Centiennial College Art Association Conference – LA

Here are the people that I took note at CAA 2012:

Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle on Sexecology.
These two were very inspiring because of all of their energy and great storytellers of their process. The project they focused on most was the one of 7 weddings over 7 years according to the 7 chakras. Stephens and Sprinkle were going to be married in San Francisco, and the day before they found out they were no longer legally able to get married. So, when they go the grant for the 7 years/7chakras – they decided to get married 7 times. Stephens and Sprinkle basically got married to all of mother nature’s elements including snow, water, and others. Sprinkle playfully said that they don’t think of nature as “mother nature” but rather “lover nature.” Not only the collaboration between these two amazing people was happening, but the collaboration of the people attending the weddings. 6 out of 7 of the weddings Stephens and Sprinkle did not accept monetary gifts, but asked people to bring gifts such as performance or helping make the beautiful wedding attire.

The thing I admire most about these two is that they are addressing two very serious issues, social and environmental problems, in a playful and jovial manner. Moreover, the people attending were from diverse backgrounds. I have never seen anything quite like it. It was like a breathe of fresh air.

Next up, Augmented Reality  (AR) and John Craig Freeman.

Freeman spoke about many different AR things going on. However, the one that stuck in my head most was showing an app developer actually creating a toad that would sit in a geographically specific area. This area was actually the side that the police officers were on, separated from the Occupy protesters. In one of the videos, a glitch happened and the toad actually started becoming bigger and bigger while the Occupy crowd chanted and protested at the top of their lungs. In this case, I thought it could be an amazing tool for unifying a people in such a circumstance. You can see the toad video here.

Third, was a person by the name of Leila Nadir who spoke about Indeterminate Hikes. This whole panel spiked my interested because of the capstone I’m working on with frames, hiking and emphasizing the experiential in art.

Danielle (my classmate) and I ended up making it to MOCA too. I ended up seeing Rothko and didn’t realize I’d be seeing it again soon in Portland.

Walk Out Walk On II

Here are some paragraphs I thought were awesome in the Walk Out Walk On book.

The practice of being a leader who is a hero versus being a leader who is a host:

Questions we can ask ourselves:

Walk Out Walk On

Two competing roles to play:
1. We have to be thoughtful and compassionate in attending to what’s dying-we have to be good hospice workers.
2. We have to be experimenters, pioneers, edge-walkers.

Walk Outs
1. We make our path by walking it.
2. We have what we need.
3. The leaders we need are already here.
4. We are living in worlds we want today.
5. We walk at the pace of the slowest.
6. We listen, even to the whispers.
7. We turn to one another.

MFA Collaborative Design Open Studios

Well, we finally had our show, and it was an amazing time. A lot of people came to support us. Here are some photos, click on the image to see the Flickr set:

Selling vs. Gifting

In starting this entrepreneurial venture, I’m being asked how am I going to “sell” myself, to think of the elevator conversation that I can pitch to a person. This all seems fake to me. Although I understand its significance. I must be able to articulate what I’m doing clearly to people. Got it. Check.

However, I don’t want to “sell” myself. I am not a commodity. I don’t want to “sell THINGS.” This brings me to what I’m reading, Walk Out, Walk On by Margaret Wheatley. In the book, she talks about a gifting culture.

Here are some lines that I thought were really important: