Some people say change is a good thing, while others think that it is the worst thing in the world. Last Thursday we experienced a change in the classroom that came as a bit of a confusing shock. Instead of our normal routine of receiving instructions from our professor and participating in group discussions led by him, we were given an entire class period of silence. We didn’t get a single word of direction. All we were presented with was a youtube video sequence dealing with John Cage and his piece titled 4’33”. As you could imagine this change in classroom routine sparked a lot of confusion among my classmates and me. We more or less got out of class what we put into it and it was more of a self instructed day of learning. After thinking about Thursday’s class and the third writing project we are currently working on, I found both situations to have some similarities.
This writing project asks us to analyze an assigned sculpture outside of the Sheldon Art Museum. On the first class day we began this assignment we each went to our sculpture and wrote about the rhetorical elements that could be found in it. It wasn’t extremely hard to pick out specific elements, but unlike the previous two assignments, I found it was much harder to form an argument based upon these rhetorical appeals. I realize now that, like our unexpected classroom experience on Thursday, the reason it was more difficult was because we are faced with a change in the form of art we are analyzing. I have gotten used to analyzing a photograph or picture.
It is a whole different situation examining a free-standing, actual three dimensional object instead of an image. When looking at a picture, you are confined to what is within the image. There are no outside elements that influence what is shown. Now that the art object we are analyzing is located outside it changes things drastically. Instead of only taken what is presented by the piece of art itself, you can now take outside influences into consideration. One of these influences is the topography and organic material that surround the sculpture. My piece, Arietta II is located on a downward sloping area of grass that is outlined by trees and bushes. This gives me the opportunity to relate this sculpture to nature. You would not be able to do this in the same way if the sculpture was located indoors. Since my sculpture is a composition of birds, the way I perceive it would be much different if I was viewing the piece from indoors. You think of birds as an animal that belongs outdoors living in nature. The abstract sculpture is more realistic outside where you are used to associating the birds that have created it with. John Cage’s composition, 4’33”, required you to rely on outside sound to compose the actual music that you heard during the piece of music. I think this is an important part to analyzing and forming an argument for sculptures located outside instead of within a building as well. We must look to outside elements for support. It is important to take into consideration the impact these elements have on the piece of art and also the affects our sculpture has on the environment that surrounds it.
