Extra Event #1: Ted Victoria

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Source: http://www.tedvictoria.com/albums/installations/content/brine-shrimp/

I enjoyed listening to Ted Victoria's presentation for the COLOR, LIGHT, MOTION series. At first glance, when looking at photographs of Victoria's art project, I thought he used projected images of sea monkeys/brine shrimp, and I was surprised that he was using actual ones for his projects. It was asked what happens to the sea monkeys/brine shrimp after the project was completed, but Victoria did not give an answer. I assume he kept the sea monkeys as pets or to be used for the next project. I would assume so due to that his pieces are made of affordable and seemingly everyday objects. Like stuff you can find at Home Depot and Sea Monkeys themselves are very inexpensive, which is why people could buy them from the back of comic books.

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Source: https://www.newsweek.com/sea-monkeys-what-are-they-how-long-do-they-live-1682354

In fact, the history of Sea Monkeys is interesting. As Ted Victoria mentioned in the lecture, Sea Monkeys are actually a type of brine shrimp that are used as food for other fish. However, Sea Monkeys were "invented" in 1957 and are labeled as an artificial breed of brine shrimp. A special method is done to the Sea Monkeys that preserve their eggs in the powder packet that is activated when put into water. By doing this, Sea Monkeys can be shipped or preserved until they are hatched when needed. It is fascinating because they are living creatures, but they have turned into a product that is marketed toward children. While the creator of Sea Monkeys, Harold von Braunhut, wanted Sea Monkeys to educate children about nature, which is ironic because the process of making and selling Sea Monkeys takes out all the natural attributes of owning or taking care of a living creature and instead makes it into a commodity. Sea Monkeys are sold as powdered packets and include powdered packets for food and typically only live for a few weeks. Therefore, sea Monkeys do not seem like living creatures. They are almost portrayed as something otherwordly. That can be seen in Victoria's projection when he enlarges them, and he said it freaked people out because they are alien creatures from their conception. I don't think Victoria meant to highlight this, but it highlights Sea Monkeys being an object. After all, they are part of the art project.

Victoria's way of building projects out of inexpensive or simple everyday materials reminded me of kitbashing or scratch building artists. I think they refer to themselves as creators, but I consider them artists because they take objects, usually trash or junk, and create models or figures of whatever they choose. They are tons of scratch builders on YouTube who collect trash and then turn it into a piece of art. They also tend to find their materials at the dollar store or at hardware stores as Victoria does. Overall, it follows Ted Victoria's creative process of using objects that one wouldn't think of using for art projects. However, they both have the charming aspect of DIY projects of it being made out of every day or recycled objects.

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Source: http://www.tedvictoria.com/albums/urine-test/content/dsc00748/

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Works Cited
Harvey, Ailsa. “What are Sea-Monkeys?” Live Science, 4 February 2022, https://www.livescience.com/33907-sea-monkeys.html. Accessed 5 June 2022.
Iverson, Steve. “AJ Madison's Scratchbuilding FAQ – CultTVman's Fantastic Modeling.” CultTVman's Fantastic Modeling, 14 April 2011, https://culttvman.com/main/a-j-madisons-scratchbuilding-faq/. Accessed 5 June 2022.
“Scratch building.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_building. Accessed 5 June 2022.
“Sea-Monkeys.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea-Monkeys. Accessed 5 June 2022.
White, Robyn, et al. “Sea Monkeys: What Are They, How Long Do They Live and What Do They Look Like Fully Grown?” Newsweek, 24 February 2022, https://www.newsweek.com/sea-monkeys-what-are-they-how-long-do-they-live-1682354. Accessed 5 June 2022.