moma two: scenes for a new heritage

PowerPoint Presentation

Incarceration or Video Games?

Feng MengboLong March: Restart2008Custom video game software and wireless game controller

KenKen: Animation is an art in itself. JoJO: The setting and characters are designed like a work of art.Bri: Art tells a visual story, so do video games. Michelle: the process of making a game is like making a work of art.


PT: A person has a vision that they need to make visible into a reality. AYY: Requires web design, Ray: Art passes on a messagevideo games do that!


Ayy: The Long March was something that happened in Chinatheres a little hat with a starreminds me of communist China. Kara: Sickle and Hammer communist symbol for the Soviet Union (USSR) Guzzzy: Mario star, references to China and the Red army. But Im confused by the coca-cola cans being used as weapons against monsters. Arvin: The song is like a playful version of the Chinese national anthem. (annoying, scary, flamboyant, frenetic. Nawal: The video game looks similar to popular Nintendo games (mario) or Sonic (Sega)Nyle: Seems like this game uses some propagandistic imagery. (2+2=5)


Kai: Noticing some communist propaganda. Red Army, Red book, Soviet Union hammer and sickle. And also Super Mario imagery.Tae: I had a hard time following what the purpose of the game was and also the Concept.Brian: The purpose is to defeat a boss, or navigate from one place to another. Brian: The player was collecting coins or something and the enemies arent going out of their digital way to harm you. Theyre not too hostile. .Myar: The player (worker/captain-communist? Communist-commando?) uses coca-cola cans as a weapon. And the soundtrack sounds like a National Anthem (Chinese, but digitized.)Len: References Mao Zedong, when he was ruling China.

Feng MengboLong March: Restart2008Custom video game software and wireless game controllerFeng Mengbo is known for his longtime engagement with digital technology. In the past he has manipulated games like Quake and Doom. Many put his work in the New Media genre as he is a professor of New Media at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Nanjing China. Though he dislikes this term, as he feels it limits creativity.His work at MoMA, Long March: Restart is a large-scale interactive video-game installation that began as a series of forty-two paintings done in 1993.

Examples of the paintings

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2011-07/05/content_12835896.htm6

[My] original intention in designing the installation, [was] to enable the character to move freely along the stretched scroll.

Because of the vast space of the exhibition hall and the intentionally designed fast pace of the character, the gamer and the audience would have to dash to catch up with the character.

http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/02/04/new-acquisition-feng-mengbos-long-march-restart7

Feng MengboLong March: Restart2008Custom video game software and wireless game controllerLong March: Restart is no simple game of Wii Tennis. The Long March in Mengbos title refers to the massive military retreat of The Chinese Communist Partys Red Army, under the command of Mao Zedong and others, that began in 1934; pursued by the Chinese Nationalist Party, the Red Army traveled over 8,000 miles in 370 days, covering some of the worst terrain in China. Maos firm leadership throughout the Long March sealed his fate as Chinas leader for decades to follow.

Feng MengboLong March: Restart2008Custom video game software and wireless game controllerLifting Imagery from classic games like Street Fighter II and Super Mario Bros, along with propaganda motifs from Communist China and Socialist Realist history painting, or Cold War science-fiction characters, Feng invites you to direct a Red Army Soldier via a wireless X-box controller to sweep across China and combat the various enemies by throwing Coca-Cola grenades.

Motif:Recurring theme or image in a work

"I am not a video game designer. I always think that video games are pieces of art themselves.

Passion is the best motive to create art. I admire those heroes who created Chinese history so my artworks are created out of pure love for them."

http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/02/04/new-acquisition-feng-mengbos-long-march-restart10

What Social issue(s) is this artist dealing with? How do they raise these issues?Joie: Its easier for us if this piece is criticizing stuffcause it would be more dramatic. Taeron: If we dont have drama in our lives well just be happy. Who wants to go through life with no hardshipliving out your daysjust happy. (Jaded-Teen-Comment Award)Kenny: Its hard to find a single issue here...because hes supporting something here. (Its not provoking Joies thoughts)Jarrell: The work is too dramatictheres soda can bombs and everything the character does makes the whole room rumble and move too much.

What Social issue(s) is this artist dealing with? How do they raise these issues?Richard: The coca-cola can has like an old school 1980s feel to it. It matches the aesthetic hes going for.Ray: Theres this idea that hes using the west (coca-cola) to combatsomeone/thing?Guzzy: Maybe were reading way too deep into thisIts hard to see what Mengbos intentions are.Tina: You know how China censors media? YEAH! Theres a censorship of anything that isnt pro-Mao.Ayy: Maybe this is all a joke? Mengbo is referencing this history but its not praising or glorifying it.

Incarceration or Video Games?

Why do you think most people chose this?

Causes for people to go to prisonMurder.TheftBreaking and enteringNarcoticsFraudAssault (all forms)WeaponsTrafficking Counterfeiting Crossing borders illegally. Selling non-native reptiles without a permit. Public offensestrespassing

Causes for people to go to prisonTheft.FraudVandalismAssaultNarcotics MURDERRHarassmentBootleggingTerrorism

Affects of people going to prisonSeparation of family membersAbuse (physical, sexual, etc.)Social stigma of having gone to prisonReligious revival. Paranoid or depressed outlook on life. (mental instabilities)Body buildingEveryone reacts differently to this experience.and the surface doesnt always portray the interior.

Affects of people going to prisonDeathSolitary confinementMental problems (PTSD, etc)Sense of loss from family membersHealth problemsSocial problems when you are released.

Million Dollar Blocksby Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation GSAPP @Columbia University

The United States currently has more than 2-million people locked up in jails and prisons. A disproportionate number of them come from a very few neighborhoods in the countrys biggest cities. This project focused on Phoenix, Wichita, New Orleans, and New York City. In many places the concentration is so dense that states are spending in excess of a million dollars a year to incarcerate the residents of single city blocks. These are what we call Million Dollar Blocks.

Although prison populations in New York State have been dropping for almost a decade, the burdens of high rates of migration between prison and community continue to fall on just a few neighborhoods in highly disproportionate ways. Statistically, prison populations are concentrated in some of the citys poorest neighborhoods, including parts of Harlem, the Bronx, East Brooklyn and Central Queens. Despite the decommissioning of two state prisons, none of the savings have found their way back to the city or to these neighborhoods.

This trend of imprisonment may be changing: the Citys corrections department is currently involved in a number of efforts to refocus its resources to better serve these neighborhoods. In one instance of grassroots government, the Citys Homeless Services Department and the Department of Corrections have pooled resources to find housing for the many jailees who are released into homelessness. They have defined eleven neighborhoods to focus their work, many of which overlap with the districts showing high concentrations of prison and jail admissions.

Million Dollar Blocksby Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation GSAPP @Columbia University

At MoMA, million dollar blocks looks specifically at Brooklyn, where the statistics for incarceration are very stark. When many prisoners finish their sentence and are released to reenter their communities, roughly 40% do not stay more than three years before they are once again incarcerated.

It cost 17 million dollars to imprison 109 people from these 17 blocks in 2003.

Many of these individuals end up in one of the 70 prisons in upstate NY

Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation GSAPP @ Columbia UniversitySpecifically, this is part of the Spatial Information Design LabBy artistsLaura KurganEric CadoraDavid ReinfurtAnd Sarah Williams

http://www.arch.columbia.edu/26

MoMA trip is 65% filled upStudio Art students are now invited. GET THOSE PERMISSION SLIPS BACK ASAP!

The Spatial Information Design Lab found that prisoners often come from urban neighborhoods plagued by poverty, homelessness, an intense policing towards communities of color.In the past, governors have combatted these trends by increasing affordable public housing (through bulldozing slums and tenements) and more recently through real-estate gentrification. Neither of these solutions have churned visible resultsbut there is now a real interest in re-investing in these neighborhoods, to pay less money up front than to imprison people afterwards.How would YOU invest this money? Jojo: Invest money in SAFER prisons that avoid traumatic experiences. Joiearon: More rehabilitation services in prisons that provide educational resources. Also better services for guards. Brianna: Educational services already exist. More money should be spent on PREVENTATIVE measures. Jeansei: More after school programs for at-risk kids. Maybe teach people how to adapt to new aspects of society. Taeron: Socially we tend to favor people who are not ex-convictsit seems safer. Joie: Ex cons have trouble getting jobs, getting paidand many end up becoming criminals just to get by. Our social stigmas keep them from moving forward. Ruhith: Racial problems add to this whole heap.

The Spatial Information Design Lab found that prisoners often come from urban neighborhoods plagued by poverty, homelessness, an intense policing towards communities of color.In the past, governors have combatted these trends by increasing affordable public housing (through bulldozing slums and tenements) and more recently through real-estate gentrification. Neither of these solutions have churned visible resultsbut there is now a real interest in re-investing in these neighborhoods, to pay less money up front than to imprison people afterwards.How would YOU invest this money? .Nyle/Zen: Provide housing for ex-convicts as SOON as they are released. People have to find it in themselves to not be afraid of ex convicts. People are still human. .TinArvin: We should make more educational outreach programs in these neighborhoods.RaymAbby: Ex convicts should be able to get training in fields so they can get jobs PT: The stigmas that surround ex convicts is difficult to get rid of. Nawal: Every ex-con is different.theres no single cure-all for this. KARA: What does this all mean for people who were wrongly convicted.

FINAL COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS FOR THE GSAPP PROGRAM AT COLUMBIA??

How can you use something destructive to make something creative?Ken: Hammers can be destructivebut you can use it to make new things too.Michelle: What if we made a bomb that explodes flowers??Taeron: disregarding ideas can be destructiveby destroying ones potential. Brian: Fireworks!! Its like beauty and destructionwhen something explodes it could create something beautiful. Myar: This reminds me of Felix Gonzalez-Torresmaking something beautiful from his lost love and the AIDS epidemic.

How can you use something destructive to make something creative?Sof: You can use knives to carve out sculptures.PT: You can use FIRE to make artistic smokey things (Fumage) Raph: Underwater volcanoes form new islands. Artie: Volcanoes erupt and cause destruction. But sometimes that helps the environment (thinks this is true)Ayy: on How its Made you can fire a gun and make a portrait with the bullet holes.Guzzy: Some artist on facebook was using firecrackers to make paintings. A bit of strategic placementNyle: Criticism can be used to make oneself better. Ray: Whenever you disrupt something you create something new. If I break a table in half.you could turn it into a chair. Justin: People use hammers to build stuffbut those can also be used to destroy things.

Cai Guo-Qiang Gunpowder drawings

33

Cai Guo-Qiang

Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China. He was trained in stage design at the Shanghai Theater Academy, and his work has since crossed multiple mediums within art, including drawing, installation, video and performance art. While living in Japan from 1986 to 1995, he explored the properties of gunpowder in his drawings, an inquiry that eventually led to his experimentation with explosives on a massive scale and to the development of his signature explosion events. Gunpowder drawingswww.caiguoqiang.com

34

Cai Guo-QiangFor the concepts of his artwork, Cai Guo-Qiang draws upon Eastern philosophy and contemporary social issues. His work and events aim to establish an exchange between viewers and the larger universe around them, utilizing a site-specific approach to culture and history.www.caiguoqiang.com

Homeland2013Gunpowder drawingMyar:this means the art is made for the location where it will end up. Ken: He uses his art to provoke conversation about social issues and history.Gissell: Maybe a deeper meaning to this? Probably not just a cool material to entertain Brian: the end result of destruction is to make you think.

35https://jingdaily.com/cai-guo-qiang-kicks-off-christies-shanghai-with-a-bang-literally/#.VomqO_E0pNk

P7The work relates to chaos but its controlled to a certain extent.

It looks like a controlled chaos, different from a natural chaos that doesnt mean to be destructive.

Gunpowder relates to the history of chinaits a material that could lead to self destruction.

Yanshui fireworks festival, Taiwanp8Myar:this means the art is made for the location where it will end up. Ken: He uses his art to provoke conversation about social issues and history.Gissell: Maybe a deeper meaning to this? Probably not just a cool material to entertain Brian: the end result of destruction is to make you think.

Cai Guo Qiang

Personally, I like some things to be accidental and hard to control. Uncertainty has a certain allure to me.

Cai Guo Qiang

Sky Ladder2015In the early morning hours of June 15, Cai Guo-Qiang took an ambitious new step in his pyrotechnic artwork. A huge white helium balloon slowly ascended into the sky above Quanzhou, China. Attached to the ballon was a 500-meter long ladder coated completely with quick burning fuses and gold fireworks

Cai Guo Qiang

Cai Guo Qiang

Sky Ladder2015Behind Sky Ladder lies a clear childhood dream of mine. Despite all lifes twists and turns, I have always been determined to realize it. My earlier proposals were either more abstract or ceremonial. Sky Ladder today is tender, and touches my heart deeply: it carries affection for my hometown, my relatives and my friends. In contrast to my other attempts, which set the ignition time at dusk, this time the ladder rose toward the morning sun, carrying hope. For me, this not only means a return but also the start of a new journey.

Cai Guo-Qiang

Inopportune: Stage One

Cars (Ford Taurus), lighting tubes 2004

at the Guggenheim

41

Cai Guo-Qiang Inopportune: Stage OneCars (Ford Taurus), lighting tubes 2004at Mass MoCA

42

videosInopportune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z11MZg0d3V4

Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViVEUa9bn8w

Cai Guo Qiang Borrowing Your Enemy's Arrows1998mixed media

http://www.moma.org/collection/works/8134844

Cai Guo Qiang Borrowing Your Enemy's Arrows1998mixed mediaThe title references a text from the third century (Sanguozhi) in which the general Zhuge Liang, facing an imminent attack from the enemy, manages to replenish a depleted store of arrows. According to legend, Zhuge Liang tricked the enemy by sailing across the Yangtze river through the thick mist of early dawn with an army of straw men, while his soldiers remained behind yelling and beating on drums. Mistaking the pandemonium for a surprise attack, the enemy showered the decoys with volleys of arrows. Thus the general returned triumphantly with a freshly captured store of weapons.

http://www.moma.org/collection/works/8134845

Cai Guo Qiang Borrowing Your Enemy's Arrows1998mixed mediaBorrowing Your Enemy's Arrows delivers a timeless message rooted in Chinese philosophy. Built on the skeleton of an old fishing boat excavated near Cai's birthplace, the sculpture, suspended aboveground, is pierced with 3,000 made-in-China arrows and flies the national flag.

Surreptitiously gathering strength from one's opponent is also a strategic principle in martial arts.

http://www.moma.org/collection/works/81348Surreptitious: Secretly sneakily 46

What Social issue(s) is this artist dealing with? How do they raise these issues?Nyle: He deals with eastern philosophy. Using gunpowder and fireworks as an Asian referecne. Arvin: Using something that is kind of dangerous but it has a positive impact in the world. Sky ladder would be example, its destructive but beautiful. Guzzy: Hes saying that its okay to be spontaneousjust because things dont go as planned doesnt mean that things are ruined. Yet we still try to control that chaos. Nawal: People in Society dont prefer to be spontaneous due to social conformity constraints.

What Social issue(s) is this artist dealing with? How do they raise these issues?Kenny: Seeing it in person helps to understand how the sculpture works more, it helps you notice the details Rasha: Reminds me of positive and fun stuff, but conveyed in a deeper meaning. Lensei: his work exceed our expectations on what destructive means, it makes us interpret the word differently. Ruhith: made me reminiscent of fun past experiences. NOSTALIGIA! .Brian: His work shows us that destruction and chaos arent necessarily bad. Gissell: Uses the destructive objects and ideas as a positive. Myar: Even though theres destruction and chaos, you can still create something beautiful from it. Its HOPEFUL.

Creation MythsWhat are they? What are examples of them?MythologiesGreek goddesses and gods and how they created Earth. Waaay back in the day, how humans came to be, and how the world came to be. Some folks think this is only polytheistic, but it extends to monotheistic religions too. Agnostics (Agnosticism) (Im not really sure)Atheists: Science and the power of human achievement! Big bang theory. we are all stardust.Christianity (and other Abrahamic faiths) theres Genesis and the Garden of EdenBuddhism: Goddess called Nua, she brought 8 or 9 stones and used them to make the 5 elements of earthand then made more gods out of clay and they had babies and they had more babies! Ancient Egypt: Ra, the god of the sun created life. In the beginning there was only water, a chaos of churning, bubbling water, this the Egyptians called Nu or Nun. It was out of Nu that everything began.

Creation Myths Religion What are they? What are examples of them?Greek mythology: The Titans created the Gods and Goddessesthey revolted.gave form to the world and humansChristianity (and other Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Islam): Genesis (God creates the world in 6 days and rests on the 7th) In the beginning there was darknessand god made light. And there was light. And god saw it was good. Garden of Eden.Atheists/ Science folks: The Big Bang Theory / organic biology/evolutionAgnostics : Um. Im not really sure here. Deism: The belief that God has created the universe but remains apart from it and permits his creation to administer itself through natural laws. (dictionary.com)Hinduism, Buddhism, Animism, Paganism, Humanism, and all those other ISMs.

Creation MythsWhat are they? What are examples of them?Muscogee (Creek) Native Americans (in southeastern present-day USA) believed that at one point the whole world was underwater, and the only land was a great mountainNunne Chaha. This mountain, home of Esaugetuh Emissee (the master of breath) who used the mud and clay from around his home to make the first men.

Camille Henrot Grosse Fatigue2013Video, 13 min

Creation myths--god--earth--water

In the beginning there was no earth, no water nothing. There was a single hill called Nunne Chaha.In the beginning everything was dead.

http://www.moma.org/collection/works/175938?locale=enhttp://www.camillehenrot.fr/en/work/68/grosse-fatigue52



In the beginning there was nothing; nothing at all. No light, no life, no movement no breath.

Creation myths--god--earth--waterhttp://www.moma.org/collection/works/175938?locale=enhttp://www.camillehenrot.fr/en/work/68/grosse-fatigue

53



In the beginning there was an immense unit of energy.In the beginning there was nothing but shadow and only darkness and water and the great god Bumba.

Creation myths--god--earth--waterhttp://www.camillehenrot.fr/en/work/68/grosse-fatigue

54


Creation myths--god--earth--waterIn the beginning were quantum fluctuations.

Video!


55

Video reactionsp8Ruhith: I heard different variations of IN the beginning to the point where I started to zone-out. Gissell: I got really overwhelmed by the pictures. Theyre like pop up ads, distracting and covering other images that you WANT to see.Kenny: At one point the words didnt correspond to the images. (disparity between audio and video)Brian: My brain started to go home.like I was being brainwashed. Joie: Kind of like one of those How-To Basic videos but crazy and I kept questioning where is this going?! its just too much. Kevin: WHAT THE HECK AM I WATCHING?Brianna: Trying to focusbut some of this stuff just doesnt seem to make sense to me.

Video reactionsp7Nyle: Its a lot to process. Reminds me of Mr. Brainwashs LIFE REMOTE CONTROLPT: The voice seems familiar. Its a lot to take inyoure trying to look at one video, but then another pops up and youre trying to understand the words and put pictures together. Ay: Overwhelming, the beats, the sounds, the imagesand then it gets quietRay: the voice feels like hes talking AT you.Alannis: Its like a complicated poem. And the imagery is hypnotizing, and you expect there to be more depth to the images than just their surface. Zenzi: the narrators voice was repetitive and strongand it didnt seem like the images connected with the words.Jakara: Im finding that there were some connections between the words and images. Justin PC: The narrator said so much and I understood so little that it made me feel stupid. Tina: The music went so well with the videomaybe were not supposed to understand every word hes saying but we can understand HOW hes saying that. Guzzy: all this seems to connect to the different creation mythsand they all kind of sound like one story when you put them all togetherbut its hard to process them all like that.

For me there is no opposition between myth and science. Science originates in faith and belief. Whats more, mythological foundations have very often been used to elaborate theories that go on to be scientifically verified later. Belief is often at the origin of an intuition that then becomes a physical or scientific law.There is, however an opposition and an articulation that I found interestingits in the relationship between oral culture and written culture. Western written culture has built its way of working on destructionthere is a need to kill things to conserve them as opposed to a culture that does not set things in stone, but sustains itself orally. Nowadays we have the preconception that oral cultures are those that have experienced the greatest loss and alteration. But Im not sure thats true in the long term.

The Relentless Earth2014The New Museum, NYC

What Social issue(s) is this artist dealing with? How does she raise these issues?Kenny: How different religions correlate to each other and how they sometimes deviate from one another. How they can all be seen as part of one thing.Jean: Its all these believes that have been said to be true and seeing how they interact and how theyre compatible. Ruhith: Trying to explain where the world came fromso many of these ideas are jumbled up together. Myar: There isnt just one answer to how the world was created. All myths are valid.

How would you describe this artist??Taeron: She seems confident discussing the work. doesnt seem awkward.Myar: Its interesting that she worked with this actor and used multiple beliefs to convey a sense of desperation for understanding. Kenny: Seems like she controlled a lot in this whole process.Ruhith: The actual piece of video artwork seemed so jumbled, but since thats her intention, .to be searching for the truth. Brianna: The video is trying to get EVERYONES story inso that nobody is wrong or excludedbut also nobody gets to be right.

What Social issue(s) is this artist dealing with? How does she raise these issues?Jakara: She uses a diverse number of creation myths that are complex even though its shown with simple images/videos.Artie:The whole narrative that the speaker tells us seems to relate to all these different beliefs being related to each other.Ardi: the images seem to relate to how science and religion are related...but its so fast paced, you need to stay focused to get it.Ray: New technology sometimes displaces religion Ay: This happens through the acquisition of knowledge. RD: Nah son, NAHHH, technology can ENHANCE religion!