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