Sol LeWitt Conceptual Art blog

This activity was very unique because I have never done any type of conceptual art before. It was certainly a new experience, and it was interesting not only to see the end product, but also the process required to get there. The end product, the compliation of the curved and straight lines, was visually not appealing to me personally due to the fact that there was no real focal point, and I just did not find it to be visually engaging. However, it became interesting to look at once I tought more about the idea behind it, about letting chance take many smaller parts to make a big one with connecting lines. It was engaging following the different lines with my eyes and watching where they converged and where they ended. I had previously learned just a small amount about Sol LeWitt and how he would have other people execute his art, but I didn't quite understand it completely until now.

Performance Art Blog

Today we performed our our proposals in class, having everyone do various different roles. I participated in two, the first was Sara's proposal, and the second was Jill's proposal. Sara's involved taking pieces of paper and writing your name on it, then randomly selecting one and imitating the person who's name is on it. This was somewhat difficult due to the set time was a minute. It seemed that the other group members and I ran out of things to say and imitate, and it might have worked better and with less awkward silent time if the limit had been thirty seconds. I had to imitated Jill, and I did so using a piece of paper rolled up to look like a cigarette, and a little dialogue. However everyone had a hard time filling the one minute time span. The second one I performed in was with Thiana, and it involved stepping on each other's shoes and walking briefly. It was challenging since I'm several inches shorter, but it worked fine eventually. It involved balance and a clear space to be performed in. It also took less time, since there was no specific set limit, but instead just as much time as it needed for completion.
My proposal was entirely conversation based and it involved a two people speaking alternating sentences to each other, but with the first letter of the first word going in alphabetical order. In my opinion it was pretty successful since Chris and Diana were able to hold their conversation without too much pausing or hesitation. They completed it within a few minutes, but still without a time limit. It started with longer more coherent sentences, then progressed toward short phrases, and then to just one word at a time. The conversation made less sense towards the end, but it was also more humorous. Overall I think it worked out well and even though it wasn't a very physically based performance, it had a good overall outcome.

Fluxus Blog

Fluxus was an art movement that was strongest in the nineteen sixties, and had similar ties to the Dada movement. Like Dada it was somewhat "anti-art", meaning traditional conventional art, but it was not as socially rebellious and anarchical as Dada was, but instead more positive and constructive. It did focus on simplicity over complexity, and also combined aesthetics with other art mediums, such as music. Both Marcel Duchamp and Allan Kaprow were very influential to this movement, particularly Kaprow's "happenings", which greatly influenced the Fluxus performance art. However, the Fluxus performance art was slightly different than the "happenings" because it was meant to be simple to oppose the popular culture music, poetry, and other art forms. The "happenings" were somewhat more complex than the Fluxus performances, which were frequently not dialogue based, but instead action based. They were also more brief and not meant to blur art and reality but instead focus on simple tasks and aspects of life and bring them to attention. Overall, it was about the artist's actions, opinions, and intent, not about the end product that they make.

information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxus