Empire by Matthew Mead

“Empire” is a piece that uses a combination of video, stop motion animation, and mainstream media film. The video begins with drips of oil onto a white page, symbolic for the catalyst and sustaining element of our society. Transitioning into a George W. Bush film, the soundtrack audibly states, “there is no such thing as real monsters.” Immediately following this is a montage of horrifying media clips portraying prisoners in Guantanamo Bay Prison, an unconstitutional US Military base in Cuba. Recent press reports, as a result of a document leak to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, have highlighted the inhumane detainment of prisoners without due process of law. George Bush, responsible for bringing Guantanamo Bay to precedence following the events of September 11th, 2001, incarcerated hundreds of people from around the world. When Barack Obama ran for president, he vowed to close Guantanamo Bay. However, this has yet to happen. This false promise highlights the lack of change promised from administration to administration. Ultimately, The President must maintain the American empire, and to do so, America must have its stake in oil. As a country founded on the idea of Suburbia, America will go to great lengths to protect it’s interests, even if it means unconstitutionally incarcerating Middle-Eastern prisoners who are viewed as subversive to the American agenda.

leland final 4

Seeking, Searching, Examining

My final project entitled "Seeking, Searching, Examining" incorporates both video and sound. My goal of this project was to create a simple but strong visual piece that would not compete with the tense and layered sound scape I created.I found the simplicity and strength of each individual looking into the camera to be compelling seen against the sound of breath and body rhythms. The incorporation of the continuously turning foot gives the piece a feeling of suspended time, indirectly alluding to the sound score. The combination of these elements interested me. My hope is to stimulate the viewers senses in an unexpected way.

Tyler's Final Film Project

Statement:

The fact is that ideas are funny things. They are weightless and invisible with no material substance, yet ideas have the power to change the course of history. Human history is a complex whole of essential ideas, for ideas are the very substance of history. An idea can be many different things.

This piece portrays many forms of powerful ideas. Whether it be Buddha’s idea of establishing a lasting philosophy, or Copernicus defining the Cosmos, or whether it be the development of Romanticism, all were derived from the human mind.

The movement of ant like razorblades portrays the fluid motions of the immaterial idea. Some ideas grow into inventions and some ideas develop theories, either way it is amazing that something so undefined has the capability to write the course of time. Some of the ideas depicted in this film are ideas of joy, yet some are ideas of hatred. Both of which have the capability of spreading like a disease.

Sara's Final Video Project- Freedom

For my final project I created a piece about freedom that included stop motion, video and sound. I was inspired by a previous video I had created of someone dancing as well as a speech by David Foster Wallace. A particular segment of Wallace’s commencement speech regarding freedom and the idea of noticing and appreciating your surroundings or “water” of life caught my attention. I decided to revolve my piece around three different images that in some way illustrated freedom from my point of view. I chose pieces of Wallace’s speech based on what spoke most to me while reading it. Jamar dancing represents a freedom through movement, while the fish swimming in the confined bag represent the exact opposite of freedom. The shot of the girl standing on the dock represents freedom in a different sort of way. The water is moving freely underneath and around her and yet she is very still. She has the ability to move, and yet she does not. The final images of these three subjects are meant to cause the viewer to question the existence of freedom. Can freedom exist? How does it exist? How do you appreciate your own everyday freedom? Finally, I chose to end the piece with a rush of pictures of details that I took from my own everyday life. The images represent my freedom and choice to appreciate the details of nature.

Amy Final

For my final project I chose to work with a variety of kitchen appliances and objects that have seemingly no connection with the kitchen or any utilitarian uses in general. Everything we do in the kitchen has some end goal, some purpose, a use. I wanted to toy with the concept of usefulness and play. In this video, objects such as a skillet, a mixing bowl, a serving spoon, and a cheese grater are taken and played with in ways that are meant to seem either contrary or simply useless. Almost all of the footage shows some manipulation of the materials by an unknown outside performer, this is at once an attempt to give the objects a life of their own and remove at least some of the control that is implied when one manipulates objects. The use of rain on a windshield and the sound of water being played in are used to show the lack of control and purpose that I have attempted to portray with the kitchen related objects. Though rain itself obviously has a purpose, the movement of the rain on the windshield and the sound of playing in a puddle are meant to show how very useful things can be. at times, simply for play.

Julian's Final

Statement:
We’ve spent the entire semester playing with the dimension of time. We’ve used media that incorporates this fourth dimension in a more literal sense. This is to say that video and sound fill a physical frame of time. Here I am combining these four media into video and audio to convey yet another dimension, that of the greater notion of time. This larger idea of time, similar to fate, is a more abstract and emotional idea. Most of us are confronted with the reality of time as we grow up, reflecting on the life we’ve lived thus far. The most formidable years of my adolescence have been my later teenage years as I face a fork in the road between a foreign and professional world and the familiar innocence of childhood. But I often ask myself where my loyalty really lies.
This video is intended to incorporate all of these ideas into one. A man’s hollow silhouette sporting a sweatshirt, jacket, and Ipod walks up to a mirror but his reflection does not match his silhouette. The naked reflection slowly dresses himself in preppy business clothes as the hooded figure strips down to nothing. This is meant to represent one life giving way to another, childhood being stripped naked by adulthood. In another sense, though, it begs the questions which is more real; a shadow or a reflection? On a further note, the entire piece is nothing more than a projection onto a screen filmed through a camera adding yet another dimension of false reality. Meanwhile we hear the sound of a heartbeat, representing the life and vigor of youth. Toward the middle of the piece a ticking clock meshes with the heartbeat. These two differing rhythms fight with each other, falling in sync and back out again until the clock finally wins. Much like the character in the mirror, the clock represents a rigid mechanized businessman (not to mention time) that consumes both the heartbeat and the more youthful hooded figure.


Changing

Heather's Final Project

My video, “More than passing notes” is a combination of new ideas with elements from two previous projects. I wanted to work with my last video “Passing Notes” because I thought it had a lot of potential, and I decided to mix it with my stop-animation project that used scrabble letters. I chose stop animation with my video because I thought that in this case, it especially helped enhance the mysterious and scary parts. I tried to make my video have a creepy feeling to it, and thought I could achieve this by having allusive scrabble words appear throughout the video. I didn’t want the viewer to form a concrete opinion on what they were watching, but rather to be puzzled and form their own thoughts on what was going on. I watched “Passing Notes” many times in order to pinpoint what worked in it and what I thought had to be changed. I think that this video captures what I was trying to achieve in my previous version and in doing so it became a very different work.

Morgan's Final Video

“Mask, I am” is apiece about identity and the confusion it can bring. I originally started out wanting to create a piece that showed the material aspect of the identity and self and it became something not only about the materialness of identity or the mask in the video many of the hidden truths or “I am”s in the piece. In the sound of the video I am reading the dictionary definition of identity as a part of the materiality or literal understanding of identity, which is not how we always think of it. The “I am”s correspond with the ripping of the masks off of the face in trying to reveal a hidden self, or a true self, which there are many of. For me the piece is also a little dark because, the masks look almost like a second skin so the line between what is “true” identity and what is “fake” are not always clear.

Marika's Final Project "Hands"

--My final project incorporates the use of my hands and how they are used to perform daily tasks. Simple tasks may include braiding hair, to typing on a keyboard. Hands have a unique and almost fluid motion that is very rhythmic. My film is divided into separate segments, each with two distinct tasks of how my hands move. For instance, my first segment: shows me braiding my hair and also doodling on a piece of paper. I thought these hand performances complemented each other because the doodling has a very curvy, unique pattern to it, similar to a French braid when it is done. I chose to use a lot of transparency in my piece, because I not only liked the effect that it gave, but I also thought it brought my concept of hands to life. My sound piece is a combination of rain, the sound of frogs (because they were making noises in the rain), typing on a keyboard, tapping on a desk, creasing paper and doodling. I thought my sound piece incorporated a lot of obvious aspects that my film portrays, but adding the rain added a feeling that was natural. After all, rain is part of nature and our hands are a natural feature that we are given when we are born.--

Sara A's Final Project

This piece incorporates film with sound. It is taking the sounds of a basketball game and turning it into a rhythm, while putting images of a basketball game and a viewer to the beat. This piece incorporates repetition and varied tempos in order to give each action its own beat and emotion. Towards the end of the video, the tempo speeds up and it becomes much more choppy and quick. This was put in in order to capture how it feels to watch the end of a basketball game and the emotion of anxiety we feel when we watch the end of a basketball game. There are certain actions and sounds that are common when we view a basketball game, and this video is highlighting some of those sounds and actions, but through a different perspective. I wanted to turn the sites and sounds of a basketball game into more than just an event. I wanted to summarize what I observed when I watched the basketball game, but instead of explaining it, I put it to sound and images. There are many instances where certain songs remind us of certain events; this piece was an interpretation of that idea.

Morgan's In Progress Video

Leland's new project

Heather's Scary Movie

In my video, I wanted to create a creepy atmosphere by having the camera constantly moving and I tried to do this by only using a tripod sparingly. My inspiration were the movies I know What You did Last Summer and The Blair Witch Project.

Ann Hamilton- Response Question

Description of "Tropos" from Art 21...

Interview about "Ghost" on Art 21...

In the article on Blackboard, the author discusses the way that Ann Hamilton uses language in a very physical way in her installations. How does this material representation of language invite both symbolism (based in the intellectual and rational mind) and emotion (based on irrational and instinctive human response)?

Tyler's Film:

Encounter

This video explores the psychological experience of a young woman encountering herself in various locations. My inspiration came from a music video where the singer never fully looked at her self in the mirror. I found this relationship between her and herself very interesting and decided to play with someone looking and passing by themselves as if it was another individual.

Marika's Directed Video

--This video incorporates the concept of movement, but more specifically the swift movements usually performed when pickpocketing. When someone pickpockets, it is fast, and usually seems effortless. The swift and discreet movements of stealing a phone from someone's pocket is what I wanted to depict in my film.--

Amy Waddell- Video Project

This video is meant to show how the interactions of everyday life are present in our faces and how how energy drifts in the direction of our inner mental states. I attempted to show this energy in the smoke and its movement through out the frames. Though I filmed the assignment in a very abstract way, I hope the sense of passing and looking back at the other is present even if on just a theoretical plane. I wanted the video to have a sense of quiet and calm yet with many different emotions present, I then wanted the video to move toward a playful and innocent feeling at the end. I interpreted the assignment for this project in showing how two people are in each others lives for a time and they interact and they often break apart from each other and yet the interaction can still hold a lot of significance and can be quite beautiful and calm or very emotional and deep. I used smoke because it moves and reacts to the environment in which it is in with a very beautiful flowing motion and yet can disperse within a second, this shows the idea of the only thing constant in life is change.

Listen. By Sara Wroblewski

This video was inspired by a slow motion video I found of a ballet dancer doing a jump in slow motion. I was especially inspired by the overall simplicity of the video and close attention to detail in each of the shots. For my own work, I wanted to use the script we were given in a way that compared and contrasted fast and slow movements. When I read the script I thought of the way dancers snap their heads back and forth when turning across the floor. My video seeks to create a connection between these two dancers through their movement, gaze, and commitment to their art. I tried to focus on the composition of each shot and made sure to keep the background simple in order to hold the viewer's attention on the dancers. While I was editing this video I subconsciously found myself creating my own music/beat in my head to accompany the dancers. This is why the piece is called "Listen".

Sara A's Video Project

This video incorporates the idea of time as the figures pass and seem to acknowledge each other's presence, even though they are not present at the same time. but they are in the same location.

Sara A's Video

This video incorporates the idea of time as the figures pass and seem to acknowledge each other's presence, even though they are not present at the same time. but they are in the same location.

The Note

The Note explores the notion of the transferability of love. Many people who believe they are in love hold physical reminders of their love, such as a simple note that says "I love you." Thus, the non concrete notion of love is attributed a physical, tangible quality.

The actor, fed up with his current situation, reflects on the note, ultimately deciding that he no longer values it. He crumples it up and discards it on the sidewalk. The actress upon walking on the sidewalk finds the note. Intrigued, she opens it up and reads it. She then looks back at the person who dropped it. What used to be a valuable reminder of a relationship becomes a thought provoking memoir into the life of another person, while the only words in this memoir read "I love you."

Inspired by: Elephant

Directed Video by Morgan

This video incorporates quick cut scenes and different view points, and screen shots of each of the figures to create confrontation and conflicts between the two figures. the blind folded figure stands helpless to the conflict around her.

Final Music Video

Heather, Mattie, Tyler

Music Video

Leland & Julian Music Video

Geneevers Creepers:

Music Video

performance vids

Heather's Film Clips

Red + White= Pink

I thought of the idea of doing my laundry for my films subject matter because sometimes I feel as though there is a pressure on women to know how to be good at household chores like doing laundry. As you can see, I am not too good at doing this nor do I particularly enjoy doing household activities. My other five roomates are much better at laundry, and other things like sewing and cleaning than me and this shows the frustration I have about how I am sometimes assumed to be good at skills like these because they are designated as "feminine". I could also make a similar video on the terrors of having to cook, bake, sew, and clean.

Painting Nails Failure


I thought painting my nails for the subject of my video reflects how often women are expected to enjoy or be good at certain things such as applying makeup, or in this case painting nails. As you can see I am horrible at doing this and the nail polish I used belong to my roommates who spend countless hours painting their nails. It made me think about how much time we spend on activities like this and how tedious they seem when having to watch being replayed on film.

Morgan and Marika's in Class Music Video

Julian's Performance Videos

Tyler Mauri's Films

This film, Faces of Apple, embellishes the many different looks a computer can have. This films purpose is to expose how much time can be lost within the faces of a computer. We as the modern culture greatly depend on technology such as a computer. This film hopes to provide a playful situation while showing the viewer how much time can be lost within a computers interface.



Cookie Monster is a playful film that portrays a short journey following a path of cookies. The cookies are found in an undesired place, yet the actor seems to enjoy the process of collecting the cookies. The cookie trail inevitably leads to the notorious cookie jar. This film can have many different yet simple interpretations. Majorly it embellishes humor and its medium.

Matthew Mead Films

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Crystal Glass smash is meant to explore the idea of value. Present in the video are crystal glasses. The actor strikes a knife against the glasses to hear their pitch. When they are deemed unfit or invaluable, they are destroyed. This is the nature of our society. We throw things out that, to one person, may have great value, while to another person, it does not meet their ideas and expectations of quality

Snowballs' explores the idea of a clear glass door serving as an emotional divide. The actor gathers snowballs and then sites his target, a person on the other side of the glass. This clear glass serves as a membrane protecting the person inside. They cannot be harmed by the snowballs, or the aggression of the person throwing the snowballs.

Pipliotti Rist

It was actually more interesting and probably more insightful to read this article after having viewed a few of her works in class. This article contextualized the ideas that i was struggling to understand in her videos. Although i still don't think that i "see the way she sees" i now understand the method behind her madness.

The excerpt about "sip my ocean" caught my attention because it seemed to describe a different style of video than we saw in class. "gorgeous swirling imagery" amidst an "underwater fairyland" seemed more aesthetic than what i might have expected of Rist. I watched the video on youtube and saw the same themes portrayed in a much more subtle (and i think therefore more effective) way than "I want you to see how i see". The mirrored images create interesting optical effects and at times play well with the sexual theme of her pieces. What i found to be most interesting, however, was the idea of submerging oneself "into an all-enveloping sea of sensuality". She ties the very physical and tangible aspect of the senses into imagery and sound with this video. The metaphor became very real for me when she begins screaming "i don't want to fall in love" at the top of her lungs. This part was very moving and inspires an almost physical reaction in the viewer almost as if being dunked into a pool of water.

Sara W.'s Response to Rist

Pipilotti Rist seems like an incredibly passionate artist who is dedicated to her work in an emotional way. The article says that "Rist methodically gathers up her frustrations, disappointments, disillusionments, and regrets and translates them into ambitious video installations". I thought this statement was especially interested because it seems contradictory to gather up such strong emotions in a "methodic" way. I feel like this process must take a lot of time and a lot of thought. I liked reading about the way Rist also uses the camera to express emotion. When the author was talking about the way Rist moved the camera it felt like the camera was a person, or something with feelings. I think it is nice to hear about artists who devote so much time and care so much about their work and what they want it to symbolize. Through her work, Rist is able to invent her own scenarios and create scenes from her imaginations, fantasies, and reality.

Heather's response to Pipilotti Rist reading

After reading this article on Pipilotti Rist, I found that it was really interesting because it described the ways in which this artist went about doing her work. She focuses on the turmoil of emotions, and finds inspiration from “collapsed dreams” and “failed romantic encounters”. A lot of her works revolve around romance and love, and she uses stories from mythology in her videos and installations. I also liked that Rist is very open about talking about her own personal life and how it connects to her art. I think that a lot of the time, artists don’t like to talk much about themselves because they want their audience to focus on their works and not them. Understanding more about the artist is helpful and I always think that more knowledge about something is always a good thing, even if it does take some attention away from just viewing the art by itself. I also liked that Rist is comfortable relating herself to the feminine side of women and embracing it. I think that since she is relaxed enough speaking of her personal life and has girly themes in her work, that this enhances her work because she is approachable.

Pipilotti Rist

I found the reading about Pipilotti's artwork to be incredibly interesting. The idea of romantic, ideal, beautiful, passionate, and perfect sexuality and the resulting connection with a fictional lover as the driving force in ones life and yet at the same time the cause of so much grief, doubt, and disappointment, is powerful. While reading the article I could not help but think that the times in which "reality" comes into her fantasy videos sounds as if it is, in a sense, the most passionate and moving parts of the videos. Though I understand that her art is meant to show this beautiful fantasy and the resulting inferior reality, I think that the raw, disappointing, sad reality has the potential to show more beauty than some of the fantasy moments. Though the fantasy is meant to be an ideal reality it never can truly be because though it sounds perfect, life is never that perfect and in a way the imperfection of reality holds a stunning beauty of its own. The obvious sensuality of Pipilotti's artwork does not sound as though it detracts from the depth of emotion and complex layers of meaning that this artwork is really all about.

Video statement

Due to many technical difficulties I do not have my two videos uploaded and probably will not until class tomorrow. I am very sorry for any difficulty this may have caused but I thought I would post my write ups about my two videos so there are at least ideas that can be critiqued.

My first video consists of a coffee table in a dark room covered with unlit candles and a sculpture of mine in the center, the only thing that can be seen at first is the candle right behind the sculpture. using long matches I slowly start to light the candles around the sculpture until at last the sculpture is lit up enough that it can be seen that the sculpture is of a nude women resting on a bed, the video culminates with the lighting of six long matches that are places within two wine glasses to either side of the women. I wanted this video to inspire more of a feeling and an energy than a specific point or idea. I wanted the sensuality of the candles, the flow of the smoke coming off the extinguished matches, and the final reveal of the nude sculpture to inspire a sense of almost mystical sexuality.

My second video is an exploration of my school bag/purse. Since I was little I loved the idea of being able to carry around a bag that could contain enough things so that I would never be able to get bored and that had enough supplies that if a car ever broke down or for some reason I had to live out of my bag for a while, I could. The video is my hands unpacking the bag and playing with some of the things inside, I go through all the pockets and eventually find a flashlight which I then use throughout the rest of the video to explore the cave that is my purse. The idea behind this video is that though my purse is relatively small and contained, through my actions there is the possibility of transforming the bag into an almost cave like place that can be explored and therefore experienced in a new way.

Again I am sorry I was unable to upload the videos that should accompany these write ups but hopefully I will have them up by class tomorrow.

Marika's Response to the Pipilotti Rist Reading

What really fascinated me the most about Pipilotti would be her role models. Pippi Longstocking, why I must have read that several times when I was young and her attachment to Mother Nature is also quite interesting. "In many Rist videos, forests, rivers, oceans, and swamps appear drenched by the moisture of arousal." I have never heard of Pipilotti before, so I was envisioning her to have this really "weird" perhaps "creepy" style to her art pieces, but it is quite the contrary. Reading about how her video installations maybe "traceable to the classics, but they are infused with the fantastical imagery common to MTV and porno-pop, not ancient art" has a nice spin on thing. Her style and sophisticated approach is quite impressive. Her "internal source of inspiration resides in emotional turmoil." Her "specific source of her turmoil is discovered in the aftermath of collapsed dreams and failed romantic encounters." Looking through some of her art pieces I can definitely see the vulnerability and innocence portrayed within them. My favorite line from the reading was: "Clothes and jewelry are constituents of our feminine culture that I'm proud of. If I had to choose my sex, then this aspect of feminine culture would certainly be one of the many reasons I would prefer to be a woman."

Dana's Videos

Unravel-

In this video I wanted to play with the idea of taking something apart. I though it was interesting to view an object being reduced little by little. This sort of de-evolution of shape and mass creates its own lively energy. The methodical back and forth movement of the thread takes on a machine like presence. The rhythm is broken toward the end leaving us with the reduced garment and its de-knitted parts. This video compares the refined skill of knitting with the simple act of undoing, “unraveling”.

Boating-

In this video I wanted see what effect of placing an object in an unlikely place would have. By traveling in a wave like pattern among trees and hills rather than water the boat stands out as something misplaced. There is a simple sadness to its journey. In a way this video is commenting on the similarities between forms in nature, specifically the horizon of hills and open water.

Videos

In this video, Fried Eggs, I wanted to show the relationship between a fried egg and where it comes from—a bird. Although chickens do not have nests, I thought that a nest would be a good way to get across the idea of a bird. I don’t know about anyone else, but a lot of the time I am eating I do not think about where my food is coming from. By taking the egg directly from the next as opposed to an egg carton, I was trying to show the influence of nature in our everyday lives. The video is meant to show the relationship between things that are natural and things that are man made. Next to the nest are two salt and pepper shakers shaped like birds. I wanted to make sure that nothing in the scene was really natural. The nest has been taken out of its natural environment, the birds are obviously not real, and the egg has been through some processing of its own.

In this video, Swing, I wanted to explore the concept of jumping off a swing from many different angles. I picked jumping off the swing as a concept because it naturally has its own build up, peak when you jump off, and ending, or landing. I used three different points of view to compose my video. In all of them I wanted the swing to be the focal point. I thought the composition was better when less of the background was being shown. I also wanted to show the contrast between the person swinging and the empty swing in addition to the contrast between the shadows and what is creating the shadows. When I was thinking of an idea I was thinking of the shots as if they were photographs and how I would want a photograph to be composed.

Sara Ahrendtsen's Performance Videos

Grocery Shopping

Family Tree

For these videos, I tried to incorporate some of the elements we saw in the videos from class. I used the idea of storytelling through one character in Family Tree and used the idea of doing mundane and everyday things in Grocery Shopping. For Grocery Shopping, I wanted to show how everyday things have become things to complete, rather than things to do. We now live in a society that is all about getting everything done, rather than enjoying the process and the experience. In Family Tree, I was trying to capture a simple version of my parent's lives. I covered my face or only showed parts because I wanted to show that I am creations of my parents and the events in their lives. At the end I show all of me because all of the events in our lives have defined and made up who I am.

Performance Videos by Marika Nebesky

-SOAP-



-Keyboard-


I wanted to incorporate my hands in these two pieces because we are always using them to complete our daily tasks. Sometimes we forget, or at least I sometimes forget that we depend so much on touch. I wanted to incorporate the water and soap to show that a day’s work is done. I am washing away all the germs, and items that my hands have encountered throughout the day. Even the foam soap dispensers are fun to play with because foamy soap has a sense of depth to it because it is not just an ordinary drop of soap liquid. Taking an everyday task, such as washing our hands can be interpreted in so many ways. Also, the world of technology continues to become more and more advanced. Nowadays, you rarely see a person without a laptop or a technological device. I named this piece “Keyboard” because, yes I am typing on a computer keyboard, but there is also a sense of rhythm to each tap that I make on the computer keys.

Rist response by Morgan

It was interesting to read this article on Pipilotti Rist, because it described and approach to what I would call feminist art in an unexpected way, at least for me. Her art work is based of feminine emotions and feelings and instead of either commenting negatively about it she embraces them and uses what is seen as girly or playing too much into the patriarchal hand, as a way to emphasize women. Her pieces address strong emotions of love, revenge, and rejection in ways that she herself experienced and that many members of her audience not just women can understand. While some of her pieces are based of ancient mythology, these are classic tales that preside in our world today in many versions, so her plots are accessible and understandable as well as relating to herself personally. I was very surprised to read about her work because I am so used to some feminist artist who completely rejects the idea of femininity to represent women, because of its ties with oppression. For me to know that there is an artist out there that embraces the girly girl as a part of what women are makes me very happy and anxious to see her work.

Morgan's Performance Videos

What is really hand made is the question that I want people to think about when they see this movie. If I knit with the yarn that I bought and then used a ball roller instead of my hands to wind the yarn into a ball, does that still make the product hand made, is it still original, are the thoughts that go into the process of making this scarf or sweater as genuine. I also want the viewers to think about taking the easy way out versus the long and hard way, does using technology, while it makes our lives easier, make us less connected with the world? Or is the fact that we now have the ability to have a global connection with any one out there mean that we were closed off before. By rolling this ball am I disconnecting myself from the sincerity of my creation?



In life we put on many faces and mask depending on the situation that one finds them in. I have a face that I put on with make up and professional clothes when I have an interview. I have face that I only show my close friends, one for my parent and one when I am with both. I have a face for class and a face for work. My face and my voice change when I go to Texas to see my grandparents and that mask can take a while to leave for my Boston or college one. By removing the clear facemask, I am shedding one layer of “skin” or mask that I was and put on. Is this mask the real me, are any of the faces we put on the really us or are they all a part of us is there really one true representation of our selves

Sara A's Response to Pipilotti Rist Reading

After reading about Pipilotti Rist, it is clear that her approach to film finds its power and strength through her use of female emotions. She takes her frustration, disappointments, disillusionments and regrets and then translates them into ambitious video installations. In some videos she reenacts romantic fantasies and it others she constructs emotional symbols, while others recreate dream like states. She stated that she "is fueled by trials, not triumph for her videos." Rist hopes to achieve the idea that her imagined love is often shattered by a gullible belief that seduction is an expression of enduring affection. Rist's video installation have been compared to a MTV porno-pop. In some examples of Rist's videos, she shows forests, rivers, oceans, and swamps drenched by "moisture of arousal." Rist is capturing the feminine culture emotively, instead of physically. One example of her video installations was "Sip My Ocean" in 1996. Rist also uses the camera to show the complexity of human emotions, both being loved and being abandoned. It is so interesting that she juxtaposes these opposite emotions and it is fascinating, as the viewer, to watch and feel the different emotions throughout the installations. When she is editing her work, Rist works hard of enhancing the emotive power of the footage she has taken. Something that is ten hours of tape may only make a three minute sequence.

Leland & Julian In-Class

Rubber Bands:

Ice Slide

Heather, Amy, & Sara's Video

The Listener

1) Can you give an example of “listening in search” and “listening in readiness” in your current environment?

2) What is the “keynote” sound of where you are right now? Explain your reasoning.

or

3) Craft your own response to the article.

Heather's Response to "The Listener"

The article "The Listener" categorizes the various types of listening under different headlines and then explains the various groupings. It begins by differentiating hearing- which is more passive and can occur unconsciously from listening- which involves a more active role and has several level of attention. There is also an interesting section on the history of listening and how sounds and our perception of them have changed over time. For instance, there is a quote talking about how in the past people could match up various sounds outside with a specific cart and each cart had its own unique sound. Another quote in this section relates to sound and survival and how boat captains used echo sounds in order to estimate distances. The importance of sound and survival has of course changed now because of new technology effecting our relationship with the environment- but it is still interesting to remember that sound can be used and often was used in the past as a technique for survival. The last section of the article revolves around consumerism and puts into perspective that the listener can be a consumer of more than just buying a recorded sound. There are also other factors like marketing that shape our attitudes towards listening and how the public has been influenced by the consumer culture. The article concludes with stressing how the listener is exposed to a limited range of music due to their specific culture, and a solution that could help fix this problem is exposure to other alternative forms of music and sounds.

Sara A's response to the article "The Listener"

I thought it was really interesting when the article discussed the three levels of listening attention. The article stated that sound was important for symbolic reasons (association built over time), survival reasons (active listening), and association with memories. It is very interesting to sort out the sounds we hear everyday because, mostly, we don't think much of them. Modern technology has changed out perception and relationship to sound. Certain sounds now sound all the same and we associate one sound for a series of objects. One example is the delivery truck, which was an example given from the reading. Another really interesting point from the article talks about how the most common reason for sounds to be heard in background listening is because they are a usual occurrence, and therefore expected or predictable. The World Soundscape Project has named these sounds as keynote sounds. They were given this name not because of their characteristics, but because of the way in which it is habitually perceived. Another really interesting idea that the article expressed was that a listener can be a consumer, but not only in the sense of buying recorded sound, but also adapting listening habits that encourage it. This is true of a lot of popular radio stations today. In general, there are only about ten songs a day that a radio station will repeat in order to advertise a new artist or a new song that they want society to buy into for profit or for fame.

Marika's Response to the article "The Listener"

I found this article to be quite fascinating. The concept of sound and the ability to listen is something that most of us take for granted. For instance, since I can hear what is going on around me everyday I do not tend to stop and analyze the concept of hearing. An example of how someone begins to understand the value of hearing is when they become blind. Since you have lost your vision, the ability to hear what is going on around you will help guide you everywhere. The rest of this article introduces so many complex ideas about sound that I never knew existed. Even learning about the three levels of listening was intriguing.

Response to the article "The Listener" by Morgan

I thought this article was really interesting. I had never really thought about the audio world in this sense before. It was interesting to think about how much we depend sound and noise without being consciously aware of it. It is scary how much information our brains take in just from what we hear and how much of that can be controlled by commercialism and consumerism. I take in things better if I can hear them and put a picture to them so it is interesting to think about what I am hear unconsciously and making a picture for in my head without really knowing. It is interesting to think about this as an art form because, you can use sound, and the images and messages people associate that sound with to create a picture of send a message without having to say anything. It will always be in a sense a new piece because the audience will experience it and hear it differently and then also associate different meanings with it.

Matthew Mead Final Animations

Substances. Matthew Mead & Tyler Mauri


Oil in the Pages


Nikes


Paper Trail

Tyler's Final

Leland Final 4

Heather's Final Four Videos

Lego Movie:

Frogger:

Moose:

Scrabble:

Heather & Sara

Dana's finals

Pink and Yellow Abstract



Apples and More



April Art



201 Mornings

Sara's Final Videos

Cake- Final #1



Abstract Final #2



Body Video Final #3



April Art Final #4

Sara Ahrendtsen

Sara & Heather

Marika's Final Animations

"Candy Love" - Collaboration with Amy, and New Medium




"Money Origami" - Based on Previous Artwork




"Colored Lines" - Abstract




"Vase of Flowers" - Something turns into something else

Julian's Final Animations

Something Based on a Previous Artwork:

Something Abstract:

Something Becoming Something Else:

Some New Medium (and cooperative):

Morgan's Final Videos

New Medium:


Former Art Peice


Transformation:


Abstract with partner:

Matthew Mead & Tyler Mauri Final Animation

Fourth film

Julian's 4th Animation

Dirty Laundry



Light Everyday

Marika's 4th Animation

Colored Lines

Sara Ahrendtsen-4th video

Heather's Third Video

Morgan's New Video

new video!

Julian's new Animations

Lights Everyday:



Trapped (V2):

Revised Video:

New Video:

Matthew Mead Animations 2

Paint and Art

Marika's Stop-Motion Animations

Origami Money --Revised





Vase of Flowers --New

Sara Ahrendtsen

Dana's Videos

New Video: 201 Mornings



Redone video see below--

Sara's Videos (and Dana)

New

Redone- April Art

Morgan's: Redone Video and New!

Sorry that the first ones didn't work
Redone

New!

Morgan Assigment 1 Videos

Julian and Morgan's Group Video


Morgan's Still Life

Assignment 1: Group and Painting Video

Julian and Morgan's Graveyard Video
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Morgan's Moving Still Life Video

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Videos

Dana Florin-Weiss

Tyler's First Set of Films

Sara

Julian's Animations

Julian Trapped



Morgan and Julian Graveyard

April Art

Leland Drake

Matthew Mead Animations

Paper Trail



Oil

Marika and my candy project:




Paint Creation:

First Two Stop-Motion Animations

Money Origami- by Marika

Candy Love- by Marika and Amy

Assignment 1: Stop Motion- First Two Videos

Sara Wromblowski and Dana Florin-Weiss



Sara Wromblowski



Dana Florin-Weiss

Jan Svankmajer (reading for Monday January 31)

The article states: “One of Svankmajer’s primary concerns is
“inner life,” which can be discussed in terms of dream states and suppressed impulses related
to sexuality, violence, and fear.” How do you see this reflected in his work (see examples below)? Please discuss in 100-150 words.

Jan Svankmajer’s “Meat Love”



Jan Svankmajer's Dimensions of Dialogue Pt 1

Brothers Quay Interview

Interview

Article from the Cornell Chronicle.



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