VR

Something new recently caught my eye during a trip to the Dali Museum.

I'm an avid gamer, working with companies and developers often to try out new things and virtual reality has lately been the discussion for most of them.

When I visited the museum, sitting right before me was a virtual reality headset. Once you put it on, you were brought into the world of Dali's paintings and could immerse yourself in them. Was this also going to become the future of art? Would we now be viewing art in a 3D space around us instead of just looking at a sculpture or a painting? Only time will tell us...

Burlesque

Burlesque...

A term that is often associated with stripping or lewd woman, it couldn't however be farther from the fact. Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. In other words, it was just simple theater that featured more woman roles instead of men. It originally started in England before moving to the Americas after becoming successful in New York City's theaters. However there was a rapid decline in these sorts of theaters following the era of prohibition. In burlesque theaters, alcohol often flowed free and with the ban, these sorts of establishments quickly closed up or became speak easy's.

Burlesque has however made a return to the american theater scene and has become popular once again, even spawning a movie that was meant to sensationalize it.

Broadway

Broadway is always a topic in the art world.

Broadway, a place where the best performers dreaming of putting on spectacular shows for the enjoyment of an audience. Performing is an art just as any other and Broadway is perhaps one of the best places to go see that happen. I've seen a few Broadway shows in my life and from what I have seen, it's quite a spectacle.

For me however, it isn't the performance that interests me, but instead it's the costume design that I really get into.
The amount of time and effort that goes into the design of the costumes is intense. Hours are poured into a single dress to make it look just right for the performance and each piece needs to be perfect.

The one performance that I saw that really stood out to me in the costume department was Wicked. All the costumes that the actors wore really brought the whole performance together and it gave me quite a nostalgic feeling towards the old Wizard of Oz movie.

Body Art

I'm not really sure if this falls under installation or projection art but it comes to mind when talking about the two. Body art is something that is always very mesmerizing to view and always captivates it's audience.

I'm not talking about tattoos here but instead body art that is painted onto the individual. This is art that is created by applying paints to the surface of ones skin making designs and art that is illusionary in nature. This is art that has been wildly seen on the internet and often makes its rounds through the occasional Facebook post.

Video Projection

Another form of installation art, video projection art has also been something of interest for me lately. Video projection involves putting a video onto a surface that enhances the piece to make a scene. I haven't actually seen this done in real life but I have seen videos of it before and needless to say I think it's pretty amazing to watch. My favorite forms of projection have to be those that are on large scale objects like buildings that can provide a very surreal experience.

I have included below a link to one of my favorite video projections of all time. I the video, a projector is able to take full advantage of the building in front of it, making it transform and shift in a large variety of ways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=699NBQp6Jfg

Stencil Art

We were tasked in class to make a stencil. Yet again I found myself doing something that I had never done before...

So, in order to prepare myself for this, I did what I could to apply what knowledge I already had and my own resources in order to make a decent stencil. I used Photoshop to make a stencil outline of a Shy Guy from the Mario series and then printed him out, carefully extracting him from the surrounding paper with an exacto knife. I then tapped him to a piece of cardboard and went to work with a can of black spray paint until there was a think layer. Unfortunately, it bled a little under the stencil itself so there is some mess but I think it came out pretty well for my first time ever using stencils.

If it has any sort of meaning, I guess it can relate to the silent majority of the country who have to done masks in order to speak out for fear of losing what they hold dear.

Installation Art

A few days ago, I took an interest in what was called installation art.Installation art is not only something I knew very little about but it was also the name of a class I happened to be taking next semester so I figured I had better get acquainted with it. What I learned was actually quite interesting.

It seems that installation art is a pretty broad subject that can really encompass a lot. It's art that can be set up in any area and then viewed by anyone. It's art that takes advantage of it's environment to create something out of the normal. The more I learned about it, the more I came to realize that I had actually been involved in several installation art projects at my old college that I went to. I never really understood the purpose of it then but now I feel like I have a greater understanding of it.

Below is the only image I have of the piece I helped create three years ago.