12. Rachel Borders: Light Project

For this project I decided to focus on photography. It is something that I have been studying for awhile and I really love it. I believe that lighting can make or break a photograph. So I decided to experiment with lighting. The most interesting stuff happened when I took pictures on a train. Here is my favorite shot:

13-Elsa Obus-Material Alchemy

For this material alchemy project I went to the Rhode Island recycling center with Kat and Dan. The first thing I found that really caught my interest was this ribbon that said "Bumpus Middle School Honor Roll". I just thought it was really ridiculous. And then I started reading all these other awards that were equally ridiculous. I ended up making clothing out of these ribbons which made something useful out of these discarded ribbons. Although I can't imagine why anyone would discard their Gridley Gators International Swim Meet Eighth place ribbon! Or nearly 50 purple ribbons from the Vermont Summer Festival haha!

Katie Sola Final Project

My final project is going to be quite personal. I'm going to do it about my friend Avi, who we lost about 2 months ago. It'll be kind of a meditation on the nature of memory and art's relationship to it, and will take the form of a series of drawings. Some of them will be of him, from photographs, I'm really hoping to do a successful portrait, but we'll see how that goes. I'm also going to draw the tangible things that are left behind. I'll do his hookah, a shirt of his which is now mine, and some in his room. I may also draw places and things around campus that I associate with him.

I don't really have a set plan, I think I'll just start drawing and see where it takes me.

Katie Sola Material Alchemy

So, I decided to make jewellery out of rubbish. I thought this would be interesting because we tend to think of jewellery as being made of precious stones and metals, and I wanted to create adornments out of visually unappealing matter.
My favourite is the cardboard and white foam necklace construction. I made some matching earrings for it. The planes are made out of the boarding pass I flew in on from London, and the other necklace out of different papers - receipts, gum wrappers etc. Finally I made some rough looking rings. At first glance they might be decayed silver or something like that. They're duct tape.

Candice Low Jello

For the material alchemy project, I wanted to explore the source of a material, as opposed to recycling it. Material alchemy makes me think of cooking, and what better example of material alchemy than jello? It turns from powder into a wobbly something, which somehow we've come to accept as normal, and tasty. By putting the jello box into the jello, I wanted to create something absurd and remind us of the very mysterious alchemy behind jello. Moreover, Dan devouring it with only a knife shows how absurd alchemy has become an acceptable form of creating food which is apparently irresistible.

Candice Low- Final Project Proposal

I'm thinking of choreographing and performing a dance piece to explore visual manifestations of music. Right now, the music I have in mind is the first movement of Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata in F Minor. According to wikipedia, Beethoven wrote this when he was first realized he was going irreversibly deaf, and his anguish is apparent from the stormy use of the entire keyboard. I'm interested in exploring how his emotions are expressed to the listener aurally and how I can emphasize/complement/counteract these emotions visually through movement.

Dan Cary Material Alchemy

Ratty Roses since whenever I see the big pile of takeout containers next to the trash I know it's spring.

And the stool Mike and I made over at the studio. It's sturdy as can be. While it does still need feet, I was able to sit three people on it simultaneously and it didn't even creak.

Material Alchemy-Josh Moses

Yo homies, this is my material alchemy project, you may remember it as the project where I disassembled my cell phone. You may also recall the other material alchemy project I did where I turned a cactus into an elephant, I didn't post that picture.

11. Rachel Borders: What should my Final Project be?

I have pretty much decided that my final project will be creating a character. Full make up, hair, and outfit. Basically it is a zombie bride. My friend Natalie has agreed to be my subject.

I'm hoping in the end it will end up become partly a performance piece. I guess only time will tell.

10. Rachel Borders: Trash to Trashy

This is a picture of all my piece put together.

I turned trash to trashy, and newspaper to fashion.

From top to bottom:

Bunny Ears

Hair Bow

Bow Tie

Vest

Bunny Tail

Skirt

Allison Barker - Material Alchemy

p.s. My project looks incredibly cheap compared to my mother's nice crystal glass... ;D

Lucy S's final project

For my final project, I want to explore the way different media transform images. I'm going to take a photograph and recreate it through graphite drawing, charcoal, and painting.

Lucy S's material alchemy

For my material alchemy project, I made a bag out of cardboard. First I cut out the different cardboard panels, covered them each with the foam material, and then covered them with patterned cloth.

Michael Yanagisawa - Final Project

For my final project, I am going to make either a painting, spray painting, or a wood-something. Depends on what medium I like best. And the subject, is whatever feels right.

Michael Yanagisawa - Material Alchemy

It's a tree made of cardboard (the tree is a not as tree-like as I had wanted so I put a swing on it). I found it funny that we can do so much with cardboard but we can't ever turn it back into a living tree.

Michael Yanagisawa - Self Portrait

I think I forgot to post this ...

12. Kat - Material Alchemy

Cupcake Pebbles-Marshmallow Treat sealed back into the bag and stuffed back into the box.

Material Alchemy: Olivia Fagon's Head Dress

For me this project really synthesized the ideas of function and form. Transforming the newspaper was about changing its context and changing the ways its presented. I worked on creating different surfaces with layering and weaving in order to make the newspaper a more ambiguous material that we can appreaciate from a purely visual sense. Additionally by choosing to create a head dress I wanted the material to make a very specific impression: authority, commanding, luxurious, power...etc. These all come to mind when you see the object so i think this it was pretty successful.

Lucy Material Alchemy

For my material alchemy project I decided to turn the assignment on its head. I started off thinking about all of the things that I value and that we collectively as a society value and came up with what is probably the obvious dichotomy between the intangible things such as love, family, freedom etc and the tangible things to which we have collectively assigned value. The most obvious of the latter case being money itself: sheets of paper and circles of metal that we agree to treat as quite valuable. I think the intersection between our “true” values (love etc) and the concrete values (money, gold etc) are interesting. The later are so quantifiable, a cent is worth a dollar, a dollar one hundred cents etc where as the former are notoriously difficult to give precise monetary worth or quantified value assignments. Yet there are interplay between the two: what are you willing to pay for love (your dog is being ransomed, what’s the price at which you can’t or don’t find a way to raise the money? $100, $1000, 1 million?) or perhaps a less morbid example (how much time freedom or freedom of choice are you willing to give up to save or make money?) I wondered if there were ways to explore, (warp, stretch, diminish, change, expand) the value we attribute to money. So for my project I explored this by doing things to money. I wanted for suddenly the defined and universally accepted specific value of a penny to be called into question.
At what point would a penny lose its value? At what point would a cashier no longer accept it? Could I make someone accept my money regardless of what I had done to it? Where there things I could do that would make it simultaneously more valuable to me or another person and less valuable as a unit of currency?
This is material alchemy in a different way. It explores the same questions of value, art, perspectives and intentions from a different direction.

my images won't upload right now, (i think they are too big) so i will re take them and put them up later, but you'll see it all in class today anyway!

Lucy Final Project Ideas

For my final project I am interested in exploring a bunch of different ideas at first and then seeing how it takes shape. I really like the idea of continuing to push material alchemy but using intangible value instead. Exploring the ways in which we begin to assign value to things, places, and experiences. How to communicate personal senses of value for commonly non-valuable things. Some of my ideas include how things can be valuable for what they say: secret messages, acts of kindness, gifts, thoughtful things, ways of saying I love you visually. How we construct physical representations of meaningful experiences that then embody the meaning themselves: memorabilia, souvenirs. How a place begins to take on meaning: how could I through my experience in a place give a random or traditionally invaluable place (like a parking lot or ally or random patch of grass) meaning? (ideas include having a meaningful experience there and documenting it. Either alone or with a group of people (maybe a shared meal or picnic)) how can I visually or through other senses communicate this accrual of extremely subjective value to another person? We often think about how to make other people care about what we care about or see the value in those things we value. Is there a way that through art I can make a person begin to value a non-valuable, intangible thing like a place or experience that they themselves didn’t have? What other ways can I use to give people that connection or sense of experience? (maybe multi media. Use of smell, sound, food?)
Other random things I am interested in maybe exploring:
Plants. Sprouting. That natural process as a starting point for art.
The times of day of dawn and dusk.
Snapshots of moments in my remaining time

Some of my goals in general for this project are as follows: I want to make art every day. I want to have something that has components that challenge me technically to increase my actual skills with various mediums. I want to have something that strikes a meaningful balance between openness to evolve but also driven enough to produce a cohesive, compelling final product. I want it to be equally valid in its aesthetics as its content.

12-Elsa Obus-Final Project Idea

VISA0100 this semester has been such an amazing release from the scientific chemical world for me this semester. I think maybe part of the beauty of art lies in its ability to relax us or take us somewhere else for awhile, away from our problems and daily lives. I think all art forms including theatre and dance have this ability.
For my final project I want to offer up a similar release to the students of Brown. I'm thinking that during reading period I will get some of that huge paper and lots of paints and publicize my art project to get lots of students to come out and paint with me. I don't know if I want to have paintbrushes because I think they will cause people to think too much about what they are creating. I can just imagine all these students covered in paint, painting with their hands out on the main green. I think it will be wonderful. I also want to make sure I document the process as well as the finished product with photos and maybe some video.
So that's my plan so far! I'm going to set a date when it gets closer and I would love love love for you all to be there to make art with me!

Jonah Kagan - Final Project idea

For my final project, I want to do some sort of kinetic sculpture. I'm not exactly sure what yet. It's hard to try to come up with ideas that I can actually execute given the materials and tools that I have access to. Here are a couple of videos that I am drawing inspiration from at the moment:



I'm thinking a machine with binary switches could yield some interesting motion.



Gahhhh this guy is amazing. I couldn't even come close to something like this, but I'd be interested to try it on a smaller scale.

11. Daniel Ton - Material Alchemy

Shirt made with the College Hill Independent, tape, and twine.

Dan Cary- Final Project Proposal

For my final project I wanted to make a painting that lives. You'd walk up to what appears to be a normal framed painting and then the subject would come to life and move around, change poses, whatever.

It would actually be a framed screen with a rotoscoped video played on it. The video would play a single frame for periods at a time before resuming to make it seem like its actually a painting coming to life.

Imagine "A Scanner Darkly" but on pause, and then Keanu Reeves goes to the fridge and gets a drink before coming back and being paused again.

11. Kat Yang - Final Project Proposal

For my final project, I want to take one subject and recreate it in different 2D, 3D, and edible medias.

So like Dan, I wanted to pick a subject that was important to me - otherwise why would I bother? I think I would like to do portraits of my favorite person - my mother. Hopefully this will make a great Mother's Day gift too?

As for the media, I think I would like to explore paint (color), cardboard topography (lack of color, and just because I like food, some familial recipes in my final piece.

10. Daniel Ton - Final Project Proposal

In brainstorming a final project, I deduced three elements that I consider important for the piece. First, it should be personal because I'm self-centered. Second, it should have a story - aesthetic appreciation is only half of the picture for me. Third, it should carry emotional weight since otherwise I wouldn't really give a shit. With those considerations in mind, I'm tentatively proposing a "scrapbook" of my undergrad experience. I'm thinking a series of images that highlights special memories and people (or maybe a comic book type thing?). As for the medium, I'm debating whether I should mix it up or stick to one (charcoal, painting, pastels, one of those weird photo mosaic things, etc.). If this turns out well, it would be a nice keepsake and a cool way to share my life story to people.

Leah Cogan - Pipe Cleaner Lady

This is what I spent my Tuesday morning doing! Life is good!

Now, I don't imagine that anyone would give this little lady the value of gold, nor would anyone in their right mind ever want to display her on a mantle (unless they had a strange fetish for tacky knick knacks) but she is evidence of material alchemy nonetheless. She is made entirely of pipe cleaners. I had planned to play with changing the texture of the pipe cleaners but had little at my disposal to do so and water didn't really make a difference. I could have plucked the pipe cleaners naked but that might have caused some immodesty. As it is, she is fully fluffy and faceless (my roommate seems to think that this is really a troublesome point and that i should at least fashion her some eyes...you'll find out on thursday whether or not I take her advice!)

Allison Barker - Final Project

I'm going to do a water color painting of one of my own pictures I've taken within the year. I can't make up my mind which one do to right now.

Lucy's Material Ewww-chemy Ideas

This is a bit of a gross example, but I think it is brilliant and a brilliant example of material alchemy. It is a group of guys who call themselves the sprinkle brigade and go around turning transforming dog poop into art.... literally.

http://sprinklebrigade.com/gallery-main.html

I think it is a hilarious and ingenious use of the ultimate undesirable thing that you see lying around. It also fits what is to me an important part of material alchemy which is its ability to make you look at and see a material entirely differently.

This is an example entitled "stranger on the train"

Material Alchemy

My favorite example of material alchemy is by the artist Tim Hawkinson. He is really able to make beautiful art out of materials that are useless and even disgusting. His sculptures made out of fingernail clippings and hair were exhibited at the Whitney Museum a few years ago. The egg was made out of fingernail clippings, hair, and superglue. The dinosaur/bird was made out of fingernails as well. And the feather was made out of the artist's own neck hair.

Jonah Kagan - My Favorite Alchemist

Theo Jansen is the man. He makes giant creatures out of plastic tubes and lemonade bottles that actually walk and are powered solely by wind. It blows my mind every time I watch them. You need to watch the videos to appreciate these things. He gave a TED talk and there are more videos on his website.

Soooo I was thinking about our past projects and of something that is of worthless or minimal value. I'm sorry for all you citrusophiles but I thought of oranges because there is honestly nothing I like less that citrus, especially oranges. So I searched "art made out of oranges" and actually found a lot of cool fruit art. I guess food is not really worthless because it keeps us alive, but there is still a transformation. The first two sculptures are completely made of oranges and the last one (which I think is really incredible) is carved from a honey dew melon.

9. Daniel Ton - Burtynsky

One photographer I admire is Edward Burtynsky, known for his large-format pictures of industrial landscapes.

"Burtynsky's most famous photographs are sweeping views of landscapes altered by industry: mine tailings, quarries, scrap piles. The grand, awe-inspiring beauty of his images is often in tension with the compromised environments they depict."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Burtynsky

On an unrelated note, you should watch this short film:

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/04/nuit-blanche/

Allison Barker - Changed into Art

So these are my three favorite sites that change something into art. I know the assignment was something that is of value, and I value art, therefore art has value (syllogism). So the first I stumbledupon awhile back and it's all these things recycled into art, my favorite one is the driftwood elephant.

The second one is one I'm sure everyone has seen and it's the Little People blog. I love all ideas of how to use trash and things lying on the ground and turn it into the scenery. (Got to love the Pope)
The last one is of this really neat artist who turns old newspaper stands and telephone booths into art with bees, it's actually pretty hilarious.

Allison Barker - Paper

So, I decided to make an object on paper made of paper like we do when we're kids. I however did not have any construction paper and I didn't want to color every different piece. So I found blue food coloring die and died college ruled paper blue and made it into the shape of a sperm whale. If you can't tell, I really like Nantucket.

This is the front... I like the texture of the paper... and I put it up to a window so it's like stainglass (kind of):
This is the front on the floor:

This is the back of it, and I just thought it reminded me of tie-dye:

This is the paper that went in back to stop leaking, same principle as above... got to love the tie dye:
Cheers!

Leah Cogan - Material/sexual alchemy!

When I attended the International AIDS Conference in Toronto in 2006, one of the main exhibitions was this line of clothing made with condoms. Some of it was strikingly beautiful. Some of it was...well...interesting...to say the least. I did a little search to find some other artists who have done the same thing. Pretty cool...

10. Kat Yang - Material Alchemy examples

This artist paints real people to look as if they are paintings. I think these are really cool because they not only explore painting on a new medium, but they tweek what we think of the human aesthetic. You can check out more of her work at http://www.alexameade.com/ . For a more behind-the-scene-look - see http://www.geekologie.com/2010/04/real_people_painted_to_look_li.php

super cool things to do with paper....

I am especially fond of this one...
http://melsmag.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/thursday-thirteen-13-cool-things-done-with-paper/

8. Daniel Ton - Postcard

Gulfoss, Iceland