I'm going to present information about the production of a work of art in the form of a large, photographic print. A chain [not literally] of information across the print will be decipherable with the help of a handheld key; this is the sensors bit of the project. From a distance, it will function aesthetically as a photographic collage of Robert Indiana's iconic LOVE, and up close, with the help of leading lines [literally, lines] and the key, it will become an infograph whose information allows multiple interpretations. The pieced nature of the composition conceptually parallels the addressing of the components of the physical piece [semi-epic sentence], while the hidden nature of the information is much like the casual viewer's lack of knowledge on the production of the sculpture. One can merely look upon the image or decide to explore it further, to the extent that they wish, with interaction and the seeking of knowledge. Presented will be the names of the components of the sculpture [mostly chemicals], general information on how that material has been used with the production of the piece and then objective manufacturing and environmental information as it pertains to how the substance was used to produce the sculpture. I'm not looking to present a particular opinion, merely offer multiple interpretations about the meanings of the sculpture LOVE in comparison to its production, about the complexities of producing sculpture, about the globalization of an image and its global materials of production, extrapolations about other media and their unknown origins and methods by which they are made, inferences that the information presented is limited and that there's possibly more involved and to be known, interest in the artistic meaning of such a vastly complex commercial system.
I've chosen LOVE because it's familiar outside the art world at least as an image and has spread to many different media. At first I considered making the infograph about the dispersal of the image into different media, first screenprint, then print, then painting, then photograph, then sculpture, then kitsch and paper and digital and holographs [seriously] and probably recreations out of Legos and who knows, and talking about the production of those different media. As I've delved deeper into the dark world of aluminium smelting [joke], I've decided covering the production of this one material is more worthy. The original large-scale sculpture was made out of Cor-ten weathered steel, but as my sister lives in New York, I took advantage of her; she photographed it for me, and so I'm addressing the physical makeup of that one, polychrome aluminium, plus it's the one people visit the most, SO [because the first is in Indiana]. Of course, aluminium from then was not produced from exactly the same as it is today [see below, Differences in Production from 1970s to Today as I've Gathered So Far], but the smelting and actually the recycling processes, as well, have remained the same, so the same chemicals are needed to produce contemporary art using aluminium. The information I'm presenting also deals solely with the United States [though of course some materials are from outside the US, I mean if a chemical is produced in Kansas and China I'll note the Kansas one and you can just assume that everywhere plus the Vatican makes it if Kansas does [that was mean]] as the LOVE series was produced in the United States. Believe it or not, I've not yet managed to figure out exactly when the thing was made [and I've looked at actual Books(TM), okay?] except it was after 1971.
Differences in Production from 1970s to Today as I've Gathered So Far
OMG, but it's actually interesting: Because of politics, the bauxite may not have come from South America. The cryolite may have been mined in Greenland, but depleted in 1987, it's now synthetically produced in the US and elsewhere. Smelting air pollution was doubtless not as strictly regulated and some of the chemicals I'm addressing deal with its cleaning. There's more, but that's what comes to mind.
What I Have Working as of Saturday
As you can see, I'm involving a GLCD screen and RFID, and you can't see but there's a button, too. What you're not seeing so well [but it's there, really] is an intro screen that comes up automatically and clears with first tag. First tag has chemical name and general information. If you're still on the tag and press the button, the name stays the same but the general info clears and environmental info and other pertinent possibly interpretable information comes up. If you press the wrong button, it just resets. It doesn't like to be vertical, but for the most part it works. Et voila, now I'm just getting the research done.
Art Pieces Dealing With [Possibly] Relevant Interests Because I'm Not Specifically Making a Statement, n'est-ce pas?
Yao Lu
The man makes interesting photo-collages that from a distance look like contemporary-traditional surreal Chinese landscape paintings, but up close you can see that they're composed of photographs of landfills and garbage digitally assembled into these formations.
iTea ...
... doesn't have a wicked amount to do with my project, but it is certainly neat; a tag specifically made about you, when put in a teacup on a stand, causes sentences about "you" to appear on the stand/table [covered in a lace tablecloth pattern]. The sentences are from an internet search of your name as contained in the tag. And they made it in 3 days!
... are semi-educational art pieces that allow one to visualize carbon emissions more clearly. 27' cubed [three storeys high] is representative of what an American produces in a week. The cube is equipped with video and meant to raise awareness, done for an event. The organization is super-neat :)
I also found a short paper where RFID tags behind a painting were read by "gallery-goers"' mobile phones to engage them in discovering the work and understanding it- the painting was abstract and the phones were able to display media at multiple different parts of the work as prepared by the artist. This was not an actual gallery piece, more like a prototype-study.
yea!! good post
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