Stephanie Hodgin-Brand Silhouette Reflection

My collage is meant to represent me as a consumer and as a person. The outside of the silhouette is covered in Starburst wrappers, lined up in a geometric design. The Starburst wrappers themselves serve as the consumer part of me, because they are my favorite kind of candy that I eat daily. (This made it convenient for me to find the materials for my design). But the geometric pattern also had another purpose. Though it may be hard to see without pointing it out, the wrappers are aligned to look like the music bars that jump up when someone is listening to music. This represents how I communicate with myself; listening to music. For every situation in my life, there is always a song or artist that fits in perfectly with that particular moment.

The inside of my silhouette represents the other part of me; communicating with other people. The grid of Facebook logos shows that my ideal and constant form of communication with others is that particular networking site. It's how I learn about other people, and how other people learn about me. The exclamation point in the center is taken off of the Yahoo! logo in which I communicate with other people through emailing. I decided to use just the use of the exclamation point instead of the entire Yahoo! logo to create more simplicity in the otherwise confusing and busy portrait, but also because it's a logo that everyone recognizes without having to spell it out.

Overall, my duality was that of communicating with myself versus communicating with others. While I could have used a greater amount of labels and different kinds of labels to add diversity to the portrait, I felt that it wasn't necessary to adequately illustrate my point. I think my portrait defines who I am, both on a superficial surface as well as a deeper meaning.

Stephanie Hodgin - Pitching Public Art

Our group presented the 'Of Treasures and Tunes' project in which we had basins of water in the shape of an 'X' on the Butler Mall, from which shot water to and from these basins. When the water hit the basins, a tune was played that could be heard from around campus. I thought we did a great job presenting and being persuasive. I think a little more preparation would have prevented repeating of information, or the forgetting of information (we left out the materials we would use to make our project), that may have added a persuasive appeal to our argument.

The other groups in class did a really great job presenting; all of them seemed to have at least one reason why I thought they should definitely have a spot on campus, which made it difficult to vote at the end for a single proposal. I was really excited about the bridge project because the group explained where they got their influence for their project, which was an interesting angle to see the background planning that it took to come up with the idea. I also thought the fountain outside of Clowes was a great presentation because they truly took time to plan the materials they were going to use and took into account the cost of the production. Overall, I was surprised to see the different ideas our class members came up with!

Ashleigh, Rachel, and Stephanie - Public Art Proposal Project

Our public art piece, entitled "Of Treasures and Tunes," will be located on the Butler Mall between Star Fountain and Norris Plaza. We have designed a giant "X"-shaped, jumping-water fountain that creates a delightful melody upon the contact of the jumping water with a progression of specific, spherical basins. Although there are already seven fountains on campus, we decided to make the number an even eight. The structure we have designed is unlike the normal fountains around campus due to the aspect of the jumping water to and from many colored basins primarily made of recycled plastic material. The "X"-structure of the fountain is formed by a large center basin with four rows of four consecutive basins branching out from it. The basins within each row decrease in both height and circumference as their position away from the center basin increases. Each row of basins corresponds to a natural-tone color: blue, yellow, green, and black. The main basin will be equipped with four water jets while each of the smaller basins will have one bidirectional jet.
Furthermore, this fountain is interactive by means of allowing passersby to publically express their musical creativity. Visitors to the fountain are able to create their own tune by determining the specific orientation of switches that are located on the center water basin and correspond to the direction and timing of water flow to and from the other basins. During times when the human powered changing of switches is nil, the fountain will play a preprogrammed tune. This way there is never a dull moment with the fountain.
We chose to place our fountain on the Mall due to its openness and relatively central location on campus. There are benches around the center basin of the fountain to add another place for students to sit in the wide open area of the Mall; as well as to sit within the limits of the stucture and watch the jumping water. The benches will be constucted out of Polywood, a new-age lumber made from recycled plastic. The significance of the "X" shape of the fountain corresponds with the significance of an X on a treasure map. "X" marks the spot where the treasure can be cound. In the case of our public art piece, the "X" in the center of the Butler campus marks the spot where one will find his/her treasure map of life: at Butler. With a Butler experience, a student will graduate with all the tools he/she needs to successfully uncover the secrets life has locked away especially for him/her. In short, Butler is the graduate's map to the future; to uncovering life's great treasures.
Not only does the shape of the fountain have significance, but the sound it generates as well as the color of the basins and the jumping of the water has a purpose. The musical aspect of the fountain is initially representative of finding one's life son, one's grand purpose. However, the music is also supposed to symbolize the possible harmonious connection between nature and urbanization. The water itself is directly expressive of the basic foundation of life. The jumping of the water serves as a further connection between nature (the water in the air) and urban development (the man-made basins). The colors of teh basins also contain important meanings. The "yellow" sun crosses the "blue" sky and causes all things "green" to grow. Nevertheless, there comes a time for the sun to set on life and for death (black) to take its place.
We believe that our fountain should be chosen as the public art piece for Butler's campus because of its interactive capabilities, aesthetic uniqueness, and deep, underlying meaning to life and to finding one's place among the chaos by using the tools Butler provides.

Stephanie Hodgin-100 Acres Reflection

I would say that my experience at the 100 Acres Park was somewhat similar to that in the video. I appreciated all of the works of art at the exhibit and found myself climbing on the skeleton 'benches' and yellow spiral benches. However, I do realize that I didn't find the park as whimsical as some other people because I still tend to look at everything in a practical way instead of in a more playful way. My favorite sculpture at the park was the first one that we saw, the basketball one at the entrance of the park. It had the brightest colors, and I liked the movement that it created and it was something that I never would have thought of. The artwork that I had the most questions about was the Indianapolis Island that art students live in for a portion of the year as part of the study. I wonder what the inside looks like, what the living conditions are like, and I would like to hear from a student that has experienced the Island and ask them why they were inclined to participate in the art project.

Stephanie Hodgin - Play-Doh and Creativity

This week's introduction of Play-Doh in the classroom was something that I was not expecting. It is such a simple concept; bringing back a childhood favorite but in the point of view of a college student. But for some reason, it was a difficult exercise for me to accomplish because I can honestly admit that I overthought my expectations. Creativity does not have to be a complex process with multiple steps and extensive thinking, it can be as simple as starting with a small ball of malleable dough, similar to that of a blank canvas in which art can be created. This is the problem with today's schooling system; administrators believe that there has to be some sort of complex answer to the creativity decline in the United States, when reality the answer is quite simple: let children use their imaginations in the classrooms to solve problems.

Stephanie Hodgin-My Favorite Toy

My favorite toy as a child was definitely gel pens. I know, looking back they seem ridiculous and tacky. But in elementary school, they were all the rage to bring to school and draw all your friends' arms and hands with these bright-colored pens. There was nothing my sister and I fought over more than which colors each of us got to bring to school each day.