Heterogenesis is Live

Hey all, the online survey is now availible for my thesis project, so please go to http://heterogenesis.org/contribute.html and complete it there. Also, please invite and send it to as many people as you can to also fill out the survey. This is for my thesis project and I need as much data as possible to make it a compelling project. It is an information design project and depends greatly on a diverse pool of data, so let your friends family, coworkers, or whoever know about this so they can contribute. Below I have posted a poorly written mission statement so you can gain a little bit better understanding of what my project is about.

Mission

Het`er`o`gen`e`sis
n. 1. (Biol.) Spontaneous generation, so called.

2. (Biol.) That method of reproduction in which the successive generations differ from each other,the parent organism producing offspring different in habit and structure from itself, the original form, however, reappearing afterone or more generations; opposed to homogenesis, or gamogenesis.

Heterogenesis is generally a project about race, class, and any other form of classification that both groups and separates people. The reason the name Heterogenesis was picked for this project is the fact that it implies that the parents of a certain offspring differ from that offspring fundamentally. At a metaphoric level, this principle can be seen simple that each generation of people is different from the previous. This is not meant to suggest a genetic difference, but a difference in the way each generation thinks. This project is designed to allow people from various generations to add their own point of reference as well, and data collected from people of varying generations will also play a key role in the manifestation of the project.

The most important part about this project is providing people a space in which they can self-identify. Self-identification is important in that too often in our society we are placed in to preexisting boxes. This identification is accomplished through a survey, which allows people to express certain aspects about themselves and their family, all of which are nearly as arbitrary as skin color or gender. By using these questions to connect people, the project aims at showing some of the shortcomings of basing social classifications on negligible factors.

In order to collect this data it is still important to have a constrained structure to funnel this information into. Although the questions do seem rigid, they are very open, and will help draw links between people of different races through seemingly mundane cultural tendencies, physical traits, etc. In that sense this project shows a type of integration and a sort of web of interconnectedness from seemingly different people. This project will culminate in a sculptural presentation of the data, which will be displayed in April of 2009 in the Mason Gross Galleries at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Besides the overarching component that will be displayed in the gallery, each week information design projects will be created from the corresponding data. Please check back weekly to see what projects have been produced starting in January 2009.

Bored

So the school year ended, and it turned out well. 6 As and a B+ awesome, 3.929 for the semester. Now I am laying at home bored. Don't know if anyone really reads this. Guess This is as good a time as any to introduce the new style of my blog. What I will be doing once a week for now on is: 1st, I will give updates on my work and show you where I am at or what I am doing, and 2nd, I will show you links of Somethings I think are cool including artists, photographers, designers, toys, whatever. Enjoy.

Updates

I updated my website recently (within the last week). I have added a lot of designs, photography and what not that was not there previously. Go to Larrytron Is Dead Dot Com to check it out.

Somethings Cool


Tomer Hanuka has to be my favorite illustrator right now. I really love his grotesque/comic style and very interesting use of color along with his zany compositions. I used his website for the model of mine. I like to think I improved on the over all design haha.


Tessar Lo is another one of my favorite illustrators. His graphic and comic bookish style is very intriguing.


Patrick Winfield is one of the photographers I found interesting in the photography issue of Juxtapoz in May. I really like the idea and presentation of his "Composites."


Pieter Hugo was also featured in the photography issue and has been a hot talent of late. I really like his work, and the subjects are very interesting.

Photo Project for Seminar

These are shots of my friend Michiko for my Seminar in Contemporary Art class. We were given the assignment to dress and photograph a friend or undress and photograph an enemy. I decided to go the friend root. I took Michiko, a very nice and happy girl, and tried to turn her into a hard thug-like character. Not all of the shots were successful in accomplishing this feat, but it was a fun shoot none the less. Let me know what you think.

Outfit #1






Outfit #2








Outfit #3

When you look to the stars

This is the second project for my Video 1 class at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers The State University of New Jersey.

For this video, I used video from Mobile Suit Gundam MS IgLoo 1, Mobile Suit Z Gundam The Movie I: Heir To The Stars, Macross Frontier ep 1, and Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door. I ended up dissecting clips that I cut out of these videos into fairly shorter clips. I then stacked them in 8 seperate mismatched video streams. I then masked out colors in each video stream so you can see videos through videos. To add to the visual chaos,I added random transitions to the beginnings and ends of each video clip. On top of that, I added a Bad TV filter to the very top layer of video.

The audio comes from my first project for video 1. It is composed of audio recorded while walking around Chelsea in New York City. I feel that this audio is fairly minimal and works well in juxtaposition to the chaos of the video.

In terms of meaning for this piece, I really wanted to capture the idea that no matter where man expands to, conflict will always follow. This is why I mostly used clips of space battles to really emphasize the violence and conflict of man living in space. I hope I am successful in showing this.

I hope you enjoy this. Let me know what you think.

BRICKS!

Visualization

Hey, just wanted to thank everyone that voted for me to be one of the B.F.A. Visual Arts Representatives at Mason Gross School of the Arts. I appreciate the support and hope to be successful in pushing the student agenda within faculty meetings. Again, thanks.

Another bit of news, this weekend while at home I edited some 2000+ of my digital photos and put them up on my new Flickr account which can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/larrytron/

Take a look, hope you find something you enjoy there. Peace.

Indepenedent Study on Design Activism

So for a while now I have been making blog entries on proposed projects I could be doing. Next semester, man of them shall be realized...

The Proposal

Design is a powerful tool and must be utilized to tackle powerful issues. That is the philosophy in which my plans for the independent study are rooted. For as long as I have been alive, and well before, race has been a tremendous issue in my life and in American society. With my independent study, I would like to do research on race, racism, stereotypes, urban life, gangs, hip-hop/rap music, etc. and bring them to light through design. I plan to create several project series focusing on these issues utilizing the media of graphic design, photography, illustration, printmaking and photo-illustration. I would like to combine the range of these projects into a book using articles I find speaking to these issues, as well as face-to-face interviews with students and other people. Blending texts I gather and write, with images I create, I hope to produce something to get people thinking and talking about these issues. I feel that an independent study would be perfect for realizing this vision of mine. With the restraints of a full-fledged graphic design course lifted, I definitely feel that I can accomplish my vision for this project.

Examples of projects I have planned for this include:

-a look at social suicide in the urban black male community. I have not decided wether to do this as a collection of photos or prints yet. however, this will be looking, at the afluence of drugs, guns, gangs, etc. and the effect on the young black male.

-an illustrated sign language sheet that utilizes illustrations of gang signs and urban hand signs instead of traditional American Sign Language. For this I will use articles speaking on hand signs and gangs in order to create a layout.

-illuminated manuscripts featuring lyrics from rap lyrics, looking at them as a type of urban “gospel.” (see blog entry on the "Illuminated Manuscripts of the Notorious B.I.G.")

- a photo-illustration project using photos of different people and caricatures and small sketches of stereotypes related to their race. (see "First Post and Stereotype") I will accompany this with articles about different steretypes associated with the ethnic groups I choose for this.

-a continued look at Hispanic/Latino stereotypes through the photographing of "Homies" figures. I will accompany this with articles on Hispanic/Latino urban cultures

-a look at racist groups in America such as Neo-Nazis and the KKK through small single panel comics

The possibility of other projects to be collected in this publication will depend on the amount of time these projects take to complete, compile, and layout.

I will keep you all abreast of the project as I go through the process of making this whole thing come together. Any feedback is appreciated