Garfield Park Conservatory

Went to the Garfield Conservatory today- a free nature park with greenhouses as well as outdoor gardens. I know lots of people won't look at photos of plants, myself included, but I thought the lighting on these few turned out quite nicely. I'm using a Nikon D50 this week, on loan from my photographer uncle! Thanks Dan!

Theora Fits In part II

Here are some un-edited (i.e., not color or contrast corrected) images from my last photo shoot on this project. I have had a crit in Pipo's class and am planning to continue with this project. I have a lot more ideas and am hoping to shoot in Chicago, where I'm spending my fall break.

Lucy Orta

Lucy Orta creates what she calls "Refuge Wear", designed with homeless and nomadic people in mind. Her work blurs the line between fashion, sculpture and humanitarian efforts. Some of her 'pods' are built for one person, but others are designed for a whole team of people who are linked together by fabric tubes. Although I am less interested in the practical uses her arwork might have for homeless people, I really like the secondary statements she's making about personal space and community space with her garments. How much space do we need to feel safe and protected?

Erwin Wurm, sculptor

I love how Erwin Wurm engages gallery and museum goers by asking them to follow instructions and create art or sculpture themselves. More often than not, his sculptures do not exist without the aid of a strangers' body. One of his largest projects is called "One Minute Sculptures" where he asks strangers, people on the street, CEOs of companies, etc to do something silly and hold it for one minute while he takes a picture. Sometimes he will tell them exactly what to do or only vaguely give them hints via some props.

Greg Niemeyer Oxygen Flute

Greg Niemeyer is an artist and associate professor of New Media at UC Berkley. His work experiments with ways to incorporate digital art into the public realm, ideas of interaction with the natural environment as well as with eachother and play. One of his works, Oxygen Flute (2002) was installed in the Hearst Museum of Anthropology garden. The work was a small greenhouse-like pod filled with bamboo and other plants. From his website: "Inside the chamber, a Carbon Dioxide monitor tracked the changes in air quality due to the players consumption of Oxygen and the plants' consumption of Carbon Dioxide." The resulting quality of air was represented by digitally-produced bamboo flute music. His artwork is extremely theoretical but really engages the viewer in unexpected ways. http://studio.berkeley.edu/niemeyer

Subway Grate Sculptures

Joshua Allen Harris: Subway Grate Sculptures
Great video interview .

PARK(ing) Day 2009

http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/19/parking-day-2009-transforms-parking-spaces-into-public-parks/ This recent public art event asked organizations, companies and activists to transform a parking space into a public park for a day. The type of 'parks' varied widely, some with many plants and some just as a place to hang out. This event happened simultaneously all over the country!