first helping of kake

I also am a little bit--completly--out of my element in this class; I would be lying if I said I wasn't. However, despite my feeling of complete unprepared-ness, I'm excited. The most refreshing day was the second class meeting where everyone got to the core of what the class was about.

Art I believe is another word for expression and action. In the articles "If These Refrigerators Could Speak" and "Artists Repaint Baghdad" the operation of action is clear and compelling. Refrigerators showed how grassroots efforts to portray a region's...maybe almost a nation's...feelings about the Katrina situation could make such a statement and impression without going to violent means. Baghdad exposed the two sides with a nation in dilemma. The artists had the difficult task of beautifying the walls that kept their people trapped. The objective was to distract but it might have drawn more attention to the barricades. Many people felt that there was more important things to accomplish than prettier barriers. And that presents the catch-22 in art. There are social actions a person can make that change the world around them immediatly, and there are social actions that make the statement that incite the immdiate changes. I think art is the latter category of action, and a necessary step to influence more people. It is bold and loud and honest.

My favorite piece for the week though, was "Antiwar Art in a New Medium: Paintball-on-Web" because the interaction that the web gave made it more personal because you watch your on addition to the artist's statement. I think that the collaborative contributions that strangers could make generated on the spot how war in general was a collective decision and experience. I think that article was the defintion of art as a social action.