Monday, December 7, 2015
Appreciation Post
I just wanted to say that I really appreciate this class and how much it taught me. I came into it knowing almost literally nothing about computers (I needed help using a flashdrive, honestly), and this class just opened up a whole new world for me. Thank you!
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Video Final
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUqRJzqdURk
(Video Link)
Erica McGloin
Synopsis:
Fun Facts:
(Video Link)
Erica McGloin
Mia Boday
Aaron Curry
Synopsis:
Story follows a young woman (Mia Boday) and her experience with a transorbital lobotomy
Location Filiming:
Snug Harbor "Art Lab", SI, NYC
Snug Harbor "Art Lab", SI, NYC
Seaview Hospital, SI, NYC
Richmond University Hospital, SI, NYC
Soundtrack:
Thomas Newman - "Mental Boy" ("American Beauty" Soundtrack)
Thomas Newman - "Root Beer" ("American Beauty" Soundtrack)
Thomas Newman - "Mental Boy" ("American Beauty" Soundtrack)
Thomas Newman - "Root Beer" ("American Beauty" Soundtrack)
Edith Piaf - "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien"
Appropriated Video:
"Walter Freeman Explains Transorbital Lobotomy"
"Lobotomy - PBS Documentary on Walter Freeman"
Fun Facts:
- The staircase landing where we were originally going to film the mental breakdown was covered in what we thought were leaves, but were really billions of insect carcasses
- After getting lost, in order to find our way through the woods to get to Seaview, we followed a mysterious trail of lottery tickets
- Other strange things we found at Seaview (considering the place it was) included a blow-up male sex doll and used tampons
- There are only so many minutes of continuous blood-curdling screaming a father can handle coming from his living room before he starts asking questions
- While we were filming the breakdown scene (originally multiple scenes), i just said "think about the direction your life is heading in" and Mia just rolled with it
- Mia was not impressed with my decision to have her lay down on a 100 year old, abandoned hospital bed where children were historically treated for tuberculosis. Her expression of fear and disgust is genuine.
- Now that i think about it, Mia didn't really do much acting.
- Watching lobotomies for hours is a numbing experience
- Did you know that if you accidentally walk into a closed museum, sometimes the security guards won't question it and will essentially let you film anything you want provided you're in a dark hallway?
- Mia is the nude girl on the Pro-Smoking Propaganda Ad a few posts down. Now you get to see her face.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Response to 5 Video Artists - Homework 8
Stan Brakhage - "The Garden of Earthly Delights" - 1981 - I was originally drawn to this particular piece because of the title. The Northern Renaissance painting, "The Garden of Earthly Delights", by Bosch, is one of my favorite pieces in art history (I have a very large poster version of it hanging in my dorm room above my bed). I rarely find video art work interesting, but I was pleasantly surprised by this piece. I quickly learned, however, it was almost nothing like the painting at all. It is a very short film, and although all of the "images" (for lack of a better word) are flying by extremely quickly and do not seem to make sense, they are still able to be translated as nature. I was capable of making out vague flowers and leaves and blades of grass before they were torn off the screen. Although repetitive, it was interesting. Extremely similar to collages. The way the film was arranged almost seemed violent and dark. Upon further research, I learned that not only was this film not made with a camera (but by pasting vegetation and other natural elements onto clear film), but it was meant to be shown on a projector. I can only imagine how much more intense it feels watching it projected, rather than on a computer screen. Also, apparently the film is so named because it was inspired by Bosch. Brakhage was infuriated by the painting, because it envisioned nature as "puffy and sweet" while humans were suffering and tormented. He said, "After all, nature suffers as well. As a plant winds
itself around, in its desperate reach for sunlight, it undergoes its own torments. We are not the only
ones in the world". I now suppose this is where the unexpected violence of the images came from. Also, the film is arranged in three sections, just like Bosch's triptych. Although the piece is simple, it is also entrancingly complicated and beautiful.
Dan Graham - "Performer/Audience/Mirror" - 1975 - This piece was just as interesting to listen to as it was to watch. The act performed in the video was relatively simple. The artist splits the piece into four approximately 5-minute sections. The performer stands between a mirror facing an audience. He faces the audience in the first two sections, first explaining his behavior and what it means (i.e. his foot was a bit raised, signaling he was about to move), and then explaining the audience's behavior. Then he turns to face the mirror, once again explaining his behavior and what the attitude may mean. And for the last 5 or so minutes, he continues to face the mirror and explain the audience's behavior. It seemed as though he was speaking for the mirror in a way, acting as its "oral vision". Graham was investigating perception and time-informational feedback. He has explained how he was using the piece to describe how video functions similarly to a mirror. He says, "First, a person in the audience sees himself "objectively" ("subjectively") perceived by himself, next he hears himself described "objectively" ("subjectively") in terms of the performer's perception." This piece is definitely harder to watch than Brakhage's "Garden of Earthly Delights" due to its length of upwards of 20 minutes and monotonous, almost mundane, speech. However, understanding the concept behind the piece adds to its appeal (which I feel is true for most video art, honestly), although I found it difficult to completely understand.
Bill Viola - "Silent Mountain" - 2001 - Although an extremely short piece, taking no longer than a minute, it was compelling, yet also incredibly frustrating to watch. It features two performers expressing violent agony, completely unrelated to each other. The emotion feels extremely raw and intense; difficult to observe, but easy to identify/empathize with. However, it was frustrating because it was completely silent. I was watching these actors scream but there was no sound. It was like waiting for something that was never going to come, but should have. So then I started feeling anguish as well, although not to the same extent. But I was impressed that in such a short time, the video was able to get a real reaction from the viewer (me). After researching, I learned quite a few of Viola's videos use this type of strong emotion, which the viewer has no ties to or could knowingly understand. He captures the essence of extreme displays of emotion through video. Its also interesting because although the viewer would not understand why the actor's are behaving the way they are, the viewer would be able to understand what exactly they were feeling because of their faces. All humans are able to recognize emotions displayed on faces for what they are, even if they come from opposite sides of the planet.
Dara Birnbaum - "Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman" - 1978 - I watched this video because if I were to pick favorite superheroes, Wonder Woman would definitely be in the top 5 (although I must admit I don't know all that much about superheroes or comic books, really). The piece was a compilation of imagery/clips from the TV show, focusing on the main character, Diana Prince's, spinning transformation into the mighty Wonder Woman. There are quite a few explosions throughout the piece, and most of the video is the same explosion clips repeated multiple times. I did not understand the concept of the piece while watching it, but I learned that Birnbaum was using Wonder Woman's transformation of secretarial Diana Prince to superhero Wonder Woman as a criticism of gender roles in television and the media. It seems to relate to Lacan's mirror theory as well - the ideal (Wonder Woman) versus the real (Diana Prince - secretary). Because this is the 70s, when people started looking at Lacan's work (like Krauss and Mulvey), I can only assume that Birnbaum was familiar, and may have used this theory to inspire her work somehow.
Shirin Neshat - "Turbulent" - 1998 - Displayed across from each other (or side by side on a computer screen in my case), a man is on one screen and a woman on the other. The man is facing the camera, singing to an audience of men (who are seated behind him, facing his back). The woman, contrastingly, is facing her own empty audience. The viewer is unable to see her face. The man passionately sings for approximately 3 minutes, and when he is finished, turns to his audience and begins bowing. While doing so, however, the woman begins her song - a breathy, raspy melody. The camera circulates around her so that although she is still facing the empty audience, we can see her face. He turns to face the camera and walks toward it, horror-stricken at the woman's passionate song. She continues to sing for 6 minutes or so. The piece was alluring, and almost haunting, to listen to. Through the positioning of the singers, and their audiences, I was able to understand Neshat's exploring of opposites, and of the masculine versus feminine social structure in Iran. After researching, I learned that the female singer was based on a blind woman Neshat heard while walking in Iran, which sheds even more light on the female singer's empty audience. The man is the ideal Iranian, while the woman is a rebel. He is in the theatre, properly dressed, and singing a beautiful Iranian song. While she is not only not supposed to be in the theatre, but her song is animalistic, primal, based on improvisation and instinct. Although she faces an empty audience, the men opposing her in the other screen, become her audience. The man is panicked by her release, her freedom. This was the most interesting piece I watched while writing these responses. Absolutely beautiful.
itself around, in its desperate reach for sunlight, it undergoes its own torments. We are not the only
ones in the world". I now suppose this is where the unexpected violence of the images came from. Also, the film is arranged in three sections, just like Bosch's triptych. Although the piece is simple, it is also entrancingly complicated and beautiful.
Dan Graham - "Performer/Audience/Mirror" - 1975 - This piece was just as interesting to listen to as it was to watch. The act performed in the video was relatively simple. The artist splits the piece into four approximately 5-minute sections. The performer stands between a mirror facing an audience. He faces the audience in the first two sections, first explaining his behavior and what it means (i.e. his foot was a bit raised, signaling he was about to move), and then explaining the audience's behavior. Then he turns to face the mirror, once again explaining his behavior and what the attitude may mean. And for the last 5 or so minutes, he continues to face the mirror and explain the audience's behavior. It seemed as though he was speaking for the mirror in a way, acting as its "oral vision". Graham was investigating perception and time-informational feedback. He has explained how he was using the piece to describe how video functions similarly to a mirror. He says, "First, a person in the audience sees himself "objectively" ("subjectively") perceived by himself, next he hears himself described "objectively" ("subjectively") in terms of the performer's perception." This piece is definitely harder to watch than Brakhage's "Garden of Earthly Delights" due to its length of upwards of 20 minutes and monotonous, almost mundane, speech. However, understanding the concept behind the piece adds to its appeal (which I feel is true for most video art, honestly), although I found it difficult to completely understand.
Bill Viola - "Silent Mountain" - 2001 - Although an extremely short piece, taking no longer than a minute, it was compelling, yet also incredibly frustrating to watch. It features two performers expressing violent agony, completely unrelated to each other. The emotion feels extremely raw and intense; difficult to observe, but easy to identify/empathize with. However, it was frustrating because it was completely silent. I was watching these actors scream but there was no sound. It was like waiting for something that was never going to come, but should have. So then I started feeling anguish as well, although not to the same extent. But I was impressed that in such a short time, the video was able to get a real reaction from the viewer (me). After researching, I learned quite a few of Viola's videos use this type of strong emotion, which the viewer has no ties to or could knowingly understand. He captures the essence of extreme displays of emotion through video. Its also interesting because although the viewer would not understand why the actor's are behaving the way they are, the viewer would be able to understand what exactly they were feeling because of their faces. All humans are able to recognize emotions displayed on faces for what they are, even if they come from opposite sides of the planet.
Dara Birnbaum - "Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman" - 1978 - I watched this video because if I were to pick favorite superheroes, Wonder Woman would definitely be in the top 5 (although I must admit I don't know all that much about superheroes or comic books, really). The piece was a compilation of imagery/clips from the TV show, focusing on the main character, Diana Prince's, spinning transformation into the mighty Wonder Woman. There are quite a few explosions throughout the piece, and most of the video is the same explosion clips repeated multiple times. I did not understand the concept of the piece while watching it, but I learned that Birnbaum was using Wonder Woman's transformation of secretarial Diana Prince to superhero Wonder Woman as a criticism of gender roles in television and the media. It seems to relate to Lacan's mirror theory as well - the ideal (Wonder Woman) versus the real (Diana Prince - secretary). Because this is the 70s, when people started looking at Lacan's work (like Krauss and Mulvey), I can only assume that Birnbaum was familiar, and may have used this theory to inspire her work somehow.
Shirin Neshat - "Turbulent" - 1998 - Displayed across from each other (or side by side on a computer screen in my case), a man is on one screen and a woman on the other. The man is facing the camera, singing to an audience of men (who are seated behind him, facing his back). The woman, contrastingly, is facing her own empty audience. The viewer is unable to see her face. The man passionately sings for approximately 3 minutes, and when he is finished, turns to his audience and begins bowing. While doing so, however, the woman begins her song - a breathy, raspy melody. The camera circulates around her so that although she is still facing the empty audience, we can see her face. He turns to face the camera and walks toward it, horror-stricken at the woman's passionate song. She continues to sing for 6 minutes or so. The piece was alluring, and almost haunting, to listen to. Through the positioning of the singers, and their audiences, I was able to understand Neshat's exploring of opposites, and of the masculine versus feminine social structure in Iran. After researching, I learned that the female singer was based on a blind woman Neshat heard while walking in Iran, which sheds even more light on the female singer's empty audience. The man is the ideal Iranian, while the woman is a rebel. He is in the theatre, properly dressed, and singing a beautiful Iranian song. While she is not only not supposed to be in the theatre, but her song is animalistic, primal, based on improvisation and instinct. Although she faces an empty audience, the men opposing her in the other screen, become her audience. The man is panicked by her release, her freedom. This was the most interesting piece I watched while writing these responses. Absolutely beautiful.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Response to Rosalind Krauss - Homework 7
In her 1976 essay, "Video: The Aesthetics of Narcissism", Rosalind Krauss argues that video art is overtly based on narcissism (excessive or erotic interest in oneself), and also points out that its medium is psychological, rather than physical, which separates it from its visual art counterparts (drawing, painting, etc). Krauss explains that although "medium" is often used in the art world as almost synonymous with "media", the term is used in "parapsychology" (pseudoscience involved with paranormal psychology) to describe people who are able to communicate with absent or displaced presences. They work in real time, but also refer to the past, which is an ability video is capable of. What also separates video art from other visual disciplines is its ability to transmit images instantaneously, which the viewer could both directly identify with and distance themselves from, splitting the ego and consequently forcing narcissism. Krauss uses Lacan's writings to support her point. Lacan, similar to Sigmund Freud, was a psychoanalyst who theorized a concept called the mirror stage. In this primal stage, the infant is unable to recognize his/her own image in a mirror, separating him/herself from his/her idealized image. It was a transformation from understanding themselves as a subject to an object. The infant sees the baby in the mirror as perfect because the image does not have to rely on anyone (i.e. parents) for simple functions. Lacan believed this was where the conditions for our dependence on idealized images of ourselves is conceived, and video has become the tool with which we investigate issues of the split ego. In my Intro to Visual Studies class, we read Laura Mulvey's 1975 essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" which delves into the underlying patriarchal structure of movies, and why we are drawn to them. She emphasizes the importance of Freud's scopophilia, voyeurism, and the pleasure of finding oneself reflected on the screen, which is also supported by Lacan's mirror stage theory. Because we recognize ourselves as subjects not externally communicated to the outside world, we look to the screen and find representations of our ideal selves in movies. We see the ideal image of movie-people and connect it to our internalized subjective selves.
I do not necessarily disagree with either of these essays. Quite the contrary, really, I absolutely agree with their points. Understanding that they were written in the 70s may invalidate my largest complication with them. Both essays use Freud and Lacan, psychoanalysts, as their cited authoritative sources. Psychoanalysis did do wonders for the psychology world, and should be respected for what it was in essence. And many of Freud's theories have been able to be empirically/neuroscientifically proved/supported within the last 50 years or so (i.e. the importance of childhood, the ID, etc). However, it is still widely discredited and, particularly in the psychology field (not so much in the literary field, where psychoanalysis is still often used regularly), cannot be used as a credible source without other sources supporting it. Psychoanalysis is to Psychology as Alchemy is to Chemistry. It has its place, a very important place, but not as a credible source. The theories, although thought through, were not empirically proved when they were made up, and Psychology was only finally considered a science after it began using the Scientific Method for experimenting and researching. Therefore, I believe these essays should be rewritten (or rethought) using more credible sources in order to make the arguments stronger.
I do not necessarily disagree with either of these essays. Quite the contrary, really, I absolutely agree with their points. Understanding that they were written in the 70s may invalidate my largest complication with them. Both essays use Freud and Lacan, psychoanalysts, as their cited authoritative sources. Psychoanalysis did do wonders for the psychology world, and should be respected for what it was in essence. And many of Freud's theories have been able to be empirically/neuroscientifically proved/supported within the last 50 years or so (i.e. the importance of childhood, the ID, etc). However, it is still widely discredited and, particularly in the psychology field (not so much in the literary field, where psychoanalysis is still often used regularly), cannot be used as a credible source without other sources supporting it. Psychoanalysis is to Psychology as Alchemy is to Chemistry. It has its place, a very important place, but not as a credible source. The theories, although thought through, were not empirically proved when they were made up, and Psychology was only finally considered a science after it began using the Scientific Method for experimenting and researching. Therefore, I believe these essays should be rewritten (or rethought) using more credible sources in order to make the arguments stronger.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
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