Art World News

We’ve Got It Made: Process X Goes Behind the Scenes to Demystify the Production of Our Favorite Objects and Tools

By in Art World News

We’ve Got It Made: Process X Goes Behind the Scenes to Demystify the Production of Our Favorite Objects and Tools

When we pull on a pair of denim jeans, hop in our cars, or fill up a bucket, our first thought probably isn’t, “Where did this come from?” We pluck clothing items from racks or off of hardware store shelves, but how in the world were they made? Japan-based project Process X (previously) goes behind the scenes of major manufacturing companies and specialty production studios to discover how simple materials are transformed into ubiquitous objects we rely on all of the time, from pencils to billiard cues to galvanized pails to manhole covers. The team also introduces practices with deep roots in Japanese culture, like the meticulous process of carving Noh masks.

See a few of our favorite videos here, and learn how numerous other things are made—or scrapped—on Process X’s YouTube channel.

 

All images © Process X

A still from a short documentary about the making of chalk.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article We’ve Got It Made: Process X Goes Behind the Scenes to Demystify the Production of Our Favorite Objects and Tools appeared first on Colossal.

What ‘Shakespeare in Love’ Taught Us About Writing

By in Art World News

What ‘Shakespeare in Love’ Taught Us About Writing

Earlier this year, Google introduced a chat application powered by artificial intelligence—an experimental competitor to ChatGPT and a tool that it hoped, per its marketing copy, would “be a home for your creativity, productivity and curiosity.” Understanding that some potential users might be less sanguine about a technology that blurs the line between the augmentation of human intelligence and the obsolescence of it, Google gave its new bot a canny name: Bard.

As a general term, “Bard” suggests the lyric capabilities, and the latent wisdom, of the human mind. As a specific one, it summons one of the most famous avatars of that art: William Shakespeare. Shakespeare is, at this point, his own kind of marketing message. His words double as incantations, invoked to confer legitimacy and a sheen of artistry on any he that utters them. The early modern poet has achieved that consummately postmodern strain of transcendence. He has become a brand.

Google’s release of Bard, as it happens, coincides with the 25th anniversary of the film that considered the origins of the great poet’s elevation. Shakespeare in Love—a whimsical imagining of the events that led to the writing of Romeo and Juliet—is remembered, today, as much for the stories that played out on its periphery as for the one it put on the screen: those controversial Oscar wins. Those plot-twisty reshufflings of writers, directors, lead actors. The involvement of Harvey Weinstein. But the tabloid-addled memories, apt as they are for a film about creativity’s vagaries, also undersell its insights. Shakespeare in Love, the comedy from the late 1990s that takes place in the late 16th century, managed to anticipate some of our era’s deepest anxieties. And it serves as a reminder that one of the questions new technologies have wrought—what will artificial intelligence do to the human version?—is, while unprecedented, not strictly new. The human brain versus the computerized one has always been a false distinction. Shakespeare in Love acknowledges that, indirectly but eloquently, as it gives shape to the messiness and randomness and muddled vitality of the creative process.

Shakespeare in Love, its tagline announces, is “a comedy about the greatest love story almost never told.” The line refers, most directly, to the writing of Romeo and Juliet. But the story in question is Shakespeare’s too, as the poet falls in love, and then turns that tumult into art. Relatively little is known about Shakespeare’s life during the brief span when the film is set—a few weeks in 1593, when Shakespeare was likely in his late 20s—and the film, with variable fealty to the historical record, gleefully fills in the blanks. When we meet him, the future Bard (played by Joseph Fiennes) is simply Will, a writer of great talent but middling renown, struggling for money and inspiration, worried that he’s lost his gift. This is the foundational joke of Shakespeare in Love: Even Shakespeare suffered from writer’s block.

But then Will meets Viola de Lesseps, the beautiful and headstrong daughter of a wealthy merchant. Viola (played by Gwyneth Paltrow, in the performance that won her her Oscar) is a regular audience member at the theater that produces many of Shakespeare’s plays. They fall for each other. All’s not well with their story, though, and very little can end well: Shakespeare is already several years into his marriage; Viola is betrothed to a vicious nobleman. Star-crossed lovers, their dreams made futile by the world’s callous realities: Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare’s romance with Viola, told through thin allusion. It is autofiction. As the company debuts Romeo and Juliet, a series of twists means that the film’s lovers play the fated pair. Will and Viola, before a rapt audience, meet again and finally, with a kiss, part.

But Shakespeare in Love is, true to its tagline, a comedy—one that plays out through sly amalgams of Shakespearean dramatic devices: gender-swapping, slapstick, sexual puns, mistaken identities, melodramatic rivalries, balletic sword fights. It also features a hero who spends a decent portion of the proceedings laboring under a misconception. Will, unable to create, thinks he needs a muse. And he is convinced that the muse in question should take the form that it classically has: a beautiful woman. What will quickly become clear, though, to the film’s audience if not to the character, is that the inspiration he seeks has been there all along. It is not his casual lover Rosaline, as he initially hopes—nor, even, is it Viola. His true muse is the teeming city of London.

This is another joke embedded in Shakespeare in Love: The assorted mundanities of Will’s daily existence—the names of people and places he encounters; wan observations from the people he interacts with; bits of home decor—make their way, eventually, into his art. He has a skull in his room. The theater that stages his plays is named the Rose. “A plague on both their houses!” a preacher yells as Shakespeare runs by, in a condemnation of “immoral” playhouses that will soon be alchemized into one of drama’s most well-known lines. Everything is copy, goes the writer’s rationalization and lament. Shakespeare in Love expands it into giddy absurdity.

This approach—all those allusions and Easter eggs—might have been merely clever. But Shakespeare in Love is not merely making references. It is also making arguments. Pop culture, typically, portrays the literary genius as a solitary figure: alone at a desk, perhaps, searching his mind, confronting the blank page. The cliché assumes the same thing that Shakespeare does at the beginning of the film, as he seeks his muse: that inspiration is introspective. But Shakespeare in Love rejects that premise. It is not solitude that leads Will to his greatest poetry; it is being with other people, learning from them, interacting with them. The world is his writers’ room. Over the two hours’ traffic of the film, its audiences become privy to the hectic alchemy of genius. Art, in its vision, is not the stuff of one mind catching fire, but of many minds and many flames. It is an ongoing dialogue. Shakespeare, the film suggests, is simply better able than most to translate the conversation.

That argument is particularly straightforward when it comes to Will’s dramatization of his relationship with Viola. Romeo and Juliet begins its life, in the film, as a comedy—a concession Will makes to the producer, who is convinced that slapstick is the genre that will best attract audiences and their ticket money. (The work is named, delightfully, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter.) At one point, as he tries to persuade a famous actor to join the cast as Romeo’s close friend, Will announces its title as … Mercutio. But his doomed relationship with Viola convinces Shakespeare that his play is, finally, a tragedy. His art imitates his life. Will and Viola have a balcony scene, and a dancing scene. Viola tells her nurse, at multiple points, “Anon!” We get two people who will become, despite their best efforts, fortune’s fools.

The tragic fusion—Shakespeare and his work, indistinguishable from each other—helps give the film its modern currency. The symbolism of “the Bard,” over the centuries, has encompassed not just authorship, but also readership. Shakespeare has been a focus for scholarly discussion about the proper way to engage with literature, about the relationship between the author and the text. How should contemporary readers account for the historical contexts from which authors emerged? To what extent should their writings stand alone? Is the author, effectively, alive or dead?

Shakespeare in Love brings eloquence to the muddle. The film is, most obviously, reading Shakespeare through history’s sharp lens: Its Bard is made of flesh and blood, by turns anxious and lusty and dashing and jealous and drunk and frustrated and funny and hopeful and wrong. He is also so infused with his surroundings—with London, with the stage, with the art he is creating—that he becomes effectively interchangeable with them. Where does Will Shakespeare end, and the work of Will Shakespeare begin? It would be impossible to say, the film suggests, and it would be pointless to try. Yes, Shakespeare is a dead author. He is also one who is, still, undeniably alive.

Shakespeare’s historical era was, in its outlines, deeply akin to our own. Many of the anxieties that shaped it emerged from the printing press—an invention that, like the internet in ours, brought people new access to the world’s existing ideas, and then generated many more. New technologies, the theorist Clay Shirky has suggested, don’t become interesting until they become boring: Their social power won’t reveal itself until the new capabilities have settled into the grooves of everyday experience. Shakespeare came of age as an artist roughly 100 years after Johannes Gutenberg adapted a wine press into a text-making machine, in that moment of heady mundanity. He wrote at a time when all the pamphlets and tracts and books that spread information in ways never before possible had worked themselves into the rhythms of people’s lives. He created his new texts within the flurry of other people’s words.

Shakespeare in Love exemplifies that chaos. The printing press created a revolution, and revolutions are never straightforward in their effects. The film evokes that fact, as well. The new machine was potential and threat at the same time. It made people’s ordinary environments bigger, less superstitious, more varied, more individualist, more confusing. Shakespeare in Love filters all that change into its comedy. “It is a new day,” Viola’s nurse informs her, as the sun begins its rise over the Thames. “It is a new world,” Viola corrects her.

All that novelty is embodied, in the film, through London itself. Cities are proxies for the kind of connection that new technologies tend to promise: In them, people’s exposure to each other begets small transformations, and big ones. Trends proliferate. Languages develop. Ideas spread, and interact, and evolve. Shakespeare’s London—typically rendered, in the film, through quick-cut shots that channel instability—is muddy and dangerous and pulsing with possibility. In the film, the man so often associated with a town on the edge of the Cotswolds (A Present From Stratford upon Avon reads a souvenir mug in Shakespeare’s writing room) is, instead, a creature of urban possibility.

Shakespeare’s great talent, in this context, is not mysterious, nor is it muse-reliant or stoked by solitude or any of the other things that the mythology of genius might have us believe. Instead it is a fusion of the poles that are typically invoked when people discuss the repercussions of our own technological revolution: the capabilities of the human, versus those of the computer. The Shakespeare of the film is thoroughly, vividly, deliriously human. His intelligence is, as well. But his world also resembles, in its way, the workings of generative AI. His London is a corpus of data. His art comes to him, eventually, with a reliability that is almost algorithmic. The film does not just invent an origin story for Romeo and Juliet; more specifically, it imagines the series of inputs that led to its creation. Shakespeare’s wisdom is as synthetic as it is singular: He takes in the information, processes it, analyzes it, reworks it, makes new sense of it—and in so doing, writes the poetry that would become symbolic, for many, of poetry itself.

The screenplay of Shakespeare in Love, appropriately enough, was also the result of collaborative creativity. Its story came from the screenwriter Marc Norman (who was reportedly inspired by his son, who was in turn inspired by a college Shakespeare class). Much of the rest came from the playwright Tom Stoppard. The script the two developed offers a teasing blend of historical reality and a whimsical dismissal of it. “Are you the author of the plays of William Shakespeare?” Viola asks him, her line wryly acknowledging long-running debates about whether the plays in question were produced by a sometime actor named William Shakespeare. We get a winking reference to the fact that Shakespeare used different spellings of his own name—fuel for wanton theories that the great poet was illiterate. We get the real-life details of the initially unsolved murder of Shakespeare’s rival, Christopher Marlowe: its location (the London neighborhood of Deptford), its setting (a public house), its method (stabbing).

But then there are the historical liberties that led Stoppard to remind viewers, soon after Shakespeare in Love’s release, that “this film is entertainment, which doesn’t require it to be justified in the light of historical theory.” There are many of these, but the most obvious involves the story’s very premise: Contrary to what the film suggests, the historical Shakespeare didn’t actually conjure the famous tale himself. Instead, Romeo and Juliet was, like so many others of Shakespeare’s plays, a reworking of prior art. He adapted it from The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet—a work that was itself an adaptation: It was translated from an Italian story that was first composed in the early 16th century.

You could read that omission as whimsy run amok, speculative fiction tipping over into willful dismissal of history. You could also read it, though, as an error that conveys a broader truth. Shakespeare in Love, instead of directly acknowledging Shakespeare’s indebtedness to other artists, infuses the debt into its story. Romeo and Juliet, in its vision, is written by William Shakespeare but created, effectively, by Will and Viola and their fellow actors and a preacher who yells about houses and plagues. In the film, too, it’s Will’s rival who lays out the basic plot for Romeo and Juliet. Marlowe gives the idea to Shakespeare freely and generously—this was before standardized copyright laws, with all their radiating consequences—and Shakespeare makes it his own.

There’s poetry in that. There’s also insight. The film does not question the remarkable fact of Shakespeare’s genius. But it also offers a reminder that the Bard could not have existed, as he did, without all those other bards. His genius was singular. It was communal. It was both at the same time.

Community Profile: Watts seeing bigger picture in role with CAC

By in Art World News

Community Profile: Watts seeing bigger picture in role with CAC

If you have interacted with a picture, social media post or promotional material for Columbus Arts Council, chances are you’ve seen Stephanie Watts’ work.

Watts came on board as the marketing coordinator for CAC in December, and she has since fallen in love with the job.

“I went to a couple of shows throughout the interview process just to see what it was like,” Watts said. “In Mississippi, especially, you run into a lot of close-mindedness, and I feel like the art community doesn’t have that as often. It’s usually pretty open. So being able to see that in a town like Columbus is really cool, and I thought it would be cool to be a part of it. Meeting the artists and musicians that come in are just experiences I wouldn’t have had if it hadn’t been for CAC. I really love that they have concerts all the time, which are super fun because I love music. I love art too. I’m just not artistic.”

While she may not be artistic in the painting sense, Watts has a passion for photography, and her new job has honed those skills even more.

“I got my first camera when I graduated high school,” Watts said. “I was really big into taking scenery pictures, but the older I’ve gotten, especially working at CAC, I take a lot more pictures of people now. It’s really different, but I love it.”

When she’s just shooting for her hobby, she leans on old-school methods.

“I love shooting film. It’s my favorite, but it doesn’t really work for what we need (at CAC),” Watts said. “So I shoot film on my own time and digital whenever I’m on the clock. … I’m kind of that person who thinks, anytime anything is happening, ‘Oh that would be a good picture!’”

From health care to art
While Watts has fallen right into the position, it was not what she envisioned when she graduated in 2019 from the Mississippi University for Women.

Her plan then was to become a veterinarian.

“I realized quickly that was not for me,” Watts said. “I’m not big into medical stuff, but my whole family is. I had no idea what I wanted to do at all, so this kind of just fell into my lap.”

Watts knew CAC Executive Director Salem Gibson, and she said he convinced her to give it a shot.

Taking that chance has not only paid dividends for Watts, but it has expanded her understanding and appreciation of the arts.

“(I’ve seen) different art styles that I didn’t know were a thing before working here,” Watts said. “I was like, ‘Oh, it’s either realistic or abstract. There’s no in between.’ Even just in the couple of months I have been there, (my understanding) has been broadened by a huge amount.”

Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.

A computer model that can predict the “memorability” of art

By in Art World News

A computer model that can predict the “memorability” of art

Is AI that predicts which paintings are memorable and famous, regardless of content, style, or context, a threat to creativity or tool for positive change?

What makes a painting memorable? Is it how it resonates with you personally? Does it relate to how the work makes you feel, its intrinsic beauty, the boldness of the colors, or the subject it depicts?

The answer, according to a new computer model that predicts the memorability of images, is none of the above. In a recent study, the system found that memory for artwork is predictable, regardless of the content, color, or cultural significance, and no matter who you are or whether you see the art online or in a gallery. It could even predict which paintings were most famous by analyzing images with no additional historical or cultural context.

If quantifiable features of a painting dictate its longevity in our minds, our assumptions about the subjectivity of art may need reassessing. It also raises questions of whether the ultimate “memorable” artwork can be engineered — something that would tempt both advertisers and artists clambering for attention in the dense online landscape.

But while this growing understanding about what makes paintings memorable adds a layer of intrigue to how we experience images, memorability is just one facet of art appreciation. And beyond the art world, the findings could play a role in the development of effective educational materials, and even new approaches to early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

Memory prediction

How can a computer model account for the fact that your memory of an image might be affected by when and where you see it?

Wilma Bainbridge, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, and her team devised a series of experiments to assess memorability of artworks found in the Art Institute of Chicago, both through an online activity and after a stroll around the gallery.

“Online, people were engaged in a memory experiment on a computer screen with controlled timing and key press responses,” said Bainbridge. “In person, people had a pretty normal visit to a museum and then indicated their memory later.”

A forgettable landscape. Meetinghouse Hill, Roxbury, Massachusetts 1799 by John Ritto Penniman CC0 Public Domain Designation, The Art Institute of Chicago

Factors such as image size and placement in the gallery impacted memorability, and even though the tasks participants completed were different, the model, called ResMem, successfully predicted which images would be memorable in both cases.

ResMem is a neural network developed to predict people’s memory for images in a lab setting. “It is basically built off of a model similar to the human visual system, though not with anything like human memory built in!” Bainbridge explained. “It has artificial ‘neurons’ and it learns a mapping between an image and its memorability score through us showing it tens of thousands of examples. It can then apply these mappings to new images it’s never seen before.”

The model is available for anyone to use (provided the work is non-profit), and researchers are exploring what makes different images memorable in various situations.

What determines memorability?

The study showed that beauty, color, content, and other superficial features do not dictate memorability. It is not yet clear, however, what does make an image memorable. Despite the model’s success in predicting the results of human trials, it cannot explain what factors it is looking for.

Does this mystery frustrate the researchers? “It’s still an open question we are working on testing,” said Bainbridge. “I’m not frustrated at all not knowing the answer yet because it presents all sorts of exciting things to test!” 

The team does have some ideas, however. “We think memorability is tapping into something richer than just a combination of features you can measure about a painting. We find this for other types of images too – memorability isn’t well predicted by similar types of features for faces, or for real-world objects,” she said.

“We can’t remember everything that we see. So we think ‘memorability’ might be a measure tapping into how our brain prioritizes what should be remembered of the things we see,” Bainbridge continued. “We think this prioritization could be related to something like how easy an image is to process for the brain.”

A threat to the creative world?

Introducing this sort of quantifiable assessment into the art world could put creativity at risk, encouraging artists down an ever-narrowing funnel of creation until all the art in galleries becomes a homogenised stream of unforgettable blandness. 

“I think these results bring up a really interesting question about changes happening in the art landscape,” said Bainbridge. “It seems to me there is an increasing ‘Instagrammification’ of artwork and museums, and this sort of technology would be appealing to those applications.”

Memorability is interesting, and could add a layer to the work of artists and curators, but, as Bainbridge said, art is so much more: “Art is something more than just what images stick in our memories — for example, we found that memorability was not related to beauty or emotion. So, perhaps your goal is not always for a piece to be the most memorable, but something else, like to be the most emotionally evocative.”

The technology could appeal to those outside the art world, as well. “I do worry about the advertising or marketing directions, which is why we prevent for-profit use of ResMem – for example, making an advertisement that is unforgettable,” said Bainbridge. “Luckily, we’ve found in recent work that even if something is very memorable, it doesn’t necessarily influence your decisions, which mitigates my concerns.”

ResMem’s use in the wrong hands are counterbalanced by hope for its positive potential. “I really think the potential positive impacts for Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis and education are right around the corner,” said Bainbridge. “We are actively working now on making systems that can identify which images are the best at diagnosing early dementia. And, we are also finding that ResMem can significantly predict kids’ memory as young as four years, meaning it could help play a role in the design of learning materials.”

Memorable teaching aids and early diagnosis of mental health conditions would take the technology on an impactful journey from art to application. But Bainbridge and her team aren’t done with the art world yet.

“Our next step is that we plan on running an art contest to challenge artists to create the most memorable piece, or the most forgettable piece. We are curious to see what artists pick up on in terms of what makes something memorable or forgettable. We then plan on holding an entirely memorable exhibit and an entirely forgettable exhibit and see how these paintings influence visitors’ memories.” 

Details of the competition for any artists — or scientists — up to the challenge will be on the lab website in the coming weeks, just don’t forget to check back.

Reference: Trent M. Davis, Wilma A. Bainbridge, Memory for artwork is predictable, PNAS (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2302389120

Feature image credit: Jessica Pamp on Unsplash

Related posts:

A 16th-Century Pop-Up Book of Astrological Ideas Tried to Predict the Future

By in Art World News

A 16th-Century Pop-Up Book of Astrological Ideas Tried to Predict the Future

All images via The Library of Congress

More than 2,000 years ago in Hellenistic Greece, the astrolabe was invented as a kind of analog calculator to decode a range of astronomical observations, survey an area, or reckon latitude and time. Often made from metal, the tool was modified and further developed in the Islamic world, then later in Western Europe, throughout the next several centuries. By the medieval period, it had been adopted by astrologers and some physicians—the latter for whom religious belief and medicine were closely intertwined—to determine the course of the planets and their influences. And in the 16th century, the device found its way to scholar Leonhard Thurneisser (a.k.a. Thurneysser, circa 1530-96).

Thurneisser was fascinated by the workings of the universe, and his wide-ranging knowledge landed him a position as an intellectual and miracle doctor at a noble court in Brandenburg, Germany. Denounced as a serious scientist by some of his peers due to his interest in alchemy and astrology, he nevertheless published his findings in a phenomenal tome known as the Archidoxa in 1569, containing a collection of astrological predictions and ideas. Six years later, he released an addition to the volume called the Astrolabium, which used volvelles, or wheel charts, to provide individual horoscopes.

Richly illustrated with hand-colored plates engraved by an artist named Peter Hille, each page contains a different constellation and Des Menschen Cirkel und Lauff, or “man’s circle of life.” The volvelles, which could be layered on top of each page and spun in relation to one another, include the locations of fixed stars and Baum des Lebens, or “tree of life.” Bound in ornate leather, the book would have functioned as a kind of medieval Ouija board, in theory enabling the user to foresee their fate or predict natural disasters.

You can explore dozens more pages on The Library of Congress’s website, and you might also enjoy another 16th-century gem that can be read six different ways.

 

An astrological chart in a 16th-century book.

One of the wheel charts from a 16th-century astrological book.

One of the wheel charts from a 16th-century astrological book.

An ornately bound leather book.

A detail of stacking wheel charts.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article A 16th-Century Pop-Up Book of Astrological Ideas Tried to Predict the Future appeared first on Colossal.

Artist Hilda Palafox Coaxes Emotional Depth from Bodily Contortions and Skewed Sizes

By in Art World News

Artist Hilda Palafox Coaxes Emotional Depth from Bodily Contortions and Skewed Sizes

“Camino de vuelta” (2022), oil on linen, 47 6/25 × 35 43/100 × 49 inches framed. All images courtesy of Proyectos Monclova, © Hila Palafox, shared with permission

“A woman’s braid, for me, has a very powerful meaning,” says Hilda Palafox. “It symbolizes the fact of connecting, building, recognizing, changing, and strengthening. And I consider the act of braiding as something very intimate, very personal, and universal at the same time.”

Women convening, considering the size and shape of their forms, or engaging in solitary pursuits are common in Palafox’s works: one figure climbs a ladder sprouting new plant life, others precariously balance bowls on their limbs, and another bends over toward her toes, a table bound to her back with bright red rope.

Primarily working in oil paint on large-scale canvases, the Mexico City-based artist imagines a matriarchal world in which women are free to explore the inner reaches of their psyches and stronger together. Their long, substantial limbs, large hands, and supple curves are repositories for Palafox’s interests.  “I have always thought of the body as a vessel through which we experience the world and emotions and through which we express ourselves and manifest life,” she shares. “I seek to convey certain concerns that travel from a very personal place to a point of universal connection.”

Influenced by her background in graphic design, Palafox’s textured paintings are intuitive and created stroke by stroke, echoing the act of braiding hair strand by strand. “That is very important to me, and that is also why I like simple, clean compositions with some hints of symbolism, where the body language of these beings are the main character and where a door can also be opened for the viewer to finish building the narrative,” she says.

Palafox is represented by Proyectos Monclova, and you can find more of her works on both canvas and walls on Instagram.

 

Two women stand back to back their brads intertwining

“Aquí y ahora” (2022), oil on linen, 65.43 x 49.72 x 1.57 inches framed

A figure wearing an orange shirt climbs a ladder with small twigs sprouting from the rungs

“¿A dónde llegará?” (2022), oil on linen, 49.72 x 37.87 x 1.57 inches framed

A woman tips a bowl off her head on the left and on the right a woman precariously balances a bowl on her knee

Left: “Cuestión de tiempo II,” oil on linen, 47.24 x 39.37 inches. Right: “Cuestión de tiempo III,” oil on linen, 47.36 x 39.37 x .98 inches

A woman sits on a brown stool with her back to the viewer. She grasps her long braid with her right hand

“Portal II” (2022), oil on linen, 47 1/4 × 35 3/8 inches. Image courtesy of Hashimoto Contemporary

A woman wearing a white tank top and blue pants bends over toward her toes with a table bound by red cord to her back

“Quizas, un día” (2022), oil on linen, 65.55 x 49.8 x 1.77 inches framed

A woman is seated on the floor wearing a white shirt and blue pants and peering down at a tiny chair at the bottom right corner

“Un deseo más al fuego” (2022), oil on linen, 65.55 x 49.8 x 1.77 inches framed

A woman wearing orange pants and a white tank top crouches over her chair to grasp her shins. A small doorway is visible between her legs behind her

“En aquel breve momento” (2022), oil on linen, 64.96 x 49.21 x 1.61 inches framed

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Artist Hilda Palafox Coaxes Emotional Depth from Bodily Contortions and Skewed Sizes appeared first on Colossal.

creative:impact – A forever balancing act!

By in Art World News

creative:impact – A forever balancing act!

Creative industries in Washtenaw County add hundreds of millions of dollars to the local economy. In the weeks and months to come, host Deb Polich, the President and CEO of Creative Washtenaw, explores the myriad of contributors that make up the creative sector in Washtenaw County.

Deb Polich

David Fair

/

89.1 WEMU

Deb Polich, President and CEO of Creative Washtenaw, at the WEMU studio.

ABOUT MARISSA CONIFF:

Marissa Conniff is a singer/songwriter based out of Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Marissa’s love for singing began earlier than she can remember. One of her earliest memories is being younger than four years old and singing to cassette tapes in her living room. At age 6, she saw “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at Fox Theatre in Detroit and knew she wanted to be on stage. Soon after, Marissa joined a community theatre in Southgate, Michigan, and a choir at her elementary school, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in Wyandotte. She also took piano lessons with Mrs. Higgins, who lived in Huron, and charged $5 for half-hour lessons. When Marissa was 13, she joined a youth choir in Trenton. The choir awarded her a scholarship for music lessons, and she began taking guitar lessons at Southland Mall.

She was heavily involved in Woodhaven High School’s Theatre program, where she performed in many plays and musicals, including the Michigan International Forensic Association’s annual theatre competition, where she won “Best Actress” for her role as Clara in Noel Coward’s “Hay Fever.”

In college, Marissa attended Eastern Michigan University, majoring in Arts Management and minoring in Marketing and Theatre. Marissa performed in mainstage and block box shows and also became the first Social Media Manager for EMU Theatre.

After college, Marissa began to write and perform original music in Southeast Michigan. She was a founding member of Neighborhood Theatre Group and produced an original EP found on Soundcloud.

Marissa’s momentum with music slowed down as her marketing career became a focus while she started her family. She started her own business in 2020 called Upward Anthems, which provides social media and marketing services to artists and small businesses.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Marissa began to focus on music once again. She began taking voice lessons with VanAlstine Voice, leading to more confidence in her art. At this time, Facebook launched an experimental app called Collab which allowed musicians worldwide to collaborate on short song clips. Marissa gained popularity on the app and was a featured artist on their blog, Instagram page, and advertisements.

The experience with the Collab app inspired Marissa to become more knowledgeable about audio engineering, and she began taking classes at Washtenaw Community College. Now, Marissa had the skills to properly record her vocals at home, allowing her to apply for more opportunities.

In September 2022, Marissa submitted an audition for the Motown Museum’s annual singing competition, Amplify the Sound of Detroit. Marissa was selected as a top 10 finalist and underwent a 6-month long artist development program with world-class artists such as Beth Griffith-Manley, Curtiss Boone, Kern Brantley, and Tristan Fisher. She was given coaching on every aspect of her artistry, including branding, styling, movement, vocals, performance, and more.

On March 15, 2023, Marissa performed for the first time in 5 years at the Gem Theatre in Downtown Detroit for the competition. She sang “I Just Want to Celebrate” by Rare Earth and was the first performer to bring a rock and roll song to the competition. The judges said Marissa had “incredible energy” and “did something special” by making the audience love a song from a different genre. Since then, Marissa has performed at the Motown Museum for additional events, such as Founder’s Day (and more to come)!

After the competition, Marissa started a band called The Starter Packs – a genre-defining group of local musicians who perform oldies and originals. The Starter Packs have performed at 2 West, Ziggy’s, and the YpsiArboroo Festival.

Currently, Marissa is enjoying working as an artist and a marketing professional. She enjoys working with clients and performing on stage. In addition to performing with The Starter Packs, she is working on another EP and auditioning for opportunities throughout the area.

Marissa lives at home with her loving husband, their joyous son, and their energetic dog, Yogi.

RESOURCES:

Marissa Coniff Official Site

Marissa Coniff Original Music

Marissa Coniff Upcoming Performances

Marissa Coniff on Facebook

Marissa Coniff on Instagram

Marissa Coniff on YouTube

TRANSCRIPTION:

Deb Polich: Welcome to creative:impact on 89 one WEMU. I’m Deb Polich, president and CEO of Creative Washtenaw and your creative:impact host. Thanks for tuning in on Tuesdays for the show–this WEMU segment that explores Washtenaw County’s artists and creative industries and the people and businesses who make our community a great place for all to create, live, learn, play and visit. What was your dream? You know, the one you always thought you’d get to eventually? Marissa Conniff always wanted to be a singer. And she was….until life kept getting in the way. Like many of us, she put singing to the side. But unlike many of us, her story has a happy ending. Marissa, welcome to creative:impact.

Marissa Conniff: Thank you, Deb. How are you?

Deb Polich: I’m good. I’m glad you’re here. Thanks for joining us. So, you know, I hear this story from so many people. Tell us about you and how music was and then wasn’t part of your world for a while.

Marissa Coniff and Deb Polich at the WEMU studio.

Mat Hopson

/

89.1 WEMU

Marissa Coniff and Deb Polich at the WEMU studio.

Marissa Conniff: When I was younger, I sang all the time. And I was in plays and shows and studied theater in college. After college, I did a lot of performing around the area: original music and guitar. And then, it was time to start my family. And even during that time, I was really focused on a marketing career, even before having a family.

[embedded content]

Deb Polich: And you have your own company.

Marissa Conniff: Correct. Yes, I have my own marketing company, and I do that full-time. And then I do singing in addition to that. So, I get the flexibility for that.

Deb Polich: So, you had a child. Other things happened. And your singing career was, let’s just say, sort of set aside.

Marissa Conniff: Child and COVID. So, right when he was ready–

Deb Polich: There was that COVID thing.

Marissa Conniff: Yeah. Once he was like old enough for me to go out there and do shows again, COVID happened, and it really came to a screeching halt.

Deb Polich: And so, a screeching halt. And then, here we are–three plus years since COVID kicked in. And how did youget back to it? So many people don’t do this. So many people don’t have the courage to go back and say, “This is important to me.”

Marissa Conniff: It kind of really started when I started taking audio engineering classes at Washtenaw Community College, and I did that because I always felt there were opportunities missing for me because I didn’t properly know how to record myself or set up a mic myself. So, once I kind of gained that power, then I started having the ability to say yes to things, to audition for things. And that’s kind of what led me to here and now.

Deb Polich: And balancing family and work and all of that. You found the time?

Marissa Conniff: Yes. You know, being a freelance marketer is what has really helped me make time for that. So, during the day, I’ll be making social media posts for my clients. And then, I’ll eat lunch. And then I’ll work on the songs that I need to perform at my next gig. So, usually half of my day is spent singing and then half of my day is spent running my business.

Deb Polich: So, I have to ask though. Was there a time, a moment, a thing that said, “Okay, I have to have this in my life?”

Marissa Conniff: That’s always been the case for me. You know, even though I took a break from performing, I never took a break from singing. And even during COVID, I was taking voice lessons and working on that end of things, so that, you know, when I was ready to come back out, I was really ready for it.

Marissa Coniff

Marissa Coniff

/

marissaconiff.com

Marissa Coniff

Deb Polich: And with that, so always being connected to it, but getting back out into public and performing is is different. Many of us do, you know, whatever that art form is, you know, in our privacy of our own home. So, to actually say, “Okay, I’m going to try.” I mean, it’s hard for anybody to go into this field, you know, to try to make it in music. So, where’s your drive come from?

Marissa Conniff: My drive really just comes from this need to express myself and to kind of feel larger than life at moments. When I sing, I feel kind of otherworldly, if you will. And it’s going to come out one way or another, whether I’m singing after my lunch break or if I’m on stage doing it. So, I really needed that outlet.

Deb Polich: And how much does an audience play in that?

Marissa Conniff: A lot. That energy getting back from the audience, the smiles, the people dancing, that is really what kind of fuels you to keep going.

Deb Polich: It’s kind of a cycle. You get from them. They get from you. And it just continues and builds.

Marissa Conniff: Exactly.

[embedded content]

Deb Polich: Interesting. This is creative:impact on WEMU. And I’m talking with Marissa Conniff, who, after a little bit of a hiatus, reconnected with her singer within. So, I remember getting a notice from you that you had entered a singing competition. It wasn’t just any singing competition. Tell us about it.

Marissa Conniff: So, after I studied audio engineering at Washtenaw, that’s when I decided to submit an audition video for the Motown Museum’s Amplify the Sound of Detroit singing competition.

Deb Polich: So, amplify that? What was the name of it?

Marissa Conniff: Amplify the Sound of Detroit.

Deb Polich: And at Motown.

Marissa Conniff: Yes, at the Motown Museum.

Deb Polich: Not a small name. I mean, talk about, you know, chewing up something that is big. I mean, Motown is in everyone’s mind in this community, in this region. Huge! So, that was kind of gutsy.

Marissa Conniff: Yes, I told myself I’ll audition this year, and if I don’t get in, I’m just going to keep auditioning. Eventually, they’re going to have to say yes. And they said yes the first time I sent in a video. So, that was so exciting. I’ll never forget that night when I got the email saying I was in the top ten.

Deb Polich: How cool! So, how did you prepare for the competition?

Marissa Conniff: I did a lot of work. It was a lot of work. I practiced every day, multiple times a day, and I did do usually weekly sessions at the museum where they would invite different artists to come in and give us different types of coaching.

Deb Polich: So, you were at Motown doing the coaching?

Marissa Coniff: Correct. Yeah.

Deb Polich: Okay. And were there people we would recognize that were part of it?

Marissa Conniff: One of the people I was most excited to work with was someone named Tristan Andrews, and he has been on America’s Best Dance Crew and on MTV. And I totally remember his dance crew and watching him. He was a Made coach on MTV, and there are just a lot of people who really, I don’t think, are, like, household names, but they have these strong careers in music. And in a way, that was more inspiring because they were very relatable and it was like, “Wow, I can do this. I can make a career out of this.”

Marissa Conniff being coached by Tristan Fisher at the Motown singing competition.

Marissa Conniff

/

marissaconniff.com

Marissa had the amazing opportunity to train with world-class artists, such as Beth Griffith-Manley, Curtiss Boone, Kern Brantley, and Tristan Fisher. Marissa trained for six months with vocal lessons, performance coaching, styling, and artist development workshops.

Deb Polich: And you’re then surrounded by Motown. Like, are you in Studio B, or is that where you’re working?

Marissa Conniff: They did interview us in in the studio, which was amazing, but we really were in the Hitsville next building.

Deb Polich: Okay.

Marissa Conniff: There’s this whole hub for developing new artists, and they host all sorts of classes and workshops and things like that for artists to develop and kind of continue the Motown legacy.

Deb Polich: Okay. And so, tell us about the competition. What was that day/evening like?

Marissa Conniff: It was one of the best days ever. My husband even said—

Deb Polich: She says with a huge smile on her face.

Marissa Conniff: He was like, “Okay, so our wedding was cool. Our son being born was cool. And, like, this was the next coolest thing that happened.” So, yeah, it was a sold-out show at the Gem Theatre, and I was the first person to ever do a rock and roll song at the competition.

Deb Polich: What did you sing?

Marissa Conniff: I sang “I Just Want to Celebrate” by Rare Earth.

[embedded content]

(fast forward to 33:18 for Marissa’s performance)

Deb Polich: Okay. That was a Motown group.

Marissa Conniff: Yes. Yeah.

Deb Polich: I had a friend whose mom was connected to them.

Marissa Conniff: Awesome. Yeah. Most people don’t realize that that was a Motown song, and I didn’t realize that either. So, once they told me that that was an option, I was like, “I have to do that song.”

Deb Polich: So, great response to that. And you did it. You didn’t win, but that hasn’t dissuaded you at all.

Marissa Conniff: No, I told myself that, no matter what the judges say, which they said great things–

Deb Polich: Oh sure.

Marissa Conniff: But I didn’t win. And I told myself that no matter what happened, what’s most important is how I felt about the show. That was the real indicator of success. How did I feel that I did? And when I walked off stage, I actually just, like, broke down crying because it was like everything I wanted it to be. Everything went exactly how it was supposed to go. I was, like, totally in the zone. My son was sitting front row. It was just the most amazing feeling ever.

On March 15, 2023, Marissa performed at the historic Gem Theatre in Downtown Detroit for a sold-out performance.

Marissa Conniff

/

marissaconiff.com

On March 15, 2023, Marissa performed at the historic Gem Theatre in Downtown Detroit for a sold-out performance.

Deb Polich: Such an experience. And now you’re playing gigs around the area, right?

Marissa Conniff: Yeah. And the Motown Museum has asked me to come back to do a couple of shows with them, which is really exciting.

Deb Polich: Sure.

Marissa Conniff: Yes. And I also started a band. We’re called The Starter Packs, and we play some oldies and originals, and I do some solo gigs as well.

The Starter Packs

Marissa Coniff

/

marissaconiff.com

The Starter Packs

Deb Polich: How cool! So, what would you tell anybody, you know, whose passion sitting on a shelf somewhere to how to get back in the game?

Marissa Conniff: I would say it’s never too late. Don’t tell yourself, “Oh, it’s been too long. I can’t do it.” That shouldn’t be what holds you back. You know, time and money: those are real things that can prevent people from doing what they want to do. But if it’s a belief within yourself that you’re not good enough or that you don’t have enough experience or it’s been too long, you really need to shut that down and get back out there. Because, actually, the gal who placed second and is, like, I’m a huge fan of hers, she’s from the competition, she says she hadn’t been on stage in seven years.

Deb Polich: Oh, wow!

Marissa Conniff: So, that told me I was like, “Okay, this happens to people.” And, you know, you just got to get back out there.

Deb Polich and Marissa Conniff at the WEMU studio.

Mat Hopson

/

89.1 WEMU

Deb Polich and Marissa Conniff at the WEMU studio.

Deb Polich: Wow! Marissa, thanks for sharing this inspiration. Really, what a great story. And we wish you the best of luck in all that you do and how you’re balancing it all. So, thanks so much for being on the show.

Marissa Conniff: Thank you, Deb.

Deb Polich: That’s Marissa Conniff. You can find out more about her, her Motown adventure, see some videos and her current gigs with her band, The Starter Packs, at WEMU dot org. You’ve been listening to creative:impact. I’m Deb Polich, president and CEO of Creative Washtenaw and your host. Mat Hopson is our producer, and we invite you to join us every Tuesday to meet the people who make Washtenaw creative. This is 89-1 WEMU FM Ypsilanti. Public radio from Eastern Michigan University.

Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support.  Make your donation to WEMU today to keep your community NPR station thriving.

Like 89.1 WEMU on Facebook and follow us on Twitter

Contact WEMU News at 734.487.3363 or email us at studio@wemu.org

MarkHack 2.0: Top 5 finalists to receive $50,000 seed capital after 3-month incubation

By in Art World News

MarkHack 2.0: Top 5 finalists to receive $50,000 seed capital after 3-month incubation

Winners have emerged at the recently concluded second edition of Nigeria’s first and biggest marketing and media hackathon, MarkHack 2.0. The 2 winners along with 3 other finalists will undergo a 3-month incubation program at the Eko Innovation Center and receive a seed capital of $50,000 USD at the end of the program.

Victor Afolabi, the curator of MarkHack and Founder of Eko Innovation Center and Art of Technology Lagos, disclosed this at the grand finale of the event in Lagos, Nigeria. The three months of innovative pitch sessions, workshops, masterclasses and mentorship sessions is aimed at helping participants develop skills and provide them with the resources needed to transform their ideas into market-ready products.

Other perks include mentorship and free working space at the Eko Innovation Center. There are also other consolation prizes for the other finalists. 

Victor Afolabi, the curator of MarkHack and Founder of Eko Innovation Center and Art of Technology Lagos
Victor Afolabi, Curator of MarkHack and Founder of GDM Group, Eko Innovation Center and Art of Technology Lagos at the grand finale of MarkHack 2.0 held in Lagos, Nigeria on Friday

Themed ‘Unlocking the Power of the Creative Economy’, with focus areas on Immersive Experience (XR), Content Creation and Robo Marketing, MarkHack 2.0 is the second edition of Nigeria’s first and biggest marketing and media hackathon, MarkHack, curated by GDM Group and Eko Innovation Center.

It climaxed on a disruptive note with 10 startups engaging in an innovative pitch contest of ideas before industry experts.

Read also: Eko Innovation Centre launches ‘EkoClimathon’ hackathon to support climate-focused innovators

Aremu emerges winner of MackHack

Aremu, a robot-marketing tool that helps businesses run experiments to improve their product metric and conversion rate, beat nine (9) other startups to clinch the grand prize of $5,000 at the grand finale of the event in Lagos, Nigeria.

MarkHack 2.0
Tosin Adelowo, Founder of AREMU, Winner of the grand prize of $5000 at the grand finale of MarkHack 2.0 in Lagos on Friday

Tosin Adelowo, co-founder of Aremu said that the win serves as a validation of the enormous potential in Nigeria’s creative sector. He commended Eko Innovation Center for the MarkHack platform.

“Indeed, this win is a validation that team Aremu can bring this great idea and vision to life with the potential of becoming a global brand in a few years”

Tosin Adelowo, co-founder of Aremu

He further expressed appreciation to the organizers of MarkHack for creating the platform that provides an opportunity for new ideas to be birthed in the creative space. 

Ozi, a web application that helps businesses acquire, engage and manage customer conversions all from one place emerged as the first runner-up, carting away the sum of $3000 while Zander, a web-enabled and user-customized response AI tool for automating social media marketing/management and all brand campaign processes emerged as the second runner-up with a prize of $2000.

Team Ozi, winner of the second prize of $3000 at the grand finale of MarkHack 2.0 in Lagos on Friday

Azeez Adejumo, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ozi.ng, the second prize winner lauded the Eko Innovation Centre for promoting a culture of excellence in the discovery of new talents and ideas that will shape the future.

“Getting into incubator programs has not been easy for us as entrepreneurs in Nigeria; however, MarkHack has set a pace by opening the doors of opportunity for entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas on a level playing field and get mentorship on how to scale their businesses”, Adejumo said.

Read also: Eko Innovation Centre launches Nigeria’s first marketing and media hackathon with $20,000 star prize

MarkHack 2.0   

The event, which took place on Friday, July 7, was a unique evening of exploration, teamwork, and unbridled enthusiasm. The second edition of the event recorded more than 1,365 applications from 92 locations in Europe, Asia, and Africa, all of which were evaluated by 22 industry experts.

The top 10 startups that spiced up the finale with their innovative pitch sessions were Aremu; Ozi; Zander; Weeshr; Markett AI; VirtualX; Contenting; Shopalz; ShopXR and GetSeen.

Top 10 finalists and their team members on stage at the grand finale of MarkHack 2.0, organized by Eko Innovation Center, at Oriental Hotel, Lagos on Friday

The event gathered innovators, techies, entrepreneurs, policymakers, media mavens, marketing professionals and corporate moguls who collaborated to create innovative solutions to real-time marketing and media challenges. It was characterized by igniting imaginations, unleashing tech’s potential, crafting creative marvels, illuminating the media sphere and revolutionizing innovation.

GDM Group, the curator of MarkHack is a leading marketing and media technology company renowned for bespoke service offerings ranging from marketing tech solutions, big data management and 360 integrated marketing services.

With MarkHack 2.0, GDM Group and Eko Innovation Center have yet again reaffirmed their purpose of supporting enterprises by leveraging innovation and technology at the heart of businesses.

How ‘Muppets’ artist Guy Gilchrist became a part of J. League mascot history

By in Art World News

How ‘Muppets’ artist Guy Gilchrist became a part of J. League mascot history

When writer and artist Guy Gilchrist appeared at Hill Country Comicon outside San Antonio, Texas, in early March, he expected to draw plenty of characters from series and properties he’s worked on, ranging from “Muppet Babies” to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

Yet Gilchrist’s most memorable sketch that weekend wasn’t one of the characters he’s drawn thousands of times — as the author of the “Muppets” cartoon strip that ran in newspapers across the world in the 1980s — but instead a character he created more than 30 years ago for a newly formed Japanese soccer club preparing to take part in the country’s first professional league.

The request, from fellow guest artist Hiroshi Kanatani — a tokusatsu illustrator who’s worked on the “Ultraman” and “Godzilla” franchises — was for Pul-chan, the long-beloved mascot of the J. League’s Shimizu S-Pulse.

In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

«< 208 209 210 211 212 >»