Fluxus

Fluxus was extremely interesting to me because when I think of art I think of paintings, sculptures, music, dance, things like that. Fluxus was something completely different and it almost makes me wonder how it can be art. Fluxus art is annoying and irritating to the human eye and leaves a person fatigued. How can something that does that be called art? I thought art is supposed to be calming, something you can look at and interpret. Fluxus seems like the complete opposite. Besides that, I am open to seeing and learning new things. I do think this is a new innovative way to call something art.

Fan Fiction

While reading the theories on lost, the first thing I thought of was, "Wow, I do the same thing with the show I watch weekly." It is crazy how one can get so "obsessed" with a show. With our culture today, it's not just with shows. It's everything! People are constantly checking to see what new fashions are out, what certain celebs, what people thought of a good movie or a certain book, or even sports. People feed off of these theories as if the characters are real (Lost theories). I thought this was a creative way to incorporate another form of literature into our class. It is something everyone can relate to, because there is at least one thing in everyone's lives that they are intrigued, obsessed or interested in.

Lost

I have never watched an episode of Lost before, so having this as an assignment gave me a reason to! I have friends that are overly obsessed with this show, so it was nice to see what the hype was all about. Because of never seeing it before, it was nice to see it in that perspective. I didn't know the history in each of the characters, so I was able to focus on just those particular episodes. It was also very interesting to see how both the episodes coincided with each other. It was hard to tell what was real and what wasn't while watching each episode. I don't know if that is because I have not see previous episodes or if that's what the director was going for. Was he trying to make the suspense come from what was real or what wasn't?

The Activist and Calvino

After finishing the second half of "The Activist" I was still left just as confused and lost as I was in the first part of the book. My questions were not answered what-so-ever, which made me upset. I was left with no closure and overall, it was one of worst books I've read. I was very unsatisfied. However, I did think that Calvino made a good point in his writing about how some people may be too shy to really tell how they feel and reading gives them this chance to speak out. I thought that correlated a lot with "The Activist" and what was going on in the minds of the characters.

The Activist

After reading the first part of "The Activist" I was really confused and had no idea what was going on. However, it kept me intrigued because I wanted to end my confusion. They way it was written was a lot different like the other passages we have read. Throughout the reading, I noticed that Gladman changed the way she used text. I thought it was interesting to see how there are many forms of text one can use. I would like to know the reason behind to why she uses all these different forms. Is it to keep the reader interested? Or is it because she wanted to experiment herself. It made me more interested to see how it will end.

Perec and Matthews

After reading Matthews excerpt, it gave me a much better understanding of the Oulipo and how it really must have been to write an entire book without a certain letter. In the last class I had to do an exercise where I had to write what I did in the morning without using the vowel "e". I couldn't even get past the first sentence without be stuck. It makes it that much harder to believe that Perec did a whole book with this type of structure. Reading the book, I found myself getting more distracted because I wanted to prove him wrong and find an "e". Because of that, I lost track of what I was reading, and I felt like I lost the plot and what the whole basis of the book was about. It made me curious and wanting to know if Perec had an idea that this was going to happen with his readers.

A Void & Lipograms

The reading of "The Void" was not one of my favorites. It was so difficult to comprehend Perec's writing without the use of the letter "e." My first initial thought was, why would one want to do such a task? I'm sure many others have thought this same thing. Maybe it was because he wanted to see himself succeed in such a large and challenging task. Using lipograms in poems is more realistic, because poems are known more for their creative and challenging ways. Taking out the letter "e" made it seems like everything was more wordy. Like Perec had to find ways to go around what he really wanted to say because there was an "e" in the word or sentence. I give him a great deal of credit for doing a task like this.

Surrealism

Because of never watching "Lost" before when I watched the assigned episode, I confused. I didn't know what was real and what was surreal. One could tell that there were similarities with the episode and "The Invention of Morel" The whole show is incorporated with what is real and what is not. That is exactly what science fiction is entitled to do, so both the story and the episode a well job at bringing out the science fiction in the story. It was interesting to see how both the stories were set on an island. It makes it seem that many authors tend to think that an island is a place for one unable to tell what is real or not.

Short Stories 1

Short stories have always been my favorite form of literature. I love how they have a great deal of detail and information in such a short length. Authors of short stories have to invoke the reader right in the beginning, if not then the story fails. By attracting the readers attention right away, they have to use detail and show connections with characters. Walser, Kafka, and Melville do a wonderful job and completely these tasks. All three do a great job and giving their ordinary characters something remarkable happen to them. I liked the connection that they had in that area. It became more appealing to me because then I was able to see how each author wrote differently to show the same situations.

Things Fall Apart 2/28/2010

The first part of "Things Fall Apart" was a much easier read than the past passages we were assigned. It was something I was more used to reading and I was more interested throughout the first part. I really liked how culture was perceived; it showed that they continually change along with traditions. It was interesting to see how Chinua Achebe, showed this. It seemed as though he wanted to show that literature is the same way as cultures. In the first part of the book, once can tell that there are many different cultures and traditions. The main character Okonkwo tries to resist the changing of the traditions because he feels that people may look at his culture differently.

Emily Dickinson/Susan Howe

Susan Howe took on a completely different meaning of poetic form. With some sentences overlapping, and upside down, the poems needed to be looked at much closer. One can tell that she really likes to play around with the way poems are written and portrayed. She also really take the idea that poems often intertwine and overlap literally. It really gives the readers a chance to interpret what they fell the poem is saying. Even though I think that Howe was trying to show a innovative way to format a poem, I thought the structure of it sometimes took away from the meaning, and it became more distracting. I was left focusing more on how the words were written than what the words were actually.

The Pillow Book 2/2/2010

I began with reading Joseph Harris' book, because I felt that doing so would help with the other readings I was assigned. I found my way of critically reading because reading Harris' book had me envision the message that was being portrayed. his book had me thinking about "rewriting" in a different way. I understand the reasoning behind comparing and contrasting my ideas as I read. It gives an overall better understanding of the reading. It certainly helped me understand "The Pillow Book" and "S/Z" much better and it also had me more interested in the text. Overall, I think this book gave a good introduction to the semester to help dig deeper into the readings to make it easier to comprehend.

Fluxus Continued

The section of Higgins’ chapter entitled “Experience as Art” particularly struck me. Thinking of art as a physical experience seems to engage audience participation much more thoroughly. This also seems to be Higgins’ idea when she introduces The Happenings. The word “happen” itself evokes this feeling of physical time. The art occupies a space in the existence. I was interested in this idea of The Happenings, and in doing a little further research, I realized things like Flash Mob and Improv Everywhere fall into this Fluxus category of The Happenings. The idea of integrating art and life seamlessly is both engaging and beautiful. It forcefully immerses society into art, causing people to surround themselves with it. While it seems as though forcing art upon people would counteract their appreciation of it, what better way to be exposed to different art forms than to be fully enveloped in it.

Fluxus

I will have to agree with many of my classmates and say that before this class I had never heard of the term Fluxus. I was surprised at this because I had taken a lot of art classes in high school and never once had I heard this term. I did however study the 60s and 70s art movements and we did concentrate on some Andy Warhol pieces. I think it's very interesting how art in general evokes certain emotions in certain people and to others it could just be a canvas with paint hanging on a wall or a chair sitting in the middle of a room. The idea that art is sort of whatever you make it, ties directly into all the discussions we've had this semester on the concept of "what is literature" this concept intrigued me so much that I decided to do my creative project on it and I'm glad that the discussions of fluxus art are tying in so nicely with that concept.

Fluxus

Like many others, I had never heard of the term Fluxus before. It was interesting to learn more about this art form. Higgins says that Fluxus was a popular movement in the 1960s and 1970s so I was excited to read about it since the 1960s are my favorite decade and I think that some of the most inspirational art came of that decade. Higgins said that abstract expressionism was a sort of performance that was dedicated to exploring day-to-day reality. The little things that happen every day are the most important because they are normally things that no one pays attention to. The fact that these artists brought these images forward is intriguing.

Fluxus Pt. 2

While reading Chapter 3 of Higgins' piece on Fluxus, I found the definition of the movement very intriguing. It was stated that the art is not so different from the reality, and they evoke one another. The art, however, can't exist in every place as the reality can. Fluxus art can be called art because it is pinned down to a single place (whether that be physical place or space in time or anything that can be pinpointed).

It's a very strange concept to be able to name something as art, and have it be art. The example of the rubber-band ball being either a rubber-band ball or a piece of art, depending on the context and the labelling, relates to the discussions we have in our class. In the beginning of the semester, we tried to label 'literature' and had a very hard time coming to a consensus. Throughout the semester, we've been challenged with the same type of definition questions and we never find a particular conclusion. Fluxus reminds me that art, specifically, exists naturally and an artist can simply be the person that records it or believes in its beauty.

Fluxus

While reading through this, just as a lot of you all stated, the idea of an exact definition of art keeps coming back up. It makes me think of Andy Warhol and his pieces. Some people say he is stealing something which is copy written and making it into something his own and taking credit for it. Others would call it art. Some people would say that his films are nothing and worthless, a waste of time. Others would call it art. I think that idea comes through out these fluxus pieces. Where is the line drawn, what is art and what is not art? What is the potential of any ordinary object? Is everything around us art?

Fluxus Chap 3

The beginning of Chapter three briefly delves into how we perceive reality in art or art in reality. Again I think we are presented with the problem of how we determine what constitutes art and what does not, very much like our discussion of what is literature. I think part of what Fluxus does is confuse our own perception of art by taking what might be considered drab reality and transforming it into something one might consider art. After viewed the creatively altered object again in reality we have a different experience with it, we see it differently. Conversely, when we see art repeatedly in reality, we see it differently as well.

Ch.3

This chapter focused on the relationship between fluxus and other art forms, for instance, pop art, conceptual art, and happening art. Higgins shows that fluxus has influence in all of these art forms. "Philip Jackson argues that to experience as art is not the same as having an artificial experience; art, after all, is itself a form of reality."I found this quote really interesting, and thought provoking. It goes along with the whole idea of the fluxus form of art is a way of experiencing the art and how it ultimately becomes a part of our reality. You can see this filter through in these other art forms. For one, in pop art Andy Warhol painted and screen printed every day objects and people, like soup cans and Marylyn Monroe.

Fluxus ch.3

Chapter 3 about Fluxus explored the relationship, as Higgins mentioned, “between Fluxus and three other major movements of the 1960s and 1970s: Happenings, conceptual art, and pop art” (105). Each movement has its own uniqueness however, they also have similarities. Both Fluxus and Happenings were described by Kaprow as “avant-garde lifelike art” (108). With conceptual art, Fluxus artists produced some of the first conceptual arts such as the Event scores. In addition, pop art like Fluxus challenged the idea of original art works. But as Higgins has explained, Fluxus has influenced these other movements however, it has gained no recognition for its influence. This form of art is unique. For example, the Blink video clip that we watched in class wasn’t creative, but it did have a purpose. As I was starring at the screen, my eyes soon started to blink everything the white screen flashed and then my eyes would stop blinking when the black screen showed up. This piece dealt with the viewers perception and how his/her eyes were registering the image. The Fluxus art works are weird, but unlike the art we’re normally used to.

Chapter 3

For this week we were asked to look at Chapter 3 of Hannah Higgin's book. I found that Chapter 3 was pretty similar to the first chapter we looked at for Monday, but instead of focusing on the film aspect of Fluxus, it took a look at objects in general. After reading this article it gave me a better understanding of a museum I went to in high school. I went to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis on a film trip and pretty much everything that was in the place confused me because I didn't really see it as art. One example of the type of art that was present in the museum was a kid's chair with a box of tissues on top of it. At the time I just thought it was ridiculous that something like that could be considered art, but after reading these chapters on Fluxus, it's interesting to look back and see that we all have different interpretations of what art is. The Fluxus movement to me seems like the artists live by the concept that anything in the world can be art if you interpret it to be art, which I find to be a rather intriguing idea.

Chapter 3

"Fluxus experiences sensitize the perceiver to the life world by creating a special place--called art--for the sensitization to occur" p3. I thought this sentence helped to embody what the Fluxus movement does. The different experiences that are intended to come out of a Fluxus piece of art show the subject something new in the world. Anything that is new or creative can be called art. Fluxus does that by stimulating the mind and body in unconventional ways. Instead of an individual experience art by simply reading with their eyes, or hearing with their ears, the person finds art in the physical presence of the piece. Like the installation described in chapter three, the art is there in front of you, it is intended to be touched an experienced, as opposed to art in a museum. People are supposed to derive their own interpretation from the art, and come away with something totally unique.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 on Fluxus seemed very similar to chapter 1 to me. The only major difference I found was that chapter 3 focused more on the performance aspect of Fluxus, while chapter 1 focused more on the films and objects like “Blink” and the Fluxkits. What confuses me about Fluxus is that they consider ordinary objects to be art. If ordinary objects can be art, then everything can have artistic potential. So, if everything can be art, then is art special anymore? Is there an artistic performance, or is everything artistic? Everything being artistic is almost the same as nothing being artistic. It brings back the question of what exactly is art, and who should make that decision, the artist or the critic?

chapter 3

For today, we had to read Chapter 3 of Hannah Higgins. Going off of what the first chapter was about, how art is seen differently and in different perspectives by everybody. It is interesting to read about how since everybody has their own interpretation on what art is it makes for a whole different illusion. They talk about how the people in this chapter are doing different things, such as wrapping people in tin foil, but this is not what happens in real world. A lot of people would see this as fun or kind of prank like to see what people would do but a lot of people appreciate art since they consider these pranks as something different and art like.

Hannah Higgins Chapter 3

I was under the impression after the first chapter, that the discussion of more modern works such as Fluxus might return to a somewhat sane practice of artistic expression, however it is evident that I was mistaken. The Fluxus movement remains completely unorthodox and to what many would describe as abnormal, however this time it includes actions of wrapping people in tin foil and driving them around and depositing them in Grand Central Station, and on the following day they are hung inverted in trees with a muslin bag covering them. This so-called art seems to be more like a public prank on the entirety of the surrounding populace and on the traditional members of the art appreciating community.

Fluxus

The concept of Fluxus art is completely new to me. Reading Higgins’ chapter from Fluxus Experience opened me up to a form of art I had never even heard of. After looking a little further into this art form, I realized the growing popularity of this movement and people’s dedication to Fluxus. The piece entitled Flickers Higgins described was incredibly fascinating. As art is generally perceived by sight, the artist tested its audience’s physical sight. Fluxus artists seem to use the limitations of our senses against us, forcing us to really become involved in the piece rather than just looking at it.

Fluxus

The Fluxus group I found was rather interesting. Creating art the way they did showed the uniqueness in the art. It was interesting to see how art was created through testing an individual’s visual perception not on the outside but rather on the side with the optical nerves. Also, I found interesting that Fluxus artists create the work but the audience completes the work as mentioned by Higgins. It seems as though the Fluxus group does a lot of art that pertains to how it is perceived through the visual sense, but as Higgins also points out, “Fluxux works are made to be seen, as in Fluxpost (Smiles), they are often also intended to be felt” (31). This form of art definitely proves itself to be anti-art and jabs at the ideas and seriousness that modern art portrayed itself to be.

Fluxus

Fluxus combines life and art. Hannah Higgins describes some of the works from the Fluxus period that exhibit this quality. For instance, the films such as Blink force the physical eye to become exhausted. This type of art forces its way into life, making it hard to separate the two. Because the eye cannot fight against this reaction, it involuntarily becomes part of the piece. Fluxus emphasizes the sensory involvement in experiencing art.

Fluxus finger boxes show the use of tactile perception by forcing the viewer to trust that the contents inside the box are not harmful. By putting your finger in the mystery of the box, you have the life experience of surprise. Shadow boxes made in the Fluxus period collect things from life and organize them in a way that involves the part of the viewer that is attached to the everyday.

Fluxus

I was very enlightened after reading Fluxus by Hannah Higgins. Before today I never knew what Fluxus was nor have I even heard the term before. It apparently has made a dent in peoples’ views on art and I’m surprised so many of us have never come across it. After reading the first couple of pages, I had to look up a video because I really wanted to see how fluxfilms create this optical experience Higgins talks about. With just a couple of clips, I can see how the eyes grow fatigued… it’s hard to keep up with all the flashing blobs. It reminds me a lot of being in a car or on a train and passing by trees and other slim objects (which is apparently where Brion Gysin came up with this). If you just look at a tree only as you pass it, it looks less like a tree and more like a blob. Usually, this makes me very dizzy and fatigued because there’s no way my eyes and mind can keep up with the pace of the objects we zoom past. I also found the fluxkits interesting and I would love to see one in person. It’s different, to me, how fluxus art redefines “specialness." Fluxus is very special and it is so intriguing how it gives new meaning to what we “see” because of its combination of the visual and the optical.

Fluxus

I like the idea of seeing as a subjective, physical exercise with limitations. The eye can only see so much, in fact very little considering the entire electromagnetic spectrum. I like it because it accounts for the variability of perspective and reality. It does not attempt to restrict a grey world with black and white borders. Of course, the perfect irony here is that Flicker accomplishes its goal using black and white frames. While reading the article I couldn't help but be reminded of Bejamin's piece on mechanical reproduction.

Fluxus

This week we are reading part for the book Fluxus Experience by Hannah Higgins. I was interested to read this because I did not know what fluxus even meant before reading this. I was a bit confused at first when I read this but then got into the flow of things. I liked that while reading this it made me think about different art that i have seen before and how i could look at it differently. I really like the idea of the fluxus because it makes the experience of seeing art more enjoyable. I feel like this is more of my kind of art and way of thinking through a lot of things because it lets my mind go and experience different things than if it were more structured. I am interested in seeing what we are going to talk about and do on Monday after reading this because I really liked this idea of a sort of unconventional art.

Fluxus

Fluxus work seems like a real innovated way to look at art and literature. I feel like most artists will agree when I suggest that their main goal is to evoke some sort of emotion either within themselves or within others that view their work. In some way you are experiencing their work but not as involved as fluxus works. It seems like the artists really want their viewers to truly experience their work, which makes for a more intimate relationship between artist and viewer. I feel like the fluxus artists/workers just want you to view things in a different perspective, almost more of a bodily experience, or more physical. I'd like to see one of those videos, either "Flicker" or "Eyeblink", it would be an experience to say the least.

Fluxus

I feel like many other ideas, concepts, approaches to literature we have learned about this semester, Fluxus art is a whole new world to me. Like many people, art to me has been a painting, photograph, or sculpture. And then there are the arts like acting, dancing, music, etc. The reading for Monday challenged me to look at art forms in a whole new perspective. This kind of art gives somewhat of a competition or change to the viewers' senses. It is very odd to think of art having a physical effect. Usually art is something that someone sees and then interprets, there isn't much physical action involved. In one of the pieces of art described, it irritated and confused the human eye. That confused me because I don't understand how someone could enjoy art that is painful. An example of the painful art is the "Flux Smile Machine." That definitely didn't sound to fun. How is someone supposed to enjoy art when they are in pain? This idea of Fluxus art is very different from what we have been talking about in class so I am interested to find out what ideas will come up in discussion.

Fluxus

This week we were asked to read Hannah Higgin's first chapter in her book "Fluxus." This is the first time I had ever heard of the art movement, Fluxus, and after reading it I found it rather intriguing. It was intriguing because the artists in this movement decided to use different perspectives of what art should be. Instead of using just pictures, paintings and sculptures, they used flashing images to interpret their art. I found this interesting because in Higgin's piece she talks about how the artwork of the Fluxus artist's often left people feeling fatigued, so instead of an emotional connection to a piece like museum users often feel, they leave with a feeling of a physical connection. While reading this I couldn't help but think back to an Episode of Lost, where the others used the concept of the Flickr on Karl, leaving him to be fatigued and confused, just like Higgin's claims Fluxus does to viewers.

Flauxus

This week we had to read Flauxus by Hannah Higgins. After I started to read it, I realized that I started to look at art in a different way. When I look at art in a normal museum, I think of sculptures and different paintings or pictures. When I think of Flauxs art, I think of it as a having a physical effect on the person looking at it rather than an emotional attachment or connection. I feel like this was a very interesting piece to read because I was able to think of art differently then I did before. But, I did have a hard time connecting this book to something else that we’ve read in class so far this semester. The only thing I could really find was early on in the semester when we read about art and how people look at it and how everybody has their own interpretations.

Fluxus

In this weeks readings I learned about the art movement known as Fluxus. I thought this group took a very interesting perspective towards art. Instead of using literature at its most basic form like most of the material we have looked at so far, the Fluxus movement uses art in a three dimensional way. I thought it was interesting how the videos that were described in the chapter were designed to irritate or confuse the human eye. I think this is an interesting way of invoking emotion from a piece of art. So far this semester I have focused on reading and writing primarily. This Fluxus movement is completely different from what I have grown accustomed too. I think it is important to value all types of art, and learn to appreciate them for what they are. There is a lot to learn from movements such as the Fluxus. They were challenging patrons to interpret the work whether it was a picture, piece of literature, or rapidly flashing movie.

Fluxus

In the first chapter of “Fluxus” by Hannah Higgins, a variety of work pertaining to movement known as Fluxus are mentioned. Many if not all of these involve something that distorts the audiences senses in some manner. The first of which were films known as “Eyeblink” and “Flicker” which purposely exhausted the optic nerve and muscles surrounding the eye. Another form was the invention of glasses that contained needles on the lenses facing inward to skewer the retina of any potential wearer. In addition to these sadistic innovations, a “Flux Smile Machine” was created and when placed in one’s mouth it “pinches the soft flesh of the inner cheek, gouges the gums, binds the lips, flattens the tongue; it scrapes against the enamel of the users’ teeth and sits awkwardly in the mouth”. Perhaps it is my own emotions affecting my judgment, but these forms of “art” seem more like torture, and are highly revolting.

Fluxus

Reading the first chapter on Fluxus forced me to look at art from a different perspective. I normally think of art as a painting or sculpture in a museum, but Fluxus art seems to be different. Paintings and sculptures can have an emotional effect on the viewer, but it seems that Fluxus art has a physical effect on the viewer/participant. The line between artist and participant is blurred. Fluxus art reminded me of the Children’s Museum. There they have different things to touch and play with and experience, which is in stark contrast to an “adult” museum. Why is it that children are constantly exploring their world and adults are content to just look at something in a photograph?