In-Class Writings

Project Ideas

Depression: It’s easy to fall into a pit of depression. The mind has to be kept busy. 

Drugs: Drugs can be beneficial or harmful. Some drugs keep you alive and other drugs kill you.

Sleep: Sleep is vital to one’s health, but too much sleep is detrimental.

Isolation: Isolation can feel hypothetically good, but in reality it’s not.

Bonding: Bonding is an enjoyable experience. Bonding can take the form of lots of different activities. Usually just spending time with someone is bonding.

Depression: It’s easy to fall into a pit of depression. The mind has to be kept busy. 

Performed with the body: Constantly moving from task to task without ever stopping. Constantly working until collapsing from exhaustion. Crying.

How to videotape? Film someone spending the entire day writing out something on the computer, cleaning the house, etc. Never taking a break. The camera is following the person around throughout the day in a POV shot of their perspective.

Contrast with performed act: Person stops their activity and sits on a couch/bed doing nothing. Now that they’re not busy their mind starts to wander and they begin crying.

Script for Daniel: Basically the concept is that a lot of people deal with depression by keeping themselves busy. If they’re not busy then their mind wanders and they become more depressed; It’s a coping mechanism. The video shows the perspective of a person who is constantly working. Since they’re being productive they think they’re not depressed but they are. As soon as they stop they begin to spiral and suddenly can’t do anything anymore and become stuck.

Drugs: Drugs can be beneficial or harmful. Some drugs keep you alive and other drugs kill you.

Performed with the body: Swallowing a bottle of pills. Eating smarties, which sort of look like pills. Shaking.

How to videotape? Still shot of a person downing several bottles of cough syrup. The next shot is of them getting into bed. Fade to black.

Contrast with performed act: Person takes drugs as directed. Person flushes pills/syrup. Person wakes up from the night before.

Script for Daniel: I’m just thinking about how prevalent drugs are in our lives. Some people need drugs to function properly. Some people need drugs to stay alive. It seems like a lot of people misuse drugs. A lot of people are addicted; So it’s ironic that the thing meant to treat a disease (drugs) can itself cause a disease (addiction.) The video is someone overdosing, either on drugs or something that can represent the drugs like candy, and going to bed. I don’t want them to die though. They just wake up and go about their normal life.

Isolation: Isolation can feel hypothetically good, but in reality it’s not.

Performed with the body: Sitting alone in a dark room. Writing long drawn-out text messages or emails to friends and then immediately deleting them upon completion. Always saying no to invitations. 

How to videotape? Behind the shoulder shot. The person keeps receiving text messages on their phone. The person either deletes all these messages or replies, “no.” 

Contrast with performed act: Person agrees to an invitation and spends time with friends. Person writes “yes” in reply to one of the messages. Person themself sends an invitation to someone. 

Script for Daniel: A lot of people self-isolate; Either by choice or just by habit because it’s easier to be alone than with others. So the video is showing someone constantly rejecting offers to spend time with people because they’re self-isolating. It’s kind of like a harmful addiction. They know it’s bad for them but they can’t stop doing it. Eventually people stop asking them to go places so now they’re actually alone, and they realize they don’t actually like being alone. Maybe this one could have a happy ending where they finally go out with a friend. 

Project 3 Proposal

I don’t like any of the ideas I wrote out in-class, so here’s the idea I actually want to do.

The concept is antidepressants/depression.

My ad is a parody of antidepressant commercials, but in a classic Billy Mays infomercial style. In my video I’ll be the “salesman,” but I’ll be dressed up as a witch, and the product I’m selling to the viewer is a happiness potion. The happiness potion will be a glass Starbucks frappucino bottle filled with yellow Gatorade, and a piece of paper reading “Happiness Potion” taped to it. The ad is essentially me just selling this “magical item” to the viewer, with an added “Side Effects may include…” bit from drug commercials.

I haven’t thought of a funny sounding witch name yet, so I just put (Name.)

Script:

Do you feel sad? Hopeless? Worn-down and run-out? Well I’ve got some bad news for you… you have depression.

BUT WAIT!

(Name) Here, and have I got the product for YOU!

Depression can be a thing of the past with THIS- my new patent-pending, organic, gluten-free, HAPPINESS POTION! Magically concocted by ME, (Name), a 100% certified homeopathic WITCH!

Take on the world without that pesky mental illness of yours, just drink magic happiness in a bottle!

Take a look at this girl.

Before HAPPINESS POTION. (Shot of girl looking sad, dressed in all black.)

And after HAPPINESS POTION! (Shot of girl looking happy, holding bottle, wearing colors.)

(Sped-Up Voice) [Warning, side effects may include mania, psychosis, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, migraines, swelling, joint pain, and increased risk of suicide. Do not take HAPPINESS POTION if you are pregnant or plan on becoming pregnant. HAPPINESS POTION is not FDA approved.]

For the low-low price of $19.99 plus shipping and handling, this HAPPINESS POTION can MAGICALLY CHANGE YOUR LIFE! ORDER NOW!

How did Schaefer conceptualize the raw recorded sounds that were the basis of MQ?

Schaefer became experienced with sound production through his work at the RTF (Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française) in the 1930s. During this time Schaefer realized that these sounds, the sound effects used for radio programs, could be repurposed and composed into music. These “concrete” or “raw” sounds were separated from the radio and other such media to form an entirely new kind of musical expression; Thus, Musique Concrete was born with Schaefer’s 1948 Étude aux chemins de fer.

Although the sounds that Schaefer used were “real sounds,” (as opposed to “fake” sounds?) his goal was to distance these noises from reality. So even though his sounds had a real-world origin (the sounds of a train for example), Schaefer wanted the listener to focus entirely on the sound and not think of where it came from. The point of his Musique Concrete compositions were to disconnect the sounds from their source to create something new and unheard of.

What is your subjective response to MQ works like Etude aux chemins de fer, as compared to contemporary music that you listen to?

Personally, I would not classify Etude aux chemins de fer as music because to me, there is no discernible rhythm or melody to the work, which are traits I think “music” needs to possess. I would call Etude aux chemins de fer experimental sound art instead. Another Schaefer work, Etude Violette, sounds a bit more musical to me because there are distinct rhythms present throughout the piece. So I would say whether “Musique Concrete” is music or not depends on the particular piece.

As for my subjective response- I don’t enjoy Etude aux chemins de fer. I am not entertained by it and it is not something I would listen to in my free time. I enjoy the contemporary music that I listen to much more because, well… it’s music. It’s entertainment. 

Is MQ valuable as a sound work? Is it valuable as an artwork?

I think Musique Concrete is valuable as a sound work and as an artwork. There is historical importance to these works that mark an evolutionary period of people experimenting with sound. This early experimentation with raw sound led to the experimentation and creation of electronic music, which is today a hugely global and vast genre of music. 

Event Video

My event video and narrative video are linked by their themes of food. For my event, I will be calling it Playing with my Food, as that is quite literally what happens in the video. The concept of this is that I am taking an item, food (dried rice), and misusing it by “playing” with it instead of eating it. The video footage is documenting this event of my “food art making,” as I use the dried rice to draw designs on a table. This personally connects to me as I am unable to eat many foods due to health issues- so I am repurposing this dried rice and turning it into art since I can’t eat it (even though I want to.) The style that I am shooting this in is reminiscent of ASMR videos- I want my hand movements to be slow and calculated to draw the viewer in and mesmerize them. There is no speaking in this video, but only the ambient noises of my apartment’s living room and the sounds that the dry rice produce. At the end of the video, I will wipe the designs made in the rice away, which is meant to reference how Zen sand gardens are fleeting and blown away by the wind.

Narrative

My narrative video acts as a sequel to Playing with my Food. Here, I am no longer playing with the rice, but eating it… sort of. I can’t actually eat the rice. The video will be divided into two parts: Cooking and Eating.

The cooking segment will show footage of myself cooking and preparing the rice dish. My helpful roommate will act as assistant and film me. I want this part of the video to appear more raw; The conversations between my roommate and I will be unfiltered, the camera will be handheld rather than set on a tripod, and I will talk about whatever ideas I may come up with in the moment.

The eating segment will be stiller as the camera will be positioned on a tripod in front of me and my bowl of now-cooked rice. I am sitting at my living room coffee table, which is the same table I will film Playing with my Food on. As I sit and chew the rice, I will eventually spit it back out into another bowl. I want to title this piece Bad Mukbang: Antithesis to the Eating Show. If you don’t know, a mukbang is a type of YouTube video or livestream that shows a person eating (usually very large amounts of food to draw in viewers.) I, of course, can’t possibly create an actual mukbang video as my esophagus doesn’t function correctly, so this is my solution to that- I just spit out the food. It is meant to be shocking and a bit gross… because it is exposing an intimate detail of my everyday life. Well my roommate thought it was gross at least, hence why she is absent from this second part.

Document of an Event Ideas:

1. Okay, so I love the twitter account @billhaderdancin which just posts the same edit from a Bill Hader SNL skit to different songs. Basically I want to recreate the dance/set and put a funny song on top. I think I could do a really good job because I’ve watched this video like a thousand times. Oh and I would go buy an ugly blue sweater from Goodwill to make it extra authentic.

OR this could be a narrative video where I’m a mime and I’m stuck in a box, but then I just start dancing in the box Hader style. I don’t have a beret but I DO have a striped turtleneck so I think I could really pull off the mime look.

bad guy- billie eilish pic.twitter.com/npb82ZsSJU

— bill hader dancing to (@billhaderdancin) September 27, 2019

2. My second idea is to make a video of me dipping my hands into a bowl of rice… Possibly making a zen garden in the bowl of rice. I could also pour some of the rice on the table and draw in it, and then swipe it away. I want the video to have to have no speaking and to be sort of like ASMR with the rice sounds (see video below.)

Narrative Ideas:

1. I want to make a video documenting my day tomorrow as I go to my doctor’s visit. I think it could be sort of interesting to see my point of view as I observe various things in the hospital, waiting room, office, etc. I don’t know if it’s illegal to shoot videos in Shands though so I might not be able to do this one. But I think it’s a good idea anyways. Maybe instead of going to the Doctor’s I could make a vlog of me going shopping somewhere- Like my favorite stores Goodwill and Ross. I could buy a really ugly outfit and then have a look book shot of me modeling it afterwards. This sequence could be reminiscent of that scene in the Jim Carrey Grinch movie where he’s trying on his Christmas party outfits…

BTW If you’ve never seen Jim Carrey Grinch please go watch it he’s a Canadian icon like Wolverine.

2. My other narrative idea is more personal. Okay so it’s gonna sound weird: It’s a straight shot of me sitting at my dining table and I’m eating a meal. But I don’t actually swallow any of the food I’m eating, I just spit it out into a bowl next to me. I will explain further in class.

The video art I have chosen is called Coal Confession by Ilene Segalove, which was created in 1972. The video is two minutes and forty-three seconds long.

The whole piece is Segalove sitting in front of her camera and speaking about how in the fifth grade, she plagiarized the World Book Encyclopedia for a school report about coal. This is what I would call, essentially, a very early “vlog” (video blog.) It is reminiscent of many modern YouTube videos where the creator is sitting in front of their own camera and talking about whatever the video’s subject may be.

I enjoy Coal Confession greatly because it is humorous and entertaining. I find that a lot of video art, especially early video art, is very long and boring. Like Nauman’s Bouncing in the Corner. I absolutely hate that piece. Who in their right mind is going to sit through all fifty-nine minutes of that? I get that a lot of the “long and boring” stuff is deep and meaningful, but some of it is just long and boring.

Anyway, the humor of Coal Confession is that there’s this grown woman sitting in front of you and confessing to the crime she committed in the fifth grade. It really makes the viewer ask, “why?” What’s the point of this? Who cares what Segalove did in the fifth grade? But that’s exactly why it’s funny; This confession holds no real weight. It’s not going to be used as police evidence in her plagiarism trial, because there is no plagiarism trial. No one cares that some fifth grader plagiarized thirteen years ago. In fact, there’s probably a part of the audience who is relating to Segalove and remembering their own past plagiarism crimes. (That’s not me, of course. I’ve never plagiarized because plagiarism is immoral and illegal.)

What also makes this a funny story is that Segalove pulled off her crime so flawlessly. She didn’t get caught plagiarizing, and according to her narration, even received an “A++” on the report with glowing comments from her teacher. Now this could all have been made up, but I like to believe there is a truth to this story. If not, I think Segalove would make for a good stand-up comedian.

The entire “snake” sequence of my animation was my favorite part, both to shoot and edit. I chose this frame because it is visually interesting. I enjoy the effects I used in Premiere to create the solid, posterized forms of colors. Personally, I think it would look very exciting to have an entire animation sequence made with this style. Additionally, I like the rainbow color palette being shown in this frame, along with the range of various saturation levels. There is a strong contrast between each major color form which adds to the cartoony and chaotic tone of the piece. Overall, I believe this frame works well to represent my animation as a whole.

The animation I will first be discussing here is Tarantella (1940) by Mary Ellen Bute. Right at the beginning, a text display describes this is a “seeing-sound” film that is meant to “visualize music.” Pamela Taylor Turner references music, and compares music to abstract animation, all throughout her article. I find this to be a very fascinatingly accurate analysis of the medium of abstract animation. Turner explains this idea many times in her piece; Both music and abstract animation present a composition. This composition, aural in the case of music, and visual in the case of animation, is free from any narrative. Free from narrative does not, however, equate to an absence of meaning in the art. As for Tarantella, this meaning is quite clear as it is literally spelled out for the viewer at the very beginning of the film; It is representing dance and music through forms and colors.

It is a bit more difficult to find meaning in other abstract animations, however. Some viewers may even think a piece is completely meaningless altogether. Take John Whitney’s Permutations (1968) for example. There is no text here explaining to the viewer the context of the music, sounds, or visuals. It is simply an abstract presentation of digitally produced moving forms. This type of animation is more akin to another idea presented by Turner- that abstract animation is meant to be an individual, exploratory experience that is ever changing. Each individual who watches Permutations is going to come away with a different impression of it. One individual may simply believe it to be a pointless movement of lights across a screen, yet another may see it as an epic journey through space-time. Turner states that these factors primarily influence how someone will experience an animation: “…the viewer’s mind set, previous encounter with the animation, and memory of the animation.” (Page 6.) She again uses music an analogy for this type of experience.

I believe that the viewer’s mindset is the most important influence for one’s impression of an animation. One who is say, more experienced in the world of the arts and abstraction will find themselves more easily exploring the deeper meaning hidden behind Permutations compared to someone who has very little experience with abstraction. This, of course, is just a generalization. Even those who have only encountered very little abstract art in their lives are able to form richly developed opinions about a piece of art. The opposite holds true as well. A decades-experienced artist may take one look at Permutations and write it off as meaningless garbage just because that’s how they decided to perceive it. Again, abstract animation depends on the individual experience. Just like how music requires the viewer to participate, and therefore experience it, so does the form of abstract animation. This experience combined with the viewer’s mindset forms the overall impression and interpretation of a piece.

Here are the four images for the Shooting Exercise assignment- my team included myself and Danielle.