photo of a box filled with various ephemera

Wk 14 Sketching in the Garden

Blue Banner with "Spring '16" in yellow letters

photo of a box filled with various ephemera
Art Care Package by Gina Householder

Art Experience: Sketching

Final

Thursday, May 12, 2016
10:15AM – 12:15PM

  • School of Art Scavenger Hunt
  • Do not be late.
  • Do not book an airline ticket for May 11.

Points Update

Through the end of Week 13 we’ve had a total of 930 points available. Here’s how many points you should have on BeachBored now to be on track for each grade level:

930 points = 100% = “A+” – 17 peeps
837 points = 90% = “A” – 63 peeps – 17+63 = 80
744 points = 80% = “B” – 23 peeps
651 points = 70% = “C” – 14 peeps
558 points = 60% = “D” – 5 peeps
557 points & below = “F” – 4 peeps

Based on these projected grades, the current overall class GPA is 3.34 which is down from last week’s 3.51 by 0.17

Future Art110

IDK if you will consider yourselves lucky or unlucky but you are the last class to ever take the 100% F2F version of this class!

  • In the Summer I’ll be teaching a 100% online version of the class. It’s pretty cool for peeps who want to travel and still work on their degree.
  • In the Fall I’ll be starting the School of Art’s new Hybrid version of the course. We’ll have 2 sections each half the size of this one. We’ll only meet 1 day a week. What we’re doing on Thursdays this semester will be F2F on Wednesday afternoons in the Fall. What we’re doing on Tuesdays this semester will be online at the day & hour of the student’s choice in the fall.

It’s been great having you guys as the last 100% F2F class. And I’m excited to see how the hybrid format meets student life in 2016. LMK if you have any thoughts or suggestions! And if you’ve liked the class, of course please suggest it to your friends! As you already know, I’ll add everybody, even if the class is already “full”.

Christine Kim & Morgan Moore taking a selfie in the CSULB School of Art, Art Gallery Courtyard
Christine Kim & Morgan Moore

Discussion: Aaron Swartz & Nadya Tolokonnikova

Word OTD: Gestalt

Group 1

Ooi Jing Huan
Crysta Tim
Colleen Siongco
Maddy Braverman
Elijah Yee
Hilario Saucedo
Christine Kim

Group 2

Danielle Dallas
Francisco Miranda
Amber Bolden
Gina Householder
Lanie Le
Katherine Shinno
Leon Phung

Group 3

Brianna Hastie
Dominique Gomez
Alfonso Madrigal
Tyler Kedis
Tiffany Van Gilder
Jennifer Lee
Florenz Francis Baltazar

Group 4

Ashley Batres
Jayson Fields
Haley Anderson
Sam Tan
Destiny Farihi
Nancy Tran

Group 5

Molly Poyer
Julio Garcia
John Stouras
Enrique Vega
Cheryl Peng
William Luna

Group 6

Valentina Ramirez
Jhonatan Ramos
Danielle Garcia
Shannon McGuinness
Helen Lee
Anthony Sanchez

Group 7

Reuben William Dyce
Jennifer Garcia
Jesus Viramontes
Christopher Chadwick
Ngozi Ekwedike
Katherine Pantoja

Group 8

Tareena Woods
Valerie Laslo
Glenda Castillo
Aaron Dela Rosa
Maison Chiu
Enrique Plascencia

Group 9

Tiffany Tran
Eduardo Castillo
Bianca Dominguez
Charles Watson
Cassandra Topete
Elizabeth Moledo

Group 10

Symone Pallett
Rebekah Johnson
Carlos Nava
Devon Carus
Gabriela Hernandez
Andrew Andrade

Group 11

Kordell Tan
Natalie Guevara
Kyle Shishido
Elida Ramirez
Alana Godinez
Meng-Hsuan Chu

Group 12

Rejina Hernandez
Alyssa Castro
Leah Perez
Jamie Filosa
Carlos Cucufate
Annie Ronning

Group 13

Christopher Williams
Hannah Mandias
Dorothyrose McMahon
Justin Marquez
Joshua Hyun
Peter Bay

Group 14

Vanessa Betancourt
Erick Diaz
Leslie Echiveste
Adilene Leon
Francesca Butler
Alexander Lucero

Group 15

Aaron Valenzuela
Bez Middleton
David Brown
Mia Miller
Aaron Satterfield
Cynthia Esquivias

Group 16

Rosa Velasquez
Catherine Chin
Marilyn Try
Megan Stevens
Xiomara Brenes
Jonathan Behzadian

Group 17

Oscar Alvarez
Christopher Moore
Ramtin Yousefi
Martin Diaz
Brandon Nhem
Jessica Addonizio
Shayenne Prasad

Group 18

Gregory Plantenga
Daniel Bursch
Nicole Chovit
Regan Cameron
Ciprian Robielos
Margarita Reyna
Anthony Estalilla

Group 19

Kimberly Gutierrez
RaVen Montgomery
Lorena Rubalcava
Maria Barreda
Jazzlyn Tabar
Marlon Fernandes
Patrick Dong

Group 20

Jerry Pleitez
Hunter Mervosh
Christian Aguirre
Daniella Galindo
Andrew Hana
Kyu Jung Lee
Carlos Madrigal

Comments

19 responses to “Wk 14 Sketching in the Garden”

  1. jamiefilosa Avatar

    Group 12
    Rejina Hernandez
    Alyssa Castro
    Leah Perez
    Jamie Filosa
    Carlos Cucufate
    Annie Ronning

    Aaron Swartz & Nadya Tolokonnikova

    Our definition of Gestalt is when the entirety of the group has more value together then when individual pieces are missing from the group. A swim team is more valuable when they have a pool, proper swim attire, coaches, swimmers, and knowledge of the sport. Just one of these aspects wouldn’t be enough to make up an entire swim team.

    We think that Nadya was an artist because she was a musician in society’s terms. However, we do not believe her political work was art. It had value and helped a lot of people, but was not artistic. She was fighting for human rights which in our group’s opinion is not art. But society and our group do not believe Aaron Swartz is an artist because he’s an hacker. Just because he is not an artist doesn’t mean he does not have skill or that there is not value in what he’s doing. The stuff he was doing was creative not in an artistic sense but a technological sense. His work still has value for a lot of people.

  2. Joshua hyun Avatar

    Gestalt is when otherwise useless essential parts come together to make something functional. Both nadezhda and Aaron are activists but they use different mediums to spread what they believe in. Nadezhda used music and Aaron used his abilities as a hacker.

    Group 13
    Joshua Hyun
    Peter bay
    Chris Williams
    Hannah Mandias
    Justin Marquez

  3. regankatecameron Avatar

    18

    When we think of Gestalt what comes to mind is a mosaic where you have multiple different pictures put together to make one picture, you might try to look at each picture individually but your drawn to see the entire image as a whole. Some of us think that the two artists could be called artists because they are political activists, which in a sense, try to invoke emotions to inspire change. While the rest of the group think that they are not creating anything to view as art or creating emotion.

    Regan K. Cameron
    Margarita Reyna
    Nicole Chovit
    Ciprian Robielos

  4. thepurpleturtlestory Avatar

    To us, gestalt in art means anything that shows conformity and shows a unifying common or related interests in the form of mutual expression. In terms of the protests, people may have different reasons for participating in the performance art, but to the public eye, everything comes together for one purpose and one unifed symbol.

    We felt that Aaron, the hacker wasn’t really an artist, but at the same time he kind of was and he was also pretty good at what he did. You could see him as an art for his expression of his activities as a hacker, and his hacking abilities could be seen as his art. His reasons for hacking MIT could be seen as an expression of protest against academic confidentiality and in the end, art really is about having something to say. Nadezhda leads a riot group of feminists outlaws who are against religion and the conformity of Russian society under the government. Besides obviously being in a punk rock band/group, her protest activities, similar to that of Aaron can be seen as her art because she has something to say as well. Though her efforts are quite radical, her expression is there and that is her purpose and her art.

    Group 11
    Kordell Tan
    Kyle Shishido
    Elidia Ramirez
    Meng Chu

  5. rebekahhjohnson Avatar

    The dictionary definition of Gestalt is, “an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.” We see Gestalt as something that cannot be complete without all of the other aspects coming together as one. We had a hard time seeing Aaron Swartz and Nadya Tolokonnikova as “artists”. The only connection we see is that they are actively trying to make a difference, just as most artists (i.e. painters, sculptors, etc.) do with their works. This ties back to the question we’ve been asking all year: What is art? I guess some people could see these two people as artists, but to us, art is defined as a form of expression that you perceive as beautiful. If someone sees Swartz’s website designs as beautiful, then there is nothing to stop them from saying that it is art. This goes the same for Nadya’s work. There is no explicit definition for art.

    Group 10
    Rebekah Johnson
    Symone Pallett
    Gabriela Hernandez
    Andrew Andrade

  6. Christopher Chadwick Avatar

    Group 7

    For today’s discussion, we were tasked to discuss the work of the day which was gestalt and to look at the works of aaron swartz and nadya Tolokonnikova. Gestalt means that a object as a whole is worth more than all of its individual coponents worth combine. This idea is everywhere. It can be seen in and form of technology such as a car or a computer. As a group we decided that the work of Aaron and Nadya could be considered art in a way. There work causes people to think or question something which many people believe is what art is suppose to do.

    Reuben William Dyce
    Jennifer Garcia
    Christopher Chadwick
    Ngozi Ekwedike
    Katherine Pantoja

  7. Christian Avatar
    Christian

    Group 19&20

    Daniella Galindo
    Christian Aguirre
    Kyu Lee
    Marlon Fernandes
    Kimberly Gutierrez
    Patrick Dong

    Gestalt is when our brain assumes the image of the object is universal.
    Nadya Tolokonnikova is an artist in the traditional sense being a musician. Her band, Pussy Riot, is a punk band with an activist mentality since their openly against Putin. With her art, she and her band bandmates express their opinions.
    Aaron Swartz uses a new kind of art which came in the new age. The amount of work that he put into something people will continue to enjoy and interact with would make Swartz and artist in every way. And he fought to keep his art form free and unregulated by the government. That makes his work and art and makes himself an artist for fighting for his craft.

  8. eddiescastle Avatar

    Charles Watson
    Tiffany Tran
    Cassandra Topete
    Elizabeth Moledo
    Eddie Castillo

    Most of us have heard the term gestalt from psychology. We view at as seeing a picture that may have a portion of it blocked off. Our minds have the capability to finish the image from prior experience even if that portion of the picture is gone. The online definition for gestalt was “creating unity with grouping.”

    Aaron Swartz, in his entire body of work, could be seen as an example of gestalt art. His collective work in the creation of sites like Reddit could be seen as art, although some members of the group disagree that his work compares more to a skill or recreation. For Nadya Tolokonnikova, she is more of an artist since her work falls under performance. She is also a musician and would be classified the same. Both both artists express their definition of art through different methods, For instance, Aaron used his talent of programming to express how he felt. While Nadya musically expressed her views with music. Aaron and Nadya both created pieces of art that idiosyncratically express their views.

  9. ravekitt3n Avatar

    Group 6
    Valentina Ramirez
    Jhonatan Ramos
    Danielle Garcia
    Shannon McGuinness
    Helen Lee
    Anthony Sanchez

    A gestalt has two or more parts that are integrated well together that we perceive them as one object. An example of a gestalt could be a chair. The chair is made of many physical components, such as the legs and chair seat, but we still see it as one whole object. However, a different version of gestalt would be the complexity of a human soul. While there are many personalities and components that form a soul, we only envision it as a whole.
    We believe that Aaron Swartz should not be considered an artist but more as an activist. When someone is doing something to find an answer or solve a calculation, it is more a skill set rather than an artistic movement. Nadya Tolokonnikova however, uses visual representations to get her point across, which allows her to be considered more of an artist. Her movement, of sitting in prison uniforms and sewing a flag against prison abuse demonstrates in a visual manner that she expects a change and to evoke a response by making a person think. Aaron however flat out reveals the wrongdoings of large companies and flat out informs the public of the fraud. Though he may not be a conventional artist, his curiosity and willingness to push boundaries makes his work a form of art. Both of these artists are unconventional in that they are creating works that are outside of the usual mediums that society calls art.

  10. Cheryl Peng Avatar
    Cheryl Peng

    Aaron Schwartz and Nadga Tolokonnikova are both well known figures in modern society who defied societal construct. Aaron Schwartz is well known in the Internet community and helped battle this idea of an non-free internet. While Nadya fought the oppressive yoke that is Vladmire Putin and stood strong for LGBT and Women’s rights there. Nadya did something that few would dare to do against that regime. They’re both political activist and try to express themselves using different ways to get their message out there. Aaron would use the Internet and technological world while Nadya would use her band as a way to accomplish and get people to see what they think about societal construct. While we believe that they’re not really conventional artist, they both have a huge impact on society because they challenge the norm. They both were very inspirational people who changed the Internet world, technological world, and the real world in a very big way.

    Group 5
    John Stouras
    Julio Garcia
    Enrique Vega
    Molly Poyer
    Cheryl Peng

  11. vanessabetancourtv Avatar

    vanessa betancourt
    Leslie Echiveste
    Francesca Butler
    Adilene Leon

    Aaron Swarts was an American computer programer who served time for breaking and entering. He later hung himself while under indictment for data theft, because he’d be serving 35 years. After rejecting his plea bargain he was found dead in his apartment. He was also an online advocate to stop online censorship. His art was making stuff that was private, public and thats what people also knew him for.

    Nadya Tolokonnikova was know provocative political activism with the group Pussy Riot. The group was pro-feminism and conveyed their beliefs through public riots and performance art.

    Both artist have in common their strong beliefs in political activism and expression against their government’s beliefs. They embraced their beliefs differently and showed greater meaning in what the believed in.

    To us, gasalt in the way these two portrayed it meant that the bigger picture is what matters, They both used larger organizations to their benefit. The whole product was what they wanted to matter.

  12. Tiffany Van Gilder Avatar
    Tiffany Van Gilder

    Group 3:
    Brianna Hastie
    Dominique Gomez
    Alfonso Madrigal
    Tyler Kedis
    Tiffany Van Gilder
    Jennifer Lee
    Florenz Francis Baltazar

    Our group discussed that gestalt means a whole working together is better than small pieces working individually. Such as a team working together is better than one person alone. Both Aaron Swartz and Nadya Tolokonnikova, use different forms of art to promote what they believe in. Aaron went to jail for hacking MIT and downloaded information that was suppose to be confidential. Hacking is his form of speech because not a lot of people are able to hack into a system like he was able too. Nadya went to jail because of freedom of expression as she protested woman’s conditions faced in prison. Her form of art is through music to voice her opinion and thoughts on prisons in Russia.

  13. davidbensite Avatar

    Group 15:
    Oscar Alvarez
    Brandon Nhem
    Mia Miller
    Aaron Satterfield
    Aaron Valenzuela
    Bez Middleton
    David Brown
    Gestalt is when an object is valued more as a whole than the pieces that make it up.One example of this is when people hear the word Lamborghini, they think of the car as a whole instead of thinking about each individual piece that makes up the car(spark plugs, locks, tires)

    We believe that Aaron was more of an Activist that tried to fight ideology he deemed to be wrong with more of a practical approach. We believe Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to be a performance artist that also tried to fight ideology that she deemed wrong but with creative methods like “Operation Kiss Garbage”.We also had conflicting views on what makes someone an artist, some thought that anyone who creates is considered an art but most believed that art is more for an emotional effect instead of a practical effect like Aaron did with his programming.

  14. haleyandersonsite Avatar

    Gestalt: many parts make up a whole, without each part the whole wouldn’t function
    Our group was split down the middle about Aaron, some thought that his form of hacking wasn’t art, but others said that it was his form of expression. If we argued that hacking was an art just because it was a form of expression, then we can say killing someone is art because they express emotion. We did agree that his blogging could be considered a form of expression through words, but when things cross the legal line it becomes blurry. Although Aaron wasn’t proven to be guilty, he was surrounded with a lot of court battles over documents he released, even though it didn’t hurt anyone. Aaron’s main focus was to tear down internet censorship, but he could have went about it another way. Nadya on the other hand, was a little bit more up front about her messages and activism. She was even imprisoned for her actions. Although we did agree that she was a little bit more geared toward art in her defiance. She participated in street art and and even went on a hunger strike in prison trying to bring attention to the horrible conditions while she was in there. Both of these people are extreme in the way they express themselves, Nadya a little more than Aaron, but they both are geared toward the same idea of activism, and we can’t disagree that activism is an art form.
    Group 4
    Jayson Fields
    Haley Anderson
    Sam Tan
    Destiny Farihi
    Nancy Tran

  15. madisonbraverman Avatar

    Ooi Jing Huan
    Crysta Tim
    Colleen Siongco
    Maddy Braverman
    Elijah Yee
    Hilario Saucedo
    Christine Kim
    Daniel Bursch

    Our group think Gestalt is a concept that is defined by the parts and pieces it is made up of, whether a person, piece of art, object etc. It is the true value of parts that make up a whole. This week we learned about two different types of artists Aaron Swartz and Nadya Tolookonnikova. Aaron Swartz is a computer programmer who is a political organizer and “hacktivist.” He also helped launch the progressive change campaign committee to help learn about olin activism. Additionally, he got arrested for hacking and computer fraud and then committed suicide after committed for “data theft.” Our group believes he is the Robinhood in the hacking world and truly ponder if hacking is an art of just a practiced skill. He was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame and we found it sad that his death was a product of the negative connotations of hacking.
    On the other hand, Nadya T is a political activist and performance artist. She is apart of an anti-putinist punk rock group ‘Pussy Riot’ . She ended up being imprisoned for two years due to her strong religious opposition. Lots of her performances have sexual connotations and represent controversial political issues. Both individuals are a unique type of artist we have not studied before but they both are fascinating and extremely talented in their own way.

  16. aboldenimages Avatar

    GROUP 2
    Danielle Dallas
    Amber Bolden
    Gina Householder
    Lanie Le
    Katherine Shinno
    Leon Phung

    Gestalt is a collective whole of many parts and in art can be seen as interpretation based. The meaning of art is different for everybody. Aaron Swartz is an artist because of his computer programing and his creation of codes. Nadya is a very active person and everything that she does can be interpreted as art because art is not only a physical manifestation of an object but can also be spoken word. She participates in social issues which provokes emotion and perceptions from the audience, and in this way even her words and actions become art. Similarly, through her band, she creates an emotional connection with the audience and evokes feelings which may otherwise have gone unknown had she not utilized her platform to convey her messages. Both Aaron and Nadya are artists because they both do what they are passionate about. Art can be anything that means something to someone.

  17. enriquewarrior Avatar

    Group 8 – Enrique Plascencia
    Glenda Castillo
    Tareena Woods
    Aaron Dela Rosa
    Valerie laslo
    Maison Chiu
    Gestalt to us is something like a person or artist that can be known for
    different things like artworks but they should be known and judged for all their contributions as a whole, to know them as who they are. In this case, Swartz and Tolokonnikova would be known for their computer skills and musical talents respectively.

    We think that the Aaron Swartz,P was seen as doing good to some people although it was controversial. As for the government, His work was viewed as a menace. Because there are two polar opposing sides to his work, it may not be seen as art. Even if it was seen as art, the technique performed was executed “behind the scenes”. Ultimately his form of art is simply hacking: a form that is barely noticeably to audiences and causes much controversy. Art should be something widely accepted as a whole; and the fact that there were splitting sides makes his art questionable.

    Although Nadya’s work was also contreversial (but less than Aaron), she was protesting for what they believe in. Nadya’s punk band, Pussy Riot showed a direct form of art. Through her music, she reflects political activism for her cause. Although it was controversial, the form of art Nadya and her band formed shows a much greater cause & acceptance as compared to Swartz.

    Both were political, and passionate for what they did. Although they showed their message through different means, both showed a form of art as it captured a message. Because art is meant to transcribe into something bigger, the meanings behind their techniques is monumental to the point where it can be considered at: even though it can be seen as unconventional.

  18. xiobrenes Avatar
    xiobrenes

    Group 16:

    We think that gestalt is a unified whole made up of different sections. For example, organs and other body parts are useless when they are not attached to each other in a human body. We think that they are both artists. Art is undefinable, so everyone has their own perspective on what art is. Aaron Swartz’s creations based on computer programming like websites were a form of art, especially the acts that caused him to be arrested. In a way, art is used to relay a message to the audience or through use of propaganda and what both these artists are doing are exactly that by using activism. They were expressing these issues through activism.

    Group 16
    Marylin Try
    Xiomara Brenes
    Catherine chin
    Rosa Velazquez

  19. Lorena Rubalcava Avatar
    Lorena Rubalcava

    Lorena Rubalcava

    To me the term “gestalt” refers to a person, place, or thing composed of many different parts, but as a whole acts uniquely.

    In my opinion both of these “artists” may not be classed as “artists” in the traditional sense however, as mentioned previously “art” may be interpreted many different ways. I believe both can be classed as artists considering no concrete definition on the word “artists”. Aaron Swartz’s can be seen as both good and bad. Depending, that is on who you are. I believe his intentions were not bad however authority figures may see it as a threat. On the other hand Nadya showed alot more positivty through her work. It was less controversial, and out of the two I believe more people would see Nadya work as art rather than Swartz.

Comments? Questions? What great art did you see, make, or experience today?

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