Final Vessel

The Nature and Design of Aesthetics

            In this excerpt the author talks about how you should not set limitations for your design based on the material.  You should first decide what you want your design to be and then figure out how to make it despite the constraints of the material.  Another thing this author stressed was the fallacy in modern design that better design equals cheaper design.  He also talked about materials and how no material will fit your criteria perfectly, there will always be aspects of a material that you have to find a way around.  This author talked about the importance of beauty in nature and how it makes us feel intimate with our environment just like artwork can make you feel intimate with an artist.  One of the biggest points he made in this excerpt was the fact that all design has one underlying goal, to promote human happiness whether in the form of alleviating suffering or creating beauty to make life more worth living.

Finished Chair

Essay on Duality

            Blair is my roommate in the dorms this year.  We met for the first time the day that we moved in.  I was not sure if I would like her or if we would even be compatible in the slightest but in the somewhat short time I have known her we have become great friends.  The place that most relates to our connection is our tiny messy dorm room where we spend most of our time together.  Blair is an easy going, fun loving, and exciting person to be around.  We can make a fun time out of anything and are constantly laughing when we are together.  A story that I associate with Blair is when we crank up techno music in our dorm room; turn on a strobe light and dance, by ourselves for hours.  We are both very energetic and fun loving people, thus our relationship is very energetic as well.  A very positive side effect of our friendship is how we balance each other our.  Sometimes Blair can be too uptight and I help her loosen up and have fun.  And on the other hand sometimes I can get a bit too crazy and Blair will tell me when I am acting stupid and I need to calm down.  Blair and I get along better than I could have hoped and she is all I could want in a roommate and even more. 

Kendall Buster Reflection

            I liked the work from this artist more than the work from the other artist.  The light, ephemeral, and airiness of this work appealed to me more than the more solid work of the other artist.  Like the other artist, some of this work seemed organic while other pieces looked manmade.  This artist used cloth like materials in all of the work and each piece was a uniform color.  These pieces appear very interactive due to their size.  They filled up entire rooms, which causes the viewer to have to explore and move around the piece.  One view from one angle would not be enough to grasp the nature of each piece.  The feelings that I got from the work were that almost all of them were either representing cellular organisms or architecture.  Like with the other artist, it helps to read the names of the pieces in order to understand them.  The names give the viewer hints as to what to look for in the piece and thus how to decipher it. 

Martin Purveyor Reflection

            I like this work because it makes you wonder and want to find out more about the piece.  The interesting part about this work is not what it communicates but what it doesn’t.  This makes you want to walk around the piece and explore because it cannot be understood by a single glance.  The simplicity of this work is what makes it really interesting.  All of the pieces are made up of simple shapes that focus on the form and material more than anything.  Some are very organic and look like they could be found in nature while others clearly look manmade.  This work seems like it is made up of scenes from everyday life that have been simplified to reveal more about them.  Some of the work even looks like they could be machines or tools or have a purpose to them while some look purely aesthetic.  The names of the pieces really help in understanding what the artist is trying to express through his work.  Some of the pieces look extremely foreign at first but coupled with the name they start to make sense and relate to the viewer.

Final Collage

Ways of Seeing Reflection

            I found this video extremely hard to follow, primarily because it is so old and also because it was British.  Although I found this video very dated, it was very interesting to understand the mindset and perspective of some forty years ago.  In some ways the concepts about technology, cameras, and art seemed very similar to those today, and in other ways it seemed pretty foreign because of the age gap.  I find it interesting to think that there used to be only one place at a time where you could see the Mona Lisa or any other piece of art, but now I could look it up on my computer or buy a print or postcard easily.  The camera and photographs are so integrated in everyday life it is hard to imagine life without them.