Paper Demo

Let me know what you guys think.

Myungwon.

José A Ortiz Pagan "In Process"

Hi to everyone, so finally here is my video (at least part of it). This is a project I discussed with Gerard about doing a project that goes from some kind of digital portfolio to a documentation of different processes I'm working on. This is the first step to what is going to be a more complicated video. Hope you like it and critics are welcome.

Also wanted to thank you all again for this year, I'm missing Philly and you guys, hope to see you all soon, José.

Artists writing

Glass artist Judith Schaechter has never been afraid to speak her mind. Thank heaven. A few days ago, she posted her notes from a lecture on beauty on her blog, and i thought I'd share it with you. Not because it's the most brilliant thing ever, but because it shows how she's making sense of one of the large issues in the art world, and also putting to use the work she does preparing for a talk or presentation through another media channel. Enjoy.

Potluck

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We're at 9 N. 9th Street (enter on 9th between Arch and Filbert) and looking forward to seeing you on Thursday, May 6, at 5:30pm. Just come in the front door, take the elevator to the 2nd floor, walk past the gym and around to the left - ours is apartment 203.

As far as parking - our building has a pretty vigilant towing company looking after its lot, so I'd avoid it. Best to look for a metered space on Filbert between 8th and 9th.

Look forward to seeing you! ~ gerard

Congratulations to everyone!!!!!

Now we know now it's done. Finally Louis Pierre and Myungwon Kim showed to everyone the result of two years of hard work and researching. Thankfully the aftermath of these two developments were satisfactory.

First Louis Pierre (who by now is on his way to Montreal), show us something that at the beginning made us ask us what was going on. But at last the surprise factor (As always accompanied Louis trough his research and performances), made and acted as one of the main characters for the development of a great collective performance aiming by that to a great balance between the gallery element and the performing aspect of this work "100 heads". This finally and personally I think put the work in great context. Also good to mention is the projection outside of the gallery, which established a great dialogue for the people to understand way more the complete aspect of this work, once again congratulations Louis Pierre.

In other hand we got Mrs. Myungwon Kim, and her great show as part of the MFA show this time in the Tyler Gallery. Great work and personally I think and agree with other people that was the best show in the gallery, and also the more serious proposal. Very good goals acknowledge by this pieces, that develop a great sense of physicality trough an aesthetic language, not only practice but also even in the appropriate size and installation, so once again to you also congratulations.

Finally I will like to thank you all, Louis, Myungwon, Leslie, Gerard and other faculty that reads on this blog thank you, I feel I had more true friends on all of you and I'm personally very glad to shared all this year with you guys, I know opportunities like this and people like you are hard to fins these days. I'm hoping to keep in touch with all of you for long time, and also to find next years peers like you (know is going to be hard), blessings to all of you see you next week.

Another take on the notion of 'discipline'

We've been talking about academic disciplines, about the space between them, about how they might be constructively merged or usefully kept separate. But there are other ways to conceive of a discipline, as Lewis Hyde does in his book, Trickster Makes this World. I want to quote him at length:

Popular conceptions of [John] Cage tend not to see that for him chance operations were a spiritual practice, a discipline. One kind of courting of chance is exactly the opposite of discipline, of course - the young person putting herself at risk, the gambler on a spree, the speculator playing with a relative's money. Cage was a playful man, but these are not his uses of chance, as he himself struggled to make clear. In recommending non-intention, he once explained, "I'm not saying, 'Do  whatever you like,' and that's precisely what some people now think I'm saying...The freedoms I've given in [a musical score] have not been given to permit just anything that one wants to do, but have been invitations for people to free themselves from their likes and dislikes, and to discipline themselves."

In many ways, the discipline Cage recommended was as stringent as that of any monk on a month-long meditation retreat. He asked that intention be thwarted rigorously, not occasionally or whimsically. he worked hard at chance. He would literally spend months tossing coins and working with the I Ching to construct a score. It took so much time, he would toss coins as he rode on the New York subway to see friends. One famous piece lasted less than five minutes but it took him four years to write. And when the piece was finished, it was not meant to be an occasion for improvisation; it was meant to be played within the constraints chance had determined. "The highest discipline is the discipline of chance operations...The person is being disciplined, not the work." The person is being disciplined away from ego's habitual attitudes and toward a fundamental change of consciousness. This is Cage's version of Duchamp's "forgetting the hand" (142-43).

So perhaps another thing that interdisciplinarity does is diminish the power a discipline holds over us. It maybe our constant want to be free that ("to do whatever you like") that drives us toward interdisciplinarity, and our reluctance to "be disciplined" that drives us from our aesthetic or technical homes.

The non-show!

Is this a show or an event? Do an event can be a show or a show an event? What ever it was my little conclusion of an entire year of work in my studio. Lets not forget that the street became my studio for the second half of the year! I have to admit that I struggled a lot with this idea of bringing back into 4 white walls the information provided by my outdoor studio. After setting-up an arrangement in the gallery space for the review, I realized that the DISPLAY had noting to do with the actual work!

Why do I have to present something for my these show? The show will be NO SHOW! That was my reflexion when I moved to Philadelphia in august. I finally considered my thought of the time, and the non show became a new intervention. I decided to act the exact same way I act when I go out with the heads: arriving on-site without telling the assistance that this will append!

I would also like to share with you guys my conversation with Sean Stoops, an independent curator, introduced by Gerard - thank you Gerard - I basically talked about my work, my process and my non expectation every time I go out with the heads! I did not try to talked differently then when I talk to someone in the street, but be specific in my approach of the street and my interpretation of it. I am curious to hear what Sean as to say about my reflexion and the way I have been expressing it to him.

Hope you enjoyed the NON-SHOW! I really appreciated your participation to all of you and every time I go out with the heads - IN in this case - I get new information in order to create something more sophisticated in the future.