Lecture Number Five

The speaker for this week was Kate Cuffari, she works as an art conservator for the Philly Art Museum. She focused her lecture on materials and how technology has helped improve the longevity of materials. This lecture was better than the last two, its was easier to understand than Philip's and a lot more focused than the guy from Basekamp, and as an added bonus it was on a relevant topic. I really never thought about what materials I have used and hearing Kate talk about paintings that go through such drastic metamorphoses that museums decide to never show them again made me think more about what materials I use. She mentioned how her and her colleges have to work within the boundaries of the artist's intent, they can't restore something that an artist wanted to decay, it would ruin the meaning. She also mentioned how conservators are tasked to produce replicas that are used to display in place of the original to make sure that the original stays safe. As I was finishing up a 2-D project last night I was looking at the paper, glue and other materials and seeing if they were acid free and if they were light-fast all because of Kate Cuffari's lecture, I wanted to make sure that the work i spent too much time on would last .

The Fourth Lecture

This lecture was full of big aristocratic words that left me bewildered for the most part. The speaker was Philip Glahn, he expounded on art and technology's relationship, giving some examples from history of artists using technology to improve their art. Philip claimed that a devision of art and tech is a myth and that they have always been and will always be intwined. According to Glahn, when art and tech are separated a de-skilling occurs. The longer people try to separate the two the less skilled they become. I don't see how that is true, if an artist relies on only his hand to make a straight line instead of using a ruler he will become more skilled. I do agree that you cannot separate art and technology, the smarter we get the more ways we invent to produce art. Cavemen didn't have cameras and if we refused to allow cameras into the art world we would loose a major facet of art.

Illustrator

So in class on Monday we were being taught how to use Adobe Illustrator, I had some background knowledge of the program and decided to create an epic fight scene.

The 3rd Lecture

I was let down by this lecture, the speaker was not all too good. The information he was trying to relay seemed useful but was hidden in all of his side stories. From what I gathered, the organization he is with, Basekamp, connects with artists all over the world via skype. They help with brainstorming and getting people to work on huge projects. I think what they are doing is not a necessity but is great for networking and getting familiar with other artists. I wish the speaker would have talked more on what projects they have done and are planning on doing. Like the previous lecture the main use of technology was to network and communicate, I am hoping that the next lecture will be on how technology is used in art not how artist use it to talk to each other.

Walk, Ride, Adventure

On Labor day I decided to adventure through Philly, and it was a successful journey. On my way to meet up with my navigator, Katie, I was approached by a gang of segway-riding McDonald's promoters. They offered me coupons for free food and I gladly accepted. I met up with Katie and the adventure started. We got off the subway right under city hall. We circumvented city hall searching for the source of the soprano sax we were hearing. We found the musician, he was playing in the middle of city hall, the acoustics amplified his music so that the whole building could hear him. We then set off to find the love sculpture. We found it and we were disappointed. I knew it wasn't some giant monument that most people think it is, but it was still a let down. We decided to adventure to Rittenhouse Square and do some sketches. Again we were serenaded by a lone musician, this time it was a trumpeter. About and hour after we started sketching we heard another musical group, we decided to find them and continued our escapade. The group of musicians turned out to be a family band just jamming. It was mostly a brass and percussion ensemble, and they attracted a big crowd. We agreed the day was done, get on the train and went home.

The first real lecture

We had our first real lecture on Tuesday and it was alright. The speaker was Peter Hanley, who is the tech support manager. He focused the lecture around the internet and how we can use it to get our name out there. He stressed the importance of social networking and using sites like facebook, myspace and twitter to inform people of what you are doing as an artist. He also touched on the topic of selling our work. Sites like "lulu.com" and "etsy.com" are available to sell work and they are well known so you know people will see your work. I thought the lecture was informative for the most part but think he stressed the importance of selling online too much. Personally I think selling things to people in person is the best networking because you can interact with them in ways email will never let you do and build a relationship that will keep them coming back.

The first lecture

Yeah so it looks like Gerard set up a good series. It was just introduction today and it seems like the lectures will be informative. I am interested to hear what all the artists have to say about technology and what role it plays in art and design and how much they rely or abstain from it.