Onondaga Lake Art Project Proposal

To-Do List:

Create a Powerpoint Presentation- Tim
Write a more formal short essay- Courtney
Get pictures and other visual representations-Everyone
Take another trip to Onondaga Lake Park- Tim
Finish Handout Questions- Everyone
Finalize all of our ideas- Everyone
Plan our presenation-Everyone


We're meeting at 5 tomorrow in order to plan out everything about our presentation

For our project we will act as an art curator in a way, and try to integrate the community members of Onondaga County to interact and support the cleanup of Onondaga Lake. We want to be able to create a “trash sculpture” utilizing the trash found in and around the lake. The project will be always changing and evolving because community members will be encouraged to clean up the physical trash around the lake and add their trash onto the sculpture. We got this idea from seeing similar “trash sculptures” on the beaches in Montauk, New York and Block Island, Rhode Island, where trash and other debris that washed up on the beaches were put together in a somewhat unorganized yet artistic fashion. As the lake gets cleaner and more trash is picked up, the sculpture will become bigger and more intricate. The trash sculpture should be placed in the Onondaga Lake Park because it is easily accessible, widely known throughout the area, and the most traveled/visited of sites located around the lake. In order to gain awareness and recognition for our project we will sponsor trash pick-up days on the first Saturday of every month, and put notification of the events in the local newspapers of Syracuse and place fliers throughout the city and its surrounding suburbs. We want to be able to work in this area, because of the lake’s rich history with pollution. We feel that almost all of the adults in the area are aware of the pollution problems associated with Onondaga Lake, and will be glad to help with the efforts of cleaning up the area while being able to gather, socialize and be creative in the lake park. We will get permission to work in the park, from the department that is in charge of the park. We would like to create an initial abstract sculpture using some materials like brass or other metal to provide an outline of where to add trash to in an artistic way. Our idea for this project was inspired by the lecture that Daniel Tucker gave to us in class, in which he told us about how he gathered community members in Chicago and used the warehouse as the headquarters in order to regain public space. The goal of this project is not only to physically clean the trash from the lake and highlight the various pollution problems surrounding the lake, but also to incorporate as many community members as possible. The success of this sculpture will be dependent on the interaction of the community, and will be measured by how much interaction and attention/publicity the sculpture achieves, and by how effectively it promotes lake clean-up awareness.

Onondaga Lake Art Project Creative Brief

My idea for the project is to act as an art curator in a way, and try to integrate the community members of Onondaga County to interact and support the cleanup of Onondaga Lake. I want to be able to create a “trash sculpture” utilizing the trash found in and around the lake. The project will be always changing and evolving because community members will be encouraged to clean up the physical trash around the lake and add their trash onto the sculpture. As the lake gets cleaner and more trash is picked up, the sculpture will become bigger and more intricate. The trash sculpture should be placed in the Onondaga Lake Park because it is easily accessible, widely known throughout the area, and the most traveled/visited of sites located around the lake. I want to be able to work in this area, because of the lake’s rich history with pollution. I feel that almost all of the adults in the area are aware of the pollution problems associated with Onondaga Lake, and will be glad to help with the efforts of cleaning up the area while being able to gather, socialize and be creative in the lake park. We will get permission to work in the park, from the department that is in charge of the park. I would like to create an initial abstract sculpture using some materials like brass or other metal to provide an outline of where to add trash to in an artistic way. My idea for this project was inspired by the lecture that Daniel Tucker gave to us in class, in which he told us about how he gathered community members in Chicago and used the warehouse as the headquarters in order to regain public space. The goal of this project is not only to physically clean the trash from the lake and highlight the various pollution problems surrounding the lake, but also to incorporate as many community members as possible. The success of this sculpture will be dependent on the interaction of the community, and will be measured by how much interaction and attention/publicity the sculpture achieves, and by how effectively it promotes lake clean-up awareness.

Superfund 365 Onondaga Lake

About four and a half miles long and a mile wide, the picturesque Onondaga Lake is situated just north of Syracuse, New York (Onondaga Lake Facts). An aerial shot unveils a bucolic scene with its surrounding green fields dotted with clusters of trees and the roofs of farmhouses (Munson). However, a closer look at this lake reveals a tire at the bottom of the lake and other remnants of its damaging past. Since the 1800s, the uses of Onondaga Lake had become increasingly detrimental, and persisted into the twentieth century. Onondaga County had once been a very prosperous county, which can be accredited mostly to the success of Onondaga Lake. The area thrived during the 1800s and the Industrial Revolution during the height of the commercial salt industry which gave Syracuse its title as the “Salt City”. Many resorts had been built along the coastline of the lake, which brought an influx of revenue from tourism. Along with the salt industry and tourism, Onondaga Lake also boasted a strong cold-water fishery, which produced vast commercial amounts of Onondaga Lake Whitefish and Atlantic salmon. By the turn of the century, the success of the lake began to decline. During the 1900s the commercial success of Onondaga County came to a halt as tourism and fishing declined due to rising pollution and the banning of swimming in 1940, and fishing in 1970 (Landers 64). The lake had also merited the title of one of the “most polluted lakes in America” due to heavy metal contaminants and high levels of Mercury (Hesler, 10). However, it wasn’t until 1994 that the lake landed a spot on the Superfund National Priority List of sites (Onondaga Lake History).
The main sources responsible for the pollution of Onondaga Lake include the large corporations and industries present along the lake’s shores, and the improper disposal of the county’s municipal wastes and sewage. During the Industrial Revolution the Solvay Process Company utilized the lake’s natural resources to produce soda ash and other organic chemicals. The other major large corporations that significantly contributed to the vast amount of pollution in the lake include Allied-Signal Inc. and Honeywell International. The major problems with pollution include high levels of phosphorous, salt, ammonia and other nitrates, mercury and other toxic substances, including chlorobenzene. Chlorobenzene can lead to unconsciousness, muscle spasms, and damage to bone marrow in humans. In animals, it can harm internal organs and blood (OPPT)
Onondaga Lake is a prime example of a hazardous waste site that is being harmed by the gradual decrease in the amount of funding that is sent to the Superfund Program. In 1995, to the detriment of clean up efforts at Onondaga Lake, Congress stopped recognizing the “polluter pays” enforcement and focused more on the collection of taxes from the general population to pay for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites. To this date, Onondaga Lake continues to fail to receive the attention from the federal government and the Environmental Protection Agency that it deserves. While Onondaga Lake has been recognized and protected by the Clean Water Act passed by Congress since 1972, additional resources are needed to complete the restoration of this natural resource (Onondaga Lake Partnership). With the organization of the Onondaga Lake Management Conference in 1990 and the completion of the Plan of Action adopted by the Conference in 1993, Lake Onondaga has an outline plan to restore the lake to its original condition (Onondaga Lake Partnership). Further mandates have been initiated to upgrade the sewage treatment facilities and systems discharging into the lake. The intention is to achieve compliance with the conditions of the Clean Water Act for Onondaga Lake and its tributaries by the year 2012 (Onondaga Lake Partnership).
The lack of attention and effort by Congress to further clean up efforts in contaminated sites such as Onondaga Lake is a direct result contributing to the environmental, social, and most importantly, the economic despair and injustice that inundates Onondaga County. The fact is that the people of Onondaga County have not chosen to abandon their once prosperous city in exchange for an unwanted title as one of the nation’s most polluted lakes. The gradual decline in the efficiency of the lake is responsible for vast economic problems in the area today. This decline was dictated by the large industrial corporations that abused the lake, and in turn created an environmental, social and economic mess.

Tim Kianka, Courtney Allessio, Amy Marisavljevic


Works Cited
Knickerbocker, Brad. "Superfund Program: A Smaller Cleanup Rag."
Christian Science Monitor 14 Nov. 2003. 2 Oct. 2007 .

Landers, Jay. "New Life for Onondaga Lake." Civil Engineering May 2006: 64-86.

Onondaga Lake Partnership. 4 Oct. 2007. Onondaga Lake Partnership. 7 Oct 2007 .

Basic Information." Superfund US EPA. 21 Sep 2007. EPA. 5 Oct 2007 .

"EPA Region 2." http://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/0203382c.pdf. 25 July 2007. EPA. 5 Oct 2007 .

Hesler, Don, Karen Williamson. "Return to Glory: The resurgence of Onondaga Lake." New York State Conversationalist 61.1 (2006): 7-14. Wilson Omnifile Full Text, Mega Edition. H.W. Wilson. Syracuse University Libraries, Syracuse, NY. 4 Oct 2007. http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com /

Miller, Susan. "Onondaga Lake Facts." Onondaga Lake Improvement Project. Aug 2007. Onondaga County Department of Water Environmental Protection. 3 Oct 2007 .

Miller, Susan. "Onondaga Lake History." Onondaga Lake Improvement Project. Aug 2007. Onondaga County Department of Water Environmental Protection. 2 Oct 2007 .

Munson, BH. "Lake Otisco." Water on the Web. 09 Mar 2004. University of Minnesota Duluth. 6 Oct 2007 .

"Onondaga Lake Partnership: Composition & Member Organizations." Onondaga Lake Partnership. Oct 2007. Onondaga Lake Partnership. 8 Oct 2007 .

"OL Management Plan Summary." Onondaga Lake Partnership. Oct 2007. Onondaga Lake Partnership. 8 Oct 2007 .

"OPPT Chemical Fact Sheets: Chlorobenzene." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Jan 1995. US EPA. 6 Oct 2007 .

Essay 3: Analysis of an Art Project

Tim Kianka
November 5, 2007


Analysis of An Art Project

The general view of art by many people who are not so enthusiastic about art tends to be that art must serve to please the eyes of the viewer. However, throughout the twentieth century many artists are moving away from that general misconception with new genres of art emerging throughout the century, such as avant-garde, “dialogic”, public and participatory art. These new genres of art have been focusing mainly on the conversation, participation or ideas from the general public to create the definition for the pieces of work. What clearly has arrived is that art is considered in a much wider array of forms then we previously believed.
It is a common misconception that the visual experience of art is simply a static form. Art has evolved into much more dynamic forms culturally and broadened our perspective of what it means to be involved in art. The clarity of the art form and the message it is intended to deliver remain very subjective, but newer forms are opening up to even more interpretation then forms of the past. Some times these forms stretch the imagination of both participants and audience and are more probable social statements on society.
This is especially true in the case of participatory art. Participatory or public art directly uses participation and interaction from the community in order to unite the viewers or community to a common theme. In her lecture at Syracuse University on October 30, 2007, Mary Jane Jacob highlighted many of the main aspects of participatory or public art. She began the lecture by discussing how public art started in the early to mid 1900s because artists did not want their art to be confined to museums since museums tended to be isolated and reflected a “superior cultural status”. These artists decidedly took their works to communities and used the past or present history of the community to define the message that their piece of artwork displayed and involve the community in the art form. With the beginning and evolution of public or participatory art forms, art has started to become much less focused on the aesthetic values of the piece of art and much more focused on the meaning or feelings that the piece of work extracts from the viewer.
Adrian Piper serves as an excellent example of a present day participatory or public artist. Her work “Funk Lessons” provides one example of the how the medium of participatory art captures an audience in an unorthodox manner. The expressions of her medium are not in the form of canvas and paint but through an involvement of her audience urging them to forego their inhibitions and learn the art of dancing funky. Sound, mood and rhythm form the foundation of her artwork. Piper explains the simplicity of the dance, the featured two-step form and sets the musical mood to encourage participants to let the rhythm of the beat move them to join in a celebratory manner. The attitude is that there is no magic to the dance scene, but there is a pleasure to be derived from joining in the group. The form of her art is purely dance and it takes shape as the participants blend with the music and one another. The sound is pumping and the beat of the music pulsates repetitiously to drive every participant to pick up the steps in time with the music. There is no precision to the step because the nature of the dance form presses the participant to find their own center as long as they join the dance. It has a delirious and almost euphoric effect on its participants because a person can avoid the inhibitions they might feel in a contest where they are singularly displayed compared to belonging to the group.
This is an art form intended for everyone. There is no targeted audience or cultural group. It is not intended to be viewed as a static form of art. It is intended to help its participants break down barriers and feel the pleasure of dance in a most simplistic step. By the very definition of the word participatory, “Funk Lessons” looks to bridge cultural divides and join people into the dance form of funk. There is no perfect result to the dance and the picture this form paints changes constantly and is never the same in each setting. The participants become united and the audience feels the emotion of the participants as they move together.
“Funk Lessons” takes place in a typical lecture hall setting. However, the dance form and the creation of the art form could clearly be played out in a variety of locations. The setting is not as important as gaining the participation from the audience. Stimulating the members of the audience is critical to the success of the fulfilling the artistic medium. A simple emotion stirred by the music hopes to unleash more creativity in the dance. The creativity acts as an elixir in breaking down the barriers among the participants. It is live art and it grows as the dance scene consumes its subjects.
Funk music was originally found to be impolite or indecent by many white people because of its association with sexual connotations. People disliked it because of its association to African beats and rhythm, and others disliked it because it was thought to be too “loosely” structured. In “Notes on Funk”, Piper gives a detailed account of the emotions that her lessons on funk provoked in the middle class college educated white students taking her course when she stated,
“The intimate scale of the dialogue permitted a more extensive exploration of individual reactions to funk music and dance, which are usually fairly intense and complex. For example it sometimes elicited anxiety, anger or contempt from middle-class, college-educated whites: anxiety because it association with black, working-class culture engenders unresolved racist feelings that are then represses or denied rather than examined; anger; because it is both sexually threatening and culturally intrusive to individuals schooled exclusively in the idiom of the European-descended tradition of classical, folk and/or popular music; contempt, because it sounds “mindless” or “monotonous” to individuals who, through lack of exposure to musicological training, are unable to discern its rhythmic, melodic and topical complexity”(Bishop 133).
In her lessons Piper attempts to bridge the gap between the culture of funk dance and the many white people during the time period that failed to accept funk, or found it immoral. The passage above shows the various amount of negative emotion that was generally originated from Piper’s work. This character of the piece of Piper’s art shows how “Funk Lessons” can be considered a piece of participatory art. It engages the audience in the community with full intention and it uses the developing emotions of the audience in order to create a definition for the piece of art.
The effect of Piper’s participatory art form subverts all prejudices and emboldens participants to “Get down and party together”(Bishop 132). It is a unification strategy where each participant in the group can find trust among the next person in an unselfconscious form. Through becoming an active part of the dance, people are joined together in a trusting mood, yet isolated environment. There is no room for a passive bystander in this art form and an atmosphere of “feel good” through involvement is the message Piper seeks to evoke. Her theory is that a bond is created and once that bond is established more harmonious discussions, decisions and debate can be formulated between the participants.
Piper’s theory is clearly only a matter of attitude and an observation of a short period in time. Her theory can be supported in a small setting; however, on a larger scale it has several short comings. As a medium of art the audience must be a willing participant and the setting must be a non-hostile environment. The concept of the art form in a video context is fascinating; however, the ability to make critical judgments on the piece is limited. The emotion of the art is more closely felt by the participants rather than the audience. It is much more of a social statement than art form. While dance itself certainly has artistic context and regularly choreographed forms of dance can be critiqued, Piper’s participatory form is much more free form. No two settings would necessarily create the exact same mood or feeling and the interpretation of the medium changes with the music and attitudes of the audience. It is arguable that in order to reach a true breakaway from the cultural barriers that a larger audience would be needed. But in terms of the effectiveness of “Funk Lessons” on the participants and Piper, than it can be seen as a large success. Piper describes the results as:
“The result was often cathartic, therapeutic and intellectually stimulating: to engage consciously with these and related issues can liberate one to listen to and understand this art form of black, working-class culture without fear or shame and so to gain a deeper understanding of the cultural and political dimension’s of one’s social identity”(Bishop 133-134).
Furthermore, Piper also goes on to summarize her beliefs in the practice of participatory art in the destruction of cultural barriers in the last paragraph of “Notes on Funk” where she discusses how she believes that the continuation of these stimulating demonstrations will open up the minds of the public and tear down cultural barriers between black and white cultures.
“Funk Lessons” provides the ultimate example of a piece of participatory or public art display. The piece of work perfectly parallels what Hafthor Yngvason stated in Miwon Kwon’s “One Place After Another”, when her states “As Public Art has developed over the last two decades, its emphasis has been on techniques of integration-not just to incorporate art physically into buildings and parks but also to foster social assimilation”(Kwon 115). “Funk Lessons” also falls into an example of participatory art by following the guidelines set forth by artist Mary Jane Jacob. “Funk Lessons” calls for the unification of the community and the breaking away from cultural barriers which so perfectly defines the purpose of participatory art. By allowing people, cultures and entire communities to participate in easy demonstrations such as dance enables the social assimilation that Yngvason discusses.



Works Cited
Bishop, Claire, ed. Participation: Documents of Contemporary Art. London and Cambridge, Massachusetts: Whitechapel and the MIT Press, 2006.

Kwon, Miwon. One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Idenitity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2004.

Essay 3 Outline

Essay 3 Outline

Topics to be covered in individual paragraphs


1. What is Public Art?…define the basics of public art for the reader

2. Who is Adrian Piper how does she relate to Public/Participatory art?

3. Provide information about Notes on Funk

4. What is Funk music? How did it start? ….etc- provide a background for the reader about funk.

5. The Beatnik and Hippie Movements of the 1950s and 60s are common examples of nonconformity directed mostly towards white culture. Can the funk movement be seen as a type of nonconformity or even a peaceful protest for black culture?

6. Is there a deeper meaning for Piper's "Funk Lessons", or was she simply trying to teach the fundamentals of funk dancing? If so, what is the deeper meaning that she tries to teach us?


Quotes

- “This is particularly true in funk, where the concern is not how spectacular anyone looks but rather how completely everyone participates in a collectively shared, enjoyable experience” – Adrian Piper

- “We were all engaged in a pleasurable process of self-transcendence and creative expression within a highly structured and controlled cultural idiom, in a way that attempted to overcome cultural and racial barriers.” – Adrian Piper

- “it gives me the chance to affirm and explore the cultural dimensions of my identity as a black in ways that illuminate my personal and political cconnection to other (more identifiably) black people, and celebrate our common cultural heritage.” – Adrian Piper

- "As public art has developed over the last two decades, its emphasis has been on techniques of integration-not just to incorporate art physically into buildings and parks but also to foster social assimilation.” -Hafthor Yngvason

Thesis

-The funk movement can be seen as a peaceful protest for black culture and civil rights.

-Through “Notes on Funk” Piper uses participatory art to show how the funk movement can be seen as more than just a music movement, but a movement by the entire African American counterculture during the time period.

Mary Jane Jacob, Public Art, and Miwon Kwon

"As public art has developed over the last two decades, its emphasis has been on techniques of integration-not just to incorporate art physically into buildings and parks but also to foster social assimiliation."

-Hafthor Yngvason in "One Place After Another" by Miwon Kwon, Page 115


This quote helps to highlight and emphasize the main points given in the lecture by Mary Jane Jacob last night. Jacob shows how the world of participatory art started in the early 1900s when it was realized that museums tended to isolate art, because of how they "reflected a superior cultural status". The main idea of participatory art stems from cutting out the "middle man", which in this case is the museum, and bringing the work of art and the audience directly together. In public art, the artist introduces something new into a culture that may or may not be percieved as art. This requires the participation and communication of the members of the community in order to relate to the themselves, the piece of art, and the environment and helps to shape a meaning for the piece of art. This idea of creating a meaning for a piece of art focuses very little on the aesthetics of the artwork and focuses on uniting the members of the community. Throughout her lecture, Mary Jane Jacob focuses mainly on the recent works of public art being displayed in Charleston, South Carolina. These various works of art are focusing on uniting the black and white communities of the city by trying to bring together the slave and "superior" class cultures that were evident in the early to mid-1800s, at the height of the slave trade.

Essay 3: Analysis of an Art Project Topic Choice

My Topic: Adrian Piper- "Funk Lessons"

Question 1: The Beatnik and Hippie Movements of the 1950s and 60s are common examples of nonconformity directed mostly towards white culture. Can the funk movement be seen as a type of nonconformity or even a peaceful protest for black culture?

Question 2: Is there a deeper meaning for Piper's "Funk Lessons", or was she simply trying to teach the fundamentals of funk dancing? If so, what is the deeper meaning that she tries to teach us?

List of Resources:

1. "Out of Order, Out of Sight" by Adrian Piper
2. "Adrian Piper as African American Artist" by John P. Bowles from "American Art"
3. "Re-member the Audience: Adrian Piper's Mythic Being Advertisements" by Cherise Smith from "Art Journal"
4. "Funk : the music, the people, and the rhythm of the one" by Rickey Vincent