Narrative Sound Project

This is a project we were assigned in my video studio x class, the assignment was to create a narrative story with only sound. The dialogue is from a poem I wrote my senior year in high school named "The Fork in the Road." I first started this by recording the piano and then adding in the dialogue afterwards to match up when the piano makes dramatic changes. I plan on adding animation to this once I get the skills to do so, check out my art on my facebook page if you're interested. This is the link to the video - The Fork in the Road

Kristen Tollefson

I really enjoyed Kristen talk about how she went about doing art and still raised a family while doing so, because to me family is the most important thing in this world that we have and assuring to hear that she was able to have her family and continue doing what she loved because I would like to one day do the same. In the beginning of her speech she mentioned having very strong experiences in her life from 5- 12 years of age that influenced her later on in life and I found that interesting because I personally started drawing when I was 5 years of age so I had a strong connection with that. Hearing about being aware of the world around us and our "developmental stages" of our lives and how she incorporated that in her pieces was awesome because I have also played with those concepts in my pieces, it's always good to see how other people use an idea in different way so you can broaden your horizon as to the possibilities of where you can go with that concept. It was very evident, even before she mentioned it, that her pieces had a strong connection to human made structures and natural structures, the strong contrast between the two is what really brought me into each piece. It was also very helpful knowing how she goes about going into her own persona when doing certain projects such as the one where she made her own outfit and contributed to a community project, it prepared my brainstorming for our prosthesis project.

Mind Map for Final project

Response to "The Five Obstruction"

At first it was obvious that Jorgen was not content with the obstructions he was given but you must make do with what you were given sometimes and he did quite well with it considering the limitations. The shots themselves were good in that they captured their subject matter very well but I enjoy this piece mostly for its conceptual point of view. It’s clear that the point of the video is to portray “The Perfect Human” but I thought it was really interesting to see because the perfect human has so many different forms to every individual. I liked that he chose to go about “The Perfect Human” not only physically but mentally as well, though I feel he could have touched on a more metal state rather than physical. It’s obvious that the time we live in is more focused on physical attributes rather than what’s inside (I mean just look at commercials and how much sex is incorporated to try and get consumers to buy their product) but I believe the perfect human would not be someone who is on another state of mind rather than perfect physically. I say that because I feel that we are on top of the food chain because of our self-aware consciousness not because of our physical attributes, there are plenty of things in this world that could easily fuck us over but it’s thanks to our thought process that have been passed down through our genes, generation after generation, that we avoid those situations.

 The repetition of the shots really emphasized the significance the shots which I find to be something that I will be using to make the viewer think deeper into what is being viewed rather than simply just watching. I also liked how he decided not to use a background to make the subject matter stand out more rather than blending with its environment, though there would be cases where that wouldn’t have been the smartest thing to do. In the end I personally think it’s just a matter of having reason for what you’re doing if you’re trying to get your point across clearly rather than inferring it. 

Space/ Object project

The idea behind this piece was to create tension for the viewer both from inside the room and outside the building because of where the piece was positioned. Though it ended up not being very noticeable from outside the building. Though I felt that it did indeed have the potential to freak out at least some people if they happened to be day dreaming and glancing up while walking on the street below. Unfortunately, it ended up being more as if he was just chilling on the window glancing outside rather than trying to get out (at least it seemed that way to me from the perspective from inside the room) due to technical difficulties such as figuring out how to make him stay in that position. As I was working on this piece, the head in particular, I noticed I wasn't going to be able to make it resemble an actual person with the time frame given so I improvised and created the head you see here above. Originally my intent was to create Jesus about to jump out of the window to bring back the concept of how Jesus died to save us all. Though it would have been a completely different take on it because of how he would have been positioned, because he would have been sitting like how the piece is it would have created a inferred narrative that he was debating whether or not to jump, but, again, because of the time frame I decided not to dwell too far into a project that deserved more time than given. So, instead the idea of Jesus lead me to think of creation and how we question who we are and why we are. The intent of creating the piece with clearly noticeable raw materials and having its head slightly turned to the right aimed at his hands was to have the piece question itself as to why it was created. The fact that it was basically chained to the inside forbid him from jumping so he was then stuck in an eternity of interrogating perplexity as to why he exists. If the face of the piece was more noticeable and the viewer could trace where the eyes where pointing at easier I think I could have achieved my intent easier, but now I know for the future; nothing better than learning from mistakes.

Proposal Statement- Sound/Audio Documentary

In doing this assignment I plan on portraying a narrative story solely through the sounds of the environment and short narration of my poem. My main goal is to create music that matches the mood of what is being said by the narrator. As well as creating an environment with the mixture of sounds and music so I could later introduce animation to it. But as for now my intention through the narrative story is to tell a story of a lost man who makes the wrong decision and pays for it in the end and concluding it with statement that leaves the viewer/listener thinking rather than simply just ending a story.

October 18, 2012: Louis Watts & Cable Griffith

I enjoyed Louis' talk because I really got a sense of who he was by hearing about how he goes about making his pieces along with the meaning behind it. One thing that really grabbed my attention was when he spoke about the "hadal zone" and how he had done research to learn more about it because I could totally relate to that process of just getting more into depth with a topic to back up the credibility of your piece.
I found it very interesting to see Cable's work mostly because I could relate to it somewhat. I also make narrative pieces and it was awesome seeing a different take on that concept. We both also have a tendency to focus on some reoccurring themes or methods to our pieces.