Saturday, February 26, 2011
News Alert
Hopefully you get this before you take the ride into school tomorrow to do any work...library is closed.
Jenn
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Class Rescheduled!
I am going to see about rescheduling another session for all of you -- we're at a crucial stage with regard to your video projects and I don't want any of you to feel shortchanged. So I'll check on availabity of the lab and see if we can schedule a make-up class for another evening or even weekend soon.
Sorry for the last minute notice and I appreciate your understanding. We will be all meeting together again next Thursday, March 3rd. We'll pick up with video editing and post-production.
Revised Treatment
The alternative I've come up with is to tie in with the first project I did (A Journey in a Book) and my final project (the Norwegian Birkebeiner). So - this weekend I'm going to New Hampshire for a final peak training event skiing in the mountains. The film will go something like this:
The opening shot shows a map of the White Mountains, with the path I'm going to travel clearly visible. The camera 'flies' over the map, effectively tracing the route, and letting the viewer 'take a journey in a map' as it were.
The map fades away and is replaced by a shot of the real mountains and real ski trails. I start moving on the skis, at around sunrise. Different shots are interspersed throughout the day, as I pass the points previously seen on the map, while music plays.
The final scene is back at the lodge after the journey has been completed. The camera pans down to show the map, which has now been highlighted with the path taken.
1st Light, 2005
1st Light, 2005
Projected digital animation
Institute of Contemporary Art
Paul Chan’s 1st Light is a parable of religeon and politics for a post 9/11 world. A wedge of light is projected on the floor as if it’s streaming though a big window. The shifting colors from the projector make the animation looks as though the sun is rising and setting through the window at times. Silhouettes appear against the grey-white light making it look like light from the early morning. Tree branches and power lines anchor the scene making it look like it projects the city. Most of the shadows are familiar at first but as the animation changes it starts to look a little strange and creepy. Ojects such as cell phones, sunglasses, cars, clothing - ascend. Meanwhile shadows of bodies start falling downward as if they are falling into hell. Some religeons believe the faithful will be transported to heaven when they pass but in Chans inverted Rapture he reflects an era of consumerism and violence which often appears to favor earthly possessions over human lives.
All in all this was a great peice. The projection of the piece of to the floor was a good idea as well.
Field Trip
When I got back I found a official website of VanDerBeek. On this website, I found a lot of pictures and video clips. So I got a chance to review all these stuff again. And of course, I got some fresh ideas:
About his early work:
Most of the collages that are hanged on the wall are the early works of VanDerBeek. From those works, I found many interesting commons, such as the “combined words”, none or cut-face women, changed face men and the curved forks. Those textures show up repeatedly in our artist’s works. They also give me a strong feeling of “Continuous Changing”. For example, the artist always used “combined words” in his works. In those words, each letter of the words is also the part of the next letter. In my opinion, I think the artist was trying to tell the audiences that the end of each letter also could be the start of the next letter. There would be no ending, if you kept writing.
See Picture 1.
Picture 1 |
The similar ideas can be observed in his “forks art”. He always used forks to create other stuffs, like dancing people, running birds, and even the “hot smoke”. Among those works, which I like the most is the Picture 2.
Picture 2 |
From picture 2, I can see much more clearly about this “continuous Changing” idea. Firstly, the combination of pan and forks told me that they are definitely tableware. But if we focus on the twisted branches of the forks, they also could be seen as dancing people who were standing on the “pan” stage. I know it sounds silly, but this is definitely what I have now.
About his “Motion pictures”:
Motion pictures are very interesting. When I read the instructions on the website, I found more information. First, as what artist said, those “Motion pictures” called “Culture Intercom”, which has been combined by all kinds of audio-visual devices into a educational tool. VanDerBeek asserted that he thought the current culture and technology is far away from normal person’s capability of understanding. So he wanted to use a non-verbal way -- “Culture Intercom” to help people understand this world as soon as possible. See Picture 3.
Picture 3 |
For me, I think this invention is a little bit too ambitious at 1950s. But nowadays, if we look at how we are accessing information through our phone, PC, laptop and Mac, I have to admire our artist’s forward-looking though.
VanDerBeek @ MIT's List
Thoughts: My favorite part of the exhibit was definitely Poemfields and the Movie Mural. It reminded me of a Marta Minujín show I saw recently. At her show there were small rooms to walk through and one had projections on each of the four walls and even the floor and ceiling. (A piece photographic evidence below from a different room at the Minujín exhibit.) VanDerBeek's projection of multiple images in the Movie Mural was truly immersive. I was very happy with the use of space-- the very high ceilings really added to the experience.
The Poemfields were also very cool. I thought it was awesome that he used a technique that involved punch-cards to make those films. I also really liked the trippy feeling of the exhibit-- especially noticeable in Poemfields and the Movie Mural.
Art that involves or includes the viewer always interests me. It makes it more personal and you feel a deeper connection to the work.
In one of the videos VanDerBeek discussed the future of computers and television in art and he made some interesting predictions. For one, he said that one day art schools would teach computers and programming along with more traditional classes. He also predicted 3D televisions and the use of holograms that people would be able to control themselves. He was right about the art schools and 3D televisions so perhaps he will be right about the holograms, too. ((I think Wolf Blitzer hologramed-in Will.I.Am during the last presidential election.))
Visiting Stan VanDerBeek's exhibit
We saw five short films made by VanDerBeek. These films have never been seen before. This was the first time that they were opening it to the public. So, this was something the curator told us not to miss out on. Of the five, two films really stood out to me. One of them was from 1965, called ‘See, Saw, Seams’. It was 9:06 mins long in black and white with sound. It was a very interesting composition of images, because they blended in with each other very subtly, but when they transformed into their full image it was something that you didn’t expect to see. For example, a face of a young man would transform into a landscape, a woman’s breasts who very slowly and subtly transform into a landscape of trees and her neck into a castle, an eye of a bird would transform into a bridge. The background music was composed of drums and that kept me quite engaged as well. I got the feeling that VanDerBeek really understood his medium of choice at this point. The flow of the video, even though it was over 9 mins long, kept me engrossed. It really displayed what he wrote:
“Juxtaposed to what we see, is what we think we see... that is, the memory of the dream is as real as the dream itself, but it is completely different from the dream. This film is an experiment in animation, in which the eye of the viewer travel deeper and deeper and deeper into each scene, finding new relationships and visual metaphors in what appears, at first sight, a simple scene. Symbolic intention is the mother of symbolic retention... that is, sight you are... if you think you are.”
The second video was titled “Spherical Space No.1”. This was made in 1967, it was 5 minutes long and this one was in color with sound. The video was made with a spherical lens which took 195 degrees of sight on film. The best I could describe it was like looking at a large view through a peep hole in a door. Only, the view moved along with the dancer in the nude. The dancer contoured her body to the trees and the walls. She did her ballet around on the grass and just seemed intertwined with nature.
I am not sure how many people in class follow Greek mythology. However, this particular video made me think of the Bacchae/Maenads. Bacchae women were a cult that celebrated and worshipped the god of wine, Dionysus. They were also known as Maenads. Part of this worship or celebration took place in the woods. The Maenads would dance and revel in a sort of a trance after they had much wine and following that they would they would kill a wild bull, tearing it apart from its limbs and eating its body parts, raw. A ritual called ‘Sparagmos’. So, its not so much the ritual, but the pre-cursor to that ritual, the dancing and being inter-twined with nature that this video captured, that really took me back to my classical mythology days in college. Overall, it was a great exhibit.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Baby update
Field Trip: ICA Boston
So I decided to go to the Institute of Contemporary Art with Nikia last week. I've been to the MIT art gallery in the past but haven't gotten a chance lately to visit the ICA. There weren't as many things currently on view in the exhibitions as I had last seen it, but nevertheless there were still some interesting pieces. Many of the art installations were abstract and heavily conceptual...thank goodness for the exhibit descriptions! Mark Bradford was one of the featured artists, where most of his work consisted of abstract, oversized paintings with mixed mediums. He uses many bright bold colors and all of his paintings have repeating motifs like grid-like patterns and adding several layers of different mediums. What was interesting was each new layer was dissolved or cut away at certain places to reveal what was underneath it... it was an interesting way of showing "class, race, and gender in American urban society". He also had a video on display where he was wearing MC Hammer-esque pants with a giant tube wrapped around his waist and he was attempting to play basketball. By hindering his own movement he said it represented society's expectations/stereotypes as pressure for weighing people down from what they do...
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Stan VanDerBeek's Visual Arts
Yup, I love the surrounded, overlapped montage, or whatever it is called. It's compelling when so many frames appearing in front of your eyes simultaneously, especially they have connections somehow. Sometimes I even felt there was fewer frames on one screen, I knew that was illusion though. Really smart idea! I was amazed how he arranges the clips and frames. Woo... What a genius!
About the posters or images, I also like the nude woman one. But I really want to talk one of his drafts in the other exhibition room. It's a draft or something, looks like a drawing or a sketching on a paper. He used simple horizontal straight lines, with vary little turns or bents in each, to create a embossed and 3D appearance man on a flat paper. Remember, that was created decades ago, and far before computer graphics were invented.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
VanDerBeek Trip
I think the movie showing I caught was "Astral Man". It reminded me a lot of "Dr Who", "The Tomorrow People", and other 60's sci-fi shows and movies. The audio when I first entered the theater was also typical for the genre, odd sorts of underwater-sounding noises, which I think were used in sci-fi at the time to give the feeling of a submarine in space. At this time, the dancers were prone, I think having restless dreams. Then, the dancers stood up and were more active. As the dancers sped up and started interacting with each other, the music changed to a peppy classical violin. I think the movement of the dancers, the music, and the psychedelic backgrounds all interplayed well. The next movie started with some blurry shifting figures and what I think was an audio track from a therapy session talking about an uncomfortable dream. Slowly, the blurry shapes focused into macabre human figures that visually expressed the tension of the voice describing a bad dream.
Unfortunately, several of the projectors in the room with the 360 movies weren't working. Technical/electrical difficulties at MIT. Go figure...
Before reading the description of the project, I sort of saw a historical progress through the movie clip I was watching the most. The entire piece was an attempt to summarize the totality of human history in a multi-movie piece. So, it made sense to me.
The other projection piece, I didn't like as much. I got the idea of "Poemfields" giving a multimedia styling to lines and words of poetry. I like the idea, I didn't like the execution. I didn't think it was visually appealing, and I didn't watch it long.
Wow, this is getting long. I'm going to do a bullet list of the pieces that struck me:
- One of the Dali-esque collages featured a man holding a woman's hand, but her face had come off and was falling. I at first thought this was perhaps about dehumanizing women in romantic pursuits. I looked closer and noticed the man had a watch, and was thus taking her pulse. Now, a statement on the impersonalization of the medical industry.
- Variations V - I didn't like the piece, but I like the idea of an audio-reactive environment to play in
- Panels for the Walls of the World
- Audience feedback in ongoing art
- Fax machine art!!!!
- Nixon & "If no tyrany exists, invent one" - This seems relevant, again.
- "On a treadmill" & a Southeast Asian about to be shot - Makes me think of the 'War on Terror'
- A comment about finding few Communists in Cambodia (which no doubt involved killings during the search) combined with a comment about legalizing abortion made me think a lot about what of many possible messages was being expressed. The hypocrisy of killing some people is bad but some people is okay? That we will always make up justifications for killing another human being if we really want to?
- Social Imagestics: Somewhat accurate predictions about Year 2000 culture's use of technology and social media being international and reactive and the resulting lack of privacy. "We will get the future we learn to expect", or, perhaps, are taught to expect.
- Vanderbeekiana: I really liked the still images transitioning into structurally similar but very different content images. My favorite was the nude woman turning onto a landscape with a road and castle, then back into a woman.
- Strobe Ode: Ow! My eyes!
Exhibit
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Stan VanDerBeek Exhibition
omg!!
first time i was thinking, ok, at least i just done 1/3. so i started again.
the second time i was like omg not 1/3 again! but it was.
im to tired to begin over again today. my eyes burning. and sorry i need complain here........so sad....T_T
tomorrow, plz dont play with me.....
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
24 hour piece
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/arts/design/17christianmarclay.html
Monday, February 14, 2011
Field Trip!
I think this show at the List sounds good.
I like the List for a number of reasons:
-- small enough space that one doesn't get overwhelmed by the work
-- T accessible
-- I've always had a thing for MIT
So please head over to the show and report your reactions on the class blog. Doesn't have to be a term paper, just a few paragraphs highlighting your reactions. I haven't been to the show yet myself, so it's on my schedule to do soon as well.
Happy Valentines Day!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Story treatment: The “Mailed” Thief
The “Mailed” Thief
This is a true story in Poland. The smart thief mailed himself to the warehouses of the package delivery companies, then he climb out of the package after employees left for the night, and steal the valuables from other packages or the workplace. How does he get away? He makes his getaway by sealing himself and his stolen goods into the same box, which addressed to his Warsaw home.
After many customers complained about lost items in their packages and the untraceable missing valuables in workplaces of the delivery companies. The police didn't find him out until his partner got caught because of other crimes, whose job was to deliver him to the delivery companies.
This was a true crime in Poland last year. I am going to make a documentary that is mainly unfolding this story by adding some created funny elements.
Scene 1. The thief, Muchy, is a man lives in poverty. One day he finds out the “Trojan Horse Story” in a comic book, which inspires him the plan.
Scene 2. Muchy discusses with his best friend, and they decide to this. His friend packs Muchy in a large box as a package, and sends it to the delivery service.
Scene 3. After the staffs go home at night, Muchy climbs out of the package, opens the packages waiting for delivery in the warehouse, searches and collects the valuables, and seals all the packages he opened including himself. (Uses fast motion to speed up this scene.)
Scene 4. Muchy’s partner opens the package, pulling Muchy and the stolen goods out of the delivered package. Apparently, they succeeded in their first try.
Scene 5. Two consequences might occur if they do the same thing in the US and China. In China, the package might be thrown and kicked when being delivered to the warehouse (because the delivery companies often treat packages badly), he is badly hurt and passes out, and misses the chance and time for stealing.While in the US, the package is being transferring all the time in the automatic machines, and finally stacked on the rack in the well-equipped and computer-controlled logistic center. Of course he is stuck and couldn’t make any move.
STAR TREK vs STAR WARS (Theatrical Teaser Trailer)
The view angle shifts so we are looking from the point of view of the Star Destroyer. The USS Enterprise appears, first pin-point size, but gradually becoming larger as the Star Destroyer bears down on it. Beams of light from the Star Destroyer’s weapons shoot out towards the Enterprise.
The screen goes black. The lettering appears, STAR TREK vs STAR WARS, followed by COMING SOON.
20 40 60
Don't wait to say "I LOVE YOU"..
In their junior year Anna decides to take a leap of faith and ask Joe out for a date. She waits for Joe at the library and Joe never shows up. She looks for Joe and finds out he is in the hospital. He get’s into an accident when he goes out to get Anna some flowers. Anna finds him lying in the hospital bed and one of their friends gives Anna, Joe’s diary and the bouquet of roses that he bought for her. Joe had been writing a love letter everyday since their freshman year to Anna proclaiming his love for her. It was Valentine’s day and he was going to ask her out for a date.
Anna holds Joe’s hand in hope that he would wake up. She hears a beep and rushes out to get a doctor. The doctor asks her to leave the room and attends to Joe. Later, the doctor comes out and tells Anna that Joe has died.
The End.
I guess the moral of the story is, Don't wait to tell someone that you love them, because you never know what may happen tomorrow. Wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day!
Coke
COKE
Dan finally decides to go home, go home to what ever he may face. He lets himself in, goes to his girlfriend who is sleeping and whispers, “I promise I'll change.” You see him look at the dusty bible on his night stand. He grabs it, opens it to a page that seemed right. He finds a small bag of coke, that he had forgotten about. The camera focuses on his face, and then to the bag. He clenches it. His girlfriend's eyes open, she lets out a gasp of air...fades to black.
The whole movie is done as a montage. A lot of quick cuts, fast paced, like a drug trip.
A Wrong Number, a Right decision
But he still has no idea about that strange phone call, so he checked the number again, that's a strange number he has never seen before. It seems like somebody made a wrong call.
Our love in the house
A girl name Stephanie standing in front of the apartment door. A sticker on the door:This is not my fault, I will never say sorry! She knocked the door with anger, but no one answer. She opened the door with the key and walk into the apartment, no one in there. A sticker on the living room floor says: Go this way, your baggage are ready. An arrow point to the bedroom.
She is speechless and depressing, she followed the arrowhead to the bedroom. A sticker on the bedroom door: If you open this door, it means you agree to break up with me. Her hand staying on the doorknob for a little while and opened it ,then she slammed the door.
A sticker on the wall: Luggage here, leave! Stephanie says: "Ok, I got it, you wanna break up with me long time ago!" 2 baggages are under the sticker, Tina is so mad at her boyfriend and carryed her baggage walking towards the door. The baggage are too heavy and one of the baggage dropped. She kicked the baggage with anger and she found a sticker on the back side of the baggage,the words are very small : Your baggage only have 2, but our love is full of this apartment, so please don’t go , I need you.
At this moment , Stephanie wants to laugh, but she lower her head ,sniff and cry. A soft voice appears: "Babe, Don’t you know you look very ugly when you cry?" She raise her head, her boy friend John standing in front of her, and hide his hands at his back. She is so upset and shoving John. John blocked her way, suddenly a bouquet of roses appears in front of her face, John says: "Don’t go , today is the 365th day we’ve met, don’t and never say goodbye, I love you , and happy valentines day!" Stephanie burst into tears.
Doggy daydream
Diego the Bogle (Boxer Beagle) has a daydream during one of his 19+ daily naps. He dreams of his love, Charley the Puggle. During their waking hours, Charley is not a big fan of Diego's. She is older and can't be bothered with his puppy energy and excitement.
In the dream, Charley wants to play. She and Diego go for a doggy walk together, play in the snow, eat bones and share a meal in the style of Lady and the Tramp.
When Diego wakes up, Charley is sleeping next to him.
In honor of the upcoming holiday
We see someone’s face smiling wistfully as they work on something below the level of the camera. After a few moments of that, they stuff a valentine into a red envelope, lick it, and seal it happily. They seem satisfied with their accomplishment.
They get a phone call. Their face brightens even more as they answer. “Hey, you’” we hear. “Nothing important. Yeah, I can chat.” Their smile turns mischievous as they gaze lovingly at the red envelope.
Then, their expression changes into one of surprise, then dejection. “Ok. Bye, then.” They now stare at the red envelope with a combination of sadness and spite. We next see the red envelope thrown into a recycling bin.
Treatment Assignment: Parody
So here's the idea/breakdown of the story:
The story takes place in a school similar to a high-school. However, it is a school which specializes in training celebrities and artists on improving their performances. The protagonist of the story is Christina Aguilera, and she’s the “new girl” in school. On the first day of school, she meets the “mean girls” clique which is Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna. The mean girls immediately befriend Christina but are gossiping behind her back and making nasty remarks.
All of this takes a turn when Cher, the music teacher, offers Christina a chance to redeem herself by performing as the lead in a school production of Burlesque. The mean girls decide to stop being “nice” and let their cat claws come out. They tease Christina by constantly mocking her appearance and feeding her “diet granola bars” which actually fattens her up. One day, when the girls are walking down the hall together, Britney drops her pink diary. Christina picks it up accidentally to find out the nasty things the girls have been writing about her which infuriates and motivates Christina to give the best performance of her life in hopes it will gain their respect.
On the day of the performance, the girls have one final confrontation on stage and have a dance-off. Christina in a final attempt to show off her dance skills, begins spinning so fast until she explodes into confetti. The End.
Assignment for February 10, 2011
1. Write a treatment for a story that can be realized through motion imagery (video, animation, hybrid) with a duration between 30 and 90 seconds long.
2. Post on the class blog. Please use label "treatment".
Eva Jacobs Follows Her Dream
Again, day in and day out Eva is packed on the train like a sardine for the long dreadful commute to work. As she’s standing there squished and annoyed with the people surrounding her she’s thinking what exactly she needs to do to make her dream become a reality. She has done most of the ground work like writing a business plan and developing the branding and identity for her company. She will use her apartment as her office/studio so she doesn’t have to rent a space. She realizes that she’s the only thing that is stopping her from breaking the chains of cubicle slavery. With so much on her mind she almost misses her stop. She rushes off the train and into a sea of people on the busy streets of Manhattan. Shit, she’s late again! She already has three strikes against her and she can’t afford to be on probation again. Her fast walking turns into a run against time.
After weaving and bobbing between people Eva finally makes it to work and is riding the elevator up to the office, she looks at her watch, it’s 9:17. The door opens and she races to her desk thinking no will notice the time. Once she gets to her cube there is a yellow sticky on her computer that reads “come see me.” She walks down the long hallway to her boss’s office. Her boss’s face is red with anger. “Your late again Eva, how many times do I have to say you MUST be her on time. There is plenty of work for us to do and we have a meeting in five minutes! He gets up and says; ‘If you are late again don’t bother showing up!’” Eva, feeling completely frustrated and stressed bursts out “I’m so tired of this fucking job and the stupid politics! I work my ass off and your worried about me being a few minutes late! You know what you can’t take this job and shove it up your tight ass!!” Right then and there Eva turns around and walks out the door. Her boss who is now seething with anger yells out “Once you leave don’t come back, your not cut out for the insurance industry anyway!” Eva rolls her eyes and walks to her desk packs her belongings and leaves. On the elevator ride down she can’t believe what she just did, her mind is racing trying to register what just happened. When she steps out of the elevator a calmness starts to embrace her mind and body and she smiles as she walks out the door back into the busy streets of Manhattan to follow her dream.
The End.
Ayumi never be alone.
Masters of Cinema - 60 seconds act by 14 Actor
If the above link doesn't work, try this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Pyv755CSM&playnext=1&list=PLD5262066345158FF
Four Provinces music video
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The Allergy
Hey everyone! Now i know that we are supposed to be writing some sort of a storyline/ script for the next assignment. But I wanted to share this with everyone in class because 1) I thought it was Hilarious! 2) Its sort of a story and 3) It is really creative. The folks involved in making this video, Wong fu productions, started doing this out of a hobby, for fun. And now, they still do it for fun, but they get paid for it. :)
Thursday, February 3, 2011
My sequence assignment
Hi there,
I built a flash movie for my sequence assignment.
I hope to present the snowstorms in different perspectives, using 12 images, and make people feel the transformation inside the storm.
I tried to make it a click-through application or album, and I also add some interactions on it using ActionScript.
I should have applied some music to convey more feeling, but I was running out time. Maybe I will update it later.
Here is the link, enjoy. (Sorry about some bugs in the imperfect interactions, just close and reopen it if you come across some errors.)
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5056406/sequence_Yi_Huang_new.swf
Transformation
Transformation
Originally uploaded by Benrajak
DUST TO DUST
low res pictures coming in Imovie
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