For the Foundations final we are to explore the historical creek nearby and make art and awareness of it. It's a very old creek, but has dealt with a lot of pollution and changes within each reach (parts of it) as it intersects the city. It has a very different feeling as you walk it, going from naturey in Kansas to industrial concrete on Ward Parkway to controlled in the Plaza and sort of a mixture of both as you go deeper into Missouri, however more dirty.

For our map we were to collect materials and such for our maps that we were supposed to make. For my map, I collected leaves from the various reaches, every three trees, collecting three leaves. I collected about 72-73 leaves Saturday, marking them with white nail polish and putting them in a bag to keep them safe. If I could change one thing, I would have brought something different to write on the leaves and I wouldn't have went on such a windy day. It slowed down the processes as I would have to stop and mark group all at once and hope they wouldn't fly away.





I found it interesting how the leaves changed depending on their location. It made sense that the leaves on the Plaza were prettier than the leaves I found near the Paseo Reach because the Plaza is more manicured and is a shopping area whereas the Paseo is more urban and the trees are there not for looks per se.

For my second part of the final, I am thinking about inserting a video for every leaf where they were found since I marked them on a separate map. This is similar to the works of Sophie Calle and her having 107 women read the break up email from her ex. The videos were played simultaneously along with written responses to the email and other art. But for me I'd be focusing on the video side, making a video for where every leaf was found and then on the place where they art in the conceptual map, put the video there. However, for space that might be changed.

I also am bouncing around the idea of making a gif of the leaves I found just being on a plain white background, flipping through showing what they really look like with their numbers and illegible print from my inexperience in writing with nail polish. It's similar to those a picture every day artists that just take a picture of themselves everyday like Noah Kalina who did it for 12 years.

Another idea is just flipping to the leaf and the video of where it was found back and forth in a rhythm in a pattern. I don't know of any artists who show the object and show the location. But that seems the simpler form of the first idea and will be easier to look at than many videos at once either in the shape of the leaf or just rectangles.

I'm not really a fan of the symposiums that are in the middle of the day, because I forget about them until it's ten minutes before. They're only great before because the sandwiches are so delicious and sometimes the chips are good. And we also get cookies. Which is sweet.

The symposium was alright in general. Hearing about Chinese and Japanese art was interesting as it showed that the Chinese and Japanese artists are struggling with their identity and tradition as they adjust to the modern world. It would be an interesting certificate to get, but personally it seems odd to learn about Asian art from white people...

The Post-Baccalaureate part was interesting a bit to me because I had thought about being an art teacher and stuff but I don't like little kids that much (besides my little sister but even with her, I need breaks). But I could be a high school teacher, maybe. The holiday breaks sounded nice. It was also interesting to me because I knew Mrs. Robino from my high school, barely however from my freshman year.

The Social Practice part was a bit interesting too, but didn't catch my eye as much because it reminded me of what we've already seen with previous symposiums with artists wanting to say something with their art. This time however the artist uses the community compared to their reactions.

We never realize how much we use/think about maps and until we're confronted with them, like I am for the second time this year. In my writing class, we had to write paper over a place and look at maps about it. I can now tell you the majority of Lawrence, Kansas' history and involvement with the Civil War, being so pivotal and involved with the start.

The sculpture symposium was not as engaging as the previous symposiums in the last few weeks, though I believe that for people who want to go into the department, it helped get them excited for it. For me, it was sort of boring. I'm not really into sculpture so it was interesting in parts, but sometimes had the painting symposium vibe.

Also, at times, it felt that they were there to just put sculpture above all other departments. It was probably the opening statement of 'what do they hand Adele when she wins a Grammy?' and how they hand her the Grammy award sculpture 'not a CD, DVD, a painting.' I understand that sculpture is more than just what we see in museums and in history with the Venus de Milo and such, but that was sort of out of line to me.

The IA symposium was very interesting. I had an idea of what it was but the symposium broadened my eyes, in a good way, to what the field was. It's all very experimental and similar to coding, except based on the person viewing instead of the product already being in place and no further interaction.

My previous experiences with interactive arts were both with Arcade Fire. They came out with a music video for "We Used To Wait" working with interactive artists and web designers just to get the video working. The website starts by asking you to put in an address where you grew up or an address in general. Then many pop ups take over your screen as the music video/film unfold, dropping trees on the Google maps pictures of the said address with birds and a mysterious person running.

The Wilderness Downtown

And then later, for "Reflektor" they have your participation to change the lighting and effects of the music video. They even have a surprise webcam shot of the user towards the end so the user feels included in the music video. I remember showing it to my little sister and her face lighting up in excitement because she was in it. And then showing it to her over and over again.

Just A Reflektor

They work closely with Google and the Chrome Experiments which is just interactive websites where the user can control what is happening like a dark room which is just a poem that you sort of have a hand in creating. There are many interactive sites on their main. But I think I might take an elective in the IA department so I can make my own Arcade Fire interactive music videos.

Chrome Experiments