Feedback from Darwin college

Our risk videos were sent to Darwin college, where they would give us feedback and choose the best ones to show at one of their lectures.

The feedback from Darwin college:

What are your thoughts on the way the video engages with the theme of risk?

I particularly liked this film and the way it engaged with the inevitable consequences of actions (the domino effect) and the risk inherent in creating (the possibility of collapse).

What do you consider to be the strengths of the video in terms of visual interest, creativity and originality?

This film was simply filmed, elegantly constructed and expressive in its video angles and flow. I particularly liked the use of fast and slow motion in the domino sequences which created and impression of dynamic movement. The music choice was also very apt.

Do you consider there any issues with the video or elements that you feel are less successful?

I would have liked to have seen people's faces and their reactions to the fall/success of their creations- the human element in risk.

I am pleased with the feedback that we were given, and I am happy that mine and Ali's video is going to be shown at the lecture. I agree with the comment about seeing people's faces and reactions to the film. I think we could have done this if we could have done this if we had, had the cameras set at the right angles.

Final Risk video

Below is the final cut of our Risk video.

L3 RISK - Ali & Sophie - FINAL from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

What I would add/change if I had more time

If I had more time to complete my project, I would maybe edit the footage more, and maybe even record some more footage, using different shots. Also I would have made a better soundtrack, by spending more time on it, because I only had a short period of time in which to produce a soundtrack.

Evaluation of the day

In the three lessons we had today, both me and Alison spent the time we had working editing and finalising our Risk project video. We had a few technical issues with the computer we were working on. Yesterday when we were at Long Road, we started our editing, but when we went to finish our editing on the computer at Coleridge, we found that our file wouldn't open, because Final Cut needed was an older version. We managed to resolve the issue and got our video finished in time. I made the soundtrack in Garageband and then imported it into Final Cut.

Evaluation of the day

In lessons today, we finished uploading all of our footage and started to edit it in Final Cut, which we will then finish off tomorrow. Also I started looking at soundtracks to put with our footage, I experimented in Garageband with different sounds.

Evaluation of the day

Today, we started uploading our footage from our shooting on Tuesday. We still have the other tape to upload, because we had two cameras setup. We will upload the second tape in the two lessons tomorrow.

Evaluation of the day

We were at Coleridge this morning for our first two lessons. We did a lot of filming for our project there. We had two cameras set up, and filmed nearly everything we did. We have a lot of footage to work with, because we used both the films up! We plan to edit our footage on Thursday.

Also in the last lesson of the day, I did some research into the history behind both dominoes and playing cards, which I have posted below.

The history behind playing cards

Playing cards were originally from Britain, but are now known and used all over the world in many games, such as Poker and Bridge.

Some different countries have cards with different face designs, with roots which are far older than the British playing cards.

(Information from:http://i-p-c-s.org/history.html)

Above is a picture showing the different suits in other countries.

(http://i-p-c-s.org/history.html)

(http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_16/1121932246ZdsTWP.jpg)

Evaluation of the day

In the lesson today, I did some more work on my blog and in my sketchbook. Also me and Ali planned out what we are going to do for the rest of the week.

Tuesday

We are going to hopefully start filming our card towers/dominoes, at Coleridge. Back at Long Road, we are going to carry on working on our blogs and in our sketchbooks.

Wednesday

Today, we only have one lesson, but in this time we hope to plan how we are going to edit our footage from Tuesday.

Thursday

Today, we have two lessons at Long Road, where we hope to upload our footage from Tuesday and start editing it.

Friday

Today we are at Coleridge all day. The deadline for our video is today, so we will finish editing today if we need to and maybe put some titles onto our video.

Health and safety risk assessment

For part of our project, we have to do a risk assessment. Below is the risk assessment I have written.

POSSIBLE RISKS AND HAZARDs

1. Technical equipment might go wrong, Macs, cameras, etc.

2. Working at a computer for long periods of time.

3. Card tower might fall down whilst filming, and the dominoes might also fall down.

HOW WILL YOU MINIMISE THESE RISKS?

1. Make sure there is a backup- test the equipment before use. Make sure there is a spare camera, also make sure that the camera has enough battery.

2. Take small breaks from the computer, maybe take a walk, work on sketchbook for a while.

3. Set the cards and dominoes up on a surface thats not too slippery, use paper.

(There is also a copy of my risk assessment stuck into my sketchbook.)

Experimenting with the card tower

On Friday, we also experimented with the card tower idea and the domino idea. Below are some pictures Ali took of us experimenting.

Evaluation of the day

Today in lessons, we worked on our sketchbooks. We also continued planning for our project.

Evaluation of the day

Today in lessons we did some test footage of both the domino idea and the card tower idea. We have decided to merge the ideas together. The three videos of our footage are in below posts.

Dominoes test footage

Below is a video of some test footage we did, using the dominoes. We decided we will incorporate them into our card tower idea.

SOPHIE AND ALI DOMINOES TEST FOOTAGE from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

Our idea

Both me and Ali have decided to add the dominoes idea into our card idea. We came up with the idea of having the card tower in the middle and the dominoes around the outside. We will still be filming the whole process using iStopMotion, but we will have one of us building the tower and then the dominoes in a line around it, which we then knock down.

Card Tower test footage

Below are two videos of our test footage for our card tower.

SOPHIE AND ALI CARD TOWER TEST 1 from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

SOPHIE AND ALI CARD TOWER TEST 2 from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

Resource requirements for the project

Below are the resources we are going to need for the project:

TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT
1. Computer- Macbook/ Mac at Coleridge
2. HD camera
3. HD tape
4. Tripod
5. USB cable, so we can connect the camera to the computer
6. Maybe some lighting, so we can make the card tower stand out more.

ART EQUIPMENT
We don't need any art equipment at this time

MISCELLANEOUS
1. Location (Still needs to be decided)
2. Playing cards
3. A plain wall to do our card tower in front of

Evaluation of the day

Today in our lesson, we discussed what equipment we will need for our projects and also we started planning what we are going to do in the lessons to come, so we use our time wisely.
I have decided that tomorrow, I will do some more sketchbook work, more blog work and maybe some test footage, if Ali is back in tomorrow. On Friday, the schedule is similar, except we will only carry on with the test footage, if we don't get it done/finished tomorrow.

Evaluation of the day

Today in lessons, we did more planning for our project. I also did some more work in my sketchbook and some research into my project on my blog.
Also we had to do a small interview in front of a camera about what we are going to do for our projects. This will count as evidence towards the final project.

Peer feedback on my blog

Today we had to give each other feedback on the blogs. Alex gave me feedback about my blog, which I have put below.

Positive feedback

1. It is very well detailed.

2. Many pictures spread out the blog and makes it look more exciting.

Things to improve

1. There is no reference links to any information or pictures. (I will put links to websites where I have taken any information or pictures from)

2. Maybe put a photo of Steve Powers on the blog. (I will take this into consideration and add a picture of him)

Research on card towers

I have researched on the internet about card towers. I found some pictures of other people's attempts at card towers.

Above is a video, which I have taken from Youtube. This video shows someone building a card tower, which is similar to how we will build ours.

Expanding on our project idea

For the creative risk project, I am going to be working with Alison Murphy. We came up with several ideas, but after much thought, we decided on one of the ideas.

Idea
We are going to use playing cards, to make a tower. We were going to spray paint them different colours, but we decided against this, as it would be too time consuming.

Risks
1. We are going to be filming, whilst we are making the tower.
2. We might make a small mistake, which could lead to the tower possibly falling down. If this happened, we would then have to rebuild the tower.
3. The idea is quite simple, but it might not work as we planned it.

Where?
1. Would we build our tower inside? Or maybe outside? If we were to do it outside, we would have to consider the weather. Also if we were to consider doing it inside, we would also have to think about where we do it.
2. We would have to consider what we are going to have in the background. Maybe have it next to a plan wall, so all the attention is just focused on the tower.

We came up with 4 ideas, before we decided on the playing card idea:

1st idea: Combining musical performance and photography. We thought about having someone sat at a piano, and then have the video cut to different footage, similar to the 'Dog Star Man' video we were shown. The risk for this idea, was that it might not work out how we planned it to, and we also didn't know whether others would understand it.

2nd idea: Using paint. We came up the idea of maybe finding somewhere, like some pavement, so paint on. The risks for this idea were that it might be offensive or other members of the public might not like it. Also it might stain the pavement.

3rd idea: Using dominoes to make a trail. We came up with the idea of setting up dominoes in a pattern and then knocking them down when we had finished. We would be filming us doing this. The risk for this idea would be that the dominoes may fall down, before we had finished it

Evaluation of the day

Today in lesson, we finshed our flick book animations and then uploaded them onto to Vimeo. Also I did some more work on my sketchbook and some more research on my chosen artist from the film 'Beautiful Losers'. I posted some of Steve Powers work onto my blog.

Steve Powers- My chosen artist

Below are some pieces of work by my chosen artist, Steve Powers, also known by the name 'Espo', which is his tag.

I am going to draw one of his pieces of work and then I am going to do my own piece in the style of Steve Powers work.

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisflynn/3850101616/in/photostream/)

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisflynn/3850100710/)

(http://blog.vandalog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/steve-powers-print.jpg)

My finished animation

I have finished my flick book animation, which I did in iStopMotion and then put it into Final Cut, so I could slow it down so you can see more detail. I decided not to put a soundtrack on, because it's a very short animation.

SOPHIE ANIMATION from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

Scorpio Rising (1964)

This film, Scorpio Rising, was directed by Kenneth Anger. He also did the screenplay, photography and the editing for the film. The main theme in this film, is motorbikes, and the characters in the film wear the typical outfits, bikers would have worn in the 1960's. Kenneth Anger is gay, and this shown in his film, because his characters are meant to be gay. There are lots of images of skulls and skeletons throughout the film, which may be referencing death. The title is mentioned many times throughout the film, i.e on te back of one of the bikers jackets.
I thought this film was ok to watch. It was more understandable than the other films we were shown.
(Information from: www.filmreference.com/Films-Ro-Se/Scorpio-Rising.html and www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth-Anger)

Evaluation of the day

In lessons today, we spent the majority of the time doing our cardboard animations. We put our pictures up on the computer, and then projected them onto the whiteboard, so we could trace the outline onto our cardboard. We had 5 frames overall, of a pea being chased by a fork. We had to colour in our 5 frames by hand, which took up a lot of time, but there were 4 of us in our group, so we managed to get it done quicker. We then took our 5 frames, and found a wall, which we then leaned each frame up against, and took a photo of each one. We then put our pictures into iStopMotion, so it looked as though the pea is actually moving.

L3 PEA LOOP (Charna, Ali, Sophie & Alex) from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

Evaluation of today

In todays lessons, we started making an animation, using cardboard to draw our 5 frames onto. We have to make a character and have it move. I am working with Charna and Alex on this animation. We came up with ideas of characters, and we decided on a pea being chased by a fork! We still have to put our character onto the card and paint it. Also we will have to take pictures of each frame in iStopMotion and then loop it, so we can take some footage of a wall for example, and then make it look like our character has been drawn onto the wall.

Evaluation of the day

Today, in our lesson we focused on our ideas that we have had for our creative risk project. We discussed as a class, what ways a creative risk can be negative. Some negative things could be:
1. It may not turn out as planned.
2. Someone could end up being injured.
3. It may be offensive to other people around you.

We also talked about how a creative risk can be positive. Some positive things could be:
1. The idea may not have turned out how you want, but it may be better or you can learn from the mistakes.
2. Awareness of other people around you.
3. Your audience may find you creative risk, really interesting.

Evaluation of the day

Today in our lessons, we watched 7 different short films, which fit into the catagories,Abstract Films, Experimental Films and Underground Films.
They were:
1. A Colourbox

Very colourful, music is also colourful. Abstract with lots of patterns.

The writing towards the end, is in stencil writing.

It is about the postal service, maybe it is an advertisement. Very random

2. Dog Star Man

Very random, there are lots of different images.

Some of the film is in negative.

There is no soundtrack, which makes the film seem eerie.

There are lots of pictures of snowflakes. There is mostly footage of a baby.

Sometimes two or more pieces of footage are overlapped. It is very abstract.

It is quite fast paced and there are lots of flashing images.

3. Scorpio Rising

Mostly footage of a man working on what looks like a motorbike.

The title of the film is printed on the back of the man's jacket. There are also lots of different soundtracks.

The second soundtrack, the lyrics 'wind me up', relate to the footage where it shows something being wound up.

The title is mentioned in different ways throughout the film.

There is lots of footage of skulls and skeletons.

4.The Big Shave

There are lots of close-ups of bathroom at the start.

Lots of close-up shots throughout.

The man cuts himself many times, he doesn't seem to realise he's doing it.

Lots of shots of blood going down the sink.

5. La Region Centrale

Soundtrack is weird. It's not actual music, like an alarm.

Mostly shots of landscape, shots spin around.

6. Fuzzbox

Lots of shots of tapes shown throughout the film.

Soundtrack is modern and upbeat.

There are lots of references to sex through inanimate objects, builds up throughout.

Surreal

Inanimate objects brought to life.

7. Berlin Horse

Film is in negative at the beginning.

Some of the footage is blurry, which makes it seem dreamy. Also the soundtrack sounds dreamy.

Very repetitive.

Lots of colours towards the middle of the film, very surreal.

There seems to be a fire towards the end, people running out of the building with horses.

We then did some research on one of the short films we watched. We chose to do some research on the film 'Scorpio Rising'.
We found out that the director, Kenneth Anger was actually gay, and this is shown in 'Scorpio Rising' with the young guys, dressing themselves in their biker outfits. Kenneth Anger also did the screenplay, photography and the editing of his film.

Also today, we got into the pairs we are going to work in for this project and came up with some ideas for what we might do. I am going to work with Alison Murphy on this project and we came up with two suitable ideas which we think may work.
The first idea, is that we could combine musical performance and photography, and make it similar to the short film we watched, 'Dog Star Man'. We had the idea of taking some footage of someone playing a piano and then cut to different shots of other things, which don't actually link in with the piano in any way. The risks with this idea, are that it may not work out how we have planned.
The second idea we came up with, is to maybe have someone painting, on a pavement. This has several risks, such as it may offend members of the public or different cultures, and the police may not like it either.

Evaluation of the day

Today in our lesson, we finished off drawing our animations. I finished mine over the weekend, so was able to use iStopMotion to shoot my animation, frame by frame. I did 8 frames a second, instead of the normal 12 frames a second, so that there would be more detail in my animation. I am pleased with how my animation has turned out, and I am hoping to be able to put it into Final Cut and maybe add a soundtrack.

Evaluation of the day

Today we started thinking of ideas for what we might do for our creative risk project. We made moodboards, which I have posted in the entry below. We then took some of these pictures and put them in Final Cut and made a small animation.

SOPHIE AND CHARNA'S RISK ANIMATION from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

Risk Moodboard

Evaluation of the day

Today we started making animations. We came up with ideas, which we put in our sketchbooks, and then we started drawing each frame, which we will then take pictures of in iStopMotion. We have to make our animations around 10 seconds long.

We also did the 'Bouncing Ball' exercise, as a sort of tutorial before we started our animations.

My research on the artist Steven 'Espo' Powers

Steven ‘Espo’ Powers

Steven J. Powers is a New York City artist who at one time wrote graffiti in Philadelphia and New York under the name ESPO ("Exterior Surface Painting Outreach").He was most well known during the late 1990s for his conceptual pieces as well as his role as the editor and publisher of On the Go Magazine. ESPO's work often blurred the lines between illegal and legal. Pieces like "Greetings from ESPO Land" utilized the style of the Asbury Park Billboards and appeared to be a legitimate billboard. On January 4, 1997 ESPO began his most ambitious non-commissioned art. He painted on storefront grates in Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant, TriBeCa and the South Bronx, covering the entire grate with white or silver paint and writing his name over it. Powers painted in daylight, wearing street clothes; he told the New York Times in 1999 that when passer by asked what he was doing he would tell them, "I'm with Exterior Surface Painting Outreach, and I'm cleaning up this gate"; the official-sounding name was enough to ward most people off. Powers targeted shops that appeared to be out of business and grates that were already heavily vandalized, describing his graffiti as a public service. In 1999 he said that he had painted around 70 grates. Powers is from Philadelphia's Overbrook neighbourhood; he graduated from Robert E. Lamberton High School in 1987 and took classes at the University of the Arts. He moved to New York in 1995.
In December 1999 Powers was arrested for vandalism after he participated in a protest conceived by Joey Skaggs, against Rudolph Giuliani's attempt to shut down the controversial art show at the Brooklyn Museum, "Sensations"; he charged that the arrest was politically motivated. A New York Times editorial criticized the Giuliani administration for its secrecy in the case, but dismissed Powers as "a noodge and self-promoter, one of those deliberately annoying characters whom most of us could do without." The Village Voice was similarly critical, describing Powers as an egotistical, careerist "celebrity offender"; the author writes, "in the graffiti world...many consider Powers a media-fed simulation of the Real Thing." Charged with six counts of criminal mischief e eventually accepted a plea bargain and performed five days of community service.
Powers stated in 2000 that he had given up graffiti. His work has been shown at the Venice and Liverpool Biennials, as well as numerous shows at New York City's Deitch Gallery. In 2003, Powers designed the artwork for Tommy Guerrero's third studio album Soul Food Taqueria and performed voice overs for the international television series Kung Faux seen in over 150 countries around the world. His first solo museum exhibition was in the fall of 2007, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Powers has done many projects at Coney Island. In 2005 he curated "The Dreamland Artists Club" a project in which professional artists helped Coney Island merchants by repainting their signs. In 2008 he created a water boarding-themed installation there. His studio art currently sells for as much as $20,000. He is the author of a book on graffiti's history, "The Art of Getting Over," published by St. Martin's Press in 1999, as well as the graphic novel, First and Fifteenth: Pop Art Short Stories, Villard Press, 2005. He has also designed clothing for Marc Ecko, Nike, and Calvin Klein.
Powers was a Fulbright scholar in 2007. He used the grant to create murals in Dublin and Belfast's Shankhill area, with the assistance of local teenagers. His work in Belfast was inspired by the area's political murals; Powers told the New York Times that he was "taking the form of the murals, which are insanely powerful for all the wrong reasons, and trying to retain some of the power and use it in a really good way.”
(Information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESPO_(artist))

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Espo3.jpg/200px-Espo3.jpg)

(http://172.16.32.17:15871/cgi-bin/blockpage.cgi?ws-session=1526891685)

Review of film 'Beautiful Losers'

The film, 'Beautiful Losers' follows several different artists through out there careers. The film shows many pieces of work by the different artists. There is a range of different pieces, and some of the artists, such as Steven 'Espo' Powers, do graffiti art ('Espo' being Steven Powers tag). In the film, the majority of the artists didn't mention their education. This could mean that a lot of them maybe didn't get any qualifications when they left education, so decided to do this art as their career.
Most of the artists did graffiti and skateboard art, and also punk rock and hip hop art.
The artists discussed and interviewed in the film include Thomas Campbell, Cheryl Dunn,Shepard Fairey,Harmony Korine, Geoff McFetridge,Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Mills, Steven 'Espo' Powers, Aaron Rose, Ed Templeton and Deanna Templeton.
Some of the artists mention how they are hired to create advertisments for popular products (such as Pepsi), designing some of the products themselves, working in films and creating their artwork in popular places where people will see and recognise their work.
The artists also talk a lot about different street cultures, especially punk rock, which is where the skateboard art came from.

What lessons have you learnt over the last three weeks?

Over the past three weeks, I have learnt quite a few lessons. I have learnt, that making a plan of what you are going to do and sticking to it, helps to make sure that everything is done on time. Another lesson I have learnt, is that when you only have little time to complete a task, you must work quickly and efficiently. Another lesson I have learnt, is that when something goes wrong, you should have a back up.

More research for timeline task

WHEN DID VIDEO ART START BEING SHOWN ON THE INTERNET?

YOUTUBE

Youtube started out 4 years ago in 2005

video art being uploaded onto youtube

Technology:

Experimental Film

1. Colour Box

2. Dog Star Man

3. Scorpio Rising

4. Big Shave

5. Fuzz Box

6. Berlin Horse

Research for timeline task

Video art today

Although it continues to be produced, it is represented by two varieties: single-channel and installation. Single-channel works are much closer to the conventional idea of television: a video is screened, projected or shown as a single image, Installation works involve either an environment, several distinct pieces of video presented separately, or any combination of video with traditional media such as sculpture. Installation video is the most common form of video art today. Sometimes it is combined with other media and is often subsumed by the greater whole of an installation or performance. Contemporary contributions are being produced at the crossroads of other disciplines such as installation, architecture, design, sculpture, electronic art, VJ (video performance artist) and digital art or other documentative aspects of artistic practice.

The digital video "revolution" of the 1990s has given wide access to sophisticated editing and control technology, allowing many artists to work with video and to create interactive installations based on video. Some examples of recent trends in video art include entirely digitally rendered environments created with no camera and video that responds to the movements of the viewer or other elements of the environment. The internet has also been used to allow control of video in installations from the world wide web or from remote locations.

Emerging in the 1970s, Bill Viola (USA) continues as one of the world's most celebrated video artists. Matthew Barney, the creator of the Cremaster Cycle, is another well-known American video artist. Other contemporary video artists of note include Americans Gary Hill, Fred Forest 1967 (France), Tony Oursler, Mary Lucier, Paul Pfeiffer, Sadie Benning, Paul Chan, Eve Sussman and Miranda July; Eija-Liisa Ahtila (Finland), Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland); Shaun Wilson (Australia); Stan Douglas (Canada); Douglas Gordon (Scotland); Olga Kisseleva (Russia); Martin Arnold (Austria); Matthias Müller (Germany), Gillian Wearing (UK); Stefano Cagol (Italy); Helene Black (Cyprus); Shirin Neshat (Iran/USA); Aernout Mik (Netherlands), Buryan Oleg (Russia) and Walid Raad (Lebanon/USA).

Many of the early prominent video artists were those involved with concurrent movements in conceptual art, performance, and experimental film. These include Americans Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Peter Campus, Doris Totten Chase, Dan Graham, Joan Jonas, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, William Wegman, and many others. There were also those such as Steina and Woody Vasulka who were interested in the formal qualities of video and employed video synthesizers to create abstract works.

Notable pioneering video artists also emerged more or less simultaneously in Europe and elsewhere with work by Pascal Auger (France), Domingo Sarrey (Spain), Wolf Vostell (Germany), Dieter Froese (Germany), Wojciech Bruszewski (Poland), Wolf Kahlen (Germany), Peter Weibel (Austria), David Hall (UK), Lisa Steele (Canada), Rodney Werden (Canada), Colin Campbell (Canada), Miroslaw Rogala (Poland), Danny Matthys, Chantal Akerman (Belgium) and others.

Timeline

More research

Matthew Barney

Matthew Barney (born March 25, 1967) is an American artist who works in sculpture, photography, drawing and film. His early works were sculptural installations combined with performance and video. Between 1994 and 2002 he created the Cremaster Cycle, a series of five feature-length films described by Jonathan Jones in The Guardian as "one of the most imaginative and brilliant achievements in the history of avant-garde cinema.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Barney

References of where information/pictures have been taken from

(http://www.happypro.net/stoked/images/vimeo_logo_header.jpg)

(http://www.tyndall.ie/research/quantum-optics-group/youtube-logo.jpg)

Information on Bill Viola taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Viola

Information on video art taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_art