Logan Eng 355

Gender and Media Performance "Art historian Moria Roth makes the connection between feminist performance art and so called 'street theater' engaged in by feminist activists, such as the disruption of the 1968 Miss America beauty pageant. Feminist outrage at constricted gender roles was part of a cultural pattern of liberation movements, around the world that included students, people of color, and gays." ~ Rush p. 59. I love the idea of disrupting a beauty pageant because beauty pageants reaffirm the perspective of beauty and not beauty itself. Roth's inclusion of the underclass is revolutionary during her time because of the impending AIDS epidemic and nuclear family mindset.

Video Corridor 1968 by Bruce Naumann “This claustrophobic enclosure consisted if two floor-to-ceiling parallel walls forming a tunnel, with two monitors on top of one another at one end. The viewer walks into the corridor to see the video which turn out to be simultaneous surveillance shots of the viewer.” Rush p. 129. I liked this idea of claustrophobia and surveillance technology because it reminded me of how our lives are beginning to rely more on it. Things like Alexa from Amazon, Siri from Apple, or Cortana from Microsoft. People like the convenience from their homes, but don’t like the marketing or glitches that come with it. It sort of is like a want but a fearful want of newer technology in the modern age.

Yay The Oatmeal Mathew Inman is a Seattle, WA comic writer. He focuses a lot on social change . Some helpful comics about every day life , grammar , and religion . He's done some charity work for the  Tesla Museum . And one of my favorite comics he wrote: The Mantis Shrimp He's also created some games like the Exploding Kittens . (Its super fun btw)

In Rushes book, he talks about minimalist art, which I don't feel really contributes to the art community. Its so simplistic and is borderline symbolism. It doesn't really translate to art in my mind. "Unlike their Dada predecessors, artists like Bruce Nauman (b. 1941) and Vito Acconci (b. 1940) did not set themselves goal of interactivity with an audience. Sometimes their performances were private affairs, exercises performed in their studios, that were videotaped but necessarily shown." ~Rush p. 47. I'm not arguing that art needs to be interactive every single time, but it should have some sort of questioning, thought invoking conversation. Maybe it causes me to think about it because I don't fully understand it?

I had the idea of doing an ancient world theme with the letters I picked. I kind of went with a sailor/pioneer/viking theme when I did the celtic design, and just went with it. The 2nd letter is more symbolic to like the sky and water, it sort of looks like a compass with a swirl. The star design kind of tied in my sailor/viking using the stars as guides. :-)