An Expanded Collection of Art Event Reflections

Reflect, Renew, Revision, Recycle, etc: Amar

This was one of the first talks of the semester. Amar came to my Nature Writing class and then I went to her talk in Boyden Gallery, as well. She was one of several environmental/community artists that spoke about their work.

There were a couple of things that interested me about her pieces: one was the part of her talk that encouraged artists to continue working, even after hitting a wall, and the second was her work with highway cloverleaves.

She talked about the creative process, extensively, explaining the etymology of the verb “to create” and discussing the natural progression that a body of work will take. She gave examples from her own work, moving from undergrad as a student through her creation while being a professor. She talked about the need to always be producing something, to explore new interests without fear, and to push forward, because in that push to create, something will click.

Her work with highway cloverleaves is more concrete. Noticing that there was a lot of water runoff on the highways, and that that water was going to waste, she started thinking about creative ways to solve it. Her solution was to create a fantastic garden for the inside of the clover leaf, using plants that naturally filter water to create a spiraling design that both helps the environment and looks pleasant from multiple perspectives.

Both of her points were of interest. The first applies directly to my work now, but in a different way. I have lots of ideas, all the time, and my biggest roadblock is actually getting something started. Her advice to just go – without abandon – is great advice. The highway cloverleaves are something really interesting. Doing a lot of driving myself, I have often tried to think of ways to make the highways more interesting and engaging.

If I had to critique her presentation, I would give her a very low score. Her slides were plain, her voice was a dull, and her presenting was lacking overall. When she presented in the actual art talk, she failed to impress me. However, in a classroom setting, she really engaged with students. She was very soft spoken and connected well when she could ask the class a lot of questions.

I thought that her ideas could have been presented in a more persuasive manner, but overall I was impressed that she actually got government money for an art project, no matter how restorative.

*** I went to the science colloquium on technology and cool gadgets as well

SMP Presentations

I went to the first Art SMP presentations. I had a chance to view the photos and the book, but not Remina’s presentation. Laura’s work focused on visual storytelling and writing a children’s book, Remina chose to explore identity in a digital age, and the third girl (whose name I cannot remember) created her own worlds to photograph. Out of the three, the photographs were my favorite.

To be honest, I was a little disappointed in several of the presenters. Much of the language they used to talk about their work was the same words and phrases that we use in class, every day. As Art Majors, I knew that they had to have heard it even more often than I did. It sounded like regurgitation, particularly the piece about digital identity. The topic has been explored, ad nauseum, for years. While I did not get to view the project, from what she said, it seemed to reiterate everything that we already understand about how tech impacts how we view ourselves and others.  

What interested me the most were the photographs. The artist constructed her own realities and then took pictures within the landscape to appear as normal as possible… except they were created, and therefore, when looking at them, they always seemed a little bit off. She took macro photos, focusing on the details of each frame and capturing really beautiful tones and hues. She barely edited the photos at all. This relates directly to my own work, as I 1. Love macro, and 2. Find that most of the skill in photography is what you do before you put it in the computer.

The only thing that I thought this artist could improve upon was her presentation technique. I felt that she needed to be a little surer of what she was saying and to expand her concepts a little more. She reiterated some points rather often and in similar language. However, overall, I thought she did a phenomenal job. She used her own work in her presentation, which helped her bridge the gap between explanation of process and focus on higher concepts.

Rwanda and Art

Jane Blocker, an art historian, came to talk about her work with art involving atrocity, particularly the genocide in Rwanda. She referenced a number of works involving Rwanda and the art made in response. Her talk delved into some veryyyy deep topics, such as the response process. When we make art, are we responding to the atrocity? Or to the lack of human empathy towards those involved in the atrocity?

There was one work in particular that drew my interest, but overall, her talk related most specifically to my torture and genocide religion class I am taking. In it we discuss language of perpetrators and victims, and how each can come together to reach communal reconciliation. Art has restorative properties, and I loved her mentioning of perspectives that we are often offered in art.

I must admit that I was rather disappointed that she had such a lackluster presentation and that she used the Hotel Rwanda screen shot so often. I thought that it would be easy for her to give examples of others’ work, but at the same time understood her reluctance in doing that. She talked about response to art, about how one’s response to a work is often of pity and from the perspective of the perpetrator.

The one artist that she mentioned that I particularly enjoyed was one who took photos of eyes and threw them in a large pile on the floor. All of the unseeing eyes of those who looked but did not see, or act. Graphic images of the brutality suffered by humans on the other side of the world grew to mean much less, simply through a desensitization and objective distancing that the photos did. They were taken with a privileged and untouched lens.

Statement

The traditional portrait is a face, with a gaze. It forces a viewer to ponder a single face, separate from the other stimuli that normal serve as distractions. The concept of my final project deals with stories, told through a visual and a voice.

This project is a progression, from combining a traditional portrait with an story, to a more visually complex representation of a person. I plan to show the viewer a person and personality, without focusing singularly on the face. If printed, the photos will be small. If projected, they will pass by relatively quickly. A short progression of photos focusing on one person at a time, and perhaps five total, will start the tale of a person, their story extending beyond the edges of the image by forcing the viewer to engage with multiple senses. Their gaze does not have to be direct, nor their voice using words, to communicate something about the deepest part of themselves.

This is lovely.

http://www.ted.com/talks/charlie_todd_the_shared_experience_of_absurdity.html

Artist Research 3!

When I wrote my proposal and came up with sketches for this project, I wanted to explore the interplay between spoken word and image. I wanted my role, as storyteller, to be one filtered through a face and a voice. Ideally, the viewer would have to walk up to the image and press a button to hear a recording of the person pictured’s story. When I was looking for artists, I was looking for photo journalists who focused on telling a person’s story in a unique way (for which I found Damon Winter, a New York Times photographer) and those who were skilled in portrait photography (Richard Avedon).

Damon Winter

Damon Winter was born in New York in December of 1974. He grew up in the Virgin Islands and attended Columbia University for environmental  science. He has worked for a number of publications, particularly newspapers, over the past several years. After spending some time on the staff of The Los Angeles Times, Winter joined The New York Times in 2007. Two years later, in 2009, Winter won a Pulitzer prize for his feature photography of sexual assault survivors.

After examining his online portfolio, I was extremely interested in the stories that he told and how he structured his shots to develop a narrative. The setup of his site is traditional in that it shows his portfolio, a brief artist bio, and a list of links. His portfolio is divided into “faces, places, travel, stories 1, stories 2, random”, and “in print”.  He is extremely talented, managing to catch a number of interesting and evocative expressions from his subjects. About half of the portraits on his site are close-ups of a face. Some of those have a very direct gaze and some are looking away or off into the distance. Sometimes he adds a lot of interest to the face by overlaying a texture or adding some sort of prop that seems to read into their life or personality (like a cigarette, so many connotations!). He plays with light a lot as well. Some of his portraits have quite a bit of the face obscured by a bright light source, contrasting the wash out with either a piercing gaze or inclusion of some of the surrounding environment (ex. In one portrait, the face was obscured while the body was still discernible).

What interested me the most about Damon Winter’s work, however, was the section on stories. There were three to five subsections under the title of “Stories.” Each number started the progression of a different story. The first story under that subsection was about construction work. Winter is able to communicate the difficulty of the job through a number of powerful shots showing the harder aspects of the job. However, he also humanizes his subjects by including a number of very personal close-ups. He has compiled a beautiful progression of shots highlighting the bony architecture that is being built, the power in the bodies of the workers, beautiful details (either on belts or of bolts), funny expressions, hard, dirty, and tired faces. He tells a story without focusing primarily on faces.

His “Stories” section made me wonder if I should tell a story through a projection and progression of images instead of focusing only on faces and voice. While there is some more focus and direction in my original idea, and it might work very, very well (particularly with a shorter audio clip), a longer progression would mean that I would be able to use more of their story. In fact, if I find any one story particularly poignant, I might expand the project to involve a projection as well.

http://www.damonwinter.com/

http://bop.nppa.org/2011/still_photography/winners/?cat=OPY&place=1st

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/w/damon_winter/index.html

Richard Avedon.

Born in 1923 in New York, Richard Avedon pursued photography by dropping out of high school and joining the Merchant Marine’s photographic section. After his work with the Marines, he began photographing for a department store where he was discovered by an art director at a prominent magazine. From this point, he did a lot of photography work for a number of prominent magazines, focusing mostly on advertisement prints. According to PBS’ section on master American artists, Avedon was especially attracted to the art of portraiture. Once his foot was in the field, he began to gain a reputation that gave him access to a number of prominent figures.

Richard Avedon is one of the finest portrait photographers of all time. His incredible talent for timing has allowed him to get a number of absolutely stunning close-up portraits and full- length shots. With his portraiture, he often shot his subjects with a bright lighting and a white backdrop. He had a talent for getting his subjects to relax enough for him to catch them at vulnerable moments. He is one of my favorite photographers because of this fact. He managed to bring a number of very well-known figures closer to the viewer, as he caught them in very human and identifiable moments.

Avedon had a lot of power over the perception of the people that he photographed. He chose the photo to represent them in a certain moment. I think that this is one of the biggest things that I have to think about in my own project. Whether hung somewhere obvious or only showed to our class, I have a lot of power over the perception of these people. Looking at Avedon’s work makes me painfully aware of the responsibility that comes with taking a person’s picture. I have some friends that will open up easily, who are used to being in front of a camera and will feel very natural. However, the majority of my friends do not feel comfortable with being in front of a camera. I will need to work really hard to capture photos that work. Avedon was a master at relaxing people and then portraying them in a satisfactory light. There is a lot of trust that goes into a project like this. The people I photograph will be trusting me not to embarrass them in any way. However, I think that sometimes the vulnerability (which I will be going for) is the exact thing that embarrasses people. Some of them know that it will shatter the image that they have, as it is evidence in support of a completely contrary image.

Avedon’s portraits are able to communicate a lot in a single gaze. A steady, direct gaze can communicate power or confidence or resoluteness, depending on the expression of the face. A face leaning into the camera can come across as playful. An unfocused gaze, directed somewhere other than the camera can communicate the utmost sadness, or distractedness, or dreaminess, depending on the expression. To be honest, I have so much to learn from Avedon and his techniques.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/richard-avedon/about-the-photographer/467/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Avedon

…

One of the limitations of this project is its personal-ness. When asking a friend if she would sit with me yesterday, she said yes and then asked about the project. Once I told her what I was thinking, she immediately backed out, saying that she would only participate if I was in desperate need of people. So, I may change my idea to a private show for just our class, since many people are extremely self-conscious. If this is the case, I might take two stories and have them projected and looping while the large prints surround it. We will see how many people I can get to participate.

Sketches!

Please give me lotsa feedback!

GAME PLAN (sketched out)


PORTRAIT EXAMPLES
All of the portraits for my project would be on a solid, consistent background. These are just examples of emotions I have caught while talking to people. In my project, I would use a remote shutter to take pictures while talking, so I wasn't behind a camera the whole time, making them potentially more uncomfortable.

AUDIO EXAMPLE

just kidding! no audio example just yet (i need the recorder) but i do have a picture of the card device that I will take apart to pair with the photo...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150845441409196&set=vb.638814195&type=2&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150845446464196&set=vb.638814195&type=2&theater

We experimented with projecting it on the campus center. It was awesome. I am so stoked. We are going to utilize the two white pillars and then have it coming down over the door to the campus center/ grind area. SOOOOO COOLLLLLLL (facebook links are right side up!)

Progression of second project:

Chrissy, Nemesis, Ryan and I will be utilizing the arches in the campus center for our projection piece. After much discussion, we have decided on our concept. We met on Tuesday at the CC and Wednesday evening to narrow our topic and discuss how to actually make it work technically. Our concept involves a waterfall of color, utilizing the planters, arches and columns in the campus center. We are going to pour water into the planters above the arches in the campus center so that they overflow and the water goes down the brick columns. We will shoot approximately nine minutes of film.

In digital photography, if one shoots several shots of the same scene from the exact same position in RAW setting they can take these shots into photoshop and isolate the main colors. When overlayed, everything that did not move in the scene will have normal coloration whereas everything that moved will have a tri-color effect. We are going to try to do the same thing with film.

Patrick Connelly; Native American Museum 

Theoretically, or at least to start, we will take 3 minute segments and isolate a color and then overlay them again for the final product. We can then loop the clip, etc. The effect will be trippy tri-colored water spreading down normal colored columns of the campus center. We are going out to attempt this tomorrow afternoon and will post the resulting clip after we finish.

Some potential problems: Shooting in the daylight. Since we have to shoot at the actual campus center, if it is daylight, it might interfere with the projection quality of the bricks. Ideally, we will isolate the water (perhaps by getting rid of the bricks somehow) and just have the projection of the water flowing down 
the wall.






After our in-class discussion:::
We have our concept.... Editing is not as complicated as we thought and at this point, we are trying to figure out logistical issues (like how do we get that much water and how do we safely loft the projector in the air without too much fear of someone knocking it over?). If need be, I would be willing to contact Bon Appetit and Physical Plant for the necessary supplies. This is a group effort and Chrissy and I's part is difficult to continue, since it was hammered out pretty quickly after the two productive conversations that Nemesis and Ryan and I had. We are playing with the idea of running the color onto the ground since we have to shoot from a high vantage point, anyway...  

Artist Research 2!

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a forty-five year old artist originating from Mexico. He attended college in Canada and majored in Chemistry. Now, as an artist, he focuses on electronic works, often projecting onto buildings and playing off of the concept of performance art. He relies heavily on the interactive strength of works (as demonstrated in his piece “Under Scan”). He uses technology to create works inspired by phantasmagoria, carnival and animatronics. Phantasmagoria is defined as a progression of dreamlike images. Carnival is defined as a mixture of something stimulating or unusual. Animatronics is defined as constructions, particularly robots, that mimic animal characteristics. From the definition of these three terms, it could be assumed that Lozano-Hemmer focuses on making unusually mixed, dream-inspire, animal-like robotics.  

Lozano-Hemmer’s work is well-known and sought after. He has been invited to several prestigues showings, mostly focused in Europe and most notably shown at the 2010 Olympics. His work, including kinetic sculpture, interaction video pieces, installations and photographs, has been shown extensively around the world. He is one of the most prominent artists from Mexico and has been featured in New York’s MOMA and the TATE in London. He has been recognized extensively for his work. Lozano-Hemmer has taught at Princeton, Harvard, and prestigious art schools as Art Institute of Chicago, one of the best art schools in the nation.

I am specifically looking at Lozano-Hemmer’s piece “Under Scan,” an interactive video installation in a public square where many passerby were able to interact with the piece. His piece uses technology to track shadows and then project video clips within the shadows. The people participating within the work were videotaped for later exhibitions. By the end of the project, Lozani-Hemmmer had compiled over 1250 clips of people interacting with the work. It was interesting to see how each person interacted with the work and to have a record of that for later use. I think that the cross-cultural interconnectivity between viewer is what intrigued me most. The projection in the shadow of the current participant would show a previous participant. The idea was that the shadow was, in some way, a reflection of the person casting the shadow. The projected person is to make eye-contact with the person in real-time and to look away when they walk away. The movements are timed to be convincing as an interactive work. According to the project description, every seven minutes the project resets.

I love the interactivity of this project (and also the fact that it includes a human). This project talks about gaze and how irony of how shadow can reveal light. Computers help the projections of people fit the shadows of the passerby and also, control how long the projection is maintained. Each figure stares at the person causing the shadow until they leave, when it looks away. The strengths of this piece are the fact that it plays with the meaning of light and dark and the very definition of a shadow. I also love the fact that the projection is assertive in how it looks directly at the viewer. I imagine that I would be slightly uncomfortable if a projection stared directly at me. It is almost as if you are being challenged by something that cannot touch you. Some of the people moved towards the camera that shot them, appearing to step toward the maker of the shadow. It is interesting to see the people jump back, as if the projection will actually touch them.

The only negatives that I could critique in this work would be the accuracy of the computer technology. I do not know how close one could the projection to fit the shadow, or how quickly. It seemed to take a while before it actually appeared. However, that being said, this work is pretty impressive in its use of technology and computers. I had no idea that we could even do something like this.

My group and I want to shoot or throw paint into the planters between the archways at the campus center so that it can drip down the center pillar. Since the campus center is usually bright at night, this is an issue that I brought up to my group (specifically Ryan). Perhaps we could have one person at the computer running the projection. When a student’s shadow covers one side of the projection (since two people of either side of the planter will throw paint) that is the part that will move. They will be able to see the projected person better and it will get two people to stand together in order for the projection to work fully. I think that this would further draw the viewer’s gaze to notice the architecture of the space.

http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/bio.php

http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/under_scan.php

Obscura Digitial       

Obscura digital is a company that creates clever marketing strategies and projects for its customers. They are known for huge projections and for constructing their touchscreen displays. They constantly push the boundaries of marketing and promote themselves as being so innovative, they are magical. According to their own website, they strive to make data available and omnipresent. Obscura digital specializes in four main areas, video mapping, immersive environments, interactive display and augmented reality. They create software that compensates for the shape of buildings so that if their measurements are off, the program cannot correct itself and cover the entirety of the space that was originally intended to be covered. Surround sound and projection paired with a completely constructed structure allows the company to provide very specifically created advertisements for their customers. They take pride in how far they have come in touch screen technology and explain that they are able to create super sensitive and large environments that respond to users’ touch and are interactive.

I am going to specifically discuss Obscura Digital’s piece in Mint Plaza, a project for McAfee, I want to first discuss the differences in discussing a company’s work versus that of a single artist. In a way, I am very disappointed that I could not find an artist name in relation to this work. While single artists have help in arranging their installations and projections, they, that one single person, are the genesis of a mammoth project. When a company takes control, there is a team of people. No one single person can be given credit for the work because it is likely that so many people worked together that the one person becomes indistinguishable. I think that there are good and bad sides to this. While a company has more resources and so, theoretically, more opportunity to create and make art at a larger scale, there is less of an artist’s hand in the work. The commercial aspect of this does not bother me… It is more the fact that I appreciate a work being one person’s creation.

Looking at the McAfee ad, it is impressive to see how seamless the projection works with the building and how exact it is in matching the building blocks with the moving ones in the projection. The creative/design team really made the building’s flat, planar surface into something even more three dimensional.  There are three main parts to this clip. The building blocks rearrange and move, paint or colored water splash around on the surface of the building and balls bounce between the windows. This projection piece is specifically relevant to the piece that my group is trying to make.  We want to throw paint into the planter and have it drip down the column and the part of the projection most relevant would be the bouncing paint. In the clip, the architecture of the building and the windows are used to bounce the paint around. This was definitely one of the strongest points of the clip. It utilized the structure and architecture of the building really well. While I did not think that the projection of color against the building wall was very strong, it made me realize that we will realllllyyyyyy have to take into account that we are projecting on brick. I don’t know if we are going to be able to follow through with the colored paint idea simply because of the fact that we are projecting onto red brick. Throwing water may be more feasible.

http://www.obscuradigital.com/about/

http://www.obscuradigital.com/technology/

http://www.obscuradigital.com/work/

Self Assessment!

The original genesis of this project was in the poetry of spoken of words. I wanted to create my own mash up of slam poetry, make my own poem out of pieces of other’s poems. However, something I did not take into account was the fact that slam poetry is about the spoken word. It is about the performance of the words, what inflection they have and how their sounds fit together. The problem with that is that when I isolated the words from the videos, they did not fit together. Each word sounded garbled when removed from its original context. From the critique I gained a little bit of insight into the making of videos (particularly mash ups). I learned that the audio of a video, with a consistent beat behind it, can sounds cohesive. I was reminded to keep it simple and I learned that I needed to watch wayyy more FinalCut tutorials.

            From there I started to do a little bit of research. It was suggested that I consider the poetry of visuals. When I thought of short video clip with impactful images, I thought about UnderArmour ads. This was most likely due to the fact that I was in the process of applying for a couple different ones, but it gave me a direction for my research. I started looking into the various creative directors of UnderArmour videos and advertisements. While the artist research was helpful, what was more helpful was looking at and watching dozens of successful commercials and music videos. Studying the minutia that made them successful helped me to figure out what elements needed to be present in my own work. The rapid succession of high contrast images was important, but what really made the brand stand out were the shots of athletes in motion that were then slowed down.

That being said, my vision and process did not fully come together until a friend of mine sat down to see what I had made so far and, after watching the convoluted mess that was my video (at that point) asked me the crucial question, “What is your vision?” I realized, in that moment, that I had not fully stopped to consider what I was doing before I started mashing together different clips. I had started with a video about an ultramarathoner who had completed multiple one hundred mile races (running!). The video started out with the sound of a normal heart beat (about 70 bmp) and then gave his (approx. 35 bpm). It flashed between posed pictures of him and as he started talking about his philosophy for running, it showed him (but mostly his extremely muscular calves) running up the hill. To be honest, the visuals of the first movie didn’t match the power and inspiration of his words. I put an electric violin song behind his words, and played with the volume of what he was saying. The music and his voice alternated. It was not simple, it was pretty distracting and I definitely did not have an alternate plan for the weak visual component. So, I brainstormed.

For me, this project was about learning FinalCut Pro. I needed to learn the basics of the program for future use and to execute concepts that I had actual come up with myself. Throughout my experimentations with the program, I was learning the different tools but the clip that I had, at that point, did not communicate that new knowledge because of its randomness and disjointed composition. I scrapped the video and started fresh. I solidified my idea: combining the visuals from a multitude of UnderArmour ads, cutting the voice from one and creating a new concept. I figured I could put a pumped up song behind the words and make it work with the visuals. From that point forward, my process involved a lot of downloading videos and matching image progression and changes to the music and the voice, to both of those. I tried mashing together a variety of athletic videos, expanding outside of just UnderArmour. However, the various styles of image quality and type of shoot reminded me of the different voices in my slam clip. It looked messy and disconnected and felt awkward and uncomfortable. So I removed them. I stuck with just the voices and shots from UnderArmour clips but rearranged everything and cut a lot of video and voice out to make my own narrative. Ideally, I wanted to make an advertisement showing the power of humanity but based on the feedback I received in my critique, the UnderArmour label was prominent to the point of distraction. While it was meant to be an ad, it was not successful in how it was conveyed.

The point of this project, for me, was learning Final Cut Pro. As such, I was successful. I learned the program and became proficient at the basics. The point of this project, from other’s point of view, was the communication of the meaning behind my piece. For me, this project was a success. While the conveyance of the meaning of the piece was a little rough, the technical composition of the clip was pretty good. The audio and images matched and the style was not significantly jarring in any way. I managed to edit everything to create a cohesive story and even if the meaning was a little rough, the piece flowed.

            As far as the work that I put into this piece? It was hard to remember at times that I was working on it, as I just watched a lot of YouTube videos and took notes on the elements I liked. I think that I budgeted my time very well with this project and was very pleased with the result. I had to watch a lot of videos for this project and I helped myself work through the program by constantly looking up tutorials. In essence, I taught myself the program. Even though we went over many of the elements during class, I had to look them up and walk through them in the actual program to learn them. I saved a lot of “test” files. For this project, I worked a lot in my free time and the only part that I regret was that when it came down to my final revision edits (something I nearly never do) I was not able to focus very well and so I got distracted easily and they took me a little longer to complete.

            Looking at this from a far, I would say that my strongest characteristic was the cohesiveness of the piece and the one that I could work on more was the transition between the images. Some of them were not cut quite as cleanly as I would have wished. It would be cool to experiment with what people had asked, about slowing down other shots and speeding the slowed shots up, but I wonder how the video quality would fair. I feel that at some point, it will seem fragmented and jolting if I slow it down too much. In any case, I will have to try to experiment with it.

            I changed my idea entirely during the course of this project. While I followed a very commercial route in execution, I also moved radically from the execution of my first piece. My final project was not merely a revision of the first one but a completely different piece. I think that I deserve at least an A- on this project. I put a lot of time and effort in and, although disappointing that I did not challenge any political meaning or represent my idea as well as I hoped, I learned the program and created a piece that worked as a whole.

These are some of the clips I used....
This is where my music is from... http://www.freestockmusic.com/

Final!

More work...

Looking around.

Inspiration.

I started with this....

So, I thought, maybe I can do something with inspirational athletes. Maybe images or something image-istically powerful. And then I watched this...

It's pretty graphic. And disturbing. And made me think. And so I moved to this....

Which is poetry. I'm back to poetry... It's all so emotionally evocative!!!

And then this... Which is clearly not professionally done and followed along the lines of what I thought I might do. Inspirational, energy filled but not bad-feeling like the police video. I want power without the aggression, inspiration without the intimidation.

This dude... IS RUNNING (or training to run) THE AT. What! I had to look it up because my initial reaction was : No way. Most people couldn't even hike the trail. He's running it?! People be freaking nuts.

This is great! It makes me so excited for the possibilities! It has a pretty silly ending.

And then this one. And now I need to figure out audio and start editing...

Artist Research

Aron Baxter


My process of finding an artist was roundabout and convoluted. I am applying to internships with Under Armour, mostly because I find that their ads are very compelling and I want work with their advertisement team. I decided to use that as a jumping off point for my research for this project, both because I want to try to create something that compelling and because I admire many of the visually impactful elements in the ads. I found this article (http://great-ads.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-under-armour-prepare-spot.html) that referenced Aron Baxter as the creative director for the Under Armour ad “Prepare” which features a number of Baltimore teams, wearing Under Armour which you can purchase at your local Dick’s. (I also found a number of other artists through this article, including Rip Lambert who directed many of the Under Armour ads. http://producers.tv/services/shoot.php and http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96DE1FC708A0B1F2)

Aron Baxter works for a company known as “Nice Shoes,” a “full service, artist-driven design, animation, visual effects and color grading studio specializing in high-end commercials, web content, film, TV and music videos” (http://www.trustcollective.com/portfolio/content/bio.php?client=niceshoes&bio=21). According to this article, Baxter has over 20 years of experience in film related industries. He has worked for a number of notable industries (and people), including Under Armour, Timex, GE Capital, Kaplan University and Kanye West, among others. Baxter has been with this company for close to nine years and most of the information that I could find detailing his experiences were filtered through the company website. He graduated with his undergraduate degree in “graphic design and visual communication” from Nottingham Trent University in ’92. He also has training from the Ravensbourne College of Art, located in London. He has gained a considerable amount of expertise through his experiences and sometimes lectures in New York on digital visual effects and animation. (All from http://www.trustcollective.com/portfolio/content/bio.php?client=niceshoes&bio=21).

Most of Baxter’s experience is in advertising. He utilizing a pretty consistent style throughout all of his ads that I have seen so far (except the clip promoting Kanye’s album/single “Power”). I think that the ad that I would look to as a mashup example would be his ad for Nautica and Ecko (http://advertfan.com/2011/05/timex-repositions-nautica-and-ecko-unlimited-brand-watches-with-a-new-ad-campaign/). While I think that the ad is somewhat cheesy and not as powerful as his work for Under Armour, it uses strong visuals and background music to convey a message (that this kind of watch is akin to nature in its design and quality). I think that the changing of the images matches well with the music, but I do think that the concept is kind of cheesy. I do not know if he had any input in what the concept was, and I am sure that he was limited by the wants and demands of the companies, but it may have been a little out of his control. His video for Kanye is so bizarre; I am not going to analyze it. The ad that he creatively directed for Under Armour struck me in its emotional or energy-like evocativeness. As with most Under Armour ads, the combination of the building music, deep male voice over and high contrast visuals makes for a compelling and adrenaline-filled advertisement. I like the quick cuts from team to team and the alternation of close up detail shots and those further away. He also cuts back to the same image/scene multiple times for about a second at a time to continue a message throughout. I thought that was pretty solid. I was a little disappointed by how the narrative ended in a Dick’s store, but that was one pretty obvious limitation in the sponsoring of the advertisement. (http://www.niceshoes.com/news/nice-shoes-makes-things-frigid-for-under-armour/)

While this is not as obvious a connection to what I want to eventually accomplish, I would like to explore the conception beyond Under Armour ads more. I find the combination of fast-paced, powerful clips, strong music and powerful voice-over convincing and would like to explore it more. While I may stick with an image mashup like Baxter exhibited in his Nautica commercial, I would like it to have the same image quality and attitude of the Under Armour ad. I think that the poetry can have a profound impact and so, I definitely do not want to emulate the attitude of the Nautica commercial, but I also do not want to focus too much on one concept, as I feel the Dick’s commercial does.

Other Sources:

http://www.niceshoes.com/news/aron-baxter-returns-to-nice-shoes-as-new-creative-director/

His videos:

http://vimeo.com/22825195




http://www.kyte.tv/ch/mashuptowntv/party-rock-of-the-year/p=lp&c=661&s=1586697&l=2195 1:35. Greatest moment of this video. (Also, this is just a random aside.)




DJ Schmolli

So, it's pretty cool that we can watch videos for this class and learn about new and cool music and write about it and do some projects and then get credit. I stumbled upon a music mashup artist who does a fantastic job of editing the videos to fit the music and the voices. I watched most of his collection last night. DJ Schmolli is from Austria. His roots are in music and he started performing with full bands. As he starting mixing, he realized that it was something that he was good at and loved and eventually became the “resident DJ” in a number of clubs. His portfolio contains over 200 mashups and many remixes. When reading his bio, I was a bit confused at the difference and so looked it up. Mashup is defined, by Wikipedia, as mixing two or more songs together to create an entirely new song from various different elements. A common synonym for “mashup” is bootlegging. This is something that I never realized. Remix, also defined by Wikipedia, is the editing of one song through subtraction or repetition of certain sound elements. DJ Schmolli started experimenting with mashups in 2000 but really had success when the internet took off with mashups in 2005. DJ Schmolli is known throughout Europe and, although less so, in the United States. He has been mentioned in several prominent publications (such as the Washington Post) and now performs in front of live audiences. His name comes from a childhood nickname. (http://djschmolli.com/info/)

DJ Schmolli gets most of his tracks directly from the labels. I imagine that this would help significantly in his creative process since it allows him to work with crisp, high quality sounds. He says, when asked to define “mashup”, “The easiest definition would be to take an instrumental track and put an acapella track of another song on top. To make the mix more interesting it’s good to use different musical genres. Of course you can also use many different source tracks in one mashup or lay different elements on top of each other. But this is for advanced mashup producers as it’s not easy from the production aspect.” (http://djschmolli.com/faq/)

My understanding is that DJ Schmolli specializes in music and various random artists make the videos for him. Critiquing the actual video would not be a comment on him, per say, but rather on the artists he allows to mix video for him. However, I am going to run through the main concepts in his music and videos that I find convincing and then will choose one example to critiquing.

I think that DJ Schmolli does a good job of taking older music and mixing it with new beats. He manages to either slow one or quicken another in order to get mismatched rhythms to match. The lyrics of the songs he chooses usually match up. In the case of this song, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AqV5YFrfgvw, he pairs old orchestral jazz with the lyrics of “Rage Against the Machine.” When listened to separately, these are completely different kinds of music. However, he takes the jazz music and just overlays the lyrics of RATM on top. I would like to learn how to split the audio tracks like this to isolate audio elements that I wish to use. I think that this song can be a bit repetitive, but that the song works well together. I also think that the grainy black and white of each of the two mashed videos works perfectly together…

I love the visuals in this mashup a lot!

Ideas:

-          Poetry mashup

-          Song mashup

-          Collection of word images with a computer voice-over. Robot reading poetry.

IN CLASS WORK:

I never knew that Wilco took its inspiration from Dickinson and other major poets and authors. In fact, Tweedy admits to taking a number of verbs from Dickinson poems when in the process of writing songs in the album The Whole Love (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/10/emily-dickinson-music_n_1140778.html#s534157&title=Jeff_Tweedy_Born).
 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/10/emily-dickinson-music_n_1140778.html#s534157&title=Jeff_Tweedy_Born
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilco#Musical_style_and_influence

Creative Process...

Listening to this...

Wicked!

 The same song, over and over again. I love how people can take the same thing and interpret it in a bajillion different ways. We've been talking about appropriation and mashups. I am mostly posting this because I think that it is ridiculously wonderful how many different versions of this kind of thing is out there. Each one brings a completely different feel to a song that is mostly about the bass. I would blast any of these as loud as I do the original. In any case, I am looking for famous speeches, songs, poetry etc to cut and create something new. I want to put a beat box beat behind the words (most likely) so it has more of a song like feel.

Just another one. :]



My second idea would be to take classic road signs and switch the text around. With the video idea, I would want to work purely in sound, I think. With this idea, I would definitely focus on the visual. Obviously this second idea is not as developed... We'll see.

Notes and such

One of the breakdowns.

 

My heart is a runway/ trying to find God/

aching to sing/ for tired and dreamers/

our ugly has an alibi/

you know mercy/

sober is just another word for thirsty/

miracles running around

i just live there/ cabin full of fever/

hold what you see a little longer/

speak everytime you stand/

musical chairs with exit signs

Artist Talk and Mashup

So I went to the artist talk today. Amar had come to speak to my Nature Writing class and I have to say, she was much better in front of 10 of us then in front of 30. More on that later.

My mashup has taken a while. Last Wednesday, I went through 8 video clips and wrote down the information (name of clip, name of poet, time of words) that I wanted to make my poem. I then drafted 5 different poems to choose from. I chose my third. After I figured out how to use Final Cut, I cut the different clips into the couple second bits that I needed. However, it will not play as a whole. At first, I was cutting the clips on the same line and then I realized that I was looking at the wrong time tracker thingy. I switched to having each clip on its own separate line and I was able to edit the pieces much better. However, I am still not sure why it will not play as a whole. Also, after doing those hours of work, I realized that all of the compiled edits only added up to about 30seconds of video. So, I added about 25 more. Still the same problem. I read the entire tips sheet and watched several youtube videos but I can't figure out why it will not play. I think it is probably something really silly and simple that I am missing. I guess we will see tomorrow...

New site

I didn't have the best access to DreamWeaver this weekend because of trips home and work, but I have plans for the design that I am gradually working into place. I have a few ideas that I am trying to decide between, so for now I am just cleaning up the different pages and trying to remove others of them.

1. Ideally, I would construct an image and then put the different sections of my site within the image. I think that it would be nice to have a black and white sketch with cursive words (as links) worked into the design in the outlines of the different elements. I care a lot for simplicity and black and white. I'm in the process of constructing this image.

2. I would have a very stark and simple layout. Maybe some sketchy details, but the main elements would be out there in some kind of serif font, set apart from each other. The main focus would be the words, not the image and I would remove much of the work that I have up now, from Intro to Digital.


Unfortunately, I don't have these in place yet, but I have definite plans for my site. I just need to figure out which to do and how to do it and then implement the design and readjust the links.


EDIT /// I cannot figure out DreamWeaver at all. I stayed up late and got up early to try and fix at least a few things but could not even get my site open.