“How are some artists today thinking through photographic strategy to focus on content?”

“They’re trying to render the representation of the object.”

We talked about the hierarchies of mediums, for examples the difference between paints and charcoal and eraser, like in the Jackson Pollock interpretation.

Ferguson, Missouri

Protesters were being confronted with police and riot gear

Wanted to stop the onslaught of all the images we see and really take the time to frame them away from the desensitized, almost stock-y photos, of civil protests.

We also discussed abstraction. I had learned that a lot of museums curated their displays by categorizing forms of art that fit into their demographics interests and cultural beliefs at the time. This minimizes the art viewing experience by already placing the viewer into a conceptual box. They come into the museum, which is already altering their personal experience through the visual placement and aura that the space was designed for. They visitors are already being told the hierarchy and importance of the exhibitions within through placement, lighting, and interaction. The quieter the museum is, the more people want to be quiet. It creates an air of authority that discourages people from really communicating with each other and the art itself. They’re too focused on the idea of observing art that they forget to note their reaction in their moment of experience.

For my Weekly, I went to the Tesla show at Krannert Museum in Urbana. There, the performer had a metal suit and stood on distributed sand in order to convect the electricity through his suit and shoes. There is also a metal ring around his head, so that it doesn’t hit his face or fry his brain. It was really cool because the DJ at the set started to rhythm the electric crackles coming from the coils and turn them into baseline beats for songs that were familiar to the audience. They did Thunderstruck, Mario theme song, Ghostbusters, and a lot more. This was different from anything else i’ve ever seen because they were using technology to avoid the unavoidable– getting zapped.