kathleennyoung-blog

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Project #4

For this performance, I wanted to get across the idea of a struggle. Although this particular kind of struggle is created and suffered by the wearer of the shoes, it is not an easy feat. It is a sort of metaphor for creating your own problems and then trying to live with them as they continuously make it harder to move forward. There is an amount of determination it takes to continue a walk like this through grass with heels on but, if you had just worn flats there wouldn’t be a problem in the first place. I decided to take the 1 minute video and speed it up so that I could play it backward too. If I had done this performance in real life I would have worn a fancy dress to go with the sparkly heels. I would have walked forward for a specific length and then walked backward. The walking backward is supposed to symbolize a backtrack from the struggle back to the beginning so that changes can be made in order for the struggle to be lessened. 

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Project #2 - Loop (with critique)

I chose to do my 10 gifs for this project on the movie Office Space. In this scene, there is a slow motion interaction between the three employees who are installing a virus into their company’s computer system to get revenge for being laid off, as well as a lot of money. It is one of my favorite movies and I thought these gifs spelled out the scene extremely well and are all VERY meme worthy at the same time. Each one of these could be used separately or together in social media. The movie itself is a work of art and it was a lot of fun putting these together for this assignment. My favorite one is the first one… it could be used in so many ways! I just felt this was a great way to tell a story without describing what is happening and the audience members would still get a pretty rough to good idea.

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Project #4: To Erase

For my final project I wanted to use mirrors as a form of looking into yourself, in a physical manner but also mentally. The idea is that what you see sometimes is not the real you, because others have instilled this idea in your head of what you should be. To hide the mirror and erase what society has brought upon you (like for this video, make up) and see the real you is something everyone should step back and do once in a while. Even for myself making this, putting on the amount of make up I did is not something I am used to, and I couldn’t wait to take it off to be honest. 

So while the basic idea of this video is that your looks don’t define you, it is more so a point to prove that who you are is what you want to be, whatever can make you smile. There have been a few times in my life where I wanted to erase who I was because of something I wasn’t proud of. Luckily, you can usually erase those moments are still be you inside. Kind of like the idea that everyone has skeletons in the closet/no one is perfect. The point of revealing myself in the mirror bare faced is to express that that is the way I’d prefer to be to the world. The story could mean something else to someone different. This type of example has been shown in many ways and I appreciate that because it helps people see it. 

I wanted to erase what was expected of me and show who I really am. 

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Exercise #3

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Marina Abramovic- The Artist is Present

I truly enjoyed this film documentary since it did such a good job of laying out Abramovic’s past and present art. I have previously seen the short clip where Marina looks up at Ulay at her art exhibit and was so touched by it. It was cool to see the full details of how that entire performance came to play and her past and everything that Ulay brought to her with their art. 

If one were to see her performance art without having prior knowledge to anything about it they might be confused; but in my opinion it does not take long to wrap your head around the ideas she is portraying. Feminists, traditionalists, and newcomers alike could all benefit from the aspects of her art. I appreciate performance art because while it is usually rehearsed, the thoughts and feelings performed are in real time and it helps the audience understand what is going on in that moment. There is not a lot of time to gather thoughts when you have to react to what is going on right in front of you so whatever is being felt is really honest. 

Honesty and vulnerability are two characteristics that I think should be felt when it comes to art, specially performance art. To strip someone naked (sometimes quite literally) of physical materialistic things and show the human for what it truly is can be a remarkable experience. Reason being is that everyone takes it for something different. An example of that would be the different reactions while staring at Marina during her performance of The Artist is Present. Some cried, some smiled, one woman even tried to be naked to be vulnerable with her. Performance art provokes powerful human emotions. 

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Project #3- Vanishing and Becoming

This is a combination of a Charles Bukowski poem The Laughing Heart and the rhythm that is night and day (and night again). 

The meaning for me, is how each day begins the circle of life. The night will bring on the day which brings light to the world and keeps it spinning. When I think of the sun vanishing into the horizon as nightfall is brought to us, it is a time to reflect on the time that has passed. The life that is created. The moments that are captured. This is not to say that darkness does not bring any of these magical events, because it can do just the same. The projection of light gives life on earth the power to grow. “Tomorrow is a new day.” Nature thrives on this more than any human being ever could. 

This poem was fitting for me for the idea of nature and light/dark movements throughout time lapses. It gives me a sort of inspiring outlook of the world, and I hope it gives others the same feelings.

“you can’t beat death but you can beat death in life, sometimes. and the more often you learn to do it, the more light there will be.”

“Light” doesn’t always have to be a physical attribute. It can be an illusion in our minds towards further progression. We have to use light to capture the image of someone, whether that be their photograph, silhouette, or simply their face in our mind. Without light, we wouldn’t be able to see them for who they are physically. However mentally, the light is the notion of a positive perception in our brains to discover how we want to perceive life. Is that our way of reality? Maybe every human mind see’s something different than the other but we will never know. An illusion to one could be the real thing to another. It’s all relative.

(Videos used were of 4k footage of different areas around the world)

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Exercise #3- Rise of the Legend X The Clash

There were so many ideas that came to mind but I didn’t take too long on this to focus on Project #3 the most. Simple but kind of made the scene a little less intense and more fun. With the music added it reminded me of a Kill Bill feel, too. I had a couple other more intense options, but again wanted to keep it light hearted! Being a film major I could go on and on making these fun videos, but I know the point of this exercise was to simply show that I could make a video in premiere, edit, and export. I cut the clip somewhat and had to adjust the audio so it fit better for the end of the scene to stop with a break in music. 

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Good insight on this, definitely helped me figure out more meaning to some of the ideas. I think Cubitt had the right idea that we have only scratched the surface of projection and because of that how exciting to be able to discover more for the future!

Vanishing and Becoming

In Vanishing and Becoming by Sean Cubitt the author begins with exploring the origins of art. Through a deeper exploration of these origin stories he comes to a conclusion that projection and light are the first art medium. In the Buddhist story about the origin of art the artist who is to do the Buddha’s portrait can not do so because of the“enlightened glow” of the Buddha. He is then instructed by the Buddha to paint his reflection from a “limpid pool”.  Cubitt draws parallels in both the greek and buddhist stories and finds that both suggest that art began with projection, whether it is the Buddha’s reflection or a maiden of Cornith’s lover’s silhouette projected on to the wall.

Cubitt draws from Plato’s simile of the cave and Gorky’s land of shadows,  to examine projection and what is says about reality. In the cave there is a fear of the projection because it is an illusion and that people will mistake the illusion for reality. In Gorky’s land of shadows he told us how the gray world of cinema was a place with no life and was a place where we were “deprived” of colors.

Cubitt believes that projection is much more than this simulation of reality. He finds that projection metaphorically helps us understand the world and each other and that it will inevitably lead to new ways of seeing. He finds that we have only scratched the surface of projection as a medium.

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I LOVE this! The feel of it makes me think of an intro to a movie that is mysterious and not what you expect it to be. The tempo of the song went really well with the scenes you used from the movie... definitely sassy and sexy. Great job!

Exercise #3-

I had a lot of fun with this exercise and it really got me thinking about the relationship between images and sound. There were several ideas swimming around in my head but when I saw this video, it was perfect!  Next, I had to think about what kind of music would flow well and project a different feeling than the original. This beautiful piece from Fantasia, had more of a shy and subdued feel but I wanted to make it sassy and sexy.  This classic song is by Sarah Vaughan, “Whatever Lola Wants.”  I paired it with the Fantasia clip while splicing and adding a few clips here and there to add to the tempo and fill in boring gaps. I also added a color adjustment.  Enjoy!    

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Response to Vanishing and Becoming

“My first, and perhaps most important comment is that we are at the very beginning of understanding how projection might work. If as I believe, it is a hugely significant metaphor in the ways we understand our relationships with the world and with each other, then these formal permutations are potentially a great road towards making new ways of seeing.”

From Cubitt’s “Vanishing and Becoming”, the paragraph above hit me as the summary for the main idea of what it all means. There were so many tangents in this piece of writing, but I can see how they all kind of merge together. The discussion about how media types can influence one’s perception of the world by illuminating individual elements was a key point. It is easy for all of us to believe in habitual patterns as being an accurate representation of the world as it is, when in actuality things can be more complex.  Communication is key, but in communication some information is always excluded, and I think one of the most important questions in anything is, “What information is being left out?” It’s how we progress. Cubitt’s discussion of different forms of projection other than the standard rectangular projection on a white wall or an image emanating from a T.V. screen as being an untapped resource was intriguing, and I think the evolution of projection will absolutely influence the way we view our relationship to both the human and non-human world. There are quite a few perspectives to the idea of what it is to have light, projection, color, and how it relates to life, or the illusion of life. I enjoyed how he discusses what is considered “real” and not but that even that way of thinking can still be abstract/different to every person. In addition to that is the spirituality concept. 

Because of this class I have discovered I am not the best at looking at art in an abstract way, but am trying my best to be open minded and think this class also helps with that. 

Side note: A quote that got me thinking (and still has me thinking) is: “The world we see is but a reflection of a reality that escapes its reflections...” Maybe some of my fellow classmates can give me their insight on what they think of that sentence. 

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Project #2

Movie 1

Movie 2

For this project I chose two different movies that I really enjoy, both are French films, for this I wanted to show the expressions of people during various acts and situations. For example the last one, it is after he has taken a shot of this very nasty alcohol, while his wife has just passed out. The first movie is Taxi (1-4), the scenes represent the absurdity of these cops, and the crazy things they do. This should be significant because most of them are basic human reactions, its a daily life event with which we pay little attention to, as well as the absurdities like the flying cars, and the ninja scene of the movie. Although I doubt a lot of us jump into a trash collector from a highway, but I thought the scene was funny and the GIF made me laugh. For this project the hardest thing was trying to slow down the gifs, they are much faster on Tumblr then on Photoshop, and I couldn’t figure out how to change them. My original thought was one movie, but I couldn’t find enough clips that I would have liked to use for these. 

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Project 1

For this project I wanted to create a dreamy passing of time. The moon cycles through the night show the passing of time. I used photos of the mountains as I am from Colorado and love the mountains. I also used time lapse photos of the moon. By combining these using layer masks and different types of effects for each image I think I met the dreamy otherworldly feel I was looking for. 

The types of Post Modernism this could be attributed to would be layering in the sense that I am taking two photos that don’t go together and melding them together and simulation as the images show what could be real life only tweaked to be more dramatic. 

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Project #2- GIF Series

I chose to use a Daft Punk video for this project because it has such a unique style to it and there are so many different motions. The choreographed dances in combination with the costumes and lighting makes for a really cool series of different graphics. I think the lighting in all of them are my favorite part. It was easier to find/create fluid motion GIFs for this post since I had a better understanding of how to create them/the art behind the idea in general. Creating a series of GIFs following the first exercise has helped me develop a sense of how they should flow better. A successful flow of repetition in a GIF can be what makes it great. Since this is still a new medium for me and I use premiere rather than photoshop 99% of the time, I can see that I am still a bit rusty on certain aspects however. I also figured out that less is more (for frames) typically. If someone were to see these GIFs, but not have watched the original Around the World music video, I would believe they could pick up that the story is a dance party with unique characters involved. 

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Cool gif series!

GIF #4 If you dig it, share it…

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This was my first attempt at making a GIF. I had to ad a .1 second delay because it was too fast. These squids are from the credits of the movie Sing which my roommates baby has been obsessed with for the last month. Cant get this song out of my head.

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Inspired by old episodes of The Twilight Zone, one of my go-to shows to watch when I can’t sleep, I began seeking out print advertising from the early 1960s and found an archive of highly stylized works done by Charles Schridde for Motorola televisions and record players. It seemed in these paintings that entire households were arranged around the television or music player, whereas today, while most rooms in most homes have a television, we���re mostly entertained by and focused on our mobile devices. I therefore have taken those being entertained in the 1960s and their devices outdoors. Is it the size of the devices, that they’re outdoors, or that the individuals involved are focused on the entertainment instead of the space around them that make these scenes absurd? Or is it that they aren’t looking at iPhones?

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Exercise #2- Make a GIF

This is from the music video Get Right to It ft. Ashe by Louis the Child. I love the color scheme and overall theme of the video which is why I chose it. Biggest tip to anyone else if yours won’t play- Tumblr only allows GIFs under 1mb... so make it tiny (mine is 300 x 169)