the video...hope it works

if it doesnt, it's on my facebook, so look there!

more pictures from the following

the following

tried to make this project really unique and interesting, but my ideas didn't fit the criteria of the project...so I decided to follow a Spanish couple through downtown New Brunswick this morning. The woman were holding a bag and they were sharing a soft pretzel. I took photos and a video of them. I felt particularly self conscious and awkward as I followed them through the TD bank parking lot, because it was so large and empty. I followed them from State Theatre to The Train Station.

3 questions for discussion, monday march 22nd

1) In the article about Sophie Calle's projects called "The Following" and "The Big Sleep", the author states that people feel more obliged to instinctively yield to the unknown and that people opt to respond to a challenge instead of a request. Why do you think this is so? Do you have an experience that supports or refutes this assertion?

2) After the author provides a real life childhood example of hide 'n seek, he argues that "it's better not to know how to play too well, it's better to know how to let others unmask you and endure the rule of the game." Can you think of any present day adult situations that illuminate this assertion? Do you think the author would support the saying that "Ignorance is bliss"? Or is he simply establishing the ambiguity of human vulnerabilities?

3) In Signal to Noise By Ina Blom, the author states that chance is seen as irrational because of its unstable link to its effect. Jacques Lacan saw cause as inaccessibility of desire, which makes reality a disconnect between what we want and what actually is. Do you think this supports the idea that expectations rarely measure up to reality? Is this idea pessimistic or realistic?

more videos

Put Something Here Project; RE-DO!

I have to confess that I had a tough time with this project. I couldn't focus on one subject and really deconstruct its meaning and prevalence to the project agenda. I went from questioning the function of religious education to creating a facebook event for everyone to put something on the event wall that describes something meaningful to them (see last blog post). So I sat at my kitchen table, staring at the massive rainfall, and thought, "Why not focus on something that is literally happening now, something that is a concern to everyone in these past few days?" So I decided to transform a natural (and disastrous) occurrence, the flooding from the rain, and place objects in the trouble areas to make it something humorous. I drove around town, perusing the bad areas of my town by Lake Hiawatha, and found a spot right outside the pool I work at. The flooding completely covered the parking lot, and was draining onto the street. I placed a beach chair, beach ball, and "lifeguard off duty" sign on the flood area, and took videos and pictures of the reactions of drivers and passer-by's. I noticed that when I sat in my car, those walking by were more comfortable in stopping and observing the site-specific work. I got a lot of drivers to slow down, and some of them turned to me (I was in a stone parking lot across the street) and smiled and chuckled. The reactions were mostly curiousness, and it drew in the walkers to look into the parking lot and see the damage. Nobody was offended or bothered, they found it to be a humorous reaction to the natural disaster that persisted for days.

Put Something Here Project

I went for a more relational art standpoint, keeping in mind the Critical Vehicles reading from this past week. My Put Something Here Project is a two-part project...The first step is collecting the "things" that my facebook friends put on my event wall. These things are the personality fingerprints that reveal something that is strange, uncomfortable, awkward, painful or hilarious in some way. After a week of posts, I will analyze these stories, photos, videos, sounds etc. and plan out my mixed media project, so in a sense I am the critical vehicle that brings everyone to a universal and shared experience.

My friend from home asked me if I was inspired by Jonathan Harris, and having never heard of him, I looked at his website. His artist statement is very ambitious and his body of work is INCREDIBLE. Look around and prepare to be WOW'ED.

And also, go to "Briana's Facebook Wall Art" and post on the wall!!!!!

3 questions for discussion, monday march 8th

Critical Vehicles- Krzysztof Wodiczko

1. Have you ever been in a situation where you were the stranger who used a transitional object in order to create shared zones of experience with a non-stranger?

2. The article calls women the first "Sophists" because their memory conceals and discloses sources of knowledge and philosophy for creating social space as de-alienating space...sophists refers to those with wisdom....Do you agree with this arguement?

3. The article discusses immigrant utopias as a hope lived in the present, where they have to create a present day utopia to avoid perpetuating painful experiences...Could this possibly create anxiety or sadness if the hopes dont measure to their realities?
Cite an extreme modern day example; The movie Avatar causes depression:
Click for CNN newstory.

happening slideshow!