Avatars

For my fantasy avatar I decided to do a comedic spin on myself. All semester I have been making projects making fun of celebrities (especially Beyonce), and thought it would be funny if i put a wig on myself and a ridiculous outfit that looks like something she would wear. I think this is appropriate for the art I have made throughout the semester and people will be able to easily recognize that it is my fantasy character. Also, throughout the final meeting I will be doing dance gestures in order to continue to do a last spoof of her and her dancing.

Music is life collage

For this project I decided to sculpt the phantom power, microphone, and speaker that i had bought when i was 16 years old. These objects have significant meaning to me because I had to work very hard form the at a young age, and they were the first components of my music studio. One of the difficulties i had with this project was creating the circular basin above the M-AUDIO letters of the speaker. The way i dealt with this problem was to create several layers and descend them into the speaker in order to create the optical illusion that that part of the speaker is intruding. My favorite part of this project was sculpting the phantom power because i was able to put a lot of detail into it, due to the fact that many of the things that it contained were small details such as screws. This was a very challenging project, however, I feel that I can use the work I have made as a logo for my music studio.

Movie Response Questions

Due to the fact that technology allows people to escape reality, many individuals have not only become addicted to it, but they have also become very dependent upon it. Has the use of technology gone too far, now that we have come to a point where we have to offer treatments such as the Internet Rescue School? Have we blurred the line between dependence and independence from technology; technology being only a factor that benefits our life, as opposed to revolving our entire lives around it?
Do you think that we take the benefits that we get from technology for granted due to the fact that we live in a prosperous country? To what extent does this outlook differ to someone's outlook that lives a third world country?

Ghost

Through this video I wanted to convey some of my own experiences that I have encountered working at St. Mary’s Hospital. The Ito Takashi video “Ghost” really interested me and inspired this piece because of his weird portrayal of the paranormal. The thing that I really liked about Takashi’s video was his use of vibrant colors. Although my video shooting techniques were not the same as Takashi’s, my video ties to his style through the experimentation of color usage throughout the piece.  I also had flashing objects seen throughout, such as Takashi throws in unexpectedly in “Ghost.” The biggest challenge that this piece created for me was arranging the piece in a way that tells a narrative story, and getting the variation of color usage to flow smoothly.

DM video outline

For the film project, i will be recreating Takashi Ito's Ghost. My plan is to shoot at St. Mary's hospital in an eerie basement. I think this will help recreate the look of Takashi's piece because it is very similar to the scene in his video, especially will all the pipes that are down there. In order to further re-create this piece in the style of Takashi, I plan on playing around with different tones and introducing bright colors throughout the video. There is a section of Takashi's video where there are ghost lurking and doing weird movements that are sped up, so that is another thing i will experiment with. For my piece I will do some scenes where the ghost is solid, and other parts where through the use of layers the ghost will be more transparent. Through my video, I would like to tell a story of the things that i have experienced during the time that i have worked at the hospital.

Busting the Tube response questions

Throughout her essay, Kate Horsfield discusses the impacts that early Television had on society, and how it was used to manipulate the outlook of society. She goes on to say that “ Video immediately captured the attention of artists who saw its potential as a creative tool and of social activists who it as a weapon and a witness to be used to create new types of representation that opposed the ubiquitous commercialism of the television industry.” Do you feel that film has lost most of the power that it possessed when it was first introduced, or has it become a stronger tool used by society?

In the Passage, Horsfield claims, “ These performances were based on conceptual art that emphasized process and idea over form to analyze texts, language, and the image… Other artists used performance to investigate social and power relations between individuals or between individuals, audiences, and larger social systems.” With YouTube making it easily accessible for anyone to upload a video of just about anything, do you feel it has contributed to a degradation of the true art form behind making powerfully conceptualized videos?

Battle of the Divas

“Battle of the Divas” Artist Statement: The piece “Battle of the Divas” took the concept from my Kryptic panels and furthered the idea of Beyonce being the diva that I see her as. In this piece, however, I advanced this concept of Hollywood power by introducing the character of Oprah. In addition, I added some comedy to this piece by inserting a picture of a cross-dresser (which popped up when I searched for images of Beyonce). The cars at the end of this piece are intended to add satire and reinforce the parody-like theme of the animation. This idea came from Oprah ‘s show, and intends to poke fun of her randomly giving out cars on her set.