Will be adding to and tinkering with this post, for several days.
For Thursday, expect to see new work by Brooke, Eileen, Emily and Will, who did not present on Tuesday.
Gervin showed the two robots, now with surface textures. He will continue on with a book (or “zine”) version of his story, and also with 3D printed toy versions of the robots (including packaging). Gervin will consult with MCA Digital Fabrication Studio @mcadigfabstudio (see their linktree) about how best to proceed with this.
Jessica showed some new, layered collages, using her source material (the mixology book, a street map of Liverpool, etc.). We talked about introduction of some other elements, e.g., The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” about the composition of which is the subject of Paul McCartney, his “Writing ‘Eleanor Rigby,' How one of the Beatles’ greatest songs came to be.” In The New Yorker (October 25, 2021 issue; online date October 18, 2021).
Walks, walking continue to be an armature for the project, that can have its different walks and detours, even cul-de-sacs.
Jessica showed some new, layered collages, using her source material (the mixology book, a street map of Liverpool, etc.). We talked about introduction of some other elements, e.g., The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” about the composition of which is the subject of Paul McCartney, his “Writing ‘Eleanor Rigby,' How one of the Beatles’ greatest songs came to be.” In The New Yorker (October 25, 2021 issue; online date October 18, 2021).
John mentioned “Alternative Routes: A Conversation with Lauren Elkin,” by Claire-Louise Bennett, in The Paris Review (October 12, 2021). The conversation is not about walking, but riding a bus and the kind of window that experience provides; it is also about living, being in the “really general, in which not everything has to contribute to a specific idea. Elkin authored Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London (2017).
The artist who bought thousands of copies of The Beatles White Album is Rutherford Chang.
Andrea showed new “multiplications“ (I would call them), being cutups and digital (in Photoshop) rearrangements of one of her recent abstract collages. We discussed how what is in the mind, and therefore prompts the work, does not need to somehow visualized in the work; the work can lead one away from the mind, as one follows its own imperatives and opportunities. Andrea’s thesis work as a Part 1 (visual work) and a Part 2 (behavior). In the very beginning (last May), there was only a Part 2.
reiteration —
abstraction and pattern; first thought, second thought.
I am working with these ideas in two realms: (1) visual design; and (2) behavior. I hope my work in the first realm can play a role in my work in the second, both for me and for others, personally and professionally.
We also talked about the suggestion, from at least two of the reviewers, that Andrea incorporate different sorts of source material, or shapes, in the pattern work. John talked about what an initial gesture might look like (e.g., a slightly curved mark on the slate board, curved because that is what our multi-axis machine tool arm/hand allows us to do, naturally).
Henry showed a sketch map of possible new directions for his mapping project (referred to as Henry’s Guide to Beverly during the panel reviews). There was some discussion of ways to involve others in suggesting map-able topics/memes/oddnesses, preposterous and otherwise.
The idea of “particle collisions“ came up — a google image search will yield various representations of these.
Melissa showed new rough collages, and two groups (squares, and rectangles) derived from the imagery in those collages. We discussed the squares as sequences, and how composition within rectangle, may be secondary to composition in time (left to right, but other directions too). Less language is included in the compositions; the greater usage of printed language in the earlier work, may stem simply from the source (Popular Mechanics) and the large amount of language found there (and its nature, having to do with success, making more money, etc.).
The constellation female, bodies, machines, technologies, and the future is seen in two advertising movies we watched —
2022 Genesis GV70 Commercial 01 USA
and the Apple promotional video for the iPhone 13 Pro,
Oh. So. Pro. (scroll down to “Watch Movie.”
Subsequently, John stumbled on this odd and oddly relevant advertisement, for Lexus, on the back cover of Wired Magazine (January 2020, just as Covid-19 was beginning its global spread and mutations.
Emily showed some closer-in views of some of her collages, involving larger details of “ransom note“ letters — “larger“ meaning relative to smaller hand- and type-written words in the background or dancing around/otherwise interacting with the larger forms. We talked about the square croppings, and modularity, where multiple square-shaped details might be selected out of the larger collages (at either low or higher resolutions).
Eileen showed a new group of photographs taken during dog walks. Some of these were evening/night shots, which had a different tone. We talked about different areas of Beverly to explore, along the Bass River, including Gillis Park and Pleasant View Beach (shown here).
In a subsequent exchange, John suggested that one of the virtues of these walks with Gus — in addition to being that they’re not about Gus — is that Gus is somehow a passport to taking photographs of ANYTHING, and no one wonders or suspects. It’s just a young lady, out for a walk with her dog.
