#4d studio

[waarrows]

vanishing and (returning)

For this project, I knew I wanted to manipulate light in a way that mirrored abstract light shows such as Lumia works. When choosing my audio, however, I chose a music box version of Come Wayward Souls from the cartoon Over The Garden Wall. This song, in context, is about giving up and surrendering to the forces of nature. The video clip I chose is courtesy of skydivephil on Youtube, who captured an Aurora Borealis superstorm in Sunspot AR2297 in March 2015. I digitally altered the transitions of the light waves using Premiere in order to enhance the emergence and disappearance of solar flare lights. The combination of the audio and the video emphasize this idea of surrendering to the power of nature. 

@williamlmoore

[badthoughtsandbadluck-blog]

For the project I wanted to create some location specific gothic inspired phrases. Inspired by southern gothic, location gothic takes a sometimes creepy, sometimes supernatural look at the myths, locations, and highlights of a city. I focused on the the mountains and our ever changing weather patterns.

 For my three poems I used a variety of sources. My first poem is Revenge by @ecc-poetry. This poem became massively popular after the 2016 elections. As our democracy takes hit after hit and 45 tells lie after lie, the poem remains strong and important. I choose to use the last stanza of the poem which ends on a inspiring note. For my next piece of poetry I used what didn't you do to bury me / but you forgot that I was a seed” which has become a popular Chicanx statement “They tried to bury me but they didn’t know I was a seed.” I only recently realized the original author was Dinos Christianopoulos, a Greek man writing about the difficulties of being gay. I think the fact that the lines have become so popular with another minority shows the power and resonance of the words; however, it's also important that we do not erase the original author as we risk burying his own struggle. Read more on the quote here. For my third poem I used Emma Lazarus's poem "The New Colossus" which contains the famous lines inscribed on the Statue of Liberty "Give me your tired, your poor-". Lazarus was a Jewish New Yorker who advocated for the immigrants. As a Jewish woman, I was so inspired to learn that one of America’s most famous lines was written by a Jewish woman. 

[badthoughtsandbadluck-blog]

Reading Response # 5

I really enjoyed the reading with Jenny Holzer. I liked how she explores the power of words in her works and openly admits her own insecurity about being an artist. When Holzer admits that making art can be lonely or that she was glad to get away from grad school because she was a bad painter, it makes all artists breathe a sigh of relief and solidarity. From a personal point of view, I understand the long history and current practice of using helper artists to complete pieces but I can’t help but bristle at the idea. I grew up with a very DIY father whose ethos were formed from the punk movement. I try to physically make as much of my art as possible. Having worked in museums and galleries, I know how often nameless assistants are the ones spending hours of times installing a piece that an artists only comes in for the last moment. I’m not into and would like to have heard more from Holzer about how she compensates these helpers of hers. Also having worked at the Smithsonian, there are no dusty corers in which art work is housed.

I absolutely love Robert Montgomery’s piece for the Dior men pop up. I’m in love with led light art. I love that the piece can run off of solar power. The fact that one of his poems was used as a tattoo was very interesting. I have a tattoo that I want to get from an internet artist. Her pieces are very popular for tattoos: she just asks that people donate something to her paypal or buy something off of her Amazon wishlist. As more art is shared via the internet, we do have to consider how we compensate artists for their creations. On the other hand, once we release art onto the internet, we don’t really have control over it anymore. Actually as soon as we release it to the public, we don’t have much say in how it is transformed: the internet has just accelerated the process. How Montgomery talks about Berlin makes me want to move there.

[badthoughtsandbadluck-blog]

I was not excited to be in front of the camera. I don't like taking selfies much less performing. To that end I decided to make a video that was me searching for the perfect selfie angle. I love selfies. I think it’s a natural evolution from self portraits and portraiture that was once only available to the elite. I just don’t like myself in selfies. I’m too self conscious to feel comfortable. The video shows me being present and attempting to find a flattering angle. It’s more than just picking up the phone and turning on the camera. The same techniques you need in portraiture (lighting, composition, color etc) needs to be considered when snapping the photo. As often happens for me though, I ended up not deciding I didn’t like any of the possible photos and didn’t snap a photo. 

[badthoughtsandbadluck-blog]

To walk 

To breathe

To color

To write

To process

To demand

To grow

To persuade

To learn

To watch

To dig

To communicate

To bond

To destroy

To trash 

To surrender 

To eviscerate

To hoard

To boldly go

To evaluate  

[waarrows]

verb list

to dilute to summon to engulf to caress to flood to wretch to continue to scrape to bleed to gouge to heal to swell to ache to decay to steel to whither to wean to moan to coast to peel

@williamlmoore

[badthoughtsandbadluck-blog]

Reading Response #4

Coming from a sociology background, when I think of performance, I think of things like gender performance and social performance. Looking at the history of performance art, you can see how the ideas of identity performance were taken from stage and art. It was really fascinating to read the history of the genre and how it was involved in so many 20th century movements. The clubs and cabarets sound like exciting places to see the latest ideas and talk with other artists. 

Marina Abramovic is a very interesting contemporary artist. I remember hearing of her exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Although her performance and the film was fascinating, I think her display of performance art is part of the reason people find it difficult to connect to performance art. Abramovic is charismatic and I could see why some people burst into tears at being forced into such dramatic eye contact with her. I also really enjoyed how they highlighted the patience and professionalism of the security guards. Working at a museum, the security guards and building services workers are underrated heroes of the art world.

[badthoughtsandbadluck-blog]

When I saw that the theme was Vanishing and Becoming, I immediately thought of magic and magicians. Which was probably due to seeing magician Adam Trent perform earlier this month. Seeing his performance really made me think about the illusion of vanishing and then rebecoming, as making someone vanish isn't the trick, it's bringing them back that's magic. I used After Effects as I like the controls better.