Music of the Latin World

I'll be honest the extent of my knowledge on Latin Music extends only to Shakira, Don Omar, Elvis Crespo and other popular music acts.  Exploring these artists has introduced me to some new and interesting music.

I like the African influences of this song. The beat is catchy and fun. It has a reggaeton feel.

I love the way that the pink panther theme song is incorporated into the Mambo. This song makes me feel like I am in the streets of Miami. I found myself dancing as I was listening to this song. The rhythm is infectious.

kiss me- sexy lucy
Honestly, I don't like this song at all. I find the beat to overpowering. The voice filter used makes my skin crawl. The lyrics are horrible and repetitive. I am not sure that I understand the Latin influence of this song

An Exploration of Video Art

The first video that I chose is from the stop motion category. I enjoy these kinds of videos because they remind me of claymation movies from my childhood. This video is entitled Iron Man vs Bruce Lee. The subject matter is light-hearted but the editing is incredible.



The second video that I chose is from the time lapse category. I believe that time lapse videos have calming quality. As the cars in this video speed by the sun rises and sets. The mirror effect creates an abstraction of the normal highway.





The final video that I chose is from the macro category. This video incorporates images from Google Earth with electron microscope images of flowers. At first it is reminiscent of a scientific documentary but there is something intrinsically artistic and beautiful about these cellular structures.

Performance Art

youtube link

For my performance art piece I chose to continue exploring depression and mental illness. On  January 22, 2012 I voluntarily hospitalized myself for depression. I learned a lot about myself while I was in the hospital and I began taking medication to cope with my depression. Even so, it is a daily struggle. I worry about how people would view me if they knew that I suffer from depression. This project put me far out my comfort zone but in being vulnerable I gained some healing.

The pill bottles on my necklace are mine. I have never thrown one of my bottles away. One day I hope to collect enough bottles to use them in an art piece.

The History of Magnetic Tape

Oberlin Smith developed the first theory of magnetic tape recording in 1878. It consisted of a string full of iron fillings that passed through a coil of wires. A telephone circuit converted the sound into modulated electrical currents that magnetize and demagnetize the filings as they travel past the coil. When the string is rewound and passed through the coil again, an electrical signal can reproduce the original sound. Unfortunately, Smith never built this device

In 1894, Valdemar Poulsen discovered the principles of magnetic recording.  He created a machine called the Telegraphone and demonstrated a prototype in 1900 at the Paris Exhibition. It was the first successful magnetic sound recorder. At this exhibition, Poulsen recorded the voice of Emperor Franz Joseph, which is still preserved today.

The recorder worked by using a steel wire wrapped in grooves around a cylinder. An electromagnetic head was passed over the wire for recording and playback. 

In 1928, Fritz Pfleumer received a patent that would change everything. The patent was for the application of magnetic powders to a strip of film. This created "tape-recording"

After WWII tape recorders gained commercial appeal. The invention of the 8-track in 1965 revolutionized music recordings.

Tape recordings eventually came to be used as a medium for recording videos and storing computer data. 

Flash Mobs

Flash Mobs have reached mainstream recognition. The romantic comedy Friends with Benefits includes two impressive flash mob scenes.

The last flash mob video takes place in mall. It utilizes the popular song Gangnam Style

Guerilla Girls

The Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of feminist artists. Their motto is "reinventing the "f" word. Feminism!" The group was formed in 1985 to combat sexism and racism within the art world. I searched the Guerrilla Girls website and found an interview that reveals why the group came to be. 

Q. How did the Guerrilla Girls start?

Kathe Kollwitz: In 1985, The Museum of Modern Art in New York opened an exhibition titled An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture. It was supposed to be an up-to-the minute summary of the most significant contemporary art in the world. Out of 169 artists, only 13 were women. All the artists were white, either from Europe or the US. That was bad enough, but the curator, Kynaston McShine, said any artist who wasn't in the show should rethink “his” career. And that really annoyed a lot of artists because obviously the guy was completely prejudiced. Women demonstrated in front of the museum with the usual placards and picket line. Some of us who attended were irritated that we didn't make any impression on passersby.

Meta Fuller: We began to ask ourselves some questions. Why did women and artists of color do better in the 1970's than in the 80's? Was there a backlash in the art world? Who was responsible? What could be done about it?

Q.What did you do?

Frida Kahlo: We decided to find out how bad it was. After about 5 minutes of research we found that it was worse than we thought: the most influential galleries and museums exhibited almost no women artists. When we showed the figures around, some said it was an issue of quality, not prejudice. Others admitted there was discrimination, but considered the situation hopeless. Everyone in positions of power curators, critics, collectors, the artists themselves passed the buck. The artists blamed the dealers, the dealers blamed the collectors, the collectors blamed the critics, and so on. We decided to embarrass each group by showing their records in public. Those were the first posters we put up in the streets of SoHo in New York 

Most of their work is in poster format and displays depressing yet, true facts about the entertainment industry.

I am a feminist myself and I support the Guerrilla Girls brand of whistle-blowing. My only hope is that the Guerrilla will branch out to fight discrimination against women and minorities in other fields.