Lofty at Last

For my final project in this Studio Research class I created a lofty installation. The idea behind this installation was to use a less-known or uncommon definition of lofty for inspiration. So I chose the nautical definition and created a rather straightforward depiction of lofty:

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These three sails are located on trees behind Openhym and the Ford Street apartments, right on the line. Another dimension is added to the piece when it is put out into the world; wind. The gusts caught the tarps and blew them around just like they were actually on sailboats. There is movement in the piece and it gives it a feeling of expedition, almost as if the trees are part of a fleet of ships sailing down the line.

Unfortunately, the location means not very many people in the class will get a chance to see them in person (seeing as I have to take them down before break). However, I created an extension of the piece that started out as merely documentation of the sails and turned into a piece of its own:

       

 

 

Splotchy

This post is an extension/ further exploration of the leaf collection I did. I noticed that the dots on the green leaves looked like they could be ink splotches, an almost unnatural polka-dotted pattern of decay. So I decided to just play with some ink…

The first one looks oddly like a gunshot to me… I used things to drip the ink, a regular paintbrush and some rolled up pieces of scrap cloth. The cloth drips were much cleaner than the brush’s. I also splattered a bit more with the paint brush.

 

The last image in the gallery is one of my pictures of the leaves. These splotches are much more consolidated than my ink dots, mine are more abstract… but these are pretty abstract too. It really looks like someone could have just dropped some ink on these leaves.

This is an exploration I did a while ago but never transferred to the interweb……

Collecting flowers is a common thing for me to do so I decided to add a new dimension to my compilation. Usually I just press the flowers into a book so instead I pressed them into a scanner in some interesting patterns:

 

This one is called “Flower Totem Pole” I really love the colors of the flowers, they are so rich. There are more flower arrangements in the gallery (if it works). 

I also accumulated some nice fall leaves. In the third picture in the gallery I accidentally picked up the scanner in the middle of scanning the leaves and it made a cool shadow across the image.  Just goes to show that no matter how much you plan something out you don’t always get the results you expect.

I used some bark too… Natural things create such interesting patterns with absolutely no prompting, but I need to escape from relying on the inherent beauty in these things. Arranging and then rearranging helps a lot, makes you look at each part of the flower or leaf and visualize its many attributes.

Lofty

I am trying to think of lofty in ways that are beyond the obvious meanings…..

Things that were once lofty but no longer are:

Raindrops- imagine how lofty it is up in the clouds
Leaves, pine cones, branches, anything that falls from a tree
Trees themselves; trees are like mountains in their loftiness, but slightly less imposing
People falling from grace, once superior and now disgraced

Birds go in and out of lofty areas but they are familiar with the ultimate lofty space; the sky. They also have a certain amount of control of the space.

People with iPhones have lofty attitudes towards people without them…

Students at Alfred University often believe themselves loftier than those at A State.

The Cohen Studio is not nearly as lofty as Harder Hall. Harder has huge rooms with enormously high ceilings, the new gallery is loftiest of all though.

Hanging rope ladders from trees and other various places? Then get people to climb them… see what they think of approaching loftier spaces. Documenting the process or just having the ladders as installations.

The nautical meaning of lofty could create some interesting ideas but I’m not sure how I could turn that into a concrete piece. A crow’s nest in a tree. Or putting a ship’s sail on a tree. Hmmmmm… That could work, possibly. I don’t know what I would make it out of, I don’t have any spare ship sails.

Lofty Continued

Other things that I found on the internet concerning ‘lofty’:

http://www.lofty.com/

26,645 vacation rentals in 3,260 cities

A loft is a space and, in the case of this website, an elegant and expensive space. People looking for lofty vacation homes. I wonder if most people being their searches for vacation homes with the word ‘lofty’ in mind, or if they just come upon the website and decide that a lofty home sounds like a nice place to vacation. What came first, the desire for loftiness or the vacation plan?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lofty

WIKIPEDIA. What a great website. Told me all sorts of things about ‘lofty’ that I didn’t even know I wanted to know…

Lofty may refer to:

• A lofty ideal
• A nickname for a person of above average height. Also used ironically for persons of below average height.
• A term of endearment from one mate-lot to another regardless of rank, rate, seniority, sex, religion, race or sexual persuasion. Used most often, but not exclusively, when one individual can not be bothered to learn another’s name.

That third one is interesting; I didn’t know what a matelot was so I looked it up. It is a seaman or, more generally, a friend. Here it is used in context:

“…we tykes a blood-brother, or matelot. . . A matelot, ‘e fights along side o’ yer, nurses yer if yer falls sick.  Wots ‘is is yours and whats yours is ‘is. . .”- 1949, Francis van Wyck Mason, Cutlass Empire

 

Nice. I like that they say that ‘lofty’ is usually used as a nickname when a person doesn’t remember your real name. And then they have a list of some people who were nicknamed “Lofty”:

Real People

• Frank “Lofty” England, Jaguar Cars’ motorsport manager, and later CEO
• Donald “Lofty” Large, former SAS soldier and author
• John “Lofty” Wiseman, former SAS soldier, author and survival skills instructor
• Nobby “Lofty” Hall, a fine upstanding member of Her Majesty’s Royal Navy

Fictional People

• Lofty, a personificated crane in the BBC children’s series Bob the Builder
• Lofty, a fictional character on the 1986 animated television series My Little Pony
• George “Lofty” Holloway, a fictional character in the television series EastEnders
• Gunner “Lofty” Sugden, a fictional character on the 1970s British sitcom It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’

Some places called lofty:

• Mount Lofty, a peak in the Mount Lofty Ranges in Adelaide South Australia
• Mount Lofty, a peak on the Eastern edge of the Great Dividing Range in Southeast Queensland, the flanks of which are occupied by a suburb of Toowoomba, Queensland also called Mount Lofty

Not really surprising that there are Mountains called Lofty. I mean, the word ‘lofty’ pretty much exactly describes a mountain; high-reaching and imposing. Good thing their are some lofty areas on this line. The line is conveniently located so that each end is at the top of a hill, a lofty spot.

Word Definition: Lofty

I love words. I am usually pretty good at understanding and using them… but defining them is my weakness. I have heard people say that you cannot understand a word unless you can define it but I’m not sure I agree (at least I would like to believe that it is not true). Anyways, I looked ‘lofty’ up on the internet and this is what dictionary.com gave me:

loft·y

[lawf-tee, lof-]

adjective, loft·i·er, loft·i·est.

1.

extending high in the air; of imposing height; towering: lofty mountains.

2.

exalted in rank, dignity, or character; eminent.

3.

elevated in style, tone, or sentiment, as writings or speech.

4.

arrogantly or condescendingly superior in manner; haughty: to treat someone in a lofty manner.

5.

Nautical . noting a rig of a sailing ship having extraordinarily high masts.

When I see the word lofty I think of a lofty space, high up in the air, with a nice breeze…

But I see that it is grander than that. More about superiority than space.

I like the fifth definition; I never knew that lofty could be used in a nautical context. Actually, it makes a lot of sense, I guess I just never thought about it.

On the website there is a button that you can click and hear a smooth robotic woman say ‘lofty’. That is a very good feature. Not for this word necessarily but I often find it useful for other words. I don’t think that ‘lofty’ is too hard to pronounce (it’s spelled phonetically) but you never know what might give someone trouble.

I like finding good words within definitions. Eminent. That is a goooood word. A powerful word. More striking than lofty. Lofty is softer and more elegant.

Now on to the next website; thesaurus.com. I think that to complete your understanding of a word it’s important to know its synonyms and antonyms:

Synonyms:  aerial, airy, high-rise, lifted, raised, sky-high, sky-scraping, skyward, soaring, spiring, tall, towering, arresting, benevolent, big, chivalrous, commanding, considerate, dignified, distinguished, elevated, exalted, generous, great, illustrious, imposing, magnanimous, majestic, noble, renowned, striking, sublime, superb, superior, utopian, visionary

Antonyms: below, beneath, humble, low, modest, unobtrusive

Many more synonyms than antonyms. Because we are an affirmative and positive culture? Or because it is easier to understand what something is as opposed to what it isn’t? Antonyms are important too though!

Antonym and Synonym sound like the names of Greek gods. They are definitely Greek words or something… Let me just look it up real quick. How convienent to have all sorts of information (almost anything you could ever want) right here at your fingertips. Presuming that the internet is working, of course.

Origin:
Synonym

1400–50;  < Latin synōnymum  < Greek synṓnymon,  noun use of neuter of synṓnymos synonymous;  replacing Middle English sinonyme  < Middle French  < Latin,  as above

Antonym

1870, created to serve as opposite of synonym, from Gk. anti- “equal to, instead of, opposite” (see anti-) + -onym “name” (see name).

Hmmmm… very interesting that antonym was only created in response/contrast/opposition to synonym. And more than 400 years later. The things you can find out on the internet…

I got distracted from my point; the definition of lofty. Well, the final test of your understanding of a word is using it in a sentence so here we go:

Larry was living large when his lapping, loquacious tongue got the better of him. The lads soon learned that all his lofty lines were little more than lies, used to lure them into his lunatic lair.

Exploration #36

Found Patterns

These decaying leaves have interesting patterns. Patterns that you might not expect to find in nature, like polka-dots. The dots almost look like ink drops bleeding into the leaves.

Exploration #8

CRACKS

I mapped out pavement cracks in my territory. They really became something beyond just cracks. Maybe it was because of how I drew it or that pavement cracks just translate that way on a page, anyhow, it is interesting.

Personal Territory

These stairs lead to a small wooded area; it is only about 35′ across between campus and the other side (a road? parking lot?). That is part of this spot’s allure… it’s like a breath of fresh air between two stretches of civilization (albeit a short breath). The real magic in it though is the relative isolation; people don’t usually come up here. Every time I have come here to sit I am entirely alone and undisturbed. However a few people always walk by at a distance; just far enough away to watch them walk and wonder about them. It’s hidden away, protected by the carillon. Most people probably don’t even know or care that it exists.

Stairs to nowhere. Nowhere important. No real, concrete destination. They exist for no other purpose than to be walked up and down. Granted, that is the general purpose of most flights of stairs, but others usually exist to get you from one place to another. These thirteen stairs don’t take you anywhere.

Sounds in the distance of cars or people. Some sort of gas pipes are hissing. Caged pipes; to keep people out or to prevent the pipes from escaping? A strange place to put a cage… in the woods. I suppose it probably makes a lot of sense to some people.

HILL. This is all on a hill. The trees are leaning every which way. Some of them comply with the ground’s chosen direction but others are defiant.

Another cage. This one surrounds one solitary pipe. A silent, lonely pipe with no one to talk to…

There is a pile of rocks at the top of these steps on the left side (if you’re sitting down and looking towards the carillon). A collection of rocks obviously compiled by a person, I wonder which one… Strange, to see the evidence of a mysterious person. What were they doing here? Just sitting? Thinking? Writing or reading? The only thing that is certain is that they were here and they collected rocks.

Leaves! There are so many types with different things affecting them that make them look so distinct. Ah, kind of like people, in a way. Falling from trees, being carried (or pushed around, depending on how you think about it) by the wind. Although some might argue that people have a bit more control over their lives than leaves… But, generally, leaves and people are similar; varying experiences produce individual leaves, some leaves come from the same tree and others just fall amongst completely different leaves.

Someone has scratched a message onto the top step: Camille was here. I wonder if it is the Camille that I know… or some other, unidentified Camille. Perhaps this Camille person is the one who collected all of the rocks. Camille at the carillon. I didn’t even notice the message when I first sat down on these steps. Some things only appear following reflection.

Speaking of reflection, the reflection of the steps in the glass of the carillon is really spectacular. It looks as though there is a matching set of steps inside the building. And a matching girl. Everything is the same except exactly opposite. Alice Through the Looking Glass or Olivia Through the Carillon Glass. An interesting concept… and an interesting thing to see while sitting in an almost-wooded area. The reflection makes the juxtaposition between the industrial, modernized carillon and the old, run-down stone steps and woods obvious and distinct. You can look at it for yourself and look at yourself within it, which really gives it a lot of perspective.

Exploration #18

Document the corners of a space. (My room)