Laced in Lattice - Final Project

Having been the project that I put the most thought and time into, the final project is one of my most conceptual works yet. I feel that without having the time to develop the conceptual elements behind the project I would not have been as satisfied with the turnout. 

I decided to use a woven structure as the core connecting element throughout the series because I think it is an apt metaphor in its demonstration of very separate entities being very obviously joined as one. It is descriptive of the beauty behind retaining individuality amidst adhering to the general. Time in identity serves as a context, which is the main exploration of my final project. I wanted to end the semester based on a my contextual experience, being a photography major, I believe in context. It gives us information about the past, present and future, but is to often taken lightly because it is not in the limelight. 

So, the idea that time as a context can become nonlinear is by literally and figuratively slicing the representations of the past and present and place it in a future form by destroying the context that is known and creating a new one. 

I moved to bring the structure taller as well, raising more surfaces, as to bring forward more dimension to the concept of time as a contextual frame and not a measuring ruler. Although measurements held a personal meaning to me in terms of lengths and widths of the paper, as well as paper weight, I believe that the intermingling of something considered as plain and ordinary as paper has a simple elegance in the idea of it. I wanted to be able to convey a message of depth but it speaks very silently, which is an element I would have liked to improve on. I would definitely move to experiment more with format by changing scale, material, display and presentation of the photo-sculptures and to see how these alterations will affect the final result of the project. 

Lost In Weirdoland.

I never imagined that organizing and formatting images in Indesign would be such a learning process. This project evolved as I worked more on it. I initially thought I would have taken far too many images to convey the story, but later realized I wanted to include more images than the format would comfortably allow. I distorted sizes, cropped images, occluded some, did whatever I could to put as much information into the comic as I could. I underestimated the task of creating a comic book, having used my childhood memories of Crayolas as a reference, I did not understand that each image and its positioning could play such a role in telling a story the way it would like to be told. I spent a lot of time experimenting different sizes for photographs, trying to not let one photo take more precedence than it should. This definitely helped me see that scale is important not only because of how many details can be reveals by an increase in a centimeter but also how the sight of an enlarged image is more occupying than one that is not.
As for the reasoning behind the imaging, I felt that reverting the color schemes in reality was a good metaphor for explaining what it can feel like to be in this city. The exterior of New York City does not change essentially: we are surrounded by architecture that stands tall in its place, the melting pot culture of ethnicities and identities, certain boroughs known for particular personalities, and people ever changing and evolving. Yet when change becomes the only constant, it becomes difficult to maintain a stead hold on the interior. I found it difficult to retain a sense of ground when I first came to New York, and struggled for a long time trying to understand how I could do so. This comic book was my interpretation of what it can feel like to not be coherent with what appearances reveal.

WIlliam Kentrige: The Refusal of Time

Upon entering the room, I saw immediately the necessity for being silent. The projection of five simultaneous but different video footages at once was overwhelming but compelling, and enough so that I felt the instruction to simply appreciate and not attempt to impose my input on the work.
There was a development involved with the unfolding of the installation, in terms of where attention was directed, as well as how the content of the videos were changing. There were subjects that stretched from personal to historical to cosmic to textual and each revealed an aspect of time that could not really be understood separate from one another. His introduction of industrial and colonial elements are also apparent in the substance of the installation. Although it was at times confusing because there were inclusions of personal elements, the overall tension of the piece was very intimate yet surreal. My greatest reap from being a viewer was the dislocation and dislodgment I felt from being so far away from everything in time, since perceiving time in a way that was so dysfunctional was refreshing.

Other than the installation, I also saw the massive structure that moved in a steady, rhythmic manner which was not only a balancing contrast to the video installation but a reminder in its tangible sense that there is more to the reality of time than what its intangible appearance forsakes.

Despite the fact that time became less of a measurement through the splicing and chaos of the videos, time as a context or standard cannot exist without first acknowledging its presence as a measurement. The exhibition successfully raveled me by creating a void without time, whilst simultaneously emphasizing the projection of time in all other places but there.

A Minute of the Mundane - Sound Piece

When I first thought of the recordings I wanted to include, I was concerned with how much flexibility would come with editing them, but I was surprised with the immense potential in editing techniques and placements. I recorded the sound of a water tap running, scissors in action, and a popping sound made when one purses their lips. From those three recordings I was able to manipulate speed, duration, pitch, and volume all the while overlapping, extending, or intercepting tracks that made room for a great variety of sound effects and results differing from the original.
Overall I felt this was a rather cathartic experience, being able to analyze simple sounds and create complexity from it. I was glad to sit for an hour experimenting, and there was no limit to the outcome. Having to understand sounds in such a dissection was very informative, it gave me a chance to examine the ordinary and make it more.

Memento - Thoughts

The second time watching a movie really does give an alternative perspective. I had only watched a portion of the movie the first time I saw it, but all the details within that portion were revived like they were part of a forgotten dream. They became sharper, crisper, brighter, clearer. One of the first emotions I felt after completing the movie was relief; thank god this mysterious mess of clues was at an end. I was not sure how else to feel about it, of course there was also admiration, the movie is a spectacle of sequencing and chronicling time.
The usage of scenes as units of time was very fascinating. It allowed for greater fluidity, nonsensicality, imagination and possibility. What was truly intriguing was how much freedom there would be in our lives to live with such a nonlinear sense of time. There would be chaos no doubt, a recklessness would ensue, but nonetheless freedom enters the equation. I've found that even personally, I take time for granted all too often. There is no understanding of time without sequence, logic, or movement, and because of this the segmentation offered in Memento was refreshing. It made me question just how much we are all not seeing because of how we have been taught to comprehend time.
I thought the filming was very well done, the beginning shot where a polaroid photograph is being reversed in action was so exquisitely executed because it did not affect our perception of time's progression. Embodied inside the very first minutes of the movie is already one of the central thematic elements: the maniacal ability of time to envelop itself into and unto itself. The potential in this concept gives rise to the later flexible shots of time trespassing before the past into the present and ahead of the future into the unknown, and being able to manifest the complexity of this into a movie was truly impressive.
Other than editing and shooting, the writing behind the film was to applaud for. With minimal amounts of dialog, the writer(s) created a cohesive despite confusing plot that sufficed to transmit messages of faith, belief, reality, scheming, distortion, lying, turmoil, irony, and above all sophistication. The protagonist is forever unaware of his entire surroundings, contextual circumstances, or possible dangers. He relies on information fed to him by others and by himself, and the final revelation of a self constructed, self powered search for vengeance as a means to give meaning to his life leads him on a killing spree without realization but full intention. The truthfulness is not unreal, but it is not wholly certain. If he planned his journey to become a murderer but did so with good intentions, how does this affect the legitimacy of his intentions, and how does it affect the validity of his murders? Do they mean any more than they would have because he puppeted himself? Do they signify to less because the people who died played a brief, momentary role in his staged performance? Isn't there a saying that goes: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"? But what is "hell" if he does not feel it? If he doesn't even have the capacity to remember it?
"Memento" celebrates the emergence of a survivor turned victim turned survivor turned victim...

Charcoal Stop Motion Animation - Goodbye.

I found my experience with charcoal very interesting. It was the first time I used charcoal as my medium and I became fascinated with the shadows it created. It lingered, not completely, but just enough so that my mistakes wouldn't be forgotten but instead incorporated. I've always had a fear of drawing because I felt the need to erase and redo, but with charcoal it is the simple movement of gliding across the paper, and a stroke becomes a ghost.
This project was definitely more time consuming than I had imagined, which is why my biggest critique is the length of the animation. There was a lot more detail in movement and fluidity in the beginning portion of the stop motion, but too little emphasis on the end, creating an abrupt finish that added to the title of the piece but not to the closure.
However, I did have a very great time discovering charcoal, and the project taught me what accomplishment truly feels like at 4 in the morning.

Time Lapse: The Plant

I felt that by choosing something stationary as my subject, I would be able to better illustrate the minute changes that occurred around it over the course of time. In observing how the images differed from one another, I saw how the changes encompassed within a few minutes was magnified by this concentration of photographs that were not so obvious to the eye without dissecting time in this manner. Although I was situated in the same place photographing for almost four hours, I only captured a total of 88 photos because I felt like the changes were not apparent enough and before realizing the differences were much larger than what I had perceived, time had passed and I could not retake the increments would have otherwise spoken more for their differences. This assignment helped to amplify how I should see the progression of time and exposed to me the understanding that the devil is truly in the details.

Exit through the Gift Shop: Response

Which elements are believable?

The existence of Theirry Guetta, or MBW, the presence of street art and their artists, such as Banksy and Shepard Fairey, and of course the classification of fictional documentary film. With a feature film that focuses on the uprise of an artist, or figure rather, such as MBW, it chronicles the events as evident with film and validates these occurrences. The movement of street art becoming commercialized with follow ups in galleries and auctions, is believable as it is documented along with the rise of MBW. The fact that there were so many who valued and supported the artwork of street artists, was not only apparent but also believable.

Which elements are unbelievable?

Many aspects of the film seemed like an exaggeration but could or could not be argued to be believable. For example, MBW introduction to Banksy, and Banksy's willingness to include him as a filmmaker, and not a fellow street artist, surprised me. I feel that there should have been more to that story that would provide a more logical explanation of MBW's entry into this world of art. From there, MBW forms a bond with Banksy and when Banksy suggests that he plunges into his art, he takes it to an almost absurd level. His investment into this art project, his tendency to become absorbed by his passion to a degree that his family is fighting for priority, and the reaction that is seen to his show all hinge upon a sense of ridiculousness.


What is the purpose of this fictional documentary film?
Towards the end, when Banksy talks about making art after meeting Theirry Guetta he says: "I always used encourage everyone I met to make art, I used to think everyone should do it...I don't really do that so much anymore" and I think in this quote there is so much to be said about what the film is trying to send to the audience as its message. Fairey mentioned that it was an anthropological study the popularity and fame that MBW gained after his show. Personally I think its a great big question on art, how we conceive of legitimacy in our art, whether there is a concept of legitimacy in art, if there should be one if there isn't, standardizing our measurements of art, popular public perceptions of what constitutes art, and discrepancies between artists and audiences about their answers to these questions. Is there a joke? Who is the joke on? Steve Lazarides answered with: "I don't know who the joke's on, really." So perhaps the purpose of this was to simply offer the need of rethinking art in the position of our society, and our society's position on art. In other words, a lot of learning.

Reflection: Treedling

I thought this was a little less conceptually challenging than the project of the time map because there was more freedom to be original. It was difficult to think of an idea that could have simultaneously conveyed the time map as well as bring something different to the table. I wanted to express a sense of fragility in the tree limbs because despise the time nature has withstood, a building constructed from wood would be worn much quicker than a building of cement. The contrast to the long time of nature would be the modernity of a building, which is seen by the metal wiring that gives the object its essential shape. The wiring, or short time, provides the support, whilst the tree limbs, or long time, adds the dynamic. This juxtaposition is meant to create an ironic setting that distorts what we traditionally consider nature to be, often tranquil and calm, and metal to be a material with more malleability and potential. I do agree more branches would create a more apparent message, and I would add to the project if I were to redo it.

Reflection - TIme Map

I really enjoyed this project because the result incorporated a lot of layers that I had not previously expected to be included when I first began brainstorming. The appearance of a book with two hardcover ends was a suggestion that I appreciated since it adds a formality to the piece that I believe acts as a conclusive final touch. I chose tracing paper as my structural material because the opacity and fragility of tracing paper represents an organic element that I wanted to add to the object. Photographs are suspended in the folds of the tracing paper, and their suspension with scrapbook masking tape edges are also meant to give an additional sense of rawness. If I were to remake the project however, I would definitely place greater emphasis on the mechanism of unfolding and refolding of the expanding structure, which takes away from understanding the project because it is such a distraction and effort to worry about the process that comes with viewing the object. It was intentional to subject the audience to a physicality in movement and unraveling but the involvement of this physicality was so prominent it shadowed the actual object and its content.

Time Frame Object: Time Map

Time Frame Object: Treedling