Video Art

For my video art piece, I experimented with many different forms of video and music editing programs. I was inspired by David Hall's piece "This is a TV Receiver" where he recorded a recording of a recording of a... etc.

In my video art, I experimented with layering and I layered a video with a layered video with a layered video... etc. Ultimately the video got a little distorted because with the app I used (Ghost Lens), each video got faded a little, so the final product looked very faded.

Some interesting things to note are the sounds that people make. You can hear that the people repeat themselves more when I added more layers to the film. I also created a calm-sounding track (with Garageband) in the background to make the video have continuity, but not have the music be in the way of the video.

Here is the link

Songs

I found six songs that fit into five different categories on Santiago's website:

The first one being  "Don't You Want Me Baby" The Human League. I think this song fits into the category of House music because there is a bunch of technological sounds like house music has. There are synthesizers and beep sounds and its kind of DJ-ish.

My friend showed me the group CocoRosie a while ago. I think they fit into the industrial/goth category because they are kind of experimental and well as strange. They use children's toys and different sound settings and instruments to make a unique sound. The pair also utilizes their one-of-a-kind voices.

Believe it or not, there are a whole bunch of popular vocaloids in asian pop culture. Besides Hastune Miku, a girl named Meiko is also a fan favorite. She has a bunch of weird songs just like Hatsune Miku, but she seems a little more mature than her. She fits under the virtual category.

Electric Light Orchestra is a band I really like. All of their songs are pretty good. They like to use synthesizers and other technology to create catchy songs. I think they fit into the new wave category because their sound has technological alterations, but not too many.

I found two songs that fit into the post-modern crisis category. They are both kind of modern, but sound a lot alike. The original being Modest Mouse's "Float On" and the new copy being Lupe Fiasco's "The Show Goes On." Even though the two have different lyrics and meaning, they are too similar. Lupe Fiasco's is basically a much faster version with different lyrics. His fits into the post-modern crisis category because he made this song because he could not come up with anything new. I personally like Modest Mouse's version WAY better.

Golan Levin's Interview

I thought Golan Levin’s interview was really interesting. I especially like the way it was presented with the 3D video. That is a cool piece of technology. You can tell where there is depth because the lines get long. The technology has trouble with shadows though; when Levin was using hand gestures and shadows went onto his shirt, the software thought parts of the shadow were his hands. Overall, though, it was really cool how the camera could change perspective so that he appears 3D.

I didn’t understand a lot of what he was talking about because I am not too well versed in computers, but I think the class has definitely made me understand it more. I thought what Levin mentioned about people who get degrees in technology have a disadvantage because once they get out of school, the technology they learned is obsolete. Since I am not a computer programming major, I have never thought of that. I think that is true of most majors, though. For example, I am a biology major and I want to go into medicine after I complete my undergraduate program. Medicine, like technology is always getting better and changing. But even so, I don’t think any learned knowledge is in vain; many new technologies are based on the old ones, so by learning what is relevant now, you could also probably figure out what will be important in the future.

Levin’s interview was really good, and it made me want to learn more about computers and technology so that I know what programs and software he is talking about. Especially since technology is everywhere; it would be beneficial to know what is going on all around.

Buying Digital Art

I found this article called "What Does it Mean to Buy Digital Art?" that I thought was very interesting. It made me wonder about how digital artists get money. Digital art pieces are usually expensive to make because they require technology, yet a person cannot really make any money from it. The article is very cool.

Flower Ceiling

In class, we have talked a lot about museum installations where there is technology that senses where the people are and lights up there or stops raining. Recently, I found a piece of technology that moves flowers around depending on where the person is. The link is here and there is a video that shows how it works. Since it is with flowers, not only does it constantly change visually, but it also smells different too. It looks very pretty.

Performance Art

For my performance art project I went fishing into the International Mall in Tampa, FL. Since the theme of this project is happiness, I thought doing something ridiculous (like fishing indoors) would make people laugh, and it did. Although the video doesn't show it, many people on the lower level were laughing at the sight of me as well.

I also did it to inspire people to have fun outside. There is a finite amount of activities you can do inside, but outside the possibilities are endless. So while people were spending their Saturday afternoons spending their money and being cooped up in an echoing building, hopefully I reminded them of what you can do in the sunny, endless nature of Florida--for free.

I was only able to perform for about ten minutes before the mall cop came and told me that I could not fish in the mall. It was private property and a performance such as mine would distract consumers from shopping and hurt the businesses economically (yeah right, Gucci is going to go out of business because of me).

Anyway, I actually had a lot of fun creating this video and performing. It was very hard not to laugh because many people were also laughing or smiling and making funny comments. I honestly thought I would be much more scared to be acting so crazy in a public place, but it wasn't that bad. I think my disguise (hat and sunglasses) helped, but it probably made me look even more ridiculous.

David Bowie Everywhere in Contemporary TV

Recently in class, we talked about David Bowie's "Life on Mars" appearing on season four of American Horror Story: Freak Show. Apparently, television show producers are all a part of David Bowie's fan-club because that is not the only David Bowie reference made in today's television.

The hit ABC show, Once Upon a Time has a side series called Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. The show is really interesting, with both Aladdin and Alice in Wonderland characters. The classic Alice in Wonderland characters Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum make an appearance as servants to the Red Queen.

The Tweedles both have this make-up on:

It is very similar to David Bowie's "Aladdin Sane" album cover:

It makes me wonder if that is how the producers got the idea to add Aladdin characters. They were probably like, "let's have the Tweedles wear Bowie face paint." "Hey, wouldn't it be cool to have Aladdin characters to further make a tribute to David Bowie?"

It astounds me how everything always leads back to David Bowie somehow. I'll keep my eyes out for more.