Critique Response

I really enjoyed everyones final project and the way that everyone had a different idea. I think that it was pretty interesting the way that all of us used the projector and made it a portable object that could move and fit into any space provided. I really liked my feedback, I think the video aspect of my piece personally was a little weak and would have benefited with testing but that was a bit out of my control, so next time hopefully if I should further this project I could correct it. I really am glad that my audience was able to understand the piece and pick up on the hidden subtleties and I hope they enjoyed the performance aspect. I can say now that it was definitely out of my comfort zone and terrifying to perform and that I dont think I am cut out to be a performance artist! But it was a great experience and I am glad that I gave it a shot. 

Installation Inspiration

The first idea I had was inspired by John Baldessari's "I will not make boring art" manifesto. I feel that is it a golden rule in which artists strive for and is just one of the many pieces of advice I have received in working towards being a designer. I feel that his use of typography also really influences me and the school punishment type way he wrote it works well with my situation. I want to attempt my own version of this artwork by using my own manifestos and my own goals to strive for as my "punishment" I want to recreate the feeling of pressure of success and want to make these self imposed goals almost like a punishment, because I fear that they are sometimes to lofty to achieve. I am looking to create an installation room which has the video of me writing and then the actual floor to ceiling paper of my writing features created an enveloping space that draws the viewers in and almost capture them in this pressure.

I also was inspired by doug Aitkens "Altered Earth" and his use of huge video projectors to display nature and the way he involved the audience and allowed them to become encompassed within the video screen and thus the natural scene. I want to explore using video installation and enveloping the audience too, and borrow his sense of allowing the audience to become part of the scene. I want to explore the concept of time zones and the weird reality that allows for it to be morning in one place but night at the same time in another. I want to use time and nature and to juxtapose two different time zones using split screens. I want to video projection to be large and to allows the audience to be enveloped into the two time zones. 

Lastly I found in exploring light, that the two artists James Turrell and his "A Restrospective" as well as Olafur Eliasson "the Weather Project" were both really inspiring and were really engaging for the audience. I would love to explore the use of light within an enclosed space to predict and create mood. I think creating an installation space using just light would be a really interesting experiment and could be really successful. 

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The Artist is Present Response

I really enjoyed watching this movie in class. I am pretty skeptical about performance art and I have a hard time finding meaning in it and enjoying it, but I think these really helps to watch. I feel that I finally can actually understand why, as an artist, Marina does the art that she does. I in past have thought it to be very bizarre but I absolutely connected with her final performance piece and finally understand her intent. I think that artists like her need to continually make art like this and need to continue to make it accessible for the audience because that is what makes it understandable. I think the success of "The artist is present" was the ability of it to become not just about the artist but about the audience as well. Her other pieces of art are harder to understand because we have to take the time to really read about it and watch it and it might not connect to all, but in the live performance piece she did at her exhibit, all the audience had to do was participate and sit in front of her to really get her intent for the piece. In all, this was one of my favorite films we have watched in class and was the one I most understood and connected with. 

The Death of the Author Response

I found this article to be very interesting if not a little challenging to understand. I think what the author is trying to say is that the reader must separate the author from the writing. By linking the author and the writing together and saying the the writing has been influenced by the authors past and his life would be to immediately identify the work and to stereotype it upon first reading. Barthes insists on separating the two, but personally I do not think they can be completely separated. Most authors write from what they know and are inspired by the things surrounding them so how can a reader not sense this link with the author and his writing. I agree that perhaps we should not completely categorize the writing but leave room for other interpretations and to immediately assume the writing was one things could hinder us from seeing it as something else entirely, and may make the reader miss the writers point entirely. I do not really understand how this applies to my work, because I am looking and drawing inspiration for my art from my life and to view my art I believe is to view part of my life and my identity. I draw inspiration from what surrounds me and that can easily be seen but I do understand in separating myself from my art at least a little because it allows for a broader interpretation and more understanding from different people. If I were to make art that was just about myself and entirely inspired by what only I see then I would  be limiting myself as well as other and their understanding of the piece. 

Fluxus Art

I see fluxus art as an experimental avant garde movement that is closely related to Dada. Fluxus artists wanted to avoid categorizing them selves into one aesthetic or one medium and instead chose to experiment with mixed media, found object and many different types of mediums. Fluxus means flow and change and watching the fluxus video : Wolf Vostell "Sun in your Eyes" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5krhw54oqs
I am inspired by his use of the tv as a medium. I want to embody the meaning of fluxus in my art and find that the medium of Tv is ever changing, especially commercials. Commercials on tv are usually loud, the volume seems much louder than the original tv show you had been watching, they use lots of colors, and they are always on tv. I want to try and film commercials, as many as I can and distort them into a continuous and riotous loop of color. Using video effects I hope to confuse the viewer even more and turn an annoying tv commercial into an even more annoying video/visual experiment. 

Movie Response

I found the movie we watched in class to be very interesting both in the auditory sense as well as the visual. Throughout most of the movie I found the sound used in many different ways. In opening a scene it was often jarring and made me jump out of my seat. In other times it was used as a transition, as the protagonist feels many different emotions, changing from one state to the other. I also saw it as a main theme within the movie, as the symphony she was writing was envisioned as a symphonic uniting of european countries. I loved how symphonies individual notes showed up throughout the movie and accumulated into the masterpiece she herself wrote, and which we get to hear at the very end of the movie. 

In Process Post

I've been working on my project today and I have found a new direction to go in. I want to keep some elements the same though and am still going to be using the sounds of my apartment. I had a lot of difficulty finding an orchestral piece to redo and so have decided to change it to an more modern song. I chose A World Alone by Lorde because as I was listening to it I realized that the lyrics and the theme of the song could be very relatable to the project. In the lyrics she mentions the sound of people talking and even uses that sound in her song. I decided to replace all the singing with actual conversations that occur in my apartment living room, among my roommates and then use the accompanying drum beats, guitar and piano as other sounds that occur within the room. So far so good, just need to keep recording different sounds! 

Reading Response

In reading the article I found it very interesting, especially the way we have evolved from the beginning of orchestral music and sound as being something soothing and pleasing to the ear to the current sounds that permeate our life, harsh raw sounds that are an attempt to draw out emotion or break through the barrier of "boring." I think it would be really interesting to use the old sensibility of creating a beautiful sound, a sound that is pleasing to the ear and that is gentle but using the harsh everyday sounds the we hear constantly. This article was really helpful in getting me thinking about what constitutes as sound and the music of the sounds we hear everyday. 

Critique and Project 2 response

Working on project 2 was definitely an interesting experience. I really appreciate the fact that I had a partner and that we were able to work really well together and easily split up the work but as a whole I do not think I would ever want to try and do a stop motion ever again. I think drawing it was really ambitious as well so on that end I think it was extremely beneficial to have two people.
During critique I really enjoyed watching the stop motions that relied on photography, I think that aided in making the animation smoother, as pictures probably were a little easier than drawings. I really enjoyed everyones concepts, especially how we were able to take pretty funny and light hearted stop motions but really put thought behind our designs, look and layouts. I think everyone was really constructive in their thoughts and would definitely would explore adding music to the stop motion I was a part off if I ever decided to return to the project.

Scarlett Correa and Madeleine Lachesnez's artist statement

Scarlett Correa and Madeleine Lachesnez

Stop motion project

Due: 9/30/13

Artist Statement
"Henry"

Our story revolves around the process of animation through a short glimpse in the life of a curious and enthusiastic octopus that has a very difficult time making friends. We found this to be a topic that allows the audience to empathize, while also being something we don’t give much thought to when it comes to animals, who can be social creatures like us. So in spite of being very kind and friendly, whenever our cheerful octopod protagonist approaches another sea creature, they ignore him or are too busy to stop and say hello.

We chose to animate all the creatures in a very loose style that maintained artistic integrity where it was still clear that each frame was hand drawn, rather than going for a polished Disney look. We took care to use perspective and framing to our advantage by emphasizing certain scenes that were pivotal to the story, the most important one being the introduction of our octopus friend, Henry, who is an example of the illustrative process. Although we could only do 8 to 10 frames per second given how labor intensive our approach was, we aimed to make the movements as smooth as possible through subtle changes in each frame.

                  There is some difference between our animation styles, which we decided to keep in since animators typically work in teams and work around each other to come up with a final product. Since our video focuses mainly on the beginning stages of that process, we let the audience inside our world as creators.

Altogether this project was hugely insightful and allowed us some firsthand experience in the world of animation, a field we already had enormous respect for. We learned some tricks for simplifying and looping images that reduced our work load while still allowing us the smooth movement of characters. We enjoyed the process immensely and hope to be able to work on something like this again in the future.

Scarlett's and Madeleine's Storyboard

We decided on telling the story of a friendly octopus who keeps trying to socialize with uninterested sea creatures. After a long day of trying to make new friends with no luck, along come two girls riding whales who decide to befriend him!

Project 2 - Scarlett and Madeleine L.

Our story revolves around a giant octopus that lives under the sea. We want to explore his life and his daily adventures in a very cartoony, hand drawn way. We each are going to draw a certain amount of frames and will be contributing equally to the video. We will feature the octopus as the lead and then be adding a cast of supporting characters, mostly other sea creatures/sailors/ect. Materials needed would be drawing utensils for main sketch as well as color, mostly blues/water color tone, watercolors paper/sketchbook, lighting for photographing, and camera.

The Camera Eye Reaction

In reading the camera eye I was mostly confused. It was a very dense article that seemed determined to allude to the main point but never clearly state it. I thought it could have been extremely interesting if I had been able to understand all the references or been able to weed through the overly enthusiastic descriptions. I understood it to be an article about the way that camera and film has been so edited and fixed nowadays that it lacks the simple, original camera eye that used to occur. The one that wasn't clouded by special effects, editing and the blockbuster/hollywood treatment films get now. I thought the author was imploring readings to seek the original films and the small productions to get back to the true and essential simplistic essence of a film or a video. In all its a lament for the past and a wish to return to the original films that individuals produce. 

Critique Response

I thought this first project was very interesting and I liked being limited to just photos to express montage, it made me work harder at getting the montage to show. I think I could have worked a little harder in making a more concrete story, I thought mine was a little vague. Perhaps focusing on just one aspect of my trip and the memories of just that section would have helped. I think I was able to successfully edit my pictures to reflect my theme and I think that my sound quality could have been improved but that might only be fixed by using professional equipment that I do not have. I loved how everyone was able to get their photos to tell a story and thought that even though it was very limiting, we were able to express fully all of our themes. 

Project One: Montage

            For project one I based my photo collection on a trip to California. I really wanted to play with the effect of memory and sound when recalling something. I used Photoshop on each picture creating unique difference based on the way my memory recalled the situation. Erasing parts of the photo and blurring other parts alludes to the dreamy and often missing parts of our memory. Heightening and contrasting certain parts of the photos was my way of visually representing the details I most recalled about it.  I then went into sound and used it to almost over power the images, because recalling past memories often times brings about vivid noises and sounds. In all it’s a trip down my memory lane.

Notes on Anticipation

- First view, the roaring ocean, loud & startling
- Loud sea turns to typical fogged over calm sea & bridge
- driving the bridge, fogged burned away, radio plays
-look out the window, first view of city
- another look at the bridge
-exploring the city, windy road, city noise
- streets wind up, city view expands out
- over the rooftops, seemingly perfect houses
- look closer and see the human sprawl of the city
- see the people
- crowds push against you
- gets louder, night time city is still alive
- escape to country, where is she going?
- trail expands ahead, empty
- companions join you
- you walk along and look up, sky scrapers turn to trees
- looking closer, leaves blow in the wind
- wind is louder
- you keep going forward
- higher
- higher view once again expands in front of you
- top is close, wind is loud
- the top!
- take a moment
- climb the tippy top wind is even louder
- backdown quieter moments
- sits down joining friends
- family table set
- time to clear, quiet and calm again
- end but beginning to start over, stairs lead to.....

Montage Project Idea

For project 1 I was inspired by old vacation photos (seen below). They all have a very faded quality and seem a little yellow over all. I like the memories they evoke and since I spent the weekend in Berkeley, CA so I used my photos from my trip and edited them to give them the same old vacation look these photos have.

Hi! I'm Madeleine. I'm a junior Graphic Design major. I picked this image because it was part of a Mandala project I did and it represents the many different things that influence me in my art.

I love cats and cartoons and traveling. I work mostly with illustrator and love whimsical design. I like to doodle and have an addiction to buying plants.