JFK and Project Ideas

In this Blog I am going to respond to lecture and get some ideas down about my final intervention project.

The Films we watched in class today dealt with media and JFK. The Second film we watched by Bruce Connor seemed to show a different side of the JFK assassination. A different side to what the media portrays and shows the common American. Most of the americans have only seen and heard of the JFK assassination through the media. Through the view of their eyes. The side of the assassination that the media has portrayed is the gore and sadness that has come from this tragedy. Connors video shows the Mystery, the wonder, and the media control of the incident. The film shows strange connections that can be made by what the media has said and what really happened. The use of the repeating film flicker through out the whole film gives the film an intense pace. The first scene is a flickering screen, this same feel come when the repeating shots of the motor brigade and bull fighting are shown. 

For my Final Intervention project. I want to combine Nature scape and a City scape together. I want to show people in a way of intervention what we as human beings have done to milwaukee. If that is positive or negative. The way I want to go about this is by going to a river not inside the city and take a series of photographs of a pristine river scape. Take those photographs and place them on every bridge that goes through the milwaukee downtown. Giving a passer by a glimpse of what the Milwaukee downtown could have looked like at one time in our past history.  

SONIC OUTLAWS: Radiohead looking for change

The film we screened in class today was about the use of mass media and copyrights. Something widely talked about in this day in age of media in every aspect of live some people carry 5 different forms of media just in there pockets and bags. The internet is starting to change some of the ideas that Craig Baldwin and Negativland brought forth in Sonic Outlaws. One of the bands that are looking for change within media is Radiohead. With there recent release of In Rainbows on the internet allowing people to pay what they want has changed the way music is bought and distributed to the world bring a new for of mass media to the front stage of musical production. The internet allowed Radiohead to offer there CD at a cheaper price and still make the same amount of money not have to pay any fees to a record company. Taking away the suits that sued Negativland. This was the first change radiohead made to mass media. The second change was when they released the separate tracks of there popular song "Nude". They are for purchase on the internet. Radiohead is looking for people to take there tracks and make there own remixes of the song. They are giving tracks to people telling them to copyright infringe against them. If more bands did this the Weatherman would be out of business. U2 and Casey Kaseum Should take a note out of radioheads book and be happy that people want to use your work to produce something. Negativland wasn't looking to take the NAME U2 away from them they couldn't even if they wanted to. Be happy of your work and allow people to use it if it is all in good manor and not the exact same.

"Natural Features": Hollis Frampton himself would use this title

Guvor Nelson's "Natural Features" is a series of shots of cars, flowers, humans, architecture etc. Anything that is a Natural feature on the globe. The shots were beautifully composed and abstracted. Giving the amazing natural features a very interesting twist on something not always that interesting. The shots were cropped tightly with amazing attention put into the light. The movie was exactly about what Nelson decided to title it. Titles do not always tell you what the movie is about about, especially if you follow Hollis Framptons rules. He say that whatever appears in the movie the most is what the movie is all about. I think Guvor Nelson use this to his advantage and makes a beautifully crafted film about Natural Features.

Brach Candy Factory

Over this past weekend I went down to chicago and got a chance to make it to the Brach Candy Factory. The Brach Factory is abandoned factory that has been overrun by hobos, asbestos, Graffiti, and artists. This new craze of going into abandoned buildings has been intriguing visual artists and the Brach factory is somewhat of a museum. This place has more pieces of art then the Milwaukee Art Museum. There is Graffiti tags covering every wall of the three main buildings. The tags can be recognized from large cities around the mid west. This building also makes for some very interesting photographs and film. With cracked paint, broken glass at every step and hobos peaking around the corners. 

The Brach factory is widely known through out the midwest by Photographers, Graffiti artists and Hollywood. Which has recently made this place famous world wide. The producers of the New Batman movie has used an old parking garage connected to the factory for a stunt in the new movie.  Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkzFeib7ZCk

James Benning- The Structure of Photography

I would like to begin this blog and ask a quick question that I also asked in lecture. How does he show the video to an audience? Would it be shown in a gallery? Would it be edited with other times he performed this piece? Is it more than just a lecture on the structure of mathematics? Is this just a performance that involves a very unnecessary camera. The whole time he was performing for us the only time the camera became a factor was when someone asked a question and the camera operator couldn't hear it. I was very grateful to be apart of that experience. I was just lost on how the use of video applied to the performance.

In his closing statement James Benning said "How do you structure your own work as in Mathematics?" I decided this was a good place to start for this weeks Blog. I am a photography major and the structure of photography is a series of photographic elements that combine to create a final print.  The counting numbers would be the Camera, Film, Memory, and a good mid-range zoom lenses. Once you have a camera you have to learn how to use the camera. This would be like adding zero. You have to understand ISO, F-stop, and Shutter Speed. While you are learning this you also have to be understanding composition light and different focal lengths of lenses. Within composition you have to learn how to control your subject. Get the model to do what you need, find the right angle, and get the right accent lighting on the subject. This is like adding negative numbers to the structure. When you bring in the idea of printing, finalizing and promoting and image. It is like adding division to the list of actions. Bringing forth a whole new idea and processes that you have to conquer and learn. The final structure is bringing it all together to create a  very individualized style of photography that the public enjoys and are intrigued by. Every photographer starts out with the same tools just as in math. But the final product with always be different, For infinity times over and over.

Table Top Video: Breath

The expirmentation that took place in my table top video had to deal with the human breath. A combination of blowing bubbles and playing the harmonica brought an interesting combination of sound to the film. I pre-recorded the sound for my film only because I wouldnt have been able to successfully play the harmonica while laying on my back in a confined space. This also allowed me to concentrate on other aspects of my perfomance like the full coverage of bubble on the screen.
Another large aspect of this film was viewing something through a portal of bubbles. Creating multiple mirrors from which my face can be seen. While the bubbles creep in, and heavy breathing comes from the speakers there is a slight feeling of drowning. As if I am holding my breath in a form of playing hamonica.

The performance went pretty well. I forgot to turn the sound all the way up and in the first ten seconds I break from character. The fixed camera made me feel really restricted in exploring the idea of these bubbles. I want to expirment more with this idea. While under the bubbles you see mulitple reflections from the bubbles, plexiglass and the screen on the camera. This was a way more interesting view of the bubbles then just the fixed camera. I would also like to expirment more with depth of field in the bubbles. If more depth of field could be achieved, I think the image would pop more with a crisper more abstracted image. Overall this was a project that pushed me and restricted me for a very successful result.

Two Dogs and a Ball, Written By The Two Dogs

The William Wegman Film "Two Dogs and a Ball" gives the two dogs featured in the film authorship over the film. It is as seen through the dogs perspective. The come off as almost saying "where is the ball?" You never see the ball. Through out the whole film Wegman makes you look for the ball as frantically as the dogs. With the ball removed he put the viewer in the place of the dogs making you feel what the dogs are feeling. The film come off as a documentary on the behaviors of dogs. Giving the viewer this scientific look in to the minds of animals. The dogs are there to lead you on the story telling you the way to look and how to feel. 

 

Althea Thauberger "Inspiration of your close surroundings"

When Althea Thauberger came into our lecture monday she showed us four of her experimental films. The reaction to these films were not highly regarded. Many people didn't personally enjoy the content of these films. These feelings have possible came about because of her choice of subject. 

Althea really uses her surrounding in her films. She is a young women artist trying to collaborate with other young women artist. To  better herself and the other women she works with. It is a great idea that is good for all, But considering the environment it doesn't produce the most successful work.  In the Northern you are intrigue to watch the film by the opening pan over a clear cut field of seemingly dead people. This turns into very confusing acting and a repeat camera movement. The film is about her summer-camp experience planting trees, great experience for anybody, but not a great film idea. This might be a little haste, but I think her peers need to give her honest feedback on her films.

Declarations & Demonstrations: Creation of Picture in Picture

2/11/08

This weeks Lecture was about this idea that you can find art or meaning in everything and anything. From Duchamp's urinal to John Cages 4'33" they both have this idea that you can take any object or noise and I will bring fourth a meaning of some sort. When we were listening to John Cages recording I heard a person behind me say "what are we listening to?" I think that is the exact reaction he was expecting people to have when listening to his piece. The reaction that he wanted was that people recognized that there is sounds around us and it can be understood as something beautiful and artistic. For the first minute of the recording I heard the fan buzzing and I thought that was the recording. This idea takes the everyday composition of the event and flips that picture to conceive of something out of the ordinary and interesting.

Out of the films we watched in class, Mirror by Robert Morris 1969, really showed the idea of making a picture out of the medium of film. Using a mirror to reflect a landscape while walking in the snow creates this moving image that is recognizable, but at the same time very lost. The jerky movements of the mirror and the smooth contrasting movement of the actual background bring out the idea that something beautiful and artful can be made from basically nothing. The last shot in this film, when Robert backs up with the mirror in hand and reflects the camera man back onto the film shows that this is the same idea that Duchamp and Cage were working with only in the medium of film. 

"Play as Content- Tricks for the Eyes"

The past lecture period Carl showed us three movies that contained Film Trickery or Special effects. In "The Great Pumpkin Race," 1910 Emil Cohl changed the perception of a normal pumpkin into being something with the mind of a small mammal. All from using a simple technique called "stop motion" he made the pumpkins role through the streets, in through house, down through sewers, and up over walls. This technique allows you to make anything move in the way you want. Even if that this is an old tire painted to look like a pumpkin. 

In the "Lead Shoes," 1949 Sidney Petersen used a found novelty object and rigged it up to fit on his cine special. This anamorphic lens made a distorted ring causing somethings to be in focus and somethings being out of focus. Not always being predictable it added a very uncontrolled experiment  aspect to the film. This effect or trick that petersen used gave an errie feeling that went right along with the movie. A women finds a divers and brings him home. The music of the movie is this ragtime up beat experimental sound that brings the three elements of this movie together: Sound, Story, and Anamorphic lens creating an experimental piece that is unlike anything main stream. 

The tricks used in early experimental films were used to explore the possibilities of the moving picture. Being able to distort reality in any possible way is the means for which these directors were searching.