Kevin Kremler: Postcards From The Grey Area

I attended Kevin Kremler's lecture on April 5th in the Church Fine Arts building.  Kevin is a friend of mine that I met last semester and ever since I have met Kevin I have never personally seen his work completed.  I say completed because during spring break I spent a lot of time in the sculpture studio with him and watching his progress but never asking him about his project.  I did this on purpose because I wanted to wait until he was ready for his reception and had it all set up so I could see it in it's full glory.  His lecture was very interesting because it gave more of an understanding to his work and where his inspiration comes from.  His interest in the grey area and tensions are something that I believe every artist tampers with but not all can succeed.  Kevin's show does a good job at evoking a feeling of tension because when putting sand in his main piece there is a feeling of unknowing of the outcome.  As I was viewing this particular piece I watched other viewers and took note of their reactions.  Some people were really timid about putting the colored sand into the vessels, they would just put a little and kind of back away quickly as soon as they did put it into the piece.  This was very entertaining to me and I feel like it would be to Kevin as well.  It was all interaction based and I thought that part of it was intriguing.  Something I really enjoyed about the show was the postcard portion.  Everyone was so confused when they got their postcards because it shows different images than what they thought was going to be printed.  It is a trick on the subject, makes them even more vulnerable because their outcome was expected but not filled.  In the end it is nice to have hard proof of being at the show though.  Kevin's craftsmanship in his projects is very good, I watched him make some of his show in the studio and how focused he is on the smallest of measurements.  I am really glad that I never gave in and asked him about the project because I had made up my own preconceptions about what it may be, in a way I was making a bet with myself and he proved me wrong because it completely surprised me.  Kevin is an amazing person who is very into the things he is doing in his life and I respect him for being so down to earth.  Not to bad talk other artists but some can be so full of themselves they don't see anyone else. 

Proposal Site: Friendly Free Drink

Here is my proposal site design.  If I were to make a real site I would probably include more links and catergories so find a certain photo or story from the site.  The main purpose is to just share and spread good karma, and a free drink to someone as well as hopefully make a new friend or connection.  I added the make your own sticker portion because I thought it would give more incentive to the people, it would be a way to be a part of the project as well as get your own art out there. 

My participation in other's crowdsourcing projects

So I have documented my participation in screen shots.  I did the young me now me crowd sourcing project and have a few screen shots for proof.  First one is me sending it to the project and then the other two are the pictures I sent. Then I did the Johnny Cash project.  I have a picture of the frame and the frame I did.  And the last!  Sarah's myamazingbutt.com project! I have my email sending my picture and story as well as the picture!!  These were really fun to do and I really like the idea of crowd sourcing I think it is a way to just have fun for the sake of fun sometimes and to be apart of something bigger.  In a way it's like church, haha not meant to offend of course.

Yet yet again....more questions for Discussion

The thing about crowdsourcing that I think alot of people may get confused about is that it is or can be so broad, I think personally the website article would have been more effective if it were a video or displayed more pictures/videos of the projects.  I did look at the pictures they had but I really would have liked to see peoples reactions or inspirations because that is the whole point of crowdsourcing as I understand.  With some of the projects it is probably really difficult to actually record or photograph reactions because it can reach a largely spread out group of people, so my question is, is it possible to have a crowdsourcing project that is completely documented or has anyone done such a project?

I feel that something that has changed over time in the art realm is the conceptualism of a piece becoming the piece, alot of the crowdsourcing is all based on conceptualism.  If crowdsourcing is a slightly new concept made more possible, more accessible, more documented thanks to the internet, I began to wonder when crowdsourcing first became a thing.  There must have been other forms of crowdsourcing in the past, before internet, before such technologies like telephones or filmcameras.  Would a chain letter be a type of crowdsourcing?  The participatice article inspired my thoughts to go in this direction because it talks about participation in the work as being the major part of it, so I am just wondering if there any forms of crowdsourcing that doesn't involve the internet?

Bombarded With The Sick and Drunk Mixer

I chose to do this project on some personal videos I took after some drinks(yes even the cat one) and also one at a bar in Montana.  The videos are in no way smooth, just like how after a few drinks people are not very smooth either, explained in some of the videos.  Emotions and actions get amplified.  By having these videos playing at once it resembles a bar or party, many different things happening simultaneously.  The "sickness" of the title refers to the obsession and physical sickness that alcohol holds, for some reason people drink and have fun while doing it, for the most part.  Using html is confusing and very frustrating at times.  I dabbled in it when I was younger but since then have not so this was a bit of a flash back to that early frustration.  

Manovich

Manovich talks about data being lost in digitization, is this also relevant to digitizing hard copy work such as a drawing? If what was private becomes public, does this eliminate all uses of technology in secrecy?  Could there be a World War of Hack-ation?