Camera Obscura

So I wasn't able to make it to the Camera Obscura with the group so I ended up cruisin' over there by myself. So I parked my car out front of the Inova studio and conitinued to try and get out of my car.. but for some reason the curb is really high over there and I had quite a struggle to get out. After I finally hauled my butt out of my car I clumsily fumbled for change to plug the meter. Alas, I made it inside the building..

Curiously, I walked into the black hole behind the curtain and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.. I felt like I was in a new little world in there. There was one other person in the room with me and they gave me a very awkward look. A little confused I looked at the wall to find that right in the middle of the obscura was my car. So, apparently this obscura viewer had the pleasure of witnessing my sad attempt at getting out of my car. :/

Well, after he left I had free rain to observe the obscura all alone. It's pretty amazing actually, it was kind of like watching a movie, with the all cars driving by, and people walking by.. it just really put me in a trance. All I could think was that it was 'live art', where there was something new every minute to keep the art 'alive'. Pretty nifty.

ketchup

D'est:
So this was an intriquing piece, but yet it tested my patience at the same time. There were scenes that were really captivating and scense that were drawn on way too long.

I loved the part when the old man was sitting at his dinner table eating. The sounds of his silverware on the plate and the constantness of it was really interesting.

During this film I felt like I was waiting for something. Waiting for something to happen, but instead it just kept switching scenes right when I felt like something might happen... just starting the cycle all over again. When it got towards the middle of the film, I had a really hard time keeping focus on what was going on. Why were some of these parts drawn on for so long, was the creator trying to get the audience to feel like there was going to be a climax, but then never was? Why was it made like that?

In discussion we talked about how we would show this piece in a gallery format. My idea was to have a smaller room (fitting about 10 people comfortably) and have different sections of the piece on each different wall (it would be projected so the people in the film were life size). This would give each person a chance to look at one scene for as long as they want, and also have the freedom to look at a different scene. They could sort of pace themselves instead of having frustration on one scene that is drawn out (at least that's the feeling I got when I saw one scene for too long)

Still Day 1.. woot woot! -This guy is hilarious-

So I'm sure most of you have seen these videos, but I just had to post them if anyone has not- this is my kind of experimental media! :)

-Just a few videos I saw on YouTube.
1. Muffins



2. Shoes Betch

Blog Day 1 of 5 here goes nothin...

So I really enjoyed Renato Umali's digital photo 'diary'. I had seen one similar to this a couple months ago, but I do have to say I like his way of doing it. In the video I have below a guy named Noah took a picture of himself for 6 years. It's pretty nifty how he did it though... where he's in basically the same position in every shot. I think it'd be fun to do something like this. Maybe once I find my digital camera battery charger I'll give 'er a go. We'll see.



So the topic of today's lecture was mostly about daily performance. I love Jonas Mekas' daily posts. That's an awsome idea, the kinda thing that can collect a fan base. Personally I adored the video letter from Benn (probably because I have a weak spot for british men and he was adorable himself). Just the simplicity of it, the sounds, the images, the personal(ness?) of it. I kinda started to feel like him and I were old chums. It got me thinking about how I've lost touch with some friends I used to be really close with. I have no idea what their atmosphere's are like, who they hang out with, or what they do in their spare time. Maybe I can get a group of long lost buddies to do a 'chain' of video letters... hmm, that'd be grand.

Su Friedrich's 16mm film Gently Down the Stream was, not gonna lie, kinda I don't want to say creepy... that's not the word I'm looking for. I don't know where I'm going with that... I understand that dreams can be pretty out there, and she did a fantastic job of making it concrete enough to get the idea of the dream across, but yet still vague enough that it kept you in the 'dream sequence mode'. I have pretty messed up dreams too... so I did connect with her in that sense.

My favorite things to watch though would have to be ones that are made in the video media. I love playing on the computer and manupulating things, in a previous class we had to show an artist that we really liked, one of my classmate's (his name slips my mind at the moment) showed this video and I just fell in love with it:
(I do not know the actual artist)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DIEM144OB0&eurl=

Anna went to college???

Alright, I guess I won't do a cop out of sharing why I'm in college.

So high school was pretty easy for me, I'm not gonna lie, I cheated here and there and basically bullshitted my way through most of it. I was a 'good' student- meaning I got A's and B's... but I, for the most part, didn't really deserve them. I'm not an idiot by any means, but it's just I felt studying (or memorizing) stuff for tests wasn't worth my time. So instead I sat next to the smart people. :-/ Following two perfect straight A footsteps of my two older sisters really put a lot of pressure on me, so I guess that's the biggest reason for my actions. That, and I was lazy. The only classes I really did well in was photography because we worked on the computers with photoshop and also took a video of anything we wanted and used another program to edit it. That was the only class I was actually excited for everyday, the class that made me stay extra hours after school to work on unfinished assignments, a class that made me proud of myself.

Anyways, since I didn't really do much in high school I pretty much screwed myself over for when I graduated. I had no idea what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. I applied to Milwaukee (the only place I applied to) and got in. Started out in the college of letters and science and really was kind of floundering for a while. I took an animation media workshop and really enjoyed it. Then I took basic elements of video where we worked with Final Cut Pro. Really kind of brought back that feeling of excitment towards my school work.

So last semester I talked to my advisor and switched into the Peck School of the Arts and changed my major from undecided to Inter-Arts (the DIVAS program).

I love music, animation, and video so I'm hoping to come out of college and move to San Diego where I can work on special effects for movies, animate cartoons/video games, work on commercials, or even edit music videos.

I'll admit, I am petrified to go out into the real world, but even just a year and half of being in college really has made me understand how important it is to use the time I have here effectively and to get as much out of each class as possible. So smart people, you can stop trying to cover your papers.

Michael Snow: So is This

So I was interested in what Michael Snow was going for in his film. I wanted to see some of the things he said about what he was thinking while making this film, so I found this interview... Obviously this just a tiny section of Michael's answer, but I found it interesting:

HOME: SEPTEMBER 17, 1999: SCREENS
Expanding Cinema
Avant-Garde Artist Michael Snow
BY ATHINA RACHEL TSANGARI

MS: "No. So Is This, another film that you're showing at Cinematexas, works purely by controlling the time by which you see something, by bringing in reading. The whole film is built around the word "this," which is used in infinite ways. It sometimes means "this screen" or "this film" or "this word on the screen." "This" is the most present word there is, which puts the spectator in the now, in the present tense of the viewing experience. There is a kind of conversation between the screen and the spectators. It's so unusual for people to read together!"

Michael really tests the viewers. I know I was really tested because I wanted to take notes during the screening, but I couldn't get myself to look away from the screen because I was afraid that I would miss something. Although, in truth, I probably wouldn't miss much except for some dry humor. :) It's really hard to put into words what this film was about, but it really drew me in, in a weird way. I didn't want to read what was on the screen (just because I don't really like to read much) but once a word was flashed on the screen I involuntarily read it and knew what it said... I don't know, it's kind of hard to explain. It was also frustrating because he picked the pacing of the words, so when it was flashing by really slowly I just wanted to scream... okay not really scream, but it bugged me. He's super random, I guess I liked that much about him. I'm pretty random myself so I sort of understood his odd approach to his film. Timing is everything. Or is it just Time itself?

hmm, I guess that's all I have to say about that.

Comingled Containers

Comingled Containers by Stan Brakhage


This was an interesting piece, but it was also one of my least favorite ones. Stan plays with different ways to film water by playing with reflections, focusing, and he even added color to some of his images. It's a very abstract piece making the viewer unable to really know what is being shown. I just saw a lot of movement, a lot of blues and blacks, and noticed him working with the focusing a lot.


An example of the 'bubble-like' image:

It was, for me, a really somber piece. I did like seeing the actual water flowing though, I guess just because then I knew what I was seeing. I felt a little frustrated when I saw the 'bubble-like' figures because I wasn't sure what was really going on. What was good about the film was that it made the viewer use their imagination... that or it made them just sit there trying to take in what was on the screen, maybe not thinking about anything at all... at least that's kind of how I reacted to it. What was he trying to convey? What was his overall message? Was there one?