Meow?
Monday, May 14, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Analysis
Less Than Three and
Operation TRG
I enjoy many different kinds of
artwork, ranging from paintings and drawings to video and sculptures.
I like having a variety of interests because I tend to get bored if I
look at the same old pieces over and over again. I decided to choose
Heiko Daxl's experimental film “Operation TRG” and Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer's electronic sculpture “Less Than Three” because
the two are incredibly different from each other.
Heiko Daxl was born 1957 in Oldenburg,
Germany. During his childhood he moved around a lot, living in Varel,
Dangast, and Neuenburg. Daxl also went to many different schools,
including the Technical University Braunschweig where he first
studied architecture and urbanism. He then went to the University of
Osnabrück
to study communications, aesthetics, and art history. He also studied
at the Technical University Berlin to study German language and
literature. He got his Master of Arts degree in Osnabrück.
He met his wife Ingeborg Fulepp and they regularly collaborate
together. Heiko Daxl has worked within many different kinds of art.
The piece which I find most intriguing is the piece entitled
“Operation TRG”, an experimental film.
Operation
TRG is a twelve minute long experimental film created in Zagreb,the
capital and largest city of Croatia, where Heiko Daxl regularly lives
and works. It portrays several events that happened in the city on
the second of July, in 1994. The film is made up of seven sections.
The first part, subtitled “The Old Man,” shows a crowd of many
people and in the lower right hand corner, an elderly man is shown.
The second part, named “Dynamo,” shows people shopping in an
outside flower shop. The third part, “Man in the Crowd,” zooms in
and out on a young man sitting down among a very large crowd of
people. The fourth part, “Souvenir Photo,” depicts a young woman
standing, and another woman goes to her and shows her what could
possibly be a photo. The fifth part, “The Red Bag,” shows a woman
with a red bag in the distance, then zooms in on the red bag. The
sixth part, “The Letter,” portrays a woman pulling out from a
mans hand a letter. This section is reversed and played forward over
and over. The seventh and final part, “The Old Man 2,” continues
the first part showing the same elderly man, but this time he appears
to be exiting from a train. These events may be ordinary and mundane,
but the purpose of “Operation TRG” was just that- to show
everyday occurrences in a busy and bustling city on a hot summer day.
The way the film is shot also puts emphasis on this idea. The film is
shot in slow motion to help capture these events and to focus on them
instead of the countless hoards of people in a large city. I chose
this piece for analysis because I enjoyed the experimental film
section we studied earlier in the course and wanted to go further in
that direction. What I really like about experimental film is that it
is so open ended. One could do anything he wanted with it.
Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer, a Mexican-Canadian artist, was born in Mexico City in
1967. He emigrated to Spain, then to Canada. In Canada he went to the
University of Victoria, then to Concordia University. He loved
studying science, but also enjoyed being artistic as well. He earned
a Bachelors of Science at Concordia. Lozano-Hemmer incorporates a lot
of science into the artwork he creates. He makes a lot of interactive
artwork, and tends to use EL lighting, and video and audio.
I
chose the piece “Less Than Three” to show the synthesis of
technology and art. Created in 2008, “Less Than Three” is a
sculpture consisting of red EL light strips that intertwine with each
other. The wires are connected to little boxes. One could speak into
one box, and the lights light up and flash, lighting up a path to the
other box. The received audio is then played from the other box. The
lights correspond to what ever was said, creating a pattern. The
shorter the audio, the faster it takes to travel; the bigger the
audio piece, the longer it takes to travel to the other side. The
sculpture is capable of saving up to six hundred thousand audio
pieces! These pieces can be stored for playback. There are two
versions of this sculpture; one with red EL lights, and another with
a white LED lighting system. I really like the idea of utilizing
interactive artwork as it can make the audience feel like they are a
part of the artwork itself. I like going to art museums to see if
they have anything like this. The only thing that sort of scares me,
however, is that the audio is saved, meaning other people can go back
and listen to past audio recordings. We are in a very volatile age
now, and anything we say can be held against us if the time comes.
What we say cannot be disposed of so easily nowadays. Technology can
be our best friend or it can be our greatest enemy.
As
for comparing the two pieces, there are virtually no similarities
between them. Both are made of completely different media and have
different purposes. The only things they could possibly have in
common (and I am really pushing it here) is that they involve people,
and they are made electronically. The subject of both of these pieces
are the common people. In “Operation TRG,” the main thing
depicted are the common people. Just ordinary, everyday, common
people. For “Less Than Three,” the average person can just walk
right up and say anything their little heart desires into the little
audio box. As for the media used, Heiko Daxl's piece is made using a
video camera and Lozano-Hemmer's piece light strips. Both are
electronically based. Other than that, there is really nothing that
the two have in common. I chose these on purpose, though.
I
have to say, this digital media class has opened my eyes up to
different kinds of artwork. I used to be very traditional in my
artistic tastes, but now I am open to almost anything. I would like
one day to actually create electronic art because it seems to draw in
many people due to the modern technology it incorporates.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Artist's Statement
I think the GOP race is perhaps one of the ugliest presidential races I have seen in my life. The republican candidates are absolutely horrible, especially Scrotorum Santorum. He is an egotistical, far-right control freak, and the fact that he made it this far concerns me. So, I decided to make my stance through a fake Facebook page. now, I don't care for Obama either, but with the GOP candidates we have Obama will have another four years in office.
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