Winter Solstice

My sister was just telling me that one of her teachers has been stealing people's discarded Christmas trees off the side of the road & has been collecting them for the last few years for a giant Winter Solstice bon fire this year. I thought you guys might be amused since Valeska had us mark down Winter Solstice in our calendars at the beginning of the semester. Happy Winter Solstice & all you other celebrations! (hope too many of you aren't stuck in the snow)

hello people of the elements! you are all so wonderful and we make wonderful things together and i thank you so much! have a great break!

i was so disappointed in myself

i couldn't convey what i meant or what i had been thinking and my words got tangled. but i realized every person of the elements understood anyways (and more), helping me understand more of mine. and isn't that the whole point? it's the best.

and now i feel pretty happy knowing that my elements class is so incredible.

SNOW! i'm so happy for marcello & anyone else who has never seen snow (:

<3

DC FIELD TRIP and The Grand Finale!

Hello People of the Elements!

Hopefully you all had an enjoyable and somewhat restorative Thanksgiving Break! I am looking forward to seeing you on friday, at 8:20 am in front of the Main Building. Call your buddy to make sure no one slumbers too long and misses the trip!

I will be sending you a "DC Trip" information sheet (with highlights of some of the exhibitions), as well as an announcement about the last two weeks of school, including the schedule for our last critiques. If you do not receive this via email, please let me know!

Hasta la vista!

Valeska

Telematic Fluxus Performance

Check out the site below on Monday, December 7th (that's next Monday) starting at 10:30am for performances based on the works of Fluxus artists by students in my Electronic Media and Culture class. I've also included links to the Fluxus Workbook that describes many of these performances & a site that describes the Fluxus Movement.

performance site:

http://digital.mica.edu/ff210_02/

fluxus workbook:

http://digital.mica.edu/ff210_02/instructor/fluxus_workbook.pdf

info on fluxus:

http://www.fluxus.org/

EMAC Project

DEAR EVERYONE: I'm making a website for one of my classes & need footage of people sleeping. This can be done with any digital camera, which will time out after an hour or two tops. This is fine, because I only need a half hour of footage--please trim the footage to the best/most interesting/least embarrassing half hour & email to me. I only need six people, but i need the footage within the next few days. If you are willing to participate, please contact me asap (adenweisel@sbcglobal.net). Thanks!

IMPORTANT NEWS!

PLEASE email me if you did not receive your progress report via email from me this week! Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!

Happiness

I love you guys

play in a day! photos!

Project 3

Part 1: For the last project in the class, choose from one of the following prompts. Whichever one you choose, make it be amazing. Also consider very carefully the way you present it to us, and how that contributes to the way we understand and value it.

a. Re-visit a piece you made in this class, or another. Recreate it, elaborate on it, revise it, make it more complete, make it into a series, address its problems - structural or conceptual.

b. Transform yourself into something you wish to understand.

c. Do something every day for one hour. Bring in the evidence at the end of the time allotted. Start now.

d. You are a nomad, now. Build your transportable sanctuary, your shelter, your collection of most essential objects.

e. Make a piece that cannot exist without the participation of at least three other people.

f. Make a list of all of the materials, subjects or approaches that you have heard discredited here as 'bad', cliche, and overdone. Make a piece that makes that list successful.

g. Combine your new skills with that one idea or project you have been wanting to tackle for a while. Finally make it.

Some of you will present the results on December 11, some on December 18th.

AND THEN:

Part 2: Make a non-perishable, transportable, non-fragile object that does not exceed 3x3 inches. The object should be one you are willing to give away, and that in some way captures, compresses, encloses, encodes, or crystallizes some thought, word, moment, image or idea you have been given by someone or some situation in this class over the last few months. It may be simple or profound, 3-dimensional or flat. Do not spend more than 1 hour working on it. But give it one hour of uninterrupted, dedicated time. Wrap it in newsprint (as though it were a piece of gold and you were wrapping in the night sky) and bring it with you on the last day of class.

Play in a Day

Play in a Day

Beautiful and Amazing People of the Elements,

Thank you for the gift of energy, collaboration,

enthusiasm, trust,

openness and hard work yesterday to each other and

all who came to see the SHOW! I the software necessary to compress the video file on my computer, so will have to do this at school next week before posting it. For now...some pictures!

WACKA WACKA!!

Check out these folks in their wacky street performances in England!

Bureau of Silly Ideas

Our Venue

Good news! We received permission to use the Main Building lobby!

MATERIALS LIST for Play in a Day!

Please bring with you any or all of the following:

(Colorful) Plastic Bags!

Rolls of Craft Paper

Tissue Paper or gift wrap

White Glue

Hot Glue and Hot Glue Guns

Fabric scraps

Boxcutters

"Dress up Clothes" for a communal trunk (ie: Hats, belts, sunglasses, scarves, weird coats, boahs...)

Flashlights

Sharpie Markers

Masking Tape

Duct Tape

Bedsheets you don't mind sacrificing to the cause

Safety pins

Scissors

Craft brushes (not your nice painting brushes, please!)

Juice and Cookies

Other Items for making a play!

Valeska will bring:

Staple Pliers/Creature Staplers and Staples

Cardboard Galore

Clip Lights

A toolbox (hammer, nails, twine etc.)

One roll of paper

BIG sharpies!

Juice and Cookies and paper cups

Cardboard boxes for holding the supplies

We will have to refrain from using paint. It's too likely to become a disaster in our short amount of time and possibility of performing outside of our classroom. But - if you have painted cardboard (that is dry!) or colored cardstock etc. do bring it!

CCR

This is Marcello Cunha

My artist is Mel Chin

he did the plant projects that extracted heavy metals from the soil...

here is my piece:

cargocollective.com/colorscommunityregrowth

I sent out 100 letters (every other house in the neighborhood) on Thursday informing the residents of the community about my project.

-- the pineapple everyone ate in class today has been planted in a jar in is currently growing at my windowsill.

thank you

TedX

Here is where you can watch the Ted talks that went on at MICA

tedxmidatlantic.com/live

The Lily's Revenge!

The Amazing Taylor Mac in the 5-hour epic The Lily's Revenge now in NYC!

Miranda July

("photograph a significant outfit")

Here's the link to the Learning To Love You More website.



Here's the link to the website for No One Belongs Here More Than You.

and here are some funny videos I found on youtube:

"How to Make a Button"



and,



also, Harrell Fletcher, the other artist involved in Learning to Love You More has a website worth exploring.

and, unrelated to both of those artists, but I kind of associate it in my brain with them, The Ones We Love. Elle Perez, a fellow MICA student, has a submission in there.

Copy Cat Theater

Here is the link to the Copycat Theater Page: http://www.myspace.com/copycattheatre

and the video of Metaphoreye.

See you next week!

Did anyone see the kite booth outside the Fox building today? I'm itching to make them. Let's make kites sometime and go on a field trip to Robert E Lee Park and fly 'em. They're very easy and cheap to make-- tissue paper, dowels and string are all that's needed. KiteKraft Knight? Anyone?

CRAFT show in DC this weekend

22nd ANNUAL WASHINGTON CRAFT SHOW
This weekend! November 6-8
Walter E. Washington Convention Center
801 Mt. Vernon Place, Washington, DC

Students $8.

The region's premier fall event for contemporary craft, the Washington Craft
Show brings 190 of the nation's best craft artists from 34 states and DC to
the Washington Convention Center.

this is awesome.