Video Art - "Stoney Shots"

"Stoney Shots" CLICK ME TO VIEW MOVIE

Ryan Trecartin - "Wayne's World"

"Wayne's World"

According to the creators, this is basically a shot at mass media's impact on people and their values. Trecartin uses multiple "music videos" and skits, in his own incredibly unique way of course, to express different topics, including the publics infatuation with celebrity relationships, the "significance" of the images portrayed by music videos (aimed more at hip-hop booty-shaking videos I think), and of course sex. I can't really say I like what they do, and from the other works I've seen by him, they all seem to be a little too similar in overall style for my taste ("Valentine's Day Girl" for example). It almost just seems silly for the wrong reasons to me. 

Pipilotti-"I'm Not the Girl Who Misses Much"

I really thought this piece was very interesting. Especially considering the technology of the day, it's a really unique piece of video art. This was actually one of my inspirations for my video art piece. It has no message and no concept. Yes, it's a girl singing a song in front of the camera, but that's not the part you focus on. You look at the video as a blank canvas, even though it's not blank, and you look at the use of the video editing tools as a paint brush. That's how the piece is created. It's not just a funny video of a girl singing and dancing in fast forward and slow motion made for the sake of amusement, it's to be seen as a whole in the most basic form possible. In that regard, I say again that I thought it was very interesting to watch and somehow actually stirs up some very interesting emotions while viewing.

Stelarc

Wow. Talk about creative. Stelarc to me is the definition of unique. Not only to be able to build the machines he does, to understand the mechanical processes and engineering that is involved in it, but to use that in the way he does is unreal. And I mean that literally. Creating an independent, functional third arm that is attached directly to his muscles is hard to believe. His more recent work is even further out of this world. Using genetic engineering to attach an artificially grown human ear to his forearm? I mean, did we just jump to the year 3000? I really love what he does and I hope someone has the balls and the brains to continue doing what he does.

Performance Art - "Elevator Music"

Click the link to see description....

Elevator Music

Orlan

As much as I really don't like to see medical procedures being done in any way, I could not stop looking at Orlan's works. I mean talk about balls, how do you sit through ANY type of surgery and keep such a straight face?!? I got stitches removed from my leg and damn near passed out. And to do it all in the name of art, to mutilate and contort your body just to say you did and then call it art takes even bigger pelotas.

In some ways though, I kind of feel bad for her as it seemed like as she got older, she leaned on the plastic surgery thing more and more. I really enjoyed her first pieces we saw where she was the work of art coming through the frame. And that was not just because she was a good looking woman, but they were really very beautiful. Now it seems like the plastic surgery is just for the shock value, which it kind of losses after you see multiple surgeries in one sitting anyway.

Gilbert and George

Talk about two funny little English guys. They remind me a lot of Montey Python skits, the good ones. It seems to me like they just really love hanging out together and doing whatever the hell they think is funny. From dancing around to funny music for 5 minutes or using their own poop in a piece of art, they're like two eternal 10 year old boys, again in a good way. I really like their quote, "To make art you don't need objects, you are the object." This appeals to me so much more than, let's say the Fluxus ideas of picking up two random things and nailing them together to make a new "art" object. Maybe I just like Gilbert and George because they're funny, I don't know, but I like them.

Fluxus and Joseph Beuys

In a similar, but still different, light of DaDa, Fluxus was a group of artists designers and musicians that had their own goals in mind.  In their own words from their Manifesto,

"Promote a revolutionary flood and tide in art, promote living art, anti-art, promote non art reality, to be fully grasped by all peoples, not only critics dilettantes and professionals."

The artists involved in the movement (although they would not call it so, rather preferring to call it an "attitude"), who some say died with it's founder George Maciunas in 1978, liked to promote a "do-it-yourself" attitude towards art and used what they had at hand. Even though mostly regarded as an Art period, the group actually started gathering at a music class in New York.

Much like the Fluxus and DaDa time periods, I find the story of Joseph Beuys more than the actual works that they produce. Born in pre WW-II Germany, Beuys served under Hitler in the Great War and even received a medal for being wounded in combat. However, an even that happened in the field of combat would change him forever, even question his loyalty.

According to Beuys, after his plane was shot down over the German-Russian boarder and the German patrols stopped looking for him, he was rescued by local Russian townies. They found him buried in the snow three days later and would wrap him in felt blankets and apparently covered his body in fat to keep him warm. Even though this story may not be entirely true, as it was the account of a man who had just been through a plane crash in which he suffered major head wounds, it would be a very interesting window in which to see the influence this experience played in his future works of art, many of which consisted of covering things in felt.

Both have great background stories, but their art takes some getting used to. Call me old fashioned, but I just don't typically enjoy a lot of their works. Beuys was interesting and original, but I guess growing up in the world of Modern Art a lot of the "shock value" is lost, if that's what they were going for in the first place. I like the idea of "I like America and America likes me" is very intreguing, but the reasoning behind it a little confusing. The only thing he wanted to interact with in America was a coyote? Maybe I'm just missing something.

Xerox Project

The concept was a surreal landscape. The hills/ground is my forearm, the trees are my hand, the mountains in the back left are my knuckles and the clouds are the back of my calf. Originally I was hoping my leg and arm hair would come out more defined, but after scanning it did not, however I left some white around some of the cut outs to add some more texture, which I think was especially effective in the clouds and ground/hills.

Grid Art

Flip Book Images

Opera

Sebastian Ballester

Art 211: Opera

Aida by Giuseppe Verdi

            I’ll be the first to say that I’m not the biggest opera fan, or anything in the “musical” category for that matter. I just feel like they’re very fake and not believable. This was always very interesting to me being that I was a music major at one time, but that’s another topic for another paper. I have much respect for what they do, but just not a big fan. Needless to say, I haven’t seen many operas in my short lifetime so it’s hard for me to judge Aida on its use of technology and multimedia because I don’t have much to compare it to, but I will try. I will also give my opinion on how it could be re-made into today’s culture and update it’s use of technology.

            When I watched Aida I tried to put myself in the world of when it was first produced to get a better understanding and appreciation of the use of technology, but I rarely saw anything that would surprise or stand out to me. I think the most prevalent thing was the set design. Set in ancient Egypt (and premiered in Cairo), the backgrounds were full of beautifully painted hieroglyphics and wonderful representations of carved stone doorways, walls and pillars. Whether the scene was set outside of a palace or inside a chamber of a temple, you could feel that the buildings were as big and beautiful as they make them out to be in writings of ancient Egypt.

            The costumes were another thing that really helped put you in the time and setting of the opera. Beautifully detailed helmets and armor worn by the men made them all bigger than life and also helped me keep track of the characters, which at times in the beginning looked similar. Aida’s hair was unmistakable, no matter what she wore. One of my favorite parts was when the priestesses presented Radames with the sacred armor and statue that would help him in battle. It was very mystical and seemed very accurate to what would have really happened, even though none of the people involved actually saw it in real life.

            Nothing that I saw, however, really stood out to me as being advanced technology for the time. There was no smoke or mirrors, no lights or flash, not even any moving parts (besides one set that came down from the ceiling of the stage to show Radames and Aida locked away together in a chamber underneath). I think even if this was produced 100 years before, in 1771, it would still be pretty tame in my eyes. Maybe it doesn’t need it though. Maybe it would take away from the classic love story of sacrifice that is the lifeblood of Aida.

            That story is the same blood that gave life to many of today’s best works as well. One kept popping into my head, even though I’ve never seen it before. That was the recent blockbuster hit “Avatar.” I know that the basic story is about a human male who falls in love with an alien woman of the same tribe of creatures the humans are invading. I don’t know if “Avatar” is as complicated of a story as Aida, which includes an invading army and two lovers caught on either side of the war, but it sure is close.

            With today’s technology in mind, I think Aida would make a great movie, opera/musical or not. There could be great battle scenes added in between Radames leaving and coming back. Even just expanding on the settings and costumes would be enough to keep the CGI guys on their toes. Scene Two, Act Two, where they are celebrating victory over the Ethiopians and the return of the hero Radames, could be a very elaborate parade though the streets of ancient Egypt with tons of people and on-lookers cheering and reveling in the spoils of victory.

            Even updating the story to today’s times wouldn’t be hard. Instead of Egyptians and Ethiopians, it could be Bloods and Crips, or the US and any of the Middle Eastern countries we’ve invaded. What would be even more interesting would be to make Radames an Israeli commander and Aida a royal Palestinian woman. With such a simple and classic story at it’s heart, Aida is not hard to adapt.