Week 14: Hold Me While I'm Naked

I think that George Kuchar is very, very good at making his kind of movies. He is a solid actor and director and his film "Hold Me While I'm Naked" was one of the best films we have seen this semester. I especially liked the underlying humor in it. There is something about Kuchar's voice and demeanor that make his movies so interesting. On top of that, the way he puts together his material and edits them creates something that the viewer is stimulated or interested in. I also enjoyed his fascination with dramatic music which he incorporates throughout all of his films. The music that he chooses adds a whole new tone to the film that it would otherwise be without. However, I did not find Kuchar's film that was shown in the beginning of class very interesting (the one about the people who go to that ancient island and start having orgies). It seemed to be apart from his earlier films. 

Week 13: Duck Soup

I enjoyed the screening of Duck Soup last monday. It was a nice change of pace to have watched a more linear narrative feature. I thought that it was incredible that the entire movie was a string of jokes that never stopped. It's interesting to me that there must have been a huge thought process of coming up with and implementing all of these jokes and gags. I was also intrigued by the character's relationships with each other. I couldn't understand how the lead woman in the movie could be so infatuated with Firefly's character when all he did was make fun of her and be rude to her. However, the relationships are what keep the movie flowing. The chemistry between characters is vital when you are trying to be funny because that can add a lot to the jokes and make them even more powerful and even meaningful.

Week 12: Media Burn

The screening of Media Burn this weekend was intriguing to me as a point of intervention. I think that this was the most clear cut intervention that we  have seen in the class. It still is not clear to me why the participants in Media Burn so against the idea of T.V. It was also interesting that to put their views out to the public they filmed the event which would require the public to watch it on some type of T.V. or screen. I thought that it almost defeated the purpose but then I realized that I don't think their goal was to get everyone to stop watching T.V. because that would be very  unrealistic. Instead, I believe that their goal was to get people to realize how much we rely or cling to television  and to give them insight on what healthy use of television should be. Sometimes I believe that society needs shocking or extravagant displays to get them to realize something that they would not think of or to become disillusioned.

Week 11: Copyright

In the film "Sonic Outlaws" which we watched last Monday the core issue was on the debate of copyright laws. The film featured a band called Negativland who "sampled" music from the popular rock band U2 and were sued for violation of copyright mainly due to the nature of their album cover. The album cover featured the letter U and the numeral 2 in big letters and the band's name Negativland in small letters below. The argument was that consumers would purchase the album thinking that it was a U2 album when it was in actuality a Negativland album. Negitavland is a band that implement the use of prerecorded sounds and putting them together to created unique and interesting sounds or music. However, the band comes off as a sly group who lie and stir up controversy (mainly using humor) to get known. The three main styles of their work are, sound collages, musical expositions, and of course humor. I found the film to be interesting in most parts and even though the film is on the opposing side of copyright, sometimes it made me think that the copyright laws are needed to some extent. I guess it is just in the eye of the beholder.

Week 10: What the Film's About

I chose to the word "darkness" or "black" to describe what I thought Gunver Nelson's film was about according to Hollis Frampton's theory that a film is about what appears the most. I don't believe that this is a very good theory because I'm sure that if you asked Nelson what the film was a bout he would probably describe it in more than one word. However, I can see that you could say that Nelson doesn't decide what the film is about it is just left to what ever ends up being captured and displayed. I believe that Frampton's theory is more of something to get viewers to think more about what film is and create other perspectives for them to look through.  

Week 9: Numbers

I really enjoyed James Bennings lecture on Monday. It got me to look at numbers and systems in a different way that I never thought about. This made me realize that there are many different ways to look at everything we do even if we think we know everything about something. When Benning showed that the number one was really .99999999999999999999999 on to infinity it made me think about the systems that use complex number and mathematical systems to function. And we rely heavily on these things to do their jobs such as computers. But really numbers are all abstract and flawed in some way. In the same way you can look at art which everyone knows can be abstract but this idea gives art limitless boundaries because art is not a set system with right or wrong functions.

Week 8: Confusion

This weeks film was very confusing to me even though I was so entertained by it. The elements of this film were very interesting and curious. However, the image that confused me the most were the images of the dinosaurs. I didn't understand at first how these dinosaurs were tied into the rest of the film. As the film progressed I found myself trying to relate the film to those images. I first thought that it was all a part of the idea of a prehistoric time. The act of building this spiral jetty landmark that may have been something that perhaps ancient civilizations may have built like stonehenge or something like that. Then I thought that didn't really relate to the dinosaurs; the only direct connection that I could tie to the dinosaurs were the images of the trucks and bulldozers paving the way and creating the spiral jetty. I got the feeling that they were made to look like mechanical dinosaurs that were paving the way for a new history which was the spiral jetty.

Artist's Note: Table Top Video

During this video there were great challenges. My video was about my declaration that sound and colors can create and image in a creative mind. I started out with a rubik's cube that was all green on one side. I then switched the colors every few seconds in hopes to create a different stimulus for the viewers mind. I paired these color changes with the sounds that I recorded in the outdoors of Milwaukee. I recorded four tracks at different lengths so when I layered them they would start at different times. Therefore, when they looped the sounds it would create a different experience for the viewer instead of being the same looped track over and over again. My hopes were that these square, independent colors combined with the layered nature noise would create a picture or image in the viewer's mind that would depict reality. I think that I was successful in this attempt however, I do wish that I had better focus on the colors (rubik's cube) and there were some shadow factors (I think) that I wish wouldn't have appeared. I did use the white paper under the rubik's cube to clear any image that the viewer may have had of the colors that were shown before. I had also hoped that the three dimensional shape of the cube would pop out at the viewer to stimulate the mind even more. I believe that I was successful in portraying what I wanted in my presentation but again I wish that the video was in better focus to extenuate my objective more clearly.

Week 6: Criticism

Watch video here

I chose this video "I have to deal with stereotypes" because I believe that the presentation on Monday was mainly about character and criticism. In the video the the young man states his views on stereotypes that he encounters with personal conviction and humor. In doing this he reveals parts of his true character to the viewer as did the characters in the presentation on Monday. The main criticisms in the presentations dealt with society and other people's way of life or how they express themselves and live their life. The guy in the You Tube video is also criticizing the people in society who apply stereotypes in their lifestyle and judgements.

Week 5: Authority

The film that struck me the most this week was the film "Trees." Mostly, I was struck by the motion of the camera and how fluid it was. I then started to think about the idea of authorship, I was trying to think of what the director was thinking and considering for how he wanted this film to turn out. I thought that the authorship belonged to him but when I thought about it more I decided that the aspect of the wind authored the piece because it is the captivating part of the film. The wind/flowing element commands the attention and situation, this is what makes the film interesting and its own. Technically, the director is not always the author of a work but just a guide to capture what is being presented by another authority.

Week 4: Collaborations

This week we watched Althea Thauberger's videos in which she collaborated with teams to create them. I felt that even though she was very sincere in her work and passionate about it, the elements seemed to lack full potential. For example, in "A Memory Lasts Forever" in which a group of drunk girls find one of the girl's dog has drowned in the pool it seems too over the top in relation to what that circumstance would be like in real life. Also, it doesn't make sense to my why this, which is an autobiographical event in Thauberger's life would be collaborated on in the script. I think that this type of story would better be expressed if Thauberger made it on her own because she had been through this event. I think that then it would seem more realistic and less over the top seeing it through her eyes and ideas. The video came off like a film that you would watch in a high school health class to warn you on the dangers of drinking. However, in the reading it says that this video was shown in the Sobey Art Award Tour in Canada so perhaps there is an aspect I'm missing in my analysis because it is recognized in the art world, it just seemed to be very over the top and ridiculous.