Artist Lecture - Miguel Palma

I don't have much to say about this lecture because Palma was not using the microphone so it was really hard to hear him. He never once changed his facial expression so when he made a joke it was just that much funnier. Unfortunately the videos that he showed the sound was not working and the tech could not get it to work. This being the case Palma just explained what his pieces were about and not much on why he made the piece or where his inspiration came from. The main thing he said was: "I just want to be myself." Not only did I not get much from Palma himself but it was very hard to find images and videos of his work online. So for this I am just going to use what little description he gave about some of the pieces he showed and speculate on what I think he is trying to say. The head of sculpture stated that Palma's work has a lot to do with technology and how we interact with and how it interacts with us. For the first image Palma said that he built this car which he then drove. I think what he was trying to do was show that we are the masters of the cars and that they are not our masters. Also that there is a sense of freedom and accomplishment when building something and then using it. I am not sure what the second image is supposed to mean. All that Palma said about the piece was that the bigger drill was better. The first video "HearSaab" Palma attached medical monitors to register his heart rate, breathing, and tension levels. Once the medical monitors were attached to him he drove the car and as the car goes faster and louder there is a direct correlation to the medical monitors. Even though a car is an inanimate object they can still effect us in a way that we are most likely not aware of. All Palma said about the second video, "In Image We Trust", was that the camera moves very slowly towards the objects. I didn't know what to think about his video until I watched it myself. The video has a barbie wearing a superman costume holding missiles. At first you can clearly see the barbie and the superman costume, which signify strength, beauty, and verity. As the camera moves ever so slowly towards the barbie you eventually notice that she is holding missiles which contradicts barbie herself and the superman costume she is wearing. I think what Palma was trying to say here is that what you see isn't always what you get. There was a another image and video that I wanted to post but could not find. The image is of a chair where the wood is being eaten by worms, the title is "Value". What Palma said was the the chair was loosing value. Everything eventually looses value. The video was of him taking a huge oriental vase and smashing it. He then proceeded to take the pieces and put the vase back together. He said that once the vase was all put back together that it was much more interesting than it had originally been. When you see the vase by itself without knowing the story behind it it poses questions and makes you look. You can clearly see that it was at one point broken but is now fixed.