the many, gives reason for people to talk with each other, to socially interact with each other, and to act with each other. By doing these things, the invisible becomes visible, and we feed of each others knowledge. Without experience a gain of knowledge is near to impossible. With experience, with history, with information, the media unlocks the abstract, brining to the forefront that which we might not see.Haya Kramerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02608814468846925043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-25402281171369166812008-10-19T12:27:00.000-04:002008-10-19T12:27:00.000-04:00Haya KramerI really like this idea of exploring ho...Haya Kramer<BR/>I really like this idea of exploring how media can be and have been used to reveal our assumptions about what is real, what is true, how things really are.<BR/>I often wonder if the media shows a reality or is it a smokescreen? I think the media is a medium between things we might be oblivious to everyday, and it connects these often descrete elements of being with the obvious. Media holds an amazing power in that it shows us things we could not otherwise see, and therefore we gain knowledge and power though this amazing transformative idea.Haya Kramerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02608814468846925043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-76186103676634342132008-10-18T18:37:00.000-04:002008-10-18T18:37:00.000-04:00"What becomes possible, thinkable, and doable when..."What becomes possible, thinkable, and doable when we design artworks and media in ways that relay audience attention, imagination, and sensibilities out from the regional to the global?"<BR/><BR/>During the Art+Environment live blog, I came across the <A HREF="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29256053@N02/sets/72157606547135407/" REL="nofollow">Winnemucca Whirlwind</A> installation by Chris Drury who made a drawing in the Winnemuca river dry bed. His artwork involved using a rake and string to make a geometric pattern in the soil. The pattern, he <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep_5FKVki9w" REL="nofollow">says</A>, is in the same design as that of a basket weaved by the Native American people that used to live in the region.The river bed dried due to the construction of irrigation infrastructure in the area that diverted the water to farms for agriculture and destroyed the habitat of the Paiute people.(<A HREF="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405E1DA113AF933A05752C1A961958260&sec=&spon=&&scp=3&sq=winnemuca%20lake&st=cse" REL="nofollow"> NYTimes</A>)<BR/>Drury's artwork acts like a visual argument that attempts to reclaim what was once the right and property of the Paiute culture. It also captures audience attention and diverts it to the consequences of human interference with nature. For people that have never visited or even heard of the Winnemuca Lake, Drury's artwork transforms their experience in the context of the the socio-political debate surrounding the Lake.<BR/><BR/>-Pritika NilaratnaPritikahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14740202550867554334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-32572290045387899642008-10-14T19:07:00.000-04:002008-10-14T19:07:00.000-04:00Hi Liz, At first i did not really understand what ...Hi Liz,<BR/> At first i did not really understand what this trip was going to be all about. I was not sure what the discussions would be like and how it all would actually fit or be interesting to me but i must say i am really surprised and content with what is being discussed. I was especially interested in the discussion of burning man. I heard of it in the past but did not give it much thought. I found myself looking up other sites and blogs about people's experience and was amazed ( i was browsing for like four hours without realizing it). The art work being produced in the desert are at times so much more interesting than those that we see in art galleries. Perhaps its the environment that it is being seen in or the inspiration of the surroundings that cause such unusual and unique forms of expression but it makes one even consider the trip there. In a world ruled by deadlines and time slots, blackberries and cyberspace, the desert is the perfect escape.There are no distractions!<BR/>It must be such a great place to really get in touch with yourself as not only an artist but a spiritual human being.I think technological advances are great and essential to our modern world, but we all need an escape sometimes and what better place to do something extraordinary than in the middle of nowhere.nayaurenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15816186337846745757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-50835592873597529002008-10-11T14:20:00.000-04:002008-10-11T14:20:00.000-04:00the real:This post points out and asks: “Rather th...the real:<BR/><BR/>This post points out and asks:<BR/> “Rather than using their work to invite audiences to arrive at and "end" with a particular experience, artists used their work to relay their audiences to the next horizon, geographic region, interconnected issue, or interrelated force that was actively shaping built or natural environments at their local level.”<BR/><BR/>“How media can be and have been used to reveal our assumptions about "what is real," "what is true," how things "really are."[?] How might media be enlisted to make the hidden visible and show us "more of what we should know" by generating views and perspectives that give experience-able form to invisible forces, histories, and assumptions.”<BR/><BR/>Questioning the real: i(nter)mmediacy<BR/>I wanted to address this question of the real and our relation to it. It is curious how our relation changes as media becomes more hybrid and as we struggle to attain immediacy with more complicated (converged) media forms. How is media enlisted to to make the hidden visible? More importantly, I think, what has changed in how we perceive the real, hidden and obvious?<BR/><BR/>To examine this question I wanted to start with some ideas from Jay David Bolter. In his book Remediation, Bolter writes, of new media that,“The immediacy of such new media... is supposed to come through interactivity.... We do not gaze, rather, we glance here and there at the various manifestation of the media”81 Furthermore, he demonstrates that these days, “Immediacy is created through our knowledge of the camera. web-surv involves the monitoring, not only of each toher but also of the functionings of media in contemporary culture.”<BR/><BR/>The real that we examine these days is the real of a culture which, at this point, cannot be separated from the influence of it’s media, a deeply penetrating force. These artists we are seeing are inviting questions about the real of a mediated culture. This is apparent in the forms through which they pose their revealing queries, highly mediated forms. The real we are examining and asking questions about is a real in which the environment is inextricably linked to the prosthetic of (wo)mankind. Media must be used in the examinations of a our assumptions of what is real because media is part of the real. An examination which did not incorporate media would never find the “real” or the “real” found would resemble a puzzle where there pieces are showed to fit each other and the image is just not quite right. We give from to the invisible by incorporating media into our examination of the landscape, for many times it is our ignorance of the prosthetic's effects that keep us blind.anniesays....https://www.blogger.com/profile/02664945446656651661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-2533560971004762572008-10-08T01:11:00.000-04:002008-10-08T01:11:00.000-04:00Hi Wyatt,Thanks for such a thoughtful question--it...Hi Wyatt,<BR/>Thanks for such a thoughtful question--it's got me thinking, and planning on how to post some images that offer a response. Along with some words of insight (if possible) into the relationship, in Las Vegas, between luxury and technology (as in: digital artifice skins on buildings, streets, interiors, performance spaces. <BR/><BR/>I'll use this question as a lens for looking at Vegas tomorrow and I'll send something in response soon. In the meantime, I'm not sure if we're in a particularly non-luxurious or even anti-luxurious part of the strip--but there's been very little luxury in my experience of being here so far. Your question solidifies my plans to check out the MGM Grand tomorrow (after the tour we're taking of the Nevada Test Site--that should be some juxtaposition!) in search of what luxury might mean here--and how technology might come into play in designing it. <BR/>So stay tuned and thanks for the assignment. <BR/>Lizsmudgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12049362367191357767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-73458961917168207742008-10-08T00:49:00.000-04:002008-10-08T00:49:00.000-04:00Hi Industrialkitty,(make sure you let your TA know...Hi Industrialkitty,<BR/>(make sure you let your TA know your real name so you get credit for your posting!)<BR/><BR/>Thanks for your story about transforming landscapes in your neighborhood. Did you get a chance to read more about Haeg's work in Metropolis Magazine? (http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=3188. At the conference, Haeg talked about how his designs for the front lawn gardens that he's built are always done in collaboration with the people living in the house ... and that he designs the gardens so that their paths and shapes draw people into conversation and interaction with one another--passersby with the gardener, gardener with neighbor, etc. Also, that article says that Haeg's projects usually incorporate a Buckminster Fuller dome somehow. And Haeg is quoted as saying: “The thing I love about the dome is that it was invented and not designed.” I'm wondering if you read that part of the article and what you think about his comment -- that he senses a difference between something that's been designed and something that's been invented? <BR/>Thanks again for the post!<BR/>Lizsmudgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12049362367191357767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-41313564151309513262008-10-07T22:30:00.000-04:002008-10-07T22:30:00.000-04:00Hi Liz, I was wondering if during your trip and yo...Hi Liz, <BR/>I was wondering if during your trip and your experience in Las Vegas you could observe the relationship between technology, both flashy and siginificant, and luxury. As a fashion student, I'm always asking myself what is luxury, because it certainly isn't shopping, and in Vegas, a city based on money, I am curious if this idea of luxury is somehow diminished. It's a designer haven, yet it's in this garish hyper electronic context. Even these so called luxury hotels are covered in digital artifice. <BR/><BR/>Just wondering. Thanks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-57979764985586064222008-10-07T17:49:00.000-04:002008-10-07T17:49:00.000-04:00It's neat to see these forms of artwork pushing us...It's neat to see these forms of artwork pushing us forward into the next century of cleanup and understanding. I personally understand how terrible suburban lawns are on the environment (talk about instances of thyroid cancer). The concept of the edible garden is a message that all land-owning individuals need to think about. Our food production creates the some of the biggest carbon footprints, with the transportation of our food falling into second place. Gardening is an amazingly rewarding way of reducing the carbon footprint we have already stamped onto the earth by growing lovely green plants (that remove CO2 and replace it with oxygen) and food for ourselves. Things that we may not be able to purchase we can grow in the space that before was only for a seeming aesthetic beauty of the lush green lawn or places left undisturbed by time can be utilized instead of left to waste. Across the street from my house back home in Chicago was a large abandoned warehouse. One day it burned down in a huge toxic blaze that required many a firetruck to save my house. A few years later another warehouse (one that housed oil paint rags and their cleaning supplies) also burned down in a similar manner. This land was left fallow, useless to society, and policed to keep out squatters.<BR/>But what we all forgot was that these things can be made into edible landscapes to assist the homeless in the area through a sort of "bio-guerilla" movement. I threw some seeds of a variety of eat off the plant veggies with some fertilizer and water to give 'em a chance. That is the way to take back those fallow landscapes, rather than leave them to the rats. A couple years after I'd done this, I wandered through one that (upon my original seeding) seemed to have been home to a pedophile (there was one rumored to be in the area, but I didn't buy it at the skeptical age of 11). <BR/>Not only did I find more plants had sprouted from the seeds dropped, but I also discovered an edible mushroom patch.<BR/>As nature takes back our wasted land, we too may still take from it the beauty and nourishment it can provide.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-57087941189995234922008-10-07T13:28:00.000-04:002008-10-07T13:28:00.000-04:00We just received an email from Chris Taylor (Profe...We just received an email from Chris Taylor (Professor of Design and co-founder--with Bill Gilbert--of the Land Arts Program).<BR/><BR/>He writes:<BR/>"My notes have Matt ending his presentation [at the Art + Environment Conference] with an image of a combination lock on a door of a CLUI (Center for Land Use Interpretation) exhibition space in Wendover and closing with the question: "wondering what's on the other side of that door?" to summarize the ambition of CLUI to encourage people to explore the other side.<BR/><BR/>And from Smithson's 'Hotel Palenque' lecture (see a description of that work here: http://www.robertsmithson.com/essays/palenque.htm)<BR/> (courtesy of Ann Reynolds from a quote she included in her essay in the forthcoming book Land Arts of the American West):<BR/>"Now this is the last shot. This is ah, this is sort of the door. [laughter] At first, you noticed right off the bat that it's green, huh? There's not really much you can say about it. I mean, it's just, it's a green door. We've all seen green doors at some time or another. It gives that sense of universality that way, a sense of global cohesion, let's say. So the door probably opens to nowhere and closes on nowhere. So we leave the Hotel Palenque with this closed door and return to the University of Utah, Okay."<BR/><BR/>While Smithson was using the door to bring the audience back to Utah from the Yucatan, and while Coolidge was using it to take the participants of the conference in Reno out into the world, the parallels are multiple. Talking to Matt later that afternoon I pointed this out to him he said any coincidence was purely subconscious and not a part of the script.... I believe him. --Chris Taylorsmudgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12049362367191357767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8958364579236943118.post-43996551401283343022008-10-06T23:53:00.000-04:002008-10-06T23:53:00.000-04:00Artists/Designers are to think of the non-existing...Artists/Designers are to think of the non-existing, far-fetched ideas that a scientist may then bring to life/existence.<BR/><BR/>I remember seeing paintings of what the future will look like. Where artists would show cars hovering off the ground without wheels, in comparison to today's conventional four wheeled cars on the road. The possibility of replacing these conventional cars is not far, as the hovering car already exists although making it available to the public market is still going to take some time..Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com