Friday, April 13, 2018

Culture IV

First-- This is a pretty popular Ted Talk, but if you haven't seen it then I hope you enjoy what Sam has to say. Sam Berns passed away in 2014 from a disease called Progeria, and I honestly really wish I could have met him. I have watched multiple videos he has posted and read about his story a lot. This video is my favorite because of his positivity towards life and I think he was such a special person with an enormous heart. The part where he begins to talk about making a "can do" list is important because this can apply to your art and many other aspects of your life. The part about getting stuck in a paradox is also very important because this can happen in your life often if you surround yourself with people who are toxic, like he mentions, but also in relation to your artwork because often we get stuck in ruts where we don't feel like creating or being productive, and this only hurts you in the long run. Listen to what he says here because it really helps me maintain a positive outlook on things, and to accept what I cannot do or things I have done in the past and grow from them.

Second-- This is kind of silly, but if you haven't seen this video I hope you're amazed because I was the first time I watched it!! This might possibly be the best artist in the world. I think it's amazing that this was even captured on film in the first place... Also, I really wish they would make a sequel to keep us updated on how this little fishie is doing and if he found love because honestly, he is pretty awesome.

Third-- This is a movie my mom told me to watch a while ago, and most of the time I don't listen to her because we have very different taste in film.. but this one is pretty good. Its called, Big Eyes. Walter Keane was a very successful artist during the 60's, and "his" portrait paintings were known for the overly large eyes of the subjects, and I would not be a big fan of the art if I hadn't heard this story because honestly, they freak me out. However, he turned out to be a total fraud, and his wife was behind every painting. This movie probably isn't 100% truthful to facts or timelines, as are most movies based on true events, but it depicts the scandal very well and captures the emotion and anger that Margaret, his wife, must have felt. As an artist, I could never imagine what that must feel like to watch your own work be cherished and discussed by thousands of people and think that someone else created it. ((P.S. this movie is on Netflix!)) If you don't watch the movie, at least watch this interview with Margaret. You can see how joyful she is near the end to finally be able to live her life claiming the artwork that she had made for so many years!

Monday, April 9, 2018

Culture II

For my first cultural exploration piece I want to talk about an interesting thing happening with the way we interact with cameras. Going back to the beginning of recording technology, we see big, bulky cameras primarily being used on film and television, and was distinctly separate from everyday life. The technology behind the camera felt "other" to those unaccustomed to it, and so was treated almost like a verbal-essay-machine. (see this example to watch how ordinary people behaved around this foreign technology in the 20s). With the advent of the camcorder, it allowed people in everyday situations to be recorded easily onto tape, and as the rise of cinema and TV brought the technology into the sphere of everyone's cultural knowledge, it was treated less formally, and more as a candid observer, or even another person in the room. This first video below takes place during the rise of the home video and the idea of preserving your memories on film. The primary goal here is still separate from that of mass entertainment, which seeks not to preserve memories but to provide new experiences.Videos are made for yourself or a small group of people, and I think you can see the candid intimacy with which everyone interacts with the camera.

As the technology developed more and cameras became ubiquitous not only in every household but in every pocket, there seemed to be a growing interest in imitating Hollywood productions. Editing software made it simple to mash together takes and express a story creatively, and the emulation of cinema was galvanized aggressively when video sharing websites were introduced. In the wake of what felt like novice attempts to recreate the feeling of movies, youtube allowed for the last missing ingredient to bridge the gap. You could now reach millions of people with your content, and the intimacy we saw with the content and the camera dissolved. The implication now is that every moment is a moment to be preserved in time. Any action you preform on camera has a sense of urgent importance, where before you were allowed to develop your persona over time, you're suddenly squeezing as much as you can muster into a single phrase or movement. This gives a clearly over-saturated feel to people's behaviors. Compare the above video to this similar one made in 2018.

In the realm of inauthentic, overblown personas, the most important question becomes concerned with how we reclaim and preserve that gentle intimacy that we long to capture on camera. I don't really know a good solution, but I set out to try and do something similar with the next and last video below. My only working method was to forego completely the sense of linear progression. I filmed my friends constantly, and then later combed through to remove anything I felt didn't represent the quieter moments. The result is a series of shots with no particular significance, but which combine to give a sense of what it's like without the camera. My hope is that it's conveyed well to those watching from the outside, but that's secondary. Best experienced fullscreen with heaphones cranked up bby

Culture

Here are three things I would share. . .

+++ First, a 20 minute short on Wynwood, a district in Miami, FL which in the last ten years has become a trendy spot after real estate investors brought graffiti artists and muralists to hit up their buildings. The doc is a nice specific look at gentrification, instead of an abstract argument. You can feel however you want, there is a complicated relationship between art, money, beauty, society, but as an artist and when offered projects to "clean up", or "beautify" the city they often have effects deeper than the artist's immediate realization. This also came back to my mind after the recent flagpole article about a local artist making streetlights look nice with mosaics in downtown Athens. http://flagpole.com/arts-culture/art-notes/2018/03/28/krysia-ara-s-project-ginkgo-beautifies-downtown

Right to Wynwood

Right to Wynwood from Right to Wynwood on Vimeo.

+++ Second, a short video piece by "Hennessy Youngman", a character portrayed by Jayson Musson. Jayson is an interesting person and used to perform with hip-hop group Plastic Little who are the source of the line in that "Harlem Shake" thing that went viral. Hennessy is a satirical art critic and when Musson started these videos it was an innovative merger of "internet culture" and the fine arts world. A connection that has only deepened with memes and social media's growing influence.

+++ Third, an interview/conversation between two former professors I worked with in undergrad. Robert Rivers was very influential on my aesthetic and approach to art-making. It is interesting hearing people discuss their work, but it is also quite nice to hear an artist talk to another artist instead of a journalist or critic or historian. There is a deeper understanding between the two. It is also nice to hear them discuss art outside of art, or, life and personal interests emergence in one's artistic practice- for example when they discuss the parallel of running and art-making. Style isn't just what you draw, it is how you draw. Too many people trying to find their voice think only in terms of discovering the correct "subject matter"- do i paint flowers? make prints of cars? They miss the deeper themes of what drives their identity and will overlap with their artistic practice.
Rivers- In Conversation