Collaboration has always been my favorite method of production - work always turns out so much more enriching and fulfilling when it is drawn together from the consciousness of more than one individual. I loved hearing the interplay between Colby's photographic investigations and Bernard's literary ones. I've been creating graphics for nearly a decade now, so I have delved into issues of text as decoration, visual stimuli, and commentary on the image. However, I loved working hands on with these two media and seeing the way that they could collage together to create an entirely different message. I look forward to completing the photomontages tonight.

I have always been, and will always be, an enormous fan of Dadaism and Surrealism. They were the two movements that pushed me into entirely new realms in my own artisitic process. One of the major facets of both movements that I am drawn to is the spontenaity and subconcious decision making involved in creating a work, and these two issues were highlighted in the exquist corpse exercise. I've participated in the game through drawing before, but never through text, but I am still deligted at the way in which meaning and connotations appear from entirely seperate agendas. In high school I would spend ages with my friends passing around a sketchbook where each person could only add one element into the picture, and the results always became far more imaginative and entertaining than anything any one person could create. I am also pleased that we are engaging in these creative acts in class, because it will provide a much richer perspective through which to view the work we are analyzing and studying.

Tuesday's Class

I had never played either of the two creative exercise games before, however I really enjoyed both of them. they helped me to not worry if what I was producing was something that other people would consider "good" which has always been one of the biggest obstacles between ideas that I have and realizing them, I spend far too much time worried what other people will think. these exercises didnt allow for that, and because they were so quick actively fought against it. Though some of the poems or phrases we created didn't really make sense some of them seemed almost like they could have been written by one person and some of them were quite poetic; " Tears are a phone ringing in an empty room". Also the writings that the guest speaker read were fascinating, I had never heard anything like it, and I am also pretty sure I wouldnt be skilled enough to write anything like it either. I am also really looking forward to completing my collage that I started.  When I signed up for the class I didn't think we would get to create any art, but I am really excited we are getting to. I don't consider myself a good artist by any means but I am looking forward to seeing how my piece turns out. 

response to guest writer workshop

yesterdays class

well in the beginning of class i was like, this is going to be a long class...
BUT!! then when colby showed us some of the collaborative work he had done with the guest (name? bernard i think?), i became more interested in the presentation. I was also really interested in Joe Halls little coffee shop poetry reading art gallery thing. I know joe hall only through my boyfriend, who had him last semester for creative writing, and we had talked briefly of this little venue or whatever it is that he kind of heads up. Now i am particularly interested in going after hearing the guest talk about it with us. I also liked the fact that we got to see some of our professors work, as most of my other art professors have kept their art separate from their students, which seems unfortunate to me.
I really enjoyed the surrealist games. To be honest i have played these same games in Art history with Joe L, Intro to Visual with Sue Johnson, and now in this class. HOWEVER these games continue to be fun and inspirational every time i play them.
I was also really happy when the guest announced that "if your collage has a message you get points off" this put me much more at ease, and felt that i could be much more creative with less rigid instructions from our guest guy.
I think everyone was feeling inspired when we sat around clipping out of books and magazines with fun music and little instruction. it was a nice bonding night.
All in all i really enjoyed hearing from and spending time with out guest, and i'm glad that he was nice enough to visit.

Tuesday's Class

I really enjoyed hearing about the work that Colby and Bernard had collaborated on, and learning about the different ways in which the collaborative process can work. It was great being able to watch the film, which I had seen once before in Photo Studio. It is such a beautiful film and the stream-of-consciousness-esque narrative and music seem to fit so well with the mysterious, creepy, and raw nature of the film. I liked that the class opened up for us many new ideas and opportunities for the creative process, and I had not experienced exercises such as the "exquisite corpse" before, so this was very enriching. I thought it was neat that Colby and Bernard discussed their work through a collaborative lecture, so we got to hear about both of their perspectives, one more text-oriented and one more image-oriented. I really enjoyed working on the collages and am excited to see what everyone produces. It was great to do creative exercises that engaged us in some of the things we are learning about, enabling us to apply these things to our own creative process. I appreciated that Bernard brought a lot of philosophical discussion into his explanation of his writing process, giving us some background on the Dadaist and Surrealist philosophies. Both professors discussed various ways of "writing to discover" and destructuralizing / recontextualizing ideas, which I want to consider in working on my SMP.

Class Yesterday

My view towards photography had always been pretty plain but yesterday I felt like I finally understood that there was a lot more in photography than just the image. I was excited to learn and understand how photography and text could be applied and could be seen. And there is a lot more meaning in a photograph when there is text.

Writing Workshop Poems and Definitions

Below you will find the poems and definitions that ARTH260 wrote during an Exquisite Corpse exercise class conducted by Bernard Welt and Colby. The definitions were a two-person affair, while the poems gave each student a line to write.

Definitions:

1. Cake is a person who jumps from an airplane

2. Seagulls are a tree that falls in the middle of the forest that no one hears.

3. Basketball is a plump cat sleeping on a sofa.

4. Vengeance is a tattoo of pink flamingos.

5. Pancakes are the single greatest thing on this earth.

6. Beauty is a couch in the room.

7. Tears are a phone ringing in an empty room.

8. Absolute truth is a flying object.

9. Colby Caldwell is Chipotle.

God, this is all there is.

A clock ticked,
tic-toc the clock went
as time passed many people wonder
what
people turn their heads unsure what to think
an outcast rides away into the desert
without a care