Sunday, October 19, 2008

"Weird" Beauty and Lupton's Article

This post reminded me of other unconventional art (and the mixture of science and art) like the Body Worlds exhibit and artwork by Damien Hirst. I went to the Body Worlds exhibit while it was in Baltimore and it was cool in a weird way but was it beautiful? Some people would say yes. Some people would just say it's gross and morbid. Art is subjective and I guess that's the beauty of it (no pun intended.) One man's trash is another man's treasure, and all that jazz. A major part of something being successful is being the first to do it. David Carson's work was criticized for being unconventional and illegible but he is now considered one of the most influential graphic designers of our time.
On another note, I couldn't agree more with Ellen Lupton in "Reskilling the Art Student" when she talks about how art skills are the backbone of design and technical skills are very important and not something to be overlooked. In my undergrad classes and at UB there aren't any software classes (besides additional workshops) and I'm still trying to catch up and teach myself software techniques because, at least in my graphic design education, teacher's don't teach you the software, you're kind of on your own.
She also talks about how thinking is a skill that students can attain and anyone who has taken Creative Concepts would probably agree. You can learn how to think more creatively and that is part talent and part skill and definitely something people can improve upon. And as a fine arts undergrad student, I couldn't agree more with Ellen Lupton about long, tedious critiques being shortened and using some of that time to build technical skills (but this applies more to my undergrad classes). Good article.

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