Event 3 Blog Assignment:

Last week, I made a visit to the Hammer Museum and got a chance to see "This Is The End" by  Ed Atkins, Loretta Fahrenholz, and Tommy Hartung. Watching the video was very confusing to me at first because I wasn't understanding the purpose of the inflatable thumb and what other purposes the thumb served in inserting the belly button, ear, and eye. After reading more information about the exhibition and re-watching the video, I see that the three artists have collaborated to create an art work addressing trauma, surrealism, melancholy, and uncanny. The part I was most interested in was understanding the purpose the thumb in Ed Atkins' illustrations. It seems that the thumb served as a way people in our society view our daily behaviors. Thumbs up present something is good and thumbs down represent something being bad. This is part of a consumer culture where we as a society are aware of these gestures because it is a socially learned behavior. I feel like the goal of this presentation was to show that people have different interpretations and make sense of daily life, objects, and people differently. In the case of the thumb, it seems that what others think do not matter and the thumb's behaviors (poking the eye, ear, belly button, etc)  are not influenced by others.

Super kind staff was nice enough to take a picture with me before I left for the day.

Overall, this exhibition was a bit difficult to understand. The video itself had amazing 3D features and is very engaging. However, I would not recommend this to others just because without reading about the work before hand, it is quite confusing and the ideas in the presentation is very board and can be open for interpretation. 

Event 2 Blog Assignment:

Earlier this quarter, I attended a lecture at the Board Art Center hosted by Louis-Philippe Demers. Unfortunately, there weren't any of his art work at the lecture so I was only able to see his past robotic art works via power pint presentation, It was interesting listening to Louis-Philippe Demer's experience as an artists and his inspiration for the robots he produces. Listening to his lecture also interested me in wanting to learn more about how the body works in real life and using that knowledge to bring robotics to life. I think that is really what inspired his work, through understanding the human body and using robots as a reflection of how the human body behaves. What I found most interesting was his dancing robots which he called the "tiller girls". He also mentioned that the perception of machine behaviors differ from people to people, People interpret and analyse behaviors differently, just like how people view art differently as it is very abstract and always open for interpretation. I agree with Louis when he said that with existing knowledge, people are able to build a connection between robots i biological motion and humans in reality. 

Tiller Girls by Louis-Philippe Demers

:Lecture on April 21, 2015 

Because Louis-Philippe Demer's lecture was a power point presentation, I wasn't able to take many pictures. I was able to include a picture of myself at the event right before the Demer lecture. 

Overall, the lecture was very interesting and I enjoyed listening to Louis's experiences with his past robotic works. Another perk of attending the event was getting free nacho cheese dip right before the lecture! 

Event 1 Blog Assignment:

For this event assignment, I visited the Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem By Vivian Sundaram at the Fowler Museum at UCLA.

 At the exhibition I learned that the Gagawaka and Postmortem's collection of haunting sculptural objects on the mannequins and dummies was designed to target the social understanding of the human body and public concerns over human aging and illness. The collection used trash as a starting point for the garments on the mannequins. Different lines of garments were made out of foam cups,  surgical masks, medication pills, x-ray films and much more. There are also different mannequins with different medical objects inside of them.

Different parts of the human body are placed in the mannequins providing a different view of how the human body is currently viewed as. During week 4, we talked about the study of anatomy and how the art of the human body came about in the 1960s. The human body is central in understand how our identities in our society which includes gender, sexuality, and race. In this exhibition, I can see that the artist is challenging the currently social understanding of the human body by incorporating different parts of medical objects in the mannequins and dressing them in x-ray films, surgical masks, and creating a jumpsuit out of medication pills.

Garment made from red undergarment:

I found the red bra bandage garment interesting because looking from afar, it looks no different from a dress made of red ruffles. 

Garment made from surgical masks

Jumpsuit made of medication pills

Overall, I would recommend this exhibition for those who are interested in not only fashion but also the creative side of understanding the human body. Not to mention, many wacky displays of mannequins' bodies twisted in ways that are impossible in reality.