Quick review of Kohler Arts/Industry Residency

A quick short summery written for Cara Ober's Professional Development of the Visual Artist inspired by a talk by David East in my Hybrid methods class.

The Kohler

This artists-in-residence is takes place in Kohler Co. Pottery, Iron and Brass Foundries, and Enamel Shop, Is the nation leading manufacturer of plumbing and specialty products as well as a major producer and generators and four-cycle engines. It is located in Sheboygan Wisconsin. This particular residency is funded by both the John Micheal Kohler Arts center, Kohler Co. and The American Foundation for the arts. This residency is FREE ONE HUNDRED PERCENT free. Nearly everything, Housing, materials (as in hundred and hundreds of pounds of clay, enamel, iron,(if you use More then hundred pounds of bronze it will cost some). All work you make is yours to keep and the Arts center asks only that the can photograph it in its finished form on 35mm film (they will give you copies) and that you donate a single piece to the Arts center. Four artists are in residence at a time. anywhere from 2-6 months, they strongly suggest you stay at least 3 months. They even pay for some transportation costs(even though they encourage you to use your own car). Literally unbelievable.

"Participants are exposed to a body of technical knowledge that enables them to explore forms and concepts not possible in their own studios as well as new ways of thinking and working."

This means you have access to all the industrial processes, and materials. To put this in perspective when you ask for plaster they do not give you 100 pound bags, they give you 1,000 pound bags. Not only that but you all so have access to all the library of tools and techniques that past artists have created while there. You may apply and go multiple times in during your life. Hundreds of emerging and established visual artists have benefited from the Arts/Industry program at Kohler Co. since its inception in 1974. Applications are accepted year-round, but there is a deadline of April 1 for residencies in the following calender year. One does not need to know about any of the processes, you only need to be able to pick up and learn things quickly, because once they teach you your on your own when it comes to making your work. Artists can make plans to have assistants and sometimes there are resident interns to help, but overall its all about here are your tools here are how to use them and play with them, go work.

TO submit a proposal, one would need to send the following to:

Arts/Industry Coordinator

John Michael Kohler Arts Center

608 New York Avenue

Sheboygan, WI 53081

The application process requires 1) Completed application form(background information, past employers so on) 2) your current resume(two pages). 3) 20 labeled slides or digital images (300 dpi,, 4x5, jpegs) 4) Brief proposal (200 words) 5) Cover letter explaining relevant qualifications, why the industrial facility is appropriate, the extent of your experience in the materials and process you wish to use, and a brief about your work-e.g., aesthetics, working methods, etc. 6) SASE 7)(not mandatory) the application may include, drawings of the works you wish to undertake, publications, reviews, or catalogs you find pertinent to your application.

You can find much more in depth information including the Application and Brochure for the program. fallow this link Arts/Industry Program.

Here is a Pdf of the 2008 Artists in residence.

Do to the fact that much of my work and much of who I am is all about learning/experimenting with new tools, materials and processes; along with a tendency to create multiples, and layered paintings/objects, I believe an industrial setting is absolutely perfect for me to work. A whole INDUSTRIES worth of tools, materials and Knowledge FREE to use, learn and exploit to my hearts content would allow me to simply explode my volume of work. One day I am sure I will wish to refine many things but as I am now I prefer to barge my way into new disciplines and put myself on the receiving end of information and work overload, creating work with tools and process I have very little to zero experience with. Making this way is what provides me with the largest sense of accomplishment personal well being. And most importantly one is not limited by costs, size, or experience at this residency. Allowing artists to simply explore.I believe I would leave this residency with a giant body of work, and tremendous amount of new skill sets, and eye hungry to refine. Both clay and metalwork are materials I have limited experience with but the little I do know I constantly find myself reusing and evolving. As someone who wishes to walk the line of Fine artist, Craftsmen, and Designer I believe such an experience will have profound effect on how deal with all my work and merge these oaths together.

All the images seen here are photographs of artists Tetsuya Yamada's Installation Chant: Beyond the Ready-made. in 2004. All of the work which he made in only 3 months. Casting molds of the molds used to create plumbing.

http://damncoolpics.blogspot.com/2009/03/gwon-osangs-sculptures-from-photographs.html
this artist's work is pretty impressive
-joe miner

Spencer Agoston's Research Proposal

I am and have always been interested multiples, layers, duplicates, doppelgangers and so on. I am also drawn to nature, most predominantly trees, forests, and nests of all kinds. In the past micro and macro have drawn my interests and still do in many ways. I struggle match together the density of multiples with the wonderful beauty of minimalism; Simplicity and complexity together in one work. The things that I am excited to work with in this second half of the semester are the combination of wood, woodwork, and light (installation of LEDS and CFLS), along with ceramics to create both sculpture and installations. In ceramics I wish to apply what I have learned this first half to explorations of paperclay porcelain translucency, along with extruded forms that can be repeated over and over and combined in various ways. I both organic forms and geometric interest me but I believe I should pare it down a bit.

Some research I have been doing.

Some interesting porcelain lights from German artist/designer Luara Pregger

I find her "Alot of spoons" an wonderful exploration inline with my tendency to collect, design and display.

more on porcelain later.

HERE are some resoucres i have foudn when it comes to Paper Clay

PAPERCLAY blog is devoted to giveing people tips and tricks on anything there is to know about paper clay. From how to mix it to what paper fibers can be found and used, and some interesting ways of useing the stuff.

And here is an ariticle from CeramicsDaily investigating all the specail properties and characteristics of paperclay porcalien.

And finally two links about Plants
First off is an example of a Ceramic planter combined with a light source, by isreally design team Studio Schulab

A post on the 10 Most Magnificent Trees in the world. They tug at something deep down within me.

Baroness Von Reichardt

This is something I find very interesting. Because my semester in ceramics has been devoted to the study and practice of graffiti, I decided to see the different ways artists interpret their idea of graffiti. This artists similar to the method of Space Invader, she uses tile to create wall graffiti. This type of mosaic graffiti is very interesting and is something I wish to peruse in my work.

Ceremics in our everyday lives

This article by John Brit, is all about Alternative glaze materials. through out the article he explains how potters back in the day used to have to find all their ceramic materials and process them, Ash from a fire here, feldspar from that outcropping over there and so on. He states that modern ceramasists are capable of doign this same thing, although with less work. So many materials that are used in glazes today are allso used in everyday products processed and ready to go allthough rarely in pure forms. He states that with a littel know how and testing one can find out the balance of toothpaste to catlitter to make your own beatiful glazes.

Also contained withen the article our referances to books he use diin his resaerch and glaze recipies.

Disguises: the magic of perfect placement.

Maija Luutonen

I feel like this, although it uses different kinds of materials than our class, is in the spirit of pulling things back and forth between dimensions. The books go from a real object to a flat photo to and flat image and become a part of the three dimensional format again by the addition of a body. Yay!

Due to technical difficulty, here's justins

(Justin's Post)

Over the break I found this artist, Bathsheba Grossman, in California who uses a 3D metal printer and subsurface laser damaging in glass to make mathematical-esq forms that he can reproduce.His work is a weird merging of science, math, art and technology.

http://www.bathsheba.com/math/

I also came across this french animation called Burning Safari. Unfortunately i don't know much about it because the site is in french, but the animation itself it too awesome not to share. Enjoy!

http://www.burningsafari.com/watch_movie.htm

The marriage of Digital and Craft

This is rather a long article but it contains some interesting information on realising CAD and Rhino designs as solid forms and the mixing of tools and methods in general. There is a good bit on using high-pressure vacuum casting equiptment to make gold jewellery.

www.autonomatic.org.uk/archive/SomethingOld-New.pdf

Spring Break

one from me

Hey All,

Hope your spring break was excellent. Here is a little video to check out. An interesting piece by Roxy Paine that charts the intersection of nature and industry. Enjoy!

Something fun (and educational!)

SodaPlay is basically a physics-based simulation that allows the user to design a form and see how it would function with varying amounts of springiness, gravity, friction, etc. Perhaps the coolest thing about it, however, is that it is sort of like SketchUp and Google in the sense that you can play with other people's designs as well. Not entirely technology and art, but the implications are interesting! And it's fun to play with. 

Nervous System

Along the lines of Brigid's post, here's a design duo that creates jewelry from computer algorithms, and also provides applets of their program to allow the customer to generate their own designs. They write the programs, generate the designs, and print them using SLS (selective laser sintering). They're really beautiful, and each piece is entirely unique thanks to the generative program.

"To evolve such forms, we systematically engage in generative processes. Instead of designing a specific form, we craft a system whose result is a myriad of distinct creations. These systems are interactive, responding both to changes in specific variables and to physical inputs. There is no definitive, final product, instead the many designs created allow for mass customization."

Ursus Wehrli on Modern Art

A pretty amusing video from TED of Ursus Wehrli "tidying up" modern art in a wonderfully scientific and mathematic way.

Spring Break Posting

Over the break I discovered a metals and jewelry artist, Joe wood, that incorporates the use of computers into his artwork. His process somewhat reminded me of the tools and techniques were using in class.  Wood's newer work is built off of digital three-dimensional modeling, when asked about his work he says, “The most recent work involves the use of computer modeling and rapid prototype object making. Computer modeling easily allows the arrangement of elemental (primitive) forms into synthetic arrangements; often based on repetition and rhythm. My interest in this lies in their association to the structure of traditional ornament (Mobilia Gallery).” When visiting his page at the Mobilia Gallery webpage you can view a number of his works.

 

www.mobilia-gallery.com/artists/jwood/

Fear the Rhinopod

This is a podcast I found that documents different steps craftsmen in the UK have taken towards working with modern technology, from these ridiculous SafariPod stands (get one for all your friends, and we can all be a little more human together-- I know I'm gonna) all the way to craftsmen whose work has contributed to different scientific fields, including medical physics. It's sort of long, but there's a lot of interesting bits of information on how craft work can contribute to the modern world.

Spring Break Post

Happy Spring! I hope everyone has fun and doesn't get sick!

http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=76#video

The video integrates a unique relationship between the physical space and digital. The temporal and permanent markings of graffiti are changed. There are links to instructions on how to make the laser, software and anything else needed to create this whole interface.

Check out the other videos if you're interested in the digital and light manipulations.

Have a great break!