eye writer

http://www.eyewriter.org/

"The EyeWriter project is an ongoing collaborative research effort to empower people who are suffering from ALS with creative technologies. It is a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus & custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes."

Lightning Never Strikes the Same Place Twice

I found this to be an interesting mix of both performance art, dance, and cinema. Catherine Galasso took a unique story of a man that was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as being struck by lightning more than any other human, 7 times. She then melded film with a narrative of the man's story, placed the film on a stage, and then had live dancers and performers placed in front of the screen to add emotion and a lively feel to the tale she told. I just thought this was an interesting take on how to tell a story and how it doesn't have to be confined to either a film or a theatrical event. Instead, Galasso shows that you can do both!

A review and summary is found at : http://sffs.org/content.aspx?catid=10&pageid=1408&TitleId=Galasso-Lightning

El Topo

Alejandro Jodorosky's "El Topo" is a surrealist spaghetti western about the dichotomy of mercy and severity in life and spirituality. El Topo, meaning "the mole" in spanish, is a metaphor for the spiritual seeker. Much like the prisoner in Plato's "Alegory of the Cave," the mole scrapes and digs to find the surface, but upon seeing the light of day he is blinded.

The movie begins with the title character riding through the desert with his son on a horse. He is dressed in all black and carries a pistol at his side. As the story progresses, El Topo rescues a Franciscan Mission from a gang of brutal banditoes, and castrates their leader. When the head bandit demands to know who he is to dole out judgement, El Topo replies, "I am God." After the rescue, El Topo abandons his son, leaving them in the care of the missionaries, and rides into the desert with a woman that he has rescued.

In the desert, the woman demands that he slay the worlds four greatest gunfighters to prove his worth. He travels the mystical desert, meeting the masters one at a time. But as he speaks with them, he finds that the key to their skill lies in spiritual wisdom. Each of the Gun Masters has a lesson to impart to El Topo, but by trickery, El Topo is able to slay them all. However, as the final Master dies, El Topo realizes that he has killed the only people in the world that could teach him anything meaningful.

The second Half of the movie shows El Topo reborn as a christ-like figure. Cleansed of all lust for power, he now lives a humble life working to buy supples so he can build a tunnel to free a community of outcastes and deformed people from a mountain prison. But the wealthy village below, where he earns his keep, is corrupt and decadent. And when he finally frees the people of the mountain, the townsfolk gather and slaughter them all before they can reach the town. in a rage, El Topo mows down the townsfolk, then emolates himself.

Through dreamlike scenery and mystical symbolism, Jodorosky uses the cinematic motiff of the Western to display concepts of esoteric wisdom in a mode more easily followed than in dry, dense tombs or stuffy monasteries. It also warns against he extreamism represented by the gunslinging, black-clad hero and the all forgiving, christ-like monk. It seems to suggest that the better way is in between the two ideas.

El Topo

Daily Iowa Photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44851277@N08/?saved=1

Here are the Daily Iowa Photos.

-Brendan

Some Robert Rauschenberg Stuff

These things relate to what we were talking about at the beginning of the year with the everyday. This group of work from 1971 was called the Cardbird series. "The Cardbird series of 1971 is a tongue-in-cheek visual joke, a printed mimic of cardboard constructions. The labour intensive process involved in the creation of the series remains invisible to the viewer – the artist created a prototype cardboard construction which was then photographed and the image transferred to a lithographic press and printed before a final lamination onto cardboard backing. The extreme complexity of construction belies the banality of the series and, in this way, Rauschenberg references both Pop’s Brillo boxes by Andy Warhol and Minimalist boxes such as those by Donald Judd. By selecting the most mundane of materials, Rauschenberg once again succeeds in a glamorous makeover of the most ordinary of objects. This is an exploration of a new order of materials, a radical scrambling of the material hierarchy of modernism."

This actually really bums me out because I really want them to just be dirty cardboard boxes that he unfolded and arranged really well.










































































I also thought this print was really nice. "Automobile Tire Print (1953), a 'collaboration' between the two friends, involved John Cage driving his Model A Ford over a length of connected drawing sheets with Rauschenberg carefully directing as he applied black paint to one of the rear tires. The continuity of the recognizable image constitutes a documentation, or 'recording' of this act."

Everyday People

This may be a little late on the project timeline but I've recently found an artist who truly amazes me. Matt Stuart is a street photographer who captures unique events in real time of everyday people in extraordinary poses.

At times they are comedic others look almost surreal. All are great photos.

http://www.mattstuart.com/

Take a look through all of his pictures

Joan Healy

I was researching video artists, when I came across joan healy. although she is more of a performance artists, I found her work very interesting, and decided to share. In many of joan's performances she uses parts of her body to simulate the tasks of machines.

One piece of hers that specifically stuck out to me was her installation, "Meat Market". In this installation, a piece of meat jerks back and forth and "dances" when activated by sound -whistling. It's pretty funny. There is another performance where she transforms her hair into a music instrument. A lot of her work is very strange, but nonetheless very interesting.

The video of the dancing meat is here http://www.dvblog.org/movies/04_2008/meat_market.mov

Joan's website is here http://www.joanhealy.biz/

Iowa City Underground

Here are the goings on this Friday! Going to be a great Iowa City art day. See it all, if you can.

Understanding the Understood

2009.11.06 - 11.29
Opening Reception: Friday the 6th at 6pm
Arts Iowa City
102 E. College St.

A reimagining of the small, unnoticed portions of the days that make up our lives. A return to the wonder contained in the ignored. Words, sights, sounds, and a letter service immersed in the everyday.

Back to the World
2009.11.06 - 11.29
Opening Reception: Friday the 6th at 7pm
Public Space One
129 E. Washington St.

Sean Alexander made these drawings on an old ping pong table in a barn in Longbranch, WA. He was bothered to no end by bugs, bats, birds, rowdy dogs, naying horses, and a cat. He has a problem with detail that causes him to spend way (way) too much time on each drawing. The least you could do is come look at them.

La Dia De Los Muertos

2009.11.06 - 11.27
Opening Reception: Friday the 6th at 9pm
The BS Gallery
220 W. Benton St.

To quote writer Oscar Guzman, "There is a moment where simple belief is confused with faith, a magical moment in which whatever's out there and our world reconcile, and crying and pain suffered in the wake of irremediable loss of a loved one is transformed. And body and spirit are reunited, the world of the alive and the kingdom of the dead, color, tradition, mysticism untie to form one of the most celebrated Latin American parties: La Dia De Los Muertos.



*Additionally, please think about bringing an 'offering' of your own to leave, to remember, in the space. This offering really can be anything.

*Expect: sugar skulls, an alter, masks, candels, La Ofrenda (film), fire, flowers, candles...


Google Map here: Iowa City Underground.