#creative practitioner

Recently I have been inspired by video excerpt (THIS IS WATER, n.d.) of David Foster  Wallace's commencement speech to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College in the United States that made me want to look into him a little further. David Foster Wallace was an award-winning American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California that was best known for his 996 novel "Infinite Jest." (Associated Press, 2008) His Speech discusses the human condition of thinking that we are the center of the universe and also the freedom of choice.

Often we automatically are certain that we know who and what is really important. We convince ourselves that I am the center of the world and my needs determine the worlds priority. Our “natural default setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me.” “like everyone else is just in my way.” (Wallace, 2005) It becomes so easy to choose this. I want to be more conscious with what I choose. I want to instill the same values with my children one day. Too often I see my generation being disrespectful. I would like to create with these values in mind. How is what I am doing affecting other people. Is this material that I am using an ethical and environmentally positive choice? Is my business partner underpaying and abusing their staff? Are they being treated fairly? Yes it may cost me more but I will be able to rest my head on my pillow knowing that I have done something to make this world a little bit better.

If we don't make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to we are just going to be miserable all the time. “The thing is that of course, there are totally different ways to think about these kinds of situations.” (Wallace, 2005) I have been inspired to change the way I think from being self centered to trying to put my self in the position of other people. Who knows what that person that you are frustrated with has been through. Their mum could have passed away or have been abused as a child. However unlikely it could have happened. “If you really learn how to think, how to pay attention, then you will know that you have other options” (Wallace, 2005) This has impacted me in such a way that I know that it is within my  power to decide. I decide how I am going to try and see it. I decide how I am going to react. In my family there is a saying that goes; the choices you make today is the foundation for your future.

Associated Press (2008, September 15). Writer David Foster Wallace Dies. Retrieved May 29, 2013, from http://web.archive.org/web/20080922015140/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122136457102232845.html

Grey, J. (2013, May 15). Here’s How An 8-Year-Old David Foster Wallace Speech Suddenly Became A Viral Video Hit. Retrieved May 29, 2013, from http://au.businessinsider.com/david-foster-wallace-graduation-speech-goes-viral-2013-5

Ritholtz, B. (2013, May 18). David Foster Wallace: This is Water. Retrieved May 29, 2013, from http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/05/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/

This Is Water - David Foster Wallace Full Commencement Speech at Kenyon College [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFt7EzpsZQo

Insomniac art team; Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando

‘Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando’ is a Playstation 2 game with “Pixar-like graphics” [Jeremy Dunham,  March 16, 2007]  that was released in 2003 that is about a ‘Lombox’ (Small, fox like animal with humanized features) and his miniature accomplice ‘Clank’, a robot that has emotion and a ‘Mary Poppins’ like collection of features that holds all of Ratchets weapons. Ratchet and Clank live in a galaxy where they are able to travel from planet to planet with each planet having its own Eco structures, level of technology and creatures. There is a universal mass production company with totalitarian traits (Company slogan; “Megacorp, Your one and only solution”) [wikia, N.D] that produces from house hold products to murderous weaponry [wikia, N.D] that Ratchet works for until he realises the corruption involved within the company. The game has a very well thought, upbeat sense of humour that addresses the ideas of corruption in sarcastic manner which had an impact on me as a child.

I spent a lot of my childhood drawing. Before I was introduced to the video game, I drew gory, blood lusting monsters that had little depth in creativity, I would never draw landscapes, not even with monsters in them. They would lack contextual ideas also; I would never give them a background story in my head. This changed for the better right as I started playing ‘Ratchet and Clank’. The art style in the game is very striking and inspiring. Everything from the movement of the characters to the bullets of the weapons is animated with care and complexity. With increased inspiration, my drawings got immensely better and I started to have the characters I created doing something interesting in a landscape rather than having a profile-view drawing of a bloody monster. This also introduced me to composing landscapes with nothing in them, which was weird for me because I always found them ‘boring’. This wouldn’t have happened I didn’t play a game as inspiring as playing “Ratchet and Clank”; the scenery in the different worlds is almost breath taking; and because ratchet travels to completely different planets, the scenery doesn’t get boring because one minute you are in green, slime filled swamps with snail like monsters and the other you are in a robot death camp overlooking mechanical forestry with fades into the horizon. The thing that inspired me the most was definitely the scenery, it almost completely changed the style of my art and I delved into more complicated techniques and drawings.

This game had a political driven, adult-themed sarcastic humour to it instilled by the mass production company, ‘Megacorp’ that covered ideas like totalitarianism, staged social figures, false security, the death penalty and gambling (via organised  ‘to-the-death ‘, profiteered arena fights which locals bid money on). ‘Megacorp’ often joked about how its goal as a company is to obtain total control of the universe. This was a stab at massive companies that span multinational conglomerates, hence ‘Megacorp’s slogan; “Megacorp! Your one and only solution”. The game had a range of small, themed cut scenes that were the advertisements of ‘Megacorp’s’ products that had an extremely sarcastic feel to them.

I think these ideas in the game taught me to think for myself a bit more freely than I was, and they taught me to look for things that interest me, rather than finding things interesting because they are put on a plate in front of me.

Referencing:

Megacorp - Ratchet & Clank wiki, a Ratchet & Clank encyclopedia that anyone can edit!. (n.d.). Retrieved May 30, 2013, from http://ratchet.wikia.com/wiki/Megacorp

WebCite query result. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.webcitation.org/5hm6pG9KJ

Scott Sona Snibbe is an interactive media artist based in San Francisco. His work requires the viewers to physically engage with the piece through various forms of interactivity. These forms are often media such as mobile devices, digital projections, and electromechanical sculptures. (snibbe.com, 2010). Snibbe has become popular with mobile app users, being one of the first artists to create interactive apps for the iOS devices. (New York Times, 2010).

Snibbe says that the purpose of his work is to bring meaning and joy to people's lives. (snibbe.com, 2010). This statement resonates with me because I would like to do the same with my work as a creative practitioner. I believe that interactive art is an effective form of communication as it allows the viewer to become more mentally and emotionally engaged in the piece. This engagement is what carries the message or feeling of the piece deeply into people's minds and emotions. Audience involvement destructs the separation between the viewer and the piece itself, bringing the two closer together and letting the viewer get a closer understanding of the piece.

In an interview with Jascha Hoffman (conducted in 2012) he says that he has stopped showing art in galleries because he wants to reach the general public. I think that this goal is echoed widely throughout many trans-disciplinary artists and reflects the mindset of scientific research. It is conducted so that society may better it's understanding of the world. How can society better it's understanding if it is hidden in a gallery?

Snibbe's work inspires me to continue looking for ways to incorporate interactivity into the presentation of art. Realising that someone such as Scott, who is in the industry and making such a difference in his areas, shares many of the same views and purpose is very uplifting and shows me that this could be an area that I am able to flourish in in the future. I am very excited for the what the possibilities of interactive media might able me to achieve.

Through looking at his work and how influential he has been in the world of art I have noticed that interactive art is now much more accepted and endorsed in our culture much due to his work towards making this form more accessible to the average person. I feel I owe Snibbe some thanks for bringing this type of art into a more widely accepted view and made it much more accessible. Had it not been for his work, interactive art may have still been restricted to professional artists.

As an artist I wouldn't class myself anywhere near being professional. I have only recently come to understand that I might actually be an artist. Maybe the increase of accessibility and popularisation of artistic resources has influenced how I thought of myself as a creative practitioner. I thought that because everyone had the resources to make creative works and most people used them, it wasn't something that made me an artist. Now I realise that being an artist is different from being weird. If being an artist is normal now then maybe I'll have to challenge myself to be ahead of the popular culture to be influential.

Snibbe, S. (2010). Scott Sona Snibbe: Bio. Retrieved on 28 April, 2013 from http://www.snibbe.com/bio/

Harmanci, R. (2010, August 19). For Digital Artists, Apps Provide New Pallette. New York Times. Retrieved on 28 April, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/us/20bciart.html

Banksy is an anonymous graffiti artist who tore around the streets of the United Kingdom and created politically driven artworks illegally on surfaces such as billboards, political structures, trains, and places [wikipedia, 26 may, 2013] relevant to the artwork that would portray his work with an underlying meaning. His art style is mainly stencil work and spray paints, this is so he could get the artwork done in a minimal time frame and keep his anonymity. His anonymity is very important because it is part of his image, because his work is so politically driven, he wants to speak to the public as the public and encourage thinking for them and not letting the television and media speak for them. I don’t want to sound like a pretentious teenager, but I think the concept of ‘Banksy’ is awesome. His message is very vividly projected no only by his art, but his technique. It seems as if people started noticing his work because it was illegal street art. This caught a crowd and then lead on to people actually deciphering his works and seeing the political humour in his art which lead to fame.

I have recently watched the documentary about street art titled “Exit through the gift shop”. It tells the inside story of street art and focuses on Bansky. After watching it, I was really motivated to draw and create art. Banksy influenced me to give stenciling a try. I didn’t like it that much because of the tedious cutting but I’d love to integrate the skills I’ve learn with CAD programs to make stenciling  I could use my art skills and CAD to create a precise stencil to spray.

He has a mascot that is a rat, and is incorporated into a lot of his works and represents himself as an artist. A rat is out at night, out of sight, unheard so it does its business and is back out sight again. Banksy incorporates humour in his art which makes the contextual aspects of his work and what he is trying to portray very clear and concise. Banksy is a disciplinary practitioner because he has to keep to a specific schedule of when he can and can’t do his practise. He also has to take into account the locations he does his work because he could get caught and it would tarnish his reputation as a creative practitioner.

I find banksy’s work very inspiring and specifically, I am inspired by his contextual aspects that he bases the visual side of his work on. His art portrays a message that does get put across because he made people interested in the way he applies the artwork and in turn made people actually read the messages he wants to put across. I also like how although stencil artists notoriously look similar to each other, Banksy has always had his own unmistakable style in the stencil art world. After researching into his work I am considering delving into the world of spray paint and stencil art. Another thing that gets me is that his ideals seem to be of the average person, except he is creating a voice for himself

Referencing:

Banksy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved May 30, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy

Banksy’s Rat | never enough homework. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://neverenoughhomework.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/banksys-rat/