Reference Material

Well since no one in the Junior/Senior class seems to understand my topic, I decided to post some reference material here for you all to see.

Let me re-explain the concept. Read the whole thing. Seriously. Interuptions cause stupid statements.


The concept behind my theme for the semester is to create a dialogue between the viewer and the pieces. And by dialogue, I don't mean question and answer. Question: Is this functional? Answer: No. That is not a dialogue. That is a question and an answer. I intend to invoke all forms of questions through these tools that can't actually be answered, much like questions often posed by Anthropologists. The viewer can make a guess, but will never know for sure. I plan on creating a series of Anthropological tools that carry the basic form and appearance of functioning tools. However, the location of decoration and intensity of these decorations will cause the viewer to ask: What was this used for? Who used it and who was it meant for? Why was it made and done so in such an ornate fashion? A dialogue will be created through the use of our culture's concept on material value meaning that, at least to Western cultures, objects covered with time-consuming decoration are generally revered and reserved for particular uses. Think about it...Put yourselves in the shoes of an Archaeologist. You just dug up a hammer, much like yours, and a trowel, much like yours. The hammer has finely-detailed decoration on the head and chisel ends, and the trowel has decoration all over the face of the blade. Why would an Archaelogist create such an object? Was it really used? For what? This is my intent.


So here's some references.

A tripod pulley. I would like to make one that is hand cranked with fairly thin legs to particularly bring up the question of what it was used for.



Two different types of trowels. The marshalltown trowel and the planes trowel. I may combine the idea of a planes trowel with the idea of a scoop. I'll burn that trowel when I get there.


This is a sifter and it is the piece that particularly shows the purpose and meaning of this series. Trowels, hammers, and brushes can be used in many contexts. However, those tools (when combines with a sifter) specifically point at an Archaeological use of some kind.



Brush. Duh.



So there you go. It's not everything, but it's a start. Essentially, I'm playing a small trick using archaeology. Kind of a fractal idea, I suppose. An Archaeologist digging up the tools of an Archaeologist who was possibly digging up the tools of an archaeologist. Just somehow, these Archaeologists have questionable tools. Were Archaeologists prized to their culture? Were they ever used? Were they only used for royalty? Were Archaeologists royalty?

If you've read this, you'll see that the concept seems different than that described in class. It is not. It is the same concept and it would have been described and portrayed much better had my thoughts been allowed to be finished and had my sentences gone un-interupted. So, yeah....Good critique!

See you space cowboy....