DANEY’S BRAIN

Slides Theme: Exosphere

admin — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 17:46:45 +0000

A theme for when you wish you were in space but you have to be on Earth giving presentations instead. Free for non commercial use. To add this theme to your personal drive, follow the steps on the second slide!

MUTROPOLIS is live!

admin — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 19:31:09 +0000

Table, Chess, and all the Mess!

admin — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 22:01:39 +0000

Click Through For Process Info!

It’s finished…… it’s finally finished………. My table and cushions and chess set! It’s been a fun time making all this stuff. Also, there were at least 7 times in this process where I was thought I was about to cause a mess of catastrophic proportions, but that happened at most 0.5 times, so I’m delighted about that! (I’m still very afraid of beanbag chair stuffing. It takes a hole the size of a dime to cause an Incident the size of uh. bigger than a dime). All in all this has left me sort of astounded that yes, I did make all this stuff. Which is great!! I have options to make things that I need with my own two hands which I didn’t realize I had. (Maybe I’ll make a bigger beanbag chair one day! I’ll need a while to get over my fears caused by the Great Bean Incident though). As for the exhibit itself, it was awesome to see my entire chess set just existing in a public space, but also, sort of weird? If I do this kind of thing again I’m giving myself time to try out more than one setting for my work. Finally, and most importantly…. I need to play chess more!
Daney Flanagan, signing off!

WFTGTD..?

admin — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 19:14:16 +0000

...I'm confused too. Hi though!

Three artists. Three wildly innovative ways of interacting with space. My thoughts on all of this: Neat!

Simone Leigh

Olafur Eliasson

Nicholas Hlobo

Simone Leigh

Takeaway from this: LOVE the way she uses scale. Making a sculpture so huge is one thing (although, not insignificant! I imagine it’s super technically challenging), making the sculpture work with its size to command its environment is another, and Brick House does this super well.
Thoughts for my own art: how do I make something feel truly huge?

Olafur Eliasson

Side note, since I’m writing this a little (a lot) later than I was supposed to, as soon as I saw this name I went “hey wait I’ve heard of this guy” and sure enough! He’s responsible for one of my favorite works at wareHOUSE! The book Your House, to be specific. I wouldn’t have immediately guessed that he was the same artist behind stuff like The Weather Project, to be honest. Both works are extremely spatially oriented, but nothing else jumps out as similar between the two. I’m glad I remembered Eliasson’s name from wareHOUSE so I could make this connection, because otherwise I never would have realized!
Anyway, about his work in general. I think the most impactful aspect of it is the atmospheric stuff he does with color and light. It makes me feel like moths have the right idea about the whole “bash into this lightbulb” kinda thing. Seriously, if I saw The Weather Project in person you’d probably have to drag me out of the room because I’d just stay in there forever if no one stopped me.

Nicholas Hlobo

Texture! It’s grand! Something about needlework makes me want to put my hands all over the fabric, and this is no exception. It’s to do with the sense of motion a line of stitches conveys, in combination with the physical space it takes up, I think. Whatever the underlying reasons, they’re elements that Hlobo is using masterfully to convey his art. He makes cloth look almost like liquid, not in the smooth sense but in the turbulence of water flowing over rocks.

Response: Rare books at the Rose Library

admin — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 14:48:58 +0000

I’ll admit, I didn’t have particularly high expectations for this trip. I assumed it would be very history focused and sort of dry, and though it had a definite focus in history it was probably the highlight of my week. All of the artist books were amazing! Expect a gallery within this post as soon as I’ve processed all the pictures I took.
That aside, I’m sort of at a loss for what to write. There were so many interesting things I’m not sure I can properly condense them into a blog post. A major takeaway, though, is that this has drastically changed my view of what “book” means, which I imagine was sort of the point. One of my favorite books in the selection we looked through looked more like a little wooden cabinet than a book, and had very little text. Instead, the reader was invited to move around sections of the book and see how they interacted with the magnets within. I wanted to just sit there and play with it all day, it reminded me of my favorite book from elementary school (the title unfortunately escapes me), an elaborate pop up book about mice that almost turned into a playset. It had lots of little papercraft figures that weren’t actually attached to the book, but were instead meant to interact with the pop up elements like dolls. (Note to self: track down this book on the internet later.)
Another highlight was the book “Interluceo”, a collection of paper cut outs in geometric forms. Though simple in subject matter, you could tell from the attention paid to each shape, as well as the attention paid to the handmade paper, that this was a love letter to form and the process of paper making. It was beautiful, and I’m going to have to visit the Rose again to look at more of their collection.

Response: Robin Lynch and Scholarship Process

admin — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 14:15:18 +0000

This presentation was a nice companion to the one Katherine Smith gave several weeks prior, in that it continued my search for answers to what the process of scholarly research really is. I really admire Robin’s love of the research process, although I don’t think I match it. I’ve grown to not dislike research as I’ve found ways to do it which combine with processes of information gathering I already enjoy, but I’m not sure it will ever be my favorite part of an artistic project. As she explained the path she took to hone her focus and gather materials for her project, a response to Uncle Tom’s Cabin and its cultural impact, I saw bits of my own methods and passion for learning, which I think has done me well. I’ve never considered my workflow formal, or even correct, but apparently whatever it is, it can work.

Response: Liquid Darkroom

admin — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 13:47:10 +0000

This was a trip down memory lane! It’s been a while since the film photography class I took in junior year of high school, and as frustrating as that class was at times, this was a welcome return. Thanks Calvin and thanks Nell! You don’t realize you miss that chemical smell till you’re back in the darkroom realizing you don’t know which tongs go where.
Needless to say, this ‘trip’ was to a photography darkroom. Trip is in quotes because we just went down to the basement of Dana where the biggest (and currently the only operational) darkroom on campus is. Still, it was a great time! It’s a much nicer darkroom than the one at my old high school, which lacked a real door and film reeling room (we used the connected boiler room instead). Since we understandably didn’t come in with film to put in the enlargers, instead we did mostly solar printing. I don’t actually know if it’s called that when you’re using the enlarger, if there’s a word specifically for laying objects on photo paper and exposing them to light in a darkroom setting it escapes me. Anyway, we were able to get a lot of variety in subject matter with a combination of random items from the print shop outside and old film that was in the darkroom when we got there. Since I’m taking a printmaking class and happened to have a transparency of my solar plate work in the print shop, I printed it on photo paper as well, which was neat! All and all it was great to be back in the darkroom again, it makes me want to take another film photography class.
As an aside for Agnes students and staff, did you know we technically have three darkrooms on campus? beyond the operational one in Dana, there’s a very small one in the Bradley Observatory. It’s not set up for photo developing right now but I think it has a hammock in it if you’re an astronomy student and want to nap while you’re waiting for it to stop raining on the SARA telescopes. There was also intended to be a darkroom open for student use in Alston, but after years of disuse it is now the prayer room, and no longer has the revolving door to trap light. The more you know!

Response: Visiting Big River Bindery

admin — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 13:00:44 +0000

So, firstly: this was really fun!! Big thanks to Andrew for having us. Also thanks to Nell for picking this as a field trip in the first place, since it’s not something I would ever have thought about otherwise. The process of bookmaking is beautiful, and I loved seeing all the different things involved. It’s a lot different from the digital way I usually do things, where my entire “studio” can fit in my backpack, and I can carry 5 years worth of work around with me on my keychain.

There’s something about seeing all those dense metal paper cutters and presses that gives the final works weight. (haha get it? weight? seriously, I do not envy the idea of having to move all that equipment across a country.) The atmosphere of the studio in general helps that as well, with all the drawers full of type and shelves full of books. I loved in particular when I asked Andrew what the smallest book he ever bound was, and he excitedly shuffled through shelves of material before producing out of nowhere a tiny box filled with even tinier books, the smallest of which was only as big as a keyboard key. Apparently to qualify as an official miniature book, you have to be 3 inches or smaller in every dimension, (or at least the first three) so I don’t make the cut. I guess I’m also not a book, but nobody’s perfect.
Anyway, it was an absolute delight to visit Big River Bindery! I’ve done some amateur bookmaking once or twice, maybe I’ll give it a shot again sometime, especially since I’m taking a printmaking class right now.

Response: Katherine Smith and the art of Research

admin — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 10:52:37 +0000

I’ve never considered myself good at research. I’m very good at tracking down the information I want (if I want to find an obscure video I saw a few months ago but the only keywords I remember are “medieval wizard music in an old video game”, I will spend half an hour pulling every resource I can think of until I find it. Even if it’s like 1 AM. Ask my roommate. Sorry, Ray.)
But, that’s not quite the same thing as research in my opinion. For one thing, as Katherine discussed with us, a lot of research is deciding what information you need in the first place. While we discussed the books she had brought in terms of which to first reference, I thought about this a lot. My searches for information are usually based around a single and concrete fact I want to find, but how do you lay the groundwork for turning these desires into a cohesive project which you share with others?
As I’ve sort of come to understand, it really is important to have the foundation. A vague question like “where’s that freakin wizard video?” is not in itself a research project, though it can point you in the right direction. If I wanted to expand on the question and draw in more material than the video itself, a question like “How did composer Tim Follin contribute to early digital music as a genre?” would be a good start.

Visual Analysis: Information as List

admin — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 04:01:59 +0000

because bullet points are fun
I mean: look at them
like poetry, kind of

Subject Matter: Still life-y stuff
two children (background)
vase of plants (foreground)
some fruit and nuts
a cricket
Black and white only
woodcut print
shading done with hatching
Print is circular
frame is square
Line: it’s important
different within work
children are simple
few lines
flowers and vase very complex
many small lines
lines used to define different segments of work
separate foreground from background
Shape: also important
solid blocks of black and white hold power
table with still life is solid black
creates border of world, foreground
background striped
blocks of solid white and bands of fine black lines
brings vase forward
children back