This was a pretty open-ended assignment in regards to what we were allowed to make, so I decided to tackle a subject matter I've never done before with art, and that is my experience with track and what I've seen from others in sports. I was a sprinter and jumped hurdles back when I did track from 7th grade to freshman year in high school, and that is expressed here in this sculpture by the legs high up and in running formation, as well as a purple hand on the ground in starting position. The swirls represent the sensation of lactic acid pulsing through muscles and the dizziness or disoriented feeling after a hard sprint. This is further reinforced by the face that's glued to the purple spiral. The face was made the way it was so that anyone could mirror themselves onto this sculpture so it didn't represent me exclusively. As I've mentioned, this sculpture also arose out of what I've seen from others in sports, especially their passion and determination (which I didn't have a lot of), and this is expressed in the red and light blue tear shapes jetting out opposite to the direction of the runner, the blood and sweat spent on perfecting one's skills and technique.
Overall I'm happy with the outcome of this sculpture both symbolically and as a stand-alone art piece. Above is the unedited version of the video made for the class. No sound was added, so we just hear the sound the suit makes itself, the whole purpose of the assignment, while still delivering an abstracted message of some sort. Above is the edited version of the video. This was made to further get across the abstract message of the video, and was more so for fulfillment for me personally, not for the class. Here's the storyboard for the video, not followed strictly due to the 30 second constraint and my initial thinking that it was a minute long video. Originally, the video was to end with a symmetrical shot of the sun (which wasn't out that day) to replicate that of the shot of the light which did make it in the 30 second video. This was to show a visual similarity but difference between artificial and natural light/light sources. Also omitted was a shot of me leaving the seat to them leave the gallery 10 room. Only shown in the video was me leaving gallery 10 in the odd walking fashion, or as my friends have called it, the "shimmy". |
I found this project to be interesting in that you become much more keen on identifying an artist's particular style when trying to replicate, and all their work just becomes much more interesting. For my rendition, I wanted to take into account the abstracted sexual imagery and the decorative swirls found in the paintings. I added dry brush dabs onto the canvas the replicate those found in "Male an Female", as well as using mathematical calculations to show man. Quick and rough brush strokes, especially with outlines, are also apparent in his early paintings, so I attempted to replicate that as well. In regards to sexual imagery in my painting, breasts can be identified, as well as a vulva where the larger pear is in the original Marilyn piece by Flack. Roundness and curviness is also applied throughout the piece to hint at the female body figure.
Overall I am content with the outcome. I feel I have captured Pollock's early style fairly accurately.
Overall I am content with the outcome. I feel I have captured Pollock's early style fairly accurately.
Our portion of the body assigned to us was the head and shoulders, and this led to some interesting ideas between me and my partner, Jack Van Tuyle (http://jackthomasvantuyle.weebly.com/). My 4 minute video is of me leaving the painting studio in Studio Angelico at night and heading to my dorm, a normal routine with a familiar setting. To make this video dynamic and interesting, a use of side and back shots were used, as well as walking in and out of different light sources. Changes made was we took an elevator instead of the stairs up to the 4th floor as we realized how time consuming and difficult it was to film me going upstairs while trying to keep my head and shoulders in view. We also decided that the video-in-video shooting would be during the daytime to present a heavy contrast between the two periods and light-intensities during the day.
There have been changes that deviate from the storyboard's intended progression. These are a result of trying to keep the camera steady while trailing around corners, and mostly moving at a pace that feels natural and smooth, which we failed at. Filming the front of somebody while the person filming walks backwards proved to be much more difficult. As a result, neither of us were able to finish where we originally intended since we had to walk slow enough so that the person behind the camera could smoothly trail along.
Jack's video, on the other hand, which only required a single 6 frame storyboard sheet to map out, is different. He decided that we wanted to be filmed at the cemetery in which his grandma is buried. What makes this particularly special is that this is the first time Jack has visited his grandma's grave since her passing. As a result, the video's main emphasis is on emotion and context. Jack becomes emotional during the beginning of the film, and from that point we don't get a front-head view of Jack for the remainder of the video, only back and side shots, which conflicts with what the original storyboard plan was, which was a constant frontal shot. Keeping Jack's full face out of shot adds emphasis to the ground, accented by Jack's natural movements, such as moving his hair, talking, and sniffing. There were undoubtedly faults on my part with shakiness and turning the camera, briefly putting Jack out of view, but I feel it to be further reinforcement on the environment around Jack, dark gravestones against snow. Another alteration is that we never made it back to my car in time as was originally planned in the storyboard.
The dynamic in my film of him is of evocative power, while his video of me holds power in the changing background, the changing film shots (side and back), and the changing light sources.
In the end, however, the entirety proved to be less than favorable. The far too many technical faults and manual faults while filming have lead to a piece that is lacking and nothing "exquisite" in my eyes. The bulk of this project that proved beneficial was the act of doing it all and experiencing it, not creating a note-worthy piece.
NOTE1: We noticed major difficulty when filming the video-in-video portion. Indoors, it was easy and as expected, but when outside, the reflection from the filming device (Canon Powershot camera) filming the I-pod touch (which filmed both of the followings) was seen in the reflection, along with the blur from natural light. What made the subject matter even more indistinguishable was that the camera would adjust the brightness based on the center object's darkness, which was the Ipod touch's black screen, so the ground was practically all white, making it non identifiable and extremely difficult to follow the same path the original video (following) took.
NOTE2: As of 2/21 Video in video filming was taken place indoors and outside at night so there was no glare or interference that would make the playback distorted or unidentifiable. Although the ground is nothing particularly interesting, the video plays clearly and smoothly, and, most importantly, the subject matter is apparent and clear.
hannah_frost_happening.mp4 | |
File Size: | 3810 kb |
File Type: | mp4 |
john_bucher_1.mov | |
File Size: | 5241 kb |
File Type: | mov |
This action is the one to be performed by me for the 10 second animation.
These 4 notecards are the actions I wrote down.
My experience with this project was better than I expected, although there were some great difficulties on my part. I found that working with an entirely new partner (Hannah Frost, and using light and shadow in interesting ways to be the most beneficial. Capturing an action or the "happening" within the time frame was also interesting, so we made sure that every frame held a specific purpose and wasn't wasted or meaningless to the whole. Difficulty arose when I took Hannah's video of her feeling the wall. I filmed it wrong in that her body was mainly on the left side of the video, which would be covered up as Mad and Peter described to us earlier. The contrast between light and shadow also wasn't too strong. So I took all 40 frames into my photo-editing program, flipped them all vertically and bumped up the contrast so that the difference was much more distinct. Then I took these new 40 frames into my video program and exported it into the video that is available at the top of this post. This is why it is an mp4. file rather than a mov. file. As a project I've never remotely done before, the experience was fresh and overall enjoyable. Working within the style of New Vision Photography was also interesting, and was something I would not have considered if I haven't been exposed to it. It opened the door to new and more interesting possibilities when filming an already obscure act.
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