doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
art
reverse graffiti
2I may not agree with all of the things he says about paint graffiti and his somewhat elitist attitudes, but I love this different type of art.
What if we took different art forms and turned them upside down, inside out. Negatives from film are interesting. In fact, I’ve seen some beautiful negatives on display. What is poetry or literature reversed? Do we get alternate forms like the sestina or the short, short story? Does it become more interesting, less interesting.
What happens when the art is temporary, when dirt, or rain, can erase the hard work? Does it lose its importance? If a poem was lost when a piece of paper was burned or thrown away, we wouldn’t have record of it. Would we lose something because of it?
What kind of reverse art could you make, right now? I think I could paint my walls, still white, but if I painted in patterns, they would come out because the older paint has faded slightly. Or I could definitely do negative film prints (I have some film in my fridge right now, waiting for the big trip). What about you?
red camper
04 years ago
I keep finding these sites that pique my interest. Sometimes I will read about them in other blogs, sometimes friends or family will point me in the right direction. This time, my brother, Todd, shared a cool site with me.
Last night he went to a dinner here in town for his 20-year high school reunion (boy does that make me old???). Anyway, a friend of his was telling him about this small business she had created. It sounded cool and he thought I’d be interested.
It has to do with photography. It’s fun. What’s not to love?
Redcamper is a company that makes handbags out of 35mm slides.
From the about page:
RedCamper was founded by Maura Gramzinski after she inherited thousands of travel slides from her Grampa. Wanting to celebrate her grandparents sense of adventure, while committed to a corporate 9-9 job where the most exotic thing she was was Deuce Bigalow’s bottom in outtakes; she designed a handbag for herself, wiring slides together in an eye-catching, if not rainproof, purse. It was a hit from the start. Two years and 35 prototypes later, Maura’s Redcamper purses hold all of the allure and none of the raindrops. The journey was embarked upon.
I love them! Not only can you choose from one of Maura’s designs but you can send in your own slides and she’ll make a purse of your own. What I really love, though, is the naked lady slide.
It’s a duplicate of one of the original pinup slides. Maura’s grampa used to slip into his slide shows just to see if everyone was paying attention. Gramma thought it was a hoot.
This isn’t a paid advertisement. I just love that someone from my old high school is doing something original and cool — and it has photography in it. It made me smile and I wanted to share it. Besides, how often can we find one-of-a-kind products that not only recycle but make interesting conversation pieces?
visual rhetoric
0
One of the things that I’m drawn to again and again within my course of studies is rhetorical media.
What does an image relay to the person who views it? What does it mean from the person who has created it?
I think advertisers understand the concepts of rhetorical medial very well. For instance, the minute I see the black silhouette on bright backgrounds with white lines coming from its ears, I think, automatically, iPod, Apple, music, iTunes. It’s brilliant really.
But what about art?
I recently watched a movie, Cradle Will Rock, that addressed this very topic but in a subtle way. It portrayed Diego Rivera painting a historic image on the walls of Rockefeller Center for commission from John D. Rockefeller.
Rivera was a brilliant artist and wanted to paint the past, present, and future. He included scenes from American history. At the time of the painting, Lenin was in power and there were already fears of Americans being coerced by the communists. Rivera also portrayed what he saw for the future. He painted items that were on his mind, including a cell of syphiis.
What Rivera saw as a painting speaking to the state of the world and his vision of it, Rockefeller saw as an offront to the very foundation of the nation. This amazing piece of art that he commissioned was subsequently demolished with hammers.
What made this art so powerful that not only did two men see it differently but that it moved one man to have it demolished?
The Commercial Rhetoric Art Project looks at this topic in a new way. It takes common images that we see each day and rearranges them to give us a different message.
But what makes that message better – or worse? What makes it change an image from advertising to art? And is art an advertisement for an ideology?