Event 5 Blog Post: HOX ZODIAC: honoring the HORSE

The HOX ZODIAC event had a variety of hosts who spoke of their direct and spiritual experiences with horses, how this connects with their zodiac - and the overall impression it has left on them, their growth, and their character. Linda Weintraub spoke of philosophical elements and her interpretation of the horse through a fable that discusses a boy who would ride a horse at midnight. She describes the erotic relationship that horse may have with its ownder and people, from its fur, to the feeling of muscle and sweet and the outdoors. The boy was seen telling a psychiatrist his altruistic experience with the horse; it was ethereal and allowed him to transcend and experience clarity. The physiatrist envied the boy's passion, and for the psychiatrist to advise the boy he would also be taking away his euphoric experience and escapism from civilization. This form of energy is free from hate, anger, and dominance; it’s a reconnection with visceral energy and going back to the basic roots of oneness with the world and energy away from pressure and civilization. This is the peace we sacrifice when we conform to worldly pleasures and commitments.

Linda Weintraub

Next, Aleksandra Mara spoke of her love and connection to horses. To her, horses are simple and regal beings - their power and innocence attracts her to them equally so. Their energy, as she puts it, is very collaborative and mirrors its owner. Her zodiac is a horse; and she dedicates her time to relief work with horses as well. Though, she largely emphasized and spoke of how we must choose our identities; she relates this message to how she chooses to resonate with horses and what they have done for her and her peace. Hox zodiac is also a component to this as well for her. Aleksandra goes on to explain there is no real research to show or prove that the descriptions of the zodiac is real or factual, but rather there is science to back our acclimation to relate to something we starkly believe in. We are all trying to identify with something; it provides us with purpose. 

Aleksandra Mara

Sources (6 Total):

(1 Attendance Screenshot + 2 Images from Event + 3 Sources) 

 

Ho, F., & Chiao, C. (n.d.). Year of the horse: Fortune and personality – Chinese zodiac. Chinese New Year. Retrieved June 9, 2022, from https://chinesenewyear.net/zodiac/horse/ 

“LINDA WEINTRAUB.” UCLA Art | Sci Center + Lab, 2006, https://artsci.ucla.edu/node/1320. 

 

Mara, Aleksandra. “Aleksandra Mara.” HOX ZODIAC: Honoring the HORSE, Zoom, 5 June 2022. Accessed 9 June 2022. 

Vesna, Victoria, et al. “Hox Zodiac.” HOX ZODIAC | UCLA Art | Sci Center + Lab, 26 May 2018, https://artsci.ucla.edu/node/1390. 

Weintraub, Linda. “Linda Weintraub.” HOX ZODIAC: Honoring the HORSE, Zoom, 5 June 2022. Accessed 9 June 2022. 

 

Attendance Screenshot:

Event 4 Blog Post: Toni Dove

 Toni Dove defines art based research using installations. Her works have been infused with crossover of theatrical elements. “The Lasso” is a combination of light kinetic motion, sounds, and scale. The scale serves in size relation to the body; this is purposeful since it provides an animate metric that Dove used to find relation between her work and people. This allows for a relation between those who view the art work and the kinetic energy it is composed of. Dove also describes that this robotic/ kinetic sculpture becomes somewhat more humanistic in efforts to relate to us - this personifies art. In this regard, Dove hopes  to engage audiences and break down barriers through avid interaction with her work.

“The Lasso”

Moreover, another work called “Lucid Possession” introduces a creative narrative through navigational interactives; this is a new kind of active relation than “Lasso” for viewers. “Lucid Possession” is a theater performance about an image of a girl. The purpose is to show that we live in analog with the digital world and reality. Robots in this work are made as surveillance for potential threats. The question of why we feel an impulse to replicate ourselves is presented and how we can determine the difference between the animate and inanimate world. This then connects our mind to the body, and is something that must be further explored. This cinematic technology is profound and provides existential questions to viewers. This theatrical work truly brings to life the inanimate.

“Lucid Possession”

Sources (6 Total):

(1 Attendance Screenshot + 2 Images from Event + 3 Sources) 

Dove, Toni. “Home.” @Bustlelamp | Tonidove.com, https://tonidove.com/.

Dove, Toni. “Lucid Possession.” Color Light Motion, Zoom, 28 May 2022. Accessed 9 June 2022.

Dove, Toni. “The Lasso.” Color Light Motion, Zoom, 28 May 2022. Accessed 9 June 2022.

“Toni Dove: Embodied Machines.” The Ringling, Gulf Coast Community Foundation, 2017, https://www.ringling.org/events/toni-dove-embodied-machines.

“Toni Dove's Lucid Possession.” Roulette, 27 Apr. 2013, https://roulette.org/event/toni-dove-lucid-possession-3/. 

Attendance Screenshot:

Event 3 Blog Post: Nina Sobell

 I attended Nina Sobell’s talk on the intermingling of the functions of the brain and how the internet is able to create art through this sort of means. Elements of non-verbal communication heavily influenced Sobell’s interpretation of the world and the way she implicated her work and designs. Energy is also a common theme in her ideas as she works towards optimizing what can not be seen into works of tangibility. This association relates a visual application to the unconscious and works as an electronic medium via brain wave drawings. These brain wave drawings render EEG interfaces through electrical impulse by the brain in which two people can see physical and mental images and create a single composite brain wave. In doing this, the aim was to view physcophilosphical aspects of the brain. This work was also meant to connect the physical and cyberworld.

“BrainWave Drawings”

Moreover, Sobells’s ongoing desire to visualize her surroundings and make more intimate connections led her to inner workings of meditation, memory, dream and fantasy. Participants were asked to write about a memory and a dream they had just experienced. Their voices served as a database and mixed with their heartbeats. The brainwaves of EEG were shown and their meditations were written and accounted for. People made one minute drawings per four minutes before a solar eclipse; the drawings were found to match up respectively. This experience of viewing the eclipse was profound in that people became closely connected as a result. This could indicate that they even felt the emotions during their viewing and expressed it though the similar images they composed. In all, the interactions between humans were better understood.

“Seance: Meditation”

Sources (6 Total):

(1 Attendance Screenshot + 2 Images from Event + 3 Sources) 

Nina Sobell. NINA SOBELL. (n.d.). Retrieved June 8, 2022, from http://ninasobell.com/

Scientific American Arabic . (1997, December 22). What is the function of the various     

brainwaves? Scientific American. Retrieved June 8, 2022, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-function-of-t-1997-12-22/

Sobell, N. (2022). BrainWave Drawings. Zoom. Retrieved June 8, 2022.

Sobell, N. (2022). Seance: Meditation. Zoom. Retrieved June 8, 2022.

Sobell, N. (n.d.). HISTORY: BRAIN WAVE DRAWINGS. About: Brain wave drawings. Retrieved June 8, 2022, from http://www.ninasobell.com/ninasobell/history_brainwavedrawings.html 

 

 

Attendance Screenshot: