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noelle betkowski art, design, inspo

[nllbtkwsk]

Extra Credit: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I saw this movie for the first time years ago and loved it to begin with, but it’s grown on me even more in the times I’ve watched it since then. Seeing all the clips as I made the gifs got so emotional, and I tried to capture some of the drama and feeling in the parts that I used, going with Joel and Clementine looking at each other and other back and forth between them as a theme. As always I had a bit of trouble with getting them small enough to fit on here, but apart from that I’m happy with my gif skills.

[watchdecolo]

Project #4: One Minute Live Performance

I know this is well past one minute but it didn’t feel complete when I cut it shorter. Marina Abramovic’s documentary was mind blowing and stretched my previously conceived notions of what art is and can be. Although she is most known for her radical displays, I was more influenced by her subtle performances like when she sat in a chair and gave blank stares to strangers. I hope I was able to adequately show the inspiration I gathered from her work.

The background music is a song I made a year or so ago called “Black Ice” and the footage is a blend of shots that I took myself using a tripod and phone as well as clips from Earl Sweatshirt’s “Grief” video. I would have recreated similar scenes to Earl’s with me as the subject but I think once you see the clips I borrowed it will be understandable how recreating these sentiments would have required an extensively larger amount of resources than I have access to.

If you like the music, please check my other stuff out as well:

http://www.soundcloud.com/watchdecolo

[nllbtkwsk]

Wow! I really liked the simplicity of some of the other pieces, and I really like the complexity of yours here — it’s almost like a music video as well as performance art. Your clips blend super well with those from the other video, and everything matches your music (also great) so well. I love the use of lighting and color!

[truestori]

“A Beautiful Mess”

For my performance art, I wanted to do something that allowed for me to feel free and happy. By allowing myself to make a mess both on the canvas and off, I was able to push away the boundaries and find enjoyment in the activity of painting rather than in the finished product. As I was allowing myself to make a mess, something beautiful came through, I felt as though I was a little kid again having fun. It’s silly to think that something so simple as smudging around paint and throwing glitter could give me the peace of mind I had been seeking all week. Everyone should take 5 minutes to do something for themselves, even if it seems silly. 

[nllbtkwsk]

I love this! It’s so nice and freeing to let art be messy and more about fun than work sometimes and you captured that perfectly. I definitely need to find my way of doing this sometime, it seems very cathartic. Nice editing too, especially in the beginning!

[gustavo-perea]

So this is the video concept I had about a shadowy type of figure looming over me while I’m drawing, trying to get something right but every time it closes in a little, I have to scribble out my work and start over. The shadow creature represents self-doubt which can sometimes feel like it’s so attached while I try to do a good job at anything. I feel like doubt looks like this, a dark little blobby, lethargic thing and one big feature I like about it is the way that aside from this little doubt monster, it’s a normal looking scene, with it, not so much. I also chose this recording because it got minimal reaction from the people around me which makes it feel more like it’s just in my head. Self-doubt really is nothing more than just something in your head, without it you’re free and even with it, barely anyone pays attention or sometimes even notices.

[nllbtkwsk]

Great job! I completely relate to the feeling you’re expressing here, especially the way doubt can stop you in your tracks. I could go on about that for a long time, but you put it into such a great metaphor and I love the work you put into the figure of doubt. It’s so interesting that you did it in public, too, to really push the aspect of performance — and your noting that no one seems to react much works wonderfully with the metaphor, as you said.

[jennifermhudak-blog]

To Drink

For my one minute performance video, I decided to keep it really simple. For one minute, I decided to drink a single glass of water. I wanted it to feel like I could’ve drank this single glass of water for a half an hour—if I really wanted to. I tried to emphasize each and every movement and step to drinking the glass of water. The idea was to not be anywhere else or thinking of anything else but drinking and feeling the water. I picked up the glass, held it, brought it to and felt it on my lips. Mine was very simple, and now seeing a few other classmates’ videos, maybe I kept it a bit too simple?

I apologize for seeming a bit awkward in the video, being in front of the camera makes me a tad uncomfortable.

Regardless of that, I’ve been loving seeing everyone’s performances and am excited to see what else everyone came up with!

[nllbtkwsk]

I really appreciate how simple you went, actually! I was concerned about mine as involving so many things into one piece made me rush a bit and sort of bent the rules of “do one thing for a minute” — which you did exactly. It’s so interesting to slow down a task, even something simple like drinking water which we (hopefully) do every day, and break it down into a thoughtful movement. 

[nllbtkwsk]

One-Minute Performance Piece: It’s Such a Stubborn Reminder One Perfect Night’s Not Enough (To Destroy)

As I said in my exercise, once all the pieces started coming together, my idea to destroy reminders of my recently ended relationship through various means became my strongest idea. I gathered receipts and tickets and other papers I’d found from important days and bought brussels sprouts, an old computer monitor ($4 at Goodwill, no big deal — should’ve been a TV for maximum effect and authenticity, though), and a bottle of Jameson, (some of) which I poured over a PBR box and tried to set on fire. Everything I wore, including my underwear (I considered even doing the piece without pants on), hair, and makeup, was curated with reminders and memories considered.

I had everything very planned out, even with my phone balanced to film against a fire extinguisher I thought I might (was hoping to) need, but there was absolutely quite a bit of failure involved when it came down to it. I thought I’d set up my position far enough from the phone for it to capture everything down to the floor, but it cut off much higher up than expected and left out a lot of the things I was destroying. As the video shows, it took me four matches to try to get the fire going, but (probably for the best) it never got to be much more than the matches burning just themselves on top of everything else — all of which I tried to show at the end, but was very off due to still being on selfie mode. Everything came out to about 1:20 instead of just a minute after editing, with the raw footage coming in at almost a full minute, but I’m glad I didn’t have trouble filling up a minute. I could’ve spent a lot more time trying to execute everything fully and correctly and had it end up much longer. I really hate watching myself in all of this, and seeing everything while editing was one of the hardest parts.

At least now smashing up a rotten avocado with my hands isn’t the weirdest thing I’ve done for art.

[nllbtkwsk]

Richard Serra’s Verb List: My 20+

I started getting a lot of ideas for this before I’d even fully read over the module, the instructions for the exercise and the project, or Serra’s list. Some go together more or less, and some are deeper in meaning or more complicated to go through with than others, but all seem somewhat viable and definitely exciting to me. Once I thought of the simpler ones that led me to 22, I was fairly hooked on that idea, but am not sure if it’s too obvious or tired despite it potentially being the most personal to me.

[nllbtkwsk]

Response: Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present

I somehow stumbled upon Abramović during the last module while watching some of the examples of video art that were linked. I’m not sure if she was in one of them or her name just came up within everything, but I wound up googling her, falling in love with the bit that I allowed myself to see (time constraints), and writing her name down for further investigation later as I have with many artists. When I saw we were watching a movie about her for this module, I was thrilled.

She really does seem to be the “grandmother of performance art” as many have dubbed her. She seems to live and breathe it and know exactly what is needed to be successful from every angle. The time and method she takes to prepare both herself and the artists she’s employed to recreate her past pieces at the MoMA really shows the importance of the artist’s mindset and mental state, especially when it comes to performance art.

It’s of course important to keep this in mind for any of the pieces we see her, but especially the one Abramović takes part in over the course of the documentary, in which she sits in a chair as still as possible and looks into the eyes of anyone that happens to be across from her. At first thought this seems like a very simple act to put forward, but considering the immense time and focus she puts into it, and the toll it takes on her body and mind, it becomes clear why this is talked about as her biggest piece yet. The number of people that cry while looking into her eyes, her scene in the beginning of the exhibition sitting across from Ulay, and the end of the exhibition with Biesenbach all show how intimate, intense, and moving eye-contact can be.

[nllbtkwsk]

Vanishing and Becoming: Liquids

Looking at the examples of video art linked in this module gave me several ideas for themes and content after I began with next to none. This one started in my mind with just showing various clips and forms of water, and soon evolved to as many different types of liquids as I could think of: water, paint, oil, ink, milk, blood, and even storm clouds, lava and glacier ice — not all exactly liquid by definition, but I felt like they were close enough and perfectly fit the “mesmerizing” look I wanted.

The varied distances, along with some clips of controlled settings and others of chaos and destruction, became a play on light and color. By placing them all next to each other from clip to clip, they began to lose their singular context and become part of the others, which I saw fit into the theme of abstraction. Finding the perfect timing and length for each clip and sequence, both to fit the one-minute mark and the beat of the music, fit into duration, as did the varying movement speeds of each substance. All of them ending by moving in reverse and back to their starting points was my take on vanishing and becoming. I chose the Bauhaus song, Bela Lugosi’s Dead, somewhat randomly as it was on while I was thinking about the project, but while working on it, I found its effects and ambiance brought all the varied clips together perfectly, and gave the video a stronger rhythm and a darker edge.

[nllbtkwsk]

Music Video: I’m a Believer

I knew quite early on that I wanted my music video not to be too serious and attempt to make it humorous instead. I’ve had a few ideas floating around in my head for a while already and using a song from Shrek definitely stuck once I thought of it, and current events are always easy to work from. With Kanye and Trump’s current, public love affair still running around the media, this felt perfect. I’ve used Premiere briefly before and am glad I started off knowing the basics, but cutting and sequencing all the clips still took plenty of time and could have gone better.

[nllbtkwsk]

Quick(ish) illustration I did on Sketch tonight to further procrastinate my actual responsibilities and observe #WorldMentalHealthDay.

[luna-effects-photo-blog]

GIF Project/The Loop

For this project, I decided to show how although trends come and go, technology improves, music and media changes, one thing that I have seen as a constant trend in music and media is the “Western”/“Desert Chic”. This trend has never really left. From the Spice Girls to Post Malone, we have all seen music artists use deserts as a set for their music videos at least once. The beautiful scenery and sunsets make it easy to produce a beautiful video without the need of too much editing. Yet, there are a few differences throughout the years in these music videos. Back in the 90′s, everything had to have a futuristic feel to it. In the first GIF, the Spice Girls are some form of future alien girls, and they seem to be on some sort of intergalactic mission to track down a boy. But as time progressed, we began to see more of the road trip/Americana feel to desert-setting music videos, especially becuase of the fashion trends that became popular on social media in the early 2010′s that music festivals such as Coachella, Camp Flog Gnaw, and Bonaroo began.

To explain, the beginning tends to show how artists were trying to look stylish and fashion-forward in their video, but then we slowly go more into modern-day music and see how artists are fully embracing the desert/western vibes. Lots of fringe, daisy dukes, and vintage cars and American flags. It’s funny how years ago we would have to add a future or techy element to everything, and now we’re all about the nostalgia. The more vintage cars, flags, and cutoff and high-waisted clothing, the better. It’s funny isn’t it? Back in time we couldn’t wait to advance technologically, and now we wish we could go back to the old days.

Artists featured:

-Spice Girls “Say you’ll be there”

-Pitbull and Marc Anthony “Rain over me”

-Selena Gomez “A year without rain”

-One Direction “Steal my girl”

-Kesha “Your love is my drug”

-Lana Del Rey “Ride”

-Ariana Grande “Into You”

-Halsey “Bad at love”

-Khalid “Location”

-Post Malone “Go Flex”

[nllbtkwsk]

This is such an unique concept and way to display it! I’ve probably noticed this use of desert scenery before at least subconsciously, but I had no idea it was this much of a thing, and your point about the more current artists’ incorporation of nostalgia and vintage aesthetics is so true. I’d never seen the Spice Girls video you mentioned here, but it’s an interesting contrast to this trend at the moment! I wonder if they were all filmed in similar locations.

[jackieannemarie]

Project 2: Loop

I decided to do this project about my best friend! This is Kahri, she’s a Red Heeler/Lab mix that I rescued when she was 8 weeks old. She just turned 5 in July. These are some gifs taken from videos I’ve gotten over the years. She is the first dog I got after moving away from home, so she has an extra special place in my heart. She’s super spunky and loves to high five! I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world.

This project was fun! I’m glad I chose to do it about Kahri, it made it a lot more meaningful and brought a lot of warm and good emotions up as I sifted through things of her over the last 5 years.

[nllbtkwsk]

Beautiful! You’re so lucky that your cat seems to like her from the first gif, I wish my cats got along with my dogs like this. I thought about doing something similar with one of my dogs for this project as well since I’m constantly taking pictures and videos of him, so I’m so glad to see someone else do it! From a technical perspective, everything works and you chose great moments to gif. One thing I’d recommend doing in the future is resizing to much smaller, as these took forever to scroll through, but otherwise I love everything!

[jennifermhudak-blog]

Project #2: The Loop

For this project, the series of ten GIFs that I chose is from a video from one of my favorite artists, Segovia Amil. Segovia is a poet and in the video used to make GIFs was from her poem Genesis Cries. I tried to simplify the video without taking away its beauty and mood. I tried to capture the drama and the dark, intense emotions she is usually writing about and makes the audience feel. Her writing is very personal to me and I think these visuals portray what she writes about well. Her writing tends to have themes about individuality and the way we react to the world around us. It is haunting in a beautiful way. In the GIFs, I am hoping I showed these interactions and made it look just as poetic as her writing sounds.

Thank you, and I am excited to see everyone else’s projects!

Segovia Amil – Genesis Cries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8aW_ZDt_Gg

[nllbtkwsk]

Wow! All of your gifs move and loop well, and the quality is still intact even with how big they are. I think you’ve absolutely achieved everything you sought out to do regarding capturing the mood and beauty of the video while simplifying it.

[dehmlow-blog1]

Project 2: Looping GIFs

For this project, I chose to work thematically.  I am a music major studying jazz guitar, and I thought what better way to showcase a series than to pick ten of my favorite jazz guitarists and highlight each of them playing their instrument.  I was initially inspired by the instruction to consider rhythm and repetition.  When I see those words, my mind automatically thinks in musical terms, and I wanted to blend the concepts of musical rhythm and repetition into a set of moving images that also have a visual rhythm and repetition.  I attempted to find clips that would appear as seamless as possible when I looped them, and it certainly worked better for some than others due to severely limited video options for some of the older players.  Nevertheless, I am quite satisfied with how they all turned out.

[nllbtkwsk]

It’s clear you’ve put a lot of thought into this on so many levels all the way through! It’s so interesting to see how music and musicians themselves have changed through the years but are still essentially the same in playing guitar. All of your gifs are moving and loop nicely, as you mentioned, so great job! One thing I might suggest is resizing them for quality and consistency.

[watchdecolo]

Project #2: The Loop

Life can feel a little loopy when not much changes in your day to day routine over an extended period of time. I chose to craft my series of gif images around the theme of working a full-time job (when it is not your passion). Outside of how relatable the theme is, I think it further emphasizes the “loop” feeling that both gifs and 9 to 5, Monday through Friday jobs can give you. Finding the perfect moment of film ended up being a longer process than I had originally anticipated due to the time it takes to perfectly sync the rhythm between the first and last frame. Also, you may not notice if viewing on a mobile device, but the Futurama coffee drinking gif is dramatically smaller than the others. I was not willing to sacrifice the message of the gif by shortening the length of the scene so I had to resize it to smaller dimensions so that it would be able to load on Tumblr. Luckily, when viewing on a phone (like most gifs are viewed) it stretches the dimensions to match. Overall, the process was fun and I found that shortening some of the scenes into loops actually made the moments more intriguing.

[nllbtkwsk]

Love your take on the theme! Whether working a less than exciting job or just getting stuck in any other sort of rut, it’s definitely a relatable feeling for almost everyone at some point in their lives, if not most of it. Not only that, but I totally relate to your struggle of sacrificing lengths of scenes/clips to accommodate file size — this was definitely one of the most time consuming parts of this project for me! But it’s too bad as your Futurama gif is actually the only one showing up frozen for me, though I’ll try to view it on my phone and see if that changes anything. Nice variety of different scenes and image types!

[antiquatedivy-deactivated201908]

Project #2: The Loop

The source of my inspiration is the film Baraka. This documentary is a non-narrative, however it speaks with a powerful soundtrack.  Featuring sounds that can be heard in the locations focused on in the film. There is a duality of humanity presented in the film. We are visually stunned with breathtaking views of Earth and the people that inhabit it. There is extraordinary emphasis on culture of all varieties.

We also see a darker side of humanity. This is where my interest lies, in the ideas of human industry. People as distribution systems, hurting other living creatures as a way to earn a wage. Then the machines that can replace humans making wages. I hope this is seen as a repeating reminder that life and jobs are not always a glamorous choice, sometimes they are our only option.

This work relates to my previous work and interest in film. I have a passion for unique and honest cinema. When I first saw Baraca as a teenager, I marveled at the brilliant varieties of humans on the planet. The world opened up to me. I’d never seen anything like it. I adore the contrast of natural beauty and the normalizing of industry.  

-Baraca, directed by Ron Fricke, 1992.

[nllbtkwsk]

First off, great content — I’ve never heard of this film and it sounds depressing but important and interesting at the very least too, I’ll have to watch it sometime! Some of your gifs look like they move quite quickly, and I’m not sure if the action is happening this quickly or something with the frame rate settings. Others look great though! I love the choices you made to show the constant movement of life on so many different settings; there’s a good variety present but all with a coherent theme.