Video Art Comments

Cat: Her video has a nice maternal message that is also motivational. I also like how she wears the UT hat because it shows where she's coming from

Michelle: She uses really cool video technique and I like how she incorporated a technique we learned in class. It's also vey cute and funny. It's very creative as well.

Megan: It's very creative with a good message that she can pull from deep down. I got out of it that it involves body image and models and the ideal body type. I like how it involves past, present, and future video clips because women in all generation want to be thin but in reality, nobody is perfect.

Juan: It is extremely powerful and somewhat relatable. He uses creative animation and it amazes me that he did it all on photoshop.

Lauren: Her video was very cute and brought back childhood memories. I like the message that every girl wanted to be a princess, yet it is sad that life doesn't turn out like a fairytale. I especially like that her dad played piano in the background. It was beautiful.

James: The music was absolutely fabulous. It was creative and flowed well. I like the message-we all have a child inside of us

Maria: It was very powerful and deep. It had a strong message especially on political terms. Artistically, the looping was well done.

Kimberly: Her video was highly creative and very intense. It is amazing that she thought to do that while in the hospital.

Erin: It had great visuals and nice colors. It was creative and made in an artistic way. I really liked it because it reflected her personality.

Nakota: Her video was very creative and meaningful by incorporating her family. I especially like the timing of the music with each clip.

Chris: It was very creative and passionate as well as powerful. He really broke out of his shell by singing. He was really brave and really let his emotions pour out. I like how the video created closure.

Brian: Good cut up of music and sounds. It really shows his passion.

Sabrina: Her video, though long, was creative and had strong messages. I really like the simplicity of it.

Cody: He used a lot of creativity and good animation.

3D Cinema

Golan Levin is an inventor who used experimental 3D cinema while answering questions online. Moments in real life are taken and then frozen to create a hologram. This holographic design is better than 3D because it does not strain one's eyes. It is the technology of the future and although it's young, there is plenty of room and time to grow.

Video Art

Performance Art Comments

Kimberly: her piece was very interesting and creative. The shimmer adds to the piece in a positive light and I like how there was a final support piece left over. I like the message portraying that technology is preserved.

Catherine: Her piece was very emotional and powerful making a strong statement. I like how she explained that people express themselves through technology and she did just that in her piece. Cat really put everything she had into the piece.

Sabrina: I like how she was able to create her own music and incorporate it into her piece. I liked the message her performance supported and how she recycled the board form her last project. She made it very clear what she was trying to do and she really put herself into the piece, making herself a piece of the art. It would have been even more interesting to let other people be a part of it.

Michelle: Her piece was very witty and she asked good questions. The idea was very interesting, but the performance piece was somewhat short and no one really payed attention to the iPad.

Erin: She had good use of technology and showed that technology is a distraction because people don't seem to care about the end of the world or even what's going on around them.

Megan: Her idea was very interesting and I liked how she impersonated Sheryl Oring. The questions were very clear and clever and I liked the diversity within the piece.

James: His piece was very cool and I especially liked how it had a connection to the twin towers when the planes would fly over. However, technology is not evident within the piece. It is clever in the idea that he destroyed his own world.

Juan: His performance art piece was very interesting and creative and really decontexturalized certain things such as his bedroom and bathroom and incorporated them into the mall. There was good narration and very powerful.

Chris: His piece was very funny and interesting. It had good narration and great use of people however it was scripted which takes away from the performance aspect of the piece. The idea was very good though and the surroundings were timed very well especially when the ambulance came driving by during the "end of the world" part.

Cody: It was a very good idea and the keyboard was awesome. It was a terrific way to incorporate technology. It would have been even more fun to let other people participate in the piece.

Nakota: Her piece was very good and shows that you cannot go anywhere without technology. It was simple but got the point across.

Maria: She did a great job decontexturalizing and incorporating technology as well as getting the message out of the end of the world.

Lauren: Though her piece was not decontexturalizing anything, it was cool that we got to see her get a tattoo.

Performance Art

Electronic Music

Electronic music is making a comeback. A piece by Laurie Spiegel, composed in the 70's, is used in the new movie the Hunger Games. Its electronic sound has become a hit to people worldwide. This is all with the help of six very important machines that changed the course of music. They include the synthesizer, the drum machine, the turntable, the equalizer, and the sampler. I find it very interesting that the electronic music created back then has now become a phenomenon in todays world.

Flash Mob

Beach Mob

Umbrella Mob

Airport Mob

The Birthday Party

Sheryl Oring created a website called iwishtosay.org dedicated to her live art performances, "The Birthday Party" being one of them. She did a cross-country tour in 2006 wearing a '60's party dress and set up a portable birthday party in parks and within flea markets. As people passed by, she asked them to write letters to President George Bush for his 60th birthday. She used a typewriter to type up their thoughts onto a card which would demonstrate their feelings about the presidency. It was very much a political move, which is what performance artists seem to do a lot.

http://iwishtosay.org/index.php

Joseph Beuys

He is a German performance artist who is one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. Beuys is especially famous for works incorporating animal fat and felt. He is very good at creating scenes that are culture shocks. For example, he locked himself in a room with a coyote for 3 days straight and considered his work a piece of art. He frequently blurred the lines between art and life, and fact and fiction.

Xerox Project Comments

Megan: I loved the pattern that the different body parts made among the surface of the umbrella. The end product was amazing and gorgeous. It seems that the project took a lot of time to complete and her handwork really showed through.

Cody: His creativity really showed through in his helmet made of hands. It looked like something out of 300 but it could include more pieces. It was really well done and interesting.

Sabrina: Her piece was absolutely beautiful. It was very creative and the use of the fabric was fabulous. I like how the extra limbs on her body create a new deity.

Brian: It was very creative. I personally love beach scenes so I really liked the piece. I especially like how everything within the picture was a part or element of his body.

Nakota: It was a very nice piece. It was extremely creative and big and showed lots of emotion. I really like the use of hair and bark within the tree.

Michelle: I loved the texture, which creates a nice fabric pattern. I was creative and portrayed humorous elements such as the dog made from her hand.

Lauren: It was very emotional and showed creativity. I really like how everything is shown including her tattoos.

James: It was very creative and interesting. I like who it broke the frame however it could be expanded. I like how it is very abstract.

Kimberly: It was very creative and abstract. I like the linking fingers because it is what I should have incorporated into mine. It's a nice exquisite corpse.

Catherine: It was very creative. I like how she made a boom box because music is something she really loves. I also really like how she incorporated sign language.

Erin: Her piece was beautiful and amazing. At first glance it reminds me of a box of crayons or a splatter of pant. I really like the reflection.

Juan: His piece was very interesting. He utilized everything possible which is very creative. I like how it tells a story, although I don't necessarily understand it, the story is creative.

Chris: I love the beach scene because I personally love the beach. The sun is amazing and holds a lot of deeper meaning. The repetition is of the waves is great and he utilized his space well.

Maria: The zoom of the face was very good. The piece was creative and abstract.

Xerox Project

My xerox project included copies of my hands in different contrasts as well as my face. I played around with the contrast on the machine to make my project more interesting. I placed my face on the face of the racket as symbolism. Then I proceeded to place copies of my hands along the frame of the racket as if they are growing up the side. This portrays my life because I grew up playing racket sports all my life so as I grew up so did my experience and so did the hands along the racket.

Grid Project

My project was a little difficult to make because I had no idea what I wanted to create. I was on a budget so finding enough sources to create my piece was a task. My idea was to start off with just M&M's but my plan later changed when I had no where near enough of the orange color to create the background, which represents sand. That is when the idea of cheerios came to me because it is similar in color. I created my whole grid by hand which was very time consuming but therefore making it even more worth it.

Grid Art Comments

Lauren: The scene made out of beer caps was very colorful and creative. I like the idea because people who sit on a beach tend to drink beer so the scene is relatable to the objects being used.

Kimberly: The eye was absolutely gorgeous. It was put together very well and inspiring to young artists. The shading was beautiful, really pulling the piece together.

Katherine: Felix the Cat was a very cute idea and I like how she incorporated her nickname into her work making it more personal.

Sabrina: The Ms. Pac Man piece was highly creative and the use of different objects among the grid made it even more fun to look at.

Michelle: The Kony piece was very inspiring. It looked very time consuming but very much worth it. I like the piece a lot.

Erin: The picture of Twiggy was very nice, well drawn, colorful, and just plain pretty. Although it lacked a real grid, it still looked amazing.

James: His piece was cute and creative. He could even go as far as making a pillow due to the design and softness of the objects being used. That idea makes his piece even more fun because ideas can keep flowing.

Juan: It was a little difficult for me to understand the piece but it was highly creative none the less. I like the way the buttons shined. He did a very good job.

Cody: His piece looked very time consuming. It was colorful and very creative. I liked the grid a lot.

Maria: Her grid of the Simpsons was very appealing to the eye. It lacked a nice size grid but the idea still showed through.

Nakota: Her piece was very creative and very cute. She used her materials and sources to her advantage.

OTR.com

I listened to The Adventures of Charlie Chan on otr.com because I thought it would interest me. I started listening to a few others before and none of them really sparked my interest but I do like mysteries and crime so that is why I chose this specific link. It was a little difficult for me to get into and follow but I definitely attempted. The detective was portrayed by Ed Begley who was much more intellectual when it came to solving crime, instead of relying on pure force. At about this same time, Sherlock Holmes came to be one of the most famous detective's of all time. Besides the mere information of the story, it did spark me as interesting that at the beginning they added advertising that seemed more like propaganda. Advertising for war bonds was mentioned, which only makes sense considering it was around the time of World War I against Japan.

Flip books

Kimberly: I like how it started by saying hello. It welcomed the person into the visual story. I also liked how the owl stretched out into a car. I think it transitioned really well. Unfortunately, the middle somewhat lost me. At the end however, I did like how the cigarette exploded into a flower. The part that really intrigued me was how the animal transformed from an owl into a fish and how an animal belonging in the sky ends up in the water.

Sabrina: Her flip book was extremely creative and very well drawn. I loved it because it was colorful, therefore catching my attention, and involved everything I love such as water and music.

Lauren: She did a very good job as incorporating color and fun throughout the book. I really like how she included her name into the story and how she personifies the graffiti can. It makes the book more enjoyable and fun.

Christopher: I like how it ended the same way it started similar to mine. It was very well drawn and colorful, which really catches the eye.

James: I really like how his flip book switches well from character to character and how he really uses his sources. By that I mean he uses the whole page to his advantage. It was drawn very well.

Michelle: It was very creative, colorful, and well drawn. I also like how it just seems to keep going.

Nakota: It was very colorful and drawn creatively. It was a real story that was easy to follow and full of many landscapes.

Megan: It was a little hard to follow and seemed a little short but it was a good story. It could have been better with color.

Juan: It was very colorful and consistent making it enjoyable to see but it was a little hard to read at times.

Erin: Her flip book was very creative and well drawn. The sequence change was extremely well done.

Brian: It was very colorful, creative, and involved music which makes it even more enjoyable for me to look at.

Cody: It was very well drawn and has a good sequence change. I really like how it flips through twice.

Maria: I liked how colorful it was and it was extremely well drawn. There was a really good sequence change that allowed me to follow the story easily.

Television

I asked my grandmother and grandfather about their first experiences with television as a part of an assignment. They both answered along the lines of amazing. They each said that it was incredible watching moving pictures in the comfort of their own homes. My grandmother said most things on were geared towards women, especially mothers, because they were the ones staying home and taking care of the children. Many shows were learning based, such as Mr. Rogers, which helped her significantly while she was working around the house. This meant that the kids were her occupied by an educational show while she did her duties as a housewife. My grandfather said that the screens of the first televisions were only about 6 inches making it very difficult to see. Disregarding the difficulty of vision, everyone was amazed by the invention of the television.

The Great Train Robbery

Directed by Edwin S Porter, "The Great Train Robbery", a simple story purely about the accounts of a robbery on a train, was filmed in November 1903 at Edison's New York studio. His studio was at Essex County Park in New Jersey, and the movie was also filmed along the Lackawanna railroad and then released in December 1903. It is considered to be one of the first significant early US narrative films. It was greatly influenced by the British film "Daring Daylight Robbery" (1903) and it introduced many new cinematic techniques such as cross cutting, camera movement, location shooting, and more to American audiences. It is easy for one to tell that the techniques are new because of the quality unto which the cuts were made. For example, the transition between scenes at time 8:56 is not very smooth.However, at the time at which the movie took place, the new techniques seemed truly amazing and later transformed to be used in every movie out today.

MUTO

The whole piece created by BLU is a brilliant flow of creativity along the canvas of various locations. The human body is created then destroyed and broken up into structural shapes, similar to the way the body was designed originally in the piece. BLU's version of art is ambiguous meaning it holds a double meaning. Viewers can interpret the meanings for themselves because everyone sees art differently. I myself do not see two meanings per say but I do see emphasis on the human body generating more and geometrical shapes. It is stretched throughout different locations that BLU uses as his canvas. The music creating the soundtrack for the piece flows right along with the wall art as well.

The Origin of Jazz

Jazz has no real definition. It is a unique blend of swing, blues, improvisation, and rhythm. The musical style referred to as jazz originated at the beginning of the 20th century by African American's living in the Southern United States. It came about mail due to African unity. By 1808 almost half a million Africans had been brought to America through the Atlantic Slave Trade. The way to unite them all, especially throughout the slave infested South, was through music. They incorporated African dances to drums and a call and response pattern yet, without the harmony. The violin and piano, among other various instruments, were later added into the mix. As a matter of fact, the instruments used in marching bands became the basic instruments of jazz. Jazz is still highly popular today among the city of New Orleans in Louisiana. Many of the early jazz performers and musicians played in venues throughout the city. The continual playing of jazz music throughout the ages has brought forth various types of music such as funk, soul, latin jazz, smooth jazz, punk, and more.

 References:

 Burns, Ken, and Geoffrey C. Ward. 2000. Jazz—A History of America's Music. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Also: The Jazz Film Project, Inc.

 Collier, James Lincoln. The Making of Jazz: A Comprehensive History (Dell Publishing Co., 1978) 

Hersch, Charles (2009). Subversive Sounds: Race and the Birth of Jazz in New Orleans. University of Chicago Press

Madama Butterfly

The Madama Butterfly animation is highly creative and imaginative. It concentrates on a Japanase woman who was impregnated by an American man and then abandoned. He returned much later to retrieve his daughter, leaving the poor woman broken and suffering feeling lost to the point of suicide. The way the story played out was rather interesting because certain ideas and items were used to represent parts of the opera. For example, I found it very creative when a fish poured out of a fish bowl to signify the water breaking and the birth of a new child, or guppy, in this case. While I predicted the following part, I found it clever that the man tore the woman in two by ripping the cord, or bond, she had with her daughter. He ripped her right out of her grasp and whisked awaited child to go live with him and his new wife. After being torn apart and losing everything she ever loved, the main character physically tore herself in two signifying suicide and then was reborn into a beautiful butterfly.

Commercials with Opera

Castrati

Castrato is the Italian art that involves castrated men singing in the pitch of a female soprano. The man is castrated before puberty not allowing them to reach full sexual maturity. Once the boy was castrated, they were then trained to sing a certain way. As they grew older, their bodies matured allowing their lungs to grow to full size. With the large size of the male's lungs and they proper training, the singer was able to hold a note that surfaced anyone's imagination. In fact, there is even a movie based off of this very type of art and music. It is called Farinelli. Farinelli is about the art of opera. It centers around a young man who was castrated as a child not allowing his voice to mature. This action preserved his voice so he could perform in Operas and reach an extremely high pitch that had the ability to make women shed tears due to its beauty, and even faint. As it turns out, his older brother is the verdict for his castration. Farinelli is now seen as one of the most famous opera singers in the world.

Juan Carlos Delgado

Juan Carlos stated off with a generic piece or art and transformed it into a piece of multi media. He was able to control his piece to work alongside time allowing it to become a multi media piece. Multi media, by definition according to Professor Santiago Evecherry, is a series of time controlling tools working together. The piece of art I am referring to is called Cuarto Norte. The sculpture is working with the cold temperature to transform over time in to something completely different. It transformed from a piece of well sculpted copper to something that leaves me at a loss for words. Looking at the two pictures above, nothing but time and cold weather separates the two sculptures. They in fact are the same sculpture, therefore leaving one with the exact definition of multi media.
While the sculpture above represents multi media, the the gallery that the artist created has a much deeper definition. The sculpture is surrounded by nothingness. It is set apart form everything especially the opposing piece of art on the opposite side of the room. Through frozen bars one can see sculpted hands but instead of containing ice like the girl's head, it is holding fire. The hands are the hands of his wife and the fire lights up the room. The hands are warm like the gentle touch of woman and wife. While I do not see an obvious link between the two pieces besides the difference in texture and temperature, they do demonstrate the idea of multi media.

Referenced: http://www.revistaexclama.com/cuarto-norte/5-11/