Katey Albro Week 3

So this week we continued with the concept mapping in class. It was really interesting because we actually started incorporating the idea of home and place with all of the observations that we have been making around the city since we arrived. I felt less challenged this week by the materials we used in class, and started thinking of the activities as more of just a thinking and expressing exercise than an attempt to create "work" which is what everything is driven by in STL. I found it to be especially interesting and helpful when we used our observations and word association exercises to create a map of all of the "homes" that we have lived in in our lives. Anyway, I am attaching some pictures of our in class work from this week.
Ciao, Katey

Joey

Hmm, this week..lots of talk about home. I don't really feel like my mind is headed in any specific direction yet, which is probably not a bad thing. I had a lot of fun with the ink on tuesday - trying represent, on a piece of paper, this idea which seems boundless and infinite and undefinable. As far as the upcoming project, my idea is a bit fuzzy but I'm trying to narrow it down. I'm thinking something to do with radiating energy...i know thats not a form, but it can kind of be a shape, right?

Zoe Hillenmeyer

We spent more time in studio focusing on ways to take ideas, expand them intellectually, and then also expand them visually. I enjoy these excercises - though they leave me tired and ready for bed. My mind and thoughts keep centering around greenspace, the divide of public and private, death and life, fabrics and florals (relating to patterns in general: but especially those that deal with domesticity, or the feminine). The greenspace is a personal interest. I miss the greenspace of home, and here is seems there is none: but that is only an illusion. The greenspace is on the roofs, in the terraces, painted on the ceilings, stuck on their fabrics - it's everywhere, but everywhere private. At home, greenspace is public, public parks, trees, strips of grass, and gardens. I've always been fascinated by the public vs. the private, and so this dynamic is particuarly of interest. I've also found myself going back to fabrics time and again. The idea of our skin as bags, or silks that we are wrapped in, in connection to the ornate fabrics and fashions of Florence are interesting to me. The focus on the figure (nip, tuck, sew, stitch), and the focus on concealing (wearing a "coverup"), seem to mesh very seamlessly with the idea of our bodies as fabric bags that work to seperate us from our surroundings. I've started recognizing the "skins" that "seperate" and "contain" so many bodies or masses of 'stuffs.' For instance, the skin of pears, the skin of people, the skin that develops on milk when it is heated, the skin of berries, and then that of bags. Thinking about bags has gotten me to a thought circle about "paper or plastic" and the act of wrapping oneself up. The images of the renovation at Santa Croce link to these ideas. Paper or plastic seems to hone in back on the idea of greenspace or energy awareness. My ideas are clearly not concrete, but they are swirling, marbleing with one another and starting to sift into thoughts.

Adell

After making mind-maps, story-maps, and word-association drawings in class, I've noticed an interest in very heavily three-dimensional or very geometric forms that seem to exist in a void. I have a tendancy towards containment, possibly associating it with comfort. I'm probably going to try to explore something along those lines for next week's curatorial assignment.

Kelly Diehl

This week we had to compile aspects of each of our homes, Florence and home in the states. In class, we produced work based on the qualities of home from Perec's article and from our personal definitions of 'home'. The ink drawings on flikr correspond to the words street, neighborhood, and space. We also worked on a vocabulary of mark with charcoal, associating different marks with different emotions. I enjoyed the last piece I did, which was an ink and charcoal drawing reponding to all of the homes I've lived in. I've lived in four places, including school and here. I find it easiest to work expressively and abstractly. I tried to use specific mark-making to represent what I am rooted to; specific people that have influence over my sense of home; basic values I've learned; the matured sense of self I have now, and change. Class has been emotionally exhausting. As it will continue to be, I suppose. Everything seems to come back to a relationship that I'm currently struggling to keep afloat with someone from home. Can't quite keep the wound closed. I am grateful, however, that Jana is giving us an idea of the working artist's methods. How to work through something--situations and questions.

Sam Washburn

Whew! what a week! The majority, well the entirety actually, of this week's photos deal with the undoubtedly aforementioned work done in class this week. Using Perec's text as a groundwork, we developed a number of works related to home and our interpretations of place. My work relates to my conflicting feelings on home and place. I find that it takes me a great deal of effort to actually understand what home means to me. It's something that is almost impossible to describe at all, as to me it has always been more of an understanding, or feeling. But, of course, learning how to express that is why I'm here, so I might as well take a shot at it. I was intrigued by the fact that my recollection and relation to space differed from that of my classmates. I have little affinity for nature, and rather enjoy city life to the solitude of the country. At any rate, I am excited and scared about our next project. Scared in a good way, as I have an idea of what I want to do, but I'm not sure if it will work, or even if I should tackle the subject that interests me the most.

Emily Gordon

Ciao! This week we explored the meaning of home through our gathering assignment and in class. We worked with Perec's article about space and created a series of ink drawings to represent our ideas about space, streets, neighborhoods, towns, countrysides, and countries. We also worked with how to represent home in a non representational way and how to communicate something with the marks we put on the page. The exercise where we illustrated the places we've called home was especially helpful because I felt like I could translate the vocabulary I built from the previous exersises into the representation of my homes.

Allison Glazer

When documenting for the home assignment, many ideas came to me when thinking about New York. I had a lot to write and represent because of all the experiences I've had there. Since I've only lived in Florence for about a month, I haven't found as many personal connections but I hope that over the next four months I can create more of a relationship with the city.
I enjoyed the six ink works based on the Perec article because they were so personal. My works were unlike anyone else’s works, and they can only truly be understood if I explain them and how they associate with my life.

Catherine Hite

so this week we used our home gathering assignment to think more about what home means. we tried out different lines to help provoke the desired feelings. we then used these lines to create 6 pieces relating to the reading from Perec. the 6 categories where space, street, neighborhood, country, countryside, and town.
i have also started gathering images for next weeks asignment of ways of seeing. i have chosen piazzas...(hopefully jana will like it and accept it) i have already begun to take pictures around florence of the various piazzas i have encountered and am hoping to make it to all the ones in florence by tuesday.
-catherine

Windnie Pan

This gathering project has really got me feeling pretty nostalgic. When filling my moleskines with different aspects of my home in San Antonio, I found myself mostly recalling events from my early childhood. I feel a strong connection to that book in particular and I think it helped to have to take into consideration so many different aspects of what made our home "home". I guess it makes sense that I feel less of a connection to the book about my home here in Florence. I've only been here for about a month and it definitely does not feel like home yet. Hopefully with all of this gathering, I will be able to figure out what it will take for that to happen.

I really enjoyed the mark-making assignment in class. It was interesting to see how everyone's work came out so differently. I had no idea what everyone else's were about or where to even start to look at them while mine made complete sense to me. I had no idea that could happen with just a few marks. It also made me aware of all of the different places that i've felt at home other than San Antonio. It was interesting to see the connections.

Amy Scott

This week we brainstormed about the meaning of home. We had to then take the words that we associate with home and make something visual to describe them. After coming up with the marks we then made a home map of different times when we felt at home. Right now home is definitely something I still associate with a place, my home in St. Louis. I still think of it as a very personal thing, but I'm trying to think of it on a broader scale.

dinner game #1

We had our first Sunday "dinner game" last night. The theme of the evening was comfort so I made a pot roast and asked people to bring things that would both compliment it and support their ideas of "comfort". Daniel made tomato sauce; Maggie made garlic cheese bread; Mateer brought two salads; Joey made a zucchini sauté; Claudia and Alejandro made a Spanish tortilla; and Zeuler made sweet cheese pudding. Oh, and I couln't help making polenta to accompany the pot roast. We ate in two courses: salads, cheese bread, and tortilla, and then everything else. It was quite nice! -Jana

Allison Shellito

This past week classes began and so far I really like all of them. I think it is great that our classes help us to think about being here and what that means on a personal level. I have been learning a lot about what "home" means to me with the current assignment and am finding ways to make Florence feel more like home.

My topics for theme sequence this week were old men in the piazza in Orvieto and smoking in Italy. I found upon exploring these themes that I identified with them so strongly because they remind me of different aspects of my family.

This week culminated in a trip to Budapest, Hungary. This was a great thing for me because I am part Hungarian and had always wanted to visit. I was really pleased with what I found there and am hoping this will help me understand who I am a little better. A presto! Allison

Catherine Hite

ok so this week was the first real week of class and things went well.
in theme sequence i focused on groups of old italian men and churches. i discovered more of the aspects of these two things that made me enjoy them. i thought about old italian men and the "dress code" as it seems to be - large glasses, newsboy cap, optional cane and lots of gestures are required. you also have to hang out in groups with other old italian men in piazzas. that then lead into thinking about piazzas and the differences between public spaces in the us and in italy.
the aspect of churches that i found interesting is the awe that they inspire in even the unreligious when entering the building. the grand and open spaces, the stillness of the air, the quiet. i also appreicate the air..but that is not really the reason i keep visiting churches because i can find art in all kinds of museums. i have a more difficult time turning this idea into work, but in the process i definitely was able to process why i enjoy visiting churches so much.
this week i have been working on the second assignment for home and have been realizing more and more what makes my city (in the us) interesting and appealing to me...there are so many aspects i never even think about suddenly i realize how important they are to my perception of my city.
-Catherine

Joey

Hmmm, original thought-web ideas are hardly even pertinent because my end points were so completely other. But then thats the point i guess...funny graffiti drawing of a dog (on my first flickr posting), to david shrigley, to our amazing brains and allowing them to run free(!), unconstrained by our evil and oppressive filter of consciousness. Then the silence and calm of the church at Piazzale Michelangelo, somehow winding around to individual experience of the world and of space...unusual and perception-based representations. These are things which have been on my mind anyways lately. Not sure if these "gathered things" struck me because they were related to my existing curiosities or if my mind just found a way to conveniently morph them into what I was already thinking about. The brain is explosive and infinite if we let it be...i think i just realized this.

Joey

Hmmm, original thought-web ideas are hardly even pertinent because my end points were so completely other. But then thats the point i guess...funny graffiti drawing of a dog (on my first flickr posting), to david shrigley, to our amazing brains and allowing them to run free(!), unconstrained by our evil and oppressive filter of consciousness. Then the silence and calm of the church at Piazzale Michelangelo, somehow winding around to individual experience of the world and of space...unusual and perception-based representations. These are things which have been on my mind anyways lately. Not sure if these "gathered things" struck me because they were related to my existing curiosities or if my mind just found a way to conveniently morph them into what I was already thinking about. The brain is explosive and infinite if we let it be...i think i just realized this.

Cassie Hamrick - Week 2 (Prelude)

I currently am unable to find my computer cord and thus cannot upload pictures for this week yet, but here's one thing I thought about this week:

I am confused about graffiti. Some of it is beautiful here. I was very fascinated by it for a while, and then one morning I was walking and I saw an old man trying to sand the bright green "merda" off of his shop door. It reminded me of something I was thinking about as I walked through Piazza Santa Maria Novella late one evening. I was awkwardly carrying a wooden crate that I'd found and taken interest in. It was oddly shaped and difficult to hold, and I realized that my purse had swung around so that it was resting against my back rather than on my side. I worried about how vulnerable I was at this moment, how someone could easily snatch my bag or my wallet right off of me. So I thought, yeah, if anyone comes up to me I'll just hit'em with this crate. That would probably hurt enough to scare them away. But then I wondered, really, which type of assault is worse? I have never lived in a place where I felt like I had to defend myself before. It's just strange to see how natural it is for people to hurt each other, and to realize that everyone (including me) has this instinct.

Abbey Teller

I really enjoyed the in class mind-mapping exercises. The two topics that I used for the assignment were masks at the 99-cent store and the lion-head doorknockers. I focused on them in the gathering project because of the different emotions they all display. I was more successful with my mind map of the masks, because I let my mind stray to random tangents, but then forced myself to eventually find connections and bring my thoughts back to the original topic. Also, the ink drawings helped me make even more connections, and eventually lead to my concept for a project on the topic. My ideal project on the masks would focus both on the generic factory-produced emotions on the masks and on the verb to mask. I would fill a room with fog and light it with different colors in different places (to represent the different basic emotions of the masks). Ideally, nobody would truly be able to see anyone else in the room, except for when the fog would clear momentarily in certain parts of the room.

Alessandra Perez-Rubio

ciao tutti!! come state!? This week has been productive more or less, i have oficially been to the ufizzi twice and the academia once, and have yet to see boticelli's venus and michaelangelo's david. What are the odds? This past assignment really sparked my curiosity in terms of how to view florence a home. A few of the secrets about the city that i have found out since i have been here is 1) the crepe place open til 5 am on weekends..aka unica fermata. 2) the santo spiritu sunday market (not really a secret) 3) melrose, great shopping 4) waffels with nutella , (the one that doesnt cost 8 euros)

Before i sign out, the only thing i am somewhat struggling with now is what i should call home, Manila or San Francisco? I still can't put any preference on one over the next. Maybe i dont have to? we shall see....

ps. i uploaded alot of photos since last week. enjoy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70666118@N00/

Emily Gordon

Ciao! In class this week, I worked with two ideas from the gathering assignment. The first was based on two ducks I saw sitting under a bridge, submerging their heads in the rushing water of the river. I stood and watched them duck their heads under the water for quite some time and the image really stuck with me. In my word web I dealt with the idea of being submerged in a culture and thought a lot about what it means to be here, emersed in a new culture.

My second word web explored a fountain I have passed by a few times on Via Nationale. I was really intrigued by the fountain and was curious about its placement in middle of a busy street where I wouldn't expect to find a monument. I found that this word web accidentially overlapped with some of the ideas I explored in my investigation of the ducks.

The photographs of my webs and ink drawings are posted on my flickr site. I really enjoyed these excercises because I realized its a great way to figure out how an idea can become a work of art and I'm excited I have this as a tool now. I also uploaded photographs of the fountain as well as an image from Bologna that is similar to the pictures that I uploaded last week. I really liked the way the shadow from one building was cast on the other building.

Lee Graf - Week 2

During the mind map exercise, the two pieces I gathered that really stood out for me were clinking dishes and a bicycle wheel reflector. The dishes I had heard in a cafe as I passed by and the sound was so distinct that I could accurately attribute the sound to that of ceramic dishes and/or metal utensils clanging together. I especially liked the randomness and chance of the creation of sound and melody. As I mapped out my thoughts I found that this was what I had particularly been interested in and the sort of tension surrounding the possibility of the dishes clinking together.

For the second map, the bicycle wheel reflector had stood out in my mind. It was a beautiful sunny day when I caught sight of this particular reflector, which moved so nicely around the wheel and as the sun glistened and bounced off of it. I noticed as I was mapping this idea, it was quite similar to the dishes because both of them cause a rhythm in either sight or sound, but not necessarily a planned rhythm, but rather one subject to its surroundings.

The pictures for this week are of my maps and also a few pictures from home. I've been thinking a lot about home lately, and I think one of the things I particularly miss is the nature around me at home since in a city such as Florence, nature is not as prevalent. I chose 4 pictures from the 4 seasons in my hometown.

julia's

These pictures do not necessarily pertain to the week's assignment. They're from San Gimignoni, where today they happened to be celebrating carnivale. There were lots of little kids' classic ball-gown princess and zoro costumes, kids throwing confetti in their parents' hair, silly string, and one giant, ridiculous float that didn't actually move with the parade of families but just kind of chilled out at the entrance portal.

Jessica Rogen

This week we expanded on the gathering activity with in class excersizes. We created thought webs and then developed them further with five quick sketches and a brainstorming session on how our thoughts could be brought together in a body of work. I choose to expand upon two images.
The first was grave lettering. In my thought web I mapped out all my associations with grave lettering that ranged from child prostitution, religion and feet. Through my sketches I decided that what I was really interested in was the fact that most graves here are walked on regularily. Respect for the dead, the tactile sensation for the feet, and the purpose of graves all came up. I decided that no matter what my hypotherical work on the subject would be it would have to do with walking on graves.
The second idea I expanded upon was a small hole I had seen in one of the walls. It was almost street level and filled with trash. In my association web I focused on the idea of secrets as well as the idea of sight. What do some notice and some ignore? In my drawings I focused on what is in secret stashes and who sees these holes.

Also, after class this week I am working on determining what is home though comparing my life in Florence with my life in Ohio and just the US in general.

Jane Philipps

After completing the gathering assignment, I've begun to feel more at ease in my new surroundings. I discovered many things about Firenze that I might have normally overlooked. For our in class assignment I chose to focus on two things that struck me particularly: 1) the chocolate festival and 2) an accident I witnessed between a bicyclist and a motorcyclist. I enjoyed the mind maps exercise because it allowed me to focus on free thinking and make stream-of-consciousness associations. For the chocolate festival I tried to focus on both the idea of chocolate and the festival. In one of my ink drawings I tried to capture the environment of the crowded festival whereas in the other I focused purely on the chocolate. My second mind map was a little more difficult because it was a fleeting event rather than something that I have solid documentation of. I focused on the idea of the motorcycle vs. the bicyclist on many levels, showing two drawings - a single motorcycle wheel and many smaller bicycle wheels - photographed together. I also tried to get a sense of place with the bus stop sign. Finally, I included details of my mind maps which show specific thought patterns and associations I made.

Allison Glazer

My first mind map dealt with the Pace flags. I found interest in them because so many people hang this flag rather than the Italian flag. Part of my mind map explores the reasons why people hang the flag for peace rather than the flag for Italy. I wasn't sure if the flag was for peace in Italy or peace worldwide. My map went into the cultural, historical, and religious reasons behind the flag as well. My second mind map dealt with reflections found throughout the city: in water, glass, metal, etc. I thought it was interesting to see how the true image changed in the reflection. The reflections have the ability to pick up on things one might not notice in the real image and also skew the real image to change what the viewer perceives. I enjoyed making the mind maps because they made me dive into my ideas during the Gathering assignment.

Week 2: Zoe Hillenmeyer

This week has been a week of settling. I am getting in the rythm of things here, and I'm already starting to think it's going to be a bit challenging to go home. It's hard for me to think of anything farther away than two weeks (even that, is a struggle). So planning life after Italy is daunting. Things seem to move slowly here, which I am really starting to like. It leaves time for appreciation, reflection, and progress - but eliminates (nearly) stress, and extravagence. I'm becoming a bit quieter - not completely, but I think it's a calming sort of thing. Nicole and I went to Viareggio this weekend, and it was really transforming for me. On the train ride over, I saw some sheets hanging, alternating between pink and white. I wondered whether the woman hanging them had done so intentionally. I started thinking of the many loads she had done, and that she probably just hung them in the order she pulled them from the basket. It got me thinking about time, about life, and about creation. After spending the day trekking the coast, and feeling the awe of the infinite that seems to happen when surrounded by ocean and the tide, I got to feeling quite a bit spiritually stronger. I keep thinking about Taoism, and religion, and God. It just keeps circulating. There is nothing surprising about this: everyone does the spiritual quest. But something about yesterday really resonated. I'm working on figuring out what that was now. The dinners at the house are great, I look forward to them everyday, and the few days we don't have them (Sat, and Sun), I feel I am missing something.

On art: The mind maps we did I found really wonderful. I had done similar stream of thought exercises before, and created similar types of mindmaps - but nothing that big and that expansive. I had also never followed a mind map with illustration or aesthetic creation, which was really wonderful. It helped me take my ideas, expand them, and then resynthesize them into more concrete, precise, and interesting combonations. I think that is a technique I will continue to use. It was interesting how the mind maps allowed for expansion of the technical, emotional, personal, and political aspects of an idea: generally leading to a more potent conclusion. The focus on synysthaesia was also fascinating, it was surprising how easy it was to feel ideas in parts of my body.

My eyes are still on the Manicans, and also now I especially enjoy looking at the patterns that Florence surrounds me with. The patterns in the Russian work at the accademia were beautiful, and I enjoy stopping in the homeware store near our house and looking at the patterns on the tablecloths, sheets, and curtains. I'm enjoying the little shops- and hating the inconvienance of needing to pee. There is so much more, but not for this blog-around. Ciao!
Zoe Hillenmeyer

Me mori

Memory.... me mori. In spanish, the latter means I died. I saw the text on a shirt in a photo and was struck by its resemblance to the word memory. Memory as a death of some sort, as the acceptance that what you hold with you has died- you won't ever get it back in that exact way.... I heard a ton of passionate things spoken about this week .... one of the things that stuck the most was on how we remember people. For me the image always changes. That is, when I think of my family, for instance, I don't have one recurring image. Instead, there are a plethora to choose from, and just because a certain one doesn't come to mind, doesn't mean it has been catalogued somewhere in the recesses of a memory photo album. They just bounce around in an expanse too amazing to disect right now. For Zoe, my roommate, on the other hand, the same image of certain people always pops up when she thinks of them. Somehow, it's like the image of the Virgin Mary. She forever seems to be presenting her baby Jesus to us, beaming with joy in a subtle way. She is never depicted scrubbing clothes or cooking polenta or making the bed, and yet, many find that home is in her presence. We kneel at her feet and pray... she gives us this sense of belonging. Could she be considered the ultimate hostess, having passed on this talent to Jesus... the host.... Ultimately, home is just a place where you feel at ease and invited and warm, be it alone or in the presence of strangers or statues. This week I found home at the beach town of Viareggio, in my ink and pen drawings of fairytales, in simple chores carried out around my homestay,and in the doilies or white linen shawls/table runners found at the market in Piazza dei Ciompi. I photographed some of these "homey" feelings, but most I just felt and mused upon. Buon appetito.
`Nicole
flgirlie

Adell

We did two thought webs in class this week, with mine covering the British Institute Library and the experience of sketching an exhausted-looking local who noticed what I was doing and looked like he resented it. Formally, the two ideas showed an association of a closed space representing anonymity and safety, while an open space led to feeling exposed and embarassed.
I also uploaded a few of my gesture drawings of my sculptures.
In other news, I am a terrible, terrible photographer.
-fin

Where?

This has been an interesting week. I broke my camera dropping it in the Uffizi sculpture Gallery. If ever there was a place for a camera to die it is the Uffizi. But that means I'm up the creek without a paddle. Don't know quite what to do about it yet. Anyway, that also means I have no pics this week. If the camera was working you would see pictures of our in class work and the Piscina Nannini pool. Went there to swim in the mornig, it was a chaotic hodgepodge but nonetheless was awesome. THe game was sweet. The teams here a tre really good and there was an awesome game that came down to a last second score. Met some nice moms too. I'm telling you this because I associated the pool with home. As for the assignement I'm having difficulty because I dont have a place really for home and the assignment requires such. Lived in an adorable house in keene new hampshire until I was 8 lived in Ohio until this past summer. Most of my history's in Ohio but when I was little I resisted the idea of it being home because I had the snobbish attitude that I had something more to say with new hampshire. anyway...I would have said home in OH but it doesnt sit well and besides my family just moved back to new hampshire, and I dont really have home without picturing my parents. Can't say that place is home either because its a three room apartment and I've only slept there three nights, spent most of break at my friend kelleys house instead of sleeping on the pantry floor (alas! how dramatic...) Then I tried to imagine Kelley's place as home but you cant really force the notion of home on something. Neither is home entirely with my family because when we're all together its hell. So I partially settled on the pool as home. Somewhere where I've had the gambit of emotions but always been comfortable. But that doesnt help either because it doesnt particularly matter which pool it is...i just need A pool. so I'm back at square one with not much to say and a notebook with musings but nothing substantial. On the plus side I ate a really good pastry. and tonight I get pot roast.
Hope alls well
maggie mcloughlin

Daniel Lubniewski Week 2

In class I focused on two of the things I gathered from last week: the view of the Eutruscan hills and the sight of people on the street. I did mental maps and ink paintings with both subjects, but when working with the idea of Italians on the street I started to think about how people in Florence compared to people in St. Louis. I would continue explore the differences between the two cities over the week in a similar fashion as I had gathered sensations. I also took this exploration as an opportunity to start testing out some different media, especially ink, pen, and colored pencil.