Ben Volta Lecture

     Ben Volta is a very interesting artist because he works mostly with the community in creating community projects. Throughout his lecture he showed pieces that he created with kids and people in Philadelphia. I do wonder, though, what his individual pieces look like and how he views ownership in relation to his pieces that he does with many people in the community. I was surprised to see how many young teenagers were able to put together such elaborate designs through technology... I guess technology really is the future. I am very curious and want to find Ben Volta's website and go see his mural of wallpapers on Vine Street. I think I enjoyed listening to Ben Volta speak because he has very strong ideals and interactions with his art and the way he worked with kids and other people. It's amazing to think that eighth graders are learning about Aristotle and Plato and drawing in their math class. I wish I had a math class like that. But a really interesting point I found in Ben's lecture was that he described the ideal (what you the artist see in your mind) and the observable (what actually exists and can be observed in real life). It makes me really think about art in a different way-- and how much my mind actually controls my art actually begins to become frightening.