● ‘Write what you know’

○ Claude Monet - founder of French impressionist painting who used his garden
as inspiration (lily pond)
○ Claude Monet:
■ Born: November 14, 1840 (Paris, France)
■ Died: December 5, 1926 (Giverny, France)
■ Started passion at young age and drew caricatures

●
■ Studied at Le Havre (Paris)
■ Also enjoyed Plein Air painting
● Plein Air Painting: “En plen air” (French) = “in open air” ;
practice of painting landscape pictures outdoors

●
■ Also enjoyed Series and Serial Paintings → same subject but featured
under different lightings at various times of the day (e.g: Haystacks,
Water Lilies, Poplars, Rouen Cathedral)
● Series Paintings: Unified, cohesive body of work with same
style, technique, subject or colour palette throughout multiple
works

● Haystacks (1890-91)
■ Created series of large-scale paintings of water-lilies in his garden in
Giverny (renowned for abstract qualities & vibrant use of colour)
■ Influenced by Ukiyo-e ; collected and incorporated their flatness,
asymmetry and unconventional compositions
● Ukiyo-e: Popular during Edo Period (1615-1868), means
“pictures of the floating world” was a genre of art where
everyday Japan will be featured on woodblock prints
 ●
■ Vision deteriorated due to cataracts → explored interplay of colours &
shapes in more abstract manner
■ Paved way for future artistic movements like Fauvism and Abstract
Expressionism
■ Many of Monet’s works housed in museums around the world (Musée
d'Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the
Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris)

○
■ Impressionist painting: A form of art that aims to capture the overall
impression/feeling/mood of the scene rather than focusing on the
details (bold brush strokes instead of intricate sketches and planning)
■ Named after Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise exhibited in 1874

●
● ART THAT TRIES TO IMAGINE WHAT COULD BE

○ Aerial Rotating House - Albert Robida (1883)

■ Illustration for Robida’s 1883 novel Le Vingtième Siècle (The
Twentieth Century)
■ Future vision of Paris 1950s
● Single family home perched atop table to rotate 360 degrees
on top of shops
 ● Shows technological advancements, overcrowding, access to
light and air
○ Because of overpopulation and the pollution, people
will have to stack homes to reach a higher height for
more access to light and air

○ Weirdos of Another Universe - Avery Gibbes (2023)

■ Pictures ‘what ifs’ where a small number of humans exist within an
alien world
■ Narrative-style: Each painting builds onto world and explores narrative
■ Expresses disorientation, feeling like an outsider, sense of not
belonging, isolation, etc. after entering a new world then gradually
figuring out your place within

● ART THAT IMAGINES WHAT COULD NEVER BE

○ A Reversible Anthropomorphic Portrait of a Man Composed of a Fruit -

Giuseppe Acrimboldo (1526-1593)
■ A reversible portrait of a man that shows a man on one side and a
bowl of fruits on the other
■ 16th century Italian Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo known
for vegetal visages / “composite heads”
● Inspires European food brands and amusement park outside
Paris featuring commemorative restaurant with gigantic fruits
(Parc Asterix)
● Began career as traditional artist until 36 bc appointed court
portraitist for Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II in Vienna
● In Milan met leading astronomers, botanists, physicians and
alchemists → creativity up
● Still controversy around value of paintings
● Grandfather of Surrealism
● ART THAT SHOWS US WHAT WE DIDN’T REALISE
ALREADY WAS
○ Late Visitors to Pompeii - Carel Willink (1931)
■ Western Culture in decline
■ Portrays a moment where time and space both becomes unstable
■ Figures:
● Willink on the left looking to viewer
● Bald man with cigar → Spengler → only person to look toward
ruin and volcano (Willink admired him)
● Other two men - Willink as a middle aged man and an old man
■ Albert Carel Wilink born in 1900 in Amsterdam
● Father amateur artist
● Early works expressionist and abstract → later magic realist
style
■ Purchased 2 years after painted by Museum Bojimans
● Wilink recognised as imp artist quickly

○ Our Lady of the Iguanas - Graciela Iturbide (1979)

■ Photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo teacher of Graciela Iturbide
● Once husband of Lola Alvarez Bravo whose work hangs
nearby
■ Iturbide usually portrays Catholic traditions intertwined with
pre-Hispanic rites and superstitions
■ Represent different parts of Mexico
● Zapotec people in Juchitán: Women dominate all aspects of
social life (economy, religious rituals, etc.)
■ Shows dignity and grace of woman with Iguana crown
■ From photo essay Juchitán of the Women (1979-86)
■ Often appropriated into pop culture (traffic signs, bottles of tequila,
t-shirts, murals, etc.)
■ Symbol of diaspora
● Diaspora: Dispersion of people from their homeland
 ○ The Strolling Saint - Pedro Meyer (1991)
■ Produced by Nash Editions
■ Accompanied by copy of Truths & Fictions: A Journey from
Documentary to Digital Photography
■ All in their own parallel universe w their own struggles
■ Computer altered photography + painting
■ Mexico
■ About the omnipresence of saint

○ The Romantic Dollarscape - Pedro Álvarez (2003)

■ Pedro Alvarez also from Cuba
● Worked as art teacher in Cuba, Spain and US
● Works both abstract surreal and romantic
● 2004 died mysteriously after solo exhibition
● Very little info abt artworks and messages
■ Part of collection Queloides: Race and Racism in Cuban
Contemporary Art
● Queloides: Keloides in Spanish, excessive scar tissue that
develops over wound
■ Result of resurgence of racism in Cuba after fall of Soviet Union
● Resurgence over social transformations implemented in 1960s
● 1959 Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro attempt to solve racism
problem for POC in Cuba → worked for a while (same
graduating rate between POC and white students)
■ Dollar colour scheme + American statue + technology vs
impoverished Cuban people
■ How money is built on pain and misery of immigrants and minorities
● ART THAT REIMAGINES POPULAR BRANDS OR
FICTIONAL CHARACTERS

○
○ Campbell’s Soup Cans - Andy Warhol (1962)
■ Andy Warhol:
● American visual artist, film director, producer and leading figure
in pop art movement
● Explores relationship between artistic expression advertising
and celebrity culture that flourished in 60s + media (painting,
silkscreening, photography, film, sculpture)
● Used images with wide appeal (e.g: famous ppl, comic strips,
ads, etc.)
● Believes art shouldn’t “be only for the select few”
■ How he made:
● Delineated each can with pencil on canvas
● Painted can and label by hand using light projector to
superimpose lettering directly onto canvas
● Then traces form
■ Inspiration from his lunch (same everyday for 20 yrs) → Campbell’s
soup popular at the time (object of wide consumption)
■ Separate canvases (32 canvases)
■ Referred to them as “portraits”
■ Stresses uniformity and pervasiveness of Campbell’s can →
challenges prevailing idea of painting as medium of invention and
originality distinct from popular culture

○
○ Liberation of Aunt Jemima & Liberation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail - Betye Saar
(1973)
■ Aunt Jemima brand of breakfast foods
■ Assemblage work (central item notepad holder)
● Assemblage: Co-existence of variety of found objects in one
space
■ Notebook Holder ‘Mammy’ caricature → product of Jim Crow era
(depicted black women as happy servants)
● Jim Crow Era: When Southern black people faced oppression
(deprived of education, economic opportunities, social
positions, lynching, constitutional rights, etc.) due to Ku Klux
Klan who tried to enforce the Jim Crow Hierarchy
(1890s-1960s)
● Back then created stock characters of black people →
perceived as ugly and expendable
 ● Pictorial images of black inferiority spread throughout
(magazines, ads, furniture, ashtrays, cookie jars, notepad
holders, etc.)
○ Jim Crow Hierarchy: A racial caste system that
promoted white supremacy and segregated black
people
■ Empowering bold statement of black empowerment by giving Mammy
caricature weapons, placed on cotton + black fist (symbols of
resistance)
■ Cocktail: Scarf coming out of neck, Mammy character on one side of
label w. word ‘Aunty’ and black fist on other side → demands political
change, insists full gender and racial equality

○
○ Kawsbob - Kaws (2010)
■ Kaws real name: Brian Donnelly
■ Each print in collection released in edition of 100 + depicts close up of
SpongeBob
■ Three signed screen prints (Yellow, Red, Black) by prolific artist and
designer Kaws
■ Depicts close-up of universally loved cartoon character Spongebob
■ Captures Kaws’ graphic style and love for colour (Spongebob making
different faces each piece, bold, black gestural lines, Xs in eyes which
is significant detail in Kaws’ visual language)
■ Kaws’ experience in graffiti and later as animator influenced his works
■ Kaws famous for appropriating popular cartoon characters like Mickey
Mouse, Spongebob, Simpsons

○
○ Charlie Brown Firestarter - Banksy (2010)
■ Anonymous artist Banksy (British) comes to LA for Oscars (his
documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop nominated as best
documentary)
● Works mysteriously appeared over 2 decades
● Quickly developed stencil style creating images at Bristol (UK)
before taking techniques to LA, NY and Austria
■ Couple days later cut out of wall to turn up for sale
■ Other Graffiti of cartoon characters doing vulgar things
■ Mixed reactions: authorities tried to stop (his Mickey Mouse graffiti
next to petrol station)
 ○
○ Life, Miracle Whip and Premium - Brendan O’Connell (2013)
■ O’Connell best known for painting scenes in Walmart
■ Zooms in on everyday objects and brands (one brand at a time)
■ Paintings not cheap; $1000 at least
■ Thinks brands “represent where we are as a culture” and that he finds
it “visually exciting to go to a grocery store”
■ Part of the reasons for his work consumer interest: people will pay lots
to have a painting of their favourite brand
● Nostalgia for favourite products add to beauty of brand
● 10 YEARS INTO IoT REVOLUTION, BUT FILLED WITH
USELESS, HAZARDOUS GADGETS
○ Internet of Things (IoT): Network of physical devices and everyday objects
that are connected to the internet and can communicate with each other (has
sensors, processing ability, software, and other technologies that connect &
exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet or other
communication networks)
■ Examples: Connected security systems, Google Home, Wearables,
Smart TVs, etc.
■ Smart Fridge that detects groceries through computer vision and can
order more food when you run low
● Amazon working on technology with camera & computer vision
● Is not planning to make it themselves but in talks with known
appliance manufacturers for the technology
● Code name: Project Pulse
● Likely to partner with Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods
● Recommendations, recipes, etc. may be in works
○ Useless Gadgets
■ SmartyPans ($209) - Frying pan that detects what’s in it
■ Oral-B Pro 5000 ($130+) - Toothbrush that ‘guides’ you
■ HAPIfork ($79) - Fork that tracks how fast you’re eating
■ Spire ($150) - Wearable that tells you when you’re stressed
■ Egg Minder ($10) - Plastic carton that tells you when you need more
eggs
■ Hidrate Spark ($55) - Bottle that tracks how much water you drink
■ SmartMat ($347) - Yoga mat that tells you when you’re screwing up
■ [Link] (TBD) - Monitor that tells you when your tampon is full
■ Smart Rope ($90) - LED embedded jump rope that displays fitness
data as you work out
 ■ Kuvee ($199) - Wifi enabled wine bottle with interchangeable
cartridges
■ Thermostats that know when you’re home
● Nest Learning Thermostat
○ Sensors and algorithms to learn schedule → saves
energy when not there
● Ecobee SmartThermostat
○ Sensors in different rooms to detect if user there →
adjusts temperature (occupancy detection)
● Honeywell Home T9 Smart Thermostat
○ Room sensors to adjust temperature accordingly
● Sensei Touch Wi-Fi Thermostat
○ Geofencing technology to find if home or away →
Adjusts temperature
■ Umbrella that checks weather forecast before leaving home
● Oombrella
○ “Unforgettable Umbrella”
○ Meteorological sensors to detect temperature, humidity,
pressure

○ Notification if about to pour

○ Pings if more than 130 feet away
○ Setting that allows to track position, Ambient-weather
history, Oombrella users around you
● Jonas Smart Umbrella
○ Made by former Samsung employees 2016
○ Connected to mobile app to alert users of impending
weather conditions (rain, snow, etc.)
○ Bluetooth connection that vibrates so users don’t miss
calls or texts
○ Feature that notifies users if device left behind
○ Risky Gadgets (Privacy, Security)
■ IoT devices collect large amounts of data
● Devices need internet connectivity to work together and be
activated → devices like thermostats can access weather data
● Audios/videos from speakers or cameras
● Locations from WiFi routers
● Sleep/heart rate from lightbulbs
● Floor Plans from vacuums
■ Manufacturers argue only automated devices collect data but
companies like Amazon have employees transcribe voice recordings
■ Devices often insecure, data at risk of hacking when shared online
■ Laws like GDPR and CCPA gives users more control over collected
data through data access requests
 ● General Data Proteciton Regulation (GDPR): European Union
law that gives users more control over personal data and
makes it easier for them to access, collect and delete data
● California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): State law (California)
grants consumers access to data being collected by
companies, requires companies to disclose what personal
information is being collected and shared
■ Users should make more informed choices about IoT (e.g: update
firmware, disable unnecessary data collection, research
manufacturer's policies, consider if ‘smart’ features needed)
○ Turn into E-Waste
■ Many IoT becomes obsolete when companies stop supporting them or
cloud services they rely on shut down → e-waste
■ Examples: Speakers, hubs, connected home devices → useless once
cloud support ends
■ IoT devices should have minimum lifetimes → 10+ years for simple
endpoints (but hubs should be virtualised to run on multiple hardwares
and cloud systems to prevent abandonment)
● Endpoint: Monitoring device that collects data and sends back
■ Android has less support than iOS but OEMs slow with updates →
more e-waste
■ Only PCs and WiFi have truly extended lives (due to open protocols,
communities, ability to instal alternative OSs)
■ IoT will continue to become e-waste unless open standards similar to
WiFi are adopted to allow interoperability and independent long-term
support
● Interoperability: Ability of computer systems and software to
exchange & make use of information

● References:
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
30086870847E539
○ [Link]
phic-portrait-of-a-man-Xr-0u3Q0Rov8UCeN4NGjNA2
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
oaxaca-mexico-p15187#:~:text=Our%20Lady%20of%20the%20Iguanas%20h
as%20become%20one%20of%20the,rather%20than%20snakes%20for%20h
air.
○ [Link]
popular-culture-624c4665c491
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
meyer/
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
tye-saar-the-liberation-of-aunt-jemima
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
rks-oscars
○ [Link]
arter/
○ [Link]
/
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
explain-how-the-internet-of-things-can-violate-your-privacy-174579
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
e%20GDPR's%20goals%20are%20to,other%20things%2C%20simplifies%20
the%20terminology.
○ [Link]

○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
[Link]%2Fmonet-caricatures%2F&psig=AOvVaw1TQeOhvpDdkK2lDPHlM5
eF&ust=1713279582668000&source=images&cd=
&opi=89978449&ved=0CAQQjB1qFwoTCLj31vm9xIUDFQAAAAAdAAAAAB
AE
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
tat
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
○ [Link]
nected-umbrella-that-can-predict-the-weather