Michael's Personal Space

This week in class we had our personal space assignments. One of our classmates volunteered to be the documenter of our projects. He did a good job capturing our projects and making them public. His project was about interviewing people on the meaning of art. It had three part with three different people. What I found to be a little distracting was all the background noise. It didn’t make it seem so professional because people kept on interrupting the interview. If those scenes would have been cut off, then the interview would have looked more professional and serious. The good thing was that he got peoples different views on the meaning of art. It was interesting to see what their responses are because everyone has different views on art. If I would have been interviewed my response would be that art is everything that we do. it doesn’t have to be on paper or sculpture to be called art. It is something that comes within all of us and we express it by different means of media. Overall his project was awesome because of the time it took to make these interviews and his positioning of the camera. Good Job Michael.

URL's to the projects

For this entry in our blog, we have to provide URLs to our past projects we did in our class. The first of our projects is the pun. For my pun I printed out a picture of a bee and put it next to my knee. The purpose of this was to make the pun say beanie. Most of my classmates thought it was bee’s knee’s which could have been a possibility but it wasn’t what I had in mind. My next one is the nexus fake article where I wrote on their website that Los Angeles was a pollution free city. My act of kindness was about the time I paid for our family hotel room on our trip to Disneyland. The Altered activity in a public space featured me going to Jack in the Box and eating like I was in a fancy restaurant with plates and a cup and fork. My confession was that I love to sing in my car in order to escape the daily stresses of life. For my sequence and narrative project I documented my mom in her work day and in her resting day. It took place a Saturday and Sunday and it was done by photo. My alternate persona was that I pretended to be an injured person and I wore a cast for 48 hours. Finally my personal space project was that I made a 2-way walk way and it made the students walk in one direction and the others in the opposite direction. It affected their personal walking space.       http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/04/art-documentmy-work.html PUN
http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/04/work-progress-confession.html  CONFESSION
http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/04/random-act-of-kindness.html RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS
http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/04/dinner-plate-introduced-in-fast-food.html ALTERED ACTIVITY IN PUBLIC SPACE
http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/04/los-angeles-no-traffic.html DAILY NEXUS ARTICLE
http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/05/sequence-and-narrative-project.html SEQUENCE/NARRATIVE
http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/05/alternate-indentity-injured-person.html ALTERNATE PERSONA
http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/06/weekly-documentation-personal-space.html PERSONAL SPACE

Weekly Documentation: Personal Space Project

For this weeks documentation, I would love to talk about my personal space project. The way I went with thinking about my topic was that I wanted to do something that involved the students of UCSB. I thought long and hard and finally realized my new idea. This was perfect because it defined personal space. I was to create a 2 way walkway in which the students and staff would be like cars and could only go in one direction. This affected their personal walking space by going into the designated area. I would do this by building some poles to separate the lanes. I went to the store with my dad and we both created them. I did my project in front of the Counseling Services center and it was a success. the students were getting involved and asked me what the whole purpose was. I told them and they would agree with my response. Some people would even stop to go into the right lane and one van had to go around. As you can see by the pictures, the van went around and the people were going in the right lanes. They also show my project in its entirety. I would love to deeply thank my Dad for his help and time to help me with my project. Thank You Dad.  I sure hope to continue making more wonderful art work in future classes.   

Art Show Week 10

For this weeks art show, I went to see the artist Tobias Putrih. Tobias Putrih is an artist that works with contemporary sculptures and he is very interested in the history of cinemas and history of utopias. He mostly deals with drawings and with those drawings, he makes small scale models. I think this is so cool because being able to put your thoughts and imagination onto a paper is one thing, but to actually bring them out in sculpture form is simply amazing. This is similar to architect because first he draws the model and then makes it in real life. They can be small things or they can be big rooms. He showed us pictures of his drawings and then showed the result, which was a room type project. It looked exactly like how it was on the paper. He also uses computer to figure out the shapes he will use in his art. He measures the width and length of the blocks he will use and sees how many he will need. I think this art show was really fun because it reflected what I wanted to be when I grow up, an architect. It is cool to see an artist is using this as art, which it is.

Overcoming the Concerns and Fears of the Class

In the beginning of the course we had to write an entry about our concerns and fears about the course. My first concern was that we didn’t have a paper to write. Now I am super happy we didn’t have one and that we had art projects instead because I have other papers to write. Another concern is that I would miss a daily entry but I didn’t. I might have gotten one or two in late but I never missed one because I had that thought in my head everyday of this quarter. I was also scared that my work would not be so original to get a good grade. I have learned that originality comes from within someone and I f you really focus, you can make a creative and original art work because that is what I did this quarter.  I also got a better understanding of what art is and how we can use it to create good art. Over this course I overcame all my concerns and fears and made successful art projects that surprised my classmates. I didn’t know I had this potential to create good art and know I know I can. I plan to keep on using my artistic values to make more art.                      

http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/03/concernsfears-of-class.html  Concerns/Fears

Class to take with TA

For this entry we need to write about which class we would prefer taking if our TA would get hired. Out of the three options, I would be more interested in signing up for the Spectacle Praxes course. This course seems very interesting because it would talk about spectacles and how they relate to art. Spectacles can be very small to very huge. Also what I found interesting is that it will talk about spectacles worldwide and not just in our country. We will see how they perform their spectacles and who is involved with the presentation. I like how we would be involved in workshops to create a spectacle of our own. I like how we would do a major spectacle at the end of the year in which the whole UCSB community is invited to come. This gets me excited because it would be similar to the events we did in Art 7a with the flash mobs and personal space projects where we did spectacles that the whole community saw and participated in. I would love to be a part of this course because our fabulous TA Desiree would be teaching it. I hope she gets hired to teach at UCSB.

Personal Space Projects: DAY 2 Favorite one

Today in my section, we went to go look at personal space projects around the school. I didn’t go today because I had already gone on Tuesday. We met up in normal class and then went out to go see the projects. They were really interesting and fun. We saw fortune tellers and a protection from the apocalypse. When we got to the ucen, many of our classmates were there to show their projects. My favorite project was done my classmate, Maxwell, in which he was giving free massages to random people. He had a bed and a couch and started to give massages to random people who wanted to one. The funny thing about this is that he had a sign that said “want to be touched” above his big massages here sign. Our TA even got on the bed and received a massage by Maxwell. What really blew me away is that he had a bed there. We asked him how he got it there but he wouldn’t tell us. The cool thing is that it was a bed from the dorms. We were all just surprised and wondered how he got the bed there. Overall, the projects were amazing and I hope to join another art class to do more of these great projects because they are so much fun. J

Free Write: Memorial Day Weekend :)

For this free form, I want to write about my Memorial Day weekend. On Saturday night, we headed out on the road on our way to Oakland. The trip is about four hours from my hometown in Santa Maria. We stopped to get food first and then left. About half way to the trip, it started to rain and it was weird because it only lasted for like an hour. When arriving in San Jose, the freeway was closed due to an accident that occurred and we had to find a different route. We got onto some other freeway and finally made it to Oakland. When we got to my uncles house, we talked for like an hour and then slept because it was already late at night. Sunday morning I woke up early so I can go pick up my brother and his girlfriend in Palo Alto which was cool because I had to drive across the Dumbarton Bridge. We headed back to my uncles house and then went to the swap meet.  After we headed to the Mall and then went back to the house to make tacos. The day ended perfectly. On Monday, we went to the mall again and then made shrimp at my uncles house. We then packed our stuff and said our goodbye and came back home. This was an awesome Memorial Day Weekend.

Personal Space Project

For my personal space project I did a 2-way walkway. The reason I went with doing this project was because it affects peoples personal walking space. They had to walk on the designated pathway to not run into incoming people on the opposite walkway. I did this project in front of the Counseling Services Center. This was a perfect place because many people walk by there in between classes. For the walkway I used six poles made out of wood. When I went home this weekend, my dad and I built them together before leaving on our trip. We went to the store to buy nails and wood and we already had the paint. I brought them here to UCSB already made and in the morning I put them together. The public kept on questioning my project. About 5 people came up to and asked what was the purpose for the project. I explained to them about personal space and how this affected peoples walking spaces. Most of the people did go in the right pathway even if they had to move around to enter the right way. Some didn’t pay attention and went on the opposite side. Overall many people did go along with it which made me feel good. A van even had to go around to not interfere with my project

SUNDAY ENTRY: Least Favorite Place

My least favorite place to go is the dentist. Just the thought of hearing the word makes me think of being in the chair. I hate going to the dentist because it is painful. I remember one time I was so freaked out, that I couldn’t let the dentist do anything to my teeth. He was about to put in the anesthesia by needle and when I saw it I kept on telling him what it was. He said it was nothing while he was holding the anesthesia behind his hand. I finally let him put it on me. I don’t like when they do the x-rays because the thing hurts when they tell you to hold it in your mouth. There are points where it doesn’t and there are some where it does. I also hate the drilling. Just the sound of a drill going off freaks me out. I can hear them when I am in the waiting room. It is also horrible when they the anesthesia doesn’t work enough and you can feel the drilling in your tooth. I also hate the feeling that you get when you leave the dentist and your mouth is super numb. And the worst news is that they tell you, you need to get your wisdom teeth taken out. AAHHH!!! D:   This is why the dentist is my least favorite place.

Weekly Documentation

For this weeks documentation I want to follow up Monday’s night. I fell asleep with my cast on and in the morning when I woke up, I finally took it off. I had no effects on my arm. Usually when people have a cast for a long time, they have more hairs or something like that. I went to class and during class we had our presentations done. Many people had awesome projects to present. When it came time to present mine, my TA showed my project on the screen. First I gave an overview of what my project was. I told them where I had done it and they could have seen the difficulties that come with being in a cast. The class saw my photos and then asked me questions like what were peoples expressions. I told them about my writing teachers expression when I came in the door. She was shocked and asked me what had happened. I just told her I got into an accident. My class was also surprised that I drove wearing my cast. I told them how it was hard to turn on the blinker with my right hand. Overall the class enjoyed my project and then we moved on to the rest of the projects being presented.

Art Show Week 9

The art show that I went this week was to see the artists Stephanie Washburn and Jane Mulfinger. Stephanie Washburn is an artist whose work is mainly about drawing, photo, and sculpture. Jane Mulfinger is a collector of human artifacts. Their works revolves around humor. Humor was seen all throughout the show because the art work they showed was about other artist’s work that deals with humor. I find this to be interesting because humor is an important part of my life too and I have been told that I am a funny man. They talk about humor can be a bad thing. They showed a comic strip in which the Prophet Mohammed was portrayed in several pictures. This comic strip gained media attention and the author was in trouble. She also showed us funny pictures like a dog that was wearing boots. This picture was so funny because it reminded me of my dog, Coco, when we were trying on shoes for him so he wouldn’t get those spiky things stuck in his feet fur. She also showed us photos of her own art work. The art work was that she took random house items and puts them on the TV screen. There was one that had butter all over it. It looked so cool. Overall, this show was awesome because it showed me a new meaning to what humor is and what it looks like on art.  

Favorite Place

My favorite place to go to is Lopez Lake. I love to go to Lopez Lake because this is the sight for our annual camping trip. Me and my family and my cousins family go here every year to get away from the city and camp for three days. We leave early Friday and get there to set up camp. We leave on Sunday afternoon. When we get there we park the cars and set up camp. We just relax and talk for most of the day. When the sun is about to set, we go for a walk around the camp sites. It is very tiring because we go up and down. This is so much fun because my family makes it fun by telling jokes all the way. We stop at a playground so the little kids can play and I also play too. After we head back to the camp site and make smores in the campfire. My cousin and mom make coffee and hot chocolate to accompany the smores. After we play Loteria and my cousin always looses and she gets mad. After playing we enjoy the rest of the coffee and head to our tents. While in the tents, I can still hear my dad talking in his tent and he makes funny comments that make me laugh hard. We wake up in the morning to have breakfast and a new enjoyable day begins.

Free Write: Wedding

For this free write, I want to talk about my parents wedding which took place last year. My parents have been married for over 20 years and wanted to have a big church wedding. They got their wish and had one. The ceremony took place on a Friday but the party was on Saturday. The Friday we all woke up early in the morning and got nicely dressed. My mom put on her wedding dress and she looked absolutely beautiful. We got in our cars and along with other members of the family, we went to the church. I was so happy because my parents were happy. After the ceremony we headed home and had a barbecue for those who attended.  At night, we headed over to the place where the party was going to take place to set up all the decorations. In the morning, now Saturday, the food started to arrive to the place. We set up the final decorations and family from out of town was beginning to arrive. We hadn’t seen them in a long time and we had catching up to do. We all got dressed and headed over to the party. There was a bouncy house for the kids and we all danced inside. The food was good and the music was as well. We danced and just had fun. At the end of the night we cleaned up and headed home. This was a day I will never forget.

Favorite/Weak Presentation: Alternate Identity PART 2

Today, in our section we had part 2 of our alternate identity projects. Most of the ones presented were mainly video which I find to be very enjoyable. There were also some photos and a powerpoint. Out of the ones presented, my favorite one was the powerpoint presentation. I really liked that one because it involved audio. The person was a mute person and for 48 hours she did not talk. The only way she communicated was by hand gestures and writing in her notebook. She would go to subway and write her order in her notebook. This was a unique presentation because it was all audio and pictures which I found really interesting. The audio was just a way to stand out and that was awesome.

The project that I thought was rather weak was the one about the girl who pretended to be very religious. She sat in front of her webcam and talked about the negative effects of Isla Vista. I thought it was weak because she didn’t include other peoples opinion and we couldn’t tell if she kept this identity for the full 48 hours. I would have videotaped myself thought out the 48 hours not just 4 minutes. Overall, all the projects were successfully done and I can’t wait till we do the Personal Space Projects next week.

Alternate Identity and Personal Space in the Media

Alternate Identity is a high idea that I mainly use in the social media. Many people sign up for these social network places like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. They don’t put their real name and even their picture can be replaced by another ones picture to keep their real identity a secret. Also alternate identity can be seen in the media. In the movie Scream 4, the opening scene consisted of a Facebook stalker who was stalking this girls saying he was some other person. The girl believed him but then found out that he wasn’t who he said he was. He was a killer. Alternate Identity can be seen all over the media and social networks. Personal Space can also be affected in Social Networks. People can see your posts all the time and also comment on them. they can be nice or mean. They can also stalk you through the media. They can see where you are at or where you will be thanks to Facebook’s feature that tells your friends where you are at. Also people can hack into your account and take over posting false posts on your profile and commenting on other peoples personal stuff. Both Alternate Identity and Personal Space can be affected by the media and social networks.

Favorite Presentation: Alternate Identity

Today in Art class, we had our projects due on our alternate identities. Everybody either had a video or photos and one person even did a comic book which I thought was pretty awesome. Most of the class presented today and the rest will go on Thursday. All the projects were good and some needed some adjustment. My favorite project presented today would have to be the cowgirl alternate identity. First of all it was shown on video which is pretty cool but what really caught my attention was that she had responses from the public. She went to Home Depot and Albertsons and documented peoples responses to her character. This was cool because most of the projects just showed themselves and had no public response. It was also cool because it also had photos at the end. What I thought was funny was that she got her toy horse and put it in her bike to make it seem like she was riding a horse. That extra detail made her project good and interesting.

The project that needed some work was the one of the guy who wore a shiny mask. This needed some work because all he did is photographed himself in the mask doing normal tasks. If it were me, I would have got peoples reaction to my costume and document the difficulties of wearing a mask for 48 hours on photo. Overall, all the projects were amazing and fun.

Alternate Indentity: Injured Person

For my Alternate Identity project, I was an injured person. The way I did my cast was that I got a band that is used for an arm injury and I put it on my hand and around my neck. It started on Sunday Morning and it ends on Tuesday morning because it has to last for 48 hours. This project took place at my house and at school. On Sunday, my day went as usual. We got up to go to church and then breakfast and the rest of the day I spent it at home. During the day, I encountered some problems that I knew required two hands to complete. I overcame those problems but it took quite some time. On Monday, which is today, I also had some difficulties in my classes and going in the shower. Here are the problems I developed: SUNDAY

Driving was hard becuase you need both hands on the wheel and to use the turn signal, I need my left hand and I had to reach with my right hand to pull the lever.

Sweeping is another hard task becuase you need both hands to sweep properly. I completed the task but it was left messy in the room.

Washing the dishes was among the most hard to complete. I only completed about 50% of the dishes becuase the ones that had the hardest stains where hard to clean.

Doing home work on the computer took quite some time to complete becuase I was only using one hand instead of two.

At the end of the day, I was folidng my clothes to come back to UCSB. The folding was difficult because I am used to doing it with both hands. It wasnt neatly folded.

                                                                                 MONDAY

In the morning, I had to put this bag over my cast to so it couldn't get wet when I got in the shower. I had to let the water hit my hand but it was ok becuase the water was hitting the bag and not the cast.

The most hardest things to do when you only have one hand available it to tie your shoes. I tried to tie them but it was useless and I just tucked the shoe laces inside my shoe.

  My class notes were very messy. I am used to writing neat and since I write with my left hand and that was the one broken, I had to use my right hand to write. It took a while and it came out messy.

Overall, this project got me thinking on people who do wear a cast becuase of an injury and wear it for along time. I had trouble with these everyday activities and I highly respect them for their hard work they must put in everyday to accomplish these simple tasks. Now I have to go another night with my cast on and take it off in the morning.

Response to Lecture Week 9 (Last Lecture)

Today’s art lecture was mainly focused on our final and our work as a class. The class started out by doing the final. The finals basically focused on photos and we had to identify them by artist and its meaning. It was kind of difficult but I managed to overcome it with my art knowledge and what the professor had said in class about the art piece. The final could have taken all class period which it di with me. At about half way through the lecture, the TA’s came on stage and presented the art work of their students. For our class, our TA showed our flash mob video and we got positive feedback because the class liked it. Also individuals art work was shown. After, Professor Fulbeck had some of the alternate identities come on stage for the whole class to view their alternate personas. Two people from our class which where a villain and superhero acted out a fight scene which was super good and funny and our TA got Jersey’ed up with sun tan lotion and hairspray. Her reaction was funny. Overall this was our last lecture and I want to give thanks to Professor Kip Fulbeck for an awesome quarter and the fun lectures he gave us. I really learned a lot about art from him.

Weekly Progress: Alternate Identity

For this week’s documentation, I want to further talk about my project on my alternate identity. I choose to be a person who has a hand injury. I plan to wear a cast on my strong hand which is my left hand. I write with my left and use it more often like to eat. This week I talked to my TA about my proposal and she approved my idea. I told her I planned to got the final in my cast and also write my final with my right hand. Although this is going to be a difficult task, I plan to do the best possible work as I can. I know it might look messy but I will try to make it as legible as I can. I plan to do my cast by going to the store and buying a band so I can wrap it around my arm and around my neck. The documentation for this project will be done by photos and I will document how my day is and how it differs from the normal day. I will document the difficulties I encounter and how I overcome them. I think this project is a good one because it lets us step into the shoes of other people and see how they get through their day. This project will be done in my house and at school. It will start Sunday morning and end Tuesday morning.

Art Show Week 8

The art show that I attended this week was to see the artist Jennifer West. Jennifer West works mainly with film. The cool thing is that she makes photographs from her films. Her work is mostly shown in museums and galleries. She stated of the show by showing a slideshow of some of her work. This slideshow was interesting because it also had pictures of her and friends that were a part of her work. After the slideshow, she showed us pictures of her art pieces that she uses a projector. She projects her art work on to a wall for everybody to see. This is amazing because she uses multiple projectors and multiple walls to show her art work.  It is colorful and you have to concentrate real hard to get the message of the art piece. I had to look beneath the art piece to really get the point of the art piece. After this Jennifer West showed us short films in which the tape was all scratched and it showed amazing effects on the screen. It was so colorful and it kept on moving. She would have a cloud background or surfers riding the waves. Overall this art show was one I will never forget because I have never seen such amazing art pieces.

Myself :)

For this entry I want to talk about myself. I was born and raised here in California. I have always lived in the central coast and I love it for the weather. I grew up with both my parents and my brother. When I was ten years old my little sister was born and we have continued to grow as a happy family. Since being a kid, I always loved school and it was so much fun for me. My brother and I have always got along good and my sister is the best little sister. I love to watch wwe, family guy, Spanish soap operas, and spend time with my family. In high school, I always got good grades and so my classmates would consider me the smart kid. I worked very hard to get to where I am today. I like to help others and attend church as well. I love going to the movies and then going to eat after that. Its been like a tradition for me where we go to the movies late at night and then eat at a fast food place like at 1 am. I am a trustworthy, friendly, funny guy.  I always respect other people and I like to be as nice as possible.

Favorite Artist: John Cena

If I could be any artist, I would have to be the WWE Superstar John Cena. John Cena is a wrestling super star and he is on the Raw brand. I would like to be John Cena because I want to experience what it is like to have thousands of fans screaming my name as I make my way down to the ring. John Cena is famously known for being the good guy and he has millions of fans that support him all the way. He had held many championships and has appeared in movie such as The Marine. He has appeared in Wrestlemania and won a championship there. I would want to be him to experience the happiness and excitement that happens when you win a championship. I want to be able to hold it in my hands and wear it proudly. I want to go around and have people recognize me. I want to be able to peek through the curtains and see those thousands of fans in the arena waiting for my appearance and hear my entrance music when I go down the ramp and win my match. Being John Cena would be very cool because of the great performance he puts for his fans and the cheers he get from them too.

                                 

Favorite Villian: The Joker

If I could be any villain, I would have to be the Joker from batman. I define the Joker as being a sneaky, clever mastermind. In the cartoons he appears as always being happy and making jokes. His weapons are funny as well because he doesn’t use ordinary guns. He is cool because in the cartoons he also has a sidekick with him. She does whatever he tells her to do. In the movie with real people, he wears a mask when he robs the bank. This is funny because he doesn’t need to wear a mask because he already has make up on. I also love how he uses a joker card as his business card or when he leaves clues on who did the crime. I would love to be the joker because he is sneaky and he is always in a good mood. I also like his laugh and he doesn’t give up until he completes his crime. I also like his outfit that consists of a purple tuxedo and the way his make-up is messed up in the movie. The Joker is my favorite villain and I would love to be in his clever, maniacal shoes.

Any Superhero: Batman

If I could be any super hero, I would have to be the caped crusader Batman. Batman is the coolest super hero of all time because first of all his suit is super awesome. His dark body armor is super hard so no bullet can pass and he also has a cape. Also the mask has that bat like figure with the pointy ears.  He also fights crime in the night where he cannot be seen. He flies as well. I mean I would love to fly around the city waiting for crime to happen. Its cool to beat up criminals and have them fear you because they know I will win. Also the batmobile is another reason I would love to be batman. He drives like this tank type car which has a motorcycle within it just in case the whole tank doesn’t work. it also throws weapons so that any structure standing in its way can be completely destroyed with the push of a button. It can also run over trucks and cars. He also has a sidekick whose name is Robin. Together they both defend the people of Gotham City. This is why I would love to be batman.

Free Write: Road Trip

In this Free Write, I would love to talk about my recent trip to Mexico with my family. We left after my finals in December. We left on a sunny Saturday and I was so excited to this road trip. We even took our dog coco with us and he was good all the way. We decided to go by truck because we could take more stuff than if we had left on the airplane. We traveled all the way to Guadalajara Mexico. The first day on the road was fun because we were in California and then crossed over to Arizona. There we had to wait until the patrol officers opened the border at 6:30 in the morning. We went to Mcdonalds in the mean time to grab some breakfast then headed to the border. After crossing, the excitement began because I got see new sights. There was pure desert and cactuses everywhere. People were walking all over the place and when we stopped for lunch the people greeted us with respect. We traveled all of Sunday to our  night stop in Culiacan Mexico. There we went to a little store to buy our dinner and went back to the hotel to eat, shower, and rest. We woke up at 4:30 Monday morning and headed back on the road. We stopped for lunch and again we were welcomed with respect. The food was amazing and then we had finally reached our destination in Guadalajara.

Free Write: UCSB

In this free write I want to talk about my experience here at UCSB. Before coming here, I thought that it was going to be just like in the movies where there was parties in the dorms and drinking all the time. When I got here, I found out that I was wrong. The people were really friendly and helpful. They helped me with my stuff to my dorm room. My classes are real different from high school. In high school, my average class size was about 30 people where as here its about 400 people. I got surprised when I saw that many people in the auditorium. I wondered if this was going to be a tough environment to get my studies done. It was the opposite because I did focused on my classes and passed them with good grades. The dining area is the best because its buffet style.  I knew that UCSB was going to be a good place to get my studies done. My professor’s always have time to see me if I have any problems and my TA’s are so helpful when I need to get help from them. My experience doesn’t end here as I still have more UCSB years to experience.

Response to Lecture Week 8

Today’s art lecture was mainly focused on the idea of Persona and Personal Space. The professor started off the lecture by talking about the term happenings and how it was used in art and people who were involved. At 3:50, our class had our alarms set to ring and they all rang and the professor was really cool about it. He also took out his phone and played a tone. He talked about the artist Krysztof Wodiczko who projected light on to structures to symbolize a specific meaning. I thought this was really cool because I have never seen this performed and it just looked so cool to see someones face real big on a screen and getting a message out there. He also showed us a film about two people who were tied together for one whole year. They did everything together and they documented themselves doing ordinary everyday chores like cooking and bathing. I thought this was a really hard task to perform. I would never do this because I don’t think I would last. I highly admire the two people involved. He ended the lecture by showing the trailer and a clip from the movie The Cove. This movie really disturbed me because I didn’t like how they are slaughtering and killing these dolphins. Overall, the lecture showed me a more in depth meaning of personal space and persona.

Pick one to talk about. Alternate Indentity

The project that I want to talk about most is the wearing the sandals for my alternate identity. My identity is seen as a quiet dude and that doesn’t wear sandals. The only time I wear sandals is when I go take a shower or go to the beach or just when I am camping with my family. What I would do for this alternate identity is that I will put on sandals for the time needed to complete this project which I believe is 48 hours. I would put them on all day and to go to classes and other place. I will wear them around campus. This project would take place on a Sunday night and go on to Tuesday. I would document my self with photography. I would post on my blog my experience and what it feels like to have sandals all day long. When I leave my dorm I always see other people doing it by I don’t find myself comfortable wearing them. This would be a great project because its an alternate identity and people don’t usually see me like this. I will post this on my blog for my classmates to see my experience.

Work Progress/Documentation: Flash Mob

In this week’s work progress I would like to talk about our flash mob experience. We brainstormed about this project last week in class. We came up with the ideas as a group. On Tuesday we decided what we were going to do and rehearsed in class. We practiced a lot to make sure we got the project right. Today we met up at our usual class and went to our locations to out forward this project. We started off with duck, duck, goose in the bike loop and then headed to Ucen for a fake gun shootout. The people in the Ucen were not aware of our project and were surprised when they saw us in our pose ready to say bang! We then headed to the library to make a tunnel for the people who were coming down the elevator and then the arbor for our ninja combat. We did the Ucen dining area in the end for another round of the gun shootout part. We had a blast doing it. I would agree to do it all again because it was so much fun. It taught us more about the meaning of personal space and an alternate action in public space.

Art Show Week 7

The art show that I attended this week was to see Kori Newkirk show his art work.  His art work is that he turns everyday items into amazing art pieces. His work mainly focuses on race, gender, and masculinity. He also focuses on many other ideas as well. This makes me feel good because I like how he uses these ideas in his art work. if I were to become an artist, I think gender and race would be one of my major focuses as well. He showed us an art piece of the logo of Cadillac. He told us his families history with Cadillac’s and what they mean to him. When he was growing up, most of his family had Cadillac’s.  Another art piece was these giant hair combs and were in a circle and it looked like a giant crown from a distance. This was a cool piece because it has a lot of different meanings to it. He explained some like it could represent like a jail from the inside but the one I like was that it looked like a crown. He also showed us some self portraits he made. One piece that left me speechless was about curtains made of beads and they had a design. They were absolutely beautiful and he said they take along tome to create. This art show was completely amazing and so was the art pieces shown.

Proposals for Alternate identity

For our next big project, we are being asked to do and alternate identity. Our TA has shown us various examples like of one girl who acted like she didn’t have hands. Here are my three proposals.

My first proposal is to give up my shoes and use sandals only. I don’t wear sandals in school or in the dining commons. I only use them to shower and to go to the beach. I would use sandals to go to class and feel like other people who wear them. I don’t like to wear them in public but I could do this for this project. I would document me wearing them in public and in class.

My second proposal is to put my shoes on the opposite sides of my foot. I would put my left shoe in my right foot and vice versa. This would be cool because it would show me what it feels like to walk in a funny motion. I think I would be tripping all over the place and people would stare at me. I would document what it feels like walking like this and what other people think about my project.

My third proposal is to change my personality from being all happy and nice to being mad all the time. I am a quiet happy guy but for this project I can change completely my personality to being this mad person. I think this I a good project because it changes my identity completely which is the whole point of this project. I can document how my day went and me being mad all the time.

Provide the URLs

For this entry, we were asked to provide URLs to our projects like the puns, daily nexus entry, sequence, alternate space, confession, act of kindness. For the puns we were asked to do a pun of our own. My pun was to get a picture of a bee and put it next to my knee so it could be a beanie. For the daily nexus false article I wrote about how Los Angeles is a traffic free city in which tourists visit for just that reason. For my sequence project I followed my mom and documented how her working day is different from that of a resting day. It was on Saturday and Sunday. For my alternate action in public project was that I went to jack in the box and had a meal as if it were fine dining. My confession project was that I love to sing in my car to forget about the daily stresses of life. Finally my act of kindness assignment was that I mentioned how I provided the hotel when my family and I took a trip down to Disneyland. It was a unique room because it had bunk beds and a king size bed for the parents. All of these have my projects so far and here are the links that go with them.

 PUN http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/04/art-documentmy-work.html

Sequence/Narrative http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/05/sequence-and-narrative-project.html

Alternate Action in Public http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/04/dinner-plate-introduced-in-fast-food.html

Confession http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/04/work-progress-confession.html

Act of Kindness http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/04/random-act-of-kindness.html

Daily Nexus Entry http://waltermendez.blogspot.com/2011/04/los-angeles-no-traffic.html

Flash Mob Experience

Today’s art activity was to do a flash mob with our class. Before going into this activity, I was super excited because I have seen youtube videos on flash mobs and they seemed so much fun. We got to class and went to our locations. First we played duck, duck, goose in the bike loop by storke tower. Then we went to the Ucen and did a gun point shootout with our hands. Then we went to the library and made like a hand tunnel and stood in front of the elevator so the people coming out could walk under it. Then we headed to the food area by the Arbor. There we did a ninja standoff and we got like into a brawl. Then we headed back to the Ucen to the gun shootout again. These activities were so much fun and just to see the peoples reaction was priceless. They didn’t suspect a thing. We had so much fun as a class. It got me to think about personal space and what can be done and in what places. We got those awkward stares but we didn’t care. We had a blast and I would be down to perform another flash mob in the coming future.

These are the flash mobs we performed.

Free Write: Jonas Brother Concert

In this free form, I would like to talk about my experience to my first Jonas Brothers concert. When they first announced their tour, me and my cousin were super excited. It was even better because they were going on tour with the cast of Camp Rock and with special guest Demi Lovato. We were super happy because these were all big stars. We finally purchased out tickets and we headed over there four months later. The show was in Mountain View, CA.  My parents drove us and they left us at the venue. My little sister was also with us. We waited in line and finally we got to go inside. We were headed to our seats when we saw a sales person selling tickets to go more in front. We bought them and headed to our seated seats instead of the lawn. We went to buy our souvenirs and headed to our seats. Camp Rock opened the show and then Demi Lovato made her appearance and sang. After the big showcase was the Jonas Brothers. The fans were going crazy and they sang their most hit songs. I was singing along just like the rest of the fans. After the show, my parents picked us up and headed to my uncles house. This was a day I will never forget.

My Classes

The classes that I am currently taking other than Art are Theater, Psychology, and Writing. I really like my theater class because we get to learn about the theater in the sixteenth century. We get to learn about famous playwrights and what were ideas were on theater. I am doing well in the class. We just got back our first essay and I got a B+. I am really excited to see what theater has in store for us in the coming weeks. Next, Psychology is my one of my favorite classes. I love it because I want to major in psychology and it is just amazing to learn about the mind and brain and what makes us do what we do. it is fascinating to learn about our actions and what part of our brain makes us do those everyday actions. I want to be a child psychologist so that’s why I love my psychology course. Then my Writing class is really interesting. We get to learn about different writing methods and our teacher haves us write definition and evaluation papers. I like this because its different from an academic paper we all write. It’s nice to get to experience and new perspective of writing. Overall, I am doing well in my classes.

Response to Lecture Week 7

This week’s art lecture was mainly about sequence and narrative. The Professor started the class by introducing several artists whose art features this idea of sequence and narrative. Those artist were Hans Haacke and David Antin. He also gave the definition for narrative. This first part of the lecture was interesting because I got to learn a new way to view narrative. I got to see other artists way of expressing narrative. The Professor talked about Duane Michals who took photographs and wrote directly on them. he would write a simple sentence or more describing the photograph. This was cool because I have never seen anything like this before. I have never witnessed an art piece with sentences written in it. The next part of class, the Professor talked about comics. He showed us comics and how some of them didn’t want their work to be sold in merchandise. I found this to be kind of weird because the merchandise is being sold and the creator should allow his work to be sold so he can atleast make some money of the items sold. The last part of class, a film was shown that was all photographs. This was so amazing because I have never seen a film made of pure photos. It was so cool how it told a story and the photos really showed it. Overall, the lecture made me think more about sequence and narrative and its meaning.

Personal Space

The idea that I want to commit to is to the second proposal to sit next to a person real close on the dining commons. I thought about this idea because I wanted to know what personal space was about. Personal space means to have your own space and is kind of private. I thought of way people could invade my personal space and that would be to get to close to me and not give me any space. I thought about it and said that this could be a good project. This is good because I thought about how I would feel if someone did the same thing to me. I would be very mad and tell them to get away and give me space to eat. I want to see what their reaction would be or if they would have any reaction. I would document this project by taking photos of me sitting next to people while they enjoy their meal. I will then ask them about their experience with me and how they feel about someone invading their personal space. I think this project will turn out successful because it defines the meaning of Personal Space in ways that get other people involved.

Weekly Progress: Personal Space

In this weekly progress I further want to elaborate on my attempts to do a personal space project. The ones I feel strong about is the eating in the dining commons really close to someone and having to ride my bike next in a crowd of people who are walking. I would assume their reactions would be to tell me to get away. They might respond in an angry way because I am invading their personal space and interrupting where they walk. I would respond in the same way if this was happening to me. I want to take photos of their reactions and ask them questions about how they feel about what I did. I would do it in the walk way and the other in the dining commons. I would sit close to the subject. I want to see how they feel about personal space and about my actions. I will be the one doing this project. I will do this on the days when a lot of people would be present. I want to put forward this project because it defines the whole objective of the Personal Space. It involves other and that’s what I want. I was considering doing this about me only but I want to expand my ideas to the public.

Proposals for Personal Space

Our next big project is the Personal Space Assignment. Here are three proposals I intend in doing.

The first one is to ride my bike next to people who are walking. I would find a place where there are many students walking and see how they react to my presence of riding a bike where only walking is permitted. This is good because I will see what it is like to ride my bike where it is forbidden. I want to see how peoples walking paces are affected by me coming through and if they can react.

My second proposal is to sit down in the dining commons and eat too close to a person. I would sit down and push my seat close to another person and see how they react. Will they get up and leave or will they continue eating. This is an example of Personal space because I am literally invading their personal space.  After I will ask them for their thoughts on me doing this project.

My third proposal is to walk or run close to someone. I could do this by slowly approaching someone random on the walkway, or run next to someone who is running. I want to see if they will back away or continue on the same path thinking I will get away. This is good because it invade their personal space and I want to document their reactions to my approach. I will ask them question after.

Art Show Week 6

The art show that I attended this week was to see the artist Alejandro Casazi. Alejandro Casazo began the presentation with telling us that he works with printmaking in the field of media. Right away I knew this presentation was going to be fascinating. In the beginning , he talked about the country of Colombia. He talked about the problems that are in Colombia like wars and drugs. He had pictures to show us that reveal this problem. He next talked about a painting which he calls Kissing the Pavement. This painting is based on a bad situation that happened to him. He told us that one night he was approached by some guys and they warned him that he would be kissing the pavement if he refused to give them his wallet. Obviously it meant they would beat him up. I thought this piece was amazing because it told a story and it was personal. Then he talked about F.A.T. Lab which is a piece in which there was food on a white canvas and when people picked up the food it would leave a stain on the canvas. He ended the presentation by having the students ask him questions. I thought this show was amazing because he spoke about his heritage of Colombia and personal events that happened to him.

Flash Mobs

Today in class, we discussed the topic of Flash Mobs. Flash Mobs are where we do a performance that grabs the attention of many spectators around. We watched several youtube videos and they were about dancing in the crowd and freezing in place. After watching more flash mob related videos, we got into three groups and discussed ideas that we could do as a class. My group talked about acting like ninjas and having a battle. We also talked about playing a large game of duck, duck goose. What I liked is having to dance. I want to dance in front of everybody out of nowhere. This would be so much fun because I have a feeling students could join in with us. We only discussed it today but on Tuesday we are going to make our final decision and practice so we can make this a successful project. Flash Mobs are very interactive because many can participate. The rest of the class had some cool ideas as well. One was about pretending to sit in a bus in the bus turn around. Another was to go to the Ucen and pretend we are shooting each other with our hands that are shaped into a gun. Whichever project we choose, I’m sure I will enjoy it.

These would be prefect locations to do our flash mobs becuase it gets crowded with people in these areas.

Movie seen recently: SCREAM 4

A movie that I have seen recently is SCREAM 4. I saw this movie last week at the theater with my cousin. We have been waiting for months to see this movie because we are huge SCREAM fans. We finally had our chance and got to enjoy. As an artistic piece, SCREAM 4 keeps you focused on the movie and trying to find out who the killer is. Just like we do to a painting where we study it to find out its meaning. I also like how the camera moves though out the movie. It pans around slowly and not fast. I also enjoy watching SCREAM 4 because it directed by Wes Craven. Wes Craven is known as the master if suspense and this movie has a lot of suspense in it. The music also adds to that suspense by making the audience feel like the killer is about to pop up. Also the actors give meaning to the SCREAM movies. The three originals that came out in the first three movies come out in the fourth. I enjoy because it’s a horror film as well as a mystery film. SCREAM 4 really has an artistic view because of it mysteriousness and its methods of filming involved.

Free Write: My Concert Experience

In this free write, I would like to talk about my concert experiences. The concerts that I have attended more are to see Katy Perry. I have been to four concerts in total. Me and my cousin are fans of her and we go every time we get a chance. We have seen her two times in Los Angeles and two times in Santa Barbara. When we go we wait outside the venue for about six hours so that we can get a good seat inside. I know six hours might seem crazy, but we enjoy it. There are many other fans outside waiting and we get to know them. we talk for hours the time passes by quickly. When we go inside the venue, we all stay together and pick a good spot. The opening band starts of the show and then Katy Perry comes running in. The fans scream and cheer for her. The music is loud and we sing along to her songs. All the lights all colorful and it makes the environment friendly and happy. She sings her final hit song and leaves backstage. I have actually got the chance to go backstage and meet her. She is really nice and gets along with her fans. She took a photo with me and signed my CD’s. This has been an experience I will never forget.

Favorite Presentation: Sequence and Narrative

Today in our Art class, we had to present our Sequence and Narrative projects. There were so many funny and amazing ones. All my classmates showed enthusiasm when presenting their projects. One project that really stood out to me was the first one. It was done by Eddie, my classmate, and it was a song he created. The song was about his sister who fell in love with this guy who ended up cheating on her with her best friend. Eddie told us that his sister now has a different attitude and that she can no longer trust a guy and has become a heart breaker. This song was really touching because I know this experience has happened to so many people. It was sad to hear about this story and to know that this guy would cheat on her with her best friend. I wondered how that might have affected the friend’s relationship. Did they stop talking to each other or did they come to a compromise? Also the song itself was sung by Eddie and he worked hard on it to make it successful. It was like a poem which was really cool. I would say this was the best presentation today.

Sequence and Narrative Project

For this assignment, the project was to do a Sequence and Narrative assignment. For this project I documented the sequence of a worker and compared it to the life in a non working environment. I documented my mom who is a child care provider. She works 6 days a week and rests on Sunday. I wanted to see how a working day and resting day change. I took pictures of her working and when she was not working

This is my mom as she starts her day working on Saturday. She wakes up and gets ready to receive the kids. She starts off with a smile as always and ready to see what challenges lie ahead. This is at 7:30am

After lunch time, the kids go outside and play for a while before nap time. They are under the supervision of my dad and brother. My mom stays inside and cleans up after them. She does the dishes and organizes the kitchen and living room. This is at 12:30pm.

In the afternoon, after the kids have ate dinner, they play outside and my mom watches over them. The parents begin to arrive during this time. My mom watches over them making sure they are safe. She looks at them carefully.  She ends the day with a shower and enjoying family time. This is at 5:45pm

Sunday morning comes around and this is rest day. The whole family wakes up for church. My mother begins by getting up and waking up the family and getting ready herself. She puts on her Sunday clothes and make-up to start off this day. This is at 8:10am

After church and breakfast, we go to the store. Here we see my mom at the store looking for new toys to buy to the kids. She is relaxed here because this is a different environment than home. She takes her time because she wants to buy educational toys. This is at 12:00pm

At the end of the day, we head over to the store to buy food for the week. My family comes along as well. My mom takes her time her aswell becuase she wants to take what we need. She finds the food and we leave the store. This is at 6:30pm

The point of this project was tp show how a woking day and resting day differ from each other. As we can see, they differ alot in style and environment. These photos were taken on Saturday and Sunday. My mom works hard on Saturday and relaxes on Sunday.

Response to Lecture Week 6

This weeks’ art lecture was based on Spoken Word. I was really looking forward to this lecture because the professor said it was going to be fun. I wondered all week what it was going to be about. He first started out by defining what Spoken Word is. This definition was very broad because it had many definitions. The definitions were that it was one of the oldest form of expression, that it predated written word, and that include many forms of spoken word like talk radio, stand-up, poetry, and many more. I have heard talk radio and stand-up and now it is fascinating to know it is part of the spoken word definition. Now when someone tells me what we are listening to, I’ll say spoken word. The professor went on to tell us what to look for in spoken word. We need to look out for timing, pauses, repletion, and many more. When he finished with definitions, he presented some students who went up to the stage and gave their spoken word presentations. They talked about family and social issues. It was completely amazing to hear these students and their thoughts on stage. The audience really liked their speeches. It was cool because they make it seem easy, but I know it is not. It takes serious talent to do what these students did on stage. They did gestures and moves that made it seem so amusing. They weren’t just standing there. After the students performed their speeches, the professor introduced a spoken word artist who has been doing this for years.

Beau Sia made his way down to the stage. When he got up there, he introduced himself. He started doing his presentation and it was completely amazing to see how he performed it. He was moving around and he raised his voice when needed. His talks were mainly based on social issues and family. He is an inspirational figure and he knows how to get us excited. He made us laugh and we reacted in a very positive mood. This lecture was a really fun one and I got to see what spoken word is about.