Online Exhibition

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Ann Arbor Film Festival

After visiting the Ann Arbor Film Festival on Saturday, I experienced a whole new idea to movie theaters.  I've never been to the Michigan Theater before, but I found that it was very interesting and much different than what I'm used to.  The crowd of people clapped after each piece, the screen was much smaller and was also surrounded by a large fancy stage. Along with just the physical appearance of the theater, the actual films being played were also different. They were pieces of art.  

The main artist that I attended was Bruce Baillie and the works that I watched were Yellow Horse, Termination and Quixote in the series title Retrospective 2. The first piece Yellow Horse gave me a good early judgement of what kind of works he created and the main idea to what his concentration may be based upon.  While watching his pieces, I found that there was a strong emphasis on sound and audio.  There were many different sounds that were created to specifically fit each second of the video.  There was also a strong emphasis on close up shots and an unfocused series of images and clips.  It was difficult for me to understand the Yellow Horse piece, but I found myself trying to piece it apart and looking deeper into the meaning and the artist's concepts. 

The second video Termination had many beautiful shots and was visually captivating.  I enjoyed this piece the most out of his collection showed.  The video focused upon a community of Indian people and looked closely at their life.  Quixote was the third video that I watched and was also quite different than anything else I've ever seen.  This piece looked at many different aspects in the early American century.  It was almost as you were following a timeline as Baillie transitioned between the many different occurrences that have happened in the early years.

Overall, I think that attending this Film Festival was a great experience.  Through taking several video classes, I found that I was more knowledgeable about this medium of art and the concepts.  An open mind is key when attending an event like this because you'll see many different types of art that may be like nothing you've ever seen before.  

Shadow

The topic of shadow makes me think of life, which may seem strange.  But shadows can be created from still objects or moving objects/people.  The objects that are moving cast a shadow that has so much more life to in then a still object.  Like the picture above,  the shadows are of two active people, more than likely their perception of the past and it creates the element of motion. Shadow is an interesting subject because it can be manipulated and converted into organic shapes that are hard to depict what the original object actually is. There are many different directions that the concept of shadow can be taken into.  Shadows of fast paced live objects are always visually appealing because it allows the viewer to nearly have to guess what the actual object is, same could also go with an extremely slow paced object.

Manipulating shadow is the area that I'm quite interested in.  Changing something that should be so familiar, into something that is the complete opposite.  Creating the look of life into an object that is ultimately lifeless if another aspect of shadow that is visually interesting.  The viewer is left having to really think about the project and can be visually beautiful, along with captivating.  There are many different directions that the project of shadows can be taken, so it's quite important that there is a strong focus on the visuals, as well as audio if necessary.

World Travel: Visual Journey

This image reminds me of Jenna's project quite a bit.  Even though this image focuses upon one particular city, it is coordinated by color.  Color makes up so many different things in the world and can define many different aspects of the fine details.  Within the world, there are often many correlations with color and location.  For instance, people will typically think of blues, purples and greens, cool colors when the ocean or regions such as Antarctica or Alaska are discussed.  When areas such as Spain, Mexico or Africa are talked about, the colors of red, orange and yellow may be associated.  Is this because of the geographical region and location they are in?  Or is this an association that society has created because of different landmarks and the surroundings of physical beauty?

Considering many generalizations are made about particular areas and regions, it would be an interesting idea to break those generalizations down into further details.  Besides natural landmarks, plants and water, there are many other elements that can correlate a color with a particular area.  Things like country symbols, animals and fashion trends could also speak a lot to bring more ideas of a journey around the world. Specifically looking at the finer details in regions would also show more about travel, along with the idea of a visual journey. 

Artist Research 2

Historical Not in Field

Title: The Lonely Road

Date Created: 1928

Place Created: Unknown

Dimensions: 21 ¾ x 15 in

Artist: John D. Graham

Medium: Oil on canvas

Art Type: Fine Art

Subject: Emptiness, Lonely

Contemporary Not in Field

Title: Deep Inside my Heart

Date Created: 2009-2010

Place Created: Unknown

Dimensions: 30 x 24 in

Artist: Louise Bourgeois & Tracey Emin

Medium: Archival dyes printed on cloth

Art Type: Fine Art

Subject: Abandonment before birth of children

 

Historical in Field

Title: Video Drawings

Date Created: 1985

Place: Unknown

Dimensions: 6:35 min

Artist: Kit Fitzgerald

Medium: color digital video with sound

Art Type: Video/ New Media

Subject: Human condition, destruction and change of organic shapes

Contemporary in Field

Title: Easy to Remember

Date Created: 2001

Place: Unknown

Dimensions: 2:35 min

Artist: Lorna Simpson

Medium: 16 mm blanc and white film transferred to DVD

Art Type: Video Installation/New Media

Subject: Lips in stillness and in motion

Perception vs. Reality

I completed a quick search of perception vs reality and came across this picture.  Even though this image is not a person, but food, it perfectly sums up the concept of perception vs reality within one image.  Perception vs reality is a concept that is often thought about but not necessarily discussed.  Typically it seems as if people aren't happy with their body image and their perception is an attractive, thin good looking person.  In the case of this image it's the perception of having a big juicy looking hamburger compared to what it actually looks like when you get it.  Perception vs. reality can go in many different directions, whether it be food, landmarks or people.  It's quite common that the perception always looks or seems better because reality to many is just not good enough and people can't be satisfied with everything. 

When I think more about perception and reality, it makes me think deeper into unsatisfactory standards within people and why exactly this is a problem.  Looking into different peoples perceptions is a visual and mental stimulation because it's not something that is shared with everyone and is almost a mystery. There is a sense of the unknown because what people may see themselves as can differ quite a bit from what reality is.  Looking more into perceptions deeper than just the exterior would be visually different and would dig deeper into the elements of perception vs. reality. 

Picturesque Geography, Flint to Detroit

When I think of time lapses, I often think of images or a video like the one above.  It's also common to see videos where the sky is changing throughout the day, but the foreground stays that same.  This type of art expresses time change, and displays existence and pacing.  These types of works captivate me because it draws me into the work and makes me feel as if I were there.  If I were actually at the scene where the images or videos were being taken, I'd being viewing exactly how my eyes saw it in present time.  This is an aspect that is hard to attain from photographs and sometimes even video.  When time lapse works are created, it allows the viewer to key in on the finer details that wouldn't be as obvious in a fast paced video. 

Considering that the objective of time lapses, focusing upon a slow paced change would be add a new aspect to something that can be more expected and common.  It wouldn't necessarily be as interesting to view a slow moving object in a time lapse, but it would bring fourth a new concept and a different meaning to the objective.  For example, a time lapse of of a snail scooting across a grassy yard.  The grassy yard would remain still, while the snail would become a fast paced object even though the footage could be taken within several hours. Time lapses make me think deeper into reality and how fast each day passes.  There are so many different events that will occur within a day, but they always come as fast as they go.