Proposal Blog #11 11|16|14

I am going to be working on a project with Jordan Steadman. The plan that he has in mind is that we are going to be working on a documentary of the class and what we have done to work on everything this year and how we all have changed as people. In discussing this idea with Jordan I knew what moment I wanted to capture and work on indefinitely. I wanted to talk about and work on a project of our time we spent in Conneaut Lake. That fateful day when it was cold and raining that we go in to the school vans and drove down to Conneaut Lake to take tours of the park and venture around the town. It was the start of something new, it was the start of us building friendships in the class. Even though we were all cold and damp, we came together as a class that day and became rather close. It’s even how I met and started talking to me now best friend.
I wish to write the story of how when we went to Conneaut Lake for the first time we all bonded. For us it was not just a learning experience, it was the start of friendships that will last a lifetime. We all came together as a class for the first time there, whether it was when we met George and fell in love with him or when we went to Conneaut Lake Park and thought it was terrifying. Maybe it was when we spontaneously took a tour of Hotel Conneaut and had ghost stories told to us. There were so many moments we came together and its all what has made us the class we are today. The piece of writing work that I have to do for this project will be done in a fashion that is non-fiction because it is true, but it will have a story narrative feel about it. I want it to seem like you are reading a story that is fictional, but at the same time it will be very true, honest, and real.
As you know when I was in Conneaut Lake for the first time my love of making videos and taking photos was revealed. I talked to Jordan and he said that he would love to use the video I made and incorporate it in to the actual project. For my side of the project other than using the video that I made I plan on doing some interviews of our class and putting them over top of the video that I made. I want to know if the class feels the same way about what that first eventful field trip did for us. I want to know if they feel it has brought us all closer together. From there Jordan said he would help me understand all of the editing tools and would teach me to layer the recorded talking over the video so that as it shows the video I made it will have the students of our class talking about their feelings of the field trip as well. It will all hopefully come together in the very end.
Other aspects I plan to focus on for Jordan are talking some pictures for him as well of the class. I have some ideas of pictures that we can take; all we need is the class to agree with it. It will take some work all in all but I believe that this documentary will show just how close we have all become because of this class.

Research Blog #10 11|9|14

             The name of the artist I have received is Mierle Ukeles. She is an artist that began her work in New York City. She was primarily involved with feminist works but also did a lot of work involving the ecology of the areas. "I am an artist. I am a woman. I am a wife. I am a mother. (Random order) I do a hell of a lot of washing, cleaning, cooking, renewing, supporting, preserving, etc. Also, (up to now separately) I ‘do’ Art. Now I will simply do these everyday things, and flush them up to consciousness, exhibit them, as Art" (Ukeles, 1969). This a quote from Ukeles's book Manifesto for Maintenance Art 1969! and what she is saying is that her art is part of her daily life. It becomes part of her womanhood and part of everything she does. She wants to acknowledge her acts as something more than just daily chores. To her the maintenance art that she works on is a representation of everything she is and does. All the washing and cleaning, it's all interconnected with all the maintenance workers and people who help in the city. Its almost like one giant circle. Mierle Ukeles is an artist and woman who does what she does because it defines her in a way that connects her with the community and world that surrounds her. 
           The piece that I have been assigned to work on is Ukeles's Touch Sanitation project. I have mentioned that Ukeles does the work she does because she feels like all these works are interconnected. She also does this work because she feels that without the works of the maintenance crew she wouldn't be able to do something of the things se does. Without workers the entire world would be different and wouldn't be able to function. Ukeles greeted, thanked, and shook the hands personally of 8, 500 maintenance workers on their way to their jobs. She felt as though that she was thanking the workers individually for what they have been doing. Ukeles felt as though she connected herself with the workers. She wanted them to know first hand that people thanked them for their works. 
          In the book Social Works: Preforming Art, Supporting Publics by Shannon Jackson it discussed how movie WALL-E was based off of Ukeles work in maintenance arts. At the very end of the movie when the humans return back to earth they decide that the only way to rebuild our planet was to work together. It also mentions in the chapter High Maintenance they quote Ukeles as saying "I loved it because it was very clear thinking; also I felt like I reordering every social relationship" (Jackson 75). Ukeles's work was being done not only being done for her feminist views but also her she wanted to connect the community around her. The entire chapter is on her works and how she involved the community in each and every one of them. She also wanted to appreciate landfills as something like a sculpture of the city, created by the community. In the article from ARTnews it mentions how she is connected all the different works that influenced other projects like the one Vik Muniz did in Brazil. Ukeles is an influence for so many different works of art. She wanted to connect everyone together because they are all such huge parts of her like. Also with her feminist views it comes into play equality of the genders and of people. She wanted to "differentiate the differentiated" (Jackson 76).  Which basically means that she wanted those who were looked down up in maintenance to be admired as their own work of art like the garbage dumps. It connected everyone to one another. Ukeles wanted to connect everyone together and show their differences as something positive. This was her way of showing equality. Ukeles did all of this to bring community together since they all work intertwined with one another. 
                Overall, Ukeles's works have influenced works by Vik Muniz and others. Muniz has spread his works much farther across the globe in comparison to Ukeles who has stayed mainly in New York City. The idea of maintenance art has been widely spread though by other artist over the view that garbage can too be a work of art. The idea that a garbage pile can be an art statue of the city was created by Ukeles. It would be a piece of art created by the entire community. Their art is what unifies them. The garbage that they throw away all comes together in one pile and creates something. This also works with recycling the garbage for something, which is a huge worldly attempt at trying to keep the world healthy and less dirty. It's a way of making something beautiful out of something not-so-beautiful. But at the same time it connects everyone together through their trash. 

             






          

Schedule #7 11|02|14

Monday
COMRT 120 Intro to Media Studies 9-9:50
FS 102 Sect. 28  No Pain, No Gain 11-12:15

Tuesday
RELST 160 Buddhism 9:30-10:45
EDUC 150 Foundations of Special Education 11-12:15

Wednesday
COMRT 120 Intro to Media Studies 9-9:50
FS 102 Sect. 28  No Pain, No Gain 11-12:15

Thursday
RELST 160 Buddhism 9:30-10:45
EDUC 150 Foundations of Special Education 11-12:15

Friday
COMRT 120 Intro to Media Studies 9-9:50