Student Based Creative Exchange

Michael Astani – Infallible Speaker

laurennorby — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 05:27:57 +0000

I first began thinking about public speaking and its relationship to learning when thinking about when I visited the speaker’s corner in Hyde’s Park in London. Issues surrounding public speaking, its implications, and free spaces have always interested me. Having narrowed the scope I then looked to outside sources. I read two books: The future of ideas: the fate of the commons in a connected world by Lawrence Lessing and Stilled Tongues: From Soapbox to Soundbite by Stephen Coleman. Lawrence Lessing’s book focuses on spaces. Lessing defines the spaces as commons, spaces where information is shared. He argues that since the technological age began, these spaces shifted location, now primarily inhabiting digital spaces. As the new site for exchange, the Internet faces the same challenges of intellectual property rights. From these readings, I glean and understanding of the history of information exchange and the evolving spaces in which the occur.

The goal of my project is to examine and create a space where information is exchanged. By creating an unusual context for exchange I hope to bring into question how information exchange occurs, and to indict the seeming infallibility which a space, and the objects within re-enforce the speaker with.

I also decided that I would install speakers to play a speech which would be read via text to speech software. Having created the podium in the eighth week, I then moved to deciding on speech and figuring out how to record the computer generated voice. The speech I chose to be read at the gallery is from the British philosopher, John Stuart Mill’s work titled, On Liberty. The excerpt from his treatise that I chose discusses the freedom of speech. Fallowing his own proposition of the “greatest happiness principle”, Mills believed that because humans can never be completely infallible, the freedom of speech should not be limited. I took the excerpt from Mill’s treatise and turned it into a handout which was to be handed out and accompany the reading from the podium.

Daniel Milton – Choose Your Own History

laurennorby — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 05:26:32 +0000

I decided to make a poetry history book which would teach history by having the correct timeline compared to false ones. In other words it was like a “choose your own story” book with multiple endings. In addition, to compliment each poem I would try to do a collage for each one. I decided to focus on American history from the American Revolution to the Present.

Let me sing this song!
We’re happy you came along!
This is the land of the dead
No more sleeping in bed
It’s the end of the world baby!

World War Three came
Because the world’s powers were lame!
Radiation fell
Now we’re roasting in hell
It’s the end of the world baby!

Come and join me in the Atomic Café
The water is poisoned by the bay
No more women or men
But rocks and rust of what’s been
It’s the end of the world baby!

Khrushchev and Kennedy lost their cools
Now there’s dead fish in the tide pools
The politicians lied!
Now we’re all fried!
It’s the end of the world baby!

Duck and Cover they said
How was that supposed to prevent Joe and Sally from being dead?
Cover your mouth to avoid radiation particle lines
Whoops, just another lie from the officials lacking spines
It’s the end of the world baby!

And here I thought I’d be safe underground
But what we all found
Was that we be dying afterward
There is nothing left to record
It’s the end of the world baby!

Let me clarify
Bomb shelters tend to fly
When the bombs arrived
That’s when we all died
It’s the end of the world baby

Pardon me for being such a morbid host
But hey it’s hard to be a pleasant ghost
I miss the pleasantries of life
But hey at least I have my fife
It’s the end of the world baby!

Martin Castro – Message Board

laurennorby — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 04:52:15 +0000

The role of my board is to create a tangible message board with the theme of learning something new everyday of our lives. By writing down something the viewer has learned that day they are teaching other viewers with this knowledge with out having to directly interacting with the other viewers. My board will act as a liaison between viewers. I believe that the context on the board will not only be based on its location but also on the type of people that decide to interact with it. I want the board to be inviting so it draws a wide range of people in to participate. I think that the more diversity the better.

SBCE Spring ’10 Show

laurennorby — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:37:15 +0000

TALK: Brian Goeltzenleuchter

laurennorby — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:36:58 +0000

Zephyr McIntyre – Isla Vista Fairy Tale

laurennorby — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:15:17 +0000

I had multiple concepts at the beginning. With a suggestion from class I combined and simplified my initial concepts.
I started with wanting to do work about fantasy and puns and Isla Vista craziness. I combined the fantasy and Isla Vista themes into one manageable concept for a series.
I worked with Jared White. He assisted with art direction and personnel management. We brainstormed ideas and directions. He helped me stay on track and develop my ideas.
We conceptualized and executed 6 photo shoots over the course of the quarter. We used friends as models for the shoots. The indoor location were their apartments.
I shot with a Nikon D90 and D70, edited with Aperture 3, printed at Costco.

Julian Scalia – Truck Temple

laurennorby — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 01:50:10 +0000

Origin: The basis of this concept first occurred to me whilst backpacking through the wilderness of Patagonia, Chile. I had been playing with the idea of creating a convoy of unique vehicles that served a greater purpose. I wanted to build immersive living and playing environments. My goal was too construct a habitat that provided a space in which individuals could explore their relationship with the world. This want to build such a place, stemmed from my belief that current institutionalized and public space lacks creativity, individuality, craftsmanship, and engagement. My goal was to create an environment, which fosters the imagination through curiosity. Once assimilated back into civilization and the constraints of the real world I realized the ambitious nature of my fantastical ideas. Joining the Student Based Creative Exchange I decided to embark on the first fabrication; a prototype for a new visual language.

Concept: Scaling down my original ideas I decided to focus my efforts on building a structure to tag onto my Toyota Truck. The first questions I had to tackle were: for what purpose, in what form and how? This is when I devised a rough blueprint for the Truck Temple. The Truck Temple was to become a living and sleeping environment. While not a public space the idea was to build the first installment, or proto-type, for this theoretical convoy of mobile learning environments. I wanted to invent the visual language that would carry throughout my greater works. Develop the craftsmanship and playfulness in a small-scale experiment. The result was a design that echoed the spiritual calling of Americans pushing forward to the western frontier. Taking reference from the covered wagons of early settlers, and the Stupas of Buddhist tradition I designed a structure to pave the road for future endeavors. Part gypsy wagon, part holy relic; the Truck Temple is meant to be a calling for pilgrims of the unconventional to join together and create a new future. This is the beginning of a new manifest destiny in which all is respecting and everything one.

Construction: The majority of the truck temple is built from wood. At least 35% of this wood is recycled or reclaimed, leftovers from the wasteful building of our bland consumerist society. While I would have liked to build the entire structure out of this re-appropriated material the design became to complicated. The structure would have had be to massively simplified to be suitable for a 100% recycled nature. I encountered many problems while fabricating the temple. Building a large structure to withstand freeway mobility is a tough endeavor. My ideas were constantly changing and evolving depending on the materials and time available. At first this was a frustrating thought but later it turned into joy. I realized the Truck Temple was a living changing environment, a idea that was evolving into existence. The Truck Temple is made from four basic components all of which can break down for easy storage and mobility. The first layer is the plywood base, which sits flush with the base of the truck bed. The next layer consists of the posts, which get bolted into the plywood floor. Sitting on top of that are the canvas ribs. The last and final component is the temple Stupa that can easy fit inside the truck bed for storage while moving. All the pieces bolt together for easy assembly. The next part of the build consist of paneling the side walls with metal sheeting, installing the door, heightening the temple, and finally adding interactive decorations. While construction on the Truck Temple may stop by August, the Temple is never done growing. Like a decorator crab the Truck Temple is a product of its environment ever changing and ever collecting new adornments with every new location it encounters.

Future: In the future I am curious in pursuing more livable and immersive environments. As I said the Truck Temple was only a proto-type for future creations. As for the future of the Truck Temple first it must be completed and decorated. The temple tower will be a shimmering mass of mirrors, complete with a crows nest and bell tower. Various artists will paint the interior wood with designs. They will use recycled house paint; and the interior will become a collaborative process that involves the touch of many hands. Windows or portholes will be installed on the side paneling to allow natural light and views of nature to seep into the abode. A door to seal out the elements will be inserted between the tower and the living area. The entire Truck Temple will also be adorned with lights and make shift bells, so it becomes a luminous sensory experience while roaming the streets. The interior will be laden with pillows and blankets to offer a comfortable resting place, for the wondering soul. More surprises are in store that have not entered conscious thought yet but are soon to be discovered. As I have said the Truck Temple is never finished always growing. Its debut will be at Black Rock City, NV on August 30th, 2010.

Cloud Eye Control visits UCSB!

laurennorby — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:38:20 +0000

Cloud Eye Control will be in a two-day residence next week on Monday and Tuesday evenings. A Los Angeles based multi-disciplinary performance collective comprised of Miwa Matreyek, Anna Oxygen and Chi-wang Yang, CEC integrates animation, experimental theatre, pop music, and puppetry; their work fuses screen and stage to create inventive hybrids of animation and performance. Their work has been presented to wide acclaim both nationally and internationally, including the March 2010 Exit Festival in France, International Film Festival 2008 Featured Artist, REDCAT NOW Festival, 2007 Platform International Animation Festival and the Time-Based Festival at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.

Their critically honored work, Under Polaris, is a National Performance Network Creation Fund project co-commissioned by REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/Cal Arts Theater), PICA and Leslie B. Durst; and created with support from the Princess Grace Foundation Special Project Award. The Los Angeles Times calls Under Polaris, “a transcendently spectacular piece of theater”, David Ng, October 16, 2009

Cloud Eye Control’s latest work, Under Polaris, tells the story of an epic journey into an Arctic wonderland. A woman embarks upon an incredible mission to preserve the finer elements of humanity in Arctic ice. Along the way, she disguises herself as animals to help her survive the elements-and in the process, learns about the delicate interdependence between humans and nature. www.cloudeyecontrol.com

Monday April 12, 7-9, Arts 1340
CEC talks about their collaborative process with the SBCE class•

Tuesday April 13, 5-7, Broida 1610
1C visiting artist presentation

visitors welcome to both events!

Cloud Eye Control’s visit is generously supported by the Department of Art, College of Creative Studies, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, and the UCIRA Open Classroom Challenge Grant

Daniela Campins & Nikki Leone – Interstice

laurennorby — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:52:47 +0000

With this experiment Nikki Leone and Daniela Campins intend to build a standing sculpture that comments on the artificiality of our built environment. By taking apart an architectural scale maquette of an already existent complex, the artists play with this found object and rearrange it into impossible structures. By definition a Maquette is the sketch or preliminary model used to visualize the shapes and ideas of a final product such a sculpture, or building. The intent is an ongoing event with the potential to re-incarnating into several arrangements and possibilities, so it is not a permanent piece. Its first manifestation consisted on the 4 pieces from the original model elevated individually on wood sticks that resembled house on stills from less developed countries. The highest of them at eye-level, maneuvering to stay up under weather conditions, stacked on the grassy surface of a colleague’s backyard was connected to the other 3 parts by weak stringy wood that maintained an elegant and upright position for the next few days, all the parts were barely stacked in the ground and gave the illusion of weightlessness. The sculpture was placed outdoors to create a relationship between perception and reality, the individual and the environment. By continually re-using the parts this piece will continue to morph into several manifestations of the impossibility of utopian and dystopian ideas and structures. This ongoing artwork flirts with ideas of play versus function, impermanence, different possibilities of revealing a system, and the urban experience.

The term interstice was used by Karl Marx to define the exchange communities that were escaping from the economic framework of capitalist economies, in that they were outside the laws of profit: barter, selling at a loss, autarchic production, etc. The interstice is a space in human relations which, by inserting itself more or less harmoniously and openly into the global system, offers other possibilities of exchange to those that are already working within the system. (Nicolas Bourrriaud, 2000)

The original model was a 3’x5’ replica of the new Education, Social Science, Media Studies department is formed by 3 unified models containing 4 buildings and landscape areas that replicate the 209,750 square feet complex that houses high tech classrooms, offices, meeting rooms on the west side of UCSB campus. The architects studied Santa Barbara Building tradition, county Courthouse and are attempting to gain certification from the U.S Green Building Council.

Patrick Melroy – AS Bike Shop

Student Based Creative Exchange — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:35:44 +0000

AS Bike Shop Vinyl

The project came about as a collaboration between Nikki Leone and Patrick Melroy to create a site-specific permanent installation of art in the new Associated Student Bike Shop. Through several discussions with the managers of the Bike Shop Nikki and Patrick generated several ideas for the interior of the shop. The shop managers introduced the idea of a mural on the wall above their workspace, which runs the length of the shop. Nikki present a concept drawing for a dinosaur eating bike parts and leaving full bicycles in its wake. The two artists worked in self-adhesive vinyl via the Art Departments M-Studio to create a forty-foot long image to be adhered permanently to the blank wall. The finished project was installed for the grand opening of the new shop and was met with good reviews at the celebration.
The intention with the project was to give the workers and managers who occupy the space every day a greater ownership and since of identity to the space. The project felt very successful and would seem a strong testament to the Student Based Creative Exchange.

AS Bike Shop Fencing

This project was the collaboration of Mike Astani and Patrick Melroy. The Associated Student Bike Shop was recently re-opened in a new location with a new building. The building sits adjacent to a large parking. The designers of the space separated the parking lot from the outside bike repair area with several reinforced concrete posts. Mike approached the Bike Shop managers about establishing a permanent art installation in the outside work area of the new bike shop. They were generally enthusiastic about the project, which went through several proposals and revisions. After meetings with several different overseeing authorities it was decided that fencing placed between the concrete poles would be both acceptable and beneficial. The attempt would be to utilize several discarded and recycled bike parts from Mike?s collection to create the fencing. Many different versions of fencing segment would be generated out of metal and installed in such a way that they could be removed easily by the staff of the bike shop if needed. The final fencing needed to be weather proof and safe to students using the bike shops repair yard.
Mike and Patrick worked out various drawings and concepts utilizing every part of a bike in multiple forms. Many of the fence segments would incorporate one specific bike part, wheels for instance or just front forks in a repeating pattern. Several of the fence segments were manufactured and custom fit to the space between poles. The construction still continues today, through welding and bolting processes. The scope of the project was such that it may continue for several weeks past the conclusion of the Winter 2010 quarter, but is on track to meet its completion soon. This is on par with the Bike Shop?s schedule as client, and inside the acceptable time frame of the budget for the project. The completed segments have been presented to the managers of the bike shop and were very well received. The final installation of all fencing will likely invoke a new celebration.