SMP Exhibition

             

             The SMP exhibition proved to be very diverse this year even more so than last year in terms of medium and styles. Upon visiting the gallery, I was amazed to see everything from dozens of neon sculptures to hundreds of compiled geometric drawings to even footprints in concrete. Garrett Zopfi's work really struck me the most because his work was composed of these intricately designed and brightly colored plaster sculptures. There was at least 50 or so of these tiny creatures that were laid out. What was even more interesting was his theory behind this display of public and interactive art. I read in his book that he wanted to design a piece that was inviting but at the same time would create a type of apprehension. Traditionally, in most exhibits, viewers are not permitted to touch any of the artworks. Garrett played off this idea by having both vibrantly painted sculptures and stark, black sculptures. In essence, all of his work is meant to be touched and played with, however, viewers will not know that and mostly would stay away from the darker objects. The darker colors communicate a type of age and with age comes a sense of value which then dissuades viewers from touching it so as to not damage the work. On the other hand, he created brightly colored, almost candy-coated sculptures which tempt the viewer to touch and even play with them. Yet funny enough, Garrett also hung a sign up telling viewers that they could touch the pieces yet the writing was ambiguous and almost had to be deciphered. In all, I really enjoyed Garrett's work because of his clever and ingenious idea behind it. Overall all of the SMP works held great strengths and were very different and diverse from one another which made this exhibition, in particular, very unique.

              

Final Self-Assessment

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Anuli Duru

Self-Assessment

Final Project:

“Revisiting the Body”

            Throughout the semester, I have focused my work in elements of anatomy and structured my compositions around this central theme of zooming in on parts of the body as well as its everyday actions so as to make minute things more important. What our body does for us everyday is important, as it is amazing, yet we hardly pay attention to the significance of these everyday functions. The core theme of my final work is again to zoom in on parts of the body and comprise in such a way that it generates a sort of “beautiful composition, just as our bodies are beautiful compositions. What drove me to create this piece was my fascination for the human body and anatomical elements and their vast array of functions. My inspiration came from an anatomy class I had taken over the summer. I had already been fascinated by the subject matter before I came into the class, but afterwards, I was mesmerized by the many layers, properties, physical, and chemical elements of the body that I hadn’t known before.  I was especially captivated by the functions of the brain and dreams. I really wanted to delve further into the concept, so upon creating this piece, I intended to explore parts of the body as well as the mind with a dream like feel.

            The process for creating this work was definitely one of the most challenging trials I have ever had to face. It involved working with and figuring out a whole new program—Adobe After Effects—while at the same time trying new forms of video editing such as green screening, or, in this case, blue screening. After Effects in general is an amazing yet incredibly advanced program that one can either love or hate. At first I hated it. Yet when I took the time to do some background research, watching hundreds of YouTube videos and readings forums after forus, I found that After Effects allows you to do some incredible things. In fact, I never thought I could generate my own particles or even begin to work with blue screening and key lighting. I learned so much just from playing around with different effects, timing and positions, and values. With the blue screening, I had an easier time working with it, yet I also learned that there are so many ways to edit and work with blue screen. In all, working with After Effects and blue screening was simply a matter of doing some research, playing around with different settings, and finding a method that works best for me.

            In creating my work, I would have to say that my work habits could have been a little more consistent. Some days I would work for 2 hours and then some days I wouldn’t work at all because of how frustrated I was with After Effects. Yet what I was consistent with was my research. I would watch videos from start to finish and then replay them as I worked and mimicked the tutorials. Based on this, my work ethics were in some ways efficient yet not sufficient. I could have been more consistent with my working stages so that I could learn even more about After Effects and utilize more tools to create a better video.

            Stepping back from the finished product, I would perceive this work as a type of intense, mesmerizing composition that does zoom in on parts of the body such as the eyes, lips, and hands. Yet I wouldn’t perceive it as an ode to anatomy, but rather an intense, dramatic and appealing musical composition. The formal elements of hue, saturation, and stark contrast are applied which creates this dramatic, edgy atmosphere while the overlaying of imagery and particle interfaces makes for a dream-like atmosphere. In effect, the message then needs to be more clearly articulated, perhaps by showing actual anatomical elements like the bones or skin or even cells. Yet overall the piece is visually appealing and captivating with the use of blue screening techniques, stark contrast, dramatic music, overlays, and particle interfaces.

            Based on all of this, if I were to give myself a grade it would rest between an A- to a B+, because my message needs to be more present so that the viewer knows it is clearly about the wonders of the body. However, I would grade myself with an A- to B+ because of the challenging material I overcame and my manipulation of these challenges.

Final Project Plan: "Hip-Hop Anatomy"

For my final project, I to dissect elements of anatomy and combine them with elements of hip-hop culture--two of my favorite subject matters. Throughout the semester I have focused my works on zooming into a subject matter and generating it into a form that would allow the audience to acknowledges and appreciate its uniqueness and importance. I wanted to take parts of the body and minor actions and zoom in on them so as to make them larger than life because the body and the thousand of functions it performs everyday are incredible as well as critical. In essence, for my final project I wish to create or recreate a type of music video using both aftereffects and iMovie that would feature MC's, dancers, graffiti artists (elements of hip-hop) and zoom into their body movements as well as overlay images of the muscular and skeletal systems as they are moving. In short, this video will present anatomy and its importance in a type of fun and musical manor as well as emanate a powerful feel and message relating to the power of the human body.

Experimental Photo and Video for AfterEffects

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRbRc3ZeORw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUzxtnNdMl0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz4dvYTdlxI

Self Assessment for Project 2 and Remix

The central theme of the Remix project was Pop culture play on the ordinary. The project guidelines specified a type of mix of media and mediums. I wanted to produce a piece that showed just that in that it would play with elements that were polar opposite to one another. These elements played on the idea of mixing that of analogue photography with digital graphics, using color and black and white, and taking an ordinary subject matter and placing them into an iconic context. What drove me to create this piece was the fact that I wanted to play on opposites and see what could be produced from it. What inspired me also was the works of Andy Warhol and elements of pop culture and advertisement. In a sense, I intended to take an ordinary figure and make them an extraordinary or even marketable piece.

The process unfolded once I learned how to develop film in the dark room and how to use a negative film scanner. I knew that I wanted my subject to be a person and who seemed to have some type of story or history to them. So I chose the photograph of an older gentleman in what appears to be a dimmed lit kitchen. Using various tools in Photoshop, I was able to cut what I wanted from the original, balance its hue, saturation, and lighting as well make it black and white. I then used shapes and a bright color palette to create the background and duplicated the image of the older man. This is where Warhol had definitely come into play. To heighten the contrasts even further, I border the piece with thick black borders and white text which made the piece a more "poppy" or pop-like.

My working habits for this project were effective in that I was actively manipulating what I could in both the analog and digital realms. I spent a number of hours working on this project yet I believe I could have put more time into this piece. Stepping back from this piece, it looks as though not a great deal of effort was put in although it is visually appealing. If I could revisit this piece I would play more on color and contrast as well as create more replications. Overall, if I were to grade myself, I would give myself a B because although the piece is colorful and eye-catching, more could have been done to take it to the next level.

The central theme of my Alternative Printing project was the interactive body. I wanted to feature three systems (skeletal, muscular, and augmentary systems) of the body and make them interactive for the public. Just as our bodies are constantly active and interacting with forces around us, I wanted to switch this idea around and have my audience interact with these active body parts though it is actually inactive or immobile as an art piece. Also I wanted to utilize different techniques for alternatively printing as well as different surfaces to heighten the effect of each piece and its interactive nature. What drove me to create this series was the fact that I am fascinated by the inner workings of the human body and how it functions multiple tasks every second, every day. So what I intended was to have a series of pieces based off of the human body that both utilized different methods of printing and had different interactive qualities.

The process for this project unfolded when I decided that I wanted to focus on body systems and interaction. I began by deciding the methods of printing I wanted to take on. After retrieving a mirror, I knew that I wanted to play on reflection with reflective surfaces. So I used super sauce transfer to print a translucent image of a skeleton onto the mirror, so that when displayed, viewers can look into the mirror and see both their reflection and the reflection of the skeleton over their reflection. The next type of printing that I wanted to experiment with was printing on fabric. I then decided that I wanted to create a wearable item which is where the inspiration for the “muscle” shirt came (a shirt displaying the muscular system). Finally, I came across temporary tattoo paper online which inspired me to print on the skin which also represents the augmentary system.

My work habits I would say were very consistent and engaged. Because I was working with a subject matter that I expressed full interest in, I found that I was fully engaged and working diligently for hours. During this process as well, I was pleased to have learned how to use super sauce transfer and make custom temporary tattoos. Unlike the remix project, I find that I put great effort and more time into this project because it involved things that I have never done before. Stepping back from this piece, I would say that there is a clear connection between the play on the skeletal system and the play on the muscular system as well as the motive behind each. Yet with the temporary tattoos, there seems to be a disconnect because the tattoos themselves don’t seem to have a connection to a body system nor with one another because they are all so different. So if I were able to revisit this piece, an idea that I could utilize would be to have tattoo designs of body parts or bones which I believe would communicate a type of connection to the augmentary system as well as connect it with the other displayed systems. Overall, I believe that my grade for the project is between an A- to a B+ because the effort is evident and the piece explores many different elements (body systems, interactions, and printing methods) as well as attempts to connect them all into one cohesive series.

Jurjen Versteeg

Jurjen Versteeg, otherwise known as Synple is a Dutch designer whose work focuses on motion graphic desing, animation, and visual effects for commercialism and media use. His work takes real-life footage and mixes it with visual effects and animations using after effects. He work also delves into title effects and all-animation videos.
Yet what I find most interesting about him is that the concepts that he portrays in his work deals with a type of magical realism. Most of Versteeg's works take real-life people place them in environments dramatized by color, visual effects of actions and emotion, and elements of music. His story lines and the length of his videos are all relatively short and sweet. Yet all of the effects he uses combined make his videos visually appealing and very elaborate. In essence, Versteeg takes simple sequences and relatable characters and enhances them for commercialized purposes, which is exactly what commercialism entails. It is the enhancement of an image or product to entice the eyes and desires of the consumer. Versteeg accomplishes just that.
Versteeg's work relates to my work in that I too want to create a project that delves into the effects of commercialism and "glamour art". Just like Versteeg, I am trying to create a seemingly simplistic sequence of images and words that work cohesively and effectively in marketing a fashion product or style. I feel that Versteeg's communication of color and enhancement of realism is very important because it provides and inspires me with  a theme of magical realism to use as the basis of my work. After all, fashion and glamour tends to portray over-exaggerated and expressive ideas and ideals but in a visually appealing and artistic way.
Versteeg's work, although appealing and simple, don't really express a range in subject matter. I like that his videos are short and the colors, effects, and music are on point, yet I find his work on title sequences, particularly uninteresting. Specifically his Fashion Ahoy wasn't as interesting. However, the concept was very specific--to strictly advertise famous fashion icons such as Chanel, Gaultier, and Galliano and their works for an upcoming fashion show. His title work was colorful and visually appealing but I think it lacked content and content meaning works of the designers or images related to fashion. Perhaps, his concept was to make the names of the designers "fashionable" but I think he could have gone further in communicating a fashionable and glamourized appeal.
http://www.synple.nl/work/motion/into_the_wild
http://vimeo.com/13153961
http://vimeo.com/26278283

Finalized Plan and Progress

"Muscle" Shirt

-To be printed on Stretch Fabric and sewn as a shirt.

"Man in the Mirror"

-To be printed on a large mirror with super sauce transfer.