Hybrid Project: Statement

Title: Real Moment, Embellished

Lying in the bath tub is one of the best places for me to think.

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Apologies for the lateness of the statement.  It is very short because I don’t think it needs to be any longer.

I submitted two videos, the clip for the crit, but the longer work is the full piece.  I have to mention that, although I submitted the longer version, I am not completely happy with it (as there are a few places that need to be fixed), but I did not have time to finish it perfectly, especially with a 2 1/2 hour render time.  I intend to fix it over the break.

 

Project 3: True Hybrid

Project three is perhaps the truest form of hybrid digital media…. a project in which to combine different kinds of digital media.  This could include using video, animation, photoshop, etc, etc.- whatever is appropriate.  The field is pretty wide open.

So.

In the rest of my work lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about capturing a real moment, as well as a kind of personal and universal memory, and being interesting without trying to be interesting – which is something that came out of doing the Puppetry Residency at the Banff Centre.  Since then, I’ve been collecting moments, using photo, video and audio devices.  I have been thinking about what the difference in experience is, between my own mind and the outside world- if, for example, the footage of me laying in the tub thinking translates into anything for anyone else.  So, I am thinking of using some of that footage to illustrate a thought process.  More specifically, manipulating the wall of the tub (hopefully really subtly) to illustrate my wandering mind.

Screenshots 1 and 2.

Lightbox Artist Statement

Talisman

This object is a collection of trinkets from my life, a talisman of sorts. It has no real value, other than sentimentally, even to me. It exists as a catalogue of memories- happy, sad, humourous, bittersweet, naïve, distant and ongoing. The objects are cheap, simply stand-ins for people I’ve known, places I’ve been, lessons learned, moments in time. They are connected in the chain, making up small parts of the larger whole, my life. They are intertwined, unable to be separated, non linear, like the memories within my brain. They are things I’ve made, things I’ve earned, things I’ve picked up, and things I’ve stolen. Everything has a story, a bit of significance in my life. Not a large significance, however- the real significance is the way the moments add up, to make me who I am today. Through these objects, I remember my Oma, my first boyfriend, my childhood best friends, our Japanese exchange students, the kids I used to babysit. I remember the summer I learned to whittle, getting my ears pierced, my first day of college, how lonely I was in Montreal, a trip to Santa Fe. It’s a map of where I’ve been.

Identity

I’ve realized that the identity theme is quite an overarching umbrella, which has relevance to some of the other work I’m doing as well. There are a few things I’ve been doing that relate to identity, and I’m even considering doing another lightbox or two to explore that further.  For instance, these two selfies.

So, identity. Who am I? Woman, artist, 31 years old, feminist, Albertan, maker, collector, journal-keeper, documenter, anthropologist. I have negotiated a lot of change in the last few months of my life, which has caused my idea of my own identity to shift somewhat. I am resilient, I am careful, but willing to take risks, I am growing, evolving. It’s been a rough transition to be here: moving by myself from Calgary, leaving all my friends and family behind, breaking up with the boyfriend, driving an incredible distance as a lone female, moving three times in three months within K-W, and negotiating financial concerns. All of this without even mentioning the changes happening within my studio work- letting go of the Institute of Morphoid Research, letting go of my identity as a fibre artist, and an “ACAD kid,” and making work I never thought I would be making. Realizing that I’m producing a lot of junk right now, and learning to be okay with that. Right now, I am studying myself, but it is not happening as I expected- for a while, I was a little lonely, a little scared, getting used to new surroundings, but just a couple weeks ago, I met someone, and so am (re)discovering myself in that way as well. I’m learning that I have to go with the flow to a degree, be flexible and let things evolve naturally. It’s not always what you expect.

I’m not the same person I was three months ago. Evolving. Fluid identity.

Challenges with my Lightbox Project

I’ve been working with an image for my lightbox project, a kind of self portrait, a few photos I took that I stitched together in photoshop.  I was planning on doing a sort of anthropological annotation in my own writing right on the image, but as I’m working, I’m realizing that as I’m doing it, it is complicating the image.  Quite honestly, it isn’t working out visually.  This is the image, and an example of playing with the text, although I’m nowhere near where what I was intending with it (i.e., not finished in that intention).  You can probably see why I’m not happy with it.  It’s too busy/ getting harder to read, not as strong visually, etc.

I think, that to do what I’m intending with this work, I would have to make it quite a bit bigger than what our project constraints would allow.  This would all me more room for the text, and to make it smaller in relation to the image.  But maybe there’s a better way to do it that will fit the project parameters.

So, how to fix it.  Simplify.  Simplify?

I’m concerned that this one is too simple.  It seems counter to my nature, although I realize that my personality likes to throw way more in there than I actually need.  Actually, a big discussion in my studio visits last week (was that last week?) was about not giving away all of the mystery, not answering all of the questions. More is not always better.  But does it hit the mark?

By putting in the title, I think I am connecting the object back to myself, and giving it just a little bit of context, although it might not be enough.  I don’t know if this is fully necessary either, however.  Hmm.

The other option I was thinking about is possibly adding writing to the surface below the image.  But then, what am I writing, and what is the point of it?  Will it be the same kind of text or something else?  How do I rectify that, both conceptually, and visually?

Stay tuned.

Also of note here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talisman

Ideas for Identity Lightbox

Here are a few of my ideas for my identity lightbox.  These are photos of some pages from my sketchbook.  (Please excuse the bad quality- I’m still figuring out how to do things on my new computer.)

I’ve realized that Identity is something that is showing up in my other work as well.  I don’t want to steal/ borrow something from that for the assignment, as that seems a bit cheap.  However, here’s an example of something I’ve been playing with, this idea of mask/ intertior/exterior/ “Putting on a Face.”  The mask is this giant Cheshire-cat kind of smile, over exaggerated and fake.

For the project, I think I’m interested in doing something with my compulsion of collecting and cataloguing- maybe something using an image of kind of talisman of trinkets that I’ve been making for a long time and keep adding bits to.  It functions a bit as a personal memory bank of my life.

GIF Project – Artist Statement

Title: 3:15 AM

As a lone woman in this day and age, there are some very real or possibly imagined fears that we have to deal with in our daily lives. Something as simple as getting yourself home after a night out with friends presents potentially dangerous situations. Every woman has had instances like this- ominous, hyper-real situations, where you aren’t sure if the threat is real, something you have imagined, or a direct result of the fear-filled media barrage of terrible things that happen in the world, which we are now subjected to on a constant basis.

—

Maybe when my computer is better, I’ll actually post (a version) of the GIF.

My GIF project info and update

For my GIF project, I am using some footage I filmed using some things I had hanging around the studio.  I used a column I had made for another project, a figurine, and some fun fur.  I set up the fun fur, figurine and the column on a turning pedestal (the kind used for ceramics/sculpture) and filmed it turning.

I am going for an effect of an absurd, slightly sinister quality, using items that are a little comical, a little absurd, and by choosing my point of view in a certain way so as to implicate the viewer as primary participant in the GIF.

I will admit that some things happened by accident, which I have considered carefully and some of which I will be keeping for my final GIF, such as the way the camera (and the building) seems to lurch a little, giving the impression that the protagonist/viewer is a little tipsy, or incapacitated.  I think this adds to the uneasiness of the work, hopefully making the viewer feel vulnerable, as they realize that the protagonist has very little control over the scene.

I would like to post some photos/ video, but as I am having some difficulties with my computer right now, this may be more trouble that it is worth.  Maybe I will post some “behind the scenes bonus material” later in the semester.

A couple of GIFs made as in class exercises

This one Tommy and I made out of a video of Sharon stapling.

This is a quick GIF that Ryan, Neda and I made, an exercise to learn how to use the camera.

(It sure would be easier to post these if my computer wasn’t giving me problems. I’ve been using the school computers to do my GIF assignment, but can’t be using them ALL the time. Hopefully I’ll be able to sort it out soon.)