Creative Nerve
This is another project from Camille Utterback who is collaborating with Adam Chapman to create Creative Nerve. Together they have created several commissioned work using incredible technology to make interactive installations.
http://www.creativenerve.com/
Mary Magsamen and Stephan Hillerbrand
I found
this project which explored different projection techniques. It is a video installation and also a performance piece. What was interesting was that the video was projected on the floor which is rather untraditional. It gave a disorienting feel for the viewer and the performers.
I then looked up the artist, Mary Magsamen who is a collaborative artist with her husband Stephan Hillerbrand. Their work is very interesting. First off, their
web site is a spoof of a dating web site which I thought to be very "new media" and a less boring way to look into their lives as people and artists. Their work which is mostly video and photography explores everyday activities and often involves their daughter. Bringing a sense of personal reality to their work in a comedic sense makes it more effective.
Some super neato interaction stuff...
Interaction at ASUThis is a piece written on interacation by an interim at Arizone State University. He talks a lot about interaction and certain projects he has overseen, worked on, etc. The Interactive Plant growing project is particularly interesting. It has virtual and real life plants. Movement and actions of the viewer/participant are crucial to making these plants grow. Viewers can control the size, color, etc of virtual plants by moving around actual plants.
This image is a screen shot of the video projection from one interaction session.
Other projection ideas to think about...
Looking at a lot of different artists online and their installations, it is very difficult to truly visualize some of the projects I've seen online. A still image of video or photograph of the installation set up does not truly depict the actual exhibit. However I have seen some images online that have given me some ideas to experiment with.
This image is from an installation by the artist
Hiro Yamagata. To be honest I'm not even sure what is going on, but the image itself gave me an idea to explore what I project video onto. For example a transparent-ish screen that was curved, perhaps the viewer would walk in and around several mesh like projection surfaces.
This image to the right is just another mode of inspiration. Thinking about surfaces and if they were curved or in fact transformed with the video or with the motions of the viewer.
Parti # 2
This is another parti to give a sense of the content of my project. I can see more partis like this and my previous one as some sort of advertising campaign.
Renderings
These are some possible ideas for projection. The rendering on the far left has a hidden camera capturing the viewer as they walk down a hall to my video on the back screen. The viewer's image will be superimposed over the other video.
The top right rendering has two walls, one a mirror and one my video playing. The viewer watches themself "inside" my video through the mirror.
The bottom right rendering is a squarish room where video is playing on all four walls. Sensors are set up around the space so when the viewer moves around, the video will change to something different. Perhaps the video will be reversing itself on one screen or some different view.
Parti
Pushing the envelope:
Since coming up with an idea for capstone, I have a clear vision for the message and content that the video aspect will include. The presentation (installation) portion of this project is still pretty wide open as to how I will present. I certainly want to "push the envelope" and create a memorable piece. I have never done anything like this, so I really don't even know what my capablities are.
One artist that I recently came across in my research is Camille Utterback. Her work is absolutely incredible, consisting of mostly interactive digital installations. Her piece "Liquid time series" uses her own software to fragment pre-recorded video by tracking the movements of the participant.
This piece to the left is an image of "Potent Objects," a piece in which the video reacts to motion. The more you shake the snowglobe, the more vigourous the person in the video shakes.
These are some amazing ways to involve the viewer and bring them into the piece of art itself. She does this with a lot of her work. She brings art installations to another level by allowing the art to manipulate with different motions of different viewers/participants.
Video art site
www.post-videoart.com is a great site to see some short films. For those who took 304 last year with Raphael will probably appreciate this site. The video "In the Flesh" by Eric Proulx (no. 22 on the site) reminds me of the assignment we had to do exploring an intimate space. I think Proulx did this very well and used incredible devices as a filmmaker to transition from the body to the "inside" of the body.
I could certainly relate to some of the artists on this site in terms of my own work. I can learn from watching these videos and really gaining a sense of how to explore artistic devices to apply to my own work.
Unrelated Cluster!
This is my cluster for a Plan B. The middle is Sports, which I branched off into many different areas of interest. I could see an interactive web site developing from this where students (or on another level) could meet, make teams, find equipment, talk about professional/college teams etc. It would be for athletes or sport enthusiasts alike.
Presentation Outline
Concept:
You never really know where your life is going. Your life's direction can change at the blink of an eye depending on the choices you make.
This idea is something I think about everyday, life after graduation, life in 5 years, in 10 years, etc. I want others to understand this concept by experiencing life's journey into contentment and how one might get there.
What I need to do:
Start filming, continue filming for a long time...Edit footage into cohesive piece.
What I need to research and learn more about:
Projection, different techniques (anything really, this is not something I have ever worked with)
Confidence helps..
Today at work, I completed the week and a half long task of trying to network a printer to severeal computers. To begin, I had no clue what I was doing. I got one computer to print, but it lost internet connection; then the other computer lost internet. Basically, I never thought that I would be able to complete this task, especially without any help.
Well after purchasing new ethernet hubs and cables, I was still having some trouble connecting everything correctly. So I tried to put it off for several days. This morning, I miraculously got both computers to work and were also connected to the internet!
So the moral of this story is that I should try something, even if I don't think I am capable. For capstone, there are some details that I would like to try in order to push my project to another level. For example, ways of projection, I've been thinking about multiple projections splitting images (no clue about how this technology works)! But I think it will turn the project into a more powerful experience for the viewer.
I've been researching..
"To present day Installation artists, who are intensely consious of their work as extensions of the self, the physical presentation and surroundings of their art have become part of the art itself."
"...the extent to which Installation enhances the exploration of 'time,' a concept central to video artists. If time can be manipulated in multiple ways within the single-channel video, the possibilities are expanded in video installations which utilize several monitors or projection surfaces, and often several tapes, vastly increasing the amount of imagery."
Michael Rush, author of
New Media in Late-20th-century Art
Michael Rush talks about these concepts that video installation is an extension of the artist and how exploring the concept of time in video and be dramatic by utilizing multiple surfaces. My vision for my capstone project directly ties to what Rush is saying.
I want this piece to be an extension of myself, by creating a visually cohesive work showing a point of contentment, which is ultimately my goal in life. I am not sure how what it will take for me personally to reach this point in my life, but I want to submerged the viewer into my point of view by using multiple surfaces to greatly dramatize what it is I am trying to convey.
An epiphany, finally!
I have really been struggling with coming up with a capstone projects. Flimsy ideas have been flying in and out of my head for the past several months but nothing that remotely excited me. But tonight, September 16th, I had an epiphany! I went to see a movie "The Last Kiss" more or less to get my mind off of school work for a while. I had somewhat of a connection with this film, and it is the basis for the inspiration of what I want to pursue as my capstone project.
For a while, I thought I wanted to do a project that would help me in the "real world" as a graphic designer. But the career I want to pursue as a graphic designer does not relate to what I have learned in the New Media program. To be honest, these two paths (my future career path and my journey through New Media) I am keeping separate. For my capstone, I want to create something that pulls together what I have learned in my classes. So enough jibber jabber, I will get to the point:
Being in the design track of New Media, I have taken my fundamental classes with Raphael DiLuzio (204, 206, 304), in 204 and 304, we learned time based design on many levels. I want to take what I learned in these classes to create my capstone. I am not a programmer, web developer, etc. I am an artist; therefore I wish to create a time based piece. This piece will explore the choices a person makes in one's life...the viewer will be immersed into the piece so to interact on a level that is unexpected.
So basically the viewer will be looking at multiple panels (whether they are in a cube or just more than one panel) displaying video. The content of the video will be exploring different "paths" or "choices" people make by exposing the viewer to the lives of others.
I am not sure that this will make complete sense at to others at the moment, but it makes perfect sense in my head at the moment! For now, I plan to research other video installation artists, such as
Graham Nicholls and start thinking about filming and editing and other logistics of putting this project together.
perhaps an idea, but not sure it'll work
This past summer, I interned at an art museum and it was an amazing experience. I had so much fun and could see myself working at a museum when I graduate. With that, I was searching art museums on the web one day and found this www.museumofbadart.org which I think would have been a great capstone project. It is very "new media," the Museum of Bad Art was started when someone found an ugly painting in the trash in Boston. It has grown into mainly an online community but there are in fact works of art being exhibited out side the men's room in the basement of Dedham community theater in Massachusetts.
So this is a little background info for a possible idea of mine. I am skeptical this would be able to work, but at least I'm thinking....
A gallery of rejected capstones ideas...similar to MOBA, I would be displaying the less fortunate attempts at creating a capstone project. The pros of this idea: I would be able to design/learn how to create a web site; I would build a community with other capstoners to create this project. My doubts about this: If all capstoners stuck with there original ideas, I would have nothing to work with/their rejected ideas did not go far enough to be able to display anything.
Some of my Interests
In trying to come up with an idea for capstone, I keep thinking about how this could help me get a job. Well, I want to get a job as a graphic designer, I have experience, I have a portfolio, etc. However, many positions require a web savvy graphic designer, which I am not. Making a boring website (although a challenge for me) would not be a successful capstone project. However, I would like to incorporate expanding my knowledge of web design and other software (ie flash) in order to be prepared for the real world. I am still unsure of what I want to do, but this is one step towards something.
Finding inspiration?
Lately, I have had serious trouble finding inspiration in what I am doing, whether it is directly related to Capstone or other projects/classes I am working on. I have found an interesting book called "New Media in Late 20th-Century Art" by Michael Rush. I am hoping by the time I finish, that this book will inspire me with an interesting Capstone project.
Oh Capstone
This is pretty informal but for my first blog for Capstone, I am writing about how unsure I am about this upcoming project. I am at a loss for ideas. However, my interests are far and wide and am curious as to what other people are coming up with. I am more interested in creating a visual project instead of the community based web sites and I am sure my mind will change a number of times. Good Luck to everyone else in the beginning stages!
Test
Just making sure I am doing this right!
This image is from an installation by the artist Hiro Yamagata. To be honest I'm not even sure what is going on, but the image itself gave me an idea to explore what I project video onto. For example a transparent-ish screen that was curved, perhaps the viewer would walk in and around several mesh like projection surfaces.
This image to the right is just another mode of inspiration. Thinking about surfaces and if they were curved or in fact transformed with the video or with the motions of the viewer.
This is another parti to give a sense of the content of my project. I can see more partis like this and my previous one as some sort of advertising campaign.
This piece to the left is an image of "Potent Objects," a piece in which the video reacts to motion. The more you shake the snowglobe, the more vigourous the person in the video shakes.
This is my cluster for a Plan B. The middle is Sports, which I branched off into many different areas of interest. I could see an interactive web site developing from this where students (or on another level) could meet, make teams, find equipment, talk about professional/college teams etc. It would be for athletes or sport enthusiasts alike.
