The Video Artist and the Construction of an IDEA

FINAL ASSIGNMENT DUE JUNE 25th (CRIT)

Your final assignment (100Points) for this course is to create a 2-6 min video that is conceptually built up out of an idea, theme, or notion. Like the body, language, chaos, string theory, social constructs, notions of religion, television, existing with media, exploring an old medium. Think of Bill Viola's methods and pieces. They where not narratives per se', but they where exploring ideas or experiences. 

Your homework for this weekend is to brainstorm and come up with an idea. You should email me as soon as you think you got something (sometime Friday would be great, but by the end of Sat. I should half something.) Remember to keep it simple. Starting out with one word and exploring its meaning sometimes helps me. 

Monday we will be watching a Documentary on Gary Hills Work, that I think will help push things in the right direction. Tues. and Wed. will be open lab days. If you need to bounce ideas off me please...please email me or come in on those days so we can discuss. To accompany this piece you are also required to write an artist statement (there is a link on the side bar >> for a how to...). 

Previous Student work:

Wabi-Sabi from Michael Telschow on Vimeo.

Twenty Four Seven - Bethany Hudak from Integrated New Media Studies on Vimeo.

Chroma from Mark Sniadecki on Vimeo.

EXTRA CREDIT: Art Codecs (Fun in the Sun)

ARTS CODEC FUN IN THE SUN SCREENING AND BBQ @ 6PM SAT. JUN 23rd

Sat. June 23 Eric & Laura Souther will be hosting a BBQ and open screening at their house. Everyone who is a member of Arts Codec or who would like to screen some video work is welcome. Bring a H2.64 file on thumb drive to play back off a computer. Please also bring a side dish and your favorite non-alcoholic beverage to share; hamburgers, hot dogs, and dessert will be provided.

EMAIL: erisouth@iusb.edu for directions and to RVSP

ART GREASE

http://squeaky.org/artgrease

Experimental Doc. or Narrative (50Points)

Your assignment is to create either an Experimental Documentary or Narrative. There are several deadlines and materials you need to turn in for this project.

Step one: Your plan, what are you going create? I need a ruff Idea developed to discuss by June 7th.
                You will need to turn your planning documents into me to accompany your final piece.
                This should include these types of docs: Script, sketches, thumbnails, shot list, and storyboard
                Before you start shooting your idea needs to be approved by me verbally or via email.
Step two: Start getting footage for your piece. Starting today June 6th-11th. You will need to get more
                 footage than you think is necessary. The general rule is 30min for every good min. Your
                 final piece needs to be 3-4 min. This being said you don't have an extremely long time to do
                 this project. I would go for 10min to every min. Think about how this is going to flow in the
                 editing process and get more angles than are necessary. If you deem it necessary Monday is
                 a work day. For one more day to shoot. I will not be taking attendance, but will be there if
                 you need help.
Step three: Editing: should start at the absolute latest June 12th. You will have next weeks June 12th
                   and 13th to edit and work on your piece with my help. It is required to show work in
                   progress. I will be going over color correction and audio (voice over capturing).
Step Four: Final crit on June 14th.

STUDENT WORK:

The Meaning of Work "Dirty Hands" - Rob Ressler from Integrated New Media Studies on Vimeo.

Down to Sleep - Elijah Durnell & Bethany Hudak from Integrated New Media Studies on Vimeo.

It all comes down to this... from Sean Hasty on Vimeo.

Documentary

OF SOULS + WATER: THE MOTHER from NRS Films on Vimeo.

Huck from Andy Maser on Vimeo.

The Artist and the Computer

THINGPIT_HD from taras hrabowsky on Vimeo.

Experimental Documentary and Narrative

    

                 

Weekly Screening: Rivers And Tides

RIVERS AND TIDES Screening DUE JUNE 11th

Processing Video

Processing Video (100 Points)

Due June 5th

You assignment is to explore all the filters and there combinations to manipulate video to find new ways of seeing. This can work it's way out as a narrative, an abstract exploration, or any other structure. As long as you are experimenting and using the filters and utilizing key frames. Try and see if you can find combinations of filters that have a voice and that are original. Here are some example of past student work. 

Signal Processing

A Rough Guide to Analog Video Synthesis:

Sums & Difference by Gary Hill

VideoGrams by Gary Hill

Electronic Linguistics by Gary Hill

C-Trend by Woody Vasulka

Form Data Form by Jason Bernagozzi

Monica Duncan

Foley & Experimental Sound

EXPERIMENTAL SOUND

Due June 4th
Your assignment is to record, modify, and create your own "sound" to go along with the REQUIRED VIDEO FILE >>CLICK HERE<<Click Here to download it). The goal is to explore electronic sound modulations, manipulations, and experiment with the tools/software and there potentialities in the creation of sonic art.

There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot. 

- John Cage

The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason. 

-John Cage

Jason Bernagozzi @ http://seeinginvideo.com/

http://www.ubu.com/sound/cage.html

http://www.ubu.com/sound/index.html

http://www.ubu.com/sound/young.html

     http://www.ubu.com/sound/stockhausen.html

http://www.ubu.com/sound/oliveros.html

   

WAVELENGTH: Extra Credit (5Points)

Watch Wavelength by Michael Snow in it's entirety and write a 

two page report/reflection for 5 extra credit points Due May 30th.

Metaphors for Vision: The Absence of The Lens

 

Metaphors for Vision: The Absence of The Lens
Assignment 2 (100 Points) - Due May 30th (Full Critique)

Your assignment is to create a 1 min video with the absence of lens based image creation. For example using a flatbed scanner, exposing objects onto film, and generating the imagery via Photoshop. Your piece will be required to have sound of some nature. Your final video should be composed in Adobe Premiere and exported pre usual. I would suggest doing everything in 1920x1080. We will be working on these techniques in class today and tomorrow. The scanner will be left in the room from now until the project if finished.

"Structural Film is a cinema of the mind rather than the eye"

- Adams Sitney

METAPHORS FOR VISION

Paul Sharits

WEEKLY SCREENING - Pi: Faith in Chaos

Pi: Faith in Chaos <Netflix

Darren Aronofsky's jarring black-and-white brain-bender is a haunting examination of one man's numerical obsession. The story follows a fragile number theorist who's on the trail of a 216-digit number that could unlock the secrets of the universe.

FLUXUS EXERCISES <<Happenings>> | DUE MAY 23rd

>>>(Article to Read)<<<

<<<(Optional Article)>>>

Your assignment is to choose one of the four Fluxus exercises and create a video that attempts to understand one of these sentences. You video needs to be 2-3min long. 

1. Something that is taking shape in my mind and will sometimes come to consciousness. 

2. Something which is unknown to me, but which works upon me.

3. It is not confined - It is not in any specific place.   

4. Something I was once conscious of, but have now forgotten.

"Art can be a template for learning how to make ones own templates." - Fluxus

ALL STAR VIDEO

FLUXUS MOMENTS

Exposition of Music - Electronic Television 1963

 

YOKO ONO CUT PIECE

Conceptual Art

Conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs(1965). Kosuth placed a real chair in the gallery next to a photograph of the same chair (photographed in that gallery) and a definition from a dictionary.

Sol Lewitt - Directions

Sentences on Conceptual Art | by Sol Lewitt 

1. Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
2. Rational judgements repeat rational judgements.
3. Irrational judgements lead to new experience.
4. Formal art is essentially rational.
5. Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.
6. If the artist changes his mind midway through the execution of the piece he compromises the result and repeats past results.
7. The artist's will is secondary to the process he initiates from idea to completion. His wilfulness may only be ego.
8. When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations.
9. The concept and idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter is the component. Ideas implement the concept.
10. Ideas can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.
11. Ideas do not necessarily proceed in logical order. They may set one off in unexpected directions, but an idea must necessarily be completed in the mind before the next one is formed.
12. For each work of art that becomes physical there are many variations that do not.
13. A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist's mind.
14. The words of one artist to another may induce an idea chain, if they share the same concept.
15. Since no form is intrinsically superior to another, the artist may use any form, from an expression of words (written or spoken) to physical reality, equally.
16. If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature; numbers are not mathematics.
17. All ideas are art if they are concerned with art and fall within the conventions of art.
18. One usually understands the art of the past by applying the convention of the present, thus misunderstanding the art of the past.
19. The conventions of art are altered by works of art.
20. Successful art changes our understanding of the conventions by altering our perceptions.
21. Perception of ideas leads to new ideas.
22. The artist cannot imagine his art, and cannot perceive it until it is complete.
23. The artist may misperceive (understand it differently from the artist) a work of art but still be set off in his own chain of thought by that misconstrual.
24. Perception is subjective.
25. The artist may not necessarily understand his own art. His perception is neither better nor worse than that of others.
26. An artist may perceive the art of others better than his own.
27. The concept of a work of art may involve the matter of the piece or the process in which it is made.
28. Once the idea of the piece is established in the artist's mind and the final form is decided, the process is carried out blindly. There are many side effects that the artist cannot imagine. These may be used as ideas for new works.
29. The process is mechanical and should not be tampered with. It should run its course.
30. There are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important are the most obvious.
31. If an artist uses the same form in a group of works, and changes the material, one would assume the artist's concept involved the material.
32. Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.
33. It is difficult to bungle a good idea.
34. When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art.
35. These sentences comment on art, but are not art.

DEFINING THE POSSIBILITIES: A 12 Frame Obstruction

DEFINING THE POSSIBILITIES: A 12 Frame Obstruction 

ASSIGNMENT ONE (100 POINTS) Due May 21st.

There are three steps you must follow when developing you concept for you piece:

1. Define the possibilities of an object or a moment in time.

2. Define them further. 

3. Repeat these steps until further possibilities are exhausted. 

This should process should work it's way out in one of 3 ways: a script, shot list, storyboard. These texts and or sketches with text need to accompany your post for Monday May 21st. When I am asking you to define the possibilities I am asking you to define the possibilities of a moment in time cinematically via your cinematography (<Can you exhaust the amount of angles one subject or moment in time can be shot/viewed?) and construction of your narrative (Let your imagination lead you to vastness of infinite possibilities.) You can see that in the "A Relative Tonality" as an example of expanding the narrative. Pick a very simple event like opening a door, or running down the street, or eating a meal.

The second part of this is that I am placing a 12 Frame Obstruction upon your edit of your piece. That means you will see at least 2 shots per second. I will demo this in class. You can see an example below with Obstruction #1, an excerpt from the Five Obstructions. VIDEO needs to be 1MIN. Long anything after that is up to you MAX limit 3min.