art two forty-five
Monday, May 13, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
project six: polygon portrait
Artist Statement:
When extended the opportunity to work with Blender, I wanted to take a step back from intricate forms and aspired for a simpler aesthetic. This decision was influenced by my work study, where I use Blender on a day-to-day basis for strictly restoring detailed models, as opposed to creating them. Having solely used Blender's modeling tools, I was faced with a handful of unfamiliar scenarios, but I approached this assignment in the same manner as any other - by sketching out my vision first and reinterpreting it to best suit the medium at hand. When comparing project six to our previous five, this has been the assignment I've not only learned the most from, but is most relevant to the type of work I'm currently engaged in.
Monday, April 22, 2013
reading four - the new aesthetic
Untitled works by Zack Dougherty (hateplow)
When browsing The New
Aesthetic's blog, I was pleasantly surprised to see Zack Dougherty's work was
included. I've been following Dougherty's blog, hateplow, for a few months now
and what captivated me from the beginning was the relationship he’s developed
from the influence of the classics in collaboration with digital means of
seeing. There’s a saying that, “the classics never go out of style,” and
whether that be in correlation with the classics of Roman and Greek sculpture
to the classics of merchandise in our current day (through brands such as Vans
or Converse), Dougherty uses the familiar subject to his advantage. It’s
something a viewer has seen before, therefore changing the way we perceive it
is more comfortable to the eye than if he were to use a futuristic entity. With
the generalization of forms, he’s forcing the observer to view what would
translate into millions of polygons of a mesh down to a few tens to hundreds.
From afar, the eye may not be able to distinguish the difference between the two
if side by side, but his use of animation to deconstruct the form forces the
viewer to see exactly what is happening – the process of simplification. With this process, Dougherty wisely manages
the speed of his animations so that they’re quick enough to keep the viewer
engaged, but slow enough for the viewer to process and interpret what’s
happening. What I appreciate most about Dougherty’s work is every time I view
his work, my eye is never fixed to one area of the composition; I’m constantly
seeing new patterns and transitions in the form that wouldn’t have been interpretable
if viewing the entire composition at once. It’s that zoning in on specific
areas that forces a viewer to watch it over and over again, meanwhile
experiencing it each time as if it were their first encounter with the work.
Post in The
New Aesthetic: http://new-aesthetic.tumblr.com/post/43147809612
Dougherty’s blog, hateplow: http://hateplow.tumblr.com
Dougherty’s blog, hateplow: http://hateplow.tumblr.com
Friday, March 22, 2013
project four - video emulation
"la mente, il cuore"
Sunday, March 10, 2013
project four - video emulation progress
Over the last week, I've carefully considered the assistance, location, and materials necessary to achieve an effective emulation of Cao Fei's Whose Utopia. Here is the progress I've made from the video selection (refer to 4/3/13 post) to present:
Materials:
x3 strands of white lights
x3 plug-in clocks
x1 camera
x1 tripod
x1 white attire
x1 black attire
x1 blindfold
x2 extension cords
To-do list:
acquire x1 plug-in clock
acquire x1 extension cord
solidify location
learn basics of vixia
coordinate with r. aker and m. huang for assistance
record, 14/3/13
edit
upload/burn
make cupcakes for owners of borrowed goods
One of the conflicts that I've faced was working with the lights as a knitted material. My largest needles weren't nearly thick enough to support the wiring of the lights (which were much stiffer than anticipated) and although knitting with baseball bats worked, it wasn't aesthetically pleasing. With this in mind, I'm planning on executing the knitted motions with my arms, but I'm going to have to do a recorded run through first to see if it's clean enough to be interpreted. If it looks like I'm wrapping myself up like a Christmas tree, my plan B is to braid the strands instead.
I realize now that I've adapted the video as inspiration, rather than recreating it. If time permits, I may add a segment that'll reel the direction of the video back towards the original performance, but we'll see. It may take away from the overall impression as opposed to contribute.
Side-note:
If I'm lucky, I'll find one of these guys hanging out on recording day~
If this happens, he'll be making a guest appearance in class~
Get excited~
Materials:
To-do list:
record, 14/3/13
edit
upload/burn
make cupcakes for owners of borrowed goods
One of the conflicts that I've faced was working with the lights as a knitted material. My largest needles weren't nearly thick enough to support the wiring of the lights (which were much stiffer than anticipated) and although knitting with baseball bats worked, it wasn't aesthetically pleasing. With this in mind, I'm planning on executing the knitted motions with my arms, but I'm going to have to do a recorded run through first to see if it's clean enough to be interpreted. If it looks like I'm wrapping myself up like a Christmas tree, my plan B is to braid the strands instead.
I realize now that I've adapted the video as inspiration, rather than recreating it. If time permits, I may add a segment that'll reel the direction of the video back towards the original performance, but we'll see. It may take away from the overall impression as opposed to contribute.
Side-note:
If I'm lucky, I'll find one of these guys hanging out on recording day~
If this happens, he'll be making a guest appearance in class~
Get excited~
Monday, March 4, 2013
reading two - critical questions
(in correspondence with chapter two of New Media in Late 20th Century Art by Michael Rush)
one.
The author discusses the fine line between 'Art' and 'artful' that one must consider when viewing works of video art; where 'Art' revolves around the intention behind the the artists work and 'artful' emphasizes the appealing aesthetic present in informational outlets. Are these definitions of 'Art' and 'artful' applicable solely to video art, or can they be considered universally?
two.
In the late 1960s, we begin to see a transition where video art is being glorified by methods of commercialism (EG: WGBH's televised broadcast and funding of The Medium is the Medium). Meanwhile, non-profit organizations that promoted the development of relationships between the arts and sciences by means of collaboration, such as the Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), were beginning to fall as artists and the public criticized them of commercializing the produced work. When viewed from the surface, how is it that the artists contributing to WGBH were rewarded and E.A.T. was critiqued for turning to commercialism as a method of exploiting their work?
project four - video emulation proposal
When first considering the assignment, I attempted to approach the given selections as unbiased as possible. Although I would have jumped at the opportunity to emulate works by Beuys or Klein, I perceived settling for familiar works as being the "easy way out." With that being said, I went through each column, only viewing works by artists' that I was not familiar with, meanwhile ignoring the descriptions of each video and beginning each at their midpoints. When viewing column two, I came across Cao Fei's Whose Utopia and as I progressed through the proceeding artists and videos, I found myself constantly thinking back to the possibilities for emulation with Fei's work. This tendency was the indicator that I need not continue searching.
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