Thursday, April 28, 2011
Artist Statement - Final Project
My final project, entitled "Whiteboard Bear" was inspired by the stop motion animations I have always enjoyed watching on youtube. In all of the classes I have taken in college, I have always found that cartoons and animation are my favorite and I always have the most fun making these types of projects. When I began this project I ran into many struggles. At first I tried to do the drawing and the filming on my own but soon discovered this was nearly impossible. My little point and shoot camera kept turning off and losing the spot I had zoomed in on on the white board. Once my friend started helping me take the pictures I began to have a lot of fun with it. Originally, I wanted the movie to revolve around improvisational doodles, so once I was finished I had about 400 photos with fishtanks, flowers, snowmen, and other random designs. When I put the pictures on my computer I realized these themes had nothing to do with each other and I liked the drawings with the bear best. This bear has popped up in a lot of my work and I would like to think of him as my signature character, so i felt that this was most appropriate. The editing was enjoyable and frustrating at times, and took much longer than I expected, as editing always does. I had to teach myself how to use imovie, because I chose to do the editing at home rather than at school. It took me about two hours to figure out how to turn the "ken burns" effect off (when the photos automatically zoom in and out once they are presented on the screen) and this almost made me give up on the entire project. But, alas, I figured it out and I am pretty happy with the final project. Although it is short I now know how much time and effort goes into even the most simple hand drawn animations and my appreciation for this medium has grown. I really liked this project and hope to do something like this again soon.
Monday, April 4, 2011
The Yes Men and A Hacker Manifesto
The Yes Men video kept my attention from start to finish, which is hard to do as my attention span does not usually last long with any type of film. The two men were both clever and entertaining and their practices blew my mind. For those who have not seen the film, the Yes Men "hack" their way into ridiculous situations to prove how easy it is to fool big corporations or large organizations. In the first example, the Yes Men explained how they came into a position where they owned the domain name gatt.org(? i think..) which is extrememly similar to the actual World Trade Organization website. Long story short these men were able to actually attend a conference in Europe and speak for the WTO when they have absolutely no legitamate affiliation with the WTO. Their presentation was completely absurd and they were able to fool everyone in the room. They even said in the documentary that they were very surprised and dissapointed that the people were brainwashed enough to buy their act and not have any questions or comments when it was over. I think that the Yes Men's goal is to prove to the world how numb society is and how people do not check up on things as much as they should. It was especially surprising to me that these two individuals got away with this once, but then again as WTO members at a different convention where they proceded to announce that the WTO was shutting down for reconstruction. Wouldn't one think that someone would recognize them or put up a high security look out for them to make sure they did not show up again impersonating actual WTO officials? The media used to complete these missions include their faux website, along wtih power point presentations. Their false identities are backed up by fake name cards, probably created by a graphic designer. All of these supplements are made possible by technology. The yesmen support the idea of the artist as genious because these men are so advanced as artists/performers/hackers they didnt even need to necessarily know a whole lot about the WTO to make this possible. They were able to hack their way in, and much like digital artists/artists/computer geeks/hackers today, knowledge of technology can take people a very long way and give them power similar to a conventional genious. To relate this to the hactivism article, I would say that the Yes Men were hackers and not producers because they took something that existed, changed it, and made it their own, while fooling everyone along the way. The vector population would probably be the internet as a whole, and those who are supposed to patrol and monitor these organizations, and hte Yes Men were able to hack their way through any obstacles the vectors may have set in the way.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Visiting Artist: Isaac Julien
I think it would have been a much different experience viewing this piece the way it was supposed to be shown, on nine hanging screens. With the singular screen it seemed like I was missing out on the experience that I was supposed to be receiving from this piece of art. I thought the story line of this piece was kind of boring and I had trouble paying attention however I found the cinematography beautiful. One thing I agreed with was when a girl at the end asked why he chose to show clips of the production process within the film, because for me it made the piece not flow together. I would have liked to see this only as the film and not with the weird beginning and end with the man writing on the glass and then the cleaners wiping it off. It just seemed like too much was going on. With more background on the ancient Chinese culture I feel like I may have understood what was going on a little bit better. Or if there had been some subtitles in english at the bottom at the beginning to help us going on. I know Mr. Julien tried to explain it at the beginning but I still found myself lost for most of the film. All I could focus on was how beautiful the scenery was which did help keep my attention. After discussing this show with Trevor from class we both agreed that it was strange no credit was given to anyone else who made the film.
I really like the concept of having the film on all of the different screens, and while I watched the various screens within the singular screen I tried to imagine what it would be like to see it the way it was supposed to me. This was a revolutionary idea and I wonder if other artists will follow in Julien's footsteps. The idea of movement between cultures old and new goes along nicely with the movement of the various clips on the various screens. I also thought it was interesting how Julien showed us before the movie how he used the green screen to create the illusion of people flying. I would have liked to learn more about this and then maybe watched clips of the film rather than the entire thing.
I really like the concept of having the film on all of the different screens, and while I watched the various screens within the singular screen I tried to imagine what it would be like to see it the way it was supposed to me. This was a revolutionary idea and I wonder if other artists will follow in Julien's footsteps. The idea of movement between cultures old and new goes along nicely with the movement of the various clips on the various screens. I also thought it was interesting how Julien showed us before the movie how he used the green screen to create the illusion of people flying. I would have liked to learn more about this and then maybe watched clips of the film rather than the entire thing.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Rythm Science by Paul D Miller
It is interesting how Miller starts off by saying "Once you get in the flow of things, you're always haunted by the way things could have turned out". This is extremely applicable to my life, because I am always thinking back upon events and imagining how my life would be different if things had gone differently. This opens up the idea that we "remix" just about everything in our daily lives. When reassessing my actions, I suppose I am remixing all the different ways the scenario could have played out. Spooky defines rythm science as "a catalogue of undecided moments at the edge of my thinking process". You never know what is going to happen next or how things are going to play out to effect other things.
Spooky suggests that we may think we are entirely dependent on technology now, but in the future people won't consider technology as something they rely on, they will simply know it as their everyday life. Already technology has remixed itself into our everyday way of living, through computers, cell phones, internet, music, art, etc. Every aspect of life can have a technological side. Spooky says DJing allows you take the best of whats out there and mix it together to create something new and fantastic, but it seems as though in this day and age we can remix all kinds of things and make them work for us. For example I am remixing right now by taking Spooky's thoughts and my own thoughts to create a new theory on remixing. He says "rhythm science makes possible a music of permutation that tries to convey a sense of how conceptual art, contemporary technology, and timeless idealism might function together today". This covers just about everything I am learning in all my studies here at CU, and describes how the different areas of my education often flow in and out of one another. As an art student we are constantly discussing concepts and how we can "remix" a theme into a piece of artwork, and in this class we talk about how art and technology interact.
"DJ's have so many cultural products as material they are more willing to create psychological collage space". I love that he uses the term collage here, for remixing anything technically makes it one big collage. I think that the idea of mixing old and new comes to play here, for the book mentions how remixing can help one relive a personal experience. A certain song is coming to mind, where Ray Charles' "Georgia" lyrics start off slow and sweet, and then a beat drops and contemporary rapper Ludacris jumps in with the drop of the beat. This combination of sounds and culture creates a brand new sound and songs like this have taken over the music scene of my generation.
I am currently taking history of Jazz and I was surprised when Spooky referenced how in Jazz they use a call and response method. I never thought about this as the fundamentals of remixing but I guess even in the oldest forms of Jazz this could be considered a way of remixing because just like Ray Charles and Ludacris, two people yelling back and forth creates a new idea.
I think sampling and remixing in the music world is a really unique way to keep the music realm moving forward because after centuries of making music one could say there is nothing left to create, when using the conventional ways of making music because everything has already been done. With sampling and remixing there are endless possibilities of what could be combined to make something new. This could apply to art works as well, because in modern times it is very hard to come up with something original because so many things have already been done, but if you remix art there are so many new possibilities.
The idea of a DJ is interesting because they have the ability of staying ambiguous, much like users online have the ability to stay ambiguous. Because DJs often do not use their own voices, they can anonymously create music and send it into the world without being seen if this is what they choose. The DJ Deadmau5 stays ambiguous by always performing with a giant mouse head so no one can see his face. Although his face has been seen and is not completely kept a secret, generally when we think of this artist and his music, we think of the mouse head, and not of the actual human face that lies beneath. This goes back to the idea of creating something new, or becoming a new character that has never been done before. This makes the artist appear more creative and more memorable which are two themes which are also desirable when making music or art.
Spooky suggests that we may think we are entirely dependent on technology now, but in the future people won't consider technology as something they rely on, they will simply know it as their everyday life. Already technology has remixed itself into our everyday way of living, through computers, cell phones, internet, music, art, etc. Every aspect of life can have a technological side. Spooky says DJing allows you take the best of whats out there and mix it together to create something new and fantastic, but it seems as though in this day and age we can remix all kinds of things and make them work for us. For example I am remixing right now by taking Spooky's thoughts and my own thoughts to create a new theory on remixing. He says "rhythm science makes possible a music of permutation that tries to convey a sense of how conceptual art, contemporary technology, and timeless idealism might function together today". This covers just about everything I am learning in all my studies here at CU, and describes how the different areas of my education often flow in and out of one another. As an art student we are constantly discussing concepts and how we can "remix" a theme into a piece of artwork, and in this class we talk about how art and technology interact.
"DJ's have so many cultural products as material they are more willing to create psychological collage space". I love that he uses the term collage here, for remixing anything technically makes it one big collage. I think that the idea of mixing old and new comes to play here, for the book mentions how remixing can help one relive a personal experience. A certain song is coming to mind, where Ray Charles' "Georgia" lyrics start off slow and sweet, and then a beat drops and contemporary rapper Ludacris jumps in with the drop of the beat. This combination of sounds and culture creates a brand new sound and songs like this have taken over the music scene of my generation.
I am currently taking history of Jazz and I was surprised when Spooky referenced how in Jazz they use a call and response method. I never thought about this as the fundamentals of remixing but I guess even in the oldest forms of Jazz this could be considered a way of remixing because just like Ray Charles and Ludacris, two people yelling back and forth creates a new idea.
I think sampling and remixing in the music world is a really unique way to keep the music realm moving forward because after centuries of making music one could say there is nothing left to create, when using the conventional ways of making music because everything has already been done. With sampling and remixing there are endless possibilities of what could be combined to make something new. This could apply to art works as well, because in modern times it is very hard to come up with something original because so many things have already been done, but if you remix art there are so many new possibilities.
The idea of a DJ is interesting because they have the ability of staying ambiguous, much like users online have the ability to stay ambiguous. Because DJs often do not use their own voices, they can anonymously create music and send it into the world without being seen if this is what they choose. The DJ Deadmau5 stays ambiguous by always performing with a giant mouse head so no one can see his face. Although his face has been seen and is not completely kept a secret, generally when we think of this artist and his music, we think of the mouse head, and not of the actual human face that lies beneath. This goes back to the idea of creating something new, or becoming a new character that has never been done before. This makes the artist appear more creative and more memorable which are two themes which are also desirable when making music or art.
Monday, February 28, 2011
blog for 3/1
Ryan Trecartin seemed like a pretty cool guy from reading his interviews and reading about him, however my opinion drastically changed when watching his videos alone at the library where I felt extremely uncomfortable, and then even more so when watching it in the class room with everyone. We discussed at the end of class how some of us are simply not going to like it/allow ourselves to understand it. I was trying to decide if I was allowing myself to understand it or not, but I think I am very much on the fence because I want to understand it and I think I sort of understand but I can't help but hate it. I've learned enough about contemporary art, especially performance video art, that I more often than not dislike it but I also understand that the artist is intentionally trying to offend me by being bizarre, so in this respect I can applaud him for being successful, but if a piece makes you hate it so much that you want to turn it off is this a good thing? I don't think it is a good thing, but here I am rambling on about this video for an entire huge paragraph which says something I suppose, seeing as I am putting a lot of thought into how I feel about it.
As far as the net art for this blog assignment, I really enjoyed the triptych piece. It seems to me that a piece like this could be considered similar to Trecartin's since it moves and makes sounds and has lots of contrasting colors and ideas, but I like the way this piece flows much more (of course there is no dialouge or acting which makes it different). I especially like how the soundtrack seems to fit accordingly to each of the videos, even though they all move at their own pace and are unrelated. I also find it effective how the pieces seem to flow into each other, for example the silloutte of the man with all of the animated colors flows nicely into the screensaver-esque colorful animation below it. Art like this makes more sense to me because it is pleasing to the eye. Because I liked what I saw at the top, I was encouraged to scroll down and view the entire thing. It is interesting how it is titled "Triptych" because only one section of the piece features three works side by side, but I think that this title means that all of the pieces within the whole thing work together and speak to one another.
As far as the net art for this blog assignment, I really enjoyed the triptych piece. It seems to me that a piece like this could be considered similar to Trecartin's since it moves and makes sounds and has lots of contrasting colors and ideas, but I like the way this piece flows much more (of course there is no dialouge or acting which makes it different). I especially like how the soundtrack seems to fit accordingly to each of the videos, even though they all move at their own pace and are unrelated. I also find it effective how the pieces seem to flow into each other, for example the silloutte of the man with all of the animated colors flows nicely into the screensaver-esque colorful animation below it. Art like this makes more sense to me because it is pleasing to the eye. Because I liked what I saw at the top, I was encouraged to scroll down and view the entire thing. It is interesting how it is titled "Triptych" because only one section of the piece features three works side by side, but I think that this title means that all of the pieces within the whole thing work together and speak to one another.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Ryan Trecartin
James Franco Interview:
I thought this interview was really cool because I expected it to be about James Franco but it was actually about Ryan Trecartin who I have never heard of and learned a lot about. He seems to have some really interesting insights about film. When he said his favorite parts were when the actors stopped reading of the script and entered "real time" and said things like "I need to be drunk". The concept of real time is interesting, for in this real time people act how they are supposed to and act like themselves, but in front of a camera real time seems to go away and the actors can do whatever they want. I also liked how he said the era of reality tv stars have formed a new type of person who is less embarassed and therefore more free and "human". I have always sort of looked down on reality tv stars for humiliating themselves but Trecartin makes a good point, these people are confident and comfortable with themselves so it doesn't matter.
This "Wayne's World" video was very bizarre, I understand now what James Franco was talking about in the interview now and how the characters were known to make people feel icky. They are weird characters but obviously the artist was trying to get a reaction out of the audience and he was successful. The dialogues seem simplistic, like those on a child's tv show. The other video was hard to get through because of the squeaky voices and fast movements of the camera. After reading the interviews about Trecartin it definitely helps put things in context, like in "K-Corea" the characters are definitely not reading perfectly off a script because there are some studders, which helps make it creepier. To be honest the characters kind of scared me even though I know they aren't like that in real life.
Riverthe.net is very strange and I felt uncomfortable opening while writing this in the library. Trecartin definitely is doing something new and different, and he can easily make me feel nervous which I think is what he wants. However it will take some getting used to before I fully understand it.
I thought this interview was really cool because I expected it to be about James Franco but it was actually about Ryan Trecartin who I have never heard of and learned a lot about. He seems to have some really interesting insights about film. When he said his favorite parts were when the actors stopped reading of the script and entered "real time" and said things like "I need to be drunk". The concept of real time is interesting, for in this real time people act how they are supposed to and act like themselves, but in front of a camera real time seems to go away and the actors can do whatever they want. I also liked how he said the era of reality tv stars have formed a new type of person who is less embarassed and therefore more free and "human". I have always sort of looked down on reality tv stars for humiliating themselves but Trecartin makes a good point, these people are confident and comfortable with themselves so it doesn't matter.
In the NY Times Article, I love Trecartin's enthusiasm for people born in the 90's (I was born in 1989 but close enough). Usually our generation is put down for being so internet savvy and addicted to our computers but Trecartin is applauding us and is excited for us to understand the work he produces because of this skill that we all mostly have.
This "Wayne's World" video was very bizarre, I understand now what James Franco was talking about in the interview now and how the characters were known to make people feel icky. They are weird characters but obviously the artist was trying to get a reaction out of the audience and he was successful. The dialogues seem simplistic, like those on a child's tv show. The other video was hard to get through because of the squeaky voices and fast movements of the camera. After reading the interviews about Trecartin it definitely helps put things in context, like in "K-Corea" the characters are definitely not reading perfectly off a script because there are some studders, which helps make it creepier. To be honest the characters kind of scared me even though I know they aren't like that in real life.
Riverthe.net is very strange and I felt uncomfortable opening while writing this in the library. Trecartin definitely is doing something new and different, and he can easily make me feel nervous which I think is what he wants. However it will take some getting used to before I fully understand it.
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