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.