The Focus (Documentation)

The Focus:

I was sitting outside as it was getting dark when my idea came to me. As the sun was setting, I noticed how the darkness almost makes everything feel closer, like the pressure increases around you. As darkness grows, so does the feeling of the world closing in around you. The fact that you can see all the stars at night helps you understand the scale of the universe, which is overwhelming. The pressure of it pushes down on you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By creating the stick-stars and hanging them on various trees on the line, I tried to bring the feeling of the pressure of night down to earth, so others could experience it. It was more effective to view at night when the stars were visible. By having the stars visible to other people, I wanted to make others think about the expanse and pressure of the universe above them, and use these as a portal to see the stars of the sky in a different light. I found it interesting to look through the stick-stars to view the real stars in the sky, so I documented this phenomenon with a drawing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To present my project, I gathered the stars off the trees and hung them on a “line” (which is just a stick).  Displaying them on a “line” connected it back to the origin of the project, which is the line. My project mainly focused on the space that expands infinitely above the line, but I brought it back down to earth with the stick-stars. Creating this sculpture/display method represents the line:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, to present my documentation of my work, I made 2 videos displaying the pictures I took while on the line, and some of the experiments I did with the stick-stars and different darknesses at night:

 

 

 

 

Looking back to the work I did at the beginning of this workshop, I can see how I’ve had some similar aspects throughout all of my work, and I can see how my ideas started to progress to my final focus. I feel that the line was a very effective way for me explore not only the physical aspect of it, but also what it meant to me and how I could be affected by it and portray that in my art. I did stray a bit from the definition of the word “pressure,” but I really enjoyed my study of the darkness at night, and looking at it from different perspectives and expressing it through different media.

The Focus (Work)

For my focus, I’m trying to communicate the pressure of darkness at night (going back to my word, “pressure”). I’m going to try to portray how as darkness grows, so does the feeling of the world closing in around you.

The fact that you can see all the stars at night helps you understand the scale of the universe, which is overwhelming. The pressure of it pushes down on you.

I want to bring that feeling down to the ground on the line.
Here are my notes on the project so far:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I made 18 stars out of sticks to hang on trees outside at night, and hopefully I’ll be able to get glow in the dark paint to paint on the stars so they stand out better.

The Word

PRESSURE

The first aspect of pressure in my homework was the pressure to come up with an idea and get it done.
I was sitting outside as it was getting dark when my idea came to me. As the sun was setting, I noticed how the darkness almost makes everything feel closer, like the pressure increases around you. This is that aspect of “pressure” that I chose to focus on for this assignment; trying to portray the pressure of darkness around me.

A few hours after I came up with the idea I went outside in the dark to do some drawings to show the pressure of the darkness on the line. I sat in the Powell lawn where the line crosses and did two drawings:

(Click the drawings to see them enlarged)

 

 

 

 

 

The first drawing is of a tree in front of a street lamp with Powell in the background. I felt that the light of the lamp expresses the pressure of darkness because it made an interesting shadow of leaves on the trunk of the tree. Something about artificial light at night has a creepy feel, which furthered my idea of the pressure of the night.
The second drawing I did while looking up at the stars. I included 2 trees that were on the line in the corners of the drawing to show my perspective from the ground. The stars always feel close on clear nights (closeness=pressure) so I tried to portray that in my sketch.

During my project, I asked some of my friends what they think of when they hear  ”pressure,” and 4 out of 6 of them sang the song “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie. I thought that was funny because that’s what I thought of too, and it just proves the impact that things like music have on peoples understanding of things.

Word Definition

PRESSURE

My Definitions:

• the force of an internal or external, physical or nonphysical element being exerted on another body
• the incentive to act

The word pressure has many meanings.
It can refer to the physical strain on something, but it can also be an emotional/internal incentive to do something.
We face all kinds of pressures everyday: peer pressure, air pressure, blood pressure, the pressure to have fun when you have to do work, etc.
(And then there’s the song “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie that people sing every time they hear the word pressure.)
To sum up “pressure” in a way that can apply to all forms of it, the word “force” comes pretty close to the meaning of pressure.
The difference between force and pressure is that force is more absolute or permanent, while pressure is almost more of a suggestion. There is a fine line between the meaning of the two words.

Dictionary definitions:

• the exertion of force upon a surface by an object, fluid, etc., in contact with it
• the state of being pressed or compressed
• in physics: symbol “P”
• to force (someone) toward a particular end; influence
• a burdensome condition that is hard to bear
• a moral force that compels
  (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pressure)

Synonyms:

• burden, strain, urgency, weight, persuasion
  (http://thesaurus.com/browse/pressure)

Exploring the Line

Walking the line, I was drawn to the huge variety textures that make up the space. I felt a good way to explore/investigate the area would be to use my sense of touch, and I did that by making “rubs” of 9 very different textures I encountered all over the line. I used sketchbook paper and a graphite stick, and I made rubbings of bark, sides of buildings, the ceiling in my dorm, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the top left across:

1. Oak tree outside of Powell
2. Bricks on the side of Seidlin
3. Back wall of Cohen Studio
4. Tree by Main Street, across from Uni Mart
5. Clouds from the top of the Alfred State hill (Even though I didn’t do a rub of the clouds, because that would be impossible, they had an interesting texture, so I did a sketch of them from the top of the hill)
6. Maple tree from the back woods
7. Guardrail at top parking lot at Alfred State
8. Texture of the ceiling in my dorm (because the line goes through my room in Openhym)
9. Window sill behind Openhym

Observing these textures was a good way for my to discover new things about the line because I rarely stop and feel the textures of different things when I walk around, so it showed me a whole world of different surfaces that exist. I would never have stopped and looked at the texture of my ceiling, for example, but I found out it has a pretty interesting pattern and made a cool rub marking.

Another way I explored the line was to record all of the encounters I had while exploring.

(Click for larger image)

Here’s what I encountered:

1. Talked to my roommate in my room
2. Waved at a car that let me cross the street
3. Creepy look from a guy in a mustache
4. 3 white moths
5. Bitten my an ant
6. 4 sparrows looked at me and flew away
7. Talked to a lawn mowing guy
8. 2 yellow moths
9. Met some Alfred State kids

Recording encounters made me open my eyes to things I would have probably ignored had I not been exploring, like the sparrows or people I talked to along the way. Even though they are not a permanent part of the line, they impacted it somehow, which I feel is worth recording.

This is how I set up the display of my findings (it’s a little blurry, so see previous pictures for detail). I attached the two posters with pieces of twine:

I also observed a lot of litter and garbage along the line and photographed a lot of it. Here’s a sample of what I found (I didn’t want to put 6 more pictures in this post, so click the link and it should show you the pictures):

Litter

Personal Territory Tour

a.) Image of Territory:

Personal Territory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My territory is very peaceful because it’s kind of removed from the business of the campus. I was initially drawn to it because I wanted to see where the stairs led, and I really like the clearing in the woods at the top of the stairs.

 

 

 

b.) “Fifty Things”

1. I was immediately drawn to this staircase.
2. It’s pretty secluded from the rest of campus.
3. The trees surrounding the staircase make it almost like a room.
4. A bug is crawling on my sketchbook.
5. The natural stone of the steps fits in with the natural surrounding.
6. The sunlight shining through the trees is making a moving pattern on the grass at the top of the stairs.
7. Leaves are collected in piles on the sides of each stair.
8. The tree on the left of the staircase is starting to lean on and grow onto the step.
9. Ants are crawling around on the stairs.
10. Lots of the leaves have black splotches on them.
11. If the bells start chiming while I’m here, it’s going to be really loud!
12. Most of the trees have very loose textured bark.
13. There are 13 steps. Unlucky.
14. There some sort of weird clay and cement sculpture to the left of the stairs.
15. This place will be so beautiful in the fall.
16. The wind is knocking leaves off the trees already.
17. I should sled down these stairs in the winter!
18. There are a few large sticks that fell from the trees.
19. I wonder what the purpose of these stairs is.
20. They just seem to lead to the clearing surrounding the woods.
21. No one else is around.
22. The wind is the loudest noise, followed by rickets.
23. I can also hear the hum of buildings.
24. A little gnat keeps flying in and out of my field of view.
25. This is a very relaxing place to be.
26. I love the sounds of dry leaves being blown around.
27. I hear things falling out of the trees and I’m waiting for something to land on my head.
28. This is the perfect temperature.
29. There is a slight smell of dirt in the air, which is nice.
30. I also smell laundry, because everyone does their laundry on Sunday.
31. Too bad there’s a road about 6o feet up, it disturbs the peace of this place.
32. I haven’t seen anyone in about 15 minutes.
33. There’s a drain at the bottom of the stairs.
34. Theres a statue of a head in the bell tower and I thought it was a real man.
35. It made me jump.
36. Unfortunately the branches are all to high for me to climb the trees.
37. 2 people just came over to try and get into the bell tower.
38. It was locked so they couldn’t get in.
39. Most of the leaves on the stairs are green.
40. There’s some mulch on either side of the stairs.
41. Now it just looks like an unkept garden.
42. The trees grow leaning down the hill.
43. I don’t hear any birds.
44. There are a lot of little stones in the mulch.
45. Deciduous trees outnumber coniferous trees in this area of woods.
46. This would be a good place to camp.
47. The staircase is very inviting and makes you curious to see whats at the top.
48. I like how the woods always seem to smell cold, or it feels colder than the air when you breathe in.
49. There’s a bug with a long stinger flying around me.
50. The way the wind is rustling the leaves makes it look/sounds like it’s gonna rain.
51. This bug won’t leave me alone.
52. I hear birds now, I think they’re crows.
53. Some trees are changing color quickly and other aren’t at all.
54. One tree in the distance is almost all red.
55. The temperature seemed to drop about 5 degrees in the past hour.
56. I moved a pile of leaves and found an earthworm.
57. Tons of little white bugs crawled away too.
58. There’s water under the leaves because it hasn’t evaporated from the rain earlier.
59. A little black bug just crawled across my page.
60. There’s a stick on the right that looks like a boomerang.
61. Something crawled on my foot.

c.) Explorations:

Exploration #11: “Differences”

1. Some of the leaves have big black spots.
2. There are a mix of small, medium and large leaves.
3. Some have smooth edges (maples).
4. Some have rough edges (yellow ones).
5. Some are dried and crinkly, fallen awhile ago.
6. Some have just fallen off the trees and still look alive.
7. The maple leaves have long stems.
8. THe small yellow ones have really short stems.
9. Some have variances/gradients of color (maples) and others are solid.
10. The dried leaves feel brittle.
11. The more recently alive leaves are pliable and smooth.
12. The black spots on the maple leaf seem to be from mold or some fungus.
13. The dried leaves curl in on themselves.
14. The yellow leaves are by far the most saturated in color.
15. As fallen leaves get older, the not only lose form and strength, but color strength.
16. The more recently alive leaves don’t really make sound when the wind blows them.
17. The crumpling leaves smell like fall.
18. The different shapes of leaves cast a variety of different shadows.
19. Despite the black spots, the maples have kept their form pretty well.
20. The newly fallen leaves rip smoothly and easily.
21. The older leaves crumple when ripped.
22. The old leaves are much more fragile.
23. The stems on the old leaves also change color and lose strength.
24. The yellow leaves seem to fold in on themselves.
25. Even leaves from the same tree have differences, like snowflakes there are no exact copies.

Exploration #53: “Found Writing Utensils”

I collected various things from my territory and dipped them in ink, experimenting with their different line drawing qualities.

Exploration #54: “The Language of Trees”

I collected things from the surrounding trees in my territory, including different leaves, bark, twigs and branches, maple tree seeds, etc.

d.) Images of my “Tour Guide”:

 

Exploration #22

“People Watching” (9/8/11) - Sit in a public location and document people you see for one hour. Take detailed notes. Make sketches of one item that stands out most about each person.

1. Girl speaking Spanish (poorly, with an English accent). She likes to talk about herself. She transferred colleges, graduating in May. She does karate and is taking 18 credits. Still talking about herself.
2. Mustache man. More hair on lip than on head. He is wearing an Alfred shirt. He works at the checkout desk. He’s slouching behind the desk. When I check out CD’s, I’m going to him to see his mustache upclose. Now he’s texting.
3. Some kid on his computer with one headphone in, concentrating on something. Looks pretty bored, talking to himself. Texting, listening to music and typing. He has a cat sticker on his laptop.
4. Some girl scowling at her computer (see Exploration 1, #1). She should smile, she looks scary. Probably doing homework, hence the scowl.
5. There’s a girl asleep on the couch. She must love purple because all of her stuff is purple. Purple hat, bandana, sweater, backpack and headphones. I’m the only one in here not listening to music.