Video Art: Fire

5 Artists That Were Left Out

Disco: The Village People

House: Cassius

Dubstep: Hardwell 

Girl Power: Spice Girls

DJ Culture: Adventure Club

Massive Attack

This song Angel, by Massive Attack is very beautifully done. The way the video and the music coincide, makes the viewer feel that they were each made for each other, not just one then the other. After hearing the song I began to wonder what exactly the softly sung lyrics meant. After researching this I believe that they are about a almost love hate relationship, something beautiful that can also destroy. The way the song is put together is very rhythmic and almost hypnotic to listen to.

This song by Massive Attack named Teardrop is interesting, beautiful, and a bit creepy. Again as in Angel the lyrics are sung in a very soft melodic voice, paired with a very rhythmic background the music becomes very soothing and hypnotic. When this sound is paired with the video however, it becomes something else entirely. I personally spent much more time paying attention to what was going on on the screen than really listening to what was being sung. 

UK Underground and the Smiths

Above is a picture of The Smiths, what some call one of the greatest bands of all time. The Smiths, formed in 1982, sang in a whole new genera of music. A genera known as the UK Underground was the birthplace for this band. These boys along with others began to sing about the way things were around them. There songs reflected the feelings of many young people at the time, and not just in the UK but everywhere. Lyrics such as the following, "There's a club if you'd like to go, you could meet somebody who really loves you. But you go and you stand on your own and you leave on your own and you go home and you cry and you want to die." from the song How Soon is Now? reflect a darkness of the generation, and it was something a lot of people were feeling. 

TR 808

Here are some examples of music that relied heavily on the TR 808, pictured below.

Video Art

http://vimeo.com/13362364
I find the above video so fun to watch. I think it is clever and engaging. I love the use of the real world and a pixaleted world, but with popular video games that make it fun to watch. Its as if they are taking over.
http://vimeo.com/1785993
This video was extremely interesting to me. The first time I watched it I was not sure if what I was viewing was real life, or small models. I then researched the method of filming used which I discovered is called shift and tilt. I had never heard of this before, but I love the effect.
http://vimeo.com/1766652
This video uses a method I have heard of before, called stop motion. I find it interesting that an example of what a day is, took eleven days to photograph.

Video Mapping

When we watched examples of video mapping in class I thought it was pretty incredible what people could project onto different surfaces. These projections were all incredible, but I never even thought about what could be done with the human body, this is amazing.

Here is an example of video mapping being done on a sculpture. Since video mapping was originally shown to me on structures such as large buildings, I find the use of unique bases for the video to be projected onto very interesting. 

What I find so incredible about this example is the amazingly believable textures that they are able to create on a completely smooth surface. 

Video Game Revolution

While watching this film I began to realize a trend that began with the popularity of the first video game, competitiveness. Video games satisfy the competitive nature of humans, thus giving them immense popularity. These games also satisfies humans in another way, imagination.  While playing people can travel to far away places, become famous athletes, commit crimes, and save the day. I also am completely baffled by a lot of what I heard when they are interviewing gamers at the GD Convention. A what looked to be twelve year old boy was talking specs on his computer and it sounded like greek to me. What is also amazing is the clout that some of the video game creators had, for example the man who helped create the Atom bomb being the creator of an early tennis video game.

Sheryl Oring: Dear Mr. President

 Above is a picture of Sheryl Oring, an artist who is doing something interesting and big. Sheryl sets up a booth, and armed with a type writer she invites people to come and say what they wish to say to the President. They speak and she types, she then packages these letters and sends them to the White House. The project titled "I wish to say" came from a concern that not enough people had a chance to have their voice heard by the powers at be. On her website http://www.sheryloring.org/index.php you can view this and all of Sheryl's projects. Under this particular project you can view by state the letters people have been able to send thanks to Sheryl. These letters are not just political attacks and complaints as one might think they would go, but they are the genuine concerns of the people that make up the nation. I find this project extremely interesting and found the letters to be engrossing. You can feel the humanity coming from the people who are sending them. This is something that I think can be considered as real as it gets.

Commercial vs. Propaganda

I think that in their most basic definitions lies the difference between commercial advertising and propaganda. While both are used to pursued the viewer, they are not both used for exactly the same purpose. The persuasive tools used in advertising and commercials have the intent to sell a product to the consumer. Propaganda on the other hand is not selling a product but is selling a message. Both of these tools want the views to buy into whatever they are promoting, but the essential difference lies in weather or not the thing being promoted is a tangible item for sale, or a way of thinking. I believe that where a gray area comes into play is when advertisers use methods such as emotional appeal in their commercials in order to promote their product. The question then is are they really selling the product or are they selling a way they want you to think about a product or a company. This is where the idea of commercials and propaganda begin to mesh over one another. Above is an example of a commercial using emotional appeal. Is it the product they are selling or a feeling?

Triumph of the Nerds: "Middle class white kids from good suburban homes"

What caught my attention right from the begining is when the narrator states the the only girl at the electronic shop looks board, and that this is a boys thing. I thought that was a very interesting statement.  Form then what was interesting to me was the hours that these people work. It seems that sleep is something that isn't even a thought. They also don't punch any sort of normal time clock, or have any sort of normal habits such as social life, hygiene, and nutrition. These things seem to all get in the way of making major developments in the coding world. 

I could not imagine how nervous young Paul and Bill would have been the first time bringing software out to a company without any guarantee that it was going to run. Luckily for them it did. The next incredible thing is how quickly Apple grew and how young the people working and owning the company were. These young people were so lucky to have this be their hobby, something they love that was creating such an incredible income. What is shocking to me next is a IBM song book…really ? I think that takes how they have been talking about nerds to a next level. The way they portray the company is like a fraternity for men once they leave collage. This is just a fraternity that is making some of the most advanced technology of its day.  The next incredible thing mentioned is how Microsoft bought the ground breaking product that they needed from a little computer company for only $50,000. I bet that today, whoever at that small computer company that made that deal, is really kicking themselves for not asking for more. Another aspect that was interesting was when it was mentioned that the computers were hard to use and not so much for the every day person, because the people creating them enjoyed things that were challenging to them, they were not looking at it from the view point of the average person with little to no programing skills. The amount of work that had to go into simple tasks on the personal computer, made it much to difficult and unappealing to the average person. 

When they bring Steve Jobs into the film, it is incredible how instantly obvious it is that Jobs was so much more charismatic than Bill Gates. Bill Gates stands in front of a crowd looking like your typical computer geek, Steve Jobs presents himself in a self confident manner that attracts people to him and his company. Then came on of the most famous advertisements to ever go on air, why 1984 wont be like 1984, although this did not change much for the company at the time, this commercial is still looked at in the advertising world as one of the most iconic commercials. Windows 3 user-friendly new design put Mac on the bottom shelf. The future of the computer and these computer geeks can't be predicted, but as the technology grows there is nothing but big things in the future. 

War of the Worlds

Orson Wells War of the Worlds broadcast was not something I thought I would be interested in at first. I have seen the movie adaptation of the story and found it to be an okay sic fi film that relied on a lot of special effects, action, and things blowing up. This broadcast on the other hand was much more engaging than I had thought it would be. I chose to listen to the broadcast while walking my dog. At first I expected to kind of tune it out and have it be a background noise to our walk. But while i continued to listen, the exact opposite happened. The walk became more of a background for the broadcast I was listening to. The way the broadcast is presented is so believable that I found myself completely absorbed by it, and I realized I had been paying little to no attention to where I was walking.  I believe that one of the most successful elements of this story is how they had, other public officials make announcements to the people throughout the broadcast. It was not just the radio host reporting, having people in positions of authority address the public makes it that much more believable.

"If it's not an advertisement then what is it"?

Xerox Project

A dogs reaction to a photocopied 

version of myself replacing 

my actual self in an everyday situation. 

Persuasive Games

http://persuasivegames.com

I love the idea behind persuasive games! I think that the things that the games teach should be something people are already aware of, but since that is sadly not the case this teaching tool is a great idea. I think that the general population would be much more informed if they played these games. These games have the ability of making what might not seen interesting to the average person not only interesting, but fun, and accessible. This website challenges the idea that video games have had nothing but a negative impact on society, these games are a call to action, to make people more aware and more educated. 

A Clock Work Orange and Singing in the Rain

The song, Singing in the Rain, would not be what you would expect to hear in a movie such as A Clock Work Orange. With ultra violence, rape, and crime, the song does not seem to go hand in hand with the movie itself. But the director choose to keep the song, and it was a very interesting decision. In the clip, the main character, Alex, and his gang are destroying a house and raping the woman of the house just for sport. All while this is going on Alex is belting out Singing in the Rain. This may seem random but it is actually the only song that the actor playing Alex knew all the way through by heart. The actor knowing the song by heart meant that he would not have to concentrate on remembering the lyrics of a different song, while also acting out a challenging scene. The overall casualness of the song lyrics and melody, contrasted with the violence of the scene also give the audience an extremely uneasy feeling while watching.

Electroacoustic Music and Multimedia Concert

Mark Snyder's music was very interesting. I would not say that I found the first part of it particularly engaging, I often found myself fighting with my eyes to stay open. My favorite part was the end when he included a harp and some vocals. That portion I found very beautiful. What Mark's music reminded me of was eerie background music in a horror movie. I think that the electronic portion of the music is what added to this kind of cinematic element. All in all I found the concert interesting, but not something I could find myself listening to on a daily basis.

Flip Book

A Trip to the Moon

A Trip to the Moon mostly reminded me of watching a filmed play rather than a movie. It was still amazing though that for the time period they were able to include basic special effects. The scenes were designed to create a false sense of depth. I could imagine how the audience would have been wowed at the time, with relatively smooth transitions and effects where the film was cut and something on stage changed looked somewhat believable. I think this, for the time, is very whimsical and forward thinking film for science fiction. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk

Wicked! Behind the Emerald City

   As someone who has seen Wicked three times this documentary was very interesting for me to watch.  What was very intriguing was the emphasis on collaboration. The play needed multiple leaders to come together and take charge of the various aspects of the work in order for everything to work cohesively. I can only imagine how it would have been to be Joe Mantello, who had never directed a a play of this size. The pressure could have been overwhelming, but the approach he took to the directing process was unique and successful.  I found it especially interesting that he tried to come into each day with a clean slate. So that he was unbiased from the performance from the day before, and took the directing from there. It becomes relevant that in order for a musical of this magnitude to be successful it is a whole effort, that everyone in the production, and every element of the final product have to be working together.

South Pacific, The National Anthem, & Why Racism is Still a Problem in the U.S.

Every year one of my favorite parts about watching the Super Bowl is getting to see all of the commercials that are being putting out during it. There were many commercials that had me laughing and some that were very touching. But when I saw the commercial by Coca Cola, featuring the National Anthem, sung in many different languages in everywhere across the nation. I found this commercial extremely moving and beautiful, something more advertising should try to display. It came as a shock to me when we were told in class that this commercial had been receiving negative feed back. It is amazing to me that people can remain so narrow minded in a country that takes pride in over coming racisms and being open to all people. The comparison between this commercial and the 1949 musical South Pacific are vast. South Pacific took a bold leap for it's time in pairing interracial couples and mixed ethnicity children. Audiences were shocked, but sometimes shock is what people need. This Coca Cola commercial is the first to have the country's anthem sung by an array of languages and featured all types of people, even a featuring gay parents, a boundary pushing move for today. The responses to the commercial were vast, some, like myself, praised the commercial for being beautiful and moving, while some, criticized it and bashed it as un-American. The idea that if you live in America you should speak "American" is just ridiculous, and people should not be allowed to live a life with such a narrow view. It is mind sets like these that hold this country back, while other countries encourage and even require their children to be educated in multiple languages, while here in America there a people encouraging a lack of world view and narrow mindedness.

Madama Butterfly

I found the animation for this to be a bit creepy. The overall feel of the ten minute movie was dark and sad. I think that this was largely to do with the lighting and the background music. I think that the music accompanied the actions in the film perfectly especially at the end when there was sadness, loss, and hopelessness. I found the choice to keep the child attached to the mother until she was ripped away by the new family made the scene that much more powerful and sad. Overall the whole animation came to a tragic, but fitting end. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E387c5RAhK4#t=26

The Birth and Life of Opera

From the start of the film on opera I found it very interesting that opera was thought of by a group that met to discuss topics like astronomy, literature, and philosophy. I find it intriguing how opera was born from those topics. While continuing to watch the film I was amazed at the portion where they show the hidden attic room at the palace in Mantua. I can only imagine the excitement of finding a hidden room when I'm sure the organization that keeps the buildings restored has been there for while. The possibilities of what they learned from the things discovered in the room and from the meaning of the room itself. Continuing on I liked the distinction they made between a musical and an Opera, telling that simple lines in the piece, in a musical would be spoken, while in an opera they are sung, I didn't realize until it was said that this does in fact have a much less melodramatic effect. I was also interested and unaware that it is hard on the voice to switch continuously from speaking to singing. Mozart made a leap in Opera when, in order to broach contreversial topics he brought them to the stage. It was an extremely intelligent way to get the audience he wanted to see the topics see it, and pay for it where they normally would refuse to.
       

Thoughts on Raul Cuero PhD

It is amazing to me whenever I hear a story about someone triumphing over diversity, and taking a hard background and using it to become something better. One of the most interesting things that Dr. Cuero said during this interview was that while in collage everyone told him he was wrong, that he did not speak well enough, that he did not dress the right way, ect. Instead of giving up or getting mad he took these insults in stride, and used them to better himself. I think that is an amazing quality for any person to have. The ability to not react negatively when negativity is thrust upon you is an amazing thing. I also like his idea that because he came from having nothing he was forced by nature to become a creative thinker, and that children now growing up with technology, not interacting with nature as much are less creative. I have to say I strongly agree with this as a child who was outside from the moment I woke up until dinner time. It amazes me when I see children under 15 with a cell phone in there hand, and not just any old flip phone, these kids have $400.00 iPhones. I can't imagine what they could really need that for especially at an age where if they didn't have the phone they could be entreating themselves with sticks and mud. Using there creativity to create a fort or imaginary land, but those ideas will never develop for the kids with lots of technology because they have no need for them, and thats sad.

Juan Carlos Delgado

Reading about the North Room exhibit was interesting and would have been something I would have liked to experience. I think that the use of ice could have varying meanings. There is the beauty in the ice covered sculptures, and something exquisite about the idea of the ice preserving and encasing them. But at the same time I found myself feeling sad as I looked at images of the child bust being slowly engulfed in ice, like if it were somehow possible for that child bust to be slowly dying.

Oculus Rift

For me, an avid movie watcher I find the idea of the oculus very interesting. I can only imagine the level of emotion you would get from the experience of being immersed in a film. On the one hand I think it would be an incredible journey and could remaster the way we watch film or play games. On the other hand I wonder if it would on some levels take away from my cinematic experience. Part of the reason I love watching movies, at home or at a theater, is to enjoy them with friends or family. Being able to share popcorn, whisper about what I think will happen next, or ask a question when I am totally lost is one of the things I enjoy most. I think it would be an interesting experience to be sitting next to someone, both of you with screens over your eyes, I think I would feel very disconnected from the person I was sharing the film with.

Deus Ex Machina

The first example of Deus ex Machina that I found was the claw in the movie Toy Story. 
This machine comes down on the small alien toys and "saves" them, bringing them to a different life.

     Source:   http://www.lbgale.com/2012/04/25/ten-unforgettable-deus-ex-machina-moments-in-science-fiction-and-fantasy/#.Uuk88xYZBnI



The second example of Deus ex Machina can be found in the movie classic, The Wizard of Oz. This happens when Dorothy can just magically get out of Oz by clicking her heels, just when she thought she would never be able to return home. 

    Source:://www.filmschoolrejects.com/opinions/the-top-7-movies-with-cop-out-endings-sb.php




The third example of Deus ex Machina is found in 
War of the Worlds, when after days of terror and
 invasion the aliens suddenly start to die off because
 they can not survive the bacteria that live on earth. 

Source: http://www.lbgale.com/2012/04/25/ten-unforgettable-deus-ex-machina-moments-in-science-fiction-and-fantasy/#.UulIXRYZBnI