Paper

Jasmine Silver
Bertus 118 MW 630-920

Fluxus

If you asked me a year ago if I liked art history I would have told you no. Since the graphic design degree requires art history, I have now taken two different classes. I have fallen in love with it. To know about the history of art is so important because it can serve as a starting place for one’s own work. When you see good design and recognize it, I believe that become imprinted in you. One art movement that I feel is strongly pertinent to contemporary design is Fluxus because it is all inclusive, playful, and thrives in a setting of globalization.

Calling Fluxus an art movement would probably humor its participants. Fluxus is a way of doing things. It’s a way of thinking. It’s a philosophy. With Fluxus everything is art and everything should be considered as art, if you put forth the effort to think about it in that way. Though, it is ultimately without a definable purpose, the process of Fluxus is available to everyone and anyone. It is anti-elitist. Light a match and watch it burn to the end. Anyone can do that. The experience of doing is what Fluxus tries to embody.

I was initially drawn to Fluxus because of its playful nature. I think that Fluxus really personifies my outlook on life. I have some very strong tendencies toward debilitating episodes of anxiety. To be able to function like a normal person I just have to view things positively. Now, I’m not suggesting that I am the only one with problems. Everyone has some issue that they have to deal with on an everyday basis. But that is the point. Fluxus is a way of looking at the world and at life positively and playfully. The point is that everyone can look at life with the philosophy of Fluxus in mind.

While researching Fluxus, I found that Fluxus is currently a clothing brand commonly worn by celebrities. Their website states “Fluxus celebrates the relationship between everyday life and art. Creating it is an art, wearing it is an art.” They specialize in simple knits. This is an interesting manifestation of the ideas of Fluxus, but, besides the celebrity prices, it makes sense. Wearing clothing is an art experience. Feeling it on your body. Appreciating how it looks. For me, Fluxus is really about valuing everyday experiences and recognizing them as art because they deserve it. Fluxus is all about equality. Everything can be art and everyone can be an artist. All it takes is thought.

The all inclusive nature of Fluxus provides room for discussion and transformation. Not just the transformation of art, but also the transformation of art traditions. The definitions of paining or sculpting are fluid. They are not Greenbergian. Fluxus makes room for intermedia and globalization. It literally obliterates the line between art and life. Life is art and art is life. It’s all connected. Everything works together to create the reality that we live in.

Globalization is a word that gets thrown around a great deal in our world of fast transportation, cell phones, and the world wide web. Fluxus grew from a global tradition. It put importance on ideas rather than individuals. Today, globalization has been essentially achieved, so Fluxus has a better setting than ever to thrive again. The idea that everyone has the potential to create value and be valued is very attractive. And it’s not only attractive, but meaningful. Fluxus philosophy is so difficult to describe. When using Fluxus to consider life, a person gets to create and recognize meaning. And in that action is a feeling of empowerment. Not in a dictatorship sense of power, but in a humbling way. Like discovering something so obvious that seems like common sense, but you feel enlighten, not ignorant. Fluxus is gaining a new perspective.

Adding new perspective and new ways of looking at the world is the daily goal of my life. Fluxus lets me expand on that principal. With Fluxus in the background of my mind I can apply design to everything that I do. When I look at things I make compositions with my frame of view. If everything can be viewed as art then an artist is working everywhere all the time. That’s what I strive for. Everyday of my life I am practicing. I think that using the ideas of Fluxus helps me to be a better designer, a better artist, because I never stop viewing things as art.

Type Compositions

Playing with type. Playing with type was really fun, but I don't think that this result is anything to be proud of. It is whimsical and fun, but not anywhere close to a masterpiece. This composition was more of an experiment with illustrator and the type tool. It was just to see what I could do.

I have always though that Q's look like quails and G's look like geese, so that is where this composition got started. It is also another experiment with type and illustrator. Again, it'd alright, but nothing special.

My third experiment with type I did by hand (and cat paw). I used india ink and a bamboo brush to make two intertwining C's. I also used college in the background and cut windows in the brown paper to create a nice layering effect. My cat also got into my ink halfway through, so used him as well. The result was an intriguing composition and ink splattered all over my face. I think that this compostition was a nice blend of everying I have been working on so far inthis class.

four color compositions

For this assignment I tried to do less planning. Usually I sketch before. When I finished this first composition I really didn't like it. Now that I have looked at it several times I really like it. I think that it is a little childish because of the construction paper and bright colors. I think that is why I initially didn't really like it. Looking at it now, the childish aspect juxtaposed with the reaching hands has assigned a new meaning to this composition. My response is to think that the hopeful, reaching hands are trying to get a childhood that is now past, but also still present in the current generation. I wonder what this would look like in grey scale.

I dont particulary like of dislike this composition. I think that it works, but it's nothing special to me. My idea was to try and create depth using geometric shapes. In my first one and two color compositions the geometric shapes were on a flat plane, so I wanted to overcome that flattness. I think that goal was a success in this composition, but it is not particularly interesting.

This this composition I wanted to continue my study of makeing a composition and then putting a screen over it to create interest. I think this isn't so much a composition, but an object. Which is fine, but I dont think that I achived the interest that I was trying to create.

Three Color Compositions

I tried to create space without denying my love for bold cut shapes. It was successful, but a bit bland. I wish the background wasnt white. White is just so "in your face". If I could change it I might leave the white as the background for the bottom right triange, before the red "river." Behind the red dividing line I would change the background to something darker, maybe brown.

This was my second attempt at three color. I really like it. It's just really apealing to me. Maybe it's the use of magazine collage. I dont think that it really creates depth, but it is very interesting.

This was my last attempt. I was rushed for time. All I knew is that I wanted to make a knot in a tree trunk with and "ocean" behind it. I made that, but I didnt really like it, so I covered it up. Fourtunatly, this action made a wonderful composition.

What do I like about this, so I can recreate it in a more planned composition? I think it is the simplicity vs. complexity. Most of the page is pure, white, simple, but then your eye gets to look through the white veil into something much more complex. Your eye wants to figure it out. I think that is why it works.

Two Color Compositions

For this assignment my sketching wasn't so much a template for final composition, but more of an experiment. I wanted to see how a could play with background and foreground and see how it would come out. I wasn't really impressed or inspired by any of them.

This was my first attempt at creating a two color composition. I wanted to make the brown mountain shape look like it was falling down. I started on the right with organized pieces and proceeded to the left with more fragmented and random pieces. I wanted the green in the background to create a downward motion that instigates the feeling of falling.

I do not think either of my missions were successful. It doesn't have to be a two color composition at all. And that was the assignment: Make a two color composition. If it was all one color the viewer wouldnt feel any different or get any less out of it. But, of course, I didnt realize this until after I had finished all the compositions.

My "make it look like falling" mission was also unsuccessful. When I look at this composition my eyes sweep from the left to the right, so instead of looking like falling-down, the composition looks like building-up.

The second attempt.

For the second composition I stayed on my falling-down mission. I fliped the "mountain" so the eye can go on it's natural path: left to right. I used the vertical lines to try to create a downward motion.

Again the use of two colors was not nessesary. I do think that my crumbling mission was acheived, but the vertical lines could be taken out. They are a bit distracting.

This is my favorite way to work. I love to make flat designs. Is that ok? Designs should be simple, but that doesn't mean they have to be flat. Can they be flat?

My third attempt.

The second color was the most necesary in this composition. It makes a nice horizon line. This composition is boring, in my opinion. It works as a design, but it's nothing special.

Brainstorm with words.

Next assignment: 3 two color compositions.

This time I will experiment with mixed medium.

I want to explore the layering qualities that can be used by combining paper on top of pastels.

3 one color compositions.

When I make my compositions I like to start out with a few sketches to get me started. It provides me with some options and the convenience to be able to pick and choose what I like verses what I don't like. This first sketch is one that I decided against. It rings empty for me. But I included it because there are things I like about it. It is grounded because of the two shapes on the bottom, yet your eye is drawn upward by the thin shape on the top of the frame. i also like the element of three I didn't enlarge this sketch because I felt it was unresolved.


This is the sketch that I chose to enlarge. I love to make long, whimsical characters. My favorite thing is that even though the "characters" aren't really characters, they are abstract shapes, the majority of people will identify them as characters. It is so interesting that people will try to relate anything and everything to the human form. Just because these little guys have a mouth shape they suddenly are a character.

Here is the final image that I presented to the class. My classmates rotated it in almost every direction, but this is the way I think that is works the best. The idea behind this design is ancient asian artists used positive and negative space in their portrayal waves.

This is my favorite. Even though the majority of the composition is white, the viewer gets a dark feeling. I created motion from left to right by trying to unify the angle of the implied diagonal line that reached toward the dark area on the right. This gives the composition a dark overall tone, because the lines point toward the dark.

This was my least favorite. This was the best direction for the composition, although it started 180 degrees in the other direction. While I was making it I couldn't see to make it resolved. I feel like it is still just teetering around, not sure what to do. Maybe another color could have saved it.