Wk 10 – Artist Conversation – Matthew Dumpit

Matthew Dumpit is currently a senior who originated from the bay area. His inspiration for arts came from the people in his environment who pushed him through art like his teachers. He currently has a Bachelors of Arts in Metal. In terms of his future, he wishes to be in designing and wants to expand his knowledge through graduate school for industrial design. He notes that metal is a great foundation for other art platforms even if it is something small.

He debuted his first gallery on October 29, 2015 at the Werby Gallery.The art pieces took 5 months to finish that displayed an emphasis on minimalism and on impact of shadows through welding wires and steel. The appearance of the shadow was intentional which led to the use of LED lights. The LED lights allowed a crisp and clear shadow effect that resembles to a drawing that is well defined and precise. In contrast, the reasoning for not using lighting like halogen is that it would cause the shadows to be more blurred and mix rather than precise. So placing of the objects themselves against the lighting also required precision and planning.

His art pieces are actually intended to be interacted with, noted by his interpretation of the gallery “motions and emotions.” To give the art piece a better feeling of interactions rather than a feeling of something to just look at. The designs themselves were spontaneous through the idea of finding the placement and degree to shine the light on. The lack of title is intended for the minimalist designs to represent themselves. The purpose of giving titles would defeat the purpose of the minimalist designs if dictated by labels.

In my opinion, I see the shadows as the contrast of physical object bounded to the floor.The shadows represents the emotions and the physical object would be the motions. The feel of the object is skewed when reflected by the shadow. The view of an object can be interpreted generally and consistently the same, but the shadow is more open and can not be generalized as there is more interpretations up for grabs. This is what makes the concept of shadows so interesting personally. Something simple as lighting creates a more contemplative environment when backed up by a unique and perceptually different art piece.

Wk 10 – Activity – Alternate Reality Gaming

  
When I first heard about this assignment, I actually had a brief experience with Geocaching. The experience was actually really difficult especially if you had a bad sense of your environment. When I started the assignment, the intention was to go as a group because of my poor experience with a very small group. I knew it would be difficult to actually find regardless of the rating. 

  
The gps feature is neat, it gives you a brief idea of where to go. The easy scale is personally hard to get, we looked up a geocache that had the ratings of 2 stars, but after over 40 minutes we all gave up trying to find it. The one was at the Walter Pyramid. Looked through all the tubes and edging of every corner and no luck. The inability to get a result was pretty frustrating since we had a group of 5. It was nice being able to be creative with the placement of the geocache. I decided to hide mine within a tube by the pyramids, but apparently my geocache has an error with its listing so I have to go and refund a new spot for it to pop up again. Overall the results of the assignment were disappointing, there was no success in the listing and actually finding the geocache. But then again the outcome pretty much determined how I would have felt at the end in the first place. I wouldn’t go for it again since I have quit before. 

  

Wk 10 – Classmate Conversation – Vanessa Marquez

Today I interviewed Vanessa Marquez, here is a link to her site. Vanessa is currently 18 and she is a sophomore who is attempting to major in social work. Some of her hobbies includes catching up on episodes on Netflix, playing with her dog, and hanging out with friends and family. She likes to just be on her bed as long as she can and chill with the cold weather during the fall and winter seasons. But she does also enjoy being outdoors and adventurous. The more she gets to know a person the easier it is to open up and be talkative. This weeks question asked about traveling destination to which she replied with being able to go to Greece, London, or France. But really she just wants go out and see the world. To observe the types of cultures and state life other than of California. 
  

Wk 9 – Artist Conversation – Juan Martin

Juan Martin currently holds a Bachelors of Art in studio art who was originally a transfer student. Here is a link to his social media page on Facebook. He really enjoys working with ceramics and incorporating taxidermy throughout his art pieces. This gallery at CSULB is not one of the first galleries he opened.

He debuted his art gallery on October 22, 2015 at the Gatov-East gallery. Most of his art pieces in terms of creation was on the spot and unique to its situation. There isn’t any official names for certain art pieces because the lack of title allows the piece be up for interpretation. Allowing the piece to become more open and conceptual. While disregarding the planning stage, the creation of his art pieces typically took four weeks in order to be made. His art pieces in the gallery includes the idea about the figurative forms of art in life.

The piece that interests me the most was the mannequin esque body sitting down on the thin platform. The piece is made and molded out of concrete. The piece itself was not difficult to mold, but being made out of concrete, it was extremely heavy to handle. The artist interprets the piece as an idealization of bodies that are exaggerated in reality. He is interested with mannequins and how they are not anatomically correct compared to a live human. The mannequin is considered as artificial and empty which is strange for being a representation of us. Martin emphasizes how the weight of the piece is relevant. The thin mirror platform that sits below focuses how something as thin as a mirror that should not be secure is able to hold an extremely heavy piece of concrete. To create an idea of different perspective of what we view as life compared to something inanimate.

Wk 9 – Activity – Transmedia Story Telling

Character Analysis: Name of the character is Kalvin Tran. He is a student at California State University of Long Beach. The goal is to complete college, but there isn’t really a plan. The character is just going with the flow and voices his opinions when necessary. Doesn’t really put the most effort for school, but just enough to get by.

Story Outline: Ann Stuart is the professor at CSULB for the photography class and she assigns us an assignment through Instagram. Students (5-7 students) are expected to answer the question and be graded. Professor is expected to be mean and students are expected to make conversation behind the teachers back.

Character is opposite of me to an extent. I have a huge focus in school and I have a plan for my future. The voicing of opinions is how I really feel about professors in school. Student isn’t like me to an extent. There is more that could’ve been added, but then the story would be more cluttered than what it is now. Originally getting a main story where 5-7 people can interact was an issue, but a class setting fit the situation so well. The conversation with Alissandra is between two student in class is the typical talk behind teachers back after a project. The mean teacher is to add more interesting attitude to the story and gives the students something to talk about. Professor uploaded all the assignments on a site and the students can comment on their posts. At least all the pictures used for the project were genuinely taken by me so that is nice.

Wk 9 – Classmate Conversation – Mikel Soco

Today I interviewed Mikel Soco (Link to his site).Currently he is a sophomore who is going for pre nursing but may switch to pre kinesiology. He has interest in the medical field and wishes to aspire in any major that relates to it. His hobbies includes playing video games such as Destiny which is a popular shooter. Also he enjoys playing volleyball. In terms of music he listens to something similar to EDM and R&B music. One of his favorite is Porter Robinson who incorporates Japanese culture and inspiration into his songs. This question of the week relates to the person’s favorite type of art after viewing all the galleries. He replied with painting because there is a better feeling of interpretation compared to something like a sculpture that is physical.

I have short arms…

Wk 8 – Artist Conversation – Rhiannon Aarons

Rhiannon Aarons has a Master of Arts in Print Making and is currently in her second year at CSULB (Link to her site). She debuted her first gallery at Long Beach in the Gatov-West gallery on October 15, 2015. Although this is her first gallery at Long Beach, she has open pop up gallery. The pieces were created under the idea of how interpretation and understanding of anatomy is flawed and is considered as fact when it could be false. The art pieces were made in reference to interpretation of anatomy based on old historical references and personal intuition. The art pieces were all worked on collectively rather than individually with the wood piece taking the longest due to including a new trade in word working.

The wood piece with the dirt is a representation of how even something perfect from perspective of peoples’ view eventually become the same in the end. The dirt was taken from a cemetery of two iconic women that redefined the representation of women in a patriarchy such as Donna Reed who was a sitcom pioneer actress and Betty Page who was a pin up model. These people in the end are dead and physically the same in the end. The wood piece itself is a representation of what the item may physically compare to if it was actually realistic. Her justification for its creation is insanely interesting as it opens views that I could not realize at first. (Apparently, I did not get a photo…)

Honestly, I have no clue how to interpret her Serpent Series, but I commend her for taking facts from the 1800’s and re associating them to the present time. This does reflect her ideas about anatomy. The historical interpretation and her art piece are two individuals representing the possibilities of a serpent. Regardless of whether either of the pieces are correct there is a fact that in the end the intention was to portray the serpent similarly to how Betty Paige and Donna Reed are anatomically the same in death.

Wk 8 – Activity – Mobile Public Art

Compared to all the other apps, Somebody is the worst app that I have dealt with so far. Somebody takes social media into a different lining where it relies on complete physical contact in order take advantage of what the app offers. Personally, I would say Snap Chat allows the most privacy, since you know where your snaps are going to. Instagram has the option of privacy or public and Periscope has privacy to a certain extent where only those that personally know you will know what is going on. Somebody allows a person with absolutely no information to do a task that can potentially bother another person’s privacy. Then again those that use the app themselves are expected to not be bothered by the lack of privacy. I found it strange that any person can literally spam tasks to target a person without them knowing why. If there is a future app, I would make sure there is an incentive to use the app, but not make people uncomfortable with the lack of options.

WK 8 – CLASSMATE CONVERSATION – Carolina De la Torre Vallejo

Today I interviewed Carolina De La Torre Vallejo (Link to her site). For a typical name, her name is insanely long, but De La Torre and Vallejo are apart of her last name. Her family followed the culture in Mexico and added both last names of both parents into one. Currently she is a sophomore that is intending on a pre-kinesiology major, but she is currently hoping to change it to nursing. Her hobbies includes hanging out with her friends, eating, and watching Netflix. Her favorite foods are tacos and buffalo fries. So today I asked her the question of the week: how do you feel in the art gallery? At first it was a very different atmosphere and she felt uncomfortable. She even more uncomfortable when she would ask questions to the artist ,but now she knows she can use it to create a connection with the artist

Wk 7 – Classmate Conversation – Stephanie Chang

PC: Stephanie Chang

Today I interviewed Stephanie Chang (Link to her site). She is currently a sophomore, coming from San Jose, who is getting a degree in business for financing. One of her main hobbies is watching netflix and photography. One of her favorite animated movies were How to Train a Dragon and her faovrite TV shows are Sherlock, Game of Thrones, and Arrow. She really enjoys chill music or something towards boy next door like Taylor Swift, Passion Pit, or Mayday Paradise. When I asked what color she would dye her hair, she said blue dyes on the bottom of her tips like the character in Pacific Rim.