The Invasion Event

The Invasion Event

The idea of doing my Bjorn Melhus remix came to me out of the blue or so it seemed when I heard we could do a remix on anything we wanted. I was so thoroughly impressed by Bjorn Melhus’s, “Deadly Storms,” when I saw it the first time in Professor Amerika’s History and Theory of Digital Art class. I had just had the opportunity to personally meet and talk with Melhus at his installation, "Still Men Out There," at the DAM Blink exhibit. His installation was an incredibly creative social statement on how human being’s emotional perspectives are manipulated through specific intended techniques in American movies. I thought it was brilliant. I was equally impressed with his "Deadly Storms," a work of art with a serious comment on the censorship and receptiveness of our media, particularly the news. I have always thought that the media, especially of late, doesn’t really say anything of real substance. The newscasters bleat out a stylized and sanitized form of what is going on in this country and the world, then repeat the same stance over and over again. Two very profound subject examples are; the War in Iraq or is it Afghanistan and the recent nuclear melt down in Japan. It seems that the information we see here on the news media, is vague, insignificant, unvaried, and mechanical. So, when I started thinking about my remix Melhus’s, “Deadly Storm,” was just what I wanted to work with.

The creative process was challenging to say the least but well worth it in the end. The script was one of my favorite parts. I tweaked the most repetitive part of “Deadly Storms,” he said, “there is an ongoing situation,” and I added, “and it is getting worse.” By adding the statement “and it is getting worse,” it clarified and added how I feel about what is happening here in the media and probably in other countries too, the lack of honesty, integrity, or the reporting of the actual truth. My whole script gestalted, I was very pleased with it. It was simple and it clearly reflects my personal beliefs, in the similar context that Melhus utilized. The next couple steps went hand in hand, I needed to figure out how I was going to actually alter the video and what should be presented. I decided that I wanted to have a plain background, unlike Melhus’s choice. I did imitate the same vertical three panel that he used. I decided to use myself as the actor, as Melhus does in many of his presentations. I had to get over the fact that I would be on the screen in front of my class. After I decided on how I was going to artistically convey the main character in the video, the next part was figuring out how to read my lines and to film it. I ended up making a powerpoint presentation of my lines and had my friend take the video that was propped up to keep it stable. It took many times to get the lines correct and in sync with the other panels. Once, I got all that done I had to figure out how to edit it. The process is long and rather hard to explain in detail in this blog. Let just say it was on a trial and error basis.

Finally, I put a lot of work into this project and I am very proud of the finished product. I feel this video remix was tight, it maintained Melhus’s original content but evolved into a work of art that represented and mirrored my individuality too. Also, it was quite gratifying to get the positive responses that I got in class and at the premier, “The Invasion Event.” By pushing myself past my comfort zone as an artist I learned I have greater potential then I once thought.

Wow, to see all the other digital installations and to listen to everyones conversations discussing some of the work was really awesome! At one point, I looked at some of these digital installations and thought, here in this room are some of the future famous digital artists. It makes one feel very fortunate for their educational experience and the people one is sharing their ideas with.

Out of all the digital works presented, my favorite digital art installation piece was Amelia’s remix Peco projection onto the mannequin face. I loved hearing about her artistic process and was thrilled to see the completion of her project. Another special presentation was Ian’s VJing piece. It was a great way to end the Invasion Event. Although, I have chosen my ‘favorites’ I was very impressed by the entire event.

William Basinski 4-27-11

I unfortunately was unable to attend Visiting Artist, William Basinski’s lecture at CU or his performance, “Disintegration Futures,” at the Black Box Theater in Boulder on April 15th. I was not familiar with his work so I started researching his background and music on the net. I found some substantial information regarding his life and was able to spend some quality time listening to a variety of his beautiful and soulful soundscape music creations, watching videos, and seeing pictures of his Installation. Some critics define his work as ambient music : music that evokes feeling and sets a mood, but I think there is much more depth in the poetic images and emotions that are felt and brought to mind.

William Basinski is a classically trained clarinetist and saxophonist. He is a composer and sound artist who has been producing soundscape music for over 25 years. “In 1978, inspired by minimalists such as Steve Reich and Brian Eno, he began developing his own vocabulary using tape loops and old reel to reel tape decks. He developed his meditative, melancholy style experimenting with short looped melodies played against themselves creating feedback loops. About the Disintegration Loops: In the process of archiving and digitizing analog tape loops from work I had done in 1982, I discovered some wonderful sweeping pastoral pieces I had forgotten about.”

I listened to segments of several of his, “The Disintegration Loops,” which was one of the top 50 albums in 2004 by Pitchfork Media. I generally have classical music playing in the background when I study or need a less tense environment. Listening to Basinski’s music made me feel the same way, calm and at ease. Although I have read that his music is temporal and melancholic it seems to me that it is very celestial and soothing. The series of “ The Disintegration Loops,” is really something to listen to. They are incredibly beautiful and made me feel emotionally connected to the collective consciousness of humanity. Apparently Basinski was finishing his recordings on September 11, 2001 and from his Brooklyn home he saw the Twin Towers disintegrate just like his old tapes. He has dedicated this work to the victims of 9/11 which seems very appropriate.

On Youtube “Melancholia,” is a black and white music video accompanied by a delicate and repetitive piano melody. This visual and auditory art piece was done by Basinski and James Elaine. While watching and listening to this piece I did not necessarily feel sad as the title would indicate but I definitely felt reflective. The viewer follows down a leafless tree arbored lane and comes upon a fragile wire globe of the world slowly turning. The globe then disappears. I think this quote is interesting, “Melancholia is a concise, darkly romantic psalm, an elegy, a love letter to a broken world.” I can understand why someone would feel this way while watching this video but when just listening to the music I only hear the sound of the beauty of the melody. Melancholia #2 is equally as beautiful musically but for me much more visually pleasant.

Basinski and James Elaine combined their talents to create an art installation at the Bleeding Edge Music Festival in Saratoga, CA. There are pictures on Flicker.

You can download his music through iTunes or Amazon.com.

Final Project Proposal 4-7-11 (Th)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF0Ox9tOqFU&playnext=1&list=PL1ABEC37E31905E4E

Jacqueline Reynolds

Final Project

I am going to do a rendition of Bjorn Melhus’s piece “Deadly Storms.” It will be a spin off on the news media, and it’s daily delivery, like Melhus’work. This is one of my favorite digital art works because it is innovative, captivating, and thought provoking. This original piece inspired me to want to create a remix of his work and see what spin I could produce.

It relates to our course in that it will be a remix of Melhus’s groundbreaking piece. His work will be my primary source material. I will be using a Panasonic Lumix HD camera with video capabilities.

The following quote is a commentary on breaking news,

“is a wry riff on the breathless, content-free style of breaking news so common on television.”

http://www.contentious.com/2008/12/01/bjørn-melhus-deadly-storms-video-art-nails-sensational-content-free-news/

1.) ***There is an on going situation and it’s getting worse

Are we being told the truth?

What is our reality?

1.) ***There is an on going situation and it’s getting worse

Are you aware of what’s really happening?

There has been irreversible destruction to planet Earth

1.) ***There is an on going situation and it’s getting worse

Time is of the essence, it is fleeting

The clock is ticking; tick toc, tick, toc

Mutation is now an issue

1.) ***There is an on going situation and it’s getting worse

The majority of it is contaminated

Are you afraid yet?

1.) ***There is an on going situation and it’s getting worse

It’s cold and dark, bleak, very bleak

Are we running our of resources?

Who’s talking? Who’s really controlling, pulling the strings behind the scene

1.) ***There is an on going situation and it’s getting worse

How come we didn’t think of this before?

What kind of alternative plans were made?

Are we prepared? Why weren’t we ready for all this

1.) ***There is an on going situation and it’s getting worse

Time is of the essence, little time left

This could happen anywhere again, at any time on this planet

There is no failsafe plan that will work as of now

1.) ***There is an on going situation and it’s getting worse

Reveal the truth now and action MUST be taken

Or iniallation will commence

3-30-11 (Wed)

Last weekend new media artist Charles Sandison was a featured speaker at the Logan Lecture Series at the Denver Art Museum. His technologically driven installation, “Chambers,” was also on display at Blink! Light, Sound, and the Moving Image, also at the DAM. I experienced his intriguing installation prior to hearing his speech and I was then very interested in hearing his thoughts and what motivated his artwork.

In the first part of his lecture he discussed the importance of his Scottish heritage and highlighted other early influences that shaped his artistic style and future. As a young boy and young man growing up in Scotland, he felt a deep kinship for his homeland. The harmony, beauty, and love of this land grounded him with a sense of personal strength and a soul connection which has inspired him spiritually and artistically throughout his life. In many ways his ethereal philosophical outlook and sensitivities seem similar to Taoism, a mystical union with nature.

Sandison also discussed the challenges he faced as a dyslexic student in the typical left- brain traditional school environment. Perhaps his ability to perceive life and his surroundings from a little different vantage point have added to his conceptual ideas. Computers at this time were just becoming common and he found it easier to visually learn digitally. Later, while at art school he experimented with impressionism and photography but eventually found the his true passion in conceptual computer programming.

The second part of the lecture Sandison showed photographs of his work, animated digital projections of light and texts projected onto architectural forms, such as the exterior facade of the famous Parisian landmark, the Grand-Palais. His video projections have also transformed many museum gallery spaces and some non-gallery space from the Peabody Essex Museum, MA to the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland. Sandison specifically emphasized that he is “more interested in the exterior facade of a museum than the interior.” It was very obvious that he has a sense of the nature and spirit of buildings. He stated, “Buildings have souls and life.” He works with these souls and they communicate their emotions and personalities through his art.

His installation, “Chamber,” is remarkable. The viewer is sensorially immersed in the installation in a darkened room except for the projected lights which send abstracted computer coded text pieces through what looks like blood vessels or molecular structures. The swirling internal text pieces are codified and I felt as if I had access to another language and a private world. I felt enveloped, treated, and transported to another realm. Some people have said that the space he created in “Chamber,” was a metaphor of a cave and a fireplace, prompting a primitive instinct. I didn’t have that vision. At his lecture I felt he was calm, composed, and creative, and at his installation I felt a part of his artistic magic.

3-17-11 (Th)

Step 1: move volume down to 40-50% of What can u do ! (before 50sec)

START: http://www.mymusicstream.com/music/songs-genre-beats-and-instrumental.html

What Can U Do ! By Dj X-Spired 2004 – 2009

Beats & Instrumental / Trance / Electronica

Artist: Dj X-Spired

Search: what can u do dj x-spired

Click third link (dj x-spired – music – mymusic stream

Apple+F: what can u do

Click play (to right)

Step 2: click on right when you get the song going (ends: 21-30 sec) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVEflECtfBM

^3rd step: STOP 1:48 : http://balldroppings.com/js/

4^th step STOP 2:45: http://www.ronwinter.tv/drums.html

tap foot to beat

3:12: http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/minisite/newprius/#/interior-refinements/

Step 6: apple thing after you are done with peris http://www.apple.com/ipad/#smart-cover

Step 6: click same time as apple: http://www.flasharcade.com/action-games/smiley-chaser.html

Whenever I am done with smiley I finish: http://www.hypercargames.com/desert-jeep.php

3-16-11 (Wed)

Blink! Light, Sound & the Moving Image at The DAM

It is a little difficult to sit down and write about the large scale exhibition, Blink because

writing about the experience seems so constrained compared to the actual event. This extensive compilation of technology based art all in one area was phenomenal and to say the least, far reaching in its scope. It was a sensory, visceral, intellectual, historical, and exciting event that encompassed the past and present use of technology and art. Going to this exhibition was an art history class in digital art. I went to the exhibition twice and I think to really grasp all that was there one would have to experience it many times. The show was too vast to write about each individual piece so I will highlight a few that I liked.

I appreciated Professor Amerika’s early piece “Codework,” (2003)a digital projection with surround sound lasting eight minutes. Not only because it was an example of the earlier digital art technology, but it remains a creative relevant work of art now.

Since I was there for two classes my main focus was on “Still Men Out There,” (2003) by Bjorn Melhus. It was painful, extensive, and an in depth commentary on war, film and art through the use of sound, color, and light. It was a brilliant narrative delivered as if you were in a darkened movie theater without the movie. Through the use of color and sounds you watched a horror movie in your head. The flashing monitors and looping audio and visual performance was disorienting and powerful. This installation exposes how manipulative the modern media is in our lives.

Columbian artist Oscar Munoz’s “Linea del destino” (The Line of Destiny), (2006) was one of my favorites. It was a single screen projection that lasted almost two minutes. It records a handful of water holding Munoz’s image, holding his destiny in his own hands as water flows through his fingers. Isn’t our destiny in our own hands?

Bruce Nauman’s “Double poke in the eye ii,” (1985) a neon sculpture made of aluminum and neon lights, is an example of a period piece because at that time artists were exploring neon as medium. A black backdrop with two heads outlined, each poking the other in the eyes. A lot of finger pointing is going on.

William Jude Rumley, “Recognition,” (1990) is an interactive work and visitors participate and are part of the performance. As a participant you sit in a chair and a voice is activated. The voice thanks the person and says, “Without you, none of this would be necessary,” and includes applause. Watching the piece is like watching a game show, they appear embarrassed and you are embarrassed for them.

Alan Rath’s “Looker,” (1990-91) utilized old parts of TVs and other pieces of electronic equipment that suggests a pair of eyeglasses. It looks like a pair of glasses gone bad, the video eyes in the glasses do not confront the viewer, and both stare off elsewhere. The eyes function independently. Rath references the historic elements of digital art.

The entire electronic exhibition exemplifies how profound the field of digital arts really is.

Reynolds 3-2-11 (Wed)

My theory on remixing is that it is a technological method and medium for “sampling,” “re-pairing,” “blending,” and “recontextualizing,” cultural images, music, literature, belief, concepts, visual art, and thoughts into new forms, based on the personal preferences of the mixer. Cultural pattens, both past and present, have a subliminal and universal connection conveyed on the global sea of collective unconsciousness and now they are also carried via technology, the Internet.

Paul Miller , Dj Spooky, AKA that Subliminal Kid uses the art of DJing in his book Rhythm Science as a means of communicating his cultural ideas and issues regarding remixing in this digital age. Technology is the instrument and the vast and almost limitless information and choices on the web can be altered or added to by any artist’s design. Spooky considers literature, digital art, and music, out pourings of interpersonal interaction and cultural multiplex. In his book he sites many sources of classic and definitive artistic and philosophical works, and personal heros that have influenced his theory of remixing. His CD, a musical remix prototype is comprehensive, it captures the essence of multiplicity of sound, thought, and feeling.

There are themes and issues that arise over theories of remixing. Again, Miller directly and sometimes indirectly folds and recontextualizing these themes and issues into a remix. One basic and controversial theme of remixing that Miller addresses is that of “Who owns memory?” We all own our own memory but we share thoughts and build on others ideas, adding too and taking away. Our cells are filled with retrievable feelings that are the same feelings or thoughts others have but because we are unique we put our own spin on it, we add individual genetic and conceptual responses to create a new memory. “How does property intervene in the flow of information between the material and the ethereal?” Technologies allow us to access almost anyones culturally produced ideas and then the ability to remix them to define our own tastes. This creative exchange of information may or may not acknowledge the “original” creators contributions. Legal concerns regarding ownership of “original” material then become moral and ethical questions for debate. Is there anything that is truly “original?” Probably there is a beginning kernel of thought, a novel idea maybe like the pearl oyster. “In nature, pearl oysters produce natural pearls by covering a minute invading parasite with nacre, not by ingesting a grain of sand. Over the years, the irritating object is covered with enough layers of nacre to form what is known as a pearl. There are many different types, colors and shapes of pearl; these qualities depend on the natural pigment of the nacre, and the shape of the original irritant.” To me, like the pearl, in the purest sense, remixing and recontextualizing of materials creates a new entity or body of work. I still think there are instances where we need to acknowledge and give credit to other’s imaginative creations.