The Alfred Ice Cream Truck!

For this assignment our class split up into three large groups and discuss our next project together. The assignment was to design a cart or device that we could use to give back to the community in some way. After a rather rough and confusing start, my group decided on building an ice cream cart.

The idea behind the cart was that we would be able to bring something as simple as an “ice cream truck” to the small town of Alfred to evoke positive childhood memories.

The process to make the cart itself was rather stressful and complicated. We had difficulties finding materials that we thought would work best in making it, and in the end the completed cart didn’t turn out exactly as planned. However, once it was time to hand out the ice cream our cart worked fairly well.

Our next step was to get out some advertising and plan when we would be going out to give out the ice cream. We created a Facebook page and we told as many people as we could about when and where we would be so that they would stop by. The only thing left to do was to go out and collect the information and share the ice cream!

Our group started by traveling down main street with our cart playing the “Mr.Frosty” ice cream truck jingle to get people attention. Once we gather a few small groups of people, we gave them their ice cream and asked them to write or draw in a book, that we had provided, about a positive child hood memory either about ice cream or simply just a memory. From the people that we talked to everyone seemed to be willing to either draw or write and in the end we were able to collect plenty of memories! And at the end of the two days we had gotten rid of all of our ice cream as well.

With the information that we collected we compiled it all into a large zine that we could display. In the zine we included photos of the participants and scans of their drawings and stories.

This project as a whole helped us as a group to share very positive vibes with the small community of Alfred, while also being able to collect their stories and memories that we can use to share even more in the future.

An Interview

For our assignment in COLAB we were asked to team up with a classmate and interview each other using the prompt: “What does Alfred need more of?” In order to complete this task I teamed up with my classmate Skyla.

I started off her interview by asking her if she could think of something that Alfred needed that came to her mind first. After that I continued to ask her the same question but I phrased it differently each time. By doing this I was able to encourage her to give me new answers that helped her to think in different ways. This method also helped when it came time for her to interview me as well since I was able to think differently than I had originally before the interviews had begun.

I documented the whole interview by writing down some of her thoughts:

-A sense of family

-More animal allowance (such as lizards or turtles)

-A better community (more social gatherings)

-More art incorporated in the buildings around campus

-More things to do in town on the weekends

-Some sort of public park (with fountains and recreational things)

After conducting this interview and participating in my own, I learned that interviews are a great way to think in new ways and learn from other people’s thoughts and ideas as a whole. I look forward to seeing what else I can learn through interviews with others.

Love Letters

For this assignment we were told to think of a place in Alfred that we loved. After some thinking I came to the conclusion that I wanted to focus on the Terra Cotta Coffee shop on main street. I have shared so many wonderful memories there with friends since being at school that I thought it would be a perfect place to write my letter to.

Since we had to think of a creative way to deliver the letter I decided to brainstorm a couple of ideas. At first I had an elaborate plan to have a few friends help me and create a realistic mini movie based off of the old fashioned love movies. Since I did not have time for something that intense I decided to still make a short film but not one as intense as my first idea would have been.

I started out by writing a letter that I dedicated to the Terra Cotta. I wrote it so that it seemed as though I was writing to the love of my life or a very good friend. I then proceeded to record myself reading the letter which I recorded over some video footage of myself walking to the Terra Cotta and dropping off the letter anonymously.

Overall I believe that I was successful with this letter and I enjoyed thinking of new ways other than traditional ones to deliver and present a letter.

Group Reading Experiment

One of the options for an exploration to do with a group was a simple reading project. The original assignment was for the group to simply read a text together and stop once the group had digressed and the project turned into something new. My group however decided to look at the project in a different way.

We started off by taking the play “Waiting for Godot” (which is french but has an english translation) and we split off into smaller groups. In the groups we each read parts of the play. Some of us read at the same time, while groups like the one I was in decided to read the french version. While doing the readings each of the groups recorded what they had read.

In the end we took all of the recorded information and layered it on top of each other creating a new sound project that changed what was a simple reading of the play into something more complicated.

What we learned from this assignment was that although we may have been reading the same text and saying the same words, by speaking over one another and adding our own individual inflections on the different words, we not only change the meaning of the original play but we also create something completely new.

Also be sure to check out my group-mates blogs as well!

https://moodymarinaro.wordpress.com/ (special thanks to moody for editing the sound clips)

https://chriscadregariblog.wordpress.com/

https://macbutcher.wordpress.com/

the exhibition

https://kellinjansen.wordpress.com/

https://skylapisciotti.wordpress.com/

Exploring Value

Everything both physical and spiritual has value. As humans we tend to place these values on things whether it is intentional or not. Everything has a different value to different people and these values can be seen as dollar values or even simply as rank of importance to the person.

For this exploration I decided to go out and look for the different values of things that were both literal values and figurative values. I started by trying to think of what values meant to me. What I realized is that I tend to see spiritual things and emotional things as much more valuable than most physical things.

I decided to go out and place sticky notes with different “prices” on them such as:

-$Priceless

-$Worthless

-$High Value

-$Low Value

I went around and placed these notes on things that I thought about and decided had one of these values. After doing this exploration I was able to see different values of many different objects and understand the deeper meanings behind what we as people have set in our minds as to what is valuable to us and what is not.

Movement: Final Exploration

After I collected all of my information, it was finally time to create my final exploration. It took me a long time of brainstorming until I finally figured out what I wanted to do.

I realized that I wanted to work with light and choose the perfect spot on the line to make light paintings! For this exploration I needed the following:

-A Tripod

-My Nikon

-Different light sources

-And a dark and stable environment

Once I had all of these things I went out and set everything up, making sure that nothing would interfere as I drew with the lights. My next step was to use the lights and simply draw in the air with my camera on a long exposure setting so that I could easily capture the lights movement.

It took a number of tries because it was hard to tell exactly what I was drawing until after I looked at my photos, but in no time at all I got the hang of it and was able to get some good photos.

Then came the last step, which was to compile all of my photos and create a video that I could present to the class.

When all was said and done I was able to learn many things from the line and from the word movement and I believe that it is all shown throughout my explorations!

Movement: Exploration 2

For this exploration I decided to try and think of a way that I could explore the idea of movement in a new way other than the obvious ones such as a dance piece or something similar.

My first step in the process of creating my piece was to go out onto the line and look for as many different movements as I could. While I was out there I began to notice reoccurring patterns in the natural structures around me. The trees specifically, stood out to me because I noticed how even though they were solid structures, their growing patterns looked as if the branches were moving and twisting in front of me.

I knew at that point that I wanted to try and capture that same movement in a sculpture that I could present for the class. Originally I wanted to use branches and pieces of fallen wood to build my sculpture but when I went to collect the pieces they were too wet to be able to use.

So I had to improvise.

I went out the next day and I bought some air dry clay and with it I was able to sculpt and abstract piece that I believe captured the movement of the line. And to add even more to it I made tiny scrolls with ideas about movement on the line written on them and I rolled them up and placed them in the sculpture itself so my peers could interact with the piece as a whole.

Overall my piece was simple but I was happy with the outcome.

Movement: Exploration 1

Now that I have finally been able to think about my word and figure out different meanings I am also able to go out and find examples of it on the line itself!

For my first exploration I decided to first go out on the line and find a calm place to sit and reflect. I was able to find a serene place near both the forest and the civilization on the line. Here I decided to observe everything I could around me that I believed showed movement. Of course my first instinct was to notice the obvious movements around me such as a jogger going by and the wind blowing through the trees, but after thinking deeper about movement overall I was able to notice many other moving things that I hadn’t originally. For example I began to think about moving things such as the ground beneath me, my eyelids slipping lower (due to lack of sleep), and even my lungs filling with air in my chest. I was able to document all of these notes in my sketchbook.

 

My next step in my research was to move myself and search for other things showing movement. I was able to find many moving things around me so I decided to document them with short videos.

Below are the links to my youtube page with the different videos that I captured in a playlist!

The Word: Movement

The word that I am going to be focusing on for the rest of my adventures is “movement”. The most common definitions include:

-an act of changing physical location or position or of having this changed.

-a group of people working together to advance their shared political, social, or artistic ideas.

-a principal division of a longer musical work, self-sufficient in terms of key, tempo, and structure.

-the moving parts of a mechanism, especially a clock or watch.

Since these definitions are rather broad I decided to think more deeply about the word. I began to think of other words and ideas that came to mind when I thought about the word “movement”. I began to think of things such as dancing, natural motion, and movements in art.

With these ideas in mind I plan on looking at my Line explorations in a whole new way.

Exploration 3: Structures on The Line

For this exploration I decided to focus mainly on the man made aspects on the line. For example I decided to look for simple architectural structures that many people may not notice or acknowledge because they see them so frequently.

I documented these different structures on small pieces of paper where I drew sketches of each of them with labels on as many parts of the piece as I could.

After going on and finding these structures and documenting them it made me appreciate more of how the details in even man made things make a huge difference overall on how the large scale structure works as a whole.