MCBA With Art 422 Crew

 On a beautiful day of January 19th 2012, our class of Art 422 took off to the cities. Our Agenda, the MCBA.

With our instructor Julie Baugnet, our class had a personal tour in and around the MCBA. It was insightful, it was informational and above all it was great fun.

Just the introduction page.

A shelf with some real good talent.If only I had the chance to my poke my nose into it.

The shop, 'the book shop' was all about the things we learnt in class. Addition to that the place was full with personal designs. If only I had ever collected all my work; next time MCBA.

Some more examples of books, booklets, notebooks and say 'art'.

Naveed is my first model for the collective blog.

This was something I found interesting. The size is very 'nothing' compared to the skills. I had doubts about the price and the skills' level. I am not judging, but this is my blog so I'll raise questions and bomb answers.

Does anyone think its worth it? Why? Why not?

Another example of the package 'stuffs' we learnt in class. As they say, 'school is only a medium', and for sure MCBA got me hooked up to it.

I believe this picture very well deserves a place.

Dark Matter: is a conceptual investigation of a visual phenomenon of shadows inside the Cryogenic Dark Matter search (CDMS) II lab and in the forest around the site. Since, scientists don't know what it is exactly, or if it even exists, the photographs imagine what this mysterious substance might look like if it were visible.

"We've looked and looked, but after all where are we?" - Robert Frost, from 'The Star-Splitter.

Think of an omission.

Something left undone...
Something left unsaid...
Waite it down.
Stuff it in a bottle.
Don't look back.

The setup reminds me of old time fashion. Although a though cannot explain what it revives, it does do enough to excite us.

The picture it self speaks today.

Amanda Lovelee: 500 Strangers Holding Hands, digital photos 2011.
Call and Answer was documented through a photo-booth where participants were invited to pose while holding hands with a strangers in exchange of a token, ranging from a piece of pie to a letterpress printed book. This wall represents over 150 pictures, less than a third of the total 500 images of strangers holding hands.

Metro Transit Portraits: Ben Lansky.
As a photograph is taken, the subject of the photograph is captured and removed from it original context, never again to be experienced in the same way. By adapting candid portraits first captured with a cell phone's digital camera to the analog processes native to the book arts, the 'moment' has become even further removed from its original occurrence.



... Viewers are encouraged  to interact in the re-animation of the portraits. Individual sheets of newsprint have been hung from the ceiling assembled in order. By tearing off these sheets, one will help create an inconsistent, but deliberate, re-creation of the original animated GIFs while also taking away a single instant of these extended moments.

The class surrounding our instructor as she clears out more details on how the old style presses worked.
I was too naive taking pictures, am sure she's going to be mad at me ... lol.

The colors and the blocks for the type. It reminds of the old burnt down press I once knew. As kids we used to hunt for ghosts, didn't knew the press would come hunt my brain with 'type' and 'grid' and all the smart people stuffs.

Washington Press.

Alexandra Press.

Nothing personal, but this picture is an epic for any artists' studio.

This is what I call home made. As I mentioned above, the burnt down press had collections of papers that turned into mold. As we grew up, we realized the crazy thing we ate for fun was nothing but paper. PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS.

 

Another case with examples of people's work and their contributions.

Accordion Press Collaborations: Our Story In A Nutshell.
"Since 2004, off and on, we have been making books, broadsides, and folios together with student, interns and collegues, all in the studio of MN Center of Book Arts.
The press had a serendipitous start when we made a book in preparation for a class, and discovered that when we worked together, our talents multiplied." - C.B. Sherlock & Regula Ruselle.

WE,
TOO,
ARE
BOOK
ARTISTS.

Julie, explaining to us the range of work artists have done; implying the enormous number of possible choices we do and will have to work with.

Experience the book in new and exciting ways ...
... Minnesota Center for Book Arts.

After we were done touring the MCBA inside and out, our next destination was right off the block.
PERISCOPE a real place for designers ...
... too bad I wasn't allowed to record any work or site. But with Bruce guiding and being our tour guide, we saw how things work within the so called 'design place'.

 

... I like to keep pushing people and their luck. Pure skills is nothing without talent. These are just two simple words; iamgine the world you have to remember in the world after school.