Leigh Bowery

Hmm where to begin with this man... oh I know. If you ever say this man is a normal artist and never had an influence to today's society... you be shanked, castrated, and murdered by his fans of today. Well that is what fans told me to say anyway lol.

Anyway....
Leigh Bowery is probably one of the more influenced artists during the 80's and 90's. Originally he started off as fashion designer, but due to his influence to the generation he took his work to another level. His artwork is the idea of what could be fashion. Because of this the generation who were influenced by his work  were called "The New Romantics".  These people would in clubs/parties that dress up their ideal fashion which are very expressive and different for "normal" part of the population. By dressing up the way they do a person could figure out their habits, personalities, etc.

In 1988, Bowery had a week long gallery show in the Anthony d'Offay's gallery in London. He was in a lounge surrounded by two way mirrors with different types of outfits by doing different poses by starting at his own reflection. This the audiences attention because he did not try to do anything to influence the audience, but rather just enjoy his reflection and poses he was doing. This narcissistic attitude  kept getting the audience's attention as they try to understand the type of clothing he would and appear as an alien cat.

In 1994, Leigh Bowery died due to aids. Bowery kept his HIV+ a secret because during the time it just meant a death mark, and he was afraid to be labeled as an artist with aids. If people were informed it would be possible that he would be alive today.

Orlan the Experimental

Orlan is artist from France who began her artwork by suggesting the idea of artists could the art work themselves. Whether is it dressing up, masks, sculpture or even plastic surgery her body and face become her artwork. So in this case you either love her work or hate it. Either way let's continue the blog.

One of her earlier works is in an art gallery where she would wear a board/baiser that has a naked image of a woman's body. On that baiser there is a coin insert case and the point of it was put money in it and the person gets a kiss.

I find some of her work interesting, in fact I wouldn't mind trying out some of those type of work, but what caught me off guard was that she preforms plastic surgery for her art. At first thought ".... why is it always needles...?" but then I snapped out of it and actually thought about it, and it made sense. After all her art work involves her body, the artist itself. What better way to use it with all the technology around you. As much I admire her art work, I know I don't have the courage to do such thing. The part where she was awake during surgery didn't bother me, her cheek sliced opened, blood, etc didn't bother me one bit. It was the needles around her that bothered me, but then again I hate needles in general. So kudos Orlan.

Howl being obscene

Alright this made me laugh considering the FCC is still complaining about this work from 50 years ago when I see things worse in the Simpsons and south park. Anyway...

This guy named Allen Ginsberg,

 (yes that is him) written the poem known as Howl in 1956.

Now during the 1950's the Beat movement was around experimenting with drugs and alternative forms of sexuality (Remember playboy came around in the 50's). In fact they were interested in different types of religion as the east. Pretty much during the Beat movement people found expressing ways about their life from the changes of WWII to the "perfect life".

I admit it is not meant for children especially when he uses sexual references from straight or gay or with his cussing and the word "negro", but other than that I don't see the point to keep shunning it today. I could understand why it was shunned in the 50's because people are trying to go back to the old days and afraid of change, but as time went on people realized what they lived in wasn't the perfect world. Kind of funny how there are more... what is the word I am looking for... foul... nah... expressive... maybe, expressive work in books, movies, etc and yet never had to go through trail as this. In 2007, the FCC finally let it slide, but it is clear that they are try to prevent people to broadcast it or write an article about it. To bad for them people have more saying online than papers now a days.

10 Revolutionary Computers

Alright, so I read an article of "10 Revolutionary Computers" by Lamont Wood. As the title suggests, it is about the breakthrough of today's computer world by exploring the predecessors. Considering I learned this back in 7th grade in middle school I still find interesting how the computers came a long way in such a short time, but then again, the computer industry has hit a few bumps to slow the process down. Unfortunately, I believe we are hitting that slump again.

Every time I come back to America I see articles about computers/laptops being being dying out and fused into consoles and tv within 15 years. Consoles I could understand since they make their own games and have the memory to pull it off, but as I am looking at this Apple TV on the apple site I would give it 30-40 years for that to happen. I am not saying it is a horrible idea and I don't hate the macs, but unless Steve Jobs sucks it up and allow cloning he is going to screw himself over as he did back in the 90's. If it is not a Apple product it doesn't work on macs. There is boot camp, but even then that is 50/50 because of the glitches and breakdowns. Part of the reason why windows does so well (besides cloning every damn little thing) is because it supports the online gamers which is a large portion of internet users.

Over all, I guess we just have to sit and see how the computer war continues. Oh and I rather have both mac book and vaio on my side then just one of them to make my life easier. Also to crush hopes and dreams of iphone users.... they are not as high tech as you think. I have known Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung that did the same thing the iPhone is doing now 7 years ago. Anyway back to the topic!!!

Out all the computers the article mentioned that have been built and continuing the evolution of technology my faviorte one is this:

 

 For those who don't what this is, it is called ZX81 the first cheapest and simplest (not to mention one 1st hacking tech) computer. I remember having one of these when I was 13. I have to admit the keyboard was horrible that I customized my own keyboard. If people think this only meant for illegal uses then I shall counter act that X3 If you live in a country where the internet is similar to Chinese internet and have 50% of the country are hackers you might need this type of equipment to protect yourself. If you live in a country where construction is blocking your only way home and need to change their schedule for their lunch break so you can quickly pass through you might need this type of equipment. Sadly, I needed to break apart since the government were hunting them down.

Possible Xerox Project

Over spring break I have been preparing what to use for the Junior Review. Here is one of the works I will post up because it is similar to the Xerox Project that Santi will probably mention later today or Wednesday. So... this is... amusing... could this be a possible work for the project? ^-^;;

The Grid system

Alright this thing is about 4 ft long and 2ft wide, and a wee bit unstable. So instead of bringing this over to class I decided to take take photos of it. So in the mean time.... Who's that Pokemon?!

It's Gliscor!

It's Electrivire!

It's Lucario!

It's Starmie!

It's Salamence and Aracanine!

To be honest I have no idea how many push pins I used for this... could easily be around 3.5k-4.2k. All I know is I am not counting. As for the random green squares, I figured I would make the push pins represent today's graph/pixel while the green foam is how the tv was represented back in the 50's or 60's. Also if you are wondering about the acutal size I took a couple photos of that as well.

Flip Note

So I made a flip note about Jesus sheep, being the good shepherd he is, became abducted  and cast away in the sheep's den. One of his sheep comrades tell a story of how humans in certain cultures used sheep for sacrifice day thanks to Abraham. Eventually Jesus sheep became one of sacrifices.

Here are some of the images: