Comments on: Week 03

By: ju hun lee

ju hun lee — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:27:27 +0000

Oh, I remember when I went to Santamonica, California. I saw tons of combat shoes there, and tags with their owner’s names too. It was the eyes wide open.. Frankly, I had no idea about wthat it was. The film of eyes wide open recall the moment when I saw that event, and touched heart. Someone above here mentioned about it and some of them have negative aspect about anti war campaign, but campaign like eyes wide open is necessory I think. At least, it’s better than nothing.

By: Wesley Kim

Wesley Kim — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:05:58 +0000

I thought the weeks class was quite interesting as far as the topics covered and discussed in class. I felt really involved in the discussion about an artist’s responsiblity to do certain things or to create work about certain things. I also enjoyed the the film, as I attended it when it came to Washington, DC, to support my brother who is now on his second tour.

By: Nicholas M

Nicholas M — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:01:12 +0000

by the way, my E-mail is nmatej@saic.edu if you want a cd.

By: Matthew Balousek

Matthew Balousek — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:00:49 +0000

I dislike the sentiment that those with a voice must use it to speak to political issues. I intensely dislike celebrities who try to spout off their views and such. Who are they to tell me A is right and B is wrong?

Why should there be any sort of obligation to the political in art? There are certainly other topics worth exploring, politics is to a degree important, yes, but it should in no way be “mandatory” in art. Artists who don’t use their work to convey political issues are not better or worse than those who don’t.

By: Nicholas M

Nicholas M — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:00:32 +0000

To follow the previous comments, music is one of the main functions of my life, and one of the most enjoyable. If it were up to me, with funds and what not, I’d burn everyone an MP3 with all of my favorites. In fact, in the next few weeks, if anyone would like one, email me and I will get you one. If not, I won’t take it personally.

As far as this weeks speaker was concerned, I really thought that she had some important things to say about art activism. I especially liked what she said about the middle. You can talk and talk and talk to an extremist until your face turns blue, but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to get anywhere. Now I don’t think that forcing your opinions on anyone is right, but I must say that if there was any group of people that you may be able to at least respect your ideas and possibly even be able to get them to change their mind about something, it would be them.

I think it’s also a good question as to wether we, as artists, need to be activists. Can’t we just do something because we like it? Do you have to be labeled as a crafter, or cartoonist, or any other sometimes derogatorily meant titles. Personally I think that those professions are fine, and that you don’t. If you like making quilts for your family, go ahead and do it! Anyway, that may not be the best example, but one none the less.

By: Hae-Sung Chung

Hae-Sung Chung — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 05:05:15 +0000

It was unfortunate to miss last class since i had to fly over to my hometown due to family isssue; i heard that the last class was fun and casual.
What i heard from my friend was about the film that you guys watched in class last time.
I heard that it was about the collecting soldiers’ boots in Iraq who passed away to keep their countries safe. I am recently interested in that kind of issue, because my friend might go to Iraq to complete his military service. My friend told me you might not be very happy if I watched the film.. However, just by hearing and glancing at other people’s comments, I feel like I was unlucky that I could not attend the last class.

By: Suhyun

Suhyun — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 04:40:51 +0000

I was very pleased with sharing our music. Sharing music was interesting and information was nice, too. The most impressive part was we got our books from last week homework, it is very special.
Also, our conversation was getting deeper and deeper, it was better than week 2.

By: Thom

Thom — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 04:21:13 +0000

last class was nice.. nothing like some music to start off the day… in relations to the conversation on “all art being political” i don’t know about that… i know its easy to look at any piece of work and take an acid trip into sybolism Hell… but i feel there is alot of art out there that isn’t political nor do i feel it is the resposibility of an artist to produce political work. if i painted a picture of some large dicks smashing little kids into the ground like hammers to a steak one might find it to refrence the war in Iraq or think i like dicks.. or i was hit with a hammer as a child and it killed my inner child…… when in reality i could just have been drawing kids and dicks with no care in the world……. and if all artist have a responsebility to making political work wouldn’t that be very confining.. sure its ok to make political work , most people do, but there is no need to limit ones self…. … or feel u have a resposibility to any one thing or person… thats just my take.

By: MacKenzie

MacKenzie — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:41:42 +0000

I think that to some extent all art is political. Art that is produced and exhibited for an audience voices the artists perspective. The messages revolve around different topics but the act of communicating personal opinion to engage an audience (often eliciting a reaction) is a political move.
I was really intrigued by Megan’s proposition for a discussion/comparison of aesthetic and political art. I brought a lot of questions to mind.
What drives an artists aesthetic choices? Is it an audiences understanding, a message they are trying to establish, or a personal gut feeling? And what makes art political? Does it have to be pertaining to government affairs?
I feel like all art forms are inherantly both aesthetic and political. But I also think that there is a huge spectrum of art that represents different intensities of politics and aesthetics in the message it communicates. The peice we saw in class was POLITICAL (with a capital P). But at the same time Impressionist Painting ironically makes a political statement about individuality and a rejection of aesthetic standards.
What do you guys think???

By: caitlin

caitlin — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:37:29 +0000

again, i think that sharing the music was great, and i know were not completely finished with it yet but i would like to spend more time on sharing. i really believe music is one of the most significant forms of expression that connects us all and i would like to explore that connection more. taking the name of this class literally made me think about what i see when “crossing the street”; almost everyone i walk past on the sidewalks is wearing headphones, which pretty seamlessly makes me think that we are all listening to music. so even though most of us are walking in different directions, we get there by listening to music….

after each class i keep finding myself asking “what is art” but after discussing ‘eyes wide open’ i found myself asking “what isnt art”. im still trying to figure it out