My Remix

The internet is a fairly new platform for humans to mess around, thus, there is a lot that could unfold. People use the internet platform as a way to share their identities anonymous or not, regardless, their message will acquire attention and make the user feel more in powered. Even tho user may have the button to press delete, there is a saying that anything on the internet will be archived one way or another. You can upload anything in “Private” because there are people out there trying to hack and steal as much data as they can. So its far to say it is also a risky platform to use.

Copyright in my opinion, is not defined clearly. You tubers have the most issues with this. Their videos are getting banned due to misleading copyright issues. Those who have very little follower base can upload whole copyrighted videos and not get their channel shut down yet, if a mainstream you tuber upload a second of any ones music video, their video will get shut down.

I enjoyed making my remix because I took the game play that my buddies and I did and essentially combined what 50+ matches look like all in a 2 minute video with “Grieg – In the Hall of the Mountain King”. I took the aspect of the game such as, the selection screen, the loading screen, the dropping screen, the looting, fighting, strategies, and much more. It came out just as i expected it to be since i love watching other people do similar remixes.

Melvin Kem

Art

May 1st, 2020

Artist conversation #5

Artist: Michol Hebron 

Exhibition: The Male Nipple

Media: Mixed-Media, Installation

Gallery: Online

Website: http://micolhebron.com/

About the Artist 

Michol Hebron is the associate professor at Chapman University. the founder/director of The Situation Room resource space for the creative community; the Gallery Tally Poster Project about gender equality in contemporary galleries; and the Digital Pasty/Gender Equity initiative for the internet. In the past she has been the Chief Curator at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art; the director of the UCLA Summer Art Institute; an editorial board member at X-Tra magazine; an independent curator; a conservator at LACMA, and the co-founder of Gallery B-12 in Hollywood in the 90s. She has served on advisory boards at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Birch Creek Ranch Residency (Utah), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and UCLA. She is the founder of the LA Art Girls, and the Co-Founder of Fontbron Academy. She also received her BA & MFA from UCLA. 

Formal Analysis

When we look at the male nipple piece, it may confuse certain audiences at first, especially those who are uncomfortable with nudity. When we look at pieces as such, many people’s mind first goes to nudity in inappropriate senses. However, Hebron speaks about how their inspiration for this piece of art is when she realized that many social media platforms actually censor the female body, regardless if in a sexual sense or just for an art statement, but don’t sensor the male nipple.  Such a small bodily aspect, but such a large statement. The male nipple that she used was nothing that really separated the average nipple, regardless of gender or sex. For the formal qualities of the work, it was the average circular brown/tannish nipple with texture within and on the areola as one with skin has. You could probably see the nipple from up close, or you could squint a bit to see it if you’re a bit further.

Content Analysis

As mentioned before, Hebron received inspiration for this work of art because of the censorship that occurs in our society, even when women aren’t using nudity in a sexual manner. Regardless of what women are doing, they aren’t allowed to have their nipples out and about, however, it states in several social media platforms that the male nipple is allowed to be posted online. Personally as a cis man, I honestly didn’t put too much thought into that before. My significant other on the other hand, had previously mentioned that as well. As a non-binary person, they felt that their breasts automatically placed a target on them to be sexualized, even when they were covered up to the fullest, so I can see second hand how frustrating that must be. Hebron started the nipple movement in order to counteract or find that loophole in the online policies. By posting her photos with her breasts out but having her nipples covered by the male nipples, she was able to get her statement across. No matter how hard it was to find that loophole, Hebron was able to keep pushing until she did. She made sure to get the point across that womxn were not only seen as sexual objects and were not to be objectified, regardless of how big or how small their chest size may be. The ideas used to explore were the women anatomy and sexuality as well, in which she also alludes to in a couple of her other pieces of work.

Synthesis

After watching the artist conversation on zoom, it was definitely interesting and beyond what one would typically expect from art. I was a bit shocked when Hebron displayed one of her recreations of The Burning Bush because it was not something I expected when I heard that title, but was impressed that she came up with something so creative. Same goes for the The Male Nipple, I was shocked and awestruck initially, but after listening to everything, it all made more sense. It did display the sexist behavior we have in our society and even though we are progressing at such an unimaginable rate, we have so much to yet improve, including the way we express and see our womxn. I was also shocked to see the little progress that the Instagram building had by excluding gender neutral restrooms and family rooms. It did leave me thinking and a bit disappointed in such a huge company not doing the most they could to efficiently target their non-cis folx and varying family styles. My ideas, perceptions, and perspectives have since been changed by the artist conservation since it does leave you thinking about how much more we can do to further progress. The only major thing I disagree with was the fact that Hebron mentioned she hated and disapproved of bodily alterations whenever she saw a person doing so, which I thought as questionable. Shouldn’t a person be able to do what makes them feel good, not necessarily done because they want to fit into more of the societal norm? In addition, I’m not sure if she intentionally mean to do so, but she also made it seem like non-binary folx weren’t going to be as heard or seen unless they shaved their head such as her artist friend, whcih I thought too, was questionable. My significant other thought it was questionable as well since they are more femme presenting, however not any less valid as a non-binary person because they don’t have a shaved head. So during that part, I was able to tie in a few personal life experiences during those points as well as throughout. 

My idea for this project was to get the most simplest things that nature provides that we overlook at their beauty. A simple leaf I acquired from my Thai leaf three has these speckles and it was really mesmerizing to examen. I’m sure there’s better prices of leaves out in nature but I picked the best leafs from my tree and ultimately chose this one to present. My leaf resembles the pure concept of nature.

A kiss should last to however long the person feels comfortable kissing for. I personally enjoy pecks more while others live longer kisses. A meal should last however long it’s enjoyable for. Many factors can contribute to this such as how comfortable you are and how full you are.

Art should last as long as it is enjoyable. Much like how I answered the other questions, as long the art is being enjoyed by someone, it is useful to society and not junk.

Marriage last as long as both of the partners are enjoying it. Human life on the other hand should last as long as it is enjoyable. This brings lots of moral issues such as should people in comas continue to live and what is enjoyable mean? Those are answered by each individuals based on their perspective in life.

An ordinary person like me can make a difference by advocating and help spread awareness I argue.

Theme:

I chose these artist because they all share something in common, all of these were create during the Corona virus lock down. Being at home for so long (and as well as a hint of boredom) sparked these artist creativity and motivated them to do these creations. Being at home also made me do things I normally did not have time for; having more free time is very relaxing and not stressful like my normal schedule. These artist all told me that they were fed up doing nothing so here is their work:

Dylan Puerta’s House:

Dylan spent countless hours looking up houses that he would like to live in real life one day. So by piecing together aspects of the designs he found, he then decided to build a replica of the front of the house in Minecraft. He told me that he really enjoyed the concept of two staircases that were symmetrical and wrapped around a Two-stories house. “It made me seem very upper class like an entrance to a plaza in LA or sorts”. Having a balcony in the front will make it very nice to sit and relax and talk with neighbor or enjoy the great outdoors. A flat roof (more modern take) is something he would like to have too. He told me that he have not spent much time designing the inside but he sure is doing his research for it.

Brittney’s House:

Brittney create this house in Animal Farm during the being of the pandemic and is very proud of her work. The mechanic in this game is that you acquire resources in order to sell and make money with in turn was able to allow her to buy these furniture. Brittney spent countless of hours “Farming” (gathering resources) in order to have this home she lives in. She said that she loves inviting her friends over and showing off her designing skills. She wanted to mention that the stairs alone made her Farm for at least 2 hours each in order to get that many nuts (their currency)

TJ’s House:

Tj wanted to become an architect when we grew up. He used Minecraft as a platform to build his ideas and see they would become. Lately he’s been interested in modern looks so he went some and took inspiration and eventually built this. He mentioned how the sidewalk was part of the modern look and the outside “Japanese garden” is a major thing he loves in houses.

My goal for the video was to see how vlogging/commenting while playing a game was going to look like. I normally just talk to friends and such while playing that that was easy, but when it was by myself talking to the audience it was weird. I don’t think I accomplished my goal the best that I could have but hey, what do you expect a first timer to achieve? I felt like I didn’t have a plan or a set goal to talk about. I just had the topic and wing the test of it which caused me to be a bit inconsistent I felt like. However I was also doing a challenge where every time I die the game switches so during the switching process I lost my gain of thought. I’m pretty sure I’ll “vlog” again in this type however I think I will have a normal game play and a voice over instead of talking and doing at the same time. My favorite youtuber is penquinz0. I like him Because his videos are centered around being genuine in his comedian mostly using satire. He voices over existing videos and point out flaws or hilarious stunts they did. They record with no cuts like I did however their flow from topic to topic or scene to scene is very smooth to the point where it seems like he practiced his lines. Authenticity in my definition, is one’s genuine self doing any action in front of others. While performance is putting on a show for others to enjoy. I say that a performance could be genuine when the audience likes the person because of their authentic self. Like my exsample of Penquinz0, he is a very low bugget youtuber and barely edits yet has millions of follows because of his talks. Most of the time a performance lack authenticity because the person wants to entertain their audience the most. By hiding the video off of physical features, when Jennifer was on stage, she looks towards the audience more as well as dressed up even nicer so the chances of the camera being very clear won’t catch any poor feature she might think to have. On the other hand, the other video where she was at her comfort at her own home didn’t seem to had as much makeup or dress-like effort as the on stage one. One might argue that the in home video was more authentic because Jennifer is at the comfort at her own home with her own camera.

Melvin Kem

Art 110

Glenn Zucman

March 28th, 2020

Nature’s Candance

In the midst of the world in which we currently live, art provides the comfort and reassurance in which we so desperately need. In today’s artist conversation, we’re focusing on Iran-born artist Mahsa Soroudi. She moved to Newport Beach shortly after leaving Tehran five years prior. At the begining of her artistic career, she started wide-eyed and rather optimistic. However, shortly after living in the States, she soon came to the realization that adapting to the environment in which she now lived was much harder than it seemed. The inability to relate to American culture including the people, art, and music became more frustrating as time proceeded. 

After taking a look at photos from the opening of “Nature’s Candance”, we can see that the theme of “Nature’s Candance” is based off of Soroudi’s love for art and passion for taking care of her plants. As a reflection of what allowed her to get through her life, she took this time to take whatever allowed her to keep pushing thorugh and share it with those in her life. The plants took form in different shapes and sizes, different species, texture, and finally decor. The plant pots were of varrying colors and so were the plants, specifically brightly colored. The formal qualities in which the opening of “Nature’s Candance” contained included brighter, primary colored plants, specifically succulents with typically smoother texture to the plants used in the exhibition. The plants were all going in different directions, some straight, jagged, crooked, with some being on the smaller scale and others visible from a further distance.

My experience as I was taking a look at how beautiful the art was is something that sort of screamed peaceful to me. It reminded me to take time to relax, to meditate, and really be grateful for what is given to us in life. Especially during the COVID-19 occuring right now in our world, it becomes very prominant what we did and didn’t appreciate, from being able to just cruise along the beach and hang out with friends, to going outside and taking a nice stroll to the park. The plants really allow for us to come back to nature and ground ourselves, just like these plants do the same

I first want to say how I am very good at holding the pencil still while i constantly blame Taizin for moving the pen. On the other hand he argues the other way around. Our mind works in mysterious ways so I believe this activity highlights how the placebo effect really works. During the drawing there was moments where the pen accelerated so fast that I kept yelling at my partner for moving it himself then there is other times where he blames me. Because we were blindfolded I thought the pen was moving so rapidly from the far left to the far right and I thought that we were drawing too much. When we stop, the figure looks very small and not what I expected.

From my point of view, I argue that it looks like one of those old fashion cannons. On the flip side from his view, he stated that it looks like a sun emerging from the clouds. All and all, I believe that the results were extremely different from what I thought it looks while drawing it. I say this activity was fun 🙂

The map from memory was hard. I could only remember the route that I take the most which is where the car and the roundabout would be at. Drawing it was a bit stressful because I couldn’t remember how to visualize it.

The outcome was a bit wack, I really hope that no one ever use this if they need to go anywhere. At least its very minimalist…

When I look into your maple syrup eyes

They give me a sugar high

Not knowing if I could ever live without your sweet cherry pie

I value every moment, every touch, and every kiss

Such sweet bliss I have when thinking of your lips

Where you go, I follow too

We come in a pair, never one without the other

I couldn’t be bothered to imagine a life without you

Because a life without you

Is a life that has torn a bit of me too

I was thinking about my girlfriend because I really love and care about her, and she always makes me feel happy and loved.

When I wrote the song, I was looking at her taking a nap and she looked so peaceful and cuddly, so I started describing how I felt when I looked at her, allowing for my process in writing to happen. It wasn’t very hard to look and describe how I felt towards her, but it was harder to put my feelings into words without feeling too repetitive. It was my first time writing a song and it was surprisingly different, nothing like I had ever done before which was cool. I don’t think my song will be a hit single anytime soon, but I think it was successful in my eyes bc it made my girlfriend smile and tear up. I am not sure I’ll write a song again in the near future but maybe with time I will. If I did go ahead and write another song, it would probably be about her again haha.

Melvin Kem

Art 110

Glenn Zucman

March 1st, 2020

Unnamed 

Art’s true meaning is so vague and subjective, it really allows one  to think outside the box for what it could be . For this week’s assignment, I went over to the art gallery to check it out and see what was new this week. As I was walking around and observing, I noticed this piece of art that was able to catch my attention. I did notice that the piece was yet to be named, and appeared to look like a typical Jansport backpack in 3-D clay form . With that being said, the artist of the piece was nowhere to be found and wasn’t placed on the art installation created, leaving no way to start or stir conversation in order to learn more of what the unnamed backpack represented or what the artist themselves are like. 

As seen in the 3-D piece, there is the backpack in a grey clay color. The clay is entirely stiff, no signs of being hollow from the inside. Regardless of that, the artist was able to provide very intricate details on what they wanted their piece to exemplify. On the backpack you can clearly see the texture of what any normal backpack would have as well as the zipper portion of the bag. There is no nametag where your typical Jansport backpack would have one, but rather a blank spot for perhaps something else to be written in as a replacement. 

When taking a deeper look at the piece this unknown artist has created, one might take a look at it and have a harder time understanding the context and meaning of the art. Since the artist has chosen to remain annonymous, it is hard to have a true grasp or understanding of what the backpack is supposed to represent. Rather than giving up and leaving the piece and its meaning as is, a few of my friends and I decided to press the question: What does the backpack say to you? One of my friends mentioned that they thought the backpack was clay in order to symbolize the burden first generation students have to carry on their back since they are expected to be able to get through college and bring honor to their families. Another person mentioned how sometimes students procrastinate so much to the point where the backpack has remained untouched for what seems like an eternity. I myself thought the backpack represented how heavy our studies are and how much information students are required to obtain within the span of 4 years. Although we can speculate, only the unknown artist would be able to confirm our thoughts and subjective beliefs.

This exhibit was really able to resonate in me because it made me realize how much knowledge and truth I have to value. I personally am a first generation student so I do feel and see that backpack representing the burden of worrying to be the best for my family, but also knowing that I am privileged enough to even be attending a 4 year university. The perception of the artist is unknown as mentioned several times, but I believe my fellow classmates and I were most likely not too far from what the artist hoped to convey in their art. My life experiences also tied into the piece and the representation of the piece because I personally understood that at times, it is very hard to push through our majors and our studies in order to succeed in life for ourselves and those who surround us. The burdens we carry may perhaps be internal and mental, but are clearly represented in a physical form through this ceramic backpack.