Sunday, 12 December 2010

Koyanisqatsi - Make Up blog

Again, an impressive art film that contrasts the one, with uneasy to digest content and music. The main power and character of this film lies in music and in repetativeness. The expression Koyanisqatsi means crazy wolrd in Hopi language.

The long-lasting shots and the slowly changing, extremely high standard of composed music creates a special feeling of being outer space and see the things happening, just everyday scenes, in our daily world with an alien like view, as if we were just visitors and saw how humans destroy Earth and themselves with their unsustainable life style.
The four basic elements appear in the changing environment as stable basis meanwhile war time destruction of the motherland is depicted by the explosion of an atomic bomb and the view of people having their sunbath in the sand next to a factory producing large contamination to the surroundings. The city traffic and crowd on rythmic music imlies on the rythm of consumption and the fast pace we live up our reserves...

The message is still clear, no matter when the one watchis this film, he'll understand the current feelings and implications of the author for the concern of a disapperaing bisophere and health of the mother Earth.

The Holy Mountain by Jodorowsky Alexander

An extremely powerful and impressive art film, that is packed with creative and triggering artistic ideas in every scenes. The symbols are strongly related to the production and serve as an understanding basic principal. One has to know the general knowledge of history and religion to understand the meaning of the film. The presence of animals at each scene make it surreal and weird to see them perform human like actions, such as the fight of lizards and frogs for the fortress.

Jesus is depicted in a modern manner and his passio is turned into a travel in time and space to ages with mixed technological and moral development. The setting of the scenes is always connected to religion, Hindu symbols, Jerusalem etc.

Under these symbols Christ is shown to various worlds:

An utopic scene on Venus appears in the factory, where the “only man”, bares the power to have all woman and use their workforce as well as their sexuality. The factory produces artificially perfect society, from giving birth to providing special conditions at death with the latest technological advancements in an artistic way (e.g.last good bye kiss machine for funerals).

Mars, males manufacture weapons and ware fare equipment. The 60’s sex drugs and rock n roll is perfectly interpreted into guns and psychedelic substances as well as fashionable weapons suitable for every religion (Buddha pistol).

Jupiter, an art factory – Andy Warhol like. Production appears on large factory scale and financial wealth is created out of it. Sexuality is strongly expressed in the artworks, for instance the electronic vagina that is produced to work with an e-rod that reaches orgasm in it.
An other factory produces child-ware fare tools, according to government needs and proposals for wars world wide, in addition to children’s early training and education for war-fare activities against the centrally defined enemies.

Uranus, sexuality appears again in an aberrated form of making love under extreme conditions in bed with a horse in the room. In fact, all the place is dis-sized for humans with ornaments and utilities being too big or small for a human to use it comfortable.
Engasing the popularity of the nation is proposed by the financial advisor of the governor and the production of gas-chamber plus extra gas-utilities to reach the goal of killing 14M.

Neptune, we find ourselves back from semi-space age in an other age of Romans probably, where the local forces collect testiciles and store them in formal-dehyde for devotional practices.
An other life scene of street fights resembles for the tomato throwing fun practices in South America but turns in to insane massacre and strange fluids, liquids flowing out of people.

Pluto, the business of the central character is an architecture. The aim of his activity is to produce only shelter for people, home not is necessary. Shelters (coffins) he wants to produce and reduce the basic needs of humans in their no more existing homes. Eat in the factory, get entertained at public places.

The wholly mountain appears in connection with immortality. 9 man (+4000yrs old) live on the top and know the secret of life. The common goal of people in this scene is to reach immortality and find the formula for that and enlighten humanity which is united to one being by that time. They burn their money (if you keep it you die), destroy sex-image(desirable objects to sin).
A process of purification follows now in the mountains, with the use of the power of natural elements and pagan like devotional practices. Flower is the form of unification and peaceful meditation.

The trip continuous on a ship, where thoughts are revealed and connected into geometrical forms all resembling constructivist ideas. At the shore, under the holy mountain they cut off their hair and get involved into a party on graves. People at stages try to prove how to reach the Holy Mountain in their own ways, by poems, LSD or the man who is capable of crossing stones horizontally. However, they did not prove to be effective enough in convincing them to show the way to the top. The expedition continues towards the peak, also with stages gaining their
In the end at a round table, Jadorowsky reveals that we are all mortals but more real than ever, the goal of the mission has been succeeded and reached an inner purification. As a fringe into the participants face and to the viewers as well that he calls the camera man to zoom out and show, that each reality is from a certain point of view and reveal feelings in people after the ‘purification’. The declaration that the wholy mountain does not exist materially stuns everyone, thus calling for an inner and mental trigger of thoughts on life.
True solution is not reached for immortality, but moral issues have been discussed deeply for the beholder that a casual film would never evoke in the viewer.

The secret is revealed, the answer is to be found in yourself.

Saturday, 11 December 2010

Review Class on Projects

We had the chance in this class to discuss and see each other's works. I have been fairly satisfied with the projects featuring unique ideas such as the tissue issue and the one where kids were laughing on the touch of the computer mouse hided into gloves.

I personally feel it important to have the connection of a project with the audience, so that the feedback can be looped back by the beholder immediatally either in electronic way or in person.

In my project I also have devoted attention to interactivness by enabling the one to choose song and build up interrest towards personal likeness in the work on show.

LissajousCurves - The Visible Sound Project

Finally, I had an individual project as an assignment due to some changes in my group.
In theory the idea I'm using is based on Lissajous curves, which is the graph of a system of parametric equations which describe complex harmonic motion in mathematics. The figures reperesented by the equasion are dependent on the output, so that the form of the curve can change in different ways.

The device that can show us visibly this mathematical phenomena is called oscilloscope. Let's assume we transfer the two cord from the audioplayer to the oscilloscope and we see the music played on it, in the form of curves.The basic of my project relied on thisdiscovery. Furthermore, why can not we just use it as a juke box, so that we make an interactive video installation by playing the requested music by the beholder:)

Feasibility - Time for change

As for the execution, I’m hardly able to state it is an easy project... We began to work with Resolum 2.3, a fairly good choice of programme it would have been, by featuring live web-cam mode in the editor and an additional layer possibly merged on the genuine one, but somehow it constantly has frozen. So as a matter of fact, I can state by now that in full screen mode the programme does not work. We need to find new ways to express our genuine idea.

Meanwhile production, it may seems to be irrelevant to change the concept, but as long as we switch the means I guess we are on the track.

The result by now is the following project in the next post:)

First Concept - Remained in Theoretical Existence

Our Concept features a video-installation, which is highly interactive with its environment. Indeed it is depending on the interactions from its surroundings. The idea is based on the instinctual curiosity of humans and their nature, since our childhood we are learning by experiencing, more or less successfully, as we perceive different reactions to our actions. E.g. when a monkey sees a banana in a jar, it puts its hand in and grabs the fruit, but can’t get it out of the jar because its fist grew larger, the struggle goes on still it recognises that by letting the banana, it can go freely again and by discovering new ways of approach there is a possibility to get the fruit.

We plan to have a screen, streaming the actual space (with a cam under/over the screen), where the one walks in and have a lucrative object in front of the screen, so that the one approaches it. When they get closer to the monitor, a sensor activates a film, an over layer, which is streamed on the live movie. Eventually, the film is going to be a spray can spraying on the monitor, in front of the one’s face, thus violating their personal space and perspective.

About Video Installation

Video installations are identified as the means of communication of the artists' manifestations via a display, set in a certain environment. Therefore we can call video installations site specific artwroks, because they react to their enviornmnet and vica versa.

An inherited and inborn intention for people to peep has remained on the instinctual level from childhood and the curiousity by which we have discovered the world, in some individuals more or less. Duchamp calls peeping the way to discover new horizons. To see the world in a different view you need to take up various angles of observation. You can find details you would never unless there was no curiousity and peeping.

Coming back to the concept of video installation, we have to note, that they are representing this particular point of view of the artist and make it dependent on the beholder, to interact, if possible phisically by turning some features on but on the level of thoughts taken for sure.

The important aspects besides artistic ganuity are the targer audience, the setting, timing and many externalities that we need to take into account when setting up an installation in order to get the expected output from the project.