Final Automaton

Au-to-ma-ta

so here's my final project in the time class.

I was inspired by my boyfriend. We were snowboarding one day when he said to me, "I wish I could do a flip on my board." So I thought to myself and I came up with this project. Depicted on the canvas are two photographs that I took of him snowboarding. I then attached the canvas to the motor, which is mounted on a board on a box. The canvas then spins in a clockwise motion, making the pictures "flip".

Kinetic Piece

For our kinetic structure, Garrett and I created a grass-growing machine. The final result did not go as well as planned. However, other touches were added that we originally had not counted on. For example, at the center of our structure there is an egg-shaped gear. Upon completing the structure, we realized how the shape helped to symbolize rebirth/growth, which was the exact theme of our project, being the reproduction of grass.

Kinetics

Grace Brown and I had a ball with our kinetic project. Focusing on a satirical view of religion, we created a talking Jesus portrait.
We knew we wanted to do something that might make people laugh or feel uncomfortable; I wanted the audience to walk away affected emotionally. Many sketches and meetings with Michelle later, Grace and I headed to Lowe's and bought the necessary supplies. Using plywood as our backing we printed out on photo paper and collaged a traditional Jesus portrait using hot glue to adhere. For the frame we cut down moulding and nailed to into the plywood. We chose to lacquer the pieces of moulding gold for a more Renaissance/Gothic feel-- easily stereotyped as a more Baroque aesthetic, the gold exalts the subject matter, who here happens to be Jesus.
As far as the mechanics went, we cut out a strip from the plywood backing right there Jesus's mouth would be. This served as a track for the dowel that attached to the mouth shaped cut-out we used as the kinetic part of this project. A sanded, oblong piece of plywood was connected to the motor. A vertical dowel (placed to run along the oblong gear) connected to the horizontal one, which caused the mouth to move.
Placed on a table that was draped with white, two church candles flanked the portrait. It ended up being three feet wide by three and a half feet tall. Its size and the presentation made it appear to be on an altar. Darwinism playing in the background provided the comic.. or rather sacrilegious.. aspect we were going for.

Big picture: Jesus sitting on an altar, speaking Darwinism to his beloved congregation.

The collage gave a more modern feel to the portrait-- it wasn't perfectly aligned, and the image was slightly pixellated. This is what we wanted. Printed from technology and rearranged for the twentieth century, a religion after such a long history undergoes slight changes, cracks, falls apart, despite the gold frame and the period style in which it is presented. Where it looks almost perfect and old, juxtaposed with this is the crystal clear voice of Darwinism coming straight from the savior's mouth. The fight between science and religion is an old one.





The video is an informal record of our success at getting the kinetic part of our project to work. It was really exciting at the time, though I wish later we had documented the whole project better. That was something I certainly learned from the Time class experience.

Endurance Performance

For my endurance performance, I chose to show how we appear when we perform the daily ritual of watching television. We essentially become a blank wall. I became a television facing a blank wall for three hours, virtually unmoving (except to change poses in the chair where I was sitting when I needed to).
It was extremely difficult for me to stay in the same spot for three hours even though I was able to shift a bit, especially with the cardboard television on my head. My sight was taken away from me (there were no holes in the TV) which I suppose doubled as facing a fear (I am very afraid of losing my sight!).
In comparison to actually watching TV, sitting in the chair doing absolutely nothing for that amount of time was certainly a task. When we watch TV, time seems to fly by as we have something to focus our brains on. During my performance I found my mind wandering, trying to think of stories and other useless things in order to make the time go by faster.

Critique

When looking at all of the final works for time I really enjoyed how the overall accomplishment with everyone. One that I really thought was entertaining was Phil Yannella's. This was interesting how he went about displaying himself. The cocoon setup he had was very entertaining and showed a lot of his planning. He had to find others to wrap him up which shows his careful planning and trust in others. With all the others doing something strenuous Phil showed something that not only took others but gave him a relaxing setup and a different view on the assignment. With all the passers watching and wondering what or who was inside the cocoon I could not help to think what most of the people thought about the paper that had blown off of his setup. One thing that is a big part of people thinking today is the environment and toilet paper flying from an art project into nature I think would be something people may not take lightly. After leaving Phil I wondered if he had enjoyed the task or if he was simply bored and/ aggravated with lying in a single position for the amount of time he did. The wind being Incorporated into the act was a nice variable and helped with the flow of the set. In all I think that he did his job well and the hammock and toilet paper were overall good decisions.

endurance performance

For my performance, I scrubbed a bus stop with a toothbrush for three hours. I did not allow myself to speak to or make eye contact with anyone during the piece. I also refused to move out of the way for anyone.

Throughout the time I was there, many people came through to wait for their buses. I could tell that I was making them uncomfortable. Many people wouldn't even come into the bus stop- they would just stand outside and stare. Some tried to speak to me and became frustrated when I wouldn't answer- some just laughed.

It was a very strange experience for me. There were times where I was so fixed on my task that I couldn't think of anything else. I would just scrub so furiously that I would scrape my knuckles on the pavement. Other times, my mind would wander and my scrubbing would slow down. The task was painful. My hands and feet became so cold that I couldn't feel them any longer and when I finally stood up it was difficult to walk. My knuckles and knees were scraped and bruised and my arm became very sore.

What I found to be the most interesting was the wear on my toothbrush. It was far more apparent than the physical and mental wear on my body.

When I was finished, the sun had dried the water and I could see that I did not make even the smallest impact on the bus stop. The floor was just as dirty as it had been. I however, was a mess. I was filthy, sore, cut up and both physically and mentally exhausted. Obviously the bus stop had more of an impact on me than I had had on it.