What do Contemporary Artists Aim to Do?????

1. What do Contemporary Artists Aim to Do????? • Art reflects social issues. • Art affects social issues. • Social issues affect our lives. • Artists use social issues to affect a change • Create art that educates the public and creates dialogue about social issues. “The artist creates the art – but not out of thin air – but within a societal context, supported and buffeted by the conditions of the time – the resources, the technology, the intelligence, the knowledge, the economic, political, social, cultural and religious / philosophical conditions of the moment of the creation of the art.” http://obrag.org/?p=60

2. Conceptual Art • conveying concepts: art designed to present an idea rather than to be appreciated for its creative skill or beauty, often making use of unconventional media instead of painting or sculpture • Highly symbolic in nature.

3. How to Make Conceptual Art • Throw away any previous ideas of what you think art is. The point of conceptual art is to make a point. It is not based in a technique like painting or method like drawing, but rather is the idea of what the art is trying to convey. It is truly important to let go of your boundaries and definitions of what art “is”. • Brainstorm for ideas. Get out a notebook and start to jot down words or visually imagery that comes to mind about your issue. Like a writer who uses words to create mental imagery, the artist use images to spark dialogue and make people respond to their work.

4. Ai Weiwei- Chinese contemporary artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism. Porcelain is almost synonymous with China and, to make this work, Ai Weiwei has manipulated traditional methods of crafting what has historically been one of China’s most prized exports. Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today. Sunflower Seeds

5. Ai Weiwei, Remembering, backpacks, Haus der Kunst,* Munich, 2009

6. Illustrators create art work for book covers, magazine articles and newspaper to help support or summarize the information in a visual way. Douglas Smith Arizona State University researchers develop a new software system capable of estimating greenhouse gas emissions across entire urban landscapes, all the way down to roads and individual buildings. Previously, scientists quantified carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions at a much broader level.

7. Tim O’Brien From farm to table for National Geographic.

9. Genetic Engineering

11. Genetically Modified Egg by Dominic Wilcox http://www.designboom.com/design/genetically-modified-egg-by-dominic-wilcox/

12. Mishka Henner’s British Photographer Issue- Feedlots and Oil Fields “San Andres Oil Field, Hockley County, Texas” (2013) “Coronado Feeders, Dalhart, Texas” (2013), http://www.ediblegeography.com/feed-lots/

13. “Producers Feedlot, Texas” (2013), MishkaHenner

14. ÅsaSonjasdotter, Systems of Simultaneity, 2012 KunstraumKreuzberg, Berlin

15. California's Proposition 37, an effort to label all genetically modified foods, was rejected in November 2012. Genetically Modified Food by C.F. Payne

16. Art and Industrial Agriculture: Claire Pentecost Healthy soil, not unlike seed, is in danger of privatization as industries use pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals in it. Pentecost encourages spectators to consider these conditions by taking the production of good soil into their own hands through a knowledge and practice of composting. “The privatization of the seed in the form of intellectual property is legalized theft of the commons.” Seed, she points out, embodies a knowledge acquired over generations. Farmers and landowners have tilled and labored the earth for seasons to learn how to efficiently and naturally cultivate nutritional foodstuff. But this acquired knowledge of seed is rapidly disappearing into the hands of private enterprises like Monsanto that genetically modify seed and produce fertilizers that grow it. A loss of the fundamental understanding of how to grow food exposes a population to control by corporations. Industrial agriculture is an urgent reverse-Enlightenment situation. Claire Pentecost, Soil-erg, 2012 from the series When you step inside you see that it is filled with seeds in dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel, Germany http://bureauforopenculture.org/2012/09/art-and-industrial-agriculture-claire-pentecost-and-asa-sonjasdotter/

17. GhostFood explores eating in a future of and biodiversity loss brought on by climate change. The GhostFood mobile food trailer serves scent-food pairings that are consumed by the public using a wearable device that adapts human physiology to enable taste experiences of unavailable foods. Inspired by insect physiology (insects use their antennae to smell and thus navigate their world) and long-standing human traditions of technological extension of the senses, the device inserts direct olfactory stimulation into the eating experience. Scents of foods threatened by climate change are paired with foods made from climate change-resilient foodstuffs, to provide the taste illusions of foods that may soon no longer be available. GhostFood staff serve the public, guiding visitors through this pre-nostalgic experience, and engaging dialogue. http://www.miriamsimun.com/ghostfood/

18. Artificial Meat conceptual art by Victor Deshwanberg http://thisismold.com/process/manufacture/tedbooks-super-cells-tandon-joachim#.U3oozk3nbIU

19. What came first: meatless chicken or chicken-less eggs? “Eggs” made mainly from a mixture of sorghum and ground up peas (an excellent source of plant protein). http://thisismold.com/process/manufacture/its-about-cluckin-time-beyond-eggs-plant-based-substitute-tastes-like-the-real-deal#.U3orIk3nbIU

20. “The whole reason why companies use high-fructose corn syrup is that it’s really cheap to make, partly, I think, because the same companies that manufacture these enzymes are also manufacturing corn.” The human body has a harder time breaking down the industrially produced sweeteners and nutritionists have identified the ingredient for use in highly processed foods ranging from yogurt to bread, snack foods to dried fruits. Although the process of cooking up your own batch of HFCS would be a simple project for any home cook, the sourcing of the materials was the most challenging aspect of creating the kit. Maya Weinstein’s DIY High-Fructose Cornsyrup Kit 8 cups of water1 drop Sulfuric Acid2 cups ground corn1 teaspoon Alpha Amylase1 teaspoon Glucose Amylase1 teaspoon Xylose2 droppers Glucose Isomerase http://thisismold.com/process/manufacture/maya-weinsteins-diy-high-fructose-cornsyrup-kit#.U3ong03nbIU