NYC

Makers

The MAD Biennial

It’s time to forget about everything and be immersed in thought. Being excited to feel art, I was making light and happy steps toward the museum. The museum, MAD, is somewhat smaller than I thought and didn’t give me any impression like MoMA or Whitney museum. Disappointed, first. I got on the elevator to feel NYC makers exhibition. Sorry for saying to the artist who made ‘Moonlight’ inside of the elevator, but my first thought to see this artwork inside of the elevator was ‘blank.’ It was, or at least looked like, made of basic white or beige curtain with the dim light shooting on and quiet music coming out, but nothing special. I thought there’s something behind and it’s definitely not an art work. I might lack of understanding the intension of the artist or something else. All my naïve or selfish thought left behind, let me get to talk about the main artworks.

On fifth floor, I first stared at three objects on the wall from far away. They were smooth and colorful chunks. Three different colors, pink, purple, and blue, were pretty, so I decided to get close to them. Still, I couldn’t understand what they were, so I opened the brochure. They were ‘Facial Weaponization Suite; Fog Face Mask’ by Zach Blas. He devised these in response to the development of biometric facial recognition software and used plastic, painted, and vacuum formed. After getting the knowledge, the three masks looked all different. It was quite fun to find the fact that these all had different characteristics such as nose and entire face shapes. They must be European white males, I thought.

Next to the masks, there was ‘Let There Be Neon 3D Chair.’ There was no description or artist’s name on it. By the title of the art work, I guessed that we now can make neon stuffs with 3D printing. Impressive. They have a website which is www.lettherebeneon.com.

Coming down to the fourth floor, one small hologram got attracted my attention. It was ‘Warholes’ by Jason Sapan. It showed different holograms in different angles. They also have their own website, www.holographer.com. I wondered how hologram works and the website briefly explains about the hologram and even they have lessons to learn if you want. It was amazing to see how the hologram changes on the flat screen and shows different images.

http://youtu.be/VU5doa0yNK4 (This is the link for the video that I recorded.)

While I was looking around, I could hear the sound of music and I followed what it was. There was a video playing in the middle of the fourth floor and it showed someone familiar with. Yoko Ono plastic Ono band made the first single album, ‘Bad Dancer.’ I didn’t need to talk about whether it is artistic or not. It made me stand up in front of the video for a while and watched it without any thinking. Knowing that she is pretty old already, I thought she could dance pretty well. The movement of the people in the video was free. They looked like they didn’t care about what other people might think. Be active and optimistic. I learned. One more thing that I liked to add was that I could listen to the music well only in the narrow area below the speaker. Interesting.

The last artwork I like to talk about is ‘And I Can’t Run’ by a designer, Hank Willis Thomas, and printers, Erik Hougen and Keigo Takahashi. I like pictures to see, but, above all, it kept getting attention to everyone. I was curious why. It was the only one that you could take a picture with your flash light. I doubted the written instruction at first but stunned. It’s printed in white ink on white retro-reflective vinyl and mounted on aluminum, the brochure said. I could see the hidden images when I took a picture with flash light. Very interesting technique.

The lessons that I learned by visiting the museum are, first, being creative is not somewhat incredibly special. Be honest, some of the artworks were not that impressive. I felt that I could make it if I want to. Nevertheless, the most important fact is that creativity is not coming out from only the genius artists. As same as what the professors said in 3D printing class, we all can be creative. So, I learned not to think hard when I make something creatively.

Second thing that I learned is that I should think more outside of the box. It’s hard to read the intention of the artists because I got used to see and think something as it is. Just a little bit of thinking outside of the box makes a lot different.

Third thing that I learned is that live life happily with full of energy. After I watched the video by Yoko Ono plastic Ono band, I seriously think about me and my life. Being positive, energetic, and active makes my life better at any moment and even inspire other people. So, live my life happily ever.

The overall experience in the museum refreshed my mind. Believe or not, I feel I became more artistic and creative.