Occipital Lobe (R)

To start off the Occipital Lobe sits at the back of the brain.

The Occipital Lobe is in charge of visual processing. It identifies and differentiates shapes and color from one another. This is also how we understand letters (because after all, they are just shapes).

From what I understood is that the right and left parts of the occipital lobe do the exact same thing unlike other parts of the brain. 

For my observation, I was looking at my Polaroid camera. Thinking with this part of the brain I focused on shapes and colors. My main thinking was "What does a polaroid look like using only visual information".

This is the shape that I ended up using and then carving into a block stamp.

I then printed this image onto a polaroid I had taken of my cat (with expired film so that is why the image is a little distorted). In the end, I ended up stamping it 6 times to create a pattern.

(the craft is a little off due to the surface being slippery and not porous like paper)

Temporal Lobe (R) + Memories

Temporal Lobe (Right)

The temporal lobes are associated with processing auditory information and the encoding of memory. The right temporal lobe (or the non-dominant lobe) is involved in learning and remembering non-verbal information, such as visuospatial material and music. It is also specialized to process nonverbal memories such as memories for pictures, visual scenes, familiar faces, routes, and directions. 

I wanted to focus on how the temporal lobe is associated with non-verbal memories (pictures and music) so I decided to do a timelapse of the sky.
I didn’t have an intervalometer, which is basically an automated shutter release, so I had to do the timelapse manually. While I sat there taking a photo every 15 mins, and then every 5 mins, I was listening to music and the music brought up memories. With each song, I can remember where I was, who I was with, and what time of day it was. So I decided to couple the two. I mashed it all together so it kind of looks and sounds like switching through memories. 


Here's the video:
The password is CCT

Flipping Through Memories from Tamar Patterson on Vimeo.

Self Portrait in a Box

   

   

Welcome to my self portrait in a box! I decided to make an alligator because as I was moving the box around searching for a way to display it, I stumbled upon this final position. The final product was playful and fun, two things that I feel also depict me.

The context of the alligator's context is as follows:

• Found image: lost polaroid from a few years ago
• Me: a photo of me and my baby sister, who makes me very happy
• Safe person: my middle sister; she's a year younger than me and my best friend
• I want to live in a clean and sustainable environment
• Something that scares me is that if we don't start to prioritize our environment it'll become obsolete
• Inspires me: music, specifically though the SoundCloud app
• Gives me joy: my camera (Nikon D750)
• I love to go to music festivals but doesn't really fit my plan (the festival bracelet in teeth)
• Secret: staying secret
• If I was a state of water I would definitely be liquid, as represented by the swamp water under the alligator. I am adaptive and ever-changing!
• and last not least, an alligator is bigger than the literal box itself

Self Portrait Box

Never Done Before

I, ashamedly, I have never before been to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Having lived in the Twin Cities for almost 3 years now, I felt it was high time I went. This new experience gave way to another as well, as I decided to make myself on a date! I really enjoyed just browsing around the museum with no pressure of places to be or people to talk to. Pictured here are a few of my favorite pieces including, of course, the museum's Van Gogh. I decided to document this project through a collage created in photoshop, as it is my preferred artistic tool of choice. Now that I have Mia under my belt, I have set a goal to take myself on a date to the Walker!

Self Portrait Box

1. Found photo: A picture of my mom "back in the day" that I found in a box in my basement. 

2. Image of yourself: A picture of me eating ramen on a beach.

3. Image of "safe" person: A picture I took of my friend Nami.

4. An image of an environment you'd like to live in: A picture of a lake surrounded by mountains. I'd love to live in the Lake Tahoe area or somewhere similar.

5. State of water: Clouds! 

6. Something that inspires me: I wrote this Winnie the Pooh quote on a napkin in a McDonald's a few years ago. I thought it was cute. It says, "Always remember that you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think, and loved more than you know."

7. Something that brings me joy: My dog, obviously. Specifically, my dog after he's taken a bath. 

8. A secret: Shhh, it's a secret!

9. Something that scares/worries me: Loss

10. Something you love doing: I love building things, figuring out how to put things together, redecorating/remodeling, etc. Call me for all your Ikea needs. 

11. Something bigger than the box: My passport, or travel in general. Gotta love that nomadic lifestyle!

 

 

Never Done Before

I originally planned to make pasta from scratch for my never done before, but at the time I wanted a dessert, so I decided to make churros instead. The recipe was pretty simple so I anticipated the process to be quicker and easier than it turned out to be. After I had made the dough I realized that we just threw out our only piping bag, so I had to DIY one. That whole process was a mess and the reason it took me twice as long to make the churros, but in the end they turned out pretty well.

Never Done Before

Two weeks ago on Sunday, I was working at Urban Outfitters and literally was so hungry from not eating before coming into my shift and surviving off of water and dum dums.

Across the street there’s a Jimmy Johns that everyone at Urban goes to for a quick lunch break and considers it the fastest place to get food nearby. I’ve never ordered from Jimmy Johns and refused to my whole life.

Jimmy Johns owner, Jimmy John Liautaud, is a big-game hunter and images of him holding and posing next to the limp bodies of a cheetah and elephant were exposed in 2011. It was after this that a magazine called The Hunting Report stated that Liautaud also hunted lynx, rhinos, deer and wolves.

Knowing this, I tried to think of alternative places to quickly grab a bite, but cheaper places were further blocks down and with the cold temperatures, I didn’t want to be walking outside for too long. I even asked my manager when he went out for break to buy me a sandwich so the blood wouldn’t be on my hands, but he received the text too late and returned without knowing I’ve asked.

I made the decision to buy a sandwich and kept convincing myself that it’s just once sandwich that Ill purchase out of my whole lifetime from this company and that it doesn’t compare to those who buy it multiple times a week. Walking into the sandwich shop, I felt guilt but more than that, I felt hunger. I quickly ordered the sandwich, not making eye contact with anyone as if they know my secret, and ran back to work to devour the thing before my guilty conscience could stop me.

It wasn’t until after my lunch I realized how awful and disappointed I was in myself. Something I advocated for so strongly and something that I kept out of my life for so long was all turned over because of my hunger and for my dumb self not eating or bringing a snack to work beforehand. Those $7 could have gone towards something more rewarding but instead was fed into a massacring murderer’s pocket.

Self Portrait in a Box

For my self portrait box,  I chose to keep it as casual as possible just because it's easier and I like to consider myself a casual person. I painted the box yellow, because it's one of my favorite colors and it was less boring than white.

The images on the outside are of storefronts. I don't have a specific place I would like to live, but I have a general idea. I'd like to live a couple years somewhere in Europe. A small town on the outskirts of a large city like Barcelona or Florence. I'd love to live somewhere that's rich in history and has adorable, traditional architecture like these cute storefronts. Possibly London or Brighton? We'll see.








If I could be any form of water, I'd be coconut water. BLESS THE COCO GODS!!! Feeling thirsty? Coconut water. Feeling sick? Coconut water. Hungover? Coconut water. Just want something to cure your sadness? COCONUT WATER!

For my found image, I found a cute ass picture of a smiling hedgehog which is shown in the photo below.

 

For an image of myself, I put a painting that my friend did of me in the box since I'm not a photogenic person and I rather be behind the camera than in front of it. The two polaroids are of a long time friend I've known for 15 years and a recent friend I met here at MCAD. I can be my absolute self with them both. The lighter is apart of my secret, sorry can't tell you. I don't do hard drugs, I swear that's not it. The dollar bill is my financial future which is what scares me the most. Not being able to financially handle myself or not have a healthy source of income. Being a first generation and coming from an immigrant family, money was something that was always held over our heads and the American Dream for us was being a financially stable family. Finally, the UNO card is something I LOVE playing and I'm very competitive when it comes to UNO. If I wasn't a designer or had no plan for my future, I would form a National UNO League and battle people and become number one in the world :-)

Self Portrait in a Box

For my self portrait, I picked an oblong box, and I decided to do kind of a mobile for it.

1. The found image I have is usually taped to a part of my desk. I got it from my mentor at my internship, when we were making a kind of collage. We didn’t really know what to do with the photo so she just kind of gave it to me and I stuck it on my desk.
2. The picture of myself is from a couple years ago when my brother got his first dog and we were babysitting him a lot, so he would take naps with me sometimes.
3. My “safe” person is my best friend. Many years ago she took some unflattering photos of herself on my phone when I wasn’t in the room and I still have some of them.
4. The image I have is from one of the roads I would drive around with my mom around my cabin. I really just like any woodsy areas.
5. If I were a state of water I would be a lake because there are so many lakes in Minnesota, and I think associate myself with that.
6. I taped a chunk of a succulent from my room onto my box. Anything with nature inspires me, and it’s really cool to watch plants grow, because it requires a lot of patience and dedication.
7. My dog’s name is Moose, so I have a lot of moose related souvenirs in my room, like the moose carving that is part of my mobile.
8. When I was somewhere between the ages of 10-12, I started hiding matches around my room and I found a cluster of matches in my closet from that time period.
9. The little d20 in the wire cage is part of a necklace I have. I get nervous about playing d&d with my friends because I am the DM, and I always worry about making something that people will enjoy and have fun playing.
10. The glass rock thing is meant to reference a rock or one of the holds on a rock wall. I really enjoy rock climbing and it is one of my favorite forms of exercise.
11. The object that is bigger than the box itself is one of my dog’s collars. We got it around Halloween.

 

 

Never Done Before

I had kind of a difficult time coming up with an activity to do for this assignment. Last week when I was at work, my boss went out to lunch with some people and asked if I had ever had a Chicago style hot dog, which I had not, so she brought one back for me. I am a really picky eater, and I normally wouldn’t have something like that, but I’ve been trying to try new things, so I ate it. The dog was “dragged through the park”, with a lot of toppings on it, onions, big slices of tomato, a pickle slice, and some other things. The only thing I didn’t eat on the hot dog was the tomato, which I am absolutely not a fan of, but everything else I ate, which was pretty good for someone as picky as me. It was a pretty good hot dog, and I think I would get it again. Sometimes I just have to force myself to try new things, and that's how I’ve found most of the new food I like.

Box Portrait / Never Done Before

This was all done by working with the right side of my brain as much as possible.
 What I did was set the materials I was gonna work with in front of me and let my hands move and grab things without thinking about it.
For the charcoal pieces I didn't have any input or intention, I just let my hands make whatever. For the paintings I focused on one word the whole time (either "Inspiration", "Joy", or "Fear") and tried to hold that feeling and bring up memories associated with it while I worked.
For the news clippings I sifted through a big ol stack of newspapers, tore out ones that stuck out and stuck them to the wall without thinking about it.
I found that while I was working I had no idea where it was going, but after I was done with each part I was satisfied and felt like it belonged, did what it needed to do, etc.

Some nifty effects of trying to live out of the right side of my brain:
I could use my left hand way more effectively - About half of the art in the room was done with my left hand, and my hands would often pass the tool between them as I worked and could operate with pretty equal efficiency. My writing with my left hand (and other basic motor functions) became way faster.
My internal monologue and background brain-noise changed. Rather than being a voice and words, my thoughts were more color and feeling-based. I found that my left brain would become uncomfortable with the ambiguity of my thoughts and would go out of its way to narrate my actions and thoughts.
My sense of identity shifted so that my thoughts, self-image, and notions about myself became another aspect of me, rather than the whole truth. My relationship to myself became much more amorphous. In a way it was a sort of dissociation, where the part of me that I identified as the core of my being-ness took a step back and just observed everything. From this point of view it was hard to take anything too seriously.
I also found that I could stay up way later without getting tired and wake up earlier. My appetite was also decreased, but I was still energetic.

 (Joy)

 (Fear)

 (Inspiration)

Here's some video links of the box room:
(I couldn't find a way to play the music with the video, so I'll link to that as well)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fXkmmENUEZKXU_8ctokdS_J1470mL_V1
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GQ4jJX4RAE2vRzP3roYnXbmwVrdeEvFh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1k41N7fTy0

Project #2 Cady's Box Self Portrait

My box was just plain white on the outside then when you open it up you see the "dreamland" type space. I used Tarot Cards to depict the prompt to making the box and and old friendship bracelet to hold them all together by.

What I did in terms of the prompts:

1.  A Found image:

    Tarot Cards, although I did remake them

2.  An image of yourself:

    Not so much an actual picture but its represented in the bracelet

3.  An image of Safe person:   

    My friend made me the bracelet when we went to college

4.  An image of an environment that you’d like to live in:   

    Near the water or in the forest(moon and sun tarot), but I also love the city so conflicting

5. State of Water:

    Mist or a rainstorm, both just make me feel calm: Clouds in box/ moon tarot

6•   Something that inspires you.  

    My dreams, nature, lakes, people: Most of the Tarot/box

7•   Something that gives you joy.

    Nature, riding my bike/exploring, people: most of the tarot

8•   A secret you have.  

    I took this as more of a the bracelet keeps my quirks/interests/hobbies secret until you get to know me in a way

9•  Something that scares / worries you

    Being alone, for extended periods of time/not having many friends: Tarot cards all alone in box, but there are many so then you see that they aren't alone: Hermit, Hangedman, Death

10•  Something you love doing, but doesn’t exactly fit into “your plan”

    Belly dancing: fool tarot

11•  Something “bigger” than the box itself.  

    Everyones dreams and aspirations hopefully: dreamland box

If you want to know more about why I choose certain tarot to depict certain things go check out what those tarots actually mean to gain some insight. https://www.tarot.com/tarot/cards That website should tell you a good general gist of it all.

Project #1 Never made a s'mores outside in the winter

I went to the Kite festival on Lake Harriet, got there a little too late to see all the kites. A friend and I still got to see some art (video that hopefully plays and features my friend and I talking in the background) and roast s'mores in the dead of winter, not to mention see cute dogs. PS: The s'more was good and weirdly toasted but also still frozen in parts.

The orange and one of the best projects I've ever seen for this assignment

The best "Response" to the Orange experience I've ever seen

Strange to Familiar