Cultural Event I: Jim Condron

The event regarding Jim Condron's artwork was honestly drawn out and dull. He did not seem enthused or eager to share his own work at all, which is not surprising considering that he kept saying how he isn't even a sculptor. In the beginning of his talk, he regarded himself as somewhat of a failure and noted how he even gave up on painting in general because he was not pleased with what he had been creating. I can understand where he was coming from in that I am similar in that sense, that if I felt I was not good at something anymore, I would not find joy in pursuing it. However, despite his brief lapse in artistry, Condron said he continued to work with smaller things, including small-scale sculptures that he constructed out of common items such as yarn and tape. Then, further into his talk, he went on to say how he stuck with only small objects because he was not experienced or skillful enough to create larger ones. From seeing his current artwork, I would probably agree.

However, my thoughts on the man changed after hearing of what inspired some of his work. While his mom was fighting her long battle with ALS, Condron designed much of his work, which brings much greater meaning and depth into the things he creates, at least for me. Knowing the artist even a little bit helps me sympathize and humanize them. After the artist is no longer just a name-tag next to their work, it allows me to see deeper into the piece, putting myself into the mindset of the artist while they were creating. It is this relationship between the viewer and the work which makes it more meaningful and significant to that particular viewer. When a woman in the audience asked why Baltimore is known for crime instead of its rich art culture, I feel like the answer is just that. People are disconnected from the artwork because it doesn't directly affect them. And even further, they cannot understand it or relate to it.

"You are born modern, you do not become so." -Jean Baudrillard

My title-less postmodernism project was constructed on a sheet on Bristol paper using paint, ink, and photoshopped images printed on pieces of printer paper which were then cut out and glued down. The piece is fairly asymmetrical, but that does not mean that it is not balanced. In fact, the paint, ink, and paper is distributed in such a way that no one part of the Bristol sheet is overpowering the others. However, the eye is drawn more towards the focal point which is the largest picture of the baby in the road, located in the bottom left. From the focal point, the eye follows the red and black path to the right-hand side of the piece where it loops around a silhouette of a baby and fades into a blue and black color scheme. From there, the viewer's eyes follow the lines that were extended from the crosswalk in the photoshopped images. While there is definitely an irregular and uncomfortable feeling to the painting, the shapes are geometrical for the most part and the color scheme is complementary with the orange and blue highlights.

Besides the white background, the swooping black stream of paint gives an eery and dark tone to the piece. Further, the extended crosswalk creates a three-dimensional feeling that keeps the viewer's eye moving. And although the painting creates a bit of uneasiness, it's color scheme is satisfying and therefore balances out some of the chaos. If I was not the creator of this painting and didn't already know what quote I was trying to portray, I would guess that the work is trying to express feelings of frustration which lead to rebellion of normal standards. The baby with the pipe and a wild hair cut makes that pretty clear, and then the chaos created by paint blotches and scattered lines emphasizes this feeling. Further, the silhouette of the baby seen on the right side of the canvas portrays the unknown while the black swooping paint provokes uncertainty and dissent.

The Art of Data Visualization

It is shocking to realize that even though we live in a three-dimensional world, many of the ways in which we operate are through two-dimensional mediums. Tufte's chapter titled "Escaping Flatland" outlines different design strategies that help communicate 3-D ideas on 2-D surfaces. Further, he works at explaining the amount of information per unit area, something he calls "data density." Tufte also warns not to commit the fallacy of making things overcomplicated and cluttered when trying to represent 3-D spaces. "Pridefully Obvious Presentation" can take away from the value of the data and instead draw too much attention toward the display.

One idea that came to my mind while reading the chapter was the art of mapmaking, and how we still do not have an exact translation of Earth from the 3-D globe to the 2-D map. With over fifty recognized map projections, not one of them successfully depicts our our spherical globe accurately. Each one can focus on making a specific characteristic to scale, but not without distorting some aspects of the overall map. This idea fascinated me ever since I learned about map projections in high school, and this reading made me question the best way to represent data, knowing that information can be skewed and misrepresented. I definitely found it interesting to learn more about representation of 3-D things on a flat surface, and how the same data can be represented and translated in so many different ways that may lead to a totally different understanding.