Final Project Process 1.7

As a means to further the project's conception Katerie suggested I travel down to Crystal River and do more visual research on beach kitsch and kitsch as a cultural phenomena in general. I had to drive to Orlando Thursday night and stopped at Crystal River on my way back to Gainesville Friday morning. The stars did not align in my favor though, apparently, because as soon as I arrived to Crystal River my phone magically died from having 2/3rd battery life and I did not have a charger. I ended up having to stop at a bunch of McDonalds to steal wifi and chart my way back to Gainesville before a meeting later that afternoon. I did snag one photo before I left:

Final Project Process 1.6

Here is a link to an excerpt from the performative action; I had issues getting it uploaded to YouTube because it keeps telling me the file is corrupt. I exported the first 30 seconds as an MP4 from After Effects: http://mbeach.me/sensors2.mp4

The performative action was ultimately realized as a switch but ideally a proximity sensor would have began the Wipeout song as I began to read from Greenberg's essay. It was my intent for the viewer to question whether what they were witnessing as far as this character embodiment of beach kitsch was actually kitsch, avant-garde, or somewhere in between. I also hoped this created space would open a conversation about kitsch versus the avant-garde and its relation to technology, having the piece use technology and kitsch as a vehicle for social engagement.

Very unfortunately, the concept was not executed the way  I would have liked and did not work. The obelisk proved to be an ill fit for the concept and there were too many references to it being a symbol of a phallus. Someone did suggest a lighthouse using LEDs and I thought this was an interesting concept. The work didn't function in the way I would have liked as far as opening a space and perhaps needs to be more performance-based. The idea of this kitsch character also needs to be pushed much farther and the link between the questioning of a work as kitsch or avant-garde needs to be more obvious rather than lying somewhere between a half-imagined work and what may be perceived as a joke entirely.

Sites of Interest and Artists of Interest

Don't know why I didn't have this posted before :/ So here are some cool artists and sites.

1. http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?board=19.0

This is arduino's official board for interactive art! Like any forum online about art, there is a lot of crap, but I have come across helpful and innovative ideas on here throughout the semester.

2. http://www.creativeapplications.net/tag/arduino/

Inspiring blogs about creative applications for the arduino. Lots of nice projects that stay on the more conceptual side.

3. http://vimeo.com/groups/arduinoart

Vimeo Group for arduino artists, a nice variety of projects on here.



Artists of interest:

1. http://cargocollective.com/lesiatrubat/E-TRACES-memories-of-dance by Lesia Trubat

Wow! This is an amazing project that uses pointé ballet shoes on a dancer and lilypad arduino and sensors on the bottom of the shoe to interface with a phone and create a representation of the dancer's moves. It makes you think about the various movements that happen in analog space and how they could be captured with innovative sensors. I think Jay would be interested in this project actually.

2. http://instagram.com/dimzayan/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=video Gregory Mirzayantz Instagram

He posts a lot of interesting LED arduino projects that remind me of the lamp crystals I have created this semester. He actually has a "polygon light" that is pyramidal but not as good finish quality as mine :P It makes me want to make a crystal that has an accelerometer sensor in it, though.

3. http://driftinginlight.tumblr.com Drifting in Light by Zyia Z

Interactive aquarium-like abstracted installation art. Arduino is used to control the movement of CNC Milled acrylic in crazy colors and psychedelic lighting as viewers move through the full room installation.

Final Project Process 1.5

I realize ultimately it would have made more sense to use a proximity sensor combined with the wave shield as furthering the concept of presence but I could not get the code to work in time for the final critique and maintained use of the pressure sensor. Using the pressure sensor and wave shield I uploaded the song Wipe Out by The Surfaris (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p13yZAjhU0M) because I have seen it used in a number of movies as a backdrop song and felt it fit in with the concept of discussing kitsch and technology through this performative beach character including Back to the Beach, Meet the Parents, Runaway Bride, and Wayne's World 2. Alongside this backdropped song I decided to do a reading of Clement Greenberg's Avant-Garde and Kitsch (http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/kitsch.html). I ended up using section II of his essay as my pedestal.

Final Project Process 1.4

I became drawn to this beach scene fabric because of growing up with the last name Beach. I am all too familiar with having kitsch objects and aesthetics around as my parents for whatever reason seem to enjoy decorating their house with as much tacky Beach related things as possible. There are signs relating to the "Beach bungalow" on both sides of the house, more block letter cut outs of Beach sitting in crevices on bookshelves on the inside, strange snowglobes with flamingos, really bad abstract paintings of the shore, it's as if a coastal Cracker Barrel lost a shipment of merchandise and it was shipped to my parent's house instead. In thinking about growing up with my last name and seeing how my family had interpreted it to allow for an...interesting decorating circumstances, I thought I was in a place to discuss critically the intersection of kitsch and technology. I wonder at what point does a project cross the line from conceptual to kitsch and what from kitsch is actually helpful in forming a project's concept.

I conceived the idea of creating a performative piece where in I would take on the role of embodying this "Beach kitsch" character with the obelisk of kitsch at the center as a landmark of identifying presence. I am enrolled in the Social Practice graduate seminar and we read an article earlier in the semester as a critical look at Marina Abramovic's The Artist Is Present. I wanted to explore some of the concepts in this criticality through the use of the obelisk as signifying the presence of kitsch.

DigiKey LED Specs

1. Flashing Red LED: Lumex Opto/Components Inc. | 3V | 20mA | 100 ohm Resistor

2. 3MM Blue LED: Visual Commumications Company - VCC | 3.5V | 20mA | 82 Ohm Resistor

3. Cyan 5x5MM Cube LED : SunLED | 3.3V | 20mA | 100 Ohm Resistor

4.  Pink 5MM Clear LED: Lumex Opto/Components Inc. | 3.2V | 20 mA | 100 Ohm Resistor

5. Green 2x2.5MM Clear Z-Bend SMD LED: Lumex Opto/Components Inc. | 2.1V | 20mA | 150 Ohm Resistor

Final Project Process 1.3

I decided the kind of fabric I would get would direct the overall conception of the project and for some reason I kept being drawn to these really cheesy, overdone prints. I thought about kitsch and its relation to technology. It seems as though technology and art can be a steep slope in trying to avoid creating a project that is in "poor taste". From this standpoint I started thinking about the conversations we have had in the initial conceptions of our projects, making sure they don't fall along these lines and remain conceptually strong. It caused me to wonder about where kitsch fits in with the everyday and the how conversations relating to kitsch and technology may be fruitful in understanding these relations. Thus I decided to go towards the route of kitsch and doing a kind of performative piece as a means to open up a place for this kind of conversation.

With that in mind I bought two yards of what I perceived to be a very kitsch fabric relating to the beach: