Keeping Current

We have talked much about performers and artists of yesteryear but I always like to look to the present in order to see where these past people and events have taken us. Pipilotti Rist is a great example of one of the directions the art world has gone. She is a modern artist with hundreds of installations, prizes, publications and credentials under her belt. Most famous for her video installations she views the screen in a totally different maner. One such installation she had huge monitors placed in public areas onto which she had video of herself pushing against the camera, pressing her face onto the screen, as if trying to escape. She is a talented artist worth further exploration.

Keep Hirst out of a Hearse

Damien Hirst is an amazingly talented man. To start his 'spin paintings' can be viewed for shear beauty by anyone. Using a spinning canvas stand he and his assistants create remarkable paintings that capture color and motion in unseen forms. I had to mention those first because if you have never seen his preserved shark or his diamond incrusted skull you may no longer care about spin paintings. In his first series he preserved a cow, horse and his infamous fourteen foot tiger shark. If you have never heard of him or have yet to see any of these pieces of work do yourself a favor and take a look.

my HOUSE your HOUSE wareHOUSE

A musical movement coined Musique Concrete was one that focused on exploring more than natura sounds and voice to create music. Followers of the movement focused heavily on using electronic devices to produce effects that broadened the range of sound to a whole new level. The introduction of electronic devices opened the door to the inevitable future of digital music. When the movement traveled from France to the United States more and more forms continued to arise. The dark side of the music was its close connection to the drugs used by listeners. This tight bond soon forced the newly formed DJ to hold his shows in garages or warehouses far from bothered citizens and of course the authorities. The huge industry and music genre known as house derives its name from these warehouse parties of the past.

Thinking Outside of the Cage

A year ago I took an Electronic Music course and was introduced to the likes of John Cage. An evolutionist, leader and creator that influenced the very root of electronic music as we know it today. John Cage was a man of random who liked to create a selection of sounds which he would input into his recorder with no order at all, rather give the recorder the information and see what comes out on the other side. Having worked prior to the digital age Cage used many items to create his sound effects and notes for his randomly chosen musical scores. He was a man of genius in the form of music and any proprietor of electronic music needs to be well aware of who he is.

The Big Three Doin' Big Things

Some spectators of the art world would say that all great works have already been performed, created and explored. Until someone comes along and does something new. Joseph Beuys, Klaus Nomi and Leigh Bowery are three great examples of the performers who expand the art world one piece at a time.

Joseph Beuys did many types of art during his life from installations, performances to sculptures and graphics. After reviewing some of his pieces the one I found to be the most outstanding was his performance art piece titled How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare. I wasn't impressed by what he was doing, simply standing and walking around in a room or his acceptance to holding a dead rabbit nor was it his willingness to be watched for the duration. It was the fact that every aspect of the performance had a purpose and exact reason for its inclusion. The honey on his face referred to his likeness of bees and their ability to commune and care for each. The iron plate attached to his shoe to represent mars and masculinity. Although unrelated to one another they each represent an important influence in his life.



Klaus Nomi is someone that I can say absolutely amazed me from the first time I saw him perform. With his amazing tonal range he was able to perform entire operas on the male and female sides. Off of the stage he was known for an extremely eccentric style of fashion ware and make-up styling. Nomi performed with many well known performers such as David Bowie for a saturday night live appearance. Klaus Nomi would eventually pass away to the fate of AIDS in what would lead to be an explosion of the disease and much attention brought to the art world and performance in New York.

Leigh Bowery can easy be considered London's version of Klaus Nomi; with amazingly over the top outfits and his own form of make-up styles he captivated the audience wherever he went. Some viewed him as a walking art piece that never stopped performing regardless of the time or place. Bowery was also a victim of the AIDS pandemic although had kept it a close secret until very near death.

Pop the Top on the Bauhaus

When most think of the Nazi party, the first World War, Germany in the early nineteen hundreds the thought of art prospering in one of the most modern, creative driven buildings the world had seen. Bauhaus is a school that was originally founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany. The building itself was a work of art and within the school everything was focused, driven and geared in the direction of art. During the fourteen years the original school was in operation it moved between three cities and was under the control of three different directors.



To think of the impact that the Pop Art movement has had on our country it is hard to imagine that citizens today would be totally unaware of the true reasoning behind the movement. I have to apologize for being one of those post modern, unaware, people. When I would think of Pop Art I thought population, popularity, popular entertainment; anything but the truth. The true origin of the name came from a 1956 art collage by Richard Hamilton which pictured a naked man holding a Tootsie Pop over his private parts. The Pop popped and the name stuck.

Impressive! Impressive! Impressive!

I saw the film "Un Chien Andalou" for the first time in a survey of mass media course my Junior year and I didn't think much of the film to start. In fact, I felt much like the girl above, in one of the first scenes on the movie. The second opportunity to see the film came a year later in my Art and Technology course and it made me realize the importance of what I was watching. To appreciate this film a viewer needs to keep in mind the skill and know-how necessary in order to create these transitions but more importantly the extreme lack of editing tools, absence of digital effects and the low quality of the recording equipment used; from a technical aspect the film was well done.
Luis Bunuel was a co-producer on the film with renowned artist Salvador Dali when the movie originally debuted in 1929. The film was constructed with many series of clips that were totally separate from each other in aspects of time, location, and characters.

Big Screen to Your Screen

Now if you have not guessed, assumed or have always known by now that I am a gamer. I play games, make games, read about games, think about games and enjoy movies. Now if there was anything to pull out of that sentence it would be the strong correlation between video games and movies. With that, there is nothing I like to see more than the release of a feature film and a video game to accompany the experience. I find it great to watch a film and see the action, the fights, the great sequences and then to be able to immerse within the game and explore the same situations although this time you, as the user, is in charge.

Tetris Plus+

I almost feel bad to admit that my first experience of Tetris came on the platform of a cell phone. Regardless of the delivery method I was instantly hooked as my attention to the outside world diminished at the hands of the block-formed shapes. The origin of the game takes us back to a student by the name of Alexey Pajintov at the Academy of Science of the USSR located in the capital, Moscow. The game started out as a computer based puzzle game requiring players to create full lines using the given shapes cascading from the top of the monitor. The year I was born, 1989, the world saw the explosion of Teris. Released onto its first handheld game console, the Game Boy, creating a lasting impression onto the gaming community. Although the colors of the seven random blocks have changed from year to year, over one platform to the next, the main components have remained. As the technology in the world transformed into binary and digital-everything the game was brought to the mobile platform and even newly made graphing calculators. A great way for kids, such as me and my first experience, to appreciate the work of a man long before our time.

WANTED

Despite never watching the movie Wanted I have viewed the trailer countless times. It is a classic story of the son returning to carry out the dreams of a fallen father which we have all seen in any number of feature film. I will hopefully get a chance to see the actual movie soon and if you haven't had an opportunity to watch the trailer yet you can go HERE to watch it now.

From Start to Finish

From the earliest form of film recording with the Cinematographto the creation of the Fusion Camera System used in James Cameron's AVATAR, Wired magazine has it covered. In their article on the progression of cinematic history we are exposed to the major advancements and the not-so-remembered hopefuls that never caught on. Being in the age group I am I was most attracted to the more recent achievements with digital film such as the development of the Red One digital camera.

A long time ago, in a world without color.

Exploring the pages of the Museum of Television's website made me gain much appreciation for all of the wonderful tech gadgets that have become a huge part of our daily lives. We are so caught up with the glitz and glamour of HD and 3D that we forget what it's like to have just plain 2D, or color, or a picture at all for that matter. It was fascinating seeing the photographs from the World's Fair of thirty or forty people standing around a box in the center of the room trying to catch a glimpse of an image coming from this new invention. To think that the first television didn't even have a screen yet attached an angled mirror to reflect the projection.
We all have our televisions to find comfort in on a rainy day but we have these certain individuals, who over seventy years ago, pioneered our past time. MZTV.com has the photos, the stories and the dates of the televisions transformation into main stream media.

Terry and The Pirates - OTR

Have you ever been to OTR.com? Neither had I until recently. Growing up just prior to the new millennium I have always been surrounded by television (in color), video games and, the biggest game changer, the computer. Not having much interaction with the radio outside of the morning drive to elementary school I never realized the big hit that radio had been. Listening to some shows on OTR.com helped bring radio to life in a way that I never thought possible.
My first radio show I picked was Terry and the Pirates, a radio series about a young man traveling through the war in the far east.
My favorite part is the advertisements prior to the start of the show. A handsome sounding, well-versed man with his calm cool voice comes on and yaps about tomato soup and the health benefits which pour from the can; oh by the way, trust him, 'he would know.' Once the show started though it was surprisingly a lot of fun. Being used to the visual aspects of entertainment it was a little unexciting compared to top Hollywood intro's but as soon as this regret gives way to childhood imagination the radio shows come to life.

When the Rain clears.

The middle of the 1950's in America was a prosperous time for the recently depleted country. Charles Schulz introduced Peanuts, Disneyland opens in California changing the face of 'fun' and color soon began to flood television screens. The film Singing in the Rain, however still shown in black and white, was a toast to the happy side of life. The art of entertainment was designed to give American's the ability to forget about their hardships and live vicariously through these silver screen shows. 'Singing in the Rain', performed by Gene Kelly, has influenced many film's to come and is now highly regarded as a great musical masterpiece. Despite the happy-go-lucky feelings the song promotes, it would soon become a testament to the dark side of free will, controlled substances and new experimental forms of music.
Over the next twenty years America would be thrust back into war again and have to witness the assassination of one of their favorite presidents in JFK while the rise of the hippie alternative movement separates society into very distinct, divergent groups. Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange in 1971 demonstrates the antithesis to Gene Kelly's original version of "singing in the rain'. At first we saw a man so believably happy to be singing outside during a rain storm and now, twenty years later, we see the same song being sung during a rape scene. The character who sings this song appears to be boasting about the terrible change that has come from the depths of society. He shows us through song and rape that the world has an ever-present evil that is not going anywhere soon.
Personally it was a bit hard to watch the Clockwork Orange rendition of singing in the rain directly after watching Gene Kelly's original. To see smiles turn into sinister grins overdubbed with screams and cries. Try it yourself to see what emotional changes you feel.

Abel Gance

Abel Gance was a man whose knowledge of film was much more advanced than the average Joe. His silent film Napoleon in 1927 is a tribute to his out of the box style. He pioneered the art of filming with handheld cameras creating a more life like feel for the viewer. Aside from filming on multiple cameras he also wanted the film to be shown on three different screens to increase the intensity of his montage scenes. This technique he called 'Polyvision'.
Unfortunately Gance's film was thoroughly edited before it was released in the United States and was not thought to be as well done as when released in Europe.

Earthquake 1974

Have you heard of it? No. Neither have I until the recency of the past couple days. This movie was hailed for its ability to capture the chaos, anguish and the true terror felt by those living through the crisis of an earthquake, as well as the grueling rebuilding that lingers on for years to come. So after watching a few clips to gain an insight into the movie's theme it was difficult to resist the initial reaction to pre-digital age effects and quality yet the more and more I watched it became necessary to place myself in a theater in the 1970's and see this movie for the first time. As soon as I began to view the movie with a predated mind set I was finally able to get into the movie, to feel the buildings crashing, leaning from side to side in my chair attempting to avoid the dangers of falling concrete, wood, signs and, worst of all, people.
Pretending wasn't enough though (my imagination has lost touch with the one I remember from childhood) and I had to ask the people who were there, who saw not only the movie itself but were all well aware of the devastation the real life earthquake caused. So I went to my parents in hopes of hearing stories about their 'first experience' or to only hear what the world was like in the 70's would have sufficed. Well I apologize but I have heard neither; simply, "We didn't have television and I never got to see the movie." Which I suppose can be marked up as something to be great full for it was rather disappointing. They did however comment on the fact that they feel saddened by the many great movies of their era that have been forgotten about in the world of entertainment. Fighting to the point that these movies have brought film and hollywood to the conglomerate-sized business it has become.

Georges Méliès

To think of the idea of using layers with images in Photoshop or for video in Final Cut to create composite images or footage is rather easy in today's terms with all of the available technology from the cameras we shoot with to the programs with which we complete the composite. Now to image performing these tasks over a hundred years ago by only using the film on which the footage is captured (and I promise it was not digital) just as Georges Méliès was able to do before the turn of the century. Using many techniques in splicing and cutting of film Méliès was able to add advanced special effects to his films; the most famous being the space pod hitting the man on the moon. He also learned that painting directly onto the filmstrip frame by frame would provide color when shown in the theater or viewed in the newly invented kinetophone.
So you won't find Méliès' name on the developer list for today's most popular programs but we must keep him in the back of our minds to credit his brave ability to try something no one has ever done and in doing so set the ground work for a hundred years of advancement in film and photography.

Shnazzy Jazzy

As early as the beginning of the 1800's 'blackface' portrayal by actors had become a staple in the entertainment industry. Many people have claimed various reasons as to why the 'blackface' came about and the most prevailing of all is to exemplify and expand the typical segregated ideologies to the theater and eventually film and television. The 'blackface' allowed the entertainment business to remain segregated and still be able to have the role of the degraded black man by having their white actors mask or paint their faces along with an accent to their lips made them appear larger creating an almost ape-like look for the actors.

Personally, the beginning of the Nineteen Hundreds is what I see to be the greatest era of American history. Business was booming, the ability of the stock market to crash was out of the question and increased immigration brought together more cultures than ever before.

Although the United States were seeing much of their population prospering there were still many people being suppressed and demoralized. Music was a quick and easy escape from the troubles of poverty that many musicians and their followers were faced with on a daily basis. Regardless of how skilled this new generation of musicians was they were poor, often black and mostly disregarded. So they played were they were allowed and took their style to the streets. Their trumpet sounds gathered small crowds of passer-by's and eventually the attention of the local bars in their area. The most of the bars happened to also be sex houses and it was the site for the creation and expansion of jazz. According to some, the musicians wished for the music to be called 'Swing' yet their place of employment would not allow for it. When people went to these bars to pursue the women they called this "getting jazzed", they took this name and applied it to the music that would accompany them "getting jazzed" and it stuck for good.

Soon this would all change regardless of what their skin color was, almost. The stock market crash on October 29th brought all progress to an abrupt halt. With businesses booming the country felt confident in their system of stocks and loans were easy to come by regardless of whether the lender had the money or not. When the value of the stocks began to fall it sent the country into a panic and the population lost its trust in the system. Rapid selling and closing of stocks in the market are said to be main reasons for the inevitable collapse.

The days that mark the collapse are referred to as 'Black Thursday' and 'Black Tuesday' (October 24th and 29th, 1929 respectively) again a subtle degraded remark towards the black community. Unbeknownst to me the stock market crash of 1987 occurred on Monday, October 19th is also referred to as 'Black Monday'. So even seventy-eight years later the degraded name of a terrible event is posted again. So from Blackface actors to the southern black musicians which could only start in brothels at best up to the two worst stock market declines in history coined simply as a "black" day in history.

Prior to this post I was unaware of the events of the 1987 crash so I hope you learned something new today as well! See you next time.

First Day of Art 211

I am continuing this blog to be used in conjunction with my Art 211 class, Art and Technology. I am excited for this class and the new knowledge it will bring. Hopefully the classroom environment will be changed soon enough to allow for ease of learning but either way I am looking forward to the coming semester and sharing my new talents.

Sail Away

Catching Up

So I slacked a bit in the posting department over the summer but here we go again with another year (my last year in fact) and I hope for this one to be a bit different and over the top. I would like to start off the school year by posting a few projects from last semester as well as some new photos from a couple great photography opportunities I've had. Enjoy.

Tom Igoe Lecture

I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by ITP professor Tom Igoe, a specialist in Physical Computing. Professor Igoe brought up a lot of new and innovative ways to connect the physical world in which we live to the digital world that we have built up all around us.

In his lecture, Professor Igoe discussed a few key points to the progress and ability to publicize physical computing. His first point is that the physicality of the design of a new device is very important; that the behavior of the device correlates to its fundamental structure and design. In this he states that the designer needs to understand not only what the device will do but also how it will perform its tasks. Secondly he talked about conviviality. The basic idea that all modern digital devices talk to other devices; this talking or communication could be via bluetooth, wireless Internet or a direct connection. It is the designer's job to choose the right methods of communication to compliment its construction and behaviors.

After many examples of his students' work the lecture began to focus on the idea of openness. Professor Igoe spoke highly about their own ways to promote openness stating that the design plans for all of their projects are easily accessible to those who wish to become involved. He feels that instead of designers protecting and hiding the designs of their hardware and physical construction of devices they should be open with these plans and overall this will help drive innovation, new ideas and move closer to connecting the physical and digital worlds.

I saw Professor Igoe's lecture as beneficial and a helpful look at the possibilities to create art and useful devices combining ordinary household items with the brain power of computer chips. If you ever have an opportunity I suggest you attend or do a little research of your own on these great new ideas in Physical Computing.

Day One

So here it goes, day one. I have had a friend for a few years now and he above anyone else I know spends the most time on a computer. And this made me wonder. How could he possibly do it? I would do my daily sign on to Facebook and my Gmail account and maybe check the shirt on Woot or look for any good deals happening at Crutchfield but that was the bulk of my computer experience as far as daily usage. Then I switched my major; went from accounting and economics to 3D Animation, Music Recording, Film capture and editing, and the newest addition: Photoshop. It all of sudden went from a yearning to spend more time on my Mac to having a plethora of projects and ideas that I can't seem to find enough time to sit and finish. Hopefully I will soon have a better grasp of all these new and exciting programs which I hope will translate into speedier completion times and better posts to view, for you, my reader. I must be going now so have a good day and remember, Don't Try, Just Do.