Destini's Methods of Inquiry

A few days ago we visited the Miho School of Aesthetics that teaches grade school kids. Designed by I M Pei, this beautiful school has personality deep within its fundamentals. I got to sit, eat lunch and dinner with 5th grade Japanese students; Naomi, Satomi, Pui and her friends. As we shared our favorite experiences from different cultures, we quickly learned more and more about each other. They had questions such as, what’s a hamburger and how does French fries tastes while I was wondering what was inside of the dishes they served. Being an outsider to this amazing school, I really enjoyed the precision and details within.

After lunch we had a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. Participating in the ceremony was humbling however I think the highlight was having the opportunity to make tea for one of the tea masters. During the day we also got to mingle with some younger kids after our tea ceremony and we exchanged patty cake songs and games.

Today I got the chance to work with Yûya, a young boy on a clay mask. Our theme was laugh and love. I had such an amazing experience working with him and communicating through art. We shared a love for animation and hair which allowed us to bond and become friends.

Early February sketches of Mapping Project. Many things have changed!

Group Photos Reflection:

Twistagrambookchat was a creation based off of our interpretations of AIan Bigelow’s poem This is not a poem, René Magritte’s This Is Not a Pipe, and social media. This idea of portraying something that isn’t actually there led us to social media. The interactions on social media are superficial. A more sustained relationship exists through actually experiencing things with other people, not passively liking or commenting on random posts. The idea of connecting beyond our generation’s idea of “connection” was to show the imperfections of our interactions on social media. Even the game mat was a reflection on the overuse and glorification that society gives to social media. The style of the mat takes the pristine facade of social media away. It is no longer on this metaphorical pedestal that we (as society) need to upkeep and maintain. This is further evidenced by us leaving our footprints on the mat. We all could agree on one thing, we are more than social media, and we can function fine without it, even if it provides for good entertainment. 

We wanted the extension to be a representation of art in itself. The curves and sharp edges were planned in order to appear unrecognizable to the audience. We didn’t want the audience to know which pieces were supposed to connect, so each extension had similar visual traits-- curves, block shapes, and triangular shapes. These edges served to emulate the social media logos themselves: Facebook is blocky, Twitter has triangular shapes, and Snapchat has curves. The thickness of each piece was 12 sheets of cardboard in order for them to have a sense of grandness and a touch of modernity. While the texture itself was an important aesthetic of the cardboard that we wanted to embrace and bring attention to with our extensions. We each decided the location of our extensions. We were inspired by the politically incorrect and 5 minute sculpture by Erwin Wurm, homework assignments. Those “warm-ups” made us comfortable enough to be in the positions required to play our game of Twister.

Group Video Reflection: 

The true factor in Twistagrambookchat was that it was realistic and okay to fail to connect. There is always a failure of connection through social media and even when there is, it isn’t genuine connectivity and interaction with another human being. Playing twister was a way of connection when we were younger, the intimate and embarrassing situations that Twister forced us to do is what we needed to bring the connection back. 

Individual reflection of my extension: We used lan Bigelow’s poem This is not a poem, and René Magritte’s This Is Not a Pipe to take the meaning behind social media and twisting it, literally. I wanted my pieces to be unrecognizable and have its own beauty outside of the group. I loved the textures of the cardboard after laser cutting it. I focused on the craftsmanship of my straps and made them appear to be smooth yet sturdy. I used several different techniques to figure out what worked best for my extensions and my body.