It's Three!

My blog has been seriously lacking in images, so to complete tonight's triumvirate of blog entries, here is a rendering of my current project in Functional Sculpture.

From Random

In this project we were challenged to create something that engaged the back of the body. I wanted to create a visually simple chair that appeared to be floating, and my idea thus far has been extremely successful. My project is extremely ambitious and is costing me more than I would like, but I have gotten so much out of it this far and I am not even done.

All Hail Blackboard

What approach or approaches will you use for your final video: process; didactic; and/or formalism?

My final video project will rely heavily on didactic processes. I am relying on the surprise of the unexpected and how it creates a paradox with what was initially expected. I don't want to go into much detail because I believe that giving away my main focus would detract from my final project.

Why is this approach(es) appropriate for your video?

My approach is appropriate because it provides an extremely sincere commentary on the state of intolerance in our world through the artistic use of particular paradoxes. Sincerity has been an extremely important aspect of what I have have been attempting to do throughout my project, and I believe that the method by which I am conducting my video is the most successful.

Scholarship Essay

Tell us your story. Who are you and who do you want to become?

Right now I am a 18 year old, male college freshman, and like thousands of other 18 year old, male college freshman, who I am right now is significantly dependent on what I want to become. Starting with my very first teacher asking the class what we wanted to be when we grow up, I began thinking of a myriad of things. Some of my fellow classmates to this day still don't have the right answer to that question, however, throughout my life I have had a impassioned idea of what I wanted to do - I want to be an industrial designer. While I called it many different things growing up, industrial design (ID) is a profession where you can design anything. From the complexities of a car to the relative simplicity of a thumb tack, the field of ID encompasses a staggeringly broad range of design. One of the most intriguing aspects about the field is that as an industrial designer, it is your job to create the ways in which a person interacts with their man-made world. The interaction between human and object is extremely important, and is such a intrinsic part of our everyday lives that the ability to artfully alter or create new ways of interaction gives one the capacity to fundamentally change the way in which our society conducts itself. Personally, I view ID as a responsibility, and I ultimately aspire to be able to express this responsibility, be it to the protection of the environment or the betterment of society, through ID. When I was born, one of the first things my doctor said to my family was, “Sam is going to be one of life's big people.” While I understand that he was referring to the fact that I would eventually grow to a height of six and a half feet, I feel compelled to reveal a significantly greater truth in that humble statement.

Stealing Your Soul With My Camera

Photography in and of itself is a very interesting medium in respect to time. There is nothing that freezes time so absolutely as photography, where each photograph is a single moment, a single event captured eternally on a sheet of paper. While a photo is static, what you see is always a section of time, from thousandths of a second to minutes or hours. Longer exposures have a much easier job of conveying time, as the picture will often show some sort of motion blur. This literal representation of time is not available with the shorter shutter speeds, where imagery must be relied upon to convey a sense of time. Photography can also be used in series to manipulate time, such as stop motion animation. If one picture is taken every second of an event and relayed in series at a rate of one second, the event will happen in real time. If however, the speed of playback is manipulated, the perceived time of the piece can be drastically altered.

The neurological conditions of Parkinson's and Tourette's similarly reflect these alterations in time. Parkinson's perception of time can be drastically sped up, so that the world around them seems overwhelming, while at the same time maintaining their own perception of normalcy considering their slow movements. Tourette's is opposite of Parkinson's as far as the perception of time is concerned, with people finding time to be much slower, counteracting their sped up thought process.

Concentration is also a variable that is very effective in altering the perception of time. If I go to a studio and have no particular interest in the task at hand, in my unconcentrated state, I am more aware of time and it seems to go slower. If, however, I am concentrated, my tasks involves my mind to such an extent that I loose track of time and it appears to pass faster than normal.

Holy Crap It's A Lion (AKA Research Sound)

Student Sounds -

• ana.mp3
• My favorite thing about this example is its nature as a montage of voices - much in the same way I hope to be conducting my project. The repetition and constant background chatter set a certain hectic tone to the piece. There is very little manipulation of the sound, and much of it is left up to each voices timbre.
• JLarche
• Being truely ominous is a hard thing to do, however, the constant low chords and background creepy-crawley noises do a good job right off the bat. Supplimenting these noises is a barrage of sci-fi movie quotes about the unnatural, and the ocasional lowered satanic voice.
• Iradke
• Manipulate. Manipulate. Manipulate. The repetition at the beginning of the piece that starts out unintelligable and fast gets slower, and soon you are treated to confessions of body-manipulation addicts. Largely focusing around piercings, the piece contains many people talking about their addiction. The layering of the confessions create a sens of the condition and its community.

Professional Sound -

• Great Turn-Ons
• Things turn on, and often that noise is extremely representative of the very usage of the device in our minds. This piece is a simple collection of multiple pieces of electronics, from machinery to televisions, turnng on. While some are alien, many are distinctive and each noises pitch, timbre and amplitude is unique enough to tell the difference and create images of each piece of equipment.
• The Labyrinth Scored for the Purrs of 11 Different Cats
• I like cats. I like cats a lot. I am also allergic to cats. That aside this piece is the perfect cat - all it does is purr. A cat purring is an oddly calming sound, and the montage of cat purrs starts off as a bit overwheliming, but the piece soon lulls into the single, low purring of a cat. Sleeping ensues. After a minute or so of the lone cat, others come ino the mix, however, not in the montage fasion like before. The ending of the piece resembles multiple cats joining with you in your sleep.
• Artificial Treatment
• Relying on the myriad of sounds creted by humanity's myriad of creations, the piece has no lack of avalible material. The piece is largely textural, relying on the varying textures of the electronic and machine sounds. Highlighting the steadfastness of many sounds, each sound in the piece enjoys a lengthy showcase, unchanging and steady.
  

Not Doing Homework Gets You No Credit

Well, the title explains a lot. Better late then never, I guess.

• Sound is way harder than I thought it would be. I have always operated visually, and I am finding sound particularly hard. I can hear how I want it to be, but I only have basic skills when it comes to making what I want.
• I don't like working in groups as much as I thought I did.
• Ideas come to me mostly formed... it might take me a while to get one, but once I do, I know it inside out.

Six questions:

• How will you make the dialogue into your own style?
• Does it matter if you offend anyone?
• How do you want people to react?
• How do you plan to collect information?
• Would you choose one main focus, or many?
• By satirizing, does the message diminish?
  

Lauren's Got Rhythm

Overall, Lauren's rhythm piece is a good foundation for a successful piece, however, it is generally un-cohesive. One of the biggest contributing factors to this lack of cohesion lies in the unequal volume of the different tracks. In order to successfully hear some tracks, the volume needs to be turned up to the point where other sounds will be painfully loud. Also, many individual sections are interesting, but unassociated with the sections that come before and after it.

Lauren's piece as it stands now is analogous to a sketchbook of ideas - they either need to be united or one needs to be singled out and expanded upon.

Vermont's Finest Wants Me Dead

Dear self,

No matter how stressed you are about homework, eating a whole pint of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream in less than half an hour is not a good idea. In fact, it is a bad idea.

Sincerely,

Your Slightly Nauseated Self

Travel

Today is busy and full of travel, so if I don't get the opportunity to use a computer later, this will have to do.

Things I learned:

• The critiques in the class are some of the most productive and constructive critiques I have ever experienced. I felt that the information I was given concerning my piece was extremely beneficial to my development, and it immediately impacted my ideas and ways of thinking about my upcoming projects. The critique also encouraged me to contribute more to others.
• After just a few minutes of working on my abstract sound project, Audacity crashed and I lost some work that I really felt good about. While the work was a loss, it is nothing I can't recreate better now that I have gone through my first critique. The benefit of this experience is learning to save often.
• Something I am excited to do more of is the group activities that I have heard much about. Creating sounds in our jam session was interesting and engaging. I can tell that the class as a whole has an opportunity to learn a lot about art's relationship to time through similar activities.
  

And Then Everything Exploded!

Today's class was mildly entertaining, but I am going to be really happy once we get past all of this introductory stuff.

I learned today:

• The school's sound recorders are really fun to play with - I have so many ideas
• How to think about the sounds around me - how to deconstruct them and really pay attention to the individual sounds
• The dull but extremely important practice of checking out equipment

The challenge for me now is to actually check them out, because I am notorious for leaving things for the day before they are due. If I do that I won't be getting any equipment, and therefore no grade. All that amounts to an envelope full of sadness mailed to me when grades come this summer. So - procrastinating in time arts is impossible. End of story.

My most interesting idea for the coming project is to make a soundscape that is decidedly epic. Long story short, it is going to make you feel like a embedded reporter on a futuristic battlefield. If you are having a hard time figuring out what that might sound like, try the Halo 3 commercial for a good idea.