all night homework binge

As sad as it is to admit, I am starting my final essay tonight. Ideas have bouncing around in my head for the last 2 weeks of course, but tonight is the night for implementation. My thesis statement involves sexuality and video as related to 3 pieces that we watched this semester: Sadie Benning's "If Every Girl Had a Diary," Lisa Steele's "Birthday Suit: With Scars and Defects," and Jennifer Montgomery's "Age 12:Love With a Little l." All three are in different formats and have different uses and representations of female sexuality. Steele uses sexuality not for what it is, but how it represents a nakedness of consciousness, a vulnerability. Benning uses sexuality, but not explicitly in her video. It's ironic because I felt Benning had the strongest impact in her presentation through direct confrontation and conversation. Other artists like Montgomery use jarring images of sexuality and eroticism, yet fail to impact as much as Benning's stare and earnest speech. Montgomery used shock tactics in attempt to create an emotional disturbance. These variations in approach indicate the powerful presence human sexuality holds, even in the experimental realm. I'm excited to write this paper for fleshing out my opinions and insight on such a provocative subject. I'm not excited to write this paper because I'm not sure I can do such a subject justice. Only time will tell.

information age

Kerri's presentation on internet, film, and media was probably the most applicable class session to my major. As a DIVAS major, interactivity between artist and user, as well as between different artistic mediums, are important topics of discussion. It's exciting to be apart of something so culturally relevant and groundbreaking. Every skill I'm learning right now is going to equip me with endurance and innovation to create the science fiction future we've hoped for all along. Robots, complex databases, and saving the world were only dreams of yesterday, but now we've built our superpowers. We're living science non-fiction.

With final project well underway, I've had to conceptualize many projects, based on the integration of various media forms. Particularly applicable to Monday's lecture is my Web Design final project. I'm using various containers comprised of Iframes in order to create a varying visual representation of something that's important to me--drums. Each container will have photographs that will change when clicked. There will also be audio. Each click will result in a different audio loop, creating a similar effect to the interactive orchestra that was demonstrated in class. Except I'm not capable of such a complex interface yet! I don't know how to use Flash yet, but am excited to take a couple classes in the fall specifically focused on multimedia for the web. I do use After Effects extensively in my coursework and I found its applications to web media very compelling.

What's in the future for web media? Film? Any art form? The digital age has so many exciting and unknown things on the horizon that will seem elementary when we look back 20 years from now. The information age is overwhelming, but I can't help but be a part of it.

Sharton Lockhart

Sharon Lockhart's film was difficult to watch. Her work was introduced as "durational," reminiscent of Michael Snow or Nathaniel Dorskey's work, of the ethnographic genre. The film we were shown today (I did not catch the name!!) was filmed while Lockhart was in Japan. There was one setting that comprised the entire aesthetic: a gymnasium with a stage. The progression of the film was defined by the movements of the Japanese students' movement, mimicking that of children marching, playing gym games, or sometimes just organized, rhythmic movement.

The most striking element about Lockhart's work was her composition. This is where Dorskey's influence was quite obvious. Her slow, thoughtful consideration of the subject matter demanded the same intellectual processing as Dorskey's slow examination of "variations." Though Lockhart's background remained constant, her characters and movement provided a means of measuring progress over time. The movement was slow, very poetic. Her shots and transformations over time were purposeful and very structured. Michael Snow's theory of control and accessibility drove the artistic decisions behind the movement. Her shots were simple and controlled, providing a means to put all of the audience on the same level.

Two mediums she used to accomplish this were rhythmic structures and dance movement. Though the film subjects were reflecting common activities that take place in gymnasiums, the movement was very artistic and intentional. The driving rhythm structured the movement, creating a very contained, disciplined motion that demanded a vague sense of plot, yet transcended cultural boundaries through music and created an engaging, and in many ways, interactive experience.

I enjoyed the static nature of the background contrasted with the foreground movements. This technique eliminated any distractions, and developed a very focused attention to the movement progression of the subjects. At some points, even the foreground subjects were static, and arranged in a unique manner, creating a pleasing composition.

Lockhart called referred to her practices as durational. I agree, but would go even further to describe her work and include the technical control of all elements. Although her film that was screened in class was very tiring and sometimes difficult to focus all the controlled elements into a processed scope of interest, it opened a very fascinating window into technical mastery.

Hamilton

Yesterday's viewing of Matthew Porterfield's Hamilton was a provocative experience for me. As I watched the majority of the film, I was engaged by the obscurity of the character relationships, dysfunctional situations, and melancholy disposition of all personalities. I don't think there was one instance of laughter in the entire film! Nothing seemed to tie together until one particular scene: the church scene. Throughout the film, I watched Joe, one of the characters, ignore his mother, depend on vices, and fight responsibility, unable to see how these traits contributed to the plot development...but they were in fact THE driving force of the unfolding plot. Although the majority of the relationships did not require more specification, one relationship did need defining: between Joe and his girlfriend. It was not until the scene where Joe's previously introduced girlfriend gets up with the crying baby to comfort it did I realize what Joe was running from, or perhaps fighting. He was a young father, uncomfortable with where he got himself in life. His girlfriend was probably not the girl for him and he is probably not emotionally mature enough to handle the burdens of fatherhood. Particular scenes supporting these assumptions include Joe's constant smoking instead of taking on responsibility such as putting away the groceries, his roaming to the bar to drink and smoke, his late night video game distractions, and his apathy towards his baby crying, invoking his mother's silent disapproval.

Joe's relationship with his mother is quite fascinating. His mother seems to express disappointment in Joe's situation, but also disappointment in herself for being essentially a failure at being a mother. She doesn't even attempt to speak to him. All communication is accomplished through looks of disapproval, awkwardness, and sadness at the current state of affairs. Their relationship represents the teen angst phenomenon that has gone too far. Joe has made mistakes that teenagers often fall victim to, such as smoking or teen pregnancy, but his mother has alienated him too much beyond repair, at least in the segment we witness.

An observation brought up at the end of class regarding the different age groups being representing really fascinated me. The entire spectrum of life was represented from babies, small children, teenagers, young mothers, older mothers, and finally, grandmothers. This indicated that perhaps Joe's struggles with manhood may have been a driving force in the film, but a comprehensive examination of all stages and roles of life was also an important plot structure.

The last scene of Joe and the younger boy riding bikes was a conflicting yet perfect ending for the film. Was Joe being presenting as still being a boy, riding his bike with young boys, or was he being representing as a parent? A parent whom would soon be teaching his own boy how to ride a bike? Maybe the scene was implying that despite Joe's struggles, he would be able to overcome his personal conflict and be a successful parent. On the other hand, the scene could have been magnifying his will to stay young and manifesting his immaturity that comes with being a young adult, still desperately clinging to the last threads of youth. Personally, I think that dichotomy was the intention of the filmmaker.

One final thought I would like to discuss is the film's aesthetic. I loved it. To me, the film's life quality was what brought the film's impact home for me. To this moment, I'm not sure of the date of the film or what time period was being depicted. For me, it resonated as the early 1990's, the same time period where I was growing up as a young child. The primitive nintendo system, the clothes, and the aesthetic of the cars, buildings, and technology all brought me back to a small house in the Rosholt, WI countryside, swinging on our family's swingset in the backyard in neon stretch pants as my dad returned home from work in his giant brown Oldsmobile. There was a breaking point were I was completely enveloped by this medium, and the swingset scene accomplished it. Beautiful work.

gender, sexuality, and video

Jennifer Montgomery's presentation today was really interesting. Her 2nd piece of work (I don't recall the names of any of these pieces at this point...) delved into very provocative subject matter that was simultaneously striking and disturbing. The work chronicled coming of age and female sexuality, as well as the issue of control. Not only did it deal with sexuality in a general term but seemed to focus on unconventional sexual fantasies and explorations that are often kept quiet within the boundaries of acceptable conversation. Society is more accepting of the discussion of male sexuality, whether it's because of porn notoriety, male's supposedly "dominant" role in culture, or simply because girls most be feminine and submissive. Regardless, Montgomery tackled uncomfortable topics, and depicted upsetting situations very graphically.

I strongly believe that this is something that needed to be tackled. I applaud Montgomery in her unwavering commitment to revealing the incredible awkwardness of female adolescent sexuality. It's been hiding below the surface for way too long. I grew up in a very conservative, Christian home where I was pressured into signing a purity contract on my 13th birthday. Sexuality was for marriage ONLY. Imagine how guilt-ridden I was throughout my teenage years as I grappled with coming of age, being attracted to males, and struggling to determine whether or not I had similar feelings for the female gender?! Even as I am now an adult, making an adult decisions, and decidely straight in my affections, I am still dumbfounded at how incredibly embarrassing and clumsy it is coming to those conclusions, especially behind closed doors so to not disturb conventional expectations to which I must adhere.

Whether or not she was chronicling her own sexual exploration was left debatable, but I feel that she earnestly created a piece to which self-accepting girls can relate. Primal inhibitions are very real and need to be addressed--not hidden underneath a blanket of correctness.



Otherwise, I didn't find her other two works all that particularily interesting. I couldn't really formulate an entire opinion regarding the first piece as it was cut off, but I really didn't find the last work very fascinating. The interviews were so boring to me. I don't know these people that she's interviewing and I don't really care to watch an hour's worth of footage watching them talk about their personal lives and maybe a couple minutes about film. It would be like if I went out and recorded conversations with some of my good friends from the music scene across the country and then making a bunch of people watch it. If you're outside our little scene, you will probably not enjoy it as we'll be talking about unfamiliar people and events that only people in our particular group would understand. Therefore, I thought the last film was very exclusive and above my range of interest.

Project update

Tonight, I go into the video lab at sundown and work on capturing my final project for film 222. As I gathered footage over the past couple weeks, the project took an unexpected direction. I think that's a good thing. When I was staying in Brooklyn, we took the subway everywhere. To enter a subway station, you must walk down dank, dark stairs to a lonely, underground interchange. Across the subway rails, there was another world of people going different ways, but where separated by a massive chasm of rails. This scenario reminded me of one of the themes of my video project: disconnect. So I decided that I would like illusions of a subway interspersed with the storyline. Even the sounds of the subway were lonely, haunting nightmares. I still need much of the actual storyline footage, but it will come together very rapidly I'm sure. For additional sound elements, I plan on checking out an SP Lav this week. I need to record sighing, coughing, and typing sounds.

Though the traveling footage concept didn't reap a whole new story in itself like I may have hoped, it produced an enhancing element for my original idea that I couldn't have brainstormed sitting around in Milwaukee. I love traveling for that reason: inspiration hides in unknown, far away places.

I wish I had thought of this kind of art.

Today's presentation from Vladmir was probably my favorite presentation thus far. She is truly an artist who thinks outside of the traditional, conventional standards of artistic practice. Within her viewmaster art, she combines photography, 3D, sound, storytelling, and a bit of nostalgia to create a wonderfully interactive experience. I am one of those people who owned a view master many years ago, and finally picked one up again for the very first time today. I realized that it's a toy that I always loved, but never really thought about where they came from, or how they're constructed. I want to create my own viewmaster discs and corresponding story! Vladmir managed to think outside of the box, yet took elements that the general population has been familiar with for years.

The most interesting part of the presentation was the construction of the picture panels and packaging. The stories tied everything together and made it all work, but none of them struck me as particularily fascinating. They were fun, most of the time weird, and managed to tell a volumn of storyline in 4 short discs, but I gained the most insight from the aesthetic. I think it's interesting that when Vladmir initially attempted this endeavor, she did not realize the logistics of 3D angling, but rather stumbled upon it in the process. The mechanics of the art enabled two built-in perspectives that added tremendous depth to the story. Understanding those angles almost IS the art of the viewmaster, yet Vladmir possessed enough artistic intuition to piece together crucial elements as she went along. I think that sort of method produces some very interesting results, often times exceeding the creativity of a carefully planned venture.

The exterior packaging of the discs was a whole other art in itself. Each disc was carefully labeled and designed to coordinate with the container. As every packaging was passed to me, I began to imagine what the storyline would be like based on my impression of the artwork. Will it be gruesome? Humorous? Reflective? Then, as the storyline progresses, it as interesting to see how my first impressions were proved or invalidated, and to witness how the artwork was conceived. Often times, the imagery or color scheme of the outer packaging shell was derived from a particular scene in the storyline, or an important frame of events. Ultimately, the packaging provided an elegant and professional delivery, and unimportantly, it also gave me many ideas for painting my room.

It's refreshing to see artists out there turning perspectives of the world upside down. Excellent choice in guest artist.