BEALL Center for Art + Technology

It was a struggle finding this place, along with finding a parking spot. However, I must say it was very well worth it and I truly enjoyed this experience; being able to look at various kinds of art in a small little gallery sort of place was neat. Going in was very dark and mysterious, yet very lovely. Ariah and I were instantly greeted by the inflatable body right in the middle of the inflation process haha. From afar, it didn't seem like such a big deal, but the more I thought about it, the more curious I became. I asked myself, "How can air make something move?" It's just air... But this air does so many amazing things. We watched the body get inflated and uninflated and it was delightful seeing the whole thing happen right before our eyes.
    After seeing the first figure getting inflated, we went inside and saw the ballerina legs, before they were inflated. I tried to figure out what they were since they don't look like much without being inflated, but as the whole inflation process began, it became more clear as to what it was. Something that really surprised me was discovering how air's pressure can determine which direction something will go. For example, no pressure leaves the inflatable objects looking dead, maybe even unattractive. However, once the air machines start to do their job, we come to find life in these objects and it's the pressure which makes them look the way they look. The ballerina legs were spread out, yet a few minutes later I began to see how some started to move differently and I realized it was just all pressure. The more pressure they had, the higher and firmer they stood. With less pressure, the lower everything stood. The same thing occurred with the space shuttle thing. When more pressure was added, the inflation process was complete, making it look like a strong, firm shuttle.
    We thought the 3 inflatable objects were the only things to look at.. until we "snuck" around and found a door which led us to another room with stuff totally different than what we had seen in the room before. It was actually a bunch of cool random stuff all created by students attending UCI. The following images are things we came across during our visit:

 The image above is what we first encountered when we made our entrance. It was in the middle of getting inflated, so watching this happen was very interesting.

 The image above is what I call the ballerina legs. Once they got inflated, several of them began going different directions due to the pressure.

 The image above was like some sort of space ship. Before getting inflated it just appeared lifeless and I had no clue what it was; however, after the inflation process was complete, I realized this was a space ship.

 The image above does not necessarily tell me much, besides the fact that it's not a test, but I just really caught my attention.. Because usually it is a test.

 The image above was so cool!! Probably my all time favorite. It was so weird seeing all these magazines floating without a bookshelf and I almost felt like just putting my hand under them in case one of them fell. I remember looking through them and seeing a bunch of Playboy magazines haha.

 The image above reminded me of what it's like getting out of the shower and being unable to see myself clearly due to the fog. It made me want to "try" taking the fog off to be able to look at the guy's face. Too bad it was permanent :(

  The photographs above were so mysterious. Almost creepy because they reminded me of the movie "The Blaire Witch Project." Also, it was interesting being able to see the room from different angles and it made me wonder what was outside these windows.

   Overall, my experience at the BEALL Center for Art and Technology was interesting. Although I cannot say it was my favorite place (LACMA was my favorite), I can say it was very different from stuff I've seen in the past. What I really liked about this place was that the art was created by current or former students. The reason why I liked this so much was because usually, when I've looked at artwork, all of the pieces have been created by some famous artist, one who I will more than likely never get to meet. This place was different, The creators of the art found in this place are not much older than me and it's somewhat inspirational knowing it can be anyone. I would definitely go back and take my family, I'm sure they would get a kick out of the inflatable bodies and much of the art would amuse them.

Scott Wade (12)

Scott Wade is an artist from San Marcos, Texas. Instead of using canvas, he uses dirty cars to make art. He's known for making dusty rear windows into masterpieces that only last as long as a stiff breeze allows. A complete art piece of Wade's takes about 2 to 4 hours to complete. Wade is also known as an "earth artist" because he does not use any chemicals in any of his pieces. All he uses is "earthly" stuff, such as dirt and dust.

 Wooww Scott Wade is the man!  I had no idea it was possible to make something beautiful out of dust and dirt! I also didn't know it was possible to not only make something, but make it look as good as this! It really looks like paper and some high quality pencil were used, but none were! These dirty car paintings look like they'd be worth millions. If I was ever lucky enough to have Wade do something like that on my car windows, I'm almost sure I wouldn't never EVER wash my car again or take it out when it's raining haha. :p

Tony Oursler (11)

Tony Oursler is an installation and multimedia artist born in New York City in 1957. He is known for his fractured-narrative handmadev video tapes including The Loner, 1980 and EVOL 1984.

Oursler's art is very random to me, hahaha. Not the kind of stuff I like to look at on a daily basis, but it is very unique and very different from most of the other artists I've done research on. I wonder where his inspirations came from...

Scott Blake (10)

Scott Blake was born in Tampa, Florida in 1976. He is mostly known for his artwork created by using barcodes to create a bigger image. His work has been displayed at several galleries as well as featured in magazines, like FHM and The New York Times.  Blake's barcode use began around the time of the Y2K, which was the time when there was a craze with barcode artwork.

I'm more than sure I've seen Blake's barcode art prior to doing research, but I'm unsure where I've seen it at. After reading about him I realized one thing, art can be made out of anything. A canvas or paint aren't even necessary to create something. Whenever I look at barcodes, I have not once thought about how something spectacular could be created out of them. So crazy!

Joan Jonas (9)

Joan Jonas was born in New Year in the year 1936. She is a pioneer of and performance art and is considered one of the most important female artists ti emerge in the 60's and 70's. She started off as a sculptor and changed her style a few years later. During these years, Jonas also worked modeling mythological heroes like Icarus, as well as studying dance. She mixed performances with props and mediated images.

Jonas made Vertical Roll, a twenty minute black and white tape; which shows Jonas masked and naked, with her head to the horizontal to the bottom of the roll (of the tape).

Hmm Joan Jonas's work was interesting.. Creepy, yet interesting. To be honest, I got nervous watching this video, but I can't put my finger on it. The picture below also scares the hell out of me and I still don't know why.. I'm thinking the black and white has a lot to do with it. No color makes all the art look very mysterious and strange.

Bill Viola (8)

Bill Viola is a contemporary video artist whose work focuses on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences, like birth, death, and aspects of consciousness. Throughout his career he has drawn meaning from his main interests in mystical traditions, such as Christian Mysticism, Zen Buddhism and Islamic Sufism. One of his main themes represented by his art is dualism, the idea that you can't understand what you are looking at unless you know the opposite. (ex. light and darkness, life and death, stress and calm, etc.) Viola also includes water and fire in most of his art.

I find myself saying this about every other artist I do research on, but this is by far my favorite artist. I love all of Viola's work and it's so captivating reading into his art. I am constantly thinking about the human transitions one must face and it's great to see them included in Viola's art. 

Erwin Redl (7)

Austrian born Erwin Redl is an artist who uses LED's as an artistic medium. Prior to dedicating himself to this sort of art, he studied electronic music at the University of Music and Performing arts, Vienna. Afterwards, he moved to New York which is where he studied computer art  at the School of Visual Arts, graduating in 1995. He works in two and three dimensions, redefining interior and exterior spaces. Redl's works have received attention nationally and internationally.

The following are a few examples of his various forms of "Matrix"

Hmmm.. Redl was interesting, but for some reason I wasn't too interested in reading about him. I feel like I've seen this many times before and I understand the message he is trying to convey, yet it doesn't speak to me the way works from other artists have. Perhaps I should read more about his art and why he was inspired to do this sort of creation.