HYRBID HEROES / Alter Egos
HYRBID HEROES | ALTER EGOS
In this assignment, you will be transforming your own body. You will be using your body as a
point of departure instead of the wall, floor, or table. The parameters and materials are simple,
but the solutions will be complex.
Using only cardboard and glue you will create an armature, extension, ‘costume’, etc. that
connects to your body, and transforms you in some way. You will celebrate, enhance, disguise
or improve some aspect of your outer appearance or inner nature. The extensions can be
joyful, morose, dark, or humorous. (Avoid using humor for humor’s sake.) These pieces are
extensions of your body: they must connect, support, hold, or suspend from your body. At the
end of the assignment, you will be documenting yourself in your construction.
You have to think about the relationship of this form to your body, but also the relationship of
the form (and its surface) to your concept.
You are being asked to form an idea and integrate it with our investigations of form, volume, mass, etc..
In this assignment, you will be transforming your own body. You will be using your body as a
point of departure instead of the wall, floor, or table. The parameters and materials are simple,
but the solutions will be complex.
Using only cardboard and glue you will create an armature, extension, ‘costume’, etc. that
connects to your body, and transforms you in some way. You will celebrate, enhance, disguise
or improve some aspect of your outer appearance or inner nature. The extensions can be
joyful, morose, dark, or humorous. (Avoid using humor for humor’s sake.) These pieces are
extensions of your body: they must connect, support, hold, or suspend from your body. At the
end of the assignment, you will be documenting yourself in your construction.
You have to think about the relationship of this form to your body, but also the relationship of
the form (and its surface) to your concept.
You are being asked to form an idea and integrate it with our investigations of form, volume, mass, etc..
ALTER EGOS : HYBRID HEROES
A hybrid is something of mixed origin or composition, adding variety or complexity to a
system. In science, a hybrid is the offspring of genetically dissimilar plants or animals, often
produced by breeding or grafting different varieties or species. In language, a hybrid word is
one whose elements are derived from different languages. In an automobile, a hybrid
combines an electric motor with a gasoline engine.
And what would it mean to make a hybrid art form?
In art forms, hybridity could mean the blurring of traditional distinct boundaries between
artistic media such as painting, sculpture, film, performance, architecture, and dance.
It also can mean crossbreeding art making with other disciplines, such as natural and physical
science, industry, technology, literature, popular culture, or philosophy.
Hybrid art forms expand the possibilities for experimentation and innovation in
contemporary art.
Today’s artists are free to make art with whatever material or technique they can imagine.
This freedom creates new opportunities to express ideas and concepts. It also opens up a
number of challenges, choices, and decisions for artists:
Should I work to master a traditional art form, or should I work to create innovative
new art forms?
Or should I do both?
Should I experiment with materials that are industrial or outside the scope of my
studio if those materials seem to be the best way to express my artistic goals?
How can I define myself as an artist if I am shifting, combining, and recombining
techniques from inside and outside the worlds of art?
People have gone to great lengths to alter, decorate, and modify their bodies throughout time.
Scarification, tattoos, and the stretching of ear lobes and lips are some examples.
In addition, in religious rituals, theater, and the football stadium, humans have often adorned
the body with fantastical extensions that conceal, distort, or transform.
Blurring boundaries, breaking rules, and creating hybrids occupies much artistic work today.
However, making meaning in art—whatever tools, materials, or techniques are used—remains
central to artistic practice.
MEANING. THIS IS ABOUT MAKING MEANING.
A hybrid is something of mixed origin or composition, adding variety or complexity to a
system. In science, a hybrid is the offspring of genetically dissimilar plants or animals, often
produced by breeding or grafting different varieties or species. In language, a hybrid word is
one whose elements are derived from different languages. In an automobile, a hybrid
combines an electric motor with a gasoline engine.
And what would it mean to make a hybrid art form?
In art forms, hybridity could mean the blurring of traditional distinct boundaries between
artistic media such as painting, sculpture, film, performance, architecture, and dance.
It also can mean crossbreeding art making with other disciplines, such as natural and physical
science, industry, technology, literature, popular culture, or philosophy.
Hybrid art forms expand the possibilities for experimentation and innovation in
contemporary art.
Today’s artists are free to make art with whatever material or technique they can imagine.
This freedom creates new opportunities to express ideas and concepts. It also opens up a
number of challenges, choices, and decisions for artists:
Should I work to master a traditional art form, or should I work to create innovative
new art forms?
Or should I do both?
Should I experiment with materials that are industrial or outside the scope of my
studio if those materials seem to be the best way to express my artistic goals?
How can I define myself as an artist if I am shifting, combining, and recombining
techniques from inside and outside the worlds of art?
People have gone to great lengths to alter, decorate, and modify their bodies throughout time.
Scarification, tattoos, and the stretching of ear lobes and lips are some examples.
In addition, in religious rituals, theater, and the football stadium, humans have often adorned
the body with fantastical extensions that conceal, distort, or transform.
Blurring boundaries, breaking rules, and creating hybrids occupies much artistic work today.
However, making meaning in art—whatever tools, materials, or techniques are used—remains
central to artistic practice.
MEANING. THIS IS ABOUT MAKING MEANING.