Hi, hello, and welcome. This post is all about conceptual art, the Manhattan project, and historical significance. If that’s your cup of tea, get ready for my take on it. The last project we did, the one this post is about, centred around a pretty big driving question. How can we use conceptual art to show the historical significance of the Manhattan project? This question, at first, seems simple enough. Make a piece of wacky art to put on display the lasting effects of the atom bomb. When you dive deeper, you really start to wonder, how in the hell am I going to do this? I don’t know anything about the Manhattan project!

Well, along with the blatant inaccuracies in the prior sentence, your teachers, for the most part, have thought of that. I was surprised to realize how much I already knew. Of course it wasn’t enough to give an informed opinion on the bomb, but it was a good bit.

It turns out, studying history before the bomb, gives you a pretty good idea of how things are going to go. History tends to repeat itself. Knowing about World War One and the events leading up to the bomb, gives you historical context for the actions taken by the scientists in the Manhattan project.

While I had knowledge I could build upon, I definitely needed more to create a piece that I could be proud of. The way in which to do this was to attend lectures and make good notes. When I say make good notes I mean not just writing down facts and dates. Although those are both important! I mean creating something new. Using your brain to do what it’s made to do, think!

I definitely needed to work on this. Without using this skill I don’t think I could have created something as successful as my final piece. I used the things I created in my notes to build my idea.

As avid readers of my blog, I must imagine you are gobbling up every piece of content I create. If you are new here, and haven’t got sucked into my witty remarks and insightful posts yet, I will remind you of a post I did within this realm recently. This post is that very one. “How did doing that post help with this post and your final project?” I hear you ask.

That post centres around the historical significance of the book Hiroshima by John Hersey as I view it. Working on that post helped me build my understanding of historical significance. I needed this in order to transfer that knowledge to conceptual art. It also helped me identify what was important to me in terms of events that occurred within the Manhattan Project.

With that knowledge and with the knowledge created in our classes, we ventured downtown to learn more about conceptual art. We got to experience real world conceptual art first hand. This was very exciting. Seeing what others define conceptual art as and seeing a physical representation of their ideas helped me understand what I needed to put in my piece.

Now after this trip, I started to panic. How can I manage to do what those artists did and include the historical significance of the atom bomb?

Teamwork played a role in this project but in a different way than how it usually does. We all were instructed to create art, as you are, hopefully, aware of by now. But as you might not know, we also were expected to turn an ordinary classroom into a makeshift art gallery. We were divided into different categories that fit our art and within those groups, work to transform a classroom into a space to display our creations.

I know I am a leader. That is one of my strengths. In a team setting, I tend to see who wants to take the lead before I jump in. If there is someone who wants to, great! I’m happy to let them lead or work with them to make a project successful. If no one particularly wants to, I usually step in.

In this case, I think I worked well with Grace, (who’s blog you should totally check out,) in acting as curators for our PLP gallery. We both communicated well and assigned roles that hopefully fit right.

Our art gallery’s category was Morals, Ethics, and Philosophy. All of our art pieces fit within this group fairly well. Grace and I created a layout for the room. We tried to create a story with our layout. The introductory art piece made by Alex, was asking a question. If you want to know more about that question, go check out his blog. It’s linked to his name.

As you moved throughout the gallery the story progressed. Ending with a final digital creation made by Angelo and Anders. Their art asked us to make a decision based upon the knowledge we gained during the course of the gallery. I think our layout was successful! I felt, as I was walking though it, it told the story we were trying to portray.

The final product, what you’ve all been waiting for. My final product changed throughout the course of the exhibition. Now, while the actual art piece didn’t change, my explanation did. With it being conceptual art, if the idea changes the art changes. Take a look down below at an image of my art piece and try to form your own interpretation of it before I give my explanation.

This conceptual art piece is never something I never thought I would get to do. Making art, especially on this scale, and getting to show it to people who know nothing about me is something I always thought was for other people to do. This pushed me out of my comfort zone.

When you walk directly up to the piece you are greeted with the inside view of the cave. It looks scraggly and unfinished. You see the hieroglyphic images on the wall, each one representing something. On the inside, is the damage done by the Manhattan project. The injuries and deaths it caused. The land destruction. The inevitability of it all.

On the outside you see the positives that came from it. The end of the war, the technology advancements, the potential for a green future.

The brief idea of this piece is that perspective changes your ideas on events. If you move yourself to one side you only see the positives. If you let the cavern consume you, you only see what is right in front of you.

I must add that I think every ideas others come up with is just as important as the one that I based my piece on.

I think my explanation in my artist statement is an example of me using what I know to make something new and something that resonates with people. Check it out below.

The Manhattan Project was a historically significant event because it changed our world forever. It’s lasting impact and huge scope of potential destruction makes it one of the most significant events in the world. It ticks all the boxes of being a milestone in human history.

What would I do differently? That is a great question. It’s one PLP students think about at the end of every project. Obviously, I had some setbacks. I built my final product out of cardboard two days before the presentation. This wasn’t a direct issue but it did stress me out. When I came in the next day it was completely broken. I decided to just roll with the punches and did my best to fix it. Next time, I would trust my gut and make sure it got left somewhere safe.

I would have also loved to me more separate from my art. This way viewers could have their own explanation of the piece without me explaining it.

I would also have loved to learn even more. I think when an opportunity arises for you to study something you are interested in you should take it. I did a little bit of self directed learning, like looking into Pig 311, (a fascinating story, check out a great article here,) but I wish I had done more. I hope next time something comes up that I want to learn more about I am able to use my Craft to make some really cool new ideas.

In conclusion, this project pushed me out of my comfort zone to try something new and I enjoyed it. I learned the things I needed to and then some. This project has pushed me forward in my learning more than I could have expected.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you again soon.