SPA 3

When thinking about human activity and reflection of human activity, I choose to use the work by Donna Maria deCreeft.



I think that this piece shows human activity by how we function in our bodies and how our bodies have changed, sometimes for the good, sometimes not. I think it shows how evolution and how we have messed with our environment has had implications that have not been great for the next generation.

When thinking about reflection of human activity I think that this piece makes us think about how we might be able to leave a better planet behind, maybe start thinking green and about more than just the current generations.

Donna Maria deCreeft

While looking through the Center for Design’s website I came across the work of an artist named Donna Maria deCreeft from New York City. The piece of her work that I decided to write about is a piece called “Document Book” it is in a traveling show called “Show your documents please.” When I first saw the piece with its title I first only thought of a passport or simple identification card. But as you look at her work, there are clips and other attachments that add so much more to a simple document to show how complex we are as humans and what we carry with us all the time. I also think it says to how the things we carry with us define and shape who we are, or at least in the eyes of those who look at us.

 I think initially her piece denotes that we must always be showing identification as we travel but then it connotes that we are so much more than a piece of paper with our name and information on it. I think the piece speaks to how we might see ourselves and how others perceive us.

In order to make sense of the work I think you need to be able to look critically at it and really investigate all of the pieces and find the meaning of them. There is a drawing of DNA, another one of earth, a picture of an eye, and one of a labeled brain. I think that I thought about how all of these things made up this person that deCreeft was trying to represent in this document. 

While I wasn’t able to find any professional critic of her work, her fans really appreciate how deCreeft is able to create very abstract things and really do things unimaginable for most of us. Looking at her work I can appreciate how she really challenges her audience to look at things from a variety of angles.  

SPA Chapter 1 Review

SPA 1

When reading Janet Wolff’s The Social Production of Art, I thought the main points or arguments that she was trying to make in chapter 1 were that practical activity and creativity are in a mutual relationship of interdependence with social structures and that artistic creativity is not different in any relevant way from other forms of creative action.

Other points:

• There is a separation of modern artist in a capitalistic society.
• Artist must be able to step outside of cultural norms and create outside of the mainstream.
• Being marginalized gives great perspective.
• The market now dictates what and how art is made, thus social structure influences art.
• Freedom is a myth, everything is predetermined and not all actions are done willingly.
• Innovation is understood as the practical outcome of a uniquely specific combination of structural determinants and conditions. (Fate-esq)

I thought that Janet Wolff assessment of how social structures influence art in our society was very interesting. As someone who is not really well versed in art or the culture of art, it was a new perspective. I always thought of artists as free individuals who were innovative and living outside of almost all social norms. I thought that their art was an expression of something from within either themselves or their vivid imaginations. Wolff adds on page 16 that art is no different from work and to me she is almost limiting the power of the artist and diminishing what distinguishes the artist and creator. Before reading this I would have never thought about how a shift in economics from earlier centuries would have played such a big role in influencing work either. While I found the reading hard to follow and kind of repetitive and dense, I can see that Wolff is trying to show us how social structure has interdependence with practical activity and creativity; this is what she says in her opening page.

Class Notes 2/7

Field Choice: Education

Preguntas?
1. What are the tools that allow you to do what you do?
2. What makes good work in your field, good work?
3. What is creativity in your field?

Answers!
1. There are many tools that allow for an educator to educate. Simply enough they start out with just the existence of the teacher and student in the same setting. The knowledge base that the teacher brings to the student is a tool. Other tools that are often used and thought of would be a school building, the classroom, desks, textbooks, writing utensils.

2. Good work is the teacher differentiating to meet the needs of the student. Recognition that all students are unique and need to be taught in a unique way. Being able to get respect is the first key in making a teacher be able to reach their pupil. Once there is trust and respect then the teaching/learning process can be done almost seamlessly. Students at that point will not be held back or hindered by their deficiencies and will try to learn and achieve.

3. Creativity, in my opinion is done by thinking outside the box and making yourself and thinking outside of the norm. Creative teachers find various ways to meet the demands of their very different students.

Group thoughts: AKKA
1. Imagination, supplies, knowledge, students/patients, good language to make for good communication.

2. Imaginative, intelligent students, good communicator/interviewer for differentiating, being positive role model.

3. Show care, and detail to lesson, having humility, think outside of the box, take knowledge and manipulate it, have endless creativity.

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Chpt 1 SPA

Pregunta?
3. What is creativity have to do with freedom?

Answer!
In my opinion, Wolff does not believe that we have freedom. She talks about how most of what we do is not free, I took this as we don’t have freedom of choice. When she talked about freedom was a myth she talks about how the only choice we have is what to do with our free time when we have no obligations. But then she goes on to say how “Innovations (creativity) is understood as the practical outcome of an uniquely specific combination of structural determinants and conditions. Our cultural experiences will determine how we are creative. While you can step out of your “box” there will always be another box that you are in, boxes inside of boxes inside of boxes.