zeitgeist

[y0shaang]

What is Real

[y0shaang]

Proposal P3

I wanted to explore the idea of perception within a religious context. The question I was asking more towards this practice was, “How does the Catholic church perceive and/or do they accept followers who display their self-expression with a satanic-inspired malevolent or physical abhorrent qualities?” I want to delve into the perception of the outsider who is creating their own assumptions based on the iconography of a human with an unorthodox physical presentation in a religious setting.

My figure is not trying to portray itself as Satan or have any qualities of what is the stereotypical entity, but more-so have physical demonic qualities. This has nothing to do with the human’s belief system. Satan's appearance is never described in the Bible, but, since the ninth century, he has often been shown in Christian art with horns, cloven hooves, unusually hairy legs, and a tail, often naked and holding a pitchfork. I want to create my figure with an emphasis on their physical presentation with daunting motifs, and see what kind of narrative that creates within a religious setting.

[y0shaang]

Reflection on Critique P4

I think I should have left the video fully un-edited, because I thought we had to adhere to the time frame of no more than 3 minutes, but I will put the entire original video up on youtube, unedited and at its full duration of almost 5 minutes. Everything that was suggested to me like more natural awkward frames between the song changes, and more awkward songs too are all going to be in the new unedited video. 

[y0shaang]

Project 4: Performance Art

I wanted to expand on the concept of Autoschediasm, which was another word for improvisation. We nearly improvise every minute of our lives, considering the fact that we don’t know what will happen in our near or distant future, so we just play it by ear. I wanted to explore that concept with an experimental dancer, who dances mostly improvised. Jordan has been dancing for over 13 years and is very skilled in her respective dance genres such as classical, hip-hop, abstract, and improv. I randomly put the music on my phone on shuffle at random intervals and whatever song came on, (neither of us knew what was going to play) Jordan would make a dance for it and feel out the song. It was recorded in a public park and if I had to change anything, I’d probably re-record the video in a more public place like a plaza or something.

[y0shaang]

Project 3: Videoscape 

[y0shaang]

Brainstorm for Project 4 Performance Art

[y0shaang]

Reflection on Critique

I could have fixed some shots, but since they were such specific shots I didn’t but I could have improved on camera quality a little better, and making sure my actor didn’t look at me too while filming. I also didn’t know we weren’t allowed to have a soundtrack in the background, so that was my fault, but I would probably make the song more subtle, less audible and increase the volume of the ambient sounds already present in the video.

[y0shaang]

[y0shaang]

Storyboard Ideas for Videoscape

[y0shaang]

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

In a comic, not every frame represents a single moment in time because of sound and movement. Sound is depicted as lasting more than a second or two depending on the context, and we perceive movement with time as well, because when we move we ultimately move within time. In film and video, the same goes by except the frame isn’t like a comic where the art is standstill, it is actual video of time passage. 

Time and space are one and the same in comics because the durations of that time and the dimensions of that space are defined more by the contents of the panel than by the panel itself. If you give it context, it changes. The size of the panel also changes the time sequence. In film and video, usually a cut scene may depict a change in time and space like a flashback or a memory or a dream. Representing space in moving image is dependent of the placement of the camera and how the reader perceives the background and foreground in relation to the context.

An artist can depict claustrophobia on film by camera angles, the space might not be so large and vast, and it might depict the subject in a tight space and the audience looking at them very close up in their face or a top view of them in the tight space; it also depends on the subject’s expressions and reactions. 

Inception (2010) Christopher Nolan: the scene where Leonardo Dicaprio is running from his company’s snitches in Mombasa and comes across a tight space with two walls and you can tell the space is getting thinner and thinner because as he moves, he slows down, and his facial expression is him trying to get through the tight space and struggling to get out to the other side. 

The Nun (2018) Corin Hardy: The scene where the priest is in the graveyard and he looks down at a specific grave and all of a sudden gets pulled into the grave and put in the coffin and gets buried alive. His discomfort and screaming was enough to assume that it was displeasing, but the angle of the camera, which was close knit to his face from the side, also showed the tight and compact space in the frame. 

[y0shaang]

Meshes in the Afternoon (1943)

I feel like the story that the filmmakers are trying to impart might be one of deceit? Or a story of the conscience and it was depicted by the multiples of women having an out of body experience when the main woman was sleeping, and they all suspected of a figure leaving a flower/taking a flower. I believe there might be more than one story, as shown with the women deciding who holds the key; might be a play on the conscience or maybe a personality disorder and which personality will hold dominant. 

The flower was probably a symbol of fidelity? Considering there was a man involved with the flower and there was a scene where he touches her erotically and she backlashes with the knife. The filmmakers communicate the passage of time through the unconscious dreaming the main character goes through. You can tell she is asleep because she stumbles upon herself sleeping and repeats the same montage of events after she encounters herself asleep.

[y0shaang]

Project 3 Ideas:

Space? Unknown

[y0shaang]

Reflection on Critique

After the critique I thought more about enhancing my sound, probably making that tension grow a lot louder and more grandiose. I also thought more about unrestricted and unconstrained sound to emphasize that feeling of confusion. Rather than making the audience feel anxious, I want them to feel anxiety but with more confusion on what they heard. 

[y0shaang]

Artist Statement Project 2 Soundscape

My soundscape Confusion was meant to portray the feeling of confusion, in a more spatial context. The lack of understanding, and uncertainty of the noises in the soundscape were representative of the feeling I wanted the audience to experience. Ambiguity and unclarity were attempted in an auditorial display, with piercing and jarring sounds. The inclusion of tranquil sounds were also to confuse the listener. Were they comfortable? or Uncomfortable? Confused? or complete Understanding?

I used a total of about 18 sounds, some which were intense, some of which were daunting, some of which could be interpreted as humorous, some of which could be interpreted as earsplitting. In truth, I wanted the listener to be doused in two minutes of uncertain, wavering, and almost suspicious sound. One of my favorite sounds and probably one of the most jarring sounds was the action of pressing my guitar slide (thick metal cylinder that fits on middle finger) onto the strings of my acoustic guitar near the sound hole, where more bass resonated, and I tuned the strings to a DADGCD tuning instead of standard tuning, to give it a darker effect; I repeatedly pressed on the strings, to the point where it sounds like the strings themselves were screaming, trying to escape the inevitable notion of snapping in half. The sounds I produced and put together were very interesting, experimental and I believe are successful in confusing the listener.

[y0shaang]

Feedback on Rough Draft

I will add more tension to the ending part to give that catharsis at the end. The end should be more cohesive with the beginning so I will probably repeat some sounds. The Sci-fi tone works for my concept, I just have to stretch it more and experiment a little more with the sounds I already have.

[y0shaang]

In-class Exercise

Duke Ellington, “Take the A Train”

The effect of the noise on my understanding of the piece is very cohesive in a sense. The trumpets and loud brass section sounds like a train moving, which ultimately is the context of the song. Even the percussion sounds like a muffle, intensive train at one point in the song. The melodic sound is trying to resemble the “A Train” that is mentioned in the song. It functions as art and music, and certain instrumental parts can function as background noise in a space.

Cartoon Network “Teenage Mutant Titans, Teen Titans Go!

The sounds I hear sound very sloshy, and liquid like. It sounds very gross. Even the small sound effects of the characters reacting, like a ‘swoosh’ I assume happens whenever they move. The crashes and bumpy sounds that are very intense and groggy as well. I would characterize the work as sound effects for an impression piece, like going with whatever is occurring. It functions more as art than music, but can be environmental due to the earthy tone I got from it, like I could hear those noises in nature.

[y0shaang]

!5 sounds

Listen to !5 sounds by yoshaang #np on #SoundCloud