Overall

During this last semester in Public Art Seminar I learned a lot. Through projects and readings I learned about public art, community art and different artists. The hand on projects allowed me to learn more about making art becuase it is a process that you normally do not get to see. I learned that sometimes it can be quite hard to build some of these art projects that I see is a museum. I learned through other people's projects that art is a very wide range of things, from photos taken in a bathroom to making memories of where you have been.

This class was quite interesting and made me realize that there is a very large spectrum of art.

Overall I enjoyed this class building projects and looking at new ideas in art that I did not know was there.

Tri-Kaleidoscope 2

When people use the Tri-Kaleidoscope they have to work together. The three people have to move the tri-kaleidoscpoe and work with each other to get it to change views and colors. The people have to bend and move the tri-kaleidoscope which makes the people have to bend and move with it.

I had three of my friends use it. They thought that it was very fun trying to change the views by pushing and pulling, bend and twisting themselves and the tri-kaleidoscope.



Tri-kaleidoscope

Tri-Kaleidoscope

Here is the second project that was done in Public Art Seminar Spring 2007. It is a Tri-Kaleidoscope. The idea of this was so three people could see the same image that normally only one person could experience. It allows for three people to see the unique image that it seen when you turn the kaleidoscope. This allows people to talk about what they see since many people see different things when they look at the image. The three people also have to work together to get the kaleidoscope to work, if one person moves the other two have to move as well. It becomes a team effort to control the kaleidoscope as well.

When building the kaleidoscope it was a different story. It was a lot harder to build it than expected. The mirrors in the kaleidoscope were very difficult to move so that you could see the image in the three eye holes. Looking for a material that could be cut easily and very reflective was also a hard part of the project. Mirror would have worked very well, but it is very hard to cut it without all the necessary tools that are needed to cut glass. With real mirrors and not reflective paper it would have made the project successful.

Top View




Front View




Iscometric View

Freshman Board 2

After bringing this idea to class I was in the right direction but I needed something else. There would many more ideas suggested like, using sound as well as writing. One suggestion was having students draw pictures of there favorite place or campus or their favorite thing to eat at commons or sage or BarH café. To get students to do this I was going to put out a large piece of paper with a question on it and have students draw their response. This did not work out very well. I put the paper in one of the buildings but when I went back an hour ago it was gone. Someone had torn it down. I think that this could work if on the back of the boards that would be all around campus I could put a large piece of paper on the back of it and have students draw there.

I also looked at the idea of using sound, but there are many disadvantages of using sound and realized that this would not be a good idea. Some disadvantages are that there would have to be something to hear the interview on. There are many things I could use like a walkman, but then people might try to take the walkman and then there would be no interview. Another problem would be storing the walkman, if I put it in something that would lock so no one could steal it then, you could not rewind it and then the idea of sound wouldn’t work.

After looking over my project as a whole from start to finish I really like what I came up with. I think that making these on campus would be inexpensive for the school and would allow more of an idea for interested students. This is also a very interesting project because the stories can change and this allows for change of how freshman are.

Looking towards Quad dormitories.
























Looking towards Folsom Library.
























Looking towards Greene Building.

Freshman Board

After working on this idea for a few weeks it was brought to my attention that creating an idea of something that could not really be built because Boston is a few hours away that I should create something that was a little closer to campus. After getting many ideas, one I liked in particular was doing the same thing but having a story about a freshman and what they experience their first year here. This would allow many students coming to look at this school a better idea of campus life, of course taking outanything that would be inappropriate. From there I asked many of my friends from all different classes to write what their freshman year was like. I asked them specific questions, like: How were classes? Where did you live and what was that experience like? How were your professors? How was the food? Did you make any good friends? Did you join any clubs or any activities? I also asked them to put what ever else they thought was good that happened or they did freshman year. I got a few responses and I enjoyed what I received. I thought that this was a good start to my project. After getting all these response I came up with a design for the project as well. I wanted to create something that would stick out but at the same time not stick out too much because I wanted it to be like it was part of the school and not some project. I wanted this to help the school. I thought of ways of designing something that could withstand the weather here in Troy New York as well. After thinking I came up with an idea that I would design something very similar to a campus map box, like the one in front of public safety. This would allow for the story and pictures inside the box not to get wet and ruined from the rain and snow, but I could still change the paper from time to time. The design would stick into the ground and have plexi glass front so that people could read the story and look at pictures. Inside the story would be that of a student that is still on campus or has graduated. There would also be pictures of places on campus and things in the Troy area for interested students can see. There would be many of these around campus allowing for different stories to be on campus at the same time and giving students different ideas of freshman year.

New Citizen Board

At the beginning of the semester I was thinking of doing a project in Boston Massachusetts. The project would have to do with Faneuil Hall. Faneuil Hall is a building that has been one of the major attractions in Boston for a while. Faniuel Hall was used as a meeting space back in the 1800’s but now it has a new purpose. It is a place where people can enter the ground floor and walk around where there are small merchant’s shops and historical information. Upstairs is used as a ceremony place when immigrants become citizens. I thought that it would be interesting if I could create something that showed many people what the process of becoming an American was. Many people just walk by this building and few know what goes on in the other part of the building. So I thought that by creating a board that had a story about an immigrant and their path to becoming an American would allow people to learn about this process as well as what else happens in Faneuil Hall.



















Picture showing where the boards would go and what they would look like.