HW 8.1 - My Home Sound Piece

HOME SOUNDS: The significant sounds of my home environment, layered.

For my sound piece, I used only sounds heard in my apartment. I wanted to use more ambient sounds - the sounds heard in quiet times in my apartment. I layered these and cut these together. The sounds I chose to use were: each of the different radiators in my apartment, as they each have a different a different pitch, speed, tone; I also recorded the sounds of my refrigerator at different times; the final sounds I recorded were of my chewing - eating a bagel. Most of my sounds were sounds that I cannot control, and for which I had to wait, sitting, listening, in order to record them. I enjoyed these sorts of limits and parameters. I wanted to use sounds I didn't create, and I didn't want to use my voice. I find the ambient sounds of my household very comforting - I love the sounds of old New York City radiators. They click and clang, and grow louder, as they ensure that tenants are warm and cared for. I find the constant hum of a refrigerator, even a new energy star rated one, to be really pleasant. I have always wanted to record refrigerator noises as my own white noise, so it was great to finally achieve this goal.

I really enjoyed using Audacity. I so appreciate that this software is free and accessible, and can provide really professional results without a large price tag or difficult to use interface. I really liked how easy to use Audacity was - I watched a YouTube tutorial to get the hang of it. Each of the controls and levels was easy to find and easy to use. The cutting/editing techniques were super easy to use. The issue I encountered, however, was saving the file in an Apple compatible format. I tried many times, and had to download many extra library items to try to achieve this. This crashed the program each time I tried, and lost my work. I did not find a work around of this issue. The next time I use Audacity I'll have to work around this, and research which format I should save my file in, and if I can convert it to a QuickTime/iTunes compatible format after the fact. I ended up researching free audio editing programs for iPad and downloaded Hokusai. It is a free editing app with a very easy to use interface, quality results, and was very fast to work with. It is less robust and has less professional capabilities than Audacity, but it was great in a pinch.

HW 7.1 Video - An Homage to Pizza Rat

Pizza Rat News Coverage:

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pizza-rat

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/22/living/pizza-rat-feat/

The Original Pizza Rat

HW 7.2 Video Artist - Bill Viola

Bill Viola (b. 1951) is an American new media artist, living and working in New York, exhibiting since 1973. His work is primarily in video, though there have been explorations into other media including sound.

In 2003 I saw Viola's exhibition The Passions at the National Gallery in London. This video work was different from any video work I had seen before. The video was slowed down to an extreme rate, and highlighted heightened states of emotion. The works came to resemble high renaissance painting, and devotional religious paintings - in the exaggerated depiction of human emotion. These works were like moving paintings. Showing the lead up to the "surging wave of passion" depicted in classic painting. This can create a moment of connection with humanity and the human experience, a moment of real reflection, and affect - deep feeling before you can put it into words.

I love the idea and the feeling of slowing down video. A lot of time based media in popular culture is so quick - zippy, jump cuts, reality tv recaps, advertisements, vines, gifs, and just fast and accessible at every turn. A lot of time this can be appealing in different ways, but an antidote is welcome respite. I love work that asks something of the viewer - stay longer, really look, be still, be quiet, reflect while watching, spend some extra time, and try to be ok with silence.

Here's a quick interview with Viola about creating these works and his process and concept.

HW 7.4 - Impact100 Project

Here's a link to the blog created by me, Ava, and Gina.
The blog has a gallery of 100+ drawings created by members of the TC community. When asked for a prompt, or stumped as to what to draw, I asked these folks to draw what makes them happy.

http://happinessgallery.tumblr.com/

HW 6.4 - Scanning Lesson Plan

Though scanning has been a welcome part of my art practice for more than ten years, I have never taught a lesson on scanography, nor had I ever thought to. This class changed that. I was really excited to share the possibilities of scanning, and the capabilities of the scanner with my classmates in my small group in New Media New Forms. This really inspired me to take scanning into the classroom, and consider how to introduce this media to a group of students. I would approach this as a material exploration, with dialog and discussion, and an experimental approach to the scanner. I think dialog about how a scanner works, and what the students typically think a scanner does would be the place to start. I would follow this with some opening up of the possibilities of the scanner - 3D objects, not putting the lid down and creating that depth of field, colour and manipulation within the scanning software as opposed to editing in Photoshop. Ideally students would (depending on the number of scanners in the room, if there are many - small groups, if there is one - one at a time) bring objects to the scanner and experiment with placing them or  moving them on the scanner and manipulating them in various ways.

HW 6.3 A Town Called Panic - a stop motion feature film

I have not lived with parents since I was eighteen years old, in 2001. However, we remain close, and communicate in a number of ways. One such way is my mother's habit of sending me newspaper clippings. She collects items in the newspaper she believes will interest me (art, food, feminism) and sends them in jam packed envelopes via snail mail.

I mostly appreciate this as a kind and thoughtful gesture, that indicates that she cares and is thinking of me. But every now and then she finds something that really resonates with me - vegan bolognese sauce using quinoa and lentils, a newspaper copy of the elusive composite photo made by Ludwig Wittgenstein which was the underpinning of my masters thesis, and a review of "A Town Called Panic."

The review said that A Town Called Panic (2009) was a Belgian stop motion animation with toys, and that it was truly strange. This film was made by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar.
It was quirky, and glitchy, with a strange and meandering plot. I was able to see this film at TIFF (the Toronto International Film Festival) in 2010 with my friend Ivy Lovell. It delivered as promised, and provided me with an aesthetic experience I had not had before in a feature film. The film uses toys and stop motion, which have been largely relegated to children's movies in popular culture, but used these for a strange and uncanny film experience aimed at adults. It had the bizarre, a touch of violence, and a lot of humour, though not resting in gross-out or sophomoric humour the way some animations have taken up. Good find, mom.

HW 6.2 How I Made This

Step 1 Draw a skull, take a picture every so often while drawing to be able to animate this part - I used tracing paper to create cells for animation, and photographed each one at least once in istopmotion. 

Step 2 Make some homemade play dough per the recipe of your choice, I used(http://www.pbs.org/parents/crafts-for-kids/no-bake-play-dough/)

Step 3 Use Istopmotion for the iPad to animate the drawing and then animate the addition of the dough - slow down your frame rate so it's a little easier on the eyes and so you can really see each frame. 

HW 6.1 Skull Stop Motion Animation