Category: ART 211 LN

This project had me stumped for a little while.  I had no trouble finding a book – I chose “The Linux Internet Server” published in 1997.  It was the first edition of this book.  I never read it.  It was part of one of those “clubs” that were all the rage back in the ’80s and ’90s.  Sign up and pay like $20 for the initial offer and receive a stack of selected tech books, plus the offer of another book each month at retail cost.  Buy three books then quit any time.  That’s what I did.  This particular book also came with a CD full of Linux server software – cutting edge stuff at the time.  The book, and accompanying CD have never been touched.  I’ve been carrying this book around for nearly 20 years without ever cracking the binding.  And it’s so completely out of date.  I also had a printed copy of “The Internet Yellowpages” first edition…no idea where that went.  We were so confused about the Internet back then, thinking that we could fit it into our model of printed yellow pages…like that could be some authentic source of directory information…how far we’ve come.

Enough about the book…I had developed a great idea for my time-based flip-book.  The animation would start with a seed, a simple brown dot on the page, then grow into a tree…with it being close to Halloween, the tree would morph into a skeletal hand after losing its foliage.  The hand would then “hatch” a pumpkin from between its fingers.  The pumpkin would grow into a Jack-o-Lantern, mounted on the tree/hand.  The hand would then morph into a skeletal creature with a Jack-o-Lantern head, then run back to a single-point perspective, ending as a brown dot, just like how the animation started.  Unfortunately, I never got past the tree.

No excuses – I simply lost interest.  I was totally consumed by the following Grid Art project (Hendrix piece) – that piece was not transportable, but I intend to redo the piece with 1-inch square glass tiles rather than the squished marbles.  I think that concept will work out much better.

So, here it is…my time-based media project, in all its glory…

 

For this final project I studied several “deconstruction” videos to learn about developing a surreal mood with simple video work.  Fortunately I had a few good subjects to work with.  Morgaine graciously allowed me to user her spiders as subject matter, and I was able to use their sounds (heavily amplified) to set the dreamy/nightmarish mood for the piece.  The piece simulates sleep dream-state, in that you can recognize shapes, images and voices, but they are distorted by other subliminal natural background sounds in sleep…heartbeat, breathing, etc.

As to the title, “Fear Is Relative,” the spiders’ actions in these clips are all defense actions brought on by fear, intrusion into their calm habitat.  Many of us are afraid of spiders, bugs and other “slimy” creatures, but the case is always the opposite.  They are fearful of us, and act in a frightening manner, intending to scare the intruder away from their tranquil space.  In that regard, fear is relative to the actor, not the observer.  Viewing this video without any embellishments tells a completely different story of two very frail arachnids trying to protect themselves from intrusion into their homes, in the only way they know how.

The video was recorded with a GoPro Session camera.  Audio was recorded with a TASCAM DR-40.  Video and audio were heavily modified, looped and overlaid on multiple tracks using Adobe Premiere CC.

I thoroughly enjoyed this ART 211 class.  I thought the projects and blog assignments built upon each other, and more importantly, pushed and encouraged me to focus my creativity on projects that were completely different from anything traditional.  I was encouraged to take risks and push boundaries.  I loved it.

For my performance art piece I wanted to go to a place that had a large audience doing something else, and act as a distraction to what was already going on.  My friends had told me of an open air market that occurs on the first Sunday of every month, in Hyde Park Village square.  That’s where I headed.  I also decided to bring balloons with me just as something extra to attract attention, and I thought that the extra prop would more accepting than just wandering aimlessly around…

I suited up in a full body “second skin” green suit, which is definitely odd enough to attract a lot of attention.  The green suit was also assuring in that I was completely anonymous.  I did post on Facebook that I would be there, hoping to get videos from my friends that I could incorporate.  That didn’t happen, but just as well because the footage was really unnerving to me afterwards, and I’m okay with my friends not participating in my spectacle.

My wife filmed, and as she was filming she picked up a lot of comments, mostly from men, and mostly derogatory…”creeper” and “awkward” and “weird.”  I did think about handing out my balloons to kids along the way, but after a few shrieks, I thought otherwise.  The women in the crowd seemed to be much more accepting.

For the most part, folks just went about their own business, some waved, a lot laughed, shook their heads or other…no one was aggressive or threatening.

While I was walking around I felt a bit odd, but also comfortable and somewhat liberated in doing something that was so completely out of the ordinary.  Now that I’m done with this piece, however, I really feel like I need to get back into the shape I was when I was much younger.  The green suit was wholesomely unflattering. 

I hope you enjoyed the video…now I must hit the gym!  Maybe I’ll do this little exercise again when I have a better physique.

I’ve been a fan of electronic music for many years, but had no idea there were so many genres in this style of music.  I was first turned on to this style back in 1998, with the release of Crystal Method’s Vegas, which was released in 1997.  I was hopelessly addicted to High Roller from that album, and still to this day consider it to be one of my favorite tracks.  The Crystal Method is what I consider the most fundamental, early standard-bearers of the Electronic DJ Culture.  Their driving beats blended with synthesizers along with sample arrangements are perfectly placed and provide an amazing layered soundscape.

ELECTRONIC – PRODUCER/DJ CULTURE:  The Crystal Method – Trip Like I Do

Another favorite electronic Big Beat duo from the UK is full of layered samples from popular culture, perfectly arranged, is The Propellerheads, and their 1998 release Decksanddrumsandrockandroll.  They had a great crossover hit “History Repeating”  featuring the legendary Shirley Bassey, who contributed samples (Strong).  The Propellerheads fused Big Beat with Jazz on this track.  Their use of technology in blending an “old” style of music with synthesizers is why I chose this track for the Nineties category.  The nineties seemed to be when crossover styles were most accepted, in my opinion.

Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. pp. 778–779. ISBN 1-84195-017-3.

NINETIES: Propellerheads – History Repeating

I was immersed in New Wave while I was in the US Air Force, stationed in the UK from 1986 to 1989.  While I was there, New Wave was really all anyone listened to.  It was the prime of my young adulthood, clubbing every weekend and staying up ’till the sun-up, drunkenly running the streets looking for Doner Kebap trucks and trying to stay away from bar/pub brawls between American and British youth.  New Wave was all the rage.  There’s so many artists to choose from, but if there’s one artist who embraced and pushed technology boundaries, he would be Peter Gabriel.  His video Sledgehammer from So was the most cutting edge use of stop-motion at the time, winning several awards.  According to Wikipedia, Sledgehammer was the most played video on MTV (as of 2011) and declared the best animated music video of all time.

• “Episode 8: Music Videos“, aardman.com. Retrieved 19 October 2013.

NEW WAVE:  Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer

Also in my younger days I was attracted to Industrial Metal; the harder the better, for the shock value of all that sonic fury.  During those days my favorite Industrial group was Ministry, with its grinding beats and walls of sound.  I was also decidedly “anti establishment” at the time, the late nineties.  The more I could shock with my choice of music, played loudly, the better I felt.  This was a hard stance to have, still serving in the Air Force, but it was fun.  Further, that was just the beginning of American military participation in the Middle East.  It fit my attitude at the time.  I did grow out of that phase many years ago, but still revisit those songs for fun every now and again.  Oddly, this choice is fitting for today.  Ministry’s use of video mashups and audio samples along with heavily distorted metal guitar riffs and drums is the reason why I chose them for this category.

INDUSTRIAL:  Ministry – New World Order

My final genre that I love listening to is Psychedelia.  Two favorite bands of mine are Porcupine Tree and Ozric Tentacles.  It was hard to decide which band to highlight here, but I chose Ozric Tentacles.  They tend to stretch into psychedelic territory more with their wandering jazzy lines and wide use of electronic synth along with analog instruments in tight formation.  Their use of technology woven in with musical arrangement is really astonishing and easy to listen to for days.  Their arrangements are not intended to shock, but more to stretch one’s mind into new places through layered synth sounds and constantly changing syncopated beats.

NEO PSYCHEDELIA:  Ozric Tentacles – Fractal Eternal Wheel

I hope you enjoyed my breakdown of the electronic music I listen to.  I continue to revisit these bands and many others often while I’m designing and building new web sites.

 

Copier Art was something completely new and foreign to me.  This is a thing?  Of course I’d heard of the prank where you climb up on the office copier and photocopy various body parts….ooooh, how risque!  Not so much in this day…maybe it’s a fun office holiday party gag.  I’d be more concerned about breaking the glass on the copier.

Prof. Roundtree set us on creating a piece with photocopied images of ourselves…ONLY photocopied images – no color, no embellishment of the image(s) themselves.  I think the hardest part for most students was finding a copier that someone would let one play with.  Fortunately, all I had to do was head in to work on a weekend.  The copiers at work are on the smallish side, so no climbing around for me…I just photocopied my face, arms and hands in different positions, then ran four copies of each, which gave me a pretty good stack of material to work with.

What will I create?  That was the hardest part for me.  With such a “limiting” medium (kidding), I was stymied for a bit…until I remembered an IG post from my pal Jason (https://organicparadox.org, IG: @tincsart) – he was working on a paper bunny mask that was all comprised of geometric shapes.  On a whim I Googled “paper masks.”  BOOM!  The mother-lode, Wintercroft.

 

After looking through the available kits I decided to do the full-sized fish mask (fish head & tail) because I liked its large geometric shape and I thought it would become an interesting canvas for the copier photos.  I think it worked out really well.

I printed the pieces on card stock, then glued the copier photos on the pieces with spray adhesive before cutting them out for assembly.  I did this step first because I wanted the positioning to be somewhat random, with a jumbled pattern to appear over the form.  The black and gray fingers and arms create a strange muddled overlay to the overall form, which actually hides the shapes more and makes it more realistic…but definitely funky.  That’s what I was going for.  Random.  Mission accomplished.

For my grid art project, I decided to do a grid portrait of Jimi Hendrix, the most influential contemporary guitarist of our time (IMHO).  I had an idea to create something like stained glass, but use a Plexiglas sheet and fix glass “marbles” to the Plexiglas.

I chose a basic portrait, then posterized it to 10 colors, then pixelated it to the size I wanted to use (40 x 40).  Easy enough, I thought.  I was also able to isolate each color to its own sheet, making the grid easy to follow.  That was the easy part.

The quest to find glass marbles was a bit of a challenge.  I wanted to use similar shades, but there’s really not that much variance out there.  Also, not all marbles are created equal.  While they were generally the same size, the first batch of marbles I measured turned out to be slightly smaller than the average.  Consequently, my grid was ever so slightly smaller than what I needed.  I also wrestled with making the grid 40″ x 40″, which would be difficult to transport, but gave ample room (1 x 1 squares) for the marbles.  But I also thought that 1 x 1 would leave too much space between the marbles and the overall picture would be lost.  Undaunted with my choices, I soldiered on, mixing “mini” marbles with the larger ones where needed.

The above slider shows some in-progress work.  The finished piece was sprayed with 8 coats of polyurethane in an attempt to make the glass beads more stable.  I used Gorilla superglue gel to set the beads, but the slightest “flex” of the Plexiglas (while moving) would pop the glass loose, so I need to go back and re-glue with a different type of glue that has more movement – maybe a rubber/silicone cement of some kind.

I made a video of the finished piece, showing a strip of LEDs I used as a border.  Really cool effect when set to music…

GRID ART UPDATE:  I got my hands on some different glue that’s working out great:  Aleen’s 7800 Adhesive – now it’s just the tedious process of going through and re-gluing the loose stuff…and more keeps coming loose.  I also plan on putting a 1/2 inch Plexiglas “frame” around the back of the plexi to make it more rigid.

We don’t typically think about solar panels being a long-standing technology, but research and historical records show that solar power has been seen as a fundamental resource as early as the 7^th century, B.C. when magnifying glasses were used to start fires (and burn ants).[i]

The technology used to store solar energy in various forms, primarily as heat, has recorded history as early as the 4^th century, B.C. with heating Roman bath houses.

The quest to harness energy from the sun seems to be as old as civilization itself.  For this reason, I believe solar panels are keys to our future technological advances.  Two centuries ago, in 1839 French scientist Edmond Becquerel discovers the photovoltaic effect while experimenting with an electrolytic cell made up of two metal electrodes placed in an electricity-conducting solution—electricity-generation increased when exposed to light.[ii]  From then, technology has advanced to produce more power and gain greater efficiency with different materials and configurations.

Up until recently, solar panels have been viewed as a source of power.  However, I believe their usefulness has a greater capability as communications receivers, as demonstrated by a recent TED Talk, in which Harald Haas demonstrated solar panel reception with a standard LED transmitter.[iii]  Mr. Haas successfully used a solar panel to receive full-motion video that was transmitted from an LED, unperceived by the naked eye.  In that regard, the solar panel became more than an energy conversion medium.  Solar panels can now be used to receive data, and data can be piped through every available light source.  Network infrastructure now simply becomes air itself.

I believe solar panels have the “stigma” of only being thought of as an energy capture device to recharge batteries or provide limited continuous power streams.  However, this demonstration now shows that solar panels can and should be used for reception of data, potentially huge amounts of bandwidth across an entire light spectrum at the same time as energy capture.  Solar panels now have multiplied capability.  Solar panels should be everywhere.  If solar panels are employed everywhere, we will find that they will have a combined effect on the energy we need, can regain from the sun, and can reduce from fossil fuel generators.  I believe this simple experiment shows a possibility to dramatically impacting our ecology for the better.

[i] https://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/pdfs/solar_timeline.pdf

[ii] https://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/pdfs/solar_timeline.pdf

[iii] https://www.ted.com/talks/harald_haas_a_breakthrough_new_kind_of_wireless_internet?language=en

I confess I am not a big fan of Broadway Musicals. I don’t have any specific reason why. Maybe it’s because I’m not moved much by visual performance of song, maybe it’s the boundaries of the stage, maybe the changing scenes in the same space. I’m not sure. I’ve seen maybe three “Broadway” performances. My first real Broadway performance was “Godspell,” in 1983, in New York City. That performance was a school field trip.

I was in our own high school musical “Godspell” in 1983. After much controversy, our school cancelled its performance of “Oklahoma,” the large cast was dismissed, and a quickly-assembled cast was to perform “Godspell.” My sister was part of the new cast, and I happened to be “drafted” onto the cast when I went to pick her up from rehearsals the first evening. The music teacher, Mr. David DeAngelis, thought that if my sister could sing then so could I. So I sang. I was not Pavarotti, but I got the job done.

We took the field trip to give ourselves a jump-start, showing us what the musical “should” look like, when performed by professionals. We only had a few weeks to learn and get ready, so this quick immersion helped. That was my first introduction to live musical performance. We performed “Godspell” in my high school for a week, if I remember right. The house was full each day. I did decide, however, that performance art was really not my thing…I was more of a visual media artist. Further, I didn’t like the “drama” of all the needy performer personalities.

As I mentioned, I’ve seen very few Broadway performances. Recently I’ve seen “Spamalot” and “The Book of Mormon.” I went to those performances because I’m a big fan of Monty Python and Southpark.

I’ve seen several other iconic musicals as movies – “Oklahoma,” “West Side Story,” “Oliver,” “The Music Man,” and others, I’m sure. I enjoyed the movie versions of those musicals. Thinking back, it was probably because they weren’t confined to a stage.

After reading several articles on the Stage Door web site, I was really struck by the PASSION Angel de Quinta had for the stage and all of the performances he wrote about. He also writes with such vibrant color. I enjoyed his writing style. I can’t say I share his unbridled enthusiasm for the stage, but I appreciate the effort he put in to each article I read. I also appreciate the contributions to the genre he has made.

I thought this short animated story was brilliant.  It had many elements that symbolized the deep emotions this story conveyed in just a few short seconds on screen.  Rather than re-hash the story, I intend to highlight some of the symbolism I noticed.  I’m sure there is probably much more that I haven’t discovered.

First, Stop-Motion animation is my most favorite form of animation because I believe the animator(s) must have such a complete, detailed vision of the story before they begin.  I believe stop-motion must be completely scripted before the story is told.  There is no real ad-libbing.  Each frame must be meticulously crafted to tell the story in minute detail.

Some of the early symbolism, during their “sex scene,” Madame started out a porcelain white, but at climax was more skin-toned, either pointing to her loss of innocence or her completely accepting Pinkerton as part of herself.  As Pinkerton ran off, leaving his hat and his phonograph, Madame’s butterfly flies away, in what I believe symbolizes her loss of fragile innocence.

The changing landscape and weather symbolizes her ignorant hope over time; hope that Pinkerton will return to her after their one-time tryst.  She gives birth to a faceless blob, crying, with one distinguishable feature – a mouth, for feeding.  Interestingly, when the child is born, the hat and phonograph disappear from the story.  Pinkerton has been replaced.

More symbolism in the young child saying “momma” and then being flown like a kite, which shows Madame with a purpose other than waiting for Pinkerton’s return.  The child has no physical characteristics from Pinkerton.  She is completely her mother’s child.  The next scene, where the child is flying Madame like a kite, symbolizes Madame’s contentment with her current life.  This is when the ship returns.  Madame once again returns to her past, puts on Pinkerton’s hat and brings out the phonograph.  The child, once with a kite string, now appears to be on a leash.

Pinkerton’s return is not for Madame, but to claim his “property,” the child, to ride along with all the other children from foreign lands, in his big car, carried away in his big fancy ship, with his perfect barbie-doll partner.  Pinkerton carelessly breaks Madame’s connecting string without a backward glance.  Madame is cast aside.

Here is where I find the story-teller’s brilliance, in portraying Madame’s personal sadness, pain and destruction.  Her character is so completely devastated that she removes herself from the very story she is in.  She breaks down the “fourth wall,” runs off the set and proceeds to disassemble herself, quite literally.  She rips her face off, pulls her “skin” and stuffing off, then dismantles her “skeleton,” the very parts that made this stop-motion possible.  In the final scene, her parts all fly away, morphing into the shape of a butterfly, coming to rest on another Madame in another time…

While this was just a short 10-minute animation, I was amazed at how deep and emotional the story was, conveyed through stop-motion.  I really enjoyed this.

I don’t watch much television other than the local news, UFC and Baseball (the Rays).  Oh, and Game of Thrones.  I’ve only made it through one full series recently, and that was “Breaking Bad.”  Another series I began watching but soon became bored with was “The Blacklist.”  I did really enjoy James Spader’s character, in the depth of contrast between good and evil…and doing evil things for “good” outcomes…which may or may not be revealed later as evil, as the story unfolds.  I enjoyed “Breaking Bad” for that same reason…is the “hero” good or bad?  And what’s the definition of good or bad?  Who decides?  That question is left for the audience.

In that regard I was instantly drawn to that same complexity in Mr. Robot.  The social commentary seems to be fairly basic and easy enough to follow.  The use of technical jargon is somewhat accurate, but also somewhat far-fetched.  The script is written to hint at things that are very possible (like taking over webcams in computers and rudimentary password cracking through basic social engineering).  One thing that nags at me – why the use of paper?  Hackers don’t print things…

I bought the first season so I could watch it in HD, but I’m finding the monologue to be a bit dull and predictable…but maybe it’s written that way because Elliot, the hero, is battling addiction.  I’m hoping as his head clears the story becomes deeper.

I enjoy the cinematography.  Having just returned from Manhattan a few days ago, the scenery is familiar.  I also think the settings with “Evil Corp” were done well…in a very Orwellian tone.  It’s interesting to see varied use of point focus.  Whenever there’s interaction with Mr. Robot, everything, to include background and peripherals are in clear focus.  In most other interactions, focus is limited to localized areas, to draw attention to portions of the whole picture.

On to episode three…I do hope it gets deeper.