Mirror Activity

So basically what we did was hold a mirror in the position that we could see our partner's face. We imitated what our partner was doing, while walking further and further away from each other. Your focus had to be only on your partner, who was in essence imitating what you were doing. Because we were unaware of what face we were making, we relied on our partner to mimick our expression. This process became terribly circular until, in a perfect result we would be creating the same face. This was an example of performance art, in that the participators were the tools that portrayed a function necessary for it to become art. Because of the weather it was not terribly enjoyable, but it still accomplished what it was intended to. Besides for finding it rather ridiculous, I just was cold.

Duchamp

Duchamp has created a world all his own, and sadly a logic only his own along with it. While art is said to be meant to push barriers of reality and create a new vision, Duchamp seems to have trouble translating it to the viewer. One major problem you can pin point is the fact that he had to publish an explanation. Art is supposed to convey it's meaning visually, Duchamp's viewers were stuck with a visual that had to be backed up verbally almost defeating the purpose. While there are successful pieces of abstract artwork, their success hinges on the fact that the viewers is permitted their own interpretation. The problem with Duchamp was that he had such a specific meaning and purpose for the work, that in fact viewer interpretations were wrong. Having a specific meaning is fine as long as it can be conveyed visually, Duchamp has to explain his idea in a terribly long essay, which in result loses the interest of the viewer.
I can admire Duchamps deeply thought out "logic", his idea is complex and relates to the interaction of these fictional pretenses. None the less there is almost no relation to any idea that a viewer could grasp just by viewing the piece. This is another problem when I am reading Duchamp's notes on his own piece, I do not see the humor he finds so evident in the work. Perhaps I could understand the humor if I intensely studied his logic and writings, but without that information I am rather useless. As far as the male to female attraction thing goes, the logic is so foreign in general that the idea of attraction in Duchamp's mind is incomprehensible.
There is a line between abstract and insanity, and I believe Duchamp is teetering on that line. I may be terribly ignorant but I think visual communication is key, and that if you cannot portray a feeling or thought on the material given then you have slightly failed. While I think the piece is visually interesting, I think Duchamp fell short at getting his back story across through his art.

Pattern Making

I found this rather frustrating, but the end result was semi satisfactory. The hardest part I found was the lining up of the patterns and making symmetry work in my favor. Although I believe I might have screwed up with the directions, I'm pretty sure I got the basic concept of the activity. The activity also helped me learn more about illustrator, and made me a little more comfortable with the software.

Gestalt

Gestalt is translated in many different ways but essentially means; A collection of physical, biological, psychological or symbolic entities that creates a unified concept, configuration or pattern which is greater than the sum of its parts. For example when you can use to smaller concepts and combine them into a whole piece that corresponds in some way to the other co-part.