September : Lecture #2

"The Importance of the Minority Vote"

The Black Caucus at VCU held this lecture for young voters to examine the views of the two candidates for the upcoming election. They had one African American speaker, Dr. Mabel Wells for the Democratic party, and one for the Republican party, Dr. Carl Randall. Both speakers were asked the same series of questions and then each given a chance to answer. Dr. Wells definitely seemed to get a better response from the crowd. She answered each of the questions in a very clean, clear, to the point manner, while Dr. Randall seemed to dance around the questions and leave the audience confused.
"Besides gender, race, and age, what seperates this election from previous elections" was one of the questions asked. Dr. Wells responded with a series of different aspects including how people are upset about war and the economy, how the candidates are more interesting than previous elections, how the American public is getting more involved with politics. Dr. Randall responded with "nothing". He then responded that age, gender, and race were the only differences.
Overall, both speakers gave a lot of information about each of the candidates platforms and their expectations for the upcoming election, however, Dr. Wells got her points across to the audience much more effectively, in my opinion.

Artist Entry # 4

Nikki S. Lee






Nikki S. Lee was born in Korea in 1970. She received her Master's of Art degree from New York University. She is now living and working as a photographer in New York and is world renown for her artwork. In Nikki's work, she completely infuses herself into another culture completely unknown to her, and lives in that culture for a certain amount of time. The end products are photographs of her immersed in the culture with a series of several different people. In these projects, she has become a punk, a hispanic, african american, lesbian, an eldery woman, and a swing dancer. She always explains in advance to these people that she is an artist working on a project, but the people don't always believe here. She then had either one of her new friends, or someone passing by take a snapshot of her with a snapshot camera.


Artist Gallery
http://www.numarkgallery.com/

Artist Interview
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/seeingandwriting3/interviews/interview5.asp

Artist Review
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D00E7DF123DF933A2575AC0A96F958260

Artist Website
http://www.tonkonow.com/lee.html

Topic Entry # 3

Culture



“No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.” - Mahatma Ghandi

"Editorial Page Editor: Our culture is a blend of others' ways" by Mark Trahant
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/264297_trahant26.html

This article is about what culture is in America. He shows that the American way didn't begin out of nowhere, it was born from a blend of all of the different cultures that moved here in the beginning and made America what it is today. He shows that we borrow pieces of culture from all around the world. "Even our language borrows freely -- and that is why English has become a global tongue."

I am most fascinated with and love exploring the blending of cultures here in America. I think that the blending of cultures is what our country was built upon, and exploring those blends is exciting.

Candice Breitz Lecture

Candice Breitz's work explores an area common to people across the world, pop culture, mainly that of America. Candice said she felt like an outsider moving to different countries, but was always able to relate to others through the sharing of pop culture. I thought it was very pertinent to use pop culture icons, in which most can relate, to minimilize basic ideas that everyone can relate to (like the "I" vs. the "You" in the famous love ballads.)

I found her own film work more interesting than the found imagery. Her series using the biggest fans of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley and John Lennon in different areas around the world was completely fascinating. I love that she chose not to include any of the actual songs, so that the people singing in unison became a chorus. It seemed as if these people were actually singing together, even though they were all filmed seperately on different occasions. That further shows her overall theme that pop culture is really one of the only things that people around the world can always relate to with eachother.


"Whitney can really hold a personal pronoun."

Artist Entry # 3

Rainer Ganahl











I discovered Ganahl's work in a collabrative book of Jewish Americans, "The Jewish Identity Project". Ganahl interviewed several different Jewish Americans about their lifestyles and background. He then took out select answers from each person, or group of persons, and displayed them along with photographs of the people and of their spaces. It was very interesting to read their personal stories, and then to look at the photographs of their space and see their personal belongings. His other work infuses several different cultures together. His art includes him actually studying and learning different languages, including Russian, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, and Italian.

Interview
http://www.ganahl.info/ayse_interview.html

Website
http://www.ganahl.info/

Gallery
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_/ai_80485055

Topic Entry # 2

Immigration



"We should embrace our immigrant roots and recognize that newcomers to our land are not part of the problem, they are part of the solution. " - Arcbishop Roger Mahony

"Immigration and US History" - Hasia Diner
http://www.america.gov/st/diversity-english/2008/February/20080307112004ebyessedo0.1716272.html
This article talks about the importance of immigration in America, and how it has shaped our country into what it is today. She says "Immigration has made the United States of America", which is completely true. Our country is truely one made up mostly of people from different backgrounds in other countries. She then goes through what she calls the 5 steps in American history of immigration. Starting with the settlers setting up colonies all the way to American Legislation on immigration in the 60's.

Immigration is a huge part of the work I've been doing the past three years. I am completely interested with the process of one leaving one's own culture to immigrate to the United States and eventually becoming a citizen. I believe that this country was built upon different cultures blending together, and I think it should always be a country that's open for others to join. I like to explore the differences and similarities with American culture and other cultures around the world. I want to delve into the world and minds of different cultures in the United States and how they live their lives in such a different place.

Artist Entry # 2

Eric Myer

Eric Myer has worked in photography for over 20 years. He is a commercial and art photographer. He went to UCLA and the Art Center College for Design. On his website, he has a 3 part series called "Stereotypes". He has set up three different sets of portraits, and lets the viewer combine the portraits to create another person. His portfolio sheds light on a series of several different individuals, including circus performers.






Artist Website
http://www.ericmyer.com/green/

Review
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2008/02/random-excellen.html
http://www.ericmyer.com/green/news.htm

Representation
http://www.ericmyer.com/green/clients.htm

Topic Entry # 1

Stereotypes

"Attempting to get at truth means rejecting stereotypes and cliches."
- Harold Evans (journalist)

Stereotypes and Stereotyping
by C. Neil Macrae (Editor), Charles Stangor (Editor), Miles Hewstone (Editor)
"This much-needed volume is a thoroughly modern, thoroughly splendid collection of essays on the psychology of stereotyping written by the area's most influential thinkers and most active researchers. In its pages, readers will find just about everything that social psychology has discovered in a half century of research on this important topic." --Daniel Gilbert, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin



Stereotypes are something that I run across all the time in my work. One of the things that I am passionate about in art is trying to inform the viewer of something that I feel is important. I want to break barriers of stereotypes and people assuming things about a person before they've ever talked to them, simply because of the way they look/dress/what they believe in/what country they are from. I think that people view other people as stereotypes way too often, especially in American culture.

Artist Entry # 1

Taryn Simon is a graduate of Brown University. She was born in 1975. Her photographs have been exhibited worldwide. Her work has received wide acclaim and notice. Her newest collection is titled "An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar." She documents a wide range of curious enviroments that the American public hasn't typically been exposed to. She has an extreme attention to detail, which is shown in her crisp, clear photographs which she shoots with a large format camera.








Interview
http://www.popphoto.com/photographynewswire/4073/a-conversation-with-taryn-simon.html

Gallery Website
http://www.gagosian.com/artists/taryn-simon/

Artist Website
http://www.tarynsimon.com/

Incomplete

Paul Thulin has read your blog up to this point/entry. Your blog is currently not up to date and work has been recorded as incomplete.

Word Assignment

in·di·vid·u·al

–noun
1. a single human being, as distinguished from a group.
2. a person: a strange individual.
3. a distinct, indivisible entity; a single thing, being, instance, or item.
4. a group considered as a unit.