Opera Paper

Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Lauren Sell

Professor Catherine Thompson

Art 211

October 1, 2014

            Mise en scene refers to the visual elements that make up a theatrical performance. In theatre, opera or film directors use mise en scene to provide a visual that can be realistic or fantasy. There are four components to mise en scene: setting, costumes, makeup, lighting and staging (Bordwell and Thompson 115). Often each component follows the same theme.

            The setting component informs the audience with a backdrop for where the story is being told. The setting also presents a background story to the audience about the characters. In Il Barbiere di Siviglia Rosina’s home has a chandelier and marble pillars, indicating that she is wealthy. This is never stated, yet you can imply that she is. During this opera, the majority of the sets are in black and white. At the end of the opera, the set and costumes are colorful. The black and white sets and costumes may imply that Count Almaviva and Rosina are depressed, since they are not together. As soon as Count Almaviva marries Rosina, the set and costumes become colorful. This symbolizes their happiness. The setting can strengthen the emotions felt by the characters or create a mood (Litch, Prunes and Raines). During the opera, the sets changed during the performance. Typically, you will see stagehands wearing camouflage as they move sets, but this was not the case.

            Another component to mise en scene is costume and makeup. Costumes can be used as either functionality of the characters role or purely for graphic aesthetics (Bordwell and Thompson 119). Color used for the costume design of the character can be either bold and varied between characters or blended in order to create a mood throughout the entire set. Costume and setting can contribute to the narrative progression of the opera (Bordwell and Thompson 121). In Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Count Almaviva employs Figaro, the local barber to disguise Count Almaviva in various costumes and wigs in order to sneak into Rosina’s home to see her. During the majority of the opera, Count Almaviva is trying to win over Rosina and the costumes are black and white, just like the setting. Additionally, polka dots appear on many of the costumes and sets. Rosina, Count Almaviva and Figaro all wear polka dots, but the antagonist Bartolo wears stripes. In the second act color, is gradually introduced to the costumes. First only the gloves of the soldiers have color, then crimson and fuchsia appear on the costumes of Count Almaviva, Rosina and Figaro. At the end of the opera the entire cast wear bright colors. These bright colors symbolize the love between Count Almaviva and Rosina and their promising future together. Hairstyle plays a significant role throughout the opera. Figaro, who is a barber, uses wigs to disguise Count Almaviva. Makeup also ties along with costume in adding ambiance to the story. Makeup can be used to disguise, convey emotions, or create a certain personification. As previously mentioned in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Figaro uses an assortment of makeup to disguise Count Almaviva so he is able to fool Bartolo.

            A third component of mise en scene, lighting, consists of three parts: intensity, direction, color and quality (Litch, Prunes and Raines). Lighting provides a practical aspect which allowing the audience to see the performance. Lighting also can provoke emotions from the audience. In Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the director uses bright, cold lighting to accentuate the feeling of sterility. The colorless lighting symbolizes the dull life Rosina must endure with Bartolo. Additionally, flashing lights are used to represent a lighting storm. The flashing lights also represent a passage of time. Similarly to the costume and setting of the opera, the lighting becomes colorful after Count Almaviva and Rosina are married. The director uses lighting to guide our attention to something specific that the director wants to emphasize. When Count Almaviva and Rosina hug there are bright colorful lights. Additionally, directors use shadows to conceal something or build suspense (Bordwell and Thompson 125). When soldiers confront Count Almaviva in Rosina’s home the lighting dims to signify suspense.

            Mise en scene contains one final component, staging. This opera’s stage setting allows the characters to face the audience directly or at an angle. The distance and proximity between characters provides a clue in to the type of relationship they have. In Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Count Almaviva and Bartlolo stood at a distance from one other, which signified they were enemies. Count Almaviva and Rosina were physically close and faced inwards towards each other signifying their love for one another. Like many operas most of the characters showed dramatic facial features and hand gestures to convey their emotions. Many of the conversations between the characters involved using exaggerated hand gestures. These hand gestures emphasized emotions between the characters.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia is the first opera I have seen. I have always been under the impression that all operas were archaic and irrelevant. This opera completely changed my view of this. I think the storyline is timeless and the opera was entertaining. I discovered that a lot goes in to making an opera besides singing, but also set design and acting. I cannot even imagine the thought that must go into how to design the set or what color lighting there should be during a particular scene. I definitely have a greater appreciation for opera then I did previously. In watching this opera I was at amazed the talent the opera singers have and the endurance it must take to sing for so many hours with few breaks. It is almost as if they are athletes.

            The first performance of this opera failed (Schwarm). The composer released an incomplete opera with unprepared performers leading to this failure (Schwarm). The audience booed and hissed throughout the entire performance. Even supporters of Gioachino Rossini, the composer, found the opera offensive. For the second performance, Rossini chose not to attend due to the reception of the first performance. Unlike the first performance, the audience met the second performance with enthusiasm and praise (Schwarm). After the second performance, the audience gathered outside of Rossini’s home to cheer. Due to the instant success of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the opera spread across Europe. Continued success in Europe led to the expansion of the opera in to United States (Schwarm). The comedic aspect of this opera provided uniqueness among other operas during the same time period.  This uniqueness allowed the opera to succeed globally. So much, that Il Barbiere di Siviglia is still popular and performed regularly. Since Il Barbiere di Siviglia is one of the first comedic operas I think it helped to open doors for future comedic operas. This opera is strictly comedic; there are no deaths or tragedies

            In Il Barbiere di Siviglia technology is minimally used in the staging of the opera. Sets are moved by the townspeople, and this is quite evident as they do not try to camouflage themselves. One technology that is used throughout the opera is lighting. The majority of the lighting is white or blue, but towards the end of the opera there is a scene with flashing lights to represent lightning. At the end of the opera colored lighting is used. In that same scene, kites are illuminated with colored lights and swirl around a hot air balloon. The kites are able to move around the hot air balloon without tangling strings with the hot air balloon.

As stated previously, this is the first opera I have seen. I assumed that opera was boring, and hard to follow, but this was not the case. I found it to be easily to follow, quite entertaining, even funny at times. I never realized of all the artistic elements that make up an opera, and all the thought that goes into every scene. While watching Il Barbiere di Siviglia I developed an eye for even the minutest detail, such as the polka dots on the costumes. This opera has opened my eyes, and I would like to explore other operas.

            The game I created is based on the plotline of Il Barbiere di Siviglia called Master of Disguise. It is a platform game meaning that the player must go through a series of obstacles to advance the game. It is a third person game, in which the player is visible on the screen. The player must successfully complete eight levels in order to win the game.           

            Master of Disguise is for a single player, the player of the game is Count Almaviva, a wealthy nobleman who is trying to win the heart of Rosina. She is ward of Bartolo, a controlling doctor who wants to marry her. Count Almaviva, must seek the help of the local barber, Figaro, in order to disguise himself so he can sneak into the home and marry Rosina. There are several people that Count Almaviva must sneak past in order to get to Rosina: guards, soldiers, the housekeeper, Berta, the music tutor, Don Basillo and Bartolo. If at any point during the level Count Almaviva fails the challenge and is caught he must return to Figaro for a new disguise. Once he receives a new disguise he can attempt the level’s challenge again. He is allowed to return to the barber three times. After the third time failed attempt the game starts at the beginning. The objective of the game is to win Rosina’s hand in marriage by successfully completing eight levels with 9 challenges. Each level has one challenge, except for the last level which has two challenges. Each level has progressively harder challenges.

            The setting of the game is a small town in Spain during the early nineteenth century. There are three main locations the game takes place: Figaro’s barbershop, outside Rosina’s home and inside of her home. With the exception of Figaro’s barbershop all the locations outside and within Rosina’s home have challenges that Count Almaviva must complete in order to move on to the next level. The challenge’s locations are outside Rosina’s home, the balcony, kitchen, study, hallway, Bartolo’s bedroom and Rosina’s bedroom. Similarly to the opera, Rosina’s home is very orient and beautiful. Although not important towards the objective of the game each room is decorated with art on the walls and furniture. There are high ceilings, chandeliers and marble pillars within the home.

            Master of Disguise creates a default appearance for all characters except Count Almaviva. All of appearances reflect how they look in the opera, Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Figaro is tall, slightly overweight and has short black hair. He wears a white shirt and pants with a black polka dot vest. Rosina has curly black hair and wears red lipstick. Her outfit is a long white dress with short sleeves and black polka dots. Bartolo is very overweight, with long grey hair that is gathered in the back with a tie. He wears black pants, with a white shirt and a black and white striped vest. The maid, Berta has short hair that is covered by a white headwrap. Her appearance is disheveled and she has dirt on her face from cleaning. She wears a long white skirt and a black shirt. The music tutor, Don Basillo wears black pants, a white shirt and a long black coat. His hair is long and white. The guards and the soldiers, who protect the home, are meant to look intimidating. They all wear black outfits, tall hats, with black leather boots. In the game, anytime Count Almaviva encounters one of these people the music becomes loudn and dramatic. When the player wins a challenge a victory song plays.

            Before the player can begin the game he must visit Figaro, the barber to choose a disguise for his avatar, Count Almaviva. The disguises include outfits, shoes, accessories and wigs. The wigs have a variety of styles, lengths and colors. The player can choose from three different disguises: a drunk, a solider or a music tutor. The costumes choices for the drunk are tattered outfits with holes and stains. The outfits only include one shoe. The player can pick from a variety of flasks to accessorize the costume. The wigs for the drunk are messy and matted. Costumes for the solider include uniforms and boots in a variety of colors. The player can accessorize the costume with a hat and gloves. The wigs are short hairstyles. The outfits for the music tutor include a variety of dress pants and buttoned shirts. The player can accessorize with a musical instrument. There is a variety of wigs to choose from including short and long hairstyles.

            Once Count Almaviva is in disguise he can begin the first challenge. In level one, the location is below a balcony outside of Rosina’s home. The challenge is to climb the wall to the top of the balcony without being hit by a spotlight. The spotlight moves in many different directions so Count Almaviva cannot simply climb straight up the wall. The best strategy is to move slowly up the wall to avoid being hit. If Count Almaviva is hit by the spotlight he is considered caught and must return to the barber for a new disguise. If he is successful he can move on to level two.

            In level two, the location is on Rosina’s balcony. There are guards protecting Rosina’s home from intruders. Count Almaviva must jump over the guards in order to get into Rosina’s home. There are six guards and he must jump over all of them to complete the challenge. If he misses and falls on one, he is considered caught and must return to the barber for a new disguise.

            Once Count Almaviva enters inside the home he is in the kitchen. The maid is there throwing dustpans towards him. The dustpans are being thrown straight towards him, but at different heights. For level three he must get across the kitchen to the next room without being hit by a dustpan. In order to avoid the dustpan Count Almaviva must either jump or crouch. If he is hit by one of the dustpans before he makes it to the other room he must return to the barber for a new disguise. 

            The next room Count Almaviva enters is the study. The challenge for level four is to bribe the music tutor, Don Basillo into passing through the room. Count Almaviva has three gold coins and he must successfully throw one into the tutors moving instrument case. The case moves from left to right, but Count Almaviva cannot move. He must stand stationary, while trying to throw a coin in the case. If he successfully throws one of the three coins in the case he advances to the next level, if not he must return to the barber.

            In level five, the soldiers have set up a hallway with swinging axes that hang from the ceiling. Count Almaviva must run through the hallway without getting hit by one of the axes. He is able to stop and run as he pleases in order to avoid the axes. There is space between each axe so he can stop without getting hit. If he successfully makes it through the hallway without being hit by an axe he can advance to the next level, otherwise he must return to the barber.

            Once Count Almaviva makes it past the hallway he enters Bartolo’s bedroom. Bartolo is in his bed sleeping Count Almaviva must avoid walking on alarms that Bartolo has set up. The alarms are scattered throughout the bedroom and move in various directions. To avoid these moving alarms Count Alamaviva can jump, run, or walk around them. If he accidentally touches one of the alarms it will make a noise to wake-up Bartolo. Once he awake Count Almaviva is considered caught and must return to the barber. If he succeeds he can move on to the final level.

            For the level eight, the final level, there are two challenges. Count Almaviva must jump over a pit filled with water in order to reach Rosina’s bedroom. The flooring on each side of the pit is quickly expanding and contracting. Count Almaviva must time his jump so he does not fall in the pit. If he successfully makes it across he can enter Rosina’s bedroom, but if not he must return to the barber. Once he gets inside Rosina’s large bedroom she is hiding somewhere. Her bedroom is similar to a maze and has dead ends. Count Almaviva has thirty seconds to find her If he does not find her within thirty seconds he must return to the barber for a new disguise. Rosina’s is never hiding in same place, so Count Almaviva cannot easily find her every time.  If he finds her within thirty second he must grab her hand. It symbolizes their marriage and the player has won the game.

                                                              Works Cited

Rossini - Il Barbiere Di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). Dir. Emilio Sagi. Perf. Juan Diego Florez and Ruggero Raimondi. Youtube.com. 17 Nov. 2012. Web. 13 Sept. 2014.

Schwarm, Betsey. "The Barber of Seville." The Barber of Seville (opera). Encyclopædia Britannica, 08 Sept. 2014. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.

Thompson, Kristin. "The Shot: Mise En Scene." Film Art: An Introduction. By David Bordwell. 7th ed. McGraw-Hill Companies, 2002. 115+. 

Week 9 - Gary Hill

In reviewing his work I noticed that Gary Hill manipulates sounds and videos. In his work "Bathing" there is a video of a woman washing her hair, but different filters and colors were used to make a simple task more interesting. There is no sound in the video which tells me that he wants the viewer to focus on the video, and not sound. Similarly, in "Windows" Hill films a windows, which in seems dull, but he uses different colors, textures and patterns in his filming to make something as mundane as a window more interesting. In "Electronic Linguistic" Hill alters video and sound. It appears that he is filming the video game Pong. He distorts the sound and skews the video to create a facinating array of sounds and images. I think it is incredibly creative that alters boring everyday objects and sounds to makes them more interesting.

Week 11 - Bio Art

I find bio art to be incredibly interesting because it raises so many different questions. The art form mixes art and science. such as Christina Nguyen Hung, who used bacteria to create a map of military airbases in Ira  Is it art or science? This type of art raises ethical questions because of much of it is based on experimentation with living things such as rabbits or trees. It okay to alter the biology of these things for our own amusement and entertainment, while possible harming the living thing? I certainly don't think so. If we as humans believe it's okay to perform bio art to animals against their will, who's to say that it won't be the case with other humans someday. It can easily lead to a slippery slope. 

Week 6 - Grid Art

In reviewing the links listed online, I begin to see a similarity in pointillism and grid art. Both of these styles of art can only be understood when the viewer is standing far away from the piece. By standing up close the art simple looks like an abstract art piece. This was especially true when looking at the Lego grid art. The artist was inspired by famous art works, like the Mona Lisa and American Gothic and remade them with Legos. Looking at these pieces up close they look like random blocks of color, like an abstract. When I stood away from my computer the whole piece came together and looked similar to the original work. Another example of this is the work of Jason Mecier. This artist uses various things such as pills, household items to make portraits of celebrities. Similarly to the Lego art these can only be fully appreciated if the viewer is standing away from the piece.

Week 3 - Al Jolson Blackface Minstrel Show

The film takes place on a riverboat stage with a large group of men singing well known Americana songs, like Oh Susanna and Suwanee River in black face. The entertainers were dressed in nice, flashing clothing. Some of the outfits were silk and others had sequins . The audience is completely white, and towards the end they stand up and sing with the performers. At the very end there is a shot of a black man picking cotton on a plantation. What I took away from the film was that it was a commentary on African American's role in U.S. society at the time. Black people were solely used by white people for labor or entertainment. A black person could be an performer, entertaining wealthy white people, or a laborer, picking the fields for white cotton plantation owners. Either way African Americans were used by white people or one purpose or another, and were certainly not equal to white Americans.

Week 4- Winsor McCoy Little Nemo

I thought this video clip was very interesting because it was two stories in one. There is the story of the animator who is drawing all these images to create an animated film, and the story of his animations. The wheel device that he used to make his drawings animated was interesting. It was so simply but it seemed to work really well. I was surprised that towards the end of the film the drawings were in color. These drawings were simple in the fact that there was no background detail or colors. Although the drawing consisted of only characters, the amount of action that these characters did in the drawings was impressive. The characters get bigger and smaller, and it some of the characters actually draw other characters! A dragon moves across the pages and turns into a thrown for a king and queen and two clowns driving a car blow up. I can't believe the detail and intercity for  cartoons that were created over one hundred years ago.

Final Video

Song is Collarbone by Fujiya & Miyaji

Jump rope rave

Unlike my last video, I wanted to be more upbeat and fun with this one. I haven't jump roped in over 10 years, so it was a challenge to make a video where I didn't make at least a few mistakes. Additionally the jump rope I used wasn't a quality jump rope, so that added a level of difficulty. I wish I would've worn more glow bracelets. I didn't realize how expensive they were, next time I would plan ahead of time and order some online in bulk. One of my favorite parts of this video is the music. I think the song fits perfectly to the theme of the video. 

Class Musical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dBgmXn77gM

Week 10 - Music Genres

The songs that I choose are my personal favorites. Since I've listened to all of these songs many times over, I am quite familiar with them.

Neo Psychedelic - Electric Feel by MGMT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9dSYgd5Elk
I choose this musician because many of the sounds that are in their songs are similar to the older psychedelic music of the 1970s. There music has a heavy use of sounds produced by electronics and not instruments. This song I picked in particular has many interesting and unique sounds. Even the music video has a psychedelic theme with the use of many colors and puppets. The use of psychedelic drugs is heavily implied in the music video. The music video is one of my favorites of all time.

House - Maliblue by Darius
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntoMKM0ToP0

All the songs by Darius are strictly electronic. There are not any instruments used, and there are no vocals. House music is considered to be electronic dance music and his songs definitely fit the category. Although this song can be considered dance music, it isn't particularly high energy. The song has an element of tranquility to it which makes it great music or relaxing. I think one of the great features to house music is the same song can either be played for relaxation or high energy dancing.

Disco - Jive Talkin by The Bee Gees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBw25CrUS-o

The first thing that comes to mind when they hear the word disco is the Bee Gees. This song fits the categories of funk, pop and dance.  There is some use of electronics, but also instruments are played.

90s - Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6P0SitRwy8

I choose Nirvana because it is classic 90s. The main instruments are electric guitar, bass and drums. These three instruments were found in many 90s songs by popular musicians such as Blur and No Doubt. These are real instruments but the sounds are not acoustic, they are electronic. One thing I love in particular about Nirvana is that they were part of the grunge era of music in the early 90s.

Techo - Sandstorm by Darude
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HQaBWziYvY

This song is one of the most popular techno songs of all time, which is why I choose it. It is a high energy dance song that is uses strictly electronics to create music. Like many techno songs there are no vocals. The beats are sounds throughout the song are repetitive.

Performance Art

 http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9djBDJE490g&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I got inspiration for this video from Robin Williams death. So many comedians make us laugh and provide joy to our lives, but deep down they are suffering from mental illness.  They all put on a fake smile, but are actually hurting. This does not only apply to comedians though, but also to others with mental illness. In my video I hold up an over-the-top fake smile to my mouth, while showing pieces the paper with the most coming mental illness is the U.S. I wrote illness on the top of my head to show that just because someone is smiling on the outside, they may be going to a lot on the inside

Photo copy Art

I call this piece "Robot Lauren". I used black and white photocopies of my shirt on colored paper and color copies on white paper. My favorite part of this piece is my hair. The photocopier caught all the different strands of color in my hair, and almost gave a shine to the paper. If you notice I incorporated grid art into to my piece  creating an "L" on my shirt for Lauren. The only thing that I would've done differently us to someone make my hands come out of the box to make it even more 3d

Week 8 - Favorite Performance Artists

My three favorite performance artists were Banksy, Tilda Swinton and Sterlarc. In Banksy's Paris Hilton he buys the new Paris Hilton CD, alters the CD cover and replaces the CD inside with another CD and then places it back on the store shelves. I dislike people that are famous for being famous so I thought it was funny. Banksy uses a scanner and digital art prints to recreate the inside of the CD cover pages with altered images. In Tilda Swinton's performance art act The Maybe she is sleeping in an enclosed box. There is no technology that is used during this performance. It is simply her sleeping on a mattress while enclosed in a glass box. Lastly I enjoyed Stelarc's The Body is Obsolete the performance artist in this video is hooked up to wires and an image of his modified body appears on a screen. Obviously a lot of technology is used in this performance to create the digital images. All of these require a human to perform some sort of act in order to create art, but the last two The Maybe and The Body is Obsolete are more closely related. Both of these require a human to be on display to create an art performance, whereas in Paris Hilton the art performance occurs without anyone knowing until they see the results of that performance at a later time. Even then I'm sure many people were completely confused by it. With the other two performances the audience goes in knowing they are about to see a performance art piece.

Grid Art

Wasn't sure if this was suppose to be posted to our blog

I love how this turned out. The colors are so vivid and they contrast the brown wall nicely. There is purposely a missing sticky note in the left hand side. This is to represent a reflection in the heart.

Flip book

Flip Book

This was one of the more difficult projects we worked on this semester. It was hard for me to come up with many different ideas to create a flip book and go incorporate those ideas so they make sense. Drawing is not my strong point, so that also added level of difficulty to this projects. I tried to make this flip book tell the story of the circle of life, and how we are all connected. There is a lot of death and destruction in this flip book, which is suppose to be humorous.

Week 7 - Dadaism and Surrealism

When I look at dadaism and surrealism I can't help but wonder if the artist is on drugs. The ability to come up with something so abstract and surreal boggles my mind. I find the videos to be the most fascinating. In Man Ray. Le Retour A La Raison (The Return to Reason) simple black and white imaginery is used to capture everything objects, such as nails or a pair of woman's breasts. At the end though the woman's breast are distorted to create a wavy pattern, In Marcel Duchamp's Anemic Cinema, there it is a black and white film that shows a circle rotating counter clockwise. The inside of the circle changes, but the rotation and speed remain the same.  Mohol Nagy's Ein Lichtspiel Schwarz Weiss Grau is another short film in which the artist films moving objects and the shadows that they cast. What is most fascinating to be is how the artist distorted the images to appear hazy. At one point Nagy film creates negative images. All of these films are silent, which I think leaves the viewer to come up with their own interpretation as to what all these films mean. 

Week 5 - 21st Century Technology

The Apple iPhone has combined previous technologies into one device. Before, consumers had a cell phone, radio, musical player (CD player or walkman), camera, camcorder and a personal computer. With the iPhone all of those separate electronics are not necessary. What makes smartphones, such as the iPhone so great is that all the separate electronics that consumers once used are now in one small portable device. When you compare the first one that was released in 2007 to the current one the difference in what the consumer is able to do is incredible. The first iPhone didn’t have a GPS or a camera in the front screen, but the newest phones have these features. I predict that electronics such as a camera and a personal computer will become obsolete one day as a result of the all the electronic technologies that are included in a smart phone. 

The Mobile Vanity

The Mobile Vanity allows users to easily put their makeup on while driving. No more accidentally dropping makeup products on the ground and searching for them while driving! The vanity is a mini table that clips on to a car's visor. There are three holders built in for lipstick, mascara and more! A lip is built around the edges so your makeup won't slide off. It's on-the-go beauty for your on-to-go lifestyle!

Week 2 - Pjotr Sapegin's Madama Butterfly

This video's animation reminded me a lot of the same animation in The Nightmare Before Christmas because of the use of dolls. I found it interesting the the men had more facial details then the woman. The man was more like a Ken doll and the women looked like a clay figure with minimum detail to the face, but what the woman lacked in facial features she made up for in hair, unlike the man. I was mesmerized by the movement of her hair in the wind. I was amazed at how freely these figures moved, and that it looked so natural.

Week 1 - Raul Cuero

    After listening to Raul Cuero I took away many valuable pieces of advice. In the beginning of the video he explains how growing up in adverse conditions motivated him to be creative and to get our of his town and pursue higher education. Cuero spoke of a time when he would play with roaches for fun and how that sparked his interest in nature. It seems in the age of technology and constant stimuli, both children and adults are unable to create their own fun and instead rely of "toys" such as iPads or video games to entertain themselves. As a result, any creativity we may have suffers because there is no need for us to come up with ideas, technology is our crutch. Cuero explains that the downfall of relying so much on technology is that we are limited to what is within that device. Everything comes from nature, and when we don't go out and explore we cannot advance. In our day and age we rely heavily on texting, Facebook and other social media outlets to connect with people, but we are not really conversing with them. I can see this problem in my everyday life. I am so used to communicating with people through a screen while doing a million other things that when I am actually in the presence of another person I am not engaged or I am looking at my screen while conversing with someone else. Cuero says that we learn by speaking to others, and I think nowadays we are not really engaging with other people.

 He makes an interesting comment that creativity is spontaneous and cannot be planned, which may be obvious to most, but sometimes I find myself trying to be creative, but that the creativity only really comes out when I least expect it. Similarly to Cuero, I think some of my more creative times were when I was dealing with a problem.

Lastly I enjoyed listening to his take on American education. I agree that learning comes through doing and not strictly reading books. By simply reading and not applying what you've learned to something you will never fully grasp the concepts. By connecting words on a page to an action such as an experiment or travel you are only then able to then fully grasp the entire concept. A good example of this is traveling. You can read every book there is about a certain location, but until you actually visit you will not fully understand. Learning is not only through the visual of reading, but the taste of the particular countries cuisine or the smell of the place. All these senses create a memory that will be much more lasting.

Week 1 - Juan Carlos Delgado

Juan Carlos Delgado is a prime example of multimedia art. He uses a wide range of media to to showcase his art. Many of his works are considered to be installation art, which is an example of multimedia art. His art engages the senses such as touch and scent. In one of his pieces he uses live flowers - which can engage our smell. In another one of his projects he uses a gas flame - which can engage smell and touch. Unlike most art the remains constant his art changes. The flowers and the active flame are always growing or moving, which in a sense make it alive. 

*Please note the website listed on the syllabus could not be found so I used the below website to research his art.

source: livingartroom.com

"Juan Carlos Delgado Installation / Object." Installation / Object. Living Art Room, 2012. Web. 1 Sept. 2014.

Week 1 - Introduction

I was not enrolled in class the first week, but in reading the syllabus this class looks very interesting, and covers an area of study I am not familiar with, art. The last art class I took was my first year of high school, so I must admit I don't know very much. When I think of art and technology the only thing that comes to mind are cameras for photography, so I am interested in knowing all the other technology that is covered. I am a senior and a criminology major. I have been working full time at a law firm for two years. I am curious has to how social media platforms such as Instagram has changed the way people create and present their art.