Jonathan Harris talk on Documentation and Collecting Stories

This is a documentary i watched in one of my classes, which also made me think of this class where documentation and story telling/ narratives correlate. His method is so interesting and the things he found along his various journeys was inspirational in the sense of seeing how powerful documentation is and the story it tells.
Here is a link to this 20 minute talk( definitely worth watching)

Jonathan Harris Collects Stories

Affordable Firewire 4 to 9pin

Hey Guys some of you may need a firewire cord or just may want one for easy uploading footage and stuff and i ordered one off amazon for only about $16 which is pretty good compared to radio shack where its $40. So here is the link, hope this helps for anyone who needs it. Firewire on Amazon

Maya Deren on Netflix

So i was just searching some films on netflix, and if anyone really loved (or liked!) the Maya Deren work, Netflix actually has her experimental films and the "Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti"on instant play, which is cool. so check it out if interested.

Downtown Community Television Center

Hey Class,

So last night at very short notice i found out about this place called Downtown Community Television Center, which is a really good resource for video. They had an open house last night that had final cut pro workshops, adobe illustrator, and introductions to these amazing cameras ( the Canon DSLR which looks like a regular canon camera which actually takes video) Whats cool about that is that the camera is great for documentary, because it looks like a still photo camera and people are really comfortable when you shoot with it, not knowing it actually shoots video. Anyway the place also has very cheap rentals for video cameras, and even though we have access through Parsons, its always good to know other places just in case. There are a bunch of workshops related to video editing, adobe and much more and i believe they have really good discounts for students. There are many events and video related things going on and its a great network to meet people, learn stuff and become involved. Check it out, its right off canal street. The website is linked  here.

Psychoanalysis Reading

This week I was assigned a reading for my New Genres class on Psychoanalysis (visual culture, visual pleasure, visual disruption). I came across some information I believe to be directly tied to this class. The chapter on Psychoanalysis from the book called Visual Methodologies by Gillian Rose discusses the media of film and its power. I found what to be said particularly intriguing. Since working with Film and Video is a completely new way of thinking and working for me, I found Rose's interpretation or analysis to be quite insightful. Here is an excerpt from the chapter..( I have underlined some key points)

Film has proved particularly amenable to psychoanalytic interpretation, and from the mid-1970s through the 1980s the journal Screen carried many essays exploring particular films in relation to psychoanalytic ideas. Cinema is an especially powerful visual medium because film can create a total world for its audience. Films manipulate the visual, the spatial, and the temporal and, as Laura Mulvery (1989:25) says, by 'playing on the tension between film as controlling the dimension of time (editing, narrative) and film as controlling the dimension of space (changes in distance, editing), cinematic codes create a gaze, a world and an object'. In particular, film is a powerful means of structuring looking, not only the looks between the film's protagonists but also the looks between its protagonists and its spectators. Since psychoanalysis in its Freudian and Lacaian forms argues that visuality is central to subjectivity, it follows that film can address our sense of self very powerfully- and that psychoanalysis can offer some powerful readings of films.

I hope you too find her writings helpful and eye-opening while filming! -Nicole Muller

Downtown 81

One of my favorite artists is Jean Michael Basqait, graffitti artist, poet and writer. He is a noteworthy and an influential and inspiring artist to many. I was looking up films to watch and found one that he starred in 1980-81, which was a huge time period for artists and musicians in nyc. I watched the film on netflix, which if you have an account you can watch "Downtown 81" instantly. It was so amazing to see NYC in raw perspective at this time, from the cars driven at that time to 5th Avenue Guggenheim. There were some really interesting and cool shots in the film, and this film is not necessarily a documentary but is has elements of a documentary and is very dream like and surreal. Check it out. Here is a link with the synopsis of the film. "Downtown 81"

A Lesson in Framing

        After class today i decided to walk down broadway near Strand bookstore and my attention was caught by a man dressed in a brown suit and dress hat holding an old fashioned polaroid camera. The way he stood laid back just awaiting something holding one of the most beautiful peices of equipment i've i ever saw, i had to stop. I asked him first is it a land camera, because i myself have a old polaroid land camera made in the 1950's that reminded me of his. We began to talk and he asked if i was a photographer, and i said no but i'm into photography and the arts, and i actually said i'm a film student automatically, when technically im a design tech major... Anyways he began to open up his bag which revealed another camera which happens to be a polaroid land camera that i asked about only made in the 60's. He began saying let me give you your first lesson in framing. He started showing me the two places on the camera which you look out of that say "range" and "view" Range gives you perspective of what is going to be in the frame, and view lets you focus in on what your'e seeing. At first it was a little struggle adjusting to the weight of the camera and the tactile feel of something so old, but after a while i got the hang of it. He had me focus in on a taxi cab from a distance, once i got that, then the light pole, a bag of garbage, then a shriveled  wrapper on the ground, then finally a close up of himself. When i finally felt comfortable in framing and focusing, he showed me how to adjust the aperture on the camera, flick it back and take the picture. My first shot wasnt too bad,except for the flash was too bright. We did some readjustments and this went on for a while practicing, till i finally got the right shot! It was really amazing talking to this man who by the way his name is Louis Mendes who is a portrait photographer and native of NYC. I realized at the moment, opportunities like these dont come around so very often so i started asking him questions. My first question was,
"How did you become interested in photography and taking photos?" He replied

" Well growing up my family took a lot of photos and my sister particularly was the photographer of the family. When being a photographer, you're never able to be in the picture, so one day she handed the camera to me, so she could finally be in a photo, and i've had my hands on cameras ever since."
What Louis does today is photograph many other photographers and the NY Times did a great story on Louis last December. (An Old-Fashioned Camera in a Digital Age) I also asked Louis
"Being a student,designer and artist in this world today, what advice do you give me for pursuing the art world?" He looked at me and said
"Learn as much as you can, receive an education and stay focused."
The thing about New York City is, you never know who you're going to run into, what you're going to see and what you're going to learn. Like he told me, "People see me and this camera attracts attention, you don't see it everyday and people want their photograph taken... its spur of the moment." Like me stopping to admire his 1940's camera and taking the time to appreciate the words of someone who has lived life and still has the drive, creativity, and spirit to keep on living, documenting life, making history and inspiring the people of today, through the fashions of yesterday.

(My land camera which is a slightly older version then Mendes's)

Louis Mendes

Pipilotti Rist

One day I took some time to look around the galleries in Chelsea and saw Pipilotti's show at Luhring Augustine gallery. Among all the art works I saw that day, her show was my favorite. I saw Pipilotti's video installation at MOMA once but was not impressed by her work then. However, this time, I was intrigued by one of her installation work. She had three works. The first one in the entrance room has sculptures of everyday objects and a video triptych made out of filmed body parts. The second work in a big middle room was an installation with videos projected through layers of translucent fabrics(I cannot distinguish what the fabric actually is...) You can walk through the layers of the fabrics hanging down from the ceiling. Just walking through the fabrics and seeing the video projected through the layers of the translucent fabrics create a whole new experience...I felt like I could just stay there the whole day! In the last room, she made a chandelier out of underwears and a video is projected on the chandelier. The wallpapers which were patterns made out of her video still complement the the whole installation.

When I left the gallery, I felt like I just came back to reality from a remote place where time is suspended. To fully appreciate her works, one must experience being in the space. I was fascinated by how Pipilotti was able to use the whole space in the gallery and transform that space to such a bizarre, engaging place.

jeesu

Marcel Broodthaers

Today I went to see the Marcel Broodthaers show and it was really interesting. I initially was unsure of what to look for or what to expect when entering the gallery but i was instantly drawn to the projections on the wall. There were two different films projected on the wall, one was a black and white image i believe projected against a map. The other was a film projected on a wall of white, with black writing in boxes that said 'fig 12', 'fig 1', 'fig 3' and so on. From there i was confused, i was trying to imagine what his methodology was and what was the message being conveyed.  Even though i was trying to figure out, what his work was really about; the setting of the gallery was very engaging , some walls were black, some where white and the floor was like grey/tannish. When i say engaging, i felt very comfortable looking at his work in the space it was in, which is important i believe. Art in any medium is about presentation and the environment its placed in. For example, something good may be projected but if the environment isn't supportive of the essence in what is being displayed, the content of work, looses an important quality and aesthetic. I think the experience i had was interesting and important, because in this culture today, we are so used to knowing what a show or movie is about before even visually seeing it we may bring pre-judgements or ideas, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but sometimes being thrown into a story or narrative in the mist of it all, activates other tools within ourselves. Without much insight on Broodthaers history, i just had to use my own senses to interpret what i saw and take as much of it as i could, and even use what i saw as inspiration for myself. I went on to another part of the exhibit where there were about four projectors that you individually turn on and the film projected on the wall. The first one i saw was clips of maps, followed by dates, followed by words, then followed again by close up shots of maps and other shots. I was trying to understand maybe the dates correlate to the locations on the map that were being shown, then words would follow such as mystery, death, shark, cook, knife.... I then began to think when the clip of the map was shown again right after those last three words( shark, cook, knife) that maybe Broodthaers found some really good shark in that region of the world, but then thought no there has to be something more behind all of this... I then went to another projector and started that film, which was different content, there were mechanical structures which it appeared like tools and shelves, that over a period of time became clearer and clearer as the shot was really beautifully done to gradually form the object. Unfortunately the show was ending, but i really enjoyed the experience. As i left the gallery, i felt like i was thrown into another world when walking  back amongst the busy streets of nyc. It felt like while being in the gallery, was another world, very surreal like. Now when im recalling the feeling of being in the gallery, it didn't even feel like i was in Ny anymore or the U.S for that matter, i guess because of the content of Broodthaers films which projected maps and imagery not seen everyday in the nyc lifestyle. I just thought the aura and sensuality that film can bring upon us, just by environment and how we relate to it visually and with our senses is really amazing. It takes us out of the context which we are really in, and when a film or visual is strong enough to make us forget where we really are, i think it has accomplished something whether or not we understand what really happened or not. There are so many levels to film and video that its like diving in the depths of understanding, and Broodthaers work is one of those depths, i'd like to understand and hopefully visit his work again.

Marcel Broodthaers

This past Friday I traveled to the Marian Goodman Gallery for the Marcel Broodthaers Show. 

Upon entrance into the gallery I thought of this specific Video class. 

Marcel Broodthaers combines still and fixed images, often textual pieces, with video. His still imagery is fixed to a wall, hung on a canvas or painted flat on the wall, while moving projected video overlay the piece- creating these intriguing layers and relationships between the fixed visual and the moving, rhythmic video.

One of his pieces that caught my attention was an traditional flat map of the world hung on the wall, with video playing over the map as its projector screen. The map imagery layered with the moving images was mesmerizing. There was something so familiar about the map, that the moving people in the video became familiar as well. 

The transposing of imagery challenges the eye to work in more than one way. We are looking at a still image under a moving image. The still image may even appear to move because of this illusion Marcel Broothaers has created. Broothaers' videos play with the viewer's point of view and led me to question the subjects' place in their own space. Other works overlaid video on fixed text. One piece consists of a wall with the words fig.1, fig.2, fig.3 etc. and then videos of people in odd situations with relationships to other objects in their space and the scene. 

I was inspired by his concept of combining fixed imagery with video work. I've always enjoyed working in layers, whether it be in drawing, painting, collage, mixed media etc., but I haven't yet thought of exploring layering in this kind of way. Its a whole new way of looking at fixed art or text, and video as partners. The relationships Broothaer's created were clever and minimalist. I enjoyed the show but I even more appreciate what I walked away with: the idea to use this combination of media in my own work.  

I recommend checking it out!

 (The image above is one I snapped on my phone at the gallery.)

-Nicole Muller

Video is not optical ......

Students:
  Hi - welcome to the blog.  I was reviewing my notes from Paul Ryan's lecture and found this comment which I think will be helpful when we shift from analyzing film form to understanding video as a different medium from film.  He stated that video is not optical but instead it is kinesthetic movement. (This idea may be helpful when you're practicing shooting and focusing on movement.  We'll look at Dziga Vertov's film work in contrast to Eisenstein's methods of filming which will help you to see the roots of using a time based medium which is oriented to kinesthetic movement rather than the optical. Vertov's films are from the same period as Eisenstein's films and Vertov's method of filming is more similar to the medium of video. )  
  CREOD!!! Two sources regarding creods....the first description seems related to shooting and the second description has to do with patterns of behavior - this could relate to developing a subject about relationships for a video, similar to the videos such as "Triad" .
     A general description of a creod that Flora had cited from Principia Cybernetica Web: "A creod is derived from the Greek words for "necessity" and "a path." A term coined by D.S. Waddington who says a creod is a "time trajectory of developmental change (arising) from the characteristics of the closed circular causal organization of the system of genes and cytoplasm. Creods are a type of phenomena which occurs in many other fields also." (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/Creod.html)
    A more specific type of creod: "Behavioral creods are essentially similar to Piaget's notion of schemes, organized patterns of behavior that develop in characteristic ways.  They represent the bias the organism has toward acquiring some rather than other forms of behavior. " (From Synthesizing Nature-Nurture: Prenatal Roots of Instinctive Behavior" by Gilbert Gottlieb.) In a few weeks, we'll view videos from the 70's and 90's which have relevance to behavioral creods.
  For now you may find these ideas abstract but in a few weeks, I think you'll shift into playing with these ideas and explore new experiences with the medium.