Projecting memory: An experiment in layering, silhouette and projected light

It was an interesting change to work alone on a larger piece, something that I haven't done in awhile. On the one hand, it was kind of a relief to be in charge and not have to make compromises based on other people's visions. On the other hand, I really missed the give and take of collaboration, especially since it was such a frustrating ordeal to come up with a concept and technique that worked. I was feeling really discouraged on Wednesday, and almost felt like my fixation on using cut-outs with projection was preventing me from exploring other ways of using light that could have been "illuminating." (Clearly the possibilities were endless-- and I was really blown away by the other projects that we saw today). At the same time, I felt intuitively that there was a way to make something interesting come out of this specific combination-- I was thinking a lot about the William Kentridge exhibit I saw last month, and Kara Walker, and puppet shows and the idea of play. I think the whole piece came together when I remembered the audio recording I have of my godson singing "Puff the Magic DragoN", and also when the overhead fan turned on and the pieces started swaying-- that was when I stopped concentrating on squaring up the three screens, and decided let their relationship to the projector and each other change as people moved through the piece.

I see this work as a sketch-- I think the idea would work better in a larger space that could facilitate more interaction. Also, I'm not totally satisfied with the craftsmanship (i.e. sloppy frames, knotted fishing line), but this is definitely an idea and a vocabulary that I want to explore more.

From the outside looking in (with Aston/Jake's projected stripes otuside:

At the entrance:

From the entrance looking back (the mechanics):

From the projector looking forward (more mechanics)

Playing with the hung cut-outs:

The end.

Besides "Puff the Magic Dragon," the other song from my childhood that I have stuck in my head this afternoon, as I remember it:

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me
I guess I'll go eat worms
Big fat juicy ones
Little baby skinny ones
I guess I'll go eat worms, worms, worms

Hello Darling! A love seat

Paper dolls

I've gotten a bit side-tracked this weekend. I started playing around with paper in order to practice precision with the exacto knife, and ended up making two relatively complete collages with old wallpaper samples.

Invisible friend

Plastic surgery

I haven't really gotten around to playing with the projector that much, but I've found images to use for the assignment, and I think I have a pretty good idea of how I've going to combine cut material/silhouette/negative space with projection. We'll see.

I think that after spending so much time and energy on one large-scale piece over the past couple weeks, I'm finding it really satisfying to be able to start and finish pieces over the course of several hours. I'd forgotten how much I like working in 2-D, and on a smaller scale, sometimes.

Other works on paper ideas:

-Two twisted pop-up illustrations: 1) Child's hand pouring salt from a salt shaker onto a snail. 2) Child's hand holding magnifying glass over an ant

-Silhouette of child's hands making two Barbies kiss

-Paper cut stop motion on a loop of a hamster on a hamster wheel, projected onto a moving turntable playing the "William Tell Overture"

Springiness (procession pictures)

The weather today made me think of this E.E. Cummings poem that I really loved in high school and hadn't thought of in awhile:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
wich is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Some thoughts following 2 full days of sunshine

After fourteen hours of sleep last night and a nice nap on my couch this afternoon, I think I've finally recovered from my crazy, stressfully obsessive fixation with getting the last project done in a way that I (although it was definitely a "we" project, my motivation in putting in lots of time was more how I, not we, would feel about it) could feel proud of. In general, I have started to feel frustrated about not being able to turns ideas into reality-- fixating so much on the process and not the product has helped me be very conscientious of how I work, how I think, and seems to have somehow opened me up creatively, but I think in general my craftsmanship and execution may not have been up to the same level as my idea-making. In the case of this project, I don't think that was true at all. I am at least as project of the object itself as I am with the performance it was used in service of.

I had so much fun in the park yesterday. That wasn't necessarily the point, but it was still great. I loved that there were kids. And a trombonist. And blue skies, and plastic noisemakers. Thank you to everyone for taking part and for being such good sports about the whole thing. Especially thank you to Jake who put up with my crazy mania, especially during the last day.

I've been thinking about whether I enjoyed the process of making the piece. It's hard for me to say. When I think back on the process, I think mostly of feeling obsessive, in a way that was both motivating and exhausting. I'm very proud of the project that Jake and I made, and I know that the amount of work we put in was necessary for it to work, and I know that I learned a lot in the course of the project, but I don't think that level of intensity is necessarily sustainable... Things to think about.

I was sort of disappointed in the crit. I don't feel that I got that much out of it that can help me make future projects better, which, in the end, is what I want to get out of a critique.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing pictures/video of the procession itself, since I only have the before and after shots.

I need to motivate myself for this next project. I have lots of ideas, but also lots of desire to sit out in the sun and do nothing.

Some Pictures from Class Today

So, despite the fact that I'm not completely prepared for my midterm tomorrow, I feel like it was worth it to spend as much time as we did on building the litter this weekend. I'm more proud of this piece than most I've worked on-- I think it seems (and looks) the most complete of any sculptures I've done, and less like a mock-up. Last semester, I learned a lot about my creative process, and came up with some really cool ideas, had some interesting collaborations, but with the exception of a couple pieces, I didn't necessarily come up with any end products that I'm satisfied with. And this is a piece that I am basically satisfied with (I'll be more satisfied when we do some touch-ups with spray paint, and also if the presentation aspect turns out as hoped).

I really enjoyed collaborating with Jake. We didn't quite click at the beginning of the process, we were a little bit stuck, a little to polite, neither one that engaged with the idea, but we managed to push past that, and I think we came up with an idea that we were able to execute (for time and expertise reasons) only as a team. I hope we're able to maintain that kind of positive collaboration as we finalize the plan for Wednesday. I wish I was better able to understand what makes a successful collaboration, and how to make it happen. In class today, I also came to the conclusion that there are probably groups of people who just can't work well together-- the process might be a good learning experience, but they might not be able to reach a conclusion they're satisfied with. I don't think it's that any individual can't collaborate, just that certain pairs/groups don't work well together.

I am so excited for the next assignment.

As promised, some photos.

Theo Jansen TED Talk

Amazing kinetic sculptures:
http://www.strandbeest.com/mGallery/strandbeest/Animaris%20Percipiere%20thunder%20may%202005%20photo%20Loek%20ven%20der%20Klis.JPG
Also:
http://www.ted.com/talks/theo_jansen_creates_new_creatures.html

Student Show

I have a couple pieces in the student show in List.

This:

"Untitled," Charcoal (2008)

And this:

"Mockingbird, #3-6," Collage (2008)

It's funny to see these works that I did so long ago and stuck in storage up on the wall. Also interested to see how different in some ways the things I was doing then are from what I'm doing now, but also how I'm fundamentally still interested in the same sorts of issues.

The opening is tonight from 7-10.

Works on paper that I'm excited by

That's cut paper!
"Chinese artist bovey lee creates paper cutout drawings, seeking to contemporize the ancient chinese folk art. to preserve and extend this artistry she replaces familiar subject matters in traditional paper cutouts such as folklore or celestial animals, with a blend of images drawing from her background in art. her works depict personal narratives, current affairs and politics."

http://www.designboom.com/cms/images/ridhika/bov01.jpg

The most luxurious way to get down to Tockwotton

Litter (vehicle)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of persons. Examples of litter vehicles include lectica (ancient Rome), jiao (China), sedan chairs (England), palanquin (also known as palki) (India), gama (Korea) and tahtırevan (Turkey). Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more men, some being enclosed for protection from the elements. Larger litters, for example those of the Chinese emperors, may resemble small rooms upon a platform borne upon the shoulders of a dozen or more men. To most efficiently carry a litter, porters will attempt to transfer the load to their shoulders, either by placing the carrying poles upon their shoulders, or the use of a yoke to transfer the load from the carrying poles to the shoulder.

Royal Sedan Chair, Vietnam
http://www.travelsinparadise.com/vietnam/hue/pictures/hue19-imperialcity.jpg

Palanquin used by the maharajs of Jodhpur
http://img5.travelblog.org/Photos/11430/236972/t/1873212-palanquin-used-by-the-maharajs-of-Jodhpur-0.jpg
Sketch of a Roman Litter
http://www.vroma.org/images/raia_images/romanlitter_sketch.jpg

Model of Egyptian Litter with Litter-Bearers
http://www.toysoldiers.com/products-soldiers/images/kingandcountry/ae01.jpg

British Sedan Chair
http://www.bath360.co.uk/history/sedan-chair-bath.jpg

Bench and next collaborative project

I liked the furniture project, although I was not completely satisfied with how the piece turned out, in terms of structural integrity. The biggest challenge for me was to figure out the angles of the seat-backs, but I eventually got it right. It's a project that I would like to revisit and revise at some point, but not right now.

I'm not really feeling 2x4s as a building material right now-- I'm not feeling that engaged by the idea of making functional objects, or furniture. I think part of the problem is that I had a chance to go to a bunch of exhibits in New York this weekend, and I came back with lots of ideas that aren't particularly compatible with the current project. It's making it hard for me to get really excited about any ideas for this next project.

I really love the peach-toned plastic sheeting material. Lots of possibilities for provoking visceral reactions, including one idea involving glass eyes (although we might have to abandon that, given shipping times, etc. Oh well).

Right now the things I'm feeling most excited about are:

Pop-up books as drawing/sculpture hybrids
Paper-cut drawings or stop motion animation
Video projection onto unusual surfaces, with a sound component.

I saw a really fabulous show at MOMA of the work of William Kentridge, a South African artist. Below is the link to the show website. Click "explore themes." You can view excerpts of a lot of the works. In the section "Ubu and the Procession", the piece "Shadow Procession" is fantastic. IN "Soho and Felix", "Tide Table" is really great.:

http://moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/williamkentridge/flash/index.html

Also, on youtube there is a video of these theaterboxes he builds, and fils with projected images, screens, video, and animatronic elements:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn38eZC84oo