Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Ann Arbor Film Festival
Black Rain by Semiconductor
Illuminations of the Beyond
#37, Interview with Joost Rekveld, Part 1
Illuminations of the Beyond
#37, Interview with Joost Rekveld, Part 2
Illuminations of the Beyond
Music Video Showcase
Anonanimal by Lisa Barcy (Andrew Bird, Noble Beast)
Music Video Showcase
Sour 'Hibi No Neiro' (Tone of Everyday)
by Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura, & Masayoshi Nakamura
Music Video Showcase
Gary War "Highspeed Drift" by Jacqueline Castel
Music Video Showcase
Blonde Redhead Meets Gainsbourg by Jérome Schlomoff
Music Video Showcase
Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavi, Yuval, & Merav Nathan
Music Video Showcase
Forest by Allison Schulnik (Grizzly Bear's "Ready, Able")
Music Video Showcase
The Black Dog's Progress by Stephen Irwin
This Animated Life
Horn Dog by Bill Plympton
This Animated Life
Mecanismo Olvidador by Juan Camilo González
This Animated Life
Please Say Something by Bill O'Reilly
This Animated Life
Popsong Living
My friend Eric who goes to UMass is starting a zine called "Popsong Living" and he asked me to submit some stuff. I gave him two of my poems and I'm really excited about it. I think I'm going to work on some visual stuff as well for another issue. I love this kind of thing!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
I have quite a few posts up about a collaborative piece I'm doing in Borrowing Light. Check them out at our class blog. Feel free to leave comments either there or here, they're always appreciated (aka I love you Maggie & Lucy). I think this has been a good collaboration and I'm excited to see where it takes us over the weekend!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Time Mapping: Raw TV Footage
I am uploading some of my raw footage of the television in my living room. I plan to work with each clip as a separate entity. I will experiment with re-filming it and seeing how the sound and video changes...
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Precedents for Strike
1. Yoko Ono-Match Piece, 1965
This piece Yoko Ono did with Fluxus relates very directly to mine because we use the same medium (video) to look at the striking and burning of a match. I would say that Yoko Ono's piece is far more minimalistic in its exploration while mine takes on a spatial component and the surrounding darkness, which I personally think is an important part of the human component tied to matches.
2. Yaacov Agam-Fiat Lux, 1967
Yaccov Agam likes to work with motion, sound and light. This piece is a lightbulb that turns on because of sound. I feel like the setting and singular light source relates to my piece. Matches produce a sound when lit and Agam is associating light with a sound as well as a space. I found this piece in the Light Art from Artificial Light book I checked out from the Dude.
3. Seth Riskin-Light Dances
Seth Riskin uses dance and light to show space in his works. His work is as much about the darkness as it is about the light source and human interaction. I am actually really excited that I discovered him because his artist statement (quoted below) reveals that we think in similar ways about light and space and movement.
"My first impulse as an artist was to become space. I wanted to bring viewers inside the movement experience, into contact with the numinous dimensions of space. Light allows me to realize this artistic vision.
In the Light Dance performances, light carries the subjective experience of movement beyond the limits of my body. Light Dance is a transposition of the “dance” from the body to the boundaries of the room. In silent, space-defining performances, light effects extend from my body. I “sculpt” space; precise body movements articulate fluid architectures of light, encompassing viewers with the “dance”.
Fundamental tenets of the Light Dance thesis include the concept that inner light and physical light are one, and that an experience of light can overcome the experience of body.
The silence of Light Dance I experience as wholeness. Inspired by a sense of the unlimited, I was led to light as a metaphor for deep knowing, dissolving borders between the body and space, the human spirit and material, the performer and viewer. I understand silence as I do darkness: not void, but whole, the fullest knowing of light, rather than its absence, that may be infinitely articulated and approached through art."
4. Plato's Allegory of the Cave
In his allegory Plato describes people chained to the wall in a cave. Behind them a fire burns and there are puppeteers making shadows. The people fear the shadows because they don't see what causes them. This is all they know of as reality.
I think this relates to my piece because the only light comes from the matches, which create shadows and reveal the world to the performer and audience at the same time. The performer and the camera become puppeteers, deciding what the viewer gets to see within the space at any given moment. Video uses a singular perspective, creating the only reality of my basement that the audience can know.
5. 15th Century Projector-Johannes de Fontana
The projector was initially invented in 1420 by Johannes de Fontana. He drew a picture (seen below) of a monk holding a lantern with a translucent window containing the image of a devil. Most of the initial projections were frightening and related to hell. I think the darkness and flickering shadows of candles and match light can take on that ambiance and they project shadows into a space, even if they are soft and out of focus (which is what Fontana's image would have looked like since his projector didn't have a lens).
This piece Yoko Ono did with Fluxus relates very directly to mine because we use the same medium (video) to look at the striking and burning of a match. I would say that Yoko Ono's piece is far more minimalistic in its exploration while mine takes on a spatial component and the surrounding darkness, which I personally think is an important part of the human component tied to matches.
2. Yaacov Agam-Fiat Lux, 1967
Yaccov Agam likes to work with motion, sound and light. This piece is a lightbulb that turns on because of sound. I feel like the setting and singular light source relates to my piece. Matches produce a sound when lit and Agam is associating light with a sound as well as a space. I found this piece in the Light Art from Artificial Light book I checked out from the Dude.
3. Seth Riskin-Light Dances
Seth Riskin uses dance and light to show space in his works. His work is as much about the darkness as it is about the light source and human interaction. I am actually really excited that I discovered him because his artist statement (quoted below) reveals that we think in similar ways about light and space and movement.
"My first impulse as an artist was to become space. I wanted to bring viewers inside the movement experience, into contact with the numinous dimensions of space. Light allows me to realize this artistic vision.
In the Light Dance performances, light carries the subjective experience of movement beyond the limits of my body. Light Dance is a transposition of the “dance” from the body to the boundaries of the room. In silent, space-defining performances, light effects extend from my body. I “sculpt” space; precise body movements articulate fluid architectures of light, encompassing viewers with the “dance”.
Fundamental tenets of the Light Dance thesis include the concept that inner light and physical light are one, and that an experience of light can overcome the experience of body.
The silence of Light Dance I experience as wholeness. Inspired by a sense of the unlimited, I was led to light as a metaphor for deep knowing, dissolving borders between the body and space, the human spirit and material, the performer and viewer. I understand silence as I do darkness: not void, but whole, the fullest knowing of light, rather than its absence, that may be infinitely articulated and approached through art."
4. Plato's Allegory of the Cave
In his allegory Plato describes people chained to the wall in a cave. Behind them a fire burns and there are puppeteers making shadows. The people fear the shadows because they don't see what causes them. This is all they know of as reality.
I think this relates to my piece because the only light comes from the matches, which create shadows and reveal the world to the performer and audience at the same time. The performer and the camera become puppeteers, deciding what the viewer gets to see within the space at any given moment. Video uses a singular perspective, creating the only reality of my basement that the audience can know.
5. 15th Century Projector-Johannes de Fontana
The projector was initially invented in 1420 by Johannes de Fontana. He drew a picture (seen below) of a monk holding a lantern with a translucent window containing the image of a devil. Most of the initial projections were frightening and related to hell. I think the darkness and flickering shadows of candles and match light can take on that ambiance and they project shadows into a space, even if they are soft and out of focus (which is what Fontana's image would have looked like since his projector didn't have a lens).
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Collaborations
I am becoming more and more excited and interested in collaborating with other people. Here are some of the collaborations of my past, present and future...
PAST
Dance Day 2006
Music by Ben Babbit
Choreography by Laura Thompson
Ben and I collaborated for one other dance during the summer of 2008. That was for my company, Patchwork City Dance, and it isn't on the internet at the moment.
PRESENT
This weekend I am shooting and editing One Day Runway, a Basement Arts show that is free to the public. It's a spoof of Project Runway and should be a lot of fun. The designers have 24 hours to complete their challenge and the runway show will be live right after the video airs at 11pm in Studio One in the Walgreen Drama Center on North Campus.
FUTURE
I may collaborate with a fellow student in my light course to do something with small holes people can look through, projections, and light. Who knows. He's interested in boxes and lights in liquids and I'm interested in the transitory flickering of matches, video, and odd spatial installations.
My friend Josh of Our Brother the Native just mentioned something about dance and a music video this summer.
I'm hoping to collaborate with an actor/performance artist in my Creative Writing class. He is way out there and so in tune with himself.
My friend Ali has been writing a lot of screenplays and has a ton of ideas. We should really get together.
PAST
Dance Day 2006
Music by Ben Babbit
Choreography by Laura Thompson
Ben and I collaborated for one other dance during the summer of 2008. That was for my company, Patchwork City Dance, and it isn't on the internet at the moment.
PRESENT
This weekend I am shooting and editing One Day Runway, a Basement Arts show that is free to the public. It's a spoof of Project Runway and should be a lot of fun. The designers have 24 hours to complete their challenge and the runway show will be live right after the video airs at 11pm in Studio One in the Walgreen Drama Center on North Campus.
FUTURE
I may collaborate with a fellow student in my light course to do something with small holes people can look through, projections, and light. Who knows. He's interested in boxes and lights in liquids and I'm interested in the transitory flickering of matches, video, and odd spatial installations.
My friend Josh of Our Brother the Native just mentioned something about dance and a music video this summer.
I'm hoping to collaborate with an actor/performance artist in my Creative Writing class. He is way out there and so in tune with himself.
My friend Ali has been writing a lot of screenplays and has a ton of ideas. We should really get together.
Strike: Update
This is my latest update of Strike, a piece about source light. I found that matches only exist within the context of humans because we are the only people who use them and are capable of striking them. A match sitting on its own is not a source of any light. Someone has to act upon it, strike it.
This is a collage of three different "situations" using matches. I am still tweaking the editing and coloring. My goal is to get rid of the boxes in the background so light comes from the pitch black of the whole screen as opposed to a small frame. I was told that people's outfits are distracting, but I was very interested in giving very few directions to the people involved so that it was a purer form of interaction. I don't think I want to change that thought of it.
Also, my friend Max Shults has offered to write music, which would maintain the striking match sounds but add another layer to the piece.
This is a collage of three different "situations" using matches. I am still tweaking the editing and coloring. My goal is to get rid of the boxes in the background so light comes from the pitch black of the whole screen as opposed to a small frame. I was told that people's outfits are distracting, but I was very interested in giving very few directions to the people involved so that it was a purer form of interaction. I don't think I want to change that thought of it.
Also, my friend Max Shults has offered to write music, which would maintain the striking match sounds but add another layer to the piece.
Strike from Laura Thompson on Vimeo.
Television Maps
I have taken a new direction through many failures and a change of heart. I have become very interested in low quality video this year. The sheer volume of low quality video out there in the world vastly outweighs the HD, which is an odd phenomenon considering the image quality of existing cameras and how inexpensive HD has become for consumers. Last semester I made a video of television feedback by filming it with a crappy cell phone camera and then re-filming that video about 60 times. I took the change in pitch and images and created a composition out of it (see video below).
My roommates watch a lot of TV so I am going to start mapping what they're watching by filming it with a portable video camera I got cheaply. I may also explore filming some epic moments in television history (man landing on the moon, first ten minutes of MTV...I don't know).
I have some crazy plan in my mind that I am going to combine this with Jitter (Max/MSP/Jitter) because I've been teaching myself how to use it and I think it would be a good thing to incorporate into my learning experience. Right now the thought is that there would be a television or a series of televisions that would show different pieces of the map. When someone physically changes the channel of the TV, the clip would change.
I could edit these piece of the map--each as a separate entity that is composed to be a part of the whole--or I could let MSP & Jitter do some of the manipulation work for me by using data and the drunk or random functions. More video data to come...
My roommates watch a lot of TV so I am going to start mapping what they're watching by filming it with a portable video camera I got cheaply. I may also explore filming some epic moments in television history (man landing on the moon, first ten minutes of MTV...I don't know).
I have some crazy plan in my mind that I am going to combine this with Jitter (Max/MSP/Jitter) because I've been teaching myself how to use it and I think it would be a good thing to incorporate into my learning experience. Right now the thought is that there would be a television or a series of televisions that would show different pieces of the map. When someone physically changes the channel of the TV, the clip would change.
I could edit these piece of the map--each as a separate entity that is composed to be a part of the whole--or I could let MSP & Jitter do some of the manipulation work for me by using data and the drunk or random functions. More video data to come...
Surfacing from Laura Thompson on Vimeo.
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