Just a reminder: Printed "disorientation" maps are due. Check out Edward Tufte's Micro Macro Chapter for visualization/design inspiration. We'll be meeting back in the regularly scheduled 229. We will discuss Cresswell, Chapter 3 on Wednesday the 5th, along with the new project parameters. Have a great weekend.
Monday, October 27, we will meet in the 336 lab at the normal time, before attending the visiting artist talk in KAM. Wednesday, October 29 we will meet at 5pm in Armory 147, with Professor Margaret Flinn's CINE 395 New Media class. DO NOT BE LATE. If you haven't seen John Jennings' Out of Sequence show on underrepresented voices in comics at KAM, make the effort to check it out.
At Allen Hall, a double screening of two movies that are centrally looking at the intersection of image and place. Style Wars is a highly influential documentary film that looks at the emergence of graffiti as an aesthetic subculture in New York City in the 1970s, along with its connections to hip hop. Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind is the director's recent film set in a fictionalized Passaic, NJ, represented as an anachronistic, deindustrialized, depressed city. Creative, DIY techniques of the town's residents are pitted against the megalithic entertainment monoculture. There is a lot to criticize about how Gondry depicts (or doesn't) place here, but it's worth a view, and is at the least very enjoyable to watch. If you have the chance, and haven't seen these films, I would make the time.
Disorientation Project and Next Reading Due Mon, Nov 3
We will review the Disorientation projects in class on Monday, Nov 3. These need to be printed and tabloid size as specified in the project description - USE THE MATTE COLOR PLOTTERS (not the laser printer). Also, you need to have read and posted a summary of Cresswell, Chapter 3 ("Reading a Global Sense of Place").
Due to some unexpected changes to the schedule, class for Monday October 13 will NOT meet as usual. See everyone on Wednesday (remember the photo essay assignment).
1) Finishing Part 1(by Monday October 13) A. Each group needs to archive the images used in your presentations (along with other pictures that perhaps never made it into the final show). Annotate the pictures in the description, so that there is some contextual information accompanying them - at the least you should note the source of the image, where, when, who. Additional background information, where present should also be added. Tag these images with "ourcity" + "abovebelow" + other descriptive tags relevant to each picture (i.e. "Champaign" "UIUC" "watertower"). B. Send an email to me addressing the following questions: + What were your contributions to the group presentation? + What/How did each of your collaborators contribute (this is not a grade/rating)?
2) We will now work on individual production of images based on the research and perspective gained through the presentations. Specifically, each one of you will construct an interpretive map that uses the codes of cartography and sign systems to tell a story "from below". To get this started, you will present a proposal based on some preliminary fieldwork. You do NOT need to focus on the site presented by your group - it can be another site of interest for you, but must be within Champaign County. ** Your proposals must take the following form: 5 annotated images (taken by you, or procured via archival research) that present the story you want to focus on (think of it as a short photo essay). These must be uploaded (and annotated) on the class Flickr pool by Wednesday, October 15.
3) We will also begin work in Illustrator on Wednesday, so you will want to have your Illustrator guide materials with you in class (whether it's the Lynda.com subscription or one of the books).
I know many of you have class immediate following Image Practice, but for those of you who don't this film is a great, innovative documentary about suburban development in North America. It especially relates to our conversations about placelessness and non-places. It's also visually stunning and will likely surprise many of you. What: Radiant City (2006) Where: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St. Across the continent the landscape is being leveled--blasted clean of distinctive features and overlaid with zombie monoculture. Politicians call it growth. Developers call it business. The Moss family calls it home. This look at urban sprawl through the eyes of one Canadian family also asks fundamental questions about design, planning, and technology. Covering topics from traffic and infrastructure to childhood, family, and ennui, it ultimately asks: How can we build sustainable systems that can grow gracefully as they age?
Winner of the Genie award for Best Documentary.
"an incredulous lament [of] eerie, sometimes monumental images…an asphalt-and-Sheetrock dreamscape" –The New York Times
"enlightening and disturbingly funny." –Village Voice
"the directors know exactly what they're doing with each beautiful image." –NOW
"[A] sublimely slippery, slightly surreal and not entirely 'just the facts, ma'am' documentary." –TV Guide Movies
Talk by Natalie Jeremijenko, Tuesday 5:30pm, 228 Natural History Building
Forgot to mention this in class, but this talk should be of interest to many of you. Natalie's work is extremely interesting and combines concerns from art, industrial design, engineering, ecology and social justice. Natalie Jeremijenko, an Australian artist, designer and engineer, has a doctorate in engineering and is an assistant professor of visual art at N.Y.U. Her work occupies a niche "between popular culture and high art, between art, science and engineering." In Jeremijenko's words: "People don't really know what to do about toxins in the air and global warming, right? So the whole thing is how do we translate the tremendous amount of anxiety and interest in addressing major environmental issues into something concrete that people can do with measurable and significant effect." More information on the talk. And if you want to know more about her work, check this out.
