Bravo Monika! Landscape of Belief

What was creative about this piece to me?

The thing that struck me as creative with this exhibit was how the whole thing was set up. She used three blades of thick glass and a projector. Who would have ever thought of something like that? That in itself is creative. At first it looked like still pictures of different cities but she did more than that by adding animation to it. It seemed live the city was alive and it was actually something that we could maybe personify. She even had birds flying through one of the scenes which I thought was cool.

How did she come up with the idea though? I think she must have had some sort of limitations on this project. Maybe someone limited her or maybe she limited herself to using just three glass panels and a projector. Or maybe she even saw another piece of art the used glass to display the design. I think she just made the design on her laptop and then connected it to a projector but she could have just displayed her art on the laptop and showed it to people that way. Who knows? I honestly think that she just used multiple ideas and gather a bit from other projects and connected them to create design.

Eric Smith

Landscapes of Belief - Justyne Willets

What Struck You As Creative?

This piece was very cool and unique.  The initial way it was set up with the projector and the three sheets of glass or plastic was creative in itself.  The three separate pieces would diffuse the image as the light went through and that was creative because it illustrated that as we get farther and farther away from something, it can be harder to see the whole picture.

I also really liked how the words would fly in and then fly out.  This was effective because the words would fly out, essentially dissolving the city, and then it appeared to be the same words would fly in and create an entirely new landscape.  This was a creative way to illustrate that the same building blocks are used to create various different things.

How Do You Think The Author Came Up With These Ideas?

I think that the artist was thinking about how ideas come with a spark but that everyone has the same opportunity to find the same spark but can create such different things.  Also, as the world is turning more and more to the digital side, I believe the author wanted to incorporate the idea of technology as a "landscape of belief" in itself.

Living Cities - Lance McDowell

What struck you as creative?

The words were never still. Even though they came together to form structures they were never stationary; rather, they gently rippled and pulsed. The cities seemed to be breathing, alive.

I liked that the various landscapes would linger only a short while then disappear bit by bit. While I studied the work, I felt like I do when I awake from a dream. It seems so real, then it begins to fade. You try to hang on to the images, but they slowly disappear.

I thought the space around the sculpture was creative. The room had two stools, one in front of the sculpture and one in back. Otherwise, it was empty. This allowed the viewer to have a deeply personal experience with the art. In the quiet, dark room I sat and listened to the art speak to me.

How do you think the author came up with these ideas?

Bravo states that she wanted to “create a parallel between literature and architecture…” Literature and architecture are both stationary; printed words on a page, stone and wooden structures. Yet, there is life in each. Perhaps Bravo read a book, and the words spoke to her, beckoned to her, gently took her hand and led her into a metaphysical world. Is that literally possible? No. But does it happen? Yes.

Architecture also speaks. It tells us about people and their history. It tells us about culture.

Then Bravo took the next step. How could she take the metaphysical and make it into something with substance? Architecture could literally have a voice if it were constructed of words. It could literally tell us something.

Bravo also brought the city to life with three glass panels. This layering creates a ghostly light around the city, almost like a halo. I saw the physical city but I also felt I could see its spirit.

Aaron Johnson- Something Out of Nothing

There were a lot of different aspects to "Landscapes of Belief" that I found creatively compelling. First, I enjoyed the non-traditional medium of light projection. Secondly, the concept of the images, or creating the skylines using words from the book, Invisible Cities, was intriguing. Lastly, the choice to cycle through different skylines all added to the atmosphere and message that I believe the work was trying to convey (and the plaque that went with it seemed to agree with my assessment, so I take comfort in that).

I have been pondering how I would have developed the same creative ideas originally. The way that seems most sensible to me would be to start with the concept/message you have to convey, and then building the art into it. The fact that Bravo is evidently familiar with "Invisible Cities", suggests that it was influential in the development of her message, so the first step in my hypothetical creative process would have involved reading that book.

From there I have formulated a concept in my mind that I want to explore with art. My concept I'm exploring is how we sort of create the world around us from our perceptions, but our perceptions are not real or tangible on their own. I would want my art to play on that, and I could reasonably think to use moving images, or constructing the work out words from a book.

The biggest leap or biggest insight in the creative process would have to be when I finally settled on the idea to project the images onto planes of glass. The "Aha!" thought would be something along the lines of, "Our perceptions will create something out of nothing, or turn the unknown into the familiar," and so my piece will be projecting nonsense, the words of none-too-popular book onto glass, so the viewer can experience their own ability to perceive something familiar out of nothing concrete.

So maybe my thinking is too linear here, but this is my best guess on how the author would have developed the art and the ideas that I found to be creative.

Personal Sojurn in the MOA.

     First off, I would like to thank the kind security guard who had to escort me to the Monika Bravo exhibit because I found it impossible to navigate there myself.
     Secondly, kudos to the artist of the Landscape of Belief exhibit. Was it creative? Certainly. I thought that the three panes of glass made the exhibit 3D and thus, super awesome. The part that I found to be most creative though was the fact that it used modern technology as a medium to express their artistic ideas.
     Over the past year alone, I have noticed that video has become a much more popular form of art/communication. We all know and love Vine videos just as we all know and hate Instagram videos. My point is, life ain't all about still shots anymore. Videos are used for artistic purposes socially or, like the Monika Bravo exhibit, it can be put in a dark corner of a museum somewhere to be appreciated.
     PS. The text that made up the landscape was completely unreadable so I'm not sure if that really contributed to it much. Or maybe I just didn't read the plaques thoroughly enough to understand.

Monika Bravo Exhibit–Blake Lewis

I knew the Monika Bravo exhibit was interesting when I was standing in the room for a few minutes and in came three kids saying "whoa this is so cool!" and later pointed to the back wall as the cities reflected on it. 

What I found most creative was that Bravo had an idea and has conceptualized it into a work of art. I read about her desire to create her work to portray this idea that the world we live in is all part of our mental construction. It's as if we make up political disagreements or inner and outer cultural differences. That's what I believe she based her artform on. So I found that creative. She came up with the idea because it is actually a part of her. "Landscape of Belief" and all of her artforms are a part of her ideology and belief. 

I also found it creative because they just looked pretty. Part of the exhibit labeled "Liquid Wall" was aesthetically interesting and I was also mesmerized by the digital complexity of "Landscape of Belief". 

Monika Bravo: Landscape of Belief: Christian McOmber

I am not going to lie, I was surprised at how cool this piece was.  There were so many things in this piece that were cool and symbolic, but to me, the most creative aspect of this work of art is that everything is made from words.  From far away the animation looks almost like a 3D blueprint, but up close you realize that the animation is made from words.  More than just catching your attention I feel like making everything out of words captures the essence of what Monika was trying to share with the world through her art.

        I feel like making everything out of words is likely to be a symbol of how everything around us, architecture, art, and anything else manmade was made based on the thoughts of their creators.  I think that the author came up with this idea by looking at life around her and imagining all of the work and thought that was put into each detail of our complicated and beautiful surroundings.  When we look at the modern world as something that has been created by those before us, we gain the desire to follow in their footsteps and contribute to the world by maximizing our potential and creating new beauty.  When I look at this work of art, it reminds me that life is full of potential and there are so many thoughts and dreams that will change the landscape we call reality.  I believe all of us have the potential to maximize our talents and imagine beautiful things so that they may one day be.  I am sure Monika has many meanings in this masterpiece, but to me it represents the thoughts and dreams that have created the world in which we live.  This work communicates to me that life can be our “Landscape of Belief,” when we believe.