My 4D Art Experience

A blog about my assignments and works resulting from my Studio 4D Foundations class I am attending at Metropolitan State University

[alexandraehartman]

Music to Art: Vibrational Translations

Ink on 12x12″ canvases

[alexandraehartman]

Music to Art: Vibrational Translations

Ink on 9x12″ canvases

[alexandraehartman]

Final Project Self Critique

I think that my project was very successful. I went into it not really knowing if we could even accomplish what I had envisioned. We had to experiment a little bit, but once we found something that worked we went with it. We got very cool and interesting results. 

If I were to do anything differently, I would just do more and more canvases. I would use other objects to move the ink around. I would also get more ink colors to use, instead of just the primary colors + gold and black. I would try and use a lot of different materials to get different results. Even though I am very happy with the ones that I got, they are all pretty similar. I would like to see different patterns and splatters.

[alexandraehartman]

This a video about the project, my process, and the final results. I will also post pictures of the final pieces.

[alexandraehartman]

Final Project Ideation

For my final project I wanted to do something that was inspired by several different things. Firstly, I really enjoyed collaborating with Josh Lipson for my video project. Secondly, I was struck by what artist Christine Sun Kim did with sounds and using it to make physical and tangible art. So I proposed it to Josh first, to see if we could make anything like that work. We didn’t really know how we were going to do it going into it, we would just collaborate and see what would come out of it. I have a Plan B if this didn’t work out.

We are going to be using instruments (guitar, maybe drums) to make vibrations with amplifiers or speakers. We will use those vibrations to make art on canvases or paper.

I really like the idea of using vibrational frequencies to translate sound into something physical. It’s all about the energy, and the energy wavelengths going from the guitar to the speaker to the canvas. Different notes will produce different results (I’m assuming), and perhaps we can manipulate that. We will definitely have to experiment with different techniques to get results worth sharing and being excited about.

[alexandraehartman]

So the performance that I ended up doing was a lot different than what I was originally going to do. 

I thought that dressing up like a princess was both more ridiculous and more bearable for me to do. I got my inspiration from the movie Enchanted, where the girl about to marry the prince gets thrown into the real world in the middle of New York, which is a traumatic, life-changing event for her. I thought it would be a good idea to get the most ridiculous poofy dress I could find, put a tiara on top, and walk around acting as if I was lost, looking for the ball and the prince. 

I got on the light-rail and went to the 16th Street Mall, where I walked around for about 2 hours (the heels were killing me) and interacted with quite a few people. I got innumerable weird looks, a couple laughs, lots of compliments, and lots of questions. It’s definitely not what anyone would expect to see outside of a movie or Disneyland. 

It was somewhat scripted, but mostly improvisational for me. I pretended that I live in the Enchanted Forest, that I was on my way to the ball in the latest fashions of course, and that all of a sudden I was here, I couldn’t remember my name (what’s an ID?), and I don’t know where the ball is, and could someone please help me find it. All of my friends are squirrels, birds and deer. My father is a merchant who taught me how to read. I love books and I love making art. It was a lot of fun, actually. 

The component that I think make this the most successful in the participation of one particular individual, a 20-something man, Flynn, that took interest in me. He asked me where I was going, complimented me, and asked if he could escort me to look for the ball. I said yes, that would be lovely. He took me down 16th Street Mall, into a book store, where I pretended I didn’t know what tablets and e-books were, and then we went into a hat store, where I tried on a large bonnet that went with my outfit. I asked him to take a couple pictures, which were the only times I broke character. He started getting a little too interested though, I had to tell him I have a boyfriend back in the enchanted forest, and that I should really get going. So I went home. My feet hurt a lot and I was hungry. 

The most interesting thing that came out of this performance though was Flynn. I didn’t give him a name, he became quite smitten with me, and was very sad when I left. It was all very Cinderella.

I think I was pretty successful in making my audience, especially Flynn, react to my fairy-tale-gone-wrong scenario. A few people were even concerned for my mental health. My whole point was that no matter how much we might want them to be, fairy tales aren’t real here. Real life doesn’t really allow for the kinds of things that are in fairy-tales. It’s rather absurd, completely ridiculous, funny and bizarre to see something like me wandering around downtown in a fluffy princess costume, a tiara, and asking if you could please help me find the ball I’m going to be late to.

I think not filming it made it even better because I wasn’t really distracted. It was a one-time performance (hopefully) and isn’t that what makes it completely 4D?

[alexandraehartman]

Project Ideation

My idea so far is to dress up old fashioned (like 40s or 50s) as a housewife or something and walk around public in slow motion and with surprise and shock at the modern world and the fast paces that we’re all caught up in.

I’m using my body to create art by physically walking around as if I don’t belong, and interacting with the public in a way they don’t expect. The performance will be mostly improvised, but I have an idea of what to say and how to act around people. 

I will be wearing clothes that place me in the 40s or 50s, and I will be outside. This might be problematic, since I can’t control the weather. The costume is probably one of the most meaningful parts of the performances, since that is how I will get my point across alongside the slow movements and feelings of alarm, displacement.

The audience will be involved, since my interaction with them is key to my point. I will pretend to not know what cell phones are, walk around like I don’t know where I am, say things from that era, and interact with people in a way that they would not expect me to.

I want my audience to think that I may be some sort of time traveller, that I don’t belong in this time, that everything is moving so fast any sane person couldn’t keep up. I want them to realize that they are in a rush, and that maybe taking a second to watch a performance won’t be that bad.

[flrn-gif]

[visionary-vandalism]

Jim Vision

[alexandraehartman]

Technical Exercise (Action)

So today I walked around with 2 of my classmates and we performed things that were on the sheet that we were given as an assignment for today. 

First we started an app to track where we walked today.

We walked around the central and west classrooms, feeling the wall textures, making sounds, recording some of them. Then we walked around some more, looking for paper with words on it to fold into different shapes. We ended up just using the assignment papers. We were sitting at some desks, which we also made noise on.

Then we found a mostly empty hallway and did the scooby-doo door/hallway thing where everyone is running from and chasing everyone else. It was pretty fun and silly, since a lot of people gave us funny looks. Then we found out that the video didn’t record, which was kind of a bummer. It was still a lot of fun.

So overall we did about 4/6 things on the assignment paper.

[alexandraehartman]

Reading 5

Question 1

In what ways can you make art with sound? Physical, visual art.

Question 2

In what ways can you perform the process of making art with sound?

I thought the video was very interesting. I never thought of the pleasure performing with sound could bring someone, especially a deaf person. It would be very cool if someone made a synchronized music piece that physically made art before your eyes in a studio or gallery. It would involve lots of mechanical complexities that I would definitely not be able to do on my own. Or, more interesting still, a mechanical device that is triggered by sound made in the room, like voices and footsteps.

[alexandraehartman]

Project 3 Self-Critique

I think that my video is a good representation of what I envisioned what I wanted it to be. It turned out better than I expected because of the technical tricks that Josh (the musician in the video, the tech master, and by boyfriend) knows how to do on the computer.

It was more of a collaboration between me and Josh than anything. It was really fun for us to work together, getting the footage that we wanted, and somehow meshing it all together to get the affects that I wanted as an artistic video. He is the musician so he was in charge of a lot of things that went into the video that I actually had no idea about before this project. I’ve listened to him playing guitar and writing music for 6 years and I learned a whole new side of it working with him. It was a really positive experience for both of us.

We (almost) exclusively used his iPhone 6 Plus for all the filming, with the exception being my iPad. The whole thing was very technically challenging, especially for me, and little bit for him. Then we downloaded the video pieces we wanted into Adobe Premiere to edit and everything else. I did not know much about the program, so he was the sheriff, as I said before, but he taught me quite a bit about it and let me take the reins for a bit. 

Even though he did have a lot of control over the project, ultimately I was the director because it IS my video. He sometimes forgot about that. 

I would love to make more videos of him, especially to include the rest of the band. He also said that he would be very interested in this. The only changes that we would make would be to make it more like music videos to display the band’s original music in the best way possible.

I can’t wait to show it to everyone and see what they think!

[alexandraehartman]

Project 3

[alexandraehartman]

Project 3 Ideation

My topic word is birth. 

After a weekend of sleeping on it I have an idea that I think I can work with. My boyfriend, Josh, is a musician and a songwriter. He has written many songs, some of which I have witnessed myself. He is very talented and I would like to both record that and my concept on video for this project. 

I would start with clips of him in his room or living room playing on his guitar, messing around with different sounds and melodies. He finds one that inspires him and he elaborates further, creating the chords and all that good stuff. He then starts writing lyrics, practices singing and harmonizing with the chords. His other band members then contribute to the song, adding another guitar, maybe a bass, and drums. 

The video is complete when the song is complete, and performed in it’s entirety. The birth, the creation, of a song will be available to watch in under 5 minutes.

[alexandraehartman]

Reading 4

Time is such an interesting medium to work with simply because it can vary so much. I personally think time doesn’t necessarily “exist” because it can be so different on any level that you could possibly imagine. Time, as in 24 hours a day, was invented my mankind to organize life a little more. With regard to my personal view and experience of time, the idea of it as a medium is especially interesting.

Question 1

Is there any way to portray that time does not exist? Not stand still, not slow, not fast, not anything- it does not exist. Is this possible? Why?

Question 2

To what degree can we control the use of time (or no time) in our work? Are there elements completely out of our control? Are there elements completely within our control? Why?

[alexandraehartman]

Project 2 Self Critique

I think that my photo series was overall successful, but it could have been more successful.

The photos were mostly all different sizes, shapes and orientations. They could have been all the same in that regard. I was limited on that subject because of the camera that I used (my iPad) so I could have used a different method to get more focused results. I also wanted some of my pictures to have blurs in them, which some of them sort of did, but I could have gotten the blurs by slowing the shutter speed on an actual camera. The effects that I used were all different too. Some of them were brightly colored, some of them had muted color, and some of them were black and white with the red of the traffic put back in. 

The two black and white photographs, along with the muted color one of the people on their cell phones I think were the most successful of the series. They truly portrayed the feeling that I wanted to express about the every day hustle and bustle, the mundane. Those were my favorites. I like the other photos but again I think they could be more successful.

Overall I had a lot of fun doing this project, even if I had difficulty coming up with an idea to start with. It was challenging in the sense that I don't really work with photographs, and also in the sense that the subject I chose is something I don't really like to focus on. I tend to choose happier subjects and media, so this was very different for me. I definitely learned a lot from it, and that is what is most important to me.

[alexandraehartman]

Project 2