What happens when you take reality and multiply it, bend it, sculpt it, until a world that is simultaneously familiar and exhilaratingly new stretches before you?

Imagine an endless dreamscape that unfurls at your feet as you run; you are moving too quickly to see the details of what is around you, to imagine what lies ahead- but no matter, a city springs up wherever way you turn. It is impossible to consciously imagine such a highly-detailed world so instantaneously, and yet, it appears, seeming to build itself from the back catalogues of the fringes of your subconscious memory.

In an eerily reminiscent mix of Escher, Inception, and something else that just escapes definition, Jean Francois Rauzier’s highly surreal art evokes nothing less than a sense of awe.

Rauzier is best known for his hyperphotography. He arrives on a scene and shoots hundreds, sometimes upwards of a thousand images, gathering bits and pieces, angles and planes, flutes and cornices, sheen and grain. Windows, reflections, branches, ripples in the water. These are then stitched together and assembled into an environment so large and seamless it is difficult if not impossible to tell where one piece ends and another begins.

His galleries are worth taking the time to explore. Open images to fullsize; the viewer is interactive. Zoom in. And in. And in. Marvel. Pan over, repeat.

What you will find as you zoom in is that unlike a conventional photo, everything between the foreground and very distant background remains in sharp focus. Even when one thinks that the resolution has been maxed out- that there is no possible way to zoom in further without a mess of pixels- there is sharp detail. What appears to be a solid, if slightly mottled structure, turns out to be covered in windows and architectural details. Inside the windows are lamps. Furniture. Potted plants. And stretching out to the horizon, a veritable army of similarly mottled structures.

Rauzier’s work is an infinite labyrinth of visual treasures. One gets the sense of a meta-meta-meta-world, a recurring landscape in which the both the environment and what it contains might appear multiple times in various forms, but no one can quite put a finger on precisely what, when, and where, if at all. The closer one looks, the more there is to see.

It’s hard to not be fascinated.

It is only in an idealized world, one might think, that there could be such a richness of sensory opulence. But it’s not. It’s not. New details, interesting sights and things and facts are all there, are already there, all about you, waiting for you to notice them, for you to make the right connections.

What Rauzier does is merely put together permutations that have not yet occurred in this plane of existence.

The fall semester already begins to accelerate toward dazzling extremes — extremes of work load, extremes of red and gold, trickling in from the tips of the once temperate green leaves, extremes of cognitive activity and collegiate spirit, and of cold, and the extreme of being pressed to see and make choices, the vast number of choices that manifest on exam sheets in multiple choice bodies and choices that exist as real-life junctures where we stand in the crossroads. Everything is operating at this startling frequency industrious as ever, and this is how it is to be in college.

In order to make a brief escape from all the noise, I ventured to north campus to see the Engineering Social Change Fair, of which I was in part, initially attracted to because of the promised falafel and hummus pita spread. While the Middle Eastern food was exceptionally satisfying, this was to be expected. The presentation on the intersection between art and our immediate, present culture was one of those happy chance occurrences whose pleasantness becomes amplified by the fact it was unplanned. One of the keynote speakers for this event was Nick Tobier, an articulate associate professor of the School of Art & Design who spoke of his initiative of incorporating art into the arguably more “pragmatic” realm of people’s lives – that is, creating art that measurably betters a social group’s outlook on life. He recounted a story of being in New York, and being invigorated with excitement when he saw an elephant being paraded down one of the city streets after dusk. It was a miraculous sight, come to him during a stretch of his life when events more or less plateaued. Tobier said at the fair to an auditorium of students, that he knew in that moment that he “wanted to be someone else’s elephant.” And that’s exactly what he did.

Learning in college is being in classrooms and digesting theories and abstractions that require a great deal of working memory to hold in coherence. It’s like playing a game of chess, Tobier says, but how to extrapolate those rules that we twist and manipulate and are evaluated extensively on into the real-world? He began to create performing objects including a bicycle that channeled energy generated by the pedaling cyclist to light an overhanging chandelier. Additionally, he began spearheading larger scope community sustainability projects in Detroit — devoting his skills to develop a community farm in the cities and thus taking action to his belief of the right of access of all individuals to healthy whole foods.  (Click here for information on his other projects.) What interests him is the social-infused public spaces, and tangible interactions that occur between people. He is inspired by the power of social dynamism and the potential it holds. What he says to the room of students is that, being students, we are inherently already privileged. Tobier urges us all to turn our privileges inside out and build each other’s capacitance. Through art, or through whatever avenue of study that we have selected, we should seek to do this, to use our chosen craft as a conduit. This is wise advice. My mind couldn’t help but jump to my biopsychology lecture on theories that explained the evolution of the increasing human neocortex volume. The social hypothesis suggests that the reason our brain is so comparatively large to other mammals is because of our interactions with each other, our adaptive social inclination, and the necessary behavioral sophistications that come as a result. We are community creatures.

As the pace of the semester quickens, it’s easy to lose yourself in the stacks of readings and the numbers that culminate to a grade point average. Take a step back, and think of yourself not as a single unit, busying away into the depths of the night but an active participant in the communities you associate yourself with. Turn yourself, as Nick Tobier says, inside out and see what comes of it.

Sue majors in Neuroscience & English and tends to lurk in bookstores.

Paper seems to have a life of its own.  From being just the blank canvas on which artists worked to becoming life-size sculptures, paper has undergone many transformations since its origins.  What is most extraordinary is how paper is now being used to understand science; in this case, specifically the genetic basis of Alzheimer’s.

Matt Shlian’s title is a Paper Engineer who folds paper sculptures.  But his work isn’t like that of Peter Callesen’s, whose cannily life-like sculptures are undoubtedly ethereal works of art.  For Shlian, his work is not just founded upon artistic principles and desire to create, it is also based on the curiosity and desire to utilize his skills as an artist engineer to furthering scientific knowledge.  As he writes in his artist’s statement, in the way that paper folds, so does DNA, and protein mis-folding is what results in Alzheimer’s Disease.  One misstep in the folding process leads to further a chain of folding mishaps which causes irregularities and disease.  In order to explore the causalities and possibilities of how protein could mis-fold, Shlian creates replica of protein structures made from paper– a highly scientific yet artistic work.

Upon first hearing about this man and the phenomena which he creates, I was astounded.  Here is one very great example of how art is being utilized for more than just the typically perceived reason of self-expression.  Here is one awesome counterexample to those who continually say that art is merely for art’s sake and that it is irrelevant in the larger picture.  Shlian’s paper folding that helps us understand the roots of Alzheimer’s shows us that art is as intertwined in this world as any other discipline; without art, we would not understand science.  Without the ability to manipulate designs, to create visual representations of the scientific realm, it would be hard to comprehend the microscopic in visual terms.

I wish I could fold DNA structures.  That’s cool.

Today I read this post on “Native American” style, titled cleverly “Feathers and Fashion: Native American is In Style,” inspired by Native Appropriations’ Tribal Fashion Roundup!. I found that after reading the authors’ opinions, followed by seemingly endless reader comments, I’ve little to suggest that wouldn’t be a summary, paraphrase, or quote of one of the others. That being said, I must begin by pointing out, like some of the commenters, that I’m not Native, and, therefore, am merely voicing my opinion as an outsider.

First and foremost, let’s take a look at the hipster headdress. Check out the examples given in “Feathers in Fashion.” We’ve got Bat for Lashes wearing three different headdresses on three separate occasions (and looking rather sickly, I might add). When I saw Devendra Banhart at the Ark, he was also wearing a headdress. And guess what the girl next to me at last May’s Animal Collective show in Royal Oak was wearing. What’s more, Adrienne at Native Appropriations posted that Ke$ha (I still don’t know who the hell she is) wore one on a TV performance recently as well. I could additionally reference a few Facebook friends, but I’ll be a champ and spare them.

There’s absolutely nothing okay about this trend. It’s not ironic, it’s not chic, and it’s certainly not cultural. The headdress is a generalized, Hollywood “Injun” stereotype – a trend, if you will, that’s lasted over fifty years. It was wrong then, and it’s still wrong now. Same goes for smearing war paint on your face and exclaiming “How!” and “Make big chief heap glad!” It’s not even so much because it’s offensive. Of course, by no means are hoards of young, hip, credit card kids armed with cheap 40’s and menthol cigarettes donning supposedly prestigious, culturally meaningful regalia likely flattering to people of Native American descent. But really – are these flakes worth getting all hot and bothered over?

My opinion is: no. Because, like the big, floppy headdress that matches perfectly with your new, Urban Outfitters sundress, ignorance is no new trend. American magazines may publish Native American-inspired garb under “global” trend sections (to which Adrienne comments “Native American trends are ‘global’ – um, you can’t get more American than the styles of the original peoples in the US..”) People may charge $185 for a dead coyote to wear on your head as a fashion statement (I love roadkill AND the Great Spirit?) Not to say some people aren’t offended – it’s definitely apparent in the posts’ feedback – but I’ve got a hunch that the hundreds of years of broken promises, stolen homelands, trails of tears, and more or less genocide at assimilative boarding schools are probably a bit more offensive than lame hipsters wearing headdresses. No, it’s cool, it’s not like your ancestors killed them all or anything-” (or your university possesses their grandparents in cardboard boxes). Choosing to wear these items out to a party leaves you looking foolish, no matter your intentions. Regardless of whether or not you’re offending someone of Native origin, you’re offending yourself.

Peace,
Molly

P.S. I’m not ordering anyone to toss their moccasins or never touch a feather again. Just leave the headdresses at home. Please.

Molly Ann Blakowski majors in English and jumps in puddles

For my last entry of the year I’ve decided to switch it up. That’s right, no more random music reviews, musings on movies, or token commentaries on university policies.  This blog post is going to be different (it will actually be about art!).  This post is going to be about one of my favorite (lesser known) painters, Thomas Chimes.

Thomas Chimes was one of the most influential artists in the greater Philadelphia area during the 20^th century. Inspired by such artists and literary figures as James Joyce, Matisse, and Vincent van Gogh, Chimes was an integral player in the Abstract Expressionist Movement. Although Chimes is probably most famously known for his portraits of 19^th/20^th poets, writers, and artists, one of his most intriguing works (at least in my opinion) was his series entitled “White Paintings.”

These paintings, fashioned by Chimes later on in his life, are said to be reflections of his own personal traumas (i.e. his separation from his wife). The images depicted are whitewashed to a point where it seems as if you are looking into the depths of human memory through a dense fog. In order to create this effect Chimes applied color pigments onto a white canvas and then wiped away the paint so a faint outline of the intended figure.

Personally, I love this portion of Chimes’ works because it is so completely different from anything else that was being produced at the time. Also, on a more practical note, looking at these images is extremely calming so definitely check them out if you are feeling stressed about finals.

Here is a link with a few sample paintings from the series: http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/2007/107.html?page=3

Hope you guys enjoy Chimes’ stuff and let me know what you think. It’s been really fun sharing my random thoughts with you guys. Good luck with finals and hope everyone has a fantastic summer 🙂