Wednesday, April 23, 2014

BLIND NO MIRROR 2 MIN MAKEUP CHALLENGE!!!!!!!!

For my in class video session, I decided to bring YouTube to the classroom and film a no mirror, two minute blind makeup challenge.

Challenge of all sorts are all the rave among the professional YouTube bloggers so I decided to film one of these challenges, but in front of an audience in class.   Most of the time, people spend their time watching this videos in the privacy of their room, usually alone or with a small group of friends, and without the blogger in the room physically.  But how many opportunities does the blogger ever have to film a video in front of an audience to see their live reactions? Probably hardly ever!

Monday, April 14, 2014

DO RE MI MI MI | A Musical Relational Art Exploration


As a musician, I'm almost always thinking in sounds, pitches, music notes, rhythms, etc.  So usually this translates into turning almost any pitch I hear in normal, everyday life into a song or pitch in my head. Seriously, it can get annoying and overbearing, especially when trying to sleep.  Remember that part in Shrek when Fiona outsings the bird and it explodes? That’s what it feels like sometimes, especially at bedtime, but you learn to cope and deal with it and move on with life.

This project is an attempt at explaining what it's like to be inside of my brain.  I'm kind of obsessed with how other people think, especially when their train of thought isn't focused on anything specific and it's just jumbling around.  To get into someone else's brain and have a lasting encounter (page 19) on it is extremely fascinating to me.  Consequently, my video is also attempting to prompt the audience to think like me, in song and pitch.  The conductor is a guide, much like a real musical situation, for the audience to sing the pitch either in their head or out loud.  I'd actually prefer the latter, especially if it was an unexpected reaction and gut instinct to sing aloud.  Due to my musical pursuits for the majority of my life, I don't know how to sit still still whenever a conductor gives a cue. It's a problem.

Ideally, this would be projected onto a much larger screen in a darker room, much like that of Christian Marclay's  The Clock, to isolate the audience from their own thoughts and ease them into mine.  This would also be much longer with more pitches and everyday sounds from my life, but I chose to only include the three sounds I hear most often for the purpose of saving class time. 

I hope you enjoy! You can view the video here on my YouTube account if the embedded video doesn't work.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Cosmogony 2.0 | A Carol Emmons Intergalactic Art Exploration

"Where do we come from?"

A question I'm sure we've all pondered and entertained at some point in our lifetime and one that will probably run through our mind at some point again while trying to go to bed.

"Hmm.. I wonder like where we come from.. is my mascara running?"
As light-hearted and cheerful as I try to be, I definitely have had my share of "existential" moments where I've endlessly let my mind run through the endless possibilities of how we as a human race have come into existence and where our future is headed.  For me, Carol Emmons was able to capture the sentiment of one of my bouts of existential pondering.  When I walked into the room, my eyes immediately started scanning the text spanning the entirety of the Kohler Gallery.  Being an installation artist, I feel that Carol successfully transformed the space into a zen-like meditation and reflection zone where one could contemplate not only the art pieces that Carol offered us, but also our own relationship to the individual and communal worlds that we experience every day.

I was particularly drawn to the idea of combining elements from various creation stories from around the globe.  Stemming from my childhood experiences with religion, I've always struggled with the Christian mentality of "we're right and everyone else is wrong" where it concerns stories of our earth's creation.  It made me extremely happy to see an artist being inclusive of all cosmogenic theories, not only the one King James wanted us to hear about.  

Thank you for an exceptional installation, Carol Emmons!