Ethan's Experiments

Wander     Soundcloud Link:  https://soundcloud.com/user-855245494/wander-sound-experiment-final?si=6316b1e59f964a6a8b2a88f1d800afa0     Since I have very little experience with making music, I wanted to try it again for my final project. My intent with this piece was to still make something dark like my last experiment, but to make it more cohesive and musical. The beginning of the piece opens with a lot of random sounds, because I wanted it to feel like the music was coming together, making itself. I made this piece longer because I want the audience to sit with it, and get into its mood gradually.     By making this project, along with all the other projects we have done in this class, I am participating in what McLuhan calls the "Global Village", the idea that the world is so interconnect now that the world is once again a small village,  culturally speaking. For example this final project is participating with that, because it is uploaded to Soundcloud, where practically

  Untitled No. 1, Ethan Swanson      While it may have taken a lot longer than it should have to print our photos (That dang printer!), overall I think it was really worth it to be able to see a physical version of our photographs. I really liked the look of my photos, and they really feel different on paper and displayed than on a computer. I the texture that the printer adds is really nice. And displaying them professionally with lights and frames was also really fulfilling. The gallery space really directs the eye and makes you focus on the artwork in a different way.      Making the book may have been one of my favorite things we did in class. The process of arranging the photos in a sequence gave a different mood to my photos, and gave an opportunity to tell a visual "story". I also liked arranging the photos in different ways directionally, so that the viewer has to work with the book, and the act of viewing isn't a passive experience. I'm really happy with my p

Allen Ginsberg, Prague, 1965 Link to my presentation:  https://lawrenceu-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/swansone_lawrence_edu/EQwAhjOV1ApNjBTjQqdwswwB6TD6mPHKhnJNeTEp-hBMgw?e=aeKxzr     I had a really great time researching Ginsberg. I was initially interested in him because he was a part of the Beat Generation, who were always interesting because they seemed like  photo-hippies. But upon learning more about him, I realized what an incredible artist and person he was. Howl was especially meaningful to me, because of its righteous rage against parts of American society that still exist today. As a queer person, it was also wonderful to hear about a man who was able to be fairly openly gay in  American society at that time. I'm sure he faced a lot of persecution, and it's amazing he was able to have the cultural impact he had. His poetry is also some of the best I've ever read, and is so incredibly emotional, which is why I chose to share so much of it in my presentation. 

Royal Proclamation of Canada (front), Hand cut calico letters on antique quilt, 2017                 "When information is brushed against information..." (McLuhan, 76)     Gina Adams' work is a remarkable interplay between clear illustration, and abstract patterning.  When the newly made (but history containing) letters interact with the vintage quilts she uses, her quilts show both injustices and the intersectionality of American identity. New information rubs onto the old to create something unique.      I found her Treaty Quilts really interesting conceptually. She could've chosen to make her own quilts to put the letters on, or some other material completely. But she chose to use these vintage, very American style, quilts. So there is this interplay between the letters which are about broken treaties and injustices done onto Native Americans, and these handmade quilts that are objects of comfort. Adams' is placing this  history that is very inflammatory too ma