Research – final coursework
AAD011 COURSEWORK
Sustainability
In response to the recent viral photograph circulating online of Bernie Sanders I was inspired to use his famous mittens for my project. The mittens are created by an American school teacher called Jen Ellis who made and gifted the mittens to Bernie in 2016 after he was defeated by Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary elections.
The mittens were created by Jen using 100% recycled materials. They are made from repurposed wool sweaters and lined with fleece made from plastic bottles, which is a very environmentally friendly way of reusing plastic – A notorious material known for its lack of environmentally friendly options when it comes to disposing it.
Not only was it an environmentally important move for Bernie to be wearing these, it also indirectly shows how he is supporting a local business. Which although small does still help with the local economy. Just from one photograph Jen has claimed she has received over 13,000 email orders.
The fact Bernie is still wearing the mittens in 2020 is a statement on their durability. Demonstrating repurposed garments are just as good as pieces made new from scratch while also getting Jen’s name and her company for attention.
IDENTITY
The word identity conjures up a lot of different things for me. Being a gay man I was instantly drawn to that idea although there is something more crucial to my identity. My nationality.
Being Irish is something I take a lot of pride in and it’s something that will always be part of me. I come from a very proud household and the idea of religion & nationality are very important to me and my family. So naturally as I got older my nationality has become somewhat of an important part of my identity. The Irish people are known worldwide for their many beliefs and customs giving them huge popularity across the world.
To me being Irish is more than going for pints and having the craic. It’s the unbelievable pride of being able to communicate and use my mother tongue, a language more than 2,000 years old, it’s the travelling around the island and taking in her absolute beauty, it’s listening to the unique sounds of Irish instruments and watching the Irish dances relive and ancient custom of dance.
These reasons alone are the reason I make being Irish part of my identity, because it’s impossible not to be proud.
A painting I believe shows ireland and it’s people perfectly is a painting by Martin Driscoll. The painting
“Road Dancing, Ireland”
The original painting was created in 2010 with the dimensions
20″x24″ oil linen board,
And sold for $35,500.
Innovation
Masdar City
Masdar City is a rapidly growing eco-friendly, clean technology cluster in the UAE. Masdar City aims to be a fully green city with all electricity powered by renewable energy. When completed the city will be a world-first urban development.
Masdar City is a hub for innovation, research and development. The city will be a centre for advancing in water and energy solutions while also being a world-first in Mobility and Artificial Intelligence.
It achieves its smart city status by availing of the desert sun to power it’s solar panels. These solar panels power everything from the Universities and housing to public transportation. The Masdar City Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) has celebrated its 6th anniversary and has now served over 2 million passengers. The passengers are transported around the futuristic city in pods that uses magnets embedded in the road. Eradicating the need for personal vehicles directly keeping the settlement low on carbon & pollution-free.
Living in the Arab desert has extreme temperatures and the city has a solution for this too. The city is cooled by a system that uses two solar thermal collectors that gathers energy from the sun to heat water for the systems 50-tonne absorption chiller.
“There are only a handful of these systems in the world,”
Simon Braeuniger, a project manager at Masdar.
COMMUNICATION
Art is often a form of communication, a perfectly subtle way for an artist to share their feelings and emotions through their medium. For centuries artists have left messages and symbols in their works. Although subjective to different interpretations and views art as a form of communication can be an immensely powerful technique for the creator to spread their views to their audience.
The modern way of art communicating to its audience is a device used since the middle ages. In the Middle ages, churches and European Monarches used art to display their absence amounts of wealth. Churches exposed their wealth in excessive amounts in their Cathedrals. These middle age era cathedrals were dripped in rich gold-plated portraits of saints and through their other worldly scale of elaborate paintings that adorned the cathedrals interiors. This decadency the cathedrals received were raw examples of the church’s enormous wealth. With examples such as Basilica of Saint-Denis, and Reims cathedral both in France.
As well as this Royality has never been shy when flaunting their wealth. Ornate palaces with lavish interiors filled with thousands of Renaissance and modern era paintings and portraits worth millions adorn the halls of these great residences.
Gender
Over the course of art history many artists have used their work to leave visual commentaries on the society’s views of gender in their contemporary environment. Their works criticise and examine the relationship expectations and stereotypes between gender and the norms they must conform to.
In the 1960 and 70s the Feminist movement took off and female artists across the globe revolutionised the art world by tackling issues such as topics discussing a woman’s place in relation to the home and society objectifying them based of the conventional beauty standards of the day.
On the other side a less talked about theme in art is men and masculinity. For years now men have been made to conform to certain expectations, just like women. These expectations are fuelled by the media and unfair presumptions. Although male artists have been discreetly addressing this a lot longer than women. Exploring the social construct is a tricky topic that has risen in popularity more so in the last fifty years, although this is nothing new. In the first half of the 21st century artist such as Frida Kahlo made self-portraits that explore fluidity of gender on a personal level, tackling gender normalities. Fighting against gender stereotypes.
“What Would Frida Do? A Guide to Living Boldly, she once said that she didn’t “belong to any category,”
Place
For place I decided to look at the more location aspect off it and it’s relation to painting. Painting on location is nothing new and is the oldest way to paint, with many artists across history painting their landscapes and subjects from first hand reference.
Although today we have things like video and photographs to aid us, there still isn’t a way to paint or draw that is as effective as doing it on location. Painting on location allows the artist to hastily fix mistakes and widens their observations, making them a more decisive artist. Having the privilege of painting first hand often results in a finished piece by the end off one sitting session. This strain on time, often dictated by the weather and elements, strengthens the artists skills and forces them to focus on the key components of the painting, preventing them from procrastinating on magnate details.
Today painting on site has now been dubbed as a different style of painting and is categorised as ‘En plein air’ thanks to the French artist, Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes. A man who is credited for “elevating the status of open air painting”
A prominent example of the ‘En plein air’ comes from Claude Monet, one of the most famous painters of all time. Monet was obsessed with the idea of plein air and much preferred “to seize the closeness and likeness of an outside setting at a specific moment one had to be outside to do so rather than just paint an outside setting in their studio.”
For painters like Monet they devoted their works to capturing the true essence of landscapes. A very common trait of his work is his use of light and shadow and depicting how the natural elements would effect every surface. This style of painting was revolutionary for its time with his contemporary counterparts choosing to stay in studios and work from controlled environments, whilst Monet preferred to immersive himself in the world around him.
Sustainability
Research:
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1256206
Image source:
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1256206
26/1/21
Identity
Research & Image source
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/road-dancing-saint-patricks-day-ireland-martin-driscoll.html
2/2/21
Innovation
Research & images Sources
9/2/21
Communication
Research:
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=17161&printable=1
https://www.historyofvisualcommunication.com/04-extra
7/3/21
Image Source;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_art
Gender
Quotation:
Celia Fernandez, 8/3/21. https://www.oprahmag.com/life/relationships-love/g26840075/frida-kahlo-quotes/
Research:
https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/investigating-identity/constructing-gender/
Image Source:
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/apr/28/feet-what-do-i-need-you-for-how-lockdown-fired-up-frida-kahlo
Place
Research & Quotations
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Henri_de_Valenciennes
https://rdnarts.com/articles/en-plein-air/
Image source:
http://www.tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica.com
2/3/21