No Leg To Stand On

I went to school today to figure out where to insert my art in relationship to the information in my paper. I came to the sharp realization that I undermined my main piece while making my sculptures a little bit stronger in their overall representation.

I asked Amanda to swing by when she had time to help me out. She came by when I was finishing repainting my avatar's gang logo found on the back of his vest. He now sports a Viagra pill.

It's nice to know that I found someone who has found themselves in the same situation I am. Amanda is pretty much faced with the same suggestions for her graduate program: take a semester off to concentrate on your work more. As such, I felt she was very empathetic to my situation.

I expressed how I felt about having knocked the legs out from under my installation. She suggested creating an element that would invite the viewer inward, essentially baiting them to attempt to enter a space they do not have physical access to, thereby activating the space. A sound piece was suggested, set at a volume just barely audible at a certain distance. It could be something that illustrates that social barrier created by a personal interest, like my key example I've been telling everyone. ("I can talk about Superman until I'm blue in the face, and you wouldn't care.")

One of the strangest but interesting critiques I got from her was the comment about how my work appears to exist in that dichotomy of what I want to create and the world of academics. The black foam board reminded Amanda of giant blackboards from grade school. The strings in the model going back and forth, as well as the organization I talked about, read as something very mathematical. I got the implication that she meant it was more technical in its construction rather than artistic.

After she went back to her duties helping out the weekend YAP classes, I was left with feeling like my work was not going to make it in time for my April 4th re-evaluation. Having no teachers in the building made it that much worse for me. I'll have to wait until Monday to express this to anyone in the faculty willing to listen and help me out.