Kai Baynes
Daniel Penny, Integrative Seminar 2
May 7, 2018
1) Research table Greatest Hits
To begin with, I would like to address the entire Teen Vogue article on “Digital Black Face”. I understood this because I recently realized that non poc would use something that oppresses the black community in order to build a bridge between the two. “I hate those privileged kids, they swear they are so entitled to everything? How do you feel about that.” a privileged girl said those exact words to me. That response might not even seem necessary but if you look at the larger picture it makes a lot of sense. Blac people are always put in situations where they are in a way being used whether if for their own good or not. I didnt even think about how non people of color using black gifs to express their attitude or an hyper reaction could affect someone til it’s said out loud.
In “Find Your Beach” I picked up on a few things. That words have power and that advertisements are strong, They are designed to evoke feelings. They make us look at life differently. They know what they’re doing I realized this (and I said this to devon in regards to his project) that many brands place ads in certain areas because they know who they can affect. Putting cigarette ads in harlem but you won’t see it in manhattan, you know ?
After watching “Pervert’s Guide to cinema I realized that life isn’t what it seems and that we are all guided in some way and just trying to figure shit out, but we aren’t questioning anything.
“Exit through the gift shop” Okay i adore this, i live for anyone who does what they want and freely expresses themselves. For his identity to be anonymous is beautiful because it says that I don’t care if people know who I am, I’m doing this for art, for the love of art.
“Style Wars” Putting your name on the train that travels around the city! That’s powerful! Films like style wars and exit through the gift shop are evolutionary films. We need more films about actual cultures and subcultures because that’s where a lot of mainstream influence comes from. Respect the architecture.
“Style Wars” it’s called bombing….im bombing the systems. They create this and get out they don’t want to be known they just want to make a statement. “Crime in the city” They are activist if you think about it.. They are expressing actually social issues through art they are relentless and passionate so they project in actual real life. “I can do It” “it’s for me and other graffiti writers..It’s for us”!
“The Craft of research” I don’t know but Im really not a big fan of this passage. This is for my own reasons of course.. I Can’t seem to get into doing research that doesn’t interest me and practiculary im just this obnoxious who believes they can do with research.. I also believe research is terrible for me.. I don’t know exactly what to look at or even talk about. I’m a visual person.
“Style Wars” I wish I grew up in this era, art seem authentic, it seems like there wasn’t any fake, pseudo artist I wish i grew up in the era where art was a threat and disliked and not a trend.

2) Cross-Course Reflection:

Hello, My name is Kai, Kai the black angel (lol) Im from Philadelphia but moved to New York to attend Parsons School of Design. Here i am a fine arts major. I took that route because I want to dabble in all mediums and all art forms with no restrictions. I hope that one day I could just create and get money for it. I feel like…I know that’s Ideal to me. That’s what I want. I would love to collaborate with large brands and do some cool shit with them but have my own establishment. This year has been a journey… an emotional one.

• (Last Year) After looking through my mind maps and notes I peeped that I really practiced self love in my earlier year of Parsons. I noticed that a lot of my projects involved me in some way, whether it was a problem I dealt with personally or even making the project about me and there isn’t much actual research. I was really big on the theory that “Artist put themselves in their work all the time” (I took that literal lol)
• (Now) After looking through all my research and documents, etc. I noticed a shift. I’m no longer looking at myself through the lenses. I’m now behind it. A Lot of research involve how people interact with each other, relations and social issues, gay rights, subcultures and impacts. I feel good seeing this because it’s like now, I know i’ve grown as an artist if not in the physicality of then in the conceptual aspect.
• I realized that I’ve learned to do both things! Honestly to sum this up…Last year and this year I’ve developed a style. I realized that when it comes to academic thinking and studio making, they run the same race in my mind. I’m approaching an academic study with a visual state of mind! (if that makes sense). Approaching projects and new material like that made everything fun and exciting, because I was interested and invested. Running into personal situations got in the way of that, but I know who I am and I know what I can do. I know that I’ve could’ve done way better! I’ve learned from these situations. I have went off a few times though! Like that one project, which was actually in my second semester. I got really into Subcultures and BDSM and fetishes and I fully ran with that! I had this idea of going to a BDSM club and filming what goes on in this culture, you know.. The raw shit and I went and ended up meeting a couple who actually wanted to be apart of my project. I got the chance to take photos of them and learn so much about how they’ve grown from the practice which is looked upon as “ungodly”. I learned a lot about myself, actually diving into my research I started to question myself and started thinking larger and coming with theses theories and I started figuring shit out and It was a beautiful process. I made a BDSM MAGAZINE PURSE. It was so cute!

“PLUSH issue 002”

( I realized I could have documented this better, these are stills from a video I recorded; the letter says BDSM in a cute font I made).

Also, I really surprised myself with another project that was done well. The project was curated in my space and materiality class which took me some time to adjust to, the work was pretty intense for my budget (lol). The prompt of our project/ The purpose was to choose an social/economical issue and create an extension of the body. (i didn’t explain that well). I chose to talk about the issue in Jamaica. In Jamaica there are queer/trans people(youth) living in the sewage because they aren’t safe in the streets. They are harassed and in some cases they have been stabbed and harmed and their government not protecting them. They haven’t placed laws so that they’ll be safe…they were pushed out and stripped of their humanity. My approach to this situation wasn’t to separate the two but to unify. I created this device that would bind two peoples hand together and I used Hot glue to create this material that would almost look like it’s engraved into your skin. Looking at artist like Bjork and Instagram influence @isshehingry for inspiration. It isn’t done yet but the progress and what it’s taking on now is a beautiful things and I’m proud of what it’s becoming.

Talking about this—choosing this topic is important to me because I identify with that community so I feel obligated to speak up and even if I didn’t resonate with that community it’s only right to speak up because no one, NO ONE.. should have to live under those circumstances. In the end, I’m excited for the future I don’t know whats in store for me or what I’ll be exposed to next but I’m excited for it. I hope that I take advantage of the opportunities I face and learn from my mistakes and keep moving forward.