Video Art Final Project - "Tremor"

The moment I heard the topic for this final video art project was "Embrace the Error", I can't even tell you how excited I was. Glitches, white noise and static - I have no idea why, but I'm drawn to things that contain those irregularities. I almost instantly knew what I wanted to do with this, and after watching an episode of American Horror Story I was filled with motivation and inspiration. I spent the entirety of today working on nothing but this video, and I'm sad that it didn't end up to be very long but I'm really happy with the finished product. I called it "Tremor" because of the shakiness of some scenes.

One of the requirements was that we had to create the audio ourselves. I downloaded a free audio editor called Audacity, and that helped tremendously. This video wouldn't have half the impact it has without that glorious program. I recorded and manipulated nearly all the audio with Audacity, the only exceptions being the crunch of the leaves underfoot in the forest, the light switch flickering, and my feet spinning at the end - those were the original sounds from the video itself.

I used a variety of things to make the sounds: my voice, which I often reversed and played backwards with an occasional echo; manipulation of Audacity's effects to get the white noise and sound-layering; my piano; and an eraser or my nails scrubbing the bumpy surface of my laptop.

This piece features my family and me. My brother appeared most often, and then in the table scene my parents were present as well. My dog was handy in sensing 'disturbances' within the house, much like how animals often react to entities that humans are unable to see.

I had SO much fun doing this. It's actually night right now and after watching my video over and over, I'm starting to scare myself {I already turned on all the lights in my house}.
I hope you enjoy it too!

Performance Art Piece - "From Black to Bright"

From black to bright,
dark to light.

My performance art piece for Art & Tech class, "From Black to Bright", is meant to portray the transition from suffocating darkness and detachment to a much brighter, happier life.

The black fabric that each person becomes wrapped and entangled in symbolizes a dark phase in one's life. The upsetting experiences that someone goes through to reach that point or during their phase is suffocating and blinds them from the light, like the black fabric.

However, that darkness is a 'phase' for a reason - things will get better, and there is always light at the end of the tunnel. As the people unravel and unwind themselves out of the black fabric, they are releasing themselves from its grasp. They can breathe again and immerse themselves in the daylight and fresh air, and the words on the bright posters make this apparent.

This was done in the driveway of my cousins' house in another town a few hours away from my home since we were visiting them during Thanksgiving break. Their neighbors and other family members of mine were the audience. Both of my cousins were involved in the piece. Everyone enjoyed it and found it interesting except the two little boys, but they wouldn't understand it of course!

Flash Mobs

I've always thought flash mobs were pretty awesome.  The spontaneous choreographed performance must be such a surprising experience for those who witness the public event, and all the ones I've ever watched on YouTube or TV have been entertaining.
The video above features my favorite scene of Step Up: Revolution.  I'd never seen any of the Step Up movies before and didn't really know what they were about or anything - I just happened to catch this one on television and ended up really enjoying their flash mobs.  This scene gave me chills, so I thought I'd post it!

I know the time and effort for preparing and executing a flash mob could be used for more important things, but flash mobs make people's day.  There are plenty of other things that could make people's days too, but there's just something about an unexpected, large performance that induces much joy and awe.

Xerox Project

To be honest, I had no idea what I wanted to do when my Art and Tech class received the Xerox Project guidelines.  I still didn't know what I wanted to do until after I actually started scanning, and decided on some sort of bird-creature.
The parts of the bird mostly consist of my arms, ears, eyes, foot, and face, but my little Toy Poodle, Roxy, wanted in on it too. So I scanned her face and her paws, and she received many treats afterwards!
This took several hours to complete, but it was so much fun to figure out what I wanted to do as I was going along instead of having an entire plan already. Putting it all together took forever, but I love the way it came out!

I Wish to Say

This week we've been studying performance artists in my Art and Technology class, and one of them was Sheryl Oring.  She is known for using typewriters to do her work.

One of her ongoing projects is called "I Wish to Say," which stemmed from her worry that the voice of the people wasn't really reaching the US government.  This project consisted of Oring typing up postcards containing what different people wanted to say to the President.  Every postcard was typed word-for-word, and all the original documents were sent to the White House while she kept copies.

One of the postcards was dictated by Penny Ross, a former junior high school art teacher.  She revealed that her job had been erased because the state she lived in, Arizona, had ended its funding for the arts.
Reading that story in Sheryl Oring's blog stunned me.  Being an art major, I just couldn't believe that funding for the arts would come to a halt anywhere.  I really hope something is done about this once it reaches the government, because I know I'm not the only one who considers it a great loss for any student not to be educated in some way in any subject of the arts.

Cut-Ups and the Dreamachine

Brion Gysin was the creator of the cut-up technique.  This technique is often performed as typing a story, cutting the paper into sections, and then reassembling the pieces out of order to create unique words and sentences that no longer make sense.  It blurs and erases the previous meaning of the story, creating something entirely new.  I love this idea because it's a form of an exquisite corpse.

Gysin also created the Dreamachine {or 'dream machine'} in a collaboration with Ian Sommerville.  The Dreamachine is a very intriguing contraption featured in the picture above.  One must face it with closed eyes, and as the Dreamachine spins rapidly with an illuminated center to create a strobe light effect, the viewer experiences vivid colors and patterns.  I find this to be incredibly interesting, and I think it'd be fun to try sometime - I'm curious about what I'd see.

Grid Art Project

From this...

...to this:

This Grid Art Project for class took me almost nine hours total to complete!
I chose to use a picture I took at the beach a little over a year ago of a beautiful crane standing at the edge of the ocean.  I used thousands of different-colored beads using the Perler brand, which allowed me to iron and fuse them together.  My childhood friends used to do this all the time, but I never tried it myself until now.  Ironing the beads took forever and was very frustrating because there were a bunch of spots that didn't fuse completely even after ironing it for longer than the directions instructed, so it took a while.  It was very hard work but I managed to get it all to stick together, even though it's still fragile.  I think all that time and effort paid off though, and I'm happy with the result!

"Find what you love."

This wasn't the first time that I watched Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Address, but I still find his words freshly inspiring every time.  As an art major who would ideally love to make a living as an artist, it's not easy staying hopeful about how things may turn out if I do end up going that route.  However, Steve Jobs' words about how he overcame obstacles because he had such a strong love for what he did reminded me that even though being an artist wouldn't make me a rich woman, the money won't be the most significant part because I'll be genuinely enjoying the work I produce.  That is the key to success: having a love and passion for what you do.

Words and typography are both forms of art, too, and I've used both in images I've made before.  The unique and individual fonts that are available probably wouldn't exist today if it weren't for Jobs.  The calligraphy class he decided to take was what caused him to create the different fonts for the computer.  I feel that everything happens for a reason, and this is an excellent example of that - even if something seems irrelevant, in can lead to very significant results in the future.

It also makes me think of how many, if not the majority, of the students in my art classes aren't art majors, but they're all taking the art class for one reason or another.  But each professor has made a point to explain how the concepts behind the techniques or lessons they are teaching are not exclusively important for art majors - the students with different majors will be able to take the information learned and find ways to tweak or twist it in a way that can be of significant value in what they're studying.

Steve Jobs was truly innovative and it's inspiring to know how successful he became for doing what he loved.  I'm positive that everyone who has ever listened to his commencement address gained something from it. I know I have.

Alan Turing

Alan Turing was a British mathematician and computer scientist whose accomplishments left very positive marks in history and some of which have made important impacts on today's world.

He invented the Turing machine, which was the basis of a computer in that it would be able to carry out numerous, specific tasks once provided the proper program.  The Turing machine's logical capabilities defined what an algorithm is. Computer science wouldn't exist the way it does today without Turing.

In addition to his contribution to the computer world, Turing was also an expert codebreaker.  In World War II, he and another mathematician, Gordon Welchman, managed to decode messages enciphered in the "Enigma" machine by the Germans.  He was able to do so because of the British "Bombe," which he designed alongside Welchman.

Despite this man's amazing feats, he was arrested for homosexual acts in 1952.  Just two years later in 1954, Turing was found dead in his home by cyanide poisoning, most likely via the half-eaten apple that was found with his body.  It was deemed a suicide.
As unfortunate as this was, Turing's incredible achievements will forever be remembered, and computers likely would not be the way they are in modern times if not for Turing's efforts and innovative mind.

War of the Worlds

Radio has a great influence on many people, and it is relied on for news and information besides the usual music.  A fantastic example of this was "War of the Worlds" in 1938.

Orson Welles was the man who directed and narrated the infamous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast.  The broadcast was influenced by H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" novel but with a modern twist to increase realism for the listeners.  The broadcast made it seem as though aliens really were invading Earth that very moment, and Welles' compelling voice combined with the 'sound effects' such as the coughing from poison gas would convince anyone that it was really happening - especially since there had been no warning that this was all fiction until the end, and people tuned in after it had already started anyway.

A portion of America who truly believed that Earth was being invaded by aliens flew into a panic.  Many even abandoned their homes in an effort to evacuate the area and escape the incoming attack.  When it was discovered that "War of the Worlds" was only a performance, the public reacted angrily.  Orson Welles gave a public apology, but no serious measures were taken because it didn't do any real harm besides giving the public quite a scare.  In fact, the broadcast even made Orson Welles famous and probably helped his future career as a filmmaker.

Flipbook Animation

My first flipbook animation ever! It features Friiha, the little deer, and her hallucination of a demonic wolf.
The song is Glitch by Anoice.

The Battery

After doing some research, I discovered that the battery was actually invented about two thousand years ago, although of course not in the same form as it appears today.  The first 'battery' found was a clay pot with an iron rod sticking out of the middle, encased in a tube of a sheet of copper.  This relic had been in a tomb belonging to the Parthian Empire in Baghdad.

Many centuries after that first battery was made, Alessandro Volta made publications about the details of his own battery in the early 1800's.  What he did was add layers of silver and cloth or paper soaked in zinc and salt until he reached the voltage he wanted, called the "Voltaic Pile."
However, despite being the first battery to have a stable electrical current, the Voltaic Pile couldn't last very long.  As the years passed by, a lot of other types of batteries were made:  the carbon-zinc battery that was referred to as a "dry cell" since it didn't need liquid to function; the lead-acid battery; the iron-nickel alkaline cell battery; the nickel-cadmium battery, and so on.  A solar battery was even invented.

Without batteries, life on Earth would be very different.  The vast majority of electronics and light sources wouldn't exist, and we'd probably still be using candles and lanterns to light up our surroundings! All the hard work that inventors have put into making the battery what it is today has certainly paid off.

Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick's work consisted nearly completely of science fiction.  He wrote short stories, novels, and essays, and was well-known for his bizarre mind and ways of thinking that were reflected into his writings.

The man was a mess at first.  He abused drugs and, possibly as a result of those, became a very anxious person.  Dick's anxiety even drove him to drop out of college.  He also married five times, all to different women.

What really interested me while reading about this guy was his epiphany-vision experience.  His abuse of drugs, namely speed, could have very well been the cause, since speed can cause hallucinations and delusions.  However, speed doesn't insert accurate knowledge of things that Dick couldn't have known otherwise, which is what actually happened.
Strange things fascinate me, as does the abnormal. Philip K. Dick's experiences were certainly unusual, and their religious nature piqued my curiosity all the more since I am Catholic myself.

I'm drawn to the surreal, and reading about Dick's ideas made me sit back and do some thinking too.  A few of his beliefs or themes in his writings that caught my attention were his idea of reality, discovering one's personal identity, and the "phantom twin" that appeared multiple times in his work.
I thought it was interesting that Dick often contemplated the reality of reality itself.  He probably sometimes believed that reality is just an illusion, and that none of us, nothing around us, is real.  It was actually kind of scary to read about that because I frequently dwell on how real reality actually is, but I try not to let myself think about it quite as deeply as Philip K. Dick did.
The theme of the "phantom twin" came from Dick's own twin sister, Jane, who died six weeks after they had been born six weeks prematurely... so, she died when she should've been born.  Jane's death heavily affected him, which is what spurred him to use the idea in his work numerous times.  I think personal experience is really important in order to produce something compelling.

Another thing I liked about Philip K. Dick's stories was that he didn't write about your typical hero saving a damsel in distress - he focused on the lives of characters that had serious hardships, such as mental illness.  Although sci-fi isn't usually a genre I seek out, I'm looking forward to reading something he wrote one day.

Pony Nadsat - A Clockwork Orange

You might be wondering what in the world "Pony Nadsat" means.
In this context, "pony" means "to understand" in the Nadsat language, a dialect from the imagination of Anthony Burgess - the author of A Clockwork Orange.  The vast majority of Nadsat is actually influenced by the Russian language.  "Pony" is based off of the Russian word "ponimat," which also means "to understand."  Thus, the title is simply "To understand Nadsat."



In Art and Technology class, we watched numerous clips from A Clockwork Orange, the 1971 film adaptation of Burgess' book (which was written in 1962).  The violent beat-up scenes didn't affect me too much - maybe I'm desensitized - but the rape scene certainly did.  Alex DeLarge, the main character, even sang "Singin' in the Rain" while he and his 'droogs' (Russian word meaning 'close friends') tortured the couple whose house they had invaded.  It was disturbing to watch someone take so much pleasure in humiliating and violating another in such a way, but that just goes to show how much of a turn the teenage society had taken during the nineteen years between 1952 when "Singin' in the Rain" came out and 1971 when A Clockwork Orange was released.

The large distinction between teenagers and adults in A Clockwork Orange  is also emphasized through the use of Nadsat.  The dialect is used only by the teenagers, separating them from the adults who don't understand it.  This makes the teens feel as though they surpass the adults and are on a higher level, which provides an interesting contrast to the fact that some of the Nadsat words are very childlike and immature.  Nadsat vocabulary isn't only influenced by Russian, however - Burgess also made up words himself with a few German additions as well as Cockney rhyming slang.

Burgess knew that if he wrote A Clockwork Orange in the typical language of the day, his book would be unable to keep up with the constantly-changing modern English language.  Creating Nadsat was the solution, because its words would never become old over time.  Each new reader or viewer of the film would discover it as something they had never encountered before, and that was exactly what Burgess wanted.

The Beginning of Film

One of the first science fiction films ever released was A Trip to the Moon, a short silent film directed by Georges Méliès in 1902.  It's about a group of astronomers who arrive on the moon and encounter the moon's strange inhabitants, even capturing one in their swift escape back to Earth.
A Trip to the Moon might seem comical with its low-quality special effects, but despite what we are capable of producing in modern times, the effects in that movie are incredible for being released so long ago! It provided the first stepping stone in the path leading to the amazing things that are created today.



Just as A Trip to the Moon set in motion the sci-fi genre and the production of special effects and animation, The Great Train Robbery, released in 1903 and directed, written, and produced by Edwin S. Porter, started the typical Western movie plotline that would be used again and again in the future. The bandits and the gunfights would make many more appearances in later movies, since the themes present in The Great Train Robbery would become very popular.

Both films don't seem nearly as impressive as movies released today, but the sheer amount of work, time, and effort that went into making the films appear as they do is just astounding to me. For example, most of the prints were hand-colored! Can you imagine spending hours and hours on coloring every single detail for each frame? Somehow they managed, and I believe their hard work was absolutely worth it.

Stop Motion Animation

I have always admired and been fascinated by stop motion animation.  The huge amount of time and effort that is put into such productions astounds and inspires me, and watching them makes me want to create my own someday.  I love the vibe I get from these animations - the noticeably jerky movements and flickers remind me of an old movie.

The embedded video is a stop motion animation I found called "Sweet Dreams" by Kirsten Lepore.  It follows the life of a cupcake who likes to build.  The cupcake's home is filled with sweets - both the building materials and the area's inhabitants.  The cupcake crafts a boat and sails across an ocean and ends up stranded on an island.  However, the cupcake discovers that there are more individuals living there, and learns that the buildings there are made of carrots and other vegetables.  The inhabitants are healthier foods too.  After the cupcake sails back home on a sailboat crafted by the island fruit- and veggie-people, there is a horrible flood that destroys the buildings made of sweets. The cupcake had been given carrot seeds and planted them earlier, and was able to build a carrot tower to save the sweets-people. From then on, all the buildings were made of vegetables.

I'm not sure what the message was exactly for this animation, if there was one at all, but besides a particular scene involving the cupcake and the cupcake's lover, I would totally use this to teach children that they should eat vegetables instead of sweets because the vegetables were shown to be the better choice.

Abelardo Morell

Upon first visiting the photographer Abelardo Morell's website, I was immediately drawn to the linked text titled 'Alice in Wonderland.'  That story has always been one of my absolute favorites and has often provided inspiration for me in the past, so I was very curious to see what Morell had done with it.  I was delighted to see the pictures he'd taken!  The black and white gave the photo collection a certain eeriness that many old tales have.  I loved how the cutouts of the characters as well as the position of the books made it seem like the story was coming alive, and that the characters were jumping off the pages into reality.

Blackface and Racism

When prejudice against the blacks was still very prevalent decades ago, minstrel shows were a form of entertainment for Americans.  These shows were stage performances that usually consisted of blackface, which was when white actors would paint themselves so they would resemble a black person.  Not only would they visually appear to be black, but they would over-emphasize their mannerisms and accent based on observations from actual black people, including slaves.  Their acting was dramatic to make a parody out of the black character they were portraying, but was considered entertaining and normal at the time.  Despite that, I find that it was really racist, and wouldn't be any less offensive if it was repeated in modern times.



Well... I found out that someone did do a modern blackface: Die Antwoord.  I had never heard of them before seeing this video, which was unsettling for me.  I found it pretty offensive, with the female rapper as a blackface but sporting animalistic eyes.  To me, this possibly symbolized how black people are not as 'developed' as the rest of us, and are more like animals.  Racism is not yet exterminated from society, so including blackface in something today like Die Antwoord did, especially in such an uncivilized manner, just isn't acceptable in my opinion.

Opera in Pop Culture

Perceptual vigilance is when the mind starts noticing something everywhere after learning about it. For example, now that I've watched and learned about opera in Art and Technology class, I'm realizing that it's in so many things! Opera is actually incorporated into many commercials or videos and movies in modern times, most often to have a dramatic effect or put emphasis on something.





When I searched for commercials that had opera in them, I was surprised to see numerous ones that I'd already seen before. I just had never put enough thought into them to realize that opera was such an important component in conveying whatever message the advertisement was showing. The embedded video above is one of the few commercials that I always found entertaining, but I was only ever entertained. I never thought deeper about the use of opera in the ad, until now.

Madama Butterfly; an Animation by Pjotr Sapegin

This animation starts off on a positive note, showing the love Madama Butterfly and the American sailor have for each other. When he sails off, she loyally waits for his return, although the stormy weather and darker colors suggest a happy ending may not be in her future.

I loved how the baby that results from her union with the sailor starts off as a fish in a bowl that is her belly, because that symbolized the oceanic nature of the father's job as a sailor and I found it very creative. Unfortunately, Madama Butterfly's happiness is short-lived.

After her baby grows a little as time passes, her lover returns to the island at last, only to show up with another woman and snatch away the child. As the umbilical cord tying mother to child is severed by the sailor, I could sense Madama Butterfly's physical and emotional agony as she is separated from her lover and baby. The sailor drives away - just as he had stolen and broken her heart, he stole the child and broke the bond they could've had.

In her despair, Madama Butterfly rips off her skin and reveals her wire armature, reflecting the surge of raw emotion being brought to the surface, before deconstructing her individual metal pieces. I didn't expect her to actually destroy herself in such a manner, and watching her do so was both morbidly fascinating and almost frightening.

I was left feeling empty and sad once the animation ended, but immediately replaced those feelings with relief that I have such a loving family. This video will certainly stay with me, because the knowledge that Madama Butterfly's life ended in the hopeless, helpless way that it did is haunting, and Pjotr Sapegin portrayed that excellently.

Setting Creativity in Motion with Raul Cuero

Raul Cuero is a successful microbiologist and inventor whose creativity stems from knowledge he gained from past experiences.

However, he wasn't always in such a good position. Cuero came from a poor family in Colombia, and despite being a skilled player in basketball, he faced discrimination and prejudice. Even so, he didn't let it affect him or get in the way of his goals, and I find this to be very vital in life. I personally have a problem with being unaffected by the views and opinions of others, and have to constantly remind myself that I shouldn't be so easily swayed. Hearing Cuero talk about how he didn't pay attention to the negativity encourages me to do the same, should I encounter anyone who doesn't believe in my dreams like I do. I feel that this should be the case for everyone. One of Cuero's students, Miguel Riberoas, mentioned that he believes that anyone can reach their dream if they work hard enough, a lesson he learned from Cuero himself.

As for creativity, one doesn't need to be an artist or rocket scientist to be able to come up with innovative ideas! According to Cuero, it's the ability to think as well as how nature is observed. Understanding one's own self and where he or she connects with the world is just as important.

Passion is also a necessary component for the ability to be creative. Without it, there would be no motivation to create anything new! I believe someone has to love what they do in order to grow and develop around it, and thus become capable of coming up with fresh ideas in their field.

Art vs. Design

I read a rather enlightening article written by Craig Elimeliah about the differences between art and design. I take both a design class and a drawing class this semester, and whenever I've asked what the difference was, I've found it difficult to respond with certainty. After reading the article, however, I'm confident that I'll be able to answer that question clearly!

According to Elimeliah, design is more like following a list of instructions or rules in order to achieve a certain desired goal. Art is coming up with new ideas and new ways of creating without being really influenced by techniques already used in the past, because doing so would be design.
Where design is construction, art is imagination.

Design is making, and art is creating.

Multimedia - Juan Carlos Delgado

Multimedia is simply defined as art that changes.

The artist Juan Carlos Delgado demonstrates an impressive understanding and execution of multimedia. Instead of just leaving a bronze sculpture's original appearance to be admired, Delgado refrigerates the room containing the bust. The cold temperature reacts with the bronze material, causing ice to 'grow' and collect on the surface of the sculpture. However, instead of completely covering the bust, the layers of ice develop in such a way that the features of the girl are preserved and recognizable.

Before...

...After!

The changes that the bronze bust experiences over time reflects what it truly means to be multimedia.
Check out the project's webpage!

I used to think multimedia only meant being made up of different materials. After learning about multimedia in class and reading about Delgado's 'experiment' of sorts, everything is much clearer now and all the more fascinating.

Introduction

Oh, hello.

My name is Nina Rivera, and I'm from Tampa, Florida. I'm a freshman in college and an aspiring artist who adores drawing stylized animals, specifically deer, horses, and canines with an occasional otherworldly creature thrown into the mix. My preferred medium is actually the digital art program Adobe Photoshop CS 6 Extended, even though I enjoy traditional art too. The vast majority of the animals featured in my art have individual designs, names, personalities, and histories that are usually made up by myself. As a result, I often refer to them as 'characters' because they are not drawn once and then forgotten - a lot of them have multiple images, sometimes featuring a scene from their past or reflecting a certain personality trait.
As much as I would love to just open a gallery and make a living out of selling my art, in reality I probably wouldn't be able to make enough money to survive. However, linking my love for art to another one of my fascinations - psychology - and transforming it into art therapy is a possibility I've been considering. Psychology has been a strong interest of mine for years, especially psychological disorders due to experiences I've had and things I've read about online and researched.

As for my Art and Technology class with Professor Echeverry, I was blown away by the huge variety of topics we will be discussing and learning about this semester. I had no idea it would be so extensive and go over such a range of subjects! I'll admit I was intimidated at first. After seeing how enthusiastic Professor Echeverry was about everything though, I feel more excited about the class and am looking forward to learning as much as I can.

Honestly, I came into the class without a clue of what to expect. Once I saw the outline of what we will be covering, I'm expecting a barrage of enlightening information and to come out of the class as a very well-rounded and informed individual. I also intend to use the things I learn as complements to my other art classes.