Define: Structure.

Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture - founders of Asymptote Architecture, a decade old New York based architecture firm that has been highly recognized for not only their building designs, but also for their art installations that are exhibited throughout the United States, Europe and especially the United Arab Emirates.

http://www.asymptote.net/

Erwin Redl is an Austrian-born artist whose main medium is LEDs as he works in both two and three dimensions to give a new meaning to "space," interior and exterior throughout his installations that are both nationally and internationally known.

http://www.paramedia.net/

Elena and I proposed an exhibition that would take place in one of Asymptote's establishments, like the Strata Tower in Abu Dhabi. The exterior of the building would display an immediate fusion as the firm's usual use of outdoor aesthetic architectural lighting is installed by Erwin Redl. The interior would then be transformed into a perplexing atmosphere as guests reconfigure the overall meaning of edifice. Interior installations from Asymptote would include their award winning digital designs for upcoming projects as well as their groundbreaking use of virtual reality and digital space environments. Erwin Redl would contribute with his use of LED lighting to manipulate rooms making it an alternate interactive dimension.

Snow White, to the Prince

by Chris Tusa

Truth is, my life was no fairytale,
that afternoon, I lay, a smiling corpse
under a glass sky, a rotten apple
lodged in my throat like a black lump
of cancer, your sloppy kiss dying on my lips.

Did you really believe a kiss could cure
the poison galloping through my veins,
as you stood there, with your ugly white horse,
the voices of dwarfs buzzing like flies
in the apple-scented air?

I wish you could see me now,
how I take to the sky, a witch
without a broom, an empty black silhouette
with stars for teeth, spooking deer
into briar patches, swallowing the shadows of trees.

I wish I could slip into my beautiful white flesh,
just once, my pretty white feet stuffed into black slippers,
my poisoned-breath fogging up the smiling mirror.
If only you could see the light pouring from my skin.
If only you could hear the songs my bones sing.

MARCO!..........GREEN!

One of my favorite mediums used in art is film. When I visited the Whitney Biennial I recall spending a substantial amount of time viewing both Ari Marcopoulos' and Jesse Aron Green's video performance installations. Ari emigrated to the United States in the late 70s and has centered his work around the theme of American youth subcultures. This is apparent in his 7 minute, 32 second 2009 video Detroit. This installation also encompasses his other art

interests such as underground music and extreme rebellious behavior toward athletics. Two boys are seen in a child's bedroom creating a sense of "noise rock" using various amplifier pedals unattached to instruments. They throw a small mediocre concert of gritty, loud music by strategically combining the sounds of distorted sound waves. The video uses vibrant color and energy to assimilate with the feeling of youthfulness and freedom of expression.

Jesse Aron Green's video installation shows a large amount of contrast to Ari's dynamic performance. The 2008 80 minute loop Arztliche Zimmergymnastik which literally translates to "Medical room gymnastics" is based off of an 1858 book by the German physician Daniel Gottlob Moritz Schreber which describes a set of gymnastic exercises. Green uses this text as a choreography for sixteen male performers demonstrating forty-five

exercises to the manual's exact instructions. The setting of the film is in a neutral room with sixteen square platforms where grown men sporadically appear and demonstrate awkward or foreign movements. There is little to no sound aside from the noise of footsteps or bodies hitting the wood. Arztliche Zimmergymnastik also differs from Detroit in terms of performance because Detroit exhibited a less controlled execution whereas Arztliche Zimmergymnastik demonstrates a specific ritual.

I found that I continued to watch Ari's piece because it was continuously entertaining, but after a while you get the gist of children making noise. Green's video leaves the viewer with such a perplexed feeling that they proceed with watching as much as they can in order to grasp some sort of concept with what is being shown throughout the loop.

s.e.l.f. v.i.s.u.a.l.i.z.a.t.i.o.n.

My first concept for the self-visualization triptych was thrown out the window days before the final files were due. The only thing that stayed pretty much the same is the middle panel which was a montage of my old houses that laid a background for pictures taken throughout my younger childhood. I modified its appearance by putting the pictures of my houses through a black and white threshold and also putting the layered pics through either a color gradient or a negative color effect. I also accompanied the panel with lyrics from Regina Spektor’s song “On the Radio.” This quote just reflects my overall view of how growing up and aging works and also adapting to changes as you grow.

The idea for my left and right panel changed dramatically as well when I spent a few days taking negative pictures with my camera phone. The settings of these pictures were Washington Crossing Park and New York City. The pictures were amazing because of the coloring and also because the camera was only a three megapixel the scenes of urban and nature turned into more of a design. Unfortunately, before I had the chance of uploading these pictures to create my finished piece my phone was stolen. I was devastated but realized I loved the idea too much to not go through with. I was able to compile some pictures from my old camera of the city and Central Park and I also used some images I found online. I manipulated the pictures using varying gradients and color effects and I also used the smudge and gradient tool to make them flow together.

The left panel is a combination of photos that represent nature, the beach and wind. These are by far my favorite things in life and although they are simple, it is in these conditions where I am most serene. I used a lyric from Animal Collective’s song “My Girls” that reads: “There isn’t much that I feel I need; a solid soul and the blood I bleed.” I feel that this relates to the effortless beauty of nature and its impact that is has on my mood and emotions. The right panel is a culmination of photos from New York City. I wanted to incorporate this metropolitan jungle in my piece because it is where I see myself in the future. I have always been a shore kid and have spent my entire life on the beach with the tallest structure around me being a ferris wheel. I can really see my career prospering in the city and I can definitely picture myself continuing my life there. I used a lyric from Radiohead’s song “Bulletproof with Butterfly Wings” that states: “Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage.” When I say rage, I am not referring to rage as in anger, I pertain it more towards unreleased energy. Fully indulging myself into my career will allow me to hit my highest potential.

I scanned the childhood pictures into photoshop where I was able to use the quick selection tool. The house pictures were also scanned in and the top house picture was scanned in through Adobe Illustrator where I live traced and painted it. The rest of the work was done mostly through Photoshop and the finished panels went through Illustrator again where I added the final text. I wanted the panels to be poster size, so I decided to make them each fourteen inches wide and three feet long. I used the wide format printer and printed on Premium Luster paper because I really wanted the colors to vibrant and beautiful. I was ecstatic about the ending results. I plan on mounting them so that they each have a small black frame separating each from the panel next to it.

A.I. Exercise 2

Here is the final image from the second Adobe Illustrator exercise using Live Trace and Live Paint. I chose to first layer some images and adjust some coloring using curves in Adobe Photoshop. I took a background of some lightning and place a picture of my brother, Jack, dressed up as Albert Einstein next to a picture of professional surfer, Rob Machado.

Marina Abramovic.Frida Kahlo.Cui Xiuwen.

Marina Abramovic was very fascinating and regale as she spoke of her photographic work and performances. Her collections show self portraits that demonstrate a test of her physical and mental limits. Many of her pieces demonstrate natural and real feelings that she encounters in her own life. My favorite piece of hers is “Happy Christmas” where she presents herself in unaesthetic way expressing an emotion of utter despair and sorrow. It resembles the ending of her marriage with her husband. I love this photograph because I believe the main holidays people celebrate today have become artificial with there demand of gifts and glazed over get togethers with their relatives. This photo shows the other side of the holidays, the one hidden behind the decorative wrapping paper.

Frida Kahlo’s work was absolutely stunning as she brought out the beauty of herself as a woman and her Mexican culture. In

her self-portraits she portrays herself as strong, dignified and liberated. Her story was incredible entailing love, struggle, pain and the path of making herself an independent female artist. Her technique of painting with the use of a mirror’s reflection was very new to me and although staggering it seems extremely difficult. Her piece that intrigued me the most is “The broken column” where she paints herself nude covered in nails and bandages and split in half by a simple, damaged stone column in place of a spine. This photo is in reference to her almost fatal automobile accident that left her bedridden for months. It was during this time of hospitalization where she found her amazing talent in painting.

Cui Xiuwen’s photos were celestial and unblemished as she used the theme of displaying herself wearing white clothing. Her works address the life of a young single woman living in China and her emotions that she carries with her every day. I know that in China women are held at a significantly lower status then men and I could only imagine the agitation and frustration that females feel on a daily occurrence. Her interest in womanhood varies from the level of a child as those portraits where she is wearing a school uniform to the level of a grown adult experiencing pregnancy and maternity. Several of the works in her collection “One day in 2004” exemplify a growing tension that draws the viewer in and tempts them to call out to the girl and ask, “What is wrong? Is there anything I can do to help?”

illustrator exercise 1