Month: September 2015

Urban Artifacts Phase #4

 

 

At the beginning of this project I was unsure of what to expect. I thought to myself why would we be picking up objects from the streets? what can we possibly do with this stuff? I ended up learning a lot of stuff. The meaning of ambiguous and stable. I already had an idea of negative and positive space but i leaned more in depth the importance of both. I also learned that I was really bad at creating ambiguous drawings. What I could have done better was creating my sketches with a lot more thought than just placing them on a paper. and tracing them. In my next project I want to do everything with a meaning and a lot more of my own touch to it. With the critiques I never really applied them to my work because I thought thought it would be too late to make them such as making the boarder darker or even going back to my sketches and making them less symmetrical.

20150917_1705141 inked photos 2 inked photos 20150909_130046~2 20150909_121825~2 20150909_121831~2 20150909_130052~2

Reminisce

Verb

– to talk, think, or write about things that happened in the past

(Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

I found this word on page 9 of “City Limits”, in the context “We see ourselves in this city every day when we walk down the sidewalk and catch our reflections in store windows, seek ourselves in this city each time we reminisce about what was there 5, 10, 40 years ago, because all our old places are proof that we were here.” The author means to express the idea of nostalgia, or reflection about the past. He describes the memories he indulges in “reminiscence” with. The author even gives examples of how long in the past one might reflect on as well (5,10,40 years ago), and uses the word in context of that example.

Urban Artifacts: Phase 4

Overall, the “Urban Artifacts” project was a very creative and interesting experience overall. It was certainly different than anything i’ve ever done before, and it was a productive learning process as well. However, If i could’ve done something different, I would’ve spent more time on the drafting and sketching, as I could’ve probably came up with a more creative and interesting final product. I do feel that my ideas were clearly expressed in my product, but not in the best way possible. I also would’ve liked to experiment more with the objects collected, as the ones I chose finally were a little more challenging to work with, in terms of expressing emotion through the final piece. However, I can still say I now have a full understanding of the terms we learned through the process. I know the difference between ambiguous and stable, what they mean and represent, and how things like economy and unity can alter and reinforce the ideas and meanings behind pieces that use these kinds of elements. I took into thought the feedback i got from my peers, and I believe I could use more practice in using these elements in my work, as I need to reinforce what my work is trying to express, and what ideas I integrate into them. Below is my final work.

Snapchat--3205190737754086345

City Limits Summary

“City Limits” is the first chapter of “The Colossus of New York” by Colson Whitehead. According to the beginning pages one and two, Whitehead wrote in a psychological way to capture the reader’s attention. He used 2nd person for the second and the third paragraph which are on the first and second pages of “City Limits”. He wrote: ” No matter how long you have been here, you are a New Yorker the first time you say… you are a New Yorker when what was there before is more real… you start building your private New York the first time you lay eyes on it…”. He used ” you” to make readers feel like they are actually New Yorkers and living in New York, so this way could easier to lead them to imagine the images that going to be happening next. After he brought readers to the New York City in the reading he wrote. He starts to describe and share about where he has been and saw, to let the readers read through his personal experience on the street of the New York.

Filthy

adjective

: very dirty

: very offensive or disgusting and usually about sex

: very evil : morally wrong

Source: Merriam-Webster

I encountered this word from the reading “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead. “It’s the early seventies, so everything is filthy. Which means everything is still filthy, because that is my city and I’m sticking to it.” I never heard this word before. After I find out the definitions I finally understand why. Because mostly I use word dirty, so I never tried to see another way of saying it or in a more specific way to describe something dirty.

Urban Artifacts: Phase 4

For this project, I learned the difference between a stable and an ambiguous figure-ground and also the interest by using garbage to create an art work. At the beginning I didn’t have any thoughts for these figure-grounds, so when I was creating a stable figure-ground I just picked up any item and tracing it on the middle area of the figure-ground without any thoughts of the composition. Because of it, one of my ambiguous figure-ground was messed, the composition was uncoordinated, if I have a second chance to redo it I believe I could fix it into a better looking. This project gives me a good experience for the figure-ground relationships and compositions. I could use this technique to create stable and ambiguous shapes for the book homework.

IMG_5233

Urban Artifact: Phase 4

In this project, I learned the figure-ground relationship. At first, we picked up 3 artifacts on the street and arranged them on a piece of white paper to create a figure-ground relationship. I learned that art could be everywhere around the world. Then we sketched 6 obvious and 6 ambiguous figure-ground compositions. Everybody created a different work. They all had their own idea and style, so all the works were special. For ambiguous , I made lots of mistake. Most of  my peers said that all my ambiguous seems like stable. And I learned that I should put more objects to the ground to make them ambiguous. And in final part, we learned how to use the exacto knife. I think it was cool to use the knife. And I really like to do the cut out. I think what I could have done better is planning. Every time after I finished my work, I always felt like I should move this objects to there or maybe I should remove this objects. So for next project, I think I need to think more and make a satisfied plan in mind before I do the work.

IMG_1697

Urban Artifact: Phase 4

From this project, not only did I learned what figure-ground relationship was but I saw different ways on how to execute this relationship through the work of my peers. Being able to create a figure-ground relationship from artifacts you found on street really shows that art is everywhere.  Even though everybody had to create obvious pieces and ambiguous pieces, there was none that was identical to another person. Everyone had their own unique style and different concepts of their art. What I could’ve done better was time management. Before doing the actual sketches, I had to make sure the borders were in the right measurements and nothing can be miscalculated. I took a very long time on that part including my sketches but it’s something I will work on to get better at. Not only was I ecstatic of my final work but through the critique people mentioned that my progression from my previous sketches to my final work was successful. I felt proud that I’d decided to take the chance to refine my work and add in new additions to it. Seeing from where I started to where I finished shows the improvements I’ve made and that if I put dedication into my work there’s a rewarding payoff.

IMG_1060

Urban Artifacts: Phase 4

From this project, I learned and understand the figure-ground relationships. To be honest, starting the project was pretty simple and easy. However, I did not realize until after going though the inking part of the design was the hardest part of the project. When I was inking the project, my mind was full with regrets about picking every artifacts. Especially inking the bobby-pin was a challenge for me. I also thought about the same thing when cutting the black paper with the Xacto knife, and gluing things together. However, above all I believe that I done a good job. I am really proud of my self and surprised when Professor Spevack complemented on my designs and great critiques from my peers in class. I was more surprised when no one said anything on how I should improve. However, when professor said that one of the design was not so great in figure-ground design. I was actually happy to hear negative comments on my design, because I can actually improve my self.

Final Design
Final Design
All of my other design
All of my other design

Braggarts

Noun

Person who brags a lot

Source: Merriam-Webster

I encountered this word at the end of the sample from the reading expert “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead. “Except for that bit about the Dutch buying Manhattan for twenty-four bucks there are and always will be braggarts who “got in at the right time.”” I never heard of this word this before nor I read it somewhere else. The reason what caught my attention was the pronunciation of the word. I believe this word fits the upper class, because of how much money they make compared to the lower class. This sentence shows that the Dutch were braggarts, because they bought Manhattan for twenty-four bucks. Compared to the time back than, the money became less value than it used to be.

The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at City Tech (New York City College of Technology), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.

Support

Help | Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Credits

Accessibility

Our goal is to make the OpenLab accessible for all users.

Learn more about accessibility on the OpenLab

Copyright

Creative Commons

  • - Attribution
  • - NonCommercial
  • - ShareAlike
Creative Commons

top