Appropriation Work

It Came From Planet B! Videos

2012

Duration: 4:16 and 3:21

I appropriated video and sound from collection of youtube videos to create 2 video intermissions for the theatrical production, It Came From Planet B! The videos continued the narrative of the production during costume and set changes. The majority of the footage was appropriated from an array space/alien movies and television shows.

Below are some stills from the videos:

 

Corinne Vionnet

Born in Switzerland in 1969.

Corinne's most popular work to date is a photo series called Photo Opportunities. The images are Photoshoped composites of tourist photos of famous landmarks (Leaning Tower of Piza, Eiffel Tower, etc.) which she appropriates from the internet. Often using hundreds of photos, she stacks them onto each other and then alters the opacity to create an impressionistic image of the landmark.

Here are some examples from the series:

Dlectricity (friday)

It’s really exciting to see an art festival can take over the main drag of downtown. It's this type of event that really elevates Detroit's "hipster" status. Detroit is more and more becoming a cultural hub of musicians, art and artists. Being an artist, who lives and works in the Detroit area, I’ve relatively recently begun to feel like is the right place to be. Events like Dlectricity reinforce this.

The installations that took over entire buildings were my favorite. In the work Visual Music by Kye Potter and Julia Dzwonkoski, video and images were being projected onto the entire face of a building. Also, the piece Work by Mark Moffett with Time Productions projected video from inside of a building onto the windows, which created a mesmerizing effect.

Aside from the art itself, what really stood out to me was MOCAD being open for a no-cover party. To see the community together, enjoying modern art, was awesome. The work that was inside called Vision in a Cornfield was very bizarre and fun to examine.

Unfortunately the rain and cold stood in the way of exploring more of the pieces (no umbrella). Overall, I think that Dlectricity would benefit greatly from being scheduled about month earlier. Exploring these pieces on a summer night would’ve been prime.

Game VS Art

I’ve never really considered a game to be an art form. Sure, the production of games and art is similar in that they are both a creative processes, but I’ve never thought that the intentions behind them were similar (art: to express, game: to win). I think that the idea of a game being art it is a relatively recent idea, which emerged out of conceptual art movements of the 20^th century.

I think that in order for games to be considered art, the act of playing or the end result of playing must fulfill some conceptual goal, in the same way that finishing an artwork cements an idea or a goal. The methods/guidelines for this goal are obviously quite ambiguous and are part of the creative process.

Another similarity between an art-game and more traditional artwork is in the variables that exist within their respective processes. The results of both are dependent on variables such as: circumstance, personality and skill.

But despite common variables, the main difference between the two is still chance. Chance is what consumes games and is what makes them what they are, while the ideal in traditional artworks is more often than not, to remove chance.

Aleatoric Music

Aleatoric music is defined as music where part/all of the composition of the music is left to chance or to the whim of the musicians.

Steps to creating such a "game" could be as follows:

1. Gather musicians/instruments into a room.
2. Select one of the musicians to be the "Composer."
3. Make a series of cards which are adorn with symbols that have pre-determined meanings. The symbols would signify general musical ideas such as: "play something fast," "play something low," "slow the tempo," etc.
4. The Composer would collect the cards and begin presenting them (at their discretion) for the other musicians to play to.

The results of this would be Aleatoric music.

Here is the link to the John Cage piece that I showed in class:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJMekwS6b9U

Here is a link to an Aleatoric water instrument video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ_KijiwQHE

New Media Game

Title: Quik Pix

Description: Spell "I LUV NEW MEDIA ART" using photos of signs outside, around campus.

Objective: To be the first to spell "I LUV NEW MEDIA ART" and return to the class room.

Rules: The letters have to be photographed in the correct order. More than one letter can be captured in the same photo as long as they are in the correct order. Each photo has to be taken of a separate sign. The photos have to be taken of signs that are physically attached to the campus (no photos of car license plates, blimps, t-shirts, etc.)

Show and Tell

Title: “Window Over the Kitchen Sink (Complete History of the Earth – Article: 2.9144617 × 10^26)”

Artist Statement: Windows always frame a space that is separated from our immediate space. By doing this “framing,” our view out of (or into) a window elicits a perceptual distortion of what the other side is actually like (i.e. doesn’t it look warmer out there than it actually is?)… Windows crop the view, obscure with glare, muffle the sound, block the smell, and in general, insulate from that environment.

     With “Window Over the Kitchen Sink (Complete History of the Earth – Article: 2.9144617 × 10^26)” I created a “window” that exaggerates the perceptual distortions that are inherited from a window-view.

Date: 2012

Medium: Digital Photography, Installation

Dimensions: 21in X 17in X 6in

Description: It is a Photoshop composite image (of both appropriated and original photos) that is printed on translucent paper and is mounted between acrylic glass over a “light-box.”